Path of Dragons 16 - Chapter 7 - Trust (Patreon)

Elijah was late.

Mostly, that was because he’d spent more than three weeks recovering from his ill-considered soul infusion into Root Nexus.  Doing so damaged his soul almost as much as the last time he’d used Flames of Renewal, which meant that he rendered himself functionally defenseless. 

That lasted long enough that it should have made him regret his actions.  However, with the mushroom thriving so close by, Elijah felt nothing but excitement mingled with torturous anticipation. 

And pain, but he did his best to ignore that.

As he recovered, he slowly let his senses acclimate to the fungi’s development, and what he felt was incredible.  It was most similar to Treebie, but even that was a bit of a stretch.  It was only the same inasmuch as it was a living thing bearing a sliver of the World Tree’s power.  Treebie’s had come from the Branch splinter, while the mushroom’s infusion was both more structured and less direct.

The mushroom also tried to eat Elijah.

Thankfully, it was incapable of hurting him, but that didn’t stop it from trying to envelop him with its tendrils and drag him underground so he could be used for his nutrients.  And when that didn’t work, it bathed Elijah in a cloud of spores so dense that he couldn’t see through it.

That didn’t really work, either.

Eventually, the mushroom settled into an uneasy truce. Not because it preferred peace, but rather, because it was incapable of affecting him. 

Others would not be so fortunate.  If anyone else found their way into the cave, they would be dissolved and fed upon. 

After a week, Elijah regained the ability to move, though only enough to sit up.  A week more, and he could walk around.  By the third week, he felt almost fully recovered, though he still hesitated to do more than stroll through the cave. 

The mycelial mesh around his soul helped, and to no small degree.  Without it, he would’ve been immobile for months.  Or dead, his soul shattered into a thousand pieces as his body was devoured by the mushroom he’d helped cultivate.

A less curious man would have taken that as a warning to learn his limits.  Elijah saw it as evidence that he was going in the right direction.  After all, nobody ever grew without strife.  Not in any way that mattered.  The fact that he’d almost killed himself boded well for both the mushroom’s development and his own.

Which probably made him sound a little crazy, and maybe he was.  He certainly felt a sense of giddy excitement that he imagined might point in that direction.  But Elijah reasoned that a little bit of crazy was probably necessary for anyone to climb the ranks within the system.

Certainly to transcend it.

“Stop it,” he said, swatting a creeping fungal tendril away.  “Be nice.”

The mushroom exploded into a puff of red spores. 

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” Elijah admonished, which only angered the mushroom even further. 

In reality, the creature didn’t experience thoughts or emotions.  Not like sapient – or even sentient – beings did.  In fact, most of its responses to Elijah were automatic defense mechanisms meant to deter intruders or assist in the capture of prey.  But to him, it seemed a bit like a child throwing a tantrum.

“Or maybe I’m just anthropomorphizing you,” he said, sitting beside the mushroom.

That was a habit he’d developed early on in his days as a Druid.  Maybe it predated the World Tree’s touch altogether.  Certainly, he’d treated various marine animals like they were people, and that was just at work.  And his dog, Fremont?  Elijah was definitely guilty of treating him like a person.

Still, he was also self-aware enough to recognize that part of that habit stemmed from long periods of isolation.  Spending more than six months alone with only a mushroom for company had a way of driving a man to extremes just for the illusion of companionship.

One of the tendrils wrapped around his ankle and tried to pull him away.  Elijah didn’t move, which seemed to frustrate the mushroom.

“I really should stick around for a little longer,” he said, pushing himself to his feet.  He shook the tendril off.  “But like I said, I’m already late.  I’ll be back in a month or two to see how you’re doing.  I also intend to use Dictate of the World Tree again, just to see what happens.”

He’d used repeated instances of the spell on other mushrooms back in the Vengeance, but the effect was minimal.  Most of the extra energy – attuned to the World Tree as it was – just dissipated into the atmosphere.  However, Elijah suspected that the addition of Root Nexus to the mix might change things.

But he couldn’t hang out for another couple of months to find out.

So, without further ado, he shifted into the Shape of the Magus and launched himself toward the ceiling.  About an hour later, he’d tunneled his way to the surface, rebuilding the solid earth behind him.  A few spores escaped, but Elijah wasn’t that worried about them.  If they managed to grow, then it would simply accelerate his plans.  If not, then there was nothing lost.

Briefly, he considered a future where Orveth Kaal had succumbed to a fungal infection, but rather than feel horrified, he was excited by the prospect.  The dragons wouldn’t thank him for it, but he’d become progressively less concerned with what they thought. 

And besides, no one else seemed to follow the rules.  Why should he bother?  He had power, and he was going to use it.  That was the way of dragons distilled down to its very core.

Once the tunnel had been completely sealed, Elijah shifted into the Shape of the World Serpent, pointed himself in the proper direction, and used Dimensional Leap.  Two seconds later, he’d traveled more than ten thousand miles, which gave him a good start to his journey back to the Vengeance.

He emerged from the void only a few miles away from a small group of orc ships.  They gave chase, but they were entirely incapable of keeping up with his fastest form.  So it went for the better part of two days.  He continued to encounter orcs, but he left them behind in short order.

