Life Hunter

Rex repeatedly nodded with a happy expression "It feels good. That little guy would always talk to us that way, but we couldn"t harm him without killing him and we also needed to keep a neutral relation with the Dryad" He said and laughed

Hieran also smirked "We also couldn"t destroy those barriers without causing unnecessary damage. You have a great understanding of s.p.a.ce" He praised Arima

The latter put back Karma in his soul and started walking towards the Dryad"s territory "Let"s go inside" He said to the two beasts followed.

Inside the verdure paradise, the leaves, gra.s.s, vines and flowers, everything was disproportioned. Just a simple leaf was bigger than Arima. In the end, because it was annoying to brush away all the plants he had in his path, Arima jumped on Hieran"s back and sat down.

"Sorry for that" He said to the dragon

Hieran laughed "Don"t mind"

On his back, Arima observed the surroundings. This area was maybe around five hundred hectares, pretty small compared to the entire size of the forest. But this place was really "green". There wasn"t any other word to describe that feeling. All plants here shined in a clean and beautiful light green.

It didn"t take long for the three to reach the center of this zone. In the same center, stood a really impressive tree. The trunk had maybe a diameter of around a hundred meters and it raised to the sky for almost two kilometers.

At its roots, stood a tall woman wearing a green dress, she had refined features, green hair and pointy ears. Arima instantly recognized her as the Dryad but her expression didn"t express any anger when she saw them arriving.

Arima jumped from Hieran"s back and landed beside Rex who was closer to the Dryad. Arima looked at the latter.

The beautiful woman frowned when she saw Arima "You"re the one that destroyed my arrays?" She asked with a clear voice "Miane told me you wanted to meet me, what it is for?" Evergreen pointed at a squirrel behind her and asked

Arima smiled "I"m here because I need your help on something" He said

"Go away, I won"t help someone just because he wants it" She responded with a detached expression "Don"t ever break those barriers again, it"s problematic to remake them" She said and turned back before heading towards the giant tree.

"There"s a reason why you will help" Arima said indifferently and Evergreen froze "Your forest"s integrity" He said

The Dryad looked at him "It"s true Miane told me about something like a savior of the forest, you"re the one who stopped that "thing" then. But that"s doesn"t work as a reason for me to help you"

Arima shook his head "You got me wrong" He said and stared at her "If you don"t help me, your forest will burn" He said coldly

Evergreen was shocked by those words and sent daggers at Arima with her eyes "Do you think you can threaten me?" Her eyes glowed in a green light and each plant around her did the same. A wave of spirit surrounded Arima and attacked him.

The Dryad was expecting Arima to flee or pale but what she got was just a smirk and a clap "So, does that mean I can say that you provoked me?" Arima said

"(What? What do you mean provoking you? You threatened me first!)" Evergreen shouted in his mind "…Why can you still stand there like that?" She asked

"Mh?" Arima tilted his head "The real question is how you are still standing?" He said

"Wh" The Dryad suddenly paled and fell on her knees she grabbed her shoulders and hugged herself. She started trembling, she raised her head with difficulty and looked at Arima. Right now, every second she looked at him she felt a chill in her heart growing stronger "What…did you do?" She struggled to open her mouth and uttered

Arima smirked "You tried to attack me with your mind, right?" he said "You tried to enter in my mind and you suffered a recoil" He explained her

"That"s…impossible" Evergreen already was breathing heavily "What kind of mind is that supposed to be? A human, no, a thinking living being couldn"t possess a mind like that" She stood up with difficulty "Unless you"re crazy" She said.

Evergreen used not only her own mind but also the one coming from the forest to attack Arima but the latter overpowered it by just being who he is.

"Crazy, huh?" Arima mumbled "Mh, well, maybe it"s more accurate than madman at least" He smiled and said

Evergreen breathed in and her mind calmed down a bit "…What kind of help does a crazy man like you need from me?" She ultimately asked

Arima smiled "I want to you to help me find something" He said and pointed at the sky

Evergreen saw where that finger was pointed towards and frowned "What do you mean?"

"Remember the meteorite from a few days ago? I want you to help me find who or what sent that asteroid here and also his or its position" Arima explained

"That thing was sent by someone?" The dryad was surprised and she fell silent for a moment "I don"t think I can do it. Even if I use the power of all the forest I won"t be able to do it, I"ll be short in mana very quickly" She honestly answered to Arima

"That"s okay" Arima followed "I can provide you with mana, and backup if you lose control" He said

Evergreen pondered "If you have enough mana then it may work" She said "Come with me" She turned around and headed towards the huge tree.

"Hey, aren"t they being a bit too much friendly right now?" Rex asked in a low voice to Hieran beside him

"I don"t know, but it seems they"re getting along pretty well" The latter answered "Maybe we didn"t realize before but those two are maybe extremely similar" He said in conclusion

Rex mused for a bit "Maybe you"re right, they both seem to have a great ego, and I think Arima even has a bigger one than her" He said and nodded

"Well, now we just have to wait" Hieran said

"You two go home, why are you still here?" The Dryad heard them talking and then said coldly.

