World-Tree's End

by E A Hooper

  “So it’s like navigating Lavrin’s shifting maze?”

  “Yes, exactly! Just super difficult and time-consuming beyond imagination. However, they figured out that if you raise your Respect Rating in Crownkeep high enough to see the king, you can take on Royal Quests to earn Checkpoint and Wayback Crystals. So the Crickets took a decade or so gathering those crystals, then used them to establish outposts and such until they could reliably reach Panthos.”

  “Panthos? That’s the world where Edgelight is located, right?”

  “Yeah, so they spent decades setting up outposts to get there faster, but there’s a bunch of angels preventing people from entering the city. The Crickets put together their army, attacked the angels… and were wiped out. Super easily, in fact, but they tried and tried again. Then one day, something odd happened. This crazy-powerful angel named Rosaria appeared. She said if they traded the daiglass shard to her, then the angels would allow them into Edgelight.”

  Well, that explains how she got the shard, Vincent realized.

  “Obviously, they were skeptical of the deal,” the guy continued, “but they decided to try it. There was infighting over that decision, especially since everyone expected you to respawn at the crystal one day. However, Rosaria claimed that all spawns would be wiped from the crystal and set to their previous locations if they agreed. Since you spawned here I guess that means it worked.”

  “Uh, yeah,” Vincent lied, not wanting to explain his journey up to that point. “Anyways, what happened to them after that?”

  “I’ve only heard rumors,” the guy said. “Edgelight is built around the Jump Gate that takes you to the highest worlds. Apparently, there are Elder Gods you have to defeat before you can travel to the final world. Only, these things are S-Plus, so I think your guild realized they needed to get stronger to take them down. Although, it sounds like the infighting grew worse over time. I heard Jim regretted leaving you behind, and he couldn’t backtrack because of the angels. The guild kind of fractured into several groups, each with their own objectives, but everyone thinks it’ll come back together when you return. Speaking of which, where the hell have you been? There’ve been so many rumors since Noah took you down.”

  “I’ve been… on a long vacation,” Vincent replied. “Is Noah with my guild now?”

  “No, he and his wife have been killing themselves to get out of the game,” the man replied. “I even took a selfie with him during one of his respawns. Want to see?”

  “Sorry, but I need to reach my friends,” Vincent said, floating off the ground with Zero Field. “Those Royal Quests you mentioned should be a good start for gathering the resources I need. Thanks for the info.”

  Vincent flew away before the man could say anything else. He hurried and set his spawn at the Daiglass Tower in front of the castle. After circling around the caravan of NPC mercenaries, he tried to approach the castle gate, only for guards to step into his path.

  A Respect Rating of 500 is required to enter the castle grounds.

  Crownkeep Respect Rating: 100

  Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I’m sure it’ll hurt my rating if I try to fly past them, and then the king won’t give me Royal Quests. Hang on, didn’t I pick up some quests the first time I arrived here?

  Vincent checked his quest list. The page was divided into various sections based on type and importance. He had multiple Minor NPC Quests that involved killing monsters in certain places or retrieving items from various locations, but his attention fell on the two listed as Major NPC Quests.

  Reddy the Mischievous Cat Part 1 (NPC Quest) – Ms. Tana Singleton needs a hero to retrieve her cat Reddy, last seen on the back of a mountain troll near the Broken Rivers. She’s not offering a reward, but you’ll raise your Respect Rating in Crownkeep if you complete this quest. Slaying the troll will earn you an additional increase to Respect Rating.

  The Necromancer’s Folly (NPC Quest) – Strange Albert has told you of a necromancer in the north who has been draining the lifeforce from travelers. King Rosebriar, the Twelfth of his Name, offers rewards to those who defeat practitioners of dark arts. You’ll receive 3,000 gild if you complete this quest, and your Respect Rating in Crownkeep will rise.

  As he waited for his mana to refill, Vincent asked a few NPCs in the area where the Broken Rivers were located. A woman told him they were in the southwest, so the Ranger waited until Silpher’s Coat was as full as it could get in its damaged state before flying for the rivers. When he passed over the city gates, he checked his Crownkeep Respect Rating just to make sure it wouldn’t drop from bypassing the guards.

