Ramie felt an immensely crushing force throw him away, in the air. His sight view started rotating; the ground and the sky in his field of vision were constantly alternating, up and down, as if he was in a spinning wheel.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw two giant crab claw-like pincers, smashing and cutting about, stirring up a storm of destruction in the middle of the formation.
Thump!
Ramie saw the ground approaching his face, and then, violent collision followed.
The cloudy sky met his sight. It felt especially depressing, with gray clouds hiding the cheerful blue.
His body was numb; he couldn't feel anything at all.
Memories of the past forcibly made their way to his focus, overwhelming his senses. It was as if a dam was opened, flooding him with the regrets of the past.
'This is not the time…!' Ramie roared in his heart.
Gritting his teeth, ramie brushed these feelings aside, and struggled to lift his head up.
Gazing at his body, cold expression crept to his face.
The area from the abdomen and below wasn't where it's supposed to be, attached to his torso… Instead, it was lying on the ground, several meters away…
"…"
"…"
"…"
Several meters away, on the other side, a lifeless face was gazing at him.
'Millard…' Ramie felt bitter at the sight.
The lifeless body of Millard, or half of him, was lying on the ground, the same as Ramie. Except… he was dead.
Fear, helplessness, and other myriad of emotions were all maxed out on Millard's face, screaming out his unwillingness.
"What a sorrowful way to go…"
Ramie felt sorry for the man. Next, shifting his line of sight with difficulty to the formation, Ramie smiled resentfully.
Three tier-2 bugs emerged from the ground, each having pair of giant pincers.
These three bugs were the same type. They had large heads that were disproportionate to their bodies. Their long heads were covered with heavily armored exoskeletons. Even their small eyes were covered with foldable plates.
It was obvious that these bugs were specialized for digging tunnels. They were probably the ones that dug the large holes he had seen in the compound.
The three of them were tier-2 beasts, according to their stats!
The formation was in utter mass, while the three bugs went completely savage at the fighters, clapping at them nonstop.
Shifting his gaze about, ramie started looking around for something.
One, two, three, four, five….
He located more than six arachnids, concealing themselves in well hidden corners, while keeping the battlefield in their field of vision.
These bugs were lurking in the dark, away from the clamoring battle, controlling things from behind the scene.
They were like manipulators, controlling their pawns with strings.
"No wonder, no wonder…"
Ramie felt great unwillingness in his heart. He hated the fact that the bugs were running rampant here, with no one strong enough to stop their tide.
He was able to see the full picture now.
'Could these creatures have been using us to familiarize themselves with the fighting tactics of humans…?' a sudden insight struck Ramie out of nowhere.
In truth, that though of his was exactly on point.
With the additional force of three tier-2 bugs, the arachnids were more than capable of concluding this battle within minutes. However, they didn't.
Being forced into this new world, the cunning arachnids wanted to learn to deal with the smart natives. They wanted to sharpen their commanding skills when fighting an enemy capable of fighting according to changeable battle strategies that shifts in accordance with the variables.
Their previous enemies, which were hordes of beasts of course, were incapable of strategizing in battle. They were purely instincts driven. Usually, surrounding such beasts' hordes would end the battle right there and then. However, these new natives were something else…
After detecting that someone had snuck into their very lair, these arachnids wanted retaliation. However, upon discovering that the enemy was more than what meets the eye, they turned this battle into a training session.
They didn't want to finish off the enemy quickly, but they wanted to slowly overwhelm their opponents, driving them toward certain defeat, to force them into revealing all of their skills as they cope with the pressing situation.
In the arachnids' eyes, these bugs were nothing to care about, as their innate abilities allowed them to simply control other bugs, to replenish the lost force.
However, and as one of them was actually killed, the arachnids panicked. With their low reproductive ability, which was next to nothing, losing even one of them was a catastrophic loss, a one that could not be tolerated.
The formula was quite simple – the higher the order of the bloodline, the less reproductive ability they have, and the less descendants holding the bloodline type they can reproduce.
Thus, at the death of one of them, the rest decided to completely eradicate the entire colony of these natives.
Clitter!
Clitter!
Clitter!
Hearing the obnoxious noise again, ramie shifted his gaze to his lower body, several meters way.
A large bug came, picked up his lower body, and started gnawing at it.
