The three lights were like three fireflies, and following them made Hiro go deeper into the place. By being near the three fireflies, at least Hiro could see the surrounding area with their light. It was much better than seeing in the dark and groping like a blind man.

During the journey, Hiro could hear the rustling sounds in the bushes as if a creature were watching him silently. Hiding, but walking after him from all directions. Hiro couldn’t predict their number and just kept walking, while gripping the Blood-eater vampire in his hands tightly.

Hiro opened his inventory using the HUD system and chose the buff he would use before fighting against the boss monster. He firmly believed that in a moment, he would have to defeat the monster or the dungeon boss.

Without wasting time, Hiro used the buff in his inventory. It was a buff to increase damage because he knew that the current monsters in the Last Shelter Online had increased a lot in power.

Ding!

[You have entered the boss area]

Hiro’s steps suddenly stopped when the notification appeared. In the next second, the three fireflies that had been guiding him flew away and then merged in the air.

Hiro could see a tree that was similar to The Guardian Tree, but it had rotted and was dark brown in color. The tree had lost its light. And when the three fireflies stopped on the tree, Hiro suddenly could hear a very noisy sound from all directions.

The sound of animals flapping their wings with various rhythms and the sound of animals moving through the vines of plants, they were packed in that place. When Hiro looked down at his feet, he saw insects ranging from beetle-like to hard-shelled insects that seemed to be walking in an orderly fashion. They lined up in one direction and passed Hiro as if he wasn’t there.

Hiro didn’t move, because if he did, he might have stepped on those insects.

Meanwhile, in the air, the insects such as mosquitoes, beetles, grasshoppers, and other garden insects that had wings to fly flocked together.

The creatures were moving towards the same place. It was The Guardian Tree that looked like it was dead.

Ding!

[The Guardian Tree has guarded all beings during its lifetime from almost the entire generation as long as they were created. But this time, with the absence of The Guardian Tree, the creatures could no longer last long. All diseases kept popping up and killing them slowly. Until now, after The Guardian Tree had completely lost its protection, they had given up their lives to die with the Guardian Tree. A sacrifice for the thing they regard as god.]

A scene appeared like a story. After that, all the insects that were around him suddenly turned into light. The light was very bright because there were so many of them. Hiro even had to close his eyes to see what would happen next.

The lights seemed to be absorbed into The Guardian Tree before turning black, as if rotting with it.

And finally, a transformation occurred.

The size of The Guardian Tree’s trunk grew almost double its previous size. Then, a pair of red eyes with flattened pupils like cat’s eyes suddenly appeared on the tree trunk.

“Groaaaa!”

An intimidating growl along with a powerful gust of wind shot out from the mouth that had just formed in a zigzag fashion on the trunk just below those red eyes.

Ding!

[New monster information has been unlocked]

[The Guardian Tree (Rotten) (Level 125)]

[Race: The Unholy]

Hiro was just reading the text that appeared when one of the branches of the tree suddenly spread out towards him very fast.

Crash!

[-5,000]

It was only a scratch on his left arm, but the damage was quite large. Realizing that, Hiro decided to use predicio by relying on the cursed sigil of his. However, when he tried to use it, nothing happened, as if the sigil had defected.

“Damn!”

Even Hiro’s usual acceleration buff from the sigil was inactive.

“Meta, it’s your doing, right?”

Meta did not give any answer.

Realizing that one of his mainstay powers couldn’t be used in the boss area, Hiro racked his brain again. He had to attack.

Whoosh!

Hiro shot forward, using the stone wall flanking him for a foothold and making his jump even more powerful. His target was the trunk of the tree. However, as he hovered in the air, one of the tree branches that had been spreading suddenly swung towards him.

Bang!

[-7,650]

Hiro twisted his body and landed with his feet first despite being thrown quite far away. He immediately got up and aimed for the back of the tree.

The tree couldn’t move from its place, so Hiro benefited from it. Still, the tendrils of the twigs were really troublesome.

Splat!

Hiro managed to slash two tendrils off the branches that were pointing at him and cut them down. However, it did not weaken the tree. The branch that was broken and still connected to the tree spread again while the branch that fell on the ground suddenly turned into two snakes, which hissed and hurled black liquid at Hiro.

Szzaah!

[-1,500] [1,500]

Hiro immediately slashed the two snakes. This time, both of their bodies were burned by the black flames and vanished completely.

“Damn!”

“Spyro, attack the rear with your fire breath. I’ll distract it.”

Hiro went into void mode and made the monster confused because it couldn’t detect its opponent. As a result, the monster was now aiming for Alice who was struggling to dodge all of its attacks.

Whoosh!

Stab!

Hiro managed to distract the monster as well as Alice. He took advantage of it. He needed a diversion to be able to appear in front of the boss before the void ran out. At the same time, Hiro thrust the blade of his sword into the shaft at the mouth of the monster while activating the Blood-eater vampire’s unique skill. And, it worked!

[Boss HP has been revealed]

[159,900/500,000]

Hiro was just about to draw his sword, which was stuck in the monster’s throat when suddenly a puff of smoke emerged from the gaping hole. The black smoke was a bad sign if only Hiro didn’t choose the Power of Wind.

[You are immune to the Black Smoke (Toxins)]

“Well, I didn’t think this would be much easier than I thought.”

Hiro didn’t pull his sword out. Instead, he used all his strength to slash the tree trunk from the inside. Hiro’s legs were already standing horizontally on either side of the monster’s mouth.

“Hyaaat!”

Splatt! Splatt! Splat!

Ding!

[The Guardian Tree (Rotten) has been defeated]

“What? Is that all?”