“Is Ren pouting?” Linda asks.
“I don’t know. How can you tell?” Alliot asks back.
“Hmm… I don’t know. It’s just kind of a gut feeling.” Linda says.
Ren was quietly sitting in the wagon the party came into the lumbermill on. This place was just called Herschell’s lumbermill. It was privately owned by a wealthy merchant. A great variety of strong men and women work here. The place seems to have been cheaply built. The strong men working also appear to be packing up to leave.
The Evershifting mountain range is rich with strong trees bathed in fresh nutrients, magic and other natural factors. Typically, they would go up to find choice trees to cut down. They then set the trees into a river. Tree logs float and the river carries it down. The peaks of certain mountain tops often play host to icy peaks. The ice from these peaks melt and form rivers. The surrounding lands often get flooded. This often creates marshes and perhaps rivers that go all the way to the ocean. From the Irvan Kingdom’s perspective, the mountains are to the northeast of the country’s border and any rivers made would flow south towards the ocean.
Herschel’s lumbermill is not a permanent structure. Every year, the company will survey the area around the Evershifting mountain range. The company then builds facilities and infrastructure to better assist in their lumber business. Soon, they will abandon these buildings. With the likelihood of landslides rapidly rising, the lumberjacks are preparing to take their leave. The party will be entering where the lumberjacks are leaving.
“You folks are heading up now? At this time of year?” a lumberjack asks the party.
“Yep.” Alliot says. “Nothing to do but brave the danger for the sake of adventure.”
“Gods, you’re in for a world of hurt.” the lumberjack says. “Me and my boys had to work throughout the process. Even if it killed us.”
“Your boss is that much of a slave driver, huh.” Alliot says.
“Yeah. Something like that.” the lumberjack says. “We used to have to work until the mountains came bearing down on us. A snobby noble just wanted to get his premium magic wood to make wands, staves and other sorts of things.”
“Damn.” Alliot says. “But it looks like you’re packing up when the mountains aren’t about to bury you here at the foot of this… well… mountain. You get a new boss?”
“Absolutely. Our queen tossed out that noble. Now we’re managed with fairer wages, safety practices and work schedules.”
“Sounds like a good deal.”
“Sure is. You should’ve seen it. Our queen sent a fellow to sort the snob out. I think they call him the gangster chancellor. He came in here and slapped the bastard and muscled his way in like he owned the place.”
“Oh. You don’t say.”
“Yeah! Now I make good money and I can leave before the mountain comes down on me.”
“Wow. That guy is something else.” Alliot nods along as he speaks to the man.
“I hear that he’s at our queen’s right hand as we speak.”
“Uhuh… right…” Alliot continues to nod along. “Last question, you wouldn’t have happened to spot a wyvern fly through here, would you? Particularly an orange one with an elephant’s trunk.”
“Ah. Yes, but that’s because these mountains are a popular spot for wyverns plain and simple. Not sure if this elephant wyvern is among them.”
“Oh great.” Alliot says sarcastically. “Other wyverns. How aggressive are they?”
“Depends on the time of year. If you’re asking about this time of year, very aggressive.”
“Perfect.” Alliot slumps his shoulders with that bit of sarcasm.
“Well, good luck up there.” the lumberjack cheers. “If you see anything lying around, consider it a gift from us to you. Like how heroes would barge into people’s houses and search their homes for potions and stuff.”
“Thank you kindly, good sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar.” Alliot cheers back.
“You have to stop switching to the girl’s secondary.” Warumasa says.
“What?” Agnoir questions the demon blade.
“If you switch to the girl’s secondary, I can’t bask in the blood of our enemies!” Warumasa says.
“You mean her enemies.” Apherward says.
“Whatever. The bottom line is that if you stab our or her enemies with that dagger, I don’t get to get in there and soak in the blood.”
“What?” the hairpin scoffs. “In a fight, you do not get to pick and choose how to kill people. You use anything and everything you got to get the job done!”
“Pick and choose my ass!” Warumasa began shouting in Ren’s head. “The girl must be strong and stalwart! She must have the strength to defeat any and all in her path! To be the definition of strength and mastery! To fell anyone and everyone in glorious honorable combat!”
“Wha- hornorable- fucking what?” Agnoir scoffs.
