Chương 12: Four Seeds Left Between

Time until next Elemental Storm: 5 Days and 5 Hours Looking upon this place, you may call me stupid, old friend, but I assure you, I am in sound mind. I know just as well as you do that replicating the abilities of a certain species is out of our purview, but that's only because our current understanding of life and death essence is lacking. They are not, and have never been, special in any way.

The golems and treants of this shrine may be superficial and shallow works of living life, but through adaptation and evolution, I will prove even they can earn the abilities of that bygone race. And I would greatly appreciate an expert's help on the matter. Ethan blew on the page, and bits of graphite flew away from it. The entry was finally complete, even if he had to take a break in the middle of writing it to find a safe space. Outside his hole, fruits and rain fell in tandem once more.

And once more, Ethan found himself unable to explore the dungeon any more. Instead, he was forced to hide away and bide his time until the storm outside passed. The good news was that he'd found a much bigger hole than last time to wait out the fruitfall. The bad news was that he had roommates. He looked to the thinning end of the hole, where deer, wildcats, rodents and birds flocked together in terror. They were shaking at every single crash they heard outside, and when they weren't, they were looking at Ethan.

"You guys managed to survive so far. Why are you so afraid now?" He asked them. Looking deeper into their dirty fur, he found the answer quite obvious. Dust? From the golems, most likely. These animals hadn't just been driven out of their homes, Ethan had been the one to do it. He scratched the back of his head, feeling guilty.

"Sorry about that. If I'd known…" But it was really just an excuse, wasn't it? Tremor or no tremor, Ethan would do whatever it took to finish the shrine and survive. He'd been forced into an unwinnable situation. Tsk, The God of the first realm is a real sadist, aren't they? He grabbed a few calorie bars from the shop, and chowed down on them as dinner while he read the passage over and over again. An expert's help on the matter… Ethan pondered the words. The writer was signalling the reader to help them.

And if it came down to needing knowledge on life force and death essence together, Ethan only really knew one expert. These words were meant for Alphome, weren't they? The God Alphome was the only one who could see death and life as two sides of the same coin. Him and Ethan. And he didn't think the message had been meant for him. But then whoever wrote it would've needed both too, right? Or was it multiple writers working together? You may call me stupid… No, it was only one person.

One person who could write in life and death essence, and who Alphome was friends with. Which by itself was a surprise. And threw Ethan's whole idea into the woodchipper. Did someone other than Ather design the wood shrine and its mechanics? Or did the God of the first realm make it themselves? Damnit, it's no use thinking about it now. Not until I get more notes. Or he could've asked Alphome, but he had no way of contacting the God. Hey, Alphome, are you there? We're supposed to be connected right?

Give me a sign or something! He didn't speak the words aloud. He didn't know what kind of Designers might be watching him from afar. But thinking the words didn't help. No response came from the universe, no change in his body that could signal that his words had been heard.

"I just want a sign…" He tried to be vague, but he still gained no response.

"Fine," he admitted in a huff. Guess I'll have to figure it out myself. He closed the book for the moment and stood back up. There was nothing more he could study, and while he had the time, Ethan thought he might as well fix an earlier mistake. Life reinforcement, he chanted, and spread the energy across his body like a uniform layer. Now where should I start trimming? Half a dozen sections of his body were useless to keep reinforcing. He didn't need to keep reinforcing his skin, nails and hair really.

Sure, it would make each of those areas weaker than the rest, but he could deal with the exchange. Most of his internal organs didn't need it either. His heart and lungs he'd keep reinforced, as they'd be essential during fights, but he took out the rest. Reallocating the life force was a difficult task. Not only because Ethan's capacity for how much he could control had grown with experience, but because his Talent's progression had raised how much life force he could handle. The foundation is the big problem.

My body's weak, and it'll stay weak unless I progress my Talent. The more essence I feed into the Talent, the stronger I'll be at my base strength. He had to adjust how much life force he sent into reinforcing his body, and finished with an improved version of his life reinforcement. Bones and muscles were the main groups he focused on, the former to cut down on broken bones he'd need to heal, and the latter for more power. Now he just had to get used to it.

The hole was plenty big enough to walk around it, and Ethan adjusted to the gain in power pretty easily. The ground felt bouncy, and each swing of his arms came out quicker and stronger. But so did the recoil. His skin and flesh strained under the technique, reddening and cracking skin at points. It annoyed him, but he supposed he could limit some of his movements to not blow off his arm.

He jumped, kicked and even tested the weight of the sledgehammer with his improved technique, glad for the lightening in its weight. But swinging the hammer around is when the animals broke down. Ethan stopped mid-swing, but the animals bleated and kept crying out.

"Hey, hey! I wasn't aiming for you, I swear!" he promised, but they kept on screaming. Out of options, Ethan dropped the hammer and slowly approached the creatures nestled together. He brought out two hands, open-palmed and slow to approach.

"Easy there. The rain won't get you in here, I promise," Ethan told them. And it wasn't some fib either. Somehow, the treebark was resistant to the acid. There wasn't a chance it would break through and melt them all.

"I won't let any monsters get you guys either, alright?" he said, putting on a smile as he got closer. The animals kept shaking, but their screams receded, replaced with the muffled rain from outside. Ethan stretched out a single hand, and placed it on a doe's snout, rubbing it softly. It finally stopped shaking then, and he continued onto the next animal. One by one, they calmed down, and Ethan backed away just as slowly.

"There, see? Get some rest, you guys. You'll need it." Some of them finally calmed down enough to sleep, and Ethan considered his job done there. He returned to his practice, keeping life reinforcement running through his muscles for a while longer, until he was confident he could turn it on and off at a whim. That left him with enough time for some more experimentation, and Ethan knew just the way he wanted to go. If I can maintain that complex life reinforcement, I should be able to do more.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Ethan needed explosive power to break through monsters. DE Shot was good for range, but he couldn't maintain it at higher concentrations of essence. Which is where an extension of his life reinforcement came in. Boost. He chanted, once its first iteration was completed.

It was a thick coating of life essence over his leg, the same amount as he'd have normally spread across his entire body, but locked to a single limb. He pushed his weight onto the leg, and jumped. Then hit his head on the ceiling, and fell back to the ground, groaning. Ughhhh…. His head swam with pain, and so did pelvis and leg. But I… I reinforced it? Once the pain receded from Ethan's head, he healed the small blemish there, and looked back down at his leg.

There, he felt around the pain point, and found that it ended exactly where the life essence stopped. Of course. You think the force was just going to disappear, Ethan? His second iteration fixed that, reducing the amount of life force flowing through his leg gradually, so the force would die out in waves. He jumped again, taking care not to overdo the move. Even with that, the power in just one limb was several times stronger than what Ethan could do with his full-body reinforcement.

He refined how he layered the essence over the next few iterations, not even noticing when the Timer for the Elemental Storm ticked over to the next day. Ethan hit the air with a Boosted punch, and the motion nearly dislocated his right arm. As it was, the whiplash was painful, but bearable. He rotated the limb in its socket to get rid of the soreness, and tried it again a few more times.

Boosted punches, kicks and jumps were what he tested the new ability with, and once he was satisfied, he finally laid down to rest.

Beep… Beep… Beep…. went the sound of the heart monitor. There's nothing we can do… Words and memories flowed into Ethan's head, reminding him of what he was. What he couldn't escape from. And then he opened his eyes, to find that the beeping had never really been there. Time until next Elemental Storm: 4 Days and 16 Hours Beside him, the animals lay asleep, and he could hear the sound of their breathing easily. The rain stopped… Which meant it was time once more for Ethan to leave.

He cracked open the cover to the hole and the sound woke the animals. He held it open for them, letting them walk outside and climb and gallop away. Once that was done, he exited the hole himself, rubbing his eyes and grabbing his sledgehammer in his left hand. He ate on the go, since there wasn't much time left for him to waste. He had two goals in mind for the day, and he intended to get through them as fast as possible. His improved life reinforcement did wonders for keeping up his stamina.

Ethan moved further and faster, and he felt less winded doing so. When he came across obstacles or hard to reach places, he could leap up with Boosted legs. The first few times, he did slip and fall, but he fixed himself up soon enough. It wasn't as if he were wasting life essence either, because plenty of treant monsters came out to meet him. Boost. The sledgehammer held up well against the sloth treants.

The smallest were as tall as Ethan, while the biggest hung from the trees like a normal sloth would back on earth. Thankfully, they were lazier in their pursuit than the other treant monsters, and Ethan took out a dozen of them easily enough. [+120 Credits] He yawned as he finished off the last of the sloths. A sweet smell entered his nostrils, and Ethan looked around for the source. Oh, it's probably just the sap on the hammer.

He shook the sap off so it wouldn't stick, and harvested the life force from the monsters. They might be good for getting life essence but… man, is it tiring… He stifled another yawn and jogged onwards. The further he went in this specific part of the shrine, the more yawns he had to hold back, until a suspicion grew in Ethan's mind. I shouldn't be…. This tired. Something… something isn't right here…

He dropped his belongings near a tree and focused on his Talent, but there was no life force he could spot in the air. Raphael had used death essence to make Ethan fall asleep, was something like that happening here? No… I'd see it then. It's not an essence I can sense then. Then what is it…? He sniffed the air, and that slightly sweet smell still hung there. Shit, a pheremone… His eyes felt heavier, and his mind fuzzed.

Ethan was tempted to send life force into both to wake them up, but he was still hesitant to mess with such specific chemical processes. Instead, he grabbed onto his belongings, and started running towards his destination as fast as he could. Many times, Ethan passed by many more sloths on his way, but he didn't dare try to fight them. That'd only make him take in more of the gas, and make him even more sleepy. The sloths reached out to him lazily when he passed them, and now Ethan understood why they were so weak.

