I rushed past a plethora of colors, the vegetation somehow getting more intense the closer I got to the center of the crater. The monsters I passed on the way were ignored as I didn’t want to damage this beautiful place. It would seem like some of the monsters agreed, a few of them seemingly taking care to not squash the flowers beneath them. It was odd to see the otherwise violent monsters tiptoeing around flowers of all things, but I wasn’t questioning their behavior. After all, it was the right thing to do.

It took me about ten minutes of jumping at top speed to reach the lake at the center of the crater. The water was crystal clear, and the aquatic monsters seemed to almost float in the air. Remembering my equipped deep sea gem, I decided some fishing was in order. A void portal opened up next to me, taking me high above the lake. My wings snapped open as I searched for my first target. The clear water made this task easier than ever, although it was sometimes hard to tell how deep down the monsters were.

A rain of void javelins rained down, creating a large Geysir every time one of them exploded. Sadly, my fishing wasn’t as effective on this layer as it had been on the third, but I still managed to take out several monsters after a while. A few of the smarter ones retreated into the depths of the lake, while the dumber ones considered their freshly killed comrades to be a free meal. Of course, when they approached the floating corpses, expecting a feast, all they got was a face full of void javelins. Their bodies luring other dumb fishies to the surface.

When the low-intelligence monsters were all floating on the lake, I finally descended to the water myself. I swam around, the bonus swimming speed from the gem making itself useful, while collecting the dead into my inventory. I eyed the monsters at the bottom of the lake who, forced into close proximity of their contemporaries, started fighting each other. After a few seconds of consideration, I dove down to join the fray. I couldn’t always avoid fighting in the water and this was as good a training opportunity as any.

I zipped around underwater, trying to avoid the usually faster opponents while shooting at them with void javelins. The projectiles were quite a bit slower underwater and, combined with the speed of the monsters, aiming was a lot harder than I was used to. It was a goddamn mess down here as everybody got swept into the frenzy. Eventually, it was just me and a massive piranha that was covered in algae. The piranha was insanely fast and I could only dodge it by liberally using my void jump. The algae covering the monster attempted to grab and strangle me every time it got close, but every time I teleported away before they could.

My poison and a few well-placed javelins took care of the oversized fish though. I came away from the whole encounter with two more levels, as well as two more souls stored in my gem. I’d collected seven souls now and had yet to actually test out the guardian summon ability. With how hard the souls were to come by, I was hesitant to use the skill willy-nilly. I should probably test it soon anyway, even if the soul went to waste. Knowing what my spells do was useful, after all.

For now, I swam up and out of the water, setting foot on the island in the center of the lake. Curiously, there were no monsters around as I circled the island once to check it out. The roots of the giant tree wove through the entire landmass, sometimes sticking three meters high out of the dirt. Having found nothing interesting at the tree’s base, I looked upwards toward the tree's crown and had to do a double take. Some system text was floating next to the tree, identifying the giant as a monster.

Eximovere Tree (Fruitless) (T6)

Sometimes, volcanoes explode. It is just the way of things. A certain type of forest sprite usually takes issue with the destruction that follows after such an event and they journey to the epicenter of the explosion. Gathering up the residual energy and mana of the aftermath, they take root and transform into an Eximovere Tree. They will then spend the rest of their lives attempting to restore the destroyed nature back to its former glory. As they are quite defensive of the greenery they create, it is recommended to stay far away from them.

The tree spirit produces a singular fruit that acts as its core, which is heavily sought after for its alchemical properties. Taking away or destroying the fruit also causes the tree to fall into a trance, after which it will become harmless until it grows a new fruit.

I breathed a sigh of relief after realizing that the big monster didn’t pose a threat to me in its current state. That said, it was a fact that this type of monster produced a fruit, that just so happened to be made from residual explodey-volcano-mana. Odds were that these trees bore the fruit I was tasked with finding. Sure, calling a fruit that came from a tree monster a “lava fruit” was kind of strange, but I was grasping at straws here, and this theory was now true until I proved it wrong.

This tree wouldn’t have what I was looking for, but I’d seen other places with green and I was willing to bet that more of these tree monsters were to be found there. I just needed to find and defeat one that still had its fruit intact. I was just about to excitedly run off toward the nearest crater when I stopped to think for a moment. This tree was a huge, probably high-level, monster. A monster that was as passive as it gets, decidedly not a threat to me currently.

I curiously crawled onto the tree's trunk, an idea forming in my head. I got about halfway up the tree before I stopped and activated my mana drain skill and, sure enough, I started to drain the tree’s mana. I suddenly got excited and started to feed my own mana into my seed of the void while continuing to sap what wasn’t mine. While I kept doing that, I climbed higher and made myself comfortable between the branches and leaves. Doing this was quite effective, leveling up my mana drain skill while at the same time providing ample mana to feed into the seed.

My seed needed absurd amounts of mana in order to be upgraded to the tenth tier, and I had been a bit worried about how long I’d need to spend on this layer before I achieved it. Having a bunch of what were essentially mana batteries in tree form would help me greatly. I had briefly considered killing the tree for the XP, but this was so much better. And the best thing? The cooldown of mana drain didn’t start until I stopped the skill, meaning I could bleed the tree for all it was worth.

Still, I wasn’t planning on just sitting around doing nothing while I kept up the cycle of draining and infusing. No, this was as good a time as any to study some of my spells. I’d been neglecting my studies, and procrastinating by fighting things every chance I got. Now, it was time to put my newly gained knowledge of runes to practice!