Chapter Fifty-Seven

Arden shot out of the bed and scanned for threats, staff already in hand. All he saw was a dark, empty room, but that was when he noticed the tree itself shook.

He ran toward the balcony and peered down, having to activate his dark vison to see anything. Even then, nothing jumped out to him. It was just as dark and quiet as it was when he went inside.

Before he scouted further, he turned his attention to his bond with Solanine. “Do you see anything?”

Solanine answered immediately, just as frazzled based on her slightly more expressive tone. “No, I set up an early warning detection as part of my defense system. The threat could be up to four hundred meters beyond the clearing edge.”

She needed to teach him how she did that. There were so many hidden territory features he didn’t know about.

Arden eyed the dark forest below for several seconds but saw nothing, so he shifted to his bird form. “I’ll scout it out.”

His black feathers blended into the night as he took flight, soaring over the dark forest, emerald eyes scanning below for any movement.

Sudden movement snapped his attention to the right, but it turned out to be some unfamiliar squirrel like creature gliding from tree to tree.

Was it a false alarm? How sensitive was the detection system? What was it even detecting to know if it was a threat? She probably didn’t know about the return of wildlife. Even if it was a false alarm, he needed to check it out. They already had one visitor, they could have another.

More movement below drew his attention, this time a much bigger shape, but yet again, it wasn’t a threat.

He paused as he observed the cat sized stripped creature. Maybe it was a threat if they weren’t careful. It raised its little hands, causing a hidden cache of nuts to fly toward it. Probably a squirrel stash.

That wasn’t the end. It strode around, gathering anything remotely edible with its telekinetic grabbers. In the minute he watched the creature, it seemed to gain over a kilogram in size as it gorged itself.

It might be a good idea to hunt that thing down later. If left alone, it might wreck their young ecosystem. There weren’t a ton of resources for the wildlife to live on as it was, and if that little thief ate it all, the rest may starve.

Though it spawned like the rest, so it belonged as much as everything else. It wasn’t like it was an invasive species. There could be a balance he missed. Maybe its poop was an amazing fertilizer or something. He needed to do more observation before delivering his judgement on the thief.

Despite assuming the gray stripped creature was the threat because of its size, he continued on.

He circled the clearing at a progressively greater circumference. As he flew, he couldn’t help but look down with wonder as he saw more creatures skittering about.

Amazing how much wildlife they had. They didn’t even have a kilometer of living forest in any direction yet. Maybe that was why he noticed. Because of the thin ring of forest but high mana density, more creatures than normal spawned. Once the forest grew, the creatures may spread out. That or more would spawn because of rising mana levels.

It could also be an early boost to a developing area. The stories of the early days of Magna Vita Urbs had similar reports to what he saw. Unfortunately, no matter how many times researchers tried, they couldn’t reproduce the effects.

The common belief was the city of life was special. Hence how it got the name city of life. At least that was the rumor. Who knew if it was true? Millenia passing twisted things.

As long as they didn’t attack the capital clearing, he had no problem with the rising numbers of wildlife. In fact, he was all for it. It was fun wildlife watching.

One terrifying thing was they ignored Solanine’s colorful hellscape, but that was probably for the best. They didn’t want to kill everything off just to have better defenses. They probably fell under the same category they did as the creatures spawned in the territory, so they were immune to the magic.

That would make hunting them much harder unless direct magic worked. Yet again something to test later.

He knew territory owners could hunt in their claimed dungeons, so maybe it was the same for territories. Really, the only time a territory owner had direct control was at the territory core or the dungeon core.

At least that was what he read. There were probably some secret conditions kept from the public, but so far from his experiences, it seemed to be mostly true.

Unfortunately, the book wasn’t specific about what a dungeon or territory owner could do, hence his ignorance. What he knew came from a few paragraphs in a book focused on dungeon behavior.

Arden shook his head and returned his focus to watching the many creatures in the dark, none appearing to be a threat, though the number of them was impressive.

He was starting to see the allure the Agriculturalist of Nature may have. If the rate of spawns kept up, he could have had an army at his command. Though he wasn’t sure how effective any of them would be against an actual threat. He heard squirrels could be vicious, but even a thousand of them wasn’t much of a threat to a strong mage. A squad of that thieving creature could have uses though.

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Maybe he still had a chance of creating his army. He didn’t get the class granted favor he would have had with the Agriculturalist of Nature, but there could be a workaround. If it came to force, he wasn’t sure if he could do it, but maybe there were cards capable of enticing the wildlife to help him.

Or there was another hidden territory features he didn’t know about. He had authority over the territory and as such the wildlife like they were citizens of his kingdom. Other territory owners mobilized their citizens. Why couldn’t he?

The question was, did the wildlife count as citizens? He was a nature mage, so maybe. Something to think about later once he cleared this elusive threat. Whatever it was, it had to be near the outer edge of the reestablished forest.

After several more rotations finding nothing, he asked Solanine. “Is the threat gone? I’m not finding anything.”

“To the west.”

Arden stiffened as he knew what laid to the west. Did they investigate the tower already? He thought he bought them more time.

