Lizardmen were known to be a ruthless species among the monsters of swamps. They were like humanoids with scaled skin and snake-like heads and were nature-bred predators, evolved due to the human interference in the region. They didn't need armour to protect themselves, their skin alone was sufficient to block the sharpest of swords and knives. Their claws as sharp as the obsidian knife, just one hit by them could tear through the armours and shields of any human warrior.
Although they were physically the strongest among the other species, they couldn't use magic but their sheer population, agility and battle prowess were more than sufficient to make up for it. Only a fool would take them lightly.
Despite their introduction, not every lizardman among them was like that. Some act tactfully and in a planned manner, while some just attack whatever they could. Some bare-handedly attacked their target while some fought with weapons and protective gears that either they made for themselves or stole from the humans who were foolish enough to think they could win against them on their own. This was a weird phenomenon as most of the monsters never used human weapons to protect themselves.
All in all, even though they belonged to the same class of monsters they had a lot of individualistic qualities.
They had different shapes, sizes and colours. Most of them had greenish scales which covered their entire body and tail, while a selected few had grey scales. It was evident that the grey scaled lizardmen were stronger than the others, as they were the ones who generally wore the armours and wielded weapons and were often seen ordering the green-scaled ones.
If the swamp was a playground, then the lizardmen were its bullies anyone else had to run for their lives, but right now the roles were reversed for a particular lizardman.
It was still middle of the day, but under the canopy of the thick trees, it looked like the sun had already set. Through the deadly silence of the swamps, a bruised and battered grey scaled lizardman was running like it's life depended on it and chasing after it was two humans.
One of them was wearing a robe, carrying two guns in his hands while the woman in front of him was wearing an armour made up of the tough scales of a grey scaled lizardmen, with a black sword in her hands.
They were Arnold and Nina.
Nina had equipped the gear Arnold made for her over the days that they had spent in the swamps, hunting the lizardmen. Nina was helping Arnold with testing the gears he made using the skin and bones of the monsters that they killed. He had just made the essentials for her such as a set of combat boots for Nina along with the chainmail she was wearing.
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• [Lizard Scale Mail]: A chainmail made from the scales of a grey scaled lizardman, could be considered a necessity for the people who want to wander around the swamps. The armour grants special abilities to the user for survival in the swamps.
Grade: A
Defense (DEF) : + 65
Armour Type: Chainmail
Weight : 9 kg (6 kg while [Weightlifter] is active)
Additional effect : [Weightlifter] - Reduces the overall weight of the armour by 30% allowing the user to move freely while chasing towards or retreating from a target. This effect slowly wears off when the user stops moving.
Additional effect : [Protector] - When facing a lizardman or a group of lizardmen, the armour grants a bonus of 5% increase in defence and a 12% chance of reflecting 60% of the damage inflicted to the attacker. <Effective only against lizardmen>
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• [Lizard Scale boots]: A necessity for free movement in swamps. If you don't have these then be prepared for trouble, because you won't be able to outrun your enemies and get hunted down faster than you could spell 'death'.
Grade: A
Agility (AGI) : + 30
Armour Type: boots
Weight : 0.3 kg
Additional effect : [Slithering] - When moving in a swampy environment boosts agility by 6%. As the user gets acquainted with the environment (spends 24 hours running through the swamps) grants another bonus of 3% extra increase in agility.
Additional effect : [Webbed feet] - Allows you to stand over murky water when in a swampy region, preventing you from sinking into the depth of the swamp, where ruthless mermen reside.
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Nina was wearing both of these equipments, so definitely she was moving way faster than the lizardman they were chasing after.
This was the power of a good creationist. No matter what situation they get thrown into, they are able to bounce back better than ever. It took someone like Arnold two days, just two days to come up with the idea for the gears as well as to make a fully functioning model of them as well.
