I quickly showed everybody my hands, which suddenly began to shapeshift, growing into several branches and growing leaves, turning into a small bush which quickly began to sprout flowers, and generated small apple-like fruits. This was the most shapeshifting I cold do, and this alone cost me half my MP! I hope this is enough to show them I am actually a Dryad…
Before the eyes of the fairies, I showcased my ability to plant shapeshift. I had tried it countless times before in my free time sometimes. It wasn't completely limitless. The easiest thing I could do was spread it into many branches of hard wood or detach them from me.
The more I learn to shape it, the better I can create wood utensils and other things, and even weapons or armor made of my own wood, although that's not that good.
I also can create flowers and make them turn into fruits, but these fruits are not the best out there, they're merely named "Dryad's Gifts" and can recover a bit of HP and MP alongside Satiation to anybody except me, so eating myself doesn't work. But the amount of MP I need to create fruits is exhausting, I already wasted over half my MP to do this, so it's not really that good at all.
The eyes of the fairies opened wide, some covered their mouths that were wide open, even the annoying Walnut raised his eyebrows in surprise. The Queen Titania also seemed slightly interested, moving her face closer to my direction, interested about the magic I had used.
"C-Can you see? By using a lot of Mana, I can turn into different shapes of plants. I am literally a walking plant that can take the shape of a woman… I am part of nature itself, despite being a Player." I said.
"A Player and also a Dryad? I had never seen such a thing happen!"
"Aren't Players the Immortals? Those greedy people that destroy the ecology and call us "Enpici"?"
"They're strange ones, although they populate a large quantity of the world, their desire is mostly hunting and gathering within themselves, they do interact with various of the inhabitants, but most of the time, it is nothing compromising… But well, I don't know much."
"Immortals can revive even after death, but they cannot revive us, the original inhabitants… They're strange entities, some call them the creations of the gods, others call them… demons."
Nieve fell into silence while she heard everyone in the council and their words and opinions. I had no idea these people were so complex that they even became offended when they were called "NPC"… I guess this virtual world is incredibly realistic in that regard, kind of makes it even more fun and interesting, but also dangerous.
Apparently the Players don't have the best reputation. Maybe it is a thing of the fairies only, or perhaps other races or groups of NPC think similarly, but they seem to see the Immortals as people that is quite dangerous, but at the same time distant most of the time. Perhaps because there are penalties by killing NPC, most of the Player base doesn't kill them out of fun, thankfully.
But I bet they still had treated them badly, and maybe this has already become a common problem across the world for the NPC themselves… But wait, isn't this a bit too disadvantageous for the player base? Wouldn't it be bad if the game itself and its inhabitants see us, the Players, as slightly evil sided?
Well, there's no way it is that bad, I think they're exaggerating. If Players were being discriminated by NPC or something there would be countless people complaining in the Forums about it, so maybe the fairies and certain groups of more secretive races are the ones that seem to see Players as dangerous. Or whatever's the case, it is not like I can easily guess.
Though being called an "Immortal" is quite shocking, especially when we take into consideration that the NPC can't revive after death… We are really considered a completely different species of beings, and perhaps they had a history before we even existed.
Perhaps the whole game is made in a way so Players seem like Isekai'd people into this world, aliens, maybe… Well, doesn't that make us even creepier?
"Y-You're a Player?" Asked Nieve, her expression quickly changed as she felt slightly… afraid.
"Yeah… N-Nothing wrong with that, right? I don't mean any harm, I swear!" I said.
"Hmm… The last time we ever interacted with a Player, we were tricked and had our things stolen by him… It was a tricky Dwarf man that said he traveled around the world collecting materials… He gave us a false medicine to treat our disease, making it seem as if it was working by alleviating pain, but it was merely a medicine for pain, it didn't fixed anybody!" Said Walnut angrily, as he pointed his finger at me.
"Eh?! T-That's terrible! I am sorry for that… Let me tell you that not all of us players are like that, that must had been someone that disregarded you as people, but I believe you're people and I dislike calling you NPC…" I said with all honestly. The Fairies all squinted their eyes.
"Then what's your truest intention here?" Asked Nieve.
"My intention is… I want to help you! I already helped the Squirrel-kin tribe and I've become a good friend of them, I even got a friend squirrel named Acorn, a rather amazing Alchemist! The Tree of the Beginnings told me that the fairies needed my help.
I've been cleansing the forest from any Miasmic Beast I've seen, I already defeated a Giant Mushroom King and a Shadow Crow King who were also Miasmic Beasts of high level… I received a divine message from Gaia telling me my task here was helping you recover from the disease or curse you've been inflicted with while also helping you defend from the snakes and later defeat the Snake Queen… I am saying the truth, please believe me!"
Everyone quickly fell silent for several seconds, until the Queen of Fairies spoke.