Chapter 93: Dryads

[Day 34]

Today, I wanted to bring the dryads to my kingdom. The werewolves have already been detained and are still on their way here. Mia used [Telepathy] which helped inform me about their situation.

After the army and the guardians were wiped out, the regular werewolves didn't resist the capture. They all had a look of defeat and could only guess what their fate was.

They probably thought they were going to be slaves, but I just wanted to integrate them into my kingdom and the ones who can't adapt will then be killed by the assassin corps, plain and simple. The dryads I might be able to have an easier time with since it seems the deer mountain guardian was cursed by mother nature.

I don't know why, but I could use this situation to my advantage… wait, I'm also cursed by mother nature now. That's troublesome… maybe I could explain to them and show them the corpse.

"So what are you girls doing today?" I ask my wives who were sitting with me during breakfast.

"I went hunting with Homura early in the morning and maxed out my level, but for some reason, I feel really tired today," Kumo says, slumping down into her chair.

"You're probably pregnant. Do you still feel hungry even after eating all this food?" I ask.

"I thought so… and yeah, I'm still pretty hungry. Maids, bring some more food for me please," Kumo requests.

"Tell Aito to make it with lots of nutrition," I add.

"As you wish," they say in unison.

"What about you, I assume you maxed out your level as well," I say while looking at Homura.

"Yeah, I'm worried about what could happen to the baby when we evolve. I might not be feeling pregnant, but Kumo is, and I just can't help but feel worried," Homura says.

"It would only be reasonable for it to evolve with you, right?" Aika says, chewing on a piece of meat.

"I guess so…" Kumo sighs.

We continued to talk about the future and our potential babies until the maids brought out some more food. Kumo's eyes lit up when she saw the plates of food so I could only assume she was starving instead of "pretty hungry."

I and my other wives only chuckled to ourselves as we saw Kumo devour the food in front of us. As soon as Kumo finished we all went our ways. Aika decided to train while Homura and Kumo decided to rest in the castle for today. And I was going to try and consult with the dryads.

I wore a dress for today so I can make a nice impression but it honestly got in the way while I was flying. Plus if anybody looked up, they could see my underwear.

I was worried about how I could get there but it didn't take me much time to find the old base since I now had the deer guardian as my summon.

[Gained the following skills]

[Summon: Overlord Deer]

[Summon: Overlord Wolf]

…

These were the two skills that I obtained after assimilation. I just placed part of the deer's horn and part of the wolf's tooth onto my arm, creating 2 new tattoos that wrapped around my bicep and tricep.

I learned that the guardian summons, still keeps a part of their consciousness which is why the green deer remembered where its region was, but its last sliver of consciousness was under my control.

Soon we arrived in a familiar forest. It was the forest where I woke up after evolving into the Cursed Wings species. The carnivorous plants that tried to eat me were still there and a few unfamiliar species roamed the forest as well.

[Slowly Corrupted Carnivorous Forest]

[The title is deceiving since the monsters that roam in this forest, are all herbivores while the real threat is the plants. Every plant here has its way of consuming, either it is using its massive teeth or using poison to slowly kill its prey. Also, there is something slowly corrupting this forest which has made it even more deadly over the past 300 years.]

"Hmmm… its mother nature I'm assuming," I shrug.

Not long after arriving at the forest, the deer stops in front of a patch of massive trees. Drayds we're going in and out of the trees except for the tallest one. Since my skill [Invisible Grand Flying Sense] was on, they haven't sensed me yet.

My guardians that I summoned, floated around me in a much smaller form as we all landed on the ground, revealing my presence. Suddenly blades of grass were pointed right at my throat with about 50 dryads surrounding me in an instant.

"Why are you here cursed one," One of the dryads says.

"If I told you that I killed and ate the deer guardian, then accidentally gained his cursed by mother nature title… would you believe me?" I say pushing the grass away from my neck.

"Do you have proof?" the dryad asks.

I was waiting just for this.

