So... I died apparently. But now I'm in the body of a woman, not exactly human anymore, have more power than I ever thought I'd have, and I have the memories of the original tenant of the same body. I don't know how just yet, but I already know I am not on Earth anymore, an- oh wait. Someone's coming.
The Great Caretaker of Gaia (Overlord SI Player)
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Prologue - Who, What, and Where?!
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
It has been a while since I posted on this site, and my brain hasn't been exactly helping with throwing out plot bunnies and story ideas left and right that it actually made me LOSE the flow of the damn stories I'm trying to make chapters for.
But this one idea has taken root in my head, and frankly I don't know if I'll be able to do it justice. Especially since this fandom is rather... ruthless against these kinds of fics.
So, yeah. Surprise surprise, another Self-Insert from me to yeet into the air for ya'll to peruse and critically eye, and this unfortunate self of mine is going to be thrown into the Overlord Universe, although there will be some... mishaps, and of course it isn't an Eien fic without a case of unfortunate gender reassignment. As is customary now.
This AN is meant to outline a few key things about this fic, and I hope ya'll will understand it.
- I may or may not change a few things, by that I mean expanding on Yggdrasil stuff, New World stuff, and all that.
- While canon will technically happen, expect me to take said canon out back to be put down.
- Our unfortunate Self-Insert Eien IS an Yggdrasil Player, but I'm putting a sort of twist on it.
- Eien's not going to be an exactly... 'normal' character. Her 'Custom Build' is actually heavily inspired by another isekai MC, I'll keep that a secret for now.
- While I personally have a lot of knowledge and 'future sight' (novel-reader) of Overlord. THIS Eien, has only seen like Season 1 of the Overlord Anime.
- Expect OCs and slight OOC-ness, I'll try my best to keep canon characters consistent with their personality traits, but considering I'm going to shoot canon in the foot and push it over, don't expect them to stay the same.
- Oh, and Eien came like a decade or so before Ainz Ooal Gown.
I think that is all you need to know, so let's get this show on the road!
Disclaimer: I of course own nothing except for the idea and my SI and OCs.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Prologue - Who, What, and Where?!
-=-=-=-=-=-
I sat and looked at the still waters of the lake and beheld my appearance, turning my head left and right while making expressions with my uhh 'new' face. When I woke up earlier on the soft bed of flowers, I didn't expect this to be the after life. Although that line of thought was immediately cut short when I felt like a bus decided to ram into my head, giving me the mother of all headaches. Turns out I was alive, but I was apparently isekai'd and into another person's body.
The headache was a good thing to be honest, as the reason for that headache was because all of the memories, instincts, and knowledge of this body rushed into me. So I had a good idea of who I-ah I mean this body is. My-Her name is Miyagi Katsumi and this is actually her player character from a game I know because I watched the show it belonged to, Yggdrasil, and her avatar's name is apparently Eternity In Eden or as I-she likes to call my-herself EIEN.
Turns out having the memories of two different people shoved into one's head kind of sucks, and it makes it very difficult to differentiate who is who. To the point I think I remember having two mothers when I 'know' I'm supposed to have just one for each life. So that's terrifying, the fact like the memories are trying to merge similar events of my life, which I hope is not the case. But nevertheless, I am in a precarious situation and I know for a fact I am not in Yggdrasil because I can feel, touch, smell, and move my-her body while making different expressions. Oh, and I touched myself-this body to see just in case.
On the topic of this body, the difference between Katsumi and Eien is surprisingly not that far. Apparently she was really short in real life, by that I mean like shortstack level short, Eien kind of just looked like a taller version of her... with 'skin' made out of smooth wood and had leaves and vines in place of hair although it looks like as if it is real hair at first glance. Despite being an [Ancient], Eien could most certainly pass for a human that has a tan with soft green hair. Her race and her Yggdrasil build is the first thing I got accustomed to, and for one thing. Her build is actually really weird in general, and situationally broken as hell.
By that I meant that this build is technically a support character, but the way it is built and both the [Promoted Classes] & [Special Classes] Eien has combined together allow her to function like a weird tank that can support and heal themselves while also throwing trees at enemies. It's actually kind of weird how stupidly effective this is, I have a memory of her with a raid party standing in front of the [Silver Warden] Raid Boss literally just staring at both the boss and her party with the smug emoji on while the boss tried to kill her and fail. Kind of reminds me of that one meme of Raiden and the Senator but the participants are reversed.
This is not including the main meat of my-her build. Katsumi is apparently really nice going from my-her memories, like despite being technically a heteromorph race she is primarily left alone by the 'good' races due to her being such a kind soul. In fact, I have several memories of PKers who try to target Katsumi getting jumped by nearby players who happened to be nearby, I'm still a little suspect of that memory. Anyway back on topic, the main purpose of her build and why not a lot of players are trying to PK her is that her build allows her to buff her allies, and in some cases buff them PERMANENTLY. Not to mention she has like one ability that allows her to passively gather EXP or collect the EXP of slain mobs despite her being Level 100 and later store them with another ability in the form of [Gaia Apples] and this is the main reason why she isn't targeted. She is a source of EXP that is not related to killing mobs or bosses.
Yggdrasil is a revolutionary game where one can play whatever they want, and Miyagi wanted to play a character that helps in such a self sacrificing way. Except that with the help of a few experienced players and surprisingly Tabula Smaragdina was among them, she's got a build that lets her help support other players, but can also throw hands. Especially if she casts [Tree of Life Sapling] and plants it, her levels in the class [Caretaker of Gaia] basically super buffs her hp and mana regeneration, defense, and resistances. Combined with her array of healing spells, buffs, and debuffs, you've got yourself a self sustaining tank healer for as long as the [Tree of Life] is left up.
What makes me laugh though is that despite all this, she has another card that she uses really well. Summoning and by now one can see where I am going with this. Eien is basically a support Forest Druid on all of the steroids that can still throw hands and trees, and I-Katsumi was absolutely thrilled with that. The build I-she has was primarily meant for Support, and yet she still does well in PVP solo, albeit not as good as Flawless builds centered around PVP, Eternity in Eden makes it so that even those have to respect her. Even without a [Tree of Life] Eien's build makes her hard to kill in general.
So Eternity in Eden is a healer, a source of EXP, a support, a summoner, and thanks to all her skills and classes, a rather strangely effective tank. Main downside is that she doesn't really have a lot of avenues for dealing damage, especially without a [Tree of Life] in the vicinity. Speaking of the [Gaia Apple] things, turns out that players see them as very useful things, especially for when one is PK'd and they lose 5 levels, they can get like a [Gaia Apple] of a certain strength and consume it to regain all the lost levels. Another reason why she is primarily left alone to do her own thing, cause while one can still grind levels or power level with friends, the option to just instantly restore levels by consuming an apple is just too useful.
Turns out when I look through my-her memories, the papa bone man Momonga is actually a repeating customer of Eien. He kind of sheepishly admitted that he likes to hoard items, and considering I saw him hand Enri what were apparently trash items in the show, he must have hoarded a lot of crap. That and well Momonga seemed skittish and shy around me-Katsumi for some reason, I don't know why though. There are some memories that seem to be flat out missing and I'm concerned if I-Katsumi forgot something important.
Regardless of that, I'm in a little bit of a conundrum here. As there isn't exactly a whole lot to my surroundings aside from the fact that I am apparently in a cave, there is this huge still lake and right behind me is a huge tree. Now, the fact that there is a tree right next to me when I have the aforementioned skills is already suspect enough. But since I can FEEL the thing, I know this isn't an ordinary tree... well that is already obvious considering that the leaves are emitting small sparkles of light.
But yeah, as soon as I check out what the tree was exactly. I was surprised that it WASN'T a [Tree of Life], nah instead I had to check if I was seeing shit and washed my eyes because the name was concerningly more ominous than that.
[Sapling of the World Tree], and the fact that I am connected to it and feel like I could fight gods makes me more concerned than ever. But despite that, when I poke at the connection I share with it, all I can feel is warmth and what almost feels like little hands reaching out to me. The feeling was... not unpleasant, and when I acknowledged it the tree only seemed to brighten and the soft chime of little bells rang out.
Sighing I stood up and dusted off my equipment all the while checking out my sense of balance, it feels odd knowing that I don't need to get a feel for it since I got that killer headache from all the memories and instincts. But I'm not gonna complain about that, since that saves me time from fumbling about and falling over myself. My face broke out into a smile filled with child-like wonder as I immediately got to the really fun stuff, who didn't want to know what it felt like to use magic?
Immediately I held out a hand outwards and pointing across the lake, I reviewed the... that is a lot of spells. Actually like holy hell that is a lot of spells, uhh how am I supposed to pick from 369 spells? Eh fuck it! We go the most famous one! Turns out I have it, which is nice!
"[Fireball]!" I call out with a voice that reminds me of those onee-sama types of women, and was rewarded with a small red magic circle popping up in front of my hand before a fireball the size of small outhouse fire out. "Eh?" I let out a questioning noise as I blink and saw the fireball hit the wall and explode in a fiery blaze.
That was a lot bigger than what I was expecting for a Tier 3 Spell. Then I remember through the memories that with my levels in [Ancient] and [Caretaker of the World] that a [Tree of Life] will buff me and several of my abilities, but the only tree buffing me now is the [Sapling of the World Tree], which I can only assume is a hell of a lot stronger than a [Tree of Life].
Before anything else I slightly knock my head with a fist softly. "Right, the fire. Uhh let's see here, [Widen Magic: Control Water]." With that I felt a pulse extend from me and surround this cave, I can feel the water of the lake and I used my hands to help my mind guide the water to what I want it to do, and that is douse the large bonfire I made.
Letting out a sigh of relief at seeing the fire get extinguished, I let the water flow back into the lake and cancelled the magic. Turns out this body has 'instincts' from the Yggdrasil game that lets me use the magic quite simply. As for using the magic, I couldn't help but let out a few giggles as I excitedly bounced on my feet and looked at my hands. "This is so cool!"
Then I remembered how exactly I came to be in this world and my good mood immediately plummeted, it doesn't help that because of all the memories forced into my head. I have a hard time differentiating myself between... me and myse- KATSUMI.
Frowning, I trekked my way to the tree and sat at the base, feeling the soft grass underneath and the wood against my back, I look up and thought about my life before this. It wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either. Although what I will miss most are my friends and family, and slowly the weight of how I will never see them again hit and I couldn't help but shed a few tears, and some more because of the memories of Katsumi also showed she had some loved ones left behind. But because of their world, she only had like a few loved ones left because her old world took them away.
Pulling my knees up I rested my chin on them and just sat there moping, I'd be lying if I said that I never wanted this. Well, not this exact situation but something similar would be nice. But I didn't want it at the expense of this loss.
Somehow the Sapling I was leaning against sensed my sadness and again I felt warmth and comfort through our shared connection. Carefully I lay a hand on a nearby root and trace small circles on the bark, the feeling of warmth and comfort almost tripled while a sense of happiness was conveyed through the connection. Letting out a small laugh I couldn't help but wonder if I was just imagining all of this and-
My head suddenly snapped up to the ceiling of the cavern as I heard rocks fall and crack, quickly wiping my eyes of the tears I stood up stared long and hard at the cracking ceiling. It might be a large animal and I will have to be fighting so soon, hopefully I don't get something powerful right off the bat. I still need to get used to fighting, but hopefully the Sapling will keep me alive with the buffs.
Licking my lips involuntarily, I watch as the cracks grow before the ceiling crumbled and it was if time slowed, my eyes widened as I saw no monster.
But a young man. A brown haired young man wearing some simple leather and half plate armor falling from the ceiling and looking so panicked as he plummeted down to the lake. I look at him and saw in his fall he had turned to see me, my surprised eyes looked into his own ones as time seemed to speed up and he fell into the lake with a mighty splash.
Blinking a bit stupidly, my mind caught up and I let out a mental scream at myself to fucking move. Which is what I did, without thinking I leaped into the water with the grace of an expert diver before I swam to the young man who didn't seem to be conscious. Carefully I grab him by his arm and began my slow ascent to the surface.
Then I stopped for a moment and thought to myself that I am an idiot before casting the same spell from earlier again, [Widen Magic: Control Water] and had the water around us pull the two of us back to the surface.
When we broke the surface of the lake, I had the water around us push the young man and I back towards the tree. Carefully I stepped out and gently pulled the young man over so that he would lay on the grass, I looked at him and saw that he wasn't breathing. He must have too much water, and I had to thank the forced first aid training from my first life. I began pumping his chest with a bit of force and performed some cpr on him, repeatedly pumping his chest and blowing air into his lungs.
Surely enough the water spouted out of his mouth and he began coughing and started flailing his hands. Satisfied, I sat on my knees and waited for the young man to get his bearings. Then I remembered again that I was a dumbass and still had the spell up, I could have used that to pull the water out of his lungs, I lightly knocked my forehead again with a fist, mentally calling myself stupid.
But regardless, the young man could now breathe again and now I watch him open his eyes to look up at me. He seemed to blink a few times before he spoke. "Beautiful..."
At first I thought he was talking about something else, but then I remembered that this is a female body and one that is basically a bombshell. Despite that, the very earnest and blunt words kind of made me embarrassed a bit, but I hid that and only smiled down at him. "That was quite a bad fall you had there Stranger-san."
Hearing that, the young man slowly sat up before turning to face me. He actually bowed his head and as if he wasn't just on the verge of death or just recently fell from a great height, the young man gave a cheeky grin. "It was, wasn't it Stranger-san? By the way, my name is Gazef Stronoff."
As soon as that name was uttered, I blinked a few times.
"Eh?"
I will post an informational on Eternity in Eden's rough stats and level allocation. But hopefully ya'll enjoy this prologue! <:3
But this one idea has taken root in my head, and frankly I don't know if I'll be able to do it justice. Especially since this fandom is rather... ruthless against these kinds of fics.
So, yeah. Surprise surprise, another Self-Insert from me to yeet into the air for ya'll to peruse and critically eye, and this unfortunate self of mine is going to be thrown into the Overlord Universe, although there will be some... mishaps, and of course it isn't an Eien fic without a case of unfortunate gender reassignment. As is customary now.
This AN is meant to outline a few key things about this fic, and I hope ya'll will understand it.
- I may or may not change a few things, by that I mean expanding on Yggdrasil stuff, New World stuff, and all that.
- While canon will technically happen, expect me to take said canon out back to be put down.
- Our unfortunate Self-Insert Eien IS an Yggdrasil Player, but I'm putting a sort of twist on it.
- Eien's not going to be an exactly... 'normal' character. Her 'Custom Build' is actually heavily inspired by another isekai MC, I'll keep that a secret for now.
- While I personally have a lot of knowledge and 'future sight' (novel-reader) of Overlord. THIS Eien, has only seen like Season 1 of the Overlord Anime.
- Expect OCs and slight OOC-ness, I'll try my best to keep canon characters consistent with their personality traits, but considering I'm going to shoot canon in the foot and push it over, don't expect them to stay the same.
- Oh, and Eien came like a decade or so before Ainz Ooal Gown.
I think that is all you need to know, so let's get this show on the road!
Disclaimer: I of course own nothing except for the idea and my SI and OCs.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Prologue - Who, What, and Where?!
-=-=-=-=-=-
I sat and looked at the still waters of the lake and beheld my appearance, turning my head left and right while making expressions with my uhh 'new' face. When I woke up earlier on the soft bed of flowers, I didn't expect this to be the after life. Although that line of thought was immediately cut short when I felt like a bus decided to ram into my head, giving me the mother of all headaches. Turns out I was alive, but I was apparently isekai'd and into another person's body.
The headache was a good thing to be honest, as the reason for that headache was because all of the memories, instincts, and knowledge of this body rushed into me. So I had a good idea of who I-ah I mean this body is. My-Her name is Miyagi Katsumi and this is actually her player character from a game I know because I watched the show it belonged to, Yggdrasil, and her avatar's name is apparently Eternity In Eden or as I-she likes to call my-herself EIEN.
Turns out having the memories of two different people shoved into one's head kind of sucks, and it makes it very difficult to differentiate who is who. To the point I think I remember having two mothers when I 'know' I'm supposed to have just one for each life. So that's terrifying, the fact like the memories are trying to merge similar events of my life, which I hope is not the case. But nevertheless, I am in a precarious situation and I know for a fact I am not in Yggdrasil because I can feel, touch, smell, and move my-her body while making different expressions. Oh, and I touched myself-this body to see just in case.
On the topic of this body, the difference between Katsumi and Eien is surprisingly not that far. Apparently she was really short in real life, by that I mean like shortstack level short, Eien kind of just looked like a taller version of her... with 'skin' made out of smooth wood and had leaves and vines in place of hair although it looks like as if it is real hair at first glance. Despite being an [Ancient], Eien could most certainly pass for a human that has a tan with soft green hair. Her race and her Yggdrasil build is the first thing I got accustomed to, and for one thing. Her build is actually really weird in general, and situationally broken as hell.
By that I meant that this build is technically a support character, but the way it is built and both the [Promoted Classes] & [Special Classes] Eien has combined together allow her to function like a weird tank that can support and heal themselves while also throwing trees at enemies. It's actually kind of weird how stupidly effective this is, I have a memory of her with a raid party standing in front of the [Silver Warden] Raid Boss literally just staring at both the boss and her party with the smug emoji on while the boss tried to kill her and fail. Kind of reminds me of that one meme of Raiden and the Senator but the participants are reversed.
This is not including the main meat of my-her build. Katsumi is apparently really nice going from my-her memories, like despite being technically a heteromorph race she is primarily left alone by the 'good' races due to her being such a kind soul. In fact, I have several memories of PKers who try to target Katsumi getting jumped by nearby players who happened to be nearby, I'm still a little suspect of that memory. Anyway back on topic, the main purpose of her build and why not a lot of players are trying to PK her is that her build allows her to buff her allies, and in some cases buff them PERMANENTLY. Not to mention she has like one ability that allows her to passively gather EXP or collect the EXP of slain mobs despite her being Level 100 and later store them with another ability in the form of [Gaia Apples] and this is the main reason why she isn't targeted. She is a source of EXP that is not related to killing mobs or bosses.
