My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode :52

Chapter : 103

"Lord Ferrum," the clerk greeted, his voice level, professional, subtly different from yesterday's fearful stammer. "Welcome again. Do you wish to take the Wild Sheep contract again?" He kept his voice low, avoiding broadcasting the dangerous nature of the task to the entire hall, a professional courtesy Lloyd appreciated.

"The Wild Sheep contract is… no not today," Lloyd stated crisply. He gestured towards the crowded noticeboard. "I require a new contract. Something… local. Quick turnaround."

He walked over to the board, the whispers resuming behind him, speculation buzzing about the 'progressing' Wild Sheep contract and his need for 'estate channels'. He scanned the parchment notices again, bypassing anything requiring long travel, complex investigation, or significant brute force. His Void power was better suited for precision, his Spirit partner for swift, focused strikes. He needed something that played to those strengths, minimized energy expenditure, and offered a decent return relative to the time investment.

His eyes caught on a request pinned slightly higher than the others, written in the neat, precise script favored by scholars or healers.

[Urgent Request: Grove Guardian Leaves & Heartwood Stone]

[Source: Verdant Sentinels (Treant Variants)]

[Location: Sunken Fen Mire (Approx. 3 hours west)]

[Objective: Procure Twenty (20) Unblemished Verdant Leaves (Known medicinal properties) AND One (1) Intact Heartwood Stone (Naturally occurring spirit stone within mature Sentinels).]

[Reward: Apothecary Elara Vanya offers 7 Silver Coins per Leaf AND 15 Silver Coins for the Heartwood Stone (Potential Total: 1 Gold, 55 Silver).]

[Hazard Level: Moderate (Difficult Terrain, Ambush Tactics, Spirit Energy Drain Vines)]

Verdant Sentinels, Lloyd mused, accessing fragmented memories. Treants. Not the lumbering, stupid kind often depicted in tales. These were ambush predators. Rooted, appearing as ordinary moss-covered trees, indistinguishable from the surrounding fen flora until prey came within range. He remembered their primary weapon: whip-like vines, strong as steel cables, erupting from the ground or camouflaged branches, ensnaring victims. And the secondary threat: a subtle, constant draining aura that leached Spirit Power from anyone entangled or held close, using the stolen energy to fuel their own unnatural growth and regeneration. Dangerous, yes. Especially for unprepared travelers or those relying solely on close-combat skills. Getting entangled meant slow, certain death by energy drain.

But the reward… 155 Silver Coins total. Over one and a half Gold Coins. Enough to cover today's System conversion and leave him with a surplus. Far better than chasing moths. And the hazard… Ambush tactics? Spirit energy drain? A slow smile touched Lloyd’s lips again. My Void sense can pierce camouflage. My wires can handle vines. Fang’s lightning ignores the draining aura and hits hard. This wasn't just a task; it was practically tailor-made for his unique, hidden skillset.

He decisively detached the parchment notice. Returning to the counter, he placed it before the clerk, whose eyebrows merely twitched this time.

"This one," Lloyd stated. "Verdant Sentinels. Sunken Fen Mire."

The clerk scanned the request, his expression remaining professionally neutral, though perhaps a touch more alert. "Acknowledged, Lord Ferrum. Treant variants. Moderate hazard due to terrain and energy drain." He didn't offer warnings this time, merely processed the information. "Standard one-week duration." He quickly logged the new contract, stamped Lloyd's copy, and slid it back. "May your hunt be efficient, my lord."

"It will be," Lloyd replied confidently. Tucking the new contract away, he turned and exited the Guild Hall, ignoring the renewed wave of murmurs and speculative glances. Let them talk. He had work to do.

Chapter : 104

The journey to the Sunken Fen Mire took just under the estimated three hours, a trek through increasingly damp, overgrown woodlands bordering the vast wetlands. The air grew heavy, humid, thick with the smell of decaying vegetation, stagnant water, and buzzing insects. The ground underfoot became soft, treacherous, sucking at his boots. Lloyd moved carefully, his senses on high alert. Fang padded silently beside him, his coat subtly darkened again for camouflage, brown eyes scanning the dense undergrowth, ears constantly swiveling.

