Chapter 7: The 【Undead Treant】Part 1

Ensig:
Because there’ve been some people who’ve misunderstood… This is my own writing. It’s not a translation. Also, those Chants from C6 can actually be deciphered. I came up with the codes on my own, so if you’re up to the challenge, try to translate ’em!

Anyways. Explanations are almost done, so here’s the first battle on Ariot! Enjoy!

※ ※ ※

After however much time has passed, I’ve arrived at ⟨Appraisal⟩ Lv.10. Success chance: 100%, cooldown upon Success: 0_sec. Marvelous.

It only took 6 more ⟨Appraisal⟩ uses, 3 of which were failures, and one of which was an  ⟨Appraisal⟩  on the Tree. As for the information I gained, I felt that it was a Monster with the form of a Tree. I attempted again after the level rose, and received the same information.

Previously, I had pitied any individuals who wanted to increase the level of this Skill. Now I find myself questioning their judgement.

Well, even after appraising the Tree and achieving that result I continued leveling the Skill with Charon’s book. I can’t deny that it was entirely on a whim. Lv.10 had Proficiency to be gained just like any other level, but after increasing it to the limit its level remained the same.

I reached the counter stop, it seems.

Well, I might as well use ⟪Appraisal⟫ on the Tree again — is what I would do, if the next message didn’t pop up.

Congratulations! ⟨Appraisal Lv.10⟩ and 「Quantitative Menu」 have created the Unknown Active Ability: 「Quantitative Appraisal」 ⟨Appraisal Lv.10⟩ has Fused with 「Quantitative Appraisal」!

Charon’s Book had mentioned Fusions, but I didn’t think I would gain one so soon. It’s especially surprising seeing as it came from the enigmatic「Quantitative Menu」. Well, it’s a pleasant surprise.

As for what Fusions are, they’re essentially just as they sound. They’re a “fusion” of two or more Commands; technically, none of the Commands need to “Fuse” — or in other words “disappear” — to make the new Command. For example, if you only had two Commands and they both “Fused”, you could have 3 Commands in the end. 2 of them would be the ones you had originally, and 1 would be new.

In this case ⟨Appraisal⟩ legitimately Fused. Looking at 「Quantitative Menu」 shows that it’s disappeared from my obtained Skills as well.

Goodbye, oh glorious ⟨Appraisal⟩-sama, it was nice knowing you — isn’t something that even crossed my mind.

Looking over the Ability Box of 「Quantitative Appraisal」… It doesn’t seem all that different from regular ⟨Appraisal⟩. That being said, if all the information will be quantified, then it’s possible that I won’t need to simply feel the information I gain. If that’s the case, then perhaps acting on my whim won’t be in vain.

Because it’s peculiar, I may as well look at the Ability Box in detail.

---

R5

「Quantitative Appraisal」

Using the System’s data via ⟨Appraisal⟩,「Quantitative Menu」’s capabilities have been extended beyond just the user. Granting far superior information than its predecessor Skill,「Quantitative Appraisal」now shows a treasure trove of information on its target, and will notify the user if the subject is using any items to intercept ⟨Appraisal⟩. In such a case,「Quantitative Appraisal」will display all information except that which is hidden.
The Skill can be activated by thinking/saying the Skill’s name while looking/pointing at the object the user wishes to Appraise.

Items will Display:
     Basic description
     Their exact value (in accordance to the System)
     Their main “ingredients” (can be increased by the user up to 10)
     Resistance(s) (if any)
     Defensive properties (if applicable)
     Offensive properties (if applicable)
Monster Souls will Display:
     Basic description of the Monster’s Species
     Name (if applicable)
     Species
     Level (will be shown as “???” if the Monster is over 100 Levels ahead of the user)
     Core State
     Prefix(es) & Suffix(es) (if any)
Mortal Souls will Display:
     Name
     Level
     Gender
     If the user is granted permission:
          Exact Status (Total or in Categories — Total by default)
          Titles
          Equipment
          Up to 10 of the target’s Skills/Spells
               Increasing the Skill/Spell amount will put a burden on the User
Other Objects will Display:
     A detailed description
     Any uses for the object (if any)

Certain Items can be used to hinder the visibility of one’s information.
     The System will alert the user and seal off the information intended to be hidden

---

Impressive, but I won’t get my hopes up. I believe the “Fool me once…” saying should be enough of an excuse for why.

