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“I SPENT A LONG TIME thinking about what reward I should give you,” the Woodwose’s muffled chatter mixed with the sounds of fast movement and rustling were coming from inside a wide hole in an old tree.
“Hm, well based on your tone, you weren’t planning on giving out a reward at all. You weren’t expecting me to survive.”
“Well, I thought and thought and now you see. The Heart of the Forest made the choice for me,” said the old man as he came out of the hole and shook off the decaying leaves and dry branches. “Here you go. Your reward.”
On his outstretched palm was a common pinecone.
― Attention! You have completed the Primordial’s mission!
― Your reward:
― Keeper of the Forest Summoning Amulet.
I grabbed the pinecone with two fingers like a true oddity. And that earned me some ribbing from the old man.
“What’s this now, dearie?” he asked with a smile. “Never seen a pinecone before?”
“I have,” I replied. “But this isn’t just a normal pinecone.”
“Well what if it was?” the old man kept egging me on. “What if I got a crazy notion that I should give you a normal pinecone as a reward for your deed? To remember me by, so to speak.”
I fell silent. The old man is clearly out of sorts today. He’s in a bad mood. This was technically a win, but still he wasn’t feeling good about it. It seems like this is all down to the Heart of the Forest’s gift. The old man cannot make peace with the Tree’s decision. I partially understand him. After all, no matter how you spin it, I am an outsider. Sure we’re friends now, but I’m still distant from the laws of the Forest. And then ― bam! I get this gift. I wanted to show Gorgie to the old man but when I saw his mood I reconsidered. I’ll have plenty of time to summon my brother later.
And I can tell it isn’t envy driving the old man crazy. He is truly concerned with the fate of those seeds. To him they are living beings. He said it himself ― they’re like babies.
“Don’t get so worked up,” I said.
That was obviously not the answer the old man was expecting. Just the way he was gaping. But he knew what I was talking about. He had the kind of look on his face people talk about, the kind that penetrates into the very soul.
After playing the staring game for a while, the Woodwose waved a hand wearily.
“Well, if that’s the way it has to be. If the Tree gave you its seeds, it must have seen something in you... And what did it bless you with? You stink of Chaos from a mile away.”
“I don’t understand,” I choked.
“You’ll understand later...” the old man answered evasively. “We’re talking about something else now. There isn’t much time left. It’s starting soon...”
I frowned. The old stump had me all confused.
“Can you see what I gave you on your own?” the Woodwose inquired.
“I can see only that it’s a Keeper of the Forest Summoning Amulet.”
“And that’s all?”
I nodded.
“You must not have enough Mind,” he muttered to himself. And turning to me he said: “Then listen... And take heed. When you find a suitable forest to plant the seed, or when you think you’ve found the right forest ― don’t get ahead of yourself! Take a look around. Give it a good sniff. Wander around it a while. Give the trees a thorough inspection. And the animals... The older the forest the better. For the first while, it will help the young sapling along.”
“And what does the amulet have to do with that?”
“Don’t interrupt me,” the old man grumbled. “Find a forest you like? Nothing unclean around? Then you can summon a keeper. Just make sure the forest is pure! You’ll be able to tell right away. You have an amulet. It can help you figure out what’s what.”
I nodded again, letting the old man know I was listening carefully.
“So here’s the thing,” he continued. “As goes the forest, so goes its master. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“A Woodwose is not likely to respond to your call,” the old man said with pity in his voice. “There aren’t many of us left in this world. But if a Dryad shows up, or a Treeperson ― they will do just fine. Worst would be a Pinebogey. They are of course the least powerful of our brethren, but they should be up to the task regardless. And with time, a little power will start to accumulate next to the future Heart of the Forest. What do you think? You understanding any of this?”
“I understood everything,” I assured him.
“Okay then, let’s say goodbye,” the Woodwose sighed heavily. “It’s not safe for you to stay here. What’s more, the mysteries of the forest are not for your eyes. The renewal process is just about to begin. You might end up caught in the crossfire. The Amulet won’t protect you. Go with peace, dearie.”
