One of the creatures was still banging its head on the ground, it was trying to remove the wooden creation that was blinding it. The other creature was charging towards him, Mash knew he needed to change something, and decided the first thing to accomplish was slowing them down. There was too little time between attacks for him to grow out his wood to deal real damage. Changing his tactics, he decided to grow wooden spikes from his armor, he didn’t stop growing them even when the creature drew closer. They weren’t particularly sturdy and didn’t grow long enough to do damage to the creature. He didn’t care, letting the creations become more jagged and sharp. When the creature got close, he tried to block its attack with his armor, but it broke through most of the layers of his armor. Though, his armor managed to make small cuts across the things neck and face.

Many of the spikes broke as he was sent flying, but he was slowly accomplishing his mission. The ground around the creature was littered with sharp remains of his creations, and he quickly started growing his armor again. As expected, it didn’t give him enough time to form a proper defense. He tried to parry its next thrust, forming a sword in his hand as he moved. He couldn’t stop it completely, the things beak managing to tear parts of his armor off. Once the creatures head passed him, he tried to stab into its neck with his weapon but was stopped as he noticed the other’s head swinging at him. It hadn’t managed to remove the wood, but its swing was still accurate. Thinking it must have another way to see, he jumped backwards separating from his armor as he did so.

He stumbled and turned the motion into a roll, as pain shot up his side from the earlier wound. With his mana territory he could vaguely make out small creatures moving in his side. Needing to deal with them, he grew his wooden armor inwards, piercing his own skin to strike the little creatures. When he felt the movement stop, he fused the wood that was there with his flesh, much like he had with his neck. He didn’t think it had worked as well as last time, but the bleeding had been contained, and the parasites were gone. The monsters hadn’t waited for him, crashing into him while he dealt with the injury. They sent him tumbling a few times but hadn’t managed to get their beaks into his body again. It wasn’t like he was running away, rather it was because he was growing his armor continuously and ditching it whenever the creatures attacked. Their synchronization making it easier to stop both attacks with one block.

The fight progressed slowly now, his focus shifting to defense. He used his energy to grow his armor out letting it break apart over the ground. The process repeating for several minutes, though his energy went into more than just the armor, growing out the pieces on the ground whenever he stepped over them. The only conditions for his skills were physical contact, so he grew his armor out to be longer, to scrape against the floor as he moved. All the while, using his energy to make his creations bigger. Despite this, they didn’t grow massive and instead layered over the ground in a mess of spikes and thorns.

One of the creatures stepped on top of a spike and stumbled, Mash used his connection with the wood to grasp at its feet and claw away its flesh. He used his energy freely, tearing up the creature’s feet as he ran towards it. The other monster, which still hadn’t removed the covering on his head, charged through a trail of spikes that were now angled towards its feet. Even if they didn’t puncture deeply, they managed to slow the creatures down, while at the same time Mash started to speed up. His persist skill kicking in let him charge at the creatures with much more force. His improved stats also let him control the wood more freely, and he piled up many of the shards, forming a spiked shield in his hands.

His priority now was to keep his movements continuous, and rather than slamming into the creature directly, he used the shield to push downwards on its head as he jumped over the attack. As he did this, he grew the shield out cutting deep into the creature’s neck, and with his added strength managed to push the shield completely into the ground with his motion. The creature was stuck, its head impaled into the dirt by his shield. Landing, he formed the armor around his hand into a blade, and like an executioner, sliced through its neck and severed its head from the body. The body fell limp as he ran past, but he could still see the snake-like head and neck thrashing about wildly.

He finally beat one but didn’t stop his movements parrying the blow of the next monster’s attack. It was a thrust, that seemed meant to push him away more than hit him, but he countered it while spinning alongside the creature’s neck and slicing into it with his still bladed hand. With persist active, he was a lot stronger and faster, able to fight better. His injuries were affecting him less as his fortitude rose, and the creatures were slowing down from the long battle. This fight was morphing into his territory, both because of the wood sprawled along the ground, and since it had become a battle of attrition.

Ever since he managed to get persist to work while he fought, he realized that he would be able to beat most things in long fights. Rather than a decisive blow, he struck whenever he could, most of the attacks only managing to inconvenience the monster. He had changed the wood along his arms into mouths, and bit into the creature. Tossing the chunks he ripped off into his mouth, the connection he felt earlier returned, but the bonuses to his stats was making the fight easier. Finally, the opportunity came as the creature slumped onto the ground. He didn’t miss it, cutting off the creature’s head in a similar motion to the last one. He didn’t stop there, instead making his way back to the small creatures from earlier. They started speaking, but he couldn’t hear anything as he fell into unconsciousness.

Getting up, he quickly gathered his surroundings, a few things surprising him as he woke up. He was surrounded by the little fruit creatures, dozens of them were crawling over him. Slime covered his body as they wiggled around his armor and skin. It was a little disgusting, and he shivered at their motions. He leaped to his feet, sending a few of the creatures scattering across the ground. The motion had revealed what they had done.

“I’m sorry! That surprised me.”

