In an instant, 36 Silver Apes surrounded Aldred, who stood calmly, unfazed by the situation.

Suddenly, some Silver Apes with powerful arms spread wide jumped at Aldred.

Aldred held up his hand to stop them all in midair and said "Don't be ridiculous." He then shot a ball of fire into their chests, killing a bunch of them instantly. Some survived with a horrifying charred wound on their bodies, blood and even their internal organs wanted to leak out. It was a miracle they survived, though they knew that would not be the case for long.

The remaining members rushed at him but he grabbed them with telekinesis before they could reach him. The moment those silver apes were inside his fist, there was a flash of light as several parts of them got sliced off or broken apart entirely. After letting go of these limp body pieces, which fell like dead weights onto the ground, Aldred moved towards more approaching enemies and killed another three or four of them just like that. They didn't get any warning signs from their senses telling them about attacks coming. Aldred was like a stealthy assassin. Fast and unseen.

In an instant, he sliced ten thousand times, cutting everything that came in his path.

[You have learned the skill 'Ten Thousand Cuts']

[Ten Thousand Cuts]

Cutting ten thousand times within a single timeframe. There was no delay between the first cut, and the tenth thousandth cut.

Aldred smiled and he activated the skill. "Ten Thousand Cuts!"

His Phantom Doomblade flickered, blurring as if it wasn't real, then multiple arcs of terrifying red light appeared around him.

Reality took a second to comprehend what he just did as the apes stood still, then they fell like bricks.

The other Silver Apes panicked when they saw this. In spite of this, they didn't flee.

Aldred began his own assault after killing a few Silver Apes, targeting the Silver Apes with the highest level. Those were his primary target.

After a few minutes, only the weakest Silver Apes remained, having been slain by the stronger Silver Apes.

"..." Baendjbi was speechless when he saw this. "Funny how I tell people that I am a swordsman... compared to him, I am merely a man with a stick."

When they saw their strongest members slain by Aldred without any effort, the Silver Apes stopped surrounding him and even backed away from him.

Aldred looked to the side and saw his friends were finishing up as well. The apes were stepping back.

With that, he began to approach the spirit tree, but when the apes noticed that, they growled and became aggressive again.

"It seems like the tree is very valuable to them."

"Look!" Mary pointed. "There are fruits on that tree, and they are glowing."

"That must be the spirit fruits Herakas talked about."

Aldred went closer to examine them. They all glowed faintly.

"Let's go! We'll try eating one of those fruit first." Aldred walked towards the tree, and everyone followed him closely.

As he did so, the silver apes began approaching as well, baring their teeth.

Aldred pointed with his Phantom Doomblade, reminding them of what will happen if they dare to get close.

"This spirit fruit took decades to grow, and they are very enticing for monsters. For these apes to control themselves and not devour the fruits... there has to be a reason behind it," Stella said.

The moment she said that, a gust of wind blew past them violently. It was powerful enough to make everyone flinch. When they got over their surprise, they found out that the trees nearby had grown incredibly fast and now surrounded the entire area, making a wall. That was the only thing keeping the Silver Apes at bay. The aura from the spirits within the fruit prevented the Silver Apes from approaching any further.

Aldred raised an eyebrow and said: "I wonder why the spirits decided to protect us."

"Please save me," a soft voice of a distressed girl was heard. "Please. Save me."

Aldred looked around and realized that it was the spirit of the Spirit Tree that was talking.

"Save you. Save you from what?"

"GROAARRRR!"

A powerful roar came from a tunnel to their side.

Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

The earth shook with each stomp, and then a 12 meter tall silver ape appeared. It scoffed as it scratched its hairy chest.

Everyone was silent at first before Aldred shook his head in disappointment. "I was expecting something stronger. Ivette, can you handle it?"

"Sure!" Ivette excitedly stepped forward and brandished her snow-white sword.

She approached the beast slowly, careful not to make sudden moves. She stayed calm but alert. There was no need to rush; she didn't want to underestimate the opponent.

As the giant Silver Ape moved to attack Ivette, she thrust her blade towards him, but he swiftly dodged by a fraction of a second, which gave him time to take a swing at her.

Ivette blocked the blow with her longsword, while counterattacking herself by swinging back with her sword. However, the gigantic silver ape managed to block both attacks effortlessly using only one arm. He took advantage of that momentary opening and began chipping away at Ivette's defenses until she fell down on the ground, exhausted.

Aldred looked over at Mary who nodded and they agreed that Ivette wouldn't last much longer if they continued like this. They had to come up with another plan quickly.

"Mary, try your best!"

Aldred frowned. The giant silver ape should not be that strong. Then he noticed something weird.

"Wait a minute, the ape is sucking power from the spirit tree."

As more time passed, the silver ape became stronger and stronger without getting tired.

Aldred noticed a piece of root on the ape's body. "I understood now, that root is connected to the spirit tree, resulting in its power to be absorbed by the ape."

"So we have to stop that?" Mary said with worry in her voice. "But how?"

Aldred recalled what Ivette did when she fought the ape. Ivette was very agile. She used her swordsmanship well against it despite having just been injured. As she knew Ivette was fast and able to react quickly, but she still got pushed back despite that.

"Play time is over." Phantom Doomblade appeared in his hand. "Ivette, back up for me."

Ivette nodded and leaped back.

The giant silver ape tried to chase her down, but Aldred slashed, creating an arc of flames that charred the ground and turned its attention to him.

"Pick your own size," Aldred said.

The ape was confused by that statement. It was Ivette who initiated the attack so what was the meaning of this?

Mira quickly healed all of Ivette's wound. She was barely taking any damage though because she dodged all of the fatal attacks.

Aldred stepped forward slowly with great confidence. He pointed at the ape with his sword. "Give me that spirit root."

The Silver Ape took notice of that, which caused Aldred to move faster, slashing towards its head as he approached it. The silver ape jumped backwards and then threw itself on the ground, making its body harder than steel, or rather, rock-like, and rolled around while laughing loudly, trying its best to evade its attacker.

However, even after doing so multiple times, Aldred continued chasing after it until it finally stopped rolling and stood back up, staring right into Aldred's eyes.

"You can laugh in this situation? You're so similar to me." Aldred laughed as well.

"Did he just say that he is similar to an ape?" Bartrem asked Baendjbi.

"I don't know. But whatever that is, it has to be profound."

"What...?" Bartrem was confused by that answer. What part of that was profound?

Unknown to Bartrem was Baendjbi had become Aldred's fan by now.