Chapter 28: Unbearable

[Species name: Lesser guardian porcupine

Species grade: C

Attributes: earth, plant

Height: 30-50 metres

Evolutionary history: The Lesser guardian porcupine is a creature that has puzzled any researcher that has stumbled across them, they are a subset of the guardian species, a type of naturally forming golem, what puzzles researchers the most is that, despite their inherently inorganic nature, they can think for themselves, unlike any other construct, they have no programming nor any higher duty, they simply exist on their own, the system itself even treats them like animals. While all guardians hold the earth attribute, they also each hold a second attribute, which determines their exact species, the lesser guardian porcupine is a guardian in its infancy stage that holds the plant attribute.

Defining features: The lesser guardian porcupine takes the form of a gigantic porcupine, each of its needles can grow up to two metres in length, they will not take any other shape, any attempts which have been made to forcefully alter a guardians shape have all resulted in failure, they will revert to their original shape, or die in the process. The other interesting part about the guardians is the runic markings all over their body, due to recent studies, we have been able to determine that these are in fact the veins of the guardian, so to speak, as guardians are constructs, they have no need for foo or water, however, they need a constant source of mana to survive, the sentient races have struggled constantly with the problem of large constructs, struggling to find a way to supply the entire body with mana without the use of exceedingly rare resources, the guardian achieves this with the markings all over, and inside, of its body, allowing the sentients to finally grasp the secret behind large constructs, which is why they are a particular point of interest despite their low rank.

Hunting behaviours: The lesser guardian porcupine does not hunt, but gains all its energy from mana, it does not hunt to level up either, being one of the more passive guardians, only attacking when provoked.

Mating behaviours: The lesser guardian porcupine does not reproduce, firstly, they have not yet matured, secondly, they are constructs, and as such have no way to reproduce.

Symbolism: The name speaks for itself, they are guardians, but out of the guardians, the porcupine represents something that should not be touched, by their very design, they are built to be left alone, as such, this idea has bled into their symbolism, all guardians are associated with protection due to their pension for sitting outside their nests to ward away potential threats, the porcupine represents a serious object or area which should not be touched, effigies of the guardian porcupine are used to warn would be explorers to stay away, mostly at threat of death.]

The stand off lasted for an hour, neither side making a move, the palpable tension that hung in the air was suffocating. Alex stared down the bears, the bears stared back, the bears let out a low growl, the wolves responded in turn, but nothing really changed.

Eventually, a bear that dwarfed all the others pushed through the disorganised ranks of his brethren, shoving them out of the way in a dismissive fashion.

A smug expression crept onto the bears face as it gazed at Alex, as if it knew it was superior to Alex, and was enjoying every second of it. To the beast, Alex was naught but a peon, a vagabond by the wayside, and it was the king, it was its right to look down on Alex, and all those he ruled.

This, made Alex pissed.

He couldn't wait to rip that smug look of that dumb beasts face.

[The ruler of the blue lake has offered you an official challenge

Because of his immeasurable kindness, he has allowed you to set the date

choose]

While he was tempted to leap over the ravine and start beating that damn bear to a bloody pulp right now, Alex new he shouldn't, he didn't know the rules of an 'official challenge', subordinates may be fair game, and from what Alex could see, these bears would tear the wolves to shreds.

best to give it a few weeks, just to be on the safe side, the more time the better, three weeks would do.

A look of contempt came over the bears face, as if offended that such a creature would make it wait over a fortnight to simply have its prey, Alex responded with a steely glare, clearly indicating one thing to the beast. In a week the bear would find itself six feet under.

Alex turned away to leave, but a something whizzed past his head, grazing his skull, leaving a clean groove in the bone, and rocketing through a nearby tree, leaving a perfect circle in the trees trunk.

Alex turned around calmly, glaring at the bear, who was wearing a satisfied smirk on his face. Satisfied, the bear turned around and left.

Alex watched them go, backs turned and without a care in the world. As he watched them leave, Alex felt a smile creep onto his face, a genuine smile of pure glee.

Alex placed his right gauntlet back into his inventory, and pressed two fingers up to the groove in his skull letting his fingers run over the smoothed bone. It was wet.

His fingers didn't burn, so it couldn't be acid, and as the bears were all a uniform naval blue, highly pressurised water was the best bet, now he knew his enemies weapon, or at least one, so he could play around it.

He left the edge of the ravine in high spirits, his mind already ticking like clockwork, a plan forming in his mind.

"...llo, hello, HELLO" Alex was brought out of his revery by the sweet tones of Nicholas screaming in his ear, "earth to jack, you alive, you good, that is it I am getting the mallet"

"Why a mallet?" Alex asked, looking around in bewilderment, how far had he walked since the bears, it was a miracle he hadn't walked into a tree.

"Oh, your back" Nicholas answered nonchalantly, "I thought blunt force trauma may work"

"Won't that have the adverse effect?"

"Possibly, I don't make the rules"

Alex sighed, "I'm going to get back to hunting"

"Enjoy" Nicholas cheered while merrily waving Alex away.

