It did not take long before it became clear that the descent would be a lengthy and arduous process. Walking on a makeshift staircase of roots into what appeared to be an endless abyss was exactly as terrifying as it sounded. I tried to convince myself that everything would go well, but none of the half-assed excuses made this situation any less dreadful.

After all, the root was just a root and simply not built like a real staircase. The uneven surface and complete absence of any kind of safety measures also didn’t help to ease my mind in any way.

One wrong or poorly-chosen step and I would be falling to my death. A reality that forced me to be very careful with my steps, which as one might think, slowed me down quite a bit. Thankfully, I had my mana, which at least illuminated the root I was treading on, so that I wouldn’t suddenly step off it. Past mistakes taught me the hard way that it was better to watch your step in this lair. Because not even a pile of leaves and moss would make me survive a fall from this height.

The mandibles in my hands were the only thing that kept me from digging into my own palms, but they hurt nonetheless due to the force with which I was gripping them. But there was little I could do. It was one thing to face giant, murderous bugs, but another to be responsible for my own life. There was no external threat, and it was solely to my actions and decisions to either save or doom me.

But that was not all. There was yet another thing that weighed on my mind during my descent, which slightly shifted my worry not to the current situation, but what was waiting for me at the bottom of this.

Veraxia told me that the majority of the Exapoda hive was confined in the deeper parts of her lair. And this root-staircase was running pretty deep, so there was actually a good chance that I was currently on my way to the very place where the rest of the hive was waiting. So for all I knew, the moment I set foot down there, I might be swarmed with bugs and that was not a possibility I looked forward to. At the very least, I did not yet hear anything yet.

Naturally this was just based on my own speculation and there was a not very small possibility that I was wrong. It would have been quite useful to inquire with the owner of this place, but she seemed to have a lot to deal with, since there was just no sign of her whatsoever. And although I hoped her to, I was not really expecting to hear from her.

After what felt like an eternity, I finally saw a faint glimmer below, which I quickly identified—not the skill—as luminous moss. And this moss naturally required a surface to grow on, which meant that this was solid ground. Or in other words, the end of this horrendous descent.

When I learned that the ground was now in viewable distance, I wanted nothing more than to rush down there and get off this damned root, but I contained myself. The only thing worse than spending more time walking down this root was to die in an act of reckless carelessness.

With the ground in sight, it was almost harder to concentrate than before, but I managed to pull through and eventually my feet finally touched the cold moss.

Feeling a wave of relief wash over me, my legs gave out and I sunk to my knees, allowing myself to collapse into the moss. The mana I was using as a torch dispersed, the mandibles fell out of my hands and my entire body just felt like it was paralyzed for a second. However, it was not a bad feeling, quite the contrary actually. The moss was surprisingly comfortable and taking a long awaited rest was refreshing.

I relished its cold touch against my face, the light shining through my eyelids and the simple lack of deathly heights. I hadn’t taken a look around yet, but with my surroundings being quiet, I wouldn’t have to fear an attack, and so I enjoyed in this short moment of calm.

Having taken ample time to rest, I rolled onto my back, pushed myself up and settled in a seating position with crossed legs. For the first time after arriving, I took a good look around.

The room where I had arrived was actually more of a tunnel that only went on in one direction. The place where I had come down seemed to have been a dead end ff not for the roots. Possibly a measure to keep the Exapoda down here.

Aside from that, the tunnel was far more spacious, wide and high than any of the other tunnels before. Moss was covering the ground only, but I could already see ahead—the only direction the tunnel expanded—that it also grew on walls and the ceiling.

Since I had rested and my mana pool was almost completely filled, I saw no reason to keep lazing around and so I started walking. For better or worse though, it did not take long for a familiar noise to enter my ears.

I tracked down the source of the noise and when I found it, I discovered a group of—surprisingly—thirteen drones all over the tunnel. None of them stood out in any significant way, and I killed them quite quickly, avoiding any confrontation or harm to my person. This was only possible because all of them were level 15. A weird coincidence, but that just meant that they stood no chance against the mandibles I was carrying.

