79. The Jade Elixir
Erwen first asked why I was inquiring about such a thing, but she soon cut to the chase and began sharing what she knew.
"The World Tree is a tree that holds mana nearly infinite in quantity—it's the source of life for all elves."
Erwen's tone shifted slightly as she began speaking of the World Tree, like a mother reading a fairy tale to a child.
"No one knows its exact origins, but according to ancient legends, it was the first tree of life born from Mother Earth herself."
"That's why the World Tree possesses mana and vitality bordering on the infinite—a blessing granted to the first life."
"The World Tree shared that life with the two elf races it birthed. The elves, receiving nearly infinite life, became immortal."
I had a feeling Erwen had told this story many times before.
"We still live extraordinarily long lives even now, but the elves back then, connected to the World Tree by a spiritual umbilical cord, truly lived forever."
Erwen's eyes drifted subtly into the distance, as if reminiscing about ages long past.
"But while souls may be immortal, flesh inevitably withers. The World Tree solved this limitation in a very simple way."
"It would reclaim the souls of elves who died from old age, birth new bodies for them, and cycle them back in."
"The consciousness and memories etched into those souls carried over intact to the new bodies, so the elves who met death simply returned to youth."
The souls of dead elves gaining new bodies and being reborn—reincarnation, in a nutshell.
"But perhaps because the elves could reproduce on their own and multiply, the World Tree eventually began to weaken and wither."
I recalled the World Tree I'd seen on Floor 7. Gaunt and withered, yet it still exuded tremendous power and presence. Hard to believe that was its faded state, but if Erwen was telling the truth, it made sense. A single tree sustaining the lives of so many elves.
"The cycle that granted immortality broke, and elves could no longer receive new bodies."
"When the flesh withered, that was the end. Our souls no longer returned to the World Tree but scattered into the world."
"Many elves grieved that fact, but thousands of years have passed, and they've all long returned to dust."
The World Tree's withering happened before the dark elves left the Great Forest, or so I'd heard. Now, only the Queen remained among the dark elves who remembered that era's World Tree and the wheel of immortality. Erwen wasn't fully of that generation either—just straddling the line, ambiguously.
"Well, I think our current form is better. Doesn't passing on one's will through death hold deeper meaning?"
"Yeah?"
"Of course. Isn't that how you humans are? You don't even live a century, yet you endlessly prosper and advance."
Erwen wrapped up by insisting that growth and development clearly stemmed from the power of last words. Fair point, honestly. The vow hammered into my heart by my mother's death was what kept this piece-of-shit human moving.
* * *
I'd learned this and that about the World Tree, but nothing particularly helpful.
"That's all I know. Satisfied?"
Not even close. Honestly, her final words had just soured my mood for no reason. But I couldn't show it, so I nodded vaguely.
Erwen added one more thing.
"I've just lived a bit longer than most, so I don't know much. If you want to know more, you'd best seek the Queen."
Fair enough, but that's why I'd come to Erwen first—the Queen wasn't someone you could just drop in on.
"The current Queen's not in great shape, but... you're Elenoir's betrothed, so you'll manage somehow."
"My betrothed status is still valid?"
"What, just because you haven't shown your face in twenty years? Might seem long to humans, but still."
Promising marriage and then ghosting for twenty years without changing status. Elves' sense of time was already hard to grasp, and skipping whole chunks of it only made it more confusing. And there was one more reason I couldn't easily meet the Queen.
"But the Queen probably won't be favorable toward me."
The Queen clung to lingering attachment for the World Tree and had wanted a political marriage through Elenoir to seal a peace treaty with the high elves. But my actions on Floor 7 had shattered that treaty, pushing things from peace to the brink of war. On that note, would she look kindly on me prying about the World Tree? No way in hell.
"True enough."
Erwen seemed to have overlooked that too. But she clapped her hands, as if struck by a good idea, and spoke up.
"Then how about you procure an elixir to cure the Queen's illness?"
Dark Elf Saga - Jade Elixir
The reason the great dark elf Queen lies bedridden remains unknown. There's no grand cause. She simply didn't want to announce her illness.
It could be a dire affliction with her teetering on the edge of life and death—or maybe just a mild cold. One thing's certain: to converse with the Queen, you must show appropriate sincerity.
Elf alchemy is exquisite, so ordinary medicine won't cut it, as you know. Nothing short of the rumored Jade Elixir will make her even glance your way.
[Quest Objectives]
1. Obtain the Jade Elixir.
2. Prepare a superior gift surpassing the Jade Elixir (optional).
3. Cure the Queen's illness (optional).
Never thought I'd re-enter the faction questline like this. And this was a quest I knew. The details differed slightly, but it was a cornerstone of Floor 8's faction quests.
Floor 8's faction quests normally involved chaining through numerous minor sub-quests. Here I was, skipping most of them and jumping straight into the most important, highest-difficulty one.
And from what I recalled, this one required party play due to its mechanics. Shit, what now.
* * *
The Jade Elixir quest was actually straightforward if you followed the strategy guides. The real difficulty lay in acquiring the info on where to get the elixir—not obtaining it itself.
Follow the guides, skip the info-gathering, grab the elixir, and clear it fast. The catch was in procuring it, which demanded party play. No hard system cap on numbers, but solo was impossible due to certain mechanics.
Even the community guides might not apply perfectly here—the challenge environment differed in multiple ways.
Couldn't bring Rizmel or Elenoir either; wartime tension meant combat personnel couldn't step away easily. Even blacksmith Erwen was swamped, and non-combatants were out of the question from the start.
"Alright, I'll get it."
I gave a curt reply to accept the quest. No option to refuse from the outset anyway. Couldn't pass up an epic quest.
Better this way, actually. A tough challenge right in front of me chased away idle thoughts.
I opened the community forums and searched for routes to the Jade Elixir location.
* * *
The spot for the Jade Elixir was another dungeon—albeit a special one. A dungeon-within-a-dungeon, a hidden one accessible only via a specific route inside.
The place I'd found was similar to the Cursed Altar on Floor 7 where I'd honed my sensory enhancement. Eight such altars dotted Floor 8, and only the third led to the hidden dungeon.
As per the community guide, I manipulated the statue on the altar.
-Kiririririk!
Gears ground with a clatter, the altar's center split open, and the boss sprang out.
The boss was a golem studded with gears here and there—standard field boss specs. Lately, I'd been running into golem-types a lot.
"Hup."
-Bam!
I pulled a blunt weapon from my inventory and swung; one of the golem's arms shattered and fell off.
This golem regenerated endlessly unless you destroyed every gear embedded in its limbs. In trade, its base defense was pathetically low for a golem boss—enough to shatter in one hit like this.
-Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
One precise strike per gear in its limbs and torso—exactly five hits to finish it.
Field bosses like this without complex patterns just felt like beefier trash mobs now. How many more floors until I faced enemies matching my specs? Probably not anytime soon unless I took the hard routes.