Path of Dragons

For a few minutes, Elijah stood on the beach watching the crashing waves as the storm rolled in, bathing him in a deluge of precipitation. Spring had already taken hold, but the rain still felt like frigid needles against his skin. However, some of that discomfort was mitigated by the blanket of dense ethera that covered the island. The difference between what he’d felt in the valley he’d recently left behind and the power emanating from his grove was so stark that he wondered how he could’ve felt comfortable in the former.

But it didn’t take him long to figure it out. The drop had been so gradual that he’d barely noticed it in real time. It was like the old wives’ tale of the boiling frog, and it really put his unique situation into perspective. Certainly, he could have simply left the grove behind and made his way through the world. But it was his home, and what’s more, it was special in a way that he had yet to truly appreciate. So, even if he was willing to let the people or Ironshore fend for themselves – and likely fail – he couldn’t stomach the thought of ceding his grove to the impending tide of vicious orcs.

He remained in place for a while, letting the cold rain soak him through. Then, he sighed and turned back to the tree line. Before he’d taken two steps, Elijah had shifted back into his draconid form, after which he raced across the island and to his grove. When he reached the circle of trees, he noticed that the ancestral tree at its center had continued its transformation.

With stark blue leaves and bark of purest white, it looked both alien and familiar. However, it also felt like home in a way he couldn’t quite explain. So, he stepped into the grove with gratitude in his heart. As he did, he couldn’t help but notice the state of his garden, which had grown far more than he ever would have expected – especially because it had done so in winter. He could suspect that it was feeding more off of the ambient ethera wafting from the ancestral tree than via normal biological processes. What that meant for the plants themselves, he had no idea.

He plucked another berry, popping it into his mouth and savoring the tartly sweet taste as he pulsed Nature’s Bounty. It didn’t even come close to covering the entire garden of bushes and other plants, but it still felt like a return to normality. So, he took solace in that as he strode toward the tree. When he reached it, he called out, “Nerthus? You in there, bud?”

“I told you before that I can leave the tree more frequently now,” came the tree spirit’s familiar voice from behind. As Elijah turned, he couldn’t help but notice that it had grown slightly deeper. The reason for that became apparent a moment later when he saw that the tiny tree spirit had nearly doubled in size, topping out at a little taller than Elijah’s waist. “I cannot come and go as I please, but I have far more freedom now that the Ancestral Tree has reached early maturity.”

“Early maturity?” asked Elijah. Then, he said, “Good to see you, by the way. I hope you’re doing well?”

“I am, thank you for asking,” Nerthus answered with a bow of his head. Then, he explained, “For an Ancestral Tree, maturity is a difficult thing to quantify. For some, that stage is reached very quickly. For others, it takes years. However, for all of them, stepping past that point to become an elder is a long and arduous process that most will never achieve. Most that do have the benefit of an ideal environment as well as the protection of a Druid. Or someone equivalent.”

“So, this tree will grow more powerful?” Elijah asked.

“Indeed. Its progress will be much slower now, but it has finally borne a seed,” Nerthus said excitedly.

“There were seeds before, remember?”

“Those were mundane,” Nerthus stated. “Unranked. This seed is much different. More powerful. It is difficult to tell, but it is at least Complex-Grade. Perhaps even Sophisticated. With a natural treasure such as the seed of an Ancestral Tree that has absorbed a Shard of the World Tree, the grading system lacks nuance.”

“I see,” Elijah lied. As far as he knew, the grading system for items, towers, and natural treasures was well-established.

“You do not. The seed is connected to its progenitor. They are separate, but they are also a single entity,” Nerthus explained. “And that entity is connected to the World Tree in ways the Heavenly System is not meant to fully understand.”

“What does that mean from a practical perspective, though?”

“If you plant the seed, it will eventually connect to its progenitor through the World Tree, extending the boundaries of your Domain.”

“Oh. I like that,” was Elijah’s lacking response. “I suppose it’ll raise the ethereal density in that area, too, huh?”

“It will, though not to the degree of the original grove,” Nerthus said.

Elijah sat down and leaned his back against the tree. “So,” he said. “Theoretically, I could take that seed, plant it elsewhere, and eventually, get similar benefits to what I have here?”

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“Yes.”

“And what would happen if some disaster struck here?”

Nerthus gasped. “Why do you ask that?”

Elijah sighed, then explained the situation with the orcs – or at least what he knew of it. When he’d finished, he said, “I was just thinking that if things start looking really bad, I could grab the seed and run.”

“You cannot do that.”

“Why?” he asked. “I mean, I don’t want to. Just to be clear, I intend to fight. But there’s a good chance we’re going to lose, and I want a backup plan just in case.”

“That is understandable, but it is neither possible nor advisable,” Nerthus stated. “If this tree dies, then its progeny will lose the majority of its power. You will be incapable of creating another grove after that.”

