Vin's next few days on Edregon were spent doing what he probably should have done from the very beginning. Following Spur's orders, Vin started in camp at the center of their fragment and traveled outward in ever increasing rings in order to map out all of the surrounding landscape.
Realizing almost immediately that the task was going to require him to travel potentially hundreds of miles, he quickly purchased his third passive to help with the daunting task. One that he remembered seeing on his list that sounded perfect for what he had in mind.
Distance Runner
Thankfully, the passive did exactly as advertised. It didn't make him any faster, but as far as Vin could tell the new passive combined with his higher endurance enabled him to functionally run forever; his muscles never seemed to burn or get too sore. It didn't work for sprinting, but he could now comfortably run at about ten miles an hour for as long as he needed.
Even with his new passive in tow, it still took Vin two days to fully map out their fragment. Regardless of how far he was able to see, his Mental Map only extended about a quarter mile to either side of him as he explored. That meant in order to map out everything, he had to run nearly a dozen full laps around their fragment; each one significantly larger than the last. Vin was able to keep track of the mileage rather easily thanks to his continuous small experience gains, and by the time he fully mapped out the fragment, he had run just over two hundred miles in two days' time, even after stopping for meals and getting a full night's rest.
With his new map firmly locked in place inside his mind, he was now able to confirm that the fragment the System had dropped them off on was fairly consistent all throughout. Large meadows and scattered forests made up the entirety of their starting fragment, with a couple of small rivers trickling through here and there into assorted ponds.
On top of that, while monsters were going to be an issue for sure, he was pleased to find that they weren't nearly as dense as he'd originally feared. During his entire 200-mile run, he'd only ended up encountering a few dozen monsters. Though each and every one of them had done its best to chase after him the moment it detected his presence.
His tally included a few more of the annoying scorpion monsters like the one that had chased him out of the fragment that first day, a couple freaky looking bear things with too many arms that had tried loping after him despite their muscular build, and some scattered packs of far less threatening looking monsters that were similar to foxes back on Earth, albeit with purple fur and spiny quills running down their backs like a stegosaurus.
The foxes had honestly been cute enough that he'd been tempted to stay and watch them for a bit, though that cuteness factor had diminished slightly when they'd caught wind of his scent and came after him like a pack of rabid dogs.
That was the one thing each of the monsters he encountered seemed to have in common. Regardless of their size or shape, the moment a monster sensed him it dropped whatever it was doing and came after him with the intent to kill. Only unlike his first monster encounter, now that he knew what to look for and had improved his focus, he was usually able to pick out the monsters before getting too close to them. Combine that with his shiny new passive, and he could outpace and escape most of the angry monsters with relative ease.
His first encounter with the giant scorpion had worried him that monsters on this world were like freaky terminator creatures that would never stop chasing you once they started, but it turned out they would in fact give up if you managed to put enough distance between you and them.
On a more positive note for Alice and their hunters, he'd also discovered a good chunk of new animal species scattered throughout their fragment during his two-day run. The creatures mostly consisted of different types of birds with a few ground critters thrown in here and there. And while none of them were nearly as cute as the sqerrets, any new food source was a big deal, and he made sure to make mental notes on his map about where the best hunting grounds could be found.
His final surprise of the run had come at the very end, after he'd finished his final lap and officially completed his mental map of the fragment.
Fragment Fully Explored! 5,000 exp gained.
Level up! Explorer Lvl 6.
+3 Attribute points to spend.
+1 Skill point to spend.
Not only was the massive experience boost for fully exploring the fragment more than enough to knock him up to level 6, the rewards he got for exploring over two hundred miles of land and finding some new monsters and creatures put him dangerously close to level 7 already.
Having made so much progress in only two days' time, Vin was feeling pretty good about everything. After learning how much trouble his night-one disappearance had caused Spur, he'd been feeling a bit guilty, and this was a chance to make things up to the colonel.
Now he just had to put his Mental Map down onto paper for Spur, and with his conscience clear, he could finally put some much needed space between him and the steadily improving camp.
-----
Finally making it back to camp, Vin headed straight for the command tent. On his way, he pulled up his System interface, dumping his newest three points from hitting level 6 into magic and glancing once more at the biggest surprise he'd gotten over the past few days.
The section immediately below his class was no longer empty.
Vinnie Stone
Explorer: Lvl 6
Titles: Human Vessel (Minor)
Exp. 19,590/21,000
Strength: 13(5)
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Dexterity: 14(3)
Endurance: 25(2)
Vigor: 15(2)
Focus: 14(1)
Magic: 9
Skill Points: 1
Passives: Mental Map, Polyglot, Distance Runner
Skills: Tracking lvl 4, Spellcraft lvl 5
Spells: Sense Stone
Shortly after finishing up their first council meeting that second day on Edregon, Vin had received quite the shock from the System. An unexpected message had come out of nowhere and interrupted his attempt at finding a spot to sleep that second evening.
New Title Unlocked! Human Vessel (Minor). Reward: 10% of inhabitant's stats added to your own while serving as a vessel. Allows inhabitant partial body merger for one minute each day.
Honestly, Vin had been more surprised to see an actual explanation about something given by the System than he had been to gain the title in the first place. Either titles were more special than skills and passives, or the System had simply decided to finally throw him a bone after so long.
While the System didn't explain what he'd done to earn the title, it hadn't taken Vin long to realize it had been about twenty-four hours since he'd willingly taken the magical sword and accidentally become Alka's new anchor.
That night, Vin had also allowed Alka to try out the partial body merger aspect of the title, and she'd been ecstatic when they discovered what it entailed. For a single minute, the two of them had flipped around and Alka found herself in the driver's seat of Vin's body. Not only that, but the 10% of her original stats Vin now benefited from doubled during that time, making her an even more fearsome warrior than she already was.
Vin couldn't say he'd really enjoyed watching someone else take over his body, but even he'd had to admit watching Alka use his body to run through a few combat drills with her sword was terrifying. On top of the attribute buffs which had been a godsend for his 200-mile run, his new title gave him a fantastic trump card, even if it was only usable for a short time.
And seeing as the title was called Human Vessel (Minor), he could only assume it would grow stronger the longer he and Alka remained connected.
Pushing his daydreams of becoming some sort of professional medium to the wayside, he tried to focus on the here and now as he made his way across camp. He couldn't help but make note of all the work that had been done over the last two days.
The once disorganized and hastily thrown together camp was beginning to look like an actual defensible position. Small wooden palisades had been erected, paths were dug into the earth, and he even made out what looked like foundations being laid for permanent structures. The crafters had clearly been busy, and he couldn't help but smile at the thought that he had a large role to play in that happening.
Striding into the command tent, he found Spur in what was quickly becoming his natural habitat. Hunched over a dozen different papers and surrounded by white boards.
"Vin! Welcome back!" Spur grinned, pushing the white boards away and walking around the table to clap him on the back. "That was fast! Finally ready to give me that map you owe me?"
"I'm no artist, but I'll do what I can," Vin nodded, letting Spur lead him over to a large canvas already spread out over its own table.
"I don't need every tree and rock. As long as you can mark the big stuff, it should be fine." Once Vin confirmed he had what he needed, Spur let him at it, returning to whatever the heck it was he did all day.
