It was two a.m. when I finally gave up on Mental Shielding training. I couldn’t stop thinking about my new tribute requirement. So I filled my time by researching how to kill the Treskirita mushroom with soulmancy. I started by going into my rewards since I still had book rewards from completing the Trial of Worth at the top, but I only found books on general soulmancy and alchemy.

I sighed. “I guess it’s not gonna help me foil its plans…”

I had to buy a book with my free requests, and that was annoying, but the stakes were high enough to justify it.

“Lithco,” I said. “Give me a book on how to murder soul-eating mushrooms, including with soulmancy.”

A popup displayed the following message:

“How to Murder Mushrooms: Everything You Need to Know About Mushroom Murdering (Soulmancy Edition)”

Would you like to buy this book for one gold request?”

I smiled mockingly. “Trying to get back in my good graces?” I asked.

A new pop up materialized to the side. It read: “Yes.”

“At least you’re honest…” I sighed and crashed my head onto my new inflatable pillow. “This bed’s the shit…” I sighed again, this time in satisfaction as I snuggled my new inflatable bed, and said, “Just buy it and tell me what I want to know… please.”

Lithco materialized beside my bed like a man waiting for his sick daughter to wake up in the hospital. “Well, there’s a couple ways.”

I glanced at him and then back at the ceiling. “Start with the one’s you’re not recommending.”

He shrugged. “You could destroy your home by digging a huge hole and then use magic to just… burn and stab and bludgeon it to death.”

“Pass,” I said. Brindle was clearly opting against that option, so I would avoid it unless absolutely necessary.

“The second option is to destroy the soul by feeding it a corrupted soul.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It is. And as you can imagine, it’s a rather bleak science.”

“I’ll consider it. What’s the third?”

“Convincing it to leave.”

“So making a pact.”

“Yeah.”

“Well that’s convenient,” I said. “So? How am I supposed to do that? I get the concept but…” I shivered when I remembered what it was like to connect to that mushroom in the woods. It was like listening to the shrieks of tormented souls peeking up from hell. The mushrooms had eaten so many souls when they consumed the reaper, and they were all shrieking as they were slowly digested.

“Can I even talk to that thing?” I asked.

“Of course,” Lithco said. “You just need to refine your nearan channels. Rather convenient, considering it’ll improve your Moxle Dilation. Plus the pacts will help you with the Bramble.”

“Rather convenient indeed,” I said. “But there’s definitely a ‘but’ here, isn’t there?”

“Rather astute guess,” he said. “There is indeed a restraint. And that is that it’s remarkably dangerous to play with your mind. But… if you were to say… ask your soul guardian for help… or Ouija board Yakana into existence or, you know… speak to Brindle, you might be able to make it happen.”

I rubbed my forehead. “Play with my mind… Please tell me this isn’t going to be another hallucinogenic adventure.”

“It can be… if you do it wrong, you are stealing the neara from another creature and you can readily go insane, but…”

“But what?”

“It’s also convenient. Because you already have the makings. Instead of blending the aura and neara in soul meat, you extract the aura and neara separately. The good stuff. Not the memories… and what not. Do that and you can juice your mind every time you eat food.”

“Well that changes everything,” I said. “How long will this take?”

“Ten years…” Lithco said. “For someone with talent.”

“Lithco!” I snapped.

“But… were you to have a soul guardian or a forest spirit or a god…”

My eyes widened and dimmed. “I see.”

Kline ruffled the sheets and curled up next to me. I petted his fur. “Well, guess I know what I’m doing this winter. Kira… fuse with my mind.”

I wasn’t even sure if I could do that—and I mildly regretted it. The instant I did, my mind was blasted with memories from Salan’s mind. I’m not sure when I got a grip on reality, but I separated the second I could, panting hard.

“Mira?” Felio asked. “Are you okay?”

I must’ve been screaming… I thought.

I opened the flap and saw Cassain holding Felio back, along with the entire troop.

Yep, definitely screaming… I thought.

“I just started the second stage of Mental Shielding,” I said. “I’ll do it in my isolation barrier from now on.”

Asail’s eyes widened. “Second stage?”

