“Adam, are you okay? You seem a little bit distracted,” said Knight walking behind me.

I glanced at him and nodded. “I’m fine.”

I wasn’t but I didn’t to talk to them about what happened tonight. At the end I didn't find anything, the quest was a clue to a mystery but nothing more yet. There was something weird with that quest. I wasn’t sure what but I didn’t want to involve them yet, something told me it wasn’t a good idea at the moment.

I sighed and walked past a tree. I moved as silently as possible and cringed when one little branch snapped under my weight.

“Careful, I don’t know how well can these monsters hear but we don’t want to bring up attention,” said John.

The place wasn’t ideal to hunt today, or any other day. It was a forest where there were ghouls and wolves and some other things I hadn’t managed to inspect, but we needed water. So here we were, at the crack of dawn trying to sneak between gods knows how many things to find a source of water that due to the change in the world we weren’t exactly sure where it was anymore.

I heard a growl and my heart stopped, John made a gesture for us to stop and get down.

“Okay, we are close to the place and there are many monsters, you know the plan. Move separately but in sight of each other. I will try to locate the water source and evade the monsters but…”

“You have done this before, right?” I asked without thinking.

John stared at me and grinned. “Trying to pass a forest filled with monsters unseen? No.”

“HA HA, I imagine, but the part about moving unseen in a forest?” I asked.

He simply smiled mischievously.

“Who the hell are you? Some sort of ranger? You are not from Texas, right?” My eyes widened. “Oh god you are the brother of Chuck Norris! Holy shit. I feel a lot safer now.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Adam,” said my brother staring at me.

I snorted. “I know, I joke when I’m nervous or about to die. Or both.”

“Can we concentrate in what is happening?” asked Sam annoyed.

I sighed and nodded.

“Are we all ready?” Asked John watching our faces.

“Wait, let me do this first,” I said and put a hand over the heart of my brother.

I casted quickly my two spells over him, they were supposed to last for two hours which I was hoping was enough time to do what we needed and get back. After him I added the two spells to everyone else. It was becoming easier to do with practice and levels but it was still a fifteen minutes job. John nodded feeling the skin, tougher but without a visual change, and gestured to enter the forest.

The forest was… new. That’s kind of the only thing you could say about it given that it had grew considerably in the last few days. The constant elemental merges seemed to be producing weird changes in the ecosystem. There was enough light to move around but plenty of places were monsters could hide. For what John had told us, from his experience in whatever he was, the forest actually worked in our favor hiding us as much as it hide the monsters.

We moved in silence for a few moments trying to not bring any attention to ourselves but very soon one ghoul walked around a tree close to my brother. My heart jumped but there was no need, he summoned the bat from the inventory and bashed at the ghoul that fell to the ground with a quiet thump. I looked at his eyes trying to see how he was. He looked back and smiled faintly.

The way was quiet and when I passed close to the corpse of the ghoul I saw a tiny little rock in the ground.

Soul shardA sliver of the soul of the dead.Use: ???

Huh, that was strange. It had a use but it didn’t say what it was. I wasn’t very comfortable having a piece of the soul of anyone with me but it could be useful. I put it aside in a pocket just in time to see a ghoul jumping at me. My instincts took over, the crossbow appeared in my hand while the ghoul made my fall to the ground by his weight. It was trying to bite me in the head but the crossbow was in the middle. I guess if I hadn’t used my points in dexterity I would be dead now. I aligned the crossbow with his head and fired.

The ghoul stopped moving and fell to the ground. The rest were halfway through already prepared to save me but it wasn’t necessary. I got up taking the arrow back from its head.

“I’m okay,” I said quietly.

John nodded slowly and gestured to continue. A growl stopped him and I looked around. Dozens of ghouls were walking between the trees at us, they weren’t running, just walking. I remained there, still, they were too many even with their abilities unlocked. I didn’t move until John said to run.

And I ran, I didn’t know in what direction but I ran and lost the sight of everyone else. The ghouls were following my but John was right, the forest worked in our advantage, they couldn’t ran very fast with the trees cutting their path. I managed to let them behind but kept running until I passed between a wall of branches and vegetation, lost my footing on a patch of uneven terrain and fell to the ground.

“Shit, ouch,” I cursed trying to get up.

My clothes were a bit ragged, torn by the fall and the broken branches. I looked around trying to orientate and to make sure there were no enemies around. There were none but it took me a moment to understand what I was seeing.

