Chapter 484: Vexation and Joining the Dragon Hunt

"Vivian, no! We are friends!"

Greta, who had just been wounded by Rod, had no strength to fight back at all against the coiling vines.

She herself did not know

that even at her peak, she probably could not break free from Vivian's control.

Although Vivian's reading in the bronze spirit-measuring orb was only around 230 marks, the skill enhancement levels on her body far exceeded her current tier.

Case in point.

Even the eighth-tier initial-stage snake-person Darn, once he carelessly took the hit, was directly taken out by Vivian's wave of ruthlessly vicious combo attacks, and turned into fertilizer on the spot.

At this moment.

Greta could only hope to awaken what little emotion Vivian had left, and be shown mercy, spared her life.

"Friend, Greta, already, not."

Vivian's pure-white pupils still showed no ripple whatsoever, and her exquisitely picture-perfect, pristine face did not so much as twitch.

"Rod, forest, most important. Consideration, Vivian, not good."

Greta understood.

The tree spirit merely lacked emotion, not intelligence.

She knew Rod was holding back out of consideration for her feelings and not killing, and she also clearly knew the threat Greta and Darn posed.

Precisely because of this, Vivian had come specifically to intercept them.

Greta finally realized that the two Withered Ones had gotten it wrong.

The most threatening person had never been Rod, but the extreme, empathy-deficient tree spirit!

Greta answered in a panic: "I understand, I understand, the life-saving grace from before is written off entirely, you and I are no longer friends, I will never come back here again! Absolutely! I swear!"

She recalled Darn being scraped clean bit by bit by those spiritual green leaf blades, and terror gripped her heart to the extreme.

The tree spirit before her, with that adorable expressionless face, was like a great arch-demon from purgatory.

And upon hearing her words.

Vivian seemed to fall into thought.

She stood dazed in place for quite a while without moving.

It was also because Greta, unlike the snake-person Darn, still fought using the druid's wild transformation, and in the previous skirmish had not drained trees to death the way Darn had.

Whoosh—

A gust of wild wind swept past.

A massive red falcon dove down from the sky.

After rapidly approaching the ground, it transformed once more into a giant wolf with blue-white fur, and drifted lightly to the earth.

Vivian turned her head to look at the other party, recognizing the half-wolf-person druid from the forest, Olga.

"Vivian, kill her."

"Druid! This has nothing to do with you! Get lost!" Greta lost her composure and cursed at Olga.

The giant wolf's distinctly human eyes glanced at her coldly.

Druids and Withered Ones were truly and utterly mutual enemies.

Adding more fuel to the fire: "She and that snake-person threatened Mr. Warden, intending to turn the forest and Shi Ying Town into a place where they could do as they pleased. At that point Mr. Warden would be constrained at every turn, and might even be in danger of his life."

Once the words were spoken.

Greta saw Vivian look back over.

She was shocked to discover that a rare trace of vexation had actually appeared in those pure-white eyes.

"Not allowed, against Rod, make a move!"

"No no! That's not what I—"

Before she could finish.

A steel-nail-like vine stabbed straight up through Greta's chin and out through the top of her skull.

Her whole person froze, the unwillingness and terror in her eyes not yet fully fading.

Compared to the snake-person Darn being dismembered to death, she could be considered to have died cleanly.

Rod lay on a rock at the edge of the Bai Yu district, gazing at the sky that was gradually turning a dusky yellow.

His shadow was stretched very long, extending all the way to the grass behind him.

Suddenly, a light breeze brushed past.

Carrying a faint, elusive fragrance, mingled with the scent of grass and morning dew.

Vivian's expressionless, pretty face, carrying a barely perceptible curiosity, appeared from the corner of his vision and filled the entire sky.

Rod smiled and sat up.

Without asking where she had gone, he pinched her smooth, tender cheek.

Although from the panel showing two already-failed 【Despair Mycelium】, he could also guess what had happened.

The girl clung over.

She had never quite learned how to hug, so she simply pressed her chest against his chest, buried her face in his neck, and then stayed perfectly still.

Rod felt Vivian's body temperature and gently stroked her back.

He looked up at the giant wolf with blue-white fur billowing like flames not far away.

"Thank you for helping watch over her, Olga."

"Withered Ones have always been the mortal enemies of druids, Mr. Warden."

Olga opened her mouth and spoke in human tongue: "Moreover, Vivian is not someone who needs others to look after her. She is strong enough."

"Yes, I know, I'm just a little uneasy, that's all."

He wasn't worried about how Greta and Dan ended up.

Being able to die so cleanly like this was perhaps easier than the way 【Despair Mycelium】 endlessly drained soul and spiritual power to produce sclerotia.

"Speaking of which, it's been a long time — has the plague injury fully healed?"

Rod flicked the debris off Vivian's slightly curled, upturned, teal-green short hair as he made small talk.

Only now did he remember that the rucksack still held the spoils from Axe Beach — the 【Season Shawl】.

He took it out and draped it around Vivian.

Don't say it.

It actually looks pretty good.

"Thanks entirely to your help last time, it's already healed."

Faced with the concern,

Olga's gaze turned several shades more wary.

As if saying, 'Don't make a move on me, I'm not interested in you.'

As a neighbor tormented by Tally's nighttime bed noises, she kept a respectful distance from Rod, that human-shaped seeding machine.

Rod read it clearly.

He laughed in spite of himself, then changed the subject: "Remember the commission you mentioned before? The druid from the Balance Association who went to Coral Bay to mediate, and later got tangled up in a romance with a dark elf."

The very one who is now the chieftain of the dark elves' Black Moon Clan.

Speaking of which, the dark elf controlled by 【Despair Mycelium】 earlier seemed to be from the Nightfall Clan.

Looks like the clans controlled by the Infernal Archduke aren't limited to just one.

"Of course."

"You should be able to sense our recent movements, right?"

Olga narrowed her wolf eyes and nodded.

The mercenary company, the steadily growing girls, the several disturbances in Shi Ying Town.

As a druid living in the nearby forest, she naturally knew.

"Join us?"

"Of course."

Hearing the answer, Rod's mood instantly lifted.

Another seventh-tier.

Counting it up, even excluding the Blizzard Mercenary Company, there are already fourteen confirmed personnel above seventh-tier planning to move against Coral Bay.

After all, as a child of dragons, Rod was one of those in his past life who suffered from a universal fear of insufficient firepower.

He felt it was also time to have a talk with the two eighth-tiers — the rabbit-kin Auna and the scorpion woman Hera.

The secrets and covetousness of Shi Ying Town that the two withered ones, Dan and Greta, spoke of didn't seem fake, giving him a sense of approaching crisis.

Coral Bay is a barb; now that his strength is about right, the sooner it's dealt with the better.

"Huh? Mr. Ranger, your spell satchel is glowing — is that normal?"

Olga suddenly said in surprise.

Rod was stunned for a moment and looked down.

Sure enough, the spell satchel at his waist was emitting an eerie yellow light.

Sensing something, he took out the source of the yellow light from within.

—An ancient parchment whose surface was covered in writhing, white, living mycelium.

(End of this chapter)