That morning, Liam's body woke up feeling like it wanted to just lay there and die. It wasn't physical, not in the sense of some agony or deeply ingrained pain. The feeling was like an apathy that came from his core, an unwillingness to acknowledge that he needed water, food, or warmth. It was a familiar feeling, of something that was broken, and that he should care was broken but couldn’t.

Sitting up, Liam pulled out the bright purple berry, his trophy from yesterday's battle. Looking at it, and at the little meat he'd portioned off, today he was sure his stomach would be tying itself into knots.

He ignored the emotional tiredness that gnawed at any sense of motivation he tried to summon. He ate up what was left of the meat and drank some water. The berry went ignored, Maridah had been right that yesterday would've counted as a failure from the strictest points of view in terms of survival. But what he’d gained from that experience was far greater.

Because he was mostly sure he’d figured the lesson out.

Liam had been looking at the jungle as a flat map, two dimensions where he could only ever take one of the four cardinal directions. Worse, he’d been looking at it as something static, that wouldn’t change significantly. Granted, Maridah was a goddess, this was her domain, she could just up and coerce anything here to stay put until she told them to buzz off.

Why would she do something that was so boring?

There was a flicker of excitement pushing through the molasses of apathy. Liam’s faux smile gained a little earnestness behind it as he began looking around the area with more focus towards verticality. It felt simple, but there had been good reason to ignore it thus far: he wasn’t a climber.

But he also wasn’t a runner, and he’d been doing a ton of that these past few days.

Besides, he was no mage and he very much had plans to get to that.

After a solid hour categorizing the trees by how easy they might be to climb, Liam got to work on the one that seemed least likely to get him killed right away. Its low branches and slight incline made it easier to throw the rope circlet over branches and non-magically use the magical string to pull himself further up.

Bit by bit he ascended, the first few meters were the hardest due to the lack of accessible branches, but as he rose, he found easier purchase. Once he’d reached high enough he couldn’t see the ground, Liam’s palms were sweaty and aching, but the pain brought another stab against the mantle of apathy he’d woken up with.

So he pushed harder.

A few meters became a dozen meters, and soon he wasn’t even sure how far up he’d gone. Liam had expected the tree would eventually... conclude. There should be tops to these trees, or at least ones that would become visible at some point. But as the branches thickened and entwined, Liam began to realize his estimations were way off.

What he’d thought to be sunlight streaming down to the jungle floor had been, in fact, some sort of highly brilliant moss... or was it fungus since it didn’t seem to consume direct sunlight? Or maybe it was lichen? Liam wasn’t entirely certain of his magical bryophyta.

The branches amongst the trees spread out against one another, creating a network of wood and bark. A fake canopy existed at this level, a level that spread the jungle upwards several dozen meters, with vines and branches littered with a mossy material that let out light so bright it was blinding.

The larger clumps of moss (he might be wrong on the scientific term, but he was going to keep calling it that) were hard to get close to as the air grew hot enough to sting. But he found several smaller ones to pick up and get a closer look at.

He recognized it as soon as he plucked a bit out and saw it shift to a deep crimson color.

Rust moss.

It consumed ambient mana, gathering it and releasing it in cycles dependent on how much it could consume. The moss itself was relatively easy to sustain, only needing moisture and a bit of iron-rich soil or stone. Yet, it was also very hard to find naturally growing outside caves.

“Oh… this is how you trick the people that come here to lose their sense of time.” Liam stared upwards, wondering how many more meters he had to go before he actually got far enough to spot true sunlight. “You’ve made the moss have a different cycle than a natural day, probably slightly faster, right? Stick them here for long enough and they’ll think time’s moved a whole lot faster than it actually has… must’ve been a bitch to sync it all up.”

That was the nature of the Twilight jungle, the playground of a Goddess who’d spent millions of years carefully building it. The timespan Maridah had been toying with, the deity had coerced careful breeding amongst the animals and plants of the jungle. In this place, there was no such thing as “wilderness” as a notion of having grown untamed; every aspect of this ecosystem had been carefully observed and guided over countless generations.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Thinking back to it, the not-deer Maridah had brought him had likely held some meaning behind it. It was a species exclusive to this jungle, meaning one Liam would potentially find.

The moss trick was still one he hadn’t expected. His knowledge of the deeper parts of the Twilight jungle had some pretty clear gaps. It brought up the question of how many actual days he’d been here, but that was not much of a concern currently. And with the Goddess not showing up to comment, it was clear this wasn’t a time meant for talking. So Liam continued to push his way up.

