About twelve hours later, the plane touched down in a small airport in Scandinavia. Even from a distance, we could see the immense shape of Yggdrasil reaching to the heavens from the plane's windows. I was amazed by the sheer scale of it.
"So that's the World Tree, huh?"
Mom's European liaison was there to greet her and bring us to the accommodations they had prepared. They even rented a minibus to transport all of us to the condominium complex that they had reserved for expatriates and foreign researchers.
"Wow, this looks so grand," Sylvie marveled as she pressed her face against the minibus window. "Are we really going to be staying here for the next couple of months?"
"Yeah," mom assured her with a smile. "They've already set aside a couple of apartments for us."
We got to see those apartments about fifteen minutes later, which looked more like luxurious suites than actual residential places. As my mom was the head researcher and my dad was in charge of the security detail, they had pulled out all the stops and reserved the biggest apartments for us.
Incredible.
We began unpacking right away, and after getting used to the new apartments, we met up for dinner. This being our first day in Scandinavia, and also because of jetlag, there was no program for us other than meals, and we went to bed early that night.
The next day, mom and dad had to leave for the marine research facility on the beach. Jun Hai went along because he was a research assistant, which left me with the girls. That didn't mean we had nothing to do. We didn't come here for a vacation, after all.
"All right, let's meet up with the liaison. He said we should meet him here at the mages' guild." I had to google the directions there, but fortunately, it didn't seem too far away. A few bus stops later, Myria, Sylvie, Silvia and I found ourselves standing outside a grand-looking building that resembled more a palace than an office. I checked the address to ensure we were in the right place.
Yeah, this was the correct address.
"Um, well…let's go in then."
"This looks…pretty majestic," Sylvie remarked as she followed me, looking around hesitantly. In contrast, Silvia was practically bounding up the steps leading to the entrance.
"A place suited for someone like me!" She proclaimed, placing her hands on her hips. Sylvie and I rolled our eyes while Myria giggled at her antics.
"Song Jun Wen? Myria Poseidon? Oh, you guys are here early."
A young man in his twenties raced out to meet us the moment we stepped through the huge doors. He was handsome, with messy dirty blond hair and icy blue eyes. His grin was infectious, and he hit it off with Silvia immediately, the both of them possessing cheerful and bubbly personalities. He reminded me of a soccer player, for some reason.
"I'm Morten Pedersen," he introduced himself. "I'll be your local liaison in Scandinavia. I heard that you applied to take on the missions at Yggdrasil? You're assisting the elves in driving off hostile spirit beasts from their enclaves in the World Tree?"
"That's right," I affirmed.
"Excellent. I'll be your guide there. But I should probably bring you up to speed. Since you're from Hua Xia, you might not be familiar with how things work here."
"That's what we are here for!" Silvia boasted. Sylvie smacked her.
"We've been stuck in our village our whole lives, so we don't know much either! Just keep quiet and let Mr. Pedersen speak!"
"Please, call me Morten." The Norwegian chuckled and waved his hand. "And it's just a small briefing. It has more to do with the way our magic works here. I'm sure that's not what you call it back in Hua Xia, right? I believe you use the term cultivation instead."
"Yeah. I suppose the counterpart for cultivation in the West is magic."
"That's right. We usually follow the same principles, though, even if the names are different. Your spirit arrays are basically the same as our spells. Your techniques are the equivalent of our skills, and what you call qi, we term mana. We even have a basis of elements, like yours, though we have four elements as opposed to your five. But otherwise, our systems are largely similar."
"Interesting," I murmured, catching a glance from Sylvie and Silvia, who were nodding in agreement.
"We actually use the same system as the European ones, but whenever we employ them, we just automatically translate them to your Chinese terminology," Sylvie explained. "But yes, your spirit arrays are the equivalent of our spells, and your qi is our mana. We are only using these Western terms now because we are speaking European language instead of Mandarin, but everything fits. It's just less confusing to translate everything into the Chinese equivalent."
"Interesting," I said again. Silvia rolled her eyes and threw her hands up.
"Is that the only word you can say, big bro? C'mon."
"Well…I was just thinking…" I scratched my head and shrugged. "Like, you know, if this was a web novel or a manhua, the author will probably come up with some idea like, 'A Cultivator in a World of Magic' or something like that. So instead of equating the system and having them operate on similar principles, the protagonist will always be born as a so-called trash who can't use magic, but then he ends up discovering that he's the reincarnation of some immortal god, learns how to cultivate, and starts beating up everybody with his new overpowered cultivation techniques despite their magic. Because Hua Xia is number one or some nationalist nonsense. Oh, and the protagonist has to be some special snowflake with unique powers."
"That…does sound like a cliché manhua," Myria admitted. "I could have sworn I read that somewhere before…"
"You read manhua, sis Myria?" Silvia was shocked. "I thought you didn't bother with such trashy literature."
"I don't, usually. I got sick of them after the first few. Most of them are either about Mary Sue protagonists with egos the size of a universe, or toxic romantic relationships with cold and abusive CEOs. I can't stand both genres."
At least she hadn't read the werewolf stories…those were the worst. I didn't know if the authors had a fetish for "alphas" dominating the female protagonists or something. Did they like seeing the female main characters being abused by the male lead? Why? It was…disturbing.
