The location of the tunnel was easy enough to find. It was a few dozen feet above the ground, but that actually made it easier for her to spot, since she was coming from the sky. She squeezed her way through the vines, then flew on.
The tunnel was round-ish, but it didn’t have the same uniform roundness that the Wyrm tunnels had. It was rough and uneven, and got narrower and wider in at random intervals. It wound on through the rock at a constant, ever-so-slight incline until it opened up into a wider chamber with a river running through the far side of it.
There were four drow in the room, two at the river side, and two standing over a pit in the corner. One of the drow over the pit was stirring some kind of foul-smelling liquid with a long wooden pole while the other watched carefully, occasionally sprinkling something into it from a pouch at her waist. The other two were crouching by the riverside, emptying leather waterskins filled with the same liquid as was in the pit into the water. None of them noticed her at first, but when the riverside Drow finished what they were doing and turned around, they flinched in surprise, then smiled widely.
“Great Fey!” said a young man, bowing. “I apologize, but I do not recognize you. May we know your name?”
“I am Elise,” she replied, as the other two Drow turned to her. “I come with orders from Naomi and Salome. This mission is to be ended now.”
“As you command,” he said with a salute.
All four drow immediately dropped everything they were holding and walked up to her, standing in a semicircle. Elise looked around the room once again. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on. The strange liquid was clearly poison, and there could only be one reason that they would dump it into a river.
“Are you poisoning the Dwarves’ water?” she asked.
“Not anymore!” said the man happily.
“For how long were you doing it before you stopped?”
“For about two months now,” he said.
“And who ordered this?”
“Naomi! We’ve been searching for this river for a while, and when we finally found it, we got immediate orders to start poisoning it. We’ve been regularly increasing the concentration as the reports from the other scouts come in. The Dwarves still don’t suspect a thing. They think it’s just an epidemic.”
“I see,” said Elise. “Do you have the antidote?”
“Of course! We couldn’t breathe in so many fumes without it.”
“Pour all of it into the river.”
“All of it?”
“Now.”
“Yes, Lady Elise.”
All four of the drow reached for pouches at their waists and walked to the river to dump their contents. While they did, Elise thought back to her final day with the Dwarves, when Greta had collapsed coughing blood. If Elise hadn’t been there, the old woman might have died. If she was alone in her house instead of at the castle when it happened, no one would have made it in time to help her before it was too late. And all of it was because of that poison the Drow were dumping into the Dwarves’ water supply.
She could barely contain her rage. She wanted to lash out at the Drow in front of her. How could they be so cheerful and happy about what they were doing? Even if they hated the dwarves, it was the children and elderly that were most affected by the poison. Did they not have any conscience?
Thankfully, rabbit facial expressions were hard to read, and she said nothing, so the scouts didn’t notice anything was wrong. They returned, smiling just as widely as before, though now with a bit of confusion.
“Is there anything else we can do for you, Lady Elise?” asked the man.
“No. You’ve done enough. Go report back to Nicole. Quickly. She’ll fill you in on the rest.”
“Yes, Great Fey!”
The drow saluted, then sprinted out of the tunnel. Elise followed behind, but they were out of sight before she even made it to the tunnel’s exit. She flew after them back toward Naomi’s hut, but her sense of urgency was gone. The drow were all faster than her, and as soon as they got back, they would be sent back out to recall other missions. It would get exponentially more efficient, and Elise wasn’t needed anymore.
She checked in with Nicole briefly to make sure there was nothing else for her to do, then flew off in a direction where the map had indicated there were no other missions. She didn’t want to see any more drow right then. She had known that the Dwarves and Drow were mortal enemies, and she had known that they were at war, but actually seeing the acts being carried out, and knowing that someone she was close to was a victim of them made everything seem so much more real, even more so than when she had watched Marie die.
She didn’t want to be involved anymore. The thought of losing Greta or Hallbjorn, or Anna, or any of the other dwarves she had come to know was painful enough. If she got too close to the Drow as well, the whole situation might become too much to bear.
