Chapter 151, The Four Ancient Trees

Star, [If that’s the case, then it really is because the mana concentration is too high. The most important part of a temperature-control enchantment is the flow of mana through the clothing that maintains a stable temperature.]

High Priestess, [Then there’s probably no need to overthink it. Unless something unexpected is going on, all of this should be directly related to mana concentration.]

Hierophant, [Whatever the reason, the important thing is that Tower is fine. Still, this is a very interesting research topic.]

Magician, [Agreed. This actually gives me an idea. What if we could create an area around our bodies with a mana concentration higher than the surroundings? Wouldn’t that let us move freely during extreme natural phenomena like Mana Tides and Mana Turbulence?]

Wheel of Fortune, [You probably wouldn’t need an area that large. I think a thin layer of highly concentrated mana covering the body like a membrane or a suit of clothing might be enough.]

Magician, [That makes sense.]

Sun, [I’m going to test it.]

High Priestess, [Me too.]

Once they had a direction and some inspiration, nobody cared how the discussion had started anymore.

The researchers logged off one after another to begin experimenting.

Then again, with the Mana Tide raging outside, everyone was trapped inside their shelters with nothing better to do.

Now that they had a fresh research idea, of course they were going to use it to kill time.

The only ones left chatting were people like Empress, Justice, Hierophant, and Emperor, whose specialties had little to do with mana research.

Clara Everhart already knew what these people were like.

Even so, being abandoned in the middle of the conversation left her a little speechless.

Whatever.

As Nemo had said, all that mattered was that she was not being affected.

With that thought, Clara continued flying toward the stone house.

Whoosh!

Boom!

Just as Clara reached the bottom of the stone-paved slope, four enormous objects suddenly dropped from above.

They slammed down around the stone house, one at each of its four sides.

One of them crashed directly in front of Clara, throwing up so much dust that it nearly swallowed her whole.

Crystal pillars?

Clara immediately pulled back while studying the objects.

At first glance, she thought chunks of crystal had simply fallen from the cavern ceiling.

No.

They had not fallen.

Had they come down specifically to stop her from entering the stone house?

Clara narrowed her eyes at the four massive crystal pillars standing at different distances around her, each glowing with a different color.

Then she noticed something strange.

There seemed to be something inside them.

Clara squinted until her eyes were nearly reduced to slits, but the reflections and countless crystal facets made it impossible to see what was trapped inside.

Fortunately, she did not need to keep guessing.

Crack...

Crack...

The crystal pillar in front of her suddenly began to fracture.

Clara immediately jerked her magic broom backward and retreated more than a hundred meters.

What began as a few tiny cracks spread across the crystal like a spiderweb in only two or three seconds.

Then the pillar shattered.

At last, Clara saw what had been sealed inside.

It was a gigantic tree nearly a hundred meters tall.

Compared with it, the War Treants looked like children.

There was no comparison at all.

[Ancient War Tree, ?]

[Health, ????]

[Mana, ????]

[Skills, ????, ???, ??, ????, ???]

[Description, ???]

Seriously?

First War Treants, and now an Ancient War Tree?

Was this what happened when you beat the small ones and their elders came looking for revenge?

And what was with those Health and Mana values?

Judging by the appraisal displays Clara had seen before, did four question marks mean four-digit values?

Did that mean its base stats were somewhere in the thousands?

And it had that many skills?

From everything Clara had encountered personally and everything she had gathered from others, magical beasts generally possessed only two skills.

Without exception.

Spoon was perfect proof of that.

Even an A-grade Treasure Mouse only had two.

So did that mean this Ancient War Tree was above A-grade?

S-grade?

SS-grade?

SSS-grade?

SSR-grade?

All right, Clara had completely made up the last three based on game rarity systems.

As far as she actually knew, S-grade was probably the highest.

She had at least encountered something at that level before.

Surely this thing was not some kind of “world-grade” monster.

With that thought, Clara looked toward the other three parts of the cavern.

Three more colossal trees were slowly moving toward her.

[Ancient Tree of Knowledge, ?]

[Ancient Tree of Life, ?]

[Ancient Tree of Wind, ?]

Great.

They really were a whole family.

And the entire family had shown up together to beat her down.

Clara clicked her tongue when she saw their names.

Before she could come up with a plan, the nearest Ancient War Tree made the first move.

Whoosh!

A violent rush of air slammed toward her.

Clara’s expression changed as she yanked the magic broom upward, barely avoiding the Ancient War Tree’s strike.

