Chapter 57: 056 Corrupt Plants
The environment was dark and filled with purple mist. At first, they couldn't see much, that was until their eyes adjusted to the light.
They were surprised, they assumed they would see corridors, tunnels, and hanging wall torches. Instead, they found themselves in what appeared to be a different world.
The sky above was in a perpetual state of dusk. It was neither light nor dark but a place between. Both a sun and a moon were hanging in the air. The sun looked as if it would burn out at any time while the moon was glowing a dark red. Trains of fire could be seen leaving the sun and entering the moon. It was as if the moon was feeding on the sun.
Off in the distance, a large temple could be seen on the side of a mountain. It looked like cobble and stone bricks. They didn't know what exactly happened but they could tell that it had been corrupted in some way. What looked like would-be holy symbols were now bleeding and smoking. Some parts looked like they would fall apart and break at a moment's notice.
The path leading to the temple and the forest around it was withering. There were various plants in different stages of decay. There was a slight stench of death lingering in the air.
Destiny, Karma, Dregg, and Totem were taken back, they held their noses as if it would block out the smell. James, Mercury, and Talon seemed not to be bothered about the scene in front of them but in their minds, they were worried about just what caused it.
* Ding *
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Welcome to the Realm of Ivok! A once holy land has been corrupt, find the cause and return the temple to its former glory!
New Party Quest Assigned:
Rewards: Experience, Skill Points, Attribute Points, Access to a Waystone, Access to the Altar of Ivok, Ability to receive future quests from the Temple's followers. Access to the Holy Temple of Ivok!
Failure condition: Cultists finish their ritual and permanently corrupt the temple. Failure to stop the ritual will result in the temple being corrupted forever, loss of access to a Waystone, and the ability to receive quests from the Temple's followers.
Time Limit: 29 Days: 23 Hours: 59 Minutes: XX Seconds
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Everyone received the same quest and read over the details. They had one month to complete it, no one knew if that was too short or too long of a timetable. It was a level 35 dungeon with many unknowns.
"Shall we start heading to the Temple?" asked James.
Mercury didn't give a direct answer but instead started walking on the path leading to the forest in front of them. Everyone saw her actions and shrugged; they didn't enter the dungeon to frolic around anyway. They all followed Mercury into the forest.
Their team was lacking a few critical components; mainly a dedicated tank and healer. While it could prove difficult to manage without those two they did have options. Everyone had enough potions that they could open up a drug store. As for defense? The twins and Talon could use stealth to retreat and heal. Totem could create a wall of earth, heal himself with Invigorate, and finally, he had Trapping Vines to crowd control. Mercury was the only one lacking any real life-saving utilities but her physical strength made up some slack. James had his Engulfed Vines for crowd control. They had some traits of tanks and healers but they were very subpar in comparison.
They entered the best formation that James could come up with. Mercury was upfront, followed by Karma and Destiny behind her. The mage classes were in the third row and Talon was in the back since he was a sharpshooter. Dregg was in the middle of the third row so that Totem and James could more easily use their vines for defense purposes.
They walked for a while through the creepy forest uninterrupted. They were getting more and more on edge; they all felt that they could have been attacked by now.
James looked around with his Magical Eyes and saw there was mana in a large portion of the surrounding trees. He told Mercury to approach an isolated tree.
She left the path and all the trees in a 30-meter radius of her came to life. Only then could they see information about the corrupted trees.
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Living Tree (Corrupt)
Grade: Normal (Dungeon)
Level: 35
Hp: 20,000 / 20,000
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Talon whistled, "That is a lot of health points for a normal monster."
"Well, it is a dungeon-based monster. They probably have more health points than monsters outside," commented Mercury. "Blaise?"
James knew that she wanted to attack the tree. "Be careful." He also waved for everyone to prepare for battle if they needed to join in. This would be a good way to gauge the relative strength of the monsters they would find.
Mercury took a battle stance and turned her polearm into her battle axe. James cast his Leaching spells on the tree and his part but most of their stats didn't change. The agility made sense but the defense did not. Does that mean the tree didn't have a defense stat? The only spell that did anything was Leach Strength.
Once she saw that she got a strength buff she went in for an attack. While dashing to the target she prepared her axe. She arrived by the tree's side and just before she attacked the tree swung a branch at her causing her to dodge. After the tree's attack missed she followed up with her own.
The sound of metal cutting through wood echoed out. *HISSS* The tree hissed out and green and purple liquid spurted out of the limb that Mercury cut off. With that single attack, she had removed over half of the tree's health points. It was now at 8,487/20,000.