Not bothering to complete the rotation, he flew up and over the capital tree, pointing his beak to the west, using the stars to orientate himself.

With a direction, it only took him a few seconds to find the threat and, as he feared, it was who he thought it was.

However, upon looking closer at the group of five, they may not be as big of a threat as he thought. Unlike the last time, when they were a well-equipped and energized squad, they looked dead on their feet. Like they traveled nonstop through a hazardous environment in a day.

They must have left the tower before he did and traveled nonstop to reach the center. He had to give them props for making it so far, but that didn’t mean he could let them continue.

The problem was they already saw too much. While they were only on the edge of the resurrecting forest, it was obvious the leafless trees weren’t stone any longer. That meant he might have to take deadly measures.

His nerves hardened as he observed the haggard group, two of them with a visible limp, while the rest slumped as they stumbled forward.

The group wasn’t a threat to anyone as they were, but that could change if they survived and reported back. They couldn’t afford to let word get out yet. He needed to protect their growing paradise.

Arden pointed his beak downward to dive-bomb, but just before he torpedoed down, Solanine spoke, using the bond with a clinical voice devoid of emotion. “Let them though. I need to test the defenses.”

A shiver ran through Arden as his mind flashed back to the colorful deathtrap. As much as he didn’t want to subject someone to that colorful hellscape, Solanine was right. They needed to know if it was effective. It was cruel, but necessary. If it couldn’t stop a group of people on their last legs, it had no chance against an organized attack.

Said haggard group perked up as they reached the line of living trees. Were they nature mages? That may change things, or maybe not. The colorful deathtrap should still take them down.

If he wasn’t immune, he doubted he would survive it. Well, maybe he would. His three epic ranked nature cards were a potent combo.

Arden circled above as he watched the steadily recovering group march forward. As they ventured further, their formation regained the order it had the last time he saw them, but the two injured ones still limped.

From above, he saw their eyes fill with wonder, probably noticing for the first time where they were. They probably thought it was a mirage. He knew firsthand how convincing those were during his early desert survival training.

Unfortunately for them, that returned lucidity wasn’t there to stay. Arden watched it happen as if in slow motion as they walked past a patch of mushrooms. The taller leader of the group stepped on a thin root tripwire, yanking on the mushrooms near the base of a nearby tree.

Near invisible spores filled the air, unbeknownst to the group. Even if they knew it was far too late to stop the effects.

The effect wasn’t immediate, causing Arden to worry, but it soon became obvious.

Any organization broke down as each person wandered off on their own. One even walked back the way they came. They didn’t stumble around like before, but the sudden change could only be the spores. He knew from the dungeon they used hand signs before they split up, after all.

If the effect was what Solanine intended, it was genius. Divide and conquer.

And conquer was what happened. One by one they stumbled upon traps, most of them of the fungi or mundane variety, as the poisonous plants were nearer to the clearing.

Based on their progress, he doubted they would reach that far. The limping members tripped on a tree root and bashed their head on a conveniently placed wood spike. Their helmets may have protected them from some of the impact, but considering they stilled, they were down for the count.

The one who turned back didn’t make it far either. They fell victim to another fungi trap, causing them to walk in circles for several seconds before falling over.

Even if they posed a threat, he couldn’t help but smile in amusement. The outer layers of Solanine’s colorful deathtrap were quite effective.

Unfortunately, he didn’t think any of the three downed intruders died, so he may have to get his hands dirty. That or they could find another use for them. They needed information. It was risky, though. First, he would see how the last two performed.

The only remaining members still standing were the tallest, who was the best armored and a much smaller lithe person who looked female. Her progress was impressive. Despite clearly affected by multiple fungi traps, she still dodged the more mundane finishers.

It was only a matter of time, though. The lithe one’s luck or skill finally ran out when she triggered a pitfall trap. The pitfall wasn’t what got her, though.

With an impressive flip, she cleared the pitfall only for a swinging log to send her flying back. Fortunately for her, she escaped a gruesome skewering fate at the bottom of the pitfall as the swinging log launched her clear over the pitfall into a tree.

He winced at the meaty splat as she impacted the tree and slid down the trunk, limp. Even if she got up after that, she was no longer a threat. Not that he thought she would. That was a nasty impact.

The last one standing was the leader, mostly because of his size and armor. Most mundane traps bounced off of him but that didn’t stop the spores from sneaking in. He stumbled forward, barely keeping himself upright, but he just kept going.

At this rate, he might reach the outer poison layers. That would end him, and Arden wasn’t sure he wanted that. He made it so far he almost wanted to root for him. Traveling over a hundred meters of the colorful deathtrap was no small feat.

That wish came to be in the nick of time. Right at the edge of the wall of colorful hell, the spores finally got to him. Or the poison mana radiating off the colorful barrier pushed him over the edge.

Whatever the cause, he lost his battle with gravity and crashed to the ground and didn’t get up.

Arden circled back to check on the other intruders, but like the leader, they all remained down for the count.

The problem was, what did they do with them? Their melodies told him they all survived, though in the case of the lithe acrobat, it wouldn’t be for long.