Into Eden

I ran down the rocky path and into the forest. It went from dirt and rocks to lush foliage in an instant. As I progressed further, the noisier it became. Unlike the desert pathways where all I could hear was the occasional rocks shifting somewhere in the distance, this area was teaming with life. Birds twittered among the branches. I heard them talking about their breakfast and how many eggs were in their nests. Aged voices came from the trees as they went on about the good old days. Other beasts were warning their friends about the leopard that was skulking about looking for food, new additions to their families, the best hunting grounds, weather, oh and a berry bush screaming it had been violated by a chipmunk. The forest looked like something you'd see on the Nature Channel, but it sounded like I was standing in Grand Central Station at peak rush hour. That was on top of the natural noises of thing moving about. It was a sensory overload and I found it overwhelming.

Unlike the cavernous side, the blue energy veins that ran through the dungeon were thin but there were thousands more of them. They ran into all the plants. The blue energy mist that floats in the air is gobbled up by the birds that flittered among the branches, leaving very little energy for the dungeon to absorb. The desert area felt dreary and lifeless but as I made my way among the trees, it felt alive. I felt safe and comfortable, and soon found my pace slowing subconsciously.

It was the notification 'Move Corrupted Nature Spirts from Floor 3 to Floor 2 (Yes/No)' that brought me out of my stupor. Ugh, what was I doing goofing off and allowing myself to get distracted? I had a mission! I ran. It got denser the more I moved, but I moved with ease. The branches seemed to move to allow me through. The only time I slowed was when messages appeared. The first couple were normal.

*Summon two Tangle Vines for 55xp (Yes/no)*

*Summon A Lover's Regret for 80xp (Yes/no)*

They were worrying but expected. It was when I got messages:

*Tangle Vines x 4*

*Tangle Vines x 8*

*Tangle Vines x 16*

That I began to think something was amiss.

I had been too caught up trying to get Amy out of the dungeon to think about how the putrid squirrels had been multiplying. According to what I was taught at school, dungeon monsters shouldn't be able to do that. It went against everything that was taught. Was it because the dungeon upgraded? Did all the tougher dungeons have this ability? I needed to hurry. While the vines weren't multiplying fast, I knew time wasn't on my side because even at a slower growth their numbers were growing. The only bright side I saw was that the DP points the dungeon was receiving from explorers had diminished with every number increase. I slowed down to a walk and cast 'Know the way' hoping to find the only other humans in the dungeon quicker. Then followed it up with 'A dryad's song'. I was not sure I would ever get over the awkward feeling I got when singing but the results were always worth it.

As I finished, I heard a crack coming from a thick tree near me. Green fingers came out from inside the tree and bent the bark away creating an oval aperture that a green skinned lady stepped out of. Unlike all the teenage dryads I had summoned before this one had a mature look about her. She had wrinkles and her hair was a faded pale green. She stepped out in all her naked glory and after rubbing her belly as if she was hungry said, "Hello mistress, how can I help you?" causing me to do a double take.

I hadn't expected her to speak although I should have. I had met Silvia the dryad. She was the dryad that lived inside the school, and she talked to all the students. It was just that the only times I had summoned them they were younger and didn't speak at all. Still, I could use the help, so I answered with the first thing that popped into my head, "I need to get to the adventurers party that is located somewhere inside this forest. They should be in that direction. Can you help me get there any faster or protect them until I get there?" Actually, I knew she could, but if she was intelligent enough to ask me questions, she should have enough willpower to deny my request even though I summoned her. But unlike the monsters I summoned, I didn't feel her resisting me.

She just smiled and answered, "They are too far from my tree for me to help them much but if you're willing to step inside my home I can get you there." She made a 'this way please' type gesture toward the hole in the tree.

"Thank you." I said and stepped inside. It was a gamble because if she fought my hold over her and I lost control she could keep me inside her dimension forever. A wave of dizziness washed over me as I stepped inside. When it passed, I found myself inside a wood paneled room. A table made out of a stump sat in the middle of the room. It had moss covering it with branches shooting out of it forming chairs that people could sit on. But that was all that was in this plain room. The dryad soon appeared inside the room with me and with a wave of her hand, leaves crawled up the wall. The leaves began to shift colors and a picture quickly came into focus.

