This Heroine's Friend Has the Power of Botany

Chapter 80

The Source

It didn’t take long for the tall figure of the Camp Leader to leave the camp, skillfully avoiding paths where he might encounter others. Along the way, Ellie noticed that no one else seemed to observe his movements. If she hadn’t used her spores to stick to his body and tried to absorb the surrounding plants’ life forces to expand its size, she might not have been able to track his path at all.

This man was evidently very cautious. Unfortunately for him, he was unaware that there were cheating abilities like Ellie’s in this world. The spores grew slightly in size, and Ellie ordered them to split into smaller spores again and root themselves around the area. She then commanded them to continue spreading. Ellie had never been in this area before, so there were no spores left behind previously.

The Camp Leader walked in a nearly circular pattern. By observing the rooted spores, she could see that he moved left, right, and sometimes even circled back to his original position. His walking pattern was unusual. If someone were following him, they would likely be confused. However, Ellie used the positions of the spores to inspect, then discovered that his circuitous path seemed to serve as a form of identification. It looked like there was a stratagem ahead, and the conditions for entering it involved the following specific points.

After the Camp Leader circled 3 times, he touched a small stone under a large tree, which was not conspicuous at all. At that moment, Ellie saw the dense undergrowth slowly move. While the spores rooted around still showed a dense forest, the spores on the Camp Leader’s body revealed a different perspective.

Since the spores on the Camp Leader had followed him along the same path, they had also passed the entry conditions of the stratagem.

Once inside, the Camp Leader remained as cautious as ever. He looked around before setting himself and his clothes on fire once again. Fortunately, the spores had already dispersed and rooted around the area. Although some were burned, others had already mapped out the surroundings.

The Camp Leader confidently donned a new set of clothes, unaware that the tiny spores had floated through the air and rooted themselves on his new outfit once again.

Ahead, there were numerous large cages containing more than 10 beasts. All of them appeared to be in a frenzied state. Each cage had empty trays with scraps of meat scattered around. In some spots, human body parts were even visible. This meant that...the food these beasts consumed was human flesh.

The Camp Leader grinned widely at the sight of the ferocious beasts. As soon as they saw him, they almost lunged at him, stopped only by the cages. Without the cages, he might have been devoured on the spot.

"Good little ones, it has been 14 days. Now it’s time to turn you into a disaster," the Camp Leader laughed with satisfaction.

By keeping the beasts starving and feeding them human flesh, he conditioned them to find human meat their food and the most delicious. From now on, they would follow the scent of humans relentlessly, and the place with the strongest human scent was undoubtedly the emergency camp.

If they were just ordinary beasts, a few soldiers could kill them. After all, many beasts had already wandered into the camp since the barrier was destroyed. Battles occurred around the camp every day—some days were more intense, others were hardly any stray beasts. However, creating such minor troubles wasn’t the level of chaos he desired!

His plan was to turn humans into vessels for demonic spirits. The more humans that caused trouble, the faster this kingdom would crumble.

Demonic toxin wasn’t easily cured. As long as someone killed, the killer would inherit the demonic spirit. In essence, the demonic toxin was passed on more directly than family heirlooms!

Just imagine, if he could create 100 demonic beasts, that would mean 100 humans would be poisoned. When those 100 humans caused trouble and were killed by another 100 humans, the cycle would continue endlessly. Just the thought excited him. Imagine the chaos if humans were terrified of killing those with demonic toxins, but sacrifices were inevitable.

This impending turmoil should be enough to destroy this wretched kingdom! That was the vision he most wanted to see.

Since this kingdom never cared for the lower classes like them, it was time for them to learn what happened when the oppressed rose in anger! He would teach them that death...did not discriminate by class!!!

"It’s a pity I haven’t reached that girl yet. Otherwise...with her tracking abilities, we might be perfect partners in watching this evil kingdom collapse."

"Despite being an ordinary villager, she can live happily. She’s probably like the other nobles now, ignoring us lowly folks. So...if she’s unfortunate and happens to encounter the demonic beasts again, I hope she realizes that she has nothing to do with nobility. I’ll make her regret siding with them!"

A sinister smile appeared on the Camp Leader’s face. The strong young man slowly pulled his hair back and then ripped off his human-skin mask, revealing a terrifying face.

His face was covered in numerous holes, evidence of the victim’s wounds from countless tortures, making Ellie, who was secretly observing, shocked.

In the end, he was never the real Camp Leader. The true Camp Leader might have already become food for the beasts. Identifying who this imposter really was wasn’t easy, but from his words...it seemed he might have been an ordinary villager once. However, the cruelty of the class system had twisted his good heart into one of malice for good.

Although it was pitiable, that’s just how it was—not only in this novel world but also in reality. Life was cruel! It’s a world where the big fish ate the small fish, where the wealthy were considered the elite. They had enough money to do whatever they wanted. Some could even buy the lives of the poor. The only difference was the method.

"Alright, my 10 little ones, let’s turn you into true harbingers of disaster," a happy smile appeared on his terrifying face.

