Chapter 7 The Realm of Ancients

The red and blue trees of a forest came into view, the peaceful sight of Hem Iree Woods. Yet, nothing in me felt peaceful. I wracked my brain trying to think what Tai’s plan could possibly be, but the solution wasn’t coming to me at all. Irritation bubbled in me and all I could do was try and contain the anger inside me.

I sat down and had to admit I needed time to figure it out. Still... it did not make me any less uneasy.

The fact of the matter was, I had a purpose to fulfil and that started out with finding a city. It was a bit of a bummer that Hayami and Mileva weren’t close to any Travelling Stones, so it would take some going for them to reach their respective cities to set up the mailing system.

I chuckled for the first time in what seemed days. The mailing system was a fun little mechanic. With these angry little pixies taking the letters from the cities and delivering them anywhere in the game, that is, if you set it up between acquaintances. It was kind of like a mutual agreement to be able to receive letters. This removed spam from the picture, well, at least long distance spam.

No matter how much time go by, I always found the angry pixies delivering the letters great fun.

I took a deep breath and look to my right in my peripheral vision. Starting from the top there was a small diamond, which signified my status, and below that a tree with stars and multiple colors, signifying my primary class, secondary class and general skill trees. Below that, were a small map icon and lastly the combo circle.

Flicking my finger, I tapped on my Status icon.

Wil Stormchild, I shook my head. That was Carli’s idea of a joke.

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 55

Guardian [Primary Class]

Swiftling [Secondary Class]

Health: 630

Energy Bar: 710 [Tier 3 accessible]

Armor Class: 70

>Equipped Weapons and Runes:

Xianmou [Deep Harrow Tree- Epic Rune][Attack Speed III-Rune]

Skinning Knife []

>Equipped Armor and Runes:

Reinforced Gjeriat Hide Armor -Torso-. [Enhanced Strength VII-Rune][Greater Health II-Rune]

Reinforced Gjeriat Hide Armor -Legs- [Acrobatics II-Rune][Haste I-Rune]

Fine Fur Cloak [Windwhisper-Glyph][Weather Resist I-Glyph]

Etched Silver Gauntlets [Swift Strike I- Rune][Stone body II-Rune]

Lightfoot Boots [Haste III-Rune][Jumping Jack-Unique Rune]

>Equiped Trinkets:

Shadow Veil Ring [Stealth +10%]

Amulet of the Protectors [Physical Resistance + 7%]

Armband of Might [Strength +1]

[...]

I nodded at the first list and ignored my attribute stats. I actually gained a level after my fights with the scaled level Hobgoblins. I flicked my finger onto the small map icon, and the world map filled my vision. It didn’t do anything to pause the game, there was no feature like that. You had to be fast or cautious if you opened up any of your maps, menus or inventories.

I studied the map, thinking about my options. Hem Iree Woods were actually halfway to the centre, but it became difficult to think about progressing further without preparing for it. The woods were like a small safe haven for adventurers to go find pets without being attacked by everything. How I got there in the first place was through a hard to find quest chain that led me to a cave with a teleportation circle with only five uses left in its power crystal. It was clear one needed to be careful in opening up the Travelling Stone for Hem Iree Woods then, otherwise you would lose access to it after those five times travelling there.

Fine, seeing the zones where between it lies, I could understand the developers wanted to use it as a tease of a place that was in the peaceful eye of the literal storm around it. Even at level 55, I didn’t know if could just walk out of the woods and be okay.

Nevertheless, even if Hem Iree Woods were my furthest point into the world, I still have to go to a city first.

I checked on my list of Travelling Stones to see check the cities and villages I had unlocked.

Hmmm... there was Tardok to the south, a city of warriors. That would have a mailing system.

Then, all that was left before I went there, would be to Level up and place my three skill points. I clicked on the Tree ic—

Sudden force struck me by surprise. In seconds, I was tumbling seeing, black, seeing the trees, seeing black and seeing the trees.

I gulped in breaths and realized I was being grappled. My first instinct was wondering what on earth attacked me in the Hem Iree Woods. It was not an aggressive area!

I struck out with my fists and it sent me skiing on the ground to a stop. Not wasting any time, I jumped and looked at my attacker.

Mr. Scary Bear.

I narrowed my eyes.

“Fancy seeing you here today. I’ll give you points for the surprise attack.”

All I got in answer was a loud growl reverberating through the trees.

“Ah, I missed you too.”

Quickly, I tapped my weapons Icon on the left menu and ignored the fact that it glitched out a bit. I tapped on Xianmou and watched it materialize. It was sad really, I did not want to kill that bear at all. But, I needed to settle back into the game, and get my stuff together to figure how to get to the Heart of the World. A sigh escaped me.

“Sorry, Mr. Scary Bear, we had fun times. Really.”

The bear stormed me. There was about thirty metres before it would hit me. I readied my sword, not even activating a special skill for the sword.

Five metres from me, a sudden small message popped onto my field of view.

[Scan Anomaly]........... [Error][%09/504].... ...[Unknown]...[New]... [Error/*&55%#]...[Z1]... [Error][01/*False]...[Reassemble initiation=Active]

“What the heck....?”

The bear struck me, I missed my direct centre strike and instead stabbed deeply into its leg, the bear on the other hand bit painfully into my shoulder and we went skidding across the ground.

It gnawed on my shoulder, and I started striking it with my free arm repeatedly, trying to get it to dislodge.

It didn’t budge one centimetre, so I tapped with my free hand on my left icons, on the weapon switch. My Skinning Knife popped into my left hand and I swung at the bear.

Without warning, this immense force, unlike anything I had ever felt struck me from the side. It swooped Mr. Scary Bear and me up and then we were sent flying into the sky at breakneck speed. My cheeks were flapping in the wind.

