Chapter 2150: Urfrukt

With this increase in level, as well as them slowly getting used to the pressure and difficulties, the journey became a bit more manageable.

There was a slight incline as one went further into the thorny forest. Their feet became heavier and heavier, and their movements became more and more lumbering.

Gravity was increasing bit by bit, though in practice the difference was truly exhausting.

Soon, there was a sharper incline towards a hill, though it was still a relatively gentle slope. However, the gravity increase was not proportional to the slope at all, and Althea—who was already nearly level 30 at this point—almost fell down when she crossed a threshold.

Fortunately, Garan was there to grab her arm. However, one could see the sweat on his face as well as the veins popping that he, too, wasn’t having an easy time.

They immediately stepped back to catch their breath, ignoring the slapping thorns behind them. At this point, they couldn’t care about the durability of their armor. They just didn’t want to be unable to move forward.

The two of them stood at the invisible boundary for a couple of moments before testing things.

The gravity here could be said to be ten times that of the edge of the thorn forest. It was good that they had leveled up a lot; otherwise, going several meters in would be impossible for Althea. Only Garan might be able to go forward, and that wasn’t an option, and Althea shouldn’t head back either, especially considering Althea’s wood ability might be needed in the future.

They went back and forth in alteration, testing what technique worked best. If they got too tired, they couldn’t move anymore, which was every half an hour or less; they would rest in the house.

In any case, even Garan couldn’t go past a hundred meters, and he had to go back; otherwise, he’d get stuck there.

Their progress stalled badly, but they didn’t dare rush things.

Eventually, Althea excitedly ran over to Garan, though her knees buckled a little midway, so she bumped into him. Garan naturally caught her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"Honey, I think I figured it out! Just a guess..."

She then took out a few pieces of unused space stones.

She had observed the behavior of aether with the [Eye] and frankly didn’t see much difference with how they behaved with the rest of the thorn forest.

So what they could be dealing with was pure gravity. She thought that space-time was connected and tried it out.

Just now, she took out one space stone, and although still heavy and laborious, she did manage to take several more steps with much less effort. She immediately went to run to her husband to inform him after that.

The caveat was that the space stones were merely a medium of sorts. They still had to consistently channel aether through it.

After tying one space stone on each shoe, the two continued with their travels. The trip was still difficult, but it was now more manageable and just a bit harder than what they had been doing so far.

Further, it wasn’t just physical strength needed this time. They needed to control aether too. Hopefully, they didn’t damage the space stones, but even if they did, what could they do about it?

It was like this whole place had a coating of invisible aether that they had to puncture through. If one were to put it into an image, it was more like a giant invisible gelatin dome around this few-kilometer radius area, but pure strength wouldn’t help you puncture and walk through it.

Even after everything, it still took them another eight days just to cross a kilometer or so. Althea wondered how many muscles she had formed during this time.

"You’re still very soft," Garan said one night during a break. Garan was also exhausted, so his sex drive was controlled during this time, but his soft wife was right next to him, so it was impossible not to do anything.

The strength formed during this time was heavily based on quality rather than quantity. Externally, it didn’t seem like they had much change in their body, but the explosiveness of their hits definitely improved leaps and bounds over the week or so they had been traveling in this wilderness.

More than that, their magic control had definitely improved. Whenever they tried to use elemental skills to make their lives easier, they noticed that the mana consumption had decreased significantly.

Regardless of what this trip resulted in, it was worth it. It certainly saved them years’ worth of effort to polish themselves.

They soon reached the near apex of the gentle, but large, hill, and it was there that they found a short hole underneath, as if giving a glimpse of what was underneath this gentle hill.

"This..." Althea whispered, her tone somewhat awed. Garan’s usual stoic appearance also cracked, staring at the same sight.

It felt like they were looking at a small world inside a cave.

It was definitely a cave, a massive one, with the entire top covered except for a few holes allowing light to shine inside.

However, it was abnormally big and could actually fit a few small buildings inside comfortably. It really looked like another world.

At the center of it was a massive tree with a large canopy probably a hundred meters in diameter. Its leaves were silvery with an iridescent sheen.

Amongst its foliage, there were a few glass-like fruits.

They did not have to think anymore.

The tree they were looking for was definitely this one!

...

Just as the approach to this area made it feel like invisible weight was pushing them down, the closer they got to the tree, the more intense the sensation was.

It was just that after nearly two weeks of increasing gravity walks, they had become used to the sensation, so it didn’t throw them off anymore.

As they went closer, it became clear that there was a certain gravitas to the tree, as if the sight of it encouraged people to prostrate. The couple did not do anything like that, but they did feel their steps were more labored as they walked forward.

Garan stepped ahead of her, sensing the surroundings and prepared for threats. Althea, similarly, held her weapon stably, while also ensuring her controlled cactus was ready to shield them in case their weapons could not.

With the improvements of the past week or so, the quality of the cactus she roused up had increased, capable of shielding against multiple attacks equivalent to level 20 or so.

The closer Althea got, the more fascinated she became. She wondered how it was formed. Was it even from here, originally, or was it brought over from another world like how the Terrans were? Perhaps they’d never know.

However, she felt with increasing certainty that it did not have much to do with orcs at all. The legend probably arose from the old or ancient orcs significantly improving their strengths in the thorn forest.

As they walked closer, they felt a subtle pressure. However, they felt the mysterious energy inside them strengthen them, as if allowing them to withstand this pressure.

"AHH!"

Had they not gone through the tempering over the past couple of days, their bodies...could’ve been crushed.

Or rather...even if others did the same thing, they might still die.

Case in point, they had seen two skeletons at the edges. They were either humans or quasi-elves. Either way, they did not get out of this place alive. They were not even able to get a hundred meters from it.

This was in contrast with Althea and Garan, who had long passed this distance.

Vaguely, they felt it was their very diluted elven bloodline that was allowing them to stand so close to it.

She used her [Eye] and saw special energy emanating from the tree. There was also some concentrated on the fruits, but the tree itself emanated it, so she figured taking the fruits wouldn’t bring it harm.

As she looked and studied the tree, she suddenly had a theory.

It was this tree that strengthened the plants and fed uniquely quality wood elements in this region, allowing plants to grow particularly lush and even move, with some developing a pseudo-sentience of sorts.

However, while they could approach the tree itself, gathering the fruit was another matter altogether.

It was Garan who tried to take one first. He asked Althea to step back, just in case something hostile would happen. Garan tensely prepared to take it, with weapons in one hand and ice shards floating protectively around both of them.

The moment he grabbed the fruit, a gasp escaped his lips as he felt the aether inside him being absorbed!

"Garan!" Althea screamed, quickly pulling him back with a vine. She stepped forward to embrace him, and the man buried his head into her as he tightly held on.

Huff...huff...

"Are you alright?!" Althea asked, anxiously checking his vitals, touching his face, and his neck.

Garan took a deep breath and rested his forehead on her shoulder. He was suddenly more exhausted than ever.

"It’s dangerous. It takes too much aether," he said. Had he been careless, he might not have kept his life.

It wasn’t that Althea was sure that grabbing the fruit would be easy, but she was still a bit disappointed. However, she immediately thought of something to try the moment the disappointment landed in her mind.

With a smile, she took out a handful of aether crystals.

"It doesn’t have to be our aether, right?"