William’s group started to watch the service from their position at the back of the crowd. It started with the families leaving a personal effect in a slot at the center of the burial pod. The grieving families then stood in silence, eyes closed. The service started with the final farewells from loved ones. The next stage saw Wylton step down from the councilors’ podium and approach the two burial pods. Every person present followed him with their gazes. As the Druid stopped before the two deceased, he put a hand on each pod and began to speak.
“Oh blessed mother of nature, Progenitor of GAEA, I beseech you. Bring the souls of these men into your gentle embrace and make them blossom. May they change with the passing of the seasons and gain omniscience within the foundation of life and death itself-” Wylton removed his hands and turned to face the gathered crowd. “-May the dearly departed find new life within the loam of nature’s tapestry. Puritas et Vita.”
“Puritas et Vita.” The crowd chanted.
William was interested in how they new Latin, at least it sounded Latin. William had no clue whether it was for certain, but the phrase had a similar sound to the numerous games and media he had digested in his past life. Maybe someone who knew Latin had arrived here like he did long in the past. He stopped his musings at the display that followed.
The two pods then started blossoming with flowers of every color in the rainbow. William could easily summarize it as pretty Druidic shit, but what happened next caught William off guard. The flowers started to tremble until petals started to pluck themselves from their place and float into the air. A rainbow swirl of petals spun and twirled in the air above the deceased. They then streamed upwards, all the way into Serenity’s canopy. The leaves of the great tree then shifted and shone like a kaleidoscope of color, reflecting the sun’s rays and creating a mural of colored light across the space around and beneath Serendipity.
“It’s… beautiful…” William whispered, mouth agape.
Everyone else with him was equally shocked, except for Maya, who looked on with a sorrowful smile, water collecting at the corner of her eyes. William let her grieve and focused on the display. His attention was drawn down after a few moments as the pods carrying the two bodies shifted and the intertwined branches and vines fully covered the bodies, creating oval shaped masses of flora. These were then magically lowered into the ground beneath Serendipity, the earth yawning open as if sentient and taking the two natural coffins in.
“And now they rest, part of Serendipity and all future growth of this land. This grove,” Wylton said, stepping down from his position and approaching the families of the buried men.
William watched as quiet words were exchanged as Wylton had his most solemn and respectful face on display. The smell of fresh leaves washed over the area, coming from the great tree itself. The temperature in the air increased by a couple of degrees in an instant. As quickly as it had come, the new sensations vanished and the air returned to how it had been moments before.
Wylton spoke loudly once again, his voice bearing the formality of a leader.
“Thus concludes the burial service. You may all go about your business or pay further respects in peace.”
People began to part and disperse in all directions, several glaring at Maya, or trying to, but not able to make their gazes reach the woman. William’s party obscured Maya from their baleful looks. William was annoyed at them. Maya didn’t kill the two men. Yes, her haste led to the capture of the women and the death of the other guy on the team, but either way, the true culprits were the people William and his friends had killed. He supposed that for those grieving, the emotions they needed to vent would require a target, and who better than a scapegoat involved in the incident. It sucked, but people died all the time. William knew the families and friends would always grieve, only getting to grips with the loss as time went on, but outside of Everglade? Who cared? He doubted anyone in Everglade cared that his father and several others had died to the bandit attacks. Nor did he think that they mourned the loss of the town that Devlin and Frenn had hailed from. It may have seemed cold, but no one died who left any legacy that could be talked about, just as most people would live and die in obscurity.
Maybe it was that cold truth that made William adjust so quickly to killing other people. He didn’t know, but either way, Maya was a member of Greenwell now and he wouldn’t allow any stupid shit to go down. If the people here, at least those at the burial service were any indication, she wasn’t at a real loss leaving the place. She had been thrown under the bus, and even though it felt super shitty, maybe it would allow her to grow further. The group decided to leave then too, heading to Serendipity to await the councilors’ return. The three of them were talking with the grieving families now, most likely saying lines that they had said to other loved ones of their fallen.
