The Sub-Saltu

CH.1

Since the rise of Pulcha and the introduction of currency and the market, three prominent money making options arose. Herbalists, who could create potions and dyes of varying strength and rarity. Even within Pulcha, people of such skill were hard pressed to be found, as it took entire lifetimes, even generations, of knowledge to create potions that had no adverse effects, and dyes which were pure.

Traders, who made use of trade routes between Pulcha and surrounding towns and villages. Traders were common, but few lasted for even a year; even fewer handed their legacy off to their children to continue the trade.

And the last, and most dangerous of careers: crystal hunters. Adventurers who would delve into uncovered caves and mountains to try to find naturally formed containers of mana. Crystals themselves were common, but ones that could be used by even non-Mages, and held spells to be used? Those ones were the real money makers, and what could set up an entire family for generations.

Most died before even finding them, but this all changed with the discovery of what would eventually be called the Infraera, the great underground. Those who got to the Infraera after it dried up after a month, were set for life, and many went on to start their new life in Pulcha.

But with inexperienced crystal miners mining all the accessible points up, even the endless underground become void of any sources, forcing adventures to go even deeper.

This is what Lycin and his group comes in.

“Anyone got any of those yellow oxygen things?” Jacob whispered, his lungs pumping as though they’ve run a thousand miles.

“Spira? Here.” Rose handed him the fruit which resembled a pepper. “We’re going to have to find some soon. There’s only enough for two per each of us.”

“Should we head back?” Vicin asked. “We don’t even know for sure if they’ll continue to grow the deeper we get.”

“How’s everyone doing?” Lycin asked. “I’m still feeling fine.”

“Same here.”

“Lungs are pumping a little, but I will manage.” Rose said.

“We’ll keep on going then. We’ll start heading back as soon as each of us have one left.”

Currently the party of 4 were in a tight chasm. If attacked, only Lycin with his mace, and Rose with her bow would be able to defend. Jacob’s greatsword and Vicin’s sledgehammer, suffice to say, would hit the ceiling or walls. It didn’t help the latter two were the tallest of the group.

The tunnel they were in was man made, one of thousands, that declined deeper into the earth. Stone surrounded them, but soon those rocks became covered with vines and moss.

“Moss? Must be a cave nearby. Might get lucky.” Lycin gave a relieved sigh. It had been ages since they’d found one, but he and the group wouldn’t be truly happy until they finally concluded it was a new cave.

The chances of that increased almost immediately.

“Flowers? That’s new.” Rose plucked a petal. “Purple…we could make a selling of these if they ain’t toxic.”

“We’d need thousands to even get a vial of dye.” Vicin said. “And who knows if the colour won’t change when we reach the surface.”

“You sound optimistic for once.”

“What do you mean?”

“‘When we reach the surface’ you said, not if. ‘Tis would you would normally say.”

Vicin scoffed. “I guess being in danger beats boredom.”

“That’ll be on your tombstone. I’ll make sure of that.” Jacob joked.

“If you survive as well that is.”

“You’ll probably outlive us all.” Lycin said, turning to look over Rose to Jacob. “But enough talking about death- it’s a bad omen as is. Jacob, start digging up. Vicin get ready to grab him just in case he gets swept away by a current. Rose will be behind you, and I her.”

“Better not take a peek.” Jacob shot a look, before taking out his pickaxe.

“Twang...Twang...Twang.” The hits bounced around the reinforced tunnels supported by wooden beams. Collapses weren’t as often as you would expect, but given the group were nearly out of Spira, each hit did cause a mild amount of worry. “Twang...Twang...Twang…got it!”

The stone that is. Jacob pulled out his shovel and began digging through the soil which, to his relief, wasn’t damp. Soon, a suprising amount of light shone done, causing his shadow to appear in the tunnel.

“Light?” Rose was the first to comment her surprise. “I know not of any flowers that can give off light.”

“Any monsters?” Vicin asked.

“A few.” Lycin responded, sounding unworried. “Even if we do find any, it’s unlikely they’ll cause us any trouble.”

“Now that will be on your tombstone.”

“Uh-huh. Jacob, come back down.” He ordered. Jacob soon appeared. “There you go, Vicin. You first.”

“...bastard.” He climbed up, which took a significant amount of effort, giving his metal armour. Realistically, if they were attacked at this moment, Vicin would have the best chance to survive and fend it off, which is the real reason Lycin sent him up first. “Clear!” He responded with an inhale.

Rose climbed up next, then Jacob, then finally Lycin. All of them couldn’t believe what they saw; Rose especially.

