Night was approaching, and with it, creatures that only moved in the darkness were awakening.
So far, Thranduil had killed hundreds of monsters in the deep forest. During that time, he had killed over three hundred monsters and obtained their magic crystals from some of them.
"Night is coming." Thranduil, plunging his sword into the neck of a massive dark creature, furrowed his brows as he sensed the stench of more grotesque beings.
Thinking of the elves who stayed behind to protect the Tree of Life, he knew he had to return.
"I should be able to get the remaining crystals on the way back." Thinking this, Thranduil quickly turned around.
While hunting nearby monsters on his way to the borders, he withdrew from the forest in no time.
Upon reaching the ruins, Thranduil breathed more easily. The dark, damp forest kept him on constant alert. He always felt like something was watching him in the darkness.
"Now we only need seven crystals…" Thranduil was excited and intensified his efforts to search for monsters in the ruins.
As a high-level mage, his perception was quite sharp. He could detect any movement within several hundred meters, which greatly increased his monster search speed.
In no time, Thranduil managed to kill all the monsters needed for the mission before nightfall.
Then he ran deeper into the territory dominated by his people.
"It's getting dark!" when he was a kilometer away from the territory.
The darkness that enveloped the sky approached like the shadow of a demon.
The atmosphere became more unsettling.
The vines covering the ruins looked like twisted black snakes, enough to make even the bravest warrior tremble.
In the distant darkness, roars and growls were also heard.
Thranduil even saw many green eyes appearing out of nowhere in the surrounding ruins. "You can't hide from me so easily."
Boom!
Flames burst from the ground like furious snakes, now blue flames surged from the surface of the earth and reached various creatures looking to hunt their prey.
With a loud blast, the flames engulfed everything, and the firelight illuminated all directions.
The owners of the green eyes were burned to ashes. With the help of the bright firelight, Thranduil could clearly see the faces of those creatures.
But those enemies who hadn't detected him and were also nearby now rushed toward him at great speed.
In no time, Thranduil was being surrounded.
They were all undead—some human-shaped, others animal-like. Most were skeletons, and some were corpses.
Aside from being a bit visually terrifying, they weren't too strong.
Whoever was playing with dark magic wasn't powerful.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In just two seconds, they were all sent to the underworld by a massive fire blast unleashed by Thranduil.
However, this attack didn't scare off the undead from other areas. On the contrary, it was like stirring a hornet's nest. A large number of undead charged at Thranduil with green spiritual fire above their heads.
"Disgusting things!" Thranduil, for some reason, despised these grotesque beings that reeked of death—perhaps due to his closeness to life.
As he kept advancing, the fire spread like a raging serpent.
Explosions kept echoing.
The blue flames devoured the ruins of one building after another.
In an instant, Thranduil annihilated a large number of undead creatures. At the same time, he obtained a significant amount of special energy, allowing his magic to rise quickly.
Just then, something changed. Suddenly, a buzzing sound was heard from behind.
Thranduil turned his head and saw a massive black shadow appearing over the forest in the distance.
The black shadow flew through the sky, sometimes changing into various shapes, as if drawn by the flames, and rushed quickly toward Thranduil's location.
In an almost instinctive reaction, Thranduil immediately launched a fireball into the sky.
The fireball exploded midair, forming a wave of fire with a diameter of dozens of meters.
The firelight illuminated the shadow's face.
They were actually blood-red mosquitoes, about the size of a palm.
"Vampire mosquitoes, a low-level monster!"
"No, thousands of them!" Thranduil wasn't frightened—he was delighted.
Seeing the enraged vampire mosquitoes, provoked by the fireballs and rushing to attack him, he ignored the undead creatures in the surrounding ruins and ran toward the territory at the fastest speed of his life.
Finally, he returned to the central plaza where the territory was located.
The surrounding terrain suddenly opened up.
At the same time, a swarm of vampire mosquitoes also soared into the sky.
Dense swarms of vampire mosquitoes charged at Thranduil with sharp needles in their mouths. With the buzzing of their wings, they resembled miniature fighter jets.
Thousands of vampire mosquitoes were enough to drain a massive monster and turn it into a mummy in an instant.
