Altura

I stared at the hole that was forming on my Grand Tree with narrowed eyes. Taking the Trial was a risk with people hunting me. Not taking it was a risk too. The answer was to get it over with quickly before someone found out. Now if only the hole would finish appearing-ah there it was!.

Archduchess, what a fine day to meet, yes? Oh, don’t be so angry, I will not delay you for long now. The question is- ‘What makes Qi change according to your will?’

Was that a trick question? The change of Qi according to will was a property…well not quite, it did so after Qi was marked by the spirit space. The marking! What was the marking? Ok, I had to be fast.

I called upon some Qi, watching it get converted into the more manipulable form. I could not tell the difference, except that it now had an element. The elements made Qi manipulable? No. I had seen healers use neutral Qi. How did healers use neutral Qi?

The process involved thinking very hard about it until the seed started doing it. So something that was normally sent along with elements? But could be sent alone? I would normally figure out neutral Qi to use as reference…but I had no time.

I observed the Qi get converted, watching the element creep in. The Qi only started responding to me when the element reached more than two-thirds of its volume. Hmm, where was the element coming from? The seed. And a seed had elements too…The changing of properties!

The thing that made it manipulable to the seed was that the I had properties similar to the seed! The seed had neutral portions too! But how did one gain access to all the elements at Plant level. Wait, how many elements did one have at Plant level?

I watched my Grand-Tree, observing the elements in it. The tree had swirling lights around its leaves…lights that had been there since Plant level. How much could I bet that the lights had a lot of elements? I had my answer.

‘The properties of the Qi being similar to the seed make it manipulable to it. I would also put forth that each seed has slightly different properties, making it harder to manipulate the Qi of another, but perhaps not impossible.’

‘And you have your breakthrough, Archduchess. I take my leave.’ the hole said, going away. I hastily exited the spirit space, hoping I hadn’t been ambushed. I hadn’t, in fact I was as alone as I had been before.

Kerrin

Kerrin sighed as he stepped over the corpse of a self coined ‘hunter’. A somewhat large group of people had declared that they would hunt people from the Archduchess’ faction in hopes of gaining the tokens. Kerrin had ideas about that. And he wasn’t afraid of letting them be known, in blood if need be.

“Th-the Oceiana will not forgive you! The Grand Elder Betaca will see to your death!.” the young man who had tried to kill him a few minutes ago said.

“The Grand Elder Betaca is back on the planet. I am on its moon. And you were the one trying to kill me.” Kerrin said as he made, the arteries in the young man’s throat burst.

“Do you have to be so messy?” Speaker Panni said, as she dealt with her own attackers. “Blood is very trackable, you know?”

“I do.” Kerrin replied as he levitated and burned the blood. “Why do you think the clearing is devoid of it?”

Panni just shook her head at him. The clearing, however, was not well. The fight had burned enough vines to allow its formation, but the vines were not taking it well. A number of different vines could be seen growing into the clearing at paces far too fast, for a normal vine.

“I think we might want to get out of here.” Panni said, looking at a vine that was growing close to her leg. The Gorge did not have any vines, so it made sense for Panni to be afraid of strange vines that grew too fast.

Kerrin was a bit wary of them too, he still remembered the massive vine that had led the Archduchess to the forest. The good old times. Now everything was too complicated.

“Come on, we should see if there are any others in the zone from our faction and see if we can contact the Archduchess. “ Kerrin said, hurrying forward.

The journey through the vine forest was excruciating, mainly because neither of them could tell where they were going. The sun was their only guide, but useless when there was no destination. Just wandering around aimlessly.

“I think we should start looking for herbs or something. The System said that there were resources here, we could use some resources. I am just a Mid-Grand Tree and you are an Early, breaking through to Mid might be good.” Panni suggested. Kerrin had to agree.

“Perhaps we should be on the lookout, then.” Kerrin said, looking at the vines to see if they were hiding any herbs, feeling idiotic as he did so.

“Perhaps it would be more productive if we looked for water. A large number of herbs need prodigious amounts of water to grow. A lake should have a few.” Pannia proposed. Oh, right. Kerrin’s intelligence stat must have secretly dropped while there.

“Um, where would water be, though?” Kerrin asked, he had to admit, he could not find any indication of a lake in this vine jungle with his senses.

“Thankfully for you, I remembered to bring a water detector. Not all of us grew up in a place with plenty of water, you know. I might not need to drink water anymore, but I still like drinking it. I like it very much.” Panni said, taking the device out.

The two of them followed the compass-like device to a lake, trying to be stealthy. The overgrowth of vines made that hard, however, too much of it had to be cut away to pass. The subsequent noise was practically a beacon to everyone nearby.

