Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

Morwenna stood near the base of an enormous oak tree, looking up at the thick branches blocking the overhead arc lights.

She crossed her arms over her tattered captain’s coat, letting out a dismissive huff. ”Yay. So what? He made a bunch of tall wood.... Big deal. Show-off.”

Just as the pirate queen spoke, a thick leafy shrub grew right beside her boots. A cluster of bright, round, orange-colored fruits sprouted from its branches, bobbing gently against her hip.

Morwenna blinked, reaching out to pluck one of the round fruits, turning it over in her palm with a suspicious scowl.

”What kind of fruit is this supposed to be? It’s not an apple.”

In the center of the clearing, Silas let out a long breath and lifted his palm from the stone.

Maintaining active spell pressure at that scale was exhausting for his current elemental conduits, but even after he broke physical contact, the grand forest remained standing, looking very firm and vibrant.

Silas couldn’t hold active control for long, but the abundant life energy he had summoned stayed rooted in the earth, leaving the woodland completely intact.

Eluned walked gracefully over to Silas with her eyes sparkling like emeralds.

”For your very first time executing Nature Transformation, this is simply too good! Your natural affinity for the earth is exceptional, my Love! In fact...”

She paused, sensing the refined elemental energy lingering within his core conduits, and gasped. ”You have already reached Adept mastery in a single attempt!”

Silas blinked, wiping a bead of sweat from his brow with his forearm. ”So quick?”

”Naturally!” Eluned affirmed, stepping close and cupping his sharp jaw with her warm palm. ”Even if I am no longer seated on my throne as the main Goddess of the World Tree, I was once a proper deity. And because I love you and you love me, your talent receives the full backing of my ancient authority. It is only natural that you would advance this fast!”

Silas looked down at her radiant, gorgeous face, hearing her earnest devoted words. ”Elu...”

Looking at that beautiful smile lighting up her features, Silas felt a fierce protective instinct swell inside his chest.

He wanted to keep that smile right there no matter what trials or rivals threatened their territory in the future.

Eluned turned around, laughing like a ringing bell as she patted the rough bark of the oak tree Silas had grown.

”Look at them! Nature has a spirit of its own, my Lord. Come, play with the trees for a moment! Feel their resonance!”

Silas joined her beneath the verdant canopy, watching as the living branches responded gently to their presence, swaying in a non-existent breeze as if bowing to greet their creator.

Even Morwenna, despite her grumpy scowling and folded arms, ended up trailing along behind them.

The pirate queen stood beneath a sweeping weeping willow, and to her utter surprise, the thin supple branches reached down and began gently weaving through her messy gray hair, acting like natural combs to untangle the sea-salt knots and straighten her unruly locks with delicate precision.

”Tch,” Morwenna grumbled, though she didn’t pull away with her shoulders relaxing as she secretly enjoyed the woodland pampering. ”What a useful tree~ Elara could have learned a thing or two from you...”

A moment later, Morwenna walked over to where Silas and Eluned were standing, still holding the round orange fruit in her hand.

”Hey, weed. What is this thing anyway? Can you eat it like the apple?”

”That is called an orange, pirate,” Eluned explained with patient grace.

She took the fruit from Morwenna’s hands and used her thumbnail to split the thick outer skin, expertly peeling away the bitter rind to reveal the bright, juicy segments inside.

Eluned separated a single segment and popped it directly into Morwenna’s mouth.

Morwenna chewed once, and her gray eyes instantly went wide.

The sweet tangy flavor burst across her tastebuds with a refreshing zest she had never experienced on the open ocean.

In a flash, the tough pirate queen transformed into an orange glutton. She marched right back over to the shrub Silas had grown, plucking three more oranges and attempting to bite directly into them, rind and all.

”Wait, don’t eat the peel,” Silas chuckled, walking over and grabbing her wrist before she could take a bite. ”It’s bitterso watch how she did it.”

