Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Carefully

The child wasn’t invincible, it could die, it could get hurt, it needed to not be stupid. It might never be truly safe but it knew one thing, it didn’t want to die and it would do everything it could to avoid dying. No longer burdened by the false sense of security that its power had given it, the child explored the jungle, this time far more carefully. 

Traversing the jungle became far slower for the child as carefulness bordering on paranoia often made it stay in place rather than barrel forwards like it had done earlier. Its limitations and weaknesses filled its mind as well as thoughts of what monsters it had encountered. It was careful and studious in its advance through the jungle.

On its journey forward it had been ambushed and attacked by a number of different creatures. One time an orange and black striped cat had ambushed it. The ensuing fight had been brutal and it was only due to quick thinking that the child had escaped with only grievous injury. 

Another time, it had fallen onto a near invisible sticky string and had nearly been eaten by a fearsome eight legged creature with a pair of massive fangs. It had only managed to escape thanks to the fact that it had stood still and for some reason the beast had ignored it. Carefully, over a long span of time it had sawed through the invisible string holding it and managed to escape without alerting the eight legged creature.

With every single new being it encountered it made sure to take mental notes of how they looked like, how they operated, what tactics worked against them and what tactics didn’t work against them. 

The tendril monster hid its gelatinous mass near tree clusters and from there it’d spread its tendrils out, feeling for prey. To avoid the tendril monster simply illuminate the area and either go around or step over the tendrils while making sure not to make contact. Contact with the tendril monster meant near certain death, it had seen all manner of creatures wander into the tendril monster’s domain and mercilessly get torn to pieces.

The evil bug swarm usually could only be found up in the trees, occasionally though they wandered down to the jungle floor. When dealing with the evil bug swarm, note that killing one member triggered a chain reaction that would bring down the full might of the swarm upon the killer. Thankfully, avoiding the swarm and escaping it was easy. Stand perfectly still and send decoys to lure the bugs away.

The shaggy brown beast was a non-threat. Although the beast was fearsome when it fought it was only interested in eating the beautiful flowers. Although it pained the child to let the evil beast destroy such bastions of beauty it also had to conserve its power, so no more tricking them into dying by fighting evil bug swarms.

The flying leathery brown creature was extremely annoying. They could pop out from nowhere thanks to their ability to fly and the child couldn’t trick them or sneak past them. For one reason or another the creatures could see straight through any disguises the child had tried. The only way to deal with them was to stand and fight. Thankfully though they were relatively weak and could be killed easily enough.

The orange and black striped furry beast was dangerous but the creature always hid behind a cluster of bushes. Send a light to scout out any bushes nearby. The beast was cowardly and would usually run away when it realized it was spotted. In the rare case the beast didn’t run away the beast could easily be tricked with an illusory duplicate.

The eight legged creature couldn’t see anything, only being able to know something was there by movement in its web. Try to avoid stumbling into its web. The web ever so slightly reflects light so note any mysterious shining pieces. In the event of being captured on the web stop moving. Excessive movement makes it harder to escape from the web  and draws the eight legged creature’s attention.

More and more creatures were added to its mental notes until it became a very rare sight to spot a creature it hadn’t seen before. Gathering its experiences together the child had established a set of standard advancing procedures.

Firstly, illuminate the path ahead for any dangers and if danger was spotted take note of its location and what creature was spotted. Depending on the creature it would either advance past it or dodge the creature completely.

Secondly, when it advanced it would advance slowly so as to be able to stop and stand perfectly still at a moment's notice. 

Thirdly, be prepared to still be attacked despite the precautions. All it took was one slightly careless checking of a corner to miss a danger and be ambushed. 

Fourthly, if ambushed try to run away using decoys, tricks, standing still, or all of the above. On occasions where none of the above worked then and only then would it fight.

Fighting was to be viewed and always to be viewed as an absolute last resort. Fighting attracted attention, used up precious power, and got it injured. It was NOT something to be engaged with willy nilly even if the creature it was fighting was weak.

Throughout its journey it had discovered that the creatures that could see through its tricks were the most dangerous due to the fact that it meant the creature could force it to fight. The bat beast in particular was a menace. The child was forced to fight them every single time it encountered them and more than once this had led to a situation where the child had to escape from a more dangerous creature that was attracted to the racket.

As the child explored the jungle floor more and more, it also grew more and more adept at slipping a creature’s notice. It came to a point where the child hadn’t gotten into a fight for so long it regularly had time to just sit down and think rather than be distracted by a wound or potential predator. 

