SWNOVELXO Chapter 410
Charles blocked the vine swung by Trent with his shield and immediately swung his shield back.
Clang!
If it were Charles in his prime, he would have swung his sword instead of his shield, cutting Trent in half in one strike. But the current Charles, who only looked fine on the outside, didn’t have the ability to finish Trent in one hit.
‘But……. Although its physical abilities as a living creature are impressive, it doesn’t seem to have any extraordinary techniques, as expected of a plant. I’m slightly inferior in physical abilities, but only slightly. If the difference is that small, I can easily turn the tables with skill!’
After deflecting Trent’s vine with his shield, Charles immediately slashed the rebounding vine.
‘A plant-type monster called Trent……. I’ve never fought one before, but whip-like weapons are threatening at a distance. However, once you close the gap, they become powerless!’
Charles then moved forward, closing the distance and diving into Trent’s range.
As expected, Trent, which had been swinging its vine like a whip, couldn’t react in time.
Charles pulled back the sword he had just swung to cut the whip and used the pommel to strike Trent’s head.
Crash!
“Gigigigigigi!!”
Trent, whose temple-equivalent area was shattered, let out a bizarre scream and distanced itself from Charles.
If it were a human, that strike would have been fatal or at least knocked them unconscious. But for Trent, a plant-type monster, human weak points were meaningless.
‘Darn it! A mistake. Of course, a plant wouldn’t share the same weak points as a human…!’
Trent, having created distance again, swung its vine like a whip once more.
‘The same attack again. Even if it acts like a human, its essence is still a plant. Predictable attack patterns…….’
Although Charles had made one mistake, Trent’s subsequent attack was identical to the first, allowing Charles to calmly raise his shield again.
At that moment, Trent’s vine began to grow.
‘What…!?’
In an instant, Trent’s vine grew longer, and a chestnut-like growth sprouted at the end.
Bang!
The now elongated vine struck Charles’s shield and hit Charles himself behind it.
Though Charles, being a golem, didn’t feel pain from the chestnut’s impact, he was forced to step back.
‘This chestnut……. It’s no ordinary chestnut!’
The chestnut, as hard as steel, didn’t break Charles’s armor, but its thorn lodged itself between Charles’s joints.
‘Damage assessment. Armor status: intact. However, the thorn lodged between the joints is interfering with the drive system, preventing movement in the upper arm joint. It’s best to assume the right arm will be immobilized until the battle ends.’
The lodged thorn had embedded itself in the joint, and even a faint electric current seemed to flow, rendering the arm immobile.
Charles quickly concluded that he wouldn’t be able to use his shield-wielding hand in this battle.
‘Creating chestnuts as hard as steel…… Is this Trent’s ability? If so, I just need to watch out for the chestnuts sprouting from the vine’s end…….’
Though he suffered a painful loss from an unexpected attack, Charles had at least uncovered Trent’s ability.
As long as he remained cautious of the chestnuts, victory wouldn’t be difficult.
Just as Charles thought that, a flower bud bloomed from one of Trent’s vines.
Simultaneously, a pouch at the base of the flower began to fill with oil…….
‘That’s a Mimic Plant…!?’
Charles quickly searched his database for a matching plant and immediately threw himself to the ground, rolling away.
Almost simultaneously, a stream of red-hot flames poured over Charles’s back.
‘Why a Mimic Plant too…!? Wasn’t this a chestnut Trent?’
But there was no time to calmly ponder the reason.
Trent then grew orchid-like leaves sharp as blades and swung its vine, forcing Charles to roll again without a moment to catch his breath.
Next came a stream of agar water, followed by roses that exploded upon impact, scattering petals.
Trent, clearly no ordinary monster, pressed Charles by growing various plants from its vines.
Neither the cat nor Charles knew, but this Trent was a dangerous, bounty-worthy monster, classified as a gold-level threat in the area.
Moreover, it wasn’t just any Trent—it was an Awakening Species Trent.
Awakening Species, or Named Monsters, are monsters that undergo a second monsterification and survive the mutation.
These twice-mutated monsters gain new abilities, different from their original forms.
This Trent’s ability was to hunt other plant-type monsters and graft their abilities onto its own vines.
Its appearance before the cat was no coincidence.
The Trent, sensing the defenseless cat entering its territory, revealed itself to devour the cat.
Its nickname as a Named Monster: the Tree Devourer.
Like a warrior wielding the weapons of those they’ve defeated, this grotesquely twisted, humanoid Trent freely unleashed the abilities of the plants it had grafted.
Clang!
Crash!
Even in this situation, Charles desperately defended against the Tree Devourer’s attacks.
The initial carelessness toward the Tree Devourer’s abilities had cost him dearly.
But it was unavoidable—Charles had no experience fighting monsters.
