I went up to the box of amulets and took one, nodding to the bird as I did. “No need to wake the old man, I know what to do.” The crow looks at me. “actually could you give him a message for me? Those that slumber are stirring, the bindings grow weak. Trust not the Final Guardian, for the invasion is but a prelude to Ruin.”

Quest: Make A Friend Accepted!

As I walk toward the stairs down to the Preserve a voice calls to me and I turn around.

“You know much young one, to speak of secrets lost to time, and evils banished from memory. Only three that live would understand your words.” Caelus has one eye open and is staring at me, his power evident by the green flames that surround his eye, pinning me in place. “You risk much to speak so freely, I will heed your warning, bound though I be.” With a snap, he changes the wooden amulet in my hand into a cube of glass. “Do well, and a boon you shall have. Impress me and my aid you will receive.” With that Caelus closed his eye and I was free to move again.

Holy fuck! That..was a thing. My spur-of-the-moment warning put me in a tricky spot. While I wanted nothing more than to rush this quest to get the druid class unlocks I now would need to try my best to exceed the requirements. Hell if I could impress Caelus, by no means an easy task, then that would be a big step forward in preventing at least a couple of things in the future. I am just going to ignore the rest of the implications of that little conversation though. Too much I can’t effect at the moment. One thing at a time Jack, stay on mission.

Descending the spiral stairs to the Preserve took a bit but emerging into the cavern was worth it. The Preserve is a massive cavern under Couldburn that houses a sizable forest with a few ponds and rivers. The ceiling was enchanted to have a day and night cycle and the place was full of fairly tame wildlife.

This quest was the one that pretty much no one died on, you were expressly told not to kill animals since the goal was to earn their favor. The normal amulets would start to glow when you had obtained a blessing from an animal and that would complete the quest. This also led to class options based on the animal befriended in addition to the basic novice druid class. This quest was the only one that routinely opened up multiple classes for noobs since most classes had skill level requirements higher than what would normally be gotten while doing the intro quests. Without taking any of the training offered by the various guilds even the base classes wouldn’t normally combine.

My original plan had been to befriend a turtle to add some defense to my class options, I spent so long as a walking tank that it would be hard to fully eliminate that mindset. Now though I would need to embrace the creed of the druids and befriend nature to somehow impress the most badass druid of them all. Lovely.

I could see several other aspiring druids in the woods as I walked along looking for a suitable animal to help. An older man was singing to a bush full of songbirds, a young woman was trying to feed a squirrel, and a rather excitable boy was chasing a raccoon in circles. There was even a young man transplanting flowers around a tree for some reason. The methods they were using would work eventually, well I’m not sure about the flower guy, who knows what he is doing. For me though, I would use the fastest way to get an animal’s trust, helping when they are having a problem. It works for many animals although you might get a bit damaged in the attempt.

As I was walking, I noticed a mole dart across the path in front of me chased by a shadow. Whipping my hand out I caught the bird before it could strike. It was a beautiful small hawk with silver accent feathers. While keeping a firm grip on the struggling bird I knelt down towards the mole, which had stopped and was staring at me. “It’s okay little guy, he won’t hurt you now, go on home.” The mole stared at me for a moment and scurried into a nearby hole.

Looking to the struggling hawk in my hand I said, “Oh settle down I’ll give you something else to eat to make up for it, more than you would have gotten from that little guy as well.” Summoning some of the jerky from my travel rations I hand fed the bird as it calmed down. By the time it had finished, I no longer had to hold it still and it was sitting calmly on my arm. The animals here were all more intelligent than the average wild beast, I’m fairly sure that was due to Caelus’ influence in the area, I had to work a lot harder when I did my quest in my old starting city. When the hawk flew off after eating its fill I noticed two sides of my pendant were glowing. At least that gave me a clue as to how many animals I needed to help now.

I came upon a small pond and started looking for turtles, or tortoises, never really could tell the difference. I found a baby trying to climb up onto a rock and gave it a hand, it didn’t look that happy though, so I used some fire mana to heat up the stone a bit. Not enough to hurt it but enough to give it a warm place to nap. It looked at me for a moment and then settled down to sleep. Another side of my pendant lit up. Walking around the pond I found the remains of a burnt bush, deciding to investigate I found several dead fireflies. Fireflies in this world used actual fire and some types were even active during the day, they tended to burn things and consume the ash but sometimes would turn on each other as well. I found a lone survivor with a dim flickering light, looks like the little guy won’t last long.

Gently feeding some fire mana to him to rekindle his flame seemed to stabilize him but he still wasn’t moving. I gathered a few fresh leaves and lit them on fire next to the tiny insect. The bug seemed to soak up the flames and within a few minutes, it was flying around my head happily. With that, the fourth side of my pendant lit.

I had a feeling the quest could be completed now but I wanted to try and light all the facets. Exploring some more led me to find many creatures but none in distress or need of help. I sat on a rock to take a break and noticed an oak tree with rot setting in, the tree was clearly dying. Huh, maybe I could do something about that.

I may not have access to healing mana yet, but druidic magic is about connections, I might just be able to help the tree heal itself. Laying my hand on the tree I let my mana flow into it. I gave no direction to the mana, just giving it to the tree without expecting anything in return. I had to do this slowly since my mana regen was awful but after 10 minutes of constantly flowing mana through the tree it started to perk up, some of the rotting sections even fell off. I got a sense of thanks from the tree and it conveyed that it could fight the rest of the rot now. Ug druid magic was such a weird thing, for all the weirdness I have seen I still can’t get used to the world waking up when you ‘talk’ to it with mana. I knew a man that had a pet rock and it actually told him some of the secrets of the earth, he became a fantastic geomancer, still, it took about 3 years to befriend his rock, rocks aren’t very quick talkers. I had neither the time nor inclination to commune with nature in such a way. I hit things, I manipulate eldritch forces and the elements. I don’t make friends with rocks and trees. That is unless you count those friendly magma people in the Burning Caves or the dryads of Wispersong, good folks, and fantastic cooks, respectively.

The bottom pane of my pendant began to glow and the whole thing started to float in the air. The light intensified and concentrated in the center into a tiny burning star suspended in the center of the cube. I guess I somehow lit the last facet. Not a clue how that happened though.

You have obtained Nature’s Blessing

Quest: Make A Friend completed!

+200 EXP

+1000 Bonus EXP

Druid Classes have been unlocked!

Novice Druid Class Unlocked!

Blessings Unlocked!

“Open Blessings Tab”

Natural Blessings

Hawk

2

Mole

2

Tortoise

2

Firefly

3

Tree

2

Rot

1

Huh, I guess the rot respected that I didn’t just cut it out and let it fight for survival or something. Look at me earning the ‘respect’ of tree rot, fucking druid magic.

Let's see the class list, I’m sure there won’t be any warrior ones since other than hand-to-hand none of the skills are over 5. Might be a couple monk ones though.

New Classes

Novice Druid

Aspect of the Firefly

Shelled Mage

Hawk Style Initiate

Burrow Guard

Oakfist

Initiate of the Cycle

Hand of the Elements

Wow, that is a lot better than I thought. Aspect classes have some great growth potential, elemental ones even more so. Not a good fit for me sadly but a nice class overall. Shelled mage is sort of what I expected going into this quest, a water and barrier caster class. The hawk gave me a monk class, those are nice but require a ton of training, I’m not bad with my fists but a pure monk path is not for me. Burrow Guard is an earth warrior, huh didn’t expect that. Oakfist is another monk class so that’s out. Initiate of the Cycle is interesting, let's check it out.

Initiate of the Cycle

A druid that has learned the importance of the struggle for survival. Life and death are equally important in nature and balance is the key. This path grants the ability to tip the scales where it is needed.

+2 Con, +6 Int, + 10 Wis, +2 Cha per Level

Shit a top-level tier 2 class, pure druid though so I would have a very hard time adjusting to it, still tempting. Maybe taking it would be enough to impress Caelus, probably not. Let's check the last one.

Hand of the Elements

Manipulation of the elements gained through study and bond, the Hand walks the path of the warrior and protector. With no code but his own honor, the Hand is the first to rise against the darkness. This is the path of power unfettered, nature unleashed, though it is but the first step.

+10 Int, +10 Wis, +3 Free Points per Level

…….Holy fucking hell…… a tier 3 with free points. Low tier 3 but still, having free points is amazing. Every level up you get the stat gains from your class and 1 free point, until level 25 when you get 2. You get 3 at level 75 and so on increasing by 1 every 50 levels after that. Free points can be put in any stat and it's how you get enough stats to bridge gaps in your build. I had to put a shitload of free points in Int to merge a mage class into my Dreadknight class back in the day, a fair bit into wisdom too. If this doesn’t impress Caelus then nothing will, at least nothing I have a chance in hell of doing right now. Fuck it I would need to pick a starting class soon anyway; self-made skills tend to lose out to class skills as a general rule, and I’ll need all the power I can get if I want to tackle the Shiverwood Heart or any of the other things buried in the vale.

I take the class.

Class set as Level 0 Hand of the Elements

1925 EXP Applied

Level Up Hand of the Elements is now Level 1

Stat bonuses applied

Skill Basic Elemental Conjuration Acquired

Basic Elemental Conjuration

Grants the ability to conjure the four basic elements and manipulate them. This is more efficient than solidifying elemental mana. Power, speed, and control based on skill level, Int, and Wis.

Woah that’s a rush. And shit only 1 level from 1925 EXP? That means it must have been 1000 EXP to get to level 1. Higher tier classes do take more xp but I wasn’t expecting that, good thing I’ll be fighting things above my level soon. The boost to Int and Wis has my mind feeling a bit clearer, more solid. The biggest gain though is that conjuration skill. Previously I had been condensing elementally shifted mana to form skills, its inefficient and messy but it works long enough to get a skill off. The mana condensed elements will dissipate quickly though, soak a shirt and it will be dry in a minute. Conjured elements are different, they actually exist. For example, if I wanted to wrap someone in stone chains with a condensed element I would have to continually supply it with mana to keep them in existence, conjured ones I just have to make them and they stay forever. Many mage classes eventually get access to conjured elements of one type or another, but this just straight up gave me the basic four at level 1, even if the exp requirement was doubled it would be worth it.

Pulling up my stats made me smile, the expected 100 mana increase was there, and the experience needed to get to the next level was only 2000, that should be doable.

Lazarus

Level 1

Classes

Hand of the Elements [1] (925/2000)

-

Professions

-

-

HP:50

MP:150

Strength

5

Constitution

5

Dexterity

5

Intellect

15

Wisdom

15

Charisma

5

Free

4

“Time to impress the old man I guess.” I muttered.

“You already have young one.” Said a voice behind me.

By reflex, I whirled around with a blade of ice extending from my fist to strike the unknown threat. As I came to my senses I noticed my blade was 6 inches from Caelus’s neck and being blocked by his undamaged finger. “Good reflexes and power for one so young as well.” He said.

“What the fuck old man?! Don’t sneak up on people like that!” I yelled at him as I dismissed my blade. My arm was broken from attempting to use a warrior skill I didn’t have with the blade and it flopped down by my side. Ignoring the pain through endless practice I said, “Ow, a little help here would be nice sir.”

“Very well, it was my prank that caused you harm after all.” With a green glow, my arm snapped back together and was good as new. “As I was saying you have impressed me, no ordinary man would walk the path you have chosen. Fewer still at your current strength. Your warnings have been heeded, do you truly desire to fight the coming wars? They will be beyond what you can imagine.”

“Oh, you would be surprised what I can imagine Archdruid Caelus. I know what I shall face. I intend not to fight a war at all, I intend to win by killing the source every time.”

“Hmm, a bold idea. Maybe you do know the strength of your foes, we shall see. Very well, I will rouse some friends of old, it seems they have slept long enough. Once more the Undying will march. This will take time I am afraid, for I am bound to the Vale, in the meantime, you must grow. To that end, I give you my boon.”

The world stilled, the tree stopped rustling, the noises of the forest were quiet. Caelus spoke in words that seemed to shake the very earth. “As the Herald of Gaia, I deem you…interesting.” With that, the world resumed and the old man cracked up. I’m sure it was the look on my face that did it.

Title Gained: Interesting

You have attracted the attention of the Primordials

Caelus was a fucking Herald! That explained so much. A Herald possesses a not-insignificant portion of their patron’s power. Caelus being bound must have practically crippled him or he would have been able to obliterate pretty much everything that even stepped foot in the Vale. Gaia was one of the Primordials, they existed before gods, and they generally don’t give a shit about anything less than the fucking planet cracking in half. They have been mostly asleep for as far back as the legends go. Only the gods still have legends about them. The chances of them taking action is zero but getting their attention is not something I really wanted, if the fucking things look at me too hard I might pop like a balloon.

The more useful result is the waking of the Undying, a group of companions that sealed or killed half the legendary evils out there. The ones they killed even had the courtesy of staying dead, likely cause they didn’t want to have their asses kicked again. No one really knows what race they are, they look like humans but it’s universally agreed they aren’t. They don’t die, sort of their thing really. Very little can put one of the Undying down for good. The few esoteric effects that can are fucking scary. If Caelus was one of them I have a bit of an idea of what Elise may have seen when she returned to the vale, and I’d prefer not to think further on it. The thing is the Undying were fixing everyone’s big problems and the world wasn’t advancing, so they all went to sleep so the races of the world could grow. They woke up when things got really bad, they woke one at a time and they fell the same way. The worst part is I don’t think they ever died. I’m sure they wished to.

I started today with a nice plan, fairly simple too. Save the world one step at a time. Really nothing that hard right? Now I have no fucking clue what’s going on. When the Undying walk again who knows what will happen, its good since they like to smite evil, on the other hand, a lot of my future knowledge has likely just been rendered useless. This shit with Primordials, it’s too much. I’m sad to say I passed the fuck out, hell maybe that was from the attention of mega god things, yeah let's go with that.