'It's the two beings that appeared in the scan earlier! Hmm? Both beings appear to be so skilled at hiding their spirit powers even from my spiritual scan.' A look of wariness appeared on Abium's face.
At first, he thought of revealing the information to others, but soon he dismissed that thought.
'If I said anything out of ordinary, they will become suspicious of me.' He sighed inwardly and continued to follow the necromancers.
The group continued their walk for 8 hours before reaching the base of a lone scarlet-colored hill. Unlike other areas, only withered trees and plants appeared around the surroundings, making the area gloomier.
"Something is off about this place." Aliza glanced around and muttered.
Rilos frowned a bit at Aliza's words and hesitantly walked ahead.
'Is this the intuition of a death mage? Now that I think about it, Teacher Mike also can predict the future, right?' He couldn't help but recall his memories.
At first, he thought it would be easier to find some clues regarding the location of the final seal. But now, he realized that they were wrong.
'Unlike others, I also have to complete another job in this dimension. I wonder where that fire temple is-'
"This pocket dimension is so vast!" Britta interrupted his deep thoughts.
"Indeed. It looks more like a small world than a pocket dimension." He couldn't help but voice out his thoughts.
The only endless volcanic mountain range and dense forest regions appeared in their sights.
At that moment, Grazius suddenly shifted his eyes towards the front and soon exclaimed while pointing his forefinger in that direction.
"Look!"
Quickly, everyone followed his gaze and soon widened their eyes.
At that moment, they saw a strange tree filled with large glassy leaves and glassy branches standing tall ahead of them and got stunned.
But what made them widen their eyes was that each glassy leaf showed different images to everyone. One glass-like leaf showed a picture of a mountain of gold coins; the following picture showed many diamonds; another picture showed naked beauties, and so on.
Even some beautiful ornaments and artifacts appeared in those images, causing a strange temptation in everyone's mind. Although those treasures were just images, somehow, everyone thought they were real treasures and subconsciously stepped forward.
Abium also sensed a sudden emotional change inside his heart and strongly desired to fight for those treasures.
A seed of 'Greed' appeared in everyone's heart!
As he was about to dash forward, two eight-eyed red monkeys, around 2 meters tall, suddenly jumped out of the nearby woods and ran towards that strange tree madly. It appeared that those two magical beasts were the ones who had stealthily followed them but got affected by that peculiar power.
"My child and wife are still alive!" Meanwhile, a shocking mutter came from Rilos's mouth as he started running towards the strange tree that stood fifty meters away. Not only Rilos, even Grazius, Britta, the always silent Ubraquir, Aliza, and Yozis were influenced by that strange desire power and started walking while muttering different words.
The only one who stood without any change in emotion was Ulzez. He stared at them with amusement and silently grabbed Aliza's shoulder, who was now crying, while pointing at a random crystal-like leaf.
As Abium started walking, Azolla's firm voice came out of his mind and tried to stop him.
"Kid, don't go near. It is a trap." But he shrugged his shoulder and didn't even listen to Azolla's words at all. All his thoughts were filled with countless gold coins, diamonds, and beauties. As he was about to take another few steps, his face began to show a trace of confusion.
Because of Azolla's disturbing voice, Abium finally entered a confused state. If he had seen this tree before he had met with Azolla, he would have run ahead and grabbed all those gold coins greedily. But he now didn't feel immense affection toward those white gold coins and treasures.
'Why do I need these many white gold coins? I already have thousands of white gold coins in my spatial ring. As for beautiful women, I can get them by myself. After all, I'm not a pathetic warrior but a mage!' As those thoughts crossed his mind, Abium's face started to change, and soon he returned to his normal state.
At the same time, the seed of Greed, which was about to take root in his heart, began to vanish as it had never existed before.
He also heard Azolla's relief sigh in his mind and smiled bitterly.
'Kid, grow up. You are not supposed to be attracted by these worthless coins and fleshes.' Azolla said inside his mind seriously, while Abium nodded his head with embarrassment. He knew these gold coins and beauties were not worth much in front of a mage, but he still got attracted to them.
It was all because of his past life hardship.
He spent his entire twenty years taking dangerous missions in the past but only saved up a few hundred white gold coins.
Ultimately, he needed more money to buy a new home near the noble's district.
His legs moved on their own when he saw the mountains of gold coins inside those glassy leaves.
'Haa! I feel so embarrassed right now.' Abium laughed with a weak smile and soon shifted his gaze toward others. Except for Abium, Aliza, and Ulzez, all the necromancers had already arrived before the strange tree and looked up at the strange glassy leaves vacantly.
'What a powerful illusion! This tree even managed to influence our inner thoughts.'
As he was muttering, the intense emotional feeling that appeared in everyone's mind began to vanish, waking everyone up.
The next instant, Rilos, Britta, Grazius, and Ubrauqir quickly tapped their spatial ring, took out their combat skeletons, and stared at that tree and the two 2-meter-tall red monkeys vigilantly.
Even though they were second-tier necromancers, they knew they were not invincible.
At that moment, everyone got deeply startled and realized how careless they had been a while ago.
If someone had attacked them using this opportunity, it would have become disastrous!
Soon, they stared at those two red monkeys and got ready to attack at any moment.
Meanwhile, the two red monkey magical beasts also snapped out of the dazing state and looked at each other in puzzlement.
After that, both monkeys shifted their gazes toward the necromancers and growled at them angrily.
Brumm!
As everyone was looking at that glass tree and those monkeys in a tense mode, a sudden strong tremor came from underneath the earth and shook the whole mountain!
It was so strong that caused large igneous rocks that clung to that hill started to fall downwards in every direction. But that was not the end. Suddenly, a sharp metal-like root popped out from the ground next to the glassy tree and crept towards their direction.
No! Abium saw multiple sharp spiky roots popping out of the ground one by one and slithered toward them like snakes.
'What the hell are they?'
He took two steps back in horror.
All those roots were like sharp iron rods and attacked the nearby trees and rocks like a maddened dog. Abium even noticed that the roots started sucking the life forces in those withered trees and got anxious.
Within seconds, most of the nearby withered trees and igneous rocks were sliced into multiple pieces. Moreover, two of those sharp iron roots even cut a three-eyed red monkey's neck and devoured its blood, flesh, and bones.
'What the f*ck is happening? Where did that tremor come from?... Wait! Why do I feel the ground is moving...?' Abium felt an ominous feeling as he thought of that possibility and quickly looked downward.
At that moment, he saw that the red soil began to rise in many areas!
'Damn it! There is something wrong with this strange glassy tree.' Abium's face turned ashen.
At the same time, the other three-eyed red monkey had already gone on a rampage as it noticed that this strange tree's roots had killed its partner.
"GRRROOWLLL!" The red-eyed monkey roared unwillingly and looked at the glassy tree hatefully. Without hesitation, it leaped towards the glassy tree and punched it with full force, utilizing its fire-elemental energy.
With a bang, that tree stem broke into two.
Slowly, the glassy tree crashed on the red soil while breaking all the glass leaves.
A second later, all those spiky metal roots froze and silently fell like corpses.
"Is it over?" Yozis, who stood next to Rilos, suddenly spoke with a terrified look.
BRRMMMMMMMMM!!
A second later, a more intense tremor came from the ground, planting fear in everyone's hearts!
Then, that broken trunk, still attached to the ground, suddenly rose.
No! It was not a trunk but a humanoid being.
The being that slept underneath the glassy tree all this time had woken up due to the red-eyed monkey's earlier action!