"You are one of our untainted children. There is something in you, something that shouldn't be there. But it is definitely not one of the enemy's.
Child, you are the one fated to be one of our saviors."
Ash heard what the human in front of him said, but none of their words made sense to him.
Untainted children, something that shouldn't be there, the enemy. None of these words made sense to him.
Ash opened his mouth, wanting to demand an explanation.
But he didn't get to.
Another flash of light blinded Ash. When he opened his eyes again, he was now back at the foot of the large banyan tree.
He could now see the silvery green mana spreading all over his body.
And the sense of fulfillment they brought with them.
The silvery green glow converged in the middle of Ash's chest, combining and condensing into a small part.
When all the silvery green mana had gathered there, a nail-sized seed now nestled in Ash's chest.
Just sitting there while emitting a faint silvery green glow. The exact same color as the stag's mana.
Not stopping there, the seed's mana began traveling to Ash's hand, the one that touched the base of the tree.
The silvery green mana entered the tree and acted as a key.
The part where Ash had touched before began retreating back into the tree.
The woody trunk folded as if it were flexible.
More and more chunks of the trunk were emptied, opening up a cave-like dent in the tree.
But some of the wood stayed behind, leaving what seemed to be tables and chairs.
He felt the invite and followed through, entering the wood cave.
Ash stared at the surroundings, the walls of the wooden cave.
What was supposed to be hardwood had been braided as if they were wool threads, creating natural, yet neat walls of wood.
Ash wondered what he needed to do inside the cave, and what the seed now resting in his chest was.
Fortunately, the voice of the human echoed in his mind once more,
"You are going to learn how we are going to fight against our enemy. How to deny their unwanted, forcible transformation.
You must learn how to use our own way of evolution, our natural progress."
The voice went silent for a moment before continuing, "I saw you have certain memories with these two, I suppose you would be familiar with them."
As if waiting for its cue, a creature walked towards the wooden cave.
It came from the forest, running with all four of its legs to arrive as soon as possible.
Ash heard its steps echoing and turned back.
Instinctively, he summoned his two crimson vines, ready to incapacitate the verdant wolf that had just entered the area of the large tree.
But as the wolf that had welcomed him when he first walked into the forest and almost took his life came closer to him, Ash felt something was different about it.
He couldn't feel any aggression coming from the wolf.
He halted his attacks, letting the wolf come closer and enter the cave.
As it turns out, his instinct was true.
The wolf didn't bite him or send any vines towards him.
Instead, the wolf brought a small branch of familiar looking berries, the same ones he had eaten when he was barely surviving the verdant wolf's attack.
As if already knowing what to do, the wolf jumped up onto the table, placed the berry near its feet, and lay down.
"Use the seed's power, and figure out yourself what our natural evolution process is. Try touching them with the thought of the seed in mind." The voice once again spoke before returning to silence.
Still not knowing what he was supposed to do, Ash decided to just follow the voice's direction.
At first, he plucked one of the berries from the branch.
Now that he wasn't on death's door, Ash could feel that the urges he felt when he saw the berry before were artificial.
It was one of the berries' characteristics. He could feel them even now, the berry calling out to him for him to eat it.
But with his mushroom passive ability, Ash could easily resist the temptation.
Not that he would be having any complications with eating the berry, he was already immune to it.
Following the voice's direction, Ash tried to feel the seed nesting in the middle of his chest.
As easy as it was to summon his plague codex, the seed responded to his call, exuding the silvery green mana to his body.
Ash directed the mana to flow from his body and envelop the berry in his hand.
To his surprise, once the mana touched the berry and the seed felt Ash's intention to learn more about the berry, tiny, threadlike roots began extending from his hand to enter the berry.
The roots were not like tree roots, they branched everywhere, soft, and had even more minuscule branches that weren't visible to the naked eye.
'They look like mushroom roots…Or what are they called, mycelium?'
The mycelium entered the berry, creating pin holes all over it and even more microscopic holes as it kept pumping the silvery green mana inside the berry.
As the mycelium began touching the berry's skin and penetrating inside, knowledge, ones that weren't there before, began entering Ash's brain.
The knowledge told him all about the berry.
The shape and structure of the fruit. The exact color of the berry.
The chemicals that made it had bitter venom inside, even the DNA that was responsible for emitting a magical aura that lured creatures to eat the berry.
All of this information flooded Ash's brain, forcing him to shut down his body just to process the knowledge he had just received.
And as he learned more about the berry, the more he was familiar with the seed that had been planted on his chest.
By the time Ash had processed all the information about the berry, he had figured out what he needed to do.
Using the seed's power, Ash isolated and grabbed the berry's DNA that was responsible for creating the venom that had caused him to cough blood even until now.
Storing it inside the seed.
He then released the berry from his grasp as he turned to the wolf next.
It just stayed still when Ash touched its body.
Whimpering slightly when the mycelium began penetrating the wolf's body.
The knowledge of the wolf now entered Ash, overwhelming him much more than the berry did.
But his passive mental endurance skill came in clutch and saved him from overloading his brain.
Ash soon found what he was looking for in the wolf, the exact organ that produced the wolf's venom, and the particular DNA that was responsible for producing the verdant wolf's venom.
Reading Ash's intention, the mycelium touched and wrapped around the organ.
With another surge of the silvery green mana, the stored DNA of the berry was brought out from the seed.
It traveled through the mycelium.
Before entering the wolf's venom sac.
The berry's toxic venom now began merging with the wolf's.