The Rhizopus are carnivorous magic monster plants that feeds on humans. It has elastic bodies which excretes acidic liquid that melts humans to pulp as soon as it is ingested giving their prey no chance to attack. It is one of the deadliest advanced level plant monsters. It creeps in silently and strikes within a blink. That is why everyone is already in panic. If it is the Rhizopus, then they may likely not survive the grassland. Why did they have to run into such monster just as soon as they stepped into the grassland?
A dark blue and a rose coloured flame lunged at the weird looking plants like boiling lava.
Splash..
Splash..
The flames were from the new advanced level fire mages in the team. It was the second skill in the advanced level fire magic. The fire plague which was the skill the fire mages had just used to attack the Rhizopus has more burning intensity than the basic level fire balls.
The blue flame is relatively an innate talent greater than the normal rose flame. It covers a much wider area and lasts much longer than the rose flame which gives the blue fire mages a slighlty bigger advantage.
With these two flames aimed at the Rhizopus, it will melt instantly instead of burning.
On the other side, one of the Rhizopus closest to Opal's line pushed out its thorny tongue and wrapped it around a young girl's leg. She was one of the healing mages. The tongue pierced her skin and drew her blood as she was dragged rapidly towards the cylindrical body of the Rhizopus.
"Hey! It's taking Madie!!"
Opal quickly turned towards the plant that was silently dragging Madie away and quickly attuned.
'Wind blades'
Just as a large gust of rapidly spinning wind that made large swooshing sounds aimed at the Rhizopus, it quickly sucked Madie in like it was finally having a meal after being starved.
The wind blades slashed the Rhizopus into pieces but surprisingly there was no sign of the living Madie, only sticky dark red liquid. Even with Opal's swiftness in casting her magic, she still couldn't match up to the Rhizopus' digestion speed.
"Madie!" A male's frightened voice called. Shocked beyond words that the living Madie he had just entered the grassland with was no more.
"Attack!" Master Park shouted. He was angry. These silent killers were going to take them on one by one and he hated the idea of staying back to wait for his death. He quickly attuned to his magic energy and began to swiftly cast his advanced level earth magic but the monster plants seemed to be masters of the earth magic as they effortlessly coursed the earth particles and moved swiftly in the soil.
The mixed flames plunged into the Rhizopus at all sides continuously. The flames lasted for a while and what remained when the roaring flames had died down was an empty space where the Rhizopus had once taken up.
"Phew! Much easier than I thought."
"Madie," the same male voice called. He had his eyes glued to the exact Rhizopus that had taken life away from the young girl. He regretted coming on this quest all to explore the underground falls and gather it's treasures. What was he thinking when he decided to pressure Madie into joining him to an Orange zone. Now...she's gone.
Suddenly,
Crack...
Creak...
All over the area, roots of plants suddenly began to wiggle like snakes as it came together. As if nothing had happened, all the Rhizopus that has previously been burnt to the roots by the magic flames suddenly sprang back to life.
"What is this?"
"Am I going to die here?"
Panicked cries rang through the grassland. The mages frantically tried to attune to their magic energy.
"Its the regrowth type monster! It can't die to through our magic!!" Liam screamed when he discovered the specie of the Rhizopus.
Like a flash of light, the regrown Rhizopus began to grab the mages, one after the other and sucking them in.
Opal rushed forward and cast her wind blades.
Swoosh...swoosh.
Rapidly moving wind slashed at the Rhizopus around them to give themselves some space. One good thing about the advanced level wind blades was that it covered a much wider area.
Following Opal's wind blades, almost all the Rhizopus in the field were fiercely cut to its lower shoots but almost immediately...
Creak..
It regrew and began its attack over again.
Opal was shocked. She took few steps backwards. How is this thing unaffected by her greatest combat skill? How then are they supposed to kill it?
"We should just hold it back!" Master Park shouted from his side through gritted teeth. He was almost at his limit. Casting magic required a lot of mental and magic energy and he had been casting his with all his strength.
