Thump, Thump, these Lights sounds echo throughout the tree stumps as Eden walks through his carnage. The wood spirit king, Cosmos, floats with pride towards a much larger stump near the middle of the barren land. He raises his hand and says an incantation before the swirls inside the stump glow green. This swirl quickly splits and forms into a vortex.

  ‘Enter!” Cosmos booms towards Eden, to which he willingly goes towards the portal and goes to meet his new fate, the fate he carved like the wood of a dazzling tree. Trees filled with parasites called ignorance. Each step adds more and more realization for the despair he had caused. The horned rabbits that would frolic in the lush bushes and grass, the plants which got crushed by the dead logs and harvested by a greedy fool. The squirrels that would joyfully jump from branch to branch, the branches now used to guard their greatest foe. And who could forget the peaceful slimes, slaughtered for their guts, but spared by their looming tormentor empowered by their corpses, only to fall from his foolish whims towards nature.

  Notice! Skill ‘Patience’ has activated. All mental defences will be strengthened.

  ERROR! Skill ‘Patience’ has failed.

  Tears flow out of Eden’s eyes like a rainstorm. But sadly, this storm came too late for it to save any plants. It takes a few minutes, given to him by Cosmos not bothering to interrupt, before Eden can begin to even walk forward once more. All he can do is shed tears on the cold dirt floor, absence of life pardon that surrounds his highness; the enforcer of his crimes. Once the tears dry up, mainly from lacking water in Eden’s body, he is left with nothing but dry sorrow to corrode his belief of innocence, and his will to forgive. Eden, walking much like an undead, slowly reaches and stands in front of the green portal. He would normally feel a pull of sorts, but his body is too numb to truly feel any force, nor give any resistance. He is slowly sucked directly towards the stump’s swirls, along with some bits of new-found mud that covers the terrain under Eden. Without any more thought, Eden raises his leg and goes into the vortex, falling into an entirely green wormhole. Eden falls for what feels like both an eternity and a second before landing in some kind of cave on tall grass. However, this cave has no visible ceiling and only a single, rough stone wall can be seen by Eden right behind him, with no other landscape in sight. But he does not have to ponder too long on where he is before another wood spirit before him. The spirit firstly scares Eden with its presence, but it is much smaller and less imposing than Cosmos. After pulling out some kind of stone clipboard and pen, the spirit then begins to speak.

  “Are you the new guy?” The spirit asks; raising the stone tablet referred to as a clipboard. After just a moment of thought, Eden comes up with an answer to the question.

  “Yes, the name’s Eden.” Eden lifelessly responds back. The spirit then takes his pen and writes what Eden assumes is a checkmark on the clipboard.

  “Okay, Eden, follow me. I will take you to your new home and give you your assignment. You will do that job until stated otherwise.” The Spirit tells Eden, to which he starts to slowly fly over to the right of Eden. Eden follows and walks for about an hour before reaching an iron gate and fence, towering over any building Eden has ever seen. It looks like a massive prison, but the quality and security are far in a way superior to any Eden had ever seen. There are countless wood spirits flying about, be it guarding the gate or staying on or around the fence. The building would scare all who were forced into it, but the dead have no such concept. Eden obediently follows the spirit, with each step screeching out to Eden as he crushes grass; but another plant Eden has slain, it seems. When they arrive at his new, more just home, the guards stop them, not out of malice like Eden thinks he should receive, but instead that of a standard processor.

  “State you propose for coming to the jail sector.” One of the guards calmly orders, where the spirit bringing the walking corpse called Eden quickly responds.

  “New prisoner; royal orders.” The spirit says, as he pulls out a badge of sorts from his body. The guards move with haste to let the two through, to Eden’s Tartarus, a fate well deserved in Eden’s eyes. Though he cannot form the thoughts of why he feels this way, it is ingrained into his mind, like a mind controlled slave. The wood spirit places his transparent palm in the centre of the gate, and it opens, only to reveal a long, metallic transport tube with another gate to be opened, and another one. And another one after that. It totals to ten different gates, each with their own unique use. Some are mostly stone, others seem to be a place to train. But Eden only glances at the other areas, as he focuses on walking forward till the spirit stops moving forward and goes to a door on his left, and opens it with a mystical force. The door reveals a large open field of sorts.