No stone or mud, besides where they stood, could be found. All manner of bushes, trees, vines, and moss were found, many of which hadn’t been discovered. The only colour that could be seen was green and brown, and the only smell was that from what you’d get from a freshly pollinated flower.

“I don’t believe it…we’ve discovered an entire new ecosystem. I can’t name half of these plants.” Her eyes shone brighter than the crystals on the ceiling.

“Are those-” Vicin saw it first, then Lycin. Both Rose and Jacob were far more interested in the environment.

“On the Pulcha’s namesake, those are crystals!”

“It almost seems too good to be true, don’t it?” Lycin responded back to Vicin.

“And you all call me pessimistic.”

“Yeah, we do for a good reason. What are you thinking right now?”

“How in Anirrae are we getting them?” More than a hundred foot separated them from the floor to the ceiling, and with no walls nearby to scale, it’d be quite the challenge indeed.

“I might have an idea for that.” Rose, having snapped out of her amazement, had began analysing the biome. “You see those vines? I’m willing to bet they are quite sturdy. One of us can use it to swing from a tree to the crystals.”

“That’s crazy. That’ll never work.” Vicin shot back.

“I’ll do it!” Already Jacob was running to a nearby tree and climbing up it.

“I’ll get ready to catch him.” Lycin told the group. The fall would be great if Jacob had failed, and to his crew, he had no experience in gymnastics.

They learnt quickly this was not the case. With great agility, he lunged from the tree and swung across to the crystals, grabbing them with one of his hands. He proceeded to tie the vine to the crystal, making a very sturdy rope line, to which he proceeded to jump onto, targeting the crystals above his head.

All while he did this, the group looked on in awe.

“Well, that’s certainly the most effective way of doing this.” The group watched in awe as Jacob efficiently begin mining the crystals, demonstrating incredible balance.

“Anyone else did that, they’d lose their balance.” Lycin said.

“I doubt I’d manage to get a rope connected, personally.” Vicin admitted.

The crystal soon wiggled underneath the hits of the pickaxe. It didn’t take long for it to drop from the ceiling into Lycin’s hand.

He and Vicin analysed it silently. Looking back up, Jacob saw a strange small tunnel from where the crystal was before.

“Uhmmmm, that’s strange. Why was that so hard to pull?” Jacon decided to mine out the area around the next crystal. Not long after he began, and just as he was about to break through, the crystal fell on its own volition. “What’s holding it in place? The places I’m digging shouldn’t even cause it to drop.”

He once again looked through the tunnel, seeing what looked like a small vine.

“Guys!” Jacob shouted, seeing the vine-like creature move away. Just as the others looked up, the rest of the crystals fell, causing a small melody to ring out throughout the cave.

“Get down from there-” Rose called out.

It was too late. Tens of ‘vines’ erupted from each hole, quickly grabbing a hold of Jacob. Their thorns injected into his skin, causing him to cry out in pain.

Only Rose could help Jacob from a distance, as she fired volleys of arrows upon the vines targeting him.

“Catch him!” She called, shooting the last pest, releasing the gasping boy from their clutch. Lycin catched him with ease. He quickly backed away to evade the thick and grippy creature.

“We need to get out of here.” At his words, the monster slammed all its limbs on the ground, causing the entrance they had created to collapse. “Fuck. Rose, take him.” He handed the choking and barely conscious Jacob to her. She proceeded to get a vial and dumped its contents into his throat. The choking still stopped, but he wasn’t much better off.

“Poison. Don’t let it cut you!” Rose looked around, taking accurate shots to the tentacles that focused on her. All seemed weary of her, causing the two warriors to take the majority of the force. Their armour prevented them from getting cut, but it made them slow targets.

The monster quickly found an opening and wrapped itself around Vicin’s leg, and threw him across the cave, out from eyeshot.

“Vicin!” Lycin called out, hoping to get a response. “Rose, to your 8.” She quickly looked behind her, seeing an edge that no doubt went further into the cave. There was a convenient tree that had actual vines going down.

“Get you and Jacob out of here.” He said, slashing another vine. “I’ll go after Vicin.”

“Where do we regroup?” She asked, pulling Jacob, and holstering him around the vine, whilst taking shots. If not for the desperate situation, Lycin would’ve been flabbergasted on how well she could multitask.

“Not here, that’s for sure. We’ll find you alright? Just get somewhere safe, and see what’s wrong with him.”

“We’ll leave clues if we find a way out.” She added, in the event they got lucky. That was the last words they shared before Rose descended with the strapped Jacob.

