He had heard rumors about this place. People were beginning to call it the Great Tree. Trade goods from this area were appearing in markets all over the continent. No one knew what the materials were, but they were incredible.

Leather-like armor as strong as plate. Every scan and experiment failed to determine its construction method. Weapons as strong as metal weapons. After the event, all metal seemed to evaporate. The eggheads had determined mana was bonding to the metal. Somehow the earth's magnetic fields interacted with the metal and bonded with the metal. The magnetic flow lines then cycled the mana-impregnated metal through the earth’s core. Scientists were astounded. It was a good working theory, but there were no scientific instruments left to test these theories.

This was why he was here. Someone here had made a discovery a way to make stable items. The items were as strong or stronger than anyone could make.

He wiped his brow. Jesus christ it was hot. He needed to get into this town.

He was told there was a visitor's town he would be directed to. But he didn’t want to go that way. All visitors who wanted to stay had to go through an initiation ritual. There was an opening in the tree. The person would enter. No one spoke about what happened inside. Some came out and were welcomed into the inner village. Some came out with no memory of what had happened. And some never came out.

He didn’t know what the selection process was but he was sure the tree was being weird. The vast majority of people accepted into the inner village were women. Some men and women came out with no memory. It was mostly men that had disappeared. He was worried if he tried to enter the normal way he wouldn’t be able to find what he was looking for. It was so unfair they weren’t sharing.

He slunk through the shadows. He wanted, no he needed to know what was their secret. He found a tunnel. He circled it. It had earth mounded up around the entrance. It was a fairly big entrance. He thought it was easy enough for him to stand up. He waited some more. Yeah, he was going to go in.

During the event he had received stealth abilities. Most people seemed to receive abilities that suited their personalities. He was a shifty motherfucker in the before times and now he was a shifty motherfucker with magic. If there had been anyone to watch him sneak his way in all they would have seen was a shifting patch of shadow.

He was expecting the tunnel to be dark but it wasn’t. Small patches of moss fluoresced in the dark. It wasn’t much but it was enough for his darkvision skill to activate. He slowly made his way down the tunnel. He could tell the mana density in this area was higher in the tunnels than they were outside.

He froze. He could feel something watching him. He extended his senses to their fullest ability and tried to find the source of the watching. He couldn’t find anything. He slowly turned his head this way and that. Searching. Searching. Searching. Nothing. He slowly raised his foot to go further.

Blackness. Pain. Red. The attack was so fast he didn’t have time to react. As his consciousness faded away he thought he heard a faint whisper. “Pinch, pinch.” And then there was nothing.

[Assanination skill Increased]