The world of Laeris had an expansive ecosystem, with each notable location having unique flora and fauna within. On the continent of Mertiz, one of the most unique group of creatures would be those residing in the Dark Woods. With the trees towering above blocking out most of the sunlight, those residing on the forest floor have developed versions of ‘sight’ to find prey and to avoid predators in the perpetual twilight. The most powerful of all of the creatures were the Leshiye, towering humanoid beings with flesh of bark and vines, which controlled large swathes of the forest. These beings would be above all animals and monsters within their domain, and would send their underlings on tasks to gather food and defend their territory from invaders.

And it was this creature that a human, alongside his companion fox, had decided to hunt. After Serena had gone to sleep, and Jake had extracted himself from the sleeping Owl-Kin, he had spoken with Lilith about how to reduce the costs for his bindings. He had come to an understanding in the night that he would require more help with the task the Goddess had given him. While Lilith couldn’t give any details, she had said that the heart of a powerful beast could be used in an item to help.

This had led him to one of the Elven hunters, who happened to return to the flat around the same time, and they had described the most dangerous creature around the forest as a ‘tall tree man’. After getting directions to where the closest one was, he had jumped off of the flat, with Mizutsune following behind him. Mizutsune had stated that if he did not follow Jake, then the human would become lost and more than likely die in the forest. Jake could not dispute the point, and simply ignored it.

The duo had been moving through the forest for roughly an hour before they had come across anything interesting besides the occasional glowing light in the distance and rabid animal, which did not openly attack them unless they moved too close. Jake had stopped in front of woven branches, forming a makeshift wall in between the towering trunks of the Elderwoods. Skulls of different beasts were planted on sticks along the edges of the wall, proof that there was some form of intelligent beast in the area.

Jake grunted, expelling a cloud of cancerous smoke from his lungs as he flicked the butt of a cigarette into the woods, after making sure that the ember was out. “Well, I think we found our tree-man.”

Mizutsune snorted, fog rolling off of his body. “What gave it away, Master?”

Jake scratched his chin, rolling his eyes slightly. “Well, if you look closely, you can tell that this part of the forest is a little bit different. It definitely wasn’t the wall made out of living vines, or the tribal territory markings that gave it away. Definitely not.”

The fox snorted again, then yawned, showing his gleaming teeth that reflected the purple light from the orb of fire slowly spinning around the human’s head. “Would you like to do the honors, Master?” The fox nodded his head at the wall of vines.

Jake grinned. “Gladly.” Raising his hand, he batted at the air like a cat. A blade of compressed air blasted through the dense vegetation, slicing through the wall of vines. The wedge of air continued into the darkness, slamming into a tree at the edge of purple light and gouging into the bark, chips of wood flying into the air.

Turning to the fox, Jake doffed an imaginary hat and bowed, one hand pointing into the now open wall. “Please, Master Fox. After you.” Mizutsune rolled his eyes at the human, and sauntered through the wall. “You know,” Jake continued as he maneuvered through the severed vines, “I think that I’ve gotten stronger with the spells. Not just level wise.”

“I would expect so, Master.” Mizutsune’s cold voice rebounded through his skull. “Like most, magical proficiencies gain strength as they are used. What are your proficiencies at now?”

Jake blinked. “… I completely forgot to check. Give me a sec.” Pulling up his Affinities list, Jake looked through all of his progression.

Primary Elemental Proficiencies Air: 63% Earth: 0% Fire: 66% Water: 0% Light: 0% Dark: 65% Secondary Elemental Proficiencies Fel: 32.75% N/A

Jake whistled slightly, looking at the menu. “I’m almost at the Grandmaster for Fire, about four more percent then I can reach that milestone. Air is still pretty low, but I guess I haven’t really used it that much.” Looking at the Fel proficiency, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Do you know anything about this Fel affinity? I haven’t used it at all, yet it’s increased.”

Before his fox could respond, a blue screen pushed his Skill list aside.

