Chapter 95
What Are Pegicorns?
“Pegicorns? What the heck are those?” Mallory asked, more to herself than anyone, then continued. “I thought a cross between a unicorn and a Pegasus was called an Alicorn?”
“They are.” Female princess elf that I had just healed stated as a matter of fact.
At that Mallory just paused, and rolled her hand in a gesture that said, okay go on. But the elf apparently stopped at that, shaking her head in frustration Mallory then asked the question that was clearly on her mind after that. It was a question that was also on my mind now that Mallory brought up this great point, as it was one thing for me to think of them as pegicorns, a funny name that just makes far more sense than alicorns, but then for me to get a system title from said pegicorns, and for the two elves to refer to these creatures as pegicorns also, now that was a bit much.
Fortunately, the answer to Mallory’s question came shortly after her prodding for additional information.
Hearing the question, it was the male elf who straightened his back, and took on a haughty look to him. At that, I knew I was about to be hit with some man-splaning words that again made me wonder if I had a secret Detect Incoming Chauvinistic Comment skill that I was not aware of. Fun fact, if I did have that skill, I would not have to level grind for it, it would likely come naturally from interacting with elves. Sort of like how Golum said he would have made walking his personalized skill that improved every one of his Attributes. While I would be against it, having a free boost to my Attributes would not be bad. Oh, wait, that reminded me of a few things on my to-do list. Namely I need to check in on Hector and Golum and find the ingredients for my potion that would improve my Unbound rating, allowing me to get both my skills and my Attributes above 125.
Looking at Mallory, the person with the resources to help me with that, and the person I would likely use to get the ingredients needed to get my repeatable potion of opening a fourth Trait slot, I held out my finger and was about to say something, when the haughty elf beat me to the punch and began proving that one I must have a secret Detection skill that doesn’t provide any benefit, and two gave possibly the dumbest answer as to why my naming convention stuck.
“You see my dear Valkyrie,” the male elf began speaking in an overly pompous tone. “Alicorn is the name of the standard breed of pegasi and unicorns. That is a derogatory term for what you might consider to be the muggle of all flying horses. They are not magical and the only magic that comes from them is the fact that they have a one in ten chance of creating a pegicorn, a being that is both sentient, having all of the same physiological components of an alicorn, while also boasting at least one field of magic to them that can be channeled through the horns on their heads.”
While what the elf said did make my mental musings ultimately correct, I couldn’t help but want to punch the elf in the mouth. Fortunately, I was able to control myself and only looked on with seething rage as he spoke down to Mallory like that.
Mallory for her part also looked angry, but she too managed to keep it under control. Though her hands were balled tightly into fists by her side, a fact that the elf either failed to notice, or assumed meant nothing would happen as he continued.
“Now that we have wasted enough time informing the masses,” the elf said, turning his attention form Mallory to me, he continued, “can we finally go and have an intelligent conversation while also doing something productive.”
Wham!
To say it was a sucker punch would be an overstatement, or maybe a literal interpretation of events, hard to tell. Yes, Mallory did knock out the pompous jerk with one punch, while his attention was elsewhere, though it was his fault for taking his attention away from the killer before us and focusing solely on me.
Silence.
“GWAHHAHHAHAAH!”
Well, the elves were silent, Bronicus the Orc general just blurted out laughing hysterically at the situation.
“Puny elf talks down to wrong woman. Woman removes puny elf’s talking privileges! Hahahaha!” Bronicus explained, and at that my poker face that I had been working so hard to cover broke and I too began to laugh as well.
The rest of the orcs followed their general, while many of the elves just looked on in shock. This was one of their leaders knocked out in clearly hostile territory.
I sent a wave of healing magic into him from my throne. I even made sure to make the visual extra bright, so that everyone orc and elf knew what I was doing.
“Just a mild concussion, and a slightly fractured skull.” I said, as I pumped in healing energy. I then made sure to pump in sleeping and pain relief to the spell as I didn’t want him to suffer, nor did I want him to wake up either. This I figured was the best of both worlds, he was healed and would survive without any issues, while he would hopefully remain asleep long enough to not be annoying.
There was an awkward moment of silence, “what he is healed now.”
“But he isn’t waking up.”
“That’s a bad thing?” Mallory asked.
I nearly chuckled at that but managed to cut off the tide of the conversation. “I merely put him under a sleeping spell, and pain reducer while his skull reforms. It would normally be quite painful, but I hoped to have him miss the majority of that.”
My answer seemed to appease the female twin. The two pegicorns, or magical alicorns both reached down and touched the elf with their glowing golden horns. As they raised their heads, they both seemed to nod in agreement, apparently giving my words credence. I almost took offense to that, as I was a pretty good healer if I did say so myself, I mean it is part of my class, but then I realized that the pegicorns were also doing this for all the other elves that were gathered as well.
