"Well, I used to at least. It's been a while since I've seen it, my flute that is," Rangothor said. "Can the flute seal wisps?" I asked. "No, when played with the proper melody it will cause the wisps to lose their previous will and vanish." He said. 'There is something I have never heard of before, interesting,' I thought. "I unfortunately am unaware of its current whereabouts," Rangothor said, luckily he was not finished though. "I am aware of something that may lead you to it though, I gave my flute to Angothor, the last person to come here, and he lost it somewhere… He felt quite bad about it but I didn't mind, I can't use it anymore anyway… oh, anyway, he kept a journal of his time here and left it in the village center, it may contain information about where he lost it,"
"Where is that?" I asked.
"Hmm, it should be at the top of the tree as it is right now, you'll know it when you see it. Hopefully it isn't too burned, I haven't had the heart to go look." "Want us to tell you how it is?" Leo asked. "No, I think that it's about time I go look for myself, I'll come with you," Rangothor responded. I would imagine that after however long it has been since Rangothor last had company it would be nice to finally be in the presence of others again, even my two year fast took a toll on me. "You could show us around then," Leo said. "I suppose I might just have to," Rangothor said with what I would assume to be the bird equivalent of a smile. He started floating towards the door.
I felt my book buzz, Leo also noticed something as his scroll appeared, and Kevin and Lucifer just stood there looking into space. Pulling it out I started glancing through the pages until I noticed something different. The others were already walking towards the door so I hastened. There was a new quest. It was called 'Diary' and it told us to find the Diary of Angothor to find the location of the flute. It also mentioned a 30,000 Exp reward which was nice I guess. Hopefully this one did not get canceled either.
The door, albeit charred, clearly used to be carved in the likeness of a large and beautiful tree. Leo went into the trunk, following Rangothor who just went through said door. Luckily, The door opened easily. I imagined that there might be a stairway winding around, or some ladders that left the majority of the insides of the tree intact. I was not expecting a completely open expanse that had buildings lining the insides of the tree just like they were the exterior.
"It's such a shame. There used to be a vibrant, verdant beam of life stretching from the base of the tree to the crown, and the same beautiful energy used to pulse down the bark of the tree, but now that the trees burned…" Rangothor said, Sighing sadly. "But I see that some new life has already started to grow inside." And he was not wrong. There were large fungus growing along the sides and plenty of other undergrowth too. "What happens if we fall?" Kevin asked. "I wouldn't recommend finding out," Rangothor said slyly. "Makes sense." Kevin said.
The way up was large staircases that connected to various buildings and platforms. It was clear from my eyes that they used to be enchanted in some way, likely to make them sturdier. The enchantment had likely worn off centuries ago by now, but it seemed to have saved the stairs from the fire, as even though they were wooden, they were relatively unscorched. Even the buildings on the interior did not seem in too poor condition. Rangothor was pleased by this development. "Feel free to see if the fires spared any items that Angothor decided to leave behind in the buildings," Rangothor said. We went into various buildings hoping to find something, but there seemed to be even less in these buildings then the ones outside. But just when we were beginning to lose hope we did finally find something. It was not exactly nice but it was something. I opened a door on one of the buildings and we started to file into it to look for stuff when I noticed a plant 'resting' in the center of the room. It was quite large, being almost my height even as it was balled up. It was a mass of vines, expanding and contracting slowly as it seemed to breathe. I slowly walked up to it and poked it. A vine whipped out and wrapped firmly around my body, even going so far as to cover my mouth so that I could not make sound. It started to drag me closer to it, while the rest of the vines started to loosen, opening up like a maw, seeming to want to swallow me whole.
I was trying to figure out how to get out of this dilemma when Leo slashed at the vine with his sword, cleanly slicing through the vine, and freeing me. It was clear that he was not bluffing earlier when he was talking about his skill with the blade. "Thanks," I said. At this point everyone was in the building, but it was quite cramped with everyone, including the plant, so Lucifer left and dragged Kevin with him. I decided to make an ink blade like usual, but I decided to try out a different technique that I deemed potentially possible with my newfound skills. The reason I was trying something new is because I thought that this way would be cooler.
I quickly grabbed my ink bottle and slightly uncapped it. I then grabbed the top like I was about to unsheath a blade, and turned the bottle upside down and yanked it upwards, letting ink fly freely in an arc. Channeling my soul into my creation, the arced form that had manifested stayed intact. In my hand I now held a long, jagged curved midnight blade that was sharper than the ones I normally made. Noticing that I was now armed, Leo stood ready, and we lept at the vine creature, making quick work of it. Some experience flew into both of us. The energy was greener than normal this time. I quickly glanced to see how much I gained and the number went up by 500. 'And Leo got some too did he…' I thought.
It looked like we would have to be more careful now, as there were evidently hostile beings around us, but luckily they were not too tough. Rangothor surprisingly did not know anything about them. We continued on to the next house. This one had something actually useful within its singed wooden frame. We almost missed it but Kevin spotted something atypical. It was just a part of a small stone tablet on the ground, but it had words engraved on it. Very little was able to be made out of it because it was after all, only part of a tablet. 'May the enchantment we put… big tree… protect… all time…' Was all that we could make out. 'If this is the big tree written of, then it seems I was correct about the enchantment, even though it was pretty obvious,' I thought. "What do you think it means?" Kevin asked. We then all explained what it meant because he was the only one without any magical knowledge whatsoever, and everyone else thought it to be extraordinarily obvious. "I will say though, I thought the enchantment to be more powerful. Hundreds of lightning strikes have occurred before, but none even singed a leaf before," Rangothor said. "The spell was cast thousands of years ago by many powerful demons, and it was woven into the very lifeforce of the tree itself so it is strange," 'really?!' I thought. "The lifeforce of the tree?" I asked. "Yes," "then maybe the tree had less time than you thought left?" "Well, after having so many years to ponder, I think that Angothor probably did something, yet another reason I want to get to his diary," Rangothor said.
With nothing left to say we kept moving. I was starting to become curious about this Angothor fellow. Not even Lucifer knew anything about that name so his reach was likely confined to this fragment. We found more of the plant creatures, which Kevin mentioned were called 'Demon plants' as his Lexicon told him. 'What a surprise,' I thought. The few that I killed alone dropped 1000 experience and if others attacked too then the amount lessened. Which made me realize something. "It appears that experience gets split up depending on how many people attack these plants," I said, sharing my findings with the others. "Yeah?" Lucifer responded. It appeared that this was common knowledge for most people as Leo also knew this, Kevin too somehow. Also, all party members apparently got a bosses exp split regardless of work done according to Lucifer.
After an hour of walking up stairs and slaying demon plants we stepped onto a platform that was significantly larger than any previous ones. The platform was wood, and it almost looked like the tree itself had grown the platform given that it was not too smooth and there was bark covering the whole surface. The one oddity was a large hole that was burned through the center of it.
Name: Winter
Age: 22
Level : 22
EXP: 2400/12,100
Beginner Artist
Health: 250
Mana: 26
Stat Points: 29
Stats:
Vitality : 10
Mind : 15
Endurance : 10
Strength : 10
Intelligence : 11
Soul : 28
Instinct : 5
Tinkering : 5
Luck : 0
Skill Points: 17
Skills:
Language
nieasMansincegfghjdbjkas(lva?>":)
aaddddvvjksamnacntrlscffddewgha(alv******)
Mana Pull V
Elementary flame magic (level 4)
Elementary ground magic(level 4)
Elementary light magic(level 2)
Elementary water magic(level 3)
Soul Awareness I (level 3)
Beginner artist (level 6)
Sleep Status Resistance (level 2)