Aaaand, we're out!

*CRASH!!*

And just in time! The cave collapsed on itself from the dynamite-induced explosions. Right on top of that giant tree monster to boot! Nice.

"What's going on here?!" - Adventurer

Some of the other adventurers had heard the commotion and gathered in the cave. I let Alf tell them the story while chewing on some jerkies to recover my stamina. In the corner of my eye, I could see Mira gulping down a blue potion. The MP-kind.

"Mutants? Secret hideouts? Stella Moles?! Are you making fun of me?!" - Adventurer

"Believe me, I wish for this to be a joke too, but it is the truth!" - Alf

"Hah! If you want me to believe that absurd excuse, then you should dig out some evidence and present them-" - Adventurer

"No worries about that." - Mira

"H-huh?" - Adventurer

"The 'evidence' is digging itself out." - Garami

The adventurers followed our gazes and looked at the caved-in entrance. When they noticed the shaking rocks, they started preparing their weapons and magic spells without delay.

A loud blast came from the collapsed cave, and the mutant Devitree emerged from the ground... Has he grown even bigger now?

The status screen revealed that the monster plant hadn't grown in stats to match its new height, but its HP had gone down just a little. It didn't come unscratched from the cave-in after all.

Angered by its wound, the tree let out something akin to a roar. I'm uncertain only because I have zero ideas where its voice comes from.

The adventurers reacted to the roar and started to attack the monster. Warriors armed with shields and heavy armor ran up to the front as they clanged with their equipment to catch the mutant's attention. Giving the heavy warriors an ugly look, the Devitree tried to swipe them away with its huge branch arms.

The warriors held their grounds with defense-orientated skills, supported by enhancement magic and healing magic from some of the magicians behind us. The other magicians cast magic attacks on the giant while the heavy warriors occupied its attention. Then, the lightweight warriors, Mira included, ran up and slashed at the tree's feet (roots?) while the flurry of magic spells from the magicians barraged its upper body.

Hmm, this must be a true-to-tried combat strategy used by adventurers. The only ones not following the script for that first round were me and Alf. We exchanged some glances before nodding to each other and getting into position.

Alf joined the heavy warriors, and when the tree's irritation for the tanks reached its peak, it turned away from the light warriors and magicians and tried to do a double-fisted hammer punch on the heavy warriors. Alf was the first to react and created an ice wall to protect the heavy warriors who were about to be smashed. The wall blocked the attack but was crushed in the process. It gave the warrior enough time to escape becoming a pancake. And the ice seems to have hurt Devitree's hands.

Cold damage... Yeah, that's on the top 10 list of things plants would hate.

The magicians were throwing out magic attacks again, and I assisted with a little trick I'd been practicing on. I poured extra MP into a [Poison Ball] and used the [Liquid Control] skill to alter the shape of the semi-liquid sphere of poison to elongate it into a spear. Then I threw the poison spear with all my might into Devitree's eyehole...or what qualifies as it.

And it worked! By a lot, if one is judging from the scream of pain the tree is releasing.

"Nice throw!" said one of the magicians to me. I mean, it's a big target, those eyeholes. It's a wonder the magicians aren't already targeting them. Is magic terrible when it comes to pinpoint shooting?

I continued throwing poison spears at the target until [Danger Sense] made a stir. From under the ground...!

Following my instincts, I trusted the report from my skill and jumped outta the way, just before spear-like roots emerged from the ground.

"-! Watch out! This guy knows [Root Strike]!" - Adventurer

Let me guess, it attacks from under the ground using roots? I glanced at the tree's feet and saw that one of them was planted directly into the ground. So that's how it does it...

Another ping came from [Danger Sense]. Look, I'm sorry about the poison. That doesn't mean you should lock on to only me! But then, something strange happened. My shadow...grew up from the ground and took on my appearance. The signal from [Danger Sense] moved from me to my shadow double, and the roots appeared there, pointlessly striking the fake me.

Then Alf, with his halberd covered in ice, came and slashed the tendril-like roots before they could return to the ground. The tree gave another loud screech after having its delicate parts cut down by the cold blade. Hah! That's what you get for nurturing such a childish grudge! ...Hmm? Why am I feeling like a heavy load of irony has hit me?

While the tree was preoccupied with its frost-induced pains, Mira ran out with her silver sword arm at ready, and with two..., TWO!? Yes, she's using two swords now instead of one, dual-wielding a pair of identical swords as she rushed toward the tree giant. One of them looks sorta phantasmal and seeing as its appearance is like a mirror image of Mira's number 1 favorite sword, this new guy must be a copy created from Mira's Extra Skill.

