Chapter 406: Top of the Mountain and searching for the Dungeon

The rumbling caused the cliff to shake for a moment forcing everyone to cling on tightly to any nearby hand holds. Luckily there weren't any falling rocks that they had to worry about coming from above so they only had to focus on sticking to the cliff to make sure they didn't fall. The lizard that they were fighting against was stuck in a similar predicament. Even though it was used climbing up and down the cliff side at all times it still knew to hang on tight during such circumstances.

It didn't take long for Joshua to figure out what was causing all of the commotion. In fact it didn't take long for the rest of the group to find out either as a large portion of the cliff just below the lizard suddenly exploded into a big cloud of dirt and rocks that were sent careening off the side of the cliff down to the ground below. The shaking only got worse in that moment with such heavy activity nearby forcing Joshua and the rest of the group that were clinging to the cliff to steady themselves and make sure their handholds wouldn't breakoff.

It didn't take long for the cloud of dust to disperse with the heavy winds blowing past the cliff. The moment that happened Joshua was able to get a good long look at what had actually caused all of the commotion. The monstrosity that was now sticking partially out of the cliff looked like the tail end of a giant centipede. Its legs were at the moment piercing into the poor lizard that had died from the impact of the sneak attack. Each leg of the creature was at least ten feet long dwarfing the size of the poor lizard. The body of the centipede was probably much bigger than the portion that Joshua was able to see at the moment.

From what Joshua could see of the body its exoskeleton had an almost metallic sheen to it that made it looked heavily armored. Before Joshua could try to observe it anymore he heard some more rumbling coming from up above. 'Watch out there might be another one. Prepare to move if it goes for you.' Joshua said through the party chat. Everyone took heed of the warning while both Cinder and Titus looked ready to go on the attack at any moment if this giant creature tried to attack them.

Soon they were all able to pinpoint where the new commotion was coming from and looked up to an area far up on the cliff where another portion of the cliff was blown out sending several rocks down in their direction. Joshua and the rest of the swordsman acted quickly and sent a barrage of energy slashes up towards the falling rocks that were headed in their direction. Their attacks broke the large rocks into smaller pieces that harmlessly passed by the group. Titus used his spores to create a bunch of vines that spread out over the top of the group blocking any of the larger rocks that still held up though the barrage of energy slashes. They were harmlessly pushed out of the way as the cloud of dust above was once again blown away revealing what had caused the new commotion.

It was the head of the large centipede that was slowly crawling out of the new massive hole in the cliff that it created. At the top of the creature's head Joshua could see two massive feelers that seemed incredibly sharp as they swung around in the air. Each one of those feelers were as long as one of Cinders legs The centipede's red body and yellow legs made it look extremely menacing as it started to slowly lower its upper body down the cliff as it reached towards the lizard that its tail end had killed.

Now that Joshua had the chance with its slow movements he was able to observe the creature and was surprised at the fact that it was actually level eighty already. That was the maximum level for any creature in this area so he was surprised to find such a powerful creature so soon. It had five stars by its name and had the title of mountain guardian. That right off the back told Joshua that this creature was either the ruler of this mountain side or the guardian of a dungeon in the area. He was leaning towards the latter since he doubted a ruler of a territory would get so close to a town outside of during a beast tide.

It didn't take too long for the massive insect to reach its tail end with its head. Its large mandibles that were like giant vice grips big enough to tear a bus in half ripped into the lizard and tore its body apart. The head swallowed the upper portion of the lizard quickly so that all of its insides couldn't fall out. It then twisted in the air and started going up the cliff while completely ignoring Joshua's group. It only took a short glance in their direction the entire time, but didn't attempt to do anything else. By the time the head of the creature was out of sight as it moved up towards the top of the cliff its tail end finally started moving as it dragged the other half of the lizard into the hole it came out of.

All of Joshua's group watched in shock at the size of the creature. At this point the only beast that Joshua had come across that was bigger was the massive snake he had seen a few days ago and Tanks giant praying mantis friend. They all saw the tail end pop out of the side of the mountain one last time as it followed the trail that the centipede left behind before going outside of their range of vision. The entire group stayed still for a little while longer as they waited to see if anything else would happen or if they could get back to climbing.

'That kill stealing overgrown bug!' Adrian shouted in the party chat. 'All that work for nothing.'

'Don't act so frustrated about it. We already took out two of the lizards and got the experience for them. I'm just glad we didn't have to fight such a problematic creature while clinging to the side of a cliff.' Joshua said with a shrug as he started climbing again making sure to create some foot holds for the rest of the group. 'The lizards were annoying enough.'

'Hopefully that thing won't want to get some revenge on Cinder.' Lilly said with a frown as she looked down at the giant spider she was riding on. 'Who knows how many centipedes Cinder killed and ate back where we found her.' Joshua turned to look at the giant spider and instead of a look of excitement, fear, or any other emotion he was expecting to see from the spider after they had a run in with a giant centipede, he ended up seeing a look of hunger spread across her face.

Joshua just shook his head at the spider's antics as he climbed ahead with the rest of the group following close behind. After the centipede attack there weren't anymore creatures that tried to attack them as they scaled the side of the cliff. The centipede was clearly the alpha beast in the area and all of the other creatures did their best to avoid becoming its next meal. It only took a little over half an hour for them to finish scaling the cliff and the view they all saw when they reached the top was beautiful no matter which direction they looked. When they looked towards the direction of the town they were planning to build they could see the river cutting through the area and into the plains as it headed towards the forest in the distance. However when they turned to look in the other direction they were met with the sight of something that was both beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

The closest thing to them was the gradual slope of the other side of the mountain range. There were some lizards roaming around the area in groups along with a couple other creatures that seemed to be fleeing from them. From what Joshua could see they seemed to be some kind of rabbits or ferrets of some kind. When you looked out a little further at the base of the mountain you could see what looked like a small forest that surrounded the area. The large trees made it impossible for any of them to see what was within the forest even when it came to Aito, but that wasn't the sight that grabbed their attention.

Beyond the forest there was a large area which was most likely the next major area that could be thought of as a large territory. From what Joshua could tell it was mostly an open plains area with several hills that stretched on for as far as he could see. The sight that had grabbed his attention however wasn't the area itself, but what he could see inside of it. Roaming the plains there were several giant creature that were more than big enough for them to see in full detail from so far away. They looked like enormous moose like creatures with massive Antlers that might as well have been the size of trees. There were hundreds of these creatures roaming throughout the plains. The fact that these were the common beast in the area and most likely the less violent ones in a similar way to the horses near James Town didn't escape anyone's thoughts.

"What level do you think those things are at?" Robin asked breaking the silence that everyone was stuck in.

"I don't know, but I know we need to stay the hell away from them." Adrian responded as he continued to stare at the massive creatures. "We're trying to get you guys ready for taking on the creatures in the prairie on the other side of the canyon. Let's take some baby steps before we even think of going after creatures like that."

"I can't wait to tame some of them." Lilly said with a giant smile on her face as her eyes shinned brightly with excitement. Everyone just looked at her like she was crazy for a moment, but the foremost thought in Joshua's mind after that statement was the idea that domesticating beast in the future was going to be a huge pain in the ass if they all grew to the size of stadiums.

After that thought Joshua turned his attention to the task at hand. Even though there were such powerful creatures in a territory nearby, the mountain range would keep a beast tide from ever coming from that area. So they wouldn't have to worry about it, if anything beast like that would probably rampage near a city instead of a town. So Joshua decided to focus on finding the dungeon on the mountain. Either that or tracking down the centipede that just ran off.