Evan POV

I left everyone else to Tania and hoped she won’t screw it up. After that, I met up with Jeff and talked a bit about skills. While I already had an idea about what skills are, I wanted to ask Jeff anyway in case I’m missing something.

Turns out, I was missing out quite a lot. Normally, skills can be obtained through sheer hard work and the required conditions to learn a skill, problem is, that usually it takes people months if not years to learn the skills which I can learn on the spot. And I knew of this before but I only have to do the required conditions once to learn that skill.

Other than that, there’s not much difference between a normal skill and a normal attack, for example, the skill Lunge can still be formed even without the use of system, however, if I use it through the system, then there’s 0% chance of me failing use Lunge, along with damage increase and complete mastery over it.

And… that’s mostly it, there wasn’t much else since skills is a pretty self-describing term, I did however buy some bombs and the Sickle weapon from the merchant, cutting grass with the sickle converts it into hay, which can be used to make a training dummy. I can use the dummy to practice skills and maybe even unlock more skills accidentally.

Aside from that, I bought some Bombs and Grenades from the demolition, there’s just a small difference between Bombs and Grenades, Grenades deal heavy damage in a small area, while bombs deal low damage but can destroy tiles. Aside from firepower, I also bought a sickle from the merchant. It’s just a tool that allows you to get hay from normal grass… which doesn’t make sense but hey, its free hay. With Hay, I can make a training dummy which should be useful for practicing and maybe even unlocking more skills.

I wonder if the horses will eat hay? If I can sell this for monetary value then I would be literally creating money out of nowhere.

Once my business with the NPCs was done, I headed straight toward the Human Kingdom where Lucy and Oswald were. I also had the sickle in my hand as I start swinging it toward all the overgrown grass in my path. Now that I think about it, if I keep this up then there’ll be a path from my house to the kingdom. This means that it will be easier to get from here to the kingdom and vice versa but the problem is that it’ll take a few hours… I’ll do it somewhat before I run towards the Kingdom.

I don’t have Tifa with me either, one of the three horses that Tifa brought was also gone so I’m guessing she had something important to do. She also did act weirdly around the dryad, I wonder if the Elves have a history with the dryad or something?

While I kept slicing the grass up, I saw some dayblooms growing so I started grabbing those too, they look like mini sunflowers, about the size of a hand and can be used for various basic potions so they’re always useful. It was only until I picked up the 5th that I realized that I had, not only gone away from the path I was making, the day blooms were growing in a weird way, it was if they were leading me to somewhere, kind of like those cartoons where the leave coins on the ground and the dumb guy keeps picking them up without realizing he’s being led to his doom.

It was a strange feeling but surely, these flowers aren’t doing something like that right? Though after harvesting the flowers for 5 minutes, I realized that I was 100% being led somewhere. This isn’t Tania’s doing is it? Nah I doubt she can grow flowers so far away from the house. But I’m still curious as to where these flowers are leading me.

About 10 minutes later, I stopped harvesting the dayblooms and just started running to where they led me. They were growing in a straight line, one far from the other and I was really getting curious, I might just be thinking too much but for some reason… I just have to see where they lead me.

I ran for a few minutes more until the trail of dayblooms lead me to a bunch of sunflowers surrounding two unusually large white eggs. The strange part was that all the sunflowers weren’t facing the sun but rather the eggs, are they some kind of supernatural eggs? Eggs exist in Terraria but I’m not familiar with the ones in front of me.

…Grab the eggs.

It took me a second to realize this but all the noise of nature was gone. You would usually hear some crickets or birds chirping, but it’s like… It’s like this area is a separate dimension from the forest I was in. I carefully walked forward and inspected the two eggs in front of me.

…Grab the eggs.

The eggs don’t seem like they’ll stack which means that each one is special in its own right. I’m not going to touch them, don’t want to be inflicted by some kind of curse or anything.

…Grab the eggs.

Hmm… I guess I can put them in my inventory, I should be able to have more info about them if my system starts helping me, but should I really? If the eggs are as long as my forearms then I wonder how big their mother is. Though I can’t think of any Terraria monster who would lay eggs as big as these, so it’s probably a creature from this world.

…Grab the eggs.

Should I really take the eggs?

Grab the eggs.

I don’t want to make their mother sad by stealing their babies..

Grab the eggs!

What’s up with this overwhelming sense to take the eggs? This isn’t like me. I wouldn’t do anything like this!

GRAB THE EGGS!

Screw it, I’m grabbing these eggs.

