I’d known from the offset that I could expect long-range attacks from the sentries, and on that front, they didn’t disappoint. Over a dozen wooden titans lifted their gnarled hands, sending forth their first offensive wave. Spear-like roots trailed out from their wrists like streamers, their honed tips homing in on me.
Here, at least, I held the clear advantage. With the golems stationed around the circumference of the moat, the bulk of their attacks were far enough to give me plenty of time to react. As for the two directly behind me, despite their near success the first time around, I was ready for them. Right before the roots would have slammed into my back, testing the limits of Verin’s glacier, I Jet Stepped to the side.
As the roots were still connected to the sentries, I had a brief worry that they would manipulate them in some way, causing them to snake through the air and attack us again. My fears proved to be unfounded as their opening salvo missed entirely, digging into the earthen bridge beneath us. Though there were some close calls, the rest of the comically elongated spears followed suit, one by one hitting the bridge or the water below.
That wasn’t so bad. At this rate, I’d be on the central island in no time. Already well past the limits of standard human Dexterity, with my Running skill and my Flash Feet, I was tearing up the terrain. What are the odds I get there before they even send out a second round?
Though I hadn’t spoken the thought aloud, I knew I’d tempted fate the very moment it entered my head.
Before I even realized what was happening, my vision spun abruptly, my head rapidly approaching the ground. I’m falling? Reflexively, I threw my hands down, flexing my muscles in a manner I’d grown well-accustomed to during my acrobatics practice back with Advisor Flithus.
In a flash, I transformed what would have been a concussion-inducing tumble into a front handspring, struggling to adjust my balance to handle the extra weight on my back.
Acrobatics has reached level 11!
For a split second, I was upside down with my head facing backwards. Though my vision was flipped, I instantly spotted what had tripped me, realizing I hadn’t even needed to ask. Right where my foot had just been, a knobby root poked out from the earth.
If that was all I saw, I would have been fine. Knowing the sentries could summon tripping hazards at any moment was rough, but manageable.
Unfortunately, as I hung there suspended, I spotted far more than I’d bargained for. With my Intelligence pushing itself to the max, time seemed to drastically slow as I took it all in.
As if in agonizing slow motion, I watched as a pulse of mana traveled through each of the many roots stabbing into the land around me. Spurred on by the mana, long savage thorns began to sprout from the roots.
Half of the thorny tubers then ripped themselves from the earth, no longer spears, but some form of hellish whip instead. At the very peak of my flip, right before I lost sight of the landscape behind me, I watched the first of the whips start to sail towards me.
No thank you. I had no idea if those thorns could pierce my armor, but I had no plans to find out, either. As my legs flew back down to the earth and my vision righted itself, however, I quickly discovered what the other half of the roots had been up to.
Evidently having burrowed through the ground, the rest of the roots began to sprout from the bridge at a clip that defied logic. Splitting off and forming their own thorny branches in real time, they transformed into the start of a briar patch.
With a heavy thud that seemed to fill the clearing, my feet met the ground once more. Time, which had slowed to a crawl, sped up with a vengeance.
In a single second, everything went to shit.
Dirt sprayed my legs as the entire pathway before me erupted into sections of impassable vegetation, transforming my straight-shot to the island into an obstacle course. Left. Right. Over. I weaved around the impediments before they had too much time to grow, jumping over them whenever I could. I likely could have gone faster, but my unexpected spill made me wary to go all out. If I tripped again, it would be directly into the ever-growing brambles.
Still, I managed to get a good quarter of the way across the bridge before the real battle began.
Down. The first of the golems’ whips reached me at last, laterally slicing through the air right at my neck. A quick duck was all I needed to dodge, though the move put me into an awkward position to avoid the whip’s successor. The second whip came from behind, threatening to sweep me off my feet.
Shooting directly into the air from my crouch, I vaulted over the next mass of thorns.
It was only at the last moment that I realized my aim was off. As soon as I hit the ground, I was jerked to a halt, the whiplash alone enough to shave off a few points of health.
You have been rooted!
Even as a trio of whips closed in, I glanced down to where I’d barely clipped the edge of the briars. While the thorns themselves hadn’t pierced my armor, even as I watched, the branches multiplied, climbing up my leg. Bracing myself with my other foot, I yanked with all my might, tearing myself free.
Impairment Resistance has reached level 9!
Unfortunately, the damage had been done. Capitalizing on my moment of inaction, two whips closed in from either side while a third threatened to vertically slice me in two. The time for dodging was long past.
