[The Requirements for Special Evolution have bene updated!]
[Summon 1000 Spirits: 489/1000]
[Defeat 300 Miasmic Monsters: 300/300]
[Purify 2500 Miasmic Terrain Tiles: 2500/2500]
[Summon a Legendary Grade Weapon: 1/1]
[Acquire a Branch of Yggdrasil: 0/1]
As I confronted the Demon King of Miasma once more, I glanced at the Special Evolution Requirements that suddenly showed up in front of me. I had almost completed them all except having to summon a thousand spirits and acquiring a Branch of Yggdrasil.
Whenever I stepped into, Nature responded through the new Skills I acquired. Thanks to that, the forest was being rapidly purified, and as a result, many Spirit Sprouts emerged out of the terrain, spirits of several elements, mostly all Lesser Spirits, were being born surrounding me as I spoke to the Demon King possessing the Tree of Beginnings.
I can complete that requirement as long as I keep fighting, but how exactly do I get a Branch of Yggdrasil though?! I've never had one before, and I am fairly sure the thing I think is the Yggdrasil Tree died long ago, by the hands of this Demon King himself in the past.
The World Tree's son, the Tree of Beginnings was perhaps the only connection to it- Wait a second. The son… So he grew from the tree's seed, which means he's also the same type of tree, but younger? Despite his old appearance, he's indeed a young world tree.
This means… the branch he gave me could had helped me evolve. But… it was completely disintegrated alongside the rest of the weapon that used it for its creation. The Demon King must have secretly aimed at destroying my weapon with everything he had so I wouldn't be able to do anything funny.
So how can I get… an Yggdrasil Branch now?
"You're still alive after I've corrupted the entire Forest!?"
The Demon King roared back at me. My eyes locked on his enormous body. The beautiful tree of beginnings was now of a deep dark purple color, his leaves were black, and his eyes glowed red. Miasma was flowing from his entire body, and his roots resembled deadly tentacles, devastating his surroundings.
Although he was certainly not as strong as his True Body back in the Dark Continent where he is actually located, he's incredibly strong, nonetheless. If it wasn't for my newest Skills combining together to grant me the ability to both spread Nature and fuse with it naturally, I would be completely overwhelmed.
"Corrupted? Can't you see what's around you now?" I asked him.
He seemed to not have realized it, but thanks to Acorn and my Skills, and everyone else beating down the Miasmic Treants, the forest was slowly being purified. There was already 50% of it completely filled with greenery and spiritual essence, and the miasma was battling furiously to take over, but it was losing.
"T-This is impossible! You should be dead now that the Tree has become mine! How come a spirit so connected with nature as a Dryad could survive when the forest was completely corrupted?!"
The Demon King's plan was to kill me indirectly in such a way. His powers could potentially ignore the System as well, much like how he almost killed Mark by trying to devour his soul. He wanted to use this opportunity to make me wither and die.
There was a combination of reasons why that didn't affected me. One of them is the Great Spirit residing within my soul, who helps me live even without the core of all spirits being here anymore. And the other is that my body was crafted by the Goddess Gaia.
I realized this not long ago, but the body of all Players are crafted by Gods themselves, with their very powers. In resume, we are some sort of divine being, in between mortals and gods. It wouldn't be a stretch to call Players as Demigods.
Because of this origin, we are not affected by what happens around our surroundings, like many other living beings in this world would do… Of course, I wasn't going to explain him anything.
"Well, I've never been alone. I have friends… And not only the ones you saw earlier, I have hundreds of them!"
Is stomped the corrupted ground before me, as flash of bright spiritual light spread around my surroundings. The black trees turned healthy and were even shining with golden auras of life. Meanwhile, countless flower-like sprouts appeared everywhere, Spirit Sprouts, creating dozens of Lesser Spirits in mere seconds.
And as if that wasn't enough, the Lesser Spirits I created kept the Tiles I took over purified and resisted against the Miasma, they were not sitting idly at all! Thanks to their efforts, the Dragon Veins, which were being corrupted, were now recovering rapidly, and the stronger Spirits that reside in the Dragon Veins around the land and the sky began to emerge as well.
In just less than a minute since I descended into the forest, over five hundred Spirits have been born! And they were all glaring angrily at the Demon King, with their tiny and adorable eyes. Their tiny auras of various elements, once together, formed a gigantic opposing force to the aura of miasma he possessed.
"S-So many spirits… How come you can bring them out?! They're supposed to be dead! I have taken over the Heart of this Forest, the Heart of all Life and Spirits of this world!"
The Demon King roared, as the army of thousands of Miasmic Ents quickly glared my way. Marching from all directions, all while his roots began shaking the entire ground, gigantic piercing spears made of purple wood appeared from all over, attempting to attack me!
"If it comes to this, then I'll just have to do the dirty work myself… This time, I'll make sure to exterminate YOU! And then, there won't be any more opposing forces!"
The Demon King laughed, as countless of attacks reached from the ground, his gigantic roots aiming for me.
I won't lose this time!