With the enemy approaching Ethan had only one possible way, a decisive victory to scare them off forever, throwing himself valiantly into the fight for his life. He would crush their spirit, break their bones and send them away with a bloody nose and a lesson for life. Showing everybody not to mess with him…at least that was what he wanted to do but he knew how unprepared he was for a fight, especially with his mana halfway gone from experiments and his channels still healing.

So he decided to follow the way of the coward, a way he knew from his old life all too well. With his staff in hand he summoned a cloud of snow under his feet and floated up to the nearest tree. It was one of those giant trees that the elves used to hold their outpost in the air. Thanks to his staff, the flight speed had increased significantly. In barely a minute he was at the top of the tree, which was only showing how massive these giants truly are. The branches were as thick as his entire body, the leaves big and round, even the smaller leaves would cover his entire face and then some.

Once he reached a branch that was wider than the corridor in his old apartment the cloud vanished the moment both of his feet were off it, his boots then glued him to the slick bark, the humidity up here was even worse than on the ground and the canopy was damp and slippery. Even with magical boots he carefully walked further away from the trunk and tried to find a spot where he could watch the ground.

Crawling around in a tree wasn't something he expected to do today, he thought while walking and ducking under branches but finally he found a spot where the leaves didn't limit his vision to a few centimeters. He laid down flat on the branch and searched the forest floor for his little hideout and once he spotted it his gaze was fixed on the clearing where he conducted his ritual.

It seems Nora's warning came just in time, around twenty of those pesky elves were quickly gathering around his ritual circle, one of them slipped into the burrow while others held bows or spears in hand, scanning the forest for any kind of movement.

This was also the first time he could actually see them and he suppressed an annoyed groan, there were only women down there. His first thought was, did he really stumble over a civilization where a man was the inferior being? Did it bother him? No not really but hurting or even killing women was something he learned was a very bad thing, his mother was a saint and he could never hit his sister. The situation rubbed him the wrong way but he was glad that he didn't stay down there to fight.

His mother, may she rest in peace, would turn in her grave when she knew what Ethan might have done if push came to shove. Now that he thought about it, she wouldn't really approve of his exploits in the tutorial at all so far. He took a deep breath, the pile of existential crises he gathered so far could be dealt with another day, he was collecting them like trading cards anyway what was one more?

Shaking his head he focused back on the group below him. They were discussing something based on the smaller circle of women gesturing to each other, he really needed to increase his perception to not walk blind and deaf through the world. Looking at them he noticed they were agitated by something, his guess was the magic he used but he wasn't certain.

Ethan was sure Nora was listening to them but he didn't dare to connect to her telepathically so he waited. One of the women was performing some sort of magic, green energy spread out from her and to Ethan's surprise, showed his footsteps in such a radiant green even he could see them clearly but to his luck and their misfortune, his footsteps ended where he stepped on the cloud and rose into the air. A stupid grin on his face as he looked down at them, their faces turning left and right when they shared glances, it seems he won this round, for now. After waiting a bit longer the first group vanished, leaving only five women standing there talking but then they split up and four of them left the burrow and continued on their patrol or whatever they did.

The last one was left behind, a bow in hand she jumped up to one of the smaller trees and got ready to ambush him, at least that was his best guess. He could only see her dark red hair for a moment and then she was almost invisible to him, it seems like she used some magic to camouflage herself. Again he was reminded that his perception was severely lacking.

First he thought she must leave after another hour, but when they approached the third hour she was still there, ready to strike. Ethan saw no movement, no rustling of leaves, no animals that smelled or spotted her and ran away. She was invisible to the world. If he was honest, he should have expected this from elves living in the jungle.

When the fourth hour drew closer he risked it and sent his thoughts out to find Nora. Finding her was quite easy actually because she was right underneath him, it seems she risked being found by sending her thoughts. But it turned out in her favor as she managed to find him. With her being so close Ethan felt a lot safer talking to her.

Nora, did you manage to hear what they said? From up here I could just make out some hand gestures and nothing else

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I heard them, yes. In short, they sensed your magic and heard you murdering helpless trees, which they really didn't like just so you know. Maybe next time you realize that destroying trees makes a lot of noise, you idiot. This group was on patrol or something, and after discussing what to do, they decided to get to the bottom of it. Before they got here, I rushed back to warn you.

As you already know they searched the area here and used some magic I haven't seen before but my best guess is something nature related. When they couldn't find you they made a plan to ambush you, the archer in that tree was tasked with observing the clearing and when you appeared she would make the noise of some bird, whose name I can't remember, that is pretty common here and the others would rush back and kill you.

Ethan raised an eyebrow and asked. Kill me? That seems pretty harsh, don't they capture prisoners to interrogate them first or something? Maybe exile but straight up killing?

Nope, kill you for sure. They said it was the will of the great mother, whatever that means. I would guess it's their goddess or some sort of nature spirit, they seemed to idolize her as some divine being. So Ethan do you have any more bright ideas? Blowing up a mountain next for example?

He rolled his eyes and stifled a sigh. Yes, yes, mock me all you want but I experimented with magic and got some pretty good results so it was worth it in the end. But to be more serious, I would try to capture the archer and get some answers out of her.

His companion was nearly at his side, they were only separated by a few more meters up the tree trunk. I hope you mean interrogate when you say it. Not those nasty things you humans do with each other, and yes I saw that in your memories. Your people should really find something more productive to do, snakes would never do such a thing, especially not wear the skin of some other being like you wear leather, what is even the purpose of being covered in it when you leave vital areas free? So wasteful.

Ethan's face turned a darker shade of red, which was a lot compared to his pale skin. Don't throw me in with those people and could please focus on our predicament? I don't know how we could reach the tree without alerting her to our presence, do you have an idea or would you rather continue to mock me? I know I fucked up so please, lets change the subject.

When Nora slithered over his leg and found her place on his shoulder and down his arm she answered him. I do have a plan, believe it or not it sounds stupid but I believe it could work if we pull it off. So the archer is waiting for you and will keep an eye out for as long as she needs. But I believe I could distract her long enough for you to jump her. What you need to do is wait for my signal and then float down to her and freeze her mouth shut at the very least. My guess is the others are far away enough to not alarm you so it's our best shot. If she makes any noise it's over.

Are you sure that will work? I mean just now I have a dozen things in mind that could go wrong with your plan. From her detecting my magic up to you getting killed with bare hands by some angry elven archer. They skinned the panther I killed right after it's death, that's fucked up in my opinion. He looked at her, worry written all over his face.

Trust me Ethan, I know it's not the best plan but it's a plan that might work and if not, well we can still run away, right? Ethan wasn't so sure but agreed to her plan. Even if he thought it was stupid, the thing was he had no idea himself that wouldn't alert the entire jungle again.

Both of them decided to wait for the evening, maybe it was unnecessary the elf could have night vision as a skill for example. It would still be better than to ambush her in broad daylight. As soon as the sun went down, Nora made her way to the elf, slithering with her long body around the tree, using vines and thick carpets of moss as stairs she slowly closed the distance between them. Once the branches of other trees were close enough she coiled her body like a spring and jumped over to another branch.

In absolute silence she glided through the treetops until she found the right one and descended as slowly as possible. Around halfway down the tree she spotted the elf, Nora didn't stop and passed the elf like she was some normal snake only to turn around and approach her from below instead, Ethan felt that she hoped the elf would turn her attention to the white snake instead.

Meanwhile Ethan fidgeted with his staff and followed Nora with his spirit. Feeling her thoughts as she moved around. Then finally, barely a whisper in his mind.

Wait…wait…now Ethan!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.