Andrea looked like she was about to haul off and beat their human captive to death when the man wisely shut his mouth. Julius for his part moved over and placed a hand on Andrea’s shoulder.

“Enough, we captured him alive for a reason, and I doubt you’d be too thrilled or quiet if the circumstances were reversed. Let’s just get him back home, and call an end to the day ok? It isn’t like it matters if he is awake at this point.”

Julius said while motioning to the forest around them, “we are well behind the ward stones at this point, so he couldn’t find his way back here even if he did escape.”

Andrea glared first at the human and then at Julius crossing her arms as if she was about to put up a fight about not being able to do what she wanted with the prisoner, instead she just stormed past him and down the trail. “ Fine, but we take him straight to the elder then, I’d rather not deal with the human any longer than I have to.”

Julius gave a mild glare to the back of Andrea’s head seeing as that was clearly what they were already planning on doing. Saying nothing of it though he just patted the top of his root golems head and kept walking, it wouldn’t be more than an hour before they reached the village and Julius was eager to put today’s patrol behind him.

Alyx meanwhile had listened to the exchange with interest but no real understanding of what was being said. His grasp of german extending to exactly one phrase and that being, good morning. Once their conversation was over and it became apparent that the two ..elves? Were content to ignore him Alex turned his thoughts back to his status and what he deemed were messages from the system. Namely

Even as he brought the message to the forefront of his mind, the message itself warped and changed.

Aartex :Etherial bull spirit.

…

…

…

…

Changeling: Fae shapeshifter able to impersonate any humanoid race

…

…

Drake: Lesser dragons with subspecies according to element

…

…

…

…

Orthrus: Two-headed dog, a guardian beast

…

…

… Paragon: The peak of your current race, the best your species can be.

…

…

…

...

And on and on and on the list read, Alyx really wasn’t certain what to make of it. To not be human anymore? I mean that’s effectively what is being offered here. Is that something I have to do? What are the downsides of picking a tier six-race? Too many questions, not enough answers.

Not to mention my class, [Essence Shifter]. I can apparently turn into an Owlbear now, which in theory sounds pretty amazing actually. But again leads to more questions, for instance, if I turn into an Owlbear do I only have Owlbear level intelligence? This leads to questions like, how smart are Owlbears?

“What I need is a tutorial or a user manual,” Alyx muttered to himself, and either the elves didn’t hear him or didn’t mind him talking to himself in so long as he was quiet, it isn’t like he could just ask and find out though.

Another question popped into his head, his [minor strength], [minor endurance], and [minor coordination] had clearly made him well...better at all of those things, would that carry over to his Owlbear form, would the buff be a proportional percentage based deal or would it be a static increase of his statistics.

You might think to yourself Alyx probably has better things to worry about right now, and yes that did cross his mind as well but he’d already tried and failed to break free of the thing holding him, and while turning into an Owlbear might allow him to escape...again the worry of being trapped with an animalistic intelligence comes to mind.

So for now, Alyx was content to be carted off to who knows where, possibly to more people if he was lucky, and hey if lady luck was really doing him a solid those people might be able to speak English and be entirely reasonable maybe even tell him how to get home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx should under no circumstances be considered a lucky man.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Symphonia Wildstamer was what one would consider a traditionalist among elves, which is saying something considering they are a people heavily rooted in their traditions. At 2183 years old she was the oldest living elf in the village of the MIste. Which of course makes her the village elder, Symphonia had spent the entirety of her long life in the forest of the mist, watching the ebb and flow of growth followed by rot. The forest was filled with new growth these past ten years and her village was doing well, thanks to her guiding hands. With a mildly crooked back and silver-white hair, the lines of age crisscrossing her body spoke of time hard spent working outdoors.

Symphonia was not content to leave the chores to the younger generation, oh no, she rose before dawn to tend the animals and the trees of her forest home. Her calloused hands and knarled knuckles spoke for themselves. Active and vibrant with life despite her age, Symphonia was widely considered the grumpiest elf in the entire village. With age and levels to back up her authority, it was a rare day indeed that someone altered her plans or spoke against her way.

In fact, if worst came to worst Symphonia was also known to give people a good thwack with her walking stick. Her [Moderate Strength] was fairly famous in the village and very few elves would dare risk the wrath of that stick.

In short, she was a grumpy old lady who carried a very big stick.