A picture of a forest appeared inside the leaves. Then started moving as if a person was running through the forest. It was like I was watching a movie. It wasn't long before a group of young adventurers came into view. They were standing close together and looked as if they were arguing but without sound, I couldn't tell what they were arguing about. "I found them. If it is not too impudent, could you do me a favor before you go?" I looked at her. I swear that was all I did but she covered her belly and fell to her knees, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean any disrespect. I will open the way out for you. Please don't mind."

She seemed so human that I was caught off guard. She had to be old to give off that feel. It was a testimony to her strength. She got up and moved to a wall and pushed her hands into it before I could speak. With a crack, the wall was pulled apart leaving a portal out of the room I was in. "What did you want to ask? I don't mind helping those that help me." I didn't mind but it would have to be something quick since I was in a hurry.

"Could you bless me and my child?" She rubbed her belly as she spoke. I stared at her belly wondering how she got pregnant. Then decided it didn't matter and then thought about how to go about blessing her. After a minute, I laid my hands on her smooth stomach and cast 'Blessings of the Goddess' while hoping that it would protect her. It wasn't what the spell was designed for, but I didn't think a simple 'bless you' was going to do it. Either way, I did my best with the time I had. I stepped through the opening she made and missed the golden circle that was slowly forming around where her belly button should have been.

I stepped out and a message appeared indicating that I was in area G3. When then dizziness passed, I noticed that the tree I stepped out of was a different tree than the one I stepped into. Three seventeen to eighteen year olds were warily watching me. Two of them had weapons in their hands, while the third stood behind them. She was clad all in black. Even her head was covered and if it wasn't for the obvious curves she had, I would have thought she was a boy. She had her hands behind her back so I couldn't tell what she was holding. I kept my hands where they could see them. Combined with the tight leather armor I was wearing that couldn't conceal anything, it was obvious I didn't have anything I could pull out quickly to hurt them. It didn't mean I was helpless, but most people would be, so it helped with my "helpless" look.

The boy on the left spoke first. He was taller and more muscular than the other two, with black patches of new stubble starting to form on his cheeks and chin. The cheap sword and wooden shield showed how new they were, as did his aggressive tone as he spat out, "Who are you and why are you here?"

Didn't he know how screwed they were? Ugh, why did I even bother? I was sure my impatience showed as I replied, "I'm here to help you escape. The dungeon has changed and has become stronger."

"We aren't leaving." He glared at the guy next to him when he said it.

"Come on Bret we should go. We can always come back in."

"We can't leave. If we do, our friends would have died for nothing. I'm going back; it was a mistake to turn back when we could see the core."

The girl spoke with coldness in her tone, "They died, we lived. If we go back, we will just die along with them. We can't beat what's there." This must have been what they were arguing about, but we didn't have that kind of time.

I was going to let them know it was worse than they knew but more messages began appearing filling me with dread. The 'Move Putrid Squirrels to entrance (Yes/No)' wouldn't have been that bad but their numbers now were in the thousands. The ninja looking girl and the warrior boy were unlikely to have area of affect attacks. I looked over at the other teenage boy. He stood around five' nine, clad in leather armor and had a thick staff that seemed like it could double as a club.

More messages quickly followed. The 'Reset All Traps for 424XP (Yes/No)' and 'Place Explosive Traps in G2, G1 for 67XP (Yes/No)' made it impossible for me to get this group out without summoning up my own horde of monsters. But there were dozens of other messages as the dungeon placed more traps. I was almost sure that the areas it placed the other traps were in locations that would block our retreat. They kept appearing until a message of 'Insufficient XP' appeared.

I reluctantly cut into their argument, "How far away is the core?" I needed to know since it might be easier to simply destroy it. While I could use the dryad to move around in the forest, I could still easily step out and onto a trap. I thought about trying to get to the desert side of the dungeon and only worrying about the exit traps but there weren't any trees growing inside those fissures.

Bret the warrior was the one that answered me, "Half a day's travel that way there is a tree. Inside it, you can travel into the roots of the tree. It's a maze that we managed to get past, but once we did, we ended up in a weird room. It's hard to describe but near the far wall we could make out parts of what should be the core. We couldn't stay long because the room came alive and attacked us. Claire said she saw a green lady with wilting leaves for hair but neither of us did so..."

