I certainly know now why not many people get into ‘my’ forest.

It’s swamps, swamps and swamps everywhere, between the abandoned mine and one supposedly small village which issued the request to the adventurer’s guild.

After one day of travelling, we even got into a part with small, vague silhouetess of ghosts flying about.

I noticed I can drain one for 2-3 dungeon points, when they were not looking. And that my ability to harvest can penetrate the field around my cage, at least on this level.

And as we went deeper through those parts, we got just that right atmosphere to suggest there are undead at large somewhere nearby.

A thick, mysterious fog.

Dark grass and soil, being black as much as it gets.

And whispering trees, with a mouth suggesting they are not vegetarians.

If I develop anything like a magical Facebook in this world, I will use those trees as emoticons for people expressing anger.

We traveled for whole 4 days through those lands, at their speed, which was two times faster than mine - even accounting for the fact that I don’t need to relax during the night.

And after 2 more days, when the sky brightened, and my mood as well, we got to the village.

It was a small settlement, and I was memorizing all the key parts in order to later mimic its structure when developing my version.

There was a mayor, and he was given a gift.

The only new gift we got left.

The magical me!

The reason is that his son is actually a benefactor of Mixion, which was also why he accepted this mission in the first place.

And so finally, I got a moment just for myself.

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Me and my dungeon points.

Normally, I would have only 13 left.

However, my elves were during all this time pouring to me points from their achievements, managing to give me 142 during my imprisonment and then 22 during my travel here.

Which brings me to 177 total.

Enough for one villager - but what s/he could do?

I certainly need better means to escape my predicament.

So here I am - jobless (my elves are far away), without much cash (one villager, really?) and no source of income (do you see any tree here in the office perhaps?).

Leaving me with two options.

Either speak to someone and get his/her support that way.

Or find a source of income.

I guess I can certainly suck dry that forcefield around me -- however, that would only made them erect a stronger one.

So seeing my hopeless situation, I decided to try overcome my despair with patience.

Afterall, it turned out that I was scared with my last ‘boss’ for nothing.

And so I was admiring the carpet in the office till the evening, that ancient vase the mayor got there during the night, and then he came in the morning.

Eyeing me curiously, he was certainly pleased with me.

“Look what we have here… what a rarity… wow.”

“I haven’t seen anything like you before.”

“They told me you are alive; do you perhaps understand me? Hmm?”

No. I don’t. Definitely not.

“Then, no matter.”

“I think I will use you as a wedding gift. Mixion got it right for sure - he knows about that wedding, and that you ARE the perfect gift for that occassion. He’s a very agreeable guy.”

Yes. He said ‘are’ just like that.

He may be a little fanatical when it comes to social obligations. Or it’s kindheartedness and I am too narrow-minded, that I am. Then, we spent 2 hours thinking how to wrap me properly.

And that’s the thing we could both agree upon!

George here thought that a magical gift needs magical wrapping. And I think that I need dungeon points from all sorts of them. It wasn’t long before it came to the real thing.

You harvested 1 dungeon point from “Stylish orange ribbon” Stylish orange ribbon got status ‘Withered’ Cooldown of energy harvest ability: 1 hour

George got to know fast that for the great me you can only use the most expensive stuff, since the common wrappings won’t last.

You harvested 4 dungeon points from “Yellow summer ribbon” Yellow summer ribbon got status ‘Withered’ Cooldown of energy harvest ability: 1 hour

To give George a hope, I sometimes waited 2-3 hours before the harvest.

And he would see that and after few attempts just utter:

“Obviously, obviously… you got the magical potential. We should get a magical wrapping.”

You harvested 9 dungeon points from “Enchanted blue ribbon” Enchanted blue ribbon got status ‘Withered. No mana left.’ Cooldown of energy harvest ability: 1 hour

Here we go.

This type of work got me nice 84 dungeon points, bringing me to 261 total.

In the end I got ‘Empowered ribbon of magical binding” on me.

And George is not a person who would not present his achievements to others. His painstaking efforts and successes.

So he will tell the others about the ribbons and how incompatible I am with the normal or lesser magical stuff.

What a rare trait I got.

We are getting somewhere now.