"[Dark Magic: Black Hand!]" A black hand appeared in of Calter's wand and it grabbed the earth core from the rock monster. The black hand then went back to Calter and he put the earth core inside his spatial ring
Calter run again to dodge the long-range attacks coming to him. He did this tactic for three more times until he killed all of the rock monsters. He can feel his legs being numb a bit as he breathed heavily. Calter run for quite a bit, his body was only stronger than normal fifteen years old a bit and running like that put burden on his body
The youth hopped on the Cloud Stepping Horse's back and decided to rest a bit there. Even if magic beasts encountered them, Calter can just order the horse to run away. He needs a few minutes to recover from his fatigue
"I really need to find a way to increase my body strength" Calter said to himself while frowning. If only he can get an unlimited supply of Sun Dew but even the City Lord only gave one to them. To maximize Sun Dew's effect mages would use them when they are at the peak of Magic Apprentice but if someone has unlimited access to it, he can use several of it and the result would be satisfactory
There were groups of beasts that Calter encountered while he was resting but he just controlled the horse to run away. After he finished resting it was now time to fight again
Calter jumped down from the horse and walked slowly and cautiously. The youth scanned his surrounding and started frowning. Normally, it was extremely easy to encounter Magic Beasts inside the Thousand Beasts Forest but the area he was in now was devoid of any beasts. Even when he walked around, there weren't any beasts making him feel uneasy
Calter touched one of the trees, somehow the trees in this area have stronger vitality than the other trees. Their numbers also increased. Thousand Beasts Forest might be a forest but the number of trees inside was lower than other forests. This was due to the high numbers of beasts, they need larger space causing the trees in the forest to suffer
The youth sniffed around and smelled a sweet scent coming from the trees as if they were inviting him. The desire that bubbled inside Calter immediately made him to raise his guard. He has a strong willpower and this weak enticement won't have any effects on him
He moved away from the trees as he can feel the danger coming from them. Just as he was about to move, roots from the ground emerged and grabbed on his legs and raising him into the air
"Fuck!" Calter cursed as the roots' speed were too fast and he wasn't able to react. He tightened his gripped on his wand as to not let it fall from his hand. Calter was in the air upside down while the roots were whipping him in the air causing his head to start being dizzy
Calter gritted his teeth and forced himself to cast a Magic Spell. The disoriented state of his body was making it hard for him to activate any spell. Just when the roots were about to smashed him on the ground, he finally finished controlling the principles of magic and activated a spell
"[Dark Magic: Minor Explosion!]" Calter shot the spell on the roots a bit far from him to not harm himself. The spell destroyed a part of the root and he started falling on the ground. Calter hasn't landed on the ground yet when another root wrapped around him. Fortunately, he raised his arm in the air so that he can still move it and cast spells
Calter activated another spell to destroy the root wrapped around him but every time he did so, another root would cover him. With the quality of his body, although his mind can react but his physical body can't
Fortunately, another tree went to attack the Cloud Stepping Horse. When the horse saw the root coming from it, the horse used one of its hooves to smashed the roots into pieces
The impact was so powerful yet the horse easily did that. The trees around as if enraged used more of their roots to attack the horse. All the trees around that can reach the horse attacked it. Multiple roots went charging on the Horse's position
The horse neighed angrily. Its mouth was opened and a white energy condensed in front of it. The amount of mana inside that ball was much more than all the mana that Calter has
The horse's energy attack easily destroyed the roots coming to it. Cloud Stepping Horses may have lower battle ability than normal magic beasts but the one that Calter has was still at the Knight Rank! The horse will not attack anyone but if it was attacked it won't hesitate to retaliate to preserve its life
As Calter was close to the horse the power from its attack also destroyed the lower area of the root that was wrapped on his body
"[Dark Magic: Minor Explosion!]" As soon as Calter saw another root wanting to bind him he immediately casted a spell on it. With Calter's experience, he judged that only level 5 and above spells can destroy the root. That's why he was forced to use minor explosion. However, as Minor Explosion was a level 3 on difficulty his spell casting speed was inferior than when he was casting Darkness Balls.
