A beautiful scene sprawled out before Christopher. An enormous open expanse, consisting out of rich grassland and farmland lay in this open plain within the forest. The twins looked on with wide eyes. In the center stood the city of Lumen, entirely obscured by its walls, which astonishingly consisted out of the enormous Sternal trees. They all stood there for a short minute, marveling at the sight.

“Enough looking, let’s move” said Tinos with a slight smile.

To his delight, on his journey to Lumen, Christopher had received some notification messages informing him of attribute increases. He looked over his log.

[Congratulations, you have increased your Endurance by one point.]

[Congratulations, you have increased your Strength by one point.]

He had traveled for more than a day with a heavy load, and leveling up these attributes had been a welcome surprise. He felt that this was some pretty quick improvement for him. It showed him that he was actually able to progress under normal circumstances. Although he would not be surprised if leveling his attributes would become more difficult with time.

Vitality 10 Endurance 13 Strength 9 Agility 12 Soul force 4

They left the edge of the forest and entered the clearing. Farmers could be seen working in the fields, wearing simple attire. Some of them were using tools that looked similar to the hoes, sickles, and shovels used in Earth’s past. He guessed there were only so many ways that one could plant and harvest crops.

Other tools looked stranger, but Christopher was not an authority on farming. He wondered what kind of food they were growing. The rations they used on their journey had been fine to ease their hunger, but it was not a joy to eat.

On one of the fields, farmers could be seen harvesting fully grown crops of a variety that Christopher did not recognize. The field next to it seemed to have the same crop, but these crops had not yet reached half the length compared to the other.

Curiously, he observed two farmers putting down their tools. They started focusing their full attention on something that was cupped between their hands. On closer inspection, he saw other farmers in the area doing something similar. What the hell were they doing?

“What are those farmers holding within their hands? It looks like they are doing something” Menos followed his gaze

“Oh, you must be talking about the seeds. The farmers only have limited Soul Force to imbue seeds with. As soon as their Soul force has naturally regenerated, they stop in their work to imbue a few more with their Soul Force. By doing it this way they can increase the harvest and their earnings. Of course, It is also a nice break from the work.” Menos smiled.

“Wait, so the farmers can imbue these seeds with soul force, what does this do.”

Menos looked at him a bit startled by this basic question. It seemed that they would never get used to his ignorance.

“Ah right, you don’t know these things… By imbuing the seeds with their soul force, the crops grow at an explosively faster rate. From planting to harvesting only takes a little over a week. Of course, the farmers are very skilled in using their soul force in this way, they had a lifetime of practice after all.”

Wow, this is the magic of this world. it seemed that this had quite the use. Hopefully, this would mean that there was plenty to eat.

“What about you guys, do you also use Soul force in your work?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Of course, grandpa Tinos and I use our soul force to make whatever we craft stronger, and also give it some rudimentary self-repairing properties. Nobody would buy from a craftsman not able to do at least that much. Also, Tamas uses some real precise soul force manipulation to imbue the crafts with really amazing properties. For example, she can make the inscription and patterns she designs glow with Soul Light.

Christopher suddenly for the first time saw this world with the wonder that it deserved. So far, his mind had mostly been occupied by the monsters trying to kill him, but now, this was true magic.

He was surprised that his companions were so talented in something he had been trying to figure out himself. Maybe he could convince one of them to teach him how to use it. One of the skills that he was interested in called soul force circulation, suggested that there was a way to use it in battle.

Their group quickly closed the distance from the forest edge to the city gate. The gate was nothing more than just a natural opening at the base between two of the larger trees. It was wide enough for multiple people to walk side by side into the city. It must have been quite the undertaking to build such a massive structure around a town of this size.

Instead of cutting the trees up for planks, it looked like they had carefully grown saplings to create a natural barrier around the town. Just a moment ago, he would have thought that such a project must have taken hundreds of years, but after learning about the farms, he wondered if they might not also have increased their growth with Soul Force. Their flame-resistance seemed quite valuable in the case of an enemy attack. On Earth, such walls would have been used to defend against other human invaders. Here they were likely built to hold out a very different force.

There were what looked like arrow slits all over the trees. They must have somehow hollowed out spaces within the trees in order to fight back from within the walls.

A male and female guard stood unmoving on both sides of the opening. They wore sleek looking brown and green armor. A crest adorned their breastplate, which featured a lizard biting its own tail. They did look rather imposing. There were a lot of people moving in and out through the city gates, many of them farmers. They all wore those simple and practical work clothing.

Tinos spoke, “Let’s make our presence known, it is illegal for outsiders to enter the town without announcing their arrival.”

The guards clearly identified them as outsiders. Probably from their state of dress, and the large sacks they were carrying. The male Guard spoke. “Please make your way to the inspection hall. It clearly was not a request. Tinos nodded, as they made their way through the natural opening into the city, the guard following closely behind.

His first look at the city surprised him. The architecture was very interesting, the buildings almost seemed to be alive, as if they had naturally grown into habitats, it was fantastical. The houses were all tall, almost all at least two floors.

Draw bridges and walkways connected many of the areas of the higher floors, casting a plethora of shadows to the people walking below. It was as if they had tried to eliminate any sharp edges, making it all free-flowing, even the doors and windows were arched. It looked like the people had taken advantage of the abundance of Sternal Trees and had built everything out of them, advancing the feel of nature even further. This close to the massive trees, the ground was littered with the bright red Sternel leaves.

Following Tinos, they entered a building that he assumed was the inspection hall. Once inside, they walked to what looked like a reception. Two women were sitting at a desk scattered with papers. There were also two guards sitting at a table nearby, seemingly enjoying some kind of warm beverage.

Their attention was now focused on them. They wore the same brown and green armor sporting the emblem of a lizard biting its own tail. One was a broad-shouldered middle-aged man with short black hair, and the other was a tough-looking stocky woman, scar tissue covered up a missing ear. Delivering the newcomers, the entrance guard took his leave. Tinos walked up to the woman that was not busy scribbling on some parchment.

“We would like to register our arrival, and I would like to speak to the guard captain.” At this, the two guards perked up, clearly wondering why their captain needed to get involved.

The reception woman looked slightly annoyed at being ordered around. “Let’s start off properly shall we, please state the purpose of your visit.”

“We are refugees from Stonehill, please tell me, did anyone else from Stonehill manage to arrive here before us?” He asked with hope.

“Refugees, what?”

“Yes, Stonehill got attacked by the Blight! Did really nobody make it!” Tinos sounded defeated. Both guards had stood up and raised their hands to their weapons as if they were ready to storm the enemy right there and then.

“What do you mean, refugees? We are in the heartland of Venaria, why were you not able to fend off the monsters?” asked the receptionist

Angry now, Tinos responded. “This was not just some small bands of Orcs and Goblins. This was a coordinated full-scale invasion. Monsters I have never seen before were moving through our village. Considering the coordination, one of the Turned must have been commanding them.”

This once again animated the guards, and the receptionist blanched.

“A-a turned!” the receptionist stammered. “And how did the Blight’s forces make it all the way here?”

“I will tell you all I know when Captain Merrem arrives.”

The broad-shouldered male guard spoke to the female guard “Shallow, go fetch Captain Merrem, he will want to hear this.” She nodded and quickly strode out of the reception building.

As the guard called Shallow was making her way out of the reception building, Christopher was surprised by a new notification.

[ Your actions have alerted the town of Lumen to the forces of Entropy, 500 soul points earned.]