Chapter Sixty-Three

Disappointment sprouted the moment he saw the color of the border. It was a light gray, not the green of a nature affinity card. It was the holographic of a rare card, but he doubted it would be useful to him.

Still, he focused on the picture. It had a person surrounded by falling ash. That caught his attention. Maybe he couldn’t use it, but his new allies might. Hoping to find some use for the card, he checked the description.

Rain of Ash (Rare) Level 1

Type: Spell card

Affinity: Fire

Attunement: Ash

Effect: Use mana to conjure a rain of ash. Potency and yield depend on the amount of mana used. Must be in the user’s active hand.

It was a valuable card, just not to him. Maybe he wasn’t so poor after all. He had several cards to trade, including two rare cards. Ash was an easy attunement to sell too. It wasn’t rare for a fire affinity mage to have ash attunement. Similar to a nature mage having a couple of attunements, especially in cities where the talented gathered. Though he didn’t need to find some multi attunement fire mage to sell the card. He was sure the Ashwood clan would want the card.

If only the staff gave him a card he could use, though. Maybe the cards it created depended on the dungeon it absorbed mana from. If that was the case, it could have created a wood attuned card. He was all for another rare wood attuned card.

That was still an option. He could swap the rare ash attuned card for a wood attuned one with the Ashwood clan. Something to think about later. For now, it would join his stash.

Now that he knew how the staff functioned when he claimed a dungeon, it might be a good idea to take the cards before he fed the mana into the tree. It might hurt the payload invested into the tree, but he needed more cards. Even if he couldn’t use them, he could use them to get cards he could. Cards were as good, if not better, than any currency after all.

On the thought of more cards, he stood, happy to find his bracelets off cooldown. They needed to find out what the locations were. Especially since they may leave their territory vulnerable if they enroll at Magna Schola Magica. At the very least, he needed to know about the nearest locations.

As Arden strode toward the capital tree, his eyes caught on the half-fixed cart, but he pushed away the temptation. He needed to conserve mana if he ran into trouble. Though this time he wouldn’t take a needless risk. If there was any sign of occupation, he would retreat. It wasn’t worth attracting the attention of another faction until they made their debut. Still, best to be prepared, which meant he needed his bow and knife.

The tree opened a door as he reached it, allowing him entry. The ground floor remained the same as before, prompting him to ascend the stairs right away.

Soon he found himself in his bedroom. Eager to get going, he cinched the belt on which held his quiver and knife, then slung his bow over his shoulder.

His eyes landed on his tattered robe, but he shook his head a moment later. He needed to make or buy something better. It was a miracle it lasted as long as it did. The robe was supposed to be a onetime use garment for the induction ceremony.

In fact, he might have sinned on Ortus by wearing it in a dungeon and ruining it. At least a sin in the eyes of the Order of Ortus. He doubted Ortus itself cared, otherwise he wouldn’t have received the boons he had.

Fortunately, the robe protected his clothes underneath. They weren’t the best for forest adventuring, either. A thin shirt and knee length cargo pants wouldn’t protect him from much aside from the heat. Maybe it would be a good idea to fly to a city near the border of the territory and buy something. Or he could rely on his Nature Resistance and Passive Heal to protect him.

At the thought of gear, his mind flashed back to what the intruding team wore. Maybe he didn’t need to visit a city for gear. He made his bow. Why couldn’t he make some basic armor? It was significantly more complicated, but the challenge was good training.

So much for conserving mana for scouting.

The fuzzy images of locations remained in his mind, tempting him to take the leap and check them out, but his instincts told him he needed to prepare himself. Best to be prepared. He couldn’t rely on his territory card to teleport him away. It failed him already. It could fail him again.

To stave off the temptation, he didn’t approach the balcony calling him to fly. Instead, he took the mundane way down, using the stairs.

Once in the clearing, a problem presented itself, however. The rainbow wall blocked access to any wood he may use. Even the gap he created when he dragged the cart full of prisoners inside vanished. Either Solanine fixed it or the wall self-repaired.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

That problem turned out to be no obstacle when he shifted into his bird form and flew over the rainbow wall. He soon regretted that decision as the now dense forest had little room for a bird of his size.

Just before slamming into a tree, he shifted back to stall his momentum. Before he fell, he shifted to his bird form once more, then flew back the way he came, then once in the clearing he went vertical. This turned out to be much easier. There was a sizable gap between the towering capital tree canopy and the rest of the now green forest.

Maybe it would have been better to fly out of his balcony. Though it wasn’t a complete waste. He found a perfect obstacle course to improve his flight control when he had time.

Arden flew over the treetops, now sporting a dense canopy not unlike the trial dungeons. Unlike the trial dungeon, no clearings stood out to him to dive. That meant he needed to fly to the edge of the recovered forest. At the pace of the recovery, soon he might have to fly a kilometer away to fly down.

