CHAPTER XXIII: BEAR IN A CHINA SHOP OF HONEY
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{10:45 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
UNCOMMON PERIOD
MORTAL REALM
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LONG BEACH
CLYDE
Clyde looked at the Heart of the Grove as it turtled up to defend itself from the storms and enemies within. Choosing his new Trade skill, he chose a combat one this time.
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{TRADE NAME: Grenade forging style(Active)
TRADE RANK: 1
DESCRIPTION: Mark a player with infused mana, allowing them to use a mana grenade when accessing the style through the tattoo. This Style, when placed on the Forger, is weaker but recharges over time.
Cost: Variable. Cast time: Variable. Cool down: None. Duration: 1 week.
EFFECTS: The Legacy can forge Common mana grenade with time, concentration, and resources at a 100% chance of completion rate, the higher the rank of the professional the better chance to make higher level weapons.
Grenade Types: Multiple.
COMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Damage over time.
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< PROFESSION LEVEL UP >
{+24 to all stats except Magic}
{PROFESSION NAME: Forger
PROFESSION RANK: 25 (Amateur 2nd)
PROFESSION TYPE: Hybrid-Energy Creation
DESCRIPTION: A Forger is a unique profession as it needs no special materials, only the legacy’s mana and, in some cases, blood to fill in the blanks of what is being forged. The legacy can still use materials to augment and reduce the Mana cost, you can learn Trades but all of that is second to the Mana creation.
Initiate Benefit: Use mana with all trades to forge creations.
Amateur Benefit: Absorb Mana from kills within a controlled area for use in forging creations}
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Clyde barely felt the influx of stats since it was a drop in the bucket now, but it still felt amazing to rank up. His Profession Trade started drawing in the local mana as the storm raged above the grove. Small pieces of burnt branches fell and were absorbed into his hands as he held them face up.
The blue glow of mana started to take on other properties as the Colonel concentrated on the information he got from the Trade. Peck Joy had told him that each skill give the player a basic amount of information and the player had to either experiment, level the skill, be very repetitive, or some combination of the three to get more information.
Spells were simple. They just got better as the player leveled, but they were limited in player control, well usually, Clyde was kind of monstrous.
Skill Trees were complicated. A player had to push not only their limits, but the limits of their environment to make the information they need, but at least that was internal and fully determined by the player’s control.
Trades were different. Depending on the type of profession the player had determined the information they got. All professions require action and Infusion to advance, but Active and Passive Trades work fundamentally differently. For instance, a typical blacksmith who chooses a Trade like sword making would have an option of Passive or Active Trade skill.
The Passive would feed the player not only basic weapon schematics but also advanced ones while they leveled, and they were somewhat random. The player would need equipment to complete the swords. The player would be able to level the trade by learning more about sword making, including making them, reading about them, or even watching others use them.
The Active Trade only gave a few options. The player would have to learn more on their own and get no bonus for doing so, but the player doesn’t need equipment to make a sword. That doesn’t exclude them from using equipment, but when a player can mold a blade with just their hands and the materials, most Active Trade users rarely touch equipment.
That was why Trades were so different. The control came in your choice of Active versus Passive; Clyde didn’t have a choice, though; so far, all of the options he had seen for his profession were Active, but having the ability to make things out of mana was much more important than knowing how to make things. He felt that his Profession was not like any other in many ways, but the most important difference was that he could make any of his creations purely from his mana. Every other Trade user had to have some type of material to work with. Even social Trades require other people or some action.
All Clyde had to do was concentrate enough, and he could come up with his own creation. Combining outside materials helped shape the creation better. However, sweat started to form on his face. First, it was his nose, then his forehead, and then it started to run down his sideburns, falling off his chin. One drop stopped right on his left eyelash and threatened to break his concentration.
Clyde let out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding. He looked at the reddish-orange gem that he had formed. Then, he looked at the creation prompt.
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< UNBOUND STYLE CREATED >
{CREATION NAME: Flame Nova Style
CREATION RANK: Rare
CREATION DURABILITY: 500
CREATION TYPE: Attack spell
CREATION DURATION: 4 uses(2 uses for creator).
