"It's beautiful! What is that?" Trisha asked as her eyes glimmered, looking at the giant tree in front of her in the distance.

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It was a red cherry blossom-like tree that emitted a strong, blood-red hue, floating in a wavy circle around the tree. Its crimson-red leaves, contrasting with the blue-coloured ones that surrounded it, created a magnificent contrast, attracting the attention of the players around us.

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"It's the boss monster of this forest," I said as I moved closer to the tree and began unpacking the camping gear.

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"Huh?!" Alarmed, Trisha stepped back before focusing on the tree once again.

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[Boss Monster - Ancient Blood Tree - Lvl 241]

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Sure enough, a massive health bar appeared in front of them with the highest level they had witnessed up until now. The group looked at the tree with a serious expression, almost ready to run away, but then, as they saw me unpacking without any care about the tree, a confused look appeared on their faces.

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"The Ancient Blood Tree has a day/night pattern of attacking. At least when you don't poke it. During the day, it would have a passive drainage effect that would peak during the afternoon, and then keep decreasing until dusk, finally reaching nil as the night starts," I said as I prepared the first camp before moving to the position of the other tents.

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"During the night, it would hibernate and utilise the energy captured in the morning to grow and evolve. Unless you touch or disturb the tree, it won't even notice your presence. Though, because it is the boss monster of the area, the other monsters would not approach it even during the night, making it somewhat a temporary safe zone."

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Even if they do disturb it, at most, it would fight back temporarily for a few seconds before returning to hibernate. For the tree, unless it's an extreme emergency, it would rather hibernate than fight against a bunch of intruders. I recalled the first time I came here and almost lost my life before giving it up.

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Ironically, giving up during the night was the main reason that I was able to recover and survive.

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"Are you… Sure, it's safe?" Blaze asked from a distance. His eyes focused on that [Level 241], shivering a little as he stood there at a distance, unsure of what to do.

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The others weren't faring well either, but then Raven took a step forward. Even though she constantly looked at that tree, she still walked closer to me before beginning to help in setting up the tent.

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"It's not like we have much choice. God, this is freaky… I love it!" Trisha spoke as her bunny hopped towards us as well, followed by G, who seemed ready to take the first shot in case anything went wrong.

Lastly, Blaze and Link followed as well, before they all finally relaxed a little.

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"This is… really cool," Blaze said as he once again looked at the tree. His eyes focused on the boss monster with curiosity before adding,

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"Never would I have thought that I would be having a midnight picnic right beside a boss monster."

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He and Link took a series of pictures of the tree and its surroundings, and then posed differently all around the place once again. They also got Raven and Trisha involved in their silly acts as they cooked, danced, and sang as much as they could.

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Though Raven did not say anything, she constantly smiled from the start to the end, while G simply watched from a distance.

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"You sure do know a lot," G spoke to me, his eyes observing me with curiosity, while I nodded.

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"If I hadn't been prepared, I wouldn't have proposed this journey," I spoke as I then asked G,

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"Aren't you going to enjoy it as well? It's not every day you get to do something like this."

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"My only job is to protect Miss TristanBear. Everything else is secondary," he said with a serious tone, making me chuckle a bit. Then, recalling how serious his real life was, especially with the Vincents and all, I understood what he was talking about. The responsibility to protect Trisha was probably a heavy one.

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"While I doubt there would be anyone approaching us, make sure to keep observing the radar from time to time," I advised him, since even though this is the same forest that I had visited in my last life, things were pretty much different in the entire timeline.

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"You don't have to tell me that," he added before I left him to his own devices.

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Choosing a secluded corner, I then began using my [Fire] Skill to increase its grade by at least one. Though, because of the low amount of MP, it was surely going to take a lot more time doing that, so in the meantime, I also tried doing a bunch of active movement in hopes of getting a skill out of it.

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The idea was to have at least a dozen skills before using [Synthesis] on them. This was a skill that I had never heard of before, a Unique Skill that I believed nobody was able to get in my last life.

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Though other than what the description mentioned, it was something that I had no idea about. Hence, I wanted to try it after I had finished everything I needed to do, and only when I had nothing else to do.

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Well. Let's first combine a couple of weak, less useful skills and see where this goes. I thought as I decided to try a few simpler movements first. The aim was to get a couple of disposable skills. Hopefully, something that I will never need again.

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…

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While I got busy trying to check out my new skill, things weren't really simple in the real world. Because of the information and the proof that I had given to Alexandra about her brother, everything had started spiralling out within the Bellimores.

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It was something that I had somewhat expected to happen. But even I would have been shocked if I had seen how much the whole thing had just spiralled out.

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