Chapter 38: The Abble Tree Root Cellar, Pt. 3

  The pair was soon back on their way again, trekking through the underground tunnel system of the Abble Tree Root Cellar dungeon. The flora was largely unchanged throughout, though some places had more sunlight poking through the thick, rooty ceiling and had more lush colours and moss on the ground and walls.

  Theo’s mana was pretty severely reduced after the two previous castings, the targeting sigil and both sigils required to create water costing him five each, and he cast the combination twice in quick succession. Thirty mana gone just a few minutes earlier, and the trickle of regeneration had barely made a dent in the loss.

  In preparation for his first ever fight, it being the first since Theo didn’t consider the attempted escape from the deadly forest squirrel his first day here a proper fight, Theo reacquainted himself with the sigil for ‘Fire’. It was supposedly the elemental weakness of the treens and the dungeon boss, and likely the only thing Theo could potentially cast that could harm anything, much less trees. Throwing a few kilograms of dirt on them wasn’t too likely to do anything but annoy them. Maybe he could dig a hole and create some dirt over a squirrel? Burying one of those vermin alive sounded… fun? Wow, he really hated those things, didn’t he?

  Theo’s fated battle drew close. A treen shuffled woodwardly toward them, its shifting roots dragging along the ground almost musically in its constant and repeated rhythm. Theo prepared himself, weaving his sigils in preparation.

  ‘Target:LOS’, ‘Create’, ‘Fire’. The thread was ready, nearly pouncing by its own potential energy stored within its loose, plasmic form. Theo was equally as prepared to end the combination of sigils after flinging the thread and attaching it to the LOS-marker. Then a wooden branch shuffled into view. A green top hat with red, glistening dots. A trunk, tall and medium thick. He flung the thread with a nervous flick, sending the thread hurtling into the treen’s facial area, or at least where a face could’ve been.

  One quick transfer of the mana thread later, and Theo finished the symbol combination by boxing it inside a low box. Flames spewed from in front of him where the hostile treen had spotted him. Bright red and solar yellow flames appeared, separated yet coalescing into each other in a chaotic pattern of waves and wind. If the tree could scream, it would’ve, based solely on its panicked running about and waving its green top haphazardly.

  Abbles fell from its branches, hitting the ground while barely being bruised, their hardy skin keeping them somewhat safe from the impact of the fall. The owner’s rooty feet, on the other hand, smushed a few of them as it struggled back and forth, side to side, flailing its branches and leaves both in a pained uproar.

  The fire spread hungrily, taking in the thin layer of soft, adolescent bark and outputting ash and coal and cinders. Black-and-grey treen dandruff filled the tunnel along with orange glowing lights like fireflies without the energy to keep themselves afloat. Only the gusts of wind made from the treen’s dire movements altered and whisked the debris away. Soon enough the green of its leafy hat turned a faded brown with dottings of pale grey and scorched black edges as the orange combined flames ravaged it from top to bottom.

  The treen slipped on a pre-smooshed abble that rolled away with a disappointed schlurp and fell to its side, banging its flaming head of leaves into the wall. Blackened branches atop its crown snapped from the impact and wooden debris was sent flying from the collision, some of it still alight with burning flames. Luckily, or perhaps dungeon-magically, the roots that composed the walls and that ran along the floor didn’t catch fire as easily, or at all. An innocent green stem standing underneath a shaft of light from above wasn’t as sturdy, its unsprouted top turning black and sorrowfully facing the ground.

  The treen didn’t seem able to gather its senses enough to fully get back up, so it flailed a bit more in its half-stumbling position until it fully fell over. Its plight ended after writhing along the ground for a short while more. Theo found the sight absolutely horrible. He felt he could practically hear the young tree’s silent screams of pain and death. The imagined choir of agony, the refrain of torment, was only partially lightened by the mystery of a pale blue, wispy army of light that suddenly emanated from Theo’s body.

  Blue motes rose from him, not just his skin, but his clothes, or possibly through them. The pale colour contrasted with the red-yellow tinge that still filled the tunnel along with black wood and dying leaves. It smelled like a bonfire, something the motes of blue didn’t interact with at all as they were seemingly made of pure light. Theo looked around, finding Grace’s rather impressed expression turning to one of unblemished curiosity as she noticed the motes rising from him.

  Congratulations! You have earned the Level One skill Fire Affinity.

  Fire Affinity (Level One): Hot. All stats +5.

  Congratulations! You have earned the Level One skill Sigil Combat.

  Sigil Combat (Level One): So you’ve finally turned a noble means of creating entire worlds into just another way of causing harm. Good for you. All stats +5.

  “Wow, it did not like that,” Theo said as he read over the final skill gain message. He then waved away Grace’s questioning ‘hm?’. He eyed the still-smoking treen lying dead on the ground. This wasn’t entirely what he had expected. The worst of it all was that Theo agreed with the System; this wasn’t what he wanted to accomplish with it. He recognised that he’d taken something creative and made it destructive. He’d mutated it. He had added rot.

