Unbound

Chapter Three Hundred And Thirty Eight - 338

Chapter Three Hundred And Thirty Eight - 338

"Spirit Fruit?" Alister panted from behind, only just clearing the steps down from the Crafting Halls. He had to shout at Felix's back, who was already at the base of the Spirit Tree, staring upward. "I thought it was still attuning? Isn't that what he said?"

"It'swhat I heard," Atar said from beside him.

High above them, hundreds of strides, the Atlantes Anima rose upon a gracefully turning trunk. Higher still, its branches swept outward in a woven net of wooden limbs and massive emerald leaves so thick it blocked much of the morning sky. The sun was only a touch above the horizon and it lit up a significant portion of the Tree with a buttery light, but those branches seemed to conjure their own shadows. Alister could almost feel something from it, a presence that he half-thought was a trick of his Mind. He felt...observed.

"Spirit Trees are more complicated by far than any mortal plant," the sword at Felix's waist buzzed. "Felix."

"Yeah, I know," he muttered, low enough that Alister had to strain to hear it. "I'm going ahead. Wait here."

"Wait? Can't you?" Alister started, but Felix had already gone. An explosive wave of air and fine dust rolled into them, knocking the two mages back into the armored chest of Harn. Alister looked up, catching only the faintest blur of Felix's form as he ascended on a bolt of azure lightning. "take us with you...Damn."

Harn pointed up, beyond the blaze of Felix, to the canopy above. "Look."

Atar gasped. "Like stars in the night."

He wasn't wrong as the dark underside of the Spirit Tree's branches bloomed with light. Not just light, but Mana so powerful it was easily visible to all of themno observation Skill required. That they could practically feel their potency from so far below was astounding, and when Alister switched to his Domineering Eye he could see a maelstrom of ambient Mana swirling all around the Spirit Tree. Each point of light was a center of its own gathering storm, filled with flashing opalescent colors.

"Could you imagine what it's like to eat one?" Harn ask, hunger in his tone. Alister couldn't stop thinking about exactly that.

"Spirit Fruit are said to be a powerful restorative," Atar said, his voice lightly distracted. "I heard of one that was so potent it forced a slew of Skills to instantly Tier up."

"That's not likely. But if Felix can't make powerful Essence Draughts out of them, I'll eat Harn's anvil." Alister walked closer to the Tree, motioning Atar to join him. "Help me inspect its trunk. All that Mana swirling about, it has to be doing something."

Pit? Are you on the way?

Yes!

Felix reached out and snagged the textured bark of the Spirit Tree. It had a relatively smooth bole, but its sheer size meant the horizontal striations were thick enough to act as hand-holds. His strong fingers found easy purchase. Find Evie and Vess and bring them along, please.

Frustration roiled along their bond, and Felix's senses were swept into Pit's own for a few seconds. The tenku was flying fast above the norther forest, tracing his way back down the river, and he warbled in clear reluctance. Fine. The world tilted as his Companion banked hard to the left, cutting deeper into the forest, toward the eastern mountains. But I get the first Fruit.

Slipping back into his own senses, Felix laughed. Absolutely.

Pit trilled, pleased.

As their connection muted slightly, he looked up, taking in the distance still to travel to the base of the lowest branches. His eyes could easily take in the details from this distance, but the blazing points of Mana defied casual observation, even for him. He needed to be closer, and soon.

Relentless Resolution!

The evolved form of Unfettered Volition, his movement Skill, was not much different at first blush. He had made use of it a couple times since its change, and had felt much the same fluidity of movement and near-instant translation of thought to physical action. Now, however, Felix felt something different. A brilliant cord of energy sang to him, a connection as large as the one between him and the Archon, and thrumming with the same swelling harmonies. It pulled at him, like how he manipulated connections with Adamant Discord but subtler.

Felix lifted his hand, placing on the smoother surface of the trunk, and felt his confidence soar. He leveraged himself up, getting both of his feet under him as the link between them surged. He stood, completely horizontally now, and did not even feel the tug of gravity. Instead he felt only a pull beneath his feet, inward toward the Spirit Tree.

