Rebirth of Abium

'Damn it, Gramps! You hadn't said anything about this.' He cursed his grandfather and then shifted his attention to the large abandoned mansion. After hesitating for a while, he pushed the iron entrance gate and walked into the green yard, filled with strange plants, vines, and mushrooms.

A second later, he felt a strange wing blew from his back and abruptly turned around in vigilance. Soon, he noticed there was no one nearby and let out a relieved sigh. He was scared now. In the last few minutes, he thought of moving back to the group many times. But soon stopped himself as he noticed strange greediness appeared in his heart. Now, his mind was filled with the unknown treasure hidden inside.

With a strange look in his emerald green eyes, he took a step forth and carefully moved towards the porch. Some black vines slithered towards his legs like snakes, but he burned them using his fire spell. Although he was just an apprentice mage, he had already built five spell models inside his mind. It gave him more confidence.

Once he arrived in front of the Porch, he took a deep breath and was about to open the gate but stopped. He noticed that his Greed's ring began to shake fiercer. He could tell this ring was not shaking in fear, but it was shaking in excitement.

Count Henricus bit his lips and then pushed the unlocked iron door with both hands. The next moment, a loud creaking sound echoed in the abandoned mansion and revealed a gorgeous stem of a pointy-leaf tree.

The dark brown trunk was very tall and thick. Some purple fruits and flowers hanging in those upper branches gave a unique aroma to the dusty main hall. Count Henricus watched that tree with amazement and soon shifted towards the tree trunk.

Count Henricus's eyes glittered as he saw a strange azure bluish stone embedded in the tree trunk's center.

While he was in a daze, Henricus saw a puff of dark smoke came out from his Greed's ring and formed into an illusionary creepy humanoid form. The next moment, Henricus felt something was gripping his soul and got anxious. He could feel some external power was making him fall asleep. Although he couldn't figure out what was happening, he was sure it has something to do with Greed's ring.

Henricus didn't lose his cool, though. Instead, he gave a wry smile and unsheathed his dagger. Without any delay, he stabbed his own hand. The next moment, the drowsy feeling faded away from his head due to the immeasurable pain. A second later, he took control over his emotion and heaved a heavy sigh.

'Damn it; it seems this really is a cursed artifact.' Henricus muttered to himself in fear and smiled bitterly. After checking there were no dangers nearby, he shifted his attention to the strange azure bluish stone. It was just a pebble-sized stone. But he could feel some mystical power was around it and grinned widely.

But soon, his grin disappeared as he saw two closed eyelids-like structures appeared below that stone. His whole body stiffened up.

'A mutated tree?' That was the first thought that came to his mind as he saw the strange tree and got anxious. He had heard of those strange trees which gained some intelligence due to long life and easily guessed this strange tree also must be under that category. The next moment, his guess turned right.

Slowly, those two eyelids opened and revealed strange emerald green eyes. It didn't have any emotions and stared deep into his eyes. After that, a strange melody began to appear from its branches and soon turned more violent. A unique two-meter tall purple mushroom, a humanoid tree with a single eye on its trunk, and a three-meter tall Red Rose plant with multiple vines began to sprout from the ground and surrounded the tree.

'Man Eater, Mushroom monster, Abyssal rose!' Panic surfaced on Henricus's face as he saw those three monsters like plants. He was well aware of those three strange life forms and got paled. Henricus knew that even with his five zero-tier spells and Greed's ring's strange spells, he wouldn't even stand against these monsters for thirty seconds.

'Abyssal rose has illusion type abilities, Man eaters have Orc like physical powers, and mushroom monsters has poison abilities.' He instantly studied those three monsters and cast three fire arrows continuously at Man-Eater. Arrows made of pure flames began to move fastly and directly stabbed onto the four-handed wooden stem-like humanoid creature's chest.

Although it had no mouth, a strange, painful crying sound came from that creature. But soon, the burned area began to regenerate, and new wood began to appear on that Man Eater's trunk area.