“Thank you, old man,” I bowed to him and, when I looked back up, I found myself suddenly on the edge of the Forest. The exact place where I’d first met the Woodwose. He though was nowhere to be seen.
I saw the forest changing before my very eyes. The trees were all in a flurry. The bushes and grass were giving a very slight vibration. I heard heart-rending cries coming from deep in the woods. Its true master had returned. It was time to reimpose order.
I then in my turn hurried to leave. I’d overstayed my welcome ― time to go. As I ran, I heard another couple yelps. The ghastly sounds pushed me to run faster and faster.
I stopped at the riverbank. The same place where I made my final camp a few days before. I stopped and thought. So, what just happened? I still felt an eerie feeling, as if several thousand dark spirits were coming after me. My heart was pounding maniacally, about to jump out of my chest. Despite the run, I was soaked in cold sweat. Either the Woodwose or the Heart of the Forest itself had used some kind of mental magic on me. I was sure of it. There was no attack notification though.
By the way, how are my supplies doing...? All good. Mana full to the brim.
Time to do something I’d been waiting for ever since I got to this world.
“Hrn?!!”
“Brother!”
To say Gorgie was resentful would be a massive understatement. Every so often he gave an aggrieved growl while also purring happily.
I squeezed his neck hard and squinted. There may have even been tears on my cheeks.
“Hrn?”
“Surprised?” I chuckled through tears. “Yes, I am stronger now... Oh brother, I have so much to tell you... There’s no mana in this world! Can you believe that? The only place I could fill my supply was next this thing called a Place of Power. It was not easy to get you back...”
The harn growled quizzically.
“Of course you have mana. When I recalled you, your supply was almost full...”
“Hrn,” Gorgie growled insistently.
“What do you mean it’s still going up?”
Baffled, I opened Gorgie’s characteristics and saw that his supply really was slowly filling up.
“How is that possible?” I whispered and looked at my own. “Mine is full again...”
I looked thoughtfully toward what was once the Black Forest and scratched the back of my head.
“No...” I shook my head. “We’re too far from the Tree now. If we were still in the forest maybe. But now... Here... Something isn’t coming together.”
Gorgie gave me an approving nuzzle with his armored forehead.
“Wait a sec,” it finally hit me.
My hand shaking, I dug into my backpack and took out the Heart of the Forest seeds.
“Impossible,” I whispered. “So does this mean I have a whole three Places of Power in my pocket right now? That doesn’t make any sense...”
Gorgie snorted.
“It’s easy to test,” I said confidently and walked over to a small stone all overgrown with brown moss. “Look!”
After saying that, I placed all the stones on the boulder and walked ten steps away.
Gunnar’s Amulet faithfully reported back that three Places of Power had been detected. Still unable to believe my eyes enough to truly feel confident, I commanded it to calculate a route. An arrow appeared right away, pointing to the seeds on the rock.
When the initial shock had passed and I was more or less thinking reasonably again, it occurred to me to take another look at our supplies. There was no mana coming into either his or mine.
“What does that mean?” I muttered, stashing the seeds in my backpack and watching the mana start to flow in again. “Looks like my mana problems are over.”
Gorgie would also be fine. And that makes total sense. He and I are linked by a magical bond. Next, I had to figure out the effective radius. Ugh! Too bad my Mind isn’t high enough to read the seeds’ description. I’m sure there would be lots of interesting information. Although, I should also keep in mind what the Woodwose said. Sooner or later, these seeds had to be planted. Using them in this way would be abusing their very nature. The old man told me clearly what to expect if I squandered the forest’s gift.
For the next hour, I told Gorgie all about my adventures. I had to go over the battle with Black Widow several times. Gorgie wanted to know every last detail. At first, he was hurt that I hadn’t summoned him earlier. But my explanation about the Lady of the Anomaly’s mental magic quickly tamed his ardor.
