5 Elemental Tax Collectors

Vilto Village.

Dryad looked indifferently at the crowd sniveling at her feet. What she was truly bothered about was how dark the heart of her creation was. His existence was a fatality to others so he had to be judged. But, what exactly is death?

Death could be freedom, it could be restraint, it could be a reward and it could be a punishment. Did he really have to die or will his living on bring troubles for her? She was immensely puzzled.

\"Hey, Dryad, there are some people who deserves death. He was one of them\" Ariama said assuringly, putting a hand in her shoulder.

\"Now, I understand why Bolsa said I would need to know the meaning of life for what is to come\" she said and sighed.

\"Lady Dryad, many people are coming towards this direction but they are all normal. Should I knock them out too?\" Shadow asked, kneeling before her.

\"No, let them come. It's time to implement the first stage of our plan\" She replied, waving her hand. Shadow bowed and hid in the darkness once more.

\"Riech, Eldor, I can see your hearts are not as dark as that of Cassian so I will spare you and give you a choice. Either you join me or you leave this place under the false notion of revenge. Even if you reach the peak of this world, you can never kill me or any one of us. I am your creator\" Dryad said bluntly.

Fortunately, both of them were smart and knelt on one knee in front of her and swore an oath of fealty. Dryad bound this as their creator and nodded in satisfaction.

\"Hello vilto village. I am Dryad, a god and your creator. A long time ago, I created this world and lost my consciousness for a long time. Three millennia later, I awoke and Ariama her taught me the basic things to survive. I found out there were no trees despite me, your creator being a tree, so, I embarked on a journey around the world to plant trees.

Since your village is my first stop, I will award all of you with wood elemental powers and Ditoria here will be my first priestess and the rest of you my emissaries.

Together, we shall plant trees and spread the greatness of the wood elementals\" she proclaimed and the village cheered.

Everyone who had been normal their whole lives were excited at the prospect of being elementals. They had been trampled upon, maltreated and misused as slaves for a long time. A chance to be an elemental albeit small, was not to be taken lightly by them. Although it was an unknown element, they were more than willing to try.

\"Okay people. This is going to take a while. We will start by clearing that dreadful stone forest\" Dryad said with a shudder and snapped her fingers. Dozens of farming tools appeared in the villagers hands.

\"Ariama\" Dryad called and he stepped forward.

\"My pleasure\" he replied with a grin and turned all the stones into soft humus soil. Dryad snapped her fingers again and basic planting procedures appeared in the minds of the villagers. They were to till the soil while Riech was to water it since he was a water elemental.

The villagers got to work immediately. Eldor and Ditoria were the overseers while Riech, who was now cyan after given the powers of his father. While they planted seeds given by Dryad, Ariama purified the air which made mana flow faster to the area.

\"Hey Ariama\"

\"Hmm?\"

\"What shall we do about those elemental spies that appeared earlier?\"

\"We leave them alone. Since they cannot truly bother us, we don't have to worry about them disrupting our mission\"

\"I see. Well, the plants are going to be ready in three months and I will plant a daugther tree by then. The villagers can build a temple around it\" Dryad said and Ariama nodded in response.

In a town not far from Vilto Village, different spies clothed in black were seen kneeling around a metal table. A man was seen seated at the head of the table with a parchment in hand, frowning at the kneeling spies.

\"A knight level elemental, green in color, calls herself a god? Another man and an assassin type elemental? Travelers?\" The man read, his face turning uglier by the second.

\"Cassian is dead, you say? But he was a gold level elemental and one with good talent not to talk of his defense mechanisms? How do you expect me to report this to HQ?\"

\"You all....argh! You know what, I'll go check this out myself. I am a saint level elemental so a knight level cannot bother me much. You can all go back to your posts and forget about your salary this month\"

\"Yes master\" the spies said and ran out. Most of them didn't know their leader was a saint level elemental. They thought he was a black gold level at most.

It had to be said that based on how refined their elemental affinities are and how well they could circulate mana is divided into various levels.

-White level

-Crystal level

-Bronze level

-Silver level

-Gold level

-Black gold level

-Knight level

-Arch Knight level

-Saint level

-Grand saint level

-Divine level

-Zenith level

The first was the level the people with newly awakened affinities were in and the last level was the level none had reached before. The level of talents were also divided into;

-Mortal: Pale Colour

-Arch mortal: slightly darker colour

-Immortal: slightly darker colour

-Saint: slightly darker colour

-Divine: Dark colour

-Paragon: Evergreen colour.

The same went for their mana circulation techniques and their weapons. The amount of mana required for one to advance in level increases as one goes higher and so some are stuck in some levels for the rest of their lives. This also depends in their talent.

Three months passed successfully for the villagers of vilto village as their physique got better and the mana purity went higher with their farming. Both the villagers and the gods occupying the lands were pleased.

\"I want to do something in this land. I want to turn this village into a full blown city. I will start from this land and expand to the rest of the country. They shall have schools, businesses, guilds and more temples. What do you think?\" Dryad said with a dazzling smile. It was the first time she smiled so Ariama was dazed.

He recovered from his daze with an embarrassing cough and nodded at her.

\"Devilish, I know right? I just learnt how to smile from Ditoria and she said an innocent one could daze a man. It was truly worth it to see that priceless reaction on your face, hehehe\" she cackled, earning a punch to the head from him.

\"You cannot treat a lady like that, you bully of an old man\" she grumbled.

\"You know a gender is only a formality, little tree\" he said coldly. Dryad protested fervently while he just ignored her. Few minutes later, Ditoria approached both of them, kneeling before them.

\"Speak\" Dryad waved and Ditoria stood from her kneeling position.

