World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  Vincent quickly ate the rest of his soup, then stood from the table. “Well, that sure was delicious! I feel full of energy, so I might head underground and work on a tunnel.”

  “This late into the day?” Monika asked. “What if you started tomorrow morning?”

  “Here’s another thing my wife loved about me: I’m a restless man, always going from one task to the next. Anyways, thank you so much for the meal. I’m sure you and I will have plenty of lovely dinners over the coming years.”

  Vincent winked at her, then hurried for the back door.

  That ought to placate her for a while, he thought as he left the building. The NPCs in this game don’t really acknowledge the passing of time like real people do, so I might be able to keep her content by popping in once a week or so. I’m certain she’s helping ARKUS keep me trapped here, so I don’t want her to grow suspicious of what I’m really planning.

  Once Vincent reached the well, he drank several ethers to convert mana into his coat. He’d stopped worrying about his supplies running low, since he knew he’d be stuck there for decades, regardless. Plus, he already planned to set up an apothecary lab somewhere underground.

  Vincent used Zero Field to float down into the well. In his mind, he tried to retrace the thralls’ tunnels so that he could figure out how to avoid them when making his own passages. He blasted a gaping hole into the wall with Voidfire, then landed in the new opening, where he planned to start his mine.

  I’ll collect minerals below ground, and plants above ground, then feed them into my tome. Then every ten years, I’ll clear out the exotic bosses on this Challenge World. Those kills will net me a little less than two hundred thousand BP, then hopefully mining and foresting will give me a few thousand a year. If all goes well, I might have the third grade unlocked on my Builder’s Tome in less than fifty years. The only problem is that I have no idea how much one of those super Jump Gates will cost. If it’s over a million, then I might be stuck here a century.

  Vincent groaned. God, I hope that’s not the case. If I’m lucky, and it’s a lot cheaper, then I might escape in sixty or seventy years, but that’s assuming that gate actually connects with another. If it doesn’t, then my only hope is to defeat Rosaria. That’s the worst-case scenario, but I need to plan for that too.

  The big problem is leveling up while the bosses are dead. On top of building forge enhancements like Juniper showed me, I might be able to replicate the runes from the Kill Chamber on Lavrin, then throw some thralls in there. I’d need to hide it somewhere Monika would never find—the last thing I need is her getting suspicious. I need to move forward under the assumption that ARKUS is using her to keep tabs on me. She might even have a way of communicating with Rosaria and planning how they’ll keep me here.

  “Well, first things first,” Vincent said, casting Debuff Chains on himself. That spell would cut his levels in half, as well as hugely limit his usage of magic, but it also increased the speed he leveled up.

  That will help me level faster while mining. It’s really too bad this world doesn’t have higher gravity, otherwise I’d get even more of a boost. Then again, I never really thought about trying to make a stronger version of Debuff Chains. What if I combined it with something like Density Field? That might add a higher challenge bonus. Only issue is, I can barely cast spells while using—wait, the coat!

  Vincent drew out mana he had stored in Silpher’s Coat, and he found he had enough to cast Density Field on his chains. He felt his body momentarily grow heavier, and he struggled to move, almost as if the effect had locked him into place. Stacking the two spells together had even made it difficult to breathe, so he used the breathing technique the real Monika had taught him years ago.

  After a minute, the Density Field fizzled away since it wasn’t normally designed to be used on another spell, and Vincent’s muscles relaxed when the added stress left him.

  Spell Creation: 1%

  Alright! Good, good. It might be difficult to finish that one, since I’d need to break and remake my chains just to store mana, not to mention I lose half of the mana I put in the coat. That’d be the spell to finish first, and then I’ll work on the upgrade to Density Shield that started when I was getting shot by Warro.

  If I can build a forge down here, I’ll add the same enhancements that our forge on Lavrin had. Then I’ll be able to bombard my Density Shield with frequencies to speed up the development process. I’m not sure what kind of upgrade was started, though. Hopefully, it’ll be something to help me against Rosaria.

