Chapter 782 Putting Up Airs (1/2)
The Expedition Party's underground cavern at the edge of the Overwatch tribe settlement.
Caster was seated in front of a crude apparatus that somehow emanated an advanced, high-end presence, staring solemnly at the screen in front of himself.
”Passing through the Mother Lifetree's bark, extraction of tree sap complete. The tree itself is growing well: energy values stored in the tree sap is 34% above the average of trees of the same unit.”
”By comparing samples of Mother Lifetree types provided by the Far Southern Elves, we can be sure that this tree is the most common 'Third-Type Foster Mother Tree' from the Glorious Era. Basically, we can be sure that these elves are Glorious Era adherents.”
Caster could not help laughing at that. ”Quite the fine, robust specimen, this Mother Tree—most Mother Trees could only grow well in environment rich with water, never imagined that it would grow so robustly even in the salted grounds beside seas.”
”Stop it. Read the following analysis,” Alchemist the half-elf—or, at least, when he was born, urged. ”Read the conditions of Chaos corruption, that's more important.”
The Mother Tree could absorb all energies in a radius dozens of kilometers, accumulating any impurities it had absorbed within its body while slowly excreting it from the tree bark. Ancient elves had once planted Mother Trees and mining hills, obtaining metals by burning tree bark and leaves that were rich with metals, which was also how the elves who never mined could develop into the iron age.
That was also precisely why if a single place is polluted by Chaos, the Mother Tree would be the first to be corrupted.
The Elite Party was aware that the so-called 'Otherworld Blight' was another way of describing Chaos corruption, which made it evident that the nine moons over the skies contained Chaos power, and that the soil had been polluted as well. Verifying the extent of Chaos corruption in the Mother Tree was hence the fastest way to check the degree of pollution in the soil.
Suddenly, just as Clergy and Rider got bored of watching and started a game of rock–paper–scissors, Caster suddenly cried out.
”Impossible! Chaos erosion level is… 75%?”
Caster's eyes bulged as much as it was possible in fear that he made a mistake in reading a single number. Even so, after reading through a few times, he was forced to admit that seventy five percent was indeed the number shown and not seven point five, which left him in greater disbelief. ”Isn't this already several thousand—no, ten thousand times the danger threshold?!”
***
To completely removed Chaos power was very difficult—such forces remained even in the depths of the land, in both present-day Mycroft Continent and the Multiverse Sacrificial Grounds. However, such degree of Chaos would not affect the daily lives of intelligent creatures, but if the Chaos in Mycroft was applied as a standard value, it was ten thousand times that of normal threshold!
And what would that mean?
It meant that after a rat was thrown into such an environment, hours later a rat ogre would appear, fresh out of the oven.
”What?!”
Alchemist, Clergy, and Rider all leapt up in response. All four of them glanced toward the screen, and though the numbers and words used were extremely complex, even Rider, the least cultured of the lot could understand that 'danger' was filled in each gap between each word!
”How is that a Mother Lifetree! It's clearly a breeding ground of Chaos—but why can't we sense it at all?
Clergy quickly arched himself and grabbed a pinch of soil from the ground. Closing his eyes and focusing, he extended his senses to feel the various trace energies within, and frowned after some time. ”There's no sign of Chaos at all—this place is cleaner than the Mycroft Continent!”
The others each used different methods to check their surroundings as well, only to realize that it was true: this Otherworld was as verdant as it appeared to be, its environment fine and clean… there was nothing that appeared dangerous apart from the nine moons in the skies.
”Could it be… the Chaos in the bodies of the elves is transferred into the body of the Mother Tree?” Rider guessed. ”After all, according to the information our leader gathered, there are different levels of Chaos corruption in the bodies of those elves.
Alchemist shook his head. ”No, that is the one thing which is impossible,” he explained. ”Leaving aside the mass of the Mother Tree, Chaos forces that could kill dozens of thousands of elves would at most infect one of its buds. When each Mother Tree first sprouted each of them possess strict self-defensive mechanisms that is selective of energy moving in an out of its body. After all, if any elf could infect a Mother Tree with Chaos, doesn't that mean that if a single traitor keeps pouring Chaos toxic in it, entire populations of elves would be wiped out?”
It was naturally out of the question. Thus, Alchemist tightened his brow and carefully voiced his own guess. ”Instead of saying that the elves infect the Mother Tree, I think it's the opposite: the elves connected to the Mother Tree in spirit were infected by the Mother Tree's Chaos… it certainly requires an enormous source of infection, and it's not on the surface.”
At that, Alchemist narrowed his eyes at the ground. ”…It's definitely beneath ground,” he said softly.
The others considered it for a moment, and understood at once.
