Reign and the others slowly climbed the stairs as the elves explained the many different faculties that were present inside of the huge tree. There were different departments that were there to do a number of things, similarly to Reign's territory there were some that focused on crafting, creating armors, accessories, weapons…
There was a war department that kept track of the different monsters in the forest and where they were commonly found, that department was the one in charge of the elves that went out to hunt and level up, they would be given a simple map that would show them what places were suitable for them and what places they needed to stay clear of.
For example, Elajeon and the elves that Reign and the others came across that day were hunting before they were ambushed by the Tainted, although they were stronger than the Tainted, they were outnumbered and lost some people, if Reign and the others hadn't intervened they would have lost more people as well if they were even more unlucky a strong monster could have been drawn over by the sounds of fighting and killed all of them.
There were research departments that studied the bodies of the killed monsters that elves would bring back, their job was to find the weaknesses that the monsters had and to check what parts of the bodies could be used for crafting or creating medicine. The alchemy department was the one that was in charge of creating that, although most elves had nature-type mana and abilities and could heal, medicine was still incredibly useful and important as they could heal themselves without spending mana, not to mention taking antidotes that would heal different poisons, they even had some potions and pills that could increase stats for a short period of time as well.
It was evident that the elves were above Reign's territory not only on the average level but in other fields as well, that only made Reign more excited by the prospect of having them as allies, of course after hearing what Aethion told him he was on full alert.
"Give me control of some of your mana, I'll help you out, that woman has a dangerous ability that not many in my previous world knew of, actually I think I might be the only one outside of the elven tribe that knew of it."
"A dangerous ability?"
"She can read minds boy, that's how my cover was blown actually, that bitch found out and alerted the others which in turn led to my demise."
Reign's back was soon covered in sweat, reading minds, was something that could potentially be even more dangerous and powerful than other abilities, no secret could be hidden in front of somebody that can do that.
"I'll use a spell that I created back then, it will shield you from her ability, after I'm finished you simply need to touch the others so that I can do the same for them, if she can't read only your mind then she will become suspicious, but if the same happens with the others than she will think it's probably the doing of either the leader of your zone or perhaps the Gods."
Reign did as Aethion instructed him, he could feel his mana being slowly channeled from his consciousness as Aethion was activating the spell. They continued climbing and soon they were near the top of the tree, Reign knew that because there was suddenly not much activity on the floors, not to mention the surroundings looked different as well.
The walls on the higher floors were pure white, compared to the rough texture it had on the lower ones here they were smooth and even shined a bit.
The difference made the party curious, why was this part of the tree so different?
"It's because of our leader, the queen is very powerful and the tree changed slightly after she took residence at the top of it, this tree is very perceptive to mana and the changes in the mana surrounding it, nobody knows exactly why this is how it changed, it simply did, probably to accommodate the queen better."
"I see." One thing that everyone noticed is how the elf addressed their leader at the end, so far they only addressed the person as the leader, but after hearing him utter the word queen everyone now knew that the elf in question is a woman, of course, Reign already knew that from Aethion.
The elf shut his mouth the second the words came out, a couple of the others glanced at him before quickly acting as nothing happened, of course, didn't escape Reign, it seemed that they were hiding that information for some reason, it could also be a ploy to make them believe that they were hiding the information of course.
A higher amount of guards could be seen on the top floors, on each of the five last floors there were more than 10 guards while the lower ones only had 2 or 4, there was a smaller amount of elves but judging by how they carried themselves and the aura that they had they were definitely important personnel amongst the elves.
"This is where we part ways, our queen wishes to have a private conversation with you." Another elf spoke before they bow slightly, it seems that they were no longer worried about whether they will say queen or not. Reign was a bit nervous, Aethion still hadn't finished the spell and they were about to meet the queen.
"It's done lad, now touch the others so that I can transfer the spell to them as well."
Reign quickly does so, he made sure to be at the rear of the party while they were getting to the top, he now walked in front as he made sure to touch everyone on the shoulder, when he did so they could all feel something different about them, but since it was something that Reign did they did not fight it and simply accepted the change.
Reign nodded at them with a serious expression and they all knew that something probably happened, what he did was probably to protect them, as for what it was exactly they didn't know, perhaps Aethion told him something that would make the most sense.
A pearly-white gate was in front of them, slowly the gate opened and they entered the chambers of the elven queen. The chambers were located on the top of the tree, there were no walls, only glass-like material that covered the chambers. The view was of course amazing, from the lush leaves that fluttered in the wind to the whole Ironbark Woods that was visible to them.
At the very front was a figure, her long black hair fell all the way to her lower back as it swayed in the wind like the smoothest silk. Her body was covered in a white robe that stuck to her body perfectly as if it was her skin.
"Please sit down humans." An enchanting voice comes from the woman as the branches at the top of the tree move before forming seats, all of them slowly walk forward and sit down. They weren't afraid, simply from the aura that they could feel from her they were positive that this person was not somebody they could fight against, probably not even Eldar would be able to win against her.
As the woman turned around everyone was left speechless. Her bright amber eyes felt like they draw all the light to them, it was like staring at two suns that shined with warmth. Her soft, red lips curved slightly upwards as she smiled at them warmly.
The robe she wore accentuated all of her curves perfectly, even though she wasn't really curvy, the woman in front of them had an athletic build. She was about 175cm tall, her long legs were bare from the knees as she gently walked towards them before sitting down on a seat that she had made.
She looked at the party with an enchanting smile as before talking.
"I have to thank you for saving my people humans, I never expected to come across humans so soon, the forest that surrounds us is fraught with dangers."
"We simply did what we thought was the right thing to do, um, your majesty?" Reign answers before thinking carefully about how to call the woman in the end.
"Hahahahaha." The woman laughs lightly as they all blush a bit, her laughter was like the breeze spring while her appearance was like the most beautiful field of flowers. Even Laura was a bit stunned after seeing such beauty in front of her. Wolf gulped slightly before calming himself, this person, her beauty was almost a match to Miriam.
"There is no need to call me like that, my name is Sylralei Ixesastenn, just call me Sylra."
"But I am intrigued little ones, what exactly were you doing in the forest?" The queen playfully cocks her head sideways as she looks straight at Reign with a gentle smile on her face.
"We were simply exploring the forest before we heard a commotion, we found your people fighting the Tainted so we decided to help."
"Oh really," Sylra says as she looks at Reign with a curious gaze before her face suddenly changes, it happened only for a moment and none of them caught the change.
"I can't read him!?" Sylra thought to herself as she tried to read the minds of the others, after finding out that all of them were the same she was shocked, of course, she didn't show it as her face was still as calm and bright as ever.
"Then it had to be fate that allowed for you to meet." Sylra smiles gently at Reign before suddenly standing up.
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