"She was real damn it! How you missed a six-foot tall woman just shows that you're incompetent." She gave a huff before scanning the forest once again. She was constantly looking for trouble to come to them. Out of the three of them, she was the most vigilant.

I wasn't listening. Instead, I was reading the two messages that had appeared while they argued on whether they should leave, '

*Awaken Tainted Spirits (Yes/No)*

*Move Famished Rootlets from Root Labyrinth to G3 (Yes/No)*

*Move 'Thorns of Misfortune' from G6 to G3 (Yes/No)*

*Activate Traps in G3 (Yes/No)*

I realized that was where we currently were when another message appeared

*G3; Corrupted Garden activated*

I started shouting but it was already too late as things began to change. Once the dungeon activated the garden, the area became darker as if the sun had set, plants began to wilt, and I watched as hundreds of muddy lights began to light up. The lights were dim and small as if we were surrounded by a horde of fireflies. They appeared silently and seemed to be everywhere, in the trees, in the bushes and even in the grass we stood upon.

I managed to get out, "We're under at..." before beams began shooting out of the tiny creatures. I got a better look right before they shot because they glowed a bit brighter but there wasn't much to see, just a small sphere of light. I was luckier than the other three. Between all my defensive abilities like 'Steps of an angel' and 'Resilient' I didn't take much damage and what little I did take, quickly regenerated from the energy 'Divine Body' gave me. It still stung like hell though.

As for the others, I watched as the little lasers hit them without mercy. Most hit their armor to no effect. But wherever a beam hit flesh, the flesh would decay. They were only pimple sized areas at first but there were so many of them that patches of their flesh began to flake off revealing bright red muscles and yellowish cartilage hidden below. I saw them grimace and my aura flickered. I watched them wince with every beam that hit, and I felt something growing inside of me. It was a sort of pressure that kept building. I didn't have time to contemplate what it as I danced away from the beams shot all around me. Even so, as I saw more and more of their skin flaking away the pressure became unbearable. It wasn't until the sprites stopped attacking and the teens attacked back that the pressure seemed to stabilize. They attacked as quickly as they could but with so many of these sprites did it really matter if they stomped a dozen to oblivion?

We got a slight reprieve as they dimmed, and the little lasers stopped. The muddy lights started to intensify, and I quickly cast 'Minor Healing light'. The strange pressure inside me vanished and a huge flock of golden butterflies appeared around us. I had expected a couple dozen but there was at least a hundred of them fluttering around us. They filled the area and whenever they got close to a person they would pulse and some of their wounds would mend. It wasn't the fastest way I could heal them but that was only the second reason I cast that spell. The first was cover. They acted as a buffer to the beam attack the little sprites did. More importantly because the butterflies weren't really alive but made up of energy, the beams didn't seem to do much to them. It allowed them to regroup and begin to kill them.

Well, they tried anyway. It wasn't even that they were hard to kill. Far from it but none of these people had an area effect attack. I let my aura snap back into shape and then expanded it as far as I could manage. I watched the teens kill the ones closest to them and after I couldn't push my aura out any further, finally began to cast. I concentrated and silently cast "Restrict". I never really used this spell but, in my opinion, it was designed to kill mages by making it harder for them to cast. The spell was made to clog the energy flow inside a person's body. I wasn't sure if it would work on these sprites but when you got down to it, they were just sentient energy. If I could cut off their ability to gather their energy back, they wouldn't be able to shoot us. Normally, it was either a single target or seven, if I used my aura tendrils. Instead, I forced my magic through my aura using 'An Angel's Sorrow'. Doing so cost me four times the magical energy but effected every enemy inside my aura.

I finished and the already dim lights, blinked out of existence. The corners of my mouth curled up as notifications began sounding in my head. It had worked much better than I expected.

With their deaths, I had time to look at the notifications. There was a bunch of 'Gain 1XP' notifications from the butterflies healing the party and killing the sprites but mixed within them were the notifications of the other groups movements. Before I could warn them of the other things coming, pale green "fingers" came out of the ground and grabbed onto our legs. They looked like tiny baby hands with grey-brown hairs growing out of them. The hairs moved on their own and tried to find gaps in my leather boots and leg armor, but my enchantments held and even the fine hairs couldn't get through the stitching. It seemed to only have average strength so when it failed to penetrate my armor, it let go, swiftly sunk into the ground and vanished as quickly as it appeared.

