'Damn it, Gramps! You hadn't said anything about this.' He cursed his grandfather inwardly and shifted his attention to the large abandoned mansion. After hesitating, he pushed the rusty iron entrance gate and walked into the green yard, filled with strange plants, vines, and mushrooms.
A second later, he felt a strange wing blow from his back and abruptly turned around in vigilance. Soon, he noticed no one nearby and let out a relieved sigh.
Although he looked calm on the outside, he was scared sh*tless right now.
He thought of returning to the group multiple times in the last few minutes. But he soon stopped himself as he noticed the strange greediness in his heart, stopping him constantly.
Even though he was still sane, his mind was filled with the unknown treasure hidden inside.
While looking strangely at his ring, he stepped forth and carefully moved towards the porch. Some black vines slithered towards his legs like snakes, but he burned them using his fire spell.
Although he was just an apprentice mage, he had already built five spell models inside his mind and could be powerful enough to protect against any normal monsters.
Once he arrived in front of the porch, he took a deep breath and was about to open the gate but stopped. He noticed that his Greed's ring began to shake fiercer. He could tell this ring was not shaking in fear, but it was shaking in excitement.
'Uff, it's trying to corrupt my thinking again.'
Count Henricus bit his lips and pushed the unlocked iron door with both hands. The next moment, a loud creaking sound echoed in the abandoned mansion, revealing a gorgeous tree trunk of a pointy-leaf tree. The mere trunk was large enough to occupy a 10x10 ft room!
The dark brown trunk was very tall and thick, and some purple fruits and flowers hanging in those upper branches gave the dusty main hall a unique aroma. Count Henricus watched that tree with amazement and soon shifted towards the tree trunk.
A moment later, his eyes glittered as he saw a strange azure-bluish stone embedded into the tree trunk's center.
While he was in a daze, a puff of dark smoke came out of his Greed's ring and formed an illusionary creepy humanoid form. The next moment, Henricus felt something gripping his soul and got anxious. He could feel some external power was making him fall asleep.
Although he couldn't figure out what was happening, he was sure it had something to do with Greed's ring.
Henricus didn't lose his cool, though. Instead, he gave a wry smile and unsheathed his dagger. Without any delay, he stabbed his hand.
The drowsy feeling faded from his head the next moment due to the immeasurable pain. He took control of his emotion a second later and heaved a sigh.
Henricus was indeed a coward. He never trusted this strange ring his grandfather gave him and always felt skeptical. But he knew it had mysterious abilities and spells and decided to use it for his good.
When he planned to join the expedition, he went to the royal library and read more about cursed artifacts. In one book, he learned some tricks that could help mages during unexpected curses. Now, that trick came in handy. Once the pain began to spread all over his body, that illusionary black humanoid figure returned to the Greed's ring and hid inside.
'Damn it; it seems this is indeed a cursed artifact.' Henricus muttered to himself in fear and smiled bitterly. After checking there were no dangers nearby, he shifted his attention to the strange azure-bluish stone and felt a sense of joy. It was just a pebble-sized stone. But he could feel some mystical power around it and grinned widely.
But his grin soon disappeared as he saw two closed eyelids-like structures appear below the stone, giving him goosebumps!
His whole body stiffened up.
'A mutated tree?' That was the first thought he had as he saw the strange tree. He had heard of those strange trees with intelligence due to long life and easily guessed that this strange tree must be one of them.
Indeed, his guess turned right.
Those two eyelids opened slowly at that moment and revealed strange emerald-green eyes. It didn't have any emotions and stared deep into Henricus's eyes. After that, a peculiar melody appeared from its branches and soon turned more violent.
As he was confused, a unique two-meter tall purple mushroom, a humanoid tree with a single eye on its trunk, and a three-meter tall Red Rose plant with multiple vines began to sprout from the ground and surrounded the tree like guards.
'Man Eater, Mushroom monster, Abyssal rose!' Panic surfaced on Henricus's face as he saw those three monster-like plants. He was well aware of those three strange life forms and got paled.
Henricus knew that even with his five zero-tier spells and Greed's ring's strange spells, he wouldn't even stand against these monsters for thirty seconds.
'Abyssal rose has illusion-type abilities; Man eaters have Orc-like physical powers, and mushroom monsters have poison abilities.' He instantly studied those three monsters and cast three fire arrows continuously at Man-Eater. Arrows made of pure flames began to move fastly and directly stabbed onto the four-handed wooden stem-like humanoid creature's chest.
Although it had no mouth, a strange, painful crying sound came from that creature. But soon, the burned area began regenerating, and new wood appeared on the Man Eater's trunk.