William and his companions were all sat on some wooden benches in the main atrium of Serendipity for about twenty minutes before the three councilors returned.
Denlar approached the group with the two other councilors close behind.
“Thank you for coming to the service, and thank you for not losing your head and attacking the… frustrated civilians. I will say that your verbal warning wasn’t very tactful however, and recommend that you practice on public speaking more,” Denlar said, looking at William with an assessing gaze.
“Yeah, fuck that noise. Maybe when my Charisma is at two hundred or something.” William thought, but replied with, “I’m currently learning from the person with the most experience of that sort of thing back in Greenwell. I’ll grow with it over time.”
He wanted to get on with the favors and AU business and then do the last bits to secure and expedite those favors so that they could be on their way back to Greenwell.
“We thought on the favors we want from you guys and have decided on what we want. Can we go and discuss it please? If you three aren’t too busy right now of course?” William added, giving a friendly smile.
Milla stepped forward and replied, “That would be for the best. The public reception to your group and Maya is complicated. You killed the people responsible for causing the deaths and suffering of Maya and her squad mates, but the people, at least those who were familiar with the deceased men are still grieving and are blinded by anger and frustration. I believe that they know deep down that Maya isn’t the true target of their ire, but people are fickle and quick to assume the worst. I think that the only reason there wasn’t more outrage was due to the banishment pending for Maya.”
William nodded and turned to Maya, who’s fiery eyes were subdued as she appeared to be in thought.
“Do you have any loved ones or friends here that you’ll want to say goodbye to?” William said, looking her in the eyes, trying to give his most sincere smile.
Maya shook her head and he had thought that was the end of it.
“Those I cared about are dead now or shun me,” Maya said in a barely audible whisper that only William heard due to his close proximity.
Well, Echo heard, but that was different. William didn’t broach the subject further, knowing that this was not the time or place.
“We’re ready, please lead the way, councilors,” William said, smiling at the officials.
It wasn’t long before they were at that familiar chamber where they had all the previous meetings. The three officials took their seats and gestured to those at the other end of the table. William and his party accepted the offer and sat at the table.
Wylton leaned forward and presented four thin folios of documents that he collected from an arm of vines that had emerged from the ground beside his feet. In a brief moment, the vines withdrew back beneath the surface and Wylton slid the folios down towards William and his friends. William’s group picked the different folios with their corresponding names.
He opened his and caught a small card that had fallen out from between two leaves of paper. It was a card that had his name and a glowing green circle underneath the his name. The name only had his first name and surname, with no titles. That was fine with him. It looked almost like a driving license from his old world. Underneath the green circle were the words: ‘Full Adventurer’s Union Member’.
The card itself was made of a thin metal that didn’t bend at all. It was a sturdy metal that shimmered when light hit it. It looked almost like hologram foiling that ID cards and Earth currency often had. The difference was that the patterns that shimmered were moving, swirling, as if alive. William touched his thumb to the green circle and saw the swirling lines of the card freeze. They then started to collect around the green circle, creating a corona around it. The swirling lines began to curl outward then, like magical tendrils, forming a complex pattern across the surface. The green circle dimmed to grey as the color had drained and was moving down the tendrils of energy inside the card. After a few more moments, the tendrils stopped moving, now glowing green. The circle had vanished beneath William’s thumb and when he lifted the thumb away from the card, the green color of the tendrils faded to a dull, lifeless gray.
A prompt appeared:
{Ascension_Protocol}
Adventurer’s Union Card – William Brooks
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
{Description}
A magical item imbued with the Mana signature of the user. Mana signature is permanent and unchangeable.
{Activation}
Present a digit from any hand to the activation circle to activate the magic circuit within the item, certifying to any onlookers that the user of the item is the same person with the matching Mana signature. [Cost: N/A][Cool-down: N/A]
[Notice – Item is Soul-bound.]
