A massive area of the forest burned, enough so that it would constitute a huge natural disaster in the world before the system. Yet, oddly enough, none of the tall trees had toppled, but all stood strong. Their bark burned, their leaves perhaps gone, but their trunks stood strong, and their auras of life remained powerful. A low-tier C-grade was simply not capable of destroying these trees unless they dedicated a long time and a lot of power to do so.
If this fact benefitted Jake or the bears was hard to determine, but in reality, it didn’t matter. Jake would take advantage of the terrain either way. Be it a forest with nothing but massive burning pillars of wood or an empty burning field, he would still dominate.
Arrows flew around the massive trees, hitting the bears when they couldn’t even see the shooter. The beasts were separated and blasted in opposite directions to spread them out so Jake could more easily kill them alone. Meanwhile, poison built up within the bodies of the bears, and Hunting Momentum built up within the body of Jake.
After the first bear died, the second fell not even ten minutes later. The third bear fifteen minutes after that, and the fourth only a few minutes after the third. Only the Den Mother and Den Protector remained, and as their children lay dead, their bodies decaying on the ground, a glimmer of sanity finally seemed to have returned to the beasts as they had stopped attacking mindlessly and teamed up.
Not that it ultimately mattered. All it did was extend the fight. Between Jake’s higher mobility, his advantage in ranged combat, and his ability to easily get out of any tricky situation and even strike with Eternal Shadow, they never had a chance. They had a horrible matchup versus Jake, and once he forced them into the air from some flying combat, his advantage only grew, as clearly the bears sucked at flying.
Still, C-grades were C-grades. They did have some hidden cards and powerful skills, the most impressive of which was one Jake named Fireheart after their names. From a distance, Jake could feel the heat emanating from the two bears as their bodies heated up to insane levels, enough to turn the ground beneath their feet to lava. Their furs caught fire but clearly didn’t hurt them, and the two got stronger in every way as they seemed to become one with the burning forest around them.
Giant blasts of fire and flaming tornadoes summoned with a single paw-swipe, beams of pure heat able to sear off parts of the otherwise incredibly resilient trees. They even had the ability to seemingly combust the air itself, making it blow up, lit only by a single spark released from the fur of the bears. Moreover, the heat from each bear seemed to empower the other, making it difficult to approach.
So, Jake didn’t approach. He kept a distance as his arrows bombarded the two bears that tried to chase down and kill them. Explosive arrows were too unstable to reach his targets, but the bears simply couldn’t destroy the stable versions.
Jake did run into one of the downsides of Eternal Shadow here. The explosions would nearly always still hit Jake, and the Eternal Shadow could barely handle taking any damage and was instantly destroyed by explosions whenever Jake tried to use it to attack. Luckily it did not get destroyed by something like the heat alone, but even any semi-direct hit would make it disperse.
As always, Jake took this fight as an opportunity to learn and improve, but after it had gone on for nearly an hour total, there really wasn’t more to it, and it just became a hunt of attrition. The bears also noticed this and knew they were losing, so they resumed an earlier strategy.They ran.
Jake chased.
Marks were on both of them as Jake hunted them down, arrows curving around the trees to find their target. The occasional Arcane Powershot blasted forward, tearing off a slab of flesh and making one of the beasts roar in pain and anger.
In the end, the Den Protector died first, unable to handle the building poison any longer. The Den Mother was stronger and held on, but in the end, it became the victim of Jake unleashing all his built-up Hunting Momentum in the form of a final Arcane Powershot with the good old Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter for a true killer finishing blow.
With them both dead, Jake flew down and landed in front of the dead Den Mother, finally checking all his notifications. He was a bit disappointed upon reading them through.
*You have slain [Fireheart Ursine Den Mother – lvl 215] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
*You have slain [Fireheart Ursine Den Protector – lvl 211] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*
*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 197 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*
*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 198 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*
*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 198 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*
He skipped the normal Fireheart Ursines’ notifications, not a single of them above level 205. Even the level of these two leader-type beasts was low. To even gain two levels from this fight was impressive enough in Jake’s mind due to how damn easy it had been. The only thing these bears had going for them was durability and some decent firepower, but they were in no way proper threats to someone like Jake. The fire had left Jake looking a little haggard, though, with his armor burnt and ruined in places and his face covered in soot.
