[957 Years Remaining]

Goodbyes weren’t a particularly hard thing. I didn’t plan to be gone for long, a year at the very maximum, and a single year wasn’t very long for an elf. When I came back, almost nothing would be different, if anything. Plus, the village would run smoothly without me. A chief was mostly needed to make the big, important decisions. The hunters didn’t need me, even if I was exceptionally good at it.

The next day, I was at the outskirts of the area generally considered a part of the village, going over everything I had packed once again. The leatherworker had given me a bag free of charge. Mostly because the village didn’t use currency. Still, this bag was just teetering on the edge of being too large. I could safely store away everything I needed without having to worry about space, but it could easily become too heavy and not ideal for travel if it was overstuffed.

Inside the bag itself, I had enough food for a month. The goal was to not use any of it until I was out of the forest. It was all dried fruit and meat that would last for a long time, so it was better to save it as long as I could. Plus, I could easily hunt and forage for any food that I would need as long as I still knew the environment.

Aside from food, I also had a spear, a bow and quiver full of arrows, and a knife. I knew how to use all of these, even if only in a hunting context. When I made it out of the forest, a weapon would still be better than no weapon, regardless. I had no clue what to expect once I was actually there, after all.

Everything else in my pack was just basic supplies. A couple changes of clothes, a waterskin, materials to start a fire, and so on. I’d have to figure out what to do for shelter during the night on my own though, considering it was incredibly rare for an elf to leave the village for more than a day at a time, let alone the forest entirely.

After walking for a couple hours, I’d made it as far as I ever had in the forest before. Due to Mother Tree’s influence, the most dangerous beasts apparently lived farther away, towards the outskirts of the forest rather than claiming any territory closer to the center, where our village was. The further I headed out, the more danger I would be in.

So far, nothing had impeded my progress. I’d come into contact with and seen plenty of animals, but most of them were the usual beasts, and didn’t attack me, so I hadn’t attacked them either. Generally, only those with mana would dare to actually try and hurt an elf. Just like how a rabbit would only try to hurt a fox as a last resort.

Nearly thirty minutes later, I came across a small pond. I would have ignored it, were it not for the fact that it was almost perfectly circular. The pond was around twenty feet across, with water so clear that I could see all of the fish swimming throughout. The interesting part about them was that they were enlightened. I knew this because there were similar, albeit irregularly shaped, ponds throughout the forest. They typically all had the same inhabitants, and I recognized these as being much larger than usual. And from the fact that they had a subtle glow as well. Not quite like the eyes of my fellow elves, though. Their entire bodies shined different colors, changing every so often. I saw one fish in particular glow red, then green, then red again, and then yellow. In total, there were only a dozen or so in the pond, each about 4 feet long. Their mana-less counterparts weren’t even close to half that size most of the time.

At the very bottom center of the pond, there was a hole. This one, I was sure, was perfectly circular. It was a couple feet across, and despite that, I couldn’t see where it led from this angle. None of the water seemed to be draining from the pond, though, so I assumed it wasn’t very deep.

It was around the late afternoon by now, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to have a break. I took off my shirt, pants, and leather boots, and left the supplies I’d brought with me by the edge of the pond. The clothes were made of a certain type of plant grown in the village. Unfortunately, they would shrink if they got wet and were then dried next to a fire. That left me with two options: walk around in wet clothes for the rest of the day, or go for a swim with nothing on. The latter option was the most appealing, considering I was sure I was the only person around for a few miles at this point.

To my surprise, the water wasn’t cold at all. It was warm, even. Strange, but hardly the strangest thing about the pond. I swam toward the center, and the fish, even if enlightened, all swam away to the edges of the pond, giving me plenty of room to move about. There weren’t that many to begin with, but they were still large for fish, and would’ve made it hard to get to the center. Making my way to the mysterious hole, I learned that I couldn’t see the bottom. Considering how deep the pond was, I still should’ve been able to see how far down it went, assuming it was shallow.

