A bright white flash surrounded me, and it took a moment to remember I was wearing my necklace of shielding. I really needed to keep better track of my magical items. Had it been a full day since I'd looted it? I suppose that I'd left it on for enough of my recent deaths that a day must have passed for it, even if not for me.

I flame-throwered the three before they had a chance to react to their failed surprise attack, then turned back to the pod.

"So, you were just playing silent until your reinforcements arrived?"

"You will suffer. I shall hear your screams. Your cries of anguish. You will come to regret your choice, but there will be no relief. No pleasure. No bliss. For you, only an eternity of pain."

"Well, you've sure changed your tone. Did I hurt your poor widdle feelings?"

The pod didn't answer. While I'd like to goad that it shouldn't be threatening me after I'd effortlessly defeated its ambush attempt, the fact was that I'd lucked out. They'd caught me by surprise, and if not for my necklace, they'd have got me. I didn't even know what with. It hadn't been the usual earth magic, whatever it was.

I'd been careless, dropping my vigilance after not seeing any signs of life for so long while exploring the village, but I still had sense mana and sense presence going, and my three-sixty degree olfactory perception. They were too weak for sense presence. Sense mana hadn't picked them up until moments before their spell, so either they masked it or it had zero casting time, and they were wearing camouflaged scent, but rather than rock, it was the smell of the settlement. Sense danger hadn't reacted either, but perhaps that was because I wasn't actually in danger, thanks to the shield. It had been a perfect surprise assault, spoilt only by chance when I turned around. Without that, the shield would still have protected me from the first attack, but they may have got a second shot in before I reacted.

Now it would take another full day to recharge. If there were surprise attacks coming, should I retreat until it was available again? Or at least activate trigger respawn? An hour wouldn't be nearly enough to search the second village. I'd just have to keep a more careful watch.

I gave the pod the briefest burst of flame I could manage, avoiding causing myself an injury, then flew to the second village, taking the opportunity to practise travelling in the direction I actually wanted to take. It probably would have been quicker to walk, but I was slowly getting the hang of it. I didn't crash once!

The second village was every bit as deserted as the first, and the interior much the same. My first visit was to their breeding chamber, where I put the victims out of their misery.

Proficient stealth advanced to level 13

I still felt a bit bad about the fact I was getting skill levels from doing so. Would I ever hit a dungeon floor that wasn't so badly messed up? Either one that only contained unintelligent monsters, or a settlement like the fox-kin's but with less paranoia, zealotry and insanity.

I found a few more mana crystals, giving me enough of a stockpile to get aberrant monster tamer to level ten, should I find enough repair-the-shrine side quests. They had the same council chamber, too, once more with a pod growing in the middle. I torched it without letting it speak, then stepped back outside.

Sense presence advanced to level 10

Evolution conditions met: Sense presence ranks up to perceive presence

All beings possess mana, and even an unskilled child would be able to notice the attention of a sufficiently powerful being from the mana they unconsciously emit. Of course, should an unskilled child ever attract attention from such a powerful being, they had best pray it is not hostile, because neither running nor fighting would be an option. You have felt the presence of a variety of powerful creatures, from the powerful draco rubrum to the variable vulpes sagax and the more lowly daemonium volucer, the variety of experiences earning you this upgrade from sense to perception. This skill heightens your awareness of this leaking mana, allowing you to detect it even when you aren't the focus of attention, and to detect it from monsters with a lower mana density, as well as giving some indication of the type of creature you are detecting.

I would have liked to take the time to wonder what a daemonium volucer was, but I didn't get the chance, because the presence I'd picked up was approaching at a ridiculous speed from directly above me. I dived back into the council chamber, on the basis that having a roof over my head would be advisable. A blur of red dropped in front of the door, then halted a metre above the floor. I had a brief glimpse of an imp-like creature, humanoid but less than half a metre tall. It had red skin and two black eyes, red stubby wings and a pair of even stubbier horns. I saw no weapons, but it was well endowed in the claw department. It was also wrapped in vines. I didn't get a chance to use appraisal before it blurred again, this time heading towards me.

I summoned my shield into its path and it collided with a clang, sending me a few steps backward.

Proficient blocker advanced to level 20

Presumably the imp was the daemonium volucer in question. My attacker had bounced off, so I took the opportunity to pull my sword and armour from item box, throwing my torch to the floor so I could keep some light. It was certainly at the weaker end of things I could detect, but its speed was insane. I could barely track it with my eyes. Despite it being obviously vined, right now I needed the protection from my armour, and couldn't afford to worry about it getting seeds caught in it again. Worst case, I was sure I could manage to flame breath myself.

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The imp blurred again, heading for my chest, so I swung my sword in its path. It switched direction with an ease that suggested conservation of momentum was more of a guideline than a rule, passing above my sword and raking its claws across my face. It cut through the silk, but only made some light scratches into my skin, the combination of silk armour, toughened skin and resistance skill preventing much damage. Poison immunity informed me its claws were poisoned, and disease immunity informed me the guidance was mixed in too, but both were neutralised without issue.

