Author's Note: Ah Reviews, what I live for. Well that and the cat I'm going to get in the next few days. But mostly the reviews. In either case, Read, Review Favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 11: The Forest of Ruin
The little forest spirit led the group of adventurer's through the forest that was slowly being drained of life. The closer that they had gotten to the epicenter, the older and more rotted the trees were getting more common as they reached where the area that the spirit, a Dryad, was leading them.
"A long time ago, a monster that can destroy the world fell from the sky and landed here going dormant. It has been feeding off of the area ever since trying to regain it's strength." The Dryad stopped moving and turned to face the group. "Occasionally, a piece of it awakens and threatens the world, every time someone has to put it down again. I've managed to gather and cultivate some rare herbs using what little good soil is left here, I can give them to you if you defeat the monster."
"Hmm. Looks like the 'Tree of the North' wasn't a total bust after all." Kieran stated scratching his chin. "But I'm afraid that merely defeating the monster will not be sufficient."
"Say Wha?" The Dryad asked looking greatly confused.
"I will put this bluntly. If this is a monster that can 'destroy the world' then I am not content to let it keep brewing while the rest of us remain ignorant. I'm gonna draw it out while it's still weak, and if I do not kill it, then someone else will."
"WHAT!? ARE YOU INSANE!?" The Tiny Dryad asked prompting the others present to nod in agreement.
"The insane one are you. Over and Over again you lure people here hoping that at some point a important enough part will awaken that the creature in question will simply die off after it is eliminated. Meanwhile the radius of damage that it has caused continues to grow unabated. I'm bringing the ugly piece of work out, and I'm taking it's head back to the adventurer's guild." Kieran stated crossing his legs.
"You are crazy! The forest will be destroyed!" The Dryad snapped shaking Kieran's chest plate fervently.
"Really?" Kieran turned his head to look at his left, then his right, before looking at the spirit again. "This forest? This already clearly dead and destroyed forest?"
"Huu." The Dryad slinked away as if seen through.
"Or are you more concerned with your own tree?" Dryads were forest spirits, the end result of a tree of sufficient age spontaneously gaining sapience, in the form of a independent free floating spirit. The Dryad is bound to the tree, and cannot go far from it. "I'm a warrior, your herbs mean little to me, and I can find the Tree of the North without you." Kieran stated leaning backwards. "Lead my associates to where your tree is located, and I will arrange to have it transplanted some where safe."
"Huu... This is blackmail." The Dryad stated sighing deeply.
"Allowing a monster of world ending power to roam free is simply intolerable. I make my offer as a courtesy." Kieran stated his voice a immobile block of steel.
"Huu... fine." The defeated Dryad hung it's head low in a depressed and miserable state, prompting sympathetic padding from Dyne.
"Oi boss. Not that we doubt you or anything, but are you sure that you can handle this all by yourself?" Peter asked looking at Kieran suspiciously.
"Easily." Kieran replied shrugging his shoulders.
"But, But, But...! It's a monster that can destroy the world!" The Dryad stated flailing it's tiny arms around and repeating itself like a broken record.
"So am I." Kieran replied, a malevolent grin on his face.
The Dryad led the Swords of darkness to it's tree, which point of interest was also being used to grow the vine like plant with the miraculous properties that Nifirea had told them about. With Dyne's expertise as a Druid the group was successfully able to extricate the tree from the ground, secure it in a sack that was meant to be used for potion ingredients, and used the teleportation magic to send it back to Carne Village.
"Oi moving these things in and out of the wagon all the time is getting tiring." In order to avoid teleporting away all of the potion ingredients gathered thus far, the swords of Darkness had to constantly unload and reload the wagon, and it was starting to get annoying.
"The herb with healing properties is the most valuable one in this forest, and Kieran should have gotten a good feel of the area by now. If he wants to stay then the rest of us can go back to the city so that I can pay you all for your time." When Nifirea said that, he looked to Nabe with a questioning look. "Is that okay? Is Kieran going to have a problem with that?" Nabe looked up as if thinking about it for a moment. Kieran already got paid for the bits of monsters he hacked off and now they had a fat purse of copper and silver coins to show for their efforts, as long as Nifirea paid them for their efforts and gave credit where it was do, then there'd be no problem, so she shook her head in the negative. "Good then it's decided, in the mean time we should try to keep a safe distance from him so that we don't get caught up in the battle with the Tree of the North."
Once the others had left Kieran was left sitting in a large clearing alone, seated in a meditative position. Once the others had left through the woods, Kieran need to make use of Nightmare teller to draw out the tree of the north, of course eliminating the witnesses in this manner meant that he would have to drive the Tree of the North towards the city to appropriate witnesses. That unfortunately meant that his reputation would suffer as a result. Instead he would have to bring back physical proof of his accomplishment, and then the city would have to send someone here to confirm the existence of the monster's corpse. That would complicate their ability to claim it and any associated resources.
