A few minutes after the chase, Magnus sat on the ground inspecting the root he tripped over. He figured it wasn’t just a simple root if the spider chased him relentlessly until he crossed it. It wasn’t strange at first sight and was inert to his [Mana Perception]. Maybe the mystery was in the plant itself, not its roots. Magnus decided to follow where it led and find what plant it belonged to.
He ended up following it for five minutes and had yet to find the plant. Maybe it wasn’t the root itself, preventing the spider from crossing, maybe it was a border. But what could be on this side of it if even the armored spiders were afraid? Frankly, Magnus did not want to find out. On the other hand, the spider may be waiting for him hidden out of sight. He had experience with how sneaky some of the spiders could be.
Thinking it over he decided it was safer on this side for now. Magnus took stock of the situation. He had a knife, 5 strips of spider flesh, and the [Rusted Breastplate]. Looking at the spider flesh in his hand Magnus crinkled his nose in disgust. It was starting to smell like a vile concoction of rotting flowers and shit. Time to find some real food. Well, even if he didn’t find anything even the tree bark would be better than the horrid spider flesh.
Judging the border to be the safest place to look for food, Magnus resumed walking at a slow, careful pace along the root border. Half an hour later of monotonous walking, when he was seriously starting to contemplate trying to eat the tree bark, the forest changed. The trees were getting sparser. Soon he stood behind a tree, looking over a peculiar clearing.
A single big tree two times taller than the ones in the forest stood in the middle of the clearing and fresh-looking apples hung off its branches. The tree however didn’t look so good itself. It was black and withered, it looked like it was dying. As Magnus was thinking if he should take the obvious bait, his stomach grumbled. Shrugging his shoulders he looked around the clearing one last time and after judging it free of threats he strode out toward the tree.
As he came closer to the tree, he saw something that he couldn’t from farther away. Three humanoid silhouettes were embedded in the tree. Magnus tried [Identify] on them but the Skill only told him about the dying tree. Cursing the uselessness of the skill, he started climbing up the tree, while hoping the silhouettes wouldn’t wake up on his way up. He judged that shaking the tree wouldn’t have any effect with his low Strength and the size of the tree.
Sitting on the lowest branch with the apples he slowly shuffled closer to them. Praying that nothing would happen he started to pull on one of the closer apples. Magnus let out a breath when nothing happened when the apple came off. Deciding to not wait any longer he bit into the apple. It was the best apple he ever had. No, the best food he ever had. It tasted cool and refreshing. Finishing it in no time Magnus went on to pick more of them before getting down.
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When he tried to pull on the third apple, the tree decided it had enough and started creaking while shaking its branches, he immediately dropped the apples down on the ground. Of course, even the trees in this cave were out to get him. Holding on for his dear life, Magnus waited for the tree to tire itself out, if it even could tire it out.
“This tree is a bit too lively for a dying one,” he thought after half a minute of shaking. With such low Strength, he was starting to lose his grip. Judging waiting for the tree to tire itself out to be a bad idea he prepared to jump off. He could probably make it with his high Endurance. The branch he was sitting on wasn’t even that high.
Magnus dangled both his legs off one side of the branch and jumped. What he failed to account for though was the tree’s thrashing and one of the branches hit him in the head. Lying on the ground groaning, he started hearing a loud sound similar to wood snapping. Preparing for the worst he looked back at the tree. One of the figures was slowly lodging itself out of the tree. Magnus Identified it.
[Corrupted Ent – Tier 0] – Level 4
Cursing, Magnus stumbled up on his feet. Deciding that his knife would be useless against a tree he got into a fighting stance. He finally got a good look at the Ent. It stood quite a bit taller than him and possessed a pair of burning green eyes, suspiciously similar to the color of the spider venom. Its arm’s four fingers looked very pointy. Magnus hoped it wouldn’t get to use them.
The Ent decided it had enough of waiting and rushed him. Magnus dodged left and sent a right hook empowered by [Vicious Blow] at it. Hitting its right shoulder, the wood making it splinter a bit, Magnus prepared for a long fight. A few short and futile exchanges later he got an idea and turned on his [Mana Perception]. Just as predicted a green ball of mana gathered in the Ent’s abdomen, in a similar place as Magnus’ own. In addition, a spiderweb of green lines filled the Ent. He hoped that by destroying it he could cripple it or even kill it, with it being filled with mana.
Changing his target from the Ent’s head to its abdomen Magnus started even more viciously pummeling it. In one exchange he overextended and the Ent managed to stab him in his left shoulder. Some time later he finally managed to get through its bark skin into the softer insides and got a hold of the green ball. He pulled with all of his meager Strength. It was easier than he thought.
[Vicious Blow is now Level 3.]
Magnus stood over the unmoving Ent’s body holding the solid tangle of Mana and smiling triumphantly. His [Danger Sense] warned him of something incoming behind him. It was a little too late and he fell forward down on the Ent’s body. Feeling groggy he turned around.
[Corrupted Ent Sentinel – Tier 0] – Level 6
Another Ent stood over him, this one two levels higher than the last one. Another one was slowly pulling itself out of the tree.
“Shit, I forgot about them.” Magnus cursed.