Chapter 8: Moonlight

The monster keeps roaming about outside. Its footsteps sound like gongs to my ears, each one like thunder and wrath of the skies.

Something flashes pearly white in the moonlight. Teeth sharp as razors are revealed to me, as the monster opens its maw.

I move to the opposite side of my home, pushing against the wall and trying my best to blend in with the roots. It works decently, though, roots don’t have leaves on them.

The monster outside sniffs the air, growling as it catches a scent. Please, just please go away and hunt something else. I know that I’m a very valuable monster, but other monsters shouldn’t care about that right?

Okay, think. There must be a way to survive this. I can’t fight it. I don’t know how strong it is. I can’t escape either, it’s blocking the exit and even if I somehow manage to leave my home, that thing will never leave me alone. So that leaves hiding…

Uh, I’m gonna die aren’t I?

But maybe, just maybe I can blend in with the roots if I don’t have my leaves. It has to be dark enough in here so it hasn’t seen me fully. It might just be tracking me by scent.

I need to blend in, and I can if I just…

My hands reach up to my crown of leaves. All of the leaves are folded in on themselves since there isn’t any sunlight. My eyes fall shut as I prepare for the pain. My hand grasps around the first leaf and I pull.

My entire body twists as if something is wrong. Shudders run wild through me, as my body convulses. My stomach twists in knots and my lungs scream for air.

Tears well up in my eyes and I feel like something is missing in me; as if I just cut a piece of my soul.

I clench my fists and breathe in the air that feels painfully thin.

Outside the monster sniffs the air again. It won’t wait for me.

One by one I pluck the leaves off, not letting the slightest whimper escape my lips. No sooner than I am done, the monster lets out a low growl. The sound is accompanied by claws scraping over bark.

Something new flashes in the moonlight. The monster is prowling around the tree, looking for me. Scales and fur flash in the moonlight.

Confusion and fear fill my head. Reptilian eyes, fangs, fur and a howl. This can’t be one creature. There must be more of them outside waiting for me to leave the safe confines of my home.

Before I can puzzle it out, the monsters begin to dig around the tree, cutting through the roots and getting closer to me. My heart falls into my stomach at how easily the monster cuts through the bark and wood.

I see paws with long claws on them cut through the dirt. Seeing my chance I use one of my skills.

[???] lvl ??/?? (F)

Fuck me. I can’t beat this. I probably can’t even hide from it.

Teeth flash in my vision, closing around a root. With a vicious clench, the root is chomped in half. This isn’t a home anymore, it is a prison, the roots being the bars that trap me underground.

The biting, howling, and whatever else continues as the monster takes its time as if it is unpacking a present. I just stand against the wall, doing my best to blend with the roots. The droplets of sap that run down my body doesn't help blending me in. No matter how well I hide, it will probably be able to pick me out with its sense of smell.

HP: 6/21

I shouldn’t have pulled off my leaves. At least before I stood a bigger chance against it.

A furry snout, sprinkled with scales, pushes through the entrance, ready to gobble me up in a single bite. I feel the beast’s attention focus on me as it sniffs everything in the root chamber.

The snout retreats. For a second I think that somehow, against all the odds, I managed to survive this. But a howl, far louder than the other ones, accompanied by a rake of its claws that make the tree topple over, ends my hope.

So much for my second life.

In a very last attempt to blend in, I close my eyes so that I truly have all the features that a root should have.

Strangely as my end nears, I feel a calmness wash over me. That void where nothing mattered, where there was nothing and there will never be anything, doesn’t seem so bad. It is better than feeling the dread of the end that keeps trying to surface above the calmness of having given up on it all.

Wet, sticky breath that smells like the blood of the monsters that have previously fallen on it earlier in the night wafts through the root chamber.

Air twists in the tiny chamber. It lunges towards me. I wait for its jaws to ensnare me like a beartrap, crushing my last health points out of me.

…the jaws never come. Sound moves away, leaving this place, me, in perfect silence. I don’t dare to move, I’m in the open. One sudden movement can still be my end.

My thoughts run in loops, asking me how I am still alive, again and again.

I don’t know how long I just stand there, unmoving, only trembling with emotions on the inside. I feel all kinds of wrong twisting my insides. The loss of my leaves is still an unceasing ache that doesn’t want to go away, no matter how much I want it to.

