The first thing Bjorn did when he woke up next was check his notifications.
You have fully traveled down the road to recovery. You are no longer hurt but the scars of the damage remain. Those will take even longer to heal if ever.
It took him a moment to realize that the notification was talking about his damage to his magic matrix and his reduced growth in earth and dark magic if he ever got it back. He couldn’t go back on his choices so this is something he will have to learn to deal with.
When he opened his eyes he found that Adriana was nowhere in sight. Her bedroll that she had been wrapped up in was folded neatly on the ground. However what he did find was a certain rock golem, standing there at the foot of where Bjorn had been sleeping. Its amorphous face turned towards Bjorn’s sleeping form.
“Well its about time you showed up.” Bjorn said to Malachi. “What took you so long?”
Of course the rock golem wouldn’t reply, it didn’t have that capability. When they were taken hostage by the tree the golem tried to fight back. However the tree must have viewed the golem as worthless or weak because it didn’t interact with the golem. Unfortunately it wasn’t able to climb up the tree using its weird rock shaping ability. So instead it just settled for mindlessly attacking the tree with abandon.
Its size made it so that the blows from its stone fists didn’t even overcome the damage reduction the tree got from its thick bark. For the first time since he got the golem he debated on putting its mana generation into growing the golems size. Having Malachi bigger as well as stronger would be a boon. Bjorn sighed mentally, even if it would be nice it would take too long for the golem to make any noticeable difference, probably. So it was in his best interest to have the golem dedicate its entire mana generation into xp. If somehow he survived this ordeal it would be the best choice. Besides, Malachi was starting to get close to level 3.
Sitting up he stretched and looked around for some sort of sign of where Adriana might be. When he didn’t see anything that indicated where she might have gone he stood. It felt good to have his full strength again. However that didn’t last long as he was hit with a wave of weakness.
You have not eaten in 5 days. Even though you are a being that can partially survive on the ambient mana of your surroundings you still have a need of eating. You have reached stage 2 of starvation. -10% to concentration, -20% to strength, stamina regeneration is reduced by 25%.
His stomach growled loudly in protest. The sound was loud enough that it created a small echo inside the chamber. Not one to argue with the universe he sat back down and pulled some food out of his bag of holding.
As he was eating he took stock of what he had in his bag. They were starting to run low on food stored inside his bag. They would need to find some sort of food soon or risk starving. As they traveled they supplemented their diet with small animals that they came across, occasionally the meat from one of the monsters they killed. But for the most part they left the meat behind to either rot or to be set upon by another predator. It was for the best.
Once he finished with his meal he got up and packed up both of their sleep rolls and started to make his way to the stairs. It had been roughly 20 minutes since he woke up and he still hadn’t seen hide nor hair of Adriana. He had a mission.
Roughly half way up the set of stairs he could start to make out a sound coming from the ground level. It almost sounded like the normal groaning of the forest so at first he didn’t think much of it. As he got closer to the surface he could start to make out what the sound was. It was the weird wooden language that the Ent had spoken to the tree. Cautiously he mounted the last of the stairs and made his way over to the doorway.
He poked his head around the corner and was surprised. Adriana was sitting on the root of a tree that had been raised and shaped to look like a chair. In the middle of the forest sitting directly across from Adriana was Mosstoe. He was more kneeling/crouching than sitting. What surprised him the most was the sound of the Ent language was actually coming from Adriana’s throat and not the Ents.
“Are you okay?” Bjorn called out to Adriana. It would have been a fool's errand as there was little chance that he could have done anything to Mosstoe but he was still ready to come to her aid if she needed it.
Both heads turned towards Bjorn’s voice. Adriana’s face lit up at his voice. She stood and walked/ran over to where Bjorn was standing. She gave him a hug and then grabbed him by the hand. “I am fine. Come, I would like to properly introduce you to Mosstoe.”
He didn’t resist as Adriana led him out of the ruins of the temple and over to where the massive tree, man, thing was at. “What is going on? How can you speak to the Ent?”
Adriana must have found the look on Bjorn’s face funny as she let out a good hearty laugh. “That was part of my boon. It was called Nature’s gift. It taught me how to speak Entish as well as a few other things.”
Bjorn looked over at Adriana and then up at Mosstoe. “How do you do?” He asked up at the Ent.
