Iros cut straight to the point without idle chatter. “I heard you’ve been stalled here for days. What exactly is the problem now?”
At the mention of business, Eko immediately dropped his joking expression and turned serious.
“It’s the plants! Those damn migratory trees have gone mad! They’re rampaging through the front area, and many of the monsters that live in the trees have gone berserk too. Clearing them is extremely troublesome and progress is slow.”
“Those above Sanctum rank can force their way through alone, but you and I both know the situation in the last two layers—without enough manpower to push in together, it’s far too dangerous to advance rashly!”
He wiped sweat mixed with blood from his face, his tone threaded with fatigue and irritation. “These past few days I wake up and start chopping trees; I’m almost a professional lumberjack now! Iros, you must have a more efficient way, right?”
“I’ll try.” Iros did not promise anything. Eko, used to his steady way of speaking, simply shouldered a crystal lamp and led them into the dark.
The closer they got to the front, the more the ground trembled.
Saryan didn’t dare slack off. He concentrated quickly and stretched out his hands. Above his palms a complex, precise spherical magic construct rapidly formed.
He enlarged the scanning radius to its maximum. The array swept the surroundings, instantly projecting the complicated terrain around them as a three-dimensional image, giving everyone perfect visibility.
Even the Guard Captain walking ahead glanced at it and couldn’t help but praise, “I remember the city’s monitoring arrays were set up based on this magic of yours, right? Quite a spell! If only you’d been born a few hundred years earlier.”
Saryan was about to offer a modest reply when the Pujis on his head suddenly tapped his cheek and pointed in a direction.
He looked toward the position on his spatial detection orb but saw nothing.
He sighed inwardly, thinking himself a fool for trusting a Pujis. “Don’t—”
Before he finished, two migratory trees appeared on the detection sphere.
Saryan: “……”
There was no time for embarrassment. He immediately warned those around him, “They’re coming!”
Soon a deafening roar rolled from ahead.
Two hundred-meter-tall migratory trees surged forward like out-of-control giants, their countless thick roots thrashing, crushing everything in their path.
“Don’t scatter—stay behind me!” Eko shouted, brandishing twin curved blades that flared with a piercing emerald light. Powerful natural energy wreathed the blades as he crouched, coiling to charge and meet them head-on.
But Iros had already acted.
Threats from the canopy continued. A sharp screech split the air as a dozen “Wood-Eating Monkeys” perched in the crowns—red madness burning in their eyes—slingshot themselves off branches, claws lashing toward the group!
At the same time, several “Thorn Pythons” hidden among the leaves opened jaws filled with venomous teeth and spat streams of corrosive, foul-smelling dark-green venom!
“Stop them!” Eko roared. His blades spun like a cyclone, instantly cutting two Wood-Eating Monkeys into pieces.
The elf mages behind him sprang to action as well—some raised magical shields to block the venom, others countered with wind blades and fireballs.
While they held off the first wave, the Pujis once again slapped Saryan’s cheek.
Even though the scout orb hadn’t detected anything yet, the seasoned rangers immediately warned, “Another wave incoming!”
The ground tremor intensified; three more migratory trees charged in from different directions.
The group quickly closed ranks, putting Iros at the center.
Iros remained calm. He repeated his tactic, seizing partial control of the new trees’ roots and steering them to stumble into their trapped comrades.
One, two, three… more and more migratory trees were corralled into the same area, colliding and becoming a chaotic mass.
When enough trees were entangled to nearly fill the zone, Iros knew the moment had come.
He stepped forward and raised both hands slowly.
This time he poured an enormous amount of mana into the spell. A vast magic emanated from him, expanding outward and enveloping the entire area where the trapped trees stood.
It was a Purification—something most mages could cast.
But no one else could cast such a massive, potent Purification across that much area at once.
Iros was evidently showing his true skill.
The words of the Purification liturgy left his mouth like a refrain, amplifying the spell to its peak and driving its power deep into the massive trunks of the migratory trees.
The trees’ frenzied thrashing gradually subsided. The dark-red veins that had snaked across their wood faded, replaced by a bewildered, exhausted calm.
Their mountain-sized bodies slowly ceased struggling. The knotted roots drooped; the frantic leaves stilled, as if awakening from a long, terrible nightmare with lingering confusion.
The very madness embedded in the migratory trees’ cores had been driven out by that immense Purification; the monsters nesting in the branches were affected even more so.
The red glare left their eyes, the violent aura vanished; only panic and disorientation born of base instinct remained. They slipped back into the foliage and no longer posed a threat.
With a few gestures, Iros resolved the problem that had plagued the ranger force for days.
Without the trees’ mad rampage blocking and destroying the area, this once-ruined section immediately became relatively safe.
Guard Captain Eko looked around, quickly assessing the situation. He walked over to Iros and, noticing the slight weariness in the other’s eyes after such a large spell, asked with concern, “Do you need to rest?”
“No,” Iros replied, eyes fixed deeper into the dungeon. “Purification isn’t permanent. The migratory trees could be infected again at any time. We should press forward while we can.”
…
Under Eko’s command, the rangers left a contingent to guard the trapped migratory trees while the main force pushed deeper.
Farther in, they met the last obstacle before the center.
Countless small silvery trees bristling with potent poison.
【Race: Pale Pilgrimage】