Chapter 10 – Flora

Lucca left the cathedral, his objective for now is going to the church school, still he was hungry and soon it would be sunset, therefore he went for an Inn and spend the night in the capital. In the next day after completing his daily training and eating breakfast he moved towards the eastern gate.

(Still, why would they bother in making a church so far in the capital right in the middle of nothing?)

Despite being early the streets were already crowded with merchants selling fresh crops, alchemists selling potions, adventurers selling monster fur and so on, it was lively. Lucca bought food for a week, basic health and mana potions and antidotes. Every time before going on a request he did this, thanks to his experience he knew how hard it would be to be stranded outside the cities without the basic supplies.

After buying everything he needed he moved went out of the big gate. It was Lucca’s first time being in that part outside the city, yet the green and yellow plains hardly changed. Lucca let out a sight and started walking towards the east.

Lucca quickly crossed the plains without much accidents, he didn’t saw any monster on the road besides some few inoffensive slimes and normal rabbits, so he didn’t bother slaying them and continued.

After a few hours the vast plains ended and he got near the forest, which was the second part of his travel, it was still before noon, so he made a short break to eat and continued. Inside the forest there were beasts, such as wolves and monkeys, but those type of animals could be scared easily, so he had a smooth journey.

“This can be hardly called as test. I’ve taken the shortest path to get there quickly, yet there’s nothing more than slimes and normal beasts” – Lucca muttered while wondering if this was really a test. Yet, as if hearing Lucca complains, in the next minutes he heard the sounds of battle. He quickly took out his dagger and started sneaking ahead – “Let’s see what’s going on there.”

The scene right in front of him was two men fighting floras and goblins. There were already some corpses of monsters fallen in the vicinity, but the two showed signals of fatigue while bleeding here and there, also they were surrounded by the monsters which had six times their numbers.

(Floras and Goblins aren’t strong monster, the problem is the numbers and if they have reinforcements) – Lucca sneaked closer of a goblin that had already taken some damage and waited in a nearby tree – (First take the weaker guys and break the circle)

Lucca waited his chance and when the monster launched their attack, he quickly moved out and stabbed the goblin in his back. Moments later the two men repelled the monsters attack, despite receiving some wounds in their blind spots, but they had killed a flora.

When the monsters perceived his presence, he already had let go of that knife and drawn a short sword, which he used to slice the nearby flora, this didn’t killed the flora, but made her retreat – “Get out of their circle!” – The men were as confuse as the monsters, but they saw him creating this opportunity, so they did as Lucca said and exited their encirclement.

Lucca quickly pulled back too, but when he turned, he saw the men running as fast as they could in the opposite direction – “Tsk! Those trash, I wonder why I even bother helping” – This wasn’t the first nor the second time Lucca had entered a fight to help some guys only to get them running and leaving him alone.

In the next moment a flora tentacle assaulted Lucca’s side and made him stagger – “Tsk, this is not the time for this” – Said Lucca while looking his surroundings. The attack from the flora came again, while the other monsters were running to this position – “This is bad”

Lucca used his short sword to deflect the flora attack. Right after he moved his unused hand and took his throwing knifes and attacked the flora with them. The flora saw the knifes and used her vine tentacles to intercept, not causing any damage, but that’s what Lucca wanted, with this opening he started running towards a nearby tree and climbed it with a few jumps.

(Floras can’t leave the ground, but I’m still) – A vine whip came flying into his direction and he jumped towards another tree – (… in her range. I need to find a big tree while the other floras don’t catch up)

Floras are plant monsters, which used their vine tentacles to attack, they were bound to the ground thanks to their roots, therefore being slow. While it was easy to hunt them with a Mage or an Archer, it was a bad opponent for a melee combatant like Lucca.

He jumped another two trees until he saw a twenty meter tall tree. There he climbed enough until he was outside of the flora range. At that moment the other floras catched up and stopped at the trunk of the tree as if staring at Lucca.

“Disgusting” – Lucca used his mana in the eyes and started scouting the vicinity – “Still, I only see green from here, it seems it will take some time before I leave this forest” – Murmured while looking the vast green, after that he focused his vision on the ground searching for the monsters – “Although there are other floras within some hundreds of meters, I doubt they will bother coming here, considering their speed… Still where are the goblins?”

Lucca noticed that those goblins from before had vanished, only the corpses remained and those were already being wrapped up by nearby floras tentacles, it seems the goblin didn’t cared much about their dead.

Looking at the surrounding once more, he saw in the corner of his vision the two men fighting again with goblins, they were surrounded and looked tired. Lucca just watched as they eventually died and were carried always by the goblins.

“Idiots, they choose to flee in the middle of the forest despite being so tired, it was obvious such a thing would happen” – Lucca sighed and closed his eyes – “Still, leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Lucca was used to death, but if helped he would do his utmost to prevent it. Yet this type of scene was common in his recollections. Lucca once more sighed and opened his eyes, he already moved past the previous matter. He looked downwards and saw the floras were still there.

“It seems they won’t give up soon” – Lucca then climbed a few more meter upside, almost reaching the top of the tree – “It seems I will have to pass the night here.”

Lucca tied a rope between him and the trunk of the tree, pulled some hard bread and ate it rapidly. He kept observing the floras until it was night. They didn’t show any movements, so he decided to sleep.

In the middle of the night he suddenly awoke when he felt the tree shaking and almost fell down if it wasn’t for the rope. When he looked down he saw there were three more floras than before and all of them were shaking the tree to make him fall.

“Damn monsters!” – Shouted Lucca while regaining his balance – “Why are plant monsters so active now in the middle of the night?!”

Usually plant monsters were weak on the night and stronger in the day. Yet they seemed much more wildly than before. Lucca kept looking and saw they didn’t have any intention of stopping. After fixing his foothold he looked the other floras and saw they had the same abnormal behavior and were moving, contrary of their nature of waiting to ambush the prey.

“There are too many floras (mutations), they seem more active at the night despite being plants, furthermore actively moving without a pray… What the hell is happening in this forest?”

~Hours earlier at another place~

“Captain, it is indeed as the report said, these monsters are clearly abnormal!” – Reported a young woman who looked like just finished high school, she had red hair and blue eyes and was considered tall for a woman, reaching almost 175 cm.

“This is the worst.” – The captain sighed while asserting the report. He was a 190 cm tall man who had a relative thin build for a knight, he had a ragged face from a long life of battles, which was masked by his long brown hair and full beard – “It can’t be helped. Men we will camp today here outside the fog.”

“Fog?” – Asked a soldier.

“Are your bloody eyes falling you?” – Answered the captain as he was listening to his subordinates ignorance – “It’s always the first rule when entering monster territory to use [Mana Vision]”

The soldier rapidly gathered his mana and utilized the skill, what he saw was a huge fog of purple mana that covered as far as he could see.

“It is as the report said, there was a large outburst of violent mana in this forest. We will move out tomorrow to investigate the case. That’s all!”