Clicker System

This was the first time in the tutorial land that Tang Gon felt relatively safe and at home, but it was still too early to relax. There was still that constant presence that would follow from behind and disappear from time to time. Thinking back, this seemed to be the first time that it disappeared for so long.

It might have been the water being so pure and untainted that it somehow pushed back the unknown. However, this was of no major concern to Tang Gon as he stared at the creature coming out of the water. Naturally, Tang Gon stepped far back from the edge of the water the instant he realized the size of the monstrosity.

It was still several meters off the sh.o.r.e and was only staring upwards at Tang Gon from an angle underneath, but just by size judgment alone, it had to have been several meters long. It looked around and seeing that Tang Gon had already noticed, did not bother to continue hiding.

It showed no intention to harm anyone but given the calculating look, it gave when the two crossed eyes, Tang Gon knew that it was better to stay further away. It was an ancient monster that had to have some level of intelligence. The two sides continued to stare at each other, but once the creature realized that Tang Gon was adamant in not approaching, it sank to the bottom of the lake. Once again, the surface of the waters became silent and calm, but there was no question that it was still there.

Tang Gon had inspected the creature when it first appeared, but the system was still not cooperating. All it showed him was a name and a small description, though this was probably the most it had ever given.

[Crystal Gator - Youngling - Minor Breed]

[Crystal Gators are an independent breed of hunters typically found in waters inhabited by Chrysanthemum Core Flowers and Acrylic Wind Sh.e.l.ls. Adult Crystal Gators are known to be hostile and extremely territorial both in waters and on land. However, younglings are found in groups of twenty to one hundred with several adults nearby forming a pack. These gators spend most of their time hibernating and the rest on the swim and hunting for prey.]

Once Tang Gon finished reading all of the descriptions, he knew that the gator and the current situation he found himself in was dangerous. A youngling was already twice his size with enough power to have him for any meal. This was only a youngling and based on the description the system gave, Tang Gon knew that there had to be several more nearby.

This was only a small part of the tutorial land that Tang Gon explored, but already he could tell that anywhere in the land was dangerous. This was the literal wildlife and the most dangerous area the system had brought him to so far.

Luckily, Tang Gon was cautious and did not enter too far into the lake to get surrounded by several of these monsters. Not to mention that the gator was still young and was more curious of Tang Gon than hungry. This could be considered as a narrow escape by Tang Gon from start to finish. In fact, this event of escaping the monster could all be attributed to a combination of both lucky and disastrous factors coincidently set up by Tang Gon.

For starters, there was the fact that Tang Gon would inspect everything the instant he entered the new tutorial area. The [Inspect] function provided by the system did not work on any of the fog and other landmarks, but it did for this area of the tutorial. Since entering the tutorial, Tang Gon had realized that there were times that Inspect did not work, but there were also times that the use of Inspect had saved his life, this happened to be one of the latter time.

There were so many factors on Tang Gon"s side this time, but who knew what would happen the next time. Some of these things could just snap him from behind and without any prior knowledge, Tang Gon knew he would be dead.

The things that saved him this time was the flowers. Thinking back on it, Tang Gon was relieved that he experimented as much as he did. For starters, there were the chrysanthemum core flowers that Tang Gon threw into the water and watched as they spread out. He saw that these flowers would separate from the root and float while the root would latch onto the rocks underneath and grow to be vines in a matter of seconds.

Tang Gon had seen this firsthand and as a result, threw handfuls of flowers into the lake for fun. The flowers would float and latch onto the bottom of the lake, but whenever there was an influx of roots, the flowers would float further from the sh.o.r.e and then grow the vines.

Tang Gon had even inspected the flowers earlier, but there were two contrasting descriptions with the first describing the Gold Core Flowers and the second being the water leeches.

[Chrysanthemum Core Flowers]

[Chrysanthemum Core Flowers are wild medicinal herbs that produce a sickly sweet scent to attract nearby animals for hosting. These types of flowers unroot and carry themselves to the water"s edge when hitting maturity. The flowers are relatively harmless, but lose their ability to produce when separated from the roots.]

[Parasitic Water Lilies]

[Parasitic Water Lilies is a secondary form of the Chrysanthemum Core Flowers. These flowers breed rapidly in the water on the condition that petals of the Chrysanthemum Core Flower are present. These lilies are trappers that bait animals with cores before lashing out and binding themselves to the opportunist.]

He had also inspected the sh.e.l.ls that produced the wind underneath, but these were more mysterious and had fewer details and descriptions.

[Acrylic Wind Sh.e.l.ls]

[Acrylic Wind Sh.e.l.ls are simple sh.e.l.l-based life forms that produce freezing gusts of wind from under the water. As a result, the environment near the sh.e.l.ls have short calming water with strong underwater currents.]

This was nothing major and could be ignored since there were already underwater vines and floating flowers. The superfluous details about the sh.e.l.ls and the secondary life forms could be ignored for the moment.

The thing that saved Tang Gon was that when he threw more of the flowers in, the vines became dense and overlapped themselves to create a barrier reef in the water.

This could be said to be part of the natural environment in the waters near the lake. The flowers acted as the habitat and nursery when forming the reefs and vines that protected the young critters. At the same time, the flowers would attract predators and use them as hosts to spread further out to sea.

However, when Tang Gon started skipping rocks and throwing them out to hit the flowers, the territory of the vines expanded. The rocks were the energy source and stable ground for the flowers and by throwing them out further to sea, Tang Gon created a bed of vines that expanded further outwards.

Typically, the area around the lake was peaceful and calm, but with the movements made by Tang Gon and the expansion of the vines, the peaceful nursery expanded to include everything in the Crystal Gator"s territory. This just so happened to catch the attention of a youngling, the one that happened to be the one that Tang Gon saw.

The flower was what originally drew the attention of the creatures living in the lake, but it was the constant splashes made by the rocks that Tang Gon threw out along with the rapid expansion of vines that attracted the creature to Tang Gon. However, once the creature swam to the shallow waters near Tang Gon, the petals would all be moved and the movement would have been caught by Tang Gon. Not only that, but the creature also seemed to only have been drawn over by curiosity.

Similarly, because it was a youngling, it was rather well taken care of and fed. These helped Tang Gon escape the monster. Tang Gon could only run away, it would be smart to tame the monster, but with what. It would already be lucky for him to not be tamed by the older monsters much less hope for something like this to happen.

As a result, Tang Gon could only continue his journey and soon the lake disappeared while a forest replaced it.