‘…’ while still behind a tree, Stark listened to the conversation of the four classifiers that emerged from the Mountain Challenge’s area exit, and his pupils were burning with a bright crimson aura as he realized their ill intentions.
But it wasn’t just them, every single one of the classifiers in here had mostly bad intentions and feelings with the others.
After all, it was a competition, and the strongest group would be the winner.
The group of classifiers passed right next to Stark, unaware of his presence, and headed deeper inside the woods.
‘No reason to fight people stronger than me for now…’ Stark mumbled before heading to the left, which was opposite to where they had gone.
[Watch out for the three guardians of the Valley’s Forest]
Such a warning appeared out of nowhere, almost informing Stark about a danger he didn’t know of.
The crimson moons cast an eerie glow on the twisted branches and gnarled roots that seemed to reach out for him with every step.
Shadows danced around him, whispering secrets that he couldn’t quite make out.
And then…
~FWASH~
A branch slashed through the air toward Stark, who avoided it at the last second using his quick movements.
‘What the fuck?’ he wondered while looking around, but saw no enemies.
But it was at that very moment that he realized what was happening: the trees were alive.
Five of the trees that surrounded him suddenly sprang to life, their branches twisting and turning menacingly, ready to strike at any moment, plus a crimson eyeball had appeared within the knots of their bark, all fixated on him.
‘This is bad…’ Stark thought, preparing himself to face these unexpected foes. He had never encountered living trees before, let alone ones with a malevolent intent.
…
[Name: Fake Trees]
[Level: 38]
[HP: 48500]
[Strength: 1782]
[Stamina: 966]
[Speed: 102]
[Defense: 736]
[Skills: Branch Strike, Root entangle, Life drain, Fakeout…]
…
Stark quickly assessed the situation and knew he had to act fast. With a deep breath, he activated [Domination] and focused his energy.
The Fake Trees began to advance slowly, their branches creaking as they moved closer to him.
They were extremely slow as they were basically using their roots to move slowly, but their reach and strength were on a whole other level, and he felt like even one attack would kill him.
“CLONE FRENZY!” he decided to summon one of his clones beside him to increase his odds since fighting such opponents alone could never be good.
Stark’s clone appeared by his side, mirroring his every move as they faced off against the menacing Fake Trees.
The Fake Trees, sensing the increased threat from the appearance of the clone, moved more aggressively towards Stark and his doppelganger. Branches lashed out with incredible speed, aiming to strike them down with brute force.
Stark and his clone leaped and dodged with expert agility, narrowly avoiding the deadly strikes of the Fake Trees. They worked in tandem, coordinating their movements to confuse and outmaneuver their wooden adversaries.
And thanks to that, the clone was able to reach one of the trees before Stark did so.
“AURA SMASH!” it jumped in the air and threw its two crimson fists toward one of the trees’ eyeball.
“-25918! -24277!”
‘Holy, the damage is insane even for the clone…’ Stark thought after seeing that first tree fall to the ground, meaning that their weaknesses was indeed that vulnerable eyeball.
Stark knew that he needed to exploit this weakness to defeat the Fake Trees. With determination in his eyes, he focused his energy and dashed towards another tree, his movements quick and precise.
As he approached the towering wooden creature, branches swiped at him viciously, but Stark anticipated the attacks and ducked, narrowly avoiding them.
With a burst of speed, Stark leaped up high and aimed two powerful crimson fists toward the eyeballs of two other ‘Fake Trees’.
~BOOM, BOOM!~
“-39272! -38128!” both of them were hit, and put on one HP.
[Enemy stunned]
And in addition to that, one was stunned, allowing Stark’s clone to punch the two trees and kill them both.
“Root Entangle!” but he didn’t have much more time to do anything else that roots came out of the ground beneath his clone and grabbed it, slamming it to the ground while restraining its movements.
“-5623!” the damage was insane, and of course the clone died since it only had one point of health.
Stark didn’t want to summon his second clone either as there could be a risk of losing it, so he decided to face off the last two alone.
Stark stood alone against the remaining two Fake Trees, their crimson eyeballs fixed on him with malice.
He took a deep breath, then began running toward the two trees as they were both right next to one another.
But of course, even monsters had brains.
“ROOT ENTANGLE!” seeing that their branch strikes were all avoided by Stark, they decided to ambush him by summoning hundreds of roots from the ground, making it almost impossible for Stark to avoid them all.
That is… if he didn’t have ‘THAT’ skill.
“INVINCIBLE DODGE,” at the perfect timing, he rolled forward and passed right through the attack using his invincibility frames.
And so he found himself right in front of the monsters, a wide grin on his face as he knew that it was over.
“CHECKMATE,” he laughed as he activated [Aura Smash] and sent the two fists at each of the trees.
“-42718! -43772!” and then he followed through with two punches while they were recovering from that.
~CRACK, CRUNCH!~
The two Fake Trees crumbled to the ground, defeated by Stark’s strategic prowess and powerful attacks.
[HP:7650/7650]
Stark observed that with each level he completed, his HP would increase significantly more than it did in the previous level, which was why he was already at 7650 while being only level 19.
[You have slain one “Fake Tree lv38”, gained 32619EXP!]
[You have slain one “Fake Tree lv38”, gained 31993EXP!]
[You have slain one “Fake Tree lv38”, gained 32182EXP!]
…
He had gotten over 150000 experience points in this singular battle, and although he had almost died many times, it was still worth it to him.
And so he kept going inside the ‘Valley’s Forest’, fighting his way through the monsters he would encounter.
…
[You have slain one “Forest Spirit lv37”, gained 30736EXP!]
[You have slain one “Grass Wolf lv39”, gained 34012EXP!]
[You have slain one “Fire Bear lv36”, gained 29824EXP!]
…
And so soon enough, he reached level 20.
[Your level has increased to level 20, granting you one skill point and boost in stats]
[Level 20 Reached: please pick a skill card]
Three red cards appeared in front of him just like the previous times, and Stark took the one in the middle since he didn’t really have the time to decide in this dangerous environment.
He took the card and flipped it, and there he saw the drawing of a crimson spear.
‘…?’ he immediately read the name of the skill.