'Each of my Flame arrows has the power to kill a third-tier warrior, but against this Man Eater, it became useless.' Henricus's expression turned grim. Noticing the severity, he instantly thought of retreating. He knew all three monsters would attack him mercilessly if he stepped toward the tree.
Clenching his fist tighter, he again pointed his finger at that Man Eater and cast another spell. But this time, an invisible blade-like structure flew from his hand and directly slashed Man Eater's right limb.
A smile crept on his face as he continuously attacked the Man-Eater using his 'Wind Slash' spell. When the sixth 'Wind Slash' spell landed on the Man-Eater, its limbs were torn entirely, and even its head was decapitated. But before he could finish that Man Eater, a purple vine slithered from the Abyssal Rose plant and gripped his right leg. The next moment, he felt considerable stabbing pains in his leg and screamed out loud in panic.
"Help!"
Finally, he lost his calm and touched his golden ring. Although he didn't feel secure using that ring, he now had no choice but to take a gamble.
Meanwhile, a cloud of black smoke came out of the ring and directly entered his body. Now, he could feel chillness spreading to his whole body and noticed a foreign power began to take control over his body.
'What's happening?!' He wanted to ask out loud but couldn't. Simultaneously, a bone-cracking sound was heard all over his body, and then a tiny horn-like structure appeared on his forehead.
'Am I turning into a monster?!' Henricus was deeply scared and soon felt the control over his body return to him. But this time, another type of information also entered his mind.
He noticed a weird language engraved in his mind.
'Did some demon take control over me just now?' He mumbled in fear and shifted his attention toward the new spell models in his mind.
"W-What the hell?!" He shouted aloud as he saw six spell models hovering inside his mind instead of five! Soon, his whole body stiffened when he saw new spell models replaced all those previous ones.
'What the? Bloodline spells? Greed's Vision, Emotion Manipulation, Devil's Contract, Devil Transformation, Skin Hardening, Snatch.' As Hendricus glanced at the spell models, he got frightened. But what made to become anxious was the 'Devil Transformation' spell. As he saw all the names, he was damn sure that he had injected a real devil's blood into his body through this ring and got panicked.
'Heck! It's a Devil's bloodline!' He cursed at his god-damned grandfather for not warning him about this and sighed deeply. He soon snapped out of the daze as he felt another attack from the Abyssal Rose Plant and frowned.
At that moment, he noticed that the pain in his right leg had already vanished, leaving only some itching sensation.
'My leg had already turned into a dark-red color...No. This is skin hardening spell.' He nodded in understanding and shouted out loud.
"Devil's transformation."
A small red horn began to grow on his forehead. After that, his skin color changed into dark red, and his body grew two-meter taller. Moreover, a sharp long blade like-tail appeared behind him and moved like his own.
Instead of an obese human, a dark red-colored humanoid monster stood in the mansion's main hall. Multiple veins began fiercely attacking his body, but Henricus waved his clawed dark hands and ripped all the strong vines like papers. He then let out a cold snort and walked toward those three plant-type monsters.
'This devil transformation should be only active for five more seconds. I have to finish off these plants before that.' He didn't dare to delay any longer and sprinted towards the wounded Man-Eater. Within a second, he appeared in front of the Man-Eater and split it into half using his devil's hand.
After that, he clenched his hardened fist tighter and punched his hand toward that Mushroom monster! The purple mushroom collided with his dark fist and exploded, spreading strange spores everywhere.
'Damn it! It's Poison!' Instantly, Henricus's pitch-black devil eyes widened. But soon, he relaxed as he saw his Devil transformation was resisting those deadly spore attacks.
With an evil grin, he turned his head towards the Abyssal rose plant and took a step. Although the Abyssal Rose plant had no intelligence, it attacked Henricus with all its strength.
'It seems the Abyssal Rose plant is acting out of instincts!' Henricus calmly analyzed the three-meter-tall Abyssal Rose plant and moved faster while tearing those vines with his claw-like hands. He arrived before the Abyssal Rose plant and ripped the stem into pieces in two seconds.
But soon, he frowned as he saw all those vines disappear like they didn't exist.
'Illusion!' He was momentarily shocked.
A second later, he turned towards his right and saw that the Abyssal Rose plant had already arrived before the strange azure blue stone.
From its action, he could easily guess it wanted to protect the stone at all costs.
'F*ck! Even these plants are so persistent to live.'
Henricus coldly snorted and once again sprinted towards the Abyssal Rose plant. When he arrived in front of that plant, he felt exhaustion all over his body.
