บท 8: Agarthan Overlook

(Author's Note: With this chapter, it looks like we are finally ranked on the power rankings. Welcome to the club everyone and congrats we made it this far without dropping.)

Treech continued walking through the Star-Dust Forest, filled with redwood trees, heading towards the 3rd Zone of the Vanaheim Outer Regions. Starlight Prince walked parallel to him as he continue. The kid didn't really talk much and only spoke when he had a question to ask him. The rest of the time, the kid spent on guard for PKers as we walked.

Apparently, the Star-Dust Forest was a relatively popular hunting ground for Heteromorphic players since it was one of the few spawning locations for the Star-Dust race. Along the way, they ran into a group of 8 level 30-40 Demi-human players, but they were swiftly dealt with by Treech. He had just finished them off and was looting their items when Prince noticed that Treech's HP was not visible to him. It just displayed a (hidden) icon just like the leader boards. His curiosity had finally gotten the best of him so he asked the question that had been on his mind since he met Treech.

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Name: Treech

[Race]: (Unknown)

Level: 70

Hp: (Unknown)

Mp: (Unknown)

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"Sensei, why do you have an unknown race?" Prince asked.

Treech closed his inventory panel after looting the dead players. He ignored the HUD message saying his PK penalty for killing players was extended another 72 hours. It wasn't like it affected him much anyway. It just decreased his exp gain and he was already the highest level player in the game.

"What do you mean?" he asked as he started walking again.

"My HUD shows your Race, HP, and MP as unknown" Prince responded.

Treech ran his fingers along his tree branches over his shoulders as he thought. This had become a habit to him over the past 2 months he had been stuck in Yggdrasil. He had been online since he came here, so he had double the time as other players, who needed to log off to work.

"It's because of my racial ability [World Shelter]" Treech answered.

"What does that do, sensei?"

"It hides me."

"Hides you?" Prince's blobby-like form twisted and tilted to the side as if a human was tilting his head.

"But I can see you just fine. Do you mean it hides your information, sensei?" Prince concluded.

Treech didn't respond any longer and continued walking forward. He didn't deny Starlight Prince's conclusion so he took that as a confirmation of his guess. They remained quiet until they came across the Star-Dust Ruins on the map. Treech paused his pace and stared at the broken-down ruins and collapsed redwood tree in the distance. He could make out the outlines of Star-Dust monsters roaming the area. Most of them were Ethermorphs just like Starlight Prince, but there was even an occasional Star-Dust Etherite among them. They looked completely different from the Ethermorph blobs that hovered about with their orbiting rocks.

Instead, they were in a completely humanoid shape with starlight covering their skin. They no longer floated and instead walked around everywhere. The moon rocks that had once orbited them were attached to their foreheads in different shapes. Some of them had circular rocks, some triangular, some pentagonal, and many other shapes. Their black and silver starlight skins were still blob-like and they still roamed around the area eating the specs of stardust.

Prince stood next to Treech and followed his gaze towards the ruins. He saw the Ethermorphs but he didn't understand what the Etherites were.

"Sensei, what are those?" he asked as he watched the Star-Dust Etherites.

"Star-Dust Etherites" Treech responded, shaking himself out of his thoughts before walking past the Star-Dust Ruins.

"They are Star-Dust race? Wow!" Prince bobbed up and down in excitement.

"When will I look like that?"

"Level 30 and max your racial class. It should appear." Treech answered as they continued walking.

"Nice nice" Prince said.

The journey continued like this for a good while, until they finally reached the edge of the Star-Dust Forest. The redwood trees no longer appeared ahead of them, instead, there were smaller sets of willow-like trees with vines dangling from them. The map showed that this territory was called [Goblin Swampforest]. But, before they entered into the [Gobline Swampforest] completely, Treech turned and started towards a redwood tree at the edge of the forest. The tree looked very different from the rest of the redwoods. It had thick, spiral-staircase-like roots that curled up it, like a wizard's spire. Its branches towered over the area and its leaves far above were silver. The branches and bark were black as obsidian and there was no wildlife that grew around the base of the tree.

Treech approached the tree without hesitation and started walking up the roots that swirled around it. It was exactly like a staircase of black stairs. Prince couldn't help himself from asking about it. It was so different from the surrounding trees and unique.

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[Plant name]: Agarthan

[Type]: Tree

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"Sensei, what is this tree?"

Treech smiled slightly and dragged his hands across the tree, feeling the texture of its bark on his skin. He loved the feeling of bark on his hands, even if the sense of touch was minuscule.

"This is an Agarthan tree. Isn't it beautiful?"

Prince mimicked Treech and rand his finger, across the tree bark.

"Yes, it is."

Treech and Prince continued walking up the winding roots of the Agarthan tree. They ascended further and further upwards until they finally reached the first branch of the tree, about 250 meters off the ground.

"Sensei, could we have just cast a [Fly] spell to come up here?" Prince asked.

