A loud buzzing noise assaulted my ears and I was running. Everything was dark besides an ominous pink glowing tree. The hideous 2 headed mosquito knocked me down and drained all my blood.

I got up sweating and panting and ensured that nothing was amiss. It was night time and there was no glowing tree or a 2 headed mosquito.

“A...a nightmare...”

The spot on my arm was hurting but I was fine besides that. The fairy queen had affected me more than I thought. She was ugly though.

I [Levitated] a barrel toward me and took some energy drinks and got up. I didn’t feel like sleeping so I went to explore the tree. We had occupied a large hollow space near the top of the tree but it should have corridors and similar spaces in its trunk.

We had wiped out all traces of fairies and all the water had disappeared, the inside of the tree was humid however.

I pulled the hairpin out of my hair and had water gather around my folded fan as I walked through the dark corridors as I made [Fire Wisps] float in front of me for illumination.

The wisps had a low temperature as I didn’t want to set anything on fire. The humidity might cause a problem and have mold to attack the tree so while boring it might be important to the longevity of our lair.

Muqu and I had visited the Mushroom cave multiple times to gather resources for my energy drink and my stance towards mold and fungi had changed. They're dangerous parasites and should be avoided when possible.

The corridor branched off and I took a right turn and ended up in an empty room. Small puddles of water had formed which I removed by having the water gather to my fan. The volume started becoming impractical, so I stored it in my dimensional pocket and continued dehumidifying the lair.

I went back to the fork and took the left turn this time. I would leave red floating wisps behind in front of the corridors I had yet to go through and blue ones indicating the path I had taken to get to the point so I wouldn’t get lost.

It reminded me of the human fairy tales talking about Will-O-Wisps that pretend to help but cause their victims to get lost even more.

This tree had housed a spirit is what Muqu said but...how does that work? Did the spirit live in one of these rooms or was it inside the tree itself?

Either way, it's gone now. The tree won’t die because of that right? Nothing suggests that the tree is dying but it might take some time for us to find out.

I hit the base and sealed off the entrance. We had entered from this entrance but never closed it off, anything might have entered without us knowing. A bit reckless but getting to our room wouldn’t be easy.

The gathered water got stored in my dimensional pocket yet again and I was about to follow the trail of blue wisps back when I noticed a hole in the back of the main corridor.

I searched my memory but couldn’t remember whether that was new or aways had been there. It appeared as if something had burrowed through the tree.

The hole was big enough for me to pass through and something told me to be wary.

A natural corridor extended as it did throughout the rest of the tree so far. It made me think that this was not too different from the rest of the tree. It was also humid and there were water puddles everywhere.

Most of the water might have disappeared through here as it was leading down.

Is it leading underground? The smell of wood was slowly replaced by the smell of wet soil as the corridors became less woody and covered with vines, and transitioned into some sort of underground tunnel.

It was at this moment that I felt like I had made a grave mistake.

I swung my fan and sent the mass of water toward a crazed fairy, used [Freeze] and [Freeze: Shatter].

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Muqu and I hadn’t checked this place for leftover fairies. Who knows how many might be left down here?

The corridor split up in 5. 2 went down, 2 branched off to the left and right and the last one went up but I would have to fly or climb up to take it.

I paused and calculated how much pressure was needed to force water far into the top corridor. I’m not here to look for trouble, only to dehumidify our lair. The biggest problem is that this place is between the roots. If a part of the trunk rots or gets attacked by mold, the rest will be fine but if the roots rot then it’s game over.

I sighed with relief as not much water must have gone into the top corridor and just drew in the moisture from the top corridor.

When taking the movement and speed of the water into account the corridor descending to the right would have gotten the largest volume of water through it.

I marked the other corridors with [Fire Wisps] and went down. The humidity increased as I descended and I ended up in a large room which was filled with water. Fairies were cackling, giggling, and being obnoxious near the waterside.

