Shina looked even more elegant than before, with those opaque white lines that were in the middle of her body going forward, with her pattern that only highlighted those purple tones that were on her body, she had found a way to look more majestic.
While Usaki had undergone a rather drastic change, his body now looked more robust and wild; his fur had dulled a bit and became smoother, and black stripes like a tiger's appeared all over his body; the iris of his eyes became sharp. He was sure that all those changes also came with sharp teeth and claws.
—The ones who should be most surprised here are us —said Usaki with some indignation—, just look at yourself, you're gigantic —He was right about that, they had grown, especially Usaki, but I did honor to my title of titan.
I didn't know exactly how tall I was, but with just a quarter of my body raised, I was already towering way above their heads, and I was exaggeratedly wide for my size.
—I'm just bigger —I claimed—, but what about you, you changed completely —I emphasized to him—. What are you now, exactly? —I asked curiously.
—The truth is, I'm curious too —said Shina, looking Usaki up and down—, since we had to leave because of Arusai's growth, I didn't pay close attention to your new appearance.
—It seems that every time you evolve, you move further away from your birth species —I commented sarcastically, but it seems my comment hit a nerve with Usaki, because I began to feel a feeling of disgust coming from him—. Is there a problem, Usaki? —I asked with some concern.
—There is, the truth is, the further away I am from a horned rabbit, the better I'll be —he said somewhat dejected—, but as I said, we shouldn't talk much about this.
—I understand —I said, looking away—, the truth is we're not in the best moment to be talking about these things, so let's continue exploring this place, we don't know what we could find if we stay still for longer—. Usaki and Shina agreed, so we continued our journey through this savanna.
—That's right, it's been a long time since I last checked my status, I wonder how it looks now —I thought before opening my status.
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Initial
Name: Arusai
Race: Lerion Titan (Juvenile)
Size: 15M
Status: Normal
R: E- Lv: 1/42
Attack: 3553
Defense: 3518
Magic Attack: 587
Magic Defense: 2608
Intelligence: 591
Agility: 1848
Speed: 2030
Active Abilities
[Venomous Fang Lv6][Scaly Hardness Lv1][Titanic Collapse Lv1][Impale Lv1]
Passive Abilities
[Flexible Scales Lv6][Swift Slithering Lv8][Headbutt Lv2][Mace Blow Lv1][Magical Vision Lv4][Detect Presence Lv5][Small Titan Scales Lv1][Small Titan Bite Lv1][Strangle Lv5][Small Titan Strength Lv1][Stealthy Attack Lv1][Adaptable Lv5][Regeneration Lv8][Increased Resistance Lv6][Resistance Regeneration Lv4][Monster Language][Night Vision Lv5][Emotional Awareness Lv4]
Unique Abilities
[Igneous Ardenya Source Lv3][Fireball Lv3]
Special Abilities
[Acid Body Lv4][Ardenya Control Lv3][Evaluation][Ardenic Potentiation Lv3]
Resistances
[Poison Resistance Lv4][Pain Resistance Lv6][Acid Immunity][Spiritual Resistance Lv4][Light Fire Resistance Lv2][Fear Resistance Lv1]
Titles
[Strangler][Venomous Reptile][Monster Slayer][Survivor][Titan]
Blessings
Curses
[Incompatible with Magic (Mild)]
Description
Scaly Hardness Lv1: Increases the hardness and resistance of your scales when activating the ability.
Titanic Collapse Lv1: Powerful blunt attack capable of causing collapses in one blow.
Impale Lv1: Increases power when charging, apart from causing piercing damage to the enemy.
Mace Blow Lv1: Increases the power of your blunt attacks.
Small Titan Scales Lv1: Thanks to the Titan title, your scales considerably increase their endurance and durability.
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Small Titan Bite Lv1: Thanks to the Titan title, the strength of your jaws increases considerably.
Small Titan Strength Lv1: Thanks to the Titan title, your strength increases considerably.
Emotional Awareness Lv4: You are aware of the emotions of any living being around you.
Ardenic Potentiation Lv3: Uses the ardenya from within to enhance the muscles of your body.
Fireball Lv3: Large sphere of fire that incinerates what it touches and ignores 30% of fire resistance.
Fear Resistance Lv1: You better resist the fear transmitted by living beings.
Survivor: Title given for surviving a situation you had a 5% chance of surviving, increasing the possibility of surviving extreme circumstances by 10%.
Titan(1): Title given to the largest variant of a species, gives the titan characteristic to various passive abilities and will make your future evolutions 30% larger and stronger than normal, being up to twice stackable.
Incompatible with Magic (Mild): Prevents you from properly channeling magic, neutralizing 40% of the effectiveness and potency of your spells/incantations. Having the small advantage that it nullifies 30% of most curses.
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—Interesting, it seems I chose an excellent option —I thought with interest—. The titan passive abilities seem quite good. What I didn't expect was that Fireball ignores resistances —I thought curiously before closing my status.
—Although I'm now much stronger than before, I can't be overconfident, not only because another group of Charis could attack us, but the fact that there are so few monsters around worries me —I thought somewhat nervously.
