Leon was in an awful state, yet when facing the Tier Two mutated crocodile, he showed not even an ounce of fear.
His lips curled slightly, and he asked, "Do you want to reunite with that tree? I’ll make it quick."
The crocodile’s eyes narrowed. For several seconds, it stared at Leon without moving. Then, slowly, it lowered its massive body to the ground and stopped resisting. Leon was mildly startled and confused by its actions.
Only after a few seconds did he understand. The beast was surrendering.
’A wise one, not bad...’
Leon hadn’t been bluffing when he said he could kill it. Although his mana reserves were pitifully low—since the mutated tree had forced him to activate Shadow Teleportation several times—he still had enough mana to teleport once and activate Shadow Execution.
He didn’t know whether the crocodile sensed this or not, but it was intelligent enough to back down from fighting him.
Leon smiled. "Good boy."
He relaxed slightly, then turned his attention to the dead tree. All of its leaves had withered away, and its bark had turned dry.
’Just like the wyvern’s corpse, this should really be good materials for almost anything,’
Still, its body wasn’t his main prize. Eyes of Discernment activated, and he looked inside the tree trunk.
— Ability: Tier Two Life-Mana Siphon. Extract?
— Ability: Tier Two Mental Dominion. Extract?
— Ability: Tier One Nature’s Renewal. Extract?
Leon held his breath as he looked at the list of abilities before him.
’These are... PEAK!’
He had experienced the second ability, and it had almost killed him. If he didn’t have the Adaptation trait, he would have died. He knew about the first ability since that was how the mutated tree was able to kill the vine and consume it.
As for the last ability, he had also seen it in action when the cracked bark healed in just a few seconds.
’Two Tier Two abilities and one Tier One...’
He couldn’t stop himself from grinning ear to ear.
He hurried over to the tree, then activated Extraction. His mana bottomed out completely, but it was successfully activated.
His hand turned dark gold, and he reached into the tree, his hand phasing through its body.
That little movement hurt his injured shoulders, but Leon was far too excited to care. His hand enclosed around one of the abilities, and he pulled it out.
It beautifully transformed into a scroll, and the details appeared before his eyes.
[Ability: Tier Two Life-Mana Siphon - Grants the user the ability to absorb either life force or mana from a weakened target. Only one can be absorbed at a time.]
Leon’s jaw clenched as he read the description, and he was almost overwhelmed with the urge to learn it immediately.
The ability was insane. Absorbing the life force of enemies to replenish yours was definitely not something common. It even allowed the absorption of mana from a weakened target.
Leon almost gave in to the urge, but held back. This ability was good—very good—but not exactly the best for him.
He had a nagging feeling that his Extraction ability would be able to do the same when it reached higher tiers.
If he went ahead and learned this ability, then it would become a waste when Extraction gained the same functions.
’Besides, isn’t this something Fel needs for her to complete her evolution? Wow... is it fate?’
His lips twitched as he rolled the scroll in his hand. Then, he sent it into his storage ring. That was only the first piece of loot.
There were two more.
Without delay, he reached into the tree again and pulled out the second ability. It transformed into an ability scroll as soon as it left the tree, and Leon calmly read the details.
[Ability: Tier One Nature’s Renewal - Allows the user to direct nature’s mana to heal wounds and increase the regenerative abilities of the target.]
His eyes narrowed slightly, and then his lips twitched.
’Damnit. Again? Why do I have a feeling this tree was born just for Fel?’
The ability wasn’t anything insane, but it would surely be a great boost to Fel’s current healing ability. She didn’t need to use her own mana to channel the healing, as she would be able to use nature’s pure mana to accelerate wounds.
’Thankfully, it doesn’t clash with her Tier One Healing. I might have had to create another healer.’
That wasn’t a huge concern, though. He still had Chloe’s ability with him, and he just wasn’t sure who to give it to yet.
After storing the ability scroll in his storage ring, he finally extracted the last ability from the tree.
[Ability: Tier Two Mental Dominion - Allows the user to unleash their mental strength as a force capable of stunning, suppressing, and crushing enemies with weaker mental strength.]
’Finally... something for the little me,’ His lips curled slightly as he read the details.
This was the ability that had almost killed him. It was only right that he took the ability for himself. With just a thought, the scroll disintegrated, and the ability rune was etched into his soul.
Leon heaved a tired sigh, then raised his head to look at the top of the tree. Far above, he could see a little glint of blue light shining up there.
’Soul Crystal...’
Leon didn’t hesitate. He began scaling the tree, jumping from branch to branch until he reached the withered crown of the dead tree.
’Ah... it’s beautiful,’ Leon thought with a smile, then used his spear to carve it out.
Once he had secured it, he climbed back down to the ground, then looked at his final rewards. Two treasure cubes dropped from killing the mutated tree.
’Ah, today is a blessed day, isn’t it?’
He grinned as he filed the two away for later. Although he would have loved to bring the entire tree with him, it could fit in his storage ring, and he certainly wasn’t fond of the idea of carrying it himself.
’I’ll come back later for you,’ He thought.
Turning around, he found the mutated crocodile still lying there, quietly trying to heal from its wounds. It had surely suffered a lot. First from the vine, and then from the tree.
Leon suspected that it might have developed PTSD towards any green plant.
’That said... what do I do with this guy?’