It was a like a duplicate of the garden of Eden, a perfect prairie filled with flowers of all colors. It was stunning and beautiful. It boggled the mind that while the rest of the world was dying this could grow from the ashes. It proved that there was an opportunity.

There was something more still, something that drew my attention, the flowers were strange, and when I say strange I mean new. I wasn’t an expert in plants but I’m sure there was no flower like that at least in this continent. It was white with almost the shape of a bell and stripes of gold along the stem.

White dream

Crafting ingredient.A flower born from the light. These flowers have been gifted by nature with the ability to produce sweet dreams to those who smell them.

Okay, that was good to know. I wondered if Sam could do something about them given he had already proved his ingenuity with the wolf horns. I took a few of them and put them in the inventory. I looked around, there were still more kinds of flowers around but these ones where by far the more common. The whole place was filled with them and I didn’t have the time to inspect every flower now. I had to find my friends.

Which of course meant that, no sooner I thought that, Sam appeared out of nowhere running like crazy towards me.

“Sam!” I said relieved to see him.

Relieved for a second, immediately I felt his worry with empathy and then there was a loud howl and a huge chaos wolf walked into the prairie.

Alfa chaos wolf Lv. 20

Shit. I summoned the crossbow and aimed at the wolf. It was running very fast towards Sam and I was too far away too be able to hit it. I doubted I could do anything before he was on top of him.

An arrow flew from the forest and I saw the shape of John walking from the trees. It hit the wolf squarely in the back making the animal howl with pain but unfortunately it didn’t make it stop. It was nonetheless moving slower, considerably slower, and I realized he was hit with the black arrow that Sam made.

But it didn’t matter, that wolf was too fast anyway. I cursed silently trying to think of a way to help. I couldn’t get to him in time. I looked around, there were only flowers and nothing else.

Something in my mind snapped, it came from the druid knowledge I gained, another piece of the puzzle falling in place. Something just made sense at that moment.

Green hand ability learned.

I dropped to the ground and moved my hand without thinking, the mana of every plant around responded to my call trying to help me but I was doing something different now. Instead of taking the mana I make it move back to the plants and with just a thought I commanded them. The white flowers closer to the wolf danced slightly and I felt them spray their smell to the air trying to drug him, to make him sleep.

The wolf dropped its velocity but kept going, I needed more. Dozens of flowers followed my orders in concert, not only the ones closer to him but those that were in its path. That was better but I miscalculated, Sam was affected too and started to slow down.

An arrow flew from the forest, this time it was Knight followed by another arrow from John that firmly pierced in his lower back and leg, but the bastard kept moving. I felt the overwhelming bloodlust coming from the wolf, it wouldn't stop until it was dead.

More. I thought to the flowers trying to make them react, but they were already doing everything they could. I move the mana form them towards the grass, I didn’t know if it could help but I tried.

And the grass answered like a torrent of water growing out of control and flooding the wolf. The grass grew around the legs of the animal trying to stop it from moving while the wolf growled and tried to jump out of it running faster and breaking some of it apart. But it was too much, it grew too quickly for him to run and finally the grass trapped one of its legs making it fall to the ground with a loud thump.

My brother and my neighbor stared at it while the grass kept flooding the body of the wolf trying to immobilize it. Their surprise only lasted a moment, they were prepared and quickly two arrows flew in the air to pierce the head of the wolf. It was dead.

For killing an Alfa wolf you have gained 537 exp points.

Unfortunately not everyone was so lucky. Sam fell to the ground almost at the same time and I ran to him.

“Sam!” I yelled worried and checked him.

“Is he okay?” asked Knight running behind me.

His pulse was fine and he was breathing normally, the seed was still in his body not doing anything.

“He is sleeping, I think that was my fault,” I grimaced.

Knight sighed with relief. “The thing with the plants, was it you?”

I nodded and felt incredibly tired almost as soon as I did. “I think that was a bit too much for me.”

“I can imagine,” he said looking at the body of the wolf completely covered in grass.

I smiled remembering the sensation of controlling the plants. It was amazing, like talking to soldiers eager to follow your guidance. Knight moved towards the body of the wolf and made it disappear in his inventory but then remained still looking at the ground. I followed his gaze and saw a piece of loot in the ground.

Token of the Ranger

Class item.The rangers are a group of people accustomed to live in nature, they survive only by taking the necessary and pay back helping nature thrive. They are an adaptive people capable of surviving in every environment.+25 DEX

+ 15 VIT

+5 STR

“Holy shit,” I mumbled looking at the item.