“Honorable combat! To test one’s might against another. Where blades clash. Where metal and mettle are tested against one another.”
“Fucking, who cares?” Agnoir says.
“Everyone with eyes you idiot!” Warumasa exclaims.
“What the fuck are you on about?” Agnoir says.
“Eh, he’s a demon. You can never know what he's going on about.” Apherward says.
“This might be a joke to the both of you, but this is serious for me!” Warumasa says. “I will not play second fiddle to a kitchen knife, a musket that takes a year to load or anything else!”
“It doesn’t even fucking matter.” Agnoir says. “It’s a weapon. It’s a stabbing implement just like you!”
“He’s a demon of envy, remember?” Apherward says. “He gets jealous. If you thought he was above getting jealous of another blade. Kitchen knife or otherwise?”
“I- Uhh… yeah, I should’ve seen this one coming.” Agnoir says.
“So we are in agreement?” Warumasa asks.
“Oh, fuck no. I’m going to stab whoever with whatever.” Agnoir says.
“You mean Ren will stab whoever with whatever. You are a hairpin at the back of her head. You have no arms to stab with.” Apherward says.
Over the year, the lumberjacks of Herschell’s lumbermill have built a dirt road up the mountain. Mainly following a river upstream, but there were a fair few detours to this road. Some smaller scale maps of what routes the lumberjacks had were collected and other various tools. Ren only collected some simple rope. Unfortunately, the lumbermill didn’t have any potions or anything of the sort like in the days of legend where heroes can freely go into private property and grab such valuables.
Ren and the others were climbing a mountain trail by the river. There were some densely packed trees along the face of the mountain. There were plenty of simple and plain animals sharing or competing with the odd monster every now and again. Meanwhile, Alliot and the royals were arguing about routes, roads and other such things.
“We should go here!”
“No! We should go there!”
“It should be here!”
“We need to be here!”
“We can find it here!”
“But we can find yo mama here!”
“WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME YOU LITTLE SHIT?!?!”
After wasting a day and the food associated with that day, the party manages to pick a direction. The party at long last heads deeper into the mountain range in search for a wyvern among a paradise for wyverns. Following the dirt roads up they begin their ascent following the river upstream.
“A day. We wasted a day arguing over this shit.” Mulbane cusses under his breath. “The mountains are going to turn over any day now and we wasted a day already. We need to find this damn thing and we have a whole mountain range to comb through. Like none of them understand how short on time we are.”
“Shut your trap.” Sophie says. “Are you going to run your mouth all day or do some actual work?”
“Don’t lecture me when you all argued against my optimal route.” Mulbane says.
“Pfft, did you even hear my critique of your route?” Sophie scoffs.
“Like I’d listen to a single one of my half siblings, let alone you of all of them.”
“I told you that your route has some of the greatest potential for monsters to appear along the way.”
“And I told you that they wouldn’t dare show up on such a well traveled road.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“You sure about that, idiot?”
“I haven’t been more sure of anything in my life.”
“Look up there.”
Sophie points ahead of the group. There sits a massive gnarled tree with purple leaves. Where the tree trunk is there, looks to be a face with eyes and a mouth in a crooked smile on the tree bark. The trunk bends and the branches sway without any wind.
“What the fuck is that?” Mulbane shouts.
“That is a corpseroot. I’m not sure about the species of wood, but it looks fierce.” Malo says.
“Don’t corpseroots need a long time to settle into an area or something?” Bron asks.
“Yeah, this thing needed to plant their roots to get to the size it is here.” Malo says. “They need to put down roots and stuff. The natural magics running around here are also a factor.”
“What is it doing here? Isn’t this whole mountain range going to go up and shit?” Alliot asks.
“Eh, maybe it’s like a tumble weed. It dies when it’s roots leave the soil and then gets tossed around. It’s seeds fall off it’s branches to spread around a bit. Then new corpseroots grow wherever those seeds end up. I don’t know off the top of my head. I would need to check an encyclopedia or bestiary specifically on corpseroots to figure that out.”
“Can we just walk around it?” Linda asks.
“Not safely.” Malo says. “It kinda likes eating people.”
“It eats people?” Linda asks.
