Task [Find Phil] complete.

Adding Task [Clear Spirit Dungeon] based on Plot progression.

[Objective: Slay Irin, the Mad Brewmaster OR Destroy Spiritual Foundation]

Time until Spirit dissipation: 4:59:33

Five hours left, huh? We made it here just in the nick of time.

Devon tore his cloak off as it whipped in the wind while he descended and shoved it into his inventory. It would only get in the way in a fight, and he didn't want it all torn up.

He took the trick spear out of his inventory as he fell. The prospect of another dungeon sent a thrill through his spine, as it meant a real chance to finally test out his new weapon. He brought out the axehead and swiftly swung it over the head of the spear and clamped it into place. Devon almost shuddered at how smooth the action was. Whoever the cursed king had gotten to create this weapon must have been a truly transcendent smith.

He brought his axe down on one of the limbs of the creature Eve was fighting and felt several small impacts before his axe fully cleaved through the limb. He leaped back as a massive mass was swung at him, and he was able to get a better look at what it was they were fighting.

[Treething - Level 32]

The creature immediately reminded Devon of the mythical creatures from one of his favorite movies, but the feeling of excitement he had was quickly destroyed when he saw what Eve had named the creature.

Treething? You can't be serious, it's obviously an ent. Granted, they don't seem sentient, but still. Come on, unlike me you can actually name the stuff you discover.

Still, there was nothing he could do about the disgrace as he looked about and saw several more of them lumbering toward them.

He looked back at the one he'd delimbed only to see its arm growing back at a frightening rate. But that issue was nullified a moment later as Eve slammed her axe into the back of the thing, completely bisecting it through the torso.

Assisted kill - [Treething - Level 32]

Eve hefted her massive axe against her shoulder and said, "They've got some kind of core in the center. Break it and they die." She kicked the hunk of now inanimate branches, "Don't these things give out any money?"

"They didn't last time," Devon responded as he once again dodged an arm of branches that was swung at him. He disconnected the axehead off the spear before shoving it back in his inventory. He'd assumed these things needed to be chopped down, but if they had a core that made things much easier.

He stepped toward the ent that had just attacked him, about to stab into its chest when he felt something wrap around his feet. He looked down just in time to see vines that had extended out from the ent's feet along the cavern floor and ensnared his foot.

The roots pulled suddenly, sending him sprawling to the floor. The ent stepped forward, about to stomp him into paste, but Devon acted quicker.

Activate skill; Quickstab!

He thrust his spear upwards with all the strength he could muster, which wasn't a lot from such a terrible position. It was enough, as the spearhead pierced straight through the wooden body of the ent and Devon felt it strike something hard on the inside of the creature before the ent shuddered and stopped moving.

Kill - [Treething - Level 32]

[Level up. Level 28 obtained.]

Devon kicked the now brittle and dead roots off him before rolling to his feet. He looked over to see how Eve was dealing with the ensnaring roots, only to wish he hadn't.

Eve's fighting style was by far the most barbaric thing Devon had ever seen. He had fought more than a dozen curse hunters with a myriad of styles, but none of them had come close to being as primitive as Eve.

Her method of dealing with the ents was moving in close enough to hit them with her axe, then when they tried to ensnare her feet she simply stomped her foot into the ground hard enough that it got stuck in the packed dirt of the cave. That way, she remained immobile when they tried to pull her in.

Devon reached into his inventory and brought out the trick curved blade before attaching it to the end of the spear to create a naginata. He refused to lower himself to Eve's strategy unless he absolutely had to, so until then he'd increase the range of his stabs so he wouldn't have to step into the ent's ensnaring range.

He moved onto the next ent. He stepped close enough to bait out an attack before stabbing into its chest with his naginata. Devon noted with satisfaction that the blade slid through the thick coating of branches with ease, further enamoring his appreciation of the weapon.

Kill - [Treething - Level 32]

He moved on to the next ent but stopped when he heard Eve grunt in pain behind him. He quickly saw the problem when he looked off to the side and saw a smaller ent fling a mass the size of a softball at him.

He dived out of the way, and the ball of compacted dirt and pebbles exploded against the wall behind him. Devon quickly got to his feet before dashing toward the projectile thrower.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

However, before he could even get close the biggest and bulkiest ent yet fell from the tangled mess of roots above their heads and crashed down directly in his path. It was massive enough that Devon's head only reached the top of its leg, and the presence it emitted made Devon shirk back a bit.

But that didn't deter Eve, who flew overhead with a roar of rage and slammed into the hulking body with a force strong enough to send it toppling.

Devon didn't miss his opportunity, dashing around the fallen giant before striking the smaller ent through its chest. The thing fell off his naginata as a stiff and lifeless mass of branches.

They spent the next half an hour battling several waves of the ents before the tree finally seemed to run out of branches to construct them with. Eve and Devon both sat down in the center of the cavern for a much needed rest after the onslaught. He'd gained another level, boosting him to 29, though he could feel that he was on the cusp of 30 as well. Meanwhile, Eve had gone up to 34.

