Chapter 63: The grind

Dreams are a strange thing. It’s a way for the brain to parse through memories and tell us of unknown desires, fears, anything really. In this world of magic and skills, they are more; entire worlds on their own, supported by our souls and the magic our bodies contain. Skills can be used to shape dreams, morph them into shields or even weapons.

They can be valuable windows to the mind where one might steal deep secrets or implant desires, it is up to the skill used.

…

Why did I do it? Isn’t it obvious? Strength is all. Does it really matter that I took some of those dreams and used them for my own? Is it really a crime to nudge someone in a certain direction? A push really. You’re acting as if they wouldn’t end up there without me.

It was barely a nudge.

…

-Seriam (D) [Rashaa: Dream weaver].

Convicted of the following:

* Usage of mind-altering magics

* Theft of mental property

* Inducing nightmares

* Editing memories

* Creation of false memories

* Creation of mind-altering and memory-inducing medicine

* Instigating murder

* breaking minds

Punishment: Chained sacrifice to the Underworld.

Status: Dead; Confirmed.

__

“So you have decided what to do with your event points?” Sairal asks me while sitting on the walls, legs dangling beyond the Bastion. Apparently, the dryad has watched most of our menial Cave crawler slaying from the battlements.

My venture beyond the walls still doesn’t sit right with him. However, seeing me in my domain mowing down the Cave crawlers in my safe, central room, has allowed for some leniency. Meaning, that I didn’t receive advice from him when we returned.

“Yeah. I want to use that pill of aching nightmares after I get a few more levels so I can gain the maximum benefit,” I reply.

From the pill, I can get between 50 and 75 stat points to my Mind stat but I need to get to level 8 first if I manage to get lucky. I scroll through the notifications from my earlier expedition beyond the walls and sigh.

Four hours of insect slaying has given me only a single level. It is expected but still leaves a sour taste in my mouth. No wonder that Cobalt has been sitting in (F) grade for so long.

And with the pests currently the only large source of experience in the outskirts, my future seems to be drenched in ichor and fragments of chitin if I want to get stronger as fast as I can. Maybe I’ll go after some humans with Cobalt to break up the monotony. If time has told, there are likely more forest dwellers out there, hidden away or fighting back. In some ways, those soldiers donned in their armour are more of a threat than the Cave crawlers. Sadly though, the humans don’t come in the same numbers, forcing me to spend time searching for parties of golden soldiers in the muddy world.

“It’s dangerous,” Sairal says, “The pill of aching nightmares isn’t something you pop and then get the stats. Strength through temperament,” he echoes the description. “Coming from the Event store, it might not be correct. And yet, as I have said, it will hold a kernel of truth.”

“I don’t have enough event points for Elixirs and I don’t want the one where that alchemist tortured flowers and committed war crimes against a beehive anyway,” I say.

Sairal hums to himself, looking through the system event store on his own. “I see what you mean. It isn’t my field but she could’ve transmuted the honey with some magical stones attuned to fire and earth. It is needlessly cruel,” he agrees.

His eyes narrow as he catches on that I managed to change the topic, “Your plan is still carelessly dangerous.”

We sit silently on the walls, watching the sun slowly fall beyond the horizon.

“Besides, you don’t have enough of the 15 per cent boost to get the entire benefit,” he says after doing some simple counting.

“Yes,” I say hesitantly. “I need to get to level eight.”

He rounds on me, eyebrows twitching in anger, “You need five more levels?”

I look away from him. “It’s a few trips beyond the walls.”

He scoffs and shakes his head, “A few? Green, five levels in (F) grade isn’t something easily attainable. You made a promise. Are you going back on your word?”

I gulp as the dryad’s eyes meet mine, the root network in his irises sparkling with life. “Look, I know I made a promise but we need this. This is the best use for my event points. I don’t need any equipment outside of rings. What I truly need to get stronger are Stats.”

