Chapter 9 Part I

    Giga Rafflesia

    "We've arrived, Möbius. This cave is where the Moonlight Pond is."

    Gumiho stood brushing off the yellow pollen clinging to her clothes and fur, informing Möbius. She used to enjoy visiting this place because the Moonlight Pond was such a beautiful spot.

    "We don't have much time left, Miho. Let's hurry."

    Möbius urged the fox girl as he glanced at a beautiful wild rose bush at the entrance of the cave.

    Now, both of them stood at the mouth of the cave at the far western edge of the Illusion Forest, fortunate that the sun had just touched the horizon. They still had some time before the moon would rise. The cave, which housed the Moonlight Pond, was beneath a cliff of about three stories high. Above the cliff, which seemed to have once been a forest, there appeared to be a large vent spewing large amounts of yellow poisonous pollen. Möbius guessed that it might be the hole where the moonlight once shone directly onto the Moonlight Pond.

    The cave's entrance was large enough to easily accommodate a truck, but as they walked further inside, the cave seemed to narrow gradually. Like other cave walls, this one was scattered with white light crystals all along the path. This was the first time Möbius had seen crystals not embedded in the walls. They were spherical with small spikes around them. Möbius picked one up to examine.

    "These are crystals of light; since this cave receives a lot of moonlight, these crystals are also abundant."

    Gumiho explained expertly. This was basic magic knowledge that Inari had taught her. But for Möbius, who hadn't been in this world very long, he was curious about their use.

    "And besides providing light, do they have any other uses, Miho?"

    "Uses? Maybe for playing pranks, like this."

    The fox girl stepped heavily on one of the light crystals under her foot.

    As soon as the crystal shattered, a burst of bright light emanated from the small crystal, illuminating the entire cave as if lightning had struck inside. Möbius, caught off guard, jumped from the sudden surprise.

    "Hehe, it's just like the crystals of power. Once they break, the elemental power within is released. Like the light element just now, it produces a burst of light."

    Gumiho laughed brightly when she saw Möbius startled, before she shared some basic knowledge that her mother had once told her. This made Möbius collect these light element crystals as they might be useful in the future. He then had an idea.

    "What if they are fire element crystals? Could they be used to attack?"

    "Sure, but you'd have to slap the fire crystals right onto the enemy's face, and your hand would need to withstand the fire element too. Actually, casting fire magic is much more convenient."

    The fox girl explained, addressing why some people carelessly discarded such seemingly useless crystals. Nevertheless, Möbius continued to collect the light crystals, as at the very least, they provided illumination.

    Inside the cave, a strong wind was constantly blowing, which was fortunate for them because if they had to walk against the pollen, they might not have withstood its poison. Due to the strong winds, the yellow pollen from the upper part of the cliff was blown very high and was another reason why the forest was almost entirely covered with yellow pollen.

    "Be careful, Möbius, we are almost there."

    After the fox girl finished speaking, she transformed into her fox form to prepare for battle, as she was faster in this form, though it took longer to gather magical power than in her human form.

    About 200 meters from the cave entrance, they reached the end which opened into a large, circular hall about 30 meters wide. At the center of the hall was a similarly round water pond with a diameter of about 15 meters, but Möbius thought it resembled more of a puddle because it seemed quite shallow, only about a foot deep.

    The surrounding area was dotted with two or three large boulders, and the rest of the area seemed to have been smoothly crafted by humans. He couldn't help but wonder how beautiful this cave must have been if it weren't for those selfish people.

    Above the beautiful pond, a massive tree nearly filled the Moonlight Pond. It seemed to be tree made of numerous green vines packed together vertically, topped with large flowers, the center of each flower having small, sharp teeth arranged like a large meat grinder, constantly emitting its yellow pollen.

    The pollen was blown out through circular holes where sunlight streamed down right into the middle of the pond. The tree's red petals spotted with white made it an exceedingly ugly sight, and it seemed that the giant tree was unaware of its enemy's presence right in front of it.

    (Burn it now while it's still unaware, Miho.)

    Möbius communicated telepathically to the fox girl. He figured that trees were normally susceptible to fire. Gumiho gathered her strength and immediately spewed fire from her tail at the tree.

    4000 (Critical hit from an attack by an unaware target)

    'You have encountered Giga Rafflesia, a level 40 boss monster.'

