legacy 2

Strangely, the wood didn't seem rotten or damaged, but way more sturdy than regular wood of the Ash tree. Peeling the bark out, breaking in into thinner form until left with only a fine powder, he absorbs a small part and focus.

From his knowledge of Ashwood, he knows that this one was different. The bark alone was sturdier than a normal one, and he rapidly understands why. Among its composition, he found a new metal mixed in. While in a too-small amount to turn the bark metallic, it had boosted his sturdiness by several folds.

Nodding to himself, he stored the powdered result for later, before focus and started to turn the thick root into a multitude of blocks. Separating the uncorrupted wood from the rest, he again tests the wood.

Now that he had the real wood, he understands how it happens. It turned out that the snake possesses a particular poison that would change the composition of the tree. Feeding on pre-existing elements in the root and soil, the iron had been turned into a completely new metal altogether. This metal seems living as it would spread through the sap and contaminate the tree further. As it spread in the wood, metal fibres would mix symbiotically with the tree, and the sap had turned into a sort of mercury, a liquid metal. Thankfully, it hadn't spread further than the root and contaminate the tree, or he would have fear for it.

~~~

After a further study on the wood, he found that it sturdiness wasn't inferior to steel, it was instead the contrary. It was so dense that he hadn't been able to burn it with normal fire yet, even with the use of a smithy, leaving only magical one to try. Weight-wise, it was a fifth than of steel, for an equal ingot size.

The wood also had magical proprieties, similar to creatures. For his knowledge, it was the only magical tree to exist. Due to its nature, it turned out to be the perfect wood to train his control. After turning a small part into two bracelets, one for each wrist, he started to train. He would then begin to exercise the basic spell know to wizards, the 'Lumos'.

After leaving Winter with the mission to found information about the magical snake, she didn't appear before ten days.

~~~

Barely after popping, the little elf cries "Master; Winter found snaky!"

Looking at the excited elf with a book in her hand, Alex takes a break from his training and seat, waiting for her to show him what she found. Giving the book, before opening it, she pointed to the colourised drawing on the page.

Reading through the description, he found that his ancestor face similar one, if smaller. While it didn't have a name, it was described as an ashwood destructor. The snake would dwell in its root, corroding the tree slowly through its particular poison.

It would continue, until access to the trunk, where the majority of sap was, once the trunk attains, the tree would be rapidly corrupted. Once done, the snake would burrow its way in the base of the trunk, and lay eggs. The snakelet would then feed on the corrupted wood to grow before, in turn, spreading to other ash trees.

Reading this, Alex' back turns cold.

"Winter, pass a message to Ash, he is to tour the land and look at any Ash trees roots to see if any was corrupted, starting with the one we found the snake. If he found some, he needs to cut the corrupted root as you all did and plaster the sectioned part. He can leave the corrupted roots in an enclosed place for now, but he needs to be extremely careful not to be attacked. If he found other elves to help, the better, I will pay them with Ashwine."

Hearing the concerned tone of her master and the promise of Ashwine, she knows that it was a serious matter. The existence of Ashwine had already spread through the community of the British elves, and few had already come to them to see if they need help.

