A pudgy short man sat in an extravagant chair sipping at a glass of expensive wine. The man was only 5’1 with a bald head so shiny you could use it as a mirror. A curly strawberry blonde mustache as his only hair on his head, his expression was fill with bliss of a hard day’s work finally over. His attire could be only described as overly dress, with a luxurious robe, golden framed monocle, and various jewelry.

This man was the lord of Kelros, Burdock Sennel, not only was he the lord of Kelros but also one of the most powerful merchants in Invictus. Burdock sold everything from health potions to slaves, his business was call Supplier of the Thoughts, his slogan was ‘you think of it we have it’.

While enjoying his wine a knock came from the down, sighing the fifty something year old man spoke in a rough voice unbefitting his appearance.

“Enter.” [Burdock]

The door immediately opened and a middle aged man in a stereotypical butler’s uniform walked in with a letter in his hand.

“Milord a letter has arrived from lady Helina, from the massager’s expression and manner it seems to be urgent.” [butler]

“Oh, thank you Gilson.” [Burdock]

Taking the letter, Burdock couldn’t help but wonder what she wanted. Burdock and King Griswald had been business partners and good friends so at the time when Cramwell had been invaded and conquered, Burdock had sheltered the sibling until they left to become mercenaries.

Reading the letter the fat man’s eyebrows raised, his expression darkened for a second, before changing to one of joy.

“Hoho, so little Helina finally found a man, though things seem to be starting rough that stone doesn’t lie. Still, from what this letter says some grave things will be coming about.” [Burdock]

Burdock pulled at his mustache think about something for a moment, before turning to look at the butler beside him.

“Gilson, get a messenger ready, I need to inform King Ross of something as soon as possible.” [Burdock]

“Yes, Milord.” [Gilson]

Gilson bowed deeply and quickly left the room leaving Burdock to continue sip his wine. Getting up Burdock walked out to the balcony that overlooked the city. Even though it was night time, the city was bright and filled with movement. Looking up at the starry sky Burdock smiled, it was a gentle smile like one a father would show for his child. Over the twenty years he had come to know the Ironheart siblings. Burdock, who had no children considered them his own son and daughter.

“That boy, Chris Gelvon, it seems he will become quite something. Supporting him might be a good business investment…not to mention it will make little Helina’s life easier.” [Burdock]

Burdock eyes flashed with excitement as he started to calculate various things.

*

It had been a week since Chris had regained consciousness.

In that time, though Chris was still wary of the Black Wolf mercenaries, he helped with things when he could. Normally, Chris wouldn’t have even thought of lifting a finger, but if he didn’t help a curtain white haired elf monster who shall not be named (cough Claira cough cough) would threaten to do things that no man could endure. Over the course of that week Helina had made numerous attempts to get closer to Chris by trying to be more feminine.

Sadly, everything she attempted failed; first she tried cooking, it ended with Chris nearly fainting from the intense spiciness of her dish, next she tired show off by helping the other women fix damaged clothes, only to destroy some poor souls only pair of pants, another time she tried to nurse Chris when he received a cut on his arm, and that ended with…well let’s just say Chris is more afraid of Helina helping him then if she was an enemy.

It also could be noted that since Helina had joined what everyone is saying is Chris’ harem, Claira and Sara had become more competitive, constantly trying to be the one to receive Chris attention. Though Chris being Chris he did his best to escape those awkward situations by going to train his new skills and minions.

Right now, Chris was escaping yet another battle of the three monsters. Activating [Forest Monster’s Bark Armor] Chris was quickly covered in a dark steel color layer of bark, then he activated [Dancing Leaf Wings] . Instantly a set of skeletal like wings made of branches sprouted from the bark on Chris’ shoulder blades, after completely forming thousands of leaves grow to resemble feather wings. Bending his legs Chris leaped into the air and with a few power flaps of his wings speed off leaving unhappy shouts behind him.

After a distance Chris slowed his flight speed, he found a clearing that was suitable for today’s tests and descended.

