***

"Sokka, thank you for saving my father!"

"Young man, if you need help, don't forget to call us."

"When this is all over, let's get a drink!"

Sokka smiled at the people waving at them as he, Aang, and Katara were on Appa. He had freed the people and given them the will to keep fighting, even in a desperate situation. Now, even if they were in a desperate situation, where bending was unavailable, these people wouldn't give up.

These people that had once had their will and pride broken, now had unbreakable willpower.

Sokka waved at the people and smiled. "Let's get some drinks together when this is all over."

The men who he had freed looked at him with surprise before they all smiled. Haru's father, the man who was the leader of the earthbenders, came forward and clasped his hands in respect. "Sokka, this village will never forget what you have done. If you ever need help, don't forget to call us."

Sokka nodded, a small smirk on his face as Appa's tail swiped off the ground, and with an order from Aang, it glazed into the air.

'One day, soon, you guys will be called to war. So don't forget what I have done for you today.' – thought Sokka, before he turned around and gazed at the clouds. "Just a little bit more…"

***

Aang and the rest of the crew were flying on Appa's back when they noticed something strange below them. It was like a dark scar in one of the mountains, but looking closer, one could see that it was just a burned forest.

The beautiful trees that surrounded the burned sight only brought to the surface just how beautiful of a place it could have been.

"Should we visit that place?" Aang asked Sokka, who was now the unofficial leader of the group.

By now, Aang knew that he couldn't act recklessly, so he had to have Sokka's help with these things. The oldest amongst them knew how to handle these things and never did things that would be unnecessarily dangerous.

"Yes," Sokka nodded. "Let's go down there, if it's nothing of note we can quickly get back on Appa if everything is okay."

In reality, Sokka remembered this incident as well and how a spirit would appear. So he didn't plan to interfere too much. But, he wanted to try and use this to enter the Spirit World.

Recently he got information through the Gocha that there was a cursed spear that would turn their user mad in the Spirit World. Raising stats naturally would be hard as he didn't have a place with time dilation, also he didn't have time to train stats as the return was not worth it. Rather, if he trained his skills, it would have better returns in fighting power.

Maybe after this war was over, he could train his stats. But right now, the best he could hope was that his stats increased while he was training his skills.

Having a strong item could temporarily cover that weakness, at least until the war is over. The [Sky Piercer Spear] was good, but Sokka hoped that the Cursed Spear was better since it had such an elaborate description.

[Due to planning ahead, Intelligence increased by 2]

Sokka dismissed the notification as Appa landed on the ground. His haze was like that of a hawk as he observed everything around.

'A burned forest, this isn't anything too big in my last world. But Aang will probably blame himself for it, he always assumed too many duties as the Avatar.' – pondered Sokka, and just as he predicted, Aang blamed himself for all of this. Katara reassured the young man that the forest would grow again and pointed towards the acorns on the ground.

Sokka ignored all of this and just looked around with sharp eyes. Someone was looking at them, well he was looking through the Map and saw that it was a spirit.

[Heart-Eating Willow Tree]

Sokka clenched his teeth at that because this was something that hadn't happened in the original timeline. So it meant that it was caused by him. He glanced towards the tree for a split second, as if acting like he was looking at the forest, and saw that a beautiful blossoming sakura tree on the other side of the mountain had question marks as levels and it was recognized as a living and intelligent being.

If it was anyone else they would hide and run away from the monster, but Sokka had other ideas. Right now, when together with his spear [Sky Piercer], then his stats would rise tremendously and become able to fight someone way past his level.

"Excuse me, are you the avatar?" an old man with the top of his head bald and the rest of his hair gray approached the group as he cautiously and nervously walked through the burned forest. It was as if he was afraid of what might come out. The man rubbed his long gray neckbeard as he ogled Aang.

Before Aang could answer he jumped off Appa and told the rest of the group. "Aang, I have something to take care of. I will be back in a bit."

Sokka stared at the cute fox in Katara's arms and it looked away from his gaze as it buried its head in his sister's clothes.

"Also, little fox, protect Katara," with that said, he immediately dashed off into an unburned part of the forest. Leaving Aang to deal on his own with what the villager seemed worried about.

***

Sokka jumped from tree to tree, as he pulled out [Sky Piercer] from his inventory, which increased his Agility another fold. From now on, it entered the stage of a supernatural speed and no normal human eye would be able to catch his movements.