They've been under the effects of it this whole time, haven't they? Further into the run, he spotted a golem shaped like a worm wrapped around a tree. It was smashing its tail down at a giant sloth clinging to the bark, while the treant monster tried to fight back. Eventually, the worm won out, and the sloth died impaled on the spike pit. Can't…. Can't let that happen… t-to me… The golem didn't look like it'd been slowed any by the light sleeping gas, and Ethan didn't want to press his luck.

He snuck past it, and eventually, found the next holy seed he needed. This one looked near identical to the last one, white and shining, but had one small difference. The symbol on it was of a small fire, instead of a rock. Alright, I get it now. Need to match the symbol of the pedestal with the symbol of the seed. He'd gotten lucky that the first pedestal he'd found had matched his seed. Not taking that risk again, though.

Ethan didn't know whether every seed placement would cause the ground to start opening up, or only the first. But if it did, he wanted to spend the least amount of time with the monsters fighting as he could manage. That meant collecting all the seeds he could manage before placing them in their respective pedestals. One down, four to go. He stuffed the seed in his duffel bag, opened up his map, and went to the next nearest seed.

Wind blew through the giant jungle, buffeting birds and pinning them against trees. And with every gale, the vines and bridges shook side to side like long swings. In the middle of one of those bridges was Ethan, Boosting both his arms and holding onto his floor with a white-knuckled grip. The wind swung him up high on one side, and brought him back down just as quick. He felt like he was falling each time the rushing air stopped, but the bridge would always jerk back up when it reached the bottom.

When he realized there was no chance of the wind stopping, Ethan started climbing forward on the bridge rung by rung, stopping only when he thought his grip was too weak. Eventually, he made it to the next platform that way, but not without attracting a few guests. Wooden birds flew through the air, their wings light green branches of thick leaves that kept them afloat. Small vines snaked through their small avian skulls, and the small motes of green light signalled their focus.

Somehow, they hung in the air despite the gale winds, their wings carving the air to avoid being swept away. Death essence gathered in Ethan's fingers, readying him for a fight. The birds were almost his size, and when they dropped down they tried to pull him into the air. Two of them grabbed onto Ethan from his shoulders, their claws piercing his skin. DE Shot! Ethan fired onto their wings, blowing holes in them. That dropped them to the ground, where one hammer blow each finished them off.

[+20 Credits] The same thing repeated itself half a dozen times throughout his trek. Gale winds blew, birds chased him down, and he shot them out of the sky. When they grabbed his arm, he filled it with life force and yanked their talons from under their feet. Only, it was the small monsters that showed up to fight him. He didn't see any of the larger treant birds, though there should have been. He'd seen bigger wolves, monkeys and sloths, so there should have been birds as well.

But throughout the specific region he was in, he only heard loud rocks banging against each other and quiet cawing that echoed in the distance. The golems would've been the least affected by this place. Maybe they're all here, keeping the birds busy. Whatever it was, it was an advantage to him, and Ethan took it. He found the next seed floating above an isolated pedestal, and he ripped it out. Three lines that ended in a swirl. The wind seed. He expected the wind to die out in the region, but nothing changed.

The trip back is going to be just as painful, isn't it? At least I earned myself something for all the trouble. All those monsters he'd killed over the course of the day had given him a wealth of life force. [Estimated Time to Live: 6 Days and 19 Hours] Ethan smiled beside himself. A week. I get to live a week more. His Talent had also progressed to 2%, and he could feel the effect it was having on his body. Ethan felt stronger, less strained, his head clearer and his pain more manageable.

If he stopped right here, would he still be content with it? Think about philosophy later, Ethan. You still have some seeds to find. The next one wasn't too far, and he could probably get it before another fruitfall happened. Ethan quickly left the windy region of the shrine, using his Boosts to leap ahead and make good time. He climbed vines and crossed more bridges, as the clouds darkened the skies overhead. He finally reached the location of the second last seed, but something was wrong. There was no pedestal.

What? Where is it? He looked around, shifting aside covers and looking in holes to see if the seed was hidden inside. He even glimpsed down at the spikes, making sure the marble pedestal hadn't fallen off the platform somehow. No, no way that'd happen. The pedestals are probably protected somehow, or it'd be impossible to clear the shrine. But it still didn't answer where the pedestal had gone. Ethan double-checked the map, but it showed the same location.

He looked around, finding the landmarks that the map pointed out should be right next to the pedestal. He'd found those landmarks, and yet his mark was missing. What's going on here? Had a monster come and taken the entire thing? No, they don't do that. It can't be that I'm the one finding these things first, there's just no chance! And yet his question remained. He stared back down at the pit, where a slow sense of dread was coming over him.

The clouds thundered above him, giving him just a glimpse of light that illuminated a golem ant crawling upwards in the pit. The pit…. They're coming from the pit. The treants didn't just spawn out of nowhere. They lived in the jungle. He'd seen them move about himself. And if the treants lived above ground, the golems must have survived below ground. The map isn't wrong, it's just flat. The seeds are underground.