Pencil in hand, Vin stared at the canvas, briefly contemplating dropping his new skill point into Cartography before deciding against it. He hadn't sunk low enough for that just yet. Instead, he picked a corner of the canvas and got to work.
The canvas was large enough that he could include quite a lot of detail in his admittedly poor drawing, and he quickly felt the effect of his newly buffed dexterity courtesy of Alka as his fingers worked to sketch out the myriad of forests and borders of meadows all around the fragment. He included possible hunting grounds, known sightings of monsters, locations of rivers and ponds, and even made notes of what animals he remembered seeing in what areas.
With plenty of corresponding pictures of course.
The sun had already gone down by the time he finished. When he finally put his pencil down and took in the map in its entirety, he was pleased with how it turned out.
"God damn," Spur's voice sounded right behind him, causing Vin to jump in surprise and earning himself some mocking laughter from Alka. The man had snuck up behind him while he'd been focused, and now was looking at the map with his brow raised. "That's some impressive scouting you managed to do in only two days. How did you cover so much ground?"
"A ton of endurance," Vin said, maybe a tad too quickly. He'd almost mentioned his new Distance Runner passive before remembering he'd already told Spur his level 5 passive was Polyglot. He could have tried to pass it off as having already hit level 10, but he felt like that would be a bit of a stretch to believe.
Thankfully, Spur was too engrossed in the map to notice Vin's near slip up. His eyes flickered over everything Vin had included, and in practically no time at all, he slammed a finger down on a spot only a few miles away from their current location in the center.
"That's the spot!" He said, his smile growing wider by the second. "That's where we'll start building our new empire!"
Vin looked at the spot the colonel had chosen with such confidence. It was located in the middle of one of the largest meadows, but was still fairly close to multiple sources of water and had surrounding woodlands they could use for materials. On top of that, some of the possible hunting grounds Vin had indicated weren't too far away. There was only one issue that stood out to him.
"Spur…" Vin said, slightly concerned by the fire in the man's eyes. "That spot is pretty close to some of the monsters I ran into. Are you sure building so close to them is a good idea?"
"For starters, we don't know how monsters actually work in this new world yet," Spur shrugged, never taking his eyes off the map. "They might suddenly manifest in completely random locations, or be birthed from some giant underground hive for all we know. We shouldn't base our selection off of the fact that a few monsters were seen close to that spot. And even if that area is higher in monster density for some reason, you said it yourself it's important for people to level, right?"
Spur finally turned to look at him, his wide grin almost infectious. "We've already figured out that killing monsters gives a much larger amount of experience than killing animals does. Risk and rewards, and all that I guess. I know for a fact that a good chunk of our combat classes will be clamoring all over themselves trying to be the first ones to react to any future monster sighting. I'm not too worried about them just yet."
'I hope he's able to keep up that attitude when the monsters break down his village walls and slaughter scores of innocent people,' Alka all but spat as Spur turned his focus back to the map.
"Thanks again for putting this together Vin. It'll be all hands-on deck for moving the camp tomorrow, but you've got a more important mission on your hands."
"Figure out what we're dealing with when it comes to the fragments immediately surrounding us," Vin nodded, remembering the council meeting.
"Exactly. With the directions you gave us, I already sent a few guys over to the rock village. Obviously the language barrier makes things difficult, but they already returned to camp and confirmed what you said. The villagers seem pleasant enough and seem willing to work with us in the future, but there's no guarantee any other people you find will be the same. Your job is to make sure one of the other fragments isn't inhabited by this world's version of Attila the Hun, got it?"
"I know, I'll see what I can do."
"And when will you be back by?" Spur prodded, giving him one last glance over his shoulder.
"Wave two," Vin rolled his eyes, the colonel's insistence on the matter fresh in his mind. "I'll be back before wave two begins, like you asked."
"Six days, Vin. We only have six more days." Vin thought he saw a troubled look on Spur's face for a moment, before the man's usual smile returned. "Let's have a brand-new camp and an even bigger map ready and waiting for humanity when they finally show up, alright?"
"Sounds good," Vin said, returning the colonel's smile.
"Wonderful! In that case, you better go hit the hay and catch some Z's. You've got some exploring ahead of you!"
Vin took a deep breath in through his nose, savoring the fresh air and swaths of open meadow before him. After discovering new world fragments and roaming the open landscape, returning to camp had almost felt like he was willingly walking back into that small cell the System had yanked him from back on Earth.
"It's hard to believe I've only been on this world for a couple of days," he mused, thinking over everything he'd accomplished as he took off toward the unknown fragment bordering the one he was beginning to think of as 'the sea of snakes'. "How fast do people normally level up Alka?"
'It depends on a lot of factors of course. Give a Leatherworker endless high quality hides and they'll level up in the blink of an eye. Stop a Blacksmith from getting their hands on any metal, and their progress stops entirely. On top of that, leveling gets a bit trickier as you start prestiging and your class narrows. The journey from level 1 to level 20 tends to take anywhere between a few weeks to a few years, depending on a person's environment and how driven they are. But the higher levels are far more complex.'
"Complex? How so?" Vin watched a family of sqerrets roll around and play in an open field as he ran past, marveling once again how he could maintain such a running pace literally forever. Alka was quiet for a moment, as though unsure how to answer his question.
'When you prestige and select a new class, you grow in power naturally, but your focus narrows. Take myself for example. I chose Fighter as my base class because it is more well-rounded than something like Swordswoman or the like. As you'd expect, with a class like Fighter, I excelled and grew with fighting. It didn't matter if I was fighting a greentail or some punk that looked at me funny, a fight was a fight.'
'However, by prestiging into the Slayer class, my class focus would have narrowed. Basically, to continue leveling I would have needed to focus my efforts more towards fighting monsters and dangerous creatures rather than people or animals. Or at least I think that's how it works. Again, I died almost immediately after receiving my new class, so I might not be the best person to ask.'
"Fair." Vin continued running, just enjoying the feeling of the wind through his hair as he ran. "Do you have to prestige when you hit level 20?"
'I think so? That's like asking if you have to pick up a sack of coins you found lying on the ground. If it's even an option, you'd be a fool not to.'
"I don't know, what if I don't want to go from being just a general Explorer to like, an 'Explorer of Forests,' or whatever the System offers me?"
'Whatever the System offers you will be based on the choices you made going from level 1 to 20.' He could practically feel Alka rolling her eyes. 'I've never heard of anyone being disappointed with their prestige options. If you don't want to be an Explorer of Forests, don't spend so much time exploring forests. It's really that simple.'
"I guess." Vin spent the rest of the run in silence, thoughts of his future bouncing around in his head as he ran.
What did he want to be an Explorer of?
-----
'I hope you like swimming.'
Vin tried to ignore Alka's cackling laughter inside his head as he stood on the border between fragments, staring out at the miles and miles of open ocean. Just like the other two borders he'd seen, it was as though a giant had carved an endless straight line into the earth, snatching away the preexisting terrain. But instead of placing a new chunk of land in its place, this time they'd decided to fill the entire thing with water instead.
"How does this even work?" Vin exclaimed, watching the gentle waves roll in and crash against the edge of their grassland fragment like it was a solid wall. The ground he was standing on should have eroded away by now, or crumbled at least partially into the sea. But instead, the two fragments looked as though they weren't even touching one another.
'Gods and magic,' Alka managed between her laughter. 'Don't think too hard about it.'
