“I guess I saved your lives, now please answer my question. Was that you who reached the world tree?”

He really did save your lives, and I didn’t see any harm in answering his questions, so I decided that I would talk. I wasn’t sure if the tree he was talking about was the same with the one I pictured in my mind when I heard “world tree”, but it was the only significant tree I could tell him about excluding the dungeon we were in right now.

[“Well I did visit a big tree, but I have no idea if it was the same one you’re talking about. There was a grandma sitting under it, and it was bigger than the tree we are in right now, so it could be the one. There was also nothing but grass around, no matter how much you walked.”]

“Telepathy huh? It should be the one I want, now tell me how did you get there.”

[“I evolved and was sent there by force.”]

He froze.

Yup, totally froze. I had this strange urge to wave my limb in front of his eyes, but I stopped myself. The grandma I met also spoke about the fact that it was funny that I could be sent there just by evolving, when people across the worlds were wasting their whole lives without even seeing that place.

“There’s surely a trace of the world tree inside of you, and strangely in our surroundings too, but if you expect that I will believe that, you are gravely mistaken. I will need you to tell me the truth.”

[“But that’s the truth, even that grandma laughed at the fact. If she didn’t tell me that a lot of people struggled to get there, I would even think of that place as of something special.”]

He froze again.

“That’s stupid.”

Yup, that’s exactly the case.

He burst into laugh and couldn’t stop it for a good minute, seriously that guy kept laughing that long. Strangely enough, no creatures approached us, even though we seemed like a pretty tasty preys staying defenselessly in the middle of the road. Maybe it was him? Did his word only wipe out all of the life in our surroundings?

“Nothing I can do then, I guess I will use your energy as a gateway, maybe it will bring me closer to the tree. Goodbye then, and thanks for the information.”

He then took out a sword. It felt strangely familiar to me, almost as if it was build of that last thing I had to erase when using void magic. I didn’t expect what he did with it though, namely he slashed at me rudely. For a moment I felt scared for my life, not knowing if I wasn’t already cut in half, but then a crack appeared right in front of my eyes.

Something akin to a portal, a slash in reality, a hole in space, something he created with swinging his sword. I was seeing it right in front of me, but something told me, that it was integral part of me. It was difficult to explain, but when that guy went inside, it instantly disappeared, so I guessed that it wasn’t a problem.

I wonder who he was, appearing suddenly like that, saving us from a crisis. His aim should be obvious, to reach a world tree, but why did he appear in the dungeon? Was that all just so he could extract information from me? I wonder how he found about my dealings with that place, maybe there will be more guys like him coming?

If that’s the case, I seriously hope there won’t be anyone trying to kill me after hearing I don’t really have a way to get there. Even more than that, I hope no one will actually try to use my life as a connection, because something was telling me that it was the only way to have a shortcut leading to the tree.

No matter who will come, my aim should be no different. I still need to get stronger, but now not only to kill the murderers of my family, not only to survive in this world and not only to protect my little catkin, but now I also have to protect myself against otherworldly powerhouses travelling between dimensions.

That sounded doable.

Hey system, can you somehow hide the fact that I have dealings with a world tree?

[System request recorded.]
[Flaw in the system found.]
[Patching.]
[Flaw [Energy leak] was solved.]
[Request fulfilled.]

Oh I did it again. It didn’t create any new skill this time and didn’t drain my levels, but sure enough, the system answered to my request. I really must have some sort of authority over it for some reason since it answers like that. I have no idea why though.

By the way, I found a flaw in the system, does that mean that I could get some reward for it? Come on, you have to properly compensate someone that does your job for you. What do I get?

[Proficiency reached. Gained skill [Begging lvl. 1] ]

…

…

…

I hate you.

[ :P ]