"Boss, you’re too kind. You’re making yourself look like the bad guy when you just wanted to keep your friend away from danger," Ellie said as she appeared beside Leonardo, high in the air.
"Not entirely. I really don’t want any burden by my side right now—even if there were no enemies," Leonardo shook his head.
"A very wise decision, Boss... With our current advantages, others would only be burdens. Especially that pretty boy—I don’t think he has any combat instinct at all..." Ellie chuckled.
Leonardo didn’t know how to respond to her belittling Jack—especially calling him a pretty boy.
Jack would probably cough up blood if he heard that.
"Alright, stop talking about irrelevant things. Let’s level up," Leonardo changed the subject.
This would be harder than before. They needed 1000 EXP now.
"Boss, yesterday I found a gate guarded by a rather unique Level 10 A-Class Monster. Let’s go there. It should give a lot of EXP if I kill it—but yesterday I failed," Ellie said.
"Alright." Leonardo simply followed her lead. She had explored more than he had.
The owl flew toward a range of small mountains covered in massive trees. It was the densest forest on Floor 1—rarely entered because it was silent and the terrain was difficult to traverse.
It was only easy from the air.
"Boss, it’s down there!" Ellie pointed toward a giant tree shaped like an umbrella, covering everything beneath it.
It was almost as wide as a football field. Leonardo couldn’t see anything from above.
He descended through a narrow gap and landed in an open area filled with tall grass beneath the massive tree.
A locked gate stood directly in front of the tree.
But there was no visible monster guarding it.
"Boss, be careful. This monster is tree-type. I’ve fought it before but couldn’t kill it. The bodies that appear are always fake," Ellie warned.
The mont she finished speaking, several roots burst from underground and shot toward them.
Then, a humanoid tree erged from beneath the soil. Its limbs were made of roots, and its head had crude eyes, a nose, and a mouth.
(Level 10 Monster, B Class!)
A notification appeared.
"Let handle it," Leonardo said.
One of the skills he borrowed from Ellie was Abyssal Blackfla.
He was curious about its power.
He opened his mouth.
Black flas burst forth.
The heat was overwhelming—he could feel it, yet it didn’t burn him.
It barely consud Mana. When he poured in more Mana, the flas instantly grew enormous, incinerating the incoming roots and turning them into ash before surging toward the humanoid tree.
Strangely, the tree neither dodged nor scread.
It was burned to nothing—reduced entirely to ash.
Too easy.
That shouldn’t have happened.
The opponent was Level 10 and A-Class.
Yet there was no Monster Core.
Which ant—
It wasn’t dead.
Suddenly, three identical trees appeared, instantly surrounding Leonardo and Ellie.
Their root-hands extended toward one another. New branches sprouted and intertwined, forming a cage around them.
The gaps shrank rapidly as more branches grew.
Soon, even Ellie couldn’t slip through.
"Did this happen last ti?" Leonardo asked.
"Yes. If we defeat them, five more will appear," Ellie answered. "But destroying this cage won’t be difficult. I can burn it to ash in seconds."
"Let’s wait," Leonardo said.
He wanted to see whether it was rely confinent.
Soon, every gap sealed completely. Not a single ray of light remained.
Total darkness.
But Leonardo could still see.
His eyes had evolved along with his level.
Darkness was no longer absolute to him.
As for Ellie—she saw even better in the dark.
After sealing them in, the cage began producing layer upon layer of new roots at alarming speed, shrinking the internal space.
Its purpose was clear—
To crush them to death inside.
"Ellie, stay here. I’ll observe from outside," Leonardo ordered.
"What? Boss, that’s dangerous." Ellie was startled by the command she couldn’t refuse.
"You have plenty of ways to handle danger. Why be afraid? This might be the only way to find its true body. If it becos truly dangerous, I’ll allow you to leave."
After saying that, Leonardo teleported out of the cage.
He reappeared behind another tree, observing everything.
Above the cage, a smaller umbrella-like tree had begun growing.
Below it, roots extended deep into the soil.
Leonardo suspected the massive umbrella tree.
But that didn’t feel right.
It won’t be sothing at Level 10. It wasn’t even a monster—just an unusually large tree.
More likely, the real body was hiding underground, waiting to appear when it believed victory was certain.
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