Nico's yelling must have given him the needed strength because after he yelled the ruby-like sphere detached from its stem, causing him to fall back and almost impale himself on the sharp roots which had stopped only centimeters away from his back.
"Haa…Haa…Haa, That was way too close…" Said Nico.
He then sat down for a second to calm his overly active heart. Which didn't take long, so he moved his attention to the ruby-like thing in his hand.
[Heart of the 'Illusionary Key Tree'
Details: This is the heart of one of the trees which wield roots and illusions as their weapons.]
"I may still have some way to go but this is the first step to gaining [The Eye of Providence]" He said while panning his eyes over to the practically self-slain tree.
"What's that?"
When he looked towards the tree, Nico noticed two small glimmers of green deep within the tree's trunk.
Curious as to what it was, he got up and poked the tree to make sure it wasn't a trap before sticking his hand into the trunk and pulling out two green orbs.
[Tree Essence
Details: Grants +50 to all stats]
"Damn! I can't believe I forgot about these things! But…wow…I must have gotten really lucky." Said Nico.
Tree Essence was one of the best ways to get stats without having to level up, making it one of if not the best items for new players. Getting +50 to all stats was even great for advanced players but they only had a 1% chance of dropping when you kill an 'Illusionary Key Tree', and on top of that you can only use one per person.
"And I got two of them…I can't let anyone know I have this, god knows how many problems it would cause."
Nico could already imagine the bandits and corrupted officials shedding blood over this tiny green orb, so he was determined to keep it a secret.
Moving on, Nico looked through his memories on how to absorb the 'Tree Essence' and quickly found it.
Opening his mouth and sticking one of the green orbs into it, he then let it sit there until it dissolved. It wasn't long before the orb was fully dissolved and made Nico get a notification.
[You have consumed the {Tree Essence}! +50 to all stats.]
"Sweet, I need to get out of here then."
Nico then proceeded to activate the fog and once again let himself be engulfed by it. Reaching the next illusion, he just did it how he did the first one because there was nothing special in the third one.
The fog then engulfed him for the last time but when he was about to exit the fog to return to the real world he heard cries coming from around him. Instinctively readying his spear, Nico dashed out of the fog, prepared to handle whatever was out there.
But, he was then greeted with an odd sight.
'…A bunch of men…hugging each other?'
This sight confused Nico so much that he even had another look around to make sure that he wasn't still stuck in the illusion.
The next words he heard from one of the men, answered all of his questions.
"I see the end of the forest, let's get the hell out of here!"
Following the man's words all 30 men got up and full blown sprinted towards the exit of the forest.
"Ahh…They must have been the people stuck in the illusions…poor dudes." Nico spoke aloud.
Not wanting to remember the sight of 30 burly men hugging each other, he turned his eyes and peered into the depth of the forest while thinking.
'If I want [The Eye of Providence], I'll have to face the dungeon that is farther in there eventually but not right now, I'm to weak'
Nico, being an expert about such things, knew that the dungeon farther in the forest was too dangerous for him at the moment. And he wasn't one to do stupid things on impulse so he decided to wait until he got stronger and maybe even got some help, before he challenged it.
Shaking off his thoughts, Nico remembered that he still had to find some goblins to kill.
After looking around for a little, Nico stumbled across a goblin camp with 5 or 6 goblins in it.
'With my newly acquired +50 stats this should be a breeze.' He thought before he dashed at the goblin closest to him.
Nico took the advantage of being unnoticed and dashed at one of the goblins, quickly piercing its heart with his spear. This alerted another goblin who had witnessed his friend's death, but before he had a chance to shout Nico pierced his heart as well.
This time the other three goblins noticed what was going on and made some strange noises.
"Graa!"
"Kraa!"
"Traa!"
"Pfft…"
Hearing the three similar noises made Nico stifle a laugh. If one was looking on from the outside they might have thought of Nico as a sadist.
The goblins, enraged that their friends had died, ran at Nico with some very shabby weapons. Causing Nico to only respond by quickly cutting through each of their necks, making their severed heads fall to the ground.
