Chapter 485 – Fourth Branch Event

Forty-two days after they sold Hail, Sophia was finally convinced her Sphere was fully recovered. It wasn’t quite the same as before, even though her Status looked identical; all of her Abilities were a little sturdier with more complete (and often more complex) woven Thread supporting them. Her Hoard was back to being nearly instantaneous when she added or removed feathers and applying Aural Plumes was easy and without strain. 

Armored in Arcane Scales had settled down to where it had a permanent pair of arcs of scales across her back where her Prismatic Wings emerged and a few scale clusters in other places, but she’d managed to get it enough under control that she could easily hide the scales with clothing if she wanted to. It bothered Sophia a little that she was vain enough to care about scales, but they just weren’t her and that was enough of a reason. They didn’t bother her when she needed them for protection, but when she didn’t they should be limited.

Using Abilities that worked on others was smoother than ever. She still couldn’t quite manage two Aural Plumes at once for anyone else, but it was close. The Plumes’ effect also seemed a little stronger, though Sophia wasn’t certain if that was because of her changes or Dav’s, since he was her primary partner. She’d have to find out when they took on the fourth branch Event.

Notii managed to talk them into letting him pull together a larger group for the Event. It was somehow not a surprise when a large part of the group he found was the same people who ran the assault on the Branch Lord of the third branch they’d joined a season earlier; they were eager to take place in an Event that turned out the way the Meteor Pillars Event did and looked forward to working with Sophia again. She got the impression that they were working up to asking her to join them on a Branch Lord assault on either the fourth or fifth branch, but they didn’t actually say that.

On the morning they’d set for the Event, Sophia and Dav made their way into the fourth branch of the World Tree without using the key. Sophia glanced around just long enough to see that the space around them was a foggy forest before she broke the Event token and triggered the Event.

The forest shimmered for a moment, then the trees shifted so that she was standing on a depressed tree-lined path. Wisps of fog, or maybe low clouds, governed much of the ground and extended up into the air in places. Lightning crackled around a few of the trees. Off to the left, there was a strange stone formation that looked like it had been carved to have a sphere at the top that released more lightning. It was hauntingly beautiful, but Sophia was immensely grateful that she didn’t have to fight the way Dav did; the footing had to be terrible. Her featherflight bracelet would help a lot.

Sophia had only that momentary glance at the space around her before her vision was occluded by a message from the Guide.

Spoiler

Welcome to the Forest in the Clouds!

This is a time-limited Event that will begin once enough participants enter the zone. You may abandon the Event and be moved to a normal zone at any time before it begins by announcing your desire to resign. You will not be able to rejoin the event in progress.

Current Participation: 15/2048

Event Participation Requirements:

Arcatiz World Tree Fourth Branch

Third, Fourth, or Fifth Upgrade

Formal teams are not required for this Event. 

You may forfeit participation at any time after the Event begins by declaring that you forfeit. Forfeiting will remove you from the Event and you will be unable to join any Events for 128 days.

Killing other Event Participants is prohibited and will result in immediate expulsion from the Event and forfeiture of all possible rewards. Event restrictions will be imposed for double the normal forfeiture time.

When the Event begins, Caches will be scattered around the Forest in the Clouds. Some Caches will be defended by monsters. 

Caches contain two possible rewards: a Natural Treasure or a Cache Reward Chip. Natural Treasures will be added to your Event Inventory automatically when found. Cache Reward Chips can be added to your Event Inventory or held outside it. Items that have been added to your Event Inventory may not be removed or traded until after the end of the Event.

You have sixteen hours to find and collect as many Caches as possible. There will then be up to twenty-four hours to select Rewards from the Event Reward Table in exchange for Cache Reward Chips. Rewards will be added to your Event Inventory.

Successful completion of this Forest in the Clouds Event may be purchased from the Event Reward Table for 25 Cache Reward Chips.   

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“I’m not sure if I should be rejoicing or swearing right now,” Notii interrupted Sophia as she read through the Event information. “This is a great Event normally but it’s not going to be as good as Meteor Pillars was. There’s no secondary completion method with a big reward.”

Sophia read through the Event notification. It was similar to the Meteor Pillars setup in some ways, like the ability to leave without penalty before the Event started and the penalty for killing others, but in most other ways it was different. Instead of team flag defense, this was clearly a treasure hunt. It didn’t enforce teams, which meant it also didn’t enforce any sort of common reward; the closest it came was the Event Inventory. While that looked like the opposite of sharing, since it meant the person who found something could hide it away, it also meant that people could choose if they kept Cache Reward Chips out to pool for a larger reward or if they hid them away where they would be safe. “Can you get something bigger and better if you have Cache Reward Chips from multiple people?”

