Chương 8: Chapter 7 - Rank 2

It was a group of three black apes, walking with clear purpose. Strong ones, too; one Rank 2 and two Rank 1 Peak Stage. Dendron sent Luan away at once.

"Luan, go far from here. I'll call you back once the enemy's gone." Luan stopped short, then obeyed without question. Something in Dendron's voice carried real worry, and Luan listened, fearing what might happen if he didn't. Dendron didn't know what these apes wanted, only that he wanted Luan far from them. Luan slipped off toward a secluded spot, and the black ape group arrived soon after. They studied the wrecked tree in front of them.

"Is this the one we're supposed to watch? Why is it so damaged? And yet it's still standing," one of the apes said.

"How impressive," the leader remarked, genuine astonishment in his voice.

"We're only tasked to watch this tree two hours a day. Stay diligent," he said flatly, more habit than command.

"Captain, would the tree being this damaged count as something we should report? An anomaly?" one of the apes asked.

"Don't ask questions with obvious answers," the leader shot back. The ape muttered under his breath.

"I wonder what makes this tree so special. The captain said this mission was rated extreme caution." For the full two hours, the captain simply slept, motionless against a nearby trunk. One of the others set up an illusory field, thick enough that Dendron couldn't make out what they were actually doing behind it. The last one just listened, using his own attribute to catch any unusual sound in the area. Only once the black apes vanished beyond his Soul Eye did Dendron finally let himself relax.

Tension bled out of every branch. If they'd chosen to look any closer, he wasn't sure he could have fooled them.

"If they're only observing me today... what happens tomorrow?"

"Have they already figured out I'm sentient?" He caught his spiraling thoughts, reeled them in, and called Luan home. Luan returned to sitting in the lotus position, and after two hours of silence, finally asked, "Who were they?"

"Black Ape Tribe," Dendron replied.

"Seems like they're watching me. No idea why yet."

"A black ape, of all things. Still, as long as they're not attacking, I'd call that lucky." Luan sounded like he half meant it. The days after that settled into routine. Every dawn, the black ape patrol arrived, watched for two hours, and left. Once they were gone, Dendron would grow another batch of Soul Fruits while Luan hunted or cultivated nearby. Nights went to cultivating, tallying points, and preparing for the promised trade. At one point, Luan asked, "Do you eat corpses?

I've always noticed that the corpses on the ground become nothing but bare bones within a few hours."

"Not that I'm aware of. I only absorb soul cores, or at least, I believe I do. I'm not entirely certain. Maybe I'm passively absorbing the rest without even realizing it," Dendron replied. Somewhere below, a root shifted against a patch of bone it couldn't quite remember touching, an answer with no clean explanation attached to it either.

"Ehh? Soul core?" Luan's eyes went wide.

"First time hearing of such a thing. Never even imagined it was possible." A moment of silence passed as he worked through it. The idea defied everything he thought he knew, unheard of, as far as he was concerned. Suspicion lingered even after the shock passed. Bones stripped clean in a few hours seemed far too strange to explain away easily.

But after turning it over a while longer, he let it go, filing it away for later—probably just Dendron drawing nutrients from the dead in some way he didn't fully understand himself.... Finally, the day of the trade with the Brown Wolf Tribe arrived. The days leading up to it had been quiet—mostly hunting and cultivating between the black ape patrols. Dendron was grateful, at least, that they never did more than watch.

Even with a fruit set aside for Luan's own cultivation, gathering fifty more hadn't been difficult. Repeated hunting had padded his points too, not by much, but enough to satisfy him. [Points: 44] [Draw a random skill (50% success chance): 50 points] He could hardly contain his excitement. Today he would ascend. He waited beneath the earth as the minutes crawled by, every distant footstep making him wonder if it was the wolves finally arriving, or something else entirely.

Eventually, he spotted them: ten brown wolves making their way toward the meeting place. Four hauled corpses, five were elders, and one was Luan, who'd gone home the day before to guide the elders here himself. Within minutes, they arrived. Dendron's plan stayed simple: let Luan speak for him. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.

"Is this really the meeting place?" one elder asked, glancing around.

"I don't sense anyone here."

"The merchant said he couldn't show his face," Luan explained.

"He's been speaking to me through telepathy."

"Ohoho, a mind attribute, then." Elder Hark's smile sharpened with interest.

"I've heard they tend to be cautious. Cunning, too."

"He says we can leave the corpses here," Luan went on.

"He'll send the fruits through a portal."

"A portal? Space attribute?" The elder's curiosity deepened further.

"That's an exceedingly rare attribute. Means he's got a companion with him." Luan lifted a sack. A portal blinked open above it, and fruit rained down inside. A ripple of delight passed through the group. The density matched exactly what had been promised.

"It's real!" the first elder blurted, practically giddy.

"I thought this might be some kind of scam, given how empty this place felt when we arrived." After a moment, Luan spoke again, and every elder turned to listen.

"He says we can start planning for future transactions. Do the elders want to continue this trade?" The elders talked it over for a few minutes before answering.

"We've decided to accept. Hard to say no to a proposal like this." Luan relayed the rest of what Dendron had told him.

"He can offer three Seeker Early Stage fruits for every Seeker Early Stage beast," Luan announced.

"Seven for a Seeker Mid-Stage." The elders exchanged glances. Even Elder Hark's composed expression slipped, just slightly.

"Higher rank than that?" Elder Brolf's heart pounded, already imagining the pills he could brew.

"What about Mortal-rank corpses?" Elder Hark pressed. Luan relayed the terms carefully.

