Chapter 352: 352. Hidden Skill Gems

The lower the dryads’ health got, the more destructive the fight became. Shelves were turned to splinters, walls had changed into a source through which to launch vine and root attacks. Dallion had to summon his starting buckler to ensure a degree of protection, but even then, it always wasn’t enough.

“Duck!” Vihrogon shouted, his words coming instants after he’d caught a root fragment that had flown off towards Dallion’s head.

The rescue was followed by a fierce attack from the birch dryad, who was clinging to existence at two percent of her health. Vihrogon had been at eleven, though that quickly fell to five.

She’s cheating! Dallion said, rolling out of harm’s way.

Yeah, I used to cheat a lot during the war, the armadil shield replied, before launching dozens of vines at his opponent from all remaining walls in the room. Solid wooden shields emerged, surrounding the white dryad on all sides, though even this effort was only partially successful. A fragment had managed to sneak through, reducing her life to a final percent. At this stage, she was no different from an echo.

“Ask her to surrender,” Dallion shouted. He could tell that at this point any attack would finish the white dryad off. That was a foregone conclusion. However, the path of the Green Moon urged him to ask for a bloodless resolution to the conflict.

He can’t, the musical sounds of the harpsisword composed words within Dallion’s realm. He knows what his past nature was, and he knows that any such offer would be useless.

The slacker of a companion shield had once been a merciless combat veteran? Weirder things were possible, but Dallion still couldn’t imagine it. Rather, he couldn’t have five minutes ago. The scene before his eyes had made him seriously reevaluate his understanding of the world and everyone in it. This was a place in which the strong appeared weak and the weak did everything possible to appear strong. It was a familiar principle, one that Nil and so many others had kept on repeating—hide your strengths and abilities. Vihrogon had done all that for thousands of years and more, he had completely changed his personality to the point that even those who knew he was a threat didn’t feel particularly threatened. The countess was the same—smiling and acting like a brainless snob, even if she could potentially crush anyone within her domain like a bug.

Roots shot up from the ground like spears. Instinctively, Dallion did an acrobatic twist, directing his kick towards the ground while going into an arm stand. Everyone else in the room was impaled and thrust up to the ceiling.

A series of red rectangles appeared. The white dryad’s health was completely depleted; Vihrogon’s remained at two percent.

“Well played,” the birch dryad said, smiling for the first time since the battle.

“I knew you’d go for it,” the armadil shield remained. “Now return to me.”

The entire body of the birch dryad transformed into light, which then broke up into thousands of luminescent grains, all flowing towards the victor of the battle.

Carefully, Dallion twisted back to his feet, careful not to get any more wounds. At this stage, Lux’s regeneration abilities were limited, to say the least. Somehow Dallion was going to have to find out how to level up his familiar if he were to make use of him in combat.

While waiting, Dallion noticed something odd about the roots—they weren’t one entity, but rather two twirled one around the other. One set of roots had traces of fury still present within them, while the other only had sadness.

“I knew you’d notice,” Vihrogon said. Moments later, all roots and vines sunk back into the walls and floor. The damage that seemed devastating seconds ago was slowly morphed out of existence, as the room regained its previous state. “Next time you’d have to be faster.”

“You copied her attack,” Dallion said.

“I copied my attack,” the dryad said. “I knew that she would use this as a last resort. A fight that ends in a draw is a battle that ends in a loss.”

“That doesn’t sound very empathic…”

“That’s because it isn’t. I followed the path of the Warriors. Why do you think I was locked up in a metal realm? I still can’t decide whether it was Centor’s blessing or his humor that I ended up in such an item. In the end it worked out quite well.”

Despite the lack of wounds or tears, Dallion could see that the guardian’s health remained low. Before he even said the word, Lux jumped from him onto Vihrogon, enveloping him in healing flames. The dryad didn’t thank him, of course, but didn’t protest either.

“That memory you left, what was it about?” Dallion asked.

“It was more than a memory. It was also the viciousness I had in battle.”

“Now that you have it back, does that mean you’re stronger?”

“Oh, very.” Vihrogon’s wooden rapiers disappeared. “But don’t worry. The days of the dryad empire are over. We’re nothing but an imprisoned race now, like all those before us. The only thing I could do now is protect you as a shield, and give you adequate advice, even if despite all my efforts you remain as romantic as a brick in winter.”

Clearly, his humor hadn’t disappeared, and possibly his mellowed-out nature either. That was a good sign.

“I know where the crown is, and also exactly the prize it contains.”

Dallion waited.

“The twi-crown contains skill gems of two forgotten skills: Herbalism and Zoology. They were as rare among dryads back then, as music is among humans now. There were those who had some understanding of them, but adepts were exceptional, and almost always chosen of Felygn.”

The revelation was a lot more anticlimactic than Dallion would have liked it to be. In effect, the remaining hidden skills had turned out to be knowledge of flora and fauna. True, they could be considered useful, and definitely were linked to the Green Moon, but were they that powerful? There had to be something more.

