The next morning, Booker departed the cave of the wolves, waving goodbye to the wolf-woman and the enormous River Fang. Thanks to the medicine he’d taken, there was no lingering sickness from his trip through the freezing river and he had recovered remarkably well…

And he felt good as he hiked through the wilderness. His only worry was reaching the village and discovering Fen and Xan were still in the woods, searching along the river for him or his corpse. But the morning light was bright and gave relief from the winter chill, and the woods were beautiful with their tangled branches, their bright flowers, and the movement of birds in the canopy overhead.

It took three hours to reach the village, and as he arrived his fears proved unfounded. Somebody shouted overhead, and looking up, Booker saw a skinny young man descending a ladder from a tall watchtower made by stripping a tree of branches and building a platform on its highest point.

As he dropped to the ground, the man said, “Elder Northsparrow! I was told to look out for someone wearing a fox mask. Er, that’s you under there, right?”

“Of course. I expect the people who asked were traveling with a wounded medicine-picker and her sister, right? Kuei-Lan and Hua?” Booker casually confirmed.

“Exactly so. The girl was quite worried you might be dead, but your two friends, they were sure you must be alive. Ah, they’re with the headsman now…”

“I suppose this time, luck was with me. If you could please lead me to them.”

The young man led him into the village, where the houses were built on raised foundations to keep away from the centipedes and spiders crawling on the forest floor, with roofs made from thatched hay and mud. It was clearly a poor place, but there was none of the squalor of a poor district in Mantis City, only the honest poverty of a remote village in the wilds. Most of the people Booker saw were dressed in fur, with hats made from the oversized leaves of the grand tree that stood in the center of the village stretching out enormous gnarled limbs. Those boughs were covered in string chains of wooden talismans, and the trunk was encircled by similar charms.

The headsman’s hut was distinguished by the carving of geometrically-knotted serpents in a frieze just below the roof of blue tiles, the tile roof alone a powerful display of wealth in such a small town. As Booker stepped inside, he was immediately met by the excitement of his two friends–

“You! You bastard!” Xan rushed up to him and pulled him into his arms, squeezing until Booker felt his ribs might give way. “You have no right to worry me that way!”

“Ah, ah. Ease up, or your arms might do what the river couldn’t.” Fen said, hiding a laugh behind his fan. “But yes, oh ‘Northsparrow’ – where did you get the right to worry us so?”

“Ghhh…” Booker groaned, feeling like a squeezed tube of toothpaste. As Xan dropped him to the floor, he adjusted his mask and added, more intelligibly… “Ah, I do have to apologize for making my brothers worry about me. But I’m glad you came here first. If you were still searching the river for me, we could have missed each other for days.”

“Tcch… So practical.” Fen clicked his tongue. “Shouldn’t you be telling us about the grand adventure you had?”

“No, he should be taking a bath. He stinks like dog.” Xan held his nose.

“Wolf, actually. I met an old woman outside of town who tends to the local wolf packs.” Booker explained.

“Huh.” There was a soft grunt from the corner of the room, and for the first time Booker focused on the house’s other occupant. Sitting in a grand wooden chair was a broad-shouldered man with a great black beard that climbed up his face in sideburns. This must be the village headsman. “The wolf-lady and her pack actually let you stay there?”

“She was very hospitable.” Actually… I think it was more the wolves’ hospitality. I think she only accepted me because they did.

“Huh.” He said again, glancing towards Fen. “I told your friends here, if you went into that river after a flood, you were as good as dead. But they seem to think you’re some kind of genius at escaping death. I suppose they have your measure after all.”

“I promise you, my friends think too highly–”

“Northsparrow. Shut your mouth and accept some praise.” Fen insisted.

“Very well. So far, I’ve gotten myself out of every situation I’ve gotten myself into, my brothers are right about that.” Booker accepted.

“What’s with this sudden humility?” Xan replied. “Last I checked you were still a cocky bastard.”

“Does this humble brother have no hope of changing his ways?” Booker said, teasing now.

“What do you say, Fen?” Xan asked. “Ten liang says this change of heart lasts until someone pisses him off.”

“No bet.” Fen shook his head.

“In any case, I believe we came here to find a guide?”

The headsman nodded, standing up. “Dragon’s Eye Cave isn’t far. But it’s very dangerous, even to cultivators. Most of the Sect disciples who’ve been sent there over the years haven’t come back. Even the outer caves are full of monsters. Our guides have a secret trick, but once you reach the Dragon Eye, you’re alone. Past the point the whole cave is flooded with poison plants and insects. Even the air is toxic, and the caverns are a maze that can easily confuse you.”