I got this one! Since it is a combination of two of your elements (Fire and Dark), and counts as a sub element of both of those, it is the average of what those sub-elements would be. For example, if you were to ever unlock the Lightning affinity, it would be at half of your Air affinity (63/2=31.5). So for this example, the full equation would be ((66+65)/4=32.75). Now, for the really good stuff. If you were to increase your sub-element affinities, it would also increase their primary affinity!

Jake blinked, then groaned. Can we not do math? I hate math.

Aww! But it’s so fun! Ree’Vol and I would get into discussions sometimes about the good stuff. Creating theoretical features for this world. We had to cut most of them, since they would normally end up creating some form of monster, or making it impossible for certain species to live without being killed by a passing breeze. I really miss one of them, though. It was a system for adding sentient dungeons to the world, but Ree’Vol made the point that they would either be completely wiped off the world, or take it over too quickly for the other races to adapt. That, and when we tried it with a small sample, they all ended up creating the same type of dungeon, which made it rather boring.

Jake stared at the message, never seeing Lilith this excited about anything. I mean, I think that intelligent dungeons would be cool. But who the hell is Ree’Vol? How the hell do you even pronounce that?

I know right! And its pronounced with hard ‘e’s and ‘o’. He’s the god of Fate and Destiny, or some such. He was that dark and spooky smoke-man that showed up when you died. He’s basically my opposite, and we take care of this world together. He doesn’t really pay attention to mortals, so they started calling me the All-Mother. I guess you could say that we’re twins, since we were formed at about the same time.

Formed? You’re really starting to confuse me here. A blue screen appeared again, but was overridden with a blood red screen, which Jake had never seen before.

Ignore what Lilith has explained to you. She is very excitable, and tends to ramble during those times. I have made multiple attempts to curtail these moments, but my efforts have been for naught. As she has made multiple comments that have revealed far too much information for one such as yourself, I will become much more active in my… efforts, so to speak. - The Fate-Binder

Jake froze, reading through the ominous message again. … Umm, Giggles? Did you…

The red screen faded away, being replaced by a smaller blue screen.

Lilith is unavailable at this moment. Please leave a message.

Jake slowly waved away the message, and turned to Mizutsune who had stopped when he noticed Jake was not following him. “I think Lilith might have died.” Jake stated simply, still trying to figure out exactly what happened in the last minute.

Mizutsune blinked, then shrugged slightly. “I highly doubt that, Master. Gods do not die.” His voice grew sharper. “But, there is a high chance that we will die if you do not pay attention to our surroundings.”

Jake snapped into focus, nodding. “You’re right, sorry. Kill big tree-man first, worry about gods later.” He glanced around into the twilight, looking for anything that could be considered a giant man made out of ‘tree’. “Do we have any idea where this thing might be?”

Mizutsune sighed. “Yes Master, I know exactly where this magical being is supposed to be. I sent a letter ahead, and the monster is preparing a wonderful meal for us, complete with tea. It will be delightful. And after, it shall offer its heart on a silver platter as a way of thanking us for our friendship. What do you think, Master?”

“Someone’s having a bad day. Besides Giggles, of course.” Jake continued to stare into the surrounding darkness. Grunting to himself, he scratched the back of his neck, trying to figure out where to go. Jake froze for a moment, an idea blooming into his mind. A smile began to grow on his face, and he turned to Mizutsune.

“I think I have an idea. Hypothetically, if you were some big bad tree boss, and someone decided to burn down your area of the woods, would you be upset enough to come and confront the bad pyromaniac?”

Mizutsune stared at Jake, his sapphire eyes twinkling in the violet light. “… More than likely. But, you must remember Master, that this creature would assuredly not be sentient. I do not think that our logic would make sense to something of that sort.” Mizutsune turned to stare into the darkness, watching dark shapes move back and forth through the twilight. “I would say that we should prepare before we begin, at the very least.”

Jake glanced into the darkness, light reflecting off of eyes in the darkness. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m surprised that they haven’t attacked yet.” Jake kneeled, taking a cigarette out of his inventory and lighting up. I need all the regeneration I can get for this. Binding really takes chunks out of my mana.

