The deeper they went, the creepier it got.
The forest was dark and quiet—too quiet. No mutant beast calls. No rustling. Not even the usual insect noise. Just that dead, smothered silence that made your skin crawl.
They hadn’t gone far when the ground around them suddenly burst.
Vines snapped up in a blur, whipping around ankles and waists and wrists. Before anyone could react, they were yanked off their feet and hoisted into the air like bait on hooks.
Ethan barely had ti to tense—
Sothing sharp pricked him.
A sting. Quick as a needle.
Then a numb heat spread through his limbs, turning his muscles into jelly.
Everyone’s faces changed instantly.
They tried to struggle, tried to swing, tried to trigger abilities—only to realize they couldn’t get any force behind it. And worse, they couldn’t even find a clear target to aim at. It was coming from everywhere.
"Big Mike—fire!" Ethan snapped.
Big Mike’s body flared with flas. The vines around him blackened, hissed, and snapped. He dropped, landing hard, then imdiately torched the vines binding the others one by one.
They hit the ground in a heap.
Legs buckling. Hands shaking.
More than one of them just collapsed straight onto their ass, still half-numb.
And then—
From all directions, countless vines surged toward them again, writhing through the shadows like living ropes.
Everyone’s blood ran cold.
Garrick reacted first, slamming up a protective do that enclosed the entire group.
The vines couldn’t break the barrier... but they sward it, layering over it until the already-dim forest turned pitch-black inside, like soone had thrown a blanket over their heads.
Big Mike kept casting Rain of Flas out into the dark.
Fire rained down. Vines shriveled into ash.
And a heartbeat later, more vines pushed in to replace them—endless, relentless, like the forest itself was breathing.
"What the hell is this?" soone rasped, eyes wide.
Ethan grimaced. "Pretty obvious Big Mike’s bad luck finally hit. This is a mutated plant."
He sounded annoyed, but the truth was uglier—
This thing was more troubleso than zombies or mutant beasts. At least those had bodies you could kill. This was... the whole damn forest reaching for them.
"You’re telling we’re getting held down by a tree?" Chris said, half disbelieving.
"Not necessarily one," Mia muttered. "Could be a whole network."
"I get it now," Big Mike said, voice tight. "This is why the mutant beasts ran out. If you live in here, you’re basically dead."
Soone looked at Ethan. "Captain—what do we do?"
Ethan’s gaze flicked across the pressure points in the do, the constant waves of vines. "I’m going out. I’ll find the source and hit it. You guys stay inside."
"Got it."
They waited just long enough for everyone’s strength to co back a little.
Then Ethan took a breath and blinked out—
A clean Teleportation, straight through the do.
The second he appeared outside, the vines reacted like they’d been waiting for him. Tendrils snapped toward him from every direction, sharp and fast, trying to wrap his limbs again.
Ethan teleported away from the spot, then followed the direction of the heaviest vine flow—tracking it like a river upstream.
It didn’t take long.
He erged into a small clearing and finally saw it.
A towering, monstrous tree—trunk thick as a building, canopy swallowing what little light existed. From its body, vines extended outward in all directions like veins, spreading control across the forest floor.
Ethan’s mouth curled.
"So it’s you."
He pulled out his poleaxe... then hesitated, frowning.
The thing was too big. He couldn’t tell where the "weak point" would even be—if it had one.
Fine. Then we do it the dumb way.
We chop.
Ethan tightened his grip and charged, swinging the poleaxe into the trunk with everything he had.
The blade sank in—then stopped.
Only about half a ter.
Stuck.
Ethan had to brace his boots and wrench hard before he could finally rip it free.
"...That tough?" he muttered, genuinely startled.
But what happened next made his eyes widen.
The gash in the trunk—fresh, ragged—began to move. Fibers twisted. Bark crawled. The wound slowly knitted shut like living flesh.
"You’ve gotta be kidding ."
And right on cue, the vines ca again—
A tidal wave of them, sweeping toward him, ready to wrap him up and drag him under.
Ethan teleported away in a flash.
Staring at the towering tree, he felt an unexpected wave of frustration—like he’d just run into a wall that couldn’t be punched through.
He took a breath, then activated [True Sight] and started combing over it inch by inch.
He almost scanned the entire thing before he finally caught it—
Near the top of the trunk, buried deep inside, there was a tiny point of light, flickering faintly.
So that’s your core.
Ethan’s eyes narrowed. Telekinesis snapped into place, and a dagger shot forward like a bullet, aid straight at the glowing point.
The tree reacted instantly.
