Chapter 29

[Rare Quest: The World Tree’s Challenge]

[Find the World Tree and destroy it. You will find something hidden inside its giant trunk.]

It was a quest with a simple, yet intriguing explanation.

Even though he was sweating all over from the evening exercise, it was worth it as he was rewarded with a rare quest drop.

Hiro walked toward Liberty, who was deeply asleep in a sitting position. He didn’t know what she was dreaming about, but her brows were slightly furrowed and her lips were frowning a little.

“You’re going to get wrinkles fast if you sleep like this, Princess.”

He couldn’t help himself. She was just too adorable, even when she was sleeping.

Seeing that Liberty wasn’t showing any signs of waking up, Hiro decided to rest for a bit. Although it was her who insisted to come, he didn’t have the heart to wake her up.

Hiro then shifted her sleeping position to sleep on his lap, but the girl’s eyes didn’t move a bit.

She was sleeping like a log.

Hiro took off his cloak to cover Liberty’s body so she wouldn’t feel cold sleeping outside at this hour. Meanwhile, he could feel a fresh, breezy sensation as the midnight breeze blew.

“Three days until the official release, huh,” he muttered. “Which server are you going to pick, Libe?”

Hiro stroked Liberty’s hair to make her sleep more comfortably. Even he didn’t know where he got the courage to touch her longer.

The sky above the forest seemed bright. Millions of tiny stars were shining up there, far in space. The pollution in the real world was becoming more and more severe by the years so that he could only see the beauty of the night sky through the internet or TVs.

The more he paid attention to the details in the world of LSO, the more he loved this realistic in-game world.

…

Before Hiro knew it, two hours had passed. Despite having his cloak on her, Liberty finally woke up due to the cold air.

“Hiro,” she softly called with a hoarse voice.

Hiro responded with a gentle smile, “Did I wake you up?”

Liberty pulled her body to get up. Under his curious gaze, she moved to sit in front of Hiro and looked at him very closely. Too closely, in fact. She was so close that he could even smell her sweet scent.

“Where am I?”

Hiro couldn’t contain his chuckle when he heard her ask such a question with a dazed expression. This was the first time he saw such a look on her face.

‘She even forgot where she fell asleep?’

“It’s cold.” The girl shivered.

However, before he could take out the other costume he had in his inventory to warm her up, Liberty suddenly hugged him tight.

Hiro felt strange. As soon as he realized what was happening, his entire body felt warm and his brain urged his body to increase the production of adrenaline hormones in large quantities.

Hiro’s heartbeat rose as if he was exercising. He realized late that his body had stiffened, but just as he was about to try relaxing it, Liberty pulled away and shyly looked at him.

“Ahh, your heartbeat was so loud. Are you okay, Hiro?”

Hiro gave an awkward smile and nodded. But still, he couldn’t control his heartbeat.

And, not wanting to feel that strange feeling again, he decided to stand up and invite Liberty to leave the area.

He told her that he had one more thing to do before returning to Beginner Town. To his surprise, even though the girl was in dire need of sleep, she still insisted on following him.

“I’ll walk you home and go on my own,” Hiro explained, trying to convince her.

But the girl still shook her head in a spoiled manner.

“We’ll go home together after you’re done with your business.”

He sighed. “Okay… but … wait a sec … Go home? You mean your home here?”

He quickly brushed off the dirty thought that briefly popped into his mind and hurriedly took a deep breath to control his restless heartbeat.

“Yeah sure, where else?”

“Uhmm … okay.” Hero didn’t know how to react.

“Ok, Deal. No more questions.” Liberty made a gesture to lock her lips in a cute way.

After they finished conversing, Hiro continued to follow the coordinates pinned on the map to head to the World Tree, his next target.

Fortunately, the tree’s location was not too far from his current location, allowing him to save time and energy.

With the help of the stars’ illumination, the two walked in the dark night without difficulty.

Perhaps it was because he knew that this was just a world in a game, but the dark atmosphere of the night was not so scary. Not when compared to forests in real life where he had to worry about murderers or carnivorous wild animals, at least.

…

After a while, the two finally arrived in front of the World Tree.

The shape of the World Tree reminded Hiro of the number one record holder of the largest tree based on its trunk size in the world, the General Sherman tree.

The World Tree stood at a towering height of 275 ft (83.8 m) and was over 36 ft (10.9 m) in diameter at its base. Even the higher part of its trunk was still wide. 60 ft (18.3 m) above the base, the World Tree was 17.5 ft (5.3 m) in diameter.

“Oh my God! General Sherman!?” Liberty exclaimed in shock. She couldn’t believe her eyes. At that moment, The girl suddenly became wide awake and ran toward the tree before Hiro.

“Looks like she still has some spare energy,” Hiro muttered.

He then approached the gigantic tree to check its durability.

[World Tree]

[HP 1,000,000]

“What the hell!?”

‘A million!?’

Doubt flashed in his mind.

‘Is this challenge really doable?’

Hiro immediately tried slashing his greatsword at the gigantic tree’s trunk with all his might.

SPLAT!

[HP -1,000]

If he only used his basic attacks, it would take him around a thousand slashes. Moreover, he needed about five seconds of pause before he could continue with another basic attack. At this rate, it would take him over 83 hours of slashing non-stop to destroy the tree.

‘That won’t do, I only have two days.’

Next, Hiro tried using Sword Combo Skill to beat up the trunk and estimated the amount of time required to destroy it.

The total damage of the maximum combo of 10x ranged from 8,800 to 10,100 with a pause of three seconds before he could start the next combo. With that much damage, he would be able to destroy the tree in around 5–6 hours, which was about 7–8 times faster than using only his basic attacks.

However, if he wanted to use this method, he would have to use around 115 of his Energy Potion stock.

Hiro checked his inventory.

[120x Energy Potion(s)]

He was really going to use up his Energy Potions to complete the challenge of destroying the gigantic tree.

Hiro told Liberty that he had a quest to destroy the tree by attacking it.

The girl looked at him with eyes full of doubt.

“You’re going to cut it down with your sword? Hiro, that’s impossible!”

“I’ve calculated it, Libe. I’ll need five to six hours to destroy it, do you still want to stay?”

“Just six hours? I’m not sure you can destroy it, Hiro, but I’ll give you six hours and borrow your cloak to use as a sleeping mat.”

Hiro chuckled upon hearing her firm reply. He nodded and waited until Liberty found the most comfortable spot for her to wait for him, and the girl actually planned to continue her sleep.

“Don’t mind me! I will just sleep here. Do your impossible job, Hiro!” she shouted from a far.

Her behavior was really entertaining.

Hiro properly readying and positioning himself, then he began to attack and slash the monstrous tree.

“Let’s do this, General!”

“You better give me a promising item in return!”