The fight was certainly not easy to finish off on Liu Shu’s part. The serpents could slowly and systematically beat down the Level 50 Terragore. On the other side, Liu Shu was unable to keep it tied forever.
Once the Terragore felt fear for its life, a powerful surge enveloped it, and it entered into an enraged state, increasing its stats. Liu Shu was stunned. ‘My roots are tearing from its strength?”
“GRAHHH!”
The Terragore pulled, and the roots holding its limbs were torn, blue sap splattering in the surroundings. Its Phoer reserves were now dangerously low. Therefore, once it was liberated, it didn’t attack Liu Shu but turned around and fled.
“Huh?”
Not expecting its reaction, the World Tree failed to react. By the ti she wanted to continue her attacks, the Mature Terragore was already near the lower-level ones. ‘If I attack it here, the lower-level ones will just help it destroy my roots. I will be wasting resources.’
So, instead, she ignored the retreating army and focused on the surrounded Level 50 Terragore. “Ophion and the others, finish it off. I’ll hold it down.”
The Terragore felt a sense of danger when the serpents stopped attacking it. It growled lowly, not willing to go down without a fight. Suddenly, several roots appeared from all sides, shooting forward like snakes.
“Grar!?”
It attacked the roots, repelling them for a few monts. However, they were far too many, and Liu Shu eventually got a hold of it. The serpents moved in that instant and finished off the battle with several physical and Aether-based attacks.
Due to having been killed by her summons and herself, Liu Shu received half of the Experience Points of the creature, even when she didn’t do much.
[Congratulations on defeating ! You've gained 4095 Experience Points.]
‘Wow~, 4000 points for barely helping. That’s almost a month's worth of Experience Points!’
Suddenly, deafening cheers exploded on the other side of the room, startling the World Tree. “What? What? What happened?”
Looking over, she saw the two armies celebrating and even hugging the ants. “Ah… They are happy that we won.”
After defeating these two monsters, the rest of Terragore had retreated and dispersed deeper into their tunnels. While Liu Shu doubted this would be the last attack coming from them, she knew they would not return soon. ‘I don’t think it is worth it for them. The mines can barely benefit those Level 50 and above beasts.’
“Liu Shu! Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
A worried voice reached her, and she saw Flor, Ignatia, and the two Sylvans standing where many of her roots had been cut. The place was a ss, full of her severed roots and stained by her peculiar glowing blue sap. The area looked strangely haunting yet beautiful.
“I am okay~. This will not affect much, and I’ll be as good as new in less than a week!”
Flor frowned, knowing the ridiculous speed of recovery that Liu Shu had. “Why so long?”
Liu Shu humd. “Well, the claws of those Terragore had so strange substance, and the roots they’ve severed are healing much slower than usual. There has not been any poisoning notification, which would be impossible due to my skill. Still, I can feel difficulty in growing them for so reason.”
Verdantia approached one of the severed roots and looked at the edge. “Hm… It looks normal.” The circular root had a few external and internal layers of complicated tubes that leaked droplets of sap. At first glance, Verdantia could not detect any irregularities.
Harmonixia looked at the root and dragged her finger across, holding a bit of the sap on the tip of her finger. “It’s so pretty.”
Liu Shu felt strange. Imagine soone taking a drop of your blood and muttering the sa words. “Um… Harmonixia.”
The Sylvan blinked and asked. “Yes, Dear?”
“That’s… strangely creepy.”
Harmonixia grinned and licked the sap. “I know~. Get used to it, Dear. I am a creep for you!”
The other three deadpanned, looking at the usually reserved and elegant Sylvan as if she had ntal problems. Harmonixia rolled her eyes and snorted. “Verdantia, you can’t look at like that when you are filling jars with Liu Shu’s sap!”
Flor, Liu Shu, and Ignatia looked over and saw that she had been stealthily doing so. Verdantia coughed and said. “Her sap is too precious. Leaving it behind is not a sensible thing to do!”
Points where they were due, Verdantia was right. Flor rubbed her chin and looked at Ignatia. “You have so ants that can absorb nectar, right? They should be perfect to clean the battlefield of Liu Shu’s sap and transport it.”
Ignatia exclaid softly. “Oh! You are right.” She smirked and giggled. “My little love knows my children better than ~.”
Flor coughed, her face reddening slightly. “Stop the teasing.” Looking at the two Sylvans, she ordered. “Tell the army people to help us carry the roots, scales, and bodies of both the Terragore and Ants.”
Liu Shu humd. “We need to bury the little sisters that died… Sorry, Ignatia. I couldn’t protect everyone.”
Ignatia smiled faintly. “Don’t worry, love. To be honest, I was prepared to suffer many more fatalities.” Looking at Verdantia and Harmonixia, she bowed elegantly once. “Thank you both and your subordinates for protecting my children. You’ve kept the fatalities to the minimum.”
They didn’t shy away from her words and answered politely.
After this war, the and talked about what happened to the other branches of the army, making them appreciate the ants even more.