Come on. Please work. In both hands, I summoned a blade, overloading each of them with death mana. My ability to dual-wield left something to be desired, and I winced as I sent my hands in different directions to take out two of the three attacks. Even if it wasn’t my best work, the abundance of mana turned what would have been glancing blows into clean cuts. The tips of the two whips limply fell off, granting me some breathing room.
Sadly, that still left the third.
It tore through the air, and I braced myself for impact right as it was about to connect.
CRUNCH.
The whip was forced to a halt, though not before it imparted every shred of its bone-shattering force to its hapless victim.
Thankfully, however, that victim was not me.
A thick wall of ice stood to my left, nearly shattered from the collision, but ultimately holding strong.
Verin. Though she was tucked away in her glacier, the noble didn’t let that stop her from influencing the fight. And, in fact, that wasn’t her only contribution.
From the corner of my eyes, I watched as the two previous whips flailed about, a thin sheen of frost coating their newly truncated tops. At the same time, the telltale black rot of death mana seeped out from my earlier cuts. If nothing else, hopefully our combined assault would keep the two weapons out of the fray for a while.
Not stopping to celebrate, I was already sprinting forth once more.
Over and over, we managed to narrowly block, evade, or cut through the worst of the barrage. In a series of lunges, hops, and frantic crouches that would have dizzied the most devout of parkour enthusiasts, we made painstaking progress.
Even so, it was clear our current situation was untenable.
Not for a moment had the brambles stopped growing, and what had begun as disparate bushes was quickly evolving into something far greater. The bushes’ many ligneous limbs never stopped thickening and ascending upwards, at times wrapping around one another to almost fuse together. The end result was part bush, part tree, tall enough to preclude a simple jump and wide enough to keep me from skirting around. If that wasn’t bad enough, the growths seamlessly shifted whenever the whips neared, parting to allow them to ravage us with impunity.
We need to leave the bridge. Reluctant though I was to leave the solid earth for the open air or the moat below, I saw no other choice. I only eked out a few more meters before I had to admit that staying land bound would fully pen me in.
And so, saying farewell to the monstrous vegetation ahead of me, I rushed to the edge of the bridge and leapt off.
Initially, I thought I’d keep to the air rather than run along the water. A quick flare of Danger Sense was the only warning I got before that plan went haywire.
WHUMP.
Like the hand of god, a titanic force slammed into me from above, and down I went. I briefly wondered if someone had chucked an entire tree at me until I felt my body continue to speed up, gale force winds shoving me directly downwards. My brain rattled around in my head, and it was only through a miracle that I had the presence of mind to activate Featherfoot and Waterwalking before I hit the water. Jarring as the landing was, I managed to land on my feet without breaking any bones.
Doing anything more than that, however, was fully out of the question. Even taking a single step under the pressure of the winds was impossible, and with my footing currently churning and rippling, it was a struggle just to stand.
Why? Just because I left the bridge? And how do I get out? Dive into the water?
My musings were cut short by the arrival of another whip, somehow entirely undeterred by the ungodly air currents. Barely able to move, I could only stand there as it slapped into me, the thorns scraping against my armor.
I leaned with the blow, hoping it could drive me out of the debilitating winds, but I had no such luck. Instead, the root latched onto my arm, curling around it like a boa constrictor. And, in fact, the similarity didn’t end there, as it began to tighten. Far sturdier than they should have been, the thorns bit into the metal armor, and I could feel as it began to buckle.
No, no, no, no, no. Let’s not-
Pain Resistance has reached level 17!
My cry was lost to the wind as dozens of thorns first pierced metal and then pierced flesh. They continued to sink deeper, until I could practically feel them scratching against my bones, a sensation I hoped to never feel again.
With my mana the only thing I could control right now, I channeled as much death mana as I could into my armor while also casting Deaden over and over. While the wood rapidly blackened, it didn’t give me even the slightest bit of slack.
The wind. I need to get out from the wind. Everything else was secondary. With the root gripping me, I wasn’t even sure I could escape into the water anymore, though. I don’t have anything. I can’t get out.
Right before the full weight of my helplessness could sink in, it happened.
A giant surge of mana burst out from the two of us, expanding until it filled the entire clearing.
When it finally ran its course, the air around us was calm and placid, the wind entirely erased.
Before I could figure out what the cause was, the system helpfully butted in.
