The Fortress of The Forest

A massive turtle appears once more in front of my view. Seemingly coming out of nowhere. The tall creature looks at the turtle with a look of joy on his face. "HAHAHA YOUR DISCIPLE WILL BECOME MY FOOD OLD TURTLE" The Beast stabs towards me once more, and this time I wasn't able to dodge. I activate the defense skill once more as I watch my mana become totally depleted.

The Beast stabs down and it's bone like spear arms rip and tear directly into my hide. But the spears seemed to stop a few centimetres in. The pain was unbearable. The turtle chose this time to act. A vibrant glow started to illuminate the surrounding forest. All the plants seemed to grow under this light as the turtle grew larger than the small hill it was. "YOU IMPUDENT LITTLE RETCH OF THE SHADOWS, I WILL KILL YOU" The turtle Releases a roar as the trees in the surrounding area start to come alive. Trees of all sizes and shapes start to rise taking arms moving slowly towards the figure. The Earth starts to rumble as spikes come out of the ground aimed towards the white creature.

The creature smiles as the stones pierce through his bone like body. The trees reach out slowly, then they tear the creature apart. The creature simply stands there watching the tortoise with a glimmer of amusement on his face. "you... won't.... be.... able.... to.... kill.... me." He sputters as his body slowly starts to lose control. In a voice filled with laughter he screams "NO ONE CAN" then the creature as if possessed takes his spear like hands and plunges them into his chest. Blood gushes out of his chest as he continues to tear himself to pieces much more violently than what the turtle could do. The creature kept mutilating itself even after the main body was destroyed. The bone spears stabbed into it's corpse. The Tortoise looked at it in disgust as it slowly lifted it's leg up and brought it down on the creature. The Tortoise than moved his leg and all that was left was a twitching pancake of the former creature that was there. A feeling of exhaustion over takes my body as I pass unconscious.

I awake to a the familiar sound of the system.

Greater the danger greater the rewards. And I almost died last night. After I finished looking at the system I look around and find my self on a strange rock formation. But after a few seconds I felt the entire hill move. A Giant head of a tortoise looked backwards at me and after looking over my body he said "Last night was quite the party, wasn't it apprentice?". A feeling of comfort washed over me as I realized that the tortoise seemed to be protecting me. "What was that thing?" I ask hesitantly with the new skill Beast Speak. The Tortoise's body shakes as he laughs and after a few moments he calms down and looks at me speaking slowly "That was a wretch. You must be a newborn to not know that." The tortoise laughed once more after seeing my form. "Who has ever heard of an adult creature not knowing about the creatures of the dark, do you even ever leave you home, Seriously?"

After a few seconds of silence the Tortoise speaks once more this time with less sarcasm " Though there species are known as Wretches there are subspecies, for instance the once you saw earlier was of the sub species known as 'The Undying' though contrary to there name, they can die, only through destroying there body in total." A look of sadness overwhelms him as he continues speaking "Wretches are created when a Human loses there mind and turns into a beast. Or when a beast tries to turn into a human, either way it spells for destruction of there mind".

I remain silent for a few moments before tentatively asking a question " Why haven't I seen any until now than? "

Silence lays over us for a few moments that stretch out to what seems like forever. After an impossibly long time the turtle speaks once more. "For you not to have seen a Wretch means you are probably one of the luckiest Snakes to ever by a live" After a brief moment he continues "Wretches are everywhere, in the tribes of the humans, in the forests of the beast, there are no place in which Wretches aren't."

"It is our job to protect our forest from the wretches." he continues " For if we didn't... they would devour and kill everything in it".

"You protect this forest?" I ask carefully

He answers solemnly " We protect this forest, you, me, and the other guardians and disciples " he seems to think for a minute before continuing. "it is our destiny to protect where we were born"

"I am the Fortress of the Forest, and you are my disciple, our goal is to kill all wretches, though that is a goal that can never be complete."

After a few more minutes of silence the turtle slowly picks me up off it's back and gently places me on the ground " He looks at me sternly and says quickly "stay safe, though you are small, you are one of the most potential filled animals in this forest. I have great hope for you, maybe one day you will be truly strong"

The turtle stomps off into the distance, and after a few minutes I hear a roar that reaches out of the distance "FAREWELL MY DISCIPLE, GOOD LUCK"

Wait what. The big guy saved me and now he's just gonna leave me hanging. All he did was give me a small speech over how I am supposed to protect this stupid forest. I look back at the destroyed home he put me by and sadden at the loss of my perfectly good home. Well I suppose it's time to look for another house. But before I could leave and start my search the systems notification appears once more.

WAIT WHAT. I WAS ASLEEP ON THAT TURTLES BACK FOR 4 DAYS??? This is just stupid. Well the 3 evolution points are nice. I look at my status screen and see the 12 blaring AP points just sitting there. Emergency quests sure do get you some gains. I decide to put four points into Willpower and the other 8 into Endurance, hoping to get endurance to twenty as quick as possible.

'...' Why didn't I upgrade this first??? I start slamming my head against the ground as I get increasingly upset. After a couple points of HP chipped away do to my stupidity I open up the Evolution Store looking for something to buy with my 5 Evolution points, that is until I remember that I leveled up infrared vision and it said I could evolve it. Why not give it a go. I quickly watch as the system gives me a notification.

Life Sense: this allows the skill to let you see any life form weather they are cold or not. Leveling it up increases the range.

Improved Infrared vision: this allows the user to gain increased vision capabilities, allowing the user to see color and see at a much further distance, Infrared still works as usual. Leveling it up increases range and detail.

Magic Infrared Vision: This ability allows the user to see magic as well as the basic infrared vision. Leveling it up increases range and detail.

Dang these upgrades are crazy. Life Sense would be pretty useful if I run into any of the Wretches again, while Magic Infrared Vision would be useful for any me sense I plan to go the magic route, but if I am being completely honest, not being able to see color is kinda driving me nuts, I quickly choose Improved Infrared Vision as that's the only one that can make me any where near happy.

No even this is-AGHH PLEASE STOP THE PAIN. Sleep rushes through my senses once more.