  “Is this where I am staying?” Eden asks the wood spirit, but he does not answer, so Eden gets back to scanning the premises. The place is a massive field of cotton, with a few “houses” embedded into the stone wall, none of which could even pass as one even compared to Eden’s old huts. He also sees many people harvesting the cotton out on the fields. Mostly old males seem to be contained in this area. They all look terrible, however, with heavily wrinkled faces, a short stature from harsh back damage, and a body as pale as a ghost. The men notice the arrival of the spirit and bow down upon sight. One could catch sight of the absolute fear in their eyes at but a glance, though Eden cannot even muster such a miniscule action. Eden does nothing but walk forward, following his jailer into his cell. The cell he is taken to is a far away hut, much bigger compared to the other ones, but still of low quality and attached into the stone wall. There also appears to be some chairs and other pieces of furniture on the outside porch of this house. On the chair, there is someone sitting on the ground right outside. It is an old, bald man wearing ragged clothes and bare-footed. His grayed eyebrows and dry mouth lower, and his eyes narrow towards the two when he spots the wood spirit.

  “Is this the new folk, you bastard?” The old man rudely asks the spirit.

  “Quit those rude tone, gramps, unless you want your ancient life to end.” The Spirit interjects. “But yes, this is the new guy.”

  “Well, at least it is a young one. Also, quit acting like my boss, you scoundrel. You and I both know you cannot kill me.” The old man responded as the wood spirit leaves. “Annoying bastard.” The old man whispers to himself before talking to Eden. “Well, nice to have a young one join us, these old bones need some rest, haha.” The old man jokes, though it does not land.

  “Yeah, haha, ha.” Eden fakes laughs, though it is just as poor as the old man’s joke. “My name is Eden, what would happen to be yours?” Eden asks the old man.

  “Name, boy, it has been far too long for me to remember my name. The only thing that matters is how much cotton you can collect and how many more years you got to spend in this place. Oh, also how much gold you got, but I doubt you have much at all. I myself have 55 lb (24.95 kg) of cotton, 55 gold, and 55 more years in this place. How about yourself?” The old man says. It takes a bit for Eden to answer, standing there in silence, trying to think of a proper answer to the man’s simple question.

  “0 pounds of cotton, 323 gold, and 10,000 years left.” Eden responds back with a defeated tone. But the old man is left speechless at these words, and ends up ignoring the deadness in Eden’s voice.

  “10-10,000 YEARS? What crimes could a whipper-snapper like you have possibly committed?” The old man confusingly asks. When the man asks this question, Eden looks down in even more shame and quietly tells him what he did.

  “Cut down 10,000 trees in the king’s forest, causing the deaths of thousands of creatures. In my opinion, I got off easy.” Eden mutters to the old man, who seems a little angry at those words.

  “Damn right you did! I just knocked down 50 and got sent for 300 years! That filthy fraud of a king, Cosmos. He is no ruler of innocents but of slaughterers.” The old man screams, but calms down to talk to Eden. “Anyway, at least you have a good amount of gold on you.” The old man tells Eden. However, these words confuse him, still blissfully unaware of just how much that merchant was trying to con him.

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  “What do you mean a good amount? Are things cheaper here or something? I could barely get half a dozen apples with this amount.” Eden asks the old man, who is now laughing at his words.

  “Hahahaha! Did you get conned by that old merchant? Steve, the fat one I mean. He should still be in Elderwood. He was never one to change locations” The old man tells Eden, which shocks the already shocked Eden. So much that a faint glow surrounds him.

  Wait, those prices weren’t overly inflated? So how much money do I really have? Eden wonders, but these wonders are abruptly cut off after they are started. The old man then decides to educate Eden on the worth of gold in these lands.

