Wraithwood Botanist

B2 - Chapter 15 - Tribute

I froze when I learned that my home would be overrun with second-evolution beasts in two weeks.

"Why didn’t you tell me!" I yelled.

"So what?" Elana asked, "you could split your focus? If I had you would be chasing after new spells and cheap herbs right now."

"Yeah, that’s exactly what I would be doing! I don’t have a home, Elana. I don’t have weapons!"

"You don’t have anything," Elana said chillingly.

I froze and stared at a woman whose aura had turned to dry ice, freezing lungs with a mere glance.

"You couldn’t even use a domain. Tell me, Mira. What would’ve happened if beasts chased you into the Greenhouse? Hmmm? What would’ve happened if you ran into a third ev and it targeted your blood with a spell? Hmmm?"

I put my back against the alchemy station’s countertop, gripping my arms.

"What you needed was training—real training," Elana said. "And that’s what we did, was it not? How much did you improve your magical control learning Separation? That allows you to use spells. How much have you threaded your core? That increases your range. How much have you refined your soul force? That makes you resistant to magic and amplifies the power of your attacks. Mira..."

My skin tingled with electricity, and I looked up. Elana was looking at me earnestly.

"I’m a god. I got here through violence and power—not by obsessing over elixirs." Elana glanced at the Illyndra Elixir and back at me. "And I got that power by focusing on the right things. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Good. Because if you ever imply that I would waste your time again, I will show you the cliff." Elana scoffed and folded her arms, exercising restraint as if she were dealing with a foreign dignitary that she couldn’t abuse.

"Yes... Elana. I’m just scared."

"Don’t be," Elana said, flicking her wrist. "These creatures are nothing but a training exercise. They’re inconvenient, but they’ll be good for you. The real problem’s the Harvest. Hundreds of skilled neophytes are swarming this forest, and they all have a decade or more experience. Magic—ranged attacks—tactics. And a lot of these cretins think you’re a brand new neophyte that’s living off berries in a cave somewhere. They’re bound to attack you. Do you understand?"

My lungs felt like lead, and my spine ached. Everything suddenly felt a lot more serious. "Yes..." I said.

"Good. Take the next week and collect your tribute. Stock up on creations, create a catalyst and thread your core. I want it threaded to saturation. By month’s end, I need you evolved."

I nodded. "Then what?"

"There’s a technique—simple yet effective. It’s called Guided Arrow. I want you to practice that with your acceleration technique—and that’s all. I want you to master two spells until you can face all of the harvesters, if necessary."

"All... of them?"

"All of them. You don’t become a god by being able to kill a hundred of your enemies, Mira. Not a thousand—not a million. You become a god by being able to kill all of them—no matter how many there are. Do you understand?"

I shivered, feeling anxious frost forming on my skin.

"Do you understand?" Elana repeated coldly.

I nodded. "I do."

Elana looked satisfied at my serious reaction. "Good. Now straighten your hair. Every knot is an argument to attack you."

She blinked out of existence, leaving me alone.

I stood there for about twenty minutes until Kline meowed, breaking me from my neverending labyrinth of self-reflection and terror. I looked down at him. His eyes were determined, confident—murderous.

While I wasn’t certain whether my old-world morals and sentimentalities would allow me to kill another human, my little warrior didn’t have that problem. If someone attacked, he would massacre them without distinction. I was lucky.

As for myself, I wasn’t particularly opposed to that. I was deeply bothered by the fact that killing people didn’t bother me as I thought it should have. But that’s just what happens when you massacre over a thousand beasts in two months, constantly risking your life. It changes you.

I nodded at Kline. "I know..." Then I looked away. "I’ll get stronger, too. We need to prepare for everything."

With those words, I retrieved the pocket mirror I kept to flag down planes in survival situations and looked at myself. My hair was disgusting and matted. I used Purify, and all the dirt fell out like a waterfall. The fact that Elana didn’t say something was a testament to her seriousness.

