Noise disrupted the peaceful eating environment as everyone started reacting to the system message. Not long after the first message came through four more messages were repeated. Zane and others had on dark expressions after hearing the messages. On the other hand, Jade and Adam were completely furious.

“It looks like I spoke to soon,” Adam said. “Please excuse us.”

Adam stood up to leave and Jade followed him. Both of them would have their hands full dealing with chaos caused by the system messages. While Jade and Adam were surprised by the message, Zane was not.

There were five den quests available, and each quest gave out rewards that were more than ten times the normal amount. Zane knew someone would definitely succumb to such a powerful temptation and his bet was on the elves. Although Zane wasn’t surprised by the five messages, he did want to believe that he wouldn’t hear them.

Jade and the others had sent a team to each den to discourage any people who might have been tempted to go. Each team was made of ten people and had at least five people in the first tier. However, Zane had a feeling that it wasn’t enough. He was suspicious of the elves and had a feeling that they would try to make an attempt at completing the den quests despite the harm it would cause.

“It’s probably the elves that destroyed the den,” Jason said.

“We don’t know that” Sophie said.

“Everyone’s probably thinking it and saying it.”

“Even if everyone feels like the elves are most likely to be the culprits, we don’t have to agree with them. Also, we shouldn’t point fingers at anyone without evidence.”

“Sophie’s right,” Zane added. “But I’m more than willing to gamble on the elves being the ones to destroy the den.”

“Oh, that sounds like a good idea,” Shane said, “What are we betting with?”

“How about-”

“There will be no gambling,” Sophie interrupted. “Now, hurry and finish up so we can head to the meeting area.”

Zane and the others quickly finished their meals and headed to the meeting area. The meeting area was a grassy area that was close to the library. On the way there they saw many people rushing over. When they finally reached the meeting area a crowd had already formed.

Nikki, Jade, Adam and a few others were standing on top of a wooden stage surrounding a male elven representative. The wooden stage was built sometime during the past few days. There were multiple chairs, a long table and a few magical lights along the edges of the stage.

“Look, here they come.”

Turning his head Zane saw a large group of elves walking toward the meeting area. To Zane it seemed like all of the elves in the stating village had gathered together. As soon as the thought entered Zane’s head, he realized that there were no elves at the meeting area except for the one on stage.

Leading the group of elves approaching the meeting area was a young female elven. She had a light complexion with green eyes and green hair. She wore a sleeveless green dress and didn’t have on any shoes. The female elven and the elves moved through the crowd and walked toward the stage while people whispered about them. Once they reached the stage the group of elves stopped moving forward and the leader walked on to the stage. The male elven representative immediately walked forward and knelt down on one knee as he greeted her.

“Welcome Daughter.”

“Rise.” Her voice was light but filled with energy. “You have done well.”

The male elven thanked her and stood behind her. If it wasn’t obvious before, it was now clear to see that the female elven was the leader. The female elven took a few second to look around before speaking to Jade and the others.

“Greetings, I hope that you are all in good health.”

“Is that all you have to say?” Nikki asked.

“Is it not common to give a respectful greeting in your culture?”

“Cut the bull shit!” Nikki’s shout silence the few remain whispers in the crowd. “Are you going to pretend like you didn’t destroy the dens? Our people already reported that all of you practically barged your way in there.”

“We never had any intentions of denying our actions.”

“We all agreed that nobody was allowed to destroy the dens.” Nikki pointed directly at the male elven representative. “Aikin didn’t you agree to not destroy the dens?”

“I never agreed to that,” Aikin answered.

“You said-”

“What I said was the elven wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize the completion of the defense quest and we haven’t.”

“You don’t think you’ve-”

“Calm down Nikki.” Adam put his hand on Nikki’s shoulder and directed his attention to the female elven. “We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot. Greetings. I hope you can forgive us for our lack of manners. As you can see, the destruction of the dens has made everyone very tense. But first, can you tell me your name?”

