"Moss Golem," I confirmed. "And it's fresh. Less than an hour."
"It's big," Emily noted, measuring the print with her hand. "Bigger than the textbook says."
"Maybe it's a variant?" Martin suggested nervously. "Should we... go back?"
"We're here for the Core," I said, standing up. "We follow it."
We tracked the beast for another hour. The forest grew darker, the trees twisting into unnatural shapes. The air grew heavy with the scent of ozone and rot.
Finally, we reached a clearing.
In the center stood a massive stone ruin—an old shrine overtaken by nature. And guarding it was our target.
The Moss Golem.
But it was wrong.
Normal Moss Golems were about three meters tall, made of gray stone and green moss.
This thing was five meters tall. Its stone body was black, pulsating with purple veins. The moss covering it wasn't green; it was a sickly, glowing red.
[System Warning: Boss Detected.][Target: Mutated Venom-Golem (Level 15).][Danger Level: High.]