The blessing of the wind nymph has been consumed. The air in the heartwood has been forcibly stilled. Flight skills temporarily disabled.
Thank you wind nymph! I silently forgave the spirit for being the most annoying out of the four, even if I wasn’t thrilled with my flight being locked. Eager to get going, I sliced through the root embedded into my arm, disconnecting it from the whip. Not willing to spend the time uncoiling it or tugging it out of me, I left the remainder still attached to me as I ran off atop the water.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
With more open space available to me this time, I was a blur, gliding atop the moat at record speeds. Whips came and went, sliced apart or otherwise dodged, and I was optimistic that I’d be done with this gauntlet soon. Another thorny tendril tried to wrap itself around my legs, and I effortlessly jumped over it.
Danger Sense screamed at me right as I was about to land, and in the heat of the moment, I activated Jet Step in an effort to return myself to the air.
Skill Jet Step is temporarily locked.
Even before I read the notification, I recalled my error, but it was too late.
“Gah. Shit.” Those were my last words before something wrapped around my ankle and yanked me into the water.
A hasty overloaded dagger was enough to sever the thin, kelp-like plant pulling me down to my watery grave, but it was too late, too little. Even as I freed myself, I was shoved by an abrupt downwards current, the moat no more happy to see me than the air above it.
Without any aquatic movement skills, I was powerless to defend myself from the water’s wrath, and I quickly hit the bottom of the moat, hard. A large bed of kelp cushioned the collision, but its presence only made me groan internally.
As expected, it stirred to life as I neared, wrapping around all four limbs in an instant. Trying to free myself, I thrashed about to no avail.
Breath Control has reached level 18!
The skill was getting a workout, though I sorely wished I’d bought Arcane Choker instead of having to rely on it. The only saving grace was that the forest king hadn’t stocked his moat with any fish or sharks. With the thorny root still poking into my arm, I was leaking a steady supply of blood into the water.
If I die fighting kelp, Cal is going to laugh at me.
It was right as I had that thought that I managed to rip a chunk of the seaweed off me, only belatedly realizing that they were more brittle than they’d been moments before.
Verin. Bit by bit, the area around us began to freeze, courtesy of her Glacial Zone. While not enough to fully freeze the plant life in place, it greatly weakened them.
Even so, with the current still pinning me in place, I knew it wouldn’t be enough. My lungs burned within my chest as I fought the urge to take a breath in.
Need. Air. Now. My mouth opened, almost unbidden.
Right before I could suck in a lungful of water, a second burst of mana rippled through the moat. Dry air licked at my wet skin, even as I struggled to comprehend what I was seeing.
The blessing of the water nymph has been consumed. The water in the heartwood has been parted. All swimming and water propulsion skills have been temporarily locked.
In a shockingly biblical act, all the water around me retracted, two solid walls of water forming on my sides. The effect didn’t extend all the way up, leaving literal tons of water threateningly hovering over my head. It did, however, extend laterally, creating an underwater corridor that ran all the way to the island ahead. Had I not had more pressing concerns, it would have been a breathtaking experience.
Only taking a moment to catch my breath, I ripped myself from the frostbitten kelp binding me to the ground and began to run. Kelp strands peeked out of the water, hoping to ensnare me as I ran. Worse yet, a few of the thorny roots had found their way here already, poking out of the moat bed in an effort to impale and impede me.
For once, I was largely able to turn my brain off. To both my sides, ice walls sprung up, one after another. With Verin blocking the worst of my obstacles, I charged through the corridor. Gradually, it began to slope upwards, until I could see the island just up ahead. Maybe ten seconds away, at most.
Close. So close. Please let there be nothing else. Even as I prayed for an easy end to this quest, I knew it wouldn’t come.
What are the odds I get away with just using two of my blessings? Air. Water. Please don’t tell me there’s also something for life and ear-
As if to mock me, the ground chose that very moment to tremble. Right as I would have escaped the underwater pathway, a slab of stone rose from the earth, locking me in. Through the water, I could see it rise high into the sky, completely surrounding the island.
Guess you can’t have a moat without a castle wall.
If that wasn’t demoralizing enough, three smaller walls soon joined the first, boxing me in on all four sides. Surreally, the ceiling was now the only thing made of water, and I would have considered jumping into it had the previous system message not warned against that.
So what? I’m just stuck in a stone box? Are they trying to asphyxiate me?
As if to laugh at my naivete, two of the walls began to slowly grind against the others, pushing inwards.
