arcane emperor

Chapter 529 Plants are also crazy (8500 words)
After experiencing this, every adventurer became very wary of the surrounding plants.

Soon, everyone discovered some dangerous and deadly plants.

Adult-sized Venus flytrap.

The blades of grass stretch like clamps.

In the middle, there is a strong-smelling juice, and the undigested white bones and carapace can be vaguely seen.

The thin leaves look harmless to humans and animals, but when prey lands on the center of the leaves, they harden instantly.

As the blades of grass close, the straight spines instantly retract to kill or clamp the prey directly.

The killing scenes that everyone saw happened three or four times.

What's even weirder is that after a successful hunt, the Venus flytrap will pull out its thick rhizomes from the ground.

They quickly move to another hunting location, then camouflage themselves, waiting for the next prey to arrive.

A small tree named "Brain Lobworm" by the "Arcanist" vest.

It's not that big, but it's very good at camouflage.

They remain motionless as small prey walks by.

When an unsuspecting large prey passes by, they will pounce silently and wrap around the prey's head and spine.

They then grow special spikes that pierce the prey's body and take control of the body and brain.

During this period, the prey will not feel any pain, and even the silently changing thoughts can have a very reasonable self-explanation.

A high-level rogue was struck by the attack. After several minutes, none of his companions noticed anything strange about him.

If Matthew hadn't seen the "bloody disaster" above his head, he might have died quietly.

They will quietly suck out the spine and brain of their prey until the entire body loses control.

Only when the lobe worms have eaten enough and drank enough will they abandon the corpses that have lost their use value and hide in a nearby location.

Wait for the next prey to target the "fresh" carcass.

Although these two strange and dangerous plants are more deadly, they are rare and difficult to encounter.

The next one is completely different.

You can see a group of them almost every few dozen meters you walk.

They are called "barbed poison gorse", a carnivorous grass named after its fruit.

At first glance, they look like a clump of ordinary shrubs.

On the spreading top vines of the shrub, there are clusters of crystal-clear beans growing.

These dazzling beans also exude an alluring aroma.

It almost made many adventurers with a willpower lower than 5 points "uncontrollable".

Fortunately, the companions around them woke them up in time.

Otherwise, they would be grabbed by vines covered with spikes, dragged into the bushes, and dropped into the fleshy, hideous maw.

Whether it's extremely corrosive digestive juices or thick spikes full of deadly toxins.

It can easily kill adventurers with a constitution below 15 points.

Moreover, these barbed poisonous gorse trees are everywhere, growing in patches.

Surrounding them, there are some larger and more dangerous variants.

Along the way, even Elio and Beelzebub, who were leading the way, felt a lot of pressure.

They must always be vigilant and not relax even a little bit.

Even seemingly inconspicuous thorns and stings can be deadly.

The procession lasted about an hour.

We arrived at a position 3 kilometers away from the base.

Such an "touching" speed of travel brought considerable mental pressure to the adventurers.

On the contrary, Matthew, who had been observing and collecting information along the way, was quite satisfied with the strength of Alice's adventure group.

Veteran team members whose strength has improved rapidly, plus some newly recruited adventurer elites.

The average professional level of Alice's adventure group has reached an astonishing level 10.

In just one year, Alice developed a small adventure team into a large elite adventure group.

Even if he takes advantage of the development of the Gulf Territory, his personal abilities are extremely outstanding.

Matthew still vaguely remembers that the average level of the first batch of professionals who entered the game was only 4.

The most powerful top players have just reached level 10 and are at the peak of mid-level professionals.

Calculated in this way, the adventurers of the Gulf Territory have not only perfectly replaced the role of the players.

And they are more obedient and easier to master.

Every player who wants to "become a Buddha" and "become the king" has a "game-traveling" mentality that is not conducive to the control of the Gulf Territory.

After thinking about this clearly, Matthew decided to continue to improve the training of adventurers.

In the future, one after another powerful and flexible adventure groups will become an important part of the Gulf Territory's armed forces.

Just as Matthew was thinking, Elio, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.

Waves of slight exclamations immediately alerted the adventurers behind.

Yaya looked over and saw a slightly deserted forest land.

The ground is full of stones and dead bones, giving people the feeling of seeing a mass grave.