There was no change to the surrounding trees even though the current target was hissing and thrashing around. Mercury rejoined the party and sighed.
"That is boring; it has no bite to it and it might as well be paper," she complained.
"It is strange, I wonder if the corruption weakened the plant life or strengthened it?" asked James.
"It is too early to tell, there has to be a catch in all of this. I can't imagine that all the monsters would be like this." Dregg hypothesized.
"Blaise, I'm bored of the tree. Could you finish it off, please?" asked Mercury.
James threw a fireball at the tree causing it to die. The remainder of the tree had caught fire and slowly burnt into charcoal and ash.
* Ding *
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Party has slain a Corrupt Living Tree! It's lifeforce has returned to the earth!
Each party member has gained 300 experience points.
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"That isn't much experience points," said Karma.
James looked around, "If I were to guess, there are a few hundred of these trees, if not a few thousand depending on how big this forest really is."
"Should we farm them as we go?" asked Totem.
"I don't know if it would be a waste of time. We will have to see if it is worth wild," replied James.
They returned to the path and continued walking through the forest. Once they returned to the path all the trees stopped moving.
They spotted a clearing up ahead with two trees very close to the path. James guested that they were living trees that would attack them once they got close.
"They are kind of blocking our path, aren't they?" asked Karma.
"Yeah but it shouldn't be too hard getting rid of them," said James. He summoned a small flame above his hand and the others parted ways. Be blew on the flame and a large cone of fire roared out. James had used his Flamethrower skill and killed both trees at once.
* Ding *
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Party has slain two Corrupt Living Trees! Their lifeforce has returned to the earth!
Each party member has gained 600 experience points.
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"Let's continue!" cheered Mercury.
They stayed on the path as they entered the clearing. They looked around for a second and noticed there was a small pond on the far left. It had several living trees close by.
"Seems weird, let's proceed slowly." James wanted to be cautious.
They continued slowly and once they reached the middle of the clearing the ground started to rumble and shake. "Backup!" someone shouted.
They all retreated and James's Magical Eyes activated. He had learned not to ignore his eyes anymore. They were too useful to not use.
He saw what was happening and recognized it. "Reaper!" he called out.
She turned to look at James and saw the face he was making. She got a little worried. The sound got louder as the ground split open and then she saw and understood why James was making the face that he was.
A large plant grew from the ground at the very center of the clearing. Both James and Mercury recognized it, it was a Devil's Ivy.
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Living Devil's Ivy (Corrupt)
Grade: Demi-Boss (Dungeon)
Level: 40 + 3 => 43
Hp: 45,000/45,000 + 7500 => 45,750/45,000
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This Devil's Ivy looked very different from the previous one. First, it was smaller than the one they found in the past. Second, rather than looking green, colorful, and lively, it looked sick, dull, and decaying. Its body was excreting purple miasma.
Everyone but James, Mercury, and Talon had a look of fear on their faces. They had already run into the first Demi-Boss? On top of that, its information panel was weird-looking.
James spoke out, "This might be a good opportunity for us."
"Why's that? You want a rematch." quipped Talon.
"No, it might drop more ingredients for Anti-Venoms. Based on our current supply of them we can only survive for roughly an hour here." James retorted.
Everyone looked at each other with a trace of worry. James was right; looking around them it did look like they could be in here longer than their supplies would last.
They all knew what they had to do. One by one they entered into their battle stances. The twins entered stealth, Talon readied his bow, Mercury had a large smile on and was itching for another round against a Devil's Ivy. Totem and Dregg mentally prepared themselves.
James looked at his friends and his worry lessened. His last fight against an Ivy was far harder than this fight should be. Not only are there more people to help out but the Ivy was overall less powerful than the first one.
He activated his Aura of Pure Fire and started to command his troops. "The main body doesn't take much damage, we have to kill the Vines that it summons to deal damage! Talon and Dregg, focus on any ranged Vines that will appear, specifically the Water Vines. Totem, you are in charge of using your Earth Walls for defense; don't worry about attacking! Twins, you guys are to target any melee-based Vines! Reaper and I will float around to where we are needed. Just be aware that once a melee-based Vine is killed all the other Vines will return to the ground and Healing Roots will spawn to heal the main body!"
Just like the first fight against a Devil's Ivy, an interweaving wall of vines surrounded the battlefield. They were trapped in the clearing with the Ivy. It didn't matter to them, they planned to battle, not run.