While I spoke, I was thinking distantly about my pet and the strange nature of these summoning amulets. Despite the fact that it had been over a month since I recalled the harn, he didn’t seem to have experienced more than a minute of time. Honestly though, despite the fact his energy supply was just fine, Gorgie was hungry as ever. And so, after finishing my tale, I let him go out for a hunt. He needs to loosen up. I’ll set up a temporary camp in the meantime.
A little while later, sitting on a quickly thrown-together bed of relatively poufy branches, I went back through the system notifications that had piled in during my battle with Black Widow.
The number of guardians I killed took me by surprise. Just nineteen. In the heat of the battle, I thought I was up against a thousand enemies at least! A-hem... As my dear mother used to love to say: “Fear can make a mountain out of a molehill.”
In the end, I earned nineteen runes, a few dozen anomaly elixirs and six auras. But alas, the auras didn’t drop at a regular rate. And there wasn’t a single one that had once belonged to a mage. And that was despite the fact that I had taken down three whole spiders.
Honestly though, I got lucky in a different way. I was able to bring up the Blade of Vengeance ability to level six. All the guardians I killed had once been Emerald Forest Guardsmen.
After the ability levelled up, the additional damage I was dealing with slashing weapons was up to fifty-five percent, and my crit chance went up to sixty-five. Now my Dragonfly packed a bit more punch than some harmless little folding knife that was only good for cutting gray moss and putting minimal damage on the board after Gorgie’s attacks. Now it could cause trouble all on its own. Ugh, too bad my parents didn’t live long enough to see this... They’d be so happy for me right now...
After I figured out the auras, I moved on to the most interesting part. The rewards for defeating Black Widow. While I started reading the first message, I had an approximate idea what the capricious Random would bestow upon me, but all my guesses and even to a certain degree expectations were dashed. The god of chance managed to catch me by surprise.
— Attention! The Higher Powers smile upon you! You have replicated the legendary feat of Tenazeer the Illustrious! You have defeated a Primordial being!
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Drop of Primordial blood (5).
— Primordial Heart (1).
Eagerly delving into the description of my newest loot, I felt my hands start to sweat. But I would swear on anything that I never had such an unpleasant tendency before. At the very least, I’d never noticed it.
As I stared at the small crystal flagon full of dark purple liquid, I was grinning like an idiot. Now I had a true treasure in my hands, and its description said that one drop of this substance could totally cure even incurable illnesses. In other words, just one drop would not merely make me a wealthy man... It could make me fancifully rich. It would all depend on finding the right buyer.
I dreamed about a life of plenty for a bit, then turned to the next artifact. But alas, here I was in for a disappointment. My Mind level must not have been high enough to read its description. I turned the small lilac crystal over in my hands, then put it back in my backpack with a sigh of pity. It was probably very valuable. In fact, it sounded like a joke. The heart of an actual Primordial! Not exactly a common artifact. Not even close...
“Moving on...”
— Attention! The heavens smile upon you! You have replicated the legendary feat of Shem the Scrapper! You have defeated one of the Supreme Forces of Chaos!
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Manuscript “Unity with Chaos.”
— Attention! The heavens smile upon you! You have performed a legendary feat! You have defeated Jorogumo!
— Congratulations! You receive:
— Jorogumo’s Mask (partially damaged).
So then, that was the Lady of the Anomaly’s true identity. Jorogumo... An ancient monster. A giant shapeshifting spider that appears in the form of a beautiful woman and eats people. Something was giving me the uncanny feeling that I had heard about this giant bloodthirsty spider in the shape of a woman before.
The first person to tell me the tale was the one-eyed Hatry, an old man who lived one street down from us in the house of his son Torv. Hatry had a weakness for ale. He could drain ten pints in one night and still keep going.
