The Golem Mage

Deep within the region, where the divine tree ruled, one of its detached roots, which had previously attacked Alec and Astrid's group, emerged from the ground.

Its eyes opened wide as it let out a piercing shriek that resonated throughout the forest, awakening all the wooden lifeforms under its command.

"That bastard is here, Terran Dunce's disciple is here, I will get him this time, even if it's the last thing I do, Gather!"

the root declared, commanding the nearby woods to move and encircle its body.

Slowly, the detached root transformed into a humanoid figure composed entirely of pure wood.

Once it had finished forming, cracks adorned its core.

Gritting its teeth, the root studied its reflection in a nearby pond with a sense of determination.

"Terran did this to me, so I am going to kill his disciple and make him go mad once again, It would be even better if he comes after me in anger and the Orc overlords finish him off once and for all. That way, I can regain my lost prestige,"

The root proclaimed, contemplating its plan, Alec would have never expected such a deep grudge from the detached root of the divine tree.

Alec had deliberately avoided areas controlled by the divine tree since what happened last time, which was why he had targeted the Orc villages this time.

He didn't want to cross paths with the vengeful root, which reveled in attacking the weak and fleeing from the strong.

However, on that fateful day, Terran had inflicted a heavy injury on the root, causing its cultivation level to regress back to the Tier 4 realm, in order to heal itself.

This made it the weakest among all the separate entities created by the divine tree, a fact that brought it great embarrassment.

Ever since, the detached root had endured insults and ridicule.

It ensured that some of the small tree lifeforms under its command were dispersed to various regions, each with a correct fluctuation of Alec's aura.

This way, whenever Alec's aura was detected anywhere, these plants would act as an alarm trap, alerting the root of his presence, when Alec once again entered the second dimension.

Upon gathering all the plant forms under its control, the root sighed in defeat, It had once been a mini-boss, commanding powerful Treants and other dangerous plant lifeforms.

However, after its level drop, the Root had lost a significant number of its warriors.

They refused to serve someone weaker than themselves, leaving it with Treant saplings as its generals and wood woads as foot soldiers.

and A few unique wood lifeforms such as vine blights, twig blights, and tree blights that have also joined its ranks recently.

"Although you may be weaker than my previous army, I believe that with enough preparation, we can still overcome."

" Now, let's go kill the humans who dare step into our lands," the root declared, pointing its humanoid hands forward as the army of tree lifeforms charged ahead.

--

Meanwhile, Alec made his golems continued to guard the entrance of the cave, as he remained unaware of what had occurred.

Fortunately, the rest of the group have united and were focused on their mining tasks, fully committing their attention to the task at hand.

Although James wanted to reprimand the twins for their actions, he reconsidered upon remembering that they were above him in rank under their master's tutelage.

Instead, he decided not to say anything to them, However, as punishment, he would not allow them receive any of the loot they acquired.

James was prepared to leave them to his master's judgment after he brought them back.
Find more to read at My Virtual Library Empire

When he saw the mines, he was nearly speechless. He couldn't believe Alec's luck.

Last time, even though they were chased, they obtained more than they ever had since hunting in the second dimension.

They hadn't even finished digesting everything from their last haul before they began reaping the rewards of following Alec once again, It all felt like a dream to him.

In just thirty minutes of mining, Alec and James had filled up their space rings.

Alec even had to bring out sacks from his storage rings so they could continue mining into them.

It was Arthur's idea to have the sacks in case they needed to run due to his previous experience, and he had made a few improvements to them.

James couldn't help but wish he had thought of bringing sacks as well when he saw the ones Alec had prepared.

It was clear that they wouldn't be able to finish mining the entire cave, even if they had a whole week.

They could only gather what they could manage. The gains were so abundant that Alec didn't even mention their original plan to hunt the Orc villages again, as he threw that plan to the waste bin of his mind.

After touching one of the natural power stones and realizing its gave ten thousand experience points , he understood why the Orc village had grown in strength so rapidly.

With such resources, even a fool could reach the peak of Tier 3 through cultivation and consumption.

Alec decided that it would be foolish to solely focus on fighting the Orcs, no, as He could return to face them once he had made significant advancements, this was the excuse he gave himself to feel good about abandoning his main plan.

He realized that he only needed about fifty more power stones to reach the high Tier 2 Mage Realm.

"We've really stocked up all our reserves now, Even I don't have any problem reaching the Tier 4 Mage Realm, big bro James. I just need to sell some of the loot we acquired today, and I'd have more than enough to trade for the resources I've been eyeing,"

The only girl who had sided with James during Kethra's betrayal spoke up.

She was the one who had a fox mount, and Alec had just learnt recently that her name was Vixie.

"Me too! Don't worry, very soon our group will have the strength of three Tier 4 mages," another member of James' group added enthusiastically, bringing a smile to James' face.

"Well, I guess this is a loss for the twins for not cooperating. If they knew how much we earned, I'm sure they'd regret their decisions."

" It's just that I feel like we're gaining these rewards too easily. The last time, we had to fight, toil, and run before we could enjoy any benefits,"

another member, who specialized in fire magic, commented before Vixie stomped her foot on his leg, making him jump in pain.

"Don't jinx it!" Vixie exclaimed.

However, at that moment, they started hearing a heavy tremor coming from beneath the ground.

They exchanged concerned glances, realizing that it sounded like a large number of people approaching.

"And this idiot just had to jinx it," Vixie cried out as they all hurriedly exited the mine, rushing to the cave entrance to see who was closing in on them.