Hidden Dungeon Cave

World Tree

Just like every fantasy saga that has elves, the World Tree would also be included. Thus this world has its own World Tree, cherished and worshipped by the elves.

The World Tree in this world could be said quite similar to Yggdrasil in Norse mythology.

Three huge roots stretch out to the springs that exist in each world, supporting its huge body, and extending their branches to reach the entire nine worlds.

To be honest, I don't remember much about the World Tree because Cedric, the protagonist never sees the tree himself. All of it because of his clan. The World Tree hated his clan or more specifically his first ancestor meanwhile the elves acted neutral towards Cedric since...

Well, I'm not sure why they treated Cedric well despite their World Tree and Hellios Clan history.

"Maybe because he was the protagonist..." That's the only answer I could come up with.

However, the real World Tree is located in a forbidden land only known by a few humans and dragons since it was tightly protected by the elves. Only the elves could bring people to meet their World Tree willingly.

While walking towards Yaro Mountain, I touched the tattoo on my arm, trying to probe if I could take out the diary. Currently, I'm wearing a sleeveless black combat suit that looked no different than sports attire on the outside and in disguise with black hair and red eyes.

Despite my low-key look, people still kept on staring at me maybe due to the tattoo on my arm or because of my red eyes.

In this world, red eyes were rare, as rare as red hair. Eye colors like purple, green, blue, brown, and black are more common.

At first, I wanted to wear a purple contact lens on my red eye but the shade didn't match my purple eye since the color looked more like violet than purple thus I decided to cover my purple eye with a red contact lens instead.

"Hmm, why is the tattoo not responding? What should I do actually? Is it not a system just like I assumed? So what is it actually?"

Putting my thought aside, I continue my walk. Based on the movement of the stone tablet, the destination seemed to be on the opposite side of the usual direction the tourists were heading.

Just like a normal tourist spot, the path heading towards the mountain was bustling with both tourists and merchants selling souvenirs.

"Berries bread! The specialty of Yaro Mountain. All berries are freshly picked around the forest."

"There are fans and keychains with Yaro Mountain carved on them. We also have T-shirts."

"Its mineral water from the top of Yaro Mountain contains mysterious energy."

Ignoring all the loud chants, I looked around trying to look for someone.

In an area near a thick forest like this, there might be at least a troll disguising as a human. That's what I was searching for.

Trolls, due to their curiosity would sometimes come out to humans' settlements just outside the forest to watch anything they deemed interesting, which were humans' interactions with each other.

However, trolls were outcast monsters thus they didn't interact with any species.

It wasn't long before I found an elderly woman sitting on the ground. She looked like a beggar but there wasn't any place to put the money in front of her, and instead of making pitiful expressions to beg people, she just sat there quietly looking at the bustling crowds walking back and forth in front of her.

Normal people might assume the old woman was crazy but I think I found what I was searching for among the bustling crowds.

"Grandma."

The old woman turned around when she heard my voice.

"Have you eaten? I have some grilled fish and salad with me."

Trolls only eat plants and fish. That's it.

The old woman's eyes seemed to glow at my sudden offer.

Without any hint of embarrassment, she took the package from my hand and put it inside her tattered cloth.

"Young man, where are you going?" She asked.

Trolls, despite being outcasts didn't like to be indebted to others thus they would try to repay you and that was my aim.

"I heard there was a cave on the hillside of Yaro Mountain and I want to go there," I answered.

"I see. You're a kind kid thus I don't have to warn you not to be greedy. Take this."

She took out a blackish wooden branch the size of a toddler's arm.

"What is this?" I asked although I could already guess what it is.

"It will help you walk through the cave. Are you a good poet?"

"I think it's passable"

"Then you'll be fine"

The old woman stopped talking after that and started to pack her things.

Feeling grateful that I met the right person without much difficulty, I gave a bottle of berry jam that I brought with me to her. Smiling widely, she gave the last advice.

"Just listen to whatever the owner demanded. Disobedient kids are always unlucky."

From the pieces of hints given by the old woman, I could deduce what kind of dungeon was the one I'm heading towards to.

Looking at the hunched old woman walking away, I also continue to my next place.

I bought a few bottles of mineral spring water.

Later I went to an isolated place, I drank the mineral water and meticulously applied the mineral water onto the tree branch that I got.

After I finished all four bottles of mineral water that I bought, I dropped of few drops of my blood on the tree branch.

However, nothing happened.

"Did I mess up the sequence?"

It was the method Cedric used when he confronted the trolls inside the novel. Since the hidden dungeon was a troll dungeon, I decided to use the same method.

