As Fila emerged from the disorienting haze, the brilliance of the light gradually softened, revealing the tranquil scene before him. Standing in awe, he found himself in the presence of a grand tree, its towering form stretching endlessly towards the skies. Its branches formed a magnificent canopy, filtering the sunlight and casting a serene shadow over the surrounding landscape.
Yet, the darkness was as comforting as the light. It was unexpectedly gentle, like the feeling of being wrapped by a blanket. Fila stood in silence, mesmerized by the beauty and grandeur of the tree. He felt a sense of peace that he hadn't felt wash over him in a long time, since the times he spent with his mother during his childhood.
A blinding light came into existence to his left, and out of it came Nomada. She also looked at the tree, with the same gaze of serenity that Fila expected he had right now.
At the furthest reaches of the branches, a mesmerizing array of fruits hung suspended like vibrant jewels. There were fruits that Fila had only heard about. Apples, bananas, coconuts, dates, peaches, each fruit having its own unique color, texture, scent. He would never want another chitara fruit again.
Fila got close to the tree and felt its trunk. It was still and solitary, but Fila swore that he felt it pulse and breathe.
Nomada came up next to him to feel the trunk too. She looked up in awe, taking it all in.
"Everything is exactly as I was told. A tree that reaches out into the heavens and roots into the earth, connecting us at once. The World Tree." She laughed. "We really made it!" She cheered.
"We did," Fila said. This was one of the few times he felt any sense of elation in the past 5 years. He made it. All his struggles, everything he had to do to survive, it all lead him here. And just this scenery was worth it.
"Do you hear that?" Nomada asked.
"Hear what?"
"The birds chirping. There are birds!" Nomada exclaimed. "I haven't heard the chirping of birds since I was a toddler!"
Fila could hear the birds. There were chirps of all different tones, but Fila could not see the birds. They lied over the canopy of branches that blocked the skies. The birds were in the heavens. Yet the idea of them was comforting enough.
"This place is beautiful isn't it?"
Shouldn't you be repelled from this place. This is a Goddesses' domain. You should be screaming or burning, begging for forgiveness or something of the like, Fila thought.
"The myths around us are all wrong. Those books haven't been updated in centuries."
You're ruining this place for me, so I'm going to block you out again.
Fila looked away from the tree, to the boundaries of this place. It was simply a boundary of empty green plains that went on forever, just like the tree's trunk.
"So how do we actually acquire any traits from this place anyways?" Fila asked Nomada.
"The fruit. Each one is a different trait. You offer what it costs to the Tree, and it will give it to you."
Fila looked up. "I have to climb this tree?"
"No," Nomada chuckled, "Just think of the trait you want to see, and the tree will lay its branches down to you. At least that's what I've been told."
Fila thought of the Stinger trait that Nomada said she was going to get. The tree forked one of its branches from its group, and brought it down like an arm brings down a hand, fluid and precise. On its end was a ripe red apple.
"Do not pluck it before making any offerings," Nomada warned, "To do so, is to forfeit any chance of coming back. You will never get a trait, nor will you advance past a green exoskeleton."
"There really should be a rulebook to this," Fila muttered.
Nomada pointed to the tree trunk. "There is."
He looked in the direction, and she was right. There were carvings in the tree, seemingly organized in rows, but they were in a language that he had never read. Fila thought he had read every language in all of Ailan, but apparently not.
"It's in the Old Tongue. It's a language lost to time, but the rules have been passed down in Nitich. There are four rules. Do not harm the tree or its branches. Do not eat a fruit without giving an offering first. Do not eat more than one fruit on each visit. Do not eat more than eight fruits within one lifetime. Follow these rules and you will forever be connected to the World Tree, coming here whenever you are ready without needing Poda's Needle. The Tree will take root within your soul."
Interesting. So that's why one only needed to touch the Needle one time. After this, one could molt at will and gain new traits by coming to the World Tree each time. It made more sense now. Fila observed the apple in front of him. He touched it and a surge of information came to his brain.