In Charles’s time, monsters weren’t as prevalent as they are now.
Back then, the Dragnity Empire, with its glorious magical civilization, had conquered the world.
Monsters were scarce, and most were either wild animals or livestock designed in labs for specific purposes.
In fact, these modified livestock and plants were the reason why, even in this era of underdeveloped agriculture, people could enjoy high-quality produce comparable to Kurt’s time on Earth.
But when the Dragnity Empire fell, nature rapidly returned to the wild, and in the chaos, the empire’s high-concentration magical production facilities melted down, causing massive magical disasters.
The sudden spike in atmospheric magical concentration accelerated the mutation of wild animals, soon giving rise to numerous mutants.
The magical disaster itself subsided over centuries, but that time was enough for the mutated creatures to integrate into the ecosystem.
Trent was one such monster born from this process.
Naturally, Charles, who only remembered the world before the empire’s fall, found the very concept of fighting monsters unfamiliar.
But Charles was no ordinary golem—he was an Andelian War Golem, capable of independent thought to solve problems.
As he adapted to the Tree Devourer’s abilities, Charles began to recognize patterns and habits in its attacks, gradually adjusting to the battle.
‘Not good. Analysis shows the Tree Devourer has three highly threatening abilities, four moderately dangerous ones, and two others. There’s also a consistent pattern to its attacks. If I analyze the patterns and fight accordingly, it’s dangerous but manageable. However…….’
The problem was the costly mistake made early in the battle.
For a swordsman who uses both sword and shield, losing the use of his shield arm was a severe limitation.
If only he had a moment to pull out the thorn in his arm, but the Tree Devourer, seemingly aware of this, gave him no opening.
Clang!
Crash!
Despite gradually adapting to the Tree Devourer’s attacks, Charles was slowly but surely being pushed back.
Clang!
Then, in an instant, the Tree Devourer’s vine wrapped around Charles’s shield.
Charles tried to let go of the shield, but his out-of-control right arm wouldn’t even obey the simple command to release it.
‘Too late…!’
With Charles’s shield trapped, the Tree Devourer twisted its grotesque, eye- and mouth-like knots into something resembling a smile.
It then swung another vine to strike Charles’s head.
At that moment.
“Meow!!”
The cat threw itself between the Tree Devourer and Charles.
‘Danger!’
In that instant, Charles felt as if the world had slowed down.
In this slowed world, the Tree Devourer’s vine struck the cat’s head.
The cat’s head shattered in slow motion.
Wooden fragments scattered in all directions.
“Meow…….”
‘!!’
Seeing this, Charles’s thought circuits went blank.
Charles twisted his upper body.
If he couldn’t move his right arm, he’d twist his entire body.
The unexpected force caused the Tree Devourer to stagger momentarily, and without hesitation, Charles swung his sword vertically.
Until now, he could only wound the vines, but this time, Charles’s sword cut through the Tree Devourer’s body without resistance.
This time, he didn’t aim for a human-like weak point.
Instead, he cleanly split the Tree Devourer from the crown downward.
“Gig……. Gig……. Gik…….”
Even the Tree Devourer, which had remained unharmed when its temple was crushed, couldn’t withstand being split in half.
The Trent, making bizarre noises, flailed its vines in resistance but eventually stopped moving.
‘The cat!’
But what mattered to Charles wasn’t the Tree Devourer’s fate.
‘What a foolish, irrational, illogical act! I’m a golem—even if my head is destroyed, only the main camera is damaged. I won’t die! Yet you threw yourself in for me!! I can’t comprehend this! Object: Cat! I order you to get up immediately! Get up now!!’
Charles, having discarded his sword, immediately grabbed the cat’s body, which had been struck and sent flying by the Tree Devourer, and checked its condition.
Though Charles couldn’t speak, if he had vocal cords, he would have let out a heart-wrenching scream.
But the cat’s head was more than half gone, and there was no sign of life in its eyes.
‘Ah, ah……. Ahhh!! Ahhhhh!!!’
At the sight, Charles let out a silent scream, one that couldn’t even form into words.
Then.
“Meow?”
‘…?’
The cat’s shattered head.
Inside, a small sprout emerged, growing into a new head for the cat.
‘…I don’t understand?’
The sprout quickly grew, replacing the cat’s destroyed head.
Of course, the cat wasn’t dead.
Just as the Tree Devourer’s head was only mimicking a human form, the cat’s head was instinctively recreating the shape of a deer inherited from its parents.
In the end, the cat, too, was essentially a plant mimicking an animal.
Even if its head was destroyed, all it lost was its main camera.
That’s right.
From the beginning, no one here would die from having their head destroyed.
‘…Ah.’
Realizing this belatedly, Charles awkwardly looked around and quietly retrieved his discarded sword.
He then removed the chestnut thorn from his arm.