With them gone, and with the creature having a shockingly small attack radius, Lycin was able to escape…

CH.2

Vicin’s armour was scattered across the forest, giving Lycin a track to follow. Growing more worried by each piece he found, he was relived to have finally found Vicin, eyes closed, hunched up against a rock.

His eyes opened when Lycin walked up to him.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes.” Lycin hunched down, ripping open his chest place. “Well, at least no bones are exposed. How you feeling?”

“I wish I was dead.” Vicin coughed out. “Hurts to talk.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“Well, at least you’re alive. I reckon you’d be dead by now if any arteries were pierced.” He tapped Vicin’s chest, causing him to give a pissed off look.

“That’s even more shocking. No pain in your chest?”

“You think I would have taken that silently? Do you know how much that would’ve hurt if my ribcage-”

“I thought it hurt to talk.”

“It does.”

“Hm…how about your legs?” Lycin reached for them.

“Don’t!” He gave an alarmed look. “They’re busted.”

“Both of them?”

“I was flung. What’d you expect?”

“Ah, come to think of it, you were grabbed by your foot. So broken legs, and it hurts to talk?”

“I got lucky.”

“Fucking lucky, I’d say. I hope we can say the same for Jacob.”

“Oh god, yeah. Where are they?”

“We got separated. Once I patch you up, we’ll go look for him.”

“What do you say his odds are?” Vicin asked with a glum look.

“Not good. Some purple lines had began to form on his face last I looked.”

“Fuuuuck. I liked that kid.”

“Mm, well, better not treat him as though he’s dead. If there’s anyone who can fix him, it’s Rose.”

“True enough. What about me then? You got any potions that heal broken bones?”

“I do, actually.”

“Well that’s convenient.”

“It’ll take a few days for you to fix though.”

“Never easy, is it? Give me it.”

He chugged it down upon it being handed to him. It tasted like chalk.

“Here’s some water.” Lycin got up, and looked around. “Well, for now, let's get you to that cave. If there are things like that here, best we don’t leave you out in the open.”

Cutting some bark off a nearby tree, Lycin used it as a sled to get Vicin to the cave. All things considered, the land was unnaturally flat, with the cave the only terrain that collapsed.

Lycin placed him in the corner, making him only visible to those who entered the cave.

“I’ll be back. I’m going to find Rose and Jacob.”

“Alright, be careful.”

He headed to the last place he’d seen them, but on the way he saw something flying high above him. Thinking at first it was a large creature, due to the low light and visibility, he soon realised it was multitudes of little creatures.

They were too small to correctly assess what they were, but they moved fast. Assessing he’d quickly be overwhelmed if they were hostile, Lycin made sure he was hidden from their view. He unholstered his bag and dug out a torch, just in preparation if he did get caught.

Evading them was quite easy; the trees gave ample protection, and soon Lycin found himself where he’d last seen the two lower themselves. Making his way down, he found footsteps.

Following them, he found a large open area of yellow flowers which bloomed upon being stepped nearby. Looking around for any sign of life, Lycin aimed to get to the waterfall. On the chance it had a cave behind it, he knew it was exactly where Rose would’ve taken the two.

It was midway through where the mass of flies came out from nowhere, immediately spotting Lycin. Any creature would’ve, as his grey armour was a powerful contrast against the yellow flowers.

Dread went through him as he began to light the torch. “By the Pulcha’s name, I hope this works.”

Work it did. As soon as the flame erupted, the flies had very quickly dispersed in fear.

“Hah! I guess even down here creatures are scared of fire.”

He was about to find out why. Walking over to the waterfall, he poked his head through it, going face to face with a wall. “Guess not here.”

With his hair soaked, the water began dropping onto the flowers, creating a sweet aroma that hit his nose immediately. He looked around, quickly realising the flowers were the cause of this. “Well, if we all get out of this, we could make a selling of these flowers.”

Picking a few to show to the others, a putrid smell soon hit his nose. He gagged in response, coughing his guts out.

He collapsed onto the floor, with the torch burning the flowers. The smell became even worse.

Lycin felt as though he’d ran a thousand miles, and all that distance had just got up to him in a second. His vision became blurry as he tried to escape, but his body failed him.

He promptly passed out, feeling the softness of the flowers and ground envelop him.

CH.3

Jacob’s situation had already gotten worse. The already purple veins had darkened, and now had covered most of his body.

Rose knew time was running out. She desperately scrounged around, testing all the new flora in hopes it could cure the poison. Luckily, the poison was made of a similar formula she knew. It was a rare and incredibly potent one, being able to take down even a pure blood lamire.

