While Deckard and I silently followed the mother mossbear together with a number of adults and young ones who had fought the northern eagle and were able to walk with us through the woods, one ridiculous thought kept coming back to my mind. Wouldn't it be damn cool to ride one of those mossbears? What faces would Lightfeather and Lord Wigram make upon seeing us on the backs of these beasts?

Like I said, ridiculous.

Of course, I didn't even dare ask.

If I learned anything, it was that beasts had their pride. The mossbears may have shown it less than the northern eagles, but even they were not spared this emotion, which troubled humans since ancient times. As with everything, having none was detrimental, and too much of it was all the more damaging.

And how did the mossbears fare in that regard? I'd say they did not suffer from a lack of it, nor were they too prideful like the northern eagles. That was a roundabout way of saying I had no clue, and it was hard to say how they would take my brilliant idea.

"Okay, I thought I wasn't going to ask, but I have to. What the heck are you thinking right now? Cause it sure as fuck looks to me like you want to cuddle those beasts. They're not your overgrown duster that you usually nuzzle," Deckard said, warning me not to try anything of the sort. Actually, it was the first time he'd spoken to me since we set off. Quite a bummer considering I had a ton of questions. When I thought about it, it was his fault that my thoughts veered off in this weird direction. If he had answered my question about what the hell the World Trees were, I would never have thought of riding a mossbear.

"Well, what's on your mind?"

"Things. Not your business." He already thought I was odd for just talking to those beasts, and admitting that I was thinking of riding on their backs would make me even weirder. Not to mention it was awkward to own up to it.

"Just don't forget where we are, okay?"

"Don't worry," I assured him, knowing he was much more on edge than I was. I chalked it up to his lifelong experience with beasts. Mine consisted mainly of interacting with cats, dogs, and pigeons. Occasional visits to the zoo and the animals locked in enclosures there had hardly given me the respect for beasts that I should have, and the people of Eleaden have grown up with it.

Actually, I was more afraid of people, strangers whose intentions could be anything but honorable. This social phobia of mine I blamed on a not-so-pleasant stay in the cellar. In any case, it was behind me, something I hoped never to return to and hated to remember.

"So, World Tree?" I asked, hoping to learn more this time than that it grew in the Elven Sacred Woods.

"Just an assumption, Little Beast. A wild guess. Wait till we see Wigram."

Yeah, that could take hours, maybe even days. We followed mother mossbear deeper into the woods, but nowhere was it said that wherever she led us to we would meet others.

"Come on, is it some kind of imperial secret that you won't tell me? If so, I'll understand. Is it dangerous to know?"

"No," he said with a sigh. "Look, I was just trying to remember everything I know about it and come up with something that would tell me it's not the World Tree growing in the middle of Esulmor. I would prefer not to jump to conclusions without checking with Wigram."

"You're making it sound like it's a bad thing."

"Honestly, it could be. It could give Esu more power."

"I sense the but..."

"The World Tree might well be an incredible opportunity for Sahal."

"Like the Empire would try to take it for themselves? I don't think Esu would like that."

"We agree on that. With the World Tree having his back, taking over Esulmor would cost the Empire too much. That's my opinion, though. I can't say what the bigwigs in the Empire will do. There are a lot of greedy bastards. But if played well, Sahal could benefit a lot from Esulmor without going to war with mossbears. And then there are the elves."

"Okay, are you going to tell me more or not?"

"I'd rather not."

"Oh, come on. Not knowing is killing me."

My plea made him chuckle. "Look, not that much is known about the World Trees, and I know even less. The elves guard the trees more than their children, so what is known about the trees is from rumors that have come to us across the Glistering Ocean at the west of Iawelles and historical records. Snippets pieced together."

"I see. The elves won't let anyone near them, is that right?"

"They hardly let anyone into their kingdoms. As far as I know, foreigners don't get farther than their port cities."

"Fear of other races?" If their people had suffered raids from slave traders, it wouldn't be strange.

"They, afraid of others? Ridiculous. It's the other way around. Other races are wary of them. Elves look down on us humans, drove the dwarves back to the seas, consider the gnomes to be an inferior race, and the terrans are nothing but beasts to them."

"So not a peace-loving race in harmony with nature?"

Deckard nearly burst out laughing. "Peace-loving? Where did you come up with that bullshit...oh, I forgot you aren't from around here. Let me tell you; they're anything but peace-loving."

It sure was hard to imagine the elves I knew as some warmongers. "What about the in-harmony-with-nature part? Don't tell me they are burning forests and destroying everything in their path."

"No, they're good with nature, in large part thanks to the World Trees."

"And those are...?"

"Big fucking trees."

"And that's it?"

"Hey, I've never seen one except in pictures."

"You seriously don't know more about them than that?"