Of course there was no answer. Adriana wasn’t out of tricks yet however. A faint green glow surrounded her fingers before she touched Bjorn’s ears first, then his throat.
You have been blessed by one accepted by the forest. You have been given the ability to understand, and speak Entish, and Grove Elvish for the next hour.
The glow faded around her fingers and she dropped them from his head before taking a step back. “Mosstoe this is Bjorn, Bjorn this is Mosstoe.” She said.
The voice that Mosstoe spoke in was equal parts deep as it was a wheeze. “Hello Bjorn. I welcome you to take shelter beneath my branches.”
Bjorn gave Adriana a questioning look at the way that the Ent spoke, it was odd phrasing. “It’s how they welcome non-tree-like entities. I have learned a great deal about Ent culture in the last few days.”
“I greet thee as well and wish you some water in which to help you grow.” He had no idea if it was the right thing to say or even if it made a difference but it just felt right. He cast Create Water. It had a 15 second cast time so it took a while but the Ent didn’t seem to mind. He channeled the spell for 10 seconds, dumping 60 mana into the spell, which created 10 gallons of fresh, pure, drinking water. He let it fall to the ground at Mosstoe’s feet.
Adriana gave Bjorn an approving look.
“I thank thee Bjorn of the Eld. Adriana here has told me much about your human world and the comings and goings of you humans. You are so small and run around like ants. Your lives are so short that I don’t know how you get anything done.”
“Can you tell me a little more about the Emerald Sea?” Bjorn asked.
“Well what do you want to know?”
Adriana cut Mosstoe off. “I was wondering if we could switch to Grove Elvish?” Bjorn hadn’t noticed it because of the magic of whatever Adriana just did but he had been speaking in Entish. The switch made sense, it was hard to wrap his head around but when speaking in Entish conversation felt like it was the normal pace but it actually took an incredible amount of time to speak. Just that small exchange had taken up 40 minutes.
“Very well.” Mosstoe said smoothly switching out of Entish and into Grove Elvish. Although his speech was faster, he still spoke incredibly slowly. “What is it you want to know about the Emerald Sea? I have many things I can tell you about the forest. I can introduce you to many of my friends, there are many kind trees that live here. There are also many wicked and crafty trees. Much like the one that captured you. You are lucky I came when I did, otherwise you would have been crushed and your life blood would have been drank by Gnarlroot. He is a crafty one, just the other day I wasn’t fast enough and he killed someone else. It was a nasty affair, he squeezed him until there was no juice left to drain.”
Adriana looked at Bjorn and mouthed. “He likes to ramble.”
What Mosstoe said made Bjorn think. There was one person who got away from the camp they attacked. If they took a direct route there they would have ran right into the emerald sea like they did. Could it be the one they were chasing? “Hey mosstoe, how long ago did Gnarlroot catch the person and kill them?”
The Ent didn’t show any sign of annoyance at being interrupted. His face went blank, he blinked once and the kept speaking as if he hadn’t been interrupted. “Oh I don’t know, 15, maybe 20 winters ago. That winter was one of the longest and coldest winters that I can remember in my life. There was this one time when I was just a small Ent when the winter lasted nearly the entire year, that was a horrible winter, many young Ents and trees died. Their sap began to freeze and rapidly ex-”
“Hey Mosstoe, I got a question for you.” Bjorn said, interrupting the Ent once again. If it was annoyed it didn’t show it. “You didn’t seem overly keen on helping us until you saw my hand.” He held it up to showcase. “Is there a reason why you helped us after you saw it?”
“Yes, yes there was a reason. Many lifetimes ago, back when my life givers life giver was a young Ent. There was once a species of elves that lived here in the woods, not just the Emerald Sea, but the entirety of the Summergate woods. They were kind, just, friendly creatures. They loved the forest almost as much as they did each other. These elves worked together with the Ents, and the spriggans to help protect the forest and make it a better place. The elves worshiped the spriggans, they were more their religious leaders. I don’t know this first hand, they disappeared long ago. But you can still find pockets of Grove elves out here in the Summergate Forest. Spriggans were rare then, they have become even rarer now. You see it has to do with how the spriggans propagate. They have to wait until- skrat ta metuh romena.”
All of a sudden Mosstoe’s speech became jumbled and he no longer could understand what the Ent was saying. At first he thought the Ent was casting some sort of spell, or had been using a term that wasn’t in Grove Elvish. However as he continued speaking and nothing made sense he looked to Adriana with a look of confusion. It took a while for her to realize as she was enraptured by what the Ent was saying.
