The Forgotten Legacy

It didn’t take long for Shaun to grow accustomed to the nature affinity, he spent a bit of time meditating to get a better feel of how it had settled into this body before he headed off. The three affinity now swirled around his mana channels, and like when he had only two, they didn’t touch each other but simply moved in their own lanes. When he focused on bringing the nature affinity into his body he couldn’t help but feel the overwhelming urge to just bask in the forest, help it grow and to nurture it into a haven that he could call home. It was a feeling he would need to keep control over so as to never let it become overbearing, but it was a nice feeling, something that resonated with him on a deep level.

He tested out a mana strike with the nature element and found it to be a bit underwhelming, it definitely wasn’t an element that was best suited to attack, but he was okay with that as it did offer him self healing instead. He tried connecting to the trees around him and found that in some ways they were conscious of their surroundings, they were slow moving but seemed to track the feeling of the sun and search for the water in the ground. He could get lost in this connection to the world around him if he wasn’t careful, and he was on a time limit after all, so quickly moved on.

He only had about 14 days remaining in this stage of the tutorial and if he factored in about 2 days of travel and another 3 days in each dungeon he was running out of time, and quickly. He had decided that he would try and do all of the dungeons he had seen from the mountain top where he had found the fire dungeon, he would next travel to the canyon he assumed would be air, than the misty mountain that should be water and finally finish with the baron land that would be earth, that is if all of his assumptions were correct.

It was ambitious to do five dungeons instead of only three, and he had also decided that he would try to bond the elements he found in each dungeon. Shaun knew the risks, but he was just too curious as to what each of these elements could give him when bonded, it was greedy, to want more than what he had, but the lure of power and unity with the elements was just too great to give up. It was probably why the race that he got the heritage from was killed, to need to bond with so many elements was overwhelming, and the more they bonded the more powerful they became. But Shaun wasn’t them, he could control himself and live a quiet life alone, not drawing any attention from the powers of the multiverse that would see him dead for what he had.

He moved past the tree and into what should be the final area of the dungeon, he kept his echo going to make sure he would be able to catch any monsters around him, he had a dozen to find and a boss afterwards, and wanted to get this done as soon as possible so he could move to the next dungeon. What he found in this area of the forest was an interesting trend, the trees started growing taller and thicker in one direction and if you went in the opposite way they would become smaller. He didn’t find any monsters while he walked but had trusted his gut and decided to follow the way that the trees became bigger.

Eventually he found an area that was different to the forest around it. There was a big clearing with twelve trees spread out in a circle and in the middle was the biggest tree he had ever seen. It would take at least 15 of him to hug around the tree and form a complete circle, its trunk was huge and when he looked up he couldn’t make out the top of the tree either.

The twelve smaller trees that were in the circle looked to be only three quarters the size of the larger one, still huge, but not as intimidating as the one in the centre. If I was a betting man, I would say that the twelve smaller ones are going to have something to do with the monsters that should be in the area, the larger one should be the boss. The issue though was that his echo skill wasn’t picking up any monsters, just the trees themselves.

He was stumped as to what he should do, sure he could burn down the trees and see if anything came running, but that also seemed a little destructive? Maybe even wasteful to kill such a magnificent tree for no other reason but to find monsters. He had yet to enter the area of the circled trees yet, and if he did maybe that would trigger something to happen and the monsters he needed to fight would come running, if that didn’t work he would figure out something else, and only as a last resort burn down the world around him.

When moving through to the largest tree he used his nature affinity to connect to each of the trees, they were different from the ones in the forest, seemed more aware, like they were watching him move. Just as he reached his destination did things start to change, through his affinity he felt the presence of each tree fully awaken, at first he didn’t know what he was feeling but the more he concentrated he realised that these trees were more than they had appeared.

Each one of the trees housed the monster he was looking for, they were the trees, mostly. A being stepped out of each tree, their bodies made of bark and their arms and legs branches of the whole. They had sticks growing from their bodies with leaves attached to them, their heads resembled flattened shields of the trunk, sturdy and seamlessly connected to the rest of their bodies.

*Sapling Treant – Level 23*

He had heard of a Treant before, they were pretty much big trees that were fully animated and were conscious of their environment, their aim to protect their trees and home from invaders and those wishing to do them harm, like Shaun was planning to do.

If he was being honest with himself, a large part of him didn’t want to have to fight these monsters, he didn’t know if it was because of his new affinity to nature or whether it had something to do with them wanting to protect their home, but he didn’t have a choice. Turning back to the biggest tree and the monster standing in front of it, it was larger than the others, had more branches and its head had a miniature tree growing on top of it, making it look like it had hair made of leaves.

*Elder Treant – Level ??*

As he had expected it was showing question marks instead of a level, meaning it was probably level 25 and would be just that much stronger than the others. He nearly dies that last time he went up against a level 25 monster, but this time he was much more prepared, and a hell of a lot more powerful.

Rather than going straight for the elder though he decided to start off this fight with clearing the saplings first, as quickly as he could he threw fireballs at the 4 closest monsters, aiming to burn them to ash before they would be able to join the fight. It was a solid plan if it worked, which it didn’t, as each of the monsters started glowing green, starting from their roots and moving up into their entire bodies. This is just going to be annoying.

He started running at the closest monster, dodging roots that were moving towards him from both above and below the ground. With his nature affinity he could feel where each and every root was, making it incredibly easy to dodge them or cut them through with his sword. He didn’t know how much mana he was going to have to use to take down the Elder Treant so wanted to not waste it on the saplings.