"Lucky Ash promised master' Ashwine for hunting snakies." Muttered her before popping away.

~~~

As I feared, the snake wasn't the only one found in the tree. Ash had found dug tunnels to the surrounding roots, another, with three snakelets in was located. Directly under the tree, the corroded root was wholly invisible and had needed the help of twelve elves to extract without damaging the tree.

When they showed me the damage, I couldn't help but shiver; the tree has been nearly lost. It only because it was so old and the roots so thick that the rest had been spared until then. The concerned root was massive, being one of the first roots, the amount of corrupted wood was staggering. I could have constructed a few houses directly in it, and still left with tons of wood.

It was also strange, as even entirely corrupted, the sap hadn't risen further, as if the tree had several systems within and had shut down this route to protect itself. Seeing the sheer age of the tree, I wouldn't be surprised that it developed a sort of semi-consciousness, from the amount of magic roaming in.

The tree will need a very long time to recover from it's wound, but Ash had assured me that it would. To be safe, I sent him to buy as much as dragon dung as possible and mix the soil with it, to give it a boost.

The good news, other than the valuable wood gain, was that the elves had tracked the dug tunnel to a copse of Ash trees. All were in the innermost of the forest, beyond the walls of the land.

All of them were long since dead, only leaving completely turned trees. What was strange was a large number of dried leaves at their base. After harvesting the wood, the elves have found hibernating snakes smaller of the one I killed them all. Without other tunnels, CS and I hypothesised that without substance, they had entered a long sleep, waiting for Ash trees to grow.

This also gives us an approximative age for them. As the original tunnel hadn't been larger than the snakelet found, the one I killed was born outside. With the knowledge of the ward, I know that should have they been in place, nothing would have passed through them, either above or underground. So those snakes were at least 300 years old.

The Ash tree was used as a sort of antenna; its branches and roots was the reason why the wards had spread from them and surround the Island. Without the tree, nothing would be able to support the wards, making ever more essential to protect.

With that news, I toured the island once more, and after looking more carefully, discover copses of Ash trees, all around the island, serving as a tether for the wards. As long as they stood, nothing would breach the wards.

When I absorbed one of the leaves, I was shocked to discover that it was entirely made of metal! As the sap had dried within the tree, they had lost their supplies of nutrients and shrivelled up. What was left behind was a raw ore of a completely new metal.

From it exposure to magic, it turned to be an excellent conductor and was very light, added to that, it natural sturdiness, I couldn't help but found similarity with mithril, only it was a light emerald colour, contrary to the white one of the Lord of the Ring.

Even then, it was an unexpected discovery. After killing the snakes, their scales also turned to be made of mithril, like the sap in the wood. From the roots, trees, snakes and leaves, I soon found myself with a few tons of mithril wood, 486 kilos of dried mithril sap and 16 kilos of mithril leaves, but what was the greatest harvest was the numerous perfectly shaped scales.

From further studies, I found that those different items of the mithril were corresponding to the other state. The wood had the lowest purity, but it confers to it an overwhelming sturdiness and protection against fire. The sap was similar to refined ore, offering the broadest range of crafting possibilities. The leaves were like raw ore and would turn like the sap once smelted, while the scales were similar to the wood, only with boosted propriety, as they were organically processed. They could also be smelted, but seems to give a lesser quality of mithril.

It was only a first conclusion, as I still need actually to smelt them to observe the result, but I would surely need a smithy with magical fire to be able to that, so either a dragon of what goblin use for their metalwork.

~~~

While going through the history of his clan, he discovers an evident link with the past Viking. Realising this, he found ironic that he had slain a great snake eating the roots of his world tree equivalent.

The great Ash tree was now referred to as Yggdrasil and the snakes as Nìdhögg. As his first feats of arms, he passed the following three months to carve a life-like as a possible Ash tree, with apparent roots, the Nìdhgg hidden in them and the clan crest on the middle of the bark, on the centre of the bracelets.

Knowing full well the signification of his act, Alex found himself in the deepest underground room of the land, under the library, in a ritual room.

The ritual was simple, but it ramification consequent. Each Evans warriors were to accomplish significant feats of arms to be acknowledged by the clan. This has been used as a rite of adulthood from the founding of the clan, until now. He had been unwilling to throw the opportunity out, as it was another link to his roots.

The ritual was simple; the warrior was to came in front of the council, with the proof of his feat, a carved bracelet or necklace describing his accomplishment, and himself. Should it be through a magical creature, the clan would then feast on the slain beast.

