Adil opened his eyes, a tendril of essence still wisped off his hand. He was alive again. A horde of goblins gathered around as some looked towards him at his naked body. Most though were staring at a light so bright it was almost blinding. In the centre of the cavern was an orange fire shooting towards the sky, forming a beam of light like a beacon.

"What is that?" Adil asked in a dawning realization.

"Swift?" he asked, slowly approaching the blazing fire.

The goblins grew progressively more wary of him as he came closer. The blue-green, bone armoured goblin noticed Adil arriving and ran towards him.

"You! Friend, fire. Stop now!" The goblin leader said in human speak. aggressively pointing his arm out towards the blaze.

"why is he on fire?" Adil asked in goblin. slightly taking him by surprise until he remembered.

"Noone knows, he is creating a beacon. anyone can see where our base is and it's attracting all the animals." He replied in goblin.

Adil looked further into the fire, focused on his tendrils of mana and reached out, trying to sense Swift within. He could see Swift's body floating within a powerful mass of fire essence. Adil's mana being pushed back as he reached further in. the forced against his mana as he tried to pass through felt like swimming upstream. Forcing his way through he came closer to the floating body that was Swift, his glowing eyes and mouth shone a raw power that seemed to be forcing itself out by any means necessary. Finally, he connected.

Immediately it seemed as though Adil was transported to a forest of evergreen trees. There was a thick smell of burning hanging in the air, a trail of smoke, coming from further in. Adil ran towards the smoke, passing thourhg a wall of smoke he came to a new area where the trees had turned to charcoal, fire flickering to life., further ahead he could see a blazing fire, orange and red engulfing the trees.

Swift was there, staring at the fire blazing in front of him.

"PUT OUT THE FIRE!" Adil shouted. Swift didn't respond, he just carried on staring. Adil ran closer, reaching close before a jet of fire seemed to launch out of the fire. The heat and pressure seemed immense.

"HAAAAY" Adil shouted, noticing now he could not take Swift's focus...

Adil pushed a bit closer and started channelling his mana. He shot out a mighty gust, and with just enough time he jumped through the opening in the fire to where Swift was.

Adil was now surrounded by fire, an immense heat in the air, twigs on the floor smouldering away, but it didn't hurt. He placed his hand on Swift's shoulder. Swift turned and caught his eyes, the pressure from around disappeared and they.

"Bit much isn't it?" Adil asked.

"I c, c, c, can, can't stop," Swift replied.

An explosion erupted from within the trees and Swift lurched a little.

"t, there's too much."

"I, I, it, it wo, won't stop," Swift replied. He was struggling with the power within him.

"It's alright. Just take your time and think about it. I can help "

Swift closed his eyes and started breathing deeply, Adil focused on his mana trying to connect to Swift. He felt how energy was shooting into him from everywhere in the world. It was too much to handle Swift's body couldn't keep up.

Adil stretched his tendrils of essence out, he tried to redirect the flow of energy away from Swift, into the area around. He wanted to insert his own mana, try and cancel out the fire, convert the coming energy into something new. A storm cloud emerged in the sky and wind began to pick up. A bolt of lightning struck a tree near them and the fire started roaring more into life.

"You're not helping," Swift said. His teeth clenched as he was focusing. Adil tried something else, he felt where the essence was coming from. The destruction of containers of the essence. the hive mind, the creatures infected by the taint. The corruption burning away from the fibres of reality. Adil tried to make a path for it to go back into the world as the more pure essence. He leaked it out to the landscape around him.

The fire receded from the trees in that. the inferno immediately replaced by the greenery of a normal forest as though the world had just changed rather than the fire coming off the plants. When the forest was back to normal he looked around and saw only a small bonfire burning in the centre Swift staring into it and holding his hands out to keep warm.

Adil was brought back to reality just before the fire around Swift's body began to recede. The beacon slowly lowered as tendrils of mana shot off from it, pouring into the world around. The glowing base of the fire diminished until Swift's body could be seen. Flames that once coated his body vanished in patches, his hovering state slowly lowered into a standing position.

