Chapter 125: Chapter. 110: Treant Connection

I decided to head outside to the forest. I didn’t exactly feel like I had privacy inside the place I was invited to. There was almost no reason to not run away, but at the same time, if he, The Light Maker, found out I had dark plant affinity during my alone ventures, then from the sounds of it, I was going to die. In that sense, it was best to stick by him and try to get free levels off of his help.

I left the cave I was in, and found a different place to be in ⁠— just for now. My danger sense told me it was as peaceful as ever, it was almost like a cove of trees. I sat down on the soft grass and stared at the moonlight. I looked at the trial time and:

[Trial Period: 28 days 14 hours 12 minutes]

Quite some time had passed since I had last looked at it. I took a deep breath of the earthy smell, took in the sentiment of the dark plants surrounding me; the damp ground, and the dark corners of the trees. The looming presence of the world tree that had sprouted, and finally, I took out the Encyclopedia of the Dark from my ring. I felt a sense of calm as I got a hold of it, but there was also a completely different feeling. Looming pressure.

If The Light Maker found out I had such a thing, I was unsure about what he would do. At the same time, sitting here and not progressing the trial bothered me more than it should. I disliked not having options ⁠— so much for waiting. A sigh left me as I opened the book, I wanted to at the very least understand what I had to do to get the trial objective, and the quest objective done.

The black pages whirled and began to show text.

‘An artificial heart. It can be called an artifact, or in other words an item. One of invaluable rarity. The grade of the heart will affect the bearer⁠⁠—’ I paused for a moment. Perhaps it could be replaced later.

‘A complex artifact. That’s what it is⁠—’ the writing shifted and became Lumina’s.

‘Resurrection plant 101, for my dearest successor. First locate my body, if you know where it is⁠— good. If you don’t then how did you even find this book? Well, times change, what do I even know? Locate my body, and once you do, if it’s not destroyed anyway, begin production of the heart following the instructions. Once the heart is done, just shove it in my chest cavity, that’s all, that’s all you have to do and I will be alive. Well feed it some mana too.

What does my resurrection entitle? Well, you will have my gratitude, of course! As you can tell, I’m very tired when writing this⁠— anyway, let us move onto the steps. There was a very curious discovery I made in this place, the Crimson Stretch, a dark plant material I had never seen before. I can trace it back to Adastra to some extent, it’s sentient on its own and tries to connect everything to itself like one big hivemind. It’s quite scary actually.

I’ve called this material ⁠— Blight. I am unsure of how it came to be, but it’s deeply unstable. It’s produced deep underground by what I assume to be a world tree sapling. Ah, actually, it should be near this book.’

I paused as a new thought came to mind. My eyes wandered over in the direction of the gigantic treant, I couldn’t see it but I could certainly feel it. I felt the book within my hands as I began to realize ⁠— the only reason to why the treant was there right now, was due to the fact that I had taken the book. I was unsure of how Blight Corruption came to be and how it was related to the Blight material referenced in the book, but I heavily disliked the implications of everything.

I frowned as I began to read more.

‘Anyway, get some of this material, and using the fake Adastra, you should be able to mold it into a heart. Animate it like a treant ⁠— be warned that it will take a ridiculous amount of mana to do so ⁠— and once you have a conglomerate of mana or whatever. Stick it on my body. That will serve as a very makeshift artificial heart. I trust you, disciple. Normally, I’d ask you to find a Dark Dryad and rip their heart out, but they are all kind of dead, so… plant heart it is.’

Okay, but… What was the fake Adastra? I frowned, now even more confused than before. And at that moment, a system notification came.

[New Sub-Objective: Secure material known as Blight. Hint: Plant based.]

The System itself did not even know what it meant. I sighed. I didn’t even know where to start. I thought for a few moments, before something didn’t click with me. If Blight was near that book, then⁠— and if they were the same as Blight Corruption, then as The Light Maker had claimed, the corrupted monsters should’ve been much more abundant near the center of the forest. But matter of fact was that, they weren’t.

Then again… Maybe someone had stumbled upon the chamber and taken the Blight thing and caused Blight Corruption? I frowned. Someone else had found the book and Lumina’s body yet left it untouched? I didn’t like the sound of that at all. Lumina had clearly been dead for longer than the corruption existed. According to The Light Maker the Corruption had been detected about a week ago.

I felt the book around my hands. It’s a recent thing. I just had to make the so-called artificial heart, but I found everything utterly confusing. At the same time, where was Elasia even? What did blight even look like? I had too many questions.

I stowed away the book as I stood up. I was unsure of what to make of things, but for now I had to figure out what exactly was Blight Corruption and how it was artificial. At the same time, the description that Lumina’s notes provided was a bit weird, at least in comparison to what I knew about Blight Corruption⁠— or maybe not.

From the sounds of it. Both took over beings.

Maybe I was looking for the same thing as The Light Maker, except he wanted to destroy it and I wanted a piece of it? I cursed my luck for a moment as I decided to make my way back to the house. The trial had gone out of proportion in more ways than one.

It took just a few minutes, but I stood outside the metal box once more. The door opened for me as if accepting me, and I entered without problems, and then I paused. Not too far away from me, on the table stood the man looking at a picture of the world tree.

“Did something happen outside?” He asked with a frown.

I thought for a moment. “Not that I know of, why?”

