Lotus Year 87
After the end of the enchantment I looked hopefully at my latest creation, unlike my previous failed attempts that resulted in a lot of magical scrap, this new creation seems to have become a "success".
Dragging my roots towards the mysterious item, I soon come across a kind of medallion made from scraps of various metals fused into a kind of amalgam, in the center of the mysterious medallion there is an irregularly shaped stone that glows intensely with a strong blue while emitting a faint aura of power and energy that was very familiar.
At first I was afraid to touch the thing, since from my previous experiences I knew that these things could be dangerous, and the image of a certain very unpleasant red jewel came into my mind when thinking about the results of using this thing.
But my curiosity and hunger for knowledge are insatiable, the solidity of this cave would have driven me crazy if it weren't for my constant search for answers and knowledge. Life becomes way to peaceful and boring when you are a plant who only goals in life are to survive, time is my greatest ally, but at the same time it can be my worst and most feared enemy, the idea of spending millennia alone, only limited to talk whitfish and my water reflections make me tense.
I guess that's why I've never chased away the horned men, I don't like them messing with my pond, or absorbing the energy I've worked hard for years to earn. But I have to admit that since your arrival life seems more lively, there is more emotion, more feeling and more purpose?
Seeing their mundane efforts day after day is where I find my greatest entertainment, they work hard and live their lives seeking their past glories, all for the end of the day to end up worn out by the hard work of keeping the village safe and functioning.
They effort is intriguing to me, I value my home a lot of course, since after my level up I ended up "rooting" myself in this place for the rest of my life, so I do everything in my power to make this place the safest and most prosperous place possible.
But the men with horns are different, they always want more, they want bigger things, better houses, better clothes, more weapons, more people, more status, more power, everything they can get their hands on.
Everyone pretends they don't see, but I see. I know that this socially peaceful state of the village will not last for long, the "nobles", who are nothing more than nobles in their names and appearances, are moving in silence to try to influence the village to return to its "normal" state, that is, a monarchy where the most "fit" sit on the throne.
The problem with this is clearly the princess, but she married that commoner, so there are people in the village who think it's normal to accept the golden princess as their "absolute leader", accompanied by her trophy husband, while the nobles like the married man with the pink-haired woman, who I call Sullen, and the man with bronze skin, who I call Zer, they think that the most suitable person would be the strongest person, who conveniently is the most manipulable guy in this village at the moment.
The man with purple hair and yellow eyes, I call him Zan, he is a strong guy for sure, in his apse I have already seen him cutting one of the meat amalgamations into 2 pieces as if it were a block of butter, but after being rejected so openly by the princess he ended up entering a kind of circle of depression.
And the wrong people are putting wrong ideas into his confused head. I've been watching him for too long to know that he's not the type who would take out his frustration and hurt on others, he's a true "gentleman", even if he's very bad at social interactions. He is kind to the people around him, and has a firm hand when talking to someone who is trying to cause problems.
His only problem is that our enemies never wait to attack at the moment when you are most prepared, they wait for you to become fragile, confused and angry before trying to spread a bunch of shit on your head.
The nobles are sowing bad seeds in his mind, dark and evil ideas, they said good things like "You are the most qualified among us in this dark moment to guide us towards a better future", just to say a lot of crooked things like "If only you could have the princess for yourself, people would feel it's natural as day to follow you as the new king, if only that farmer would disappear...".
Some arrived with bad proposals, things like murder offers, intrigues or well-told slander, all to separate the princess from the farmer, and at the same time gain the "favor" of the future king. Zan is a good man, and always sees the malice behind this kind of offer, but lately I've caught him looking at the princess's house from afar, and looking at her husband with disgust, showing me that perhaps the words of the nobles with bad intentions are finally reaching Zan's heart.
Sometimes I think about interfering, about saying something for myself, and exposing this senseless madness. After all, no matter who will be the king or queen, in the end he will be forgotten in a few years, and the new king will be the next big thing.
