volume 1 - Chapter 32 (2/2)

“We had best send out some people in advance, Lord Kabias.”

“Hmph, I know what to do even without you telling me. We undead have a stronger reaction to magic. When you become a Lich, you are free to teach me.”

Rothko smiled again.

………………………………………………………………………..

Brendel brought Freya and Romaine out from a crack from the wall. He gestured for them to stop, and he looked outside to take everything within the valley into his eyes. In the depressed grounds that were filled with gray boulders, a huge golden tree with healthy leaves stood quietly in the center of the valley.

[This is the Forbidden Garden.]

The Golden Demonic Tree had absorbed the nutrients from the land and the surrounding mana. The earth had became barren and lost the Earth Element. Brendel raised his head, the sky was gloomy and dark, as if black clouds were gathering above them. This was also due to the unnatural balance of the elements.

As the Earth Element has been completely stripped, other elements gathered here in huge amounts, causing the order of the elements to be chaotic. The law of the elements were set when Mother Marsha created the world, and governed by the Elven kings, but there could be various reasons for it to be unstable, like the Golden Demonic Tree which disrupted the law.

In the past, an elementalist’s strength would be sealed by 30%. It was the reason why no teams hardly accepted any elementalists. The elementalists even described this bit of history as ‘History of the three years with b.l.o.o.d.y tears’.

Romaine and Freya stared at the strange Golden Demonic Tree. They had only heard of a creature like this in bedtime stories, and even wondered if they were dreaming when they saw it in front of them.

Furthermore, the beauty of the Golden Demonic Tree contrasted deeply with the dystopic background.

“W-what is that?” Freya stammered.

“It’s so pretty. Brendel, is that the Golden Apple Tree in the mythical tales? The monsters are the guards of this tree right? I can’t believe there’s a living thing in this environment that is so beautiful!”

“That’s an oak tree, Romaine.” Freya sighed.

“I-I know that, so it’s an oak tree!” Romaine’s eyebrows darted up to her hair while she corrected herself quickly.

“Don’t get trapped by its beauty. This is probably the most dangerous creature—-, no, it should be monster.” Brendel’s eyes scanned the entire mountain, and quickly discovered another batch of Demonic Tree patrolling the area. These monsters wrapped with whips slowly moved towards the pathway filled with boulders,

[It matches my memories of the game.]

“Monster?”

“Yes. The monsters that we met earlier are born from this tree.”

“How?” Freya’s eyes went wild with shock.

They were not as tense as before when they saw the patrolling Demonic Trees. The three of them had fought against the servants of the Golden Demonic Tree and Brendel took in another 65 XP, even managing to get a Tree Crystal from a Mature Demonic Tree.

This a crafting material in the game, but Brendel did not know how the production stats was calculated, and simply carried it along as it might benefit them later on.

He also realized that Freya and Romaine’s apparent growth. Especially the future G.o.ddes of War. Her strength and agility had risen sharply from the battles, and she was almost at the level of a guard. The only thing that Brendel did not understand was how they received XP, and from the looks of it, their progress was much slower than him.

Freya as a pure militia should have increased her level repeatedly from killing a high level monster like the Demonic Tree, but he felt that he increased his Mercenary profession much faster. It was all very puzzling.

But he quickly put away these idle thoughts because he had more important things to do. If the Golden Demonic Tree discovered them first, then it would summon the Rotten Beasts from the outside to its aid, and leave them with little time.

He had estimated in the game before, the first batch of Rotten Beast would reach in fifteen minutes, and if they were still unable to finish off the Golden Demonic Tree, they had to consider running away.

But Brendel did not immediately seek to initiate a fight. He had another issue that needed an answer even before he thought of defeating the Demonic Tree patrol. He looked up at the steep slope.

“Wait for me here, don’t get discovered.” He turned back and replied.

“Brendel?”

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