Vivian Ross Vivian sat ba her seat, surveying the chaotic hubbub of the milling crowd. Aliandra appeared to be in something of a daze, sitting quietly in an eye of calm at the ter, nobody yet having the ce to brave her Forest Guardians and approach – but there was a rge crowd of people paying their respects to Lirasia, gratuting Malika and , or talking with the mayor.

  Vivian studied the regal-looking Dryad, answering questions calmly, and finally uood the extent of her genius. Inviting the on townsfolk had been an inspired move. While everyone had been focused on winning the vote, very little sideration was given to what happened after. Yet Lira had effortlessly spired to allow Aliandra to publicly admit to all the charges against her, and still e out at the end with the majority of the town supp her wholeheartedly. Most of the folk cirg the Fae, hesitantly sizing her up, saw her as a savior from the predations of Roderik Ice, or a solution to their starving families – not as a terrifying dungeon or murderer.

  “Excuse me,” Hadrik said, rising boriously to his feet. He swept his ring-encrusted hand through the pile of summoned gold, making it all vanish, and then strode off to approach Aliandra, still seated on her glowing barrier disk.

  It had been a brilliant pivot, she reflected, studying the Fae. Aliandra had been so nervous about being their spokesperson, but when Bastian had cimed the free vote, she had masterfully switched strategies, pying Jax off against William and Hadrik to gain their support. She had rewoven all their carefully gathered intelligeogether with observations during the trial into airely new coherent strategy on the fly. She even mao sway the Dwarf. It was a feat Mieriel had decred would be impossible, a, Hadrik had abstained after Aliandra’s argument, rather than vote against her. Jax and Bastian must be pissed. She allowed herself an inward chuckle. Their faces…

  It had been easy for her to provide the final motivation to secure William Turner, but her approach to Donel had been brilliantly eclipsed by Aliandra’s impassioned appeal to her iy and family. In a siroke, Aliandra had freed the Gnomish mage to vote however she wanted, saving fa front of the town, a made it practically impossible to vote against her. It had not been calcuted – and it had nded all the more potently for being genuine.

  “So, you have a pet dungeon,” Donel observed, flying over to join her.

  “She is way too smart to be a pet,” Vivian answered, matg Donel’s casual demeanor.

  “She sure is something. That magic she wielded… exquisite. Even I couldn’t quite catch it, but it seemed to be maniputing time itself,” Donel murmured.

  “Mhm,” Vivian agreed. Not that she had any idea how the spell worked – other thatle Aliandra had shared – but it certainly had seemed impressive and powerful to her senses. She couldn’t imagine how it must look to someoh Donel’s mana sight.

  “You’d better keep an eye on her, Vivian, dungeons are dangerous. Don’t make me regret my vote.” Donel paused signifitly and then added, “On an ued note, I’d like to leave an open order with yuild mert to purchase all the magicite that es through the store at a reasonable price.”

  “I’ll let Weldin know,” Vivian said, outwardly ag cool and collected, but an open order from the Novaspark Academy was an enormous scoop for the guild. While she had plenty of experieh the danger of dungeons, Mieriel had opened her eyes to see just how different Aliandra really was.

  “ I have Brena talk to you… if she wants to use the shrine?” For the first time in ages, Vivian heard uainty aation in the powerful lightning mage’s voice.

  “Of course.” Vivian smiled. The daughter of Donel Novaspark was bound to be a powerful mage, and she was beyoed to see what kind of css she would unlock.

  I wonder if I might entice her to join the guild…

  Ta “Grampa, when I get a css, I want a Forest Guardian like that ohe young boy decred, stumbling as he insisted on staring at the giant elementals and not looking to see where he was going.

  “Her little wings are so pretty…” the girl said, twisting fistfuls of pink dress in her hands.

  “e on you two, let’s take you bae to your mother,” their grandfather said, urging them forward by waving his hands.

  “Aww.”

  Ta glowered at the elderly man and his two annoyingly eic grandkids taking forever to leave the Town Hall, but she ate the words that came to her lips and waited. She wasn’t stupid enough to risk her disguise by drawing attention to herself by making an unnecessary se.

  She gnced bae st time to find Hadrik Goldbeard approag Aliandra.

  How the fuck is she level forty-five already?

  Ta grimaced and darted around the old man when he finally made enough room and ducked into an alleyway, vanishing into the shadows with her cealment skill. I o rethink everything. She had been w her fio the bone under Kieran Mori’s ruthless training regimen and she had relentlessly pursued every mark she could find. Even Mori had admitted her progress was stelr – ahat pesky Fae was now almost beyond the range of her Identify skill. I’m never going to get that bounty.

