71 And straight back to isolation

'Nearly one year. It has really been a while.'

"Nothing to worry about, few things happened. Lord Völsung took command of this place and has been managing the situation quite well."

'Do you mean to say I am not needed anymore?'

"No! Without the apples you gave him beforehand, Völsung wouldn't have been able to stabilize things this easily."

'I was just joking. But do tell me, how did the situation play out.'

"I shouldn't be the one to tell you. I'll go inform Lord Völsung about your return."

Sven hurried along the bridges and ladders until he had fully descended. Not too far away from me, a nice mansion had been built. There, Sven soon returned from with Völsung.

"Eldar, it's good that you are back, I wasn't certain if I could keep this up."

'Stop being humble, you evidently had little to no problems. But now I'm curious, what happened so far?'

"Since you said you wanted to end the bloodshed, I sent messengers to all the defeated parties and worked out a peace treaty. We will all pretend this war never happened and in return, our forces will have free passage through their territories. I also took the liberty of signing a non-aggression pact with the humans. After that, I've been trying to rebuild what was destroyed during the battle and make a few improvements."

'A non-aggression pact with the humans. You still hold some loyalty towards them, do you?'

"I do indeed, but that was not the main motivation behind this. Sigurd broke through to King magus and took Loki as his personal advisor. With this, the human's war potential is now second only to us and the dark elves."

'The dark elves? Weren't the Aesir the most powerful? Where do the dark elves suddenly come from?'

"That is mostly due to us having little to no information about the dark elves. We only know that their leader, Night Owl, has been a king magus for a long time. Apparently, Odin feared him so much that even after becoming a king magus himself he never showed any hostility or arrogance towards the dark elves. However, that's all we know because they never leave the dark forest."

'So we just assume that this old dark elf is still alive and at the peak of the king level?'

"If he had died, Odin would have surely found out and mass murdered the dark elves."

'Did Odin have a murder wish for everyone alive?'

"From what I've heard, in Odin's vision, the Aesir would be the rulers while the elves, dwarves, and Vanir would serve beneath them. Everyone else will be murdered."

'So I killed a genocidal psychopath in the making... I'll just think of evolving. System-'

\u003cFor your next evolution, you will need to condense a physical body. By that I mean you will have to condense your body into a humanoid shape. So first you'll need an innate understanding of life. Also, don't bother me until you have that.\u003e

What was that?

'System?'

\u003c...\u003e

'Hello, anybody home?'

\u003cSorry, the number you have dialed is currently unavailable, please try again later.\u003e

'???'

"Eldar, who are you talking to?"

'What? Oh, Völsung, I was just trying to talk to the crazy voice in my head.'

"Are you okay? Maybe the last battle did more damage than you thought."

'And now you think I'm crazy... Anyway, something has come up and I'll have to meditate for quite a while. I don't know how long it will take until I wake up again but I'll have to trouble you to take care of this place. I'll make sure to grow some apples while I meditate so don't worry about that.'

With that, I once again retracted all my focus into my body and shut out the outside world. After that last battle, I had vaguely sensed a possible path to gain an innate understanding of life. The value of life was definitely a good starting point and from there on out, I could only rely on myself.

'What is the value of life?'

I let the question reverberate through my mind. Seeking not the logical or correct answer but instead, the one that would truly come from me. Only through this way could I truly attain an innate understanding. Copying what others said was the correct answer would only bring me flaws. Other opinions could at most serve as references.