When I next open my eyes evening is fast approaching, the trees casting shadows that stretch even larger than their massive selves.
I yawn softly and pull myself to my feet, Artemis doing her version of the downward dog to wake up as well. Horus, meanwhile, just takes to the sky, smugness radiating from him through our bond over our wingless forms.
Chuckling, I head back towards the Mess Hall with food on all of our collective minds, noticing as I do that the battlefield has been picked clean already.
We encounter a few young trainees as we walk, earning nods of respect and even, uncomfortably enough, awe from some but no one from our particular group of students or Belina makes themselves known, they are likely at the Mess themselves though.
Entering the large building, we take in the smells of good food, the sounds of celebrating teens not too far reminiscent from a country barn party, funnily enough!
I make my way drooling to the counter to pick up some plates, noticing as I do a large steel pony keg with Apex System emblazoned across the side.
“Ha!” I bark out a short laugh involuntarily at the sight, asking one of the volunteers helping serve the meals, “Is that from the System Shop??”
“Yes, sir!” the peppy teen boy with an unruly mop of black hair tucked behind a bandanna answers while he pours me a mug, “It was only 5 Credits and with the spoils from the Beasts, we were able to purchase it!”
Plates full and tankard nearly overflowing, I take notice of an anxious Artemis eyeing up the plates in my hands with her tongue lolling from her mouth. I reply with a quick smile as I make a sharp beeline for an open table, throwing back over my shoulder in an afterthought, “Good idea! Thanks!”
I spy Belina seated with several of the youngsters, seemingly regaling them with tales of our adventures thus far so I decide to leave her to her audience, finding an empty table for my Companions and I a bit further in.
I place Artemis’ liberally heaped plates on the table and step back as she starts munching merrily away while I leave a smaller plate of some grains and greens for our avian friend.
For myself, I take one bite and before I know it, my plate is clean and my tankard is bone dry.
Seems I worked up one hell of an appetite!
One shared by at least one of my friends as well, Artemis’ longing gaze trained firmly on the food counter.
“Don’t worry girl. I’m sure they’ll have enough for seconds, go on up with your plate.” I tell her.
Tail wagging, she grips the plate gently with her large mouth and hurries over to the counter, placing the plate down and pointing her nose at the dishes she wants much to the amusement of the attendants.
Laughing at the strange scene, I lean back on the bench and take in the atmosphere, hope filling the room in a far cry from the despondence we found when we arrived this morning.
But now, everywhere I look I see young people eager for the future, for their growth-- not fearful of it.
That is a truly powerful mindset itself and if they can keep hold of it, the sky will be the limit.
Alex tracks me down not long after, asking me for tips and ideas for his and the settlement’s growth.
I assist him the best I can but also give him directions to our own settlement in case he would like to exchange letters with Grover or visit himself to learn more from the mayor in all but name of the Viking Village.
I even attempt to tell him about the Training Dungeon but to no avail.
Apparently, whenever I tell him where it is, I am somehow muted to his ears and my mouth even gets pixelated so he can’t read my lips!
Curious now, I try writing it, spelling it out one letter at a time, signing it with my hands, all to no avail!
Seems the System wants to reward exploration, not just going where you are told something is but finding it for yourself.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
And, while I am a bit disappointed I can’t use it to help Alex and the other folks, I do like the idea of having to hunt them down on our own, the whole world is new, given the time, I can’t wait to explore it in depth!
I awake the next day with a surprisingly clear head, my improved attributes keeping me in tip top shape even after pounding several large mugs of Apex System beer to try and actually get drunk but to no avail.
I was only able to get mildly buzzed and even that faded quickly.
Oh, well, I’m sure there is either already, or will soon be, some stronger booze made from System altered plants that will likely be much more effective.
Not that I will have much time to enjoy for a long while, my lack of knowledge regarding our upcoming Contest starting to get to me a bit.
After grabbing a quick bite to break our fast, my Companions and I prepare to depart for our final 3 day grind before the Contest begins, our sights all set on reaching level 20 and the Journeyman tier!
Sparing a few moments for our farewells to our trainees as they make their way yawning and stretching into the mess hall, we once more make our way out into the vast green expanse that we have come to know almost as well as our own selves.
