EU: Chapter 027 | Spell Windfall

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[to be edited]

‘Where is he?’ Raepekka cautiously eyed his surroundings during dinner time. However, there was no sign of anyone who could have been the individual he was looking for, ‘Have I gone delusional out of desperation?’

For a moment, he considered as such before slowly shaking his head, ‘No, I’m not that desperate. I’ve already come to terms with my situation.’

‘I’m pretty sure about what I felt back then.’ He recalled the moment he came in contact with the block of wood. It was subtle, but his mind had felt clearer.

The difference was similar to arriving at a village after living in a city and now breathing in the fresh, non-polluted air.

Raepekka watched as the soldier left and the Elves filed into their cells one after another, too tired to even think or care about him. Or rather, they didn’t even notice that he remained on the ground floor.

Raepekka was confident and no longer second-guessed himself. He exercised patience and soon, was rewarded. There was a gentle draft of wind as he heard someone landing before him. A second later, light beamed onto his face, highlighting the features of an Elf he had never seen before.

‘That…That’s insane!’ The light source was the other party’s Status Screen. The contents displayed on it shocked Raepekka, giving him hope. Gradually, a seed of confidence in the other party took root in his heart.

[Name: Virchuka]

[Race: Elf]

[Authority: Wood]

[Control Factor: 2]

[Weight Factor: 240]

[Volume Factor: 8]

[Range Factor: 44]

[Speed Factor: 8]

[Creation Factor: 12]

[Spell: -]

Using the Spell of Status Epidermis, Pinaka had created a fake identity. And of course, to create a bigger impact, he had boosted the stats to a decently high extent.

Using his ‘Status Window’ as a source of illumination, Pinaka extended a block of wood. The moment Raepekka touched it, the Status Window disappeared. Now, they could converse without worries.

[Who are you? I never saw you before.]

Raepekka opened with a question.

[Do you wish to waste time knowing about me? Or do you plan to survive?]

Came the response from Pinaka, shutting Raepekka. There was an awkward silence between the duo following that.

‘I can’t seem to picture this Elf’s motives.’ Raepekka thought when suddenly, a warm pair of fingers touched his next. Immediately after, he was neither able to breathe nor utter a cry for help. It was as if his windpipe was blocked, and something similar had happened in his buccal cavity. He was unable to suck in air even through his mouth.

In a matter of seconds, Raepekka collapsed to the floor, knocked unconscious.

‘Alright, that went smoothly.’ Pinaka crouched and placed his hand on Raepekka’s throat to mend the damage. Through his power, he ensured the latter was able to breathe smoothly now.

Pinaka then sealed shut Raepekka’s lips, eyelids, and ears. He did the same to the latter’s limbs too, ensuring Raepekka would be unable to resist or figure out what was happening.

If Pianka had used wood for the task, Raepekka would obviously undo it, easily so. In terms of stats, Raepekka was superior. The moment they had a contest of authority, Pinaka’s bluff would be called out.

Hence, Pinaka used his authority over flesh to seal shut the other party’s senses and also merged the ends of the limbs in a similar fashion.

“Urgh! This isn’t easy.” He felt some revulsion to do this instinctively. But he didn’t try to suppress himself and instead freely accepted whatever he planned to become, ‘I must freely accept everything I do with my authority, whether good, bad, or ugly.’

Pinaka piggybacked Raepekka and walked out of the tunnel. Upon arriving at his hectare land, he began to climb up the wall, ‘It’s hard doing this while carrying someone.’

[Spell: Root Glove!]

Pinaka used a wood belt to strap Raepekka better on his back as he climbed the wall. And then, in the same fashion and route as before, he exited the prison, “Gah!”

He was gasping towards the end, having spent two whole hours in the travel. The climb up and down was especially the hardest.

Thud!

He landed on the ground, raising a small ash cloud. To protect himself from it, he had already covered his body with a thin layer of skin. It was part of his disguise. Once he was done here, he would shed the skin like a snake, roll it into a small ball and feed it to a wheat stalk in his farm.

He exercised utmost caution, since a single misstep could screw him up completely, ‘But there’s n guarantee that I can do this indefinitely. I already feel stifled with such a life.’

‘I’ll leave this place as soon as possible!’ With a firm will, he touched the shrub next to his feet. And then, he created a similar shrub and planted it on the ground. The shoot of the shrub looked the same, but its roots were steadily extending in length.

He currently had a Range Factor of 8, so the roots could burrow to a depth of eight metres. Once it had done so, the roots expanded in size. The roots had coiled to resemble a sphere in the earth. And as they increased in size, the sphere expanded radially, pushing the earth away.

Even a blade of grass could grow out of concrete. Slowly pushing away something during their growth was the strongest trait of a plant. Hence, Pinaka was employing the same instead of trying to dig.

The deeper one went, the harder it became to dig. Only the topsoil could be removed with a shovel. Once you hit the gravel, it was a strenuous activity.

Since he had a better alternative, Pinaka unhesitantly used it. The roots grew in thickness and expanded, pushing the earth to the side. They expanded horizontally, and hence, no mound formed on the surface.

‘I see,’ He noticed an issue immediately. As the roots became thicker, the overall volume they occupied continued to increase. And soon, it reached a cubic metre in volume. Pinaka was unable to increase their size anymore.

