Chapter 362: Dealing with a Source of the Corruption

Joshua spent the night watching all of the large spores from on top of one of the trees. He made sure that none of them would float in their direction and infect any of the plants around them. When any of the spores started drifting to close for comfort Joshua would send out an aura blast to destroy them while still knocking away any pieces that could fall to the forest below. For a moment he wondered if he should try to destroy all of them, but based off of the amount that was continuously being shot out from whatever was creating them in the distance he would end up wasting a lot of energy just to kill off a small portion of the issue at hand.

At some point during the night Henry and Adrian had both gotten up for their turn at guard duty. When they didn't notice Joshua in the camp they sent a message to see what was up. He told them both where he was and they soon made their way up the same tree to see all of the spores floating in the air. They both had frowns after seeing such a sight and Henry created several small wind balls to knock them away, but it was clear that it was impossible to stop all of the corruption without going after the source of it.

They spent the rest of the night observing the spores and keeping the campsite safe. When the morning sun was starting to surface on the horizon whatever was producing the spores decided to stop. It seemed to only due such things at night for some reason. Regardless it was active for hours and had sent out several spores all over the forest. They now knew why there were so many corrupted plants near each other and in large amounts. With all of the spores gone the three of them headed back down the tree towards the campsite and saw Aito already up and getting things ready to prepare breakfast. All of the others were starting to wake up in their tents and get ready for the day.

Before everyone broke up to do their own thing to get ready for the day Joshua called them all over to tell them what was going on. He told them about the spores and the small sources that were creating them along with the large source at the center of the forest. Everyone seemed surprised by the fact that there were multiple sources for the corruption spread all throughout the forest, but when Joshua told them that the center seemed to be the main issue they all realized where they would be heading.

"So these spores only seem to drift along at night time then? It's still problematic that there are so many locations creating the spores, but I'm willing to bet that taking care of the dungeon will be the key to destroying the main source." Aito said after Joshua, Henry, and Aito had finished explaining things.

Titus nodded his large head in agreement before turning in the direction of the center of the forest. "I get the feeling that all of the plants in the area both hate and fear whatever is at the center of the forest. That's a good sign that it's the place we need to head to if we want to figure out what's causing this."

"Seems like a plan, but its best we head out soon." Ivan said with a smile getting everyone's attention. "If the spores come out at night then it would be best that we get as much done as we can in the day."

"I've got to agree with the old man." Victor said while everyone else seemed to be on the same page.

"Well let's all get some food in us before heading out. We'll head towards the nearest small source of spores to see what it's like before heading straight for the center of the forest." Joshua said before everyone went to get prepared while Aito and the two love birds went off to make breakfast.

While everyone was getting ready to go Lilly and the Asawa sisters came over to Joshua and Henry to explain what they found out about the new talismans they had gained from Lilly's beast companions overnight. They didn't go through all of Lilly's beast companions since it took a while to create several of the talismans at a time, so for now they stuck to Lilly's three big hitters. Joshua already knew the abilities they had gained from using Titus's blood for their talismans.

The other two types of talismans that they created were from the blood of Cinder and Tank. When it came to Cinder the talismans were a bit different from expected. Instead of having one specific use like all of the other talismans that they had created in the past the talismans created from Cinder actually could create two different abilities for both Katsumi and Natsumi.

In Katsumi's case the talisman could either create several floating fireballs that had the same smoldering smoke hovering around them that Cinder had when in her fire form. The fireballs could either create a smoke screen around Katsumi to escape a tricky situation or attack anyone that got close to her or the person she uses the talisman on. The other possibilities is that the talisman could create a small blizzard that extends out around the user. This blizzard would slow down anyone that tried to force their way through while also slowly freezing their bodies.

For Natsumi the two possibilities were a bit more straightforward since they worked in the same fashion as the talisman she used to create lightning around her blade. The fire version of the talisman would heat up her blade and make it so that it would send out waves of fire each time she attacked. If the blade cut through something it would have the same effect as Cinder's poison when in her fire based form. The ice portion of the talisman was the same, but focused on freezing and slowing down enemies while numbing their bodies with each cut.