When he really got drunk, unlike most of his bottle mates, he became very kind and talkative. People said all kinds of stuff about him... They called him a criminal, and said he was heading straight for the gallows. But we were more interested in hearing his stories. Hatry once told us, his audience of little munchkins, the oldest among us being eight, that us he used to be a pirate. The old man knew a lot of stories and legends. And the scariest of them all were about the Jorogumo. Who would have ever thought that Eric Bergman the cripple would one day meet that fantastic beast in battle. And most importantly ― not only would he survive; he would come out on top.
I started my survey with the mask. I was expecting it to look like the ghastly spider face, but to my surprise it captured another of the Beast’s forms. Her human form, so to speak. And to be accurate, just part of it. For some reason unbeknownst to me, the mask was quite damaged. The part I ended up with covered most of the forehead, the left eye and the left temple as well. The nose, mouth, chin, both cheeks and almost the whole right side of the face were left uncovered. To be frank, it was hard to really call this thing a mask. To look at, honestly, it didn’t impress me. But the description got me excited...
Mask of Jorogumo (partially damaged).
― Type: Personal magical artifact.
― Rarity: Unique.
― Description:
― Small piece of an ancient unique artifact created by Zoga the One-eyed. Most of the mask is thought to have been lost during the Battle of the Elements. But even this small piece of the mask contains the power of the ancient being.
― Special effect:
― While wearing this mask, the wearer is able to temporarily take five unintelligent beings under complete control.
― Requirements to wear:
― Will: 100.
― Intellect: 80.
― Mind: 20.
― Success conditions:
― Target Mind: 0.
― Target Will: No more than half of the wearer’s Will. Bear in mind that the Will of all targets is cumulative. The total cannot surpass half the wearer’s Will.
― Expends 2000 mana points (per controlled being).
― Note:
― Duration: 30 minutes.
― Radius of activation: 65 feet.
― This artifact may be used no more than 1 time every 10 days.
― Note:
― Weight: None. Takes no space.
So then, that’s how it works. The only slight disappointment is the zero Mind requirement for targets. I am fairly certain that, if this artifact were intact, I would have more interesting surprises in store. But even in this state, it’s a truly mighty weapon.
I had to stop looking through the loot for the time being. Gorgie was back from his hunt. Based on the satisfied look on his face, he had a good day. No surprise. With his figures, the harn could easily lay claim to the title of king of the beasts in this world. Ugh, if only I could raise his Will a bit.
I should add that I was only able to tell Gorgie was nearby again because he and I share an unbreakable bond. All the transformations I had undergone in the last few weeks meant nothing to the harn. And by the way, about that... Before leaving, I should try and thin out the mutant population around Lakeside a bit.
When I thought back on Mink, I breathed a heavy sigh. Gorgie, lapping up water at the river’s edge, sensed my mood, raised his scaled head and growled inquisitively.
“I can’t just leave... I have to know they’re alright. Do you understand?”
Gorgie snorted back and lowered his head to the water.
“Beyond that, I don’t even know if they made it...”
After the harn drank his fill, he yawned with a full belly. Then he came over to my makeshift bed and started sizing it up.
“Don’t even think about it,” I chuckled. “That’s my spot. I practically poked an eye out gathering all these branches. So you go lie down somewhere else.”
Gorgie sighed almost like a human. He laid down right at my feet and started licking himself clean.
“Oh!” I facepalmed. “How didn’t I think of that? Look what I bought for you.”
After I said that, I took the scraper out of my backpack. For a moment, the harn looked mistrustingly at the unfamiliar item.
“Don’t be afraid,” I smiled. “Let’s try it out.”
For the next few minutes, I played handservant to a very clever tomcat. He exposed his armored sides to me with great pleasure, and I resignedly cleaned all the grime off his scales. He sure had picked up a lot during his hunt. But it paid off. Gorgie was happy. His life and energy supplies were up by twenty percent. Plus the scraper really did a great job of cleaning the dirt and grime off his scales. A few moments later, he was sleeping soundly.
“Sleep, brother,” I whispered and patted him lightly on his massive neck. “Heh... I can only imagine the look on Mink’s face when she sees you.”