Unfortunately, my curiosity had only grown. Everything about this pond was unusual, but the fact that there was a deep, circular hole in the middle was a mystery I was itching to uncover. Mana began to flow through my body, enhancing my muscles and lungs. After taking a deep breath of air, I dove, going right into the hole itself. The Branch made it easy. More than half of all of the previous chiefs had known how to swim, and I had even been able to before attuning to it. I immediately realized that there was no water in the hole itself. Unfortunately, I hadn’t been going particularly slow, so my dive soon turned into a fall.

I landed head first, onto a cold stone floor. My mana-reinforced body didn’t do anything to help here, but I hadn’t fallen very far. No more than a few feet, if I had to guess. A terrible headache came over me almost immediately, and I sat up, rubbing my head. Nothing seemed broken, at least. Now that I wasn’t in the water, I stopped circulating mana. I had barely even used any, so it would naturally regenerate over the course of a few dozen seconds.

There was no light here, strangely enough. I wasn’t exactly sure where I even was, but I knew that I couldn’t see anything. A grim realization dawned upon me.

“Did I die?” I spoke aloud, moreso just to see if I could even hear myself. Though, thinking about it, I definitely didn’t feel dead with this headache.

“That information will cost one minute of your life.” A high-pitched, almost childlike voice sounded throughout the area, echoing throughout what must’ve been a cave.

At the sound of the voice, I shot up to my feet immediately, only for my head to crash into the ceiling. The headache was even worse now. Great. Just what I wanted.

“Who was that?” I asked, groaning while I sat back down. The ceiling was too low for me to stand properly.

“That information, I will give for free.”

A light appeared in my vision. I focused my eyes, and saw that it was a tiny flame, seemingly hovering in the air. It was only a few feet away from me.

“I am a spirit. One of knowledge.” The flame seemed to glow brighter as I heard the voice again.

“What is a spirit?”

“Information is costly, elf.”

I considered asking it another question, but refrained from doing so. Instead, I just stayed silent.

“Smart. For being the first to see me, I answer some of your questions. Any after that will not be free.”

“Wha-” I cut myself off. This spirit, or whatever it called itself, wasn’t something I really wanted to mess with. Curiosity had already done me quite enough harm today. “How do I leave this place?”

I heard what sounded like giggling, before the spirit responded. “Simply go back the way you came.”

I’d just jumped up, and hit my head on the ceiling, so that didn’t seem like an actual answer to my question. I got to my feet, this time not standing up completely, and felt around the ceiling. There wasn’t an exit, and I was sure of it, even if I couldn’t see.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“I’m confused… Where is the hole?” I asked the spirit.

“You still have questions to ask.” Was all the voice said in response.

I let out a loud, annoyed sigh. This spirit was making my headache worse. I just wanted a direct answer. “Fine then. What is a spirit?”

The flame suddenly darted at me, colliding with my forehead. I didn’t feel any burns or heat, even though I was sure it had touched me.

“Ask yourself that question once more.” The voice said, this time directly in my mind.

“What do you mean?” I still spoke aloud.

“Exactly as I have said. Ask yourself what a spirit is.”

Great. This thing just loved to speak in riddles, apparently. Still, if I was being held hostage until I asked enough questions, then that didn’t give me very much options. I did my best to follow the directions, thinking about spirits. To my surprise, I remembered tons of information, which I was sure I hadn’t known before.

Spirits were creatures made entirely of mana. They had no physical bodies, and often appeared as orbs of light. Most were unintelligent, but when one spirit gained enough mana, it would form a consciousness. If someone gathered enough of those mindless spirits in a single place, there was a chance for them to fuse together, gaining intelligence in the process.

Spirits were highly sought after as well. They could be trapped inside weapons or other objects, giving them interesting effects depending on how much mana the spirit had. Intelligent spirits were much more prized, as they were often aspected to only a single kind of mana. For instance, some spirits only contained fire mana, like I suspected the one I was talking to was.

There was honestly more knowledge than I could sort through. It was much different than learning from the Branch of Wisdom. That was much more natural, as if I was learning myself. Now, I had to sift through memories as they were almost forced into my mind. There was too much to keep track of at once, but I sensed that I could take my time, or even just keep the unlearned information in the back of my mind until I wanted to go through it again.