The bug was making a sickening, rattling noise, as it used small external appendages outside its mouth to tear apart the flesh, and throw it inside. The scene was like a meat grinder, grinding nonstop.
As for Millar, several small bugs came to him, and stabbed him with their needle-like mouths. Next, they injected digestive fluids in him, which started liquefying his corpse at a visible rate. Ramie could see that the parts of the corpse where the mouths were stabbed started caving in, and melting.
The bugs then started vigorously sucking the liquid food.
Suddenly, a shrill, miserable cry rang out from the bug that was devouring Ramie's lower body. The bug then started thrashing about wildly, as if in great suffering.
Screech!
The bug then let one last agony filled cry, before falling to the ground, dead.
Ramie stared at the bug, delighted in its misfortune.
At this point, he no longer had the energy to do anything.
However, soon, his expression froze, as he sensed a familiar, pulsating wave of energy emitting from the bug, sending him a signal.
< Host has planted one tree-ling! >
With a slight vibration, the artifact sent a message to him.
Then, a shocking sight happened afterward…
The bugs' exoskeleton started cracking all over; then, numerous root-like vines broke through the exoskeleton, and stabbed into the ground. Next, a thin vine emerged from the bugs; corpse, and extended upward, erecting.
At a speed that was astonishing, the vine started thickening, with multiple thin branches emerging from it. Then, leafs started appearing at the branches that were in turn, projecting other sub-branches themselves.
In almost no time, a full-fledged, two meter tall tree was formed. The dead bug was now nothing more than a cracked exoskeleton, an empty shell. The bug had turned to nutrition, and was absorbed by the tree.
Few small bugs moved toward the tree.
Squeak!
Squeak!
Squeak!
As the bugs close to the tree, vines shot out from the ground, stabbing the approaching bugs.
The roots started digesting the stabbed bugs from the inside, and absorbing them. With few more squeaks, and futile struggle, the bugs dropped dead, as the tree sucked them dry, the same as the large bug, leaving them as empty shells.
Ramie stared, wide-eyed.
He could sense a tangible connection to the tree, as if it was an extension of his body.
To verify this sensation, Ramie willed, and several vines were shot from the ground around the tree, moving according to his will.
Ramie didn't feel delight in his heart at all, instead, he was bitter: 'if I ever meet the one that had made these artifacts, I'm gonna crack his head open….
Such ability… and the artifact didn't even mention it, o even hints at it…' ramie thought, grudgingly.
It was unknown whether this was the effect of consuming the flesh of his lower body, or the blood. But in either case, he could have made use of this ability as a poison, to lure the bugs and then turn them to a tree-ling, whatever did that meant.
Seeing the weird occurrence, many large bugs came over and attacked the tree.
The tree sent all of its vines, in self-defense, to kill and absorb, while the bugs kept hacking at it.
Finally, after taking down four more bugs, the tree was hacked to pieces. Ramie felt the connection to the tree disappears.
Anyway, by now, the formation was no more, turning into small pockets of gathered fighters, fending off for their lives, even if it was for few more moments. Half of them had already died.
This battle was not lost just now, but from the moment these arachnids took notice of this place. Ramie understood this concept.
Looking to the side, he saw a small dagger next to him. The ruins of the earth dome inscription could be seen at the handle.
'This dagger must have fallen off from Millard or someone else…'
Ramie reached out, and grabbed the sheathed dagger.
If he wanted to activate the earth dome inscription, all he had to do was to unsheathe the dagger, and stabbed it into the ground. However, with bugs everywhere, the inscription wouldn't last long, especially with the tier-2 beasts around.
Clitter!
Clitter!
Several other small bugs started coming over at him.
'So this is how I go…!'
Ramie seethed, as he watched the small bugs coming at him, vigorously.
A look of hatred crept to his face: 'How stupid was I…! To think that that I was happy to get this meager strength… it's a joke, I'm a joke!'
'I should have tried harder, and risked myself more, to get tier-2 magical cores…'
'Why haven't I tried harder? To survive such world, strength was the key! Only perusing safety had slowed my leveling up speed, leading to such scenario! This is something I already thought about countless times, but, but, I never got around to do it! why, why? ...… Wait… could it be…'
Bang!
Suddenly, a sudden realization struck Ramie like a crackle of thunder, rendering him dazed…
'It's… the bloodline…! The bloodline…!'
