Chapter 342.: Birch Scroll
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Is there enough space left? Dallion asked after he sent the last dryad scroll into the room.
While sending an item from one realm to another felt exciting the first time, it lost its appeal after a few hundred goes. By the time the one thousand mark was passed, it had become a dreary experience.
There’s room, the armadil shield replied. I’m not sure why you’d want to keep the history of a sword realm, though. But what do I know? Maybe you just like hoarding. That would definitely explain a thing or two.
Ha ha, Dallion sighed. Knowledge is power. There’s bound to be lots of useful information about the world’s past. Things that will help me move forward.
The same way there’s supposed to be something useful in the limiting echo’s scribbles? I didn’t even know you back when it influenced your behavior and yet you still keep that trash. Not to mention that you haven’t read it once. Gen has and even he agrees that you should trash it.
Yeah, you should trash it, Gen added. I’m with you on the dryad scrolls, though. Of course, you realize that only Shield can read them.
Just read the first and the last, Dallion grumbled.
Is that how you read all your scrolls? The armadil shield asked with, his voice full with just the right amount of mockery and humor to make it acceptable. There’s nothing mentioned about the real world in the first scroll. Just a record of everything that took place since the establishment of the realm. Apparently, along with the ten temples, there were three cities established to mark the start of the realm: Ashthorn, Birchgate, and Oakpoint. Pretty much that’s it so far. Well, that and a lot of details who the first rulers were, their advisors, and so on.
Any mention where the other two cities are?
Birchgate is at the hilt of the world, and Oakpoint is near the mountain of the third temple.
There was no mention of Lastport, so that had to be a city that was established later. That could only suggest that Oakpoint was destroyed long before that, possibly even before the war that had caused the destruction in the valley of despair. Maybe it was a result of local strives and politics, or maybe there was more to it than that. There was no way to tell for certain based on the current information.
Anything else?
Reading isn’t my thing, the shield replied. I just skimmed the start because I knew you’d ask. And yes, I’ll read through it, but don’t expect me to be fast.
That could have gone better, but at least there was no time constraint. It wasn’t like Dallion would need the information before the end of the festival. With the scrolls in his domain, the armadil shield had all the time in the world—which corresponded to a few weeks in the real world.
Taking the opportunity, Dallion returned to exploring the hidden realm. The collector in him didn’t calm down until he had gathered every scroll there was. After all, he could always return them if they ended up not being useful, or place them in some other realm altogether.
After a few hours, even Nil made a snarky comment regarding Dallion’s habit of hoarding. That didn’t stop Dallion, though it made him feel bad each time he discovered a new section. Among his new hoard, there was a considerable number of poetry and gardening scrolls—all written by prominent rulers of the realm, according to the dryad. Unfortunately, there weren’t any scrolls of practical knowledge. With magic replacing math and engineering, it was no wonder that there were no materials on those subjects, although Dallion would have appreciated a few fighting techniques. Clearly, that wasn’t the point of the library. Whoever had created it was simply a fan of history, literature, and culture.
Making a final sweep, Dallion was just about to leave, when his shardfly familiar suddenly fluttered to a section of the wall.
“What’s up?” Dallion asked. Out of habit, he combined his music and forging skills, but couldn’t see anything special, just a solid wall of wood.
“There’s an illusion,” the shardfly said, sounding only semi-convinced. “A good one.”
“You sure?” Dallion stepped there and placed his hand on the wall. The sensation was very real. “Feels pretty solid.”
“That’s why I said it’s a good one. When I was in the wilderness, I knew creatures who could do something like that. It feels real, but it isn’t. The only way to break it is to shatter the illusion’s barrier.”
“So, you’re telling me if I break the wall, it’ll break?”
“Hey!”
Dallion could mentally imagine her crossing her arms. Said out loud, it made little sense, but so far he had seen many things that didn’t make any sense. Besides, in all hidden realms he’d been there was a prize, and although he didn’t know the value of the dryad scrolls he’d taken, he suspected there was more.
“Nox,” Dallion said. “Care to do the honors?”
No, Harp interrupted from Dallion’s realm. Nox will damage whatever’s there. The illusion isn’t cast over a barrier, it’s cast over an item. The only way to shatter it is through music.
You can do that?
You can do a lot of things with music that you don’t know about.
