Ha shiver went down Kali's spine. The girl stumbled and barely managed to catch herself before her face got into a physically intimate relationship with the ground.

 

Something was happening. She could feel it. Her Core felt full despite only being at around 85% capacity at the moment.

 

Kali rested her back against a nearby wall, sliding down until she felt the stable soil under her butt. There was a moment of suspense. Kali felt a vertigo hit her, but as quickly as it came, the nauseating feeling was gone and in its place was a surging feeling of power.

 

Pure power surged from her Core and dispersed into every pore of her being. Her bones became just a touch stronger, lighter and tougher, her muscles and tendons undergoing the same, while her mind felt just a bit faster and complex calculations were just a fraction faster.

 

Everything about her became … better, for a lack of a better word.

 

Kali blinked. Feeling the overwhelming discrepancy between the previous moment of her life and the current one.

 

It was gone.

 

She clenched and unclenched her fists. If she really focused on it, she felt just a smidge stronger than before, but that sense of power was gone.

 

Kali closed her eyes and calmed her ragged breathing. This feeling was … nice, but far from the first Core she absorbed and whatever Avariel did to her.

 

She pushed herself back to her feet, a small smile ever so slowly crawling onto her lips.

 

 

It was easy to guess what her experience was, she might have been barred from cultivating before, but the Core passively turned Mana into Essence so that couldn't quite be stopped unless they starve the Princess of Mana which would be far from a good look. So they didn't. It didn't matter if the young princess was level 100 or 105 when her guards were all over level 300. 'Overkill' wasn't a word found in the old Elven language.

 

LevelUp was what the exact moment when the Core releases all of its newly transmuted Essence into the body and spirit, letting the energy strengthen every part of the person receiving it. Nobody knew why it did it in bursts like these. The mysteries of how cores worked were still beyond mortal mages. All they could do was observe.

 

From those observations came the concept of levels and with this one … I should be 182, I think? Only 18 more until the first breakthrough.

 

The local's still prevalent dislike of her was clear in that none came to check on her when she collapsed against the wall. It soured Kali's feelings for a moment, but she shook it off with a shrug. She couldn't force them to like her and these people lived in fear all their lives.

 

With the wall serving as a support, she crawled back onto her feet. The LevelUp might have left her without an afterglow, but it did sap the energy out of her body and so now her knees were quivering like a newborn fawn's. During every LevelUp, according to some, the person you were before is gone and a new, better one is constructed out of essence.

 

Kali banished the dumb myth out of her head. Zadkiel would berate her for even entertaining the moronic rumor.

 

After a minute of standing, she felt like she could walk again.

 

 

 

 

Magical plants were weird.

 

This one had strong bark-like vines that it used to crawl all over the walls and it had tear shaped leaves that wouldn't have stood out in a forest. Though, the red and yellow little berries hidden between them would be hard to miss at night.

 

Little orbs of white, yellow and red glowed with a brightness that was hard to miss even during the day, but they'd be unmistakable at night.

 

"So?" Avariel asked as she stood a step behind Kali with her arms crossed.

 

 

Kali just hummed, taking out her dagger and poking carefully at the plant. She scratched the leaves and the barks first, earning herself some white liquid dripping out of the wound.

 

"That should be poisonous?" Kali mused, but she knew it wouldn't be enough. A Plant that actively attracted attention with its bright light had to have had some sort of a defense mechanism that made animals leave it alone. Poison would work for a while, but most animals were dumb and with time, they'd develop enough immunity to it to eat it.

 

With a quick strike she severed a stem just above a single thumb-sized red orb and jumped back quickly, a Shield Spell springing into being on her arm which she used to cover her upper body should the thing … explode?

 

It wasn't exploding.

 

The red orb plopped onto the ground with a wet smack, sending a small rain of juice flying in every direction.

 

Kali evaded any droplets she noticed and used her magical buckler to swipe aside any she couldn't.

 

"Congratulations," said Avariel with a single clap. "You beat up a berry."

 

"Was it dangerous?"

 

"Do you think it was?"

 

Kali crunched down and took a whiff of the juices already getting soaked up by the living wooden floor. Sweet, very sweet. Doesn't smell poisonous?

