Equipment Printing School Mage

At the edge of the forest, a faint halo of light appeared. The moon was not far away from rising.

Keha nodded: "-I understand, but please understand. Any delay is not without cost."

Finwe's smile grew even brighter. "Of course, but I may not be the one to pay the price. Lord Korha, since you claim to be submitting the proposal, please do not leave the Holy Land before sunrise tomorrow. Otherwise, you will be considered a traitor, and you will lose some power."

"Please consider this carefully."

Korha raised his head and for the first time said in a sinister voice, "No, Chief Druid, you will pay the price soon."

At this moment, the dark woodland was suddenly illuminated, as if a towering tree had instantly turned into a blazing torch.

"...?!"

The chief druid of the forest was the first to feel unwell. Fenwei couldn't help but cover his heart, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

The other druids all exclaimed, "Fenwei/Chief Druid, behind you is the Holy Beech Tree!"

Emilia turned her head immediately, and what she saw before her was a scene that could only be described as hell.

What Kha planned to do to the holy beech tree was far more than just extracting its vitality and forcing it to grow rapidly.

The dark red lines on the holy beech tree were completely activated at this moment.

On the trunk of the holy beech tree, several flame-like traces appeared.

The two horizontal marks are like eyes, the vertical mark is like a long nose, and the huge crack is like a bloody mouth ready to devour people.

Is it an enlightened treant? Druids grant wisdom to ancient trees, allowing them to gain limbs and move like normal humanoids.

However, the appearance of these tree people should emerge naturally from the tree trunk, most of the time more like accidental lines on the rough bark.

The face that emerged from the sacred beech tree was more like a bleeding wound cut by a sharp blade on a cursed puppet.

Even if we use the most euphemistic words, we have to admit that it is an ominous thing.

It may come from hell, from the abyss, or from the bloody joke of the Court of Wrath.

No matter what, it is definitely not a creature that should appear in the holy land.

When its description appeared in front of Fenwei, Fenwei's eyes went dark.

She was furious as never before. She roared at Keha like a lioness: "Even if we compete with each other, is it necessary to go to this extent?! Why should the Holy Tree sacrifice its life for you?!"

"First of all, I've already said that everything was done by Moonsong. I had no involvement." After saying that, rage appeared on Khar's face for the first time. "There is only one person responsible for this matter, and that's you, Fenwei!"

Fenwei was stunned for a moment, and then his heart went cold.

In the end, all the emotions mixed into a boiling rage in my heart: "How shameless!!!! I only discovered you are such a person today!!!"

"Hmph." Korha sneered and held out his hand. "No matter what, you are the chief druid—and responsibility and authority go hand in hand. Whatever happens to the sacred beech tree, you are the one who will fight for it."

He paused for a moment, then continued slowly, "Of course, you can admit that even after your promotion, you're still far inferior to me and have no choice but to ask me for help."

"After all, I'm in a hurry to hunt down Moonsong."

At this moment, the blasphemous tree man transformed from the holy beech tree has raised its head, and its eyes, which are spewing the stench of sulfur, are staring at the location of Fenwei and Emilia.

However, although it is a behemoth of nearly 100 meters, it is still much shorter than the oak tree. Even its crown can only barely reach the feet of the druids.

But the biggest difference between a tree man and a tree is that it can move, and its mobility is by no means slow.

At the same time, the branches of the ancient tree would definitely not be able to swing wildly in the air like they are now.

The Blasphemous Tree Man didn't move forward. On the contrary, it pulled its roots out of the earth, and large pieces of fallen leaves and soil slowly fell from its body, and the roots that were originally entangled with it were broken one by one.

Then, it began to retreat in big strides, getting farther and farther away from everyone.

Fenwei was stunned for a moment: "...Does it want to leave the Holy Forest?"

Keha sneered.

And the ominous premonition in Emiya's heart rang wildly: "No, no, that posture is——!"

The tree man's body stopped retreating. At the same time, its body, which seemed too large and bloated due to being covered with branches, stems and leaves, began to sink visibly.

Then, the earth shook.

The blasphemous tree man who was a hundred meters tall actually started running in the woods.

Every step he took sent shockwaves that traveled through the oak tree's branches and impacted everyone. Even the oak, despite its size, swayed in the vibrations.

The branches and leaves of the other sacred trees had already fallen from the sky amidst this earthquake-like roar. Even their thick trunks had been slightly tilted by the shaking of the earth, and even the roots that were originally buried deep underground had been dug high out of the ground.

