The so-called Amborian forest was different from any other that Percy had been to. The trees were densely planted, and their branches were tightly interlocked, making this place resemble a jungle more than a forest.
Most annoyingly, almost every single tree that Percy had seen so far had been bare, which was a problem because he and Kassorith would need to catch several hundred “drifting leaves” to acquire Ningirima’s Decree.
“Is it winter or sothing?” the Thess’kalan asked, clearly sharing Percy’s concerns.
“It’s not,” Nawko replied. “If you look closely at the trunks and branches, you’ll notice that the bark has a rather unusual deep green colour. That’s because most of the flora here absorbs sunlight without leaves.”
Kassorith’s expression twisted into a grimace, and Percy wasn’t feeling any better than his host. The attendant must have caught that, because she added, “don’t worry. So species do have leaves. We should find them farther in, though we should probably hurry up if we want to gather over seven hundred before your next match.”
The female Maradorian hastened her steps slightly, even though she was already nearly out of breath. The poor woman was clearly doing her best to pace herself so that she would last for the whole trip, yet without holding Kassorith back as much.
“Should I go on ahead?” Percy offered through his host’s mouth. “I can cover a lot of ground by myself.”
“I’m sorry.” The attendant shook her head. “I don’t doubt that you can, but we’re not allowed to let participants out of our sight on foreign planets.”
Sighing, Percy strained himself to push his domain as far away from his host’s body as possible, stretching his willpower thin to expand the range of his Sage’s Pond. His vision grew less detailed close to the edge, but that wasn’t a huge problem.
He would have loved to use a drop of spiritual blood or two to add a scout into the mix, yet he couldn’t afford to injure his wisp more than he already had, and Kassorith’s blood wasn’t nearly as effective.
Thankfully, his senses finally picked up the first tree with leaves a few minutes later, with more such plants following not long after that.
There were actually two different species: the first were almost like regular trees, though they had thick and straight trunks that jutted upwards like giant spears. They didn’t have nearly as many branches as other trees in the area, but they were a little taller. At their crowns, they had countless tiny leaves strung together into sothing akin to capes that fluttered in the wind and covered the neighbouring plants.
‘Their strategy must be to outgrow everything else and snatch all the sunlight,’ Percy guessed.
The second type of leafed-plant were parasitic vines that coiled around other trees aggressively, essentially using their competition as support to climb higher. The vines’ leaves were as large as a man’s palms, and round – almost completely circular.
Both species were quite scarce, though Percy estimated thousands of leaves across even the handful of specins that he had spotted so far. The Decree’s description hadn’t specified the type of drifting leaves that he needed to collect, so he assud that any would do.
“Am I allowed to shave off a tree?” he tentatively asked.
He didn’t like the idea of damaging the forest, but a single tree was all it would take to scatter enough leaves for him and Kassorith to then collect. He didn’t even have to remove all the leaves – just trimming the edge of the green cape slightly should suffice. It would probably regrow in a couple of weeks.
Nawko halted her steps, tiredly resting her palms atop both knees. “We… are not allowed to ss with… the environnt at our destinations,” she said amidst pants. “But… it’s a small ask… Maybe I could make a small exception – since you’re in a hurry and I’m part of the reason this is taking so long… Also, Zath’maan is currently uninhabited, so nobody would know…”
Just as an excited gleam was about to form in Percy’s borrowed eyes, the attendant seed to recall sothing.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Ah… there’s another problem. During my briefing, I was told that the Decree only counts leaves that fell off naturally,” she said, shooting Percy’s hopes down.
“Can I at least carry you?” he asked, manifesting a tallic platform wide enough for a person to comfortably sit on. He even added guardrails to hopefully prevent Nawko from falling.
The attendant accepted the suggestion without protest, appearing almost eager to sit atop the smooth disk. Kassorith forged a flying greatsword for himself too, before lifting Nawko up, since Percy had to use his domain to scan their surroundings.
Flying over the forest with the Maradorian in tow, Percy and his host soon found their first drifting leaf. Nawko explained that the Decree would only count it once, so they couldn’t just keep picking up and dropping the sa leaf seven hundred tis.
