Chapter 86: Verdant Aftermath

New spell added: Verdant Bloom.

Your mana has the power to unleash the full potential and new potential of Mother Nature and her seeds!

I watched from the clock tower as the mushroom released their poisons onto the ground. A green fog covered the ground, choking the life of every living thing. I looked around. The once rowdy crowd was silent, deathly silent; Not even a peep from the loudmouth commentator.

“Is that the same……”

I nodded to the pure spirit. “Yes, as we speak, lord knows how many people are dying down there.”

“But how did you even do this…”

“It's none of your business how; just be grateful I did.”

She continued to stare out into the rolling green fog. I can imagine all the emotions running through her head. It's probably a mix of fear, awe and disgust. I should probably feel something like that or at least some sort of remorse, but honestly, I feel nothing. No disgust, not even pride in my work. I mean, why would I? There was nothing special here. I just took the most efficient route to end an annoying thing quickly, that is all.

I looked towards the giant mushrooms that now dominated the skyline. Using  The spell itself involves infusing the spores in my mushroom cap with a load of my mana; the original problem I was having was that I couldn’t remotely grow anything with my mana. The best I could do was transmit it in a radius around me by channelling it through the ground. This method, whilst it works, had a very limited radius. To get around this, I had to make these regular mushroom spores subject to my will, which involves drenching them in my mana to the point they get overwhelmed and absorb it, essentially making it part of me and thus subject to my will and allowing to control the growth and properties of the spores from afar. I haven't tested the range, but from today, I know I have a radius that extends to 100 metres. The only downside of this spell is the MP cost. To put it in perspective, I had around 1350 mana when I started. I now have just shy of 300. I let out a sigh. I'm gonna need to find another-

“people….I…I…i….I don’t know what to say”  I let out a small chuckle. It looks like the announcer has found his voice. I stood up and continued to watch. If my plan has worked, then any minute now, I should be getting-

5 x human warrior slain.

4x demi human warrior slain

5x dwarven knight slain

3 x human mage

2x Sea people priest slain.

7x human rogu-

The list went on and on and on. So many people, gone in a flash and turned into nothing but XP. I watched as the list scrolled by. So many that I lost count. If I remember, there were 70 of us at the start, but now who knows?

I kept watching and watching. This is gonna take a while….

5 minutes later…..

3x  human archer slain

80,000 xp earned.

Level up awarded! 7 -> 20

52 points awarded!

Congratulations! Challenges and milestones unlocked!

New challenge added!

“Victory Royale!”

Win the tournament and claim your reward!

Reward 20 Points

Woah, there is a lot to unpack there first thing first. Why Only 80k xp!? I guess there were a lot of small fry on that list. All well, I can't complain about 52 points. So what does that put me up to now? Around 65.

I opened up the status and immediately dumped 6 points into body, bringing my HP pool up to 2000! And stamina up to 1900 total.

The rest of the points I'll save for later. I want to check out the challenges and milestones, but we must get moving.

“Let's go!”

“W…what Isn't there poisonous gas down there!”

“Yes, but not here. look”

She looked down, and her eyes lit up. There was a perimeter around the clock tower where there was no gas at all.

“Just how….”

“Stop asking questions and do as you're told, pure spirit!”

Her mouth snapped shut as we started making our way down the clock tower. The reason why the perimeter exists is that those mushrooms are constantly cycling air. They share my ability to take in air and blow it out. Right now, they are sending a slight gentle breeze away from us and carrying the spores to the outer edges of the arena; that way, nobody escapes.

We kept walking until, finally, we made it to the ground floor. The two of us stepped out into the square. The arena was still silent. The crowd was still stunned from before. Why? Isn't death and bloodshed what they came here for?

“What do we do now,” She asked.

“Wait. We wait and let the spores do their jo-“

My eyes darted towards one of the streets. I looked down towards one of the streets, where there was a thick green fog wall.

“go hide back in the clock tower….”

“Whats-“

“GO NOW!”

Suddenly a burst of air shot out from the fogwall as a ball of vines slowly emerged from the cloud.

“This magic…..  grhhhhhh, Of course, THEY had to survive.”

Heat surged around me again as the ball of vines unravelled itself, revealing the other remaining 2 pure spirits. The 2 of them looked like they had been through hell. Their clothes had been torn and cut, and their skin was caked with blood, sweat and dirt.

“s…SORRY FOLKS. I DIDN’T EXPECT…… ANYWAY, IT LOOKS LIKE  THE FIGHT ISN'T OVER YET. KUSAMURE HAS TO CONTEND WITH THE PURE SPIRIT POWER COUPLE OF THE ENERGY MAGE EVA AND THE BLADE MASTER  AIDAN”

I let out a sigh as I started walking towards them. You know what, I'm glad they survived. It means I get to take care of them personally. Yes. The only way I'll be delighted is when I choke the life out of them myself!

I felt my smile widen as I imagined my revenge. Oh, it's gonna be sweet.

The two of them scanned their surroundings before finally setting their eyes on me. “That smile…. This was all you!” The mage bit out.

“Relax Eva,” Aidan said as he tried to play cool, but he was definitely annoyed with my presence. He turned to face me and took a few steps towards me.

“I thought the big oaf had killed you. I guess you can't trust a low-born noble to do anything right. Oh well. Guess I'll just have to put you out of your misery myself.” He pulled out his gaudy gold and diamond-encrusted sword.

“You will pay for all the people you killed here today, Mushy!”

“Oh please” I bit back. “Don’t try and take the high road. Your kind doesn’t care about anyone else but yourselves!”

