Leveling through Lust

I was feeling much different as I planned to leave the vault, lighter and stronger.

No doubt, considering the amount of improvement I had just experienced. Pity I didn’t have time to use the rest of the Purified Spark I had managed to score. I could have stayed to improve more, but at this point, the treant was already being surrounded, and I didn’t want to ruin things until things collapsed.

And, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

I had drawn several runes into the vault, and dumped enough nature mana to make it dangerous, before I teleported down to roots, using the earlier teleportation beacon I had created.

With the increase in Stats, the jump was even more trivial.

The moment I arrived at the basement, I lashed out with a magical bolt, which was enough to take down the necromancer imbuing the water with his cursed mana.

{+50 Purified Spark}

Not a waste, but only the start compared to what I had in mind. First, I rushed toward the bubbling mana source, and created a huge ward around it, one that used both Purified Mana and some Nature Spark, and suddenly, the river had changed from necrotic mana to nature mana.

The sudden change of mana flow affected the battle outside significantly. The undead lines, surprised by the change, retreated more than necessary. And, it allowed the treant to rush forward, and connect the huge dead tree…

A mental order later, the treant sacrificed itself, and all the mana that it was on its structure infused on the tree… A significant amount, but not enough to leave anything but cursory damage. Luckily, that was all I needed. At the same time, I triggered the explosive wards I had in the vault, and rushed toward the edge of the tree.

Neither was there to actually create damage, just a distraction.

The real trick came in the form of an aggressive release.

{-2000 Purified Spark}

{-10000 Mana}

A huge, spectacular risk, but also, it was the fastest way to take down the tree. My purified spark spread along the tree, converting every Necrotic mana and Spark they touched. First, I split the wave into two. One wave channeled upward, to ease the path of the mana that came from the sacrificial treant.

The second, bigger wave traveled down, converting all the mana and Divine Spark they had invested to the tree … every root started to convert from a neutral entity.

At this time, the liches were panicking against the sudden tyrannical mana fluctuation ruining their fortress much worse than they were expecting. They realized that their arrogance, probably from their overwhelming success against ineffective elves, put them in a horrible position.

They attacked the treant both with their crystal and their spells, which was another mistake. After channeling all the mana and spark inside, the treant had already turned into a useless relic.

Their erroneous judgment made their small chances even more horrible. If they had been using the dead tree as a casting focus, they could have thwarted my assault, but they didn’t, giving me a chance to actually follow.

Soon, the wave of mana and Spark I had sent to the roots finished its job. I sent the mana toward the trunk, but devoured all the Spark from the roots.

Soon, the Spark from the upper trunk arrived as well…

{+6801 Purified Divine Spark}

Another spectacular gain, enough to trigger another huge stat boost, one that I desperately needed to meet the next upcoming battle.

{-5900 Purified Divine Spark}

{+3 All Stats}

Fantastic…

I opened my eyes to focus on the control, this time the Aether dimension. I could sense the connection with the outer shell, but the constant flow of Necrotic mana toward the shell had stopped. It didn’t cause an immediate collapse, but I doubted it would stay like that for long.

“I found my way to trigger an urgent undead response,” I murmured happily. Not only this dead tree was more important for their strategy, but also I didn’t risk any valuable elven lives as a trap.

But, before any response, I needed to do a lot more things.

I grabbed the ground, and pulled some stone on me, turning into a shiny, obsidian armor, and a huge, beautiful sword. Completely useless, but enough to look distracting.

But, before going outside, I had to do one more thing. I threw another small seed, and created a small tree, one that was connected to God Forest, right at the river, converting the watery mana into pure Nature mana, and sending it upward.

I could have tried to connect it to the huge tree, but I was afraid that it might trigger an adverse reaction. I could feel that the huge tree was not something simple.

Then, even as mana started to fill the underground cave, converting from the river — which was much easier than the challenge the necromancers experienced due to similarity — I created a tunnel, and went out.

Appearing from right underneath the remains of the tree.

Risky, but after the great stat boost, a risk I could afford easily.

The sacrificial explosion of treant had been useful for two reasons. First, it dealt with most of the zombies, which would have slowed me down. Second, and more importantly, as the distraction went through, a great number of necromancers had gathered around, trying to be the first ones to take the Spark of the treant.

A few of them were already fighting against each other.

I couldn’t say that they had no justification as far as what they could read, but it didn’t change the fact that it was a mistake.

A deadly one.

I rushed forward toward the closest lich before they could even register my presence, my newly enhanced speed more than enough to cut it mercilessly. A deadly slash was all I needed to deal with it, though the slash was just there to cover the huge burst of pure mana, eroding its divine spark.

{+95 Purified Divine Spark}

That changed the situation significantly, but they lacked the opportunity to react before I started mowing them down. I dodged under a hurried blast of necrotic mana and took another necromancer.

A fascinating start.

As they started to gather their defenses, I put my hand on the ground, and a small forest appeared around me, and appeared rather rapidly, enough to conceal me from their view as I dashed around…

The trees turned into treants while I cut down necromancers one after another, while the invasion of mana started to wreak havoc in the trunk of the dead tree, especially since all necromancers had recklessly walked outside, and were too distracted by my assault to even notice that.

Another flare of mana, and a huge number of leaves rained down from the trees that appeared freshly, destroying the hordes that were attacking. I was showing a bit more than I had initially intended, but after all my gains, I was willing to reveal more.

After all, I had some other interesting tricks I was ready to use.

What followed was fifteen minutes of non-stop battle, which was surprisingly boring. Especially since it was one against a necromancer army. If they had been attacking me using a proper formation, things had been much more difficult…

But with their vulnerable elements, the only ones with the ability to actually threaten me, facing me directly, the danger had been lost almost immediately. And, after the disappearance of the risk, what remained was a large army that couldn’t threaten me, one that I cut easily.

With amazing benefits. Even though it was lesser than my other gains, it was still significant nonetheless.

{+728 Purified Divine Spark}

While I had dealt with the outside, the constant infusion of Nature Mana already handled the internal defenses, and destroyed the inner side, killing the remaining undead.

That didn’t mean I stopped the rest after the battle was over. I dashed around the dead tree, using my new stats to create a very complicated defensive ward that could be leveraged against the assault.

The defenses were much stronger than the other settlement, and not just because of the increased stats. Unlike the settlement, I didn’t need to keep my defenses subtle or hidden.

After all, I had just taken down a huge undead army, and the lack of any growing defense would have been more suspicious than the alternative. I dared to do so, as, if the worst came to worst, I could just teleport away…

With that done, I started waiting. And, since I had nothing to do, I turned my attention to the Aether Dimension once more. Not just to replenish my mana storage, but also to finally examine the structure of the outer shell…

{Strength: 16 Charisma: 16

Precision: 16 Perception: 16

Agility: 16 Manipulation: 16

Speed: 16 Intelligence: 16

Endurance: 16 Wisdom: 16}

{Purified Divine Spark: 2392}

{Pseudo-HP: 2869 Mana: 4140}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

Guardian God Forest - 2009}

Elven Priestess - 70}

[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]