Chương 32: Elmspire

The first thing to find, I think, is civilization. That will help us answer a lot of questions about things like money, the world, and our place in it. It's also the most likely thing the others will go looking for. It represents a safe home base, a place to gather, and a place to maybe get more quests. Plus, we all need to make just one more friend to get that quest completed. And while it's not worth much in the way of experience, I still want to finish it.

Call me a completionist if you must, but I don't want it hanging there in my quest log, subtly calling me a loser because I only have four friends. Gigi and El both also got spatial packs, so we don't need to divvy up whose carrying what, and I don't end up as some kind of pack mule for the party. They also both got weapons, though I'd say that Gigi lucks out more than any of us; I once again give her my old bow, because it's better than the one she has.

I see also that she has a new shield, one that looks sturdier than the one that we fortified at the hardware store. It's got bands of steel holding the wood together, and the wood looks to be about two inches thick. It looks like it would be heavy, but she holds it like it doesn't weigh anything. Then again, her strength is probably higher than mine, so maybe it just isn't all that heavy to her. El's new axe is impressive. It's a double headed battle axe, the blades looking like sharp feathers on a pointed haft.

It's big enough that she can use it with one hand or with two, depending on what she's swinging at. My guess is that she'll usually use both hands, but I suppose there's a chance she'll get herself a shield too and use that in her other hand. Or maybe she'll use her free hand to throw hatchets. I take a deep sniff of the clearing, and somehow know that there are bipedal beings to the west of us.

"Any idea what you two got for the bloodline?" I ask them.

"I'm stronger," El says.

"By a pretty fair margin. Any of your stats go up?" I take a look at my character sheet. None of my stats are any higher, though. They're just where they should be. Makes sense that a bear is stronger, though. I wonder if she's tougher too.

"Did your defense increase?" Her eyes unfocus for a second.

"Yeah," she says.

"It looks like my defense is based on vigor now, not agility. That's freaking awesome." She sniffs at the air, and it soon becomes clear that she also has a better nose than she did. But is her nose better than mine? Is it as good?

"All my senses seem to be heightened," Gigi says.

"And my agility is way higher." I'm starting to feel left out. Heightened senses were my thing too, but I didn't get a bonus to my stats. My defense is still 95. My hit points are still 864. So what did I get? It doesn't make sense that there wouldn't be something else. There has to be something else to balance out the lack of stat increase. I just have to find it. Shouldn't be hard. What do I know about wolves? Practically nothing. Great. What about werewolves? They regenerate. Did I get better regeneration?

Only way to test that out is to get hurt, and I don't want to do that. That reminds me; I've gained two levels since I last cast Shell. Let's recast that so that I have all the protection I could need. Wait. Aren't wolves persistence hunters, like humans? Don't they chase down their prey for long periods of time without stopping? Maybe this means I can run for longer. Maybe I can run forever. But is that because I'm part wolf or is it because my vigor is 36 and I regenerate stamina now?

I'm not going to figure this out without combat or something. But we're heading towards civilized areas, so monsters are becoming less likely for us to run across, rather than more. It's okay. It's not going anywhere. Whatever my perks for being a wolf blood are, they'll still be there later. I can find them out as time goes by. For now, I just have to trust that they're there, and not worry about them. Right now, I have to pay attention to where we're going.

We step through a few trees before we come to another clearing. This one isn't as wide open, and there is no break in the canopy. But there is something different about the trees. They seem more purposeful, less random. Less like they grew where they are naturally, and more like they were planted. I look up at the trees, trying to gauge movement or something, and I see them. Small figures, high up in the trees, watching us.

They practically blend into the trees themselves, but I am somehow able to spot at least one. I think there are probably more, but this is the one that moved, so it's the one I saw. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. It's not pointing a bow at me yet, so I assume it's just a scout or a guard of some kind. We're not being targeted or turned away. We're just being noticed. I can handle that. My alertness increases to thirteen.

I guess those guys were hard to spot.

"There are people in the trees," I say it just loud enough for the others to hear.

"I don't think they mean us harm, but be on your guard." El stiffens a little bit, but Gigi doesn't react. I wonder if that means she already spotted them. Once we get through the row of trees that seem to have been planted, there is a large open area. There are small trees dotting the landscape, in rare patches of sunlight, but for the most part, it's just underbrush.

There are fields of mushrooms and other crops that don't require much in the way of sunlight, and it occurs to me that things are in black and white again.

"Can you see?" I ask Gigi. She nods.