Within seconds, the trees disappeared and the ground raced away, enough to see the curvature of the world. The wind rushed past my face in great torrents. For a moment I glimpsed what I was sure was the Heart of the World zone. That view only lasted mere moments as the force sent the bear and I sideways and falling back to the world. I felt the g-force of the extreme acceleration compress my body; it was hard to keep consciousness. My eyes started dipping closed every other second. I glanced to my side to see the bear already knocked out. But, I desperately clung to my senses. As, we got closer to the ground, I realized we were over an entirely different zone, one I had never seen before. Though, I did remember seeing its name and a quick description while pouring over the World Expansion notes. The Crystal Gorges, a zone meant for mid level adventurers that seek to take on a tougher than normal challenge. It was as if a light bulb went on in my head. The game thought I ended up in Hem Iree Woods by accident and was sending me back to a random starting area.

Shock lanced up in me. The Zealot pod, they hadn’t recalibrated it to accept higher level players instantly. It was one of the last big changes to complete for every pod in design!

“Nooo!”

This couldn’t be happening!

“Stop!” I screamed out.

In the distance I could see a snow area and then a range of dagger like mountains that barred entrance into a frozen biome. But, I was certain somewhere beyond those mountains would be a rookie area.

There was things I could not and will not accept, and starting over in a rookie area against my choice, was high on that list.

Without any hint of what was going on, my boots ripped off my feet. This was bad!

Next, the torso piece of my Reinforced Gjeriat Hide Armor, which took me a whole month to acquire, tore off and fell into a dark and creepy biome beneath me. I knew where this was going and I couldn’t do anything about it.

I was powerless!

It was going to throw me back as a rookie with newbie gear and everything if I did nothing. Without a doubt, it was certain my levels had already taken a nosedive, how far down, I didn’t know yet. But, there were always different ways to power level. My greatest concern at that moment was the items and runes I had spent months assembling. Yet, I couldn’t think of a solution!

Then the bear came back into my view and an idea formed in my mind, a crazy idea, but anything was better than ending up with the rookies as a blank slate, stuck in a loooong-winded tutorial while I had such an important mission to tackle.

My sword was still stuck in the bear’s leg, which was also my best chance. Mr Scary Bear was a Level 59 Dire Bear, the game won’t pull it into the rookie area no matter what.

The Hobgoblins were monsters that shouldn’t have been there but they had somehow wandered into that starting zone which is in a way plausible. But, I was certain without a doubt the Triplets won’t ever force a Level 59 monster into a rookie area, which meant...

As the legs part of my Reinforced Gjeriat Hide Armor tore from my legs and fell to a mountain covered in snow not far below me, I sprung into action.

The bear was beginning to descend to the snow biome. So, hurriedly I ripped a long piece of the very average pants left on me, and tied my Skinning Knife to it and threw it with all my might at the bear’s other leg. It sunk in and inwardly I cringed. But, this needed to work, otherwise... that tutorial. I shuddered in dread.

I quickly tied it to my hand and started pulling myself to Mr. Scary Bear. With it, I lost a solid chunk of the airtime I had. Which brought me much closer to the ground, er snow now. Without waiting, I grabbed hold of my two main item pouches and held it clenched in my gauntlets, before I swung my arms around the unconscious Mr. Scary Bear.

Clinging on for dear life, two opposing forces became evident. The tug upwards was strong, but, I was counting on a higher level monster not being forced into a rookie area as a greater priority.

It became intense within seconds and I held on with everything I had. With force, my arm band ripped off and then my amulet. It sucked. But, by now what was way more important was me not ending up in a starter area at all.

Then the gauntlets started to heat up with the force of it trying to pull from my hands. It just made me hold on tighter, pulling every muscle in my arm to keep my grip. The force on my body started to lessen, but on the gauntlets, it was still plenty strong. My left hand struggled to maintain its grip. It was not my dominant hand.

I tried.

It ripped from my hand all of a sudden and with it the one bag. It fell into the snow, which was less than three metres below me now. Still I held on.

A rock protrusion struck me and the bear out of nowhere, and the bear stayed behind as I got flung with great velocity over the snowy hillside until I landed in the cold snow.

Out of breath, I sat up. The rocky hillside where the bear ended up was not in sight, making me realize the sheer force that had been in play. At the very least, I knew the direction in which I had to go.

Then I realized, I was in the middle of an unknown zone without my primary weapon with only a Skinning Knife attached to my makeshift rope and the average clothes on my back and one gauntlet.

I saw the only item bag that came with me in the snow, so I approached it. It quickly became apparent a lot of it got lost in the mad rodeo ride. It had a flint in it, my Great Strength II rune, which I had exchanged with the Deep Harrow Tree rune the other day and that strange key I had received for finishing the Hem Iree Woods’ Travelling Stone quest. Checking over the direction I was flung, I couldn’t see any other discernible items that got dropped. It was going to be a slog to even find some of my items.

I sighed. But, I got together the courage and tapped my status icon to see what the rest of the damage was.

Wil Stormchild

Race: Norskai

Level: 1

________ [Primary Class][Search for a main class tree in game.]

________ [Secondary Class][Explore and find your first sub class tree in the world]

Health: 40

Energy Bar: 50 [Tier 0 accessible]

Armor Class: 7

>Equipped Weapons and Runes:

Skinning Knife []

>Equipped Armor and Runes:

Stout Shirt {little to no shielding against the elements}

Stout Pants {ittle to no shielding against the elements}

Etched Silver Gauntlet -single- [Stone body II-Rune][Missing second gauntlet _ effectiveness halved.]

>Equiped Trinkets:

Shadow Veil Ring [Stealth +10%]

[...]

Level 1??? I lost my class trees!!!!

“AAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!” I screamed at the top of my voice. Startling a fox close by.