Seed of Titan

As the rest of the party was heading to safety, Drai was being pummeled by the strange root, leaving the area around the entrance in tatters.

However, if one were to look closely, they would notice that the root's movement was beginning to slow down. Furthermore, there were numerous cracks throughout the end of the root.

As the root kept slamming into Drai, its speed was constantly decreasing and its surface was crumbling bit by bit. Eventually, the root halted its pummeling and slithered back into the jungle.

A pile of rubble exploded as a hobo leaped out.

'What a waste of clothes,' Drai thought as he examined his clothes that had turned into rags. His shoes were also buried somewhere beneath the rubble.

After contemplating briefly, Drai decided not to change clothes since he only brought one spare set. He suspected that he would have to go through a similar fight, and he didn't want to return to the academy dressed like a beggar.

'This feels nostalgic,' Drai thought as he took of his ragged shirt. He did train topless back in his hometown, which enabled his destructive physical regimes. At the academy, he couldn't go topless freely, so he was forced to adjust his training so that he wouldn't be forced to buy a new shirt every day.

'I wonder why that root retreated? It was pretty good training since I don't have to move at all. It's like training with a machine.'

Drai didn't know that the root was part of the mechanism of the main plant to gather sustenance. After spending a certain amount of energy, the root was forced to retreat because the hunt wasn't worth the energy expenditure anymore.

But Drai was still impressed by the root, so he went inside the jungle to take a look.

"Hey, the root's still there!" Drai exclaimed as he headed toward the place at which Flo had been attacked earlier.

"Come on, wake up," Drai said as he kicked the large root with his foot repeatedly. Not long after, the root shook and quickly slithered into the ground, completely disappearing from sight.

Drai's shoulders slumped when he saw this. But he soon looked excited as he had an idea.

'I should find its main body and get some seeds or saplings. That way I can plant them back at the campus and have my own beating machine!' he thought excitedly.

Pleased with the thought, Drai walked back toward the entrance merrily.

'Which way Christo and the others went again? I think he said 'right', so it should be this way. Yep, let's go.'

Drai then jogged along the cave wall to the right, not realizing that his friends had gone the opposite way.

***

It's been around an hour since Christo's group had stopped quite away from the entrance. They were huddled near the cave wall since they didn't want to enter further into the jungle with their powerhouse missing. After all, who knew what would've become of Flo had Drai not been there to save her earlier?

"He's taking too long," Natalia said concernedly.

"It's fine…" Jian reassured as he was wiping his sword.

"What if he dies because of me?" Flo asked. Her complexion looked way better than before, but her fingers were twiddling around from worry.

"Heh, if Drai dies then we all might as well be dead," Jian said, blowing the edges of his shiny blade.

"Why are you so sure? Don't tell me you've got an intuition too like Christo," Auri said.

Sheathing his blade, Jian shook his head in disapproval.

"You girls just don't understand. In cultivation stories, Drai is like a protagonist. And what do protagonists have in common? Heaven's providence. It's basically plot armor combined with fortunate encounters. So, relax… Drai's probably gobbling up an insane amount of EXP now. I bet by the end of our venture, he will have leveled up."

The girls looked at Jian like he's some kind of lunatic. Even Flo was starting to think that there's something wrong with his head.

"Let's go take a look, Jian. You girls stay here. If we don't return in an hour, find a way to safety or look for an exit, but don't go anywhere near the entrance," Christo ordered.

The girls wanted to protest but held back their words after seeing Christo's solemn expression. Soon, Christo and Jian was already out of sight.

Flo rummaged her satchel mindlessly as her thoughts were preoccupied with Drai. Meanwhile, Natalia stood up and practiced her moves, trying to get rid of her restlessness.

Auri looked at the sight of her friends with a sigh. She lied down and stared at the canopy of leaves.

'I would probably be casting my spells mindlessly too if I didn't have to worry about my mana. Jian's right, we mages suck,' Auri thought rather amusedly.

A series of whooshes soon filled the area. They kept going faster and faster until Auri couldn't take it anymore.

"Cut it out, would you?" Auri said as she sat up. But she immediately gasped as soon as her eyes laid upon Natalia.

Natalia was rapidly punching in fury as if possessed. Her usually subtle azure scales were now protruding from her skin. Her fair face was now red and her eyes were burning with zeal.

"She wouldn't stop, Auri," Flo worriedly said.

"Natalia…" Auri muttered. Her eyes were fixated at her while her mind was reflecting on herself.

'I thought I liked Drai a lot, but why am I only worried and not furious like Natalia? Was it just a fling? Or am I just a heartless person?'

Auri kept pondering but failed to come to a conclusion. She shook her head and decided to put aside her thoughts for now.

As her mind returned to the present, Auri's eyes bulged as she noticed Natalia's face was starting to turn blue.

"Natalia, stop!" she shouted.

However, Natalia seemed entranced as she kept rapidly punching, not responding to Auri at all.

"What do we do?!" Flo frantically asked.

"We can't get close to her and risk getting knocked out… Wait, let me use my spells!"

Auri immediately gather mana before launching a red ray. To her dismay, the ray was repelled by the tempest of fists.