“A lot of teams do that,” Notii said with a nod. “And if you help someone out, they’ll often give you something in thanks; it’s common courtesy. I should warn you, though, that jumping into every fight you see to get rewards is a good way to not get them. Most people don’t like having a fight they’re winning interrupted.”

Sophia could understand that. “If I’m going to take advantage of that, it will have to be through my Lifeweb Link. I’m not sure what I could share that would really be helpful, though; I guess it depends on what the monsters are. Stunning would work on almost anything, though it’s only a moment after a strike.”

There was one good effect of the time she’d spent repairing her Sphere; it forced her to look at everything she had. She’d found that she was badly underutilizing her Aural Plumes by focusing on only the few that seemed obvious. Stunning, Binding, and Corruptive were good, general-purpose Plumes that she barely used, while Sweetfire Purge worked well against monsters that relied on spreading poison of any sort. The rest were more situational, but every single one of them was useful and she hadn’t been using more than a few.

“Will a cache ever be refilled?” Dav asked Notii.

The winged badger shook his head. “If it’s claimed, that’s it. I did Forest in the Clouds on the first branch. It was great, but after a while it was almost impossible to find anything that wasn’t taken. We only found a single cache in the last hour of the search. It was still the best rewards we got for any Event on the first branch, better than most on the second, so I guess that doesn’t matter too much?”

Dav turned away from Notii to look down the lane between the trees. “How big is the area we can search? Is it limited?” 

Notii shrugged. “I’ve never heard of anyone finding an edge, but the farther you get from the center, the less common Caches become so most people stay close. I heard about a few amazing finds from farther out, but the only team I know who picked that strategy still didn’t do as well as we did. Staying close is better, even if it means finding a lot of stuff others have cleared out.”

Sophia frowned. She didn’t like that idea, but unless there was a way to search at speed in the … wait. “Are all of the caches magical? I’m sure the natural treasures it mentioned are, but I’m not sure about the Chips.”

Notii shook his head and started to say he didn’t know, but a deep voice spoke over him. “They are. The Caches themselves suppress the mana, however, so searching for it isn’t easy. It’s a useful trick when you’re close enough, if you’re good at seeing magic. That’s one of the biggest advantages we Core specialists have in this Event; Body specialists can move faster and often see better, but we find things they don’t.”

Sophia turned to find a winged bear standing behind them. He looked intimidating, but Rivexy was only grumpy when the injuries he had to heal were because of stupidity instead of bad fortune. He was stationed next to her during the Branch Lord assault and was one of the reasons that very boring time was memorable at all. Unlike Sophia and Dav, he was fourth upgrade, but he was willing to join large groups on the third Branch as an additional healer. “Vexy! I didn’t know you were coming to this Event.”

“How could I miss it?” Rivexy snorted. “Lect said you were planning to start one today. We’ve been waiting just inside the Moonlit Branches for most of an hour. I’ve done Forest in the Clouds three times; make sure you have fun while you search. Getting the Chips to get completion shouldn’t be hard for you two if you can find Caches that aren’t guarded. Those are usually not as good and they’re much harder to find since you can’t just look for monsters, but the best Caches aren’t guarded; they’re hidden. If you can find even one of those, you’ll be set.”

“You think that’s the best way to do this?” It didn’t sound like the best plan to Sophia. Her ability to hide was nearly nonexistent; despite periodic attempts to create items that would conceal her, nothing Xin’ri tried had ever managed to hide Sophia for long. 

“Not if you can win fights quickly, but if you can’t? Yes,” the bear answered bluntly. “You’re third upgrade. Maybe you can win against some of the fourth upgrade monsters here, but there are only two of you. It won’t be fast. You could travel with another team, of course, but then you have to split the rewards in more ways. You’re better off finding a fourth upgrade or higher team to travel near. Search the area for things they don’t find and direct them at any monsters you do find. You’ll all move faster. I’d normally say that you’ll want to throw a portion of your gains at the other team when you’re done, but if you can find enough monster-guarded caches or boost the other team enough with your Lifeweb support, you may not need to.”

“That’s what we’re going to do,” Notii admitted. “Ssssit will probably try to sneak into some of the guarded areas and steal the cache out from under them without alarming the guardians, but we’ll still be close enough to a team to run for help if we need it. You’d be welcome to come with us; Sophia can help search and Dav can carry Ssssit.”