Alex strolled through the forest until he found a tree he liked, it was a sturdy tree, its bark was like a time capsule, each mark probably had a story behind it, it was a shame Alex could not hear them.

Alex sat down under the tree, feeling the rough forest floor under him.

Before Alex could rest his back against the tree trunk, he heard the subtle rustling of leaves, and turned around to find two massive tree branches, extending down for their lofty perch, forming a soft cushioning for Alex to rest on.

"Damn, what a nice tree" Alex muttered.

"Thank..." a small whisper responded softly, the message broken but still decipherable.

"Heh" Alex chuckled to himself, "talking to a tree huh, I must be going insane"

"What... insane?"

"Never mind"

Alex gazed at the forest around him, the gentle breeze and soft rustle of leaves calming his mind.

Alex opened up the magic shop and began to take a more in-depth look, he wanted to use magic as quickly as possible.

The first thing he wanted to look at was the 'connector', 'condition' and 'form' spell components the tutorial talked about.

When he opened the section of the store, he was a little disappointed, there was an impressive quantity of options, but not to the extent that Alex envisioned, he imagined a vast selection of thousands of modifiers, what greeted him was probably just under one hundred options.

since he had plenty of basic points, and would have as many as he needed for now, he just brought as many as he could.

(for the sake of not having the description of the components take tens of thousands of words, I will release an auxiliary chapter of what every component does)

[Your cart currently consists of:

connection line: 5 basic points

component holder: 5 basic points

Amplifying line: 10 points

Diminishing line: 10 points

Diminishing holder: 10 points

Amplifying holder: 10 points

Valve line: 50 points

Loop node: 20 points

Projectile form: 20 points

Touch form: 20 points

Mine form: 40 points

Charge form: 30 points

Mark form: 20 points

Orbit form: 50 points

Layer form: 40 points

Seeker form: 80 points

Sacrifice condition: 30 points

Sight condition: 20 points

50 metre condition: 10 points

Total: 480

please confirm your purchase]

Alex bought them quickly, feeling no sense of loss at the sudden loss of all his basic points.

[Thank you for your purchase

we hope we can continue to enjoy your patronage]

Alex moved onto the other elements, slightly giddy, binge shopping was such a good feeling.

The spatial magic section was a lot more impressive, hundreds of different possible components, each more odd than the last.

There was something as simple as creating slashes from mid-air, or something as complicated as distorting the distance between space and shorten distances between them, letting strikes hit at different points than where they should.

Alex browsed through and picked two spell components.

[Your cart currently consist of:

Rift: 20 spatial points

Connect: 15 spatial points

total: 35 spatial points

please confirm your purchase]

Alex confirmed quickly.

[Thank you for your purchase

we hope we can continue to enjoy your patronage]

Next was the divine magic section, and dear god was it expensive, the cheapest one cost one hundred points, and the next component cost five hundred, it looked like he wasn't going to be able to by any components just yet.

Best to save them for now.

"Are you..." only a faint whisper could be heard, Alex barely made it out.

"Yeah" Alex responded, guessing what the tree was talking about, "I'm done now"

Alex looked at the tree again, pondering something.

"Would fertilizer be a good gift for you guys?" Alex suddenly asked.

"Fertilizer?"

"Makes the soil better for trees you know, helps them grow"

"If... host is... then... are happy"

"Good to know"

Alex stayed silent for a minute, letting the cool forest breeze blow over his mangled flesh, the light breeze passed through his skull, making a soft whistling sound as it did, filling the entire forest with its melodic tones.

"Right," Alex shouted, suddenly getting up, causing the branches behind him to rustle in displeasure, "enough of that, know any place that has none of your people around?"

"You... before" the muffled whisper replied.

"Yeah, I know what you mean, though that place was pretty creepy, see you later then"

Alex wandered away, meandering down his undefined path, enjoying the sights as he strolled, humming a merry tune as he went, accompanied by the ever present whistle of his skull.

The tree sat, content in its solitary rest, that noisy creature was gone, finally some peace and quite, though, it did feel rather lonely, the wolves couldn't really hold a conversation, and the others where too far away, that had been the first proper conversation it had had in a long time, maybe he was to used to silents.

The tree lifted up its roots, and began to beat the ground, creating a low rhythmic thudding, but the sound was monotone, the tree then began to move as much as it could, using any possible way to make sound, but soon that too became dull, it was all so one note.

The tree placed its roots back into the ground, all except one, which gently began to carve shallow grooves in the dirt, while it couldn't see it could sense, it tried to picture that noisy creature once more, what he had seemed like.

After a little struggle, all it came away with was a messy hodge podge of lines and shapes, though it couldn't see its work, it knew it was wrong.

It had heard some noisy creatures talking about this long ago, using lines to recreate what you can see, but it was hard, a lot harder than it thought.

So, it wiped away its failed attempts with one mighty root, it did not feel anger or frustration in its failure, no, in fact it felt a feeling rise up inside of it, one it had not felt in a long time, and so it tried again, and again, and again, slowly whittling away the hours.

What had that noisy creature called it again, what was it, ah yes, art.

The tree enjoyed art.