Dusk was fast approaching, with Zhen arriving at the boulder where Arloum was at. Seeing the plant, Zhen hopped on the boulder and opened his bag.
Blood splattered on the rock, staining them both as a dozen snakes fell out. One, still moving, quickly tried to slither away, but Zhen swiftly stomped on its head.
For the past month since Zhen's return, their daily life has been consistent. After dropping off Arloum's meal, Zhen would hurriedly leave.
‘What are you waiting for?!’
Though this time, Zhen stared at Arloum for a moment. His eyes were slightly weary, and his face slightly pale. On the other hand, Arloum was frantically waving his stem around.
‘Move faster, damn it!’ Arloum’s leaves twitched in frustration.
[Energy: 990/10] …
[Energy: 810/10]
‘Ahhh! My precious stockpile!’ his leaves drooped down, and seeing this, Zhen sighed.
“See you… next time, little plant,” he said, poking Arloum's leaves.
Without tidying up his bag, he grabbed it and jumped away.
‘Hoorah!’ Arloum’s leaves perked up. As soon as Zhen walked out of his vision, he ate his food like there was no tomorrow.
By midnight, all the snakes had been sucked dry.
[Energy: 1489/10] …
[Energy: 1272/10]
‘Hn, hurry up!’ he inwardly yelled, manipulating his dark energy toward his roots.
Slowly, his stem was lifted, and his roots began to emerge. Sensing his dark energy rapidly diminishing, he grabbed the overflowing life energy in his body and rapidly converted it into crude dark energy.
‘The replica is trash, but it’s enough!’ he held his breath. Watching the crude dark energy being consumed faster than earlier.
[Energy: 700/10] …
[Energy: 391/10] …
[Energy…]
As the breeze touched his virgin roots, Arloum watched as they squirmed on the boulder’s surface.
‘Tch, alas!’ he heaved a sigh of relief.
[Energy: 4/10]
‘My roots are five times my body,’ Arloum clicked his tongue.
‘This might be a problem. Can I cut it now? I couldn’t cut it when it was buried…’ he tapped his roots with his leaves, observing his thin but flexible roots.
Though, as he bent them too much, his roots would snap. Feeling a searing sensation in his mind, he pondered before bracing himself. Gathering the majority of his roots, he bent them like he was trying to snap a twig in half.
‘It’s pointless to have so many roots,’ he thought, ‘in the first place, I don't get my energy from the soil.’
Left with four thick and long root “tentacles,” his leaves swayed in satisfaction.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
‘Let’s recover first,’ he hummed, remaining still to absorb the scrap energy in the air.
When the moon was starting to sink, his meditation was cut off by a bird's cry.
[Energy: 7/10]
‘Hn,’ Arloum stared at his inner-body for a while. ‘I recovered energy faster… a bigger body is a burden, it seems.’
Looking at his stem with dozens of leaves, he felt tempted to cut them off.
‘No, that's too much,’ he flicked his leaves.
Shaking off any unnecessary thoughts, he crawled off the boulder and found a nearby stream of water.
‘I wonder…’
He looked at the stream of water in front of him. Dipping his leaves in, he hummed in joy.
[Energy: 8/10] …
‘So water replenishes my energy!’ He slapped the stream of water with his roots.
‘Why didn’t I think of it? I could’ve absorbed rainwater!’
Like with absorbing scrap energy from the air, sunlight, and life energy, the energy he gathered from the stream of water was converted into crude “dark energy.”
‘In terms of quality, it’s slightly better than sunlight but behind life energy. But the water isn't running out anytime soon,’ he chuckled, before looking behind.
After crawling for a bit, his short-sighted vision couldn’t see the boulder anymore.
‘Should I leave like this?’ he mused. ‘I mean, I can travel back easily.’
Thinking for a moment, he then focused on the temperature around him.
‘It’s still cold. Dawn should be a while away. A little exploring won’t hurt,’ he waved his leaves, decisively following the stream of water.
‘Stream’s gotten thicker,’ he found.
Occasionally, he'd spot a snake crawling along the stream. Unfortunately, before he could come close to any of them, the snakes would bolt.
‘Tch, cowards,’ he mocked, half amused and half irritated. ‘I need you not, either way!’
Crawling a few dozen minutes forward, more and more streams of water merging together. Now, the water level is starting to deepen.
‘Where are these streams coming from?’ he wondered, when he felt the air starting to get warmer.
Likewise, the surroundings have gotten a little brighter as well. Knowing it was day time, he shook his leaves and started tracing his path.
However, his journey back in was quickly thwarted when he found a small cave entrance.