Cool down: 60 minutes(75 minutes).
RECHARGE COST & TIME: 4000MP & 2 hours(75 minutes)
Description: By feeding mana into this tattoo, the player can create a grenade that explodes into a circle of flame that pulses twice, causing Low Rare damage.
Cost:20MP(35MP)
RARE EFFECT: Triple damage on targets in enclosed spaces (Double Damage for the creator).}
< NOTE >
{As the creator of this Style, it doesn’t count against your Style Tier limit.}
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Styles could be bound to others or the Professional. At each Tier, a player can bind one Style tattoo to themselves. A Professional could bind one Style per Trade they can make, but the Style is about half as effective in most cases. Having the ability to use multiple styles made the Professional very dangerous and unpredictable.
Clyde moved the glowing orange tennis ball-sized gem to his left hand and used that same hand to press flickering orange red gem into his right arm. He had to mentally roll back his sleeve, which in and of itself was pretty cool to see. The orange gem touched his dark brown skin, and the skin rippled.
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< STYLE IS BOUND TO YOU >
{Flame Nova Style(R) has been bonded to you by you.}
{Style Slot filled 0/3}
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The gem turned into a semi-transparent orange round grenade with a candle flame instead of a safety pin. He Analyzed the Style
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< ANALYZE >
{CREATION NAME: Flame Nova Style
CREATION RANK: Rare
CREATION DURABILITY: 250
CREATION TYPE: Attack spell(Active)
CREATION DURATION: 2 uses.
Cool down: 75 minutes.
RECHARGE COST & TIME: None & 75 minutes.
Description: By feeding mana into this tattoo, the player can create a grenade that explodes into a circle of flame that pulses twice, causing Low Rare damage based on the player’s Strength Stat.
Cost: 35MP
RARE EFFECT: Double Damage on targets in enclosed spaces.}
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He felt the Blood Hunter Grove’s senses try to look for him, but again, he eliminated his Presence and hid in plain sight. The magical perception of the Grove was mostly still on the raging storm above, so when it didn’t feel the Colonel, it went back to defending itself from the threat that it could see.
After the close call, he didn’t want to be caught this early in his plan, he could feel that Soto was going through his own improvements so he was going to buy some time for his main damage dealer.
Clyde had spells that would make this so easy; he even had Skills that could end the battle in an instant, but he was limited to his Profession, and that was why the grove was even still standing. But that was going to change. He looked up through the root and vine shield above them, and the fire, lightning, and wind were calming down. The legacy had hoped his bird companion would do more damage with the firestorm against the living dead grove, but the Blood Hunter Grove was too powerful to be killed by an attack from a level 30-something bird, and Keke didn’t have the Bane Mark he had either.
While the fire was the bane of the grove, Tier disparity was real when it came to damage over time effects. The two-tier difference seemed to cancel out each other, even with the bane involved.
He analyzed the Grove.
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< ANALYZE >
{Monster Name: Blood Hunter Grove
Monster type: Living dead(ELITE)(Area boss)
Level:58
HP:98,554/184,000
MP:1190/2500
DR:0/80000
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Constitution
Mental; Charisma
Bane: Fire
Weaknesses: Salt
Description: Blood Hunter Groves are a group of trees that are usually set up on opposite sides of throughways such as noble roads and wait for players to rest, then they use their powerful root system to capture the unsuspecting players Blood Hunter Groves then feed on them. They are living, dead monsters that grow the more blood they consume. They can change any nearby plant life into part of their grove. They are stealth hunters but are formidable in the straight-up fight. The level of the grove can give you a idea of its size, for every ten levels over level 10 the Blood hunter grove grow 50 square meters. Blood hunter groves have high nature and blood affinity, giving them ridiculous health regeneration. Their primary weapon is their root system, but they can also turn animals into ghouls. Blood hunter groves elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 5), HP regen (times 10), and damage(times 2).
