"Eating it raw?" David asked, staring at the snail the dragon was happily having a mouthful of—shell included—however, he was doubtful. Yet when his stomach rumbled, suddenly escargot didn't really scare him that much.

 

Toasty Snail

Level: 2

Health: 100%

Element: Fire

 

The orange-shelled snail wasn't really a snail, not like the one back on Earth, but it really looked like it. It looked like a centipede's peculiar who had stolen a turtle shell to live in. It was as small as his fist, but it looked fiery.

Dave hit it with an Arcane Missile, shattering the weak shell. Indeed the Magic Skill had made progress. The projectile looked bigger as well, now really looking like an arrowhead, doubtfully as powerful, but it was still something.

The moment the shell broke, the snail released a wave of heat, then cooked itself alive, and fell on the ground ready to be eaten.

David gawked, staring at the ready-to-be-served escargot, "Wushu," he said, turning his wide-eyed expression at him, "You are a genius."

Wushu made a clockwise circle in the air.

"—and a showoff," Dave added, "But you climbed quite a few ranks in my esteem chart."

David took the cooked snail, blew on it, and ate it, and it was better than he thought.

Wushu waved in the air, "You want to know your placing, you say?" David grinned, "Mmm… thirty-seven."

Wushu aggressively asked another question, making his acrobatics faster, "No, no, that's not low, especially counting your previous position."

The dragon moved even faster as he asked for his previous position in the rankings.

David snickered, having understood the creature's weak point, "You want to know your previous position? I don't know if I want to tell you right now...let's keep it a secret, for now, I'll tell you if you climb up some more."

Wushu threw a tantrum.

"Calm down, Shenlong. Know that you are already higher than the Ancient."

Wushu stopped to gawk at David.

"See? I told you that you had climbed a lot."

Happy with knowing that and not realizing in what mess he had gotten caught, the Loong led David to a few more soon-to-be escargot snails. After that, they were ready to get back on the hunt.

"We need to pick up the pace, Wushu. I don't really feel safe since this mist has manifested," said David.

The thick mist helped them up and it seemed not to affect the Dragon, or maybe his knowledge of the territory helped him find the road, but it had descended for a reason, and it was clear that there was no reason for it to be there before; there clearly was one now.

"What do you think the Source will ask me to do with the next Quest, Wushu?" David asked.

"Yeah, I know that you are not the Source…it was a rhetorical question, Wushu."

"What is rhetorical, you ask…" David let that hang in the air, "Oh, look! A bird creature, let's go catch it!"

That was how David ran away from the most challenging things in life.

 

***

 

The bird they had actually followed led David and his Chinese dragon to a height that looked down to a small waterfall. It was clear that the waterfall descended directly from the Ancient's villa, which meant that they had reached the inner limit of the Garden-Forest. Still, it didn't mean that they were without things to do.

The moment the waterfall came into view, the Source answered Dave’s rhetorical question.

 

Source – Quest

Trespass or defeat the waterfall Sentry.

 

Upon completion, you'll reach Level 5 and receive a Passive Attribute Skill Choice-Token!

"The waterfall Sentry?" The wording reminded David about the Ancient's explanation.

The Sentry was the lowest rank of those Warden things, but it still meant that he would have to challenge something of tantamount importance for the Garden-Forest, its protector.

"Bloody hell…we're doing this already."

Yet, before worrying about his situation, David had to first take a look at this Sentry. If the Quest had triggered, it probably meant that he had already come in contact with this thing.

But, in front of him lay only the waterfall that descended from the tall walls leading to the Ancient's castle; the small river was at his right while at his left extended the forest. The thick mist covered everything up, but it was clear that for there to be a Sentry, it had actually to be guarding something. So, if David couldn't see it, he just had to get closer to the waterfall.

"I wish I could fly like you, Wushu," he said, getting back from where he had come from.

They decided to reach the waterfall by walking along the riverside. The little stream at their right wasn't really abundant in life forms, but it was deep enough for Wushu to play in it to his heart's content.

He dove in it and moved about, splashing water everywhere.

