Chapter 35: Not the Kind of Fisticuffs I Expected

  Arcana’s effigy loomed high above the villagers as Theo and Grace were about to set off into the forest toward the dungeon. Her finger was still as prominent a gesture as yesterday, as was the tight hug Wen gave Theo before his departure. Fitting the previous night’s theme, she didn’t seem to be bickering with Grace at all.

  “Be careful.”

  Theo smiled and patted her back gently whilst taking in the dusty scent of her hair. “I will.”

  He then left, following closely behind Grace who had once more changed back to her sky blue, silken shirt. This time, though, she was wearing a skirt that was longer than the previous, rough-spun shorts she’d worn until now. Her nearly sparkling brown hair was tied in a long, glossy tail, and pulled back from her face, tucked neatly and tightly behind her ears. Theo couldn’t help but admire her pretty and determined face. What kind of stats would someone like Grace have to have that almost transcendently healthy look?

  Based solely on nothing but his own thoughts and theories, Grace was among the two most powerful people Theo had ever met. The second was Chaste, though he didn’t know who was the one between the two who had the most stats. From what Theo had surmised from context, the people from the city, nobles especially, had generally more skills and a higher level among them as well, giving them a boost just from their social class alone. Grace wasn’t one of them, though she was what she called an adventurer and a priestess both, both having their own wide skill set associated with them that didn’t necessarily overlap much.

  Most, if not all, of Arcana’s different religious groups focused on magical lore, history and spellcasting. Grace was seemingly only part of churches devoted to the goddess herself, yet still was adamant that ‘fisticuffs’ was her preferred way of fighting and adventuring through monster-infested areas. Theo had more than a little trouble envisioning the cutesy young woman in a fist fight of any kind, much less against monsters, but then he thought of how he had possibly seen her pull a giant log along the ground the day previous. If nothing else, he’d get to see it first-hand soon enough.

  The two of them quickly approached the hatch that seemed so much a part of the forest floor beneath Theo’s feet that even as he was expecting it to be there, he didn’t notice it at first glance.

  “A little while more until I can enter. Until then…” she said teasingly, her forest brown eyes glittering as they shifted to face his. She shifted her head just an inch, yet the minute movement sent her long hair over her shoulder in a neat bundle of soft, smooth strands. She entered a resting position, pressing her weight down more on her right leg, thrusting her hip out as she did. “Why don’t you finally start telling me your story?”

  Theo couldn’t help but stare at the feminine form in front of him. He wasn’t sure whether she was teasing him or if she was actually interested, or maybe even if it was just him that didn’t translate her signals right at all. There was still that barest of chances she was an actual serial killer, but the chance of that was vanishingly small. A kidnapper, though? Theo hadn’t thought of that.

  “I don’t bite,” she smiled, flashing a pristine set of white teeth almost as shiny as her hair was. Her canines were the keystones of her smile; large and pointy yet gentle in their curvature.

  Theo then started telling her more details about his life in his own world, about his sickness and the limitations it provided. Grace’s smiling face never faltered. Not when he told her of the painful sickness, nor when he explained his death. Still, while she wasn’t reacting like Theo was used to people doing by now, he found no malice in her; her expression was kind and warm, her eyes lingered blissfully. Maybe her past experience as a priestess had prepared her for stories just like his. He continued despite her lack of more expressiveness as he felt she was comforting him more than enough from her gaze alone.

  Then, when Theo had gotten to where Chaste left him, without mentioning his name at all, of course, her form stirred ever so slightly, her head shifting just a bit to the side. It was barely perceptible, and if she’d moved at all during his storytelling earlier, he might not have paid it any mind. He stopped though, eyeing her curiously.

  “Sorry. We can enter now. But don’t stop.”

  She opened the hatch, revealing a steep staircase that might as well have been a ladder at that angle and with its short steps. She gestured for him to follow her down before she descended, Theo right on her tail.

  You have entered a Dungeon: Abble Tree Root Cellar

  Root Cellar (Dungeon):

  Age: Adolescent

  Growth: Cultivating

  Type: Production + Danger

  Origin: The Abble Tree Root Cellar, grown from a single seed; the last of its kind in the forest above, seeks the renewal of its kind. Danger lurks within its domain, for how else can it protect its future offspring?

  “The Abble Tree Root Cellar,” Theo mused out loud as he entered.

  “Hm?” asked Grace, who gracefully reached her hands out to support him so he didn’t fall down the steep stairs.

  “Th-thanks,” Theo stuttered, feeling a bit emasculated by her actions. While he didn’t come close to falling, her arms still caught him down the last step, both of them gently wrapping halfway around his waist and back in a somewhat distant, yet intimate, hug. “The System triggered,” he then explained before revealing the information to the adventurer.

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  “Interesting,” she murmured as she looked around. “Never heard of an origin before, but how could any of us simply guess at that? This system of your… You think it’s more like gleaning through a window into the inner workings of the world itself, right? So the world knows why this dungeon started to evolve.”

  Theo looked around, finding a dark, dank cave system overflowing with thick and powerful roots that all managed to contain the dirt and rocks from falling and flooding the tunnels. It was mostly brown as far as the eye could see, though the path was laid with small, flat rocks as if partly paved with downtrodden stone. Faint light seemed to penetrate the thick roots from the ceiling in certain places, sending divine shafts of solar light down on the walls and floor both. Where the light was strongest there grew small emerald green and blue-ish sprouts, standing still as guardians against the suspicious lack of wind coming in even through the open hatch.