The two beasts" expressions darkened and they left with a drooped head.

Arima followed Evergreen, the latter reached the trunk and touched it. The wood deformed and she pa.s.sed through. Arima stopped just in front of the tree and knocked on it three times and the wood deformed and produced some ripples on the surface. He then walked in and pa.s.sed through the tree.

Arima found himself in a room illuminated by a yellowish light after he entered. Evergreen walked in the room and headed towards a bamboo chair in the middle of the room. She sat on it and pointed at another chair on the side for Arima to sit down. The latter quietly sat down and Evergreen poured some tea in a cup that was on a table there. She handed the cup to Arima and then poured one to herself before starting to drink it.

Arima"s expression was twitching, he was trying to resist the awkwardness of the situation. He forced a cough "Can we start, now?" He asked

The Dryad strangely smiled "Start what?" She asked and Arima"s mouth twitched. She put down her cup on the table and let out a chuckle "I"ll help you at one condition" She said

Arima sighed "It was that after all" He complained "Go on"

"If you let me probe your mind, I"ll help you" She said in total honesty and seriousness

Arima glanced at her and took a sip of tea "Fine, but you can"t look into my memories" He said simply

"Sure, I"m okay with that" Evergreen nodded and the walls of the room shined along with her eyes. A mind wave reached out to Arima but this one wasn"t as intrusive as the last one and Arima also let down his defenses.

The room fell silent for a moment. Arima took another sip of tea and Evergreen looked at him "Are you maybe impotent?"

Arima almost spat out his tea and froze for a second. He finished his tea and put down the cup "Did you do that on purpose or what? You waited for me to drink that before asking or what?" He snapped "And for your question, it"s a no"

Evergreen tilted her head "You"re sure? While you were alone with me here, you didn"t even think about a simple romantic situation" She said based on the information she just got from Arima"s mind "That apart, like I thought, you"re crazy. Your mind is a mess, how do you even keep control of it?" She commented

Arima shrugged "Can we go to the main point here?" And he asked

Evergreen chuckled, she waved her hand and two white spheres emerged from the ground and hovered in front of her and Arima "Put your hand on it" Evergreen said, she placed her hand on the sphere and closed her eyes. Arima followed the example and imitated her.

When he closed his eyes, he felt like he was above the forest looking from the sky

"{In this state, you"re directly connected to this mother tree with me as a medium}" Evergreen"s voice resounded in his mind

"{I see}" Arima responded

"{I will start to connect the entire forest, when I give you the signal, start the mana transfer}" Evergreen said "{Also, conjure a basic a.n.a.lyzing circle in the direction of the "thing" you want to find. You determined the direction from where the asteroid came, right?}"

"{Okay, I"ll do that}" Arima answered and Evergreen began to work immediately. Outside, the mother tree began to glow, and like a chain reaction, every plant around began to lit up. More and more plants started to shine and this phenomenon spread in the whole beast territory. Rex and Hieran observed that phenomenon from outside.

"(I see, it"s like a giant satellite)" Arima thought. Then he respected his part of the work and a huge blue circle formed in the sky above the forest and tilted towards a certain direction

"{Now!}" Evergreen shouted and Arima started to share his mana.

"{Eh? What?! Where do you keep all that mana?!}" Evergreen was astounded by the ma.s.sive amount of mana she just gained control of.

"{Concentrate, please}" Arima spoke "{I"ll make sure to hide the connection of this link to not be detected or at least not traced back, to avoid being threatened by another meteor}"

"{Y-Yeah}" The Dryad focused and concentrated her spirit towards the direction Arima defined. She started using Arima"s mana and her spirit travelled faster than the speed of light and began scanning the s.p.a.ce. Every information was also transferred to Arima at the same time.

He took advantage of the situation to see what kind of planets there was in this galaxy. He only found one more or less viable planet, a bit like Mars.

After thirty minutes of scanning, they had already left this solar system and entered another.

"{We can keep up for only ten more minutes with the mana we have left}" Evergreen said

Arima didn"t answer for a moment "{That"s enough I already found what I wanted}" And then said. He scanned at planet that was around the size of the Earth and found a terrifying aura there.

"{That"s…}" Evergreen noticed the same aura after Arima pointed it out. They then tried to look at the source of the aura. The image they received made them freeze in shock and fear. What was releasing that aura was simply a giant.

There was a giant humanoid monster that was laying down, sleeping on a mountain of the planet he was on. That giant was around ten kilometers tall and had blue skin and a third eye.

While they were observing that monster, the latter"s third eye suddenly opened and Evergreen"s spirit was instantly cut down.

She violently returned to her body in the mother tree and coughed some blood while Arima just let out a dry cough before grinning "That"s more interesting than I thought"