Chapter 707: Mothertree (1/2)

“How much more?” Zac growled as he was launched into the air by two chains, his axe empowered by a massive jagged edge as he cut apart yet another 2-meter wasp before destroying a large root that aimed for Catheya. “We’ll be overrun sooner or later.”

He wasn’t joking. The only reason there wasn’t a mountain of wasp corpses and destroyed roots around him was the corrosive effect of his domain turning everything to mush. Unfortunately, that meant he was walking around in ankle-deep sludge which was pretty disgusting.

Another wasp was impaled by one of his chains, the corrosive liquid effortlessly digging through its armor plating. There were already five wasps hanging on the chain, forming a gristly warning to the other insects that hovered over their heads. And it actually worked. The domain of [Deathmark] almost worked like insect repellant, and together with his warning, most of the wasps targeted the other groups.

Only three groups remained by this point, the others scared away or eradicated by the residents of the tree along with the tree itself. The situation was somewhat stable, but the roots were never-ending. He had just cut one apart, but Zac was forced to dodge a swift swipe the next moment as a five-meter-thick root ripped through the air.

He had tried cutting one like it apart just a minute ago, only to find his edge incapable of cutting more than half the trunk. The slam had been enough to launch him fifty meters into the air and forced him to expand one of his three healing brands.

Varo did what he could to help, but he wasn’t as useful in a protracted siege like this compared to ambushes. He ultimately took a defensive position behind Zac, cutting apart anything that snuck past his rampaging swings.

“Just a few more minutes,” Catheya said as she threw a wink in his direction. “Keep it up, you’re doing great. Very powerful.”

Zac only snorted in annoyance, but he knew she wasn't just messing around. Her arms were a constant blur as she formed various sigils that helped push the spike further into the tree, and Zac sensed that she might actually be spending more Miasma than he was. And all this was while taking out an impressive number of wasps with the help of her icicles.

Varo occasionally crushed a Miasma Crystal next to her to alleviate the situation, and Zac eventually made a decision. A vast aura field of death spread out with Zac as the core, swallowing all the corpses and Catheya alike. The atmosphere took a drastic turn, and even the pervasive Twilight Energy was pushed away a bit. Obviously, it was the peak mastery [Field of Despair].

Each upgrade had increased the area it could cover, though Zac only used it for the immediate vicinity at the moment. Reaching late mastery in the skill had allowed him to gain a better sense of everyone within the mists, and this sense was even further improved by reaching peak mastery. The skill now expanded his observation abilities to the point that they almost rivaled the omniscience he gained from [Hatchetman’s Spirit].

The weakening effect was strengthened further as well, now being able to fully remove up to 10% of the attributes up to the limits of E-grade Race, 2,500 attribute points. Even Zac would be noticeably impacted by such a loss.

But the real reason for bringing out [Fields of Despair] was the improved conversion ratio, where each kill resulted in almost double the refund when corpses were drained. Zac immediately felt a surge of Miasma entering his body, and both Catheya and Varo got to enjoy a weakened version of the boost.

“You know [Fields of Despair]? You actually managed to get an Epic F-grade class?” Catheya exclaimed from the side. “I knew my instincts were right when hiring you. [Fields of Despair] is a very sought-after skill among the crusaders, but few can gain it. Any interest in selling it?”

Zac inwardly sighed when he heard Catheya’s analysis. This was why he didn’t want to show too many of his skills unless necessary. Anytime he exposed something, there was a real risk of divulging even more than he planned.

“And cripple myself for some money?” Zac snorted as he cut off another root before it could slam into the defensive barrier Varo had erected. “No thank you.”

“Well, if you change your mind, the Eldritch Archivals are always looking for new Inheritance Crystals,” Catheya smiled. “Still, it’s pretty odd. That skill is given to commander-archetype classes from what I’ve heard, a skill to bolster armies. But you don’t seem to follow that path at all, you give me the feeling of a surly lone-wolf.”

“If you have the energy to chat, why not focus on speeding up that thing?” Zac sighed as he saw another of his spectral henchmen getting ripped apart after destroying a patch of roots. They kept popping up to deal with the wasps, but it was like the mothertree hated them with vigor. It targeted them within seconds of appearing, preventing him from building up a proper army.

“Don’t tell me you had a change of heart?” Catheya laughed, ignoring Zac’s comment. “No wonder you said you had no ambition to raise an army. Was the burden of command too heavy? Well, being a commander requires you to have faith in the strength of your followers. I think it was the right choice for you, you’re the ‘I’ll do it myself’-kind of guy. That’s not bad, mind you. A useless person can’t have that mindset and survive.”

“For the love of God,” Zac muttered as he unleashed his annoyance on the wildlife.

He ignored Catheya’s teasing, knowing it was just her latest attempt at trying to extract some more information from him. Unfortunately for her, Zac had lived with a far wilier Demon for over a year, and he was mostly immune to those kinds of attempts by now.

Instead, he focused on his form. The tree was thankfully not really sapient, and it was clearly just lashing out at random in their direction, like someone absentmindedly trying to wave away annoying flies. Gave him enough leeway to try some things out.

Zac pictured himself a harried army defending an outpost, attacked from every direction by ferocious warriors. The attacks were like waves, and the pressure points kept changing, like the army was trying to create a weakness in his defensive line. Zac himself lashed out in retaliatory force, sometimes just defending, sometimes setting out in a raid to clean out problems before they arrived.

He even used his chains to create putrefying traps to stall the enemy lines. He was quickly integrating the various components of his undying toolkit into his path, but he still couldn’t find the answer to his envisioned fusion. For now, he could only keep progressing and hope he’d figure something out sooner or later.

The minutes passed, and Zac eventually found a rhythm that lessened his strain significantly. The mothertree was a bit like the golem he fought to open the Dao Repository. It might contain boundless energy, but it didn’t use it efficiently. It had a set of actions that it cycled, and Zac only needed to anticipate which it was. As for the wasps, unless a queen made its appearance, they wouldn’t be able to change the situation.

A large circular pattern had almost completely formed around the spike, which was over three quarters inserted into the tree by now. Zac estimated it would only take a minute or two before it was completely embedded.

“Stop right now!” a sudden roar echoed out as a large shape appeared among the Cork Trees in the distance.

Zac glanced in the direction of the shout, thinking it was some fool overestimating his own abilities. Their group was the smallest, but there were over 20 cultivators hacking away at the tree. What would this lone warrior do about it? However, when Zac spotted the source, he froze for an instant, almost getting himself gored by a root.

It was a treeman emitting an almost blinding aura. He looked like a king walking among his subjects, as the trees actually bowed slightly in deference where he passed. And it was no wonder. He was definitely cultivating some Dao of Nature, and his accomplishments decidedly eclipsed Zac’s Fragment of the Bodhi.

He was roughly three meters tall, and his crown was made up of small green leaves with golden edges. A wheel of living wood hovered behind him, and Zac felt immense spiritual fluctuations from it as well. He guessed it was some sort of Natural Spirit Tool that had an awakened spirit just like [Verun’s Bite].

Together with his extremely condensed aura and Dao emissions, it quickly became clear; this was absolutely not some random crab soldier, but a true elite. His estimation was proven right a moment later as a value appeared above his head; 2,500-5,000.

There was no doubt about it, this guy had two peak fragments at the least, possibly even a Dao Branch. Together with his condensed aura, Zac didn’t feel very confident about their prospects.

“There’s trouble,” Zac said as he saw the man close in on them with fury written all over his face. “This guy is the real deal.”