"Hmm. If Balloma can get the contract with the city to clean up the mess, then it shouldn't be a problem." As far as Kieran knew, there were no logging operations in the Forest of Tob, likely because of all of the unpleasant creatures running around, but if there were any outstanding cultural or religious reasons why logging wasn't allowed in the forest then it shouldn't be a problem since the tree was a monster and already dead. "Mm Hm. Sounds like it'll keep Balloma off of my back any way." Kieran stated getting back up to his feet. "Now than, time to get to work."
Kieran stomped his foot, and unleashed a blanket blast of killing intent in all directions, the idea here being to aggro everything within a hundred mile radius, and either they would recognize a superior existence when they saw one and flee, or they would be terrorized into attacking him an effect he hoped to achieve with the Tree of the North. As if crumbling under the the sheer weight of his intent to kill, the ground beneath Kieran's feet began to shake. Finally, something resembling a giant tree shaped like a roughly humanoid arm emerged from beneath the dirt and grabbed hold of the ground to push itself up, revealing a giant body made out of wood, and a huge head that could best be described as a log that had a crude face hacked into it with a ax. Kieran squinted at his foe, his inbuilt power to assess the potential of his opponent told him that it was only as level 85, powerful by the standards of the continent, pathetic by the standards of Kieran's homeland as well as those of Nazarick.
"Well that's disappointing." Kieran stated letting out a sigh. Near as he can tell, the only outstanding feature of this pile of kindling wood was it's ludicrously high amount of health that he couldn't even properly assess with his powers. "Ah well." Kieran shrugged his shoulders, at the very least using this thing as a punching bag would be entertaining for a few hours. With that in mind, Kieran removed both of his sheaths from his belt and planted them firmly in the ground. "Let the Carnage begin." Suddenly both sheath's exploded, punting the blades and the person who was attached to them up into the air with ludicrous amounts of speed, Kieran's ignited blades turned him into a spinning inferno as he manipulated the momentum to turn himself into a deadly buzzsaw as he plunged into the body of the Tree of the North.
"GUUUUAAGGG!" A ghastly scream howled throughout the air as that massive tree started having chunks ripped off of it in mass.
"What in Nazaricks name is that ghastly sound?" Koriander had been in the middle of something, but she was almost done and that noise demanded a bare minimum of investigation. Thus she threw on her robe and made for the door. "Gnarl, let Albedo out of her restraints once she's done." Koriander stated as she passed by the diminutive minion in question.
Some what reluctantly, Gnarl tore himself away from the succubus hanging from the ceiling by her tits and her legs spread open by adamantine pole and cuffs as she slowly dripped beetles from her posterior, her gag and nipple rings positioned in a manner where she was sucking on her own high potency healing and stamina boosting milk to counteract the insects that were trying to eat their way out of her. Suffice to say, Albedo was a masochist whose mind set was broken into a unrecognizable state a long time ago, indeed the fact that such a mind warped enough to actually enjoy the feeling of being eaten alive from the inside out and in spite of that fact could help run things as smoothly as she does was a miracle only one of the overlords was capable of. But for now there was other matters to attend to.
"Mistress, Naberal has a report from Master Kieran." Gnarl stated pulling up a section of parchment. "He has managed to gather a large number of items: firstly a wide variety of Alchemy ingredients including a rare herb with potent medicinal properties, secondly he has procured a Dryad that has apparently been living in the northern part of the forest finally he is in the middle of tearing apart a rather large Treant and sending it over here piece by piece. He would like to point out that is also on top of bringing Balloma a list of the most wanted criminals in the kingdom and making one of the top four monsters in the forest his personal pet."
"Hmm. So Balloma chose to prod him into action did she?" Koriander laughed in delight. "Have all the supplies Kieran delivers to Nazarick transferred to Balloma's room."
"Of course Mistress. Am I right to assume that you have plans for those supplies?" Gnarl asked tilting his head off to the side.
"Treant wood makes for high quality crafting material. If some of the branches are still good then we can use them to make Treants of our own. The Dryad will have great potential too given the right fertilizer. Altogether we'll have a highly effective guard made ready for us soon enough." Koriander stated smirking her twisted little grin as she thought over the situation. "Start inspecting the incoming raw material, I want any that still has leaves attached separated and put aside."
"Of course Mistress. Demiurge has the latest report on the Dwelf hybrids as well." Gnarl stated as he flipped through the sheets of parchment.
"Hopefully he isn't going to tell me that he's been playing with my undead again is he?" Koriander asked as she prepared a bottle of something from a cabinet.
"No. Thanks to Sebas he's successfully taught the Dwelfs how to control their draconic abilities. Demiurge recommended that we begin their training and other enhancements immediately." Gnarl stated reviewing the information on the parchment.
"I'll get the necromancers and the Succubi together tomorrow. For now I want Demiurge to start a new experiment. The details are here." Koriander stated handing Gnarl a rolled up piece of parchment.
"You want us to feed liquid magic to the spiders?" Gnarl asked reading through the details of the parchment.
"The reanimated snake was a failure, but a educational one. A infusion of Demonic power left him vulnerable to the Golden Plague, so instead we should try neutral magic power." As Koriander said that, she pored a glass of blue syrupy liquid into a glass. "Once the spiders have raw magic infused into their venom, they should be able to infuse raw magical power into the corpses they feed off of." Which they will then reanimate as undead, which will become stronger from the magic infused poison in their veins, which will be revived as a more powerful creature sans negative power. "With this, we have taken our first step towards building our army. Ask Balloma to see if we can start any wars so that we can get a good idea how they'd fair in one." Koriander stated drinking the electric blue substance she had pored for herself.