“Sort of. It does a lot of magic stuff with human bodies.” Malo says. “They get cool nutrients and magical growth with human bodies. And yes, it’s racist like that. Most of them have adapted to there being plentiful humans as opposed to the minority races. So humans are more nutritious to them than a dwarf and stuff like that.”
“O- okay.” Linda gives a concerned look.
“Don’t worry.” Malo says. “This should be easy to deal with. Time consuming and effort intensive, but simple. Ren, a little help!”
“Sure.” Ren says.
“I’ll match your timing.” Malo says.
Malo points both of his wands at the corpseroot. Ren points her hand at it too.
“Fireball! Fireball!”
“Fireball.”
From Malo’s wands and Ren’s hand, a trio of fireballs shoot out at the monstrous tree. All three connect with the target rooted to the ground unable to move from it’s place. All three strike it in the tree trunk that looks like a face. There is a groaning of wood creaking, almost like a scream of pain. A fire erupts from the tree and it begins to burn. Then the corpseroot tilts. Not in the dying sort of way a tree tilts. It tilts with a purpose. The tree tilts it’s purple leaves into the river. After a moment, it straightens it’s trunk out and the water it dunked it’s leaves in pours water down the length of this tree’s trunk. The fire is put out. The party looks on in disbelief.
“Huh… I didn’t know it could do that.” Malo says.
“Alright, well, do these corpseroot things have a weakness?” Olion asks.
“Yeah, fire.” Malo states in a matter of fact tone.
“Okay then. What now?” Olion asks.
“Well, we could just kill it the good ol’ fashion way or we turn around and try one of the other routes you guys proposed earlier.” Malo says.
“Yeah, but which one?” Olion asks again.
“Fuck it, we’re lumberjacks today.” Mulbane says.
Mulbane readies his spear and shield before charging in. As a resident charger, Ren follows suit without a moment’s hesitation. The rest of the party look to each other before shrugging their shoulders and following the two. As the group approaches, the corpseroot swings it’s branches in the direction of the party. The branch swing sends the purple leaves out. The leaves begin to spin like discs and fly straight at the party.
“Woah!” Mulbane exclaims.
Mulbane puts his shield up to intercept the volley of razor sharp leaves flung at him. He puts his shield between him and the volley. When the leaves strike his shield, the shield hums with a faint magic. Ren takes this opportunity to run past him. Notably around the shield and into the line of fire.
“She’s going to get herself killed.” Olion says.
“Eh, it’s a maybe.” Bron says.
“Isn’t that cause for concern?” Olion asks.
“Not at all. It’s what adventurers do.” Bron shrugs his shoulders.
“What is wrong with you people?” Olion asks.
“Many things!”
In the face of a wall of razors, Ren points a hand in front of her.
“Stone Wall.”
A wall of stones rises between Ren and the volley of razor sharp leaves. The leaves make notable cuts into the stone, but keep Ren safe nonetheless. Ren leaps over the wall of stone she conjured and points a hand at the corpseroot.
“Fireball.”
More conjured fire shoots out at the monster tree. The grand impact strikes the monster in the face and trunk again, but this time it doesn’t catch fire. The wood and bark of this tree seems to be damp and the water soaking it prevents the combustion the party had seen before. The corpseroot responds by attempting to stab Ren with it’s roots from below. The stone wall she conjured beneath her begins to crack. Ren leaps away as a tree root shoots up like a spike at her.
The party begins to catch up to Ren and Mulbane. Linda dashes for the root that shot up at Ren. She grabs the root and violently pulls on it. The dirt road comes undone as a root snaps up in response to Linda’s strength. The root she holds helplessly flails in her arms. Then a series of other roots shoots up to grab at her. The branches of this tree also swings and launches another volley of razor leaves at her.
“I’ll take the leaves! You guys take the roots to the left and right!” Alliot says. “Ren, I’m using your wall!”
What little of the stone wall Ren erected was knocked over by a sweep kick from Alliot. As it tumbles over, he winds up a punch.
“Property Damage Style: Brick Wall Grape Shot!”
Allito punches the stone wall and it crumbles into pieces. The pieces spray out in a scattershot of stones. The stones shot out and meet the volley of leaves in a collision. Both the leaves and the stones fall to the side harming no one but each other in the air.
“I’ll take the left!” Bron says.
