204 Dropped From Above (1/2)

At the foot of the staircase fully composed of intricately weaved vines, Leon arrived with the Lilith, while the tree spirit tagged along curiously. While waiting for the others to gather, Leon took the time to inspect the staircase.

At first glance, it was clear that the intricately weaved staircase of vines was not naturally formed, which answered Leon's previous doubts about the tree spirit. The tree spirit had in fact interacted with people before. Although Leon had yet to confirm if these people were humans, it was clear that they were intelligent beings.

\”These vines don't seem to be a part of the elder tree. It seems unnatural and mismatched. There aren't any other vines seen elsewhere around the tree.\” Lilith remarked.

\”Considering the number of vines needed to weave out this intricate but firm staircase, it could just mean that all the vines had been collected and concentrated here, but no, you're right. It wasn't a part of the elder tree.\”

\”Wasn't?\”

Lilith picked up the past tense in his words and asked.

\”En, these vines came from other plants, but now it has been integrated and become a part of the elder tree through grafting,\” Leon explained.

\”Oh… Of course, I-I can tell that much.\” Lilith said defiantly, showing she already knew what he said. However, it was blown by her following question. \”I-It means that someone made it, right?\”

Leon looked at her speechlessly, before answering with a flat \”Yeah\” and shifted his focus upwards, no longer paying attention to her antics. The cluster of swaying crimson leaves made it impossible to see anything within and even makes one nauseous if they stare at it for too long.

Leon shook his head to get rid of the feeling. Lilith blindly looked up for a while and suffered the same nauseous feeling. \”Ah, why do I feel so dizzy from just looking at the leaves swaying?\”

\”If you noticed, the staircase blends well with the stump of the elder tree and there's also supposed to be an opening entrance created for the staircase, but it seems like the staircase just simply disappears into the sea of crimson leaves. This means it's being concealed, possibly with an illusion formation.\”

\”Eh? That's true, no wonder we didn't notice the staircase from the side we came from, despite the staircase spiraling around the tree and only found out after finding the foot of the staircase.\” Lilith said in realization, before she asked confusedly, \”But what's an illusion formation?\”

\”An illusion formation is… a formation that creates an illusion…\” Leon said expressionlessly. He didn't know much about formations; thus, it was the best easy-to-understand explanation he could come up with.

But simply put, Illusion formations were the usage of runic knowledge and a medium to induce a specific visual change in its surroundings.

Although the base of the elder tree was very wide, it didn't take long for Zorbek to round up all the palace guards and had everyone assembled before the foot of the staircase.

\”Your Highness, everyone is here.\” Zorbek greeted.

Leon returned his greeting with a nod of acknowledgment and carefully instructed, \”We will now be heading up to check out the treetop. Chances are there may be a group of intelligent beings up there. They may be hostile to us, or they may not be. However, you are not to attack them unless they attack first. Is that understood!?\”

\”Yes, Your Highness!\”

The group answered firmly. They heard him loud and clear.

\”Alright, Let's head—\”

At the forefront of the group, Leon was about to finish his words to head up, when he heard a sudden plop sound beside them. The palace guards also followed his gaze to see a splattered mixture of white and green gooey substance that had not been there a moment ago.

While the group scrutinized their eyes to understand what it was, one of the palace guards felt like his helmet was struck by something as he staggered.

\”Ugh, what the hell is this?\” Scott said with bewilderment as he rubbed the spot he was struck and found it to be of similar substance to the one found on the ground.

\”What is it, Scott?\” Zorbek questioned.

\”I'm not sure, Captain.\” The bewildered Scott brought the gooey substance closer for a whiff, before he said, \”It doesn't have any distinctive smell that I know of, but it's not unpleasant.\”

\”Pft.\”

Lilith tittered and shuffled a few steps back, drawing her distance from Scott, but at the same time, drew the attention of others. They looked at her suspiciously while she was trying to keep a straight face.

\”You seem to know what that is?\” Leon asked.

\”Well… I'm not exactly certain, but it does resemble the poop of bird species… Hahaha.\” Lilith could no longer hold it and giggled after her explanation.

Scott's face immediately turned green when he heard this. And to think he said it wasn't unpleasant…

\”Bleurgh…\”

Scott began retching.