    The damage was as high as Möbius had anticipated, but the tree boss didn't catch fire. Only a bit of black smoke emerged, reminding him of trying to start a fire with fresh leaves, which besides being difficult to ignite, produces a lot of smoke. Moreover, the poisonous tree boss seemed to realize that there were intruders. It began to attack with its vine, each end having a small mouth, charging both of them at once.

    (Split up, Miho!)

    Möbius told Gumiho as he whipped out the I&E, firing wildly as usual, before running to take cover behind a large nearby rock and then pulling out his Thompson to rest it against the rock. He immediately started spraying bullets at the giant tree, the damage numbers shooting up like a fountain due to the gun’s rate of fire at 90 rounds per minute.

    Of course, the giant tree didn’t let Möbius shoot it for free. It quickly sent its vines lunging at the young man. Even though Möbius used the rock for cover, the vines shot out, trapping him from the left, right, and center, blocking all his escape routes. But just then, a large fireball collided with the trunk of the giant tree.

    2000

    (Dodge quickly, Möbius.)

    It was the fox girl who ran to gather energy and fired another large fireball at the tree, causing the vines that were attacking Möbius to pause momentarily, allowing him to escape.

    (Keep gathering power, Miho. I’ll keep it distracted with my shots. If you see it’s about to hit me, then release the fireball to intercept.)

    Möbius relayed the plan to the fox girl before resuming firing bullets at the poisonous tree, which was now turning to attack the fox girl.

    35×53

    45×10 (Critical hit from the ability)

    The fox girl easily dodged the vines that the giant tree used to attack her, thanks to Möbius keeping the vines slow with his shooting. As the giant tree turned its attention to Möbius, she prepared to unleash her magic power on the tree to assist Möbius immediately. This time she tried a new move she had just thought of.

    300×9

    Gumiho used all nine of her tails, infusing them with magic power, turning them into large golden spears, and then spread them out and stabbed them into the trunk of the tree. As soon as all her tails were embedded in the trunk, they emitted a golden glow before exploding from within.

    500×9

    Numerous numbers popped up from the giant flower again due to the massive amount of fire forced into it. The tree boss’s poison couldn’t affect them, making the fight much easier than they had anticipated.

    With the cooperation of both, it seemed that Giga Rafflesia was nearly defeated. The movements of its attacking vines slowed significantly, and the mouth on the flower, looking ugly and red, seemed to choke on its own pollen all the time.

    (We’re going to win this, Gumiho.)

    Möbius looked up at the ceiling where orange light was shining down, indicating they still had plenty of time before the sun set and the moonlight came down. But... reality can be cruel. Although most people think the sun must set before the moon rises, that isn't true because if it were so, we would see the moon just as we see the sun every day.

    True, the sun rises and sets at almost the same time each day, but the moon rises about 50 minutes later than it did the previous day, allowing on some days, when the sunlight is fading, for the moon to be visible while the sun is still up. Moreover, moonlight, which is sunlight reflected off the moon, is stronger when the sun and moon are together compared to when they are opposite each other by tenfold.

    And today seemed to be Möbius's unlucky day as the moon had risen before the sun had set.

    (This is bad, it's gaining power from the moonlight already.)

    Gumiho, having a better sense for detecting changes in energy than Möbius, immediately warned him when she felt a shift in the power, indicating that the poisonous tree would no longer be an easy opponent.

    "Why though? The sun hasn't set yet. Ha!!! Could it be...?"

    Möbius, realizing the truth of the situation above, was suddenly alarmed by his own carelessness for forgetting about it.

    +99999

    A massive green number popped up from the head of Giga Rafflesia. Various wounds that had appeared all over its trunk were healing at an unbelievable rate. Every part of it grew larger, the small teeth around its flower and the fangs at the ends of its tendrils elongated, becoming as sharp as shark's teeth. In just a blink of an eye, Giga Rafflesia looked far more formidable than before.

    "Hmmm...!!!"

    The poisonous tree, boosted by the light energy, roared at its enemies in front of it and released a large amount of pollen.

    'You have encountered Giga Rafflesia-Moonlight, a level 45 boss monster.'

    'Player Möbius and partner are poisoned at level 1.'

    The giant tree had gained energy from the moonstone, increasing its level by five levels. Due to this increase in level, its poison ability had risen to level 6, which was more potent than Möbius and Gumiho's level 5 poison resistance, causing them both to suffer from level 1 poisoning.

    Now the situation was truly dire. Even though it was only level 1 poison, it caused Möbius and Gumiho to breathe more heavily, feel slightly dizzy, and their strength was gradually decreasing. Möbius hoped that this time he would survive the system's justice once more.

