"Niri! Can you tell where I want you to aim the solar beam?" Leo called out, urgency thick in his voice.

"Yes, Master, but I don't think the range will be enough for it to be effective." Came a doubtful intent.

She was right. Even though Leo was within fifty meters of the tree's thick trunk, he had left Shyra and Niri far behind. By now, the distance between him and them had stretched to at least three hundred meters. With the solar beam's effective range capped at two hundred meters—plus the fifty meters separating Leo from the tree monster—there was still a total of three hundred and fifty meters between Niri and her target.

And there was no time to close that gap; the behemoth was already close to devouring the lifecore.

"Shyra! Activate Mist Shroud!" Leo barked.

[Mist Shroud]

Fissss—swooosss!

At the same moment, Leo activated his own Mist Shroud as well.

[Mist Shroud]

Immediately, mist burst outward in rolling waves, swirling with faint blue glimmers as it formed two hundred-meter circular discs around both Shyra and Leo. The air cooled sharply, carrying a damp, soily tang.

[30% Strength Increase] – For oneself and allies.

With that boost, Niri's solar beam range climbed to 260 meters.

But even with Shyra's hundred meters and Leo's hundred meters, there was still a stubborn hundred-meter gap—one in which Niri's attack could lose lethal potency. Shyra didn't have the mana reserves to push her mist any further, so the responsibility finally dropped onto Leo's shoulders.

Mana: 10523 / 18819

Leo gritted his teeth. His chest tightened as he forcefully expanded his mist territory. Just as he could shrink the range to save mana, he could also expand it—at a cost that felt absurdly painful. Mist Shroud wasn't a skill he used often, so its mastery was still embarrassingly low. Even at the base hundred-meter range, activating it cost five hundred mana—and that was after the fifty percent reduction from the bloodbond perk.

He inhaled sharply and pushed. The mist rippled outward like a swelling tide.

In one go, he expanded his Mist Shroud from one hundred meters to two hundred meters, covering nearly two-thirds of the entire root-filled enclosure when combined with Shyra's shroud.

Now the entire distance between Niri and the tree behemoth lay smothered under Mist Shroud. That meant the solar beam would travel 260 meters at full potency. The remaining ninety meters, even if weakened, would still scorch deeply—especially against a low-constitution wood-type monster vulnerable to Solar Beam's searing burn.

But—

Mana: 10523 / 18819 → 9519 / 18819 → 8514 / 18819

"W-what the fuck—?! Niri, quick!" Leo yelled. His voice cracked as his mana plummeted at over a thousand units per second.

It felt like something had jammed a thick straw straight into his mana reserves and was gulping them down greedily.

Meanwhile, the Evergrowth Rootspire Behemoth was just about to devour the glowing yellow fruit when a suffocating haze wrapped around its entire vicinity. Normally, mist wouldn't bother the creature; it didn't rely on eyes and perceived the world through its sprawling roots combined with its high intelligence stat. But this mist was different. It smothered even those senses, turning its world into a hazy dream.

Even the Elk jolted, raising its head in alarm. But the moment it realized the golem had reverted to its earlier clumsy, stumbling state, it didn't hesitate. It pressed the attack relentlessly, activating another core's defensive mechanism in the process.

The colossal tree monster panicked. In a desperate reflex, it threw the yellow fruit toward its gaping wooden maw—but before it could bite down—

Hummmmmm—Szzzzllllzzzlzlzz!

The Solar Beam shot through the mist like a bullet train, evaporating vapour as it carved a glowing tunnel straight through the haze. It felt as if a jet aircraft was ripping through dense clouds, leaving a violent, steaming wake behind it.

The moment it reached the behemoth—still dulled from its suppressed senses—it didn't even manage to brace. Instinctively, it tried to snap its closing zig-zag mouth shut around the lifecore, but the beam struck first. Its gaping maw was seared clean through on one side, the charred half peeling away as molten wood hissed and sagged. With only one functioning side left, it couldn't apply the two-way crushing pressure needed to chew the precious core.

sizzzlll—BOOM—hummmm—sizzll!

The entire mouth region of the trunk glowed bright red for a heartbeat—and then the beam punched straight through. Against Solar Beam's searing nature, the creature's constitution might as well have been damp foam. The beam tore a tunnel through its body and blasted out the opposite side in a burst of scorched splinters and steam.

Niri didn't waste a second. With practiced precision, she angled the ray, slowly carving through the remaining trunk like a burning, rotating saw.

Since the job was done, Leo immediately deactivated his Mist Shroud.

Mana: 3540 / 18819

"Damn!" he hissed. Without bothering to cloak himself again, he sprinted toward the Titanbreath Lotus, crunching down a fist-sized peak 2-star mana crystal mid-stride. The mineral's sharp edges bit into his teeth before dissolving into a surge of cool power.

The moment he touched the thick vitality-rich stem of the treasure—

Ding!

<Titanbreath Lotus detected as a living target. Due to abundant ambient spiritual and mana particles, it will remain fresh indefinitely within Spiritual Space>

"Nice!" Leo grinned. The treasure was now officially his.

Crack—BOOM! Fwisss!

A sudden explosion snapped him back. When he turned, he saw the golem had abandoned its assault on the Elk to shield the Rootspire Behemoth. But fate wasn't on its side—while moving in, the Solar Beam had been searing the core region of the golem itself.

Crack—BOOM! Fwiss!

Another turtle-shell barrier activated with a thunderous rebound, its force rippling outward in a heavy shockwave of wind and dust.

That's when Leo saw the pitiful state of the tree monster—now barely ten meters away.

Half of its three-meter-wide trunk was scorched through, the damage almost a meter long, lengthwise. The seared wood glowed in patches like lit charcoal; some parts were blackened to brittle ash, and others still burned with stubborn tongues of fire. The tree monster itself felt like it would topple with half of its support gone.

Leo's eyes widened. The Solar Beam should have lost most potency over the last ninety meters—but despite that, it had still carved through the behemoth like hot metal through soft wax.

"This bastard is a fucking glass cannon!"

"...Or maybe the burn effect was amplified over its wood..." He added quietly.

As he watched, something round tumbled out from the charred opening—rolling end over end until it gently tapped the ground with a muted thud.

[Earthpulse Lifecore - Low Yellow-Tier Treasure]

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A/N: Thanks for all the Power Stones. Bonus chapters will be released soon!

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