  It must be because she killed Roderik Ice. Fug inpetent twat. But the words rang hollow even to her. Roderik had been terrifyingly powerful and well ected – how someone like Aliandra had gotten the drop on him she would never know. The frustrating thing was that she might have caught up with the Fae if it had beehat had killed him.

  I need a rategy to take her down…

  Rag her brain for fresh ideas and half-formed pns, she fled across the rooftops back to the Town Watch headquarters.

  Aliandra “Thank you, ssie.” Hadrik’s booming voice pulled Ali out of her daze, and she gnced down at the stocky blond dwarf. Betedly remembering her manners, she floated her barrier lower so that she could match his height.

  “For what?” Ali asked.

  “Putting that prat in his pce, I haven’t heard that word used in yonks,” he answered, chug massively. “Oh, I picked up all your s. Do you want them, or should I deposit them in the Bank under your name?”

  “The bank is fihank you.”

  “See ya around,” he said, waving. “And grats.”

  Ali stared after his broad back. He had seemed so stern and immovable during the trial, but now, he seemed surprisingly affable. She didn’t quite know what to make of him. Instead of dwelling on it, she slowly floated her way over to join her friends. Lira had a crowd of people around her, but she found her way to Malika and .

  “That was a brilliant move, Ali,” said admiringly.

  “I’m still kinda sad you agreed to the first pn,” Malika said. “But you made it better and cleared our names, so thank you.”

  “I was so scared,” Ali said, but then she was interrupted.

  “Thank you.”

  “Thank you.”

  People were streaming past and murmuring thanks at them, and it took Ali a few moments to realize what for.

  “Thank you for killing that monster, Roderik.”

  “Thank you f to help us, my family hasen in days.”

  Ali didly know what to say to them, but she aowledged each person as they passed by. I hope I do all this… iermath, she still felt queasy.

  “Excuse me, miss. Is your shrine free for the cil only? Or is it for anyone?”

  Ali looked up to find a tall nky ginger man wearing the patchy beginnings of a beard that only young men could be proud of and dressed in rough homespun clothes that had beely mended. He must be close to unlog his css, but he hasn’t a pair of s to rub together, clearly. This question, though, she had a ready answer for. Bowing slightly, she said, “I won’t charge anyone.”

  He tried to bow soberly, saying, “Thank you, dy,” but he could not disguise a skip in his step as he departed.

  Ali suddenly realized why Lira had pced such importan winning the crowd. They were random townsfolk from all walks of life. If she wao advertise that she was on the side of the town and its people, she couldn’t have asked for a better forum.

  Stressful, though, she thought, taking a deep breath and rolling her shoulders, trying to accept that it was over. Over for now. Worry about the ’s respoomorrow. That neancer is ing…

  ***

  Ali paused at the threshold of the tunnel with the little burbling stream below her, and the dense o of mana wafting up from Lira’s Forest at her back. She gazed out into her old forest cavern, now dark and filled with the lingering stench of old fire. Milling about below her floating barrier was a small army of Moss Creepers, Spore Spreaders, and Floral Menaces. She had spent a ton of her mana summoning them because the task of repnting the cavern and undoing the damage inflicted by the Town Watch would be a huge one.

  When she had stopped by the library earlier to cheato, she had found only the incredible synthesis of her domain with Lira’s mana gushing from the giant Elder Tree – however, ced through it, she could see the familiar signs of his mana. There was no sign of his physical body, and she assumed he would remain melded with the tree for a while still. It was such a magnifit sight – ht the atrium had filled with the darting light of thousands of wisps drawn to the density of the mana. They wheeled and cavorted around the giant branches and among the oak leaves, banishing the darkness from the a, ruined walls.

  A Dryad’s power was Nature itself, yet it could all be brought low by nature’s antithesis, the decay and corruption of magic of a monster like Alexander Gray. It was a s lesson Ali would do well to heed, given just how deeply her own magic was rooted in nature.

  Ali floated out into the desote cavern, putting her feelings aside to trate oask.

  “Verdant Moss, please,” she told the Moss Creepers, impressing her preference for the nature-affinity moss variety upon them before sending them out to pnt for her.

  “Make flowers,” she told the Floral Menaces. She didn’t have nature or are flower varieties, so any flowers would do.

