3 The Mystic Orchard

While informative, Hadorix found that Junifer was not very encouraging. Hadorix decided it would be wise to at least try out his abilities. He started by summoning his familiar. A small fluffy brown and white chipmunk appeared on his shoulder. Looking at it Hadorix laughed a bit, he could not imagine how a chipmunk would be able to help him. But it made for a good mascot he supposed. It was then that he heard a voice in his head.

"I am your familiar Monk. Our life forces are tied together so I will level as you do, but I do not have any combat skills at present. I can be your eyes and ears though. No one ever suspects the cute lil chipmunk."

Hadorix replied, "It is great to meet you Monk. I am new to this Archdruid thing. It will take me awhile to get used to hearing your voice in my head. But it is pretty awesome that we can talk. Do you have any tips for me?"

Monk replied, "I just became your familiar, I have no clue what you can do, and I am new to this world too. Prior to joining you I was running around with my friends on the aptly named planet Familiar. We can get to know this place together. From reading your file, you came from Earth. Never heard of it. That is okay though, we will figure it out. Looks like you have the vine lady following. Hopefully, she doesn't become a pain."

Hadorix laughed and decided to try shapeshifting. He thought shapeshift into a lion. Then a puff of green smoke came out of his body and he became a massive golden lion. The transformation was instant and painless. Monk still resided on his shoulder. As Hadorix ran ahead Junifer could not help but laugh. A chipmunk riding a lion. Who had ever seen such a thing? Monk was clearly new to lion riding; he was nearly thrown off with every lopsided bound Hadorix made. Four legs did not function the same as two. This would be a rather fun trip.

Anyone watching the trio would have been confused. After all, how many times in life do you see a chipmunk riding a lion with a dryad chasing behind them?

They soon arrived at The Mystic Orchard. This would be the place Hadorix would call home. He recognized the green walls from his last journey here. He hoped this trip would be far more comfortable, and end with less obduction…

Junifer lead him around to the gate and brought him into the city. Well, Hadorix used the term city very loosely. There were a few shacks with a larger shack in the center. He knew Druids wanted to be one with nature and all, but this took minimal living to a whole new level. Junifer took him into the slightly larger shack in the center. Once inside, he could see the people that he had knocked out bound in vines and sleeping on the floor. As he was told there was a man, he did not recognize with them. There were also 4 spirit guards. Hadorix had never seen them before either. They all looked like Junifer. The main difference was color. While Junifer was green, one was red, one blue, and one jet black.

Hadorix continued to analyze the room. The World Tree had told him to place the soul stones in the throne after all. He wanted to find it. With his analysis of the room all he could see was a small hole in the center. It was around the size of the handle of Tree Slayer. Hadorix thought for a bit. Tree Slayer was his gift from The World Tree, it was also the symbol of the Archdruid. He shifted back into a human and placed the handle into the hole. When he did, the ground opened and revealed a hidden staircase.

Hadorix went down the stairs. When he reached the bottom, he could barely see anything in the darkness. Somewhere ahead he could make out a gem shining in the dark. Hadorix shifted back into a lion and chose to go toward it. Lions could see better in the dark. When he arrived, he realized what he was looking at was a big chair. The gem was one of many holes in the top of the chair. Hadorix got rather excited. This must be the Throne. The hole was roughly the size of the soul stone that The Great Tree had given him. Hadorix placed his soul stone in the hole in the throne.

· Mystic Orchard added. "The Mystic Orchard is a gold grade red artifact item. This is significantly stronger than a silver or bronze grade artifact and is the top quality for a legacy item. Each gold grade item contains its own unique features. The mystic groves features are: As you gain power and add more soul stones, it will gain more functionality. The growth path of the Orchard will be determined by your own path and preferences."

· Mystic Orchard activated

· Quest Received Restore the Mystic Orchard.

"You have been tasked by The Great Tree to restore the Druid Order. Once this is done you will begin your journey to banish the undead from Pax. This is the calling The Great Tree has granted you. It may also be wise to increase the guardians of The Mystic Orchard and Recruit a beast army to aid you. After all, few can succeed in such a monumental task alone. "

Required tasks.

o Recruit 10 Druids.

Optional Tasks

o Recruit 10 Guardian Sprits

o 4/10 Guardian spirits acquired.

o Recruit 10 Beasts and aid them in spawning soul stones and be gifted said soul stones.

o Quest Reward is dependent upon number of tasks completed. The more tasks completed the higher the reward.

· Quest Received, Move the Mystic Orchard by using the throne.

"The Mystic Orchard is a moveable base. Learn how to move it and your journeys will be far safer."

o Quest Rewards to be revealed upon completion.

Flashed before his eyes. It was at that moment everything turned bright white. It was as if night had turned today. He was completely blinded and forced the shift back into a human. When he regained his sight, Hadorix could see he was in a large round cave like room. It had a simplistic elegance befitting a King. The throne radiated some form of magic. Hadorix had no experience in such things, he could only guess it to be nature magic due to where he was. Behind the throne were a great many weapons and armor, mostly made of wood and leather, some were made from the tusks and fangs of beasts. Attached to the back of the throne was a mix between an arcade game machine and a laptop. It was the size of an arcade machine but had the keyboard and controls of a laptop. Hadorix was intrigued. It was at this moment he recalled that he needed to add his "slaves" soul stones to the throne.