[Unregistered] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Unregistered] is now Level 16.

[Novice Witch] has leveled up! Stat points have been allocated! 1 Free Stat Point acquired!

[Novice Witch] is now Level 15.

Sadly, the level difference bonus only applied when my species level was lower than my opponents, so none of them actually gave me any extra experience. Still, a level in both was a good outcome and the two stat points I received from that were split between Willpower and Intelligence.

After I had dealt with the drones, quiet returned to the tunnel, but during my little murder spree, I discovered some other points of interest. With the moss growing in bigger quantities the farther I went, it was hard to see, but the walls actually showed signs of battle. There were cuts, cracks, holes and even burnt places all over the walls, although the moss did a good job hiding them. I suspected the ground to be the same, but the moss layer was covering it entirely and I didn’t bother confirming it.

It almost felt like the moss was trying to heal the damages of the lair, and maybe it was. It was pretty obvious that the tree wasn’t just a normal tree and with what I had seen trees do in the past, it wasn’t really that far-fetched.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Despite the clear indications of a past battle, there were no corpses or bones lying around. The last time the lair was this damaged, the ground was covered with skeletons, but not this time.

At least that was what I thought until I found a weird dent in the moss, which I went to investigate. After removing the moss from the object, it turned out to be a skull and not just any skill, but one I recognized. It belonged to a human.

Once I had discovered the first one, I noticed even more unusual spots in the moss, which turned out to be various different body parts. I found eight skulls, six ribcages and a dozen or so arms and legs, and they were all human. The amount of different parts also indicated that there were even more corpses around, although I had no plans to actively look for them. Their bones weren’t in any shape to tell me how they died, so I gave up on figuring out how they died or what could have killed them.

Whatever it was, it certainly wasn’t nice to them and—quite literally—tore these humans to shreds. Half the skulls were missing a jaw and the better half of the ribcages had at least a few ribs broken. But I doubted that it was drones who killed them. Maybe it was the same thing that killed the giant back in the skeleton chamber.

Just as I lost my interest in digging out more human bones though, I stumbled upon yet another something that caught my eye.

There was a small alcove in the left wall, although it looked anything but natural. In it lay another corpse, but compared to the others I had found before, it was remarkably well-preserved and as far as I could tell from a distance, in one piece.

The corpse was dressed in somber attire, wearing a black cloak that hung over a dark shirt and pants. Metal vambraces and greaves encased their arms and legs, contrasting sharply with the dusty and tattered state of the rest of the clothes. What struck me most, however, was a brown bag slung over the corpse’s shoulder.

When I got closer to the corpse, I used it as a chance for closer inspection and discovered that, while the skeleton looked mostly fine, the skull had been disconnected from the body. This made it quite obvious how this one lost their life.

Since the human was dead anyway, I decided it to be in my right to take his things, so I removed the bag from its shoulder. I sat down and flung it open, rummaging through its contents. There was actually not a lot in it. Two items, to be precise.

One was a circular piece of metal—it looked like bronze, but I was not the most knowledgeable when it came to metals. I was unable to tell what kind of purpose it fulfilled, but with its dull edges and small form, it was unlikely to be a weapon. However, it was engraved with something, a symbol that showed a skull and a sword.

When I looked back at the corpse, the very same symbol had been stitched onto the cloak. The two were somehow related, although I had no idea how. Deeming the piece of metal useless, I stuffed it back into the back and instead took out the second item.

It was a rectangular item, flat and thin, with multiple sheets of material stacked one on top of the other, all securely bound together along one edge. Encased within a protective cover made of a leather, it bore no resemblance to anything I had encountered before.

Upon closer inspection, I observed that the thin sheets inside the casing were smooth and possessed a delicate texture. Strange symbols and markings were intricately inscribed onto each of these sheets. And even though it was my first time seeing these symbols, I actually understood what they meant. They were words, but they were different from the ones in my status, yet I read them with ease.