Grumbling, Vin watched the crashing waves for a few minutes, trying to decide what to do. He was a pretty good swimmer, and he only could have gotten better with all the points he'd had dumped into endurance. But he still didn't think that made it a good idea to try and swim his way through this fragment. What if this world had sea monsters? Or poisonous sharks? Hell, he wouldn't put it past the Gods that be to have filled this one with snakes as well, just to mess with him.
Sighing, Vin stuck his head through the invisible barrier separating the fragments, careful not to fall forward into the water. Even just sticking his head through was enough to feel the salt in the air and the spray of water on his face.
New fragment discovered! 500 exp gained.
"I bet there's some super cool underwater city down there or something," he continued to grumble as he stepped back, staring longingly into the water. "You just wait, Atlantis!" He shouted, shaking his hand at the vast ocean. "When I get some sort of water breathing magic, I'm coming back for you!"
'I wouldn't count too much on that,' Alka said as he turned and began running alongside the impossible border between meadow and ocean. 'Without a magic focused class or a teacher, few people ever get their hands on even a single spell. You got lucky with the stone village.'
"Then I'll keep making my own luck," Vin argued, not willing to give up on his goals of learning more magic now that he'd had a small taste. "I have the Spellcraft skill, and I'm dumping points into magic like it's going out of style. All I need to do is find more runes and I'll figure it out for myself!"
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'Whatever you say.'
With Vin's speed, it didn't take them too long to hit the next fragment bordering his own, and he had to stop and marvel at his first glance of three worlds converging at a single point. The first fragment, where he currently stood, was a gentle meadow with small hills rolling off into the distance. The next, a massive ocean stretching as far as the eye could see.
And adjacent to both of those, was what Vin could only describe as an impossible forest.
In all the time he'd spent bumming around back on Earth, he'd hiked through more forests than he could count. National parks, private property, even just random woodlands scattered across the country. He was pretty confident he knew what a forest looked like.
And it wasn't this.
Vin stared, bug eyed, at the hundreds of different species of trees all scattered throughout the edge of the forest. Bark color, leaf shape, trunk width, branch growth… It looked as though no two trees were even remotely alike.
"How does a forest like this even happen?" He muttered, stepping across the border and laying a hand on the closest tree; a thick one that reminded him of the classic oak, other than the fact that its leaves were nearly a foot wide, and the trunk seemed to split into four separate trees at head height.
New fragment discovered! 500 exp gained.
'I don't like this world,' he felt Alka shudder, somehow pushing herself even further inside him in an attempt to escape the wall of trees. 'Trees mean danger to my people. This is like walking into a living hell.'
"It's certainly weird… but I don't think it's that dangerous. No creepy, super thick canopy above us at least like in your world, just a regular one," he pointed out. While looking up, he spotted a striped lemur hanging from one of the nearby trees. The lemur gave him a curious look, almost as if it was wondering where he had come from.
A sudden thought popped into Vin's head. Carefully watching the lemur and dismissing his experience notification for discovering a new species, he took a slow step back, exiting the forest fragment. Immediately after crossing the border, the lemur's eyes widened and it looked around, as though trying to figure out where he had gone.
"I don't think animals are able to cross between fragment borders," Vin said, watching the lemur panic at his sudden disappearance. "Hell, it looks like they aren't even aware of them somehow."
'Gods and magic,' Alka repeated.
Vin continued watching the lemur until it eventually gave up on trying to find him and darted away, swinging between the different types of branches. Maybe it was returning to its family to warn them of the scary, vanishing human it had found.
"That's another thing," he said, venturing back into the forest and beginning to navigate through the dense tree line. "Each fragment is only like 12 miles long at its widest point. I'm no biologist, but I'm pretty certain these fragments shouldn't be able to maintain their ecosystem's as well as they have. Especially with random monsters roaming around."
'What part of 'Gods and magic' are you struggling with here exactly?'
"All of it I guess," Vin snapped, nearly tripping over a squat tree with branches that reached down and dug into the ground like roots. "My world didn't have Gods and magic. At least, it probably didn't. If it did, it certainly wasn't as noticeable as this. I'm just used to there being fairly simple, easy to understand explanations for most things."
'I don't know what could possibly be simpler than Gods and magic.'
Sighing, Vin shelved the argument, not in the mood to leap into a theological debate with the ghost inhabiting his physical form at the moment. Obviously she was right, as what else could you possibly call beings capable of weaving fragments of entirely different worlds together besides Gods? But it still irked him to a degree when he was curious about how something worked and the only answer he received was 'Gods and magic.'
Maybe that's why magic interests me so much? I obviously can't just become a God, but nobody can stop me from studying magic.
Vin contemplated his minor revelation as he continued deeper into the forest, stopping periodically to admire a particularly wacky looking tree or observe a new species. He found a skilled chameleon blending in with different colored bark as it hunted some form of hummingbird darting around too fast for him to make out. He watched a family of moles that seemed to burrow through wood as if it were dirt, setting up colonies throughout a few of the different larger trees. There were even a handful of foot-long centipedes that spiraled their way up the thinner trees like a snake, disappearing into the colorful canopy.
He didn't like that last one all that much.
Or at least, he wouldn't have if the System hadn't sent him a much-anticipated notification immediately after he spotted it.
New species discovered! 100 exp gained.
Level up! Explorer lvl 7.
+3 Attribute points to spend.
"Well that makes the new nightmare fuel worth it at least! Shame some of the levels only give you attribute points and nothing else."
'Oh no, only free Godly power beyond mortal comprehension; woe is you!'
Vin rolled his eyes and dropped the three points into magic, finally bringing his new favorite attribute into the double digits at a respectable 12 and enjoying the sensation of his plasma-like mana thickening. He still didn't exactly know how much increasing his magic was doing for him as he hadn't found another spell to try and learn yet, but he felt confident he was making a good choice!
"Man, seven thousand experience to hit level 8," he muttered, eyeing his next threshold as he ducked and crouched his way under a series of low hanging branches. "I'm starting to see why some people take years to hit level 20."
'You have no idea. You've basically had most of your experience handed to you on a silver platter up until now. We combat classes actually have to work to level up you know!'
Before Vin could reply, he emerged from the cluster of low branches he was walking under and stood up.
And found himself staring at the very sharp looking tips of six arrows.
A half dozen archers, each wearing clothing and armor that looked like it was made from woven leaves and strips of bark tied together, had arrows nocked and trained on his chest. Vin knew next to nothing about weapons, but even he could tell that all of the short bows his ambushers held looked to be exceptionally well cared for, and he had no doubt that all six of the archers knew exactly how to use them.
The strangest thing, however, were the archers' features. They had ears far thinner than a regular person's that ended in points, and their eyes were narrow like a cats. Their faces were sharp and angular, and despite looking like a mixture of men and women, each of the archers had long hair secured in a thick braid, some of them reaching all the way to their waists. It only took Vin a second to realize what these people reminded him of, and the System confirmed his suspicion.
New sentient race discovered! 5,000 exp gained.
While Vin took in the hunting party of what had to be elves, he slowly raised his arms over his head, hoping he wasn't about to be turned into a human pincushion. Holding his breath, he heard Alka mutter begrudgingly inside his head.
'Alright, maybe your class comes with some risk to it.'
Come on, give me the reins, I can take 'em!'