Ellie watched closely as he began the process of transforming the beasts into demonic beasts. The young man casually placed his human-skin mask on a piece of wood before taking out a strange device.

It looked like a magic staff, but the crystal on top was pitch black, adorned with runic patterns around the staff. After the imposter Camp Leader picked it up, he slit his arm with a long cut, allowing blood to flow onto the staff, causing it to glow with a dark light for a moment.

Once the black magic staff was activated, the large man placed black crystals in front of the beasts’ cages. Just sensing the terrifying aura from the crystals made the beasts roar, as if begging to either get it away from them or let them out.

The man ignored their reactions and used the rare black crystal as a sacrificial tool. He murmured a spell quietly and pointed the staff forward.

"Hmm!!" He growled lowly, trying to endure the pain as much as possible. A large black magic circle appeared in the air. Ellie saw him point the staff at the beasts, which tried to escape the pain but were confined by the large cages, unable to break out. The first beast tried to resist but couldn’t withstand the magic circle.

The black crystal in front of the cage was activated, emitting a dark aura that turned into a terrifying mist. This mist surged into the magic circle emanating from the staff in his hand, then it swirled and condensed into horrifying energy before surging into the body of the beast. When the magic circle vanished, the beast, which had been lying there gasping for breath, slowly recovered. However, the aura around its body had turned black, marking the completion of the ritual!

The large man drank two bottles of restorative potion at once, and Ellie could see how much magical power he had expended to transform a small beast into a demonic creature.

If he had enough magical power, he might have cast this spell on humans. However, during the process, if he couldn’t complete the transformation, he would have to suppress the being with his own magic power. Ellie noticed that he had chosen only low-level beasts as his victims, indicating that the process was far from simple.

The transformation continued for nearly 3 hours until all 10 beasts had become demonic beasts.

"Phew!! Alright...make sure you rest well. During this time, I’ll release you one by one. It will be more fun if the humans don’t know how many of you there are. I want to see how they live in constant fear. Maybe...their reactions will be even more thrilling than I imagined."

A smile spread across his grotesque face. It didn’t take him long to leave the stratagem. It seemed that the entrance was much more difficult than the exit, which wasn’t surprising... He was about to release the demonic beasts outside. If they got confused inside the stratagem, they wouldn’t be able to cause trouble, right? So, it made sense to have an easy exit.

He put his Camp Leader mask back on. If Ellie hadn’t known he was an imposter, she might not have noticed the slight irregularities at the seams of his face. The secret art of facial disguise was truly fascinating. If she had the time, Ellie would like to study it herself.

Regarding this situation, Ellie could have sent Aman to interrupt the transformation process before the demonic beasts were changed, but her curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to know how he created these demonic beasts. The secret surely lay in the black staff and the strange black crystals.

Due to their low social status, some people had previously been slaves to the upper class. It’s not surprising that they had opportunities to encounter magical equipment discarded by the nobles. Of course, she didn’t know what the other party had truly encountered or the origins of this staff, but now it made Ellie realize that the world was more frightening than she had thought.

Ellie’s changes to the storyline truly affected everything. She could feel that the storyline of the novel had been completely destroyed. Previously, only a single demonic beast had appeared, and its victim was Nara, who was determined to save lives. But now...the negative consequences of altering the storyline had manifested. At the very least, the number of demonic beasts around had increased from 1 to 10 in the blink of an eye.

Previously, when Nara’s encounter with the demonic beast was successful, it would have caused enough chaos in the camp as intended by the creator of the demonic beasts. Hence, he didn’t need to create more demonic beasts. However, Ellie, Professor Regan, Wint, and Nara had quietly foiled his plans. This result left the young man disguised as the Camp Leader displeased. He hadn’t even seen the despair from the victims of the Red Plague yet, and the sole demonic beast he had created had already vanished.

In fact, his approach to Nara had a purpose: to investigate who exhibited strange behaviors. Initially, he suspected Ellie the most because she possessed unfamiliar powers. However, Nara never spoke about this, which left him feeling confused.

Nevertheless, he certainly wouldn’t let things end so easily. The Red Plague must claim the lives of everyone, creating a horror story that would terrify everyone whenever it was mentioned.

The source of the Red Plague was the demonic beasts. As long as the demonic beasts were around, their toxin would spread, affecting those with weak bodies.

Although the priests had provided preventive medication to the nobles and soldiers, the lives of the villagers who didn’t receive the medication initially were already enough to horrify the people. Hence, his goal was the lives of all these patients, to spread the news that even the priests couldn’t save them. What would happen after that?

The villagers had the utmost faith in the priests. But if the people they trusted the most ultimately could not save anyone, their hope for life would vanish as well. After this, the Red Plague would be something they were deathly afraid of but could not escape from!

Even if someone found a demonic beast and killed it before the patients died, there was still another outcome that was just as favorable. Although it’s unfortunate that the crystals used to create the demonic beasts were not easily obtained and these 10 crystals were nearly all he has, when these demonic beasts were killed, it would become a catastrophe for everyone in the kingdom. And it would be even better if the ones who killed the demonic beasts were from the noble families!

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