Chapter 26: Vault Guardian
Ryan moved through the Forgotten Overgrowth like a particularly determined shadow.
His new Level 4 stats, along with the Agility boost from his Phase Gauntlet and the stealth benefits of his Cloak of Shifting Umbra, made him unexpectedly fast and quiet, especially for someone who recently found sneaking through his own cluttered apartment a challenge.
The jungle was thick and full of things that hissed, buzzed, or just looked generally unpleasant, but he bypassed most of them, his eyes fixed on the blinking Data Vault icon on his internal map.
After about thirty minutes of careful, swift travel, he reached the location indicated. It wasn’t a subtle, hidden hole in the ground.
Oh no. It was a crumbling Precursor ziggurat, a stepped pyramid made of dark, moss-covered stone, rising from the jungle floor like a forgotten tooth of some ancient god.
It was huge, easily five stories tall, and pulsed with a faint, internal energy that made his Neural Symbiote Map tingle. This was definitely a place of importance.
And, like all important places in dangerous jungles, it had a doorman.
A very large, very angry doorman guarding the main entrance a massive, stone archway that looked like it led into the ziggurat’s gloomy heart and there was a creature that resembled a giant, six-legged crocodile made of rock and bad intentions.
Its hide was like jagged stone plates, its eyes glowed a dull, menacing orange, and its enormous jaws, filled with teeth like broken tombstones, opened in a silent, rumbling snarl as Ryan approached.
His god Interface helpfully supplied the details:
Target: Stonejaw Ambusher [Forgotten Overgrowth Apex Fauna, Level 4]