Yggdrasil is a revolutionary game where one can play whatever they want, and Miyagi wanted to play a character that helps in such a self sacrificing way. Except that with the help of a few experienced players and surprisingly Tabula Smaragdina was among them, she's got a build that lets her help support other players, but can also throw hands. Especially if she casts [Tree of Life Sapling] and plants it, her levels in the class [Caretaker of Gaia] basically super buffs her hp and mana regeneration, defense, and resistances. Combined with her array of healing spells, buffs, and debuffs, you've got yourself a self sustaining tank healer for as long as the [Tree of Life] is left up.
What makes me laugh though is that despite all this, she has another card that she uses really well. Summoning and by now one can see where I am going with this. Eien is basically a support Forest Druid on all of the steroids that can still throw hands and trees, and I-Katsumi was absolutely thrilled with that. The build I-she has was primarily meant for Support, and yet she still does well in PVP solo, albeit not as good as Flawless builds centered around PVP, Eternity in Eden makes it so that even those have to respect her. Even without a [Tree of Life] Eien's build makes her hard to kill in general.
So Eternity in Eden is a healer, a source of EXP, a support, a summoner, and thanks to all her skills and classes, a rather strangely effective tank. Main downside is that she doesn't really have a lot of avenues for dealing damage, especially without a [Tree of Life] in the vicinity. Speaking of the [Gaia Apple] things, turns out that players see them as very useful things, especially for when one is PK'd and they lose 5 levels, they can get like a [Gaia Apple] of a certain strength and consume it to regain all the lost levels. Another reason why she is primarily left alone to do her own thing, cause while one can still grind levels or power level with friends, the option to just instantly restore levels by consuming an apple is just too useful.
Turns out when I look through my-her memories, the papa bone man Momonga is actually a repeating customer of Eien. He kind of sheepishly admitted that he likes to hoard items, and considering I saw him hand Enri what were apparently trash items in the show, he must have hoarded a lot of crap. That and well Momonga seemed skittish and shy around me-Katsumi for some reason, I don't know why though. There are some memories that seem to be flat out missing and I'm concerned if I-Katsumi forgot something important.
Regardless of that, I'm in a little bit of a conundrum here. As there isn't exactly a whole lot to my surroundings aside from the fact that I am apparently in a cave, there is this huge still lake and right behind me is a huge tree. Now, the fact that there is a tree right next to me when I have the aforementioned skills is already suspect enough. But since I can FEEL the thing, I know this isn't an ordinary tree... well that is already obvious considering that the leaves are emitting small sparkles of light.
But yeah, as soon as I check out what the tree was exactly. I was surprised that it WASN'T a [Tree of Life], nah instead I had to check if I was seeing shit and washed my eyes because the name was concerningly more ominous than that.
[Sapling of the World Tree], and the fact that I am connected to it and feel like I could fight gods makes me more concerned than ever. But despite that, when I poke at the connection I share with it, all I can feel is warmth and what almost feels like little hands reaching out to me. The feeling was... not unpleasant, and when I acknowledged it the tree only seemed to brighten and the soft chime of little bells rang out.
Sighing I stood up and dusted off my equipment all the while checking out my sense of balance, it feels odd knowing that I don't need to get a feel for it since I got that killer headache from all the memories and instincts. But I'm not gonna complain about that, since that saves me time from fumbling about and falling over myself. My face broke out into a smile filled with child-like wonder as I immediately got to the really fun stuff, who didn't want to know what it felt like to use magic?
Immediately I held out a hand outwards and pointing across the lake, I reviewed the... that is a lot of spells. Actually like holy hell that is a lot of spells, uhh how am I supposed to pick from 369 spells? Eh fuck it! We go the most famous one! Turns out I have it, which is nice!
"[Fireball]!" I call out with a voice that reminds me of those onee-sama types of women, and was rewarded with a small red magic circle popping up in front of my hand before a fireball the size of small outhouse fire out. "Eh?" I let out a questioning noise as I blink and saw the fireball hit the wall and explode in a fiery blaze.
That was a lot bigger than what I was expecting for a Tier 3 Spell. Then I remember through the memories that with my levels in [Ancient] and [Caretaker of the World] that a [Tree of Life] will buff me and several of my abilities, but the only tree buffing me now is the [Sapling of the World Tree], which I can only assume is a hell of a lot stronger than a [Tree of Life].
Before anything else I slightly knock my head with a fist softly. "Right, the fire. Uhh let's see here, [Widen Magic: Control Water]." With that I felt a pulse extend from me and surround this cave, I can feel the water of the lake and I used my hands to help my mind guide the water to what I want it to do, and that is douse the large bonfire I made.
Letting out a sigh of relief at seeing the fire get extinguished, I let the water flow back into the lake and cancelled the magic. Turns out this body has 'instincts' from the Yggdrasil game that lets me use the magic quite simply. As for using the magic, I couldn't help but let out a few giggles as I excitedly bounced on my feet and looked at my hands. "This is so cool!"
Then I remembered how exactly I came to be in this world and my good mood immediately plummeted, it doesn't help that because of all the memories forced into my head. I have a hard time differentiating myself between... me and myse- KATSUMI.
Frowning, I trekked my way to the tree and sat at the base, feeling the soft grass underneath and the wood against my back, I look up and thought about my life before this. It wasn't that great, but it wasn't bad either. Although what I will miss most are my friends and family, and slowly the weight of how I will never see them again hit and I couldn't help but shed a few tears, and some more because of the memories of Katsumi also showed she had some loved ones left behind. But because of their world, she only had like a few loved ones left because her old world took them away.
Pulling my knees up I rested my chin on them and just sat there moping, I'd be lying if I said that I never wanted this. Well, not this exact situation but something similar would be nice. But I didn't want it at the expense of this loss.
Somehow the Sapling I was leaning against sensed my sadness and again I felt warmth and comfort through our shared connection. Carefully I lay a hand on a nearby root and trace small circles on the bark, the feeling of warmth and comfort almost tripled while a sense of happiness was conveyed through the connection. Letting out a small laugh I couldn't help but wonder if I was just imagining all of this and-
My head suddenly snapped up to the ceiling of the cavern as I heard rocks fall and crack, quickly wiping my eyes of the tears I stood up stared long and hard at the cracking ceiling. It might be a large animal and I will have to be fighting so soon, hopefully I don't get something powerful right off the bat. I still need to get used to fighting, but hopefully the Sapling will keep me alive with the buffs.
Licking my lips involuntarily, I watch as the cracks grow before the ceiling crumbled and it was if time slowed, my eyes widened as I saw no monster.
But a young man. A brown haired young man wearing some simple leather and half plate armor falling from the ceiling and looking so panicked as he plummeted down to the lake. I look at him and saw in his fall he had turned to see me, my surprised eyes looked into his own ones as time seemed to speed up and he fell into the lake with a mighty splash.
Blinking a bit stupidly, my mind caught up and I let out a mental scream at myself to fucking move. Which is what I did, without thinking I leaped into the water with the grace of an expert diver before I swam to the young man who didn't seem to be conscious. Carefully I grab him by his arm and began my slow ascent to the surface.
Then I stopped for a moment and thought to myself that I am an idiot before casting the same spell from earlier again, [Widen Magic: Control Water] and had the water around us pull the two of us back to the surface.
When we broke the surface of the lake, I had the water around us push the young man and I back towards the tree. Carefully I stepped out and gently pulled the young man over so that he would lay on the grass, I looked at him and saw that he wasn't breathing. He must have too much water, and I had to thank the forced first aid training from my first life. I began pumping his chest with a bit of force and performed some cpr on him, repeatedly pumping his chest and blowing air into his lungs.
Surely enough the water spouted out of his mouth and he began coughing and started flailing his hands. Satisfied, I sat on my knees and waited for the young man to get his bearings. Then I remembered again that I was a dumbass and still had the spell up, I could have used that to pull the water out of his lungs, I lightly knocked my forehead again with a fist, mentally calling myself stupid.
But regardless, the young man could now breathe again and now I watch him open his eyes to look up at me. He seemed to blink a few times before he spoke. "Beautiful..."
At first I thought he was talking about something else, but then I remembered that this is a female body and one that is basically a bombshell. Despite that, the very earnest and blunt words kind of made me embarrassed a bit, but I hid that and only smiled down at him. "That was quite a bad fall you had there Stranger-san."
Hearing that, the young man slowly sat up before turning to face me. He actually bowed his head and as if he wasn't just on the verge of death or just recently fell from a great height, the young man gave a cheeky grin. "It was, wasn't it Stranger-san? By the way, my name is Gazef Stronoff."
As soon as that name was uttered, I blinked a few times.
"Eh?"
I will post an informational on Eternity in Eden's rough stats and level allocation. But hopefully ya'll enjoy this prologue! <:3
Last edited:
Yggdrasil Sheet - Character: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Yggdrasil Sheet - Character: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
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Yggdrasil Sheet - Character: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
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Name: Eternity in Eden
Nickname: Eien
True Name: Miyagi Katsumi, [CORRUPT FILE]
Titles: (Given by Players and/or Developers)
Great Caretaker of Gaia
The Earth Mother
Sweet Sunshine
Diabetes Personified
Bet you didn't expect this. :3
Also Momo in this fic has got some taste.
Replace the blues with greens.
=-= Class Build =-=
Total Level - 100
= Racial Levels =
+ Dryad - 15
+ Greater Dryad - 10
+ Treeman - 10
+ Ancient - 5
= Job Levels =
+ Druid - 10
+ High Druid - 10
+ Elementalist - 5
+ Sage - 5
+ Alchemist - 5
+ Forest Mage - 10
+ Nature's Herald - 10
+ Caretaker of Gaia - 5
=-= Equipment =-= (As of now)
= Head =
+ Headdress of the Kyuubi (Legendary Class Rarity)
= Torso =
+ Raiment of the Kyuubi (Legendary Class Rarity)
= Waist = (Not always at waist level)
+ Verdant Phoenix Sash (Legendary Class Rarity)
= Legs =
+ Kyuubi's Colors (Legendary Class Rarity)
= Feet =
+ Kyuubi's Lupine Chasers (Legendary Class Rarity)
= Accessories =
+ Enchanted Mana-Rich Flower (Epic Class Rarity)
+ Plucked Cloudspire (The fluffy thing around her shoulders) (Epic Class Rarity)
+ Forest Guardian's Runestone (Epic Class Rarity)
+ Forest Guardian's Horseshoe (Legendary Class Rarity)
+ ?????? (Divine Class Rarity)
= Weapon =
+ Stringed Realm of Gaia's Heart (World Class Rarity)
= Set Bonus =
+ Spirit of the Great Fox (4/5)
- 3/5 => Mana Regeneration is increased to 300%, Agility Boosted by 10, Resistance Boosted by 10, Magic Attack Boosted by 10, Magic Defense Boosted by 10
- 5/5 <> All Stat Boosting Effects are applied 3x
+ Emerald Blaze Bird (1/5)
- 1/5 => When Hit with an attack that would reduce your HP to 0, instead turn [Invulnerable] for 5 Seconds, reduce your HP to 1, and all Druidic Spells are on No Cooldown and No Cost. Available only once per 7 Days.
- 5/5 <> Emerald Blaze Cooldown is now reduced to 1 Day.
=-= Approximate Status =-=
Note: This does not include buffs by the Tree of Life.
= HP = < 80 >
= MP = < Exceeds Limit >
= Physical Attack = < 30 >
= Physical Defense = < 80 >
= Agility = < 40 >
= Magic Attack = < 80 >
= Magic Defense = < 90 >
= Resistance = < 90 >
= Special Ability = < 100 >
= Total = < 685+@ >
=-= World Class Item =-=
= Stringed Realm of Gaia's Heart =
Type: Weapon
Class Restriction: Druidic Spellcasters
Description: The Sound of Gaia's Heart is heard throughout the 9 Realms, in the land, in the water, in the sky, and especially in the forests. Its music was capable of many things, from growing great tracts of life, to sundering the skies and splitting the earth. The Melody of the World if need be would be used to awaken the slumbering Ancients that once guarded her form.
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Chapter 1: Lady of the Cavern
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Chapter 1: Lady of the Cavern
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Chapter 1: Lady of the Cavern
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Gazef didn't really know what to think of his current situation, but to be fair it was really his fault in the first place that he nearly died and needed to have a stranger save his ass from his own doom. He had just given his name to the enchanting woman in front of him and was privy to seeing some kind of emotion dance behind her eyes for a brief moment before she replied to him.
"Hello to you Stronoff-san. My name is Itterny Tiin Eedin, but you can call me Eien." A noble? Has to be with that kind of name and that fancy set of clothing she is wearing. But then again she just as quickly ruined it by jumping into the lake to pull him out, so perhaps she may not be a noble after all.
"Oh then I will insist that you call me Gazef if we are being informal. Now Eien-san, might I ask where are we exactly?" The young mercenary looked around the rather large cave, he spotted a burnt piece of wall across the lake, and the rather large tree with shining leaves right next to the two of them.
When he turned to look at Eien, he saw her looking at the tree he was just looking at but he could also feel her side eyeing him for some reason. After a moment of silence, the bronze colored woman turned to him with a small smile on her face.
"This is my residence Gazef-kun, though I think the better question here is... how did you come to fall from the top of this cavern?" She punctuated this question with a slow raise of her eyebrow, and Gazef's eyes twitched as a blush of embarrassment threatened to break out over his face.
Coughing into his fist, the young man turned away for a brief moment to collect his thoughts before slowly turning back with a resigned sigh. His hand going behind his head rubbing it sheepishly as he spoke. "I uhh... it was kind of my fault?"
At that Gazef saw Eien slowly blink as if registering what he just said, but she simply motioned her hand towards him, urging the young man to continue.
Nodding, Gazef sat upright. "You see, I'm actually a mercenary. In fact, I actually just left my village a few weeks ago. I arrived to E-Shozel and I got a job for the local alchemist, she wanted some herbs that grew in this cave for some medicinal potions. Although as you can see, I haven't exactly been that successful so far." The young man finished with a sheepish grin followed by a joking helpless shrug motioning to his lack of gathered herbs.
Following that, Gazef decided to throw his arms up and fall backwards to lay down on the surprisingly soft patch of grass. He stared up at the hole he accidentally made and winced at the rather ugly appearance it had before turning his head slightly to see Eien looking at him with that ever present small smile of hers.
"So uhh, sorry about the hole I made in your home Eien-san." Apologizing about the hole seemed like a good idea for starters, and it might have been a good one as Eien started softly chuckling.
"I don't mind the... 'new addition' to this place, I was thinking of renovating anyway." Now Gazef felt even more embarrassed at that, rubbing the back of his neck he wanted to change the subject from his latest blunder.
"Anyway, what about you Eien-san? What is your story?"
Eternity In Eden | Eien POV
Right after I realized that was his actual name, I started mentally screaming while keeping the avatar's face calm. My mental scream only lasted like five seconds before my mind restarted and I gave my name, well this avatar's name at least and Gazef didn't seem my name was weird. Then I looked at his mouth move and realized that something was translating words between us because what I am hearing is not matching up with what he should be saying. So he might hear my avatar's full name differently, which was interesting and Eien seemed to go through fine.
I sort of told a half-truth saying that this place is my residence, which is true for the most part as there is no way I'm not making this place as comfortable as possible. Especially since it might be the place where I am at my strongest thanks to Little Sapling.
Also it turns out that Gazef Stronoff was actually a mercenary in his younger days! That was really fascinating actually, when did he catch the king's eye? How did he get to be the Warrior Captain in canon? He just started out a few weeks ago, so that meant that he shouldn't even be a threat to me, but considering what I saw of him in the show he is honest, kind, and pretty down to earth so I doubt he would even want to attack in the first place without a good reason.
When he showed off his lack of herbs I couldn't help but smile a little wider. The aura he exudes, it was warm, like a welcoming friend. As he mentioned the hole I simply waved it off, again I was planning on renovating this place as much as possible, maybe even see if I can plant multiple [Trees of Life] and if the buffs I get from them can stack.
As soon as he asked me about my story however, I couldn't help but look down and turn silent. I had to think of something fast, maybe I can pull some stuff from other forms of media I read and watch and hodge podge things together real quick.
But first... to test the waters, I lifted my head and looked into young Gazef's eyes and blurted out. "What do you think of... non-humans?"
To my shock, he simply shrugged. "I have no trouble with them. Sure the occasional goblin raiding party and wandering ogres kind of make it difficult to see them in a good light, but that doesn't mean that all demi-humans are bad."
Blinking, I did not expect such a fast response, and from listening to his voice and watching his body language. He was not lying, so I figured that I can at least be 'more' honest with the guy. I chuckled and smiled at him. "You are wiser than your age suggests Gazef-kun."
Gazef only scratched the back of his head with a flattered but confident grin. "Thanks!"
Chuckling at that, I mentally checked if I had an inventory and if I had stuff in it and turns out I do, and my inner loot goblin sings praises when I notice I have so much crap in there. Now, hopefully I have- aha! There! I then [Silent] cast a fifth tier spell I remember called [Plant Control] and grew a small smooth wood table in between us.
When he saw it he slightly leaned back at its sudden appearance, only to look even more bewildered when my hand opened a 'black hole' and reached in to pull out a [Pitcher of Endless Water] and two glasses before setting it on the table. I poured a glass for myself and my guest.
"What if I told you that I am not a human?" I ask as I finished pouring his glass, and picked up my own with two hands. Eyeing him carefully as his bewildered face slowly turned serious before nodding his head.
"I would not be surprised, considering you asked what I thought about demi-humans in the first place. What I would be more surprised at is how do you look so human? Most demi-humans have obvious parts that differentiate them from humans." Gazef nodded as he slowly picked up the other glass and took a careful whiff, which only made me giggle a bit.
"It's just water Gazef-kun, and simply put I have my ways. As for what I am... I am an old soul, an Ancient if you will." I wasn't really lying, if we combined the years of both myself and Katsumi, I should be rather old in comparison. Though I might be laying it on a bit thick with the 'Ancient' line.