'I have to end this sooner!' He muttered under his breath anxiously and punched his hand at the Abyssal Rose plant's stem. With a shrilling crack, the stem broke, and the plant and large Red Rose fell on the ground.
"Huff. Huff. That was so f*cking awesome!" He shouted out loud with a grin and shifted his attention to the strange tree. He turned his gaze, particularly towards those eyes and Azure-blue stone. At the same time, he saw his body returning to its previous self and felt fatigued.
Without minding the exhaustion, he licked his lips and kicked the old tree to vent his anger.
"What are you going to do now? Cry?"
He chuckled as he felt the hateful glare from the old tree. He easily guessed that this tree's mutation must be due to the strange Azure stone and became more curious about its origin. But a moment later, he tensed up and sensed a presence behind him.
While hiding his anxiousness, he was about to turn his head and attack the opponent but suddenly froze.
At that moment, he felt something hit on his nape and slowly fell. Simultaneously, he felt his head dizzy, and a sleepy feeling invaded his mind.
'Ambush!' He became horrified at that thought and tapped his golden ring. The next moment, the space around his body began to distort and silently teleported him from the main hall.
Meanwhile, a black-haired kid appeared near the tree and glanced at where Henricus had fallen before. He wore a grey robe and had a golden bracelet on his right hand.
Earlier, Abium was deeply surprised by Henricus's devil transformation and understood how he became powerful in the past.
"I thought of killing him initially, but it seems he has the Devil's luck." He muttered out loud and turned his gaze towards the strange stone embedded above those two green eyes.
'Azolla, any guess about this stone?' Abium asked while walking closer to the old tree.
'You have to touch that stone first, kid. Then only I will be able to decipher any information hidden in that stone.' Azolla replied.
Meanwhile, Abium arrived before the old tree, raised his right hand, and touched the stone with his forefinger while not minding the hateful glare from the tree's eyes.
After that, he gripped it tighter using other fingers and plucked it out from that tree's trunk. The next moment, the whole tree began to shake fiercely and shed blood from its eyes.
Upon watching this scene, even Abium felt sympathy for it.
'Although it evolved into an intelligent life form, it will remain like this.' Abium felt pity. Letting out a sigh, Abium was about to teleport from there but stopped.
Meanwhile, Abium's other soul sensed change above the 'Time' divinity in the mysterious golden throne hall and was momentarily stunned. At that moment, a crystalline cube appeared above the 'Time' divinity and showed a new image. Abium soon looked at the image and noticed that the image showed him being sealed in a massive hexagonal crystal-like thing!
'Is this my future?'
He soon squinted as he saw a brown-haired humanoid figure appearing outside the crystal and bowing at him. It had a human face but strange wood-like limbs. It had two reddish eyes, a unique azure-third eye at the center of its forehead, a mature feminine look, and appeared more like a teenage girl.
A familiar catkin appeared from the other side and gave a deep look. That girl seemed to be around ten years old, had silvery long kitten ears, a long fluffy tail, and wore a greenish-blue gown of soft, satiny fabric. At that moment, she held a wooden flute and looked at him with a cold gaze. The mere gaze of her from that image made Abium's heart race.
It was none other than Goddess Nyara!
After that, another human appeared before the sealed crystal while carrying a head-sized crystal heart.
He was around 25 to 30 years old and had deep-set jade eyes, short eyebrows, short deep-blue hair, a fleshy nose, olive skin, and an oval face. At that moment, he wore a black double-breasted coat and a unique bowler cap.
As he watched these three strange people, many thoughts whirled inside Abium's head.
'Helpers?'
He suddenly seemed to have understood something and turned his attention toward the mutated tree.
'Could it be? That brown-haired girl is this tree?'
'Should I give this tree a gift?' Abium looked at those two reddened eyes and finally trusted his vision.
Little did he know that his simple decision would flip the universe's balance in the distant future!
Unaware of the future, he silently touched the tree trunk and sent important information about the common language, rune language, human cultures, dungeons, gods, souls, magic spells, and the outside world to the soul.
With Azolla's help, it took him only a few seconds to transfer everything to the tree's soul. Meanwhile, the mutated tree felt massive information entering and changing inside its soul. Abium was also a little shocked as he saw the branches begin to crack and stepped back.
At that moment, he knew that this cause was due to the information he gave the old tree and frowned.
'Azolla, is this tree going through another transformation?' Abium asked curiously.
'Yeah, kid. But the information you sent to the small soul is much larger. It will take eons for this tree to digest all the information.' Azolla's words were sharp and cold.