Jack was returning to his treehouse in high spirits. He'd just cleared a dungeon in which he'd acquired quite a few useful spells, a couple of epic items, and some rare ingredients that could be used to create powerful magical potions. But what excited him even more than any of that was another find—a magical gravity rune. He now had a much better means to ascend to his treehouse than his cumbersome elevator.
He finally made it to the great tree, in which the Great Tree Cottage was built. However, there was no treehouse to be seen now, only the elevator shaft remained. Or so it seemed. As Jack continued to walk to the tree, he looked up, focusing on the spot where his treehouse should have been. He gave a mental command for the treehouse to become visible to him, and it immediately appeared in its usual spot.
A few days ago, in one of the caves, Jack had found an illusion spell. As it turned out, the spell was quite useful and powerful. It enabled him to hide anything from view, and he used the spell to make his treehouse invisible. When he wanted, he could see through the illusion spell, but to everyone else, his treehouse always stayed invisible. The spell could stay up for twenty-four hours, and Jack made a habit of filling the spell with magical energy every morning so his treehouse could remain invisible all the time.
Unfortunately, the illusion spell didn't expand to the elevator shaft. Jack had already tried to create an additional spell to hide the elevator too, but as it turned out, it led to some problems. For the elevator shaft to stay constantly invisible, he had to charge it with magical energy too. Between the two illusion spells hiding the treehouse and the elevator, Jack used so much magical energy it exhausted him a great deal. Filling both spells with magic tired him so much that he needed a few hours of rest to restore some of his energy before he could go on with his day. In order to survive in this dangerous world, he had to always be at his best. Being tired impeded his attention and reflexes, and it could easily put his life on the line. He needed to be in his most excellent condition when he ventured into the depths of the alien forest.
And that was a problem. Jack couldn't risk wandering around the dangerous forest while he was too tired, but he also couldn't afford to be idle for a few hours every day. After his encounter with Mercer and Dregu, he'd learned that fighting people was much harder than monsters. He was sure that sooner or later, he would meet other people. Whether they would be friendly or would turn out to be assholes and bullies like Mercer and Dregu had been was anybody's guess. So Jack needed to get much stronger than he currently was. In order to be able to properly defend himself, he had to become a force to be reckoned with. To do that, he had to level up at a much faster rate than he currently did.
So he decided not to use an illusion spell on the elevator. Instead, he needed to find another means to get up to his treehouse. Besides, while the illusion spell could make the elevator completely invisible, other people could see through the illusion spell if they got too close to the elevator. As for the treehouse, it didn't have such a problem. Since it was at a height of a few stories above the ground, there was no way somebody could see it from the ground even if they stepped up to the trunk of the great tree in which his house was. Only those who could fly could stumble across his treehouse now, but since his encounter with the giant dragonfly rider on the first day, he'd never met any other aerial riders. Probably there weren't supposed to be any in the forest, which probably was an area for newbies. The dragonfly rider might intentionally have come here to hunt down novices, probably because he or she got their kicks from killing newbies.
Anyway, Jack decided not to use the illusion spell on the elevator anymore. Right now, his treehouse was invisible while the elevator shaft could be seen. It rose a few stories up and disappeared where it reached the illusion spell that kept the house hidden from sight. While his home was invisible, anybody who would stumble across the elevator could use it to get up to the treehouse. Luckily, since he dealt with the two bullies, he hadn't had any more encounters with other people. And now that he'd found a magical gravity rune, he could finally dispose of the elevator altogether.
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Walking up to the elevator shaft, he gave the system a mental command to dismantle it. A certain amount of gold was taken from him, and the deed was done: the elevator shaft disappeared, and in its place materialized several logs—some of the resources that had been used for building the elevator. Jack would use the wood to create a few new pieces of furniture in his house, but in order to get up there, he first heeded to create a gravity spell.
Jack took a few steps to the side so he stood directly below the balcony of his treehouse. He then looked at the ground below him and with a thought, placed a magical gravity rune there. He mentally activated it, and magical energy began to pull him up. Jack could adjust the properties of the gravity shaft however he wanted, changing the height and width of the gravity tunnel, the speed he was pulled up and down, and so on. Jack spent a few minutes adjusting the gravity rune until he got the result he wanted. He then spent a few more minutes testing the gravity tunnel and fine-tuning it.
Finally, he finished the work. After he used the gravity shaft to descend to the ground, he brought up the crafting menu and selected all the logs that had appeared after he dismantled the elevator. The system memorized the wood he selected and asked him what he wanted to use it for. Jack stepped into the gravity shaft and activated the magical rune beneath him with a thought. The magical rune began to pull him up at a reasonable speed. When he was at the same level as the balcony, the magic rune just hovered him there. He dismantled a part of the railing with a thought to create an opening and stepped through it from the gravity shaft onto the balcony.
He used the wood he'd selected to create a few pieces of furniture and placed them in one of the empty rooms of his treehouse. He then walked into a kitchen area and cooked some trout-like fish he'd caught earlier today. The smell of the roasting fish made his mouth water. As usual, he ate on the balcony. The fish he'd cooked was delicious, the tender flesh all but falling off the slender bones.
After finishing his meal, he just sat in his armchair on the balcony, watching the forest darken as the sun set. Today was a productive day. He’d finished clearing a dungeon and received quite a lot of rare items and spells for it. Unlike regular caves, dungeons were way bigger and much more dangerous. It usually took Jack a few days to clear a dungeon. Unlike caves, it took much longer for monsters killed in dungeons to revive and rewards to reappear. Out of all of the rewards he'd gotten in today's dungeon, the gravity rune was definitely the best one.
Just like his treehouse, the gravity shaft he'd created with the rune was invisible. To set the gravity tunnel in motion, he needed to step on the rune and activate it with a thought. The magical rune itself was invisible as well. It lit up with a bluish glow only when it was in use. If somebody walked past the great tree, they wouldn't be able to see either his treehouse or the gravity rune. Even accidentally stepping on the invisible magical rune wouldn't activate the gravity tunnel. So his mind was at peace now. The illusion spell made his treehouse completely invisible, and the gravity rune could be activated only if you knew where exactly it was. When he went outside another time, he wouldn't have to worry anymore that somebody might barge into his home while he was absent. His home was completely secure now.
Another good thing about the gravity rune was that it didn’t need to be charged with magical energy every day. Just like the illusion spell, the rune consumed magic only when it was in use. The illusion spell was constantly active, so Jack had to fill it with magical energy every day. As for the gravity rune, he most likely would usually use it only twice a day, in the mornings when he went out to explore the alien forest and in the evenings when he returned home. So he figured the gravity rune wouldn’t consume as much magical energy as the illusion spell and he would probably need to recharge it no more than once a week.
As the darkness set in, Jack heard the familiar sounds of blind mutants shuffling down below. Those creatures materialized near him every night, so he always made sure to get home before nightfall. He still hadn't figured out a way to get rid of the curse the witch had cast on him. Leaning over the railing of the balcony, Jack watched the blind mutants down below. They stumbled around the trunk of the great tree, sensing that he was somewhere nearby but unaware of where exactly he was. Some of them stepped on the invisible gravity rune on the ground, but nothing happened of course. Even if those creatures had been aware of the rune, they wouldn't have been able to activate it. They weren't that smart.
Jack watched them shuffle around the tree trunk and bump into one another for a minute or so. He then stepped back inside the treehouse. It was time to turn in.