Path of Dragons

For what Elijah had planned, he needed as much ethera density as he could find. To that end, he returned to his corner of the cultivation cave, where he settled down to inspect the branch he’d stolen. At first, he felt a little bad about breaking off a piece of the tree and taking it for his own uses. But for some reason, that didn’t bother him as much as he might have expected it to. Would he have felt the same way if he’d torn the leg from a beast?

Likely not.

The only excuse he could come up with was that animals were incapable of simply regrowing a limb. By contrast, he’d done no permanent damage to the tree. Still, he wasn’t entirely comfortable with the obvious pain he’d caused. Killing was one thing. That was just part of nature. But maiming a creature? That felt different. He didn’t feel guilty about his actions, especially given the sheer savagery he’d sensed within the tree, but even so, Elijah knew he’d need to do some soul-searching before he repeated those actions.

Regardless, the damage was done, and given that the others would soon exhaust the cave’s ability to support their advances in cultivation, Elijah knew he was on a timer. So, he quickly got to work.

The first step was to familiarize himself with the branch, which was about nine feet long and four inches wide at its thickest. In addition, he could feel the thick flows of ethera still pulsing within, and he was more than a little surprised that it felt so different from what he’d sensed in the trees back on his island. With that as context, the branch was far more wild, eager, and savage. It put Elijah in mind of a predator who took pleasure in the hunt itself.

Or in the kill that followed successful predation.

Elijah knew that there were plenty of animals like that. The most obvious example was the domesticated housecat, but killing for reasons other than sustenance was common among dolphins, orcas, foxes, and hyenas as well. Those reasons were a hotly debated topic, with some scientists attributing the behavior to a pursuit of pleasure while others likened it to practice or the results of an irresistible predatory drive.

What Elijah had felt from the tree – and to a lesser degree, the branch – leaned toward the former. That tree, at least to such an extent as was possible with a tree, enjoyed killing its prey, and not just because of the consequential influx of nutrients. It reveled in the slaughter.

That, as much as his previous reasoning, contributed to his lack of guilt at breaking the thing’s branches. If it could engage in such cruelty, then Elijah had fewer compunctions about subjecting it to something similar. What’s more, Elijah intended to tap into that savage cruelty when creating his new staff.

To that end, he meditated on One with Nature, delving deeper into those sensations. As he did so, he used Nature’s Bounty as well as Healing Rain, bathing the branch in his own personal ethera. With his new specialization, he could feel the subtle differences between the naturally occurring ethera in the cave and the influx of energy he injected into the ecosystem.

It wasn’t as dramatic as it could have been. After all, the cave was his, already suffused with his essence. Not to the same extent as his island, his dolmens, or even Ironshore or Argos, but to a noticeable degree nonetheless.

Under the influence of Nature’s Bounty, the vital energy within the broken branch roiled, flowing almost as if it had never been disconnected from the tree. It had nowhere to go, though, so it simply looped back in on itself in an infinite flow that accentuated the branch’s natural strength.

Elijah had no idea what grade such a material might be, but he knew it was strong. More, he felt that it grew more powerful with every passing minute – at least until it hit a wall, beyond which it could grow no more potent – at least not in the short term. Perhaps he could have ushered it into a new level of power if he’d kept at it for a year, but the increase would be so minute that he judged that it wasn’t worth it.

It did give him some insight into how materials worked, though. Surely, crafters like Carmen already knew as much, but it seemed that every material had a natural limit. One could push it past that point, but not without significant effort and time investment. And even then, the increase would be marginal. It would make far more sense to simply find a more powerful material.

Not that Elijah had that option at present, but it was good to know for any future products he might take on.

By the time the branch had reached its limit, three days had passed. Elijah had taken a few breaks here and there – mostly to eat – but given that the rest of his party were still engaged with their efforts at breaking through to new levels of cultivation, he had nothing with which to occupy himself but the project at hand.

In a lot of ways, it felt like he’d returned to those early days on his island. That first winter had been brutal, which meant that he’d spent the majority of that time in his makeshift shelter. To pass the time, he’d whittled, eventually creating his first staff. He was capable of much deeper levels of concentration now, though, and he applied the full weight of his Jade Mind to the task.

There was one key difference, though. When he worked on his various projects on Earth, he often fell into a trance-like state where his actions were driven by instinct. That was not the case on the excised world of Ka’arath. Some vestige of that connection still lingered, but for the most part, he was on his own.

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Fortunately, with his high Dexterity, he possessed superhuman coordination, which he used to guide his blade as he began to shape the branch. The first step was to cut it down to size. Ideally, he would have used a tool called a spokeshave for that, but given that he only had a knife and a couple of files, he made do with a normal blade. Thankfully, he had the attributes to make it easier, but even then, the hardness of the wood made him wish that he’d chosen a slimmer branch. But at least it was straight. Otherwise, the process would have been even more tedious.

