Chapter 111
The treant lets out a strange noise and roars threateningly in our direction.
Its appearance is that of a true tree monster.
Moving its branches like human limbs, it begins swinging them around like a child throwing a tantrum, as if warning us not to come closer.
Though the treant itself isn’t particularly large.
"A human-faced tree, huh?"
From the hidden trunk of its main body, a face-like formation contorts in anguish, resembling a human expression.
This characteristic confirms that this evolved treant is what’s known as a Jinmenju (Human-Faced Tree).
The Jinmenju is class 6. While its stealth abilities are decent, what truly stands out is—
『■■■■■■■■！！！』"Don’t touch those soul flames!! They have curse effects!!""!?"
Its debuff skills—specifically, curse-based abilities.
Eerie, will-o’-the-wisp-like soul flames begin flitting around the Jinmenju.
If you get close and touch them, they inflict debilitating effects.
"Judge the effect by color!! Blue reduces speed! Red deals continuous damage! Yellow causes a brief stun!""What about green?"
It lurks in hiding, using multiple debuffs to hinder its target’s movements before finishing them off with root attacks.
"Lowers defense! Black seals skills! Oh, and purple reduces all stats!!"
The Jinmenju possesses six debuffs in total—red, blue, yellow, purple, green, and black.
"Also, watch your footing! Swamp Magic turns the ground beneath you into marshland! Ingrid, maintain Air Clean and patrol around the Jinmenju to eliminate the soul flames! Swat them away with your broom—they’ll vanish!""Understood.""The rest of us will focus our attacks on the Jinmenju! Claudia, use Thunder Palm Wave to suppress its movements!""Got it."
Coordinating all these effects at once might be tough, but until we saw its form, we had no way of knowing which variant this treant had evolved into.
Dodging the roots surging from the ground, I extend a magic edge along the scythe-blade of my glaive.
Against treant-types, slashing with the scythe deals more damage than thrusting with the spear.
I advance while cutting down the roots, but of course, the Jinmenju erects root walls to block any damage to its main body.
But I already anticipated this.
I pause my advance for a moment, letting it form a wall in front of me.
"Next attack will come from the rear-right… meaning it’s trying to herd us left."
A feint to draw our attention, followed by a surprise attack from behind—but the fact that it’s coming from the right-rear suggests it wants to push us left.
Playing along with its ruse is an option, but weighing the risks and rewards—
I choose the right.
Leaping right before the attack lands, I let the root-spear graze past my left flank as I circle around the root wall.
"Hah!!""You’re fired up. Not holding back in battle is Claudia’s creed, after all."
Ahead of me, someone has already slipped past the soul flames and root defenses, lightning crackling as they strike the treant’s main body. Circling the root wall, I catch sight of them.
"Too shallow?"
Blunt attacks are ineffective against treants. Slashing strikes work best.
Feeling the lack of impact, Claudia immediately disengages—a wise decision, as roots lash out at where she stood moments ago.
"How was it?""...Without breaking its defenses, we can’t land meaningful hits. But I’m not sure how many times we can slip through its defenses unscathed."
Dodging to the side, she shares her assessment as we dash through the steam.
"Restricting its movements is difficult. My strongest techniques are hard to land unless we distract it properly.""Big moves leave big openings. Smaller strikes tend to get countered."
This opponent is frustratingly durable. We can find openings to attack, but not enough to whittle it down in time.
Chipping away won’t work—its health pool is too vast. At least we’ve confirmed this much: the road ahead is tough.
For Claudia, it’s manageable, but for Ingrid and me, this foe is a tier above.
"But if we don’t land those hits, we can’t win. What’s the plan? Gamble everything on one strike?""No need for recklessness. I’ll create an opening.""Understood. Then let’s time it right."
But I don’t consider this reckless at all.
"Everyone alright?""Yeah. Confirmed what I needed to. Time to counterattack."
Entering Ingrid’s Air Clean zone restores visibility.
"Understood. Then—""Right. Signal Nel and Amina."
Now that we’ve identified the treant’s evolved form as a Jinmenju, observed its skill activations, and gauged its patterns, I’m certain.
Once you know the enemy’s trump card, all that’s left is to dismantle them.
Ingrid retrieves a cracker-like object from the magic bag we entrusted to her.
A cone-shaped item with a string attached to its pointed end—at a glance, it looks like a party toy, but it’s a legitimate magic item.
A consumable, single-use tool with a straightforward effect.
"Launching."
Ingrid aims it skyward and pulls the string. A glowing orb shoots into the air, vanishing into the steam before bursting into a radiant flare.
Bright enough to be seen clearly even through the mist—essentially, a flare.
『Liberator!!』
Then, inexplicably, Nel’s voice rings out from above.
A figure descends through the steam.
"Sorry for the wait!!""Hey, I’m the one who carried Nel here!"
The two who had split off earlier.
Even with the expanded Air Clean zone, five people make it cramped.
Besides, constantly having Amina fly through the steam is risky.
This is a forest—Amina’s least favorable terrain. So we had her wait airborne with lightweight Nel, ready to join once we located the enemy.
"Nel, you good?""Leave it to me!!"
The most effective weapon against wood? An axe.
By keeping Nel—who can deal the most damage to the treant—in reserve until we understood its abilities, we’ve set the stage.
