Fetch Quest Chapter 68: Respite (Patreon)

I mentally poked at my status, but it refused to let me pick a third class, or even display the list. There was no clue as to what the problem was, either. Was there some other condition? I don't remember doing anything special last time. Was it a question of level? The only other time I'd seen the 'locked' description was on skill slots I wasn't high enough level to use, so maybe I needed to be higher level in my other classes to pick a third?

Regardless, there was nothing I could do about it now, so I turned my attention to my pair of empty skill slots.

Stronger poison: Greatly increase the potency of your body's poisons.
Hypnotic aroma: Your bodily fluids gain a substantial portion of the hypnotic abilities of the angelica vorax.
Exoskeleton: Develop a tough chitin exoskeleton to provide additional protection from both physical and magical attacks.
Luminance: Your body glows with a controllable white light.
Festering wounds: Wounds you inflict with melee attacks become diseased with blight.
Extra limbs: Grow an additional three pairs of clawed limbs.
Mana metabolism: You can metabolise ambient mana, greatly reducing the need for physical food and water.
Crystal metabolism: You can efficiently metabolise mana infused crystal in addition to your species' regular food, or inefficiently drain the mana from the crystals by touch.
Prehensile feet: You can grasp with your feet with high dexterity.
Draconic might: You gain a massive increase to physical strength.
Ice affinity: You can cast basic and intermediate ice spells.
Decay affinity: You can cast basic and intermediate decay spells.
Draconic scales (red): Develop weak red dragon scales to provide additional protection from both physical and magical attacks, as well as very high resistance to fire.
Draconic power: You gain a massive increase to mana reserves and regeneration.

Upgrades everywhere, and a pair of new dragon skills. Of the upgrades, most noticeable was the exoskeleton providing protection from magic, and festering wounds now affecting all melee attacks instead of only attacks with my own body parts. Neither skill tempted me, though.

Of the new skills, would weak dragon scales be better than tough chitin? Would the extra fire resistance let me use my flame breath with impunity, even if the damage was internal? If so, the combo of draconic scales and draconic power would be awesome. And leave me looking even less human than I already do... Admittedly, I would prefer the red scaled look to an exoskeleton. It would probably look cool.

My original plan of ice affinity and draconic might wouldn't affect my appearance and would increase my combat options. But again, there was no need to pick right this second. I could leave my slots open and take a skill when I encountered a situation that required it. And if the murder tree upstairs gave me class bonuses, then surely the friendly one here should too, with a bit more talking. Although that would probably just make me grow bark, or turn me rainbow coloured.

Could I get rainbow scales? I wanted rainbow scales.

First, though, I owed a visit to the town of the overly armed blobs. I took back to the air and flew towards it, noting with a complete lack of surprise that the town was triangular, surrounded by the same sort of earth-magic wall as the original villages. This one was shorter and thinner, though. They obviously had less to defend against. Despite that, there was only one gate, so I dropped to the ground outside it.

There were no other travellers around, but it wasn't as if they had anywhere to travel to. The fox-kin gate wasn't busy either. Like the fox-kin, this one was guarded, and a trio of guards immediately pointed spears at me as I landed. Stone tipped, this time, rather than the crystal of their predecessors. Presumably crystal was no longer available; I hadn't seen anything like the mana collecting bowls around anywhere. But given my skill options, didn't they eat the crystal? What were they eating now, if crystal wasn't available?

"krryxxywwkklyct," said one, which meant nothing to me, but another trio of blobs rolling down the street at high speed seemed more promising.

"Anyone speak English?" I tried, but to no effect, so I took a few steps away from the pointy sticks and settled in to wait. Proficient empath told me they were scared, but picked up no hostility. Would they be friendly? Would they attack? Would I get anything out of it even if they were friendly? Unless they had very different stuff to the village they'd replaced, there wouldn't be anything of interest to me.

The answer turned out to be rather less interesting. The three blobs that had sped up the street returned with a fourth, who came to a stop behind the three guards.

"Go away," he said plainly. "We have nothing for you, and you are not welcome here."

"How do you know you have nothing I want?" I asked.

"Our prophets foretold your coming. The hero of the Goddess, destroying all that she touches and leaving chaos in her wake."

Wow... That's rude. I haven't destroyed everything. Heck, I'd say I'd improved three of the four floors I'd visited. But they still weren't attacking me, and they were still scared of me, even the English speaker. And they still had no hostility. Forcing my way in when they didn't want me would be unlikely to gain me anything, and would only serve to make me more enemies, so there wasn't anything more to do here.

"I don't destroy all that I touch, although I'll admit the chaos accusation is more accurate than I would like. It's not my fault; things just keep happening... Anyway, I have no hostile intentions here, so if I'm not welcome, I'll be on my way. Nice meeting you."

I turned around and walked off, the fear behind me immediately turning to relief.

"Oh, one more thing," I added, pointing in the direction of the temple. "I repaired the Goddess' shrine in your temple over there, but the priests attacked me so the shrine's barrier rejected them and blew them all out."

"zzrktt!" swore the English speaker, not needing to translate that one for me to know exactly what it meant.