 

"No?" Kali answered uncertainly. The plant had to have something to it. She could feel mana flowing through it when she was really close, so it wasn't just a simple plant that glowed for ancestors to know why.

 

"Correct," the Archdruid nodded as she stepped up to the vine. "So?"

 

"Mhhh," Kali groaned as she stood back up and leaned in to observe the plant.

 

She squinted, her gaze flickering between the three types of berries on it. Small, bright, white ones. Medium, glowy, yellow ones and big dim red ones.

 

She tilted her head.

 

 

"I think the white berries should have something dangerous in them?" Kali looked expectantly at the druid. "To keep animals from eating them and only going for the red ones, right?"

 

"Very good," Avariel nodded. "Step back."

 

Kali obliged, hopping back a few meters while training her hawkish gaze on the druid's hands as they closed in on a small bundle of bright white berries.

 

Green fingers expertly latched onto only the stem, the berries never touching the Eladrin's skin. She twisted her hand and the stem broke without effort.

 

"Now these," she turned around and showed her small branch filled with tiny white orbs off to Kali, "are what we used to call, 'White Agony'. I'm not sure what they call them now, but the name is quite apt, so I stuck with it."

 

"What does it do?" Kali asked. Curiosity warring with common sense in her head, one trying to push her forward while the other urged her to get away from the malicious plant already.

 

Kali stepped up, her curious gaze going over the little berries. They'd make for good natural torches, but if even Avariel was this careful with handling them, then they would probably be a bigger hazard than oil burners.

 

"It explodes with an extremely bright light while coating anything near it in its poisonous juice."

 

"Didn't you say it wasn't poisonous?" Kali hopped back just a bit. A meter should be enough distance.

 

"The ripe ones aren't," the woman smirked. "But these could make anyone under level 400 have a very bad day."

 

"And a Troll?" Kali glanced up at the woman, trying to sound innocent.

 

"Normal poison doesn't work on Trolls," the woman looked thoughtful. "but these have magical properties. It should counteract their heling for a short while at least. "

 

"… Can they be stored in a spatial artifact?"

 

"They can," the woman nodded with a meaningful look. "So you decide to help the girl?"

 

"Eh?" Kali stilled. "… I did, though only if she wasn't lying."

 

 

"I doubt she was," Avariel shrugged. "Here, have this."

 

Kali's eyes widened as the very dangerous bundle of berries was being dangled in front of her eyes.

 

She yelped and stumbled back.

 

"You don't want it?"

 

"Fu- I mean- Yes, I do."

 

With a grumble she reached out with her hand and activated her spatial ring with a trickle of mana, snatching the 'goods' out of the druid's hand.

 

"Thanks," Kali bowed slightly. "Do you have anything else?"

 

"You wouldn't expect me to be wasting my Fire Blossoms that I've been growing for the last sixty years on a single Troll, now would you?"

 

"Nooo," Kali averted her gaze. "But such a magnificent and generous druid such as you must have something that could help me out?"

 

"Don't push your luck, girl." said Avariel, her smirk betraying her amusement. "I told you that you'd be protected here, why do you even want to fight a Troll?"

 

"Because," Kali hopped up next to the druid as the two continued walking. Another door revealed itself as the wall pealed back, leading down into an even lower section of the druid's … fortress? Grove, even if it is an underground maze, a druid could only ever have a Grove! "She is going to help me sneak out of the country if I do!"

 

"You could just stay here," the woman said with a slightly dejected sigh.

 

"Nuh-uh," Kali shook her head. "I've been staying in a 'safe' castle my whole life. I don't want to just let others protect me while I stay weak."

 

They walked in silence for a few seconds, the druid only giving an understanding nod.

 

"Plus, I can't learn magic and explore the world here." Kali interjected, silence not really being her thing.

 

"That is true." Kali couldn't see her face, but the tinge of amusement in it was clear. "If that is the path you chose, then I won't stop you but this village will always welcome you … or I will at least."

 

"Thank you," Kali smiled, a warm feeling settling into her chest.

 

Continuing to travel was a self evident choice to Kali. This village might be a safe-haven now but would it remain that way when her father caught wind of it? Avariel might be strong but she didn't want to bring her father's wrath down on her and the people here.

