26 Back Again

The white light obscuring Ellis's vision slowly faded away, revealing what looked like a lush green meadow covered with various multicolored flowers. He was in an entirely different place this time. It felt like he had been transported completely outside of the Tower.

How could such a place be within the tower?

He could feel a slight warmth radiating from the sky and pale golden rays of light twinkled off the blades of grass surrounding him. There was even a breeze that blew the scent of a fresh forest into his nose. The only thing that let him know he was not actually outside was the fact that the ceiling was completely covered in glowing golden crystals.

These glowing crystals must give off the light and warmth.

Ellis looked around in awe at the place he had found himself in. It was uniquely beautiful. The various flora around him looked familiar, yet completely alien at the same time. It even, for just a second, pulled him out of the reality that he was in a Tower filled with monsters that wanted to kill and eat him.

Ellis snapped out of his trance and looked around him in the distance. Off in the far distance directly ahead of him there was a huge mountain and to the right closer to him was a large luscious green forest. Aside from those two landmarks, the meadow seemed to go on forever in every other direction.

This is completely different from my first floor. I knew floors could be different considering what Cora said about her floor but this is insane.

After some careful thought, Ellis decided to head for the forest first since it was the closest. As Ellis made his way to the forest which looked to be around a couple of miles away, he began to spot signs of wildlife. Large rabbits with spear-like horns on their heads littered the area as they pranced about.

Ellis decided to creep up closer on them as he was too far away to use Identify. Finally, he was at a close enough distance to use his skill.

"Identify."

Ellis whispered to himself as he looked at the rabbits but before he could even read their name and level a noise sounded off in his head.

Ding!

Identify had leveled up again.

Nice! I wonder what that changed?

Ellis shifted his eyes to the floating box in front of him containing the information on the new rabbit-like creature.

[Horned Rabbit Lv. 24]

[HP: 249]

[Horned Rabbits are quick, bloodthirsty creatures that use their spiraled horn atop their head to impale their victims.]

Along with the creature's name and description, there was now an indicator of the monster's HP.

That is useful! These guys seem weak, they have so little health.

Ellis took another step forward and the Horned Rabbits beady black eyes locked with his as it shifted its body toward his. The monster lowered itself to the ground and then using its powerful hind legs launched itself toward Ellis's stomach.

The monster was suddenly hurling toward him almost faster than he could perceive. By the time Ellis realized what was happening he barely had enough time to move out of the way. He quickly sidestepped, leaning his torso away from the monster's spiraled horn just in time to see it sail by him and land on the ground just past him. Ellis quickly brought his halberd down toward the little monster but just as soon as it had landed it sprung away and repositioned itself in order to attack Ellis again. As Ellis pulled his halberd from the ground another Horned Rabbit appeared out of nowhere and launched himself at him. In order to dodge Ellis let go on his halberd and rolled backward. He rolled back up to his feet and glanced around him. There were now four Horned Rabbits in total surrounding him.

Damnit these rabbits are fast!

Just as he finished his thought three of the four Horned Rabbits had launched themselves at him leaving only one side open for him to evade.

Shit! I know what you are trying to do! Like I would let it happen!

Ellis feinted a dodge to the side and the last Horned Rabbit launch at him. At the last second, he opted to jump straight up causing one of the Horned Rabbits to skewer another one.

Ha! One down three to go!

Ellis dodged around the three rabbits as he slowly became accustomed to their speed. This continued for a few minutes as he became able to see their movements more easily. Seeing their movements and reacting to them quickly enough were two different things though. He could keep up with dodging but being able to dodge and counterattack at the same was still a bit out of his reach. No matter how hard he tried he could not seem to hit them.

I didn't want to have to use this on such small enemies, but you give me no choice.

Ellis dodged past the first Horned Rabbit narrowly and then sidestepped the second as it hurdled toward him before he pretended to take a misstep which the third rabbit took as an opportunity to strike before his other could reposition themselves.

The rabbits were extremely quick, but they had two flaws. The first was that they had very low health. The second was that after they launched forward toward their enemy, they could not change directions. Even though Ellis was too slow to dodge and then swing a weapon at them, he was plenty fast enough to stand directly in front of this rabbit and raise his hand toward it.

ZWOOH! KABOOM!

"You may be fast, but unfortunately for you, you are not as fast as lightning."

Ellis said out loud as the Horned Rabbit that had been speedily flying toward him was reduced to nothing but ash. The sudden explosion caused the other two Horned Rabbits to hesitate long enough to give Ellis time to swing around and let out another blast of lightning, frying another one. Now there was only one left. In a futile last attempt to kill its enemy, the last Horned Rabbit launched itself at Ellis.

Wishful thinking!

Ellis chuckled to himself as he dispatched the final rabbit swift explosion of ash. Ellis quickly checked his surroundings to make sure the noise hadn't drawn in any more aggressors and to his delight it hadn't. After making sure he was the same Ellis walked over to the one rabbit that had been impaled by its buddies' horn and checked it out. The wound left by the horn of the other rabbit was devastating. The wound was relatively small on the side that had been punctured but the other side of the rabbit was a gory mess.

Luckily, none of those Horned Rabbits got me.

Ellis cringed at the rabbit's wounds as he thought about what it would have looked like if it was him who had been hit. His armor felt very sturdy, especially considering what it had been made out of, but he was glad he didn't have to test how strong it was in this fight.

After looting what was left of the rabbit's corpse, Ellis continued making his way to the forest. Soon he finally made it to the forest tree line where he stopped to first check it out before entering. The forest was extremely dense, so much so that he could barely see a couple of feet into the mess of tree, vines, and bushes. There was no telling what could be lying in wait just inside. The sounds of leaves rustling in the soft breeze were all that he heard. It was an almost tranquil sound if not for the fact that he couldn't hear a single chirping bird. It was strange not hearing any birds or wildlife of any kind in such a dense forest.

"Haah!"

Ellis breathed out loudly as he readied himself and then took his first steps in to enter the thick green forest.