I walked to the token and took it, a brief message appeared asking me if I wanted to change my class. Maybe yesterday I would have accepted but after the trick with the plants I started to feel the usefulness of my class. I watched John move towards us constantly scanning the forest for signs of an enemy.

“This is for you,” I said without thinking and threw the token at him.

He caught it in the air and his face turned confused momentarily, then stared at me surprised.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I think it suits you the most,” I said smiling.

He nodded absently and a white light enveloped it momentarily, his body started to change becoming leaner and more tough looking if possible. Knight stared at the change openmouthed.

“What the hell?” asked my brother confused.

Merge of the fire element in progress.

“Shit! We have to run now,” I yelled moving back to Sam carrying him in my shoulder.

They moved immediately having recognized that tone of voice as ‘we are about to die’. We run from the place almost flying between the trees without any complication and then the howls started.

“Shit, I think they just discovered their daddy is dead,” said Knight looking behind.

“Don’t stop!” grunted John.

The first wolf ran at us with bloodshot eyes, he looked almost crazy, but my neighbor didn’t even give me the time to worry before its head was pierced by an arrow. We ran faster, my brother helping me carry Sam.

More wolves ran at us while John killed them almost as quickly as they appeared. He was so quick that for a second I swear I saw him recharging the crossbow without touching it. We almost managed to get to the outskirts of the forests when he ran out of arrows. The wolves that had been wary to attack us after the first volley from John howled and ran at us.

Then the ground shocked and a plume of fire breathed from the earth taking our only way out. As always the universe wanted to fuck with us. A second before the wolves reached balls of fire started to rain from the sky, most of them were far away but one crashed over the tree line almost in the same place as the wolves that yelped scared and decided to run away.

“Thank you universe!” I exclaimed to the sky.

Which following the rules I thought the universe had now was almost immediately followed by another ball of fire that flew directly at us. I cursed and we moved out the way walking around the fire in the earth.

We ran while the earth burn apart, and some of the fires managed to burn us just slightly. The seeds that were still active healed us back before it became serious and somehow we managed to get back to the cave in one piece.

I locked back for one moment and saw the forest starting to burn and the huge plumes of smoke over the horizon.

***

I closed my eyes and breathed deeply the cold night air. There was something mesmerizing about the stars no matter what age you have, no matter how much you travel or how many apocalypses you survive. Or perhaps is that. Perhaps is that after everything that happens the stars are still there, unchanging. A guide for lost travelers.

I sighed and went back to my meal. It was almost the hour for the black rain to start and the stars will disappear momentarily. But it didn’t matter. The stars will be back like they always were. One bite and I flinched at the taste.

“What? You don’t like the taste of chaos wolf?” asked Knight walking from the interior of the cave carrying a chair.

“No, it’s not my thing,” I said with another bite.

He put the chair close to me and sat. “C’mon, it tastes like chicken. It’s good.”

I rolled my eyes. “It tastes like chicken if it was naturally smoked and hard. I’m going to leave a tooth in this.”

Knight smiled, I knew what was about to happen before he did it, and I couldn’t do anything. He took a piece of the wolf and ate it. Then looked at me like if he was confused.

“What? It’s my duty as your brother to protect you from losing a tooth. I was just helping,” he said smiling.

“Whatever,” I sighed leaving my meal aside. “What are you doing out here? It’s my turn to guard.”

“After what happened this morning I… I couldn’t sleep,” he said watching the sky. “It’s… I don’t really know what it is.”

I winced and glanced at him. “I understand the feeling.”

He laughed loudly and sighed. “Yes, of course you do.”

I moved in place uncomfortable and finished eating the wolf. I knew how he felt because just the other day was feeling the same. He was lost, but I didn’t know how to help him. It worried me. Then I heard the sound of a can of beer opening and looked at my brother.

“Where the hell did you get that? I didn’t buy beer…” I asked confused.

He smiled. “There was just the one inside the Zombinator.”

I sighed, he did that usually, made me worry about him and then do something stupid trying to make me forget. “How are the kids?”

“They are fine, you know, John is giddy with his new super powers and Sam is…” he made a pause glancing at me. “Already trying to make more arrows and planning on doing some stuff with the plants you found.”

I nodded trying not to show how relieved that made me.

“By the way, how are your superpowers? Because I leveled up a few times and you did all that,” asked Knight gesturing at the air.

