Artificial Fantasy

Chapter 41: Black Willow

I wasn't well-versed in MMORPGs and VRMMOs like Zac, but I remember he told me about how different <Isekai Online> was in terms of gameplay compared to other games. The first thing was the [Mastery] system itself. It ran on the skill system-type gameplay; namely, we had to use a special ability or defeat a monster with the right weapon to gain experience. As you level up, you could gain more abilities as well as a new evolved skill. And that's where the second subject came in: the monsters themselves.

Usually, in tabletop RPGs, there are levels on every character including NPCs and monsters that determines just how strong they are compared to the player characters. And without a traditional leveling system in <Isekai>, the game substituted it with a [Total Leveling System]. With it, it determined the strength of the player by adding and rounding up the [Mastery] levels to the total of a single number. For me, if I added the levels I've gained so far and round them up, my [Total Level] would be 15. I had to admit, it's not a perfect system, but it did a good job of measuring our skills and strength against other monsters we faced. And because of this complex system, some of our skills in either [Magical Affinity] or [Hunting] could only be learned on higher levels, which is a mixed bag for me considering I only had a limited amount of info via my [Mastery] skills.

So just seeing the [Total Level] of the [Black Willow] in front of us was a complete shock. If what the reading said was true, then we were completely underprepared to face off against this twisted tree. Because of our current surroundings, we couldn't exactly come up with ways to escape this battle without using our items and abilities. And there was no way to reason with the tree either. Because what we were facing now was the source of the <Tested Wild's> plague, and its descriptions alone made me guess that they didn't have any consciousness to listen to our plea. At this point, we were trapped and incapacitated.

"W-Wind... W-What are we going to do?!" Kazu groaned as I watched him trying to escape his bindings in vain. I had explained to him what we're up against, but even with my [Investigate] ability's enhancement, it was not enough to tell me how to stop this monstrosity.

"I-I don't know... This tree beast is too strong for us to beat and we're sitting ducks here!"

Unlike Kazu, I had given up my struggles to set ourselves free from these vines. If I continued, it would've just decreased my [HP] even further. To be honest, I didn't know what to do next. Those trees were too strong for us to beat and even if we tried to get Bai Hu's help if we die, I doubted he could help us stop these things either after hearing his stories about confronting the source of the plague. At the moment, I was twiddling my mental thumbs right, now awaiting the inevitable death that was com-

"M-Mana that aids me..."

Huh?

"Create a blade that is sharp enough to defeat my enemies! [Arcana Blade]!"

Before I could say anything, and the energy blade suddenly swooped past me, which cut the vines trapping me. I fell to the ground and quickly landed on my feet in a move you could only see in an action movie. To my surprise, it worked! Well, it was a half-success since I started to feel pain in my legs. Ow...

However, just as I can look up, I hear Kazu's voice once more.

"Spirit of Sylph, I call the gale to my growing aura and allow me to manipulate the air all around me! [Wind Sickle]!"

I quickly felt a gust of wind blow right past me as I looked up and saw the [Black Willow] and its minions screech as if they were in pain. Not only that, but their vines were also cut down completely before they disappeared in white bright light.