An Owl's Rise

Seeing Rehni return without any issues, Evelyn let out a sigh of relief.

'I am glad she managed to make it back. I have no clue what we would have done if it was impossible to leave and return.' Evelyn thought.

Flying over to their group, Rehni gave them all a rundown on what she had learned.

"First, I was brought back to the exact place we were transported in at. So, we do not have to worry about being sent to a random location." Rehni informed them.

This was really good news to hear, since if they ended up somewhere they had no idea about, returning to the Roost would be very difficult.

"Next, the wooden knights we defeated have reappeared. But even when I left, neither of them seemed interested in attacking me. They just stood their as if they were regular statues. Finally, using the warp pad to return to this domain does not cost anything. I still have the seven bronze tokens on me." Rehni said, opening up the small bag and showing everyone the tokens inside.

'It seems that things operate in the best possible way for us. If we had been sent to a random location or needed to use tokens to come back here, I am not sure what we would have done.'

Luckily this domain did not seem to function on any harsh and unfair conditions. The worst one Evelyn could think of was the fact that you could not leave the domain for free. Anyone that got brought to this place had to go out and fight the horrific monsters in the forest to gather tokens if they even just wanted to leave.

"I suppose that our goal now should be to explore this place while collecting more tokens from the creatures that inhabit this forest." Evelyn said.

The place may have been dangerous and not part of their original plan, but it was extremely rare to find a separate domain like this that was set up as a means to pass down the items and knowledge that an expert of the highest order had left behind. Frankly, it was almost certainly more valuable than even the magic spring that the burrowing owls had access to.

"But what about our plan? We still need to make it to where the Roost's entrance trials are going to be held?" Aralee said.

The final destination of their journey was a vast swamp on the eastern part of the continent. Currently they were pretty far away, and it would take them a decent amount of time to reach their destination even if they did not explore any of the areas that they initially planned on visiting.

Otis himself looked a bit nervous that things were being derailed. It was likely that they could lose track of time in the Verdant Warlord's Domain. Honestly, they could probably spend several years in the place without discovering everything it had to offer.

"You are right that we need to make sure to reach the place where the trails are begin held, but if we just take the safest route, it will only take us a few weeks even at a leisurely pace. I think it would be best to spend our time exploring this domain rather than the outside world as we planned. There is likely more for us here and we will only need to worry about the creatures that inhabit the domain." Evelyn said, stating her opinion.

Certainly, she had been looking forward to exploring the open world, but this domain was more alluring to her. She had noticed that it had a few game-like aspects and was very interested in it. It was possible that the rewards they would receive would not be all that great in which case they could just leave. But more likely Evelyn expected that the Verdant Warlord had left some very valuable items and knowledge behind. It seemed like a waste of time and resources to set up an entire domain like this to leave behind paltry rewards.

Thankfully the others agreed with her, and they descried to set out and explore more after getting some rest. Fighting the moss monster, the mushroom wolves, and then the hiding tree had worn them out.

Unfortunately, there was one major problem with the Verdant Warlord's Domain, it was perpetually daytime.

While the Roost was set to always be at the time of last light right before it became completely dark, this domain was always set to be during late afternoon.

It was not as bad when they were flying through the forest which blocked out a good deal of the light, but the crystal dome was quite bright and not somewhere that they could sleep easily.

Just staying there for a bit of time was no problem, but trying to sleep was difficult for Evelyn and the others who were used to being able hidden from the light as they slept.

They tried to have Otis use his magic to create a makeshift structure with earth magic, but the inside of the dome had some sort of enchantment that prevented them from doing so.

In the end their best option as to sleep in the forest even if they could be attacked. It simply felt more natural, and they were more comfortable even when needing to have to be on guard.

During their rest a new type of creature they had not seen before wandered nearby, but thankfully it did not notice them.

The creature looked like a rose bush, but its roots would pick themselves up out of the earth and its across the ground in what Evelyn could only describe as a wriggling motion.

It had sharp blood red thorns all over its body and Evelyn felt a sense of danger from it. This thing was certainly not to be mess with.

Luckily it passed by and soon was gone within the thick forest.

Nevertheless, Evelyn felt pretty confident after seeing this that the forest was only populated by plant type monsters.

Time went by slowly, but eventually they collectively felt well rested enough to venture out into eh dangerous and unknown forest.

To begin they wanted to map the area around the crystal dome which was going to be their base of operation.

Things may have mostly looked the same in the forest, but there were certain characteristics that could be used as landmarks, and if they really wanted something unique to be added to the landscape, it was possible for Otis to manipulate the earth or for Evelyn to burn down a couple of trees.

"Looks like we have our first enemies. Everyone get ready and stay on guard. Until we know what these things can do, make sure to keep your defenses at their highest." Evelyn instructed.

From atop the trees several vine-like creatures were coming down slowly but stealthy towards them.

Had Evelyn not been carefully using her wind magic to periodically search the area for foes, none of them would have noticed the approaching creatures even with their impeccable eyesight and hearing.

Dropping down from the branches these vines tried to wrap around their throats, but Evelyn and her companions had already been ready for an attack.

Each one of them had magical barriered up and the vines simply were unable to reach any of them.

Most of them simply evaded the attacks, but Aralee had been the target of several vines and one wrapped around her barrier.

At first it seemed that she would be fine no matter how much the vine tried to constrict around her, but quickly cracks began to form around her barrier.

Seeing this, it was clear that these vines had some extreme constricting power and if they successful snuck up on anyone and got around their neck, it would almost certainly be game over.

Creating a wind blade Aralee cut off the vine and flew away, but it quickly regenerated and chased after her.

'Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen. There are eighteen of these assassin vines.' Evelyn thought, counting them while keeping away from being entangled herself.

She tried cutting and burning their ends off, but this did not kill and of them.

The ones that she cut swiftly regenerated and the ones she burned fled back up into the branches since they needed longer to heal.

The others were not having any better success and it was obvious that fighting the ends of the vines trying to strangle them wasn't going to et them anywhere. They needed to destroy the core of these creatures if they wanted to end the attack.

"Bylur, trying to freeze them all the way up they vines" Evelyn instructed.

"Understood. You always come up with the greatest idea's Evelyn." Bylur said, happy to be relied on.

Picking on of the vines he let it wrap around him for a moment, before freezing it soldi.

Carefully he directed his ice magic up the vine without letting it break and Evelyn carefully watched where the ice went.

The vine tried desperately to shake off the frozen part of its body, but its own durability prevented itself from ripping off its main vine that it used for attacking.

Eventually Bylur's ice reached a large bulb that was stuck to the side of the tree high up and where the vine was coming out of.

Once this part was frozen, the vine disappeared, and a single bronze token took its place.

One by one, each of the assassin vines met a frosty end as Bylur froze them, while the other kept the remaining vines distracted.