With time to just sit down and think it slowly but surely came to a conclusion, it had grown tired of the jungle floor. It wanted to do something else, something less boring. While on occasion the jungle floor brought new wonderful sights, those moments were growing fewer and fewer in number. 

It wanted to do and see something new, something fresh and so it decided on a potentially idiotic idea. It would once again try to reach the top of the trees. 

The child knew it was a stupid idea, the evil big swarms were a massive threat and the jungle floor was now mostly safe for it. It had shot down the idea of climbing to the top many times due to this but this particular moment the child just couldn’t stand being on the jungle floor.

Despite the risks, despite the foolishness the child would try climbing, once again trying to reach for the sun. However just because it was following a foolish idea didn’t mean it needed to follow it foolishly. Using the experience it had gained from the ground it planned out potential ways of climbing while remaining safe. 

—

The child stood studying a massive and thick tree. The trunk’s circumference was easily the equivalent of ten regular trees.

It had carefully selected the tree it was to climb. The tree it had selected was the thickest tree that it had managed to find throughout the whole jungle it had explored. It chose the tree as it theorized due to its thickness it’d give the child the most room to move should it be attacked. 

Additionally, it had made sure that its power stocks were at their fullest, having completely shut off any usage of its power save for a light for the past 7,200 moments it counted. 

All preparations had been made and the child mentally readied itself for the climb to the sun. This was it, the time had come for it to do something potentially stupid.

It merged its toes together and turned its feet into two forwards facing spikes. It then morphed the tip of each of its fingers into sharp spikes as well and conjured another light to serve as a scout.

Continuing, It dug its foot deeply into the trunk. It pushed upwards with its one foot and just as it had desired it didn’t slip or lose even the slightest bit of traction. Excellent, this meant that it would always have stable footholds regardless of whether or not the actual surface of the trunk was smooth or rough.

It brought its hands and other foot into the trunk and began climbing slowly, leaving shallow gouges in the wood in its wake. As it climbed it made sure to place its light well ahead of it to spot any evil bugs that might be present. The pace of its ascent was slow, but it was slow due to the child’s conscious efforts. 

In the distance, just barely past the view of its light it noticed a sharp spiky black figure, it was the familiar outline of an evil bug. The moment the child noticed the evil bug it froze, standing perfectly still. It waited, hoping that it hadn’t been noticed. 

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The evil bug drew closer, moving well into the range of the light it had cast. Closer still it drew and the fearful sound of skittering and scraping wood began filling the child’s mind, stirring some of its most unpleasant memories.

It was reminded of the time it had been torn to pieces, the pain, the agony, the terror. It wanted to shake so badly but it forced the feeling down, knowing that giving in to the fear would endanger its life. 

Closer and closer the bug drew until the child could make out its every detail. The evil bug's cold black eyes seemed to bore straight into the child as the skittering grew louder and the evil bug grew closer. 

Stay calm, stay collected, stay focused. It couldn’t afford to alert this bug. If the bug was alerted then it’d need to either trick it with its power or kill it. Both options were bad. Tricking it would cost it power and it’d need every bit of power it could muster. Fighting it was even worse as that would inevitably draw out the horde and so the best course of action was to stand still.

The evil bug drew so close that the child could’ve lashed out with one of its hands to strike but it kept steady. The bug slithered closer and, as the child was unable to turn its head, it passed the child’s view, sending waves of nervousness through the child. For what seemed like an eternity the sound of scraping filled the air, until gradually fading. 

Despite the sounds lessening the child still didn’t dare move its head to check if the evil bug was gone. It made sure to stand perfectly still until the jungle was completely quiet once more before allowing itself to move its head, seeing nothing nearby. 

The evil bug had gone and the coast was now clear and so it continued climbing upwards. For a time, the climb was for the most part uneventful but its luck could only last for so long. In the distance a large group of evil bugs coalesced. 

There would be no waiting around for this group to pass it, it’d need to do something more proactive this time around. In its mind it pictured the flying leathery brown creature, the one with the annoying sound pulses and ability to see through its illusions. With a push of will it conjured forth a duplicate of the beast flapping its wings frantically in a space of open air.

A torrent of angry chittering came from the group and they launched themselves at the illusion, drawn by the movement. The child watched on as the dumb evil bugs jumped off the tree and towards its illusion. Most of the bugs missed the illusion and simply plunged towards the ground below. The few that did manage to reach the illusion found nothing to interrupt their fall and also plunged towards the ground. 

The child allowed itself a moment to laugh at the stupidity of the evil bugs. They were so stupid and simple, unlike its intelligent sophisticated self that could trick them. However, it didn’t let itself revel for too long. 

