They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 64: The Secret Leaks, Predictably
[Species: Treant]
Apparently, treefolk was not their proper name.
The Treants lived far from the routes adventurers normally traveled.
Evan had never imagined that a hidden emerald sanctuary lay deep within the Sixth Stratum.
The roots of countless ancient trees intertwined across the ground. Green moss covered their surfaces and spread throughout the cavern.
The Treants had merged their own roots into the same network.
Only when one large and two small Puffcaps suddenly intruded did the Treants slowly pull their feet from the earth.
They displayed strong territorial instincts toward the invaders.
Several Treants lumbered closer. Roots writhed along their arms as though they might attack at any moment.
The Treants stood between six and ten feet tall. An ordinary Puffcap measured only two and a half feet, while the oversized Puffcap form Sable created with Mimicry was about five feet tall.
Surrounded by those towering figures, the three Puffcaps appeared to be under considerable pressure.
Sable did not look threatened in the slightest.
Instead, she eagerly pulled one fist behind her. Her plump body leaned backward like a drawn bow.
At the limit of the motion, her short legs drove against the ground and launched her forward with all their strength.
A shallow crater erupted where she had stood. Dirt sprayed across the Scale Armor of the two Puffcaps behind her.
The Treant opposite her suffered a devastating impact before the sound of her passage reached it.
Its trunk exploded into powder. Its relatively intact limbs flew in every direction, and one severed arm punched straight through another Treant’s chest.
This was the first time Evan had seen a Puffcap move quickly enough to leave an afterimage.
Yet the Treants seemed incapable of fear. Even after Sable killed one of their companions in an instant, they attacked without the slightest hesitation.
Seven or eight roots crawled across the ground, wrapped around Sable’s short legs, and tried to restrain her speed.
[Bind]
Evan knew that skill too.
It was practically standard equipment for most plant-type monsters.
Used by several Treants at once, Bind could hinder almost any other opponent, even the Werewolves of the Tenth Stratum.
Unfortunately, they were facing Sable.
She was LV58, a super-elite monster whose Stats far exceeded the norm.
Merely walking at an ordinary pace snapped every root entangled around her.
One Treant clasped its hands together. Its branches intertwined into a massive hammer, which it brought down on the motionless Sable.
The blow failed to leave even a mark on her black scales.
There was no technique involved. Her Stats simply overwhelmed them.
Like an unruly child, Sable wrecked the Treants one after another, using a different method each time.
She bore them no malice. She was merely satisfying her urge to destroy things.
After tearing all four limbs from the final Treant, Sable seemed to lose interest.
She did not venture deeper into the Treant grove. Instead, she turned back the way she had come.
Evan controlled one Puffcap and sent it after her. The other remained behind.
It examined the moss living in symbiosis with the roots, then the last Treant, which had lost all its limbs but had not yet died.
The Puffcap sprayed spores across the surrounding ground.
This location was not connected to the Mycelial Network, so the spores would have to grow on their own.
Evan merely wanted to test whether his hyphae could compete with the moss for living space.
The Treants probably kept Slimes out of their territory. If his mushrooms could outcompete the moss, this sanctuary would become a natural node for the mycelial mat.
Finding several such locations would make his future expansion into the lower strata much easier.
After expelling all the spores in its body, the Puffcap turned and hurried after Sable.
As expected, Sable had located the Treants with her senses, not by remembering the route.
She became lost before she had taken more than a few steps back.
In the end, Evan’s Puffcap had to lead the way and guide her to the main path.
Now that she had finished playing, Sable rubbed her belly and looked at the two nearby Puffcaps, neither of which possessed [Mana Storage].
It was time to go home and eat.
“We were lucky. We killed that Flower Fey before it could react and spray its Paralytic Sap. A whole bottle will buy us enough ale for half a month...”
The approaching conversation abruptly stopped around the corner.