Reborn as a Demonic Sunflower - 023 (Patreon)

RePlant System Active

Day: 76

Daily System Credit: 8

Consumed Credit: 311

[Spend Credit?]

Those rotten ones barely gave anything… I guess I never considered how much a week's worth of decay might cost in terms of the total consumption credit gained.

Haylock was finishing up the only monster he had left, having worked through the pile of dirt over the last few days.  Slowly, he made his way closer to the pile after Mimi told him that they would enter the forest from that end.  

Moving wasn’t as fast as he would have liked.  

I move like what… ten meters per minute?  Is there ever a way that I can speed that up?

Haylcok considered the credit and what he might get for the three hundred plus, but he didn’t feel anything would be usable now.  

Should I keep saving or try making small gains each day? I might end up with a ton of skills, but they might also be worthless.

His connection with Fufu told him that the rabbit was headed toward him, and Haylock saw that Nini and Mimi were coming behind the pink fur ball.

Each of the women was outfitted in a leather outfit with knives set across their chest and legs in sheaths.  Haylock recognized the knives as having blood in them, being the way that they directed their path.

“I'm Glad to see you are up and moving about, Mr. Flower,” Nini said. Her face had a smile so wide that Haylock was concerned the teen might catch a few bugs in it. “Grandmother says we are going to go pretty deep into the forest and that we’ll stay back and let you lead.”

Nodding his flower once, Haylock saw the look that Mimi was giving him.  A single eyebrow was slightly higher than the other, and she kept most of her excitement hidden. Only the small corner of one of her lips was raised.

“You need to learn to fight better.  As you grow, more will challenge you, and that will mean dealing with multiple targets,” Mimi said as she began to stretch a little bit.  “Those disciples you faced weren’t much of a threat, and you probably figured out that against the one they called Kode, he would probably have one in a single fight against each other.  Your other problem will be against the fire cultivators.  Soon, I am going to have to teach you how to dissolve the chi of another.  When they attack, if you get good enough, you can cause it to vanish as if it wasn’t even there.”

Mimi started to chuckle and pulled out a small vial Haylock knew had blood in it.  Using her fingers, she drew up a small ball and transformed it into a thin blade resembling a needle.

“This blood might not seem like a dangerous thing to you, but watch.”

With a flick of her wrist, the blood needle flew across the clearing to the first tree and punched a hole through it.  Moving her fingers and wrist again, it came back to her, hovering in the air above her hand before she made it return to the jar.

Haylock was blown away to see something so small, which appeared like nothing dangerous, create the damage that it had.

“Impressive?”

Moving his head up and down, Haylock saw the old woman's smile grow slightly bigger.

“Now imagine a fire, water, earth, or even air attack like that.  From someone lower than you, your protective vines might stop it, but your flower is very vulnerable even if your core resides in the stem.  A smart cultivator will work on injuring you all over and try to bleed out the blood and chi of another cultivator.  You need to learn to be smart.”

Feeling a bit overwhelmed, Haylock wasn’t sure how to deal with a group of cultivators with weapons and chi.  Seeing what Mimi had done with the tiny amount of blood made him wonder what she could do with a bucket full.

“Let’s go for now. These fights will be pretty straightforward.  As we get deeper into the forest, the monsters will sense you and be drawn to you.  I won’t tell you how much chi it takes to keep the small barrier I have in place around here going.  Once we move past it, it won’t be long until they come in droves.”

With that, Mimi motioned to the trees, and Haylock started moving through the last twenty yards, studying how his roots shifted as he moved.

A small network of large roots traveled directly underneath him as he moved through the ground. His mind tried to imagine the system that basically stretched like ooze, pushing itself through the dirt and then dragging him along while driving more roots ahead. Like a creepy crawler or some other vine that would climb slowly up a wall or lattice, his roots acted the same way—except much faster.

The minutes ticked by, and soon, Haylock felt a sensation wash over his core as he passed through the barrier that he could barely see. Like an almost dead glowstick, a long circle ran around the property.

The occasional tree was knocked over as he moved past them.  Most of the trees were taller than him by a good twenty feet or more.  These were a hardwood kind, reminding him of an oak tree.  His roots tore through and used the other roots as handholds, actually speeding up the process of moving through the forest.

His vines whipped out, covered with a layer of chi, and were like an axe, slicing through the bark and fibers, making it easier to hack off a large piece and then push with his other vine while severing the last part that kept it upright.  

“He’s stronger than I thought,” Nini said from behind.  

“It will only get better as he consumes more and grows.  I have no idea how powerful he can become,” Mimi replied, not trying to keep her voice down.

Feeling like a stud, Haylock continued his process of creating a path.

He wasn’t even a hundred yards into the forest when shrieks and roars began to come out through it. They weren’t coming from just ahead but from all three sides. Only the area from when he had come didn’t have the sound of creatures rushing toward him.

“Be ready!” Mimi shouted as she and Nini found a tree and started climbing it quickly. Daggers embedded into the wood acted like a staircase for them, constantly moving as they got higher and higher. “We’ll be here, but the rest is up to you!”

A noise from near his base came, and Haylock saw that Fufu was still on the ground with him.

I guess it’s just up to the two of us.  Give me a moment to prepare my roots.  

Focusing on the forest and the twenty or so feet he had between trees, Haylock knew that whatever came would be a close fight.  His vines could easily reach any of the trees around him but he needed his roots to be close, not stretched far away.

Like a tight woven spider web, Haylock started to prepare, trying to ignore the sounds of creatures rushing through the forest and the calls he could only imagine were them inviting friends for the food that had entered their domain.

Working as quickly as possible, Haylock willed his chi to move, forcing his core to spin quickly and send it everywhere.  

The lack of chi made him a bit nervous, but Haylock could not do anything about it right now.  

Fufu chittered, and his pink ears pointed southwest of Haylock’s current position.

The sound coming from that direction was almost like a dog barking as it choked on something.  A guttural howl came, and two monsters appeared in his sight, both glowing with chi.

One ran on all fours, a massive head like a wolf but with a tongue that was almost two feet hanging out of it.  The tongue would have drug across the forest floor if it had not been about five feet tall while running.  Giant claws were on each of its feet, and instead of fur, almost a snake-like set of scales that mimicked armor covered it.  Black eyes were focused on him.

Its partner, or just tag-along monster, was about nine feet tall, resembling everything Haylock had ever imagined a minotaur might look like.  Huge horns decorated its massive bull-like head, except in its mouth were giant teeth pressed together like a crocodile.  Its body was covered in blood-red thick fur, and instead of hands, the arms were like scythes, a black hardened material that might have been bones for all Haylock could tell.

The dog one howled and barked out something, and the bull shifted its approach, moving more to the south as they came past the last set of trees that he was surrounded by.

Don’t help unless I need it!

Fufu didn’t say a word, not that he ever did, except that one time, and hopped onto a massive root at the base of Haylock’s stem and watched as the monsters came.

There was no heart in his chest, per se, but whatever he had was beating faster than Haylock could remember. If he had possessed palms, they would have been sweating.

I can’t ever remember being in a fight where I felt like I could do anything besides punching someone in the dick.  

A smile appeared across his flower as his vines started to move around, building up momentum and preparing for the first real fight of his life.