[You have unlocked the Passive Skill {Spearmanship.lvl:MAX}]
"Oh sweet, I don't really think it's going to do anything for me, as I'm already pretty damn good with the spear but skills are always welcome." He said aloud.
This was the first skill Nico had gotten in this world as long as you don't count the {Divine Concealment} skill, which he didn't.
Looking at the corpses of the goblins he had just slain, Nico remembered something he read in one of the books. It said that monsters have a chance of dropping a core and that they could be sold for money, it also said that the corpse could be sold as well but it wasn't worth going through all that trouble for a goblin corpse which isn't really worth anything.
So, Nico went ahead and tried to find one of these 'core' things. After going through the bodies of four of the goblins and finding nothing, Nico finally found a small sphere about the size of a fist lodged in the chest of the fifth one.
[Mana Core: Low Grade]
'Well, I guess it is just a goblin after all'
After thinking that, Nico turned his attention to the camp the goblins had set up and started to flip it upside down, looking for anything that could be of some value.
To his surprise he actually found something he recognized.
[Flaming Brimstone
Details: Grants the user the skill {Fire Origin}.]
{Fire Origin} was the beginning of many good fire related skills, so this was a lucky find for Nico.
Putting a little amount of mana into the [Flaming Brimstone] it begun to shine a bright orange and soon formed a pure ball of orange light and flew into Nico's body.
[You have learned the Active Skill {Fire Origin}]
Receiving that notification Nico opened up his skills and took a look at it.
[Active Skill: Fire Origin
Details: Gives the user a small amount of control over Fire.]
The skill sounded pretty lame but Nico knew that it could grow into something magnificent. Something that ranked in the top 5 for clearing skills.
Satisfied with his earnings Nico headed back to the guild to inform them of the accomplished mission.
Arriving at the guild Nico noticed that it was extremely hectic. Staff members were running all around, there were even some city officials present as well. Even though a lot was going on the receptionists were still doing their jobs at the counter so Nico just hopped I line.
The line progressed quickly and soo it was Nico's turn. The line he so happened to hop in was Clara's line and when she saw him she put on a relieved expression.
"I'm glad you are ok."
She had been present when all of the men who had gone missing previously, arrived all at the same time. There was one person missing though, the man who she had sent just this morning. It wasn't that she was worried about him, it just bothered her that she wasn't able to convince him to not take on the commission. Luckily all of her feelings were cleared up as she saw him in her line.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Anyway, I completed the commission and what's going on here?" He asked.
"Great! As for the mission here is your reward," she spoke as she sat 7 copper coins down onto the desk.
"As for what is going on here…well… we suspect the world has gone through a dungeon change…" she spoke her last words quietly, seemingly trying to not start a commotion.
"A dungeon change?"
Hearing that term Nico zoomed through all of the books he had previously read in his head but it still didn't sound familiar.
"Yes, a dungeon change is where the dungeons in the world change rather their location or change the dungeon itself. You can use the forest you were just in as an example, it used to just be a woodland with a lot of monsters but now it has changed into a dungeon or a ruin. The men who came back said it was called 'The Illusionary Forest'." Her last words were spoken in a way that made it seem like she was telling a scary story.
"Wow, sounds dangerous." Nico said.
He could tell that this dungeon change phenomenon was a big deal just by looking at his surroundings with all of the people running everywhere.
"It is, so please be careful during future commissions." She replied, returning to her professional tone.
Saying goodbye to Clara, Nico grabbed his reward and headed back to the inn, in his own thoughts.
'The dungeon change is probably because of me, unless it is some kind of freak coincidence which I doubt… Well, at least on the good side, it basically confirms that there are more dungeons from the Obelisk here, meaning more skills. But that adds another question, how many floors are combined in one realm, I would assume ten given that there are 5 realms but I don't know for sure.'
Breaking out of his thoughts Nico already found himself back at the "Dreamy Sheep".