Online Game: Crazy Skeleton

"Banana, how many plant essences do you have?"

Su Ran decided to take a gamble after all, the task didn’t specify that he had to cultivate the Sky-reaching Vine to its ultimate form, just to complete it, which meant he still had a chance.

"What, does the task require plant essences?" freeweɓnøvel.com

Banana no longer valued plant essences too highly, the Elf Heart Box alone had already greatly improved his strength, and with the Golden Crossbow on top of that, the temporary boost from the plant essences was negligible.

"Here, take them all, 113 in total."

Seeing Su Ran nod, Banana generously took out all his plant essences and handed them over to Su Ran.

Su Ran didn’t exchange courtesies with Banana, he took the plant essences, and added them to those he had gained from clearing the Centennial Tree Monsters and the side task of killing a BOSS. Upon roughly counting them, there were 205 in total. Only after everything was prepared did he then focus all his attention on the seedling beneath him.

"This seedling needs ten thousand experience points to grow to its mid-stage, let’s raise it to that point first!"

Su Ran pondered for a moment without hesitation, and directly used 100 plant essences on the Sky-reaching Vine.

"Whoosh, whoosh."

The Sky-reaching Vine, nourished by a hundred plant essences, started to grow rapidly. The leaves rustled loudly and in the blink of an eye, it shot up to a height of one meter. That wasn’t all, the vine kept growing, and soon it had reached a height of five meters.

Witnessing the instant growth of the plant, Su Ran was struck with awe. What puzzled him, however, was why the vine only grew in height and its diameter didn’t change?

How odd!

Yet, Su Ran didn’t have time to find the answer. He was staking everything on this one gamble, ready to accept any outcome. If it didn’t work out, he could simply go back to the village chief’s house to buy more pearls. Ten days was enough for a round trip!

The energy from the hundred plant essences was substantial, pushing the vine to over five meters in height before the rich growth energy was spent.

"That’s already the mid-stage, it sure grew fast."

Su Ran didn’t stop there, he took out the plant crystals and continued to use them on the Sky-reaching Vine.

"Ding! Cultivation failed, you need to spend 100 gold coins to stabilize the mid-stage form, or wait seven days to continue growing."

The cold system prompt soured Su Ran’s mood, and he couldn’t help but curse inwardly.

Wait seven days?

That’s virtually sending him to death!

This damn system, so tactful in its charges, could still make players willingly spend, not accepting it was not an option!

With no other choice, Su Ran had to relent, obediently taking out 100 gold coins. The effect after the payment was indeed different; the Sky-reaching Vine immediately straightened out.

Heh, how ironic.

"Eh? Overturning Water bro, is that a plant crystal in your hand?"

Banana, surprised, eyed the crystal in Su Ran’s hand and questioned dubiously.

One might give up plant essences, but plant crystals could not be ignored, that crystal was definitely a treasure for an elf! Having spent so much time in Elf Forest and never having obtained a single plant crystal, it was truly rare!

Yet Overturning Water bro was feeding precious plant crystals to the Sky-reaching Vine, what a waste!

At this moment, Banana’s heart was twitching.

"Hmm, good eyesight. I killed a few Silver BOSSes earlier, and luckily obtained five plant crystals."

"Five pieces?"

Banana’s breathing suddenly became much more rapid, and he eagerly said, "Overturning Water bro, we can’t be that wasteful, right? Even these five crystals won’t add much experience, it’s better to leave them all to me, so that these crystals can have a greater effect, making the best use of them. You see what I mean?"

Su Ran nodded without much thought and directly handed the five crystals to Banana. After all, compared to the 10 million experience points needed for Sky-reaching Vine to reach its ultimate form, this 10,000 points of experience was like a drizzle that could barely make any waves!

Banana took them with delight, hugging them tightly to his chest, almost jumping with excitement.

Su Ran, finding it quite amusing, shook his head and didn’t bother with Banana’s foolish display anymore. He took out a handful of pearls and threw them on the Sky-reaching Vine.

"Bang bang bang."

The pearls burst open, turning into a lot of pearl powder absorbed by the vine, and heaps of experience points popped up.

"+100" "+1500" "+3000"

...

The experience points added by pearls of different qualities varied. After consuming about 50 pearls, the Sky-reaching Vine finally gained 100,000 experience points.

"Whoosh~ Whoosh."

The Sky-reaching Vine entered another rapid growth period, its trunk quickly shot up, incessantly growing taller and in no time at all, the top was out of sight. However, to Su Ran’s surprise, the diameter of the vine didn’t seem to increase, and the slender vine swung back and forth in mid-air, likely to break at any moment.

Su Ran continued to feed pearls tentatively and indeed received this system prompt.

"Ding! Cultivation failed, requires 1,000 gold coins to stabilize late-stage growth, or wait for seventy days to continue growing."

Great, hit a cultivation bottleneck again.

A seventy-day stabilization period? What a joke!

If he really waited that long, even daylilies would go cold!

There was no choice. One had to bow one’s head under someone else’s eaves, so he grudgingly accepted the due of 1,000 gold coins.

Since starting the cultivation of the vine, Su Ran had already invested 11,000 dollars in cash. If his mom found out, she would definitely scold him for being a spendthrift, hands on hips, spraying saliva while endlessly chanting the Tightening Spell... That mental image alone was headache-inducing!

Thinking of this, Su Ran swore secretly in his heart to keep such matters deep within himself and never seek that thrill...

As Su Ran paid the price of 1,000 gold coins, the Sky-reaching Vine immediately became stable, soaring straight into the sky, not even a tremble to be seen.

Su Ran helplessly curled his lips, as the saying goes, money talks, and that was vividly demonstrated here.

However, just then, a system prompt sounded, startling Su Ran at first, followed by bursting into laughter. His unusual state scared Banana.

"Ding! Congratulations to player Skull for completing the side quest, Evolution of the Sky-reaching Vine, specially awarded 10,000 experience points."

The quest was completed without even needing to use the Immortal Growth Element, no wonder Su Ran was so exhilarated!

"Overturning Water bro, what’s up? You look a bit off, did something upset you?"

Banana looked at Su Ran with concern, fearing he might do something drastic out of despair.

Without a doubt, Banana’s worry was unnecessary, as Su Ran quickly calmed down, opened the task panel, and looked at the storyline of the Mysterious Path, curious about the next prompt.

"Climb the Sky-reaching Vine, head to the clouds, and there will be a surprising discovery."

No way, was the task hint actually telling him to ascend to the heavens?