How do I know it was a troll dungeon. The hints in the old woman's sentences.

"Don't be greedy, a good poet and obedient kids. All of that explained the things that trolls like."

Trolls, unlike Goblins and Ogres, were considered monsters with intelligence like small kids thus it was advisable to not make them annoyed or mad.

Since trolls were outcast monsters, they were always wary of outsiders especially humans thus there was a method to make them feel a sense of camaraderie with outsiders.

Make yourself smell like a forest.

That's the method I'm doing.

1. Get a tree branch given by a troll acting like a beggar or a real beggar.

2. Drink the spring water sold in the same area and put water on the tree branch

3. Drop your blood on the branch before letting it coil on your arm

"Erghhh....!?"

However, while I was deep in thought the tattoo on my hand suddenly shone and my arm felt painful like it was being ripped open.

The slight wound I cut using my dagger before started to heal and at the same time, the tree branch slowly disappeared like a snake and melted down onto my wound before the wound fully closed and healed.

My left arm felt like it was being ripped while my right arm where the tattoo shone was heating up like I was being boiled alive.

I let out a ragged breath and clenched my teeth to keep myself from screaming.

"What the...it never stated that the branch will enter the body. Isn't the branch only coil on the outside of Cedric's arm?"

This kind of method was a cheat-like method discovered by Cedric from his system.

In the game, every character will use this method every time they have to encounter trolls since it was a waste of time and energy to fight with trolls when you can just pass by them peacefully.

"Wait, don't tell me this is not just an ordinary tree branch given by a troll but might be a fragment of the Tree of Life?"

Tree of Life could be considered the doppelganger of the real World Tree. It was created by a Demi-God for unknown purposes and unlike the elves protecting the World Tree, it was the Druids who took care of the Tree of Life.

And Trolls usually respected the Druids and some even work for them.

"It seems my luck today is good."

Ares didn't know why he was given the fragment of the Tree of Life branch but since it didn't seem to affect him negatively, he didn't care much.

After calming down to a certain extent, he took out the stone tablet and determine the next direction he needed to go.

*********************

"Is this really a hidden cave? It's not that well hidden though" Ares muttered.

In front of him was a huge block of grey stone, sharply shaped into the shape of a horizontal rectangular shape, covering the cave entrance. The block was as huge as an express bus size thus the entrance might also be as big.

However after looking around trying to find ways to enter, he saw a small hole, dug between the soil on the mountain wall and the stone block. The hole only big enough to fit an adult man with average size.

"If someone with Adrian's size, he won't fit inside this" Ares commented after he checked there was indeed a fresh traces of living beings going through the hole.

Since he didn't have any tracking abilities, he wasn't sure whether the trace were from humans or monsters.

Sensing that no one was around the area, Ares quickly crawled into the hole in the cave.

Contrary to his expectation for the cave to be pitch dark, the cave lighting seemed decent with just enough amount of mana stones embedded along the cave walls. Ares looked around and he could smell something burning.

The more he walked the more he found traces of burns on the ground.

The cave walls had weird cross-shaped metals on its wall with rusty chains between them. He suddenly felt that he was fated to be here.

Ares knew, in this world there was no religions or known organizations that used the cross as their symbols thus when he saw the metal on the wall and the tattoo on his arm, he suddenly felt there might be something unknown that enticed him to come here.

Fate.

Unlike destiny which could be changed, fate couldn't be changed.

Like you're fated to be born as a royalty, you couldn't change that.

However, a poor person can change their destiny by working hard and become rich.

"Is this my fate? The successor of Tree of Life?" Ares muttered while looking around the area.

In the novel, there wasn't any mention about the Tree of Life successor. It was only mentioned briefly as the fake World Tree or the World Tree doppleganger.

"Since it wasn't owned by anyone, I could just take it," Ares decided easily.

Since he was already here to help Cedric, he might take something as compensation for his hard work.

Weird enough, he didn't encounter any trolls or any monsters living inside the cave. It might be because they didn't detect him as an outsider or intruder but as one of them due to the smell of forest on him.

The burn marks on the ground must have came from Cedric's fight with the trolls or other monsters since during this point of time, Cedric didn't know about this method yet.

-Thud Thud

Suddenly a huge humanoid monster appeared in front of Ares. However, instead of holding weapon, it was holding a huge raw fish in his hand.

'Damn it's a Troll.'

Ares remained silent and stare at the Troll who was as tall as a giant at around 10 meters. The Troll also looked down on him.

