Keeper of Nature
Stepping onto the 20th floor, where the final boss of this area resides, I first scan the surroundings. The arena is a grove hemmed in by a forest much thicker than any of the previous floors preventing me from traversing through them. There also appear to be numerous ancient stone structures, and pillars all around that remind me of Stonehenge.
And in the very middle stands what I assume to be the actual boss, a tree taller and thicker than any I have previously seen. Despite that, it does not look to be in good health as almost every inch of its gray and lifeless bark is infested with tiny mushrooms growing on it. The leaves as well are brown and dying, many of them falling to the ground in rapid succession.
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[Infected World Tree]
[Level 30]
[HP - 40,000 / 40,000]
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Judging by the sheer amount of HP this thing has, it should indeed be the boss, but what's up with it being just a normal rank instead of elite or something higher? Maybe I just got extremely unlucky with my first boss being an elite one?
I stand on guard, expecting it to attack me at any time, beginning the fight but even after several minutes, it never does. It just continues standing there, withering away.
Figuring I might need to be closer to it for the fight to start, I take a step forward… and another one… and another one. Eventually, I am right next to the tree, walking circles around it and even putting my palm against its decaying roots poking out of the ground, but absolutely nothing happens.
I knock on the tree. "Hey, can we get started now? I don't have all day, you know?"
Unexpectedly the tree reacts to this as, for a brief second, it seemingly recovers all its vitality with the leaves turning back to green and the bark becoming brown. Out of surprise at this change, I take a step back, but not even a second later, the tree returns to its lifeless look and continues doing nothing.
"Ah fuck it" I shoot a Mana Bolt at the tree to make it mad at me. The explosion blows some of the bark off the tree and sends it flying around. The mushrooms on the tree start shifting around in a creepy manner as a reaction to my attack, and not even an instant later, my spider-sense goes off, warning me of an impending attack from the ground underneath me.
Jumping to the side, I dodge a sharp root thrusting out of the ground at the spot I was just standing at. Jeez, at least buy me dinner before attempting to pierce me in the ass like that…
Well, at least the battle seems to have started with the tree now looking as angry as a tree can look anyway. Half a dozen roots are poking out of the ground around it and wiggling around like those inflatable balloon things you would see at gas stations.
[HP - 39,827 / 40,000]
The spell did some damage, but it would take like… forever to kill the boss if I only used Mana Bolt to deal damage. I wish it were still unnerfed so I could kill it in a few short minutes, but alas, I'm out of luck on that front.
The roots and branches keep attacking me in sweeping motions, but they are generally slow enough to not even be considered a threat. Only a few unexpected attacks from underground come even close to hitting me. I take jabs at these roots with my swords, and it does decent damage. I guess I could kill it fairly quick like this, but soon enough, I get an even better idea.
A root pops up from the ground a little ways away from me and picks up one of the random stone pillars lying around before hurling straight at me. I manage to jump dodge out of the way, but it does give me an idea. Would the boss be dumb enough to throw those pillars at itself?
After only a minute, I get the chance to test out my theory, and the answer is a resounding yes. As the root picks up another stone pillar, I run close to the tree, dodging attacks from other roots along the way, and as the pillar is thrown, I jump out of the way, letting it hit the trunk of the tree.
[HP - 34,077 / 40,000]
The impact left behind a notable dent on the side of the tree, not to mention doing nearly three thousand damage. I think I found my new favorite method of killing enemies, just let them kill themselves.
The boss appeared noticeably agitated by my-…its own attack against itself, agitated enough to pick up another pillar right away and throw it at me only to hit itself again. Why are you hitting yourself?
Unfortunately, after that attack, I am forced to back off for a bit as the roots and branches start converging in on me, blocking off paths of escape. Every time it picks up a rock, I try to get close to it and have it target itself. Sometimes I'm not fast enough, and it misses, but no more than 15 minutes later, the boss is down to 10% health, most of the damage taken being self dealt.
A new problem has arisen, though. There are no more pillars left. Everything has already been thrown and shattered. As I run circles around the boss and try to think of another quick way to damage it rather than having to use my sword and magic to slowly whittle down its health bar, the mushrooms growing on it start shifting around more actively than before.
I get a bad feeling about this, and my spider-sense confirms this as it starts going off, warning me to go far from the tree. Moments later, the mushrooms start emitting a yellow fog-like substance that quickly fills the whole arena.
I get to the very edge of the arena as fast as I can, but it is not enough to escape from the range of the attack as it covers everything. I hold my breath, hoping not to inhale any of whatever this is. My mask should be able to protect me from any of it getting in my eyes. Still, I mentally prepare for whatever this thing will do to me.
The attack finally reaches me and…
[This feature has yet to be implemented into the system.]
Huh?
Did this thing just try to apply a debuff or something and fail? For the first time, a feature not being implemented has come in handy.
