Chapter 8: The Obelisk
(Day 8)
Considering the events of the last day, this one had started pretty good. Yang had finally woken up, and used her points to learn the rest of the engrams for the irrigation network. Her leg was partially healed, but she still had trouble moving it.
They noticed that the bite caused some inner bleedings in the leg, something even Aura couldn't fix easily. Still, after a short examination by Blake, she said that it should be okay soon. In the meantime, they took a stick, and used fiber to put it on her leg. Yang was also using a longer stick to help her walk, since the leg still hurt with every step.
She also calmed down from the revelation that happened the last day. She still had her problems with really accepting their fate, but at least she didn't try to punch anything anymore.
The plan for the day was simple enough. Weiss, Blake and Ruby would travel to the red Obelisk, in hope to find a way home. Yang was to stay in the camp, partially due to her injury, and partially to watch over the base.
The little group was already preparing to depart, and took Baza with them. Yang wanted to use the time to expand their farm.
Waving, they started their journey along the southern shore. They walked along the beach, eventually finding the first river, a place Blake recognized, as this was the place she and Yang killed the Pachy. Now, of course, there was the question as to how they'd get over there.
The river was deep, and they could even see a Megalodon in there. However, they could also see that it got more shallow up the river, and they decided to cross it there.
It worked, and the only thing that actually attacked them were a couple of Piranhas. They noticed that they were on a small outcropping, and walked around another part where the ocean led into the land, and then walked along a cliff.
Eventually, they could see the other, smaller Island to the south, but there was a deep river between them and the Island, cutting them off for now. The four walked up a hill, only to come back down on the other side. Here was a river too, but a lot more shallow. To the north, they could see the swamp. Big, giraffe-like creatures roamed around.
"Weiss? What are those?" Ruby asked, slightly intimidated.
The heiress thought for a moment. "I think it should be a... Paraceratherium."
"Is it, like, some sort of horse?" Blake asked, not as interested as Ruby.
"No, it's a form of prehistoric rhinoceros." They walked through the river. "Part of the prehistoric Megafauna." She looked back at the group of animals, as they ate leaves from a tree. "If we could tame one, maybe we can use it as a mobile base..."
"Weiss? Can we focus on our mission, please?" Ruby asked.
"Right. We are close, aren't we?"
They looked up. They only had to follow this beach, and would already be there. All of them were excited. Even more exciting, after closing in on a small pond, with a waterfall coming from the top of a cliff, they found a new dossier, something they didn't find for a long time.
Weiss opened it, and saw the picture of a Pliosaur. A Liopleurodon.
"Liopleurodon Magicus is a mid-sized ocean predator. Typically between 20 and 25 feet long, it mostly hides within the reefs, trying to ambush prey that swims by. Due to its low acceleration and medium speed, Liopleurodon tends not to chase prey that escape its initial devastation chomp attack. The species on the Island almost seem to be magical."
Weiss bursted out in laughter. "Magic. Right. And I'm a Maiden."
"I don't know, magic could exist." Ruby said.
"What? There is no scientific basis for magic. None at all."
"Says the girl that can create glyphs?" Blake replied, and smirked.
"Aura doesn't count." Weiss coughed in her fist.
"The reptile's skin secretes an oil that, when absorbed through skin contact, makes the rider process oxygen more efficiently for extreme diving. When travelling the ocean for ressources, Liopleurodon will show you the way."
"Why am I thinking that this is a reference we aren't getting?" Ruby asked, more herself than anyone else.
"Neither the fastest swimmer, nor the most powerful ocean predator, Liopleurodon still has its uses for those wanting to stay underwater for extended periods of time. Many tribes use Liopleurodon for long duration oil-and-oyster harvesting trips. Often, those who don't believe in the Liopleurodon's abilities are shunned."
Weiss closed the book, and had to cough from the dust that came out.
"Can I ask something?" Blake asked. "Why would someone collect oil? Isn't that stuff sticky?"
"I think it's flamable, so maybe as weapons, or for lights." Ruby guessed.
"Still, I don't think it's worth to go to the bottom of the ocean for."
They resumed their way towards the Obelisk, and finally reached the massive structure. It was floating above a waterfilled crater, with stone bridges leading up to a platform directly under the monolith. Stones stuck out of the craterrim, and pointed at the Obelisk like giant spikes.
"I think we're here." Ruby muttered.
Jaune was currently making the final preparations for their new goal: Taming a Triceratops. When Nora suggested it, he initially had his doubts.
