The chat with Vumbeldor was a pleasant one. The mage was more than willing to exchange the Fire Spirit Stones for Nature Spirit Stones, which was good since he didn’t know how to get the nature ones. They’d also confirmed the items and the prices they will be trading at. The mages were interested in Mana Potions, obviously, so he wanted to start making them, but for that he needed an industrial vat, condensator and evaporator. That magical equipment he will be buying from the humans, at least until he learns to make something similar. He’d also asked for a tome describing Dark Magic; with some reluctance Vumbeldor promised to send it.

While he was waiting for the necessary equipment to arrive, a lot of things happened.

The Drow delivered a shipment of Corrundum Ingots and Magical Ink, but that was only expected. The unexpected was the letter the High Chief had sent; it was written in flawless Spider Chirp:

=====

Hello King of Spiders, ruler of The Dreaded Place and Slayer of The Great Worm of Oberon, ally of The Ancestral Tree, and friend to the Drow, Kobolds and Lamia.

I write to inform you that the Darkness Spiders proved to be instrumental in crafting the scrolls you required. To no one's surprise, the spider has darkness affinity and the necessary mana capacity to replicate [Magic Scroll: Darkness]. We experimented further and with my guidance, we improved the spell formula to produce Magic Scroll: Darkness Cloud. Naturally, we were also able to make [Magic Scroll: Elemental Arrow: Darkness]; Which, as you must already know, is the first stepping stone in making offensive Magic Scrolls. I’ve used the scrolls produced by the spider to derive the magic formula for the other types of Elemental Arrow. It’s still a work in progress but the local talent managed to produce a few scrolls of varying quality; roughly half of them just fail upon invoking the spell.

I’ve included the samples with this letter.

On another note, Dark Agave proved to be a very peculiar plant. It hates light, and will quickly wither upon exposure so we removed all the glow moss and mushrooms from its cave (After an unfortunate incident the Glowing Spider was banned from the Grow Cave). Once we did that, it began to spread naturally. There were reports by others, especially children, of feeling Dread and Fear upon entering the cave; not quite a debuff yet but almost. Your spiders do not seem to be affected by it. However, despite its spiky appearance and the dread aura, it is a very delicate plant needing a lot of care. I gave myself the liberty to harvest one of its leaves and investigate its properties. The juice is imbued with hints of Dark affinity and if concentrated would make an interesting ingredient. The fibre strands are also interesting, they are fine and extremely light. In the future, we should be able to use it to craft scrolls which could support higher tiers of Dark Magic.

Currently, I’m planning another expedition to Fire Caverns. I know we can handle it on our own now. Thank you for giving us the confidence to do so. If you don’t mind could you send us more FireWalker suits? We’ll need them, and of course, we will send you your share of the spoils.

All other matters are progressing as planned.

End of the report,

Drow High Chief.

=====

This was a lengthy letter, and as promised it came with the Magic Scrolls attached. He took the one he was most interested in: it wasn't just familiar letters spelling “Elemental Arrow” and “Darkness”, it had what looked like a complicated schematic with loops and circles, thin and thick lines interconnecting and some other strange shapes. To use it he knew what he needed to to do.

“Elemental Arrow: Darkness.” The scroll burst into blue flame vanishing from his hand, in its place was a tiny orb of swirling blackness. It appeared a few inches away from his hand and moved as if attached by an invisible string. He moved his hand and the orb moved too, meaning that he could aim it.

The spell would likely disperse if he didn’t fire it, so he aimed it at the unlucky plant and fired. The orb stretched becoming an arrow and launched towards the plant. Upon contact, the arrow disintegrated into sparks of black light and the plant simply wilted.

“Interesting.” He tried another scroll. “Darkness Cloud.” This one he was able to aim too, and the target was another unlucky plant. The plant was surrounded by an opaque cloud, it held there for about a minute and then simply dispersed leaving the plant unharmed. “It’s just like a smoke screen. Simple, but I can already guess a few good uses.”

Then he tried the more exotic scrolls: Elemental Arrow: Air and Elemental Arrow: Nature. As the High Chief said, it didn’t work all the time so he had to use multiple scrolls to produce a spell. The arrows had their distinctive colours and effects. The Air Arrow flew quicker, further, and judging from the hole in the tree it possessed piercing properties, and The Nature Arrow possessed homing ability.

He knew that these arrows probably were the very basics of the spells a mage could cast, but regardless of it, he was glad to finally be able to cast something else than his normal Darkness Buffs.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

The Drow wasn’t the only one to send a message. A messenger spider came to inform him that The Ancestral Tree was performing a ritual; something he asked to see some time ago. With the quick application of Shadow Walk he was at the place The Ancestral Tree told him about. At first sight, the place didn’t seem special, just another part of the forest, however, he was quick to notice the wooden statues seemingly growing out of the ground. The statues were humanoid in shape and were still growing with green leaves sprouting here and there.

The wisp was buzzing around the statues casting [Grow] on them.

“Hey.” He waved. “Are you growing more dryads?”

The wisp hovered towards him. “Dryads? No, they are born naturally from the trees. These are Sprigans.”

“Yeah? But they look exactly like a dryad would.”

The wisp expanded. “They are not! Sprigans are made not born.” It shrunk to a normal size further explaining. “Dryads serve the Forest Spirit and the Sprigans will serve me.”

This sounded like an important distinction. “Growing a personal army then?” he asked half-jokingly.

“Yes! That is correct.” The wisp pulsed excitedly.

“You’re growing scarier by the day…” As far as he could see the place was filled with unmoving Sprigans. “How many are there?”

“Nature always grows, adapts and overcomes. There is about a thousand.” The wisp expanded in pride.

