“I’ll do it,” I agreed, and Alice let out a small breath of relief.

“Thank you,” she said.

“First, I need to go talk to Kene and Meadow,” I told her. “Meadow’s a powerful… mage… and he’s a healer, so I can use them as backup.”

I had paused because I’d almost called Meadow a witch, but I wasn’t actually sure if she’d appreciate the term, or even consider it accurate.

“Of course, just let me know when you’re ready,” Alice said.

I nodded and headed back to Kene’s apothecary, where I filled the two in with what Alice had said.

“So… Yeah,” I said as I finished up.

Meadow tilted her head one way, then the other, before she finally spoke.

“I want to mentor you, not coddle you. If you get truly injured, I’ll help you recover. Outside of that… I’ve less power than you may expect. I can exert some, certainly, but less than you may think.”

I grimaced. I’d expected that would be the case, but I’d been hoping Meadow could just wave her hand and deal with the problems.

“I could come with you,” Kene said after a moment of thought. “It’s getting late anyways, I probably won’t have any more clients today, unless something really dire happens, and if that’s the case, Alice has the key to my emergency shelf.”

Kene’s eyes sparkled for a moment and they snapped their fingers.

“Oh, and I mastered my Bestow Fire Rune spell recently,” they said. “It’s not much, but it’s something at least.”

We finished packing away the potions we’d brewed, I changed into my combat suit, and we revisited the tea room from where Alice led us to the edge of town. This time, it wasn’t where the forest met the town, but on the other side, which had more rolling plains – still populated with trees, but far less thickly.

As we approached, I could feel what she’d been talking about. A powerful source of energy, though I didn’t agree with her that it felt like a beast veiling its mana. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but it was definitely pure energy.

“I’m going to head back to town,” Alice said, looking a touch nervous. “Can your mana senses handle it from here?”

“Definitely,” I said, giving her a grin that I hoped was more confident than I actually felt. “Don’t worry, we’ll get this cleared up soon.”

We followed our mana senses through the plains until we found a hole leading deep into the earth. Dusk peeped that she sensed it coming from the hole, and when Kene and I swept our mana senses over it, we both agreed.

“Oh great,” Kene muttered. “Hold on.”

He flexed his fingers and an orb of light appeared in his hands, which he sent down into the hole.

The hole was about a fifteen feet deep, with plenty of tree roots that would make it an easy climb in or out.

I debated it for a few moments, then sighed and looked at Kene.

“You don’t have to come, but I’m going in.”

Dusk leapt off my shoulder and used her slow falling spell to catch herself and land gently, and I turned and began to climb down. After a moment of hesitation, Kene followed, grabbing some roots.

The bottom of the hole led into a cavernous space, and Kene sent his ball of light shooting forwards to help navigate the space. A moment later, Dusk held her hand out and the Peacepyre appeared, also exploring the cavern.

It was large and empty, and seemed to continue to slope downwards, deeper and deeper into the earth. Kene, Dusk, and I all began to creep forwards, pulling our lights back to us as the light of the hole that we’d entered through began to fade.

I frowned. It was fading fast. Way too fast. I turned, only to see roots weaving their pattern through the gap in the entrance that we’d entered through.

I could just barely see through it for now, but the gap was rapidly closing.

“Primes,” I swore.

“If I layer some fire runes onto your briar spell, you could try to cut through?” Kene suggested.

“I could, but that wouldn’t actually fix the root of the problem,” I said, shaking my head. “I think the only way through is forwards. Just… Stay next to me and be careful.”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Isn’t the phrase ‘stay behind me’?” Kene joked, but their voice was stressed, and I couldn’t blame them. I was getting a bit stressed out as well.

“I want you right in my field of view,” I said seriously. “It can already come at us from behind, if it has any intellect.”

Kene just mutely nodded, while Dusk scrambled up my legs and into my suit’s front jacket pocket.

We slowly crept deeper and deeper into the cavern, until my foot crunched on something hard. For a moment, I thought that it might be a twig or a dry bit of branch, but when I looked more closely, I swallowed.

It was bone. Too small to be a person’s bone, but definitely some sort of small animal. Maybe a rat?

I didn’t say anything, not wanting to make a fuss over something so minor, but as we kept moving deeper, more and more bones began to appear. They grew larger and thicker too, a few of them definitely resembling the bones of chickens, then pigs. There were a few that looked uncomfortably human as well.

In the flickering silver and blue light of Kene’s sphere and the Peacepyre, it was hard to tell exactly what color everything was, but I was pretty sure that Kene and I had both gotten paler, and even Dusk was a lighter shade of green, brown, and blue than usual.

Kene began to circulate his mana, and I withdrew my staff from my spirit. I chastised myself – I should have done that earlier – but it was better late than never.