***

Now that the tree has been felled, the sun has free reign to shine upon me as it rises. With my leaves gone, I don’t feel the sunlight flowing through my veins anymore. It's all different shades of grey now. This world is vast, the sky is larger, the mountains are higher and the grass is greener. And yet, below the facade it hides a painful secret.

When you peer through all that beauty, when you stare at the way to get stronger, you realise that the best way to attain strength is by killing someone else; to grow, you have to take away someone else’s life.

Is this why Sairal said that he didn’t want to bother with explaining the intricacies of the system at the higher grades? Just because so many monsters don’t make it to the higher grades.

It all boils down to power. When true power can be attained. What won’t you do to gain it?

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

***

“Hey, Sairal? Are you home?” I ask looking up at the tree.

A few seconds later the dryad drops down from the tree's canopy, “Green? What happened? You’re leaves…they’re gone.”

I give him a pained nod for stating the obvious, “I had to survive. Something found me in my home last night. It was a monster. A real monster.”

He continues to ask me about it. And then finally he frowns, “Those things. So we didn’t kill all of them,” he says venom dripping off the words.

“You know what they are?” I ask.

He nods and leans against the tree’s trunk, “They are rare in the forest and only come out at night. Dryads have been hunting them to extinction for the last two centuries, but those sly pests keep escaping most traps that are set for them.” He look me up and down, “Anyway, it’s quite the miracle that you survived, especially with you being a mandrake. Those monsters are quite cunning, you know.”

“It wasn’t a miracle,” I look away from him and towards the small lake. “You see, when I finally moved, when I saw the destruction it brought, I realised that all the leaves I had plucked out of my crown were gone. It took them.” I reach up to what used to be my crown. The points where the leaves grew are still more than sore, aching with protest, sending waves of wrongness throughout my body.

The dryad leans off his trunk and walks towards me. He stands in silence for a long while, as he too watches the going-ons at the lake. “Have you identified it? Without a strong detection skill you will get nothing except its grade,” he steps closer and almost leans over me, his green eyes flashing.

I look up at him, scanning for any hint of what might be going on. He is too good at hiding it, though, something is wrong. “(F) grade. It cut the tree cleanly in half with its claws. It could chomp through roots like they were nothing.”

The dryad stomps on the ground in anger, “By Belgravia’s roots,” he curses?

I cock my head to the side, wincing at the pain that flashes through me, “Is it bad? You can beat it easily, right?”

He shakes his head, “I was forced into a promise to take care of the beavers first. Yet another thing they want to stack on my already full plate. Though, everyone’s plate is getting full of late,” he grumbles and folds his arms over each other.

“Oh, with what?” I pry.

Sairal gives me a wry grin, “It’s not important to you,” he pauses, “for now. Just focus on yourself. Everyone can always use more levels under their belt. Is there anything I can help with?”

I sigh as I receive the non-answer. Clearly, he wants to move on to other topics. “Do you know if I can grow my leaves back? My hp keeps sitting at 14, not generating further. Oh, and I need a new place to call home. Maybe something safer…” I trail off.

He moves back to his tree and touches the trunk. His eyes flash with new knowledge, “One tells me that it is possible but it takes a long time. Time you don’t have. As for a new home, I know a few chambers that are far safer.”

He shows me a large root chamber, this one several metres below the ground, and relatively close to his tree.

On the way back I look at him, “Why don’t I have time?”

He gives me a dark look, annoyed that I keep prying. “As I said, you do not need to know. I can only advise you to get stronger as quickly as you can. I hate to say it to you, but you were lucky to survive. And where one of those things appears, there are always more. They are a plague.”

At his tree, I sit on the comfy moss again while Sairal leans against the tree looking out at the lake.

I let out an amused chuckle, drawing his attention, “You know, dryads back home always thought that protecting the forest is their first and foremost priority. The way you speak about those monsters…you dryads seem to have far more personality than I thought…” I trail off at the end, realising that I might have insulted him.

His shrugs, “Protecting the forest does come first, we are bound to it after all. As for those beasts. It is true that I hate them. Not because of personal dislike but because they do not belong here,” he sits down on the grass too, looking at the sun. “Dryads are a sentient race, where one goes, politics always follow. It is true that we all care for the forest, yet we use different methods to reach the same conclusions.”

