Joy felt intense pain in his heart. He jolted back to reality. He saw his own sword, gifted by Sree, was stabbed in his heart. He was surprised. He felt many presences around him. He looked around and found himself in an encirclement of the treants. He lowered his eyebrows, tightly closed his eyelids, raised his cheeks and lips, wrinkled his nose, and opened his mouth. He was feeling so much pain just from the sword stab itself, that he could not stand up. He grabbed the sword hilt with one hand and started to pull it out. He bit his tongue to stay conscious.

Let's go back to when Joy entered the forest.

He was in such a hurry that he didn't study the woods to make necessary preparations. He simply stepped into the death trap and started to walk inside. He was slowly dragged inside an illusion by the pollens of the tree called Grayanoti. This portion of the forest was ruled by this type of tree before the Dungeons started to spawn. None was too brave to venture inside this segment of the woods without proper preparation.

Since the start of this era, some of the trees started to awaken as treants. They had gone through mutation. Most of them lost the power of the illusion creating pollens but began to obtain various warfare and organizational ability. They started to band together to stop other mutated animals' invading their land. Then the world went through another evolution, and once they regained their senses, they felt a tremendous threat from the side leading to the gorge.

When they came to scout the threat, they found a man entering the forest with large paces. They started to lead the trees around to spread their pollens in a particular direction. This caused the increase in the concentration of the pollens, but the man was still able to hold his consciousness. After almost all the pollens in that region and a few illusion techniques used by treants, the man started to act weird. They felt confident and began to encircle the man.

Suddenly, one of his swords started to shake and levitated from the land to find its owner's heart. The only way to bring the victim back to reality was one of the truths in this universe, the fear of death. A near-death experience jolted the victim back to reality.

Joy felt the sword in his hand and felt something different.

'Dafaq! The sword acted on its own?'

"Listen, walking trees. I don't think you have any offensive ability. I give you 10 minutes to think. Work under me, and you will gain the power to protect your beloved forest."

The treants looked at each other's faces. One of them came to the front and began addressing.

"#&&@&> @*#>@

'Shit! I don't even know their language. How do you expect to discuss peace like this?'

'Hell, yes! I do. I can always gain more SPs shortly. Right now, I need to survive. And, with this wound holding me back, I won't be able to fight these many Treants at once. It is not a movie where they will come one by one if the fight breaks.'

Joy cleared his throat and started to address. This time, in the language, the treants understand.

"Listen, walking trees. I don't think you have any offensive ability. Otherwise, I would be dead before I woke up. I give you 10 minutes to think. Work under me, and you will gain the power to protect your beloved forest."

The treants all showed a startled expression. They started to discuss amongst themselves in a low voice.

'I am missing Sree really badly. I need approximately 10 minutes to stabilize my wounds. With her around, I would have been ready to fight already.'

'Can I do that?'

'Duh! You must not joke at this kind of time.'

Just before the time limit was over, one treant came forward and responded in an orotund voice, "We are unable to make the decision here. Follow us to see mother."

"He has no right to see the mother."

"He must be executed."

"Mother will be displeased."

"Mother will forgive us."

"He has a mental fortitude beyond our illusion level. Only when we stacked tens of illusion abilities along with the pollens, we were able to take him down. We must not enrage him."

"Mother will bring justice."

The treants were clearly divided into 2 parts. Though most of them were not happy with Joy visiting the mother, they were sure about their strength. And, they were not able to overpower Joy in any way. Most of the pollens had been used already, and their illusions alone won't be able to defeat Joy.

Joy's chest was still bleeding, but he was accustomed to the pain. He stabbed the sword in the ground and carried himself up. He used the rare sword given by Jax as a scratch to stand up. If someone else watched that, Joy would have been executed on the spot. Treants retreated one step.

Joy smiled and used a dash to enter in a close range to a treant. He grinned as he used Horizontal Arc and cut through one of the treants. He could chip a portion of the wood, but could not cut through the trunk. He felt his sword was stuck at a rock.

"Natural defense against the sharp weapons. But only for low-level skills. I can keep slashing until you stop with these petty tricks", Joy declared.

"You! How did you find it? I have used my skill before coming here. You should not be able to feel it", the treant snorted.

"If you keep on using your illusion technique on the other treants, then don't ask me to be polite."

"Everyone, kill him! Right now and here. He needs not to meet our mother."

"Your mother should be there for me to visit her. You wrench! I am warning for the last time", Joy swung his swords and spoke in a warning tone.

"You, son of a b*tch! KILL HIM."