Finally when she did notice a look of understanding spread across her face. She went back over to Bjorn and recast Nature’s Blessing on Bjorn. All of a sudden the Ent’s words came clear as day once again.
“-This entire process is ended by either grafting itself onto another being, or it ends up splitting down the middle essentially creating two copies of the same creature. These two copies are identical at first, however as they grow older they start to change and eventually become their own different creature. Anyways, when I saw the Bloodroot sapling attached to your hand I knew that I had to bring you to the Grove Elf temple. I don’t know why you needed to come here but it was something that has been passed down through the years.”
He paused briefly to take in a breath. Adriana saw this as her opportunity to get a word in edgewise. “Do you know if there are any more of these buildings around here?”
“I don’t know about around here but I do know that there aren’t any more in the Emerald Sea. I have traveled far and wide through the sea and I have yet to find one, it is the same story for all of the other ents I have talked to. There are a few other buildings around, mostly they are crumbling piles of decaying wood.” He said decaying wood as if it was an insult, as if it was an affront to his sensibility as an ent. “I don’t know why but very few of you small humanoid races rarely build out of stone, it always has to be the bodies of dead trees. Stone is better, it will last longer, it is tougher than our wood and bark, and there is an abundance of stone everywhere.”
Of course there was wood everywhere but Bjorn wasn’t going to point that out to the 150 foot tall giant tree man.
“These buildings are not really much to look at. I can take you to one that is near here if you want. It was the house of a druid. She was a nice lady. At first she didn’t know how to speak properly, always making the same flapping noises that the two of you make when you talk to each other. I don’t know what happened to her. I think she was a halfing or something like that, its hard to tell all of you are so small. But she was a determined one, she eventually learned how to speak Grove Elvish and then we could talk to her. Come to think of it, she might have died of old age, your life spans are so short.”
“How old do Ents get?” Bjorn said, cutting Mosstoe off, he could tell the Ent was going to go on a tangent. He now saw why Adriana said he liked to ramble.
“Now that is a fascinating question that I don’t have a good answer for you. Many Ents grow so old that their minds go addled and they start to wander. I don’t know how long that is. Almost all ents live to see at least 10,000 winters. You aren’t considered an adult until you see at least 7,000 winters. Its hard to keep track of time like what you think. When you are out here in the forest, eventually time just seems to cease to matter, you lose yourself in the life, the growth, the joy of the forest. I know of one Ent named Blackbriar who was old when my life givers, life givers, life givers, life givers were old. So maybe 40,000 winters? Who knows and who really cares? I always find your desire to track time odd. It doesn’t matter, life moves on and flows onwards regardless of whatever you do in your life.”
If what Mosstoe was saying Blackbriar was likely older than almost every single nation on the Eld currently. It had seen the rise and fall of countless empires, civilizations, and most likely some of the cataclysms. The scale of time that that single Ent had lived through was mind boggling.
Adriana got a slight frown on her face as she contemplated what Mosstoe said, he kept his rambling going but she wasn’t paying attention. There had been a nagging thought in the back of her mind. The entire time when she was living in the Summergate woods she had never seen or even heard of Ents. Why do they exist and why did they come across one here? based on what he was saying there were tons, probably hundreds, maybe even thousands of these massive tree creatures that lived in this section of the world. It finally made sense why no one had settled in the Emerald Sea.
She put voice to the question that had been hanging in the back of her mind. “Are you and the other Ents able to leave the Emerald Sea? I know I have never heard of your kind, let alone seeing one with my own eyes.”
This was the first time Mosstoe showed any sign of emotion. It got an affronted look on its 20 foot tall face. “Why would we want to? This is our home, this is where we grew up, this is where our friends live. Unlike you small creatures that are so flighty on your two legs we Ents like to put down our roots and live our lives where we live. Why would we want to leave our homes? It has everything we need to grow and survive here. We get plenty of rain, we have rich deep soil to grow in, and the light from the suns here feels particularly good. There is no reason for us to want to go anywhere else. The only annoying thing about our life here is those damn goblins and their corruption. But that doesn’t even really matter as it is easy enough to purify the corruption that the goblin taint likes to leave behind. We aren’t pushed for space, there is no need or reason for us to need to leave. There was this one time however where I went out of the Emerald Sea and headed to where the suns set, it wasn’t as nice as it was here. The soil wasn’t as deep or as rich. The trees there were unfa-”
“Wait.” Bjorn said interrupting. It appeared as if Mosstoe didn’t care one bit about being interrupted so Bjorn didn’t care about doing it. “You said that the goblin corruption, filth, affected the forest. Is there a reason behind that?”