Quite the reassuring thought. If only Dallion’s level was a bit higher, maybe he’d even find out what she meant. If he was still favored by the Moon he might have even now.
Dallion summoned the harpsisword and played a chord. For a moment it seemed that a connection was established between the weapon and the wooden wall. Before he could repeat the process, though, the thread between them snapped.
That was unusual. Dallion tried the process a few more times, to no success.
Don’t think of it as a wall, Harp said in her usual melodious fashion. Think of it as a piece of cloth in your way. What you need to do is use your music as a needle to go between the threads and unravel the illusion.
As she spoke, the wall slowly changed appearance. A mesh composed of minuscule threads became visible. Now that Dallion knew what he was supposed to be looking at, he was finally able to see it. A new set of markers appeared, moving along the strings of the harpsisword like shifting dials. Matching them was going to be considerably more difficult than anything that Dallion had attempted, and so he got right to it. The melody was more like a string solo than a chord. Regardless, Dallion matched the markers best he could. It took him a few tries to get the hang of it. When he did, a blue thread emerged from the tip of the harpsisword, weaving its way into the wall. Then came the hard part—moving the thread further in. Every combination of strings was like a command directing the thread to move up or down, left or right, front or back. Every turn, every motion had to be measured perfectly or the mesh would tear. Using instances Dallion had seen the consequences.
Second after second, the thread kept on moving further in, forcing Dallion to move closer to the wall so as to see what was going on.
Now unravel it, Harp said.
Dallion winced, trying to see where the knot was. Focusing whatever willpower he had, he split into four instances as he tried to tackle the problem. When that failed, Dallion split into four new instances and tried again; and this time, he succeeded. The knot gone, the mesh dissolved like a knitted scarf after an encounter with a kitten. Part of the wall morphed into yet another scroll, this one birch white.
Relief and exhaustion mixed together as Dallion sat on the ground. Even twenty-three mind wasn’t enough to the pressure, although the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as Dallion feared it would be.
“Nice trick,” Gleam said. “I need to spend more time with Harp. She knows her stuff.”
“I’ll be sure to let her know,” Dallion said, then slowly stood up. The headache was gone, although he still felt a bit shaky. Nothing that some rest wouldn’t fix. Before that, it was time to see what he had spent so much effort on.
What does it say? Dallion took the white dryad scroll.
The Birch Crown, the armadil shield translated. Catchy.
Anything you’re familiar with?
Must be something local. Never heard anything called that.
I’ll leave it to you to decipher it, Dallion activated Vermillion’s tears, in an attempt to transfer the item into his own realm. Nothing happened. Or rather, the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly, an invisible force sent Dallion flying back across the room. Instantly, Lux emerged wrapping, himself around Dallion in an attempt to prevent the impact. Even so, the firebird only managed to cushion Dallion’s crash against the wall.
COMBAT INITIATED
What the heck?! Dallion summoned the harpsiswird back to his hands. Instinct took over, making him split into three instances. All three saw the same thing—an albino dryad dressed in full birch armor standing on the other side of the room.
SCROLL PROTECTOR - VJARA
Species: BIRCH DRYAD
Class: SHADOW
Stats: 80% HP
Skills:
-Entangle
-???
-Attack
-Guard
-???
-Acrobatics
-Athletics
Weak Spots: ???
What’s a birch dryad? Dallion asked. The white rectangle had too many question marks for his liking. The fact that he was facing a protector, however, was enough to provide a hint of what was in store. Protectors were always stronger than guardians, and based on the dryad’s skills, by quite a lot.
Get out. There was fear in the shield’s voice. Leave the realm and return to the real world.
Before Dallion could respond, the birch dryad charged at him. As far as he could see, she didn’t have any weapons. One moment later and that statement was no longer true.
MEDIUM WOUND!
Your health has been decreased by 10%
Dallion didn’t even see what hit him. The only thing he knew was that he received damage despite having split into instances. His opponent was in a league of her own, bypassing his defenses as if they were paper.
“That’s not yours,” the protector said.
The air in front of her blurred.
Let me go, Harp said.
Dallion’s instinct of self-preservation must have been stronger than his conscious self, since before he could realize what had happened, a birch sword stopped inches from his face. The only reason it stopped there was because it was blocked by a blade of water.