I put the water to use and eliminated all of them. All the water found its way into my dimensional pocket and I made sure to dry everything properly.

I retraced my steps and went for the other descending corridor. Not much humidity which was strange.

I believe in consistency, if something breaks it, something is up.

The humidity decreased as I descended and it put me on edge. More fire mosquitos? But shouldn't all these fairies be mosquitos?

The mark on my arm pulsed. It was just a flash of heat. It was only once and nothing happened after that.

“What was that?”

I walked through the corridor that transitioned from soul to rock. I had my folded fan pointed in front of me, ready to deal with anything I might encounter.

I went around the corner and instantly went back.

“What is that?!”

The water gathered and created [Ice Mirrors] to allow me to look around the corner.

The room was dark but some sort of strange luminescent plant was growing out of the wall at the far end. Its leaves had dark purple patterns and red and orange glowing spots on its flower.

It was moving as if it was an animal. I couldn’t make out what it was doing as the rest of the room was dark.

The [Fire Wisps] floated into the space and it spat purple luminescent blobs at hte wisps and extinguished them.

Did it react to light? Heat? Mana? Movement?

I formed 2 [Waterballs]. One out of mana to gather the water out of the air and hold it together and another one to just form the water I had collected into a ball. The former would contain mana while the latter wouldn’t.

I rolled them over the floor and only the [Waterball] holding mana got shot down.

So heat, movement, and light were eliminated as a hypothesis. So it reacts to mana?

I couldn’t figure out the properties of the purple blobs. Poison?

More and more tests were conducted and evidence suggested that the plant reacted to the presence of mana.

So how fast is this plant?

Countless [Fire Wisps] spread through the room and illuminated large parts of the room. The plant started shooting them down but couldn’t deal with all of them.

The wisps revealed a corridor next to the strange plant. The corridor followed a large root so it had relevance.

“Nothing comes easy eh...”

Giggling and buzzing echoed through the corridors and I dimmed the [Fire Wisps] and crouched down.

Giggling rushed past. The airflow suggested that multiple fairies had passed me by and went into the room.

I looked around the corner to see the plant attack the fairies.

All I could see ware purple blobs flying around but it became clear when they hit something as it revealed the fairy which instantly dropped dead.

Are fairies weak to poison?

Vines with purple marks extended and dragged in the fairies covered in purple goop and the red petals devoured the fairy.

I had seen enough. Now I had an important question to myself; do I need to get to that corridor?

I don’t right? I can return with Muqu in the morning and deal with it. There is no need for me to fight this thing alone. My knowledge on poisons is also lacking.

The dimmed [Fire Wisps] flared as I retraced my steps.

The 2 remaining corridors both ended up in rooms with similar flowers. The had different color patterns but they must be the same type of plant. Or maybe it’s one plant with multiple flowers. Could it be this tree itself or a completely different plant?

They must have been responsible for the low humidity as my assumption is that they also need water. I retraced my path and took other pathways while dehumidifying them.

There were too many fairies under ground but I eventually hit rooms with those flowers.

Are they guarding something or is something completely different going on here?

My curiosity got the better of me and I would see how it would react to fire.

The [Fire Wisps] spread out through the room and the plant shot its purple glowing blobs like crazy.

I shot a [Flare] at it but the plant focused it down with the purple liquid which met the [Flare] and exploded.

The cave shook and dirt fell from the ceiling.

Why would it prioritize the [Flare]? Is it the amount of mana? Let’s try again.

[Triple Flare] and [Double Flare] acted as decoy as a [Flare] flew at the plant.

The plant got hit by the [Flare] as it focused on the [Triple Flare].

I got bold and created 2 water clones holding a lot of mana. I concealed my mana and we stepped out.

The clones got focused by the purple spit and I got ignored.

This battle would be interesting as I would get focused the moment I use too much mana.

My usual skills can’t be used as it would either kill the tree or bring this place down on me, moreover, I might not be able to deal with this poison and die instantly once I get hit.