Your party has gained the blessing of an earth nymph! This blessing persists as long as you remain within the Wandering Woods.
If the first two nymphs had put up a fight in their own ways, getting the earth nymph’s blessing proved to be a breeze -- or whatever the earth version of a breeze was. A pebble? Catching the earth nymph proved to be a pebble.
Another boyish blob of mana, the ruddy brown spirit proved to be much more amiable than his airheaded brother. Rather than actually run from me, he hid within a large cavern, slipping behind stalagmites and into crevices to keep me from finding him. Each time I did, he would slip into the earth to reposition himself.
Thankfully, his presence seemed to solidify the ground around him, making his location easy to suss out using Tremor Sight. Admittedly, that didn’t help me actually catch him, as the very moment it sensed that I’d found the spirit, he hid himself anew. Even if I rushed after the nymph, I had no hopes of reaching him in time. Somehow, though, I sensed that wasn’t the point.
Not feeling any danger, I had Verin leave her glacier to assist. Though she wouldn’t admit it, once she got over the aerial abuse I’d put her through with the wind nymph, I thought she was enjoying herself. I purposely turned off Tremor Sight to make the search harder for myself, and the two of us ran about the room seeing who could find the spirit first.
Well before we even realized it, our mission was complete. Having cycled through every possible hiding spot in the cavern, the earth nymph came out of hiding at last. With a tiny hand, somehow blocklike despite being made purely of mana, it nudged Verin’s side.
Much like the others, it left us after granting its blessing, slipping into the earth until not even my class skill could detect it.
Verin stared at the now-empty spot with a rare unguarded expression of warmth. As soon as she recalled that I was watching, she quickly schooled herself, as if I’d caught her in some shameful act.
“Lady Tess. I will admit that was a most enjoyable diversion.” Thus said, she led the way this time to a tunnel at the far end of the chamber. It terminated in a dead end of pure stone, but by now, we knew the score.
As we walked directly into the rock, it shifted around us. This time around, I did have time to feel claustrophobic as it fully encased us, effectively burying us alive. Blessedly, the transition was short-lived.
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Emerging from the ground with the earth crumbling around us, Verin and I instantly recognized what our next task was. Given the environs, it was hard not to, after all.
Far more scenic than the cave or the multiple forest terrains before it, what lay before us was a small lake. A small river flowed deeper into the woods that penned us in on all sides, while a much larger waterfall dropped into the lake from an overhanging cliff.
All in all, it was a calming, tranquil scene, and under other circumstances, I would have enjoyed nothing more than to read a book by the lake side. Taking it all in, I found myself slightly glad that my emotions had yet to fully heal -- the sight brought back memories of the Larins and the nights we spent at their lake house, particularly on Alara’s birthday.
The roar of the waterfall helped to wash such memories right out my head, and I welcomed its assistance. Out of everything around us, it was the odd man out, the only feature that didn’t fit with the lackadaisical aura. Spurred on by some sort of magic, the water fell far faster than gravity warranted, its roar drowning out all other noises. I was fairly certain that standing beneath it would be enough to strip the flesh off someone, though I was hardly eager to put that to the test.
“So. Water nymph,” Verin supplied.
Having reached the same conclusion, I nodded.
“One might assume said nymph would be in the water then. Shall we?” No longer as concerned with getting damaged given the disposition of the last three nymphs, Verin led us right to the water’s edge.
Even with some light turbidity around the base of the waterfall, the lake was otherwise remarkably clear, allowing us to see directly to the silty lakebed beneath. As expected, that wasn’t the only thing we saw, either.
Surging through the water like a mermaid at a circus, a sleek figure bobbed and weaved about. While slightly hard to tell with how fast she was moving, I thought she might be a touch older than her siblings, though, admittedly, I wasn’t the best at inferring age from blobs of sentient water mana.
Looking first to the nymph and then to me, Verin fixed the lake with the barest hint of a frown.
“Lady Tess, it occurs to me that neither of us has a swimming power that I am aware of. How do we intend to proceed?”
Huh. Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far.