But then I wonder, what for? Why should I bother interfering in their lives, why I have to tell them what's wrong and what's right? They clearly know the difference between good and evil, so if they choose to do evil things how can it be my fault when I already provide them with my protection?
I feel a little responsible for them, after all I have followed them for years, I saw the birth of every child in this village, I was present at every wedding, every time they prayed for my statue I was there to listen, but if I give one step and start dictating rules and interfering in their lives as I wish, this would end up becoming a nuisance very quickly, so even though I am partly responsible for them, I don't feel motivated enough to really interfere with something so trivial.
And sincerely? What's the worst thing that could happen here? Can the princess's husband die? Yes, but who cares, several of them have died over the years, whether from petty fights, protecting the village, in tragic accidents, or from illnesses and injuries.
People die, and no death is special, the only thing that changes is the way and reason why they died, this adds meaning, adds "value" to a death, but it does not change the fact that death is always forgotten at the eyes of time.
If the princess's husband dies, she will probably suffer a lot, maybe after a while she will marry again, maybe to Zal this time, maybe not, the death of her beloved and the need of power to protect her child could give her the courage and motivation to become the queen that her people want her to be, or it can sink her into a pit of meaningless sadness and mourning.
The only certainty I have is that I don't care, because it doesn't change my life at all, whoever wins this petty and pathetic fight, I'm still alive, well and powerful.
Dragging my roots towards the strange medallion, upon touching the item I soon feel some kind of strange mana vibration, like a tingling near my roots, so instinctively I push some of my mana towards the object, and then I feel something strange, like a kind of mana attunement between me and the item.
Warning
Congratulations! The user had perfectly ttuned to a talisman!
Item
-={Talisman: Scrap Heilor}=-
Ability: {Timed Adaptation} : As long it remains linked to the user, the talisman will grant once per week a temporary randon skill based on the [Water] element. The temporary skill will last 7 days after the activation, until the beginning of the next day where the process will restart again.
Passive: Grants higher level affinity with the [Water] element.
'What?!'
Looking at the thing up close, I felt the need to rub my non-existent eyes just to see if I was seeing right, my first attempt was not just a success, it was a huge success!
Lifting the item with my roots, I try to activate it by pumping mana inside, in response the item begins to excitedly suck my energy in big waves, until reaching a point where it had consumed a lot of energy above what was initially planned.
'Is this serious?!'
In the end, I ended up needing to empty 1/3 of my mana reserves, which is absurd considering that the item doesn't even seem to be all that, but soon I feel the item "activating" and for a moment I feel information starting to come to me and appearing in my head as if it were a memory that appeared suddenly.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Skill
[Scald]
Create a stream of boiling water that can be controlled
'Interesting....'
I wasn't at all impressed with the skill itself, because boiling water is useless to me, maybe I can use it as a weapon, but I believe that decapitating someone with a blade of water is much more efficient than burning them with boiling water.
But what interested me most was the fact that the item only used a small part of all the mana that I injected into it to activate its effect, which made me very relieved, since if it took so much energy for such a weak skill I would be disappointed.
'With the amount of energy I supplied to the item, I believe it can generate new temporary skills for at least a year...'
One new skill per week doesn't seem like a bad deal to me, the problem is that the skills seem to be random and weak. Maybe it's because of the low quality of the relic, or because of my low [Luck] status, I can't say exactly, but I still liked the result.
'Can I create a bunch of these things?'
The idea of creating a bunch of items like that crossed my mind, but soon I remembered something that is a fact in the village. Everyone has just one "amulet", some carry other jewelry with their amulets, but everyone only has one of them, why? Is it a question of culture, resources, or is there a greater reason not to stuff yourself with powerful, stolen artifacts like this?
'I need to find out!'
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A few more days passed, I was on my way to create a new ritual to try to create a new talisman, the preparations are time consuming due to their complexity, the magical circles that I carved on the cave floor needed to be redone or repaired after every attempt due to wear and tear of the magical inscription.
At the same time I needed to select the best materials I had to guarantee the ritual's chance of success, in addition to things like the time and mana concentration in the region that needed to be in ideal conditions.