Using her real and phantom swords, Mira started to release sword slash after slash on the monster's unguarded feet. She did not use those fancy movements from those "Combat Arts" she taught me about, probably because she does not have any for dual-wielding swords. But the damage is incredible even without them. Even when knowing about Mira's talent with the sword, I'd say that the "Airgetlám" skill's sword-enhancing effect must be playing a significant role here.

Maaaan..., I waaaaaant an Extraaaaaa...

The tree is trying to retaliate after Mira's round with the "trimming scissors", but bombardments from the mages and the slashes from the light warriors are keeping it from doing so. It is still standing tall and strong, even with the huge scars on its feet. Hmm, pure damage isn't enough. I mean, its HP and VIT values are off the chart..., but its RES isn't. Now that I think about it, that giant Devitree was feeling it when poison was splashed on it.

Following my hunch, I retrieved my Thaumaturgy Scythe and moved closer to the monster without being detected. The long hours in the Union Hall's training areas along with Mira are paying off now.

Using the heavy warriors as a cover, I leaped toward the tree monster's wounded feet and attacked with my scythe, using not only a Thaumaturgy Gem to boost its performance, but also surrounding the scythe's blade with [Aura of Darkness].

With the heavily-amplified scythe, I started to dig deeper into the tree monster's wounds. Black smoke emerged from the gorged-out cuts, and the Devitree started to flail even more. Hmm, this strategy seems to be quite a success. Let's keep this going.

I continued to dance around the giant's feet as I harassed it even further with my scythe. I also kept my [Evil Eyes of Fragility] on him to weaken his defenses. I could use [Evil Eye of Weakness] instead to lower its attack, but honestly, with that ridiculous STR stat value, it is better to use [Evil Eye of Blindness] in the hope that it will make it easier to dodge all those power attacks. Seeing as its durability kept on growing weaker, I also threw a few [Poison Balls] when I got the chance.

It took a while, around 20 minutes of grinding damage and MP-control so that the Evil Eyes or the Aura wouldn't run me dry, the giant Devitree finally fell. One of the other adventurers did the final attack, so there is no EXP given to our party. But honestly, if we're allowed to escape unscratched from such a beast, then I have no complaints. This worked wonders for my skill proficiency. And finally...

SYSTEM MESSAGE:

You have acquired the title: [Poison Technique User].

Acquired skill: [Lesser Poison Element Lv.1].

Acquired skill: [Poison Resistance Lv.1].

Class: [Arachnid Assailant] has reached class level 30. Acquired skill: [Trap Creation Lv.1]

Class: [Demonic Rouge] has reached class level 20. Acquired skill: [Detect Trap Lv.1]

Hm-hmm~. Poison everywhere~. Now I have all three "Technique User titles" that I can get. And I even got two trap-related skills as a bonus! That's what I call a rewarding fight, even if there was no EXP for my racial levels.

The two Poison skills are copies of the same skills I got from [Darkness Technique User] and [Light Technique User], so no need to look too deeply into them. And [Detect Trap] is a trap version of [Detect Monster]. [Trap Creation] simply lets me auto-build traps by paying some costs, but I have to register some recipes into the skill first before they can be used. Could be useful if I boosted its level a little...

"Hey! This wood's gone bad!" - Adventurer A

Huh? ...Whoa. That's not something you see every day. The corpse of the Devitree is...melting. But not into the grey goo like what the seaweed at the fishing spot on Little Wasteland did. It's just...rotting away.

"Eww! I'm not touching that!" - Adventurer B

I second that notion. Besides, the people from the Union finally decided to make their entrance. Let's leave the clean-up to them and take five.

---

After the Union people came and cleaned up the mess (that we made, but that's nothing to bring up), our party showed them the remains of the secret lair we found. I had to convince them for HOURS before they finally believed me regarding those moles. Geez.

"Can't people take a demon's words to their heart without acting all paranoid?" I complained as we were having dinner at the inn. We invited Alf as well, so he wouldn't feel lonely.

"It's not like you can blame them." - Alf

"Yeah. Those moles are super-cuddly. No way they would try to take down a whole island using super-mutated plants." - Mira

"......Yes, just as she said." - Alf

I'm feeling that this guy is not telling me something, but whatever. I got a cheese-'n-chili pizza right in front of me, and a hungry tummy. No more explanation is needed.

"But that begs the question of why the moles were doing this in the first place." - Alf

"Maybe the criminal is an excellent mole trainer?" - Mira

"Or someone that looks so good-hearted that the moles couldn't resist helping them?" - Garami

"Haha. Good joke." - Mira

"That said, those moles are famous for being able to detect evil in people. Which makes it even more surprising that they are part of this incident at all." - Alf

Ugh, this is getting more and more complicated the more I think about it. Besides, I got a plan for that, but it needs to wait until tomorrow before it can be started.