To see what the changes are first hand, I’ll have to try the Ability on something I’ve already appraised. And so, 『Quantitative Appraisal』

---

Godly Item

〖Charon’s Guide to Ariot〗

A guidebook to the World of Ariot, written by the hands of the Greater God of Souls: Charon himself. It includes a cornucopia of knowledge regarding almost all aspects of Ariot, useful for any new Soul to Ariot.

The Materials used to make this Item cannot be analyzed.
Damage directed at this item will be nullified.
This item cannot be destroyed.

Durability: ∞ / ∞

---

Mh. It’s a noticeable improvement. The fact that it isn’t just a feeling anymore is also convenient. Appraisal in System-message form is convenient.

While I didn’t really gain much new information, knowing that this item can’t be destroyed is pretty useful.  Now I don’t have to worry about if the Cloak-Purse breaks open and the book falls again! — isn’t the sort of optimistic comment that I think of. But really, what a cheat.

I won’t dwell on it, however. Turning towards the Tree, I activate 『Quantitative Appraisal』

---

Monster

【Undead Treant : Unnamed : Lv.15】

HP: 51/51          MP: 132/132          SP: ∞/∞

“Undead”
+50% resistance to Dark and Death attributes
-50% resistance to Light and Holy attributes

Treants are Trees that have absorbed enough Ether to gain a partial consciousness.
Not all Treants are aggressive, but those found in dense Miasma tend to be fitting Monster Shells, and gain a suitable Monster Soul as a result. Such Treants lie in wait for their prey, imitating other Trees nearby and/or the appearance of the Tree they possessed.
Treants can use their Roots, Branches, and sometimes even Leaves to attack, making them difficult to deal with at both close and long-range.

Core State: 342_C / 37,500_C

---

A Treant, huh… Mh. I expected as much. There’re only so many monsters that could take the form of a Tree, after all.

Hm? A reaction to 「Quantitative Appraisal」’s great success? Is that truly needed? No. No it isn’t.

This【Undead Treant】is also “Unnamed” it seems. I can’t imagine that it’s younger than me, so perhaps there’s some sort of special requirement to get a name… Something like a Demon Lord granting names to spooky trees in a kingly manner — such a situation doesn’t play out within my mind as I continue analyzing the results of the appraisal.

It’s Lv.15, but I’m not sure whether that’s high or low, seeing as this is the first creature I’ve appraised. I can’t exactly include my own Level either, because I haven’t even breached Lv.1 yet. In fact, if my levels could go into negatives due to dying, I would be even further behind.

On that note, I wonder how Monsters level up, exactly. It might have something to do with Core Capacity Abilities, but if that’s the case, then does that mean this Treant has such an ability at Lv.15?

I’ll have to investigate later, but before that I should try to use a Spell. Once again, my selection consists of ⦑True Death⦒, ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒, ⦑The True Dead’s Burial⦒, and ⦑The True Dead’s Chains⦒.

First things first, I can immediately strike out ⦑True Death⦒ and ⦑The True Dead’s Burial⦒.

The reason is simple. Both will kill the Treant immediately after the Chant finishes. The Shortest Chant and also weakest version of ⦑True Death⦒ will reduce the Treant’s HP to 0%, since its Level isn’t at least 25 Levels over me. The stronger versions would be overkill, because the levels are “50 Levels higher” “75 Levels higher” and “100 Levels higher”. For that reason, it’s out.

