Clair POV:
“Drive~ Drive~ Drive~” I hum while, riding my bike through the forest at the neck breaking speed of 120km/h. The trees fly past me and the wind lets my hair fluttering behind me in a horizontal way.
A few monster or animals here and there notice us, but most of them are either too slow to attack us or flee when they see us. Those who come too near will be turned into a puddle of blood by mana pressure.
“It's strange how your humming of one single word can still sound like a beautiful song,” Lilia commented from the back. She is, like me and the other two, constantly evading trees or bushes.
“What are dwarfs like? My world has a concept of dwarfs, however, they aren't real, so I don't know how they will be like,” I asked.
“What were your dwarfs like?” Ilza asked.
“They are short, like to drink beer, good at crafting, love their beard and are one hell of a short range fighter, however, not usable for long distances,” I said and jumped over a tree root and then drove alongside a 30 metres wide tree.
Drull, then Lilia and then Ilza followed me.
“Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Our dwarfs are around 1,2-1,5 metre tall, they do what you've said and are on top of that the best minors and metal smiths on the world. Most holy weapons and Tier 5 weapons are forged by a dwarf,” Drull explained.
“We'll reach Eisenberge in three months or not?” Drull asked.
“Yes,” I said and looked back. Where I only saw Drull.
“Lilia? Ilza?” I asked, but got no reply.
Drull also turned back and noticed their disappearing.
Then suddenly Drull also vanished. Not like °Poof° more like he was sucked into the ground.
I hurriedly stopped and droved back to his former location, where I only found a slightly sunken in a trough.
“Da fuck?” I asked out loud and stepped back. The moment I stepped three steps back, my foot suddenly sunk into the ground and I got a poisoned warning. A poison that is able to harm me? My poison resistance is on LV 10. Well, even skills aren't unbeatable.
The grass then clung to my foot and tried to pull me under the ground. I looked down and saw something like an insect.
It had two giant antlers who had grass at the top. The top of the antler mimicked the floor and looked exactly like normal grass.
The insect itself was around 2 metres tall, 3 metres long and 2 metres wide. Its shell was brown and had green roots pulsating on it.
Two large pincher then tried to grab me, but I didn't let it and used mana pressure on it. However, nothing happened, that thing simply continued to grab me, not the least bit faced by a mana pressure of around 500.000. Not even a million made it budge.
The next thing I tried was to burn it, but it also ignored the fire. The pincher now grabbed me and my arms were pressed against my body.
It also started to pull me underground, which I didn't like. Not the least bit. I tried to activate my runes, however, they didn't work.
Then it hit me, this fucker stops mana! I tried to get free from its claws, by pushing me arms to the side.
Its claws first budged only a little bit and then lost all their strength. I broke the joints of its arms and it couldn't muster any strength into them any longer.
Even without runes my strength is over 150.000. Still, it felt like this thing has a strength of 50.000, no wonder they couldn't do struggle. Drull said they will get severely weakened without mana and this bug is a mana blocker.
The bug didn't utter a single scream as I destroyed its claws and also didn't flee. On the contrary, it started to wrap me inside its grass like things. I wasn't eager to get a grass mummy so I ripped the grass apart and threw a sword, from my inventory, at the face of the bug. The sword flew straight through its head and the bug stopped moving for a second. Yes, only for a second.
“WHAT in Darvin's name is that thing?!” I shouted and took a hammer out.
A few swings later and I turned the bug into a bloody pulp of green liquid and chitin. It might have stopped moving after crushing its legs and antlers, but I wanted to be sure.
The whole process took me a minute and I was finally free of a strange green like bug that is immune to mana.
I climbed out of the trough and tried to search for Drull, Ilza and Lilia through their tracking rune. It turned out as I feared, their runes aren't active.
What should I do? These bugs are strong enough to kill them and it would be annoying to search for new companions.
“What to do? What to do?... I know, two brains think better than one!” I said while pacing.
A short spell later three clones surrounded me.
