World Awakening: The Legendary Player-Chapter 91: Mission Upgrade

The heavy door clicked shut, and the sounds from the village vanished. It was just the two of them now, with the quiet crackle of the fire pit between them. Fena walked over to one of the simple wooden chairs and sat down, her earlier anger replaced by a deep, weary concern.

She gestured to the chair opposite her.

"Sit," she said. Her voice was still commanding, but the edge was gone.

He sat, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, his eyes fixed on her. "So," he started, "you were saying something about a dying tree."

She let out a long breath, her gaze lost in the flames for a moment. "It is not just the tree," she began, her voice low. "The Great Root is the heart of this forest. Its sickness is a symptom of a larger problem. A rot that has been spreading for a long time."

"How long is a long time?"

"For over a hundred of your years," she said. "It started subtly. A patch of trees that would wither for no reason. A stream that would run sluggish and dark. Our chanters could feel it, a coldness in the lifeblood of the woods. A slow, creeping decay."

She looked up from the fire, her dark eyes meeting his. "We fought it. We held it back. For generations, it was a stalemate. The Rot would advance, and we would push it back. It was a constant struggle, but one we could manage."

He just listened, his expression unreadable.

"Then," she said, her voice dropping even lower, "about a week ago, everything changed."

Nox’s focus sharpened. ’A week ago?’ he thought. ’That was the day the world went crazy. The day the System started.’

"The stalemate broke," she continued, her hands clenching into fists on her lap. "The Rot began to spread with a speed we had never seen before. Patches of the forest that were healthy one day were dead the next. Creatures became twisted, more aggressive. The farewolves you encountered are just one example."

"Why?" he asked. "What happened a week ago?"

"The mana," she said, a look of frustration on her face. "The very energy of the world. It felt... different. It was always a pure, clean stream of power. Now, it is tainted. Thicker, heavier. Impure. This new mana feeds the Rot. It accelerates its growth. The forest is choking on it."

He just sat there, the pieces clicking into place in his mind. ’She’s talking about the mana of this world. My world.’

It wasn’t a rot from her world that had gotten stronger. It was her world, or at least a piece of it, that had been dropped into his. This forest was an alien plant trying to survive in the wrong soil. And the soil was poison to it.

’They don’t even know,’ he realized, the thought a strange, quiet shock. ’They think their world got sick. They have no idea they’re not even in their own world anymore.’

He looked at her, at the powerful elf who was the master of this dying land. She saw a disease, a corruption. She had no idea she was a refugee on a foreign planet.

"So you have no idea what caused this change."

She shook her head. "No. It is a blight without a source. A sickness without a cause that we can see." She leaned forward, her gaze intense. "But you saw it. You felt the Rot in the Great Root from a distance. A human should not have that ability. The mark on your hand... your patron... do they know what this is?"

He just looked at her, his mind miles away, processing the scale of what had happened. He had thought it was just monsters and dungeons. But whole forests had been pulled across. Entire peoples.

’I’m not gonna be the one to tell her,’ he decided. ’She is also giving me a lot of credit, I also don’t know shit, the system is the one that told me.’

He looked at her again, really looked at her. Past the arrogance and the anger, past the power. She was just a leader trying to keep her people from dying out. It was the same look he’d seen on the faces of people back in the city after the first dungeon broke, a kind of desperate hope mixed with fear.

’Sigh,’ he thought, a wave of annoyance at himself washing over him. ’I’m getting soft.’

He pushed himself out of his chair and walked back to the fire pit, his earlier anger gone, replaced with a feeling he really didn’t like. It felt a little like pity.

"Look," he said, breaking the silence. "Your way isn’t working. Your chanters can’t fix it, and all you’re doing is watching your home rot around you."

Her eyes narrowed. "And you have a solution, human? You, who have been in my forest for two days?"

"Maybe," he said with a shrug. "That power you’re so scared of, the ’foul, uncontrolled thing’?" He met her gaze. "It might be the only thing that can fight this Rot. It’s an energy from this world. It understands the poison because it’s made of the same stuff."

She stared at him, her expression a mixture of deep suspicion and something she didn’t want to admit was hope. "You would help us? Why? What do you want in return?"

"I want to get out of this forest," he said simply. "And I can’t do that if it’s full of corrupted monsters trying to eat me. Helping you helps me. It’s just a transaction."

She studied him for a long, quiet moment, searching his face for any sign of a trick, a lie. But all she saw was a tired kid who seemed to be telling a straightforward, selfish truth. And that, strangely, was more believable than any noble promise.

"And you believe your... power... can truly cleanse the Rot?"

"I don’t know," he admitted honestly. "But it’s a better chance than you’ve got right now, isn’t it?"

She was quiet for a bit. He could see the gears turning in her head, weighing her centuries of pride and distrust against the slow death of her people.

"I will consider your offer," she said finally, her voice stiff. "You and the girl will remain here. I will send for you when I have made my decision." She turned her back on him, a clear dismissal.

He just shrugged again. "Whatever. Take your time."

He walked out of her house, not waiting for her to say anything else. Mela was waiting outside, her expression worried. She didn’t say anything, just led him back to the small house where Serian was waiting.

When he stepped inside, Serian looked up, her face full of questions. "What happened? What did she say?"

"We talked," he said, closing the door behind him. "She’s thinking about letting me try to fix her big tree problem." He walked over and sat down on his blanket.

"And you agreed?"

"Yep," he said, leaning back against the wall. He closed his eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted.

Just as he was about to drift off, a new window appeared in his vision, its text glowing with a brilliant, almost blinding light.

[Hidden Requirement Met: Forged an alliance with the Ashen Elves through negotiation and a display of power, rather than through pure annihilation.]

[Main Mission: Cleanse the Forest - REWARDS UPGRADED!]

[New Reward: 300,000 EXP, +200 Stat Points, 1x Mythical Class-Specific Armor Chest, 1x World Seed Fragment, Title: Warden of the Ashen Glade.]

His eyes snapped open. He read the new reward list again, and then a third time, just to be sure.

Three hundred thousand EXP. Two hundred stat points. A mythical chest. And something called a World Seed Fragment. The rewards had been good before. Now they were insane.

’Holy shit,’ he thought, a slow grin spreading across his face. ’So being nice actually pays off sometimes. Who knew?’

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