The next morning wasn’t rainy, but thick cloud cover conspired to hide the stars and setting moon. John trudged through the muddy farm, thinking that maybe it was time to lay down some actual stone pathways of his own. Finally he made it to the road and enjoyed a very short walk over to the shrine where he found Tet standing watch.

“Good morning… uh… Sir Tet? Knight Tet? What form of address should I be using?” John asked the half-orc.

“Sir is fine in an informal setting, in a formal setting you’d use my title, Knight Second Class,” the man replied sounding slightly annoyed.

John slowed to a stop. “Have I done something wrong?” he asked worriedly.

Tet grunted and shook his head, but failed to elaborate.

John just nodded then continued on, into the shrine itself, and took his customary seat next to the sapling. Connecting to it, he let the drowsy, content feeling flow into him, after a while he determined that something was different, he could feel that the flow to the fruits was slow, and sluggish, a bare trickle of what it had been before. Blinking out of the daze he looked at them closely. The ten fruits had grown overnight, becoming as large as ripe peaches. It seemed, to his eye, that they were finally ready to be plucked.

Attempting to appraise the fruits revealed another frustrating set of question marks. He simply didn’t have the Identify skill up high enough to see what they did. Glancing in the direction of Tet he wondered if he should bother the man. He didn’t want to disturb the knight any more than he had, but he needed to know what the fruits did. As if sensing his indecision, the flow of mana in the sapling shifted, the flow reversing. For the first time since it’d grown the sapling gave instead of taking.

John was overwhelmed by the sensations that came with the mana. He was once more the tree, and the tree was him. They stood proud, topping six feet now, their leaves were lush and black, their roots deep and firm. The ground was fertile, the water plentiful, and soon there would be sun. But most of all they had a sense of success, of accomplishment, for they had born fruit. Better, because they had created the fruit, they knew what each one did, and their images and knowledge flashed through the shared consciousness.

A moment later John came to himself once more. He knew what the fruits did, but it was the same way someone knew what a complex piece of classical music sounded like. Impossible to describe unless you had the score or the other person could also hear it. Shaking his head, he looked at the fruits again, and tried Identifying them once more. To his surprise, and delight, he could see their information now.

[Name: True Portal Fruit]

[Quality: Exceptional]

[Description: The rarest fruit of the Galaxy Tree, these snow-white fruits are highly prized for their ability to confer a single-use portal power on the consumer. Portals created by this fruit have no known maximum distance, nor are they constrained by the normal requirement of knowing the destination. The Pit of the True Portal Fruit may be planted anywhere to create a temporary gateway that links to the Gateway of Worlds. Approximately one in ten fruits of the Galaxy Tree are True Portal Fruits.]

[Name: Pseudo-Portal Fruit]

[Quality: Exceptional]

[Description: The third most common fruit of the Galaxy Tree, these blue fruits are capable of creating a portal to any known location, or to a location which one has the portal beacon for. In order to function the fruit must be eaten within the confines of the Gateway of Worlds, and then a portal may be opened in any of its archways. The pit of the Pseudo-Portal Fruit may be planted anywhere to create a temporary gateway that links to the Gateway of Worlds. Approximately two in ten fruits of the Galaxy Tree are Pseudo-Portal Fruits.]

[Name: Blink Fruit]

[Quality: Great]

[Description: The second most common fruit of the Galaxy Tree, these yellow fruits grant the consumer a short-term, line-of-sight teleportation ability. The pit of the Blink Fruit may be consumed to teleport the eater to the Gateway of Worlds. Approximately three in ten fruits of the Galaxy Tree are Blink Fruits.]

[Name: Displacer Fruit]

[Quality: Good]

[Description: The most common fruit of the Galaxy Tree, these red fruits grant the consumer a short-term True Displacement power, making them both there, and not there, at the same time. The Pit of the Displacer Fruit may be consumed to teleport the eater to the Gateway of Worlds. Approximately four in ten fruits of the Galaxy Tree are Displacer Fruits.]