  For her Spore Spreaders, she split them into two groups – the first she sent to fill the ke and streams with Psathyrel mushrooms. She had gotteo having water and she wrinkled her nose in disgust as traces of the former stagnant stench wafted over to her. Plenty of fertilizer – she coughed politely – in that water. Fortunately, the strangely stumpy mushroom monsters seemed to have o breathe and could happily walk along the bottom of the foul ke growing mushrooms for her. The sed group she sent off to spread her are-affinity on Glo mushrooms everywhere.

  As the monsters fanned out into the cavern, Ali summoned her Grimoire. Previously, her rgest nature affinity pnt was the Living Bamboo, but now that she had the Lirasian Oak, she should be able to create her domain in giant spherical ses surrounding the great trees. While her Grimoire seemed to have recorded all the information for the Elder Tree variant, she knew her skill would not be able to create anything beyond her css level yet.

  Which might be just as well, she decided, staring up at the rock of the cavern roof. The library tree was far too tall to fit in here, even in a cavern of these vaulting dimensions. As she began to create the first ree, she carefully observed the experience of wielding her magider the influence of the are mastery passive provided by her Are Recall skill, her mental rea speed was accelerated, but her summoning magic was simirly hasted, creating the strange perception that it still took the same time, even though she could feel just how much faster her magic was w. I might o study this more…

  She moved on to the sed tree, choosing a random pt he edge of the vast fountain of mana pumped out by the newly created one. Her only criterion was to avoid the massive dead trunks of the arees holding up the ceiling while she spread her trees to recim the entire cavern.

  I’ll just have to wait for Mato to help me turn it into a real forest. So much to learn! For now, though, she needed her domain to fill this space as quickly as possible so she could make good on her promise to help feed the town.

  It was around the area of the shrihat she slowed down, taking the time to pce each tree carefully. With the enormous Lirasian Oaks at her disposal, it was much easier to match her memories of her father’s Grove, although she didn’t have the orchids and ferns, and tless other pnts she remembered. Instead, she filled the spaces between the giant oaks with smaller trees and covered the ground with blue mana grass and her on Glos.

  The are-affinity grass and mushrooms quickly began to glow, emitting a strong upwelling of are mana that mingled with the giant geysers of nature mana gushing up through the trees. Her domain began to form – much faster now that Domain Mastery had grown – but she tio watxiously until the structure and order flowed around her shrine. But whatever worries she might have had vanished as the domain seamlessly reected to the Shrine of the A Grove, causing the softly glowing runes on the dusty, ash-covered obelisk to fre brighter with the sudden influx of mana.

  Ohe shrine was reected to her domain, she finally felt her body and mind rex, and she slipped into an almost meditative zone where her focus became easy and clear while she worked to finish reg the cavern. She even repced the golden stairwell to the sewer level and erased the rock pile below it, allowing her industrious minions access to the sewers above. For now, she ighe enormous cave-in blog the entrao the gates of Dal’mohra – the path she and Mato had used to escape the ruins – simply rerouting several stream els by reshaping the rocky grouh and filling the entire northwest er of the cavern with Living Bamboo, recreating the serene forest Malika had loved meditating in. But she reopehe ventition shaft, filling it with ivy to restore a sed access pathway to the ruined city below.

  She was resummoning her Aetheric Slimes and feeding them to the ke when she saw several figures desding her barrier stairwell into the cavern.

  They’re finally here. She couldn’t make them out from this distance, but ’s wings at least were bright and distinctive. She summoned another batch of the tiny slime monsters while she waited for the group to wend its way through her new, sparsely poputed forest of giant oaks.

  Right as the procession rouhe ke, approag where she waited, it happehe plex eddies of water-affinity mana from the mushrooms and the are mana swirls from the tiny slimes she had dumped into the ke suddenly stilled. The entire ke seemed to freeze for a moment. Deep withiers, she once again saw the intense tration of mana explode through the ke in a silent shockwave, leaving the water pristine, perfectly clear, and beginning to glow with the familiar cerulean blue that it had once had.

  Perfect!

  The glow illumihe approag group, and by the light, Ali reized them as they stopped to stare at the ke with excmations of surprise that turo excitement. Viviahe group whicluded Malika, , and Lira. Basil and Eliyen were he back of the group, along with several people she didn’t reize, led by the farmer Sigurd.

  “Hi again, Aliandra,” the stocky farmer greeted her, with a brief nod. “Where would you like us to start?”

  Straight to business, she thought. “Hi Sigurd,” she answered, happy that he had remembered her from their Kobold hunting quest. “Anywhere you like,” she answered. “Is this going to work for you?” she gestured out to the open areas nearby.