Modifying the attendant’s platform slightly, the Thess’kalan added a small tallic box for them to store the leaves in. Nobody knew whether pulling them into his spatial pin or letting them get eaten by an animal would affect the tally, and they didn’t want to see their efforts wasted.
‘I hope we both get the Decree after the first ti,’ Kassorith said through their connection.
Micky ntally shrugged. ‘If the worst cos to pass, we’ll just tell Nawko that sothing went wrong with the acquisition and we have to try again. I’m sure that she won’t suspect anything.’
‘That’s not the problem,’ Kassorith said, before elaborating. ‘This is taking way too long. Completing even the first attempt before our match is going to be difficult. When the description said that the roundtrip is supposed to last half a Maradorian day, I guess it was only talking about the travelling ti.’
Due to the scarcity of the plants and the relative lack of wind, Percy and Kassorith averaged a leaf every seven minutes, or less than ten per hour. To add insult to injury, Maradorian days were slightly shorter than those on Remior, which ant that they would be cutting it extrely close.
‘Well… we don’t expect to win the fight anyway,’ Percy said. ‘I don’t want to lose without even competing, but I’d rather do that than give up on a sure prize.’
His companions weren’t happy with that and, to be fair, neither was he, but they didn’t disagree with his decision either.
If there was a silver lining, it was that Percy had plenty of ti to reach out to his main body and get the planet marked. He wasn’t sure how many precious resources the alliance had left on the deserted world, but this place used to be the primary planet of a founding faction, so he wouldn’t mind revisiting it. The fact that there weren’t any indigenous people here would only make it easier to possess a random beast and go around searching the ruins for forgotten treasures.
Days on Zath’maan appeared to be even shorter than on Marador Pri, since the local star set and rose three tis before the trip was even over. About two Maradorian days in, Nawko pulled a crimson pill out of her pocket, swallowing it.
Having expected the journey to last several days, she had apparently requested a few insomnia pills from her superiors before eting up with Kassorith, so that she wouldn’t delay him more than necessary. The dicine wasn’t as good as Percy’s spectral trait, and consuming the pills repeatedly would only lower their efficacy, but the woman should still be fine for a few days.
Percy appreciated the sentint, though it was starting to look increasingly unlikely that the Maradorian’s sacrifice would make a difference. re hours before the match was scheduled to begin, Percy and his host collected their sixth hundredth leaf, aning that they were still quite far from their goal.
‘Man, this is brutal!’ Micky spat. ‘Even if a participant manages to gather the leaves in ti, how do the organizers expect people to fight after having not slept in three days? Not everyone is like us.’
‘Well… nobody forced us to pick this Decree at this ti,’ Percy reminded his friend. ‘We also didn’t have to wait until after the lottery to choose our prizes. Had we started right after the group phase ended, we could have done this at our leisure. Though I guess that the description could have been a bit clearer abou–’
Percy stopped mid-sentence when a pair of living creatures entered the boundary of his Sage’s Pond. They wouldn’t be the first animals that he and his companions had stumbled upon during this trip, but he was pretty sure that the blurry silhouettes that his secondary domain had registered were shaped like people.
“What the hell?” he asked out loud, for Nawko’s sake. “I thought this planet was uninhabited!”
The attendant creased her brow in confusion. “It should be. If you found sobody, they’re probably one of the alliance’s people, here for maintenance or so kind of mission.”
“One of them is a child!” Percy protested.
The last thing he wanted was to delay his task when he was already on a short tir, yet it looked like he would be missing the match regardless, so his curiosity got the better of him. Flying towards the newcors at full speed, he watched their figures grow more detailed as his Sage’s Pond enveloped them properly.
Soon, Percy realized that he had made a mistake, albeit an understandable one. The shorter person wasn’t actually a child, but a female Denyte. A rather short and slim individual, even by the standards of her people. She was accompanied by what was presumably her own Maradorian attendant.
‘Another contestant, here for the sa reason as us?’ he wondered.
That didn’t sound right. Denytes were supposed to have their own ntal-type Decree, weren’t they?
And yet, there was no denying the facts. Approaching the sapients by another hundred tres or so, Percy got a chance to examine them more carefully. To his great shock, he actually recognized the woman.
‘Zurvanai?!’
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