Chapter 68: The Secret of the Script 2

Kent was delighted.

At first glance, the agreement might have seemed somewhat disadvantageous to him.

But when he thought about it carefully...

Even if Keta had never asked, would Kent really abandon all those people whose ancestors had dreamed for generations of returning to the surface?

Probably not.

Of course, the return of the underground races would inevitably cause some disturbance among the powers of the surface world.

But Kent did not believe the threat would be especially serious.

The surface and the Underdark were almost two completely different worlds.

If the races of the Underdark wanted to conquer the surface, they would first have to ask whether the mages of the surface were willing to allow it.

And conversely...

If the surface races ever tried to seize the mineral-rich Underdark, they would have to contend with the races that had already adapted perfectly to life below.

Not to mention the enormous population of kobolds spread throughout the underground world.

Neither side could casually swallow the other.

And compared with what Kent was receiving in return...

His promise hardly seemed expensive at all.

What he had just gained was nothing less than the surviving inheritance of an entire civilization.

Perhaps only fragments remained.

But fragments of a civilization were still a civilization.

“Very well.”

Kent smiled.

“But Grandpa Keta...”

“You mentioned earlier that you had a few little things to give me.”

“And there was another secret as well, wasn’t there?”

His smile became shamelessly cheerful.

“Why don’t you tell me about those too?”

“At least give me something else to be happy about.”

Kent had always believed in maximizing his gains whenever possible.

Since Keta had already offered...

There was no reason not to ask.

“Fine.”

Keta did not sound surprised.

“But first...”

“You must prove that you really are a light-element mage.”

The old tree had clearly expected Kent to make such a request.

Still, he did not mind.

After all, the two of them had effectively become allies only moments earlier.

Somewhere deep within Keta’s ancient consciousness, there was even a faint sense that the day he saw the surface again might no longer be impossibly distant.

The thought itself seemed almost ridiculous.

His hope now rested partly upon a mere Level-Two Mage.

A young human with reasonably impressive alchemical skill.

And yet...

Keta had already witnessed what Kent was capable of.

With his perception extending across dozens of kilometers, the underground laboratory only a few hundred meters away had been practically beneath his nose.

He had sensed what Kent was doing during the battle with the kobolds.

Even Keta had never imagined that such simple, crude objects could slaughter the seemingly unstoppable kobold army on such a scale.

Of course, the kobolds’ tendency to bully the weak while fearing the strong had contributed to their collapse.

But the facts remained undeniable.

Those crude objects...

Things Keta had considered almost laughably simple...

Had played an enormous role in saving Muan City.

That alone was enough to make him take Kent seriously.

“Illumination!”

Kent spoke the short three-syllable incantation.

He had long since classified Illumination alongside Fireball as one of the essential spells for survival.

Because of that, he had spent a great deal of time practicing its incantation until casting it had become almost instinctive.

Illumination was a very basic divine spell.

Even an apprentice priest could learn it.

At its lowest level, the spell could illuminate an area roughly thirty meters in radius and twenty meters high.

The effect lasted approximately five minutes.

In terms of ordinary mage classifications, it was essentially equivalent to an apprentice-level spell.

Kent, however, was already a Level-Two Mage.

When he cast Illumination, the spell could illuminate an area with a radius of roughly fifty meters and a height of thirty meters.

The duration was still around five minutes.

But the light itself was considerably brighter.

The instant the spell activated...

Something went wrong.

“What—?”

Kent suddenly felt the entire world spin around him.

His vision blurred.

A powerful wave of dizziness struck him without warning.

Before he could react...

The scene around him changed.

Kent staggered.

Then realized he was no longer inside Keta’s trunk.

He was standing outside.

“What the hell just happened?”

Kent stared in confusion.

Then his eyes widened.

The enormous Ancient Tree of War before him had begun to move violently.

Not sway.

Not tremble.

Move.

Its gigantic trunk shuddered.

Massive roots twisted beneath the earth.

Chunks of stone were thrown into the air.

Soil erupted from the ground.

The surrounding earth seemed to churn as though some gigantic beast beneath it had suddenly awakened.

Dark elves living among Keta’s branches immediately began leaping down from the tree.

One after another, they landed on the ground.

They shouted loudly in the elven language.

Kent could not understand what they were saying.

But judging from their expressions...

Something extraordinary was happening.

More and more people gathered around.

Dark elves.

Dwarves.

Gnomes.

Humans.

Even several of the elders soon arrived to see what was happening.

Everyone stared at the violently moving Ancient Tree of War.

Kent stood among them, completely stunned by the scene.

Then a thought suddenly occurred to him.

Wait...

Did that old tree trick me?

Kent’s expression darkened slightly.

Still...

Whether Keta had tricked him or not was not the most important question right now.

There was only one thing Kent truly wanted to know.

What exactly was happening to the Ancient Tree of War?

In the space of only a few minutes, the enormous and ferocious Ancient Tree of War began shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Its towering trunk contracted.

Its sprawling branches drew inward.

The massive body that had once dominated the surroundings became smaller and smaller...

Until, at last, it stood only seven or eight meters tall.

And now, its shape was vaguely humanoid.

The dark elves gathered around it were practically trembling with excitement.