However, after traveling here, there is no longer that suffocating feeling of hostility from all directions.

Seeing this scene, Matthew immediately remembered something, turned to the hesitant Alice and said:
"Almost there, follow these tracks."

Alice didn't say anything about this particular mission and gave the order to move on.

The strange skeletons on the ground are an eye-opener for adventurers.

Fist to adult sized bugs.

Remaining plant-like remains were revealed.

The skeleton of a gigantic beast several meters high.

The bones of various creatures.

It gives everyone the feeling that these corpses are relatively complete. They are not like the battle relics that everyone knows. Instead, they give people the feeling of being in a cemetery.

Metal frame?

Matthew "looked" at the metallic luster of the corpse and saw a variety of common metal components such as iron, copper, gold, and silver.

At the same time, we also saw the existence of some scattered rare magic metals such as "Adamantine" and "Mithril".

Metalized life forms are very rare in Matthew's overall memory.

The demiplane of Catachan in my impression has never been encountered before.

"That's not right. Such serious metal penetration, why didn't it appear more than ten years later?"

"Could it be said that the regional characteristics of local biological species are also different depending on the location of the transmission?"

Let Yaya collect some specimens, and Matthew also collected some information while walking.

Walk through this dead "cemetery".

The Gulf Territory adventure group came to a vast plain.

The thick fog rarely became lighter.

The revealed scene makes every adventurer feel even more creepy.

The grass gathered together, waving its roots and moving forward.

Dangerous and deadly barbed poison gorse, huddled and grappled together.

Pieces of crawling vines are like tens of thousands of twisted snakes, crawling forward in an entanglement.

One after another, big trees sprouted vine arms that climbed forward, rolling forward.

It gave everyone the feeling that these plants had come alive and turned into twisted green monsters.

What makes people feel even more uncomfortable is that underneath these crazy plants, there is a layer of green fungi that is dozens of centimeters thick.

Devouring the slower-moving plants bit by bit, turning them into a part of yourself.

On the contrary, the large plants are secretly devouring these green carpets and growing vigorously little by little.

Such a picture that subverted cognition made Chris couldn't help but mutter:

"Good guy, fortunately these ghosts didn't attack us just now..."

Elio glanced back at the jungle shrouded in thick fog, vaguely feeling that there should be certain "laws" in the transformation into the living creatures in front of him.

At this moment, Yaya, who had the best eyesight, turned into a light flying bird. After seeing the scene in the distance, he shouted in a clear voice:
"Yeah, there's a city ahead, and these plants are besieging them."

Can anyone survive in this hellish place?
Almost all the adventurers couldn't help but look at the "arcanist".

Obviously, the Arcanist led everyone straight here because he knew the situation here.

Is it to save that city?

In fact, everyone guessed it right this time.

Matthew's goal is really to rescue the Catachans' castle.

Matthew only stayed in the Catachan demiplane for a short five or six months.

But he was very impressed by the demiplane of Catachan, which is "ridden with dangers and can be called the green hell", and the people of Catachan, who are "brave and good at fighting and known as Rambo per capita".

The demiplane Catachan is on the verge of upheaval, and players are forced to leave.

Wait for Matthew to return to the Catachan plane again.

All the millions of Catachan people who once lived in the demiplane of Catachan have died.

Matthew only found some dilapidated ruins and the history of Catachan's gradual destruction over more than 10 years.

Counting the time, the time when the crazy plants launched their attack happened to be very recently.

Therefore, when Matthew discovered what happened to these plants, he knew their "purpose".

"Roar……!"

Amidst the roaring sound, Thorne, wearing a black jacket, violently waved his 3-meter-long "ghost claw", splitting several twisted tree men in half as they jumped up.

The twisted tree man screamed in pain and fell down helplessly.

He was trampled down by the dense trees and vines, dragged to the bottom of the fungus carpet, and greedily devoured.

Thorne, who was panting, felt a fatal danger approaching.

He rolled on the ground nimbly, and out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of ferocious spikes flying towards him.

"Jet Cactus!!!"

With a warning shout, Thorne quickly ran towards the twisted orcs who climbed up the city wall.

He hadn't rested for three or four hours, but he had no intention of stopping.

The defense force suffered heavy losses and no longer had any extra troops to defend the outermost city wall.