“You know the problem, the tracking rune doesn't work and we have to find them,” I said.
“They might already be dead,” Clone 1 said.
“I don't think so, at least not yet. The bug tried to pull us down, that either means that it has a burrow or eats its prey underground,” Clone 2 said.
“Let's try to dig at the trough,” Clone 1 suggested and Clone 3 walked to Drull's trough. It began to use earth magic to dig and came a few moments later out of the hole.
“Looks like there was a tunnel, the walls fallen in and it won't be possible to track it back,” it then said.
“So what?” I asked.
“We haven't tried to [Identify] the bug,” Clone 2 said.
“True,” I said and used [Identification] on the rest of the bug.
Remains of a Muru Jahimees:
These bloody remains were ones a Muru Jahimees,
an almost extinct bug that preys on anything that is
unfortunate enough to step on its grass like antler tips.
They have a toxin that renders the mana of its
prey useless and even their body is immune to
mana influences.
This Muru Jahimees died 2500 years ago.
“2.500 years? Didn't I kill it only a few minutes ago?” I said confused.
“It would explain why it moved like a zombie,” Clone 1 said.
“And it might also be a clue to Drull's, Lilia's and Ilza's current condition,” Clone 3 said and we other three looked at it, waiting for it to continue.
“I mean, if it was a zombie, then it might try to turn them into zombies as well. This could take a while,” it said.
“We don't know that,” Clone 1 said.
“Then what?” I asked.
“We could burn the forest down. It would be easier to search for them if there aren't any trees who obstruct our vision,” Clone 2 suggested.
“We can't do that, the queen of the elfs would be devastated,” Clone 1 said.
“What about the map?” Clone 3 asked.
“Which map?” Clone 1 asked back.
“I mean the map function in Origins settings, there was a search option, it might be possible to search for them,” Clone 3 explained what he means.
“Wait a moment,” I said and put Ilza Bose into the search option.
And really, a map popped up and a small dot showed the whereabouts of Ilza Bose, she's 50 kilometres to the north-east and one kilometre underground.
“Got her, in the north-east, follow me,” I said and began to sprint.
The forest turned into a rainforest around 2 kilometres away from her location and we had to slow down.
“This forest is strange,” Clone 3 said as it hacked through the leafs and small trees.
We all already changed into Reaper Dex, each of us had the same mask, but with a different colour. Mine was the normal red, Clone 1 had blue, Clone 2 green and Clone 3 yellow.
“Yeah, there isn't even one animal sound,” Clone 2 said.
“Creepy,” Clone 3 said and then suddenly jumped back. On the place, it stood just a second before was now a tiger with green pulsating roots all over its fur.
“So it doesn't only infects insects,” Clone 1 said and got ready for a fight.
Clone 3 is our front fighter, he has two heavy shields and has only one task, blocking.
Clone 2 has a spear, he keeps the enemy at bay.
Clone 1 uses two short-swords and is our speed fighter.
And last but not least is me, who uses coins.
“That's not a normal tiger, it's way stronger, the stats are around 30.000 and it's also immune to mana pressure,” I said.
“What about other magic?” Clone 3 asked as he blocked a swipe of the tiger's paw.
“Don't know,” I said and conjured a stone slap, which I shot at the tiger.
The slap didn't hit. The tiger jumped away, but then got impaled by the spear of Clone 2.
“I think it isn't immune to magic, or it wouldn't have had jumped away,” Clone 1 said and cut the head of the tiger off.
“Look, there is a flower bud on its chest,” Clone 2 said and tried to touch the flower.
°BANG° Clone 2 vanished from our sight and a small trail was formed into the forest. The headless tiger hit him with its paw and send him flying.
“So it even fights without a head,” Clone 3 simply said and blocked an attack that was meant to hit me.
“So troublesome, Origin, try to hit the flower bud, this looks like a weak point in a horror game. Like the yellow pus tumours in Dead Space,” Clone 1 said and Clone 3 pushed the tiger into a standing position. Like this, I was able to easily throw a coin at the flower bud.