⦑The True Dead’s Burial⦒ is similar. For the Shortest Chant and weakest effects, it deals 50 Holy attributed damage per second to all Monster Souls in its area of effect. Even if I look past the fact that the Treant has negative resistance to the Holy attribute, which will definitely increase the damage, the Treant would die in 2 seconds. Literally 2 seconds. This Spell also has the “Sanctification” effect, which seems to have special effects on the Undead, so it’s possible that the Treant wouldn’t even last that long, either.

That leaves ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒ and ⦑The True Dead’s Chains⦒.

⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒ reduces the Lifespan of the target. Mh. That’s all.

I don’t really know if an 【Undead Treant】 has a legitimate Lifespan, seeing as I, as a kindred Undead, have the “∞” mark slapped onto my own. Still, the Spell has the effect of granting a ⧼Cursed Immortality⧽ Debuff if the Target is Immortal, so even if the Treant is like me, the Spell will still work.

⧼Cursed Immortality⧽ shaves off a certain percentage of the Target’s health every 86,400_sec. After calculating that time on the ground… It’s 1 Day — so long as Ariot’s days are actually 24 hours a day, 60 minutes per hour, and 60 seconds per minute. The Shortest Chant’s Debuff takes off 10% HP per day, so if I use it I can supposedly keep the Treant alive for 10 days — assuming it doesn’t heal itself, that is.

⦑The True Dead’s Chains⦒ is the most complex of the four Spells, in that it has stages. The “Activation Phase” is supposedly a Spearheaded chain emerging from the ground and binding the Target. If said Target is hit with the Spearhead, they’ll take extra damage throughout the rest of the Spell. Seeing as the Treant can’t move, I’m about 80% sure it’ll get hit and receive the Spearhead-effect — there’s the possibility my aim will go askew, after all. Even if the Spearhead hits, the Short chant’s will only increase the damage dealt by 25%, so it’s not a huge deal.

For the “Active Phase” the Target gains 10 Necromancy attribute damage per second until the Caster runs out of MP, or the target reaches 10% HP for the Shortest Chant. Seeing as the activation cost for Short is 300_MP, the former will apply. If I had excess MP, I could add “links” to the chain for an additional Activation-Cost per link, which would have an effect for the last stage… But, once again, I don’t have the MP to do that, so I digress. By default, the Short Chant gives 5 “links” to the chain, so it’s not like the last stage won’t have any effects.

The final stage decreases the durability of the Target’s Equipment (just Defensive Equipment for Short and Medium Chants, but it seems to be all Equipment for Long and Unbound) by certain amounts per-link. For Short, it’s 10 Durability per link.

Unless the 【Undead Treant】 is hiding armor under its bark, it doesn’t have any equipment — so it’d take Damage instead. 40 Damage per link for the Short chant. In other words, 200 damage. 

So, to sum up their effects, ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒ is a Lifespan decreasing Debuff, and ⦑The True Dead’s Chains⦒ is a Binding DoT which goes through the phases Bind-&-Possibly-Increase-Damage⟶Hold-&-Damage⟶Reduce-Durability/Add-Extra-Damage.

With that in mind, I’ll use ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒ as my first Spell.

In terms of MP consumption, the Short chant costs 1,000_MP at default. Mh.

Even with only four Spells to choose from I know that amount isn’t something to scoff at. My other Spells don’t reach ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒’s Short Chant cost until their most-costly Unbound Chants, after all. Well, in the end all of their costs are over my measly 22_MP, so if I were deciding based off of my MP it really wouldn’t matter what I choose.

After ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒ I’ll try ⦑The True Dead’s Chains⦒. Because the Treant doesn’t have equipment, the final phase will kill it, but I’ll be able to see a multi-stage Spell take place, which is good enough.

That is… Provided I can actually activate the Spell at all, of course.

Standing up, I stretch my arms and brush off my trousers before giving a final check to my Status via「Quantitative Menu」. There’re no changes other than Skills losing one Active, and Abilities gaining one Unknown.