"Oh no! I think her scales has magic defense properties!" Auri exclaimed.

"Can't you make your spell bigger like when you cleaned the wall?" Flo suggested.

"I'll try!"

Once again Auri collected mana, but this time in both hands. She closed her eyes in order to adjust her spell output, and seconds later, she launched a large blue ray.

The ray was so large that it was even bigger than Auri. And as soon as the blue ray hit Natalia, she was smashed away, similar to how Drai was launched by the root but not as far.

Natalia slammed into the ground and lied there unmoving. Auri and Flo quickly approached and checked her condition.

"Asphyxiation! Oh Natalia, why did you go crazy?" Flo said after inspecting her.

"Will she be alright?" Auri asked.

"Her breathing is slowly stabilizing and we've stopped her before she truly fell into asphyxiation, but the lack of oxygen earlier may have adverse effects…"

Flo suddenly stood up and ran into the jungle.

"Where are you going, Flo?!" Auri shouted worriedly. However, Flo didn't heed her and kept running around the jungle.

Natalia's breathing was slowly returning to normal, but her complexion was still awful.

Auri was just starting to wonder if she had to give Natalia CPR when Flo finally returned with a handful of leaves.

Flo immediately crouched beside Natalia. She took a leaf and rolled it until it became a thin tube. She then used a skill on the tube before sticking it up Natalia's nose. She then repeated this for the other nostril.

Auri watched in amazement as Natalia's recovery accelerated. And a few minutes later, her complexion had returned to normal and her breathing was stable.

"What's this?" Auri asked, sniffing one of the leaves that Flo had brought from the jungle.

"It's a snake plant variant. The snake plant has the property of rapidly converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, and this variant takes it a few levels higher. I just empowered its property a bit and used it as an oxygen tube," Flo explained while wiping off her sweat.

"Ooh… It does make the air feel fresher," Auri said after sticking up the leaf up her nostril.

"Yeah, but it won't work for too long because it's cut off from the main body. It will eventually stop working when it runs out of sustenance."

"Hmm… Too bad. I can get used to this."

At this moment, Natalia started to wake up. As she was rubbing her eyes, she realized that Auri and Flo were staring at her closely.

"W-what happened?" Natalia asked, slightly dazed.

"You happened," Auri replied as she took out the leaf in her nose.

"What do you mean?" Natalia said, slowly sitting up.

"You went berserk and nearly asphyxiated!" Flo said with a reprimanding tone. She then described the whole matter to Natalia.

"So these things saved me, huh?" Natalia remarked while inspecting the small leaf tubes she had taken off.

"You were already recovering, so these are just precautions," Flo explained.

"You know, I thought your red face was part of your transformation or something since your scales looked different too, but turns out you were running out of oxygen," Auri said.

"Sorry. I was desperate," Natalia apologized. She then lied down and closed her eyes, feeling tired.

"You know... I didn't want to leave Drai back there, but I was forced to. I knew it wasn't likely that I would be able to do anything in that situation since that root was strong enough to toy with Drai." Natalia explained as she opened her eyes. She then raised her arm and gazed at the numerous scales that had merged back with her skin.

"But ever since that moment, I kept questioning myself, 'Why did I give up before trying?' And after thinking about, I realized that it's because of my mindset. And I also became aware of how much more lacking I am compared to Drai.

"I've always planned my path, following the routine I've set for myself. I trust my judgement, and I believe that all that I've been doing will bring me to the level that I'm aiming for.

"But is that enough? Look at what happened today—we were thrown into precarious circumstances that's beyond our capabilities. But what if I had trained way harder? Wouldn't my capabilities be higher than it currently is? I know the System doesn't instantly reward our hard work, but what if I had started working hard earlier way before my awakening? Wouldn't my class be far stronger than what I currently have? Would it be as strong as Drai's?

"And that's why I said I'm much more lacking compared to Drai. Now I realize that his absurd training isn't just rashness. When we look at a cliff, we only think that it's high or dangerous, but Drai will instead wonder whether he can survive if he jumps down from it. When you first used your rays, Auri, most of us only thought that they were cool or interesting, but Drai was the only one who tried to incorporate it into his training.

"Drai always looks for a possibility to train his body in everything he sees. And what's more amazing is that he also has the willpower to follow through his unreasonable ideas that other people won't even dare to attempt. We often credit this to his tough body and overpowered class, but wasn't he just a normal human before, just like all of us were? The thing that made him different was his willingness to plow through any hardship, unlike most of us who are so used to setting our own limits.

"And that's why I was desperate. I wanted to become stronger, faster, braver. I wanted to give my all every time I train, just like Drai. I wanted to be able to help Drai back there. I wanted to turn back time and start over…"

Natalia tightly clenched her raised fist, her expression was a mixture of anger and sorrow.

Auri and Flo looked at each other helplessly, not knowing how to respond to their friend's predicament.

After a short moment of silence, Natalia finally stood back up.

"If something really happened to Drai, I swear I'll come back here and burn down this whole damn place," Natalia proclaimed with a cold expression.

***