August had informed the team that the forest had been growing unimpeded as long as anyone could remember, some of the trees being older than most gold rankers. Even the signature of one of the late kings of Vitesse was still inscribed under the bark of one elder tree, which August had brought the team to. From a distance, it could be regarded as one of the greatest trees, if not the largest, in the whole region.
Senadin and Zulli respectfully stayed silent as August gave them a lesson on the history of the area.
“Tivarius II.” August told them, as he stood in front of a stone before the tree. The stone itself was inscribed in memoriam of the king, who was a revered monarch that developed Vitesse from a small town, protecting it with his flower-centric Essence abilities until the first walls were built. “Peckmont was his home before a monster surge destroyed it, scattering the inhabitants that weren’t run over by the wave of monsters that took the town. Ruins in the surrounding area are all the history we have of that place, but Tivarius was said to have lost his family, and made an oath to never let a town fall to a monster surge again, now known as the Flower Oath. The full oath is written on this stone, if you can read high-elven.”
“…So that no one may ever have to feel the pain I have felt…” Sen said aloud as he read through the inscription, his translation power working overtime to decipher the complex dialect.
“His initials are up near the top of the tree, now.” August continued. “They say this elder tree could have healed itself, covering the initials, but the tree keeps the scar in respect for the king.”
All three looked upward into the dense canopy. The elder tree in front of them was several hundred feet tall, with most of its crown unseen due to other, lower trees blocking the view. Sen couldn’t imagine how deep the roots must go.
“I can’t even imagine how old this tree is. Centuries. Many centuries.” Sen surmised as he set his eyes back down to horizon level.
“Indeed.” August said. “Given the age of Vitesse, we can suspect it hasn’t yet reached a millennium since it was a seedling, but it is fair to surmise that it is getting close.”
“That’s a long time.” Zulli said. “Are we going to get on with the Wisp Hunting?”
“Zulli.” Sen chaffed. “This is what adventuring’s all about. Seeing the amazing things the world has to offer.”
“I thought adventurers killed monsters. That’s what I want to do.”
“Well…” Sen deliberated as he looked to August for some insight.
“Adventurers do kill monsters.” August said. “But if that’s all they were, then they’d be monster killers, not adventurers.”
Sen lackadaisically pointed his finger guns at August. “Yeah!”
Zulli rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “That makes sense. I guess I just don’t care much for a guy that made a city.”
“What about the big tree?” Sen asked her.
“It’s very old, but I would guess there are things much older. Even people much older.”
Sen thought back to the old man that he met while sitting on a bench in Vitesse. He claimed to be very old as well, and Sen now wondered exactly how old. Was that old man older than this ancient tree?
August didn’t speak but turned from the stone in front of the tree to draw his attention on them.
“Oh Zulli, you’re too analytical.” Sen said.
“Am I?” She asked, half-sarcastically.
“Yeah, of course there might be things that are older. But put it in perspective, how old are you?”
“About a month now, I guess.”
“See, this tree has lived thousands of your lifetimes. All the things you’ve done already, this tree has seen multitudes of, and even more that you haven’t. Man, if it could talk.”
Zulli looked from Sen up to the gargantuan tree. “I suppose you’re right. That is pretty cool, though I’m not sure if the tree has seen anything without eyes.”
“You’re just excited to get to the monster hunting, aren’t you?” Sen asked.
“I am…” Zulli droned. “Sorry for being a bummer.”
Just then, bright green rings encircled each one of them. The rings stretched and morphed from rings of solid green light into letters and symbols that even Sen’s translation power couldn’t decipher. The rings spun around them, faster and faster, producing a soft hum, until they faded and disappeared.
“What was that?” Zulli asked.
Sen looked from Zulli to August, who didn’t budge in response to the display of magic. He was looking at Zulli with the lightest of smiles.
“Was that you?” Sen asked.
- Blessing Received: Elder’s Will
- You have been judged, and a Father of the Forest has instilled a blessing onto you.
