Spruce Springtree

Grant withdrew his sword from his back and got ready to fight if things went sideways. But he decided to try dialogue since the Tree seemed to be interested in something.

"Hello, Mr... Tree? I'd rather not fight if we don't have too. How can I help you?

Ah, the names Grant by the way."

"Mmm.. who cast.. that skill.. earlier?"

Grant was in a tight spot. If what Skit said was true about his race and that of the treant's being at odds, then he'd like to avoid bringing him up if at all possible. But if he lied, and the treant realized that their was an undead somewhere nearby then it may backfire and escalate the situation.

"I was the one who cast the skill you oversized piece of lumber."

[Fuckkk youuu Skittt!! Can't stay inside of your little hole and let me try and handle this?!]

Seeing Skit walk out from the entrance of the dungeon, the treant glared at him with blatant disgust.

"Undead.. filthy creatures... what are you.. doing here?"

It looked like a lightning bolt was flashing back and forth between the two as they glared at each other.

[This is some anime level shit right here... Maybe if I pretend I'm invisible and try to back away then won't notice me.]

"What am I doing here? My friend here and I have created a partnership for mana cores."

[I swear to god.. leave me out of this you oversized calcium deposit!!]

"Humans... sided with... evil...?"

Knowing that he couldn't excuse himself from the situation, Grant stepped back up to the side of each of them and joined the conversation.

"We have not sided with evil. He offered me and my people a partnership and we have accepted because we are in need of many things.

You must have noticed the world around you as you arrived? Everything we humans have created over the years has been completed destroyed and now we need to rebuild from scratch.

And to do that, we need help."

When Grant finished speaking, the treant just stood there staring at Grant for a few minutes without saying anything.

The longer the silence went on, the more confused Grant became. He didn't know if he was supposed to say anything or just wait for the tree to speak again.

Grant gave Skit a side long glance, but the skeleton seemed wholly unperturbed by the silence. He too was just staring at the tree waiting for it to speak again. So Grant decided to just stay quiet and wait for something to happen or someone to speak.

After a few more minutes passed before the tree eventually started speaking again.

"Mmm.. leader says.. not to kill... you.

Nettlethorn.. is the... name... we have... claimed.. the forests.. north of here... do not infringe.. on our... sanctuary..

You have been warned."

"Your threats are useless here tree. As long as you do not interfere with us, we will not interfere with you."

Once again, Skit and Nettlethorn just glared at each other for a few moments.

Grant wasn't interested in their little staring contest, so he interrupted them trying to find some answers.

"Wait Nettlethorn, what are you guys trying to accomplish in the forests to the north? And if you aren't trying to start a war or encroach on the city, why are you here now?"

Nettlethorn didn't immediately respond, once again he just stared directly at Grant for a few minutes without saying anything.

As Grant was waiting for Nettlethorn, he felt a fluctuation of mana before he seemingly blacked out.

The next thing that Grant saw was a forest with a giant tree standing in the middle. It had to be at least 50 feet tall if not more. Naturally Grant was terrified, had he been transported physically or was this some sort of illusion? His alertness skyrocketed to the max as he waited for what was to come next.

[Welcome to the collective mind of the treant's human. I am Spruce Springtree. I told Nettlethorn to connect you to me so we could have a discussion without the undead filth interrupting.]

The voice seemed to be transmitted directly into Grant's mind which startled him because of how seemingly effortlessly his mind had been invaded.

[Relax human, we mean you no harm, yet. It may be hard for you to believe, but we are not from another planet.

We are native to Earth.

At the offset of The Path, I was but a normal tree here on Earth.

With the influx of mana, even we plant life began to evolve. As time passed, I naturally grew in strength because I fed off of the planet itself and the mana it had absorbed. That however, was when a curious phenomenon took place.

We became a part of a collective. This mind space you see is accessible by all sentient plant life. Of course their are mindless plant life that exist, which would be best described as the zombies of the plant life. They act in much the same way as zombies and mindlessly seek food and strength.

Moving on, being part of a collective allowed us to gather information at an exponential rate since we have eyes and ears across the globe.

With this ability, we have come to a conclusion.

The Earth is not on a normal Path, or at least it won't be once it enters the Enlightened Tier.

Through eavesdropping on visitors from other planets that have come out of the dungeons we have discovered many anomalies.

The first and foremost is how quickly stronger entities are appearing on Earth. Since Earth has only been on its Path for a little more than two weeks, it should be unlikely that Enlightened Tier monsters could pass through the dungeon cores freely but much like your undead friend, many other races have already begun arriving.]

Grant was becoming overwhelmed by the amount of information that was being passed on so freely, so he interjected at a moment where Springtree paused.

[Wait wait wait.. this is too much. Are you telling me that Earth is going to become a battleground for a ton of different races because of its anomaly? And what's so special about Earth anyways, that it's growing faster than normal planets? What's the big deal with that?

And you just threatened us to not interfere and yet it sounds like you're asking us to interfere!]

[Whether the Earth becomes a battleground or not is not the question, the question is when does it become a battleground?

As far as what is special about Earth, I do not have an answer.

We have heard rumblings about the density and purity of the mana here on Earth, which is probably why your skeleton friend is so interested in Mana Cores from here, but other than that I am not aware.

The next question is, how do we stop it?

The threat not to interfere with us was more for your skeleton friend than you. We will not take kindly to his death energy infringing on our forests.]

At the moment, Grant just wanted to curl up into the fetal position and cry. For the past few days, all he had heard about was how the Earth was going to be invaded and somehow he was always the one that the information was passed too which was beginning to overwhelm him.

[I have no answer for your last question. All I know is that if a war is inevitable, we do not have time to waste here.

What are your plans? Will you join me in defending Earth? Are you going to hide here and let the Earth be destroyed?

Don't beat around the tree, why am I here?]

A moment of silence reigned in the mind space, not more than a few seconds, before Springtree answered.

[We plan to defend our Mother. However, now that you have aligned with that undead, we are morally obligated to do no more than cooperate with you.

That being said, we will provide you with information and act accordingly to defend this area.

What we need from you, is to gather humans, strengthen them, and set out to defend our planet.]

For the nth time, Grant was starting to feel overwhelmed by the pressure of the situation. At times like this, he regretted ever having the courage to leave his apartment room. He could have just holed up there, got strong enough just to defend himself, and lived a hermits life.

But nope, he decided to strive for greatness, and now he was burdened by endless responsibilities.

[Defend humanity and Earth or watch it burn?

Not like I have much choice here... No pressure or anything, got it.

How will we communicate? It's not like I can join this mind space whenever I want.]

[I will have Nettlethorn remain near your dungeon to provide you with a link to this space. As you move throughout the surrounding areas, different entities will reach out to you to give you access to this space.

We will gather as much information as we can and notify you of any looming threats.]

[Fine.. I will be moving much of the next few days and weeks to gather people so we can form an army.

No way in hell I'm defending the Earth alone.]

------

A/N : Sorry for missing yesterday guys! We are opening a new restaurant and re-opening one that was closed for the winter so things have been a bit chaotic at work. Being in charge of day to day operations of the company makes it difficult for me to get free time when so much is going on! And then with my injured hand, it's making things even harder. I will try and release a few more chapters today to make up for it!