Climb the Tree

The rabbit ended up as Andy's dinner. With his fill of food and drink, Andy lay on the broken bed and spent another night.

For several days in a row, Andy had gotten up early and then rushed around for the sake of his stomach. He had no idea whether his stamina had improved, but he had grown more skilled at setting traps. His disguises for them had become increasingly varied, too. Of course, he could only catch small animals; he had no traps for capturing anything larger.

On the morning of the seventh day, Andy woke up leisurely. He had gotten his wake-up time down to a science—not a minute early or late. Every day, the moment the time came, his eyes opened on their own. Clearly, he had the Monster Spirit to thank for waking up on time even after such strenuous running.

"Host, I want to file a complaint!" The Monster Spirit threw a fit inside Andy's head, acting as human as a street thug. "I want to protest!"

"What are you going on about?" Andy said as he put on his shoes. "Aren't you here to assist me? What's there to complain about?"

"I'm an assistant system, not an alarm clock!" the Monster Spirit shouted. "You can go find a real alarm clock. Uh... You could try raising a rooster."

"Bullshit!" Andy tossed the Monster Spirit a single word, got up, and left the house.

"Kid, how long do you think it'll take for this kind of training to show results?" Andy looked up to see Nathas ambling over.

Andy rolled his eyes. What kind of teacher abandoned his student and disappeared for who knew how many days, then came back just to make snide remarks? If you'd been here, would I have had to spend every day running?

Seeing the murderous look in Andy's eyes, Nathas gave an awkward chuckle. "Let your teacher point you in the right direction. There's a big tree north of the city. You can go climb it."

Andy was bewildered. That was the right direction he was pointing him in?

"Tree climbing comes with conditions. Given your current state, climb up and down once a day, then add another round every seven days," Nathas said. "You can come home to sleep, or sleep over there. It's up to you! In a month, I want to see the results of your training!"

And so, following the right direction his teacher Nathas had pointed him in, Andy made his way north of the city with reluctance. Climbing trees wasn't difficult for Andy. He'd often climbed them as a kid in his previous life. He couldn't exactly scale walls or leap over roofs, but he'd still been nimble. Yet when he reached the north side of the city and saw the unusually tall, thick tree, a cold sweat broke out on him.

Damn, was that really a tree? Its trunk was so thick that ten people couldn't have wrapped their arms around it. The exposed roots twisted together like monstrous pythons. In places, the bark had peeled away, exposing the wood beneath. The bark was deeply furrowed, and plenty of ants and insects crawled over it, in and out of its crevices. Andy looked up and could barely see the top—only a vast canopy. The lowest branches were at least twenty or thirty stories above the ground. Andy licked his lips. "Good grief, is this supposed to kill me?" A tree this tall would be hard to climb even with tools, let alone bare-handed. And the worst part was how unsafe it was!

"Hey, Spirit?" Andy called in his head. "How am I supposed to climb this?"

"With your hands!" The Spirit still seemed to be annoyed that Andy had treated it like an alarm clock.

"No kidding. I mean, how am I supposed to climb a tree this tall? What if I fall halfway up?" Andy asked.

"I don't know!" said the Monster Spirit. "I've never climbed a tree, but I'm sure the view when you fall from that height will be spectacular!"

Andy nearly swore. Couldn't this lousy system say something encouraging for once? He spat into his hands twice, loosened up his arms and legs, and prepared to start climbing.

The tree was fairly easy to climb at first. It wasn't very high yet, so it didn't intimidate Andy too much, and there were plenty of places to grip. But after he'd climbed more than ten meters up the trunk, things got difficult. The height put enormous pressure on Andy, to the point that he didn't dare look down to see how far he'd climbed. There were fewer and fewer places on the trunk to brace himself against—not none, but they were far apart. It took a great deal of effort, and he had to rest after every step. More than once, Andy asked the Monster Spirit if it had any advice. Every time, the Spirit gave an answer that had Andy cursing for ages.

"Hey, kid, you're still too weak!" Nathas sat on a rooftop, watching the small figure in the distance scramble across the tree trunk. He sighed. "You'll only be able to grow properly if I get you stronger quickly."

Nathas's eyes were no longer hazy. They were unusually bright, and sharp glints flashed in them from time to time. "Looks like the future of the Elves can only depend on you. Malfurion is still too cautious. Those unknown creatures will reach this continent sooner or later."

After using up every last bit of his strength, Andy finally reached the lowest branch of the canopy. He let out a long breath, then followed the branch and stepped onto the thick limb. He felt a sudden urge to shout: he'd made it up! But when he thought of taking in the view, he was completely dumbfounded.

The sun was gone!

To be precise, the sun was almost completely set. Andy had spent the entire day concentrating on climbing and hadn't noticed how late it was getting. What was he supposed to do now? He glanced down toward the ground and his legs began to shake. Good grief, it was so high!

After thinking it over again and again, Andy decided to sleep in the tree that night. He didn't dare climb around in the dark. If he made one wrong move, it could be the end of him.

After admiring the scenery of Teldrassil, Andy sat quietly on a thick branch, one broad enough for him to roll around on. He'd spent all day climbing, and though he hadn't felt hungry while he was at it, now that he'd relaxed, his stomach began to protest.

Andy looked around. There wasn't a thing to eat, or even a drop of water. He deliberately tried not to think about how hungry he was, then lay crookedly across the branch and closed his eyes. Luckily, after climbing all day, his body and mind were already exhausted. The moment he lay down, drowsiness washed over him, and he drifted off.

A bird chirped, and Andy jolted upright. The morning sun filtered through gaps in the leaves and scattered across him. A gentle breeze brought a hint of coolness that left him feeling refreshed all over.

Andy stretched his whole body. He still had to climb down today, but whether he'd be able to climb back up was anyone's guess.

"Grumble!"

Andy rubbed his stomach. It had already caved in. After going all day and night without food, he had little strength left.

Just as Andy was worrying about his stomach, he heard two squeaks. A little beast with a huge tail ran down from the canopy and stopped in front of him. Man and beast stared into each other's eyes.

"Squeak, squeak!" The little beast seemed to be asking him something.

Andy's head began to ache. He wasn't a Druid or some kind of beast-speaker. How could he understand what the little creature was saying? Yet its expression clearly looked as if it were asking him a question. Were the little animals in Azeroth all this intelligent? It reminded him of the rabbit from a few days ago, which had clearly been laughing at him.

"Grumble!" Andy's stomach rumbled again, as if it were answering the little beast.

To his surprise, the little beast covered its mouth with both paws in a humanlike way, and a smile appeared on its face. Holy crap, it really was laughing!

The little beast squeaked a few times, then took off toward the top of the canopy. Before long, it returned, seemingly carrying something on its back. When it ran up to Andy, it dropped what it was carrying in front of him. It turned out to be a bunch of wild fruit threaded onto a vine.

"For me?" Andy asked, not knowing whether the little beast could understand him.

"Squeak, squeak!" The little beast actually nodded.

Andy eyed the fruit suspiciously. They were bright red, each about the size of a strawberry. Could this unknown fruit really be safe to eat?

The little beast seemed to notice Andy's hesitation. It plucked one of the fruits with its paw, tossed it straight into its mouth, and chewed noisily. Red juice trickled from the corners of its mouth.

Andy smacked his forehead. The little beast looked harmless enough. Surely it wasn't going to poison him. Sitting on the branch, Andy reached out, plucked the fruit one by one, and tossed them into his mouth.