The nymph guardian of the harpsisword had made an appearance again, as had—to Dallion’s surprise—the armadil shield. Both guardians filled the gap between the protector and Dallion, each with weapons at the ready.
This was the difference in skill—large but not unsurmountable. Dallion knew enough to know he couldn’t take them on just yet, but at the same time, he felt that day not to be too far off. With his familiars and high-level equipment, he could probably present a challenge after half a dozen levels or even less. Most important of all, Dallion now realized what had eluded him for so long: fighting came in many forms, not all of them physical.
“They’re all dead,” Dallion said.
This gave the protector pause. Seeing that she couldn’t break through Dallion’s defense of guardians, she leaps back, the weapons once again disappearing from her hands.
“The realm has been barren for millennia. Only the guardians are left, and even they are losing to the crackings.”
“You’re not supposed to be here,” the protector noted. Calmness emanated from her very being, calmness and a deep sadness of fate.
“Probably not, but neither is anyone else. I’m the first of the seven major races that has set foot here for thousands of years. The entire dryad race has been banished. There’s no one to come for what you guard.”
There was no music added to Dallion’s words, just the conviction of truth.
“He has empathy,” the protector said.
“He has,” the armadil shield said in unusually formal fashion. “But he cannot use it.”
“Is that why you’ve come, human? To learn?”
Dallion wanted to say yes, that he wanted to learn as much as possible about this place, the Moons, and so much more. Instead, the words that came out of his lips were “I don’t know.”
“Then you’ll have to find out,” the protector said. “And return here when you do.”
You have left the Realm of the Aura Sword
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
Is there enough space left? Dallion asked after he sent the last dryad scroll into the room.
While sending an item from one realm to another felt exciting the first time, it lost its appeal after a few hundred goes. By the time the one thousand mark was passed, it had become a dreary experience.
There’s room, the armadil shield replied. I’m not sure why you’d want to keep the history of a sword realm, though. But what do I know? Maybe you just like hoarding. That would definitely explain a thing or two.
Ha ha, Dallion sighed. Knowledge is power. There’s bound to be lots of useful information about the world’s past. Things that will help me move forward.
The same way there’s supposed to be something useful in the limiting echo’s scribbles? I didn’t even know you back when it influenced your behavior and yet you still keep that trash. Not to mention that you haven’t read it once. Gen has and even he agrees that you should trash it.
Yeah, you should trash it, Gen added. I’m with you on the dryad scrolls, though. Of course, you realize that only Shield can read them.
Just read the first and the last, Dallion grumbled.
Is that how you read all your scrolls? The armadil shield asked with, his voice full with just the right amount of mockery and humor to make it acceptable. There’s nothing mentioned about the real world in the first scroll. Just a record of everything that took place since the establishment of the realm. Apparently, along with the ten temples, there were three cities established to mark the start of the realm: Ashthorn, Birchgate, and Oakpoint. Pretty much that’s it so far. Well, that and a lot of details who the first rulers were, their advisors, and so on.
Any mention where the other two cities are?
Birchgate is at the hilt of the world, and Oakpoint is near the mountain of the third temple.
There was no mention of Lastport, so that had to be a city that was established later. That could only suggest that Oakpoint was destroyed long before that, possibly even before the war that had caused the destruction in the valley of despair. Maybe it was a result of local strives and politics, or maybe there was more to it than that. There was no way to tell for certain based on the current information.
Anything else?
Reading isn’t my thing, the shield replied. I just skimmed the start because I knew you’d ask. And yes, I’ll read through it, but don’t expect me to be fast.
That could have gone better, but at least there was no time constraint. It wasn’t like Dallion would need the information before the end of the festival. With the scrolls in his domain, the armadil shield had all the time in the world—which corresponded to a few weeks in the real world.
Taking the opportunity, Dallion returned to exploring the hidden realm. The collector in him didn’t calm down until he had gathered every scroll there was. After all, he could always return them if they ended up not being useful, or place them in some other realm altogether.