A flood of vines surged up and layered themselves in front of the core.
The dagger punched in, sank partway... and stopped dead, unable to reach the light.
"Seriously?" Ethan muttered. "You’re a damn tree. Why are you this annoying?"
No more testing.
He launched himself straight toward it.
As he closed in, vines lashed out again from every direction, trying to wrap him up midair.
Ethan tid it—waited for the instant their movent lined up—then triggered Absolute Stasis.
Everything froze.
In that sliver of stillness, Ethan’s body flickered, appearing right beside the flickering light. He yanked a spear from his spatial storage ring and drove it in with all his strength.
A shriek—more felt than heard—raked across his mind.
Then the light winked out completely.
And the mont it died, the vines around the forest seed to lose all life at once, sagging down like wet rope.
Not long after, Chris and the others arrived, erging from the gloom.
"That’s it?" Chris stared up at the massive trunk. "That thing is what had us getting wrecked?"
"Yeah," Ethan said, still a little grim. "From now on, stay out of forests unless you have a reason. Mutated plants are worse than mutant beasts."
This ti it had been him. If it were almost anyone else... they probably wouldn’t have had a solution.
Everyone nodded hard.
"Let’s go," Ethan said. "This place is—"
He stopped.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a faint red glimr near the base of the tree.
Ethan paused, then walked over and pushed aside the weeds and crushed grass.
Beneath them was a tiny, unfamiliar plant. And on its tip...
A cherry-sized fruit, glossy and red, like a drop of blood turned into candy.
"What’s that?" people crowded in imdiately.
"No clue," Ethan said. "But it’s probably sothing good."
He carefully plucked the fruit and activated [True Sight] again, studying it.
This ti, even he was surprised.
There was a strange energy inside it—sothing dense and layered. [True Sight] couldn’t see through it at all.
Chris swallowed, staring at it like it was dessert. "So... that’s edible, right?"
"You want to try?" Ethan held it out.
Chris jerked back like it was a grenade. "Nope. That’s obviously a treasure. You eat it."
Ethan shot him a look. "And if it’s poisonous?"
"Emily’s here," Chris said quickly. "Even if you get poisoned, she can detox you."
Ethan shook his head. "Whatever’s in this thing is way above our level. If it’s toxic, even Emily might not be able to fix it."
Still...
He didn’t put it away.
A treasure like this showing up under a mutated tree? The odds were it mattered. And Ethan had never been the type to back away from profit because of maybe.
No risk, no reward.
"Circle up," Ethan said. "Watch my back. I’m trying it."
"Got it."
They ford a loose ring around him, scanning the shadows.
Ethan looked at the fruit in his palm, took a breath, and tossed it into his mouth.
The taste was incredible—sweet, sharp, almost electric.
He chewed twice.
And in the next heartbeat, his whole body seed to wake up. Like his brain had been rinsed clean. Like the world had snapped into higher resolution.
Ethan’s eyes widened, excitent surging up so fast it made his pulse jump.
"This thing..." he whispered, almost disbelieving it. "It raises my ntal energy cap!"
ntal energy was the hardest thing to improve, period.
Outside of the small boost you got when advancing Tiers, there was almost no way to increase it.
But ntal energy was also the most important resource of all—more important than raw muscle—because every ability cost ntal energy to use.
And for Ethan, it mattered even more.
Because with [True Sight], he could pick abilities freely. His skills were all monstrous... and the stronger they were, the more brutally they drained him.
Take Absolute Stasis.
Even with no top-tier enemy resisting him, he could burn through everything he had and only freeze ti for a little over two seconds.
If soone truly terrifying showed up, he might not even get a full second.
The reason was simple.
His ntal energy pool was too small.
And this fruit... actually fixed that.
To anyone, this was a priceless treasure.
To Ethan?
It was borderline insane.
If his ntal energy beca strong enough, then with the skills he already held, he could kill those Void Realm powerhouses even without Dopey helping.
His Annihilation Strike—if he had enough ntal energy to feed it—could theoretically erupt with ten, even dozens of tis its normal power.
Of course, that was in theory. An attack that violent also demanded a body strong enough to handle it.
But with his current physique, outputting ten tis his usual force was absolutely doable.
And ten tis...
Ten tis was enough to kill a Stage A powerhouse.
Ethan’s breathing sped up.
He stared into the darkness of the forest like he was looking at a vault.
"This place..." he said softly, voice turning sharp with hunger, "is a gold mine."
Then, after a beat, he corrected himself.
"Yeah. We’re not leaving."
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