Villainous Me: Help! The heroines are yanderes!
Chapter 60: Tier one beast[GTG]

Chapter 60: Chapter 60: Tier one beast[GTG]

His clone was suspended by the creature’s gnarled, writhing branches that seemed to move with an unsettling life of their own. It was only now that Ryan found this tree monstrously peculiar.

He probably didn’t realize this before, as the creature had its "eyes" and "mouth" tightly shut. For its eyes were two gaping holes housing nothing but an impenetrable darkness, its mouth no different – a vast, gaping maw that undulated in a horrid, sickening fashion.

"What the fuck is that?!" Ryan screamed, his grip tightening on his katana until his knuckles turned white.

Suddenly, the system interface flickered to life in the corner of his vision.

[This is a cursed tree filled with corrupted mana. It possesses a mana core and is extremely dangerous due to its ability to manipulate its branches at will. It is classified as a tier 1 beast.]

"Oh, I see now," Ryan quipped, leaping back to gain some distance, his boots crunching on the forest floor.

His clone strained with all its might, trying its possible best to free itself from the creature’s vice-like hold, but it proved an impossible task against the tree’s impossible strength.

Ryan took a quick glance at his mana levels and could see the rate of consumption rapidly taking a toll.

[Mana: 45/50]

"Okay, let’s get this over with. Time is of the essence," Ryan mused under his breath before dashing towards the tree in a desperate bid to free his clone.

He realized he couldn’t just dissummon the clone and summon it again, as there was likely a cooldown period existing – the last thing he needed now, as the sole reason for his being here was to actually test the limits of this skill.

The tree thrashed its multitude of branches about violently in a bid to slow his approach, the whipping limbs cutting through the air with incredible force. But to Ryan, their movements seemed sluggish, probably due to his heightened agility augmented by his abilities. Either way, the fact remained that he could easily evade the cumbersome, approaching branches.

He ducked below a few with catlike grace, leaped over others, slashed through some with precise swings of his blade, or somersaulted over a dozen more if need be. But suddenly, he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble with a slight tremor. He leapt out of the way just in time as thick branches exploded out of the earth in a failed attempt to ensnare him.

"Getting creative, are we?" Ryan mused, a taunting smirk playing across his lips as he scampered back to his feet in a low crouch.

He dashed forward again, this time slashing through the oncoming branches with renewed determination, bits of bark and wood chips flying with each swing of his katana.

The tree seemed to adapt, interlocking and weaving its numerous branches together into a dense, solid wall that it then sent hurtling his way. But Ryan was able to deflect the blow painstakingly with his sword, albeit being thrown back several feet from the sheer force of the impact. But now, it seemed he didn’t need to attack any further.

"Well, what do you know? He actually knows what to do," Ryan thought to himself with an approving nod, sheathing his katana.

With the tree expanding and stretching most of its branches outward in a desperate attempt to seize Ryan, it had inadvertently given the clone the ample chance to unsheathe its own sword and slash its way free of the tree’s unrelenting grasp. The clone dropped down right below the trunk, landing at the creature’s most vulnerable spot.

The tree, sensing the critical danger, tried to hastily retract its overstretched branches and protect itself, but it was too late. The clone slashed at the face of the grotesque tree relentlessly, its blade a blur of motion, until the trunk was cleaved nearly in half. The top portion fell away with a thunderous crash to the other side.

BOOM!

"Phew!" the clone breathed out in relief, wiping sweat from its brow.

"Wait, don’t tell me you’re already exhausted," Ryan asked with an arched brow, walking towards the clone with measured strides.

"Well, yes, I am essentially human after all," the clone rolled its eyes in response, its words tinged with sarcasm.

This was another part of his clone skill Ryan now discovered. It was able to experience physical and mental fatigue, just like a real person. Did it have something to do with his own stats acting as a base, or was the clone just created that way? More questions for another time.

[Mana: 40/50]

Ryan glanced at his watch and saw that he still had a little over an hour and thirty minutes left before the portal would reappear at the designated location, so he quickly instructed the clone to search for any sign of an orc on the left side of the forest while he explored the area to the right.

The forest was incredibly vast, its boundaries extending farther than the eye could see, so finding any trace of an orc quickly became a frustrating issue. After wasting too much time fruitlessly scouring the underbrush, he just decided to try utilizing the mental link from his current distance. He asked the system for instructions and was told to feel for the location of his own mana signature, as he was connected to the clone through an invisible mana thread.

He did as instructed, closing his eyes and reaching out with his spiritual senses. The next thing he knew, his vision phased and he found himself transported to another section of the forest, which looked more or less identical to the area he was previously exploring.

He could see that the clone had slain a number of lesser creatures which seemed to have gotten in the way during its search, their bodies littering the floor – but all were clearly low-tier mana beasts at best. More worryingly, he could clearly see his doppelganger was physically exhausted, its movements sluggish, which meant it was most likely engaged in constant skirmishes and battles for quite a long period of time.

He maintained the mental link and watched the clone continue searching for any sign of an orc, but with time quickly slipping away, he realized they most likely weren’t going to encounter their prey in this particular part of the sprawling forest. And they definitely couldn’t afford to push too far beyond the stipulated safe boundaries. With a weary sigh, he instructed the clone to cut its losses and return to the original designated portal location to avoid being stranded.

Maybe he could try his luck again tomorrow for a fresh attempt at this mission, but even on the next day, the search proved equally fruitless. Scouring the wooded areas thoroughly, Ryan could not catch so much as a glimpse of any orc or higher level creature. Eventually, with his time limit dwindling, he finally gave up on completing the mission itself. After all, he had already gotten a solid handle on properly utilizing his shadow clone skill to a reasonable degree during this trial run, and that was the main purpose of this quest. With that came Sunday, the day he had originally promised to finally investigate just how he had inexplicably acquired such an enormously high point total.

[Total amount: 1,000,000C]