Chapter 13: Lost
Naomi reached the tree line within a few dozen strides after spotting it. She noted the similarities of breed that the trees were to that of the troll woods. Each tree was easily forty feet tall with thick red trunks as the base. While there were no branches until about twenty or so feet up, the branches that did extend from each tree had arms the size of Naomi’s torso. At the end of each branch were green pine needles that grew thicker in the tallest parts of the tree, hiding the trunk from plain sight.
The tree line was spread for miles in either direction of where Naomi stood, red dirt covered in fallen pine needles marking the border from the field. Naomi came to a stop at the border, questioning the texture of the needles and dirt in her mind before dismissing the thought and walking towards the nearest tree.
Her panting was controlled, but just barely. Scoping the surrounding area was more of a priority right now than catching her breath, and she wanted to keep as quiet as possible while entering a new area. As much as she’d like to believe the word of the tabaxi cadre that gave her the red band on her arm that there were no trolls in these woods, her survival instincts insisted on keeping all her senses on alert.
Walking into the dirt, she placed a hand on the bark of the nearest tree to lean on. She looked back as she caught her breath and saw other figures running towards the tree line behind her. Five, eight, ten silhouettes began to crest the final hill that led to the tree line. Based on their shapes and heights, Naomi could make out the various species of the cadets that had made it through the first test and into the field.
Five of the figures were elves, then two dwarves, two tabaxi, and the red-scaled dragonborn that had accosted Naomi earlier came into view.
Asshole…
Naomi turned to look into the woods to plan her next move to find the second cadre. The inside of the woods was sparse. Red dirt with pine needles littered across most of the surface area was most of what she could see. A few brambly bushes with thorn-riddled branches grew in various places in between trees, but most of the immediate area was empty. She attempted to look further into the woods, but the canopy from the trees made the deeper parts too dark to make anything out.
I can just keep running in there to see where the end is, but that could take forever.
Footsteps grew louder from the field. Naomi turned to see how far the other candidates were only to be met with a dwarf sprinting towards her. Naomi lurched to the side as the broad, black-bearded male dwarf ran past her, hearing his guttural breathing come and go in a blur. She watched as he moved through the woods with determination as she tried to remember how far they were only a moment ago. She turned again and saw that the other candidates were still at least a hundred yards away.
Did he seriously out-pace the others?!
Naomi shook off the shock and began to run into the woods. Her bare feet sent out cries of pain with each step, finding that the pine needles hid sharp rocks in random spots on the forest ground. Ignoring her discomfort, she put her focus on dodging trees as she made her way through the woods.
Darkness veiled the inside of the woods as she ran. Trees were only visible within a few meters of Naomi’s sight as she ran. The dwarf that ran ahead was gone from her vision entirely. All traces of where he ran were lost to her senses the more she looked. Even if there was more light for her to use, the layers of forest litter made any tracks near-impossible to follow.
Out of breath again, she stopped and leaned against another tree. The goal was simple enough; find the next cadre and get the objective for the final test. The last cadre didn’t mention the nuance of how dark it would be in the woods and how impossible it would be to find their quarry.
Naomi scanned the immediate area around her and tried to think of a better option. Running further into the woods would be the obvious choice, but she didn’t know how far the trees could go. As far as she could tell, the other recruits would have made it into the woods by now but tracking them would be even more difficult than the dwarf. No obvious sounds gave a hint at where the others were while they searched.
Placing her back to the tree she was leaning on, she slid down the tree and looked up at the forest ceiling. Darkness was all she could make out as she stared, each tree trunk vanishing into black as she searched.
“How am I supposed to find this dude?” she whispered to herself. She looked down at her hands as she spoke, searching her palms for an answer she knew wasn’t there. She closed her hands into fists as her exhaustion morphed into frustration. What else could the Lodge expect from her? She had only arrived in this world a short while ago and now she felt like they had thrown her into a wild goose chase trying to prove that she belonged in their fantasy-themed special forces.