He ran.

The Tree was his down, his center, and just like Adamant Discord he soared along that connection like the wind. Felix's Agility and Strength flared, each step catapulting him upward at speeds no car could match. No lightning coursed along his limbs, just his own impossible ascension up the vertical trunk.

Relentless Resolution is level 70!

This is so cool, he thought with a giddy rush.

The wind tore through his hair and Garment, rippling the coat he'd formed about his shoulders like a cape. For all his speed, he was careful not to slam his feet down too hard, a task he had found difficult after his recent stat increases, but which weeks of practice had made easier to manage. Thankfully, the Spirit Tree was also extremely hardy, and his metal shod feet barely scraped the bark as he reached the lowest tangle of branches and stepped into the crook between trunk and limb. The branch itself was ten feet wide, as were all the rest that spread outward in a cage that trapped the sky. They were interwoven like a living puzzle, a knotwork design filled with huge, emerald leaves the size of cars. It was still early, the sun only an hour into the sky, but from up there it blazed. Warm, summery air fluttered through the leaves, a little chillier this high than lower to the earth. Animals, birds mostly, flitted among the branches and their calls were another layer of music upon his senses.

Exploration is level 53!

...

Exploration is level 61!

Then there were the fruit. They hung from the branches, lush and ripe and speckled with dew. Mana vapor curled about them like steam, while more gathered in from the environment around them. Called ambient Mana, it was simply the diffuse remnants of Mana exuded by all things, and when there was a particularly powerful object or creature those remnants would react. He had seen it before with some formidable Essence Draughts in the past, and again with beings like the Maw, the Ravager King, and others. Now that storm of energy gathered around each individual fruit, at turns pulled in and seeped back out.

Voracious Eye!

Name: Atlantes Anima

Type: Spirit Tree

Lore: Spirit Trees are a rare and powerful organism imbued with elemental Mana dependent on their growth cycle. Due to your strong connection and the circumstances of its origin, the Spirit Tree has taken on a measure of Unbound nature. The Atlantes Anima is attuned to all and none.

What? Attuned to all and none? What does that mean?

"Felix? Felix are you up there now? What do you see?" Karys asked.

"I uh, I'm not sure," Felix said before repeating the Spirit Tree's lore entry. "What does that mean?"

"Fascinating! You're aware of course that Spirit Trees attune to the Mana around them," Karys began.

"Yeah, we talked about it."

"I had expected this to be the same. It is not an abnormal Spirit Tree, despite it's immense size. But it appears it has taken more from you than we had assumed...and more from the Archon."

"The Archon?" Felix asked. "Is that what it means by 'origin?' He fertilized it's original growth so it took something from him?"

"And you. You sacrificed a sizable portion of significance to its branches. Now it passes that generosity back onto you." Felix could tell Karys was shaking his golden head. "The rate at which you produce the miraculous is somewhat dizzying, Felix."

They had spoken of Spirit Fruit before, right after Felix had unlocked the Alchemical Lab Quest to harvest them. Karys had explained a bit about them, mostly that they were excellent resources for developing one's core space. Advancement in this world was hinged on two separate but interconnected features: gaining personal levels and Skill levels, and advancing the stage of your core and core space. Felix had done well in all of the above, so far, but he'd still yet to reach Adept Tier. His Adept Mind and Body were still incomplete, in part for lacking more Essence Motes but also due to the fact that leveling his Skills was proving challenging. Ironically, it was that things weren't challenging enough that he'd made so little progress, his Skills, stats, and Aspects too powerful by far than any creatures around him. Felix had resolved himself to the fact that Tiering up into Adept might take him longer than his usual breakneck pace, so the Spirit Fruit were not for him.

They were for everyone else.

"Will these help my friends Temper themselves?" Felix asked.

"That and more. From what I've gleaned, most have not yet reached the Compression Stage of advancement, save for Harn. He is also the closest to Adept Tier, excepting yourself, and clearly has been for a long while," Kary said.

"Compression Stage? I don't know that one," Felix said. "There's Mote, Visualization, Actualization, Ring, Weaving...where does Compression fall in?"