As he was the last of his clan, the clan magic would be the one to judge him on their stead.

~~~

Taking a deep breath, Alex enters the engraved circle on the ground. With him, a phial of the venom, blood and a scale, a rucksack, and his carved bracelets on his wrist.

"I call upon the clan magic." As his words ring in the empty room, the ritual circle lit up, bathing it with emerald light. "I, Alexander Evans, came humbly on this day, to prove my strength, loyalty and honour to the Evans clan!"

As he was about to start the next verse of the ritual, the words stay stuck in his throat at what was happening. One after other, misty forms begins to shape all around, slowly merging into gosht. What struck him the most was three particular one, a couple and a woman.

Those three were the couple he had briefly encounter the day he came to the land, and the last was the ghost of Lily Evans, the only kins he acknowledged in this life.

"Speak, youngling; the council shall witness and judge you feat."

The sound of the ethereal voice of Sigurd, wake him up. Barely containing his tears and shaking. He difficultly takes a deep breath, before looking at the man, last clan head of the Evans clan, in the eyes.

Taking the helm of the rucksack, he upturns it, making the skulls of thirteen Nìdhöggs fall on the ground before the eyes of all. As soon as heads appear, the eyes of all present, bar Lily harden.

"Speak, youngling, where did you found those abominations." Say the clan head in a steeled voice.

"One," showing the largest skull, "in the root of the great tree, the twelves other sleeping in the corpses of fallen trees."

The already tense atmosphere turn unbearable, as the only living being, Alex was the only one to take the burn of such heavy undercurrent of magic. Suffocating, he was only saved when the clan head claims silence with a single motion of his hand.

"Tell us, youngling, how did you kill the one nestling in the root of the great tree."

Rather than telling, Alex morphed into his Evans form, a snow leopard. The fact that he was barely shorter than an adult one promised his final form to be far more consequent. The sight made more than one ghosts gasp, knowing their origin. Lily, her, was proud that her son was already an animagus so young and worried that he had faced such danger.

Sigurd stays silent for a moment, looking with a hawk eye at Alex before a small smile draws on his face. Taking it as a signal, he reverts to his human shape. The rest of the assembly stays silent, waiting for the verdict, even if they already know the result.

"For your feat, your strength had been proven in saving the great tree. For your accomplishment, your loyalty had been proven in protecting the great tree and the land of our forefathers. For your feat, your honour had been proven in submitting yourself to the judgement of your elder and returning my remain to our land.

For your feat, I Sigurd Evans, last clan head of Evans' clan, acknowledge you as a warrior and welcome you as son, peer, and head of the clan. Shall your life reflect upon us all and raise once again our clan to greatness." Solemnly says Sigurd, making the rest of the clan looking proudly at Alex to embody the true values of the clan, strength, loyalty, honour.

In a sweep of Sigurd' hands, the venom, blood and scale raised. While the bracelets were bathed into the clan magic, the two liquids and scale, melt into the other, before separating in two. Forming an arrow, one plunged in his chest while the other into the bracelets.

As the last drop enters in him, pain wrecks his body, he gritted his teeth, soundlessly undergoing the last part of the ritual. On each wrist, the bracelets turn into a metallic appearance. The scales on the snake turn life-like, while the Evans seems to come alive in the crest. While the shade vanishes, returning to the afterlife, he was forcefully changed, before his fangs fall, replaced by new ones.

~~~

{[Objective: main. "Honor your forefather."]

Honour the last wish of your ancestor.

Condition: rejoint Sigurd corpse within the clan.

Reward: Skill 'Frost'.}

[Completed]

{[Objective: side. "Honour your traditions!"]

As the last representant of the Evans clan, it up to you to uphold the tradition of old rather than letting them vanish in the sand of time.

Condition: Partake into the ancestral ritual and prove your worth to your ancestors.

Reward: Evan form evolution.}

[completed]

The window was the first thing he saw when awaking from the aftermath of the ritual. Seeing the ability' evolution surprised him, as he should have only gained physical enhancement from the blood of the slain beast. But more so was his now second skill.

'CS?'

-Yes, you naturally gain flexibility from the ritual, but due to the system, your form had been altered, adding poison to your breath and fangs, who also harden. We will need to run some test, but it should be similar to the one of the snake. As for its effect on human, it still unclear. As for the skill, it seems an inherent trait of your race.-

'Good to know, always the best to have a hidden trump card or two, but shouldn't it rather be an ability?'

-No, the way I see it, it a gift, while it is naturally present in your blood, you don't have an intuitive control, thus a skill.-

'Didn't change the fact that I feel like shit, through.'