His legs swing back and forth with ceaseless energy while he bites on his lower lip, “The insects have asked for reinforcements after I blew their hives up. It won’t be long until they arrive. You’ll be looking at high (F) grades and likely strong (E) grades in the field. In a week or two, it’ll be even dangerous for Cobalt to venture beyond the walls.”

“How am I supposed to grow stronger with those wandering about? I’ll get trapped if I don’t go out now.” I reply.

The dryad’s eyes unfocus as he glances at something in the sky. His fingers twitch but don’t dip into his pocket space. “Fine. You can go out and get those needed levels, only if you stick with the tactics you used today.” He pauses, likely considering to let me in on one of his secrets. Irritation flashes on his face as he concludes that sharing this secret is better. The dryad is fond of his secrets after all.

“One of my skills has sent several warnings to me in the past few days. If I am getting warned, it is something strong enough to defeat me,” he glances up at the sky again as if watching a clock ticking down above our heads, “It is far away for now, like a storm cloud on the horizon, distant yet looming. When the time comes, you should be as strong as can be. Everyone should.”

Sairal looks over his shoulder at the guardians and the new citizens of the Bastion. “You’ll take Zerzia along. She won’t join any battles. Instead, she’ll stand ready to boost Cobalt if she faces something troubling. You should also tempt Zillindial with the allure of skill levels. He isn’t strong compared to the rest. However, he’ll be able to take the pressure off you when your Resources start to dwindle.”

He continues to list tips, telling me how to use the Panda in battle, which boils down to leaving her on the sideline to buff certain abilities and not ever letting her fight against something.

“...You’ll also take the mushroom guardians born from the special spores along. They need levels and with the Bastion currently not under siege, they are getting restless,” he says casually.

I gape at him with sudden confusion. Moments ago the dryad was mad. I broke a promise and now he is giving me as much support as he can?

Sairal catches on to my question and shrugs, “While I dislike you venturing out, I can see that it is a necessity. Rarely there are rewards without risk. That is why I’m sending some support along with you.”

“And Hornet?” I ask.

“He’ll be more trouble than he’s worth, unfortunately. I still have half a mind to send him along to push him up to (F) grade, only for the sheer combat strength he’ll have with an upgraded skill,” Sairal leans back on the walls, watching the sky. “Have you seen him play with the smaller guardians?” he shifts the topic slightly.

“Yeah, I have,” just yesterday he somehow got into trouble with a few guardians after trying to sneak into the lake. As always, when you tell them not to do something, the small guardians decide to do the exact opposite.

“He is a child,” Sairal says somewhat uneasy now that he has to care for one so fragile, “One with too much strength at his fingers and a burden too heavy to carry. I don’t fault the new forest dwellers for pushing him to take on that role. They’d be dead if Hornet didn’t specialize in fighting. But now it is time for him to rest, take a break, and enjoy his life for as long as I can manage.”

I smile at him, happy to be on the same page. “He’ll want to come along,” I add.

“And I will keep him occupied.”

The dryad stretches out like a cat, “Oh and Green?”

“Mh?”

“Never break your promises again,” he says with a smile that promises violence.

***

After the sun fully dips beyond the horizon, Sairal shoves me off the walls, afraid that the Mindhorrers are in the mood for mandrake flesh.

I stroll to Sairal’s tree, ready for a nap on the soft moss and change direction to Zillindial’s garden. Where the flowers he used for combat were simple in nature, only tending to have one colour and a simple effect, the ones he keeps in his garden are the opposite.

Each of them is a work of art, colours freely melding into each other on the petals. Their shape too, is unique. There are the tall flowers that droop back down, their necks bowed due to the flower’s weight. Others freely crawl over the ground, winning a slow war with the surrounding grass.

As small as his garden is, the air is subdued. Not in the manner of silent screams that came from his throat in his sleep, or in the way air grows stale in a closed-off room. Here, there is peace or some semblance of it.

I step over a small green bush with thick leaves and small flowers of a dozen colours and meet up with the bear.

Currently, he’s busy carving the logs we used for the temporary walls into supports for his flowers and something else. He gently peels the bark off a log with one of Sairal’s knives and carves it down into planks, the blade seamlessly slicing through the wood.