  “It’s a bit rocky, but I think we make do.”

  “I help with that,” Ali answered, reag out with her Domain Mastery skill, fttening and pulverizing the roake a broad field led between two enormous oaks.

  “Oh, that works,” Sigurd excimed, while several of the other farmers oohed and aahed as she flexed her domain skill. “Oskar, you handle fertilizer?”

  “On it, boss,” a heavy-set farmer with a full bck beard answered. “There lenty of raw material for my skills up in them sewers. I’ll be right back.”

  Mato He slipped out of the tree trunk and colpsed on the ground. His body flopped around for a while as he tried to remember what being a person was like. His branches were pale and floppy.

  Arms, he corrected himself. Wet noodles… for arms. Right. Mato was aware that he was struggling to readjust to his body from his time spent as a tree, but his mind somehow retaihe calm, serene, and expaate he had experienced during the meld. As his awareness slowly shrunk bato his body, he heard a soft chime calling his attention.

  Arboreal Sanctuary has reached level 24 (+4).

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  An adva is good… he thought, knowing he would normally have been jumping iement, but his mind still rested in the lingering embrace of the Tree Meld’s magic. With care and deliberation, he examihe notifications in the peace of his inner grove, noting how much stronger his iree – the mental representation of his magic – seemed.

  Mentor: Lirasia.uned with an Elder Tree.Arboreal Sanctuary has reached level 20.Vitality has surpassed 200.Wisdom has surpassed 50.Used Vitality Rejuvenation to restore Life Drain.Used Vitality Rejuvenation to cure Undead Blight.

  Arboreal Sanctuary gains Tree Form.Arboreal Sanctuary gains the Shapeshift trait.Arboreal Sanctuary – level 24You emit a spherical Sanctuary aura of nature magitered on yourself. Range: 17.2 feet.Your natural health regeion rate is increased by +136.8% [100 + skill + wisdom / 10] and you recover even from critical injuries. Yeion is shared with allies (including animals, beasts, and pnts). Range: Sanctuary.Mana: You redirect damage from ao yourself. Range: Sanctuary.Mana: Shapeshift into a tree.Tree Form: You maintain a meditative state increasing your health and mana regeion by +500%. The base range of your Sanctuary aura is increased to 500 feet, and exposure to it applies Vitality Rejuvenation. Your Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance are repced with additional Vitality, Perception, and Wisdom. Nature, Domain, Area, Shapeshift, WisdomAccept this adva?

  He took his time to study the adva while his body y weak and unresponsive on the grass between huge, gnarled roots.

  I be a tree… and Malika’s going to tease me for the decade and then some. I hope the others are alright… His heart pinched with a brief pang of guilt at the fact that he had left them to face the cil trial without him. I should go see if they need help…

  It was a straence, being a tree, and as he y there refleg, he felt like his entire being had been carefully dismantled before being reassembled into something that felt like it should be him – but wasn’t quite. He was a shapeshifter, used to the idea of assumi forms, but this adva was clearly heavily influenced by his exposure to Lirasia’s mana and experience – he could still feel the plex knot of her mana deep inside his chest, tying him to her in some delicately intricate way. Her patronage even showed up as a ry on his status, right below his aptitudes:

  Patrons & Tithes- Mentor: Lirasia

  He accepted the advao his Arboreal Sanctuary skill, trusting that this was oh to bance Lirasia had spoken of, and directed his attention upwards. He had sensed powerful magic at work at the edge of his perception while he was lio the tree. His curiosity drove him to rise and take a step on shaky legs. His sed step was steadier. Pleased, he began to climb the library stairs to the forest above, i on finding his friends.

  Natural Prowess has been updated.

  ***

  Mato walked slowly through the river passage, taking in the damp moisture underfoot. As he ehe burned forest cavern, his enhanced sense of smell filled with the stench of ash and charred wood, but also the zesty freshness of new growth, and his mind recalled the great tree’s sense of ban all things. Life passed, but then it grew again; a never-ending cycle of renewal.

  He shambled forward, feeling the rush of new sensations through his sanctuary aura. The sereence of new oaks tugged at his sehe flow of the sap, and the drawing of mana through their giant trunks. Each of them shared their endless calm with him as he passed.

  He approached the ke beside the shrine and happened upon a se of busyness – the sense of activity g with his internal state. Basil k in the dirt growing something. Ali had her Grimoire out, flickering with the light of her magic. There was a group of five farmers, some of whom he reized, toiling uhe light of ’s magic. The deep, knowing eyes of Lira studied his approach with a radiating kindness.

