Chapter 134: Chapter. 119: Material Gathering, And Deep Danger

I frowned and gazed at him questioningly. The Light Maker shook his head.

“Look, no amount of flashing lights will destroy this whole thing.” He shrugged. “We must think of something to eliminate it. Use that book of yours, maybe it speaks of some type of weakness.”

A sigh left me. “You are no less impulsive than I am.”

“Yes, but unlike you I try to avoid these situations rather than actively search for them.” He crossed his arms. “Once things are in motion, it is simply better to go with the flow.”

I snorted and took out the book from my ring. The entire sapling trembled at that moment, but did nothing as its looming spikes and branches simply faced me, rattling as if they were in deep anger. The treant off in the distance let out a deep bellow of rage that consisted of nothing but cracking that traveled through the wind. I felt the earth rumble even more.

“Huh, that really set it off.” The Light Maker commented.

I just glared at him. “Since when did you become obnoxious?”

“As soon as I decided that I was going to help you rather than use you.” He emphasized. “Besides, I am basically done with work forever. I am deserting⁠— fucking off somewhere off in the distance I cannot deal with corruption.”

“System Corruption, wasn’t that a supposed myth?”

“No, as in people in power being dishonest and having wrongful conduct.” He thought. “I suppose things like bribery are common.” Then he turned to look at the sapling. “But yes, speaking of System Corruption, I can clearly see that ‘Unknown’ text flickering and blurring. I suppose you were right.”

“The⁠—”

“Now, open your book and look for some type of solution. Anything.” The Light Maker hurried.

I paused and nodded, before opening the book and peering into its contents. The black pages flicked, ever so slowly as I simply followed my instincts as my finger slid across the side of the pages, until finally⁠— it paused on one. I opened the page as the contents showed itself to me:

Adastra, the originator of life, the first dark plant. The first World Tree. Isn’t it fascinating? However, as a young sapling things are different, it’s like a completely different thing altogether. Hostile, sentient with its own goals and objectives. Constantly trying to convert things to serve it, perhaps possessing them almost. It really is interesting⁠—

The writing went on and on, about observations of the sapling, but it noted nothing in particular, that was until a familiar handwriting showed up. It was Lumina’s.

Adastra and its sapling yes, the stupid Blight sapling that keeps giving me trouble. Clearly a dark plant yet it refuses to acknowledge its origins. Nevertheless, forcing it to understand that it is a dark plant isn’t my forte either. In the end an external shock is enough, trying to use its life force to bloom other dark plants made it finally understand.

What is Blight? It’s the material that the sapling is made out of. It seemingly tries to take over things to make it their own. Highly compatible with dark plants and yet not quite made out of dark plants in of itself. Harvesting it is as simple as cutting it from the sapling once its in a submissive state⁠— the layers of blight and their quality can be divided, each having more nerve endings and therefore greater strength than the other.

First you have the outer cortex, then the inner-wood and finally the core-wood or heart-wood. Harvesting the first two is easy, but the last one can potentially kill the sapling. That said, its outer cortex is tough and needs at least a Legendary Essence skill to cut and shave away⁠⁠—

I closed the book with a satisfying sound and then turned to The Light Maker. The entire process took thirty seconds at most. He gazed at me quizzingly as I took a deep breath.

“So…” I began. “Good news is that it can be killed, the bad news is that neither of us is strong enough to kill it outright.”

“Shoot. What are the requirements?”

“Legendary Essence skill to shave its outer layer, so we can get to its weakness.”

The Light Maker nodded. “Yes, that is not possible.”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s what I just⁠—”

“But.” He interrupted. “Perhaps we can find some sort of opening in its bark. Then from the sounds of it I just hit it with my strongest skill and that’s that, yeah?”

I nodded with some apprehension, only to see him clasp his hands with a loud clap and slide down the sand dune. I looked at him for a few moments before shaking my head and sliding down as well. I also finally placed a Royal Azalea bead to finally heal myself within my mouth.

◇ ◇ ◇

“Realm Breaker! I found something!” The Light Maker called from a distance.

I turned and rushed in his direction, avoiding the vines in the ground that would occasionally move to try to trip me. However, they were mostly inoffensive, the sapling seemed to lack any actual offensive means from the looks of it. We had been searching for what felt like a few minutes, but it looks like The Light Maker had finally found something⁠. I could hear the quaking of the earth off in the distance, the constant rattles of the forest⁠— there really wasn’t much time.

It didn’t take long before I arrived at The Light Maker, however I made no questions as we both stared at a gaping hole within the ground. It started at a corner of the sapling and went underground, it was clearly covered with bark too⁠, part of the tree. I frowned.

“Should we head in?” The Light Maker asked skeptically. “Could be pretty risky.”

“I don’t think we have much choice.” I commented. “Maybe I can make a treant and make it lead the way, but…”

“Do it, I’ll protect you.”

I sighed before agreeing.

◇ ◇ ◇

A Grand Sangir Tree lead the path into the darkness with its flickering mana light. The surroundings were jagged and warped, and the ground looked exactly the same as the walls and ceiling. The only sounds to be heard was the howling wind and the rustling of the treant as it slowly guided us deeper into the darkness.