He must hold on as long as possible to buy time for the combat troops to adjust.

As for the Jet Cactus, which was a great threat to him, he chose to trust his comrades, just like he had trusted countless times before.

Click!Click!Click!
The huge cactus was covered with yellow-brown cracks, its abdomen gradually swelled, and it had spikes that were thirty to forty centimeters long.

As its body expanded, it slowly emerged, growing to more than one meter in length. Just when it was about to contract its abdomen, it sprayed out these spikes that exuded a metallic luster.

"Oh!"

An explosion of fire ripped open its chest "in an instant."

The violent explosion triggered a terrifying impact.

Thousands of spikes on the jet cactus flew around at the same time, and more than 20 twisted tree men were blown into sieves.

Those seemingly inconspicuous spikes contain extremely terrifying toxins.

The twisted orc who was stabbed screamed and turned yellow, and his whole body seemed to be dismembered by a sharp blade, with pieces cracking and falling.

Dale put down his musket and immediately hid behind the bunker. Dozens of twisted spikes flew over his head.

Counting the six remaining ammunition in distress, Dale gritted his teeth and reloaded the musket, while shouting at the top of his lungs:
"Hold on for another 3 minutes!"

Bang!
Dodging the poisonous vines swinging towards him, Thorne's strong body jumped up and down flexibly.

While he swung his sword to cut off the twisted tree man's chest, he stepped on its shaking and falling arms and shook off the heavy "ghost claws".

The blade slashed down at an angle, just in time to chop off the head of the twisted tree man that surrounded him. While moving around, he avoided the sweep of several vines.

Thorne's every dodge and attack was as dangerous as dancing on the tip of death's knife.

However, Thorne seems to have become accustomed to such battles.

He calmly avoided attacks from various plants, even the broken vines on the ground.

He calculated the direction and force of each step, and relied on his fighting instinct to avoid dangers flying in the distance.

Thorne heard Dale's cry, but now he knew the pain.

The lack of food and supplies, as well as enough time to rest, caused his condition to decline quickly.

Even if his will is strong enough, his body is still at the peak of being able to hunt Catachan demons alone.

However, the endless enemies had almost drained him of all his energy and physical strength.

Even though his body's fear and fear were constantly sending him signals to retreat.

Thorn, with a heart as strong as steel, still fought hard on the city wall to prevent these twisted monsters from rushing into the city wall.

Unfortunately, manpower will eventually run out.

As Thorne's speed slowed down, the sharp "ghost claws" became heavier and heavier, and various twisted plants struggled to climb up the city wall.

The crazy wave of plants is about to submerge Thorne!
Bang!Bang!Bang!
Three consecutive shots, the rotating iron balls penetrated the three twisted tree men that rushed towards him.

Buying space for Thorne to retreat.

Dale sensed that the crisis was coming, but still gritted his teeth and did not dodge. He quickly moved the muzzle, aimed and shot!
Bang!
The flying sawdust surrounded Thorne, and he nimbly turned aside.

Then he skillfully turned the handle of the knife, blowing out a gust of wind from the side, and the tiny wood chips flying over were blown away.

Thorne, who felt his hands and feet were a little weak, ran towards the stone sentry tower regardless of the twisted tree man chasing after him.

With two light jumps, he avoided the jet spikes and jumped to the shooting port.

Dale, half of his body dyed red, had just pulled out the black spikes and was half-kneeling on the ground while trembling.

Thorne, who was panting violently, turned his head and glanced at the sparsely populated city wall behind him, gritted his teeth and said:
"If the hunting team hadn't returned, how could we be in such a mess?"

A pack of green powder was sprinkled on the wound. Dale, who felt as if his whole body was surrounded by flames, was trembling with pain. After more than 10 seconds, he said with sweating profusely:

"The biggest trouble is that the green tide is erupting faster and faster. I hope we won't become the third city destroyed this year."

Thorne, whose vision was a little dark, looked at the twisted tree man getting closer and closer, held the heavy "Ghost Claw" tightly, and said dullly:
"We won't lose!!"

"Roar……!"

The roaring twisted tree man responded.

They stared with dark red eyes, shouted strange tones that no one could hear, and struggled to rush forward.

Dale struggled to his feet, loaded the last two rounds of ammunition, and waited for Thorne to reload after swinging his knife.