  “To give a rough estimate, the average family of four can last one month with 100 gold, including housing, food, clothes, and other necessities. Furthermore, in this place, since we have no taxes, and our room, food, and water is covered, gold is basically only needed for extra stuff like clothes and items you want.” The old man explains.

  “So I guess I have got a good amount of gold then. I wish I knew this earlier, might have saved some trees if I could have lived till I left without doing the quest. Damn my ignorance.” Eden says to the old man, though it is more to himself rather than adding to the conversation.

  “Okay, Eden, deal with your trauma in your room. It is on the left.” The old man tells Eden before remembering something. “Oh, also there is still the last person’s stuff in there. The poor fellow died from exhaustion after being attacked by some plants, the day before he was going to be released as well.” The old man informs Eden, who shudders at the mention of death, but is too dead inside to say much.

  “Okay, see you later.” Eden tells the old man as he walks into the hut. It is bigger than what it looks on the outside, with it embedded into the wall. He then walks to the left to find his room. It was pretty small, around 1.5 times his wingspan all around, and the roof was almost touching his head. There is a small platform that acts as the bed, but is made of pure stone, albeit a softer one. However, the most impressive thing is the bookshelf full of different books, the assumed stuff the former owner had. When he looks through the shelf, he scans for any books of interest to him, but does not find much. So he ends up grabbing a random book and trusting the hands of fate. The book he draws is called Truth in Hypocrisy. Eden then opens the book, and reads a few pages.

  Hypocrisy is when one does not follow what they preach. A hypocrite is someone who commits acts of hypocrisy. But does that make what they preach wrong? Nay I say to that! A hypocrite's preaching is not wrong for the fact he is a hypocrite, quite the opposite in fact. A man who preaches acts of falsehood, would of course follow their own ignorance. But an evil man who turns five good will be superior to just one good man helping those who are likely bad. A man who knows the right path, but does not follow it, but instead makes others follow said path, is what a hypocrite truly is, and thus is man’s greatest virtue.

  Hypocrites are the world's best source of what is right and wrong, as a person who preaches how they truly act is always going to have less morality in their speeches than one who preaches with hypocrisy. But many falsely think that if a hypocrite preaches it, it must be wrong. But the words of a hypocrite are not always wrong, just the person preaching those words are, there is a difference.

  The book continues on, following the same concept as what was brought up in these lines. The book also provides a few examples of people like this, who spoke the truth but were not believed for not following their own truth, and how their points were valid and should be recognized as valuable. But when Eden got to around halfway through the book, he got interrupted by the old man.

  “Are you reading those old books?” He asks Eden. “It is time to get to work harvesting the cotton.” He then tells Eden, who puts the book away. He then follows the old man out of the hut and takes him to roll call. It is rather short, as there is only him and Eden there in this section of the plantation. Furthermore, the wood spirit had no intention of sticking around for conversation, choosing to float in the corner of the area, watching the two farm. After this fast roll call from the wood spirit, they are assigned to their section of the farm. It is a long process, picking the cotton by hand and having to drag it to a massive bowl. It takes Eden around 1 minute for each piece of cotton. On around Eden’s 500th cotton plant, however, his skill, “Harvester” activates, and Eden's body glows once more from the surprise. It was rather shocking to Eden at harvester activating, for some reason assuming that it would not work.

  Notice! Skill ‘Harvester’ activates.

  Notice! You gain 13 gold.

  Nice! I did not think about the fact I would get free gold so easily! Eden celebrates. However, this celebration is short-lived as the wood spirit floats over.

  Why is this man glowing? I mean, the workers have his enhancement applied to them, but it should not be this obviously noticed. The wood spirit thinks, but soon hardens his focus on something else; the shine of gold. Wait, is that gold in his hands? FREE MONEY FOR ME! Sucks to be your new person. The wood spirit celebrates, though he looks as stone-cold as before, just with his red eyes slightly raised.