"Thy will shall be done mistress." Gnarl stated taking a bow before turning around, being greeted by the milky white body of Albedo.
"Mistress is there something wrong?" Albedo asked, making perfect strides, yet more proof of her use to this and legendary Succubi stamina.
"Come over here and scratch this itch for me would you?" Koriander stated curling her finger at Albedo.
"Of course mistress." Albedo stated a hungry look in her eyes.
At once the half succubus went over to Koriander and knelt before her, plunging her head between her legs and putting her tongue to work, as if encouraging her Koriander wrapped her legs around the Nymphomaniacal Succubus.
"How many do you think you and your sisters can handle?" Koriander asked drawing circles in Albedo's scalp with her finger.
"Mapck." Albedo wetly smacked her lips and slurped the milky substance that had appeared on her lips. "Each of us has three holes to work with, so we can handle three at a time each, but our hands can prepare two more, and our milk has been imbued with magic to excite the male part so that's another two. Are we going to be training new recruits tomorrow?" Albedo asked before she resumed the task that her mistress had assigned her.
"The day after at the most, we also need to look into getting the production line up and running. Kieran has delivered us a Dryad, so we should be able to retool that into the central production controller for our arms and armor." Koriander stated a lewd smirk on her face.
"Once again, your brilliance astounds me milady." Albedo praised her lips dripping with liquid.
"Who said you could stop?"
After about a Day of hacking away at the Tree of the North Kieran successfully reduced it to manageable pieces, explaining to the group that he intended to inform his sister Balloma about the surplus of reclaimed lumber lying around so that she can hire some people to drag away the various bits and bobs of the Tree of the North.
"Thanks but I'm not sure that we can keep up with you like this." A tired looking Peter admitted as the rode on the back of the carriage. Even though the carriage had a teleportation type magic circle engraved into it, Nifirea still needed to get the cart back to the E-Rantle, for which he needed to be escorted. "Still with all of the money you helped us raise we should be able to get some plate mail armor. That should help us go up in rank a bit." Peter stated breathing a sigh of relief.
"Why would Plate mail help you go up in rank?" Kieran asked in a confused tone of voice.
"Well obviously better armor means that we can take on tougher monsters." Peter stated in a obvious tone of voice.
"Does the local enchanter do high quality workmanship? Or do you honestly mean to tell me that you're one of those people that believe plate mail armor is better to go monster hunting in?" Kieran stated in a amused tone of voice.
"It is isn't it?" Peter asked sounding confused.
"Plate Mail's only good if you're up against sharp pointy things, well that and Metal can hold more magical power then fabric and leather. Aside from claws and teeth do the local monsters have much in the way of Sharp pointy things? Are there a bunch of sword wielding loons running around that you can turn in to get coin?" To Kieran's amused prodding, the adventurer's shock their heads in the negative. "Listen here, when one can expect blunt instruments to be the choice weapon of their opponents, then one must take full advantage of that fact and armor yourself appropriately. For instance metal armor is best for deflecting sharp blows, but against blunted blows it only conducts the blow to you, the person that it's suppose to protect. Swords are some of the most effective weapons to use against another person, and metal the most effective armor to block the blows of a sword, smart commanders equip their men with multiple weapons to account for these weaknesses, as well as multiple layers of armor made out of different materials." For the record, Kieran wasn't doing all of this because he was worried about the members of the swords of darkness, rather it was because he couldn't stand them being so stupid with their conduct. He'd never get a good opponent if everyone who stands a chance dies off stupidly.
"I hear that the kingdom doesn't do that with their soldiers." Lukrut pointed out, leaning in with a small amount of concern on his features.
"How does that work out?" And that was the clincher, the Kingdom that didn't properly arm it's soldiers and didn't have the time or resources to train them, only limited to trying to out number the empires forces six to one.
"What do you recommend?" Peter asked cocking a brow suspiciously.
"Cloth or leather armor first and foremost, plate mail is a secondary priority. You should also consider wearing something that won't cause an excessive heat build up in the spring and summer months, but won't leave you too cold in the winter and fall months, again wearing different kinds of armor for different occasions. Considering the fact that most of the things out there are a lot bigger and stronger than you and can likely wreck any armor you can afford with their eyes closed, the best defense is not getting hit in the first place, for that reason maintaining speed and maneuverability are paramount." Kieran explained sounding awfully smug with himself.
"So what you're saying is that you should protect yourself against everything?" Peter laughed at his interpretation of Kieran's words. "Aren't you being a little bit too greedy?"
"Peter my friend, I am a great many things." Kieran stated holding his hand to his chest. "But greedy is only about ten of them."
Review Section:
PervySageChuck: Liquid refreshment, specifically milk, is ready at all times, but snacks are your responsibility.
Helkil: I thought it was. Naturally, Clementine will be receiving a even more humiliating and painful death then she did in the Overlord Canon.