“What are you making?” I ask the bear after he lays sticks meant to support some of the drooping flowers aside.

Zillindial looks up at me with a brittle smile on his face, “I had a bench in my previous garden. There isn’t anyone to sleep on it. Not anymore. I…it needs to be here.”

The [Green Bear] continues working on the planks, sanding them down, and peeling off anything sharp with his trimmed nails. The bear, still aching, finally looks peaceful after days of wandering around the bastion with a lost look on his face.

“So,” I say and try to continue the conversation, “Cobalt, Zerzia and I will be going out again tomorrow with a few extra mushroom guardians for additional support. Want to come along and kill some more bugs?”

Zillindial nods as he peels off a particular tenacious bit of bark that somehow still manages to cling to one of the planks. “I’d like that if I can stay in that maze you made.”

“That’s the idea, along with some extra rooms for a few others. We’ll be out longer this time though,” I add.

The bear thinks about it for a second more before nodding again, “I don’t mind if I get to rest. Having all of my fur fall leaves me feeling naked, so I’d like to avoid that next time,” he says with a faint blush under his fur.

“Yeah, with the others, it won’t be like that this time around. Expect it to be far tamer,” I make some more small talk with him, listening to how he’s trying to combine the basic flowers he used in his offence garden into something more complex and dangerous. How he sees each colour flower as building blocks and the flower’s shape as a spell matrix, is interesting, to say the least.

Zillindial talks with infectious passion, telling of the vast flower fields that must lay deeper in the forest, where flowers that exude shadow or even mist grow among the grass like the crests of waves.

The sun fully sets and the small mushrooms that are strewn about the grassland light up, bringing a piece of the stars down to the ground. The bear, finally noting how much time has passed, quickly apologises and vanishes into a burrow he made under his garden.

I wave at him and resume on my way to Sairal’s tree where Cobalt is already resting against the tree’s trunk. Her posture is slouched and relaxed while her head lolls to the side.

I lay down on the moss close to the tree’s base, careful to avoid the hibernating guardians and idly scroll through the system store. Today’s pest extermination has brought me back up to 4.000 event points. Half of that is reserved for the pill of aching nightmares. The rest is free for me to spend on anything I want.

For a few minutes, I filter through the store, scrolling through the most expensive items it offers. The price for one of these items numbers in the millions of points, likely demanding a partial or a total annihilation of a faction taking part to get to that amount. All that for a single item.

Strangely, while there are plenty of swords and a few magic wands, most of the truly expensive items are of one type; crowns. I pull up one of the nicer-looking ones and give a confused look at the system notice under the description.

*Cost: 50.000.000; The Crown of Ruby’s Perdition (?) | Stock: 1

….The World whispers and the Depths listen…. Be warned, a crown is the foreboding weight that shadows every step of a sovereign, the most oppressive burden one can bear. It is the shackle that binds the unbounded. It is…

*System notice: Due to low level and low inspection skill level, parts of the description are hidden.

I didn’t know the System could be stingy about information. It hasn’t done that before and the cost of points is outrageous.

I continue to scroll through the window, staring at the other crowns listed in the system store. The cheapest crown, one that also has most of its description hidden from me, is still worth over 10 million points.

My thoughts shift and the system window responds, now showing rings for my current grade and in my price range. Specifically, I want to splurge on an elemental resistance. Most of the other boosting rings seem to be out of my price range either way.

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For some of the resistances, the rings are a dime a dozen. The rings that defend against whipping blasts of wind or angry lighting falling from the sky are so numerous that it makes me wonder if getting struck by lightning is a normal occurrence here. For the elements I’m interested in, the rings are fewer in number.

Cobalt has been growing in her capabilities as a cryomancer or whatever the monster equivalent is. It has allowed her to take down strong foes, freezing their bodies and slowing their movements. Unfortunately, her skills target a wide area. She can partly direct it with her milestones, though, anyone will still be affected by it. And since I always stay near Cobalt while fighting something big, it’s useful for me to get some of that sweet ice resistance without offering up a skill slot.

