Currently, there is a special phenomenon on Elvian, the Elven's Origin planet.
The phenomenon was called 'Harvest of Life', which sounded rather grotesque and as if billions of lives would have to be sacrificed but the name was cleverly deceptive and was actually something pretty nice.
The planetary mana core had reached a state of oversaturation, which happened every few centuries. In such a case, Elvian would then release all the mana accumulated within the planetary mana core to the outside to create various special phenomena.
One of these phenomena was 'Harvest of Life', which was basically the acceleration of the growth phase of everything living, whether it was nature, beasts, Elves, or any of the other races that felt the Harvest of Life's influence.
However, the Empress used the overflowing mana differently. She didn't allow everyone's growth to be accelerated because that was something that could harm the Elves. Their natural lifespan was already long and it took much longer for them to mature and grow.
Meryl, for example, may already be older than Nial and Mathias but she was far from being considered an adult, whether it was her childish mind or her small body. At the first glance, it looked like Meryl was already an adult, appearance-wise. But she had matured pretty early, which was why one wouldn't notice that she was basically a young teenager, at most.
The Empress prevented her race from receiving the accelerated growth by draining the excessive mana to use it for other means such as the activation and maintenance of the portal that led to Jundra!
She exploited the Harvest of Life phenomena to make sure that enough Elves could go back and forth from Jundra.
Through the Harvest of Life phenomenon, it was even possible to activate the portal on Jundra, even if they could only provide energy from one side. The oversaturation of the planetary core made this possible, which was amazing.
However, this was not something permanent, which Nial had figured not too long ago.
"You'll have to go back to Jundra in about five months. The Harvest of Life phenomenon will end by then, otherwise, we will have to empower the portal on Jundra's side as well…and that is quite difficult to do until Jundra has not awoken! It's not impossible but extremely difficult, even more so with the damaged Forest of Life," Master Crevian told him when the class was over.
The class lasted only three hours but Nial's head felt like it was imploding. Though his comprehension was already enhanced, it was impossible for him to digest everything at once. The massive influx of information and knowledge he had been bombarded with in the past few hours was too much, even for his enhanced mind and senses.
"I get it…" Nial weakly said while he held his head in his hands in a feeble attempt to control the throbbing pain.
"Was the class useful? If you finish studying the books that were delivered to your hut, we can hold a few more such classes. That is if you want to!" Master Crevian said in an excited tone. Somehow, the Old Elf seemed more excited about teaching Nial than the young human himself.
Nial was still not satisfied with the amount of information he received but that didn't mean his brain could process so much at once.
He would require a few more hours to digest everything before he could ask more questions.
"How about we repeat these classes on a daily basis? I mean, only if that's possible. If not, I would just search the library after I finish studying all the books in my wooden hut…" Nial asked carefully and Master Crevian nodded his head.
"I think we should hold one more theory class about all kinds of topics and then switch our focus on providing you with more knowledge about Runiciers. If your comprehension is high enough, I may even be able to teach you a few tricks that I couldn't show you in the Forest of Life. We lacked too many resources at that time, so I didn't bother teaching you some things." Master Crevian was the most excited when it came to teaching about runic constellations and runic armaments.
In the past, he would never bat an eyelid at the sight of runic armaments but ever since he got injured, he began to fall in love with runic armaments and the ways of a Runicier. His knowledge surpassed other Elves' by a lot and only some Old High Elves or Sacred Elves were as knowledgeable or even wiser than Crevian.
That was why he was highly respected by everyone, despite 'only' being an ordinary Elf.
"That sounds nice…" Nial said and they talked for a few more minutes before they excused themselves. Nial returned back to his wooden hut after walking over the long branch.
Cold wind splashed on his face but Nial ignored everything else around him as he was fully focused on the information that boggled his mind.
'The next few days will be even worse. I should try to comprehend everything I got to know today so that I won't have any trouble tomorrow!' Nial concluded before he sat down on the ground with folded legs. He got in a meditative position and tried to enter a fully focused state that was supposed to help him increase his comprehension even further.
In the end, it didn't seem to help. Instead, he felt that his comprehension had decreased.
"When I was inside Yggdrasil, I understood everything much better…" Nial mumbled before he got up from the ground. He went back inside Yggdrasil and searched for the location where his mind felt the clearest and the least troubled.
Nial had no idea where he ended up but once he sat down on the ground in the same meditative position as before, it felt like he had unlocked a secret door to an entirely new world.
'That's it!' He flashed a bright smile as everything around him turned blurry. His mind entered a fully focused state and everything around him turned insignificant.
Nial entered the Zone, a state, where not even an earthquake would wake him. Even if Yggdrasil would burn down, or the entire Sacred tree would be swallowed whole by the ground, Nial wouldn't notice anything.
