Discovery & Adventurers?

Discovery & Adventurers?

Year 72 Month 8

A small group of young adventurers appear, six of them, on horses. Heavily armed, their horses exhausted, they made camp next to me. It seems like being the only large tree in this vast field does seem to draw attention.

I think that tree in the middle of the field looks nice.

I think so too. Lets go have a look.

These six adventurers, they stand next to me, examine my trunk and the leaves, and the trees that now flourish around me. At this distance, I make out that there are four girls and two boys.

One of them look around, and she sits down on one of my protruding roots, then admires the view of the fields. Its a nice view, even though it's probably one made by the demons.

"Yea, good place to take a nap. Our journey to the rifts is still a few days to go, and we best enjoy this peace and quiet while we can."

"True." So they then set up camps next to me, and rest that night.

The next morning, a group of fifteen demons appear in the distance, and I learn from Jura that these large winged creatures are known as manticores. They make their presence known with a loud roar, and that wakes the adventurers. Silly, these manticores. They should just keep their mouth shut and attack the adventurers while they sleep. The adventurers though seem unshaken, as if its a normal occurrence for them. In fact, it seems the adventurers already set up some kind of magical defense, and a huge thunderbolt zaps the manticore that intrudes into the area marked.

A long haired girl shout some kind of chant, and an orb of red lightning float between her two palms. The red lightning leaps out of her two palms in a flash, and it zaps three of the flying manticores, and fries them instantly. They fall onto the ground, charred.

The leader of the adventurers, a guy wielding some kind of warstaff, he raises it and creates a forcefield that blocks all the manticore's acidic spits. And after that another chant, which cause all the manticores to move sluggishly. The other guy of the adventurers then takes out some kind of contraption that resembles a very long rifle, and fires a high speed orb. It explodes mid air and blasts a few of the slow moving manticores caught in the explosion into pieces.

A short haired one wearing a thin armor, flicks something that looks like a fan, and a huge gust of wind appears. The force of the wind pushes all of the manticores, and they fall onto the ground in a smack. The two remaining girls,, both pull out a pair of shortswords, and they slash the remaining grounded manticores to death.

One of the twinsword girls smile. I gain a level. I get a skill! She jumps around, happy.

Oh what did you get? The other twinsword girl taps her on the shoulder

[Flawless Dodge].

Oh cool. I didnt get any. The guy that cast the forcefield sigh, and he sits on one of my roots. He takes out some kind of cloth and starts to clean his warstaff.

Stop whining, youre Level 75! I am just level 63! The twinsword girl shouts.

Meanwhile, the mage girl is harvesting the remains of the manticore corpses alone with a small dagger and a bag. After going through a few of the manticores, she notices she's doing it alone and then glances over at the rest of her teammates, and asks. You peeps not helping to collect them loot?

The rest of them unanimously shakes ther head. You do it. Well just ruin it.

The mage girl rolls her eyes. Ugh. You know my ability works as long as I am around!

Aint taking that risk!

They banter for a while, and rest. After cleaning up their camp, they soon set out towards the demonic rift.

Year 72 Month 8, two days later.

Five demon knights, on hellhounds arrive. It seems they are following the scent of the adventurers. These demon knights are previously human, but their body has been corrupted by the demonic forces and then transformed. As they are once human, they still speak normally to each other, with the only difference is their voice.

They were here. One of the riders pat his hellhound, tracking their scent. They are headed for the southern rift.

Another rider examines the dirt, and some of the little remains from the battle. Six of them, still on horses. Probably rested here for a day.

No sign of any injury. Looks like the manticores are unable to hurt them. Will need more powerful monsters. The rest of the demon knights nod.

Two of the demon knights start chanting some kind of spell. It looks like some kind of communication spell.

At this point, I wonder whether I can beat these demon knights. You think we can take them on, Jura?

Jura shakes his head. They have abilities and skills like a normal human, so I am not sure of our chances. They could be very strong, or just like a normal human. I've never fought one, so... I honestly can't say."

Somehow, I decide to let them go.

Year 72 Month 9

A huge explosion in the distance. Then another.

And another.

The earth shakes constantly, even though the explosion is so far away. The sky above is filled with streaks of colors. Its not a pleasant sign, one of fighting.... perhaps monsters.

TreeTree, these explosions They are starting to get nearer.

More explosions.The vibration and shaking gets stronger. In the distance, a huge rupture, as rocks shoot up.

And Jura sees it. Two large flying creatures, each breathing some kind of elemental attack at a small group.

Its the six adventurers!

The earth shakes so badly, my roots increases its grip on the earth, reducing the shaking. More explosions and spells criss cross the skies. The explosions and destruction sends huge plumes of dust into the air, and it creates a minor dust storm, blocking some of the sunlight.

More explosions, and I could sense the adventurers fall back.

The adventurer group retreats, while retaliating with ranged attacks. The two large demonic wyverns are also accompanied by a huge swarm of hellhounds and lesser demons, but they keep their distance. It seems the wyvern's elemental breaths deal a whole lot of collateral damage.

