Seedling Stomper.

“You….” A voice like rattling branches with ancient bark and filled with absolute disgust echoed through the woods. “…I can feel the taint of sin on you…” “Can you be more specific?” Victoria asked the disembodied voice. “….The male amongst you…He has killed younglings. So many younglings…and the one with the stupid pink hair…” “Ya did not just say that!” “…she has sinned as well…”

“Is this good or bad?” John thought out loud. He wanted to have the Boss spawn and with four people they should be able to beat it (It was in the bracket they had actually surpassed by now) but he had a slight feeling that he was missing something. Like a huge difference between the Spectre fights and the fight they were about to have.

The bark of a nearby tree started to bulge and stretch. A being, about 1,50 metres in height with hundreds of rootlike legs and two arms with branched fingers emerged. It’s brown, gnarled skin looked like, and probably was, bark of the same kind of the tree he just was birthed from. The tree he left behind only bore a cross shaped marking on the healed bark.

That’s what it was. Normally they fought the boss and just the boss, but now that it had spawned at the very start they would also have to deal with the normal enemies. Time to use Observe to see what he could find out about those Treants.

‘If Gaia could stop stealth-patching stuff, that would be great.’ John mentally complained. “DID YOU HEAR WHAT THAT VOICE SAID?!” Rave shouted angrily. John looked at her, the normally playful pink lustre in her eyes was deadly serious. Only time he saw her more agitated was when she had pinned him to the forest floor at the day they became a couple. “He called your hair stupid.” “HE CALLED MY HAIR STUPID!”

Rave was engulfed in the blue flame like aura of her martial arts skills. “I am going to punch that thing in whatever it has for a face! I mean doesn’t he recognize how good I look?” She exclaimed and stormed at the Treant. The poor thing was assaulted without any time to react. The first punch brought it out of balance, it’s root feet kept it standing but it swung back like a punching back and just like its simile counterpart it was doomed be punched again. Pieces of bark splintered of and flew in any direction. The third strike Rave executed with an open palm, basking the Treant in a wave of superheated light. The head of the plant-monster exploded in a rain of ash and charred wood. Rave refilled her mana with a deep breath.

John gained 52 experience from the whole debacle. ‘Not that bad.’ He thought. If 50 was about the average he would need 51 more enemies to level up. That was twice the amount needed for the quest to be completed so he would have a level beforehand anyway. He probably shouldn’t be that complacent about the whole situation but he couldn’t help but notice how easy it was to kill these Treants.

‘Gnome?’ He thought towards the earth elemental. ‘Yes, John?’ answered the voice of the girl. Gnome had been ever-present the past week as he kept her around for levelling purposes. She didn’t speak much so it was easy to forget about her. ‘I want to try something, see that Treant over there?’ He was looking at one that was walking towards them slowly. As long as he kept his distance they wouldn’t pose much of a threat. ‘I see what you see.’ Gnome answered. ‘Crush him.’ He didn’t need to think specifics, probably not even the command, as his mental image of the act was transferred through the connection.

Two walls of earth erected left and right of the approaching enemy, a mere moment later they crashed together, the Treant caught in between was squished, branches and roots stuck out like the legs of a similarly killed insect, accompanied by the sound of splintering wood.

The Exp increase confirmed the kill. John checked his mana bar. The whole ordeal had only cost him around 60 Mana. With Gnome in incorporeal form and Aclysia sapping at his mana like always his regeneration of almost 11.02 was reduced by 6, meaning that he could crush one enemy roughly every 12 minutes without dipping into his Mana Pool.

He had been able to kill Ghosts quicker (not easier because Mana Power Attack actually required him to aim and the normal Ghosts were immune to Earth Based Attacks) but compared to where he was a weak ago this was a massive improvement on his combat capabilities. With Gnome at his side he might have been able to defeat the Rockers on his own. Although the Wall Shadow still would have caused problems he wouldn’t have been able to deal with without Rave.

“Aclyisia, you try killing one on your own.” John said. “As you instruct, Creator.” Aclysia said and scanned for a new Treant, ‘Hey, she chose one name!’ John was proud of his creations success as he watched her run. She was not the fastest. In fact, she wasn’t fast at all. Yet. What she was however was Strong and Enduring, so when the Treant managed to whip its arm on her, causing it to crash into her side, all that Aclysia did was budge to the impact and then counterattack, a straight punch to the torso of the beast.

Unlike Rave, who was still slightly superior in the Strength Stat and got boosted by her martial prowess, Aclysia’s punch didn’t knock the monster out of commission, so she had to take some counter attacks from the Treant. John kept a close look on her EXP bar as the two beings exchanged stubborn blows. When the Treant finally died, several pieces of its bark punched into sappy splinters, Aclysia had lost about a third of her HP. The damage was visible as well, many parts of her skin were dented or whipped open, revealing a layer of mana lines that looked like blue veins. Even though her regeneration was high it would take her roughly a minute to repair the damage.

“Isn’t that painful?” John asked when Aclysia returned to his side, the deepest of the cuts already closing. “What is Pain?” Aclysia asked in turn. “Ah, you can’t feel that.” “What makes you say that, Creator?” “Because if you could, you would know.” Aclysia kept her head tilted in confusion but pondered about that question rather than keep asking for the moment. John however felt pain in the depths of his soul when he realized that the goth-maid outfit had torn open where the lash had hit Aclysia.

A series of loud noises made John jump and turn around. Victoria was shooting the hell out of another Treant. Her semi-automatic rifle riddled the thing with holes as the repeated recoil made her whole-body tremble, most noticeably her pony-tail but John was more focused on her big tits. The shooting ceased and he pulled away from the sight just in time to not get caught by Victoria, although Rave looked at him with amusement in her otherwise agitated expression.

“Let’s search for that Boss then, Gaia tells me it is a ‘Minor Tree of Life’.” John suggested. “I will rip his leaves out!” Rave cracked her knuckles with an angry grin. “Sounds Good.” Victoria agreed. John had a sudden epiphany, “Oh before I forget this: Invite Victoria Beloozero to the party.”

Victoria looked surprised at the sudden window in front of her. “’Rave Grind’?” She asked and pressed something. As she wasn’t within his party menu now that must have been the decline button. “I don’t trust your powers enough yet to just enter your party.” Victoria’s tone made clear that she was not willing to debate the topic.

John was miffed to say the least. Not only would he not get Experience from her kills, declining was also a major sign of distrust. “Fine then.” He said harshly, fully exposing his disapproval. If he was supposed to be more assertive he had to start somewhere. “But I will remember this, it’s not a particularly great sign of you to join the Guild but not the group.”