Mizutsune snorted, glaring at the figures in the darkness. “They have been watching us ever since we came into their territory. I believe that your wind magic has spooked them enough that they won’t attempt a full frontal assault, but I shall remain vigilant in case of ambush.”

Jake grunted in response, having already begun his Binding. Liquid darkness began to crawl and slither towards a point on the ground in front of the kneeling human, forming a pool of shadow. The pool slowly expanded, broiling and bubbling like boiling water. Time passed as the pool grew even larger, large enough for Jake to bathe in the liquid shadow if he wished.

Tendrils of darkness slowly formed along the outsides of the pool, expanding outwards at a crawl. The tendrils arched upwards and curved back into the pool, creating a ghastly image of blackened ribs in a stew. As Jake finished his cast, the tendrils thrust themselves into the pool and disappeared into the frothing darkness.

A pale blue hand burst forth from the pool, blackened chitin glinting in the purple light from its wrist. Its long fingers began to tear at the darkness surrounding it, creating a hole through the shadows. A second hand burst forth, adding its efforts in extracting a creature from the depths of oblivion.

The face of the creature burst through the darkness, the chitin from its prominent forehead gleaming in the darkness. Dead, fish-like eyes moved slowly, scanning the surroundings for any threats or, more than likely, sources of food. Its lipless maw opened and closed with each shuddering breath, strands of saliva dangling off of its needle teeth.

The creature began to haul itself out of the pool of shadows, liquid darkness pouring from the folds of its chitin armor. As the towering figure rose to its full height, it let out a rumbling roar that reverberated throughout the woods. The frill that extended from the back of its head to between its shoulder blades expanded fully, shaking with the strength of its roar.

Jake grinned, perspiration dripping down his face. “Welcome back, Lurker. Are you hungry? I bet you’re hungry.”

The Lurker didn’t respond, and simply stared into the darkness. Jake grunted, standing up and flicking the burnt out cigarette into the foliage. He glanced over to his fox, quirking an eyebrow. “You ready to see if this will work?”

Mizutsune nodded, his eyes never leaving the darkness around them. “Always ready, Master. I would actually prefer to start sooner rather than later. There seems to be more creatures out there, and they have surrounded us.”

Jake looked into the darkness, the twisting shadows seemingly far deeper than what they were before. Eyes glinted in the darkness, and an unearthly chill seeped into his bones, sapping his strength. “I’m on it.”

Jake walked a few paces forwards, and stopped. He closed his eyes, his lips moving in silent mutterings. Let’s see… I don’t think that would work… maybe… Ah! Here we go! The human spread his arms to his sides, and violet flames began to lick at his body. The flames grew longer, lighting up the towering trunks of the Elderwoods in purple light. A slight wind began to weave through the trees, growing until a screaming vortex of spinning air was surrounding the human with arms raised, the flames roaring to the sounds of the wind. Letting the magic build up for a few more moments, Jake opened his eyes and forcefully brought his arms in front of him with a resounding smack.

With the sound of a thunderclap, the flames exploded from his body in a fan of violet hell fire. The flames were spurred onwards by the rushing winds, feeding the hungering flames to greater heights and temperature. The closest small plants instantly combusted and turned to ash, being sucked away by the raging inferno. The Elderwood trees, the giant unbreakable monoliths that served as homes for thousands of animals and creatures, groaned and bent from the force of the blast, their bark smoldering and catching fire in moments.

But the pyroclastic torrent did not stop. Where the wave of flame went, death followed on swift wings. The beasts and monsters that had begun to encircle the invaders attempted to flee for their lives, but they were not fast enough. The wave of fire swept all within its wake to their deaths. The blast of air sucked the breath from their lungs, and when they tried to regain what was stolen, flames flew into their waiting lungs to incinerate the creatures from the inside out.

