Chapter 369: Floral Dungeon Part 5

Joshua watched the flowers floating around the tree while trying to think of the best way to handle the situation. He could see that some of the flowers would collide with the trees around the area, but they wouldn't explode like they did when they touched Titus or met with one of Julia's fireballs. They never touched the ground since they always seemed to spin and flutter back up into the air whenever they got close to the ground as if they were being controlled. This seemed to be the ability of the tree that was in front of them and it was an interesting one at that.

There were a couple of ways that Joshua could think of to take the tree down, but they both had huge downsides in situations where there were either several of these kind of trees or the tree was fighting alongside other powerful enemies. The first solution that Joshua came up with was for him to use his aura shield and charge in and take the thing down. This would definitely work since the exploding flowers weren't strong enough to knock him off course as long as he forced his way through. The aura shield would keep them from doing any damage to him and he'd be able to tear the tree down within seconds.

The issue with this tactic was that he could only use it every thirty minutes which would be horrible if they had to take out multiple enemies or if they had to fight this tree alongside a boss that had an ability that was even more dangerous. In that sort of situation wasting the aura shield on the magnolia tree would be the worst idea possible. Charging in with just aura hardening could be bad as well since there were so many flowers and the damage from the explosions would add up on Joshua's body even if they just came across as small stings here and there.

The second idea that Joshua had in mind was for Aito to shoot the tree down from a distance. Spells didn't seem like they would reach the tree with all the flowers hovering around it while a powerful lightning strike from Robin would be blocked by the other much taller trees in the area that had limbs spread out above the small magnolia tree. Even if she had control over the lightning it still would follow the laws of nature to some extent and would be attracted to the other trees that were in the way. Robin could only guide it so much.

Aito had the best opportunity to actually hit the tree with his bullets even with all of the flowers getting in the way, but he'd have to waste a lot of bullets to tear the tree apart and they couldn't afford to do that as long as they didn't know how long they would be stuck in the dungeon.

In the end Joshua figured the best shot they would have would be for Aito to take it down with a charged rail shot since it would most likely breakthrough all of the flowers whether or not they made contact with it. Joshua was just worried the tree would retaliate by sending several of the flowers in their direction. That's when an idea came to mind as he saw another flower bounce off of a tree. There had to be a way for the flowers to know not to explode when making contact with other trees, so Joshua decided to infuse aura into his eyes to see if he could find out what the reason behind that was.

The moment he infused his eyes with aura he was able to see the aura around everything in the surroundings. When he looked at his guild members he could see the aura flowing inside their bodies giving off a faint glow, but it was obvious that everyone outside of Amy didn't have any real control over it. Her aura seemed a bit brighter especially around her fist and legs showing that she knew how to infuse her attacks with it, but nothing more than that. Looking towards Titus he could see something similar as with Amy. Although the giant was powerful he didn't have the same type of control over his aura like Tank did. Titus was like looking at a bright star of aura that was currently incased by the gorilla's body.

Joshua then started to look at the flowers to see if he could figure out how they worked. It didn't take him all that long to see what was going on as aura glowed around the outside of each individual flower. The aura had a white tint to it that was similar to the color of the flower making it hard to notice at first, but the fact that it was lightly pulsing allowed Joshua to see it. The tree was pulsing as well with a far brighter aura than any of its flowers. This was clearly the connection between the flowers and the tree that allowed the tree to control all of the flowers in the area.

When one of the flowers crashed into a nearby tree Joshua watched to see why it didn't explode. That's when he noticed the aura around the tree seemed to pulse slowly in a similar manner to the flowers and the magnolia tree. 'That's it. That has to be the reason why the flowers aren't detonating against any of the other plants.' Joshua thought. It looked like a signal to keep the flowers from exploding on contact. Joshua quickly looked at all the nearby trees in the area and noticed that they all had this light pulse to them. This gave him an idea of how to handle the situation.

"I've got an idea of how to handle this tree. Stay back just in case some of the flowers get sent this way. I have my aura shield to defend myself if things go bad." Joshua said to the rest of the group who all nodded and took a step back. Even Titus took a step back as he grunted in approval. Joshua was sure that Titus wouldn't have too much trouble taking down the tree if he rushed in, but he'd take a lot of damage that would put a drain on his aura as he regenerated.

Joshua held his scale blade at the ready as his aura shroud surrounded his body. That's when he used his will to take control of his aura in full and started pulsing it in a similar manner to all of the plants in the area. At first it was hard to get use to creating such a pattern with his aura and he was burning through it at a pace that was too fast for such a small application of its use, but after a minute or so of trying it out he finally got the right feeling of how to do it. The consumption of aura also slowed down greatly, but it was still more wasteful then just using his aura shroud on its own.

With everything ready Joshua charged forward straight into all of the flowers racing towards the tree to take it out as fast as possible. As he got within the storm of flowers it was impossible for him to avoid them. It was like rushing into a rain storm expecting not to get wet. So the best thing to do in such a situation was to have something that could keep the rain off of you in the first place. That was the idea Joshua was going with and his pulsing aura seemed to do just that.

Every time a flower came within range of his pulsing aura it would either be pushed away gently or the pulsing would react to the aura of the flower in a similar way to all of the trees around the area. If a flower actually got to the point where it would touch Joshua's body it would just bounce off and float on by. This proved that the signal was the only reason that the flowers weren't exploding against all of the trees in the area.

Knowing that the flowers were no longer a danger to him anymore he rushed forward at full speed leaping straight for the tree and chopping it down in one powerful swing of his scale blade. The aura coated weapon easily sliced through the magnolia tree without much resistance sending the whole thing crashing to the ground. The moment Joshua cut down the tree the aura glowing around it faded away along with the aura around all of the flowers floating in the air. The flowers then harmlessly floated down to the ground as a surge of experience flooded everyone in the group.

"Well looks like my idea worked." Joshua said with a smile as he walked back over to the group. Titus simply nodded before absorbing the remains of the magnolia tree gaining the power to produce a similar plant with his spores. "It's a little draining on my aura to do such a thing, but not to a high degree."

"That's good. It 'd be a pain in the ass if we had to rest every time we came across one of these trees." Adrian said with a shrug. "Well it's getting fairly dark. We should push for the waterfall before night time."

"We're already rather close so we can clear the place out and set up camp afterwards." Henry responded. Everyone got back in formation before they started making the trek to the waterfall. They had to fend off a few more corrupted plants along the way, but eventually they did make it to the location where the forest receded into grassland once more. At the center of the area there was a massive lake that seemed to be covered in glowing flowers. The waterfall that was falling from the sphere above them splashed down directly into the center of the lake proving it was the cause for the lake in the first place.

The constant crashing of the waterfall into the lake created a lot of mist in the area that made it hard to see the center of the lake, but Joshua got the feeling he was going to have to make his way to the center if he wanted to figure out what was going on. There was only one thing that was standing in their way from going inside the lake. Along the lake there were several of the same Magnolia trees blocking their way forward.

Each of the trees had several flowers falling around them and being carried by the wind. This set up made it impossible to get to the waterfall at the center of the lake. It would be like trying to rush through a mine field followed by trying to swim through one with all of the flowers that were sitting along the top of the lake at this point. As long as the trees were up and standing each of the flowers could go off by a simple touch.

Joshua looked at the scene and thought of rushing in a similar way to when he had his aura pulsing before, but then he realized an even easier solution that brought a smile to his face.