The First Legacies Of Zion: Omaye

Vine Mastery And Finding His Center

NATHANIEL

As he made his way back to the clearing with the firewood, Nathaniel was so entranced by an idea, he was unable to hold himself back. But he held on to his sanity at the moment. Nathaniel loved art, but most especially he loved doing things with his hands. He was never actually a good sketcher, or a painter. But there was just something about randomly splashing paint over a canvass to bring about a picture that evoked the feelings that were currently dancing in his head.

But Nathaniel did not just find art in painting, he saw it in gardening, farming, dancing, fighting, acting and even singing. Movement, stillness, nature and life. Everything Nathaniel had ever done in his leisure was to try and find what worked for him, to understand his own brand of art. He felt like he might have just found it.

When He burst back into the clearing he threw the firewood in his hands away, not caring for where they landed. Then he took a long silent look at his father, while everybody else looked at him startled by his sudden behavior.

Nathaniel was able to confirm his father was getting better, in fact the proper word would be he could see it. His new eye sight gave him the ability to see energy, and it was at this moment he also realized what it truly meant. He could see souls and what seemed to be a life line.

At the moment his dad’s was a little weak, but Nathaniel could see it slowly recovering. He might not have been an expert with this druid stuff, but Nathaniel was sure that meant his father was healing. The entire process was slow, but at least it was progress.

“Nathaniel what’s going on?” he heard faith ask behind him. But his mind was so filled with calculations and eagerness that he did not even give her an answer.

Without any hesitation whatsoever Nathaniel dumped all of the skill points he was given by the system, four in total into the control skill [VINE HOLD]

[VINE HOLD: LEVEL 5: ACTIVE (CLASS): ENTANGLE ALL ENEMY WITHIN A RADIUS OF SEVEN AND A HALF METERS FOR 30 SECONDS, 10% CHANCE TO CAUSE PARALYSIS FOR 10 SECONDS.]

SYSTEM ALERT: SKILLS

[YOUR SKILL VINE HOLD HAS REACHED LEVEL FIVE, PLEASE SELECT AN AUXILIARY EFFECT OR MASTERY.]

[VINE MASTER: CONTROL AND SUMMON VINES AT WILL. IT CAN BE USED FOR DEFENSE, OR ATTACK. BUT BEWARNED IT IS NOT VERY STURDY AS IT IS IN THE END STILL A VINE.]

[IRON VINE: MAKE YOUR VINE HOLD SKILL STRONGER, INCREASING YOUR CHANCE OF HOLDING STRONGER OPPONENTS BY 60%.]

[ELEMENT VINE: INBUE YOUR VINE HOLD SKILL WITH A CHOSEN ELEMENT TO CAUSE ELEMENTAL DAMAGE TO YOUR ENEMIES WHEN THEY’RE HELD BY THE SKILL.]

Nathaniel was surprised by the system prompt so much that he ended up falling on his ass. He could never have imagined that raising a skill to level five would unlock a mastery. He should have made it a point to read all the instructions in the help menu. He would not have been this surprised otherwise. Nathaniel was sure Faith had read the entire thing from cover to cover, that girl was meticulous in everything she did.

But now Nathaniel had to make a choice about what effect or mastery his vine hold skill would have. The first thing that came to mind was for him to ask Faith for advice, after all she was the smart one among them and she would have a better idea about how best to put the vine hold skill to use.

But Nathaniel pushed that thought away. If Esther was right about one thing, it was the fact that he followed after his little sister a little to much. Nathaniel did not really know how to act like a real man, considering how much of a crappy upbringing he was given, but he had to learn how to be a man. He needed to know how to stand for himself and make his own decisions without depending on any member of his family for help.

Nathaniel unhesitatingly chose vine mastery, what the druid tree had shown him had expanded his horizons. Besides the tree was living proof that control over vines was quite a useful ability, especially when you’re in the forest. After Nathaniel chose vine mastery there was no change, only a knowledge that he could will the vines to come to him and move at his will. There was no change to his vine hold skill, but a new passive appeared in his skill list.

SYSTEM ALERT: SKILL

[VINE MASTERY: MASTERED: PASSIVE(CLASS): GAIN FULL CONTROL AND POWER OVER VINES. THE DURATION AND RANGE OF CONTROL IS DEPENDENT ON THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY THE SKILL USER POSSESSES]

There was no stats bonus or extra effects, just the control. Nathaniel full of excitement placed his hand on the ground and closed his eyes. He could feel the hundreds if not thousands upon thousands of vines in this forests. While all those vines belonged to the druid tree, Nathaniel knew he could call them to his command, shape them according to his will. Or he could just create his own vines from the millions of seeds that littered the forest floor.

This also made Nathaniel understand that he couldn’t create vines out of thin air, they have to come from something or already exists for him to be able to use and control it. Which meant to avoid a rather awkward situation, David had to carry around a bag of seeds anytime he felt the need to use his control of vines in a battle.

