I looked at the plant in front of me.
Its roots and leaves covered the entire cave; Because of the rocky ground, the roots grew through every single crack, desperately looking for nutrient-filled dirt.
The core of the plant was roughly a metre wide and, at least, four times as high.
Through its surface, a red glow was visible.
From the top, several vines sprouted; each at least a dozen metres long.
The plant-monster could move the vines at high speeds. Coupled with their weight, they could knock even a troll unconscious.
Fighting, however, wasn’t their primary purpose: the plant mainly used them to suck nutrients from other organisms, allowing it to grow.
Some other plants did similar things, even on earth. They would absorb nutrients from dead insects or animals to feed themselves.
What made this plant, the Goric zombie vine, unique, was that the organisms it fed on, didn’t have to be dead.
Its vines would attach themselves to the organism’s brain, controlling their actions.
Using this it would keep the organism alive so it could produce more nutrients.
Apart from being lunch boxes, the organisms would also use all their power to defend the zombie vine from any danger.
Because of this, the zombie vine would feed on as many different creatures as possible. That way it had access to a large variety of skills and abilities.
And if all that wasn’t scary enough, it also created illusions that, depending on if it needed any more nutrients and thus prey, would either lure or scare away other creatures.
‘Though, according to the knowledge of the sage, it’s not supposed to glow…’ I explored the information that the knowledge of the sage left in my brain but couldn’t find anything about it.
I looked at the creatures that the zombie vine had caught.
There were eight half-dead creatures huddled around it, including one I was familiar with.
“I shouldn’t have left after all.” I looked sadly at the blond-haired boy who had a plant sticking out of his skull.
Since a fight was inevitable, I quickly hid myself to activate the ‘first blood’ title.
However, the title didn’t activate.
I looked around me for anyone who could see me but didn’t spot anyone.
After a few more moments of searching, I finally spotted something odd.
By my feet, a small bit of green was visible between the rocks.
Moving some of the rocks away, I got a better view of the unusual object.
It was one of the zombie vine’s vines.
Realising what it was, I quickly moved away from it.
Before I could do so, however, the vine moved.
It wrapped around my ankle and tripped me.
I quickly pushed myself up from the ground and pulled my knife from its sheath.
I cut the vine off and moved away, dodging another attack.
Although the scuffle had taken just a few seconds, several dozen vines had appeared around me in the meantime.
Whilst I managed to dodge their attack, I was forced to enter the cave with the zombie vine.
The way out was blocked by the vines and, in front of me, the zombie vine’s victims stood up.
Three of them, the beasts, charged at me immediately.
I quickly skewered my first two attackers, a wolf and a giant spider, and rolled to the side.
The remaining one, a panther-like animal, sailed over my head and landed where I was standing just a moment ago.
I got back on my feet and quickly cut the vine connecting the panther to the parasitic plant.
The panther staggered and after a few moments, it collapsed.
It hadn’t died yet, but I switched my focus to the others in the cave.
Of the remaining enemies, three approached me whilst the other two stayed behind.
The frontliners spread out, attempting to surround me.
Before they could do so, however, I charged the left most attacker, a goblin.
He swung his club at me, but without any significant strength behind it, I easily stopped it.
I grabbed the end of the club and pulled it.
he goblin wouldn’t give it up, however, and held on with all its strength.
Ignoring the goblin’s struggling, I lifted him up in the air along with his weapon.
I stabbed my knife into its chest and threw the body at the orc that had nearly reached me.
Whilst the orc was distracted, I quickly moved past it.
Within moments, I reached the rear guard and I cut the vine controlling one of them.
With my back turned towards the last back liner, I didn’t spot the attack before it was too late.
A huge fireball struck my back, and the clothes that had survived ever since getting summoned finally fell apart.
I stumbled forwards and fell to the ground.
Two more fireballs flew over my head and I could feel their heat wash over me as they exploded.
Getting back on my feet, I looked at the target of the fireballs.
The zombie vine, which had escaped any heavy attacks so far, had been struck and the fire was slowly spreading.
Before I could do anything, two vines connecting the plant to its victims expanded.
I followed the vines with my eyes and my sight quickly landed on the blonde boy I’d seen at the start, Daan.
As I watched, all strength left him and he fell to the ground.
As if it was a straw, the plant used his vines to suck all the energy from his victims.
I cut the vine connecting Daan and the plant as quick as I could, but the damage had already been done.
Although I immediately wanted to run over to him, I was still in the middle of battle.
The zombie vine had drained two of his three remaining soldiers and started attacking me with its vines.
Having seen its effect, I quickly roused my mana, summoning flames to my hands.
I threw a fireball several times bigger than before towards the plant and dodged the vines attacking me.
However, the fireball didn’t reach its target, as the last fighter, the orc, threw himself in its path.
The fireball exploded and the orc was flung away.
As the smell of roasted pig filled the air, I summoned more fire.
I covered my knife with mana and used the burning weapon to get rid of the nearby vines.
Having some room to move, I rushed at the plant and took a swing at it.
I cut through its outer layer and reached the inside.
The liquid inside started pouring out and the plant started withering.
It drained its last remaining fighter, the orc, to heal the cut, but I simply opened another.
When the plant didn’t have any liquid left inside of it, it collapsed.
Having defeated the zombie vine, I quickly made my way to one of its victims.
I didn’t have much hope for him, but when I couldn’t find a pulse, I had no choice but to accept that Daan had died.
Having received the training I did in my time on earth, I didn’t get hung up on it.
I still felt sad of course, I am human after all, but I didn’t let it get in the way of what I had to do.
