Path of Dragons

Nothing happened – at least not outwardly, but Dirk’s eyes briefly glazed over. It only lasted a second or two before he refocused. “It’s done,” he said.

“Well, that was anticlimactic,” said Carmen, who, like everyone else, was on the edge of her seat after Dirk took the class. “That’s it? What kind of ability did you get?”

“Not an ability,” he said. “A spell.”

“Yeah? What’s it called?” she asked.

“Um…it’s called Branch of the World Tree,” Dirk answered. “It says that it imbues a crystal with a connection to the World Tree Network.”

“A crystal? What kind of crystal?” asked Roman.

“You think I know?” Dirk responded. “I’m just as much in the dark as you are.”

Alyssa said, “Okay. So, it seems we need to find a crystal. Any ideas where to find one?”

“How big?” asked Carmen.

Everyone looked at Dirk, who clearly did not like the attention. He said, “I have no idea. As large as we can find, I suppose.”

“I think I’ve got something that will work,” Carmen said.

“Really? What?” asked Alyssa.

“You remember that trophy we found last month?” she answered. “You know, the one with the giant golf ball?”

“You kept that?”

She shrugged. “It’s sparkly.”

Alyssa was about to respond, but then thought better of it. Instead, she just rolled her eyes. Carmen had always been something of a pack rat. Rarely did she encounter anything she wanted to toss out, and that clearly extended to the gaudy golf trophy they had found in one of the small town’s more affluent houses.

“Plus, I thought I could reshape it,” she said in a small voice. “Maybe into a dolphin.”

“A…a dolphin?”

“You do have a birthday coming up,” Carmen said, blushing. “And you like dolphins…”

Before Alyssa could respond to her wife’s admission, Fiona cleared her throat and said, “As heartwarming as this is, can we get on with it? Where is this crystal? And if you can reshape it, why not do it in something that’s…you know, not a golf ball?”

“I could just do a generic crystal,” Carmen stated. She glanced at Dirk, as she continued, “Like a faceted gem.” She held her hands about eight inches apart, adding, “About that big. Think that’d work?”

“I guess? Maybe. I don’t know.”

“You are tons of help,” Carmen said. “Anyone ever tell you that? Helpful Dirk. That’s what I’m going to start calling –”

“Enough, Carmen,” said Roman. “He’s doing everything he can.”

Carmen started to respond – probably in a not-so-courteous way – so Alyssa grabbed her by the arm and tugged her away as she said, “Come on. Let’s go get that crystal. Where do you want us to meet you?”

“In the lobby,” Roman said.

“Ten-four, chief,” Alyssa acknowledged, pulling Carmen out the door.

A few minutes later, the pair were in the small storehouse beside Carmen’s forge, where she was muttering under her breath while searching through her materials. Eventually, she found the trophy – a gaudy thing that Alyssa couldn’t believe anyone had ever commissioned – behind a bundle of iron rods.

Carmen easily pulled the dimpled sphere free of base of the trophy, then tossed the faux marble aside. “Alright,” she said. “You might want to look away.”

Alyssa was well accustomed to Carmen’s process. She had an ability she could use once a week that allowed her to reshape materials only using her hands. Aside from the significant cooldown, the other major downside was that it created a light bright enough to blind most normal people. To protect herself, Carmen pulled on a pair of old welding goggles, then used the ability.

Even with her back turned, Alyssa saw stars, and that was just from the indirect light. She couldn’t imagine looking at it directly.

After a couple of minutes, Carmen announced, “Alright. I think that’s the best I can do. Sucks I had to waste my cooldown on something like this, but whatever. For the greater good, right?”

“For the greater good,” Alyssa echoed, grinning slightly as she turned to face her wife. In Carmen’s hands was an oblong gem, faceted like a cut diamond. “Oh…pretty.”

“Would’ve been better as a dolphin.”

“You know I don’t even like dolphins, right?”

“Sure you do. You had all those figurines.”

“Because they were my mom’s…”

“Wait…really?”

“Really.”

“You mean I bought you that ridiculous dolphin blanket for nothing? And those matching slippers…”

“They were…uh…cute. I guess. And warm, which was the main purpose.”

“God…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s the thought that counts.”

“That’s what people say when they get shitty gifts,” Carmen pointed out.

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“Well…yeah, but…I mean…”

“And moving right along…”

“Probably for the best,” Alyssa acknowledged. “Come on. Roman’s waiting on us.”

“He can wait for all I care,” groused Carmen. She’d never liked being at anyone’s beck and call, which was why she had sought a field where she didn’t really have to answer to anyone. Notably, she followed Alyssa anyway. After all, like her wife, Carmen suspected that Dirk’s spell would probably be important for the settlement’s development.

It only took a couple of minutes for the pair to get back to the lobby, where they found the other three. Roman directed Carmen to set the crystal atop a stool someone had hunted down. When she did just that, they all stepped back, and Roman said to Dirk, “Alright. Do your thing.”

Dirk stepped forward and held out his hand. As he did, he said, “I really hate that you’re all staring at me…”

“Just do it,” said Fiona.

He sighed, scrunched up his face, and laid his hand on the crystal. A second later, Alyssa felt something in the air move before the crystal lit up with blue light. Then, it started to morph, tendrils of the crystal growing downward to wrap around the stool. At the same time, the rest of the structure elongated before growing more tendrils.

“It looks like a tree…”

Alyssa glanced at Carmen, then back at the glowing crystal. The moment Carmen had said as much, Alyssa saw it as well. And with every passing second, it grew clearer until, at last, the blue light faded. When it did, a crystalline tree was revealed. It was maybe six feet tall, with leafless branches stretching the same distance from the trunk.

“Uh…what now?” asked Carmen.

“I don’t –”

Suddenly, someone new appeared before them. And everyone reacted with predictable aggression.

