Forest Guardian (2)
"This way..." Whispered the Eryu to the crowd that follows his footsteps towards the third floor of the hollow tree library.
"Would you stop pushing." Complained the Herald, being cramped in the narrow secret passage to the third floor that the Librarian opened.
When the group of twelve people finally settled down at the open reading space of the tree library, SayaShin pulled the book out from his inventory.
"This is it. Moment of truth..." GurinBare said excitedly.
"Wait... is that book sealed or user-specific?" AleyaNala asked.
"No!" SayaShin said.
"Umm... Can you let us hold it?" AleyaNala said embarrassed.
"Sure." SayaShin
"..." Stunned silence was all that pervaded the air inside the hollow tree.
"Okay. I'll have the first touch..." VerBoss claimed.
All the people inside the buildings third floor held the skill book in their hands one after another, feeling and familiarizing themselves with the energy.
"Now I'm curious, why you asked to hold that book AleyaNala?" Asked Sanki.
"..." AleyaNala didn't speak, just stared at Ashanti.
"You didn't notice it did you, Sanki?" Ashanti pointed out.
"Notice what?" Sanki questioned
"The book can be learned by any class," Mizarin stated
"I'm sure the two of you agree." AleyaNala looking at the two new addition to the group.
"Now that you mention it. The learn this skill message did pop up." Said Serendipity.
"Doesn't that prompt appear on every skill book when you touch it?" Blissful scrutinized
"It doesn't if the skill is specific to the player or to the class." GurinBare realized
"Which means?" Shapeless still out of the thread.
"It means that if you manage to collect the same skill books, anyone could obtain the skill that I will get from this... if not exactly, equivalently." Explained SayaShin.
"Gosh. Would you just learn it already! I'm dying to know, what this transformation less Druid shift in to!" Urged Mizarin impatiently.
[System: Do you wish to learn the Skill; Forest Guardian Transformation.
"Accept!" SayaShin finally granted everyone's eager anticipation.
1 minute, everyone's eye stared at the book pages being shredded to the person's head.
10 minutes, the person started to levitate breaking everyone into a cold sweat
30 minutes, everyone started to do something else.
1 hour, someone complained 'we wasted that much time, instead of farming.'
90 minutes the book was completely devoured.
[System: You are currently an empty vessel, the guardian transformation will draw down a Spirit for the transformation media.]
The light descended passing through the thick upper floors of the library, falling over the head of the suspended SayaShin. This happened not longer than 5 minutes when the system rang on the company that filled the third floor.
[System: The Guardian that guides the spirits, has detected the ascendance of a foreign being.]
[Warning: Protect your selves form the Guardians Arrival!]
Listening to this. Mizarin summoned the Pavilion, enclosing the earthbound characters, then the druids planted their staves, and the priests pulled the totems out of their bags. Shield ofter shields were stacked over each other, searching for where the Guardian will descend.
After the setup of defense, a tall man wearing a headdress filled with feathers, animal bones, and gems fashioned to look elegant yet fierce, wearing a G-String covering his private's, animal fangs fashioned as armbands bite his biceps, Necklace with animal molars and gems alternated each other covers his profound chest. And strings tie his leaf-like slippers. This man looked very familiar to the Oracle and the Shaman.
No Shaman No Jiagu will ever mistake this person, this was after all the NPC that grants the blessing of the great spirits; Raymus, the Spirit Guide.
"Guard not from me, but the spirit that will descend children's." The Spirit Guide spoke in his deep voice, assuring security to the startled pups.
"What is the nature of this spirit that will descend, oh guardian?" Blissful spoke to the Shaman
"Nature is unknown, the spirit is ephemeral, failure will mean shade." The shaman spoke in an ominous tone.
"By shade, you mean an uncontrollable spirit?" Asked the Oracle.
"No! A Being that grants blessing greater than what the body could bear, that it becomes a curse." Answered the tall man to the Oracle.
The Shaman chanted in archaic language after a few minutes have passed, the tree shook, the energy inside the third floor flooded with a strange energy. A few minutes passed with this enigmatic change a Dryad appeared before the shaman, followed by a Naiad, a Sylph, lastly a Wisp.
"What is the meaning of this, Raymus." The four local facilitators spoke in unison.
"The stranger spirit is about to descend... Protect your people... Had this happened in the Holy Land, the trinity would have defended this young child. It is now your duty to share the burden of the waning spirit.
The five guardians formed a pentagram centering the now suspended SayaShin, Chanting, Dancing, Writing unintelligible magic. Cursing, Blessing, Strengthening the weekend body. For less than an hour, this continued, until suddenly the five went still.
- - -
Elsewhere an applicant to the shaman apprenticeship was blocked by the lady in gold.
"My apologies young Shaman, but the Guardian has some errands to attend. If you are willing to wait I'm sure you will be rewarded." The Sorcerer said attempting to calm the sudden absence of the Spirit Guide.
- - -
On another location, players that came out of the dungeon was greeted by people unable to enter. While others whose goal was to submit for their evaluation was stunned with the absence of the NPC.
"Hey! Did anyone see where the NPC went?"
"Why can't we enter the Dungeon?"
"Is there any NPC-Watchers here, you should report this!"
A cacophony of complaints was being voiced at the frustration of the absence of NPCs.
- - -
"Sir. A flood of messages came from NPC-watchers from Three Beginning town, Druid, Assassin, and Holy class. What should we do about this?" An employee somewhere related to a report.