Both of them already knew that they could no longer see whether the city could be defended or not.

Just when the two of them were about to fight to the death and kill a few more monsters to back them up.

Groups of flashing red lights suddenly exploded on the city wall!

The scorching flames spread out and swallowed up dozens of twisted plants in an instant.

Boom!Boom!
The sound of explosions one after another stunned Thorne and Dale, who had experienced many battles.

Thorne looked at the twisted monsters that had been swept away and the plants that were set on fire, and couldn't help but murmur to himself:
"What is this? An artillery piece researched by the main city?"

"No, this is a spell!"

Dell, who looked excited, pointed to the red tracks in the sky and the majestic silver-white figure, and said in disbelief:

"That's it, dragon!!!"

"Ding, you kill the distorted magical plant - the twisted tree man, and get 3000 experience points."

"Ding, you kill the aberrant magic plant - Jet Cactus and get 5000 experience points."

"Ding, you kill the aberrant magic plant-Human Grass and get 1000 experience points."

"Ding, you kill..."

"..."

The dense kill prompts on the data panel allowed Matthew to obtain a lot of information.

He stared at the crazy and distorted plants below, and threw down fireball spells one by one to clear away the plants that had climbed up the city wall.

Only a few twisted tree men who climbed over the city wall were shot dead by the guards who reacted.

The Catachan people stared at the hovering fangs in disbelief, feeling terrible "pressure", but they resisted and did not take action.

After regaining his breath, Thorne took a sip of bitter wine made from barbed poisonous gorse. He stood up without hesitation and waved to the huge fangs.

Yaya released his claws and waited for hundreds of cans of fierce fire oil to fall, dyeing the crazy plants outside the city wall black.

Yaya, who had strong control, landed lightly on the city wall.

She glanced at Thorne and took a deep breath suddenly.

"Roar……!"

The gushing flames swept across as the teeth shook, covering the crazy plants outside the city wall.

The dragon's breath, which contains the power of terrifying destruction, coupled with the impact of adding fuel to the fire, instantly ignites thousands of crazy plants.

call!call!call!
The rising flames of destruction instantly shot out to a height of more than 10 meters.

The scorching fire greedily ignited the bodies of all the plants, burning their twisted bodies into ashes.

When Yaya turned around, illuminated by the firelight soaring into the sky behind her, she left an extremely deep impression on the brave and capable Catachan people.

Unable to help swallowing, Thorne saw Matthew coming down from behind Yaya, and quickly shouted in jerky Common Tongue:
"Dear caster, Catachan Post No. 46 greets you. We are still adhering to our mission!"

After saying this, Thorne looked at Matthew expectantly.

Matthew smiled slightly, but secretly recorded these pieces of information, and asked in a calm and confident tone:
"I see that you have relatively few soldiers. Do you need me to send soldiers to support you?"

Soldier?

support?

"Thank you Master Spellcaster for your support, we..."

Thorne was so excited that he nodded repeatedly. Looking at Yaya rising into the air again, he couldn't help but look in wonder.

Yaya soared into the air, looking at the twisted and crazy green tide below, and followed the same method as before, igniting all the other three sides.

Waves of cheers sounded on the city wall, and hundreds of excited Catachan soldiers quickly returned to the first city wall and began to clean up the corpses on the wall.

Throw them all into the fire.

Yaya resisted the urge to change back to human form, looked at the green tide that began to retreat, and couldn't help but curiously asked:
"Just let them go?"

Looking at the mushroom carpet slowly leaving the flame-burning area, Matthew could clearly see that its changes were intensifying, and he responded in his heart:
"They will not leave, but will gather more plants to come."

After getting Thorne's reply, Matthew deployed a small teleportation circle.

With a flash of light, Alice's adventure group, which was staying in the distance, walked out of the teleportation array.

Seeing the sophisticated equipment on the adventurers, Thorne's heart beat rapidly. He suppressed his complicated thoughts and asked in an unbelievable tone:
"Excuse me, Lord Spellcaster, are you from other planes?"

Nodding, Matthew was not surprised that Thorne could figure out the origins of himself and others.

After all, they did not hide their identities, used teleportation arrays and spells, and were completely different from the power system of the Catachan plane.

