Chapter 204 - Dropped From Above
At the foot of the staircase fully composed of intricately weaved vines, Leon arrived with the Lilith, while the tree spirit tagged along curiously. While waiting for the others to gather, Leon took the time to inspect the staircase.
At first glance, it was clear that the intricately weaved staircase of vines was not naturally formed, which answered Leon's previous doubts about the tree spirit. The tree spirit had in fact interacted with people before. Although Leon had yet to confirm if these people were humans, it was clear that they were intelligent beings.
"These vines don't seem to be a part of the elder tree. It seems unnatural and mismatched. There aren't any other vines seen elsewhere around the tree." Lilith remarked.
"Considering the number of vines needed to weave out this intricate but firm staircase, it could just mean that all the vines had been collected and concentrated here, but no, you're right. It wasn't a part of the elder tree."
"Wasn't?"
Lilith picked up the past tense in his words and asked.
"En, these vines came from other plants, but now it has been integrated and become a part of the elder tree through grafting," Leon explained.
"Oh… Of course, I-I can tell that much." Lilith said defiantly, showing she already knew what he said. However, it was blown by her following question. "I-It means that someone made it, right?"
Leon looked at her speechlessly, before answering with a flat "Yeah" and shifted his focus upwards, no longer paying attention to her antics. The cluster of swaying crimson leaves made it impossible to see anything within and even makes one nauseous if they stare at it for too long.
Leon shook his head to get rid of the feeling. Lilith blindly looked up for a while and suffered the same nauseous feeling. "Ah, why do I feel so dizzy from just looking at the leaves swaying?"
"If you noticed, the staircase blends well with the stump of the elder tree and there's also supposed to be an opening entrance created for the staircase, but it seems like the staircase just simply disappears into the sea of crimson leaves. This means it's being concealed, possibly with an illusion formation."
"Eh? That's true, no wonder we didn't notice the staircase from the side we came from, despite the staircase spiraling around the tree and only found out after finding the foot of the staircase." Lilith said in realization, before she asked confusedly, "But what's an illusion formation?"
"An illusion formation is… a formation that creates an illusion…" Leon said expressionlessly. He didn't know much about formations; thus, it was the best easy-to-understand explanation he could come up with.
But simply put, Illusion formations were the usage of runic knowledge and a medium to induce a specific visual change in its surroundings.
"Forget that I asked…" Lilith was speechless and rolled her eyes. What kind of explanation was that? It was the same as not explaining anything.
Although the base of the elder tree was very wide, it didn't take long for Zorbek to round up all the palace guards and had everyone assembled before the foot of the staircase.
"Your Highness, everyone is here." Zorbek greeted.
Leon returned his greeting with a nod of acknowledgment and carefully instructed, "We will now be heading up to check out the treetop. Chances are there may be a group of intelligent beings up there. They may be hostile to us, or they may not be. However, you are not to attack them unless they attack first. Is that understood!?"
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The group answered firmly. They heard him loud and clear.
"Alright, Let's head—"
At the forefront of the group, Leon was about to finish his words to head up, when he heard a sudden plop sound beside them. The palace guards also followed his gaze to see a splattered mixture of white and green gooey substance that had not been there a moment ago.
While the group scrutinized their eyes to understand what it was, one of the palace guards felt like his helmet was struck by something as he staggered.
"Ugh, what the hell is this?" Scott said with bewilderment as he rubbed the spot he was struck and found it to be of similar substance to the one found on the ground.
"What is it, Scott?" Zorbek questioned.
"I'm not sure, Captain." The bewildered Scott brought the gooey substance closer for a whiff, before he said, "It doesn't have any distinctive smell that I know of, but it's not unpleasant."
"Pft."
Lilith tittered and shuffled a few steps back, drawing her distance from Scott, but at the same time, drew the attention of others. They looked at her suspiciously while she was trying to keep a straight face.
"You seem to know what that is?" Leon asked.
"Well… I'm not exactly certain, but it does resemble the poop of bird species… Hahaha." Lilith could no longer hold it and giggled after her explanation.