Looking into young Gazef's eyes I can almost see gears turning in his head as he looked down at the wood before he turned slightly to eye the [Sapling of the World Tree], ooh he is a perceptive one. "No, I am not the Little Sapling. I have not needed a tree in a long time."
At that Gazef turned to fully face me with a thoughtful look on his face. "You are a Dryad."
I shrugged and smiled at him, drinking some of the cool water in my glass. "I was... but I grew out of it." I couldn't help but make a pun and smiled wider when Gazef snorted some water while he was drinking.
He coughed lightly before leveling a glare at me, though I could feel his amusement. "Please don't make jokes while I am drinking."
I let out a louder laugh waving a free hand while the other held my own glass. "Sorry, sorry!~" Though my jovial tone slowly gave way to a more serious one. "I haven't been a Dryad for quite a long time, if anything my... race, can be considered and were called Ancients."
"You certainly don't look old for being an Ancient." I heard Gazef pipe up from behind his glass and couldn't help but place a hand to my cheek, flattered at the praise even though this was a game avatar, it was now my actual body.
"Ara ara Gazef-kun, thank you for the compliment." Only this time Gazef gave a grin before continuing to drink and listen to the tale he did not know I was spinning. Looking down at the table and the glass in my hands, I began to speak, weaving a story that hopefully didn't sound convoluted nor contradictory.
"I come from ages past, one could even say that I come from an entirely different world. I along with other Ancients watched the rise and fall of races, cities, empires, and interesting individuals. Few of us interacted with the races, and some even managed to befriend the races, myself included. It was... fun, should I borrow a term from one of my friends." As I spoke, I could almost feel Gazef's questioning gaze, he was clearly listening but he believes I haven't finished, which is... right I suppose.
"That world has long since passed, my friends are no longer here, and the only piece of that old world I have left is the Little Sapling over there." Finishing the short tale, I waved a hand to the glowing [Sapling of the World Tree], and we both watched as the tree seemed to glow a little brighter at my acknowledgement.
Silence reigned between the two of us for a while, internally I was hoping that the young man would buy it an- "I am sorry for your loss."
Again, it would seem like Gazef surprises more and more. I looked up with a bit of surprise on my face and saw Gazef's face was that of comfort. "It must be difficult, outliving all of your friends like that." The absolute honesty in his voice is what clinches it for me, while I've seen how he is in the show, it is only when I am in front of him that I can say without a doubt.
Slowly, a small smile spread on my face. "You are a good man Gazef." The thing is, what all I said is technically the truth, and the feelings of loss I have over my friends and family in both lives is great. I am just good at hiding it.
I closed my eyes and set my glass down on the table before attempting to change the subject. "So... Gazef-kun you are a mercenary yes? What made you want to leave your home to pursue such a... hazardous occupation?"
Thankfully the young man in front of me was fine with the change of subject, as he leaned back a bit looking a lot more embarrassed than he did before. "Ah, you see- er, it's dumb." Oh right, I forget that for all he is, Gazef right now is just a young man, and a lot of times they get embarrassed or awkward when they talk about things like this.
Letting out a soft laugh, I wave a free hand in front of my face. "If you are afraid that I will laugh, then don't worry so much! I have heard far more embarrassing goals from my old friends." Boy wasn't that the truth, mentally I cringe at how weird some of these goals were.
Though that seemed to do the trick and Gazef looked far less embarrassed than he did before. I watch now puzzled as he set his glass on the table before he stood up and placed a boot onto the table, lightly shaking it before pointing to the air. "I want to be a HERO! I want to go out into the world, help others, protect the weak, vanquish oppressors, and be the shield of the common folk!"
Now to me personally all that he said wasn't what made me laugh, but the tone he said it with is another story entirely. Although, something about what he said seemed to resonate within me, and I temporarily lost myself to my memories.
[]"Hey hey Katsu-chan! Let's be heroes when we grow up! I'll be the main hero and you'll be my sidekick!"[]
The shadow of a little boy grinning widely fluttered through my mind for a brief moment before it faded.
With that fresh memory in mind, I couldn't help but snort quietly, and I covered my mouth with one hand as my snickers grew a little louder. My laughter caught Gazef's attention and I swear his face looked as if it will burst into flames with how red it was. He pointed at me in faux anger. "You said you wouldn't laugh!"
My shoulders shook as my giggles grew a little louder, placing my glass down I lifted my other hand to wave at him, my laughter momentarily stopping as I try to placate him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I wasn't laughing at you, I promise. It's just that, you reminded me of an old friend of mine. He wanted to be a hero too."
At that, Gazef slowly exhaled and the tenseness left his body as he sat back down grumbling good naturedly as he took another drink. My amusement subsided as I thought about what the young man in front of me said. 'A hero huh? Well... why don't I help with that?'
"You do know that being a hero isn't easy right? That you will need to grow stronger, break your limits, and there are times where you will have to make tough decisions?" I idly asked Gazef while I start mentally checking my spell list, special abilities, and innate skills for things that can help me here.
"Of course I do! Even if I don't grow as strong, even if I die tomorrow, as long as I helped at least one more person, then I'd be satisfied." There is honest and blunt Gazef again, giving a reply so quick it couldn't have been practiced.
Smiling widely at that, I stood up and slowly began walking around the table. "What if I told you I can help with that? The growing stronger part at least."
"You mean you'll train me?!" Almost excitedly, Gazef sprung up to his feet and- were those stars in his eyes?! Regardless, I shook my head and he seemed to be confused, at least until he thought of something. "Are you going to offer me power straight up? If so I will have to-"
"Will you let me tell you about myself and my offer first before you go declining?" Hmm, honesty. Gazef didn't want his strength to be given to him, he wants to earn it I suppose, which is fair.
Grumbling, young Gazef looked at me with a look I can only describe as disgruntled, but he at least seems to be listening which is good enough for me. "I am an Ancient, and in the old world I was very different from the others. I'm not particularly martially inclined, nor am I someone who has thousands of spells stuffed in their head, instead I am a... Caretaker I suppose is an apt term. I nurture, I have helped others grow, and all without a price, although there are those who see fit to give me items as payment for my services, they didn't need to but I accepted them with grace anyway so as not to be rude."
Slowing down I came to a stop in front of Gazef and lifted both of my hands, turns out I have enough stored EXP for the spell should I need to max it out. I [Silent] cast [Observe Target] on Gazef, the sixth tier spell was a direct upgrade for the second tier spell [Discern Enemy], I always found it odd that not a lot of players have this spell, then I remember that it was a reward for one of the most tedious quest chains in Yggdrasil, like escort mission + timed + puzzle-driven and multiply it by hell kind of tedious.
But personally I think it is sooooo worth it, [Observe Target] combines the functions of [Discern Enemy] and all other [Detect] magic into one spell that gives an accurate as possible reading, plus it can be used with [Widen Magic] for AoE which is awesome.
Anyway, let's take a quick look at Gazef's- oh my that is a bit more info than what I was expecting. Ok let's go to the more important parts. Ah, he is already a higher level than I thought for just starting out as a Mercenary. Wait a minute... he has no EXP bar, does the New World gather levels differently then? What will happen if I feed him a [Gaia Apple]?
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Name: Gazef Stronoff
= Class Build =
Total Levels - 12
= Job Levels =
+ Woodworker - 7
+ Fighter - 3
+ Mercenary - 2
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With that information in mind, my left hand began to gather golden light while my right hand sparked with a green light. "My abilities, they are unique to me and so I offer you this Gazef Stronoff. In my left hand I hold an apple, but not just any apple but one that has once been coveted by many and those of the old world know of it's power. Should you wish, if you consume it you will grow in strength immediately, there are various levels to it and I am willing to offer you one of whatever level you want."
The golden light solidified above my left hand into a [Gaia Apple], this one has the stored EXP if I calculate it right SHOULD put him to Level 50 immediately, but considering this isn't a game anymore I have no idea how that will translate here.
"In my right hand, I can grant you a boon instead. With it nothing will change for the most part, but you will be able to grow stronger and break past your limits far easier than you would do on your own." The emerald light died down revealing a glowing ethereal seed that looked vaguely like a green teardrop and was the size of a chicken egg. This was one of my strongest permanent buffs from my [Caretaker of Gaia] class and it's 2nd [Special Skill], it was a secret and I thought you could only have one [Special Skill], I thought [From Great Death Comes Great Life] was the only [Special Skill] I'd get from maxing out [Caretaker of Gaia]. Anyway, it was an ability that initially seemed useless for High Levels and those near Level Cap, but where it REALLY shined was if I used it on a Low Level Player.
You see, it will not only increase EXP gain by a considerable margin, but with this there is a chance that an individual that received the [Unknown Seed] buff would have their overall stats become higher than a regular level 100 player once they reach a similar level. Again, with how I've been transported here I have no idea if the effects will be the same or will they be different. I'll have to take a look at the ability's flavor text just in case to see if there might be any hint.
Aside from that, not many know of the skill's existence, mainly because it was a spell that could only be available once you create over a million [Gaia Apple]s, and from my memory, it took a while to gather EXP for a [Gaia Apple], especially if it was done in a party because everyone is leeching EXP gain.
This meant that by the time I unlocked [The Gift of Life's Cultivation]... actually, when did I unlock it? Why is that part of my memory missing? Eh, I'll think about that later.
After finishing my explanation, Gazef looked down at the two objects in my hand and I couldn't help but speak up. "I've seen others rise up as heroes before Gazef Stronoff, and I have no doubt you would grow strong by yourself. But even heroes had others by their side to help them, or others that aided them to become that very same hero."
Gazef's face looked conflicted, but he seemed to be gravitating more onto my right hand as the [Gaia Apple] was a fast track to power to him. "I... what do you get out of this?" Finally Gazef turned to look at me in the eyes as I stare back with a soft smile.
"To be honest? Nothing... well, except maybe a new friend." At that Gazef's face looked stunned before he burst into laughter which mortified me, I used the [Plant Control] spell I activated earlier to grow one vine behind Gazef and used it to slap him upside the head.
"Don't laugh! Why are you laughing?" I couldn't help but pout angrily while Gazef raised his hands in mock surrender, his laughter ceasing after the vine slap.
"Sorry! Sorry! It's just that, is that the reason why you are doing this? Because you don't need to do it if you want me to be your friend." At that I couldn't help but sigh, my worries were quickly unfounded. I thought he was mocking my offer, but then again after thinking about it, I guess I can see why he laughed so openly. He should be glad I'm not the type to be easily offended, otherwise he would have kissed this offer goodbye.
"No, that is not the reason. But from the short time I have interacted with you Gazef, I can already tell many things. You are honest, you are kind, and you don't even discriminate me for being something not human. But I can also tell that you are rather... trusting, perhaps even a bit too trusting, and you are a dreamer for having that kind of goal. You are a good man Gazef, and if you would let me, I will help you reach that dream. I... want to see how far you will go." Although I wouldn't say the rest of it out loud, I am curious of the effects if he chooses the [Gaia Apple] or the [Unknown Seed].
I personally know the [Gaia Apple] shouldn't be harmful to him, but the [Unknown Seed] on the other hand I have no clue what will happen as I haven't used [The Gift of Life's Cultivation] before, at least according to the memories I have. I am kind of hoping that he chooses the [Gaia Apple] because it is the 'safer' option, in comparison to the [Unknown Seed], but with the way I phrased it I already know which one he is going to pick.
Gazef's chuckles slowly died down as he listened to my words, he quite obviously looked flattered, and when it got to the trusting part he only shrugged. But after the rest, his face relaxed into a more neutral look, his eyes shifted between the two objects in my possession before he looked determined and surprised me with his next words.
"I'll take the [Unknown Seed], but if you will let me. I want to save the Apple for emergencies." When he said that I couldn't help but slowly blink once before blinking two more times in quick succession, honestly I was flabbergasted when he said that.
"My, my, my~ I didn't know you had a greedy side to you Gazef-kun." I honestly didn't, was he this sort of greedy in the show? I don't think so, but the fact he said it straight up is still in line with him though.
I watch as he shook his head at that with a small laugh and grin. "Nah, it is nothing like that. I just want to grow stronger, but if I had the choice between letting someone die or saving them by eating a quick power up? I'd gladly throw that apple down my gullet and damn the consequences."
Huh... Respectable. Damn yourself to save others. Well he's already got the self-sacrificing part of a hero down I can tell that much. So I used switched up the [Gaia Apple] to what I believe is the maximum I can fit in one, if I remember right the [Perfect Gaia Apple] is supposed to give 70 levels worth of EXP. To be honest I have no idea if what I am stuffing in the [Gaia Apple] is even EXP with the New World rules.
Nodding my head, I pulled back the [Perfect Gaia Apple], I stored it away but make a mental mark that it is for Gazef Stronoff before I held out my right hand to him and let the [Unknown Seed] float slowly to the young man. Just to cover my bases. "You might feel some slight discomfort, so apologies for that."
At that Gazef looked at me with wide eyes just as the [Unknown Seed] phased into his chest. "Excuse me what?"
He looked about ten times more apprehensive now as his face twisted into a grimace expecting some kind of pain, only for nothing to happen and he looked down at himself. Gazef checked out his body, patting himself down before slowly lifted his head up to look at me with a questioning gaze. I shrugged. "I DID say that you wouldn't feel different."
Slowly, Gazef nodded his head before looking at his hands. "Well, that was anticlimactic." He muttered, right before he snapped his head up as if remembering something. "Oh shit I have to get back to my herb gathering!"
Hearing that I couldn't help but begin giggling at that, after a brief moment the young man also started laughing. Together we laughed for a bit, until Gazef got his chortles under control looking at me while wiping a tear from his eye. "Think you can help me out of this place? Out that hole will be fine."
I mean I won't be leaving any time soon, I did want to renovate this place. Put my own personal touch to it, though on the topic of his escape, I saw the hole was right above the lake and figured. Why not give him a show, so I shrugged lightly and started walking to the edge of the lake. "Sure why not."
By now [Plant Control] would have expired so I casted it again and had a huge vine and wooden structure grow from the middle of the lake, before it started snaking upwards and through the hole while a walled spiral staircase formed on the side. Finishing it off I then had it grow a bridge just a little above the surface of the lake and towards the two of us.
Turning around I gave an exaggerated show with a free hand while nodding my head at the young man. "One pathway out my home right here."
Seeing his face, my smile widened as I saw the jaw dropped look on his face before he shook his head, coughing into a fist while blushing in embarrassment for his unsightly act. "Ahem, right. I'll be going off now."
Right before he left I saw he had no weapon. Hmm, maybe I'll give him a better one for now, and something that won't draw attention. "Hey hero! Catch!"
Turning around Gazef panicked at seeing a sword the size of a man flying straight at him and jumped backwards. The sword stabbed into the bridge and I let out a soft chuckle before calling out to him. "You were supposed to catch it!"
"I'm not that skilled yet!" I heard him yell back, although the awestruck smile on his face gave away his true feelings as he pulled out the trash item (for me), it was a High Class Rarity weapon. [Standard Holy Sword], it should do good in his hands. I watch as he put the back holster on and looked back at me, he waved. "I'll come by and visit again!"
Smiling at that, I gave a wave back. "Take caaare~"
As Gazef left, I would not know until later just how much did I affect the young man.
Behold, Chapter 1 and so soon.
Apologies if I borked some spell levels. Especially [Discern Enemy] and the [Detect] spells, they didn't have a tier associated with them last I remembered so I just shoved them in 2nd Tier.
Also for those who want to know what the new spells I kind of wanked up. I'll write a short informational about them that I will slowly update as this fic goes along.
I also hope you like how I wrote Gazef, I THINK I did good writing a younger Gazef. Personally I think I could do better but as of now I am somewhat satisfied-ish.
Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy this chapter and it got ya'll thinking what might happen next! : D
Chapter 2: First Look
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Chapter 2: First Look
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Chapter 2: First Look
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Gazef Stronoff POV
I couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief as I walk through the gates of E-Shozel, finally I was back and it was getting a bit late. Thankfully I didn't spend too much time talking to Eien, I even managed to get a lot more of the Rokute Herbs than I expected. I should head back to the alchemist before I look for an inn to spend the night.
Speaking of Eien, the thought of the Ancient dryad kind of gave me mixed feelings. She was clearly a nice person, even though her taste in jokes makes me want to groan. Though the source of these mixed feelings was due to the 'boon' she gave me resting somewhere in my body, and the frankly beautiful greatsword she gave me as an additional gift. Despite the fact I didn't really have any inclination towards the magical, I could definitely feel this blade humming with magic energy.
It was a beautifully crafted weapon, as soon as I left the cave when there was still a little bit of daylight left I brought the sword into the light and watched the metal gleam under the sun. I was almost disappointed that nothing tried to accost me on my way here, I would have liked to test the weapon through defending myself.
Anyway, I shook myself out of my thoughts, I had to get to the alchemist before she closes up shop. The sheathe on my back covered my new weapon while I walked down the road, I'm still not exactly familiar with E-Shozel so I had to slowly make my way through the streets in order to not get lost. That does mean I lose some time but I don't really have a choice, so unless I can conveniently find the alchemist wandering around in this large city I would be taking some ti- that's her, what.
Just as I was about to take a turn, I saw the very same client I met with earlier today just coming around the corner. So I began jogging straight towards her, I almost didn't recognize her without her glasses. Then again I should have recognized her the first time because of her bluish green hair color. I saw her looking around and I waved to get her attention, it was successful and she turned to me, it was like she was taking a second to recognize me which is fair since I'm not a local.
Then it was like something clicked in her head and her eyes went wide before she waved back and pointed at a pathway, then she started walking towards it. I decided to jog a bit faster until I was beside her. "Hello again miss Opal, how has business been?"
Hearing that the woman shorter than me simply just shrugged despite carrying two small boxes of what I am going to assume are potion vials. "Business was a little bit slow today, I did sell some recovery potions to a few people, which is why you saw me out here, I was buying some more potion bottles before the day ends."
Nodding at that I decided to hold out my hands to the boxes she was holding, Opal got the idea and smiled in thanks before handing me the surprisingly heavier than I thought containers. "Allow me, and I managed to get a lot of Rokute herbs. I'll hand them to you once we get to the shop, that fine?"
