Amber Sword
Chapter 94: Act 39: Death of the Golden Tree

Chapter 94: Act 39: Death of the Golden Tree

A rumbling sound came from the south, followed by another one about half a minute later. Brand listened carefully and confirmed that the Stone Cone Worm had already passed through the valley full of jagged rocks and was moving inward—the creature, covered in rock armor, had a vortex-like mouth lined with thirteen thousand steel needle-like teeth, which could easily penetrate soil and crush the hardest rocks.

Brand had seen adult Stone Cone Worms before, which were about thirty meters long and could only be encircled by three people holding hands. These creatures from the Stone Core had an astonishingly high defense; even Bran’s Greatsword with 40 power levels (Oz) couldn’t break through their outer armor, let alone cause any harm.

The Golden Magic Tree BOSS letting the Stone Cone Worm advance indicated that it had shifted its defensive focus onto the few of them. Brand couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

The area of Cape Stone was about a mile from the center of the Forbidden Garden where the Golden Magic Tree was rooted. Even at its fastest, it would take the Stone Cone Worm at least two minutes and thirty seconds to dig through the ground. Meanwhile, the three of them had already entered the core of the Forbidden Garden. If the Golden Magic Tree did not interfere, they could see the body of the Golden Tree by bypassing the undulating and broken ground ahead.

There were still two minutes left.

Yet he knew, even with his heels, that the Golden Magic Tree would not refrain from hindering them. As expected, before he could finish his thought, the solid ground beneath them let out a fragmented groan. At such a close distance, which was within the range of the Golden Magic Tree’s root system, they moved without warning, rendering Romantic’s abilities useless.

The three of them felt the ground sink simultaneously. The prepared Brand stabbed the Elf Sword into the ground and held onto Miss Merchant with one hand. He glanced to the side and saw Frey stabilizing herself in a half-crouched position on the ground.

But before they could catch their breath, the ground sank again, this time clearly tearing open a fissure.

"What’s it trying to do?" The ponytailed girl almost fell backward and couldn’t help but ask nervously.

"It’s trying to kill us. Stay close and run with me," Brand said, pulling Romantic up from the ground. He then drew his sword, half-hugged Miss Merchant, leaping and rolling twice on the ground to avoid the crack created by the Golden Magic Tree’s roots.

Romantic, protected under the young man, blushed like a ripe red apple, her eyes wide with fear, not daring to breathe.

On the other side, Frey seemed to want to jump over too, but the Golden Magic Tree was not to be underestimated. It pulled the ground further apart with its roots, causing her to smash her chest into the disjointed layers of earth. If Brand hadn’t quickly pulled her back, she would have been swallowed up by the dirt and rocks below.

"Thank you." Frey broke free from his grip and bowed her head in gratitude.

"Now is not the time for this." Brand pulled out his sword and cut a horizontal whip-like root into two pieces.

But soon more snake-like roots appeared in front of them, and the fissure behind them continued to widen. It seemed the BOSS was determined to teach them a lesson. However, these tricks were something Brand was long accustomed to. He couldn’t help but think that aside from giving him a surprise in the first stage, this wooden stump had no more new tricks.

This crack-opening ability was a large scale AOE in the game, but it wasn’t without weaknesses.

"Watch closely!"

He said to Frey as he grabbed Romantic, focusing on the roots sweeping toward them. He sidestepped to let the "whip" pass in front of him, reached out, and gripped it tightly—the Golden Magic Tree obviously hadn’t anticipated this move and hurriedly curled up its root trying to throw Brand off.

But the young man held on tightly, bouncing up and down with Romantic in his arms. The Xavier Mountain Path BOSS finally grew impatient, lifting its root high in an attempt to slam Brand to death, but Brand took the opportunity to release his grip and leap back, landing thirty-four meters away from the fissure.

His energy level of 3.7 granted him nearly four times the strength of an ordinary person, and his 2.9 dexterity level made him more agile than a mountain ape scampering across treetops. These attributes made it easy for him to perform such a series of actions. When he landed, his strong muscles, bones, and internal organs absorbed the impact layer by layer. An ordinary person would have had their insides crushed, but for him, it was only mildly uncomfortable.

This was the benefit of increased body attributes. Brand knew that everything he had done before had not been in vain; he had accumulated these attributes bit by bit for this very moment.