Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos - Volume 1

Chapter 176. Finnian's Doubts And Change Of Plans.

Finnian quickly ran back, his eyebrows getting together while thinking about what had happened. 'That place is much different than I expected.'

After crossing nearly 600 meters, he arrived where his army was. Looking at the large group, Finnian was thoughtful. 'Those five serpents can probably hold me back for a while until I kill them.'

In his opinion, he had no risk of dying against them. Still, they were really resilient, so killing them would take a while. 'Are those snakes the strongest creatures in that place? I could see several ants on the walls as well...'

"Lord Finnian!"

Finnian looked over and saw the Stormriders approaching with their mounts. "Did you manage to recover the Young Lord?"

Finnian shook his head. "No. I couldn't. I was too slow... Well, you lot were too slow to warn me. Two seconds earlier, and I could've caught the boy."

Finnian crossed his arms, looking at them. "You'll need to fight to the death in the upcoming battle if you want to recover him. Of course, the chances that you'll find him alive are low."

The Wind Sylvan frowned and spoke. "If something happens to Sir Eldric, you'll be in trouble as well, Lord Finnian."

Finnian's eyebrows raised. "Ho~? How so?"

"Lord Stormrider won't forgive you!"

Finnian laughed. "While I admire him and naturally fear him, there are plenty of people Lord Stormrider fears that are my allies. If Sir Eldric is lost, Lord Stormrider will feel upset and kill all of you, but he won't touch us."

The Stormrider people gritted their teeth, and Finnian walked forward. "Anyway, forget about trying to trick me into risking myself to recover him. My objective is the town which... By the way..." Finnian stopped walking and looked toward Alaric. "Hey! I went to visit that town, but I couldn't see any World Trees. There was a Life Tree in the middle, but I couldn't spot or even feel any World Trees."

Alaric looked over, confused. "What do you mean? There should be a nearly 40-meter-tall World Tree in the middle of that place."

Finnian walked over with crossed arms and commented. "I saw no 40-meter World Tree. I saw a nearly 80-meter-tall Life Tree, though."

Alaric saw the gaze Finnian was giving him, and his face changed. "Wait... I would never lie about something like this, Lord Finnian. I have nothing to gain if I do."

Finnian hummed. "You actually do. First of all, your reports are the reason that me and the other Nexus powers have settled nearby. With us close, your <Void Witherwood Exarch> group will be safer. We will share burdens, after all."

Alaric stated firmly. "I haven't lied. I don't know what happened during the last half a year or so since Malachai and the rest attacked, but I can swear that when I visited the town while it was under our control, there was a glaring World Tree in the middle. It is from the Willow Tree family, with drooping branches and a wide canopy."

Finnian looked at Jolie and asked. "You are the most knowledgeable here about World Trees and Life Trees. Can Life Trees resemble World Trees when they are young?"

Jolie nodded. "Not only can they, most of them do. The reason both are confused often is because their auras are very hard to distinguish, while Life Trees sometimes have a very light resemblance to female-body-shaped-trunks." Jolie played with the hair of the young Sylvan that she wanted to sacrifice and shrugged. "Now that it has crossed the Level 10 threshold, the Life Tree's characteristics becoming much more noticeable is more than possible."

Finnian snorted and looked at Alaric with a cold face. "There you have it. You confused a World Tree with a Life Tree. So much fuss for nothing!"

Jolie laughed. "Hey, that Life Tree, if it is 80 meters tall like you said, and its Level is in the low-Level-10s, then we might've stumbled upon something very lovely. After all, what Eldric spoke to Lord Stormrider about made Lord Stormrider think we were dealing with a D- Rank World Tree. If we translate the same evaluation to a Life Tree..."