  He knew he was the one who had ged, a he felt disected from all of them. They are still my friends.

  Quietly, he greeted them, garnering strange looks of inquiry and surprise.

  “Mato? Are you ok?” ’s voice was not calm – he seemed strangely anxious.

  Am I ok?

  He sidered the question carefully, examining his mind, and his body. Both seemed to be there, which was good, he thought.

  “I think so,” he replied slowly, after his long sideration.

  “It’s his first Tree Meld, he will return to normal soon.” Lira’s resonant voice filled his ears, triggering echoes of union with the Elder Tree. The same sense of serene calm filled her voice, the same mana, and the same will, and he suddenly realized she was the tree. There was no sense questioning which of them had been in union with him, which was his mentor. Lirasia and the Elder Tree were one and the same being. While he y withiree, it was her mana and experiehat flowed through him, instrug him.

  Normal?

  He sidered the word for a while. What did it really mean?

  “I think I’ll pnt myself here,” he said, slowly, choosing a spot between twe fields, studying the farmers who had stopped their bor to stare at him.

  He ighe curiosity all around and ed his body – the new magiing easy to him as if he had been born to it. His roots dove deep and hungrily into the rocky ground, twisting and pushing as he stretched them – a strong grasp with which to anchor himself to the bedrock. His trunk stretched upward, splitting and stretg as his branches reached upward and outward. When he was ready, he grew his leaves, breathing the sts and mana in the air.

  His growth was natural and swift, and he finally stopped, rger than the normal oaks, but still a ways short of the giant trees surrounding him. His roots drank thirstily from the ke, tasting the refreshing ess of the mana-purified water, drawing it up through his trunk, and releasing the excess mana to overflow through his leaves.

  I’m not as big as that tree. But as he settled into the familiar calm, sensing the flow of sap and mana, stretg his senses outward, he felt it was right. He was this tree, with none of the previous sense of being lost inside something enormous.

  His mana flowed through him, and his regeion surged, p upward and outward into the world around him. His Sanctuary aura exploded outward, enpassing a vast area and, although he couldn’t see, or hear, he could feel the trees, taste the mana, and sehe people as they moved about within his domain.

  Name: Mato BahrRace: BeastkinActive Buffs: Tree Form, Natural Prowess

  Css: Druidic Shapeshifter – level 39- Arboreal Sanctuary – level 24- Swipe – level 27- Brutal Restoration – level 28- Bear Form – level 27- Wolf Form – level 4- Bestial bat – level 26- Natural Prowess – level 17- Survival Instinct – level 17- Battle Trance – level 10- [Locked]

  General Skills- Identify – level 10- Cooking – level 7- Wilderness Lore – level 6

  Aptitudes- Languages: o, Pnt- Mana (Affinity): Nature- Strong (Racial): +7 tth- Tough (Racial): +10 to Endurarons & Tithes- Mentor: Lirasia

  Attributes- Vitality: 409 (+184)- Perception: 93 (+40)- Intelligence: 17 (+7)- Wisdom: 367 (+178)

  Equipment- Trunk: Banded Feral Pte Armor – level 20

  Armor: 288Physical Damage Redu: 20.86%

  Health: 4090/4090Mana: 2936/3670 (734 Reserved)

  In his new form, several of his skills were unavaible, and it took only a moment to realize what was on: anything requiring stamina seemed blocked when he reached for the skill activation. He sidered it for a while, deg that it made sense – he no longer had endurarength, or dexterity – the attributes having been removed by his Tree Form. Instead, his other attributes had beely increased, however, this did mean that stamina was entirely missing.

  Natural Prowess had automatically updated in respoo his new form, and he spent a little time studying the ge.

  Natural Prowess – level 17Attributes most appropriate to your form are increased by +75.9% [40 + skill + base wisdom / 10].Mana: Wisdom, Intelligence, and Perception are increased. Beastkin, Reserve: 20%Stamina: Endurance, Vitality, and Strength are increased. Bear Form, Reserve: 20%Stamina: Perceptioerity, and Strength are increased. Wolf Form, Reserve: 20%Mana: All attributes are increased. Tree Form, Reserve: 20%Nature, Buff, Wisdom

  But the biggest difference was the ge to his domain – he could reach out ht hundred feet through his Sanctuary aura, sharing his vastly increased health and mana regeion with everyone in range. Satisfied, he simply remained, stretg his mana and magic to whatever task they chose to uake, sensing his overflowing mana p into the pnts, assisting with their growth.

  timewalk