In a peaceful forest, a man was slowly awakening as he sensed killing intent nearby.
Napping was definitely the best activity while waiting! Climbers still had to sleep from time to time, just very, very rarely. Or was this only true for him?
Josh observed his surroundings with trepidation. He would add meeting dryads to the list of stories to tell the little one. A few seconds later, one appeared from behind a tree…no, from inside the tree!
A delicate face emerged the wood as if water. The newcomer's skin was light brown with timber texture, her eyes were a shimmering green, her lengthy hair seemed to be made of leaves, her mouth was in an O shape, and her face expressionless.
As the creature fully exited the tree, her full body appeared. She was completely naked, had a female silhouette, and only lacked genitalia. She slowly strode his way, her hips swaying as she did so.
<Rejuvenation Dryad Lv 23>
As soon as she came close, she stood still and then waved a hand. Suddenly green light inundated the entire area. Josh never had the chance to dodge! It instantly penetrated all his defenses and ….did jack shit.
If anything, the grass looked a little greener. Without waiting, the dryad began spamming the green light over and over. After a few tries, she stood in place puzzled, then remained unmoving as she stared at him.
What now? Had she given up? Apparently, she had been waiting for reinforcement as another dryad showed up. She came closer with purpose but only copied the previous one! What was insanity? To keep doing the same thing while expecting a different result.
More dryads showed up as they too began bathing the area in green light. At this point, the air itself was green. They kept tirelessly casting even with zero results.
Conclusion: the dryads were 100% support creatures. Perhaps they could be a force to reckon with if they stayed together with the protectors, but right now they were utterly useless!
The Greenwood Lord curse had managed to aggro them all. They wanted to kill Josh so severely that they had all instantly charged his way. The protectors had been left behind, and the dryads couldn't kill personally.
It was pretty hilarious and ironic how the curse was actually helping him. To be fair, it seemed that there was no communication between the gods and the Tower Protocol who designed the challenges. Hell, the Tower couldn't even hear them!
It was one huge and comical coincidence! It gave rise to the pathetic scene that was currently happening. Josh took a deep breath, enjoying this feeling of invincibility.
"Go on! Bring it on, do your best!" He valiantly roared at them. Would others believe him if he were to recount this?
"Navi, make sure you record this."
At some point, a dryad seemed to realize that her actions weren't working. It had only taken her dozens of casts. She tentatively approached and punched him! Josh carefully blocked her fist, but there didn't seem to be any power behind it.
The next one landed on his chest, not producing any result. She seemed torn between what to do as she alternated between a useless punch and a useless green glow. Had he activated god mode by mistake? The point was, Josh had lots of fun for a while.
Eventually, all the dryads reached him, prompting the system to make another appearance.
The latest_epi_sodes are on_the novel35.COM website.
[Found all the dryads! Congratulation!]
[Phase 2 starting: cause at least 30% of damage!]
What did the 30% mean? Did he only have to weaken the boss that was surely about to spawn? But suddenly, an earth-shattering cry resounded in the realm.
— ℜ???????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????—
— ℜ???????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????—
— ℜ???????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????—
The entire forest seemed to quiver following the appearance of a creature. Josh could feel it. This thing had spawned right next to him! Crap, this would be extremely bad! There were so many dryads all around!
There was no way he would fight a Boss if it had dozens and dozens of dedicated healers. It would be pure suicide as he'd die of old age! He decisively decided to break the dryad next to him, but just as he was about to slash, he saw the new enemy out of the corner of his eye.
What the fuck was this?! There was a creature that seemed to be a mix between a dryad and a tree. It had lots of grassy leaves that looked like chest hair along with fists that looked like bark. But why was it not even a meter tall?!
As he cut the dryad next to him, the newcomer seemed to suddenly grow, now barely reaching 1 meter tall. Wait, this thing had cried out revenge for the fallen as it had spawned, right?! Was it becoming stronger the more creatures he killed?!
Without waiting further, Josh charged at it, grabbing an axe. He used his momentum to jump and made a dunking motion. His weapon drew an arc in the air before falling right on the creature's head, splitting the entire body in half.
[Completed the Mission!]
