After going through the entrance Cole was face to face with rows upon rows of gnarled trees. Normally he wasn’t sure the orchard was supposed to start this close to the entrances but the trees seemed to have their roots stretched forth from one tree to the next.

Almost as if the tree behind had given birth to the tree ahead, and they were slowly creeping forwards until they were out of the valley proper. It was creepy as fuck as the gnarled trucks of the trees had an effigy of screaming faces, Cole felt like he was in some sort of western horror movie.

He rode on, coming down the incline and into the valley proper. There were small pockets of areas where the trees had not grown, making this very neat and tidy rows look like a mess. Many of the trees had also grown way to tall, getting close to thirty or fourth feet tall, with sparse branches that had no leaves.

However the trees were all clustered close enough that their branches had blocked out the light from the sun, giving the valley a gloomy and dark look. Cole’s aim was to get to the manor at the center of the valley, if there was a place for thieves to hold up, it would be there.

Plus the Jakini, or was it Jukiki? Either way the Jambagi apple tree he needed to get some apples from was located in the core of the valley, right by the manor if the information on the bounty was anything to go by. So all in all he should be able to find both his targets in the same place.

Cole took a closer look at the Orchard and realized that it was divided into a couple of different places or areas. The first 100 or so meter from the entrance had fruit trees, what came next were shrubbery like trees that had hundreds of branches but were no taller than ten feet. A little to the west were hedges absent of leaves but actually having fruits. Those were cluster enough and they seemed to form a hedge maze of some sort.

To the east were small bushes that were more like thickets now due to the absence of leaves. To Cole they looked like berry bushes, and to the north east was a massive factory like building. Probably the brewery and winery where the wine and beer were made.

He was close enough to start seeing the top of the Manor’s roof, and he was wood noticing tracks allover the place. Were distinctively human, others were animal like in their forms, but others were weird. It looked as if something was dragging it’s body on the ground or something, and from the furrows he was seeing, it moved really fast.

*click! Click!*

A series of clicks was heard by Cole, he moved his head to the left and to the right unable to track anything, at least not visually at least. There were more clicks, each of them coming with different variations and times, yet in the end it was still clicks being heard.

Cole felt that these clicks were a manner of communication, but what was doing the communicating was still not in sight. He turned around just in time to get a fist fulll of tree bark and roots in the face. He was sent off Morgan’s back, and it was only by sheer luck he was able to keep his hold on his rifle.

However he did not land in peace either as another massive fist made of bark and tree roots smashed him out of the air and into the ground. He grunted out in pain an involuntarily spat out blood, as a shadow appeared above his head.

[Spectral Rover]

Spectral Rover cost a 150 energy per activation. With the current energy he had now, he could use about three or four times in a single fight, which made it inefficient for active battles. What he could use it for as it stands was to escape any attack that was sure to turn him to paste.

He moved to the left, giving the creatures that had attacked him a little bit of distance. The thing with Spectral Rover was that it was not a sustained skill. Which means after the initial cost for the skill, Cole could keep it active for as long as he wanted, but the moment he attacked or interacted with anybody or anything, the skill would cancel and time would resume and whatever intangibility he had from attacks would face away. 𝐞𝗻𝐨𝘃𝗹.𝐜𝐨𝗺

And spectral Rover was now benefiting from an iron ranked Dexterity. So there should have been an upgrade to the skill, but Cole had no idea what it was at the moment, but regardless after a few experimenting he should be able to figure it out.

But back to the matter at hand. The things that had attacked him were snakes? Snake men…. Women? They had the upper half of a human but the lower half of a snake. Normally Cole would assume that they were Lamias or Gorgons given that they had hairs formed from numerous writhing snakes. The only problem with that assumption however was the fact that both of them were made fully of trees.

It was an amalgamation of roots, bark and lichen. With small yellow and red leaves poking out from small branches allover their bodies. They had weird greenish yellow eyes that made Cole feel a bit weird, and they were larger than what he expected Lamias and Gorgons to be. For one they were over ten to fifteen meters long in the snake half.

Their human half stood at 9 to 13 feet tall, or in between those numbers as Cole couldn’t fully estimate. They were widely built, and while none jiggling wood nipples with a patch of green areolas and dull brown nipples showed that they were female, they were completely made of tree or wood.

Cole shifted his gaze to Morgan, and was surprised to see that his mount was not caught in the same slow motion effect that the Spectral Rover skill caused. Looks like that was what the iron ranked upgrade was for, and with the world moving in slow motion, they could cover vast distances in shorter time, assuming they were on the clock.

“Morgan light up the Snake wood woman on the left, put everything you an muster on her and make sure she’s down, I will handle the other one. Time to see just what these revolvers can do.” Cole ordered as Morgan gave Sabine of approval and opened fire, a mini gun sliding out of a competent on his left and opening fire on the snake woman tree…. Whatever the fuck she was.

Cole pulled out both revolvers, letting his rifle hang over his back as he finally decided to use the ultimate skills of both revolvers just to see what they could do.

[Obsidian Shot] [Sapphire Shot]