Chapter 94: A Battle in the Vines

Zone 3 Stump.  

It was baffling why Logging Unit No. 1 hadn’t recognized this place as ‘suspicious.’  

I thought I’d have to gather the entire Mining Team soon to give them a lesson on what ‘suspicious’ actually means, and calmly examined the stump.  

“Hmm.”  

There was nothing strange about it.  

Just as the name implied, a ‘stump’—a tree cut down, leaving only the roots embedded in the ground.  

Judging by the size of the tree base, it must have been an enormous tree in its lifetime.  

It seemed to have long since lost life, dried out completely until it cracked.  

However—  

“This material… I’m familiar with it.”  

Was it a Blacksmith Sense?  

It felt oddly familiar.  

I’d never known trees in my previous life, nor could I have possibly known such unrealistically huge trees.  

Then there was only one possibility.  

It had to be wood I’d seen after awakening as a Blacksmith.  

As I slowly pieced the memory together—  

“A Millennium Old Tree!”  

The tree I had just cut down came to mind.  

When I took out the Millennium Old Tree from the Space Pocket, just as I thought—  

The wood grain, the surface texture, the color.  

The overall form was strikingly similar.  

“Wait, should I be calling this a Ten-Thousand-Year Stump instead?”  

Much larger than the Millennium Old Tree.  

The Millennium Old Tree would have to grow for at least ten thousand years more to reach this size.  

Anyway, “So what am I supposed to do with this?”  

I understood that this stump was made of the same material as the Millennium Old Tree, but what did that mean?  

At times like this, the best option was—  

“Let’s chop it down!”  

“Yes.”  

Swinging the axe was the best course of action.  

With a powerful swing of the axe—  

“Ping.”  

“Ugh?”  

The axe simply bounced off.  

Not even a scratch appeared on the stump.  

And the axe I was wielding had two Rune Scripts inscribed, boosting its item performance significantly.  

Still no effect.  

Trying again just in case—  

“Clang.”  

The axe, already on the verge of breaking due to the two Rune Scripts, shattered completely.  

The two Blacksmith’s Assistants swinging axes beside me suffered the same fate.  

If my axe didn’t leave a mark, their axes wouldn’t either.  

“So, it’s not about splitting it.”  

It was a little embarrassing, but who was I?  

A homebound gamer who had played every kind of game imaginable.  

This kind of stump was what was commonly called an ‘indestructible object.’  

If one possessed transcendent, administrator-level power, it might be breakable, but without that, the hidden piece had to be solved another way.  

Then, what options were there?  

The hidden piece related to this stump…  

“Hmm.”  

I racked my brain to the fullest.  

Using all the game knowledge I had.  

This place was Hephaestus Mine.  

There was a high probability the hidden piece was related to Blacksmithing.  

Like when I had crafted furnaces and gloves to open Hephaestus’s Forge.  

While tapping the stump with a summoned hammer, deep in thought—  

“Production.”  

I tried using the Blacksmith’s skill.  

Unfortunately, there was no reaction.  

But then—  

“Repair.”  

[A material is required for Repair.]  

“Oh!”  

Upon using the Repair Skill, a system message appeared before my eyes.  

Found it.  

This was it.  

I didn’t know how it was possible to repair a stump, especially one that wasn’t a crafted item, but my instincts were telling me.  

This was the way to go beyond the stump.  

“The material should obviously be this, right?”  

I inserted the Millennium Old Tree into the system message.  

It felt like a waste to use such an S-rank material, but if it was the hidden piece’s ingredient, there was no choice.  

[Repair starting.]  

As expected, this wood seemed to be the growth plate of the Millennium Old Tree.  

The moment I put the tree in, the repair started immediately.  

“Bang!” 

Once the repair began, all distracting thoughts vanished.  

Now that the skill was activated, there was only one thing left for me to do.  

Swing the hammer.  

I hammered away diligently, filling the cracks in the stump with the Millennium Old Tree wood.  

Accelerating the hammering, I carefully helped the tree wood blend seamlessly into the gaps.  

After quite some time swinging the hammer—  

[Repair of ‘Ten-Thousand-Year Stump’ completed.]  

The stump’s repair was successful.  

When I first saw it, the stump was cracked all over, but now every crack was filled.  

Although it was a pity to have used almost all the Millennium Old Tree wood, it couldn’t be helped.  

If I could find Hephaestus’s Forge inside this, it would be an absolute gain no matter what, even at the cost of the Millennium Old Tree.  

From the very first Hephaestus’s Forge, I had obtained Blaze, and the second had yielded Rune Scripts.  

I was extremely eager to see what I might find this time.  

“Ku-gu-gu-gu-”  

“As expected!”  

The moment the repair finished, the stump trembled.  

From the center of the stump, which previously had no visible cracks, a passage began to form.  

It wasn’t a passage hammered out with tools.  

It was a magical passage.  

As if reversing plant growth, a hole formed with wooden stairs inside.  

However, the moment I saw the passage, I didn’t make the mistake of going down immediately.  

I had learned something in Zone 2.  

“Gather up!”  

“Production Team, shields up, lead the way!”  

“Yes.”  

“Mining Team, form a large formation and prepare to attack!”  

“Understood.”  

I paused the Mining Team and Production Team’s work and gathered everyone.  

Unfortunately, the Combat Team was busy receiving training, so I left them alone.  

Although the Combat Team was the greatest fighting force, even just the Mining Team and Production Team were strong enough to bring down a Drake.  

“Let’s go!”  