The two of us sat by the lake for a time, occasionally shooting ideas at one another, though spending most of our break in silent contemplation.
There were Verin’s ice powers, of course. Presumably, the nymph wouldn’t be able to evade capture if the entire lake was frozen solid. Ignoring whether or not Verin could do such a thing, however, we weren’t sure if she should. While her class skills didn’t directly deal damage, that didn’t mean that they were harmless, a fact that many a dead scorpion could attest to. Freezing a water spirit solid seemed like a bad idea if we weren’t trying to harm it.
A more reasonable option would be swimming. With my own respectable physical stats, I was confident that even without a dedicated skill, I would be able to move through the water at Olympic speeds. Somehow, I doubted that would be enough, but that was far secondary to the main issue.
“Not going in,” I mumbled.
Despite our predicament, Verin steadfastly agreed. “Nor should you. Just because the past three have been friendly does not guarantee the fourth will be, and neither of us can breathe underwater. Moreover, I could imagine it accidentally drowning us while innocently trying to play some manner of game. The risk does not justify the reward.”
Our reluctance to brave the waters landed us in something of a pickle.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
After much thought, however, I slowly lifted myself to my feet.
“I have something. Maybe.”
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A bolt of water shot from the lake, making a beeline for my head. It wasn’t the first, and at this rate, it would hardly be the last. With my armor, I doubted I was in any real danger, but I ducked to the side just in case.
I’d say the nymph was overreacting by shooting at me, but as it so happened, I was shooting at it too, in some sense.
In my right hand sat a large harpoon, entirely constructed from mana. A long chain led off from it, allowing me to manually retract the weapon after throwing it.
Normally, getting hit with such a weapon would be incredibly painful, not to mention the actual damage it would cause. In this case, I didn’t have to worry: The entirety of my conjured weapon was made up of green life mana, rendering the entire thing harmless. In fact, if I could actually hit my target, I would end up healing her.
Short of jumping into the water, this had been the only solution I’d been able to come up with. I’d started with a long fishing spear, but the lake was slightly too deep, and the nymph was far too fast. I tried a net after that, but try as I might, I couldn’t get Arcane Armament to recognize a net as a proper weapon. The harpoon with chains had been stretching it, but apparently, it counted.
“Hi. Please stay still.” I reared up and hurled the weapon into the crystal waters, my not inconsiderable Strength causing it to cut through the lake at frankly ridiculous speeds. Annoyingly enough, it still wasn’t enough. Not content to stick to one spot, the water spirit raced about, fouling my aim.
Water went splashing every which way as the harpoon momentarily caused a liquid crater to form at its impact sites, waves and ripples forming as the water leveled itself out again. Joining the makeshift raindrops was another wave of water bolts, forcing me to reposition.
Right as I was about to give up and head back to the drawing board, a stray thought hit me.
I mean. I doubt I’ll be the best at it, but my Dexterity should help me compensate, right?
Thus decided, I reeled the mana harpoon back, holding it in one hand.
And then, in the other, I summoned a second harpoon.
With a menacing grin, I gazed down at the elusive nymph. Twin splashes soon followed, and while neither strike landed on target, this time, I felt much more confident.
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Dodge has reached level 12!
Spears has reached level 19!
You have learned a new skill: Fishing
Fishing has reached level 2!
While the entire endeavor had taken far longer than I’d expected, at last, it was done. I thought that the system was being a touch too liberal with its definition of “fish” in this case, but it was hard to argue that I hadn’t reeled in a solid catch.
With a length of my harpoon sticking out of her chest, the water spirit hung in the air with a pout. If there was a small mercy, it was that reeling her in hadn’t been an issue once I’d managed to hit her. Much as desired, a quick God’s Eye confirmed that the attack wasn’t damaging her at all, and her dour expression had more to do with the method we’d used to catch her than anything else.
Briefly, I wondered if we’d gain some sort of curse instead of a blessing, but -- if slightly non-standard -- it appeared our method of attack was dungeon approved. A single water droplet formed before my eyes before flicking into my forehead, somehow bypassing my arcane armor. With that, the cranky nymph broke apart, her body flowing back into the lake below.
Your party has (begrudgingly) gained the blessing of a water nymph! This blessing persists as long as you remain within the Wandering Woods.
Not wasting another moment by the lake, Verin and I made straight for the waterfall. Even as we neared, the raging flow didn’t abate in the least bit. Trusting in the blessing, however, we forged ahead. Rather than break our bones or shove us downwards, the falling water simply slid off of us. Unimpeded, we passed through, entering into a tunnel that had been hidden behind the waterfall.
Rather than leading to another earth nymph, however, the short tunnel quickly spit us out into the forest. Much as before, it seemed some spatial shenanigans were at play, as the woods we entered were nothing like the ones we’d left behind.
Even before we’d fully escaped the tunnel, Verin and I were struck with a sense of weight. I felt Danger Sense go off to alert me I was being watched, but this time around, I couldn’t pick out the origin of the sensation. If anything, it felt like something was staring at me from every angle, its awareness diffused throughout the air.
Our initial reactions were only magnified as the ground opened up to reveal the trees surrounding us, each of them putting their earlier counterparts to shame. Taller than the oldest redwoods and with a sturdy thickness that looked as though it could survive the strongest of my attacks, the trees that surrounded us were a different sort of beast. Each one of them passively inspired a sort of reverence, and I had trouble envisioning larger or more imposing trees.
Wordlessly, Verin and I wandered on, each of us prepared to find another nymph. Somehow, this didn’t feel like the sort of place to be holding childish games of tag or hide-and-seek, but perhaps this nymph would be of a different sort.
As it turned out, we were worrying for nothing.
Eventually, the trees thinned out to form a clearing so large, I’d initially thought we’d escaped the forest altogether. A number of unbelievable sights quickly disabused me of that notion, though they needn’t have bothered. A quest notification made it excessively clear exactly where we’d ended up.
Quest Completed: The Wandering Woods I
You have reached the heart of the forest.
“Lady Tess, I think it may be best if I activate my glacier once more…” Her reaction was as tame as could be given what lay before us, but I couldn’t entirely disagree.
As it turned out, my earlier assertion that there couldn’t be larger or more imposing trees had been wrong. Very wrong. And, debatably, the fact that we were in a “clearing” wasn’t quite right either.
There, at the very center of the open space, was a tree trunk. Wider than several houses put together, it extended into the sky for so far, I was fairly certain magic was involved just to keep it from crumbling under its own weight.
If the sky was still its usual patchwork of mana, I wasn’t sure. Extending out from its crown, the massive boughs of the colossal tree spread outwards, blanketing the entire multi-mile-wide space. Laden with leaves that could feed a caterpillar for decades, the branches ensured that not an inch of empty space remained to let us peer upwards.
In sum, it was a very big tree.
Given the awe-inspiring sight, I could be forgiven for temporarily ignoring the rest of the clearing, but it was eventful in its own ways.
The first item of note was the landscape. Completely surrounding the central trunk was a wide stretch of water, effectively serving as a large moat. Making the comparison all the more apt, a single strip of grassy land ran atop the water, a tiny bridge connecting the outer clearing to the tree.
None of that, however, was what had prompted Verin to retreat into her defensive skill.
“I’m voting we don’t fight,” was all I had to say on the matter.
Ringing the moat and tightly guarding the single bridge were a host of hulking root creatures. Though largely humanoid, they were devoid of any true face, instead only having masks of smooth bark covering their heads. Over twice our height, each of them looked as though it could give Sylum’s Warforged Titan a run for its money. That only became doubly true when I identified them.
Heartwood Sentry Golem: Level 38, 8000/8000hp
Tasked with ensuring the safety of the heart wood, these sentries serve as a final line of defense for any evildoers who would claim the forest’s treasure for themselves. Tread carefully lest you draw their ire.
A large part of me hoped that whatever we were here for, it would allow us to bypass the golems entirely. Admittedly, given the layout of the clearing, I sincerely doubted we’d be so lucky.
As I took a hesitant step forward, that dream was dashed entirely.
You have been offered a quest!