The tree man ran faster and faster, and finally sank most horribly.

Emiya's pupils shrank: "--Oops!"

At this distance, he might be able to try to do something, but he had not forgotten that there was a druid watching him closely from behind.

In the holy land, harming each other is denied and cannot occur.

Even the Blasphemous Tree Man, when it was really running, had no way to directly harm other trees in its path.

So, theoretically, the tree people can't do anything to them.

Fenwe turned and shouted, "—Evacuate immediately, but do not leave the protection of the holy land! Keep an eye on Korhal!"

The other druids had already transformed into wild beasts. After getting permission from the chief druid, they immediately fled in all directions and formed a circle in the air, ready to dive down and suppress Korha at any time.

Given the size of the Desecrated Treemen, it would be easy to inflict fatal injuries on them that would be too severe to heal, but they would be unable to fight back. Simply physically suppressing Korha would not be impossible.

It's not that the druids didn't know how to use fire. But given the size of the Profane Treeman, even if it was burned to death, the residual heat from its body would be enough to reduce the entire sacred forest to ash.

The only question now is, what is the Desecrated Treant going to do?

Emiya had to divert her attention and stare at Keha.

The force field wall was already accumulated in his hands - he had no means to guarantee immediate control and absolute victory. If he had, they would not have to worry in the past few days.

The Profaned Treant may be massive, but compared to Korhal, who can transform into a dragon at any moment, it's just a harmless decoration.

The only thing he could guarantee was that Korhal would be temporarily trapped, unable to launch an immediate attack, thus giving them valuable time to react.

Unfortunately, he couldn't get too close to Korha right now. Otherwise, if his attention was distracted for even a moment, he might be doomed. But he couldn't be too far away either. If Korha left his spell range, he wouldn't be able to predict what would happen next.

However, in this case, he would have to expose his back to the blasphemous tree man.

Fenwei had already begun chanting the spell loudly, and the sound of vines growing, weaving and entangled was already hissing behind him.

But then he saw a gentle smile on Khar's face again.

He has understood it through these confrontations.

When Korhal dons his affable mask, it signals that the shadow druid believes he has the upper hand.

The next second, the sound of vines being torn and the dull sound of wind like a cannonball rising into the sky reached his ears.

"——Jumped up?! It actually jumped up?!" Fenwei exclaimed, "Sorry, we have to escape!"

Fenwei had transformed into an incredibly strong giant antelope without knowing when. He didn't care about protecting Emilia's casting posture. He grabbed his collar and dragged him to the side.

A huge hand made of thick branches and dense vines brushed past him, and the storm of green leaves it stirred up made his hair rustle violently.

Not a handshake, not a punch.

Rather, it was a strange grip.

Emilia's mind raced, and she immediately realized the danger of what had just happened.

Yes, Desecrated Treants cannot harm them.

However, the ban does have many loopholes.

The tree man only needs to tie them up and then seal the space.

Since they couldn't harm the treeman, they couldn't break the cage. The only other options left were enchantment spells like charm and conjuration spells like space transfer.

However, charm spells could be removed by Khar himself, and then the treants could just continue their pursuit. Spatial transfers required the removal of restrictions, and the moment they escaped the treants' restraints, Khar would also be able to escape the barriers.

At this moment, another ray of inspiration entered Emilia's mind.

——This tree man may not have been prepared for them.

Its real imaginary enemy is the Son of Baal.

Using such a large body simply to circumvent the ban was somewhat of a waste of strength. Korhal might be shameless, but he was still a true druid. He probably wouldn't have wanted to harm the trees if he hadn't had to.

The enemies the paladins were truly best at dealing with were spellcasters with diverse abilities—those ever-changing abilities were almost completely blocked when they encountered the paladin's protective aura. If they couldn't escape in time, they could only watch helplessly as the paladin rushed in and beheaded them with the Holy Slash.

The Treeman, a simple violent machine, might be equally powerless against an enemy like the Son of Bhaal, but at least he could try to trade his life for injury.

If it only stimulates the birth of tree people, then in just a few hours, the holy beech tree will not be able to directly defeat the oak tree.

The large-scale ban that Korhal had initiated was still in effect. He probably intended to use this spell to force Fenwe to attend the meeting and deprive her of her guardianship under some pretext - that way, he would be in charge of the two largest sacred trees, and he would win the competition without a fight.

