Chapter 24 - 23. Where Doubt Arises
The expedition continued after the researchers had done collecting the data. They went as far as intentionally driving a beast toward the safe zone to test the barrier, and testing the water for drinkability, with the poor tank as a test subject.
Fortunately, and amazingly, Balduz seemed to be alright and they decided to continue going further, walking along the body of water. The further they go, the brook went deeper and larger, forming a considerable stream that gave life to the surrounding terrain.
If it could be called that.
True to Ron's description, the further they went, the more bizarre the plants were. Instead of blackish, dying leaves, the plants further seemed to be more vibrant and alive, with thick leaves and robust figures. But they also looked more sinister; barbed vines, thorny leaves, pulsing red stalks as if they were made of beating hearts...
It pulled the researchers' curiosity, but also the espers' vigilance. They tried not to come close to those eerie vegetations, although it being a jungle didn't help, obviously.
That being said, the journey itself could be considered smooth. The terrain wasn't so hard since they went along the riverside. The only elevation was a mere two meters steep hill that they easily overcome. Except for the water creatures, the other beasts had been eliminated by Bassena before they could approach them, and the leftover water creatures were being taken care of by Sierra and Ron.
And with that, they soon arrived at the end of the charted area.
Here, the stream split into two directions—a small stream going down, and a bigger one going up the hill. The small one wasn't going far, however, and disappeared underground a few hundred meters away. So the real path leading further would be by following the bigger stream.
The problem lay with the fact that they were standing on the side of the smaller stream, and the other side of the small stream was a cliff full of barbed and poisonous vines. So they would have to cross the river first to be able to proceed.
"This is it," Ron looked ahead with a hard face. "We hadn't managed to get further..." his voice was trailing and bitter.
It was easy to understand why. They had lost a few espers trying to go further, in which two of them were members of Ron's mercenary group.