Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Chapter 263. The Terror of an Adult [Terragore].

The conversation between the army people contained less interesting information than Liu Shu expected. It seems that, even though they were talking, they weren't revealing much other than short-term plans, just in case.

"... Regardless, we'll eventually take revenge on the World Tree."

'Revenge?' Liu Shu thought and tried to guess what they were talking about. After a few moments, nothing came to mind.

"Lord, may I ask? Why are you so sure that the World Tree is the culprit of your daughter's death?"

'Daughter…? I've killed many females during the war, so that doesn't really narrow it down.'

Lorbase said with conviction. "It's a matter of dates and guesswork. Everything fits together perfectly if you look at it with the World Tree as the culprit. That's all."

'So… cryptic. Do normal people really talk like this? Tsk, tsk.'

Knowing that the army people were not going to really talk about more interesting matters, she sighed and stopped paying that much attention, leaving behind a trace of her consciousness there, in case anything changed.

In the meantime, Liu Shu decided to do other things. 

"Liu'er."

Verdantia's sudden call made her pay attention to her. When she searched for the origin of the call, she saw Verdantia deep underground, near the entrance of the nest of beasts below the mines. "Verdantia? What are you doing here?"

Verdantia heard the touch of worry from Liu Shu and felt her lips curving up. "Hehe, don't worry about me, Liu'er. I have come here a few times in the past! Anyway, I wanted to ask, what are your plans with these beasts?"

Only then did Liu Shu notice a dead <Terragore> lying at Verdantia's feet. "Wow. You are really strong, Verdantia! That looks like a Level 24 creature!"

Verdantia blinked. "Hm? Don't you know that I've reached Level 25?"

"Huh?" 

Liu Shu analyzed Verdantia, and she was jumpscared by a somewhat scary status page.

***

Name: Verdantia Liferoot

Level: 26 [0/44,300]

Aether Mana Cores: 5.44/5.44 (544,537)

Phoer Body Cores: 5.52/5.52 (552,736) 

Anima Energy Cores: 9.94/9.94 (994,736) 

Attributes: Aether 1362 (690+672), Physique 1382 (690+692), Anima 2247 (1022+1225), Willpower 1466 (996+470), Destiny 312 (312)

Affinity Percentage: Aether Resonance (51), Physique Refinement (51), Anima Affinity (67)

Resistance Percentage: Aether Resistance (46), Physique Resistance (46), Spiritual Resistance (51), Mental Resistance (49)

Summoning Affinity: Summon Cost (-39%), Summon Enhancement (+10%), Summoning Invoking Time (-39%), Summon Upkeep (-39%)

***

"Woah!"

Verdantia felt Liu Shu's analyzing gaze all over her body, and she shuddered, smiling quite… interestingly. "Hehehe, Liu Shu is looking at me~. Ha… Ha…"

Liu Shu saw Verdantia's twitchy behavior and asked, curious. "Are you okay, Verdantia?"

Verdantia cleared her throat. "Ahem. Yes. Yes, I am."

Noting that Verdantia was indeed okay, the World Tree asked. "So, um. What did you want?"

Verdantia blinked twice and hit her palm with her fist. "Right! I almost forgot." 

The World Tree felt her branches twitching. 'You almost forgot!? We haven't even talked for longer than a minute!'

"Anyway, Liu'er, when are you going to let this open for people on the surface to explore? These <Terragore> are quite a nice source of Experience Points and materials. Well, they are tough creatures, so hunting them can become difficult, but as the wise say, there is no reward without risk, right?"

"Hm… Not soon, that's for sure." 

Verdantia asked, curious. "Why not?"

"I want to assimilate their entire nest before opening it for hunting. While I don't plan on acting as a guardian, I want to have eyes everywhere so that people can't enter their nest and plan devious things. The <Terragore> that you are fighting are explorers, weaklings in comparison with the real strong ones." Liu Shu sighed. "The cave system is much larger and complex than Ignatia's ant nest. It is clear that they have been here for very long. I can't imagine how strong their leaders are, and I don't want to know it either. I am very carefully surrounding their nest right at this moment, trying not to garner the attention of any high-level <Terragore>."

"They are that dangerous?" Verdantia was honestly surprised. Tapping her chin, she looked down at the corpse and commented. "I see. If you think like that, then I won't insist. If we ever open this, it will be exclusive for Level 25 and above groups, and right now, we don't really have many in the city."

"Yep. I also need to upgrade our mine somehow, so having those things running around the place will also be bothersome."

Verdantia blinked a few times. "Upgrade the mines? What do you mean?"

Liu Shu explained. "I want to make the mines create <Tyn> crystals instead of <Lir>. Our earnings will become quite high after that since the mine's profits are basically negligible at the moment compared to our other earning sources."

Verdantia nodded, looking sideways and patting a plant summon by her side. "Well, I can't argue. We are profiting 450,000 <Lir> monthly with the mines. The profits we earn with the houses far outpace the mines, reaching nearly three million monthly. 

"Wah! Three million!? How much are we earning monthly!?"

Hearing her cute exclamation, Verdanita laughed and said. "If I remember correctly, last month's reports said that we earned around 2 <Syl>."

"TWO <SYL>!?" 

Verdantia laughed, indeed. "Around two <Syl> in pure profit."

Liu Shu did quick maths in her head, and she muttered incredulously. "That's… 250,000,000 <Lir>..." 

Verdantia crossed her arms under her well-endowed bosom. "Saying the bigger coins in <Lir> is always a shock, eh? Two hundred and fifty million. That's a lot. We are even paying 4,500 <Lir> monthly on average to our workers. Profits, profits are incredibly high."

"So much…" Liu Shu muttered, confused. "Hasn't that caused greedy people to try to take advantage?"

