Varian reached the end of the passage and saw the unexpected.
'Isn't this too early?' Despite the surprise, he prepared himself.
There was a giant tree in front.
It wasn't a tree per se, but it sure looked like one.
It was as tall as a five-storey building and was as wide as an aeroplane. Its branches were like tentacles, and Varian absolutely didn't want to get caught by them.
'How the fuck am I supposed to "kill" this thing?' He wondered.
As he was still assessing his enemy, the long tentacles rose into the air and shot at him at an insane speed.
Varian's body instinctively moved to the side.
Boom!
Boom!
"Hiss" A huge boulder behind him was pulverized by the tentacles.
Varian frowned.
'This is a high Level 3 attack?'
Learning his lesson, he didn't stay still, but sprinted around the tree. Not moving in presence of these deadly tentacles was courting death.
Boom!
Boom!
As he dodged the consequent attacks, a question struck him.
'If the goblins earlier were lightning beasts, why isn't this tree-like creature not using any lightning attacks?'
Boom!
Boom!
Varian rolled down and dodged a tentacle lash.
Right then, another tentacle followed.
Boom!
Varian barely side stepped and was about to sigh in relief.
But then came another!
"Damn!"
Varian crossed his arms at the last moment and took the attack head on.
He shielded himself with lightning mana and solidified the space around his arms.
Crack~
To his surprise, the lightning barrier's effect was nonexistent. The solid space held off some damage, and Varian's arms bore the brunt.
"Gurgh!"
The brown tentacles slammed at his arms and Varian was pushed back with his feet planted on the ground, as he left behind large trails.
Drip!
Drip!
As blood dripped down his arms, he sprinted to the side and escaped the next attack.
Boom!
'Its physical strength is higher.' The ache from his bones told him.
'Wait, is that?!' Varian spotted a few white things at the base of the tree.
They looked like human skeletons but were much small.
'Goblin's bones?' Varian realized.
No wonder there were only so few goblins in the earlier passages.
So they were supposed to be way more in the first and second layers. This tree killed most of them, and reduced the difficulty.
Boom!
Boom!
As he strained himself to dodge the lethal attacks, he spotted many more piles of bones. Dozens and dozens of them.
'Just how did it manage to kill so many?' He wondered.
He channeled his lightning mana, and a lightning ball shot towards the tentacles.
Zapp!
"Eh?"
There was not even a scratch.
Even though it was only a Level 1 attack, it shouldn't be so useless.
'This thing is resistant to lightning.' He concluded. 'That was why it could kill so many goblins. They had only lightning attacks.'
Boom!
Varian unsheathed his sword and slashed at a tentacle.
Creaaak~
There was one cut, and the tentacle was still intact.
Boom!
Varian ducked, and the tentacle lashed at the ground behind, creating a crater.
He glanced at the tree, and suddenly; it clicked him.
Varian spread the space sense and sensed underground.
"Got it!"
He raised his fist and slammed down.
Bang!
Bang!
Dust rose into air as three tentacles hurriedly shot towards him.
With his earlier experience, Varian was able to dodge them with relatively more ease this time. And he kept punching the ground.
Bang!
A large hole was formed by the force and Varian saw 'it'.
The light red things. The roots.
They were extending from here, and were heading towards the exit he came from.
'So they are connected to every plant in the dungeon?' Varian gasped.
He recalled the plants that weren't killed by the goblin's lighting attacks. Now it seemed that they too were slowly developing resistance against lightning.
Varian found the solution.
He raised his sword and—
Chop!
The tentacles twisted for a moment as though they were feeling the pain.
Green juice spurted from the severed root, but Varian had no time to revel in the sight.
He sprinted around the tree and used his space sense to estimate the feasibility of his plan.
"Fuck!"
There was almost no chance. There were too many roots. If he cut them down one by one, he'd be exhausted before he did the job.
Then, the tree would gain an upper hand, and he'd have to die.
"I should cut them all together." Varian glanced at the base of the tree and rushed towards it.
The tentacles didn't let him in.
They hurled at him from all directions.
Varian didn't bother setting up a lightning barrier and used space binding to solidify the space around the tentacles.
Creak!
Creak!
The tentacles stagnated for a moment before they broke the solid space.
But Varian was only halfway from the tree with that one moment.
Shuaa!
They lashed at him again and this time, with greater urgency.
Varian splurged his space power and continued using space binding.
Creak!
Creak!
The tentacles broke the space binding only to find the space around them solidified again and again.
Varian managed to continuously block them but his space power was about to run out. Doing this in a normal battle would be suicide.
But here, it was a brilliant move.
Because in the short but crucial time bought by the reckless space binding, Varian reached the tree base.
His space power was already running low, so instead of it, Varian channeled all his lightning power and created a large ball of lightning.
The tentacles were undeterred and shot towards him.
Varian smiled and jumped back while throwing the lightning ball at the ground around the tree base.
Boom!
Zap!!
Right at the moment, the lightning ball blasted the ground around the tree base and exposed its roots, the tentacles reached Varian.
The tentacles whipped at him, and Varian couldn't dodge at all.
Crack!
Crack!
Varian broke too many bones and blood was pouring out from every corner of his body.
And since he was in mid-air, the tentacles attack hurled him into the ground.
The location he crashed into was exactly the tree base.
As he was drenched in blood, under the pain of broken bones and torn muscles, Varian smiled.
He jumped down into crater formed by the lightning blast.
This was where all roots began.
He gripped his sword, and a white light flashed.
Shuaa!
Shuaa!
Shuaa!
The roots were cut out brutally and Varian was bathed in the green-colored liquid gushing out of them and with that, the life of the tree-like creature.
Splurt.
Bo…om!
Bo…om!
The tentacles that were about to slam his head collapsed on the ground.
Right with them, Varian also collapsed and breathed in rapidly.
"Ha! Ha!" The tentacle attack earlier almost punctured his lungs.
As he laid in the ground drenched by the green liquid, he was puzzled.
Why was the tree thingy hunting them? For nutrients?
'Thankfully, the estimate was true.'
Judging from its reaction when its first root was severed, Varian guessed it'd die when all its roots were cut.
[+20 Xp
+10 Xp
Body Path Level 3: 40/400
Space Path Level 2: 60/200]
The System prompted.
Varian glanced around and saw no other passage openings.
'This should be it.' And he collapsed.
After a few minutes, he slowly got up and reached the trunk.
The tree's healthy green trunk was now dead black. Its brown tentacles laid dead like withered snakes.
"What's the reward?" He wondered and circled around the tree.
Defeating the special location was supposed to give a reward… right?
As he looked around everywhere, time passed.
Eventually, Varian's injuries were healed, and he started panicking.
Finally, he didn't want the reward anymore. He just wanted to get out of here.
The passages were locked. He couldn't break them.
There was no exit.
"Come on!"
And it came.
A golden light flashed from the tree.