Seeing how everyone was now looking at us, I almost let out a sigh. We had been doing so well, but then everything was about to be ruined by one jerk of an elf. I had no doubts that Mallory, if she wanted could tear her way through the elven army. In fact, I was certain that her reflexive battle aura would be more than enough to deal with every member of the elven army. Perhaps they registered this, or maybe it was the pegicorns giving me the nod of approval. Regardless of the reason, the female elf seemed to come to a personal decision, nodding to herself.
“My request still stands; can you please come with us and help heal our sacred tree. The tree that stands at the center of this very conflict?” The elven twin asked, and then kneeled down.
“Yeah, I already gave my word.” I said, as I stood up, or at least I tried to. You know that feeling when you have been working too hard, and suddenly stand up and feel dizzy, well that happened to me. Apparently Resurrecting a pegicorn was a lot more taxing than I originally expected as my reserves were mostly depleted. Walking might be good as it would give me some time to regenerate my mana from both pools.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Seeing me stumble down, the orc general, Bronicus, was standing before me with a hand up to halt my progression.
“Worry not great healer. My men and I will be more than happy to escort you to heal the great tree.” Bronicus said, then with a wave of his hand no less than twenty orcs rushed forward to grab at the giant wooden planks that lined the bottom of this throne I was on.
“Wait.” The female said, as she suddenly arose to her feet.
There was an awkward pause, but the orcs didn’t stop, they had been given an order by their general and would not stop, so instead it was just Mallory, Bronicus, and I that paused to hear what the female general had to say.
“We will help also carry the great healer.” The female said.
***
And that is how I managed a first class ride to the sacred tree of Yggdraspirit.
Mallory for her part flew right next to me, occasionally she would land and cause the elves or the orcs to stumble slightly from the sudden increase in weight, but by and large no one protested.
“So how does it feel?” Mallory asked.
Hearing the question, I tried to play it cool, even though it was an amazing feeling. The wind blowing through my hair, the slight movement that made me feel like I was somehow adrift on the ocean, but really just being carried by an ocean of highly conditioned warriors, each of whom fought and nearly came to blows for the rights to carry me. It was, to put it in one word, awesome, but I could never admit that.
“It’s okay, I guess.” I said.
"Really? Because you have been grinning from ear to ear this entire time.” Mallory said.
At that I let out a breath. “Okay, okay, it is freaking fantastic. Best partial reward for a quest chain I’ve started so far.” I said, and I meant it.
I was almost about to pause and say there were better overall rewards, but most of those came after the quest was over, most of the time my during quest rewards are terrible, like hiding inside an abandoned Legrand village with hunters trying to find and eliminate me. Or being targeted by a blood mage randomly, oh wait, that was the same quest. No, in this case, I can safely say that the best in quest mini reward so far has to have been a true pharaoh ride on an actual Egyptian styled throne.
“Figured as much. You should enjoy this, these types of things are rare, but they are great to enjoy while you can.” Mallory said, a sort of bitter sadness to her words. It was clear that she too had obviously had similar mid-quest rewards that were also fun, so hearing her encouragement, I decided to lower my guard and truly have some fun with this.
“You said it. Move over Cleopatra, because Cassiopeia is coming to town, baby!”
Then all too quickly we were at the tree.
The thirty-minute escort ride had been more than enough for me to recharge all my pools of energy, and I had to admit I did feel a slight sense of elation at having to face a new challenge. Namely curing the blight from a giant tree that was clearly worshipped by both the elves and the orcs. I wasn’t entirely sure why there was a war because of the tree being infected, but I was sure that if I healed this tree, I would hear the rest of that particular story.
As it was, we arrived at the base of the giant tree. Mentally I tried to see where the top of the thing ended, my Angel’s Sight provided a full dome of viewing, and even with being able to see over three kilometers in the air, there appeared to be no end in sight for end of this tree. If this tree had a top, it was not visible from where we were. Honestly, this tree sort of broke the realism of the tower idea for me.
“Hey, I think this might be a zone hopping point.” Mallory said, whispering into my hear.
“A what?” I asked, suddenly confused.
“A zone hopping point. If you look, there seems to be a door that has been corroded over with the Blight,” Mallory said while pointing to a spot at the base of the tree. Looking with my senses, all I could see was the fact that nearly every part of the outer rings of this great tree were completely filled with the Blight. In fact, both the Blight, and the power of this tree were so bright that I was now having a hard time of making out any other creatures or beings that were huddled at the base of the tree.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means that I think you found a cheat point in this tower. See the other floors of this tower likely deal with things on the periphery, but the base of this tree will likely allow us to go up dozens of floors all at once. This is meta level stuff. Normally it takes explorers working thousands of hours per floor to find one of these, and here you are finding it on your first time through. Honestly, this is kind of impressive.”
At that, I just pause and then realize that this isn’t that impressive all things considered. “This will make my third such point.” I stated.
“Third?”
“Yeah, I took the train from floor two to fifty. Then I had you carry me from fifty to here, so yeah three by my count.” I said smiling brightly.
At that Mallory just chuckled. “You do take your time, but when you move you really move, I guess.”