Carmen pulled a hammer from thin air, and Alyssa yanked a dagger from the sheath at her waist. Meanwhile, Roman, who’d taken the Assassin class, disappeared completely. When he reappeared a moment later, he had a pair of knives in hand.

Dirk was the only one who didn’t move at all.

“Oh, isn’t this embarrassing?” said the woman as a throwing knife passed right through her. “I suppose you didn’t expect me to show up, huh?”

“What are you?” demanded Roman.

It was a valid question, considering that the woman was clearly inhuman, with light green skin, pointed ears, and hair that looked more like vines than any tresses that Alyssa had ever seen. She wore a thin robe that left very little to the imagination.

“Oh. I guess you don’t have wood elves here,” she said. “No matter.” She cleared her throat, then straightened her back. “I am Numa, and I am a representative of the Cult of the World Tree. You would know all about that, I’m sure.”

“Uh…no,” said Dirk.

“What? Really? Why did you take the class, then?” Numa asked.

“They made me.”

“We didn’t make you!” Carmen barked. “We suggested.”

“Ah. This…is a nice place you have here,” said Numa, looking around. “Very chic.”

“Oh, I’m sorry that it’s not up to your standards,” Carmen stated. “We’ve been a little too busy dealing with the fucking apocalypse to worry about making everything all nice and shiny.”

“Apocalypse? Oh! This is a newly integrated world! That explains so much,” she said. “In that case…ahem. Welcome! Your world has been connected to the rest of the universe via the majesty of the World Tree. As an official settlement, you now have access to a host of features based on the level of your Envoy.”

“He’s level ten,” said Alyssa. “What does that get us?”

“Ah, right. Not much, I’m afraid. You get access to the banking System, limited trade, and…well, that’s it. But if he reaches level fifty, you will unlock the teleportation System!” she said. “So, that’s something to look forward to, right? We also have guides on a variety of subjects, classes, and, of course, cultivation methods. For a price, obviously.”

Alyssa addressed the obvious concern, saying, “I’m guessing you don’t take dollars. What currency are we using here? Precious metals? Gems? We don’t have much, but –”

“Etherium, of course.”

“Uh…what the hell is etherium?”

“Solidified Ethera in the shape of coins,” she said, holding up a small, circular object the size of a half dollar. “Copper is the lowest denomination, and it’s denoted by a…well, copper color. Then silver. Gold after that. And finally, platinum. It takes a thousand copper to add up to a silver, a thousand silver to amount to the same value as one gold etherium, then a million gold coins to equal a single platinum. Most people only deal in copper and silver coins.”

“And where do we get these coins? I don’t suppose there’s a class with a Mint ability, right?” said Fiona.

“Certainly not,” said Numa with an indulgent smile. Alyssa didn’t like how condescending the wood elf was, but then again, she probably had every right to be. As far as Numa was concerned, they were backwards savages. It didn’t matter that they’d had their world turned upside down; their lives were primitive by anyone’s measure. “The answer to your question is the Branch of the World Tree. You merely need to touch it, and you will gain access to the banking System.”

“We don’t have anything to deposit,” said Carmen.

“Oh, but you don’t understand. Of course you don’t,” she said with a patient tone that reminded Alyssa of the way a kindergarten teacher would talk to a class full of five-year-olds. “That’s okay. Each time you kill a hostile creature, it marks you. When you access the Branch of the World Tree, it reads those…ah…marks and rewards you appropriately. For instance, if you kill a reasonably weak creature, you might be credited with a single copper etherium. The more powerful the enemy, the higher the reward. And, of course, defeating one of the Voxx is even more valuable.”

“Voxx?”

“Oh, dear. You don’t know about the Voxx.”

“Obviously,” Carmen muttered.

“The Voxx are denizens of another reality,” Numa said. “They infiltrate our universe via dimensional rifts. Some of those rifts are only active for long enough to admit a single Voxx. However, others remain in place until someone goes in and closes them. Then there are the towers, which can be divided into different grades of difficulty. Finally, there are primal realms, though I doubt you need to worry about those right now.”

Alyssa nodded along as Numa explained it, and once the elf was finished, she asked, “So, we use those coins to buy the stuff you were talking about. What form does it take? And how does it arrive?”

“I don’t understand,” Numa said. Then, her already huge eyes widened, and she said, “Oh. I get it now. The information will be presented in the form of leaves, which will grow from this tree. Pluck them, and you will be able to read their contents.”

Alyssa realized then that she would get far more information by testing it out rather than relying on Numa’s explanations. So, she stepped forward and asked, “I just put my hand on it?”

“Yes. Go ahead,” the elven woman prompted with another condescending smile.

Alyssa suppressed the urge to roll her eyes, then put her hand on one of the crystalline branches. Immediately a new window flashed before her eyes:

Copper	Silver	Gold	Platinum
732	7	0	0

“Okay,” said Alyssa. “I guess I have a little over seven silver etherium. What can I get for that?”

“Seven? How…”

“You’re the expert,” she said. “So – what can I get?”

“For now? You’re limited to our basic guides. However, those should be quite sufficient for your current level of advancement,” Numa informed her.

“Okay? How do I access them?”

After that, Numa walked her through the process. It boiled down to simply thinking the word, “Market”, which pulled up the available guides. The wood elf also taught her how to access the other features of the Branch, but all of those were greyed out. Most, she couldn’t even identify because they were hidden.

Still, she selected a dozen different guides, exhausting the limits of her currency. A few of them were for Carmen, and they detailed different crafting methods. However, the ones that really excited Alyssa were the ones meant to teach her about cultivation.

“I think this is going to change everything,” Alyssa said, pulling away.

The elf gave her an indulgent smile, saying, “Of course. That’s the point.”

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