Treepo, Gregory, and I came to shore at the beach, the cairn still standing and marking the way. Treepo grunted, shaking off the ocean spray that coated his fur. Gregory yawned lazily from my shoulder.

“Thanks,” I told the new whaloid that I recruited to bring us over. “We’ll be back in a bit.”

We stepped into the jungle, pushing through the understory, the sounds of bugs, birds, and other beasts around us. With invisibility and silence cast over us, we weren’t likely to be attacked, so long as nothing smelled us.

As we approached the clearing, the sounds of the jungle didn’t fade like they had before. The presence of the dungeon was gone, and beasts had moved back into the area without fear of being enslaved by the weird magical zone which had grown out of the earth.

We came to leave a monument in memory of Birdo. I wasn’t able to bury him and have a proper grave, but I wanted to leave something here to remember him by.

We broke through the bush and into the clearing where the cave had been, and I stopped, surprised.

“Huh,” I said, and walked over to the tree. That hadn’t been there before.

In place of the dungeon, a tree had grown, already mature even in the small amount of time it had been since we had cleared the dungeon and removed the core. The magic saturation of the dungeon must have released into the earth and caused this to grow, and to grow fast at that.

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I looked up through the silvery leaves and saw some splashes of color. There was fruit hanging from the tree branches, wine red similar to the dungeon core, though I felt no maliciousness from the tree.

“Treepo, gather up those fruits,” I told the high treehopper. He scampered up the tree and fruit started dropping to the ground. I picked one up, and looked it over. It was relatively soft, about the size of an avocado, but more reminiscent of a ripe peach in texture. I ran my thumb over the skin which was slightly fuzzy.

I dropped it into my inventory so I could appraise it, and my eyebrows rose dramatically.

Skillfruit

A rare fruit which can only grow where magic has concentrated. Enhances skills.

Contents: Skillfruit pit.

“Huh,” I said again.

I looked up at Treepo, who was looking down at me from a branch.

“Better collect all of them,” I told my familiar with a grin. Treepo chittered happily and got to work collecting the rest.

Pilus will return in Book 2: Worldseed Initiate