Path of Dragons

“I’m never drinking again,” Elijah muttered to himself as he lay in his bed of moss. Massaging his temples, he refused to open his eyes. He’d made that mistake once already, and even the gentle light from the glowing flowers on the ceiling was enough to send spikes through his hungover brain. Taking a deep breath, he used Soothe, but even that was only marginally effective. So, he cast Nature’s Bloom, and, at last, his roiling stomach and the pounding pain behind his eyes subsided. He took a deep breath, then sat up.

He felt gross.

And lethargic, despite his efforts at healing himself.

That was the problem with drinking high-grade liquor. It cut right through his enhanced Constitution, even resisting his healing spells. By any measure, it was a poison – just one whose effects were slightly more enjoyable than most. At least in the moment. The aftereffects were markedly less pleasant. If most people drank what he’d drunk, they would’ve had to deal with more than simple inebriation. Someone like Miguel would have died in minutes.

Smacking his dry mouth, he reached over to his Endless Canteen and took a sip – an effort to wash the disgusting taste out of his mouth. He was unsuccessful, but with every pulse of Soothe, Elijah felt a bit better. So, he dragged himself out of bed and immediately went to his shower, where he let the scalding water as well as his rejuvenating soap do its work. When he finally stepped from the bathroom, he almost felt human again.

After dressing, he headed into the kitchen, where he immediately got to work on the most important cure for his hangover – coffee. By the time he planted himself in his favorite chair on the balcony and took the first sip, most of the aftereffects of the party had faded. In their place was mingled determination and embarrassment at the night’s antics.

There was a reason that, after college, he’d mostly given up on serious drinking. Multiple reasons, in fact. The first was the simple knowledge that it wasn’t good for him. Back then, he’d used alcohol – and other inebriants – to mask the lingering issues that had cropped up from his parents’ deaths. The responsible and oft-ignored well-adjusted part of him knew that wasn’t healthy, so he’d moved on from that phase of his life.

But more importantly, drinking always brought out the worst parts of his personality. Even in the best of times, Elijah was a quirky and acquired taste. When he drank, though? He was much worse, and more than anything, embarrassment loomed large in his memories of those days.

So, it was a bit surprising that he’d gone so hard during Miguel’s coming-of-age celebration. He’d refrained from drinking too much while his nephew was still around, but the moment Miguel had wandered off – either to train or sleep – Elijah had started drinking far more heavily.

Thankfully, the rest was a blur. Hopefully, he hadn’t made too much of an ass of himself, though he didn’t much stock in that hope.

Over the next half hour, Elijah enjoyed two cups of coffee as he sat back and appreciated the early morning atmosphere of the grove. Nerthus was already up and about, working on the garden. He’d expressed to Elijah his plans to rework the grove, and while Elijah would miss the rows of bushes he’d planted in the very beginning, he’d been convinced of the potential benefits the change could bring. The same was true of the rest of the island, which would be far less cultivated, but still be structured according to Nerthus’ plan. According to the spryggent, that would hasten the process of increasing the ethereal density – which Elijah could certainly get behind. Still, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss when he considered the planned changes.

Perhaps Nerthus would manage to retain the place’s wild aura.

In any case, Elijah couldn’t afford to add micromanagement of the grove to his list of tasks. He already had plenty on his plate as it was, so he’d decided to give Nerthus free rein when it came to the grove and the surrounding island. He trusted the spryggent, after all.

By the time Elijah had finished his coffee, the other residents of the grove were up and about, though, thankfully, no one was in the mood for socializing. That wasn’t surprising, given that, aside from Miguel, they’d all had far too much to drink. Even Nerthus had tried a sip of some sort of liquor Colt had acquired. It had not gone well, with the spyrggent immediately passing out. More distressingly, quite a few of the plants in the area had reacted to the event by quivering out of control.

Fortunately, that had only lasted a couple of minutes until Elijah had healed Nerthus – which sort of defeated the purpose of drinking, but in that situation, he thought that was a good thing.

With those memories in mind, Elijah started on his errands. The first stop was to start the process of creating lye, which only took about half an hour before he was forced to wait while the ash soaked. After that, Elijah flew to Ironshore, where he took Carmen’s advice and hired the goblin Leatherworker, Gavina. She’d actually gained a few levels since his last conversation with his sister-in-law, so Gavina was the same level as the other Leatherworker in town.

“Are you sure you want me to work with this?” Gavina asked, her voice a bit raspy due to her goblin heritage. She was short, even for her race, with huge, bat-like ears and a surprisingly dainty nose. Unlike most goblins, her complexion trended more toward blue than green. She ran her hand along the rolled-up boar hide, adding, “This is better than any material I’ve ever worked with. I might ruin it.”

“There’s a lot of leather there,” Elijah said. The boar had been enormous, after all. “I’m not saying you should waste it, but maybe you should start with armor padding. I think Carmen’s going to be coming to you in the next day or so. Use the excess for that.”