Ice resistance only has a dozen or so rings. Half of them I don’t even bother properly looking at. Yes, not feeling the cold is nice…until your fingers freeze off your hands since it doesn’t grant any resistance.

One of the better ones, strangely, only offers defence to solid chunks of ice, and not against the element. The system has even added a notice to the ring that snow apparently doesn’t fall under the category ‘solid ice’, making it even less useful.

I scroll back to the top and stare at the most expensive ring.

*Cost: 1500; Ring of Defiant Permafrost (El) | Stock: 1

This ring has been forged from the persistent ice that refused to melt in the Tundra of Destiny (Last trek layer eight of the Underworld). The Cold, harmful to the living, has been changed by an Ice Mage, experienced in the arts. It offers protection against all forms of cold, including snow, hail, and even frozen winds.

The ring, intended for talented (F) grades and (E) grades, is the equivalent of a level 30 (C) Ice resistance skill.

Requirements: (F) grade or higher.

The price is a bit higher than the ring of flame resistance I bought earlier but this one is a bit stronger, likely still being of some use in (E) grade if the description proves to be true. I buy it and groan at the delivery timer that decided that it needs to be 21 hours until the ring arrives.

With my business done, I close all my system windows and go to sleep.

***

In the muddy landscape, the hives looming over us kilometres away, I set up the defences. The bindweed spreads out under the ground and sprouts upwards at the edges of my domain, temporarily shutting the Cave crawlers out while I sort everything out.

I speak to Zillindial first, talking about whether he wants his garden to be the same size, which plants he will be using and what kind of Cave crawlers I should send his way. Even with what the bear said yesterday, he’s willing to go at it again, demanding more space for a bigger garden. “I need the space for testing different flowers and maybe a new skill,” is all he says as bindweed rises forming the first room in my domain.

Up next are the smaller mushroom guardians that are steadily climbing up in (H) grade. Aeru uses his hands to convey the size of the room he needs. Strangely, the Mushroom guardian has decided that he wants a place close to the border of my domain, eager to take on the bigger Cave crawlers. Instead, I settle for a smaller room right next to me where I can step in if need be.

The guardian sulks off, following behind the other four who are already setting up their own magics and defences. Sairal already told me that these guardians, born from spores that originate from the third layer of the Depths, are special. Special in the sense of having innate feats thanks to their origin, allowing them to receive better evolutions and stronger skills more easily.

Seeing, that Leo, the cap on his head perpetually dripping black gunk, is coating his dagger that he certainly stole from Sairal in it as if he is a master assassin, it seems to hold true. Aeru and Sulli both glow with light, one placing it in the corners of the room and the other coating the needle he fleeced off Hornet in it.

The remaining two mushroom guardians who are a bit more reserved than the others stay at the back. Bright blue bubbles with a metallic sheen are conjured forward by Azure while Cinella casts magic on the ground, small mushrooms quickly begging to sprout.

The five form up in a formation, ready to fight the insects that’ll come through the entrance in a few moments. The entire show makes me feel off-tilter as if I missed something. Not even two weeks ago, they were taunting the lake monster and pestering Sairal. And now they look like professional Cave crawler exterminators.

“Are you done?” Cobalt asks me as she stretches out her arms.

“In a few minutes. I still need to fill everything in,” I reply as the corridors come into existence, bindweed growing out of the ground.

“Very well, Mandrake Green. I will excuse myself and warm up…or rather cool down while the weaker Cave crawlers are still present. If we need to relocate, I will inform you.” Cobalt takes advantage of the sprouting walls, using them as stepping stones, reaching higher before leaping over the outer wall.

There is a moment of silence between me and the last person who Sairal forced along. “What will I do?” Zerzia asks me.

I split my focus and give her a look, “Sairal hasn’t told you?”

The [Support Panda] shakes her head, “Master only told me to follow every order you give to the letter.”

