Tree of Aeons

The sun was bright. The train was exceptionally crowded, a little too much. Gerard could already smell some of his fellow regular commuter's body odour. It was a little too much. The train wobbled as it passed through some poorly maintained sections of the tracks, going a little clickety-clack.

Click.

Gerard scrolled, his brows arched into a frown as he continued to read the e-book on his digital ebook reader.

"This is a piece of crap." He cursed as he finally reached the end of the 7th book of an isekai book he found on the web market. Tree of Aeons. "Why did I spend two months reading this shit." He muttered under his breath, not too loudly. But the woman next to him shifted a little closer as if trying to sneak a peek at whatever he's reading.

A familiar stranger. She was short. Shorter than him and a little too close.

He was still on a train. He glanced up briefly. He was three stations away from his workplace in the central business district.

The train wobbled up and down.

It wobbled a little too hard lately.

"The train's kinda messed up lately." Gerard could hear that woman next to him saying to herself. He didn't know who she was, but she was a fairly regular commuter. They've seen each other often enough that they are sort of familiar strangers.

She clearly noticed she said it a little too loudly, because she realized Gerard was looking at her. She immediately redirected her attention and pretended to scroll her phone. There was nothing on it.

Gerard sighed and then went back to reading. He was almost at the end.

And he pressed the next page button, momentarily thinking that he might've misclicked.

It didn't.

"Wait. That's it? A cliffhanger and set up and that's it?" Gerard didn't know why he got mad. He cursed, and hastily wrote a review.

"Worst book series in my life. Give me back my two months."

He pressed the button, and the review was sent. He immediately regretted the decision. Maybe it wasn't so bad. He did, after all, read through seven books worth! The ending sucked, though. It wasn't even the end yet.

The train rocked up and down suddenly, followed by an extremely loud cracking sound. As if the world was torn apart.

"EARTHQUAKE!!!" Someone shouted. But they were all in a train going on overhead train tracks supported by pillars.

Gerard turned to look out the window and briefly in the distance he could see the pillars collapse. He cursed. "Fuck."

The train tried to stop. The steel wheels screeched as the emergency brakes kicked in, and he felt himself and everyone else in the packed train jerked forwards. Many tried to grab hold of the handles throughout the train cabin, Gerard included.

His neighbours slammed into him. He slammed into his neighbours. Everyone was squashed. The woman next to him screamed as she immediately hugged him. She was a little too short to reach the overhead handles.

Then, it felt as if the train car itself was flung about like a toy, as the train fell.

For a brief moment, perhaps, through one of the few unblocked windows, Gerard saw darkness. A giant maw emerged in the land itself as if to consume the train whole.

"Fuck, I'm going to die."

***

Gerard didn't expect to be able to open his eyes. In fact, he wasn't sure he should have been even able to expect anything.

"Hello, Gerard." Gerard opened his eyes and blinked. He looked around and he was in a plain, white space. It was extremely white, as if someone selected white from a paint bucket tool in a paint app and just flooded everything with white.

"Who the hell was that?" A woman's voice came from next to him. He turned to see a girl that looked like that familiar stranger on the train.

"Oh? It seemed we pulled along a stray." The voice spoke once more. "But hmmm, karmic qualities are decent. You'll have to do as well, Suzanne."

Suzanne, that office lady who somehow hugged him a little too tightly during those final moments, shook her head. "Where- where am I?"

"You two are dead." From the pure whiteness, a circular door emerged, and a strange, old man emerged. "I am Wagner, your... administrator for the transmigration process."

Gerard blinked. He blinked again as he realized what was happening.

"Fuck. Am I getting sent into a novel or something?"

"You are quite right, Gerard. It so happens that you exist in a parallel universe, and now, you've been tasked to be a hero."

"Which story am I going to?" Gerard wondered. He was a voracious webnovel reader, and as far as he knew, he had read hundreds of stories in the past few years. Most of them were trash. That's just the nature of the medium, but they were immensely entertaining. But if he was getting self-inserted into any one of them, 9 out of 10 times he'd be fucked to hell and back again.