"You can not take them!" Vin hissed, earning himself a raised eyebrow from one of the closer elves. Clearing his throat, Vin smiled at his ambushers, thanking the System once again for offering him the Polyglot passive. "Hello! I'm Vin, an Explorer-"
"Silence!" One of the elves in the back shouted, pulling his bowstring back a few more inches and raising his aim from Vin's chest to his head. "You have trespassed in the Sacred Forest, and for that you shall be punished!" Vin noted how the elf speaking to him had the longest ponytail of the entire group; his hair dangling down almost to his upper thigh. The other elves seemed to defer to the words of the shouting one, so either the hair was a total coincidence, or some sort of mark of seniority.
Vin wasn't sure how to argue his case when he'd been ordered to be silent, so he was thankful when the elf that had heard him muttering to Alka spoke up, glancing at their leader. "Smohl, the human speaks the forest tongue. Perhaps we should bring him to the Ancient Ones? He clearly came from beyond the Sacred Forest. Maybe he can help us."
"Or maybe he is part of why we need help in the first place!" Smohl shouted, directing his fury toward the elf speaking in Vin's defense. "Hold your tail, Puwen, or you shall be punished right alongside this interloper!"
"At the very least, he should be sacrificed," another elf, this one female, spoke up. Lowering her bow, she eyed Vin from top to bottom and licked her lips with a grin that sent shivers down Vin's spine. It was only now he realized the elves had sharp, pointed teeth that looked like they'd be more appropriate on a shark than a person. "If the Ancient Ones like the taste of him half as much as I think I would, they will be quite pleased."
"It has been some time since we last had a proper sacrifice," another elf, this one older with a thin scar across their face added calmly, lowering their own bow. "Perhaps that is why the kingdoms once again believe they can enter the Sacred Forest uncontested."
The apparent leader, Smohl, looked like he was about to blow a gasket at everyone questioning his decisions, and Vin wondered if he was about to have a brain aneurysm right then and there. But after a few tense seconds, he seemed to calm a bit, gritting his sharp teeth and nodding.
"Fine. We bring the interloper to the village and sacrifice him as a fresh warning. Sending the kingdoms the proper message takes priority over my righteous anger after all."
During this little discussion, Vin had been waiting for an opening to try and escape, but the hunting party showed their experience. Despite the discourse within the group, there wasn't a single point where he didn't have at least three different arrows trained on his chest, and he didn't doubt that each of them would find their mark if he tried to make a move. Even if he turned his body over to Alka, she might be able to stop one arrow mid-flight with her insane skills, but he wasn't willing to bet his life on her stopping all three. Not when the archers were standing barely a dozen feet away.
"I think we should go with them," he muttered as quietly as possible. "Their Ancient Ones might be more reasonable, and they sound pretty powerful. Maybe they have the divinity needed to help you as well."
He could practically feel Alka hesitating inside of him as the younger looking elf and the one with the scar on his face strode over and stripped him of his pack and sword. But in the end, she didn't argue.
The younger one grabbed his sword and freed it from its sheath, staring at the glowing blade with wide eyes as he lifted it up. "Ancient One's sap this thing is nasty!" The elf with the scar slapped him on the back of the head, causing the excited elf to blush as he returned the sword to its sheath and fell quiet.
"He has a second object of power in here," the female elf that had given him shivers said curiously, removing the teaching stone from his pack. Flicking her thin tongue in the air like a snake, she gave him a strange look. "It is odd enough to find someone with two objects of power in their possession, but even stranger still is that they have different tastes. The human already has a unique flavor I've never encountered before."
"Then we are making the right move bringing him to the Ancient Ones alive," Smohl said, turning and motioning for the party to follow. "But that doesn't mean I am willing to listen to the words of an interloper. Myrn!" The leader barked, earning a jump from the young elf that had taken his sword. He'd been busy admiring the hilt of the weapon and hadn't been paying attention. "…If the interloper so much as speaks, use that blade you seem so interested in to remove his tongue. He'll probably still live long enough to make it to the Ancient Ones after all."
"Of course, Smohl," Myrn said, nodding quickly.
Not wanting to risk the young elf's willingness to follow his elder's orders, Vin could do nothing but walk between the hunting party as the seven of them made their way deeper into the crazy forest. He was pretty certain the first rule of kidnapping was never let yourself be taken to a secondary location, but he wondered if that rule still applied when your kidnappers were heavily armed and planning to sacrifice you to their ancient God.
…You know, that's probably exactly when the rule applies.
Vin hadn't expected them to make great time traversing through the thick forest of strange trees, but the party of elves surprised him once again. His captors somehow seemed to glide over the difficult terrain, traversing over roots and gliding between branches like they weren't even there. Vin swore he saw a few branches literally move a couple inches on their own at one point to allow the elves to squeeze through them more easily.
Just as he was beginning to think they'd make it to the supposed Ancient Ones without issue, a roar erupted from up above them, and a monstrous ape descended from the tree tops like a plummeting boulder. The leading elves dove backwards not a second too soon, as the large ape crashed directly into the ground where they'd been standing just moments before, smashing its fists into its chest and letting out a second ear splitting roar that seemed to freeze the very blood in his veins.
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New elite monster discovered! 500 exp gained.
Well that can't be good, Vin thought, staring at the hulking form of the elite monster before them. The ape had to be nearly 10 feet tall standing on its hindlegs, its arms the size of tree trunks. It was covered in a thin layer of black fur and had huge fangs jutting out of its mouth that looked like they would tear through Vin like butter. Its eyes were bloodshot, and they narrowed at the hunting party as the beast began charging toward them like an out of control gorilla.
"Trunkback!" Smohl shouted, as though the rest of the party had somehow missed the giant monster snapping branches and literally pushing small trees down as it rampaged toward them. Immediately, Smohl and the three elves that hadn't been forced to dodge the monster's initial landing drew and let loose their arrows so fast Vin barely saw them move.
Unfortunately, their bows that had seemed so threatening just moments ago weren't quite so dangerous when it came to an elite monster.
The elves had clearly trained for situations like this, as all four arrows were aimed directly at the monster's eyes, and Vin found out very quickly why that was the case. Showing some insane reflexes, the monster threw a muscular arm up to shield its face as it continued forward, intercepting all four of the elves' shots. And while the arrows did thud into the flesh of the monster's arm, they barely drew even a trickle of blood, doing absolutely nothing to slow the monster down.
Vin and the elves dove to the side of the steamrolling monster, but the youngest one with Vin's sword was just a second too late. Finally reaching them, the monster swung its massive fist, connecting with the young elf as he attempted to dodge and caving in his ribcage, sending his body flying into a nearby tree with a sickening crunch. Vin had no doubt that the elf had died instantly, and his party seemed to come to the same conclusion.
With guttural roars of grief, the five remaining elves loosed shot after shot into the monster as it turned and began charging once more, this time targeting the elf with the scar. The hunting party must have fired over two dozen arrows into the monster in those brief seconds, but none of their shots were powerful enough to do more than tickle the horrifying monster.
Reaching its second target, the monster showed off its yellow fangs with a grin as it lashed out and caught the scarred elf by the leg as he tried to dodge away; the leg looking like a twig in the monster's massive hand. Spinning, the Trunkback turned and threw the elf at a different member of the party with such force that Vin heard numerous cracks as the two collided and were sent tumbling in a heap to the ground.
