The Tale of Hero Alice’s Social Death

Chapter 363: Loli Collecting a Tree Branch

After getting the information she wanted from the little treant, Alice erased his memories from when she kidnapped him. Then, she let him go. Although the little treant's burnt head and lack of memory of how he got burnt would probably cause some confusion among the treants for some time, there was nothing Alice could do about it.

Anyway, going by the little treant's description, Alice quickly found the place where the "strange human" had appeared three months ago. The location in question was near the towering tree at the centermost part of the Kalu Forest. The towering tree rose high into the sky and beyond the clouds, and it was the tallest tree in the entire Kalu Forest.

The treants had a peculiar sense of belonging to this huge tree with a long history and massive size. So, when they found out a human had appeared in its vicinity three months ago, they anxiously conducted a large-scale search of the area, trying to locate that human and find out what he had done here.

However, even after half a month of investigation, the treants failed to find that human. They also failed to learn what that human had done since they didn't find any signs of destruction or anything out of the ordinary done by that human. Because of this, the treants eventually moved this matter to the back of their mind and continued with their lives.

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When Alice linked the book Demon King's Shadow's theft several months ago with the sudden pollution of the Kalu Forest's central region, she had reason to suspect that the strange human the little treant mentioned had left something behind during his short visit. Meanwhile, this "something" was the start of the forest's pollution.

Although the pollution was only limited to the central part of the Kalu Forest right now, it would undoubtedly spread and cover a larger area with time, as evidenced by how the pollution had spread from the towering tree to the treant settlement. There was no way Alice could allow the human realm to become a polluted mess like the demon realm.

While the human realm getting polluted would remove the reason for war between humans and demons, it would worsen the living conditions across the globe. What Alice sought to do was to improve the demons' living environment, not to pollute the human realm as well. So, not only could finding the forest's pollution source help her resolve the demon realm's pollution, but it would also help her prevent the human realm from becoming a second demon realm.

Alice was also confident that if she could get her hands on whatever item was polluting the Kalu Forest, she could quickly find a solution to the demon realm's pollution. After all, Kristine and Lacey were currently researching how they could purify the demon realm's pollution. If they could get their hands on a similar pollution source to study, it shouldn't be long before they could produce results.

But that person must have hidden the pollution source quite well if the treants had found nothing even after investigating for half a month. Moreover, the pollution source might not be a physical object but something like a magic array.

Alice failed to find anything out of the ordinary, even after circling and observing the towering tree for some time. This wasn't surprising, though. If even the treants, who were incredibly sensitive to mana, had failed to notice any peculiarities, there was no way Alice could find anything. Hence, Alice didn't intend to search for the pollution source with her senses.

Let's hope this move will be useful. My mastery over it has risen somewhat from how frequently I've been using it recently, so I should be able to do a more detailed scan.

After finding a suitable position, Alice closed her eyes and activated Psychokinesis Transcendence. Immediately, with Alice as the center, a subtle ripple of psychic power spread and seeped into the surrounding air and mana.

Under the influence of Psychokinesis Transcendence's psychic power, Alice could perceive all the pollutants contaminating the air and mana in the area. When Alice spread her psychic power to cover a larger area, she quickly noticed a clear distinction in pollution levels between different areas.

The pollution in the demon realm essentially covered half the planet. Alice could only cover a limited range with her Psychokinesis Transcendence, and she was nowhere near strong enough to cover half the planet with her psychic power. Moreover, the demon realm's pollution had been going on for thousands of years, so the diffusion of pollutants should have long since reached a near-equilibrium state. So, even if she analyzed the demon realm's pollution levels, it'd be hard for her to find any obvious differences.

However, the Kalu Forest's pollution had only started recently. It also only covered a limited area. So, the difference in pollution levels in the polluted areas was very obvious to Alice.

Generally speaking, if the pollution of an area was caused by one particular source, the closer one got to the source, the more severe the pollution would be. Hence, if Alice searched the most polluted area, she should be able to locate the pollution source's whereabouts.

Very quickly, Alice found the pollution source's general location. However, unlike what she expected, the pollution source wasn't buried underground or hidden inside a tree trunk. Instead, it was hidden directly above her. Or, more specifically, it was hidden at the top of the towering tree.

Upon learning this information, Alice understood why the treants had failed to find the pollution source even after searching the towering tree's vicinity for half a month. Unless the circumstances called for it, no treant would bother to investigate the top of the towering tree. Even Alice wouldn't have thought that the pollution source would be hidden above her head if she hadn't used Psychokinesis Transcendence to determine the varying pollution levels of the area.

However, since she now knew the pollution source's general location, finding it would be much simpler.

Flying wasn't a difficult task for the magicians of this world. Be it wind magic or psychic power, both could be used to achieve flight, to a certain degree, when cultivated to sufficiently high levels. Only, unlike airships, magicians couldn't remain in flight for long periods of time.

With the help of her psychic power, Alice launched herself into the air and quickly arrived at the top of the towering tree after several mid-air jumps. Compared to the Elven Forest's Tree of Nature, this towering tree was still much shorter, so reaching its canopy didn't take much time or effort.

After landing on a thick and sturdy tree branch, Alice used Psychokinesis Transcendence once more to scan her surroundings. Eventually, she pinpointed the pollution source to one particular tree branch.

The tree branch in question looked no different from the other branches. Although it was smaller than many of the other branches on this tree, it wasn't the smallest. So, if one were to judge solely based on appearances, this tree branch would be considered normal. However, when Alice analyzed this branch using Psychokinesis Transcendence, the results were anything but normal.

The pollution around this particular tree branch was the worst in the area. It was so bad that Alice felt uncomfortable just moving close to it. Meanwhile, Psychokinesis Transcendence's analysis also verified that the pollution levels around this tree branch were indeed the highest in the area.

It would seem that, through the use of some method, the strange human who had snuck into the treants' territory had transformed the pollution source into the shape of a tree branch and planted it on this towering tree. That, or he had planted some sort of magic into this tree branch. Either way, there was no doubt that this tree branch was the source of the pollution.

Let's see what you truly are.

Alice narrowed her eyes as she looked at the tree branch. Then, enduring her discomfort, she extended her hands and grabbed onto the tree branch that was about as thick as three of her fingers. Immediately afterward, she folded it and snapped it off the tree.