Path of Dragons

The sun shone bright in the clear, blue sky as Elijah padded across the tundra. His steps were so light that he barely even left prints across the snow, but even as cautious as he was, he still moved quickly enough that, within a couple of hours of sunrise, he spotted the first sign of civilization when he saw a dark plume of smoke twisting in the air. Soon after, a series of buildings came into view.

Reminiscent of the architecture of the ulthrak village, the buildings’ walls were composed of thick, grey hide stretched across a bone frame. However, the basic construction was where the resemblance ended. Instead of being low-slung dwellings, the ones arrayed around a shallow bay were octangular structures that stood on tall pylons. Between the buildings stretched a series of rope bridges, across which scurried a population small, blue figures.

Elijah stopped a few hundred yards away and, after letting Shape of the Predator lapse, returned to his human form. He crouched low, planting himself behind a snowdrift. Thus concealed, he waited on his Ethera to regenerate. As he did, he once again lamented his lack of appropriate clothing. With his Constitution, he could withstand the biting cold, but it wasn’t pleasant. So, the few minutes he spent waiting left him shivering uncomfortably.

Still, he refused to accelerate his schedule, which hinged on him having a full core before he took even the most basic actions. So, he waited patiently, slowly pulling Ethera through the funnel of his mind. Without any outside stimuli to distract him, he could bolster his Regeneration via meditation. The effect wasn’t so dramatic as to double the speed with which he could refill his core, but it was still significant enough to show a noticeable benefit.

Gradually, his core refilled, and when it reached saturation, he poked his head over the snow drift and used Eyes of the Eagle to get a better look at the creatures he expected would be his opponents.

They were water goblins, he was certain. Blue-skinned, with long arms and squat legs, they moved like primates. However, with Eyes of the Eagle, Elijah could see gills running just below their sharp jaws. In addition, they were equipped with bat-like ears, short, stubby noses, and sharp teeth. In short, aside from the gills, posture, and blue skin, they looked remarkably similar to the goblin intruder who’d helped kill the panther back on his island.

And yet, there was something different about them, too. They were more animalistic. Feral, almost. More than once, Elijah saw one member of the community growl and attack another. It was like they were primal versions of the comparatively more civilized goblin he’d previously encountered.

Or perhaps he was simply seeing what he expected to see. After all, he knew what these water goblins had done to the ulthrak village. And he knew why.

The idea of anyone raiding a community of sentient creatures just to harvest their hides was absolutely abhorrent. Further disgusting Elijah was the giant whale carcass lying on the icy beach on the other side of the bay. Water goblins scurried all over it, hacking away with primitive tools they used to harvest meat, blubber, and skin. It didn’t take him long to connect the grey hide that comprised the walls of the village’s buildings with the similarly hued skin of the whale.

Of course, whaling wasn’t terrible, in and of itself. People needed to eat, and in a primitive culture like the goblins’, whaling may very well have been the only real source of food. However, judging by the gleeful shouts coming from the harvesting goblins, there was more to it than that. Besides, he was well aware of his own personal bias which emanated from predatory whaling practices back on Earth.

Elijah watched and waited, spending quite some time studying the village. The goblins might have been primitive, but they were clearly sapient and organized, as evidenced by the community they had created. However, the longer Elijah watched them, the more he felt secure in his decision to side with the ulthrak.

But for the life of him, he couldn’t quite pinpoint why he felt that way. On the surface, they just looked like a normal – if primitive – people. Sure, he was probably biased against them due to what they’d done to the ulthrak, but there was far more to it than that. He felt it in his bones that they were the enemy.

And then he realized what it was.

The blue-skinned goblins were all wearing leather armor.

Armor that was obviously made of ulthrak hides.

The moment Elijah realized the origin of his disdain, the feeling intensified. No one had ever told him what it meant to be a druid, but his archetype wasn’t simply a line on his status and a few useful spells. It meant more than that. Back in the ulthrak village, he’d discovered that healing was part of it, but he was also a defender, wasn’t he?

Looking at the goblins, he was reminded of how he felt about the settlement across the strait from his island. They weren’t interested in living with the land. Nor were they concerned with conservation. Instead, they only took, harvesting whatever they needed and leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.

It wasn’t environmentalism that he cared about. Not really – or not as he would have thought of it before the Earth’s inclusion in the wider universe. Rather, it was about balance. And finding a way to live with the world in a mutually beneficial way rather than simply consuming whatever you needed to let you gain power.

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As he sat there watching the village, Elijah considered his feelings. But by the time night fell, he’d gotten no closer to true understanding. However, what he had realized was that he needed to kill the goblins. Part of it was due to the task set by the System, but it was also because he needed to stay true to his druidic calling.

