2 Bad Luck or Good Luck?

Looking out into the far distance, Sydra was in awe at what he could see. He was halfway up a mountain that was surrounded by a lush forest, each tree looking as if it had been carved from emerald. Soaring above the leafy treetops were majestic birds, their wings covered in orange and red flames.

'From what I can see, this is the mountain that the nature spirit had been walking around in search of herbs,' Sydra thinks as his eyes follow one of the birds through the sky, 'If I head in that direction, I should be able to leave the Emerald Sea Forest,'

Leaving the cave, Sydra goes over the memories of the Nature Spirit while heading into the forest. Most of the memories were about combat training, as the Nature Spirit was raised by someone who believed in strength beats all.

Of course, this didn't mean that Sydra could instinctively use the dagger on his belt, but it wouldn't take him as long to figure it out. Also, his body being in great condition due to countless years of training would also prove to be of great assistance.

As Sydra hops over a log, he begins to wonder why the Nature Spirit had been searching for herbs in the first place, 'Was it for medicine, or...'

Sydra freezes as the reason why the Nature Spirit had been searching for herbs surfaces in his mind, "That old man! Couldn't he have given me a body that belonged to someone who wasn't broke?!"

The reason why the Nature Spirit had been up here was because he was flat broke after purchasing the dagger currently hanging off of Sydra's hip. Without any money, the Nature Spirit had been spending the last few weeks outside, living off of plants and rainwater. Eventually, it became tired of living like that, and decided to make some money.

With that on his mind, the Nature Spirit visited the guildhall and looked at the quests. Being the race that it was, the Nature Spirit was hoping to find a quest that didn't require it to kill anything and ended up taking a quest from the Alchemy Hall. The quest was to find a rare flower called the Sunset Fortune, which was the main ingredient of high-quality potions.

"At least he had the right abilities for this quest," Sydra says as he activates a power called Root Echo. The ability allowed Sydra to sense the aura of all plants ten meters around him, telling him what they were and did.

Not sensing the plant he was searching for, Sydra sighs and looks around the forest, 'Maybe I can find it further in? I'd rather not live this life just as broke as I was in my last one,'

Over the course of several hours, Sydra searched all over the mountain for the flower before he felt an aura matching the one of the Sunset Fortune. As he rubbed his palms together excitedly, Sydra made his way over to the area the Root Echo found the flower.

"There it is, the Sunset Fortune," Sydra says as he watches a blue and orange flower soak up sunlight. Carefully making his way over to the flower, Sydra prepares to dig it out of the ground when a green blur flashes past him, taking the flower with it.

Pulling back, Sydra looks up at a green creature flying in the air above him, the Sunset Fortune dangling from its talons. The creature resembled a gecko, except it had four wings on its back and only two legs.

"Isn't that a Graspilt?" Sydra wonders aloud. Looking down at Sydra, the Graspilt smiles mischievously, as if taunting him, "So that's how you want to play it, huh?"

Tightening his grip on the Ice-Dragon staff, Sydra swiftly points it towards the Graspilt, "Take this!"

A few seconds pass by with nothing happening before the Graspilt begins chirping, its body shaking as it laughs at Sydra's failed attempt at using the staff. Feeling his face become red, Sydra looks at the staff in his hands, 'Why didn't it do anything, am I using it wrong?'

Searching the Nature Spirits memories, Sydra figures out that almost everything in this world is powered by something called aura, and the only way to activate the staff's power is to fuel it with his aura.

"Alright, let's try this again," Sydra says, raising the staff once more. This time he feels around his body, searching for something different until he eventually notices an energy revolving inside his core. Focusing his attention on the energy, Sydra directs a small amount of it into the staff in his hands.

"This sort of feels like what happened when I used the Root Echo ability, except the energy directed itself that time," Sydra says as he watches the blue gem in the Ice-Dragons mouth light up. Seeing this, panic appears on the Graspilt's face and it turns to fly away, not wanting to find out what will happen next.

"Where are you going?" Sydra asks, a smile forming on his face as an icy beam shoots out of the Ice-Dragon staff. As the beam flies through the air, the Graspilt spins to the side in the hopes of dodging the attack, but its back is still grazed, causing a layer of ice to form on it.