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
EFFECTS: Immobile, Hungry, Living dead senses, Living dead Regeneration(paused on fire), Fungal bite. Lesser Burning.}
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He stood corrected. Kekere had wreaked the grove a lot more than he originally thought. ‘Good job, my pretty girl.’ He mused as he refocused.
He put all 200 of his Profession rank up free Stats into Constitution because he was the tank and still had his quest to complete.
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< HYBRID QUEST >
{QUEST NAME: Conqueror’s Mission II
QUEST TYPE: HYBRID (Class/CASTE/RACE)
Quest Tier: Legendary(Unique)
DESCRIPTION: Your legacy has already been heralded in the multiverse. But outside of your Sponsor, no one knows of you on Gaia. For a king is nothing to god and a god to nothing to a non-believer, however, kings, gods, and non-believers all fear a Warlord’s legacy.
Requirements: Control a City and defend its lands for a whole Period.
Objective 1: Capture or build a City.(0/1)
Objective 2: Assign at least 3 Nobles Jobs. (3/3)
Objective 3: Have at least 50% of the population survive the Period. (100%)
Hidden Objectives:
Objective 1: Expand lands for every Hamlet, and above that, you add to your burgeoning nation-state will increase rewards.
Objective 2: Get the average Tier of your citizens to Tier 4 by the end of the Platinum period. (Current Average: Tier 2)
Objective 3: Defeat another City. (0/1)
Objective 4: Only use base paths below tier 5 for a 10 times increase in rewards. (2/3 Complete; Profession Tier 2.)
Objective 5: Create a minimum of 13 rules for your nation that can last the test of time.(0/13)
Time remaining: 5M:27D
Temporary Debuff: Power Limiter
(All Stats and powers are only 10% of their value)
Rewards: Path Upgrade, EXPERIENCE, Essence, Art tome, 250 skill points ~+2500 to all except magic, +3 to Magic.
Failure penalty: Path forward cut off. -1000 from all stats expect magic -1.5 From Magic.}
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Colonel’s other path powers didn’t work, or he could say he wouldn’t use them because he wasn’t going to give up a reward like a 10 times bonus. Also, he had faith in his ridiculous natural defense and innovation to get his third path to tier 5. He didn’t have to accept the quest, and he doubted anyone else could have taken it and been as successful as him.
“Colonel knew he was exceptional. But being exceptional today doesn’t guarantee exceptionalism tomorrow. One must continue to better themselves in order to continue to be exceptional. A legacy like Colonel would get just as many opportunities for growth if they put themselves in the danger that Colonel had put himself into, but most would decline the quest that limited their powers once they get them. Colonel always played the long game. That was Soto’s influence on his gaming character builds.” The narrator said.
‘I’m not that exceptional.’ Clyde thought as he slowly got next to the heart of the grove.
Its senses were pointed upwards, fighting the storm as it calmed down. He focused, then slammed his hands palms facing down to the ground near the beating heart of the grove. A circle of rock, dirt, and mana grew quickly around the massive tree trunk. The Colonel’s walls were meant to cover a massive area. Usually, the Presence of an entity would prevent magical constructs from growing within it, but the combination of lack of concentration and the Colonel’s expert Presence control allowed him to surround the whole trunk with a beautiful Platinum apse.
He analyzed it right away.
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< WALL FORGED >
{CREATION NAME: Apse
CREATION RANK: Platinum
CREATION DURABILITY: 100,000
CREATION DURATION: 1 hour.
Description: A circular barrier made of Finely Mana-infused stone.
RARE ATTACHMENT: Wall Spikes: 3-inch spikes placed equally across the inside of the wall. Each spike does 30 damage and has a durability of 150.
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Any hostile entities that touch, try to jump over, or dig under the wall will be hit with Lesser mana lightning. Each strike does 400 damage & 10% chance to chain.
Mana Pool:1000/1000}
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< TRADE ABILITY TIER UP >
{Ability NAME: Trade Sight(Toggled)
Ability Level: APPRENTICE 0
The ability to see the flow of the mana and get information on your Profession, including items or combat styles. Being able to see the flow of mana gives the professional a better understanding of their environment in order to better apply their trade. Levels with use.
