Draconic Ascension - System Apocalypse Isekai LitRPG

Michael could feel the tree roots wriggling under his feet like tentacles. They rippled and twisted, but he was in no mood to see what else the weird trees had in store for him. He pointed his staff at the tree. Twin Arcane Missiles took shape and flew toward it, landing on the tree trunk in a flash, aiming for the core of the tree.

There's a gathering of mana in its center.

He hadn't been actively looking for a weakness, but it was impossible for his current senses to miss something so obvious, especially because the 'core' vaguely resembled the very first version of his Dragonheart, which he had acquired back at the start of the Tutorial. Simply put, it seemed to be the tree's weakness.

The Missiles drilled through the wood-like exterior and came out on the other side, destroying everything in their path.

The roots under his feet twisted and turned as the whole creature vibrated.

So it can feel pain.

Michael waved his staff as he felt the lifeforce escaping the tree in real time. The Missiles, turned around in mid-air and flew back toward the tree. Once they got close enough, he willed for them to detonate. The longspear-like structure collapsed as they exploded in mid-air, engulfing the entire tree. However, the explosion never surpassed the area twenty centimeters above and around the tree's surface. It was a testament to Michael's mana control.

A second later, Michael heard a notification.

[You have slain Tree of Minor Aggression (Level 34).]

He nodded at the System notification in front of him with a knowing look. As expected, the Tree counted as a lifeform. He furrowed his brow at the weird name, though. It was strange enough to make him do a double take, but it was also quite telling.

…There probably are trees of 'major aggression' or whatever name the System picks. Probably the bigger ones.

What was actually worrying wasn't the ridiculous name, but what it meant. Even though it hadn't been able to affect him, the Tree he'd just slain was evidence that the trees, or at least some of them, could impact other creatures' state of mind and emotions. In the case of this one, it had only been able to induce aggressiveness in irrational beasts, but was it really far-fetched to picture that the bigger trees could affect humans as well? The evolved versions of this Tree of Minor Aggression, for instance – would they be able to force a group of humans to start fighting among themselves, resulting in an entire group of friends wiping itself out?

Michael frowned. The more he thought about it, the more problematic this was. If this Tree, which had been in the smallest category, could affect beasts in this way, then the four biggest ones…

No, not necessarily.

He hadn't faced any enemies in the Tutorial capable of altering another creature's mind so greatly. Not even the Forgotten had shown mind control Skills. Even if they were just empty shells of what they used to be, Tairy would have warned him about Skills like those in their last conversation. The fact that he hadn't could only mean one of three things. One, the trees' mind-altering abilities were restricted to monsters, therefore being unable to significantly affect the human survivors; Two, even if they could affect humans, none of the trees were powerful enough to create the scenario Michael was afraid of; three, Tairy hadn't known about the existence of lifeforms like those trees in the first place, because of the sheer rarity of such Skills.

Which is it?

The worst possibility was, naturally, the third one. It would mean that the trees' powers could surpass anything he'd faced in the Tutorial.

There's also the possibility that the other trees don't have abilities that this one's.

Michael shook his head with a deep sigh. This changed his priorities. Originally, he'd decided to head to a Dungeon and clear it to get a better grasp of the Level of the enemies in the city, but right now, he needed to tackle as many of the larger trees as he could, in order to obtain a firm grasp on what they could and couldn't do.

Without hesitation, he lowered his center of gravity and cast Wind Blades. His Dragonheart throbbed within his chest. A moment later, he jumped upward like a missile, easily surpassing thirty meters in height. The wind around him prevented his fall. It took him only a few seconds to locate his next target. It was one of the larger trees, one that looked very much like an ordinary tree from the previous Earth. Around it were ten of the evolved beasts, as if guarding it. Michael narrowed his eyes.

Is the mind control what draws them to the trees? Or is there something else at play?

He looked straight down at the Tree he'd just destroyed, but found nothing of note. Tilting his head, Michael looked back at the ordinary-looking tree.

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He let the winds push him closer to his target. When he got close enough to a building, Michael allowed the Wind Blades to disappear, making him instantly start falling. His feet touched the side of the building. Without wasting any time, he pushed, using the surface as a springboard to shoot himself toward another building and to maintain his altitude. Once he landed on the next building, he did the same thing. In such a fashion, Michael used his great physical stats to jump from building to building, easily crossing the distance between himself and his target location without even needing to touch the ground. Once he got close enough, he allowed himself to fall.

The wind rushed past his face, but he didn't even blink. After two seconds, he landed with a heavy thud and raised his body, looking straight at the large tree. The animals had already raised their heads to stare at him, snarls slowly taking over their expressions. A few were climbing to their feet. However, Michael only looked at the fifteen-meter-tall tree. There was something he wanted to try.