The wave of flame continued into the distant darkness, lighting the surrounding world into a myriad of purple and black light. Jake blinked at the destruction, not realizing how potent it would be. Slowly turning back to Mizutsune, he scratched the back of his neck. “… I think that I might have over done this.”

Before the fox could respond, the sounds of breaking and snapping wood permeated through the forest, the earth shuddering occasionally as if a great weight was being placed on the ground constantly. At the very edges of the violet flames dancing in the distance, a gargantuan figure broke through into the light, humanoid with what appeared to be antlers breaking through the top of its head.

Mizutsune snorted, walking forwards to stand by his human. “There is no such thing as ‘over done’ when it comes to fire, Master. And it seems to have gained the attention of our prey.” Mizutsune’s body began to glow with silver light, and the fox reared his head back and screeched in challenge. Jake grinned in response, grabbing another cigarette and lighting up to help regain all of his mana.

The figure answered with a roar of its own, a deep sound that was more akin to the creaking of giant trees than any flesh and blood creature. With lumbering steps, the giant began to move towards the group, brushing aside all in its way to exterminate those that dared to intrude on its sanctuary.

With a thought, Jake sent his Bound to intercept. With a grumbling growl, the Lurker lurched forwards. When the two giants were meters apart, the Lurker reared its head backwards and shot forward writhing tentacles out of its mouth, spearing into the other giant.

With a groan of wood, the giant’s advance halted, and it was forced to contend with the beast of Oblivion. It raised a thin arm, the three fingers of its hand pointing towards the Lurker. Roots exploded from its hand and began to wrap around the monster, constricting and crushing its life away.

The Lurker retracted its tendril tongues and began to bite and cut the roots away from it, but the bark was too thick for the creature’s claws to penetrate. As the Lurker was within a meter of the other giant, a large spike of glowing blue ice slammed into the Tree Giant’s head, breaking its hold on the Lurker and forcing it to stumble backwards with the sound of snapping wood.

The Tree Giant turned towards its new attacker, seeing a glowing silver fox in the distance, its three tails swaying in the breeze. The giant roared at the fox, and began to charge at the new threat, ignoring the lances of ice that continuously bored into its skin. Before it could move more than a few meters, something wrapped around its giant legs and caused the monster to slam into the forest floor with a loud crash.

The Tree Giant roared, turning itself around on the ground to fend off this new threat, but the only thing close enough for it to hit was the Lurker, which had backed off slightly and was simply growling at the giant. Glancing down towards its feet, the Tree Giant noticed tendrils of shadow wrapped around its legs, slowly crawling upwards on its wooden body. With a lurch, the tendrils began to drag the giant backwards.

The Tree Giant slammed its hands into the ground, the roots of its hands rooting itself in place. It roared in pain as the wood of its lower body began to split and break from the force of the pull from the tendrils of shadow, but at least it had stopped moving.

Disengaging one hand from the soil, the giant reaches down towards the tendrils of shadow holding it in place and severs them with a few swipes of its root-like claws. As the shadows dispersed into black smoke, another blast of ice slams into the giant’s exposed back, wood and sap flying into the air.

The Tree Giant roared in pain, but was slammed back into the ground by the Lurker before it was able to rise. The two giants bit, slashed and mauled each other for what seemed like a lifetime, chips of wood and brackish blood and flesh flying from the melee. It ended when the Tree Giant wrapped roots around the Lurkers head, and wrenched the bulbous head around. With a loud crack, the Lurker lost all control and flopped against the giant.

Throwing the dead beast away from itself, the giant slowly forced itself to its feet, wood groaning and snapping with the movements. After it had regained its feet, the giant reared back and roared into the sky, proving again that it was the master of its domain, and that all who dare to trespass will be dealt with.

“Well, that was a little disappointing.” The voice came from above the giant, and as it turned to look into the sky a gust of high pressured wind slammed into the giants’ shoulder, sheering through its defenses and separating the left side of its body straight downwards. With a scream of pain, the giant fell to the ground, greenish sap leaking from the massive rend through its body.