Now, if the tree man is allowed to do whatever he wants, it may be able to easily bypass the restrictions of the holy land and destroy the sacred forest with just its size.

If you want to escape from an enemy of this size, a spatial displacement spell is absolutely necessary.

But now, what Khar must be waiting for is the moment when the ban is lifted.

In an extremely unfavorable situation, Khar might disappear into the forest without hesitation.

For a druid of this level, one step could lead to him appearing in any forest on the entire planet, diving back into the shadows to lick his wounds.

Letting the tiger go back into the mountains would only bring endless trouble. Perhaps the next time he saw him, he would only see Fenwei's corpse.

Emiya took a deep breath and said, "Don't lift the ban."

As Fenwei leaped between the branches of the sacred tree, he watched the branches of the sacred oak tree break one by one, and he was so distressed that he almost shed tears. But at this moment, he heard these words and was so shocked that he almost spit out the person in his mouth.

She could only mumble, "Are you trying to kill yourself? Are you still thinking about Keha at this time?"

Emiya shook her head and said firmly: "--Don't lift the ban. Leave everything to me."

****************************

The conversation between the two when they met surprised the Earth Elf Leader: "Are you two old friends?"

Moonson and Todd looked at each other and sighed, "Let's not talk about it."

If one party was enjoying success, that would be fine. But now both of them were in dire straits. Who would have the energy to talk about their misfortunes again?

"Hmph, so high-spirited when we parted, yet now we're like this when we meet again." Todd spat angrily. "Well, what's the situation now? You're going to attack that woodcutter village? Those guys look strong, but there's no need to mobilize so many troops, right?"

The hobgoblin replied coldly, "We are different from you. You seek only results, but I seek to avoid casualties. The woodcutters are said to be incredibly strong, so I seek the safest solution."

Todd said sullenly, "The safest option is to set fire to the entire forest."

"A shadow druid is still a druid." Moonsong glared at him fiercely, "So, we have to wait for reinforcements that can minimize casualties."

"—and reinforcements?" Todd frowned, stumbling a bit due to excessive fatigue. "Your team has druids, hobgoblin troops, and even wargs! You're already well-armed. What reinforcements do you need to deal with a bunch of woodcutters?"

The sound of footsteps as close as drumbeats came from far away, heading from east to west.

Moonsong lowered his head and listened silently for a while, then murmured, "About... a hundred feet... that should be right."

The strange thing is that the footsteps were extremely dense in the distance, but as the owner of the footsteps got closer to the camp, they became heavier and sparser.

Finally, a group of sturdy mercenaries appeared in front of the hobgoblin camp. They were almost unarmored and only wore thin leather armor and linen shirts.

They wore the emblem of a crimson moon on their bodies.

Mercenaries of the Red Moon Group.

The leader of the Crimson Moon Group walked up to the three of them, looked up and tried to recall, coughed, and replied in a pretentious manner, "We are the Crimson Moon Group. We... uh... although... employed by Grand Duke Valakon of Baldur's Gate. But now that we have some free time, we are allowed to... what's it called... take on private work?"

"So, do you need mercenaries?"

Moonsong was clearly in a bad mood. He stomped on a branch in frustration and broke it, muttering to himself, "Because things aren't going well, are you planning to withdraw? Damn it!"

The hobgoblin leader, however, ignored his reaction and simply stated, "Yes. We are willing, but we must make it clear that we don't need comrades who bully the weak and fear the strong, ready to turn and flee at the sight of blood. If you do that, don't expect to receive your full compensation from us."

Upon hearing this, the elite warriors of the Red Moon Group almost all bared their sharp white teeth, their pupils emitting a faint green light. "Don't worry, what good is it for a group of woodcutters to be strong? Deal."

Forty-seven The Fire of Ambition (I)

The holy land was originally a gathering place for many holy trees, and the open space in the center was full of the roots of the holy trees.

Although this is the core of the holy land, it is actually very inconvenient to move here - countless roots emerge from the ground and are hidden under the fallen leaves.

Therefore, even druids would most often prefer to navigate the mid-level branches. Otherwise, if they were distracted, they might, like ordinary people, hit a strong root hard, or fall headfirst with a careless step. The terrain of the holy land was far more irritating than ordinary shrubs and thorns.

The above-mentioned situations are situations in which all newcomers are bound to stumble.

And now, it has all become history.