"Weren't we supposed to Trespass the Sentry, Wushu, quit making all this noise."

Wushu shot out of the water then made acrobatics in the air.

"Still hungry? You ate half an hour ago." As it seems, there was no satiating a dragon.

"Well, slow it down as we get closer; I have a bad feeling about this."

They reached the waterfall's limits faster than he thought, and soon he was presented with a few trees, one of them standing right by the edges of the little waterfall; its bed was small enough to allow the water to correctly splashdown without flooding the nearby ground while it was clear by the darkness beyond the waterfall that an opening stood at its back.

Among all the details his gaze had caught, one extremely peculiar tree of the few growing around the waterfall stood out to David's eyes, and Wushu as well suddenly stopped in mid-air.

It wasn't clear right away what was weird about the tree if not that it was…dead. There were no dead trees in the Fey jungle, and the Garden-Forest's ones were so alive that he could actually look at them breathe.

This one was immobile, dry, dark, dead.

Raising his eyes, David could distinguish the even more peculiar forms of the tree; it was…disgusting. It looked like a dead stag. It looked like a weirdly thin cadaver with a very long torso, with an antlered long muzzle and thin arms with long pointy fingers. if he wasn't certain, the beast almost looked like a creature of the human folklore, it almost looked like a—

 

Wendigo (Sentry)

Level: 35

Health: 100%

Elements: Dark

 

Detailed Info reaches level 3. Increase displayed information by 3%.

 

Tall at least thirty feet, the massive creature had not noticed the duo yet, for it looked dead; maybe it was sleeping. So, they could slowly turn back, not daring to give their back to it.

David ran all the way back to where it had come from before stopping; his heart drummed in his chest.

 

Survivalist reaches level 11. Adapt to external forces + 11%

 

"Yeah, you bet! This is crazy…How are we meant to take that thing on? The Source has lost its mind…"

Wushu was restless too, he moved about, trying to communicate with David.

"Yes, trespass it, but how? What does that even entail? Should we just, I don't know, walk past it? Would it work?"

Wushu didn't answer.

"There is nothing in my arsenal that can kill that thing, and I'm ready to bet that you can not move fast enough to evade those long fingers. You could hit it once, but it would catch you before you tried to blast him with another lightning."

For the first time since he had left the Fey Breeding Grounds, David felt really powerless. He placed his hand on his eyes.

"Magic Archives."

The world shifted around as he automatically engaged Source Sight, a thing that he hadn't done in a while, and it made him face the only section of the Magic Archives he could access.

 

Arcane Magic Archives:

The Arcane Magic Archives reflect your current Class.

 

Level 7:

Arcane Blade: Conjure a blade made of untainted Source, useful to attack targets at close-range. 10% Well filling per cast. Limit to 1 Blade. 10 second cast time. 1 second of cooldown.

 

Level 11:

Arcane Power: The next Skill or Magic-Skill you cast will be cast with twice as much Mind. 50% Well filling per cast. Instantaneous. One minute cooldown.

 

The list continued, but those two were the next abilities he needed to unlock; they were both very far, and yet, even if he managed to reach level seven in his Class by going at a crazy leveling spree, there was no way he was going to get close and personal with such a creature, one kick of its five meters long legs would likely destroy every bone and organ that made him human.

Suddenly the reality of the new world around him solidified. This crazy creature that probably only a tank could bring down was nothing but a guest in the garden of a morbid creature whose body was not bound by any laws of life he had ever known.

Dave was in danger, in much more danger than he had realized until then.

His hands started shivering, his knees started trembling, his teeth chattering, and yet—and yet…something told him that everything would be alright.

"How?" he asked himself when he realized it. Indeed, how could everything be alright?

In the end, he didn't really need to face that creature, right? He simply had to…pass through it, trespass it, and reach through the waterfall, maybe?

It was that easy; there was just one little, small, tiny question to answer, how would he unlock the Title that would make it possible?

He had to answer that question, and knowing that there was another step to take before having to face the creature made him feel more at ease. David used his Relax, take it easy skill to get back to a semblance of normality.

