Approaching the vine-strangler copse again, I find excitement mixed with trepidation filling me. It’s about midday: Bastet and I compromised by resting for a few hours before we set out. Bastet’s still tired, though I feel far more refreshed than before – I wonder whether I actually need less sleep than I think I do.

There was a notification waiting for me after I woke up – about the quest. Unfortunately, it seems like I’m not yet due for my reward, though in my opinion I’m well over-due.

Congratulations!

You have completed one of the required objectives for this quest: you have released the pressure on the Ley Line and allowed the Pure Energy to continue unimpeded along it. You have thereby saved the area and denizens around you from experiencing consequences of direct contact with Pure Energy.

In the course of your adventures, you explored the centre of the Vine-Strangler Copse and defeated its guardian. Upon investigating the guardian beast’s lair, you discovered a route down to one of the Ley Lines of the planet, running unusually close to the surface.

You discovered that this is due to two main reasons: an initial blockage by a mana crystal; a subsequent blockage by an alcaoris eager to incubate his eggs in the best environment possible. You recognised that the continued blockage of the vital Ley Line could cause untold amounts of harm, both for the denizens of the forest around you, and others further down the Line.

You have found a way to rectify the situation in the short term, but the area is still out of balance with unusual amounts of Energy leaking into the environment. Return the area to its previous state within a reasonable time period to complete this quest and receive your reward.

Quest: The Vine-Strangler Copse II

Quest type: Regional

Objective: Find evidence to prove (or in the event of the theory being disproven, discover) the reason for the formation of the underground tunnels. (complete)

Objective: Rectify the situation with the exposed stream of Pure Energy before it’s too late. (complete)

Objective: Return the area to its previous state. (3 months)

Time to complete quest: 3 months

Suggested difficulty: Journeyman

Reward: Rare Silver chest (rarity increased due to passing over of previous rewards).

It doesn’t really tell me anything more than I already knew except that I need to continue to restore the area. It’s good to know that I’ve managed to avert the major consequences, though.

Lathani and River come to join me as we cross the last of the grey wasteland. I cast a look at each of them, seeing the grey ashes coating River up to her knees. Lathani’s even worse off: she’s grey practically up to her chin.

It doesn’t help that it’s apparently been raining all night and started drizzling again soon after Bastet and I left the cave. Wet ash is even worse than dry ash for making us mucky, it turns out. Still, at least it should mean that the ash is beginning to be absorbed into the ground. It’ll make this area into very fertile land for a short time – a bit like the rainforests on earth which were cleared for farmland and then abandoned when their fertility was exhausted.

I wonder if the samurans have ever thought of farming, I think to myself curiously. Then, realising I have a perfect person next to me to ask, I turn to glance at River.

“Has your village ever done farming?” I ask. She looks at me, uncertainty coming across the Bond between us.

We grow some plants near the huts, but I sense that there is more to this ‘farming’ that you speak of.

“It’s an intentional cultivation of plants either for use of the village directly or to feed livestock who then feed the village one way or another. Where I came from, pretty much everything we ate was grown or managed by farmers. Vegetables from the fields, eggs and milk from livestock, and meat from other animals who were looked after by farmers until they were ready to slaughter.”

No, we have never done anything like that. Instead of River, it’s Tarra who responds, apparently close enough to hear our conversation. She draws up alongside Lathani who growls at her. I glare at Tarra warningly and she hesitates before moving to the other side of River.

Lathani’s hackles are still lifted a little, but when I rub behind her ears and send her soothing feelings down the Bond, she settles a little. Now that Tarra doesn’t need to work on trying to find a way to melt stone saturated with earth-magic anymore, it’s time for her to get working on finding a solution for Lathani. I’d prefer to be present for the first few times they have to work together, though, so I make a mental note to talk to them about it once we’ve checked out the tunnel.

“Expand,” I say neutrally to the herbalist, still stroking Lathani’s ears – mostly because they’re so soft. Both she and I enjoy it so why not?

We have kept beasts in our village from time to time when they have more use to us alive than feeding our villagers, she starts. I fix her with another hard look.

“Like you wanted to do with me,” I comment flatly. She has the decency to look away for a moment, her tail flicking with discomfort even as it sways with her movement forwards.

Yes. They have required food, but we simply find what they need in the forest. I have tested growing certain herbs closer to me so I don’t always have to send someone out to get them, but haven’t had much success. Only a few seem to have taken to the ground near my huts. She makes the samuran version of a shrug. It just doesn’t seem like worth the effort.

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I consider the question, rubbing my chin with the hand that I’m not using to pet Lathani.

“Maybe I can have a look at what you’ve been doing. I might have some ideas.” Not that I’m an expert farmer or gardener, but I do have a little bit of knowledge absorbed from the survival stone. Only the very basics of farming, but perhaps that added to what I’ve learned unintentionally from living in a society where farming is the bedrock of the food industry will be enough to at least get them started. Maybe the few Youtube videos I happened to watch will help too, though I don’t have access to the machinery they showed.

When we return to the village, then, Tarra responds to my suggestion. I let the conversation drop: we’re at the vine-stranglers. Eyeing the trees suspiciously, I’m tentatively glad when they shuffle aside to offer us a path through. That will never not be weird, though. The trees almost…swim through the dirt.

Actually, maybe they’re doing exactly that. As I close my eyes and activate my ability to see connections, I see how the roots below the surface move the dirt almost like the legs of a centipede or millipede moving forwards: each doesn’t move much, but the sheer number of them mean that the tree itself moves a lot. I blink my eyes open, releasing my non-physical sight when the combination of the two starts giving me a migraine.