In the end there was nothing too complicated about controlling vines, all he had to do was call it. And he did just that as he called the vines from beneath the ground, however by now Nathaniel should have known that as far as Zion was concerned, things were not that simple. A cluster of vines the size of a fist shot out from the ground to deliver a resounding impact to the spot between his legs.

“Yaaarrrrhhhhhh!!! Ohhhhhhh!!”

Nathaniel’s screams resounded through the entire forest accompanied with the unbridled laughter of his sisters as they laughed to their hearts content. Elsewhere in the forest, a wounded dragon shook her head as she tried to hold in her laughter for fear of aggravating her wounds.

Nathaniel felt like dying, in fact he felt like he was dying. Any man who has been subjected to a low blow knew how painful it was, it was as if someone shoved a hook into your abdomen and was turning it around for his pleasure. Then the pain will crawl all the way to the top of your head making your spine tingle with agony as one part to your abdomen will then begin to feel like someone dropped a hundred and fifty pounds of cement inside of it. The bottom line was it hurt, it hurt a lot.

“Pfttt, Nathaniel are you okay. Where does it hurt.” Esther asked trying but failing to keep the mirth and pure joy she felt at his misfortune hidden.

“f**k you Esther!!” Nathaniel snarled at her.

“Seriously big brother I’m sure its not that bad, you don’t have to go after our sister.”

Faith chimed in, trying to include her own two cents in the matter. But unfortunately all Nathaniel saw was two people ganging up on him and kicking him while he was down……literally. Both Esther and Faith were prodding him with their feet while they kept asking what it felt like to have his balls crushed by a plant.

At that point in time Nathaniel hated them both so much he would have loved to strangle them both. But in the end, there was an understanding amongst themselves. Nathaniel wouldn’t say they were okay, but families fight and hurt their selves all the time. The trick was learning to forgive each other and move on, they had to cover for the other so that they won’t repeat their mistakes.

They had to learn to be better than they were. Nathaniel felt happy that they were able to move past their rather nasty fight, it was unfortunate that it had to come at the expense of his precious jewels.

Eventually Nathaniel was able to push through his pain to explain what he had in mind before it went horribly wrong. Being a man was all good and all, but no matter what you do in life it is a widely accepted fact that two heads are better than one.

“So you mean you can pick an extra effect or mastery when your skills reach level five.” Esther asked with a rather focused look on her face.

Esther was not academically or artistically inclined like Nathaniel and Faith, what she did excel in however was instinct and a sheer volume of will power. Esther would keep on doing something no matter how many times she failed at it, just to get it right. Esther was instinct and tenacity, Faith was intelligence and principled, while Nathaniel was heart and faith. He’s saving grace was his ability to believe in people.

Nathaniel was not so naïve as to believe in the good in people, that was stupid. But he believed there would always be people willing to do things for you without asking for something in return.

“I think you will have to learn how to manipulate those vines in a step by step method. Your current body has the ability to control it in any way and length you so wish. However your mind is not used to the skill, or the way it works. You need familiarize yourself with it. Since you said you wanted to use it as a shield of sorts to keep this tiny clearing of ours covered from the outside world, try by making a fence using the trees around us as a post.”

Faith’s suggestion was technical as usual, their father was already asleep so there was not much he could input in this discussion, however at least he did not see Nathaniel in such an embarrassing moment. Nathaniel made his way to the first tree using awkward wobbling steps as he was still feeling the effects of being hit in the balls.

Nathaniel placed his hands on the tree and searched for that connection he had spent the past hour becoming familiar with. The energy of nature was not calm, but it was not rowdy or fast either. It was like its flow was caught between two opposing forces, it was not hot or cold, black or white. It was stuck right there in the middle, it was balance. To be able to control those vines, Nathaniel needed to find his own balance, he needed to find his center. For him it was easy, he had only ever lived for his family, even with how dysfunctional they were, it was the only thing important to him.

Slowly but surely one of the vines wrapped around the branches of the tree creeped down, and winded a few times around the trunk, then stretched to the next tree, repeating the same process again and again until the vine had made a complete rotation around the clearing. It was a far cry from the impenetrable wall of vines Nathaniel had in mind, but it was progress. However just this one rotation had left him incredibly tired, so he had to take a break to restore his lost energy.

At the moment Nathaniel did not have any other way to get his depleted energy back other than resting. So he placed his back to a tree and closed his eyes, completely oblivious to the fact that he had a dragon watching his every move with abject fascination. But besides the Dragon that watched Nathaniel, deep in the forest, waiting for darkness to cast it’s sweet embrace over the lay of the land, a prince of darkness waited with baited and anxious breath as the scent of blood filled his tomb and his hunger awakened after so many years in the dark. So come twilight, he would grace the forest of lost cities with his presence once again, and when he does, it would be one hell of a party.