Stray Soul

As we continued to run, following Elise’s lead, I couldn’t help but ask her a few questions.

“Are you sure we are going the right way lady?” I asked from the back.

“Yes, I am Lazarus.” She replied swiftly.

“Are you seriously going to continue doubting me until we reach our destination?” she then added.

“Well, its just that you were complaining about how hard and impossible it was to follow a plant being in a forest, and now you suddenly say that you know where it is! I just find it a bit weird, I mean, if you wanted to rest for a few days, it’s no problem, Mrs. Explorer, just tell us so!”

“Urgh... I never said it was impossible, I just said that it was hard, don’t take my words out of context. And like what I said, the spirits suddenly started guiding me, until they started talking, I was just following a possible path the plant being might’ve taken.”

“If they could’ve helped us all along, why make us trudge through the forest, following a phantom trail? Couldn’t you’ve asked them before hand to lend us a, you know, a hand?”

“You know how its like with spirits, they do as they want, we mortals can only follow their whims.” Elise finished and turned her attention away from me.

And I could only give a silent prayer to her poor soul that had developed Stockholm syndrome against the spirits.

Ah, what a young soul that has been plagued by fate, led astray by forces outside her control! Oh, what a tragedy!

Turning my attention from the elf that was too far gone in the path of madness to the half-elf next to me that was... still a bit mad, but not as much as the elf in front of me, and I couldn’t help but ask him about our situation.

“So... were you planning on letting us know about the spirits that Elise is talking with?”

“Oh? Well, I would’ve loved to inform you and the rest of the expedition about the spirits, but as a half-blood my spirit communion is just lesser to a full elf’s, so Elise sensed them way before I did, so I didn’t have the chance to inform you, and...”

“And?”

“The spirits threatened me by saying that they’d take everything inside my spatial bag, scatter them around the forest, and fill it with dirt, which was a good enough threat for me to shut up.”

“Hmm? I would’ve thought a man stacked like yourself would’ve already gotten his spatial bags aligned with his mana waves... or do you just not have enough money to do that? I’ve heard that it costs a lot, but surely you have enough money to do so, no?”

“Ah, its not a matter of money, if money was the only requirement every city would have one or two people with a spatial bag or something similar to that that is attuned to their mana waves, no, the main reason why I don’t have my spatial bags attuned is because there is an unsaid caveat that is, while not really a top kept secret, is not known to the wider public.”

“Which is?”

“You need to either be a noble or a member of the clergy to have your mana attuned to spatial bags.”

“Wait—really? But why? What’s the point in only allowing nobles and the clergy to use mana attuned spatial bags when they are, you know, either laying on their fancy bads or not leaving their churches, that just seems a bit... counterproductive now, doesn’t it?” I asked, confused.

“Yes, you’re right, it does seem counterproductive, and it is. But I honestly have no idea why, I can only assume that mana attunement process is either too complex or expensive to let the wider public to have access to it, but that’s only a guess.”

“Huh... but surely there must be ways of getting one even if you are not a noble or clergyman, right?”

“Well... there might be, but even a priest of Astralis I managed to meet wasn’t willing to break the rules that much, so I’d doubt that.”

“Wait—you managed to meet a priest of Astralis?!” I said, surprised that Heinrich was able to meet a priest of Astralis as he didn’t have that many priest or clergymen under him even though he was one of the great gods.

“I knew you had some connections, but I didn’t think they’d be great enough to allow you to meet a priest of the god of magic!” I added.

“Hmpf...well, I can’t deny it, I do have some friends in high places!” Then Heinrich said with a lot of pride in his voice... wait...

“OH! I get it! You are a leech!” I said, realizing a bit too late that I had vocalized my thoughts.

But the moment those words left my mouth, the smile on Heinrich’s face turned from one of content and happiness, to one of hidden anger, or just being pissed off.

And as he was about to say something, his right eyebrow twitching, a sound came from behind us.

*pfft~*

As we both turned our heads behind us in sync, I could see Caroline covering her mouth with a hand, barely containing her laughter.

“Ahh—don’t mind me! Continue what you were doing!” She said after realizing we were looking at her.

Turning back forwards, for a few seconds none of us said anything, but then Heinrich cleared his throat and started talking, still a bit annoyed as far as I could tell.

“Ahem... You see, Lazarus, itsnotassimpleasitseemstoyouas,likeyoucanimagine,mebeingaleechisnotaccaptable,andnottrue,youmaythinkfrommyactionandactsthatImaybemostlyuselss,butthatisjustaruse!AruseI’veputforwardstotrickthevagabondsofthisworld!Iamagreathistorianinmyownregardand—”

Heinrich started defending himself, but before long I became disinterested.

Not that I had any ill will against the guy, no no no. After all, he was paying me a lot to be in this expedition, and I actually thought he had a point too!