My insistence made him sigh. "Sorry, Little Beast. I'm trying to get my head around it. Having one growing here is as exciting as it is alarming. It is said that the roots of those trees span the entire world, hence the name. Their bark, leaves, and sap are imbued with energy taken from all of Eleaden. But the most sought after are the fruits they bear. It's said to be imbued with so much life energy that a drop of its juice can bring the dead back to life. If you eat it whole, it will take you to the next class evolution no matter what level you are."

"That sounds a bit..."

"Exaggerated? Of course, it is. These are legends, and you know how those are. Based on truth, but quite often far from it. That's why I'm reluctant to say anything."

I got it. Deckard didn't want to give me the wrong idea about the World Tree, about the seed, but...

"...and the seed?"

"Every fruit has one in it. In fact, it should carry most of the energy the tree put into the fruit."

"For the growth, huh?" It made sense if it was supposed to grow into a tree whose roots spanned the world.

"If you say so. But the amount of mana it stores is the reason why it's so sought after. It's got so much power in it that it can run a city-wide barrier for decades, perhaps centuries."

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"More legends?"

Deckard nodded. "Take everything I said with a huge pinch of salt. As far as I know, no World Tree seed has ever appeared in Iawelles."

None on this continent? Interesting. "It doesn't have the conditions for growth here, or is it because of the elves?"

"The latter. Each tree bears only one fruit per year, and so the bastards won't let it leave their kingdoms. You see, there are eleven World Trees whose roots gave rise to the Itane, the land between the roots. The first one and the ten that came from its fruits. Every tree except the first is under the control of one of the elven kingdoms. Ten kingdoms eager to take control of each other's trees. You can imagine that neither of them wants the other to control more trees, so they keep each other in a stalemate. They simply cannot afford to show weakness and let something as precious as the fruit of the World Tree out of their hands."

First of all, as it turned out, the World Tree was not as rare as I thought. There was not just one specimen growing on Eleaden, but eleven and now quite possibly the twelfth. And while the World Trees held great significance for the elves, it was a slightly different meaning than I would have imagined. One question nagged at me, though.

"Why don't they just grow more?"

"That's something I can't answer," he said with a shrug.

"Then, how did the seed get here?"

"Right? It shouldn't be possible. That's why I'm reluctant to say it's a World Tree. Eleaden is a vast world, shrouded in mystery and riddled with forgotten history. You never know what you will stumble upon. That's what the old man once told me."

Given his tone, I knew that he spoke of the late Lord Egerton, the general under whom he served and who had basically raised him.

"Well, if it goes as mother mossbear said, we'll know tonight," I said, looking up at the darkening sky. Soon the setting sun in the sky would be replaced by two moons of Eleaden. If only the sky wasn't hidden for us under the dense canopy of trees.

"You know what, Little Beast. You're right. This is completely out of our hands. It's going to happen anyway, so why sweat it," Deckard said as his laid-back attitude kicked back in. Honestly, it was a nice change. It made me feel like not everything went to hell. "Better to focus on what you can control, so what about your stats? You leveled up, anything else?"

He said it like it was no big deal, but I got two levels. Two fucking levels. I was still trying to get my head around the fact. To be honest, this double level-up was the real reason for my earlier musing about pride. I felt it welling up in my chest as I read the notifications. It made my instincts go wild. Two levels, and the night wasn't over yet. I was on a roll. Who-hoo. But it also raised my fears of it being my downfall. So I tempered my glee, and I took a more rational approach.

How the hell was that possible! Two levels?! What the actual fuck! I was just running around trying to survive, nothing more.

My first thought was that I had once again complied with Deckard's and the others' orders when I managed to reach Esulmor, before I realized I was no longer a Slave.

So, how?

Class mattered, and now I was a Deviant, a Deviant of Humanity. The essence of this class was to push beyond human limits, and that's what I did. I may not have used any of the skills and abilities my body had to offer, but I gave in to the beast inside me and pushed my limits further than I ever had before.

In fact, I was still in my tier three beast form.

There were several reasons for it. Even though we were out of danger, I wanted to be prepared in case things went south. Then there were the other beasts. I had a feeling that they felt more at ease around me when I was in this form. Of course, I could have been wrong. And last but not least, shifting back and forth was exhausting. Now that all the buffs had worn off, I was on my own.

Just plain old Korra Grey, Human/Beast hybrid.

Name: Korra Grey

Race: Human/Beast

Gender: Female

Age: 29

Main Class: Deviant of Humanity

Sub Class: Slave

Level: 100 -> 102

Constitution: 102 (39)

Strength: 60 (25)

Endurance: 33 -> 34 (26 -> 27)

Dexterity: 31 -> 33 (24 -> 25)

Intelligence: 23 (12)

Wisdom: 21 (11)

Captain Rayden thought I was a great fit for a tank position in the squad. Well, she was probably right. However, that didn't mean I had to be the kind of tank that just stands still in the face of the enemy waiting for the blow to land. Hence the Dexterity. On the other hand, the choice of Endurance was in response to my beast change and the overall escape from the northern eagle. Becoming breathless in such a situation could be fatal.

