After a night filled with fitful sleep, Elijah woke to a world of pain twisting through his stomach. He clutched at his midsection and, as cramps assailed him, heaved the meager contents of his stomach onto the ground beside him. There was precious little there – mostly liquid, in fact, which gave him some clues as to what had happened. The water he’d drunk the evening before had obviously been contaminated.
“Stupid,” he muttered, thinking back to his decision to drink the water without even trying to boil it. But in his defense, he didn’t really have the means to start a fire. And until he’d found the cabin, he hadn’t had anything in which to boil any water he managed to collect. For a healthy person, the tainted water might not have been that impactful, but his immune System had been devastated by the deadly combination of cancer, chemotherapy, and radiation, and despite the effects of his increased attributes, he clearly wasn’t fully recovered.
Once his stomach stopped twisting and turning, Elijah sat up and closed his eyes. The pain was still there, but he needed to move past it. He had plenty of experience in that arena, what with everything he’d been through while fighting his disease, so it wasn’t that difficult to concentrate on the ball of energy in his chest. With an effort of will, he mentally embraced the Ethera in his core, grasping at it with his consciousness.
The shock was like dunking his entire mind in frigid water. Or molten lava. It was difficult to tell the difference, the feeling was so intense. However, he pushed past that shock, wrapped his core in his willpower, and pulled. As he did so, he muttered, “Touch of Nature.”
His hand lit up with verdant energy, and when he laid it on his rebellious stomach, the spell flowed forth and back into his body. For only an instant, Elijah could follow its path, but soon, it left his perception behind. However, a few seconds later, he felt the spell take hold as it healed the damage inflicted by whatever parasite had twisted his stomach into knots.
The spell only lasted for a few moments, but by the time the green energy dissipated, Elijah felt better than he had since before being diagnosed. He wasn’t so naïve as to think that his little spell could cure cancer; based on how long it had taken to heal his legs, he suspected that it didn’t have nearly enough power to do that. Instead, it felt like confirmation that the attribute points that he’d allocated into Constitution had been well spent.
Was he cured?
He had no idea, but he intended to investigate it further. Even if he hadn’t been completely healed, he’d made progress. And for now, that was enough to give him a jolt of optimism and energy.
So, with streams of morning sunlight cutting through the forest’s dense canopy, Elijah pushed himself to his feet and stretched aching muscles. Whatever benefits he’d gotten from Touch of Nature, it had done nothing to counteract the effects of sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. Not that he would complain too much. Not only was he alive, but he had access to magic.
Plus, there was still that slight tingle in the air giving him a trickle of energy and a sense of belonging. He didn’t quite feel at home, but he wasn’t nearly as distressed as being stranded in the wilderness should have made him.
After a few minutes of stretching, Elijah thought back to the simple list of things he wanted to accomplish. The first part was to catalogue everything he’d found in the ruined cabin. It was all trash, but in the wilderness, even garbage could be useful.
A rusted knife. A pot. And a few piles of wood. There was also a coil of rope, but it was so rotted that he wouldn’t trust it to hold even the meager weight of his cancer-ravaged body. Overall, it wasn’t much, but it was better than he could have expected. The pot, in particular, would be incredibly useful when he managed to start a fire.
Clutching the rusted knife in his hand, he arduously hacked off the shredded hems of his pants, carefully putting the cloth in his pockets where he hoped they would dry into decent tinder. It wasn’t a great idea, but everything else in the forest was perpetually damp. He had some other thoughts on how to get around that, but for now, he would take the steps he could and hope for better luck in the future.
With that done, he scoured the area around the cabin for a walking stick. Fortunately, a storm had come through sometime in the past few days, breaking plenty of limbs. So, Elijah had no difficulty finding a stout, mostly straight branch that could serve as both a walking stick and a means of protection from any nearby predators. Of course, he didn’t think he was going to fight them off. The best he could hope for was to use the stick to establish some distance before he ran away.
As he’d searched through the forest, though, Elijah got the distinct sensation that he was being watched. However, no matter how often or how quickly he turned, he saw nothing. Perhaps it was only his imagination playing tricks on him.
