Chương 148: Encounter

The rest of the spikes were saved in case Alex's experiment was a success since then he could use each of them to make him a nergigante shaped snack. Alex found a few new traits down in the vale after his more serious search through the area. [Acid resistance] , [effluvia resistance] and [paralyzing poison] were the traits he found during his trip. They were uncommon , rare and common ranked respectively so they the first and third ones were easy to unlock. They came from a special plant that Alex found growing from the blue acid pools at the bottom of the vale as well as the great giros that tended to show up every now and then.

The second trait however was rare ranked and had been discovered by eating the unusual fruit that grew in the vale. The requirements for this trait to be unlocked were much like most rare ranked traits a pain in the ass to complete. In this case Alex needed to get effluvia poisoning five hundred times. Alex could only grit his teeth and dive into heavy clouds of effluvia to get the affliction before popping a nulberry and repeating this process.

Alex wasn't sure why he never got traits from certain things such as nulberries and trees but he assumed it was likely because the system simply had rules against it for some reason. Alex had a theory that all of the traits that he had and all those he could possibly get were things that monsters in this world either had or could theoretically have. If this was true then it meant that he could not switch over to a path that was impossible for a monster to take like that of a plant. It wasn't a problem for Alex though since monsters in this world could have some seriously broken abilities.

Take Sofie jiiva for example that could actively drain the energy REGARDLESS of element from a massive area around it. If that wasn't a bad enough it also had and attack that may as well have been a miniature nuclear explosion that was packaged in a harmless looking slow moving glowing orb. Alex was far far away from having power like that at the moment so being limited to the monster tree for his traits definitely didn't bother him at all , if anything it excited him to think that he may one day hold that power himself.

Once Alex was sure that he wasn't going to find any other traits that he would want he left the vale much faster than he arrived. 'Ah~ sweet sweet clean air' he thought joyfully as he rose high into the sky above the coral highlands. Alex ignored the weird hot air balloon esque floating base that was moving through the area to fly back towards astera. It was an uneventful trip all things considered as Alex just cruised with a flock of wingdrakes peacefully. He also took a few trips through some clouds to help wash off the stink of the vale that had stuck to him.

He was rather unhappy to note that he still had a lingering odor of decay on him even after his cloud showers and decided a dip in the sea was called for. The closest part of the sea for Alex was just past the ancient forest so that was where he went. If he wasn't Focused on getting into the sea to get rid of the smell on him he may have noticed that the flock of wingdrakes had fled from around him.

It was only when his he was covered in a large shadow that he realized something was wrong and looked up. Alex would like to say his heart didn't stop for a brief moment at what he found above him , he would have been lying. Flying above Alex was a huge monster nearly twice his size with four limbs and a pair of wings on it's back. This monster was pure white in color with dull non reflective scales and looked almost like a manta ray with how much space it's wings took up. A head with rows of fangs and piercing blue eyes was looking down at Alex from above curiously.

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