"An...older name for what you call the Ring Stage. The compression of Mana is required to reach it, a lot of it. It is the reason so many Humans do not reach the higher Stages of advancement." Karys sighed. "Would that I still recalled all the methods to push your teammates higher...but they elude me still."

Felix could feel Karys' uncertainty through the sword. He was still having trouble with his memory, though being around the Seat and Seal seemed to help. It was one of the reasons the metal man rarely left the lower levels of the Temple.

Karys cleared his throat. "Spirit Fruit can provide a number of benefits, wholly depending on the Tree from which they are harvested and the Skill of the harvester. Considering the...Unbound nature of your Tree, they may prove to be more of a boon than we anticipated."

"Then let's stop wasting time," Felix said. He padded down a wide branch, completely at ease despite being higher than most skyscrapers back on Earth. His Dexterity combined with his Relentless Resolution made it feel like he was walking on sturdy grass and loam, and he quickly reached the first swirling point of light and Mana. He blinked away his Manasight, focusing on the swirled golden texture of the Fruit; it looked a lot like a peach, were it to have grown to the size of a watermelon. Carefully, Felix reached out and grasped it in both hands, his Skill-borne instincts telling him where to place his fingers and how to squeeze it at the top of the Fruit. It came free instantly...but immediately blackened and withered in his hands.

"What?" He tossed it down, the rind splatting against the branch beneath him. It released a disgusting scent, like rotting meat and cantaloupe somehow. "What did I do wrong?"

"II am unsure," Karys said.

Felix tried again, another Fruit only feet away from the first. This time, he reactivated his Manasight and watched those swirls of power enter and exit the Fruit as he approached. Again, he gripped the flesh of it and at the top of its vine, not squeezing but instead sending a blue-red streamer of his own Mana through his right palm Gate. It was unshaped, possessed only of his Intent to harvest the Spirit Fruit. It sank into the join between Tree and Fruit, before it weeped back out through the Fruit's dewy skin. The Mana tingled, now colored distinctly golden, and plunged into his left palm.

He sucked in a shocked breath, the power coursing through him like ice in his veins. When it reached his core space, it burst, swirling above his Essence and cores like an aurora. Felix could feel another Intent within it, layered into his own desire to harvest the Fruit. It felt like...words, almost. A whispered request.

"Uh, may I have this Fruit?" he asked.

Immediately, the Spirit Fruit dropped into his hands, whole and unharmed.

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 82!

"Awesome," he whispered.

Aria of the Green Wilds is level 85!

Green Shaping is level 22!

By the time Pit arrived, bearing two wind-tousled women on his back, Felix had amassed several huge piles of Spirit Fruit beside himself. He'd had to lash them together with a series of makeshift boxes and rope, the materials for which were Shaped from the greenery all around them. To be safe, Felix had asked permission for that as well; and to his surprise, he'd received rustling wind in leaves and creaking wood in answer. Even more surprising was that Felix almost understood it.

A talking tree, he mused as Pit touched down. Not the weirdest thing I've seen, but one of the coolest at least.

"Felix? Are these...?" Vess didn't complete the question, as her own observation Skill had her covering her eyes from the pile of Spirit Fruit. "They are so bright!"

Evie crouched next to the pile and poked the side of one. "Picked a lot of these, huh?"

"Benefit of my Titles and Skill, apparently," Felix explained. "Each time I grabbed one I found another close by...except I'm pretty sure it wasn't there before." They might have been, but Felix's Perception was high enough that missing details like that was extremely unlikely. The only explanation he or Karys could offer were the benefits from his being the Alchemist Master of his Crafting Hall. All those bonuses were working together to increase the bounty of what he was harvesting, and it wasn't the first time. Felix had heard murmurs from the scouts a few times, but he figured they were being hyperbolic. The forests were chock full of herbs and resourcescouldn't they have been mistaken? But clearly they hadn't been, and Felix felt a bit silly to have not considered the stories factual.

Still, seeing a Fruit just...appear was wild. And beneficial. It had allowed him to collected a surprising amount in a short time, progressing along one of his Quests.