Wordlessly, Bron and his companion Borp move to either side. They dash to cut across a root bound to strike out at Linda. The root splits to Bron’s sword and Borp’s beak. A flashing X shape splits the root down the middle and continues down the length of the root until the cutting force follows the root to the ground.
“Fine! I’ll take the right!” Mulbane says.
Mulbane prepares himself to go into a full sprint.
“Charging Shield!”
With grand strength granted to him by his skill, he charges at the root. The root crumples and is forced back a fair distance. Then the root whips around and wraps Mulbane in it’s clutches.
“Ah! Shit!”
“Mulbane got caught.” Olion says.
“Maybe it’ll kill him.” Mulbane says.
Ren rushes to the root gripping Mulbane. She draws her sword and slashes at the root. The blade bounces off doing no harm. Ren swings a normal attack again with one hand. The blade bounces off again.
“Don’t worry!” Alliot cheers. “One of the main principles of bare handed martial arts is to toughen your hands and feet. Take this!”
Alliot rushes to the root and winds up a bare handed chop.
“Property Damage Style: Column Splitter!”
Alliot’s hand cleaves through the root holding Mulbane and he drops to the floor with a hard thud.
“Damn. Why did you have to go and save him?” Olion asks.
“Because I wanted to!” Alliot shouts.
Even with the root destroyed, the corpseroot continues to write it’s roots and prepares to throw another volley of razor leaves.
“Damn it! We have to find a way to chop down this tree!” Bron says.
“That’s assuming we can get close enough to it.” Sophie says.
“I think we can uproot it.” Ren says.
The party turns to see Ren rush up to the base of the tree monster’s roots. She points her hand at the base of the tree and chants her spell.
“Stone Wall.”
The corpseroot startlingly starts to lift a bit.
“Linda, can you pull harder?” Ren shouts.
“You bet I can!”
Linda pulls hard on the root in her hands. The root is pulled taut and magically conjured stone lifts the tree monster up out of the ground. Despite this, the corpseroot still violently thrashes around with it’s roots and branches.
“Woah! Okay!” Alliot Mulbane says.
“Awesome! Good job, you two!” Alliot says.
“Yeah! We won!” Olion cheers.
As Olion cheers, a root whips around and slams into his chest and knocks him to the ground. It is clear that the corpseroot is far from defeated.
“It’s still kicking!” Bron shouts.
“What now?” Malo asks.
“Put it in the river.” Ren says.
“Dump it in the river!” Linda shouts.
“Toss it in the river!” Alliot cheers.
“Will that kill it?” Sophie asks.
“Probably.” Malo says. “Regular trees need water and soil in certain measures. It would stand to reason that they could probably drown. It just takes a while.”
“Okay, then. In the river it goes.” Sophie says.
Everyone tries to grab the tree monster, but it’s branches and roots writhe and wriggle too wildly. No one could get their hands on it until Linda grabs the monster by it’s trunk. With her great strength, she lifts it above her head and slams it into the river and gives it a hard kick. As the corpseroot is pushed into the river, a root wraps around Ren’s foot and takes her with it into the river.
“Uh oh.” Ren says without the urgency associated with someone being pulled into the water.
Ren is plunged into the water. The monster continues to violently thrash around. Ren pulls out her sword and begins to slash at the root binding her ankle. At times, the sword helplessly bounces off the root. At others, it cuts a bit of the wood off.
“FUCK! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT! CUT IT!” Apherward screams in Ren’s head.
“I’M CUTTING! I’M CUTTING!!!” Warumasa shouts back in a panic.
“COME ON! WE CAN’T LET OUR GIRL DROWN!!!” Agnoir screams.
“WOMAN, I DON’T SEE YOU HELPING! DON’T YOU HAVE SOMETHING? DON’T EITHER OF YOU HAVE SOMETHING?!?!”
“Oh… uhh… hang on…” Agnoir speaks hesitantly.
Ren learned Escape Artist Level 1.
Skill Level Up
Escape Artist Level 1 -> Level 5. Level capacity has been met. Level up to increase level capacity.
“Huh?” Apherward yelps.
“What?” Warumasa stutters.
