"Could it be that the crazy treant looks just like a normal treant on ordinary days? Nothing special about it? If that’s the case... how am I supposed to identify it in such a vast forest? Do I have to destroy the entire forest to clear the level?"
After searching with two Dreamselves for quite some time with no results, Wang Zhifan found himself questioning and feeling a bit confused.
It wasn’t his fault; this instance was indeed a bit strange. Unlike previous instances where opponents were clearly on a fixed path, this one required players to put thought into searching, and there were no definite clues.
Because of this, Wang Zhifan even considered using brute force to break through. He currently possessed an incredibly powerful ice power. If this forest wasn’t thousands of miles wide, he still had hopes of completely destroying it. However, doing so would consume a lot of his energy and take a long time.
"Let’s search a bit more... Hopefully, my teammates have better luck..."
Quickly dismissing the idea of brute force, Wang Zhifan continued to search the forest with his two Dreamselves, looking for what might be the crazy treant.
About an hour passed, and though he still hadn’t found anything that might be the crazy treant, he did make an unexpected discovery.
One of his Dreamselves stumbled upon it while searching through a dense thicket: a small pile of scattered human bones, surrounded by some torn pieces of fabric. Judging by the number of skulls, it seemed to be the remains of two humans. Based on the characteristics of the hip bones, these two skeletons likely belonged to males when they were alive.
"Human bones in the instance world... This is the first time I’ve seen such a thing... Could this be hinting that the crazy treant is nearby?"
With this discovery, Wang Zhifan felt a rush of excitement and quickly made his way to the location where his Dreamself found the bones. This didn’t take him much time because his Dreamselves couldn’t be too far away from him, at most a few kilometers.
After quickly reaching the thicket hiding the two human skeletons, Wang Zhifan began to investigate the area further and soon found some intriguing information.
"The fabric fragments around the bones appear to be products of modern industry, with faintly discernible letters resembling trademarks... This suggests that the skeletons might not be from the instance world... After all, a place with treants and advanced industrial technology seems somewhat incongruous."
After carefully analyzing, Wang Zhifan suspected that the two skeletons in the thicket were the remains of players from the real world. This isn’t impossible; discussions on the forums have long confirmed that many players experience the same instance, so it’s not particularly strange for a new batch of players to enter the instance and discover the corpses of the previous batch. Although Wang Zhifan hadn’t encountered a similar situation in past instances, theoretically, it could happen.
"If these two human skeletons indeed belonged to players who died in this instance before, then the so-called crazy treant is likely nearby, and I’m one step closer to clearing the level."
Convinced that the odds were high that the skeletons were players’ remains, Wang Zhifan felt happy instead of worried. He immediately began searching for the suspected instance target, using this as the center.
Soon, he found that several tall treants were stationed in the area, but like other treants in the forest, they appeared to be peaceful with no signs of madness.
"I can’t tell which is unusual... Apart from the discovery of what might be player remains, these treants are almost indistinguishable from others in the area... But eventually, I have to try to be sure."
Always a practical person, Wang Zhifan wasn’t prone to reckless actions, but when lacking information and relying on luck, he didn’t mind taking a gamble.
Unable to determine which treant might be the crazy one, he quickly picked an unlucky one at random, channeling his powerful ice power into the tall tree-like body. In an instant, the once gently swaying tree was enveloped in a layer of hard white ice crystals, transforming from lush green to a towering silver-white tree, swiftly falling into a silent death!
This was a basic application of Wang Zhifan’s ice power, using absolute zero temperatures to annihilate targets quickly. The process was swift, but due to the tree’s size, he could feel the noticeable depletion of his internal ice power after the operation.
This depletion was akin to physical exertion; there existed a usage limit within a time frame. While the total amount was substantial, it would decrease with use unless replenished through rest or sustenance.
"No reward panel triggered? Looks like this wasn’t the designated target for the instance."
After nearly instantaneously killing the randomly selected giant treant, Wang Zhifan saw no movement before him, and the reward list he most anticipated did not appear. This meant he had chosen the wrong target.
But just as he was preparing to pick another unlucky target after wasting some ice power, the situation around him suddenly changed drastically!
Suddenly, several normally docile green treants around the "snow silver tree" he froze to death started wildly shaking their branches and leaves, pulling themselves from the leaf- and soil-covered ground!
Each over thirty meters tall, the massive treants fell into a frenzied state, mercilessly launching their giant, beam-like tree trunks toward Wang Zhifan’s head with an obvious intent to kill him!
"Heh... Can’t hold back any longer? Revealing yourselves now?"
Far from panicking, Wang Zhifan immediately realized that these attacking treants might include the crazy treant! Or perhaps the crazy treant recognized that it was about to be found and eliminated, thus summoning its comrades for a group attack!
Wang Zhifan immediately exploded with his ice power, unleashing several times the ice energy used against the single treant before. The ring-shaped eruption instantly froze all the massive treants encircling him. The deep green treants quickly became frozen white trees, plunging into perpetual silence like the one he had taken down earlier!
This time, the attack consumed much more of Wang Zhifan’s energy, but to his surprise, the result was the same; although he wiped out all the treants around him in one go, no reward panel appeared, indicating he still hadn’t cleared the level!