I see… Poison I can deal with. A poison maze? That might be trouble. Any medicine I make will eventually be worn down if I get lost.

“Is there anything else you can tell me?” He asked.

“Only that the innermost cave is rich with medicinal roots. Plenty of us have tried to get in over the years, trying various methods. The last time someone made it out, in my father’s generation, they said the cave had plenty of treasures they couldn’t claim.”

“That someone belonged to my clan.” Fen said. “He was remarkably tight-lipped, but said the cave’s most dangerous feature was its ability to fool you and trap you in a lightless a maze. He also confirmed the location of many precious herbs, including the one you need.”

Booker simply nodded. It sounds difficult, but, my medicine can at least buy me time. If this makes the difference to becoming a cultivator… What other path is there? “I have some ideas. Headsman, can you sell me some medicines for preventing poison? Snailbane Lacquered Grass, Pure-Cloud Cotton Bud, Rabbit Ear Mushroom, ah, maybe Black Dream Fu Zi?” He listed them on his fingers, guessing at what might grow in the region.

The man crossed to a wicker chest and kicked it open, revealing twine-bound bundles of green herb in every variety. “You know your herbs. Fu Zi, that I have. Snailbane, cotton bud…” He drew them out and offered them over. “One hundred twenty liang.”

“Ah, brother of the valley, perhaps you think you’re bargaining with a garden flower here, but…” Fen intervened.

Booker simply let them haggle, tuning out the back and forth as Fen went on the offensive, driving the price down to seventy liang before stepping back and allowing Booker to pay.

“Thank you. Both of you.” Bowing, he made his way towards the door. “Fen, Xan… I’ll be on the outskirts of town. I need to make some preparations.”

Leaving the two of them to recruit the guide, he made his way out of town, picking a few small herbs he knew would make an excellent pesticide. On the edge of town where the trees made a curtain he looked around, making sure nobody was watching before he settled down to work.

Finding a flat slab of stone, Booker chopped up and processed the herbs. The cotton bud was the easiest to prepare. It was simply wild cotton that had yet to open its tufted blooms, and it was mainly harvested by mashing the seeds for a small amount of waxy resin with. He pounded the green sprouts with a rock and sorted out the seeds, grinding them down and using the wispy cotton to collect the wax.

Next, the Fu Zi. Only the roots were valuable, as the flower itself was poisonous. Booker sliced the knobbly bundles of root into thin shavings, then cut those into fine yellow strips that bled with sap. It was a powerfully warming flower, fiercely toxic but used to dispel diseases of cold.

Last of all… Snailbane was a small green shoot with curled black leaves, glossy with a black lacquer the plant exuded to protect itself from pests. That lacquer was the most valuable part, but to extract it, it was necessary to split the stalk vertically and boil it. He had Froggy serve as the fire, using a tin cup to heat the wilting greens. The finished product had to be sieved through a thin close, separating the water from the molten lacquer. He grimaced as he squeezed the scalding stew, pressing the two portions apart and pouring the now-thick lacquer back into the cup. Stirring in a bit of tree sap and the cotton wax to help solidify it, he was left with gummy boluses of glossy black, which he wrapped in strips of Fu Zi root...

Closing his hand around the half-formed pill, he called on the power of Furnace. Blue fire burned between his fingers, and when he opened his hand there were six small black pills with a glossy, folded outer surface sitting in his palm.

Toxin Repelling Pill (Dull)

6% Potency // 12% Toxicity

Effect:

A pill that prevents toxins from spreading, but does not purge them from the organs. As a result, it must be taken before the toxins cause damage, or the effect will only keep the poison from growing worse.

Ingredients:

Snailbane Lacquered Grass

Pure-Cloud Cotton Bud

Black Dream Fu Zi

Quest: Local Flavor

Goal: Create 5 (2/5) different medicines from plants and ingredients local to the Lower Mantis Valley.

Reward: Apprentice Page.

That’s a start.

Knowing he was going into a maze, Booker couldn’t be sure any amount of medicine would be enough. After all, becoming lost under the earth was lethal even without the ticking clock of the poisonous atmosphere. What he needed was a compass…

He hoped his talisman-craft would suffice.

Taking out his brushes and papers and inkstones, he began to work again. This time, he knew how what success looked like: he only needed to recreate it. The image he focused on was nothing else but his first success, the rush of gratitude and satisfaction at seeing that first completed talisman.