In the end, maybe they were lucky, maybe the zoning reduced the number of people hunting, but they reached the lake without much issue. The reason was that the problem was waiting for them. The lake was green. A fluorescent moss covered green with some weird kind of flowers.

“So, if we were to rate the likelihood of this lake being poisonous on a range of one to ten, how much would you rate it?” Panni asked, jokingly.

“A zero. The scent is putrid, but not poisonous. I suspect this is some kind of flower-bearing moss. The last flower-bearing moss I came across was a life-saving medicine.” Kerrin replied as he isolated a drop of water and separated its constituents.

“Just look at it, the moss is very slow to multiply, and dies when you remove it out of the water. A parasitic moss would not be so slow. A poisonous one might, but so would a medicinal moss. I suggest we store some anyway.” he continued.

“And what? Run experiments on it? Or do we hope to run across someone that knows what this stuff is?” Panni replied, scoffing.

“The moss can be grown back in the Land of the Six Jewels. And Argus and the rest might know what it is, or at least get some idea from it. An available resource shouldn’t be abandoned so readily.” Kerrin replied.

“A wise decision. Though I must ask that you not take any more of the moss than you have, my children need it to survive.” a voice said from the lake. Kerrin looked for its source, but could not find it.

“I am down here, follow the source of my- No, not there - Here! Here! Yes, here.” the voice said, yelling to get Kerrin’s attention. The source was a tiny fish mouth bobbling up from the moss surface.

“Hello, I am Scarface, King of the fish. How do you do?” the fish asked.

“I do well, Scarface. Is this your territory?” Kerrin asked. The fish was not the first sentient beast he had come across, but it was the first aquatic one.

“Yes, the lake has been home to me and my kind since the First Warrior moved us here. I do hope that you will leave us be. But if you don’t, then I will have to take action. I doubt you want that.” the fish said, the aura of a peak Grand Tree grade cultivator flowing out. The fish would have been threatening in a normal Tourney, but not in this one. A few too many Spirit Trees were in the area.

“I will acquiesce. A good day to you, King of the fish.” Kerrin said, backing away.

“And isn’t that a surprise, a cultivator that actually listens. A word of warning, I am just one of the five Kings of the water. The air, Earth, Fire and Lightning have their five kings too. I know you fancy cultivators have got nine Spirit Trees, but don’t think we natives are helpless.”

“A polite and reasonable mind will be allowed to pass, a stubborn one will die.” the fish said, the mouth disappearing.

Kerrin had just gained something more valuable than some moss. The gift of knowledge. And a reminder to not anger the wildlife.

“Well, that was interesting. Do you think he was telling the truth about their being thirty-five Grand Trees?” Panni asked.

“The King said there were twenty-five Kings, not twenty-five Grand Trees. The question is, was the fish the strongest, or was he the weakest of them all? After all, this is a death trap by the First Warrior, not a playground for the Grand Elder’s heirs. As the Archduchess would say, the game is afoot, and the next move is ours. I choose to have lunch and wait for others to anger one of the Kings. I am sure it won’t take long.” Kerrin said.

Panni just looked at him for a second and said, “I would like lunch too. The question is, with what food?”

Kerrin just smiled as he took out a lunch box. Panni wasn’t the only one that could prepared he had learned a little on his journeys too.

Xerte

Xerte looked at the group passing below him from the safety of the treetops. Thankfully, he had learned the skill of camouflage, allowing him to have a chance at hiding out from two Spirit Trees. Sadly, two of Grand Elder Artica’s Grand Trees did not have such luck and had died to their hands.

The Spirit Trees were from Grand Elder Betaca’s faction, leading the hunt for his companions. A rather ruthless bunch, they had killed anyone that wasn’t from their faction to get their tokens.

Did they even realize that the other Grand Elders would protest one having so much land? Or did they have a secret plan? Or was the Grand Elder on some kind of world ending quest?

But whatever the case, Xerte had only one goal at present, stay hidden and avoid getting killed. And maybe eavesdrop on their conversations. Oh, here came the Spirit Trees, clearly a pair of siblings, his way.

Xerte melded into the tree as he listened to their conversation.

“Are we sure about this Koris? I don’t like giving our hard-earned stuff to the Itacia people.” the girl said.

“Yes, Norrin, I know you are hesitant, but Mother’s plan is too good. And the zoning is just helping us, after we kill everyone in this zone, no one will know who actually killed all those descendants. After we sneak all the tokens into the Itacia camp, we can just say that we hid the entire time as the Itacia hunted everyone down.

