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One of them reformed its hand as it came to resemble a club, and it swung down hard in an attempt to squash Jake, missing as he teleported away. Soil flew everywhere from the powerful impact, and Jake felt the ground shake a bit beneath his feet where he had just stepped.

As he looked at the flying soil, he got an idea.

”You know, this will likely be my last major fight before C-grade,” Jake spoke to the tree that didn’t respond anymore. ”Which means I should probably begin cleaning up some of the things I no longer need. Like these.”

Jake teleported and waved his hand as several bottles appeared. A blast of mana sent the liquid splashing forward, all of it hitting the soil and slowly seeping into it. He repeated this as Jake began to make it rain, even throwing some of the better ones straight at the treants or soul tree.

What he was throwing was some of all the poisons he had stocked up throughout his entire time in D-grade. Jake tended to use his best first and work his way down, resulting in a stock of hundreds of bottles of poison that wasn’t even that good when he was in early D-grade. It was creations he would never use anyway and would be even worse once he reached C-grade.

So he decided to do some illegal dumping to fuck up the local environment. It was completely wasteful and inefficient, and quite frankly, not even super effective… at least not right off the bat. Because all he wanted was to get some poison into the tree, something that immediately succeeded as the Mothertree absorbed energy from the soil itself and was too slow to cut off its absorption.

What poison it did absorb would be easily eliminated. If Jake allowed it to, that is. Reaching out, his hand began to glow dark green as he took hold of the poison within the tree and infused it with energy. Cultivated it using Touch.

The treants still came for him, but Jake simply threw more bottles at them. He had some leftover fungicides that they seemed to really not like, and while things like necrotic poison or hemotoxins sucked against non-flesh and blood lifeforms, it still did some damage simply due to the energy within.

With so much poison thrown out, the environment itself began to change, and the created barrier by the soul tree became a detriment. The poison vapor that rose into the air impacted it, draining mana from the soul tree’s resources.

Jake soon stopped using Touch of the Malefic Viper on the tree as he found it not that effective. He was also already out of poison bottles, having thrown them all wastefully at the two treants, doing barely any damage. What it had done was distract them all long enough for Jake to get a great opportunity to get close to the tree once more and take it by surprise.

With full speed, he flew into the Ethgleam Mothertree as he infused all his Hunting Momentum built up so far into a Descending Dark Fang. He punched forward and penetrated the passive barrier of the tree, the katar digging into the bark and wood. With the barrier gone, Jake easily pushed it in all the way to the handle before he retreated, leaving the weapon in there.

What? It had worked great against the bear, so why not give it a shot again. That you could kill a tree by hammering a nail into it was common knowledge, and Jake had effectively just hammered a cursed nail into the Ethgleam Mothertree.

From a distance, he felt the influx of energy as Eternal Hunger absorbed more resources than usual. The curse seemed to really like the soul tree and drank to its heart’s content. Jake made it his mission to ensure that the treants couldn’t assist their boss and attacked the two treants that rapidly charged him.

The first was blasted back by a quickly charged Arcane Powershot, and the other one tried to punch Jake but found itself restrained by his gaze before he walked forward and punched it in the chest, making it fly back to its comrade.

Ouch, Jake complained as his knuckles hurt from the punch, his bones thankfully not damaged due to the gloves. Switching back to his bow, Jake pelted the two trees with even more explosive arrows as he let loose, not caring about saving resources. He really didn’t have to with the constant stream of involuntary resource donations coming from the soul tree.

”What be this cursed thing!” the tree screamed in desperation from behind as Jake felt it try to push out Eternal Hunger in vain. The weapon seemed to almost entrench itself, refusing it let go as it constantly drained energy while pumping out poison from Fangs.

Jake did not bother giving it an answer as he went hard for one of the treants, arrow after arrow firing it back. They had no good ranged method of combat, allowing Jake to shoot them away faster than they could approach. It felt almost like he was playing a turret section in a video game where he repeatedly blasted them back while slowly having the damage accumulate.

