Corrupt Creations

The next day, Seth was sitting on one of the chairs on the first floor, while observing the drinks that were on display inside many different shelves. But suddenly, he heard the sound of slow steps descending down the stairs. 

"Urghhh..." Rina was slowly descending while holding her head with her hands. She was feeling a splitting headache from having drank too much. She was suffering from a hangover. 

"Good morning, Rina." 

"Urgh... Good..." She walked towards him with some difficulty, since she was still trying to understand anything. 

"Come here, let me help you." Seth approached her and used his Evergreen Essence to help her out. In just some seconds, he relieved her pain, giving her full clearance of mind. She could do it too, but she was suffering from such a bad hangover, that she forgot about that. 

After recovering her reason, she suddenly noticed that Seth was using his Evergreen Essence to heal. 

"What... How? How are you able to use your essence to heal? You showed me the Evergreen Poinson just yesterday." 

"Hm? This? Well... The Evergreen Essence can draw the power of nature, be it to attack or defend. Look..." Seth moved his hand and his Evergreen essence entered a small flower vase on top of one of the tables. The flower started to grow very quickly, transforming into a one-meter-tall fierce-looking flower. 

Suddenly, he sent another green glow towards it, and the flower died infected by his Evergreen Poison. 

Rina was flabbergasted after realizing Seth could use both hers and her mother's abilities. 

"The Evergreen Essence you and Arwen have, was never a separate ability to begin with. It's just that both of you wouldn't be able to handle inheriting the complete version, so the World Tree Replica divided the essence into two." 

"That's incredible!" 

"Ahahaha... Don't worry, I'm studying a way to make you and Arwen compatible to inherit the entire power. It's just that it is going to take some time until I learn how to do it without harming any of you." 

"Really? Is that really possible?" 

"It is." 

Rina's eyes were glittering with excitement. 

"Now tell me... What did you think about your first drinking session?" 

"Eh... I don't remember what happened in the end. I think that drinking is not my forte." 

"Ahahaha! True. I had to carry you to your room yesterday. You were sleeping so deeply, that if I left you here, I bet it wouldn't have changed anything." 

"Eh?! Come on... Don't be so mean." 

"Hehe." 

Seth and Rina kept talking until it was almost noon. After that, they packed their things and left the Evergreen Tavern. 

Rina made sure to recall her treasure, not leaving any traces of it behind. The entire tavern turned into a wooden cube and she put it inside her spatial ring right after. 

The two of them resumed their adventure, traveling through the valley, planning to reach the city by the end of the day. Seth was not in a haste to reach his destination, so he limited his speed to what was comfortable for Rina. 

After four hours travelling, the finally saw the outline of the next city. However, it seemed that there were many people coming their way, through a dirt road. That group of people seemed to have just left the city, planning to go to the capital of the elves, Ereinrith city. 

When they were approaching the duo, Seth was able to recognize someone he had already seen before, leading this entourage of men. 

The leading figure, seemed to have recognized Seth as well. 

"You're... Young Master Seth?" 

"Oh? Mister Olsen? Long time no see you." 

"Ahaha, I never thought I would be able to meet you again. This world is huge, but it seems we are destined to meet each other. Oh? Who's this hooded elf beside you?" Mister Olsen noticed he wasn't able to see anything behind the hood that elf was wearing, only a blurred image. 

"A good friend of mine. She is very reserved and doesn't like to expose her face too much, so please do not bother with her manners. Actually, what are you doing around here? So many people seem to be protecting you. Are you perhaps transporting something important to the capital?" 

"That's right. I've received a very important task from my old friend Theod. He asked me to bring a lot of things to the capital with urgency. He bought so many things, that I couldn't help but bring along my men to protect me from getting robbed." 

"Robbed? I thought that it was something really unlikely to happen inside the Elven Territory." 

"Sigh... You're right. Even though there are some robbers in the Elven Territory, it is really unusual for it to happen around here. However, with the all those strange things happening lately, I couldn't help but be fearful of that possibility." 

Seth got interested on what he was talking about. 

"Strange things?" 

"You may not know about it, but all the caravans coming from the Human territory, suddenly stopped coming for an entire week already. We lost contact with everyone that were our customers from that side, and the strangest part, is that we were not able to discover the cause yet." 

"What?! No one came after an entire week?" 

"That's right. We have come to a very wild guess, that is most likely to be true. The only possibility we could think of, is that a huge group of bandits are operating on the borders between both territories. That's why I came while being protected by so many men, even though here is a bit far away from there. I can't risk losing the things I'm bringing, or else I would be losing Theod's trust on me as well." 

"Sigh... Everyone is having a hard time lately." 

"Hm? Did something happen?" Mister Olsen noticed that something might have happened observing Seth's tone. 

"You're going to understand it after you reach the Ereinrith city. Mister Olsen, it was really good reencountering you here, however, I'm eager to go back to the Human Territory, so I will have to say farewell." 

"Farewell Young Master Seth. Take care on your way back to the Hilkhell city." 

"Don't worry, I will make sure to be careful. Maybe, there may be some good news from that side soon." 

"Oh? Good." Mister Olsen kind of understood what he meant by that.