Glancing toward the golden fruit with an instinctual hunger, I internal debated whether it was worth eating. Various thoughts flashed through my mind. The advantages and disadvantages of each choice.

In the end, hunger won the battle.

I reached upward and grabbed one of the golden fruit before taking a shallow bite.

Delicious... the Fruit of Evolution was absolutely delicious. It had a sweet and savory flavor that was hard to describe, yet contained an extremely satisfying taste.

The rest of the fruit was devoured in a few quick bites, but the hunger persisted.

There were no obvious differences from before… despite eating the fruit, it seemed like nothing had changed. Maybe I felt a little less hungry, but that was it.

I had been expecting something more dramatic? Like a physical reaction of evolution.

Since it is called a Fruit of Evolution, I expected it to have some strange effects like promoting my physique. In fact, I’d rather have a negative effect than no side-effects at all.

With a slight frown, I looked back toward the remaining four fruits. The strong hunger to eat the golden fruits remained.

It might be necessary to consume multiple fruits?

While I was thinking, a refreshing feeling originating from my chest poured over my body. I pulled off my shirt and examined the world tree growing on my skin.

Instead of the smaller flower from before, there was a gigantic red-pink flower covering almost the entirety of my right-chest with green leaves spreading from it in all directions.

Every couple seconds, a wave of refreshing energy flowed through my body originating from the flower. The sensation was similar to cold breeze on a scorching hot day, a temporarily pleasurable sensation that was refreshing.

Softly touching the flower with my hand, the soft feeling of flower pedals teased my fingertips and a flowery aroma wafted into the surroundings. A pollen-like substance remaining on my fingertips when I removed it.

The world tree had grown significantly in size and seemed to be having an active effect in comparison.

Is the Fruit of Evolution the main cause of these changes?

Although it might be an illusion, my mind felt a strange sense of clarity and filled with energy whenever the refreshing sensation poured out from the red-pink flower on my chest.

Closing my eyes to more clearly examine the sensation, another strange notably situation turned more clearly visible. Even with closed eyes, the images of the plants nearby flowed into my mind as though I hadn’t closed my eyes at all.

A warm sensation of comfort and control radiated from the nearby plants.

It felt like I could control all of the nearby plants with the slightest thought.

Turning toward the tree with the Fruits of Evolution, I found myself able to manipulate the branches. Similar to a phantom limb that I was unaware of before, with a mere thought, I could move the tree’s branches upward or downward.

There was a strange energy of life flowing through the tree and reaching out to the tips of all the branches. Large portions of the energy gathered, circling within the Fruit of Evolution on the tree.

Hmmm, I wonder what that is…

Attempting to control the energy within the plant, I tried divert some of the energy away from a branch of the tree.

Shortly afterward, that branch of the withered and died. The branch fell to the ground cut off from the tree and fell to the ground without any energy.

Looking at the withered branch on the floor with a strange expression, various thoughts ran through my head.

Is it some type of life-force? All the plants nearby seem to have it.

Very strange…

Moving closer, I placed the palm of my hand on the tree trunk and tried to direct a portion of the energy into myself.

As it flowed into me, a strong cold breeze with a refreshing sensation poured into my body. The sensation was far stronger than the miniature refreshing sensation originating from the flower on my chest, but the refreshing sensation was unmistakably identical and originating from my palm.

Getting addicted to the pleasant feeling, I’d stolen approximately half of the tree’s energy in a short period.

Conversely to my own refreshment and energetic response, the leaves on the tree were turning an unhealthy yellow and had begun wilting as a result of the stolen energy.

This energy… it must be a type of life-force?

Slowly gathering up the ‘life-force’ from the nearby grass and plants, I tried injecting it into the tree and confirmed my results. The tree returned to a healthy color and began condensing the life-force in a singular location creating another miniature golden fruit.

The grass and plants nearby were far weaker in survivability than the tree, despite stealing only a quarter of their life-force, they instantly withered and died. Their remaining life-force dissipated back into the surroundings.

Seemingly acting instinctively, the flower of the world tree gathered the unattached life-force and an extremely strong refreshing sensation spread throughout my body.

When refreshing sensations had completely stopped, my body felt stronger and healthy. It felt like I could pick up an entire bus and toss it through the air without a problem.

However… notably, the periodic and pleasant refreshing sensation had stopped occurring at regular intervals.

I quickly understood the source of the problem.

The world tree had been slowly and periodically taking the unused life-force from the nearby plants without causing them permanent damage and the refreshing sensation was the result.

When the nearby plants died, naturally the refreshing sensation would stop.

Obviously, without plants nearby, there was nothing to leech life-force from.

Instinctively, I recognized this ability to control plants and steal life-force wasn’t my own, but an ability of the world tree within me. The Fruit of Evolution might have sped up the world tree’s growth or caused a beneficial mutation to occur.