  Crownkeep Respect Rating: 99

  Ah, crap. Guess I have to take the gate, even though I already have the Mark of Heroes.

  The landscape below shifted from cityscape to fields to a forest, and then he spotted a mountainous region ahead. After floating over the peak of the tallest mountain for a few seconds, he noticed a river that would split, reform, and split again repeatedly as it worked its way across that hemisphere.

  I remember someone from the guild telling me they tried to fight a mountain troll once. They said it was pretty big—large enough to flatten their entire body in one blow.

  His eyes studied the crags dotting the landscape, but then a speck of reddish brown caught his attention. Vincent flew down to the mountainous rock east of the Broken Rivers, where he discovered the speck to be a small cat curled up on the towering rock.

  “You must be Reddy,” Vincent said, hovering toward the cat.

  Reddy looked up at him with sleepy eyes, but the cat remained curled up in place. When Vincent tried to grab Reddy, the animal dug its claw into the stone and snarled angrily. Somehow, the cat seemed to be magically glued to the rock’s surface, and Vincent couldn’t remove him even with his high Strength.

  “Oh, come on!” Vincent told the cat. “It’s time to go home. You’ve been missing for more than a hundred years!”

  Reddy hissed in reply, and then the crag shook.

  What was that?

  Vincent released the cat and flew back a few meters and Scanned the mountain as it stretched to life.

  Mountain Troll – Monster Class: A | Age: 1,523 | Sex: None | Number of Offspring: 3 | Personality: Violent

  The rock surface fractured, shaping into arms, legs, and a face. As it towered over the landscape, the monster roared and locked its eyes on Vincent—who promptly hit the troll in the face with Voidfire.

  The creature’s house-sized head crumbled away, but it still took a swing at the flying Ranger with its massive fist. Vincent raised his arms, and the gargantuan limb came to a violent stop against his Density Shield.

  I almost forgot the trolls have rock hearts you have to destroy. It’s not always where a heart should be located, though. Better not waste time taking random shots.

  Vincent gathered enough mana to cast Greater Voidfire, and he struck the mountain troll in the chest. The front half of its body caved inward, and then the rest of it started to crumble. Reddy the Cat snarled and fell through the air, but Vincent caught him with Zero Field.

  “Time to go home, Reddy.”

  The cat continued to hiss all the way back to Crownkeep. Vincent passed through the gate that time, then hovered around, trying to figure out which NPC owned Reddy.

  “Do you recognize this cat?” he asked a random lady on the street.

  The woman shook her head. “No, sorry.”

  “Is this your cat?” he asked a man, only to get the same reply.

  “Seriously, whose cat is this?” he yelled at the crowd. A few people stopped and stared before ignoring him and continuing on their daily routines.

  After moving across several more streets with the cat dangling in the air for everyone to see, he finally spotted a woman running toward him. “Reddy!” she shouted. “Oh, Reddy, there you are!”

  Vincent lowered the cat into the woman’s arms, and the animal suddenly became docile. Reddy mewed and purred with contentment as his owner hugged hi
m and cried.

  “Reddy, I can’t believe you’re back! Oh, thank you, hero!”

  NPC Quest Completed: Reddy the Mischievous Cat Part 1

  Alternate Challenge Completed: Slay the Mountain Troll

  Crownkeep Respect Rating: 189

  Before the woman could thank him again, Vincent took off into the air and flew to the city gates. He exited then rocketed north. The landscape shifted to farmland, then woodland, but he continued to follow the roads.

  Now for that necromancer. Where’s a convenient place for him to kidnap travelers?

  Vincent circled around the deepest parts of the forest, noticing old roads that descended into a dark network of valleys and stone tunnels. He even spotted a caravan traveling along the road. As they journeyed into the densest part of the woods, he lost track of them beneath the canopy.

  Vincent descended, breaking through branches, and then landed in the road just in front of the caravan.

