Ray reached the plant monster before it managed to kill off everyone he was attempting to rescue. He even got there in time to ensure the captured woman wasn’t dead either. Considering how far he had travelled from his original position near the exit of the dungeon, he figured he ought to have been proud of himself.
There was no time for that, though. The monster, despite being an absolutely stationary plant, was proving quite troublesome. At least, for the others.
The monster itself was a hodgepodge mess of plant matter. A wide, central trunk was surrounded by a humongous variety of fauna in every direction. On one side was what reminded him of a rafflesia, another side was completely covered with roses and thorns. Venus flytraps flew around the area via thorny vines, while pitcher plants were mortaring acid everywhere.
That thing was definitely a piece of work.
Ray used Primordial Gauge to get a proper look at what he was facing.
[Primordial Gauge]
Forest Amalgam [Monster] [Tier 9] [Level 20]
When the forest is assailed by forces that cannot be defeated by natural means, it is inevitable that the will of all those living within the woodlands manifests much more tangibly. The power of every facet of the forest is combined into one, forcing challengers and foes to face the full wrath of the forest.
Skills:
Undergrowth [Tier 7]: Constantly pull in nutrients from beneath the ground, restoring your Recovery. At Tier 7, this skill enhances Recovery regeneration by 14%.
Fluid Form [Tier 7]: Partially combine current form with other forms. At Tier 7, this skill can combine up to 7 different forms at once.
Channel Mana [Tier 5]: At tier 5, channel up to 5 different kinds of Mana to create different effects, depending on the variant of Mana channelled.
Vine Shot [Tier 6]: Send vines to do your bidding in a wide area. At Tier 6, this skill throws out 12 vines.
Sunlight Eater [Tier 5]: Absorb sunlight to convert to Mana. At Tier 5, this skill creates 5 Mana per minute.
Miniature Minions [Tier 6]: Send out a horde of small minions to do your bidding. Minions can be modified to carry out different purposes. At Tier 6, this skill can create 60 minions, which can perform up to 3 functions.
Burgeon Roots [Tier 7]: Bolster your underground network of roots and send them bursting out to attack your foes. Can be used to sap Recovery and Mana from enemies. At Tier 7, this skill absorbs 21% of the foes’ Recovery and Mana.
“Hey!” someone shouted. “Who the hell are you?”
Ray’s perusal of the monster’s sheet of skills was rudely interrupted by a brick-faced man in light leather armour who was running away from several attacking vines. He wasn’t even looking at Ray. When some of the vines got too close, he slashed them apart with a curved sword whose edge glowed with an icy blue light.
“I’m here to help,” Ray said. “Is your friend still alive?”
The man hacked apart another double vines. “She’s not my friend.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
The man finally got himself some space from all the monster vines, his dirty brown hair swinging into his eyes. He looked Ray in the eye and said, “Do you think she’s still alive?”
Ray looked forward. Far ahead, the monster was busy dealing with the third member of the group of not-friends—a woman who was pelting the Forest Amalgam with spears of gleaming green crystals. She had on a dark shirt and trousers, accompanied by a frock that almost looked like a priest’s. Her black hair was pulled into a braid, one that was dyed blue.
Now really wasn’t the time to wonder if that dye had lasted all the way from the start of her journey through the Tower, or if it was new. Had to be the latter, right?-
The woman captured by several of the vines had basically been mummified. It was difficult to tell if she was alive.
By looking, that was.
“She’s hanging on,” Ray said, having discovered that Primordial Gauge worked. “Can you focus on freeing her?”
“We’re barely surviving here, buddy. The hell do you think is going on here?”
“I might be able to create an opening for you. Once I’ve done that, it’ll be your job to get your companion out of the monster’s clutches. Only then can I go all out.”
“All out? The hell—”
Ray used Lifeblood Soulform and created two winged, draconic maws. The man shut up as they appeared next to him, almost menacingly. “They’ll guard you while you get the captured woman out of there. Now, follow me and hurry.”
He shot forward, leaving the other man to catch up as fast as he could. Immediately, the plant monster’s attention turned upon him. Several of the vines switched from attacking the woman to shooting at Ray. Two of the sedan-sized pitcher plants aimed in his general direction and threw huge globs of acid at him.
Ray wasted no time using Soullife Cloak. A sizzling sensation preceded a portion of his soul severing away and retaining a chunk of his Recovery and Mana. Ray paid it no attention, casting Mottling Spiritguard to summon the dozen sparking orbs to safeguard him.
The orbs defended him against all of the Forest Amalgam’s attacks. Ray could pay them absolutely no mind. Instead, he focused on attacking.
A quick cast of Spiritsorb with some extra True Mana ensured that the monster would grant him a Soul Aspect once it was dead. Next, Ray sped up with his wings on his back, shooting forward at a blitzing speed while casting Soulstrike with both Talismans.
For a plant, the monster could sure defend itself very rapidly. A wall of thorns almost seemed to materialize in front of Ray. Burgeon Roots came out quick . They took the brunt of his attacks, disintegrating as their bark split and their innards oozed, liquified, putrefied, and spat out rotten pustules. But the main body of the plant was safe.