 

They were innocent.

 

 

Still, the sense of safety and peace here without a sword called 'arranged marriage' hanging over her head was tempting.

 

Fortunately, she was far too obsessed with magic as to stop here.

 

"This is a big tree," Kali mused. The walls still seemed to be carved out of a single large tree, but she was sure none of the ones she saw above-ground should have roots this long and thick.

 

"It is, isn't it?"

 

"Yeah?" Kali raised an eyebrow. "And?"

 

"See these?" Avariel tapped her knuckles on the sidewall, making it creep back a little and reveal bluish vines running through it just below the surface. "These vines usually grow around leylines and siphon mana from them, which they give to magical plants in return for nutrients."

 

"I see," Kali tapped the tiny part of it that she could and pushing her mana sense out a few centimeters, she could feel the esoteric energy pulse in the plant like a heartbeat. "So you are sapping a leyline?"

 

"I am," the druid shrugged. "Though I barely use the energy for myself, the mana goes into all the plants around the village. It is just a happy little coincidence that all of these plants are perfect for defending the place should the barrier ever fall."

 

"This really is a fortress," Kali noted as the vine sunk into the solid bark as if it was liquid.

 

"'Grove,'" the druid corrected. "It lives with barely any maintenance and I am not siphoning away enough mana from the leyline to negatively impact the environment."

 

"I see," Kali nodded

 

Just when the following silence started to bother her again, they'd arrived. The natural door that opened up didn't reveal a hall with wooden walls for a change, but an underground cavern.

 

Kali squinted, allowing her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The soft glow of bio-luminescent moss on the ceiling providing enough light for her to see comfortably.

 

As soon as she took in the cavern in its entirety she squealed and jumped back, hiding behind the druid as she peeked back out at a large scaly back taking up a quarter of the underground chamber. Even as the scaly animal — or more likely, magical beast — was lying down, the top of its back was a head over Kali's height.

 

The rough dirty brown scales of the being were as large as her palms, but her gaze was fixated on the beast's slowly rising and falling … stomach? It's breathing … oh shit!

 

Kali almost jumped out of her skin in fright as Avariel clapped once, she was frozen stiff as the beast shifted, a burly neck raising from behind its mass shortly followed by a head filled with jagged horns in far too many places.

 

Eyes opened up and revealed orbs of angry orange with slitted irises not unlike the Archdruid's own eyes.

 

 

"Calm down," Avariel flicked the panicking girl's forehead.

 

"W-what?"

 

"Would you move aside for a moment, please dear?" The druid smiled at the beast as it just … stared at the two of them.

 

 

It released a low, growly breath as it climbed onto its feet; it dragged itself to the other side of the chamber and collapsed back down. As its eyes closed, it went back to sleeping without another thought.

 

"Thank you Quake," Avariel nodded as she started walking again, right in the direction where the beast first slept. "Come on Kali."

 

Kali tore her gaze off of the slumbering beast and dashed up to the woman, putting the druid between herself and the … little dragon?

 

"Quake?" Kali asked as she peeked back at it.

 

"You don't need to fear him. He is far too lazy to even catch his own meals."

 

Kali jumped as a low grunt reverberated through the cavern.

 

"Does someone not want a meal today?"

 

The next sound somehow managed to sound like a whine, despite it vibrating through the stone walls.

 

"That's what I thought," the druid smirked. "Quake is an Earth Drake. I'm sure you learned of them."

 

 

"I have," Kali grumbled.

 

"As I said," she shrugged, "he is lazy and hasn't eaten anything besides cattle for centuries."

 

"I see?" Kali blinked. Earth Drakes were one of the main reasons Winter Elves mostly kept to living ON the mountains and not IN the mountains. They could almost swim through rock and dirt with how fast they could tunnel and — as any healthy Magical Beast — they should hunger for Mana and the Cores of other beings.

 

 

"We are here," Kali snapped out of her musings and noticed with a start that the Drake was lying right on before an entrance into another chamber, covering it with his bulk.

 

Kali stepped into the hall only after a moment of hesitation, bracing herself for finding another sleepy monster inside, but what she found was a room filled with bookcases, chests and a myriad of other containers.

 

"Welcome to my Vault."