Fena and Serian both tensed at his sudden movement.
"What is it?" Fena demanded, her eyes narrowed. "Did the Rot try to claim you?"
Serian took a step forward, her hand near her own sword. "Nox, are you alright?"
He didn’t answer them. He didn’t even hear them. He was just staring at the blue screen, his mind reeling. The System. It had been quiet since he’d first talked to it, just a passive interface. Now it was asking him a question. A real, personal question.
’I’ve been a little busy,’ he shot back in his mind, the thought laced with pure annoyance. ’Fighting for my life tends to take up a lot of my time. What do you want?’
[My analysis indicates your current course of action is suboptimal.]
’Suboptimal?’ he thought, scoffing. ’It’s a giant battery of corrupted mana. It’s a jackpot. What could be better than this?’
[The energy of the Great Root is not contained. It bleeds into the surrounding forest. This leakage has acted as a catalyst, corrupting the native fauna. These creatures are now saturated with a higher density of power.]
A new line of text appeared, and it made his breath catch in his throat.
[Killing the Great Root now will sever this connection. The corrupted creatures will lose their power source and either perish or revert to their weaker forms. The potential Experience Points would be lost.]
He stared at the words. Lost EXP. The two most horrifying words in any language. The idea was a physical pain. All those supercharged monsters, all those potential levels, just vanishing because he was impatient.
’You’re telling me this whole forest is basically a limited-time event zone full of elite mobs,’ he thought, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face. ’And I was about to turn off the event.’
[That is an accurate, if crude, summary.]
"Nox, answer me," Fena demanded, her patience wearing thin. "What did you feel?"
He turned, the grin still on his face. It was not a friendly look. It was the look of a wolf that had just been shown a field full of fat sheep.
"I’m not gonna do it," he announced.
Fena and Serian just stared at him. "You are not going to do what?" Serian asked.
"The tree," he said, hooking a thumb back at the colossal, rotting root. "I’m not fixing it. Not yet."
Fena’s face hardened. "Do not play games, boy. You made an offer."
"And I’m changing the terms," he shot back. He walked away from the Great Root, his new confidence a tangible thing. "This Rot, this corruption... it’s like a disease, right? And this tree is the heart of the infection."
"That is a simple way of putting it, yes."
"Well, you don’t cure a disease by just cutting out the heart," he lied, the idea forming in his mind, clean and believable. "The infection is still in the body. It’s in all the other things it’s touched." He gestured vaguely at the dark woods around them.
"Those farewolves, the spiders... they’re like symptoms. Lesser tumors. If I just kill the big one here, the smaller ones might just keep growing, feeding on whatever scraps are left. The infection could come back."
He saw the logic land in her eyes, a sign of understanding mixed with her deep suspicion.
"My plan is better," he continued, his voice full of a false strategic wisdom given to him by the System. "I need to hunt down the strongest of the corrupted creatures first. Cut out all the other tumors. Weaken the Rot’s hold on the whole forest. Then, when it’s isolated and has nowhere else to go, I’ll come back here and cut out its heart."
Serian looked at him with awe. "That is... a brilliant strategy."
’Yeah,’ he thought. ’Brilliant for my EXP bar.’
Fena was silent for a long moment, studying him. She didn’t trust him, not for a second. But his plan, as reckless as it sounded, had a brutal logic she couldn’t deny. Her chanters’ methods had failed. This human, this anomaly, offered a different path, a warrior’s path.
"You would hunt the alpha corruptions?" she asked. "The beasts that even my strongest warriors avoid? You would do this alone?"
"That’s the plan," he said with a shrug.
"No," she said, her tone final. "If you are to undertake this, you will not go alone. You do not know these woods."
He was getting annoyed, he thought the old elf was gonna tag along and be a pain in the ass. The last thing he needed was her looking over his shoulder, lecturing him about the proper way to punch a monster in the face.
So when she spoke, he was ready for an argument.
"I will remain here," she said, her voice firm. "The Great Root requires my presence. I will maintain the wards and monitor the Rot’s spread from its heart." She looked at him, "You and the girl will hunt the alphas."
He almost smiled. ’Hell yeah.’
"I will go alone," he said, pushing his luck. "She’ll just slow me down."
Serian, who had been quiet, took a step forward. "I will not," she said, her voice as firm as Fena’s. "My ankle is healed. I am a warrior of Lifewoods, not a child to be sheltered." She looked at him, a challenge in her eyes. "And I believe I can keep up."
Fena nodded once. "She is right. You will need a guide. She knows the ways of the forest far better than you." She turned her gaze back to him. "Do not fail, human. The fate of my people rests on your strange, violent shoulders." She turned and walked back toward the Great Root without another word.
He just grunted and looked at Serian. "Fine. But if you fall behind, I’m not waiting for you."
"I would not expect you to," she replied, a small, confident smile on her face.
It was awesome. He wanted to go alone, but having Serian around when she was at one hundred percent wasn’t a bad deal. He was actually kind of excited to see what she could really do.