"Oh that was quick, I initially thought you'd be spending more than a day outside E-Shozel to gather the herbs. But either I was wrong or I may have underestimated you a bit sir Gazef, I apologize." Opal gave me a slight incline of her head, and I simply shook my head.
"Believe it or not I actually recognized the herbs once I saw them, my village had a small-time mine and we found those herbs growing along the walls. We didn't think much of them so we just left them in place, though last I remember one of my neighbors used the herbs in a dish or something." I had the misfortune of not being a taste tester, mother told me that it smelled absolutely divine.
Though my words caused the alchemist to turn around on me before standing on her toes to get in my face. Her sudden movement almost made me drop the boxes but I held onto them with a firm grip while leaning backwards a bit. Startled I looked into her eyes and saw the excitement of a child in them. "Did they actually?! What were the effects? Did their bodies get strengthened?! I didn't try that experiment because I usually didn't have enough surplus as I had to keep up production!"
Slightly weirded out by the very stark personality switch, I look to my left and right before looking back at Opal. "I-uhh I don't know, but I can visi-"
"Actually you know what? I'll pay you triple the reward for this request, if you let me test this experiment on you!" At that I couldn't help but feel a deep chill of terror go through my spine. The only reason why I didn't let it show was because that would be rude, and the only reason why I didn't start running was because I had the boxes in my hands.
Giving a shaky smile I slowly shook my head. "I'm afraid I'll have to pass such an honor to someone else. I still want to be able to do mercenary work after all-"
"Then I'll pay you five times as much!" Urk! That's about fifty silver! I could use that money to buy another armor plate to add on for protection. But still... "I'll even throw in two recovery potions!" I let out a mental scream of agonized defeat as I saw the recovery potion prices in her store and a few others so that was a good deal, I sigh before nodding at her request.
I watch as the woman turned around with a wide smile on her face, skipping happily towards her potion shop. Shaking my head with a small smile, I followed right behind her. I was apprehensive because despite what I said, I was sure that my neighbor only used regular ingredients with the herb to make the dish, miss Opal is an alchemist so I had to prepare myself for a mixture of different alchemical ingredients.
"Though can we do this tomorrow? I would like to rest after I drop off everything." I ask after we entered the store, I set down the boxes on the counter before turning around to look at Opal who seemed to be thinking about it.
Thankfully she shrugged and walked over to reach behind the counter, I looked away a bit awkwardly as she bent over it and turned to look once I heard her move back away. "Sure, just bring out the herbs and I'll give you your reward."
With that I pulled my rather large pouch from my belt and sat it on the counter to dump out the herbs.
After taking off my armor and setting my gifted blade beside my bed, I got on and sat against the wall with my hands behind my head. Turning to look at the lantern that sat on the small table beside my bed, I thought about the events that happened today.
I went into a cave, nearly got my dumb self killed, met a non-human woman that was old but didn't look old, befriended that same woman, received a boon from her, also received a clearly powerful sword, got more herbs than I thought and got paid a little extra for my efforts.
Opal told me that I brought back plenty of herbs, enough to set some aside for the experiment tomorrow. I couldn't help but shudder at the thought of what might happen to me tomorrow, but at least I got paid an additional four silver on top of the initial ten for the gathering commission. It allowed me to get a little under two weeks in this tavern at least for two silver with breakfast, so that was a plus at least.
My eyes wander over to the greatsword that Eien gave me as a gift, and I got off the bed in order to unsheathe it. I held it up against the light of the lantern and admired the silver blade, the hand guard was coated in a gold color with a blue gem embedded within it.
I couldn't help but take a few experimental slashes with it, and was in awe by the soft whistling sound it produced as if it was cutting the very air. To think that miss Eien would be fine with giving me such a powerful artifact on top of the boon, I lucked out in that cave, I could have met an early end there because of my carelessness.
Turning my head to the window, I saw that darkness had fallen and thought to myself it was getting a little late. Might as well hit the hay and rest, I'm going to need my energy for tomorrow clearly. So I took one more look at the sword in my hands and sheathed it, though I thought that it wouldn't hurt giving it a name. "I think I'll name you Silversong."
I then blinked as I felt the sword handle warm up in my hands as if it was accepting of the name and decided that I was probably hallucinating from how tired I was. I think I should get to bed, so I carefully set the blade leaning against my bed before hopping on and blowing out the lantern light.
Little did I know... I won't be having a normal night.
Opening my eyes, I couldn't help but think that this was NOT where I fell asleep. I look around and beheld a large green grassland on a hill, a soft breeze blowing through me and I looked down at myself and saw that I was unarmed and defenseless.
I should find my way through this place quickly and- a leaf fluttered past my sight and behind me. A bit distracted I followed the leaf and took an involuntary step back seeing a large structure a short walk away. It was on top of the hill and there wasn't really anything else in the distance surrounding me, no forests, no settlements, or anything.
So I really had no choice but to start walking to the structure, it looked like a really strange shrine, and it looked like it had two floors to it due to its size.
In no time at all I reached the doors to the shrine and just when I was about to knock on the doors, they slowly opened inwards. It showed complete darkness, and then one by one, torches and braziers lit up in white flames illuminating a small corridor.
I... don't think I'm awake. Regardless I began making my way down the hallway, the white stone of the walls, floor, and ceiling were a bit dull in shine but they did not even have a single crack in them. When I exited the hall, I came across a large room, it was so large that I realized that the architecture to this place was impossible. It was supposed to clearly be bigger outside to even remotely match what I am seeing here.
A large circular room that had a single pedestal in the center while the walls were shrouded in darkness, and a small light from above shining down on the pedestal.
Something... it feels like something is calling me to the pedestal, and it felt almost familiar. So I took my steps and approached the pedestal, only to see something I clearly recognized. It was the boon that Eien gave me, an ethereal green seed shaped like a teardrop. It was slowly rotating in place while floating, it actually looked more solid than it did in when I first received it.
Almost impulsively I reached out to it and reeled my hand back seeing and feeling an emerald spark of lightning zap my fingers. I hiss in slight pain as I shook my hand from the pain before my indignance was cut short as the entire building seemed to shake, I couldn't keep my footing so I grabbed onto the pedestal. All I saw was the seed and I eyed my reflection on the object.
The shaking stopped just as quickly as it appeared, and I had to shut my eyes as a white light flooded the previously dark room. When I opened my eyes a little, the light was still a bit much but slowly my eyes adjusted to it, and I couldn't help but let out a gasp of awe. The chamber was now filled with statues of myself, they all looked so different, wearing different armors, wielding different weapons, as if they were different paths I could take.
"Magnificent, aren't they?"
My awe was cut short as I immediately turned around to see a large man in maroon plate armor and a red cloak, the cloak was covering most of his face and the only thing visible was clearly the man's beard. He had no weapon on him but the fact he was wearing armor already put the stranger at a greater advantage than myself.
Silence reigned between the two of us, and I couldn't help but feel like my wariness wasn't really warranted for some reason. But I can't tell why.
"Heh. Don't be so frightened, I'm not going to attack." The stranger said in a deep voice, again it feels like he is saying the truth for some reason.
"Who are you?" I couldn't help but ask, as if I'm asleep and the seed behind me was the boon Eien gave. Then who is this?
All I got was a clearly visible smirk before the stranger waved his gauntlet clad hand and shook it. "I think you'll find my name a bit hard to understand right now. But I'll bite, I am [??????]."
I blinked, all I heard was silence when he said his name. Though it would seem that the stranger's smirk only widened as he saw my puzzlement. "Ah, a shame. How about you call me... Marikorrmar for now?"
Apprehensive, I could only nod my head slowly. "Alright then... what is this place?"
The stranger's smirk shortened down into a small grin. "Isn't it obvious yet? We are in your mindscape."
I nod my head at that, while I had suspicions, it was best to have confirmation than anything. I looked around to inspect the statues while keeping Marikorrmar in my sight, I could definitely feel his gaze on me. Some of these statues look more developed than others, specifically the ones with me in armor while holding a sword and shield, me looking like I was working with wood, and the statue that looks eerily similar to the me when I wear my full gear but with a cape.
"If you are wondering what those statues are, they are mere visualizations." Marikorrmar piped up from his place- on top of one of the other statues?! I turned around to see he was no longer beside the pedestal, instead he was on top of the statue of me in wizard robes holding a staff. "They are just here to help you visualize how far you've gone. They don't really do anything special."
"I... see." That was all I could say as I watch Marikorrmar jump down from the statue with such ease for wearing clearly heavy armor. I saw him shake his head back and forth, as if saying I was wrong.
"I don't think you do... but regardless, this place is your mindscape and all these statues help visualize how far you've come. That thing there on the pedestal is there to help you grow stronger and help you break your limits. So, I do hope you won't squander this opportunity Gazef Stronoff." My eyes look from Marikorrmar and back to all the statues, then finally back at the seed floating innocently on the pedestal.
"Now, I'd love for you stay and chat but... You need to head back. So, see you next time!" At that my eyes went wide and when I was about to talk, my whole vision blurred before I felt darkness take hold of me.
No POV
Marikorrmar watched as the figure of Gazef Stronoff faded into light before it darted upwards and to the sky. He turned to the seed on the pedestal. "What? This is an interesting development and you know it."
Silence reigned, although despite that the stranger in maroon armor only laughed as if he received a reply. "Of course, of course I know. He'll need to grow and [Cultivate] first. But did you really have to zap his fingers like that, or was that just to have a little bit of fun?"
Again, no words were said in reply and yet Marikorrmar nodded his head. "True. I can't wait to see how he'll turn out." The man's smirk turned into a wide grin as the seed glowed on top of the pedestal.
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Yggdrasil Sheet - Abilities and Powers: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
AN: Sorry it isn't a chapter! But I figured why not write this down just in case I forget to do it. Don't worry though, Chapter 3 is on the way! Hope you enjoy this little bit anyways. <:3
The sheet will update as the story goes along, and while I will list the spells, some will be hidden or their effects will be hidden.
But there will be some spells that I will list the effects of [Old World] & later on the Hidden [New World] effects, but while the [New World] effects will not be written (for now), I will instead write down the Flavor Text of the spell. Some may even be incomplete.
I will also be listing some skills and abilities, innate, passive, and others.
Note: Skills, Abilities, and Spells are separate categories.
=-= Spell List =-=
Total Spells - 369
+ Spells - 300 from Level 100
+ Additional Spells - 69 from Passive Skill
= 0th Tier Spells =
= 1st Tier Spells =
= 2nd Tier Spells =
+ Discern Enemy - Identifies target's estimated level.
+ Detect Life - Identifies whether target is alive or dead.
+ Detect Enchant - Detects and analyses the type of magic in which the spell cast upon.
+ Detect Poison - Detects if the target is poisoned and analyzes the poison effects.
+ Detect Magic - The spell is used to detect magical traps or magic items that are hidden in the midst of the user's presence.
+ Detect Locate - Identifies the landscape surrounding the caster, as well as providing information on possible traversable routes.
+ Detect Undead - Detects whether the target is Undead or not.
+ Message - Creates a mental connection with a target. Used for communication.
= 3rd Tier Spells =
+ Fireball - (A Wizard's Most Careless Spell) Generates and launches a ball of flame that explodes upon contact in a 30 foot radius, burning its targets.
= 4th Tier Spells =
+ Control Water - The caster can take control of any body of water within a 20 foot radius around them. Can be affected by [Metamagic] such as [Widen Magic] in order to control a larger area of water.
+ Summon Forest Spirit - Summons [Forest Spirit] type monsters of Low Tier such as [Wisps] and [Wild Treants].
= 5th Tier Spells =
+ Control Plant - With this spell, the caster can grow plants and control their growth pattern and movements. As well as growing certain plants from memory. Note: In Yggdrasil this spell is a favorite of Alchemists and potion makers.
= 6th Tier Spells =
+ Observe Target - Combines the effects of [Discern Enemy], [Detect Life], [Detect Enchant], [Detect Poison], [Detect Magic], and [Detect Undead] into one spell. The spell upon being given a target, will provide the caster with a full list of information on the target. The spell can be affected by [Metamagic] like [Widen Magic] in order to select multiple targets at once.
+ Earth Surge - A spell that moves the earth to form high columns of earth and dirt that can be used to block and defend against attacks.
+ Summon Forest Spirit 6th Tier - Summons [Forest Spirit] type monsters of Middle Tier such as [Tree Kin] and [Arboreal Sunbringers].
= 7th Tier Spells =
+ Create Greater Item - This spell creates magically-made items such as armors, swords, halberds, and so on.
= 8th Tier Spells =
+ Tree of Life Sapling - The caster generates a [Tree of Life Sapling] in an orb that darts to the ground before it rapidly erupts into a [Tree of Life], the [Tree of Life] is a permanent object but can be targeted and damaged by mobs. While the [Tree of Life] is active, the caster and nearby allies receive minor boosts to their stats, and major boosts to their HP and MP/Energy Regeneration. HP Regeneration boost functions like a constant [Heal] spell at 1/2 strength.
= 9th Tier Spells =
= 10th Tier Spells =
+ Nature's Shelter - It is a 10th Tier divine spell which can summon forth a bunker from the earth. The inside of the shelter gives the illusion of an endless sky.
+ Perfect Warrior - By using that spell, one could temporarily become a half-baked level 100 warrior. It also carried the benefit of being able to use certain pieces of arms and armor that would normally require specific job classes to access without penalty. Downside is that magic caster levels are transformed to fighter and equivalents, and no warrior job class skills would be obtained from the spell. In essence the spell is used to provide a magic caster the capability of being a warrior without the true skills of one.
= Super Tier Spells =
=-= Job Class Skills =-=
= Passive Skills =
+ Mark of Gaia (Caretaker of Gaia 1) - Buffs received from a [Tree of Life] and other similar trees are increased. New additional buffs are applied to the marked when in vicinity of a tree. Only applicable to those with this passive skill.
+ Reaping Willow (Caretaker of Gaia 1)
[Old World] Effect - After obtaining the skill, instead of normally gathering EXP from slain enemies. The user can choose to instead store the EXP in a separate pool to use for later.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - The Cycle of Life is an ever present state, Life runs its course and is claimed by Death, then the death of that life will make way for a new generation of Life to restart the cycle all over again. But Life does not need to run its course to be claimed by Death, for often times Nature is not fair. The Caretaker of Gaia is one force of nature that merely quickens the cycle, it does not interrupt such a delicate affair.
+ Immortal Garden of Life (Caretaker of Gaia 3)
[Old World] Effect - User can passively generate EXP per second and store it into the same pool [Reaping Willow] uses for later use.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - Life is in all things, it is in the air, the water, the earth, and not simply in just the living breathing animals and sentients of the world. The Caretaker of Gaia listens to the Song of Life and takes in the Breath of the World, and with it the Caretaker stores them for the Cycle.
+ Sage's Insight (Sage 5 | Sage 10) - ??????
= Active Skills =
+ Gift of the Caretaker (Caretaker of Gaia 2)
[Old World] Effect - The user is capable of using stored EXP in order to produce a [Gaia Apple] filled with [Levels], consuming a [Gaia Apple] will transfer those levels to the eater. The user is capable of measuring the EXP needed for the [Gaia Apple], with the max number of [Levels] that can be given is 70 using the [Perfect Gaia Apple].
[New World] Effect - ??????
= Special Skill =
+ From Great Death Comes Great Life (Caretaker of Gaia 5)
[Old World] Effect - ??????
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - ??????
+ The Gift of Life's Cultivation (Caretaker of Gaia Secret)
[Old World] Effect - Creates an [Unknown Seed] buff that can be given to a target, the buffed target will initially have no changes. However EXP gain will be given a major increase, and upon level up the target will have a chance to have extra stat points to allocate.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - Each Life in its time in the Cycle is meant to grow into a gift that will inevitably reach Death. So many are similar, in so many and so little ways. However despite this, some will surprise even the gift maker. For within each life lies the potential to become something truly spectacular. A little [Unknown Seed] of potential, ready to grow into something... More.
=-= Racial Class Skills =-=
= Dryad =
= Greater Dryad =
= Treeman =
= Ancient =
+ Ancient of the World - ??????
=-= Race Traits =-=
= Dryad =
= Greater Dryad =
= Treeman =
= Ancient =
The sheet will update as the story goes along, and while I will list the spells, some will be hidden or their effects will be hidden.
But there will be some spells that I will list the effects of [Old World] & later on the Hidden [New World] effects, but while the [New World] effects will not be written (for now), I will instead write down the Flavor Text of the spell. Some may even be incomplete.
I will also be listing some skills and abilities, innate, passive, and others.
Note: Skills, Abilities, and Spells are separate categories.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Yggdrasil Sheet - Abilities and Powers: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
-=-=-=-=-=-
Yggdrasil Sheet - Abilities and Powers: Eternity in Eden (Eien)
-=-=-=-=-=-
=-= Spell List =-=
Total Spells - 369
+ Spells - 300 from Level 100
+ Additional Spells - 69 from Passive Skill
= 0th Tier Spells =
= 1st Tier Spells =
= 2nd Tier Spells =
+ Discern Enemy - Identifies target's estimated level.
+ Detect Life - Identifies whether target is alive or dead.
+ Detect Enchant - Detects and analyses the type of magic in which the spell cast upon.
+ Detect Poison - Detects if the target is poisoned and analyzes the poison effects.
+ Detect Magic - The spell is used to detect magical traps or magic items that are hidden in the midst of the user's presence.
+ Detect Locate - Identifies the landscape surrounding the caster, as well as providing information on possible traversable routes.
+ Detect Undead - Detects whether the target is Undead or not.
+ Message - Creates a mental connection with a target. Used for communication.
= 3rd Tier Spells =
+ Fireball - (A Wizard's Most Careless Spell) Generates and launches a ball of flame that explodes upon contact in a 30 foot radius, burning its targets.
= 4th Tier Spells =
+ Control Water - The caster can take control of any body of water within a 20 foot radius around them. Can be affected by [Metamagic] such as [Widen Magic] in order to control a larger area of water.
+ Summon Forest Spirit - Summons [Forest Spirit] type monsters of Low Tier such as [Wisps] and [Wild Treants].