"Amina, return to the sky and activate Tailwind Song. Alternate between that and Cheer Song while circling above the treant. Watch for attacks from the steam.""Got it!"
As Amina prepares to take off, roots lash out toward her—the Jinmenju refusing to let her escape.
"Not happening."
Ingrid intercepts, sweeping her broom to repel the roots.
With its linear trajectory and unparalleled sweeping power, the broom buys Amina the seconds she needs to ascend.
As her voice rings out from above moments later, a surge of vitality confirms the buff’s activation.
"Thanks to the Jinmenju, there are no other monsters around to draw aggro. Now, let’s press the attack!""Right!""Understood!""Let’s go!"
Treants are fiercely territorial—not just against their own kind, but all monsters.
Enter their domain, and it’s search and destroy.
They’ll consume weaker monsters and sometimes even stronger ones to fuel their growth.
Why? Because they’ve learned that monsters causing disturbances in their territory draw attention—and with it, hunters.
A peaceful forest is a treant’s ideal domain. To ensure safety and growth, they eliminate threats preemptively.
But this backfires for the Jinmenju. With Amina’s songs not attracting other monsters, the battlefield remains uncontested.
All attention is on the Jinmenju.
"But you can’t attack her! Your attacks are ground-focused—you have zero anti-air options!! You can’t even detect Amina flying above you!"
It might sense the song, but a treant’s detection relies on its roots. Its other senses are dull to nonexistent.
No vision, no hearing, no taste, obviously no smell.
Its only sense is touch—roots are sensitive, but the trunk is numb.
It recognizes the song’s skill effect and tries to locate Amina, but its detection range is limited to the ground. It has no means to attack the sky.
The cursed soul flames can’t rise beyond a certain height.
Its roots can’t stretch beyond its own height.
It knows earth magic to hurl stones, but lacks the range to hit a circling Amina.
Swamp Magic only affects the ground.
In short, singing from the air lets Amina buff us freely while distracting the Jinmenju.
"Opening!!"
Distracted by Amina, the treant fails to notice Nel winding up a massive strike with her halberd.
"Cleaving Battle Axe!!"
The defense-piercing slash bites deep into the Jinmenju’s trunk.
A localized effect, but the defense drop is undeniable.
『!?』"Hey hey! Don’t ignore me either!!"
Nel swiftly withdraws her halberd, and as she prepares another strike, I follow up with a slash of my own, driving my magic-edged spear into the weakened spot.
『!!!？？？』
The treant recoils in shock, but before it can shift focus from the sky to us—
"Just for a moment, but I can stop it."
Claudia’s lightning-wreathed palm strikes the trunk.
Seeing a tree shudder from electricity is a rare sight.
The blow, delivered from the opposite side, freezes the Jinmenju for less than a second—but it’s enough.
"Hah!!"
A rapid combo follows.
Her metal-hardened limbs—enhanced by Iron Fist and Adamantine Body—rain down crushing blows, each carrying defense-down effects that further weaken the Jinmenju.
"Cleaving Battle Axe!!"
With attacks coming from multiple angles, the treant can’t prioritize area-of-effect counters.
If attacks came from one direction, it could block with roots—but this pattern is predictable.
"Fall back!"
At my signal, everyone leaps away just as roots erupt from the ground like spikes.
We evade cleanly.
Nel and Claudia’s defense-down effects linger. I mentally count the duration.
"Heave-ho!!"
A treant’s roots are finite. They seem endless, but they’re not.
Before it can retract the spike-like roots, I sever them with my scythe-blade, prompting the remaining roots to retreat underground.
As they withdraw, curse flames emerge as a distraction.
"Leave them to me."
But Ingrid’s broom swats them away effortlessly.
Once you know the timing, countering is easy.
The Jinmenju’s reactions grow increasingly sluggish.
"Again!""This time, I can keep the pressure on longer."
Battles have rhythms.
Once you grasp the enemy’s patterns, riding the momentum is simple.
"About time?"
Given its skill rotation, it should be readying its ultimate move soon.
Nel lands another Cleaving Battle Axe in the same spot as before, while Claudia—now treating the Jinmenju like a punching bag—unleashes a dazzling skill combo.
The accumulated damage mounts. Even for a health-sponge like a treant, it’s nearing its breaking point.
"Ah, here it comes."
Spotting the tell, we brace for its ultimate attack—not with dread, but readiness.
Normally, enemies’ ultimate moves inspire fear or despair, but—
"Sync up!!"
This one’s different.
The ground faintly glows—our cue to leap.
"Whoa, the ground really did explode.""So this is its trump card? An earth-attribute spell like this?""The entire terrain flipped over."
Evading into the air makes it surprisingly manageable.
A small jump wouldn’t mitigate the damage, but with our current physical abilities, we can easily leap to the height of a second floor.
Quake Bomb.
An earth magic skill that erupts the ground, hindering movement and damaging legs.
A direct hit could cripple even a tank-built character.
But its fatal flaw?
"Now, time to harvest some roots!!"
It exposes the treant’s roots—its universal weak point.
The Jinmenju’s last-ditch effort to wipe us out instead hands us the perfect chance to sever its lifelines.
With my magic-edged scythe, I gleefully carve through the roots near its trunk, reducing its offensive options with each cut.
How long will this Jinmenju—the source of the Knowridge disturbance—last under this onslaught?