Chapter 103 - The Tree that Never Yields

8 March 2024

Smurphia Village, 38th Floor

As soon as my vision cleared up from the portal, the sight that was before me blew my mind instantly.

I'd always had this gut feeling that I hadn't fully explored the Floors, even if the system indicates that I would have fully mapped them.

The 38th Floor, in particular, was now revealing to me such a secret that almost no player could have discovered in normal circumstances.

The trees here were still as gargantuan as the ones before, but their canopies completely covered whatever was above.

I couldn't tell if the ceiling of the 38th Floor was above the trees, but since this place was considered an instance, I guess it didn't really matter.

I had been to another instance before, so the lack of locational information wasn't surprising. It would be safe to assume that we were still considered to be in the 38th Floor, no matter where this instance might actually be located.

Of course, the increase in tree canopy wasn't the mind-blowing thing here. With the tree canopy here becoming the ceiling of this instance itself, the current environment would no doubt be plunged into pitch-blackness.

The only light source available right now was a special tree right ahead in the distance. For one, it was the only tree that wasn't as tall as the rest, but was still large enough to tower over us.

The leaves of this tree were also exceptional. Anyone could tell even from this distance that they were more brightly coloured than the canopy trees, all of which were shining through this instance without fail.

Rakuno and Misuko were waiting for everyone else to emerge out the portal.

"I assume that that's the tree we're going to?" Misuko studied the scenery.

"If that's not the one, then where else?" Rakuno chirped.

"I'm glad it's this easy." Misuko nodded, smiling as she did so.

She turned to us, pointed to the very obvious landmark ahead, before moving on with Rakuno.

The way to the shiny tree never needed any explanation. The path was clean, neat, and most importantly, a straight beeline to its destination.

It would seem clear that the path was man-made. Or rather, as I would soon to find out later on, it wasn't made by humans, at the very least.

The path ended as soon as we could see this special tree in its full view. The tall trees were even covering up above the special tree with their extremely wide canopies. It felt like the canopy here was more akin to a ceiling made out of leaves, so I'm just gonna call it that.

Subsequently, there was no sense of time here. Unless you consulted your handy system menu every single minute, you'd have lost track of what day it would have been.

What shocked us though, was the sheer size of the shining tree. It occupied the space of around 10 of the tall trees that were surrounding it, big enough to hold many branches that formed an intricate system so complex that in the distance the branches looked like jumbled up hair.

At the foot of the special tree, were clear signs of civilization. It was a village with cottages, but they seemed pretty low in height from my perspective.

Several figures popped out of the nearest cottages, probably having noticed our arrival. Most of us in the party marvelled at them, and for me, those low cottages instantly made sense.

This was a village of dwarves. And this was the first time I'd met such beings in this world.

Before that, the only kinds of NPCs I'd seen were other humans and elves. The elves themselves were an integral part of the first few Floors of Aincrad, and after the 10th Floor, nothing much came up on the elves, let alone any other evidence of human-like races even existing.

Rakuno, who was unfazed by this, approached the dwarves first. One of them, which stood out from the crowd by half a head, made his way to approach her as well. The cursor name above his head read:

Huldar, Synthesium Engineer

Whatever this 'Synthesium' was, it's certainly gonna catch Tekion's eye. I'm also interested in what it's about as well.

The witch took her pointed hat off her head, and bowed as deep as her head could go, such that it was level with the height of the dwarf called Huldar.

"Everyone, I'm back."

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8 March 2024

Smurphia Village, 38th Floor

The introductions were brief, but Rakuno handled them pretty well.

I'm not gonna remember even half of those dwarves' names, though. This kind of stuff usually takes more than just looking at their faces, I'm sure.

And yet, Rakuno was matching their names to their faces effortlessly. I guess there are people who have a talent for this.

I shook hands with the dwarf called Huldar (while half-kneeling to his height). He's the village chief, it seems. And it's fitting, considering his bulked up muscles that were nothing like those of the other dwarves.

He gave off a vibe that suggested he liked being hardworking. I think his occupation as a 'Synthesium Engineer' mattered more than I thought.

"We have a few cottages suited for taller visitors that you can use," He stroked his beard. "We can discuss the purpose of your stay after you've settled in."

"I can bring them," Raku volunteered. "I still remember the way."

The cottages for visitors simply only had beds that suited an average human's height. Each could only hold 5 beds, so we took 3 cottages.

"It's amazing that they've thought about visitors in this pretty secluded place." Misuko scanned the beds in awe.

"Huldar once said that elves sometimes take refuge here," Raku explained. "Well, if we're done with checking out our hotel rooms, we can go meet him now."

Apparently, Huldar's cottage was situated somewhere at the foot of the special tree, which Raku stated was a 15-minute walk to.

That was how big the entire village was. But the size of it paled in comparison to the size of the special tree, as I was about to find out soon enough.

The trunk of this special tree was just.....massive. Its canopy was already stretched out over the whole village, providing all the light that was needed to see everything here.

As we neared Huldar's cottage, the stump part of the special tree came into view. I was sure that that was still wood, but wood that had been enlarged many times over, so much so that I felt like an ant about to crawl onto this brownish landscape.

Apparently, Huldar's cottage was at the top of the stump. This stump, which looked more like a mountain from anyone's perspective.

"Don't worry, it's just another 5 minutes to go," Rakuno stepped onto the stump first.

"I don't think it's going to help us in any way at all," Misuko was already looking defeated. "Anyone who scales this in 5 minutes is a beast. Or a witch."

Rakuno the Katana Witch turned around, gave us a wink, and continued her trek up without a word.