Hmmm…. This was very interesting development.

If I can truly grow my strength by stealing life-force from plants, this is an extremely beneficial mutation.

The desire to eat the golden fruits of evolution remained. Testing out my new abilities, I controlled the tree’s branches to lower a golden fruit into my hand.

Plucking the fruit off the tree, I took a large bite into it.

What- Ewwh!

Spitting the fruit out of my mouth, I tried to wash away the disgusting and burning sensation away from my tongue with water from my canteen.

The fruit tasted terrible, like a sour vomit with acid that burned my tongue. None of the delicious sensation from before remained.

Yuck…

While the fruit appeared identical inside and outside to the previous and there didn’t seem to any difference in maturity, the taste was indescribably terrible. I couldn't understand why this fruit would taste terrible and burn the tongue whilst the previous fruit tasted delicious, but it was a fact that the taste had changed.

While the hunger to eat the golden fruit remained, the idea of eating it was quickly squashed by the terribleness of the taste. It tasted worse than dog's vomit after eating tuna. Any appetite for the golden fruit had been completely ruined by the taste.

I looked toward another of the golden fruit with hesitation.

While my appetite for the fruit had been ruined, the benefits from eating it had been extremely high. I didn’t want to give up that easily, it might be that only this fruit tasted terrible.

Plucked another fruit from the branches with a large amount of hesitation, I took a small cautious nibble of the fruit and the same disgusting sensation reached my tongue.

Spitting it out and washing away the taste, I immediately threw away the idea of eating another of the golden fruits. No matter how beneficial it might be, nobody sane would be wiling to eat such a terrible tasting fruit.

I don’t know whether messing around with the life-force of the tree was the cause or if it was something else, but the taste had become indescribably terrible. Eating another fruit was simply impossible.

Absorbed the life-force of all the fruits, I enjoyed the refreshing sensation of my strength growing instead of the disgusting sensation of eating it and quickly devoured the remaining life-force in the tree.

The door ahead remained locked, there didn’t appeared to be another way forward.

Whilst there was writing on the wall that likely explained how to pass this room, I couldn’t understand the majority of it.

The yin-yang fishes swam in the pond silently in a circular pattern, but other than the pond… the room was completely barren, only filled with dead plants.

Since there was no obvious way forward and I had already decided to be satisfied with what I’d gained. I treated the Fruit of Evolution as the reward for completing the first room and decided to leave. The ability to control and steal the life-force of plants was more than enough for me. I’d already spent approximately a month in the tutorial and Rin might be getting worried.

Going back would take another week and I shouldn’t spend too long in the tutorial. Simply travel back to the basilisk’s mountain is the best idea at this point.

It’s unfortunate that I’m not an actual protagonist like Rin.

After all, a true protagonist would’ve received the entire inheritance of Mt Tai and passed all the trials with flying colors.

I barely managed to get past the first room by cheating and have to give up the idea of going further.

Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Leaving Mt Tai without hesitation, I began the journey back to the teleportation array on the basilisk’s mountain.

Despite my internal thought, the main reason I decided to leave Mt Tai wasn’t merely to head to the teleportation array. I also wanted to test the limits of this life-force absorption ability. There would be countless plants on the journey.

As I walked, I continuously devoured the life-force of all nearby plants with reckless abandon. Every plant in my path within the absorption distance of approximately fifty meters was mercilessly sucked dry of life-force.

As for the ecological and environmental effects of my actions? I didn’t bother to consider them.

The tutorial would be destroyed by corrupted mana in another two months or so. Leaving these plants alive would only be wasting their life-force.

The plants had no chance of survival anyway.

After traveling for a period of time, I remained quite pleased with the result of this decision.

The thick forest and jungle that was difficult to navigate beforehand was easily passable. Without having to worry about plants getting in the way, my speed was noticeably faster than before and I avoided many detours.

My physique was grown stronger as a result of the plundering as well.

In five short days, quick tests proved that my strength had increased dramatically as a result of my actions.

When I’d finally reached the basilisk’s mountain, I actually felt slightly regretful. The rapid promotion as a result of my plundering had come to an end, the refreshing feeling of life-force from plants was addicting and I’d have to limit my plundering to a certain extent to avoid ecological damage in other places.

Well... unless I crazily absorb plant's life-force, it’s unlikely to cause serious ecological damage.

While ecosystems might seem fragile, they are actually extremely difficult to destroy. Species or lifeforms in a ecosystem might be easily destroyed, but destroying an overall ecosystem usually required purposeful action and was difficult to achieve through individual action.

As I'd arrived at the basilisk's mountain, it's time to leave the tutorial and find Rin in the second zone.