He pointed the Elder Chief's Staff at the huge tree. The animals started dashing toward him, roaring out.

"Fireball."

Wind Blades.

The raging wind merged with the magic fire and ignited into a veritable storm of flames, which rushed at the tree while devouring everything in its path. The grass on the ground burned to cinders as the asphalt was scorched. Most of the beasts ground to a halt, their fur spiky, but two of them couldn't act quickly enough and were swallowed up by the flames. Their fur disappeared almost instantly as their flesh melted. Only two seconds later, all of it had disappeared to reveal scorched bones, which collapsed before turning to ash.

The flames crashed against the tree and quickly enveloped it. This time, the tree's response was much more intense. Michael could feel the air veritably vibrate as a large amount of mana resonated with the world. It was then that the beasts, which were all backing away from the fire, froze in place. Their eyes almost spun before they all shot toward him at the same time.

So you're a Tree of Aggression, too.

Michael let out a disappointed sigh and let the monsters approach him while keeping his focus on the flames. They had already burned through the tree bark, and the tree would soon turn to cinders.

Now, how long will you hold out?

This was a small experiment that sought to gauge how much damage the Trees could take as long as their core wasn't directly damaged. By attempting to melt through the entire exterior, Michael aimed for nothing but to understand the enemies better. As such, he only crossed his arms and jumped to the top of a tilted traffic light. Naturally, the beasts on street level tried to target him again, but he only jumped higher, keeping his eyes fixed on the Tree. The fire was quickly devouring it, branch by branch. All leaves were already gone. Michael looked down at the beasts, which were seemingly waiting for him to fall.

Its control hasn't broken yet.

It was a worrying result. He furrowed his brow and looked back at the Tree.

His Dragonheart throbbed within his chest as he activated it. It was as if the fire had been fed the greatest fuel in the world. It tripled in size and strength, but he commanded it to avoid the Tree's core. Michael jumped upward again as soon as he landed, easily avoiding a claw swipe as the tree collapsed into itself, disappearing as it fell. Once it had been reduced to almost nothing but the core, Michael could feel the mana resonance it emitted disappear. A second later, the core was engulfed. Ash and blackened asphalt were the only signs it had existed.

[You have slain Tree of Minor Aggression (Level 42).]

After dismissing the flames, Michael looked down at the beasts, which were all looking around at each other. Once they turned to look upward and at him, they flinched almost at the same time before darting off in a random direction.

Michael landed on the street as the last one of the beasts ran off.

"That settles it, then," he said to himself in a low tone.

As long as he destroyed the Trees of Minor Aggression, their influence over other creatures would disappear. He didn't know if the same went for trees at a higher tier, most notably the largest ones, but it was a start. However, the core of those lifeforms was clearly the core. The Trees could withstand a great amount of damage as long as the core was kept intact. At the very least, it meant he could avoid unnecessary deaths by quickly killing the Trees of Aggression and whatever other trees as soon as he identified their core. As his thoughts reached this point, Michael frowned.

…But is that really the best thing to do?

Because he had destroyed the Tree first, eight potential sources of XP had run off. Could he really afford to let them go, given how important it was for him to Level up as much as possible? He reached an answer quite quickly.

Yes, I can.

He had already killed a few of the evolved animals before. Their Level was low compared to his own, which meant the XP they gave him was low as well. As such, freeing the beasts from the control of the Trees was the right thing to do, since it wouldn't really harm his own development much at all.

And there are still the Dungeons and the other trees.

Michael nodded to himself before jumping up again. Just like before, he used Wind Blades to keep himself floating and looked for the nearest Tree or Dungeon. At the same time, he drew a mental picture of his surroundings as far as his eyes could see, which was quite far because of his stats and draconic lineage. With his mental stats, it was a simple matter.

He stopped looking around as his eyes zeroed in on a large, circular door of stone at the side of a tilting building.

There we go.

On the way to the Dungeon entrance were four trees even larger than the one he'd just killed. Perfect.

Michael allowed himself to fall and landed on the roof of a building, then jumped to another. After repeating this a few times, he arrived in front of the first tree. It had blue leaves, much like the one in Tairy's front yard, and a snow-white trunk. He narrowed his eyes as he approached it slowly. Unlike the Trees of Minor Aggression, this one didn't have any beasts around it. The leaves only glowed peacefully, glowing mushrooms growing on the tree roots that upturned the street. One of them had even gone through a car's shattered window. Michael tilted his head at the tree. Was it possible that not all of them were hostile enemies?

That was when it happened.