For now, it's better to just spruce up my combat abilities and be prepared for anything. Literally. And since it's good timing, seeing as I got a lot of new toys (read: skills) today, why not take a look over all that I've gathered during this time?

Ignoring the skills I got from the titles and through the classes, all my new skills are [Leadership], [Charisma], [Necromantic Harvest], and [Necromantic Knowledge].

The first skill increases my LP by 1 + 1 more for every 5th level the skill has. And [Charisma] reduces the LP cost to recruit other people to your groups by 1 + 1 more for every 10th skill level. There is also a [Cooperation] skill that makes it easier to be hired for the same values as [Charisma] has, but since I have the [Demon Lord] skill and everything, it is more logical for me to be the leader in our group.

Then there's the important factor that the Champion's "doubled AP"-effect extends to my "underlings", which Mira proved when her skill level went up, making it even more important to focus on [Charisma]-based skills compared to [Cooperation]-type ones.

...Alf doesn't seem to have noticed this doubling effect yet. He's prolly the type to only ask for System Messages when his skills reach their maximum level, so he's not noticed if he's getting double the points yet. And I hope he's keeping it a secret even after he knows.

Especially if the theory of me being a Guild Master = all Guild members getting this bonus is true. I don't wanna have a lot of tag-along appear at my doorsteps just because of this bonus effect.

Anyway, about the last two skills, Harvest makes it so I get bonus points when obtaining Necromany Counters. I haven't gotten the chance to see what it can do yet, due to the lack of corpses nearby, but it will be useful when the time comes. And the Knowledge skill will supposedly lower the decrease of Necromancy Counters if my undead goes back to the grave. Maybe being knowledgeable about them lowers the loss?

My point is, it's about time I started to upgrade my repertoire. I could evolve some skills I have, such as going from [Sleep] to [Slumber] (just a plain upgrade for the recovery through sleeping), but all I can evolve is the [Dexterity] skill, and certain Slaughterer-type titles may give me the upgraded version for free. Sure, evolving it now would give a boost when my stats increases from level-ups, but there are so many other options to use AP on. Besides, I'm the kind who loves using their skills over plain stats.

For the Poison front, I'm thinking [Detect Poison] and [Cleanse Poison]. Both do just what their name suggests, and they both sound essential for a Poison user. As for Light skills...

"What are you doing? Did you need to read up on something regarding the moles?" asked Mira as I looked through the Kigal-Note after some good Light skills. I would have let the book do it on its own, but it (read: Bloom) is in a cheese-induced coma.

"Not the moles, I got that covered. I'm looking into skills. Do you have any recommendations when it comes to Light skills?" - Garami

"Anything knight-related, or anything sneaky-related?" - Mira

"The latter." - Garami

"Then I'm all out of ideas." - Mira

"But you barely started! Anyway, I've heard something about an 'ice claw' skill. I don't have it myself, but it's supposed to give you claws to your hand and feet." - Alf

"What good will that do?" - Garami

"Probably only good for a catfight...... TAKE IT!" - Mira

"Catfights aside, it is supposedly good when it comes to climbing or unexpected close combat. Maybe there's a Light version you could take?" - Alf

Let's see...claw, claw...there. [Hardlight Claw]. Seems...oh. This looks nice. [Darkness Daggers] are mostly used as throwing weapons now when [Poison Ball] doesn't work, so it fits the bill. It could prolly be helpful when I train [Climbing] and [Sticky Limbs] too.

"Why the sudden interest in claws? We did get a nice reward for stopping today's plant invasion, but the big prize is still up there!" - Mira

"And I got one heck of a lead for it too. Just wait until tomorrow." - Garami

"Why tomorrow?" - Mira

"Because that's when the only explosives shop on this access-restricted island opens. Where else do you think those moles could have gotten their little paws on all that dynamite?" - Garami

FYI, the answer is: nowhere else. I've checked it. Why are deadly explosives so difficult for the public demon to obtain!? It's unfair! Grr...

---

Garami's status page:

Name: Garami | [Dungeon Raider] Race: Stygian Executioner Gender: Female Level: 11/50 Traits: 4 Karma Value: -200 Main Class: Arachnid Assailant Lv.30 Sub Class: Weaver Lv.26 Sub Class: Demonic Rogue Lv.20 Sub Class: Spectermancer Lv.4 Skills: 91 Titles: 20 Blessings: 3 Aether Points: 6.6 HP: 281/281 MP: 500/500 SP: 290/290 STR: 378 VIT: 213 MAG: 328 RES: 243 SPD: 573 DEX: 575 INT: 120 LUC: 150 LP: 17

Skill List:

Skill List: Ability Skills: [Extra Health Lv.6] [Massive Mana Lv.11] UP3 [Minimized Mana Consumption Lv.10] UP3 [Mana Auto-Recovery Lv.46] UP8 [Increased Stamina Lv.8] UP2 [Greater Strength Lv.7] UP1 [Tougher Vitality Lv.6] [Speed Lv.39] UP7 [Dexterity Lv.50 (Max)] UP4 Attack Skills: [Hardlight Claw Lv.1] NEW [Darkness Bullet Lv.27] UP1 [Darkness Daggers Lv.19] UP1 [Poison Ball Lv.10] UP3 [Demon Claw Lv.9] UP1 [Web Bomb Lv.20] UP2 Magic Skills: [Heretic Magic Lv.6] [Healing Magic Lv.6] [Necromantic Rites Lv.4] NEW [Create Undead: Skeleton Lv.2] NEW [Magic Eye of Blindness Lv.12] UP6 [Magic Eye of Weakness Lv.11] [Magic Eye of Fragility Lv.5] UP4 [Magic Eye of Deterioration Lv.12] [Summon Phantom: Rat King Lv.6] Crafting Skills: [Weaving Lv.23] UP2 [Tailoring Lv.15] UP2 [Dyeing Lv.8] UP4 [Trap Creation Lv.1] NEW Active Skills: [Liquid Control Lv.7] UP5 [Aura of Darkness Lv.29] UP2 [Optical Cover Lv.24] UP3 [Cleanse Poison Lv.1] NEW [Sticky Limbs Lv.20] UP1 [Cutting Thread Lv.23] UP2 [Web Wings Lv.9] [Dreadful Menace Lv.8] UP2 [Spatial Storage Lv.21] UP3 Passive Skills: [Dagger Proficiency Lv.13] UP2 [Scythe Proficiency Lv.16] UP8 [Rope Proficiency Lv.8] UP1 [Lurk Lv.47] UP4 [Aiming Lv.31] UP6 [Evasion Lv.15] UP7 [Jump Lv.8] UP7 [Parkour Lv.43] UP6 [Ambush Lv.27] UP5 [Sadistic Constitution Lv.15] UP2 [Throwing Lv.34] UP6 [Camouflage Lv.33] UP4 [Demonic Disguise Lv.8] UP2 [Climbing Lv.26] UP2 [Riding Lv.11] UP4 [Slumber Lv.4] EVOLVED [Dreamlike Form Lv.16] UP5 [Necromantic Harvest Lv.1] NEW [Necromantic Knowledge Lv.1] NEW [Fear Reinforcement Lv.9] UP2 [Destruction Reinforcement Lv.7] [Concentration Lv.40] UP8 [Prediction Lv.28] UP5 [Parallel Thinking Lv.35] UP7 [Vital Point Knowledge Lv.21] UP3 [Language Adaptation] Perception Skills: [Gamemaster Lv.28] UP9 [Detect Poison Lv.1] NEW [Detect Monster Lv.32] UP4 [Detect Trap Lv.1] NEW [Vision Reinforcement Lv.32] UP6 [Auditory Reinforcement Lv.31] UP5 [Olfactory Reinforcement Lv.27] UP7 [Tactile Reinforcement Lv.28] UP6 [Taste Reinforcement Lv.22] UP9 [Tracking Lv.23] UP1 [Danger Sense Lv.19] UP7 [Sense of Direction Lv.50 (Max)] UP5 [Identification Lv.47] UP5 [Evil Eye of Dark Sight Lv.4] EVOLVED Leadership Skills: [Leadership Lv.5] NEW [Charisma Lv.3] NEW [Party Lv.8] UP7 Resistance Skills: [Darkness Resistance Lv.12] [Light Resistance Lv.1] NEW [Poison Resistance Lv.1] NEW [Blindness Resistance Lv.7] UP5 Elements: [Darkness Element Lv.5] UP4 [Lesser Light Element Lv.3] NEW [Lesser Poison Element Lv.1] NEW Monster Skills: [Demon's Strong Muscle Lv.11] UP3 [Demon's Spiritual Arts Lv.9] UP3 [Demon's Nimble Legs Lv.14] UP4 [Glow Web Lv.22] UP5 [Spider's Bite Lv.14] [Spider's Poison Lv.13] UP1 [Demon Spider's Thread Lv.8] UP4 Extra Skills: [Demon Lord Lv.1]

Title List:

Title List: Achievement Titles: [Reincarnator] [Titan Killer] [Fearbringer] [Darkness Technique User] [Merciless] [Daredevil] [Destroyer] [Mystic Arts Master] [Rescuer] [Mysterious Killer] [Dungeon Raider] [Light Technique User] NEW [Poison Technique User] NEW Hunting Titles: [Dread Spirit Genocider] [Monster Slaughterer] [Insect Slayer] [Beast Slaughterer] Status Titles: [Migrant] [True Chaos] [Slayer of the Ultimate]