Undead Tree

"How did you get lost? Didn't I tell you to just head toward Skeleton Rock?" Lin Yuan couldn't help putting a hand to his forehead.

"But I can't see that big rock anymore..."

"How? It's hundreds of meters tall. Trees like these couldn't possibly block..." Lin Yuan angled his view upward, and his voice abruptly cut off.

At some point, the ordinary trees around them, originally only a few meters tall, had become towering giants dozens of meters high.

Their enormous, dense crowns overlapped in impenetrable layers, blocking out most of the starlight and moonlight and making it impossible to see outside.

Let alone the rock in the distance.

"When we were outside the island earlier, I didn't see any forest this tall."

Puzzled, Lin Yuan recalled what he had seen while surveying the island from afar. He was certain he had only seen a beach, low-growing woods, and the giant rock in the center.

If a ring of trees several times taller than their surroundings had appeared in the woods, there was no way he wouldn't have noticed.

Unless these enormous trees had only grown after they entered the forest.

On this strange sea, that was hardly unimaginable.

Fortunately, this didn't amount to much of a predicament.

If the canopy blocked their view, they could simply climb higher.

"Lilia, can you climb trees? Go up and see which direction the giant rock is in."

"Oh, right! We can do that!"

Lilia caught on and immediately got moving.

She had a peculiar way of climbing trees. First, she embedded her sharp scythe in the trunk to anchor it, then stepped on it to launch herself upward, pulling it free as she jumped and hacking it into the trunk again higher up.

She bounded upward this way at a fairly brisk pace.

Suddenly, just as she was about to reach the treetop, the giant tree's branches jerked back!

Like a giant snake twisting its body, it dodged Lilia's swinging scythe.

"Whoa!"

Lilia's swing missed. With nothing to push off from, she fell straight out of the air and hit the ground.

Thud!

The fall left the puppet girl completely dazed, and even sent several parts flying off her body.

"Huh? I missed?"

Lilia didn't seem to have noticed that last sudden movement. Assuming she had made a mistake, she charged back up before Lin Yuan could speak.

Thud!

The exact same scene played out again.

Was this giant tree deliberately stopping them from reaching the top? To prevent them from finding their bearings?

Interesting.

After a moment's thought, Lin Yuan gave a direct order:

"Lilia, stop climbing. Just chop that tree down!"

"You got it, Captain Lumberjack."

Lilia was always quicker to act than to think. Without asking why, she raised her scythe and got straight to work.

She wasn't very bright, but her habit of not bothering to think neatly sidestepped that shortcoming.

And as a puppet, she needed no sleep, never got tired, and could revive endlessly.

Aside from saying things that invited a beating and liking to give her captain all sorts of strange nicknames, she was the perfect helper.

Perhaps because these trees had grown too quickly, their wood was exceptionally fragile. A few swings of Lilia's scythe brought one down.

With the giant tree down, the space overhead immediately opened up considerably.

But the surrounding trees immediately began growing, extending their crowns over to cover the sky again.

"Lilia, keep going."

Lin Yuan remained unmoved by what the surrounding trees were doing.

Go ahead and grow. Let's see how you grow once you've all been chopped down!

"Yes, Captain Overseer!"

Lilia also had limitless stamina, so she swung her scythe and got to work.

In less than an hour, the surrounding trees had been cleared away.

Only one exceptionally tall giant tree remained, straining to extend its crown overhead.

But a single tree couldn't make a forest. It could no longer completely obstruct Lin Yuan's view.

In the distance, the enormous Skeleton Rock still gleamed white in the moonlight.

"We're already here. Might as well chop down the last tree too."

Lin Yuan sent the thought to Lilia through their mental link.

It wasn't that he had nothing better to do. These woods were clearly unusual, and there might well be some treasure hidden here.

Earlier, he had asked Lilia to bring him a piece of a branch chopped from one of the giant trees, but it hadn't been anything good.

[Fragile Wood]

[Wood that seems to have been eroded by something, leaving it fragile. Can be used to repair ships, but will reduce maximum durability.]

This stuff didn't even qualify as an ordinary material. It was pure trash.

So Lin Yuan turned his attention to this last and largest tree.

Whether that hour of work had been wasted would depend on this final tree.

Lilia swung her scythe, cutting a gash in the trunk.

Creak!

Before Lilia could strike a second time, the giant tree began thrashing like a wounded beast, its entire trunk shaking!

There was no telling how deeply its roots reached. With that shake, the surrounding ground began trembling as though struck by an earthquake.

Then the center of its trunk began twisting into an enormous human face, with two huge green flames in its eye sockets.

Lin Yuan knew those flames well. They were just like the ones in the skeleton warriors' eye sockets earlier.

"Soulfire? Is this tree a skeleton too-no, an undead creature? An Undead Tree?"

Unlike those skeletons, however, this giant tree wasn't dead wood. Its crown was still lush and green, which, combined with the eerie green soulfire, made its overall appearance deeply incongruous.

"Hhh... hhh..."

The face on the Undead Tree opened its mouth, producing a hollow rush of air. At the same time, its branches writhed like giant pythons and slammed viciously toward Lilia!

Smack!

Lilia, the puppet girl good only for crushing weaklings, immediately revealed how weak she really was against an opponent clearly several levels stronger, getting smashed to pieces in a single blow.

"Stay under cover. I'll deal with it!"

Lin Yuan knew it was his turn to act. He immediately threw open the coffin lid and rushed out.

"Go get it, Captain Vengeance! You can borrow my scythe!"

The revived Lilia tossed her enormous scythe out of the coffin, and Lin Yuan caught it.

So light!

Lin Yuan had never used Lilia's scythe before. Only when he held it did he realize it was practically weightless.

Boom!

The giant tree reacted quickly too. While Lin Yuan was catching the scythe, it swung a branch down hard, sending dust billowing everywhere.

But Lin Yuan wasn't fragile like Lilia. When the dust cleared, he hadn't suffered any real harm.

Then Lin Yuan swung the scythe. A cold gleam flashed, cleanly severing the giant tree's branch.

This giant tree's attacks deal about 50 damage to me each time. That's not much. Looks like it isn't all that powerful either.

Lin Yuan checked his durability and thought to himself.

Of course, that was relative to him.

In fact, for the giant tree to penetrate the protection of the Active Wooden Armor and deal that much damage to Lin Yuan, its attack power was by no means low.

Ordinary players facing it would be killed in one hit, just like Lilia.

Against Lin Yuan, however, that kind of damage wasn't enough.

"Let's finish this quickly!"

Lin Yuan swung his scythe and charged straight at the giant tree.

Suddenly, the giant tree shuddered, and the branch he had severed grew back in just a few seconds.

"This thing can regenerate too?!"

Lin Yuan's expression changed. This was trouble.

He couldn't afford to spend too long on land!