23: Chapter 23 The First Bite After Evolution

Dawn had broken, and the first thing Jiang Ming did was not move, but feel.

The tree core had stabilized.

The swelling sensation of being on the verge of bursting at the end of last night's evolution had faded, replaced by a higher-density feeling of energy saturation.

It was like pressing one hundred liters of water into a fifty-liter container—compact, calm, yet ready to release at any moment.

Three main roots were plunged in a triangular formation one and a half meters deep into the mud layer, each as thick as an adult's wrist.

The root bark had turned from its previous dark brown to pure black, its surface covered with fine, vertical fibrous textures, resembling the texture of dried-out old vines.

Six main branches extended in six directions from different heights of the trunk, and the fine branches bifurcating at the end of each main branch swayed slowly in the early morning twilight.

The tentacle-like structures at the ends of the branches were extremely flexible, capable of bending individually or gathering into bundles of three to five.

After gathering, the force was enough to snap an adult's forearm bone.

The panel was blurry.

He opened the panel, and the data had stabilized:

[Jiang Ming · Ogre Tree]

[Level: LV.3]

[Life: 1500]

[Energy: 1200]

[Strength: 120]

[Agility: 55]

[Constitution: 200]

[Spirit: ???]

Root Spike cooldown was six seconds, target's Speed would slow down by thirty to forty percent after Paralysis Toxin took effect, and the upper limit for spore control was six.

Camouflage Mimicry lasted for two hours with a half-hour cooldown, and Branch Strangulation could be used for single control or group attacks.

Comparing the data from the last day of the sapling stage.

Strength had increased by two and a half times, health and energy values had more than doubled, and constitution was close to three times.

He was no longer that tender shoot with a strength of two and an agility of one that couldn't even beat a beetle.

Compared to the current Ogre Tree standing three meters tall with a root network covering a radius of one hundred and fifty meters.

Except for the name Jiang Ming on the panel, he was basically no longer the same species.

Testing the new abilities required a live target.

Right on the edge of the hunting ground, a grey-eared rabbit had strayed into the middle range of the Tree Domain.

It was probably attracted over from the Fallen Wood Area by the scent of Carrion Crow feathers, and was currently crouching under a cluster of withered shrubs gnawing on wet moss.

Its body size was more than five times larger than a Grey-haired Rat, its hind legs were muscular, its vigilance was extremely high, and every two bites it would raise its head and twitch its ears.

Before evolution, he could only rely on luck with root tripwires against such a high-Speed small target.

Now it was different.

Jiang Ming selected a lateral root closest to the rabbit, silently probing it out of the mud surface from its rear side, aiming the root tip at the base of its hind leg.

The tip of the Root Spike lightly grazed the fur on the outside of the rabbit's hind leg, cutting a shallow wound less than half a centimeter deep.

Paralysis Toxin seeped into the wound from the grooves on the epidermis of the root tip.

The grey-eared rabbit's reaction manifested in less than three seconds: it first kicked its hind legs fiercely wanting to jump.

But the kicking force of the scratched hind leg was noticeably weaker than the other.

Its whole body lost balance and rolled to the side.

It scrambled up and wanted to jump again, but this time the movements of the two hind legs were no longer synchronized.

The front legs scrambled a couple of steps before the hind legs sluggishly followed, like four legs belonging to three different rabbits respectively.

By the fifth second, it had run less than two meters and rolled to the side again; after this tumble, its hind legs began to twitch irregularly, and it could no longer stand up.

"It takes effect fast! Three seconds of imbalance, five seconds of incapacitation."

Jiang Ming silently noted it down, not devouring it immediately, but intentionally loosening the root encirclement.

The rabbit struggled and crawled forward about another ten meters.

The rabbit's front legs could still move, but its hind legs were completely dragged on the ground, and its crawling trajectory changed from a straight line to an arc continuously deflecting to the right.

After the toxin spread, it affected the extensor muscle groups of its hind legs, and both hind legs lost the ability to push off the ground.

He waited until the rabbit's heart rate began to drop noticeably before delivering another spike from directly below, piercing the chest cavity and killing it instantly.

Devour!

The conversion efficiency of flesh and blood in the Ogre Tree form was completely on a different order of magnitude compared to the sapling stage.

Previously, when devouring a Grey-haired Rat of the same size, the root system needed to dissolve the corpse's epidermis and then absorb the muscle tissue layer by layer, taking about two to three minutes for the whole process.

Now, devouring a grey-eared rabbit, from the rootlets piercing into the interior of the corpse to all biomass being liquefied and absorbed, took less than forty seconds.

Moreover, the yield ratio was higher; for a living body of the same volume, the evolution points and energy values extracted by the Ogre Tree form were about thirty percent more than in the sapling stage.

Jiang Ming attributed this efficiency increase to the increased density of the root network and the qualitative change in digestive enzyme activity.

But the system panel popped up with a more direct explanation upon completion of the devouring:

[Tree Spirit Form Transition —— Plunder Efficiency Bonus. Current form's conversion rate for living flesh and blood: 92% (78% during the sapling stage).]

An increase in conversion rate of nearly fifteen percent.

This meant that in the same hunting ground and with the same number of prey, his growth Speed would be nearly one-fifth faster than in the sapling stage.