"The one you just finished."

"It's not finished!" Gerard cursed. "Aeon?"

"Exactly. And you'll join him, Suzanne."

"What? What's going on?"

Gerard turned to face the cute office lady. She really was quite adorable. "We're dead and now our spirit will be reborn in new bodies in a new world with magic, powers, gods, and demons. And we will be- mortals?"

"Unfortunately, no. Heroes. You will be heroes."

"Shit." Gerard cursed. He was fully aware of the complications that a hero involved. "Am I-"

"It's going to be a clone universe, such is the way of the infinite void seas, but try and get a good ending, will ya?"

"What's a good ending?" Gerard asked. There didn't seem to be one in the story.

"You'll have to figure that out. You will get your powers in time, but for now, off you go. Take care of each other."

"Stop! Where exactly are we going?"

"Everything will be revealed when you reach that part of the world. Good luck, Gerard and Suzanne. You will be joining a few others like you, but they are all much, much younger kids."

Gerard knew that didn't sound great. "Wait a minute!"

Suzanne, the office lady, looked absolutely lost. But she was the first to vanish.

***

Circa Year 83, Central Continent

Gerard blinked as he looked around the place he was. Suzanne was not too far from him, and she immediately walked over.

"What happened?" Suzanne was still dressed in her office attire. Gerard wasn't much better, he was still in his own office attire as well. He looked around, and wondered where in the world he was.

"I don't know, actually." They were in a forest of some kind, but his ears picked up some noises in the distance. "Let's go that way, there are some sounds."

Suzanne looked at him, "Can I follow you? I'm not staying here alone."

"Uh, sure, I guess." The two thus walked towards the direction of the sound. As it turned out, that sound was quite far away, and the only reason they picked it up was their exceptional hearing.

"Is it really that far?" The girl said. It felt like they walked for an hour.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Try saying [System]." Gerard tested it out, just for fun.

"Oh. [System]."

At that point, a screen appeared in front of them.

"[Level 1 Hero]," Gerard blinked at what it said. Suzanne had the same thing.

"This is real," She said. Somehow, it was that weird screen in front of them that made it real. "Darn. Tell me about this story you've read."

"Honestly, I don't remember the details! I skim-read, so some of the specifics are lost to me."

"But if you know how it works, then we should be able to get out of it, isn't it? What's our role?"

"There's going to be demons and a demon king somewhere, and our job is to defeat it. But, our [hero] class is actually a poisoned well. It's powerful, but it fucks with us unless our mind is strong enough to overcome whatever mind restrictions it places on us. That is, unless we meet Aeon."

"Aeon?"

"Ah, the main character of the story is this magical tree god. But- I'm not exactly sure whether it's a tree god. Yet."

"Why?'

"It only gained its godly powers later in the story. I hope we are in the later parts of the story."

***

"Shit."

Gerard cursed when they somehow stumbled onto a human town filled with merchants and others. His magical hearing brought him to a road, and eventually they reached a town. "Aeon is not powerful yet."

"Oh no."

"I think we were transported into the early parts of the story where Aeon's just a local power. It's likely to be a tree somewhere with some strong magical powers, but nothing exceptional." Gerard turned and explained to Suzanne. Suzanne looked tired, and her stomach was growling.

"Should we say we are heroes?" Suzanne asked. "Will the locals help us?"

"Let's ask around."

***

Gerard gained levels easily. Just sparring with some of the local guards sent his levels flying upwards. Suzanne, albeit with great reluctance, soon followed. They managed to reach Level 10 that very same day, and gained some abilities when both of them reached Level 10.

For Suzanne, it was crazy overpowered. [Free Daily Coin]. For Gerard, he got [Daily Food Pack].

"I wish real life had free money like this." The money was absolutely real, and she could spend it. "I wouldn't have to work in that shit job doing data entry all day."

"Tell me about it." Gerard nodded. "Being in front of the computer and managing spreadsheets is rough. But you know, something's not quite right."