-Haha, no pain, no gains!- Chuckled CS.

~~~

Barely dragging himself out of the ritual chamber, he called for Spring. When popping, the elf started to freak a little seeing his state but was soon calmed and run a warm bath to smooth his aching muscles. Entering the water, he moans in relief, nearly falling back to sleep.

Looking at the bracelets on his wrists, he could feel his magic running smoother. Spurred by his state, he willed his magic to form. Above the tip of his finger, a small blob of light, the size of a thumbnail appear.

Experimenting with the light once sure that he wouldn't vanish, he steadily raises and decreases its brightness. Feeling encouraged by the result, he slowly rotate it through a variation of colours. From soft, warm light to blinding brightness, he made more progress in one hour than the days of his last try.

Pushing a little further, the blob starts to float away, slowly circling him while he had a focused expression. As time passed, it became easier to make it float without keeping an intense focus on it. While still of the Lumos charm, it was a more advanced application of it, a proof of his growth control over his magic.

~~~

In the following days, he would pass a significant part of his time in the library, between the clan history, the memorisation of runes, plants and science, all this while keeping a floating blob of light around. While he finally started to grasp unwanted disciplines, he wanted to prioritise one that would give him a more immediate result. Among them, runes were the safest in its initial stage. Hogwarts would give him all the time to further his knowledge on the wanded one at letter date; it would also be simpler for him to hide. While he wouldn't growth his repertory of the spell, he could steadily further his control over magic.

This choice was also born of his will to have few but well-mastered spells rather than numerous and barely controlled ones.

Merging the two, he would draw runes in light, furthering his mastery over his magic.

~~~

His second Christmas far from any human contact passed among the elves. Under Winter's hand, the Library had seen a significant expansion. In addition to the mundane books, she had moved the content of the goblin library of Sigurd.

Like the books, the gold had been brought to the Vaults of the Island. Each of the five houses possesses a personal Vault, in the basement' office. As those houses were initially those of the council, it was expected that they have personal wealth enough to need a Vault.

Other than those, the clan had also a joint Vault, under the Hall. Each family would have a private chamber while the main chamber was used as a warehouse for precious items. Thanks to Sigurd, three hundred goblins armours, weapons, ingots of precious and common metals, jewellery, and semi-precious and precious gemstones had been added.

Alex had also contributed to it. The skin of the thirteen Nìdhögg, scales, the venom, blood and organs had been carefully stored in a properly sealed container, under stasis.

He had long thoughts of the situation, before sparing the three snakelets. For all, he knows those were the last of their kind. They could, with time, repopulate the species. As they require Ash trees to survives, he used three of the dead husk for them to grow under monitoring.

As he had never forgotten those tree and they particular transformation, he had Ash gather ash seeds. Using the venom harvested from the dead snake, he had bathed them in, before leaving them to Ash to observe.

~~~

He had show vast improvement into his magic and was now able to summon ten blobs of light the size of a golf ball and had them wander around without much though.

As for his Pocket space, he discovers that it had a completely different evolution path. He only needs to fill it to the brim with materials. With the passing time and the influence of his growing magical reserve, space was slowly expending. The more, the longer it made to progress, but the higher the gain. He had already evolved it to Lv2, turning the space into a 4*4*4.

~~~

This time also signifies the first year of his ongoing business. The little stand of Spring had vanished under the threat of shopowner, but rather than stop any activities; they turned into a delivery system. Each week, their past customer would be given a list of available products, letting them order what they wanted, with limitation.

Due to those orders limitations and door to door deliveries, and with no fixed address, they have been avoiding taxes. The state wouldn't bother to chase after a little seller only present five days per month at most.

While housewives and newborn much appreciated his fruit juices, it was the students who form his core customers for his energy bars.

This success had lead Alex wanting to expend his range of production of new products, namely cocoa trees and tea. After a bit of research, he would only obtain around 6kg of cocoa from a tree and would need already aged trees to produce them, the same from the tea trees.

If he wanted to produce them on the land, he would need to erect and ward greenhouses specially created for them. But the amount of land they would need was far too high, so he turned his gaze to the mountain range.

Thankfully, the mountain range would be perfect for this, more particularly, the extinct volcano for the tea trees. After speaking to the elves, another hunt had been organised, and just before the new year, a young elf female named Summer had been added to the team.

A thousand of three-years-old cocoa trees had been purchased, along with five thousand of tea trees. While they would wait for them to grow, Summer had been sent to study, observe and perfect the art of cultivating, harvesting and preparing the leaves and beans for the following two years.

