Gorm only felt at home when he was in the woods. The forest gave him peace and he felt as if he would become one with the forest.

He was already halfway to his home when he discovered something sickening in his perception. Gorm couldn’t let this presence defile his forest, so he decided to follow and eradicate it.

While he was trying to catch up with the being he discovered that it was running in direction of his home. Because he was sure that he knew the terrain around his home better than anyone else, he decided to confront the creature only in familiar surroundings.

A few days later he chased the creature into native climes, he decided to confront it. Just as he was about to arrive at the creature’s location it discovered him and darted to the mountain.

Gorms home was in a cave on the foot of the largest and only mountain in the surrounding 10 000 square kilometers. He settled here because he felt a great danger from this mountain and decided to guard its surroundings to make sure it didn’t harm his forest.

Some time ago he wanted to explore the mountain. After he was 200 meters behind his cave he had the feeling, that if he made one more step he would be in mortal danger. Since then he only watched the mountain, but never tried to set foot on it again.

Now Gorm was in a dilemma, should he ignore his safety and destroy the danger to his forest. Or should he hope that it dies in the mountain?

After a short contemplation, he decided the safety of the forest was more important than his well-being.

Following the creature, he went deeper into the mountain. After about five minutes he caught up with it. It looked like a mixture of a bear and a boar with a human head. It was losing patches of hair and it seemed like it was rotting.

This was the first time Gorm had seen something like this. He couldn’t make out if it was an undead or still alive. He drew his bow and pulled it. An arrow materialized when the tendon was completely drawn. He let the arrow loose.

The abomination got hit and immediately burst into flames.

“That was easier than expected” For the might of the aura the creature gave off it died way to easy. After searching the surroundings, he decided it really was dead.

To his surprise, Gorm didn’t feel the usual danger from the mountain anymore. The only explanation for that was, that something wanted no one on the mountain or he was too close to the source of the danger. Both cases weren’t good news for him, but he still decided to further explore the mountain.

Sometime later he found a strange stone formation. Between the stones, one could see the entrance to a cave.

For the first time in over 1000 years he felt the need to explore again.

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From the outside the cave looked natural, with loose stones and some moss growing on the walls. Because Gorm still felt no danger he entered the cave.

As he went inside he could feel warm and moist air on his skin, which gave him a feeling of security. Two hundred meters in the cave it made a sharp right turn. A few hundred meters in the distance Gorm could now see light. He was wondering what that could be and walked in the direction of the light.

The closer he came the brighter the light seemed to get. When he was only 50 meters away from the light source, he could finally make out that it was a Sun Stone. That explained why it was so warm in the cave.

Gorm kept following the tunnels and got deeper and deeper into the mountain. Unknown to him, the entrance of the cave system began to collapse. The further he went in, the smaller the corridors became. When Gorm just thought he was stuck, the tunnel opened into a room.

Interconnected runes covered the walls, floor, and ceiling. Sun Stones were placed evenly on all walls. In the center of the room, the largest Mana Crystal he had ever seen was suspended in the air.

Gorm was stunned. He needed some time to take in what he was seeing. Like in a trace he walked to the suspended Mana Crystal and reached for it. In the Moment his hand touched the crystal it rumbled behind him. He immediately turned around, just to see the entrance closing.

‘This is a trap!’ Gorm ran to where the entrance once was. But the wall there looked the same as all other walls. He discovered that there were holes in regular intervals, but no indication that they were useful to him in any way.

After searching for a few days without finding a way out, the only thing he could do was hope for a wonder. Because even his strongest attack didn’t even leave a mark on the wall.

Gorm knew he had enough food for at least a few decades, so he decided to train as hard as possible in this time. Even if he couldn’t become strong enough to force his way out, he could die knowing that he tried everything he could.

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Close to 100 years later Gorm ate the last food he had. Water was never his problem, he had an Endless Water Bottle in his Space Bag. Since he had nothing to eat, he could not exercise anymore and because he was still not strong enough to break out, he decided to meditate. Through meditation, he could prolong his life for a few more years without the need to eat anything.

Ten years later he started to lose his strength. Every year he would get weaker and weaker.

Thirty years later his life force suddenly got stronger. He had comprehended a special nature power. He knew that if he could find a young tree, he could transfer his soul into it and potentially live forever.

Gorm took out a simple acorn, this acorn was almost as old as he himself. It was from the old oak that stood in the garden of his parents' house. It was the only thing he took with him when he left the ruins of it when he was just ten years old. Since then he had been living in the forests of the Endless Wilderness. He wasn’t even sure where he came from anymore.

Gorm crushed some Elemental Bones, wood and Mana Stones. After mixing the powders with some water he carefully put his acorn in it. From then on he only cared for this acorn. He had stopped meditating, there was no reason for it anymore.

Three years later the acorn, with the help of its extremely Mana rich soil and water, had grown into a three-meter tall oak tree.

Ten years later it already reached the height of roughly half the room height at seven meters.

When the oak tree was 40 years old and nine meters tall, it finally was about to have its first flowering. This was the time Gorm was waiting for, he was going to transfer his soul.

In the past years, he has only regretted that he will not become immortal in his forest.

The process of transferring the soul wasn’t that difficult, first, he had to nurture the tree with his blood and when the last drop of blood is getting absorbed by the tree, he had to put all his power into it.

As simple as this sounded, to actually do it one had to have very high attainments in nature magic and one must be free of desires.

Gorms last drop of blood left his body and he was starting to put all his power into the tree. In the blink of an eye, the oak tree grew thirteen meters tall and filled the whole room. Gorms body started to fade away and the tree grew lusher and thicker. It encased the Mana Crystal entirely.

When the last bit of Gorms power got absorbed by the tree, the carvings on the cave wall and in the entire mountain started to glow. The mountain started to shake and draw mana to it like crazy.

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Seven centuries had passed since the great Mana Storm that killed countless people. Since then the Endless Wilderness had become even more unpredictable than it was before. The mana concentration was totally random, sometimes it was way too high, sometimes far too low. You could walk in one direction and the concentration would change about once every kilometer.

Due to this some towns and villages flourished while others met a cruel end. Because the low mana regions were relatively safe, civilization reached new depths of the Endless Wilderness. To reach a place that was formerly almost a year’s journey into the forest, you only needed a month.

Thanks to the difficult conditions on the border of the explored part of the Endless Wilderness Hermits, dropouts, criminals and other interesting characters gathered there.

In the outer reaches of the explored wilderness, on the foot of the only mountain in a 10 000 kilometer radius, in a zone with almost no mana, there was a small town. Its only connection to the outside was a single overgrown road, which only the annual tax collector used, and the magic post.

The town's inhabitants had no idea how much their lives would change in the next few years.