  “You, new guy, hand over the gold you have just gained!” The spirit yells at him, which Eden, knowing he has no other option, hands over the gold, accepting the spirit's whims. This happens a few more times before the spirit tells you and the old man that work is over for the day. Once the spirit calls Eden and the old man out of their labour, him and the old man meet up and start talking.

  “So, how was your first day? Pick a lot of cotton?” The old man asks Eden. “I myself was able to get through 1/15 of the field today.” The old man brags.

  “Not too well, not well at all. I was barely able to harvest 1/50 of my field.” Eden tells the old man, who pats him on the back as they both walk inside, leaving the now green glowing Eden a bit surprised. They then sit in silence for a bit, keeping themselves to their own thoughts.

  Oh, this new one is quite impressive. I had little hope when first looking at him, but to think he could collect that much on his first day. Even I, who am a former martial artist, did not farm this much. He must be some kind of farmer to outperform my start. But why was he working so hard? If he cut down this many trees, I had assumed that he had no regard for the wildlife, and would not want to do the tasks of the keeper of the forest. But on the contrary, he works rather well. He works too well, in fact. The old man believes.

  To think I am this much weaker than this old man. Though he would have a lot more experience at this stuff, being here for a few hundred years. Wait, how is he alive if he has been here for this many years? Eden wonders.

  “How are you still alive?”

  “Why are you working so hard?”

  They both ask each other what they were thinking about. The old man, knowing that Eden’s question is much easier to answer, goes on about how he is alive.

  “Oh, I guess you must be new to the tower. But to explain is that you don’t really age in the tower, well you do, but not all that fast. It takes roughly 1 year to age a day. Also, you cannot die of old age here as well. The tower would never let someone die such a peaceful death.” The old man explains. Then, Eden goes to answer the question the old man asked.

  “Why am I working so hard? I do not really know. No, I do know. To repent on my crimes, the crimes of my genocide. These hands are stained with too much blood for me to be free, and I must work off my guilt. Only with the sweat of labour can my sins be atoned.” Eden answers the old man, who looks down in pity, and then asks another question.

  “Boy, what do you think of that bastard spirit king, Cosmos?” He asks Eden, who looks confused at the question. The old man recognizes this and rephrases his question. “Do you think Cosmos has a point? That his actions are justified?” He asks Eden.

  “Are his acts justified? That is a good question, old man. However, it has a simpler answer, and that answer is yes. I cause the death of thousands of innocents, I have made my bed of stones, and now I must lay on its hard surface.” Eden tells the old man. The old man has a questionable look on his face from this.

  “You say his acts are just from your crimes and yours alone. But have you thought of others, take me for example. I only destroyed 50 trees, causing no real harm to his land, and yet I was sentenced to 300 years of labour. There are plenty more like me, who caused minimal damage, compared to you, who caused great damage. And even then, I believe you had made no error in your acts. How can one force the laws of a land not known to be owned by you, let alone have knowledge of Cosmos’s laws, a thing hard to locate for most humans. Furthermore, if there was any error in them, you have shown great remorse, and clearly will never cause chaos towards his nation again. Cosmos does not have this worksite set up for atonement, but for profit” The old man firmly states. Eden then sits in silence for a while, before giving the man a few questions.

  “You may be right, but can you blame him? How would he know when one will stop harming his kingdom? Should a king not deal with a threat before it becomes one? These are the things he was thinking of, and are what he should be as well. A ruler must do all he can to protect his people, even if it means turning on his truths.” Eden informs the old man, to which he has already created an answer.

  “You would be correct, if the king himself was not the forest’s greatest threat. He has by far the worst relations with all the other kings of the great forest around Elderwood, and is the reason his people are attacked on sight by them. He has no right to incarcerate us while he commits the same crime twice the scale.” The old man tells Eden. But these words enrage him.

  “So what if the king is a criminal! That does not disprove his point, it only disproves his worth to the cause!” Eden yells at the old man. He looks disappointed, but comes to terms with his words.

  “You may believe what you want. You will soon see the falseness in that belief, however.” The old man says; walking away from Eden, who stands there in silence, emanating a green glow so bright, it breaks.

  Eden Status report-

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