She wanted to just leave. She realized she actually could now, if she wanted. She knew the way out, and the Drow wouldn’t try to force her to stay. Plus, the immediate danger was gone, with Salome agreeing to cease all aggressive maneuvers for 44 days. Hopefully that would be enough time for the Dwarves to get out, or at least enough for the scouts to realize that they were actually serious about leaving.
However, it was too early. Emilia was still gone, and she had a deep-seated grudge, from what Elise could tell. If she somehow convinced Salome to change her mind, Elise would have to get right back to work countering her. She would have to stay long enough to see it through, but after that, she was out. Even if living underground with the Drow forever did appeal to her, she didn’t think she could, after seeing what they had been doing with the poison.
She drifted aimlessly for a little while before eventually finding her way up to the top of the cavern and the branches of the Mother Tree. She was mildly interested to learn that the branches were not actually self-supported, and were in fact rooted to the ceiling. She wasn’t sure why, but that knowledge put her at ease. Maybe knowing that it at least kind of obeyed the laws of physics made it feel more like a real tree, and not like some divine being in the shape of a tree.
She approached one of the glowing fruit to inspect it as well. From this distance, it was almost too bright to look at, but when she squinted and looked from an angle, she could get a pretty good view. It looked like a giant inverted pear, with the stem attached to the wide part, and the narrower part hanging down low. She landed on top of it, then laid down. It was warm, and fuzzy like a peach, and there was a soft “glow” of mana rippling off it that made her feel at ease.
She woke up before she even realized she had fallen asleep. The fruit was glowing brighter than it was when she first landed on it, meaning it was closer to noon. She basked in its warmth and mana for a few moments longer, then jumped off it and started gliding downward. By this time, the scouts should have all returned. She needed to check in to make sure everything had gone smoothly.
“Ah, Lady Elise,” said Naomi when Elise landed. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Did all the missions get called back successfully?” asked Elise.
“Every last one of them!”
Naomi grinned widely at Elise, and she looked genuinely happy, but all Elise could think about was Greta and the poison. It was all Naomi’s idea. She had ordered the scouts to poison the Dwarves’ water. Elise wanted to ask why, but she was pretty sure she already knew the answer.
Naomi didn’t see the Dwarves as people. Why would she care if the children were getting sick, or if a few elderly died? If the children died, that meant less warriors to fill out the next generation’s ranks, and if the elderly died, that meant less knowledge and wisdom was available to those remaining. Elise could have tried to change her mind, but why bother? What good were her words against a lifetime of conditioned hatred? It wouldn’t matter in a few months anyway. The Dwarves and Drow would hopefully never interact again.
“Good work,” said Elise, turning to leave.
“Hey, why don’t you stick around for a while?” asked Naomi. “We’re gonna have a feast! This is the first time we’ve all been together like this.”
“I’m not hungry.”
Elise flew back toward the Mother tree, and found a comfortably looking alcove and laid down. A few minutes later, she started meditating. She was restless and needed something to do. The problem of the war had already been resolved, at least for now, so training would be a the best use of her time. She worked the acupoints on her central core for a half hour before she suddenly stopped, and snapped out of her meditation.
What am I doing?
The meditation wasn’t a total waste of time, but she wasn’t with the dwarves anymore. She was with the drow, where she had total freedom, and a cave full of monsters. Why meditate when she could go hunting? How would she ever get a human form if she just kept sitting around? She needed to fight. And the cavern was full of perfect opponents.
She checked in with Salome to get her approval, then soared toward the far wall of the cave until she spotted what she was looking for far below. She didn't know if she got it because she was a fey, or if it was actually something she was allowed to do, but she didn't really care. Salome had given her permission to hunt without hesitation, and she was going to use it.