The walls stop rising from the ground for a split second as my confusion grows. Did she call Sairal her master?

I fully ignore the question on my tongue, unwilling to ask her to elaborate. It’ll be the dryad’s problem. Not mine. “Okay,” I say taking a deep breath. “We’re staying further away from the hives in the hope that we won’t attract as much attention from the stronger bugs. Though, they might still show up suddenly. If that happens it’s your job to buff Cobalt and possibly me to either fight or run away as fast as we can.”

The Panda nods, “I understand, fabled mandrake. Wouldn’t it be wise to relocate before the ones claimed to be too strong appear?”

Fabled mandrake? I’m skipping over that one too. I’m here to fight the bugs, not to get trapped in a conversation with a Panda that learned the wrong lessons from a dryad she followed in her past.

“We’ll try,” I say after a moment. “But things can and will always go wrong. Who knows, maybe one of those strong Cave crawlers stumbles upon us while it’s scouting the area.”

The conversation sputters out and the (I) grades vanish for the stronger (H) grades. Quickly enough, Dance of Death activates and my focus merges with the defences I control.

At first, I thought that having an additional room to guide the insects in makes everything easier. But the opposite holds true.

Sections constantly shift, funnelling anything (H) grade and below to the mushroom guardians if they aren’t overwhelmed. Some go to Zillindial for his experiments and the rest are killed off by me, peeling vines off walls, covering them in thorns and slamming them through the Cave crawlers.

A state of mind is entered, one where there isn’t a place for spare thoughts. The skills and their uses are in the forefront of my mind as they all chime together, killing the bugs, dancing to a tune that draws itself ever closer to reality with each skill level Dance of Death gains.

If there are any distractions, it are the Elites that enter my domain, confident that they’ll be the ones to end the bindweed once and for all. Even so, all of them fall, having one weakness or another. The magical ones are pushed back, and taken down when their spells falter or their mana runs dry. Elites that rely on skills crumble when their Resources falter. Each one of the strange Cave crawlers is a puzzle to me, forcing me to push my abilities in one way or another, always ending with their death.

A Cave crawler made of shadows explodes into a fine mist, thinking that it can move through my maze in its incorporeal form. The vines swish through the air, dispersing the cloud and killing the Cave crawler in the process, unable to pull itself back together. The one who needs oxygen to start its fire finds itself without air. And the blue pest that tried to drown me, drowns in an ocean of bindweed.

***

Cobalt enters the maze after five hours of gruelling Cave crawler extermination. The last encounter she had with an Elite that was made of metal left cracks in her body as she systematically tore the monster down.

“We need to move soon, Mandrake Green,” is all she says while sitting down next to me, ignoring the awe that shines in Zerzia’s eyes.

“Want to rest first?” I ask her while my attention is drawn to the corridor that leads to the guardians. I shift a wall, funnelling more of the pests to Zillindial.

“If time allows. I do not want to strain the Resources you have.”

Now that Cobalt has retreated, I’m in the spotlight. The frozen mists that shrouded my walls, evaporate under the sun, telling the whole world that an oasis of greenery is here. And so, the Cave crawlers aren’t held back by her attack my walls with newly gained fervour.

“I’m at half Resources. If you want to set up somewhere else quickly, you don’t have long to rest,” I say slightly guilty. Only Cobalt hasn’t taken any breaks. It isn't that she didn’t want to. Even she, who holds a particular hatred for the bugs, needs to rest from time to time. I simply can’t handle the current level of attention from the hundreds of (G) grades crowding around, meaning that she has to do overtime.

The mist blazes on her body as she forcibly cools herself down. “Can you grant me five minutes?”

I check my resources and give a nod, “The second round will begin with a smaller domain. I’ll recover when there are only the (H) and (I) grades to deal with.”

She gives me a thankful look and her posture decays, slightly.

I count down the minutes and funnel more towards Zillindial, telling him to use his entire garden and stop replenishing his flowers. The mushroom guardians retreat, most having gained a level or two already.