But Thranduil wasn't afraid at all—on the contrary, he was thrilled.
He waved his magic staff continuously, sending massive pillars of fire into the sky.
With powerful explosions, fire pillars exploded one after another, and a large number of vampire mosquitoes were reduced to ashes.
At the same time, the scattered flames also fell around Thranduil, turning into a sea of fire that engulfed him.
Then, another series of blazing fire walls appeared around Thranduil.
The fire wall was over ten meters tall.
Its thickness was over two meters.
It was terrifying.
The four fire walls firmly protected Thranduil from all angles in a 360-degree radius.
There was only an empty space above Thranduil's head as he focused on eliminating the remaining enemies.
However, it was clearly unrealistic for a low-level magical beast like the vampire mosquito to pass through a fire wall channel over ten meters long to suck the blood of a solar elf.
A vampire mosquito entering the firewall passage could only last two seconds at most.
Soon, the charred corpses of vampire mosquitoes fell along the fire wall onto Thranduil like dumplings.
"These are just a few—most were burned to ashes without me even noticing…" A surge of magical power burst from Thranduil's body as he unleashed more and more magic.
This indirectly caused the various fire walls surrounding him to suddenly rise several more meters.
His power at that moment was terrifying, surpassing any elf on the continent who wasn't Ancient.
"Grotesque creatures…" Thranduil laughed and waved his magic staff again.
A fireball with a diameter of over two meters quickly formed.
The fireball exploded in the sky, directly destroying the vampire mosquito plague. At least a thousand vampire mosquitoes were instantly killed by the flames.
The remaining vampire mosquitoes were frightened and quickly fled with the rest of the defeated swarm.
A few seconds later, everything was calm again in the ruins.
Thranduil swiftly cleared the battlefield and harvested over 1,800 magic crystals.
Along with the energy crystals he had obtained earlier, the total number reached more than twenty thousand three hundred.
"Perfect!"
Now, with these crystals, the Tree of Life could be nourished to fully bloom.
At that moment, a system notification sounded in Thranduil's mind as he walked back.
"[...]
Congratulations to the Solar Elven King for successfully slaying dark creatures. You have successfully completed the issued task!
[Ancient War Tree]: A building used by the elves to train soldiers of various professions.
[Initial construction requirement]: 100 magic crystals.
…]"
Using the tools at his disposal, Thranduil placed the magic crystals on the ground, and soon, life magic spread across the soil.
"Your Majesty…" The commander of the royal elven guard was glad to see Thranduil back.
But Thranduil, focused on what he had to do, raised his hand to signal silence.
Thranduil immediately built the Ancient War Tree near the Tree of Life.
"[...
[Ancient War Tree]
[Building Info]: Structure intended for training military professions within the elven camp.
[Unlocked Elven Professions]:
Elven Archer.
Elven Swordsman.
[Upgrade Requirement]: 5,000 magic crystals.
[Special Tip]: Increasing the level of the Ancient War Tree will unlock more available professions in the elven camp.
[Available Units]:
Elven Archer.
Training requirements: 50 energy crystals + 1 elf
Elven Swordsman
Training requirements: 50 energy crystals + 1 elf
…]"
"There's no limit to the number of Ancient War Elves that can be born as long as the Tree of Life is at the proper level. At the lowest level, only ten elves per day, which is insufficient." Thranduil first thought of upgrading the tree to be able to get the highest-level elves possible.
That's why he first needed to upgrade the Tree of Life—because the higher the level, the more elves it could bring to life.
"The other thing is the energy crystal…"
I need a lot of magic crystals. Otherwise, even if I upgrade the Tree of Life and have enough elves, I won't have enough to train them."
Then, Thranduil consumed a thousand energy crystals and upgraded the Tree of Life to intermediate level.
The intermediate Tree of Life had reached a height of one hundred meters.
The breath of life and nature was even richer.
Thranduil could clearly feel that the magic of the Tree of Life had enveloped the entire central plaza and isolated it from the evil and dark forces of the outside world.
At the same time, the number of elves the Tree of Life could nurture each day had reached one hundred.
Additionally, with this upgrade, the Tree of Life's daily spawn limit had also been reset. Now it could raise those hundred elves without having to wait until tomorrow.