  The angel’s face was still burned in his memory, but he shook away the image of her cruel smile, then equipped a pickaxe.

  Grinding away for decades was the last thing on my mind when I finally escaped Izrid, but it really looks like I have no choice. I’m not doing this out of obsession—or because I want to beat the game. This is all to get back to my friends. Even if I have to play nice with the NPC wearing my wife’s face. Even if I have to grind away for decades. Even if I have to face Rosaria a hundred times over.

  Vincent dug his pickaxe into the stone over and over again.

  It’s better that I give it my all and fail rather than quit and live an idle life with a fake Monika. You won’t crush my spirit, ARKUS. I’m getting back to my friends one way or another.

  Year 230

  Player: Old Man Vincent

  Class: Ranger

  Subclass: Mage

  Vitality: Lv 531

  Spirit*: Lv 600

  Resolve: Lv 539

  Perception*: Lv 593

  Agility: Lv 534

  Strength: Lv 527

  Chapter 7

  The skybox’s light shone brightly on another peaceful day in the Garden—a day like thousands of others Vincent had experienced there. He went quickly from one task to another, trying to stay as efficient as possible.

  All in all, he’d found he could finish the Tending the Garden Quest in about five hours if everything went perfectly. He had tried rushing through the quest in his first few years on that world, but that seemed to upset Monika. Each time, Vincent had had to wait about a week for her to offer the quest again. After a lot of trial and error, he had figured out the perfect pace that kept her happy without making the quest a waste of his time. After all, he needed the Challenge Rating bonus that it offered.

  Vincent finished watering the flowers, smiling happily at Monika as she walked by to inspect them. She didn’t seem to notice the few missing ones that he’d fed into his Florist Tome. That was another thing he’d learned to get away with over the decades. If he funneled too many items into his tomes, she’d grow suspicious of him.

  Like a prisoner trying to stay on the warden’s good side, Vincent had learned to put on an act to make the NPC happy. They smiled, talked, and joked with one another. In the last fifty years, they’d shared many pleasant moments in each other’s company. Despite that, Vincent never let himself forget that he was only a prisoner—that everything about the world and the fake Monika only existed to keep him from leaving.

  Monika picked a flower, looking over it with a sense of awe. Vincent had planted those particular flowers in that exact spot, because he’d discovered she would always stop to pick one. If he saved gardening as a later chore, that distraction seemed to trigger her finishing the quest early.

  “So beautiful,” Monika said, like always. She put it behind her ear and turned to Vincent. “How do I look?”

  “Gorgeous!” he replied, pretending to wipe away sweat. “I’m getting a little tired. How about you?”

  “I suppose we’ve done enough for today,” she answered, almost exactly as she’d answered a thousand other times.

  NPC Quest Completed: Tending the Garden Part 4,501 – You’ve received a Hero’s Boon for 72 hours.

  “You know, I have a few bottles of wine saved up,” Monika said with a sly smile.

  Vincent tried to hide his annoyance, thinking back to some of the bad memories during his stay there. The NPC had bui
lt the winery forty years ago, and the first time she’d produced anything worthwhile, Vincent had made the mistake of drinking with her. After he’d had a few too many glasses, he’d given into temptation, which had only made the NPC even more attached to him than before. Ever since, she had been trying to get him drunk again, but he’d managed to avoid all but a few sips.

  “Oh, you know, I’ve got a bit of a headache right now,” he said. “I might just take a quick trip to the ol’ mines. You know how that relaxes me. I’ll be right back, and then maybe we’ll drink.”

  Monika’s face twisted into a frown. “You always say it’ll be a quick trip, and then you don’t come back until the Hero’s Boon has worn off.”

  Vincent forced a friendly laugh, since he knew she often reacted to his mood. “Oh, you know how forgetful I am! Time flies by when I’m down there. Don’t worry, though. I’ve been looking forward to drinking again, so I really will be back quickly this time.”