After a few hours, even Nil made a snarky comment regarding Dallion’s habit of hoarding. That didn’t stop Dallion, though it made him feel bad each time he discovered a new section. Among his new hoard, there was a considerable number of poetry and gardening scrolls—all written by prominent rulers of the realm, according to the dryad. Unfortunately, there weren’t any scrolls of practical knowledge. With magic replacing math and engineering, it was no wonder that there were no materials on those subjects, although Dallion would have appreciated a few fighting techniques. Clearly, that wasn’t the point of the library. Whoever had created it was simply a fan of history, literature, and culture.
Making a final sweep, Dallion was just about to leave, when his shardfly familiar suddenly fluttered to a section of the wall.
“What’s up?” Dallion asked. Out of habit, he combined his music and forging skills, but couldn’t see anything special, just a solid wall of wood.
“There’s an illusion,” the shardfly said, sounding only semi-convinced. “A good one.”
“You sure?” Dallion stepped there and placed his hand on the wall. The sensation was very real. “Feels pretty solid.”
“That’s why I said it’s a good one. When I was in the wilderness, I knew creatures who could do something like that. It feels real, but it isn’t. The only way to break it is to shatter the illusion’s barrier.”
“So, you’re telling me if I break the wall, it’ll break?”
“Hey!”
Dallion could mentally imagine her crossing her arms. Said out loud, it made little sense, but so far he had seen many things that didn’t make any sense. Besides, in all hidden realms he’d been there was a prize, and although he didn’t know the value of the dryad scrolls he’d taken, he suspected there was more.
“Nox,” Dallion said. “Care to do the honors?”
No, Harp interrupted from Dallion’s realm. Nox will damage whatever’s there. The illusion isn’t cast over a barrier, it’s cast over an item. The only way to shatter it is through music.
You can do that?
You can do a lot of things with music that you don’t know about.
Quite the reassuring thought. If only Dallion’s level was a bit higher, maybe he’d even find out what she meant. If he was still favored by the Moon he might have even now.
Dallion summoned the harpsisword and played a chord. For a moment it seemed that a connection was established between the weapon and the wooden wall. Before he could repeat the process, though, the thread between them snapped.
That was unusual. Dallion tried the process a few more times, to no success.
Don’t think of it as a wall, Harp said in her usual melodious fashion. Think of it as a piece of cloth in your way. What you need to do is use your music as a needle to go between the threads and unravel the illusion.
As she spoke, the wall slowly changed appearance. A mesh composed of minuscule threads became visible. Now that Dallion knew what he was supposed to be looking at, he was finally able to see it. A new set of markers appeared, moving along the strings of the harpsisword like shifting dials. Matching them was going to be considerably more difficult than anything that Dallion had attempted, and so he got right to it. The melody was more like a string solo than a chord. Regardless, Dallion matched the markers best he could. It took him a few tries to get the hang of it. When he did, a blue thread emerged from the tip of the harpsisword, weaving its way into the wall. Then came the hard part—moving the thread further in. Every combination of strings was like a command directing the thread to move up or down, left or right, front or back. Every turn, every motion had to be measured perfectly or the mesh would tear. Using instances Dallion had seen the consequences.
Second after second, the thread kept on moving further in, forcing Dallion to move closer to the wall so as to see what was going on.
Now unravel it, Harp said.
Dallion winced, trying to see where the knot was. Focusing whatever willpower he had, he split into four instances as he tried to tackle the problem. When that failed, Dallion split into four new instances and tried again; and this time, he succeeded. The knot gone, the mesh dissolved like a knitted scarf after an encounter with a kitten. Part of the wall morphed into yet another scroll, this one birch white.
Relief and exhaustion mixed together as Dallion sat on the ground. Even twenty-three mind wasn’t enough to the pressure, although the pain wasn’t nearly as bad as Dallion feared it would be.
“Nice trick,” Gleam said. “I need to spend more time with Harp. She knows her stuff.”
“I’ll be sure to let her know,” Dallion said, then slowly stood up. The headache was gone, although he still felt a bit shaky. Nothing that some rest wouldn’t fix. Before that, it was time to see what he had spent so much effort on.
What does it say? Dallion took the white dryad scroll.
The Birch Crown, the armadil shield translated. Catchy.
Anything you’re familiar with?
Must be something local. Never heard anything called that.
I’ll leave it to you to decipher it, Dallion activated Vermillion’s tears, in an attempt to transfer the item into his own realm. Nothing happened. Or rather, the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly, an invisible force sent Dallion flying back across the room. Instantly, Lux emerged wrapping, himself around Dallion in an attempt to prevent the impact. Even so, the firebird only managed to cushion Dallion’s crash against the wall.