Safe enough to cast Miniature Minions. The droning that took to the air reminded Ray of an army of bees.
He quickly drew himself back, looking around till he found the guy he had tasked with the rescue duty. “You done over there?”
The man hauled his unconscious not-friend onto his shoulder, his wide eyes professing that he was half out of his mind. “Yeah!”
Ray’s distractions had meant the guy had little trouble, especially because his other companion was burning away any bits of the tree that tried to get close. Her green fires had a toxic feel about them, like they burned and poisoned. Possibly something to do with her class.
But the plant monster wasn’t going to let them off the hook that easily. With the wall of thorns blocking Ray from doing anything worse, the Forest Amalgam could momentarily turn its attention to the others. Which it proceeded to do by literally leaping off the ground to crash upon them.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Wasn’t it supposed to be a fucking plant?” the conscious woman screamed.
She and her unconscious-woman-bearing companion both continued yelling and cursing as they ran. But they weren’t going to get away in time. Not with how fast the Amalgam was falling.
Ray flew forward as fast as he could, knowing that he wasn’t going to reach them before they were crushed. Not as he was. But with Spectral Step activating, he flashed through time and space to appear right beside one of his flying draconic maw constructs. Like the last time, the sudden drain on his True Mana reserves was heavily palpable.
But no time to focus on that. Ray had teleported in to grab the hapless trio—duo? He dragged the man and the woman onto his shoulder as the momentum he had started with continued, even through the use of Spectral Step, carrying him and his burdens off with him.
He was slowed down just a bit by the additional weight, but still fast enough to escape the crash. The world shook at the impact of the Amalgam’s landing, but they were mostly safe.
Except for the army of bees flying at them.
“Get back,” Ray said, letting the man go.
He staggered away, cursing the bees following him. They were small, and flew too fast, so Ray wasn’t able to get a good enough look at them. But they had to be bad news, so he wasted no time ordering his two constructs to torch as many as they could.
Ray himself was protected by his Spiritguard orbs. They zoomed around him, taking out more and more of the bees with little trouble.
Somewhere farther off, the other woman was burning the bees that were attacking her.
Basically, they were all free from the monster itself. Which meant, it was Ray’s turn to finally end this encounter.
The Forest Amalgam brought its entire wrath to bear solely upon him. The pitchers mortared more acid blobs, the flytraps shot at him with snapping jaws, a storm of roots emerged from the ground underneath. All seeking to attack and end Ray at once.
His spells kept him safe. An Impervious Shell with Lifeblood Soulform underneath him, another cast of Mottling Spiritguard to create another dozen defensive orbs.
Ray had ample time and space to direct his two constructs to point at the Amalgam and unleash their chaotic, fiery breaths at once. At the same time, he used Primal Spiritcraft to create another draconic maw over his hand. This too fired a compressed laser of chaotic fire. Three beams of massive, burning energy rocketed into the Amalgam simultaneously.
It was small wonder that the monster basically exploded moments later. A meteor shower of burning plant chunks that chaotically corrupted under the influence of Ray’s flames hammered around them all.
[Enemy Defeated—Forest Amalgam]
Tier 9 Monster: Forest Amalgam [Level 20] x1
Essence: +450
Knowledge: +3
True Mana Restored: +200
Essence to Level 24: 9,100/33,900
Knowledge to next Threshold: 633/800
Pitiful Essence gain, but that was what he got for helping other people kill monsters. Not that he really regretted it at that moment.
“Holy shit,” the man said. “That was wild, dude.”
Ray grinned back. “Sure was.”
Since he had used Spiritsorb, he got a handy little list of Soul Aspects as the monster’s corpse burned with chaotic, corrupting flames. The choice was easy. Ray ignored everything else there and picked Miniature Minions.
Who wouldn’t want hundreds of tiny, magic bees harassing their opponents all at once? He could see a lot of potential applications, especially when he combined it with his other Soul Aspects. For instance—mimic bees. Or hundreds of tiny draconic maws capable of shooting compressed lasers like his own little army of stormtroopers.
The possibilities were incredible.
Only issue was that Ray had now filed up all of Lifeblood Graveyard’s slots. He would need to raise its Tier again in case he came across something useful.
----------------------------------------
With the trio out of mortal peril, it was time for introduction and some context sharing. They settled down in the same area where they—well, Ray—had killed the Forest Amalgam. The conscious ones of the trio wanted to get moving, but some basic intel would be good.
Ray went first, since he figured he had the least to add. He explained that he was from the First Floor of the current Tower itself, that he had come up earlier that day, and that he was trying to figure out the lay of the land and where he ought to go.
On the other hand, none of the trio were originally from the Tower of Forging. This Tower was entirely new to them. In fact, they hadn’t even been a trio before. They had started off as a group of five before their numbers had been whittled down by the Tower’s challenges.