There was a small herd of the evil cattle grazing on the blue grass, including one of a larger variety, and three smaller ones. The smaller ones would be her target. She wasn’t confident she could take them, but she was confident that she couldn’t handle the medium or bigger ones without a distinct terrain advantage like she had before in the tunnels. She landed in a tree a few hundred feet away, and hop-glided her way into range as stealthily as she could. A bright white rabbit in a black and red forest should have been conspicuous, but the cows were either color blind, or stupid, because they didn’t notice her, even when she had gotten within thirty feet of the herd.
The lone bigger one was still out of range of {Inspect}, but one of the smaller ones was enjoying a tall patch of grass right below her, and she was able to confirm her suspicions about what it was called.
[ Lesser Omnivorous Cyclops Cow, lvl 8 ]
A plan formed in her mind as she looked at it, and a few seconds later, she started putting it into action.
The grass looks much nicer over there, she sent using {Suggest}.
The cow looked up from its current food and looked in the direction that Elise had indicated in her thought. She could almost see the gears turning in its mind as it worked through whether it was worth leaving its current grass for the new grass, but when Elise used {Suggest} once more, its mind was made up.
While it plodded away from its herd and deeper into the forest, she turned her attention to the other cows around it, using {Suggest} in the same way, but pointed the other way. A minute later, the small cow was alone, with no others within 50 feet.
That still wasn’t far enough though. She continued using {Suggest} to gently prod it further and further past the tree line until eventually, they reached the point where not even Elise could hear the others, at which point she started on the second part of the plan. She had managed to stay out of its sight the whole time while she lured it away, so now it was just a simple matter of making it turn to face her so she could use {Magic Missile} on its eye.
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Unlike with the evolved version of the monster, she did not need any more spells after that. Its defense was weaker, and her skill levels were high enough now that that single spell aimed at the unsuspecting target was enough to pierce through its eye socket and into its brain. It fell to the ground dead before it even had a chance to react.
[ You have defeated Lesser Omnivorous Cyclops Cow, lvl 8 ]
[ You have leveled up! 1 -> 2 ]
[ Agility +5, Dexterity +5, Charisma +20, Intelligence +15, Willpower +5, Mana +10, Mana Control +10 ]
[ { Magic Missile } lvl 26 -> 27 ]
[ { Suggest } lvl 17 -> 21 ]
Elise debated for a few seconds on what to do with the corpse, and in the end decided that she would just let someone know once she was done hunting. She didn’t think it would be too much longer because she doubted she would be able to get too many more of the cows before she was spotted, or before they noticed the missing and started to get wary. And as much as she didn’t want to see the Drow at that moment, she knew leaving corpses to rot was bad, and that meat and leather were useful products.
She lured away a second of the smaller cows the same way she had the first and, to her dismay, did not level up upon killing it. Evidently, she was higher level than it, and killing just one wasn’t enough for a level. She had only leveled up when killing the first one due to the two snakes she had killed before.
When she returned to the herd for a third victim though, they seemed to have finally noticed that something was strange. They had stopped grazing, and had bunched together in a loosely circular formation with the last remaining Lesser cow in the center and the Greater one prowling the edges. Elise stayed as far away as she could without losing sight of them, hoping they would let their guard down, but they never did. A few minutes later, the big one bellowed, and the whole herd ran off into the forest.
She followed them from above as they ran all the way to the edge of the cavern to an opening in the wall that they all disappeared inside. Elise waited a short while, and when they did not emerge, decided to turn around. She could still hear them stomping and breathing from within, and she wasn’t going to risk her life just to get a better look. She knew where they lived, and that was enough for now.
She spent the rest of the day flying around the cave, avoiding Drow, and noting the locations of monsters. She got a few attacks off on some lone snakes that she found slithering around, but none of them were strong enough to pose any real threat, nor did they give any significant experience points. She found three more herds of Omnivorous Cyclops Cows, but they were all much bigger than the first one she had found, and had at least three of the Greater variety. She tried to get close to them and possibly lure one or two cows away, but with all three herds, she was spotted before she could carry out her plan and chased off by their laser beams.