Of the zombie vine’s victims, two were still alive.
I eyed the first, the panther I had defeated right at the start.
It had gotten up and was slowly edging around the room.
Although it hadn’t attacked yet, I decided to quickly get rid of it. It was still a wild animal after all.
I quickly approached the beast and swung my knife at it.
It managed to leap away at the last moment, so my attack didn’t immediately kill it.
A long wound had appeared on its side and it was quickly losing blood.
I raised my knife once more to finish it off.
“Randtu!!”
Hearing the urgent voice, I halted my movement.
I looked away from the dying animal and my eyes landed on the origin of the voice.
Among the zombie vine’s victims, there had been two that could use magic.
Both had been stationed in the back when it attacked and I now looked at the one that had survived.
She had moved from where she had fallen before.
She now sat next to the body of the magician that had fired magic at me, seemingly exhausted.
With her pale white skin, her flowing hair, and those long slender legs, anyone you’d ask would tell you that she was a beauty.
The part that stood out to me, though, were her ears.
They were just as pale as the rest of her, but their pointiness betrayed her non-human heritage.
Seeing that I didn’t have any hostile intent, she hurriedly started speaking in an unknown tongue.
After a few seconds, she noticed that I couldn’t understand her words, so instead, she kept alternating between pointing at herself, me and the panther.
I got the gist of what she wanted, so I lifted her up and carried her to the fallen animal.
The large feline had lost a lot of blood, and all it could do was open its eyes to look at us.
I put the elf down in front of it and she quickly moved her hands to the animal’s wound.
A white light covered her hands and the wound quickly closed up.
Within moments, the panther went from fatally injured, to healthy.
As soon as she was finished healing the animal, she collapsed.
I deftly caught her and lied her sleeping body on the ground.
The healing magic hadn’t restored its blood, so the panther, too, fell asleep.
The two didn’t seem like they’d wake up any time soon, so I made my way to the, now dead, zombie vine.
Although it had died a few minutes ago, a strong glow escaped from its body.
I wielded my knife, and cut away more of the plant.
A glowing object revealed itself and I carefully picked it up.
The object was a sphere, seemingly made out of glass, with an intricate pattern carved into it.
Name: ball of specialisation
When I inspected the sphere, all I got was its name.
I hesitated for a while, but finally decided to leave it for later.
With the knowledge of the sage, I Identified the edible parts of the zombie vine and gathered them.
Using the rest of the plant, and a touch of magic, I build a fire.
I moved the sleeping elf and panther next to it and moved to the cave’s entrance I initially entered from.
It was completely blocked off by, now dead, vines, so I got to work in cutting them all away.
After half an hour, I managed to get rid of all of them, only to be met by another, bigger, obstacle; the cave behind the vines had collapsed.
I sighed and moved back to the fire.
One of the zombie vine’s victims had been a wolf, so I thanked it for its sacrifice and swiftly disassembled it.
Using its bones, I build a simple spit and used it to start roasting its meat.
After a few moments, the smell of fresh, gamy meat filled the cave.
To my side, the elf woke up.
She stared at me for a while and when I finally turned to look at her, she hastily looked away.
We sat in silence for a while.
She kept on sneaking glances at me and every time I reacted to them, she’d get startled and look away.
When the meat was nearly done, I added the edible parts of the zombie vine to the spit to lightly roast them.
After a few more moments, the food was done and I took it off the fire.
I divided the food into two portions and handed one to the elf.
She hesitated for a few moments but eventually accepted it.
She watched as I started eating my food, and only then did she start eating her own.
As we ate, I took the opportunity to quietly study the elf.
Even though, according to the lizardmen, we were far from the nearest elf city, the elf didn’t look like someone you’d expect to find in the wilderness.
Instead, she made me think of the sheltered daughter of some rich family; She was quite timid and she carried herself with a certain amount of grace.
By the time she’d eaten half her food, I’d already finished mine.
She took the rest of her food and put down in front of the panther.
It opened its eyes slightly and started to slowly eat the food.
“So… Who are you then?” Although I couldn’t speak the elven language with the translation skill, I’d already learned from my experience with the lizardmen that there was a common tongue both species knew to some extent.
“Ah! Yes! Ummm… I, Uh.. I’m Hestri, miss!” She got startled when I spoke to her and stammered a while before she managed to answer.
“And what are you doing out here, Hestri? You don’t look like someone who’s used to travelling, never mind being this far from any elven city.”
“No… I, I couldn’t stay with daddy. He said some bad people came and that I had to leave. I’m going to Yggdrasil, there it’s safe.” She was still quite nervous, but Hestri managed to respond clearly.
“Bad people? What did they do?”
“Umm… I don’t know, but daddy called them ‘barbarians’ and ‘monsters’. He said they used big boats to travel from across the endless water.”
Based on her words, I could somewhat guess what had happened:
Some group of people, I’m guessing they aren’t elves, used ships to cross an ocean, and when they met the elves, things got quite heated.
To protect his daughter from a potential war, Hestri’s father must have sent her away to a different city and, during her travels, she and her companion got caught by the zombie vine.
“What are you going to do now? You could stay with me if you want.” Besides that I didn’t want to send her back out into the wilderness alone, her knowledge of the world would be tremendously helpful. So I hoped she’d want to stay with me.
“Umm… I don’t know…”
“You’ll be able to leave any time you want, I won’t stop you.” Seeing that she was hesitating, I gave her another nudge.
“I guess I’ll stay with you then.” She was silent for a while but eventually agreed to stay.
“Right, let’s get out of here first.”