The large portion of land combined with the killed heirs should turn the other Grand Elders against Itacia as Mother planned. Just imagine, we will be the ones that helped Mother avenge big brother’s death.” Koris, the boy, replied.

“And you need to remember that Grand Elder Betaca never paid any attention to us until brother died. I know when I am being used, brother, even if you don’t.” Norrin replied. Grand Elder Betaca wanted to kill Grand Elder Itacia? And Grand Elder Itacia had killed Grand Elder Betaca’s son? What a mess.

Xerte frowned at their conversation, if they wanted to frame Grand Elder Itacia then they would need to kill the Archduchess and the rest. And more than that, their plans had too many holes in it. The only way Grand Elder Betaca could pull this off was if her people were dead, killed by Grand Elder Itacia’s faction.

“And that is why I am the heir, Norrin. I know better than to trust those ridiculous instincts of yours. Just do what you want to do.” Koris said as he walked off. Norrin rolled her eyes at him and went in the opposite direction. The group soon went on their way, splitting up for some reason. Perhaps they wanted to cover more ground?

Xerte rested on the tree for a few minutes after they left, making sure that no one was coming back. And no one did. Xerte moved out of the tree, finding himself face to face with Norrin. How had she hidden herself? Xerte immediately backed away, attempting to run away.

“I am not here to kill you, Adventurer. I just want you to deliver a message to the Archduchess. Tell her that she must stop my mother at all costs, if she gets her way then the world will be consumed by flames of war.

A war on a level that we may never recover from. A world war. I doubt even your organization will be enough if that happens.” Norrin said before disappearing, leaving behind a single token.

Xerte picked it up, it was the ally token used to represent allies of the organization that could be called upon for aid if things went wrong. The token was given to only those that were trusted by the local organization head.

Xerte had no idea if it was real, but he would deliver the message anyway, because he did agree with her on one thing: Grand Elder Betaca had to be stopped. The world could not go to war.

Altura

I cautiously headed out of the cave, observing for enemies. The plan was simple: find allies, kill enemies, get Qi. Sadly for me, things were easier said than done. The vines made it hard to sneak anywhere, the monsters around were lacking, and monsters got sentient at the Grand Tree level anyway.

As I crept through the forest, I came across my first challenger. A group of Grand Trees carrying a portrait of me. Seriously, a portrait of me? What, could they not remember my face? I suppose it would help verify if they forgot.

I crept up to their camp, watching their movements, hearing their conversations.

“Are we any closer to tracking her down? I am getting impatient, you know.” one of the men remarked.

“Oh, keep your temper in, Jorrelius. The tracking will happen when it happens. And do remember that we are to give her to the main group, the tokens might not be transferable.” the man with my portrait replied.

“As long as I get to enjoy her.” the man said, smiling. Ok, that was it, that guy was going to be the first to die.

“Oi! I am the one tracking, I get first take.” the other one said. But I had had enough. A bolt of lightning descended on the man, annihilating the Mid-Treeling. How did he like being first now?

I stepped into the clearing, letting my aura billow out, invoking my [Royalty] trait to maximum level.

“Well, gentlemen, it would seem that you found me. But I doubt you will enjoy this experience.” I said as I shot Jorrelius in the chest with a fire bolt. Perhaps I could have taken them prisoner, but for the life of me I could not get up an ounce of mercy for them. And where exactly would I keep them prisoner? No, it was best to get this over with.

The other three tried to react, but were all killed in a single shot. The staff, my stats, the casting all conspired to make me way more powerful than my peers at the same level. And these weren’t even my peers, three of them were in the Early-Grand Tree stage. And now for the Qi.

System, show notifications.

Qi gained.

2 Mid-Grand Tree stage cultivators: 2 X 1,750,000 Qi= 3,500,000 Qi

3 Early-Grand Tree stage cultivators: 3 X 500,000 Qi= 1,500,000 Qi

Level up requirements unmet.

7 tokens gained

Ugh, stingy System. I needed more Qi! I looked around the camp, looking to see if there was any loot to be had. And there was! The guy with the portrait had some kind of spatial ring to him.

I removed it from his finger, eager to see what was inside. I was shocked. The spatial ring wasn’t the usual ring, it was a kind of space that could store people. And inside, in addition to stores of food, spirit stones and gold were two rows of cages.

And in one of those two cages were two girls, girls I recognized to be the two Trees send by the Gorge. I clenched my fists as I, very carefully, removed them from in there, the process was delicate at the best of times.

But if I was sure of one thing, the ones behind this were going to pay. I was going to make sure of it even if it was the last thing I did. I was the Archduchess Altura Selrin, after all. I could not stand for such things, especially not when they were already hunting me.