The very second I put the eggs in my inventory, it was as if an invisible veil was lifted. The sounds of nature returned and the Sunflowers slowly moved and started facing the sun again, and I felt like I was a part of this world again.

What the hell just happened? I don’t like it.

I checked the eggs out in my inventory and they were named ‘Neko fox eggs’ There wasn’t even any type of description or even anything else written about these eggs by the system so this whole experience was really bizarre. I tried to look around for any kind of large monster or animal that I haven’t seen before that might be the parent of these eggs but I didn’t find anything. I even climbed large trees with the grappling hook so that I might find something, but nope. Aside from small critters and some slimes, I couldn’t find anything.

I’ll just… I’ll just protect them for now. Maybe Jeff will know something about these?

Well, I had wasted enough time here anyway, so I opened up my map and I started running toward the kingdom again. On the journey, I realized that Shield of Cthulhu was still an accessory, which meant that I could turn it invisible with the invisible function that is only limited to accessories for cosmetic functions only.

I turned it on and just as I expected, the shield turned invisible. It’s still there to protect me, but invisible. Incidentally, if I put the Shield of Cthulhu in the social slot then the shield becomes ethereal, meaning you can see it, but not touch it and use its abilities, meaning it’s not there anymore. I much prefer the invisible shield though, I can already imagine a number of ways to troll people with it. Though, it becomes visible whenever I use its charge ability so there’s that too.

I kept running towards the Kingdom, and with the help of grapple and the shield’s charge ability, I got there fast, I stayed far away enough to see and do some reconnaissance.

Bad news. They doubled, no… tripled the guards at the walls. There were even more archers on the top of the wall and there were cavalries patrolling near the walls.

… Shit. There’s no way for me to infiltrate now without making some noise.

Should I go back and get Tifa? I already wasted nearly an hour getting here, and Tifa already went back to the Elven Kingdom… Ugh screw it, I can’t get to the Human Kingdom anyway, might as well go straight to the Elven kingdom from here.

Thankfully, because of Pain-Immunity, I can run forever, and with the surprising speed of the grappling hook and the charge ability of the shield, I’m probably faster than a horse going full speed. If only I had the Hermes boots… Regardless, I should get to the Elven Kingdom fast and I even have my map with me so I won’t get lost.

Yea, Let’s do this.

Tifa POV

I was on Horseback as I quickly made my way back to my Queen.

The dryads… They’re actually alive! The dryads are the reason the elves could survive and thrive! But unlike the Elves, the Dryads have a much shorter life span, they have less than half of our life span while we have a life span of about a thousand years.

It’s not clear but hundreds of years ago, a great evil started looming over the land and started destroying the lands, all the dryads fought over that evil for months until finally, they defeated it. But, there were a lot of sacrifices made. In the end, only one dryad remained until… her lifespan was up.

It was a very dark age to lose the dryads which were the protectors of the world. Which is why we hold a festival in their name every year to show them that we will do their job now. Sadly, the attack of the Cultists a few days ago told us the harsh truth that we weren’t ready… But if the dryads are back, then surely!

I have to tell our Queen about this quickly!

I rode my horse as fast as I could until I reached back to my kingdom. I didn’t had time to mess around, my only concern was to meet my Queen. The attack of the eyes last time had ruined this place but with the help of everyone, the rebuilding process was fast, I could tell that the kingdom would be back on its feet in a day or two.

Right now, there were small houses made in the shape of tents with nature magic, that acted as sleeping areas for everyone. Nobody was using those right now as everyone was busy with tasks for rebuilding, some were carrying food, some were working on carpentry, some were running around with materials, it was a hectic environment, but everyone was motivated to rebuild the kingdom.

That is… Until I arrived.

The atmosphere changed, a lot of eyes were on me and there was hatred in the air. I was used to it but it still hurt a bit. Nearby people would scoff at me at as they moved away. This much is nothing, there are times when it gets much worse, but no matter what happens, I have to get to my Queen regardless of what happens to me!

I tried looking around and I saw people planting trees, half-built houses that were awaiting materials, a line of people waiting for their meal. The most troublesome part was that I would occasionally hear the other elves cursing me, words like “She should just stay outside where she belongs.” Or “I bet she's had a hand in this. I bet she's a cultist herself and is just trying to look good.” Or something similar was usually repeated.

This is why I didn’t want to come back here. But, no matter, I’ve endured it for 50 years, what one more day?

I couldn’t find the Queen anywhere outside which could only mean that she was inside her temporary house. I looked around the tent like home and there was a giant one in the middle, Anyone would be able to guess that that was the Queen’s tent.