Thanks, I say to the trees down the Bond I have with them. The organism on the other side sends me a begrudging kind of acknowledgement – like it doesn’t want to appreciate my thanks but kind of does anyway. But, so far, the creature hasn’t caused any problems – I’ve had Bound coming and going between here and the spot outside the other tunnel throughout the last couple of days and none of them have reported any attacks.

That could be just because it’s biding its time for me to come back – I’ve been staying at the other cave while trying to learn how to do Earth-Shaping – or it could actually be trying to stay on my good side. Or maybe it’s just had far more Pure Energy than even it can cope with to absorb. Certainly, it’s grown noticeably in the last few days which is treading close to breaking our agreement on that one.

Remember not to grow any faster than the trees in the forest around, I remind the vine-strangler consciousness. I doubt they could grow two whole trees in such a short time, let alone expand their edges by two trees all the way around.

But that’s so restrictive! complains the vine-strangler mastermind. Look at how much space there is around me. Expanding by the depth of two trees is barely even noticeable!

Until it becomes four trees, then eight, then the whole area is covered again, I point out to it as we walk through the passageway the trees opened for us. I keep a wary eye out just in case its indignation makes it send a spear at us again. You’ve put on enough growth for now. No more than one more tree length’s worth of expansion before the shortest day, I tell it severely. Dismay and anger mingle across the Bond between us.

That’s not enough!

Do you want me to burn you back to where you were three days ago? I snap at it, stopping to cross my arms and glare at the closest tree. Or burn you away completely?

The vine-strangler takes a long moment to respond.

No, it answers finally, sounding very much like a sulky child.

Then stick to the agreement, I grind out mentally, my teeth pressing together as a muscle in my jaw leaps. It doesn’t respond, but it doesn’t attack, so I resume walking. My Bound, who all paused with a mixture of expressions ranging from curiosity to fear, continue walking too.

It’s not a long time, and fortunately uneventful, before we get to the clearing in the middle. Though the clearing is smaller than it used to be with the salamander burning away the trees as they encroached on its space, I’m glad to see that the vine-strangler has at least been honouring the area I told it to leave bare. I wanted to make sure that in the worst-case scenario even the vine-strangler’s spears wouldn’t be able to reach the area at the centre, and it appears that that’s still the case. Unless its spears can grow longer as its power increase which…is probably possible, thinking about it. Damn it.

A thought for later. For now, I’m so eager to see what’s happening that I barely even delay to greet the Bound who have been camping out here. Lee, Thorn, Honey, Fenrir, and Iandee have been almost permanent fixtures: I’ve been hoping that staying near the Pure Energy might help with the damage they suffered due to the alcaoris’ – Raven’s – attacks. So far the results are inconclusive – only Iandee and Lee are Tier two, but they don’t have a very good understanding of their Energy channels and can’t tell me what the damage is to begin with, let alone if it’s improved in the three days they’ve camped out here.

Or at least, that’s what River’s reported – she and Tarra along with their ever-present guard in Shrieks have been commuting back and forth most days, sometimes twice or three times. Considering that the distance between the two is only about an hour when run at a good pace, that’s definitely been feasible.

Standing at the edge of the tunnel, I stare down into its depths. The last time I was here before running to the village to rescue River, Pure Energy filled a good two-thirds of its length, its scintillating, glittering liquid promising everything if I took the plunge down into it. River reported that by the end of the three days, the level of the Pure Energy was within arm’s length of the top: she’d had to head down into the tunnel – carefully – to do her initial tests, but by the end of it all she needed to do was lean over the edge.

Now, all of that is gone. The tunnel looks like it once did, the first time we came along here. Closing my eyes, I investigate with my other sight. Well, that’s interesting, I say to myself as I stare at the walls of the tunnel.

Down underground, the tunnel walls had been full of magic, but it had been earth magic, and all very calm and solid. This is quite different.

There’s magic here, for sure, but I’m pretty sure it’s not all earth magic, and it’s certainly not stable. Instead, I see different types of magic writhing and even conflicting within the bare rock.

The greatest amount of conflict and shifting energy is at the surface. As I look deeper into the earth, I see that there’s the faintest hint of brown earth magic. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed it except I think I’ve tuned into earth magic after all that time spent staring at it while trying to learn Earth-Shaping.

Now I’ve spotted it, I realise something else: it’s absorbing the writhing, fighting multicoloured energies in the stone. Not fast, but it’s happening. Within a few days, maybe a couple of weeks, I bet that this energy won’t be present any more.

I don’t remember seeing this in Raven’s tunnel, but maybe there was just so much earth magic there that it was absorbed much more quickly. Or maybe I just couldn’t see it against the brightness of the Pure Energy itself.

Either way, I take my time to carefully test my footing before committing to standing on the odd energy. I see some of it try to burrow into my boots, but only small wisps actually manage. It does make me wonder how my Bound will fare with their bare feet, though.

Then I realise that River, Lathani, Tarra, and Shrieks have already passed me, apparently even more eager than me to find out what lies below, and Bastet is standing near me, impatience coming across the Bond. I open my mouth to tell them not to move, but then close it as I see that barely more of the energy is going into their feet than is going into mine. Quickly checking my Core space, I don’t see any harm being done.

Opening my eyes again, I shrug. Looks like we’re going to explore.

“Hey guys, wait for me!” I call with exasperation mixed with fondness.