As he flew, a worrying discovery showed itself. On the west side of the recovering forest, there was a line of green trees, as if the forest was reaching out toward something. He had a feeling he knew what it was too. It had a long way to go, but he had a feeling it was trying to connect to the tower.

When it did, it would leave an obvious path back to their territory core. It shouldn’t matter much this time, but in the future it could. With the alliance, he didn’t have to worry about a hostile takeover from the Ashwood clan.

Hopefully, the forest recovered fast enough to hide his territory core. Not that a massive tree didn’t make it obvious. Stealth wasn’t an option. Best to nurture the forest as much as they could. Maybe natural defenses would crop up. That meant scouting out the locations.

At the thought of the locations, he flew to the edge of the green and dropped. When he landed in his humanoid form, he surveyed the surrounding trees looking for easy to reach branches.

Fortunately, he found plenty. However, when he tried to summon his staff, it didn’t come. A sigh escaped him as he approached the nearest tree, then grabbed a branch.

As if dead, it broke off easily, but with his lack of reach without his staff, his options were limited. Though, unlike the cart, he didn’t need a ton of wood. He didn’t want a heavy suit of armor, just some extra protection.

Soon he had a small pile of branches. A random thought prompted him to scoop them up, then shift to his bird form before taking flight.

A minute later, he dropped into the capital clearing. Hopefully, the mana density helped speed up his staff’s recovery. If not, it couldn’t hurt to bolster himself with the ambient mana while he crafted.

Even before he grabbed the first branch, his Nature Manipulation activated. With his hands, he formed the first piece into a shin guard, then placed it against his left shin. To hold it on, he stretched a dozen thin strips of wood around his leg.

An idea sprouted as he stretched the last strip. It would be wasteful, but it would be awesome if it worked. He stood while keeping his Nature Manipulation active. As he predicted, the wood around his shin moved with him, but the real test was if it was solid against outside contact.

Said outside contact was the cart. He gave the cart a light tap with his shin, a smile spreading when he heard a soft knock. The problem was even with the dense nature ambient mana, his mana drained at an alarming rate with each step. To make it worse, the mana drain was from a single shin guard, not an entire suit of armor.

As much as he would love to have a suit of liquid wood armor, it wasn’t practical for the current him. It was a fascinating future project, though. No need to make joints when he could walk around covered from head to toe in wood armor.

Maybe in a grade or two he could pull it off. Or if his Nature Manipulation card leveled up. Something to test as he grew.

Idea shelved for now, he returned to the pile of wood. Before he continued, he cut his connection to the wood shin guard. The feat turned out to be harder than he expected, as it had direct contact with his body, but after a few attempts, the strings of mana cut off. When it did, the shin guard solidified, then his calf seized as the now solid strips clamped down on his calf.

He tried to force through it but the moment he took another step, the shin guard snapped off. The thin strips were too brittle to withstand the strain.

While staring down at the failed attempt, his mind whirled, trying to find a solution. His mind flashed back to his tattered ceremonial robe, prompting him to rush inside the tree and grab it.

Upon returning to the pile of sticks, he used his knife to cut the robe into strips while trying to smother the feeling of sacrilege. However, cutting the robe up turned out to be unnecessary. When he activated Nature Manipulation, he found he could connect to the robe as if it was made of natural materials. It must be cotton or something similar.

The discovery sent his mind whirling. Many options opened to him.

First, he grabbed the shin guard and a few strips of the robe but when he tried to fuse them with his Nature Manipulation nothing happened. He could manipulate both but not fuse them together. It made sense they were different materials, but it was worth a try.

Next, he created a slit in the wood, then fed the cloth into it. After clamping down the slit, he pulled the shin guard up his leg once more, then tightened the fabric for a snug fit.

This time, when he disconnected his manipulation, his calf didn’t seize up from the pressure. He felt the snugness though, prompting him to loosen it with another application of Nature Manipulation. The second time when he deactivated his card, the shin guard stayed in place but didn’t impede his calf.

After a couple of steps, he created a second shin guard, then more for his thighs, upper and lower arms and shoulders. The chest and abs were more difficult, however. As to not impede his mobility, he instead double layered the fabric, creating an extra thick shirt.

He was tempted to create a helmet, but without proper padding, it may do more harm than good. The padding protected from most of the shock, not the hard shell.

As satisfied with his impromptu armor as he could be, he connected the fabric together, created a one-piece suit to ensure nothing slipped off.

Arden approached the pond, activating and deactivating his Nature Manipulation when he felt impingements in his armor. By the time he reached the pond, his armor felt perfectly fitted to him, though warm. Not suited for hot environments, but since he would travel in his bird form most of the time, it shouldn’t be a big issue. Safety trumped comfort at least to a point.

With the water, he inspected his armor. He winced at how uneven several some spots were and how stained the fabric was. If anything, the staining provided a better forest camouflaged. Considering it was his most complex project yet, he couldn’t help but smile.

It wasn’t perfect, but he hoped it would serve him well.

Now to start his scouting mission.