Once Hadorix stood up from the throne, he could tell Junifer wanted to speak to him. She said, "Your nothing like the previous master. He always locked himself away in his private room. I assume he read his books and learned spells. In fact, all the druids were that way. They all wore robes, none of them had armor. If they had gone against the cyclops, we would have all died. I do not agree with harming nature, but maybe you should do like you said originally. Maybe you should visit the wolf den and seek out allies. If they decide to attack you, then you will have to do what you have to do."
Hadorix was not yet ready to visit the wolves. He wanted to purify the undead they had slain first. To that end, he went to Obcha, and asked her to teach them how to purify the undead. Obcha took them all to the well of spirits. Once at the well of spirits, she placed the bones from one skeleton in the well of souls and waited. After a period of 15 minutes, the spirt was released, and a stream of energy entered Obcha's body. She believed in teaching by doing. She then explained that whoever placed the bones in the well would receive the energy. They each pulled out all their bones, ensuring that they didn't accidently place in the weapons and armor, and placed the bones into the well. After half an hour they received a vast increase to their energy. The purified bones glowed with a faint light.
路 +400 energy from the purification of undead souls in the Well of Souls.
路 Congratulations, you have reached level 2.
o +1 Strength
o +2 Intellect
o +5 Wisdom
o +2 Dexterity
o +3 Constitution
o +3 Charisma
o +100 Energy
Hadorix removed the bones and pondered what to do with them. Unlike flesh he couldn't easily eat them. But he knew they must be able to serve a purpose. With that thought in mind, he asked Obcha for advice.
Obcha replied, "O ye can do many things with bones. Once dey be purified, you can make weapons, or grind dem into powder and put em in a drink. You can make trinkets or amulets, if de bones come from a creature of power, they can have strong magic. De bones we got, I suggest ya drink em. Creatures aint strong enough for any other use."
Hadorix took the advice of Obcha. He ground his bones and made a powder, then he steeped it like a tea. Hadorix quickly consumed a cup.
路 Holy affinity +1
Flashed before his eyes. Hadorix grew excited. This was the first magical affinity he had gained. While he did not yet know how useful it would be, he made a full pitcher of tea and poured another cup. This time he gulped it down faster than the first.
路 Holy affinity +1
Continued to flash with each cup he drank. By the time he had drank the entire pot of tea he had received the notification 25 times.
Hadorix informed the others of what he had gained. They likewise ground their bones and made a tea and drank it. Each of them saw similar improvements. They all felt significantly stronger, and yet, it was not nearly enough. If they were to beat something like the cyclops, they would need to grow far stronger. Hadorix knew the only way to do that would be to level up. The fastest way to level up would be to kill beasts or recruit allies. With that goal in mind, he requested the aid of the other druids. The druids summoned their familiars, shapeshifted into their animal forms, and began to head towards the wolf den.
They began to see wolves within a mile of the Mystic Orchard. At first the wolves kept their distance, but as they got closer and closer to the wolf den, they began to surround the group, herding them towards the den of the wolves. This behavior was surprising to Hadorix. He expected to be attacked, not herded toward their home. The druids soon arrived at the entrance to a cave. Just inside the cave they could see wolves staring at them. By this point they were completely surrounded with no hope of retreat. The number of wolves was far more than they had been told, there were hundreds if not thousands. Hadorix began to wonder if he had again gotten the group into an impossible situation. While he was contemplating making the first move and attacking, a massive albino wolf moved out of the cave. It stood as large as Brina in her bear form. If it were to attack, they would quickly be overwhelmed, it alone should be able to keep at least 2 members from the Mystic Orchard occupied. They were in over their heads.
The Albino Wolf spoke, "I am Casper, Alpha of this pack. I am sure you realize you are surrounded young Archdruid. You are overpowered, overwhelmed, and sure to die should I desire it. Yet you continued to move forward. You continued to get yourself into a situation into which you have no escape. Why? Your predecessor never bothered with the pack. In fact, he clearly thought we were too weak to bother with. He only had eyes for the great dragon that proved to be his undoing. What makes you so different?"
Hadorix replied, "I came here to slay your wolves and consume their bodies to increase the strength of mine and my fellow druids. Now that I see how majestic and intelligent your pack are, I would much rather you join us. A creature like you must have generated a soul stone. Otherwise, I do not believe you could manage such a massive pack. If I were to guess, I would say your den is also a magical place, perhaps it even has a throne like my own orchard. Am I right?"
Casper replied, "I admire your honesty, and you are correct. I possess a soul stone. Many of my pack do. The throne of my den also enables us a great boost to our strength and intelligence. We are even able to use the spirits of others as weapons and armor. I did not expect you to be so wise. Nor did I want to tip you off to this. But as you have been honest with me, I can at least do the same. As to joining you. Why would we bother? Your weak. My pack could rip you apart here without breaking a sweat."
Hadorix responded, "Your right, we are weak. That is why we came here. We desire to grow. Can you aid us with that? You must know where other weaker beasts live. You may not be willing to join us, but are there any among your number that desires a life outside the pack?"
Casper responded, "There are always pups that desire a life outside the pack, whether that means creating their own pack or merely exploring. But why would I trust them to you? With the lack of strength, you have displayed so far, you would only get them killed. Likely in another wolf pack by approaching just as you have mine today. Not all creatures in this world are willing to allow others to live. In fact, few will. Let that be a lesson learned from your predecessor's actions. He tried to help a Great Dragon create a soul stone and the Great Dragon killed him. Had he bothered speaking to many other beasts, he would have known that all Dragons have soul stones already. The wily dragon merely wanted to see if it could destroy the Archdruid. It had hoped to claim the Mystic Orchard. But I digress, you say you want the bodies of beasts. I want to see your strength. Down in the den, we have cages of beasts that we have captured. They fight in our arena. Pick a champion. Allow them to fight in our arena. If they manage to live for 3 days and topple our current champion, I will give you the corpses from all the beasts that die in the arena for the month following your champions victory, along with all that die on the days your champion fights. I will also give the pups that desire to leave the option of leaving with you. Their soul stones will belong to you Archdruid."
Hadorix considered this for a moment before he responded.
Hadorix said, "We accept the challenge. But I will be adding a condition of my own. If my champion can disable a creature, they are fighting without killing it, that creature belongs to me. Whether we win or lose, the beasts we manage to disable leave with us. Their soul stones, should they have any, and anything they arrived with, come with them."
Casper contemplated and eventually agreed. Now Hadorix had only to pick a champion. All the Druids and familiars would be capable of competing in this arena. Hadorix felt all had an equal chance of killing any enemies they encountered. However, Hadorix felt that he had the highest chance of disabling an opponent and thus growing his army. One of his quests was to gain the soul stones of 10 beasts. Hadorix felt he had a chance of completing that quest in this very arena.
Hadorix spoke, "I will be the champion for the druids. Will my familiar be allowed to join the combat with me?"
Casper replied, "That is an interesting request, normally I would decline on principle, tell me what kind of creature is your familiar?"
Hadorix replied, "My familiar is the chipmunk that rides on my back. His name is Monk."
Casper laughed and responded, "A chipmunk? I see no harm in him joining you in the arena."
Casper then spoke to the wolves around him and told them to take Hadorix down to the arena. As he was a guest and not a prisoner, he would be given a room rather than a cell. The other druids were given their own room with their familiars as well. None were willing or able to return to the Mystic Orchard without Hadorix.