He whistled at the number. “And what are your plans for this army?”

“They will protect me. Do my bidding. Just like I serve The Forest Spirit, they will serve me.” The wisp explained.

“Hmm… your bidding. Like take out the humans if they attack?”

“Exactly, but there are others who would seek us harm.”

He looked at the wisp meaning to ask who.

“Elves.” The wisp answered unasked. “Other elves from other forests. They are envious of this forest. Of the power I have obtained.”

Or they were scared of what was happening here…

“I don’t think anyone will attack you as long as you have my spiders here.”

“That is to be seen. Now King of Spiders, observe and learn.” The wisp flew to the middle of the Sprigans. “My friends, gather," it commanded. Squirrels jumped from the trees and other hiding places gathering right below the wisp. He had never seen so many squirrels gathered in one place, it was almost scary, but also very cute; they all were very fluffy.

“Friends help me in my quest to defend this forest. Join me and my will, [Claim].” The wisp spoke in a loud commanding voice, and the trees shook with each word. Motes of green light exploded from the wisp showering the rodents. And then something scary happened, all of the squirrels collapsed like puppets with their strings cut. Orbs of light flew out of their motionless bodies and then towards the wisp. The souls swirled around the wisp making a whirlpool of rainbow-coloured light “I made you new bodies: bigger, stronger, better. Go, go, go and have a pick. [Spirit Seed].” It commanded and the souls obeyed merging with the statues.

The statues began to pull their feet out of the ground and started ripping the roots off of themselves. Their eyes opened giving a glowing green glow. The Sprigans turned around to inspect themselves and one another. They touched their wooden bodies, they flailed their hands happily and moved their legs to dance. The Sprigans seemed happy about the change.

The wisp flew back towards the King. “It worked.” It sounded happy.

“Was there a chance it… Never mind. Congratulations!”

The wisp buzzed a command to the Sprigans and they began to disperse.

“Did you manage to learn anything?” The wisp asked.

“Ha, no.” He laughed it off. “I don’t think I would ever be able to pull something like this. I didn’t understand half of it.”

“Do not sell yourself short. I think you have the skills necessary. The ritual, however, might need to be different.”

“Really. What would I need?”

“A body and a willing soul. Of course, you start with one and not a thousand.”

“It’s not like I can harvest souls and command them.”

The wisp pulsed as if confused. “Dark Mages have ways for that. Don’t you have a Devouring Spear?”

“Wait… yeah I do. You reckon I could store and release souls using my spear?”

The wisp pulsed again. “Why else did you craft it.”

“Hmm… but even then, Dark Magic eh? Displacing souls; wouldn’t it end up looking like necromancy? Isn’t it something evil to do?”

“Nature Magic, Dark Magic neither are good nor evil, those are only tools; both can reanimate a corpse. What is wrong with using something that was discarded, giving a soul a new chance? Another demonstration perhaps? Just place the spear in the ground.”

He did as asked, the wisp flew towards the weapon and circled it a couple of times.

“Ah, not one of mine, a centipede, good.” It stopped to hover right above the tip. “It wants another chance at life. Let’s grant its wish. [Claim]” The spear glowed in red and then dispensed a red shiny orb of light. “Now for a new body. This is just a demonstration and this one doesn’t seem to be too bothered so this will do.” Vines emerged from the ground digging something out from the depths. It was a skeleton of a deer. “Let’s fix this up a bit. [Living Vines]” Green vines replaced the missing muscles and tendons giving the ‘deer’ a fuller shape. “And now [Spirit Seed]”. The red orb flowed towards the vine deer to inhabit the soulless construct. A spark of red light appeared in once-empty eye sockets, the vine deer stood up and darted deeper into the forest. “See, it’s quite simple.” Nothing about this looked simple.

“Can you control the deer?” He asked curiously.

“No. It has free will.” The wisp pulsed. “It was just a demonstration.”

It seemed dangerous to let the vine deer off like that, after all, it was a merciless killer then it was a centipede, but he assumed the wisp knew what it was doing.

“And the Sprigans?” He asked curious.

“I can command them. For command, you need to make elaborate bodies. And in all Nature soul rituals, the soul needs to be willing.” The wisp stressed. “Dark rituals might have different limitations.” It added a side remark.

“I see. But I don’t have Claim or Spirit Seed.”

“Dark Magic must have the equivalent options. We don’t know the details but you should be able to figure it out; the technique must be very similar.”

“I guess I’ll have to practise?”

“Yes!” The wisp expanded. “Practise and repetition is the mother of learning.” It shrunk back. “Now then I must go, the forest needs me.”

“Wait, just a sec.” He pulled a green stone out of the inventory. “Do you know where I could get more of these?”

“If you killed my Sprigan they would drop something similar. Please don’t do it.”

“Can’t you make them?”

The wisp flew closer to the stone. “Yes, this one was made. At a terrible cost. I sense a tree spirit trapped in it. I’ll never make things like that. May I?” It didn’t wait for a reply and simply destroyed the stone with a blast of mana.

It was funny how the wisp practised the equivalent of necromancy but making spirit stones was a big no-no. And now, he had no samples of said stone. “I kind of needed it.”

“It was a foul thing, made by humans!” The wisp buzzed angrily. “But if you need Nature attribute I can give you some of my sap. Crystalise it and it will be just as good as Nature Spirit Stone, no need to trap souls.”

“Wow, really? You won’t mind?”

“I’m a big tree, a drop or two won’t matter much. Please visit my trunk on your way back. Now I must go, Sprigans need our guidance.” The wisp flew into the distance.

He grabbed his spear. “Do I really want to meddle with the souls?” The question was still on his mind.