Lloyd didn't rely solely on sight. He extended his Void sense, a subtle probing of the environment around him, feeling for life signatures, for energy patterns that felt… wrong. Normal trees had a slow, deep, earthy resonance. The Verdant Sentinels, he suspected, would feel different – a core of concentrated, waiting energy masked by a deceptive surface calm. He also kept a wisp of his Steel power active, ready to manifest wires instantly if needed.

They pushed deeper into the mire, the silence broken only by the drone of insects and the occasional squawk of unseen swamp birds. The trees here were ancient, draped in thick moss and creeping vines, their roots forming tangled islands in the murky water. It was easy to see how travelers could become lost, disoriented, easy prey.

There, Lloyd's Void sense detected it. Ahead, partially submerged in a pool of black water, stood a cluster of three large, moss-draped trees that looked identical to their surroundings. But beneath the surface camouflage, Lloyd felt it – a tight knot of focused energy, a predatory stillness that felt fundamentally different from the passive life force of the normal flora. Sentinels. Waiting.

He signaled Fang silently, pointing with his eyes. The wolf flattened himself slightly, muscles bunching, ready to spring. Lloyd melted behind the trunk of a genuinely inanimate ancient cypress, using it as cover.

Okay, tactical assessment, his internal monologue clicked into gear. Three targets confirmed. Likely more hidden nearby. Vines are the primary threat – range, speed, entanglement, energy drain. Need to neutralize vines first, then eliminate the core. Thicker wires needed, for binding strength against potentially powerful vine strikes.

He focused his will, drawing deeply on his Void reserves. The air around his concealed position shimmered faintly. Not hundreds of fine filaments this time, but fewer, thicker strands of gleaming steel extruded themselves from the Void. Perhaps fifty in total, but each noticeably more substantial than the wires used against the scavengers, closer to the thickness of tough fishing line, humming with contained kinetic potential. He directed them silently, weaving them through the intervening trees and roots, positioning them just below the surface of the murky water around the base of the targeted Sentinels. An invisible net of binding force, waiting to spring.

Now, the bait. He deliberately took a step out from behind the cypress, making himself visible, projecting the energy signature of a lone, unwary traveler stumbling into their ambush zone.

The reaction was instantaneous.

The placid surface of the black water around the three suspect trees exploded upwards. Not with water, but with thick, ropy vines, dozens of them, dark green and disturbingly muscular, lashing out with blinding speed from hidden points beneath the water line and from camouflaged branches overhead. They converged on Lloyd's position like striking snakes, aiming to ensnare, crush, and drain. The air crackled with the subtle energy-leaching aura they projected.

Spring the trap! Lloyd commanded mentally.

The fifty thick steel wires snapped taut simultaneously. They didn't slice; they bound. They wrapped around the lashing vines with crushing force, constricting, immobilizing, anchoring them to submerged roots or nearby tree trunks. The sound was a chorus of loud creaks and groans as tough vine met unyielding steel. Several vines were caught mid-strike, frozen inches from Lloyd, straining powerlessly against their metallic bonds. The ambush was instantly, effectively, neutralized.

The targeted Sentinels seemed to shudder, emitting a low, groaning sound that might have been surprise or rage as their primary weapons were rendered useless.

"Fang! Strike package Alpha!" Lloyd ordered aloud, pointing towards the nearest immobilized Treant.

With the piercing shriek of a thousand birds tearing through the humid air, Fang exploded from cover. His foreleg blazed with azure lightning. He didn't hesitate, didn't need to dodge nonexistent vines. He slammed the Thousand Chirp Strike directly into the base of the nearest Treant's trunk.

CRACK-BOOM! The impact was far more devastating against the wood than it had been against Redborn’s hide. Splinters flew. The trunk shuddered violently, a deep fissure appearing where the lightning struck, blackened and smoking. The Treant let out a drawn-out, groaning roar as its core energy destabilized.