Over the course of the next day, Elijah slowly stripped one layer of wood after another until he arrived at the desired thickness of a little more than two inches wide. The end result would be slightly narrower, but for now, it was perfect for the next step.

That was when Elijah started carving. The process was more deliberate than in the past, but thankfully, he had a good idea what he wanted. Gradually, it began to take shape, and all the while, Elijah continued to douse it in his ethera.

All around him, the water from Healing Rain froze, then dissipated into motes of ethera only to be replaced by more ice. Without the Cloak of the Iron Bear, he would have long since succumbed to frostbite. But with it, his attributes reached higher than ever before, topping out at a thirty-point increase to his physical stats. It was an incredibly potent buff, but he was happier with the results of the Temperate trait, without which he never could have endured the combination of the cultivation cave’s frigid temperatures and the freezing water from Healing Rain.

Elijah eventually lost track of time. He never slipped into a trance – not like he would have back home – but he did lose himself to the task. With every stroke of his blade, he carved a little more wood away, and over time, the intended shape revealed itself. He didn’t acknowledge the overall design, instead focusing on small sections at a time.

Like that, the project progressed. Elijah knew what he wanted – in fact, the design harkened back to the Staff of Natural Harmony, at least in the overall shape. There were plenty of differences, but the idea was to carve it into lifelike roots. Part of that decision was based on nostalgia, another part was due to the impact the source tree had had on him, but mostly, he chose that design because it didn’t need to be perfect. He knew he’d make mistakes, so he decided to hide them via a seemingly chaotic design.

Gradually, he kept going until almost two weeks after he’d begun the project, he held a new staff before him. Yet, it wasn’t finished. Before he could make that claim, he needed to seal it. To that end, he retrieved some wax from his Ghoul-Hide Satchel – he’d brought it with him just in case – and started working it into the staff. Four coats later, he received a notification:

Congratulations! You have created a unique item [Feral Spire]. This item will serve to enhance bestial transformations. Overall Grade: Complex (Low) Enchantment Grade: C

A pulse of ethera accompanied the notification, and Elijah held the new weapon out before him. It was a little more than six feet long and about an inch-and-a-half wide. The wood itself was a blue so dark that it looked black, and it took the apparent form of twisted roots. However, one aspect of its appearance Elijah had not intended was in the pulsing red veins covering the surface.

He looked at the notification with mixed feelings. It wasn’t as high of a grade as his previous staff, but he hoped that its effects would be more impactful. After all, the core of his class was the ability to transform into powerful beasts. So, a staff that specifically enhanced that capability had a chance of being more useful, even if the grade – and overall power – was slightly lower.

Regardless, Elijah felt better about his new staff than he did about trying to use the all-but-broken Staff of the Serpent Healer in everyday combat.

He gave it a few test swings, but he felt more than a little silly twirling it around. He’d made a little effort to develop his staff-fighting technique, but he’d never really gotten around to serious training. Perhaps he needed to change that when he got back to Earth.

Satisfied with his efforts, he used One with Nature to check on the others, and once he found that they were all still engaged in cultivation, he left the cave behind. Judging by the ethereal pulses coming from them, they would be at it for at least another few days, which left Elijah with a little free time. So, as he so often did in those situations, he set off on a quest of exploration.

The cultivation cave was situated near the edge of the frozen region, so it wasn’t long before he found himself traveling in a slightly more temperate forest that reminded him of the area north of Norcastle. As he went, he pushed his senses as well as his physical abilities to their limits. In the Shape of Venom, he leaped through trees, climbing their vertical trunks like they were nothing. When he used Shape of the Guardian, he focused on moving rapidly while forcing himself into tight turns that strained his Dexterity. And in Shape of the Sky, he flew among the branches like they were an obstacle course.

Like that, he continued on for miles and miles, covering an incredible area in a relatively short amount of time. At the same time, Elijah kept an eye on One with Nature – as much to attune himself to the volume of sensory information as to keep track of his surroundings. It was via that sense that he detected an open area beneath the ground.

Beyond that, he could sense nothing inside. Just an absence that raised alarm bells in his mind.

After a few minutes more of exploration, Elijah found a small statue of a heroic-looking ka’alaki, beneath which was a sealed door set into the statue’s plinth. Beyond that barrier, Elijah could sense nothing.

He knew he should go back to check on his companions, but the chances were that they were still engaged in cultivation. He had time to spare. And what better way to spend a few hours than in exploration?

As he looked for a way to open the door, Elijah realized that he could very well be walking into a similarly lethal puzzle as he’d found in the last set of ruins he’d discovered. But he was nothing if not consistent – even to his detriment. On top of that, he’d grown up idolizing a certain movie archeologist, so, given that, the call of adventure was undeniable.

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