State of Chaos - Chapter 10：Spirit Plant

Rolling out of bed Danny picked himself up and started his day. It was about six in the morning when he woke up and the sun was not up yet. He had to start out early, so he could use all of the daylight that was provided for him. He left his tent and went over to grab his bag as he left his cave only to find that the meat he put up to dry had been eaten.

He wanted to make some jerky because his rations would not last him his whole trip. He got angry and said to no one in particular “This is why I hate Monday’s”. He knew that whatever ate his food was what has been following him since yesterday. He decided that he would catch it today no matter the cost, but he decided to go train first.

The fierce beasts were too abundant here in only five minutes Danny heard a low guttural growl threatening him. He saw a black ape sitting on a tree about twenty meters from him. Danny was confused because most animals would not give away their position when they are hunting for prey. He guessed this ape was not looking to hunt him, it just wanted to protect its territory.

Danny pulled out his sword and stared down the ape. Seeing that the human in his territory wanted to fight back the ape beat its chest and roared at him attempting to scare him. Noticing its actions Danny was sure that the ape was guarding something and that was the reason it didn’t want to leave.

He looked at the tree the ape was on and tried to see what it was protecting. He didn’t think it was a child because he would have heard it, or seen it so he assumed it was some type of spirit plant. Spirit plants were mutated plants that have the ability to help the consumer of it gain attribute power or other advantages from it. It would give you different attributes, like vitality, or stamina, or help you heal wounds. The rarest of them even give you extra abilities. Most humans don’t consume them right away like animals because their digestive tracks wont be able to consume all of the spirit in the plant and would waste some of it. So in order to gain all they can they take them to an Alchemist and have them make a pill for them to consume.

He saw the plant when he began circling the ape, and it was a red flower that was sticking out of the tree and had black spots on it. It was a Strength Alamy. These flowers will help increase your strength if eaten. Depending on how much of the same plant you eat they will start to progressively help less and less due to your body building immunity to it.

Danny decided it was worth it to fight the ape for the spirit plant, so he charged at the ape. The ape jumped down from the tree with both arms raised above it head preparing to slam on Danny. Danny put his sword up in defense and blocked the fierce attack. He was pushed down to his knees due to the impact and spat some blood. This ape was at least peak level E-class and would be a tough fight.

Danny quickly did a few thrusts with his sword and tried to pierce the apes belly. Predicting his move the able again slammed his fist towards the sword. The apes first were like steel and the sword was unable to do any damage to the ape. The ape hands were its greatest asset, but if it was stabbed anywhere else it would be loosing some blood.

Danny again was pushed back because the ape had much more power than he did, noticing this Danny decided to use his dexterity to his advantage and began to dance around the ape waving his sword and feinting every once in a while. He would not get sure-kill hits this way, but he was not going to get killed by the ape either.

Danny kept going into the apes blind spots and would quickly slash at it and dodge the apes fist before he would get hit. This went on for about ten minutes before the ape roared and slammed its fist into the floor creating a shock wave that knocked Danny off his feet. This shook the tree in the distance and caused the flower to pop out of it. The tree was not an ordinary tree and it had a special ability as well, noticing that it got its flower taken out by something it activated it. It was a quaking aspen tree, that sent shock waves out of its bark to damage enemies.

Both Danny and the ape were hit by these and spat blood due to internal injuries. The ape roared and charged at Danny for ruining its spirit flower and causing it injuries. If spirit plants are left for longer periods of time, then they will get stronger providing more attribute gains. Due to Danny intruding on its territory, the Strength Alamy was knocked out of the tree causing it to no longer be able to grow. With a fierce look in it’s eyes the ape roared as it bared it fangs at Danny ready to kill him.