... Just for things to get even more chaotic. Being a jungle, the air here is filled with a sticky wetness and an uncomfortable heat, even before accounting for the many raging fires and toxic fumes. Just above him, the I-aught can see what seems to have enraged the Stevari, that being a variety of green, spider-like creatures, with spherical bodies and many eyes: the Lukki. Moving downwards, he begins exploring.
Immediately, the foes present in this place are significantly stronger than any before. Larger Hiisi variants, firing explosive mines and poison-laden projectiles, the aforementioned Lukki, giant flying insects, and aggressive plant life, firing out globs of acid or bursting into a toxic mess when disturbed. They are all notably durable, requiring significant usage of the lightning bolt, something that he cannot entirely complain about due to the highly satisfying manner that the leg segments of the Hiisi go flying in when felled by such an explosion. The large, cavernous "rooms" of this area make dealing with combinations of the above essentially guaranteed, resulting in a variety of threats to encounter around every corner, not exactly aided by the flammability of this place constantly making it even more open,
Being somewhat lead eastwards by the natural placement of passages, the I-aught eventually comes across a wall of heavy rock, found before, but below he can see it replaced with a different type of rock entirely. Moving down, he finds the entrance to a large side cave, chocked by a large, cool rock. Shattering the front portion of the rock, it rolls backwards into the cave, hitting a large object in the center: an... egg? A large, mottled thing emitting a sizeable warmth, sturdy enough to stand on without any obvious structural instabilities. Floating above the egg, the I-aught fires a few lightning bolts down into the same space upon it, to see what happens. This results in a large divet in the egg, revealing it to be solid on the inside, prompting him to move closer in to see if he's simply missing something.
Closing in on the egg, the warmth grows more intense, and as he steps in, something shifts in the center of the egg! Suddenly, a bright orange mass emerges from inside and rapidly moves up the opening creating, narrowly avoiding the I-aught as he quickly backs out. The thing, Suomuhauki or "Dragon" despite being very worm-like, flies up into the ceiling of the cave, digging through the heavy stone with great ease. For a moment, it almost seems to be leaving before suddenly rushing back down at speed directly towards him, belching a gout of flames from its great maw. Narrowly avoiding the dragon itself, he is tagged by a small, firey bolt projected from it's tail, dealing, frankly, insignificant levels of damage. Taking to the air to aid evasive maneuvers, he lets loose several bolts of lightning as the dragon shows itself again, eventually killing it after several passes, partially bursting into a spray of blood as a wand and a spell fall to the ground. The wand is quite capable, a fitting reward for the task performed, and the spell...
"Nuke Orbit"...
Not ******* with that for the moment beyond picking it up to avoid it falling into the hands of any aggressors, the I-aught exits the cave and begins moving westward. The hostile nature of this jungle makes navigation rather slow and treacherous, although the normally slowing slime that leaks from many places is not an issue as it would otherwise be, but eventually an oddity is stumbled across. In about the center of this place, almost directly underneath the Holy Mountain, is another Fungal Cavern. After some explanation, though, it does not appear notably different from the one encountered in the Coal Pits, and is moved past. Much further west, an entirely new area appears, nestled in around the middle of the dense rock wall: the Lukki Lair. It is an overbearingly dark pit of a place, the very ground and stone blacked and purple to accompany a thick blackness that fills the tunnels, with massive pools of an ominous, shifting liquid taking the place of water. And then there are the things here: headless Lukki, nothing but legs connected to a single center point; floating, morphing bubbles of darkness that are almost impossible to harm and bleed the aforementioned liquid; a variety of masters, wizards; a mechanical drone, hidden behind three strong layers of shielding, that grants a similar energy shield to those around it and even makes them outright unable to suffer damage, as though they were under the effects of ambrosia; and the worst of all by a hilarious margin, the Kammolukki, toothy spiders, massive Lukki with buzzing, sawing maws of horrid teeth, even more eyes, and a curious immunity to a vast majority of harm. The Boundary Breaker states that damage from explosives and projectiles is less than useless, as it actually heals these things.
But, counter-strategies can be made. Finding a spell known as "Freezing Gaze", which fires a great many projectiles that, for whatever reason, do not respond to the Kammolukki's healing-from-damage, is a godsend, allowing that great danger to be entirely circumvented. However, the Varjokupla are still significant issues, and a small pack accompanied by two masters completely pushes the I-aught away from the lair, although he did manage to eat much of a deceased Kammolukki, granting him its absurd resilience, and a Varjokupla he managed to fell, revealing the secret of its evasiveness. Essentially, rather than moving much on its own, it will fire a copy of itself from nothing that cannot be damaged while moving, as attacks simply fly clear through it. Despite the great dangers that almost took the I-aught down with them, he now has a great array of defenses to traverse the Jungle with. In fact, he discovers that, likely due to the Varjokupla, he is now immune to the poison of the Hiisi, which is itself simply the liquid from the lair and was presumably collected from there, and that his touch is immensely damaging to other beings, wracking them with a venomous harm that barely damages their actual body but undoubtedly tears at their mind with agony.
But, alas, progress needs to be made, and shortly thereafter the I-aught finds the Holy Mountain, entering the portal. While he does not need the rejuvenating heart, as he recovered much of his lost vigor by simply allowing Hiisi to shoot him, he takes it nonetheless, out of habit. In the perk room, he spots the lower edge of a Stevari's shield and wand, but simply walks in, entirely visible. Through his newfound resilience, the Stevari is entirely unable to move or harm him, only occasionally putting a slight fire to his robes, with even it's melee swipes not even ruffling his clothing, allowing him crush it's skull with ease. Then, he glances over at the selection of perks: "Explosion Immunity", "Oil Blood", "Pinpointer", and "Close Call." As Explosion Immunity would be redundant, and he already possesses a pinpointer, and does not wish to sully his robes with oil, he takes Close Call, noting that the other perks are still present. Rerolling, they are replaced with "Perk Lottery", "Fire Immunity", and "More Blood." Without hesitation, he takes the second Perk Lottery, the annoyance of the prior occurrence of this still fresh, as the other perks remain, with him taking Fire Immunity as the final perk disappears. Replacing the triplicate bolt in his wand for a more damaging spell, a Giant Spitter Bolt, and placing his lightning bolt and associated modifiers on a faster wand some some supporting modifiers for ease of use, he confidently leaps the tunnel out of the Holy Mountain and into The Vault...