"This is a good chance to teach those who do not know what to and what not to report. Inform the Watchers that they must investigate first before sending Notice or they will receive demerits." And admin commanded.
"Sir. What is the reason for this?" A newbie inquired.
"Someone activated a special skill... Hey Boots, How many are there for this particular skill?" The admin asked the grinning developer.
"About 10 Creatures, 6 rarity's, 9 elemental affinity's, at most 4 elemental affinities per Creature, you can do the math." Challenged the programmer.
"So you are saying there is at least 68040 of this event happening?" An employee scrutinizes.
"Hey... do you think that in the number of people out there I set a limiter?... of course not. Its whether they could get the perfect match for their characters or a completely incompatible for their gameplay... Besides, who was it that let the Item randomly drop everywhere, including the town of beginnings dungeon." Boots said looking at the administrator.
"Alright, on the mandatory update and maintenance next month, see to it that that skill book does not drop on maps bellow 20. Got it!... And make the Drop rate even lower!" The admin rectified.
"Yes, Sir!" The employees shouted in unison
- - -
A big burst of energy descended on the suspended person inside the library, from white to pale blue to red then a black color converged to a single point. Penetrating the body of the Druid, while the five guardians constantly tried to stabilize the enormous amount of energy streaming in.
For those who are watching this event on the sideline, it was a complete and utter waste of time, with the special light effects and the sleepy monotonous chanting like music. No one could stay awake, even with the strongest will.
The group the camped themselves inside the pavilion inside a building, were by now playing some sort of mini-game that, with only a single-player, namely; Crafting.
With the amount of ethereal energy flooding the building, every raw material they successfully refine and assimilate contains more than 150% energy, no-fail occurred during this time, so by the time that the light show at the background started to fade, the group has made their weapons socketed with two or more Orbs of unique quality, refined with the energy harvested from the leaking ambiance.
Even mana stones that the group with Philosophers stone, synthesized contained Strange energy, and with the excessive amount of mana they regenerated, all of them almost condensed more than 20,000 stones in less than an hour. They wished that the stream of energy doesn't end, but unfortunately all good things must end.
While the people were camping in, the person they were originally watched was actually asleep. If they knew of this, they would have fainted from a sudden rush of blood to their neurons.
The sleep was not the natural cycle, REM and deep sleep, slumber. But a personal system update, an update that happens only to one person while everyone else is under normal function. This event forced Sai to enter a sleep-like trance while the system recalibrated the system's frequency to his natural brain wavelength.
[System: You have successfully synchronized with the spell.]
[Skill: Strange Transformation
- will change once the player has performed his initial transformation.]
When the system ring three times ended. SayaShin's foot was back to the ground. Observing his feel of the avatar, there were no tangible changes to the character physique or psyche. It was all normal for him.
To the others, on the other hand, he was glowing ever so faintly, still dense with excessive mana.
"SayaShin, why don't you try compressing some mana to the Philosophers ring you have." Suggested MowRen
Equipping the ring on his unoccupied accessory socket, on his right pointing finger while the storage ring is equipped on the left pointing finger. SayaShin started supplying mana to the ring, noticing that his MP and HP regeneration rate was exponential, he started supplying MP and HP like a mad man with an inexhaustible resource, obtaining more than 50 units each of both mana stones and drops of life per minute. For half an hour or more, he endeavored himself, completely forgetting that his friends are waiting to see what his transformation will be.
"You two, what are your plans from here on? Asked Mizarin to the couple-like new friends they found.
"Um... We don't know yet... this place is quite foreign for us, so exploring is one of the choices." Stated Serendipity.
"Why don't you go get the exclusive crafts man's tool here, from the herbalist." Suggested GurinBare.
"Yah!... why do you easily advertise the item?" Ridiculed Shapeless.
"It's not that I'm advertising it, it's just that this two are aspiring lifestyles players, why not guide them while we're at it. Besides, it's not like we all will get the information out there." GurinBare defended.
"But still, it's no guaranty that we will acquire some either." Pointed VerBoss.
"That's what they call equivalent exchange. If you can't provide now you can provide later." Smugly Pointed GurinBare.
"No! That's what you call deficit aka credit." Joined AleyaNala.
"Why are you all against me!... I just wanted to be nice." Started wallowing in on himself when he could no longer take the groups teasing.
"There... There..." Ashanti consoled the depressed GurinBare.
"It's not that hard is it?..."Leyardi continued teasing, which everyone loudly laughed about.
During the group's grinding session and the camping hours, they started getting familiar with each other, but still, have some reservations on each other.
"I shall take my leave now. Make sure to pay me a visit young Vates!" Said the Spirit Guide before turning into a bird and left the building, through the door, he came in from.
"May the blessings of the Guide be of great use to you and the young spirit that you will nurture." Spoke the Wisps before vanishing.
"The spirit that now dwells within you... Take good care of it..." Advised the Sylph before turning to a puff of wind.
"If the being you contained is either too weak or too strong, let it free from you... let not the past repeat itself." Warned the Naiad before turning to bobbles.
"We congratulate you on your successful acquisition of young Vates' Spirit... We expect great things from you... May the spirit you now hold, find solace in your countenance... May you guide the spirit..." Mesmerized the Dryad before sinking back to the tree.
"What was that all about?" Mizarin asked.
"I don't know. It sounded as if the skill is too great. It feels like a burden." SayaShin stated.
"Moving on! Show us this prestigious skill you now have!" VerBoss imploded.
"let's move to an open space first!" AleyaNala suggested tired of being camped in on the library without nothing to read.