Next was the defense test.

He had an Infected Grey Rat crawl to the side of the main trunk, ordering it to bite the bark with all its might.

The grey rat's incisors could bite through the epidermis of ordinary dead wood, but when biting into his current bark, the first bite slipped directly on the gelatinous layer of the bark surface under the rat's teeth.

The second bite landed solidly, leaving only two extremely shallow white marks without even biting through the outer fibers.

By the third bite, half of the grey rat's incisors broke, while the bark remained completely undamaged.

After Lignified Skin combined with the newborn wood of the Ogre Tree, physical attacks from small rodents were basically rendered ineffective.

Even his previously most feared weak point—the shallow rootlets exposed on the surface of the soil—

was no longer an obvious weakness; the epidermis thickness and toughness of the lateral roots were sufficient to resist scratching from ordinary iron tools.

Unless the opponent chopped with an axe at full strength, it would be difficult to cut through in one strike.

The weak points that truly needed protection had narrowed down to two: the tree core, and several main energy-transmitting roots connecting the tree core to the main root system.

Next was Camouflage Mimicry.

He had been forced to use this ability as a trump-card static camouflage during his period of weakness.

At that time, he only passively darkened the bark texture and gathered the branches, having no energy to work on details.

Now, with abundant energy, he spent a moment carefully experiencing the entire process of mimicry.

It was not about turning into another tree, but visually letting his form "blend into the average of the surrounding environment."

The bark texture was adjusted to vertical cracks similar to the dead tree behind him, and the bending angle of the branches imitated the growth direction of a few crooked-necked trees nearby.

The color difference between the front and back of the leaves was compressed to a minimum, and even the breathing frequency of the canopy layer was deliberately synchronized with the surrounding air flow.

The whole process took about three minutes.

He disguised himself as a diseased tree that had been burned by fire.

A charred section was intentionally exposed at the lower end of the trunk, several thin branches hung down imitating a dead state, and the leaves were half-curled and yellowing.

Viewed from twenty meters away, anyone's first reaction would be "this tree is dying."

After completing the mimicry, he slowly extended a rootlet toward the edge of the transport route, finding the wooden stake with red cloth that had been knocked crooked last night.

The wooden stake was still in place, tilted at forty-five degrees, and the red cloth was half-wet from the night dew.

He pulled the wooden stake out of the mud, dragged it about thirty meters further outward, away from the transport route, and into a Gravel Slope at the edge of the Fallen Wood Area.

The slope terrain was slightly higher, with a better field of vision than flat ground. Standing on the slope, one could overlook the entrance of the transport route, but looking over from the route, it was not easy to notice that there was something on the slope.

Then he slightly adjusted the angle of the Camouflage Mimicry, moving his main body about five meters deeper into the slope, wedged next to a dead old pine tree.

The new position was less than fifteen meters away from where the red cloth stake landed, right within the optimal piercing distance of the Root Spike Raid, and also within the close-combat range of the Branch Strangulation.

A quieter ambush point had taken shape, no longer just misleading people into taking the wrong path.

But rather, after taking the wrong path.

Personally eating the person who came back to check the mark.

At noon, movement came from the direction of the transport route.

It was a dog...

Light brown, short-haired.

Its body size was a size smaller than a grey-backed Hyena, but leaner. Its tail was upright, and it lowered its head, sniffing all the way along the transport route.

A Pathfinding Dog.

On the side of the Settlement, after returning last night, they did not immediately send a large force back, but instead released only one dog.

The cost of one dog was far lower than five people plus two goats, and even if it was lost, it would not affect the core combat power.

But if the dog found something, the people behind it could obtain information without taking any risks.

Jiang Ming observed the movements of the Pathfinding Dog through an Infected Grey Rat hidden in the gravel pile.

The dog ran along the transport route for a while and stopped at the fork.

That was where the short-axe man had nailed the red cloth stake last night.

It lowered its head to sniff the mud, circled twice, and then raised its head to sniff toward the west-leaning direction.

That was the scent trail left by Jiang Ming just now when he dragged the red cloth stake.

The dog began to walk along that trail. The direction was biased to the west, deviating from the transport route.

Deviating from the Wooden Cabin, pointing straight to this Gravel Slope at the edge of the Fallen Wood Area.

About thirty meters behind the dog, a human scout who deliberately lightened his footsteps was creeping over along the edge of the bushes.

He was not holding a torch in his hand, a short knife was tucked at his waist, a bundle of fine hemp rope and a small leather bag were strapped to his back, and a few signal whistles were stuck on the side of the bag.

Single person, light equipment, no attacks, running away upon encountering anything.

Jiang Ming moved the Infected Grey Rat a step deeper into the gravel pile, causing the rat's tail to brush against a loose piece of gravel, making an extremely faint frictional sound.

"Woof!! Hrr-roo~"

The Pathfinding Dog's ears snapped over, lowering its body toward the direction of the grey rat, and a low, probing guttural sound came from its throat.

The scout heard the dog bark.

He glanced in the direction of the Pathfinding Dog and then slowly approached the Gravel Slope.

The red cloth stake was less than ten steps in front of him, obliquely inserted into the mud, with the red cloth shaking slightly.

And Jiang Ming was motionless in the shadow of the dead pine tree beside the stake.