"Shia, hold it still!" Smohl shouted, continuing to pelt the monster with arrows in an attempt to draw its attention from the two downed elves. As if she'd been waiting for her cue, the snake-like elf quickly threw out a hand toward the monster, shouting with a wild grin.
"Entangle!"
Vin was startled as he somehow felt the woman's mana for the first time reach out of her body and imbue itself into the surrounding forest. Instantly, the forest came alive, bending to the woman's will and attempting to slow the beast down. Roots erupted from the ground, lashing around the monster's feet and legs while branches twisted from above, ensnaring its head and blocking the Trunkback's vision. In a single breath, the forest had been brought into the fight and immobilized the monster.
But it wasn't enough.
Letting out another bone shaking roar, the monster showed its incredible strength by reaching up and tearing the mass of magically empowered branches from its head in a single tug, throwing the wood aside before yanking a foot out of the pile of roots on the ground. Vin stared in horror as the monster quickly freed itself, the magical prison only able to halt its movement for a few seconds.
Thankfully, that was apparently all Smohl needed.
Carefully lining up a shot on the stationary monster, Smohl sucked in a deep breath and let his arrow fly. "Piercing Shot!" He screamed as the arrow shot forward toward the monster's face with such force Vin could hear the wind whistling around its shaft. Just like the previous arrows, the monster's unnatural reflexes kicked in, and it threw up a hand to block the projectile.
Unlike the previous arrows however, this one tore straight through all the layers of muscle making up the monster's arm, and continued forward to lodge itself deep in the monster's eye with a sickening thud.
If Vin had thought the Trunkback's roars had been loud before, that was nothing compared to what came out of its mouth after being injured. The force of its roar was so powerful Vin's vision went black for a second and he stumbled, barely managing to stay on his feet. Glancing at the party of elves, he saw Smohl drop to a knee, blood dripping from the elf's pointed ears as Shia collapsed to the ground unconscious. The only other elf still standing, Puwen, if Vin remembered correctly, was leaning hard against a tree, his legs shaking and eyes half closed as he fought to remain conscious.
'I think now might be a good time to use your trump card.' Alka said, sounding far too casual for the situation. His head still reeling, Vin nodded, focusing on his title and suddenly finding himself watching his body move like he was an outside observer. Alka only had 60 seconds…
But that would prove to be far more than she needed.
The moment the ability activated, Alka dashed to the fallen elf that had taken their sword, grabbing the blade and spinning to meet the monster that was now leaping at them. The Trunkback must have somehow realized what she was going for, because it had immediately ripped its other foot free of the elf's spell and used its incredible strength to cross the distance between them in a single bound.
Putting the elves' graceful movements to shame, Alka twisted his body in such a way that not only did she dodge the monster's earth-shaking landing and subsequent smashing of its fists, she flicked her sword with disdain, lopping off the monster's left arm at the elbow as if all the thick cords of muscle running through it had been made of paper.
From his backseat, Vin stared at the monster's stump in shock as blood began pumping out of it. The Trunkback itself seemed just as surprised as he was, its eyes widening as it held up its arm and stared in confusion at where its missing hand should have been. Alka didn't give it a chance to realize what had happened however, stepping leisurely forward and lashing out with her sword.
In two quick slashes, the monster's legs were severed from its body, and the Trunkback crashed ungracefully to the ground. Before the monster could even cry out in pain, Alka stabbed forward, piercing its throat with her blade before yanking it to the side, decapitating the monster and sending its head to the ground with a wet splotch.
In only a handful of seconds, Alka had taken the hulkish monster apart like a child playing with an old action figure. Cleaning their sword of blood with a quick flick, Alka turned and grinned at the wide eyed Smohl who was only just now pushing himself shakily to his feet.
"Well that was fun!" She said, eyes flicking between the remaining elves as she effortlessly spun their sword, showing off her dexterity with the blade.
"Who's next?"
Ignoring Alka's taunt, Smohl stumbled over to the two elves that had gone down in a tangle of limbs when the Trunkback had thrown one at the other. Dropping hard to his knees, the elf checked their pulses. At least one of them must still have been breathing, as the leader quickly turned and yelled over his shoulder.
"Puwen! Rouse Shia! Eigan is dead but Woad still breathes. We need her magic!"
Vin and Alka watched as Puwen shook off the remains of whatever the Trunkback's roar had done to him, stumbling his way over before practically collapsing beside Shia; the unconscious elf that had cast the spell. Reaching into a small pouch on his side, he pulled out some sort of crushed up herb, holding it directly under Shia's nose. It must have been some sort of natural smelling salt, because the snake-like elf's eyes flew open immediately, and she began retching, recoiling from the herb.
"Broken branches, what's going on?!" She cried, her eyes watering as she took in the scene before her. Seeing Smohl crouched over their fallen comrades must have been enough for her to put the pieces together as she quickly got to her feet and ran over. Taking one look at the downed elves, she crouched down, gently placing her hands on the scarred elf's body.
"Renewal." She said, her hands glowing as mana flowed from her into the scarred elf. Vin watched in wonder as the elf's many broken bones seemed to shift back into the correct position, and the lacerations covering his body knitted themselves closed before his very eyes.
Shia kept her hands on her comrade's body as the magic did its work, but as the seconds passed, Vin began to notice the sweat dripping down her face. Focusing on the sensation of the magic, he thought he could feel her mana pool rapidly thinning, and the woman appeared to be straining to squeeze out every last drop of what she had left. Eventually she got to the point where she'd used so much mana no amount of straining would produce anything more, and she fell to her hands and knees, gasping for breath as sweat poured off her in buckets.
It must have been enough however, as Smohl sat back with a sigh of relief, a small smile on his face. "It was enough, Shia. Woad is stable for now."
"Of course… he is…" The woman got out between rasping breaths, her own shark-like grin plastered on her face. "I'm… amazing…"
During all of this, Alka stood in control of Vin's body, watching the scene play out before her with sword in hand. Vin knew their minute was rapidly ticking down, but he wasn't sure what the right move was here. Did they flee from the battered and beaten down elves while they were distracted? Did they continue on to meet the mysterious Ancient Ones? The only thing he knew for sure was that if Alka moved to strike the remaining elves down he would yank control back before she could reach them. Their party had suffered enough from the Trunkback as it was.
Thankfully, Alka didn't try and lunge forward to finish what the Trunkback had started. To his surprise, she calmly walked over to the first elf that had fallen, picking up their scabbard from the ground and sheathing their sword. Grabbing his fallen pack, she secured both once more on his person. Before Vin could start to wonder what was going on, he found himself jerked back into his own body, once again in control of himself.
'Something is wrong in this forest,' she said. 'I can only assume that the Great Reset your stony friends talked about must have happened to everyone brought to this new world. These people fought like skilled warriors, but their attacks had no force behind them. Other than that one's Piercing Shot, which must have been his first capstone skill.'
"Interloper," Smohl called out, startling Vin as the elf stood up and frowned at him. "...thank you for saving our lives." The words seemed almost more painful to the elf than the Trunkback's roar had been, but he said them anyway. "Clearly you possessed the skill to have fled at any point while we were distracted. Instead, you chose to stay and slay the monster for us. Why?"
