Material Used

D Rank: 44% > 42%

Nilbog flexed his hands, the skin and texture slightly different than the rest of his arm.

On one hand, it was frustrating how often Kara is proving to be right in her judgments, while on the other...he still had his hand.

Great. Now I'm being influenced by her.

What was that? Kara said.

Nothing, nothing, Nilbog replied. If he wasn't careful, parts of his thoughts were relaid to her.

The 4 damage he had taken in that fight healed once he had disregarded the frozen flesh, and filled in the missing pieces.

In such a small scale fight, one death would doom the entire party. Now that the enemy was outnumbered and flanked, it was only a matter of time as each of them fell.

Kara personally took the pleasure of piercing through the chest of the woman who had given her trouble. Though Kara used his body, Nilbog still could not follow what happened. Both moved at the same time, at roughly the same speed, yet Kara's blade found flesh while her opponent found only dirty air.

His Energy bar went down by a few dozen points, but he didn't know for what the Energy went towards.

Maybe the enemy's sword? He hadn't a clue.

He gained 5 levels for her, putting him at 34.

So many things happened, so many things there were happening, that not even the joy of leveling up after so long provided any solace to Nilbog.

He still felt dirty.

The enemy Rogue, as Kara also predicated, had made his escape. Caldain barked back his teammates, reminding them of their STM.

Let’s hurry up. The boss is waking up, Kara prompted as Nilbog moved forward. Off a few hundred meters rose the boss, awakened by the forward parties. It was an enormous Ent, rising higher than any tree in the forest. Its size easily triumphed the largest buildings the Dlair kingdom had constructed.

“How the hell are we going to take down that thing? It’s almost a mountain,” Nilbog said, shaking his head.

“Through teamwork and the power of friendship,” Caldain replied, his tone as serious as it can be.

Nilbog turned to the side, staring at the large man.

It’s sarcasm, Kara whispered.

Oh really? Thanks, I did not realize.

“Good work,” Caldain said after Nilbog did not reply.

“This makes us even,” Nilbog said.

You need to eat the Life Force users. That flesh is much stronger than yours, Kara said.

So now its “you” and not “we.”

Take pleasure, Rat, you are able to do a thing I can not, as I can do a million things you can not.

“You guys go ahead, I’ll catch you later,” Nilbog said.

Caldain looked at Nilbog for a few seconds and then nodded.

“Let’s go, everyone. Most of our STM should recover by the time we join the party,” he said, and then got everyone.

He didn’t ask how I recovered?

He’s a man of a certain authenticity. He won’t bother you after helping him.

The storm field was nearing dangerously close. Only a hundred meters off, Nilbog could feel the coldness radiating from its edges. Lightning spewed within its core erratically, some even escaping the boundary line and striking ahead, turning the ground into a crisp.

You better finish quickly, Kara said.

“No.”

What?

“I’m not doing that,” Nilbog began, his voice cracking, “ever again.”

We’ll discuss this later, Kara replied after a pause. For now, we need to use your stat points. Add 7 points to strength, 3 to Agility, 7 to Constitution, and 12 to Spirit

Nilbog wanted to argue. He couldn't just let her boss him around like this, but the truth was that he was overwhelmed.

How can she use both Life Force and Energy? How did she move that sword like that? Why and how was she using his body? So many questions that he did not even know where to begin.

We don't need the Endurance for now--we have enough for the boss fight. The rest of the stats need to hit 30, after which the increases will be non-linear. That is when we'll invest in Spirit. As long as we have Energy we can not die. Do you understand?

He didn't, but he did as he was told anyway.

Nilbog took a breather and entered his stat points in.

General

Stats & Parameters

Level

34

Strength

15

Species

Human (Shape-Shifting)

Agility

20

Class

Player Killer

Endurance

14

Profession

Death Dancer

Constitution

20

Age

7

Soul

23

HP

200/200 (+20.2/Hour)

Present Brawn

20

STM

128/140 (+.84/Second)

Present Speed

23.75

Overall STM

252/700 (+336/Day)

Present Armor

20

Life Force

138/156.4 (2.3/Minute)

Present Spirit

23

Energy

122/200 (2.3/Minute)

Power Rating

86.75

He expected his muscles to enlargen, or for him to feel...well, powerful, but nothing really happened. His power rating went up by about 30 points, but all he felt was a little bit better.

You seem surprised, Kara said.

"I thought I would...feel better. Stronger. But I still feel like shit." Nilbog said. What was he expecting anyway?