{Soul-bound}
Item is bonded to the user for life. If destroyed, Item can be re-summoned by bonded user once per day[Minimum 24 hours from point of destruction].
Acquire?
{Y/N}
[Notice – Soul bonding seals the contractual agreements of the Adventurer’s Union and makes the process of revoking the membership to the Adventurer’s Union require the termination of the user if membership is revoked.]
[Notice – Adventurer Union rewards from Tasks and public dungeons, tournaments, campaigns, and other related activities are quadrupled if Soul bond is agreed.]
[Notice – Soul Bond is optional, however, if rejected, the offer will not be offered again until progression to an advanced position of membership within the Adventurer’s Union is achieved.]
{End}
“Why do I feel like this is a deal with the devil kind of situation?” William asked, noticing concerned expressions on the faces of his companions, except Maya who watched the precedings with curiosity.
“Yeah… I don’t like the wording. Seems risky,” Jane replied, eliciting nods from John and Stacey.
“I think we should decline it for now. I don’t want to find that we could be conscripted for some suicidal crap or whatever and be killed for refusing if we weren’t keen on the mission,” William said, relieved to see that everyone else felt the same way.
William dismissed the prompt, as the eyes of his friends flickering told him that they had done the same. He tapped a different finger to the card then, curious to see if other fingers did in fact work. The corona around his finger lit up green once more, coloring the tendrils across the card. He removed his finger again and watched the lights dim again. William stored the card away in his ring and looked inside the folio, noticing documents with lots of words on them. He stored the folio too.
William’s friends looked at him curiously as Wylton chuckled and said, “Don’t fancy some light reading?”
William chuckled in return and replied, “Seems like good reading material if I’m going to sleep or to the toilet. I joke of course. I’ll read these later when we are back at the inn. I’d much rather discuss the matter of favors.”
The three councilors shared a look and leaned forward in their seats slightly, waiting for the requests from William and his friends.
William took that opportunity to go through the needs that his friends had discussed. He was pleased that his nerves were holding, but he assumed it was due to knowing all present and there not being a large crowd.
“The summary of what we need can be listed in three overarching categories. One: Food and Agriculture. Two: Construction and Crafts. Three: Transport and Trade. We will start with what we want from you, Wylton. For the Food and Agriculture, I’d like to ask for the provision of livestock and documentation on the best way to rear such creatures,” William said, looking to his friends for further input.
Stacey spoke then, “Wylton, for my favor from you, can you provide us with an abundance of seeds and fertilizer for the crops you grow for the town, along with how the fertilizer is made?”
Wylton nodded to both William and Stacey before replying, “And what do you need from me, John and Jane?”
Jane cleared her throat and said, “The provision of beasts of burden and associated transport, along with how to rear more. I think you call them Rellzin?”
Wylton smiled at that and gave another nod.
John was the last to request something of Wylton as he said, “Can you provide us with the means to produce the protective wall you have around Everglade? If not, some other material stronger than basic wood as our palisades are not the best.”
Wylton frowned in thought for a moment, muttering to himself until he snapped his fingers in revelation.
“I know just the thing. It won’t be as potent as ours here as you don’t have a Druid to claim the place as a grove. You call the place you reside Greenwell right? I’m guessing that is due to the water source being a well?”
William nodded, eliciting a calculated smile from Wylton as the Druid continued, “Typically, water is the building block of life in nature. As such, the Ley-lines of the world often flow along the same channel as underground rivers and reservoirs. Wells are holes drilled down into those bodies of water and thus, close to the natural Ley-line of this region, or at minimum, a small branch of it. I can provide you a cutting of Serendipity’s roots. All you need do is drop it into the well and the natural Mana will absorb it, creating a short gestation period within the Ley-line before the roots germinate and connect with the Ley-line permanently.
