Book 13: Chapter 52: Clean-Up

Path of Dragons

After spending nearly an hour scrubbing months’ worth of grime from his body, Elijah settled down to deal with the hunger gnawing at his belly. When he’d looked in the mirror, he had been appalled to see the deterioration of his body. What little fat he’d cultivated over the years was entirely gone, and his muscles had all but melted away. His cheeks were hollow, and his eyes were so deeply set that his head looked like a skull.

Every rib was visible beneath his skin, and even his hair had begun to fall out in clumps. His lips were cracked, and his tongue had swollen to nearly twice its size.

It should not have been surprising. He’d gone without food or water for months. The fact that he was still alive was a testament to his attributes and advanced cultivation. However, what was shocking was the fact that he didn’t feel all that bad. If called to battle, he could have exhibited most of his normal strength, and he suspected his endurance was similarly unaffected.

That brought to mind a few questions about how long it would take for him to starve to death. Years, perhaps? Decades? If he’d been conscious, the effects would have been nearly overwhelming. Even now, having endured it for only a couple of hours, his cramping stomach was painful enough to become distracting.

Thankfully, he had plenty of meat stored away in his Arcane Loop. He descended upon it without hesitation, barely even tasting it. A good thing, too, because his lack of cooking ability and the monstrous source gave it an acrid taste that was anything but pleasant.

He ate nearly twenty pounds of meat and drank a dozen gallons of water before he felt sated.

Only in the aftermath did the lethargy set in. But before he could allow himself to rest, Elijah chose to check Druhmor for further development. He transformed into the Shape of the Sky, then flew over the transformed and verdant landscape.

It didn’t take Elijah long to see that it remained mostly untouched. However, there were two problems that became apparent.

The first was predictable. The meticulous design of the vegetation had grown wilder, which resulted in slightly less effectiveness. Even if he’d left it for centuries, the foundation of runic growth would remain in place, but every root or stem that grew even slightly out of place served to decrease the efficiency of the overall formation.

Elijah would need to see to that soon, but it could wait until after he’d rested.

The same could not be said for the second problem. Outside the outer circle of trilithons were hordes of monsters. They continuously attacked the stone monuments, which surprisingly held firm against the assault. But Elijah knew that wouldn’t remain the case indefinitely.

He needed to stop them, and sooner rather than later. Otherwise, he might find the entire array deactivated.

So, he descended among them and began a vicious campaign of extermination.

Immediately, he noticed a couple of differences. The most impactful among them was that he could now cast up to four spells simultaneously, which made fighting in his human or draconic form much easier. He could keep multiple healing spells going at any given time, and without sacrificing the ability to cast offensive spells like Eternal Plague, Lightning Domain, or Nature’s Claim.

The second major difference came in the form of his ability to regenerate ethera. Not only had his apertures widened, but each of the spores also acted as miniature cores, passively absorbing ethera from the environment and storing the resulting energy. If he had to guess, his capacity to regenerate ethera had increased by at least three times – which was no small difference. It allowed Elijah to cast far more aggressively without sacrificing longevity.

In addition, Elijah found that his new emerald mind facilitated the maintenance of multiple threads of thought. That had always been a hallmark of mind cultivation, but attaining the new tier made it that much easier.

And finally, Elijah could sense that the clouds of spores had altered things even further. Not only did they help with regeneration, but they also acted as a buffer against pain. He still felt it, but it was almost like it was happening to someone else.

When they were overwhelmed, the spores died, only for another to take their place in a cycle of renewal that would persist so long as the spores continued to regenerate. The capacity wasn’t infinite, but Elijah suspected it would create a much more effective barrier than simply quarantining the pain.

After a little prodding, Elijah also began to suspect that it might provide limited protection against mental attacks. He already had that ground covered with his Antlers of the Wild Revenant, but it was always nice to double up. Especially against something as insidious as mental attacks.

As Elijah fought, he couldn’t help but feel that his thoughts were clearer as well. His processing speed was faster – almost like he was under the effects of Shape of Embers, which quickened his reflexes. In short, it was as if every aspect of his mind had been improved.

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Killing the monster horde didn’t feel as dangerous as it could have been, but it still took a significant amount of time. Gradually, he whittled them down – relying on his soul and the residual effect of the nearby trilithons to weaken them – until, at last, he’d cleared the infestation.

The whole time, he lamented the fact that he couldn’t currently gain any levels, because he’d killed at least as many monsters after reaching the limit of ascendency than he had in the previous two-hundred-and-fifty levels combined.

Maybe some of that experience would carry over, though Elijah wasn’t going to hold his breath for that. After all, the only reason he’d gained a few extra levels upon leaving the mortal realm behind was because the system itself had given him a reward for topping the Trial of Primacy.

That wasn’t the case in this instance.