Plus, I expected both stats to increase as [Striving Mule] and [Dancer's Stride] grew.

Speaking of my skills, most of them leveled up during my frantic escape. It was mind-boggling how much this dreadful experience gave me compared to a full day's training. Of course, that didn't mean I was going to ditch my training with Deckard and go charging at the next beast I met. Without the training and what I've learned throughout it, I would have known the mercy of the northern eagles long ago.

Class Skills (8/8):

Indomitable Will (Passive V): lvl 121

Master’s Shield (Active II): 20 -> lvl 23

Behemoth (Active I): lvl 9

Wrought Hide (Passive I): lvl 2 -> 6

Unbending Resilience (Passive I): lvl 2 -> 5

Fierce Pounce (Active I): lvl 7

Mantle of Magic (Active I): lvl 5

Call of Nature (Passive I): lvl 2 -> 7

General Skills (10/10):

Eleaden Standard Language (Passive I): lvl 6 -> 7

Perfect Equilibrium (Passive II): lvl 24 -> 26

Spatial Domain (Passive II): lvl 26 -> 28

Beast (Passive III): 31 -> lvl 34

Never-Dying (Passive III): lvl 41 -> 42

Tail of Poison Empress (Active II): lvl 14

Heart of Magic (Passive I): lvl 9

Striving Mule (Passive I): lvl 9

Dancer’s Stride (Passive II): lvl 13 -> 15

None to Squander (Passive I): lvl 8

Alas, [Striving Mule] whose level-up and subsequent tier-up I was hoping for didn't come. If I had to say, the buffs that Lord Wigram and the soldiers put on me were to blame. Not even an hour ago, I was still brimming with energy thanks to them and therefore didn't have to dig so deep into my stamina.

The whole night was upon us, though. And if my training with the young mossbear was still valid, then the time when I hit rock bottom and had to push my limits once again was surely coming.

But first things first.

It took us a while on foot, but we arrived at a quite familiar clearing. You could say that a lot had changed here for me. In this clearing, I had accepted my new nature, was accepted as a pup of the biggest beast I've ever seen, and it was essentially here that Deckard decided to take me on as his apprentice.

However, the sheer existence of this treeless area in the middle of the woods raised the question of why the mossbear had kept it here at all when they could have easily let the place get covered with trees.

A couple of theories came to mind.

It may well have been one of the meeting grounds for them or just for dealing with humans. Then there was the prospect of it being their sort of arena where the mossbears tested their strength against each other. In any case, when we emerged at the edge of the clearing, Lord Wigram, his carriage, and his escort were already there.

That gave me pause. After all, it didn't make a whole lot of sense that they got here before us. Then my eyes fell on the horses. Unlike the two of us, they still had theirs. Deckard’s stallion and Jewel lost their lives out there outside the woods.

As painful as the memory of the mare who taught me to ride was, not seeing Lightfeather among those present hit me no less hard. It shouldn't. I barely knew her. But maybe that was it. She was one of the few people I met here in this strange world and losing any of them hurt. Even more so if it was a friend like Pip was.

Calming my pounding heart and troubled mind, I just hoped that the little squirrel, the rascal hiding in her pocket, had escaped the same fate.

"Is that you, Grey?" a familiar voice came from my right. There, leaving the dense bushes under the trees, Lightfeather and two female soldiers walked toward us. "It is you, isn't it?" she asked while still adjusting her uniform pants.

Not wanting to squeal with joy and act like a little girl, I simply gave her a nod as she would have struggled to understand my growl. Or so were my first thoughts overwhelmed with relief upon seeing her. The woman was a beast talker, though. She was here with Lord Wigram as a translator for mossbears. What if?

"It's me, Korra," I let out a growl, waiting for her reaction.

"Shit! This is weird," she said, astonished, and quickened her pace towards me, oblivious to the beasts that walked with us. Unlike her, the two women behind her were more wary of them.

"Shouldn't you, you know...?" I gestured to the mother mossbear, who was paying little attention to our exchange. "...show some respect?"

She waved me off. "Nah. Right now, there's no need."

“W-what? What are you talking about?"

“The point is not to show disrespect.”

"Major,” Deckard said while Lightfeather eyed my beast form. “Good to see you in one piece."

"You too, Deckard..." she said, thinking about something out of her reach before she turned her gaze back to me. "I thought you were blown to shreds."

"W-what...oh, that was the horses."

"Yeah, I figured," she said, motioning to the two of us.

My eyes fell on her breast pocket, clearly empty. "What about Pip?"

"Don't worry about her. That rascal is already running around in the antlers of one of the mother mossbears. I told you she always gets her way."

I chuckled. "You did."

"Anyway, you have a lot to learn, Grey."

"About what?"

"When it is necessary to give beasts the respect they deserve or demand and when it would only annoy them," she said, shaking her head. "Really, really weird talking to you like this, but exciting. Anyway, come on, the Imperial Chief Healer should take a look at you."