Who Needs Magic in a Fantasy World Anyway?

Chapter 63: Investigation

"When I volunteered for a possible suicide mission, I didn't think it's be this boring." Koko sighed as she found herself walking across more of the same crunchy dirt that she had the day before. They'd been travelling or over two hours now, and while she was bored, she also couldn't help but feel a small amount of excitement as she was finally a part of an actual party of adventurers that were going out to possibly fight a strong monster. Finally, after all of this time, she finally got to act like an adventurer! And that included the agonizingly boring  journeys between events! Yay...

"We're surrounded by a barren wasteland, we're not sure in the ents only come out during the night or not and we're headed towards the heart of the forest where all of them are most likely gathered and you're bored?!" Christina asked in exasperation in front of Koko. "It wouldn't kill you to take things a little more seriously you know!"

"But I am serious though, I really am bored." Koko replied while wondering just why Christina didn't believe her. Though Christina didn't answer, instead preferring to shake her head in silence.

"You'll have plenty of excitement when we finally reach the heart." Conner announced from the frond of the group.

"Until then, do us all of a favor and stop complaining." Austin spoke right after Conner.

"But then it would be even worse." Koko ignored him and complained again. "You guys aren't exactly the best people to travel with you know. It's almost like you don't have any hope at all for coming back."

"When you've been on as many missions as we have, you come to learn that the future isn't always certain." Austin replied. "All of us know that and all of us won't get our hopes up otherwise."

"I get that there's danger but that doesn't give you an excuse to think that the worst is going to happen! It's bad for moral!" Koko declared. "Rather than that, I wonder just how much experience we're going to get from defeating whatever is doing this. Then there's always the possibilities of new titles and treasure..."

"Kid, your among veterans now." Austin said from over his shoulder. "We all lost those ambitions a long time ago. Sooner or later, you'll realize that survival is the most important thing."

"The day you lose the fun is the day that you stop being an adventurer." Koko harrumphed at his attitude, though none of them replied to her as they continued walking for another four more hours without a word. And as they supposedly grew closer to their target, Koko noticed that all of the instructors grew tense as the soil grew darker around them and not even the husks of trees were remaining from the forest like they had been before. To Koko, it almost seemed as if they had left the forest entirely before she noticed more dead trees ahead of them in the distance. However, there was a large and strangely even hill blocking the view directly in front of them.

"Everyone draw your weapons and be prepared. This should be the heart." Conner ordered as he drew his long sword and Austin drew his daggers. Christina and Richard drew their swords as well while the other priest and priestess withdrew golden scepters from their sides. And as everyone else took out their weapons, all Koko could do was shrug as she was technically always armed.

"Keep your eyes open and call out if you even think that you see an enemy." Austin warned everyone, and Koko rubbed her hands together eagerly as she wondered just what would be waiting for them. Though she was completely disappointed when they all walked to the top of the hill to see that it was nothing but a large empty crater that looked like a meteor had hit it as a small amount of black smoke was rising from the center.

"Well that's anticlimactic." Koko sighed as she most likely said what everyone else was thinking out loud.

"Stay alert, this is most definitely where the heart is." Conner ordered. "Richard, do you have any skills that can dig up the center of the crater?"

"Yeah, give me a second." Richard replied before holding his free hand out towards the center of the crater. And before long, the corrupted soil that he was aiming at seemed to start getting blown away as if a giant were directly blowing on it. Though as the dirt blew away, the smoke only seemed to get thicker.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Koko asked towards Richard. "This is normally the part where we unearth a UFO and the alien jumps out and starts eating everybody, right?"

"Christina is right, you really should be more serious." Richard sighed before Koko relented and stood back to watch the excavation along with everyone else. Though they didn't have to wait for long for Richard's magic suddenly to stop as an earthquake interrupted him and made Koko brace herself. And while she managed to remain standing, it was only possible due to her balance exercises as she was the only one still upright when everyone else fell down.

With the black smoke now shooting into the sky, Koko watched as the hole that Richard had dug started to stitch itself closed with massive moving roots before a massive tree covered in black bark started growing rapidly out of it. Though as she watched the tree's five giant branches curl, Koko had a sinking feeling that this was only a part of the monster before she was proved correct as the tree bent in half and slammed it's branches down on the ground near them just as an arm would. And with another massive tree looking exactly like the first shooting out of the ground on the other side of the crater, everyone in the investigation team looked on in awe as the colossal ent lifted itself out of the ground in front of them.

At least twenty meters tall already while still rapidly getting taller, what looked like a enormous wooden torso was now sticking out of the ground in front of them with bits of soil and rock falling from both it's shoulders and limbs. And as it rose to about it's waist, the ground thankfully stopped shaking as the ent lifted up its arms and opened it's mouth to let out a deafening roar that reminded Koko of the sound one would get when blowing over the top of an open bottle.

"Oh, my first boss monster!" Koko clapped and jumped up and down excitedly while everyone else grunted as they rose to their feet. "Richard, what level is it?! It has a level, right?"

"One-hundred and thirty-two..." Richard looked up at the colossal ent nervously.

"Really? It's lower than I thought it would be..." Koko replied thoughtfully.

"Its level doesn't matter because it's just as you said, it's a boss monster and it's going to stronger than a normal one..." Austin stated before clenching his teeth as he was either terrified or angry. "And this is going to be just as hard, if not harder, than we initially thought..."

"Standard formation! I'll try to draw it's attacks while Austin and Koko circle around it and try to hit it from the sides. Christina and Richard will bombard it with everything they have while the priests create barriers to defend against the more-powerful attacks and heal when necessary! Let's all make it through this alive!"