Chapter Seventy-Six: Encounter with a Lord-Class Aberration Once More

“Boss, hurry up and use your invincible item analysis to come up with something!”
Li Chou’s expression was on the verge of collapse. After running for over ten minutes, with the eerie sound of a woman’s sobbing constantly echoing in his ears, his mind was inevitably affected.
Especially now, with even “hope” shattered...
Compared to him, the servants and others whose attributes had all reached or exceeded 2 were clearly faring much better.
The difference in their attributes was minimal—only 0.2 or 0.3—but in this moment, it felt fatal to him.
If this kept up, he might very well be the first to die.
“Li Chou, take the medicine first.”
Each person was now carrying an “Amplification Potion” made from ten “Sunshine Mushrooms” and one “Flesh Mushroom” as a backup.
Each small bottle contained about 50ml, with a minimum required constitution of 2.
The effect: for those whose base attributes do not reach 3, it temporarily boosts them to 3 for fifteen minutes.
The negative effect: after fifteen minutes, all attributes are halved for half an hour...
In addition, depending on personal circumstances, there may be intermittent, involuntary “praise for the sun.”
The effects were decent...
But it was ineffective for Shana; her strength had already surpassed the need for such things. Drinking it brought neither improvement nor any side effects.
After giving instructions, Colin took a deep breath to expel the tension in his heart, then looked toward the temporary safe spot...
There was no longer any choice.
In fact, from the very beginning, they never had a real choice.
Who could have guessed that, among three answers, there was only one option?
“Forget it, let’s all take the potion and charge through together.”
Colin walked briskly, pulling a stone vial from his backpack as he went, uncorking it and drinking the pink “Amplification Potion” within.
It tasted bitter, with a pronounced mushroom spore flavor, a meaty and rotten stench.
Not pleasant at all.
But as soon as it was swallowed, Colin and the others immediately felt a surge of power flowing through their muscles and their spirits fully restored.
Though there was no status panel, Colin could vaguely sense his attributes surpassing 3.
After all, he still had half a day left of the blessing of life and the effects of his title.
As the sound of stone vials hitting the ground echoed, the entire team’s condition rapidly returned to peak.

From brisk walking to jogging to outright sprinting, Colin led the group through the olive grove like a wolf at the head of his pack.
The temporary safe point was about two kilometers to the left, and no matter how they tried to detour, they would have to face the tree tide at least once.
If luck was on their side, they might only be injured; if not, a few would likely die along the way.
“There are a lot of rocks here, watch your step.”
With his left hand behind him and his right hand raised, Colin brushed aside branches and vines, charging at the front.
Shana followed half a step behind him, and behind her were Li Chou and the others carrying lanterns.
Leading from the front wasn’t bravado on Colin’s part, but because he possessed “Mental Pierce”—one glance could instantly kill a living olive tree.
Otherwise, even someone as formidable as Shana would have to physically engage to deal with them.
This would inevitably cause the team to stall.
Once stalled, they could easily be caught in the relentless slaughter of the living olive trees.
However, just as Colin finished speaking, a sense of danger suddenly swept over him.
A nearly stripped, living olive tree charged at them in a grotesque frenzy...
Colin seemed to ignore it entirely, not acknowledging its presence until the distance between them was less than ten meters...
“Look at me!”
Colin fixed his gaze upon it, the crazed figure reflected in his pupils, his eyes turning pitch-black and profound.
In the next moment, the twisted, sobbing olive tree stiffened, its voice abruptly silenced, and it collapsed, dead on the spot.
Instant death!
For such aberrant beings with weak intelligence, even if they were not fully mutated, “Mental Pierce” was devastating.
But this attack could only be used three times a day—a glaring limitation.
Colin didn’t spare a glance at the fallen wooden corpse, nor did he pause—just one look and it was over.
A flood of living olive trees surged forward, but due to their peculiar and distorted bodies, many were stuck among their own kind...
The few olive trees that managed to pursue them were quickly dispatched by Colin and his team.
They were getting closer and closer to the temporary safe spot...
But at that moment, a presence emanated from ahead; Colin’s body froze, feeling every cell in his body sounding an alarm.
Almost instantly, he realized what was in front of them...
“A lord-class aberration!”
Not just him—all of them suddenly halted, clearly sensing the aura and realizing what it meant.

Colin also noticed that all the olive trees here had lost their vitality, completely desiccated and dead in the soil.
“Sir Colin, this...”
Shana hadn’t expected such a situation here.
It almost meant they had entered a dead end...
Behind them: endless living olive trees. Outside: the unreachable edge of the woods. The only safe place was occupied by a “lord-class aberration.”
...I was truly foolish. I knew triggering the quest would guarantee an encounter with a lord-class aberration, but I hadn’t expected the system to assign it this way... Colin’s mood was bleak.
He promptly activated a hint.
[You discover a terrifying aberration here, but after a brief moment of thought you sense something amiss. You are quite close to it, yet have not been attacked...]
Reading the hint silently, Colin realized he was now less than three hundred meters from the creature...
If it were the “Mourning Watcher,” someone would have been affected from over a thousand meters away. At five hundred meters, it could even use “Mental Pierce” as an attack.
“Its condition is abnormal... Let’s go take a look.”
Colin decided to approach, but after only a few steps, he realized they had exited the olive grove and returned to the relatively wide dirt road...
Faint breathing could be heard ahead, and everyone felt their bodies grow much heavier, an odd sensation of dizziness and weakness...
About thirty meters ahead, they saw the lord-class aberration!
Beneath an olive tree over ten meters tall, a humanoid figure, more than three meters in height, was bound there.
Binding him was a black metallic substance that had grown from the olive tree, covering most of his body, holding him in place.
In addition, his body was pierced with numerous long swords and arrows, like a corpse from a battlefield riddled with weapons...
From the exposed skin, olive branches had sprouted out of his flesh.
He had fallen into a deep sleep over the ages.
Colin gazed at him and, after a brief hesitation, narrowed his eyes:
[A partial aberration. His body is transforming into an olive tree, but only partially so; he even retains some human features.]
[You realize that perhaps he once knew the priest...]
Just as Colin observed him for less than three seconds, a dreadful presence suddenly descended, making their shoulders feel heavy.
It opened its eyes.