Kent, on the other hand...

Was thoroughly depressed.

It was obvious that Keta had gained an enormous benefit from the Illumination spell Kent had just cast.

Still, before Kent could start calculating how much compensation he ought to demand from the old tree, he first needed to understand exactly what had happened.

He glanced around.

Not far away, a young dark elf was shrieking excitedly.

Who else could it be but Daphne?

Kent immediately walked over.

The girl’s face was flushed bright red with excitement.

Kent leaned closer and asked,

“Daphne, what’s going on?”

“What happened to Grandpa Keta?”

“Grandpa Keta evolved!”

Daphne turned and saw that it was Kent.

She answered him with a sweet smile.

“Grandpa Keta used to be an Ancient Tree of War.”

“But now he has evolved into a Tree Giant!”

Kent blinked.

That explanation did not help nearly as much as Daphne seemed to think it did.

He still had no idea what the actual difference was.

So, with absolutely no shame, he continued asking,

“Is there really that much difference between an Ancient Tree of War and a Tree Giant?”

“Of course there is!”

Daphne answered immediately.

“Grandpa Keta can now transform into both an Ancient Tree of War and a Tree Giant.”

“As a Tree Giant, he can move much faster, and he can also cast wood-element magic.”

“His combat power has already reached the peak of Level Nine!”

Her eyes sparkled.

“And once Grandpa Keta can shrink his body to just over two meters tall, he’ll awaken a Domain.”

“At that point, he’ll officially enter the Legendary Realm!”

Clearly impatient to go see Keta for herself, Daphne only gave Kent a rough explanation.

Then she hurried away with most of the other dark elves.

Kent remained where he was.

His expression gradually became painful.

“I lost out.”

“I definitely lost out.”

He looked toward Keta in the distance.

“That old tree became this powerful, and I didn’t even negotiate the reward beforehand?”

Kent felt as though his heart were bleeding.

If the old Keta had been something like a stationary magical cannon...

Then the current Keta was a mobile fortress.

Not only did he possess terrifying firepower...

He could move quickly as well.

A creature like Keta would be almost impossible to defeat on the surface.

As long as he was not forced into some extreme environment such as a desert, ocean, volcanic region, or similarly barren land...

Keta would practically be fighting on home ground wherever he went.

And Kent knew exactly how terrifying high-level wood-element magic could become.

At Level Nine, the wood element possessed a forbidden spell known as Nature’s Wrath.

Once cast...

Every living thing within its range could become an enemy’s attacker.

Tiny beetles.

Vines.

Grass.

Trees.

Even ancient giants of the forest.

As long as something possessed life...

Nature itself could turn against the target.

And that was only its offensive power.

The wood element also possessed one of the most powerful healing forbidden spells in existence—

Hymn of Life.

Its healing power was said to rival even the Grand Resurrection of the Church of Light.

More importantly...

Wood-element magic was one of the few forces capable of directly opposing the Church of Light’s terrifying Grand Prophecy.

The principles of the two spells were almost exact opposites.

Grand Prophecy stripped away the power of life.

Wood-element magic replenished it.

As long as plants existed nearby...

A powerful wood mage could continuously draw upon the surrounding vitality and restore lost life force.

And Keta was not even an ordinary wood-element creature.

Kent already knew that the old tree possessed two elemental affinities.

Among plant life, such a thing was extraordinarily rare.

Extremely rare.

His second affinity was space.

And there was hardly any need to explain how frightening spatial magic could become.

Teleportation.

Spatial displacement.

Perhaps dimensional travel.

Even an idiot could imagine the possibilities.

More importantly, Keta had already reached the point where he could create an independent subspace inside his own body.

That alone was enough to show how advanced his spatial abilities were.

The more Kent thought about it...

The worse he felt.

He no longer felt as though he had simply cast an Illumination spell.

He felt as though he had casually handed away some priceless treasure without asking for payment first.

Still, Kent also understood why powerful wood-element mages were so rare.

Wood magic was among the slowest magical paths to cultivate.

A wood mage had to train magical power and spiritual power just like any other mage.

But that alone was not enough.

The true difficulty lay in one additional requirement—

State of mind.

To advance in wood-element magic, a mage needed to cultivate a certain harmony with nature.

Even if magical power had reached the required level...

Even if spiritual power was sufficient...

If the mage’s state of mind had not reached the proper level, advancement would still be impossible.

And that was only part of the problem.

At low and intermediate levels, most wood-element spells were rather unimpressive.

Their offensive power was poor.

Their practical value was limited.

Compared with fire, lightning, or other combat-oriented elements, wood magic could seem almost useless.

But once it reached the higher levels...

Everything changed.

Its healing abilities became extraordinary.

And its offensive power became equally terrifying.

Unfortunately...

How many high-level mages were there in the world to begin with?

Very few.

That was why, on the surface, most powerful wood-element mages belonged to the elven race.

Human wood mages were exceedingly rare.

Humans simply found it far more difficult to maintain the natural, calm, and harmonious state of mind required by wood-element cultivation.

Elves, by contrast, were naturally far closer to nature.

Kent already knew all of this.

Which was exactly why, as he looked at the newly evolved Keta...

His sense of loss only became stronger.