“Since we are talking about dryads, aren’t you like stuck to your tree? How can you take care of the beavers upstream if you need to stay close.”

Sairal’s eyebrows raise in confusion, “Is that told in the lesser universes? It does have a grain of truth to it. I can leave my tree whenever I want and go wherever I want. The thing is, that it’s dangerous. When the tree dies, the dryad dies too, usually. It's the other way around too. You can consider a dryad tree to be an extension of the dryad’s body.”

Interesting, the tree functions as a lifeline or a heart that exists outside of the body. I see while people might see it as a shackle, however with fairness in play there must be benefits to it.

Since he is finally opening up I fire more of my questions, “But won’t your tree be defenceless if you go after the beavers?”

He begins to chuckle. Slowly his laughter grows until he is heaving for air. “You haven’t identified the glowing mushrooms around you? You do know that I am a dryad of moss and decay. Decay meaning mushrooms.”

I look at one of the glowing mushrooms, pulsing like a heart. This one is teal with a greenish glow.

Mushroom guardian seedling (G)

This seedling will grow into a fully formed mushroom guardian once activated or disturbed.

“There are dozens, hundreds of them.” I look around the tree with new insight. He had an army stationed around his tree the whole time.

He grins with pride, “They are quite annoying to grow since it is hard to find spores, claim them as my own and grow them from (J) grade. It takes years for them to grow this strong. And they aren’t as strong as you think. I only have two F grades, a few (G) grades and the rest is mostly (H) grade.”

I nod, lost for words.

A new thought shoots through my mind, “Is there something I need to know before I evolve?”

The dryad repeats the question to himself, “Not really. The system doesn’t provide that much information on some things, though everything is pretty self-explanatory. I think you will get quite a few options. Go over each one carefully. Pay attention to rarity, possible evolution paths and on which stat each evolution focuses. Most importantly, pick something that fits you. Picking your evolution takes place under perfect time dilation. The rest does not, so be sure to evolve at a safe place.”

He looks up at the sky and grimaces as he stares at the clouds. “I would have offered to protect you while you evolve, but I have my own matters to attend to. The path forwards is one all must take. Now go forwards and gain those last two levels.”

He continues to stare up at the sky, almost looking anxious. His eyes flick to the bow hanging in the tree, leaves growing on it. The quiver lays on the moss, mushrooms caking the surface, secreting glowing poisons all the while.

My gaze travels up to his eyes. I look at him and can almost see the infinite network of roots that span across the forest behind his eyes.

“Something is wrong,” I state. “It can’t be the beavers, you can take those out with ease. So what else has you so on edge.”

He stares at me, darkness clouding the root network in his eyes. Finally, he shakes his head, “Things…” he trails off, not finding the right words. “There are…you can’t do anything about it. The only thing you need to know is that there is danger on the horizon. And you just confirmed it by getting attacked by that Wolf-blooded alligator.”

He begins to pack his belongings as he continues to explain, “Those monsters are actually a bad omen,” he reaches out for the quiver and the mushrooms that have been growing on it shy away from it, only leaving the poison behind.

I put my arms on my hips, “And you believe in things like that?”

Sairal turns back to me, “Yes. And so should you if you want to live a long life. Fate is a cruel mistress, even when she is shackled by the system.”

He plucks his bow from his tree and tests the string. “I need to cull the beavers and you need to go. The time for dallying is over. Now it is time for action.” All of the friendliness he has shown over the past hour evaporates as ill-disguised grim determination falls upon his face.

He puts on his gear, strapping the quiver to his thigh while putting the bow away in his pocket space. The cape of leaves rustles begins him as he begins to walk away from his tree.

“It can’t just be the beavers! Did something change?” I yell, feeling the anger rise within me.

He stops and looks at me over his shoulder, “It’s going to rain so the beavers need to be killed off quickly.” He walks away upstream.

I want to follow him. I want to fight the beavers too. This forest, I consider it my home in this world. I want to protect it too.

But Sairal is right. As I am now, I’m too weak. I have to become stronger. Stronger to live my own life, stronger to never be scared again. Stronger to choose my future instead of having it chosen.