Knocking something unconscius? Okay, no big deal. Doing that with a dinosaur the size of a van, with giant horns that could impale you effortlessly? That was another story.
But after Ren pointed out some benefits of having such a beast on their side, including its ability to carry a lot of ressources, he was on board. It didn't take long for him to find more advantages of a Triceratops. Defense, felling trees, travelling. Bending one of them to their will was a good idea.
The only problem left was the lack of any methods to actually knock it out. Sure, they had their slingshots, but he doubted their usefulness against a Triceratops. Luckily, Pyrrha had an idea for that. She put some Narcotics on an arrow, and tried it out on a Dodo, knocking it out instantly.
Ren already scouted for one, and found a dinosaur close to the river in the south. It even was alone, meaning that there shouldn't be any others to help it out.
After leaving their valley, they made their way to said animal. It was currently eating some plants from a farn, and seemed oblivious to their presence. All took their bow and an arrow, and took aim.
The arrows hit their goal, and the Trike cried out, before turning towards them. It charged, and the team jumped out of the way. Pyrrha quickly shot another arrow into the creature's waist.
Once again, it turned around, and charged. It concentrated on Nora, who managed to dodge the attack in the last moment, but not before the dinosaur could swing its head around, hitting her, and throwing the girl a couple of meters away.
Another arrow hit it, shot by Ren. It tried to charge at him, but got hit by an arrow from Jaune. It started struggling, and tried one last attack. Pyrrha wasn't able to dodge in time, and ended up between the horns, holding them tight to not fall off.
Meanwhile, Nora had gotten back up, and shot one last arrow. The dinosaur finally collapsed, and caused a deep furrow in the sand.
The four slowly approached the creature, and tried to test out if it was still alive. It was breathing, and had the mouth open. Nora started to feed it berries, while her friends looked around for any unwanted visitors.
Everyone had gathered around the beach at the bottom of the cliff. All of them wanted to see the first test of the raft. Either to cheer when it worked, or to laugh if it sank.
Mercury and Adam proudly presented their 'boat'. A couple of logs, held together by ropes made out of fiber. Adam was standing at the steering wheel, while Mercury was the lookout. As their leader, Cinder had offered herself as Captain. It didn't meet much resistance, and she was standing in the middle of the boat as it left.
As it was riding across the shallow water, and wind was blowing into Cinder's face, she felt something she never felt before: freedom, as if everything that ever concerned her was gone for a moment. It was a great feeling.
To her dismay, it soon stopped, as the boat started to shake.
"What's going on?"
"I think something's..." Before Adam could finish, a giant fish jumped out of the water next to them. It was as big as a Goliath, and had a snow-white body. Its deep, black eyes looked at them, before it went back into the water, and created a giant wave.
The wave brought them closer to the land, and Adam turned the wheel around. They had to get back. Cinder looked back, and saw that the giant fish was behind them, pursuing the three. It was as if a giant whale was trying to kill them for breaking into its territory.
Cinder started to shoot fireballs into the distance, and hoped that it would either help with accelerating, or scare away the fish.
At the beach, their friends were yelling for them to get faster, and the fish tried one last attack. Luckily, they already were in shallow water, and the fish retreated. They went onto land, and catched their breath.
"So, fleeing over the water is out of the question?" Emerald asked.
"As long as this monster is out there, yes." Adam replied. "We have to find a way to take it out."
"And how? You've seen it yourself." Mercury pointed out. "We'd need a warship to kill it."
Adam and Cinder looked at the raft. "Maybe, if we can get a couple of them together, we can built one."
"A warship? To take out a fish?" Roman asked. "Shouldn't our priorities somewhere else?"
Cinder glared at him. "I'm the leader here. Mercury and Adam are going to built one. Everyone else is going to do as we are used to." She walked back up to their camp, and the two mentioned sighed.
"Alright. Let's get to it." Mercury said.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Baza were slowly approaching the Obelisk, or rather the platform below it. It was made out of metal lines, going out from a pedestal in the middle.
Their implants started to glow slightly, and Ruby approached the pedestal. It showed three symbols: A green 'Gamma', a yellow 'Beta', and finally a red 'Alpha'.
"What is this?" She tried to press the Gamma, and ten of the lines started to glow. At the end of them, pedestals rose up from the ground, each one with a different hole in them.
