As the vines closed around Urginok and Rydr, the tank huddled closer to his Titan friend. Once the thorny death was two meters from them, the brown-haired man totally stopped his taunt and threw himself down at the vines beside Rydr.

Urginok grabbed what vines he could and added his strength score of thirty to Rydr's efforts. Together the two of them bent their backs and strained against the vines beneath them.

Their health bars decreased nearly in tandem with each other, their blood absorbing into the monster they were trying to uproot. The crash of earth surrounded them as more of the chamber collapsed, forcing their eyes closed.

Thanks to [Aetheric Eye], Rydr could still "see" the world around him lit up with Aether. As long as the thing had substance to it, the Titan's newly evolved ability could see it.

So the giant was able to watch every moment of their deaths closing in on them.

As the two divers struggled with the plant's core, which fought back with its vines, trying to drag itself back underground, Rydr heart nearly stopped in his chest. He would have missed it if it weren't for [Aetheric Eye], but the ability revealed it clear as day.

The vines were tearing.

Sh*t! Rydr cursed in his head, unable to spare the breath to do it aloud. The elemental is too young for its vines to endure this!

Blood rushed through Rydr's ears as his heart thundered inside his chest. The Titan desperately cast about in his mind, hoping to stumble on a solution.

Nothing came to mind, but inspiration struck like lightning. As Rydr considered his experiences since he logged back in, he found an idea instead of a clear solution.

Before his very eyes, the giant watched his life force get sucked up by the elemental, directly converting his blood to Aether. However, the amount of Aether in the plant remained the same. As quickly as the Aether poured in, the elemental put it to use just as fast to increase the speed of its growth.

It's still a plant. To level up, it has to grow literally. Rydr quickly assembled the random bits of information while he recalled Lynn's lesson from earlier.

The junction of matter and mana...or life and mana! How could an [Aether Smith] accomplish their fantastic feats with mana and matter? Because the profession doesn't treat them as different things! They're just different frequencies for the same energy- Aether! It's just that the amount of Aether in something can't increase until it improves in quality or levels up!

Rydr realized that he and Lynn were totally wrong. Lynn assumed that Aether was this nebulous, fourth energy source that just happened to be in everything. Rydr believed it was just a representation of an object's internal stress planes.

Neither was correct. And if that's really the case, I should be able to do this!

The Titan leaned back against the vines and pulled while his mind delved into his body, deep into the well of his own Aether. At the same time, Rydr split his concentration to focus on his well of mana.

Where Aether spread evenly through his body, moving at a pace similar to the Titan's heartbeat, mana nestled behind his navel. The well of mana was wild in comparison to the Aether, volatile and fast.

As Rydr kept a "finger" to his Aether's pulse, the giant focused on his mana pool. Instead of drawing out the chaotic energy, Rydr slowed it down. The slower the mana within him spun, the easier it was to sync the two energies.

Within Rydr's mental "view," he watched as the blue mana stilled until it matched the sedate pace of its twin energy. Its blue tone morphed until it matched the deep red of the Titan's Aether. When the two energies synced, a chime went off in Rydr's head, but he ignored it to maintain his focus.

And now, I pull it into my hands...The effort to maneuver the red mana felt similar to how Rydr mimicked the effect of [Consume] to create his "airball" trick, except it was within his own body.

Then, attune to the elemental's Aether. Mentally Rydr planned out each step, adapting his strategy as he learned. Lost in his focus, the giant never noticed his health bar start to decrease at an alarming rate, blood streaming from his closed eyes.

The last step was the hardest because [Metal Spirit] was clearly invented with a purpose in mind. Forced evolution of any ability relied on the diver's individual imagination and strength of will.

Luckily, Rydr possessed both of those qualities in spades. The battle pressure forced the Titan to adapt, and his mind seized upon the task with zeal.

The colossus synced his energy to the monster in his arms and forcibly injected Aether into its vines. In front of Rydr's [Aetheric Eye], he watched as the red glow inside the vines strengthened, quickly doubling the power of its glow.

With the forced injection of Rydr's Aether, the vines stopped snapping for a few moments. Those scant few seconds were the chance the boys needed to heave the monster's core out of its nest of vines.

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The thorny green wall was only a meter away and already crawling up their legs when Rydr and Urginok fell on their asses. In front of them, an enormous bulb, covered in blood and writhing vines, fell on the ground next to the pit they'd dug it out of.

Around them, the rest of the cavern came crashing down as the animated vines fell limp. Dirt and relaxed plants fell on top of their heads, but the boys brushed it off. Each of them eased their bloody avatars off the ground and stared at the monstrosity.

The huge core still writhed with active vines, but Rydr [Inspedted] it to make sure of something.

[(Rare) Young Plant Elemental Level 11]

HP: 4,816/4,816

MP: 1,500/1,500

Passives:

Abilities:

Just as Rydr suspected, the passives and ability of the elemental were no longer present.

Unless it's "planted" in the ground, this thing is pretty helpless. Relief flowed through the Titan as he realized the worst was over for now.

However, the creature still wasn't dead. Unless it was dealt with, the threat it represented could always return. In addition, they had no way of knowing if another plant elemental would evolve in the area.