“The treant is looking in this direction and is showing signs of wanting to move, that’s why.”

I felt my mood take a nosedive. Everything seemed to be going sideways constantly, the question was why⁠— what happened that⁠— my eyes paused as they looked at a System notification within my vision:

[Emergency Objective: Protect the Great Encyclopedia of the Dark from the Blight Corrupted Asbes Treant.]

No way. The treant could⁠— sense the stupid book? I froze as my heart raced, the man continued examining the screen with a deep frown.

“Do you think you could kill the treant?” I asked.

“Hell no,” he scoffed. “I would need to be B grade and know a few Epic Essence skills to kill it.”

“You aren’t B grade?” I asked with pause.

He tensed. “I am close. You said you were quite new to The System, I am unsure about what new worlds were integrated but from your level you’ve had quite a smooth sailing. Problems arise at C grade and above.”

“What do you mean?” I asked with more curiosity than annoyance.

“The evolution requirements get steeper every time. First it starts with a Grand Feat, and then⁠— no forget it. You will figure it out. For now we should be more concerned about whether we should move the base or try to see if the treant stays there.”

I did a slow nod. The treant was incredibly worrisome. However, I also wanted some information. With that in mind, I decided to ask.

“All of this because someone did dark plant experimentation and created the corruption?”

The Light Maker let out a sigh. “Yeah, this stupid mess and I went from having vacations to now stuck in this death place.”

“Vacations?”

“Nothing that you should concern yourself over. I could just be doing other things.” He corrected his posture after a bit. “That said, once the corruption is dealt with, I won’t need to care about whether the treant is here or not.”

I frowned. “What level is it?”

“I don’t know, however, question marks always mean trouble.” He shook his head. “If someone’s race is question marks, it’s trouble. If their levels are question marks, it’s also trouble.”

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“Why?” I was certainly annoyed, but also curious.

“I’m just speaking from experience.”

I nodded and stood next to him looking at the treant.

“So you will be out of here if we find the corruption, and I will be out of here if I get my trial done…” I commented.

“Pretty much.”

I took a deep breath as I made yet another decision.

“One of the sub-objectives for my trial is a sample of the blight itself, and it has a hint.”

The man said nothing as he thought. “So you want to help with that, and we both can be happy?”

I sighed. “Yeah…”

“If…” there was a silence. “If you are willing to enter a mana contract to share the information, one that doesn’t allow lies, then I am more than happy to help with everything.”

I frowned as I looked at the table. I took a second to think before replying.

“If my protection and the classification of the information is ensured past this pact, then I will agree. If the information of my trial were to get out, then I fear I might pay the price with my life.”

That was bullshit. The man pondered.

“So, even if I wanted to kill you after entering this agreement, or say anything regarding the matter, I would have no choice but to grit my teeth?” He asked with curiosity.

“Sort of.”

He nodded as if agreeing. “The problem with these types of contracts is that they cannot be that steep. Of course, you wouldn’t know any better. Best I could do was the classification of your information until my death. Not a single soul would know. But if you think I am deceiving you, we can try your terms, I have no problem if it means I can just get out of here faster.”

“Let’s try my terms then.”

He chuckled. “You really don’t trust me, huh?”

◇ ◇ ◇

Oath, pact, contract. All of them were pretty much the same, bound by mana until they were completed. At the same time, I made an ugly face as I stared at the notification.

[Conditions too steep ⁠— Neither of the parties are high enough level for this Contract.]

In the end, it ended up a bit different.

[Do you want to enter an oath with ⁠— Entity (C Grade) The Light Maker. Lvl. 232 ⁠— Terms:

⁠— Information that Entity: The Light Maker, discovers about Entity: Realm Breaker, must be kept quiet for eternity.

⁠— Information shared during the following 30 days is solely for the purpose of completing individual objectives and is completely truthful. The source of the information does not need to be disclosed.

⁠— Entity: The Light Maker, accepts to protect and help, Entity: Realm Breaker, for 30 days.]

I ended up accepting it, after reviewing it numerous times. The man in front of me, The Light Maker, sighed ⁠— I didn’t blame it considering it took numerous hours.

“Alright, now tell me all about it.”

“The Blight comes from a sapling of a dark plant and is formed deep underground. The thing is, that this Blight came from where the treant came from.” I sighed. “If it was moved, then it must still be underground, but no longer there. After all, there are hardly any corrupted monsters in the inner forest.”

“You were in the inner forest?” He asked with some surprise.

“I don’t need to be there to just see anything that goes in happens to die. There would be no corrupted monsters if it came from there.” I snorted, completely diverting his assumption.

“That is true. Any other hint?”

“The treant is after an item, but it won’t move until it senses it.” I let out a breath.

He lifted his brow. “And you hold said item?”

“No, or the treant would already be over here, don’t you think?”

The Light Maker rolled his eyes. “I get it, you are totally not related to the random treant that popped up.” He shook his head, muttering something about why did he even bother to agree to things. “Alright, any other information that should be shared?”

I frowned. “I can’t think of any.”

The man nodded and stood up. “Alright, tomorrow we go kill shit and start the proper search for corruption.” He walked to his room and turned to me. “I look forward to working with you, Realm Breaker.”

“I do too… The Light Maker.”

He chuckled at my awkwardness and left me alone.