I blinked twice. “Yeah? Oh, I suppose that’s not common. I think you need a platinum to get to the second. Diamond gives you three.”

“No…” Asail looked at the others. “I mean… it’s been a year and you’re already on the second stage?”

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I smiled weakly. “Mental Shielding requires nearan fortification. You improve that with cleansed soul meat and a soul core that can purify it. If you practice daily on your current diet, you should be fine.”

They smiled grimly.

“We’ll get you guys some rewards,” I said. “Till then…”

Felio frowned. “I’m not sure if I can sleep after that…”

“You wanna come in?”

“Sure.”

I glanced at the concerned guards with dead eyes. “Do you spy on everything she does when she’s home?”

Cassain tried to answer, but she shut her mouth.

“Look, you’re my guests,” I said. “So you’re welcome to come in as guests, but you really need to stop babying her. ‘Cause I’m not doing this for a year. Now please… go to my parent’s house and keep watch with divinations. Kal, Dain, go keep guard.”

Kal and Dain, two of the male lurvines, stretched their limbs by the fire, then scampered out the door in their tiny fox forms, jumping out before becoming the size of grizzly bears and lying behind the guards.

“If you insist, you can stand guard outside the door with them, but you won’t be able to in the winter. The snow’s blighted and carries poison. So just… God, get used to it.”

Felio looked at them. “Please?”

Cassain grimaced and looked at the massive beasts behind her. Duty or not, she would just get in the way if there were serious danger.

She finally capitulated and said, “As you wish,” and bowed. But before she left, she said: “If you wish to do this often, would you mind if we built a guard station outdoors? I will keep it within reason.”

As a reminder, the trees were thirty feet in diameter, and there were thirty feet between trees. So the village was quite large and spacious, even with the group area.

“Do you have the skills to build?” I asked. “We can get you a blueprint. But I have no idea how to use them.”

“I’ve lived a long time, Lady Hill,” Cassain said. “I am more than capable of building or fixing any station.”

I thought about it. “Then how about this…”

I explained my plan and the guards were skeptical but agreed, subject to certain conditions, and we separated for the night, with them moving into my parent’s home, which was the closest to us. Then Felio and I were alone for the first time.

I made tea for us when they were gone, bringing Felio a cup. “I don’t know how you can stand that.”

She smiled dimly, staring at the table. “You get used to it.”

“I’m sure, but…” I sipped my tea and took a deep breath. “They’re gonna need to get used to it.”

She raised an apprehensive eyebrow at my tone. “Why?”

“Can you keep a secret?” I asked.

Her heart iced over, and she clutched her chest, a sign she would keep any secret without question. I loved Felio.

“Yes,” she said.

I smiled gently, then tapped my finger against the teacup. I felt it wasn’t enough, so I activated Wood Wide Web to make sure Cassain and the other guards were in my parent’s house.

“Mira?” Felio asked nervously.

I sighed. “I have god-level ingredients.”

She blinked at me in horror. “What?”

“You heard that right.” I swallowed hard. “Elana… my god… sent me resources because I have this… extremely rare flower. And I don’t have the skill to make it—even with my god’s help. So I’ll need your help. Is that okay?”

Her eyes widened in shock.

“Don’t get the wrong idea,” I said. “I’m not sure if there’ll be enough for both of us. But I will give you a diamond request here and now if you help me with it.”

“No, I couldn’t—” She shot up and tipped over her teacup in the process. It spilled in a wave, but I flicked my fingers and the tea separated from the table and filled up the cup before the cup righted itself again. It was so surreal that she forgot to protest.

“And there’ll also be the reward,” I said. “If we succeed, you’ll probably earn a diamond… or even epic.”

Felio’s eyes trembled.

“Can you keep another secret?” I asked.

She clutched her chest and sat down again.

“Sorry…” I said. “But I’ll say this—Kira? She’s an epic reward. So if we pull this off… if you create a resource that makes a ninth evolution god stop what she’s doing and send god level resources all the way to the first domain… it’s possible you’ll get one.”

Tears streamed from Felio’s eyes. Not because she was sad, relieved, or excited; she looked like she was staring at her house as it burned down, blank-faced and lost.