His technique still wasn’t perfect, and many of his attempts crumbled to ash as his left hand struggled to follow through on the strokes that were clear and simple in his mind.

But he completed four before the familiar pressure on his temples warned him to stop, or face spiritual exhaustion.

Soon Xan and Fen caught up, trailing a man with a wispy beard that reminded Booker of a goat. The guide was carrying a wicker cage full of wild birds in each hand.

“This way, honored sirs.” He introduced himself as Musician Cloud, and led them along a narrow footpath trampled in the green grass, heading for the Dragon’s Eye Cave.

As his brothers fell in alongside him, Booker looked up the moment slopes towards the stony, snow-capped peaks.

One more step towards cultivation. This cave… How bad can it be?

— — —

They approached the cave by the winding trail, climbing higher and higher along the edge of the valley and encountering a herd of wild goats who brayed threateningly, preparing to rush them off the narrow path with their horns until Xan simply stomped down and allowed his aura to billow up. Birds shot into the sky, and the goats scattered in all directions.

“Honored elder, please…” The guide winced. “Using your aura could wake up the occupants of the cave. They’re completely blind, but their other senses are keen.”

“Ah…” Xan palmed the back of his head awkwardly. “My bad.”

“It should be good, we’re not too close…”

But as they approached, it was clear something was awake inside. Booker could feel the power billowing from the moss-lined mouth in the mountain stone, a wide entrance with a shallow, stalactite-toothed ceiling that dripped with milk-colored, sediment-heavy water.

The guide took a rope and tied it around Booker’s waist, whispering, “I’ll release the birds as a distraction when you go in, and your brothers will remain here with me. There are no creatures that can be fought deep within the cave, only hosts of stinging insects… If you go straight forward, there’s a hole in the cavern floor. You have to drop down… There’s a lake below. The occupants won’t follow you past that point. Untie yourself at the bottom, and tug on the rope three times once you’ve climbed all the way back to the entrance. Then I’ll let loose the second cage, and you’ll run for the light.”

Cinching the rope tight, he took out a lantern and a stick of faintly-glowing chalk. “Mark your way, or else you’ll never make it back in time.”

“One more thing.” Fen added. Reaching into a pouch, he took out an ivory bead engraved with tiny carvings. “If there’s something else down there – and there might be, we simply don’t know enough – this treasure should be enough to kill it.”

“Brother.” Booker said with appreciation. “I’ll definitely return. Have faith and be ready. My pills should last for three hours, so expect me to be back before nightfall.” Taking out the pesticidal herbs he’d gathered before, he cracked the stems and smeared the juice onto bandages, which he wound around his hands and face to protect from the stinging insects below.

Xan nodded. “If you can’t find the innermost cave, just turn back. There’s nothing here worth losing your life over, and we can always try again.”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Booker handed him the three jars containing his spirit beasts.

“One…” Mountain Cloud began to count, easing up towards the cavern entrance with the bird cage in hand.

“Two…” Booker readied himself, crouching by the entrance and palming the first pill into his mouth. It made a pleasant burn in his chest, which would begin to fade when it was time to take another.

“Three.” With a harsh whisper, Cloud threw the cage doors open. The wild birds erupted out, squawking and beating their wings to take flight. From the dark ceiling of the cave enormous shapes dropped down, their own wings soundless as they extended out into the gloom. Booker could only see what his lantern illuminated – but in that wavering beam of light, he saw enormous claws snatch a white pigeon out of the air, leaving drifting feathers behind.

Booker started forward. He didn’t run but he didn’t exactly walk, moving as swiftly as he dared with his head down low to avoid the swooping predators. What glimpses he caught of them did not reassure him. Leathery red wings, black fur, and sharp talons all flitted through his beam of light.

But he was silent, and they paid no heed, not with the birds crying out in panic all around him, advertising themselves as plump, tasty prey.

Soon he was at the end of the cave, where the ground abruptly fell away. Looking down…

He saw why it was called Dragon’s Eye Cave. In the depths, shining in his light, there was an underground lake with bands of colorful minerals laid out in concentric circles around the lakebed, forming the illusion of a massive yellow-centered eye staring up at him.

Grabbing the rope with the four fingers of his right hand, he turned and stepped backwards, dragging his heel along the curve in the wall where it plunged down and using his back to wedge himself against the far wall. From there he could ‘step’ backwards, walking downwards as the sharp-edged stone scraped at his shoulder blades. Above, the sounds of the birds shrieking gave way to snapping jaws and the crunching of bone, and the soft sawing of the rope sliding over the stones.