Time passed rapidly, and several hours elapsed in the blink of an eye. The next day started and it was early in the morning when Nial regained his senses.
He noticed that many Elves were staring at him in confusion, and it was only at this moment that he realized that flowers and vines had grown around him.
An envelope of flowers and vines surrounded him, preventing anyone from approaching him.
'Is Dark energy transfused in the flowers?' Nial thought in shock when he felt that something was weird about the flowers. He could only visualize them, which was why he was merely able to gauge their rough outlines and perceive that they grew due to the link the Symbol of Life created between Nial and Yggdrasil.
However, what Yggdrasil didn't sense was that the Symbol of Life was fused with the Odyssey seed and that by creating a flower out of their fused energy, an entirely new plant came into existence.
Nial could tell that the flower was not something that caused any damage to Yggdrasil. Rather, it caused a mixed reaction among the Elves, who were baffled, and confused and some were completely ignorant of what happened.
'A flower created out of invigorated dark energy. That is definitely not something that should exist within Yggdrasil. It's a controversy that would shake the beliefs of all Elves…haha.' Nial had to give his best not to laugh out loud. He was in a good mood because now he had digested all the pieces of information he received the day before.
In fact, he studied most books he had been given. They were not exactly filled with a lot of complex stuff and basically consisted of a bunch of information that was nice to know. It was not necessary for him to use his brain to comprehend much about the content of the books he had been given.
Thus, it was quite easy for the current Nial to study them and it was also the reason why he returned to his meditation to finish studying the remaining books.
He entered the Zone state once again, where he didn't realize anything of what was going on around him.
Unbeknownst to Nial, his body executed tremendous vigor as his veins were not only shrouded in a vibrant golden color but also in darkness.
One couldn't see the blue of Nial's veins anymore because the darkness that shrouded them covered everything. Meanwhile, the golden color was still apparent and clearly visible to everyone.
Nial's body released the vigor that had been provided by Yggdrasil, with the sole difference that it had been a bit altered.
The highly destructive dark energy had altered his vigor a bit, and it nourished the surrounding area around him.
It changed Nial's direct surroundings, and it allowed the almost blackish, dark-green vines to keep growing. More and more black flowers sprouted out of Yggdrasil's trunk, and branches which made the Elves, who witnessed this, step back in fright.
Their eyes grew wide and goosebumps sprang up on their bodies. They knew that they weren't allowed to do something against Nial, not if they didn't want to enrage Yggdrasil. The Sacred tree didn't act against Nial, which meant that it accepted everything Nial had done until now.
This was incomprehensible for the Elves, whose entire outlook of the world seemed to shatter and crumble to pieces whenever Nial did anything.
Ever since Nial had arrived in their territory, he seemed to break something, or destroy something, whether it was physical or not. His entire existence was something that didn't seem to possess the slightest bit of logic but they could clearly tell that he existed and was a lot different from any being they had ever come across.
They weren't dreaming, even if some hoped that this was the case because a nightmare wouldn't be as bad as facing the bitter reality.
A human…with a stronger connection to Yggdrasil than the vast majority of Elves. Only the Queen and possibly the Royal Princess were on par with Nial when it came to their connection to the Sacred tree.
A long time passed and Nial cleanly finished studying the last book. His head was sorted and his understanding was crystal clear which made it seem as if he had just woken up from a deep sleep.
His whole body was oversaturated with vigor, and his body released faint dark energy currents. They nourished the surroundings and the plants that came into existence absorbed the mana from the surrounding. The plants helped Nial to nourish his mana core, and he quickly noticed that it would be possible to make use of the plants.
However, Nial didn't pay much attention to the plants around him as he turned in a specific direction when he left the Zone.
"Princess, it has been a while since we parted ways. I hope you didn't miss me too much," Nial joked lightly as he chuckled after sensing the Royal Princess who had appeared not too long ago.
She had accessed a connection with Yggdrasil to figure out what type of plants Nial had created and how had he done that but there was no decisive answer.
Yggdrasil just did whatever he wanted to do and the only thing Nial did was to release the overflowing vigor of his body.
It was altered but that was not something Nial did actively. His body altered the overflowing vigor subconsciously before it was released.
"It has only been a day, and that is certainly not enough for me to relax enough to get to know more shocking news from you…" Princess Evalyne grumbled but Nial tilted his head and knit his brows.
? "What do you mean 'shocking news'?" Nial asked in oblivion.
"Just look around you fool!" Princess Evalyne shouted out, just to realize what she had just said. She blinked rapidly and added in a low voice,
"... Oh wait…you can't…."