“If the settlement or any area within the influence of the Ley-line comes under threat, the roots will activate, forming a wall around the settlement and also launch thorny vines to injure and restrain attackers. This system will allow you to have a dynamic wall that can appear and disappear when you are in need. You will have less control than I do, again, because this is my grove. A near indestructible flower will grow from the ground near to or around the well when fully germinated and this will allow certain individuals to control if a danger is present.
“I would advise that you get those you trust to imbue their Mana into the roots before planting. Once planted, you will need to make sure that only those who are part of your settlement are within the area, within three hundred meters or so I’d say to be safe. The roots will snapshot the Mana of all those present, making them safe from the attacking vines in the event of danger. You will have limited ability to control the Mana signature system that the roots use, but you can take a clipping of the flower by imbuing Mana and plucking a petal. The petal will regrow at a later point, but the one you plucked can be used to allow visitors to be authorized under the snapshot effect of the vines.
“This can only be conducted by a person with full control, however. I also advise that you always vet those who visit to some extent before providing such access. It shouldn’t be hard, but you must also be mindful that if you have unrecognized guests and are attacked, the vines will not differentiate between the attackers and such guests. This is probably the best option for a defense system in your small settlement, and as it is linked to the Ley-line, will be scalable as your settlement grows. You will need to take new snapshots when you expand the settlement. This will increase the sphere of influence from the root system.
“One last thing I need to point out is that the system will not attack animals or bonded creatures at all. This is also the same with beasts in the wilds that may venture close to your settlement. It is for these typical reasons why we here have patrols moving around the outskirts of Everglade. I could directly control the system, but nature is often unyielding and still limits the extent that even I can manipulate the system. If you ever meet a person with the Druid class that is looking for a grove of their own, you could consider linking them to your root system, then your town will eventually be like Everglade over the passing years.”
William’s group thought on the idea and decided that they liked it quite a bit. For now, William was considering who to allow full access to. He counted his party and Wallace, his mother too, and maybe Miss Jones as she was still acting as a makeshift advisor to Wallace. He considered Maya, but decided against it as he didn’t know her too well yet. He had good vibes from her and she was nice another, as well as a competent fighter, but it was still early days
William looked around his group to see what they thought, and when they all gave simple nods or thumbs up, it was decided.
“We’ll definitely take you up on that suggestion, Wylton,” William said, failing to completely veil the excitement in his voice, getting a chuckle and grin from Wylton.
“Ah you are definitely still young, but earnest at least. I can make all the arrangements for your requests of me. I’ll provide you a couple hives of Green-Bees along with documentation for looking after them and extracting honey and wax safely for both you and the bees. I will provide you with a small flock of twenty Heavy Rellzin, beasts bred with more muscle to provide a larger amount of meat when they are slaughtered. These are not painful mutations and the creatures have full function and faculties, but move slower due to their bulk than say, standard Rellzin. Make sure to give the younger ones a year or two to pasture, breed, and enjoy their lives. I will ensure that some of the ones you receive are older and were intended for slaughter soon, that way, you can start the learning process early, ready for future creatures. I would advise that you ration the meat harvested when the time comes so that it will last. You can dry it, or build a storehouse for the meat, as long as you can keep the temperature cool enough, otherwise drying is definitely the best approach. You will have documentation for those creatures too, detailing the full life cycle that we in Everglade use.
I will also arrange for four transports, a long with the corresponding Rellzin to pull the carriages. one will be empty for personnel, one will be filled with crates of produce and seeds, the final two will be empty initially, but if your other requests require goods, then those can be used. I will also get two people form the town to accompany you who are proficient in leading Rellzin and attached carriages. They will be instructed to teach any who want to learn for a three day period, as long as you agree to escort them back once the task is done.”
William nodded, happy with the agreement.
That was when Milla spoke up, “With Wylton’s favors agreed, let’s discuss mine.”
William suddenly saw an intelligent gleam in Milla’s eyes. He had a feeling that she would try and get her favors to pay her dividends in the future too, though William didn’t mind as a couple of the suggestions would do that anyway.