The Earth Online

50 The Haine Government and Alien Lizards

“It’s amazing how this government’s still acting like they can control us. Dude, you let half of your population die, you’re governing no one.” Kedrick complained as they were making their way to the Unseen Scion.

They were all huffing and puffing away as they traveled the terrain for almost half a day. In the second stage, there were no cars or anything, it was just plain old sand and their two legs.

“Damn right, like those fools think that they can still take advantage of the situation just to save their sorry asses.” Ygritte seconded the umber man’s opinions.

Growing up as a second-generation immigrant was hard for the druid, as the government almost forcibly exiled her mother from Haine.

She was shaking in anger as she remembered being dragged away from her clueless and panicking mother.

“Where do they get the balls? If there’s one group that the gods should place in the cube playground is this clown of a government.” Haya puffed out, while slowly guzzling water from his black cannister.

“Honestly, I can’t believe how they’re trying to buy over some of the inns and farmlands and claiming those ‘home bases’ as the governments. The country’s basically in anarchy ever since the apocalypse.” Kedrick continued his rant and Thaleos nodded his head in agreement.

“Although I wholeheartedly agree that this government should just stop its attempts in maintaining their make-believe’ new world, I think that the bases are momentary relief for some people with no Akkadian cubes.” The beast tamer stated, as they were all aware that the government offered the home bases’ accommodations and food for free.

“I know, but I feel like they’re up to no good. They’re probably siding with the gods.” Haya retorted. The three of them knew how the government never really cared about the people who need the most, they learned this when they were still street rats in Ellis Town.

But Haya also knew that Thaleos was incredibly kind when giving people the chance to change. If the man saw improvement, he’d fight for you to a certain extent.

But if you fail to deliver twice, he’d cut you off immediately. The man knew his boundaries, and the three other players in the group admired that.

Thaleos watched the terrain to see any irregular heat waves; one thing James didn’t mention is how the tree turns invisible depending on different factors, such as the weather, time periods, and levels of the player.

Their Igigu group only discovered as another group took pity on them when they saw them walking around in circles.

They explained that the reason why it was called the Unseen Scion was because it had the ability to turn invisible, given that they have enough muffle jewels.

The other group further explained in detail how the alien-looking lizards were basically bees; they just harvested nearby trees to collect sap and form the raw ingredients for the jewels.

From there, the tree takes control and turn the sap into hardened crystals.

They were all fascinated by what they heard, most especially, Haya.

The explanation prompted the young man to ask further questions, “Why call it a Scion, though?”

The leader of the group, who was a middle-age woman with shining silver hair, explained how humans can only spot certain parts of the trees, such as branches, through unstable heat waves.

After asking two more questions, the two groups finally said their goodbyes to each other and went their separate ways.

“I swear this tree is so amazing, like it can literally give life to new civilizations. Its survivability and adaptability in a hostile environment are telling of its life-making capabilities.” Haya was twitching in excitement, as he missed actually talking about these things.

For the past months, their preparation for the second world prompted them to just fight and train until they were sure they could survive.

The other three smiled warmly because of the young man’s childlike wonder.

Ygritte engaged him further and discussed the behavior of bees and they theorized how there’s a large chance that the lizard aliens would act in the same way.

Meanwhile, Kedrick and Thaleos were keeping watch of any fuzzy-looking heat waves.

Thankfully, they no longer needed to stare at the endless piles of sand as the tree suddenly appeared a couple of miles away from them.

Knowing how sensitive the lizards were, they immediately crouched in silence and made sure that they weren’t making a single sound.

Before deciding to embark on this journey, their little group crafted a master plan that minimizes harm and increases the chance of getting the gems.

Although initially Haya and Kedrick suggested just to fight head on, Thaleos argued that these lizards basically were a civilization—even a peaceful one on that.

Based on James’ observation and the earlier team they came across with, these lizards or the Jintillian were one of the most harmless species in the entire game.

They only turn hostile when provoked or challenged.

Keeping this in mind, they decided to focus on just turning this into a sneak mission rather than a hack and s***h one. But the hard part about this is that they all knew that the lizards probably were more sensitive to movement compared to other creatures.

“Are you ready?” Thaleos silently asked Haya and Ygritte.

When the pair nodded, they traversed in different directions as their plan was for Haya and Ygritte to distract the lizards while Kedrick and Thaleos would take the muffle gems.

They’ve discussed different ways on how to distract the alien-lizards, but after going through James’ journal and compiling all the relevant data they could find, they’ve finally deduced a way to strategically distract them.

After finding out about that one important detail, they immediately agreed on how to distract the lizards shortly.

Once reaching a good distance from the tree, Haya took out the Akkadian cube and sorted through the items to find a certain loot.

The moment he saw the item, he immediately took it out and placed it in between him and Ygritte.

Upon seeing the go signal from the two men near the extremely big and high tree, they proceeded to s***h the Cornish Sakura Faerie’s body multiple times—until its pink sap started trickling from its body.

They agreed to this plan after reading how James observed the alien-lizards’ behavior when it came to the harvesting period.

Turns out, their most coveted sapling is the one that came from the faeries since it was quite hard to acquire the pink glittery liquid.

James stated that he saw how the alien-lizards quickly drank up the pink sap and even fought over the faerie’s remains. For them, it was some form of addictive liquid—although James clearly stated that the liquid was harmless if taken in moderation.

As soon as the pink sap trickled from the Cornish Sakura faerie’s body, the tree stated shaking as dozens and dozens of alien lizards ran out of the tree and headed to where Haya and Ygritte were.

Seeing the mob of hungry lizards, the pair immediately run off to another location—somewhere farther than their original spot—and proceeded to get another Sakura faerie from the Akkadian cube.

They had three faerie bodies in the cube, and their plan was to lure them farther and farther from the tree, just to give Kedrick and Thaleos the time to take at least a dozen muffle gems.

They didn’t want to take to much, as they know how these square crystals were vital for the tree’s survival.

After seeing the coast was clear, the beast tamer and priest immediately ran to the three and headed straight to the hollow roots. They made sure to move as quietly as possible, and once they saw no signs of life, they proceeded to bag some of the square jewels.

Thankfully, it only took them five minutes to get the needed square crystals. They breathed a sigh of relief as they saw the alien-lizards extremely relaxed on their way back to the three.

They knew that the pink sap’s effect only lasted for a short while, so the four swiftly ran a good distance from the tree and met up near the sand mountains.

Once reaching the high terrain, they were all panting from the heat and exhaustion. They all took out their black cannisters and guzzled the water like there was no tomorrow.

“At least we didn’t harm anybody. We did a great job!” Ygritte started after stabilizing her breathing. Haya and Kedrick cheered along with her and they did this little cute dance to celebrate.

This made the beast tamer smile and he proceeded to take out the jewels.

“So, thankfully, the effect of these muffle gems on humans last for 2 months as our body comparatively processes the mineral breakdown in a slower rate.” The bearded man explained while carefully observing the tiny muffle tool in his hand.

He stared at the shiny regalia for another second or so, and then immediately swallowed it. The other three just stared at him in curiosity while waiting for the effects of the looted gem.

“Is it working?” Haya asked while observing the beast tamer’s movements.

“Give it a second, as far as I know, it takes a couple of minutes before it—ah, there you go! It’s working, I can feel my body getting lighter.” Thaleos exclaimed in joy and proceeded to jump around the vicinity to test out his newly founded muffle skill

The other three saw the difference in his movements and how quiet they were, so they also took one square gem each. Before they knew it, all of them were moving in muffled movements.

“Time to head to the east!” Thaleos shouted in excitement.