Spirit Tree's Bounty

Harvest Spirit Fruits when the Atlantes Anima is ready.

62/??? Spirit Fruits

Reward: Spirit Fruits, Varied

Evie lifted one of the Fruits and hefted it in her hands. She grunted, surprised. "Oof. Heavier than I expected. But they don't seem so impressive. We supposed to eat these?"

"No! Not like this, at least," Karys said. Felix had placed the sword and scabbard down near the pile itself. Green-gold life Mana swirled up from it, almost caressing the Fruit. "They must be rendered into a...more appropriate form. A Draught, most likely."

"Like an Essence Draught?" Vess asked.

"Precisely."

"We can Temper with these?" Evie asked with an uptick of interest. Still, she eyed the pile with some annoyance. "Why do we have to wait? I have a few Skills that are right on the cusp of Adept Tier myself."

"As do I," Vess said. "I have heard stories that Spirit Fruit could be consumed raw and immediately, often greatly benefitting one's power and Skills all at once. Why are these different?"

"Felix made em, of course they're different," Evie quipped. "We're not gonna sprout scales and glowy eyes if we eat them, are we?"

"Funny," Felix said dryly. Evie grinned at him. "No, Karys and I have been over them a few times now. They take after the attunement of the Tree itself which plicated. Technically, I think that means anyone can use the Fruit to Temper themselves, but the process of it would be bad."

"Bad how?" Evie asked.

"It would likely tear apart your channels from the inside out," Karys stated.

Ever so carefully, Evie placed the Spirit Fruit back onto its pile.

"Hm, if you are able to make Essence Draughts from a stable source, able to be used by anyone..." Vess' cheeks dimpled and her eyes flashed. "You would stand to make quite a lot selling these to other nations."

"Or he'll have folks comin' to tear it away from him," Evie pointed out.

"I cannot gainsay that. But the greatest advantage of the Protector's Guild is that it holds the secret of their universal Draughts. Iron, Bronze, Silver, and Gold Essence Draughts are not flashy or as powerful as more specific blends such as the ones you and I took to advance into Apprentice Tier, Felix. Yet they can be used by anyone, and that is a treasure worth fighting a war over." Vess ran her hand carefully over the still dewy surface of a Fruit. "Only the vast size of the Guild and the Draughts' relatively weak mixture has kept them safe from the greater powers on the Continent. If it had not one or the other, then the wolves would have come for them long since."

"Great," Felix sighed. "Another thing to worry about."

Evie slapped him on the back. "Look at it this way. Maybe you'll botch it and won't be able to make any Draughts at all."

"Ah, there it is, the silver lining," Felix said. For all her rough edges, Evie could always get him to smile. All of his friends could, in their own ways, and his time with them in the Foglands only strengthened his resolve to keep them safe. "I'll be taking this batch down soon. Gonna get to work on a recipe as soon as I can"

"Pit!" Vess shouted.

Too late, they all saw Pit eat a Fruit with a single, giant bite.

Light and sound exploded from the tenku, his throat suddenly blazing with energy to Felix's Manasight. Multi-hued Mana coursed through him, surging down into the chimera's belly before bursting into every corner of his Body, Mind, and Spirit. It swelled, music and furious brilliance blinding them all and

Then it stopped. Pit stood there, unharmed and nonplussed by all their worried gazes.

He burped. What?

"Felix?"

Feeling shaky, Felix diverted his attention away from his greedy Companion. "What is it, Karys?"

"Have you looked at your Stronghold notifications recently?"

"No, why?" Felix asked, already toggling them open.

"Because something you did has pushed us over the edge," Karys explained.

Congratulations!

Your Stronghold Has Reached Rank II!

"The array has changed. We have a connection with your vassal state now," Karys said. "With Haarwatch. The line is already alight."

"What? What does that mean?" Felix asked. He looked to Vess, but she only shrugged.

"Someone is trying to reach you. I can only sense impressions, but a name is transmitting." Karys paused. "Do you know a Zara? She seems quite rude."