Unfortunately, the Vengeance was not where he left it.

Which should have been predictable, considering it was a moving fortress.  But it still took Elijah by surprise.  So, it required another two days to track it down.  When he landed, it was with a sense of relief.

It also came with the unavoidable knowledge that things had changed.  The first and most obvious was that the mountainous ship was no longer under attack.  No more cannon fire.  No more orc ships.  And no more desperate battles.

But there were dragons about.

And they clearly weren’t ready for Elijah’s arrival. 

Three of them surrounded him, ready to attack.  Elijah shifted into his own dragon form, then shouted for them to stand down.  Thankfully, they did, which kept him from having to make some examples. 

After that, it wasn’t long before he was back inside and looking for Imal.  She found him before he found her, and their reunion involved her leaping into his arms while simultaneously scolding him for being gone for so long.

The next few days devolved into a pleasant haze.  Somehow, Elijah found the time to explain everything he’d experienced, and Imal expressed all due interest in his accomplishment.  Or she seemed to, at least.  Though Elijah suspected that some of it was an act.

He didn’t mind, though.

At least she put in the effort to try to understand why he found a mushroom so interesting.  He’d had plenty of people in his life fail to take even that small step.

However, it wasn’t that long before the outside world intruded on their little reunion, and Imal was called to join her team on a mission to cleanse a cell.

“You need me to go with?” Elijah asked, making no move to get dressed. Instead, he lay on their bed, his head propped on one hand as he watched her don her armored robe. 

“You’d be bored to tears.”

“We could be bored together?”

“Pass,” she said.

“What? Why?”

She sat on the edge of the bed.  “You know I love you, but you have a way of dominating these kinds of things.  If you go, the rest of us will get nothing out of it,” Imal explained. 

“Are you calling me an experience hog?”

“In every sense of the term, yes.”

“Ouch.”

“You would also prevent the rest of us from attaining feats.  Nobody gets anything worthwhile when there’s no real danger,” she went on.  “Face it.  You skew the curve.”

Elijah sighed dramatically.  “Fine.  I’ll do my own thing, then.”

“You always do,” she said, leaning over to kiss him on the cheek.  “Be good while I’m gone.”

“No promises,” he replied with mock annoyance. 

In truth, he was happy that she didn’t want him to tag along.  By that point, he’d cleared multiple cells by himself, and he preferred it that way.  Not only was it faster, but it allowed him to focus everything on the task, rather than keeping other people alive.  In addition, he was so far ahead in the rankings that he suspected that he could remain idle for the rest of the trial and still come out on top.

Not that he intended to leave things up to chance.  He would get that top spot, if only so he could find out what an ancestral boon was.  He knew it came straight from the system, and he’d always had good luck with those kinds of things.  So, he was eager to find out what was in store.

However, when he took a look at the Ledger for the first time in months, he was very surprised at what he saw.

Contribution Rankings

1.        Elijah Hart – 78,312 Points

2.        Cyran es Caelwyn – 19,111 Points

3.        Okar es Furo – 16,313 Points

4.        Imal Na Rosi – 16,219 Points

5.        …

6.        …

Elijah only read the top four, but he mostly focused on the significant disparity between the top two spots.  Before he’d set out, he’d only had double Cyran’s points.  A significant lead by anyone’s measure.  Likely insurmountable.  However, he’d nearly doubled his own points in the space of a few months.

Which didn’t make sense, considering he’d only killed a few dozen orcs along the way.  He certainly hadn’t cleared any cells.  The only explanation that made any sense was that the mushroom he’d cultivated gave him a ridiculous number of points. 

What did  that mean?

Elijah had no idea.

But what he did know was that he didn’t need to worry about whether or not he’d get first place anymore.  So long as he survived, that was assured.

So, he wore a broad grin as he got dressed and headed out to take advantage of something he’d yet to really experience – the Tutorial System.  At some point, the Vengeance had become the headquarters of multiple clans, so many of the benefits they’d enjoyed in their other strongholds had been transferred. 

Mostly, that just meant denser ethera and access to system-backed cultivation chambers, but it also meant that they could now take advantage of the Tutorial System as well.  To do so, Elijah headed deep into the Vengeance, and soon found himself in the antechamber just outside the room dedicated to that function.

An Administrator greeted him.

“So, how does this work?” Elijah asked, eyeing what looked like a Branch of the World Tree.  It wasn’t.  He knew that just from how it felt.  But some of the World Tree’s power flowed through the crystalline sapling. 

“Pluck a leaf, then head inside.  The system takes care of the rest,” the pink-scaled dragon said.  “Just choose your tutor wisely.  Some of them are less helpful than others.”

“I already have someone in mind,” Elijah said, approaching the tree.  There were only a hundred or so leaves, so it didn’t take him long to find the one he wanted.  He pulled the crystal leaf from the branch. 

The Administrator shook her head.  “Oh, rough choice.  Have fun with that.”

“I intend to,” Elijah said before stepping inside.

Immediately, the world shifted.  Instead of being greeted by the expected chamber, he found himself in a serene garden.  And a familiar dragon sat in the center upon a cushion of air.

He opened his eyes.  “Ah, the half scale.  I wondered how long it would take you to pester me for the secrets of the multiverse.”