VRMMO: Passing of the Sword

Blue Maple thought about his housing problem as he wandered around the forest aimlessly. He made quick work of the treants that he encountered, and he seemed so casual and carefree that nobody could tell he was doing an S-rank quest.

The treants here were quite concentrated. There could be more than a dozen treants appearing together at the same time, and even if only one showed up, there were several more nearby. However, there could also be areas where not even one appeared.

Blue Maple killed treants lazily as time slowly passed. Daybreak finally arrived as the light of dawn pierced through the thick leaves and into the dark forest. Rays of sunlight permeated the air.

There wasn’t much accumulated snow inside the forest. Perhaps treants were the reason for that, as the forest was still quite lush and verdant during winter. Strangely, this place seemed like winter had just begun, with a little bit of falling snow after the conclusion of spring. Rays of sunlight shone upon the scarce snow on the ground and reflected dazzling but beautiful light.

Today’s weather is great, Blue Maple thought languidly. He had almost completed his task of killing five hundred normal treants, except he hadn’t encountered the Treant King yet.

Why can’t this quest mark out the Treant King’s whereabouts like the Jiangshi King’s location was?, Blue Maple thought melancholically. Blue Maple was reluctant to search for the Treant King through his own efforts because he was just too lazy.

Blue Maple tried to venture deeper into the forest, as Bosses typically appeared in a quest location’s deepest areas.

Oh. Blue Maple was getting bored of slaughtering treants, and finally discovered that something was amiss.

Yes. There isn’t any snow in the vegetation here. I think I’ve found it. Blue Maple stretched out lazily with a lackluster expression on his face. However, he appeared a little more relaxed when he realized he had finally arrived at his target.

Normal treants could reduce the accumulated snow on the ground so that they could make their environment more suitable, so the Treant King’s region should be even more conditioned.

Therefore, Blue Maple continued deeper through the woods where there was no accumulated snow, like he was taking a morning stroll. But he had been strolling that entire time anyway…

Blue Maple suddenly saw a clearing as he continued walking along. This place wasn’t very spacious, a circular area which was roughly ten meters in diameter. There was an extremely tall and large tree in the center, which should be the Treant King.

His living space is not bad. Blue Maple didn’t walk into the open space, and he observed quietly from under the cover of the trees around him.

There was a lot of empty space around him, so sunlight could fall onto the Treant King’s body without any interference. Dense leaves and branches covered the Treant King’s thick and sturdy trunk; the leaves were a pretty jade green. These weren’t colors that appeared in the winter, and there were even fresh buds sprouting from the branches’ tips. These buds seemed like they had just appeared over the night before.

The dewdrops dotting the leaves were resplendent in the morning’s light, and everything seemed like a masterpiece of nature.

But Blue Maple didn’t find that very great at all, because even though the tree looked magnificent, this beautiful tree had a big weakness: there wasn’t a single thread of life around, there was only death…

There weren’t other living beings around, save for the tree. There wasn’t even a single insect, let alone birds or other small animals.

“It’s quite patient,” Blue Maple muttered under his breath as he examined this large tree’s surroundings, and a rare grin appeared on the corner of his mouth. Blue Maple seemed to have discovered something good, which meant it had to be interesting.

Normal and uninteresting things wouldn’t make Blue Maple change his expression.

This patch of woods without accumulated snow had to be the Treant King’s territory. It was a plant-type monster, so its senses had to be incredibly good when combined with the help of other plants around it.

Wild monsters could use their five senses to detect enemies around them, while plant-type monsters used the plants around their territory to sense their enemies. Unfortunately for the Treant King, Blue Maple was quite interested in such things, so he had seen some introductions about such topics. He knew that the Treant King had discovered his arrival a long time ago, but was only pretending to be a charming large tree.

It was waiting for its prey to come near!

I should still try it, just in case I’m wrong. Blue Maple was meticulous after all, and fired a beam of Heavenly Fire at the tree’s tremendous trunk.

Bam! -139!

Blue Maple was a little too far away, and his damage was a lot lower than before.

“Shh, shh, shh, shh…” The large and beautiful tree immediately revealed its sinister face as it snapped its vines in Blue Maple’s direction. That wasn’t all, as countless leaves flew at Blue Maple like flying knives. The ground beneath his feet started shifting; the Treant King was using Root Trap too!

Tsk, tsk. What a warm welcome. Blue Maple smiled plainly as he bolted backwards. He used Airborne Somersault twice and dodged all of the Treant King’s Skills.

Blue Maple also read the Treant King’s attributes at the same time.

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[Treant King] (Rank 54 Boss)

Attack: 574-731

Defense: 459-578

Magic Defense: 268-389

HP: 500,000

Skills: Root Trap, Vine Whip, Leaf Blades, Force of Nature.

Introduction: The king of all treants born in this forest. It is violent and cruel, and attacks all living beings it sees. Furthermore, it can disguise itself as a large and beautiful tree to lure curious and unknowing animals. They can only prey if they’re careless and come too close.

===

Its attributes were better compared to the Jiangshi King, but Treants weren’t very great at moving around. However, the Treant King seemed to be living a nourishing and nurturing life.

I have about a dozen more treants to kill. I’ll just wait for a little while more. Blue Maple wasn’t hasty at all as he retreated. Treants were slow, so they wouldn’t chase their enemies.

The Treant King’s movement speed was a great weakness, so there were other aspects that compensated for the fact: the Treant King’s skill, Root Trap, had a very long duration of five seconds. However, Blue Maple had never had the “luxury” of being entangled by roots…

Blue Maple circled around the Treant King’s territory as he killed more treants, cutting down all the treants surrounding it. However, he was burning them instead of chopping them down, and he withdrew his flames immediately afterward. Blue Maple realized afterward that his Heavenly Fire had increased in volume. Yes, wood propagates fire. That should be what’s happening.

