Not everyone had gone mad with excitement and religious fanaticism like Nuaza, but everyone did give Vandalieu moderate praise, putting him in a good mood.

“What is this flower used for?” asked Basdia.

“It is a Defeat flower,” replied Zadiris. “If I recall, the boy said oil can be taken from this tree’s seeds.”

This flower was similar to camellias, and until now, there hadn’t been large amounts of this flower available. It had been named the Defeat flower because when the flower fell from the tree, it resembled the severed head of a general who had been defeated in battle falling to the ground. The tree provided them with oil.

The fruit that formed after the flowers fell could be steamed and squeezed to produce oil that could be used as fuel or food.

There wasn’t much demand for lighting in Talosheim as its inhabitants possessed the Night Vision skill that allowed them to read just fine with just the moonlight, or the Dark Vision skill that let them see in complete darkness as if it were the middle of the afternoon. But Vandalieu had actually wanted oil to use in food.

“With this, I can make tempura and suage*, and also mayonnaise…”

TLN*: Deep-fried food without batter or breading.



It was possible to take oil from acorns, but the demand for acorn powder had been greater, and taking lard from Orcs and other monsters took more time and effort than extracting it from plants. So now he could make foods and flavorings that he had been unable to make before –

“Bocchan, isn’t that tree moving?” asked Rita.

“Eh? No way, there’s no way a tree would move, right?” said Vandalieu, coming back from his delicious fantasies that had spread its wings to look at the tree that she was pointing at. But a moment later, he was perplexed. “Huh? Was there a tree in that spot when we first came here?”

Right before Vandalieu’s eyes, the tree’s roots moved like legs to produce a sluggish motion.

“… It did move, didn’t it?” he said.

“It does seem like it moved,” said Zadiris in agreement.

“See, I told you it moved, didn’t I!” exclaimed Rita.

“It looks like an Ent… Where did it sneak in from?” asked Zadiris.

“Well, if it’s just one tree coming at me, I’ll turn it into lumber right away.” Thinking that it would be best to fell the tree just in case, Vigaro, who was now a battle lumberjack, raised his trusty axe.

As he did, the entire thicket squirmed with the loud rustling of leaves.

“… Did all the trees we can see just move?” asked Rita.

“Could it be that all of the trees in this thicket are Ents?” Kachia guessed.

Her guess was entirely correct.







Ents are Rank 3 plant-type monsters.

They use their roots as legs to move and possess faces resembling those of humans on their trunks. Their strength is proportional to the size of their bodies and their trunks are as hard as iron. As they are made of wood, they may look weak to fire, but they possess the Fire Element Resistance skill, so they are difficult to burn.

However, their movements are dull and they are only able to swing their branches and roots around in battle. Because of their folk-tale like appearance and their human-like faces, they are imagined to be intelligent, but their intelligence is not significantly different from that of Goblins.

However, as they possess the characteristics of plants, they do not attack other creatures except in self-defense or if they are in extremely dry, barren land. Even in Devil’s Nests, as long as they are not carelessly approached and no fires are lit nearby, they are relatively unthreatening, rare monsters.

Their fresh leaves can be used to make poultices, and their trunks can be used as high-quality wood. Their faces are used as proof of their extermination.

Incidentally, the cause of their appearance has long been a source of puzzlement for researchers. The leading theory is that there are ‘Ent seeds’ that grow into large trees and form Ents. However, the existence of such seeds is still yet to be proven.

Another theory is that normal trees become Ents when polluted with Mana. Renowned mages have tried pouring Mana into soil in experiments to test this theory, but in the end, no trees transformed into Ents in these experiments.

“So, Van, how much Mana did you pour into them?” asked Basdia.

“If I recall, I recovered my Mana as I worked so it was around 300,000,000 Mana yesterday,” replied Vandalieu.

“… Your Mana is amazing as always, isn’t it, Van?”

Upon hearing the mention of Mana in the hundreds of millions, Kachia, who was more open with her feelings these days, let out a sigh. She had been training in magic recently, but her Mana was just over one hundred.

In a single day, the five-year-old boy in front of her had poured three million times that amount into the ground. Wasn’t it simply too extraordinary?

“I wish you’d share some of that Mana with me,” she said. “Well, you do share it with me from time to time,” she added.

“Indeed,” said Zadiris in agreement. “No matter how renowned a mage is, they would not possess a hundred million.”

It seemed that as a result of an incredible amount of Vandalieu’s Mana being continuously poured into the ground, all of the previously very ordinary seeds had grown into Ents.

This made the truth behind the appearance of Ents very clear.