"It's all black and white, though," she says. Seems she got the dark vision talent too when she got the cat blood. That hardly seems fair. Did I get a refund on my talent, or do I just overlap as having dark vision from being part wolf? Do wolves even have dark vision? Can they see in the dark? I'm pretty sure they do. I'm about to grumble to myself about how unfair this all is, when my eyes catch what's on the other side of this clearing. On what's causing this clearing that is still under a canopy. It's a tree.

A big tree. Only 'big' doesn't do it credit. This tree is absolutely massive. Like, I've seen big trees before. I've been to Oregon. I've seen trees you could drive a car through, trees so big that they take a minute or more to walk around. This one puts them all to shame. The trunk of this tree is bigger than the sculpture garden was. It's bigger than a full square block in Minneapolis. It's bigger around than a skyscraper. This one would take minutes, plural, to walk around. Maybe as many as ten or twenty.

Even the roots of this thing are twenty feet thick.

"Wow." I say, looking as closely as I can at the enormous tree. It's an elm tree, I think. Bigger than any other elm ever, but still an elm. The trunk goes up fifty feet before it starts to split into four major limbs, which in turn split into branches that are themselves the size of houses. And there are houses built into and on the branches. There are also elevators along the side of the trunk, along with what look like staircases that spiral around the gigantic trunk.

"Is that a tree?" El asks as she looks. She's squinting. We're probably three hundred feet away from it, but I can see it pretty clearly. I'm pretty sure I can even make out people moving around, though they look like they're the size of bugs in my vision, so I can't make out any details about them.

"Yeah," I say.

"That's all one tree." I look up. I wonder how big the leaves of this tree are. Are they regular elm tree size, or are they yards across? Do the people here use them as building materials? Do they dry out and become fragile, or do they just solidify a bit? Even with my much higher strength, could I break one of these leaves? Or will the cell walls of the leaves be thick enough that even El can't break them? We start walking towards the tree, not hiding our presence or our awe at the sheer size of the tree.

I'm pretty sure I'm walking with my jaw hanging open. Every step closer that we get, the tree seems to be getting bigger. It's so big that it feels like it's taking up my personal space. It's bigger than a stadium. This tree is a whole ass city. How many people live here? A small group of figures comes riding out towards us. At first, I can only see the plume of dust, but when they're within about a hundred feet of us I'm able to make them out a bit more clearly. They're riding bucks, antlers and all.

There are six of them. One of them is clearly the leader, on a buck that looks to be the size of a horse. I look closely. They look like people, but their skin is definitely a deep shade of green. Like the kind of green you see on the leaves of a forest. I don't really need further confirmation, but I do notice that they have pointed ears and are all lithe and beautiful. Elves. They pull up a respectful distance away from us, and the leader raises a hand in greeting.

"Hail," he says.

"More outsiders, or do you have a purpose for coming to Elmspire?" That must be what they call the tree. Or the city in the tree. Or both. I take a long look at the speaker, and I'm rewarded with seeing his status. Warden Elmsight, Rare Elite forest elf, level 50. HP: 12, 500/12, 500. That's a lot of hit points. And a lot more levels than I have.

"Hi," I say.

"I'm Caleb. These are my companions, Gigi and El." Warden Elmsight turns his full attention to me.

"And?" he says.

"Are you an outworlder or not?"

"Outworlder? Oh, yes. Probably. I mean, yes. We are. Definitely." He nods at that.

"We weren't expecting any more. But three won't make a difference. You are welcome to Elmspire. Cause no problems and engage in no violence within the bounds of the city and you are welcome to remain for as long as you wish. We provide basic lodging for your kind, but you will want to find your own as soon as possible, I am sure."

"Any more? You mean there are others like us?" El asks. He sniffs. I can't tell if it's an arrogance thing, a commentary on our odor, or if he's trying to determine what we are by smell.

"Yes, there are other outworlders here," he says.

"Around two thousand or so, if I have my count right." Two thousand? Two thousand other people from Earth? Or two thousand other bestial blooded people, and even more elves and whatever? Gigi lets out a whistle. Then, in an aside to me, she says "Might be harder to find the others than I thought."

"Do you have any other questions?" Elmsight asks. We all shake our heads.

"Then please try not to be a burden on our city, and welcome to Elmspire." He and his men turn and ride back to the roots of the city tree, where I suppose there must be stables of some sort. I look at the girls and gesture to the city.

"Should we find somewhere to go shopping?" I ask.