Nope. Not dealing with this one. Already spent from nearly drowning, I had no desire to pit myself against some sort of crushing trap. I probably could survive it, either through brute strength or enough armor reinforcement, but I was too spent.
Instead, I cheated.
Activating Arcane Storage, I quickly took stock of everything I’d been storing away. While a lot of it was food, I also had a sizable chunk of plain stone. Without any metal to work with, the stone was what I made most of our bottles and cookware out of, and I’d been hoping to use it for some enchanting matrices eventually. Block after block appeared in the tight confines until I had enough span the entire width of the trap I’d found myself in.
The two walls groaned as they pushed up against the solid mountain rock, and for a moment, I worried that they would somehow smash through the stones.
Instead, they simply stood there, impotently, trying and failing to crush us.
Knowing what came next, I slumped to the ground, letting my flagging stamina refill itself. A few roots burrowed through the ground to take advantage of my captivity, but the tiny space was ideal for Verin’s skills, freezing them before they had a chance to attack.
In the end, the break was far too short for my liking. Before I knew it, a third burst of mana signaled the resumption of my trial.
The blessing of the earth nymph has been consumed.
I didn’t bother reading on, as the effect was already clear. The section of the wall blocking me from the island slid to the side, freeing me at last.
One more. Just one more. Stamina partially refilled, I burst from the underwater corridor, finally on the island proper. Just ahead, the massive trunk of the heartwood easily dwarfed everything in sight.
If I was relieved to finally step foot on the island, the heartwood was anything but. As if the entire forest was sent into a rage the moment I arrived, the attacks on me only redoubled in effort.
The whips, having held off while I was stuck in the moat, homed in on me once again. Summoning a blade, I went to chop the tip off of one of them, only to jump back as Danger Sense warned me away. With a pulse of life mana, the weapon chose that moment to grow, its single tip splitting into nine thorny heads. All across the clearing, its siblings did the same.
Their subterranean counterparts were not immune to the change either. As I back-stepped away from getting shredded and entangled, a root exploded from the earth right by my foot with all the force of a landmine.
For once, I was glad that Verin’s glacier blocked most sounds. The prim and proper noble had no need to hear the foul string of curses that I let out.
Next time, I’m getting a defensive skill and making her carry me around.
Unfortunately, there was nothing to do but move forward. Layering Heavy Step and Withering Step to protect my feet from the worst of the underground blows, I advanced. Taking some inspiration for various jungle-trekkers I’d seen in movies, I summoned two oversized machetes, overloading them to hack at any whips that got close. With every inch I gained, I bled mana and stamina in equal parts, but as close as I was to my goal, they would hold.
Then again, there’s still one more blessing. Thankfully, I had a sneaking suspicion as to what the final obstacle would be. After all, I hadn’t spotted any doors or windows to enter the tree through.
Dodge has reached level 13!
Swords has reached level 6!
I was a whirling dervish, entering a sort of battle fugue I rarely was able to access. In tune with Danger Sense, I pivoted around roots before they emerged, ducking under whips that came from behind me, and slicing through anything that stood in my way. In what felt like hours but could only have been minutes at the most, I painted the ground red with my advance.
And given that I was fighting plants, that red was mine, unfortunately. As powerful as I’d become, I was far from being able to handle that many attacks at once. Every few steps, I found myself wrapped up in a new set of thorns, constantly having to resummon my leg armor as root blasts took entire chunks from my calves. By now, even putting weight on my legs was a struggle, but one I bore with a grimace.
Heavy Armor has reached level 15!
Bleed Resistance has reached level 15!
When at last I reached the solid wood of the colossal tree, it was with more shock than proper relief. And as if to apologize for everything I’d been put through, for once, my blessing didn’t make me wait. A fourth and final blast of mana burst out from me, washing over the bark of the tree.
The blessing of the life nymph has been consumed.
In record time, a hollowed-out archway formed in the trunk. I rushed inside, hoping that the worst of the fighting was finally behind me.
I was somewhat incredulous, then, when the whips straightened themselves out and followed me, taking probing stabs at my back as I ran inside. They ripped through ice wall after ice wall, barely even slowed by the barriers.
Come on. Forest king. Find the forest king. He had to be somewhere in here, didn’t he?
If I’d expected a regal palace fit for a king, though, I was out of luck. The inside of the tree was exactly that, essentially just a large wooden cave.
Only one thing stood out, and as my eyes fell upon it, I knew without a doubt it was what all of the golems were defending.