"What's not quite right?"

"In the original story, the gods absolutely preferred children and teenagers. But both of us are in our mid twenties."

She coughed. "I'm 27. I've seen you on that same train for the last- uh- six years?"

"Wait. You've been stalking me?" Gerard blinked when he realized Suzanne had noticed him for the past few years.

"We get on the same station every day. And you wear that same jacket every day."

"Okay fine. I'm 28. But like I said, in the original story, the gods preferred teenagers. Yet both of us are here as heroes. Something's weird. This is a different version of the story."

"It is, isn't it. Maybe it's not exactly the same story, then." Suzanne sat in their inn. Somehow, they'd decided to take an inn together, but with different beds. "How hard is it to defeat the demon king?"

"We need to reach about Level 100. But, there are other heroes, aren't there? That Wagner guy said there were others when we left."

"Yeah, he did." Suzanne sat on the bed. It wasn't soft, but after a long day of walking through forests and then doing some simple spars with the bored guards, she wasn't going to complain about the bed. Not yet. "But you mentioned there are some drawbacks to our class. What are they?"

"It'll mess with our minds. The class uses some kind of mind control on us to fight the demon king, even when it isn't necessary."

"Shouldn't we be able to stop it if we are aware of it? I thought mind control works that way." Suzanne countered. Her office attire was a little dirty, but with the money she had been able to get it cleaned. "Or it works a little differently?"

"I don't know, it's not something the story goes about in great detail. This story is kinda written from this super-zoomed out perspective, and we don't really see much description about the specifics. Even when it's there, it's like- vague and shit."

"Sounds like a pretty bad book."

"Yeah. Stupid author. But somehow we're in it." Gerard cursed as he peeked out of the room's tiny wooden windows. There were soldiers and merchants, and it was surreal staring at the strange other races that were walking around like everything was normal. "Hey, by the way, are you alright sharing a room with me?"

Suzanne blinked. "We're adults. It's fine."

Gerard nodded. She was taking the entire thing a little too easily. Was it something about the [hero] class that was messing with her mind as well?

"I could use a bath." She said suddenly. "Did the story ever talk about baths? Do they have baths?"

"They do. I think they do. But- you'll have to wait till we get to a larger city for something nicer. Most of the stuff in most towns will be flat out of an old medieval recreation."

"Feels like I'm in a theme park, and I'm cosplaying as some kind of superhero." She laughed. "Only, maybe I haven't gotten my sword in the stone, yet."

"It's honestly not that great." Gerard warned, as he tried to remember. "Tomorrow, let's go to the nearest temple and ask what's the last demon king that arrived. And whether we can learn [message]."

The next day, Gerard knew exactly which period they were in once they visited a temple located an entire town away.

"The [Message] system is down, and none of the folks know what the Rottedlands are. So we are in the pre-Rottedlands era- wait. There was a hero named Gerrard during that batch of heroes!" That was when Gerard realized he had just taken the place of another hero. "Shit."

"That's a terrible name. Why can't they call it something scarier?" Suzanne looked absolutely tired. A priestess used a [clean] ability on her office attire, which restored her dress to a wonderful state. She immediately demanded whether she could learn that ability. And as heroes go, she learned that ability instantly.

The town of Forappe was a place Gerard never heard of.

"You know, this story doesn't even have maps and names of towns. So it's like your knowledge is as good as useless." Suzanne summarized. They had a greenish apple platter, and it was a little sour. She was somehow already Level 13 on the 2nd day of being in a new world.

"I have high level knowledge!" Gerard countered. "I know what happens at Level 150 and Level 200 and Level 250! And us heroes can't get that domain! Unless we get rid of our hero class."

"So, the other heroes, should we find them?"

"Yeah. There should be others. But I'm not sure whether they will be teenagers or like us, someone else was summoned in their place. The heroes that survived this demon king were Harris, Becky, Mirei, Astra and Gerrard. They had these [Tower] type abilities that created magical towers."

"We don't have that."

