A kobold in mage robes approached and gave a quick, efficient bow. "The entire harvest has burned away, and all the living fertilizer as well, save for a handful that were still within the tunnels. I have sent a runner to the free hospitals to draw up an updated timeline of when we can expect more. We also lost at least twenty-seven inner guards, but we don't have a full tally yet. "
Venva shook her head, still not fully believing this stroke of misfortune, and dismissed her mage with a simple gesture, not wanting to deal with the annoying fleshling anymore. Barely a day out of her tree's side, and she had to return to face this. At least the dome was largely unharmed, merely warped slightly from the vicious flames, and her tree within was untouched, even if she'd have to personally keep any of the fire's lingering Mana from contaminating her counterpart.
An elf in full armor approached, her metallic countenance marginally pleasing. "More corpses found among the common folk. Over a dozen, less than half by our troops."
At this, Venva hissed in anger. As long as her tree was safe, she could resume its nurturing, even if she'd have to stretch its feeding for a while, but if rumors circulated among her fodder, it could make her ongoing efforts much harder. The most annoying part of her current plan for ascension—always dealing with these cursed fleshlings.
"What are they saying?" Venva asked, voice terse.
The elf hesitated, but then continued. "That the hospitals have been engaging in karmic leeching. It’s a rumor clearly sprung from each corpse still wearing the typical patient gowns, and that they are strangely warm to the touch, and with a beating heart. Some were even recognized as citizens the hospital claimed to have buried, which particularly stoked that rumor."
Not ideal, but a fixable problem. All she had to do was blame some of the healers and conduct the usual public executions, then resume under a different guise. It would be a real blow to her operations, however, since healers of flesh were hard to come by in this sanctuary.
"And has she been found yet?" Arianess had managed to remain missing for over a day before, but maybe this time she actually made it beyond the inner walls.
The armored elf shook her head. "None yet, but all our forces have her description. If we don’t pick her up in the next few hours, we'll put up the reward signs in the city."
"Who could it have been, Mayfelk?" Venva turned back to the smoldering ruins. "None of the nearby settlements would dare defy us so brazenly."
"Nor the two undead parties that recently defected from the legion, they'd have been unable to muster so much fire. Of the rest I can think of, only the East Raven party has the kind of resources and skills to do this, I believe, especially undetected. But I thought they were holding the third major obelisk near the crags."
"As did I. Send a squad to confirm that, and one to Nerel and Lesser Rivertown as well. I might as well suspect them, if I can suspect any known force." Still, she was unsure, this attack did not target any of her industry and forces, not even her minor obelisk harvesting facilities. All these were on the far less defended outer ring of Treeheart, and the only worthwhile warriors here were the five tasked with guarding her tree, none of those even touched. Whoever did this could have caused far more damage with far less effort. Rot and sleep, if they wanted to starve her tree of resources, they could've killed all the fleshlings of the city with a tenth of the force used on her produce. Going forward, she'd have to keep a more substantial guard when she left, at least until she crushed whoever was behind this attack.
She felt the old familiar anger flare at the setback, but it quickly subsided into her smolder of annoyance, at the grim disgrace of decades upon decades struggling to ascend and finding only failure. Still, there was that delectable G-Grade cultivator she chanced upon. He would be best saved until he was in the F-Grade and better seasoned by Brosia, but with this sudden shortage of corpses, Venva went off in search of the boy. Hopefully, he would serve as a tasty morsel to tide her tree over until her normal food source recovered.
-x-
Axl charged into the shimmering ellipse of the transit rift's opening with a final burst of speed, expecting there to be an ambush at any moment, but none came, so he was reasonably confident he'd have been able to shake any possible pursuers, if there were any. He was only given six hours by the rift to choose a destination and leave, but that was more than enough to rest before heading out again.
He wasn't even particularly tired, but his mind was frazzled from producing all that fire, its effect on him far more pronounced than he'd have expected. It wasn't as drastic as when he targeted Brillhit, but the sense of vengeful fury and indignation still bubbled through his mind.
"Hey," Axl tapped Aria's arm. "Time to get up, I need some rest."