So, when night fell, he used Shape of the Predator and, leaving his pack of supplies behind the snowbank, set off toward the goblin village. As he did so, he cloaked himself with Guise of the Unseen.

Silent and all but invisible, he approached the village. Many of the goblins had already retired for the night, but there were a few still up and about. Guards, perhaps. Regardless, Elijah’s vendetta was indiscriminate.

With surety of purpose, he stalked his first victim, passing under the houses as he crept from shadow to shadow. Soon enough, the blue goblin had separated itself, and he pounced, using Predator Strike.

It was over before the goblin ever knew what had happened. It fell, disemboweled by Elijah’s first attack, and with its throat slit by the second. Its aquamarine blood pooled on the snow as Elijah dragged it into the shadows beneath one of the buildings.

After that, Elijah continued his task, and the goblins fell, one after another. None of them even knew he was there, much less tried to defend themselves. Thus, the power of his class truly became evident.

As he swept through the village, silently slaughtering water goblins, he was too focused to consider the morality of his actions. However, after he’d killed the final creature, he stumbled across the building where they butchered and skinned the ulthrak they’d taken prisoner.

After that, any sympathy he might’ve felt dissipated before the harsh reality of their actions. Only after he had seen that grisly charnel house did Elijah get a notification from the System:

Congratluations! You have completed Level One of Keledge Tower. Grade: A To progress further, find the portal to Level Two.

Then, a small box appeared before him. It was a simple, metal cube about four inches wide, but it radiated enough Ethera to surprise Elijah. He leaned forward, sniffing it, but even with his panther’s senses, he smelled nothing out of the ordinary. So, he let Shape of the Predator drop before reaching down and flipping the box’s latch. It sprang open, revealing a simple pewter ring.

Elijah took it, resulting in a new notification:

Reward for completing Level One of Keledge Tower: Ring of Aquatic Travel

The ring itself was carved with fanciful whorls, but otherwise, it looked entirely ordinary. Elijah slipped it on, but felt nothing. The last time Elijah had acquired a magical item, he’d gotten a description. But perhaps that was because he’d created the Staff of Natural Harmony himself. Either way, aside from making an inference based on the ring’s name, Elijah had no idea what the ring really did.

He would do some testing once he made it out of the tower.

In the meantime, he needed to find the portal to the next level. To that end, he searched through the village once again. However, he found nothing, so he expanded his parameters to the small bay abutting the settlement.

The moment his feet touched the water, he felt a thrum of Ethera emanating from the center of the bay. It didn’t take a leap of logic to recognize what it meant. The portal to the second level was down there.

Groaning, he said, “Swimming again? Ugh.”

As much as he didn’t want to do it, Elijah knew he didn’t have much of a choice. So, after heading back to the snowbank where he’d spent most of the day observing the water goblin village, he retrieved his supplies and ate his fill. Fortunately, the water of the bay was fresh, so he’d already sated his thirst.

Odd, sure. But he wasn’t going to question something that worked in his favor. The last thing he wanted to do was melt snow just so he could get a drink.

With that done, Elijah checked to make sure that his Ethera had completely regenerated, then set off back to the bay. When he reached it, he waded in, and once the frigid water reached his midsection, he dove in.

It was not pleasant.

In fact, his entire body went numb after only a few seconds. With the knowledge that he didn’t have much of a choice at the forefront of his mind, he forged ahead. Using the pulse of Ethera as his guide, he continued to swim until, a few dozen yards later, he was directly above it. Not wasting any time hesitating, Elijah dove.

It only took a few seconds to recognize the portal. This time, it presented itself as a stone doorway, its corners twisted in such a way that he struggled to make sense of it. But he didn’t care about that. With the cold sapping his energy, Elijah didn’t have the luxury of time on his side. So, he swam down and passed through the door.

Then, he was once again plunged into impenetrable darkness.

However, this time, it didn’t fade.

Instead, a brief stab of light pierced Elijah’s eyes, and suddenly, he felt an incredibly strong undertow pulling him down. He fought against it, using every point of his enhanced Strength attribute as he swam against the current, but it was useless. He couldn’t escape. He couldn’t even fight to a standstill.

Instead, the inexorable current continued to pull him into the watery abyss.

Panic suffused Elijah’s mind as his oxygen ran out. But to his surprise, it didn’t matter. That was when he remembered the name of his reward for completing the tower’s first level. The Ring of Aquatic Travel clearly gave him the ability to survive underwater.

Still, as Elijah was slowly pulled ever downward, his panic did not subside. Even if he wasn’t going to drown, he had no idea what to expect next.

Some indeterminate time later, Elijah hit something solid.

But it wasn’t the silt he would have expected. Instead, it was stone. Gradually, his eyes began to adjust, and what he saw shocked him to his core.

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