".....Shouldn't be as long as it looks, if it's just 5 minutes," I stepped onto the stump. "We've already been walking for the past 10 minutes--"

"--on level ground," Narnia interjected. "Trekking's never the same as taking a nice peaceful stroll, to be very honest with you."

She didn't have to rub it in that hard. Either way, this wasn't an issue of physical exertion. The idea of having to trek up something was deluding us from the fact that we weren't really doing that in reality at all.

I guess for one to be able to do anything, they must forget the things that prevent them from doing so. Or something along those lines.

To be fair, scaling a fairly sloped structure does drain SP, but the draining rate was minuscule. Furthermore, stopping midway in the climb allows you to recharge SP, so getting up there is still possible, just maybe not in the time frame that Rakuno had suggested.

Well, who's bothered to keep track of the time here anyway?

I caught up to Rakuno, slightly panting in my extra effort to close in the distance. Unlike Misuko and the others, I didn't really mind the slope, especially if I'm aware of the fact that I wasn't doing it for real.

With a virtual avatar as a body, any player could climb something as long as they want, while being subject to the constraints of the system, of course.

"Is trekking like, your thing or something?" I asked.

"I used to do that every day, when I was a kid," Rakuno replied. "What's wrong? Never done this before?"

I smiled at her playful taunt. "It's not like I've never done it before. But you're the only one enjoying it."

Rakuno nodded back. "It's just nostalgic, that's all."

I turned back up front, finally seeing the cottage as a little speck up on top. It looked like Rakuno didn't lie about the 5-minute trek.

I also saw a figure that seemed to be taller than the average dwarf waiting at the cottage of the door.

It was a girl in a lolita-themed dress waving jovially. Rakuno waved back, clearly happy to see her.

"Faeria!"

Rakuno knelt to the girl's height and held both her hands together. The girl had long blue hair tied up in ponytails. Her ears were strangely as pointed as an elf's.

Rakuno stood up to face me. "Let me introduce to you, Faeria, Huldar's daughter."

"Oh," I didn't realize the bombshell that was dropped right in front of me at first. "Wait, 'daughter'?"

As if on cue, the door to the cottage swung open. Huldar stepped out, and nodded towards us.

"By the way," I asked. "How'd he get up here?"

"You can ask him yourself," Raku turned and headed for the cottage with a little snicker.

It took another 10 minutes for the rest of the party to sit in Huldar's cottage, which was surprisingly big enough to host all 14 of us.

In fact, his cottage might have even been built with visitors of a human's size in mind. The entire interior of the cottage was filled with walkways attached to the walls above, equipped with ladders. Some of those walkways led to doors which I presumed were simply rooms.

Many stuff were all over the place, most of which were books, which gave off the vibe of an unkempt library. In the center was a round table with at least 10 chairs pushed into it.

It was unimaginable to think that a dwarf would live in such a place like this. Even with his daughter being a little taller than him in that regard, the whole cottage was still way too big for only 2 residents.

"Your house is pretty amazing."

Misuko broke the ice, not long after we sat and had a brief silence.

"Thank you. I built it myself, as all dwarves would." Huldar nodded. "It was made from the very tree bark that you had climbed up on."

Narnia gave an unconvinced look. "I guess the other dwarves aren't as hardworking as you are, then."

"As village chief, that value is what I must uphold," Huldar stroked his bread gently.

"Well, anyway," Misuko cleared her throat. "If you wouldn't mind me asking about your daughter....."

She was also curious about the obvious difference in appearance between Faeria and her father. Actually, everyone else was.

Huldar hesitated to reply for a little while. Faeria, who was seated next to him, hadn't even said a word since I first saw her.

"My wife.....is an elf."

That was all he said. I looked at Faeria intently. Her appearance never looked anything like a dwarf would. Instead, it was practically screaming that she looked more like an elf, even though her height wasn't possibly on par with the average elf's.

To give her the benefit of the doubt, she was a kid, after all. It was still too early to tell what she was exactly. But only one conclusion could explain it well.

"She's half dwarf, half elf," I turned to Raku. "Isn't that right?"

The witch nodded slowly. "Her mother was involved in the Elf War that happened before the 10th Floor. She never came back."

"I am patiently waiting for my wife's return," Huldar stood up and went for a pile of weapons behind him. "No matter how long the Elf War would last, there is bound to be an end to that conflict.

"Ever since the Great Separation, we dwarves have hidden ourselves from the outside world. We feared that unrest would ensure between the other races, and we were right."

Huldar grabbed a sword, and came back to the table.

"Both the Forest and Dark Elves came to us for our smithing expertise. But that was not the only reason we were so sought after."

He placed the sword on the table. Its blade had the same kind of colour and texture as Raku's one-handed sword, Picturesque Brancher.

Narnia realized it too. "Isn't that Rakuno's....!"

"It's exactly the same metal," Raku affirmed without hesitation. "This titanic tree that we had just climbed the roots of isn't just for the show of it."

" 'Titanic'.....That's still an understatement," Misuko spoke in awe. "Even a skyscraper wouldn't compare to it."

"The name of this tree.....," Huldar continued. ".....is Synthesia. It is also known as the ' Indomitable Tree'. The metal that is obtained from it is known as 'Synthesium'. "

Rakuno stood up and drew Picturesque Brancher out, and placed it beside that random sword. Both blades glowed together, creating a brief blinding of light that made us cover our eyes in reflex.

"That's simply one of its properties," She returned Picturesque Brancher back into its sheathe. "There's another property that makes it possibly the best metal to craft a weapon with."

She turned to me with a smile. "And I think you know it pretty well."

Oh, damn. I really do.

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