Reincarnated as a dragon’s egg ～Lets aim to be the strongest～ - Chapter 603

603 – World Treant
『How do I look? How do I look, master-dono?』

Standing up straight, treant poses as he asks me with [Telepathy]. His thoughts resound in my head, feeling stronger than before. It seems he’s taking a liking to his new appearance. I-it’s true that he looks strong, but…

『F-for now, please switch to tree spirit form!』

He’s easy for enemies to spot. There’s probably not going to be a lot of chances for him to take his true form. No matter where we go, he’ll stand out.

『Ah, sure. I understand.』

He looks down sadly. He probably wanted me to look at his world treant form for longer. S-sorry, treant.

He shrinks down with [Tree Spiritisation]. His tree spirit form is unchanged from before. He might be a little brighter green, but that’s all.

『To start with, congrats. You reached A+.』

『Ooh! I’m finally a match for Aro-dono!』

He seems happy. He’s always felt slightly behind everyone else, but it seems he’s finally starting to catch up.

He’s gained quite a few new skills. The characteristic skills he gained are [Vitality Conferment], [World Tree Bark], [Fairy Hex], and [Slow Body]. He finally got the [Magic Resistance] skill, and his new normal skills are [Woven Armour], [Death God Seed], [Immortal Revival], and [Humanisation Technique].

[Humanisation Technique]… He has [Tree Spiritisation], so it’s unclear how useful it will be. It might come in handy if levels it up high enough to be able to walk around human cities. Though what does he look like as a human…? I’m curious, but also a little apprehensive…

I guess I should take a look at each skill in turn. I already know [Slow Body], [Magic Resistance], and [Humanisation Technique], so I’ll skip them this time. Though I’m curious about [Humanisation Technique] in a different way.

【Characteristic Skill [Vitality Conferment]】
【The user possess a powerful vitality, and by releasing a little mana, desolate land can be transformed into a field of flowers. 】
【In addition, while this skill is used, all those around the user will have their HP restored.】

It’s strong…I think? Indiscriminate healing seems awfully niche. I’m not sure if there’s a situation where it’s useful. I don’t think it’s weak, but… The only use I can think of would be to go to the field of someone he doesn’t like and fill it with weeds.

【Characteric Skill [World Tree Bark]】
【A world treant has thick, tough bark.】
【In addition, the bark has a magical decomposition effect, which significantly reduces the damage the world treant takes from magical attacks.】
【It is used as a material for expensive armour.】
【Whenever a human kingdom and world treant coexisted, the stream of robbers was never ending.】

P-pitiful… Was it really a guardian deity? It was totally getting exploited. It’s okay to get angry occasionally.

【Characteristic Skill [Fairy Hex]】
【Whenever a direct magic attack is received, fairies living inside the tree will return the same kind of magic.】
【Irrespective of the user’s magical strength, the returned magic will be the same power as the received magic.】
【The magic produced by this skill has high directionality, and only targets the attacker.】

I don’t know what the fairies are, but it’s essentially a counter skill. He also has [World Tree Bark], so he’s astonishingly tough against magic…

He has [Wood Counter] against physical attacks, though I’ve never seen him use it… He’s essentially always been fighting stronger opponents, so there hasn’t been many chances for fights to come down to a fist fight. Were that to happen, he would have definitely lost.

It’s okay to be hit again and again, but only if the opponent is much weaker than you. It might be viable as a last resort, but I don’t think it can be relied on as a main strategy.

Unlike treant, Aro has poor endurance, so if a lower rank opponent were to get a lucky hit in, she could become hard pressed all of a sudden. In that way, treant might be better at reliably fighting weaker opponents… S-so plain… No, it might be better for living a normal, stable life.

【Normal Skill [Woven Armour]】
【Covers the body in an armour of woven branches to protect against attacks.】
【It can also be used to increase the weight of the user’s blows.】

A defensive skill, huh. It can also be used to attack… It’s simple, but sounds practical and useful.

【Normal Skill [Death God Seed]】
【Implants a seed that steals the target’s mana.】
【The closer the user is to the target, the faster the target’s mana will be sucked up.】
【Once the [Death God Seed] has absorbed all the target’s mana, it grows rapidly, destroying the target’s body.】

…An incredible skill has come all of a sudden.  I was worried that he lacked attack power, but with [Death God Seed] he might not need to use his attack stat at all. With just [Death God Seed], he can take down any opponent, as long as he can whistand their attacks. I was thinking that relying on defence and recovery wouldn’t work, but if he uses it to buy time for [Death God Seed], it could be an effective battle style.

The final skill is…

【Normal Skill [Immortal Revival]】
【Explosively boosts the user’s vitality.】
【When used, the user’s body is covered by blue moss, and their HP is forcibly recovered until their MP hits 1%.】
【The user’s defence is greatly raised, but the other stats are halved.】

So niche… Well, I suppose I should expect that from him now. All his new skills and even his stat distribution is niche. It’s a skill that abandons everything else other than defence. It could be said to be the emblematic skill for a world treant.

However… It can’t be used casually. Once it ends, he’d have practically no means of attack and his MP would be almost zero. I don’t think there’ll never be a chance to use it, but… It doesn’t seem all that good.

His stats have improved a great deal, and he’s gained a number of interesting skills. There’s no doubt that our actions in the future should get a lot easier… Though it’s also true that he’s gotten so large that it might be hard for him to use his full size now.

…Huh? I can’t see [Final Evolution]. Thinking I must be mistaken, I check again three times. It really isn’t there.

Wh-why? Is it because of the Fruit of Wisdom that he ate ages ago? Can he evolve to Legendary class? No, that should be impossible. He doesn’t have a divine skill. Even if he were to evolve, his body would just collapse like the slime’s.

『How is it, master-dono?』

『Your stats have increased a lot, and you got a lot of powerful-sounding skills. I’m counting on you from now on, treant.』

『Truly?』

He flaps his wings happily.

『Yeah! That reminds me, it looks like you have [Humanisation Technique]. Do you mind giving it a try?』

I ask, and Aro cuts in before he can respond.

“Treant-san, are you going to become human? I want to see, I want to see!”

It seems that piqued Aro’s interest for some reason. She’s staring at him with sparkling eyes.

『I-I see. Then please wait.』

With an air of importance, he coughs. Then, his form becomes soft and stretches vertically. Skin forms over the green light of his body.

When he’s finished, he looks like a human-shaped version of his normal tree spirit form, looking like a humanoid penguin. His skin is rugged like bark, and his face is unchanged from how he looks as a tree spirit.

“How do I look, Aro-dono?”

He glances confidently at Aro.

But Aro looks as though she’s already lost interest. I hadn’t know that she could make such a cruel expression. It seems even though she likes his tree spirit form, she doesn’t much like this appearance.

“A-Aro-dono…?”

“Ah, umm… S-sorry, treant-san.”

She turns away, deciding not to comment.

“I-I see…”

He gazes at her sadly, then turns to look at me. 

“Master-dono! H-how do I look?”

『Hmm. You look like something that could appear with the adams and eves on that island…』

Well, his skill level is still low. At the start I was also seen as a dangerous monster and almost killed.

Treant quickly cancels his [Humanisation Technique] and returns to his tree spirit form, turning his back on us.

『…I’m never using it again.』

『S-sorry, treant… Umm, don’t let it get to you. Once you raise the skill level, you won’t look as uncanny.』

He doesn’t respond to my words. Aro seems flustered, unsure of what to say. She seems to be regretting showing her true reaction.