Felix immediately took vanguard and headed straight towards the menacing ent with Lily following him only a few steps behind. Felix stopped just barely out of reach of the and forced the one-eyed ent to take a step forward to attack Felix with an over arm slam, its club-like arm grew mid swing as it came slamming down. But before it could hit him, Felix's Skill Adventurers Instinct helped him both sense the danger and dodge into the ent's guard.
Lily, only a few steps away, used her Skill to cause vines to grow out of the ground and wrap around the ents left arm. With The ents arm temporarily out of commission, Felix could safely hook his arm around the neck and bring his dagger artifact towards the monster's eye and Lily could move to its flank to bring her spear down on its knee. Felix's dagger stuck true and pierced the ents singular eye, it lacked lungs to scream with but it still responded with wrath as its stuck arm shrunk back to its original size and slipped out its restraints to swing wildly towards Lily but she was quick to notice and retreated a few steps back.
Felix was not so lucky as the ent used its free arm to try and bash its unwanted passenger. Although Felix kicked himself off the ents torso, its arm still clipped the bottom of one of his legs. Which should have shattered his ankle but luckily Ebony activated his shielding skill on Felix and spared him from the fate of breaking every bone in his ankle.The shield broke and disrupted the force behind the ents blow but Felix was still sent spinning to the ground. He quickly twisted his body in the air thanks to his enhanced instincts and landed with only a mild bruise on his leg.
The Ent, blind and green blood bled profusely from its left stump like leg, started to swing wildly in every direction but it was quickly put out of its misery by an arrow that entered its empty eye socket.
A tiny blue notification appeared at the top right of Felix's vision.
You have gained 1 F-Rank Refined SE.
Lily loudly exclaimed. "Wow Ebony, I didn't know you were so good with a bow!"
Ebony fidgeted with his bow. "I… I just got lucky. I wasn't aiming for its eye socket, just its head."
The ever bubbly Lily reassured Ebony "It doesn't change the fact that it was a good shot."
Felix approached the dead ent and used his dagger artifact to carefully carve out the green heat from the hollow space in its chest.
Harry came to a realisation 'I was wondering why you weren't aiming for what was very obviously a weak point. Is its heart valuable?'
Felix continued carving out its heart as he thought to Harry. 'Mm, the ent hearts are a F-Rank Nature Concept Catalyst. Holding one can help you comprehend a nature related Concept and crafters can use them to make nature related artifacts.'
Harry asked. 'That's cool and all. But you never actually explained what Concepts are?'
Felix replied as he finished butchering the green heart and placing it in his spatially expanded pouch. 'Concepts are complicated. There are essentially abstract rules of the universe that you can manipulate if you comprehend and understand them. A more detailed explanation would take a while, ask me again later.'
Harry thought. 'Sure no worries boss man. I'll ask again later.'
Felix heard Venny lightly reprimanding Lily and Ebony in the distance. "You two should be protecting Felix while he harvested the ent instead of idly chatting. We are in a dungeon, not the local park."
Felix strolled toward the group after finishing with the ent. But he didn't expect to get scolded alongside Lily and Ebony.
Venny turned to Felix as he approached. "Felix, As the only party member capable of alerting the party of any danger you should not be the one harvesting monsters. What if a monster had attacks while you were distracted?"
Vennys voice took on a more gentle tone after he finished scolding the young adventurers. "With that said, for a group of strangers you worked surprisingly well together. Binding the ents arm; blinding the ent and the last second shield to protect Felix were all very impressive. With teamwork like that we can head further away from camp and fight small groups of ents without too much risk."
The party went further into the forest with the surroundings repeating over and over again. If not for Venny possessing an artifact to help them back to the portal, the party would turn back out of fear of getting lost and going in circles. They encountered a few more lone ents but with their experience dealing with the first one, they quickly and carefully dispatched any ents they met.
You have gained 6 F-Rank Refined SE.
About an hour after killing their first ent, the party spotted a group of three ents in the distance and quickly hid behind one of the giant redwood trees.
Lily whispered. "How do you guys want to deal with this? Should we retreat?"
Felix replied "You do not have to whisper the ents do not have a sense of hearing. I think we should take them on, they are quite slow so we could kite them and wear them down."
Lily argued back. "What if one of them has a regeneration Skill? We have been lucky not to encounter one yet."
Ebony worked up the courage to say something. "My… My arrows will stay lodged into any regenerating ents."
