Chapter 71 The Old tree I
After leaving the black stone-like monsters, Kyle didn't stop and directly start running toward the biggest golden cross mark.
From time to time, Bia who was flying above him would give him a strange look but Kyle didn't care and kept running.
He knew why she was giving him such a look.
It was because he didn't take those black stones. Actually, Kyle had an idea as to what those stones were used for, he just didn't expect to see so many in a single place.
Before entering the Tower, the Academy give everyone a lot of information regarding the Tower and during one of his classes, Professor Aliza mentioned about those stones.
They were special teleportation stones that can only be used inside the Tower.
After seeing a whole pile of black stones in a single place, Kyle was tempted to take some as they would be quite useful in any dangerous situation, but he didn't wanted to endanger himself or Bia just because of some stones.
Fooling a single (-C)-Rank monster was fine but even he didn't dare to do something when there were three (-C)-Rank monster present at a single place.
He also thought about using his newly acquired skill 'Instant Teleportation' to pick up one or two stones but right now his teleportation range was too low.
Also, he can only use that skill once or twice before exhausting all of his mana.
That's why he knew the moment he tried to grab even a single stone, all the (-C)-Rank monsters would have started chasing after him.
Kyle sighed when he thought about those stones.
'What a pity.'
While he was running, the ground beneath his feet shook slightly.
He looked at Bia but she shook her head, indicating that there was nothing in their surrounding.
With a confused expression, Kyle hurriedly climbed up a nearby tree to see what was going on.
Bia also flew upward toward the clear sky.
Both of them looked around with squinted eyes, but even after looking around for a few minutes they didn't see anything.
On the other hand, the intensity of the tremor was increasing with every second.
With a serious expression, Kyle gestured Bia and both of them started moving in the opposite direction from the sounds.
It was better for them to stay away from any potential danger.
While Kyle was running, after thirty or so minutes the tremor suddenly disappeared.
He gazed toward the place where the sounds were coming from but didn't see anything. Suddenly, the earring around his left ear glowed with white light and the scene in front of Kyle changed.
The blue sky which was clearly empty suddenly showed a huge pillar of light descending from above.
Kyle eyes widened when he looked at the pillar. In front of his surprised gaze, the pillar broke into white particles and disappeared into thin air.
"What the...?"
He muttered under his breath in a daze before Bia's confused voice sounded inside his head.
-'What happened?'
Kyle gripped the earring inside his ear. Just now he felt that there was a connection between this earring and the light pillar he saw.
He looked at Bia confused expression, it seemed she didn't see anything.
After shaking his head Kyle sighed.
"It's nothing. Let's go."
He really didn't knew what was going on. For a second he just felt like a very powerful existence was looking at everyone from above.
It was just for a moment but Kyle felt the existence was directly gazing at him. The feeling was very dangerous yet majestic.
Bia looked at the place where Kyle stared but after seeing nothing, she just quietly followed behind Kyle.
.....
One week later, Kyle was seen hiding behind some bushes.
While hiding, he peeked at the huge old tree standing not so far from him with a serious expression.
In front of that huge tree, Kyle was like a tiny sprout.
The tree was old and rusty. There wasn't a single leaf on its branches but among the empty brown branches, a single branch present on the upper right corner was green in color.
Three circular red color fruits were hanging vertically on top of that green branch. A huge amount of mana was continuously gushing out from the seemingly old tree trunk, directly entering the red fruits.
While peeking at the tree, Kyle frowned because the tree branches were dancing playing with some pebbles. Also, there was a huge creepy face at the center of the tree trunk.
After following the biggest golden cross mark present on the map, Kyle appeared at this place but he didn't expect to see a creepy-looking alive tree.
Seeing the red fruits hanging on top of the tree's green branch, Kyle was hundred percent sure that this tree was the one mentioned on the map as the biggest golden cross mark.
Bia who was sitting on the tree behind him spoke with a serious tone.
-'So what's the plane.'
Kyle looked at the tree once more and his frown deepened.
'The tree is alive and seeing its huge appearance do you think we can defeat it or snatch the fruits from it?'
Bia hurriedly shook her small head.
-'There is no way we can. As I can fly I could have tried picking up the fruits but because there are too many branches and also they are alive, that's why I can't do anything.'
While Bia and Kyle were talking to each other, the large tree suddenly spoke in an irritated manner.
When the tree spoke, its two empty eyes curved up like a moon and the hole present at the center of the tree trunk moved up and down.
"Kid, how long are you going to stare at me?"
Kyle heard the loud cranky voice and jumped back with fright. Bia also widened her eyes hearing the tree voice.
The tree branches that were playing with some pebbles stopped moving when the tree hollow eyes directly gazed at Kyle.
After looking at Kyle, the tree wooden face suddenly made a sighing expression and again a cranky voice came out from its mouth.
"Hmm, why are you so weak? The last two people who came before you were even weaker than you."
"Last time the ones who came were also very weak, had the world stopped producing genius after master left?"
"Also, how the hell did weak ants like you survived on this floor?"
The tree cranky voice resounded around the whole area, it spoke and threw many questions toward Kyle who was looking at the tree with shock.
Within a minute, Kyle came back to his senses and stood up while looking at the tree with caution.
After taking a deep breath, Kyle approached the tree with slow steps.
"Who are you and why are you able to speak?"
The tree seemingly lost interest when it heard Kyle's question. It had seen a lot of individuals. They all asked the same questions but it didn't like answering their questions.
"Hoho, It doesn't matter who I am. Kid now that you have found me, you can't leave. Not until you complete my trial."
The moment the tree spoke about the trial, a transparent thin shield formed out of thin air.
The shield immediately encircled Kyle.
Seeing the shield, Kyle's heart trembled. He hurriedly gathered mana around his fist and punched the shield but the recoiled force threw his punch backward.
Bia saw the situation and immediately flew toward Kyle but to her surprise the moment she touched the shield her body phased through it without any resistance.
She looked at Kyle and hurriedly sat on top of his head before speaking worriedly.
-'What should we do?'
Kyle looked at the tree with a serious expression. Just now the tree said something about a trial. That's mean it wasn't going to kill them.