“I don’t know much about goblins other than they are small, have annoying biting axes, and pop when you step on them. The Ent moot, they are our leaders.” He clarified because he saw Bjorn open his mouth to ask a question. Apparently Mosstoe also doesn’t mind cutting other people off. “They talk about fell magic, evil magics, magics that warp, rot, and decay nature. Everywhere they go they infect the land like a disease. However their mages are not a threat to any Ent. We regularly migrate through the area-”
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“Ents are migratory creatures, walking through the forest.” Adriana said to Bjorn as an aside, Mosstoe didn’t seem to mind as he just kept talking.
“-and kill all goblins we find, as well as purify any fell magic that threatens to overtake the area. All of the trees that butt up against the goblin controlled lands gladly take any goblin life that they come across. Actually Gnarlroot has never lived on the board between the Emerald Sea and the Goblin lands so they had no idea what a goblin looked like. All they knew was stories. When they caught you they thought that you were goblins, so you are lucky that I was in the area and heard the commotion, otherwise Gnarlroot would have killed you. Every couple winters the goblins grow bold again and try to take more of the Emerald Sea. Every time they fail, except for once. That was the last time the Ent moot called for a march. Many came together and we rampaged through their lands cleaning and purifying as we went. Some areas were too far gone for even our most powerful Ents. When we were finished we returned to the Sea. There were several hundred winters of peace where they didn’t push into the Emerald Sea. You flesh creatures have short memories and they eventually come back and the un-ending struggle continues.”
Talk about a lore dump. Somehow the Ent actually managed to stay on topic this time. On top of that it actually gave important information about the history of this area, even if it was a little construed and one sided, it was still great. Silence fell between the group as Bjorn began to ponder on what history this creature has lived through. What all he could tell Bjorn about the world. Mosstoe just knelt there, occasionally blinking his massive eyes as he looked between Bjorn and Adriana.
“What level are you?”
“94. I am actually fairly close to level 95. But I don't think that will happen for probably another hundred or so winters.”
What the fuck. He had just spent the last hour and a half talking to without a doubt the most powerful creature he had ever come across. Probably would ever come across, and they were having a fairly polite conversation. The sheer ridiculousness of the situation blew Bjorn’s mind.
Before he could set off on another tirade Adriana interjected. “Hey Mosstoe, do you think you could carry us to the northern edge of the Emerald Sea? We are on the hunt for someone, well a group of someone's, and we are fairly sure that the someone's we are looking for is somewhere either in the northeastern corner of the Emerald Sea or somewhat close to it.”
“Of course I can do that. We already are most of the way through the Sea anyways. I can easily get you there by nightfall.”
Bjorn looked at the clock and saw that it was almost noon. “We will gladly take that. Thank you kind Ent.”
“No need to thank me, I have been meaning to come up here and visit some of my friends for a while now. Probably 50 or 60 winters. This is a good reason to see how they are doing and talk to them.”
Before they left Bjorn wanted to do one more once over to make sure they didn’t want to leave anything behind. So he quickly excused himself and made his way down the set of stairs and into the main chamber of the temple. As he was walking over to where they had spent the night a faint glint in one of the alcoves caught his eye.
Furrowing his brow he stopped in his tracks and made his way over to the alcove. It was one of the alcoves that had been looted before they came to this place. The stone pedestal had crumbled and lay in a wreck on the floor. What had caught his eye was a faint glint of glass.
Kneeling he began moving the stone and soon revealed a vial. It was a tiny vial with around 3 drops of a sickly blue liquid. Holding it up to the light the liquid was behaving more like a ferrofluid than water or a slime. Out of curiosity he used W.A.I.L.A. on the vial.
He had just learned about ability poisons. On top of that the talent said that the poisons he could create would deal temporary ability damage. This on the other hand would be permanent.
As he was wondering at either his luck or how something in the universe was looking out for him he had a fantastic idea. He knew what he was going to use this poison for. Now was not the time for it however so he tucked the vial of precious poison into his bag of holding.