He immediately apologized, realizing that they healed his injuries. Mash checked his condition with his skills, and found that he was almost completely healed, except for the places where he used wood to patch his body together. Those remained, and he could feel the wooden nature of the skin in those places. He might be able to manipulate them, like he did with his creations but didn’t think that would be smart. Returning to his immediate concerns, he was going to ask them about how to find his friends but didn’t need to. They spoke in a unified voice before he could ask anything.

“Follow parts. Find Ligar and others.”

He didn’t understand what they meant but followed their gazes. He could vaguely make out the dismembered head attempting to move. One of the heads was already gone, and only the one that he had pinned to the ground remained. It was obviously trying to go somewhere. Trying to see where it was headed, he found that he could feel a slight pull in the same direction that it was trying to go. A trail of blood stained the ground in that direction, presumably the other head had already taken the path.

“Free and follow. We stay. Dangerous.”

The creatures confirmed what he already guessed, but he didn’t free it just yet. He could probably find his way there with the connection alone. Instead, he needed to relax and meditate a little. Even if his injuries had been dealt with, his energy was still low. Furthermore, he had gained two levels from the monsters, each having been enough to earn him a level. When he finished meditating, he allocated his free stats, raising his fortitude more. In these past few fights, he had suffered many hits and injuries, relying on skills to temporarily improve his condition. Raising his fortitude would hopefully make it so that he wouldn’t have to rely on temporary stat boosts to survive. Also, he needed to stay alive long enough to even use those buffs.

Name: Mash Class: Scale Wood Devourer

Level: 38→40

Health: 1000 / 1000

Energy: 1710 /1710

Fortitude: 90 → 100

Endurance: 69 → 71

Strength: 70 → 71

Agility: 70 → 72

Intelligence: 100 → 100

Wisdom: 65 → 66

Charisma: 32

Free Stats: 10 → 0 (10 to Fortitude)

Skills: Persist, Mana-wood Creation, Inhuman Hibernation, Mana Territory, Unnatural Energy, Inhumanity, Wooden Body, Carnivorous Tree

He didn’t understand where the levels came from. The creatures were still alive and moving, the evidence directly in front of him. If these things were dead, it implied the Ligar had some way to control its dead followers. Did that mean the Ligar was sentient? Considering that it tried to kill him, he didn’t think much about doing the same back. Deciding that he didn’t want to release the whole creature to the Ligar, he prepared to make a cut further along its neck. As he cut down separating the creatures head from the rest of its neck, he was surprised when the neck moved independently of the head. It seemed like it was being pulled by a thread, leading into the forest and back towards the mountain.

Following behind it, it had taken a straight path, bending around trees and rocks that it collided with. It didn’t push through anything, instead avoiding them like the little fruit creatures did. They claimed that it was dangerous, and that they wouldn’t follow him, but he caught glimpses of them in the treetops. The trees rustling above him, made it hard to hear the other noises of the forest. Though it seemed to be unnecessary. There were no other monsters around despite the increasing densities of mana. It seemed like this path was not tread by the normal monsters.

Eventually, the snake-like body entered a small tunnel. It was almost a perfect fit for the creature’s body, and he checked to see if he could even follow behind it. He was glad to have followed the creature, even with the faint connection, he doubted that he could find the tunnel on his own. It would have taken him hours or even days to find an entrance like this and hoped that he could fit in this one. It seemed like he could. While the entrance was narrow, he should be able to pull himself through it with a wooden limb.

Waving at the creatures who had helped him. he pulled himself down the tunnel, making small insect like limbs pop out of the edges of his armor. The little legs were able to drag him through the entrance. Though it quickly broke into a larger opening, the changing point appearing within his mana territory. Deciding that he needed to follow, he pulled himself closer to the opening. He didn’t plan on descending immediately, wanting to scope out the room first. As he got closer, the ground beneath him grew flimsier, and the dirt broke. It slid down into the room and took him with it.

He quickly rose to his feet and stared over the room. The room was far larger than he expected, a cave shaped into a semicircular arena. He could easily make out the Ligar. It filled a quarter of the room, with four snake-like heads sprouting from an overly large body, it seemed to be observing him back. It had the same golden fur that the previous creatures had but was at least twice as big. Looking over the heads he realized that two of them were the ones he had decapitated. One of the heads was missing the actual head part of the limb, dangling from the creature as an empty neck. Mash stared in wonder, as he noticed flesh regrowing from the cuts, and realized that it was going to regenerate its head.

Despite the monster his focus was elsewhere. There were several entrances to the room, and unsurprisingly, he found himself staring down a group of people in one of them. Leah, Luke, and two of the bandits filled the archway. It didn’t seem like they had an easy time of it either, torn armor and splotches of blood covering their bodies. They were staring him down, surprise flashing across Leah’s face, but Luke just stared dumbly, seemingly lost in thought. He recognized the bandits too; both having been from the earlier fight. One was the shadow user, and the other was the one who fought with Leah. The looks they gave him told him what they were planning. Deciding that he hated the dungeon, he prepared for a fight, growing a swordstaff from his hand and thickening his armor.