'Each of my Flame arrows has the power to kill a third-tier warrior, but against this Man Eater, it became useless.' Henricus's expression turned grim. Noticing the severity, he instantly thought of retreating. He knew if he went one step towards the tree, all three monsters would attack him mercilessly.

Clenching his fist tighter, he once again pointed his finger at that Man Eater and cast another spell. But this time, an invisible blade-like structure flew from his hand and directly slashed Man Eater's right limb.

A smile crept on his face as he continuously attacked the Man-Eater using his 'Wind Slash' spell. When the sixth 'Wind Slash' spell landed on the Man-Eater, its limbs were completely torn, and even its head was decapitated. But before he could finish off that Man Eater, a purple vine slithered from the Abyssal Rose plant and gripped his right leg. The next moment, he felt multiple stabbing pains in his leg and screamed out loud in panic.

"Help!"

Finally, he lost his calm and touched his golden ring. Although he didn't felt secure using that ring, he now had no choice but to take a gamble.

Once his finger touched the golden ring, a cloud of black smoke came out from the ring and directly entered his body. Now, he could feel chillness spreading to his whole body, and a foreign power began to take control over his body.

'What's happening?!' He wanted to ask out loud but couldn't able to open his mouth. Simultaneously, a bone-cracking sound was heard all over his body, and then a small horn-like structure appeared on his forehead.

'Am I turning into a monster?!' Henricus was deeply scared and soon felt the control over his body returned to him. But this time, there was also another type of information entered inside his mind. A weird language engraved in his mind.

'Did some demon take control over me just now?' He mumbled in fear and then shifted his attention towards the spell models in his mind.

"W-What the hell?!" He shouted out loud as he saw that six spell models were hovering inside his mind instead of five! Soon, his whole body stiffened when he saw new spell models replaced all those previous ones.

'What the-? Bloodline spells? Greed's Vision, Emotion Manipulation, Devil's Contract, Devil Transformation, Skin Hardening, Snatch.' As Hendricus glanced at those spell models, he got frightened. But what made to become anxious was the 'Devil Transformation' spell. As he saw all the names, he was damn sure that he injected a real devil's blood into his body through this ring and got perplexed.

'Heck! It's a Devil's bloodline!' He cursed at his god-damned grandfather for not warning about this and sighed deeply. He then snapped out from the daze as he felt another attack from the Abyssal Rose Plant and frowned. Because he noticed the pain in his right leg had already vanished, leaving only some itching sensation.

'My leg had already turned into dark-red color...No. This is skin hardening spell.' He nodded in understanding and shouted out loud.

"Devil's transformation."

A small red horn began to grow on his forehead. After that, his skin color changed into a dark red color, and his body began to grow two-meter taller. Moreover, a sharp long blade like-tail appeared behind him and moved like his own.

Instead of an obese human, there stood a dark red-colored humanoid monster in the mansion's main hall. Multiple veins began to fiercely attack his body, but Henricus waved his clawed dark hands and ripped all those strong vines like papers. He then let out a cold snort and walked towards those three plant-type monsters.

'This devil transformation should be only active for five more seconds. I have to finish off these plants before that.' He didn't dare to delay any longer and sprinted towards the wounded Man-Eater. Within a second, he appeared in front of the Man-Eater and slashed it into half using his devil's hand.

After that, he clenched his hardened fist tighter and punched his hand towards that Mushroom monster! The purple mushroom collided with his dark fist and exploded while spreading strange spores everywhere.

'Damn it! It's Poison!' Instantly, Henricus's pitch-black devil eyes widened. But soon, he relaxed as he saw his Devil transformation was resisting those poisonous spore attacks. With an evil grin on his face, he turned his head towards the Abyssal rose plant. Although the Abyssal Rose plant didn't have any intelligence, it attacked Henricus with all its strength.

'It seems Abyssal Rose plant is acting out of instincts!' Henricus calmly analyzed the three-meter tall Abyssal Rose plant and moved faster while tearing those vines with his clawed hand. In two seconds, he arrived in front of the Abyssal Rose plant and ripped the stem into pieces.