  The hatch shut by itself moments later, spiking Theo’s nerves enough for him to reflexively jump and turn towards the booming sound. Grace caught him easily as she already had him in her open arms. He heard her soft, giggly laugh as her breath touched the nape of his neck.

  “It happens when the dungeon doesn’t think anyone else will enter. Parties have to enter together if they are to traverse the dungeon together. There’s always a safe area at the entrance.”

  Theo turned and her arms withdrew from him. “Sorry, I’m new at this.”

  She shook her head in the negative. “Don’t worry. I promised I’d keep you safe.”

  Theo chuckled. “From anything bad.”

  She mimicked him, though her laugh was a bit more soft and breathy. “And don’t you forget that,” she then purred before turning away from him and walking away.

  Theo followed, continuing his story from where he left off moments later when Grace reminded him to do so. There were only small visible changes as they walked through the dungeon tunnels, like plants growing a bit larger over there and a bit greener over that way whilst they were more blue in colour this way.

  Then, as he told of the sudden destruction of Brook Town and the all-too-violent death of his plants-babies there, movement caught his attention. It was a gentle rustle and nothing more, but it was a rustle of a bush that was nowhere to be seen. There was still no wind, and certainly not something that had grown big or leafy enough to rustle so loudly. Then a figure appeared around a winding corner of the tunnel they were in; an adolescent tree, more pale brown than its rooty neighbours spanning the walls and ceiling, with a still-soft skin instead of bark and a lush green head with violently red fruits growing from its top hat.

  Danger! Powerful Abble T(r)een!

  Theo nearly threw up at the bad name of the monster. The System had to be kidding, right? A teenage abble tree? Fine. forcing that ‘R’ i n there was too much, though. Who was behind this stuff? Was it the System itself or was this the dungeon? Either way, it was certainly adolescent in its sense of humour.

  “So, do you want to have a go?” Grace winked as she turned her head to face him behind her. The tree hadn’t noticed them yet, it seemed.

  “With what?” he asked. He was quite sure his fists wouldn’t be enough.

  “You have some fire magic, right? Fire is quite effective against them.”

  “I can conjure some fire right in front of me. Remember, I don’t have any regular spells. I don’t even have the fire affinity skill.”

  “And you don’t have anything to cause that fire to move in a single direction?”

  “I’d have to check my-”

  “No time,” Grace said, her voice suddenly steel as she dashed ahead. Her hair trailed behind her along with the silky blue edges of her shirt. The Treen had spotted them.

  The girl flew ahead so fast that Theo couldn’t believe his eyes. He felt the first sign of wind down here as she moved through the air and caused turbulence in her wake. The shapely girl evaded an angsty abble thrown her way from the teen abble tree, whose lush hat was swinging wildly around to hurl its crimson projectiles.

  All it could do was fire one shot. Grace reached it, her legs sliding the last few metres along the ground as she bent low and elbowed the treen in its centre. Theo heard the loud snap of its body at the same time as the resounding impact. Still, Grace wasn’t done, and the tree seemed to still live.

  It was Theo’s first time seeing a walking, living tree. Sure, they were generally alive, or so he figured anyway, but seeing one exerting its own will on its own trunk of a body? That kind of thing was enough for one to consider their perspective on things. What was life, really? Was logging murder? Could houses be haunted by nothing but the planks they were made from? Were fruit truly safe to eat, or would their parents curse you for eating their offspring?

  Another snap sounded as a bright light flashed a warm orange. Theo roused to the fight again, finding a black scorch mark in the centre of the tree’s trunk where Grace had once more hit it. A blanket of light enveloped the woman along with a tight-yet-flowing rope of flame. The cleric’s hair seemed to be on fire, not in a dangerous sense, or even a hot one. It just oozed a flaming light. It wasn’t her hair at all, Theo realised. It came from her body but rose up to her head and past it.

  The tree reeled in response to her powerful, magically enhanced blow, yet it didn’t yield its fruits to her just yet. It attacked her with short, stiff branching arms, though Grace’s figure remained low to the ground, her legs spread wide in a bottom-heavy fighting stance Theo had never seen before. Rather than dodge, certainly a difficult thing to do with her legs so wide and her stomach almost horizontal above the ground, Grace took the brunt of the attacks whilst her legs shifted this way and that in response, dissipated nearly all of the energy of the treen’s heavy blows.

  Grace allowed it, or rather forced it, to push her away from it with a shove of branches. Her feet slid backward a metre or so, but the moment they stopped pulling dust up from the ground, she jumped, stretching her back upward again for the first time since she engaged. Her right leg extended in an instant, sending a wave of solid flames into the tree. The slim trunk didn’t just break in two, it shattered in a thousand splinters from the impact. The lush, green head fell to the ground amongst its other shrapnel, lifeless.

  Theo sensed the comforting heat even from where he was standing. Grace’s light dimmed in an instant and she flung herself around. He wasn’t sure, but the movement seemed much like how she moved herself whilst fighting, her feet sliding around in a wide arc instead of simply rotating on her heels or toes. It was so quick, though, that Theo wasn’t quite sure what she had done. Had she moved like that all the time, and he simply hadn’t noticed?

  “See?” she grinned, sauntering over to him without even trying to look as enchanting as she did. She stopped mid-way, picked up the blood-red orb the treen had fired in her direction and took a bite out of it, sending a slight trickle of clear juice down the edge of her soft lips. She then tossed him the abble, smiling wide and extended her arm towards him. Her thumb shot up in a victorious salute, gesturing that everything was A-okay.