Or maybe some apex predator who’d been transformed alongside the rest of the planet was stalking him.
He shuddered at the thought. There were plenty of predators native to the Pacific Northwest. From bears to wolves and everything in between, they were dangerous enough before the influx of Ethera had transformed the planet. But if they’d been affected like the crabs? The last thing Elijah wanted to run into was a van-sized brown bear.
Regardless, he didn’t have much of a choice in the matter. If he was going to live – or maybe even thrive – he couldn’t just stay huddled in that ruined cabin. He needed kindling. He needed firewood and food. Otherwise, he might as well lay down and die.
So, marshalling his courage, Elijah set off into the woods. All the while, sticks and rocks stabbed him in the feet, but he ignored the discomfort. None of it drew blood, and he could always use Touch of Nature to heal any damage at the end of the day.
As he walked, he kept an eye out for reasonably dry sticks, picking them up when he stumbled upon them. He also kept a lookout for birch trees, hoping to use their bark for tinder. On that account, he was unlucky.
Still, he was fortunate enough to find some red bunchberries and a huge chanterelle mushroom. Elijah used the front of his shirt to carry them as he continued his exploration. That same feeling of being watched followed him through the forest until he finally broke free from the brush and into a wide meadow.
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The clearing was about two-hundred yards long and about half-again as wide, but it was completely clear, save for a single, huge oak tree that towered hundreds of feet into the sky. However, as impressive as that sight was, Elijah was more concerned with the wispy, white dandelions dotting the small prairie.
He couldn’t help but smile as he realized that he’d found his tinder. It wasn’t perfect, and he’d have to gather hundreds of the cottony white seeds, but there were plenty available. Gleefully, he crossed the meadow and began collecting his bounty, shoving the seeds into one of his pockets.
His happiness at finding such a ready supply of tinder was so intoxicating that he almost didn’t notice that the feeling of belonging that had suffused the entire forest had only grown stronger. But once he did, he immediately knew the source. He looked up at the tree towering over the meadow.
It called to him.
And before Elijah realized what was happening, he found himself stumbling across the meadow. When he reached the tree, he extended a trembling hand and laid it on the rough bark of its trunk. A soothing sensation filled Elijah’s entire body. Suddenly, his muscles relaxed. His mind cleared. And the fatigue that had been building from the moment he’d woken up fell away.
Then, he felt a presence.
“Hello,” came a high-pitched voice.
Elijah jerked his head up, and he saw…something growing out of the lowest branch. At first, he thought it was just another limb, gnarled as it was. However, as he looked closer, he saw that it had taken the shape of a tiny, six-inch tall person. That person, though, was made entirely of branches that had grown together. It had no defining features, and one of its wooden hands clutched at the trunk.
“Did I startle you?” asked the tree creature.
“Uh…n-no,” Elijah said, his voice hoarse from lack of use. “What…I mean…who are you?”
The creature cocked its head to the side as if thinking about Elijah’s question. Then, after a few seconds, it said, “I am the tree, and the tree is me. I only took this form so I could communicate with you.”
“Why? Not that I’m…ungrateful,” Elijah said. “It’s just that I’ve never spoken to a tree before.”
“A druid who does not speak to trees? How?” it said. Then, it leaned forward, never taking its arm from the trunk. “Ah – I see. You are very weak. New to power. Understandable. But this will not do. My protector cannot be so weak.”
“Protector?”
“Indeed,” said the tree. “You are a druid, and this is your Grove. Therefore, you must protect me.”
Elijah had no idea what to say to that. In fact, the whole encounter was so strange and unbelievable that he was unsure what to even think.
“I have decided to help you.”
“What? How?” he asked.
“Information,” the tree said. “Now, sit. I will guide you to your first breakthrough. It is not much, but it will give you a better chance of survival.”
“Breakthrough? What kind of breakthrough?” he asked, cursing his own ignorance. He didn’t know anything about the new form the world had taken, and that lack was going to get him killed. So, he decided to wring as much information from the tree as was possible.