Both Silas and Eluned spent the next ten minutes showing Morwenna how to properly peel an orange without getting sticky juice all over her sleeves and coat.

Eluned even used a gentle pulse of nature energy to compress several oranges above a hollowed-out wooden cup she formed from a root, creating fresh, chilled orange juice on the spot.

Morwenna drank the entire cup in one long continuous gulp, letting out a deeply satisfied breath as she wiped her mouth.

”Holy sweet mother of the sea... that orange juice is incredible! Captain, grow ten more of these orange bushes right now! We need these on the supply wagons!”

”We’re here to train, Morwenna, not start a commercial fruit farm,” Silas laughed, shaking his head at her newfound addiction.

Once they were all rested and the lighthearted atmosphere settled, Eluned stepped into the center of the forest clearing.

”Now that you have mastered the foundational art of growth and life,” Eluned announced. ”I will teach you the next essential concept. Nature energy can also be used for attacking as well.”

Silas straightened his broad posture, his attention instantly sharpening as he rolled his shoulders.

”An attack spell?”

”Precisely,” Eluned nodded, her green eyes serious. ”The spell is called Sylvan Spear. You must gather the nature energy slumbering within the earth, compress its fibers until the wood becomes as rigid as dark steel, and launch it forward like a thrown javelin.”

She demonstrated the concept without a word of chant.

With a simple flick of her pale fingers, the grass beneath her feet stirred.

A six-foot-long, razor-sharp spike of petrified, dark ironwood erupted from the dirt at startling velocity, sailing across the clearing and burying itself halfway into a distant stone support pillar with a resounding sound.

THUD!

”You try, my Love,” Eluned encouraged him, stepping back to give him room.

Silas closed his eyes, drawing upon his newfound Adept Nature mastery.

He pictured the dense compacted structure of petrified timber. He channeled his Gold Core mana, sending a commanding pulse down through his boots and directly into the turf below.

CRACK!

A five-foot spike of hardened, dark wood erupted from the floor five yards away, shooting forward across the room and shattering a stone target dummy into a cloud of gray fragments.

”Flawless execution!” Eluned praised, her eyes flashing with sudden battle intent. ”Now... let us test your application in a real combat spar! Defend your ground!”

Before Silas could even formulate a reply, Eluned’s gentle nurturing aura changed completely.

BOOM!

The entire forest vibrated as Eluned unleashed a fraction of her true SSS-Rank nature authority.

The ground groaned beneath their feet, and dozens of thick, petrified wooden spears erupted from the dirt around her, hovering in mid-air like an array of siege ballista bolts pointing straight at his chest.

”Defend yourself, my Lord!” Eluned called out, sweeping her hand forward and sending the entire volley of wooden spears screaming toward him at breakneck speed!

Silas’s reflexes kicked in instantly.

He drew his Ironwood practice sword from his side, coating the blunt blade in a swirling layer of pressurized water and ice to enhance its impact, and charged straight into the incoming volley!

CLANG! CRASH! SHATTER!

Silas wove through the incoming barrage with his practice blade a blur of motion as he parried three wooden spears mid-flight, turning their rigid tips into splinters of harmless bark.

He closed the thirty-yard distance rapidly, pivoting on his heel and executing a sweeping horizontal cut aimed at her midsection.

Eluned didn’t back down or retreat.

She simply raised her open palm, and a thick barrier of tangled, iron-hard roots burst upward from the floor tiles, absorbing his sword strike with a hollow echoing thud that vibrated up Silas’s forearms.

’These women... really are amazing and I can tell they’re holding back.’

Silas kept up with her pace at first, using his physical agility to bound off the trunks of the living trees he had created, maneuvering around her defenses with fluid leaps.

While airborne, he gathered nature mana into his left hand and fired two Sylvan Spears of his own. The wooden projectiles whistled through the air, curving slightly to target her exposed flanks.

Eluned smiled warmly with her movements light as a falling leaf riding a summer breeze.