All she needed was the right ingredients…

“There’s nothing here for me to use. I’ll be right back, okay?” She said to the unresponsive boy. She quickly got up and ran, past the hedges and trees and into what was once a field of yellow, now turned into black ash.

“They got burned? By what, I wonder.” She give it little thought, running past the field up onto the vine she used to climb down, and headed into the direction she last saw Lycin. Following his tracks, she came across the cave Vicin was hiding in.

“Vicin?”

He gave no response, though he was visibly alive and seemingly well. Seeing a lone fly with a proboscis for a mouth, she promptly swatted it, causing Vicin to give a distressed response.

“Why’d you do that? That felt good.”

“It was poisoning you, Vicin. How long have you been like that?”

“Hm…not long after Lycin left.” He said in a drunken tone. His eyes were highly dilated, as though he’d taken powerful drugs. While it was nothing good, Rose concluded Jacob’s situation was far worse.

“Okay. Stay here, I’ll be back once I fix Jacob. Don’t let any of those things near you, you hear me?”

“But-”

“Vicin!” She demanded.

“Okay! Fine! Jeez. Wouldn’t be saying that if you felt it.”

She left the cave, finding a variety of berries nearby. She tested them by putting them in a solution she took everywhere they went. It revealed what chemicals something contained, and for an experienced mixer like Rose, it was the perfect tool to know what was safe to mix to get the needed concoction.

These such berries were exactly what she needed, but she needed something else to mix an antidote. Something that would keep Jacob’s body going while the berries worked their magic.

“I need a crystal.” She murmured to herself. It was here she wished she’d found Lycin or Vicin in a capable state. “It can’t be pure luck we’d run into crystals as soon as we discovered this place. There has to be more nearby…but that’s no guarantee it’s not a trap like the other.”

She made her way back to their collapsed entrance. If they wanted to get out, they’d need to figure out a way to deal with the monster anyhow. The crystals were no longer back on the floor but rather on the ceiling as they were before.

“Great…” She fired an arrow at one of the crystals to gauge a reaction. Upon it being shattered, the rest of the crystals dropped and all of the limbless arms reached for her.

Out of range. They barely could touch the trees on the outskirts, let alone the rows that Rose hid behind.

“There’s even more now. They must have gotten something from Jacoc.” Either way, even someone as fast as Rose would be unable to dodge more than a hundred moving appendages at once.

She needed a distraction.

An idea popped through her head, though it wasn’t one she was proud of.

With a sigh, she made her way back to the cave, finding another fly, she swatted it.

“Ugh! Again?! What’s wrong with you!?”

“You want more?” Rose asked, seeing the anger fade from his face instantly. “There’s a place nearby. Can you walk?”

Though she didn’t know about his broken legs, she did find it odd how he showed no signs of injury. Truth be told, she believed he was dead, but her focus was on Jacob at the time.

The focus was still on Jacob, as she took him past the forest, and on the edge.

“You see those crystals? They contain the same chemicals that give you that high.

“Really?” The normal Vicin would never have been this gullible, even in his youth.

“Yes. They’re guarded though. Do you remember?”

“I remember entering. That about it.” Rose barely understood him from all the slurring.”

“Okay. It’s not a big deal if you’re caught, but I’d try to avoid them. The biggest priority is you getting the crystals.”

“Alright, let’s do this.”

Shooting the crystal gave the same outcome. To Vicin’s credit, he managed to throw 7 crystals before being caught. Rose tried to protect him as best as she could, and if he was actually able to fight she might have been able too, but his state was too dire, and there were too many angles he exposed.

If five tentacles put Jacob in the state he was in, 30, 40, would be a death sentence.

Atleast, that’s what Rose thought, but she realised that wasn’t the case. With Vicin dangling in the air with a stupored face, she realised the monster was keeping him alive.

“Vicin?” She asked, getting no response. “...I’m sorry.” She believed the least she could do was put an arrow through his head, rather than leaving him there for the monster to feed off him. The end result would be the same anyway: Vicin was dead.

And so was Lycin, who’s body she found in the field. His nose, ears, and mouth all had blood coming out of it, and looking through the small hole in his head, she concluded whatever got to him, had taken his brain.

She had no words for his ceaseless body. No grand or mild feelings were felt by her, and she knew she wouldn’t have any sleep taken away from her from seeing his empty eyes. But she did wish Vicin and Lycin weren't dead.