Indeed, it had been a useful method up to that point; maybe he would have to take a lesson in meditation once he got back to Earth, if he ever got back to Earth if he wanted it to?

Something he didn't expect happened as he left that train of thought.

 

The Source

Congratulations, you have developed an Auxiliary Meditation Skill: Meditation! You need to Crystallize it to absorb it. Do you want to use a Source Crystal?

 

"A what?"

 

The Source

You don't have a Source Crystal; do you want to open your Minuscule Source Box?

 

"So they were for that?"

 

The Source

Source Boxes may contain Tokens, Crystals, Sourceanium, Crystallized Attributes.

 

Intrigued, David went on with his investigation, "Source: Crystals."

 

The Source

Crystals can be turned into Skill Crystals, Skill Crystals are used to Crystallize a Skill that has been unlocked or discovered. Crystals can be used to evolve Auxiliary Skills that have reached the maximum level; they can also be used as fuel for Rituals, or to activate Grimoire Magic Circles.

 

"Source: Sourceanium. That's rather tricky to say."

 

The Source

Sourceanium is the most Source conductive material; it must be applied to empower equipment, artificial devices, general alloys, and machinery with Skills. It can be crystallized at will and stored back at will.

 

There is no limit to the amount of Source Boxes, Crystals, or Sourceanium in the Source storage.

 

"So many crystal words…"

David didn't check on the rest, for he remembered being fed a Crystallized Resilience when he got to Arthan.

"Alright then, open Source boxes."

 

The Source

Opening (1) Minuscule Source Boxes.

 

You received one Minuscule Crystal!

 

"Is it enough to Crystallize the Skill?"

 

The Source

Crystallizing Auxiliary Skill Meditation through one Minuscule Crystal.

 

You received an Auxiliary, Meditation Skill: Meditation.

 

Meditation reaches level 1. Improve mindfulness by 1%

 

"So, Source, do all Skills evolve?"

 

The Source

Auxiliary and Attribute Skills maximum level is 100. Auxiliary Skills can be evolved once they reach level 100. Attribute Skills cannot be evolved. Class Skills maximum level is tied to Class Level.

 

David nodded to himself while Wushu danced around in the air; he looked a little restless as it was expected of him; the Wendigo was really scary.

"Wushu," David called to bring the dragon out of panic, "patrol the area; I need to think. Really think."

The dragon stopped in mid-air then nodded.

"See you on the other side," David said, as seriously as he could make it, but when no reaction came from the confused dragon... "Nothing, I was just trying to be cool—later."

David once again began relaxing as much as he could.

Breathing in and breathing out, slowly, focusing on a single point of his body, his solar plexus, as he had learned from one of his apps…thinking about that he remembered that he had left his smartphone at work, which was not really a good thing…there were kids there, and his passcode was 1 to 6 for David was a fool, that much was clear, he knew it as well…but once again, he threw those thoughts away and tried to focus on nothing, focusing only on freeing his mind, intensely focusing on freeing his mind, then discovered that he was indeed focusing too much on freeing his mind—so he started over once again—and again, and again, and again.

By the time he realized he just wasn't making any progress, he focused back on reality.

 

Meditation reaches level 2. Improve mindfulness by 2%

.

.

.

Meditation reaches level 14. Improve mindfulness by 14%

 

It was clear that he had a few levels to catch up, which he had done in…

"One hour!? It's already been one hour!?"

He realized it by looking at his Well. He had been doing nothing but trying to push away his thoughts for one entire hour, yet he felt…better.

So he decided that maybe trying a bit more to look for an answer to his problem through meditation wasn't wasted time; after all, what else could he do? Hunt Sourceborns to level up his Class? No, he couldn't do that; he couldn't cast without poisoning himself, so he meditated, hoping to reach Nirvana, although he would be fine even just with Foo Fighters...

 

***

 

"They are taking their sweet amount of time," said Cyana, she had come out of her own form of meditation, Kva'ri meditation, was an evolved Meditation Skill.