When the last flick of flame evaporate a pressure and energy around Swift faded away. Swift collapsed onto one knee and started breathing deeply. Adil walked over to him and held out his hand, the horde of goblins waiting to know what just happened. The grass in the cavern seemed to be glowing and the goblin's eyes shone a deep silver. Even the rocks of the cavern seemed more dense and ornate. A few tendrils of mana had begun coalescing around the area before shooting into a plant rock or goblin. A slight light blue gas was being emitted from the plants around him.

Notification

Area bonus gained:

Warmth

the essence in the area is enriched generating a warmth allowing slow regeneration and cleansing of impurities.

Adil walked over to Swift.

"You ok mate?" He asked.

Steam was emitted from Swift's skin now the pressure was gone. He started coughing as he bent over towards the floor, he got up and grabbed the hand Adil was holding out.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Swift replied.

They soon realised the both of them unfortunately naked, One of the goblins threw over some rags for Adil and Swift to get changed into. Saying something unintelligible by Adils standards. Swift was lost in his own world. The bone armoured goblin came running towards them. he pushed swift to the floor and said:

" Why shoot light into the sky, all creature and human see it. Many come, too many. Animals, not welcome."

Swift just looked at him confused.

"He's asking you why you shot a beam of fire into the sky," Adil explained.

Swift said to Adil "I just killed that hydra and ended up here, Fire started bursting out of me, the best I could do was shoot it to the air. Suddenly it was like my mind was trapped in this forest."

"I guess it makes sense with the amount of experience you got. You just killed the whole tainted army," Adil said with a smile.

Swift was speechless and looked to Adil with his eyes wide open. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"When you killed the boss, you killed all the infection, you must have got the experience from everything connected. There was even an army attacking the town Seras was from."

Swift looked around himself, seeing the tendrils of mana drifting in the sky. Slightly disappointed at the wastefulness. he grew a glazed over expression as he seemed to be looking at his interface "That explains all these notifications," he said.

"72 kills on mutated taint bats, 33 on taint ferrets. It says 1146 kills on mutated taint vines"

Adil's eyes opened wide at hearing this.

"Damn, what level did you get to?" Adil asked.

Adil started staring off into the distance as he was going through the many notifications that would have filled his vision.

"It uh... doesn't say... Wait... I got, over 8, no 9000."

"What 9000?!" Adil exclaimed in surprise.

"NINE thousand!!" Swift replied clenching a fist in front of him. Then added after a light chuckle he added, "Sorry, that was a joke. It says I reached level 7 then a 'loop' got uncaught, and my essence collection grew unstable. Then, you released an unknown amount of essence and gave it to the surrounding landscape, fixing the problem." Swift said.

"So now I'm a level behind Seras and have 10 points to spend on abilities."

Adil smiled before he had a moment of realization.

"Ah shit." He exclaimed.

"We don't have time for this. After the town was attacked they sent the military on a crusade to here. Two or more groups of soldiers are coming to destroy any goblins or goblin settlements this side of the maze wall," he said.

Adil looked towards the goblin leader in his bony armour standing at about 5 foot. He seemed to be stunned by what happened and how passive the two of them were acting towards it. The leader was firmly holding his sword and trying but failing to give an expression of emotionless resolve, his eyes were glowing a faint grey and he seemed to be struggling with something.

The goblin leader suddenly collapsed onto one knee as his eyes started glowing a deep silver and his body began slowly changing. Adil saw around the cavern how the other goblins and animals were similarly contorting themselves on the floor as the tendrils of mana shot into them.

The surroundings began to morph and alter itself, the rocks grew more of a gavel grey, different brightly coloured veins grew into the sides as crystalline formations of gems burst out of the walls. Each goblin young and old grew to a size that more resembled the orcs in the dryad's memories. twice their previous size they were now larger than humans.

The armoured goblins began to stand out like fierce warriors, clothes having grown with them, seeming to have absorbed some of the metal from the area around their armour took a different shape. Patches of purple shining where the sun hit the dark metal. A fierce yet ornate spiked full plate design across the structure, matching their jagged metal blades. The archers had their crossbows grow in size and ferocity whilst the fighters no longer holding makeshift tools stood proud as orc-like barbarians wielding large two-handed katana, heavy spiked maces and double axes.

