Path of Dragons - A LitRPG Apocalypse (BOOK TWO STUBBING AUGUST 15)

It took three days for him to recover.

But in the wake of the challenge of Ignis, Elijah felt better than ever before. For one, he had a brand-new spell – or five of them, if he wanted to get technical – and for another, he’d taken one more step toward reaching his class evolution. On top of that, everyone in his group had progressed significantly as well. So, as he soared through the air in his Shape of the Sky, he had reason to feel optimistic about his situation.

He banked, reveling in the feel of the air as it rippled past his wings. There was ethera at play, though it was so subtle that without Connection, he’d never have felt it. It was comforting, after a fashion, because according to the laws of physics with which he was familiar, there was no way he should have been capable of flying as easily as he did. No sooner had that thought crossed his mind than he saw something glinting in the distance.

He'd left the volcanic landscape of the challenge of Ignis behind, and the terrain had returned to its jungle-like roots. From his vantage, it looked like a carpet of green spread out below him. As he sped toward the metallic glint in the distance, it resolved into a silver spire jutting from the jungle. At first, he thought it was an obelisk like the Washington Monument, but as he drew closer, he realized that it was actually a tower. The highest point flared into a platform not unlike the Space Needle in Seattle, though entirely silver and flat on the top.

At the speed he could travel, it didn’t take Elijah long to reach the spire, and on closer inspection, he could see that it wasn’t in great shape. The silver exterior was terribly tarnished, with huge gashes running down the otherwise sleek sides, and a good chunk of the platform at the top was missing entirely. Elijah descended through the jungle canopy, and only a moment later, he found the missing piece half-buried beneath the local soil. Barely anything was visible above the surface, but via One with Nature, he could feel it well enough.

Elijah didn’t land on the ground. Instead, he latched onto the branch of an enormous tree, where he settled in to take stock of the situation. There was nothing alarming about the area. Sure, there were some wraiths hibernating beneath the ground, but not in abnormal numbers. Otherwise, the local wildlife was the same as he’d come to expect in the other parts of the jungle.

Still, it was difficult not to get lost in the sheer tide of vitality that came with such verdant terrain. There weren’t just thousands of organisms in the area. There were millions. Perhaps even billions. Some were microscopic – barely discernible even with his Connection-enhanced senses – but there were plenty of rodent-sized, stealth-based animals in the region. Normally, those would remain entirely unseen, but there was no hiding from One with Nature.

Then there were some larger animals. They were rarer, but no less impressive for it. Their little world shook with their every step. They were tyrants in their own right. Alpha predators who faced few challenges to their unquestioned authority.

To Elijah, it was beautiful. Everything coexisting. Not peacefully. Never that, but still, they all played their own little part in the ecosystem.

For a long time, he just watched. He listened. He felt. And it soothed his Mind in a way he couldn’t really explain. More than anything, he wanted to descend upon that jungle and become a part of that ecosystem. However, he knew that he didn’t belong. He was an outsider in a strange land, and the moment he took a part in that world, it would be irrevocably changed.

Maybe for the better, but more likely, it would be worse.

He let out a hissing sigh, then threw himself back into the air. A couple of flaps of his wings sent him soaring above the canopy. After a few times circling the spire, he realized that he could feel nothing inside. It wasn’t like the tomb he’d visited, where life simply didn’t exist within the confines of the crypt. Rather, it was as if something was blocking his senses.

That definitely didn’t bode well for whatever was inside, but Elijah couldn’t help but wonder what he might find in there. So, after seeing a door in the center of the platform, he landed and decided to give it a look. Upon setting down, he returned to his human form, then decided to check his status before descending into the spire: