Chapter 75: Lucky shot
Before this trip, Simon had considered the jungle level a pleasant place. Compared to some of the levels around it, it was a real garden spot, literally and figuratively. That was especially true by the water or at the top of the pyramid, farthest from where the plants grew thickest; it was a paradise. Not only was it beautiful and warm, but he hadn’t seen a single monster that didn’t have roots on any of his visits here.
He could see setting up a luxury resort right there on the river so that all the other adventurers could come here for the mandatory beach episodes that had been in basically every anime he used to enjoy. After spending a week here, though, all of that changed. Now, after trying to clear out a megalithic stone city or temple complex or whatever this was supposed to be while dealing with plants that just wanted him dead, he was completely sick of this place.
It was awful.
What had been pleasant warmth had become sweltering heat, and now, away from the breeze that dominated the open spaces by the river, the insects were a constant nuisance. If you added that to swinging his sword arm over and over until he thought it would fall off, it had become worse than almost any battlefield he’d been on so far. Even fighting the damn orcs, he’d never quite been this tired.
He’d tried using the frost sword to freeze the largest clusters, and that worked okay, but it took forever. After a little trial and error, he’d come down to using fire magic and a machete, which was really just his long sword with the blade broken off so that he could swing it easier. Even though these things wouldn’t burn properly, once he’d gotten that rhythm down, he could clear a whole street in a few hours. However, the hard work and punishing heat took a real toll, and he was forced to take breaks constantly.
Really, he felt like he was taking breaks more than he was working at this point, but it could hardly be helped. He had to spend more time by the river because he was almost out of potatoes. So, it was fish or starve, but as relaxing as it was, it really slowed down progress. Especially since the plants seemed to be regrowing almost as fast as he was killing them.
Purging a building or two of an overgrown rose bush felt great and all, but what was the point when the thing was already resprouting when you went back the next day? Even the ones he’d burned to a crisp were starting to sprout again after a week. What was the point? It’s not like he could keep mowing this city down every week for the rest of his life.
“I have to be missing something here,” Simon sighed as he walked back to his favorite stone, pulled off his boots, and slipped his feet into the cool water. “I don’t think that Helades brought me here because this place needed a gardener. Even a gardener with a sword.”
He smirked at that. He wasn’t even afraid of the biggest plants anymore. They burned best of all, and as strong as their vine-like tendrils were, they moved so slowly that they were really only useful on targets that were sleeping like he’d been the first time he’d come here.