BOOM!
SCREEEEEEEEEE!
The newly born tree howled in a primal shriek, its massive frame quaking with fury as it attempted to draw upon deeper reserves of power, yet the effort was in vain.
Its roots curled in defiance, thrashing the earth beneath it, but the surge of energy it sought simply wasn't there.
Moments ago, this creature had only just awakened. A Level 20 Aspite Tree, born from the dense magical saturation of this mutated land. It hadn't disturbed anyone; it had merely rested to gather mana, choosing stillness despite sensing nearby life. But then, they came. The students. Foolish, reckless, curious, and they struck first. And so, the tree retaliated with all the wrath it could muster.
From the beginning, its onslaught had been relentless. Spiked roots erupted from the ground like spears, slashing and binding, nearly impossible to fend off. The students, overwhelmed at first, had scrambled for footing, their counterattacks futile against the bark's absurd durability. Yet they persisted. Their defiance transformed what should have been a massacre into a brutal stalemate.
Still, the tree saw it as a matter of time.
But then... things changed.
Just when it was prepared to crush the final flicker of resistance, the students pushed back harder. Their cohesion sharpened. Their desperation solidified into a strategy. And through their pain and blood, they uncovered a secret: the hidden core.
CRACK… CRACK!
Jon's spear, previously ineffective, now pierced through bark and wood with a force he hadn't anticipated. The tree's core wasn't in the trunk, as one might expect. It was nestled high within its branches, a place none of them had considered. He never would have found it either… if not for Moon Gaze.
The Aspite Tree had underestimated the power of ocular abilities, or perhaps it had simply never faced an opponent with one before. Through that moonlit lens, Jon saw the impossible. He saw the truth. And though it cost him his weapon, the decision proved fatal for the tree.
SCREEEEE—
The shrieking cut short.
The monstrous roots collapsed all at once, thudding into the soil like felled logs. A heavy silence followed, broken only by the students' gasping breaths and the crackling sound of dissipating magic. The battlefield—if it could still be called that—was strewn with deep craters and bloodied soil.
Suddenly, a blue screen flickered before each of their eyes:
[YOU HAVE OBTAINED LEVEL 20 'ASPITE TREE' REMAINS]
The energy that surged into them was unlike anything they'd encountered before. Compared to the zombies they had fought previously, this was something else entirely, purer, richer, more potent.
They looked at one another, eyes wide with the same realization: the system was distributing rewards individually based on contribution, but still, this reward exceeded anything they had yet earned.
[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]
[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]
[YOUR LEVEL HAS INCREASED]
[YOUR **** HAS GROWN]
Before they could register the last cryptic notification, it vanished, its contents unread.
Then came the exhaustion. Like water pouring from a broken dam, the adrenaline drained from their systems, and they collapsed. All of them. Bloodied. Bruised. Broken. The victory had come at a cost. Their bodies bore the proof—lacerations, bruises, shattered ribs, and blood-streaked faces.
Still, they were alive.
They slowly nodded to one another, unable to speak just yet. Words could wait. Their battered bodies couldn't. Despite the pain, they advanced toward the fallen tree's core. At its center, where once emerald and gold leaves shimmered in beauty, now remained dull husks of color, withered by the death of their creator.
Except… the fruits.
Five golden fruits still clung stubbornly to a single branch, shimmering with residual energy. They glowed faintly, almost mocking the tree's demise. Jon reached out to grab one, but the movement proved too much. His vision blurred, his knees buckled—and he collapsed face-first into the earth.
"Jon! Jon!" Jenny's voice cracked with panic.
"Hey! Wake up!" Cynthia shouted, rushing beside Jenny.
They fell to their knees beside his body, dread sweeping over them as they noticed the spreading pool of blood beneath him. Jon had taken the brunt of the battle. While Jenny and Cynthia bore mostly internal injuries, Jon had pushed past every limit, sacrificing stamina and safety just to drive his spear through the tree's core.
He had overextended himself. And now, he was paying the price.
"Ermm… what do we do?" Jenny asked, her hands glowing faintly as she tried to activate her healing skill. But nothing happened. The wound didn't close. Her power, so reliable before, now failed her.
"I'll grab the fruits. You carry him. We're heading back to the dormitory," Cynthia said, urgency biting into her tone.
Meanwhile, they weren't alone.
In the shadows beyond the clearing, two pairs of eyes watched them with greedy interest. Max and Jed. Former gang members from a group known as Krad, now reduced to scavengers.
The end of the world had changed a lot, but not their nature. Violence was still their default.
They'd heard the screeching. They'd followed the sounds. And now, they saw the aftermath—three bloodied students, one unconscious, and five shimmering fruits.
Easy prey.
"Hey, Jed," Max whispered. "They're slowing down. Let's take 'em."
Jed smirked. "Yeah. Toad, Dog, let's move in—" He paused, the names of their old friends slipping out automatically. But both were dead. They had killed them in cold blood after turning into zombies.
"Just us, then," Jed muttered bitterly.
They stepped forward—
THUD. THUD.
Two heads dropped to the floor, rolling to a stop with eyes still wide in disbelief. Behind them stood a woman and a man—two figures who had, until now, kept to the periphery.
The woman trembled with barely contained rage. "How dare they…"
She had resisted the urge to intervene in the earlier fight out of respect for the students' independence. But seeing someone try to steal the fruits, after that battle? Unforgivable.
Her companion, more composed, looked skyward. "We need to leave. Now."
Above them, a red shape twisted into form—ominous, volatile, as if the very sky was reacting to their presence. The man didn't wait. He threw a spherical object to the ground, activating it instantly. Both vanished.
As they disappeared, so did the red formation above, dissolving like mist under sunlight.
…
Jon's eyes fluttered open. His first sight wasn't the dormitory. It was a glowing notification:
[YOU HAVE OBTAINED REMAINS SKILL OF FIRST REALM: 'ASPITE TREE']
[YOU HAVE OBTAINED UNRANKED SKILL: 'SPEED-HEALING']
Groggy, confused, and still in pain, Jon sat up slowly, blinking to clear his vision.
[STATUS]
[NAME: JON WHYTE]
[AGE: 19]
[LEVEL: 15]
[CLASS: NONE]
[TITLE: NONE]
[STRENGTH: 60 | AGILITY: 90 | STAMINA: 85 | MANA: 500 | HEALTH: 150]
[SKILLS: INSTANT CALCULATION (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 5, MOON (FIRST REALM) LEVEL 5, MOON GAZING (SECOND REALM), SPEED-HEALING (UNRANKED)]
[PASSIVE SKILLS: COMPOSURE (THIRD REALM) LEVEL 5, SOLDIER'S PHYSIQUE (EVOLVABLE)]
[STATUS POINTS: 12]
His stats had improved across the board. Two new skills now adorned his arsenal.
"Did I… inherit the tree's healing?" he murmured.
He remembered the way it regenerated—slowly but surely—during battle. That trait now lived in him.
Curious, he opened the skill details.
[SPEED-HEALING (UNRANKED REALM) LEVEL 5: Speeds up healing process to twice that of a normal human. Permanently increases health by 50.]
'Healing? That's not bad.'
Then, he checked Moon Gazing—the skill that had won them the battle.
[MOON GAZING (SECOND REALM) LEVEL 1: The eyes of the moon touch on the border of mystery. You can see through things better.]
[Reach First Realm to see full details]
"What kind of crap is that?" he frowned. But he quickly forgot it. He understood its usefulness, and at the moment, he could use it; that was all he needed.
He was about to lie back down, but stopped.
Something was off.
He wasn't in the dormitory. And… he wasn't alone.
Someone was in the room. Watching him.