The beasts' bloodlines grant the artifact user the ability to wield powers unique to the respective beasts, where the bloodline originated! However, with such powers, consequences are sure to follow!
Ramie always wondered on the type of psychological side of the subterranean ghost tree bloodline… However, he never detected any.
But, now, he instantly realized the type of psychological effect the bloodline had induced in him.
The subterranean ghost tree is a beast known to have strong survivability. This meant that this beast's instincts to survive are much higher than his instincts to gain powers.
So, what could the psychological effect would be…
Now, ramie knew what this effect was… He was sure about it!
[ The effect was an extreme strong self preservation tendencies! ]
This was the reason why ramie's first instinct whenever something dangerous happens was to escape and ensure his safety, rather than to fight or confront the enemy.
The events of the past soon all flashed by ramie's mind, confirming this juncture.
- When he, Lance, and Neil fought the group in the bakery store, he didn't escape. But that was only because the two who fought him were incapable of posing any risk to his life…
- When he met Reem and Jeffry, and they told him that the military was out of the city, all what he could thing of at the time was to flee, and not look for small, weak magical beasts to get their cores and level up…
- When he saw the tier-2 crocodile beast massacre the other group of survivors at the harbor, unlike Lance, who wanted nothing more than to go and help, he himself only wanted to get away, fleeing for his safety. Although, like the others, he wasn't capable of doing anything even if he rushed to help those people, however, at least, the others with him thought of going to help, whilst his only aim at the time was to flee away…
- As to his fight with the dark element mage, and the wind mage at the night… he only fought because there was no room to retreat. He only fought because they specifically came for his life…
- In the fight with the flaying beasts in the compound, the others were giving it their all, while he decided that when things gets too dangerous, he'd flee the scene and hide in the nearby houses, abandoning the others…
Scenes and scenes kept flashing by in his mind, consolidating his assumption even firmer and firmer.
In the last period, the compound's power had risen by a large margin. Advancements and breakthroughs were being made every day, and the compound's total power curve was shooting up nonstop.
Although ramie was the cautious type and he never let his guard down… but still, seeing the compound's forces killing beasts at such rapid pace like they're nothing, had dulled his cautiousness toward the beasts a bit. He had thought that with such collective strength, he could afford to put his safety first, above risking his life to get more cores and strengthening himself.
This was the effect of his bloodline's psychological side effect!
However, what was the point of realizing that now…? He had prioritized safety over powering up, and now, the consequences came here to bite at him.
'If I have another chance, I'll pursue strength like crazy dog!' Ramie thought, his eyes bloodshot.
"If you want food, you have to work for it…" ramie roared, bitterly, at the bugs. Then, he unsheathed the dagger, before stabbing in into the ground.
Kr-krk-krak-kerak!
As the inscription was activated, the ground rose from around ramie, from all direction, joining above him, thus forming an earth dome around him.
Clitter!
Clitter!
Clitter!
Lying down in utter darkness, Ramie could hear the small bugs climbing the dome, looking for an entry point. However, after seeing that it was completely sealed off, the small bugs went rabid, attacking the dome.
This action of him was not going to save him, only delaying death, as even without any bug attacking the earth dome, and exhausting its magic energy, the inscription itself had a short time limit, as it was spending its energy just to maintain the dome structure.
'I wish I had remaining magic energy to try the rooting spell, and see its effect…?' Ramie thought, as he sensed that his remaining magic energy was less than tenth of one unit.
'Wait… the rooting spell is casted the same as my morphing spell… maybe… I should try and see…'
Knowing that death was coming the moment the inscription reaches it time limit, ramie was now desperate to try anything. Originally, he was waiting for another update to come, to learn what this forth spell of his can do, however, now that things had reached this point, there was no meaning in doing so.
Anyway, no matter what the effect of the spell could be, he doubted that it could help him defeat the crushing force of the bugs.
Bearing no hope in his heart in this working, ramie willed.
- Name: Ramie
- Lv.4 Magic Artifact (65%)
- Path: Bloodline Magic
- Class: Subterranean Ghost Tree (Special)
- Magic Energy: 69
- Innate Spell: Soul Perception
- Spells: Morphing (permanent), Green Vine (Rare), Ghost glare (Special), Rooting
- Unused skill points: 0
'Rooting!' he commanded.
