The System

CH- 48: Solem Vow(II).

    To boost his morale, Tetsu rewarded himself with one solvable mystery. With Info over the mind fuck tree.

{ Ripoff Oak of Illusiant. Level: Unknown. Affinities: Unknown. The mighty oak originates from one of the seed branches... }

Tetsu gets the information in bits. Most of it was broken or vanishing as soon as it appeared.

"Color me impressed." A light smile perks onto Tetsu's lips. "This is the strongest one by far."

Tetsu strengthened his willpower and focused his intent, trying to pierce deeper and gain more information about the mighty oak. Bits of information fill his mind and then immediately vanishes.

The implications of such power were frightening. What is to say that the information he received was even genuine?

If the oak can delete the incoming information, it's not farfetched to assume that it can alter or implant a memory.

In a sense, erase who you are or mold what you can be. Even Tetsu's wildest imagination couldn't comprehend the extent of the mighty oak's power.

An overthinker already suffers from the common what-ifs. Imagine stumbling into a world that can entertain every possible what-if.

A world filled with mana doesn't seem all that fun now, does it? As an overthinker, Tetsu has a simple rule about bypassing this conundrum.

When in doubt; act Kile.

"So... The oak is a powerful healer and mysterious as fuck." Tetsu took what information he got from Info, altering his intent to peek into different aspects. "Can almost heal anything by burying the patient in a coffin." Tetsu thinks for a while and agrees with the approach. "Sterile... coffin?" *Saint nods at that. "Sterile coffin, operating needles, illusions... for soothing, and mysterious as fuck. In short, the best doctor in the world. No, Multiverse."

The last part gets him a shrug from the saint.

A part of Tetsu wanted to check his status screen, but that only brought back the pain.

Maybe after the revenge...? He didn't know and while his healing ended quite a while back, it became harder to sense the life force.

Buried in guilt, Tetsu wanted to stay inside the coffin, hide away from the promise and revenge he promised himself to fulfill.

Flesh meets flesh, Tetsu searches lower but his hand only finds flesh. A normal search turns into a full-blown panic.

The pants, his gift, RJ's final remembrance, were missing, and this fucking oak is named; rip-off.

Tetsu bursts out of the coffin, ripping away from the tiny roots, and drawing blood. A single drop from every pore painted him red.

Tetsu limped around the battlefield, his feet carrying fine dust... dust that belonged to RJ.

Tears blurred his vision, flowing down his cheeks, and clearing dirt along their path. He croaked, heaved, and tripped over. Yet he kept getting back up, apologizing.

"I'm sorry. I..." Tetsu carefully checked every rock, pebble, and boulder around him, completely forgetting about the pants.

He wept at every rock, begging for forgiveness, and later patted them with a smile. "You are alive..." His voice broke, heart squeezed, yet he smiled and spoke as he coughed up blood, clearing his throat. "... Aren't you? Do you need time to heal? Are you angry with me? I... am. Sorry."

At a distance, roots sneak underground. They thought they were sneaky, but Tetsu caught the escape from the corner of his eye.

Forming a mental image, Tetsu digs furiously at a spot where he last saw his pants. The sharp shards of rock dug into Tetsu's fingertips, cutting and peeling away bits of his nails, but he did not stop until he felt wood. Then he only increased the speed, pumping more mana, cutting the roots, and re-claiming his pants.