Just to make sure he didn’t miss anything else that could be important he rummaged through the rest of the wreckage as well as the other alcoves wreckage and found nothing. Disappointed that he didn’t find any more epic level items, or even common level items, he finished doing a once over and headed back up the stairs.
Once there he rejoined the group. Mosstoe held out their hands, one of Bjorn and one for Adriana. They both stepped on a palm. Before the Ent stood up Bjorn made sure that Malachi was on the palm as well.
“What kind of creature is that? I don’t think I have ever seen one before. It is stone, but somehow it is also human? It is very perplexing. When it first came into the area I sensed it and was going to put a stop to it. That was until Adriana stopped me from killing it. Its the same size and shape as a goblin, so that was my first thought, it had to be some kind of goblin I had never seen before. Adriana however told me that it was a part of your group and that it was actually a great help. I have always wondered what it would be like to be made of stone, they are hard but my roots do a great job of breaking them down or moving them out of the way. It seems like it could be useful. Stone is more of an annoyance than a-”
“Its name is Malachi. It is a stone golem that I built, well an enchanter built out of a core that I acquired at great cost. I just put in the work the clean out the corruption that had taken over the core. Then the enchanter made the stone body and it feeds off of the natural mana accumulation that the core has.”
Mosstoe picked the three of them up off the ground and placed them on his shoulders. His body actually shifted in front of Bjorn’s eyes. They had made two sets of seats, one on either shoulder. There was a tunnel that appeared that led right through the neck of Mosstoe that connected both sides. The wood shifted so that there was also a bed off to one side that they could use to lay down if they wanted to. A ladder appeared into Mosstoes neck that would let them climb higher up onto his head, and from there into the canopy of leaves that topped its head.
The ent stood and turned north, then started walking at an almost slow leisurely pace heading northward. It was still faster than the three of them could travel on their own under their own power. “A golem. No never heard of that. No sounds pretty close to goblin. I think you should come up with a new name for that species. Otherwise people might get confused and they of them as goblins. I think it would be safer in the long run. Maybe the reason that I have never heard of a golem before is because people think they are goblins and kill them on sight. It is a shame that there isn’t more of them they seem like really interesti-”
The unending babble from Mosstoe continued throughout the rest of their trip. Bjorn wanted to talk to Adriana about her Nature’s blessing but with Mosstoe’s continuous chatter he wasn’t able to get any words in. At the end of the hour the power that fueled Bjorn’s understanding of the Ent ended. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on who you talk to, Adriana didn’t have enough mana to trigger the power on Bjorn again. Bjorn got to listen to the two of them talk to one another in what sounded like gibberish. After a while they switched off of Grove Elvish and started to talk to one another in Entish.
True to Mosstoe’s word they made it to the edge of the forest by the end of the day. There were still several hours left of daylight. The Ent set them down on the ground. As it did so the seats, beds, and ladder began to quickly melt back into the flesh of the giant walking talking tree.
“Can you cast your power again?” Bjorn asked Adriana.
She nodded and stepped forward, quickly allowing Bjorn to talk to Mosstoe once again.
“Thank you for saving us from Gnarlroot, and for taking us to the grove elf temple. You helped us in ways you will never know. Also thank you for the ride, you saved us plenty of time in that regard as well.”
“Gnarlroot you say? What is that old kook up to these days?” The tree right next to where they were standing said.
“There will be time for that a plenty, just wait a moment while I say goodbye to these humans.” Mosstoe said to the tree. “Farewell friends. Safe travels and I hope you find those you are looking for. If you ever find yourself in this neck of the woods again come find me. I very much enjoyed your company and would like to talk to you again. Adriana, continue to be a good person. Bjorn, take good care of Adriana and your spriggan, I don’t think you realize how rare of a creature it is.”
“We really appreciate everything you have done for us Mosstoe. You are a great person and a huge help to our quest. Take care and if we are ever in the Emerald Sea again we will try and find you.”
Mosstoe reached into its wood and withdrew their hand. A thin tendril of wood snaked out from one of its fingers which was wrapped around something walnut sized. It lowered its hand and held the tendril out to Adriana. Which she held out her hands. Mosstoe dropped a seed the size onto her palms before the tendril retracted.
“If you find yourself in the Emerald Sea plant that seed and I will know and come find you. Now farewell and good luck.” Mosstoe emphasized that statement by making a shooing motion with their hands.