COMBAT INITIATED
What the heck?! Dallion summoned the harpsiswird back to his hands. Instinct took over, making him split into three instances. All three saw the same thing—an albino dryad dressed in full birch armor standing on the other side of the room.
SCROLL PROTECTOR - VJARA
Species: BIRCH DRYAD
Class: SHADOW
Stats: 80% HP
Skills:
-Entangle
-???
-Attack
-Guard
-???
-Acrobatics
-Athletics
Weak Spots: ???
What’s a birch dryad? Dallion asked. The white rectangle had too many question marks for his liking. The fact that he was facing a protector, however, was enough to provide a hint of what was in store. Protectors were always stronger than guardians, and based on the dryad’s skills, by quite a lot.
Get out. There was fear in the shield’s voice. Leave the realm and return to the real world.
Before Dallion could respond, the birch dryad charged at him. As far as he could see, she didn’t have any weapons. One moment later and that statement was no longer true.
MEDIUM WOUND!
Your health has been decreased by 10%
Dallion didn’t even see what hit him. The only thing he knew was that he received damage despite having split into instances. His opponent was in a league of her own, bypassing his defenses as if they were paper.
“That’s not yours,” the protector said.
The air in front of her blurred.
Let me go, Harp said.
Dallion’s instinct of self-preservation must have been stronger than his conscious self, since before he could realize what had happened, a birch sword stopped inches from his face. The only reason it stopped there was because it was blocked by a blade of water.
The nymph guardian of the harpsisword had made an appearance again, as had—to Dallion’s surprise—the armadil shield. Both guardians filled the gap between the protector and Dallion, each with weapons at the ready.
This was the difference in skill—large but not unsurmountable. Dallion knew enough to know he couldn’t take them on just yet, but at the same time, he felt that day not to be too far off. With his familiars and high-level equipment, he could probably present a challenge after half a dozen levels or even less. Most important of all, Dallion now realized what had eluded him for so long: fighting came in many forms, not all of them physical.
“They’re all dead,” Dallion said.
This gave the protector pause. Seeing that she couldn’t break through Dallion’s defense of guardians, she leaps back, the weapons once again disappearing from her hands.
“The realm has been barren for millennia. Only the guardians are left, and even they are losing to the crackings.”
“You’re not supposed to be here,” the protector noted. Calmness emanated from her very being, calmness and a deep sadness of fate.
“Probably not, but neither is anyone else. I’m the first of the seven major races that has set foot here for thousands of years. The entire dryad race has been banished. There’s no one to come for what you guard.”
There was no music added to Dallion’s words, just the conviction of truth.
“He has empathy,” the protector said.
“He has,” the armadil shield said in unusually formal fashion. “But he cannot use it.”
“Is that why you’ve come, human? To learn?”
Dallion wanted to say yes, that he wanted to learn as much as possible about this place, the Moons, and so much more. Instead, the words that came out of his lips were “I don’t know.”
“Then you’ll have to find out,” the protector said. “And return here when you do.”
