Chapter 141 - 139: Bloodthorn Vine

Sev Steele, following closely behind, saw her son get swept into the air by an unknown vine. She was nearly scared out of her wits!

Fortunately, her years of hunting experience kept her from panicking in the face of sudden danger. Her first instinct was to calmly observe and analyze the situation, followed by a decisive attack on the enemy’s weak point. Although she had never encountered a situation quite like this, she could easily deduce that a Mutated plant was attacking Rusty.

Since it was a plant, no matter how powerful it might be, it would always have a fatal weakness—its roots!

Sev Steele quickly traced the vine entangling Rusty back to its source, easily locating the plant’s root system. It was hidden within a dense patch of thorny brambles. If not for the thrashing of the vine, it would have been nearly impossible to spot.

Target locked, Sev Steele lunged toward the brambles. Wielding her S Level Dagger, she furiously hacked away at the thorny brush. Using the dagger against Mutated plants below the Third Tier was as easy as slicing through warm butter. However, just as she cleared a path to the plant’s main body, countless vines lunged toward her, thrashing menacingly.

Meanwhile, Rusty had been tightly cocooned by the vines, his hands and feet completely bound. Using his willpower, he quickly manifested a pair of golden hands and began tearing at his restraints. He had originally assumed these hands would only work on metal. To his surprise, wherever the hands—condensed from metallic particles—tore at the vines, the points of contact rapidly withered!

It was as if his "hands" were toxic!

Rusty had no time to ponder the reason. He swiftly manipulated the hands to rip the vines apart.

As sections of the foliage withered away, dead branches and leaves showered down from the air with a loud RUSTLE. Released from his restraints, Rusty plummeted downward as well. Fortunately, his quick reflexes allowed him to use his golden hands to grab onto a thick shrub branch, saving him from a bone-shattering fall.

As soon as the boy’s feet hit the ground, he saw countless vines swarming toward his adoptive mother. His eyes immediately turned red with fury! He sprinted over, manipulating his gleaming golden hands to rip apart the vines closest to her.

Sev Steele, meanwhile, rapidly swung her dagger, slicing through the vines darting toward her. With the mother and son working together from the inside and outside, she quickly fought her way out of the encirclement.

Sev Steele didn’t turn and flee. Instead, seizing this brief opening, she raised her arm, aimed at the roots of the Mutated plant, and pressed the trigger on her miniature repeating crossbow.

Ten Crossbow Arrows shot out in rapid succession, all striking the exact same spot. Before the kinetic energy of the leading arrow could dissipate, the subsequent arrows slammed into it. Driven by the compounding force, the leading arrow burrowed even deeper into the plant.

After all ten Crossbow Arrows were spent, the plant’s trunk violently convulsed. Even without a face to express it, its agonizing pain was palpable. The menacing vines stopped their advance. As if struck by terror, they rapidly retreated.

Rusty seized the opportunity. Using his golden hands to grip the Mutated plant’s main trunk, he yanked it violently upward. Soon, its root system was exposed to the air. The Mutated plant began to thrash violently, desperately trying to break free from his grasp.

Sev Steele also lunged in. Swinging her dagger, she viciously stabbed a spherical nodule nestled in the center of its tangled roots. As the S Level Dagger pierced it, a thin layer of ice rapidly crystallized over the roots, and the plant’s struggles began to weaken.

By the time the main trunk was dragged over ten meters away, Sev Steele had already stabbed the spherical nodule full of holes. The entire root system was frozen into a solid block of ice, and the Mutated plant finally ceased its struggles.

His small face deathly pale, Rusty collapsed onto the ground. Sev Steele’s back was drenched in a cold sweat, her entire body feeling weak and limp. However, she didn’t sit down. Dagger still in hand, she vigilantly scanned her surroundings, fully prepared to engage in another life-and-death struggle with any unseen enemies.

This was supposed to be a cleared, safe scavenging zone. She hadn’t expected it to harbor such a deadly Mutated plant. It seemed the so-called safe zone wasn’t safe at all. She didn’t know if she was a magnet for luck or a magnet for disaster. She hadn’t been out scavenging very often, yet she had already been thoroughly ’welcomed’ by both Mutant Beasts and Mutated plants.

This was Rusty’s first time scavenging with his adoptive mother, and he had immediately faced a life-and-death crisis. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t afraid. But beneath the fear lay a deep sense of guilt. In the past, whenever his adoptive mother returned from a scavenging trip and rested at home the following day, she would either beat or berate them. Back then, he had secretly cursed her countless times, wishing she would just die out in the wilderness!

But now, he finally understood just how dangerous the wilderness truly was. It was no wonder she had such a terrible temper, having to live her days in a constant state of anxiety and fear!

Once the mother and son finally caught their breath, Sev Steele had the mental capacity to closely inspect the Mutated plant they had just killed. Its main trunk was over twenty centimeters in diameter, and the surface near its roots was a dark crimson. Connected to the trunk were dozens of branching vines, each as thick as a baby’s arm and stretching anywhere from ten to twenty meters long. They were coiled like long snakes, entangling the surrounding brambles. Now that the main body was dead, these offshoots had lost most of their Vitality, looking limp, withered, and entirely harmless.

Rusty pierced the main trunk with the needle-shaped detector, and an automated voice soon played out:

"BEEP! Second Tier Mutated plant detected: Bloodthorn Vine. Radiation level: 21 (Low).

"Its vines contain high-Energy sap, which can be used by Ability users below the Third Tier to replenish their Energy.

"Its tender leaves are highly nutritious and can be consumed in small quantities by ordinary humans. They can also be dried for long-term storage.

"Additionally, please thoroughly search the plant’s root system. If you find a Wood Attribute Crystal Core, congratulations! You’ve secured a highly lucrative harvest!"

The mother and son’s eyes instantly lit up at this description. In a flash, all the life-threatening danger they’d just faced felt completely worth it!

Sev Steele immediately used her dagger to slice open the main root system, revealing frozen, dark crimson ice crystals inside. Considering this was likely the high-Energy sap, she quickly pulled out a vacuum-seal bag and scooped up all the dark red crystals, planning to have Doctor Jenkins appraise them once they got back.

She meticulously dissected the main root system, collecting an entire bag full of the dark crimson crystals, weighing easily over two pounds. Finally, from within the spherical nodule, she dug out a hexagonal crystal about the size of a pinky finger. It was the color of imperial green jade, save for a few streaks of blood-red running through it. Aside from those, the gem was flawlessly transparent. Even at a glance, it was obviously of exceptionally high quality.

Sev Steele carefully tucked the Crystal Core into an inner pocket before turning to help Rusty chop up the plant’s branches. She wouldn’t feel at ease until the thing was hacked into a million pieces, terrified that it might somehow revive on their way back and attack them again.

Naturally, she didn’t let the branches go to waste either, chopping them into two-meter sections and stuffing them into a ragged burlap sack. The main trunk, once chopped into sections, was also stuffed into the sack. She made sure to hide the pieces underneath the wild vegetables they had gathered. Ordinary people might not recognize the plant, but if a passing Ability user spotted it, it could invite trouble.

Once the entire Bloodthorn Vine had been dealt with, Sev Steele was preparing to leave when Rusty suddenly pointed to a patch of tiny seedlings nearby.

"Mom, those look a bit like the Bloodthorn Vine too, just a lot smaller," he said.