It's not that the Catachans don't have spellcasters, but because they lack the knowledge and inheritance of spellcasters, they can only be forced to become spellcasters such as warlocks, shamans, and priests.

The number of mages is very small, and their professional levels are not high.

Moreover, because of the special nature of Catachan's education method, even spell casters' methods of adding points are very strange.

Power Mage or Battle Mage!
Dale, who looked pale, looked at the adventurers who were taking out boxes of supplies, and said excitedly, holding his musket:

"The prophecy came true, it actually came true!!"

The other Catachan soldiers who heard this also looked over excitedly and started discussing eagerly.

"It's been nearly 6000 years, but we didn't expect that we would finally be waiting for the Child of Prophecy!"

"Are they the ones in the prophecy?"

"Is it true or not?"

"It should be real, a real dragon, a spell caster, a spell, another dimension..."

"So, we don't have to perish?"

"We will not perish!"

"..."

Listening to their discussion, the adventurers were all curious, but Matthew was the only one who fell into deep thought.

He once heard that people from the Catachan plane migrated from the main material plane.

Just because of some special reasons, the Catachan plane lost contact with the main material plane.

But Matthew didn't expect that thousands of years later, the Catachan people were still spreading legends about the main material plane.

As for that prophecy, Matthew didn't take it to heart.

There are too many different kinds of true and false prophecies.

Matthew glanced at Thorne, who was quite calm, and couldn't help but admire him very much.

Thorne.

Race: Human.

Age: 35.

Occupation: None.

Challenge level: 14+!

Talent: Extraordinary - Son of the Jungle LV3, jungle combat, all attributes +3, concealment +30%, attack +30%.

Heritage: None.

Expertise:

Extraordinary Expertise-Danger Perception LV2.

Advanced expertise - Weakness Insight LV3.

Advanced expertise-Strength LV3.

Advanced expertise-Swift LV2.

……

attribute

Power: 16
Agility: 18
Constitution: 16
Intelligence: 12
Charisma: 11
Perception: 16
Luck: -4 (death omen star movement)
Rating: One of the strongest mortals.

It's so powerful!

too exaggerated!

Matthew never expected that the current Catachan soldiers did not even have professional inheritance.

But even so, like Thorne, he can develop his own bloodline abilities and study combat skills on his own.

It can actually reach a challenge level of 14+, and has all attributes, all exceeding 10 points of super basic attributes.

There are many low-level mortal warriors like Thorn among Catachan soldiers.

No wonder the people of Catachan will be able to withstand the green wave attack from the entire plane by relying on only a dozen or so cities in the future.

Based on their basic qualities and combat abilities, combined with the power system and professional system learned from the main material plane.

To say that it is "Rambo per capita" is to look down upon Rambo too much.

Just when Matthew was imagining the picture of Catachan soldiers learning the power system and becoming professionals, their combat effectiveness increased by leaps and bounds.

The retreating green tide in the distance soon underwent a drastic change.

Those twisted plants grew rapidly with the supply of fungi and turned into twisted trees.

Those very strong twisted tree men slowly changed into gray-black shells.

Seeing this change, Matthew said thoughtfully: "Defensive flame shell? The change is so rapid, it is really interesting."

Matthew, who has devoted himself to studying flesh and blood spells, naturally understands how difficult it is to transform a specialty out of thin air.

It is simply unbelievable that things like mushroom carpets and aberrant plants can be "processed" so easily.

However, it was precisely because these carpets behaved so "abnormally" that they attracted Matthew's interest even more.

If he can obtain information on the principle of change, he can then research this transformation ability and produce some results.

Whether you are perfecting your own transformation surgery or opening a new route for plant transformation, it will be of great benefit to the research on this type of magic.

However, what needs to be done now is to deal with these deformed and crazy plants.

The flame goes out.

A large area of ​​scorched land was exposed.

The billowing smoke rose into the sky, making the already dark sight even more gloomy.

Almost all the aberrant plants were engulfed by the raging flames and burned into twisted metal masses on the ground.

Matthew looked at the metals and his heart moved involuntarily.

These aberrant plants contain various metal structures.

"Could it be that these metal structures are what change their changes and inner nature?"

"Or is this an 'evolution' of changes made to improve their combat effectiveness?"

