BOOOM!
The explosion was loud and violent, almost throwing Leon off his feet. He winced from the impact that reached him, then glared at the flowers. They were already preparing to shoot more bomb seeds at him.
"Oh, no you don’t," He sneered, and stepped through the shadows.
He reappeared behind the plants, his spear cleaving off their flower heads in one smooth strike.
[You have slain a Level 14 Mutated Bomber Flower!]
[You cannot...]
He paused only briefly before moving deeper into the forest. Occasionally, he was attacked by sharp vines, but was able to eliminate them and escape unscathed. Apart from the Bomber Flowers and the Man-Eater Flowers, he encountered several other flowering plants that sent chills down his spine.
The most dangerous ones were small plants that had weak defense and little attack power. However, their senses were sharp, and once they noticed a creature passing by, they would open their petals to reveal beautiful and enchanting flowers.
Any creature that looked would be drawn to them, and Leon was no exception. He had just cast a single look, intending to continue his journey immediately.
However, the instant he glanced at them, he froze. Not for a full second, but briefly. In that instant, the flowers released countless pollen into the air, filling the area around him with yellow particles.
Leon immediately blocked his nose, knowing it might be poison. However, he was wrong. They were really just pollen—dangerous ones.
Feeling an intense itch spread across his exposed skin, he glanced at the back of his hand and noticed it was red.
’What?’
His eyes widened at the sight. Tiny white roots spread beneath his skin like threads, burrowing deeper with every heartbeat.
’Parasitic!’
Leon jumped back in alarm. Although he had blocked his nose, his face remained uncovered, and he was starting to feel that itch.
’Curses! What the hell is wrong with flowers now?!’
He tried scraping them off, but realized it was impossible to get them off him. Just as he was panicking, the itch on the back of his hand disappeared.
His eyes widened in surprise, and he looked at the skin. It was back to normal, merely stained with dust from the dead parasites.
’Adaptation?’
When it finally clicked, he couldn’t hold back a smile. The itch on his face gradually eased, then disappeared. All the parasites were dead.
Not wanting to encounter those flowers once again, he bolted without looking at them.
Finally, he arrived at the center of the forest. Immediately, he froze and looked up, his neck craning to see the top of the thing before him.
At the heart of the Vine Forest stood a tree unlike anything nature should have produced. It rose well over a hundred meters into the sky. The trunk alone was nearly thirty meters across, its bark resembling ancient stone rather than wood. Roots the size of cars radiated outward, splitting the earth far into the surrounding forest while branches thicker than ordinary trees spread across the forest like the arms of a giant. Beneath its immense canopy, sunlight barely reached the ground.
’What a... monster...’
Leon’s eyes ached, and he immediately looked away. Just from seeing the tree alone, he had been hit by a crushing mental pressure that made his mind go blank.
He quickly recovered, though, and locked onto the other creature present.
Laying at the bottom of the tree was a mutated crocodile the size of a truck. Its scales were thick and dark, almost resembling the impenetrable scales of the wyvern Leon had killed days ago. The crocodile’s limbs were tightly bound by thick brown roots that held it in place, and a particular root had stabbed into its underbelly, blocking the nasty wound it had created.
’I thought Agnus mentioned a vine as the other Tier Two. Where did this... ah...’
His eyes widened, and he forced himself to look at the tree. The mental pressure came again, but was now bearable.
He remembered Agnus’s words before he fainted. Something about a tree eating a vine.
Scattered around the trunk and hanging from the branches were enormous dried vines entangled together. They had all lost their green luster, and it was obvious that the vine was dead.
’The vine crawled on the tree, and the tree ate the vine,’ He gulped. ’Crazy.’
Unfortunately, he didn’t have the luxury to be poetic about the situation. The moment he drew close, the two creatures had already noticed him.
Leon saw the crocodile’s tired eyes shift towards him, and he saw an emotion he didn’t expect—hope.
He couldn’t confirm the tree’s stare since it had no eyes, but he could feel it on his body. The tree was definitely looking at him.
’Huh.’
Exhaling an exasperated sigh, he turned his attention to the mutated crocodile. It seemed even more intelligent than the Bone-Armored Zombie King, which made him curious about it.
"Hey, if I help free you, you won’t attack me, right?"
At his words, the mutated crocodile’s eyes lit up, and it struggled to nod its head. Thick roots bound its long snout, stopping any sound from escaping its mouth.
It seemed the mutated tree didn’t want it to roar unnecessarily.
After receiving an unreliable positive answer from the mutated crocodile, Leon turned to the tree and started walking towards it.
The ground trembled, and the mutated tree responded to his intentions.
Thick roots—larger than three humans tied together—surged from the ground and struck at him. Leon let out a slow breath, then danced.
His body flashed between the roots, disappearing from one spot and appearing in another. The roots collided violently with one another, unable to even graze his hair.
Leon didn’t bother clashing with them, as they weren’t his target. He slid across the ground, narrowly avoiding a root that would have smacked him into the distance.
Another root came toward him, sharp and pointed. Leon leaped into the air, stepping on the root and launching himself towards the mutated tree itself.
In response to his aggression, more roots shot out from the ground, quickly forming a cocoon around him. They might not be able to match his speed, but the roots were definitely good at control and restriction.
Before he could land on the ground and escape through the shadows, Leon was enveloped by countless roots and locked tightly.