4 First Encounter!
After following the direction of the moss for more than an two hours, the sun was getting close to setting and Camellia started to notice more noises echoing through the dense forest.
From the sound of shrubs and leaves shaking, Camellia started to notice that there were a few different types of sounds and she was starting to be able to discern them. From her guess it must be either thanks to her new body that was more sensitive, or it was because of one of the unknown abilities 'gifted' by the goddess.
I say gifted, but it seemed like it would be quite a hassle to do so. Camellia would not only have to guess the rules and powers of the world while also guessing and testing different ideas until he stumbled across one that worked.
Even now while walking she was trying to test some of those ideas!
Just as mentioned before, she was starting to be able to sense there being differences in the sounds of her environment. This wasn't just by guessing like the old Jaxx would have done, the new and improved Camellia was able to determine this because of how she 'felt' the sound!
After focusing for long enough she noticed that things started to become clearer when identifying sounds, but not by simply listening, but by feeling.
This gave her a few separate ideas that she desperately wanted to test! }
1. She has an affinity to the wind element! Meaning she was sensing things through the air!
2. She had some kind of ability akin to 'mana zone' due to her heightened senses to where she could feel things given they are within certain conditions such as distance, line of sight, etc. (most probable)
3. It could be some defect by the goddess, or just a specific ability given to her by 'Mona.' (although she had decided the prior was more likely)
4. It could be due to her instincts as a newly born Beast-kin... or Lizard-kin?
"Reptilikin."
Camellia said while nodding with a slightly proud grin.
At this point it was really cutting it close and she was super stressed for time. The sun seemed to be only one or two hours off from setting, yet she had no water, food or shelter. This was a bad enough situation on earth, let alone this unknown nocturnal forest!
Even if Camellia had managed to find a shelter on time, who knows if she would even be safe in it?! She could dig a hole and a giant spider could just come crashing in like a colossal ti**n! (If you haven't noticed, she hates spiders.)
Just as she had started to seriously start to worry, she finally caught a glimpse of salvation! She had heard the light splashing sound of a creek!
Camellia was simply guessing it was a creek seeing as she could only barely hear it, even with her new senses, she could only slightly hear it.
'Dammit'
Was it either a waterfall very far away? She can't drink stagnant water, so if she didn't come out from the top of the falls, it wouldn't do much for her.
Was it a river that was still five to ten minutes away? Perfect, flowing clean water with fish inside! two birds one stone!
Or, worse case scenario, is it a very tiny creak that was only about a minute away? if a creek is small enough you can't trust the water! It might be moving too slowly, be too stagnant or simply get stepped on all the time by animals!
Camellia desperately wanted to rush towards the sacred mysterious water noise but she still had her brain working! It's basically going to be dawn for these nocturnal freaks, most animals would probably be either going for a nice drink before bed, or to get a nice breakfast!
She had to be careful, she knew that she was leaving trails like crazy this time, but was constantly trying to find ways to make less and less of a mess as she went. She had no shoes, so people could easily tell she was a young humanoid child just from her footprints, but she had also been sitting down to catch her breath every now and then as well as touching rocks and trees to find moss.
She was leaving her scent everywhere! It was as if a toddler had gotten into a paint can!
Deciding it's probably safest to do what any other animal would do she decided to walk along the trees, jumping from behind one to the other.
'See look! I'm all sneaking like those assassin mcs! hehehe'
She looked like a second year high schooler skipping through a forest.
Although Jaxx was smart and knew almost all there was to Isekais he still knew nothing about this world and that was apparent. He actually happened to be in what was considered to be one of the most dangerous and secluded forests on that entire planet, yet here he was skipping about like a child thinking about magic and maybe even meeting a fairy or elemental spirit.
As if mocking her, the cruel world finally threw its first challenge at the small loli. The branches above and around her suddenly started rustling and shaking about.
The branches were far above her head, maybe about 12 meters or so. Camellia obviously instantly reacted, this time she wouldn't play the fool! She would succeed being the Degenerate God he was!
**
Bing Bing!
Instructor Jaxx here! Ready to teach you all things isekai! That being said...
Quiz time~
If you hear an alarming noise in an unknown area while knowing for sure that you are weaker than it, what's the first thing you should do?
You got your answer? Good!
If your answer was to try and identify where/what made those sounds before acting...
YOURE AN IDIOT!
The answer is that you obviously...**
'BOOK IT!'
The pink haired loli started sprinting into the bushed to the right, attempting to stay as close to the trees as possible while changing her direction very often!
'If this thing wants to jump then I can just walk a circle round the tree and keep going! And if it wants to follow me then I'll at least make it tired from jumping!'
Once again Camellia had somewhat started to figure out the noise while running, she didn't dare to look back at the danger that was slowly closing in on her, instead she payed attention to the sound the beast made when it landed, or in this case, grabbed the branches after jumping. She had determined this thing was swinging towards her branch to branch like a monkey!
'Of all things, the first danger you're challenging me with is Son Wukong himself?! What's next? You gonna make me push a boulder up a hill until I die?!
After running for a minute or two Camellia quickly realized something was wrong. The unknown monkey beast was consistenly catching up to her and followed her pace without flaw for the first good while... So why hasn't it caught up yet?
'It's either messing with me or waiting for me to get tired. smart bastard."
She continued to run for another few minutes and confirmed what she had thought. Although she had been slowing down consistently from the growing exhaustion, the monkey beast had barely gained any distance.
While running she could see a slight opening in the trees, where the dense trees seemed to part. as her breath got heavier and the air more humid a smile bloomed across her face.
*Shhh*
'Top of the waterfall!'
"Heh. SO LONG MONKEY BRAIN!"
Dashing from the tree line she could hear a ear piercing screech that only slightly resembled that of a baboon coming from behind her.
Knowing that it's prey was about to escape the unknown monkey beast swung out of the trees after her.
But it was already too late.
For the first time she took a look behind her to see a rampaging black monkey with 6 arms and furious blood shot eyes.
'Scary! cary scary scary scary!!!!!'
Even though she felt like crying, falling to the floor in exhaustion and like she wanted to be anywhere but here. There was only really one thought that stayed consistent while she jumped above the rampaging river that led right into a giant waterfall;
'This is the best!'