At first Chris had been surprised when he began test his newly acquired skills. For starter, he found that [Dancing Leaf Wings] was linked to [Forest Monster’s Bark Armor] , using it as a base to generate. What was also surprising was that his armor had kept the form from when Yggdrasil had given him mana, minus the wings which had been replace with [Dancing Leaf Wings] . Though now, the armor was more monster like, with his hands and feet having longer claws and now two small horns only ten centimeters long spiked from his forehead. Not only that but when Chris looked the skill it said that his bark armor had changed from having the defensive strength of black steel to mithril. The head still had no facial features except for that thorny smile which seemed more demonic than before. Over all, his appearance now really looked like some kind of Monster that came deep from a forest.

As for his new minions, they defiantly had certain roles to play instead of being multi purposed like his earlier. First off, the Guardian minion.

Guardian minionTier 5

HP: 15000 / 15000MP: 3000 / 3000Str: 6550Agi: 1500Def: 11000Magic: 5000

SkillsForest Fortress Aura, Stronghold of Ten Thousand Wooden Shields, Strike Back

The Guardian minion could be considered be the perfect defensive type monster. The minion was two meters tall and looked to have plate mail made of large leaves. Generally speaking it looked like a common knight found in most video games. It held a rectangular tower shield that was made of twisting vines covered by leaves making it look like it was covered in scales. In its other hand was a lance made of two branches tightly spiraling to form a sharp tip.

The reason it was perfect when I came to defense was not because of its high defense stat, but its skills. [Forest Fortress Aura] Created a two meter square transparent green wall that was two inches thick directly in front of the minion blocking any attack whether it is physical or magical based. [Strike Back] also was a dangerous skill, with it the Guardian could reflect twenty percent of any damage done by an attack back to the attacker.

But what truly made the Guardian minion powerful was its skill [Stronghold of Ten Thousand Wooden Shields] which allowed Guardian minions to link together to increase their defensive capabilities. Also for each one linked the wall created by [Forest Fortress Aura] increase in height and width by one meter, as well as made it one inch thinker.

Next the Seeker minion.

Seeker minionTier 5

HP: 100 / 100MP: 8000 / 8000Str: 0Agi: 9000Def: 100Magic 8050

SkillsSensory Array, Voice Transmitter, Detect Magic

The Seeker minion had zero combat capabilities, instead it was something that could find and track things that Chris’ [Terra Network] had difficulty picking up. For example, things that didn’t touch the ground or something connect to the ground, since if a target is flying [Terra Network] wasn’t able to notice it.

The Seeker minion looked like a humming bird, Chris had been astonished now closely it resembled the small bird with the only difference being that the minion was only different shades of green instead of other colors. The feathers were actually tiny leaves, and its eyes were made of small shiny seeds, while its beak was merely a small strait twig.

The Buster minion out all Chris’ minions could be the most destructive, other than the Colossal minion.

Buster minionTier 5

HP: 7000 / 7000MP: 7000 / 7000Str: 4000Agi: 4700Def: 8000Magic: 6400

SkillsBombardment, Meteor Shower, Lock Down, Blazing Poison Spores

The Buster minion resembled a four meter tall tortoise with a massive hollow log protruding from its shell that was angled forwards. Its body was a brownish green and on each of its legs was a large black spike, its head was normal retracted into its body, except when it had to target something. What made this minion so devastating was the skill [Blazing Poison Spores] , which were released from its body and any of its attacks. Anyone who inhaled the spores would be infected by a terrible poison that would cause horrible burns starting from the inside, if the burn marks could be seen on the outer lay of skin that meant it was too late as it would signify that the insides of the victim had already turned to ash. Luckily, the spores could distinguish friend and foe so Chris didn’t have to worry about friendly fire.

As for the Striker minion, it looked like a Bengal tiger with moss acting as fur. Unlike the other newer minions the Striker minion was the most life like because it wasn’t green but white with black stripes making it really look like a ferocious tiger.