Also, whenever I hear the comments from beyond the fourth wall deriding male protagonists as "betas" while demanding for so-called "alpha" main characters, I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Whenever I heard the term "alpha" I was reminded of software, where alpha versions are unstable, missing important features, filled with bugs and not fit for the public. I didn't know who thought it was a good idea to promote toxic hypermasculinity and misogynism. Most of these so-called alphas were actually rapists who would be put away in prison in reality.
Better watch out for that soap, Yun Che and Chu Feng…
"Um…"
On the other hand, Morten Pedersen had no idea what we were talking about. He was staring at us, confused. I cleared my throat and smiled apologetically.
"Never mind. Thanks for the explanation. I think the only real difference is the four elements in your magic. Wind, fire, earth and water. In contrast, we have five elements in East Asian cultivation. Fire, water, earth, wood and metal. But yeah, it's pretty similar otherwise."
"Yeah. I just thought you should know now that you're here. If you are to use East Asian cultivation terminology, I don't think the mages here will understand what you're talking about, except a few who might have read up on East Asian literature. Oh, by the way, we don't really call people cultivators here. We call them mages. Some might prefer the term druids, sages, sorcerers or witches, but by and large, we go by the term mage. Oh, a few will call themselves warriors because they specialize in close combat magic that often deals with enhancing their physiques, so don't be surprised if you run into them."
"I see. That's, uh, remarkable." I tried to avoid the word interesting because Silvia was giving me a stare.
"So you will be guiding us to the World Tree?" Myria asked. Morten nodded. He then stared up at the ceiling for some reason, clasping his hands as if in prayer.
"If this gets a manhua adaptation, please don't change me into a girl."
"…huh?" I gaped at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Don't you know?" Morten grumbled. "Manhua artists tend to take, uh, creative liberties and sometimes change the genders of characters, especially in situations like this, so that the protagonist looks like he has an entire harem. I get that beautiful heroines are popular, but you already have three lovely girls by your side. No need for them to turn me into a girl. Hell, I'll kill the manhua artists if they turn me into a girl! I'm based off a former Blackburn Rovers player, so stick to that!"
"I knew the name and look were familiar," I murmured and beamed. "I'm a fan of Blackburn Rovers! You used to play for them over ten years ago, didn't you? Even after they got relegated from the Premier League and into the Championship. I still remember your brace against Manchester United!"
"Oh! You remember me!" Pederson was shaking my hand. "I'm glad to find a fan! Yeah, that was one of the highlights of my career! Scoring two goals against Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United and obtaining a victory over them! We did the double over them that season!"
"Yeah! That was one of the best seasons ever!"
"Um…" Myria raised a hand. "What are you guys even talking about now?"
"Sorry…but when it comes to Europe, you got to talk about soccer. It's like the world sport. It's just too bad Hua Xia didn't make it to the past few World Cups."
The girls didn't seem to understand the awesomeness of soccer, probably because one lived in underwater Atlantis her entire life, and the other two were isolated in a remote village that was cut off from most of the world.
"Anyway, as much as your conversation seems fun, we should get moving," Myria said firmly. "You can talk about soccer as much as you want after the mission, but the elves need our help, don't they?"
I stared at her, dumbfounded. "I didn't think you would be that concerned about the elves."
"I haven't met any before, so I really want to see one in the flesh."
Oh…so that was her reason. Not because she was truly altruistic and sincerely wanted to help them, but because she wanted to meet an elf for real.
"What about you girls, Sylvie and Silvia? Have you met elves before?"
"Yes." Sylvie nodded. "A few elves dropped by to visit our village for trade. Since they are authorized guests, we usually allow them through the barrier once we are able to verify their identity."
"Barrier?" Morten asked. Oh, right. He didn't know that Sylvie and Silvia are fairies.
"That's right!" Silvia said proudly, puffing her chest out. As if to show off her abilities, she began casting a spell with her hands, and her wings were slowly shimmering into view as she bragged. "We were the greatest guardians of our village of fair…hmph!"
Both Sylvie and I caught hold of her, the former clamping a hand over her sister's mouth and silencing her. We sent a bewildered Morten an apologetic look before dragging Silvia away to have a conversation in private.
"Have you forgotten that we are supposed to keep our identities as fairies a secret?!" Sylvie whispered into Silvia's ear. "Don't go showing off our magic! You'll reveal your wings if you do!"
"Yeah, you were the ones who were afraid of being captured by humans and experimented on if they find out your true nature," I added.
"Sorry." Silvia's shoulders slumped. After ensuring she wouldn't pull another stupid stunt, we returned to the table, where Myria was distracting a puzzled Morten from our sudden departure.
"Anyway, we should move out soon, before it gets dark," Myria was suggesting. Morten nodded.
"If you guys are all right with it."
"Yeah. Let's go."
Not wanting to waste any more time, we set off from the guild office and toward the World Tree, which was visible even from a distance. Once more, I marveled at the awesome sight of the gargantuan tree sprouting all the way to the heavens. It was the size of a continent, but vertical. The sheer scale of it was humbling.
Even as we traveled toward it, I couldn't help but wonder what we would find within the titanic trunk of Yggdrasil. As the clerk pointed out, the spirit beasts inhabiting such a gargantuan tree would have been nourished by the dense spiritual qi (or mana) that it emanated and grow to become more powerful than usual.
In other words, we had to be very cautious…or we might lose our lives in this endeavor.