Almost in response to her anger, her left hand began to glow dark purple. The familiar sense of power she felt when she first manifested her abilities began to fill her mind, waiting for her command. She stared at the slowly forming circular mass of energy in her palm, watching as it calmly rotated. After a few moments of turning, the orb solidified and stayed motionless in her hand. She moved her hand around to see if it would fall, but the orb stayed centered on her palm no matter how she moved.
Using her free hand for balance, she stood up and looked up into the forest canopy as an idea formed.
Skill Screen
On que, the translucent screen appeared in her vision.
Name: Naomi Salazar
Class: Shadowmancer
Birth Class: Priest
HP: 200/200
Mana: 100/100
Stamina: 39/100
Level: 2
Available Abilities: 4
Unspent Skill Points: 4
Ability: Healing Touch:
You have a connection to all things holy. Physical contact with an ally will heal them if the connection is uninterrupted or until you are out of mana. Current cost: 5 mana/second .
Ability: Holy Arc:
The forces of light lend you their power. Cast an arc of light to burn through your enemies and heal your allies.
Cost: 15 mana/cast
Ability: Dark Immolate:
Unleash shadow flames that burn your enemy with dark energy. The flames are inextinguishable by normal means and inflict continuous damage.
Cost: 25 mana/cast
Ability: Eldritch Tendril:
Conjure a shadowy tendril to ensnare and drain mana from your enemy. You can throw or strike the ensnared enemy with the tendril.
Cost: 5 mana/second
She read over her list of abilities looking for the name of her tentacle ability that she used before on the troll elder. If she was able to grab him with it, she could use it to grab other physical things.
She turned around and pointed her empowered hand at the tree, closing her eyes as she tried to remember the first time she had used the spell.
Picturing what she remembered from that chaotic night, she willed the spell to life. Her eyes opened to a single, ethereal tentacle bursting from the orb and writhing in anticipation of her command. She gave the mental order to grab the tree, and it obeyed instantly. The tentacle stretched even further from her orb, as if it had endless length stored in some pocket dimension. Once it wrapped around the trunk of the tree, she stepped closer and placed her foot on the trunk. She tested the tensile strength of the tentacle by leaning back slowly until she trusted it enough to hold her weight. She planted her other foot on the tree trunk, trusting the ability to hold her.
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Ok, so it can hold me up. How do I climb more though without falling?
As she finished her thought, the tendril began to uncoil from the trunk and shot upwards. The instant it released its grasp, panic struck Naomi’s mind. She shut her eyes, anticipating the sensation of falling and her back hitting the ground, but nothing happened. She opened her eyes and saw that the tendril reached a few meters higher than it was before, already grasping the tree trunk again. A dull, tugging sensation vibrated from her orb-hand beckoning her to pull. She instinctively understood what it was trying to accomplish and pulled her arm back. The response from her movement was instant, and the tendril slowly began to absorb inwards towards the orb, pulling her higher into the tree. She walked along the bark of the tree as the tendril reeled her upwards. She repeated the process a few more times in quick succession, making sure to not look down to avoid any vertigo. After a final lash upwards, she reached a thick branch where she could rest, remembering the last time she exerted herself too much using her powers. After sitting on the branch and resting her back against the trunk, she reviewed her skill screen again.
Name: Naomi Salazar
Class: Shadowmancer
Birth Class: Priest
HP: 200/200
Mana: 35/100
Stamina: 74/100
Level: 2
Available Abilities: 4
Unspent Skill Points: 4
Ability: Healing Touch:
You have a connection to all things holy. Physical contact with an ally will heal them if the connection is uninterrupted or until you are out of mana. Current cost: 5 mana/second .
Ability: Holy Arc:
The forces of light lend you their power. Cast an arc of light to burn through your enemies and heal your allies.