After making sure everything’s in order, I recite the odd symbols in my head

༺■ ■ ■ ■ : ■ ■ ■ ■ □ : □ | ■ ■ ○ : ■ □ ○ : ■ ■ ■ ■ □ : ■ ■ ■ : ■ ● : ■ ■ ● : ● ○.༻
﴾Curse of the True Dead﴿

After casting its chant mentally, gold-tinted symbols silently develop around my hands, twisting around my wrists and slithering between the gaps in my fingers. Out of curiosity, I attempt to look at individual symbols… But they seemingly evade my sight, similar to light-blotches. Even without looking directly at the symbols, however, I “know” what they are. They’re a manifestation of the “chant”.

Alongside the symbols, I can feel something akin to a pull of sorts. It’s the sort of feeling one would get if a car sped past them as they walked along the sidewalk, but in this case it’s only being applied to my arms, and the pull is coming from all sides.

Within「Quantitative Menu」the Chant Times were listed, and seeing as the Spell wasn’t cast immediately I can say with confidence that those times still apply, despite my chant being naught but symbols around my hands. ⦑Curse of the True Dead⦒’s Short Chant is 20_sec, ± 5_sec. The ± is probably for  the differences between how fast the user can Chant, meaning the bare minimum is 15_sec, while the maximum is 25_sec. Because I’m not chanting orally, however, I’m not sure how the exact time will be judged. I’ve been counting since the start, but… We’ll see.

10…
11…
12…
13…
14…
15

At 15_sec, I feel a slight drain on my body. But almost as soon as it starts… It stops.

I wait a couple of seconds. Nothing happens.

I wait a couple more. Still nothing.

The Spell doesn’t activate. Looking at 「Quantitative Menu」, my MP is listed as 0 / 22 : +22MP in 6sec. After waiting for the 6 seconds to elapse my MP is filled up to its maximum, and the mist symbols over my hands disperse.

That was probably be MP being “reimbursed”, I suppose. The Spell 15_sec, so I suppose that means ⟨The True Dead’s Casting⟩ gives the maximum deduction on Cast time? I’ll have to test once again to be sure. I won’t give up on Spells just yet. There’s still much to learn, after all.

Now, it felt as though there was more that was supposed to occur, but… There was something that got in the way. If I had to draw a comparison, it would be as though I poked a hole through a thin board of cardboard, only for something to block the hole shortly after. The hole exists, capable of letting whatever’s on the other side through, but it’s clogged up. My hypothesis in that case is: a “stopper” activated.

Of course, I’ve only experienced it once, so I could be completely incorrect. Still, I can make an attempt to take out the “stopper” in the next test and see what happens, right? If it isn’t a real thing, then it’s of no consequence. 

Once again, I activate ﴾Curse of the True Dead﴿ and focus as the “chant” manifests itself as mist.

13…
14…
15.

At 15_sec once again, the feeling of being pulled arises, only to stop once again. Unlike the first time however, this time I focus on that feeling akin to “pushing alongside the pull”, and attempt to force the “stopper” through to the other side. While doing so, I feel the mists at my sides seemingly constrict around my arms, but I pay them no heed.

Moments pass, but there’s no change afterwards.

If that’s the case… Then perhaps if I just “pull” the “stopper” out? Thinking so, I continue concentrating. Following the feeling of the drain, I reach out and grasp whatever’s blocking out its release and… 

*Tssch*

Hearing a sound similar to a window cracking partially, I almost lose concentration on the Spell, but I continue despite the noise.

*tic* *Tssshhh*

The second time it occurs, I ignore it. The sound is likely a result of my current actions, so I can take it as a sign that I’m on the right track. If that’s not the case, then an undetected presence is breaking windows nearby — which is extremely unlikely.

*ticticticcti* *ThhSSSHhhh*

Just a bit more, now… Move.

*TTCSHAAA*

All at once, a dreadful feeling racks my body.

What would be a good way to describe it, I wonder?

Perhaps, the closest thing would be having one’s skin peeled off with a razor and then sucked clean off. Next, the muscles underneath meet a similar fate. Once all the flesh is gone, the skin and muscles reform, and get cut off again.