"Yes, but why would we miss out on the journey here. I am not in any hurry. Kid, if you think being efficient is the most important thing in life, you'll never find time to rest." Treech sat down on the branch and let his green legs hang off the side of the branch. Prince also followed after him, but he was just a blob and couldn't dangle his legs like him.

"But sensei, aren't you the number 1 player? Isn't that being the most efficient person in Yggdrasil?"

Treech shook his head.

"Honestly kid, I didn't even know there was a leaderboard until you mentioned it and I checked. What's the point in competing with others anyway. I'd rather challenge myself."

Prince's blob body rippled as he felt a sense of enlightenment course through him. He then took out a scroll and quill. His blob body morphed out 2 human-looking arms and hands. He picked up the quill and started to write down Treech's words in a hurried manner.

"Err, what are you doing?" Treech felt his face twitch as he watched Prince take out a scroll and start taking notes.

"Sensei, your words are too important. I wanted to write them down so that I can reflect on them. My job class is [Scribe] after all." Prince answered as he finished writing them down.

Treech caught a glance of the title of the scroll which was 'Teacher's Grand Wisdom Part 1' and his jaw slightly opened in exasperation. He was speechless. Why was his wisdom so grand, huh? But after a few moments, he recovered himself from the overzealousness of his 'student'. He knocked the blob on the head lightly.

"Do you really need to write that down? Damn kid, you make me feel like an old master. Could you not?"

Prince's blob body shook itself as if shaking his head no.

"Sensei, I want to remember your teachings. I need to always take lessons seriously." He said in a serious manner.

"What if I don't want you as my student?" Treech asked offhandedly.

Prince got quiet and didn't say anything for a bit. But eventually, he spoke up.

"Do you not want to teach me, sensei?" He asked in a depressed voice.

"*Sigh*, kid. I just don't know if I can teach you anything. Look, you seem like a nice kid. I don't mind you, but I'm not that great at teaching anything alright?" Treech tried to recover the poor mood in the kid. He honestly didn't mind him. He was a good kid, he just didn't want him to have any expectations for himself to sit down and teach the kid anything. He wasn't a babysitter.

Prince seemed to cheer up at the response and he started to bob around in excitement again. His orbiting rocks spun fast.

"I understand, sensei!" He then took out another scroll and started writing more down.

Treech took a peek at the scroll from the corner of his eye. It read: 'Teacher's Grand Wisdom Part 2: The Greatest Teacher is yourself'. Treech's eyelid twitched in annoyance before he sighed again in exasperation. He gave up, the kid seems hell-bent on taking all his words to heart.

Treech stood up from the branch and began to walk towards the end of it. A strong gust of wind burst past him, but he was not shaken at all by it. Prince followed behind him, looking off in the distance towards what looked like a small city.

"Sensei, what is that city in the distance?" Prince asked.

Treech looked in the distance as well. Of course, he knew about this city. He had plans for it after all. He had planned for the last month how he would take his revenge on the players that stole his items when he was dying. But the more he thought about it, the more his tired heart burned for something more. He felt compelled to go further beyond what was expected. He wouldn't just steal back the items he lost. That would be too easy and Treech didn't half-ass anything with his newborn resolve, ambition, and adventurous spirit. He planned to take over the city of [Forth Rite]. The entire small city with an NPC population of more than 50,000. It was a key point in between the 4th Zone and the 3rd Zone for Humanoid's and Demi-Humans to regear and keep their Satiety level high.

The greatest weakness of Humanoid and Demi-human classes was there was a Satiety bar and they needed upkeep or they would starve. Meanwhile, Treech and other Heteromorphs had this problem lessened or even removed entirely like the undead. Treech absorbed energy from the sun, and his other class absorbed energy from starlight. He basically never needed to eat.

So what if he was trying to do the impossible. To take an entire city in retribution for his stolen items. He was a man who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. He also felt excited beyond all he had in years. His heart ached for this excitement of overturning everyone's expectations. Of beating all the odds.

His eyes gleamed with a flash of excitement as he looked at the city.

"That is [Forth Rite City], it is a human and demi-human foothold at the edge of the 3rd Zone," Treech answered with a bit of excitement in his voice.

Prince, noticing the excitement in his sensei's voice, was confused.

"Is there something good there?"

"Not particularly" Treech responded.

"However, " He smiled in excitement. "It won't be here much longer."

"What do you mean?" Prince asked.

Treech didn't respond and just shook his head. He then continued walking down the branch of the Argarthan tree. At the end of the branch, there seemed to be a small constructed building made of black wood, and a garden was laid out in the area.

"Sensei, why is this building here? Isn't a part of the Agarthan tree?" He questioned.

"Haha, this is my temporary residence. And yes this is a part of the Agarthan tree."

"Sensei, did you manipulate the tree to form this shelter?"

"Haha, no. I made the tree." Treech answered before going inside nonchalantly.

He didn't notice that the gleam of adoration in Starlight Prince's eyes had grown even more after his comment.