Vin stared at the elf that had argued he should be killed on the spot to his comrades. Sighing, he turned to take in the two dead elves; each one a mess of broken bones and ruptured organs. He felt his stomach lurch at the gruesome sights, but he managed to keep his lunch down, if only just barely. "Is it that hard to believe I just don't want to see people die?"
Smohl said nothing, staring at him for a few more seconds before turning toward his comrades. "Puwen. You and I will carry Woad back to the village. Shia used too much of her mana and needs to rest. Interloper," he glanced over his shoulder. "...you should come with us."
"Smohl, you can't be serious-" Puwen began before Smohl cut him off with a raised hand.
"Not as a sacrifice of course. Not after what you did for us." Smohl pursed his lips, his expression pained. "...I should have listened to Puwen from the beginning. You should meet with the Ancient Ones. Maybe you will be able to help us. Either way, the choice is yours."
Having said his part, Smohl strained to pick up the scarred elf, and Puwen quickly joined him. The two of them began making their way through the forest once more, albeit far more slowly now that they had an unconscious elf to carry. Shakily getting to her own feet, Shia turned and gave him an uncertain grin, her pointed teeth still sending small shivers down Vin's back.
"I don't suppose you'd be willing to lend me a hand?" She asked, pushing a few strands of hair that had come loose from her braid behind her pointed ears.
Until now, Vin had been a little distracted by the whole held at arrowpoint situation to really take in the elves completely. He'd noticed their clothing consisted of little more than bark and leaves, but he hadn't realized just how weird it truly was.
Like the other elves, Shia's clothes appeared to consist of interlocking leaves woven together as if they were some sort of natural chainmail, with a few thin pieces of bark acting as additional armor attached to her via woven vines. Vin could only assume either there was some magical element involved, or that the elves favored mobility over armor, as the entire outfit looked like it wouldn't stop so much as a butter knife.
Looking at her, Vin had to admit Shia herself was rather attractive. Her skin looked almost unnaturally soft, and like the rest of her party, she was in incredibly good shape. Vin could easily think of a dozen people he'd met in his travels back on Earth that would have thrown themselves at her feet if they'd ever met her in person.
Shame he couldn't stop imagining those pointed teeth ripping out his jugular every time she smiled.
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Doing his best to ignore the shivers her smile continued to send down his spine, he stepped forward and offered the elf his arm. Clearly not expecting him to actually help her, Shia quickly hid her surprise behind another shark-like grin and gracefully accepted his arm, leaning heavily on him as they followed the other two. Vin realized pumping all of her mana into her spell must have been far more draining on the elf than she was trying to let on, as it felt practically more like he was carrying her than just helping her walk.
"Are you okay?" He couldn't help but ask as her legs refused to stop shaking.
"I'm fine," she grinned, sending a fresh shiver down his back. "Just used up a little too much mana back there. Had to make sure Woad would pull through."
"I noticed. That was an impressive spell you used. I sensed you funneling your mana into him."
"Ah, a mage yourself, are you?" Her grin widened at the compliment. "I should have suspected after finding those objects of power in your pack."
"Well, a wanna-be mage I suppose," Vin admitted, sheepishly thinking about his ability to sense rocks compared to the elf's ability to command a forest to fight for her and to heal severe wounds. "I only know one spell so far. But I've been dumping all my attribute points in magic the past few levels, and I have the Spellcraft skill!"
Despite her looks, the elven woman still terrified him. However, she was the first person he'd met that seemed to have a good handle on magic, and he'd be a fool to waste the opportunity to learn.
"Well now, that's all you really need to start your journey to becoming a mage. That and a willing teacher of course."
"Who taught you your magic? The Ancient Ones?" Suddenly the thought of meeting the people Smohl had been planning on sacrificing him to excited him. What was a little risk of death when the supposed all powerful murderers might teach him a spell or two?
His newfound fascination toward magic might be starting to become unhealthy.
Snorting at his question, Shia shook her head. "The Ancient Ones have far more important things to do than teach me magic. No, I learned from my master. A Druid far more powerful than I could ever hope to reach. Even before our powers were stripped from us." This last sentence was muttered almost too quietly for Vin to hear, but the words were spoken with both anger and longing.
"Did your people also lose their levels and skills about three months ago?" He asked, earning a shocked look from the elf.
"Also? You mean it wasn't a targeted attack on our Sacred Forest by the surrounding kingdoms?"
"No, it definitely wasn't," he confirmed. "Though the truth might not actually be any better. What do your people think happened?"
"The surrounding kingdoms have always been angered by our Sacred Forest lying directly between them. Only a few weeks after they formed an official alliance, we suddenly found ourselves stripped of our levels and a massive portion of our Sacred Forest gone; replaced with strange terrain that hadn't been there the day before. We waited for the knights to ride in and attack us in our vulnerable state, but they never came." Shia stared off into the distance. "If it wasn't the surrounding kingdoms, who was it?"
Oh boy, this never gets any easier. If this keeps up, I should have business cards made with this information printed on them or something. Refining his explanation a bit further every time he went through this, Vin quickly informed her of what he knew about this new world. To his surprise, rather than shock or disbelief, Shia sighed in relief once he was done.
"Oh thank the Ancient Ones! These past few months we've been waiting with bated breath for the kingdoms to finally come and finish their attack, never knowing which day would be our last. If what you say is true, we no longer need to fear being run down and our Sacred Forest destroyed!"
"I mean, yeah that's good and all… but aren't you worried about the whole 'ripped from your world' thing?"
"So long as we have our forest and the Ancient Ones, it doesn't matter where we are," Shia smiled. "Not to mention defending the forest from roaming monsters had grown increasingly perilous in the months leading up to losing our levels. Many of our peoples' lives were lost, so hopefully this gives us the chance to heal and regrow. Even my master, unquestionably the strongest of us, nearly lost his life defending the Sacred Forest from a flying monster five times the size of that Trunkback. If we'd suffered many more attacks like that, we would have been finished."
Five times?? Vin struggled to even imagine a creature that large, let alone think about fighting one. It sounded like the corruption he'd heard about from the stone villagers truly had spread across the entire universe.
'I sure hope we get to fight something like that before you give me my final rest!'
Battle junkie, Vin thought, not willing to risk whispering the insult with the elf literally hanging off his arm.
The two of them walked in silence for a bit. Vin didn't know how long it took for someone's mana to replenish from near empty, but Shia didn't seem to be in any rush to let go of his arm. After a few minutes, Vin decided to try his luck.
"So I was wondering…"
"I'm sorry, but it is highly taboo for my people to sleep with those that come from outside the forest," Shia sighed, shaking her head. "As much as I would love to partake in your flesh, I'm afraid I must decline."
"What? No!" Vin said, possibly louder than necessary. Partake in my flesh? That sounds way too much like she wants to eat me. "I wanted to know if you'd be willing to teach me any of your magic!"
"Oh… well, that is a different matter!" Shia grinned, giving him a fresh look at her pointed teeth. Seriously, what did her diet consist of, pure gristle? "Assuming the Ancient Ones don't sentence you to death, I'd be happy to teach you a spell or two as thanks for saving our lives. I always wanted to try being someone's master, but I am not old or strong enough to take on a student just yet."
"Well, I'd happily be a test student for you." Vin's mind went to the two spells he'd witnessed the Druid cast. Both Entangle and Renewal had seemed extraordinarily useful, and he'd be happy to learn any such spells from the elven woman. While imagining what she must have been like before the Great Reset, a thought crossed his mind.