- Effect: While in the forest, as long as the Elder wills, you gain a boost to your [Recovery] and [Spirit] attributes.
- Your recovery attribute is unaffected.
“Oh.” Sen said as the dialogue box appeared in his vision.
“I feel kind of good.” Zulli remarked.
The whole team could feel the effects, their minds becoming a little clearer from the boost in the spirit attribute. Zulli felt it the most, as her base attributes were the lowest they could possibly be, being at the very bottom end of iron rank. There was a massive gap in power between her and August, with August’s attributes being so powerful that the blessing was a meager boost in comparison. Sen felt the boost in mental capacity just as Zulli did, but since he didn’t have an Essence linked to his recovery attribute, the blessing didn’t have anything to magically anchor into, thus having no effect.
August faced the tree and knelt to it. When he stood up, he walked past Sen and Zulli. “Pay your thanks.” He said.
Neither Zulli nor Sen knelt to the tree.
“Thank you!” Zulli shouted.
“Yeah.” Sen agreed. “Thanks, Great Elder.”
The two hurried to catch up with August, who was already walking the hardly beaten path back onto a more travelled trail. They walked for some time before finally coming close to one of the Springe Wisps.
“We’ll clear as many of these as we can.” August told them. “But we’re already behind schedule, and we don’t have a contract for them, so we won’t get a payout.”
“A contract?” Zulli asked.
“Like monster kill orders, right?” Sen said.
“Right. The most basic of Adventure Society contracts will see you clearing out monsters.” August said.
Sen imagined any wisp to be about the size of his fist, but that turned out to not be the case. The Springe Wisp was a floating blue orb about the size of a large pumpkin. It floated lazily, wafting of its own accord. The team was only a few meters away from it, and they could see it was slowly moving closer to them.
“This one seems to have absorbed a few others already.” August informed them. “It’s still far from being critical, but you two better take care of it.”
“Oooo.” Zulli cooed. “It’s mine.” She said as she lifted her blouse to pull her partially opaque crystal wand from her belt. She aimed the wand at the Springe Wisp, though her form was stiff. Zulli had no experience with wands and had never even seen them used before. Her Universal Knowledge ability gave her an intrinsic understanding of basic universal concepts, which in the case of wands, was place pointy end at enemy. Zulli saw Sen’s hand shyly reach up to poke the wand.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
- Item: Conquered Comet (Iron)(Legendary) – Cosmic – Wand
- “The crux of a shooting star captured by magical means”
- Effect: Enhances the effects of [Cosmic] abilities
- Effect: Allows the User to cast [Cosmic Consonance]
- [Cosmic Consonance] – Ability
- The wand may generate a [Cosmic] ritual circle. This ritual circle further increases the effects of [Cosmic] and [Light] abilities.
- This is a growth item
- [Cosmic Consonance] – Ability
“Sorry.” Sen said, shyly retracting his arm.
Zulli was looking at him with her head cocked to the side as she pointed the wand at the Springe Wisp. When Sen pulled his hand away, Zulli looked back at the monster and a white beam of light released from the wand. Cosmic energy coursed through her body and into the wand, finally releasing from the tip of the wand. It lit up the area around them, and Zulli corrected her amateur aim until she was directly on-center with the Wisp’s spherical form. The wisp crackled as the stellar light collided with its incorporeal body. It was staggered by the beam, drifting away as it was pelted by the constant blinding onslaught. Perhaps it was trying to run away. Whatever the case, Zulli channeled her Quasi-Stellar Beam until the wisp dissolved into nothing, not even leaving enough of a trace to go up in rainbow smoke.
“Zulli.” Sen said.
“Hm?” She hummed in a perfectly innocent tone. If only Sen could see the wry smile on her face.
“Are you trying to be the coolest one here?”
“I might.”