With the cave mostly explored, and all the useful monsters frightened away, she was left with nothing to do, so she returned to the Mother Tree. The timing worked out well, since the glowing fruits were starting to dim, indicating that it was the evening, and it was time for sleep anyway. Rather than go back to one of the alcoves, she decided that she wanted to sleep on top of one of the fruits again. It was much more comfortable, and there was a much smaller chance of being discovered.
She spent the next two days much the same, hunting during the day, and sleeping on the fruit during the night. She managed to add on two more levels, which she felt happy enough about. More would have been better, but she was also fairly certain that two levels in two days was nothing to scoff at.
On the third day, the day Emilia was supposed to return, Elise woke up early, before the fruits’ glow started to return. She didn’t remember anything from her dreams, but from how fast her heart was beating, and how much she was trembling, it was nothing good.
She couldn’t fall back asleep, so she decided to go out hunting again instead. She didn’t know if there would be anything to hunt at this time of day, but trying was better than doing nothing.
She saw nothing of note as she flew over the forest, but when she made it to the edge, she was pleasantly surprised to find that the cows were already starting to emerge from their caves. She waited in a nearby tree, watching one of the herds file out, and then followed them as they made their way to the river for their morning drinks. While they drank, she slipped out to the edge of the long line, and focused her attention on the one on the end.
It was not of the Lesser variety, but it wasn’t Greater either, and after some careful consideration, she had decided that it was safe to go after these ones as well. She felt she was strong enough now that she could finish it off without too much trouble as long as she took it by surprise. However, just as she was about to use {Suggest}, a voice from behind startled her.
“Good morning.”
Current stat sheet:
Some things to note. I made a few minor changes since the last status window. You may notice that there is now a roman numeral in front of her level. That is to indicate what tier her species is. Tier I was Forest Rabbit, Tier II was Young Rabbit Enchantress, and Tier III, her current one, is Lesser Fey (Rabbit).
In case you missed it, or have forgotten it since it's been a little while since it was explained, level resets upon every evolution. Once you reach the cap as one species, you evolve into a level 1 of the next species. The cap goes up by 5 levels each tier. So the cap for a tier I species is level 10. Once Elise reached level 10 as her tier I species, she evolved into level 1 of tier II. Then when she reached level 15 of tier II, she evolved to level 1 of tier III. Now, she needs to reach level 20 of tier III to evolve into level 1 of tier 4.
I think I also updated some of the skill descriptions since then. I'll go back and edit them into the previous RR chapters soon, but if you're interested, take a look at them.
Name Elise Burrow Age 0 (20) Race Lesser Fey (Rabbit) Level (III) 4 Stats Base Bonuses Total Strength 44 0 44 Agility 141 0 141 Dexterity 129 0 129 Fortitude 42 0 42 Charisma 450 0 450 Intelligence 194 0 194 Willpower 169 0 169 Mana 223 0 223 Mana Control 253 0 253 Skills Level Description Inspect 45 Identify the species and level of another creature Nature Magic Affinity - As a creature of the forest, you feel a strong connection to nature and natural mana Leap 29 Jump with additional force Rune of Fate - A rune that @#$%^&*( Dart 28 Dash quickly in any horizontal direction. Charges: 8. Cooldown: 8 seconds Sudden Growth 15 Cause all nearby plants to grow at many times their normal rate for 3 seconds Mana Sense 37 Sense nearby mana Magic Missile 28 Create missiles of mana that attack your target. Current missiles: 7 Suggest 24 Plant a subtle thought or desire in the target's mind Prehensile Vines 26 Vines grow out of the ground in front of you. You can control them as you would your own limbs. Charm 12 Make yourself appear more appealing to your target Ensnaring Roots 13 Summon sturdy roots from the ground that wrap around the target Fey Wings - Fold or unfold your wings Fairy Dust 28 Release dust from your wing that either blesses or curses (user's choice) any living creature it comes into contact with Fey Bargaining 1 Form a contract with another creature. If either side breaks the contract, they will be cursed