    Despite the dire circumstances, Möbius refused to give up against the giant tree so easily. He decided to test the waters by firing his I&E at the Giga Rafflesia, which was empowered by the moonlight.

    As soon as she saw her partner attacking the poisonous tree, Gumiho also started attacking with fireballs. With their combined efforts, the poisonous tree started to sustain some damage. However, it was not long before they faced a major setback.

    +99999

    (Möbius, this doesn't look good.)

    The fox girl noticed that the poisonous tree had healed itself completely, not even a scratch remained from their earlier attacks. She couldn't figure out how they could possibly defeat an enemy that was continuously gaining power, and while she was pondering this,

    500 (Remaining 2400/3300)

    A vine with sharp teeth at its end struck Gumiho's torso, throwing her to one corner of the room opposite the entrance. If the fox girl hadn't been weakened from continuously using magic power and being poisoned, she could have easily dodged this attack.

    (Are you okay, Miho?)

    Möbius immediately ran to check on his partner, seeing a large amount of blood flowing from her torso. The teeth at the end of the vine had inflicted a severe wound that made her hurt to the point where she could hardly get up.

    (I’m fine. I'm still okay.)

    Gumiho tried to stand up despite having a vine biting into her torso and communicated telepathically with Möbius. Her usually bright voice was now weak. As Möbius reached her, he quickly drew an axe he had obtained from a Flame Tigers and chopped off the vine biting his fox companion, before handing her several multicolored potions to Miho.

    (Miho, drink these potions first.)

    Möbius stood between the poisonous tree and the fox girl to protect her while she was recovering. He also grabbed a strawberry-flavored red potion to drink in preparation for the 7-8 tendrils that the poisonous tree was raising high to prepare for an attack on both of them, now weakened.

    (Möbius, get out of the way or you'll die. I have much more life energy than you.)

    Gumiho tried to step forward past Möbius, but collapsed due to her injuries, forcing the young man to face the boss-level monster's attacks alone.

    100×3 (Remaining 595/895)

    "Grrr...!!!"

    Möbius clenched his teeth to suppress the pain. Although he had called upon the iron armor from the Flame Tigers to use as a shield, it could not fully substitute for a shield. He was struck by the tendrils' force, causing blood to seep from the skin of his arm where it had split from the massive impact.

    After this wave of attacks subsided, there was a brief moment to counterattack. Even though he knew it was futile, it might buy them some time, and it did go as he expected.

    80×3

    +99999

    Once again, the poisonous tree fully regenerated its strength and was unscathed. But this time, as Möbius watched the tree while it healed itself unblinkingly, he noticed a slight glow from its mouth when it used its regenerative powers, although he couldn't confirm that the Moonlight Stone was inside the giant flower's mouth. Even though his attacks could buy some time, they couldn't stall indefinitely. Finally, the tree boss was ready to strike again.

    Multiple tendrils lashed out at the young man, the sound of them hitting the armor echoed throughout the cave, with multiple red numbers popping up over Möbius' head.

    100×4 (Remaining 195/895)

    Beep, beep, beep

    'Player Möbius is in danger.'

    (Möbius, run. Run away. Use a spell scroll to teleport back to town now.)

    The system's warning that Möbius was close to death reached Gumiho, who had just recovered enough to stand. She quickly told Möbius to escape, her voice filled with urgency and concern. But before the young man could move, more tendrils than before lunged at them again, hoping to finish off their prey in front of them.

    (Miho, gather your power and fire the 'Foxfire Piercing the Ninth Heaven' towards there and then take cover behind that rock.)

    Moebius threw the iron armor forward to receive the vines, which shattered upon receiving the heavy attack from the giant poisonous tree but had fulfilled its last purpose in stopping the attack. He asked the fox girl to fire her final move at the point he pointed at the poisonous tree and took several more bottles of the red potion as the onslaught were still not over.

    200×3 (Remaining 195/895)

    (Möbius...)

    The Gumiho could only utter the name of the young man who was drenched in his own blood just to protect her from the enemy she didn't think she could defeat. In his hand was a giant double-edged axe that he used to cut the vines to save her, but the axe could not defend against all the attacks, causing his boosted life force to fall into critical level once again. Although she wanted to transform into a human to recover faster, there was no chance for that.

    “Huuum...!!!”

    The giant poisonous tree cried out in frenzy as its yellow pollens were released in anger for not being able to kill its target despite attacking it so many times already. This time, it sent out more than 10 vines at high speed to its target once again ferociously.