‘... Zhen would come near dusk, I have more time. Besides, I'm not in a hurry to feed with water nearby.’
Curious as a cat, he crawled into the opening, finding a figure laying inside.
‘Is that an elf? Who would sleep here?’ he peeked at the figure, though didn't crawl over.
After all, even elves would cut trees down. How else would they build their structures?
Crawling around the figure while sticking close to the cave’s wall, he stared at the elf's face. The elf was blindfolded, his skin pale. Most notably, his throat was sliced open, revealing his esophagus and dried blood.
‘So it was murder, tch. But why blindfold him? Was it on purpose?’ he mused, before crawling toward the corpse.
He had a guess as to why, but it didn't make sense to him. ‘Adult elves are blind, but their eyes are too pretty… why cover them?’ he complained a bit.
Distracted by some strange thoughts, he watched the corpse for a few minutes.
‘His body shows not a spot of decay. There's no bugs ‘round either. Strange, is it a powerful elf?’
He clicked his tongue, staring at the corpse for a hot minute. Reminiscing of the past, he sighed and shook his leaves. Then, he checked his inner-body, recalling his innate skills.
[Absorption T1]
[TreeOfDarkness T1]
‘Absorption is maxed out, and TreOfDarkness represents me,’ he hummed.
‘Can I… merge them?’ Arloum pondered.
Ever since inventing the “status mirror” in the past, he realized that skills could be merged. However, he had never merged “himself” with his skills in the past.
Mostly because “he” was already at the peak of power since birth.
[Energy: 10/10]
‘But how much energy would it take to finish the merging?’ he then stared at the elf.
‘…since it's a corpse… can I absorb it?’
He tapped the corpse with his leaves, confirming his guess when he saw two forms of life energy.
A living being would only have one form of life energy when they're still alive. Only after death would their life energy start decaying.
‘Is it safe?’ he wondered.
Whenever he absorbed life energy, he always felt drowsy and lethargic. In other words, if someone saw a plant latched onto a corpse—and the corpse was rapidly drying up, they’d definitely burn the “plant” down.
The cave itself was not cramped, with only one visible entrance.
‘It's enough for snakes and cats to squeeze through, but not a humanoid… maybe a brat. It's safe, then,’ he sighed, when he tensed up.
‘ … then how'd the corpse get here?’ he crawled away from the corpse, staring at it with a vigilant gaze.
Looking around, he crawled toward the cave walls, patting every side of it when he reached a patch of vines. Poking it, his roots sank going deeper and deeper into the “wall.”
‘So there’s a secret entrance… is it safe?’ Arloum looked at the corpse, and then at the secret entrance.
‘It should be. Apart from the corpse, it doesn’t look like people go into this cave often. Alright,’ he crawled over to the dead elf.
‘Victory goes to daredevils!’ he yelled inwardly, sliding his roots into the elf's exposed esophagus.
After burying his roots inside the elf's neck, he focused on his inner-body. Then, he connected his dark energy with the elf's life energy, swiftly guiding it to his body.
‘ … I’m… dizzy,’ he gasped for air, even though he couldn't.
Looking at his inner-body, he realized the cause instantly.
[Energy: 390/10] …
[Energy: 610/10]
‘Tch,’ he drowsily controlled his dark energy, using it to convert the overflowing life energy into dark energy.
‘This better be worthwhile,’ unable to do anything else, he resigned himself to his subconscious.
‘I hope it won't take too long… Zhen, don't you dare throw away my food,’ he thought one last time.
[Absorption T1 (99%)], [TreeOfDarkness T1 (101%)] …
[Absorption T1 (98%)], [TreeOfDarkness T1 (102%)] …
----------------------------------------
The sun dawned like a falling star, and birds cluttered over a boulder. They pecked at the dry roots laying around, but as a figure walked near, all of them flew off.
Some carried the roots with their talons, while some simply left, already satisfied.
Looking at the empty boulder, the figure sighed, before climbing and sitting atop the rock. Placing his blood soaked bag beside him, he stared at the clear sky.
“Until we meet again, old friend. Cheers to our second chance,” he stood up, leaving the bag behind and staring at the sky with his bright, green eyes.
Meanwhile, a lone elf stood inside the dark room of the faculty office, donning a black cloak. Staring out the window, he slowly took off his blindfold. His pitch black eyes shining slightly, sucking in the surrounding light.
He scoffed, walking toward a drawer and taking out a piece of paper.
“Those damned outcasts finally reached out, pfft,” he scowled.
Then, he reached inside his cloak, taking out a glass fountain pen.
“My dear, can you see it? Our dreams are within reach,” he chuckled, caressing the fountain pen gently.