F-ranker Sword Saint: My Soulbound Sword is Secretly SSS-tier!-Chapter 374: A Runebark’s Origins
[You’ve slain a Swordspawn of the High Winds, Silkfeather Phesari Lv. 75]
[You’ve obtained 20 Experience Points.]
[You’ve obtained (2) Silkfeather.]
Daru breathed heavily, staring at the corpse in front of him.
The Phesari was faster than he expected, plus it would run away once injured heavily. He had to chase the slippery spawn for a few minutes before he managed to take it down with his A-ranked Sword Skill, Full Moon Assault.
Daru caught his breath for a few moments, then proceeded to extract the legs and the breast meat.
While not exactly enough to last him the remainder of the race, it would feed him for at least three days.
More than that, however, the fact that there is food around if he just searched patiently solved his remaining problems about himself.
’Maybe there’s more food deeper into the more vigorous parts?’
It was then that he heard something rustle nearby. There were no warnings from the Dark Sentry, though, so Daru wasn’t too worried.
He cautiously moved closer to investigate.
Perhaps there was another Phesari nearby?
Soon, Daru was peering from behind a standard oak. His eyes narrowed. Before him was a settlement of Runebarks.
He had seen how they gathered sunlight, life energies, and water, so he knew that these dozen or so tree spawns were toiling.
’But for who?’
The first thing that came to his mind was that either the Aetherborns or the Vyrrkans had already secured their Verdant Nuclei, and that, like them, the enemies had already determined how to obtain a Sovereign Sapling.
But no.
The water from the nearby stream was given over to a black Runebark with bloodscarlet leaves.
It was too difficult to mistake it for a Royal Sapling, yet somehow, the Runebarks are serving it.
There were also a few strange wooden structures and a few black Sunroots being utilized.
Daru wrapped a Rothide he obtained from one of the death monkeys and carefully walked closer, knowing that the material only blocks detection up to a certain distance.
Too close and he would be sensed.
Fortunately, he was able to walk close enough for the nameplate to appear.
==
(Boss) Yorlak the Bastard Bough
HP: 410,000 / 410,000
==
’A field boss...or maybe a dungeon boss?’
Daru didn’t feel that Yggdrasil was a dungeon, yet also not a "field" in Bladeborn terms.
What he felt, however, was that this Yorlak was trying to be something he was not.
The Bastard Bough had somehow developed abilities to enthrall Runebarks, though even that echoed falsehood...just wrong.
The Oaks, the Birches, the Pines, and the Beeches that were serving it seemed full of anger, even though they were clearly thriving despite the less dense life energy levels in this area.
Not towards their ruler, but the world as a whole, as if they would attack any living being who would make the mistake of wandering close to their territory.
Fortunately, Daru wasn’t among those today.
He carefully retreated to his territory about half an hour away from Yorlak’s, making sure to mark the trees on the way with Y-marks.
He wasn’t ready to take on Yorlak and his thralls yet.
However, that doesn’t mean he would never be able to.
Simply based on the number of his thralls, it was clear that he had at least three malnourished Vitality Trees under him.
Those would be a sizable addition to Rafhan’s come the right time.
But for now, Daru planned to continue developing their territory.
By the time he returned, only a few minutes were left in the construction of the Wargrove.
He waited it out, and the moment it was completed, a rather baffling option appeared in his mind as he selected the Wargrove option in the interface.
It was an option that only the divinities should have. The option to create life.
Instead of enthralling Runebarks, he could create one from a tree, solving a part of his curiosity regarding the tree spawns’ existence.
How the Runebarks came to be.
As it turned out, they could indeed be born from standard trees as he and Elara had theorized.
Natural birth was probably more complex.
However, partnering with a Royal Sapling, one could help it gather the necessary resources through already existing Runebarks, then invest those resources in a standard tree to hasten the birth process.
’Then maybe Royal Saplings also exist in other levels of Yggdrasil?’
That was possible, though Daru didn’t have the power to confirm. Not yet. He wouldn’t even know Yggdrasil truly existed if not for the event.
Having already been through the death zone, a theory clicked and formed in his head.
A theory that Royal Saplings help Yggdrassil control the overwhelming life energies, while the Hissing was the preposterously gargantuan tree’s way of exhaling impurities.
Something along those lines.
But again, he had no way to confirm this, plus he had more important matters to attend to as Rafhan’s prime minister of some sort.
Daru was quite astonished at the rather astronomical prices of giving birth to a Runebark in the Wargrove.
He had to wait another hour before he had enough resources.
In the meantime, he had an early lunch, using the Ever-Cinder Stick as a flame-starter and the corpse of the fallen Runebark within his territory as materials for a makeshift spit.
He roasted a portion of the Phesari meat he had gathered and enjoyed it with a smile on his face.
’Ah...if only I had those strange condiments Elara had...’ Daru mused, planning to purchase some in the future once he was transferred to the guild branch of Iron Lotus in the Myriad Sword Realm, where he would be developing as a rookie.
From what he learned, the marketplace there was far larger than the ones in Crownspire.
Perhaps said condiments and other such miscellaneous items were sold there.
By the time Daru finished having his lunch, he had enough resources: 60 units of water, 45 units of life energy, twenty units of sunlight, and five Life Saps.
Strangely, the option to birth a Runebark was still grayed out, as his Life Sap count was still zero.
’Ah...maybe...’
He retrieved his vials of Life Saps and poured them onto Rafhan. A faint smile appeared on Daru’s face as the counter went up by 1.
’What about the lesser ones, then?’
He tried, and they contributed 0.5 units to the pool. Daru invested a total of two Life Saps and six lesser versions to complete the requirements, then chose a Pine Tree in the Wargrove as the recipient of the resources.
In the next moment, four streaks — azure, bright gold, green, and a viscous gold — crawled to the Pine like sea snakes and continued doing so.
This awe-inspiring phenomenon should last for fifteen minutes, as that was the time required to bring to life a Runebark.
After what seemed like an eternity to a greatly enthused young man, the Pine Tree uprooted itself, branches morphing into arms and roots into legs. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
==
Pine Runebark Lv.80
HP: 82,000 / 82,000
==
A new warrior had joined his and Rafhan’s ranks.