“So you’re a fire spirit?” I asked.

“No, I’m a flame spirit, aspected to knowledge.” It responded.

Well that didn’t make any sense. There was knowledge mana? I already knew about the basic types of mana. Fire, Earth, Air, Water, and pure mana, which was just unaspected. I also was told that there were plenty of different types of mana aside from those main five, but none of the elves knew much about the topic.

“Why are you in the shape of a flame then? What does that have to do with knowledge?”

“Knowledge is the flame of life, which supports those alive and those to come.”

“Sounds a bit pretentious, if I’m being honest.”

The spirit actually loudly scoffed at that, which made my headache worse for a moment. “There is little of the present or past that I do not know. Most would kill to have the opportunity you are being given.”

“You don’t have any knowledge of the future?” I asked. I had wanted to ask about the Calamity next.

“How could I? The future is ever-changing, and only a fool tries to predict it.”

Well, there went that. It seemed that I still had some questions left to ask though, so I thought about it for a second. Truthfully, everything I actually wanted to learn regarding the future, so this little spirit was a bit useless for my needs. Still, I wasn’t an idiot. There was a spirit of knowledge here, and it was willing to give me information for free.

“Well what do you think I should ask?”

“You are not as foolish as you seem, Indra,” the spirit giggled again. It didn’t speak like a child, even though it sounded like one, so it was still a little off putting when I heard its childish laughter. What was more concerning was that it knew my name, even though I hadn’t given it.

“How do you know my name?” I looked around, trying to see if I could spot the flame anywhere. I was unsuccessful.

“I recommend you ask me about Laya. You saw her do something quite interesting, did you not?” The spirit continued on, ignoring my earlier question.

I tried not to think too hard about how this thing knew so much about me. “Then… What exactly did I see in that memory yesterday?” I kept my question as vague as possible. I had hoped that a more broad question would give me more information.

“Now ask yourself that question.”

I did so, and found more knowledge to look through. There wasn’t nearly as much this time. Apparently, Laya had used a tier 6 technique. I vaguely knew what a technique was, but I had no clue what tier 6 meant. How many tiers even were there?

Aside from that, I learned more about the army she was fighting. Apparently, they were soldiers of a kingdom that had long ago stopped existing. None of them were particularly powerful, compared to Laya, but I already knew that much from when I saw the memory.

“So what’s a tier 6 technique?” I eventually asked.

The spirit sighed, reminding me of Mother Tree. I briefly wondered whether it needed to breathe or not. I asked myself whether or not spirits needed to, and was happy to realize that the related knowledge came to mind. They, in fact, did not need to. This spirit was likely just a bit fed up with me.

“A tier 6 technique is the highest ranking a technique can be classified as. They are incredibly powerful, but are incredibly hard to learn, as well as incredibly rare. I don’t know this for sure, but there are likely less than a few thousand people in the world that can use one.”

Well that was new. I knew about the existence of techniques. They utilized mana to do all sorts of things. Internal techniques generally had some effect on your own body, and external techniques generally had some effect on the outside world. I was told by Mother Tree that there were exceptions, but I didn’t know what those were. For that matter, this was the first time I was learning about a specific kind of technique.

“The technique that you saw Laya use was an external one, obviously,” The spirit continued. “Not only was it tier 6, but it was also attuned to the element of death. That’s rare, even for that tier. And powerful, too.”

That was good news. I was getting better at controlling mana because of the Branch. If the Branch could teach me that, then I was hoping it could also teach me how to use that technique. Plus, I was suspicious that it told me to ask about Laya because of the fact that I had the Branch of Wisdom and its ability to teach. Though Mother Tree hadn’t mentioned anything about me learning the technique, so I wasn’t completely sure.

“So how does someone go about learning a technique?” I asked.