You have left the Realm of the Aura Sword
Is there enough space left? Dallion asked after he sent the last dryad scroll into the room.While sending an item from one realm to another felt exciting the first time, it lost its appeal after a few hundred goes. By the time the one thousand mark was passed, it had become a dreary experience.There's room, the armadil shield replied. I'm not sure why you'd want to keep the history of a sword realm, though. But what do I know? Maybe you just like hoarding. That would definitely explain a thing or two.Ha ha, Dallion sighed. Knowledge is power. There's bound to be lots of useful information about the world's past. Things that will help me move forward.The same way there's supposed to be something useful in the limiting echo's scribbles? I didn't even know you back when it influenced your behavior and yet you still keep that trash. Not to mention that you haven't read it once. Gen has and even he agrees that you should trash it.Yeah, you should trash it, Gen added. I'm with you on the dryad scrolls, though. Of course, you realize that only Shield can read them.Just read the first and the last, Dallion grumbled.Is that how you read all your scrolls? The armadil shield asked with, his voice full with just the right amount of mockery and humor to make it acceptable. There's nothing mentioned about the real world in the first scroll. Just a record of everything that took place since the establishment of the realm. Apparently, along with the ten temples, there were three cities established to mark the start of the realm: Ashthorn, Birchgate, and Oakpoint. Pretty much that's it so far. Well, that and a lot of details who the first rulers were, their advisors, and so on.Any mention where the other two cities are?Birchgate is at the hilt of the world, and Oakpoint is near the mountain of the third temple.There was no mention of Lastport, so that had to be a city that was established later. That could only suggest that Oakpoint was destroyed long before that, possibly even before the war that had caused the destruction in the valley of despair. Maybe it was a result of local strives and politics, or maybe there was more to it than that. There was no way to tell for certain based on the current information.Anything else?Reading isn't my thing, the shield replied. I just skimmed the start because I knew you'd ask. And yes, I'll read through it, but don't expect me to be fast.That could have gone better, but at least there was no time constraint. It wasn't like Dallion would need the information before the end of the festival. With the scrolls in his domain, the armadil shield had all the time in the worldwhich corresponded to a few weeks in the real world.Taking the opportunity, Dallion returned to exploring the hidden realm. The collector in him didn't calm down until he had gathered every scroll there was. After all, he could always return them if they ended up not being useful, or place them in some other realm altogether.After a few hours, even Nil made a snarky comment regarding Dallion's habit of hoarding. That didn't stop Dallion, though it made him feel bad each time he discovered a new section. Among his new hoard, there was a considerable number of poetry and gardening scrollsall written by prominent rulers of the realm, according to the dryad. Unfortunately, there weren't any scrolls of practical knowledge. With magic replacing math and engineering, it was no wonder that there were no materials on those subjects, although Dallion would have appreciated a few fighting techniques. Clearly, that wasn't the point of the library. Whoever had created it was simply a fan of history, literature, and culture.Making a final sweep, Dallion was just about to leave, when his shardfly familiar suddenly fluttered to a section of the wall.What's up? Dallion asked. Out of habit, he combined his music and forging skills, but couldn't see anything special, just a solid wall of wood.There's an illusion, the shardfly said, sounding only semi-convinced. A good one.You sure? Dallion stepped there and placed his hand on the wall. The sensation was very real. Feels pretty solid.That's why I said it's a good one. When I was in the wilderness, I knew creatures who could do something like that. It feels real, but it isn't. The only way to break it is to shatter the illusion's barrier.So, you're telling me if I break the wall, it'll break?Hey!Dallion could mentally imagine her crossing her arms. Said out loud, it made little sense, but so far he had seen many things that didn't make any sense. Besides, in all hidden realms he'd been there was a prize, and although he didn't know the value of the dryad scrolls he'd taken, he suspected there was more.Nox, Dallion said. Care to do the honors?No, Harp interrupted from Dallion's realm. Nox will damage whatever's there. The illusion isn't cast over a barrier, it's cast over an item. The only way to shatter it is through music.You can do that?You can do a lot of things with music that you don't know about.Quite the reassuring thought. If only Dallion's level was a bit higher, maybe he'd even find out what she meant. If he was still favored by the Moon he might have even now.Dallion summoned the harpsisword and played a chord. For a moment it seemed that a connection was established between the weapon and the wooden wall. Before he could repeat the process, though, the thread between them snapped.That was unusual. Dallion tried the process a few more times, to no success.Don't think of it as a wall, Harp said in her usual melodious fashion. Think of it as a piece of cloth in your way. What you need to do is use your music as a needle to go between the threads and unravel the illusion.As she spoke, the wall slowly changed appearance. A mesh composed of minuscule threads became visible. Now that Dallion knew what he was supposed to be looking at, he was finally able