Chapter 36- Elder dryad essence.

As I start getting unnervingly close to the ground I prepare to use Blink to teleport down to the ground and null my momentum so I don't go splat as I reach the forest floor. Activating Blink, my vision cuts out for a split second before it comes back into focus on the shiny rock before me: the elder dryad essence.

"All this work for something so small…" I mumble as I reach out and pick up the small, round and smooth rock.

As my hand touches the essence, my mind and senses are flooded by millions of images, feelings and sensations of the history and lives of everything that lived or lives in the deep forest: Images and sensations of vibrant green-leafed trees, cool flowing streams where the fish swim upstream lively and the small creatures and critters who rush around the forest floor in search of food and shelter. The experience is so real that it feels like I am there in person and am the one experiencing the things, seeing the things and almost physically feeling how nature takes its course over hundreds of years.

As the rush of impressions ebb and die out and I am returned to myself and my own mind.

"So that happened…" I mumble to myself as I look at the small rock-like thing in my hand that glows with a soft green light. Turning the essence over in my hand, I inspect it closer: The rock is almost perfectly egg shaped and it is smooth and cool to the touch. Bringing my face closer, I notice a whiff of the smell of the forest about the rock, it smells of trees, of damp earth and green grass and moss.

"Strange magic rock thing indeed… But hey, it's magic; So, yeah, sure." I mumble absently as I continue staring at the thing. "… Now what? Do I go back and hand the rock over to Ter'vi?" I ask aloud as I continue inspecting the essence as I continue turning it over in my hand. "What does he even want it for?" I muse aloud as I gaze into the soft green light that is coming from deep within it. "A better question might be: What is he likely to do with it, and would it be harmful to me?" I ponder aloud as the soft green light flows in through my eyes. "Better yet, why should I even give him the essence? I should just keep it!"

…

… …

"… Wait just a damn minute here!" I exclaim in exasperagasm as I notice my thoughts are strange. "Is this damn thing manipulating my thoughts?! Am I going to go all Gollum on this damn rock!? - Hell no! I nope all over that." I fume as I decide to just throwing the damn thing away, only to stop myself short just as I am about to release the damn thing.

"No… I went through way too much shit just so I could get this damn thing to just toss it away like that. I'll just have to hurry the hell up and toss this damn rock on Ter'vi, wring him dry from spells and then get the hell out of this god damned death trap of a woodland." I mutter bitterly as I tuck the accursed essence into my coin pouch, turn on my heels and start my long trek back towards Ter'vi's house/tree cave thing that he had got going for himself.

Looking up at the foliage above me sweeping my gaze over the majesty of this place once last time, I notice more and more dryads are once again crawling out from whatever hidden nooks the previous ones came from.

"Nope: I'm freakin' done with you green bastards. I'm out." I mumble tiredly as I Blink several times until I reach the edge of the sanctuary of the dryads and feel the pressure from the Mana density abruptly lessen, making me breathe easier.

Taking in a deep breath, I enjoy the simple feeling of being able to breathe easily and labourlessly once again before I breathe out slowly.

Taking a moment to ease up and relax my body by rocking my shoulders, tilting my head left and right and jumping in place lightly to relax any unconscious tension, I set out on my journey through the woodlands back towards Ter'vi's home.

------

"I knew this shit would happen again…" I mutter as I once again dodge yet another of the charging turtle-boar monsters that I have already been attacked by a number of times the last hour or so since I started my return journey.

While I can quite easily just Blink away from the monsters, they unfortunately just keep rushing after and trying to headbutt me endlessly unless I put them down and it is becoming quite a hassle after the 10th monster.

On the positive side though, at least they don't seem to hunt in packs, or my encounters with them would become exponentially harder to handle and become a lot more dangerous, potentially even lethal.

That said though, I am starting to get tired of these dumb monsters that just blindly rush at me, over and over and over again; So I have started trying to put them down with a single well aimed wind-blade to the head to avoid using magic as much as possible, but it is proving to be quite a challenge to pull off: So far I have only manage it a handful of times out of the dozens and dozens of encounters, but I am getting better at it, slowly.

As the lastest rushing turtle monster comes within 30 meters of me, I take an iai stance and focus my thoughts on the take at hand: Killing the thing with a single wind-blade to its face.

As the monster reaches the 20 meter mark from me I draw and send the almost invisible transparent wind-blade flying towards its head that is tilted slightly downwards, poised to headbutt me all the whole it keeps me in its sights.

As the monster continues its rush headfirst into the wind-blade, the wind-blade bites into its heavily armored head, but unfortunately for the monster, it also hits its eyes straight on and continues its bloody work as parts of the wind-blade continues its flight and ravages the insides of the monsters eye-sockets and head. Screeching in pain and confusion, the monster tumbles and falls, struggling even as it slides across the damp forest floor.

A second later the monster falls limp and blood rushes out of its eye-sockets like a small stream, the wind-blade having reached its brain and inflicted lethal damage.

Sighing, I shake my head at the thing; I almost feel sorry for the thing. Almost; I know the thing wanted to rip me apart and eat me, so it's not like I will just let them go since they will come after me, but still.

"Just another million of these monster fucks before I master the wind-blade skill, whoo." I mutter bitterly, but then I shake my head slowly and turn my attention up towards the foliage above in a futile attempt to see the sky above.

It has begun to grow dark now, so I need to start finding somewhere to camp for the night but with the area swarming with monsters, I have a feeling that the prospects of actually surviving a night sleeping out here in the open to be very low, and that doesn't do much to put me in a better mood.

"So, what? It's climbing time again?" I mumble as I survey the lowest foliage above me for somewhere where I can sleep relatively safely as I continue walking along. "...I wonder if I shouldn't be able to see the cliff edge soon. It should be somewhere around here, right?" I muse aloud as I continue my survey for a decent place to spend the night up in the trees.

Half an hour later I decide on a tree branch where a whole bunch of vines crisscross and intersect one another, forming something close to a net of vines about 40 meters up.

"Good enough" I mutter and promptly Blink up to the branch, sit down and start eating the last of my rations and drinking water from my water-skins.

While I refilled my water-skins by the river I passed on the way in, my rations are not as easily replaced as I have no knowledge of how to preserve anything I manage to hunt or gather.

"Yet another thing I need to add to the list of things I need to learn…" I mumble tiredly between nibbling my rock hard ration bars.

"Whatever… I'll get around to it once I manage to get back to civilization." I conclude as I finish off my last ration bar. Taking a swig from one of my water-skins, I wash down the last of the ration bar.

Tying the water-skin back to my belt, I lie down and roll off the branch and onto the vine net.

"Comfortable enough, I guess." I comment to myself before I close my eyes and wait for sleep's sweet embrace.

End of chapter 36