You are stronger now. You'll notice it in a fight but it will feel natural. Also, all your resource bars went up by a percentage, other than Life Force, which is MAX reduced by Life Force Empowerment. For HP, having 200 HP out of 200 HP is no different than having 400 HP out of 400 HP.

Nilbog nodded. For all her miserable faults, she at least had a wealth of information.

All other parties had already made their way ahead, making Nilbog one of the last one. Fortunately, seeing how bloody things were around here, most of them avoided any further conflict, and instead pushed ahead towards the boss.

How will they take it down? The thing was breathtakingly enormous. It was as if someone took over thirty Ents and just mashed them together. A hundred meters? A hundred fifty? It was so large that Nilbog couldn’t even judge.

The parties that fought ahead barely managed to stay on their feet, and Nilbog was sure he saw a couple of bodies soaring through the air, walloped like a ball with all their limbs pointing in the wrong directions.

The boss used its branches like whips, and some of them were the size of the colossal trees Nilbog had passed. There didn’t seem to be a blind spot; just like a tree, it had branches on all sides. Most moved independently of each other, though some, Nilbog noticed, were inactive.

They simply stopped moving for a period of time. Or was it that the Ent could only focus on a limited number of branches to move? Did that mean everyone had to rush it?

Even so, what then? As Nilbog neared, he could see a pile of bodies littered at the base of the Ent. There was little space to dodge there.

“Fire?” Nilbog asked.

No, Kara replied. Too large with an enormous amount of Life Force. It’s a weakness yes, but it's too simple. There is more to it. Look deeper.

“You talk as if you--” Of course she already figured it out. “Give me a hint?” He asked, though he kept his hopes down. She didn’t seem to be the person to just give an answer.

I already did.

Fuck, Nilbog said, giving up.

Don’t give up. I won’t always be there to think for you.

Shut up, I wasn’t going to give up.

Right.

Nilbog was about to ask her to use Grasping Eyes but wisely refrained from doing so. If she could then she would have already done it. There must be a limitation to that Scouting skill. Distance, probably. They were still a ways off.

A part of him wanted it to stay that way. The other part, most likely Kara’s, pushed him on relentlessly. She probably would not be satisfied until we’re in the...center of the danger. Deep into it.

A nervous smile crept on Nilbog’s face. Cold sweat began to drizzle down his spine as his blood went cold.

Ew. Can you stop that? Was Kara’s only response to the overwhelming apprehension budding within him.

***

Giant Undead Ent

A Giant Undead Ent is a raid boss monster created by the rank C difficulty Mission.

Much like its smaller predecessors, an Undead Ent possesses wide AOE attacks, excellent range, and a very tricky defensive mechanism.

Though it retains its weakness to fire, Giant Undead Ent has gained the ability to utilize Life Force in order to protect its most vulnerable parts. Giant undead Ent is unable to control all its branches. There exists a delay in its movements.

Giant Undead Ent has been seeping the life from the earth, swallowing up both Ents and the surrounding wildlife. It lays immobile in the earth and has grown an intricate root system below it.

HP: 22,023/25,000

Rank: C

“I understand what Ents are, but what is the undead part?” Nilbog asked.

It would also take a few days to give you all the theories regarding that.

"So you don’t know?

Child.

“I’m older than you.”

You’re not running away.

Come on! Look that thing! There is no way we can win! There is no way we can get close! It’s too damn risky.

There is always a way to win, that’s how the Games are made.

People tried, that was for certain. There were two types of crowd. Ones that wisely kept their distance, and the other more foolhardy one which attempted to scale the monstrosity. The majority of those were Warriors, Rangers, and other nimble builds. It was apparently not as impossible as Nilbog had believed it to be as there was a certain pattern to the movement of the branches.

A patch of branches was activated from three to four different ones, he observed. Those that predicted which branch would move were able to scale the Giant Ent.

Those that didn’t were the reason Nilbog did not want to do this.

“Isn’t this a bit unfair to everyone that is not agile?”

The early portion favored ranged and juggernauts. This evens it up. Up you go, Kara said, and then prodded his body forward. Time is running.

Swallowing the lump growing in his throat, Nilbog tried to recall the courage he had. For forty years he had lived in the shadows of dusty old buildings like the little mice, and for him to suddenly break into the light was slightly more difficult than she made it sound like.

Nilbog had a strange inkling that these type of unreasonable demands would repeat themselves often in the future.

Seventh Sense has improved!

"That only happens with that skill, damn asshole system. It doesn't even make sense why!"

Stop reacting to it, and it will go away, Kara said. Chop chop.

Nilbog stopped in his feet, staring at the tree. She was no different than it, damn it.