ROOTS

"And that's how we concluded that you two are the Shea and Ari we know," Ivan spoke in a perfunctory manner as he stared face to face with a gorilla (Shea) and an ogre (Ari). After running into them and handing over a mask they were curious as to how he found out they were his allies.

It was quite simple, he just threw a mask at whatever monster they ran into and if they were met with hostility or confusement they'd be eliminated right away. Ari in particular was easy to find as she hadn't strayed far from the large ogre settlement, and after getting swarmed by dozens of ogres she was easily identified as the only one that stood alone out in the open without a hint of fear on her face.

Shea was a bit more difficult, she had traveled throughout the whole forest in an attempt to locate the group, unintentionally straying farther from them as the loud bangs and crashes were indicators in her ears to run away. It was pure coincidence that they ran into her after she made her third round around the jungle.

"So that's all of us gathered. It seemed this trial intended to test whether we'd be able to identify our teammates despite the changes done to their bodies. In other words, how tough our bonds are…" Another mystery explained, all that was left was discovering how to restore the transformed back to their original bodies.

"Umu, I understand now! But wait, after I went around and around the jungle, I never found a way to continue through the dungeon!" Shea hadn't just been running around aimlessly, instead during her search for the others she documented all the areas she traveled to see a way forward and perhaps progress in the trials.

"Maybe the situation has changed now that we're all together. If anything this is just another trial. Either there's some staircase somewhere waiting for us or another transportation circle is hidden." Ivan led the group through the luscious jungle.

He created a very rudimentary map just to outline the size of the area they were confined to, as such he confirmed that the jungle they were in was formed as a circle. And at the borders of this circle was a thick near-indestructible wall of regenerating tree roots.

Whether it be fire, destruction, transmutation, or the sharp claws of the homunculi girls, nothing they did ever got them further than ten feet into the thick of the nature-formed barrier. The center of the jungle had nothing to note either, it was a clear empty plot of land with a beautiful ray of sunshine shining down on it.

"Ah! Where is the damn thing!?" Shea had just about enough of the madness safari tour of this little jungle. 'As expected of the Berserker Rabbit,' Ivan remarked in his head. He activated a few of his tracking skills as he jumped atop a tree to get another view of the area.

After decimating entire tribes of goblins ogres and shapeshifting apes nothing was left in the jungle to impede their expedition. Ivan had half a mind to not just incinerate the jungle in its entirety before he saw some trees shaking in the distance.

THUMP THUMP THUMP

Trees fell as the ground rumbled, Ivan stared in contemplation before rubbing his eyes vigorously. Whatever it was had been camouflaged to blend in with the trees around it, or the most likely scenario was—

"I-It's a tree…" He telegraphed that message using the telepathy mask. What had been heading their way was a tree that surmounted every other in the vicinity, to be more specific a trent-like monster approached them. Its tentacle-like vines writhed in the air as if to show off the monster's ferocity.

The trent's 'mouth', which was just rigid cracks in its trunk, opened wide to reveal the dark emptiness within. It demolished every tree in its path, but what was important to note was that every tree ran over by the trent had mysteriously disappeared after being taken down.

"Those affected by the dungeon's effects stay back, take these tools," Ivan yelled aloud before throwing dozens of artifacts from his spatial ring. While Yue, Shea, and Ari were incapable of using their magic they still had control of mana. Monsters being creatures made by excessive mana mutations meant that their new bodies were capable of using it without any circles or chants.

Which also meant they would have no problems using that mana to activate offensive artifacts, the only stipulation being that their mana capacity was not nearly as large as it was in their former bodies.

To counteract that Ivan went ahead and also gave the three some of his battery rings, charged to the brim with mana ready to burst.

BANG BANG BANG!

The three transformed members of the group shot laser-like rays out of staves Ivan formed for the sake of arming an otherwise weak army. Initially, he intended on mass manufacturing them for potential droids to counter Ehit's apostles but as they were now they stood as great tools to perform suppressive fire.

There was always a chance to upgrade them in the future anyway.

"Fire!" Ivan swung one arm down as if it were a hammer as an array of red beams shot out from behind him and into the trunk of the trent's body. Claire diced up any incoming vines using her twin daggers as Felis copied the basic stave magic and upped it with more mana in a way that made it a more effective weapon.

Canis followed Claire's example using her claws as hedge trimmers. However, as time went on the number of vines that writhed through the air never decreased, in fact, the amount of them only grew. It seemed that to progress past this enemy they'll need to take care of it directly.