The talismans they got from Tank surprisingly weren't directly related to water based abilities like they were expecting. In Katsumi's case the talisman would create a much better version of a pyramid shield that resembled a turtles shell. It covered all the way around her without any openings and was far sturdier than the pyramid had been. In Natsumi's case the talisman would surge aura through her body and evenly increase all of her stats by ten percent. It wasn't as big of a boost as with Titus's talisman, but it was balanced and helped in all situations.

After a quick meal everyone got in formation as Joshua lead them all in the direction of one of the smaller sources that he had seen nearby. On the way there they did end up coming across several corrupted plants. They didn't know if they had just been recently infected over night, but they weren't any stronger than the ones they had taken down the day before. Fighting the corrupted plants only slowed down their progress a little as they pushed through with Titus absorbing the destroyed plant remains afterwards.

Joshua could tell right away that the amount of corrupted plants were growing the further they went into the forest at an alarming rate. At first they might have ran into a group of corrupted plants every ten minutes or so of traveling, but now that time frame had been cut in half and seemed to be shrinking even more the further they went. After an hour or so of fighting their way through the forest they finally came across what looked like a small clearing where Joshua had spotted the nearest source of the corruption from above the trees.

As they approached the clearing the plants in the surroundings seemed to become more and more lifeless. Unlike the corrupted plants that he had come across in the past when making his way through the forest, these seemed to have been infected in a way that was a little different. Instead of growing agitated as they approached and going on the attack, the plants were more like husk that were on the verge of crumbling into dust if you touched them. All of the trees and other plants had several red tendrils all over them that had grown as thick as vines and spread out like an intricate nerve network all along anything they infected.

From this sight alone Joshua could see why Titus believed that the forest was afraid and angered by whatever was corrupting it. If this was the end result of being infected for a long period of time then the forest would die slowly as the infection continued to spread. At the center of the clearing where all of the plants had already crumbled to dust, there was a massive red flower that bloomed beautifully even when everything around it was dying. Joshua didn't need to ask Titus if that was the cause of the corruption since even he could feel the unnatural aura surrounding the plant. It wasn't trying to hide itself and integrate into the rest of the forest like the rest of the corrupted plants had been doing.

Before they got any closer Joshua signaled for everyone else to stop so they wouldn't grab the attention of the plant right away. He observed it and was a bit surprised at the fact that it didn't come across as all that powerful. The plant was called spawn of the corrupted Flora. It was level seventy-eight but only had three stars next to it which instantly told Joshua that it wasn't going to be all that challenging to take down after all. There weren't any plants around it that were capable of helping it fight so in all likelihood it wasn't something that was supposed to be hard to deal with.

Before any of them took up formation to take on the plant Joshua noticed a weird haze around that he felt could be an issue if they got too close to it, so he didn't want any of the close ranged fighters rushing in to try to take it on. Instead Titus stepped forward deciding to handle the situation himself. Cinder was there to help out just in case anything went wrong and Lilly could always bring Titus back into her soul realm for protection as well. Titus grew angered as aura started to glow from his body and he rushed forward to take on the plant.

Since there was so much space in the area Titus had no problem growing to his full size. He roared loudly causing the flower to react to his approach. Unlike all of the other plants that seemed to become offensively aggressive when approached the flower instead dispersed more of the spores around it while folding in on its self defensively. Joshua could tell that the spores were supposed to dissuade anyone that approached it. Titus wasn't going to give the spores a chance to hinder him though as his own spores spread out from his fur and fought off the plant's spores. Neither side was able to manipulate any plants in the surroundings or affect the other in a harmful way so the fight would come down to a more physical confrontation.

Within seconds Joshua could see that the plant stood no chance in close combat. It shot out two vines in an attempt to hold off Titus, but he just bulldozed through their attempts and started tearing into the flower itself. The petals were ripped off and within seconds the massive flower that was nearly the same size as Titus in his full grown form was ripped from the grown and torn in half in the gorillas rage. The fight had been decided, but Joshua caught sight of some movement that made him believe something fishy was going on.