Having decided that returning to Rat Slaying was not for them, Kenji and his party found themselves outside the town gates. It didn't take long to pass the farms and enter the forest. The forest grew dark and scary so fast Kenji had to whip his head behind him to check they hadn't entered a portal.

"I don't like this," Kenji whispered. Violet nodded in answer.

Tenko ran ahead unafraid in her beast form, lunging into bushes, and laying in wait to burst out from the trees and growl.

"Enough! Please, my heart can only take so many shocks before it clocks out for the day," Kenji said as he clutched his chest for the third time. Tenko just grinned wide with a fanged jaw and bound away.

"Really Kenji, it smells better out here; but can we really earn money this way?" Violet said with pursed lips, peering around the thick flora dubiously.

"The guild gave us a list of plants that they buy, and surely Tenko can hunt deer or something for us to sell. That'll be a good money spinner I promise, much better than that stupid tavern and it's rats at least."

That got Violet nodding enthusiastically, starting to pull loose every flower, root and leaf of sufficient colour and shine.

"Actually what we're looking for isn't that pretty," Kenji grimaced, not having wanted to disrupt Violet who smiled like a child as she held a bouquet of beautiful white lilies.

"Oh, what are we looking for then?"

"Devil root," Kenji said. "It grows around spirit trees who have become sour of heart and is apparently very high in demand for its uses in all kinds of alchemy. As long as we don't get too close to the spirit trees themselves, it should be relatively safe to harvest. I've already told Tenko this, so hopefully, she'll find something as she -"

A sudden howl sent Kenji stumbling away, and with a schwing he pulled free his stone fused blade. Tenko laughed roughly, having prowled right around the corner.

"You are so easy to frighten! Like a little baby deer, all wide-eyed and stupid!"

"Haha- Tenko! have you found anything yet?" Kenji said through gritted teeth and a forced smile.

"Other than delicious meats? Yes, your weird tree is this way. Follow Tenko!"

Grumbling to himself, Kenji followed along with Violet close behind.

All together they stumbled ever deeper into the dark forest, filled with an increasingly large number of thorn, ivy and angry wasps. Going wide-eyed at a face sized spider that Kenji had been a moment from stepping into, he halted.

"Is this really the right way?" he whispered, Kenji's voice stolen by the breeze and travelling far further through the hungry dark than he had wanted. The trees ruffled their leaves angrily, and Violet had begun to shake behind him.

"Tenko is certain," Tenko said snatching the spider with her teeth and starting to chew.

Kenji stared in horror.

"Follow Tenko! This way!" Tenko turned and zoomed into even deeper parts of the forest, Kenji and Violet left following rather worriedly after her. After some time they came into a less thick area, pale orange roots scrawled across the ground.

"Devil root!" Kenji beamed, starting to cut some of the roots free.

"K-Kenji..." Violet whispered, pulling at Kenji's sleave.

"Yes?"

"Look," pointing mere metres ahead, Violet indicated to where a very angry tree with obsidian black bark stared at them. In its roots was Tenko, wrapped in thorny vines as she struggled to reach a glowing golden apple hidden amidst blood-red leaves.

"Give apple!" Tenko yelled as she was completely entombed in vines.

"Mortals, leave this forest forever if you wish to save your friend's life- hey, stop that!"

Enraged, Kenji had already activated his [Blessing - Fire] while Violet was summoning her crystal knight with a thirst for murder in her eyes.

"I'll let her go, just get lost alright?" Cackled the tree and rubbing two of its roots together like a villain preparing a cunning scheme.

"So you can shift the forest around us, get us lost, wait until we starve and then attack? I think not," Kenji said, charging forward with his burning blade. At his side rode the crystal knight, it's lance quickly crashing into the tree's side.

"Then die fool!" the spirit tree roared, shedding a hundred crimson leaves that became sharp as knives and heavy as stone. Slashing the crystal knight to pieces, they came for Kenji next- saved just in time by a silver bubble. Above the entombed Tenko had appeared her summoned moon, the spirit tree peering up at it confused.

While the leaves were being deflected, for now, Kenji charged and slashed at the spirit tree's base. The tree howled and thrashed its spine covered roots to rip free swathes of flesh and blood. Thrown back, Kenji rolled across the dirt as roots erupted around him.

"Oh shit-" Kenji stabbed at a root, the rest pulling back as the tree screamed again and the fire from its wounds began to smoulder. Huge crystals thrust from the ground to gash into base, more crawling up the spirit trees side to slash at the vines that held Tenko.

Tumbling free, Tenko the giant wolf roared and charged. Her claws slashed through the tree like paper, her jaws ripping free vine, thorn and bark with similar ease.

"You are a blight upon this forest, die mortals, DIE!" the spirit tree roared.

With the spirit tree focusing its leaves on warding off Tenko, he never saw Kenji watching closely.

The Tree, like any other boss, fought in a stiff attack pattern.

Slash, slash, monologue, leaves. It was always the same, and so Kenji waited until the second slash of roots before he charged. Morphing into a rat, Kenji could weave his way through the torrent of waiving roots unnoticed, before launching and transforming back to the boy knight mid-air.

"I will use you as fertilizer for my roots as- what?" The spirit tree was stunned as Kenji suddenly appeared and plunged his flaming sword into its eye. Piercing deep, Kenji managed to hit an integral organ of some sort causing the whole spirit tree to wheeze and fall limp, it's many scarlet leaves falling free like a strange rain.

"We did it!" Violet cheered, holding a gash at her side closed.

"Let me see that, [Heal]," Kenji sealed the wound closed, then using one on himself and the third on Tenko's mouth that had been torn by eating thorns. "We'll need to do that again tomorrow to fully heal the wounds, luckily no one was hurt too badly."

"Ok! Because my mouth still hurts," Tenko grumbled as she picked at a thorn still stuck between her fangs. Violet started wisely pulling free the larger pieces of devil root while Kenji approached the dead spirit tree's face. Behind he found some blue crystals buried into the wood and pried free the mean face too since it looked kinda weird and thought someone might buy it.

"I almost forgot!" Tenko yelled, leaping back to the tree and aiming for the golden apple.

"Tenko no! That's probably worth a lot of - damn it!"

Tenko snapped her jaws closed around the apple and ate it on one big gulp. For a brief moment, her fur was turned bright gold, before fading away back into her usual white. Landing back down, she seemed a bit bigger in her wolf form, and her moon eyes had temporarily gone gold.

"Eeeeh," Tenko said, eyes shifting left then right.

"What is it Tenko?"

"Tenko has levelled up. But...Tenko doesn't know which to choose. Should Tenko evolve to be more flighty, or more supportive of the pack?"

"Fighty for sure. We need you to be the frontline fighter and-"

"SUPPORT THE PACK!" Tenko roared, and her moon summon appeared again. Then it shifted to silver, the normal silver bubble around Kenji and Violet instead snapping into their limbs and increasing their movement speed and agility.

"Ok, this is pretty cool," Kenji said as he danced around, each step moving far further and with greater precision than was normal. Violet laughed as she met him halfway, the pair dancing with blazingly fast movements and the dexterity of professional dancers.

"We should go soon, I think there might be other monsters out here today," Kenji said. "But before that, I have one last thing to do. " Kenji peered up at the dead spirit tree, and wondered if it would count as something to fill his replication slot.