“PING”
An air shockwave erupted from my arm and the coin flew straight through the tiger.
Green blood like liquid gushed out of the front hole and a large gaping hole was on it's back.
The tiger fell down, twitched a few more times and then stopped moving.
“So you already killed it?” Said Clone 2 who came out of the trail.
“Yes, the flower bud is its weak point,” I said.
“Hmm, this flower is directly over its heart,” Clone 1 said and poked the bud with one of its swords.
“The roots are all coming from the flower,” it further said.
“You think the flower is the origin of its zombie-like behaviour?” Clone 3 asked.
“Yep, someone or something must have put the flower or a seed in its heart or on its heart. The flower then most likely controls its host,” Clone 1 said.
“This tiger is already dead for 100 years,” I said.
“The bud will most likely blossom at some point,” Clone 3 said.
“That would mean that it takes 100 years to get to this point,” Clone 2 said.
“Let's hope it also takes some time to infect its host,” I said and motioned the other three to move on.
More of these flower zombies attacked us on our way. They had some things in common. They weren't affected by mana pressure, continued to fight till we destroyed the flower and they were all stronger than their natural counterparts.
The flower really bloomed at some point and when it does it makes the monster a lot stronger. It at least doubles its strength.
Luckily we didn't meet another bug or else my clones would be almost instant dead, I mean they are beings made out of mana.
But in case, we see another one I already had a plan. I would just throw a coin at it with activated runes. I won't have to fear anything, as long as it doesn't touch me with its grass.
We also tested a few things, for example, what happens when you rip the flower out of the monster. The effect was immediate and not really good for us. The monster simply died and the flower withered.
This means that we might not be able to save Ilza, Drull or Lilia if one of them gets infected by one of the flowers.
Then a few hundred metres in front of Ilza's marker the forest got lighter and an old, stone temple came into few. And with the temple, a few hundred flower monster and there were even some dozens fully bloomed between them.
“Let's hope there won't be a bug under them, these fully bloomed ones are as strong as us clones,” Clone 3 said and got ready for the impact of the incoming onslaught.
“We don't have time for this shit,” I said and started to throw coins in rapid fire mode.
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Hundreds of booms were audible and the first three lines of flower monster died their second death. I couldn't throw them with full force or I might have damaged the temple. And it's the only lead to Ilza and the others.
“Origin, give me and Clone 2 two shields we will block them so that you can kill them unhindered,” Clone 1 said and I gave them four more shields.
They formed a circle around me and I began to shoot each monster, that got near enough to reach us.
Body parts filled the air as I just continued to shoot, not bothering to aim carefully. There were enough monster, I would have hit them even if I have to shoot blind.
Only the °PING° sound of my coins who broke through the sound barrier and the bangs of our shield were audible. Not even one monster made a sound, not when they got hit by the shield or lost a limb from my coins. Not even while dying.
It took us five minutes to kill all of them, some of the smaller bloomed monster were able to evade my coins up to a certain point and I had to kill them last.
“Hope there won't be much more inside,” Clone 3 said and stepped over the dead bodies of countless monster.
“What do you think is this place?” Clone 1 asked.
“Don't know, but it looks eerily like a temple and some temple were used for sacrifices. Maybe it was built for the flower?” I answered and stepped inside the temple.
We conjured some light balls and quickly found a staircase that led us deeper inside.
°step° °step°
“Can you hear that?” Clone 3 asked.
“That sounds like steps,” Clone 2 said.
“You mean there is someone in front of us?” Clone 1 asked.
“Like a reception committee?” Clone 3 asked jokingly.
“Let's get ready for a fight, I don't think that the flower would have let someone alive,” I said and we waited for the thing to get nearer.
And I was right, it wasn't something alive that came to us, it was an elf with a fully bloomed flower on its chest.