[Trait: Stinger]
[Description: Allows the user to create stingers out of the exoskeleton.]
[Requirements: Endure one hundred stings. Completed: 0/100]
[Price: 3 Yellow Mana Crystals]
Fila had heard of the requirements before, but the requirements were not in any of the books he had read. He looked for a long time among the rubble of people's houses and in the books in the cave, but there was no information at all. The requirements were what worried him. He did not want the Stinger trait, but if he did, how was he meant to get stung 100 times. The only creatures out there with stingers were kvesh, and Fila was fairly sure the sting of one of those would go right through his chest.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Nomada had an apple of her own in front of her. "Is that the Stinger trait?" Fila asked.
"Yeah it is."
"How do you plan to get stung one hundred times? The kvesh stingers are the sizes of swords"
"Oh, I already have."
"What?" Fila was shocked. When did she have the time?
"Not here," she said, "It was when I was a baby. We are trained to take one sting per day up to the day we are meant to get our exoskeleton. I told you I've been training for this since my birth." She smiled and brought over two yellow mana crystals to the tree's trunk. She dropped them on the ground, right below where the carvings were.
The tree slammed one of its branches down, grabbed onto the crystals and launched them far into the air, past the canopy of leaves and branches and into the skies. They did not come back down.
Nomada walked back to the apple and plucked it from the tree. She took a bite of it. He had never heard such a refreshing crunch. She ate the entire thing to the core, then placed it on the ground. Nomada began to glow green and gave a little wave to Fila as she flashed out of existence. "I'll see you outside. And I'll win that red crystal too." Then she was gone.
Fila stared up at the tree, realizing how laborious of a task this would be. He knew so little about the traits that were being offered in the first place that he was simply overwhelmed by choice. Once he made a decision, he would have to use that trait forever, and he only had eight opportunities to pick the right ones. He did not know which traits synergized later or which traits were deceptively good or bad. He should've asked more questions before they entered. Fila sighed.
So one by one he tried different ideas. He thought of the threads that the spider used in the fight with Mellifera. A banana came down this time.
[Trait: Iron Threads]
[Description: Allows the user to generate silk from their spinneret. Properties can be changed at will.]
[Requirement: Create a tapestry out of metal. Completed: 0/1]
[Requirement: [Spinneret Trait]]
[Price: 2 Yellow Mana Crystals]
Why in the hell would anyone ever get a spinneret trait? One trait for the price of two? That was ridiculous.
"It never said you had to make the spinneret in your ass."
"Yeah, and I'll be left with a spinneret in my hand that makes regular silk. Next"
This time, he went for what he really wanted. He asked the tree for a trait that could make him immortal. It was a long shot, but maybe he would find it in this place. To Fila's surprise, there was a branch that came down. On its end was a peach. It read:
[Trait: Limitless Growth]
[Description: Allows the user to grow and live indefinitely by molting. May lead to extreme exhaustion, insanity, pain, and/or death.]
[Requirement: Veer the edge of death 25 times. Completed: 7/25]
[Price: 25 Diamond Mana Crystals]
"Diamond!" Fila exclaimed. He had never seen a diamond mana crystal in his life. The highest tiered mana crystal he had seen was red, and that almost cost him his life. The requirement didn't seem that difficult for him considering the lifestyle he was already living, but the cost and description gave him worry. This would be impossible to get any time soon. It was a possibility in the future. But he needed something now.
With a sigh, he let the branch go up, and he thought of something else he always wanted to experience. He had always had a desire to fly. It looked so freeing. A branch came down with a dragon fruit.
[Trait: Fly Like a Dragon]
[Description: Allows the user to grow wings from their exoskeleton.]
[Requirements: Jump off 5 cliffs and survive. Completed: 2/5]
[Price: 14 Yellow Mana Crystals]
"Shit!" Fila cried. He had 12 yellow mana crystals, or really 13 yellow and 75 green if he counted all his resources. He was 25 off. He thought that he had finally found something that would work.
