Chapter Sixty-Six

Even sulking, Solanine retreated several steps as the core glowed brighter and brighter, almost blindingly so.

After several seconds of the shining core and increasing ambient mana, Arden frowned. The daggers had a lot of mana, but not that much. At least he didn’t think so.

Curious, he spread his senses, immediately noticing the cause. Somehow the core established a connection to their territory core without them claiming it. Did that mean they auto claimed the dungeon?

While keeping one eye on the core, he brought up his territory card information.

Great Stone Forest Territory

Type: Territory

Affinity: Nature

Attunement: Nature

Description: This card grants the owner authority over the Great Stone Forest Territory. User may change the name of the territory through their territory sub menu. With this card, the user may teleport to the territory core once per day.

The user gains additional teleports once per day to each claimed dungeon.

Current claimed dungeons: The Trials of the Nature’s Firsts, The Ash Forest, The Evergreen Forest.

It must have registered their previous touch to the core, or maybe Solanine claimed it. Whatever the cause, they gained another claimed dungeon. The question was, what happened now?

That thought received an answer moments later. A familiar wooden creature now sporting glowing pine needles atop its head and along its arms appeared above the core.

Both out loud and in his head, an ancient sounding but almost childish voice spoke. It didn’t direct its speech to them, however. Arden almost wanted to block it out, as it was like he was intruding on its thoughts, at least until its last words.

“Intruders? No, territory owners. Claim attempt? Already claimed. Dispute? Maybe. Must test. Why? Can’t remember but must test.”

Like Arden, Solanine tensed, ready to bolt or fight at a moment’s notice. Neither turned out to be an option as the exit vanished as their surroundings morphed. The once misshapen cavern expanded, then towering evergreen trees sprouted from the ground. Said ground also changed. Dirt covered with brown pine needles rested below their feet instead of gray stone.

Suddenly, a bout of vertigo hit him as the space itself stretched, pulling Sola and him away from the now vibrant core.

The next thing they knew, they stood on a narrow path through the towering evergreen trees. A glance behind them told Arden there should be an exit, but instead of an exit there was a stone wall filling in a pine needle wreathed arch.

Arden’s hands clenched as he met Solanine’s gaze. Both of them tensed, waiting for an attack.

That attack never came, at least not in the minute they waited, cards at their fingertips.

Arden eyed the path, eyes narrowed with suspicion as Solanine poked her finger at the densely packed evergreen trees bordering the path. Her finger jerked back, blood dripping from onto the pine needle covered ground.

The wound closed up near instantly, but it proved its point, no venturing off the path. Whether they wanted to or not, they had to follow the path. This didn’t seem to be an open dungeon like the previous dungeon Arden delved. It made sense. From his reading, linear dungeons were far more common than open dungeons mostly because it took less mana for the dungeon core to maintain.

Walking down a path flanked by razer sharp pine needles wasn’t a smart idea though. The dungeon likely had traps waiting for them on top of the dangerous walls.

Before even thinking about venturing forward, Arden spread his senses out once more. He felt for the mana density and any melodies he could take advantage of. Both came back with less than pleasing results.

First, the mana density was far stronger than it should be. Stronger than the last time they were in the territory clearing. It was like it was magnified. Maybe it was. That would explain the narrow path. The dungeon just reawakened. It probably didn’t have time to expand itself. Most likely it would become an open dungeon in the future based on the memory fragments he saw.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t exactly sit around and wait for that to happen, so their only way to advance was the path.

The other problem Arden found was the melody. Instead of many melodies like the trial dungeon or outside denoting many forms of life, all he heard was a single pounding melody. A very similar melody he just fixed.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

He didn’t know how he felt about having his work turned against him, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Without access to the dungeon core, he had no control over the dungeon. Even if they claimed the dungeon or the dungeon linked itself with their territory on its own, they had no power over the dungeon.

Part of him liked it that way because that meant they could test themselves against a dungeon within their territory. This was not one of the times he wanted to test himself, though.

Worse, with them inside the dungeon who defended their territory? Maybe it was a bad idea to bring Solanine along. He just had to hope her defenses held up. Yet again, what was the point of worrying about that? Anyone who made it through her defenses would be too strong for them to fight. It was probably better they weren’t near the core when an invader of that power arrived.

Arden shook his head and refocused on the current problem.

Despite doubting it would work based on his dungeon reading, Arden activated his Nature Manipulation card. He focused on the evergreen walls, but as he expected, there was nothing to latch onto. The densely packed trees weren’t real trees, they were a part of the dungeon itself. Proven by the fact, there was only one melody. The only way to affect anything was at the dungeon core.