Already having wasted more than a minute, she returned to Jacob, whose condition hadn’t worsened somehow. Atleast, that’s how it appeared on the surface, and Rose knew Jacob was sleeping his last moments away.

To make the cure was simple, but required the appropriate tools.

An encapsulated box that provided a vacuum and could crush any object up to a certain strength. While diamonds were too strong, crystals weren’t that much harder than coal, and would be crushed easily. The vacuum would ensure the mana wouldn’t escape.

Crushing the crystal in the top half of the box, using a slider that moved vertically, Rose opened up the bottom of the box, and placed some berries in there. Shutting it up, she clicked a button on the side which removed the barrier between the top and bottom half of the device. She proceeded to shake it, infusing the berries with the mana.

For a few minutes she shook, keeping an eye on Jacob. No tools existed, but if they had, Rose would have seen his brain was firing neurons faster than usual. For someone who was supposedly asleep, Jacob was more awake then ever before.

“Alright, here we go.” Opening his mouth, Rose crushed the berries, allowing the juice to fall down his throat. She did 3 first of all, seeing the effect they had.

After a minute of seeing his veins dissipate, she gave him one more, and then another after a minute. This continued for 10 minutes before his entire body was back to normal.

She didn’t expect him to wake up until a full night’s rest, so placing him underneath her blanket, which was unexpectedly the same colour as the environment, she kept watch from a tall enough tree to see the surrounding area.

CH.4

Four hours passed before Rose checked on Jacob again. Having trouble breathing, she gave him a potion to resolve that. Hearing his heartbeat, it was oddly calm, and by his body posture, he was evidently having a good dream.

Checking on his eyes, all she saw was his whites. She patted him down for any potential insects that had begun poisoning him, but found nothing of the sort.

“Side effect of the berries perhaps. It will be hard to help if he gains an addiction, but it’d be better than him dying.” More hours passed. Then a day, then several days. In that time, Rose had found a way out, and while she wanted to drag Jacob out of there, she feared anything he carried would spread to the overworld.

She continued to look after him, the thought of leaving him not once going through her head. She had a feeling he was dying, and after the second day after giving him the berries, Jacob’s alive yet rotting body confirmed this.

“What is killing you?” She asked. She stroked his hair, with his head on her lap. “Your organs are alive and beating, you don’t throw up when fed, yet you don’t react to pain and you can’t wake up…”

It was his fingers and toes that began to decay first, but after another few hours, even his vital organs were hit. There was only one part that Rose hadn’t had a look at, the one thing that would certainly mean Jacob’s death.

“...I’m sorry.” She planted a kiss on his cheek, and got up. For the first time, tears fell down her cheek.

She planted a knife through his heart. No part of his body showed any signs of being stabbed, but that changed quickly. Soon, he was gone, and Rose got her scalpel, and got to work exposing his brain, hoping to find something.

It was more than just something. His brain was covered in green moss, with flowers budding in between core sections of the brain. While Rose was no expert on brains, she did know the flowers were positioned over the different lobes.

Cutting them off was not simple, as they rooted deep into his brain.

“They were feeding off you. But how did this even happen? Was it the initial attack you suffered? Were seeds injected into your bloodstream?” That was the best conclusion she could reach right now.

“...I’ll find out. I promise you, your death will not go without purpose.”

She dragged him by his feet to the nearby field where Lycin’s and Vicin’s body was. It turns out, once the vines realised Vicin’s body was of no use -due to the fact Rose had shot and seriously damaged his brain-, they threw his body away, but had kept the brain. She now suspected they didn’t want anyone to know their secrets.

Laying him down on top of his own wooden pillar, much like the ones the other’s had, she began to burn the three bodies. Mostly to prevent their bodies from being used anymore, but also to collect their ashes.

It was the only way to get them out of there now.

The bodies burnt quickly thanks to the combustible and high heat nature of the plants nearby. It was no wonder why most of the wildlife were terrified of flames.

Putting them each into a small urn, one Rose usually used for storing herbs and salt, Rose left the place she had dubbed the sub-saltu, the underground jungle. She needed a name to tell others about its existence.

With the crystals, she’d be able to sell for a huge profit, she’d start a research centre in Pulcha dedicated to researching the sub-saltu. It was the only place she’d find like minded people to help her, one of which being a genuine Pulcha who Rose had a feeling would be interested in her discovery.

Using a tunnel another group had certainly dug out, it took Rose several days to reach the surface. The first thing she did was scatter her parties ashes, allowing their souls to reach Anirrae

With the walls of Pulcha in sight, Rose made her way to the pride of Kavar.