“I don’t suppose with your broader alchemical knowledge, you know what kind of plant or creature would be a powerful source of knowledge, mental, life, death, and lunar energy, and would feed on meat?” I asked Kene.

“About six dozen,” Kene said after a moment of thought. “But almost all of them are native to northeastern Kijani, southern Elohi, Thornfront, or any hot and humid wild territory. Not… Mossford.”

“Lovely,” I groaned.

We continued to march down the cavern, when a root exploded from the earth beneath us. I only had a split second warning – my Analyze Life’s ingrained sense for life energy had felt the root's sudden movement.

I leapt back, grabbing Kene and yanking them too. I was actually slightly surprised by how quickly I was able to do that. Even six months ago, I wouldn’t have been able to move that quickly.

The Magister’s Body was part of it, but there was more to it as well. I’d been exercising with Ikki and Ed, and more recently, I’d been pushing my cardio with Foxstep.

I was a far cry from being able to match a true physical specialist in speed or strength, but I was also a far cry from the overly skinny kid I’d started as.

The root lunged forwards, rushing at us, and I had Briarthreads out and around me in a second, then stepped in front of Kene to take the blow.

It shattered the Briarthreads in an instant, pushed through the aura, and struck my suit, throwing me back. Dusk let out a chiming shout, and magic swirled around me, slowing my fall.

She was probably the only reason that I didn’t immediately get a concussion.

The root was bearing down on me, and I just barely managed to foxstep out of the way. I landed near Kene, who’d been pinned down by another of the powerful roots. Their eyes widened when they saw me, and flaming runes swept out of their fingers and swirled around me. I overcharged a Briarthreads and cut them out of the root.

“You okay?” I asked.

“My defenses are third gate,” they reminded me. “Still, it punched through–”

They were cut off as more roots shot towards us. Dusk unleashed a shockwave spell at one.

I reached out, overcharging my mana, and cast two spells: Harvest Plant Life and Fungal Lock.

Harvest Plant Life wasn’t able to actually harm a plant, but it could drain the excess power. Fungal Lock also drained energy, but unlike my harvesting spell, it was intended to trap and do harm.

The harvesting spell converted the plant’s energy into mana, and the power rushed through me. My first gate was filled in an instant, and my second gate was filled not long after.

Fungi erupted over the surface of the plant, draining away more energy, and using it to reinforce itself.

“Good idea”, Kene said. They began to drain the plant as well, while I started using the power it sent into me to foxstep around, dodging attacks, and lashing out with new layers of Fungal Lock.

Dusk thrust her arms out and began to drain the plant too, then we focused our power together and cast a spell.

Enhance Plant Growth sent the coursing energy into a plant we both had access to. She directed it into creating thin, temporary strands of the plant and sent it lashing out in an attack against the giant roots.

I focused elsewhere, though, mentally reaching into the plant’s internal structure and sending the life energy coursing through it. Like a normal feeding, only massively supercharged by directing the power of this root into it.

The roots of these plants had to be third gate, maybe even fourth gate. The terrible conversion of power barely mattered while we were dealing with a plant so much stronger than us.

The Blademoss swept out in a scything ark, sinking into the roots. With how much of the roots power was being wicked away, it actually sunk in and dealt damage.

Kene was on the move, running around to dodge the roots, but they managed to flick their fingers out and send layers of flame runes to mix in with the cutting attacks of the moss.

Then it happened. The blademoss absorbed enough power to bump itself up to third gate levels of power.

The sharp blades ripped through the root. Where before it had left small gouges, now it left trailing, thick cuts.

Then the Blademoss exploded and faded away into nothing. Dusk let out a cry and fell to the floor, and I rushed over. She let out a heaving gasp, panting out that trying to channel the third gate power had taken too much out of her.

I scooped her up and put her into my pocket, then turned to focus on the root.

It was damaged, but still there. My layers of mushrooms were steadily draining away energy, as was Kene and my harvesting spell.

I called Blademoss with an overcharged Enhance Plant Life spell, and I could immediately feel why Dusk had collapsed from the sudden strain of channeling its power. I’d been expecting it, and even still, it felt like my soul was tearing as I channeled the plant out to strike the roots.

I leapt forwards as Kene mixed in more runes, and the root actually shrunk back, retreating from the heavy, fire aspected slicing.

Then the root sank into the ground, the entire plant system shifting and moving down, as if it was retreating away. As it moved, it left a trail of holes in the earth where the cavern crumbled away, breaking apart and leading deep into the darkness.

I Foxstepped over to Kene, grabbed their hand, and together we ran, feet pounding against the quickly dissolving floor.

We were too slow. I didn’t know who’s foot caught first, but the next thing I knew, we were falling through the open air, down into the depths, into the darkness.