“It was tougher than we expected,” Jacob, the man Ray had first spoken with, said. “We lost a couple of guys. One of them in the Imitator dungeon, the other to a different monster elsewhere.”
Ray didn’t want to seem insensitive to the tragedy of their loss, so he did his best to remain patient and let them work around to explaining what they had discovered so far.
“There’s more of us scattered all over the place,” the woman, Lottie, said. Their third companion had still remained unconscious, though they hadn’t found anything wrong with her yet. The hope was that she would regain her senses before long. “We’ve been trying to level up before we make a push for the spire.”
Since Ray had already admitted having visited the giant, spiralling growth from a distance, they didn’t need to explain further. What they did explain was that the three of them hadn’t even reached their class evolutions yet.
Ray wasn’t really surprised by that. Virko had said some of the newcomers would be weaker. But he hadn’t thought he would end up meeting non-class-evolved people out in the wild already. He was almost afraid to ask if they were in the minority or the majority of those here.
“Do you have like, actual Objectives that are making you push towards those spires?” Ray asked.
Lottie nodded. “Most of us do yeah. Get past the spires, it says.”
“For a lot of us,” Jacob added.
“Huh,” Ray said
He explained how he had no Objectives relating to them whatsoever. Curious, how different people could get so vastly different Objectives. Then again, their Vocations weren’t Tower Conqueror. He had a feeling that these two, and most others who had received Objectives about capturing the spires, had similar Vocations.
“We’re going to make the real push in the next couple of days,” Jacob said. “You in?”
Ray blinked. He wasn’t even sure he had the full context of everything that was going on here, much less being close to making a decision about joining up with random people he had just met.
“If you guys aren’t from the Tower of Forging originally, where are you from?” Ray asked.
It made sense they weren’t from Ray’s Tower. Maya’s stipulation had been to ensure everyone had their class evolved before being allowed to ascend to the Second Floor. Meanwhile, Mary Felds had made everyone using her tactic to climb the Tower to first level themselves up and face as many challenges as possible before doing so.
These people had been about to be eaten alive by a plant monster. Ray wasn’t trying to think unkindly of them, but there was so much he could massage the truth.
“All three of us are from the Tower of Enlightenment originally,” Lottie said. “We got the option to switch to a more difficult Tower once we completed our First Floor challenge, and this Tower was the hardest option we got.”
Well, at least Ray had to give them proper due for their guts.
“You know people from other Towers then?” Ray asked.
Considering he hadn’t received any options to go to a more powerful Tower, it was a safe assumption that the Tower of Forging was the hardest around.
Unless… his Vocation had something to do with it. After all, he couldn’t really conquer anything if he just kept switching from one Tower to the next. Had to stick to one to completion before moving on to the another.
“Oh, yeah,” Lottie said. “Bunch of people from a few other Towers are all over. I think your Tower’s originals are still in the majority, but yeah, us newcomers are a sizable chunk too.”
Jacob tutted. “Not that it matters. This Second Floor’s new to everybody.”
“Not completely,” Ray said. “Let me ask you this, you guys must have seen the humans guarding the spire, right? Have you seen any sign of any Sylvans?”
Lottie and Jacob looked at each other. “Sylvans?”
Ray was almost tempted to laugh. Newbies. “They’re the ones who take care of the Floors. Tall alien people that are usually kind of elfin with these big horns coming off their heads and elbows and knees that look pretty close to the big spire over there. Usually got curved weapons and they’re often kind of racist if you ask—”
“Oh, them.” Lottie got a look of recognition on her face. “We know about them. There’s one on the spire. Somewhere up there, at least.”
“Yeah, that thing killed a guy a while back,” Jacob said grimly.
Ray shook his head. “Well, that figures.”
That left the main question. Why in the world were people working with the Sylvans to keep other people out. Because that was essentially what was happening, according to Lottie and Jacob. The humans guarding the spire refused to let anyone get close. They would need to be confronted and defeated if they all wanted to progress deeper.
“There really are no ways around?” Ray asked. “I’m not afraid of needing to face off against anybody, so long as they aren’t ridiculously stronger, but it seems far-fetched to think we have to face these people, doesn’t it?”
Lottie and Jacob shared another look. Ray had a hard time reading into it.
“I think it’s best if we let the leader explain the rest,” Lottie said. “We’ve already been here too long. She’s probably going to glare us to death if we take any longer.”
Fair enough. It wasn’t like Ray was pressed for time. Plus, he was now curious who this leader even was.
A rustle pulled all their attention to the last member of their little party. The woman with the short blob of blonde hair and plant-monster-ruined armour stretched, yawned, and finally woke up. She blinked at them with bleary blue eyes.
“Oh, hello,” she said, fixing on Ray. “You’re new.”
“I’m Ray.” He stretched out his hand, but then stopped. “I’d shake, but your hands are filthy, sorry. Nice to meet you.”
She looked down at herself with a heavy grimace. “Oh yeah, I’m a mess. But yeah, nice to meet you too. I’m Alice. Alice Felds.”