The Mother Tree's roots extended far and reached deep, with a single one able to stabilize water and soil over several kilometers. Its roots would stab dozens of thousands of meters to reach down for underground water sources and mineral deposits, even absorbing magma energy to grow. It was what the Divine Tree of Origins, Father Nature created for his children as a replacement for himself, one of the most powerful supernatural plants in the world.
And if the infection origin point of the supernatural plant was not on the surface, it was beneath ground. It must have touched the roots of the Mother Tree, gradually corrupting it!
”It could be either an aberration of Chaos, or the corpse of an Evil God spawn…” Clergy clenched the crystal ball in his hand which flickered in silver-gray sacred radiance—he was slightly unable to hold back his impulse for purification. ”This place is a relic of the Glorious Era. It must have been corpses of Chaos aberrations left from the Final Battle of the previous era!”
The other three including Caster nodded, all of them clearly acknowledging that possibility since it was reasonable.
Still, Rider mumbled. ”It's quite curious that it has the Chaos power to corrupt the Mother Tree. How big could that corpse be? It must be more than a mountain, so could it be…”
This time, everyone else ignored him because Priest's footsteps could be heard by the entrance of the cavern.
”Leader!”
Everyone turned at once towards the entrance. Alchemist had even intended to go ahead to greet him, only to promptly pause.
”Wait, that sound…”
'Why is there the sound of footsteps from another person?'
Soon, as the footsteps approached, Priest and Sol's figures appeared before the four inside the cavern. Without waiting for his teammates' teasing such as 'why you'd bring an outsider back' or 'maybe she won't be an outsider soon', he lowered his voice and spoke with a grave expression.
”Ready up. We're going out soon to Hub Accrafa soon.”
”…Why so sudden?”
Caster, who had been ready to hand the Chaos report to Priest never expected his leader to be so swift and decisive. ”And…” He turned, looking hesitantly at Sol, who was looking around behind Priest.
”Her? Tour guide. The mountain paths are tangled—if we are to depart early and move in the night, we need a local to guide us.”
Priest was aware of his teammate's curiosity as well, but his mind was somehow clear and himself inspired, although he had a hard time explaining the series of ideas he suddenly though of at once. Be that as it may, his pupils dilated when he received Caster's report on Chaos corruption. ”75%? It's already that serious? Well, it does mean that my thinking is right—we must leave this place as soon as possible and get to Hub Accrafa.”
”Wait, Leader. You must have your reason for doing this, but can't we wait for the elves to bring us their historical records?”
Although Clergy was not sure why his leader was in such a rush, he had already collected his belongings and was ready to equip the enchanted armor that was only fully charged after a few days. Obviously, he could not stand staying in the cave as well.
”Their historical records would be no different from a pile of junk sheets—there's no valuable information to collect about the history of this tribe, when they want no progress be it millennia ago or recently. I'm guessing that the time for these elves' sacrificial ritual to extinguish the Chaos corruption in their tribe is coming, and the Chaos concentration you mentioned proves my guess as well.”
Priest then moved to have a word with Sol before equipping his own enchanted armor as well. ”Furthermore,” he said, the young warrior's voice becoming deep after wearing his helmet, ”I thought of a fine idea to fool Hub Accrafa's clearance verification… we just might get to the data vault of that ancient ruin, there's no need to care about a bunch of elves!”
”Alright, you are our leader after all.”
The others shrugged nonchalantly after Priest had put things that way. Ultimately, they did not have any urgent missions to be completed, and since Priest had so earnestly claimed that he had a way to bypass the clearance, they could just trust him.
The five-man cell's relationship did not need too many words after all.
***
Minutes later, the Elite Party had sorted out all their resources, equipped their enchanted armor and left the cave in an orderly manner. Sol, who was sitting on Priest's shoulder gasped softly and happily said with a deliberately lowered voice, ”Ah, it's quite cool to sit on it—it feels unexpectedly good!”
”It's fine now, but don't complain when we accelerate.” Priest laughed softly, before turning to his teammates and saying quietly, ”Let's go!”
In an instant, five dark shadows hence vanished in the thick shade of the forests.
***
In some nearby woods, the antler-crowned elf looked on as the Elite Party left. Beside him, two brigades of elven archers had their bows at their ready.
”Leader, are we letting them go?” The archer in the lead asked quietly.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.
”It's fine… Elves and humans who can't assimilate into our ranks were perhaps of their own kind in the first place.”
The antler-crowned elf looked down at the Otherworld Blight scar on his arm and laughed carefreely. ”Sol could not share the Otherworld Blight with us, nor could she move it to my body… It's precisely why if she died out there, she wouldn't infect her companions… Let her go. She's alone, and thus free.”
”Prepare for the sacrificial ritual—the anomaly in the Sacred Mountain a few days ago was perhaps to remind us of that.”
***
Meanwhile, in the forest.