Under the system's prompt, Thorne chose to enter a symbiotic relationship with the mutated Ghost Thorn Tree.
This was a decision made after careful consideration. Thorne's top priority was to hunt as many creatures as possible to gain energy for upgrades, while the blood and souls of creatures were useless to him.
These two things happened to be exactly what the mutated Ghost Thorn Tree needed. The two could mutually benefit each other, and Thorne could foresee that in the near future, with his help, the Ghost Thorn Tree would become an utterly terrifying existence.
"Ding, symbiosis successful. Congratulations to the host for gaining a symbiotic creature, the mutated Ghost Thorn Tree. Host is rewarded with 2000 energy points and gains a new skill: Soul Communication (allows direct soul communication with any creature possessing a soul)."
When Thorne looked at the system panel again, some changes had occurred. A new section appeared next to his own information:
Creature: Mutated Ghost Thorn Tree
Level: Mortal Tier Level 2
Host: Thorne
Skills: Ghost Thorn, Bloodthirst, Soul Devour
Note: The mutated Ghost Thorn Tree's intelligence grows extremely fast and is highly evil. Please discipline it strictly.
Having just been born, it was already at the same level as Thorne—truly perverse.
As for the system's warning, Thorne wasn't too concerned. After all, a symbiotic creature wouldn't betray him. Whether it was evil or good didn't matter much—in such a harsh environment, kindness was worthless.
Thorne directed his perception toward the Ghost Thorn Tree, and it transmitted a burst of joyful soul fluctuations.
However, due to its recent birth, its soul was still very weak, unable to communicate normally with Thorne, only vaguely conveying some concepts.
For example, its craving for blood and souls.
After the recent battle, the animals had long fled far away, likely too scared to return for quite some time. Thorne could only control a portion of his water to irrigate the Ghost Thorn Tree further.
After another terrifying bout of absorption by the Ghost Thorn Tree, the trunk that Thorne had previously severed with a water arrow began to grow back.
It was unclear whether the Ghost Thorn Tree naturally possessed such strong vitality or if Thorne's spiritual water had such miraculous power.
With the newly gained 2000 energy points, Thorne didn't hold back, directly spending 1000 points on rainfall.
This time, he didn't deliberately control the range of the rain. The entire original site of the lake was drenched in spiritually rich rain.
The pattering rain fell intermittently for a week. The sun in the sky remained blinding, and the desert still steamed with heat, but this lake alone was cloaked in continuous rain, even feeling somewhat cool.
Many long-dead trees revived, and seeds from farther away sprouted tender shoots. In this death-filled desert, the area around Thorne formed the only oasis.
Such a starkly different environment attracted the attention of many creatures. The animals that had witnessed the previous slaughter still lingered in the distance, resisting the temptation with all their might, while creatures arriving from farther away approached Thorne with unrestrained delight.
In Thorne's view, hunting ordinary beasts no longer held much value for him now. Only magic beasts could bring him greater rewards.
Thus, he strictly ordered the Ghost Thorn Tree not to act. He wanted to turn this place into a haven of life to attract even more powerful beings.
One day, as Thorne was leisurely rippling his clear waves, observing the uniqueness of this world, he suddenly sensed a strong energy fluctuation approaching from afar.
This energy moved toward Thorne's location at an incredible speed and soon appeared beside the lake.
The animals drinking and playing by the lake didn't react in time until a "boom" resounded, sending them scattering in panic.
Thorne, however, was not alarmed but overjoyed. If he could, he'd almost shout out loud.
"Finally, humans!"
As someone who had been human in his past life, he had complained countless times about the frailty of the human body. But after losing his human form and becoming a lake, he began to deeply miss those days as a person.
It had been nearly a month since he arrived in this world, and he had finally encountered humans.
However, these humans didn't seem to be in good shape.
One of them wore a gray robe, with a tall nose, blue eyes, and appeared to be around thirty or forty years old. He held a wizard's staff in his hand, and upon closer inspection, one could see that a section of his exposed arm was nothing but bare bone.
The other, whom Thorne almost mistook for a human, was slightly smaller than an average adult human. Pointed ears, overly pale skin, wings on his back, and a bow and arrow in his hand revealed that he wasn't human but an elf.
"Kuruth, you trespassed into the Elven Forest without permission. In the name of the king, I sentence you to death." The male elf's bow and arrow glowed with an earthy yellow light. Without drawing an arrow, the wizard named Kuruth reacted as if facing a dire threat.
Kuruth didn't respond. His staff floated in front of his chest as he chanted incantations.
Suddenly, the tail end of the bone-made staff stabbed into Kuruth's chest. Pain and struggle flashed across his face as blood flowed along the staff toward a black orb at the top, gradually turning it blood-red.
"Forbidden dark magic? Kuruth, how dare you—"
"Cough, cough, Grandi, the youngest Earth Elf successor of the Elven race. Your confidence will be your downfall. Let the great God of Death grant you eternal life."
Kuruth completed his chant, and the staff at his chest stopped drawing blood. A brilliant red light erupted, completely overpowering the green glow on Grandi's arrow.
Faintly, a massive scythe appeared within the red light, slashing toward Grandi.
Grandi didn't retreat but faced it with a look of resolute acceptance of death. The wings on his back fluttered violently, forming a massive yellow arrow that shot out instantly. In the blink of an eye, Grandi retreated a hundred meters.
The yellow arrow collided with the red scythe, but there was no earth-shattering explosion as expected. The arrow held for only a moment before being destroyed.
At that moment, Grandi ran forward without looking back, hoping to escape the red scythe's deadly harvest.
It was all in vain.
Before Grandi could scream, his delicate head fell to the side, his body still momentum-driven for a short distance.
Seeing this, Kuruth finally lost the strength to stand and collapsed onto the ground.
Thorne silently observed from the side, not daring to reveal a hint of his presence, afraid of being noticed. In his perception, there was still a terrifying existence that hadn't vanished.
Sure enough, after reaping Grandi, the death scythe didn't disappear. An eye appeared on its blade.
Cold, terrifying, deathly.
These were words no creature could avoid thinking of upon seeing that eye.
Kuruth, now staring in horror at the blood-red scythe in the sky, opened his mouth but couldn't speak.
With a "swish," the scythe vanished, and Kuruth's head separated from his body.
From Grandi's corpse, a yellow light shot out, piercing into the void and disappearing.
The scene changed too quickly, leaving Thorne stunned.