Tatatata…
The sound of the rapid footfalls of one of Leon’s summons echoed through the undergrowth. The antennae of the Undead Royal Millipede waved and swayed as it picked up various scents. It could not pick up any signs of any other creatures being in the vicinity.
Tap, tap.
It stopped and drummed its antennae against the solid bark of a tree before continuing forward. Half an hour later, it emerged in a large clearing. The clearing was doused in a pale, golden light that illuminated the place.
Glancing around, the millipede spotted a few other of its kin stepping out of the cover of the forest, just as it did. They gathered in a spot close to the trunk of the wide, glowing tree, and began conversing. They all looked up to it, as it was the strongest amongst all of them.
‘I will call the master.’ It told them and reached out to Leon through the link that they shared as master and summon.
Far away, back at the base of the tree where the millipedes had carved out a space, Leon sat cross-legged as he went through a journal on the basics of earth magic. Before he started reading it, he had checked the book cover, and sure enough, the same signature that Curtis had gone wild for was signed on the front page. After an hour of reading, he had already gotten a point added to his Intelligence stat, and surprisingly, his Durability stat as well.
When he thought about it, he figured that it had something to do with the sturdiness of earth, so it complimented his Durability well. He was not sure, but that was the only reason he could come up with.
Leon’s head snapped up as he received a message from the strongest Millipede he had sent out. He stood up and dusted off his clothes. The millipedes had not found any signs of people on their way to the tree, and there was also no danger on the way.
“Nedra, let’s head out.” Leon called out to his companion, who crawled out of the hole under the large tree. She looked around a bit before making her way over.
‘Climb on my back, we’ll be faster that way.’ She told him, and he agreed. It was a bit strange at first, but after a minute adjusting, he was able to get a little comfortable. Comfortable enough for the short trip to the glowing tree, at least.
“I should work on getting a proper mount later.” Leon told Nedra as the latter set off through the trees. The ride was a bit bumpy, with how much Nedra needed to bend, twist, and curve around and above trees and rocks.
Fifteen minutes later, the duo emerged from the thick cover of vegetation, stepping into a wide clearing that was covered in a golden light. The light was not too bright, but it was a constant that no one could ignore.
Looking at the tree with his own eyes this time felt much more surreal than looking at it through one of his summons’ eyes. From up close, it seemed like the tree had some sort of magical current running through it. Around certain spots, Leon could see thickened streams of golden light flowing up the trunk of the tree. When he followed them with his eyes and looked up, he was surprised to see a bunch of thick, head sized golden fruits hanging off some branches, hiding underneath the cover of the thick, wide leaves of the tree.
“What’s what?” Leon mumbled and reached out to touch the tree. “Ouch!” He pulled back his hand in shock, a little trail of smoke wafting from the tip of his scorched finger.
“What the heck?” He was surprised as he held his finger up to eye level. The skin and flesh around the tip had been burnt black, with nothing remaining, but charred, useless debris that broke off as Leon’s innate regeneration kicked in.
‘A protection barrier?’ Nedra wondered as she walked around the massive trunk of the tree. By the time she made her way around it, her two front most legs were also charred black.
‘It’s pretty strong. I think it has to do with the 24 hour time given by the Gods. Perhaps it will come down when the bout begins.’ She shared her opinion. Leon agreed with her thoughts.
“Alright, then. We can wait here for the time to pass.” Leon returned to his cross-legged position at the base of the tree, whipping out the journal on earth magic. He brought out all of his summons, including Kaladin and Nero, sending out the millipedes to spread out around the area, while Kaladin and Nero remained there with Nedra and him.
Before long, Leon was already counting the added stat points to Intelligence and Durability with a small smile as he went through the journal.
.
.
Not too far from the golden tree, a trio of humans was making their way through the forest.
“I can sense a potent magical hotspot not too far from here.” A petite girl with blond hair packed up into pigtails said, pointing in a direction.
“Good, we need to secure any good stuff before others can, and before the countdown runs out.” A green-haired young man said, smiling at the girl.
“Hmm..” Their third companion grunted as he turned to lead in the direction that his female companion had pointed out.
Adrian, Bella, and Malaki were also participating in Divinity’s Bout, although they did not plan to fight for any of the Gods’ attention. Instead, all they wanted to do was get their hands on some valuable treasure and lay low for the next couple of months until the bout was over.
Surprisingly, after the battle with the skeleton necromancer, they had surpassed their previous peak and broken into C rank! This was surprising because it had happened much sooner than any of them had expected, but also a bit irritating, as they were forced to fight amongst C rank fighters. This made the hurdle they had to overcome much greater, as there was a great difference between them and those who stood at the peak of this rank.
They had initially planned to fight for the top of D rank, but after breaking through, they had needed to change plans. It was something that could not be helped.
“Let’s hurry up. I’m sure there must be others hunting for treasure in this forest too.” Adrian focused his eyes and the group continued forward.