These treants were dumb as bricks and just protectors of the soul tree. They were pawns made to act as its agents, so even if they were C-grade, they had no ability to adapt or formulate a proper response to an archer with highly explosive arrows. With every second his advantage grew, and-

”ENOUGH!” a scream came from behind as Jake felt a pulse wash over him. Then came the sound of wood exploding as Eternal Hunger was thrown away, the Mothertree having decided to blow up an entire section of its own trunk to get the weapon out.

”Human, choose fate, leave, or face destruction of twin souls!” the tree said in a clearly pissed-off tone.

Jake reckoned it meant twin souls in that it would go for mutual destruction. He would love to see it try.

Eternal Hunger disappeared mid-air and appeared within his Soulspace once more, ready to be summoned.

”I choose the destruction of three souls!” Jake yelled in response, naturally referring to the Mothertree and two treants. ”You lost all chances of not becoming a pile of timber the moment you decided that trying to forcefully make me serve you was a good idea.”

Jake had kind of expected another attempt from the Mothertree to make him leave, but it seemed to finally become a bit more decisive. It knew killing Jake was not an option unless it went all-out… and it looked like it was about to.

He was ready for an attack as he kept shooting the two treants but was surprised to see them both stop moving. Then, their bodies began glowing as Jake felt their auras surge intensely. For a moment, he believed they were going to blow themselves up and was ready to retreat, but once more, they defied expectations. The glow turned almost blinding as both treants suddenly crumbled, and two beams of light flew toward the Mothertree.

*You have slain [Ethgleam Elderbark Treant – lvl 211] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

*You have slain [Ethgleam Elderbark Treant – lvl 210] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Jake got two notifications the moment this happened, as his interpretation of the “destruction of twin souls” turned out to be off. It was not talking about his and the Mothertree, but the souls of the two treants.

Turning around, the Ethgleam Mothertree was now truly gleaming. Jake regretted looking at the tree the very next moment as he felt like a hammer whacked him straight in the brain, making him all wobbly. The light before him only grew more and more intense as soon the entire world began to turn white. With his Sphere of Perception, he knew nothing had truly changed, but he felt like he had been transported somewhere else.

He tried to move away from the tree, and while he felt like he had moved, he stood completely still in the outside world. Around him, the white void began to warp as hundreds of trees sprung up all around. Thousands of vines shot at him from all directions, far too many for Jake to evade. His foot was caught first, and then his arm. Swiftly, his entire body was covered in white glowing vines as pain went through his body.

Jake felt like he was in two places at once, the real world seen through his sphere in no way reconcilable with what all his other senses felt. It was as if his brain tried to reject reality itself and allow the vines to slowly consume him. He struggled, trying to get free, but it was impossible.

Then came the drain – one that hit his very soul. The Mothertree was consuming him, and Jake’s mind kept telling him it was okay. That struggling was a waste of time and that it wasn’t that bad. The vines around him slowly began entering his body, merging with it. Seeking deeper and deeper.

Was it an illusion? A mental delusion? Something in between? Jake didn’t know, and his brain refused to even try to understand. Gritting his teeth, he still resisted. He began fighting back against the many vines as it became a battle of will. Pulses of destructive arcane energy went through his soul, trying to wrest off the vines. Some of them broke, but new ones grew back nearly instantly.

Jake, focusing all he could, closed his eyes and entered Serene Soul Meditation. He appeared within his Soulspace immediately and stared at the sky as his head cleared. Massive large vines surrounded the world of his Soulspace in all directions as if he was on the inside of a snow globe. While Jake was in full control of everything within… he had no influence on anything trying to crush the glass from the outside. All he could do was resist.

“This will take far too long,” Jake muttered within the Soulspace as his mind jumped to the first and most strenous approach – a direct battle of wills. While he did think he could win this, it would not be fast. No, he needed an advantage. He considered solutions, found some, and disregarded them as he just did something far simpler.