Again, not my fault! And I didn't destroy it, I repaired it. I can't help if bad things tend to happen to anything that attacks me.

So, that was it then. The fourth floor had turned vibrant and peaceful, and I had nothing left to do except extracting some more information from the rainbow tree and departing for floor five. Which was the abyss, and full of demons. And a dragon that had erased everything on this floor with no apparent expenditure of effort.

Wasn't there anything more I could do up here? No-one would complain if I procrastinated a bit, would they? And the tree did seem to have lots of interesting information.

"The strange little bondage hero returns so soon?" she asked when I re-entered her clearing.

"The what?"

The tree started laughing again. How was it even making noise? Was there a mouth hiding somewhere? Lungs on the inside? "I apologise, but your reactions are too cute, and you neglected to introduce yourself."

Oh... So I had. "My name is Katie. Pleased to meet you."

"The Guardian of the Abyss. Likewise. Do you wish to enter this time?"

"Actually, I'd like to hear some stories of the past. If you wouldn't mind. And feel free to ask if there's anything you want in return."

"In return?" asked the guardian, this time sounding pleasantly surprised. "I suppose I would ask for something similar. I am rather... attached to this place. Would you permit me to see your memories of elsewhere? To see the beauty of creation through the eyes of another."

"My memories? That's... rather personal." Friendly as she might be, I wasn't keen on spilling all my secrets.

"Worry not. I will only be able to see that which you permit me to see. Should you have personal memories that you wish to keep private, it shall not be a problem."

I blinked, having not even considered that part. Yes, there were certainly some memories involving me and my zombie twin that, while very pleasant, I wouldn't want to share.

"Okay, deal," I answered. New class features and skills, incoming!

The tree swayed in a non-existent breeze, one branch reaching down and tapping me on the forehead. My time in the caverns flashed before me. My brief time with the shouty mage. My time on Earth. Was that mind magic? It didn't seem to trigger my nullification at all.

"Oh my," said the tree as the branch withdrew a little, then snapped back down, wrapping itself around me faster than I could react.

The heck? Something from my memories had caused the tree to attack me? I struggled, but my arms were pinned tightly to my sides, the gentle pressure from the branch not being enough to crush me, but too much to free myself.

"You poor thing," continued the tree. "Never have I seen a hero less suited to the role. It must have been hard on you."

My struggles ceased. The tree was hugging me?!

"I thought I was doing okay?" I tried cautiously.

"Perhaps you are, but who are 'you'? The Katie I saw in your memories was not the Katie that stands before me now. The Katie that could never fight. The Katie that was prepared to refuse to battle the demons of another world, even with the safety of that entire world on the line. The Katie that was terrified of a harmless bug. Now, before me stands a Katie who can guiltlessly commit genocide. How much have you lost, sacrificed, just to stand here today?"

I knew I was different than I used to be. If ever I forgot that fact, I needed only to stretch my wings to remind myself. But despite all that, wasn't I still the same person? I was still the same Katie; just a Katie that had been thrown into an impossible situation, unable to escape, then magically detached from her fears. All of her fears. Her fears of losing herself, for example.

...Oh.

No wonder I was prepared to risk taking my tamer class. Friend of fear didn't just prevent my fear from interfering in combat situations. It removed fear of the consequences from all my decision making. The consequences of taking a rare class. The consequences of pulling out a blighted shield in the middle of a party of sentient fox-monsters.

I'd wanted this world to be a game, and the world had responded to my will.

I flopped over, the tree's branch supporting my weight without the slightest hint of flex. "Yes. You're right about that," I admitted. Thinking back on my decisions, I still regretted nothing, but they were certainly decisions that Katie the university student would never have made. Katie the university student wouldn't have been able to complete this quest. That needed Katie the immortal half-monster princess, who, conversely, would likely struggle back at university.

My musings were interrupted when the tree branch, which was still wrapped around me, yanked me closer, a few more joining in and wrapping up most of my torso. Now my wings were pinned too! "Whu?" I complained, struggling as the extra branches wrapped around me. How could I not fight back, even with my strength boosted by my class and a magical item? I suppose my base was quite low, but I should be able to do something.

"Umm... I appreciate the hug, but don't you think this is overdoing it?"

"Nope. I deemed you to be in need of a hug, and a hug you shall get," laughed the tree.

Damn that tree. I hid all those memories, and she tied me up anyway!

"Besides; this was what you wanted, was it not? Respite. An excuse for rest."

I stopped struggling. "What?" I asked, now thoroughly wrapped up in the overly happy rainbow tree's branches.

"The part of you that recognises your changes. Your old self, that desires peace. That wants to leave this place and go home. You seek respite from the fighting. From the self-mutilation you use to make yourself stronger. Yet you feel obliged to fight on, without wasting time. You value any excuse to pause. You were hoping a conversation with me could delay your journey into the abyss. Rest here for a while, while I share with you my stories of the past."

Well, yes, but I would have stayed of my own free will. It didn't require an inescapable tree-hug! Why are even the friendly monsters into bondage?!