After figuring that out, I ran towards it, until something solid hit the right side my head, I yelped in pain before I fell down into a puddle of mud. It hurt, I checked the injury and there was blood dripping down from my head, I looked towards the preparator in anger and it was a group of three adult Elves holding onto some rocks.

“Hey. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” One of the Elves said, “You really think we’ll let you get to our Queen?”

All my clothes were dirty with mud as well as half of my face. I had to hold my head tight so I didn’t lose blood but it hurt so bad. “Your kind isn’t welcomed here! Get that into your thick skull!” Said another Elf as he threw another stone at me. Luckily, I was able to knock it away with my hand this time. Talking some sense into them is waste of time since they don’t want to listen to anything I say. So, I did the only thing that made sense and ran towards the Queen's tent.

“Hey! We’re not done yet!” Some more stones were thrown at me but they missed my vitals so I could take it. They didn’t follow me for long since their love for the Queen was more than their hatred for my kind, they wouldn’t start a fight in front of her wooden tent.

There were two Elven guards wearing Silver armor and holding onto large Silver spears. they were guarding the entrance to the Queen's wooden tent. Unlike the other Elves, these guys care more about what’s good for the Queen and her Kingdom. Which means that at the very least they’ll hear me out.

I told them that I had some really important information for the Queen ears only and they… didn’t ask me anything else? One of them went inside to call the Queen out while I thought they might inquire about me more. I’m guessing they didn’t ask much because I’m covered in mud and bleeding from one side of the head.

The Queen came out of her tent moments later with the Elven guard. “Tifa?” The queen said confused but I quickly kneeled down.

“Your highness! I have some really important news for your ears only.” I waited for her response but what she did surprised me.

“You’re bleeding!” she said as she put her hand on my head and tried to drag me with her. “Come! I have some medicinal plants with me!” Her desperation to help me surprised me. I was covered in mud but she didn’t mind it even when the mud got on her gorgeous dress.

I was too surprised to say anything, the guards however were not. “Your highness, please don’t touch her, you’ll get dirty.” As soon as he said that, the Queen got mad.

“One of my own is in front of my house bleeding and you care about cleanliness!?” The guard who invoked the Queens wraith immediately kneeled down.

“Forgive me for my insolence, your highness! I only cared for you.”

“I can take care of myself! Tifa come inside.”

I couldn’t refute her as she held my hand and practically dragged me inside. I couldn’t help but think that this is the reason nobody could hate our Queen, she’s too kind for our own good.

The Queen's wooden tent was wide, there were two rooms on the side and a round table in the middle with three high ranking officers who were probably conversing with the Queen before I arrived. The queen told me to wait there with the officers as she went into one of the rooms on the right. There was fiddling noises from that room but my problem was the high-ranking officer who were excluding a lot of pressure at me.

None of us said anything but I really wanted to run away. The queen quickly came out with a cloth binding and some herbs, I told her I could bandage myself up but she made me sit down on a chair as she started applying the herbs to my injury even when I insisted on her to stop.

She would not let me talk until she bandaged up my wound while the officers were hurting me mentally from the side. She however, looked satisfied after finishing bandaging me up.

I wasted no time to quickly kneel down in front of all the higher-ups “So, Tifa, you said had some important information that you wanted to convey to me.”

“Yes your highness! but…” I looked at the other generals, we’ve been attacked by the Cultists once, but that doesn’t mean they won’t attack again. Her highness should know that as well.

Her highness's eyes narrowed as she looked at me. her kind tone turned harsher as she started speaking, “These are my trusted aides who have helped me for decades, I trust them, or are you doubting my choice?”

The queen sounded mad so I quickly tried to defend myself “No your highness! The information I obtained is too important, and with the recent Cultists attack, It’s better to be prepared!” If worse comes to worst I’ll have to reveal the identity of the Dryad to all of them, but if the cultists learn of this then they’ll spare no manpower in trying to kill her.

Her highness stared at me with cold eyes but I did my best not to falter, it stayed like that for a few moments until the Queen sighed, “Gentleman, I want you all to wait for me outside.”

I finally breathed a sigh of relief but the Officers were not happy, “You’re highness! You certainly can’t be favoring the half-kin more than us!”

“Are you doubting me, Reynold?”

Officer Reynold couldn’t do anything. The queen may be kind, but she’s also fierce. The officers left the tent grumpily and that only increased my problems because it probably meant that the Elves here might abuse me more next time.

“Sorry about that Tifa, sometimes they’re very narrowminded. Anyway, this information better be worth it.”

I nodded, “Your Highness. I found a Dryad.”

Her eyes went wide open.