“That confirms it, the flower is able to infect humanoid beings,” Clone 2 said and the elf began to charge at us. It was fast and reached us in the blink of an eye. However, Clone 3 was able to get between the elf and us and hit the elf with its shield into the face.
The nose of the flower elf broke and it was smashed into the wall. Clone 2 quickly pushed its spear through the flower and the elf quickly died his second death.
“This guy was dead for 3.000 years and was even a high elf,” I said while looking at the dead body. It was once a young female elf, the face distorted in a gruesome and painful expression, yet the rest of a once beautiful face was still visible.
°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step° °step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°°step°
“I think we will get some more guests,” Clone 3 said and got back into position, Clone 2 stepped next to him and took two shields to block the rest of the path.
I gave Clone 1 a few hundred copper coins and we waited.
The steps got louder and louder until we saw the first person. It was also a female and the moment she got into our light she dashed in front of us and tried to get past the shields. Not long after more and more came into view. A real swarm of these flower monster tried to kill us and Clone 1 and I started with our coin throwing.
The first dozen wasn't able to evade, they simply crowded the path too much. But they started to evade as they got more room to use.
Not long after, only two or three tried to get past the shield, while evading most of our coins. We weren't able to use more strength, in fright to damage the temple and they weren't able to get past the shield. They still tried nonetheless and died a useless death.
“Puh, that was the last one,” Clone 3 said and lowered his shield. The path in front of us was filled with dead elfen bodies and the first row even stacked up to a hip-high wall of corpses.
“Let's move on,” I said and climbed over the dead bodies.
Shortly later we came into a bigger hall with pictures on the walls and a door on the other side.
“Move the light to the wall, let's see what they show,” Clone 1 said and I did as asked.
It was a picture story and it started on both our left and right side and ended at the door on the other side of the hall.
It first showed some people who were on a plane and tried to farm on barren land.
Then a green light came out of the sky and a green woman floated over the now as elfen visible people. The elfs knelt in front of the green woman and it looked like they're praying to her.
The woman raised her arms, and behind her, trees came out of the ground.
The next picture showed a city like the elfen capital with a temple in the middle. The temple looked similar to this one and most likely is the same.
After that came a picture of a stone table and an animal on it, an elfen woman had a seed and a dagger in her hands. The following three pictures described the growth stages of the flower bud. At first, it sprouted roots, then came the bud and at last the bloomed flower.
The last picture consisted out of the flower monster who protected the elfen from none flower monster.
“What do you think happened? Why would the flower start to use the elfs as well?” Clone 3 asked as we came to the last picture.
“Maybe they stopped with their sacrifices?” Clone 1 asked more than answered.
“Maybe.... It won't help us to speculate, let's go through this door, the map says that Ilza is behind it,” I said and opened the door.
Behind the door was a large room with a picture of the green woman on the back wall.
A stone table, the same as in the picture was in the middle of it and a green tree woman stood in front of the table. Lilia was on it and Drull, as well as Ilza, lied on the side.
Name: GaiaGender: NeutralAge: 1.936.290Level: 1023Profession: NoneRank: XTitle:
Ex-Goddess of Nature, Spirit of Nature, Ghost of the Forest
Health: /MP: Regeneration /Mana: 690.000.000MP: Regeneration 100.000/secStrength: 203.000Intelligence: 130.000Agility: 240.100Wisdom: 135.000Class: /This elemental is as old as the planet and once established
an religion around her. Her followers sacrificed monster
for her blessing. However, at one point the sacrifices didn't
came any longer and she used her temple guards and maids
as sacrifices.
Now she's hunting anything that comes near her temple.
Race: Lower Deity Class Earth-Water Elemental
The more like a dryad looking woman turned around and looked at us.
“So you're the one who killed all my pawns. Did you come to rescue these three?” Gaia asked with a feminine voice.
“Yes, and I'll kill you if they are dead,” I said and got ready to throw a coin with full force. I can use my full force, now that I know where the others are.