< ???... >
< ???... >
< Cast: yes/no >
As the screen popped up, a sense of foreboding crept to his heart.
But, he had no idea if this sensation was because this spell's casting method was similar to the [morphing] spell, or because of the lack of infos, or because of something else.
However, regardless of the reason, there was no other choice here.
'Yes!'
Willing it, ramie felt his consciousness drift away, slowly.
As darkness started creeping on him, swallowing him… abruptly, Ramie felt his consciousness being pulled into a world of darkness.
In this world, he could see countless, variant-sized stars, glowing. His consciousness was being pulled at an incomprehensible speed, toward a certain star. Next, his consciousness collided with the star, and a scene was projected into his consciousness, spiking up his will to fight
Ramie saw the familiar figure of the wind mage standing at a small hill, watching the crumbling compound, with a cold expression.
'What is this…? Is it an epiphany, or are my brain chemicals going wild…?'
The wind mage wasn't alone, but there were three figures behind him, a man, a woman, and a teen-ache girl. However, unlike the wind mage, their faces were blurred; ramie was unable to clearly see them.
Ramie had no idea why he was seeing this scene, however, a deep, fury howled in his heart. It was as if this wind mage was behind every crisis that had ever struck him.
Even though this didn't make sense to ramie, however, his anger was genuine.
Without hesitation, and as the darkness was swallowing Ramie, he focused all of his strength, and sent a vine to the wind mage. The satisfied expression on his face as he enjoyed the calamity ongoing in the compound completely agitated Ramie, spiking up his fury.
Even though this was all his imagination, or something… However, ramie felt uncontainable anger.
As he sent the vine, the projected scene started wavering, at the edge of collapsing. It was as if the action of moving the vine in this scene was consuming his energy. If he was to stretch the vine even further, then he estimated that his energy wouldn't be able to support this scene.
Thus, ramie didn't extend the vine any longer, and wrapped it around the wind mage's neck.
The vine length wasn't sufficient to make a full circle around the neck, only half. Next, along ramie's will, the vine squeezed.
The wind mage unleashed an inhuman screech, as he struggled to free his neck.
As ramie squeezed the vine even harder, all of his energy was used up, and the projected scene was shattered.
Next, he was pulled away from the star, and his consciousness was swallowed, until only darkness remained…
'Huh, does this projected scene symbolize how much I hate that fellow…? Then, it would have been good if I had managed to crack his neck…'
Before Ramie completely loses his consciousness, he thought to himself, disappointedly.
…
On one of the hills that oversee the compound…
The stunned figure of Billy and his family stared with fear at the fallen Curtis.
A moment ago, he suddenly started screeching like a maniac, before falling to the ground with a frightened expression.
"Curtis! Curtis, what is happening with you, what is wrong?" the anxious voice of Billy drifted.
Right now, Curtis was on the ground, his face devoid of any color, like a zombie. Cold sweat was pouring off his body, without stop.
His scheme has been a great success.
After attracting the bug disaster to the prison, leading to the death of many of his enemies. He waited until the bug retreated back to their place, before going into the prison and looking for the antidote.
To his joy, he actually found it. Afterward, he repeated the same thing, using the remaining of the 'sample' he took.
He was standing at one of the hills, while watching the compound. However, just a moment ago, he felt as though a pair of eyes started at his back, causing his skin to crawl. Next, he felt as though something was reaching out to him, strangling him, and wanting to devour his soul.
However, there was literally nothing in sight! Neither he or the other three could see anything, at all!
He really felt that this was it, that there was no escape. This was the most frightened he has ever gotten in his entire life. He really was horrified, shitless.
People always feared what they don't understand the most, and this was the most mysterious happening that he has ever gone through.
Swallowing his fear, he got up with haste, and ran toward the car, at the base of the hill:"what are you all staring at like an idiots, just follow me, Now! We have to leave this place at once."
As he jumped into the car, he rubbed his neck, then, pulled down his shirts' collar, while looking at the mirror.
Hisssss!
Seeing his neck, he sucked in a cold breath of air, as his fear spiked up even higher.
He saw a violet-colored bruise mark at his neck, as though he was being strangled by a rope.
"*&^%$! What is happening in this world?'
Truth be told, he was waiting here to finish off the escapees. He was determined to not let anyone off the hook. However, he was now determined to leave this place at all costs, and never return in his life time.
…
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