Remember the tale of Sir Robin.

Davies - Head of Climber Academy

This was great! This tree monster was half the size of the one that had chased us off and would make a good test subject to see how much damage I can do.

I quickly placed my sword in my storage bag and pulled out one of the trusty old sword axes I hadn't used in a while. The sword ax would probably do more damage to a tree than my normal weapon. Additionally, if a sword ax happened to get damaged it wasn’t a big deal as I had an extra dozen laying around in my bag.

I rushed forward and took a swipe at one of the legs of the treant which was bigger around than my torso. I was right to be worried about the effectiveness of a normal sword, as hitting the leg was the same as chopping into a tree. It didn't look like I did much damage, but the treant was not happy about the attack and kicked at me.

Fun fact: when a monster weighing several tons kicks you it doesn't really matter how strong you are. I was literally sent flying backwards. I tried my best to roll as I hit the ground 30 ft away but it was awkward and I felt my arms and legs pulled in the wrong direction. Luckily nothing was broken or at least nothing felt broken as I got to my feet.

I pulled out two of my recently acquired knives and threw them towards the head of the treant. If they hit something it was vital as it appeared as if the monster even noticed. I was glad I had initially ran away from this thing's bigger brother or I would have been in serious trouble.

I dashed in once more and took swings that were less graceful technique and more wild lumberjack. After a couple dozen strikes on the leg I managed to cut through and it started to fall towards me. Or at least that's what I thought was happening but it turned out the damn monster was just taking a knee to grab me in its massive hand. As it pulled me up off the ground I looked for a weakness. And screamed. Okay, I was mostly screaming.

I don't know what treants normally eat but I hope it was not humans. The monster lifted me up towards its face or what I assumed was its face because of the two dinner plate sized eyes. The eyes look surprisingly normal despite being on a man-shaped tree. Well if the eyes were normal perhaps they were softer than its wood-like skin. I swung my sword ax towards an eye and it sank in easily. Instead of pulling back once it entered the eye, I pushed deeper hoping to hit a brain or whatever operated this creature.

It was easy to tell the moment it died. It wasn't because some sort of magical transformation happened or its other eyes glossed over. No, it was a fact that dropped me 20 feet. Good thing my stats had increased to the point where my body could easily take a drop from that height. As I fell down, the monster fell backward.

Enemy defeated. 1,500 exp awarded.

That was an amazing amount of experience. Even if it was hard to kill, I was happy with the challenge and reward. I took the ax and started carving out where I hoped it's heart would be. After 20 minutes of chopping the treant into sections I finally found the mana gem.

Item: Mana Gem- Low Quality.

Mana stones of this quality are usually found in monsters over level 75. Can be useful to an alchemist.

Cultivation aid, useful in breakthroughs for human cultivators under level 50. To use: place in mouth while cultivating.

If it took over 100 poor quality mana gems to equal one low quality I wondered if this low quality mana gem would sell for more in Tinder City. I had no use for it in terms of cultivation of my level now exceeded its use as a cultivation aid.

While I was contemplating playing around with the mana gem I heard a monster roar from the forest surrounding this area and several more treants stepped out. They were all similar in size to the one I had just defeated. Since this one was easy enough to defeat I figured it wouldn't hurt to try to take down a couple more.

This time I employed a much better tactic of throwing my sword axes at the monsters’ eyes. At the academy we used to throw axes for fun. It was a common game done more for stress relief than any sort of training. While I had aced all the other martial training, ax throwing was never my forte. So I was a little bit surprised when every one flew true, piercing the eyes of the treants.

Enemy defeated. 4,500 exp awarded.

Okay, this was easy experience.

Monsters on the road provided decent enough experience but if these treants were like a winning lottery ticket. Even better, they came to me and I was able to harvest these low quality mana gems despite them not being that high of a level. Sure enough, shortly after I harvested the mana gems there was another roar and five more treants appeared.

Enemy defeated. 7,500 exp awarded.

A couple minutes later and I had five more mana gems to add to my collection. This went on for about an hour with the number of tree ants appearing gradually increasing. Luckily they were slow and I was able to just move around them when I was getting crowded. Now that I knew what to look out for I could easily dodge any attempt to step on me or pick me up.

I was harvesting my hundredth low quality mana gem when I heard a monster roar louder than all the previous ones. Looking around I saw a huge treant rapidly moving towards me. This was the same one that had chased me and the caravan from this area.

