Chương 181: Chapter 175

"Why don't we try to put the seed next to the tree?" came the expected question from Dan the moment after they emerged from the fracture for the fifth try.

"Could we grow another reward tree?" Isabella was violently hugging her new forest spirit, or whatever it was, while the little thing squirmed around in her vice grip while cutely glaring daggers at everyone. Soulfully… Ignoring that little byplay, Sam addressed Dan's question.

"I have no fucking idea…" They looked at each other and then at Clarissa, who was already holding one of the seeds. She slowly walked over to the small crystalline plant, that has already grown an inch or two, and began carefully digging up a small hole where she nestled the shining seed into the ground, covered with dark and luscious soil, then she stared a moment at her screen and waved her gently glowing hand over the mound of dirt hiding treasure next to the plant of the Tree of Rewards.

Then she waved her hand again. And again. Finally, after a few minutes of frantic waving and screen opening, she turned back to the others with a small frown on her face.

"Good news or bad news first?"

"Bad news!" came from Katie as she watched the proceedings with Puffball in her arms as the cat tried to swipe at the newly born plant spirit playfully. Clarissa simply waited and after Sam nodded, she began to explain.

"Bad news is that we could sit here and feed mana to this seed for weeks, and it wouldn't be enough."

"And the good news?"

"The tree can absorb the seed and grow more powerful."

"Pity the devs thought about this loophole," Katie pouted, still holding Puffball as the cat tried to escape from her grip. Sam's attention, however, was on Clarissa.

"What happens if we feed one or more seeds to the tree?" He had never heard about something like this. After all, finding the two items, the Tree of Rewards and Transformation Tree Seed in one place was unheard of.

"It just says that increases the growth and quality of the plant. Nothing exact," came the prompt answer. Then she perked up.

"How many did we get after the last run?" Sam just grinned and opened his hands, which were already full of seeds they didn't intend to save for other projects.

"So, what exactly is it?"

"She!"

"What exactly is she?"

"Pretty cute, I'd say!" They sat around the camp as the small plant spirit walked around hesitantly, observing everything while Lucky, Melody, Hawky, and Puffball were watching her with interest from a respectful distance. That is, following her around, barely giving her personal space. The little plant spirit looked supremely unconcerned. There was a little back and forth, but soon Isabella relented and shared her new pet's information.

"It's a Wooden Shadow Spirit," she declared proudly as the little plant spirit plopped down in the middle of a bunch of wildflowers and began to tear the petals off one by one while sighing melodramatically. The rest of the spirit animals just watched her in confusion.

"I also got the Spirit Link, and the little cutie got a transformation skill."

"Can it transform into a mecha?" Isabella just pouted and shared the skill. [Compounded Transformation: Your little spirit is rather empty. She can devour defeated foes (See exceptions here.) and transform into their image. Only one form can be stored currently. Your spirit's strength and skills will depend on the consumed form.] Sam stared a little at the skill, then nodded.

"Pretty OP, I say…" Isabella threw up a victory sign and laughed a little.

"And imagine how much we can make if we sell the information before putting up the seeds for auction." He returned the laugh.

"Maybe not all information…" They returned to the fracture for the last run after laughing a while, then playing with the newest member of their party for a time. The forest was still as foreboding as the first time, but thanks to going through it five times already, they simply smashed through it. Though, they made sure to take a few seconds to let the little wood spirit gobble up one of the treants. The transformation animation was pretty nice.

The spirit walked closer to the corpse, glowed green, and touched the corpse transferring the glow, which in turn, intensified, before flashing once, and where before there was a corpse of a treant and a small wood spirit, now there was only a wooden cocoon. The cocoon wiggled a few times, before cracking and roots and shadowy tentacles shouting out of it, which wiggled around until forming into the approximate shape of the treant – though a bit smaller – then flashed green again.

Once they blinked the green spots from their eyes, they could see the spirit's new form. It was shaped like a treant, but you could definitely tell it was more feminine. She, after all, wore a flowing dress made of dark, almost black leaves, decorated with wooden skulls and thorns. And her head was still covered by dark green hair made of grass that covered one of her eyes. However, this time there was a small hairpin with skull decorations. Did you know this story is from Royal Road?

Read the official version for free and support the author. There was a surprised gasp from Isabella and the next second they watched as the treant was getting a super powerful hug as the transformed spirit tried to act bashful, pretending that she was not enjoying the treatment. They managed to get a few more seeds, even one more Green Thumb skill book, and some reagents that Sam thought would be wonderful for the newly born plant spirit's eventual evolution.

The boss was destroyed by Sam this time, as he used the opportunity to practice his physical skills. In the end, it died just as it did the previous five times. However, they were a little lucky this time. Sam held the wriggling ball of shadow in his hand and couldn't help but feel satisfied. [Medium Shadow Essence: A condensed ball of shadow essence. Good with noodles!]'One more ingredient for the next evolution…'

Sadly, he would need a few dozen of these essences for what he planned, but for now, he was satisfied. They left the fracture, satisfied and eager to see what would happen to the crystalline plant. They quickly headed over, looking for any changes. And what changes they were.

"It's taller…" Clarissa bent over and measured the little plant.