Claire singled to Ivan using a telepathy mask before taking his position in guarding the affected fighters of their group. "Well here we go!" Ivan bellowed before summoning large amounts of water he had stored in a miniature Treasure Trove. The pursuing water quickly turned to ice and slowed the movement of the trent monster.

This was the moment he was looking for. Ivan jumped from frozen vine to frozen vine rushing to the trent's core. It was only when he stood five meters away from it that the trent showed signs of having feigned its veil of weakness.

Trees shot from the ground to form a wall of thick wood, another row appearing behind Ivan as the monster intended to crush him from within. Ivan sighed before tapping the ground with his foot, a hole appeared beneath him and swallowed him up mere moments before getting grabbed.

A few seconds later another hole opened up and Ivan appeared far away from the trent's trap. He had two options, one was to keep shooting it in hopes of its regenerative powers fading out, and another was going all-in on hoping that destroying the trunk would end it all.

But in the end, he decided why not use both, Ivan signaled to the others to focus on any of the trees that shot out of the ground. As far as Ivan knew, its tree defenses were created by the surrounding trees.

So to get rid of them, all his group had to do was make sure there were no nearby trees. To make sure the job went smoothly he brought out a composite of ores and chemicals from his storage, looking away as he threw a plethora of materials into a vial while completely leaving his defense to his partners.

Ivan sat with crossed legs as he hummed a tune, ignoring the explosions and rumbling that happened around him as he delicately mixed his new concoction. As long as it served its intention of being created it shouldn't be too hard to create, in fact, he'd be a waste of an alchemist if he weren't able to do one simple trick.

BANG BANG BANG!

"Can you keep it down?!" Ivan bellowed before huffing and returning to the task at hand. He returned to his tunes as if nothing had happened, ignoring the hesitation of the monster as it froze for a few seconds out of trepidation, unfortunately, his team fell to the same effects other than Yue and Tio who kept blasting despite it.

"Voilà!" He held the vial in his hand before standing up, ignoring the vines that exploded near his hands as the monster felt a sense of danger from the potion that man had brewed. Ivan thanked his boundary for a moment before dashing toward the monster once more with renewed vigor.

He left his back to his team while using his right arm to destroy anything that stood in his path to deter him. The wall of trees appeared once more, this timeless in number as the group's effectiveness in its destruction became apparent.

Ten meters… Seven meters…. Five meters….. And finally, three meters.

Ivan broke through the last wall of trees before making it to the trunk of the trent. He shook the bottle in his hand before tossing it with an underhand throw, grinning beneath his mask as the bottle shattered against the trent's trunk.

"RUUUHHAHHHH!" For the first time since this encounter, the trent made an audible noise, it screamed in what Ivan could only assume was agony as the entirety of its wooden body melted and dissolved like wet paper.

Ivan puffed out his chest in pride, ignoring the shivering of his group as they looked at the melting trent with pity. It wasn't for another five minutes that the suffering came to an end, as did the trent's life.

"W-We did it…" Felis exhaled loudly in celebration.

"What are ya' sounding so uncertain about? Compared to the Sea Angel in the Melusine Labyrinth, this thing was nothing! But now that the presumed king of the jungle is dead, we can—"

RUMBLE!

From the ashes of the trent arose a new structure, yet again another trunk of a tree. Only this time what shone from its center was the same white light that appeared when they first activated the entrance to the labyrinth.

"So this is what we needed to take down before moving on to the next trial…" Ivan spoke with enthusiasm as he approached the trunk, the rest of the group followed behind him with caution visible in their eyes.

"No need to get so worked up, I'm sure that challenge was just to see if we were as effective as a group even when three members of our team got incapacitated."

His words caused the others to relax a little bit, finding no fault in his words they approached the trunk with less caution than before.

"Though to be safe, let's lock hands. It probably won't help if we get separated again but it's worth a shot!" Ivan held out his hand, locking it with Tio as Yue sat on his shoulders. To his right was Felis, who locked hands with Canis.

"Alright, three, two, one—!" Ivan counted down before jumping through the gate, smiling as the white light consumed them all.

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Another day, another chapter. Here we develop through this dungeon's many trials, honestly it was quite the long read. Volume eight was really good though and perhaps my favorite throughout the series. I can't wait to begin reading Zero no Tsukaima though, that series made a big impact on me in my childhood~!

So hey, thanks for reading! Have a great evening and I'll see you all real soon~!

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