Yeo’ena Bay. Locals call it Lost Bay. Area wise, the bay is small, yet somehow, every year people manage to get lost wading through swamp and the cypress trees. As of yet, the death rate is rather low, unlike many other ominous places people have managed to find themselves lost in. The bay only claims those of low health, most others find themselves wandering around for a few days, perhaps weeks, before finally finding their way out again. Not many monsters live in the bay. The ones that do are hardly a threat to an armed traveler. Because of this reason, many choose it as a tourist destination. Great interest is placed on unraveling the bay’s mysteries. That said, be wary out those running from the law. Many seek refuge in this mysterious swamp.

— Ashton Delan’s Travelor’s Guide

“Ouch! Really, stop biting me! You can stop now. I’m trying, so be patient. Timp! Come scare these stupid things off of me!” I call as snowdrop dragons swarm over me. I’m trying to concentrate on making a snowdrop plant, but they keep messing me up.

I figure the plant is in their name, so maybe they’d like them better than the roses. Though, they do seem to like the roses, or more specifically, the rose hips that have started growing. That, I don’t like so much. They eat the rose hips, but spit the seeds at everything, including me.

“Will you stop it! I don’t need more seeds in my hair! Ow stop! Will you listen to me?! Timp! Help!” I swat at the pesky dragons buzzing around my head, little seeds hit me like bullets. I had asked Oroesi for help earlier. He’s hiding from them now because of it. He tried. He really tried. Only it wasn’t long before they were chasing him around hitting him with seeds. He was bawling his eyes out when I finally managed to get them away from him. Timp on the other hand, enjoys chasing the white dragons. She’s not so easily intimidated by them. Only, she has such a short attention span that she forgets she’s supposed to keep them off me, so I have to keep calling her.

The banana palms seem to sway in amusement at my predicament. Ever since [green thumb] leveled, all my plants feel more alive. I swear they’re laughing at me right now. I glare up at the trees as Timp launches herself at the dragons. The little things shriek as they scatter. Sighing, I turn back to the pebble in my hands. After a minute or so, I finally have it. The pebble gives a little pop as my aura grasps onto my image, and I have a snowdrop bulb.

I make more and scatter them throughout the valleys along with a blanket of concentrated |aura of warmth| to get them started. Almost immediately they start popping out of the ground like daisies–er… snowdrops. They’re cute. I finger the pale glass-like flower. Reminds me of little white tears. The dragons launch themselves at the flowers. Timp trails after them, occasionally nuzzling the new snowdrops.

Watching them, I chuckle a little. The dragons use the snowdrops to make strange little nests, weaving the flower’s leaves into domes. You almost can’t see the nests unless you look for them.

I smile. Well, they’re out of my hair now, so now I can concentrate on more important things. Namely, my paths, but more importantly, the disconcerting state of my health, which hasn’t regenerated at all since the stupid gwisin came. And there’s a little thought which has been bugging me that I want to try out, even though it may be dangerous…

Let’s try path first, as it takes the least amount of effort at the moment. Easy as click of the button, but which one to take? With the amount of path points I have, I could finish four paths: {defender}, {architect}, {ingenuity}, or {beginner}. Or there’s always the option of saving up for {strategist} or {valiant}. Efficiency wise, I can finish off both {ingenuity} and {beginner} at the same time, so that might be a smart idea, but what exactly is it that I am aiming for as a reward?

Honestly, I need more health or even more health regeneration. I need to fix the damage, but I have a sneaking feeling that karma won’t let me have it that easily… I mean there have been plenty of chances so far where I could get either one of those as a reward, but didn’t, so grrr. It probably won’t happen unless I solve it myself. Karma is weirdly snarky like that, so let’s not depend on it too much for rewards I absolutely have to have…

Let’s look at the track record I have had so far. {Beginner} has always given me something physical, whether a plant or an animal. {Ingenuity}… it gave me [biome creation] and [fluid floors], two really good skills, though it probably won’t give me something that good the second time, but it will probably still give me some sort of skill… {Defender} gave me |aura of protection| and |aura of the lost|. Chances are it’ll be another aura, but maybe it won’t. With a name like {defender}, it could be something else entirely. Heck, any of them might surprise me. And, well since I haven’t completed it before, I have no idea what {architect} will give me. Maybe some kind of building schema…

While I think, I pick up a pebble and start messing with it absent-mindedly. Hm… Let’s go with the two.

Cooking is Life. – Emril’s Journal

Congratulations! {Beginner V (20/20)} Path: Complete. (+10 mana regeneration; {Beginner VI (0/30)} path; +2 random starter seeds; +1 random starter hybrid; [Cooking I])

The best inventions are a product of many things. – Kernan Lith

Congratulations! {Ingenuity II (60/60)} Path: Complete. (+35 health; +45 mana; health regeneration unavailable; + 15 mana regeneration; {Ingenuity III (0/80)} path; {Rune of Wolfberry}; {Rune of Currant}; +1 hint: |Sentinel|)

I groan. I’m sorry, [karma]. I shouldn’t have said you were snarky. Why won’t you give me health regeneration??? And what’s up with [cooking]? I mean it could be useful? Heavy on the question mark… And the hint? I haven’t seen that before.