He blitzed through like a shadow and within a split second, he was in front of the beautiful sakura tree. A naked green-haired woman, her body firm, soft and beautiful with jade-like skin, she stood at the root of the tree and looked at him seductively.

Sokka's heart skipped a beat, this was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she didn't have any imperfections in her body. Everything about her was attractive.

"A strong warrior without bending? Just the kind I like," said the woman, smiling at him and endearing him a gesture.

Sokka's eyes turned dull and he walked towards the woman, his body seemed relaxed and his spear was just about to slip out of his hand. "Beautiful…" he muttered.

The woman's smile twitched as she stood up, her green hair barely covering just the best bits of her body. As soon as Sokka got close, drool dripped out of his mouth and he extended his hand.

"Yes, come to me!" screamed the woman lustfully.

Just as their hands were about to touch, the sound of air being cut wrung out. The woman's eyes widened as her body disappeared as she yelled. "You tricked me!"

Fwish!

Sokka had an annoyed look on his face, the foolish and lustful look from before gone as if it wasn't there, to begin with. "Tch, I thought I would be able to get you with that."

Clang!

A branch of the sakura tree had moved like a snake and blocked his spear. Though the branch looked brittle, as if it could break easily, that was far from the truth as even though Sokka had used all of his strength on that slash, it was easily blocked by the tree.

***

-Sokka POV-

My hands shook as the tree branch moved as if it had a mind of its own. This tree spirit was probably around the same level as Unagi, but it has a smaller body and all the power is compressed.

Even from the beginning, I knew that being female was just an illusion. Because it didn't have a level or name above its head, but the tree did. Also, no simple mind-manipulation technique worked on me, so whatever she tried to do failed.

Unagi was just a big target, but this tree was different. It had no blood either, and even though I had tried to pull the water out of it, that didn't work. Which meant that the tree wasn't simple, it had to be a Spirit Tree.

With that in mind, I abandoned the power behind my attacks and tried to cut the main trunk of the tree with three fast slashes.

Clang! Clan! Clang!...

The sound of metal clashing rang out, as my attack was easily stopped. Three vines that were like whips breaking through the sound barrier attacked me, and I was barely able to dodge.

Most of it was thanks to my [Sense Danger] Skill, but even then, the speed was extremely high and I knew that if I was hit with even one of those vines, then I would die.

But, at the same time, the vines couldn't go past a certain point as I had calculated the rough trajectory of their attacks and moved half a step back from it.

Fwish!

Suddenly, the tree shifted slightly, but I had expected this. As the branches extended past their limit. Planning for "unexpected" things like this was simple.

Still, though, I wouldn't be able to escape the attack unless I used my spear to block it and then let go of [Sky Piercer]. But that would result in my death if I did that.

But this battle was one of speed, and even thinking would be hard so my body mostly moved on instinct. As another gentle-looking vine came towards me, I used the spear to block and stood my ground, even as the vine twisted and left a large gash on my chest.

The vine had twisted like a whip and went way past its calculable limit. Looking at its roots, I saw that it had uprooted itself and used its roots as legs to move around.

Oh… this was bad. Very bad.

I clutched at my chest and even though my wound was gone, the blood that had splattered on the ground was still there. Also even with such a small graze, I had lost 1/10th of my HP.

Taking a deep breath, a sweet smell entered my nostrils and immediately my eyes widened as I got another notification.

[You are under the Negative Effects of: Pink Poison]

[Strength decrease by 10, Agility decrease by 10, Endurance decreased by 10]

[1HP/second will be taken as Damage as long as the Poison is in effect]

Well, this just got worse. That was when I got another notification.

[You have got a new Quest]

—————

[The Heart Eating Spirit]

Survive against the Spirit. The Heart Eating Tree is a dangerous Evil Spirit that many people fear. Try and survive in any way possible.

Rewards:

???

???

Failure: Death by the Heart Spirit Tree

—————

Now, this was an interesting development of a scenario. There was no way I would be able to survive this onslaught head-on, and if I tried running away then I would die as soon as my back was turned.

I was strangely calm, even for being in a situation where I could die. Well, [Gamer's Mind] was wonderful in keeping me serene and not letting me panic. Once again, a dozen vines extended towards me and I knew that trying to cut or block them with my spear wouldn't lead me anywhere and would just be a death wish.

****