We repeated a few similar exchanges, with it dodging my sword strikes and even my attempts at blocking with my shield. I tried a few bursts of flame breath, but it effortlessly rolled out of the way. I probably could have hit it with a full strength burst, but that would take me out, too. But maybe a double knockout was the best I could hope for; even if it was only managing to scratch me each time, the scratches were adding up. I couldn't keep the fight up forever.

Perhaps I could repeat my first trick. I stored my sword and shield, acting as if I was going to rely fully on my flame. The imp blurred again, making another run at my torso. Doing my best to judge how long it took an item to be summoned from my item box, I waited until the last possible moment, then summoned my sword into its path.

Despite my surprise move, it still tried to dodge but didn't veer far enough off course. With a pair of wet thuds, I was knocked back another few steps as the two imp halves impacted me.

Sword proficiency advanced to level 19

Now, what the heck was I just attacked by?

daemonium volucer

These denizens of the abyss may rank among the bottom of the food chain, but their impressive speed is normally sufficient to escape the clutches of stronger predators. They are unintelligent and their only weapons are their claws, coated in a venom that causes a powerful burning sensation.

That was the bottom of the food chain? If that's the abyss' version of the munchers from the first floor, then I hope I'm not ever going to be visiting. But how did a demon get up here? Did the limby blobs summon it? Did the tree summon it? Was that its counter to my piss-poor flight? To attack me with something that was actually good at flying?

The corpse didn't have any good materials. I took the claws regardless, because I had a silly big item box now and might as well fill it, but the rest didn't offer anything and was contaminated by the parasitic vines. I gave it another quick dose of flame and let it burn.

That was the second village explored, and another rather concerning attack dealt with. I broke down the wall around the shrine, then set off to explore the rest of the cavern. Given the tree was now making outright assaults on me, it was time I reciprocated, so I burnt the mana collecting bowls and seed-spreading pods as I went, as well as slashing the occasional thick clump of vines. Despite searching the whole place, I didn't find anything of interest, or any trace at all of where the blobs had gone. Maybe the tree had used them to repair the damage I'd done to it last time? Or was using them to build a new defensive perimeter around itself.

I was trying to be methodical about things this time, so instead of rushing straight back in, I decided to make a few loops around it, at ever decreasing distance, destroying every vine and trace of plant I could find. They seemed to be supplying the central tree with mana, so cutting off its supply could only help me, as long as it couldn't grow back the damage faster than I could burn it. It was slow going, given how long I had to wait between each flame burst to avoid cooking myself, and I only managed half of my first loop before the tree responded.

Perceive presence pinged first, and I was happy to discover I could now tell the species of what I detected. Two more of the imps and one unknown creature.

Mind magic nullification pinged second, shortly before my face hit the floor.

Mind magic nullification advanced to level 23

What the heck? I woke up back at the catacombs with a pounding headache. It was fading quickly, but any sort of headache making it past my pain immunity was impressive. I had no clear memories of what had happened, either. One moment I was burning vines, there had been some sort of mental attack, then nothing. And mental attack was a good description. I was fairly sure nothing had tried to brainwash me, or read my memories, or control me in any way. It had been a simple onslaught; an attempt to crush my mind with pure force.

How had I got back here? Had I activated trigger respawn by instinct before I was knocked out? Had something killed me later? I still had all of my magic items on me, so my corpse hadn't been looted. Maybe the tree just didn't see the value of magic items? I hadn't seen the carnes multiformis with anything like enchanted rings, or even weapons, so maybe it didn't know what they were.

My headache declined to a mild tingling, so it was about time I stood up. Which made the fact that I couldn't rather alarming. My body still responded, but my armour was a rigid cage. I couldn't even bend my neck to look at it, but given that I couldn't store it, I was willing to guess I'd been vined again, and that this time they'd had the full hour to grow. I couldn't even wiggle my fingers!

Did this count as a new bondage situation, or was it a duplicate of my last encounter with tentacle armour?

There were no zombies around, and shouting didn't attract any, so I couldn't get them to try to free me. It did attract some other attention, though.

"Not just your body, but your mind is rebuilt too. Secrets upon secrets. I will erase them."

"Thought you wanted to steal them?" I muttered, wondering how to get out of this. I couldn't flame myself if I couldn't move my neck. What if I kept my mouth closed? I'd probably just burn through it. I could drop a lump of centipede shell on me? That should contain my flame breath enough to free my head, and I could do the rest next respawn? But it would have an hour to grow back while I was dead. Trying to time trigger respawn so that I melted the vines before my respawn but didn't die would be tough. Forget about fire; I needed weedkiller. Perhaps I could use flame breath while inhaling rather than exhaling?

One way to find out.