241 World Seed (2/2)

”This…this is…” Iona could not finish her sentence, absorbed as she was in the sheer gravity of the seed's presence, but Li could tell from their shared connection that she recognized what it was. He could not say he was surprised.

”Yes,” said Li. ”I am entrusting the [Seed of Yggdrasil] to you. Keep it with you, keep it close to you. If ever in my absence you feel this forest or my followers facing something that can threaten their entire existence, then plant this, and do not let any know of its existence otherwise.”

”To plant such a seed, why, I do not know,” said Iona. ”I do not know how the World itself will change. I am not worthy of deciding such a change.”

”But I am, and I know it will change for the better,” said Li. ”And, at the very least, the lives under us will be safe, no matter what. I am willing to risk any measure of change for that.”

The [Seed of Yggdrasil]. Perhaps one of the rarest, if not the rarest seed in the entirety of Elden World, even throughout its many expansions. Rivalled and mirrored only by the [Heart of Darkness], a seed that embodied all the darkness flowing through the world, but Li did not have that seed. One of the few seeds that escaped Li's grasp.

For it was only one or the other.

The plotline for obtaining the seed was as dramatic as it got. It involved the entire world ending due to an invasion from eldritch entities, and it was one of three server-wide events, and the last one that Elden World ever conducted.

It caused players from across the entire server to engage in massive raid battles with the Old Gods. Some players who managed to deal enough damage to the bosses even went back in time to chase down the raid bosses as in lore, the entities could freely pass through the space-time continuum.

Some even went to other planets to finish them off, though the planets ended up basically just being large arenas for the boss fights and not actual new worlds to explore.

At the very end, a select group of one hundred of the top players that had done the most damage to the eldritch bosses would engage in a mass raid against the final boss, learning to cooperate with each other where before they very likely would have been at each other's throats from having been the top players of opposing guilds.

And with that boss's defeat, the one hundred mightiest heroes of Elden world saved the world from annihilation, and each of the one hundred players was granted a Celestial-tier item completely customized and tailored for them. The devs even allowed the players to talk with them and suggest what type and kind of item they wished.

For Li, it was a decision between the [Seed of Yggdrasil] symbolizing life or the [Heart of Darkness] symbolizing death - a fitting choice for his game character that balanced both light and dark aspects. After some deliberation, he had settled on the [Seed of Yggdrasil], wanting to reward his guild for their strenuous efforts instead of using the [Heart of Darkness] which was solely an individual boost to strength.

When the seed was planted, it sprouted into a World Tree, the strongest defensive fortification in the entire game, and atop of its celestial branches, Li relocated Arboretum, crowning the tree and sharing success with the entire guild.

Li loved those times. That was the absolute peak of the guild, and the peak of the game, too.

Strangely on part of the devs, they pushed out precious little new content afterwards, and some players speculated that the huge event had cost them too much money or that they were burned out and were working on a new game. Some believed the game was just at its natural end, as it was a little hard to develop new content that felt challenging, fresh, and new after such a massive event.

Nevertheless, eventually, the players of Elden World moved onto different games, and in three years' time, Li was one of the few remaining players staying in a game that had far passed its prime.

Although, Li thought with some amusement, perhaps it was just like him to fixate on things that had passed their prime or lost meaning with time.

”This also means an immense amount to you,” said Iona as shades of Li's memories and feelings flickered into her. ”Your most prized possession, and rightfully so. Are you truly, truly certain you wish to entrust this with me? I cannot be worthy of this.”

”This is a relic from another world. Another life.” Li smiled. ”It is no longer my dearest treasure. You are. You, and all the lives that have let me experience a new life with real meaning. A life with hope where I can reach out and shape my future with my very own hands.

It belongs to you, and hopefully, it will come to belong to all those who wish to seek shelter under the branches of the tree it sprouts.”