We carried for what felt like a few minutes before we reached a wide room. I could clearly see all the details, however, that wasn’t the interesting thing. There were things inside the room, desks, machines, flasks with whirling bubbles. Lining up the walls too, were weird shapes, tubes that went from floor to ceiling. And in the middle of the room, there was a pillar of wood, it was dark but clearly soft, it had wriggling tentacles and something else was connected to it, almost as if the wood had grown into it. It was a box of flashing lights with two reservoirs atop of it. One had a clear liquid and the other one had a bubbling pitch black one.

I just looked without really knowing what to infer. That was it⁠— The Light Maker just had to blast the entire room and it would be the end of it. However, he simply spoke.

“Well, shit.”

“What?”

“All of these things are from the Empire.” He craned his head. “I need to do some research, I doubt there is any danger here, maybe set the treant to guard the entrance. Feel free to touch whatever, just don’t try to kill the tree right now.”

I nodded with some annoyance and did as told ⁠— setting the treant to guard the entrance ⁠— meanwhile The Light Maker wandered off to a desk and began to flip through some of the papers. He also inspected and looked around at the machinery of flashing lights. Meanwhile, I simply decided to follow and gaze around.

I found a pile of papers on a desk that I decided to flip through. The visibility was a bit poor, and I was having a bit of trouble dealing with the suddenly relaxed atmosphere, but things were just like that. I observed my surroundings for a moment as I looked at the whirring lights lining up the walls.

“Hm, a transport receiver too?” The Light Maker muttered across the room as he stared at a pod.

“What’s that?” I asked as I read some research papers on Adastra, nothing that wasn’t mentioned in the book already. They also talked about the composite materials within it.

“Just, something for people to teleport into. It's just weird that it’s in here rather than anything else. We could leave the planet through it too, if things go sideways.” He thought. “I think it's the best option if destroying the tree goes awry.”

He paced and observed a few things before he seemed to be done.

“I can’t exactly find much, aside from just the higher ups of the Quarantine Legion did this. Which just confirms my suspicions. Now, Realm Breaker. Tell me about the Artificial Heart once more.”

I shuffled. “Right. Basically I need Blight to create it. It’s a heart to resurrect my mentor somewhat. The book details that.” My eyes wandered to the pillar in the center of the room. “That I use the Blight, and from what I can infer is that the higher quality it is, the better.”

The Light Maker slowly turned to look at the pillar. “So, we just take that and that’s done?”

I nodded. “I need something called core-wood or heart-wood from it.”

There was no reply, he simply vanished and appeared by my side with a burst of light. My vision went white before I realized I was standing right next to the pillar.

“Well, your choice. Grab as much as you want, then we destroy this thing which should hopefully kill the tree if I got it right.” He motioned.

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I turned to the pillar of wood, observing its details better. The wood was seemingly wriggling with tendrils, and the machine that constantly whirred to its side seemed to create black spots along the wood. I frowned as I began to inquire.

[Mk. 41. ??? Imbuer (Epic) ⁠— Mk. 41. Will imbue any substance into any surface. Standard issue of the Empire, the Legacy of Brilliance.]

I turned to the wood.

[C̵͚͊o̶̫͌r̴̦̅r̶͍͠ȗ̵̼p̵̼͌ṯ̵̂e̵̩͑ḓ̸͌ Ủ̸̟n̴̲̈́k̶̠̏n̶̲͛o̶̳͂w̷̩͠n̷̪͋ Inner-Wood (???)]

It was a mess of softened wood, and small protruding tendrils that seemed to reach towards the air. Wriggling and soft. But I simply frowned.

I seriously doubted a Corrupted Artificial Heart would do any good. At the same time I noticed the wood almost looked stained, impossibly dark with varying colors.

I reached towards my spear and pushed mana into its tip.

“Going in for the kill already?” The Light Maker asked.

“I need the material to not be corrupted.”

With a nod, he shifted and kicked the Mk. 41. Imbuer Unknown machine away. With an awful crash it dashed across the room and hit the wall, its black liquid spilled and began to sizzle, clearly trying to grab into anything at its grasp as if it was seemingly alive. The wood that got separated was splintered and began to leak black liquid. The Light Maker clenched his fist and with a swing, I saw a lightsword for the briefest second.

A white and yellow line of light surfaced across the entire pillar. And once more, he repeated the action. Two lines that met each other at their extremes were formed, perfect cuts. The wood slid apart and broke⁠— meanwhile the entire room shook.

The wood in the pillar split apart to give way to what seemed to be softer, nearly liquid wood of wriggling tentacles once more. However, some of the spots were clear and others were stained. It was almost like a liquid yet it was also solid. I winced as I inquired once more, at different spots this time.

[C̵͚͊o̶̫͌r̴̦̅r̶͍͠ȗ̵̼p̵̼͌ṯ̵̂e̵̩͑ḓ̸͌ Ủ̸̟n̴̲̈́k̶̠̏n̶̲͛o̶̳͂w̷̩͠n̷̪͋ Core-wood (???)]