to see it. A new set of markers appeared, moving along the strings of the harpsisword like shifting dials. Matching them was going to be considerably more difficult than anything that Dallion had attempted, and so he got right to it. The melody was more like a string solo than a chord. Regardless, Dallion matched the markers best he could. It took him a few tries to get the hang of it. When he did, a blue thread emerged from the tip of the harpsisword, weaving its way into the wall. Then came the hard partmoving the thread further in. Every combination of strings was like a command directing the thread to move up or down, left or right, front or back. Every turn, every motion had to be measured perfectly or the mesh would tear. Using instances Dallion had seen the consequences.Second after second, the thread kept on moving further in, forcing Dallion to move closer to the wall so as to see what was going on.Now unravel it, Harp said.Dallion winced, trying to see where the knot was. Focusing whatever willpower he had, he split into four instances as he tried to tackle the problem. When that failed, Dallion split into four new instances and tried again; and this time, he succeeded. The knot gone, the mesh dissolved like a knitted scarf after an encounter with a kitten. Part of the wall morphed into yet another scroll, this one birch white.Relief and exhaustion mixed together as Dallion sat on the ground. Even twenty-three mind wasn't enough to the pressure, although the pain wasn't nearly as bad as Dallion feared it would be.Nice trick, Gleam said. I need to spend more time with Harp. She knows her stuff.I'll be sure to let her know, Dallion said, then slowly stood up. The headache was gone, although he still felt a bit shaky. Nothing that some rest wouldn't fix. Before that, it was time to see what he had spent so much effort on.What does it say? Dallion took the white dryad scroll.The Birch Crown, the armadil shield translated. Catchy.Anything you're familiar with?Must be something local. Never heard anything called that.I'll leave it to you to decipher it, Dallion activated Vermillion's tears, in an attempt to transfer the item into his own realm. Nothing happened. Or rather, the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then suddenly, an invisible force sent Dallion flying back across the room. Instantly, Lux emerged wrapping, himself around Dallion in an attempt to prevent the impact. Even so, the firebird only managed to cushion Dallion's crash against the wall.COMBAT INITIATEDWhat the heck?! Dallion summoned the harpsiswird back to his hands. Instinct took over, making him split into three instances. All three saw the same thingan albino dryad dressed in full birch armor standing on the other side of the room.SCROLL PROTECTOR - VJARASpecies: BIRCH DRYADClass: SHADOWStats: 80% HPSkills:-Entangle-???-Attack-Guard-???-Acrobatics-AthleticsWeak Spots: ???What's a birch dryad? Dallion asked. The white rectangle had too many question marks for his liking. The fact that he was facing a protector, however, was enough to provide a hint of what was in store. Protectors were always stronger than guardians, and based on the dryad's skills, by quite a lot.Get out. There was fear in the shield's voice. Leave the realm and return to the real world.Before Dallion could respond, the birch dryad charged at him. As far as he could see, she didn't have any weapons. One moment later and that statement was no longer true.MEDIUM WOUND!Your health has been decreased by 10%Dallion didn't even see what hit him. The only thing he knew was that he received damage despite having split into instances. His opponent was in a league of her own, bypassing his defenses as if they were paper.That's not yours, the protector said.The air in front of her blurred.Let me go, Harp said.Dallion's instinct of self-preservation must have been stronger than his conscious self, since before he could realize what had happened, a birch sword stopped inches from his face. The only reason it stopped there was because it was blocked by a blade of water.The nymph guardian of the harpsisword had made an appearance again, as hadto Dallion's surprisethe armadil shield. Both guardians filled the gap between the protector and Dallion, each with weapons at the ready.This was the difference in skilllarge but not unsurmountable. Dallion knew enough to know he couldn't take them on just yet, but at the same time, he felt that day not to be too far off. With his familiars and high-level equipment, he could probably present a challenge after half a dozen levels or even less. Most important of all, Dallion now realized what had eluded him for so long: fighting came in many forms, not all of them physical.They're all dead, Dallion said.This gave the protector pause. Seeing that she couldn't break through Dallion's defense of guardians, she leaps back, the weapons once again disappearing from her hands.The realm has been barren for millennia. Only the guardians are left, and even they are losing to the crackings.You're not supposed to be here, the protector noted. Calmness emanated from her very being, calmness and a deep sadness of fate.Probably not, but neither is anyone else. I'm the first of the seven major races that has set foot here for thousands of years. The entire dryad race has been banished. There's no one to come for what you guard.There was no music added to Dallion's words, just the conviction of truth.He has empathy, the protector said.He has, the armadil shield said in unusually formal fashion. But he cannot use it.Is that why you've come, human? To learn?Dallion wanted to say yes, that he wanted to learn as much as possible about this place, the Moons, and so much more. Instead, the words that came out of his lips were I don't know.Then you'll have to find out, the protector said. And return here when you do.You have left the Realm of the Aura Sword