Together, we descended the stairs.  

The dark stairway had no lighting.  

The faint scent of phytoncide drifted as we descended, and at the bottom lay a vast chamber.  

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all covered with vines.  

At the far end—  

“As expected!”  

The door to the forge was visible.  

And another thing.  

A huge plant stood guard in front of the door.  

A gigantic flower resembling the Rafflesia, also known as the corpse flower.  

The Earth’s Rafflesia was famous for its enormous size, but this flower guarding the door was even larger.  

Its bud was about the size of an entire building.  

As I and the assistants reached the bottom of the stairs—  

“Chwah-rururur-“

The vines rapidly grew, blocking the door.  

“Sssuuu-“

The huge flower’s bud began to bloom.  

Even in bud form, the flower looked like a rotting cabbage, as I had said it resembled Rafflesia.  

When the petals fully opened, the appearance became even more grotesque.  

For good reason—the petals were covered with what looked like rows of shark teeth.  

Moreover, it visibly scattered suspicious pollen.  

Though a flower, it was impossible to describe it as beautiful.  

“Pollen, huh?”  

[Detox Mask]  

Seeing the pollen, I put on the mask I had made for poison resistance.  

This should protect me from most poisons.  

My assistants were not living beings, so it wouldn’t affect them anyway.  

Before that grotesque flower could even do anything—  

“Attack!”  

My order was given.  

The assistants charged immediately.  

Like when facing the Drake, the Production Team held shields, and the Mining Team followed behind with weapons in hand.  

Ah, to be exact, one from the Production Team—Production 1—stayed by my side holding a shield.  

Call it minimal insurance?  

In case the assistants ignored me and attacked instead.  

Before, I might have hidden behind them, but—  

“Shall I start, too?”  

I immediately drew my weapon.  

A crossbow.  

Blind Tracker.  

The crossbow I had upgraded to fight the Manticore.  

Well, to be precise, it had received even further upgrades after that.  

Along with it—  

[Hanbing Arrow]  

[Flash Arrow]  

[Lightning Arrow]  

I had also brought plenty of arrows.  

Arrows similar to the ones I used to bring down the Manticore.  

The original purpose of entering the mine was to test Combat 4’s magic, but I had prepared thoroughly in case something like this happened.  

The enemy looked obviously weak against fire, so after loading Explosive Arrows—  

“Thwung!” 

I pulled the trigger.  

The explosive arrow reached the flower before the assistants could.  

I was fairly confident in my aim, though my arrow received no agility or skill bonuses.  

However, the hit rate bonus from the SSS-rank crossbow, upgraded again and again, more than compensated.  

“Thunk.”

The arrow hit the exact center of the flower.  

“Fwah-rururuk!”

An explosion of intense heat erupted.  

The flower began thrashing wildly under the extreme heat.  

The vines attached to the flower moved vigorously, and vines on the floor rose up, forming waves.  

“Surely this entire place isn’t the flower’s territory?”  

The floor, walls, and ceiling were all wrapped in vines.  

Hoping fervently that not all of this was the flower’s domain, I kept shooting arrows.  

“Kuaaaahhhhh~.”  

The monster let out a strange scream, out of place for a plant’s appearance.  

The vine it swung crashed like a wave into the Production Team’s shields.  

“Bang!”

The force was stronger than expected, pushing the Production Team back as they held their shields.  

However, the assistants weren’t just taking hits.  

As soon as the Production Team was pushed back, the Mining Team surged forward to attack the vines.  

Logging Units No. 1 and 2 were especially powerful.  

With a single axe strike, the thick vines were completely severed.  

But—  

“Chwah-ruuk!”  

The vines were not just a single strand.  

Waves of vines surged in a torrent.  

This entire area was truly the flower’s domain.  

“Wow, is this really all that flower’s territory?”  

The floor writhed.  

Then the walls.  

Then the ceiling.  

The more enraged the flower became, the more the vines around it twitched.  

It seemed fine control was impossible, but that didn’t make the threat any less severe.  

Especially—  

“Danger, Master.”  

“Thwung!”

“Are you okay?”  

“No need to worry.”  

The flower’s expanding territory had reached all the way here, beyond where the assistants had advanced.  

There was no way to stop this by just calling in the Production Team.  

This was a fight against the entire room.  

“What do we do now?”  

Hundreds, thousands of vines writhed.  

The assistants desperately blocked and cut the vines, but they couldn’t possibly cut them all.  

The flower seemed to consider the approaching assistants a threat, conjuring an overwhelming number of vines.  

It felt as if a tidal wave of vines was rising around the flower.  

I hadn’t expected it to be this powerful.  

As I was surprised at the difficulty—  

“Master.”  

“Oh, right! Combat 4!”  

Combat 4, who had been silently observing the situation from behind, finally spoke.  

Because of the urgency and the fact the assistant was newly created, I had completely forgotten it existed.  

Turning my head, I saw a dark chill gathering around Combat 4’s staff.  

Though I wasn’t well-versed in magic, I could tell Combat 4 was ‘preparing’ something.  

“May I take the lead?”  

“Of course!”  

Nodding vigorously at the rapidly rising vines, I gave my approval.  

Combat 4’s staff was made from Yuki-onna’s Ice Crystal, so it was naturally ice-elemental.  

It was a shame it wasn’t fire-elemental, but now wasn’t the time to be picky.  

“Blow it away!”  

“Yes.”  

At my command—  

“Jjeojjeojjeojuk!”  

The writhing green space began to freeze solid.