Path of Dragons-Chapter 4Book 8: . The Circle of the Hunter

Elijah snatched his hand back, exclaiming, “You little son of a bitch!”

He glared at his attacker with undisguised hatred, considering drastic actions. The clouded leopard looked back innocently, then let out a chuff. Apparently, this particular species of feline could neither purr nor roar, which sort of fit, given its size somewhere between a big and small cat. But to Elijah, it sounded like the creature was laughing at him.

He wanted to snatch it up, shift into the Shape of the Sky, and drop it from somewhere in the clouds.

His relationship with the guardian had started off so well, but the moment he’d stopped doling out treats, it had turned on him. It didn’t pose much of a threat to him: not really: but that was less due to its power and more because it clearly thought itself so superior that it wouldn’t deign to dirty its claws by killing him.

But it had no issues with scratching him, and frequently enough that Elijah was already considering setting up his dolmen somewhere else. However, the misty valley was by far the best location he’d found, and he had neither the time nor the desire to continue searching.

He wanted to finish the dolmen, then get back to his grove for a much-needed break. His few days of traveling the countryside had done wonders for his soul, but the grove would serve him much better. And hopefully, Sadie would come back with him. He didn’t know that much about the situation in Heaven’s Bastion, but he could sense that it wasn’t a good place for her at the moment.

The clouded leopard continued to stare at him until, at last, Elijah gave it what it wanted. He reached into his Ghoul-Hide Satchel and tossed it a grove fruit, which it caught mid-air. Normally, felines were obligate carnivores, meaning that their bodies required them to eat meat in order to survive. While most berries weren’t outright toxic to them, they offered almost no nutritional value.

Apparently, grove fruits were different, because the stupid cat couldn’t get enough of them.

It really shouldn’t have been that surprising. His grove fruits were packed full of ethera, counting as natural treasures in their own right. So, it stood to reason that basically any animal would trip all over themselves to get them.

To that end, most beasts would have opted for a friendly relationship with him. The leopard chose a different and more cat-like tactic of bullying Elijah. And he let it because, well, it wasn’t like he was going to hurt a creature like that just for a few scratches, even if some of them went all the way to the bone. All it took was one cast of Nature’s Bloom, and he was fine.

Still, he did fantasize about getting his revenge on the beast.

“That’s it. I’m not giving you anymore,” he told the cat. It looked at him with equanimity, but he suspected that it was intelligent enough to know it was a lie. So long as he stayed in the valley, he would pay the toll. If the cat’s anatomy would have allowed it to roll its eyes, it probably would have.

As it stood, it simply chuffed again, then disappeared into the surrounding brush, leaving Elijah alone to heal his injured hand. He only bothered to use Soothe before pushing himself to his feet and looking around.

He’d spent the past few days wandering the valley as he searched for the perfect spot for his dolmen. From an ethera standpoint, the whole area was suitable, and he’d found that it was absolutely teeming with powerful beasts as well as mid-grade natural treasures. His instincts told him to protect it, but he suspected that the leopard: or the other animals in the area: were far more capable of that feat than he could ever claim to be.

In any case, with the energy issue taken care of, he only needed to find suitable terrain. That was more difficult, because the landscape was filled with ravines, streams, and quite a few ponds. There was even a sizable lake where he’d sensed another powerful guardian, though he hadn’t taken the time to check it out, largely because when he considered it, he got the feeling he wouldn’t be welcome.

That wasn’t a first for him. Not all guardians were as friendly as Snappy, the turtle who guarded the Circle of Spears outside of Seattle. Most would only tolerate his presence so long as it benefited them. So, it stood to reason that some would react to his intrusion with outright hostility. He didn’t want to tempt fate by challenging some territorial guardian for no reason, so he’d left it to itself: though at the end, he got close enough to sense its nature, and he was surprised to find that it was an ascended catfish the size of a Honda Civic.

Having no desire to deal with that, he’d moved on, and to his irritation, the clouded leopard shadowed his every move. At first, he didn’t mind its presence, but as it grew more insistent, he became increasingly irritated with it.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to deal with it much longer. So, to that end, he shifted into the Shape of Venom, then headed out through the forested valley. He only had one more section to search before he would choose between a handful of potential locations. None were perfect, but they would all work for what he had in mind.

The next hour or two went much as the previous few days, but around noon, Elijah hit paydirt when he found a slight promontory with a flat summit. More importantly, the ethera in the area was particularly dense, and there were no animals in the immediate surroundings.

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In short, it was perfect.

So, after Elijah spent the next day-and-a-half digging holes for his stones, he retreated into the nearby mountains to quarry the stone he’d found on his first day in the valley.

He wasn’t certain what it was, but it looked a bit like marble. It was entirely black, with red highlights that really made it stand out. He spent an entire day carefully carving it away from the cliff, then another two days shaping it properly. Unlike how he’d approached building the other dolmens, he had resolved to take his time with this one. Partially, that was because he felt he owed it to Dat, but mostly, it was because he knew he needed to waste a little time.

