The entrance to level 12 is a cave with a sign indicating that if we go through it, we'll go to the next level.
Apparently, no adventurers are coming with us.
Entering the cave, the lighting is slowly fading, forcing Rei and me to take our torches.
The place is very silent; only drops dripping from the ceiling hitting the floor can be heard.
Our torches give little light, and we can only see a little ahead of us.
The floor and walls are a little narrow. I have the impression that the slightest noise can echo to the end of the cave.
We just descend, having no idea when we'll enter the next level.
Usually these ''transition'' areas of levels are like this, caves. Usually, the walk in these areas takes about 5 minutes.
As we walk, we change direction and direction, making us lose our sense of direction. I don't know if I'm facing east or not.
After a few minutes of walking, I see a dim light in the distance; it must be level 12.
We walk towards the light, and as we approach, we initially see an entrance in the shape of stones. We pack our torches and head through the entrance.
Passing through it, we can contemplate the vision of level 12.
A dark purple grass characterizes the ground; flowers with lilac petals that are scattered at different points. Looking further ahead, trees with the trunk in a dark brown tone with violet leaves. The trees closely resemble those of level 11, resembling pine trees. Looking at the ceiling, a few white Crystals of Light illuminate the region.
"Okay, apparently we're in the Northwest; the exit is in the Southeast." Reinier says as he opens the bag and takes out the level 12 map.
"Basically, we just walk straight?" I ask.
"That's right." He starts walking while answering me; I follow behind.
As we go through the level, I can see some animals, like frogs, that have little purple dots on their bodies, which are probably poisonous. You can see some snails climbing the trees and some magenta butterflies perched on the flowers.
This place seems to be more alive than level 11. This can be both good and bad.
Suddenly, while we are walking, a noise from our right side occurs. The sound of something walking on the grass.
Is it another adventurer?
I look at Reinier and nod my head, so we can go see what's making the noise.
Rei gives a small sigh with her eyes closed. I head towards the noise, moving silently, Reinier following behind.
Zooming in on the noise, it's kind of hard to pinpoint anything specific since everything is purple in color.
I hide behind a tree and only have part of my head watching.
"You suck at hiding." Reinier whispers as he ducks into a bush.
"I'm certainly invisible."
A silhouette begins to emerge, passing through the trees. A figure that appears to be a monster. Slowly, the lighting lightens the silhouette little by little, revealing it to be a peacock.
It has a head with purple plumage, with a chest with yellow feathers that transition to purple. Its tail is not raised. It has lilac feathers, with some parts having a very strong yellowish color.
The peacock pecks at the purple grass, probably looking for an earthworm.
The animal lifts its head and watches me. Immediately, he opens his tail, showing the beautiful feathers that make it up in shades ranging from purple to yellow.
"Let's go." I say and walk away quickly so as not to disturb the peacock; Reinier follows me.
"I told you were horrible." Rei speaks as we quickly leave the premises.
Walking back through the forest, I see a slightly different tree to my left. While the trees at this level are more like pine trees, having a conical shape, this tree has a more common shape. However, some black balls are stuck in it, possibly fruit.
"Hey, look at that tree." I get Reinier's attention by pointing to the tree.
"Strange."
I head toward her, passing the trees and bushes along the way.
Arriving at it, I notice that these little balls are all over the trunk of the tree, and they seem to be Jabuticabas, a type of round fruit with a sour taste, however sweet.
"It's a Jabuticabeira." Reinier says.
"Did you know?" Normally, Reinier doesn't know absolutely nothing about anything, I was quite surprised that he knew about this type of fruit.
"Yes. In my village, there were several types of fruit, including jabuticaba." He approaches the tree and picks one up.
I take a jabuticaba from the tree. The bark is not exactly black; it is a very dark purple color, which from afar looks black. The bark is also smooth and shiny.
I bite off half of the little fruit. The fruit is extremely juicy, and the taste is acidic at first, but over time, the sweet juiciness of the fruit spreads across the palate. The flesh of it is transparent, and the seed is white as snow.
Reinier eats one of them and takes a few more in his hands; he really likes them.
We walked towards the exit and finally arrived at it.
A large cave leading down; it's not like it's different from the previous level.
We enter this cave, take our torches, and go to the next level.
Entering level 13, basically everything is the same as levels 11 and 12. The only differences that are big is the color of the grass, which glows a silver color, and the color of the leaves on the trees, which also have a silver color, which it even reflects the light a little.
Including, the lighting, this level is better than the previous levels.
One of the animals present at this level are raccoons and Metal Hawks.
Hawks measure at least 1 meter tall (3ft 2) and have shiny, silvery, metal-like plumage.
They nest in the tops of trees and hover over the area in search of prey.
I can also see some squirrels climbing the trees.
If level 12 already had a lot of visible health, this one has even more. Apparently, the amount of animal life increases from level Eleven to Thirteen.
This level is more of the same, nothing different or attention-grabbing.
"Where are we?" I ask Reinier who has the level 13 map in his hand, as we walk through the forest.
"We are in the East; the exit is in the North." He says while looking at the map.
After reaching the entrance to the next level, we enter the transition cave. Halfway there, Reinier takes out an iron bottle containing water, he drinks a little, and offers it to me. I take a sip, and we move on.
Anyway, we see a light at the end of the cave, and we reach level 14. Our progression through the dungeon is being fast.
Passing through the entrance, we see a completely different scenario. Fortunately! I was already tired of only seeing pine trees with different colors.
Although this level also has trees...
The grass here is an ordinary color, but it's a bright green that shows how fertile this land is. The trees are Sakuras and a whole forest of them fills this place; some of them have pink flowers while others have white flowers, but all of them are full of flowers.
The ground around the trees is full of petals that fall from the cherry trees, making the green of the grass mix with the elegant white and pink of the petals.
The ceiling has Crystals of Light that vary from white to a very subtle pink. Many of them are grouped on the ceiling and give the impression of being a watercolor sky, which has the white colors of the clouds together with a delicate pink.
"Thank God, a different landscape; I couldn't bear to see those pines anymore." I speak and walk towards the forest.
"Hey, won't get lost, huh?" Reinier says as he takes the Level 14 map out of his bag. "We're in the Northeast; we need to go west. There's the entrance to the next level."
"Right." I say in a very carefree voice, putting my hands behind my head as I walk.
The climate is very pleasant, neither too hot nor too cold. It's the perfect weather to lie down on the grass and relax.
If we had time, we could find some pond and rest.
Well, they didn't build a Safe Area at that level for one reason: the monsters.
So I can't let the environment fool me into thinking I'm safe, this is still a forest after all.
While we are walking, petals fall from the trees and hit the ground.
"What do you know most about level sixteen?" Rei asks as we walk.
"I've never been this far into the Dungeon so all I know is for others. What I do know is that House Astrid has a Checkpoint there." I answer.
"Checkpoint? Are they crazy to do this in a forest full of bugs?"
"From what I've heard, they do their building in trees, so practically no monsters bother them. Not to mention that House Astrid has a lot of Amazons, so they're already used to living in jungles and forests." I complete.
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