Shaking his head, Jake deactivated Arcane Awakening, letting the period of weakness wash over him. As he waited to recover anyway, Jake extracted all the Beastcores he could and took whatever else of value he could find. He also considered looking for the den of these bears, but after some more thought, he decided to just go back to the soul tree and ask it about where the bears came from.
It did not take him long to make it back to the tree, and when he got close, he saw the barrier was still up. The treants looked to be in a dormant state, roots extending from their bulking bodies into the ground. Jake landed in front of the barrier as the tree spoke.
“The extinguishment of souls of fire felt from afar. Destroyers destroyed, I thank thee, human of the edge,” the Ethgleam Mothertree spoke in its vaguely female voice. “Allow me gratitude, displayed.”
The barrier in front of Jake opened up, allowing Jake to enter the domain of the soul tree. At the same time, right in front of the tree, an altar of roots grew out of the soil. On it was a glowing white orb, giving off potent energy. Some kind of natural treasure, perhaps… or was this the fruit of a soul tree? Who knew? Jake just knew there was no need to reject a good thing.
He walked up to the orb as the tree spoke once more. “Consume to nourish, heal, improve.”
Looking at the item offered more closely, Jake used Identify on it.
[Soulfruit of the Ethgleam Mothertree (Unique)] – The Soulfruit of an Ethgleam Mothertree. This fruit has been made with an extreme level of effort by its creator and contains incredibly potent energy capable of nourishing and improving the soul of whoever consumes it. Must be consumed within the domain of the Ethgleam Mothertree, or all effects will be lost.
Jake looked at the item for a bit and initially smiled. However, quickly his expression changed. Something was off. It was as if the words didn’t fit properly in the description. As if something was wrong with it. He squinted his eyes, and it was as if a veil had been placed over the actual description.
Slowly his smile faded as the three also noticed his hesitation.
“This treasure, I offer thee, to form synergy,” the Ethgleam Mothertree said in a convincing and oddly soothing tone. “Made with great difficulty, consumption must be soon, or opportunity lost.”
Jake had learned enough about marketing to know when someone was trying to use FOMO – fear of missing out - marketing on him. He also knew that those who abused these sales tactics tended to be less than savory… something that was soon confirmed.
You son of a birch, Jake cursed as he focused and used Identify again.
[Soulfruit of the Ethgleam Mothertree (Unique)] – The Soulfruit of an Ethgleam Mothertree. This fruit contains incredibly potent energy capable of negatively influencing the soul of whoever consumes it. Warning, consuming this item may lead to soul damage.
It had tried to pull a fast one on Jake and make him consume an item that would deal serious damage to him. Even if it didn’t kill him, it would harm Jake severely and give the soul tree quite the opening. If it was even its plan… something Jake got a feeling it wasn’t. No, he had a strong feeling this was something far worse.
“Tell me,” Jake asked. “Absorbing this will merge it with my soul, right?”
“Yes, it is as such. Absorb and gain power; I shall assist,” the tree answered.
“Willingly absorb a lot of foreign soul energy into me… leaving a ticking time bomb controlled by you, no doubt,” Jake shot back. “What was the plan here?”
It was clear. Science had been proven wrong, and a tree that focused on Perception had turned out to be an evil scheming asshole tree. No… it has to be Willpower-focused. That is the only explanation.
“Unfortunate,” the tree spoke as the orb exploded right in front of Jake. “A human weakened, his soul susceptible.”
Energy invaded Jake’s body as he just stayed there. He was in his state of weakness from Arcane Awakening, looked tired from fighting the bears, his armor was burnt and broken, and he looked utterly spent at a cursory glance. However, if the tree had truly possessed a proper Perception stat, it would have known appearances could be deceiving.
Behind him, the treants began to move towards him, as Jake felt the foreign soul energy worm its way into his mind. That is when Jake understood what the tree wanted. It wasn’t to kill him… it was to use him. His hunch was proven correct as words materialized in the air in front of him. A contract.
“An alliance offered, life preserved, and thee walks free,” the tree spoke as Jake saw the contract.
It wasn’t a slave contract… but it was just as bad. It wanted Jake to bring it humans so that it could enslave and use them as vessels to grow itself. It wanted to plant seeds within their souls and spread through human bodies. In return, it would allow Jake to survive as long as he agreed to never be antagonistic to the tree again. If he refused, it would kill him then and there.