Surprisingly, Terragore bodies were full of valuable treasures. For starters, their claws were pri material to craft bladed weapons. They were made of a mix of bio-alloys. These alloys were like tals but with so life within them. If the crafter was skilled enough, creating a self-regenerating blade was not a pipe dream.
When news of this spread, many people in the Explorer Association building started requesting that quests to hunt Terragore be given out. Wert thought about it. After all, to reach the entrance to that place, the Explorers needed to walk through the Ant Nest. While Wert trusted on his explorers, it was too risky to have high-level people walking up and down the Ant Nest. Who knew if soone would do sothing evil in the future using this easy access?
Therefore, he consulted Liu Shu. “Big girl, what do you think?”
“Hm. I also think it is too dangerous.”
Wert nodded twice. “Right? I don’t want to endanger Ignatia’s nest because of profit… Do you have any ideas on how to do it?”
Liu Shu beca thoughtful and asked. “How about I create a new path that goes straight down to that large room where we fought? The room is big enough that creating a small subterranean town is possible.”
“Hm.” Wert crossed his muscular arms, thoughtful. “That’s not a bad idea. Still…” He sighed and muttered. “It would be nice if a appeared there… That way, the System would help us regulate the place.”
Liu Shu was confused and curious, so she asked. “? What’s that?”
Wert smiled. “It’s a very niche knowledge. Only Explorer Association Branch Masters at a high enough level are inford of them because they are so rare. We are also tasked with occupying them the second they appear. Sotis, they even tell us not to bother if we offend the local powers over it.”
“Wow!” Liu shu exclaid. “That sounds important. Usually, you are really free to do as you please, after all.”
“Right?” Wert smiled. Then, he rubbed his chin and chuckled. “Well, let explain them to you.”
Liu Shu was surprised by his suggestion. “Huh? Isn’t that prohibited?”
Wert grinned. “I forgot if it was prohibited to tell World Trees about it~. I don’t think it is a big deal, though. Hahaha!”
Seeing his boisterous laugh, Liu Shu chuckled and said softly. “Thank you, Wert.”
“Bah!” Wert waved his hand. “Don’t say thanks for these little things.” Then, he cleared his throat and spoke. “Well, let’s see, where do I begin…?”
After a few monts of organizing his thoughts, Wert explained to Liu Shu. “ are locations trapped in a strange tempo-spatial fluctuation. They are indistinguishable from the rest of the world, and entering them can be as simple as walking into them. So of them have portals, and others can even have gates. In general, though, they enclose an area and never expand.”
Liu Shu humd, interested. “That sounds strange. How are they created?”
“I don’t know.” Wert shook his head. “When you managed to control the entire province, I was also promoted by the Explorer Association. I unlocked information about and a few other things. I’ve shared everything that’s useful with Flor except this.” He smiled and continued. “I digress. While we don’t know how they are created, we do know how they behave. Once they appear, that zone becos layered in space-ti, and each group that enters is transported to one of those instances at the point of creation.”
“Oh?” Liu Shu muttered. “That detail… doesn’t that an that the place is suspended in ti until a group from the outside enters?”
“Indeed.” Wert nodded. “The most interesting thing is that Dungeons can be analyzed, and they have ranks. The higher the rank, the higher the risk, and the higher the reward.”
“Reward?”
Wert nodded solemnly. “Crafting gear gets increasingly difficult. The number of Sylvanium and other materials is just too scarce. However, the main global powers can probably gear a large army with mid-rank (D Rank) armor and weapons of their level without much effort. The main reason is that most large enough powers own a Dungeon where they can extract these kinds of resources by [Completing] a .”
The World Tree swung her branches in thought. There was a lot of information in what Wert told her that she needed to diggest.
Suddenly, a notification popped into Liu Shu’s mind.
[Congratulations! You’ve discovered information about . A New System page will be opened in two years.]
[Countdown: 17279:59:59]
“Huh?”
Wert heard her perplexed voice and asked, confused. “What’s wrong, Liu Shu?”
Liu Shu humd and was about to explain when another ssage popped in front of her eyes.
[Wisdom: It is recomnded not to reveal this information to anyone. If even a hint of what you are about to unlock is known, you will die.]
Liu Shu paused and looked at that ssage, surprised. ‘Die as in… the System will kill ?’
[Wisdom: Incorrect. Your chances of perishing will beco inevitable due to what such information implicates. Once the tab is revealed, Tianlian Liu Shu will understand the significance of it.]
Wisdom had never really hard her, but keeping secrets made Liu Shu feel a bit uncomfortable. Still, she didn’t have any haste in revealing this information. Hence, as Wisdom suggested, she decided to wait for the two years to pass and see what it was before deciding anything. ‘Rushing things won’t really help …’
After dealing with this, Liu Shu answered Wert. “Sorry, Wert. There was a problem on the edge of my territory. So people were excavating and trying to hack at my roots.”
Wert frowned and snorted. “Did you kill them?”
“Yes!”
Wert’s frown eased up, and he smiled. “That’s great. Don’t be rciful to those who do that, Liu Shu. Your sap is too valuable.”
Liu Shu answered obediently while feeling a bit guilty for lying to Wert. “Okay~.”
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