“There’s a few ways you could do that. If you joined one of the armies on Echar, you would be taught a tier 1 technique. That would come in the form of a scroll, so all you would have to do is attune to it briefly, and you’d immediately be able to use it. You’d have to actually join the army though, and unless you want to make an enemy of them, desertion isn’t ideal. There are also many places that would do the same. There are many academies that focus on teaching higher-tier techniques, though you won’t be able to afford going to one of those. If you join a religious order, they’ll do the same, though the techniques will be much more specialized, and you’ll be forced into service as well…”

The spirit kept rambling on, listing all sorts of ways that someone could go about learning a technique. In the end, it seemed that there were typically two ways for someone to go about it. You could either learn from a scroll, or be directly taught from someone. The more rare and powerful the technique, the more likely it was for you to be taught by someone. Apparently, scrolls became progressively harder to make as they became more powerful.

“So how do I know whether something is a tier 6 technique or not?” I eventually asked, breaking the spirit out of his rant.

“This is the last question of yours I will answer for free,” The spirit responded. I was wondering when I would run out of questions to be allowed to ask, but apparently it was now. “Tiers are generalized. Some tier 5 techniques may be closer to tier 6, while others will be closer to tier 4, and of course the majority sit somewhere between. There are ways to easily judge what technique will be considered what tier, but you will learn more about that as you explore the outside world.”

Again, the spirit referenced something that I was sure I hadn’t told it. It was weird at first, but now I was beginning to become upset about the invasion of my privacy.

“How do you know all of this about me?” I questioned, wondering what I would need to pay for the answer.

“One minute,” The spirit answered. “I will take one minute away from your lifespan, if you wish to have this question answered.”

That was strange. I wasn’t aware that it was possible to have my lifespan shortened like that, but a single minute was hardly anything. If every question was worth a minute of my life, I could ask thousands and not even lose a week.

“Fine then. But first tell me how paying you with my own lifespan works.” I finally said in response.

“That will be one more minute,” the spirit said. I accepted. “First, I’m just going to be taking a piece of your soul. It already naturally shrinks and fades as you get older, so I’m just speeding up the process. Second, when I entered your forehead, I gained all of your memories. I’m a spirit of knowledge, so gaining knowledge easily is sort of my thing.”

“You’re inside my head?” I was alarmed, to say the least.

“One minute,” was all it said.

“Just tell me if anything I ask you is ever worth more than a minute.” Considering how little time it was, I didn’t really think I could ask more questions than I wanted. It was a bit strange to be trading my actual life for information, but I figured the time was probably better spent now than when I was an elderly man. Plus, it would take millions of questions before I eventually started to decrease my lifespan by a noticeable amount.

“Alright then. I’m not inside your head. I’m inside your soul. It’s made of mana, just like I am, and I can convert it from your life force to my own.”

“What do you use it for?”

“The more mana a spirit has, the more powerful they become. In my case, that means that it becomes significantly easier to-”

“Acquire knowledge,” I finished for the spirit. “Anyway, how come you’re… Here. I can’t imagine any reason for you to stick around in a cave.”

“This is simply where I came into existence.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” I said.

I wasn’t sure how long I had spent here, but I was beginning to get uncomfortable with being nude in an unknown dark place.

“Is there any way I can get you to come with me?” I asked.

“Actually, there is, but you’ll need to make a trade,” the spirit said in response.

“A few minutes, then?”

“No, much more than that. But, nothing immediate either. I simply require that you learn a technique that increases your lifespan. And once you do that, I want half of the time that you gain. If you die before you can do so, I will collect the remaining mana that makes up your soul and take it as my own. If you do not learn such a technique before the last month of your life, I will forcefully teach one to you, and then take all of the time that you would have gained otherwise.”

“Could you not just teach it to me immediately?”

“That would cost a thousand years of your life, on top of the time I would be taking after.”

Well, that wasn’t worth it. Still, the offer seemed like something almost too good to be true. Both of us would benefit from it, though I wasn’t sure how much the spirit would gain. In the end, I wasn’t losing much. In fact, I could technically even forget about the deal and just wait until I died, if I really wanted to. I wouldn’t, but it was an option nonetheless.

“Fine then,” I said, after thinking everything over for a few minutes. “You have a deal.”