When the five minutes come to a close, I disconnect and we flee out of Cave crawler territory while enjoying a small speed boost from Zerzia as we retreat and set up shop somewhere else.

***

The second round of the day progresses much like the first. There are some Elites, Zillindial accidentally blows up his entire garden and three of my walls with a failed experiment, and Cobalt rages against one of the insects that continues to evade her every move by sprinting through the air.

Nothing much changes until Zerzia asks to join in…as a combatant.

“Are you sure?” I ask her, unable to keep the scepticism out of my voice. Sairal told me not to but I’m willing to give her a chance. The panda has grown antsy during the hours she needed to stand guard next to me. Always watching the fighting, yet never joining in.

Zerzira is large. Like someone wanted to see how a panda would look standing up without removing any of their bulk and muscle. Meaning, she is built like she benches not just the weights but the gym itself.

“Yes?” she asks me as if she’s uncertain of her own opinion. “Is it fine for me to sit around while everyone fights?”

Yes, it is exactly why you are here; for emergencies.

She continues to look up at me with expectation on her face as if I’m supposed to give her orders. And for a second a faint feeling of vertigo washes over me. Since when did I become the leader in the field? isn’t Cobalt supposed to command?

I shake the confusion away and give Zerzia a calming smile since her face has started to break up in worry. “I’m fine with you joining in,” I say, already pulling walls down and forming a room for her to fight in. “But remember that you are needed for emergencies. I don’t have the complete picture of your skills and you know what’s best either way.”

She nods and moves into the free room. I shift the hallways around and let a weak (H) grade enter first to gauge her strength.

The [Support Panda]’s fist slams through the bug as soon as it enters her room, insides splattering on her fur. Slowly, I let more of the stronger insects fight her.

Funnily enough, she relies purely on her physical strength, not even bothering to use her skills. And with that alone, she manages to take out a peak (G) grade while only sustaining minor wounds.

I give her a break and move on, adjusting my maze and targeting an Elite that’s trying to freeze my walls.

***

When the sun sets, we finally head back to the Bastion, most of us have gained a few skill levels and some even a level or two in our species. I’m too tired to even properly shift through my notifications, content to collapse on the moss and ready to repeat it again the next day.

***

On day two of mowing down Cave crawlers, stranger things begin to happen. The first of the reinforcements Sairal had been talking about make themselves known. The Elites, mostly varying in their colour, magic, or size, grow diverse.

One of the insects has its front limbs replaced with scythes. It moves past Cobalt and targets my walls. Immediately, my vines are torn apart, separating for the hand-knifes as if the bindweed isn’t there. The bug pushes through the outer walls and ignores my carefully set corridors and paths, content to find its own way through my domain.

The walls topple over as the insect aimlessly wanders through the maze searching for me. Thorns don’t do anything against the insect, the vines either too slow or the thorns too weak to puncture through the shell.

I pull Zerzia back out of her room. “Boost me as much as you can!” I yell at her as another wall is cut down.

The Panda, panicked by the command, doesn’t hold back and presses all of her strength into me, layering onto Stamina Surge. My eyes almost pop under the sudden pressure and the bruises bloom on my body, entire vines collapsing under the violent energy. My heart thrums with pain and the world grows blurry for a second before growing solid again.

A part of Zerzia’s strength extends to the maze around me, making the walls slightly sturdier and my thorns a bit sharper. I lash out with my bindweed, asking it to coil around the front and get rid of those scythe arms.

The monster pushes back against me, body blurring as it darts back in the passage it made to evade the bindweed around it. It uses a skill and a blade of wind leaves one of the front limbs. It zips through the air, slicing through my entire domain, a quarter of Zillindial’s garden setting off countless explosions, barely missing the bear before fizzling out as the energy depletes itself.

The bear roars in anger and enters the fight. Most of his fur falls out and flowers sprout on every surface. Some of them still are the rudimentary ones with only a single colour. The rest are the ones he rambled about. Each one a spell only in the form of a flower.

