Chapter 6 Survival

• Every 10 minutes, Clinton would lose +0.1 of his total health points and since he had only 0.4 total health points remaining, he was on a time limit.
• Unless his situation changed, Clinton had only 40 minutes to live.
• The threat of death increased his yearning for survival even more, and for those final minutes of his life, Clinton planned for the first time in his life.
• He planned extensively, he schemed, he plotted to survive.
• During the first 20 minutes, remaining patient inside his lair under the roots of the decaying tree, Clinton observed every beast that passed.
• By now, he could tell already that this level of the dungeon was filled with only 3 species of creatures, the goblins, the undead trees, and the ogre.
• First sight of an Ogre and Clinton removed that specie from his planning.
• Till now, the weakest Ogre that he had seen was level 3.
• As a level 0 undead and considering that this was going to be his first fight since reincarnating, Clinton wanted nothing to do with something that high-leveled.
• With the Ogres wiped off his list, it left only the goblins and the undead trees.
• The Goblins were the weakest of the 3 species. The strongest of them that he had seen was a level 3 Goblin who looked fearsome in green.
• The weakest were more numerous though, all level 1 Goblins.
• The only difference was that compared to the Ogre who hunted alone around this decaying forest, the Goblins always moved in packs.
• At the very least, there were 3 Goblins moving in a pack and considering how weak Clinton was at this moment, fighting against any of them was still a challenge.
• This was why, left with no other option, Clinton reluctantly turned his predatory gaze in the direction of the Undead Trees.
• The Undead Trees also moved in packs, and worse still, they were also stronger than the Goblins, the weakest of them being level 2 Undead Trees.
• Unlike the Goblins though, the number of Undead Trees in a pack was smaller. Occasionally, he saw packs of these weird trees moving in twos though packs like this were in the minority.
• Despite this, facing them to the current Clinton was still an impossible task.
• The only reason why Clinton decided that they were his target was because compared to the other 2 monsters, at least, he was familiar with trees.
• And one thing about trees was that they all had an obvious weakness.
• While growing up as a teenager, at some point in time, he went on holidays to live with his grandmom in the countryside where there was a forest.
• There, he was exposed to wildlife.
• That was also where he lost his virginity to one of the girls in town so the experience in the countryside was something that remained stuck in his mind.
• At this moment, Clinton sent his best regards to his grandmom for the experience. ‘Bless your soul, gran gran’.
• By now, Clinton only had 0.2 HP remaining.
• It was now or never.
• After over 2 dozen minutes of patiently waiting for his moment while his life was on a timer, Clinton decided that it was time because right at that moment, another pack of 2 Undead Trees wandered closer to his decaying tree hideout.
• Right at that moment, under the roots of the decaying tree, Clinton focused and then he did it.
• ‘Bone assembling!’
• Controlling his bones, Clinton sent one of his arms outside as it crawled out through one of the holes in the roots of the tree.
• The wrist arm walked rapidly towards one of the two Undead Trees, and then it tapped furiously against its moving roots.
• The Undead Tree stopped, and then, its beady black eyes looked down only to see the arm of a skeleton.
• The Undead Tree froze, the arm also froze.
• The Undead Trees were giant creatures, mostly 2 meters tall. Their bodies were entirely made of trees, the roots being their legs with which they moved, while the decaying brown leaves of the tree formed their hair.
• As the baffled Undead Tree looked down at the skeleton arm, a loud sound suddenly reverberated through this corner of the decaying forest.
• Creak!
• The sound came from the direction of the nearby decaying tree.
• After the sound reverberated, the Undead Tree showed no reaction.
• Hidden inside the roots of the tree, Clinton was baffled. ‘Huh? Are these guys deaf?’
• He did it again.
• Creak!
• Still no reaction.
• ‘F*ck! They’re deaf!’
• ‘Change of plans!’
• The next moment, the skeleton arm turned round and started scurrying back towards the root of the decaying tree.
• As soon as the skeleton arm moved, the Undead Tree went in pursuit.
• The 2nd Undead Tree finally reacted.
• Though it had no idea at first why its partner was suddenly pursuing something, it didn’t matter, all that mattered was that it would support its kin.
• Though Clinton already thought of this possibility, still seeing 2 of these level 2 Undead Trees charge in his direction, he could not help but shudder in fear.
• ‘F*ck!’
• He focused back on his plan. ‘Light you mother*cker! Light now!’
• He rushed with executing his plan.
• Creak!
• The Undead Trees closed the distance, coming closer.
• Creak!
• They were even closer now.
• Creak! Creak!
• If you looked inside the roots of the decaying tree right now, you would witness a stunning scene of 2 femur bones grinding against each other.
• They were the culprit that produced the strange creaking sound.
• And finally, Clinton got what he wanted.
• …fire!
• Creak!
• A spark was all it took, and the dried dead roots of the decaying tree quickly picked it up from there, igniting a small fire.
• Considering that the roots were so dry, Clinton knew what would come next.
• By now, his wrist arm and the 2 Undead Trees were so close but it was right at that moment that all parts of Clinton’s skeleton body scurried out of the roots of the decaying tree just in time for this tree to be set ablaze.
• BZZZ!
• The fire spread like wildfire in a dry harmattan.
• As for the Undead Trees?
• Well, they couldn’t sense the danger on time before it hit them. Afterall, to the creatures of this decaying forest, fire was not a thing, it was an alien concept till this alien invader set it off for the first time.
• The fire spread into the dry bodies of the 2 Undead Trees.
• And they were also set ablaze!
• Immediately, in pain, the 2 Undead Trees let out a weird screeching sound as they flailed their wood bodies around in agony to no avail.
• Against fire, their natural enemy and with no water to quench it, their only fate was to burn to death.
• For minutes, a certain skeleton watched from the corner as the 2 Undead Trees burned to death.
• Clinton was worried though. ‘I hope this is somehow registered as my kill, after all, I was the one who created the fire’.
• ‘I hope it is not interpreted as a nature neutral kill’.
• And then, exactly 8 minutes later, the first Undead Tree dropped dead.
• Right at that moment, the miserable undead system lit up with another notification for its miserable host.
• Beep!
• ***
• {You have killed a level 2 Undead Tree!}
• {The residual holy energy of the Holy Knight has been wiped off!}
• {Congratulations! You have killed a level 2 Undead as a level 0 Undead!}
• {You have leveled up…!}
• ***