Sen conjured his armor. Black ichor oozed from his pores, engulfing his clothes and retracting them into his voidspace. Once the ooze covered his entire body, it clamped down against his skin, tightening against his body like a thin layer of black oil. Plates of black chrome grew from the ichor, like submarines breaching the surface of the ocean on a new moon. The plates we scarce, mostly covering his joints and leaving many unprotected areas, save for his entire right arm. His right arm was covered shoulder to fingertip in cascading scales of thin black metal. The entire ensemble resulted in a low-profile set of armor that was very light but only protected vital points on Sen’s body. Also, it inherently gave Sen the ability to make himself momentarily weightless, and Sen wanted to finally try that out.
“Dibs on the next one. There’s a few things I wanted to try out with my abilities.”
“August.” Zulli said, who had turned to watch the armor generate out of Sen’s body.
“Hm.” August replied.
“Can you sense more Springe Wisps around here?”
“There are a few around here, yes. Closest one is that way.” August said as he pointed them deeper off the trail.
“Guess that one is yours then.” Zulli said to Sen. “Then we’ll see who can do it better.”
Sen activated his weightlessness when Zulli stepped off in the direction of where August pointed. He pushed off the ground and launched himself forward, feeling the weightlessness for the first time, resulting in him coasting through the air with a goofy smile on his face. He wasn’t going to be the coolest one there at that moment, but he didn’t care. The “moments of weightlessness” as described in his ability screen were exactly that, short moments where his body has a gradual transition from fully weighted to weightless and back again. This resulted in Sen effectively moon jumping as he followed Zulli, who had picked up her pace as she saw Sen jumping ahead of her. The two effectively began to race towards the Springe Wisp.
Sen got the hang of his armor’s weightlessness effect quite quickly, and began bounding off of the trunks of trees mid jump in order to accelerate his forward progress. Zulli wasn’t sprinting to keep up, but had to run at a decent pace all while watching the uneven forest floor for obstacles, though her endurance was very much up to the task. Being only iron rank was still a huge leg up from normal rank like Sen, with the weakest iron rankers being the absolute peak of physicality compared to normal rankers. This showed as Sen was already breathing heavily. They both halted their forward progress when they spotted the faint blue glow of a Springe Wisp contrasting the dark shadows of the dense forest canopy. August was diligently following close behind, keeping an eye out for any sort of dangers their amateur senses might not be privy to.
“Don’t burn it away this time, leave some for me to finish it off, then I can loot it.”
“You watched me kill one. I want to watch you kill one.” Zulli replied.
“Oh. Alright.” Sen said as his sword manifested from his voidspace. He focused on his aura, feeling it naturally projected around him. Pulling it into his body he felt the emptiness of it, but also felt some kind of fullness from it, like it held an immense mass behind a thin layer of unreality. The void coursed through him and into his sword, blackening it in its entirety. “I better do something cool then.” He gave Zulli a devilish look as he walked past her and toward the Springe Wisp.
Zulli put her fists on her hips and didn’t say anything. Sen didn’t get to see her eyes rolling in the back of her head.
As Sen walked toward the Springe Wisp, he raised his right arm in front of him. He made several jabs into the air with his gauntlet until for some reason, he stopped. Sen looked at his gauntlet inquisitively. He made another few slow jabs, attentively watching the gauntlet move back and forth. He then punched the air, and a small white flame fluttered from his knuckles. Sen punched the air again, and his entire fist erupted in white flames.
“I didn’t know if that was going to work.” Sen said to himself. He held his sword in his left hand and heavy black gauntlet in his right. When Sen had first donned the armor in Carbon Manor, he was privately concerned that it may not have been specifically curated for him. The fully armored right arm brought him concern because Sen has been left-handed for twenty-seven years and didn’t want to stop now. Sen thought the armor expected him to mainly use his right arm, but now understood that was not the case. The armor seems to have given Sen exactly what he needed, his left arm and hand were completely free to operate without impedance, while his right arm was given both offensive and defensive options in a fight. Sen’s Primordial Transfiguration ability given from the Awakening Stone of Balance allowed Sen to add Primordial Fire to any of his Void special attacks or spells. Since Sen’s armor was also considered a weapon, Sen wondered if this allowed him to use Primordial Fire with his armor, and since last night, he wondered if he could use Primordial Fire with his sword while it was wreathed in his aura.
