After the excitement slowly faded, a quiet seriousness settled over the group.
Arjun broke the silence. "Alright. Now that we know the rules, there's no point sticking together."
Koushik frowned. "You mean… solo hunting?"
Arjun nodded. "It's the only way to get the wood core fragments."
Rita took a deep breath. "Let's not go too far from each other. If something feels wrong, retreat."
Tim smirked nervously. "Yeah, I'd rather not die alone in a forest."
Divya tightened her grip on her staff. "Be careful. Observe first, fight second."
They exchanged brief nods—no speeches, no hesitation.
One by one, they turned in different directions, disappearing into the forest, each carrying the same goal—
Survive. Grow. Advance
After splitting from the others, Arjun moved deeper into the forest alone.
The air grew thicker, the trees older and closer together, their trunks twisted with age. Every sound felt louder without his team nearby—the crunch of his own footsteps, the distant call of unseen creatures, the slow creak of wood swaying in the wind.
Then the ground shifted.
Arjun froze.
From the roots of a massive oak ahead, something pulled itself upright. Bark cracked and peeled as a Level 2 Wood Treant emerged, its body formed of interwoven branches and hardened trunk-flesh. Glowing green sap pulsed faintly through veins running along its limbs.
"So this is what solo really means…" Arjun muttered, tightening his grip on his weapon.
The Treant attacked without warning.
A thick branch lashed out like a whip. Arjun barely rolled aside as it smashed into the ground, splintering soil and roots.
Too strong. Too heavy, he thought. I can't block that head-on.
He struck back, activating Slash.
Mana surged through his weapon, the blade glowing faintly as it carved cleanly through a branch. The severed limb fell—
—and began to regenerate.
The wood twisted, fibers knitting together as a new branch grew in seconds.
"What?" Arjun cursed under his breath. "You've got to be kidding me."
The Treant roared, a deep grinding sound, and attacked again. Arjun dodged, struck, retreated—each exchange draining mana and buying nothing. Each branch he severed grew back, thicker than before.
This isn't working, he realised, breathing hard. I'm wasting mana.
He forced himself to slow down, watching instead of attacking.
Think. Monsters don't regenerate for free.
As the Treant moved, Arjun noticed something—a faint green glow deep inside its chest. For just a split second, when its bark plates shifted, he saw it.
A core?
His eyes sharpened.
"There you are…"
But the glow was buried beneath layers of thick, overlapping bark—far denser than the outer limbs.
The Treant sensed the change in his focus and went berserk.
Branches slammed down from all sides. One clipped Arjun's shoulder, sending pain flaring through his arm.
Focus! he yelled at himself. One opening is all I need.
He activated Slash again—then again.
Each use wasn't just a swing anymore. He could feel it now: mana flowing along the blade, compressing at the edge. He adjusted the angle, poured more mana into precision instead of force.
Crack.
The outer bark split.
The Treant howled, staggering backward.
Arjun didn't stop.
Again.
Slash.
Again.
Slash.
His mana burned, sweat stung his eyes, but finally—
A crystal-like gem was exposed at the center of the Treant's body, pulsing wildly.
"That's your heart," Arjun whispered.
He gathered everything he had left.
"One more."
The blade descended.
The gem shattered.
Green light exploded outward, then vanished.
The Treant froze mid-motion, its massive body losing all tension before collapsing lifelessly to the ground with a heavy thud.
Arjun stood there, chest heaving.
"…I won," he breathed, disbelief threading through the words.
Green particles rose from the corpse and flowed toward the leaf-shaped symbol on his hand.
[DING!]
[LEVEL 2 WOOD-ATTRIBUTE MONSTER DEFEATED — SOLO]
[EXPERIENCE GAINED]
[WOOD CORE FRAGMENT ASSIMILATION: +1%]
Warmth spread through his palm as the symbol glowed faintly.
Arjun looked at it, a slow smile forming.
So that's how it works, he thought. Cut the branches, or cut the root… only one of them ends the fight.
He straightened, eyes turning toward the deeper forest.
After storing the monster's body in his storage bag, Arjun moved forward—stronger than he had been moments before.
After a full day of relentless hunting, Arjun finally slowed to a stop.
The system messages that had followed him all day still echoed faintly in his mind.
Level 4.
Wood Core Fragments: 37%.
He looked down at the leaf-shaped symbol on his palm. The green veins within it pulsed steadily now, no longer faint or unstable. It felt… heavier. More real.
"So this is growth," he murmured.
Throughout the day, he had pushed himself hard—too hard at times. There were moments when his mana dipped dangerously low, when his muscles screamed in protest. More than once, he had been forced to swallow a mana recovery potion or crush a pill between his teeth just to keep moving.
Each one tasted bitter, burned going down—but they kept him alive.
As the light filtering through the forest canopy shifted from gold to orange, Arjun finally stopped checking for enemies. The long shadows told him what his exhausted body already knew.
It's enough for today.
By the time he reached the town entrance, the sun hovered just above the horizon, bleeding crimson across the sky. The gate stood open, guards watching quietly as hunters returned in ones and twos.
Arjun leaned against the stone wall near the entrance and let out a slow breath.
"Now we wait," he said softly.
He closed his eyes.
The forest replayed itself in his mind—branch-whips snapping inches from his face, the sound of bark cracking under reinforced strikes, the moment of clarity when he stopped attacking blindly and started understanding his opponents.
Brute force only gets you so far, he thought. Observation matters more.
He remembered the regeneration of the Wood Treant, the hidden core, the way technique mattered more than the label the system gave it. Slash wasn't a skill—it was control. Focus. Intent.
The realization settled deeper than the levels or fragments ever could.
"I'm not just getting stronger," Arjun whispered. "I'm getting smarter."
That thought both comforted and unsettled him.
The Tower wasn't testing strength alone. It was testing adaptation.
As the breeze carried the distant sounds of returning adventurers, Arjun opened his eyes slowly, gaze fixed on the path leading out of the forest.
Let's see how the others did, he thought.
And for the first time since entering the Tower, he felt something close to confidence—not borrowed from the system, but earned through experience.