Altura

I took a deep breath in as I pointed my staff at the pigeon. A single crackle sounded out as the pigeon found itself under attack. Swerving to the right, it sent a wave of Air Qi towards me, forcing me to veer upwards and risk puking. I was not used to switching from running to jumping so quickly.

I sent a gout of fire towards it, letting it collect in the air before shooting towards the bird. Over the next few minutes, the two of us fought in the air, right up until I froze the pigeon's legs. Thank you Biology for telling me that birds require legs to balance themselves.

Actually, I could have frozen the wings too. I sent out a little QI to freeze the wings, only to find that they shook off the attack. Made sense that they were defended against attacks of such a nature. Attacking the wings was bound to be a common tactic.

But the other Plantlings had caught up by now, two of them were in the air and three down on the ground. Gathering my thoughts, I analyzed my enemy. A crow-like and a hawk-like creature in the air, while three mole-like ones sauntered about below.

I sent a little ice in an attempt to freeze their legs, but it was to no avail. The birds dodged the attack, clearly learning from the pigeons' death.But that did not stop me, I had three elements, and they could all work at the same time. Conjuring up three separate spirals, I first sent one, made of lightning, towards the crow.

The spiral crackled in the air, decreasing the crow’s ability to fly. A well aimed ice attack and the crow was falling to the ground.Now for the hawk. The hawk had, by now, already run higher in the air, taking advantage of it being a more agile bird than a crow. But I was far from done, I sent three spirals of fire towards the hawk, letting it find itself cornered.

Except the hawk was far from cornered. A few gusts of wind had the spirals moving away and three separate streams of water weaving themselves into the spirals, extinguishing them.

And then the hawk attacked. Suddenly increasing its speed, it shot towards me, sending little air blades along. And I fumbled. I didn’t have a plan against this type of attack. What was I supposed to do? Use fire, lighting or ice? What would work against this beast? I frantically tried to dodge it, but the hawk was like a homing missile heading towards me.

Having no other option, I decided to just use brute force, pointing my staff at it and firing lightning. In the air, a hawk headed straight towards me while lightning shot at it from my staff. But it was not over, the hawk was too hardy to fall, and it would reach me before the lightning killed it.

But I did have one more trick up my sleeve. I let fire join the lightning, pouring more Qi into the endeavor, and it worked. The hawk might have been powerful enough to bear the initial attacks, but this was too much for it. Soon enough it turned to ash, leaving me very depleted of Qi.

(379/38400) 35871 Qi consumed

Far far too depleted. I stood in the air, letting the bar refill before I attacked the moles. After about an hour, it had refilled up to 30,000 which I deemed enough to attack. I was bored anyway.

Deciding to keep myself out of range, I attacked the moles from above. The three of them had ignored me for the large part, their senses likely not strong enough to detect me. I built up a veritable volcano of fire in the sky, and then dropped it on the moles.

All at once. Needless to say, none of them survived. What it also did was use over 25,000 Qi. I needed to learn to budget my expenditure. But now was not the time for that, now was the time to return to the fortress.

Altura

I sighed as I relaxed on an armchair, my body getting some much-needed rest. Time to look at my notifications, my Qi should have recovered by now. System, unarchive notifications.

Calculating…

2 Early-Plantling stage beasts killed. 550 × 2 = 1100 Qi gained

1 Mid-Plantling stage beast killed. 850 × 1= 850 Qi gained.

5 Late-Planting stage beasts killed. 1150 × 5= 5750 Qi gained

Total Qi gained: 7700 Qi

Level up initiated!

Late-Plantling (36250/38400) → Plant (43950/76800)

+27 to all stats.

Qi seeped into my Plantling as it grew into a Plant. A change crept up on all of my senses as I felt my stats increase, and gain access to other elements. Air and Earth were now available to me too. How nice, something else for me to train with.

“Excuse me, your grace.” A young Adventurers Guild member said, peeking in. The teenager was likely among the latest batch of Guild members and had been recruited when the attack came.

“Yes?” I asked back.

“General Aswelth wanted me to inform you that the beasts have started their offensive against the fortress.” The Guild member said.

“Ah, thank you. I shall be along then. I take it that you will be joining the defense?” I asked as I gestured for him to move towards the wall.

“Yes, your grace, I hope to cross into the Sapling stage today. I have been close for a while now.” the Guild member replied. “If I hurry, then I could be the youngest Sapling in the Guild.”

“Oh? How old are you?” I asked.

“18, your grace. I was able to just reach the minimum age for qualifying, the recruitment was on my birthday, actually.” the Guild member replied.

“How interesting. That is quite a coincidence. Tell me what is your name?” I asked as we reached the wall.

“Xerte, your grace.” the Guild member answered.

“Well then, Xerte, I look forward to meeting you later. Perhaps you can even be one of the Peak Saplings soon. Who knows.” I said, grinning as I snowflaked away.

“So, General Aswelth, how is our defense.” I asked as I landed on the top of the wall.

“Quite well, your grace. And congratulations on breaking through to the Plant stage, I am quite sure that you are the youngest Plant in the entire Land of the Six Jewels.” Aswelth said.

“I am sure that is true, but none of that matters if I die here today. What's the plan?” I asked as I looked at the horde that was gathering at the edge of the gorge around the fortress.

“To allow the beasts to pour in and them kill them once there are enough of them. I am sure it will be effective.” Aswelth replied as the horde jumped in. A large amount of beasts died on impact, their bodies not able to handle the jump. But they served as cushions for the others, allowing them to cross through.

“Hold!” Aswelth said as the horde approached rapidly.

“Hold!!!” The horde grew closer.

“Fire!” Aswelth said, to the relief of the soldiers who wasted no time firing on the incoming horde. Spikes of Earth, Waves of water, Crackles of lightning, Howls of air and Embers of fire filled the air as the horde met the Ducal guard’s attack. Instantly a large part of the horde disappeared. The gorge being shaped like a kiln amplified the effect of the attack. The fire couldn’t spread. The water couldn’t flow out. The spikes were harder to escape.

“Hold!” Aswelth ordered as the gorge emptied of beasts. And then the beasts attack again. And once more they were killed. This was a killing field. A place for us to butcher beasts before they even reached the wall. A few hours later, the beasts were dead, and the duchy had won its first victory. With no deaths.

“That was quite a showing, General. I suppose every person here is a Sapling now?” I asked.

“Yes, your grace. Several of our Late Saplings have even reached the Plantling stage.” Aswelth replied.

“Good, how long before the rest come in? And any sign of the second wave?” I asked.

“The Adventurers Guild and the Administrative Wing are only a few kilometers from here, they should be here shortly. As for the second wave, that will be here tomorrow. A wave a day keeps the fortress awake.” Aswelth said.

Was that a joke? Please tell me that was a joke or something…because I don’t get it. Note to self, don’t rely on Aswelth for comedy. Anyway, I had stuff to do and people to organize. On a whim, I turned to look for Xerte, wondering how he had fared.

And there he was…breaking through to the Mid-Sapling stage. Had I just found myself another monster? Hmm. I needed a Guild Head… I just had a candidate.

“Aswelth, keep an eye on Guild Member Xerte, he might be the new prime candidate for Guild head. A promotion would not be undeserved, he did just reach Mid-Sapling stage.” I said.

“Yes, your grace. I will.” Aswelth replied, his tone lowering, as if he had just lost all of his confidence. Ok, what just happened?