The first phase started and 12 Water Vines appeared in the pond. James was too far away from the pond for his Aura to reach the Vines so Talon and Dregg were on their own.
Talon was firing arrows left and right. Between each class ability, he would fire a basic attack so that his cooldowns would not overlap. He prioritized Double Shot over any of his other abilities. He was strategically hitting two Vines at once with his ability. He would occasionally use his Fleeing Shot when he needed to dodge a water ball.
Dregg was doing very well during this phase of the fight. It had turned out, even though he wore a red robe when Ryan forced him into James's group, he was a Water Mage. While they could summon water from nothing, it was far better to use nearby water sources to cast their spells. Not only would the damage increase but the cast time and mana cost were both halved. He was firing water balls and water bolts left and right.
Mercury was patiently waiting for something to do. She knew that it would be pointless for her to attack the Water Vines, especially with the Living Trees surrounding the pond. The twins were safe in stealth and patiently waited for their turn. Totem was focusing on defense; he was using both his Earth Wall and Earth Shot spells to defend against the Water Vines. The Earth Walls lasted until they were destroyed, averaging four water balls per wall. While his wall spell was on cooldown he would fire balls of earth at stray water balls.
James stood close enough to the Devil's Ivy to slowly burn it with his Aura of Pure Fire. It didn't do too much damage but any damage was better than nothing.
It took a few minutes for the Water Vines to be killed off. They only had 750 health points but had a higher defense than the boss James and Mercury fought. After the first phase, they did 9,000 damage to the Devil's Ivy.
"This phase will contain Thorn Vines! They randomly shoot out thorns! Be careful!" shouted James. It would be this phase that Mercury and the twins should shine.
The ground rumbled and shook but things didn't turn out how James predicted. Human-sized plant pods grew out of the ground. They slowly opened and a large amount of miasma poured out. This miasma was thicker and denser than the miasma currently around them. Once it got close enough to someone they started taking damage!
Totem had been closest to a pod so he took damage first. He was taking 15 damage every 2 seconds! He ran out from the pool of miasma and the damage stopped. Once he left the pod it closed its mouth. The miasma also dissipated.
There were ten pods spread out over the battlefield. Each one was closed tight. Everyone was stumped.
"Looks like this fight won't be like your last one," Talon commented.
"Seems so…" replied James. He then summoned a Fire Ball and hurled it at one of the pods. It didn't do any damage. James then experimented with his Leach spells. No one got any sort of buff; it was as if the pod had no attributes. Since his tests failed he examined a pod.
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Living Vent Pod (Corrupt)
Grade: Ability (Dungeon)
Level: 40 + 15 => 55
Hp: 3,750/3,750
Once it opens its vent, a deadly miasma leaks out.
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He explained what he found but it only made more questions than answers.
"Its level seems not to matter but these health points are far higher than the Water Vines. They also cannot be damaged, how are we to progress the fight," asked Totem.
James thought about it for a moment, he had an idea but it would be troublesome if it was true. "I have an idea but I hope I am wrong."
He started walking towards a Vent Pod; Mercury saw what he was doing and tried to stop him. He turned around and comforted her. "I will be fine, you trust me right?"
She nodded her head and let go of him. The then continued until he was right outside of the range that the Pod closed.
Everyone was observing what James was doing. He took a deep breath and took a step forward. The Vent Pod opened and miasma quickly poured out and started damaging James. He took a step back and the Vent closed. He tested it a few more times; every time he entered its range it would open and when he left the range, it closed.
"So we have to be close enough to take damage to hurt it?" Mercury was able to figure it out.
James entered the range and used his Flamethrower to quickly kill the Pod. The Pod withered away leaving just its base and a hole in the ground from which the miasma once came from.
He returned to the group and drank a health potion. "Everyone take a pod, kill it quick so that you take as little damage as possible. Totem, instantly use your Invigorate ability so you take less damage."
Just as everyone split up a cry was heard from the dead Pod. Two arms could be seen from the hole in the ground. A new monster was pulling itself up and out of the ground! It appeared to be a disfigured seed. It had two arms, two legs, and a sinister face. Its mouth leaked miasma and a bright green drool. Once the drool hit the ground a sizzling sound was heard and the ground melted some. Once one appeared, another appeared, and then another. From the single Pod, three monstrosities appeared. After they appeared the Pod finally fully withered away and the hole closed.
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Living Seed (Corrupt)
Grade: Mutation (Dungeon)
Level: 40 + 16 => 56
Hp: 4,000/4,000
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Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone