Homesteading in a fantasy world

Goose and I were once again flying. My riding skill was slowly leveling up, but I don’t think I will be able to get to the basic rank during this outing. We headed towards the general direction of our next target.

We hadn't flown for too long before both of us could see a really obvious trail. It seems that these creatures could eat quite a lot of trees as they had basically created a straight line through the patches of forest in this area.

That was a bit peculiar because the information I got about these creatures was that they usually chased after unique or highly evolved trees. Yet, I could see quite a few interesting-looking rank two trees even in this rank one area and not too far away from the straight path the herd was currently following.

“Follow the cleared forest path towards the east,” I said to Goose. It took us about an hour to reach the creatures. Goose flew lower so I could get a better look. They were quite big but not elephant size.

They were walking in a straight line towards something while munching on tree trunks. They seemed to be using earth manipulation to constantly roll the tree trunks alongside themselves. I could see where the branches had broken off, but it seems that they were only interested in the trunk itself.

Some had multiple tree trunks following them like this. “Circle around them for a while,” I said to Goose while I continued to observe their behavior. The leader was easily identifiable. It was the biggest in the herd and about twice the size of the others.

It had dozens of tree trunks that it was rolling behind him. Some of the other members of the herd seemed to want to head off the current path they were following, but the leader made them return by pushing them back to the original heading using earth manipulation.

They were really good at earth manipulation, almost like it was as easy as breathing for them, especially for the leader. They were obviously not too worried about aerial assault, as it took the leader quite a while to notice us, but when it did, it became a little bit more wary of us.

"Goose, pick up some speed and swoop towards them, but get ready to dodge anything they might throw at us." Goose immediately followed my command, and we dived towards the herd.

Immediately, the leader made a powerful noise, which made the other members of the herd form a circular defensive area. When we got closer, I could see earth spikes being formed and then launched towards us.

They were too weak to even reach our current altitude, but those were the ones launched by the regular members. The leader launched multiple ones and he didn't stop. Those moved a lot faster and had a longer range, but Goose was fast enough and agile enough that it didn't matter.

We flew around them for two circles while they were trying to fend us off. Their fire rate reduced by quite a lot during this time, but it was obvious they could still continue for a while longer. "Goose, gain altitude and fly in ever-expanding circles." He did what I asked him to do, and soon I could see the herd continuing their trek. It was time to find out what they were going after.

I didn’t even have to say anything; Goose could pick up on my change of mood. He started to fly along the same path as the herd was taking. We had flown for a little over 30 minutes but covered quite a lot of land during this time.

I had yet to see anything too interesting, and we were already out of the outer circle. Then I saw it. I was using a specific combination of my abilities that would allow me to assess the overall tree quality from afar, but when my eyes landed on a small patch of forest, I was almost blinded.

It took me a bit of time to blink the spots out of my eyes. This time I didn’t channel so much energy into my ability, which allowed me to see the most wonderful young sapling.

Goose landed near it. Our presence did drive off a lot of wild animals who were a little too weak to try to challenge us. The tree itself was shorter than me, probably only two or three years old. It was the most wondrous thing I’ve ever seen.

It was like a mix between a crystal tree and a regular one. The leaves were deep green, but it looked a little bit sickly, and the bark was a mix of grey-yellow and cerulean-brown. The bark had a fractal pattern on it, but even more beautiful were the leaves, which were all a little bit different but also in fractal shapes.

I touched one of the leaves, expecting it to break, but it behaved exactly like a regular leaf. My brain was having trouble comprehending how the fractal leaves could move like that.

Goose shoved me quite hard with his beak. I was about to ask him why he did that when I realized how much time had passed. Goose also sent me images of him trying to communicate with me, but I had been non-responsive.

I looked back towards the tree, this time seeing the subtle energy and mana fluctuations coming off it. Perhaps this was why it was able to survive this long. It must have had some sort of passive mental snare, and that also explained why so many of the animals around it were just around it and were only frightened off when they noticed my presence.

It also seems that whatever effect it has, has a downside. The herd of creatures coming towards it have obviously learned how to sense special trees, and the leader seems to be strong enough to bypass whatever defensive measures this tree can exert. Perhaps when the leader got closer, it would succumb to the effect, but we would never find that out.

I looked at the tree, at the size of it, and how large its root network was. If it were a year older, I don’t think I could pull it off, but I think I could bring it back home. The mesmerizing effect was interesting, but that wasn't the tree's only extraordinary attribute.

It was definitely not a normal tree, and what I could glean shows that it is a lot stronger than any other tree I’ve come across, including the Iron Oak. It’s also still quite young, and from my limited experience, highly evolved plants and creatures sometimes only gain access to stronger or more unique attributes later in their life.

Currently, however, I could not bring this tree with me as I had some creatures to hunt, and they would weigh me down quite a lot. No, we would be picking up this tree when we were heading back home. It didn’t take Goose and me long to be back in the air and closing in on the herd's location. They were truly slow-moving, having advanced only a little bit while we were gone.

"Fly up and then dive down as fast as you can. Use a lot of wind manipulation," I said to Goose. He followed my instructions, and I pulled out the strongest spear I could afford on my fort shopping trip.

Only when Goose started to dive and use a lot of energy did I start to charge up the spear. It was in my right hand as I poured so much energy into it. The leader of the herd noticed us when Goose started to use his energy. It also masked some of my usage and made my spear look like a part of Goose’s energy manipulation.

The area below us was also flooded with a lot of energy, and dozens of large earth spikes started to fly towards us. If Goose continued his dive for too much longer, he would not be able to defend himself from the barrage of earth spikes flying towards us.

My spear, however, was now fully charged. I grabbed hold of the saddle with my left hand and sent the command to Goose. He banked down even further but also to the left.

The way he moved exposed me, allowing the enemy leader to finally see me. As soon as I could see my target, I threw the spear as hard as I could. With the multitude of abilities and the amount of energy used, the spear exploded towards the target.

It still had enough time to almost encase itself in hard earth, but it was a step too slow. My spear pierced the creature's weakest spot between its head and shoulder, where the armor needed to be flexible and because of that thinner. It was a close thing as I almost missed.

A second later, the spear exploded, taking out a large chunk of the creature's neck, but it was still moving and continued to attack us. Now, however, the attacks were weak. Goose and I, however, had other problems because he needed to pull out of the dive.

Now, I don’t know how many G-forces I experienced, but even for my body, I was brought close to blacking out. There was no need for a second attack on the leader because when we had circled back, the leader had bled out.

Finishing off the other five members was a lot easier, but now it was time for cleanup. Butchering creatures like this was completely different from what I had experienced before. The skin itself reminded me of scale armor as it was kind of flexible but not fully.

Fortunately, I had my adventurer pack, but after I had skinned all six creatures, it was close to full. Goose was feasting on the leader's meat, but now it was time for the dirtier job. I needed to cut the creatures open to get the crystal balls inside of them.

Fortunately, all of them were old enough that they all had at least three, but the leader had 12 and they were twice as big; one was even larger and had a slight blue hue. Otherwise, they were like white marbles.

I could also see why crafters wanted them. These crystals had really good energy throughput capability. If I had these when I was making my sword, I could have made it even easier to use my abilities with it. The large one with the blueish hue and six others went into my tattoo storage. The rest of them, unfortunately, I would need to give to the Fort to complete the quest.