"Did you lose access to your spells when you lost your levels? I know everyone lost their attribute points and skills, but I haven't really met any spellcasters yet."
"Some of them. Spells that were granted to me via my class were lost, but the spells I'd learned through devoted study and with the assistance of my master remained with me. However, a good number of them require more mana than I currently possess with my reduced magic attribute, and my focus is no longer high enough to maintain the runic formations within my personal mana, so I am unable to cast them as I am now."
Ah, that makes sense. He'd wondered how losing a spell he'd spent hours or days learning would have worked. He was thankful to hear the System wasn't just scooping large chunks of memory out of peoples' heads. That would have been a tad concerning.
"Shia!" He heard Smohl's voice from up ahead. "Is the interloper still with us?"
"Yes, he's still here!" She called back, giving Vin one more pointed smile.
"Well then hurry and catch up!" Smohl called back, sounding exasperated. "The village is just up ahead! It's time for him to meet the Ancient Ones."
The elven village was every hippie's wet dream come to life. Somehow the elves had managed to grow trees in such a way that they formed the very walls and ceilings of their houses, making every single one of the hundreds of houses Vin could make out a living work of art. Some houses were short and stout, decorated with sprawling root systems while others were thin and stretched up into the forest canopy, allowing plenty of room for their people without having to expand the borders of their village very far.
New village discovered! 400 exp gained.
Vin briefly wondered why his experience gained for discovering the elven village was higher than what he'd received for the stone village, but his attention was pulled elsewhere as the residents of the village quickly noticed their arrival.
Immediately, a handful of elves ran over and took the unconscious elf from Smohl and Puwen, rushing him away to what Vin could only assume was some sort of hospital. Two more ran over to assist Shia, but she waved them off, clutching Vin's arm all the tighter and causing some wide eyes when the helpers realized she was being supported by a human.
The hunting party's clear injuries, combined with their missing members, caused a small stir to spread through the village.
But that was nothing compared to their reaction to him.
News of Vin's arrival spread like wildfire, and he'd barely taken a few dozen steps into the village before a small crowd had formed around them. Staring at the hundreds of sets of pointed teeth, Vin finally understood what the last french fry in a fast food bag must feel like. To his surprise however, most of the elves were looking at him with curiosity or shock rather than anger, as though they'd never seen a human before and were wondering what he was doing here. Though there were certainly a few that looked at him with undisguised hatred or fury, and Smohl must have noticed as he raised his voice for all to hear over the low murmuring.
"The outsider is being taken to the Ancient Ones!" He announced, his words echoing throughout the village. Immediately, as if he were Moses parting the Red Sea, the hundreds of elves making up the crowd split aside in an instant, opening a path for them to travel deeper into the village. Even the elves with clear disdain for him stepped out of the way, their loyalty and belief in the Ancient Ones seeming to trump their hatred for humans.
"These Ancient Ones must be something special," he muttered, eyeing the many faces within the crowd as they walked through. His comment had been meant for Alka, but Shia, still clinging to his arm, must have heard him as she gave him a questioning look. Realizing his polyglot passive would have made it sound like he'd been moaning under his breath as he spoke in ghost-ese, he cleared his throat and repeated himself, in the elven tongue this time.
"That's putting it lightly," Shia chuckled, waving lazily at a few other elves in the crowd openly staring at Vin with something far too close to hunger for his liking. "The Ancient Ones have been our sworn protectors for millennia now. Without them, the Sacred Forest would have been overrun centuries ago. They keep us safe, so it's no wonder the people act the way they do. I'm actually one of the few elves who view them merely as powerful protectors. Most of these people before you venerate them as living Gods."
The village was dense enough that it took them a couple of minutes to reach the center, and Vin could only stare in awe at what he found. It had been hidden by the numerous trees at first, but there was no hiding this natural monument for long.
Standing tall and proud in the center of the village was a monstrous conglomeration of different trees. Hundreds of unique trees had somehow been woven, spun, and grafted together to form one single, gigantic tree reaching far into the canopy. The tree had to be at least a hundred feet wide, and Vin couldn't even begin to imagine how tall it was. He'd once visited the National Monument in D.C. and the living structure standing before him put that to shame.
"Even if I don't see them as Gods, I do have to admit their house is pretty impressive," Shia said, chuckling at Vin's expression. "We call it the Tree of Ancients. For pretty obvious reasons."
Vin managed to pull his eyes from the upper reaches of the Tree of Ancients, and he finally noticed the dozen elves surrounding the tree's roots; each one holding a gnarled staff in their hands. Each stood tall, their many staffs planted on the ground and glowing a strong, green light as they bowed their heads in what could have been either meditation or prayer. From this distance, Vin was just able to sense the mana flow going from the elves directly into the ground, before the roots sucked it all up like a bone-dry sponge. He supposed that answered his question as to how such a gigantic plant received the nutrients it needed to survive.
"Gods and magic," he whispered as he took in yet another miraculous sight that he never would have experienced back on Earth. Every time he stumbled onto something like this he thanked both his past self for choosing the Explorer class, and the System for making all this possible.
Smohl seemed not only content to give him a few minutes to bask in the glory of their sacred tree, but even a bit satisfied, as though despite his dislike of humans he was proud to show off his village and all its glory. Eventually however, they had to continue moving.
Before Vin knew it, he was standing at the base of the Tree of Ancients, staring up in awe at the towering structure. This close he was better able to make out where one species of tree ended and another began, but unlike the grown houses they'd passed, there were no hollows in this tree acting as natural windows. It was one unified, glorious work of art.
While the crowd had let them pass without incident, the mass of elves had followed the hunting party as they walked, even picking up more people along the way. A quick glance back showed Vin what had to be at least a few thousand elves gathered behind them, packed into every possible opening and even climbing on top of the nearby tree houses.
Clearing his throat, Smohl spoke to the Tree of Ancients. "Oh Ancient Ones! A wandering Explorer has entered our Sacred Forest. Despite our initial hostility, he saved our party by slaying an attacking Trunkback, and has asked for an audience with you!"
'I don't recall us ever actually asking for an audience with their tree God, you know. They kinda just decided all that themselves.'
"Shush!" Vin hissed, not wanting to miss whatever was about to happen. He was glad he'd kept his eyes locked on the tree, because only moments after Smohl had finished speaking a small portion of bark at the bottom of the tree began wavering like a disrupted mirage, before a man stepped directly out of the shimmering wood.
While humanoid, the man was clearly far from human. His skin was brown and grainy, like the bark of an old oak tree stretched into a human form. His clothes were similar to the woven, interlocking leaves that the elves wore, except for the fact that his seemed to be growing out of his own bark-like skin. The whites of his eyes were instead a soft green, and the pupils a rich, deep brown that focused first on Smohl, before shifting to land on Vin. The being that could only be an Ancient One smiled, and Vin let out a sigh of relief he hadn't realized he'd been holding when the being's teeth were revealed to be similar to his own rather than pointed like the elves. After taking in the strange man, Vin's eyes widened at the System notifications that popped up.
New magical beast discovered! 500 exp gained.
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New sentient race discovered! 6,000 exp gained.
Level up! Explorer lvl 8.
+3 Attribute points to spend.
+1 Skill point to spend.