“…Lord Kepler has entrusted us with yet another mission, and demanded we’re to depart as early as tomorrow. The others complained a lot, but the lord’s orders are absolute and I didn’t want to risk my head by questioning them…”

The words seemed to have been written by this human, as if he was listing the things that happened to him. I had no interest in the life of some human, but maybe there was an answer as to what he was doing here, and so I continued reading, but the rest of the words on this sheet were just him rambling about unnecessary, so I turned the sheet and read the next one.

“It is my first time in the Bloodriver. These woods creep the shit out of me and Lian babbled something about them belonging to some kind of greater being. Marla and Marcus were constantly teasing him about it, but it would at least explain the eeriness I felt ever since stepping into this shitty forest. But their teasing kept morale high, which at least made them forget about the lord’s unreasonableness.”

More names were mentioned, although they naturally meant nothing to me. However, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had found pieces of “Lian”, “Marcus” or “Marla”. From all of them Lian sounded like he had some understanding of how things worked. I had no about a greater being, aside from Veraxia dwelling in this lair, there were also level 100 trees just growing everywhere. The trees were nice to me, but I knew the human’s unmatched talent for pissing others off.

That was all from this sheet, so I skipped to the next one.

“The lair we were assigned to investigate was infested with some bug species. Lian insists they are some mutants and need to be studied, but all of us agreed that we just wanted to be done with this. We adapted a simple rule for this mapping: Screechers die. No room for debate.”

I read this text with great interest and actually found myself smiling.

So even humans fought the Exapoda? For once humans surprised me with an actual logical decision. But one of them—Lian, no less—wanted to, what, study them? I agreed with him before, but now I would have joined the others in ridiculing him.

The next few sentences were about killing bugs and surprisingly, I found out who the culprits behind the dead Exapoda in the skeleton chamber were. Apparently, it had been this human and his group. Although he unfortunately didn’t write anything about that bigger Exapoda.

“We finally met the owner of the lair. It was not some mindless monster like we had expected, but a forest spirit. That spirit actually asked for our help with those bugs and Lian urged us to help her.

“In the end, we agreed to lend her our aid, but it got me thinking—who did this spirit think she was? She outstripped our highest levels by a considerable margin, but our group consisted of twenty seasoned soldiers. Moreover, we had some skilled spirit magicians among us. The levels she could offer us for our assistance were worth far more than her gratitude for our help”

Normally, I would have been annoyed at this attitude, but it was hard to be mad at someone who had already faced the consequences of their actions. After reading that Veraxia asked them for their help, I worried about the reason they were dead, but turned out they planned betrayal.

Honestly, it was almost funny how predictable humans were. But this also served as a reminder that Veraxia was dangerous and that I should not consider betrayal in any form. Wouldn’t want to lose my head like this human.

After their betrayal plans, there was only a single written sheet left. There were small drops of blood on it, which made some parts of the text unreadable, but there was still quite a bit for me to read.

“They are all dead… my greed… If only…evolved into a Fangga. A high fucking spirit… She tore Marcus’ head off. Marla and Hector were cut in half in an instant after her evolution. Albert and Frederick…devoured alive… Lian begged for forgiveness, but… tore him limb from limb. I… only managed to inflict a single wound, but it did nothing to her…left me alive….don’t understand. Why me? Why? I am sorry everyone. You all died because of me and yet I live…Forgive me. Please, forgive-“

That was where the text ended. I was actually surprised he still wrote all of this even after witnessing all his companions’ death, but maybe that was just a human thing.

If his story was accurate, Veraxia did not take their betrayal well. I could understand that she was mad after being betrayed, especially in her circumstances. However, even if I lost myself in anger, I still felt like eating humans while they were still alive was kind of… excessive. Or maybe that was just something I couldn’t understand since I never did or needed to eat anything.

Being eaten alive sounded anything but pleasant, but as long as I did not betray her, I should be fine. If we ever were to meet again, that was. And if we did, I definitely would ask her about her encounter with these humans.

After finishing reading, I put the collection of texts back into the bag. It was time for me to get going, but not before robbing the dead of their possession. They were dead, so they wouldn’t need them anymore and they wouldn’t complain, even if I took a thing or two.