I shrug and take a look at my rewards.

Parrot Waxcap. Strange thing. A mushroom, but also one of the rare sources of organic gemstones. – Hu the Blacksmith

Congratulations! You have received +1 parrot waxcap sprout (Green glossy mushroom, creates small green gemstones through ambient mana, must have soil or rotting material) and +1 carpet moss sprout (thick and spongy moss, must have soil, can photosynthesize through ambient heat source)

The Tolk Mushroom forest has many, many weird phenomena, my favorite being the blooming of the pixies’ parasols. – Borill the dwarf

Congratulations! You have received +1 pixies’ parasol sprout (fungal and animal hybrid, adolescent stage: small blue luminescent mushroom, adult stage: small blue luminescent airjelly; must have soil or rotting material)

Any wardsman worth his salt knows how to lay wolfberry wards. If you don’t, you’re no wardsman. – Frederik Long, wardsman

Congratulations! You have discovered {Rune of Wolfberry}: signifies a sense of wariness. Wolfberry allows one to create a ward that alerts the wardsman of anyone who crosses it. Classified as a sensory ward. Medium — carving.

Energy breathes. Know how it breathes. It will come as you connect. – Sage of the Wild

Congratulations! You have discovered {Rune of Currant}: signifies flow of energy. Currant allows one to direct the flow of energy through a predetermined path. Classified as an energy ward. Medium — carving, chalk.

System hint – |Sentinel|: Sentinels watch. They stand firm and never waver, keeping guard throughout the night like stone. They are more than just a warning system. They come to life when faced with danger and return to stone when it has passed. They do not live but are flowing with strange energy. Some believe they are not of this world for dimensions seems to twist where they stand. You have the components. Let sentinels guard your domain.

I furrow my brows. What does it mean? This hint is not much of a hint. I don’t even know what the heck it’s hinting at. It’s so vague. There’s no direction to it. It feels more like a piece of lore than anything else. All it really says is that I have the components to make a sentinel? I chew on my lip. Several minutes later, I sigh in exasperation. There’s no way I can solve this. Not right now anyway. My brain feels fried. It’s like a riddle… Let’s move on to something else. Let’s plant these new plants and then work on my health regeneration?

I make several more parrot waxcaps with |aura of the seed| and plant them in the caverns throughout my mountain range and under several banana palms. I like them. The mushrooms are shiny and green, almost jade-like, and they glisten like there’s mini galaxies in their caps. The screen said they’re supposed to produce gemstones. I wonder if I can use them as a trade commodity, something like money. They sound valuable.

I do the same with the soft carpet moss, creating more and draping it across rocks and nestling it into nooks and crannies. With a grin, I discreetly place several moss-covered rocks that resemble couches and beds in places that anyone might want to relax. Of course, they have to be looking for them to find them. I even go and add some in the pagoda and throughout the rooms and houses in the ice tree as well.

The pixie’s parasol is another mushroom, smaller and more delicate than the waxcap, colored a sapphire blue. The cap almost looks like it could come loose with a touch, light enough to float on the breeze. I’m guessing from the description that eventually it will. Airjelly sounds like a jellyfish that floats through the air, so maybe the little mushroom caps will turn into little jellyfish. If they do it all at once, it would look really cool, so I make a whole lot of them and scatter them mainly on the mountain sides. If they do turn into jellyfish, they’ll fill the air. Hehe.

Now that that’s done, I settle cross-legged on a patch of carpet moss. Timp rolls around on the moss near me. Oroesi… He’s up in a palm with his chin on his knees warily watching the snowdrop dragons flutter around the snowdrops. I let out a breath and close my eyes, feeling for Niko. A warm feeling trickles back through the connection. That’s a relief. He still seems to be in safe hands, it seems, though he seems excited about something. I wonder what it is.

I clear my head and focus on my core, drawing in ambient mana. It settles in the center of my core, becoming light green. Gently, I grab a strand from the center and guide it to the edges of my core. It falls back to the center. I do it again, watching closely. Every time I do, the color darkens just a tad. Eventually–after many, many, many cycles–it becomes dark enough to match the color of my health. At that point, the piece of mana, after falling to the center, begins to rise again like a balloon filled with helium and settles in the outer layer of my core.

I breathe out and stretch. My twelve-hour time limit in my golem is almost up again. That meditation session took longer than I thought it would. I’ve sat in one spot for hours. It’s a good activity to do when I can’t move around. I check my status to see if anything changed. My mana increased to over 700 from all the ambient mana I absorbed, but that was to be expected. What’s more exciting is that my overall health actually increased as well. Not by much, but still it increased. Even more interesting was that my mana regeneration actually increased slightly as well. I was not expecting that. Hm. I wonder if I can do a similar process to increase my health regeneration. If I can, then yay! I actually can do something about the stupid damage to my core. Though at this rate, it would take forever.