“I still don’t know…”

“And there’s enough material for a few attempts. Don’t sweat it,” Elijah said. “I believe in you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“Right. Well…that’s true. But I still believe you can do the job!” he said. “I’ve heard good things. You’re an up-and-comer.”

She sighed. “This is a lot of pressure.”

“Pressure makes diamonds.”

“Actually, it’s heat and pressure and –”

“My point is that you’ve got this,” Elijah interrupted.

“You’re not going to kill me if I fail, right?” she asked. “I mean to say – I appreciate the work. It’s a great opportunity. But there’s a chance I’ll fail, and I don’t want you to eat me if I do. Respectfully. I’d rather just not take the job. But then again, maybe refusing the commission will also get me eaten. I’m in a tight spot, I guess is what I’m saying.”

“Eat you?” Elijah asked, his jaw dropping. “I don’t eat people!”

“That’s not what I heard. Respectfully.”

“Respectfully,” he echoed, annoyed. “You heard wrong.” He shook his head. It almost felt like his hangover was coming back, even though he knew that wasn’t possible. “I swear to you – I don’t just kill people for that kind of thing. And I don’t eat people.”

“If you say so…”

After that, Elijah managed to persuade the goblin Leatherworker to take on the job, paying her far more than he probably should have. Was it a negotiation tactic, then? Or was she truly frightened? Elijah had no idea, but if it meant being done with the uncomfortable conversation, he had no issues with throwing money at the problem.

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In any case, he’d managed to accomplish the first goal. He knew the next step was going to be even more uncomfortable. Still, it had to be done, so he returned to the Imperium and let Gwenivere and John know that he wasn’t going to be able to help their people anytime soon. He’d already said as much, but he wanted there to be no confusion about his priorities going forward. Surprisingly, though they were obviously disappointed, they took the news well enough.

So, once all of that was finished, Elijah headed for the next item on his to-do list. He needed to get stronger, and there was only one way to accomplish that goal. He had access to a tower – and it just so happened that there was no one inside at the moment, so it was time he used it.

With that in mind, he headed into the Keledge Tower.

Fortunately, he was intimately aware of the tower’s ins and outs, and given that he didn’t care about his grade, the run was both brutal and efficient. He killed everything, soaking in the experience as he slaughtered his way through the tower. The tower still scaled to his level, so the enemies inside were powerful enough to give him a challenging fight. However, he knew precisely how to attack each level, so he had few issues with finishing it in only a few days.

And though the combination of escalating experience requirements and the decreasing rewards for running a tower multiple times minimized his gains, Elijah still managed to reach his goal. Level ninety.

Which gave him a new ability:

Bestial Charge

Charge an opponent. Shielded from harm while charging. Maximum distance based on Strength. Current: 138 feet. Shield efficacy based on Constitution. Only usable while under the influence of Shape of the Guardian.

It wasn’t a flashy ability, but it was useful. He’d long hoped for some way to close distance with his opponents – especially in his lamellar ape form – so it definitely filled a gap in his toolkit. Upon testing Bestial Charge, Elijah had found that it worked precisely as he’d hoped, and though it was a little difficult to control, he felt confident that once he got the hang of it, it would become a vital part of his tactics.

After he left the tower, he was happy to find that Miguel’s efforts in cultivation had proceeded well. The young man still hadn’t actually taken the first steps, but according to Nerthus, he was close to that point.

Elijah spent a bit of time making more lye for his soap before using Roots of the World Tree to head back to Argos. Once there, he found a very irritated Sadie Song waiting for him at the Temple of Virtue, where he quickly learned she’d spent most of the past week healing anyone who visited.

Upon retreating into one of the rooms they’d set up for more intense healing sessions, he apologized for leaving on such short notice. “I had some issues at home that I needed to take care of,” he said. “I panicked a little, and I’m sorry. I hope you’ll forgive me.”

She responded, “Do I have a choice? We need your help. There’s not much we won’t put up with if it means you’ll assist us in saving Hong Kong.”

“About that…”

Elijah went on to explain that he wouldn’t be able to help until after the Trial of Primacy, which was met with exactly the sort of response he’d expected. Sadie was not happy with him, but given that the situation would get no worse until after the Trial, she wasn’t as upset as she might have been. So, she accepted his excuses, saying that she intended to participate in the Trial as well.

“You seem surprised.”

Elijah admitted that he was, adding, “I thought you’d be…I don’t know…I guess I’m not sure what I thought.”

“The Trial of Primacy will be a good place to make contact with powerful people,” she explained. “Also, I need to be stronger. Already, I feel like I’m being left behind, now that I’m not fighting zombies every day.”

It was a surprisingly open moment from her, and Elijah didn’t know how to respond to the lack of overt animosity. So, he just nodded, saying, “We all need to get stronger. I don’t know what comes after this Trial of Primacy, but I’d be willing to bet things are going to get worse before they get better. We’re building toward something. I just don’t know what. In any case, I’ll do everything I can to help you and Dat during the Trial.”

She promised to do the same, and after that, the conversation petered out into awkward silence. Elijah excused himself soon after that and went in search of two people. First was Agatha, who he hired to prepare his rations. She was the best cook he knew, and what’s more, she seemed to like him. So, he wasn’t averse to paying her quite a lot of money to create pork jerky from the boar’s meat. She was happy to do it, too, saying that it would help her level.

Elijah found his next target in a nearby gambling establishment. Predictably, Wilhelm had used his newfound freedom to embark on a quest to lose whatever money he’d managed to stash away. Elijah had seen the man pocketing a few bits and pieces from the boar, which he’d presumably sold as soon as Elijah’s back was turned. Surprisingly, Wilhelm had actually hit a bit of a winning streak, multiplying those few silvers into quite a stockpile of gold. So, he was very upset when Elijah dragged him from the gambling hall and into the wilderness. He was less upset when they found a powerful intersection of ley lines that would serve as an appropriate location for a teleportation apparatus.

So, Wilhelm marked it with an anchor, then activated some sort of ethereal beacon that would guide the construction team there. They couldn’t actually build the apparatus yet – they didn’t have everything worked out – but Wilhelm hadn’t gambled all his time away. Instead, he’d been working on a report based on watching Elijah’s Roots of the World Tree spell that he hoped would be the missing link for the teleportation process.

Elijah hoped so, too. His plans to position Argos as a trade hub depended on it.

Either way, that satisfied the last item on his to-do list, so Elijah returned to the grove so he could embark on the next – and most time intensive – part of his preparations.

He needed to push his core to the next level of advancement.

That would require him to be at his best, so he spent the next day secluded in his treehouse, cycling his core while eating as many grove berries as he could handle. That influx of ethera pushed his core to unprecedented density, which he held in place as he headed toward the cultivation cave.

It wasn’t easy. In fact, holding that much ethera in place was incredibly painful, and it made him feel like he was on the verge of bursting like an overfilled balloon. Yet, Elijah hoped it would make the next part more effective, so he endured the bloated agony as he swam through the underwater cave. Along the way, he noticed the steadily rising ethereal density until, when he reached the cave itself, it felt almost suffocating. Even though he didn’t need to breathe – courtesy of the Ring of Aquatic Travel – Elijah still felt like he was drowning.

It was precisely what he needed, though.

For the past couple of weeks, he had felt like he’d reached the absolute limit of what his core could handle. Cycling in a normal environment wouldn’t do much good anymore. Indeed, even the ethereal density of his grove was insufficient. Thankfully, though, the ambient ethera of the cave was much thicker.

Hopefully, it would be enough.

So, as he floated in the center of the cave, he closed his eyes and began to cycle. At first, it felt like trying to work out after running a marathon, and it only got more difficult from there. One rotation after another, he stirred his ethera, pulling even more into his core. It was like trying to mix molasses, it was so difficult to move, and in the beginning, he felt that he’d made a mistake, that he wasn’t ready.

But Elijah persisted, sinking into the meditative state he’d practiced so often. And though the process didn’t get any easier, his persistence paid off by helping him cope with the hardship.

After the first day, Elijah recognized that, as powerfully dense as the ethera in his cultivation cave was, there was a good chance that it wouldn’t be enough. The requirements to push his core to the next level were unreal, telling him that it would be quite some time before anyone else on Earth reached the second stage of core cultivation.

One day turned into two, and two into three. And by the time the first week had passed, Elijah couldn’t help but wonder if he’d allocated enough time to complete the process. He couldn’t worry about that, though. Instead, he continued to eat the berries, which wasn’t nearly as appetizing as it normally was, given that he got some saltwater along with each bite. They did provide nourishment and, perhaps more importantly, sent even more ethera surging through him.

By the end of the second week, Elijah was nearing the end of his endurance. Or that was what he thought until that week turned into another. Each moment inched him closer to his goal. His core continued to expand, bit by bit, and despite his exhaustion, he knew he couldn’t afford to stop. If he did, he would lose most of his progress, and he didn’t relish the notion of starting over. More importantly, he didn’t have that kind of time.

So, he continued to cycle his core, drinking in the ambient ethera along the way. Fortunately, the cave had reached the point where it created a perpetuating cycle of ethereal renewal, and it replaced most of the energy he absorbed.

Finally, at the beginning of Elijah’s fourth week of cycling his core, he felt it shift. Suddenly, it expanded of its own volition. It felt like he was on the verge of exploding, the energy inside of him was so intense. He screamed in pain as it tried to rip him into a thousand pieces.

And then, just as the pain reached a crescendo, everything – his senses as well as his mind – went dark. It only lasted a moment before his perception returned. He fell to the ground, his body slapping against what felt like cold tile. That’s when he opened his eyes.

His jaw dropped as he looked around, but he didn’t get a chance to take it all in before a voice drew his attention.

“I thought it would take you longer to reach this point,” it intoned. “I suppose congratulations are in order. Welcome to the Empire of Scale, whelp.”

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