“Well let’s put this little theory of yours to the test.” I say, standing up. I wobble a little bit, but that is only because the ground no longer feels like it is rolling like an ocean below me. That is so weird, you get used to dealing with the slight imbalance of constant repetitive rocking, and then when it is gone you have land sickness, or whatever Kevin Costner called it in that weird mermaid, no wait, merman movie, Water something.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, just land sickness.” I said.
“WaterWorld, good reference.” Mallory said.
“WaterWorld, oh man that was going to drive me nuts if I didn’t remember that name.”
“Yeah, I remember watching that in theaters, had my first kiss to it too.” Mallory said, a mischievous smile on her lips as she remembered.
I was about to comment that I remember the movie because it was a movie that Grandma, mom, and I all watched on one of our few generational women’s nights. It was one of Grandma’s favorites as well. I make a tactful point to try to change the subject, but nothing comes to mind. Fortunately, I am saved by the elven twin.
“Please help do whatever you can to help save our great and precious tree. We will forever be grateful to you for this.” The elven princess said.
“We will stand guard against you, and protect you from any would be monsters.” Bronicus chimes out.
“As will we elves.” The female twin said, a note of competitive nature showing in her voice as she too professed herself to this cause.
“Monsters?” I ask.
“Yes, by attempting to heal the great tree, you are sacrificing your life to the task at hand. While none have survived, our great seers have seen the signs. Just past these walls of Blight and corruption, you will find that Yggdraspirit is in fact hollow.” The female spoke.
“I knew it.” Mallory said, as she jumped up and down by my side excitedly. “A zone hopping point. We are going to be famous and get titles for this and everything.”
I paused looking at Mallory who was as excited about exploring as I was, though she apparently loved finding these little Easter eggs within the game more so than I did. Still, they are fun to find, and this one seemed relatively straightforward enough. Despite the ominous wording about risking my life, I still had a few questions.
“I have a question, so how does this work exactly?” I ask.
“You go and place your palm upon the great tree, then you attempt to heal. While at the same time monsters will appear both inside the tree and out here. Together our gathered armies will fight off the enemies that are released by the Blight, but you and the pegicorns will need a group of highly trained guards to protect you from the inside. We don’t know for certain what monsters lie within, there was only one survivor who survived the first attempt at cleansing, they managed to carve their way through, but were soon met with scores of enemies. The healers at the time worked feverishly to heal the tree, but in the end, they could do nothing to stop the spread of the Blight. Now that you have come and proven yourself to not only be able to Resurrect the dead, but also cure those who have contracted the Blight, we feel we are now closer than ever to ending this curse that has plagued us for so long.” With that the elven leader paused for a second, before stating the words that would initiate the quest. “Would you take it upon yourself to go with a group of highly skilled warriors, and cure our sacred tree? Together I and the pegicorns will open a path wide enough for you and your team to enter.”
Also, the elf’s comments about the pegicorns being used to open the gateway into Yggrdaspirit finally explain why they were important to this whole quest chain. They were going to be the ones who would allow Mallory and I to enter. Before I got too far down this train of thought, I was met with the following quest messages.
Hidden Quest Offered: Saving the Sacred Tree Yggdraspirit: You have found that the sacred tree Yggdraspirit has been slowly withering away from a corruption known as the Blight. The pegicorns that you managed to bring back to life will be instrumental in opening a gateway that will be large enough to get a group of worthy adventurers to enter. Recommended Level 75+. Recommended Party Size 5-10. Would you dare to risk your life to enter the sacred tree and cleanse the blight from its sacred trunk. Rewards: Experience, Titles, Badges, Spells, A unique Trait.
Warning: This is a Death Quest: By accepting this quest, you are making it so you, and ever member of your group will either complete this quest or die in the process. Do you accept? All party members must accept.
At that, I pause, and for a moment I look over to stare directly into Mallory’s eyes. Again, this is not necessary, as I can’t even see her eyes directly, but this will hopefully convey my thoughts to her on how badly I want to do this.
“So?” I ask.
“So?” Mallory mimics, and then ask, “what are we waiting for, a free Trait? That is just…” She trails off. Honestly, I don’t know if I can get it, at least not right now, but it does seem that a new Trait is just what I need.
Mallory has accepted the quest.
Seeing that, I realized it was all up to me as to whether we accepted this quest. At that, I felt a surge of energy course through me, as I couldn’t help but smile brightly.
“Let’s do this.” I said, and mentally accepted the quest.
“Right this way.” The elven princess said, gesturing for Mallory and I to go forward and wait by the entry way, as the two pegicorns began channeling a lot of golden energy through their horns.
Then once their energy got to a crescendo, the lowered their heads in unison and touched the Blighted portion of the wall.
That’s when the energy of the wall shifted enough for me to see that the opening was a brightly filled placed filled from head to toe with mana.
Seeing the opening, and that the entry way was clear, I smiled brightly and strode forward.
“Let’s go,” I said, never looking back as I was ready to take on whatever came next.