The roots had to expand radially to create some open space. Without a volumetric expansion, there was no choice but to dig manually. The greatest force exertion from a plant was when it grew in size.

‘Mahnaka told me to limit my Volume Factor to 1. But his explanation makes no sense.’ Pinaka frowned, ‘Even if my stats in Volume Factor increases, I can control how much of it I employ.’

‘Did he misinterpret the usage of Volume Factor?’ Suddenly, he felt a chill, ‘Or was it on purpose?’

‘It’s great I didn’t tell him anything.’ Letting a sigh in relief, Pinaka extracted most of the Wood from the shrub’s roots. He divided it up into many pieces, morphed them into shrubs similar to the ones in proximity and casually scattered them across the ground.

They will soon wither up and die. It was like throwing hay among a pile of hay. No one will notice anything was amiss.

In the underground, at a depth of seven metres from the surface, was a bunker that was a cubic metre in size. It was enough space for Raepekka to hide within when necessary.

Once that was ready, Pinaka unsealed Raepekka’s senses and then slapped the latter awake.

“W-Where am I?” Raepekka asked in a fluster, noticing that his feet were no longer in contact with stone. He extended his hand and came in contact with a shrub, immediately feeling strength surge through him.

The shrub morphed in shape and covered his body like armour. Bark-like extensions covered the armour, ready to break and fall off the moment they sustained damage. By doing so, they absorbed all the damage dealt to the armour, whether it be physical impact or even fire.

“Relax, I’m not your enemy.” Pinaka whispered, “And don’t raise your voice. There are soldiers all around the place.”

Raepekka was pretty alert to his surroundings. A glance around and he understood the situation upon spotting the various watchtowers, “Where are we?”

“Right outside the prison,” Pinaka said, “But only the prison that held us. There seem to be plenty more alike. And there’s no telling how far we are away from truly becoming free.”

“If I’m not free,” Raepekka thought for a moment before asking, “The humans will notice my disappearance and they’ll start searching for me soon.”

“You needn’t worry about that.” Pinaka let out a chuckle, “Do you know why I knocked you unconscious?”

“Please tell me.” Raepekka became attentive. In his opinion, the Elf named Virchuka was extremely arrogant and somehow oozed confidence in his self. ‘I asked a question before, and he refused. Well, I better take whatever explanation he gives me.’

“I used a small piece of the World Tree Fruit on you after cutting open your body.” Pinaka said casually, as if he were talking about adding salt to a soup, “The upper half that’s alive is you, after your legs were regenerated.”

“The lower half regenerated an upper body, but it had no life. And that corpse of yours remains in the cell.” A pause later, Pinaka expressed with mild arrogance, “The Humans won’t realise the truth unless you’re stupid enough to reveal yourself.”

“What do you seek from me?” Raepekka asked. Gratitude filled his expression as he understood what Pinaka had done to free him from the prison, “I know you didn’t help me for free.”

“I need you to do two things.” Pinaka raised two fingers, as if expecting it, “First, I want you to live in hiding here, expand an underground tunnel, and gather information about this place. I’ll come here from time to time, and we’ll exchange information to plan an eventual escape.”

“Alright,” Raepekka performed a formal bow, “I’ll do a great job at it, sir.”

“Second,” Pinaka wriggled his middle finger, “Show me all your Spells.”

“What?” Raepekka gawked for a moment, thinking, ‘Was this his real reason? I noticed he didn’t have any Spells when he displayed his Status Window. With stats like that, he’ll be killed the moment he shows it to a Human. So, if he’s living in hiding successfully, nothing is stopping him from making Spells.’

“Shouldn’t you be able to create whatever you want…” Raepekka paused, feeling a mild headache as thoughts clashed in his head with a cacophony. He understood Pinaka’s motives, “Your Spell ideas are shit, so you want mine.”

“More like I only intend to have the best.” Pinaka shrugged casually, “I’m searching to see if I can find any Spells better than mine, though I have yet to see success in that regard.”

“I heard something interesting from your discussion and on a whim, I saved you.” He concluded.

“I will teach it to you.” Raepekka didn’t argue. He was just glad to have been given hope to live.

He grabbed a shrub and extended it to Pinaka, using two abilities when the latter touched it, “Do you understand its functions?”

“Yeah, it’s decent, I guess.” Pinaka then pointed at the bunker, “I made that place for you. Go inside now.”

“Okay,” Raepekka slid into the bunker and closed the wooden hatch shut. The shrub on it wriggled under his power, scooped the ash to cover the hatch better, and then slightly expanded in size to completely camouflage the place.

The branches of the shrub had holes in it, similar to a straw. They maintained air circulation inside the bunker.

It was too dark to see. Hence, Pinaka wasn’t worried about his Spell of Root Glove being witnessed by Raepekka and quickly scaled up the wall. Once he began to make his way back, he couldn’t control is excitement, ‘Oh…MY…GOODNESS!’

‘I struck gold with this spell!’ It was a decent Spell at Level 1. But at Level 2, with Creation involved, the Spell was so insane that his brain formulated dozens of ideas in a matter of minutes, ‘I want to try it soon!’

[Spell: Wood Ski]

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Gangnea Daily Article #27

Spells are activated and unleashed in a tenth of a second. But a Spell can be used only when the stats support it. This is where Speed Factor comes into effect, considered the most important Factor in a battle. To record a Spell, the time available is a second. But to use the Spell, the available time is 0.1 seconds.

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