And she was not pleased to see two of her rangers returning to the village through the front gate with a human in tow, even if it was tied up and mounted on the back of one of Julius’s root golems.

Shuffling forward from her front porch where she had been feeding her favorite cockatrice, Symphonia fixed the trio with a glare.

“I hope you at least washed that before you brought it into the village! Harumph, you two look filthy! Why are you covered in blood?” The old woman waved her walking stick threateningly at the two of them and even Andrea flinched back from the old woman's rage. Julius though just smiled and bowed slightly to the elder. Before motioning to Andrea and the human. “ We found him fighting an Owlbear, and the human displayed some unique skills, we thought he might be of interest to you Elder Wildstamer. He displayed multiple stat buffs. We believe them to be Strength and Coordination….possibly even Endurance, though it could have simply been [Pain tolerance].

If Symphonia was surprised by any of that it certainly didn’t show on her face, if anything her frown deepened. And she turned to look at the captive human and then Andrea.” Well, you are being awfully quiet! What about the blood all over you both?” This time Andrea stepped forward and bowed to the Elder.” The blood is from the Owlbear Elder WIldstamer, we recovered both the hide and much of the meat for the village.”

Symphonia mulled that over while trying to glare at both of the elves at the same time before Harumphing and giving them a brief nod of the head.” Good then, well done. Welcome home rangers, relive yourselves and go wash up, oh and take the meat and hide to Jacobson, I shall see what this human has to offer.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alyx would like to be seeing what is likely an elven village for the first time, but the root golems hold on him is like a vice and he can only stare forlornly at the canopy of trees above him, every once in a while glimpsing the shadow of someone moving nearby but otherwise he could do little more than stare upward as the elves conversed with someone who had to be an authority figure.

“Please don’t be cannibals, that’s all I ask”. He muttered under his breath as the two elves who captured him left him with what had to be the figure of authority, though she sounded incredibly old. The root golem began moving again and he found himself lead inside of a building, though it all seemed to be made of a single piece of flowing wood, at least from his vantage point. When finally the root golem seemed to collapse under him and he fell to the floor on his back. He was barely able to get himself into a sitting position before being assaulted by the wrinklies old woman he had ever seen in his! As if sensing his thoughts he was immediately bonked on the head by her walking stick.

“Ouch! Hey, come on! I come in peace!”

Bekomme keine lustigen Ideen menschlich, setz dich still! Bah! Du verstehst kein Wort, das ich sage, oder? Typisch wandert in Elfenländer und kann sich nicht einmal die Mühe machen, die Zunge zu lernen. Was für eine Verschwendung von Komponenten, diese Klasse von Ihnen sollte besser etwas sein!”

When it became clear that what she was saying to him just wasn’t getting through, the old woman huffed and gave him an annoyed glare, before marching over to a small cabinet and rummaging around in it. This gave Alyx a couple of seconds to actually look around the room he was in, and it turns out he had been right. The entire building had to be a singular solid piece of wood, if these were in fact elves and not overly dedicated Larpers Alyx might even admit to the floor of the building feeling almost alive under his fingers.

He was brought out of his thoughts as the old woman marched back over to him and shook her staff threateningly before tossing a bunch of yellow powder in his face, Alyx was about to object when the powder began glowing in front of him, hanging in the air as if stuck in some form of stasis, the old woman gathered herself up in what should probably be called a pompous manner before reciting what Alyx would have to guess could only be some form of incantation.

“Durch den Ruf der wilden Wälder bitte ich diesen Narren vor mir um Führung, lass die Worte dieser Welt für ihn übersetzt werden, damit ich mit diesem Eindringling sprechen kann!”

When she finished chanting, the glowing dust took the form of what Alyx could only assume was some form of a glowing rune, shining brightly before vanishing entirely. Honestly, Alyx was flabbergasted, I mean that had to have been magic right? Honest to goodness chanting, ritual components, and glowing runes? What the fuck? I mean sure Alyx had assumed something weird was going on what with how he was being carried around behind the two elven rangers, be he hadn’t ever been able to lay eyes on the golem itself, that had been just one more mystery. But this, this was real magic…

A bonk on his head with the walking stick brought him out of his thoughts once more and he looked crosseyed at the old woman for a moment. She must have been talking to him again while he was daydreaming.

“Well? Can you understand me now? Or are you just another simpleton brought to my care hmm?”