“And I guess now that you’ve told me, I’ll be able to read more about them in the scrolls in the library ring,” Dalion tried to sound a bit more enthusiastic.

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“I can tell you what they do. Herbalism is—"

“The study of plants,” Dallion interrupted. “Yeah, I know.”

“The study of potions,” the dryad continued, ignoring Dallion completely. “Every noble has a book illustrating the various plants and animals. If that’s all that those skills would be, they’d be useless. The skill allows you to know the properties of plants and lets you combine them to create pretty much any potion you’d want. Poison your enemies, or restore your health, bring bad dreams, or fertility. It’s all up to you. And when I say potions, I’m generalizing. It could be powders, ointments, even clothes that trigger their effects when getting wet.”

Dallion winced. Unless he was mistaken, that was how Hercules was described to have died after putting on a poisoned cloak. Would the knowledge of herbology allow him to do that as well?

“What about Zoology?” Dallion asked. “It’s more than knowing animals, I take it?”

“It’s complete knowledge of animals—habits, behavior, attack patterns, anatomy, which parts to skin, which parts to eat…” Vihrogon waved his hand. “Among other things, it’s a way to find weak spots, detect illnesses and so on. Oh, and don’t forget that all races are considered animals as well.”

That sounded much more like it. This was another phenomenal skill as well. With Dallion’s knowledge from Earth, his potential upon learning those skills would be limitless. It was like learning anatomy, medicine, and biochemistry in one and a whole lot more. With this knowledge, he could cure an entire city of all ailments.

“But that’s not what’s most special about the twi-crown.”

“It’s the combination, right?” Dallion asked. “Acquiring both skills would be like… it’ll be like becoming a god.”

“Close, but no. The greatest advantage is that they are gems, which means anyone can learn them, even those who shouldn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“The gems were made by dryad royalty. Back when the plan was put in motion there was no way of knowing how many dryads in the swords would have the empathy attribute, if any. The means of escape had to be made in such a way so that anyone could use them.”

“I thought the Vermillions were the keys.”

“They were the keys to the cage, but the key to escape were skills that could be used against any enemy or even the Star itself.”

Fighting against the Star wasn’t a phrase that could be said lightly. Given the amount of power the entity had at its disposal, it would take more than armies to even stand a chance. However, now that the dryad had explained the final details, the plan was more or less clear. While the dryad race had complied by banishing their most troublesome individuals—from the Star’s point of view—they had also created a reserve army which was supposed to appear at the nick of time with the tools to fight any enemy, even the Star. Maybe it was no coincidence that there was a Moon Cleric among its guardians.

“And that’s where lies the danger,” Vihrogon continued. “The gems allow anyone to obtain the power, even the Star.”

“I thought the Star already knew all skills.”

“The only skills the Star knows are its own. It can tempt, convince, corrupt, change, but that’s it. If he obtains this pair of skills, he’ll be able to unleash a plague throughout the world and his own army of monsters to come with it. It’ll make the wilderness look like a flower orchard.”

“In that case I need to get them first,” Dallion said, firmly. “Where’s the crown?”

“Where you’d expect—in the royal library at the hilt. You were going there anyway. The only difference is that now I know how to reach the vault chamber that contains the crown.”

“That sounds easier than it’s supposed to be. What’s the catch?”

“The catch is that the royal library is housed in the final temple of the realm. In order to get there, you’ll need the guardian’s permission, or the means to defeat him.”

That didn’t sound encouraging in the least. Given the strength of the guardians so far, it was unthinkable that Dallion would be able to defeat the final one. And that was providing that he even was allowed to reach it. Helping out the guardian of the fourth temple, had pretty much granted Dallion a free ride to the fifth temple, but beyond that nothing was known.

Sensing Dallion's hesitation, Vihrogon reverted to his shield form.

“That’s why I told you that you aren’t ready,” he said. “You’ll need to up both your skills and your gear, if you’re to stand a chance. And not to alarm you, but there isn’t too much time left. With the festival going on, the sword is unguarded. If you can get here, so can the Star.”

“Are you saying that I need to quit?”

“For the time being, yes. There’s no point going further. Instead, you should focus on training and preparation. Ideally, it would have been better if you had passed the next gate, but there’s no time for that. You must do what you can in the time that you have.”

After everything Dallion had learned in the last few days, returning to the festival sounded mundane. He felt that he had to focus on claiming the two skills and stopping whatever the Star had planned for the countess. The only thing winning at the arena would achieve was earning him the whip blade, which was looking less and less a proper reward now that he had learned the ability to see marker layers. With that and his whip blade blueprint, he could pretty much make his own weapon at any time.

“So, it’s back to the tournament…”

“Think of it this way—if you can’t reach the top eight at such a tournament, you definitely won’t make it here.”

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