Cost:15 mana regen per hr.
Ability EFFECT: See the Durability of items.
STUDENT EFFECT: See high concentrations of the basic mana within items and identify any special properties.
NOVICE EFFECT: See basic mana in the environment and in all organic materials.
APPRENTICE EFFECT: Use extra Mana to see inside and through solid objects. See advanced mana in the environment and in all organic materials.}
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< TRADE ABILITY LEVEL UP >
{Ability NAME: Infuse(Triggered)
Ability Level: 4
Every professional earns this ability, which allows them to infuse their mana into any of their trades. That Mana increases the power of any Trade based on the level of the Ability, Trade and Professional. Cost: minimum 1 mana regen per minute.
EFFECT: Med Rare Durability and below creations, are Slightly increased.}
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“The Grove didn’t even notice the circular wall around its heart; if it wasn’t looking towards the skies, it would have realized that the mana-infused wall was blocking its magical perception.” The Narrator informed him.
‘Good, that will give me some time.’ He thought as he started implementing the next stage of his plan, the dangerous part.
He stepped back from the apse and began to channel his and the environmental mana into his next creation. This one called up material from deeper in the ground below him, but what he was making was a variation on a Vietnam War weapon system.
“The United States military in Vietnam had to deal with their own unique type of aggressive foliage, and their answer was Agent Orange, but the Colonel preferred not to give his citizens cancer, that is why he loved the smell of Napalm in the morning.”
Colonel’s grin grew even in this stressful moment. He was making a napalm launcher but with a little twist. It took longer than any other siege weapon he had built before, purely because it was experimental. The results were something he was very proud of, but the creation of the weapon system brought some attention back to him.
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< ANALYZE >
{Creation Name: Napalm fire starter launcher
Creation Type: Defensive siege system
Creation Rank: Platinum
Creation Durability:12000
Description: A mana-powered weapon that launches a sticky gel-like substance that, when ignited, continues to burn until the slow-burning gel is used up.
Weapon Damage: Variable based on the amount of gel on the target. Mana Cost: 30 Mana per second. Range: 75 meters.
Duration: 2 hours
Manned By: Unmanned
RARE ATTACHMENT: Reduced Cost; cost is reduced by 30%.
PLATINUM ATTACHMENT: Burning damage lasts longer if ignited by another type of power. But does more burst damage if ignited by the launcher.}
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< TRADE RANK UP >
{+20 INT, CHA, & LUCK}
{TRADE NAME: Defensive siege weapon forging(Active)
TRADE RANK: 10
DESCRIPTION: Manipulate the resources around you using your mana to make defensive weapons of war.
Cost: Variable. Cast time: Variable. Cool down: None. Duration: 1 month per level of trade.
EFFECTS: The Legacy can forge Peak Platinum defensive siege weapons with time and resources at a 99% chance of completion rate, the higher the rank of the professional the better chances to make higher level weapons.
COMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Durability.
UNCOMMON Trade Benefit: Increased Duration.
RARE Trade Benefit: Reduces usage costs.
PLATINUM Trade Benefit: Escalating damage.}
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< PROFESSION LEVEL UP >
{+25 to all stats except magic}
{PROFESSION NAME: Forger
PROFESSION RANK: 26 (Amateur 1st)
PROFESSION TYPE: Hybrid-Energy Creation
DESCRIPTION: A Forger is a unique profession as it needs no special materials, only the legacy’s mana and, in some cases, blood to fill in the blanks of what is being forged. The legacy can still use materials to augment, and reduce the Mana cost, you can learn Trades, but all of that is second to the Mana creation.
Initiate Benefit: Use mana with all Trades to forge creations.
Amateur Benefit: Absorb Mana from kills within a controlled area for use in forging creations.}
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The magical perception scanned the area around Colonel again, but because of the apse it couldn’t get a read on the weapon system. It does however sense the circle of wall surrounding its heart. The Forger could tell that the Grove was probing it slowly trying to figure out where it came from and whether it was a threat.
