Arriving at the foot of the tree she looked up, hoping to see some fruit, berries, anything that could be used for food but to her disappointment she saw nothing.

“Hmn… can fruit even grow in a dungeon?”

She looked around at the other trees, their roots spread out thinly in the water. Her only other experiences with dungeons was that one with john and the rooted one, with the rooted spider place there was a lot of plants but she did not remember seeing anything edible.

She started walking along the tree line, occasionally swatting at more of those toothy monster fish “annoying…” sighing, she continued.

“ah.”

In the distance something caught her eye, one of those one legged monsters that spat boiling globs at her, hanging off a branch with its leg “didn’t get a chance to eat that.” Despite also being bulbus in shape, the leg looked fine, better than that eye ball thing at least…

Sneaking towards it she noticed something as she got closer, it was chewing on something “Another monster?” was her first thought, but upon looking up at the tree her eyes widened.

“..!?” she dashed forward, throwing caution to the wind she chucked her trident at the monster.

“Cr-aauagh?!” The creature got impaled, thrown from its perch and pierced into the trunk of the tree.

Mia didn’t even check to see if it was dead, she made a small platform of ice in front of her, using it as a foothold to leap from she jumped up into the tree, grabbing her prize. “An apple…” and chomped right into it.

“MMH!!!”

“Yummy…” juice running down her face she happily ate away “Must be… dreaming….mmm…” she saved then took the last bite out of the fruit, then loaded again “Nope~!” and took the last bite again, throwing the core into the water.

She looked for another, elated when she found another, and another, and another, there was so many, a hoard of apple-like fruit “…yay…” with this, her food problems would be solved, she picked another and ate it, sitting happily on the branch with her feet swaying loosely below her and her tail wagging, she was in pure bliss.

She reached up for a third one but she couldn’t grab it, barely missing each time “eh?” she looked at it, then reached towards it and watched as it moved away from her hand “what the…” now standing she reached for it again, stretching her body as long as she could…

“OM-MPH?!”

She was thwacked on her side by a branch, sent flying into the water where she skidded to a stop. “Bwaaaua!” she quickly surfaced her side stinging she glanced down at it, seeing what remained of her clothes soaked in fresh blood, a long thin cut running across her body “owowow…stings…” her health took a massive hit, or what remained of it, still low from starving…

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What hit me…” looking back towards the tree she crooked her head to the side “The…tree?”

The tree she was on previously had twisted itself, a wide grin stretching across its bark and two long wooden branches for hands, the tree laughed at her.

“No, not starting it like this.”

She loaded.

Back on the branch she took the last bite of the apple, tossing the core she stood up on the branch and grabbed two apples before hopping off, scarfing down one as she took distance and biting into the other. One hand now free she spun around “emph dismp!” and started rapidly launching spears of ice at the tree.

Roots shot up, loud *thunks* resounding through the area with the sounds of cracking coming after.

“hmmm, don’t want to harm the other apples…” she took one last bite out of her third apple, tossing the core and checking her mp, about half…

The tree lowered its roots, revealing that not only did some of the spears break through its defenses, but its previous twisted grin from last time was gone, reversed into a frown.

“ah, too bad. No surprise for you.” She gathered her mana into her palm, launching another spear.

“CREEE!!” the tree shouted as one of its roots swung out of the water, swatting the spear out of the sky.

“Mad?” Mia smirked, while it was slightly concerning it could do that, it was a tree, she could just sit here and pelt it.

The water shook, the tree slammed its hands into the ground “Cre-CRE-CREEEEEEEEEEE!” it screeched, as it slowly uprooted itself.

“Ah…”

Once free, its roots slithered beneath the water, it straightened itself upright and faced Mia, now grinning. “cre-cre-creaa”

“hm.” Might be a problem.

One on one she might still have a chance, she didn’t know until she tried. “Hopefully won’t be to long…” she hastily made another trident, swinging it a few times “maybe an axe would be better?”

“Cre.”

“?” Mia glanced over to it “what? Something to say?”

“cre cre cre” the thing laughed, spreading its arms wide.

“Tauntin-?!”

“CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” It let out an ear shattering screech, so loud it shook the trees and water.

“AH!” it was so loud that it caused Mia to kneel down and cover her ears. The screech went on for awhile, till it eventually stopped. Mia braced herself, expecting to be attacked but to her surprise, she wasn’t. cautiously she looked up, the tree with a very satisfied look on its face “what was that fo-“

An eyeball creature rose up from the water next to the tree, then another, then another, then those were joined by glob shooting thing, and another, and a few more. Then a squad of bird monsters landed on top of the nearby trees.

“Oh, uh…” Mia took a step back, hearing splashes behind her “…hm…” she slowly turned her head, seeing 3 more eyeball creatures, and behind them a lot of splashing, occasionally some of those fish monsters leaping out of the water.

“Cre cre cre.”

“Ah…” she turned back towards the tree, the grin twisted widely, one of its hands rose up, plucking the trident from its head, shaking off the monster’s corpse and tossing it towards her, where it landed at her feet. “…where was my save again?”

[On the branch.]

“Yeah, afraid of that.” She sighed heavily, the monsters around her growing restless, she took her hastily made trident and sunk it into the ground “Well…” she gripped her other trident, looking briefly towards the plentiful fruits ontop of the tree monster’s head.

She took a deep breath, her grip tightening around her weapon.

She saved, then ripped it out of the ground.

“First attempt.”