I decided to wait around and let it get closer so I could examine its level. It may be big but if it was around the same level as the smaller ones I would gladly challenge it.

After fighting all 100 of the treants my level had quickly risen to 59 and I was only 26,600 from my bottleneck. If this one provided enough experience I could fight some monsters on the road and test how the medium quality mana gems would help me in my breakthrough. Finally it was close enough that my scan activated.

Level 195 - Treant Mother

I had a bad feeling about this.

I had assumed it's level would be closer to 90 given the difficulty and scaling of all these monsters. With its level over three times mine, it was not worth the risk. I decided now was the perfect time to test out my new boots as I booked it, running as fast as I could towards Tinder City.

I was confident this huge monster would not even notice me as I ran along the path back towards Tinder City and the level exit. Besides I had managed to scan the treant from about half a mile away, no doubt I was not even a spec in its vision from this distance and our height differences. As such I was quite surprised when I felt what could only describe as an aura of hatred and death descend upon me a minute later. It must have reached my mana gem harvesting location.

Another monster yell reached my ears but this one carried such a force that it made me miss a step and fall forward. The new boots were utterly useless as I rolled forward ass over end. Once I came to a stop I braved taking a look backward and saw the treant mother dashing towards me. While it looked like it was running in slow motion it was so massive that each step easily overtook what most horses could sprint in the same period of time. A normal human would never be able to escape such a terrifying charge. Luckily I was not most humans.

I chose to bravely run away as fast as I could towards Tinder City. With my strength, speed, and endurance stats I was able to push off the ground and practically fly down the path. Even the fastest horse at a full out sprint would not be able to match my pace. The miles flew by and when I dared to look over my shoulder I saw the monster slowly gaining on me. I could only hope that its endurance would give out before mine, yet as each minute passed it slowly closed the distance between us.

Finally, Tender City was within sight and I should have been overjoyed to see it. Except for the fact that the monster punted me like a child kicking on a rock and I skidded across the land. When I finally came to rest, I felt like every bone in my body was broken.

Name: Miki Meadows

Age: 29

Race: Human - Earth

Cultivation: Sky - Peak Stage

Level: 59

Exp: 9,711/36,300 to next level

HP: 129/805* HP Regen 6.71/min

Stamina: 155/823 Stamina Regen 6.85/min

MP: 775/775 MP Regen 6.46/min

*Status: broken ribs multiple, broken left arm, broken pelvis, broken leg left, mild concussion. Limited ability to move until fully healed. Estimated time remaining to full health 13 days.

Strength: 151

Agility: 154

Endurance: 155

Intelligence: 155

Wisdom: 145

Luck: 167

Skills:

Let Your Sword Do the Translating

Superior Scan

Interactive Map

Enhanced Senses - Vision

Hidden Item Detector

Languages:

Orcish - Tamerish

Marcosian

Treant

That really sucked. I fought through the pain and pulled out one of the health potions and poured it down my room throat. In a matter of seconds my HP increased by 250 points. Surprisingly the pain decreased. Now it was merely excruciating instead of mind numbing. Not pausing, I drank another health potion and felt my bones start to knit together. It was around that time I started to hear all the screaming.

As I looked around, I realized that I had made it to Tinder City with the treant's assistance. In fact I had overshot my goal and been kicked through the wall and several buildings. The street I was now laying was unfamiliar which was not surprising as I had never thoroughly explored the city and the fact that everything was in a state of chaos. All around me debris crashed to the ground as if a tornado was striking the city.

I fought through what pain remained and sat up. Everywhere there was bodies and debris. People were running about but didn't know where to go. Pushing myself up, I ran towards where I thought the portal was located. As I got closer I realized that the treant was in the city. In fact it was more than halfway done destroying the city.

That didn't seem right. I had just landed, hadn't I? Perhaps I was knocked unconscious for a bit. Deciding there was nothing I could do to help Tinder City, I rushed towards the portal. I was extremely lucky that the monster had practically flattened everything between me and the portal that laid outside the city.

As I made it to the portal I turned around as I felt a deadly killing aura descend upon me once more. I turned to see the treant roar and dash in my direction. I stepped through the portal and exited the floor.

Floor 5 complete!

Rewards: Skill upgrade crystal