“Spoiler alert, it is.” The narrator said.
Clyde started to pour mana into the launcher, and a gel that turned into a foam like some magical shaving gel shot out of the front coating the heart of the grove in foam. The foam began to fill up the apse like a massive mug of foamy cold domestic beer.
The foam overflowed quickly, cutting off more of the Grove’s senses. It reacted poorly to that. It slammed a vine into it, and two things happened. One, The spikes on the inside pierced the vine and sent a lightning bolt right into the heart of the grove. Two, that action had an equal reaction to the Grove losing control of its protective dome. And two lightning bolts snuck through from the skies before it could get back control of itself.
Needless to say, the Grove wasn’t going to try that again while it still had the dome active. So Clyde was going to take advantage of that. He released his Presence because he needed his senses at their peak in order to finish the job here and now.
He thought about what the hell was Soto up to as he pumped mana into his grenade style. He tossed it and watched it arch towards the napalm starter soup of flaming death. 'Just like Auntie Jean's Callaloo.'
[Are you done yet? I can’t be carrying you the whole fight, sir.] Soto said in command chat.
Clyde chuckled.
[Funny, I was just about to say the same thing.]
Boom!
At the last second, the perception of the heart of the grove had sensed the legacy and his grenade, and instead of using a small vine, it went with the tree log version, blowing a hole in the apse and spraying napalm all over Colonel just as the grenade hit a hastily erected mana shield. Unfortunately for Clyde, the grenade went off early and lit the whole area on fire. The pulse of force and flame caught the Forger, and it lit him up easily since he was covered in napalm starter.
The heart wasn’t doing much better. The fire, which had been stopped by the shield, still found itself racing back towards the apse, following the line of napalm starter coming out of the trunk-sized hole in the apse. The fire raced in like a wick on a stick of dynamite, then...
BOOM!
The whole circular wall exploded outwards. Peppering Colonel with debris that didn’t even get past his DR, he felt it when the Grove started to put all of its attention on him. His perception ability saw the vines race to him at a ridiculous speed from every direction. The light from the morning sky started to leak through as the Grove no longer needed to maintain its dome shield.
Each vine was fast, but not even with the overwhelming numbers of them were they enough to hurt him. He absently bashed the vines into a bloody pulp. He remembered his bane mark and understood why it was so easy to defeat the vines, even when he was on fire.
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{TITLE NAME: Undead Bane(D)
TITLE TIER: Diamond(UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION: Every beast and monster has a bane. It is what balances them. While beasts and monsters level up in unique ways, they all have a weakness that can be exploited once a player learns it. Because of the shared amount of undead you are responsible for killing, you have earned this Title.
TITLE EFFECT: Mark gain; Undead bane Mark
Rare Bonus: Stat gain; +3 to Physical stats per level times T(Where T is Tier of the Player)
Platinum Bonus: EXP gain; 40% bonus EXP per tier from killing Undead.
Diamond Bonus: Living dead upgrade; 50% more damage to Living dead by association.}
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{Mark Name: Undead Bane II
Mark Type: Bane Mark
Effect 1: Do true damage to Undead creatures, bypassing any defensive power. (100 Undead over two tiers above you killed)
Effect 2: All damage against the undead is Critical Damage. All damage against Living Dead is Greatly increased. EXP bonus on killing the undead. (1000 Undead over two tiers above you killed.)
Effect 3: LOCKED(Kill 10000 undead at least a tier above you. 5503/10000 killed)}
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The Living Dead upgrade to his title, and Mark was paying massive dividends, each causal backhand and block ripped apart vines, and roots easily. He analyzed the grove now to see how much damage it had taken as he nonchalantly batted away more and more annoying vines.