He spent the next few moments searching for random traits, perhaps in anger.
[Trait: Queen's Pheromone]
[Description: Everyone, everything becomes an extension of you.]
[Requirements: Conquer 50% of Ailan]
[Price: 100 Solarite Mana Crystals]
"Fuck off!"
[Trait: Adaptive Carapace]
[Description: Allows the user to have an adaptive exoskeleton that increases in resistance based on number of encounters with the material.]
[Requirements: Experience fire, ice, lightning, poison, and kinetic force to the body. Completed: 3/5]
[Price: 50 Red Mana Crystals]
"Fuck you!"
[Trait: A Thousand Limbs]
[Description: Allows the user to create extra limbs out of their exoskeleton, up to a thousand]
[Requirements: Take one thousand kicks to the body at the same time. Completed: 1/1000]
[Price: 15 Yellow Mana Crystals]
"Motherfucker!" Everything that seemed interesting was either too expensive, had vague descriptions with warnings in them, or requirements that were impossible to satisfy. Was he really forced to get something boring that he would live with for the rest of his life or something comfortable like [Stinger], only for Nomada to surpass him with all her expertise. He never thought of himself as poor, but seeing the heights that one could go, he realized his wealth was nothing.
"I have a suggestion. Remember how I was in the first Queen of Nitich's head before she became anybody? Well, I know which trait she picked. It's the one she used to become queen and conquer most of Ailan. And it's in your price range."
"Yeah, I do too. First of all, I still believe you're lying about that, and second of all, it's not. Her first trait was [Queen's Pheromone], everyone knows that."
"Nope, [Queen's Pheromone] is what the trait she got became. What she got was something much cheaper, a trait that measures one's potential and changes based on individual need."
"And you waited this long to tell me?"
"You know, I could just not tell you at all if you're going to keep up that tone."
"Okay, I'm sorry. I promise to never call you useless again if this trait is real. Which I don't think is the case."
"Try summoning [Leap of Faith], my friend."
He thought of the name, and a branch came down. The fruit attached to it was a star fruit.
[Trait: Leap of Faith]
[Description: Allows the user to manifest the trait they need in the moment.]
[Requirement: A Leap of Faith. Leap will be determined when the user consumes it. Warning: Leap of Faith requires the user to do the thing they least want to do, because if it's a task that one is already capable of doing, it's not a real leap of faith, is it?]
[Price: 7 Yellow Mana Crystals]
"You're fucking with me."
"No, this is really the trait the Queen went for."
"It has no description, the requirement is vague and even has a warning attached to it. The trait is written in a completely different tone than all the others, this is a trap, isn't it? Why else doesn't everyone get this trait? Why wouldn't everyone get it if it had the possibility to become [Queen's Pheromone]? This is too good to be true."
"*The Queen managed to satisfy the requirements.*"
"The Queen also managed to conquer half the continent."
"*After getting the trait. And you want to live forever. How are your ambitions any lesser than hers?*"
The devil did have a point. He shuddered at that thought. But it was in his price range, and it evolved into a trait that costs 100 solarite mana crystals somehow. If he could satisfy whatever the requirements actually would end up being, he could end up as powerful as the Queen. Maybe the trait would even directly confer him immortality, as that was what he felt he needed right now.
Fila shrugged. It was worth a try.
He laid down 5 yellow mana crystals at the tree's feet, and just like what happened to Nomada's crystals, they were thrown in the air to never be seen again. He went back to the starfruit, plucked it and took a bite. When he did, another rush of information came to his mind.
[Reading Soul... Reading Memories... Calculating Leap of Faith Requirement... Requirement Determined]
[Requirement: Make one friend. Completed: 0/1]
Fila's last thoughts before he left the World Tree's domain were filled with the devil's laughing.