Sam wove around another spike, choosing not to use his enhancement skill yet. He was going to save that for when he needed it. He made his way towards the base of the undead tree, noting that strange tendrils of rotting flesh had replaced its missing roots, allowing it to stand once more. That was a curious sight, and he wondered if they were weaker than the wood had been. Well, there was only one way to find out.

Sam smashed his mace into the sickeningly gray substance, and a flood of pus exploded outwards. He only missed it by a few inches, and where it landed the ground withered and sizzled away. Acid would not be a nice way to go. Sam saw that his attack, while having elicited a large reaction, had not really damaged the limb at all.

He sprang back as the foot shot out, far faster now that it was no longer made out of wood. Sam was caught by the wind of its passing, but he held firm and nothing special happened. As the foot planted itself in the ground, preparing to strike again, Sam lashed out with his mace, filling it with the red hot energy of his Dao. He emphasized the fiery aspect, causing the mace to burn with a red heat as it made contact with the disgusting appendage. The flesh was flash fried into oblivion, and the pus dried up before it could be expelled towards Sam. The monster roared weakly, and stamped down again. The fact that it couldn't feel any pain in its new legs was a major downside, and as its foot touched the ground, the leg buckled and crumbled apart, in a welter of blackened blood and bodily fluids. The defender almost toppled over, but it caught itself with its other corpse leg, the flesh being able to contort more than the wood had been. It steadied itself, and then disgorged a stream of strange creatures from underneath its body. They looked like spiders, with bodies made of wood, and legs out of the same gray flesh as their progenitor. They were far weaker than the larger monster was, and each swing of Sam’s mace sent them back to their maker, but there were a lot of them, and the tree monster was still, uh, undead and kicking in the background.

It was not idle, and each time that Sam tried to get past the spiders, it would shoot a beam of black energy that he had to dodge. Each time that it struck a spider, the creature bulked up and became harder to kill, but if they were struck a second time, then they exploded in a shower of filth. There was a limit to the amount of energy that the monsters could hold, and it was not a lot compared to the tree lurking in the background. The creature let out a sudden roar, and it trembled. Sam sensed something shift within it, and he scanned it again.

Juvenile Arboreal Defender Thrall

Level 45

He had sensed it correct. The creature was burning essence to empower its minions, and it was slowly but steadily losing essence. Every time that it shot out a beam of darkness, it was also losing power. If it continued like this, then it would be lower level than Sam before long. The creature realized this, or perhaps its master did, and it stopped launching the attacks. Instead, it crushed its way through its spiders, and then launched itself at Sam, with its legs leading the way. Sam had never seen a tree jump before, and it was a sight that he did not wish to see again.

It landed with an earth shaking thump, and Sam was knocked off of his feet. In the moment that he was in the air, a lance of energy shot down from the arboreal defender, and drilled a hole through his chest. Sam screamed as the withering effect of the necrotic energy burned its way through him, and his health dropped dangerously. It was below half from that single attack, although that was not really an indicator of the monster’s power, but rather a testament to what Death energy would do to living flesh.

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Sam forced it out of his body with his own energy, but he was unable to completely stymie it, and it continued to burn through him with the heat of a thousand suns. Alright, maybe it was a bit less than that, but it certainly felt like that was what was happening. Sam gritted his teeth and got to his feet, taking conscious control of his body with his skill. The tree monster sent down another spike of energy, but he dodged it, screaming out loud as his atrophied flesh was torn as he moved. Sam crushed his mace within his hand, feeling his finger bones creak as he locked his grip down. With a titanic roar that was far too loud to come from his small body, Sam rushed forwards, breaking his very cells apart as he ran.

Leaping as high as he could go, he lifted himself even further with his skill, landing about halfway up the monster’s lower half. Clambering up it like a monkey, Sam reached its head, dodging yet more blasts of energy. The wood of the tree burned his flesh as he climbed, but compared to the searing pain within him from the necrotic beam, he barely felt it. He reached the monster’s head, and struck it with an enhanced mace strike, filling every atom of the weapon with his Dao and Earth energy. The strike was a truncated version of his finisher, designed to release all of its damage in one go. He was blasted off of the monster by the backlash, and smiled as he saw a huge crater form on the monster’s head. As he fell down into the blackness of unconsciousness, he saw the creature topple over backwards.

Sam woke to the sound of flowing water, and he stretched out idly, wincing as his body ached. The foul smell from his surroundings caused him to wake up immediately, and he retched as he saw what the sound was coming from. A thick stream of yellow filth oozed out of the corpse of the monster. It had spread across the clearing, eating away at everything in its way, and had almost reached Sam. He jumped back as a reaching tendril almost touched his foot. If he had slept for a moment more, he would have been dead. Safe from the threat, he checked his notifications.

You have killed a Juvenile Arboreal Defender Thrall!

You have leveled up!

It was time for him to transcend the limits of his Resilience and to break through the threshold. With a deep breath, he began.

Sam clenched his fists as he placed the points into his Resilience stat. With a sickening crack, his body started to tear apart at the seams. The apocalyptic, world shattering pain began a moment later, as he saw his body dissolve into a slurry of flesh and melted bone. It swirled around in the ground, starting to condense upon itself, and streams of mana and, oddly enough, Earth elemental energy raced in from outside. His flesh started to form back into a cohesive shape, and his bones followed soon after. Before long, he was back in his normal shape, with only the memory of his torment left. That had been quicker than he had expected, perhaps in a similar way to how his Intelligence threshold had been eased by having already passed his Wisdom threshold. He had already passed his Constitution threshold, which was related to Resilience. Sam opened his notifications, and read the entry.

You have passed the First Threshold of Resilience.

Resilience is a concept with many different meanings. Whether resilience of the body, mind, or soul, it is the same however. It means that one stands defiant against all who seek to oppose them, remaining strong in the face of adversity. In the more physical sense, you have formed a new body out of the pressure of your will and the use of your mana and elemental energy. In doing this, you have shown that you are not lacking in all three types of resilience. What worthier possessor of the First Threshold of Resilience lives than you? The answer is that there are many, and to prove yourself, you must show that your resilience stands supreme.