Soon a strange scent had entered the air, and he felt his eyes begin to water. It was an acrid, powerfully chemical stench, sulfurous and ugly, that only grew as he dropped down the last few feet into the lake. Blind fish scattered for the cover offered by stalagmite pillars as he swam towards shore.

There, beyond the lake’s edge, was a field of flowers. They were orange-white and glowed brightly, with luminous petals arranged in frilled ribbons that reached for the ceiling like party streamers. They swayed back and forth, not from the wind but from some internal motion. And they stank.

Toxic Ribbon-Flower

Intact // Dull-Quality

A strange hybrid of many influences, born from toxic swamps where qi is abundant. Its sticky seeds cling to passing creatures and slowly poison them, while the plant itself emits a toxic fume that slowly damages the lungs. As a result entire ecosystems can be devoured by this slowly spreading plague.

Toxicity 10% (-)

Toxicity 10% (+)

Necrotizing Poison 20% (+)

Caustic 10% (-)

Wrinkling his nose, Booker pressed forward carefully. As he stepped into the flowerbed the first streamer brushed against him, leaving dozens of tiny seeds clinging to his robes in sticky spots of orange slime. He could see that the walls of the cavern were rough and covered by mold, and that crawling insects were thriving on the soft ground, centipedes and beetles and aphids, all feeding off the poison plants and refining their own internal venom. Although he tried to step around them, it was inevitable that some of the bugs got caught by the sweep of his robes or buzzed up and landed on him, and soon he was striking them away furiously, each bite and sting lowering the time he had to explore the cave.

On the walls, there were chalk marks left by previous explorers, although the light of these marks had long since faded. His own writing sparkled brightly on the walls as he left his first mark, coming to an intersection where three uneven passages branched out.

Just going left, the classic choice, seems unlikely to work in time. If the maze was that easy, someone would have solved it by now and reported back the secret.

Booker took a qi-detecting talisman from his robes, holding it up. Although there was a faint ambience of qi radiating through the air, the talisman didn’t react to any particular direction.

In the end he took the middle route, wading through the flowers as a slime built up on his lower body from brushing the dewy ribbon-fronds. The smell was making him dizzy now – the air was rank, and he knew that without his pills, his lungs would have already started to melt.

The first obstacle he encountered was a spiderweb, a massive obstruction slung from one side of the tunnel to another. It wasn’t merely one veil, but a tunnel of webs knotted here and there with funnel-shaped nests. Remembering his encounter in the forest, Booker drew his knife and began to cut down the webs cautiously…

Almost immediately, a green-brown shape scrambled out of a bird’s nest construction within the web, a hand-sized spider perching itself for a moment before leaping. He swung and slashed the spider in half, but the agitation in the web was bringing out more.

He scowled and – Furnace!

The fire blazed through the webs instantly, strands of silk falling slack as cinders crawled up them. The spiders screeched and fled immediately, and Booker barreled through, hacking left and right and using his sleeve to guard his face as he forced his way past.

On the other side, the tunnels branched again. Sheathing his knife, Booker reached for his chalk instead… and felt something tickle at the back of his neck. His hand shot up and clenched, crushing the giant spider into pulp that oozed between his knuckles.

Ugh!

Wincing, he wiped his hand on the wall and marked the right-hand side with chalk…

But within minutes he was back, scowling at the dead end and making a cross over the original mark, then moving to the opposite tunnel. This time his luck was better – the tunnel took a long, curving route, his lantern light casting the strange shadows of the poison fronds against the walls.

Deeper and deeper…

Minute after minute…

Soon, Booker was consuming the second pill. His time was ticking past, and he had no way of knowing whether he was even making progress. Every so often he would pull out a talisman and test the air, but there had been no response yet. With no heading, he might well have been moving away from his goal…

This sea of flowers… it can’t be growing without a source of qi. Very likely, the same qi that feeds the roots and herbs I’m looking for. At the very least, if I move far enough from my goal, I should start to see the poison flowers thin out. He thought to himself, making yet another mark on the wall.

But by the time he took his third pill, he still hadn’t found the end. The sea felt endless, and the twisting passageways had no rhythm or reason. By now the motion of reaching up to snatch and crush insects crawling along his skin had become so ingrained in Booker that he would suddenly slap his hands against himself, only to discover the feeling of legs crawling up his skin was completely a phantom of his imagination.

