Time Since Reckless Self-Endangerment: 0 Days 11 Hours

Goal: Kill 'Baby Boots'

Nic felt good. His stomach was full of rich food, but more importantly, his body thrummed with energy. Even though midnight had turned the sky dark his new eyes could see and he wasn’t tired in the least. Instead his body was awake, alert, his mind cold and focused.

Tales of cultivators had always focused on how they had incredible strength to crush and destroy all rivals. They had never told him how wonderful simply living with that strength would be. How he’d never feel too tired or too sick. How every moment, he would be full of energy to do as he wished. How his mind would grow cool and unburdened by distractions.

Even a few minutes of rest felt like the most satisfying night’s sleep he’d had in his life.

Full of this energy, Nic had decided on a quick detour before returning to the grove.

The Peregrine Rune had revealed a huge swathe of the forest and the lands beyond. It had also allowed him to sense the Dominus Nodes hidden within.

Now he would stake out the first of them, a strange region where the treetop canopy had turned to an oozing blue-green slime and the earth itself had looked warped by some strange influence. His tongue flicking out, Nic could instantly sense the direction of this malformed grove by its taste on the wind, something like licking a battery. Metallic and acidic on his tongue.

He chose a cautious approach. Creeping through the low underbrush he found a small hill on which to perch and observe.

The forest below was sick. Huge pustules of green ooze clung to the trees, slowly sapping their lifeforce. When these hanging gobs of sticky goo grew too fat they’d fall from the branches and splatter into dozens of fragments. The first time Nic saw it he thought the creature had simply died- but instead he watched in horror as the pieces shivered and came to life. One by one they crawled outwards, finding new trees to attach to and leech from.

Like dark and parasitic fruit.

Primordial Ooze. G-Class (Aberration) // Demi-Sapient. These terrible creatures predate all known forms of cultivation and civilization. They crawl, devour, and grow without end - few things can bring them to a halt. Try flame, or if they have adapted, cold.

“Aberration?”

“A creature that cannot cultivate. They are relatively few, since most such creatures are simply exterminated or outcompeted by those with access to the System. Those that survive are the ones with overwhelming special advantages. These slimes for instance. They pose little threat to you, but could eventually overtake this world by their sheer number and near immortality.”

Nic stared in horror at the infected orchard. Every few seconds there was a wet, squishy slapping sound as a slime fell from the trees. And every time one fell, dozens more were born. The earth was writhing with the dark splotches of ooze seeking out their next feast. Their tiny bodies burned away the grass and falling leaves with some kind of acid so that they left mowed-down trails on the forest floor.

“How many days until this lot reaches the poison grove?” He asked.

“Two weeks.” Sofia answered grimly. “We’re lucky the forest fire didn’t reach here. These creatures start out vulnerable but will rapidly adapt once presented with something that can harm them. The fire would have given them the chance to grow defenses against heat.”

“So if I used fire, I have to be sure to wipe them out on the first try.” Nic concluded.

“Precisely.”

The ugly creatures seemed entirely oblivious to his presence, so Nic advanced into the orchard. Picking up a stick he prodded one of the crawling slimelets until it grabbed onto the end.

Experimentally he sprayed it with poison. To his surprise the slime curled and shrank, dying rapidly as the branch below blackened and fell apart.

“How does the resistance spread?”

“Small amounts of these creatures will periodically break off and return to a central node. The node collects their ‘thoughts’ and returns ‘packets’ of information contained within messengers. If you look closely, they’re no bigger than a caterpillar, but contain tightly-packed information. It’s quite amusing. On one hand these life forms are pathetically stupid. On the other, they function as a single enormous brain.”

Looking closely, Nic saw that as the slime died a single thread of its core broke away and began to inch along the ground like a worm. He leaned down and sprayed poison again, leaving no survivors to tell the story.

As he straightened up, Nic smelled something. It was just a hint of fragrance on the wind but it smelled of jasmine balm and mint. Of orange blossom and almond oil. Cinnamon and clove. Sweet, heavy fragrances, mouth-watering and delicious. Every second it seemed to change.

And it was calling him.

“Sofia? This feels… off...”

“Correct. This is an enchantment trying to lure you deeper.”

Continuing deeper into the grove, Nic was surprised to see a wolf with a long scaly tail ending in a serpent’s head dart past. The predator completely ignored him. Instead, it seemed occupied by something deeper within, and as it ran dozens of slimes fell from the branches above; they were trying to hunt by ambush, dropping from the branches when they sensed movement in hopes of landing atop a living body and capture some poor creature in their grasp.

Nic groaned as the sound of slimes breaking filled his path with crawling, tiny bodies, each deadly to the touch. The wind blew through the slimy branches and the mysterious fragrance wandered past again. He began to pick his way forward slowly-

And then faster-

Faster-

He kicked a slime in his haste, and the pain brought him back to his senses. The spell had almost managed to catch him, even knowing it was there and trying to lure him deeper.

Ahead, animals were gathering. Dozens of beasts were snarling, fighting, starting to show their teeth and bare their claws as they vied to push forward through the mob and reach the source of that enchanting scent.

A tree with pink leaves grew in the center of the grove in front of a deep chasm.

Immediately, Nic’s mind was split. His heart yearned for the smell of the blossoms which were so powerfully sweet as to be otherworldly. His mind was recoiling at the danger, especially from that chasm.

