475 – Wrap Up

The treant plummets from on high and bores a hole clean through the head of the troll mandragora.
Black smoke rises from the scorched cavity.
The troll mandragora sways wildly for a second, then collapses face-down.

【249 experience points have been acquired.】
【Due to the title skill [Walking Egg: Lv -], an additional 249 experience points have been acquired.】

Great, it’s over.

Our current strategy is to hit the troll mandragora with [Fire Sphere] to earn a little damage, then when an opening presents itself as its HP falls, I launch the treant into the air whereupon it uses [Fire Sphere] and [Statue] to become a mass of hot metal and [Gravity] to increase its weight and accelerate its descent, causing it to punch through the troll mandragora’s head.
The damage is consistently high.
This [Meteor Stamp] combination skill will probably become treant-san’s killer technique from now on.

Hunting troll mandragoras with [Meteor Stomp] has resulted in four kills in total now, but the amount of experience flowing to treant-san from the recent kills is far more than what it was at the start.
Since it uses a combination of skills, it seems that the level of the each skill is also rising faster than it would otherwise.
If the power continues to rise as treant-san grows, it might start to become useful for actual battles too.

I extract treant-san from the ground with my mouth.
Its level has risen all the way to【Lv: 49/60】.
It hasn’t got any new normal skills, but the number of strange title skills seem to have increased.
Though it doesn’t look like anything I need to worry about.

『Hey treant, I just thought of something good.
Why don’t I fly extremely high up and drop you?』

I had thought that Lilixira’s bound spiritual beast, Beelzebub, was going to prove troublesome, but if the damage of [Meteor Stamp] scales with altitude, then lobbing treant-san at him from higher than he can sense might be enough to one-shot him.
Since Beelzebub’s body is normally so huge, it’s all but certain to hit him.

Beelzebub’s window to react will be even shorter if we take advantage of the mist, too.
Not to mention the fact that he probably won’t be able to spot me while I’m camouflaged by [Dragon Mirror].
Of course, he might notice the thunderous noise approaching, but he won’t be unable to dodge in time with his speed halved by his penalty skill.
Rather than [Meteor Stamp], perhaps it should be called [Rods From God][1]? It’s a perfect strategy with no flaws.

『Master-dono… Would I not typically be obliterated by that…?』

Treant interjects fearfully.
I-is that so…? I suppose even with [Statue], there’s no guarantee of invincibility.
The skill only claims to raise the user’s defence… There probably a limit to it.
That’s a shame, I really thought it could work.

Regardless, we can still expect plenty of destructive power by using it the same way we have up to now.
If [Meteor Stamp] can help treant evolve, its base power will surely increase as well.
I’m still not yet going to abandon the idea of defeating Beelzebub via treant-san catapult.

I place the treant on my back, and it spreads its roots to recover MP.
I really am grateful for the rapid increase to levelling that [Demon Lord’s Favour] is granting.
Thanks to it, it seems finally possible that we’ll see the evolution of treant-san, who has been stuck at the same level for such a long time.
In the time that Aro has grown from [Wight] to [Skull Lowmage], [Revaana Mage], [Revaana Lowlich], then to the B+ rank [Revaana Lich], treant-san has only evolved from [Lesser Treant] to [Magical Tree].
The situation really has been grave.

Well, originally [Lesser Treant] was an early bloomer D rank that evolved all the way to C+ rank in a single evolution, so it’s possible that it’ll miraculously gain a strength equal to Aro after evolving just once more.
For that purpose, I want to hunt these mandragoras to bring it to the evolution threshold by the end of today…!

『…Master-dono, are all the mandragoras not perished already?』

I glance around.
There’s none.
None of the giant legume shrubs that mark the tops of troll mandragoras remain.
Shredded scraps of giant tree roots are scattered around us.
Aro and the nightmare, and Volk and the black lizard are walking up to us, each wearing expressions of fulfilment despite their clear exhaustion.

T-that’s a joke, right…? Have we really hunted them to extinction already?

I search to and fro until I spot another of the shrubs a short distance away.
T-there’s still one left!

『H-hey, treant, that one…!』

『That was the imitation that distracted us at the start…』

It’s the greengreens.
U-unbelievable… Are all the troll mandragoras all dead? I-I suppose that now everyone’s levels have increased, maybe we can fight fenrirs…

“Kishi! Kishii!”

The black lizard gallops up to me happily.
For her to be in such high spirits, could it be…!

‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Species: Venom Queen Lecherta

Condition: Normal
Lv: 55/55(MAX)
HP: 144/277
MP: 31/299
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

S-She’s reached max level…! As expected of Coach Volk! Our ace Aro has grown from【Lv: 39/85】to【Lv: 55/85】, the nightmare has grown from【Lv: 29/70】to【Lv: 48/70】, and magiatite has grown from【Lv: 55/70】to【Lv: 57/70】.

Raising one’s level becomes considerably harder around the 50s and 60s, but even so, Aro’s level is getting close to mine.
I wonder how many mandragoras she’s hunted today.
It really does help her that both has powerful, large-scale attacks, and the ability to quickly recover MP.

[1] – The Japanese term for kinetic bombardment – wikipedia