Cost: 15 mana/cast
Ability: Dark Immolate:
Unleash shadow flames that burn your enemy with dark energy. The flames are inextinguishable by normal means and inflict continuous damage.
Cost: 25 mana/cast
Ability: Eldritch Tendril:
Conjure a shadowy tendril to ensnare and drain mana from your enemy. You can throw or strike the ensnared enemy with the tendril.
Cost: 5 mana/second
At least my stamina is refilling at a decent rate. But how long does it take for mana to regenerate?
She stared at the screen for a few moments, waiting for a change in her mana meter. After a few heartbeats, it went up by one point. She waited, counting the seconds as she watched for the number to change again. Thirteen seconds later, it went up.
Thirteen seconds for one mana point… At this rate, I’ll need to ration how much I use this spell.
She looked up and saw faint glints of light breaking through the canopy, other branches higher up silhouetted in the darkness. Judging the distance from her branch to the next one, it would only take two more tendril jumps to make it higher. Doing the math though, she determined that waiting the fifteen-ish minutes it would take to refill her mana pool would be the safer bet.
She looked down from her perch and felt nauseous seeing how high up she climbed. The fall at this height wouldn’t kill her, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt. After resting, and a full mana pool, she resumed her climb.
It took another nine tendril jumps before she decided to rest again on another higher branch. The responsiveness and control of the tendril spell had proven to be fully linked to her mental commands as she progressed. When she took another break, she wanted to see how far she could stretch the limb before she resumed the climb. Down to just over her mana pool, she pointed her hand below her and had the limb attempt to touch the forest floor. It made it about a quarter of the way before it stopped. Summoning her skill screen, she noticed that the burn rate for her mana was still the same.
She made a few more attempts at increasing and decreasing the range that the tendril could reach, but the cutoff length remained the same each time. Once she had the rough measurement of the max reach of her power, she came up with a new plan. At the rate she was climbing, it would only take about five more jumps before she reached the top of the tree. She rested to refill her mana and started her final climb to the top.
Light became more prominent the higher she went. Bundles of green pine needles along branches scraped her legs as she was pulled higher by her tendril with increased speed and confidence in her power. Dodging branches in her path, she was able to weave around the various sheets of needles and find her way to daylight again. A final leap let her grab one of the higher branches of the tree and let her hand with one outstretched hand keeping the tendril wrapped around the trunk as she scanned the top of the woods.
A sea of green took most of her vision as she looked from her vantage point. Pointed tree peaks jutted around her, layers of branches and their flattened sheets of pine needles made the forest ceiling look almost like a field of grass she could just walk on. She wasn’t about to take the risk though.
“Wow, you actually made it to the top.” a feminine voice spoke behind her.
The surprise at hearing someone else speak made Naomi lose her balance against the tree, almost dropping to her death as she willed the tendril grip tighter around the tree, saving her from the fall.
Light laughter filled the air as Naomi scrambled to get her balance back and place her feet against the tree again. Once she was able to fully extend her legs to a standing position against the tree again, she looked up to find the source of the voice.
A few meters above her stood a female elf. She wore the same training leather as the other cadre Naomi had seen in the courtyard, but she hadn’t noticed this one before. Her brown hair and curtain bangs made her pale face and brown eyes stand out, and her unique beauty among all the other creatures Naomi had seen so far. As she was searching for recognition in the elf’s face, a realization came over Naomi; the elf was standing with only one foot on the tip of the tree itself. While breeze waved her hair around and made the top of the tree sway, nothing seemed to affect her balance as she stood and smiled looking down on Naomi.
“How are you doing that?” Naomi blurted out.
The elf’s face went from its pleased expression to confusion. She looked down to see what Naomi was staring at and began to laugh again. “Oh, that. It’s nothing special, really. You’ll learn mana-redirection and control in next week’s lessons.” The elf hopped forward and grabbed the tree as she fell, climbing down gracefully until she reached Naomi’s spot on the tree.