~~~

Looking at the land from the sky on Christmas, he was thinking of the future.

-What trouble you, buddy?-

'It just, I don't think the land need that much houses. I know it the land of my ancestors, but of all the land, only the Hall and the five council houses are from the origin of the clan. I doubt that I will repopulate the clan on my own.

Those houses had been empty from the past three hundred years and are a remaining of a bloody past, I think it time for them to become history, I am the future of the clan, we can't stay fixed in the past.

I will keep the six original building, but the rest will be torn down. I also kind of want my own house, you know? While it is great to live in a historical relic, I want too... I don't know, but you understand?'

-You don't really feel at home, right? It kind of being a guest in another house kind of feeling?-

'Exactly! And to be honest with you, I kind of miss technology. I know I won't be able to have a television. Still, from the number of runes, I had integrated through absorbing their meaning, I sure I can work on replicating technology nowadays. CD and the like are already possible, all I need to do is to replicate them on artificial crystal disc.

A simple scheme would be enough to read them and act as a CD player, hell, I could surely wipe-up wireless earphones.

Movies would be tricker, useless..'

While lost in his sudden though, CS was contemplating Alex issue and couldn't help but agree, while he would keep a remembrance of the past, he didn't have any reason to make the land truly his house.

~~~

While winter was still going strong, Alex had Winter pop him in London. He raids record's shop, before also targeting various other. He had a ridiculous amount of discs, from all type of music and epoch. While none all were from his taste, it didn't hurt to have variety. With those, he also brought CD player, fax, printer and another absurd amount of VHS movies.

At first, he wanted to recreate a magical version of the CD and the CD player, before understanding that he simply didn't have the knowledge required for it. It only takes him a few minutes to realise that while it wasn't possible now, he didn't need to restrict himself to copy, as he could simply create them.

While it has taken a few tries, he successfully constructs converters who would read the CD and transform the binary code into a magical equivalent. The magical imprint obtained from it would be engraved in a mithril printed circuit board encased in a square diamond casting the size of a thumbnail.

Due to its high compatibility with magic, the mithril would keep the imprint perfectly, while the diamond cast was perfectly hermetic and protect the printed circuit board from outside interference.

Like the CD player, a lense would read the printed circuit board and convert the imprint into sound. A transmission and link cluster would be built in the earphones to transfer the sound in. All in all, the MFD (mithril floppy disk) player wasn't larger than a connected watch and easily put on his wrist.

With each MFD able to contain 500 songs each, he quickly creates playlists and creates an artefact 30 years ahead of the mundanes. Movies weren't different in theory, but he was so disgusted by the quality, that he creates an artefact to augment the pixelation and colourise the old film.

Due to the amount of data need, he could only store a single film on an MD (mithril disk), of the same size that the MFD. Liked to it own player, it would project sound and picture on a crystal screen, turning Alex unto the first being to see a movie in 4k and possess flat screen in 1988.

~~~

When spring came, and the snow melting, I started to bring down houses all around the land. Since they were all near and by groups, it didn't take long to turn the place into cubes of materials. I just informed the elves beforehand, and when they learn that I wouldn't touch on the oldest building they didn't say a word, telling that the past clansmen had done the same when houses were becoming to hold, the crafting part left.

They even eagerly participate when they learn that I would construct my own house. Using the gathered materials, the wood cubes were turned into graven logs, where the elves would levitate and stack them to build the house.

With the structure done, the space between logs was filled with a layer of sheep wool, before being sealed behind plaster plate and warded both sides against vermin. The wood flooring was engraved with the same geothermal cluster with a fixed temperature of 18-degree celsius.

I didn't use a different structure that the house of the land, but not the same agreement. Rather than a massive chimney, I instaled a simple pipe for the smoke, and a cluster on the main floor would evenly distribute heat upstairs. The resting area was kept and the flat screen put on its wall, while couch and seat placed on the side of the fireplace, facing it.

The bedroom floor was kept alike, but a third story was added. Half of it was used a library/office, two-third left made into a potion lab and the last part into a cupboard. With everyone helping, the house was complete before the end of March.