It estimated that with the continuous usage of its light and the bat illusion it had created it had used around two clones worth of power, still nine more clones worth of power left, a goodly amount. Moving forwards the child hoped that it wouldn’t need to expend too much more of its power. 

Higher and higher the child climbed and it began noticing something strange happen. Beyond the range of its light, pure darkness no longer lurked. The distance began turning shades of dark blue and it could start making out the outlines of distant trees.

As it advanced further up more and more differences began popping up. In the distance it spotted a colony of new creatures, different to all the ones it had seen before. The creatures were bulbous, yellow and black, and possessed wings that seemed disproportionately small. They buzzed around the jungle canopy, flying into and out of yellowish hexagonal-like structures.

The child found the new experience exciting but didn’t let itself get too enamored. Although the creatures looked ridiculous and weak they might be dangerous and so it watched them, making sure to stand perfectly still.

Nothing seemed to happen, the funny creatures buzzed about peacefully for a time but a disturbance in the distance caused them all to fly away. It observed as the weak creatures disappeared from sight, followed not long after by their buzzing.

A lucky break, for one reason or another the funny creatures had vacated the area giving the child free passage to climb higher in the tree. It wouldn’t pass up the opportunity for progress upwards with no cost of power.

As it continued climbing up and began passing by the hexagonal homes that the funny creatures inhabited a distant sound of something could be heard. Although faint, the sound of buzzing and ripping could be distinguished from the regular jungle chatter. The child knew that was not a good sound to hear and ramped up the speed of its climbing, temporarily forgoing the slow deliberate pace it had set earlier.

It climbed past the homes, higher and higher up the tree clearing a distance that placed it well above where the funny creatures had inhabited. The decision paid off as the funny creatures were returning. It cast an illusion over itself to make it blend in perfectly with the bark it was latched onto and stood perfectly still as it watched a distant yellow and black mass approach.

Something was off with the returning group. Mixed in with the funny creature were other creatures, yellow and black as well but far less weak looking, far more fearsome and they were tearing the funny creatures apart.

The child watched on with shock as a group of just a few dangerous looking creatures tore the funny creatures to shreds. There were hundreds of the funny creatures as opposed to maybe only thirty fearsome looking creatures. The funny creatures tried to stab them with their barbed stingers on the tip of their abdomens and bite at the fearsome creatures but to no effect.

The fearsome creatures were larger by two or three times and their carapace seemed rock hard in comparison as it easily deflected the attacks of the funny creatures. They retaliated by unleashing their far larger and more fearsome looking mandibles, each bite ripping the head off or splitting a funny creature apart.

It was a one sided massacre with the funny creatures numbers dropping by the second. Each exchange between the fearsome looking creatures and the funny looking creatures resulted in the death of thirty or more funny creatures to no fearsome ones. 

In just a few minutes the funny creatures' numbers dwindled and they attempted a last ditch attack to protect their homes but nothing they did seemed to work. Before long everyone of the funny looking creatures were cut down till the space was left with only the fearsome looking creatures.

They flew over to the hexagonal homes and tore them to pieces, revealing white squishy larvae to the jungle before mercilessly biting into them and ripping them apart. In mere moments the bustling colony of the funny looking creatures was razed to the ground and the fearsome looking creatures left, carrying the bodies of countless larvae in their six legs.

The whole time this was going on the child sat and watched the decimation, taking special note in its mind to never ever fight the fearsome looking creatures. If a band of just thirty could destroy a colony of hundreds effortlessly then it probably stood no chance against such creatures. 

Ah well, it looked on the bright side of the encounter, a patch of potentially dangerous creatures had been destroyed and it had learned of an even more terrifying band of fearsome creatures. It continued climbing with the path upwards cleared.

The light that filtered through the branches above grew more and more. The world around it turned from dark blue, to light blue, to slightly yellow and before the child knew it, it was through and there was no more foliage left to block its view. It had reached the top and there were no more branches to climb.

Replacing the browns and greens of trees was a beautiful blue sky, dotted with clouds and at the center of it all was the shining golden son. The sight took the child’s breath away, it had been so long since it had seen it all.

Its gaze wandered from the sky to its surroundings. Its height gave an overview of the world around it. In all directions a sea of green jungle tree leaves surrounded it but in the distance it could just barely make out something different, something unlike it had ever seen but also familiar at the same time. In the distance was a sea of blue, shimmering from the reflection of the sun.

The sight of blue waters reminded the child of its time with the beautiful urn. It had made up its mind, the sea of blue was where it was going to head towards.

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