Notification

the spawn crystal has been activated.

A function can now be chosen.

*Spawn crystal?* Adil thought. It made sense that he would be attracted to something when he spawned. He looked at his visual interface and noticed a new icon blinking in the corner. He waited for the changes in the cavern to finalize before he checked out what this meant.

As he stood there, the grass carried on growing and with it, the blue emission that seemed to give out an area buff, boosting experience gained and health regeneration. It seemed to have stabilized before sudden bursts of changes happened in the surroundings. Fruit plants shooting out, vines growing along the walls, the rocks turned a gravel grey before veins of brightly coloured ore grew along the sides and jagged spurts of crystalline gems burst out.

Adil now looked to the goblin leader, who seemed to have finished his changed. He got up from the floor, his arms coated in metal blades, a bone skull across his chest meshing with his purple-ish, full plate armour. he now stood in front of Adil wielding a dark purple zweihander in one hand and an ornate kite shield decorated with bone in the other, but above it all he now had hair. A flat black hair was down the sides of his shoulders clashing against his blue-green skin. Adil couldn't help but think that a cape would suit him perfectly and with that, a strong purple cape shot out and around his shoulders blowing in the wind as he stood up.

It was as though Adil was somehow guiding the direction of these changes, that they were somehow influenced by his subconscious thought. The goblin leader now stood tall facing and looking down on Adil, his cape drifting in the wind. The leader dropped his sword and shield, looking at himself in shock.

"Such, power. Was this from you?" The leader said. Looking down to Adil in confusion.

"Thank him," Adil said. motioning towards Swift who was still staring out towards the cavern. A rabbit had morphed into a jackalope, grabbing almost all of his attention.

"Thank you, great squire," The leader said in the human tongue.

The leader collapsed to his knees facing Swift, as the other goblins saw from around the cavern they too followed. Soon everyone in the field lay on the floor facing him, even the animals with their newfound powers gathered around him seemingly in a form of respect. At that moment an earthquake shook the ground and a glow appeared from its centre. Two rotating crystals stuck to each other appeared out of the ground, rotating at a great speed in the air. One of bright orange and another of a cyan. they seemed to coalesce, Adil and Swift approached the shining orbs.

Adil saw an icon appear over the crystals. He could sense and see how the two coalescing lights were being emitted from the spawning crystals. He walked over and saw how they had combined to each other. Half was like that of a solid hexagonal ball, glow residing inside seemed to hold immeasurable power as Adil stared he could see a storm held inside, giant thunderclouds violently raging. The other side was jagged spiked crystalline structure, orange and glowing. The depth of it was a warm pure fire. As he approached, the crystals slowly lowered themselves into his open hands.

Notification

Due to a large amount of essence being passed through the spawn crystal all primary functions are unlocked simultaneously and the nearby spawn crystal has merged with your crystal. both crystals combine all functions.

Primary functions unlocked.

Forge

Channel essence generated into forging new weapons. The process is a combination of essence pushing, similar to looting and material work such as smithing.

Teleport hub

Create links throughout the world to teleport to connected locations including but not contained to other spawn crystals. Focusing large amounts of mana can also teleport to other locations.

Terraformer

Any landscape within the bounds of the spawning crystal will be enhanced by the presence of the crystal. alterations to the landscape can be created by the owner of the spawn crystal.

Special trait:

Generate storm

Control the wind and rain in the surrounding landscape.

Special trait:

Warmth

Generate a passive heat in the hub of the area, healing wounds and cleansing impurities.

Adil passed the crystal to Swift.

"Looks like we have a lot of work to do," he said.

Swift took the orb and lost himself in thought as he delved into the mass of knowledge before him. Speechless Adil just stared at the cavern, mesmerized by the sudden changes that had taken hold. The beauty and wonder. One of the fox-like wolves had jumped onto a child goblin, its stature had grown smaller and it left behind a trail of fire which didn't damage anything in the vicinity. The small goblin seemed to be making sounds of delight as the child played with the creature. At that moment, Adil felt a strong urge and duty to protect everything here.