John read the descriptions, then looked at the sapling. It was still willowy, but it stood over six feet tall now, and its canopy was clearly starting to develop, pushing outward in an expanding mushroom. All the leaves had turned black, and he could see faint imperfections on them in the dim light. As he watched them, the dots and swirls took on a faint glimmer, shining in blues, purples, golds, reds, and purest white. For a brief moment it was like looking at an artist’s concept of a galaxy. Then the lights dimmed to darkness once more. Still in awe, John Inspected the tree.

[Name: Galaxy Tree]

[Quality: ???]

[Description: An extremely rare variant of the Prismatic Tree, the Galaxy Tree focuses on space based magics. While the Galaxy Tree is mainly known for its powerful (and delicious) fruits, it has many lesser-known aspects that make it well worth cultivating in their own rights. The leaves of the Galaxy Tree are potent alchemical reagents, carrying pure space mana, while the wood is useful for creating space aligned magic items, wands, and staves.]

Reaching out, John touched the True Portal Fruit, and then scrambled to catch it as it fell from its branch; he barely succeeded. He then instantly received a message.

[Congratulations on increasing your level! 6 à 7]

[You have received 700 Leveling Points, please distribute them now]

John banked the 700 leveling points, then looked down at the fruit in his hand, wondering what to do with it. This seemed like an incredibly rare item… it also seemed incredibly dangerous. It could open a portal from anywhere, to anywhere, without knowing the destination beforehand. How do you protect against that? Sighing, he resigned himself to another discussion with Helen. Popping the fruit into his inventory he headed for the Knights’ Compound.

Passing Tet with a nod he proceeded down the road to the entrance of the compound. The fact that no one was watching the gate gave him a slight pause, then (after deciding Tet would likely be able to see and deal with anyone they didn’t want inside), he entered. Walking through the Yard he could see (and hear) Axia already putting recruits through their paces on the obstacle course. He could also smell delicious scents wafting out of what he assumed was the mess hall.

Bypassing the tantalizing aromas, John headed straight for the small building he knew Helen’s office was in. As he drew closer he heard Axia bark a command for the recruits to take a short break. Then, the commander was there next to him, almost as if he’d teleported the distance between them.

“John,” the titan rumbled.

John gave a polite nod. “Sir Axia,” he said respectfully.

Axia nodded. “Sir is a good choice; it conveys respect without being formal. I take it you wish to speak with Commander Helen?”

“Yeah, there’s a potential problem that I think she’s going to want to get in front of,” John explained.

“Very good then, however, we’re expecting a new batch of Knights in the next few days, one of them will be working as Commander Helen’s aide, and will be keeping track of her time, including things like appointments,” the big man commented.

“So I’ll need to talk to her aide to arrange meeting times if I want to talk with her?” John guessed.

“Yes, though normally one of your station wouldn’t approach the commander directly, you’d approach one of the lesser officers, Tet perhaps? And he would either take the matter to the commander, or arrange with her aide for you to see her directly,” Axia explained.

John processed that for a moment then nodded. “Part of the reason the squires and the knights were angry with me was because I’ve been ignoring protocol?” he guessed.

Axia nodded in the affirmative. “The commander, Knight Tet, and myself haven’t held it against you because we recognize you come from a different society where, we assume, such things are less formal. However going forward I think it would be best if you tried to match societal expectations.”

John nodded as well. “Alright, I’ll do my best to make sure that I do so.”

“Excellent, the Commander is waiting for you, you may head on in,” Axia said, and then returned to his recruits.

John didn’t watch the big man go, if it was rude to simply barge in expecting to be seen, then it was doubly rude to make the person you’d come to see wait. He quickly passed through the small waiting area and knocked on the office door.

“Please enter,” came Helen’s voice.

John entered the office and closed the door behind him.

“John,” she said with a nod of greeting. “Please have a seat.” She gestured to one of the chairs in front of her desk.

“Thank you,” John replied and sat down.

“Now, what brings you here today?” she asked as she shuffled some papers off her blotter and into a pile.

John produced the fruit from his inventory and leaned forward, placing it on her desk. Helen quirked a quizzical brown, but picked up and examined the fruit. Her face became immediately passive, but John caught a single agitated flick of her tail before she stilled it.