  The NPC’s face shifted to a neutral expression. “You said that last time. And the time before that. And the time before that. Then before that, you said you had a stomachache. Before that, you said you got lost in your own mines.”

  Vincent kept smiling at her. “I promise I won’t be gone long. You know mining always puts me in a good mood. Makes me thirsty too. You better have that wine ready when I get back!”

  Monika showed a slight grin. “Alright, then, but don’t take long.”

  Vincent nodded, then hurried for the well. He descended with Zero Field and floated through the entrance. Dozens of forking passages stood before him, most with twice as many branching paths that went up, down, and every which way. He’d tried to design his tunnel system to be as complicated as possible in case Monika went down there to look around.

  His tunnel system went on for miles in each direction, sometimes digging upward until it reached the petals covering the surface of the world. The only part of the world that was off limits was the core. He’d learned that if he so much as uncovered a flicker of world magic, it would set Monika into a panic and she’d claim the Garden was dying. The first time it had happened by mistake, and when he came back to the surface, she collapsed into his arms and cried until he went back down and used Builder Points to fix it.

  Vincent flew down several tunnels, then turned sideways to squeeze through one of the narrower ones that zigzagged up and down and made it impossible for someone to move through unless they could float. He followed several forks in that tunnel, including one that required him to fly straight up into a cramped passage hidden in the ceiling. Vincent doubted Monika would ever reach that spot in the tunnel, but even if she did she wouldn’t notice the fork unless she stood in that exact spot and illuminated the ceiling with a light source.

  That hidden gap followed a loop that went straight down past most of his other tunnels and eventually wound up in a series of caverns connected to several underground lakes. Glowing mushrooms called crypt-shrooms covered the cavern, offering illumination. Most of them appeared green, but he saw several fully-grown ones that were glowing red, which let him know they had a stronger alchemic value. He used Zero Field to pick those, then sacrificed them to his Builder’s Tome.

  Builder Points: 390,012

  Getting a little closer every day, Vincent noted. Once the bosses respawn, I’ll have more than enough.

  It’d taken him decades to upgrade the tome to Grade 3, and the first thing that had caught his attention was something called the Long-Shot Jump Gate that cost 500,000 BP. He was almost certain it would be his ticket off that world, especially after he’d studied the World-Tree during brief glimpses when the clouds parted. Vincent was certain one of Cryasal’s gates faced his current world, so all he needed was a powerful-enough gate to take him that far.

  Vincent waved his hand, activating dozens of rune lights so he could see better. The lights revealed several doors and more tunnels in the area he had titled his Man Cave. He flew into a nearby cavern that had fewer crypt-shrooms, then equipped his Florist Tome. Vincent had gotten that item after defeating Eferia a second time, and it’d proven useful in his time there.

  He spent the couple hundred Florist Points that he had to spread mushroom spores across the room. Early on during his captivity on that world, he’d experimented with sacrificing various florae to the Builder’s Tome, but most of them had little alchemic value.

  Even the Candy Apples, which cost 10,000 Florist Points to make, only gave him a hundred BP if sacrificed. He only found two or three of them a year in the Garden anyways, and he’d decided it was far more helpful to use those for leveling.

  By Vincent’s estimation, the Candy Apples had probably contributed to at least a third of his level gains in the last fifty years. He had attempted to grow them, but they didn’t have any seeds, and he still hadn’t figured out why they only grew on certain trees.

  Vincent glanced between three basteel doors. One led to his training chamber, which he’d designed much like the Kill Chamber on Lavrin. The second went to his forge, which he’d built as close to Juniper’s design as possible, enhancements included. The last led to another large cavern, where he’d been working on a new spell.

  Alright, so how am I using the next 72 hours? I could hit the training room and level grind. Then again, I’ve about reached my limits on that. Upgrading my Debuff Chains to Density Chains made a big difference a few decades ago, but now the thralls don’t provide enough of a boost. What I really need is an A-Plus or S-Class monster to train against endlessly, but I can’t really do that on this world.