Physical attack was faster and before he can cast another Minor Explosion the roots already went to bind him again. If not for the horse destroying the lower parts of the roots wrapped on his body, he wouldn't be able to free himself
A small explosion destroyed the root coming from him while his body was slowly falling on the ground. His original position was quite high as the roots are extremely long. Although he controlled his body to land perfectly on the ground but he still casted a spell in mid-air
Calter's feet landed on the ground but the impact of the landing damaged one of his feet. He went out of balance and his shoulder smashed on the ground causing yet another injury. Fortunately, Calter's bones weren't completely broken. At most there were some minor fractures but magic medicines and healing spells can easily heal it in a few days
The trees didn't stop and seems as if they were angered by the horse. Tens of roots emerged from the ground and went to attack the horse. Too bad for them, the horse is a Knight Rank and they don't stand a chance. The horse made another energy attack and destroyed all the incoming roots easily as if they were just farts in front of it
Calter gritted his teeth and ignored the pain on his body. He grabbed the harness on the horse and forced himself to ride it. With his condition, it was hard to fight anyone. He can't risk further injuring his body as it might cause a life lasting effect.
Calter controlled the horse and it run at full speed to get away from that area. Calter's face was not looking good as with his injury not only he needs to rest for some time but it will also make his Kence worried
"Fucking Tree Spirits!" Calter was sure that the trees developed spirits and were the ones controlling the roots. Tree spirits' strength are hard to judge. Individually they might have a power of Magic Apprentices, Warriors, Knights, or even Grand Knights. But their strength lies on their numbers and connectivity!
These spirits are like one entity separated from tens, hundreds, or even thousands of bodies. The tree spirits might have the power of Magic Apprentices individually but their combined might can rival Magic Warriors or higher level depending on their numbers. It was extremely hard to deal with them
"Don't think you'll get away from harming me" Calter said with a murderous intent. For the weak, encountering a nest of Tree Spirits was like a death sentence but for the strong it was a treasure!
The heart of those trees has a huge value. The effect was the like the Sun Dew, purifying and strengthening the body. The strength it can give to the bodies are inferior the Sun Dews but it will boost one's recovery rate a bit if you used it. And the effects are permanent!
A nest of tree spirits is rare and there were not a lot of them. Even if mages encountered one, it might not have a benefit on them. Only Tree Spirits' nest that has an individual power of Magic Apprentices and Magic Warriors are the ones that most cities can 'farm'
Just imagine, in a single nest there were tens to thousands of Tree Spirits. What if they were all Knight Rank or even worst Grand Knights? Even if a city mobilized all of their powers they might not succeed. But of course, even if they can't fully exterminate the nest, they can still harvest some at a time. In truth, no superpowers in the world will fully destroy a nest of Tree Spirits as it can supply them unlimited amount of Tree Hearts
With Calter being able to run away from them was both because he didn't enter too deep in their nest and because the Tree Spirits individual power was at the Magic Apprentice. Also, it seems like the nest was newly formed and their group attack abilities were still not fully developed
Who would have thought that Calter will encounter a treasure trove like that? Too bad that he doesn't have enough power to harvest Tree Hearts. But just because he can't doesn't mean that the City Lord can't!
Although he can't eat all the benefits but he would still get a huge part of it without doing much
"Heh... with that favor, even if the City Lord don't want to give me benefits, he doesn't have a choice" Calter said evilly. He was really clever as that favor can be used in a variety of situations. In fact, he doesn't need to use it to have his desire effect. The deterrent it has was enough for him
For example, if the City Lord doesn't want to give him any significant benefit from the Tree Heart harvest. He can use the favor to force the City Lord into harvesting all the Tree Hearts and give it all to him
Of course, knowing the City Lord he won't make things hard for Calter. But aside from Kence, there is no one that Calter trusted a hundred percent
Calter suddenly forgot the pain on his body and started anticipating about the Tree hearts. A single Tree Heart has inferior effects than Sun Dew. But the universe is fair. Sun Dew has better effect but they are rarer. Tree Hearts on the other hand might have lesser effects but if you encounter a Tree Spirit's nest, the supplies are abundant!
Calter entered the City with the guards saluting at him and opening the gates respectfully. Although he was injured, it wasn't visible on his face as his willpower was high enough to ignore it. Add that with the excitement he got from discovering the nest
Calter rode the horse until he got into the City Lord's Manor but the real trouble begun there. His foot was injured and it was hard to get down from the horse
The servants respectfully went to Calter's side and waited for him to get back down on the horse so they can take care of it
"Get me a crutch!" Calter ordered. Although the servants are puzzled by his order but they still dutifully obeyed. When one of the servants got back, she respectfully handed it to Calter
Calter jumped down from the horse but he only used the uninjured foot to land. He used the crutch to support him and started walking. The servants were shocked to see that Calter was actually injured. Riding a horse with that condition, isn't it going to be painful? The motion from the travel was enough to further injured his foot
"Young Master, do you need help?" One of the servants asked in worry but Calter only shook his head. He doesn't like to be helped in a simple thing like walking. Even if he needs some help, he would only allow Kence to help him