”Nice!” She side-stepped his spears with effortless grace, her body blurring as she bypassed his line of sight entirely, merging with the greenery around her.

Before Silas could track her trajectory upon landing, thick, living vines rose from the turf like striking serpents, wrapping tightly around his ankles and pulling his feet straight out from under him!

”Whoa...! Not again!” Silas grunted, hitting the soft turf floor on his chest with a heavy thud, his sword clattering a few feet away.

Before he could push himself back up onto his hands and knees, Eluned landed gracefully on top of him and sat directly on his upper back, using his broad, muscled shoulders as her personal bench.

She smoothed her skirt over her knees, letting out a soft, playful sigh of triumph.

”Now that I’ve taught you at least two nature spells and tested your reflexes,” Eluned declared, resting her delicate hands on her thighs as she pinned him to the dirt, ”I feel quite tired, my Love.”

As her concentration relaxed, the grand woodland around them began dispelling.

The towering oak trees, thick climbing vines, and sweet-smelling orange bushes dissolved into glowing green particles, fading away into the air until the vast vault returned to its original runic stone state.

Silas gritted his teeth against the floor, attempting to channel his own internal mana to hold the greenery together and stop the forest from vanishing. ”Wait... I can maintain the trees...”

”Let it go, my Lord,” Eluned told him gently, reaching down to pat his messy dark hair with a fond smile. ”You do not need to waste your reserves keeping foliage alive in a stone basement.”

Silas let out a breath, letting his mana circulation drop.

The last of the emerald leaves vanished, leaving them alone on the bare, dark floor tiles of the hall.

Then, Eluned kicked his upper back a bit with her bare heel, nudging his shoulder blades.

”My Lord,” Eluned requested, her voice carrying a sweet demanding tone. ”I request to be carried like a princess up the stairs to the upper levels.”

Silas turned his head sideways against the stone floor, looking up at her out of the corner of his eye while still pinned beneath her weight.

”I can’t do that with you sitting on my back, Elu.”

Eluned giggled softly at her own oversight. ”Oh, right!”

She got up, stepping gracefully off his shoulders and onto the stone floor tiles.

Silas pushed himself off the ground, dusting the gray dust from his sweatpants and rolling his shoulders.

He stood tall, stepped close, and smoothly scooped Eluned up into his arms, carrying her against his broad chest.

Eluned wrapped her arms securely around his neck, resting her cheek against his shoulder with a deeply satisfied smile.

”Much better,” she purred, closing her eyes.

Suddenly—

WHOOSH!

A sharp wind whistled across the open vault!

Morwenna came rushing out of nowhere, her Ironwood practice sword swinging directly toward Silas’s head at startling speed!

Silas’s combat instincts flared instantly but he didn’t drop Eluned.

He rapidly dipped his torso, pivoting his feet on the stone tiles and spinning backward in a tight evasive arc, letting the wooden blade pass a mere inch above his nose!

”Morwenna, what are you doing?!” Silas asked as he re-established his balance, holding Eluned tight.

Morwenna came to a stop ten feet away, spinning her practice blade with a wild feral grin baring her teeth.

”This is good secret training for your sensory awareness, Captain! A true Lord needs to learn how to maneuver and dodge high-speed attacks while holding someone important in his arms!”

Before Silas could argue the logic of her sudden assault, Morwenna attacked again, thrusting her wooden blade forward in a rapid three-strike combination aimed at his lower ribs and thighs!

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Silas moved like a shadow across the floor.

He ducked, side-stepped, and twisted his torso through the air, weaving around every single thrust with precision footwork while keeping Eluned securely tucked out of harm’s way.

Eluned held tightly onto his neck, laughing delightfully as they glided around the pirate’s strikes without taking a hit.

”Make sure that the brutish pirate doesn’t hit us, my Lord!”

”For that comment, I’ll make sure to rough you up hehe~!” Morwenna cackled, raising her sword and giving chase across the cavernous stone vault.