After hearing the voice from the system telling him that he was hit by a skill, specifically a skill coming from the Sakura race, he knew that he was in a predicament.
"Man, I'll never be this relaxed ever again," Aurus sighed. Although he had a passive skill that would allow him to see everything within a 5 meter radius, most of the time he would be focused on one thing instead of everything around him.
"First off, let's wait until this Confusion debuff dissipates." Aurus took a calm breath and tried to sense his surroundings through the sounds as his sight was impaired.
He could hear some rustling a few decimeters away from both sides of his body. From this, he guessed that there were at least two enemies.
Aurus looked at the time left for the Confusion debuff. There was only 2 seconds left. At this point in time, Aurus knew that he would either move forward or move backward to avoid the enemies from the sides.
"But..." A thought suddenly flashed in his head, remembering something his illusionist friend told him back then. "At this stage of the game, inflicting debuffs on enemies would only be effective when hit directly."
From this, he was sure that the stick that inflicted the Confusion debuff on him wouldn't be on the left or right side of his body since the pollen had to cover a large part of the body for it to take effect!
Aurus gritted his teeth at the thought. There were only two places left for the stick he wanted to kill to be at, either in front of him or behind him. Without any way to find out where the stick was, he was stuck at a crossroads on which direction to head. But then, he just steeled himself and said, "You know what? I'll just rely on my instincts!"
Whoosh!
"Now!"
The Confusion debuff finally disappeared, allowing Aurus to see everything in his surroundings. After one glance, he made a judgement to move...forward!
Whoosh!
Bang!
At the place where Aurus previously stood, was a small pile of violet pollen. This pollen was the [Confusion Pollen] of the Sakura race.
Aurus couldn't help but smile as he looked at the stick in front of him. That's right. Instead of moving backward, he instead moved forward to face the Sakura stick head on!
"[Nut Shot]!"
Bang!
After he shot the skill, he felt three sticks heading towards him at a slow speed when compared to him. He dodged the three sticks with ease and shot another [Nut Shot] to one stick after the cooldown was done, surprisingly killing it.
"Eh?" Aurus was surprised. Shouldn't the sticks in this area have high HP? But while he was pondering on that question...
Two nuts that were heading towards him came out of nowhere!
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Of course, the nuts were moving at a speed that was still manageable for Aurus, who dodged it with relative ease.
Aurus took a few deep breaths...well photosynthesized for a few seconds before looking at his current situation.
A few decimeters away from him were two sticks that were somewhat scrawny in size, yet had this faint menacing aura surrounding them. Beside them was a broken stick that had the same appearance, presumably the stick that was killed in one shot by Aurus.
Behind the two sticks was a slightly gray branch that had a pinkish tint to its bark. This stick had three pink flowers on its body, while two sticks stood on each side, nuts prepared to shoot once more.
"Damn," Aurus couldn't help but curse. "I can't believe my luck is this bad that an Elite enemy encounters me while I was evolving [Fruit Creation]."
If evolutions could be differentiated into normal evolutions and Special evolutions, of course there are also different tiers of enemies. Normal enemies are just like the Lesser Mahogany Branch Aurus fought a while ago, it was basically a weaker version of the class the player chose. But Elite enemies are on a different level.
Not only do they have stronger stats when compared to normal enemies, they even have skills that allow them to do more than the three normal stats!
Ding! Ding!
'Aurus has dealt 6 HP damage to [Sakura Tamer].'
'Aurus has dealt 6 HP damage to [Lesser Mahogany Stick].'
'[Lesser Mahogany Stick] has been slain.'
'Experience +5'
The notifications explained what Aurus was fighting up against. He also understood why the stick he attacked died in one shot.
"Although I'm up a Sakura Tamer, it can only tame Stick-level [1] species at most."
Since the Sakura Tamer is in the Lesser Experience Haven, that meant that it would be limited in its choices of species to tame. Even if it tried to tame species on the same level, it would fail as those kinds of species would be alert to not let their bodies be controlled.
"Identify [Sakura Tamer]!"
Ding!
_______
[Sakura Tamer (Special)] (Level 3)
HP: 29/35
_______
"I would have to fire 5 more nuts before it dies completely," Aurus calculated how much shots he would have to do.
"Unless..." All of a sudden, Aurus started to charge towards the two Lesser Mahogany Sticks in front of him.
"...If I kill the small fries first!"
"[Nut Shot]!"
Bang!
One of the two sticks in front of him broke into the two after being hit with an ash gray nut. Aurus instantly removed the notification screen after seeing that he gained 5 experience. Afterwards, he started to move closer towards the other stick.
At this moment, the Sakura Tamer couldn't stand it any further and commanded the stick in front of Aurus to fall back. Not long after, it commanded the two Lesser Walnut Sticks beside it to shoot at Aurus. Of course, since the vanguards are Mahogany sticks, then the rangers would be Walnut sticks, right?
Following the orders of their master, the remaining Mahogany stick rolled back at a speed which Aurus could catch up to, but did not bother. At the same time, two nuts headed towards Aurus. Aurus didn't plan to dodge it, he wanted to see the level of defense he had.
Bang! Bang!
'You have received 0.2 HP damage.'
'You have received 0.2 HP damage.'
Aurus couldn't help but grin at the damage he received. It was extremely miniscule when compared to his large HP bar.
"Man...your sticks are weak."
Aurus then rolled towards the Mahogany stick after making sure the cooldown for his skill was over. As he was rolling, he changed his regeneration to HP regeneration as he sprouted 5 fruits once more.
Ding!
'[Regenerative Fruit Creation] has leveled up.'
Aurus couldn't help but chuckle after hearing the notification sound, producing one more green nut on his body.
"[Nut Shot]!"
Bang!
As if the Mahogany stick was running for its life, it was shot in the back, instantly breaking apart into multiple pieces. If there was any blood, it would look more gruesome rather than just be splinters.
The Sakura Tamer stood in its place. It couldn't move...well it's more to say that it didn't move. It didn't move because of the shock Aurus brought to it.
As a B-grade Inanimate, the Sakura Tamer had a pretty young soul that allowed it to tame lesser species. Nonetheless, since it only had a young soul, it didn't know how to choose ita fights.
Likewise, the Lesser Walnut Sticks on its sides were frozen in place since the Sakura Tamer and its tamed sticks shared emotions.
Using this chance, Aurus shot another nut towards one of the Lesser Walnut Sticks, successfully filling up his experience bar.
Ding!
'Aurus has leveled up.'
At this point, Aurus moved closer to the Sakura Tamer who was still frozen in place and said.
"You're next."
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[1] There are tiers to stick species. From lowest to highest: Twig, Stick, Branch, and so on.