The souls would not speak to Hadorix, they merely kept moving around and around the grove. After watching them awhile he began to get dizzy. He then decided to head back to the throne to place the soul stone of Obcha. Seeing Obcha enter, the guardian spirits were extremely surprised. The old Master Druid had avoided her and the Grove of Sorrows like the plague. Hadorix went down the stairs and into the room with the throne. The second slot glowed as soon as Obcha approached. Hadorix placed her soul stone inside.
· 4/10 Druids Recruited.
Obcha began to glow with a golden light. Unlike with the others, Obcha was fully engulfed. They could no longer even see her. When the light dissipated, they no longer recognized her. Obcha had grown significantly younger in front of their eyes. In appearance, she now looked no older than Hadorix. They could feel the power emanating from her body. Hadorix now understood why the old master druid dared not anger her. Obcha smiled and summoned her familiar. It was a jet-black dire wolf. Obcha smiled. She had longed for a companion for so awfully long. Now she had one. She then shapeshifted. Her shapeshifting was completely different from the others, she became a formless spirit.
Hadorix took her to the manikins. Hers stood in between Brina and Alex. Her armor was jet-black. The group were confused by the armaments on it. Instead of weapons, it looked like totems. How could she fight with those? Obcha quickly utilized the Druid Equip skill and donned her new armor. In her hand was an ebony staff. At the top it contained many bones and trinkets. When Obcha moved you could hear the staff rattle. She became even more excited, and she spoke. "This armor has more totems than I have managed to learn in all my centuries of life. The trinkets and bones on this staff will strengthen my shaman magic. I did not expect to grow stronger immediately when I became a druid, but that is exactly what has happened. Hadorix, I do not know how to thank you. I will try by teaching you. When we kill the undead, I will how you how to use the well."
Hadorix looked at the throne again. Just above his own soul stone now stood a line of thousands of symbols. Inside the lines of symbols appeared two stones that were larger than the soul stones he was used to. He asked Obcha about them. Obcha replied, "Now those be the stones for The Mystical Orchard and the Grove of Sorrows. Those symbols? Now those be the souls."
Hadorix was amazed. The souls did not have soul stones, yet they affected his throne. What effect could this have in the future?
Hadorix decided that he would only find out when the time came to know. Until then, he sat on the throne and began driving toward the undead mausoleum. While he drove, he had asked Obcha to begin teaching the others about magic. The more they knew the stronger his protection would be. It took a full 2 weeks to arrive at the mausoleum. Junifer's estimate of close did not match Hadorix's. Then again, he did drive the Mystic Orchard. If he had not, it would have been far faster. While Hadorix drove, he had an idea.
What if the Druids managed to get their familiars to generate a soul stone? Would that count toward the beast soul stones that he had to have? He brought up this idea with the other druids. They all agreed to try. Each of them summoned their familiars and began telling them what a soul stone was. They offered as much power as they could to their familiars by touching them. This was something Obcha had taught them. After spending several hours, no one had yet been successful. Hadorix decided they could return to trying later, for now they would be better off fighting the undead.
Hadorix invited the spirit guardians this time. While they declined, they were appreciative of the invitation. Hadorix gathered the druids and their familiars and left the Mystical Orchard. He had parked a stone throw away from the mausoleum, so as soon as they exited the city walls, they began getting attacked by many varieties of skeletons. There were animals and humanoids, there were even skeletons that were unrecognizable. To Hadorix's delight, they were indeed low level undead. He and his group were able to kill them with ease. As they killed them, they each threw the bones into their rings. Hadorix had told them that if they killed it, they owned it. After they cleared the walls of the Mystical Orchard they began to move toward the mausoleum. As they got closer to the mausoleum the enemies began to get a bit tougher. Hadorix and the druids continued to press on.
As they got to the entrance of the mausoleum what Hadorix had thought was the ground began to move. A gigantic head appeared. Obcha quickly began throwing totems around the massive creature. She then spoke. "That be a cyclops. And it looks alive. Do not know why it is here, don't know how we can kill it. It is much stronger than all of us combined."
Hadorix thought about this for a bit, then he spoke to the cyclops. "You're a cyclops, I'm a human. There is no reason we cannot be friends is there? You could join us. We could use a big strong ally like you. We have to be better company than the undead around, here right?"
The cyclops responded, "I cyclops. I eat humans. Undead leaders bring me lots of humans to eat. Undead leaders say I eat any living who come here. Me eat you."
Now Hadorix was afraid. Clearly, he could not reason with the creature and it continued to pull itself out of the ground. Now that Hadorix could see it, it stood 10 meters tall, Hadorix did not even want to consider how much it weighed. It looked like a human, but it had a massive eye in the center of its forehead, and tusks like the orcs and its skin was slate grey. This thing could crush them all like bugs. It began to step towards them to do just that.
When it stepped, it was unable to cross the line of totems. Obcha quickly finished the line and formed a complete circle with the totems. She hoped to buy the group some time, so she fenced it in. Hadorix sent Monk to fetch Junifer. He hoped she might have an idea. Monk returned with Junifer rather quickly. She examined the cyclops for a moment then sent out some vines. The vines were a dim green, but they had thorns that looked rather sharp. The thorns dripped a bright green liquid from the tips. Hadorix assumed this must be some type of poison. The vines continued to move toward the cyclops. They got closer and closer and closer.
The cyclops began to laugh. It said, "Puny creatures try to touch me with plant. Here me touch plant."
The cyclops then stomped his bare feet down on the vines. Junifer smiled and continued to push the vines to its feet. The cyclops eye started to droop, and it fell. The group could hear a loud snoring coming from it. Junifer had not managed to kill it, but it had been put to sleep. It was not the ideal solution, but at least they were alive. Obcha retrieved her totems and they all returned to the Mystical Orchard.
Hadorix quickly sat on the throne and drove back in the direction they had come from. He wanted to get as far away from the cyclops as possible before it was able to wake up. Junifer was not sure how long it would be asleep. Hadorix moved the Mystical Orchard for a full week. They went all the way back to where they had started before, he stopped. He hoped that they cyclops would not be smart enough to track them. They had not heard nor seen it in the past week, so they believed they were relatively safe. However, that encounter showed them all how important it was to grow stronger sooner rather than later. With that thought in mind, Hadorix began training with Alex daily. One never knew when a hidden dagger and the ability to use it properly could save their life.