—Hey guys, I don't know if it's just me, but that tree looks different —said Shina somewhat intrigued. That pulled me out of my thoughts and made me look where she was looking.
Seeing in the distance what appeared to be a tree with a bluish trunk and green leaves. As we got closer, we not only observed that the tree did have these strange characteristics, but that the grass around it was shorter and black in color.
—What is this? —I asked to myself as I brought my head closer to the strange grass.
—You're not thinking of touching it, are you? —said Shina worried about the effects it could cause me.
—Of course not," I said, moving my head away —I can't risk it like that, besides, I don't feel comfortable being close to this thing.
—I feel the same —said Usaki with a bit of a shiver—, so it's better we ignore this and continue on our way —A suggestion we were happy to follow, but we didn't get far when I had the same feeling I had when the Charis attacked us, activating Scaly Hardness and Acid Body just before something hit me in the head and pushed me forward a bit. Shina and Usaki were surprised by the sudden blow, turning at the same time to see a blue root hiding underground.
While Shina and Usaki were surprised by the sudden attack, I was surprised because I felt the tree was frustrated and somewhat angry. Coming out of our surprise when more roots appeared from the ground heading towards us, most of them managing to hit me while Usaki and Shina were able to dodge the attack, but I managed to grab one of the roots and, enhancing my whole body with Ardenic Potentiation, I began to pull the root backwards, feeling the tree's desperation as it began to slowly sink into the ground.
The tree began to attack me repeatedly with its roots, but thanks to it being focused on me, Usaki got close enough to unleash his new claws and envelop them in ardenya before slashing a great mark on the tree. When it tried to attack Usaki with its branches, Shina swung her tail and launched a Shadowlight crescent attack that trimmed part of the tree's branches. Which seemed to weaken it because it finally gave in and sank underground, and after a few more moments of pulling it came out abruptly along with all its branchless roots, lifting it into the air, before being slammed against the ground, not letting it do anything as I used it like a rag, repeating the action of lifting it into the air to slam it down multiple times.
[You have killed an Exsecro: Arbor]
The sudden notification surprised me, making me drop the tree and sending it flying.
—Arusai, don't you think you went a bit overboard —Shina pointed out—, I think your flames would have been enough.
—Sorry, I got a little carried away seeing it sinking —I expressed somewhat nervously.
—Just a little —Usaki replied—, don't you see how far you sent that thing —he said pointing to the Arbor about 30 meters away from us—. Besides, didn't you think you could have crushed us? —he scolded me.
—The truth is I hadn't thought about that —I stammered nervously—, I'll be more careful next time —I apologized while lowering my head.
—Don't worry Usaki, I know it was careless, but it didn't cause us any harm and he already apologized —Shina calmed him down a bit—. Besides, we have to focus on something else, on that tree.
—I know it's strange for a tree to attack us, but it's not that surprising either —said Usaki, puzzled by Shina's words.
—I think I know what Shina means —I mentioned—, it worries you that a tree like that exists here, right? —Shina nodded.
—According to what I know, that type of tree only exists in cursed places or where the environment is rich in magic, but this place doesn't seem like either of those things, and it also seemed to be starting to corrupt its surroundings —Shina explained.
—Wait, what if something corrupted that tree and at the same time, that something has scared away most of the monsters in the area —Usaki assumed, somewhat worried.
—That could be quite likely, it's the only thing that would explain the so few monsters we've encountered, aside from the Charis —I thought.
—I also thought of that —Shina affirmed—, and there's also a possibility that we're getting closer to the source of this corruption.
—If that's the case, I think we should turn back —I suggested.
—That would be a good option —Usaki pointed out—, what do you think... Shina? —When he turned to look at Shina, she had approached the grass that was still corrupted.
We approached, and before we could say anything, Shina began to use her healing power, we were surprised to see the corruption dissipating from the area and returning to its orange tone, it took a while until everything returned to its original color.
—I didn't know you could do that —said Usaki, surprised.
—To be honest, I didn't know either —Shina declared—, but something told me I should try it, that I should try to get rid of this thing that's so repugnant.
—What do you mean repugnant? —I asked curiously—. I know its presence isn't pleasant, but I don't think it reaches the level of repugnant.
—You really don't feel it —Usaki and I shook our heads—, don't you get that feeling of a chill running down your spine every time you feel it? —she said as she began to tremble a little.
—If you feel that, then that's even more reason to move away from it.
—No! —Shina interrupted me abruptly—. I don't want to run away again —she said, lowering her voice—, I know it's madness, but we could go and get rid of what is causing this corruption.
I didn't know how to react to Shina's request, I knew it was madness to go towards the cause of what created the tree, but Shina's determination and abundant sadness told me to accept.
—Your healing ability is good, but are you sure it will be enough to eliminate it from the root? —Shina was a little surprised by my words, but she recovered quickly.
—I'm sure I can eliminate the cause of this from the root —she said with determination.
—Well, it seems you've already decided, right? —Usaki said with some sarcasm.
—Sorry Usaki, I didn't mean to.
—Don't worry —Usaki interrupted Shina—, I wasn't going to reject it seeing how determined you are.
—As you've already said Usaki, we now have our next destination —I said with a smile.