Smiling grimly, I fixed my hair. It was time to prepare for the horde.

2.

Brexton whistled as he watched Aiden flying around on Halten like a pro. Aiden needed to be bolted onto the vraxle’s scales just a month before. Now, he was riding on a harness, doing sensory switching drills at high speed. They were in sync, going through obstacles, diving and biting and roaring in the skies.

Brexton gripped the wood post fence that he was sitting on, reveling in the small breeze. He was actually getting tan this year. Everything was backward—and he was surprisingly okay with that.

"That’s it," she confirmed. "For this year. It changes, and what I can ask you increases as you get stronger. This’s just what you could get... with reasonable certainty."

I smiled grimly.

"Well? Do you want your reward?"

"You’re spoiling me."

"I’ll take it out on you when you’re stronger."

"Great..." I chuckled and looked at the ground, smiling brightly. "So? What’s the reward?"

Elana picked up the driftrise root, a purple root that was marbled with off-white blotches. "This root makes you more sensitive to mana. It’s like the Lumidran Awakening Elixir, but it doesn’t have hallucinogenic elements."

"I see... so what is evolution, anyway?"

"Just a chant."

"Wait. That’s it?"

"That’s it." Elana saw my face and decided to add, "It’s just a spell to expand your core. That’s all."

"And is that... free?" I asked.

Elana raised an eyebrow. "For you."

"No..." I looked at Kline, who stared at me in frustration.

Elana picked it up. "That’s right..."

"Hey, Lithco. What’s going on with evolutions?"

A pop-up answered me. "Once you decide to evolve, I give everyone a quest to get an evolution spell. You’ve already passed the qualification and can earn the highest—which is gold for the first. Elana will certainly give you more than that."

"No..." I said. "What about Kline?"

Lithco’s answer shocked me. "I don’t know."

I looked at Kline and knelt down, feeling my heart pound. "Did you speak to Yakana?"

Kline nodded without hesitation.

A thin smile crept onto my lips, and I looked at Elana. "Is your evolution chant better than Yakana’s?"

Elana frowned. "He’s real?"

"He’s real."

"And he taught you how to thread your core?"

"Yes."

Her face twisted into a taut smile. "I can’t speak for their evolution technique, but..." She looked at Kline’s core with narrowed eyes and thought about it for a while. "I’ll trust your judgment."

Yakana it is, I thought. I tried to do my best to maintain a poker face, but Elana saw right through it. Despite that, she remained cool and retained her penetrating gaze. It calmed my pounding heart.

"Listen, Mira. This is a defining moment in your life. With a foundation like this, even tenth evolution godhood isn’t off the table. So, if Yakana can bring you the best evolution—do it. If you’re not confident—come to me. Whatever you do, take this moment seriously and do whatever you can to establish a strong core. You will need it for the horde—and you’ll definitely need it for the harvest."

Humid air curled in my lungs, and clenching my fingers yielded no traction.

Elana’s eyes sharpened further. "Whatever it takes, Mira. Whatever it takes. Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Good." Elana helped me perform a cold water extraction on the driftrise root with the Diktyo River water and then oversaw me using Essence extraction to pull out the magical elements. Lastly, I used Separation to remove the root and put it into a jar. I had my catalyst.

"Don’t get complacent," Elana said as I looked at it.

I nodded. "I won’t."

Elana smiled thinly and said her goodbyes. I then packed as many elixirs as I could in my backpack, buried all our tribute preservation chambers in a twenty-foot hole to protect them, bundled hundreds of pounds of dried meat, helped Kline climb them into a tree, and then ate dinner under the setting sun, threading cores beside the fire until morning.

We packed up camp before sunrise, shivering from the mist, and turned south toward the Bramble. The horde was coming. Beasts were swarming the Diktyo River now that the lignan bugs were gone, and the Harvest was on the horizon. Danger awaited us everywhere. Despite all of that, I was excited—truly excited—preparing to face the world head-on and seize my destiny by force if necessary.

I began my hike.