"By a few inches…"

"Hey even a few inches matter!" exclaimed Dan indignantly, only for Katie and Isabella to break out into giggles. The plant indeed grew, and now Sam could spot at least two distinct leaves, shining with rainbow light as the sun shined on the crystalline material that made up the tree that was growing. He let them giggle a little more, as Dan tried to pretend he didn't actually say what he said, then clapped once, the sound echoing around the clearing where they had set up their camp.

"Let's take a few minutes, then we are going for the next one!" He received several smart salutes and calm nods from his teammates in response. Refreshed and rested, ready and raring to go, they approached the next fracture. A quick rock-paper-scissors decided that they would enter into the rock fracture first. [Rocky Rock Show] [A symphony of rockslides echo around the mountains of this dimensional place. Go forth and show them your rocking skills! Show them who is the master rocker! This is a proper rock-off!] [Time Limit: None] [Penalty: Pebble in your shoes every morning] [Reward: You can rest easily] [Charges: 9/9] [Hidden Bonus: Additional growth for the Tree of Rewards]"I don't like this escalation of charge amounts," Isabella stated.

"When I first did my rounds, it said three-per-three."

"It will probably grow more, but I think it'll cap at certain numbers…" Sam spoke as he thought about the situation.

"What if it grows infinitely? By the time we reach the last fracture, we would have to do hundreds of runs…"

"Doubt the system would be so cruel…" added Dan, with Katie and Clarissa nodding beside him.

"We shall see. For now, let's start!" The fracture only contained a few dried-out trees, clinging to life, as they clung to the sheer cliffs surrounding the team as the heat of midday sun blasted them with enough sunshine to fry an egg. And as they looked up at the cliffs, covered in sand, squinting thanks to the strong light, they were met with a cacophony of sounds as several rock golems headed directly at them.

"Golems again?"

"Yep…"

"Booooring!" came the singsong voice of Katie.

"How about a competition?" Sam asked.

"Oh? You dare to challenge me?" Sam smirked.

"I do indeed, young lady!" Her smile faltered for a fraction of a second, then the grin was back in full force.

"You're on, boss!" Then she was off, cackling madly, heading in the direction of the sand cloud enveloping the charging golem mob. Sam wasn't far behind her.

"Hah! I won!" said Katie as she stood upon the corpse of the last golem of the fracture, doing some kind of dance that involved a lot of pelvic thrusts and fist-pumping. Isabella was holding her face in her hand, refusing to look at the other girl with Clarissa and Dan pretending to go over the loot.

"Oh yeah! Oh yeah! Who is the best? Who is the best?"

"Meow!" Puffball cheered on her mistress gleefully. It seems their luck wasn't the best in this run. Aside from a metric ton of different metals and rocks, the golems didn't really drop anything. The boss dropped a manual for weapon forging, but neither of them was a blacksmith, so it would simply go back to the guild or company where Lucy would make sure a deserving craftsman would get it. Ignoring Katie for the moment, Sam turned to the others.

"This one is an easy one, let's quickly finish it before we have to log out. The next three runs were pretty much the same. Sam and Katie competed in killing as many golems as they could, with Katie leading the competition with three to one. Mostly because, in the second run, Dan and Clarissa began to help the berserker with some crowd control and buffs. Another few weapons forging manuals were added to their loot pile, as well as a nice shiny mountain of different metals.

Sam made sure to select a few special ones for Lucky's next evolution, but otherwise, everyone was rather disappointed by the fracture. Thus, they decided, or rather Clarissa browbeat Katie, that they should go as a party and leave these types of competitions for later. United, they blasted through them like they were tissue paper.

They spent a little time debating whether to have Isabella's new pet, now officially called Sable, gobble up one of the golems, but as the treant-shaped spirit simply turned up her cute nose that actually had a wooden piercing in it, Isabella decided to leave the rocky corpses behind.

"Alright, people! I know it's getting late, but we need to clear this once more!"

"Did we even get anything worth the time spent here?"

"Aside from several metric tons of metal, not much…"

"Bummer…"

"I mean, the profit from the first two is enough to satisfy a smaller guild…" Clarissa just pouted. The last run of the fracture went off without a hitch and they returned tired but triumphant to their camp where the crystalline plant of the Tree of Rewards had grown another few inches, gaining a few more leaves. The team also spent a few minutes sorting out the materials they got, making sure to have them organized for later. They then returned to their tents and logged out of the game.

Sam took off his helmet and shook his head, feeling his hair swishing around.

'I think I need a haircut…' But before he could contemplate this further, his phone began to ring. With a quiet sigh, he placed his VR helmet back in its place and went to find his phone. Finding it under a few documents, he saw it was Lucy calling.

"Hallo?"

"Sam, we have a problem!" He let out another sigh.

"What now?"

"Several seers have released prophecies… about great arenas of fractured space where the worthy go to be rewarded," she spoke, quoting the last part. Sam blinked in surprise, then snorted.

"That's just the system making sure we have a deadline. Plus, to prevent us from getting too far ahead of the others." He closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them, a mischievous spark dancing in them.

"Give me a second to check my notes…"

"Why?"

"Got anything to write with?"

"Yeah…"

"Here are a few coordinates…" he began dictating some vague coordinates that he sensed on the edge of his expanded senses when he did the ritual.

"Is this?"

"Probably. Go sell the information to the government. They'll leak it and the players will go nuts. That'll give us enough time to finish ours and reap all the rewards." There was a moment of silence, then Lucy began to chuckle.

"I love it when you're evil…"