Chapter Sixty-Six: Spirit of Nature
2015-10-02
Author: Floating Tower
The howling wind roared.
Soren cast the Flight Spell and flew toward the Misty Forest. From the druid’s mouth, he learned about the entire unfolding of events.
During this time, the unrest near White Horse City had spread far and wide; however, as it primarily affected the humans near White Horse City, both elves and other races didn’t pay much attention. It wasn’t until the Druid Council in the Misty Forest detected anomalies in the elemental energies of the mountain range that they started to take notice. The druids did not want to easily offend a powerful red dragon, so they only sent a high-level druid to probe the situation.
This probing had significant consequences.
That druid unexpectedly discovered that this place had turned into an active volcano at some point, clearly a man-made alteration, which caused the nearby elemental energies to be abnormal.
Boro, the Cheetah, was a druid skilled in stealth. He was the first to discover the creatures in the Underdark and sensed that something was wrong. Thus, he ventured deep inside the volcano to investigate, only to uncover an even more astonishing conspiracy. The volcano was directly connected to the Underdark, and he also found a city of drow nearby. The surface world’s volcano was situated above an Underdark volcano, and before he could fully understand what was going on, he was discovered by the elite guard squad of the drow matron.
After a pursuit and escape, he happened to run into Soren.
Without a doubt!
There was a massive conspiracy behind this: a drow matron conspiring with an ancient red dragon; it was clear they were not meeting for casual chats.
The Misty Forest gradually came into view.
Soren’s figure descended from the sky. There once stood a massive ancient tree here, casting a certain power over the nearby forest.
To avoid exposing his identity, Soren chose to approach from the ground. This was the druid’s territory and a gathering place for treants, where a powerful Arborist guardian resided, boasting a biological level as high as an astonishing 36.
20th-level Druid / 10th-level Arborist / 6th-level Nature Guardian!
It should still be in slumber.
However, if it were to awaken, even the avatar of a deity or a saint would think twice.
The true managers of the Misty Forest were the Druid Order; treants perceived the passage of time too slowly. Unless someone awakened them, they would likely remain asleep until a significant mutation occurred in the Misty Forest.
Nature Deity.
The oldest nature deities do not require much faith because they are embodiments of the natural world.
Treants are creations of nature deities, but they seldom appear in the outside world. In recent centuries, hardly any treants have left their congregations; they sleep longer than giants.
“Who goes there?”
A crisp childish voice came from behind Soren. After entering the Misty Forest, he had lightened his steps to facilitate locating members of the Druid Order.
Soren turned around.
He raised an eyebrow, looking at the delicate little being before him, only the size of his palm, and smiled, “Flower Sprite?”
Flower Sprite.
One of the embodiments of nature.
In this world, any being with “sprite” in their name is often a species born of nature. They’re akin to the monsters in Eastern mythology, frequently considered embodiments of natural beauty.
The Flower Sprite was the weakest of all “sprite” beings.
Compared to the capabilities of Water Sprites and Tree Sprites, with a challenge level of under 5, they’re mostly tiny and excel at some innate spell-like abilities, along with a few enchantment abilities.
The little sprite warily regarded Soren and chirped, “You have intruded upon the domain of the Spirit of Nature. You are not welcome here!”
“Outsider.”
“Leave here quickly, or we will attack!”
Buzzing.
A sound akin to buzzing bees filled the air, and Soren clearly noticed the presence of other Flower Sprites nearby.
These little beings naturally possessed cloaking abilities; if they did not actively reveal themselves, even the most skilled Wanderers would find it hard to detect them.
They were quite exclusive and mischievous, sometimes playing tricks on others who entered the forest.
Thus, there are legends of fairies in some places!
Typically, such occurrences are often the doing of Flower Sprites, Tree Sprites, and Water Sprites.
Soren was naturally unafraid.
On the contrary, the little sprite before him appeared fierce, but in reality, it was quite timid; these nature spirits were only slightly stronger than ordinary people and had no advantage against high-level professionists, which is why they hid deep within the forest.
“I mean no harm.”
Soren glanced at the little sprite, with no intention of causing a dispute, and slowly said, “I am looking for the druids of the Misty Forest; I have important news to share with them. If you don’t mind, perhaps you could guide me to them.”
There was a saying in the tavern long ago.
That is, nature spirit beings inherently come with +1 luck, perhaps due to the favor of nature.
If anyone were to harm them, it would slightly diminish their hidden luck.
This saying had no evidential basis, but many adventurers firmly believed it; Flower Sprites, Tree Sprites, and Water Sprites were extremely rare, and even if encountered, conflicts would be avoided.
One thing could be confirmed.
That is, if a certain number of nature spirits were killed, one would gain a hidden background specialty called “Natural Hatred.”
They were under the protection of nature.
Although Tree Sprites were often imprisoned by some powerful legendary figures due to their beauty, kept as companions, very few twisted-minded individuals would go so far as to kill them.
Flower Sprites are symbiotic beings.
Under normal circumstances, they find it hard to stray far from their birthplace; as a kind of “spirit-like being,” these nature spirits have more connectivity with druids.
However, their most trusted allies are still treants!
They are quite exclusive towards any other races, whether human, dwarf, elf, etc.
Their own strength can resolve many troubles.
Though the Flower Sprite was wary of Soren’s human identity, it chose to help him find the druids out of fear of his strength. Many of the druids in the Misty Forest were nature-affiliated, and there had been previous gruesome incidents where wild druids harmed bear-like creatures. Thus, this faction of druids were mostly reclusive and difficult to get along with.
Soren didn’t plan to boost their friendliness; his goal was simply to inform the druids of the events.
Druids are stubborn yet powerful beings!
It would be one thing if they were oblivious, but if they knew, they would certainly feel compelled to take action.
The Druid Order maintained connections amongst themselves.
Once these lines were connected, Soren wouldn’t even need to take action; those druids would seek trouble for the Spider Queen. Soren would actually welcome such an outcome.
Next, there was the Silver Moon Council.
An organization serving Lady Silver Moon, independent from the Silver Moon Church; Moonshadow Walkers constitute their main members.
A formidable force indeed.
At that moment, Soren suddenly recalled something: the death of the ancient red dragon seemed to indeed relate to Lady Silver Moon, as it had been the avatar of a deity, a saint, who had taken down the ancient red dragon.
Who precisely did it?
Soren could not ascertain yet, as there were not many witnesses.
However, upon reflection, he found that the trajectory of history did not seem to deviate much; he had simply been caught up in one of the events.
……………(To be continued ~^~)