If he returned to Hong Kong too soon, there was no chance that Sadie would come back to the grove with him. Instead, he wanted to give her the opportunity to figure out what was going on in Heaven’s Bastion before he asked her to leave. He still wasn’t certain what her answer would be, but he dared to hope for the best.

Once he’d quarried and shaped the stones into rough columns, Elijah shifted into Shape of Thorn and hefted one on each shoulder. When he did, he was surprised that he barely felt the weight. He knew he’d grown stronger: after all, gaining seven Strength with every level was a huge upgrade: but he hadn’t really contextualized what that meant. It was one thing lifting some arbitrarily heavy spheres back in the Primal Realm, but it was something altogether different to effortlessly carry multi-ton pillars across miles and miles of forest.

It took him two more days to get everything back to the promontory, and when it was all said and done, he had twenty-seven black marble columns waiting to be deployed. Getting them onto the edifice was a little more difficult, but he found that Shape of the Sky was strong enough to carry one at a time. That trivialized the process, and soon enough, he’d slotted the sarsens into place, then capped them off with the ones meant as the lintels, creating a circle of what he’s recently discovered were called trilithons.

Once everything was in place, Elijah spent the next few days roughly shaping everything, including firming the construction with mortice holes and tenons. All the while, he kept Blessing of the Grove and Nature’s Design going, flaring them both to the best of his ability. As he’d learned during the old man’s tests back in the Primal Realm, there was some variation to the power of each spell, and he needed to learn how to manipulate it more finely.

It would be a slow process, he knew, but the old man had hinted that he’d one day be able to bypass the system and modify his own spells. Elijah desperately wanted to reach that point, and so, he had dedicated himself to taking those first steps.

In any case, the presentation of the spells wasn’t particularly important to the end product. It was only intended to bathe the area in his particular flavor of ethera, almost like marking his territory while infusing the stones with energy. Elijah wasn’t certain if it was absolutely necessary for the spell to work. Chances were, he only needed to build the dolmen and cast Roots of the World Tree. But this was how he’d always done it, and he definitely wasn’t going to shortchange the process with this iteration.

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Elijah’s father was fond of saying that if something was worth doing, it was worth doing right, and he’d long since taken that to heart: at least when it came to things he truly cared about. Concerning other things: like his long-lost career as a marine biologist: he was less stringent with his own version of quality control.

After completing the shaping process to his liking, Elijah took a long break. Of course, that meant another interaction with the clouded leopard, who had been watching him from afar. It only took one look before Elijah knew what it wanted. So, he grabbed a grove fruit and tossed it the beast’s way.

It caught it, then disappeared after only a second.

That left Elijah to his own devices, and he spent the next few hours sleeping among the trilithons he’d erected. Upon awaking, he found a large monkey perched on his chest. Its fur was tawny, and it didn’t seem at all aggressive. However, it did hold its hand out as if expecting something.

Elijah sighed.

It seemed that his days of doling out grove fruits had just begun.

He fed the monkey, but the simian didn’t disappear like the cat. Instead, it hung around, swinging from one stone to the next as Elijah worked. Now that everything was in place, he only needed to carve the stones properly.

To that end, Elijah had a couple of designs in mind. His abilities as an artist left a lot to be desired, but he had enough experience that he felt confident he could do what he wanted. So, he got to work, carving a series of scenes into the columns. Elijah didn’t have the skill to create true-to-life work, but he could manage vague symbolism well enough. So, he got down to it, using every ounce of skill he possessed.

As he did so, he continuously channeled ethera into his two spells.

He lost track of how long it took him to carve the designs. However, the process was helped along by his previous experiences. For days, the area was filled with the sound of his claws scraping against the marble. Over and over, thousands upon thousands of times. And slowly, it began to take shape.

Until, at last, the task was complete.

Elijah stepped back and inspected his work. Because he knew his intent, it was easy to identify events from Dat’s life. Elijah had been forced to use some artistic license for the feats for which he had been absent: like Dat’s heroic efforts in the immediate aftermath of the World Tree’s touch: but he felt confident that he’d conveyed the tone properly. Many of the other scenes were easier, as Elijah had been present for each of them.

The most difficult to carve had been the one meant to depict Dat’s heroic sacrifice, and throughout that process, tears had fallen down Elijah’s cheeks. But in the end, he was happy with how it had all turned out.

At last, he cast Roots of the World Tree. It took some time to complete: longer than ever before: but soon enough, the local ethera surged and whirled before settling onto the dolmen. When it did, Elijah received the expected notification:

Congratulations! You have created a unique structure: [Circle of the Hunt]

Overall Grade: Growth (Current: Complex)

Enchantment Grade: C

That was better than Elijah had expected, given that his previous attempt at a dolmen had resulted in a D-Grade enchantment. So, he was making progress. However, he was still a little disappointed that he’d so far been incapable of pushing the overall grade higher.

It didn’t matter, though.

He’d done what he had set out to do, and now, he only needed to return to Hong Kong, and hopefully, Sadie would agree to come back with him to the grove.