240 Purple grass

The decision about which side of the mountain they wanted to track up was inconclusive as half the students wanted to go up one side, while the other half wanted to go up the other side. They discussed the option of doing just that, sending half the group up each side of the mountain.

But after seeing how effective they were as a single unit against a powerful beast, they felt that it was best to keep everyone together in one powerful group, just in case something similar happened again.

So eventually, they started to travel up on the left side of the mountain. Del had made the final decision and was ordering the group around. But curiously he wasn't the one that was leading at the front of the group, instead some of the stronger teams had their own individual front liner.

Del had made some type of excuse claiming that he was the only one able to use the communicator to contact the sergeants. What if he disappeared? If that happened, the sergeants would have no clue where they were, and no way to find them.

But this was actually a lie!

The sergeants didn't have a clue where Del's class was. They only knew that they had sent out a distress signal, and knew the location that call was made from, but couldn't actively track the class now they had moved from the initial point of the distress call.

The scanners had been turned on again. They would still record points and work as long as they were within a 200-meter radius of Del. Even though the scanners still provided each student with points for their team. There was no fierce competition anymore.

The class had decided to stay close together, and no one was venturing far away from their team or far from the whole group.

While scanning new items, the scanner would still do the same, but the sense of competition just wasn't there anymore. The reason why Del had turned the scanners back on, was because they were good tools at finding out what was around them.

Whether there were dangerous plants or precious ores���

But the primary reason for Dell to turn on the scanners was to detect beasts and their levels, while those beasts were still far away from the group.

If they came across another beast and it was too powerful for their group to handle, Del didn't even dare to imagine the number of casualties. If this was to happen it would be a disaster, the number of students that wouldn't be able to come back with them to the military camp would be unimaginable.

The group progressed slowly and eventually, the slope started to level out. They could still see the large wall and the ground behind them, so they found it a little strange.

Usually, any mountains had a lot of ridges with levelled and inclined ground, so this mountain seemed strange.

The open field was long and still very green like most of the jungle so far. With plants here and there, but there was a lot more open space. They were higher in elevation now, but they were still unable to see the top of the mountain from below.

One of the more curious students went over to the edge and looked down. Even though they could still see the part of the jungle where they made their last stand against that beast previously, they were unable to see where they had started from, there was no sign of the beginning nor of the shelter.

Depending which direction Del had lead them from the camp, the only way for them to see the shelter or where they once came from was to climb to a high enough point, so they could see the area around them in a bird's eye view.

But the slightly inclined ground they were on looked like it could go on for miles and the only way left to get higher up the mountain was to scale it using their hands and feet. However that wouldn't be possible if the group wanted to stay together.

The students started to walk around to see if there were any other option to scale the mountain, or if they could see the shelter from the other edges of the mountain.

"Maybe it's best if we just head back down. Going up the mountain might be more dangerous than roaming around down there." Layla said.

"I agree. Also, it doesn't look like Del really knows what he is doing," Vorden replied.

Del was currently just standing in the middle, looking up at the mountain to his right and down the sloped path from where they had come from. In the middle of their exploration though, three clear and distinctive dings were suddenly heard.

The students all turned to where the sound came from as it indicated that a beast had been discovered by the scanner. When looking at the student whose scanner had gone off, it looked like there wasn't even anything around him.

"What did you discover?" Del said as he started to walk over to the student.

The student pointed at a purple blade of grass on the floor. When walking up the slope there were patches of grass here and there. Most of the grass was green in colour but once in a while, they could see some purple coloured stalks of grass.

Nearly all of the students decided to ignore it, as it seemed just like an odd thing with nothing else interesting about it. But when they felt bored of their exploration, this particular student decided to give it a scan anyway to relieve some of his boredom.

But to his surprise, the scanner said that he wasn't holding a plant, but it was actually a beast.

When Del snatched the scanner from the student, a dark expression appeared on his face, "An intermediate beast, this little thing? How can that be possible?"

The purple shade of grass was the same size as all the other pieces of grass. It seemed impossible for there to be a beast crystal inside. The students were not actively looking at the grass around them, but now they noticed that there were a few more single strands of purple grass every so often sticking up from the grasses surrounding them.

Just as they had noticed this, a few drops of water from the sky started to land onto the ground and onto the faces of the students.

"Is it starting to rain?" Layla asked. "That's just great, we might have to try to find some cover."

But Quinn was interested in the beast. If it was another new type and if he found a way to defeat it before anyone else. He would gain a large amount of Exp once again.

He bent down and looked closer at the blade of grass.

[Inspect]

[Intermediate beast: Dumping Bait Beast]

[The top of the beast's head can often seem like a blade of grass. While most of its body remains underground. The beast cannot move, but when the rain comes it will sprout from underneath.]

After reading the message, the rain started to get heavier around them. Just like with the boulder snails from before, it seemed that the beast was also active in the rain.

And right now, they were experiencing their first bit of rain since coming to the place.

Quinn immediately started to look around him and noticed many of the students were looking at the purple blade of grass. There were nearly as many blades of grass as the students.

In a way, it seemed that a small army of intermediate beasts was about to pop out from under the ground. Perhaps this would be even more troublesome than the advanced tier beasts.

As a single raindrop fell on the purple shade of grass, it suddenly started to shake and the ground around started to vibrate as well.

"What the hell, is going on here?" Fex said

"Guys! Get away from the purple grass!" Quinn shouted to his teammates. "Let's head back down the slope."

As Quinn said these words, a two-meter tall purple plant appeared behind him. Its body was as thick as a tree, and its head was as wide as a car. On top of its head was the strand of grass that could now barely be seen on top of the giant plant-like beast.

"Quinn!" Layla shouted as the plant dived down.

But it was too late, the large plant had swallowed Quinn whole.

*****

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