  He walked toward the other two doors on the other side of the cavern. Honestly, I should work on that shield upgrade or try to complete Greater Mana Bomb. It feels like they’ve both been stuck at ninety-nine percent for a long time. Although, that spell is only a steppingstone for my emergency plan. If I get off this world, then the upgrade will be more useful.

  Vincent opened the door to his forge, then walked past rows of half-finished weapons made of hardened-basteel. A massive rune furnace covered the entire back of the chamber, although he hadn’t touched it in years. He’d been experimenting with making folded-basteel, since he knew the upward limit would be higher than hardened-basteel, but it took him too long to make anything with a higher rating. As the decades had passed, he’d realized his time was better spent working on abilities or leveling, so he’d put forging to the side.

  Vincent stepped into the middle of the room, then waved his hand to activate the micro mana beams. The upgrade he had started in his first fight against Warro had eventually become Singularity 50, which increased his body’s Density Rating even further, although it lowered his Agility another five percent on top of the initial thirty.

  After another fifteen years, he had upgraded it to Singularity 100. That put his body’s Density Rating at 600, and his bones at 700, but it also lowered his Agility by forty percent of its total. Vincent could toggle between Singularity 0, 50, and 100, but since Eferia’s Boots made him lighter anyway, he usually kept it to the maximum. Progress toward the next upgrade had been slow since he didn’t have resources to improve his forge any further, but he’d managed to get it to ninety-nine percent after a few decades.

  He stood in the beams for about thirty minutes while keeping his muscles stiff, since remaining rigid seemed to hasten the upgrade’s development. Then he’d let the runes cool off and recharge for thirty minutes while he drank ethers and elixirs brewed in his apothecary lab. It was difficult to make high-quality potions without stealing notable plants from the Garden, but the crypt-shrooms were good substitutes for the ingredients in basic mixtures.

  With his mana full, but the forge still recharging, Vincent used some extra time to practice controlling Voidfires in the air. Over the last fifty years, he’d added the Tempest upgrade, which let him control the spell’s movement in the air for a medium-cost increase. After finishing that upgrade, he had added Power Launch, which let him pay a large amount of mana to fire them at double the
ir normal speed.

  Using both those upgrades at once had proven difficult, even with his high Perception. When controlling two or more Voidfires at the same time, it was easy for him to slip up and send one hurtling in the wrong direction at supersonic speed. He’d also experimented with holding Voidfires in place while drinking mana to see how many he could control, but once he reached more than eight, he often dropped them by mistake. Vincent had considered focusing on an enhancement to increase his control, but he already had a backlog of upgrades and spells he needed to finish, which included adding those same improvements to Greater Voidfire.

  Still, all of those upgrades paled in comparison to the spell he wanted to develop for his emergency plan—an attack that might let him slay Rosaria. However, it was taking him years just to finish the non-Void component.

  Once Vincent’s forge had recharged, he stepped back to the center and turned the microbeams back on. After thirty minutes, he took another break to practice with Voidfires, then repeated the process. He continued this cycle over and over again. Then, during one of his breaks, game text appeared that told him the Hero’s Boon had worn off.

  Has it already been three days? Wow, time flies when I’m down in the Man Cave. I guess I ought to go back and help Monika in the Garden.

  Vincent flew back through the winding tunnels and up the well. When he reached the surface, he found Monika waiting for him with a scowl on her face.

  “Where’ve you been?” she asked, angrily. “You told me you’d be back quickly! We were supposed to drink wine!”

  Huh, this is new. She never waits here for me. I’ll tell her I was lost, it’s like my get out of jail free card.

  “One of my tunnels collapsed, and I couldn’t remember the other routes back,” Vincent said, trying to sound innocent. “I felt so bad about it. You don’t know how much I was looking forward to drinking with you again, but I feel even worse that you didn’t have any help in the Garden for three days. I’m sure there’s plenty of work that needs to be done, right?”