\"Your holiness, the plants have all germinated and produced what you called fruits steadily for the last thirty days. I think it is time to implement the last stage of your plans\"

\"Of course. Lead the way\"

\"Yes, your holiness\" Ditoria replied with a bow and led them to the field. It was a remarkable place, sporting trees of different kinds which would have taken a long time to grow. Many people bowed as the party grew closer to the barren center. The trees were planted around an untouched ground where Dryad marked as a place to grow her daughter tree.

\"People of Vilto Village, you have made history. You have done what none of your predecessors have done and it has reaped countless benefits for you; farming. You have put your faith in me and my friend and we have not disappointed you. Today we shall mark a trail for our future generations by creating the first temple of your true creator, Goddess Dryad\" she said and the people cheered.

She floated from her position and her true eyes opened. The three entites surrounding her and all the people shifted from where she was.

\"I call forth the essence of the trees to grant me the world seed. Manifest the beliefs of the people and grant them the element of nature\" she chanted and a brown seed the size of a grain of sand appeared in her hand. It was only visible to shadow and Ariama. The seed fell from her hand and into the ground.

Slowly but steadily, a tree began to grow, similar to the origin tree. It grew until it was ten feet in height. There was a distinction in the leaves of the tree however; all the leaves were closed. Dryad floated down gently and landed in the waiting arms of Ariama. Dryad used up the last of her energy to transmit these words to the people.

\"I have planted the tree here and when you all get your powers, the temple will slowly build itself. The tree will only gain a consciousness after a million years and everyone else is forbidden from touching the tree except from my priestess\" she said and fainted. Shortly after, all the leaves opened and a green light was ejected from the leaves and into the hearts of all of them that were there. All of them started howling in pain from the depth of their souls.

The main reason why she made them farm for three months with her paragon level farming manual was because she wanted to increase their physiques for the painful process. As for the children and overseers, she helped them a little. Ariama created a dome of protection over the people as the process was far from being over and carried Dryad to her room.

The house of the village head had been turned into a mansion befitting a god. As for the houses of the villagers, Dryad waited till the trees were grown before using the most sturdy trees to create beautiful houses for them. As for Riech, Ariama increased his water affinity till he turned to a nice shade of navy blue and sent him to the sea in a bubble to circulate his mana and increase his level.

After a day of resting, Dryad woke up. The people in the dome had long stopped howling but were still steadily increasing their nature affinity.

\"Wow little tree, you keep on surprising me. You did very well considering the act of going against the world law is hard and rarely done\"

\"I know. My people are also doing well, considering the act of rewriting the soul is very painful\"

\"Yes they are. You did a great job\"

\"No need to lick my boots old man. I'm an outstanding tree and god, I know\"

\"I will let your rude statement slide for now. What are you going to do about those elementals approaching this place?\"

\"I will let them come. They can be the perfect pawns to demonstrate to my people why I asked them not to touch the daughter tree. People learn well from example\"

\"Yes, they do\"

\"Besides, their heart is darker than Cassian's. They need to be judged and they can serve as nutrients for my tree. That saint level one can be especially good\"

\"I have never seen a new goddess so accepting of death like you\"

\"Death is necessary old man. I accepted that fact and moved on\"

\"Scary little tree\" Ariama said and moved away from her. Dryad simply laughed and sipped her tea.

A week later, the process was complete. The people all had green skins of varying colors. The ones with the brightest skins were Ditoria and Eldor who had shamrock colored skins. Dryad's skin still stood out even in the midst of the people there. The temple was also completely built and it looked stunning from the outside to the inside. Sounds of Joy and rejoicing could be heard around the village from the people with newly gained elemental powers.

\"My dear people, you can see that your hopes and efforts were not in vain. Now, you should all sit and start your circulations. I have imparted a paragon level circulation manual into your heads and you should all endeavor to reach early stage crystal level by tomorrow or peak white level. If not, you'll be stripped of this element. Good luck\" Everyone immediately got into position after hearing this an started their circulation.

\"You are a truly scary tree\"

\"Why thank you, god of soul\" Ariama rolled his eyes at her.

\"I hope you all had fun for the last tree months, Vilto village? It's time to pay your dues\" the man who was the master of the spies and the leader of the tax collectors, said at the gate. His voice boomed all over the village. The villagers panicked but didn't stop their circulation. They just let their goddess deal with their tax collectors.

\"And who might you be?\" Ariama asked in a bored tone.

\"I'm Maldeen, the head of the tax collectors in this country and this village is under my jurisdiction. You must be the old man and that must be your daughter, the one with the strange skin and the one who killed Cassian and knocked out all my spies?\"

\"Yes, you are correct\"

\"Look, let me make this easy for you. I f you still want to live, just leave this town and your daughter behind. You are just two wandering Knight level elementals and you can't defeat me, a saint level elemental. I'll release your daughter to you when I'm done playing with her\" Maldeen said with a perverted smile directed at Dryad. Ariama just yawned at the end of his speech.

\"Are you done?\"

\"Erm...I'm not joking old man\"

\"Okay. Dryad, they're all yours\" Dryad nodded and walked towards Maldeen. The cheering tax collectors behind him abruptly stopped their cheers when they saw his head been grabbed by Dryad and smashed to the floor. His head exploded directly and his life force, which was a shade of iron grey like his skin, flew towards the direction of the mother tree.

Dryad snapped her fingers again and all the tax collectors directly turned into the pale light life forces of their skins and flew towards the origin tree. When faced with the gaping face of Ariama, she said, \"They were not worth using my Judgement book. Even Cassian was not worth it but I just wanted to test it out on him\". Dryad was truly a scary tree.

That night, the village was full of merriment as the village were happy to hear their tormentors had died and they could eat what they had been planting for the last three months. It was a happy occasion that was known in the later generation as the Feast of the Forest.