Chapter 18: Forest Giant

The group retreated from the Lurblossom and braced themselves for impact. A giant about 10-stories in height covered in blotches of moss, burst from the forest, tripped on the Lurblossoms and crushed it into a paste. Then, he got up shook his head in a daze before it sat up and looked around. Its eyes locked onto the group.

"Forest Giant?"

"Forest Giant." Vivi said, "Don't make any threatening movements. They are a non-aggressive race."

"Ene...my...!" The giant said as it uprooted a tree and smashed it toward the group.

"You sure?" Xylos said as he raised his shield. The tree had a diameter of about 10 meters so it was impossible to dodge.

The moment the tree trunk collided with the shield, the tree trunk broke in half and the upper half smashed into the jaw of the giant. The giant grunted before he toppled on the ground.

"It can't be this easy right?" Xylos thought, then he saw several dozen blades, spears, and arrows on its back; each emanating a deathly aura. The skin nearby were already starting to change to a rotted black color.

A large wind blade carved a chunk of flesh from the giants back, taking with it some of the cursed weapons on its back. This repeated a few more times until all the weapons on its back were removed and raw cut muscle can be seen.

Then, light green moss started growing on those exposed surfaces; layer by layer, until the moss changed to light yellow and fell off revealing a fully healed skin. There were still some black patches on them but they were shrinking at a notable rate. The giant's breath also becomes more relaxed and deep.

"It fell asleep?" Xylos said.

"Yes," Vivi said, "Nice work there, knocking it out like that so fast."

"I really want that shield now," Levin said as the wind elements dispersed around him, "How much are you willing to sell it for?"

Xylos simply ignored him; he rejected him several times already. There was no way he would sell it. He had no idea what material the Manhole was made out of but it allowed him to implement a simplified version of an M-CPU, M-RAM, and M-PS (Power Source).

The only reason why it could repel any attack because 100% of its system resources were used to repel anything that comes close to it with at least 2x the attacking force.

The stronger the attack the stronger the repelling force. It was great against physical attacks, and running away; the magic resistance of it was also impressive. It often made him wonder what kind of things the residents had in their sewers that requires such a high-quality magic material.

Xylos stood some distance away and started analyzing the body of the Forest Giant. With the way the wounds on it healed automatically, there should be some sort of magic system at work making it efficient and effective even when the person was unconscious.

Tracing the mana around the giant, Xylos noticed that colorless mana flowed into its body from its mouth, before converging in its heart and then circulated throughout the body in the form of light green mana. Most of them converged on the remaining black blotches on its back causing them to disappear completely. About 5 minutes later, all the lingering damage disappeared.

"Undead weapons?" Levin asked as he inspected the pile of weapons on the ground, which already created a barren patch on the ground where it landed.

"Yes," Vivi stood straight up, "The Forest Giant mostly likely escaped in a random direction from an undead army but was drawn to the Lurblossom and ended up here."

"Do you think the undead army might be chasing it still?" Xylos asked, as he walked up to the pile of cursed weapons and analyzed it from a distance.

"I don't think so," Vivi said, "With how the Forest Giant was attacked, the Undead army might be controlled by something. I doubt it would chase anything beyond its area of influence."

"That insignia looks familiar," Carly said, the more she looked at it the more familiar it felt. But no matter how hard she tried to recall, nothing seemed to come to mind; all she could tell was that it was something important. It left her puzzled.

Xylos was unable to analyze the cursed weapons completely. All he could find out what that it converted anything around it into dark mana. He tossed a fist-size rock and it the moment the rock touched the sword, then it turned black before turning to dust; Xylos sucked in a deep breath and looked at the Forest Giant again in a new light,

Several minutes later, the Forest Giant woke up. He raised a fist ready to punch at the group but then stopped with a confused expression.

"Not...un...humans?" It said, and paused for a moment before continuing, "Unhumans coming, leave now. I protect!"

The group didn't know how to respond. Forest Giants were known to be non-hostile but it was rare for them to be willing to put themselves in danger for random strangers. Could this one be a slave or a pet of one?

"How many undead?" Levin asked.

Xylos looked at the map screen, there were at least 100 red dots on the map, about 10 of them were larger than the rest; each leading about 10 smaller dots. A large red dot the size of at least 10 of larger ones combined together was at the back. They were all moving toward them in an oddly organized way. "About 100; 10 tier 3, and one tier 4~5 and the rest is tier 1"

Levin looked at Xylos with a weird expression, "Tier 1, Tier 3, Tier 4~5?"

Xylos then remembered that he forgot to explain his threat ranking system. The tier was based on the mana density of the target. Tier 1,2,3 were enemies that would require 300, 600, or 900 CM to affect them directly with the most ineffective spell such as "Cut(target)."

There was no way to describe CM to them so he said, "You can use me as a reference. I can take on 3 tier ones, 2 tier twos, and 1 tier three by myself. Any higher and the fight is more dangerous."

Levin looked at Xylos and considered the ranking system and said, "So, they are all cannon fodder?"

Xylos recoiled as he took the mental hit. "I'm not that weak, am I?" Xylos receded into himself in thought.

"Let's wipe them out. I remember that one of the items that we need can be found on an undead," Vivi said and right after conjured several dozen bolts of light pointed in the direction that the giant was facing.