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I had a new mission and that was helping the squirrel-folk!
But what were the squirrel-folk anyways? I had sotis seen creatures that were like people but had animal features in popular gas and movies that I often saw during the comrcials on TV.
I rembered that the comrcials for this ga also featured people with animal ears and tails, and they called them beast-folk, as I saw that in the beginning when I could pick a race.
Hmm… The quest also said they were the descendants of Rata… Rat… Ratatos… Ratatoskr? Who is that? I didn't really know. Is he supposed to be another lore character I didn't know about?
Ah, whenever. Once I finished playing today, I'll take a break until tomorrow and investigate a bit more about this ga on the net.
"Guide spirit, what are squirrel-folk?" I asked the helper, as we moved towards the direction the red arrow was indicating . "Are they beast-folk?"
The guide spirit looked at with his two large and round eyes. Those eyes seed to be filled with so sort of disappointnt now written all over his face. …Is it okay for an A.I. to look at a person like this?
"You don't even know that? Well… beast-folk are people that are closer to beasts. They're also closer to nature. They co in all shapes and sizes and can be either human-like with just so animal features to completely beast-like but that have several human-like features instead, the squirrel-folk is…" said the guide spirit. "Ah, maybe I shouldn't spoil it for you? We are almost there, look."
The guide indicated to sothing, he pointed out at the far left from my side, as a different view greeted our sight. Right at the side of another crystalline river, there was a small village of houses that were atop the tall trees, they were all made out of branches tightly stuck together, and then covered in plants, and mud.
I had never seen such houses aside from those old docuntaries of aboriginal tribes in the Amazon Jungles of Brazil… I was quite an enjoyer of world's docuntaries. I rembered that the people that lived there made houses like these.
"Oh, a village atop the trees! …Wait, how am I getting up there?" I wondered. "Is there a way?"
"Hmm… Just climb." Said the guide. "There are a few branches here and there, you could make them the support to climb…"
"Ah… This is going to be a bit difficult. It has been years since I climbed a tree…" I sighed. "After I had my daughter, I really lost a lot of my fitness… My husband spoiled too much with sweets he always brought after work…"
"Whatever you are in real life doesn't matter! This is a ga, as long as you keep your satiation ter high, you can do a lot of stuff." Said the guide. "Co on, just give it a try, you can keep trying endlessly…"
"Oh… Okay then… I will trust you."
I looked upwards and saw no single soul in the treetops. Perhaps all the squirrel-folk were inside of their houses sleeping because they were feeling sick?
I moved towards the nearest tree which had several small branches and was weirdly shaped, and I attempted to climb it…
"Hoop! Ahh… T-This is a bit hard… Huh?"
I continued to move upwards, but suddenly I realized I was strange! It felt as if my hands were sticky and got stuck into the tree. What was this? Was I secreting sap? Well, I was so sort of plant person after all, so that was possible!
Ah, this reminded of spiderman's powers, the guy who climbed such areas like a spider did… My husband loved those movies, they were the last movies I ever saw with my husband and my daughter together, so they hold a special place in my mories.
"How odd, I am climbing easily!" I said. "My hands are sticky…"
"Oh? Ah! I guess Dryads can climb trees easily? Must be another feature of the Spirit of the Forest Skill." Said the guide spirit. "It does say that it aids you at adapting to any terrain in the forest."
"Being a Dryad is not so bad, see?" I asked. "Every Race has its perks!"
"Yeah, yeah, but there are better Races out there…" said the guide spirit. "You could have chosen Dragon Kin to have imdiate Fire Breath and Scales for both offense and defense, or Demon to have very powerful Dark Magic!"
"Eeeh? But I got Green Magic, that ought to be nice, right?" I asked. "Ah, we are here…"
I easily climbed a fifteen-ter-tall tree like nobody's business. I really felt like I had regained my youthfulness! I found myself atop the large and thick branches that interconnected the trees. There were large bridges made of wood that were used by the beast-folk here to walk from tree to tree, apparently.
And I also could keep perfect balance as I walked atop the tree branches! If it were my normal body, I would be having a very hard ti balancing myself…
"Good job, you're better than I thought. You still had so techniques at climbing that were useful," the guide spirit said.
"Yeah! Now… let's go to that house over there, maybe we can find soone there," I said.
I moved through the branches and ran towards the house. It lacked a door but had red-colored cloth covering the entrance, so I excused myself and moved them aside to enter the very dark place.
"Excuse … Is there soone here- UWAH!"
"GROAR!"
The first thing I saw as I entered was a mass of… I can only describe it as a mass of darkness.
It had the shape of a rabid… wolf? Or sothing, and it now glared at with furious, red-shot eyes!
"W-What the heck is that thing?!" I asked.
"D-Damn it! A Dark Beast!" said the guide. "Quickly, evade its upcoming attack!"
"A-Attack?!"
"GRAAO!"
The wolf made of darkness leaped towards , but thanks to the guide's help, I preemptively evaded and squatted down into the ground. The wolf jumped straight out of the tent, crashed down into the branch, and then fell down into the 15-ter big fall.
CRASH!
"I-It fell? Oh?"