Hadorix went back around to examine the throne. He could see several holes directly under his with symbols around them. Directly under the slot where Hadorix's own soul stone resided there were two groups, one to the left, and one to the right side of the throne. By the markings around these slots, Hadorix could obviously tell these spots were special. To his surprise, four of the slots on the left contained soul stones already. The symbols around them were weird. One had green vines around it. The coin looked like it had Junifer's face. The other three were less easy to make out. Hadorix supposed once he met them and saw their abilities, he may get an idea what the symbols meant. Hadorix was unsure what the symbols meant, for the time being he would place their soul stones in some of the many holes below with no symbols. Hadorix then examined the soul stones. He could easily tell which stone belonged to who as it had an image of the person on the stone. It was like a half dollar coin with the emblem of their face. He placed them in the throne. He then returned to the console behind the throne.

When Hadorix touched it, "Spirit Armory Activated" flashed before his eyes and it felt like he became one with the machine. A menu popped up in his mind. It had many screens and reminded Hadorix of the auction house he had seen on video games. He could choose the type of spirit and the element. There were many options for weapons, armor, components, there was a great many things, that Hadorix had absolutely no idea what would do. He decided he might better read about this a bit before he dug too deep. Hadorix decided to head back upstairs and talk to his "slaves". The first thing he intended to do was to release them from their slavery.

When Hadorix arrived back upstairs he could see that the humans had been released from their bindings. All 4 spirits also were bowing to him when he came upstairs.

Hadorix spoke to them. "There will be none of that. I am a lumberjack and I reckon I am a Druid now. I am not a king, nor an emperor. If you want to greet me, say howdy. Please don't bow."

The spirits rose and the humans began to wake up. The lady that had been using the throwing knives was the first to open her eyes. When she did, she saw Hadorix and spoke. "It worked, I'm alive. Well unless you died to and we are just meeting on the other side…..." She then smacked herself in the face and spoke again. "OUCH. No that hurt we are alive. That means you must be the Champion and I must be your slave. I hope you're not some freaky dude. I know I am cute, but if you try to force anything, I will cut you." She then reached for her knives. "Well darn, I guess I can't cut you. But I will do something."

Hadorix then responded. "Relax. I have no intentions of keeping you or anyone else for that matter as a slave. My name is Hadorix. The Great Tree made me a Druid and expects me to rebuild the Druid order. I can do magic and stuff. I really don't know what yet, I just got this and haven't yet read my spell book." Hadorix then shifted into a lion. He ran around the lady and then shifted back into a human and continued to speak. "See, I can shapeshift into a lion. I also have a chipmunk familiar, and it gave me a level notification like in a video game. I am guessing that means I can grow stronger. Your ability with those throwing knives is pretty insane. Would you be willing to teach me?"

The lady responded. "We are in a weird world, you're the first person that isn't trying to take me captive and you're offering me a job and asking me to train you rather than forcing me to be a slave. It does not matter to me what I get, I accept. Does this mean I get my weapons back? O and, my name is Alex. I'd make a better assassin than a Druid, but beggars can't be choosers."

Hadorix took her down to the throne and looked at the symbols to the right side with her. The third slot from the right appeared to light up slightly when she got nearby. This made Hadorix rather curious, so he moved her Soul Stone into the slot.

· 1/10 Druids Recruited.

· Mystic Orchard, Druid manikins activated. Each druid recruited will generate a manikin containing Silver grade blue artifact level equipment befitting the druids skills.

Flashed before his eyes, and she began to glow. Hadorix could not see what type of notifications she was receiving so he had to wait. To his surprise he did not have to wait long. Alex turned into a panther right before his eyes. She ran around the throne and shifted back into a human. She then summoned her familiar. It was also a panther. Hadorix was very jealous. Compared to his chipmunk he thought the panther would be much more useful.

Alex spoke, "What is that in the corner? It looks like a person."

Hadorix went over to where she was pointing. A wall had opened that he had not noticed before to the right behind the throne and inside indeed looked like a person. He and Alex moved in to investigate. The closer they got the more they realized it was not a person. It looked more like a manikin from the mall. It was covered in black leather armor. On its belt, arms, legs, and nearly every surface of the armor were throwing knives and throwing stars. Everything was black. Wearing that armor in the dark, you would be entirely invisible.

Seeing the gear, Alex could not help herself. She touched the stand, and she instantly had the gear on. She told Hadorix she had received a notification, it said Druid Equip activated. She chose to deactivate, and the armor again appeared on the stand. She activated her Druid Equip again. The gear was too awesome not to wear and she had weapons again. This was better than Christmas.

Hadorix looked around the room for another manikin. He had hoped he had just overlooked his earlier. To his disappointment, he only saw the one with gear. He did however note that there was another area that looked the same to the left of the throne. Upon realizing there were no further manikins with gear, he and Alex went back up to the others.