Johann clung to Malek’s fur as they bounded across the branch, trying desperately not to fall off while the wolfhound evaded a large group of Aphids. The common understanding was that wolfhounds were only usable as mounts once they reached the second or even third tier. Malek was still first tier but under the effects of the [Empowered Companion] spell he was big and strong enough to support Johann’s weight without issue.
The two were currently racing towards their teammates. Yggdrasill was kind enough to supply Johann with their locations, though it could only do so the once. The rules of the Event were quite restrictive for Yggdrasill, keeping it from helping too much. The system favored balance above all so it wouldn’t allow any of the participants too much of a leg up.
Even with the restriction Johann was still forced to pay for the information, in this case he would have to forgo the reward for his first quest. Still, it was an easy trade since he would find it far easier to complete quests with his team behind him, and completing quests had just become far more interesting than he’d imagined.
One of the only pieces of information about the event that Yggdrasill could give for free was the existence of quest milestones. After 10, 25, 50 and 100 quests completed people would get a special reward, with the Yggdrasill fruits being the final reward.
Yggdrasill couldn’t say what the fruits were, but it heavily suggested that Johann work towards getting one, as it was something that didn’t exist anywhere else. Johann took the suggestion, and the level of emotion with which it was given, seriously.
Which led to Johann and Malek bounding over the branches, heading towards Mary. Torin and Gloria could handle themselves well enough, especially now that they had others to help them, but Mary was even more useless than he was without a team. To both Yggdrasill and his surprise the tree wasn’t able to locate Geoffrey, which meant he was most likely dead.
After getting past the group of Aphids Johann dismounted Malek, stretching a few times to loosen up his sore muscles before they continued. [Empowered Companion] was a useful spell but a mana hog, taking up far more mana per minute than Johann was able to generate, so Johann used it to get through large groups of enemies but spent the rest of the time on foot.
After eight hours of traveling Johann and Malek were approaching the main trunk. They’d traveled past hundreds of Aphids, a dozen Anteros and just barely managed to escape an Eviscerating Mantis thanks to a boosted [Empowered Companion] and liberal use of [Nature's Grasp] and [Icy Fog]. The man sized bug was perilously fast and had forearms that were essentially just magically sharp blades.
Johann was more grateful than ever that he had chosen [Icy Fog], without the spell’s flexibility and slowing effect Johann would never have been able to slow it down long enough for [Nature's Grasp] to trap it.
Still, that would be nothing now that they had gotten to the main trunk. Yggdrasill had managed to roughly outline the situation. Branches were relatively safe, with the danger ramping up exponentially until the main trunk.
The main trunk was the playground of monsters that could kill Johann without even noticing. The lower you got on the main trunk the more dangerous it got, until you ended up in the roots, where there existed a monster that Yggdrasill warned would kill Johann with its mere presence.
Fortunately for Johann, he would not need to go down at all. Mary’s branch was near to his own, relatively speaking, though he would still have to travel a hundred miles to get there. The distance should have taken barely more than five hours but that would only be possible if the way was clear.
It was not.
Barely half an hour in and Johann was forced to weight hunker down and wait for a train sized Grootslang to pass by. An hour after that and he had to take a five mile detour around a small colony of bus sized tree frogs only to have to back track as his detour took him into a spider’s territory. Johann never saw the spider but, judging by the size of the webs, he definitely didn’t want to.
By the time Johann and Malek reached the base of Mary’s branch Johann was running on fumes. It had been over two days since he’d slept and constantly dipping into [Plant Attunement] to sense for nearby monsters had worn him down. Taking advantage of the safe zone around the branches beginning Johann slept.
Sadly, safe was a relative term. Malek woke him up after an hour having sensed an enemy approaching. Johann dipped into [Plant Attunement] for a moment before he jerked back out, immediately slamming into [Animal Attunement] and boosting Malek as much as he could.
The spell cost far more than normal but what Johann saw through [Plant Attunement] spooked him. The monster that Malek had sensed wasn’t an ordinary monster. Johann couldn’t sense any specifics, but he could sense the aura of rot surrounding it. A monster with a Tier two aura surrounding it was at least tier three and could easily kill the two of them.
Fortunately, it seemed Johann had reacted in time. As the two of them sped off along the branch Johann took a peak backwards, spotting a pitch black stag beetle the size of Malek standing where they had been resting.