Aria groaned and turned her head towards his. "Just put me down, I need more sleep."
Axl took out his bedroll and placed her on it, awkwardly having to scoot down from the unusually strong grip of her arms on his shoulders, wiggling on the ground to get her off. Moxlin helped by standing aside and laughing.
"Can I tuck her in?" Moxlin asked. "She looks like the dolls you elves like to make for your young, only bigger."
"Go crazy."
Leaving Moxlin to start braiding the elf girl's hair, Axl sat against a tree, and took out his metals, even the Lunar Fulger, and started to meditate, letting the condensed Mana of the three metals soothe his hyperactive soul. What was it about fire that was so different than any other form of violence? It was as if any other way to kill was playing a game, a part of the cleanly delineated rules of proper cultivation, even with lightning, but fire was something deeper and altogether different.
He'd even had to alter his plan for leaving Treeheart. Originally, Axl was going to drop off all the corpses he'd picked up and tell people what was happening, using his Charisma to really convince them of the dryad's butchery behind the inner walls. But he was so furious, so eager for battle, that he could barely restrain himself from attacking the random G-Grades of the city. It was a frightening feeling to have, as if his mind was no longer his own. So, he dropped off only about half the corpses, some out in the open, some hidden so people would keep stumbling upon them for days to come, then hurried to leave before he did something he'd regret.
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Even the charge back to the transit rift was a bit of a blur. Luckily, the area had fewer roaming creatures than in the longhouse forest, so he didn't have to fight on his way. Aria on his back was a bit of a concern, since he'd have to protect her in any encounter, but greater than that was that he didn't want to fight while still in this fire-induced state. He was certain that would make the situation in his mind worse.
After a few moments, Axl put away the Lunar Fulger and Helkan, focusing on the slab of Ulmric Tungsten, the heft and solidity of the metal's Mana the best at fighting back the fire's influence. The remaining time on the rift went past quickly, and he felt he was largely recovered when he stood back up to go out, willing the myriad exit rifts to open along the treeline.
Moxlin had tied up Aria's hair in a complex set of braids, and seems like she even put make-up on the girl, but in a strange way, her lips colored green and a blue glow to her cheeks.
"I hope you managed to do something else other than your decoration," he said as Moxlin returned to her pack.
"Yes, yes, don't worry. Her hair is harder to work with than fur anyway, so not nearly as fun to play with."
Axl knelt next to the sleeping girl and put a hand on her shoulder. "We need to head out."
Aria turned slightly and held out her arms. With a sigh, Axl backed up against her, letting her re-establish her grip, then awkwardly got up, her weight strangely not swinging to the side as he'd have expected from a limp body.
"Which rift, Aria?"
She lifted an arm slowly and pointed to one that was only three stops away from the rift near Treeheart. A good two weeks hard march from the place, not too bad, even if Axl would've preferred a bit more distance from the metal dryad.
After checking his gear and rousing [Mana Shroud] to get him ready, he stepped through the rift and into the forest beyond. Pausing as his boots struck hard ground, hand on [Webcutter], Axl waited and sensed, but there were no threats nearby. Aria again lifted her hand and pointed to the south.
"Thirty-seven kilometers," she muttered, groggily, eyes closed.
"Thank you," Axl said, the annoyance of having to carry her around greatly offset by the extreme convenience of her directions. Even just getting these hints from her on where to go would be a huge benefit to his quest, especially with her able to dip into his dreams, so he wouldn't have to keep carrying her around to get the intel.
Trying to ignore the girl plastered on his back, Axl redoubled his attention on [Mana Shroud] and carefully started through the woods, wanting to keep avoiding battles if at all possible until he could drop Aria off.
The dense trees were larger than the ones at the previous parts of the vale he'd been to, even if not even close to as massive as Nox's bamboo, and had a certain solid presence to them. Looking closer with [Mana Shroud], even needing to put a hand on one, he noticed that the tree's core was stone, some only a sliver of rock at their core, others almost the entirety of their thickness of a solid mineral density. Even the roots beneath the ground had a stone core, lending the forest a sense of stability that was odd to experience, the wood and stone Mana in far more harmony than he'd seen in other parts of the vale.
