As I severed more and more of the tree’s massive roots, the blue glow that I had seen earlier started becoming more apparent. I severed a large root at its base and I could finally make out what it was.

I had to jump away as the tree brought down a branch to where I was standing, but there was no mistaking it. There was some kind of blue orb hidden at the base of its trunk, seemingly protected by more roots that surrounded it.

That had to be important.

I wonder what would happen if I were to destroy it?

I summoned an earthen spike beneath the trunk, intending to shatter the orb, but it was blocked by a magical barrier. That was unfortunate. For now, I imagined the best I could do was continuing to sever roots and hopefully make the tree immobile once more.

“Filthy creature. Die!” the tree screamed in both rage and pain.

I wasn’t planning on dying. Not again. I jumped out of the way as it brought its branches down on me once more. I got another hit to my barrier. It seemed to be more or less unavoidable due to this creature’s sheer size. I was happy that I’d upgraded my resistances as much as I had. I was sure I’d be mush right now, otherwise.

The tree seemed to have four roots that were far bigger in diameter than the others. I’d not focused on severing these as the smaller ones seemed to move faster and posed a greater threat. Now that they were uprooted, they were quite a bit faster at striking me, although they still weren’t as fast as the vines. In a way, this tree had more or less crippled itself.

Though, those branches seemed to be an effective weapon…

They were brought down once more, delivering a glancing blow as I jumped out of the way. Once more, my barrier erupted with an explosion that was again blocked by the magical barrier that seemed to surround everything but the roots of this tree.

Now that I had mostly removed its smaller roots, it was time to work on the larger ones. I summoned a spike from the ground in order to sever one, but found that it didn’t cut deep enough. I had to summon a spike again, and then one more time, in order to cut off its larger root.

It seemed I had underestimated how tough they were. I had a large mana supply and proper regeneration, but with the sheer number of spells I’d cast, I started to notice that I was running low.

I hoped I was going to have enough to finish this.

With the large root severed, the tree started to become a bit less steady. It still screamed in pain and brought its branches down again. This time I managed to dodge the attack completely which was very much welcome as I’d rather not cast my barrier again.

I ended up on the other side of the tree, close to the massive maw that it had left when it uprooted itself. When I looked at the hole in the ground, I could see there being some kind of tunnel leading down. That most definitely did not belong to this tree’s roots. I wondered what was down there, but only for a second as I still had a battle to focus on.

I cast my earthen spike three times in order to sever the massive root near the base of this side of the tree. When it was severed and green liquid spilled from the trunk, my adversary started to become quite unsteady as it was only supported by roots on two opposite ends. I also noticed that the blue orb beneath its base wasn’t glowing as much anymore.

The creature was losing strength.

Its strength was replaced by sheer anger as it brought its branches down on me again.

Its movements had slowed and I managed to jump out of the way once more without taking any damage. The tree kept smashing the ground with its branches in my wake, trying to hit me as I moved.

I stayed on the move and had no time to stand still. Taking a bit of a leap of faith, I decided to summon an earthen spike right under the blue orb in the hope that I’d weakened the creature enough to be able to penetrate its barrier.

The spike shot from the ground and crashed into the orb. I couldn’t see most of the orb, but I could still see it shatter into a thousand pieces that fell into the grass.

At the same time, I saw a transparent layer around the tree’s trunk become visible, glow with a faint green color for a moment, and then crack and splinter.

The barrier was gone!

I jumped and I jumped again as I created space between me and the tree. I got hit once more by a part of the branches, which caused my barrier to explode with holy power for the third time. This time it did what it was intended to do; damage.

The branches that had just struck me were seared by the explosion and turned black. I was still running away, but thanks to my vision, I could see it happen clearly.

I then turned around and prepared to finish this.

The tree creature struggled to move forward with only two main roots, but did so nonetheless. In the meantime, I prepared a fireball spell at maximum strength, knowing I only had enough mana for two or three of these. I would have to finish it quickly, and now that the barrier was down, I didn’t want to be surprised by it somehow resisting a weaker version of the fireball spell.

I fired it and it hit the trunk where it shattered and burned a part of the trunk, but the fires were soon extinguished as the wood didn’t seem to catch on fire just yet.

I decided to take a different approach and use the other newly acquired skill. Wood could be hard to set on fire when it wasn’t completely dry. It would need to be lit by holding it in a fire for longer. As such, I decided to use Flame Beam.

It should work well with a fairly low amount of mana remaining, I figured. I would just need some kind of fire to keep eating away at the wood until it was set alight properly.

The only problem was that its range was short.

I didn’t really dare to get close anymore as my barrier had lost over half its strength, but fortunately, there was another way to get close without putting myself in danger, I think…

I skittered to the massive hole in the ground and taunted the creature by waving a leg. In obvious fury, it approached me still. I started crawling into the tunnel backward as it approached. When it was close enough, it tried to slam the ground above me and I felt the tunnel shaking, but it held.

I then started channeling my beam of fire on its roots and the base of the trunk from the safety of the tunnel. Due to it missing all of its roots except the two main ones that supported it, it couldn’t harm me by using them as weapons. If it did, it would just topple over.

I had the upper hand here.

A continuous beam of fire shot forward from my position and started eating away at the wood. The spell intensified over time and the fires grew hotter and hotter as my mana started rapidly depleting. I kept the spell up for as long as I could until I felt pain growing in my abdomen. I was completely out of mana, yet I managed to keep the spell up.

When I was about to pass out from the pain, I canceled the spell and retreated further into the tunnel. Hopefully, I’d be safe here as the fire did its job.

From inside the tunnel, I could feel the temperature rising as the creature before me became engulfed in flames. After hiding for a while, I felt the ground shake as though something had impacted it with great force.

I heaved a sigh of relief in my mind as I knew I’d won the battle. It had been hard and I’d been taken by surprise and cut off from escaping, but I’d done it.

You have killed a Guardian Tree: EXP+3150

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 6!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 7!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 8!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 9!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Up!

Kealyna has reached level 10!

You have been awarded 75 EP.

Level Cap Reached

Achievement earned: Dungeon Delver

Kill your first dungeon creature.

You have been awarded 150 EP.

You have been awarded 0 EXP.

Hidden requirement for future evolution complete.

A series of messages showed up. The last one stood out the most.

Dungeon creature?