= 5th Tier Spells =
+ Control Plant - With this spell, the caster can grow plants and control their growth pattern and movements. As well as growing certain plants from memory. Note: In Yggdrasil this spell is a favorite of Alchemists and potion makers.
= 6th Tier Spells =
+ Observe Target - Combines the effects of [Discern Enemy], [Detect Life], [Detect Enchant], [Detect Poison], [Detect Magic], and [Detect Undead] into one spell. The spell upon being given a target, will provide the caster with a full list of information on the target. The spell can be affected by [Metamagic] like [Widen Magic] in order to select multiple targets at once.
+ Earth Surge - A spell that moves the earth to form high columns of earth and dirt that can be used to block and defend against attacks.
+ Summon Forest Spirit 6th Tier - Summons [Forest Spirit] type monsters of Middle Tier such as [Tree Kin] and [Arboreal Sunbringers].
= 7th Tier Spells =
+ Create Greater Item - This spell creates magically-made items such as armors, swords, halberds, and so on.
= 8th Tier Spells =
+ Tree of Life Sapling - The caster generates a [Tree of Life Sapling] in an orb that darts to the ground before it rapidly erupts into a [Tree of Life], the [Tree of Life] is a permanent object but can be targeted and damaged by mobs. While the [Tree of Life] is active, the caster and nearby allies receive minor boosts to their stats, and major boosts to their HP and MP/Energy Regeneration. HP Regeneration boost functions like a constant [Heal] spell at 1/2 strength.
= 9th Tier Spells =
= 10th Tier Spells =
+ Nature's Shelter - It is a 10th Tier divine spell which can summon forth a bunker from the earth. The inside of the shelter gives the illusion of an endless sky.
+ Perfect Warrior - By using that spell, one could temporarily become a half-baked level 100 warrior. It also carried the benefit of being able to use certain pieces of arms and armor that would normally require specific job classes to access without penalty. Downside is that magic caster levels are transformed to fighter and equivalents, and no warrior job class skills would be obtained from the spell. In essence the spell is used to provide a magic caster the capability of being a warrior without the true skills of one.
= Super Tier Spells =
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-= Job Class Skills =-=
= Passive Skills =
+ Mark of Gaia (Caretaker of Gaia 1) - Buffs received from a [Tree of Life] and other similar trees are increased. New additional buffs are applied to the marked when in vicinity of a tree. Only applicable to those with this passive skill.
+ Reaping Willow (Caretaker of Gaia 1)
[Old World] Effect - After obtaining the skill, instead of normally gathering EXP from slain enemies. The user can choose to instead store the EXP in a separate pool to use for later.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - The Cycle of Life is an ever present state, Life runs its course and is claimed by Death, then the death of that life will make way for a new generation of Life to restart the cycle all over again. But Life does not need to run its course to be claimed by Death, for often times Nature is not fair. The Caretaker of Gaia is one force of nature that merely quickens the cycle, it does not interrupt such a delicate affair.
+ Immortal Garden of Life (Caretaker of Gaia 3)
[Old World] Effect - User can passively generate EXP per second and store it into the same pool [Reaping Willow] uses for later use.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - Life is in all things, it is in the air, the water, the earth, and not simply in just the living breathing animals and sentients of the world. The Caretaker of Gaia listens to the Song of Life and takes in the Breath of the World, and with it the Caretaker stores them for the Cycle.
+ Sage's Insight (Sage 5 | Sage 10) - ??????
= Active Skills =
+ Gift of the Caretaker (Caretaker of Gaia 2)
[Old World] Effect - The user is capable of using stored EXP in order to produce a [Gaia Apple] filled with [Levels], consuming a [Gaia Apple] will transfer those levels to the eater. The user is capable of measuring the EXP needed for the [Gaia Apple], with the max number of [Levels] that can be given is 70 using the [Perfect Gaia Apple].
[New World] Effect - ??????
= Special Skill =
+ From Great Death Comes Great Life (Caretaker of Gaia 5)
[Old World] Effect - ??????
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - ??????
+ The Gift of Life's Cultivation (Caretaker of Gaia Secret)
[Old World] Effect - Creates an [Unknown Seed] buff that can be given to a target, the buffed target will initially have no changes. However EXP gain will be given a major increase, and upon level up the target will have a chance to have extra stat points to allocate.
[New World] Effect - ??????
Description - Each Life in its time in the Cycle is meant to grow into a gift that will inevitably reach Death. So many are similar, in so many and so little ways. However despite this, some will surprise even the gift maker. For within each life lies the potential to become something truly spectacular. A little [Unknown Seed] of potential, ready to grow into something... More.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-= Racial Class Skills =-=
= Dryad =
= Greater Dryad =
= Treeman =
= Ancient =
+ Ancient of the World - ??????
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
=-= Race Traits =-=
= Dryad =
= Greater Dryad =
= Treeman =
= Ancient =
Last edited:
Chapter 3: Thoughts and Confusion
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
-=-=-=-=-=-
Chapter 3: Thoughts and Confusion
-=-=-=-=-=-
Chapter 3: Thoughts and Confusion
-=-=-=-=-=-
It's been two days, and I've been quite busy in terms of decking out my new home. I've always been a sucker for Japanese scenery and architecture. For some reason it always seemed the most elegant to me, plus the Katsumi within me was really liking how this place was turning out so I'm double happy. Though Little Sapling seems to be jealous that I'm growing more trees around it, don't worry Little Sapling, you'll always be my favorite!
Anywho, I've been reviewing some of my memories. I'm actually getting more and more comfortable with addressing myse- I mean Katsumi as me. I should be concerned, but really it's not all that bad, I think. Does this mean I'm losing my identity? I mean it can't be, because I can still remember my life... uhh I meant my first life before Katsumi.
Back to the memories bit, I have established quite a few things, one is that I(Katsumi) was actually really nice, but I was also surprisingly the most subtly sassy little shit ever. It actually makes me laugh looking into some of the memories of me talking nicely and looking innocent while murdering some poor player with nothing but words.
Secondly, I heard hints about how bad my(Katsumi's) real life was, but it did NOT prepare me for what I saw in my memories. The earth was fucked, plain and simple, you couldn't go outside without a mask filter and a lot of people couldn't even afford better masks or filters than the ones they already had. Some of them even had to make do with buying second hand pieces of older cheaper models just so they could take it apart to keep the one they have already running and sometimes that failed too. You even needed special iron/steel coats to protect yourself from the acid rain that seemed to pop up out of nowhere most of the time.
I was part of the fortunate few who was born without financial troubles, though despite my family being well off with our business and corporation, we were nowhere near the very top of the corporate hierarchy who could afford to live in Biospheres. Those places were considered an untouchable paradise, no smoke, no acid, no deaths, the few natural plants left alive were all there in an artificial environment that simulated the old world before it was ruined, and last I heard they were planning to try and recreate extinct animals. You could walk inside the artificial light and weather without a mask and BREATHE the air inside without trouble.
The downside though was that admittance to these Biospheres were really fucking EXPENSIVE, like you just needed trillions of credits JUST to become a possible candidate to be admitted to a Biosphere. It was disheartening, and even more so when I could recall that every day there was a new death nearby, and sometimes there would be a whole group of people that died and people would just look on as if that was normal. No wonder Momonga and Blue Planet preferred to stay in Yggdrasil more than the real world, especially since Momonga didn't really have anyone and Blue Planet wanted to keep seeing what the earth looked like before it was turned into a dystopian megacorporate hell.
On to less depressing thoughts, another thing I found out was that I was a bit of an exploiter. But not the game breaking lets abuse this for the hell of it, but more on 'how far can I stretch the rules until this gets seen as a felony?' kind of exploiter.
I got a message from a developer saying that watching me try to loophole some of the stuff in Yggdrasil was fun, and kind of helping them fix some bugs. Granted Yggdrasil devs kind of left a lot of bugs and exploits in the game, I'm starting to think their mindset of these things amount to 'It's a feature.' which to be fair isn't bad.
Especially since some of the glitches and bugs they left in that let someone exploit the game are actually kind of hilarious, they let me keep my upgraded passive [Sage's Insight] when they could have just degraded it back to [Sage's Intuition], usually you'd only be able to get that upgrade when you hit [Sage 10] but turns out the passive didn't NEED ten levels in [Sage], only five and you could get that by being in a party and having someone else start the quest from the Grand Sage NPC.
Ah right, my new home. Let's get back to it. There wasn't really any tunnels when I explored the massive cavern, so that meant that there were two possibilities, the cavern was closed off aside from the hole in the ceiling or there was a tunnel under the lake. When I dived down to check, I did find a tunnel but I didn't explore that just yet, only making a mark of where the underwater tunnel was.
I used [Tree of Life Sapling] and tossed some around the cavern, mostly as outliers to the whole cherry blossom trees I'm planting around here using [Plant Control] along with some other tree types. Also, with me planting the [Trees of Life] I personally didn't feel all that different when I started receiving the buffs, but when I planted the second one I was sort of disappointed to feel that I didn't actually get another stack which is sad. But then again even one set of buffs from a [Tree of Life] is enough to turn me into a literal Raid Boss in terms of tankiness... Actually that gave me an idea, I'll see if I can explore that later.
But anyway, after I planted a forest ring around the cavern, I then used [Plant Control] to make myself a small shrine to live in. If I wanted to expand I could probably use [Earth Surge] and [Nature's Shelter] to pretty up the place. Hmm, maybe I could do that anyway since [Nature's Shelter] would turn this place into a bunker, plus at least it would let me see the sky. Eh I'll do that some other time.
After that I actually decided to try a few certain things. Such as [Summoning], I was a subscriber to the Momonga school of the [Thematically Fitting Character] apparently so I had a lot of summons that pertain to the forest, nature, and the like, I even had elementals due to my levels in [Elementalist]. Though a stray thought went through my head and I couldn't help but wonder, can I still cook? In both lives I love cooking, and despite Katsumi's real life food was kind of borked she still enjoyed the act. Which makes me wonder why doesn't Eien have levels in the [Cook] job class. Ah wait no focus, the first summon I tried out was a Low-Tier one, it was a level 10 spirit called a Wisp and I found it interesting that it doesn't swirl into existence, no this time it came out of one of the regular trees I made.
With that I learned a fun fact, these wisps whisper Enochian and I could understand them, I thought Enochian was the language of angels according to my memory. But looking further into my memories I found out that the wisps speak enochian but it is of a different dialect, which is fascinating. Speaking of the wisp, I'm also curious to find out if there is anything in relation between the summon and my 7th tier spell [Wall o' Wisps], but I digress I summoned a few wisps to help me watch the forest and cavern. They weren't powerful combat wise but they could alert me to anything that is happening in their area.
Now within the two days of renovating, I found out something interesting. I don't really need to eat, to which I say to hell with that. I loved eating just as much as I love cooking in my first life, and while I(Katsumi) wasn't such a glutton in my second I did love tasting my cooking.
Which leads me to wonder if I can eat summons. There is probably a whole bunch of ethical issues related to summoning and eating the creature you summoned. Speaking of the eating situation, the reason why I don't need to eat is tied to my racial nature, turns out as a [Dryad] and other plant-based race, I can get nutrition from water and the soil. Don't know about sunlight but so far I've not gotten hungry yet despite lacking the sun rays.
Anyway, my renovation is pretty much done, I've got more trees, and aside from the trees I actually grew some vegetables, fruits, and berries. So I'll keep them stored for later or something. Several [Trees of Life] are scattered throughout the cavern, and though while the buffs don't stack from each individual tree, the buff I get from the [Tree of Life] is different from the buff I get from [Sapling of the World Tree] which meant those two buffs stack. I can definitely feel that and I have to be careful to not fire off anything destructive in here lest I bring the whole cavern down on my face.
I now have a little home here and this place is populated with some level 10 wisps, though I should probably see if I can summon more powerful guardians. Coughing a bit, I clear my throat and raise my hand towards a flat piece of grassland. "Let's see... [Create Middle-Tier Forest Spirit: Tree Kin]."
At first nothing happened, then a greenish-gold light ejected from my hand and darted into one of the trees nearby that then actually started to twist and turn.
Wait what.
I snapped my gaze over to the once regular sakura tree and watched as the branches curled inward, the once pink petals turning into streams of green magic that flowed into the tree before the trunk split into pieces as the once normal plant twisted into a shape that barely resembled a humanoid. It had the stature of a hunched figure, two gnarled logs for arms, and a mix of hard knotted bark and thick vines for their body with leftover bits of the main trunk of the tree acting as additional armor. With random branches sticking out of its back and shoulders, and finally its head had formed from bark into a macabre imitation of a skull with a green glow within its eye sockets.
The first thing I thought of, of course was. THAT WAS SO COOL! Like a hell of a lot cooler than the animation they had in Yggdrasil, after the spell finished casting the Tree Kin just burst from the ground as if he was a Kool-Aid man.
Ah, wait, priorities. The Tree Kin are a summon that is actually a really tanky summon, like just summon a couple of these guys and throw them at a the enemy if we don't have a tank or I'm not feeling like playing the tank. Although they have trouble when it comes to armor piercing and fire attacks, they make up for it with a high health pool for a level 30 and the fact any other attack is woefully ineffective.
So as long as I keep healing them then they can slug with enemies and you can leave them there and forget about them, they become even more effective if I plop down a [Tree of Life] to buff them too on top of any other buffs I can cast. While they won't be able to kill enemies by themselves with their somewhat lacking attack stats, they make for effective frontline combatants when you just want something to keep the enemy tangled. Sad that I can't create a Firebark Elder, that would have made it so fire would be no problem, but I don't want to test if the fire they generate is real in this enclosed cavern.
But still, for the Tree Kin to come up like this raises questions within me. Can I only create Forest Spirits from trees and plant life in the area? In the game they appear from a magic circle on the ground like any other summon, but here they required a medium of sorts? Hmm, is this how Momonga felt when he created his Death Knight only to eat a corpse in the process for its creation?
I wonder. This New World is already affecting some of my abilities, especially the effects of a [Gaia Apple] and [Unknown Seed] will be alien to me until I find a way to find out the effects myself. I can study Gazef-chan for the [Unknown Seed] and maybe I can eat a [Gaia Apple] myself to see what happens. Though it might not affect me in the first place considering my levels, but this whole world doesn't really run on EXP so whatever the [Gaia Apple] does, it might do something else.
Ah wait what am I doing, let's take a look at the Tree Kin. I should have a connection to it, like I did back in Yggdrasil. Sure enough it is there and hellooooo, what is this? This is new, you my friend should be temporary and not permanent, not to mention you have a little ability here. Though it has no name, what does it do? Well let's find out, I order the Tree Kin mentally to use its new ability.
What happens next fascinated me as I saw the Tree Kin turn to a tree before it then, oh dear that is actually kind of unsettling. The Tree Kin sort of 'sank' into the tree before positioning its arms to look like additional larger thick branches of the tree, and the 'head' of the tree kin was just slightly poking out with the glow of green gone from its sockets. Creepy, but cool. Let's call that ability 'One with Nature' which is hilarious given the fact the Tree Kin is already made from said nature.
Before anything else I heard a voice call out to me, a very familiar voice. Turning my head to look at the source I grinned and saw Gazef waving from the top of the spiral stairway. Finally found a reason to come visit eh? Turning from my work I walk back to my little home and decided now would be a good time to see if I can cook without levels in [Cook] class.
Gazef Stronoff POV
"That is the last time I let any alchemist come anywhere close to something I might eat." I couldn't help but grumble at the air as I walked down the long steps. I was planning on actually visiting the probably lonely woman right after the experiment with Opal, but luck wasn't on my side and I actually became bedridden for that day and the next.
On the bright side, the experiment despite putting me in bed rest actually left some noticeable effects on me. For one, I seemed to recover my stamina far better than I usually did. When I started off from E-Shozel with a run, I realized I could run far longer, nearly twice as I usually could before I needed to rest. I'll have to ask that alchemist what the hell did she put in that stew, because I'm actually contemplating on braving another meal of that mess.
I swear, when I ate that stew I swear I could hear faint laughter in the back of my mind. Whoever that stranger was probably found amusement in my predicament, and I think I could feel [Silversong]'s own amusement in my plight. Speaking of which, I was disappointed I couldn't talk to Eien yesterday, I wanted to talk about the greatsword and the stranger in my head.
Ever since awakening from that place, I've been trying to return there but to no avail. Why is it that I came upon that place that one time? I wasn't thinking of that before I went to bed, so what happened?
Hopefully I'll be able to get my answers from Eien, because I have a feeling that the boon she granted me is responsible for this. Nothing really bad has happened so far, but it would be best if I stay on guard just in case.
Hmm, is something cooking? I reached the bottom of the spiral stairs and saw a little column of smoke leaving the chimney of Eien's quite modest abode. To be honest I expected something massive, but then again she is a creature of the forest, so she might not really want for much? That still doesn't explain the smell of- oh that actually smells rather good.
As I reached the small house, I noticed there wasn't a door. So I just knocked on the wall, it's only polite to announce your presence in someone else's home after all. Though considering the soft giggle I heard, it would seem I didn't need to do it. "You definitely didn't need to do that sir Gazef, you are always welcome here in my home."
Eien's exotic features are refreshed in my mind as her head pops from around a corner with a wide smile on her face. "Please have a seat! I'll have the meal ready in a few minutes!" Before I could say anything, she ducked back around and I couldn't help but think if she was the same person I met two days ago. She was far calmer and less energetic last time?
Lo and behold, a few minutes later after I took a seat she came out with a large pot that smelled nice. By the gods what I wouldn't give for something good after the horror that was Opal's 'experimental dish', though I made sure to bow my head in thanks at her hospitality. "Thank you miss Eien, though I'm afraid I didn't initially come here for a social reason."
I kind of regretted my actions as they seemed to take the wind out of Eien's sails as she visibly calmed down and the dryad returned to how I saw her a few days ago. "Oh? Come to take something from me?" There was a tone to her voice that made the hairs on the back of my neck rise up and I shook my head in response to that.