Felix looked towards Lily. "See? If there are any regenerating ents just call for Ebony. He will weaken them until you or I can get a decisive killing blow. Ebony is a good shot; he could get the killing blow himself. Also it's not like we're risking our lives, we have Venny watching over us."
Lily couldn't find a flaw in Felix's logic. "I guess you're right. If we're going to attack then we should take advantage of the distance between us and the ents by having Ebony taking shots at them, while we wait in ambush behind the trees"
Felix replied "That is a pretty good plan. Are you okay with that Ebony? With there being three ents we can only ambush two of them, that leaves one of them to charge towards you."
Ebony assured Felix with feigned confidence "I'll be alright. I have a short sword for emergencies."
"Sweet! Ebony, find a place with line of sight on the ents. Felix and I will find a good place to ambush the ents."
Ebony got as far away from the ents as he could while still maintaining line of sight. He nocked an arrow to his bow and took aim, once he saw that Lily and Felix were in position Ebony let his arrow loose. It was unknown whether or not it was Ebony proficiency with a bow or Felix's Luck Talent, but the arrow arched through the air, just barely missing the branches in the trees and landed directly in the nearest ents knee, crippling its already slow movement. The ents collectively turned towards the direction the arrow came from and spotted Ebony, but he didn't waste any time and nocked another arrow as the ents started heading in his direction.
Ebony let loose several arrows towards the ents, every arrow hit its mark and landed on an ents limb crippling their fighting capability. It wasn't long before the ents stumbled past Lily and Felix Looking like porcupines.
Lily siad, amazed. "Wow. Did he hit every shot?"
Felix replied, slightly anxious. "Let's not delay. I will take the one on the left and you take the right. If we're lucky the one up front won't notice thanks to their lack of hearing."
Felix signaled to Ebony to stop shooting to save himself from friendly fire before he snuck up behind the injured ent. He jumped and used the hollow space in its chest where its core lay as a step stool to reach the ents head. He quickly imbued his dagger artifact with as much soul essence as he could and directly stabbed the ent in the back of the head. His dagger plunged all the way through its tough wooden skull and instantly destroyed the ents' strange green brain. The ent was Dead before it could even react and its body fell forward like a puppet without its strings.
Felix turned to see if his ally needed any help, but she had handled the ent as quickly as he had by using her plants to bring the ent down to the ground before stabbing the ent in the eye multiple times with her spear. The last ent hadn't gotten very far with its crippled movements and it wasn't long before Lily and Felix caught up and finished it off.
You have gained 4 F-Rank Refined SE.
Lily thought out loud. "I wonder how much a F-rank spear artifact cost?"
Felix simply said. "I do not know. I inherited my artifact from my father."
Ebony and Venny walked over to Felix and Lily. Venny looked around at the ent corpses and admired their efficient work.
"For a group of newbies, you kids are really good, from the amount of soul essence you gained those ents had another Skill they never got to use. Very efficient work."
The three young adventurers had very different reactions to the praise Venny gave them. Felix simply smirked, already confident in his ability in combat. Lily smiled happily at her efforts being recognised. Ebony flushed and rubbed the back of his head
"I… I'm not usually this good of a shot. I've just gotten lucky today."
Venny replied. "Well your confidence needs some work, but that will come with age and experience. Harvest these ents and then we can sit down and have lunch. I hope you kids didn't forget to bring food."
Lily and Ebony started harvesting the green hearts of the ents. Felix watched over them, ready to warn and protect them if his instincts alert him of danger. Which is exactly what he did when his instincts told him to turn around and he saw an ent in the distance that looked different from any of the ents he had seen so far. The ent contrasted greatly with its surroundings, its wooden body was black and charred. Its singular red eye was surrounded in flame. The charred ent sprinted in Felix's direction, far faster than any other ent could thanks to its charred wiry frame.
Felix shouted out in alarm. "There's an aberration and It's extremely quick! It has a fire Concept, we will need your shields Ebony dont be shy with your soul flux."
Lily and Ebony quickly stopped what they were doing and prepared their weapons. Ebony followed Felix's advice and put his shield Skill on Felix Lily and himself. As the charred ent charged towards the party it's flaming eye started to glow brightly and Felix jumped behind one of the great redwood trees as his Instincts screamed at him to take cover.
He was not a moment too late as a ray of fire came rushing through his previous location. Unfortunately standing a few paces behind Felix was Lily who was preparing to follow Felix from behind and support him in close combat. The ray of flame hit her directly and her entire body was covered in flame.