As I escaped the camp, I looked at the skills I’d obtained with my new class. Typical for a Rogue, they were based around stealth and daggers.

Shadowmeld

Instant Cast – No Cost – 180s Cooldown

Surround yourself with shadow magic, masking your presence from detection abilities and becoming more difficult to see. Lasts for 60 seconds or until you enter combat.

Racial Synergy: Increased effectiveness when used in forests.

Twisting Fangs

Instant Cast – 10 Energy – 10s Cooldown

Stab your foe with your dagger(s), twisting them as you pull them out to apply a Bleeding debuff. Applies two stacks while dual-wielding daggers.

Kidney Shot

Instant Cast – 20 Energy – 30s Cooldown

Strike your foe and stun them for 1 second. Duration is doubled when you actually strike your foe’s kidney (or racial equivalent).

Apply Venom

3s Cast – No Cost – 60s Cooldown

Coat your dagger(s) in a deadly poison, applying a Poison debuff to your foe with each of your next 5 attacks. Consumables can be used to apply additional effects to the poison. Stacks are still consumed if attacks miss or are blocked.

I immediately activated Shadowmeld, hoping it would help me escape the camp unnoticed. The racial synergy I had as a Treant should make me even harder to see, and I hoped it would make me invisible to the Demonic Watchers. It made sense to me for them to count as a detection ability, but I still kept my eyes up to avoid them either way. Luckily, my stealth skill didn’t decrease my movement speed like some games. Then I would have had a tough choice between escaping faster or escaping stealthier.

Twisting Fangs looked like a nice boost to my damage, not that I really knew anything about that yet. For all I knew, the Bleeding debuff could do almost no damage. I’d have to test that later, once I wasn’t pressed for time. For now, I had to figure out how Energy worked. Obviously, that was the Rogue’s resource system. I needed to figure out how much I had and how fast it regenerated. Otherwise, I could run out of Energy to stun an enemy with Kidney Shot with no warning.

The instant I thought that, two bars appeared at the bottom of my field of vision, one red and one yellow. I assumed the red bar was my health and the yellow bar was my Energy. As a test, I activated Twisting Fangs and watched the bar. I used it on a nearby tree to get the feel for it. It was an odd feeling. I definitely felt like I was the one stabbing the tree, and I could have adjusted my aim if I wanted to, but something was guiding me through the proper technique and motions. My dagger left a large hole in the tree as I ripped it out.

When I looked down at my Energy bar, numbers appeared over it showing me I had 90/100 Energy remaining. I counted how long it took to refill, reaching around 20 seconds before it capped out. About one energy every two seconds, then. I definitely couldn’t use Twisting Fangs off cooldown if a fight was going to last longer than a few attacks, then. With the high level of enemies around me, I was definitely going to need to make the most out of that stun.

Speaking of the stun, the description of Kidney Shot left me curious. Was I going to have to research where different enemy types had their kidneys? Did all enemy types even have kidneys? Not really something I could figure out right now, but it was something to consider, nonetheless. For now, I’d just assume everything was essentially human and target based on that.

Apply Venom looked like it would be useful to prepare for combat, but that three second cast time made it look pretty unusable after a fight had already started. If I used that before I attacked someone with Twisting Fangs, I could probably get some pretty nice damage with both debuffs running at the same time. It also looked like I could get stronger poisons, maybe from crafting or merchants. That wasn’t too useful right now, though, since I was pretty far from civilization. A friendly civilization, that is.

I didn’t encounter any Demonic Watchers as I moved along. It seemed my “quest marker” life energy was still avoiding them for me. As soon as I thought I’d put enough distance between me and the camp, I stopped and casted Apply Venom. It didn’t seem to have a duration listed, and it couldn’t hurt to be prepared. The next few minutes passed in boredom; there wasn’t much in terms of scenery with the forest completely dead. I just followed the life energy and kept my eyes and ears open.

Eventually, I came across a cliff. The life energy passed directly into the cliff face, and I didn’t see the cave opening it used until I was right up against the rocks. The exceptional concealment came at the expense of access, however, and I barely fit around the debris to slip into the cave. At first, there was no light in the cave other than the life energy, but I started to see some glowing moss on the walls and ceiling after the first turn.

After a minute or so of walking, I made one last turn and ended up in an oasis. The ceiling opened up to a wide cavern, and the walls expanded into a large circle. Moss lit up the area, refracting off the water of the streams trickling down from the ceiling. Most surprising of all, however, were the plants. Unlike outside, there were actual living things in here. It was mostly a variety of weeds and grasses with a few flowers mixed in. Nothing larger than a bush. The life energy directed my eyes towards the center of the cavern, where a figure sat in a green-tinted pool.

The Forest Mother looked like she was made out of plants. Her whole body was covered in a variety of leaves and flowers. Leaves and flower petals flowed on top of her head to give her a crown of sorts. They wrapped around her body like a dress. I even saw some bugs crawling in and out of the foliage, flying on and off of her at random. Despite all that, her figure still looked undeniably human, resembling a slim woman. From the moment I had entered, her eyes had been focused on me, a piercing green, swirling with energy. After I’d finished looking around and focused on her, she spoke.

“Hello, young one. You’ve been through a lot to reach here. I applaud you for your courage.

“You’re the Forest Mother?” I’d always been good at asking the obvious.

“Yes. I am the progenitor of all living things in this forest. That includes the Treants like you and Methuselah.”

“I tried to rescue him, but the Demons… he didn’t make it.”

“I am aware. I can feel the loss of each of my children deeply. Unfortunately, you are the last of my kin alive in this forest.”

“You could feel him die? Does that mean you felt it every time anything died in the forest?”

“To some degree, yes. But my connection with you Treants is special. When the Demon’s portal opened, I felt something amiss. I used my connection to the forest to help you and others hold onto some life energy, becoming something new. You are the last one to awaken, and the last one alive, Chemistree.”

“I guess I’m the only one left to help you, then.”

“Yes, young one, and what I ask of you is no easy task. The Demons seek to extract the last of the life energy in this forest to bring it to their world. For such a purpose, they’ve created an abomination, a corrupted version of me they call the ‘Heart of the Forest.’ I need you to kill it.”

“Kill it? I just started playing! Everything around here is way too strong for me to kill!” In my shock, I broke character completely, talking about the world like the game it was. Luckily, the AI was smart enough to overlook my faux pas.

“I know full well how inexperienced you are, sapling. As for your lack of power, I will give you what energy I have left to give you a temporary boost in strength. Hopefully, it will be enough to bring you victory.”

Without waiting for my response, the Forest Mother slowly started to vanish, turning into small green motes of energy that exploded out into the nearby greenery. Then a connection appeared between those plants and me, and I could feel myself growing in strength. When the whole process was finished, the previously vibrant oasis was filled only with blackened, dead plants. As I stood there wondering what to do, the Forest Mother surprised me by speaking to me again.

“I’ve infused you with enough of my will to last until you defeat the Heart of the Forest. Upon its death, I will regain enough power to send you to safety. There is no hope for this forest, but we must not let the Demons have it. Avenge your brethren and live well, young one.”

Quest Updated – Escape!

You found the Forest Mother, and she tasked you with slaying an abomination called the ‘Heart of the Forest.’ She sacrificed herself to give you a temporary boost in power, giving you stats equivalent to a level 10 player. Use this gift to avenge the death of the forest.

Quest Objectives:

-Kill the Heart of the Forest.

-Quest failed upon death.