The oppressive atmosphere was beginning to sink in, and he was beginning to feel a certain frantic edge to his thoughts.

I’ve used up half the pills. Now, getting back won’t take me the same amount of time: all the dead ends I’ve marked mean getting here has taken longer than getting out will. But still… I should consider turning back if I take the fourth pill and I’m no closer…

But luck had different plans.

As he turned back from yet another dead end, Booker realized the mark he’d left was gone. He blinked, but there was no mistaking it. The chalk had vanished from the walls.

Fuck.

No wonder nobody’s returned. Either the maze itself is cursed, or something’s down here with me…

It’s time to use the talismans.

Drawing a talisman, he checked it against the segment of wall where his mark had been. This time there was an immediate reaction, the paper growing hot in his hand. He swept it left and right and the temperature fluctuated, until he was sure of it – a trail of qi lead down the right-hand path.

A path he hadn’t checked yet, to his memory.

Moving cautiously now that he knew he might not be alone, Booker followed the path down the tunnel to a broad opening where countless glowing orange-white fronds danced and swayed in a vast flower-field. And…

He paused and crouched down.

Something was wrong.

Although the fronds were moving in a rhythmic sway everywhere else, there was a spot where they were guided by a different beat, as if a wind was slowly billowing across the field step by step. Booker froze at the edge of the meadow, watching…

There’s no mistaking it.

Something is there.

In his hand, the talisman had turned red hot, and it slowly crumbled into ash.

At that moment, Booker felt the twitching and tickling of tiny legs climbing up his back, under his robe. At first he wanted to say he was only imagining it, but the feeling of the insect slithering up his skin was unmistakable, and as he glanced down in frozen panic, the probing feelers of a poison centipede emerged from the collar of his robes and began to brush up his neck.

The feeling was unbearable. It was setting his teeth on edge, every instinct screaming to reach up and crush it.

But in the center of the meadow, the mysterious wind had stopped. Whatever the source was, the invisible heart of the breeze had ceased moving forward, and now stood in the tall fronds, letting them whip and billow around it. It was the size of a large dog.

Is it… looking my way?

He didn’t even dare breathe, and as he crouched frozen below the sea of flowers, the centipede’s chitinous legs continued to slide up his neck. The poison tendrils felt along his bandages, and to Booker’s horror, it began to crawl inside his ear…

The invisible creature turned and shot away, a billowing line opening within the meadow where the flower-fronds all bent low. It poured down a tunnel and was gone.

Without hesitation, Booker reached up and ripped the centipede off his neck, stomping it into the ground with a furious and silent rage.

Guh! Die, die, die!

Once it was no more than a yellow paste, he glanced back at the tunnel where the invisible creature had vanished. It might not be heading for the prize, but… I bet it knows exactly where the prize is. Right now, following it is my best lead.

He set off, following the trail. When he came to the next intersection there was no sign of where the creature had gone, but Booker simply pulled out another talisman, using it to read lingering traces of qi in the air. The method worked perfectly.

The only difficulty is keeping myself hidden from it in turn. I’d rather not tangle with something that can turn itself invisible.

There were no more direct ‘sightings’ as he followed the trail, but when it came time to take the fourth pill, Booker had abandoned all thoughts of giving up and returning. The fronds were glowing more brightly here, as if they had fed on richer, denser qi than the ones beyond, and he was sure he was close to his goal.

And sure enough, turning one more corner, Booker entered into a massive cavern with a tree at its center. The tree was perhaps twenty feet tall, with branches that brushed the cavern’s ceiling. Despite the lack of any light but the bioluminous fronds, the tree was healthy and hale, with crystalline blue leaves.

A spirit tree?

Where its roots touched the ground they formed a massive hill, with openings large enough for a human to step through like a doorway. What was more, none of the poisonous flowers dared approach more than ten or twenty feet from the tree. Past that distance, all that grew was a ring of luminous dandelions, and then bare ground.

Booker approached cautiously, but he couldn’t see any danger…

Then again, without the fronds everywhere… The only way to see this invisible creature before was by its influence on them, so I’m completely blind.

Commanded by a sudden nightmarish scenario playing in his head, Booker set his lantern aside, reached down, and picked a dandelion. Lifting it to his mouth, he blew a stream of air across the tufted flower, causing its furred seeds to break away and drift out in a little line of white fluff.

That line touched on something just in front of him, and twisted violently, the seeds suddenly snagged by an unseen wind.

Booker threw himself aside as the creature tore through where he had been – so close he could feel the storm that surrounded it whipping at his hair. As he rolled across the ground, he dug into his pack and pulled out the ivory marble Fen had given him.