At first I thought that Selene performed these rituals at night for cultural reasons or something, but after years of observing the creation of the ritual I discovered that Selene was actually performing the rituals at night to increase her chances of success.
I had never noticed this before, but the concentration of mana in the lake is slightly more concentrated at night, I don't know exactly why, maybe it has something to do with my species as a lunar nymph, or something to do with my skills and abilities any of its properties spacifica.
As a plant I really enjoy bathing in the sunlight, it is comforting and refreshing, it makes me feel refreshed and healthy, but I must admit that bathing in the moonlight on a full moon day brought me a feeling of joy and tranquility that It made me feel at peace with the world.
But that was years ago, now all I have are dirty, menacing demonic clouds, they make the sky ugly with their gloomy appearance, contaminate the air with their stench of flesh and blood, and contaminate these lands with their rare demonic rains.
Returning to the ritual, soon I have everything prepared, just lacking large amounts of mana to activate the ritual, something that made me excited at the same moment.
'I burned a lot of mana creating and activating the last talisman... I don't think it's a wise idea to spend more mana for now...'
My reserves are still relatively high, but if I spent more mana on creating a new talisman and activating it, then my reserves would end up at a critical level.
Thinking about the advantages and disadvantages, I therefore give up on the ritual for now, creating a new cool item is not more important than maintaining my safety. Looking at the meticulously prepared preparations, I can do nothing but take a mental sigh, and start putting everything back together for when my mana reserves are at their highest.
'What a waste of time...'
After tidying everything up, I despondently dragged my roots back to my little magical lake inside the cave, looking up while being distracted by the lake's marine life.
In recent years things have become livelier around here again, I discovered that with my skill [Aquatic Allies] I could summon a wide variety of sea animals, and not just a bunch of colorful axolotls.
Depending on the amount of mana offered by the skill, and my desires, I could influence the summoning of some different creatures.
I can summon shrimps, planaria, some cute little fish, slugs, frogs, jellyfish, enchia, some strange larvae, bloodsuckers and some insects that live only in water.
It's not a big deal, but I can guarantee the stability of a closed ecosystem with just the use of a skill, sometimes I wonder if this skill is creating these animals out of nowhere with mana, or if they are summoning them from somewhere.
Sea creatures are very useful, but unlike my elementals they are not loyal to me, nor can they grant me Xp, if I kill them myself they do not grant me any Xp, and if they kill themselves I also do not gain Xp that's why.
But all animals have some kind of "Favourability" towards me, so they feel more comfortable being close to my main body and if they are in a good mood they are happy to comply with my requests.
The shrimp and larvae are not very powerful, but they serve as the base of the lake's food chain, and some shrimp are quite tough, having shells so hard that they take on the appearance and texture of stones.
Planarians by themselves are useless, they just swim around all day and eat dirt from the lake, but these things make the vitality of axolotls seem like a bad joke.
Even if they are sliced or crushed into little pieces, these little things rebuild themselves and continue their lives as if nothing had happened, in addition to being super adaptable to all regions of the lake.
Some parts of the lake contain more mana than others, the bottom of the lake is where the greatest concentration of mana is located, and even though some animals want to stay in regions rich in mana they simply cannot, since having high amounts of mana in their bodies end up poisoning them over time.
But planarians simply don't care sbout it, they can live in areas full of mana or without any amount of mana without suffering any consequences.
But I still think my favorite creatures at the moment are the frogs that I summoned, unlike the normal frogs that lived in the lake some time ago, these new frogs have smoother bodies, yellow eyes, greenish and slimy skin with yellowish colored limbs.
The coolest thing about these frogs is that in their young phase they are super cute and friendly, living by hunting insects and small lake animals, but as they grow they become uglier and more wrinkled, even taking on a dark and threatening color. At this stage in their lives they would come out of the lake to cause trouble for the horned men, or they would burrow into the lake floor for the rest of their lives, where they would ambush any unsuspecting prey that was unlucky enough to get near them.
The little things are hated by the villagers, because they cannot be eaten due to their poisonous flesh, in addition to the fact that these creatures spoil crops and are seen trying to attack unsuspecting people.