Scott's face immediately turned green when he heard this. And to think he said it wasn't unpleasant…
"Bleurgh…"
Scott began retching.
"Holy Shit! Thank god, I wasn't the unlucky one. Hahaha…" Willy laughed as he took pleasure in Scott's misfortune.
"Holy shit? It dropped from above and it's also pretty white. Holy shit seems like quite the appropriate description… Hahaha…"
"How did you even come up with that? I can't… I just can't… Hahaha…"
"Hahahaha."
The others joined him and also laughed, while Scott began to look at the prince with a pitiful expression.
"Your Highness, Can you—"
"Stop! You better keep your distance from me." Leon cut him off immediately while backing off, afraid that the palace guard might smudge him with the bird poo-like substance.
He understood what the palace guard wanted and conjured a block of ice for the palace guard to clean himself after melting the ice and poured it into the helm the palace guard took off to be used as the bucket.
There was once a popular saying back in the old days before the Cataclysm, that one should not stand under a tree. Scott finally understood why after experiencing it firsthand.
…
After the group reorganized themselves into position, they were ready to head up the staircase.
The staircase was wide enough to allow three people walking side by side comfortably, but there was no railing to protect them from the fall in the case of a misstep. Considering the height of the tree, it was enough for them to plunge to their deaths.
For safety's sake, Zorbek suggested for the group to head up in single files.
"Watch your steps." Leon reminded as they set off.
Without suspense, the group made it up to the halfway point of 750fts, before the staircase disappears into the sea of crimson leaves. At this height, even if their bodies been strengthened by their cultivation base, it was enough for them to plunge to their deaths if they were not careful.
A heavy mood surrounded the group as they made it up to this point. Everyone had an instinctive fear. Some learn to overcome it, some don't.
None of the palace guards were considered cowards, considering they made it this far in the underground. However, even then, they could still feel the pressure brought by the occasional chilly breeze that was like a sharp knife chiseling down their willpower and tingling their senses.
They were under the illusion that if a stronger breeze comes, they would be swept off their feet and plunge to their deaths. Such thought made their feet feel increasingly heavier, the further they progressed up the staircase path.
Perhaps, because of his own confidence in his flight ability, he wasn't feeling the same pressure as the group, but even so, he was able to notice something wrong from Lilith's nervous and strained expression behind him.
"Of all the people here, I was expecting you to be the least afraid of height." Leon chuckled as he watched her shake in fear from the height.
"That was when I could still fly. Do I look like I can still fly?" Lilith rolled her eyes angrily and tried to stomp his foot, but she ended up tripping due to her nervousness. "Ah!"
"Careful!"
Leon grabbed her wrist and pulled her back to safety just as she was about to fall off. Lilith felt like she just took a dip in hell and came back, and she broke into cold sweats.
"This was all your fault! I was doing fine until now!" Lilith pouted angrily.
"Sorry!" Leon apologized wryly before his face turned stern and warned everyone with assuring tone, "Everyone, calm down! I suspected that there is bewildering formation messing with our senses to amplify our instinctive fear of heights! Don't be fooled by it! If you cling to the tree and steer clear from the edges, you will be fine!"
"Y-Yes, Your Highness!"
Leon hadn't expected there to be another formation. However, considering he was already aware of the illusory formation concealing the top, he should have realized the possibility of other existing formations in place. An illusory formation tricks one's vision but not their mind. It wouldn't make them dizzy unless there was another formation. That was his mistake!
Who knew that the tree was riddled with formations and it would become so difficult to climb?
Fortunately, they had only encountered so far were only support-type formations and not an attack-type formation.
At the same time, Leon's curiosity grew as he doubted that these were all naturally formed formations. It was most likely set up by intelligent beings.
Considering the formations required a deep understanding of runic knowledge, could the intelligent beings be survivors from the ancient civilization?
However, Leon was baffled when he arrived at that thought because if they were, their poop shouldn't be greenish-white, should it?