Narra

The tree that connects all the floors of purgatory.

A floor is somewhat like a fruit born from its’ branches; which means that this floor has to have an extension of Narra as well.

Most purges though, the first thing the people find is that tree since that’s the goal but here; I still haven’t spotted it.

No stigmata, no tree, no way out; this is why I had to gamble on where to go when I first arrived.

Now that I’ve lost track of those cavecrawlers, maybe I’ll rest a bit. That spooked me a little since monsters don’t usually form big groups. Even with my first encounter with the sabertooths, the hunted with a small pack; excluding the ones in hiding but those creatures earlier came at me like an army-

Scary…

I hear-

Water!

Hooooo~

I thought what I saw was a mirage since I haven’t seen any forms of water since I came here, even the water I drank were juices from plants or fruits.

The only time that it rained was when I first arrived.

Seeing this trove of phantasm is giving my hopes up for a bath; I haven’t had a bath for quite some time now after all. Since that there’s a waterfall, this isn’t stagnant water.

The water was clean so it was a given that it was safe to drink.

As I chugged down water, what I failed to notice was the lack of plant life and wild life-

“Cough..cough.. nasty! Now that I think about it… this smell….-“

Tremors

What the-

HISSSS

Steam that wasn’t there before, rose up the water. Bubbles went up faster and faster as if boiling. Thank Kael I didn’t directly jump in. The birds near the premises flew off due to the tremors, I took a few steps back then it emerged-

“Is that… a log? Wait … an alligato- CATFISH!”

A catfish that was about two meters wide appeared… so the steam was coming from him.

As I relaxed a bit, the fish that had its eyes locked on me ever since it emerged, grabbed the opportunity to attack and its whiskers; like a whip, caught me.

ZAAAAAP

“AAAAAAAAAAAAA...!”

And here I was thinking I was safe since I kept my distance from the water! This is cheating! A fish should only mind things on water, damn it!

If it weren’t for my dense arcana and affinity to electricity, I’d be fish food right now.

The zapping weakened and the fish pulled me to the water with tremendous force.

As I was in the air, I took out my dagger, imbued it with arcana and broke free from its’ latch.

What I didn’t calculate was that the water before has completely evaporated and turned into lava.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…”

I couldn’t stop midair so I braced for impact as I was nearing the waterfall. As I was about to hit-

I got through-

“Huff…huff…a cave again huh?”

I turned my head to the dark part of the cave, only to be met with eyes of those crazy monsters.

“Ah-“

This time, it seemed to look like the nesting ground; their actual base.

This means that I can’t escape inside the cave and something is waiting for me outsi-

WHIIIP

A whip slashed right in front of my face, destroying a portion of the cavecrawlers’ eggs. Another whip came from behind me, capturing one of the cavecrawlers-

“Sha?!"

Before the cavecrawler could react, he was pulled outside-

Frog as fishfood… hilarious.

“SHAAAAAAAA!!!”

The cavecrawlers inside caused an uproar then followed by going berserk then-

“Not this again”

-were about to head out...

Before they did, I imbued arcana to my legs then dashed out. I didn’t think of anything else but what intercepted me was the gigantic jaw of the catfish; trying to take in its’ catch.

“Ah! Damn this!”

I pulled out my dagger and used it as a crutch by stabbing the fish in the form of a slash.

The dagger pierced its’ temple and I changed my weight from my arms to my lower body, propelling me in the air like a somersault then pulling my dagger out along the way-

“YAAAAHOOOOOOO I’M A FREAKING GENIUS!”

The catfish then turned its attention to me, it was readying itself to attack me but before that happened, the enemy of my enemy is my friend-

“””SHAAAAA!!!!”””

Dozens of cavecrawlers emerged from the waterfall, piercing and smashing the fish that touched their domain and took their comrade.

All this happened as the catfish was midair, when the cavecrawlers attacked, it sped down the fall; along with them to the boiling lava.

“…”

In the end, all I could do was let out a dumbfounding expression-

“I-It went as planned! As expected, me! HA HA HA!”

If things went south, if the creatures hit me before I had already hit land, I’d also be barbecue. Seeing as they all died, I’m the winner! HA HA!

And it turns out that the catfish wasn’t the one excreting lava… it was most likely that the catfish was acting as a plug to an underwater volcano then as the fish took off, so did the lava. Also, the smell earlier was from sulfur.

This place sure is full of surprises I never asked for.