The Treant King’s patch was very easily to see, because there wasn’t any snow. Someone looking from above the forest could see that the Treant King’s surroundings were empty and spacious, with only green grass growing on the ground. A fifty-meter circle around it fifty was almost like a vacuumed space after Blue Maple burned everything to dust.

Everything was charred and black in this patch, only burnt leaves remained. Blue Maple spent thirty minutes creating this masterpiece. He left only a small green forest about one hundred meters in diameter remaining with a tiny open space in the middle, while there was a single tall and beautiful tree in the very center.

I’m finally done. Blue Maple heaved a sigh of relief as he admired his handiwork.

“It’s a pity that the system will renew this place after some time. Otherwise, perhaps better trees would grow in this place otherwise,” Blue Maple uttered with some lament. This was just a game after all, and they weren’t in real life. These monsters would reappear after some time even if he massacred every single treant in this place.

I can finally have some good fun now, Blue Maple smiled faintly, as finding interesting things to do wasn’t easy at all.

Pfft... A small blue sphere of fire appeared in Blue Maple’s palm; the flames looked beautiful as they danced in his hand.

What was going to happen would be even more magnificent!

Blue Maple hurled the fiery sphere in his hands at the small patch with no accumulated snow as he circled around the charred circle, hurling more blue spheres of fire.

Blue-colored Heavenly Fire started blazing around this small forest. There was sunlight today, but all the sunlight couldn’t cover the bluish flames’ dazzling glare as fire burst into the sky!

The crackling sound of burning wood was constant amid the glare of roaring blue flames. Burning the Treant King directly wouldn’t be that effective, but burning the trees around it at the same time would amass a frightening amount of Heavenly Fire. Most importantly, Blue Maple didn’t use any of his own Heavenly Fire in doing so, because he could just recycle fire from his surroundings.

Blue Maple’s volume of Heavenly Fire swelled. He was absorbing Heavenly Fire after burning an entire patch of trees, but he was only releasing a tiny spark when he was igniting them…

That should do it. Blue Maple waited for a while on the periphery, as he could feel that his Heavenly Fire was starting to reach this patch’s central region.

Blue Maple casually retrieved a drink from his backpack as he strolled through the terrifying sea of fire. Heavenly Fire wouldn’t burn Blue Maple, nor would the fire touch the drink in his hands. Blue Maple hadn’t had a drink since a treant had whipped it from his hand, feeling a small disinclination after the fact.

Blue fire burned everything. The flames were so bright that they were a little glaring, but Blue Maple didn’t have any trouble breathing, and had wondered about this many times. Even though that could be because Heavenly Fire was unique, there was also a possibility that normal fire had the same characteristic. This was a game after all, and even though it was half-based in reality, the possibility was still there.

Blue Maple strolled to the edge of the spacious patch surrounding the Treant King. He was only five meters away from the Treant King, but the Treant King didn’t attack him. It was trying to take care of itself by extinguishing the Heavenly Fire scorching it.

Heavenly Fire followed the grass surrounding the Treant King and up onto it. Even if there wasn’t any grass in the flames’ immediate vicinity, Heavenly Fire could still absorb energy from its surroundings and continue spreading. Furthermore, there was fuel for an area of a hundred meters wide around the flames.

The Treant King was shaking its branches furiously as its leaves and vines shuddered, but there was nothing it could do about the Heavenly Fire covering it. Every second took 1,000 - 2,000 HP away from the Treant King, while its uncountable number of leaves made the fire burn even more furiously.

A large portion of the Treant King’s hit points were burned away before it suddenly trembled urgently. Green light, which represented life, radiated from all over its body. The Treant King started regenerating 5000 HP per second; this continued for ten full seconds as it quickly regenerated fifty thousand hit points.

However, the Treant King’s efforts seemed to be futile, because the Treant King’s continuous and terrifying burning reduced its resistance to fire. The Treant King was starting to lose 2000 HP to 3000 HP per second!

What the Treant just used must have been its Force of Nature. Tsk, tsk. It regenerated 50,000 HP. Blue Maple sipped on his drink casually as he watched the Treant King’s struggles a little sadly.

The Treant King suddenly stopped struggling. It started lunged with its burned and charred branches and vines in Blue Maple’s direction. This was the Treant King’s final gasp before its death, and it wanted to drag the human which had brought about its demise along with it.

Blue Maple was about to be struck when he suddenly flashed a plain and mocking smile.

Bam!

The vines were blocked by roaring blue flames;the flames immediately burned everything into ash. Blue Maple wouldn’t be able to do that under normal circumstances, but there was so much fire around him that this task couldn’t be any easier.

Not even a few more Treant Kings would make a difference to him right now. He was standing amid the raging fire around him, like an invincible emperor at this moment!

Vines, leaves, and even the roots tearing up from beneath his feet were blocked by Heavenly Fire and subsequently burned into ash!

I shall stop wasting time. Blue Maple continued watching as the Treant King, which still had nearly 100,000 HP but was already struggling helplessly, and eventually lost interest. He wanted to end things more quickly, and perhaps he could just deal a single fatal hit to the Treant King instead.

Sword qi made of blue fire started materializing around the Treant King. Those blades were all from Spatial Fiery Chop!

His Heavenly Fire had become so powerful that Blue Maple could conjure those blades in mid-air, even without his hands. There were so many Spatial Fiery Chops stacked around the Treant King, and their numbers were so great that any people who were watching would feel hopeless!

“It’s over.” All the Spatial Fiery Chops crashed down upon the Treant King in the blink of an eye!

Boom!!!