Since it was harvest time, many conveyors and merchants would come to purchase the magical fruits when they were picked. So no one was surprised by the arrival of these two men.
The two of them walked straight to the front of the magical tree, and the bulky man said to the other man. "Secondborn, this is the magical tree. In this Elfin Woods, only this tree can bear magical fruits. And by the looks of it, it's the time for its harvest. I want you to have a taste of it, maybe it will be of some help to you."
Harbonok, the dragonborn, nodded with furrowed brows. The vertical line between his eyebrows was the effect of the magic crystal after he transformed into a human shape.
It had been thousands of years since Harbonok's power base's advancement to the platinum-level. In order to find an opportunity to reach the diamond-level power base, he had been traveling all over the continent for nearly a hundred years, searching for rare sources of the essence of ether, such as magical fruits and relics and at the same time looking for powerful humans to hone his combat skills.
That was the reason he came to the Ironwood village, an area known as the woods of the elves.
Legends had it that in ancient times, this was the place where the elves inhabited. But later, due to the strong rise of the humans and the antherions, the elves gradually disappeared from the elfin realm, and faded out of the continent entirely.
Now on the mainland, the only signs that could prove the existence of the elves were the echoes of their names and the runic relics they left behind. In the recent times, these ruins were all under the control of the high ranking antherions.
But that wasn't the only reason. He also came to the Elfin Woods with a glimmer of hope of finding some of the mysteries of the elves and find opportunities for his own advancement.
The ruins left by the elves were actually just some dilapidated buildings and some ancient circles. Some of the circles had been destroyed, but there were still several large circles in operation.
After all, the antherions were not as smart as the humans. Although they occupied the region of the relics of the elves, they couldn't get any benefits from them. So they destroyed some of the remaining magic circles.
As for several larger magic circles, the antherions did not dare to touch them. They had seen how many high-level antherions had vanished after entering the vicinity of the magic circles. Among them were gold-level antherions who had the highest power bases among the dark forest antherions
After Harbonok came to the Elfin Woods, he first explored the destroyed magic circles but found nothing useful. Then he turned his attention to the large circles that still remained, but did not dare to enter the circles. Just looking at the incomprehensible Elfin characters engraved on the stone wall outside the array, he shook his head and left in disappointment.
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After returning to the antherion base in the dark forest, some high-ranking antherions inadvertently revealed to him that there was a magical tree on the other side of the forest which could be considered an Elfin wonder left by the vanished elves. Because this tree could bear some kind of magical fruits which after eating could improve the power bases of the antherions after eating them.
When Harbonok heard that, he was surprised. He didn't expect to learn that there was a tree that bore magical fruits which was equivalent to a low-level human essence crystals, but he was very interested in going there to see it for himself. However, he was told that this magical tree was currently under the control of the humans, and it was not ideal to trespass.
But the Secondborn was very surprised. Wasn't the Elfin Woods inside the dark forest which belonged to the antherions? How could it be occupied by humans now?
Probably, it was because the tree was located at the edge of the dark forest which was very close to the human settlement. Or could it be for the fact that it was first discovered by the humans, hundreds of years ago, and had since been guarded by them?
In addition, although the magical fruits could bring some help to the low-level antherions in terms of their power bases, compared to the large magic circle left by the elves, the value of the magical tree was far less. And because the large circles could gather the surrounding energy to maintain their normal operations, if anyone harness ether around the circle, it would be faster and more helpful than eating the magical fruits. Those magical fruits were only useful to some low-level antherions.
Due to these reasons, the high-level antherions, who had attain higher intelligence and transformation, did not go against the humans for the possession of the tree. Since they had the Elfin magic circles, why should they bother with the tree? The only ones who would suffer for it were the low-level antherions who couldn't make use of the magical circles. The magical fruits would have been beneficial to them.
Harbonok nodded after hearing this. But then he thought: since they've told him about the tree, and he was here, why not go and see. Maybe there could be something about the tree that could help him.
So he asked the leader of the dark forest antherions to lead him to the place. That was why he came to the Ironwood village.
Coincidentally, the time of visit of the dragonborn to the Ironwood tribe, was the time for harvesting the magical fruits. The people of the Ironwood tribe were setting up a huge picking rack under the tree. Besides the rack were baskets of freshly picked magical fruits.
The dark forest's antherion leader walked over to one of the baskets and took a handful of magical fruit. He looked at them carefully and extended his hand to Harbonok, "Secondborn, this are some magical fruits that were just picked. Please, try them."
The dragonborn smiled and nodded in agreement. He picked up a few fruits and threw them into his mouth. When he realized the deliciousness and efficacy of the magical fruits, he nodded lightly.
When the bulky man saw that the Secondborn was happy, he celebrated in his mind. It seemed that his decision to accompany the dragon today was not in vain. If he could be in favor of the son of the leader of all antherions, then it would definitely improve his future status
Thinking of this, the antherion said gently. "Secondborn, if you like it, I'll get you some more and take them back with us."