Path of Dragons

Book 1: Chapter 60: The Taste of Victory

Elijah burst through the surface and took a deep breath of freedom. Bobbing up and down with the waves, he lay back and stared at the winter sun for a few seconds before the frigid water began to affect him. Once numbness started to set in, he swam toward his island. When he got within a few dozen yards, he circled around to avoid the cliff, then finally climbed onto the rocky shore.

Nearby, a giant crab was busy picking meat from a huge skeleton that, to Elijah’s trained eye, looked like it had belonged to some sort of enlarged sea snake. But he didn’t pay any attention to the pervasive stench of the decaying corpse. Instead, he simply sank to his knees and wept.

He had won.

He had survived.

But months of life-or-death battles had taken their toll, both on his body and his psyche. Most of all, his psyche. Until that moment, he’d refused to acknowledge the stress weighing him down, but now that he was reasonably safe, he could allow himself to acknowledge it.

And it was overwhelming enough to drive him to tears of mingled relief and horror.

Elijah wasn’t sure how long he knelt, weeping, on the rocky shore. But by the time his tears dried, he was shivering with the winter cold. It had been late summer when he had entered the tower, but clearly, the world had continued its steady march through time, and the seasons had turned.

Thankfully, with his increased endurance, it wasn’t nearly as deadly as it probably should have been. Still, it wasn’t comfortable, and so, hefting his staff in one hand and the Shard of the World Tree in the other, he pushed himself to his feet and crossed the island.

Before he’d challenged the tower, Elijah’s territory had only extended a couple hundred yards around his Grove. However, the moment he’d climbed ashore, he’d known that his Domain had grown to encompass the entire island. Because of that, he could feel everything around him. Normally, it was just background noise not dissimilar from the ambient sound of any forest, but with a bit of mental effort, he could know the island down to its most miniscule detail.

He chose to keep the partition of his mind firmly in place, mostly because it would have overwhelmed his mind with the sheer amount of knowledge. Instead, he let himself feel the area around him in a fifteen-foot radius, which seemed to be the limit without getting everything jumbled up.

In any case, Elijah trekked across the island. With his increased attributes and Essence of the Wolf pushing his speed to new heights, he covered the few miles with some alacrity, and soon enough, he arrived at his Grove. The sight of the familiar trees and his home nearly brought him to tears.

Again.

He’d never been much of a crier, but spending months being abused both physically and psychologically could change that kind of thing in a hurry. And so, as he walked toward the ancestral tree at the center of the Grove, he let himself bask in the emotions.

“Nerthus?” he called, laying his hand on its trunk. He could feel it, and not just the Ethera coursing through it. No – he could feel the life. The tree’s glacial thoughts. Its emotions, such as they were. It was content and, to Elijah’s surprise, joyous.

“You made it!” came the gnarled, but high-pitched voice of the tree spirit. Elijah looked up to see that Nerthus’ form had reached almost three feet in height, and he was currently sitting on the same branch where he usually appeared.

“I did,” Elijah said. “I…I didn’t…”

And then, once again, he collapsed to his knees. This time, there were no tears. Just a mental acknowledgement of everything he’d experienced. It was one thing to fight a few Voxxian invaders or giant crabs. But it was something else entirely to endure what he had in the tower.

He looked up and said, “That was the worst experience of my life.”

But if Elijah was honest, that wasn’t necessarily true. Certainly, it had been extremely stressful. And he could have done without all the pain. But there had also been triumphs, as he’d felt after healing the ulthrak village and defeating the giant isopod. Aside from the constant threat of death, he’d even enjoyed the Sea of Sorrows, after a fashion.

As he thought about it, Elijah realized that he much preferred his experiences in the tower over the time he’d spent slowly dying of cancer. Back then, he’d had no agency. No control. He was just waiting to die. But in the tower, he had the ability to fight. His survival was in his own hands. And that made all the difference.

The real question was whether or not he would do it again. After all, as far as he knew, the same dangers would soon return. The Ethera would build, and the tower would need to be re-conquered.

And Elijah only had to think about it for a moment to realize that, when the time came, he wouldn’t hesitate to go back in there. Partially because it was his responsibility, but also due to the sheer amount of progress he’d made. Growing stronger was addictive and rewarding in its own right, after all.

“Pardon,” said Nerthus, interrupting his reverie. “But…but what is that in your hand?”

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“Oh,” said Elijah. He’d intended to ask the tree spirit about his rewards, but in the wake of his relief at finally conquering the tower, he’d forgotten. Still, he clutched the Shard of the World Tree in his fist. He held it up, saying, “I got this for beating the final level.”

Nerthus gasped, then collapsed into convulsions. No – wait. He wasn’t convulsing. He was trembling while he knelt, his head on the branch.

“Uh…what’s going on, Nerthus?”

“The…the…is that…that is a piece of the World Tree.”

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“Yeah? That’s what the notification said. What’s it do?” he asked.

“I…it is…”

The tree spirit clearly couldn’t find the words. So, Elijah said, “Calm down. Just breathe. Wait – do you breathe?”

“No.”

“Then do…whatever you do to calm down. Meditate or whatever.”

It took a few more minutes to get Nerthus to relax, and even that was only partially successful. In the end, he was still trembling – with fear or excitement, Elijah wasn’t sure – but he was at least able to talk.

“It is a Shard of the World Tree,” the tree spirit explained. “A holy artifact for…for any…”

He sighed, then admitted, “I lack the vocabulary to explain what that means to me and my people. And anyone who venerates nature.”

“What is the World Tree?” Elijah asked. The name had popped up more than once, but he’d never gotten a decent explanation as to what it was.

“It is the beginning and the end,” Nerthus said. “It is the source of all life.”