"He said he could offer a Seeker-rank fruit. Three fruits for two Mortal Peak Stage beasts. One fruit for four Mortal Mid-Stage. One fruit for eight Mortal Early Stage." Silence followed. None of them had expected the mysterious merchant to value corpses this highly. Ears perked up across the group. This was, without question, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and every one of them knew it. Disbelief hung thick in the air. The offer was simply too generous to be real, and yet here it was.

Spiritual fruits and herbs carried immense value in this world. Soul cores of the same rank all held equal capacity, but how much spiritual essence a being could actually absorb came down entirely to talent, and someone who absorbed it efficiently was worth their weight in gold. Spiritual trees and herbs were rare, despite how much the wilderness overflowed with ordinary trees and plants. Not every one of them awakened.

The ones that did were treasured, often hoarded by whoever held enough power to claim them, and relocating one just meant finding an earth-attribute user skilled enough for the job.

"He says this spot will become the trading post between our two parties," Luan relayed.

"No fixed schedule. Whenever you have goods ready, just come." The elders nodded along, deciding to simply go with it. None of them fully trusted the mysterious merchant, but they weren't in a position to walk away from a deal this good either. Elder Hark, for his part, suspected the merchant might be raising something that lived on corpses, though a guess without confirmation was still just a guess.

Once the wolves departed, Dendron watched them vanish into the forest and felt something settle in him, satisfaction, mostly. He wouldn't need to hunt for himself anymore, not if the Brown Wolf Tribe kept up their end of things. A steady supply of corpses would find its way to him from here on. He opened a portal and stretched a single root toward the corpses, absorbing their soul cores one by one. A notification rang.

[Successfully absorbed Rank 2 Early Stage Soul Core] [+16 points] [Successfully absorbed Rank 2 Early Stage Soul Core] [+16 points] [Successfully absorbed...] His trunk trembled. His roots dug deeper into the earth by instinct. He knew what was coming. A powerful surge of energy rolled through him. Spiritual essence poured off his body in waves, thick enough to color the surrounding air. Roots, bark, trunk, branches, leaves, all of it withered and regrew in the same breath.

Cracks spread across his bark, entire chunks peeling away before new layers pushed up beneath them. His roots twisted violently underground, splitting stone as they reached farther than they ever had. Every branch burned with sudden heat before cooling just as fast. The pain was not comparable to the orc battle. That pain had been sharp and localized—a wound he could concentrate on. This was different. This was the simultaneous unmaking and remaking of his entire existence.

He felt his oldest roots, the ones that had first connected him to this world, snap and regrow at the same time. He felt his trunk hollow out and fill with something stronger. For a terrifying moment, he lost consciousness completely. He was only... space. A void waiting to be filled. Then the new bark wrapped around him, and he slammed back into himself, gasping.

"Ughkk!" he groaned, unable to hold it in. A painful metamorphosis, tearing down and rebuilding all at once. Time crawled by, a second, a minute, an hour, a long stretch of torture with no end in sight. When it finally passed, he had ascended to Rank 2. Vitality flooded his body, more than he'd felt since before the fight with Gordon, as if he'd been reborn out of the wreckage. His whole form glowed faintly, leaves shifting color in slow waves.

He stood taller now, thirty meters up, his root range stretched wider than before, and his entire body, trunk, bark, roots, branches, had grown noticeably sturdier than it had been at Rank 1. The pain vanished as suddenly as it had come. Silence returned to the forest. His roots reached places they'd never touched before. For a moment, he simply existed. No enemies. No threats. No system notifications.

Only the weight of his own branches, the cool earth beneath his roots, and the slow rhythm of sap flowing through his trunk. He could feel the distant pulse of the forest—animals moving, wind blowing through the leaves, and the gentle hum of spiritual essence drifting through the air.

"So this is what it feels like," he thought.

"To be something more." He watched the world more clearly now, and felt genuinely powerful for the first time.

"Rank 2 already feels like this. I wonder what Rank 3's like." A notification rang out, and then another, and another—the system finally catching up to everything that had just happened to him. He let them stack unread for a moment, just breathing, before he skimmed them properly. [Successfully ranked up to Rank 2 Early Stage] [Mission successfully completed. +40 points] [Soul Eye C > B (Passive)] [Soul Eye (B) (Passive): Can perceive physical forms, souls, obstructions and illusions.] [Spiritual Essence Absorption F > E (Passive)] [Soul Fruit F > E] [Name: Dendron Gareth (Soul Tree)] [Rank 2: Early Stage] [Attribute: Soul/Space] [Absorb soul core to rank up: Rank 2 Early Stage 0/40 or Rank 2 Mid-Stage 0/8] [Mission: Rank up to Rank 2 Mid-Stage. Reward: 80 points] [Points: 148] [Draw a random skill (50% success chance): 50 points] [Attribute Skills:] Soul Core Absorption (C) Portal Creation (D) Soul Parasitism (1/2) (F) Pocket Dimension (F) [Innate Skills:] Spiritual Essence Absorption (E) (Passive) Soul Fruit (E) Root Control (D) (Passive) Soul Eye (B) (Passive) He was pleased with how smoothly the breakthrough had gone, though a new worry crept in behind the satisfaction: a fluctuation this strong might draw every beast for miles.

He increased his awareness and tested his new range. The forest stretched out before him, farther than he'd ever seen. But he also felt something else. Movement. His gaze shifted. Beasts he couldn't identify shifted direction toward his location.

"They felt that," he realized, a cold weight sinking into his trunk.

"Every beast within miles just felt me ascend." He looked at his roots, still trembling from residual energy. He had become stronger. But his strength had just created a target on his back.

"This is my life now," he grumbled.

"Grow or die. There's no in-between." More points than he'd ever held at once sat waiting for him. Fortune, it seemed, was finally smiling his way.

"Draw!"