The Guardian

Chapter 5: Death

Death was a major part of this world. Farmers that were struck with a drought would experience a famine, travelling caravans would get attacked by monsters and bandits, villagers that fall into debt would become slaves, the adventurers more so than any other occupation. It was a dangerous career that pitted them against monsters and creatures of all sizes, and had them travelling far and wide. It was a common occurrence that most adventurers wouldn't return to their homes. The Adventurer was a dangerous career path, and those that does survive long enough to retire become one of the most powerful beings in the Humes territory, but this was far and in between. Most choosing to retire early from injuries gained from the field, or those that stopped when gaining enough wealth to build a new life. This was all part of life over the dangerous world filled with monsters and Humes greed.

I watched that young party of adventurers, and tried to warn them of the dangers that they faced. The scout felt my presence but he couldn't understand what I wanted. I had a soft spot for this young adventurer who would pray for me. I tried to warn them to flee right away but their curiosity to large to ignore. The monster they faced was a hind bear that lived for over a century. This monster had taken many lives from the people of Coldwind, and there was a massive bounty for its death at the adventurer's guild.

I felt a pang of regret when the young swordsman tripped over his inexperience at fighting larger animals and was ripped into pieces. The women archer let out a heart-wrenching scream and in her rage rained down a volley of arrows on the creature. The scout had to retreat in order not to get struck by any of the arrows, and this opened a path for the bear to charge directly at the archer. The hind bear bit off the arm of the archer, and during this moment was when the scout landed a critical hit with his daggers on the bear. The monstrous bear had a previous wound on its neck and the scout took advantage of that. In it's death woes the bear bit into the shoulder of the scout, and this led to massive blood loss and the lost function of his right arm.

The scout crawled next to the unconscious archer, his vision blurring from the effort. I could feel him praying, hoping that this women would survive, I could feel his agony about the death of the swordsman, but most of all, I could hear his thoughts begging me to give him strength. I wanted to help, but this was beyond my help in the physical realm. I couldn't interacted with them, and the closest help was couple of hours away. I was saddened at the inevitability of the situation, but then something strange happened. The scout gave himself to me, trusted in me to help him, and using that connection I pour my essence into him. The scout classed-changed into a priest, the very first of his kind.

He poured all the mana he gained in him to the women, the arm closed up visibly to a stump, and he used the last of his remaining power to heal only the most dangerous wounds on himself before fainting from blood loss. Help eventually arrived, and the two remaining party members were rescued.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

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The nature-loving Umpriel was a beautiful race. I had modelled them after elves back on my home world, from the beginning there was only hundreds of Umpriel in the village, they lived in trees hallowed out by nature, and haven't made any of their own homes. The people had natural long life spans and that led to the population growing at a slow pace. I gifted them with the power to engineer seeds and plants into shapes. This changed the village's lives. They could grow their own houses, and shape any wood into furniture, tools, or weapons. The village started growing upwards with the growth of the tree houses, the upper layer became the oldest of houses while the lower layers were relatively new.

And this also led to the most gifted of the Umprians to feel my presence, and they ended up calling me the all-mother. I wasn't a physical presence among them, but was their guide. I gave them my essence that gave the Umprians the chance to wield the elements as a form of magic.

The Umpriel had the power to call winds, to make it rain, to generate thunder, and they had the power to wield my essence as basic mana. They feared fire, and they didn't learn any flame burning techniques but the most basics of camp fires but this was generally frown upon.

The Umpriel was gentle, peace-loving, and didn't venture much out of their forest. They were content with living their lives in the beauty of the forest. Of course there was the few individual who craved adventure, and it was these individuals that led me to the discovery of another race that highly resembled my Umpriel called the Humes people.

I recognized the presence over the Humes individual as a presence similar to my own, but that presence didn't have much control over his people and didn't feel my aura over the Umprians. I could feel his curiosity probing all over the village, but I didn't feel any malicious intent. I let the Humes stay in the village until he was healthy enough to return home. Over the course of the Humes stay I could feel my people divided over the issue, would they open the doors for more people, or would they continue their self exile in the forest. Some wanted to experience the outside world, but most choose to close themselves off. Finally the Humes was deemed fit to travel, and they set him off. Nandanay was my most gifted individual in tuned with me, and I whispered to him to secretly send scouts to find their home. I learned that they lived off the plains passed the river, and it was a mid size farming village.

I didn't bother the Humes people anymore and the Humes people left us alone. I would have thought things would have changed within the village after the discovery of a new species but things returned to normal after a while. The Umpriel continued their way of life, and I was pleasantly pleased as well.

Some Umprians became dissatisfied as the years went by and wanted to explore their world, Nandanay didn't want to impede their growth and have them resent the village over its traditional views, and he gave his blessing to open the outside world. I also gave them my blessing for anybody willing to leave the village and to have a safe return. The younger Umprians left their village, and to explore a dangerous world to find adventures, and knowledge.

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