Chapter 5: Chapter 5 – Realm of Beasts [3] Tree of Ascent

Author’s Note - Chapter 6 appears to be where we hit 10k words, hoorah!

 

As I felt mesmerized by the glowing fruit I was soon able to determine the reason why. 

Underneath the large tree layed a massive skeleton that I was unable to identify. Its massive stature spread across a few dozen kilometers, and it appeared that it had been here for a very long time because of having several trees growing around the curvature of its ribcage.

 

After arriving at the skeleton I began to scout its entirety. With a surprising lack of decay, the bones seemed to be pristine, almost shining despite the shade of the tree overhead. As I continued scouting the area I began to notice several more skeletons resting around, the tree being at the epicenter of the corpses.

 

But this brought no thoughts of doubt to my head as I found my mouth watering as I continued to stare at the fruits overhead.

 

As I began to scale the massive tree, nearly twice the size of a redwood, I began to notice a lack of flying Beasts in the air around the tree. You would think that with such appealing fruits they would be covering entire branches, however as I looked around the land and skies nearest the tree they seemed eerily empty, but despite this I still found myself pressing on.

 

After climbing for what seemed like hours I reached the first branch bearing fruit, and despite the altitude the branch still seemed to be about 4m thick.

 

I began to try and snag one of the fruits as I felt my mouth watering with it, seemingly, begging for a taste of the radiant fruit. And with one final attempt I heard a quiet snap and the giant fruit was now only held up by my arms.

 

As I pulled it up I immediately took a bite out of it and found my energy rapidly being restored. As I channeled magic into both of my eyes I found the fruit radiating massive amounts of magic power off of it. However, I quickly felt terror feel my body as I saw the magic radiating off of the very branch I was sitting on, it was erratic, almost seeming to be alive as it continuously tried to reach toward me.

 

As the sun began to set I found myself spinning around to find thin branches of the tree writhing around trying to grab me. That was when I realized what the tree was. It was a Tree of Ascension, a tree bearing fruits allowing one to awaken their latent magic power, however the tree bore fruit so rarely I could count the number of awakened individuals on my two hands.

 

However, the reason for the few was the difficulty in getting these fruits, the only way people were able to get the fruit was immediately after the tree had a very large meal. That was when I realized what the Colossus below was.

 

However, now was not the time to sit still and let myself die to the whipping branches. The fruit that was roughly the size of an infant was stuffed underneath my shirt, dedicating its safety to the worn belt trapping the shirt and pants of my uniform together.

 

I began to descend the tree rapidly as the bark of the tree now trembled beneath my fingers. As I looked down I was able to estimate that I was roughly two km off the base of the tree.

 

That was when I heard the sound of a whip as I let go of the pieces of bark and slid downard, ripping my hands apart. A resounding thud echoed from the place I had just been as a thick branch pressed against the trunk of the tree.

 

I increased my pace further as the thoughts of a painful death filled me. This was the bringer of one of the most painful demises possible, draining the life force of the living creatures it captures, just like the colossus below me.

 

I had now reached the sloping point of the tree and released my bleeding hands from the tree, allowing myself to begin sliding down the roots of the tree. That was when the dirt beneath the tree began to rise.

 

As it rose I began seeing the tree’s roots begin to whip towards me as everything began to slow down. I moved a half step to left, then right, and then ducked downward as I avoided the fast moving roots.

 

I began my sprint towards the forest’s edge as the roots continued in their pursuit of me, still seemingly watching them in slow motion. A single one of the roots now moving faster than the others whipped out at mind numbing speeds as I felt a painful strike whip across my back.

 

I was sent tumbling forward after the strike and I saw another branch impale the tree in front of me. I immediately got back up and continued my mad dash.

 

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Ducking behind another of the trees I could hear the roots demolishing the forest behind, seemingly more agitated that its prey escaped its grasp. I began to climb the tree I hid behind, needing to gain a vantage point so I would be able to get back to the hollow tree safely with the fruit undamaged.

 

After an hour of mindless tree hopping I had arrived at the hollowed out tree. I first pushed the fruit into the tree and then found myself crawling back into the shelter, spotting the squirrel Beast at the same time. Its small noise flared at the fruit's sweet scent. As I spotted its gaze locked onto the fruit I quickly snatched it up before heading to the corner I had previously slept in, my jacket still lying there, marking the spot as mine.

As I sat down in the corner with the fruit I began gorging on it, its delectable taste filling my mouth and filling my body with its magical energy. The Beast, seemingly unable to stall its hunger, approached me with its quills flat against its body as a means to show it meant no harm.

 

I still had yet to recognize what kind of Beast it was as it seemed to be an undiscovered Beast, perhaps I had been one of the first to discover its existence. The reason I had this kind of logic was because of its reaction to me. Time went faster in the Realm of Beasts than the Realm of Mortals leading evolution to occur far faster in the Realm of Beasts. Beasts adapted to the humans as well as were able to determine their level of strength far better than when they first journeyed into our Realm.

 

However, this Beast had seemed undisturbed by my appearance meaning it had either never had its generations explore outside this Realm, was far weaker than me and was submitting itself, or far more disturbingly, it could be far stronger than me and thought of me as a sort of pet. Like how humans kept dogs.

 

But as the creature drew near I could feel that it was neither of the latter two as it seemed more curious of me as it sniffed me as well as the fruit.

 

Hoping to befriend the Beast, I scooped a handful of the delicious fruit’s guts and offered it to the squirrel Beast, tearing a piece of bark off to serve the fruit on.

 

I didn’t know why but I found myself thinking up a name for the Beast, going over a few before finally determining the most suitable name for it.

 

“Quiladen”

 

The squirrel’s eyes widened, seeming content as it ignored my speech and instead began to stuff its cheeks with the fruit, seeming to get far stronger despite the small serving. 

 

I was able to determine this as my eyes still were seemingly influenced by the fruit’s effects, leaving me able to see the magic radiating off of every living thing I had come across so far.

 

When I had looked at my arms just before eating the remainder of the fruit I could barely see an outline surrounding them, but now that aura radiating from my body had grown another few inches, meaning that the fruit had indeed made me a decent bit stronger. 

 

But this was when I found myself wondering aloud;

 

“Is this my latent power, or is this a power all of the awakened have?”

 

This thought had spread through me as it meant those who were awakened may have secrets of their own that I might have just gotten a hold of now that I had eaten this fruit.

 

And if I know one thing about secrets, they are far better kept the fewer the people that know of them.

 

—

 

Author’s Note - We have now gotten a look at Joshua's first day in the Realm of Beasts.

 

Also for those who want to know the time conversion between Realms is 12 seconds in the Realm of Beasts equates to 1 second in the Realm of Mortals.

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