Ch35. Evil Cursed Tree

Rei didn't start negotiating with Ylven. Instead, he gave her a proposition that totally stupefied her and made her see him in a different light.

"I and my companion will go and take care of the Evil Cursed Tree. If we fail... nothing will happen to your village and you can suffer through your life under its influence forevermore. But if we succeed I want you to hear out my proposition to you and your tribe. I am sure you will be very interested in what I am going to offer you. Naturally, you can always reject it and you will be able to live here in peace since the Evil Cursed Tree will be destroyed. There is no losing side for you this way."

Exactly as Rei expected, that lessened Ylven's suspicion a lot. It was obvious she didn't believe he and Solution could destroy the Evil Cursed Tree but she risked nothing by letting them march to their death so she agreed while hiding her resignation and disappointment. She already believed they would just die and her problems would continue.

Rei didn't mind. Actions spoke louder than words. If he released the full might of his magic on the elves, they would probably prostrate out of fear. If he imbued it with nature element, maybe they would even think him a deity and worship him. But he didn't want either of those two things. Fear and worship were very limiting and both had massive downsides. No... Rei wanted a relationship based on mutual benefit. He wanted them to recognize his power but not fear it overly much. He wanted them to serve him because it gave them a promise of a better life. That way, there would be almost no chance at betrayal later down the line. Not with species like Elves.

After all, there was a massive reason why Rei chose Elves in particular. They usually weren't as greedy as humans since their mindset was adjusted to their long lifespans.

...

Rei stood on the edge of the clearing where the Evil Cursed Tree was located. He couldn't help but be amazed. The tree was positively massive compared to the trees at the edge of the clearing and looked impressive in a dark majestic way. Rei could see why the dark elves dubbed it 'Evil Cursed Tree' with its blackened bark that looked jagged in some places, its twisted branches, and black leaves that seemed to absorb light while oozing a bit of black miasma, creating a very thin layer of black mist around the crown of the tree.

The surprising thing was the grass around the tree. It was black and Rei didn't doubt even for a second it was just for aesthetic purposes. It looked quite sharp in his opinion. Rei has beaten enough raids in Yggdrasil to disregard something so out of the ordinary as black and sharp grass.

Other than that, Rei's magic senses were telling him a lot about what was happening around. As someone attuned to nature magic, Rei could clearly feel the Tree's magic was corrupted. Or more precisely, it was made of cursed magic and was slowly poisoning the plants around. It was no wonder the elves were wasting away living in an environment like this.

They probably thought the tree was poisoning the plants and that was the reason for the death of their brethren but the truth was... their bodies were not adjusted to withstand cursed magic coursing through them. It was the same thing as if Ainz tried to fill a human with his negative energy. Unless the human was a strong necromancer, that would be an insta-kill. As with any inherently damaging type of magical energy, it would take a long time of careful injections of said energy in order to cultivate a body capable of withstanding it. Time the Dark Elves didn't have since the Evil Cursed Tree didn't give two fucks if they lived or not. It simply spread its magical influence through the land at the fastest pace possible for it.

'No wonder the beasts avoid this place like a plague. Their instincts would instantly warn them off from eating anything around here.' Rei realized before wryly glancing at the fidgety and nervous dark elven woman next to him who was here to observe, 'The Dark Elves might be more sensitive to magic than humans but they are also too sentient for their instincts to have much influence over them. They also have nobody learned in magic among them. They would not realize they were eating contaminated food. In a way, they were just unfortunate. If the Tree didn't wake up for two hundred more years, their bodies would probably adjust to the cursed magic, making them completely capable of surviving in this environment with ease. They wouldn't even realize it.' Rei chuckled, 'It was just their bad luck the Tree awoke before their bodies were ready for the increase of cursed magic in surroundings it caused.'

Rei was glad he came here and felt the way the Evil Cursed Tree tried to spread its influence over the land. The truth was... he had no freaking idea how magic actually worked and his only source of information was the lore of Yggdrasil and how the energies were described to work there. Seeing the Tree and how it utilized its cursed magic and how it influenced the elves showed Rei that the way it worked in Yggdrasil was somewhat still functioning even in the real world.

This was a comforting conclusion... even if it caused Rei to ask even more uncomfortable questions.

"Quite peculiar, isn't it?" Rei turned towards Solution who dutifully observed their upcoming enemy, measuring its threat level.

"Yeah... it's some kind of cursed treant." Solution nodded before frowning. "Around level eighty-two? The scanning magic isn't very accurate since we..." She stopped herself from blurting out something important and glanced at Ylven, "came here."

Rei helplessly shrugged, "We will treat it as if it was a raid boss." Which meant they would disregard its level and go fully prepared to face something extremely challenging. It was only right, considering how menacing the tree looked and their inability to properly judge its power.

Sure, Rei could measure its magic with his senses and it felt like something a level eighty-two magical being would have but that gave him no information about the strength, agility, endurance, and other important things. There was always a chance the magic was the weakest stat of the tree. It was better to be cautious. Especially since Rei had no idea about the origin of the Tree.

It was really bothersome. In Yggdrasil, there were several ways to scan your enemy or ally. These were, however, tied to the interface because it was easier to program it that way. Rei really didn't realize how inconvenient it would be once the game became a reality and the interface disappeared. The universal glitch turned the interface functions into magic and Rei assumed that was why instead of a translucent window describing an item, the information was given to him mentally whenever he tried to inspect something through it.

The problem when it came to the scanning magic was... Yggdrasil was a game and this was now the real world. Yes, a lot of things from Yggdrasil became reality and worked well but there were other things that were not as well-adjusted. The scanning magic created by imitating the function of the interface measured things based on Yggdrasil's standards and that not always gave correct info. Not everything could be quantified numerically in the real world.

Hence, Rei and Solution had a problem measuring the Tree in front of them.

'I really need to find someone capable in the area of magical research and spell creation...' Rei sighed.