“You've killed all my pawns just for these three?” She asked and motioned to Lilia.
“Sure,” I simply said.
“Well, these two are unharmed, but the woman here,” she pointed at Lilia,” already has my seed,” she said.
“Then remove the seed,” I said.
“I could do that, but why should I? What will you give me if I do?” She asked with a smile.
“Are you able to use already dead bodies as well?” I asked.
“Yes,” she answered.
“Then I'll give you the carcase of a dragon god. A Tier 5 monster would surely be better than her,” I said.
She thought for a moment and then said,” very well, I'll take the seed out of her. Put the carcass in front of my temple. I remove her seed after putting one into it. However, I'm not able to fully remove the influence of the seed. I'm only able to remove the seed, the roots who've already sprout through her veins can't be removed. But don't worry, she won't die from them, on the contrary, they will make her a little stronger. And I won't be able to control her without the seed. So what do you say?” She asked.
“Okay, Clone 1, 2 and 3 carry them to the surface. You Gaia will lead the way,” I said and motioned Gaia to walk.
She began to walk, still carrying a smile and we reached the surface a few minutes later.
“Here,” I said and took the almost 400 metres tall, 100 metres wide and 200 metres long dragon god out.
“It's even in perfect conditions,” Gaia said happily and took something out of her mouth.
It was a thump large green marble and looked like the seed of the picture. She then walked up to the heart of the dragon and pushed the marble into it. The dragon twitched once and roots already started to grow from its heart.
“Thanks, now let me take the seed out of her. Oh, and I have to cut her chest open, so you will have to heal her,” she said and sliced Lilia's chest with her finger open. She then put two fingers inside and took a green marble with roots out. She then cut the roots and put them back into Lilia's chest.
I quickly healed her and Clone 3 carried her away from Gaia.
“Now leave, I have to rebuild my pawns,” Gaia then said and turned around.
“Yeah, see you,” I said and aimed a gold coin at her. She noticed my movement and turned around. Her mouth began to move, but she wasn't fast enough to do anything more. I released the coin with maximum force. She, the temple and a few kilometre of forest were gone.
Then a green light flew up and the woman from the pictures began to materialise. However, I didn't let her and started to suck her mana out of her with [Ultra ultimate high Mana Manipulation]. It took me not even a second and her whole mana was sucked out. The green light simply faded away, she didn't even had the time to scream.
“Nobody harms someone I like,” I said sternly and took the carcass of the dragon god back into my inventory.
“Wake them up,” I said and the clones started to wake Ilza, Drull and Lilia up.
“Hmm?” Drull groaned and sat up.
“Master what happened?” He then asked and looked around.
“Did I miss a fight?” He further asked.
“Wait until the others are up,” I said and conjured a house.
Ilza and Lilia woke up a few minutes later and the first thing Lilia did was to cry as she saw the green roots in and over her skin.
“Don't worry Lilia, they look cool and they won't harm you, I hope they don't. Let me explain what happened,” I said and patted Lilia's head.
“They look gross,” Lilia said between sobs.
“No, they don't. Now listen....” I said and began to tell them what happened.
“So to sum it up, the goddess Gaia kidnapped us and tried to turn us into plant zombies. Which partially worked with Lilia. Then she got the dragon god from you and took the seed, who would have killed Lilia, out of Lilia? After that you simply killed her?” Drull asked after I finished.
“Yup,” I simply said.
“HAHAHAHAHAHA, only Master would be able to kill a god as easily as a walk in the park,” Drull said while laughing loudly.
“Then everything is fine?” Ilza asked.
“Fine? I look like a freak!” Lilia shouted.
“I think they look good,” Ilza said and I nodded as support.
“You won't shun me because of them?” Lilia asked me a little fearfully and with teary eyes.
“Of course not. Now you're the same like me, one of a kind,” I said and gave her a kiss before she could say anything else.
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Next chapter, one god less on the planet. Gaia was able to see Clair because she had a physical body.