“But I can’t…” she whispered.

“Yes, you can,” I said. “‘Cause judging by the immediacy in which Elana sent me these ingredients… I don’t have a choice. If I don’t make it this year, it’ll probably die.”

She gulped and took deep breaths, and then looked away, trembling. “I-I can’t. I’m sorry, Mira. I can’t. I know this sounds dramatic, but if I messed this up… it would weigh on me forever.”

I grimaced. I wanted to say, It’s okay. Because no matter what, you have a better chance than I do. But if I were to do that, it would push the burden onto her. It would sound like: What? Do you really want me to fail? Are you that selfish? That’s how it would sound. So, I quickly recovered.

“Oh, relax,” I said. “I doubt she would send me god-level resources if she thought I couldn’t do it. So I’ll be fine. Still, this place is full of all sorts of brews and potions to keep secret. Besides, there’s still girl talk. We can’t have your guards around all the time.”

“I’m sorry…” she whispered.

“‘Cause friends make secrets and do things together,” I said. “No strings attached.”

She looked up with blubbery eyes.

“We’re going to have the coolest year ever,” I said. “And nothing will change that.”

Felio started crying and saying, “Okay!”

“Till then, you wanna hear what spring time’s like?” I asked. “It’s the best.”

The mood elevated the instant I started talking about plants, and before we knew it, we were in high spirits, giggling and laughing like friends should. It was nice.

She left a couple of hours later, and her guards sighed a huge breath of relief, demanding to know why her tear ducts were crusted over and the whole thing turned into a cute nightmare. I then started Mental Shielding training. There was a lot to do on the morrow—so I needed to get serious.

—-------

I woke before dawn, stretching my limbs with Kline. “You ready for a run?” I whispered. He stretched each of his legs individually and pranced out the door. Sina got up, but I said, “I’m flying today.” And I swear, she gave me the most miserable expression ever, so I grabbed her tiny fox body in my arms like a panda bear holding their cub and sprouted wings.

“You can run on your way back,” I said as she squirmed. Then I exited, spread my wings, and shot into the sky. I needed to work on my soul pacts and find some way to contact Yakana without dunking in the Diktyo River. I had evolved, so my core was open, and while I was confident I could survive it at my strength, I didn’t want to risk nearan corruption. So, I was determined to find some other way to reach him. But first, I needed to practice.

And that’s what I did.

I traveled about ten miles north from camp, into the strong zone, where I knew Cassain wouldn’t feel the divination pulse, and then put my hand onto the ground.

Let’s see if I can shorten the range, I thought.

I tried to shorten the range of the nearan pulse—but no dice. It just shot through the ground indiscriminately and spread for miles in all directions, making certain plants and trees light up in my mind’s eye like a constellation.

Guess I can’t… I gotta be careful.

Controlling neara here felt like trying to control light. I’m sure there was some type of way to shut it off, but that was in the future. For now, I just needed to make due.

Suddenly, I picked up a nearan signal that lit up like the north star in a dim constellation. “What’s that…” I whispered.

I picked up Sina and flew an additional three miles north to the soul signal I picked up underground. I almost dived into the clearing it was in since it seemed so innocuous, but I froze when I saw the plant and realized that it wasn’t highlighting blue—and I couldn’t pull up anything about it.

It wasn’t just that.

It was in an innocuous area, but the ghostly white plant was on a large hill dotted with orange biota that looked exactly like flowers—

—but I was skeptical because it was fall time, and the air was chilly.

That wasn’t to say that it was unheard of to have flowers in fall time. There were countless fall bloomers on Earth, including perennials like chrysanthemums and goldenrods and annuals like marigolds and cosmos.

Still, to see this large field of flowers in fall—it was suspicious.

Then I realized that they were orange mushrooms mimicking the appearance of flowers—and the plant on top was radiating almost violently with mana, not neara.

The plant with “roots” I saw with my “nearan pulse” (as I decided to call it) from afar was actually thick mycelium strands that mimicked roots.

I stared at the plant strangely and whispered, “Is it symbiotic or…?”

Whatever I was looking at—it was unmarked, and it was bad news.