"Relax, Three," said Five. He sat on the ground, seemingly doing nothing, but she had learned that in Five's head, more things happened than he gave out.

Captain Virael was lost in meditation as well; there was no need for him to do more; they were also in friendly territory. They were in the City, in Varya, violence was not allowed in Varya, and nobody would dare touch them. Their uniforms were clearly a symbol not only of their military power but of being an elite from the City's heart.

Cyana missed her flat in the Fingers. She wanted nothing more than to go back to her apartment and cry to her heart's content; she was also mentally preparing to give the news to her hospitalized mother, who lived all the way over in their Homeworld.

Kryana, her mother, had been a Fiend General until two years before, she was a paragon of her race. Yes, she was almost never home, and since Cyana's father had never been present in the picture, it had been Krali, the one that took care of her, the one acting as a father, a brother, and a friend for her. He had been her world, he had meant everything to her, and now he was no more. And she would have to be the one who told her mother, a mother that had always looked at her brother as if he had been the only thing of worth that she had done. Cyana herself was…an addendum.

Still, she was her mother, she would pay respect to the Xaphi'reli's Teachings, and thus she would pay respect to her and be eternally grateful for what she had become. To pay respect also meant that she would have to be the one telling her mother that Khrali had fallen, Khrali, the one she had doted the most, probably the only reason why she kept living through the disease that had crippled her and made her a slave to a hospital bed.

"—Three? Did you hear anything I said?" Five was speaking to her. She hadn't even noticed.

"I'm very sorry, Five, please, what did you ask?"

"I can feel them," he said. "they are coming. But they haven't called, and I think Virael is stuck in Kva'ri. This is only my second mission with him. Do you know how to snap him out of it?"

Captain Virael stuck in Kva'ri? He was stuck in meditation? It was the first she heard of Virael making such a blunder. Maybe this whole business was greater than she had thought at first.

Well, she knew how to solve it. It was weird that Five didn't know such a basic technique, but she didn't know much about Five; maybe he was one of those Arthan purists whose family had chosen to abandon Xaphi'rel to come live in Arthan. If Five was one of those, he would not have reached his current level; he would have died of old age already.

Cyana got up, drew closer to Virael, then imbued her finger with the Kva'ri idea of poking. It was the basic formula to communicate with somebody stuck in Kva'ri meditation.

Virael opened his eyes soon after.

"Three, what is the problem?" He asked.

Five was the one answering, "They are here, Captain," he said, then pointed to Virael's back.

The moment the Captain turned around, a massive Fiend aircraft, easily five times the one they had used to reach the abandoned sector, reached them and quickly started its descent.

The nearby trees' crowns shook and wavered as the aircraft landed, but no dust danced in the air, for there was only asphalt and metal other than the Garden's trees.

Descending the aircraft was another team of Special Unit; there were six of them, yet at their head were two unmasked Fiends, one was the team's Captain the other was...someone more.

"Captain Virael," said the Fiend on the front; his uniform was entirely made with Sourceanium, and thus, it ranged from cobalt blue to electric blue.

"General A'astor, it's an honor having you here."

 

Fiend (Defender)

Level: 187

 

Cyana heard Five give a soft laugh, then he said something low enough only for her to hear, for she was standing next to him. "The big guns already," he said, then continued, but this time it was clearly for her as well to hear, "I wonder how much of what we have been told is true."

It was unprofessional of him. However, the Fiend in front of them was a General that directly advised the Emperor…she was unworthy of his presence, but she was also extremely surprised of such a presence…the Defender wore his Title proudly, and for anyone to stare and gawk. He was a Fighter considered a god of the battlefield, a retired god of the battlefield. Ancient or not, if this was still a diplomatic mission, then what was A'astor doing here?

She reproached herself twice after thinking in such terms, first because it was not in her place to ask what her superiors had decided to do and second because she had omitted A'astor's Title—Defender—while thinking his name.

But, she hoped no blood was going to be spilled because the Biomancer was a pillar of the City's Fey, having it fall at the hands of the Fiend because of a lowly insect as that human Trespasser would be…unwise.