The frogs seem to need more and more food as they grow, until it reaches a point where the fruits in the lake are not enough and the frogs go after something more substantial, like men with big, juicy horns.
But unfortunately for the frogs, the men with horns manage to crush the frogs without any problems, they then use their thick leather to make clothes and leather items while their meat and vices are used as fishing bait.
I like the frogs because they are the only really dangerous and lethal creatures in the lake, their saliva is hallucinogenic and their skin is covered with a poison that burns on contact with the skin. Are axolotls dangerous? Sure, if you're unlucky enough to run into a pack of hungry axolotls you're as good as dead, but these little guys prefer white meat, creatures with red meat don't "spark" their appetite the same way fish does.
There are also the enquias, treacherous little creatures that are capable of creating a small electrical discharge with their bodies, but they do not use this to hunt, only to defend themselves.
Speaking of axolotls, I think it's worth mentioning the fact that some people have adopted some axolotls as their pets. In the beginning when the horned men arrived here, everything was food, and axolotls were not left out of that list, but nowadays people have started to adopt some axolotls as their pets.
They are good trackers, as they have the ability to smell blood from kilometers away, their bites are almost always fatal and their impressive vitality makes them very good hunting animals.
Their only disadvantage is that they are not good runners, so they cannot maintain themselves during a chase, or escape quickly if necessary, which is understandable since they are mostly aquatic creatures.
As I admired my lake I soon felt something happening at the top of the lake, as my roots grow all over the place, I can tell where everyone is at every moment, so for me it was very easy to feel when Zan approached the lady's statue. from the source.
Zan had only come here once before, and that time he just looked at the statue silently with suspicion. But today he seemed more haggard, more fragile. And to my surprise, in the middle of the night surrounded only by the sparkles of the lake's flowers, Zan kneels in front of the statue and takes a deep breath, before finally starting to speak.
"Lady of the Fountain, guardian spirit of our village, I seek your guidance."
[Pauses, taking a deep breath]
"I stand at a crossroads, torn between two paths. One, is a dark deed that promises a brighter future for our people. The other, a path of honor and righteousness, but with uncertain outcomes for not only me, but for everyone under me guidance and protection."
Zan looks up with his amber eyes to look at the stone-carved face of a woman who had never answered him.
[his voice trembles]
"I don't know what to do. If I really do this, there's no coming back, I could secure the better out come for me and bring the village together as a whole for the difficulties we will encounter along our way, I would be the only one who would suffer from this for the rest of my life, but my people would prosper or years to come. But by doing this, i would be betraying my own morals and vow, staining my soul with the blood of an innocent."
Looking down Zan finds the lake, where the reflection of his tired face can be clearly seen.
"My heart tells me to do what is right, to uphold the values that my family told me. To protect the innocent and defend the weak, no matter the cost. But is it enough? Can honor and righteousness truly safeguard our future righ now?"
Zan looks hopefully at the statue, waiting for long minutes hoping for some sign, some indication of what he should do. The gentle flow of the fountain's water offers a soothing, almost melodic sound, calming his turbulent thoughts.
"What should i do? Do I follow my heart and trust in the path of righteousness, even if it means uncertainty and hardship? Or do I sacrifice my honor for the greater good, tainting myself for the sake of others?"
Zan waits again for answers, but nothing happens, defeated Zan just hangs his head in disappointment while trying to suppress his tears of uncertainty. After a brief moment, Zan stands up and looks at the statue one last time with tired and haggard eyes, before turning around and disappearing into the darkness of the night in the same way he had appeared before.
I thought about answering it, but for what? Does Zan really think there is any importance? His choices are too mundane for me to have to bother getting involved with them. He thinks himself noble, burdened by a great decision. But in truth, it is all so insignificant. His choice, whatever it may be, is but a drop in the vast ocean of existence.
He speaks of morals and what is right as if they are commodities to be traded. How quaint. Does he truly believe his small actions will alter the grand tapestry of fate?
Pathetic