Between panting breaths Eve said, "Nice weapon. You pick it because the gold helps make you feel more important?"

"Fuck you," Devon replied, panting as well, "You kiss up to Nix to get that axe?"

"Damn right I did. I thought you had a crappy common class. How the hell are you able to keep up?"

"Cause I'm just that good."

"My ass you are. Show me your titles."

"Why should I?"

"Cause I wanna know. C'mon, out with it."

Devon didn't feel like arguing, so he just sent his list of titles over to her.

"Cursed, huh? Hm... yep, looks like you got a bunch of the good ones I've got as well… What the fuck is this?"

"Huh?"

Eve sent back the title Lord of Massacre, with its description in full display. Her look of fatigue was gone, replaced by an air of open hostility. Devon knew that if he didn't choose his next words carefully he'd find himself on the opposing end of her axe.

"I told you, the last spirit dungeon I entered was a memory. That memory was from the final days of the kingdom that used to exist on this world. I'll just summarize and say what happened was really fucked up, but I didn't exactly have the option of leaving the dungeon."

Eve stared into his eyes for several seconds before scoffing, "Sure, whatever."

"You see a colony of another thousand sentient people around here I could have slaughtered?"

"I said whatever. So what the hell even are these spirit dungeons anyway?"

He sighed. Eve was the kind of person he had the most trouble dealing with, someone who acted almost entirely on impulse yet was keenly sharp in all the strangest ways.

Her battle senses were extraordinary. She'd been top of the ladder for almost the entire duration of the tutorial, yet he'd only now had the chance to see her in action. Despite her extremely basic methods of counteracting the ent's unique characteristics, he had to admit that her actions had very few wasted movements.

Even so, I've got no idea how she made it as a waitress with how quick she is to pick a fight. Who knows, maybe she's better with other people than I'd assume, and it's just me that sets her off for some reason.

"I think they're challenges the system created based on the remnants of souls with abnormally strong wills. The last one I entered was of a knight that watched the fall of his world."

"I don't see how some mad brewmaster could have had a will strong enough to last this long."

"I think under ordinary circumstances it wouldn't have. Do you remember what Nix said about the tutorial creating events that wouldn't ordinarily exist?"

"No. I wasn't really listening."

I take everything back. She's just stupid after all.

"...Then why should I bother explaining it to you again?"

"Because if you don't it's going to piss me off."

"I hope you realize you piss me off," Devon said in a deadpan voice. Eve just stuck her tongue out and flipped him the bird.

Despite his annoyance Devon continued, "Nix theorized that the tutorial was artificially creating things that could potentially push initiates past the limits they might otherwise reach. I think these spirit dungeons are one of the ways it's trying to promote growth. When you were asking around did you hear any mentions of anyone else vanishing into thin air?"

"Yeah, a few."

"If… Wait, didn't you think to maybe correlate that to what Nix told you?"

"Hm? Nobody else ever mentioned crazy stuff like a rift in space or whatnot."

"Even so, shouldn't the fact that people were disappearing at all make you stop and question yourself?"

"I just figured people were settling grudges and whatnot they never could back on earth. Or people going full American Psycho on people around them."

"Your faith in humanity is remarkably low."

She just shrugged in response.

"Anyway, if we assume those were all cases similar to mine and Phil's where they got sucked into a spirit dungeon, we can also assume that there are a lot more of these spirit dungeons out there. The brewmaster said that you and I weren't supposed to have been able to enter this spirit dungeon at all, yet it had found Phil to be what it considered a perfect candidate.

"I think these dungeons likely all revolve around a central theme, and the spirits that designed the dungeons choose people to pull in that they think fit the theme, and then they block everybody else out. The memory dungeon I found was the same. I felt it resonated with me, almost like it called out to me."

"If that's the case then how did you get us into this dungeon when you said they block everyone else out?"

"I think it's because I unlocked a sixth basic attribute called spirit, and that's what is allowing me to interact with this dungeon."

"That stat have any other uses?"

"None that I know of so far."

"Okay, so what's the point, and where does all of that leave us?"

"The point is, this dungeon is based on brewing. Which means Phil's system objective is probably to make something that satisfies Irin. But we're intruders who aren't meant to be in a dungeon for brewmasters. So the system had to compensate for unintended participants. What then does that leave us with?"

Eve widened her eyes, "An alternate objective that the system didn't count on."

"The memory dungeon I stepped into lasted four days. Phil has been in here for a good while trying to impress Irin, but hasn't made much progress. By all rights, Phil will likely fail the challenge this dungeon was created for due to its extreme crafting difficulty. But since this dungeon isn't meant to be cleared by brute force, that means…"

"That it should be easier to complete, because the system wouldn't have put many physical challenges in a dungeon meant to be mentally challenging!"

Devon looked at the clock, "Three hours and change left. You ready to get moving?"