Instead of attacking Ares, the Troll suddenly said in a hoarse voice.

"I'm the Moon dwelling Ratata, giant's wealth-sucker, storm-sun's bale, seeress's friendly companion, the lost Tree of Life tomb guardian, swallower of the greedy person"

Ares knew he made a right decision to stay silent and let the Troll speak first. The trolls who rarely interacted with humans would always talk in a poetic way, unlike the old woman who already mastered the human way of talking.

"I'm the curious traveler Ares, coming here by chance, maybe by fate, this full of weakness human, asking permission from the benevolent tomb guardian, looking for a companion, always burning in holy fire and sword"

'Fuck I sucked at poem but who cares.'

By letting the troll speak first and mirroring her speech, the poet shows deference to the troll, indicating he recognized the land or area as hers.

From the introduction, a few things could be deduced.

•Her name was Ratata

•She's wealthy

•Practice magic

•Acting as a guardian

•Capable of destruction for those she deemed greedy.

Ratata looked at Ares with slight interest. She beckoned Ares to follow her.

"A kid as bright as the sun but not as malevolent, swinging fire and destruction on his tracks, smelling like an outsider," Ratata said while Ares followed behind her like an obedient little kid.

As he expected, Cedric already encountered the troll. Even though the troll seemed to treat Ares like a new friend, it wouldn't be the case with Cedric.

"Ratata, I need to bring my companion out from here" Ares who had already given up talking in a poetic way decided to talk directly since he knew the troll could still understand him.

Contrary to his expectation, Ratata shook her head and instead asked him to rest and eat.

Ratata even allow him to walk around the dungeon as he wished but she never mentioned Cedric anymore.

"Tskk where the hell is he?" Ares muttered.

After a few hours, Ares found a large steel door at the end of a path inside the cave dungeon. Even though he felt weird why Ratata just let him do whatever he wanted to, he decided to take the opportunity to venture into the whole dungeon.

There were rooms with locked doors that he couldn't enter but the huge door in front of him wasn't locked and it even opened slightly, seemingly beckoning people to enter.

The stone tablet had been silent since he arrived inside the cave.

Contemplating whether to just enter the room beyond the door or not, there was no reaction, or a system-like mission appeared.

"Maybe it wasn't actually a system. Maybe more like a special tool or skill," Ares muttered.

"Or maybe a guide?"

"Guide? I never think about-" Ares was shocked hearing a voice coming from out of nowhere.

Turning around he saw a human coming out from the door. He was a tall man, with wrinkled face, long straight white beard and hair. He wore clothes like a brown monk robes.

"You're...."

Without waiting for Ares to finish talking, he interrupted, "Finally the real one comes. It might be fate making the two of you coming here at the same time."

"What do you mean by fate?" Ares asked curiously

"The fate of the shadow and the light. When there's light there will always be shadows."

Even though Ares wasn't eloquent, he wasn't slow. Listening to the ambiguous way of talking like an NPC in a game, Ares could deduce a few things from the sentence.

"The shadow is me, am I right?" Ares asked.

"Yes, that's your fate. Working in the background, wasn't recognized for their contribution and missing in obscurity."

"Why me?"

"It has been decided long ago since you're his only descendant"

Only descendant. He wasn't talking about the Zanuki which is on my maternal side but my father. Who is my father actually was?

"My father, is he also the inheritor of the Tree of Life? Has he already died? That's why I have to take over the inheritance?"

"Kid, why aren't you seem worried about your life?"

"I don't feel any killing intent from you?" Ares felt confused since he always sharp in detecting any negative emotions from others but he didn't detect anything from the old man despite his sudden appearance.

Looking at the black hair youth in front of him that looked like a normal human's teenager, the old Druid felt something weird.

It's not because he never met any humans before but it was because how inhumane the youth in front of him felt. As a Druid, he has an exceptional sensory ability different from those humans thus with just a glance he knew.

'This lad is not a human, but it will be even more weird if he is.'

"Sigh, you're as ignorant as the kid inside. Don't you know your body is on the verge of exploding? Let me guess, you might have around a month before you explode"

"..." This isn't funny. Why the hell am I going to explode?

"You eat all the fire orbs and extremely poisonous substance. These two blend well with each other but then the Tree of Life fragments started to ruin the balance, the fire inside your body tried to burn the wood fragments. You need something to keep the fire at bay."

The old man snickered looking at the young lad in from of him, thinking hard while still maintaining a stoic face.

'Interesting as always.'

The old man who had lived long enough felt finally his days of boredom might ended.