Regardless, once Elijah had finished exterminating the monsters, he returned to the center of Druhmor and deployed his tent. After taking another shower, he slipped inside and, at last, allowed himself to rest.

For the next few weeks, he slept more than sixteen hours a day, rising only to ensure that another monster horde hadn’t arrived. A few creatures attacked, but dealing with those wasn’t particularly difficult. He also spent a few hours each day tending to the surrounding garden, using Nature’s Design to correct the wild growth and get everything back on track.

But considering the scope, he knew it would take years to complete that particular task.

And finally, he spent some time each day extending his soul into the ancestral tree sapling. Doing so allowed him to guide its growth in a way that he never could have achieved otherwise, though it still put a significant strain on his mind. He could bear it, but not comfortably.

Like that, weeks passed, and Elijah slowly regained his rhythm. More importantly, his body continued to strengthen as his diet of monster meat gradually put on the pounds. His meals also had the distinction of being full of ethera and vitality – not to the degree of Chef-prepared fare, but still enough to put him on the right track toward full recovery.

Eventually, his sleep schedule reduced to a mere four or five hours a night, and that only to give his mind the rest it needed to function at peak efficiency. The extra time went towards exercise, recovery – both in terms of his body as well as his surroundings – and funneling vitality into the growing tree.

The last part was the most important aspect, because the touch of Elijah’s soul also imprinted upon it, infusing it with his essence and extending to it a connection that felt almost as profound as the one binding him to his grove.

But there was also something else in there. A seed of that unidentifiable energy Elijah had begun to think of as an echo of the World Tree’s spirit. With each passing day, it grew deeper, ever striving to cross the line between the abstract and something far more solid.

It still had a long way to go before it reached that mark.

Elijah’s whole plan hinged on reclaiming a piece of the excised world, and he was well on his way. However, he knew that if he let up for even a moment, it would begin to lose ground. Perhaps it would take years for the abyss to degrade what he’d created, but it would still eventually consume everything in Druhmor.

And he didn’t know how to stop it.

The tree was the crux of his plan. It was the source of his hope. And yet, he feared that everything would fail.

If that happened, years would be wasted.

Decades, maybe.

All he could do was keep going forward, though. It was a good thing, then, that he was accustomed to doing just that.

Rote repetition became Elijah’s guiding star. His days were well structured, and he rarely deviated from his schedule. Each day started with extermination, progressed into tending to Druhmor, and soon deviated into personal growth. Those sessions usually focused on physical exercise – such that he could manage it – or meditation.

After having progressed his body, mind, and soul, Elijah’s next task with cultivation was to upgrade his core. To that end, he concentrated on cycling ethera through his core and expanding its capacity. Such exercises had been a constant companion for years – ever since he’d begun preparing for the second stage, so long ago – and he hoped they would lay the foundation for the next step.

But he also knew that Gorveth simply lacked the power to push him forward. Perhaps he’d need to find something else off-planet if he wanted to take the next step in his core cultivation.

And that was assuming he could reach an epiphany and discover the method.

No – it wouldn’t happen soon, that was for sure. But nothing worthwhile ever came without time or struggle. So it would be with his core cultivation.

The same could be said of everything else about his current project. The weight of the massive undertaking pressed down on him a little more with every passing week. But it was countered by satisfaction, especially concerning Druhmor, which continued to thrive. The atmosphere grew denser with ethera and vitality as the vegetation truly took hold of the land.

But Elijah knew something was missing.

So, about eighteen months – at least as far as he could tell – after he’d cultivated his emerald mind, Elijah started experimenting with hybridization. In that endeavor, he began to incorporate traits from the Abyssal Moat’s plants into the vegetation from Druhmor. Most of his attempts were failures, but they also represented lessons learned.

Elijah gradually made progress until, nearly two years later, he finally found a breakthrough. There was no great epiphany. No eureka moment. Instead, it was a tiny adjustment among tens of thousands of others just like it.

But the result was profound.

He looked down at the resultant flower, which straddled the line between vitality and abyssal energy. It harnessed the latter, filtering and cleansing it until only pure ethera remained. And that, it converted into vitality.

If Elijah was right, it was a breakthrough that could change everything.

But it was still just a flower, and an unstable lifeform at that. It wouldn’t last, and it was incapable of reproduction. However, as a proof of concept, it represented a hope that should not have existed on an excised world like Gorveth.

In the wake of his elation, Elijah felt an overwhelming surge of depression. Even his breakthroughs were undercut by the situation. Suddenly, the weight of his isolation began to press down on him.

For the next week or so, he slowly cycled those feelings through his emerald mind. Spores were destroyed. Leaves were discarded. But the pressure was persistent enough that he could never fully rid himself of it.

People weren’t meant to exist alone.

And Elijah had no one. He had nothing but his work. And that was an extremely difficult existence to endure.

His depression lasted for months – during which he continued his research and his other work – until, at last, something changed.