“Are you going to do something cool or what?” Zulli yelled out to him. To her, Sen looked like he stopped halfway to the Springe Wisp and just started boxing the air.
“Patience, Zulli! I’ve literally never done this before.” Sen replied in an annoyed, but playful tone.
He punched the air again, the white flames engulfing his fist when it struck forward. “So that’s considered a special attack?” He asked, not really convinced. Sen swung his sword upward, and it also cast out white flame on the upward stroke. Sen found that once an ability has been used, a natural understanding of how to use it is quickly adopted, as if it becomes instinct. Conjuring his Primordial Fire was the same experience as the weightless moon-jumping; It was difficult to find and understand the magic within at first, but once it was found, all its secrets were revealed.
Sen looked up at the Springe Wisp. It was hovering above the ground several meters in the air. It had been slowly moving toward Sen once it picked up the scent of his aura with whatever magical senses it had. This one wasn’t as large as the one Zulli had annihilated, but it was still larger than what Sen expected a wisp to be.
“Time to test this out.” He murmured, switching his gaze to his right hand, balled into a fist. “No spoon.”
Sen staggered his stance and bent at the knees and hips, placing his armored fist low towards the ground. He activated his weightlessness, then bounded upward, leading with his fist covered in white flame. He shot upward into a long uppercut, his eyes now trained on the blue orb of a monster. His fist pierced its incorporeal form and the wisp shook from the disruptive force damage originating from his Primordial Flame. As his fist went through its body, he could feel the wisp attempting to trap him, it seemed to try and latch onto his arm, and Sen felt that it would have if it weren’t for the Abyssal Vestments covering his body.
Springe Wisps can reach a supercritical state once absorbing enough of their own bodies into each other, to the point where their incorporeal forms can no longer contain the unstable magic they possess, resulting in a rather large magical explosion. The only other danger they exhibit is that their bodies can cause a form of paralysis to ensnare any unsuspecting victims, thus the name: Springe Wisp.
Sen could feel the Springe Wisp attempting to latch onto his arm and paralyze him, but it seemed like the armor covering his arm did not allow the wisp to take hold. Sen’s fist exited the other side of the wisp, and Sen was readying his second attack. Using the momentum from his uppercut, Sen rotated his body and produced a backhanded upward swing with his sword. With the attack being implemented, he conjured Primordial Fire to augment the slice. The black sword went cleanly through, unimpeded by the Springe Wisp’s attempt to capture it.
Floating up above the wisp from the momentum created by his weightlessness, Sen noticed the wisp changed colors. A small orb at the nucleus of the sphere had shifted to a dull reddish hue, as if the wisp was enraged. Sen’s moment of weightlessness was wearing off, and he floated back down toward the ground. On his way down, passing by the wisp again, Sen sent his sword through it in a downwards chop, augmenting it with Primordial Fire once more, and the Wisp exploded in a dazzling array of harmless light particles. Sen landed on the ground softly, letting his sword disappear into his voidspace as the remnant light particles glittered around him.
- You have defeated: Spring Wisp
- Spring Wisp has been wholly annihilated, [Bounty From Nothingness] has been activated automatically
- You gained:
- 10 Iron Rank spirit coins
- Monster Core (Iron)
- Mana Core (Iron)
Zulli walked up to Sen, her arms crossing as she stopped next to him, studying him and his armor. Sen stood in front of her with a smirk on his face, waiting for her to say something.
“I killed mine faster.” Zulli said to him curtly.
“Remember what I told you in the museum?”
“Yes, I do.”
“It’s not about killing monsters.”
“Yes, I know, Sen.”
“It’s about-”
“Yes, Sen, I know.”
“Looking good while you do it.”