The Giant Treant or the ancient Treant, an evolved form of the normal treant.

Born five centuries ago, it devoured flesh from living beings inside the floor.

Devoured might not be the word to describe it. It was more like sucked the essence of life from them, first killing them then not letting them decompose, through its roots , they became nutrients.

Through time it changed, it adapted, it became more sufficient, it used its surroundings, it used other monsters, it used the giant bees to make them serve it.

So in time it grew while consuming the floor monsters.

This cycle remained undisturbed until the humans came.

It was wary of this new life form filled with more mana than the other life forms inhabiting this place.

It watched and watched, not doing anything to alert them.

It saw how they defeated other monsters, it felt its life at risk.

Would confronting them be good or bad? Could it defeat them?

It decided.

It wanted their large amount of mana.

It wanted their knowledge.

It wanted to evolve once again.

It was neither good or bad.

It was born with survival of the fittest embedded in its nature.

The opportunity came when it sensed something unusual.

There were eleven intelligent lifeforms in total.

But one of them had their life on the brink, while the ten waited in the surroundings.

Did they not know that one was on the brink?

They did, but they did not care and just waited.

It was bait......

Bait for the other monsters.

Used as a lure.

Now was the opportunity to capture an intelligent life form.

It wouldn't let this rare opportunity pass, even more so when he target cannot fight.

So it went into action.

It went to the offensive.

It took the dying life form with its vines and prepared it to be assimilated like it did with the giant wasps who used to roam this floor..

It went inside its mind to control it but-

The giant wasps were simple to manipulate as they did not have much of a will, but this lifeforms, this lifeforms mind weren't simple, it was intelligent.

The Treant changed as it experienced all the different things that this life form had and it did not.

Happiness, joy, shame, panic, excitement, fear, depression, anger, rage....

It saw this life forms memories - fear, depression, sadness and futility.

Seeing what it went through, it experienced it's first emotion.

Pity.

Pity for it, because of what it went through.

It wanted to care for this, thing, a pitiful existence that faced so much hardship.

The treant wanted to at least try to comfort it and make it forget what it experienced.

It let it sleep on the softest material it had on top of a tower of flowers to keep it safe from harm.

It generated heat to keep it warm.

It filtered the air from any harmful elements.

It released elements that had a calming and soothing effect.

It thought this wasn't enough protection so it exhausted itself and used the assimilated wasps to use as a defence.

To make sure, it ordered he wasps to clear the whole floor of any life form, be it monster or not.

It's thoughts,

'My child. Do not worry. No harm can ever each you. I am here. So sleep. Be calm. Rest. I will soon be with you....'

were just like a loving parent.

Asleep, this precious life dreamt, it felt afraid and it wanted protection from the humans that used it.

Now the giant bees were summoned and now they attacked.

The results?

Bees that died = 1980

Humans that died = 0

Why? Even though they ran away in a hurry?

Simple, a human that did not get out on time.

Now it was coming for them.

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The 20 bees that were left met their end.

What stood at the pile of corpses was a figure dressed in a black hooded cloak.

It was Kenshin.

Kenshin looked up to the 35 meter tower of flowers.

Thorns, leaves, vines, branches was what came into view.

At the top, the big blue flower started to begin moving.

It started closing.

It was losing so safety measures were activated.

To protect its core, it decided that it was best to hibernate, by burrowing into the ground.

Reaching a conclusion Kenshin ran, ran towards the 3 meter thick vine closes to him that started to move to point up.

Kenshin grabbed on to the end of it, then waited for him to be lifted up by it.

It was quite slow as it got used as a substitute elevator.

But it was still 15 meters away from the top.

Knowing this, Kenshin took off his cloak.

What was seen was his normal quick release suspenders and quick release leather belt, not on his hips but diagonally from left shoulder to waist to make way for something else.

It was a harness.

Kenshin made it before killing the 20 bees that were left.

Why was it there?

Of course, for climbing.

Already connected to the harness, he took out a rope and grabbed near near the end of it that had a weight the size of a fist attached to the end.

He built up power by spinning it, aiming for the right time, he released it aiming at a thick branch in between him and the giant flower.

The rope wraps around it only once, not enough to say on there if someone hangs from it.

Even so, Kenshin used it.

After a full swing he gets inside the flower, landing on the bedding near the figure lying in a bed of cotton.

If your asking why he didn't fall, its because Kenshin used 'structural fortification' on the rope and branch.

It holds molecules of a target in place preventing from getting altered.

He used it when the end of the rope wrapped around the branch and swung while also using it on the rope so it would not break.

He released it when he was above the closing flower so that gravity wouldn't pull him back.

