Chương 338: Be Free

"Well, it isn't a Demonic Beast," Mage Guptill said as the thing continued to teleport around the area.

"I have an idea on how to stop it, but I've never tried this before, so I don't know if it will work," Damion told the Light mage.

"You aren't thinking of attacking it are you?"

"How would that even work. I would need to know where it is going to appear next and I don't see a pattern in its movements, do you?"

"No," admitted Mage Guptill.

"Then what are you going to do, wait for it to get close and grab on?" Damion gave the healer a blank stare before telling her, "Just stay here. If this works it works, if not… well then we will have to try something else." Walking out into the middle of what had been the farm, Damion began channeling mana into one of his tier 5 spells, Spatial Domain. The spell in theory allowed him complete control of an area by saturating it with his Spatial mana.

All other magic in the area would be weakened and Damion would be able to freely move about the areas as if he was using Blink to instantly teleport himself. Since whatever the thing was that was teleporting itself around was clearly Spatial affinity in nature, Damion was betting it would be attracted to the large amount of Spatial mana he was emitting. And since the mana was his and he was master of space inside his Spatial Domain, he believed he would be able to subdue the thing once it entered his domain.

Damion's Spatial Domain flared to life and his mana started to quickly drain. Even with most of his passive spells turned off and Mana Absorption on, he barely met the qualifications to keep Spatial Domain active. 250 mana cost per second was no small amount. He just hoped he would be able to end this quickly, otherwise Mage Guptill was sure to ask how he was able to maintain a domain spell for so long. A few seconds after casting his spell, the teleporting object entered Damion's Spatial Domain.

As soon as it did, Damion focused his will on keeping the object inside his domain. The object did not struggle at first, appearing inside an area with a lot of Spatial mana would have seemed like paradise, but when it realized it could not make use of that mana, it began to struggle, trying to flee. Once the object was caught, Damion took a close look at it. The teleporting object was actually a tree. Standing roughly three meters in height, with branches spread out in all directions.

Despite its roots not being in the ground, the leaves of the tree showed no signs of wilting or changing colors. Damion quickly realized this was not just any tree, it was a tree with a single fruit on it, a Heavenly Spatial Enhancing Fruit.

"The tree must be partially sentient," Mage Guptill said.

"When the Alfar were harvesting their farm, it must have got upset with losing its fruits and started teleporting around."

"That is possible?" Damion asked, eyeing the single Enhancement Fruit on the tree.

"Before seeing this, I would have said no. But it isn't the strangest thing I have ever seen. So, I'm going with it." The Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree continued to struggle against Damion's mastery of the mana in his Spatial Domain, but it was unable to break free. Since he was able to move freely inside his Domain, Damion appeared beside the tree and picked the final fruit, storing it in the Magic System Inventory.

The Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree's branches trembled at the loss of its final fruit, leaving Damion with the impression that Mage Guptill was right. If this tree was partially sentient, it seemed a waste to let it vanish when they destroyed the core and cleared the dungeon. He did not know what happened to things in the dungeons, but he felt that would be akin to death for this tree. Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

'System, am I able to take this tree out of the dungeon?' {Affirmative. There are several methods to removing lifeforms from a Realm Breach.}'Care to share?' {The most direct method is to bond the lifeform with a companion or a slave spell such as the Ice Familiar spell host has already created.}'Yes, well, I don't have time to modify my spell for Spatial affinity. Besides, I don't think I want this tree as a familiar, I just want to let it be free.'

{Since the lifeform has a Spatial affinity if it is willing, it can be stored within the hosts personal spatial storage. However, lifeform must be willing and cannot remain inside for more than one hour as host's personal spatial storage is a pseudo reality and cannot support life.}'So, it has to be willing and needs the Spatial affinity,' Damion thought as he looked to the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree.

If it wasn't for the requirement of the Spatial affinity he was sure that he could have used this method to move Phil around more easily inside cities.

"Mr. Tree, how would you like to leave this place?" Of course, Damion did not expect an answer, but he thought perhaps the tree would have at least tilted a branch or something.

"Once we leave here. This place will cease to exist. If you want, I can take you with me. Where we are going won't have as rich of mana, but it is a wide world, and you can spend a long time exploring to find a good place to put down roots."

"James? Why are you talking to a tree?" Mage Guptill asked. Not wanting to explain, Damion ignored her and kept his attention on the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree.

"I'm going to let down my Spatial Domain. That means you will be able to move about again. If you want to stay here, just Blink away. If you stay by my side, I will take that to mean you want to come with me." Damion released his spell and an instant later the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree teleported away. He could feel the Spatial fluctuations as the semi-sentient tree teleported quickly around the area, apparently happy to have its freedom returned.

He was a bit sad he could not convince the tree to come with him, but in the end he figured the tree had not fully understood what it meant for this place to cease to exist.

"Go ahead and destroy the core," Damion told Mage Guptill, who quickly walked over to the core at the center of the farm. Before the Light mage could strike it though, the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree appeared beside Damion.

"Wait!" Damion quickly shouted to Mage Guptill.

"If you want to come with us, I have to put you inside my spatial storage. As soon as we leave here though, I will let you out." The tree seemed to sway its branches for a moment, so Damion took that to mean it agreed. Reaching out with his mana, he brought the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree inside his personal storage. Since he was able, Damion had no doubt now that the tree had understood him and was probably more than just semi-sentient.

The tree might not be very smart, but it did understand that if it wanted to live it had to leave this place.

"Okay. Destroy the core," Damion told Mage Guptill who was staring in disbelief at what Damion had just done.

"Wha… oh, right." Mage Guptill reached out and destroyed the core sending both of them back to Nerotath. When they reappeared, the other mages of the clear party were all sitting around, it seemed as though they had been waiting on them.

"Took you guys long enough," Mage Galindo said.

"What did you do, look under every rock and toadstool for spoils? None of the dungeons had anything left in them. So, why did you all take so long?"

"We had a bit of a walk to get to where the farm was in our dungeon. Plus, there was something still inside," Mage Guptill said with a smile as she turned to Damion.

"Oh, well, I was going to let it out once everyone cleared away."

"What did you find?" Mage Sorin asked anxiously.

"Promise me that none of you will attack it or try to capture it," Damion told them. The group of A Rank mages stared at the B Rank mage with a look of disbelief. A B Rank nobody was telling this group of elite A Rank mages what to do. Most of them wanted to laugh. However, before any of them could speak up, Julia Levine, the S Rank Lightning mage spoke up.

"We agree. I am really curious what you found."

"Alright, here we go," Damion pulled from his personal spatial storage the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree. When the tree appeared and sensed the presence of so many A Ranks and an S Rank, it shrunk back. Its primitive thoughts believing it had been tricked by the Spatial mage. However, Damion was right there smiling at it.

"Don't worry little guy, these people won't hurt you. And just to make sure none of them know where to look for you, I'll open a Portal for you to an area far away." Damion did exactly as he said, he cast Portal and a gateway large enough for the Heavenly Spatial Enhancement Tree appeared. The tree wasted no time and darted through. As soon as it did, Damion closed his Portal and looked at the shocked and enraged looks on everyone's, but Mage Levine's and Mage Guptill's faces.