Since they can't kill the Rhizopus, it would be best if they should try and hold it back to find their way of escape.
"I think I can hold it back!" Someone screamed from the back. "My frost lock can freeze it and buy us some time to leave this area at least." He was an ice mage.
Two strangely curved thorny vines began to silently crawl towards Opal's feet while she was focused on holding back the ones she could see.
Having seen a ray of light in the form of temporarily freezing the Rhizopus, the mages expressions brightened.
"Try your best to keep it back while I attune to my magic energy. Its quite a complicated process." The ice mage said. He was the only ice mage in the group and thus he had the lives of the others depending on him at this point.
"Opal, behind you!!" Orin shouted as soon as he sighted the vines crawling towards Opal. He quickly cast some fire balls at the vines and terminated it's efforts, saving Opal, maybe temporarily.
At school, he had always been the fastest mage known for his ability to swiftly cast his magic in a blink. Double the amount of time required for an average mage to attune to his magic energy and cast it.
'This is much trickier than I thought. If it had been these creepy things that attacked me in the forest, I would have been dead by now,' Vandel shuddered at the thought of fighting these disgusting plants that regrows even if it is slashed to pieces. He just stood at the middle with the ladies.
'Damn it I can't even protect myself! System can't you do something right now'
He thought to take a peek at his status screen while there was still time to. He found the new skill he had unlocked earlier.
'What does it do?'
He thought to try it out but...this is not the right time to start trying out new skills. He might make one clumsy mistake that might take his life.
He discovered an unread notification at the upper end of the blue screen and quickly checked it out.
[New tab updated]
'What tab is that?'
He clicked on the 'tab' and a new icon appeared at the header of the screen.
'Well...what does it do?'
He opened the tab and a new screen appeared with dozens of greyed out slots and a bold label above it. It was his online phantom store.
In this store, he can access all kinds of monster weapons based on the quality and quantity of crystals he has. And at this moment he has...
"What are you doing Vandel?" Someone suddenly shouted at him. It was Opal. He quickly shut the system and turned to her. "Move!!!"
Everyone had left him behind while he was busy accessing his system. They were gradually moving closer to the ice mage who was perhaps their ticket out of this hell.
Vandel quickly moved towards the others while Opal continued slashing at the now aggressively crawling vines and tongues of the Rhizopus with her wind blades.
"Frost spread"
The ice mage said when he had finally gathered his magic energy to cast the spell. It was an advanced level magic and from the way he was struggling to cast it, he must have been using all his energy to do it.
Thick frost rapidly started to form at the roots of the Rhizopus around them.
"Freeze"
The ice crawled over the plants and froze them, turning them into weird white statues.
"We'd better move right away," the ice mage said while panting heavily.
Some of them finally sighed. Taking a huge deep breath.
"Move everyone!" Master Park commanded. They had to escape before the Rhizopus breaks free.
They silently moved in between the frozen blades. Everyone on their toes.
*Ding
~Do you wish to purchase a tier 2 phantom scythe?
A tiny mechanical feminine voice suddenly spoke in Vandel's mind. He quickly took a look around at the mages who were seriously escaping this large danger zone, probably someone was talking to him because he couldn't believe the system could speak to him as well.
First of all, it was hard believing he actually had a system in his mind if not for three eyed spirit fox which he luckily killed and now this...maybe he was going nuts.
Soon to be a proud maniac.
But then, he heard it again.
~Do you wish to purchase a tier 2 phantom scythe from your online store?
'OK, so that's what the store is for?'
"Save me! Arrgggh!" The frightened cry of a girl rang into his ears and he frantically screamed a 'yes' at the system.
Something was definitely wrong, the Rhizopus has broken free.
[Purchasing phantom scythe...]
[Purchased]
~Do you wish to equip?
'What the f*ck! Yes!'
[Phantom scythe equipping...]
[Equipped]