The Mana Wellspring was too unpredictable with its effects. Rydr cursed the stupid thing in his head as he turned to face Urginok.

"You good?" The Titan questioned.

Urginoked coughed and spat to the side, "Me? I'm not the one bleeding from everywhere."

"You sure about that?"

Urginok laughed and gestured at the Titan's face. Rydr reached up and ran a hand across his mouth, only for it to come away with fresh blood.

Rydr grunted at sight, "Guess it's too much to ask not to die every time I use magic." As soon the giant saw fresh blood, he already figured out it was a backlash from pushing his mental abilities.

The Titan lost track of just how many things he was keeping track of during the battle. He resolved himself to perform experiments later to determine when it was he started to hurt himself.

Intentional suicide should be saved as a last resort. Rydr nodded to himself as he looked around.

It was lucky the core was in the chamber's center, below Rydr's artificial hole in the roof. If luck had anything to do with it. Although the last couple of minutes were a little hit and miss, everything went according to how he planned it, more or less.

The second plan, not the one that got him here in the first place. Rydr readily admitted that plan was foolhardy, to say the least.

The edges of the pit were collapsed all the way to the outer wall of the underground space. Green vines and torn plant matter mixed with the avalanche of dirt to create a small slope toward the center of the pit where the boys stood.

"Ho, down there! Is it dead?" Amos called down from the pit edge, where he stood silhouetted against the trees and sun.

A short distance behind the bloody guard, the rest of the NPC guards freed the other victims from their cocoons.

Urginok rounded on his giant friend at the same time, "Hold the phone. Since when can you use magic?" The tank's eye's opened so wide he had to blink to moisten them again.

Rydr panned his head between the tank and Amos rapidly before holding a finger up for Urginok to wait.

"It's not dead yet! Just give me a minute." As Rydr answered Amos, he turned to face the elemental's core.

During the short break in the action, the core's vines tried to work their way back into the dirt. Rydr snorted before he took a short step and punted the monster core out of the pit, tearing through the vines implanted in the dirt.

The giant turned to face Urginok and held out his hand, "Need a ride?"

Urginok laughed and walked toward the edge of the pit near where Rydr kicked the monster's core.

"There's plenty of handholds. I've got this." The tank shook away the image of his giant friend carrying him out of the pit princess-style. He wasn't about to drop his question, but he knew it could wait.

Rydr shrugged and jumped out of the pit. Now that I'm getting used to [Springform]...this is actually really fun. After the fight in the elemental's pit, Rydr had all sorts of new ideas to evolve his combat style.

The colossus landed outside of the pit and looked around for the monster core. He found the core a couple of meters away, still trying to bury its vines in the dirt.

"How do I kill this thing anyway?" Rydr wondered aloud as he stared at the thing. Its health bar was enormous, far beyond what he wanted to destroy with his bare hands.

Sadly the Titan's pickax was lost somewhere in the Mana Wellspring. On the other hand, Rydr was grateful Lynn seemed to have forgotten about the mining implement.

Urginok walked up behind Rydr while the giant contemplated what to do.

"What's the holdup? Just smash the thing into a paste, and let's get back to Grotto."

Rydr grunted, "Inspect it."

A couple of seconds later, Urginok's face paled as he suffered a coughing fit, "Holy crap, that's a lot of health."

Rydr nodded silently as he walked up to the core and grabbed one of its tendrils.

"Wahaat are you doing?" Urginok's voice pitched up when he got a look at the Titan's shenanigans.

"I've got an idea," Rydr muttered to his friend as he gripped the thorns tightly, allowing them to pierce his skin once more.

Since the fight had ended, Rydr's health and mana regeneration had ample time to fill the Titan's resources to at least half. The extra health buffer encouraged the giant to attempt his idea.

Just as he did in the pit, Rydr spent a few moments to slow the tempo of his mana pool and match its wavelength to his Aether. Then the diver used the monster's greedy hunger for life energy against it.

Do you want to eat? F*ucking eat until you puke, then! While Rydr fought the monster, he actually ended up genuinely hating it. That was because Rydr realized why so many of the cocoons he rescued were silent and still.

The elemental kidnapped and tried to eat children. [Aetheric Eye] revealed that they were severely weakened while still alive.

However, the children's survival did nothing to quell the hatred Rydr poured into the monster's heart.

Rydr forced his artificial "Aether" into the elemental's core, adding to the beast's own energy instead of trying to influence it.

More, you greedy bastard! Take it all! Unsatisfied with the flor of Aether, Rydr grabbed a second tendril with his free hand and doubled his effort.

Urginok quickly backed away from his friend as the monstrous seed pod in front of him began to disintegrate. Unlike when a monster normally died and vanished in a flash of light, the monster's core seemed almost to melt.

The last of Rydr's mana pool vanished as the Titan emptied his energy into the core. A moment later and a wave of disorientation assaulted Rydr's senses.

Rydr stumbled and fell to one knee.

"Hey, man, you okay?" Urginok stepped back up to Rydr's side when the pod failed to explode, clapping the Titan on his shoulder.

Rydr nodded his head, unable to answer intelligibly until his mana pool began to regenerate.

When he could see straight again, Rydr reached out and plucked a small item off the forest floor.