Weiss approached the first one. It had a ring of small, teeth-like holes in it. Eight of the twentyfour holes were opened. The next pedestal had a hatch, with a holographic depiction of an arm above it. Judging by the two fingers, it belonged to a Tyrannosaurus. Next to it was the needed quantity: four.
The next pedestal, this time approached by Blake, had a number of holes in the sides. When she was guessing right, the tallons of a big bird would fit in perfectly. However, like with the first pedestal, some of the holes were closed.
The fourth one had vertebra-shaped holes in the side, and was larger than the other pedestals.
The next one had six holes in form of a tentacle in the side, with only two open.
the other pedestals were different. They all had a unique hole in the top. In fact, they were so unique and presicely crafted, that they were sure that only the right item would fit.
Suddenly, a beeping sound was heard, and they looked into the middle. A text was projected above the pedestal.
"Warning: Insufficent Level detected. Minimal requirements: Level 55. Tributes are to be retrieved, or are lost."
Five seconds later, the pedestals went back into the ground, and a confused silence fell among them.
"What was that?" Ruby broke the silence.
"It seems like some sort of ritual. Maybe to summon something." Weiss said. "And it needs unique ressources. Teeth, vertebra..."
"You mean trophies?" Blake asked.
In Weiss' head, it all started to make sense. "Of course." She opened her implant, and pointed at a small part of the displayed information. "Survival quotient: To be determined. They are trying to test us. I guess that the objects we need are bodyparts of the strongest animals on the Island."
"It'd make sense." Ruby started. "Taking out the strongest things would make us the alphas of the Island."
"Exactly. And then we would be ready to start a final test." She pointed at the middle. "And if we beat that, we might just be able to go back home."
At that moment, they heard a roar. They looked around, until they saw the source: A big theropod, standing at one of the two entrances to the crater. It had a green color, with grey, thick scales across the body. Two horns were above its eyes. And it looked at them.
"Weiss? What is this?" Ruby asked, already intimidated.
"I think it's an Allosaurus." The heiress replied.
Behind the Allo, three more appeared. One was grey, one red and the last one brown.
"Please tell me they don't hunt in packs." Blake said. A pack of Raptors was one thing. But a pack of carnivores, bigger than a full grown Ursa Major was another thing.
"Well, it is a theory that they did. Or do, in that case." Weiss replied. They slowly started to walk backwards, hoping that the animals wouldn't see them.
The biggest of the Allosaurus, the green one, tilted its head, and then let out a bloodcurling, crocodile-like roar, and the pack started sprinting.
The group started to run away as fast as they could, using their semblances to their best. They had to stop, however, as they passed the small waterfall. In front of them was a Sarcosuchus, bathing in the sun. It noticed them, and there was only one way out.
"Quick! Into the water!" Ruby yelled, and they started to cross the river, eventually reaching the Island. They saw how the Allosaurus started to fight the Sarco.
"Do you think we can get back?" Blake asked.
"Sure. We just have to wait until they're done, and then wait until one pisses off. In the meantime..." Weiss turned around, facing the jungle. "Let's explore this little piece of land."
"You think there's anything useful around here?" Ruby asked.
She shrugged. "Probably."
"We should cut it quick though." Ruby replied. "It'd be best if we split up. That way we can find more stuff in less time."
Thus, they all parted ways. Blake was going into the middle of the island, up a hill. Ruby was looking around the western side, while Weiss took the east.
While Team JNPR waited for their Triceratops to wake up again, Pyrrha started to look around the beach, in case there was anything they didn't notice last time they were here.
From time to time, Nora put Narcotics into the dinosaurs mouth, as if it was some sort of paste.
Eventually, Pyrrha came back. and to everyone's surprise, she was holding a booklet in her hand. By its appearence, it was made by someone other than the person that wrote the Dossiers. They gathered around the Triceratops, and Jaune opened the booklet. Inside was a drawn picture of a bearded man.
"Greetings and Salutations, dear reader! If these words are gracing your eyes, then you have had the good fortune to find the journal of Sir Edmund Rockwell, stupendous scholar, gallant gentleman and explorer extraordinare."
"Judging by how he talks, he really is." Ren pointed out.
"Or he's just really old." Nora suggested, and quickly put more Narcotics into the Triceratops.
"It also means that it's entirely possible that I've met some unseemly end on this fascinating but exceedingly dangerous Island that I call home. I suppose you could have also stolen it or I could have misplaced it in which case please proceed to either hang your head in shame or return it to me at once. Whichever is appropriate. Regards, Sir Edmund Rockwell."