I felt the heat begin to rise again around me. I need to keep calm, I can't lose it. Not yet, anyway. He got into a fighting stance as I did the same. We had closed the distance between us to around 15 meters.

“Eva, back me up.”

She nodded and ran behind him. I slowly advanced towards him, causing him to move slightly backwards. I looked closer. His body was slightly shaking, and a small bead of sweat dripped down his forehead. Is he scared? I guess all that talk was just bravado. I took another step. The closer and closer I got when suddenly, there was a large rumbling echoed throughout the ground. I skidded to a stop and jumped back just in time for the ground to break free and reveal 5 other people.

“WOAH, I DON’T BELIEVE THERE ARE 5 OTHERS I JUST….. THIS IS AN EVENT TO REMBER FOLKS”

“Woah, to think this plan of yours worked Rejii”

“Yeah, I'm surprised as well.”

“Do you think anyone else sur-“

My body lunged forward into the group. My body was fast faster than ever before. Before the group could react, I  grabbed one of the members and dragged them back down the street.

<Big sis? What are you doing>

<Improvising. Just trust me.> Honestly, these 5 idiots appearing really threw a wrench in my plans, but maybe I can turn this surprise lemon into lemonade

“Let her go!” One of them yelled

“ah. Ah AH. I wouldn’t take a single step closer if I were you!”  instantly, a blade of mana shot out of my hand in a flash; the blade was up and pressed against her neck.

“HAHAHHA KUSAMURE REALLY DOESN’T WASTE TIME! REMEMBER FOLKS, THIS A BATTLE ROYALE! EVERYONE IS OUT FOR THEMSELVES HERE!”

The new group of 4 stared at me as I held their companion hostage. I need to do something to give me some breathing room. Guess ill have to use THAT experimental spell.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the remaining seed packet of Venus fly traps. This should keep them busy!

I channelled my mana into the seed packet.

Mana critical. Cease the use of MP immediately and recover!

100/3000 MP remaining.

A sudden weakness washed over me as I threw the seed packet among the group. As soon as the packet touched the ground, it exploded into a mass of vines and sharp, jagged teeth.

New spell added: Verdant Awakening.

Using your mana, you can awaken nature itself into beings that can't help you in your battles.

A loud roar came from the Venus fly trap as it swung its tendrils around. “Keep them busy.” I bolted away with the girl still in my arms

“Hey, come bac-!”

I turned around just in time to see a vine swing out towards the group of 4 and stop them from chasing me. I got some distance between me and the group, before finally stopping and pining the very scaly girl against the wall. She didn’t carry any weapons. Instead, she wore thin silk robes and had prayer beads wrapped around her palm. Hahaha, lucky me for capturing their priest!

“Why!.... What do you want from me!”

“It's not “you” I want!” Before she could react, my fangs plunged into her neck. The salty taste of blood briefly filled my mouth before; finally, the cooling taste of mana surged out of her body into me.

“Thatsch the shpot” I felt like a man trapped in an empty desert finally finding water. I felt her body slowly weaken in my arms until; finally, she went limp

1x Lizard kin Priest Slain!

950xp Awarded!

Mana Absorbed

100 -> 1900

I Pulled my fangs out in time to see a wrinkled corpse. I dropped her body to the ground and started to make my way back. The 4 newcomers are not my concern. The only people I want to fight are those 2 pure spirits. I followed the sound of battle. As I approached, the sounds of spells, grunting, and blades clashing grew louder. Good, the Venus plant is keeping them occupied. I quickly detoured and wound up in an alleyway behind a building next to the fighting. I quickly scaled the building onto the roof, where I could overlook the street where the fighting had taken place. The 4 newcomers were too occupied with the Venus fly trap whilst the 2 pure spirits just watched.

<typical>

However, this works for me. I need to separate those two from the rest. I looked around for a moment before my eyes fell on the building across from me.

“If I use the building I'm on at the moment, then maybe that might work…. however, It's gonna cost a bit of mana as I'm gonna have to extend the spell out a lot further.”

I took a moment to channel mana towards my feet before leaping off the roof. I got a few moments of air time before I started plummeting towards the ground. The other group was too preoccupied with fighting to notice me driving towards the ground, but the pure spirits weren't. The mage acted quickly, letting off balls of mana that I quickly rolled out of the way off. The sword master got in on the action, swinging his sword at me. Each swing sent a golden arc of holy mana towards me. But like the balls of mana, I easily dodged them as well. I looked ahead and noticed the ground approaching rapidly. I quickly flipped around as I got ready to land. I channelled more and more mana to my feet before finally crashing into the ground.

“SOFTENT TERRAIN!” I yelled

A large pulse of green mana shot out from me to the building. The pulse spread wider than ever, stretching over and hitting the base of the 2 buildings. There was a brief rumble before the two buildings suddenly collapsed, sending debris and dust all over the street. When the debris had finally cleared, there was a large wall of debris separating the two groups, leaving me with just the pure spirits.

“You! J…just what did you!” the mage eve spouted. As she wiped the dust off her robes

“Isn't it obvious? A mage like yourself  should be able to understand, or are you just that stupid.”

Her face twisted with anger. Haha, if it's that easy to provoke her, then my win is guaranteed.

“let me explain in a way a retard like you will understand. ME USE SPARKLY MAGIC, ME WEAKEN FOUNDATIONS OF BUILDING, BULDING FALL HIT GROUND! Did you understand that, or do you want me to dumb it down even further…”

She growled as pinkish-purple mana surged around her body.

“You insolent litt-“

“Yeah,” You insolent little mushy!” I've heard all of your predictable insults all before. Let's stop wasting time, and let's just do this!”

Before she could argue, I lunged forward. This time, I won't be the victim!