บท 40: Chapter 40. Tree vs Tree.
After Leveling up, Liu Shu opened her <World Tree Eye>, and her vision soared outward, but before she could continue to do so, a sharp pain came from her roots, making her lose concentration.
While Liu Shu could see the world around her with <World Tree eye> with extreme clarity, she naturally didn't only have that way of interacting with it. Humans have a sense of smell, hearing, and touch other than their eyes, and trees and other plant creatures can use their affinity with energy to feel the world around them.
Shapes and forms blurred in this vision, becoming a black world with glowing energy veins going around everything. White winds that touched and scattered when colliding, a gentle mist of another energy being expelled by creatures, and many more fantastical sights entered Liu Shu's mind.
While it was less reliable than what <World Tree Eye> gave for rapid-paced battles or searching visual details, looking at her entire domain was much more effective with this natural vision.
Liu Shu spread her senses through her roots and reached the point where she felt pain. 'Oh? No wonder…'
Our tree looked at how one of her recently spread and weak roots had been crushed by another tree, making her feel annoyed. 'What, are you unhappy that I'm spreading past my territory?'
If she had lips, they would've arched in a sneer. 'That's not my problem.'
Her energy surged and went from her <World Tree Heart> toward her roots, rushing through the complex network until they arrived at that point. She didn't have any skills to manipulate her roots as she manipulated her branches with <Willow Strike>. Still, that didn't mean that she couldn't use them.
First, using her system, she analyzed the tree that attacked her.
***
Name: ----
Titles: ----
Race: Quercus rubra
Energy Method: Earthen Nutrient Subtraction. (Gain 2 Experience Points per day.)
Level: 8 [1253/3862]
Aether Mana Shards: 514/514
Phoer Body Shards: 2576/2576
Anima Energy Shards: 732/732
Attributes: Aether 6 (5+1), Physique 28 (24+4), Anima 9 (8+1), Willpower 10 (10), Destiny 8 (8)
Affinity Percentage: Aether Resonance (7), Physique Refinement (15), Anima Affinity (10)
Resistance Percentage: Aether Resistance (7), Physique Resistance (20), Spiritual Resistance (8), Mental Resistance (11)
Talents:
---
Passive Skills:
---
Accumulated Experience: 0
***
Liu Shu looked at its system page for a few seconds and snorted. 'No wonder you dare came at me. You have not awakened proper intelligence.
However, did the World Tree care? It didn't. Everything that attacked a World Tree was an enemy to be destroyed. Only a very out-of-the-ordinary situation would cause World Trees to not retaliate against anyone who tried to hurt them.
The Rose Fairies outside were confused as Liu Shu's presence felt as if she was about to awaken, only to feel a strange distortion and then become silent again.
Clavel asked. "Did something go wrong as Liu Shu leveled up?"
Flor shook her head. She used her system to analyze Liu Shu's basic stats and saw that just one thing was out of order. "She is okay, and nothing is wrong except one very important thing…" The Rose Fairies looked at their queen with tight expressions and suddenly heard her scream. "WHAT ARE THOSE NUMBERS, HUH!? ISN'T SHE LEVEL 4? WHY DOES SHE HAVE MORE THAN 3000 SHARDS OF EACH TERNARY ESSENCE? HER PHOER IS EVEN AT 4000! SHE HAS MORE PHOER BODY SHARDS THAN ME!"
Seeing Flor clutch her hair as she looked at Liu Shu with incredulity. Flor continued; her tone was much more neutral. "I know that she is not normal, and those creatures are usually strong. But this?! This!? What is this!? Even if I were to take 12 points from each attribute from my buff, it wouldn't change that much!"
[Congratulations, you've learned the passive skill <Root Manipulation E- Rank>]
Meanwhile, as the fairies became stupefied by Liu Shu's stats and tried to calm down their leader, our tree managed to learn a new skill.
<Root Manipulation (E- Rank Level 1 [0/3900])>: Your control over your roots increases. They are more flexible and will be able to move through the earth without much problem. Your roots can slightly better resist extreme environments, and your sensitivity toward them will increase.
Liu Shu's roots dug through the earth much quicker than before while coated in a small amount of Aether Mana and Anima Energy. The skill expenditure was not enough to make Liu Shu feel it. Her regeneration was very high, after all.
Her root coiled around one of the trees and crushed it with her absolutely superior strength.
[-100]
Her other roots also moved, gaining terrain as they fought the tree off. As a normal tree, its root mobility was not only limited but also restricted by its intelligence.
[-120]
[-140]
Liu Shu rampaged underground, her roots slowly advancing as they completely destroyed the tree's roots.
Amapola outside paused and asked. "What is that sound?"
Clavel titled her head. "What sound?"
Amapola frowned and looked toward the forest where the sounds she heard came from. "I'm not sure, but I think that Over's there? I think I can hear a strange crunching noise like wood getting twisted."
Flor looked at Amapola and looked over with curiosity. "Hm? You are right. What's wrong over there?"