"I think his first suspicion was right." Pyrrha said, with sadness in her voice.
"It's sad, you know..." Ren added. "He seems like a good guy."
"He definitely has... had humor." Jaune replied. Speaking about Rockwell made them a bit sad. It was a shame that such an great mind had to go.
"By the way, I thought about something." Ren spoke up. "From the different journals, dossiers and so oe that we've found, only two were in english."
"And?" Nora asked.
"Well, in the other Journal, Rockwell mentioned someone called 'Miss Walker'. What if she's the one who wrote the dossiers?"
"That could be. He said that she was a scientist." Pyrrha pointed out.
They heard rumbling, and turned around. Their new Triceratops had woken up. It shook itself, and looked at them.
"Is... is it ours?" Nora muttered to herself, and took the saddle she was carrying on her back.
The girl put it on the dinosaur's back. Putting it on was more complicated than putting on the one for a Parasaur. Half of the saddle was to be put on the back, while the other half covered the head, with a bar going into the creature's mouth, like with a horse.
As soon as the saddle was on, Nora climbed on the back. It was quite roomy, and could easily carry large amounts of ressources. There was only one problem. Parts of the view were covered by the shield of the creature, meaning that the frontview wasn't that good. But that was easily fixable with either someone walking along, or putting something on the saddle as a pillow.
Jaune walked up to the head of the dinosaur. "Welcome to the team, uhm..."
"Right. It needs a name." Pyrrha said, and started to think. "What about Aryl?"
"Aryl? Does it have any meaning?" Ren asked.
"I think it's a shade of yellow, but other than that, no. I just think it sound good."
"Alright." Jaune petted the head of the Triceratops. "Welcome to the team, Aryl."
The Parasaur was quietly eating his ferns. It was a peaceful day, without any rain or other unwanted events. A perfect day to eat ferns at the beach.
That was until it happened. Before it could react, a Raptor jumped out of the foliage, and clawed into the herbivore's side. It's claws dug deep into the hide. Eventually, the Parasaur managed to shake the monster off, and tried to run. A senseless effort, as it collapsed from massive bloodloss. The last thing it saw was the snout of the Raptor, and the head of a pink and brown haired girl.
Neo petted Amra on the side, and smiled. The Raptor was a perfect companionto hunt with. Obviously, it was a vicious predator after all.
"Well, it works." Roman said, as he walked out of the bushes. He went hunting with her, since he needed a break from the others. And time alone with her was a rare thing in the last week. He tried to pet the Raptor too, but the dinosaur let out a lizard-like bark, and he took his hand back. "But the hide isn't in good shape."
Neo nodded. It worked great for getting meat, but when they needed hide, they'd have to rely on weaponry, or maybe dinosaurs that didn't rip apart half of the prey. She grabbed the tail of the dead dinosaur, and Roman took a leg. Together, they started to drag the body back to their base. To their surprise, the dinosaur actually bit into the Parasaur, and helped them.
"Those things are clever." Roman stated. "So, what do you think of the situation?"
She shrugged.
"What? You don't care?"
The girl shook her head.
"Neo, sometimes you're a miracle. Even to me."
After an hour of searching, Ruby and Weiss regrouped on the beach at the river. Both found useful stuff, mostly dossiers, and a scroll.
"Should we read them now? Or back home?" Ruby asked.
"I think reading them with Yang is a good idea." Weiss started to look around, searching for her other teammate. "Now where the hell is..."
As if she heard her, Blake left the jungle, together with Baza. The pockets of Blake and the dinosaur were full with... something.
"I guess you found something too?" Weiss said.
"You could say so." Blake replied, and smiled as if someone just gave her a giant box of tuna.
"What did you find?" Ruby asked, and Blake opened one of th bags on Baza. They saw that it was full of green leafes.
"Please tell me this isn't some sort of drug."
"Well, not exactly. It's tea."
The eyes of them widened. "Where did you find it?"
"In the middle of the island, near the ruins of a house. I took as much as I could carry."
"How many did you take exactly?" Weiss asked.
"Let's put it like that: If tea grows only here, then I just drove a species to extinction."
The heiress facepalmed. "Goddammit."
"Can we just get back home?" Ruby asked, and looked over the river. "I don't see the Allosaurus anywhere. Or the Sarco."
"Let's go then." Blake said.
Yang had a quiet, peaceful day. She had finished the irrigation system early on, catched herself some breakfast, and then relaxed for the rest of the day. And it was needed. After the revelations of yesterday, Yang had all those questions on her mind.