Smiling back at the ent they raised their hands in farewell before heading into the forest. They were back into the Summergate woods, and the trees around them lost that strong emerald luster that gave the Emerald Sea its name.
After they traveled a few hundred feet they turned their backs to see Mosstoe for one last time. The Ent had planted its feet into the ground and they could see as roots rapidly grew into the soil. At the same time the two legs began to rapidly fuse into a single thick trunk of a tree. The two hands turned skyward, branches and leaves quickly began to sprout all over its body. Soon the only thing that distinguished Mosstoe from the trees around it was its face. That too slowly began to morph back into the truck of the tree. There was still a faint outline of the face but you would have to know what you were looking for to find it.
The last thing they saw or heard of Mosstoe was when they began speaking in Entish. “Now let me tell you a story-”
Bjorn and Adriana just looked at one another before shaking their heads and walking out into the forest once again.
They spent most of the rest of the day walking. They were grateful for Mosstoes help carrying them onwards, but it was almost a wash, kind of. When it picked them up the first time they were carried to the northwest. While they were going through Escar they tried to make their way as far east as they could before heading their way north. They were now mostly even with their north direction and were almost exactly west of the location on the map. Still they covered more ground than they could have so it probably put them ahead with how far they had to travel.
They stopped at a nice bend in a stream that they came across and set up camp there for the night. As their dinner cooked they talked about what they each got from the temple. Bjorn went first explaining everything that he knew about his new school of magic, as well as showcasing his new summoning ability.
This time he summoned a creature that was only around 2 feet tall and was wrinkly like a brain. It too had a gaping maw and a light pink color. Honestly it made him think about an intellect devourer from Dungeons and Dragons. However it was narrower through the body and not shaped like a brain. It did however have a gaping maw which was filled with oddly human-like teeth, and a 3 foot tongue that hung out its mouth. Around a foot and a half of the tongue drug on the ground as it walked. All in all another nasty looking creature. This one was called a Pink Horror.
Understandably Adriana was disgusted by the creature that was crawling/dragging around their camp. Once it finished a few laps Bjorn felt for the mana that connected him to the creature and willed it to break. When he forcibly ended the spell bending the horror from the abyss to him the ground opened up. It looked like a mouth had opened completely filled with large spike-like teeth. It swallowed the creature before the magic dissipated and the ground returned to the same unblemished look it had at the start.
“I don’t know how I feel about your new magic Bjorn. It kind of feels like the kind of magic an evil wizard or big bad evil guy would have. Like coming on the ground that we had walked on not 5 minutes ago and was normal, opened up like a mouth and ate the creature it spit up 3 minutes ago. How is that not creepy?” At the end of her tirade she shuddered.
“Hey, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. The stone took my two magics out of me. You think I wanted to give up Earth magic? You have seen how reliant I have become on Dark magic.”
“Still why couldn’t you mix your light magic with earth magic? I think that would have given you some kind of plant magic or something. That would have been better. At least less creepy.”
Bjorn just shrugged. “Like I said I didn’t have a choice. Enough about my new magic, what did you get? Was it just the ability to talk to trees and apparently grove elves?”
“No, it wasn’t just that. But that was the one benefit so far that has been the most helpful. It has been kind of weird actually. I have all this new knowledge that runs through my head that I have but never remember learning. It is a very jarring experience, I would say an order of magnitude worse than having a new spell taught to you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” She fell quiet as if she went into her own world and didn’t realize that she zoned out.
“Well?”
“Huh?” That shook her out of her revelry. Her eyes which were almost glassed over came back to life and settled back on Bjorn. “Oh yeah. Well it was called nature’s blessing. I don’t know everything that I gained from it but here is what it said.”
Congratulations you have been recognized as a friend to nature and specifically the Summergate woods. There are few in this world who have gained a blessing such as this. Even rarer when it has been bestowed upon them by a forest. You are recognized to be a friend to nature everywhere you go. This friendship will show itself in many different ways only time will reveal all of the benefits. However for the time being you have gained the following benefits.
You have gained the skill: Nature’s Lore. There are many things in this world that are esoteric and hard to describe, this skill is one of them. You gain a basic understanding about all things in nature, which include but aren’t limited to, flora, fauna, and weather patterns. As your Skill level increases so shall all other aspects of your knowledge.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in your skill: Nature’s Lore. You are now skill level 10. You gain a deeper understanding about the inner workings of nature.