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{Monster Name: Blood Hunter Grove
Monster type: Living dead(ELITE)(Area boss)
Level:58
HP:28111/184000 -150 per second
MP:850/2500
DR:0/80000
Highest ATTRIBUTES:
Physical; Constitution
Mental; Charisma
Bane: Fire
Weaknesses: Salt
Description: Blood Hunter Groves are a group of trees that are usually set up on opposite sides of throughways, such as noble roads, and wait for players to rest. Then, they use their powerful root system to capture the unsuspecting players. Blood hunter groves they feed on them. They are living, dead monsters that grow the more blood they consume. They can change any nearby plant life into part of their grove. They are stealth hunters but are formidable in the straight-up fight. The level of the grove can give you an idea of its size, for every ten levels over level 10 the Blood Hunter grove grow 50 square meters. Blood hunter groves have high nature and blood affinity, giving them ridiculous health regeneration. Their primary weapon is their root system, but they can also turn animals into ghouls. Blood hunter groves elites have a permanent boost to HP (times 5), HP regen (times 10), and damage(times 2).
EFFECTS: Immobile, Hungry, Living dead senses, Living dead Regeneration(paused on fire), Fungal bite. Burning.}
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The two magic shields were stripped away by the explosion and subsequent fire, which Clyde was not immune to as he was on fire as well, but with his legendary equipment, his ridiculous amount of hit points, and most importantly, his DR made it so that he didn’t even feel the pain of the burning as it first tried to eat away at his DR. The hastily placed magic shield burst like a soap bubble when the fire was racing back to the trunk of the heart. The original magical shield it had put in place only took a small amount of the explosive damage before it also popped. The bark shield armor was much better at taking the explosion, but the lingering fire was devastating to the Heart of the Grove. Pieces of the bark were blown off, leaving huge holes in the bark armor where the Grove bled profusely. The rest of the bark was burning dark smoke as it started to fight back.
Clyde was coated in fire smacking the vines, and roots, easily destroying the weak quick attacks, looking at the Grove’s status only further proved that tier 5 creatures are tough as stone nails. He stood his ground however because while his profession may be tier 2 he was most certainly not that weak, he head-butted a root and it exploded into chunks of blood, he was having fun. That was until the Blood Hunter Grove changed up its tactics against the flame-covered legacy.
While Soto had been an elusive target, dodging the Grove’s attacks and was very difficult to pin down, it required a quantity over quality strategy.
The Colonel on the other hand was the opposite, he was a bear in a china shop of honey, and every movement left a body part of his covered in the Hunter Grove’s blood, he would have more blood all over him if the flames weren’t burning the blood that hit his torso. The Grove needed a bigger solution. That solution came in the form of the fridge size root moving at break-neck speed. Clyde reacted just fast enough to block the unexpected attack, his perception ability pinged him at the last second so he had protected his face, but was sent flying back at the same speed as the root, even in a magical world physics was still an unforgiven bitch. The fridge-sized root cracked and burst into flames a few moments after sending Colonel flying back. The exchange wasn’t as one-sided as the Grove would have liked.
Colonel’s thought while he was flying back was twofold: one, ‘That worked out well.’ And two, ‘The job was not done.’ Both thoughts were removed from his head temporarily as he was sent through a cluster of trees and embedded in one behind them. He wasn’t injured, but his pride was a little hurt. He used strength and leverage to pull himself out of the legacy-size crater in the cavity of the tree.
The Grove was beating its big root on the ground trying to put it out, when Colonel started to run back sending his Presence right at the heart to keep its attention on him.
“Colonel stepped onto the trees and started to run up and over to the grove, enjoying a few perks of being a Copper Tier Cultivator. He may not have access to the techniques, but he does have access to some of the abilities. Running on any surface like it was the ground was a perk of every copper cultivator.”
Clyde stopped in front of the Heart of the Grove and looked right at it while standing nonchalantly upside down with his arms crossed. The flames around him dissipated in the late morning air, and he smiled viciously. “Is that all you got?”
“The Grove was not sentient enough to understand language but was sentient enough to know fear, and it was very, very afraid of the being in front of it. It had to escape.” The narrator said.
Clyde’s smile got even more vicious.
[Let’s go, sergeant major. My distraction should have been long enough.] He said in team chat.
[Okay, I’m reloaded!] Soto replied in his best Carlito Brigante voice. It wasn't very good.