Who send them here? Why were they here? Was there any way to get back home? And she didn't know the answer to any of them. But while keeping it quiet, she was able to clear out her mind a bit.
Still, she was more than happy when her friends came back. For some reason, she had this feeling all the time. As if she was being watched. And when no one was around, that was more than unsettling.
"Did you find anything?" She asked.
"Yep." Ruby smiled. "We found a couple of Dossiers, a scroll and a lot of tea."
She put the dossiers down into a pile, and took the first one out. Inside the book was the picture of a giant pterosaur, like she'd seen two days ago.
"From afar, it's hard to believe that Quetzalcoatlus is one of the largest avians on the Island."
"Wrong." Weiss interrupted. "It's not an avian, it's a Ptero-"
"Weiss, can you just let me read?" Ruby asked, and continued.
"It shares a similiar silhouette with the Pteranodon, and nests near the absolute highest peaks. Upon closer inspection, though, Quetzalcoatlus is an enormous creature of tremendous power. I find it strange that such a large, imposing beast would be so skittish. Unlike other creatures of its size, it is more likely to flee than fight. I suppose the decision to flee from any trouble keeps the species alive on an island with so many dangerous predators. But then how does it eat enough to sustain itself?"
"Well, according to the fossils that were found, they salvaged already dead animals." Weiss pointed out.
"Tamed Quetzalcoatlus have a very specific role on the Island. Too slow to be an efficient local transport, and too weak to be an effective warbird, the tribes I have encountered tend to employ it as a mass carrier. Quetzalcoatlus is primarily used by these masters of the skies to safely carry vast quantities of supplies, creatures and human cargo from one base to another without tiring."
"So, it's like a flying freighter?" Yang asked.
"I guess." Ruby closed the book. "I think it'd be a longterm goal. Now, on to the next one." She took the next book, and opened it. There was a picture of a giant fish inside. Judging by the relative size of the humans next to it, this thing was as big as a whale.
"Leedsichthys conviviumbrosia is probably the largest fish in the waters around the Island. Its meat is also extremely succulent, a surprise given its size. It is often traded with the same value as Prime Meat, and colloqually called 'Prime Fish'. Of course, not all of Leedsichthys' meat is this high quality, but most of it is! While the demand for Leedsichthys meat is high, the fish is notoriously difficult to track and hunt. Between its large size, powerful attacks, incredible speed (when it turns to flee), and humankind's general inaptitude on open water, actually killing a Leedsychtis is one of the Island's more difficult tasks. The hunt for an extremely elusive breed of the fish, the fabled 'Great Albino', Leedsichthys has been known to drive otherwise sensible men and women mad with obsession, as if all evil were visibly personified and made practically assailable in this one creature."
"I can't think of anyone who'd go mad about killing this thing." Weiss muttered. "I mean, it isn't even worth it, for a bit of fish."
Meanwhile, somewhere else on the Island, Cinder was working with Mercury and Adam to make a plan with which they could take down a giant, white fish.
"Right." Ruby replied.
"Despite its large size, and the fact that it may well be strong enough to carry heavy loads, Leedsichthys does not appear to be intelligent enough to tame. Never the less, some large tribes keep an enormous pen with a few Leedsychtis trapped inside for cultivating purposes, as bits of Prime Fish can be repeatedly scraped off the gargantuan beast without killing it!"
"Now, that might be an option." Blake pointed out. "The river to the west is pretty deep. Maybe we can use it for that."
"That's a great idea." Yang replied. "By the way, did you find out anything at the Obelisk?"
"Well, it seems like we can summon something there, using the right ingredients."
"Summon? Ingredients? Yeah, no. I'm not going to deal with any sort of magic or alchemy." Yang held her arms up.
"Can I read the next one? We can talk about that later." Ruby said, and everyone agreed.
She took the next book, which looked more noble than the dossiers. Inside was a drawn picture of a brain, and text, written in a hard to read font.
"The wondrous properties of the flora on this Island will never cease to amaze me. If I'd told my colleagues in London that I could create a concoction capable of erasing someone's memories, I'd be laughed out of the room and never invited to tea again."
"Hold up. Where is London?" Weiss asked.
"Uhm, I dont know." Ruby replied. "Maybe close to Atlas? Or Mantle?"
"Trust me. There has never been a place called London close to the kingdom." Weiss assured her. "But if he mentions colleagues, then it must've had an university."