Arnold had already completed his mission, he needed to make the equipments that were suited for the warriors and could give them a chance to win against the swamp, which he did. But it was way too soon for him to leave the swamps as he wanted to gather as many resources from the swamp as he could because he needed to make the equipments for the others as well and make a rough map of the region while he was at it, he also intended to make a base of operations there, but he required a larger workforce to do so, thus he put that idea on hold.
Arnold and Nina were on their usual schedule to make a map of the swamps while gathering more resources, when suddenly a group of fifteen lizardmen led by the grey scaled lizardman, ambushed them, thinking they could easily defeat a couple of humans as swamp was their playing field and they had an advantage over the humans, but to their shock, Arnold and Nina quickly dispatched them even before they could do anything. With Arnold's newly improved grenades and Nina's [Black Widow] sword, they quickly and efficiently got rid of them.
The leader of the squad, the grey lizardman, started running away from the scene, thinking there was no way for the humans to catch up to him, little did he know, he was dead the moment he decided to attack them.
Arnold kept randomly shooting at the trees that were around them, Nina also did the same and slashed at as many trees as she could while chasing after the lizardman, who too was doing the same thing. They were doing this because the monsters weren't the only ones they needed to be wary of... the swamp itself was attacking them.
Just like Nathan had informed him, the trees in the swamp had mutated into carnivorous beings who swallowed anything that they could, in their eyes, monsters and humans were one and the same... food. Arnold knew their strength very well because he had witnessed them in action the very first day they had arrived in the swamp.
These trees weren't the same as the ones people often took shelter under, instead of whenever someone cluelessly wandered too close to them, the trees slowly spread their poisonous vines around them and trap their prey. Once the prey was paralyzed due to the poison and couldn't move, they revealed their true self and open their woody mouth to swallow the prey. You could say the trees had turned into a giant Venus flytrap and everyone else into mere insects.
"This place is deadlier than I thought..." Arnold mumbled and shot down yet another tree, "But I'm not complaining."
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You've killed a Unique being.
EXP: +3000
You've killed a Unique being.
EXP: +3000
You've killed a Unique being.
EXP: +3000
<You can not level up.>
<Excess EXP will be stored for future use.>
<Current EXP: 369,596>
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He was getting an insane amount of EXP for killing the trees who were classed as <Unique Beings>. Arnold didn't know why it was like that but he had a hunch about it.
This was the only place where he had encountered these carnivorous trees despite the radiation being spread throughout the Eastern America, thus this made these monster trees 'unique' to this particular location and that's why he was getting the mind-boggling amount is EXP for killing them. Hell, whenever he killed a green-scaled lizardman, he got only got 1000 EXP and 2000 EXP for killing the grey scaled one. Thus killing the trees were more beneficial for him.
But even so, he didn't want to destroy all the trees in the swamps and there was a simple reason behind it. The way he saw, the swamp was the perfect levelling ground for him, or to put it into other words, it was a golden goose for him. Unlike the monsters who needed to mate in order to reproduce, these trees were not bonded by such boundaries and could reproduce on their own. Meaning as long as there were enough carnivorous trees in the forest, he could always come back here and gain a lot of EXP. Which was exactly what he needed, as the system always gave him quests which required him to level up his subclasses or get new ones, so the more EXP he got, the easier it would be for him to do that.
"Was this bastard trained by Usain Bolt or something?" Nina cursed as Arnold caught up to her.
"Calm down tigress. You're the one scaring it away." Arnold laughed, but his eyes were focused on his target, he wanted to shoot that bastard lizardman but it was too quick and the dense swamp always saved it from getting hit, "You are right though. It's about time to kill it."
Arnold threw his guns back in his inventory, to get room to run faster, then claws popped out of his hands and he boosted his speed using [Rapid Flash]. Nina trying to keep a constant pace to his left, but failed.
Like lightning, Arnold dashed to the lizardman's right with a renewed burst of speed, the lizardman was shocked to see this and quickly raised his shield to protect itself, but Arnold's claws tore through the shield and pierced the monster's skull, killing it instantly.
Nina soon caught up to him and saw something that Arnold missed...
"Is that a trapdoor there?"
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