“Oh…that clears it up…”

Nerthus glared. “The World Tree is a universe unto itself,” he said. “It runs parallel to our own, connecting everything and everyone. Without it, there would be no System. No communication or travel between worlds. It is the most important being in existence. That shard represents the tiniest sliver of its power. Normally, only the elder races would ever get the chance to see one, and even then, it is rare.”

Elijah looked down at the small, crystalline object. It was white, with green veins pulsing through it, but to his senses, it was just an ordinary crystal. He didn’t even feel any Ethera in it.

“What does it do, though?”

“It…I don’t know,” Nerthus admitted. “Not for sure. But there are legends…”

“Legends? What kind of legends?” Elijah asked.

“I think that it could change everything,” Nerthus stated. “Oh, yes. I feel it now. If my tree absorbs the shard, it will enhance the Grove’s power.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” Nerthus admitted. “Denser Ethera. Stronger vitality. And perhaps…perhaps more.”

“But it won’t hurt, right?” Elijah asked. As it was, he had no real use for the shard. If it had emitted even a little Ethera, he might’ve been more hesitant to let the tree absorb it. But at the end of the day, the Grove was his home, and anything that benefited it did the same for him.

“No. Not us.”

Elijah shrugged. “Suppose that’s all I need to know,” he said. Perhaps he was making a mistake. There was a chance that the Shard of the World Tree could help him more directly sometime in the future. But as he offered the crystalline shard to Nerthus, he felt good about the choice.

Nerthus backed away. “No. Do not offer it to me,” he said, trembling. “I could…but…no. No, I mustn’t. Press it against the trunk of the tree. Yes. Do it soon.”

Elijah shrugged, then did just that, and when he held the splinter against the ancestral tree, it trembled. Then, in the space of a second, the Shard was gone. A moment later, a burst of Ethera swept out of the tree, and a notification appeared in Elijah’s mind’s eye.

The Shard of the World Tree has been absorbed by an Ancestral Tree.

“I really hope that was a good thing,” Elijah said.

“Oh, it is!” Nerthus responded. “I can already feel it. And…oh, that is surprising…”

“What is?” Elijah asked, a little alarmed. The last thing he needed was more surprises.

“The ancestral tree is changing.”

Elijah looked up, saying, “Looks the same to me.”

“For now, the transformation is…well, it’s more like an evolution. Think of it in terms of your cultivation, though all branches at once.”

“And again, this is good, right?” he asked.

“Better than good. It is life-changing.”

“How so?”

“My progression is tied to the tree. The stronger it gets, the more powerful I become.”

“Tell me I didn’t just create a monster,” Elijah muttered.

“Oh, no. I am a natural spirit. As such, there is a limit to how much influence I can exert in the physical world. Tending to the tree – and by extension, the Grove – is my purpose. If I ever reached the Transcendent stage, that would change, but only minutely.”

Elijah knew he wouldn’t get much more information on the subject out of Nerthus, so he nodded. “So, what can you tell me about the two other items I got in the tower,” Elijah said, holding up the hand where he wore both rings. The Ring of Aquatic Travel was visible, but the Ring of Anonymity was not, though he could still feel it on his pinky finger. “The first one lets me breathe underwater, but the other is kind of a mystery.”

“I see only one.”

“Oh. Sorry,” Elijah said, pulling the ring off his finger. The moment he did, it became visible. “Called the Ring of Anonymity.”

“Not uncommon in the wider universe,” Nerthus said. “But it surprises me to see one here, given how new this world is.”

“What does it do?”

“Precisely what its name implies. You can use it to conceal your identity. Does it have one or two options?”

“Three. Anonymous, False Identity, and Deactivated,” Elijah said.

“Good, good. That means it is at least Simple grade. Perhaps even the lower reaches of Complex,” Nerthus stated. “The ring will allow you to either conceal or falsify your identity at will.”

“Like a disguise?”

“No. It only affects the response when others use an identification ability,” Nerthus stated. Then, seeing that Elijah had no idea what he was talking about, he went on to explain that some classes and archetypes had abilities that allowed them to identify people and objects.

“So, it’s useless for me right now,” Elijah said, shaking his head. He put the ring back on. “Not really anyone around here to hide from, right?”

“Just so. However, you may want to familiarize yourself with its use. If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, you may wish to create a benign false identity that you can use when you eventually encounter civilization,” Nerthus said. “Druids are not common, and there are those who might target you for the archetype.”

Elijah nodded, then, with a little focus on the Ring of Anonymity, which brought up the item’s governing notification. After a little fiddling, he found that he could not only change his apparent level, but he could also choose from a long list of identifiers ranging from Fighter to Merchant and everything in between. For a long while, Elijah perused the list, as much to get a sense for what was out there as to find a viable alternative identity. The sheer breadth of options was overwhelming, and according to Nerthus, it represented only a fraction of what was really possible.

In the end, Elijah chose to reduce his apparent level and adopt the identity of a generic and non-threatening healer with an eminently common name.

Ring of Anonymity Equipped. Choose Mode: Anonymous Mike Smith – Level 18 Healer (Currently Active) Deactivated

With that done, he left the tree spirit to his own devices and, for the first time in months, returned to his home. Once there, he wasted no time before heading to the bathroom. One good thing about his months-long stay in the tower was that it had given Nerthus plenty of time to complete the tree house. And that meant that it was now equipped with actual running water.

When Elijah stepped under the stream of water – which was more like a natural waterfall than anything else – he felt much of his tension wash away alongside all the dirt and grime he’d accumulated. Unfortunately, there was no soap – Elijah had some ideas about how to remedy the lack, but he’d had no time to put his plans into place – but it was still the most wonderful shower he’d ever experienced.

After that, he ambled toward his bed, and for the first time in months, felt secure enough to fall into a deep and dreamless sleep.