Unchosen Champion

Coop carefully picked his way across the root bridges inside the mangrove forest. The massive mangrove roots created excellent pathways, keeping him high and dry, but still below the lush canopy of leaves. He was moving slowly, with his spear and shield ready, constantly scanning for ambushers.

The threat of another field boss hidden in the tea colored water below or lurking within the thick mass of leaves above made him travel cautiously. Coop hadn’t culled the monsters in the mangrove forest at all and he was worried that would be something he came to regret. Even though the forest was near enough to the civilization shard to be within the settlement’s territory, there was still the possibility that a boss was present. Felrog, the Ruin Excavator Field Boss, developed a hive despite being inside the fort, after all.

The sunlight trickled through the thick mass of leaves and tangled branches, forming narrow slivers of light that penetrated the dark water. Coop paid close attention to the tiny spotlights because he knew the Primal Serpents were in there, somewhere.

During his first visit to the mangrove forest, a Primal Serpent had been the monster that tried to ambush him, diving out of the water as Coop tried to leave. Ancient Devourers were the other monsters he had scouted, and they were the ones he wanted to find on this trip. The large armored monsters seemed like the better target for Coop to find and defeat five for a quick level. Coop’s experience trying to defeat Primal Kites had soured his impression of hunting pure ambush monsters like the Serpents simply because of how difficult it was to find them at a consistent pace.

The breeze was non-existent inside the humid marsh, but he could hear it teasing him when it rustled the leaves in the canopy. Bird calls echoed through the woods and a steady cacophony of cicadas and crickets drowned the silence in between. The difference between the inside of the mangrove forest and outside was like two different planets. There were some openings in the canopy, where small clearings had formed shallow sunlit lakes, or where a handful of trees grew beyond the rest and crowded out their competition.

A splash in the water beneath Coop caused him to reflexively dodge and take a combat stance, but further inspection revealed a fully grown horseshoe crab scuttling along the submerged portion of a mangrove root, heading further into the murk. Coop was feeling jumpy. His most recent fight with a new monster hadn’t started too well, and he wanted to avoid a similar experience. He was trying not to underestimate his next foes.

In the distance, he spotted the metallic reflection of what could only be a Primal Construct, so he diverted his course, jumping onto a different root to follow it deeper into the forest. When he was close enough, he inspected the monster, worried that they had continued to get stronger since the last time he checked.

[Ancient Devourer (Level 32)]

[(Strength)]

[Minion of the Primal Constructs]

The first Ancient Devourer he had spotted had been level 25, but it had been nearly two weeks. He wasn’t sure if they had grown or if this was still within the normal range of levels for a monster. The minor difference in levels didn’t matter too much to someone like Coop, whose stats were only marginally tied to his level, but he was still piecing together the actual impact of a settlement’s territory on monsters. The Ancient Defenders, Ancient Prowlers, and Primal Kites all seemed to be completely frozen in their levels, but the Primal Trackers and Ruin Excavators both continued to increase in levels over time. Coop thought it was possible there was a correlation with Field Bosses developing and the monsters leveling.

He’d try to be careful and avoid venturing deeper while he was inside the mangrove forest in order to avoid a larger encounter. He just wanted to defeat five monsters and head back out to select his skill.