In the real world, standing in front of the Ethgleam Mothertree, a katar appeared in his hand. While he was unable to move his body, that didn’t mean he was unable to do anything. With quite a bit of effort, Jake telekinetically pushed the katar towards the tree, into the large wound from before when it blew up a part of itself.

The tree was utterly occupied with its attack and failed to put up any defenses, allowing the weapon to embed itself only a few centimeters into the exposed wood. Within the white void, the vines all shuddered for a moment as Jake took advantage.

Pride of the Malefic unfolded as Jake launched a mental counterattack, taking advantage of the shock that resulted from his katar toss. The vines all weakened more, and Jake went all-out as his eyes glowed yellow. Gaze of the Apex Hunter activated, not on anything specific, but simply the exposed soul of the Mothertree that was the white void.

Dozens of the trees spread throughout the white void crumbled as the vines loosened enough, and Jake roared as his body exploded with destructive arcane energy, tearing them all apart. Free to move, Jake planted both his palms on the ground as they began to glow dark green.

Pure corruption spread out from Jake like black color in water. It invaded everything, making its way up the trunk of the many trees surrounding him and rapidly had them wither and collapse.

New vines sprung from the ground, but Jake released another pulse of destructive mana, tearing them apart before they could reach him. His mind was finally clear, and he knew allowing the vines to touch him again could change that.

The white void was soon overtaken by the corruption from Touch of the Malefic Viper. The Ethgleam Mothertree seemed to realize it had failed, and in a flash of light, Jake was thrown out of the void, also getting blasted back in the real world.

Jake flew back slightly before landing on the ground and opening his eyes. The tree only shimmered with light now, signs of corruption having invaded its soul. Another weakness of this type of soul magic. While it exposed the soul of your opponent, you also had to expose yourself. Same as the Minotaur Mindchief back in the day, though a far less extreme version.

“Please-“

There was no need to listen anymore. Jake stormed forward towards the tree and punched into the handle of the katar, making it pierce deeper and create a fissure up the trunk of the tree. Jake punched again, making the weapon pierce even deeper, like a wedge. This repeated several times as he slammed it with his fists that both hurt like hell.

With the weapon firmly in there, Jake jumped back, seeing that the barrier was already gone. The tree tried to respond, but it was far too late. An Arrow of the Ambitious Hunter was nocked, and Arcane Powershot was charged to its highest level as Jake invested every shred of Hunting Momentum he had.

“Cursed you be, I shall-“

The arrow flew out and struck true as it sunk into the tree, the energy of Arcane Powershot blasting off a huge part of it. The destructive energy of the arrow ravaged the Mothertree as Jake activated the Arcane Charge from Mark of the Avaricious Hunter, making the tree light up for a second.

Then, the gleam dimmed.

“Cursed!”

And turned entirely black as a blast of dark curse energy was released as a final gambit,

At least it tried to make it a blast. The dark energy barely left the trunk before a black hole appeared, seemingly from within the tree itself. It was naturally Eternal Hunger which had noticed a tasty snack being given and begun to dig in. The blast of curse energy never even got five meters from the tree before being sucked back in and consumed by Eternal Hunger.

The tree itself was already dead the moment the curse was released, the Mothertree splitting in half and falling over from releasing the energy.

*You have slain [Ethgleam Mothertree – lvl 219] – Bonus experience earned for killing an enemy above your level*

Jake saw the kill notification, seeing the level of the soul tree had truly been below 220. A strong variant, though, one he had underestimated. The system also agreed it had been a worthy adversary as it had rewarded him with what he had come for.

*’DING!’ Class: [Avaricious Arcane Hunter] has reached level 199 - Stat points allocated, +10 Free Points*

*’DING!’ Race: [Human (D)] has reached level 199 - Stat points allocated, +15 Free Points*

With that, Jake had reached the peak of D-grade. He also knew he had gotten his evolution quests, but before he addressed those, Jake had something far more important to deal with.

Who knew that fighting a soul tree using soul attacks could be so tiring? Jake sure didn’t.

Deactivating Arcane Awakening, Jake yawned and sat down, leaning against the broken trunk as he took a quick well-deserved nap.