They moved over and looked at the tree that was making strange sounds. Clavel commented. "Oh, I can hear them as well! Is it growing and becoming taller?"
Other Rose Fairies with less acute senses had to fly towards the ground and listen. Zinia tilted her head, looking up at the massive 15-meter-tall tree. "Hm. I hope it isn't sick. Reaching this height and level must have been difficult. Tens? Perhaps hundreds of years…"
Amapola asked. "Do we ignore it?"
"No, wait a second." Flor analyzed it, just in case.
***
Level: 8 [1253/3862]
Aether Mana Shards: 481/514
Phoer Body Shards: 1354/2576
Anima Energy Shards: 725/732
**
Her face changed greatly as she looked at its Phoer Body Shards. "It's dying somehow. Oh, it lost another 140 Phoer Body Shards."
The other fairies were stunned. Clavel looked toward the ground and frowned. "What could be killing it?"
Flor frowned. "I don't know, but being that strong, even under the earth, is pretty terrifying."
BANG!
A loud sound was heard when a large chuck of his roots exploded below the ground. Flor frowned and was about to shoot a wind crescent into the ground when she suddenly felt a pulse of energy coming from the ground.
The pulse hit her and asked her to retreat.
However, what surprised Flor was not the meaning but the sense of familiarity. She hastily looked sideways at the relatively small tree and focused on her. After around 5 seconds, she finally found out that the energy she usually uses was going into the ground.
Flor quickly sent out an order. "Wait!"
The Rose Fairies that were preparing to bombard the place with wind crescents paused. One of them asked, confused. "What's wrong, Queen?"
Flor pointed downwards and commented. "The one causing the ruckus is Liu Shu."
Everyone became a bit speechless, but the earth below suddenly burst as a large part of the red-leafed tree's roots could be clearly seen getting strangled by beautiful roots with neon-blue veins going around them.
The Rose Fairies were stunned for a second, not managing to react, before Liu Shu's roots finally tightened enough, obliterating it into pieces.
[-248].
Liu Shu looked over with <World Tree Eye>; she had that much leisure while fighting it. 'I thought Flor would attack me. Thankfully, I realized and was able to send a warning.'
Seeing the Rose Fairies look at her actions with complicated expressions, Liu Shu was confused. 'Why are they looking at it like that? Shouldn't they be happy?'
Boom!
The earth exploded as Liu Shu's roots coiled around the trunk, which was almost three times larger than hers. Then, using her powerful Physique, she pulled sideways.
A creaking sound spread through the forest as cracks opened through the tree's trunk, and the earth on the other side started to get lifted.
The Rose Fairies looked on as the tree was uprooted, and five roots burst from the ground, giving it the killing blow by strangling the trunk in different places and pulling it downward as if she were using ropes.
BOOM!
Using the ground as support, the roots tore through the trees, splitting them into chunks and making splinters fly everywhere.
Some low-level rose fairies got lightly hit, but at most, the splinter would lodge in the skin upper layer of the skin, so there was no severe damage.
The untouched Rose Fairies floated above the corpse of the tree with complicated expressions. They were, after all, lovers of nature.
Naturally, they knew that vegetation was not as innocent as it seemed. However, knowing and seeing were two things. The brutal sight of Liu Shu destroying the roots of the tree around it before fighting and eating them outside was quite an interesting yet disturbing sight for them.
An older Rose Fairy approached Flor and asked. "Q-Queen Flor, what did this tree do to anger Liu Shu?"
Flor shook her head. "I can only speculate, but it should be one of those territorial issues." Flor paused and explained. "You should all know by now that Liu Shu is not that simple."
They all nodded, and Flor spoke. "Liu Shu is a tree that will… grow—a lot. The big thing you are thinking about is probably not enough. As she grows, there will naturally be trees that come in her way and need to be dealt with. However, she will know not to kill indiscriminately, only for the need of expansion… Or so it seems."
The other Rose Fairies nodded, accepting her explanation. Flor clapped once, bringing their attention to her. "Pick up all parts that are usable and place them in the <Vault>. For those that aren't, we should use them as ingredients for the next compost for Liu Shu.
Meanwhile, Liu Shu received a message after killing that tree.
[Congratulations on defeating <Quercus rubra Level 8>. You've gained 48 Experience Points.]
Liu Shu felt happy after quickly crushing the Level 8 tree. 'Not bad~, hehe. Now… Let's expand our roots in that place and not allow others to be nearby.'
Flor approached at this time, and Liu Shu looked at her with the <World Tree Eye> skill.
Flor smiled and spoke. "First of all, because you are doing it out of your necessity, I won't say much. However, Liu Shu, can you try to reconcile more often and maybe subordinate the trees around you instead of killing them? Of course, this is not an order nor a request. It is simply an observation. Think about it."
Liu Shu looked on with confusion. 'Why should I do that? That tree attacked me first, so I'll kill it. That's it.' She really thought so, and all the rewards were secondary and a welcomed plus.
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