Verdantia's lips arched wryly. "If you knew… During these last two years, we had two moments when we needed to fire most of our staff in one or two departments. If Cinderielle and I hadn't monitored the treasury, we would've started leaking money and wouldn't have known how or why." 

Verdantia shook her head. "Let's not talk about these serious matters. How are you doing recently, Liu Shu? Are you motivated to start increasing the number of Tree Houses and such again?"

"Well, I should, right? Our City is already two kilometers from side to side, and there are only around 400 buildings."

"That's not little. Your Tree Houses are quite wide… They look very cute. Like big chubby trees with pretty canopies."

"Hey! They are all very healthy! Also, a tree can't get chubby!"

Verdantia laughed and smiled playfully. "Are you sure? I know of a certain tree that has two very… plump mountains on her chest. They are getting bigger by the day~."

"WAH! PERVERT!" 

Hearing Liu Shu's indignant shout, Verdantia burst into laughter. "I wonder why you are so curvy? The other World Trees are more slender, with fainter bodies. You, on the other side… Tsk, tsk, very erotic."

"GRAHH!"

Both of them paused while Verdantia's face became somewhat serious. The loud and resonant roar of various beasts had made Verdantia tense. "What was that?"

Liu Shu looked over and felt her core squeeze. She quickly warned the Sylvan. "Three high level <Terragore>. They are climbing through the cave and coming straight at you, Verdantia! Run!"

Hearing Liu Shu telling her to run and not fight, Verdantia didn't dare stay for longer and quickly turned around, rushing through the cavern system of the mines. 

Three seconds after Verdantia left, three shadows appeared in her previous position and looked at the dead <Terragore>. Their bulky bodies and long arms with long claws were covered in faint fur. Their completely black eyes seemed utterly devoid of other expression other than wrath. 

One of them leaned down, sniffing the corpse of the dead one, and after that, it howled in anger. "GRAAH!"

The three of them turned their heads in the direction Verdantia left and quickly rushed after her. 

Verdantia was somewhat deep into their nest since she had been hunting them for a little while to Level Up to Level 27. Hearing the furious howls, Verdantia's face paled slightly. 'Did I kill someone I shouldn't?'

"Verdantia, it seems that the parent of one of the <Terragore> you killed has taken your trail. It is rushing at you incredibly quickly through the caves and will catch up to you in twenty seconds at most! You need to run faster!"

Verdantia spoke rushedly. "I am going at my top speed, Liu Shu. Can I make it out in time?"

Liu Shu observed the path ahead of Verdantia and felt her core tighten slightly. "No. At this pace, you'll get caught. You need at least two minutes before you can elave the cave system."

"Two minutes!? How deep did I wander off!?" Verdantia looked at her summon with pained eyes and said. "Hold them back for me!"

She didn't only send that one. Slowing down her pace slightly to chant an incantation, two more summons appeared from the void in front of her. "Hold them back!"

The two plant creatures stayed in place and anchored their roots to the walls and hard rock below them, waiting for the creatures to arrive.

The sound of steps was getting closer, echoing together with the growls of the creatures. The plant summons hardened their bodies with skills and prepared to collide.

An instant later, two <Terragore> at least twice as large as the ones Verdantia was hunting appeared and instantly rushed at the plant summons.

BANG! BANG!

[-150,450!]!

[-174,896]!

The strikes on the summons instantly sliced off a large part of their bodies as their Phoer Cores plummeted. Even then, the two plant summons latched onto the <Terragores> that were about to overcome them, making them trip and slam against the hard rocks. Still, the adult <Terragore> received zero damage. The stones below were even softer than the minerals they ate regularly; such an impact crushed the rocks, not their sturdy bodies.

Both Terragores looked back, their drooling and ferocious faces glaring at the plant summons with bestial brutality. "GRAAAH!"

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Verdantia heard the loud explosive sounds and bit her lip. The summons she had were all hand-grown, so if they died, they died forever. Still, currently, she was really not able to face off against three mature <Terragore>. Even with Liu Shu's help, her chances of survival were small. After all, at this depth, Liu Shu's ability to help was too limited. 

The World Tree observed Verdantia's path, and she couldn't help but feel increasingly nervous. 'At this pace, they will catch up! They've already dealt with the plant creatures!'

Calling for her would be too slow; Verdantia was too deep. Calling those nearby was also useless, as there were no Level 25s nearby that could even start facing the three monsters following behind Verdantia.

"Verdantia, you need to sacrifice more summons! You won't make it!"

"More!?" Verdantia felt her heart bleeding when she heard Liu Shu. 

Seeing the Sylvan's hesitation, Liu Shu's voice boomed. "VERDANTIA! NOW!"

Verdantia's eyes gained a reddish tint as she shouted, frustrated and angry at herself. "DAMN IT! <Liferoot Creature Invoking>!"

Three more summons appeared around her just as the three mature <Terragore> turned the last corner and got in sight of Verdantia. Looking back at the three giant monstrosities, Verdantia's face paled. 

"<LIVING ROOTS>!"

The walls around Verdantia burst as the three <Terragore> rushed forward; Liu Shu joined the defense. While Verdantia fled, she managed to see how an adult <Terragore> swung its powerful claws against Liu Shu's roots and cleanly sliced off one of them, making her heart tremble. Her summons fared much worse, being minced at incredible speeds.

Thankfully, after four more turns, Verdantia saw the exit and rushed out, reaching the highly illuminated area. 

When they finished off Liu Shu's roots and the summons, the three mature <Terragore> rushed after Verdantia. However, when they saw the brightly illuminated passages, all three stopped right in their tracks, their eyes squinting as they got somewhat blinded by the flames.

"GRAAAH!!!"

Their angered screams rumbled in the low caverns. However, they didn't continue their chase and retreated back into the dark depths of the cavern.