Chapter 57 – Seedling Stomper

Chapter 57 – Seedling Stomper

“You....” A voice like rattling branches scratching over ancient bark echoed through the woods. It dripped with disgust as thick as sap. “...I can feel the taint of sin on you...”

“Can you be more specific?” Victoria asked the disembodied voice.

“....The male amongst you...He has killed younglings. So many younglings...and the one with the stupid pink hair...”

“Ya take that back, I’m cursed to look this good!” Rave cracked her knuckles.

“...she has sinned as well...”



“Is this good or bad?” John thought out loud. Getting the boss to spawn quickly was fundamentally good. They had the people and the levels on their side. What he was missing, however, was intel.

The bark of a nearby tree started to bulge and stretch. A being emerged, an upright creature with a dense network of roots serving as its legs and two branches extending as its arms. It was shorter than John by about a head. Brown and gnarled bark served as its skin, matching the tree it was birthed from. The plant itself returned to its natural state. Only a cross-shaped mark betrayed the emergence of the monster.

‘Monsters and the boss?’ John thought. ‘That could be an issue.’



‘If Gaia could stop stealth patching stuff, that would be great. I mean, I just wake up one day and the info above people’s heads is gone.’ John mentally complained.

“Can ya believe what that thing said?!” Rave shouted angrily.

John looked at her, the normally playful pink lustre in her eyes was deadly serious. Only time he saw her more agitated was on the day they had gotten together. Then and now, he shared her agitation. After all, the voice had just said something terrible. “It called your hair stupid.”

“IT CALLED MY HAIR STUPID!” Rave was engulfed in a blue, flame like aura. “I am going to punch that thing in whatever it has for a face!” She exclaimed and stormed at the Treant.

“What is hurt?” Aclysia asked in turn.

“Ah, I guess you can’t feel it then?” John thought out loud.

“What makes you say that, Creator?” Aclysia tilted her head inquisitively.

“I believe, if you could feel it, you’d know what I was talking about.”

Aclysia tilted her head a little further. Rather than ask further, she pondered the answer she had been given. The Gamer, meanwhile, was certain he knew what being hurt felt like. The many tears the combat had ripped into Aclysia’s outfit ached in his heart. The perfect cosplay – ruined. ‘Probably not the smartest idea to take expensive clothes into a dungeon.’

“BANG! BANG! BANG!” The series of gunshots made John turn around in a hurry. His father had taken him to a gun range once before (and only once, neither of them had particularly enjoyed being there), so he knew the sound.

Victoria was behind him, blasting holes into another Treant. John was witness simultaneously to the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of a gun in the Abyss. The repeated blasts of raw kinetic force kept the creature at bay. Each shot ripped more of its wooden body out. Beyond that, however, the monster kept on moving. It took Victoria over ten bullets to finally dispatch the creature. A less stupid and more nimble target and she’d run out of ammunition rapidly. If she shot at Aclysia, the bullets would probably do next to nothing, considering the Artificial Spirit’s steel innards.

During the entire thought process, John could not help but stare at the woman’s breasts. Each shot made them jiggle under her shirt. It was a pretty fantastic sight. He caught himself before she noticed and beheld Rave instead. He was allowed to stare at her as much as he wanted. She was staring at Victoria’s tits.

Once the Treant was dispatched, the gunslinger checked her weapon. Another weakness was that a single jam would spell her doom. Rave and John’s weapons were innate, they couldn’t be taken from them. Guns were definitely powerful, especially at this level, but they would be a bad investment as they went further up the magical ladder.

‘Still could have gotten some good grinding done on my own if I had gotten my hands on a firearm,’ the Gamer realized. A handgun and he could have blasted some rats into smithereens. ‘But where would I have gotten the money for ammunition?’ “Right, before I forget, Victoria?”

The stern woman turned around, demanding him to continue with a glare.

“I’ll invite you to my party now. Please accept,” he told her.

The window appeared in front of Victoria. She backed away in surprise, then read its contents. “No,” she stated as she pressed it away. “I don’t trust your powers enough yet to just enter this... ‘party’.” Her tone made it clear she was not going to argue on this.

John clicked his tongue. “Fine then,” he said, meekly, then he continued harsher. If he was going to be more assertive, he had to start somewhere. “Don’t kill anything, in that case, or you’ll be messing with us getting Experience.” He then turned away from her. It was not a great sign that she joined the guild but not the group.