Josh was staring at the victory screen, completely flabbergasted. In the background, dryads were celebrating his victory with their green glow— aka still trying to kill him with a healing spell (?).
Was this still Hellish?!
[First to solo clear at Hellish!]
[First to one-shot the boss!]
The curse had drawn them all out, making it so he only killed a single protector and dryad. This, in turn, had reduced to null the difficultly of the boss. Perhaps this was why it hadn't dropped anything. But, there was still the mission reward!
[Please select 2 | Amazing Branch | Dryad Breath | Dryad Bloodline Pearl | Glistering Fruit | Magical Leaf | Rejuvenation Jewel | Weed Killer]
Josh couldn't help but give a wry smile. Picking a reward would be the most challenging part of this Floor, and he would have to proceed through elimination.
Amazing Branch: Would this be the return of campfire-less OP Josh?
Dryad Breath: Right now, he was getting bathed in their magic, and it didn't do shit. It was quite probably some healing item. Hard Pass!
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Dryad Bloodline Pearl: This one was even worse! What if he were to sprout grass on his body?
Glistering Fruit: This one was probably something edible. Would it give a temporary buff or a permanent stat increase? It could be interesting.
Magical Leaf: Same as the previous one, this one sounded a bit more like a crafting ingredient.
Rejuvenation Jewel: Probably would be equipable on gear to increase regeneration. With the Devour Passive, Josh didn't need it.
Weed Killer: Perhaps a weapon or a consumable? Either way, this one sounded like it had potential.
"I'll pick the weed killer and…."
"Ah, fuck it. Give me the branch too!" Josh uttered after a long reflection.
He couldn't resist selecting this one simply because it had "amazing" in the name. This ought to count for something, right? With expectation, he unveiled his new items.
The first was a small tool that looked like a Hand Weeder. It had a wooden handle along with a long and thin metallic part. It looked like a big pirate hook and was made to overturn the roots of small plants easily.
<D Weed Killer>
- Increases damage dealt against weeds. Ineffective against anything else.
Now, the only question was: what was even considered weeds? Was it anything plant-based, or was it more troublesome? He would have to do some testing, but he still had high hopes. This description resembled the one for the True Pickaxe very much.
At this rate, Josh would soon become the ultimate gardener. He would be able to remove all unwanted rocks and weeds from any field with incredible efficiency. #Road To Millionaire #Climbing As a Side Hussle!
Anyway, next came the branch. It was a simple stick that had nothing much going for it besides being relatively long and thin. It looked like something one would use as a firestarter. His heart was thumping as he inspected it.
<?!? Amazing Branch>
- Send mana into it along with the activation phrase to generate an instant protector that protects its summoner. The strength of the protector is based on the amount of mana invested.
Holy shit! It could generate a protector?! Wait, no. There was a huge issue. What was the goddamn activation phrase?! He tried clicking the description, but nothing happened.
"Hey, system. Any possibility of receiving a hint or something? Where am I supposed to find it?" He tried, but there was no answer with the system long gone.
Not willing to give up just yet, he turned the branch in all directions, trying to get a clue. He did it so much that a piece of the outer bark fell off. He probably ought to be more careful....or not?! There were words written under the bark!
He quickly peeled the rest of it off, revealing the light beige wood underneath. All of it formed a message that was quite frankly embarrassing, far too embarrassing.
He quickly got rid of all the dryads. They may have once looked like pretty dolls, but they were now nothing but timber.
He then slowly began reading it all, observing his surroundings one last time to make sure he was truly alone.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Summoning Chant!
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Oh mighty stick
Take this pure mana of mine
Let me fill you up to the brim
Take me so very deep inside you
Show me how big and hard you can get
Let the world witness your magnificence
Together we shall have so much incredible fun
I summon you, big stick, the most amazing protector!
*PS: Requires one to hold it firmly with one's right hand.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
As soon as he was done reading, he could feel the mana inside him being quickly drained...
Creator's Thought
Not going to lie, I'm convinced there were only two strange choices and I just happened to pick both. The Amazing Branch seemed to be an exclusive reward for one-shotting the Boss: something impossible without a method to make the dryads voluntarily leave safety.