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Right now, what Kenshins eyes laid upon was the being inside the flower.

What laid on the bed was a girl, a girl yes but it was not a human.

Short blond hair, pretty nose, nice face and cute furry ears.

It was a fox eared girl, it was.

'Slave' Kenshin muttered in his head.

That was right, Kenshin read about them.

They were at war against the human race and five other races.

It was called the race war.

It was one of the 'enemies' they were summoned to fight.

But why did Kenshin call it a slave?

That is because, although they were never seen by the heroes, there were slaves for manual labour in the city owned by mostly rich nobles.

Why were they never seen by the heroes?

That's because they either worked mostly at fields or indoor or the nobles might have thought the heroes would kill their slaves.

As they were of the enemy race, they weren't given rights.

Only laws concerning Slaves were things like not killing, touching or stealing another slave.

Originally, there were some races that was not human living in the human continent but because of being of the enemy race, they were put to slavery.

Even so, before slavery there were strong discrimination against variants.

Kenshin did not just stay there to look, he planned to do something.

Save the princes in the tower?

Get a kiss?

Have dinner with her after?

Or get to 'dessert' right away

No.

He stepped towards the girl who was still sleeping, while pulling out something.

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Fox Girl POV

'They used me for bait again. This is the third time. The first time I got out without injury, but the second time time those vultures smashed into me'

'They killed it though but now I can't even move my legs. If it doesn't get treated soon, I don't think it would ever work again.... '

'I will die surely now, either by them killing me because I wont be able to work anymore or get eaten by monsters.'

'Maybe I should just die, it might be-'

'!?'

'The ground! Its shaking!'

'!'

'What is that!? It came out off the ground!'

'Vi-vines are coming towards me!'

'......Its no use! My jaw cant even move due to the swelling'

'Is this it?'

Everything went blank after that.

'Am I dead?..........Its dark............its lonely...........'

'I miss my family.....I miss my home...... but....it doesnt matter now'

'kaa-san, tou-san ......protect me........'

I become aware again.

I can hear something closing'

'whats this soft feeling?'

'huh? Am I alive?

'I think I can move....... but it's too comfortable..........'

'What is that!? Is there someone there? '

'It stopped........right beside me'

'.....don't move, don't move!...........'

'..............'

'............'

"I see youre awake'

'whose voice is this!?...........It sounds young............is it'

'.........crap!......I have to keep my breathing down!.......'

"your breathing paused for a moment there.........."

'.....What! Youre lying, you cant hear that well!....Uuuuu......I can feel him staring..........'

"I see, no choice, I planned on doing this before anyway"

'......what!?........he opened my mouth ..........'

'is he planning to kiss me!?.............'

'Oh no........hot, hot, hot, hot! Its too spicy!'

--------------------------------------

"Thats hot!" (Fox girl)

She stood up and roared, panting.

What happened was Kenshin poured chili in her mouth that he uses for seasoning.

"Water! Water!" (Fox Girl)

"Try this, it's made from leaves from the plant that makes this stuff. Don't worry, it neutralizes the spiciness." (Kenshin)

Kenshin gives her a vial with liquid inside.

Its quickly taken and drunk.

"guhaaa!....." (Fox girl)

"Better?" (Kenshin)

Nodding, the girl replied.

"Its better. but wait! Why did you do that!? That hurt!" (Fox girl)

"Thats your fault pretending to sleep. You're a slave ri- "(Kenshin)

'Pierce!'

Behind him a vine with a needle like spike had protruded from the ground heading straight for Kenshin's head.

Kenshin sensed it.

Blocked it with his left hand but it left the needle in his the back of his hand.

"......." (Kenshin)

He gazed at the fox girl who now was wide eyed.

"m-m-me!? Why are you asking me!? And why did that just attack you!?"(Fox girl)

"That was yours, you attacked me" (Kenshin)

The girl was flustered from being accused of attacking him.

"Huh!? What are you talking about, I-I didnt do that so-" (Fox girl)

The girl finally noticed that whenever she became emotional like this vines protruded out of the ground pointed at Kenshin.

What she saw was vines from the ground all ready to strike him.

Somehow or another she influenced them.

There she began to be aware of what changed.

She felt something strange, she felt better than she did compared to when she was a slave, it was like all her energy came back, no, it felt 10 times its normal amount. She noticed that before, she was unable to walk or even talk from her injuries.

She saw those vines retract back as she calmed down.

"It seems youve acknowledged what I said."(Kenshin)

" Your...... right.... It seems I control them......Its quite shocking ......It seems that a 'Treant' has given me its powers. .........500 years old......" (Fox girl)

To be continued