Attribute Boosting Fruit

Kaiju behaved like a monkey, swaying like a pendulum clock as his hand grasped on the thin branch of the trees. It was called thin, despite Kaiju having a difficult time to grasp it entirely due to its size, if it was compared to the average thickness of the branches among the gargantuan trees. 

He had been following the Little Gorilla minutes earlier, and the latter halted in front of him, turning its head to face him. It uttered whispers of a gecker as it attempted to communicate with him.

"You sense danger ahead? The location of the fruit is ahead, too? I see. I understand."

Kaiju was aware of how perilous a lucky encounter could be. There had been many cases in the past, turning into a valuable lesson for the future generation, being taught by the teachers, about ceased Awakeners, falling into the trap of a tempting treasure. 

Discovering a fruit that could boost attributes was even guarded by beast and monster alike, seeking for its benefit, too.

Kaiju nodded at Little Gorilla and whispered, "Let's scout ahead, too. Let me do it. I have a stealthy ability."

Kaiju moved through the branches and landed on the ground. Of course, Shadow Step only activated if he walked through the shadows, eventually concealing his presence. Shadow Step activated with a condition – a heavy restriction placed on the Common grade skills.

Little Gorilla cast a worried glance at its master, but it was helpless since it received a command to stand by. Hence, it could only sit on the branch while attentively listening to its surroundings and keeping a watchful eye at its master in case of danger.

Kaiju ambled forward, inevitably blending his presence at the shadow, gradually losing his presence. Of course, he needed to be cautious at this point, or the Shadow Step would lose its effects once he was spotted by a sensitive, menace beast.

It did not take him long to discover a slight expanse ahead with a gargantuan tree, carrying gleaming fruits at its crown with various colors. The fruits illuminated a color, not reflected by the bloody crimson moon. There were red, green, blue, and gray.

When Kaiju set his eyes on it, his heart raced. He knew what those fruits were. They were rare fruits in the Easy difficulty trial and even the Hard difficulty trial, often even commencing a bloody war among the participants in the trial.

After all, not only were they difficult to be found, it was rare to find them in groups, too. 

What Kaiju was seeing was not a valuable fruit in the group… but rather, in the legion.

He could count thousands of them.

He took a deep breath and exhaled every now and then to regain his composure. He also had to calm his palpitating heart.

He swept his eyes on the gargantuan trees, bearing thousands of blinding lights of fruits, and uttered under his breath.

"Calm down, Kaiju. At most, you can consume three different fruits as its potency plummets the more you eat them. Even so, I must pick those high quality."

Attribute-Boosting fruits' quality was divided into Common, Rare, Epic, and Legendary grade. Each of them offered permanent increases in attributes, but, of course, they had distinct benefits.

From Kaiju's knowledge, a Legendary Grade Fruit, not only increases three attributes by 200 points each, the consumer would be granted by an elemental affinity. 

Even a High Ranker would fight each other for that benefit… It would not be surprising that even Ascendants sought for it, too.

After all, to increase attribute points was to exercise… not similar to Kaiju that could be increased through rewards. Furthermore, there would be a benefit of receiving affinity with elements, inflating its significance to the players in the Tower.

Since this was a Hellish Trial, Kaiju expected to discover a Rare fruit.

However, he would not be surprised if there was an Epic fruit hiding amongst the legions of ants, too.

"What if?" He could feel his racing heartbeat on his throat. "There is a Legendary Fruit, too?"

Even so, recalling how perilous such an immense lucky encounter could be, the possibility of a high ranking beast guarding and seeking to eat such fruit once it matured acted like a cold bucket pouring on Kaiju's head.

There was no way that heaven favored him to the point it would even give away a Legendary grade fruit.

"Let's not be too greedy right now, then. Let's settle for what I think I can acquire."

Kaiju squinted his eyes for a better look, scrutinizing every part of the expanse surrounding the gargantuan trees. For sure, there would be a trap. In the past week, while obtaining rewards, such as an increase in his attribute, Kaiju obtained one skill – Basic Trap Creation.

It aided him in establishing a trap for the Thrall, and due to its meager intelligence, it fell to the most obvious trap possible. However, since it was only a Common grade, it did not suffice in providing him information about traps set by nature.

Kaiju analyzed.

"There's no way there's a trap there if there are only beasts seeking for the fruits. Perhaps, plant-type monsters could only do that. Even then, they should have been destroyed by beasts long ago."

Speaking of beasts, Kaiju have yet to see a single sight of them.

He focused on the branches of the gargantuan trees, and, as expected, he caught sight of a shadow slithering through the branches of trees, sometimes wrapping its body to a fruit before leaving and executing the same thing to other fruit.

Even though it was difficult to discern its actual appearance due to the distance, Kaiju was assured it was a snake beast.

Hiss!

Snow popped out of her hiding spot and communicated with her master.

"You're right. They are your kind. By the way, can you give me information about them? Ah, many of them are different? Venomspine Viper, Toxic Fang Adder, Blight Cobra, Pestilent Boa, Rotscale Serpent… Wait, why are there so many of them?"

Kaiju spotted a grave expression on Snow's adorable face.

Snow narrowed her eyes on her master, and offered chilling information that made Kaiju's hair stand on ends.

"T-There is… An Overlord Rank controlling your kind??!"

Kaiju almost lost his consciousness from the shocking information.