When he reached the first treant he powered up a fire strike and decided on using that combined with actually cutting it through with his sword to see if that would do enough damage to the saplings to kill them. As soon as his sword made contact with the body of the monster the resulting explosion engulfed both himself and the treant, he also felt that his sword had pierced through its body but not cut all the way through.

When the flames cleared around him he saw that the treant’s body was still on fire, his sword having cut through its shielding there was no escape from the flames. It didn’t fall to the ground, though it had stopped moving altogether and just stood there, like a stationary tree. With his nature affinity he searched for a consciousness within the treant but couldn’t find anything, it was dead but still rooted to the ground, as if petrified on death, at least its dead.

Now that he knew what it took to kill them he didn’t hesitate to move around in a circle, dispatching each of the monsters in quick order in the same fashion that he had the first. The Elder Treant had tried to stop him during the entire process but it was slow to move its body, relying on its roots for attacks, and if he was right, it would have a very high defence and recovery.

When he had killed the last of the saplings he turned to face the elder, it couldn’t really show emotions but if it could it would be showing a lot of anger right about now. He had effectively killed its children, assuming the saplings were the kids and the elder was like a parent to them. Its attacks had reached a whole new level by this point, there were over a dozen of its roots attacking him at once, but still it had been unable to land a hit. Shaun was much quicker than he had ever been before and he felt like he could fight for at least an hour longer, but he didn’t really want to waste time. Instead, he launched fire strikes at the monster’s body over and over again, he had a lot of mana to spare, having used such a small amount of it so far in the fight, he dodged the roots as they attacked him and worked his way closer to the elder’s body.

Once he had gotten close enough he sent both of his concussive daggers right at the elders body, sending it into shock instantly, without any delay Shaun moved in with his sword and with nearly a quarter of all his mana infused into this last fire strike, sliced into its body with all the strength he could muster. The blast from the attack was enough to send him flying backwards, not being able to keep his feet beneath him from such a powerful blast.

When he stopped rolling along the ground, he immediately got to his feet and ran straight back towards the elder, wanting to get in another strike. He knew it wasn’t dead, he could still feel its consciousness through his affinity. At the last moment the elder had managed to reinforce itself with a nature shield and block part of the blow, it was still hurt, and its head was currently on fire, but it wasn’t out of the fight yet.

As the elders' roots continued to come out towards him, he cut them apart as soon as they got close enough, working his way back towards its body. When he was ready with another fire strike he moved in as close as he could get and sent his strike right into the same place he had his last hit, cutting even further into its body.

Again, he was blasted back from the shockwave that ensued from nature energy meeting fire, although this time it didn’t send him as far back. He again got back to his feet, a little more tired now than he had been, and looking over his mana he only had enough for one more of these larger strikes before he would have to rethink his approach.

The last attack had done a lot more damage than the first, and if he was right, the shielding had failed part way through the blast. A number of its branches were no longer attached to its body and although it wasn’t bleeding he could now see a large wound running along its lower body. He wasn’t able to get anywhere near its head, the damn thing was nearly 3 times his height, but it didn’t mean that a gut wound, or what he had assumed would be its gut, wouldn’t hurt it.

Although the Elder Treant still stood, when it sent roots out towards him this final time they moved slower and there was less than half the amount as before. It made running towards it that much easier and he only just had enough time to power up his last strike before he had gotten to the monster. Without any hesitation he unleashed his last attack, this time he wasn’t thrown back, instead it was just the normal explosion of flames that greeted him. He did back away a few steps though, not knowing if this would be the end of the monster or not.

*You have defeated a (Sapling Treant – Level 23). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 230 TE awarded*

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*You have defeated a (Sapling Treant – Level 23). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 230 TE awarded*

*You have defeated a (Elder Treant – Level 25). Bonus experience for killing an opponent above your level gained. 1000 TE awarded*

*Class: Elemental Blade Slinger has levelled up by +2 levels. [Advanced] Elemental Blade Slinger has reached Level 32. +6 Str, +4 Dex, +6 End, +6 Vit, +8 Soul gained*

*Race: Human has levelled up by +1 levels. Human (F) has reached Level 23. +4 Ap gained*

He didn’t know whether to be happy about gaining two levels or annoyed, he had gained four in the last fight in the fire dungeon which meant that the same amount and level of monsters was now only returning half the efficiency as before. Even with 3 more dungeons to go he doubted he could gain more than 3 maybe 4 levels in his class. He was gaining levels in his skills though, most notably the ones he had been using when bonding his affinity as well as the attack skills like blade mastery and elemental strike.

*Nature’s Retreat Dungeon Completed. Dungeon will automatically eject successful participants in 5 minutes.*

Oh yeah, forgot about that timer, I was unconscious last time. Walking around to each of the monster's bodies, he looted each of them, and he received the roots and bark off of each of them, with the elders being something a little more special.

Knowing he didn’t have time to get lost in inspecting the items he waited until the countdown was getting close to zero and made sure he was ready for anything that would happen when he was sent back outside. The last time he was there, lots of people were around, he didn’t know if that would still be the case or if something had changed but he didn’t want to leave without being ready for a worst case scenario. When the countdown ended he couldn’t help but smile, this dungeon had taken him a fraction of the time as the last one and the gains were nearly as good.