The catkin woman tsked. “One in ten it says, that’s not a useful statistic. How often does a Galaxy Tree fruit? How many fruits per year? What months does it fruit in?” she grumbled, mostly to herself. Then she let out an annoyed sigh. “It’s just one thing after another isn’t it? I assume you brought this to me because you understand the security implications?”

“Yes, I needed to know if it was safe for me to sell them or…” he trailed off with a shrug.

Helen nodded her understanding. “Well, they won’t be burning down the tree any time soon, but if I had to guess it’s about to become listed as an Imperial Asset.” She saw John’s look of inquiry and explained. “An Imperial Asset is an object, place, device, creature, or plant that has the potential to affect the empire itself in some profound manner but can also be controlled. The tree is of no danger and the True Portal Fruits can all be gathered easily enough, I assume. So, it’s an asset and not a liability.”

She looked at the fruit again and shook her head. “The empire is going to demand a monopoly on the True Portal Fruits, and you should give it to them.” She raised a forestalling hand as John opened his mouth to protest. “I know this is hard to hear, as these could bring quite a substantial sum on the open market, but they’re literally too dangerous to be allowed out in the world uncontrolled.”

John let out an exasperated sigh. True Portal Fruits could have been sold for a tidy sum of real-world money, who wouldn’t want a fruit that could open a portal to say ‘the nearest undiscovered treasure’ or ‘The location of my quest’? But no, that’d be too easy, wouldn’t it? “Are they at least going to pay me?” he asked, almost despondently.

“Probably not a lot,” Helen admitted somberly. “In fact, you’ll probably be lucky to get one part in a hundred out of them. These fruits could easily sell for thousands of gold to the nobility, that’s before the Kings and Queens get involved, and the high-nobility of the empire could possibly field even more.”

Because he liked torturing himself, John looked up the gold to dollar conversion rate. Ten gold to the dollar. He’d be losing out on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars. His face must have shown his dismay and anger.

“John, you can’t fight the empire,” Helen said hastily. “Not even we knights could protect you from that. We’ve got contracts with the empire that supersede just about every other contract we have. In fact, we’d probably have to help apprehend you.”

Sighing, John deflated slightly. “This would have solved a lot of my problems,” John muttered bitterly. “These fruits could have easily fulfilled my needs, and you’re telling me I’ll be lucky to get one hundredth of what I could have sold them for. Less even, because I could have sold them for the currency of my world. I should have hidden the fruit and kept my mouth shut.”

“And done what when someone Inspected a growing fruit? Or once they started appearing on the market, one way or the other? The description makes it clear where they came from. Then the empire would have stomped on you for allowing a massive breach of security. There were no good options here,” Helen pointed out.

John huffed, but nodded reluctantly, then took in a deep and steadying breath. “So what do I do?” he asked.

“That’s a good question. Normally I would tell you to speak with your mentor, I mean, Grandma Loren. She is better informed on these matters than I. However, she left early this morning, and will not return for some time,” Helen confessed. The catkin woman then paused and considered, her ears and tail carefully controlled so as not to give away a hint of her thoughts. Finally, she nodded. “The first thing you should do is send the emperor a gift. This will show your willingness to work with him, and will likely result in a more favorable evaluation.” She placed the True Portal Fruit on the table with care, the movement was not lost on John.

John looked at the fruit first, then at her, his gaze quizzical. “Isn’t it a bit presumptuous for me to be sending the emperor anything? I mean, Axia just talked to me about protocol. Shouldn’t we, I don’t know… contact the lowest noble in the chain and let it work its way up?”

Helen snorted. “If you’d like to add to your growing pile of problems, yes. No noble is going to look at what you have and decide it’s best to send it up the chain. They’ll want to find a way to take it for themselves. They’ll stall any and all questions about you, the tree, and possibly even the entire town while they try to find a way to take it, legal or illegal,” she explained.

“However,” she continued. “You’re right, normally you’d never get a package anywhere near the emperor’s palace, it would be stopped and examined by so many functionaries that there is an absolute certainty you’d get the same outcome as trying to go through a lesser noble. Unless, of course, you know someone who’s going to be going to court soon and carries a powerful enough reputation and trust that they can present the emperor with a gift on the behalf of a talented student.”