It was fortunate that Johann had looked back as he was in time to see the beetle form a sickly green ball of swirling energy above its horns. Still attuned to the animal realm Johann was able to send a message to Malek in a split second, the wolfhound immediately banking right as hard as he could without throwing Johann off.
It was almost not enough. The ball sped through the air deceptively fast before landing in a spot that Johann and Malek would have occupied if they’d kept their original trajectory. The ball of swirling energy exploded with a soft whumpf, the energy erupting in a cloud of gas the same color as mold.
Malek ran directly away from the cloud as Johann spammed his [Icy Fog] spell, pouring out as much magic as he could to try and slow down the expansion. At its zenith the spell’s boundaries came far, far too close, but after some seconds that felt like hours the putrid green slowed and stopped.
Johann almost breathed a sigh of relief when Malek suddenly collapsed under him with a yelp and sent him tumbling through the air. Caught unprepared Johann crashed into the ground, the bark scraping at his skin. Blood welled up from a dozen cuts but Johann didn’t even notice, the entirety of his attention focused on Malek.
The wolfhound was curled up, clearly in immense pain though Johann wasn’t sure why, until he saw Malek’s tail. The tip was the same color as the stag beetle’s spell, and it was slowly creeping up Malek’s tail.
Johann froze for a second, fear welling up in him as he saw the tinge of rot advancing, but he shook himself out of it. Switching his attunement to plant Johann began pumping attuned mana directly into Maleks tail. The vibrant plant mana fought valiantly against the encroaching rot, but the tier three spell proved too strong against the aimless plant mana. Without a spell to direct it any healing was coincidental.
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Panic threatened to overwhelm Johann. He couldn’t lose Malek, not now and not like this. Tears started to spill as he pumped as much mana as he could while desperately trying to think of a situation.
His hands shaking and his mana channels screaming Johann suddenly thought of something he could do, though he didn’t want to. Taking a deep breath Johann stopped channeling plant mana. The rot immediately sped up but Johann could think about it. Quickly attuning to the animal realm Johann cast [Mana Bolt], empowering the spell with animal mana. As it released Johann focused on the part of Malek’s tail just above the rot.
The spell tore into Malek’s flesh. In a way Johann was fortunate, if the rot had hit any other part of Malek then his muscles and bones would be too thick. His tail was much thinner, thin enough for the attuned [Mana Bolt] to tear through it. Johann grabbed Malek and yanked, getting the whimpering wolfhound as far from the rot infested tail as possible.
As soon as the rot reached the severed part of the tail and completely covered the entirety of the tail piece the spell began to truly devour the tail, the flesh putrefying and turning to sludge while the bones blackened and cracked. The process was horrifying to watch and Johann almost threw up at the thought of that happening to Malek.
Malek managed to stop whimpering. The pain of his amputated tail was still there but without the bolts of pure agony coming from the rot it was far better. He still couldn’t move though, between the rot and [Empowered Companion] his body had been pushed way past its limits and now that the immediate danger was over he was paying the price.
Johann couldn’t rest though. They were out of the immediate danger but they were nowhere near safe yet. The beetle wasn’t coming onto the branch for whatever reason but it could still attack them. Plus, there was still the branches ‘boss’ monster. It had likely been scared off by the appearance of the beetle but that wouldn’t last long.
Johann forced his tired body up over to Malek. Lifting the wolfhound onto his shoulders Johann was once again grateful for the hellish training Sergei had put them through. Without it there would have been no way that Johann could’ve moved around at more than a slow jog while carrying a fully grown wolfhound. Taking advantage of the dips in the bark Johann kept moving further up the branch, keeping an eye out for the beetle and an ear out for any other monsters.
As it turned out, all the sneaking was completely unnecessary. During their mad dash Johann and Malek had managed to move around to the underside of the branch and out of sight of the beetle. As for the boss monster, Johann heard it long before he saw it.
At first Johann thought he was hearing thunderous roars but as he got closer Johann realized what he was actually hearing. Moving closer Johann finally caught sight of what was making the noise. A large bear-like creature with long arms and claws as long as Johann was tall lay on its back snoring so loudly that the miles wide branch was actually shaking. It was only a little but it was still an impressive feat.
Johann just stood there for a moment, staring at the hill sized bear, before Malek nudged him with his nose. Shaken from his awe Johann began walking, trying to make as little noise as possible. It felt a little redundant when he couldn’t even hear himself think past the snoring, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Johann wasn’t even out of range of the snoring when he spotted Mary running towards him. Johann was stunned and almost shouted out before a bone rattling snore reminded him why that was a bad idea. Instead he waved, though that seemed unnecessary as Mary was already running directly towards him.