"Just... let me continue. Maybe there's more in here."
"Yet here it sits, my Mindwipe Tonic. As usual, I've had tribal leaders grovelling at the gates of Rockwell Manor just for the tiniest of samples, and for the recipe? Oh the bounties I've been offered! I'm not interested in their riches though. I have their protection, supplies for my studies and all the time in the world. What more could I ask for?"
"Someones happy to stay in this hellhole." Yang muttered.
"Considering his position, being on this Island was probably the best option for him." Weiss said. "And he had a manor. The one thing I miss about Atlas."
"I just realized something." Blake said. "I found his writings inside of a massive ruin. Maybe that was his manor. If he was a florist, which it sounds like, it would explain the massive amounts of tea around the thing."
"It's possible." Ruby replied. "Was there anything else?"
"Not really. Even the box it was stored in was overgrown." The Faunus explained, and started to 'unpack' the tea she brought along.
"Great. What is the last one?" Weiss took the scroll, and opened it, before realizing that it was completely useless. It was written in a strange, foreign language. Frustrated, she threw it on the ground. "We're never going to find out anything this way." She said, and walked off into their house.
Ozpin was sitting inside of his makeshift office in the Amity Colloseum, from which he could oversee the work done in the arena. Currently, there wasn't much to do. He had to wait for Winter to get the list ready, so that SSSN and CVFY could jump into action. He just hoped that the specialist would work faster. There wasn't much time, and the Headmaster was sure that Salem had already made her first move in the shadows.
But the quitness up here was something he appreciated, since it gave him time to think. For that reason, he hated it being interrupted.
Something that was happening right now, as Qrow opened the door.
"Oz, there's someone here who wants to see you."
"Let him in." Ozpin was surprised, as a teammate of Qrow entered the room, pretty angry.
"Ozpin. Where. Are. My. Daughters." He said, and let his fist down on the plastic table, which instantly snapped in two.
"Mister Xiao Long. Please, take a seat." Ozpin said, and stared at Qrow.
"Hey, you know how angry he can get. You think I want to face that alone?" The drunk replied, and drank from his flask.
The headmaster sighed, and sat down. "To be honest, we don't know. But our current speculation is that they've been obducted by Aliens." He said, trying to stay as calm as possible.
"Aliens? Stop bullshitting me. Where are they?"
"I just told you. I can assure you, our best scientists are currently working on a way on getting them back. And we're close to opening a rift."
He swore that Taiyang's mood changed from angry and devastated to hopeful. "A rift?"
"Yes. A portal, if you want. To the place they have been teleported too. We've just cracked the coordinates, and are currently building a machine able to open a rift." He looked Taiyang into the eyes. "You can help us, if you want."
The father thought for a second. "If there's any hope of getting them back, I'll take it. Did you already inform the other parents?"
Ozpin nodded. "I did. It was quite easy for Miss Valkyrie and Mister Ren, considering that they are orphans. The parents of Miss Nikos and Mister Arc already know about the circumstances too, and have assured us every help they can offer. The parents of Miss Belladonna were a bit more... difficult. But I was able to reach out to them." He smiled. "I can gladly confirm that Menagerie is helping us out with ressources."
"I hope this works, Oz. Or else, Beacon needs a new headmaster." Taiyang said, and stomped out of the room, leaving Ozpin and Qrow alone.
"That worked better than expected." Qrow said. "I hoped he'd rip you a new one, but well."
And Chapter 8 is up, which marks the beginning of the second act, which mostly deals with remnant trying to get them back, and the survivors trying to get used to their new home.
Before anyone asks: Yes, the new engram system has fucked up a lot of stuff. But I already have a solution: Until LvL 20, I will use the old system, and then the new one. For the engrams that are now below LvL 20, like the Trike Saddle, it will be moved up to Level 20.
Now to replies:
Omega09: Uhm, it didn't eat her. And Team RWBY already met a Raptor. It wasn't the last one though.
Daozang: Well, that was the first idea, but considering their size and the dossier, it'd make sense that Leedsychtis are rare. Also, that way, Team RWBY wouldn't have survived.
Jimmy331: It wasn't Rockwell, but Mei-Yin Li. However, they won't find it, for two reasons:
1. It is part of the preview notes, and thus not canon. Just as respawning, which is just a game mechanic.
2. Respawning would take away from the whole survival aspect.
RWBY belongs to Rooster Teeth; Ark: Survival Evolved belongs to Wildcard Studios.