"Damn it, I missed," Sydra says, watching as the Graspilt increases its speed in a desperate attempt to get out of the range of the staff. Frowning, Sydra begins chasing after it, firing off bolts of ice every few seconds with none of them landing, "Stop moving around so much, and let me hit you!"

With his attention focused solely on the Graspilt, Sydra is shocked when the ground beneath his feet abruptly disappears. Looking down, Sydra finds himself rolling headfirst down a hill, his body bouncing off of trees and rocks along the way.

"What! Is! Happening?!" Sydra yells as his face gets slammed into the dirt repeatedly. After a few minutes, Sydra's body rolls to a stop at the bottom of the hill, and he finds himself staring up at the Graspilt flying through the leafy canopy.

"There goes that flower," Sydra says, groaning as he sits up to check his surroundings. Looking around, Sydra's mouth drops open as he finds himself sitting in a valley of flowers, some of which resemble the Sunset Fortune.

"It really is a Sunset Fortune..." Sydra says as he picks up one of the flowers next to him. Swiviling his head back and forth, Sydra looks at the other flowers around him, 'It's too bad their not all Sunset Fortunes, but I believe I can sell the other flowers directly to the Alchemy Hall for a bit of gold,'

Picking himself up, Sydra began running around the valley as he stuffed his pockets full with the flowers. With no space left in his pockets, Sydra's face dropped as he looked at the small dent he made into the valley.

Sitting down, Sydra began to play with a blue flower as he pondered ways to bring the rest back with him. As he twirled the flower between his fingers, Sydra felt a pulling sensation coming from within his mind.

'Where is this feeling coming from?' Sydra wonders as he closes his eyes to enter a meditative state. The deeper into the meditative state he got, the fiercer the pulling sensation became until he suddenly found his soul get pulled out of his body.

"Ahh!" Sydra screams as he feels his soul soar through the sky before coming to a stop in front of an island resting in a sea of clouds. The island is covered in grass waving with the wind, and a massive tree stands tall in the center, its branches reaching past the edge of the island. Beneath the clouds is a planet that looks similar to earth, except it doesn't seem to ever end.

Feeling his soul resonate with the tree, Sydra immediately recognizes it, "This is the tree that the Nature Spirit was born from, the Cloud Ascending Tree,"

Looking around, Sydra discovers he can move his soul through the air and decides to take a closer look at the island. While he floats over to the island, Sydra studies the planet below it, 'Although I can't see the planet clearly, due to how high up I am, I could probably use it as a map to find landmarks,'

Pulling his gaze away from the ground, Sydra turns his attention back to the tree in the middle of the island. Moving his soul to it, Sydra discovers that the tree is even larger than he previously thought, and its trunk is at least the same size as a hundred elephants standing together.

'With how wide this island is, it would be great if I could store things here,' Sydra thinks as he places his palm against the trunk of the tree. As if it read his thoughts, the tree begins to sway and the flower that Sydra had been holding in his hand appeared floating in the air beside the tree.

"Oho, now that's useful, but how can I move all the flowers at once..." Sydra wonders aloud. Wishing to leave the island, which he decided to call the Arbor Sanctum, Sydra reappears back in his body. Sweeping his eyes across the valley, a thought crosses Sydra's mind, 'What if I used Root Echo to call all the flowers into my Arbor Sanctum,'

With that thought circulating in his mind, Sydra immediately jumped up. Digging this fingers into the ground, Sydra activated the Root Echo, connecting all the flowers together, "Here goes nothing,"

With a single thought, Sydra sends all the flowers into the Arbor Sanctum at once, leaving the valley void of color, "Haha, it worked! I wonder if it only works on plants, or if I can store other things there as well,"

Picking up the Ice-Dragon staff, which he had dropped while rolling down the hill, Sydra thinks about it going into the Arbor Sanctum. A second later and the staff dissapears, leaving Sydra starting at his empty hand. Closing his eyes, Sydra returns to the Arbor Sanctum and finds the staff leaning against the tree.

"It worked!" Sydra yells, throwing his hands in the air, "Haha, this will make things much easier,"

Smiling, Sydra leaves the Arbor Sanctum, planning on finally making his way to the town, "Now then... Where am I?"