Grasping at straws, Arden turned his attention downward at the dead pine needles littering the ground. His heart jumped when he felt his card take hold, using his bare feet as the conduit. Too bad dead and brittle pine needles wouldn’t do much. At least he knew his Nature Manipulation wasn’t useless. If the dungeon spit out something like a log and they survived the encounter, they would be in business.

Before venturing forward, he grasped control of the dead pine needles several steps away from them, then manipulated them in random ways. As he predicted, the moment the pine needles moved, an explosion of razor sharp pine needles from the bordering trees shot through the path ahead of them. If they had walked forward without precautions, he wasn’t sure they would have survived. At least he didn’t think he would survive. He glanced at Solanine’s scaled armor and her unconcerned face told him she might survive the trap.

The question was, how did they pass the trap? Any disturbance to the dead pine needles seemed to trigger the trap. On a hunch, he tried to manipulate the dead pine needles again, this time clearing a path. The trap sprung as he expected, but when he took a handful of pine needles under their feet and threw it onto the now dirt path, no pine needle assault came.

Still not satisfied with his testing, he looked for something heavier to throw, only for Solanine to beat him to it. A jug of some rather nauseous looking liquid appeared in her right hand. Without hesitation, she tossed it forward, causing Arden to cringe. No spill came, though. Another thing missing was the spray of pine needle death.

Solanine then strode forward with confident strides, prompting Arden to follow. He tensed as soon as they stepped onto the cleared dirt path, but no trap came confirming they cleared it. As they went, Solanine scooped up the jug and continued on. She didn’t store it away, which puzzled Arden, but he assumed there was a reason for it or maybe a limitation of her storage device.

The reason came soon after. He learned how to clear the first trap she figured out the second. The difference was her method on another level. Not in complexity. No, In brutality. They reached a swinging log trap, like Arden predicted earlier. Instead of trying to time it right and sneak through, she simply opened the jug and threw its contents into the air. A foul stench caused him to recoil, but it did nothing to Sola, making him question how much time she spent around foul-smelling things.

Her bracelets glowed the color of poison and the liquid formed into a ball. Then, like a fireball burning through paper, she launched it forward, burning through the branch supports for each swinging log. One after the other, logs crashed to the ground, sending trembles down the path.

Sola continued on as if she was taking a stroll through a park. Not to be outdone, Arden jogged ahead of her, using his longer stride to his advantage. He paused just past the fallen logs at a seemingly safe section of path. His eyes scanned it, looking for any traps, but none stood out to him. That didn’t mean there weren’t any.

Before Solanine could brute force it, his attention shifted back to the logs as an idea formed. With his nature manipulation card, he took control of the logs. Fortunately, after she disabled the trap, he could now connect with the logs. The logs were far too heavy to roll by hand, but with his nature manipulation’s support, it was no problem. When the log rolled past them, the trap sprung. Well, more like fell. The entire path disappeared, revealing razor-sharp wooden spikes below. The temptation to fly presented itself, but it felt like cheating. No, he would use the resources available to him without skipping ahead in his bird form.

Said resource were the logs. He rolled each one over and lengthened them slightly to get them to straddle the spike trap. After spacing each log within easy hoping distance, he did just that. Unfortunately, there weren’t enough logs to create a new walking path. Plus, he didn’t want to waste time and energy to devise a more complex solution, so a log hopping path it was.

One at a time, they traversed the spike trap. He paused for a moment on the last log, worried there was another section of the spike trap. Before he could test it, Solanine hopped onto the ground and continued on.

No other traps attacked them, and they soon stood in front of the wooden creature once more. “Worthy indeed. The forest may prosper in your hands with our help. I bestow upon you my blessing. You will need it to ensure our forest remains vibrant for the coming challenges.”

Without warning, a dense dose of mana slammed into both of them, sending them to their knees. His body burned as the energy continued to pump in. He didn’t understand where it came from nor how the previously near dead dungeon core had so much. Panic shot through him as he felt his mana grade rise. If it pushed into grade two, they would need to change their plans.

The source of the dungeon cores urgency soon presented itself. A spike of pain hit him, eclipsing the burning of his body. He knew right away what the source of the spike was. Someone or something attacked their core.

He tried to activate his territory card, but it didn’t work. Whether it was because he was inside a dungeon or the interference of the magic pumping into him, he didn’t know. The mana pumping in slammed right past the bottleneck at the peak of grade two and continued to push him higher.

That was when a crucial discovery presented itself. Maybe the forced power up wasn’t as it seemed. He would take any advantage he could get for the coming crisis. One thing was for sure, the attack on their core was real and they would need all the power they could get to defend their territory. If the attackers made it past Solanine’s defense network, they were in for a fight. A fight they may not win.