Suspended in the center of the tree was a wooden heart. Anatomically correct and twice as tall as I was, it rhythmically pulsed, pushing thick sap through its attached veins and arteries.
I feel like this really isn’t supposed to be how trees work, but I’m going to dwell on that later.
While I hardly had time to be reading, I hit it with God’s Eye nonetheless, needing to know what I was up against.
Wooden Heart of the Heartwood
The seat of vitality for an ancient heartwood tree. Can be used as a powerful reagent for a host of rituals and solutions, or can be directly consumed to empower the imbiber’s Constitution and Life Magic. Removing or otherwise destroying this heart will slay the heartwood, disabling any defenses surrounding it.
The description proved to be enough to grant me some further reading, which I sped through as the roots behind me pounded against layer after layer of ice walls.
Quest Updated!
Besieged by the heartwood’s defenses, you have battled your way to the forest’s heart. As an alternate quest completion requirement, you may forgo speaking with the king to instead claim the heart as your own.
My head swam as I parsed through the updated quest. This wasn’t what we’d come here for at all. Weren’t we supposed to wake some sort of king? When did this turn into a heist?
But it’s right there. And it would get the roots off our back. And the promised boost to Constitution and Life Magic was potentially a better reward than we’d gotten from any other region. Could I really pass that up?
Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to come to a slow and thought-out decision, as evidenced by the chips of ice spraying over me from behind. I wasn’t sure how much mana Verin still had, but with how many walls she was summoning, I knew she couldn’t last forever.
Just take the heart. Let it be over. This entire trial had lasted long enough. I was drenched. Bloodied. Exhausted. Covered in thorny roots, still clinging to my flesh.
And yet…
I was sad when we cleared the air region. It felt like… It felt like maybe there was a better way to settle things. This time, the dungeon was being even more explicit, outright telling me that I had a choice to make. Did we come here to kill the forest and steal its power? Or were we here to wake a king?
A movement on my back signaled Verin breaking out from her glacier, abandoning her defenses just to shout.
“Lady Tess! I’m nearly out of mana. Do something!” It was perhaps the most direct statement I’d ever heard her make, free of her usual flowery language. That, more than anything else, drove home just how serious the situation was.
I need to do something, but what do I do? If I wanted to wake the king, did I even know how?
“Hey! Wake up! Wake up and stop attacking us!” I screamed with all my might, my voice echoing through the chamber. No quest updates arrived, and the roots continued, undeterred. “We’re not here to take the heart! Just call the roots off!”
Nothing.
Wavering, I looked down to my machete, taking tentative steps over to the wooden arteries holding the giant heart aloft. Even as thick as they were, I knew it would only take me a single empowered strike to sever them.
Think. There has to be something else.
“Tess! Now!” With Verin’s shout came the shattering of ice, and an entire army of roots poured into the room. Trying to buy even a single second, Verin ran behind me, using the very last of her mana to resummon her glacier. While it was better than nothing, I knew that without ample time to grow, it wouldn’t do her much good.
I placed the edge of the machete against the bundle of faux vasculature, hesitating even as the first of the roots slammed into my leg, snaking up its side.
How am I supposed to wake it? Is there something we missed? A hidden room? Some other way to communica-
Another way to communicate. Was it that simple?
A second root wound around my arm, trying to stop me from using my weapon, but I paid it no heed.
Delving into the tattered ruins of my mental space, I cast Sense Minds.
At first, I didn’t spot anything, worrying that I’d done all that waffling for nothing. Just when I was about to accept that I’d been wrong, though, I saw it.
It was dim. Unmistakable, now that I saw it. Large and powerful, a grand purple sphere that no mind I’d seen compared to. But all the same, it blended into the background, diffuse and hazy.
Not even bothering to identify it, I rushed towards the mind, instinctively trying to connect with it.
Hey! You’re attacking us! Wake up! Wake up now! Please!
Another root latched onto me, a pool of blood forming at my feet as it added to the already significant number of puncture wounds I was sporting. Even with my focus largely on my mental space, I vaguely noted a few roots traveling deeper into the cavern, headed towards Verin. Not able to delay any longer, I began to struggle against the root on my arm, slowly bringing down the machete.
Pain, fear, regret. All of them filled my mind, radiating through my mental space, raw and unvarnished.
And though my frantic thoughts hadn’t been enough, my emotions finally did what my urgent pleas could not. They slammed against the mind before me.
At long last, something ancient stirred.
Quest Updated!