In James’s mind was a treasure chest’s worth of knowledge, the fog acted as an amplifier for the Shadowless Echo Mystic Art he used. Its purpose was an all-rounded scouting ability that gave him pure information, in which it analyses materials, artifacts, treasures, environments, etc.
Just this ability alone made him a top-tier treasure analyzer and a legendary treasure hunter. Two jobs both considered high-class and revered across worlds.
Broken. This ability with fog included is terrifying, I should learn some of those cheap mystic arts like fog control.
James was in thought as he weaved through the foggy forest fast and gentle like a black swan, his blade sheathed but his left hand prepared on its handle for any moment of notice.
Within moments, James arrived upon a camp of green imps. They were similar to goblins but had lime green skin, their ears were extremely tall and narrow. Green-imps however knew something most creatures didn’t, basic magic.
I better get the Ethereal Blade that the Phantom Swordsman had first, it will make the fight against the tree easier. James’s plan was slowly coming to fruition.
James without noise seemed to float from a hill above the green imps who were still unaware, that was until one screamed and pointed to the gently falling bladesman, James who was coming in their direction.
“EM’Y EM’Y SHOOT EM!” The spotter of the green imps yelled.
All of the huddled green imps in the forest seemed to glow with blue eyes, their eyes turning plain and whole with no iris visible, just pure blue. A white rune appeared on their large blue eyes, it seemed to flicker into and out of reality, obviously unstable.
James at that time spun with his blade in a swirl, a barrage of invisible mind blasts were reflected off of the nano-steel blade.
Then with a transformation of James’s dance, he landed with a new stance, his feet planted casually, almost drunkenly on the ground. His eyelids seemed to almost be closing on and off from an odd sudden drowsy feeling.
Drunken Blade Technique! James’s martial fighting spirit roared.
With an odd unbalanced movement, James seemed to dodge the constant invisible mind blasts that were thrown at him. His body moved at odd angles, barely dodging the almost invisible attacks.
These mind blasts are just dense blasts of pure mana, it's an amateur skill with low magic damage, but it's transparent as it's just loosely collected mana, I just have to use my mana sense to feel their locations. James figured in his mind whilst splitting a green-imps head into two with a clumsy swing.
Then with a drunkenly swung back kick, James hit another imp’s face who was running fast into his foot. The imp seemed stunned, while James stumbled through a series of mind blasts, weaving before again slicing the stunned green imp’s neck, then another, so smoothly that the green imp behind the first one didn’t even have time to react.
Two down, four to go. Two lime-green imps with glowing blue eyes fell to the ground with a tumble.
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James quickly stumbled around the forest before clearing all of the Green-Imps, with a casual walk after stopping his drunken dance, he made his way to a large tree, which had multiple times the diameter of most nearby trees.
The tree was grey and seemed to be lifeless, but James knew different, the tree was actually a Ghost Ent, and it was severely injured by a Ghost-Slaying Blade, which was stuck into its core, almost piercing and causing major damage, but not enough to completely destroy the golden-orb hidden in the center of the grey-tree trunk.
With a quick flash, a metallic *SHNNNNG* rang in the air with an audible crushing sound.
Like that of a loud-fast-approaching entity, an invisible tremor rang through the air as a sword slash appeared on the tree. James had his hand extended out with his blade, when in less than two seconds it was back in his sheath with his hand grasping the handle calmly.
The tree seemed to tremble as two parallel lines on the upper area of the tree seemed to stretch the wood and open up a hollowed out area, two glowing fiery-wispy eyes appeared, both blue in color.
The tree doesn’t feel pain, and doesn’t have the ability to speak, and its bark has the magical ability to nullify physical attacks… but not completely, it probably felt something after my Burst Slash.
James saw a line appear close to the root of the tree, it was only two inches in depth, but James felt incredibly proud of himself.
That took hours for ‘that guy’ to do this previously, I believe a whole day went by before even “that” man was close to defeating this monster.”
With a shake of his head, and a quick jerk of his body, with an odd movement technique, James dodged three massive grey roots that broke out of the ground, sending rubble flying into the air and bouncing off his armor as well as the surrounding trees.
The roots seemed to appear in mass after emitting a wailing sound below.
*WOOOAHHHH* *SHUNK*
This Ghost Ent is actually just a tree, I believe it has tiny roots which dig holes into the ground, which trap the moving air in the tunnels and the vibrations of the massive roots included, cause these sounds. An odd natural ability, not magical in any way but evolutionary.”
The thing about the 1st floor of the tower was that it was the starter level, even though 1 in 10 people die before making it to the 2nd floor, it was considered the easiest floor in the tower for one major reason.
The creatures were more intimidating than they seemed, the Green-imps had weak bodies, and the mind blasts which were similar to a decent punch’s power of a regular adult, if one could feel the obvious tremors alongside the sounds in the ground below the Ghost Tree Ent, then they could easily dodge the sharp large roots.
The tree was severely damaged, its original power was capable of controlling the surrounding trees too in tandem, furthermore, it was unable to move its body right now. Usually, it used tree roots to slowly siphon nearby fauna lifeforce to regain vitality. This tree was also an Ent in its ultimate “ascended” form, where it takes the form of an ancient tree warrior with grand vampiric powers.
Yet right now, it was pitiful. James knew that based on the tales in his past life.
James repeatedly slashed at the mark, cutting through the base of the tree in less than five minutes.
“WAAAAAAAAAAH”
The ground trembled fiercely before becoming quiet.
James watched as the demonic tree seemed to be split from the base with its top falling backward away from James.
“Sorry tree, my blade is as sharp as an axe today,” James spoke aloud softly to the now quiet surroundings.
James performed his magic Shadowless Echo technique again but physically on the tree, a pulse rang through the tree-body as James witnessed a power similar to an x-ray with heat vision-like sight but shown in cool colors of blue and greys instead of the warm reds and oranges with the ability to see mana concentrations.
“This ability is so convenient and helpful, its purpose is simply to speed up my progression as a person, a tool to help me succeed faster and farther..” James figured with his mind turning with delight at his new ability’s prowess.
Odd black veins appeared showing a multitude of small vein-like tunnels weaving through the tree’s bark, in the center of the tree’s meridians at its core appeared a hollowed area, within two wooden supports held a shattered dimmed golden orb, there also appeared to be the hilt of a wrapped sword handle that just barely fit in the space.
Found ya!
James made a horse stance, and then proceeded to launch a barrage of physical attacks such as elbow bashes, punches, and kicks. With his heavy military-grade suit made of metal, he seemed to devastate the deadwood, sending shrapnel in multiple directions.
In mere moments, James reached the core, where a dimmed-broken Ghost Ent Tree Core was impaled with a Ghost-Slaying Sword handle embedded within.
Step Two. Complete.
First-Floor’s boss slain. An Achievement that will drive millions jealous when they learn what the Ghost-Slaying Sword's abilities are. James grinned, his eyes filled with joy.