“Cultivation, of course” said the tree creature. Somehow, even without any facial features, Elijah felt like the thing regarded him as something of an idiot.
“I have no idea what that means,” he said. “I saw it on my status sheet, but –”
“Heavenly Status,” said the tree.
“Uh…okay. My Heavenly Status, then,” Elijah corrected himself. “Anyway, I don’t know if you realize it, but this world just got…I don’t know…transformed, and there’s no manual or anything to tell me what’s going on.”
“A newly integrated world?” the tree said. “Of course. Now I remember. That is why the Ethera is so thin. It makes perfect sense.”
The tree creature sat down on the branch, then cupped its chin in one hand. “Hmm. So, you know nothing of the System? That is both a boon and a curse,” it said. “You have an opportunity to grow very powerful, but with that power will come responsibilities.” It looked up. “If you survive, of course.”
Elijah swallowed hard. He’d already surmised that the new world would be dangerous. If he had magic, then surely others would as well. And judging by what had happened with the crabs, the wildlife would be affected as well.
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Elijah stated. He’d made peace with his impending death, but that didn’t mean he intended to lie down and give up. He felt like he had a new lease on life, and he wasn’t going to let it go without doing whatever he could.
“Very well,” said the tree creature, sounding pleased. “But I am limited in how much information I can convey. The System does not prohibit charity, but there is an established System whereby newly integrated worlds can gain knowledge.”
“I’ll take whatever I can get.”
“Yes, yes. You have some spirit in you,” the tree said. “With how weak your body is, you will need that. In fact, I think that is where we will start.”
“You want to heal me? I’ve been sick for a while, and –”
“No. And yes,” the tree stated. “It is more complicated than that. Think of it more as I will be guiding you towards the tools that will allow you to heal yourself.”
“Like Touch of Nature,” Elijah reasoned.
“No. With cultivation.”
“You keep saying that word like I should know what it means,” Elijah countered. “But if you want me to plant something and help it grow, I’m not sure I have the tools or the –”
The tree sighed, a sound like wind whistling through its branches. Or perhaps the wind really was rustling its leaves. Elijah wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have much opportunity to figure it out because the tree said, “Cultivation is a System whereby a sentient being improves themselves. There are four categories – Body, Mind, Core, and Soul. They are intertwined but separate. Dependent on one another, but capable of progressing independently.”
“O-okay…”
The tree went on, “Your body is the easiest, but in your situation, it will be the most impactful. Without it, you will likely die within a month or two.”
“The cancer?”
“A disease, yes. I cannot sense any other specifics.”
Elijah shook his head. So, his efforts at raising his Constitution attribute had been wasted, and the resultant spike of energy was unrelated. He hadn’t been healed at all.
It wasn’t really unprecedented. There had been times after his diagnosis when Elijah had almost felt normal. Usually, those moments were brief, and they usually coincided with distractions. Now, he realized that the plane crash and all the changes he had experienced had probably caused such a moment.
“What do the others do?” he asked.
“Your Mind dictates how quickly you can funnel Ethera into your soul,” it said. “Together with your Regeneration attribute, it determines how quickly you can refill your stores of Ethera.
“Then there is your Soul, which determines how quickly you can bring that Ethera to bear via spells, abilities, and skills.”
It went on, “But the Core is the most important aspect of your cultivation. At its most basic level, it is where you store your Ethera, and when you cultivate it, you increase the potency of your Ethera. However, it will also influence your entire path, which is arguably more important.”
“Why don’t we improve that one, then?” Elijah asked.
“Because you are not ready,” the tree said. “In addition, without advancing your Body cultivation, you will surely die, regardless of the stage of your core. And finally, it requires more than this world is currently capable of providing.”
“But what –”
“To tell you more than that would be to risk the ire of the System,” the tree stated. “For now, all I can do is put you on the path. Learn this lesson well, because your life will depend on it.”
“I…I understand.”
“Good,” the tree said. “Now, let us begin.”