"Do you see this summon right here? Yeah, it's the deer guardian, I also have the phoenix and wolf guardian as pets," I explain, pointing at the green deer next to me.

"How could such a weak being even kill the mountain guardian. I can't even sense power coming from you. You're probably just a summoner that can manipulate the form of their summons-"

I immediately cut her off by activating [Queen Overlords Dominating Presence], [Tangible Bloodthirsty Aura], and ordering my summons to return to their original size. The pressure that not only emitted from my body but the summons caused the dryads to kneel on one knee towards me. They tried to resist but I walked over to the dryad that was speaking to me and said,

"I don't want to fight but if you want to keep pissing me off… I'll gladly destroy your entire civilization," I say coldly while staring into the dryad's fearful eyes.

"W-what do you want with us?" the dryad asks.

"I just want to talk with Mother Nature. Can you tell me where she is? I know she's having a problem so I want to try and solve it," I say.

"How can we believe you? If you deceive us, we'll have no choice but to try and stop you," the dryad says looking at the other dryads who nodded their head slightly.

"I only came here to make a deal with her. I save her and then you guys will become citizens of my kingdom,"

"... tsk, Fine… but you have to release this pressure otherwise we can't even move," the dryad says.

I snapped my fingers which did nothing but tell the guardians to revert to their normal size while I deactivated [Queen Overlords Dominating Presence] and [Tangible Bloodthirsty Aura].

"Please lead the way,"

The dryad brushed off her dress made from plants before walking towards the biggest tree. When I arrived I could sense a slowly dying life form under the tree. The lifeform also emitted a strange dark feeling that was similar to a curse.

"We are eternally grateful for you killing that damned deer but please keep in mind that this is our true leader and we hold only loyalty to her. If you attack her, even if we all die we will put a stop to you," the dryad says before placing her hand on the tree trunk.

The tree trunk opened up, creating a massive gate in the tree with a wooden spiral staircase inside of it, leading into the ground.

"Please follow me,"

My summons all follow me as we walk down the spiral staircase. There were only torches that lit the way down and the feeling of the curse became thicker. I could tell the dryad was struggling so I ordered my phoenix to produce part of [Ichimei] and surround her with it.

"T-thank you," the dryad says.

It took us about 5 minutes to reach the bottom of the staircase. What I saw was a chained, beautiful, woman with pale white skin. She had green hair that looked to be made of vines and forming a small crown on top of her head.

When she opened her eyes, I saw her light green eyes were filled with anger.

『Status』

[Name: Treyni]

[Race: Mother Nature]

[Status: Dying]

[Level: 94/150]

[HP: 29/500 MP: 900/900 SP: 0/100]

[Strength: 60]

[Defense: 60]

[Magic: 450]

[Speed: 80]

[Luck: 1]

[Charisma: 50]

[Skills: [Jungle Magic] [Ancient Forest Magic] [Mother Nature's Kindness] [Solar Beam] [Domain of Mother Nature] [Plant Manipulation] [Plant Growth] [Summon: Elite Dryad] [Summon: Elite Trent] [Summon: Hydra Chomper] [Forbidden Magic: Chloris]

[Mastered Weapons: [Plants]

[Titles: [Mother Nature] [Queen of the Dryads]

…

"How did you get down here?" asks Treyni.

"My queen! We are saved from the tyrannical deer that imprisoned you! H-how do we get you out of here?!" says the dryad beside me, pulling on the chains that wrapped around Treyni's limbs.

"Get away from her. She needs to be cleared of all the miasma. How long have you been cursing that deer for the miasma to be so thick in here? It's practically like walking through water," I say, trying to grab onto the thick purple cloud that shrouded the dungeon.

"300 years. I've been cursing that damned deer for 300 years… I assume you're the one who killed her. Don't bother saving me, the miasma has already started eating away at my body, I have no hope. I just request that you take care of my citizens," says Treyni.

"No thanks,"

"W-why?!" Treyni asks, clearly shocked by my refusal.

"I came here to make a deal…"