Congratulations you have advanced from beginner to novice in your skill: Nature’s Lore. You have gained a perk! You gain the ability to channel your stamina into plant life to rapidly increase its growth rate.
You have gained a new skill: Woodcraft. There are few things in this world harder to find than someone who is at one with nature. Walking this path will let you merge with nature and eventually become impossible to find.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill: Woodcraft. You are now skill level 10. You are now 30% harder to be found while stealthing in forest environments.
You have advanced from beginner to novice woodsmen. You have gained a perk! While stealthed in forest-like environments your smell will be hidden as well. Additionally small sounds around a whisper level will be hidden as well.
You have gained a new skill: Animal handling. This skill is a sister skill to the Beast Master skill. However due to your love for nature you have gained this skill instead. Beast Master gives you the choice of taming animals by either domination or kindness. Your only path to taming an animal is through friendship and bonds.
Congratulations you have advanced your skill level in your skill: Animal Handling. You have reached skill level 10. Animals are 10% more likely to inherently trust you. Normally aggressive animals are 5% less likely to attack you on sight.
You have advanced from beginner to novice in your skill: Animal Handling. You have gained a perk! You are able to have 2 tamed animals at once. Additionally tamed Animals require 25% less food, and water than their wild counterparts.
Through your connection to nature and more over the Summergate woods you have been given the ability to speak both Entish and Grove Elvish at a native level. This power is due to the residual magics and imprint those two species have left on this stretch of land.
With these languages you also gain the ability to grant one person a competent level of understanding of any language you know for 1 hour for the cost of 100 mana.
When Adriana finished explaining everything that she got to Bjorn he just sat there. That was hardly fair, she got so much from her boon. What did he get? Pain, torture, and injured body and soul, he lost two of his magics and had one forced into him. It felt as if there was some sort of sadistic godlike being, who controlled his every action, looking down on him, who didn't want him to have a good life.
“Bjorn?” Adriana said in a small voice. Cutting through the annoyance he felt and bringing him back to reality.
“Hmm? What did you say?” He vaguely understood that she had been talking to him but he hadn’t registered any of the words being said.
She rolled her eyes before saying it again. “What do you think about my boon? Also do you think that after we get our vengeance should we try and hunt down the other 7 temples? The powers that we have gotten from the last two are amazing. I want to see what we could get from the others.”
“To be honest. I think your boon is overpowered and bullshit. At least compared to mine. You got over 30 skill levels, three new ones, one that works well and I have a feeling it will stack with your stealth ability. You gained the ability to communicate with trees, and tree people. What did I get? I lost two magics and gained a new one. Granted I think that the new magic, abyssal, will be a great boon, let alone my new Summon Horror spell. I wouldn’t want to fight the two creatures that I have summoned so far, and I am stronger than most people we will come across.”
“That isn’t a fair comparison. I don’t know what would be better but I think I would rather have gotten a new kind of spell casting. I am eternally jealous of all of your schools of magic that you can cast. So far all I have access to is life magic. You don’t know how much I envy watching you control multiple elements in quick succession. It is a great power that the only two people I have ever met who can do that is you and Meira.”
“And Dornan.”
“Yeah but I don’t count that, I never actually saw him wield magic. So in my mind he is just a lord and not the mage that you tell me he is. But you didn’t answer my question, do you think we should hunt down the other 7 temples?”
The question deserved to be thought about. But to be perfectly honest Bjorn has put all of his mental energy into trying to figure out a way to kill everyone who had any part to play in Meira’s death. That is where his mind, his goals in life ended. He hadn’t thought about the future, what was the point. They were likely to die if they faced Kairon’s crew. Why waste time and energy thinking about what comes next, when they wouldn’t make it out of the fight.
“I don’t know. Probably, what would you like to do? We have spent the last 7 months trying to hunt down those who killed my wife and son. What would you like to do?”
“I think I would like to try and find out what we gain from these temples. They seemed to be set up to help the next ruling generation of Groves Elves gain the powers necessary to lead. Maybe if we get to all 9 we will get some sort of powerful boon that is greater than the parts. So I think we should do that.”
“We shall see, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. But I have no problems going after that. Either way it’s getting late, do you want the first or second watch tonight?”