“But –”

For the first time ever, Nerthus interrupted Elijah, saying, “The reason it is inadvisable has nothing to do with that, however. Instead, it concerns the nature of orcs. They are spawned from the system, usually using some local beast as a template. They evolve quickly, becoming intelligent enough to create a rudimentary society. From the very beginning, though, they have one goal – to conquer. Some say they are a test created by the system. Others claim that they are tainted by the Void. Regardless of their true origin, they are a plague that must be eradicated before it is too late.”

“Too late for what?”

“The survival of your planet,” Nerthus answered. “They will conquer and consume until there is nothing left. Then, once they’ve grown strong enough, they will set off into the wider universe to do the same. By that point, only the truly powerful will be capable of dealing with them, and even then, it is no sure thing. You mustn’t ignore this threat, or you could very well lose this planet before it is even fully developed.”

Elijah sighed. “And I assume that nobody can help us, huh? Like the dragon lady who gave me my core, maybe.”

“The system’s restrictions cannot be overcome. Sending even one person here after the initial rush would cost many fortunes. Perhaps some powerful faction will respond to the threat when Earth is fully integrated, but by that point, the orcs will have already won,” Nerthus answered.

Back in Argos, Elijah had bought a guide explaining – in broad terms – what happened when the World Tree touched a new planet. For a short time, low-level people were permitted to travel to what the system called the frontier, and for a negligible cost. However, after that, the cost of doing so became exorbitant to the point that very few could afford it. On top of that, only people under level twenty-five could come at all, and those over a certain level were too powerful to exist on a planet like Earth without destroying it with their mere presence.

That wouldn’t last, though. After the planet’s ethereal density stabilized, a countdown would begin until it was opened up to the rest of the universes. Sometimes, that took a hundred years, but it wasn’t uncommon to take much longer. Elijah had no idea how long it would be for Earth – no one did – but he knew it wouldn’t be anytime soon.

That was both comforting and distressing. The former, because it meant that some powerful despot couldn’t descend on Earth and enslave everyone. The latter, because benevolent factions couldn’t help with problems like the orcs. It was a double-edged system, and one Elijah in which couldn’t decide whether he liked it or not.

But the facts were clear – he had no real choice but to fight.

“I have two other things you might be able to help me with,” he said. Then, he explained what had happened with the hunters. He did so as neutrally as he could, ending with his acquisition of the bear’s pelt and the mushroom flesh.

“The mushroom is useless for us,” Nerthus said, shaking his head sadly. “An alchemist may be able to make use of it, though. The pelt is a different case. May I see it?”

Elijah nodded, then reached into his pack. The pelt was all the way at the bottom, so it took him a couple of minutes to remove everything. When he finally retrieved the item in question, he laid it out before Nerthus.

“It was a powerful creature,” the tree spirit said. “What do you intend to do with it?”

“I was going to ask you about that. I almost just buried it,” Elijah admitted. “Kind of a memorial –”

“You mustn’t do that.”

“What? I thought you’d support that sort of thing.”

Nerthus shook his head. “The death of such a creature is a sad thing. However, nothing we can do will change that. There is no dishonor or shame in using its body or eating its flesh. Though if a weakling were to consume the meat from such a powerful beast, they would almost assuredly be negatively affected. Perhaps they would even perish due to the influx of potent ethera.”

“That can happen?”

“It can.”

Elijah shook his head. “So, if I’m not going to bury it, maybe I should…make a cloak out of it,” he said.

“I see. If you choose that route, may I suggest that you leave it here for a few weeks?” Nerthus asked. “Then, once it is saturated in potent ethera, treat the hide as you did your staff. In that way, any item created from it will be much more powerful and tailored to your needs.”

“Interesting,” Elijah said. “Would that work with other items?”

Nerthus shook his head. “Only resources,” he answered. “And then, only if those resources were once living.”

Despite the restrictions, it still seemed like it could be a significant boon. However, like the creation of his Staff of Natural Harmony, preparing the hide would take time. It would also require materials that he didn’t have. Fortunately, the hunters had done one thing right by already fleshing the hide, which meant that Elijah could get by with storing it in his tree house for now.

So, after only a little more conversation with Nerthus, Elijah made his way to his home, climbed the stairs, and unpacked. After that, he gratefully took a shower before, at last, heading to bed.

Yet, as tired as he was, he couldn’t sleep. Instead, he just lay in bed and stared at the lightly glowing flowers as he contemplated the coming fight. A hundred ideas on how to deal with the orcs flitted through each facet of his Quartz mind, but the fact was that he had too little information to create a proper strategy.

Hopefully, he would address that lack tomorrow when he headed back to Ironshore.

Eventually, the comfortable bed did its job, and he finally let himself relax. Once he did, he drifted off to sleep.

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