"If these metal alloys are analyzed to a certain extent, can new alloys be found?"

"In other words, after being integrated into the metal, the strength of the body will be even greater?"

"..."

With this thought in his mind, Matthew started to act very simply.

Directly manipulate the mage's hand to grab the pieces of metal that were roasted by the fire and melted together.

Yaya looked at the complex metal block and said with a smile:
"Yeah, Orianna should like it, even if it's a gift for her!"

Yaya took great care of Orianna.

In the words of this little guy:

"I must protect my little brothers and sisters!"

It has to be said that Yaya's growth always brings surprises to Matthew.

One after another, crossbows were placed on the city wall.

The Catachan soldiers learned how to use a crossbow in just a few minutes, showing very exquisite shooting skills.

They specially selected those huge twisted tree men to shoot, using the powerful destructive power of the bow and crossbow to destroy their limb structure as much as possible.

Without branches and empty trunks, these twisted tree men would be completely useless.

At the same time, the adventurers also took out several boxes of nutritional potions, detoxification potions, and blood-activating potions.

Although this is Matthew's order, it also reflects Alice's wit and flexibility.

These Catachan soldiers are so fierce, it would be a shame not to include a few of them in the adventure group.

Especially after Alice's small talk with an injured Dale.

After learning that the Catachan soldiers had the greatest decision-making power over their future, they naturally behaved more peacefully.

After following the lord for so long, I naturally learned the skill of poaching people.

After taking the blood-activating potion and feeling the magic of the magic potion, Dale resisted asking about the situation of these things and turned to Alice to learn about the situation on the main material plane.

Both parties got what they needed, got a lot of the information they wanted, and had a very pleasant chat.

The adventurers of Alice's Adventure Group showed great enthusiasm for attacking these aberrant monsters that surrounded them.

Just take advantage of the defensive opportunity to fight these weird monsters.

After understanding their basic situation and weaknesses, and knowing how to kill them, fear will naturally disappear.

Catachan soldiers who received new weapons and supplies also demonstrated extraordinary combat abilities and skills.

Each of their soldiers has excellent learning ability and adaptability.

After the Gulf Territory takes out weapons such as fire oil, fireball scrolls, and heavy crossbows, they can often learn and use them quickly.

Whoosh!

Balls of burning flames burned the surrounding fungus blanket to black.

After being burned, the fungus carpet obviously showed signs of inactivation and death.

They can transform the Twisted Tree Men, but they cannot quickly complete the transformation themselves. The way forward is blocked by the burning flames, so they can only disperse their troops to kill them.

Then, they were attacked head-on by the high-spirited Catachan soldiers.

When they had sufficient weapons and supplies, Matthew was impressed by the powerful combat effectiveness displayed by the Catachan soldiers.

These natural elite soldiers must not be let go.

The battle lasted for half a day.

Under the burning of a sufficient amount of fierce fire oil, nearly 2/3 of the besieged fungi and aberrant plants were lost.

The remaining tens of thousands of monsters disappeared into the mist in the distance along with the scattered carpet.

The big guy who won this battle couldn't help shouting excitedly.

Fang, who was also very happy, transformed back into human form under the shocked gaze of the Catachan soldiers.

Yaya raised his hand and saw a lot of fragrant food on the wall.

Everyone did not distinguish between occasions, they all gathered together and feasted.

Eating enhances friendship, and drinking wine communicates feelings.

As long as drinking and work are not combined, it is usually a more pleasant thing.

Most of the Catachan soldiers who tasted the specialty food and wine of the Gulf Territory had tasted such rich and delicious food for the first time.

Especially during casual chats, after learning about the situation in the Prime Material Plane and the Gulf Territory, many Catachan soldiers couldn't help but shine.

Thorne, who was originally very happy, couldn't help but feel complicated after realizing this situation.

Matthew, who was sitting next to him, noticed his changes and communicated directly to the point in a soft voice:
"It won't be long before more and more Gulf Territory adventurers come here for adventure."

"They will clean up the dangerous animals and plants outside, burn those weird carpets, and gradually expand the scope of control."

With a slight movement in his heart, Thorne commented on Matthew's calm eyes and expressed his doubts:

"So, what's the price?"

　Make up 500 yesterday.

　　Ask for a monthly pass.

　　Rush!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)