[Unknown Core-wood (Mythical⁠)]

[C̵͚͊o̶̫͌r̴̦̅r̶͍͠ȗ̵̼p̵̼͌ṯ̵̂e̵̩͑ḓ̸͌ Ủ̸̟n̴̲̈́k̶̠̏n̶̲͛o̶̳͂w̷̩͠n̷̪͋ Core-wood (???)]

With a frown, I reached forward.

“Are you sure it's safe to touch?” The Light Maker asked once more.

I snorted. “I don’t know, not like I have a choice.”

There was only silence as my hand approached, and just as it was about to reach the center, I saw the black substance seemingly shift away from my hand. I also felt my mana being urged towards my fingertips. Which I obliged, only to see the corrupted parts completely give way to the normal substance, seemingly shifting as I noticed they were fibers. And finally, I grabbed⁠—

Memories.

I winced as I tried to understand what I saw. I simply saw a small sapling, a man, a laugh and then there was pain. I recoiled for a moment as I pulled what felt like a piece of mud with mush. The vision ended with a wince and I simply felt the weird paste within my hand. It was solid, but also soft⁠— it was gross all things considered. I stared at it once more.

[Unknown Core-wood (Mythical⁠)]

It was what I was looking for. I threw it into my ring and this time decisively stuck my hand again, only to be met with the same type of reaction, but different scenes, different feelings⁠—

◇ ◇ ◇

I tried to get as much as I could, but my ring filled up quickly. All I could gather was that the sapling was in deep pain, and that it in fact wanted to die. It made me a bit sad, but at the same time I saw very distant visions of a tree that stood in a white expanse. It was the first world tree. Adastra. I saw a glimpse of its might and size, and I suddenly wondered if any planet could even host such a thing.

In the end. I gathered as much as I could. Someone with nefarious intentions had corrupted the sapling. With a small sigh, I turned to The Light Maker as I threw a small chunk of the Core-Wood into my ring.

“Kill it.”

He nodded and gestured for me to step back. I obliged and in an instant all I saw was white⁠— my ears were filled with a static buzz as my surroundings trembled with great might. I blinked as I saw nothing the pillar was gone, but not only that⁠— there was a gaping hole in the ceiling that continuously went up.

The Corrupted sapling rattled in pain, though part of me felt as if it would be thankful. The Light Maker turned to me and did a thumbs up, and at that moment, at the corner of the room there was a flash from what had been called a transport receiver.

Danger⁠— my surroundings were stained with red that I had never seen before. There was only primal hatred in the atmosphere, it was stiffening. The Light Maker trembled too as my gaze saw a standing figure amidst white smoke.

“Terrific.” It said with a raspy voice. “Years of research, decades almost gone like this from some interlopers…” The figure stepped out of the cabin. “Interloper one, and interloper two. One has a Light affinity, with a sub-affinity of⁠— darkness? Interesting.” He faced me. “And a master of the Dark plants.”

I tried to inquire but was met with nothing. My heart threatened to beat out of my chest and my head pounded with pain. Heat built up on my forehead.

“Hmhm. No use prying in information.” Finally I saw his full figure. It was a hunched thing, almost like some sort of bulge, but the man whose face was nothing but a black visor carried a long crimson crown as big as his head. “Let’s see. How would you like to pay the price, hmm⁠— no before that, the disaster that you’ve caused must be fixed. How hateful that I was delayed in my arrival.”

He slowly approached and every single footstep made me sweat. I kept trying to inquire as I felt my blood boil. I could feel every single part of my being in pain, and my vision simply became a red backdrop as the man approached. Who was this person? Panic ensued as he slowly made his way to me.

He reached and a hand peeped from his overhanging coat. It was coarse and made out of leather. It ran through my neck and my chin. I did everything I could to move, exerting all my muscles at once only for my lips to begin bleeding from biting them.

“So, so weak.” His voice was like a silvery whisper. “How will you scream when you die?”

Finally a notification went off. One of falling letters and flickering out of existence. Level.

[⁠l

v

1.  

5

-

3]

My mind went into disarray as it finally clicked. Monarch. A Grade being. My blood began to flow upwards as pain engulfed my body.

“Scream.”

Pain coursed through my body but I was unable to do anything as I trembled under his grip. It wasn’t strong, but I simply couldn’t move. My entire body was locked against my will.

“Scream.” He repeated.

I couldn’t do anything. The action continued a few more times before he finally let go and took a step back. He shook his head as the crimson crown moved back and forward.

“Not good, then you shall rest and I will use your blood to restore this sapling. Yes. Dark plant affinity is very rare. A royal bloodline could be said.” He whispered. “Rare as those that port the trait of Refraction. Troublesome too.”

He moved his hand and pointed at me as I saw black coalesce around his finger tip.

“Die⁠—”

Light engulfed my vision and the man. Everything was covered in white, I heard nothing, but my waist was grabbed. Before I knew it, a guttural scream reached my side. I blinked only to see we were standing in a dark place with flashing lights. I slowly turned as I saw the base around us. And on the ground, screaming, was The Light Maker. He was holding onto his side and blood unceasingly pooled.

He… saved me?