"No, no, nothing like that. It's more of a... predicament I am in." I could see that my words caused the ancient woman to pause before she sat down at the table and stared at me before motioning with her hand for me to continue, so I did. "That night on the day you gave me your boon, something strange happened to me. I woke up to a vast grassland and found a structure that seemed large on the outside, only to be vastly larger on the inside. In there I found the 'boon' you gave me on a pedestal and what seemed like countless statues of myself in different occupations."
As I spoke more and more of what I saw, I could tell that Eien was thinking heavily on what she just heard. But I wasn't finished yet. "Then I found a stranger." At that Eien snapped her gaze upwards and towards me with a look so intense I couldn't help but feel nervous.
"Define stranger?" Was all she spoke, she seemed serious. Might as well explain as best as I can with the information I got.
"The stranger was wearing maroon armor and was a head taller than I am, he had a red cape with a hood that covered most of his head, the only visible thing peaking through the hood was his grey beard. He called himself Marikorrmar." I explained and was privy to Eien leaning back in her chair looking thoughtful.
"I know the statues are likely to represent your strengths and how far you've come with them. I don't know of any additional entities that could come from the seed aside from the seed itself. Whoever and whatever this stranger is... he didn't come from me." The ancient woman said and I'm inclined to believe her, she hasn't lied to me so far, but that only gives me disappointment that I'm nowhere closer to figuring out Marikorrmar's intentions.
"I apologize, my answer may be not exactly what you wanted to hear." I heard the apologetic tone in her voice and quickly shook my head. I waved her apology aside.
"It is fine miss Eien, I kind of expected that to be the answer to be honest." Not really, I was hoping for actual answers. But at least I know that what Marikorrmar said about the statues were correct, so that is a plus.
My eyes stray down at the table wood, thinking of possible answers when a bowl of stew slid into my vision. I blinked and looked up to see Eien holding her own bowl raising it to her lips. "I think for now at least you shouldn't dwell on such stressful topics. You can do so after you eat."
Amused, I saw her own mirth dance in her eyes so I simply shrugged and decided to follow her advice. I'll think about Marikorrmar and my suspicions after the meal.
Tasting the stew, I let out a sigh of relief. I could almost feel the taste of Opal's monstrosity leaving me forever, I nodded at Eien. "Thank you for the meal, it is delicious." I only got a soft smile in return before we finished our meals in the peaceful atmosphere.
Though I couldn't help but think about something. "Are you planning on leaving your home anytime soon?"
At that Eien stopped her movements before she set the bowl down looking at me with a contemplating look on her face. "Perhaps, I might set foot outside, it would be interesting to see how the world above has changed since the old world. Though I'm still thinking on how do I introduce myself outside if I do leave."
I spotted an opportunity and raised my fist and pointed it at her with a grin. "You can be a mercenary and join me!"
Though she let out a loud laugh and said just as boisterously as I did. "I refuse!"
If I was a lesser man, I would have cried at the quick and fierce rejection. But I didn't, besides it's more that I didn't mind if she would have actually went with me or not. So I just shrugged with a wry grin. "Well, I tried."
"That you did sir Gazef, you get points for trying." Eien said with a soft tone of amusement in her voice, again I shrugged at her words before I saw her face look serious. "In all honesty I'm still unsure if I'll be heading out, I MIGHT but perhaps that would be for a different time."
A shame really but fair, I can't expect her to come with me despite her giving me such a boon in our first encounter. Which is why I should tell her now before I leave. "Fair enough, though I'll have to apologize because I'll be heading further out soon with a bunch of coppers and E ranks."
Her answer to my statement were a bunch of slow blinks before she tilted her head at me. "Coppers and E-Ranks? What are those? Your mercenary ranks?" Ah right she didn't know about how adventurers and mercenaries rank themselves.
Clearing my throat I spoke about them. "The Coppers is a rank for the adventurers in their Guild, the E Rank is for the mercenaries. We are heading out together in a group to meet up with another group of coppers that found a goblin nest near a village, usually the adventurers would be enough to take care of this kind of job but sometimes their numbers are too low so the guild hires mercenaries like me to assist."
Eien let out an inquisitive hum before she looked at me with a curious gaze. "What are the ranks for each group if you don't mind me asking?"
I shrug, there didn't seem to be any harm with telling her that information really. "From low to top? For the adventurer's guild it is copper, iron, silver, gold, platinum, mithril, orihalcum, and adamantite. While for the mercenaries, it is E, D, C, B, A, and S rank. Though both have sub-ranks within them to more accurately gauge strength. The adventurers use Low, Mid, and High as sub-ranks like Mid-Iron or Low-Gold. While the mercenaries use the numbers one through five to show how strong we are, when we get admitted we are tested to see how strong we are in the tier. When I joined the mercenaries I was admitted as a E2, with E1 being the strongest of that rank."
Looking at Eien, I saw she was fascinated by the ranking system apparently, though I don't seem to know why. Though I should probably get going if I don't want to get left behind by the others. "If you want, when I come back I can tell you more?"
That got Eien to smile at me, that was the correct thing to say it seems. "That would be much appreciated, it seems that while things seem different, there are some aspects that still are the same." The wistful tone in that voice reminded me that this woman is old, she probably has seen numerous ranking styles.
Anyway, I stood up and rolled my shoulders to crack them before I heard her speak. "Leaving so soon sir Gazef?"
I gave her an apologetic smile. "Yeah, gotta head out before the others decide to go on without me. I'll be right back after the expedition!" I say as I wave before beginning my jog to the stairway.
"Don't be a stranger sir Gazef!" Hearing that I waved at Eien before I started my way up the stairs. This was going to be my first true combat, while I helped the village guard against goblins before they were almost always feral things that attacked without much of a mind behind them. This one though was an organized nest, so here is hoping things go well.
Though I thought I heard something in the wind, but I could have sworn I heard Eien faintly say nobuff, what is nobuff?
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Chapter 4: Rising Wood
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Chapter 4: Rising Wood
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Chapter 4: Rising Wood
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It's been a few days since Gazef visited and he left for that extermination expedition, I still can't stop thinking about the several things I've learned that day. An inner world in Gazef's mind? A strange man squatting inside his head? Thankfully he seemed to buy my bullshitting when I said the statues represent how far he's come in that particular field, now to be fair that might be the case but there is a chance I'm very wrong still. But what worries me is that entity sitting in his mind, Marikorrmar.
I don't have any concrete theories as to who or what he is, but by the name alone I think I have an idea. But it is just an idea and I don't really have any evidence that supports it, which is why I sent one wisp to follow him, they have a really nifty ability to possess animals or phase into a tree. So the hero hopeful has a bird with green eyes following him from above, and with the [Message] spell I should be able to keep in contact with the wisp.
Another thing that I'm glad I found out was my ability to cook, turns out that I CAN cook, but my meals don't have any buffs attached to them. Is it because I used normal ingredients? Back in Yggdrasil the ingredients had all these fancy names attached to them but the ingredient's magical quality could be how buffs are applied. But then again it could just be something as simple as me not having the appropriate levels in [Cook] class, those players run the 'Great Food Game' in Yggdrasil selling consumables that apply a lot of different buffs or even outright healing. I found it hilarious that even undead could 'eat' the consumables also as apparently healing food is an exception to the rule of healing as eating those consumables also heals undead.
Then there is that ranking system, did the main Overlord world have that ranking system in the new world or is it just native to this one? Regardless, everything is so interesting and it makes me want to go out into the world and experience it all for myself. I'm not really beholden to anyone, so as far as I know I have a lot of personal freedom to go wherever.
Hmm, maybe there was merit in what Gazef said about becoming a mercenary. But then again being an adventurer might be more thrilling than being a mercenary. Though there was one problem that I remembered from watching the anime, the written language is different.
Though I think now is a good time to sort out through my loot goblin horde of an inventory, maybe I'll find a set of translation glasses. Try as the developers might to make it so that the language barrier is not that big of a hassle, due to their desire to input as many languages and their written form into Yggdrasil. It made reading some of the stuff quite a chore, so they created a fairly uncommon item called [Translation Glasses] which is pretty on the nose and tells exactly what they do.
I am particularly hoping that with some of my abilities effects changing, perhaps that would also apply to certain items and equipment as well. It would make my life so much easier if I could just wear that and my written language troubles become nonexistent. But dear god I(Katsumi) was such a messy inventory keeper, like I personally might have been a loot goblin in my past life but I at least sort my inventory. But my current inventory is so jumbled up that two of the same items are in separate inventory bags, why did I do this to myself?
Though on a side note I actually have a few rare items I recognize from the show, the [Mirror of Remote Viewing] being one of them and apparently the same mask Momonga has. Turns out it was a Christmas event item one got from logging in at a certain time, which was nice. I'm not wearing that though, Momonga definitely would wear it better than I ever could. Ah! There you are [Translation Glasses] and thank the heavens that they don't look extravagant, they look like a pair of normal glasses, the only way one could tell they aren't was if they could see the 'runes' in the lens.
I put it on and pulled out a random mirror from my inventory, and yes I apparently kept a whole ass body mirror inside there. Might as well try on some of my other items, and while I could use [Create Greater Item] to make a disguise, I probably have something better hidden away.
Actually, I stopped a bit as I thought of WHAT exactly am I going to introduce myself as? Do I go as a [Druid] or do I pull a bone daddy and play a different class? I mean I could technically do an elemental mage since I have levels in [Elementalist] after all. But the irony of being a magic caster but playing a melee class kind of made me want to troll people with it. I couldn't help but look into my inventory to see if I'll get any ideas when I found something that looked rather strange, it looked like a giant black rectangular club on a stick with gold accents to it.
Curious about it, I decided to pull the thing out of my inventory space and was surprised that it was actually bigger than I thought. Eien's height is a rather normal 5'8", I'll thank my lucky stars Eien didn't shrink to my(Katsumi) height of 4'11. I'd rather not be very short thank you very much.
But anyway the handle was a foot long and the rest of the rectangular box was like a good six to seven feet long? I gripped it with one hand and tilted it around inspecting the thing, it had like six colorless gems, three on each side and a few seamlines. I wonder what is it? Hmm... [Observe Target]
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Name: Promise
Primary Weapon Type: Great Lance
Secondary Weapon Type: Spell Storage
Rarity: Divine Class Rarity
Class Restriction: Druids, Fighters
Description: Created for Eternity-san as a weapon she could use to destress via enforcing physical trauma. Included spell sealing crystals just in case there was a need for magic damage.
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Uhh... that was all the description says? I slowly look through my memories about this thing and actually I did receive an anonymous gift from someone though for some reason that memory felt incomplete, and thankfully I found a bunch of instructions from that memory too on how to use this thing...... IT'S A GUNLANCE! Well technically it's a Spell Lance, but I can charge those gems I now recognize as [Sealing Crystals: Spell Type] with [Fireball] spells and do big kaboom!
I immediately tried to take a swing with it and just before I swung it the rectangular box extended like three feet more and a blade slid out on one side and stopped at the tip. Some winds kicked up as my weapon appeared as if it was glowing, that is really cool. Though despite the fact that this was equipable on [Druid] class, I would probably be able to use it better if I had some [Fighter] and [Warrior] levels. Let me just cast [Perfect Warrior], one of the few spells I was fine with learning because there are times where I(Katsumi) wanted to throw hands in game.
Almost instantly I could feel my stats change slightly and briefly I wondered if the spells are intent based before I took a another swing of [Promise] at the air, and again just right before I swung, the box unfolded with the blade extending once more. That was going to need some getting used to.
Looking again in my memories I found the way to fold it back up and watched as it shifted back into the blunt box I saw before. It would be good for me to practice folding and unfolding it as well as learn how to keep it folded, I'd rather not accidentally kill someone with the bladed part.
I'll spend some time later on how to charge the crystals, but now I have my weapon. I don't really particularly care if I get noticed wielding a strange weapon, but I might have unwanted watchers if they see that I have six spell sealing crystals on my weapon. It would be good to just keep it in box blade for now and use it as a kanabo. [Perfect Warrior] may not be as effective on me due to some of my classes not being affected by the spell, [Caretaker of Gaia] is one such class but thankfully because of my stat allocation I wasn't that weaker of a false warrior even after switching my magic caster classes for temporary fighter based ones. It helped that even as a mostly a support character, the way I built my [Druid] before allowed me to use melee weapons if I was desperate enough.
Eh, I shrug as I then deactivated [Perfect Warrior] in favor of looking through more of my inventory. I had just found my proper divine class battle regalia when one of the wisps I sent up the staircase to watch over the cave tunnels alerted me. I wasted no time in casting [Message].
"You have something for me little one?" Mentally speaking was a weird sensation, even if I was the instigator of the spell.
The wisp replied through the two way connection in the enochian language which I was glad that I somehow understood it. [["A small intruder ran into the entrance to your sacred abode, do you wish for me to reveal myself and escort it out?"]]
Blinking, I thought of what they meant by small intruder before I had the epiphany that it might be a child, so I quickly replied. "No need, I will head up there myself. Is there anything else?"
[["The small intruder seems to be frightened, it is a human."]]
A small frightened human? A scared child? That doesn't sound good, quickly sorting through my inventory I closed it and used [Control Plant] to have a large vine erupt from the ground take me up the staircase to the hole in the ceiling of my cavern.
I had decided to go ahead and use [Create Greater Item] after all to don a set of armor. Though I didn't specify what armor in my rush. I only wanted armor and the spell might have looked into my mind which was something I would realize later on. As the armor I now donned looked remarkably similar to the ones the integrity knights in Sword Art Online wore, complete with a helmet even, but the greaves and boots were noticeably thicker and more armored.
Though in my focus I didn't think about it because well there was a child that was possibly in danger and I'd rather not sit idly by. Especially since I was planning on heading outside and I don't want my hunger for exploration getting spoiled.
Reaching near the top I leaped from the large root and and onto the stairs before I ascended the rest of the way. I jogged up the stairs with strangely perfect balance and exited to see a wall in front of me, turning to the right I saw a dead end, but turning to the left I saw a pathway.
This is the first time I actually left the cavern, I didn't even set foot in this cave because I was busy renovating. Ah, wait focus me. There might be possible hostiles and I'd rather not waste time, instinctively I got ready to produce a [Perfect Gaia Apple] just in case I get unlucky and find myself against some random person who just so happened to be one of the few high levels of this world. If there are any of course but as far as I know I highly doubt it.
Hearing a noise I stopped and strained my hearing a bit, they were little sniffles and whoever it was, it sounds as if they were trying to keep quiet and failing. Almost immediately I picked up the pace, and to be honest I almost felt like I was back in Yggdrasil. The few times when I went with a bunch of other players who wanted to protect others from being PK'd.
Turning around a corner, I stopped as I saw that the source of the noise was closer than I thought. It was indeed a small child, it was a little red haired girl. She didn't seem to have noticed me yet, rather dangerous but considering she is a child I think I can let it slide. Though oddly enough she seems... familiar? Though before I could dwell on that more I heard voices coming from the distance.
"Find that brat! I'm not having us lose that one, the noble specifically said that he wanted a red haired slave and that he would pay four times the normal price for her." A gruff voice yelled out, and immediately I was feeling more than a little hostile. Slavers.
"But boss, the kid went into this place. I heard rumors that there's something deep in these caves, what if the kid got eaten?" A higher pitched whiney voice... well, whined and I could feel myself freezing up at that. Rumors? About something in this cave? Was I too careless and accidentally get noticed by someone other than Gazef?!
"Bah I call bullshit on those rumors, the first time it was a nest of giant hornets, then next a trio of ogres made camp here, then the next one said a sleeping dragon was sighted here! Whoever made those rumors were just yankin yer twigs for arms!" The voice from earlier called out and I slightly relaxed a bit, though the rumors about this cave concern me.
I'll have to investigate it myself or with my wisps. If some monster is nearby then adventurers or mercenaries might be dispatched to take care of it and they might stumble upon my abode if I'm not careful, I might need to set up some illusions near my entrance and key only Gazef in when he returns.
Turning from the direction and back to the child I saw that she was now looking at me with wide eyes and a fearful look on her face. I slowly lowered myself down on one knee and placed a finger to where my lips would be and mimed a shushing motion. "It's ok little one, I'm here to help. What's your name?"
Granted I could have just used [Observe Target] to find out everything about her, but one that is rude and two she isn't my enemy. I don't really need to waste the mana to find out about a child when I can just ask her.
Though I'll give her this right now, she's being cautious with how she is looking at me nervously up and down. "M-mom said n-not to give m-my name to s-strangers." The girl softly said as she curled up a little, hoping that I wouldn't hurt her for talking back like that. Despite her fear she's got spunk, I like that.
Nodding at her, I spoke as I strained my hearing to listen for those slavers voices if they were nearby. "You mom is a smart woman, and you are a good girl for listening to her." I could tell that with my voice and me praising her mother, the redhead was slowly starting to calm down in my presence. "How about this, I tell you my name then that way we won't be strangers, then you can tell me your name?"
Usually children despite a lot of them are capable of being cruel little shits. A lot of the time they follow the simplest logic, so here is hoping that she is the same. As the red haired girl thought about it I listened for the voices, I heard them in the distance again, and it was a female voice?
"Boss, something's off about this cave. The warg I tamed is feeling very skittish, as in she doesn't want to be here." Ah, animal instincts. She is probably either sensing the source of those rumors... or she is sensing me.
"You sure? Maybe the warg is just scared of enclosed spaces, I see those mongrels like running out in open fields." Ok can that man turn down the assholery for one second?
"No boss, places like this cave? Wargs would love it, they'd have a field day jumping around inside to strike at prey from awkward angles. No, the warg is acting like she is in dangerous territory." Smart creature, if I were you I'd start leaving.
"It's just an animal, it doesn't know better. It can't think for itself." The whiner taunted and I could feel my brain cells disappearing from hearing that guy talk actually.
"Oh if my warg can't think for herself, then what does that make you?" The female's got a sharp tongue, too bad she chose the wrong profession.
"Ok miss..." I blink as that was the voice of the child sitting right beside me. I turn to her and saw she was looking at me with wary but more hopeful eyes now.
Carefully I sat down so as not to make much unnecessary noise and whispered to the child. "Alright then, my name is... Matsuki, my name is Matsuki. What is yours little one?"