"Hello, young human," the Ancient One said, his voice rich and deep for having such a thin frame, as if he were actually three times his size. "Welcome to the Sacred Forest."
As Vin quickly dismissed his latest notification, he was startled by a flurry of movement all around him. Every single elf, regardless of age, gender, or any other discernible feature like the length of their braids, suddenly had their faces pressed against the ground, bowing in reverence toward the Ancient One. Even Shia, for all her talk about not seeing the Ancient Ones as Gods, had her face pressed against the soil. Seeing the panic in Vin's face, the Ancient One let out a soft chuckle, which sounded more like branches shaking in the wind than actual laughter.
"Fear not, my young human. I don't expect you to bow. For centuries, my people have tried to get the elves to view us less as deities and more as partners, but alas, they refuse." As he spoke, the Ancient One gazed upon the bowing elves with a clear expression of love, like an elderly man watching a group of his grandchildren playing in his garden. "Do not worry. Once we have left they will loosen up and go about their day."
With the wave of his hand, the bark of the giant tree rippled once more, and Vin found himself staring at a dark wooden door suddenly inset within the tree as though it had always been there.
"Please. After you." The Ancient One said, opening the door and motioning for Vin to head in first.
"Thank you," Vin said, carefully stepping past the bowing elves and approaching the Ancient One. He certainly wasn't about to not venture into the gigantic magic tree when invited in after all. Hoping he was concealing his manic grin of excitement, Vin stepped through the door and found himself standing inside a small but cozy sitting room.
Not surprisingly, seeing as he was inside a giant tree, the walls, floor, ceiling, and pretty much every other aspect of the room was made of wood. What was interesting however, was how much variety and creativity the Ancient Ones had managed despite that. The floor was a rich, brown lacquered wood, while the walls were more like the inside of a log cabin made from different types of tree. There was a small table growing out of the floor with two chairs that seemed to be made from small trees, their branches woven together to form the backrest. There even seemed to be some sort of kitchen attached to the side of the room with an assortment of cabinets, though Vin couldn't even begin to guess what might be inside them.
"Please, have a seat," the Ancient One said, gesturing for Vin to take one of the two chairs. "Care for a drink? Tea? Coffee? If it can be grown, I can provide it for you."
"Oh, tea would be great, thank you!" Vin said, surprised by both how comfortable the living chair was and the Ancient One's hospitality. Silence stretched across the room for a few minutes as the Ancient One prepared tea for them both. Vin was more than happy to simply look around the room, getting an inside view of the humongous tree and marveling at how magic had been used to create such a wonder.
Finally, the Ancient One joined him at the table, taking the seat across from him and placing two wooden cups filled with steaming tea in front of them. "We don't have milk or sugar unfortunately, but let me know if you would like any honey."
"Uh, this should be fine. Thank you," Vin said, taking a tentative sip of the tea. It was the strangest blend of earl grey and herbal tea that he'd ever experienced, but it was tasty enough and gave him something to do besides gawk at the strange man in front of him.
Unfortunately for him, the Ancient One seemed content to wait as long as it took for Vin to finish sipping his tea, simply continuing to smile at him like a kindly old grandfather watching his favorite grandson. Eventually, Vin had to pause, and he sighed as he put down his cup. He waited a few more seconds, but when the Ancient One made no move to speak, he decided to get the ball rolling.
"Do you mind if I ask you something?"
"By all means, please go ahead," the Ancient One said, continuing to smile.
"I can't quite understand the mixed signals I'm getting from you and the elves about humans. When I first ran into Smohl and his party, there was an argument about whether to kill me or to sacrifice me to you. When we entered town, most of the elves looked at me more like I was an object of curiosity rather than something to be feared or hated. And you seem to have nothing against humans either. Well, that or you're just giving me a nice last meal before the sacrifice or whatever."
The Ancient One nodded along with his points, not speaking until Vin had finished. "None of that was a question you know."
'Oh great, he's doing the 'wise and annoying elder' trope. I hate those kinds of people.'
Vin rolled his eyes, silently agreeing with Alka on this one. "Then I suppose I'll officially ask. Why the strange, mixed reaction toward humans?"
The Ancient One leaned back in his chair, and Vin was surprised to realize the sounds of groaning wood were coming from his body rather than the furniture. "The history of the Sacred Forest stretches back countless generations, and I doubt you wish to spend the next few weeks here learning all of it. The short version is that the surrounding kingdoms, primarily made up of humans, orcs, and elemental-kin, disliked not being able to take what they wanted from the Sacred Forest, and they tried more times than you can imagine to invade. As a result, the elven warriors have fought against humans for as long as they can remember. That is bound to breed resentment, even if it is unwarranted."
"So you don't share their anger?"
"My people live long, long lives," the Ancient One said, chuckling. "While I admit the majority of other races I have encountered over the years have been of the raiding and pillaging sort, I have met my fair share of friendly, helpful humans who were just as awestruck by our way of life as you are. I've been watching you since you set foot in the Sacred Forest, and allow me to give you my official thanks for saving some of my young charges from that rampaging monster." The Ancient One stood up, his body creaking as he gave Vin a shallow bow.
"Oh, of course, no need for that!" Vin stammered, deciding to drink deeply from his cup to hide his face heating up. Nobody had ever bowed to him before, and the first person to do so was some sort of ancient half-God?
What a weird day.
Sitting back down, the Ancient One took a sip from his own cup, letting out a sigh that sounded like wind whistling through leaves. "Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I'm afraid I must throw etiquette to the wayside for a moment, if that is alright."
"Sure…" Vin said, trying to move his hand slightly closer to his sword hilt without the Ancient One noticing. Clearly he wasn't as sneaky as he'd hoped, as the Ancient One simply chuckled, shaking his head.
"Oh no, you have nothing to fear. I simply have something of a large request I would like to make of you, and I'm afraid asking such after you have already done so much for my people would be considered rude, don't you think?"
"Eh, I was never really one for politeness," Vin shrugged, trying not to let the relief show on his face. If the Ancient One decided he did want to turn him into fertilizer, there wasn't a whole lot he'd be able to do about it after all. "What's the request?"
"Before we get to the request, there's something you should know." The Ancient One finally lost his smile, his expression turning serious for the first time. "This bit of knowledge, however, is currently a secret from the elves. I would have to ask you for your word that you won't share with them what I'm about to tell you."
Vin wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but he swore the entire room seemed to shrink slightly, pressing in on them just a little bit more as the Ancient One waited for his answer. Gulping, he hurriedly nodded. "Of course! Your secret is safe with me!"
In an instant, the Ancient One's smile returned, and Vin breathed easier as the room seemed to return to normal, no longer feeling like it was going to collapse in on itself and crush him into paste at any second. "Excellent! I appreciate your candor. This particular piece of information would cause nothing but worry and fear for the elves, and I'd like to prevent that for as long as possible."
"I totally understand," Vin said, wondering what on Earth the ancient being sitting before him could possibly want to share with him, and how he could possibly help. Was there some super powerful monster approaching the forest? Were they running out of food? Some sort of magical virus decimating their people? Shaking his head, he pulled himself back to the here and now. "So, what's the bad news?"
"Well you see…" The Ancient One took another sip of his tea, sighing in enjoyment of the rich flavor and giving Vin an almost apologetic smile.
"All the other Ancient Ones are dead. And I'll soon be joining them."