Crystal Waterfall (Part 2)

[POV AQUILES VIRIDIUM – YEAR 271]

After passing through the gap, he emerged into a new part of the cave. However, this part was tall enough for him to stand and wide enough for four humans to be comfortable side by side. "How far does this cave go?" Aquiles wondered mentally as he continued forward, holding a fireball ahead and using it to burn the spider webs obstructing the passage.

As Aquiles proceeded, the cave turned left, and Aquiles continued to follow. It was then that he saw some colored and transparent stones protruding from the walls of the cave. "Are they diamonds and rubies, or just some kind of transparent stone that I don't know?" Aquiles questioned mentally with uncertainty. He didn't know if they were real gemstones or just shiny worthless rocks. After all, even in his other life, he never had any curiosity about gemstones.

"I'll dig one up, and when I get to White Harbor, I can see if it's valuable to any lapidary!" Aquiles thought. He then chose a white transparent stone that he thought was a diamond. It was embedded on the left side of the cave, so he drew his sword and began to dig the earth around the stone very carefully to avoid damaging it. After unearthing it, it was the size of a fist, and Aquiles picked it up, tucking it inside his woolen clothes. He continued forward until he reached the end of the cave.

Happy that the cave had only one entrance, Aquiles began to use the fireball to burn all the insects he saw, from the depths of the cave to the exit. It took him a few hours to burn all the insects, as his mana had run out a few times, and he had to wait for his mana reservoir to refill before continuing.

After exterminating the pests with Brivose Darilaros (Fireball), Aquiles used the Skori Darilva magic (Earth Stakes). Soon, some earth stakes began to close the entrance of the cave, leaving only a small space for him to enter. This was the same magic that Aquiles used to impale the feet of the two bandits. The difference was that this time he used the magic continuously to make the stakes grow enough to block the entrance.

After Aquiles brought his things inside the cave, he searched for wood and lit the fire. However, when he took the rabbit out of the brown bag, a look of displeasure formed on his face as he thought about eating rabbit again. "Tomorrow I'll definitely hunt. I can't eat rabbit anymore!" Aquiles promised himself as he cleaned the carcass.

...

"Finally did it, hahaha..." Aquiles laughed loudly as he jumped with excitement and threw a few punches in the air upon seeing that the horse had indeed obeyed his command and was kneeling before him. It had been 3 months since Aquiles had been at the waterfall, and this was the first time he had managed to replicate the effects of the {Voice of Nature} ability with his magic.

"Get up." Ordered Aquiles using mana to transmit his speech directly to the animal's brain. The horse immediately rose at Aquiles' command and stood in front of him, waiting for new orders.

Over the past few months, Aquiles had trained his magic tirelessly. He even reduced his sleep time from 8 hours a day to 6 hours in order to increase his training time. "Now that I can make animals obey me, it would be better to focus the rest of the time solely on controlling elemental magic and increasing my mana reservoir!" Aquiles concluded to himself, and after deciding, he began to move away from the horse and walk towards the waterfall.

As he approached the waterfall, he activated his Golden Eyes, sending mana to his eyes. He always did this when training Elemental Magic; seeing the mana made it much easier to create new spells. Upon activating his Golden Eyes, his vision changed, and he could see all the mana around him with absolute clarity. Thanks to his new vision, the moment Aquiles glanced at the forest on the other side of the waterfall, he saw a silhouette behind a large bush. The silhouette was made of mana and had the shape of a human child. "Who's there?" Aquiles shouted with curiosity.

As soon as the silhouette heard Aquiles' shout, it startled, turned around, and began to flee quickly. Not wanting whoever it was to escape, Aquiles dashed forward, leaped over the waterfall to the other side, and plunged into the forest, beginning his pursuit of the child. Despite having trees and bushes in his way, Aquiles could easily see the child through the objects since the child's body glowed due to the mana within.

Thanks to the short legs of the Child of the Forest and Aquiles' superior speed, it didn't take long for Aquiles to leap over the Child of the Forest, grabbing the child, and tumbling to the ground, rolling for a few meters before stopping. When they came to a halt, the Child of the Forest looked at him, and Aquiles was startled to see that it was not actually a human child.

"A Child of the Forest," Aquiles spoke in the common tongue, his tone uncertain and surprised at the being he was holding.

"Let me go, human!" The Child of the Forest exclaimed in the 'Language of the Children of the Forest', struggling to get out from under Aquiles, but without success, after all, Aquiles was a 2-meter-tall man with an athletic build, weighing well over 100 kg.

"Ah, yes. Sorry!" Aquiles replied in the same language, surprising the tiny Child of the Forest.