The creature had torn straight into the field of flowers. It was incredibly fast, but seemed to have barely any control of how far it moved – it had streaked past Booker and cut a line halfway across the cavern before managing to stop and turn around. Now the flower-fronds bent the other way, and with a strange shrieking roar, the creature shot towards Booker again.

He drew his hand back and threw just as it closed the distance.

The ivory bead shattered, exploding into spears of rainbow light. They pierced through a creature that Booker saw only in the brief flash – a creature like a cyclone with a body akin to a mountain lion, formed of swirling air currents. The elemental was torn apart in a heartbeat, and as the light faded, Booker’s vision slowly returned and his eyes adjusted to the dark once more.

Thank you, Fen. I’m blessed with good friends and good luck.

Picking up his lantern, he made his way in between the roots. Within, the ground was soft and green with moss, and the air finally smelled of something other than the toxic flowers. Instead the air was scented with medicinal herbs, which grew in abundance under the shadow of the spirit tree.

A corpse was sitting there as well, the bones covered in moss. The skull was cracked and one of the legs was split open, and its ragged clothes suggested it had no treasures to carry away. The only thing of value Booker saw was a silver pendant carved with the image of a tree, hanging around its neck.

Poor soul. Made it all the way here, and then… I’m guessing the guardian killed them.

He kneeled down by the beds of medicinal herbs, getting out a small spade and beginning to dig up the roots. In addition to the spirit tree root he’d come here for, there were other prizes to be had, precious medicines that Booker could have only dreamed of in the Sect.

Petal-Child Lobelia

Intact // Earth-Quality

Named for how its petals resemble a mother cradling a child, this herb has great effects on the unborn.

Fertility 10% (-)

Neonatal Cultivation 25% (+)

Wood Root-Aligning 10% (Wood)

Potency 10% (+)

Neonatal cultivation… This herb will strengthen a child who hasn’t been born yet, or even one who’s conceived shortly after it’s taken. Useless to me, but very, very valuable among rich parents. Increasing your child’s innate cultivation talents is no joke… Even more valuable for the slight influence on the body’s natural elemental attunement. A real find.

Sour-Hearted Wolfberry

Intact // Dull-Quality

Within the heart of this appealing berry is a sour core that is deeply poisonous. Alchemists prize it for the outer flesh alone.

Cultivation Boost 10% (-)

Beast Cultivation 20% (+)

Potency and Toxicity 10% (-)

Diuretic Poison 25% (-)

The berries were a minor find, definitely valuable and on the high end of dull-quality, but nothing extraordinary. It was what Booker found next that made him pause – a dull blue grass covered in rippling silver lines that shone with an internal light.

Totem-Marked Psychotic Dewgrass

Intact // Earth-Quality // Totem-Marked

This bitter blue grass contains a psychoactive element, causing intense hallucinations. To avoid this, certain sects will harvest the dew that builds on the blades, which contains an echo of its more desirable properties.

Potency 10% (+)

Psychosis 25% (-)

Psychosis 10% (-)

Meditative Focus 10% (-)

Additional Effect: Totem-Marked. (Each totem-mark within a pill grants 10% Potency and reduces Toxicity by 10%, and doubles the effect of the next totem-mark)

A totem-mark. So that creature I fought, it must have been a totem… Incredible. The effects of totem-marking make it clear why these creatures are hunted.

On some level I feel for them. But on another, that thing has probably killed countless explorers, and didn’t make the least attempt to resolve things peaceably, if it even had that capability. Not all totems have an intelligence above that of beasts… Being reasonable and putting squeamishness aside, I should dig up its roots and prevent it from menacing anyone else.

So thinking, he dug out the grass and added it to his pack, before turning to the final medicine, what he had come here for – the glowing blue spirit roots of the great tree.

Stonefall Spirit Tree Root

Intact // Earth-Quality

The precious roots of a tree that slowly submerges itself into the earth after a thousand years, hiding away from medicine-gatherers. The root is valued for its ability to break through barriers and bottlenecks of all kinds.

Potency and Toxicity 20% (+)

Meridian Cleansing 10% (-)

Cultivation Breakthrough 10% (+)

Body Forging 10% (+)

But as he dug up the specimens, the bones behind him rattled slightly. Hearing even that small sound in the darkness of the cave, Booker turned to see a ghostly yellow mist beginning to pour from the skull’s mouth, forming a spectral body that loomed up overhead.