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  “Are you okay?” Grace asked, likely sensing his turmoil. “First time?”

  He nodded as he tried looking away from the blackened tree. He wasn’t entirely able to. Only the red globes littering the ground managed to catch his eye, though they didn’t necessarily ease his mind.

  Grace’s hand wrapped gently around his forearm. “I’m sorry I forced this. It isn’t for everyone. I just…”

  Theo turned, something more worthy of his attention presenting itself. Something that didn’t cause him to wallow. He looked at her.

  “I just wanted you to be able to protect yourself. Your town is sure to cause unwanted attention. You have no one to defend it, your friends, or… you.”

  He smiled. “We have you,” he said. She didn’t look too sure.

  “I’m not one of your villagers, Theo. Remember?”

  “So become one,” the man offered. She blinked.

  “Are you… inviting me?” she asked. Theo thought she sounded surprised by this by the way her cadence rose at the end. He actually had forgotten that she wasn’t truly a part of the village. She’d been there all the same, though.

  “Only if you want to stay,” he teased.

  Grace smiled. It vanished as quickly as it grew, though. “I’m not sure I’m as welcome as you think I am. First impression didn’t go so well, and then there’s Wen. I’m an adventurer, too. I’m not fit for a new town.”

  Grace seemed almost a bit flustered as she came up with more and more reasons why she didn’t think it was a good idea. Theo ignored her words, but waited patiently until she was done making a fool of herself. She eventually stopped, casting a curious gaze his way as if to ask what he was looking at in complete silence.

  “Wen aside, and that’s all due to your incessant teasing, mind you, you’re just inventing hurdles. So you’re an adventurer. We have a dungeon. You can still travel. So you’re a priestess. We have our own religion!” Her eyes perked up. “You can fight and protect us, you can go dungeon diving for resources. You wouldn’t just be useful, but you’d be needed. I’m sure you have your own life somewhere, and even if you don’t want to relocate here, you’d still be more than welcome anytime.”

  Town Management System

  Would you like to invite Grace to Sigil Lake?

  Theo accepted. He hadn’t seen this world’s magical inner workings in action before, but her eyes lit up as something happened. Without the System that he had, what were these things like? Would he ever experience such things like the ordinary inhabitants in this world did, or would the System take over?

  “A-are you sure?” she said, shrinking a bit. Her hand was still attached to Theo’s after she started comforting him, and now it was almost the reverse. He nodded as formally as he could, considering the official invitation extended to her. It wasn’t every day his power as a founding council member was enacted.

  Grace has accepted the invitation to join Sigil Lake. Would you like to see the full list of inhabitants?

  Theo waved the message away as Grace’s smile returned.

  “So what’s this about a brand new religion you so casually mentioned?” she grinned.

  Without having much of a choice, though there really weren’t many other alternatives either way, Theo was coerced into giving Grace the highest of titles that regarded the religion he had been forcefully made a founder and leader of. He dug around in the Town Management System to find titles related to the religion, some of which were unique. They were hierarchical, though, his own title ‘Shepherd of the Scorned Witch’ being the peak. She got the one below, the highest he could ever grant someone. ‘The First Storm of the Scorned Witch.

  Surprisingly, the moment she was granted the title, which had a much better name than Theo’s title had, the System intruded upon the moment once more. What it offered wasn’t unheard of, but definitely welcome nonetheless.

  You have raised an inhabitant of Sigil Lake into a prominent position. Would you like to share the System with the First Storm of the Scorned Witch?

  Note: Only the parts of the System pertaining to the position will be shared.

  And then another message popped up.

  You have raised an inhabitant of Sigil Lake into a prominent position. Council chairs are available for most of the prominent positions in a Town. Would you like to offer a council chair to The First Storm of the Scorned Witch?

  Just for fun, Theo accepted both. Hopefully Wen wouldn’t mind, and he was sure Willam wouldn’t either. What kind of power Grace would get by being named a council chair wasn’t entirely clear, but with a founding council-based government, it was likely of a lesser-standing position than the founding members themselves had. Theo wasn’t averse to having more members, but making decisions like this alone was a bit uncomfortable. He’d have to apologise later. He’d been caught up in the moment a bit, and he really would like to have Grace stick around. She was… She was Grace.

  “Woah,” she gasped, her eyes distant though she was looking directly at him. It was almost as if she was looking through him, though he knew she was actually looking between them at the System messages he had procured for her.

  He let her look around the newfangled System alone for a bit. She released his hand after a gentle nudge from him and he then walked over to the crispy-black tree trunk he’d killed just minutes earlier. He crouched down in front of it. It was still radiating warmth. It smelled of a bonfire, nothing more, nothing less. Theo shoved down the thought he knew he shouldn’t think. He already knew the answer, and it was no; nothing deserved to die this way.

  Grace’s light feet approached moments later, her hand landing just as lightly on his shoulder. He looked up, finding her comforting smile. “Ready to continue?”