Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO ON KINDLE SEPT. 2)

Claws were not meant for stonecarving.

Elijah knew that, and yet, they were a much better option than the couple of knives he kept in his Ghoul-Hide Satchel. Still, after roughly shaping the blocks and placing them into position, Elijah had been forced to give up on the Shape of Thorn. It was great for tasks involving brute strength, but it had a clear deficiency when it came to coordination. That factor did highlight the reality of how attributes worked together, though. While his Dexterity was much higher than it had ever been, even in the form of the thorned sentry, he still didn’t feel any more coordinated than he had six months before. To Elijah, that showed that the relationship between the attributes were more important – at least in terms of raw performance – than the numerical value of the attributes.

As such, if his Dexterity was higher than his Strength, he would feel more coordinated than if the opposite was true. That was why, when it came down to detailed carvings, Elijah had resorted to using the Shape of Venom. And as it turned out, it was a far more successful endeavor, and not only because of the high Dexterity associated with the form. In addition, the ability to stick to any surface proved invaluable as he clambered over the stone pillars and carved them appropriately.

At first, he began with only an abstract concept, but over time, he let the setting influence every grating swipe of his claws. It would have been easy to focus on the foxes, which never really left him alone, but instead, Elijah concentrated on the cherry tree. Moreover, he quickly discovered that if he dug deep enough into the stone, something about it changed. The pearlescent crystals that were only vaguely present in the block as a whole suddenly came to the fore. In the old reality, it never would have made sense, but in a world full of ethera, Elijah just accepted it.

Once he discovered that characteristic, Elijah incorporated that into his plans, and once he pulled back from the first pillar, he could only appreciate his work. The glittering representation of the cherry blossoms weren’t perfect. He was no artist, after all. However, they were evocative and expressive, and through that, beauty was uncovered.

His effort wasn’t as technically proficient as what he and Carmen had done in the Circle of Spears, but in a lot of ways, it was more beautiful.

Throughout the process, he’d kept Nature’s Design and Blessing of the Grove going, which he knew infused the entire area with his particular brand of ethera.

Once he’d managed the first monolith, he moved on to the second. The entire design had been arranged in a circle, with each ten-foot arch spaced a foot from the next. Overall, the circle was a bit more than thirty feet across, which still felt small compared to the towering pines nearby.

Gradually, he completed one monolith after another until, at last, he’d finished that phase of the project. When he stepped back, he saw a circle of white stones. The carvings upon which he’d spent the past couple of days glittered like cloudy crystals, and the whole area felt thick with potent ethera.

But he wasn’t finished.

Elijah knew he needed something else to truly set it apart. So, he approached the cherry tree. The nine-tailed vixen perked up upon his arrival, and he produced one of his last grove fruits. After tossing it to her, he said, “I don’t know if you understand me or not, but I need to take one of the cherries from this tree. I’ll only take one, so don’t attack me, okay?”

She cocked her head to the side, staring at him for a long second before turning a circle and settling back into place. Elijah took that as a sign to keep going, so he continued forward, then climbed the tree. Obviously, with it being the middle of autumn, such a tree had no business bearing flowers or fruit, but as a powerful natural treasure, it didn’t really follow the normal cycle. Even so, there were only a few cherries on the tree, so it took Elijah a few minutes to find the perfect candidate.

When he felt it, though, he knew it was the one.

So, he plucked it from the tree, then leaped free of his position near the top of the tree. He sailed through the air, reveling in the feeling of air whipping across his face, before landing just outside the circle. A second or two later, he was in the center of his dolmen and digging a shallow hole.

There, he planted the seeds he’d found inside the cherry.

Normally, it would have never had a chance to take root. It was the wrong time of year, and even if it wasn’t, seeds didn’t always sprout. However, Elijah had magic on his side. Not only would the dense ethera help it out, but he bathed the entire area in Nature’s Design and Blessing of the Grove. The combination – along with the plant’s already magical nature – made all the difference.

Within a few hours, a sprout had pushed free of the earth, and a little while later, it had become a seedling. That’s when its growth stalled. It would take days more to push it to the next stage, but Elijah didn’t have time to wait for that. Instead, he needed to be finished with the dolmen sooner rather than later. So, after checking his work one last time – and making a few minor adjustments to the carvings – Elijah used Roots of the World Tree to connect the dolmen to his spell.

The spell took quite some time to cast, but that was no surprise. It was not a spell meant for quick or flippant use. When the spell finished, Elijah received the expected notification:

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