The elf, still holding the trunk, scanned Naomi’s face while she positioned herself inches away from her. A rush of blood to Naomi’s face made her blush under the scrutiny. After a few moments of awkward silence, the elf finally spoke. “Well, no horns sprouted from your skull yet. Plus, you didn’t kill that dragonborn that hassled you in the training meadow. That’s promising!”
Naomi tilted her head in confusion. “How did you—”
“Oh please, like we wouldn’t be watching the potential demon spy’s every move in the trials. I didn’t think you’d try anything this early in the process anyway, but you never know with demons.” The elf interjected, waving her hand dismissively as she spoke.
“Are you sure you should be holding that spell this long? Don’t want you passing out again from mana exhaustion.” The elf said, pointing at the shadow tendril still gripping the tree.
Naomi looked up and realized she lost track of how long she was holding onto the tree with the tendril. She looked down and found the nearest branch and mentally commanded her spell to lower her. The elf followed, jumping from her spot on the trunk to the same branch with the grace of a cat. Almost no sound came from the elf landing on the branch next to Naomi.
“Wait, again? How did you know I’ve passed out before?” Naomi asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Oh, right. We haven’t been properly introduced; I’m Lira. Hunter class, recon specialist. I was a part of the team that found you and the other gate species in the troll woods.”
“Oh. I guess I should be thanking you then.” Naomi raised her hand to shake the Hunter’s hand, only to illicit a defensive stance from Lira. Naomi’s hand hung in the air as the elf’s friendly demeaner turned hostile in less than a second.
Naomi blinked at the elf’s reaction, feeling more confused than afraid at Lira’s raised fists. After a few moments, Lira relaxed her posture while keeping her fists raised. “You really need to warn someone before raising a hand to them. You’re lucky I waited to see if you were going to cast on me, others might not give you the benefit of the doubt when you speak with them.
Naomi turned her hand and looked at her palm, realization hitting her about the confusion. “Sorry, that was dumb of me. I’m still getting used to my hands being capable of killing people with a thought. In my world this is a gesture of friendliness or to be polite when meeting someone new.” She raised both her hands in a conciliatory gesture.
Lira sighed with her eyes closed as she dropped her arms to her sides. “Look, I appreciate your situation and all, but there are a lot of rumors about you and how dangerous you can be. Unless you want to end up as a smear on the ground, then you need to tread carefully with how you communicate with people. Verbally or with your body language. We don’t know you, your species, or if you really aren’t some demon-spawn trying to bring the Church down from the inside.”
The elf crossed her arms and began smiling again. “There will be an adjustment period of course, but that’s what we’re here to help you with. Starting with today’s lessons.”
“I thought that’s what I was doing right now.” Naomi lifted her arms and gestured around her. “All the running and climbing trees for the longest game of hide-and-seek ever.”
Lira giggled. “No, I meant your lessons. This was just to test your species’ physical capabilities. We want to know what we’re working with before getting into the real stuff. We never expected you to finish the trials. I was going to bring you back to the courtyard when you managed to reach the forest, but wanted to see how you’d handle trying to find the objective. You were way off by the way.”
“THIS wasn’t the real stuff?! I’ve been running my ass off trying to do these ‘trials’ and I haven’t even started my actual training yet?” Naomi ran her hands through her hair, turning on the branch towards the trunk to lay her head and fists against the bark in frustration.
What am I even doing…
Lira placed a hand on her shoulder from behind. “Look, it’s a lot I know, but we’re in uncharted territory right now. The higher-ups wanted us to bring you into the Lodge, so we need to take some steps to figure out how much we can push your endurance. Part of being a Hunter is meeting the physical demand of whatever mission you’re on. Besides, you wouldn’t have passed the second or third entry trial. The last one especially.”
Naomi began to lightly bang her head on the bark as Lira spoke. After processing her frustration for a few thuds, she stopped.
“So. What next?” she grumbled.