With a fluttering of air, a figure dropped out of the sky on wings of writhing shadows. He gazed at the limp Lurker, shaking his head slightly. “I mean, maybe? This thing could just be strong. What do you think, Mizu?”

The silver fox that had peppered the giant trotted into view, its sapphire eyes glinting in the flames that still raged through the darkness. It barked and yipped, then shrugged its shoulders up and down.

“Yeah, I think so too.” The being shrugged its shoulder as well, then walked over to the fallen giant. “Sorry, big buddy. But we need your heart. No hard feelings?” The light glinting off of white teeth as the figure smirked was the last thing that the giant saw before a blade of compressed air severed its head from the rest of the body.

Jake sighed, scratching the back of his head. “I really thought the Lurker would be stronger.”

Mizutsune moved around the growing pool of sap seeping out of the giant. “That beast was mindless, Master, and it was fighting against something that was much stronger than it. I am surprised that it fared so well.”

“Guess that makes sense.” Jake mumbled to himself as he went through the notifications for his fight.

You have defeated [Unidentified Beast] x5. Experience for [Unidentified Beast] has been withheld until conformation of kill has been verified by your own eyes. You have defeated the Elder Leshy, Nkjorl Lvl 62. Congratulations! You have reached Lvl 42! Int +3, Wis +3, 3 Attribute points ready for distribution. New Spell Created: Pyroclap From your knowledge, the four things that a fire needs to exist are Fuel, Heat, Air and Chemical Reactions. Your magic provides the Fuel, your rage fuels the Heat, and adding in Air will force the fire to spread farther and faster. The more Air magic powered into this spell, the farther and more violently the spell will go off, but it will die sooner due to an imbalance with the reactions between magic and the living world. Mana Use: 120 m/s (Averaged. Mana use dependent on ratio of Fire and Air magic used.) Congratulations! Your pet Mizutsune the [Tri-Tailed Frost-Bound Fox] has reached Lvl 29!

Jake hummed to himself, going over the notifications. He put two of his points into Endurance and the last into Vitality, bringing both up to 30. He glanced over at Mizutsune, who had found a place to sit where there was no blood or sap. “You really didn’t get that much experience from the fight, Mizu. Was that because you didn’t help all that much, or is it something else?”

Shaking his head, Mizutsune’s cold voice reverberated through Jake’s mind. “While it is true that I did not assist that much for this conflict, it is not uncommon for my race to stagnate at this level of power. The bottleneck between a Tri-Tailed and a Quad-Tailed beast is massive. If I had to make a guess, it would require the same amount of combat experience as a lowly Single-Tail to get to my power for me to gain my next tail.”

“That… sounds really shitty.” Jake pulled a [Skinning Knife] out of his inventory and went to the Leshy’s corpse. He kneeled down and began to cut into the bark around its chest, looking for its heart.

Mizutsune shrugged his shoulder, small streaks of frost rolling off of his body. “It is something that I have grown to live with, Master. We gain power exponentially when we gain our next tail, along with a higher intelligence. Apparently, the requirements for gaining the fifth and sixth tails are even more impressive.”

Jake grunted as his hand reached into the chest of the Leshy, and he could not help but shudder slightly. “This feels so weird. It’s like warm syrup… I think I got it.” Yanking his hand out of the corpse and shaking off the excess sap. A large knot of wood was held tightly in his grasp, what appeared to be arteries branching off of the central knot. Green light pulsed within lines of the heart, as if it was still beating and pulping sap through the Leshy.

Jake waved the notification of obtaining the [Heart of the Woods] away, and placed the object into his inventory. Pulling a spare pair of clothes out of his inventory that he had grabbed from the Beast-Kin, he quickly changed out of his ruined clothing. After changing, the human looked around into the darkness of the woods, with the exception of the violet flames that were petering out, with only small flames lighting the darkness.

He paused for a second, scratching his chin. He turned back to Mizutsune, who was staring off into the darkness with a blank expression. “Hey. Do you know how to get back?”