I stop holding my breath and look at the boss. Other than the slight yellow fog hanging around, nothing feels different.
"No need to fear, we are here to save you!"
"You helped us, now we help you!"
"Save the forest!"
"Kill the invaders!"
"For the Keeper!"
"Take my superchat!"
I hear a bunch of voices suddenly yell out to me from the forest beyond. What the hell is it now?
With the tree still preoccupied with producing more of that ineffective toxin and not attacking, I turn around to look at the direction from where the voices were coming from and am immediately startled by saplings charging out carrying a bunch of makeshift weapons. There aren't just the 9 I saved but hundreds of them.
They all ignore me, choosing to continue on running toward the tree, once there, they all start climbing it and tearing out and cutting the mushrooms growing on it. What is this a cutscene?
[HP - 3,978 / 40,000]
[HP - 2,588 / 40,000]
[HP - 1,692 / 40,000]
[HP - 321 / 40,000]
The boss's health drops rapidly, reaching 0 in less than 30 seconds. Couldn't you guys have shown up earlier?
[Leveled up!]
[Obtained 5,000,000 dollars!]
[Obtained Skill Book: Plant Growth Acceleration!]
[Obtained Wooden Ring!]
As the boss dies, I level up, and the drops are conveniently enough deposited right in my inventory.
With the infecting mushrooms torn out of the tree and thrown on the ground by the saplings, the tree starts healing rapidly. In no time at all, it is almost back to looking healthy and stronger than any others in the forest.
The saplings all climb down from the tree and gather around it, waiting for something. As the quest has yet to be completed, I decide to just stand there and wait together with them. The Keeper of Nature should be saved now with the boss dead, right?
After a few minutes of silence, all of us watching the tree regrow its branches and leaves, the event finally comes to an end with a hole opening up on the base of the tree and a woman walking out of it. She has bright green hair with small flowers mixed in as decorations and yellow eyes with two small deer-like antlers on top of her head. In her hand is a golden apple, perhaps the one my quest reward mentions?
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[Name - Ceres Fauna (Keeper of Nature)]
[Level - ???] [Mythical (All stats x10)]
[HP - ???]
[Description - ???]
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Damn, I can't even see her level… how did she even manage to get captured like that.
With her exiting the tree, the saplings all cheer joyfully, and it takes quite a while for the Keeper to calm them all down and tell them to scatter and start taking care of their duties, whatever they may be in the forest.
"You must be the one they told me fought off the infection and even saved several lives in the process," She says in a soft-spoken voice, donning a smile on her face.
"Unless there was someone else here doing the same thing, it was probably me, yeah."
She nods. "I heard you knocking on the tree briefly, it was enough to wake me from my slumber, but the infection somehow managed to weaken me enough that I couldn't break out myself. For helping me, I would like you to have this." She hands me the golden apple she was holding.
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[Golden Apple]
Restores HP, SP, and MP fully. Removes any harmful ailments.
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It's like a full restore. It could be very useful during a tough fight, but knowing myself, I will never use it. What if I would need it in an even more dangerous situation in the future? You can simply never afford to use these sorts of op one-use items.
As I observe the apple, the Keeper of Nature keeps speaking, "Even for me, it takes a long time to produce one of these, so it's quite valuable."
I put it away in my inventory and look up to see the woman resting her chin on her fist with her eyes closed and in deep thought. "Hmm… but I should give you something more for helping save my saplings… Oh, I know!"
Without hesitation, she reaches out to her antler and…snaps it off, ouch.
"Here, please have this. It may not come in use immediately, but one day it could make your life much easier."
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[Antler of the Keeper of Nature] [Legendary]
Can be used as either a crafting material or to manifest a nature-related divinity when ascending to godhood.
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"I would explain what it is, but it seems you already have a way of knowing." She bows, "Again, thank you for helping me and my forest. Please notify me if there is something I can do to help in the future."
With that, she turns around and walks back inside her tree. A moment later, a blue door that would take me to the next floor appears where she was standing previously.
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[Quest Completed - Don't do shrooms
[Reward - 3 levels, Golden Apple]
[Bonus Reward - Antler of the Keeper of Nature, Ally of Nature Perk ]
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[Leveled up 3 times!]
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[Ally of Nature]
When surrounded by an abundant amount of nature, all stats boosted by 25%.
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With the completion of the quest, I reach level 47 and get a pretty good Perk to go along with it. I briefly touch the blue door and see that the next area in the dungeon is called [Catacombs]. Rather than going through it, though, I close the system window and exit the dungeon. I already missed one class today, I don't want to miss any more, lest I get into trouble.
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Note: There was no chapter yesterday, so you get a 2100 word one today.
I started playing Elden Ring as someone who has never played any FromSoftware games, and I'm getting my ass handed to me, but the battles are super cool, so I'm thinking I can use those as inspiration for the future when writing battle scenes in this story.