Boom!

The branch smashed into the ground and shattered a long stretch of stone flooring.

Clara hovered in the air, the corner of her mouth twitching.

Good thing she had reacted quickly.

One clean hit from that thing and she would probably end up scattered across the cavern in pieces.

Whoosh!

Clara had barely begun to relax when tiny green buds suddenly sprouted from her magic broom.

The instant they appeared, the shoots grew wildly, stretching into vines that tried to wrap around Clara’s body.

There was no time to be surprised.

Clara switched to third gear and severed her mana connection with the broom at the same time.

She flew free of it and hung alone in the air.

Still shaken, Clara turned her head.

The Ancient Tree of Knowledge was pointing one of its short, thick branches directly at her.

At the tip of the branch floated something Clara had never seen before.

Several circles, triangles, stars, and other complex patterns overlapped into a structure that vaguely resembled an alchemy circle.

“A magic circle?!”

Clara’s heart jumped.

She recognized it because Albert had mentioned magic circles in his alchemy notebook.

An alchemy circle was one type of magic circle.

It was also the kind alchemists used most often.

But this was Clara’s first time seeing an actual magic circle like this in person.

Compared with an alchemy circle, the structure was vastly more complicated.

Unfortunately, now was not the time to admire it.

Without her magic broom, Clara had lost her main source of propulsion.

She could only remain suspended in the air and watch the four Ancient Trees slowly converge below.

When she fought the War Treants, she had wanted them to gather together because that made them easier to deal with.

But now, for reasons she could not explain, a powerful thought rose in Clara’s mind.

Absolutely do not let those four Ancient Trees come together.

If they gathered in one place, she would die.

Maybe this was what people called a sixth sense.

Clara could not explain where the feeling came from.

But if every instinct she had was screaming the same warning, she had no intention of ignoring it.

She could not let them gather.

With that decision made, Clara stopped worrying about the fact that she had lost her broom.

She reached into her crossbody bag, pulled out her card, and quickly took several photos.

Then she dropped one of the giant bombs toward the slope occupied by the Ancient War Tree.

Keeping the four Ancient Trees apart was actually very simple.

She only needed to set the slope on fire and cut the Ancient War Tree off from the others.

Boom!

Just as Clara expected, the giant bomb detonated.

The violent shockwave blasted her through the air.

Clara had expected that part and was already prepared for it.

What she had not expected was Steel Wool.

The instant Clara was sent flying, Steel Wool burst out from her clothes.

The Aurora Snowy Owl grabbed Clara by the collar with its claws and immediately dragged her toward the passage.

Speed was Steel Wool’s greatest strength.

Only a few seconds later, Clara had already been hauled into the tunnel.

The price was her hair.

After being dragged through the air at that speed, it had become a complete mess.

If her hat had not been protected by the Secure Fit Enchantment, the wind would probably have ripped it away too.

“Well, look at you... Wait, no. Look at you, clever girl.”

Once Steel Wool set her down, Clara happily cupped the owl’s face in both hands and rubbed her cheeks.

Steel Wool did not get angry in the slightest.

Instead, she narrowed her eyes and looked thoroughly pleased with the attention.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

Spoon immediately started protesting from the side.

The little Treasure Mouse was so anxious that it began circling in place.

Every time Clara and Steel Wool had a moment together, Spoon became unbearably jealous.

“All right, all right. You too, Spoon. Without you, I never would’ve found all this treasure in the first place.”

Clara certainly could not play favorites.

She placed Spoon on her lap and gave the little mouse a thorough petting.

Spoon immediately melted under the attention and copied Steel Wool by narrowing its eyes in bliss.

Except even while enjoying itself, Spoon still kept sneaking sideways glances at Steel Wool.

Then Steel Wool opened her beak and swallowed half of Spoon in one bite.

Clara did not bother stopping them.

Those two had messed with each other plenty of times before.

She had no idea what was happening outside now.

But one thing was obvious.

Killing those four Ancient Trees was going to be difficult.

Fortunately, Clara had something almost as useful as omnipotence.

Her group chat.

It was probably already deep into the night, but Clara knew perfectly well that most of the others would still be awake.

A Mana Tide was the perfect time to focus entirely on research, since no one could go outside anyway.

And after getting fresh inspiration earlier, there was no way the researchers would waste precious time sleeping.

Clara certainly would not have.

Sure enough.

The moment she cast what amounted to a mass group-summoning spell, the previously quiet chat exploded with activity.