"Not yet." They chatted as they walked around the town on their way to the guardhouse. They reckoned they could get a few more levels if they sparred with the guards some more.

"Young man! A flower for your beautiful partner?" An old granny tried to sell them flowers as the two were walking down the streets of that small town. Gerard and Suzanne glanced at each other and then laughed.

"My apologies, granny. She's not my partner." Gerard clarified.

"She will be if you buy her flowers!" She pushed.

Gerard looked at the rather amused Suzanne and then shrugged. "You know, why not? Sure." Gerard tossed a coin over with incredible accuracy. The old granny passed him a beautiful white lily. It wasn't exactly a lily, but to Gerard's ordinary salaryman knowledge, it might as well have been a lily. "Well, she claims you'd be my partner if you get flowers. No harm trying my luck, then?"

Suzanne laughed and took the white lily. "Well, they're beautiful. Thanks, granny!"

The guardhouse was a rather boring place, and most of them looked really lazy. Only the captain was actually practicing and looked relieved to see them. "Eh, you two foreigners are back for practice?"

"Yeah." Gerard said. "Can we?"

"Sure. Better than my lazy bum soldiers." The captain sighed. The captain wasn't very good either, but he was around level 30 or so and that already put him an entire league above the regular soldiers that were around level 15 or so and most of them even had other skills.

Gerard and Suzanne took turns, but as expected they both gained five levels each.

"You know, the story actually said it's crazy overpowered. I never quite imagined it was so damned overpowered."

"This isn't normal?" The female heroine had no frame of reference. The captain was tired and decided to go take a break. The two heroes had tremendous stamina, and it only grew with each level.

"It's not. Most normal people don't gain multiple levels in a single day. If they did, they wouldn't be level 15 guardsmen hanging about and lazing around in their sheds."

"Really?" Suzanne blinked. "That's so- that's so crazy."

"Yeah." Gerard said. "We need to move somewhere and find the rest of the heroes, and we need to find Aeon."

The merchant had a map with New Freeka marked. It wasn't far away. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Should we approach them now?" Suzanne asked. "It seems dangerous to travel."

"We can gain levels along the way. With our hero powers we'll be able to protect ourselves."

"But you said this power is dangerous-" She said and briefly looked like she was in pain. "Yeah. See."

He nodded, and instantly felt a similar numbness in his mind. "Damn. You know, maybe you are right."

"Wait. Is visiting this- this tree the best idea?" Suzanne asked. "Is there someone more powerful at this point in time?"

That caused Gerard to sit down by the table and pick up a mug of water. He sipped it repeatedly, as he thought about it. "There's the Lillies. The hivemind god of death. At this point it's stronger than Aeon. There's also Aria and Aispeng who lived all the way in the northern islands, but without details of where exactly they are, I think it'll be quite hard for us to find it. Those are clearly domainholders, so visiting them could be useful."

"Okay..."

"There may be one other. The Elven Spirit tree of the Elven capital." Gerard sat, thinking. "That- that existence may have some powers regarding space."

Suzanne nodded. She didn't really understand but she wasn't going to interrupt Gerard's thoughts.

"You know, a visit to Lillies and the Elven capital may be a better idea. Aeon wouldn't be able to help us much. Not yet, anyway, even if I think we could speed stuff up by a bit." Gerard sat and then began to write on a piece of paper.

"I'll go with whatever you decide." Suzanne sat next to him, taking a peek at his writing. She sat so close that their bodies touched, but Gerard was too engrossed in writing down what he knew.

When he stopped, he turned and his face was right in front of Suzanne that he froze. "Uh."

Suzanne blushed and adjusted herself so that she was one step away.

"Okay. it's whether we want to talk to someone I sort of know, or we want to try and contact an unknown agent. The elven capital's spirit tree is barely mentioned without much detail, but it could help us."

"-I'll follow you." Suzanne said, and Gerard gulped.

"Okay. Okay. We can work with that." Gerard redirected his attention to the paper. "Let's visit the elven capital. We'll see whether we can get something there."