“I am the Daughter of the World Tree. My people call me Daughter and I will allow you to do the same.”

Zane shook his head in disbelief. Once again, he was amazed by the knowledge that the humans from Brad’s world had access to. Brad and the others were able to predict that the elves would have a world tree despite never interacting with the race or having any information about interacting with the race in their history books.

“Hello Daughter. I believe you are the true representative or leader of the elves here. I would like to ask why you have Aikin mislead us? I don’t think now is the time for trickery.”

“Watch your words,” Aikin said. “Trickery is something the humans use not us elves. Don’t blame us because you failed to be more specific. Daughter we haven’t broken our word and they have no right to keep us here. If you want, we can leave.”

“You can’t leave yet,” Jade spoke up.

“Are you commanding us?” Daughter asked.

Daughter released her source field. The pressure it emitted was at the perfect level. Zane didn’t think it was as strong as his, but he had no way of knowing for sure without a proper fight. In response to the Daughter’s source field Jade released a source field of her own. Both source fields emitted the same amount of pressure.

“No one here is commanding you to do anything,” Jade calmly responded. “You may not consider humans to be your friends, but we are currently your allies. And as allies we deserve a proper explanation of your actions. Of course, you can leave without giving us one. However, I don’t think we will continue to be your allies if you do.”

A few voices in the crowd didn’t hesitate to voice their agreement with what Jade said. There wasn’t a single human that stood up to defend the actions of the elves. Daughter turned to look at the crowd and started speaking.

“We said we wouldn’t jeopardize the completion of the quest and we haven’t. Eight dens have been destroyed so far and that means the strength of the mana creatures will increase by forty percent. I am well aware of the current strength of the humans and the elven. Both races have experts that are more than capable of defeating multiple mana creatures that have their strength enhanced by one hundred percent or more.” Daughter turned and spoke to Jade and the others standing on the stage. “As a matter of fact, Aikin told me this council believed that the first attack would be easy to defeat. With that knowledge why would a slight increase in the strength of the mana creatures be a problem.”

Zane felt that what she said made sense. He still didn’t like the way the elves behaved, but he did rethink his stance on the elves destroying the den. As Zane thought to himself, he saw a man step forward.

The man had fair skin and dark hair that was trimmed at the sides. The man was slightly taller than Adam and was well built. The moment he spoke, Zane could tell he had experience as a commander.

“I’m sure Aikin mentioned that we were planning on using the weak mana creatures to improve our teamwork in battle. The village points you have gained are not equal to the opportunity to obtain true battlefield experience. Destroying the dens might not have created a problem but destroying the dens behind everyone’s back is a problem. Do you have an explanation for your selfish action? Do elves hate humans so much that you’re unwilling to act with the slightest bit of honor and integrity?”

Every elven began to shoot looks of hatred at the man. Aikin was about to speak, but Daughter raised her hand and stopped him. She closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them. Once they were opened it was easy for everyone to see the worry and sadness her eyes contained.

“Our World Tree is dying and with it so will our world.” Her eyes were sad, but her voice was strong and determined. “We came to this world because we were told we could receive something that will help heal the World Tree. The village points needed to buy that item to heal our World Tree cost more than any item in the store. We are prepared to do whatever it takes to earn the points necessary to secure that item. Even if it means all but one of us dies to earn the necessary points. Are you satisfied with my explanation?”

In response to the Daughter’s question the man nodded his head. The Daughter turned to leave, and Aikin flowed. Before she left the stage she stopped and said a few more words.

“The reason our World Tree is dying was because of humans. Humans that acted selfishly. Humans that took advantage of the trust we gave them. Humans that doomed an entire world to destruction for their own personal gain.”

With those final words Daughter and the rest of the elves left the area. Everyone watched as they left, and no one made a sound. Everyone was affected by the word Daughter said and the emotions behind them. Zane could feel the boundless sorrow and unquenchable hatred in each syllable. Those emotions were able to wipe away most of the negative feelings Zane had toward the elves.