I want to work on it, but like with the stupid |sentinel| riddle, I’ve burned myself out, so on to something else. Muwahahaha. Yes, the idea I’ve been meaning to play around with ever since forever. I just haven’t had the means to feasibly go about doing it until I got |aura of the seed|. Do I really want to do this, though? It could be so very dangerous. I could be inviting the wrath of the heavens upon my domain. There are so many things that could go wrong, all pointing to an invasion. Do I want to?

The answer? It’s yes. There are multiple reasons for doing it like I don’t have enough information or allies. I’m completely cut off from the world, and in a way, that’s more scary than what could come through. The bottom line, though, is this: I am lonely! I need to meet people. Ah’m and Nattiq aren’t going to cut it. They’re good people, but they aren’t really friends. More like acquaintances, weird people I know. They’ve helped me, and I’m grateful for that, but I want a real friend!

I grasp the pebble I’ve been playing with since earlier. It feels cool to the touch. It’s actually not a pebble, but a really small piece of ice, an ice pebble if you will. I stare at it for a second, hesitating. I’m not actually sure if this will work or not, but here goes nothing. I imbue it with |aura of the seed|, then quick as I can pick a random direction and hurl it outwards. With a small pop, it disappears from view. I feel the seed land and take root, flowering into a tiny ice tree.

This? What is that? A tree made of ice? — Iolian

Congratulations! Roads are the veins connecting to the heart of your domain.

Level [23]!: You’ve established your first way point. People can now travel to your domain via the spacial distortions created by your way point. (1st way point location: Yeo’ena Bay; +20 path points)

I breathe out and watch as a small ice tree begins to grow between two close mountains. It’s a strange thing. The tree is here and yet not. It’s in two places at once and yet in neither of them. When I threw the seed, I actually threw it while activating |aura of the lost|, guiding the seed through one of the tendrils that had formed when I first got the aura, the tendrils that spread throughout the planet connecting to strange places. When the seed landed, I felt that it was far, far to the south. Even farther than where Niko is at the moment. It landed in what felt like a small bay surrounded by mountainous islands, in shallow and marshy waters where trees grew close together, tall and ropy. My seed settled right in between them and sprouted, instantly opening a connection between the bay and my domain through a hole in the trunk.

I waited with [forewarn] blaring as hard as it could to see if anything would come through. The skill triggers, but the information it gives is dark and murky, with a flash of pale white. Instantly the gwisin pops into my head with his pale face leering. I nearly scream as I backpedal, tripping over a root and sprawling across the ground. Several minutes pass slowly as I wait with wide eyes, staring at the opening of the tree. Finally, something moves in the shadow of the tree’s split trunk. I struggle to launch to my feet, only to realize I am unable to move.

Panic grips me as not one muscle responds to my will. No no nonono! I’m not letting this happen again! Please don’t. I can’t do this! I struggle to move, but still nothing happens. I watch in horror as the figure steps out into the moonlight, its dark cloak ruffling in the icy breeze. A dark shadow casts over its face as it steps towards me. I try to stifle my rising panic. I see nothing under the hood, but still I strain. My brain isn’t working fast. I’m scared. I don’t even have the sense of mind to form projectiles in the air as it takes another step towards me. It’s too sudden.

The figure stops in front of my feet. I watch in horror as it crouches down. I can feel its stare on me. Slowly, it cocks its head, almost as if it’s questioning. Then it reaches out a gloved hand in my direction. The wind blows, catching on the figure’s hood, blowing it back and exposing its face. Two deep dark holes fill my view. The moonlight filters through them. It lights up a pale, milky grin. I stare at the face. My mind freezes.

A skeleton is staring at me with an outstretched hand.

Status Menu Name: Haven [Locked]--Devin Race: Legendary Dungeon Level: 23* Attribute: Green Health: 103/352 (2.75/min)* Mana: 718/776 (4.58/min)* State: Damaged -- (-2.75 health a minute) Biomes: 6 Floors: ?%Ξ] Named Monsters: 4 Monsters: 36 Animals: 75,533* Plants: 1,144,300+* [Ξ] Path Points: 30* Paths: {Beginner VI (0/30)}* {Ingenuity III (0/80)}* {Valiant II (0/120)} {Defender V (0/50)} {Architect I (10/50)} {Strategist III (0/95)} Skills: [Influence VII] [Incorporation IV] [Ambient Aura VIII] [Plant Growth III] [Green Thumb II] [Tamer VI] [Karma III] [Natural Projectile V] [Core Teleportation] [Epithet] [Elemental Manipulation X] [Biome Creation] [Fluid Floors] [Golem Creation] [Loyalty] [Tranquility] [Warding II] [Forewarn II] [Mana Absorption] [Standstill I] [Cooking I]* Achievements: |Ingenuity!| |Powerful!| |Dauntless!| |Against the Odds!| |Crack Shot!| |Breeder!| |Safe Guard!| |Creator of Wonders!| |Leader!| Causes: |«Against the World»| -- 4 [Ξ] Auras: |Aura of Light| |Aura of Warmth| |Aura of Fury| |Aura of Souls| |Aura of Protection| |Aura of the Lost| |Calming Aura| |Aura of the Seed| Fire: Main, Magma Water: Main, Ice, Acid Earth: Main, Plants, Minerals, Metal, Wax Air: Main, Toxic Gas