After maybe an hour or two of traveling along the stream uphill Tilly found the landscape growing more sparse and rocky. The sound of wildlife also faded leaving only the occasional snap of a twig and puff of escaped berry gas to mark his passing. He tried to move forward as cautiously as possible, depending on his nascent skills in stealth to keep from being too obvious. He was only Level 4 and it seemed like this area didn't have too much for him to worry about so far, but then again, he was hardly going to bet his life on an unconfirmed starting area theory.

Anything in this forest could kill him as far as he was concerned, until he identified it, it was deadly and should be avoided. Apart from avoiding the local fauna, Tilly kept his eyes out for anything that seemed climbable and would let him see over the canopy to get his bearings. The mountain itself was pretty standard, with occasional interesting plants, a hoot or a chuff in the distance, and rock formations that kept getting bigger and bigger. This point was driven home by the fact that his way upstream was anything but clear. It was marred by the fact that he had to scale several waterfalls and small cliff faces to keep next to the stream. And even this was only possible because of his growing Dexterity and Endurance.

One thing that was showing up more frequently the farther up he went up the mountain was evidence of the Corruption's growing influence. Sometimes it was a long scar like a gash on a tree, oozing darkly infected sap. Other times it was a sludge-like puddle that collected in the natural dips of stone and smelled like a mixture of rotting flesh and sulfur. These signs were accentuated by the absence of any of the smaller wildlife he could at least hear in the distance further down the mountain.

This whole world was new to Tilly, but even he could tell that what was going on here was deeply wrong. Each time he came across some new sign of the natural landscape becoming twisted into something nightmarish it set his teeth on edge, like the visual version of nails on a chalkboard.

By the time he found an immense tree that had a trunk as thick as a car that seemed climbable, Tilly was seriously considering giving up on his favor to the Crononos. It was too early to take on something that was so obviously above his pay grade.

You have successfully used Herb Lore to identify a Sentinel Oak. These trees are known to grow in deeper parts of the wilderness, and if left undisturbed they can grow to three or four times the size of their surrounding counterparts. Sentinel Oak is a much-sought lumber, known for its strength and supernatural durability.

“This will work... Spiderman powers activate,” he mumbled to himself as he started to scale the tree, his new Dexterity making equal use of tree limbs and cracks in the old, gnarled bark. His nominal Strength was more than enough to lift his body weight, and his growing Endurance made the repetitive pull-up motion possible if not yet easy.

He went up and up and up until he must have been six or seven stories in the air and could clearly see far over the natural canopy. He first scanned the rest of the way to the top of the mountain to see if he could catch a glimpse of his target destination.

Near the peak, several hundred yards up was some sort of structure. It was carved into the mountainside itself with columns, crumbling statues, and a large relief of a burning flame above a relatively small opening. This itself was extremely impressive considering the logistics of building something like that this far up the mountain.

But Tilly hardly noticed the crumbling majesty of the architecture, because snaking out of the entrance were dark thick growths that stretched into the surrounding forest and brought desolation wherever they touched. Tilly had to squint to make it out, but it seemed like these things were reaching into the local plant life and robbing it of vitality. This produced a semi-circle of fallen trees and blackened bushes that were slowly advancing down the mountain. The sight again set his insides buzzing, and the burning reignited in his stomach.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

It was probably early afternoon by this point and Tilly couldn't spot anything moving up there, so he decided he would at least give it a closer look before returning to camp. He owed the Crononos that much for its final gift, and he felt an unexplained animosity at the Corruption's continuing subversion of the area.

Tilly shuffled around the huge diameter of the tree to face down the mountain and saw a sea of trees covering thick mountains reaching to the horizon. Nestled in a valley perhaps two or three miles past the base of his mountain, plumes of lazy gray smoke were visible. He also saw the curved impression of a mountain river snaking past the area and figured that even without frequent climbs to catch his bearing, he would be able to follow his stream down until it met up with the larger body of water and let it lead him to the point of his interest.

Tilly couldn’t see their origin from his angle, but he knew smoke. That was not the smoke from a burning forest fire, it was the simple sedate smoke trail that would climb up from a campfire or even better, a chimney. There were enough of them that they had to represent a significant gathering of people or creatures or whatever.

Whatever they were, they weren't too concerned with hiding, and Tilly hoped that meant they were settled. The seductive call of possible civilization reorganized Tilly’s goals. He would check out the cave/temple to see what he was up against and then make his way toward the smoke. With a set of clear goals in mind, he scampered down the tree back to its base and continued his cautious trek upstream. After another hour of rough hiking upward the trees had almost completely cleared out and he had made it to a sheer cliff face marred by a huge crack. His stream had shrunk to a trickle and seemed to originate from the mountain face.

At this point, Tilly was on high alert, the sun was three-quarters of the way through the sky and he knew he would have to make his inspection quick if he wanted to put any distance between this place and himself before nightfall. As quickly and quietly as he could, he followed the sparse treeline around the mountain until the temple came in sight. Its front would have seemed noble and ancient, if not for the thick ropy tendrils that choked the bottom half of the entrance, reaching greedily out into the surrounding forest and spreading death.

Even though he was almost a hundred yards away, one of the things was rooted into the ground at the base of a tree nearby and Tilly could see the veiny black protrusion spidering up the trunk. As he followed the path of the root back to the temple entrance, he found a history of infection and death, marked by fallen logs and bushes turned into dry skeletal structures. The roots were not only infecting these plants, they were robbing them of their water and life.

The whole scene sent goosebumps running along his arms under his jacket. It was one thing to see it from hundreds of yards away, it was a magnitude more intimidating to witness the effects up close.

Thankfully as Tilly continued to scan the unnatural clearing he saw no sign of movement. He even held his breath for a while and heard no evidence of other creatures near his location. The only sound was the gusty breeze that one finds in all mountain ranges near the peaks. No birds, no squirrels, nothing. The absence of living things was eerie, but Tilly figured that whatever was going on here had probably either chased off the locals or infected them already.

He followed the line of a nearby root back to the temple complex. The heart of what was happening here hid much deeper in the temple complex. Tilly sighed deeply as he realized that a quick peek at the entrance wasn't going to tell him anything useful.

So far he had learned nothing besides that plants and animals were being infected and that the infection originated from this temple, which is exactly as much as he knew after he had spoken to the Crononos. If he wanted any new information he would have to see what was going on inside.

He really didn't want to go inside.

He looked around again, indecision tugging him in multiple directions. The place seemed empty, and he could always run at the first sight of... well anything. So much of him wanted to turn back right now and try to find some semblance of shelter. Forget all about everything he had seen and just try and survive. The logic of it whispered convincingly at the back of his mind.

'You’ve gone far enough. Don't be an idiot. Run, get stronger, then you can come back.'

This line of thinking was achingly familiar to Tilly. It had been by his side, offering counsel since he was little. It had encouraged him to hang back as he saw others get bullied in school. It had told him not to bother trying to change the hazing and abuse he had found in the Fire Department. It was there when his marriage got rocky and when his daughter got sick… it had whispered to him his whole life, inviting him to take care of himself, come back later, Run.

'This is the moment... The moment where I choose to be something different.'

Something deep inside shouted in defiance, raging against the complacency that had grown to mark his previous life. The warm, unnoticed burning behind his navel bloomed into a full and complete heat, radiating up his torso and into his extremities.

“I'm going in...” He whispered to himself, surprised.