Striker minionTier 5

HP: 6000 / 6000MP: 5000 / 5000Str: 9000Agi: 7550Def: 5500Magic: 4500

SkillsFlash Claw, Discharge, Burst Bolt

The Striker minion was two meters tall and five meters long making it almost twice the size of the original back on earth. Chris through testing found that the tiger like minion made a perfect mount, since the mossy fur could wrap around the rider as well as it was very soft, so it could be ridden for extended periods of time without your lower body being uncomfortable.

[Flash Claw] was the Striker minion’s bread and butter, being an attack that increased its claws destructive power. If combined with [Burst Bolt] which increased the minion’s speed to the point it looked at it had teleported, the two skills could decimate most enemies. However the skill [Discharge] couldn’t be overlooked, as an AOE attack that cause an electrical shockwave that had a burst range that covered three meter radius around the tiger like minion. If used correctly the skill could cause quite a bit of damage to a group of enemies.

Lastly, the Leecher minion from what Chris had found was meant to be used as a trap. The minion was basically a large patch of foot long dark green grass with a blood red tip on each blade.

Leecher minionTier 5

HP: 2000 / 2000MP: 4500 / 4500Str: 7000Agi: 6000Def: 500Magic: 5500

SkillsEnsnare, Draining Grip, High Speed Regeneration, Recovery Share

This minion Chris considered the nastiest, when prey got one meter from it the blades of grass would shot out with terrifying speed. It would wrap its prey then drag it closer, as the prey struggled the Leecher minion would pierce its body with the tiny thorns covering the blades of grass used to capture its prey, quickly the victim would be drained of its blood. After testing the Leecher minion in various areas it seemed that most monsters couldn’t sense the danger of the patch of grass. The one that could had to be within the predators range of attack, so by the time they were alert the poor monster was already died from blood lose.

One last interesting feature of this minion is that the skill [Recovery Sharing] allows the Leecher minion to give the extra HP and MP it drained from its targets to anyone within a seven meters radius. If no allies are close enough at the time, Chris would directly receive the HP and MP from any distance instead.

Chris having finished practicing control four different types of new minions at once, he smiled and laughed softly. After training for this past week, Chris now could control three different types of minions easily. Only when he tried to control four did it become difficult, though he was getting better at it, spending more time training could only help him.

Chris decide to yet again search for a plant that [Vegetation Absorption] could absorb. Though so far every time he looked around the area it came out fruitless.

Though he now knew what the conditions were for the skill to activate; first the plant must be a rare variant, then it had to be a C ranked monster or a plant that’s rarity was at least C ranked. Those two conditions were actually hard to meet. Chris had found many plant monsters that were C ranked or higher, none of them were variants that were rare. While C ranked plants were most often magic infused or expense medical herbs, both were hard to find.

After a few hours of searching Chris finally started to head back. While irritated about not finding anything again, Chris felt a strong presence. Stopping he realized that whatever it was hadn’t found him yet, so he created four Seeker minions to investigate.

What he found was a group of monsters call Fungus Tribesmen, a two foot tall humanoid looked like a human until you see that it has a white mushroom with blue spots for a head. This monster was known for its poison that would put its prey to sleep where the little mushroom men would then devour the sleeping target alive.

The fungus Tribesmen were normal a D ranked monster and considered a beginners monster to fight since they didn’t have much strength, agility, or defense.

But using his Seekers to see, Chris saw a Fungus Tribesmen that was slightly larger than the others, its mushroom was black and had red spots instead of the usual white with blue spots.

Mind Corrupting Fungus Tribal ChiefLv 57Boss [Ultra Rare Varient]Rank B

HP: 4500 / 4500MP: 7750 / 7750Str: 2500Agi: 3200Def: 3000Magic: 5600

SkillsSleep Spores, Corrupting Spores, Fungus Burst

A week of searching finally paid off, Chris was overjoyed while reading the results of [Analyze] .

Targeting it with [Vegetation Absorption] , a long awaited window.

All conditions have been met for absorption!

Sadly, when Chris tried to absorb the monster, another window popped up.

Target monster must be dead to absorb

Sighing Chris prepared himself for battle because even with this monster being a B rank an ultra-rare variant Boss probably wasn’t going to be easy to handle.