“A Path to survival given. Take it, and synergy shall-“
“No deal.”
Jake’s body once more exploded with Arcane Awakening, and the period of weakness was bypassed instantly. The treants behind him moved immediately, but Jake was faster and stormed forward towards the tree. At that moment, Jake’s sense of danger flared, and he knew what was about to happen. An idea appeared instantly, and he acted on it.
One body became two as the Eternal Shadow materialized. Just as it did, Jake was hit by the detonation of the soul energy released by the tree that was still trying to worm its way toward Jake’s soul and invade it. It sent a pulse of pure damage through Jake’s body, about to tear through his blood vessels and damage his internal organs… as he switched places, taking the place of the Eternal Shadow.
His Eternal Shadow instantly dispersed as the violent wave of energy tore through it, leaving the real Jake utterly untouched and nearly right in front of the tree.
“Two?” the female voice echoed out as a katar slammed into the trunk.
It barely penetrated a few inches into the bark as dense magic stopped it, repelling Jake. A second pulse was released from the large monstrous tree, but it was met by a barrier of pure, stable mana that managed to block it.
Sadly, Jake had to disengage from his main target as the two treants were upon him. A root arm swept over and tried to grab him, forcing him to teleport away. Just as he appeared at his destination, a ball of vines was tossed his way. In mid-air, it exploded, releasing a torrent of writhing vines trying to whip him, making him step down and teleport a second time.
Both treants came for him again, and Jake saw what they wanted to do. They tried to force him away from the tree and out of the barrier it had erected. Why would they want him out when the barrier could serve to seal him in… unless…
“Leave, human, speak nay of this encounter, and thee shall-“
“Oh, come the fuck on,” Jake cursed. The audacity of this birch, to tell him to just leave after all it did. Fuck no, only one of them was leaving there alive, and only Jake was capable of walking. So his response was an Arcane Powershot fired straight at the damn soul tree, kindly telling it to go fuck itself.
The tree seemed to finally realize there was no negotiation and, thankfully, decided to actually do something. In the air, white bolts of pure energy began condensing as the tree went on the offensive. Jake saw no reason to wait around but pulled out his bow and took a quick potshot at one of the treants.
Unsurprisingly the large monster failed to react in time and took an explosion to the face, making it stumble slightly. Three more arrows made it nearly fall over as Jake dodged the second treant while bombarding his first victim again.
In the center of the battlefield, the soul tree was done with its magic as thousands of shimmering bolts were fired toward him. Jake initially thought them easy to dodge but soon discovered that the tree had some level of control over them, making it a bit more tricky.
Not too tricky, mind you.
Pride of the Malefic Viper activated as Jake responded in kind. Mana gathered all around him as more than three hundred bolts of destructive arcane mana were gathered and released in an instant toward the attacks of the tree.
This did leave an opening for the treants that had both managed to close in on him, stretching their hulking arms towards Jake as they split into dozens of vines, trying to constrain or pierce through him. One of them even stomped on the ground as massive spears of wood shot up from the ground toward him.
Jake twisted in the air as he blocked one of the spears with his hand, the scale-empowered gloves easily handling the blow and allowing him to use their momentum to dodge away from both treants and the many bolts of soul magic chasing him. While in the air, Jake released several arrows toward the treants, dealing even more damage while he still had the opening.
The many bolts of soul magic still chased him, and Jake stared at them for a moment before he lifted his palm. Soul magic had a lot of good things about it but also some very inherent weaknesses. Mana flowed into his palm as a massive blast of pure destructive mana was released, destroying more than fifteen-hundreds bolts in one go as the feebly-held-together soul magic bolts fell apart.
A few more powerful soul attacks were released, but Jake easily handled them, making the Mothertree show some level of adaption.
It released a pulse that was not aimed at Jake but at the two treants. White energy began to be emanated from both as their auras grew substantially. Roots even shot up from the ground and dug into the two treants, healing their wounds as the Mothertree had adopted a more supportive role after realizing its attacks wouldn’t work.
Not that it would save the tree from becoming a pile of timber. Jake did need some materials for his soul poisons, and since the tree had volunteered to give him its good stuff, who was he to refuse?