The next days are sure to be a blur, a maelstrom of battle and fury with blood and XP flowing freely. We will shape ourselves even further, push every aspect of our power that we can, to the limit and beyond, if need be.
All for that great and noble goal: our very survival itself.
And so, we walk, our steps confident after so long spent hiking, our eyes freely roving every shadowy patch of undergrowth, heads turning at every cracking branch or rustled bush. All attention paid to every chance at growth possible.
We find one group of Beasts after another as the day drags on, sometimes with as little as 5 minutes between engagements! The deeper we go, the greater the power of our prey as well, earning us greater and greater hauls of XP.
Exhausted before even dusk, we wearily make camp, Horus asleep nearly as soon as he touches down, his wicked talons wrapped in Artemis’ dense hair to hold him in place as he rests his exhausted eyes and weary wings.
The next day brings more of the same for our troop, hiking and battling and hiking and battling as the creatures begin to grow both stronger but also more solitary. Great big Brutal Bears with levels in the mid-20’s that require battles of attrition to wear down, birds of prey at the same level while also nearing the size of a small single-prop plane with the same speed to boot!
These single foes allow us to more thoroughly organize ourselves to maximize our effectiveness though, making them far less dangerous, if still tedious, to deal with.
The trees around us seem to be bigger as well, the redwoods appearing almost like the mythical Norse World Tree, Yggdrasil, as they shoot into the air like the greatest of natural skyscrapers, their leaves the size of an SUV yet still somehow light enough to drift in the wind as they fall, great shadows our warning system to dodge these falling blankets of greenery.
They seem to almost whisper to each other just below the audible range, their voices growing louder and louder as we trek deeper and deeper, as if the source of the phenomenon is somehow ahead, filling me with no small amount of burning curiosity.
And yet, the whispers never become words, merely background noise, an untranslatable language between a giant race of immovable wood, fiber and chlorophyll.
I puzzle over the cause through battle after battle, something to keep my mind occupied while my body strikes and spins, blocks and punches, launches rocks and dodges claws or beaks or talons over and over again.
Mind-numbing tedium overcome, I drive us deeper and deeper toward the trajectory the origin of the strange trees’ behavior seems to emanate from.
And then, as the sun sets on our next to last day left, a break in the so far constant tree-covering reveals something new off in the distance!
A mountain!
But that is not quite where my excitement derives from, as Belina makes clear with her own declaration of incredulous wonderment, “Is that a…a tree up there??”
“It does seem to be…” I answer quietly without looking at her, my own widened eyes locked on the strange tableau ahead.
The mountain, a lonely pile of stone and earth, juts out into the sky nearly three times the height of even the greatest of the tree behemoths we have yet seen but the truly wondrous sight is reserved for the arboreal titan calling the peak its home.
{Mountainous Maple, World Treeling, Lv. 45}
The System helpfully adds its tag, likely only possible due to its size given our position miles away, revealing a truly astonishing Class and a huge level to go along with it!
The capital “T” Tree if there ever was one, juts upward so far that it seems to reach the outer edge of our very atmosphere. The trunk is a burnished bronze, light being absorbed and reflected in equal measure by the strangely metallic bark.
The branches jut out the same length the as the average height of the rest of the trees we have seen. The leaves though… the leaves appear no less than artfully golden filigreed sculptures, each a masterpiece in their own right that send a kaleidoscope of brilliance out into the sky as if crowning the tree through an aurora of light!
Suffice it to say, our gazes remain glued to this magical, otherworldly wonder for a number of moments, our collective minds, no matter their experiences thus far, truly encountering something so completely outside even our wildest imaginings.
For all of the ugliness, the gore, the struggles and the losses this new world has wrought upon us, this sight, right here, truly shows how very magical our lives can become if we but strive and drive and fight and claw and bleed for it.
I etch the wondrous image into my mind, my memory, my very soul, so that whenever things get tough, whenever defeat looks certain, I can look back at this moment, and see all that can possible, if we just keep on advancing, determination and pure will propelling us to heights beyond even this noble tree’s crown!
Then, it’s to the universe, and beyond, if the advice of a certain cartoon astronaut is anything to go off of!