  “Elder Gods save us!” the man at the lead shouted. “It’s the necromancer!”

  The women and children behind him screamed with absolute terror, but the men brandished swords and axes.

  “Wait!” Vincent said, raising his hands. “I’m not the necromancer. I’m a hero—a powerful wizard—that’s on a quest to kill him.”

  The caravan’s leader blinked in confusion. “Oh, you’re here on behalf of the king?”

  Vincent nodded in reply. “And your caravan looks like easy pickings for the necromancer. I think I’ll tag along with you.”

  “My good sir, I appreciate your offer, but I doubt you’ll find him following us. We make this trip all the time to the farming settlement in the north.”

  Vincent levitated to one of the wagons, then covered himself with his True Huntsman’s Cloak. “I’ll stick around just in case.”

  “No free rides,” a young man said, pointing his short sword at the cloaked Ranger.

  “Go ahead and stab me, boy,” Vincent replied. “That hardened-verasteel won’t do you any good.”

  The boy stared him down, then hesitantly put away the blade. All the NPCs glanced at one another, unsure of what to do, but then the caravan leader continued ahead. Within minutes, the people seemed to forget that Vincent was even there, and they chatted like nothing unusual had happened.

  Less than half an hour later, the caravan came to a sudden stop, and the man in front screamed in surprise. When Vincent stood, he saw a glowing skeleton standing in the road. He went ahead and Scanned it, even as a dozen more rose from the ground around the caravan.

  Enhanced Skeleton - Monster Class: B+ | Age: ??? | Sex: ??? | Number of Offspring: ??? | Personality: ???

  All the travelers panicked, and even the armed men froze in fear before the skeletons. The monsters leapt forward, snatching up the NPCs one by one.

  One skeleton grabbed Vincent, and the Ranger snapped the monster’s arm in half. The creature looked down in confusion, and then Vincent cast Zero Field over the entire group of monsters. He pulled their bones apart piece by piece like he’d done to the house at the Garden, then created a whirlwind of monster parts in the air above the wagons.

  Vincent levitated one skull toward himself, and the monster let out a high-pitched scream, which was strange since it didn’t have any visible vocal cords.

  “Shut up,” Vincent said, forcing its jaws to clamp shut. “Listen here, skeleton. I want you to lead me back to your boss’s lair. Got it? I’ll spin you around, and you just make a noise when you’re facing the right way.”

  Vincent slowly rotated the skull in the air until it shouted. “Excellent, I guess I don’t need the rest of your buddies.” He clenched his hand into a fist, slamming the other skeletons together, and then incinerated them with Voidfire.

  The lone skull cried out in sadness as it watched the black flames consume its brethren.

  “Well, that’s what you get for attacking caravans,” Vincent replied, flying in the direction the skull had shouted at seconds ago. The NPCs yelled for him to wait, but he ignored them as he went deeper into the woods.

  After a few seconds, Vincent stopped to spin the skull again. “Which way?”

  It took a few go-arounds before it finally responded, and he headed toward a cliff side covered in overgrown plant life.

  “Left or right?” Vincent asked it.

  “Lllleeefft,” it moaned in reply.

  “Oh, you can actually say words. That’s useful.”

  Vincent followed the stone face until he saw a dark passage hidden behind vines. “Is this it?” he asked the skull.

  “Maaaaasterrrr! Heeeeeeelp!”

  Vincent sighed, destroyed the skull with Void Gun, then pushed through the vines. As he entered the cave, he felt a pressure on his body, making it difficult to sense his mana. He didn’t see any anti-magic runes, but he guessed something similar must’ve been blocking his power. Without magic to rely on, he decided to equip Endless Edge, the mithril blade he’d gotten from Eferia that increased his speed by thirty levels.

  When I see that necromancer, I’ll take him down before he casts any spells.

  Since he couldn’t use magic, Vincent didn’t have Darkeye to help him navigate the passage, but it wasn’t long before he saw the flicker of green lights. He crept along toward a large cavern littered with piles of bones with cages at the sides. Green flames surrounded what looked like a sacrificial slab with a fresh corpse laying on it. A cloaked man stood over the body and stabbed it repeatedly in the heart as he cackled.