"What! How do you slang from my world? Don't worry, I won't ask the second time. Because deads can't answer."

He didn't use any more words. He backflipped the next moment, and as soon as he landed, he used a sidestep. He was attacked from various sides. The treants used their pointed branches as spears. They started to stab, poke, slash, swap, shove, and everything else to find Joy. It was Joy's best day as they were not proficient with weapon maneuvers.

Joy danced through the attacks. He was not able to stay in a place for more than a fraction of second. He suddenly saw a gap and leaped forward.

He used a midair halt and decided to use a skill. But shortly, he found himself being smacked hard to the ground. The treant who accomplished the hit leaped in air in celebration. The rest began to stomp Joy.

It was a feeling of an ant being smashed by an elephant. Joy took two or three hits before rolled out of the zone. His wound started to bleed profusely. He rolled twice, followed by a flip-up. He used his sword skill, Sonic Slash, to move away from the crowd.

"Shit! I can't stop the commanding treant without hurting a few others. I hope you guys will forgive me."

He took the stance to start his massacrer. He crouched a little and readied his sword. He closed his eyes and prepared himself.

He slowly opened his eyes, "Prepare."

He jumped up, this time slowly bent his body and used Sonic Slash to close the distance. He reached near one treant, used Triple Slash to contain it in one place. He then slashed in its rootlike legs. It was one of the weak spots of a treant.

He crouched a bit and used a horizontal arc to cut through one side of the roots. The imbalanced treant could not take this hit and fall on his companion.

Joy hopped over them, stood on their fallen body, leaped higher using that high ground, and used Fall of the Sky. Many of the treants could not balance once the area was hit by the attack and dropped down. The whole situation was a total mess.

Joy took the opportunity of this chaos and used the Sonic Slash once again to reach the dominant treant. He reached before the commanding treant and used a normal attack.

The treant replied with a grunt and waved its branches in a horizontal arc.

Joy bent and crossed below the arc. He took the flank and arrived at the rear of the treant. He used one slash after another continuously while moving.

Once he reached the rear, he calmed himself down and held his swords tightly. He was looking with deep hatred in his eyes. He disliked this kind of people the most, who used others for their own benefit.

He used a Triple Slash to contain the treant in its place. He captured the fear in the treant's eyes, as it could not turn back before facing Triple Slash. He did only stop for a second. He used the Seven Sin to finish the treant. He used seven consecutive sword techniques and movements to accelerate and empower the slashes and arcs.

The treant was looking at him in a bewildering expression. He used a perfect Vertical Slash to cut the treant into half. The already tattered bark could not save the treant this time.

It all took a mere 10 seconds to finish the commanding treant. The other treants could not recover from the shock of Fall of the Sky. Before they started pursuing Joy, the commanding treant fell.

Joy put his sword on a complex looking structure, similar to the human heart, but it was not pumping blood.

'Nice Timing! From next time onwards, please tell me before.'

'Yeah, right! And I will be killed in the meanwhile.'

Joy didn't wait any longer and finished the treant by piercing the sword into that structure.

Almost all the treants were angry beyond expectation and nearly pounced on him. Suddenly one of them raised his hand and yelled, "Stop everyone. He is a friend, and he has helped us all."

Everyone stopped in their tracks. They looked at the face of each other and found they had no memory of a few whiles.

"I have managed to dispel the illusion mister, I thank you for your help. When I saw you earlier, this idea came into my mind. Thanks for picking up my clues and help us eliminate, I am Bor", he bowed a little and greeted Joy.

Joy collapsed before he could respond with a single word and fainted. Bor smiled a little awkwardly and started to treat Joy with the herbs around. Once done, he looked around the puzzled look and decided to give the others a little overview. He and Dorub, the previous commanding treant was born with leadership ability. Both of them had a different view on how to lead the race.

After some time, Dorub developed a new ability, with which he could control others. And before Bor could notice, he had taken control of everyone else. As both of them were of the same grade, Dorub could not take control of Bor.

Bor started to only see others getting hurt while being commanded by Dorub. Then Joy came, and the mental fortitude of Joy was way higher than even Bor. Bor found new hope, but without proper knowledge, he could not believe Joy. So, he left few clues while discussing with other treants. He made sure that Joy could hear those whispers. The rest was up to Joy.

Once Bor told others the stories, they felt blessed to meet Joy. Their mood became better all of a sudden, as Joy helped them to regain their freedom. Bor then told them Joy's first offer. They felt excited and started to discuss amongst each other. This time everyone had an individual opinion, unlike last time, when they were mere puppets, bolstering the show. It was all done to lead Joy inside the forest.