“I didn’t level up, but that doesn’t surprise me, it requires quite a lot of experience the more levels you have,” I said and opened the abilities tab.

SkillsSeed of regrowth Lv. 2Barkskin Lv. 2Breath of the world Lv. 0Mana absorption Lv. 1Inspect Lv. 3Philosophiæ naturalis Lv. 1Empathy Lv. 5Enhanced coordination Lv. 1Green hand Lv. 2

I stared at the window and opened the new ability.

Green hand Lv. 2

Learned Ability.As a druid all plants beings recognize you as a protector of nature. You can control and feel plants in your surroundings.Active ability.

“Nothing surprising, I leveled up the spells a bit, but not much,” I said and then because I would explode if I didn’t ask. “Are you mad that I gave the class to John?”

“What? No! I mean, yes, okay. I would like to have superpowers, but that class was almost tailored for him,” he dismissed. “And anyway now we know how to get classes, I’ll wait until we find something interesting that fits me better.”

“Like a Knight,” I snorted and he laughed.

Time passed in silence, and I looked back at the stars until the sky turned purple and the black rain started to pour. We moved back instinctively even though we were covered by the entrance of the cave and the rain didn’t fell close. It didn’t transform people anymore either but it was intimidating as fuck.

“Two days more to go,” muttered Knight.

“Two days more to go back there,” I pointed at the ground where new monsters started to spawn. “I’m not looking forward to it.”

“We can’t remain here forever, we are against a wall,” pointed my brother.

“I know, we have to find a safe place to go, like the military was planning,” I nodded lost in thought.

Merge of the Ice element in progress.

The black rain kept pouring for a second and then froze. Black ice crashed against the ground and exploded in little pieces before joining again giving shape to new monsters. The sound of the ice breaking was overwhelming for a moment and both me and my brother moved back inside the cave.

“Ice merge,” I muttered.

“So soon?” asked Knight worried.

I nodded and ventured again at the entrance of the cave looking at the purple sky. It looked the same and then it froze too, like a thin sheet of glass suspended in the air for a perfect moment in time. A moment is all it lasted, with a loud sharp crack the sky tore apart like if it was made of glass and huge blocks of purple ice exploded in all directions.

One of them flew close to us crashing at the foot of the mountain and instead of breaking apart it absorbed the other pieces of ice that fell before and started growing, and growing, and growing…

Ice giant Lv. 58The giants are king of the hills and valleys. This creatures are not hostile unless their lands are trespassed, but if you do cross them they can be one of the most powerful foes in the world.

It looked like a huge man, not exactly with normal proportions but similar. His big eyes were glowing blue almost white like the sky, like ice, and after it was completely formed it grunted to the sky and moved north.

“Well, I guess we can say that winter is coming…” I grinned.

“Oh, shut up,” said Knight. Advertisement Previous

Chapter Fiction

Index Next

Chapter RSS About the author 1 Fictions 0 Posts 0 Threads Ishgar Follow Author Friday, August 26, 2016 6:03:29 PM

Bio:

Achievements Comments(7) Set Compact Log in to comment

Log In Load Comments Please enable JavaScript to load the comments! Log in to comment

Log In Settings Theme (Entire Website) Dark Light Dim background 0% 20% 40% 50% 60% 80% 100% Font Size 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 22 24 28 32 Reader Width Max 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Font Family Default ————— Open Dyslexic Atkinson Hyperlegible ————— Arial Roboto Open Sans OS Default Comic Sans Lucida Verdana Ubuntu Ubuntu Condensed Franklin Gothic Garamond Caslon Minion Font Color Indent Color Scheme Theme Default OLED Black Royal Road Dark Dark Gray Gray Light Gray Sepia White Paragraph Spacing Close × Give Reputation to User: Points You can specify how many points you want to give (minimum: 0, maximum: 0). Comment (optional) Why are you giving this user reputation? Give Reputation Close About

Royal Road® is the home of web novels and fan fictions! In our amazing community, you can find various talented individuals who write as a hobby or even professionally, artists who create art for them, and many, many readers who provide valuable feedback and encouragement.

Amazon Affiliate Royal Road® is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Theme Select Dark Light

Follow Us On Need some help? Create a support ticket

Contact Contact Us by Email

Advertising Ads for Authors

Programmatic Advertising Royal Road® © 2013-2022 Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Blog | Status Tap again to scroll to the top!