abcnovels
Chapter 15: Blood Is Fuel
Chapter 15: Blood Is Fuel
"C-Curse you!! Urgh-"
"I will stop punching you if you decide to stop speaking like a gross imitation of sentience." I placed my obsidian dagger right below its jaw, with the sharp edge pressing up the wet red skin. "Unless you adapted an immunity to my punching, in which I will turn your flesh into tasty striped flesh for my wolf pet to snack on."
"S-She is your pet!? AAAAAARGH-"
A thin layer of this monster's flesh was displaced, crumbling pitifully to the ground like a sheet of corroded paper.
"My words are not a threat. They are a promise, and I'm a person who always tries my best to fulfill my promise."
With the Skinwalker barely having energy to resist, I tied up this creature of deception and dragged them toward the location of the Bleeding Tree on the east.
The shimmering crimson hue of the fleshy bark and its impish sap alone was enough to drain the sanity of those who glanced at it for far too long.
For me however, such pungent color was already something that I'm too used to.
"The Bleeding Tree… What a dull name."
It said that the tree's sap could heal or harm depending on how it was harvested.
However, the information screen also said that the tree demands a blood price for its gift, and will take what it was owed.
Was it implied that the sap itself was priced regardless of how it was harvested?
If what I gathered was true, the tree itself should be conscious enough to process the concept of two parties' exchange.
"And the right thing for us to do was to buy the sap directly with the equivalent amount of 'lifeline' for the traded sap."
I simply threw the Skinwalker to the ground where the tree's roots were lingering about.
"Heal our wounds and fatigue."
The fleshy bark of the tree began to form a grinning face before spiraling out of control.
In less than a second, an extraterrestrial mouth formed on the ground where the Skinwalker currently was. Exasperated, the tree brandished its serrated teeth and proceeded to consume the offering until nothing remained.
"That got excessively brutal."
A radiant crimson was brightly emitted from every part of the red-binding tree, as it shed countless of sentient particles into the air.
Some of those particles entered my eyes, lungs, and ears.
And many of them were still scattering away. My feeling was telling me that they were going toward the direction where Lupina and Verina were.
"I'm lucky that the Skinwalker got blood inside of them."
I felt my body deliberately repaired by the particles that the tree sent. From the heavy knot that was tightening my chest and esophagus, to the stinging pain on my blistered skin and lacerated flesh.
After the process was done, which didn't even take a minute to finish, I checked my Health tab in my detail screen.
—
[Health Status]
[Overall Health: 100%, Pain: 0%]
—Vitals—
[Consciousness: 125%]
[Movement: 110%]
[Manipulation: 1000%]
[Hearing: 200%]
[Sight: 100%]
[Breathing: 100%]
[Blood Filtration: 100%]
[Blood Pumping: 120%]
[Metabolism: 100%]
[Lifeline: 100%]
[Sanity: 60%]
—Injuries—
[None]
—Conditions—
[Heightened Consciousness: This individual take reduced influence from all sort of negative modifier to the mind (moderate - 25% consciousness for the next 16 hours)]
—Enhancements—
[None]
—
[{Biography} {Inventory} <{Health}> {Needs} {Social} {Log} {Info}]
—
"This is refreshing."
It seemed like not all Calamity Objects were purely malevolent in nature.
Otherwise, the tree would follow with a curse that either forced us to make more sacrifice lest we go insane, or the particles that seeped into our body would make our organs explode in the next four hours.
Glad that it wasn't the case.
Though, I could see that a reckless person, or in my specific case, a potential player, would be ordering their Trope's members to harvest the tree's sap, only to have the equivalent amount of blood sucked from the person who harvested the sap as their price.
"Those two might either be screaming with joy and praying to a random nonexistential god, or they might be screaming in fear and confusion."
After the exchange, the Bleeding Tree remained firm and foreboding on the east side of our fortress.
I wasn't sure if we would be able to send another offering in exchange for healing all of our wounds, since the information screen of a Calamity Object was proven not to be the end-all-be-all.
Regardless, it might be logical of me to prepare more than one prison in case that we stumble upon a Calamity Object that we could sacrifice to the Bleeding Tree.
The night was still far from ending, after all.
"... I need something stronger."
Stronger than the ballista, easy to carry and move, while also possible to craft under the scarce resource type.
If only it weren't for this dull biome with little to nothing but fungus and tall trees, I would probably have something more advanced than things and shapes made out of wood.
Then an idea struck the fireside corner of my mind.
"... I'll just add more ropes and compound bows on a single giant arbalest."
I might be extremely fatigued at that time, but I started to recall that there was a glistening spark when the Sandstalker's claw was struck by the ballista's bolt.
It was as if the bolt peeled away tiny pieces of heated 'steel' from the Sandstalker's claws.
"No way."
In that moment of enlightenment, I immediately carved my design onto a blank canvas of a wooden wall using a sharpened rock.
Without wasting a single second, I immediately scurried away to where we fought the Sandstalker.
I needed to prove my hypothesis first and foremost.
"Miss fairy! Something suddenly heals us out of our wounds and fatigue! M-Miss fairy? Why are you running like something dreadful is chasing you!?"
I'm sorry, Lupina. But this time, I wasn't chased by anything evil or dreadful.
Ignoring the completely-shut gate, I walked to the platform of the wall and jumped off to the outside of our defensive perimeters.