While being dragged underwater, Ren moves with remarkable speed and her foot vanishes from the corpseroot’s grasp. Ren swims with staggering speed. She swims up to the water’s surface and takes a breath of air. The corpse wood is floating on the water’s surface. Ren dives under the water again. While under the water, she swings her sword at any roots or branches that come for her. Strangely, while under the water, Ren’s sword swings cut the roots and branches with single swings. Ren then swims to the trunk of the tree. The face in the trunk turns under the water to see Ren. She drives the katana up into the trunk of the tree and drags it down the length of the monster, cutting it in half as easily as a sawmill would. Once the monster is sliced in half, all the roots and branches go still.
Once that is done, Ren swims to the surface again. Once she breaches the surface, she looks around. The river has carried her a fair distance down stream. Her compatriots are nowhere in sight. Ren is alone in an unfamiliar mountain range expected to have landslides, earthquakes and other such threats any day now.
“You had that the whole time?” Warumasa asks?
“Look, I’m sorry. I forgot about it.” Agnoir says.
“Gods damn it, woman!” Apherward spoke with disbelief. “The girl was in chains being man handled by brutish castle guards. Why didn’t you use this then?”
“Look! I didn’t think of it then!” Agnoir screams.
“Gods woman! Now look at the girl.” Warumasa says.
“Wait…” Apherward hesitates to speak for a moment. “The girl.”
“What about the girl?”
“Her arm.”
Ren
Level 13 Assassin
Strength: 38
Magic: 40
Agility: 37
Vitality: 34
Magic Capacity: Clear
Titles: Blue Pine’s Favorite Adventurer, Ren the Red
Skills:
Swordsmanship Level 3
Netami Style
Netami Style: Form 1: Flash
Netami Style Form 2: Swallow Dive
Netami Style Form 3: Helm Splitter
Netami Style Form 4: Blade Wave
Netami Style Form 5: Horizon
Martial Arts Level 2
Marksmanship Level 7
Firearm Level 2
Knifework Level 8
Sneaking Level 5
Dark Step Level 3
Hit Marker
Confirm Kill
Thief’s Sleeves Level 1
Alchemy Level 1
Poison Expert Level 1
Explosive Expert Level 1
Housekeeping Level 1
Escape Artist Level 5
Spells:
Water Arrow Level 2
Ice Bolt Level 2
Fireball Level 1
Stone Wall Level 2
Chain Lightning Level 1
Magic Impact Level 3
Magic Pierce Level 2
Haste Level 1
Raise Zombie Level 1
Blind Level 2
Locate Location Level 1
Project Mind Level 1
Magic Soft Fall Level 2
Basic Barrier Level 2
Whisper Sanctum Level 1
Magic Sense Level 2
Invisibility Level 1
Magic Lock Level 1
Light Level 1
Status: Injured, Bandaged
Left Arm Broken Severity 1
“What about it?”
“The broken arm was at severity 3 just yesterday.” Apherward says.
“Oh. Excellent! She should be able to wield me at full strength soon!” Warumasa boasts.
“I think you’re missing his point here.” Agnoir says. “Her broken arm healed startlingly fast.”
“Ah! Who cares?” Warumasa cheers. “Let’s go wild already!”
Level up!
Ren
Level Level 13 Assassin -> Level 13 Savage Ronin
Strength: 38 -> 42
Magic: 40
Agility: 37 -> 32
Vitality: 34 -> 37
“Wait what?” Agnoir says. “Isn’t savage ronin an advanced class?
“Yes. And?” Warumasa says.
“Idiot, she hasn’t figured it out yet.” Apherward snaps. “And why did you change the girl’s class?”
“Wait!” Agnoir says.
Level up!
Ren
Level Level 13 Ronin -> Level 13 Phantom Assassin
Strength: 42 -> 38
Magic: 40
Agility: 32 -> 39
Vitality: 37 -> 34
“Sh- she- I- pha- I made her a phantom assassin at level 13?!?!” Agnoir stutters.
“Ahh, gods. Well, the cat’s out of the bag now.” Apherward sighs.
“YOU’VE BEEN HOLDING OUT ON EARLY CLASS ADVANCEMENTS THIS WHOLE TIME?!?! SHE COULD HAVE BEEN A LEVEL 13 PHANTOM ASSASSIN THIS WHOLE TIME?!?!”