I suddenly found a creature that was hidden beneath the bed of the house. It looked like an actual and adorable, brown-colored squirrel, it had the size of a child, and he trembled fearfully.
"…!"
"Don't worry, the evil dark beast fell down to his death, so stand up, co out," I said. "I am not evil, I swear."
"W-Who are you?!" asked the tiny squirrel, as it ca out of the bed.
"I-I am a Dryad! The Tree of the Beginnings sent here and- Ah, you're so cute and fluffy!" I said, as I began to pet the big squirrel with my hands. Its fluffy fur was soft and warm, it was very cozy to touch, and I felt the urge to squeeze it with a hug…
"A Dryad?! Really?" he asked, he seed to have the voice of a young boy.
"Yeah! Anyways, why were you with that thing? Are the other houses having the sa problem?" I asked. "That's a bit dangerous, what if they get eaten?!"
"No… Don't worry, that thing just appeared like half a minute ago…" said the squirrel-folk. "My grandma died here a week ago due to the disease, and when she died there was a lot of this dark mold left… I had been trying to clean it, but today it suddenly converged into a living being and I was so scared I hid beneath my bed…"
"Aw, you poor thing… Don't worry, mama is here for you," I said, as I hugged the cute squirrel and kissed his forehead.
The squirrel seed a bit embarrassed over my show of affection, but he didn't shy away from it.
"Y-You're a bit too expressive, Lady Dryad…" he said. "D-Did you kill the thing?"
"Oh? The thing? It fell off. It must be dead by now, right?" I asked. "Nothing can survive such a big fall anyways!"
"What? No! It must be still alive…" said the squirrel-folk boy, as he walked outside the tent, and I followed him from behind.
We saw the dark wolf slowly attempting to climb back here by shaping its body as if they were large claws. It no longer looked like a wolf, but it was more of a werewolf thingy…
"GROOARR! GRAARRR…!"
The damn wolf thing now looked right into my eyes! It was so scary I felt suddenly paralyzed… Was this really just a ga monster?
"Quickly, kill it, Planta!" said the guide. "It already lost so HP from the fall!"
"K-Kill? But…" I said and bit my lip asI looked down.
"You're going to hesitate to kill that thing? It tried to kill the squirrel-folk!" said the guide. "Also, these things are not even normal monsters, these things are literally just miasma, a dark energy, I don't know if they're even literally alive!"
"T-That's…"
I looked down into the wolf, it was getting closer and closer…
The squirrel-folk was also paralyzed in fear, trembling as he looked into this dark entity.
"This darkness… Why don't you leave us alone?! Damned be the Demon King!" cried the boy. "Please, help us, Lady Dryad!"
I… I've always felt bad about killing other things, I even hesitated to kill bugs, or even ants when I was a child. I just didn't like the concept of mortality… I've never liked to bring down the life of another living being, it felt bad… I always thought that such a thing was God's work, not mine.
But this… was not real life… So… it should be okay?
And even if it were… for my daughter I would do anything… And for this small child…
If I have the strength to do it… Why shouldn't I do it?
"…I will! Don't worry, dear! Mommy will do it!" I said, as I looked into the wolf slowly climbing, I was already just a few ters closer.
"Okay! How do I do this?! Can I attack from a long distance?" I asked.
"Yes! Use the Green Magic Skill you got, there is a spell nad [Plant Manipulation]. Use it to manipulate the tree and form sharp spear-like branches right into the wolf's body, that should kill it, the damage is based on your INT stat, and you got a bunch of that!"
"Okay!"
The guide spirit told a valuable tip, as I quickly imagined what he told .
"…Plant Manipulation!"
FLASH!
Suddenly, I felt as if my Mana was drained out of my body. Rivers of blue energy erged out of my body, as they flowed into the tree.
TRUUMMM…!
Suddenly, the tree shook and trembled as if it was about to fall, but that wasn't the case. The tree suddenly started to crack but it was because the bark began to shapeshift itself to the image I had in mind.
"K-Kill that thing!"
CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!
And right after those words, enormous spears made of wood with sharp tips ca out of the tree and pierced through the entire body of the wolf-like creature made of darkness!
"AWWROOOO…!"
The beast gave a last, agonizing howl, as its entire body suddenly exploded into black smoke, and dissipated…
Ding!
[You have defeated a Wolf-shaped Dark Beast (Elite): Lv4, you gained 500 EXP (BONUS!)]
[Race & Job Class EXP: 550 / 1000]
[You acquired [Dark Essence] x1, [Black Core] x1]
[You acquired 85 Gold Coins]
"I-I killed it…" I sighed. I looked into the system's notifications, as I had acquired two weird items and a lot of gold…
"W-Wow… Amazing, you're really like the Dryads I've heard about in fairytales, lady!" said the squirrel-folk, as he suddenly hugged my legs adorably.
"I am glad I could save you, dear…" I sighed in relief and actually felt a bit tired.
I suddenly realized my Mana stat was in red color, as if warning of sothing.
Ah, it was too low. That one attack consud… 200 MP?! I certainly couldn't do that all the ti, I guess…
"Good job! See? It's not that hard to kill, heheh…" laughed the guide. It was as if he had fun seeing kill things.
What a strange guide.
But now, it was ti to assess the problem with the village.
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