He uses flashes of light to burn holes in the Cave crawler’s vision, giving me ample time to nip at the monster’s backside. I find an opening and wrap my vines around the monster, quickly incapacitating it. Everything returns to the way it was and Zillindial stares at the new Cave crawler, noting the blade limbs.

I disconnect myself from the ground and let my hand slide over the walls to keep contact while I approach the bear and the new puzzle that has entered my domain.

“Can you keep guard until the skills run out? I’ve been practising on my thorns but it isn’t enough to get the job done,” I ask the bear while he tends to the flowers around the Cave crawler.

Zillindial grimaces, “I think I can break its skill with a particular combination of my flowers.”

With Zerzia’s magic on me, I separate another part of my mind away to close down my domain for a few minutes while I handle this. It’ll cost a bit more Stamina, but I need to have total control here for everything to work.

"Combination?" I repeat. He told me something of that a few days ago, along with over 50 species of plants, and stories about glowing mosses and flower gardens kept by others.

“Mutations,” he corrects himself, “Something in between. The skills the beetle and you use have some interesting components to them. I was thinking of adding two crimson for shrapnel, a red for fire and several blues to add to the explosion, giving the shrapnel enough power to pierce through the shell. For the form, I was thinking of…” I do my best to listen to the arcane mysteries and how colours are the building blocks along with the flower’s shape.

When I’m halfway done with working through how it exactly works, he seems to already have a solution, “The monster can’t move, meaning creeping vine with downward propulsion. Just like the thorns you use but with some extra kick to it.”

“How long do you need?” I ask the bear.

“Ten minutes. The bindings will be destroyed, even if it doesn’t work,” Zillindial warns.

I give him a nod and return to my station again. A vine is pushed beyond my usual domain and catches Cobalt’s attention. She enters the fortress and takes place next to me.

After relaying the situation and staring at the monster she turns back to me. “Perhaps I should take care of it,” She warns me. An Elite this strange shouldn’t be a test subject.

“No,” I reply while killing a (G) grade in one of the corridors and sectioning off Zerzia’s room since she is getting a bit too much into it. “I want to see what he can do. Zillindial is confident.”

She turns back to the bear and watches a tiny patch of almost black leaves with white flowers that turn crimson at the edges grow on the bindweed. The petals of each flower, slowly aim directly downward like little knives hanging over the insect’s head.

“Yes,” she admits. “I too desire to understand what Green Bear Zillindial can do.”

I let her move into one of the hallways to roam around and take some of the pressure off until Zillindial tells me he’s ready.

Instead of having it take ten minutes, he spends well over twenty covering the bindings of the monster with the strange plants. His fur is matted with sweat and he lulls back and forth, his balance faded away with most of his resources invested into the flowers.

He edges back to us and shelters behind me, his knees buckling to keep him standing. “I can activate the flowers,” he says.

I hold up my hand for him to wait, letting a bindweed wall with some peepholes grow between the monster and us. If the thing manages to survive, we’ll have a moment longer to react to it.

I give the signal to Zillindial and the flowers activate. It isn’t instantaneous, the petals first move into position and the leaves on the plant ignite with gold and green. The monster, sensing danger tries to use its scythes again. But it is far too late.

The plant lets go of its petals with tiny sparks and burning light. The rims of the petals burn up, reacting with the water to create a deadly force that pushes the crimson shards down. They seamlessly cut through the bindweed, leaving thin, barely perceptible lines in my bindweed and the Cave crawler.

The only reminder that anything even happened is the plant aflame with golden fire and thin streaks of ichor that roll out of the Cave crawler.

While one of the petals might hurt a monster a bit if they don’t get hit in a vulnerable spot, a lot of them will do the job. I untangle the vines and look at the still Cave crawler. Somehow, Zillindial managed to get quite a few of the flowers to focus their ire on the insect’s head, resulting in it being peppered with fine gaps of missing chitin.

“Cobalt, can you get the scythes of that monster? Sairal will like them, I think,” I say and move back into position. There are still two hours before we need to rotate to another place.