But soon, he frowned as he saw all those vines disappeared.

'Illusion!' He was shocked. He turned his gaze and saw that the Abyssal Rose plant had already arrived in front of the strange azure blue stone. From its action, he could easily guess it wants to protect the stone at all cost.

Henricus coldly snorted and once again sprinted towards the Abyssal Rose plant. By the time he arrived in front of that plant, he felt exhaustion appeared all over his body.

'I have to end this sooner!' He muttered under his breath anxiously and punched his hand at the Abyssal Rose plant's stem. With a shrilling crack, the stem broke, and the plant, along with large Red Rose, fell on the ground.

"Huff. Huff... That was so f*cking awesome!" He shouted out loud with a grin and then shifted his attention to the strange tree. Well, he turned his eyes particularly towards those two eyes and Azure-blue stone. At the same time, he saw his body returned to his previous self, and fatigue appeared all over his body.

Without minding the exhaustion feeling, he licked his lips and kicked the old tree to vent his anger.

He chuckled as he felt the hateful glare from the old tree. He easily guessed that this tree's mutation must be due to the strange Azure stone and became more curious. But soon he got tensed up as he sensed a presence appeared behind him.

While hiding his anxiousness, he was about to turn his head and attack the opponent, but he felt something hit on his nape and fell on the ground with a loud thud. He felt his head began to feel dizzy, and a sleepy feeling began to invade his mind.

'Ambush!' He became horrified at that thought and tapped his golden ring instantly. The next moment, the space around his body began to distort and silently teleported him from the main hall.

Meanwhile, a black-haired kid with black eyes walked out from the outside and clicked his tongue as he glanced at the place where Henricus fell before. He wore a grey robe and had a golden bracelet on his right hand.

Earlier, Abium was deeply surprised by Henricus's devil transformation and understood how he became powerful in the past.

"Well, I actually thought of killing him at first, but it seems he really has the Devil's luck." He muttered out loud and turned his head towards the strange stone embedded above those two green eyes.

'Azolla, any guess about this stone?' Abium asked curiously while walking casually near the old tree.

'You have to touch that stone first, kid. Then only I will be able to decipher any hints hidden in that stone.' Azolla replied. Nodding, Abium arrived in front of the old tree and touched the stone with his right hand while not minding the hateful glare from the tree's eyes.

After giving one deep look at that azure-blue stone, he gripped it tighter and plucked it out from that tree's trunk. The next moment, the whole tree began to shake fiercely and began to shed blood from its eyes. Watching this scene, even Abium felt sympathy for it.

'Although it evolved into an intelligent life form, it is destined to remain like this.' Abium felt pity. Letting out a sigh, Abium was about to teleport from there but stopped.

Meanwhile, in the mysterious golden throne hall, Abium's other soul sensed some change happening above the 'Time' divinity. An image of a crystalline cube appeared above the 'Time' divinity. Abium glanced at the image and noticed that he was sealed in a crystal! Soon, he squinted his eyes as he saw a brown-haired humanoid figure appeared outside the crystal and was bowing at him.

Lots of thoughts whirled inside his head.

'A helper?'

He suddenly thought of a bold idea and then turned his attention towards the mutated tree.

'Should I give this tree a gift?' Abium looked at those two reddened eyes and nodded.

After that, he silently touched that trunk and sent important information about common language, rune language, human cultures, dungeons, gods, souls, magic spells, and the outside world to the soul. With Azolla's help, it took him a few seconds to transfer everything to the tree's soul. Meanwhile, the mutated tree felt a massive amount of information entered into its soul forcefully and began to notice something changing inside its soul. Abium was a little shocked as he saw the branches began to crack. He could feel this cause was due to the information he gave to the old tree and frowned.

'Azolla, is this tree going through another transformation?' Abium asked curiously.

'Yeah, kid. But the information you sent into the small soul is much larger. It will take eons for this tree to digest all the information.' Azolla's words were sharp and cold.