Bam! An explosion right at one of the demonic wyvern's chest.

And it falls onto the ground, and the earth shakes from the impact.

Ugh yes! The adventurers take the opportunity to run, and three of them are heavily injured. The remaining wyvern try to chase, and a nicely placed fireball from the magegirl manage to tear one of its wings. Unable to fly, it chases after the adventurers on its two large foot. Luckily, it's a lot slower this way.

They run towards me, and at this time they notice a large group of demons appearing on the other direction. The demons have the adventurers surrounded with hellhounds.

The tree. Let's fight there. The fan girl points at me, and they try to run as fast as they can. Well, any cover is better than no cover.

As the adventurers reposition themselves around me, I can now sense that the gunner man , and twinsword girls are injured. Their spirits is wavering, flickering, and one of the twinsword girls' spirit seems engulfed in some kind of demonic fire, or rot. I'm not sure.

Around me, it's hordes of hounds, and lesser demons. Only the now lumbering demonic wyvern approaches, but this is after a moment of hesitation.

They the rest dont seem to be approaching?

Huh?! Great! One of the mage girls seem really surprised, and she scrambles over to help her injured compatriots. "You guys deal with it. I need to look after them."

The wyvern roars, and then it charges at me and the adventurers. Its already injured from all the ranged attacks, so the moment I feel like I can get a good shot.

[Root strike]

It stabs it right in the abdomen. Some of its inner matter splurt out, but nothing too serious... yet.

Its not dead yet, but the stab slows it down.

[Root strike] x 2 I hit the abdomen of the wyvern again, and this time one of the roots manage to pierces through, and stabs the wyvern right through the chest. And it falls. The death of the wyvern scares the rest of the hounds and the lesser demons, and causes them to be afraid to approach.

Oh wow. The forcefield man touches my trunk. A tree spirit! We're saved!

The mage girl shakes her head, still trying to look at her friends. They are dying!

Bring them to me, I mentally tell the mage girl, and she uses a kind of magic to levitate all 3 of the injured adventurers next to me, and a small branch reaches out, touching them.

[Solar Healing]

[Healing fruit]

[Nourish]

The wounds start to close a little, and I could sense their spirit start to stabilise. Two of them recover quickly, their wounds and cuts heal, except the twin sword girl, who took a deep stab into her chest. She's the one who I seem to see some kind of demonic presence in her body, gnawing away at her. She yelps in pain.

Dont die. The mage girl holds her hand.

The twinsword girl smiles weakly. I keep trying to heal her, but that demonic energy is interfering with the healing. Or more like, it's just undoing whatever healing we apply.

No. The mage girl holds her hand tightly. No, no, no.

The demons keep trying to get close, but without the giant demon, the rest of them are just small fries, easily defeated by the forcefield dude, and the other wind-wielding girl.

I extend of my thinner feeler-like branches, touch the wounded girl on the head, and activate my healing abilities. The wounds recover a bit, but it lasts only for a short moment, before it somehow opens again.

The demons. Damn them! They used some kind of special demonic rot attack, and the effects are still in her body it will keep burning away at her body, despite our attempts to heal her. To really heal her, we need to remove that demonic rot, and in the meantime, all we can do it keep her alive. The mage girl curses, and then glances up at the tree. We need to coordinate our healing. We cast healing alternately, so that her body does not deteriorate too much.

With the other twinsword girl and gunner healed, the remaining 4 adventurers unleash their fury, and slaughter the remaining demon swarm. The huge numbers of the hellhounds mean very little for this group of powerful adventurers, now fueled by anger and desperation. The demons numbers fall quickly, as the 4 healed adventurers unleash wave after wave of attacks. The hellhounds start to flee, it seems they too are frightened of the adventurers.

And about two hours later, there's not a single living demon in sight. They have all either fled, or died.

That then shifts the focus to the injured twinsword girl, still battling against the demonic rot inside her.

Tree spirit, do you have any pain reduction spells?

Hmm.. no.

But I wonder I can produce saps or materials that can suppress the pain. I recall quite a few medical products that are derived from plants.

[Trees natural abilities unlocked : Tree extracts & saps ]

Oh. Wow. A menu pops up and shows me a huge list. Rubber, oils, poisons, fragrances, saps

Wait. Found it.

Pick some leaves and make tea. I mentally tell Laufen.

A small branch with odd colored leaves appear right next to the wall.

Huh? Oh okay Tree-Tree. Laufen runs to get hot water, quickly snap a few leaves off the branch, and quickly mashes it.

The process of making the herbal tea takes about an hour, but eventually the fragrance of the tea starts to come out , and they feed Meela the tea.

She yelps from the hot tea, but as the tea flows into her body, it releases a pain-suppression effect. Alexis grabs the remainder and examines it, just to make sure its nothing dangerous.

Ah

Meela falls back into slumber.

They make the tea for Meela every 6 to 7 hours, as the pain would pop up every now and then, and a few more days pass by.

Year 72 Month 10

Meelas still in a state of assisted living, her body still affected by the demonic rot.

