The rocky mountain valley had changed significantly since Ada ◮ was last there. What had been little more than bare rock now bore a few verdant patches, as grasses, lichen and other small greens made their way back into the valley. The golden cylinder of magic funneling the [Eldritch] had been replaced with a translucent purple hemisphere with a singular golden ring on the outside and the inside filled with an indistinct darkness.
And, just beside it all, a tree.
No, a treehouse. Indeed, it was a broad, stout specimen of xylem, with the canopy replaced with tightly interwoven set of branches. A trace amount of stone formed a chimney that even now was smoking.
A door in the side of the structure faced Ada, but 20 meters up, right in front of a landing pad. Ada moved down the valley carefully, keeping a vigilant eye on the door. He thought for a moment of just making the jump, but a quick glance at his broad chest reminded him that, at 200 kilograms, he’d be best off not tempting fate to break the branch on landing.
Reaching the trunk, he gingerly began to climb. Though he lacked the eponymous Skill, 137 Ranks of [Elven Grace] almost entirely made up for it, as did a handful of other Traits and Skills ensuring his DEX moving upwards.
He’d known it ever since he had entered the mountains, and especially ever since he crested into the valley. But as he climbed that tree and stood before that door, a string of Skills sequentially reinforced that conclusion to him. The sigh that escaped him ended up as a characteristic [Minotaur] snort.
Shaking his head lightly, he grasped the door handle with a meaty palm and entered.
From the stone stove before the fireplace, a golden-haired and white-winged visage turned and smiled at Ada.
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Ada sat on a woodbump-cum-stool fastidiously picking at his bowl of stew and not looking at Mack. He was pushing the chunks of meat to one side—he may have had a Trait to eat the meat, but his taste buds this life weren’t quite suited to enjoying it.
Mack just sat on another summoned woodbump stool, his wings drifting lazily as he watched Ada eat. Mack seemed… older, a few more lines and blemishes, the shifting of subcutaneous fat. A few gray hairs. All nearly imperceptible to others, but Ada’s Skills were feeding it all to him and it had only seemed like the battle was yesterday. Or, perhaps, merely, a year ago.
Finally, Ada ran out of vegetables and grains to pick out of the stew. They were meaty and somewhat unappetizing to begin with, so it wasn’t a great loss, other than speeding up when this conversation would happen. Setting the bowl down with a huff, he looked straight into Mack’s eyes at last.
Mack sighed mentally.
Ada interrupted again sheepishly.
Mack drummed his fingers on his thigh for a moment, then sighed.
<—and, are you going to keep interrupting me?> Mack sassed back.
The silence was deafening.
Mack coughed softly. Anyways! So, that was a lot of [Eldritch]. And I do mean a lot of [Eldritch]. In a very roundabout way, I did manage to get in contact with the temples and the total threat from just what I managed to identify was at least two orders of magnitude more dangerous than anything else they had on file for Eurial. And we were… underprepared for that. I know you want me to skip it, but it’s a key point. We thought we had 13 relatively weak [Eldritch] to deal with. Instead, we witnessed a freaking rift that only opened when we arrived but that let in a platoon of elites. I mean…> The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. The wind conspicuously rustled the branches of the treehouse. <…it would be better?> <—and the barrier clicks into place. We actually had two [Eldritch] outside we both had missed, but they were a non-issue.> Ada raised an eyebrow. So, at that point, I dumped most of the rest of my XP into my levels—I only had a few million as I had dumped everything from the [Eldritch] into the enchantment—built a house to live in while I studied the enchantment problem. Figured out what was wrong to begin with, and started working on whether I could fix it. No luck there. So, it’s mostly been quiet. Hunting and foraging the mountain range for food and XP, but it’s a fairly XP poor area, so didn’t get much.> Quiet—well, mental quiet—settled over the two of them. Ada chewing over this tall tale; and Mack— Ada rubbed his jaw as he thought that over. <[The Goblin’s Share] won’t trigger. That’ll slow it down a lot. I already got some decent levels, so can’t cheese the XP multiplier as a Level 1. And I’ll have to range really far to kill enough monsters to get that much XP. What level were you thinking of?> <… how does the ink not just rub off if it’s a card?> Mack shrugged. Ada peered out the window at the purple dome of the barrier. Ada huffed, looking off into space. ----------------------------------------