I watch as the little red head curled up her knees to her chest before she spoke softly. "R-Ranam."
Letting out a near silent hum, I nod my head to the little girl. "It's a good name." That got a small but shaky smile from the the red head in front of me.
Slowly I stood up and the girl slightly slid backwards to move a little away from me, while that action slightly hurts my feelings I understand why she does so. "Listen little Ranam, you might... hear some screaming, so I'll just be warning you once. Cover your ears and when am I done I will let you know. Ok?"
Ranam slowly nodded at my direction as she turned around and put her face a corner before she started to shake even more with her hands on her ears.
With that said and done, I had one of the nearby wisps watch over the kid. Meanwhile as for me? I think it's time I show these guys my opinion on slavers.
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Chapter 5: One Side
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Chapter 5: One Side
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Chapter 5: One Side
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Kalea Kamul woodenly thought about her current situation, how many lives did she doom now with her actions? All in the name for her own survival? The young blonde haired girl turned to look at her 'handler', of course right when she was suspected of owning a talent she was taken by a sneaky group. It was thankfully just because her talent needed her conscious that she wasn't... sampled.
Although the same could not be said for the other girls that came with her, poor things. A lot of them were thrown to the side after only a few hours, which probably was more of a relief than a punishment to be honest. Her talent [Voice of Beasts] allowed her to speak to and tame beasts, even magical beasts, which was how she got her only best friend her warg.
On a side note wargs didn't have true names and instead they were named after a defining feature of their body, Blackfang was her name. Turning to her warg and away from her handlers Kalea looked on worriedly as she saw Blackfang appear so reserved instead of uncaring, her tail was between her legs and her ears were pulled back flat against her head. The warg was clearly hesitant to go even further into the cave, she is sensing something and to be frank if she had the power to just ditch these guys then Kalea would have done so a long time ago.
"Blackfang, can you tell me what it is that you are sensing now?" The blonde asked in a quiet tone a few times before but it was of no use as it was almost like the warg's voice was taken away with how tense she was. Which is why Kalea was so surprised to hear her voice now.
["Speaker, it is only due to our friendship that I tell you this. Run. This cave is home to something ancient and those foolish humans are likely going to intrude on its den."] The somewhat growl accompanied by a rough female voice never ceased to amaze her but now was not the time. Something ancient? What did she mean.
"You know that I can't just leave, they'll hunt me down and then I'll probably be in a worse spot than I already am. I don't want to be used to... to give pups. I am not even remotely close to ready for that." That was another thing that Blackfang talked about, she wanted me to leave but one can't just leave, these guys have powerful friends. Kalea guarantees that as soon as she sets herself free, they'll find her within a day or Six forbid within the hour.
["I did say that I'd stick by your side Speaker, but know that should whatever I am sensing comes close. We won't stand a chance at all, so plead with whatever it is or else we will both die."] On that Kalea could agree, here is hoping that- the young woman saw her companion freeze before she let out a low whine that attracted everyone.
The boss, who was a heavy plate wearing man, turned around and hefted his broadsword over his shoulder to look at her and her contracted. "What's the matter whelp? The mongrel getting cold feet?"
Before Kalea could answer, the warg let out a higher pitched whine as she instinctively looked more hostile than before. ["ITS HERE!"]
Gulping Kalea readied her bow and prepared an arrow that caused the other members of their slave hunting party to look more serious than before. Despite the fact she wanted to leave them all to die, she still had to protect herself. "She says something is coming, and that whatever it is, it is dangerous."
Her words drew a scoff from the boss, but he nonetheless obliged and turned around to look deeper into the cave. Everyone else was also readying their weapons while waiting for whatever it was that was inside the cave.
"To be honest... you should have heeded your warg's warning and left." A low sensual female voice called out so clearly, Kalea thought that whoever it was, it was right behind her. Turning to look over her shoulder, her beating heart calmed a bit upon seeing no one was there, when she turned back to look to her front though she understandably took a step back.
The strange figure was shadowed, it had horns, and Kalea could almost make out a green glow from its head, it had a cloak and a large strangely shaped weapon in its hand. The boss looked like he could relax, he even started to speak arrogantly. "A mercenary? Say, you wouldn't happen to see a little red haired girl around? We got contracted to look for our employer's daughter." Kalea could only hope that the figure bought their lie, because she didn't want to fight this one.
Compared to other mercenaries and workers, this one... this one exudes an almost invisible aura of power. It was only because Blackfang taught her how to sense [Intent] that she had an idea of how powerful the stranger in front of us was.
The group heard a click of a tongue, and the stranger knelt down to pick up a rock. "So not only do you dare to chase a child, but you have the gall to actually lie about it? Your fate was sealed the moment I found the kid."
["Speaker, stay behind me."] Blackfang barked at her and frankly Kalea was more than happy to oblige, though the stranger's head turned to face her and those shining green orbs disturbed her the more she looked into them.
No one saw what happened next, only the sound of wind rushing through their ears and the sound of something going splat was any indicator. No knew what happened, until the screaming started. Turning their heads to the sound they saw their scrawny archer screaming his head off clutching at the stump where his left leg used to be. Kalea heard a tutting sound and saw the stranger place a free hand to their chin.
"Hmm... I need to work on my aim a bit more, I was aiming for the head. Oh well, you won't survive the next one." They said nonchalantly and frankly that scared her more than the immediate danger.
The boss dashed forward yelling in anger, for someone in heavy armor he moved rather fast. He swung his broadsword at the stranger, only to be stopped dead in his tracks as the stranger raised the same hand to catch the broadsword in between two fingers. Much to the disbelief of many. "What?!" The boss yelled out baffled.
They then heard the stranger hum to themselves. "Hmm... level 11, Gazef would have have an easy time with you." Everyone was left confused at that statement, but what followed next terrified many.
No one saw the swing, but one moment the boss was there but the next only his lower half was the remaining piece of him left there. Followed by a large crack and turning their heads to see the large weapon was now unsheathed and it crashed into the wall, slowly the weapon was pulled away and the rest of the party saw the boss' bloody remains was splattered all over the wall and weapon.
Kalea shook as perhaps just maybe she should have left earlier when she had the chance.
Eien POV
Tch, the guy got blood in my eye. I let out a small inquisitive hum as I distractedly pulled [Promise] away from the wall. I would have thought that I'd feel bad for killing, but all I feel is satisfaction and neutrality, or is it apathy? I don't know, but I do know that I won't have problems wiping these guys out. Using [Observe Target] on him showed the guy was only level 11, and he was the strongest of the group.
Though that tamer girl is interesting, especially that little skill called [Voice of Beasts] as there wasn't anything like that in Yggdrasil, also I didn't expect the girl to be so young. Granted she looked far older than Ranam, but she looked more skittish than these bandits, a hostage perhaps?
A plink on my armor interrupted me from my thoughts and turns out one of the other archers tried to shoot an arrow at me, I made a show of dusting off my armor and looked at them. "Was that all?"
They weren't that good, and frankly when the archers aside from the tamer and recently amputated man kept loosing more arrows at me. Only to find they either bounced off my armor or outright broke upon impact. Such weak attacks, this will be quick.
I didn't want to waste time being more theatrical than I should be, I'm not bone daddy after all. Pandora's Actor had to have gotten his dramatics from somewhere aside from his programmed personality.
So I took one step forward, and dashed over to the nearest bandit. There were ten of them, not including the young woman and the amputated guy. I swung [Promise]'s blunt form into the bandit and watched almost in slow motion as the body crumpled and caved inwards before he got launched into the cave wall.
Finally the others started screaming and the few melee bandits came at me with swords and spears. Too bad for them, I may be a support, but I'm one of the tougher tanks of Yggdrasil. So I let them come closer and let their weapons shatter on my armored form before taking one wide swipe and carried five bandits with [Promise] before slamming their piled up bodies the ground, blood splattering in a puddle as I stood up.
The remaining four bandits who were archers were now backing up slowly with fearful looks on their faces. I began walking forward and without much fanfare stomped on the head of the man I amputated earlier, crushing his head into paste. So far I felt no disgust in my actions, only satisfaction that their dead bodies will feed the earth.
Though my actions did cause the remaining bandits to turn tail and start running away, now we can't have that. So I used [Teleportation] I didn't need to use [Perfect Warrior] here, it was frankly not needed so I had some spells to use.
I appeared right in front of the furthest bandit and grabbed him by the face before tossing him at one of his compatriots before swinging [Promise] at the closest bandit and killed them instantly. Following that I leaped and kicked a bandit in the chest and I may have used a bit too much force as the guy went flying down the tunnel about thirty feet away from me.
Looking at the last two bandits, I saw I had mangled one of their arms and one of the bandits died already. Finding nothing else I just dropped [Promise] on his face, watching as the life left their bodies.
Finally I turned to the last remainders of the bandit group, the woman and her little warg. Slowly I walked towards her and stopped when I saw the warg despite looking scared, jumped right in between me and the girl I [Observe Target] before. Named Kalea and she was about level 6.
What surprised me even more was the fact that the woman immediately got down on her knees and bowed her head to the floor of this tunnel. "P-p-please s-spare me!"
Considering I was contemplating on doing that, I was glad I had something to break the earlier tense air now that I'm no longer so keen on committing physical violence. "Now why would I do that? Are you not with them?"
My voice caused the woman to shudder before she spoke hesitantly. "N-not exactly." Hmm, my suspicions were right apparently. She's not a true bandit, must have been picked up for her usefulness then.
Regardless now was a good time to get some information that Gazef might not have. "Oh? Do tell your story."
Apparently my little drawl caused the woman to whimper in fear before she started speaking. "I-I don't know w-what m-much to say really... I w-was just a g-girl from E-Rantel that wanted to l-learn about T-Talents. When I got my Talent scanned on a whim, these guys found out and abducted me before giving me orders. I never wanted this life!"
Hmm, a girl from E-Rantel eh? If these bandits casually kidnapped her from that fortress city where a lot of adventurers and mercenaries are possibly stationed. Then that meant these guys are no ordinary slave catcher party. "Life can be cruel. Now who are these bandits, I've... heard about E-Rantel's guilds, for them to swipe you from underneath them could not have been a normal feat."
I want all the information on these guys, they could be a good source to test out some of my spells and skills, especially since I need to test out [Reaping Willow] to see if anything changed there. Kalea slowly looked up from her prostrated and I figured that it would be ok to use my [Treeman] racial ability [Seasonal Change], this would allow me to change the color of my 'hair' and slightly alter the structure of my face and color of my 'skin'. No drastic changes though like with [True Polymorph] or [Shapeshift] which is kind of sad.
Taking off my helmet, I 'revealed' myself as a white haired lady with 'rosy' colored skin and green eyes. Hopefully a color palette swap would help me sell this persona as a separate person better.
She stared at my face with barely disguised awe before she closed her mouth and bowed her head again. "T-the group belongs to a criminal guild, I t-think I heard some of them call the whole thing Eight Fingers. B-Blackfang overheard some of them say that there were a lot of nobles who were supporting them in secret."
I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes, why am I not surprised? Corrupt nobles dipping their sticky fingers in the sweet but rotten pies of the criminal underworld. But still, this girl if she wasn't taken then she probably would have been encouraged to become an adventurer or a mercenary, from what little I've read of her little Talent she would have made a fine [Beast Tamer], if she grew right then she might even reach [High Tamer] class.
Regardless, I'm going to have to make a quick decision on what to do with this girl. I could just kill her, but I also recognize that she is a victim, but has she even tried to escape or help the other slaves? But of course, I think I can bring her with me instead? Hmm, decisions...
Maybe I'll let her live for now, bring her along with me and Ranam, I still need more information and with Gazef gone this girl will be the perfect substitute. "You will come along with me and Ranam, I'm planning on heading out and traveling a little. Understand?"
The woman shuddered before she bowed deeply to the ground, and even the warg seemed to bow her head. "T-thank you for your mercy!"
Waving my hand, I told her to stand. I dislike boot lickers. "Were there more of you and are there other slaves nearby?"
As Kalea stood up, she nodded her head although she was still afraid. "Y-yes to both of them, though the guards at the caravan should be no match for you! I'm sure of it!"
Hmm, considering she might have been with them for a while, she must have a somewhat decent estimation of their strengths. For now I'll treat everything she says with a grain of salt, but for now I turn to the massacred bodies and thought that I don't exactly feel any change. Am I supposed to do something? I idly spoke while I begin to bring a free hand up. "Stand further away, I cannot guarantee your safety if you don't."
I heard the sound of frantic scrambling before the sound of footsteps echoed faintly, I concentrated on my passive skill. [Reaping Willow] and kept my eyes open to see if anything happens, and lo and behold something did. I didn't flinch as a bright bluish-white light burst in my hand and illuminated the entire tunnel. Judging by the twin sounds of yelps behind me, I may have accidentally blinded Kalea and her warg Blackfang. Eh I can just heal them afterwards if they actually did go blind.
Right now I need to focus, I watched as the bodies and blood splatters all seemed to 'twitch' before a cloudy blue orb left their bodies. In total I now had twelve blue orbs that looked as if there were roiling black clouds twisting inside them. What are these? Well, one way to find out. [Observe Target]
...
...
...
What? I cast [Observe Target] again, though it seems like that whatever I was holding wasn't an applicable target? Curious, I used a free hand and poked one orb and nearly had a panic attack when it shattered into a stream of dark bluish-white light before it went into my body. The same phenomenon spread to the other eleven orbs and I watched with nervous breath when they all were absorbed by me.
After that the bright light disappeared and the whole tunnels were cast back into darkness with the only light coming from the fallen torches. Waiting a minute or two, I determined that whatever happened wasn't harmful and I inspected the corpses and found they still looked the same after I unalived them. I should come back and use their corpses for some of my more malevolent summons, just in case the summons functioned like when I created the Wisps and Tree Kin.
For now I want to see the outside... I(Katsumi) want to see the outside... While I do remember my own life and the world before it got ruined by megacorporations, I didn't get to see nature in its prime. I never got that chance in my first life, and I(Katsumi) didn't get that chance either.
Turning to the low level tamer, I nod towards the corner where I last left Ranam. "We'll take Ranam with us. Try not to scare her, both of you." The unspoken 'or else' line wasn't needed, I could see the two got the idea.
As we approached the corner, I sensed the presence of the little one and she was remarkably close as if... she didn't stay in place, quickly I walked a little bit faster. Right after I rounded the corner, I felt something small impact my leg, though thankfully the cloak was there to soften said impact. "Y-you did it!"
I inwardly cringe, if she knew that much that meant she decided to watch the massacre. It seems even here, telling a kid to do something would probably make them do the opposite thing. Regardless I pat the little red haired girl on her head, though she stiffened because she saw the warg, but once she saw the Kalea she relaxed. Interesting.
"It's the nice girl with the big dog!" Oya? That's new information, I turn slightly to look over my shoulder to see Kalea had a bitter smile on her face.
"I'm not nice kid, I'm just not as bad as them." That sounded self-degrading, I silently watched as Ranam actually walked on over to the warg and the wolf-beast just licked her face making the red headed girl giggle.
Eyeing the warg and Ranam, I saw from the corner of my eye that Kalea walked closer. "Name's Matsuki. Does the little one have parents?" I curtly spoke out my fake name and my question, but with a low tone so as not to attract Ranam's attention.
I felt the gaze of Kalea from beside me, though I didn't turn my head to her. "Kalea, and it was when we passed by her village. It was bad luck that she was outside of her house at night when the boss ordered to take her, her father tried to protect her but he got ganged up on by the boss and a few others, and he was killed. Don't know about her mother though."
A shame, that means the little one is most likely an orphan now. If these bandits wanted a red headed slave, they would have easily taken the mother too once they put together that little Ranam got her hair color from her parents. But the fact that they went after her meant that they didn't find another with hair like hers.
Taking a deep breath, I walked forward and pat the Ranam on the head. "Come on little one, we have to help the others."
Ranam turned to look up at me and nodded with a nervous smile before she looked shocked as I picked her up and pushed her face into my cloak. "You shouldn't see the mess I've made." I whisper and started my way, and looked at Kalea jerking my head to motion to her to lead the way.
Judging by the shaky nod I got from her, my order was followed without complaint. Kalea and Blackfang took point as I didn't exactly know the way out of this cave system. But I made sure to memorize the pathway, and while I did so I used [Message] to order some of the wisps near the entrance of my home to watch over the corpses.
I saw a light up ahead and let out a soft hum. I wonder how Gazef is doing right now? Though I wouldn't know until he returned that he was in the most danger... out of combat.
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Interlude: Concerning Attention
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Interlude: Concerning Attention
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Interlude: Concerning Attention
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Gazef's boots stomped on the ground as he hopped off the cart, it took a few days to travel to the meet up, hopefully the situation did not worsen. The young man looked around the hill they were gathered on, seeing quite a few new faces, some that were even not human.
He sees like four dwarves talking with what looks like an adventurer group they seem to be talking business. One five person team of elves who seem to be keeping to themselves. Then there were even two lizardmen, they look friendly judging by their interaction with a mercenary group. To him this might have been too many people for a simple nest extermination.
Looking around even more, he was interrupted from his thoughts when a voice sounded off behind him. "You seem lost there young man."
Turning around, Gazef spotted an elderly man with a white beard wearing strange armor and wielding a spear and two curved swords on his left side. By habit Gazef stood straight and bowed his head at the elder, paying his respects to him, which caused the older man to chuckle good naturedly. To which Gazef replied to with a small grin. "I'm not lost, I'm just wondering why there are so many adventurers and mercenaries here, I thought this was a routine nest extermination?"
His words caused the old man to lose his jovial expression and turn serious, Gazef looked on as he turned around and pointed at the cave in the distance. "Things have changed, some of the scouts and rangers found there were ogres and hobgoblins in the cave. Some are even speculating that there is either a goblin champion or goblin lord leading them."
The hairs on the back of Gazef's neck slightly raised up as he suppressed a shiver, goblin champions and goblin lords were scary stuff. A lot of experienced people say that they require at least one High Silver adventurer or one C4 mercenary to kill a Goblin Champion, and Goblin Lords were said to need a Mid Gold and B5 rank.
