Upon waking up, Atlas was dazed for a second, not realizing where he was. He had just experienced the most perfect dream, yet he couldn't grasp the details of what occurred within it.
Pushing himself up, he stood and began to stretch lightly. Atlas was going to travel a significant distance, and he also had to be at battle-ready condition upon arrival.
Atlas jogged in place upon the mushroom thinking about how he should return to the area he came from.
On one hand, Atlas could run or walk on the ground. While it was faster, it also left him vulnerable to attack from terrestrial beasts.
Furthermore, groups of shorter mushrooms that allowed him to scale up to the tallest caps were sparse or exclusive, as he had seen only one during his stay here.
On the other hand, Atlas could trek across the top of the fungal forest, hopping from mushroom tree to mushroom tree. It was much slower, but it would provide Atlas with the following advantages.
First of all, it simply allowed him to stay safe from any wandering beasts on the ground. Also, Atlas could sleep or rest whenever he wished.
Secondly, it allowed Atlas to set an ambush and surprise a beast from above if need be. This was something essential to the plan he had developed over the past few days to take down a spirit beast.
However, even though the main advantage of this plan was that it supposedly protected Atlas from attacks by spirit beasts, that wasn't completely true.
Atlas still remembered the screech he had heard, which he was 99% sure belonged to a bird. He was sure that if that thing wanted to kill him, there was nothing he could do.
Then, Atlas laughed. "What's life without a little risk?" He said as his laughter died down.
Atlas began to jump from mushroom to mushroom. His pace was slow, but he valued his safety a great deal more.
After one hour, he sat down and rested, even though he wasn't tired. Atlas wished to be in absolute optimal condition if he needed to ambush a beast.
When fifteen minutes had passed, he got back and began to travel once more.
While Atlas was returning to Area 1, as he deemed it, he noticed that some of the trees in the distance were shaking.
Atlas continued heading in that direction. As he reached the site of the swaying mushrooms, he crouched down and peered over the edge.
Below him fought two beasts, both of which he had never seen before.
One was a humongous bear, easily 9 feet long. Even on all fours, it was at least 5 feet tall. It was an absolute monster, with pure muscle rippling beneath its grey fur.
On the opposite side was a beast smaller than the bear, but still massive. It was a serpent, around 15 feet long, with a mottled orange and yellow hide and bright yellow eyes, and it had bright yellow horns the size of daggers. Furthermore, its body was as thick as a sewage pipe.
As of now, the bear was winning, but the fight was a close one. In a sprint, strength, and durability contest, the bear would win ten times out of ten. However, it could not react in time to the snake's explosive attacks.
Atlas theorized that poison was also in play here, otherwise, the snake would not have lasted so long. If it weren't venomous, the bear would have simply tanked its bites and would not approach the snake as warily as now.
Despite that, the snake had still sustained significantly more injuries, with huge claw and bite marks covering it.
The clash between the two shook the ground, causing the surrounding vegetation to tremble. Atlas was, in fact, incredibly impressed.
Both creatures moved at speeds that should not have been possible for beings of their size, completely disobeying the laws of physics.
The bear walked steadily towards the serpent, growling. The serpent raised its head and hissed threateningly at the bear, but because of its pathetic state, it was hard to take it seriously.
As the bear nearest it, the serpent lunged out in one last attempt, but the bear easily countered the feeble attack, pinning the serpent's neck to the ground with its paw.
The serpent began to hiss in distress and thrash violently, but the bear was not fazed. It applied more force to the snake's neck, while the latter flailed erratically.
CRACK
The gray bear crushed the reptile's windpipe, making an audible crack, and the serpent went completely still as life faded from its body.
Atlas was exhilarated. If he could grab even anything that remained of the snake after the bear had its way with it, it would make his life exponentially easier.
'I also saw a patch of shorter mushrooms in the distance,' he thought with excitement, grinning silently. Finally, some things were going well for him!
Atlas continued watching the scene play out. The bear tore away the snake's scales before ravenously eating the creature's body.
After five minutes of eating, nothing remained of the snake except patches of scales, the yellow horns, the shattered skeleton, and its blood, all of which were strewn across the ground.
Then, the bear raised its head to the heavens and let out a booming roar, which Atlas speculated was a celebration of its victory or a show of dominance.
Either way, Atlas was barely holding in his giddiness. All of the sparse remains of the snake were more than enough for him!
He could tie the scales together to make armor, use a piece of bone as a weapon, and the horns surely had an alchemical usage!
The bear lowered its head before turning around and walking in a certain direction.
Atlas hurriedly began heading towards the shorter mushroom he spotted earlier. If he let this opportunity slip by him, he would never forgive himself!
Hopping down to the ground using the smaller cap, he sprinted to the site of the snake's death as fast as he could.
Atlas wanted those materials!