A single look gave him a sense of ancient threat from within. It was a crawling, terrible sensation, like some primal part of his mind had encountered the enemy in that pit before, and feared it.

The tree was actually growing before his eyes. As he watched the smell intensified, until Nic’s legs began to march him forward without his mind being able to stop him. He instantly raised his hand and bit into the pad of flesh beneath his thumb. The pain stopped him cold as the other animals shot forward, fighting amongst themselves.

In moments the tree had grown from a sapling to a towering elder. A single fruit grew from a green bud to a ripe, peach-pink lusciousness in seconds.

All around its roots were thousands of gnawed bones.

“Archive Recall…” He mumbled through a full mouth.

Demonsmoke Peach Tree. G-Class (Peak) // Flora. This tree will produce a single fruit in its lifetime, and that fruit will bear a single tree from its pit. This life cycle can repeat a dozen times in a day, fueled by the bloody combats inspired by the fruit’s fragrances. Beasts will war to the death over a single bite. Beware, for the flesh carries a poison of unstoppable hunger and only the pit is safe to eat.

The fragrance was unbearable. Nic bit down until his own blood entered his mouth, but he could only barely keep his body from following that unearthly scent.

The animals were frozen.

With a sound so small it should have been impossible to hear, the fruit fell. Before it could touch the ground the mob erupted into violence. Beasts snarled, fought, clawed forward desperately to try and gnaw away a precious bite of the flesh. Its juice and pulp flew in all directions as any animal that devoured even a fragment was torn apart.

It was a bloodbath.

As he watched the numbers thinned. A single victor, a blood-soaked creature like a cross between a porcupine and a vulture, chewed the gristle away from the pit-

And when that was gone, it began to eat itself. Savage and clouded-eye the dark bird began to rip its own flesh to shreds, until it fell dead.

Nic tried to dart forward and retrieve the pit-stone from the peach’s center but it had already touched the ground. As soon as it did it began to sprout, green shoots rushing upwards. The blood and meat of the dead bodies surrounding the tree rose in a red mist and shot into its branches. It shivered and rose taller and taller, growing so fast Nic could hear the creak of the wood.

There was a snarl behind him. An enormous, skull-headed crocodile was eyeing him with hunger in its beady gaze.

Creatures were already being drawn by the scent. Nic shot up a tree, hiding in the branches between the glistening bodies of the slimes. They burbled and happily drank the tree’s life Essences.

Why were they immune? Were they simply too stupid?

As he watched the cycle repeat, the tree growing taller and tall as blooming flowers unleashed the dizzying smell, more animals gathering to fight for the fruit.

Taking the length of rope he’d ‘borrowed’ from the human’s camp from his pack, Nic knotted one end around a thick limb of the tree. As the beasts gathered below Nic leapt from branch to branch, circling around the enchanted tree and the pit it stood over. He found the highest perch he could and tied the other end of the rope there…

Leaving it stretched from one end of the clearing to the next in a path crossing directly over the cursed tree.

He waited. Minutes and then hours passed as the growing peach tree swelled from a sapling towards the sky. Its fragrance grew almost unbearable and more animals began to flood into the glade, another feast gathering. They fought to push forward as the budding fruit finally appeared, growing like a green jewel on the high branches.

As the silent moment before the fall arrived-

Nic slipped his spear over the makeshift zipline with one hand on either side of the rope and kicked off. The wind roared as the steep angle instantly translated to a dizzying speed. For a moment he sailed over the chasm-

And a stared down into a writhing pit of ooze. A black, dense boil of reaching limbs and shapeless mouths stared back up with eyes of black jelly. It surrounded the broken blade of an enormous sword, left rusted by the ages.

You have discovered Dominus Node ae31c2

‘The Blade of the Nephilim’

200 Essence awarded.

This is a Technique Type node. It allows the holder to grasp ancient secrets.

Current Ruler - The Primordial Spawnmother (E-Class)

And then he sailed past, feet nearly brushing the top of the peach tree. His tongue shot out and snacthed the growing fruit from the branches, stealing it away from the horde of creatures fighting below to taste it.

Just that touch flooded his mouth with sweetness, and Nic nearly lost his self-control. Dropping from the zipline he began to run as the beast-horde howled in rage behind him.

Instantly the fastest of the beasts broke from the pack and began to outpace him. His body was quick and clever, but his legs were short and stubby. Grasping the peach in both hands Nic tore away a fragment of the flesh and threw it behind him.

The pursuers stopped, unable to turn away from the glimmering shred of fruit that was falling to the forest floor. They turned on each other in an instant, fighting over the scraps while Nic made away with the prize. Each time one came close he’d simply shred away more of the fruit and throw it behind him.

Until he was free from pursuers and all that remained in his hands was the dark, grooved surface of the pit. The whorls and grain of the wood formed a terrible and demonic face.

Demonsmoke Pit. G-Class // Flora. This dark, blood-stained pit bears a terrible curse and a powerful boon. One who devours it can consume any amount of flesh and efficiently convert it into Essence, but will be overcome by an inescapable hunger, growing more powerful with every bite they take. One who resists the curse will vomit up the pit, while one who succumbs will be consumed from within and used to grow a new tree. Used in a variety of medicines.