Samxon and Hale entered the cavern.

The cavern stretched wider than anything they'd seen yet.

And lying across the floor—spread out in clusters, piles, and rows—were beasts. Hundreds. Maybe more.

All unmoving. All breathing faintly.

The very sight sent chills running down their spine.

Every one of them had roots sunk into their bodies like needles, draining them slowly.

The faint pulse of those roots filled the cavern with a slow, steady rhythm.

Samxon whispered, "Are they alive?"

"Barely," Hale murmured. "But who cares? This is a good chance to get some rewards from the system," Hale said, taking out her blade.

"You're suddenly sounding more confident than I am. I think I should be worried," Samxon said, following behind her.

"You really should," Hale replied with a poker face, walking forward calmly.

They stepped in.

Every footfall felt too loud.

They moved from one beast to the next, killing them as quietly as possible.

Hale was fast and careful.

Samxon did his best to keep up.

After several minutes, Hale stopped suddenly.

"All these roots… they lead somewhere," she whispered.

Samxon followed her gaze toward the far back of the cavern.

There was no body there. No creature waiting.

But the roots were thickest in that direction, clustered into a tangled mass that seemed to stretch into the stone itself. The air around that place felt heavier… almost aware.

"That's strange." They both paused, staring at the thick roots. "We'll have to know where they're coming from later," Hale said, before shifting her attention back to the beasts.

They kept working. One beast. Then another. Slow, steady progress.

Until Samxon slipped.

He stepped on a root, lost balance, and his blade swung sideways.

Slice!

Splat!

Green viscous liquid seeped out from the slashed root like blood, sizzling into the ground like acid.

The sound wasn't loud, but the effect was instant.

The root he cut curled violently, as though shocked. A tremor rolled through the ground—subtle at first, then stronger.

Hale spun toward him. "Samxon—what did you just cut?"

He stared at the snapped root. "I… I didn't mean to—"

The cavern shifted.

Not the beasts.

The roots.

All at once, they pulsed sharply. Once. Twice. Faster and faster.

The air thickened.

Hale grabbed Samxon's arm. "Don't move."

A deep vibration spread through the cavern floor, traveling from the back wall to where they stood. It wasn't footsteps.

The tangled mass of roots at the far end tightened, then loosened. Not like limbs, but like some kind of mind stretching itself after a long sleep.

Samxon felt it brush against him—cold, curious, hungry.

"Hale…" His voice cracked.

"Stay quiet."

But it was too late.

The roots across the cavern began to retract from the beasts. Slowly. Deliberately. As if the consciousness that controlled them had finally realized intruders were here.

A low tremor rattled the cavern again.

One beast twitched.

Another shifted.

Muscles tensed across the cavern floor as the drained horde started coming back to life—slowly at first, then all at once, the entire nest rippling with movement.

Samxon took a step back. "Hale… they're waking up."

"I know."

The presence in the roots expanded again, focusing on them like a cold spotlight searching the dark.

The whole cavern held its breath.

Then—

The first beast stirred fully.

Then the next.

Then dozens more.

The roots had released them.

And the consciousness behind them was now completely awake.

The starved beasts stared at the two before them, mouths watering from starvation and hunger.

Eyes red with anger.

Hale whispered, "Samxon… run."

---

As Akhil stood before the beast, it was just like he had seen in the game.

To his surprise, though, not only was it fully mimicked like that of the game, it looked, in fact, twice the actual height of the main boss in the game.

However, with just one glance at the stats, he was able to confirm his suspicion.

{Vivo Lex — Beast Titan}

{Mutant level — 2}

'I thought as much. The numbers of the beast are only fewer because the boss is weaker.' Akhil felt a wave of relief in his chest.

Coming to the boss cave at just level 35 would have been a death wish.

Since the boss was supposedly meant to be the highest level for the basic beast.

But thanks to the system again, the task wouldn't be as difficult as it was in the game.

It gave Akhil the leverage he needed to end the scenario faster.

If he had let it drag out for much longer, he had no idea what the next horde would look like.

The Vivo Lex was indeed a terrifying tree monster from the game.

And it wasn't given the title of Titan for no reason.

It had the power to control beasts, drain their nutrients to grow stronger, and birth more of its children.

Akhil glanced toward the purple fruits hanging on top of its branches.

They looked like succulent, beautiful fruits… with what looked like small flaps on the side.

If Akhil didn't know better, he might have mistaken them for one of the pufflings.

The cute pufflings they had seen earlier apparently came from the tree monster and helped it capture more monsters that it could corrupt and add to its army.

The beasts would go out to eat and return to feed their nutrients to the tree.

If a beast became too weak, it would be completely killed off.

The tree also created generals to guide the beast horde to gather food and bring it back to it.

But in the game, only during the fifth horde did the generals come into play.

Because there were a lot of beasts to gather nutrients for.

And it only brought the generals when the humans were becoming more resilient to their forces.

But seeing the generals from the onset could mean two things:

There was a shortage of beasts, or the Vivo needed more nutrients due to being weaker than the original in the game.

'Now just to defeat the beast to end this all,' Akhil thought, gripping his blade tightly.

'I have to avoid the roots… touching one of those would instantly alert the beast,' Akhil thought as he walked into the cavern with caution.

The ground was covered with roots, with little to no space between them.

Enough to fit his legs, but not enough to allow free movement.

'Alright, the next leg,' he thought, fitting his leg into a tight space between two curled roots.

With measured steps, Akhil walked closer and closer to the trunk.

'Just a little bit closer,' Akhil thought, as he suddenly slipped against a small rock.

'Shit!' he thought as he quickly tried to balance himself.

Standing on one foot, his arms spread wide apart, he finally managed to stabilize.

"Heew, that was close," Akhil thought, letting off a sigh of relief.

BOOM!

"There's too many of them, shit!" Samxon's voice cut through the air as he landed onto the root-filled ground.

"You fucking bastards!" Akhil roared in annoyance.

Just then, the entire earth shook as the roots came to life.

Now what was meant to be an easy mission had just taken a drastic turn.

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