It’s endless pain. Eternal pain. For such feelings to arise in only a second, and subside the next… How curious.

Even more curious is how I’m reacting to such a pain, however. Even if I feel the pain, I don’t react to it. My body doesn’t budge, nor even twitch. It’s odd. I feel it, but I don’t “feel” it. Despite fully understanding that this amount of pain would likely drive one insane, my mind doesn’t go into a panic. Because of that, I can analyze the feeling thoroughly with an indifferent attitude.

It’s as if it were pain from a memory.

But, of course, I know the reason for this reaction. It’s due to「Zombie Physique」’s immunity to the sense of {Pain}.

Looking down at my hand, I find that my entire arm has become clouded in a grey mist, similar to the color my Soul was on Charon’s Ship. The symbols which previously crowded my hands have disappeared, leading me to believe that the Spell has been successful.

As soon as I think so, a flurry of messages enter my vision.

MP insufficient! HP will be used as settlement!

Your HP has fallen to 0!
 ⟨True Death Count⟩’s Death Count has risen to 11Deaths
 You have been revived at Lv.1!

MP insufficient! HP will be used as settlement!

Your HP has fallen to 0!
 ⟨True Death Count⟩’s Death Count has risen to 12Deaths
 You have been revived at Lv.1!

MP insufficient! HP will be used as settlement!

Your HP has fallen to 0!
 ⟨True Death Count⟩’s Death Count has risen to 13Deaths
 You have been revived at Lv.1!

…

With my vision now undisturbed, I keep my eyes on the【Undead Treant】for any visible effects from the Spell. Sure enough, what appears to be a dark grey haze with golden lines streaking through it envelops the Treant for a moment before disappearing.Almost being overwhelmed by the sheer number of messages, I intercept all System Messages coming from my Psyche. A couple of them seemed somewhat irregular, but I simply don’t have the time to figure out why.

“Kreeeaaaa‽?!!‽”

Making an odd screech one would expect from a bird rather than a tree, the 【Undead Treant】 twists its body in agony. Its branches and trunk make odd creaking noises as its immobile-for-however-long body writhes.

Sorry, but please bear with it while I collect my data. 『Quantitative Appraisal』

---

Monster

【Undead Treant : Unnamed : Lv.15】

HP: 46/51          MP: 132/132          SP: ∞/∞

“Undead”
+50% resistance to Dark and Death attributes
-50% resistance to Light and Holy attributes

The Debuff: ⧼Cursed Immortality Ⅱ⧽ is in effect.
     –10% HP every 86,400_sec
          Next activation: 86,393_sec

Treants are Trees that have absorbed enough Ether to gain a partial consciousness.
Not all Treants are aggressive, but those found in dense Miasma tend to be fitting Monster Shells, and gain a suitable Monster Soul as a result. Such Treants lie in wait for their prey, imitating other Trees nearby and/or the appearance of the Tree they possessed.
Treants can use their Roots, Branches, and sometimes even Leaves to attack, making them difficult to deal with at both close and long-range.

Core State: 347_C / 37,500_C

---

「Quantitative Appraisal」is already making itself useful. Looking at the Treant’s HP and the timer for the next activation, the 10% reduction from ⧼Cursed Immortality Ⅱ⧽ has already taken effect for the day.

While being slightly satisfied with the result, I hear a low rumbling below.

In an instant, a twisted root breaks through the dirt below my feet and pierces through my abdomen, lifting me off the ground about a meter. Despite rotating like a drill for the piercing effect, the root is about half as thick as the Treant’s Trunk, thus the lift. Compared to me, it’s almost as thick as my abdomen is wide.

As I calmly consider the apparent size of the Root, it twists within, resulting in the sound of what must be my spinal cord being further destroyed, and curls around my abdomen before whipping itself to fling me at the ground. As I slammed against the Graveyard’s dirt-covered ground — resulting in even further cracking sounds — I see the root being pulled back into the ground.

⟵ | Main | ⟶