As Aquiles got off and stood up, the little one rose from the ground, pointing at Aquiles, widening its large eyes even more, and then exclaimed in an absolutely surprised tone, "Y-You speak our language? How is that possible?"

Aquiles hadn't planned to say that he had learned the 'Language of the Children of the Forest' thanks to a blessing from God, so he remained silent for a few moments as he tried to think of a plausible explanation. But this seemed to have angered the little one, who exclaimed impatiently and loudly, "ANSWER, HUMAN. HOW DO YOU KNOW OUR LANGUAGE?"

Not liking the little one's way of speaking, Aquiles frowned and replied in a tone as dry as a desert: "I won't answer." Aquiles had been carefully considering his response, intending to build a good relationship with the little one, but he really didn't like his tone at all, and to make matters worse, he hadn't been able to think of a plausible explanation for it.

"You will answer, whether you like it or not!" The little one exclaimed in a cold tone that left no room for refusal.

Aquiles chuckled mockingly and then questioned, "Really? And how do you plan to force me? Just leave before I get annoyed." Aquiles was confident in his strength; the fight against the bandits in the village had shown how strong he was in this world. Except for the Night King, he believed he had no opponents. Well, that's what Aquiles believed, but when the Child of the Forest raised both arms, his belief was shaken, as the forest seemed to come to life before Aquiles' eyes.

The trees began to twist and creak, the winds blew strongly, and the vines flew towards Aquiles at a speed that made it impossible for him to react to the attack. When he realized, the vines had already clung to his four limbs. Aquiles then activated his ability {Extreme Human} and began to struggle, trying to free himself with his brute force, but unfortunately, he couldn't.

Unable to free himself, Aquiles cursed, "Let me go, you brat." However, the son of the forest didn't seem to understand him, and indeed didn't, since Aquiles didn't even realize he had uttered those words in the common language.

With another hand movement from the Son of the Forest, the vines holding Aquiles lifted him off the ground easily and quickly began to wrap around his entire body like a spider's cocoon. "Let me go, you son of a bitch!" Aquiles exclaimed once again with a voice full of rage, still unaware that he was speaking in the common language of Westeros. Once again, he struggled to free himself by writhing and releasing all the strength that the {Extreme Human} ability had given him. Unfortunately for him, it continued to be insufficient.

Realizing that he couldn't free himself with brute force, Aquiles turned to magic and began to chant: "Brivose Darilaros, Brivose Darilaros, Brivose Darilaros..." Soon, 10 fireballs began to form right in front of Aquiles, and with a thought, he unleashed them all towards the Son of the Forest. Thinking he had already won, Aquiles exclaimed with satisfaction in the language of the children: "From this distance, I want to see you dodge!"

But what happened made his eyes widen, and his hope plummet. The little one made a 'Humpt' sound and only needed to move his hand slightly upwards for a large square wall of earth and moss to emerge from the ground. This wall of earth easily blocked all the fireballs fired by Aquiles before returning to the ground.

Seeing Aquiles about to conjure his magic again, the little one stretched out his arm and closed his hand. When he did this, one of the vines wrapped around Aquiles' mouth like a gag.

"Human, I've been watching you since you arrived at the waterfall, I know everything about your magic, so don't try to use your primitive magic against me again!" The little one spoke indifferently, approaching Aquiles slowly. "Now, listen carefully, if you..." Before the little one finished speaking, he saw a red liquid starting to drip from the top of Aquiles' body towards the vine, and shaking his head negatively, he exclaimed, "I thought you already understood that your magic won't work on me."

Despite his words full of confidence, moments later, he realized that the drops that had fallen on the ground were slowly killing the grass and flowers they had touched. Furthermore, he felt that the red liquid was also slowly corroding the vine that held Aquiles. "Stop this or you will be killed!" Said the little one with a slight tone of urgency escaping his voice, and then moved his index finger upwards, and 4 earthen stakes emerged just below Aquiles. It was at that moment that Aquiles realized there was no chance; the Son of the Forest in front of him would only need to move a finger for the stakes below him to pierce him. So, he stopped emitting poison through his arms.

A little distance away from Aquiles, just for safety, the Son of the Forest began to speak in a threatening tone: "I will untie your mouth, but if you try anything, I will kill you the next second!" After these words, a movement of his hand made the vine detach and release Aquiles' mouth.

"Now answer, how did you learn our language?" The little one questioned.

"God gave me fluency in all languages!" Aquiles replied honestly. He liked to keep his secrets, but he liked even more to keep his life.

However, despite Aquiles' honest answer, the little one frowned in discontent. His forehead filled with creases as he narrowed his eyes, not believing Aquiles' explanation and thinking that the human in front of him was mocking him. It was then that the little one exclaimed in a cold tone: "If you are so determined to hide the truth, then die with it!"