“Johann, it is wonderful to see you, are you okay?” As soon as Mary arrived she began speaking, much to Johann’s consternation.
“Mary, shhhh!” Johann whispered urgently.
Mary frowned. “Why, and what happened to Malek?”
“That noise you’re hearing is the sound of a monster the size of a hill about a mile back.” Johann spoke in a low voice, realizing that perhaps it was far enough not to have to whisper.
Mary’s eyes widened. “Is that what happened to Malek, the monster attacked?” Mary spoke in a much quieter voice.
Johann shook his head. “No, that happened when we got to the branch, some kind of Rot based stag beetle. Speaking of, could you heal Malek. He was caught in an attack and I had to chop off part of his tail.” As he spoke Johann gently lay Malek down.
Mary knelt beside Malek, the wolfhound giving her hand a lick. Mary’s eyes glowed as she used [Inspect Patient] to observe the wounded tail while asking Johann to relay everything that happened. After hearing the full account and asking a few questions Mary spoke.
“I can potentially regrow his tail, but I wouldn’t recommend it. I’m still a novice, cuts and bruises are pretty much my limit, regenerating limbs like this is an extremely difficult and delicate task. I’d need to use a specific spell to analyze his body map and grab the information relating to the tail before using another spell to regenerate the bones, muscle and skin. The second part requires a lot of time and mana but it’s the first that worries me. If I grab the wrong information I risk seriously mutating his tail and leaving him in a far worse state than he is now.”
Johann was stunned. “Seriously? Wait, what’s the body map?”
“The body map is a map for how the body is supposed to grow, stored in every cell of the body. It’s actually got some long, annoying name, but most healers call it the body map. For most healing it’s not needed but when you’re trying to regenerate limbs, or tails, you need it.”
“I have the spell needed to access the body map but I have barely any practice using it and zero practice using it on a wolfhound. It would be like trying to find a specific type of hammer in a smithy without even knowing what a hammer looks like. The best thing to do would be to heal the stump and get him to a professional Regenerator as soon as possible, they are healers specializing in regenerating limbs.”
Johann was at a loss, he’d never known how complex healing was. “Alright, let’s do that.”
Mary ran her hand over Malek’s tail, casting [Numb Nerves] and then [Basic Heal]. The first was a skill her Mentor taught her and it was superfluous yet incredibly useful. Most healing left people with terrible itching, as if ants were crawling inside their skin, but [Numb Nerves] removed that feeling.
With the healing out of the way Malek fell asleep, exhaustion catching up with him. Johann and Mary sat down nearby, pulling out food and drink from Johann’s ++. That was another reason for Johann tracking down Mary first; the rest of the team had ++’s but Mary didn’t.
As they ate they exchanged stories. Johann spoke about his conversation with the tree, Yggdrasill, and his subsequent trek. Mary had apparently felt Johann’s presence through the Plant realm, but for some reason had never noticed Yggdrasill. Johann knew why but he didn’t say. His trait boosted [Plant Attunement] was the only reason he could bear Yggdrasill’s presence, The tree hiding it’s presence from everyone else to spare their minds.
Mary went on to say that she traveled down the branch towards them when she felt Johann getting close and started running when she felt them in danger. She tried to apologize for arriving too late but Johann admonished her. There was nothing she could have done against a tier three monster and Malek could only carry one person at a time, her presence would only have made matters worse.
The two of them lapsed into silence, Malek’s faint snores and the monsters heavy ones providing an odd soundtrack. After a few moments Mary broke the silence.
“So, what’s the plan?” Mary asked.
“Simple” Johann said. “Find Torin and Gloria and then complete as many quests as possible as quickly as possible.”
Mary frowned. “That does sound simple, but I’m not sure it will be. We need rest, Malek especially, and by the time we’re ready to move Gloria and Torin could have moved on.”
Johann shook his head. “I really doubt it. The branches have plenty of quests to do and the trunk is extremely dangerous, there’s no reason to wander off. Besides, the plan if any of us are lost is to stay put and wait for me to find you through [Plant Attunement].”
Mary thought it over. “I see. Yes, you are right. I am sure they wouldn’t go off anywhere, even with all the treasure and monsters.”
Johann nodded before what Mary said struck him. Thinking about it, he suddenly felt a lot less sure of himself.