  Vincent raised his blade, then took off at superhuman speed—only to be stopped by a wall of green magic.

  “Hoo hoo hoo!” the necromancer laughed. He stared at his own fingers, watching as energy surged across them. “You have so much power! Although, you don’t have the mind to wield it properly, do you? You walked right into my lair, making it so easy to siphon away your magic before you even reached me. Such easy prey, aren’t you? And worst of all, it was a trap from the very beginning!”

  The necromancer pulled back his hood, revealing an old face. His eyes, including a glass one, stared intently at Vincent as they filled with green magic.

  “I bet you didn’t expect to see this face again so soon, did you?” the necromancer mocked.

  “I’m sorry, do I know you?” Vincent asked.

  The necromancer slumped forward. “You’re kidding, right? You don’t remember me?”

  Vincent shook his head. “I’ve been away from Cryasal for a long time.”

  “I gave you the quest! You see, it was all a clever ploy so I could steal your power!”

  The necromancer raised his arms with a menacing gesture, and pillars of green flames rose across the room in a show of might.

  Vincent batted the flames away as they neared him. “Okay, so what?”

  “So—so what?” the hunched-over man yelled, growing angry. “I stole your power, and now I’m going to kill you! Hoo hoo hoo!”

  The necromancer clutched his fists, and a hundred glowing skeletons rose from the ground, leaving little space in the cavern. All the monsters rushed toward Vincent to claw at him, but their hands shattered on impact.

  “Seriously, that’s it?” Vincent asked, not even raising his sword.

  The necromancer snarled, waved his hand, and unleashed a wave of green magic that incinerated the Ranger’s outfit, including the remains of Silpher’s Coat, but only left light burns on Vincent’s body. After equipping new clothes, Vincent approached the wall of green magic between him and the enemy.

  The necromancer laughed as the other man neared. “You’ll never break my unbreakable—”

  Vincent used Endless Edge to slash through the wall of magic, splitting the forcefield with little effort.

  The necromancer looked almost dazed. “What? Seriously?”

  Vincent took a step forward and decapitated the old man with one stroke. He watched as the skeletons crumbled, but then he heard laughter as green light filled the cavern.

  The necromancer’s hea
d floated into the air, surging with arcane power. “Hoo hoo hoo! Did you think it would be so simple?”

  Vincent slashed the head in half, then watched an explosion of mana fill the entire cavern. That time, the magic managed to burn off a few patches of skin, and he had to drink several elixirs to heal. After realizing he’d burned up his last outfit, he covered himself with the True Huntsman’s Cloak.

  The only thing besides Vincent that survived the blast was the old man’s glass eye, which he noticed on the ground by his feet.

  Necromancer’s Eye (Soulbound) – A token that proves a hero defeated the Necromancer of the North. Take it to the castle to exchange for your reward.

  After grabbing the eye, Vincent checked the branching passages for items. The necromancer had an alchemy lab in a far-off room, and Vincent grabbed all the items and equipment. He fed the alchemic materials into his Builder’s Tome, then put the plants and apothecary mixtures into his Florist’s Tome.

  Builder Points: 826

  Florist Points: 1,203

  Vincent searched around the lair a little more, discovering a chest with potions. He grabbed those, then raided the necromancer’s wardrobe for more clothes.

  Black cloaks, black tunics, and black underwear. Thirteen-year-old me would’ve loved this goth look. It’s a good thing I gave up on that before meeting Monika.

  Vincent flew back to Crownkeep while a storm brewed in the distance. He had been worried he might scare the guards, flying toward them in the necromancer’s clothing while lightning flashed in the background, but the NPCs didn’t seem to notice or care. When he arrived at the castle, he equipped the Necromancer’s Eye and gave it to a guard.

  “By the Elder Gods!” the man shouted. “Someone finally slew that wicked necromancer? The king will be pleased to hear this.”