Gazef saw the old man turn back around to face him and he could see him smile almost without worry. "But we have an adamantite rank here with us young man."
Something about the old man's smile seemed almost mischievous, but Gazef offered a relieved smile nonetheless. Adamantite rank adventurers and S rank mercenaries were all on a whole tier of their own. If they even had just one member in their task force with that level of strength, then things would go smoothly. They could deal with either of those monsters while the rest of the expedition can tie up the rest of the nest. "Thank you for the good news honored elder."
That made the old man let out another series of chuckles before he patted Gazef's shoulder with a free hand, his blue eyes showing the mirth he had within him. "Think nothing of it young man, and my name is Vesture. No need for that 'honored elder' stuff, I am not your teacher. You've already offered your respects the first time."
Compelled, Gazef chuckled himself as he nodded at the old man. To the young man, the older fighter was clearly strong and he was stronger than himself by a large margin. "Then my name is Gazef, you still have my thanks for the heads up. I fully expect that with the adamantite rank here, the whole job will go smoothly."
Letting out a laugh, Vesture nodded his own head. "Let us hope that is the case young Gazef." With that, the two exchanged pleasantries before the old man headed off somewhere.
Meanwhile Gazef looked around for a place to lean or sit against and found a nice tree with some shade, though there was a person sitting by it, cradling their rather large two headed axe and wearing such bulky looking silver armor that it was hard to tell who was underneath it. Regardless the young man approached the figure and asked with a friendly smile on his face. "Excuse me, but is that spot taken?"
As he pointed at the empty space by the tree, he saw the armored person tilt their head to look at him from what he assumes is the corner of their eye. He felt an unknown pressure fall onto his shoulders but thought nothing of it, especially when it lifted. He was answered by a surprisingly female voice coming from underneath that armor. "... Go ahead."
Nodding his head with that friendly grin still on his face, Gazef thanked the apparent woman and slightly apologized just in case he annoyed her. "Thank you, I'm sorry for intruding."
The woman in armor shook her head while Gazef sat down and leaned against the tree on another side as he listened. "Don't be. I didn't expect to be talked to in the first place."
To Gazef that sounded like a shame, but then he remembered that some people either are fine with that or just don't want any kind of social contact. He's seen a few people like them, maybe she is one too? "Well to be fair, your whole figure gives off a dangerous air to it."
"Yet you seem to be fine with that." Well, she got him there. Gazef let out a good natured chuckle as he heard the armor shift as if to look around the tree to eye him.
"Well, I'll admit you cut across as a very intimidating figure. But I'm training to become strong, can't let something like fear get in the way of that right?"
"Then either you are very brave or very stupid." When she said that, he could feel some form of amusement behind her words. So he jokingly replied.
"Can't I be both?" His reply seemed to have stunned the woman before she started chuckling.
"Haha... interesting, you might just be the most interesting one here." Gazef couldn't help but be oddly flattered at those words, he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before speaking again.
"I'm clearly not interesting, honest! I'm not even that strong yet." The young man's words seemed to have gotten the interest of the armored woman even more for some reason.
"Yet you say? Are you that confident that you will grow strong in the future? Who is to say that you will survive this expedition?" Sharp words from the armored woman cut into his inner being and Gazef couldn't help but turn silent for a few brief moments.
The only sound between the two is the fluttering of their cloaks and the rustle of leaves and branches, along with the distant chatter of the other adventurers and mercenaries.
Gazef looked up into the air as he spoke. "Because I have a dream, an ambition, and I won't stop until I fulfill it. I want to become strong, and I want to become a hero. A hero is supposed to surpass all odds right? Well why not start now?"
Lowering his head, he nearly let out an undignified yelp at seeing the armored lady's helmet so close to his face. "A foolish sentimental view, yet there is something about you... that maybe, just maybe you might be able to make the cut."
Slowly the woman moved away from the young man and inwardly Gazef let out a sigh of relief. Now he was slightly intimidated for a different reason, but Gazef could see that the woman when standing up was actually shorter than he was but he could feel that her strength eclipses his own. Was she the adamantite adventurer? He didn't see the plate on her person though and doubted it, but who was she? "You might want to head over there, they seem to be starting."
When Gazef turned his head to the rest of the group, he saw that they were indeed starting. He turned to look at the armored woman who just stood there with her axe in hand. "What about you?"
"I can hear from this distance." Gazef either had to conclude that either she had a [Talent] for hearing, or she wasn't human to be able to hear from this far away. Regardless, the young man stood up and nodded his head at the woman with a smile before he started to walk away, unaware of the eyes locked on his form.
As the young fighter left the vicinity of the tree, the armored woman kept his gaze on the interesting young man for a bit longer before she tilted her head. As the branches above her rustled in a certain pattern.
"We approaching the old man yet?" A higher pitched female voice drawled out from above her head.
Though the question still stands, the armored woman thought about if for a while before she decided to shake her head, much to the surprise of her current companion. "Later... perhaps after this expedition and after we found the item. I've just found something interesting."
"Ooooh~ Are you talking about that rough looking boy? Didn't know you liked that type and liked them so young." This only elicited a huff and low chuckle from the armored woman.
"Do you want to die in training?" She said that in the most pleasant tone possible, and judging by the panicked squeak coming from her companion, it intimidated her quite a bit.
The armored woman turned to look up at the tree and saw her much younger companion there. A short girl in her black top, shorts, boots, and gloves, a mask covering her mouth and a black cloak wrapped around her shoulders. The few bits of exposed flesh was covered in fishnets excluding her head. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were red, she waved her hands in surrender as her eyes darted to the side for an easy route of escape.
Though the armored woman just turned to look at Gazef in the distance. "Something about him seems off, and I want to figure out what."
"I feel sorry for the guy for whatever he did to grab your attention." Her companion stated with a lower toned voice as she squat on the branch she was on before standing up and turning her own head to eye the young man.
"It's not about what he did... I believe it's about, what he WILL do." The armored woman stated and if anyone heard her statement, they would probably imagine a wide smile on the lady's face.
AN: Soup rice. :3
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Chapter 6: Rock Solid Quest Start!
TheLunchKing
Heed my words... Egg.
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Chapter 6: Rock Solid Quest Start!
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Chapter 6: Rock Solid Quest Start!
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Gazef Stronoff POV
I look into the mirror-like blade of [Silversong] and let out a hum to myself, thinking about what the expedition leader said, and the surprise I felt at seeing Vesture was actually the Adamantite Class adventurer "Sword Dancer". How did I not recognize him sooner? He is one of the oldest Adamantite adventurers still active.
Regardless, the expedition leader Hazel Delgaze explained in detail to all of us about what Vesture told me earlier. The goblin nest was way too close to the nearby villages, already wiping out two of them, and the nest has grown far too large to be taken care of by a regular expedition team. Which is why the Adventurer's Guild and Mercenary Corps are working together on this despite the rivalry between each organization. One would think they'd take more High-Gold and C4 ranks at minimum, but turns out that they just didn't have enough of them around and a few of the teams of that rank were too far away to take part in this expedition, which was a shame.
Anyway, I thought about the rest of the information. Turns out the cave system was larger than when it was first reported, a few of the rangers found around two entrances when they snuck around, though they couldn't head deeper as that is probably where the survivors of the villages were taken to. All they could do was obtain information on the enemy composition and if there were traps in the paths, goblin nests were usually littered with multiple traps and primitive alarm systems consisting of bones tied to string.
We would be all split into Task Force A and Task Force B, with people who didn't have a team would get randomly assigned to pre-existing groups. I was put in Task Force B and I was actually pointed in the direction of the all elf team, when I asked for the reason why, the member just shrugged and told me that I had bad luck.
So now I was partnered up with a quintet of elves, four of which were women and one was male. When I introduced myself to them, they looked at me as if I was an idiot before proceeding to ignore me. Rude much, but given the fact that their race is repeatedly oppressed by humanity, I guess I couldn't blame them. So I decided to just sit by them but also not bother them, though two of them seem to be interested in my sword. To which I gave them a raised eyebrow and silently offered it to them pretty much asking with my actions if they wanted to touch it.
They looked straight at me before turning to look at one woman who looked slightly older than the rest, she was also staring at me before she spoke something in their language I suppose. The only male elf and one female elf both seemed to be melee fighters considering that the male has a couple of shortswords on him while the female elf was wielding a shield and mace. A fighter and cleric? Were clerics common with the elves, actually considering their build were shields common among them at all?
Ah, the two who were staring at [Silversong] were now walking towards me. Their faces showed a flat neutral gaze, but I could definitely feel the aura of distrust they have. "Human. What is that sword?" The female elf cleric all but demanded I answer which was kind of rude.
"May I have the names of yourself and your companions first." I couldn't help but feel cheeky in response to her rudeness.
My cheekiness wasn't received well as I was now getting glared at by the cleric, though I was actually answered by the other elf woman they deferred to earlier. "The cleric is Mugi, the boy fighter is Gimu, I am Karrot, the other two are Shandra and Kali." I turned to face her as she spoke her piece, although she doesn't seem as hostile? The elf woman didn't seem to have any obvious weapons on her, and the two other elven women she pointed to, one had a bow and the other actually looked as if she was a druid. Although the 'wood staff' she was holding looked more like a wooden maul with how large the top part was with the wood grown around a crystal.
"No last names?" But I couldn't help but ask, as I was kind of curious considering this is my first time meeting with elves. Despite the fact there have been rumors of more sightings of elves lately, most of them were still isolationist, what with the Slane Theocracy still at war with them.
Frankly I'm surprised that these elves are here at all. What is their goal for them to actually send a team here, in the Re-Estize Kingdom of all places? We aren't exactly close to the Elf Country- actually are these elves actually from the Elf Country? They could honestly be one of the very few, very rare, elf groups that are freelance mercenaries.
Though what I am assuming is the leader of the group only shrugged. "We'd rather not give our last names to those who might use them to trace us to our roots."
Huh. Fair enough, I shrug back before turning to the cleric girl apparently named Mugi and held up [Silversong] a little to give the elves a better look. "The name of this blade is [Silversong], it was a gift to me by a friend. Why are you asking about it anyway?"
From the corner of my vision I saw the leader apparent blink at me when I didn't pry further before she schooled her features. Mugi on the other hand tried to swipe the blade from my hands, and I simply pulled it back away from her reach which made her . "Either your 'friend' is some expert blacksmith, or you just got incredibly lucky when finding it. That blade is made out of pure mithril, and for something so large and unwieldy too."
I couldn't help but blink a few times in surprise as I look down at the greatsword in my hands. It wasn't as heavy as I thought it would be when I first picked it up, I thought it was just enchanted to be lighter. Then again with Eien and the feeling I get from the greatsword, I think it IS enchanted, though I don't know what kind of enchantment is on it.
Though my distraction slightly costed me as the cleric Mugi managed to swipe [Silversong] from my hands, I decided to watch her wave the sword around, she held it up to her face as if she was inspecting the blade. "Strange... this feels like- OW!"
To my surprise Mugi threw the greatsword away from her as if it burned her, and when I looked at her hand I could see it was actually glowing a bit. I couldn't help but reach out to quickly grab the hand that held [Silversong] and ignoring the indignant look from the hand's owner, I inspected the flesh which was a little red. "You're burned, here let me help." I said as I kept holding her hand with one of my own while my other reached for my pouch, only for the cleric to pull her hand away almost gingerly.
"No, it's fine. I can heal this." The cleric elf girl slowly said, almost as if she were confused before she cast what I am going to assume is a healing spell on her hand.
As I saw the hand's redness fading away back to her normal fair skin tone, I decided to turn back to grab [Silversong] hesitating a bit before grabbing the handle and lifting it up to my face, no doubt to others I was sporting a confused look. How sentient is this sword? It must not have liked the cleric swiping it suddenly from my hands, I heard murmurs behind me, the elves must be talking in their language. I couldn't help but whisper. "Didn't know you can burn others holding you... You don't like being taken against your will huh?"
Blinking I sensed what almost felt like affirmation from the sword. I would say that Marikorrmar is actually the sword, but apparently [Silversong] could read my mind because it heated up in my hand though not enough to hurt, as if the greatsword didn't like that thought. Which leads me to believe this sword is more sentient than I thought and most likely a completely different entity. What in the world did Eien give me?
Though my thoughts were interrupted when I heard the short toot of a horn and turned to see the rest of my team start to walk towards the second entrance, Task Force A had the most amount of people, their job was to create as much noise while assaulting the first entrance so they could lure out most of the goblins from the deeper areas of the cave. Vesture was with them and he is meant to take on the Goblin Lord or Goblin Champion should they appear. Meanwhile with Task Force B, which my group was in, is in charge of attacking the second entrance and primarily locate the surviving villagers while killing any goblins in the way.
Looking down at [Silversong] in my hand and couldn't help but give it a slight look while whispering. "Welp, this will be our first fight together. Since you are somewhat sentient, maybe you can give me pointers to that enchantment of yours?"
I idly look around after saying my piece, last thing I need is for someone to look at me speaking to my weapon and make them think I've gone mad. Though my words brought a reaction from my weapon, in the form of a warmth spreading to my hand and up my arm, but other than that nothing else.
When I looked back around Task Force B and Task Force A, I furrowed my brow as I noticed something odd... The silver armored lady I talked to seems to be missing? Strange, but I don't think I need to worry about her. Something about that individual screams that she is far out of my league, she will be more than fine I think.
As for me? I began my own walk to catch up with Task Force B, the expedition will be starting soon and I want to be prepared it. Really I just want to steel myself, I've already bought a few more armor pieces using the silver reward that Opal gave me. Granted she gave me a bit more after the mess that was the experiment, and I have the two recovery potions in a pouch I can easily reach for just in case I'll need them.
I followed the rest of the group to the second entrance, and I was now standing beside Gimu the male elf who drew out his two shortswords. "So, what's the plan?" I asked as we slowly made our way to the dark underground.
Gimu seemed to briefly look at me from the corner of his eye but turned to continue watching the front where Mugi and Karrot were. "... Captain and Mugi are going to be up front to attract the damage, I will flank if I can while Shandra and Kali will support us from the rear. Captain doesn't know your capabilities, so she said that you can do whatever you wish. Just don't get in our way."
Ok then, that is a lot more lenient than I expected. I was kind of expecting their leader either putting me in front as arrow fodder or to just not include me at all... then again I'm pretty much not included in their plan, but as long as I don't endanger them, they seem to be fine with me doing my own thing. Which, I guess can be both good and bad. But regardless, I want to make it so the group will be able to get out of this with all their members intact.
As we entered the cave system, we spotted a few crude alarm systems, bones tied with string hanging from the ceiling. Said to be a regular sight whenever one enters a lair inhabited by goblins or even bandits, these goblins don't seem stupid considering they build these alarm systems on their other entrance. But thanks to how dark it is, it is very difficult to spot any tra-
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I spotted a faint shimmer of a wall and noticed movement underneath that shimmer, with a form of reflex I didn't even know I had. I dashed towards the wall and performed a quick slash, my eyes narrowed on the shimmering false wall and once it disappeared, stared down at the goblin dressed in what I can assume is a shaman's garb bleeding profusely. I heard that goblins favor ambush tactics, but I didn't really expect them to appear this early into the cave.
Looking around the now exposed room, I found nothing of importance aside from a small table with a two fang daggers stabbed into the wood. Carefully I approached the goblin corpse and stared at it for a brief moment before I double checked and stabbed it's throat just to ensure that it is dead.
Sighing at the confirmed kill, I turned around and nearly jumped back at seeing one of the elven girls right in front of me. Blinking a few times, I looked her up and down and saw her druidic vestments, this one is named Kali last I recall. She stared up at me and I couldn't help but awkwardly look side to side. Kali then gave me a thumbs up before turning around and walking back to the elf group, I looked to a random adventurer and motioned to the elves only to get a confused shrug in return.
Regardless, I shouldn't let my discomfort, worry, or any other kind of distraction mess with me while we perform this task. This is going to be difficult as is, no need to make things harder for myself after all.
So far the entire task force travelled through the caverns in one big group, there were a few close calls with goblins hiding behind small crevices or in holes they dug out that were then disguised to look like it was part of the wall instead of an actual path. Those were the most annoying as it had quite a few number of goblins within them, which is slightly worrying me a bit.
The reports from the scouts stated that there were some hobgoblins and some ogres mixed in with them goblin nest, and we have yet to encounter even a single member of those monsters. I couldn't help but tell this to the closest elf I was near to, which was Shandra, she also seemed a bit concerned as she relayed the info I had to her leader Karrot. As far as I know, she acknowledged the discrepancy and now seemed a lot more cautious than earlier.
After a while, the entirety of Task Force B entered a wide open cavern, numerous stalactites scattered across the ceiling of the cave. While it was dark, there were a few torches here and there hanging on some hooks fixed on the wall or a hanging brazier, some were even stuck to the ground next to piles of bones.
I listened as the leaders of the various teams in Task Force B say that they were now splitting up here. I can't help but think that is a bad idea, considering that we don't truly know the place and this is the goblins' home turf after all. I can only hope nothing will go wron-
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The hairs on the back of my neck and on my arm raised on their own, and I felt some crippling bloodlust. I nearly buckled underneath the pressure, and turning to the rest of Task Force B, I spotted a few who were having trouble staying up. But a lot of those whose heads and faces were exposed seemed to be sweating.
Even the elven team looked far more wary and distrustful at the feeling, I blinked before turning to where I could detect the feeling and spotted two glowing sickly yellow eyes from the darkness of one of the pathways.
My eyes widened as the owner of those yellow eyes stepped into the light.
AN: Not much of a chapter, but I needed to yeet this out of my head or else it would never have been sent. Made this when I was tired, so apologies if it is not a chapter that was up to par with the others.
On a sidenote, I'm not really good with names. So I'm just tossing names left and right. I know Matsuki isn't really a local name, I'll probably switch it out at some point but my brain isn't helping there for the moment.
Anyway, I hope this chapter still catches your eye and ya'll enjoy it still. Next chapter is still Gazef-centric but it may or may not contain POVs from other characters. This is the time of the clearing expedition.
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