Rust moss wasn’t edible by any stretch of the definition, but he had several uses in mind for after the meal situation was solved.

Now that he was far up enough he could actually start walking on some of the branches to cross towards other trees, Liam began to explore the vicinity for anything he could eat. His gut was telling him that this was the right path ahead; he just needed to properly get used to the fact that a misstep might mean falling to his death.

Maybe that was why Maridah wasn’t popping in, the lack of railings on the branches made the whole environment one giant safety hazard.

Rather than immediately begin exploring, Liam took the time to carefully grow accustomed to moving in this new environment. The thicker branches weaved in weird directions, there were slants and inclines more frequently than full horizontal ones, making each step either one to move further up, or down. The space was also not made for humans; there were plenty of smaller branches that would get in the way, worse, they were thick enough to not be easily pushed aside, while not strong enough to hold his weight.

All in all, it felt as if Liam was a bug trapped inside a gigantic bush, one that’d grown intertwined with every neighboring bush, making the whole place one gigantic tree-based network of branches.

“The moss is also a monster repellent!” Liam realized halfway down one of the branches, his foot nearly slipping from under him.

He chuckled as his heart fought to calm down a little.

Monsters were animals that could use magic, and to use magic they needed to get their grubby paws on mana. It was possible for a little of it to be made internally, but most came from their environment. An environment with rust-moss was a mana wasteland because the moss sucked it all up.

“An oasis of safety within the jungle, a place where no monsters enter, surrounded by dangerous creatures on all sides, and a place where days seem to just pass in a blur…” Liam was laughing, feeling a bit more confidence as he kept exploring higher up.

Had it been hours? It felt like hours. Liam was drenched in sweat, his hands stung, and his legs were shaking a little, but he now knew where he had to go. Illuminated by the rust-moss further below, the branches were starting to grow thinner; bit by bit, he was reaching the top, walking in spirals as he continued, breathlessly climbing.

A flicker of light overhead guided him.

And with a burst of wind that nearly threatened to knock him over, Liam shoved aside branches and leaves to look upon the world.

It was a desert of greenery spread in every direction as far as the eye could see, and he stood atop a mountain of jungle. The landscape wasn’t flat, jungle rising and falling in dunes of leaves that turned everything into a choppy sea of vegetation that danced to the wind.

Liam’s gaze fell on the nearer mountains, and though he couldn’t look into them, the realization struck him all the same. “Some of them are actual elevated terrain, while others are areas of safety like this one.” He heaved for air as he laughed. “How else could you hide them from some pesky flying ships, right?”

A hawk formed on the branch next to the one he stood on, one made of smoke. “You seem more intent on discovering secrets than food.” The words were chiding him, but the tone held amusement.

“This is incredible,” he replied, looking at her with wide eyes. “You did... This place is incredible. Your work is amazing, and I know I’ve barely scratched the surface.”

Maridah-hawk preened a little, but immediately shook her head and glared. “No amount of flattery will get me to soften your training. You’ve yet to find a meal.”

“I mean it,” Liam looked at her seriously. “When I get to civilization, I’ll make sure to spread some rumors about treasures.” He brought out the rope-circlet. “Like how I got a pretty neat divine tool out of the ruins of a lost city. Who knows, maybe you’ll find some believers to recruit and start a minor cult of secret-seekers.”

Maridah remained quiet, which was just fine by him as he wanted to burn the sight of the green expanse into his memory. The burning in his hands, the trembling of his limbs, the breathlessness, and above all, the masterpiece that was the jungle. Liam felt as if he were staring at a sea, fully aware of the splendor of the coral reefs that were hidden just under the surface.

“Here.” The Goddess reached her wing out towards him, and upon her touch, all the fatigue was washed away. A second wind filled him with enough focus to realize his grip had been slipping. “It would be improper of me not to at least reward you for so dutifully following my faith.”

She flapped once and took off.

The hawk lazily floated over the canopy, a tiny black dot that vanished into the infinite green. Liam just stayed there for what felt like hours, enjoying the cool breeze, feeling the trees sway underneath, and taking in this tiny world.

Eventually, his stomach made its complaints known, a rumbling and twisting that refused to be ignored.

With a self-determined nod, Liam began to carefully make his way down. He’d sensed a few “problem areas” on his way up, and they’d been noticeably less hair-raisingly dangerous than the ones found at ground level. Maybe he’d get his chance to find some vegetative food to chew on, but for now, there was a meal to hunt… and other lessons to learn.