John blinked. “Do I know someone like that?”

Helen gave him a brief smile full of far too many teeth. “Perhaps, more importantly, they know you, and have reason to assist.”

He considered her words for a few moments, weighing them. It didn’t take a genius to figure out who she was talking about, but it raised more questions that it answered. Finally, he sighed and spoke with some small resignation. “If I’m sending the emperor a gift, it should be a full set, that way he knows I’m dealing above board.”

Helen nodded. “A wise choice. There are ten fruits all together I take it?”

John nodded. “Four Displacer, three Blink, two Pseudo-Portal, and that one there.”

“Hmmm, I should like to examine the others as well, but that can wait. We will need a container for the fruits, and we will send them by portal direct to the capital, we don’t want the fruits to spoil before they arrive.” She tapped a finger on the desk top as she considered, her finger then paused. “This gift needs to reflect you John, so tell me how you’d go about putting it together.”

John frowned and then began thinking. In the real world he’d just buy a fancy box or basket, put the fruits inside and call it a day. Helen was hinting that wasn’t the way to go here. He thought for several long moments but really couldn’t come up with much, then he remembered the conversation he’d had with Ash the other day. Things are graded by effort put into them. Something that took effort then, and maybe showcased some of the workers in the local area?

Slowly, John began thinking out loud. “I could make the box of wood, but all we have is dungeon created wood, which has no fancy origins or special properties. There’s no local stone of note, no, that’s not true, I created Nebula Marble, and the shrine is made out of it, the shrine that exists because of the tree. Alright, so I should make a block of Nebula Marble, and then have a stone carver create a box out of it. We don’t have any special metals either, so the clasp and hinges will have to be made from steel.” He paused and looked at Helen, she nodded at him encouragingly, so he continued.

“We do have giant spiders in the dungeon, and I suspect that means spider silk can be collected? If that’s so, and we have a weaver, we might be able to get a spider-silk cloth to line the interior. And our biggest product so far, other than the tree’s fruits, are Mana Stones, so maybe it should have some mana stones imbedded in it?”

Helen looked at john for a long moment, her face carefully blank. Spider silk? She didn’t know where to begin with that thought. She decided not to mention her misgivings and see where this went. Realizing that John was waiting for a response, shook her head. “Using mana stones as decoration is usually considered wasteful. However, if you could tie the stone into an enchantment then it could be justified.”

“Well, a cooling or stasis enchantment would help preserve the fruits, but we don’t have anyone who can perform such an enchantment yet,” John pointed out.

“Then we shall leave the mana stones off the box. Can you think of anything else?” she prodded him.

John ran his fingers through his beard as he considered, what else was there? Finally, he shook his head, unable to come up with anything else.

Helen nodded. “Good enough, I think. Do you wish for me to store the fruits? I have a personal stasis box they can be placed in until it’s time to send your gift.”

John hesitated, he wanted to say no, he didn’t want the fruits out of his sight as this seemed really important. But after a moment of thought he nodded reluctantly. It might take days to prepare the box, and he had no way to preserve the fruits.

Helen nodded. “I will collect the fruits from the tree then. We can do so now if you wish to supervise?” she offered.

John wanted to say yes. He really wanted to say yes. But that would show a lack of trust, and while he didn’t trust the knights as a whole, he wanted to trust Helen. With a shake of his head, he stood. “I need to get started on the box; I get the feeling it’ll take all day to get what I need.”

Helen stood as he did, and walked him out of the building. “Just do your best John, no on can justly ask any more than that.” she told him.

John nodded. “I’ll be back soon, and thanks.”

Helen nodded, acknowledging his thanks, then disappeared back inside the building. John turned and headed for his farm where he first took care of the chookers, then spent a grueling hour carefully constructing Nebula Marble.

John ended up with two blocks each 28 inches in length, 9 inches in width, and 7 inches tall. The resulting marble was a glossy black with beautifully contrasting multicolored lines and whorls. A quick Inspect showed that they were Good quality, putting them two steps above that of the gateway of worlds. Fortunately, taking it slowly and carefully had alleviated the worst of the pain he’d endured last time. Putting the two blocks in his inventory, he headed for town.