Well... not with this weird rambling of his, he was just saying whatever made him feel better right now, but this expedition... if it goes as planned, which it seems to be right now, he won’t be a leech for long!

Hell, we even found the spirit tree the weird papers were talking about, and the spirits promised to help guide us or at least listen us out after we returned the branch of the spirit tree to a random plant being, so we are probably on the right track!

But probably is a strong word, and I can understand where all this pent-up stress of his is coming from, after all, it must not be east to make a gamble like this.

If this expedition returns with nothing at hand, he will forever remain as just another crazy person, but if he succeeds, he has everything to gain.

“—so, that’s why I, AM, NOT, A—”

“Quit it.” Said Elise, cutting off Heinrich. And though her voice wasn’t even above her normal talking voice, I could hear her as though she was right next to me.

Not talking any further, we slowed down from a run to a jog, and that jog turned to walking and then a complete stop, and as we stopped where I assume the spirits lead Elise, I went next to her to look at what she was looking at.

“Hey Elise, did you find our little plant—oh... well, that’s going to be a problem.” I commented, looking at a giant monstrosity that was leaning on a tree.

Then the others slowly approached us and saw what we were dealing with, well, except one.

“HEY! What’s going—HMPF!” Started yelling Xylene, but thankfully Xavier was there to shut her up before she could make any more commotion.

“Please be a bit quieter dear.” Said Xavier before letting her go.

“I was!”

...

As she said that everyone just turned and looked at her without saying anything.

“Okay... maybe not as much as I thought... but I was still quiet! Anyways, what are we looking at!” She then came next to me and started looking at a tree.

“...I can’t see anything.”

“Well, you still have quite a bit of time to grow, so don’t worry about it, you’ll be able to see things in the future.” I said and quickly dodged a blow from her, defending my pelvis from the gremlin’s attacks.

“Quiet. Seriously.” Said Elise, turning back to look at us and stopping us from making a mess.

Though I doubted that we’d catch the attention of the plant being, which was a lot bigger than how Elise had described it. Though there wasn’t much of a reason to worry about it as we had 2 E ranks, if they couldn’t defeat something, me and Xylene probably wouldn’t either.

And I am not counting Heinrich and Caroline because... frankly, they are just civilians. Both have some combat experience, and Caroline was an ex-adventurer, but they are still civilians.

As we continued to stare at the plant being which seemingly had a... fucking mace fused into its tail, Xavier cut the silence by asking a question.

“So, what do we do now? Approach it like any other wild animal and give it the branch or...”

“Hmm... I am not sure. This isn’t really something I’ve had to do before—”

But as Elise was replying to Xavier, a roar erupted from the tree we were looking at.

*Roar*

Then we turned towards the plant being which was staring at us, but not moving.

“Oh? It realized we were here? This is going to be fun!” Said Xylene, and everyone else ignored her as it was not yet hostile, and there was no reason to just charge into and attack everything that noticed we were there.

“Hmm... interesting, but not concerning. But as it has realized we are here... we now need to decide how to approach it and give it back its branch before it decides to run off or attack us.” Added Heinrich.

“Right—” Elise started saying, but once again a roar cut her off, but this time it was way louder.

*ROAR*

Everyone froze for a moment, not expecting such a sound to come from a plant being, but before any of us could say something, the plant being pointed an arm towards us and... fucking flipped us off?!

For a moment no one could talk, but then a few moments later all of us lived up and started pointing at the plant being that had somehow learned how to flip someone off in a god forsaken forest and was now flipping us off?!

To say it was bizarre would be an understatement!

But as we talked, Heinrich suddenly stepped forwards and pointed at the plant being with both of his hands.

“This thing, whatever it exactly is, is clearly intelligent, and knows that we are here, so I see no point in trying to continue talking here about how to approach it and give it the branch when we could just move towards it and hand the branch out.”

“And how are you sure it won’t attack us?” Elise voiced her concern.

“Well, then we just throw the branch at it, and run off, or deal with it. It might be big, but it isn’t that big. And do you seriously believe the spirits would guide us here, knowing we would fight and potentially injure their pet?”

After Heinrich was finished, Elise stood still for a few moments, thinking, but soon, she moved past Heinrich and approached the plant being, which caused it to... climb up the tree?

Slowly, all of us left the tree line and stood in a half circle around the tree, and Heinrich gave the branch of the spirit tree to Elise, which she then tried to give to the plant being.

“Hmm... I would’ve thought such a big creature would’ve broken the tree...” I muttered.

“Yeah, I agree. But plant beings are built different from normal creatures, so maybe its less dense than a normal being its size?” Caroline added.

“I doubt but... I don’t see why not it wouldn’t be that way...”

But as we were conversing, the plant being started approaching Elise and...

*CRACK*

But suddenly, a cracking sound came from the tree, and it started falling towards us.

“...I hate always being right.”