The ambient Mana was almost more dense and messy, however, and Axl could see the faint tracings of translucent glyphic constructs high above the dense foliage above, which was now opaque, so he guessed this area dropped natural treasures as well. But after a few hours of walking, Axl also encountered an obelisk, but one that felt strangely different than the ones near Treeheart.
Still, he ignored them, keeping to the straight path that Aria had indicated, grateful that both his high Intelligence and Perception let him keep on track quite well, but also that [Mental Map of Irialith] let him make sure he kept a straight path, the common skill luckily indicating where he was on the map, and he could even draw a line on it to indicate the direction she'd pointed to. The city of Treehome had also been added, as was the longhouse.
It took him half a day to trek through the dense woods, the very flat geography making the pace easy to maintain, even as he had to take occasional detours to avoid prowling creatures. Soon, he found himself at the base of a hill, almost exactly where Aria had indicated they should be, and he noticed her stir next to him.
"We should camp for a while," she said, fully awake. "I need to tell you more about how to take this place."
"Take?" Axl said, sighing. "I thought you said it was abandoned?"
"It is… But it still needs to be earned."
Holding back a grunt of annoyance, he and Moxlin found an area beneath a tree and set up an illusion and defensive talisman formation. It wasn't a great one, since the area had few places to hide, but it would do for some quick planning.
The arrays up, Aria loosened her arms and stretched, like a cat waking up. "May I have some tea?"
"Yeah, Roken, make us some tea!" Moxlin laughed. "What use is having an alchemist around if you won't tea party for us!"
"That's not…" Axl started, but then he paused, remembering that an unusually large section of the [Selsin Clan Glyphic Compendium] was indeed dedicated to brewing tea, and that maybe there was something useful in there he'd yet to uncover. "You know what, fine. I'll make some tea."
He took out some of the G-Grade herbs he still had left over from Olkan's stash and used one of the simpler recipes in the compendium and brought them into his [Gastric Cauldron], first lightly grinding them in his refinement corona, then in the flask nucleus, seeping them in water as the quickening layer gently heated it. Moxlin took out a set of three cups and placed them on a small cloth she neatly arranged over a slightly protruding root.
Axl extended his finger and poured the tea out into each of the cups, wondering that maybe next time he should wash his hands before doing this. He got nothing from the practice, but it felt less exhausting than arguing over the weird request.
Aria took the cup and held it strangely, taking a small, polite sip, as if following some odd social protocol, while Moxlin had to awkwardly balance over the edge of hers. Axl simply took his and drank, surprised it felt quite refreshing, soothing in a way he'd not expected from the simple ingredients he used.
"A lovely brew," said Aria, eyes half-closed and back straight. "Thank you for the hospitality."
"Uhh, you're welcome," said Axl. "So, about this place?"
"Of course," Aria's eyes opened, clear and alert. "At the top of this hill is the abandoned residence of an alchemy master, one who succeeded in ascending to the E-Grade within the vale and was allowed to keep the property for the use of their successors and disciples. However, it has been a long while since it was last used, and I sense the heavens are poised to claim it as abandoned and use it for its rewards. If you claim it before, it will be a formidable staging ground for your activities."
"Sounds good," Axl said, getting used to the idea he'd have to fight for this—an alchemy master's house probably had some good stuff left behind, and nothing so useful would come for free. "And I guess you want some of it for yourself if I manage to get it, right?"
Aria nodded. "One of the upper turrets would be quite useful to me, and my assisting you in obtaining such a beachhead will likely improve my progression as well, given how interestingly you've been using my scrying."
Axl was about to complain about her gross mischaracterization of how he followed her intel to the letter when he got a notification that stopped him.
>>Quest (Shrouded Crescent Valley): Claim the Elder Alchemical Manor
>>Claim ownership of the Elder Alchemical Manor (E-Grade) within 0 hours 59 minutes, 57 seconds.
>>Reward: Deep System-validated ownership of Elder Alchemical Manor (E-Grade, grade-locked).
Well, looked like he'd have to get the express version of Aria's intel.