[Tree saps & extracts upgraded]

Thanks to constant use of the leaves for the pain-numbing tea, it levels up, and its more potent and longer lasting. Thanks to it, she could stay awake for about 30 minutes to an hour per day to talk, which helps Hendry and Alexiss mood greatly.

Dont worry, I wont die. Meela smiles, looking around the room. This feels like a hospital. Its a familiar place.

Alexis shakes her head. No. Well get you fixed up again, okay?

Hendry frequently spends his time climbing up my branches, and sometimes just sitting out in the sky. This is probably his way of coping with being trapped here, his friend wounded in this manner.

Apparently the stars are beautiful, and there are more moons here.

Later that month, we had demonic visitors again.

The demon knights. Hendry grips his warstaff.

Riding on the hellhounds, eight of them. They wield a mix of weapons, three with swords, two with spears, two with bows and arrows, and one with a staff. Alexis holds him back, No. You can win, but we must hide. We do not want the entire demon swarm coming down on us. The demon knights are looking for us, you know it. Hide. Not fight. Not with Meela injured.

Hendry sighs, but agrees. The demon knights ride up to me.

Hmm, their scent fades here.

Some went that way but not all of them.

Two.. maybe three is here.

They look at me, and three of the demon knights raise their sword. Their sword flashes, into a burning sword, and the three of them slash my trunk repeatedly.

And it feels like an itch.

Huh. The demon knights pause, as their slashes do not seem to work. Strange

To be honest, Ive always found my defense against demons extremely strange too. But hey, not complaining. They slash a few more times, before the demon knight with a staff walks close and cast some kind of spell.

[Detect resistance]

Oh. Theres such a spell.

The demon knight pauses. Oh. Oh no.

The other demon knights turn and look, What?

This tree. It has [Demon immunity : Midtier] and [Elder demon damage reduction - 84%]

Im shocked too.

How?! One of the demon knights ask, their attacks now stopped. They probably realise its futile in face of that sort of resistances. It looks just like any other large tree.

At this point, I realise I probably should not let these knights run, and a few [root strike] surges out of the ground, right through the hellhound and into the demon knights. One manage to leap, but still the root crushes through his demonic armor.

Turns out these demon knights are just pretty much humans in armor, so in an instant, all of them are dead, skewered by roots. They probably are tougher than regular humans by a bit, but against my root strike it's still just paper.

After the battle, Hendry and Jura asks. Tree-Tree, how did you get your demonic damage reduction?

Uh I dont know.

Is it an item you have? Alexis asks. Some items reduce damage from demons. [Wards]

At this point, I can only think of my fragments. I attempt to take out one fragment, but an error pops up.

*Fragments cannot be separated. Its fused to your body.*

Oh, but I can move where they all are.

Alexis, Laufen, Im going to show you something, help me examine and inspect it.

They both nod, and the roof shakes a little. And the wooden roof move in a circular fashion, , revealing a lantern-like object made of intricately shaped wood, with dozens of little lights floating inside. It pulses in a regular fashion, with tiny flashes within.

Oh its beautiful.

[Inspect equipment] Laufen uses her only inspection ability, and then shakes her head. I cant see a thing. Its just filled with unknowns and question marks.

[Thorough Examination] Alexis has a far superior identification spell, and after she uses it she loses her strength and sits on the floor.

You okay? Hendry tries to hold her.

I.. I am. Alexis points at it. Im just stunned. That.. that thing is your heart, isnt it?

Oh. I think so. It kinda does feel like it is my center. They are right now inside me, anyway.

[The Trees Heart and Spirit-Lantern], this is the heart of the tree, adorned with the fragments of 56 heroes, it gives the tree 2800% increase in experience gain, 560% extra damage against midtier demons, 280% extra damage against elder demons, partial demon armor-negation, immunity to lesser demons, damage reduction against elder demons and significantly reduce damage from fire.

So all the fragments do have a function after all.

Hendry pauses. Alexis, are you sure?

She nods.

We must tell the others. We must revisit how and where the battles with the demons is fought. This ability transforms this location into a favorable battlefield for us. We can save lives!

Jura and Laufen sit, Tree-Tree, I didnt know youre so amazing.

Alexis then looks at Meela, whos still asleep. TreeTree, can you please move your heart closer to Meela?

It is right next to her now. A prompt appears. Do you want to absorb Meela Adams?

I shake off the prompt, answering no.

Alexis looks at Meelas condition. Hmmm.. no effect. The rot is still there. It seems the resistance is not shared by the glow. Oh well.

I keep my heart back, suddenly realise its probably very dangerous for me to reveal it that way. Perhaps if it is destroyed, I would die? I think so. Now that I know the source of my past effectiveness is due to the fragments, that means against non-demon enemies, Im actually significantly weaker, and someone of incredible power like Hendry or the humans could probably easily destroy me.

[You gained 3 levels. You are now level 92.]

[Skills upgraded : Secret hideout - healing chamber adaptation]

[Obtained skill : Summon insect warriors]

[Obtained skill : Super anti-demon root-strike]

[Obtained skill : Customisable branches]