Even though I was attacked, I kept glancing at the others to see how they were doing. All of them were attacked but the guy with the sword simply cut himself free by slicing off the thing's hand and the girl simple vanished. It was the teen with the staff that couldn't break himself free. In the end he dropped his staff and pulled the critter out of the ground. As it came free, I got a better look at the 'Famished Rootlet'. It wasn't very big and looked like somebody combined a root of parsley and a starving five-year-old child together.

It was mostly white but turned pale green around its "hands" and "feet". The hairs that tried to penetrate my armor looked like the trichomes or root-hairs. As it came out of the ground, it twisted its lower half and wrapped its legs around the guy's waist. They couldn't wrap around him fully, but I saw the hairs stab into his cheap armor and start to slowly change color. The pale green hairs turned gray, then pale pink, as he struggled to pull it loose. The tiny, thin legs looked easy to break but the hairs kept it firmly attached no matter how hard he pulled at it.

I saw his health dwindling due to the skill 'Vision of Diagnosis' but because I hadn't linked them up to my displays, I had to guess that the cause was from blood loss. I hastily cast 'Smite' on it and watched it wither and die. As it fell away, dozens of tumbleweeds rolled into the glen. Their branches looked dry and slightly shriveled except for their thorns that ran along them. They looked razor sharp and gleamed as if polished. I assumed these things were the 'Thorns of Misfortune' because of the sharp hooks that ran along their branches. They came into the glen fast, and I hastily split my aura apart. I wanted to give these people more protection because I doubted their shoddy armor would stop those thorns.

While my plan of using 'Skin of the Plains Beast' to give them better armor sounded fantastic in my head, I was too slow to actually prevent the things that resembled tumbleweed with thorns from getting to the girl who had appeared beside them. I was only halfway through the spiel when two of them rapidly rolled into her. She had appeared too close to the 'Thorns of Misfortune' for me to intercept them. They hit her and turned inside out. It was quick. One second, she was fine and the next she was being wrapped inside of them.

I watched as two 'Thorns of Misfortune' enveloped the girl and the last thing I saw was her shocked expression that was quickly replaced by anger. The thorns hooked into her flesh as they wrapped her tight. They ripped her clothes and flesh indiscriminately, but even as her blood ran down her ravaged skin her glare never left me. Why was her gaze aimed at me as if it was my fault? I didn't have much time to help or think of why she glared at me because the other ten were already coming at the rest of us…

***

My name is Grell, an acolyte of the Shadow God. Bret, Nathan, and I were all that was left of our eight-person party and as a result, my friends were on edge. So, when a lady stepped out of the tree, we still all pulled our weapons and prepared to attack. We had become nervous. Mostly because animals and plants had been attacking us non-stop but also because I didn't like being out in the open. It made me feel vunerable and even though she stood there with her hands open, I knew she was dangerous. My instincts were always pretty good and at first, I could feel her generosity and care. It was as if she could shelter us, protect us from everything, but as Bret opened his mouth and yelled at her, her deminer changed. I saw her green eyes turn black and I felt as if death was approaching. I knew Bret turned his nervousness into aggression but now was not the time to piss off potential help!

She looked at us with those pitch-black eyes and I heard a majestic man's voice in my head whisper, "She is the herald. Wherever she goes death and destruction will follow." I never heard that voice before. I had only heard it once before. It was a voice that held power even as it whispered such horrible words, and I clutched the tiny, unadorned box inside my hand and became more nervous because that voice belonged to the Shadow God. I tightened my grip on the box that held a sliver of my shadow I had offered to him. As long as it was close to me, I could call upon him for aid. My nervousness wasn't because I feared death. As an assassin, I already knew that death could happen at any moment. I just didn't want to die out in the open and annoy the God I chose to make me stronger.

It wasn't that I was a true believer, but the Gods tended to be fickle and hold grudges. They could give you power, take it away, and if displeased, torture you in the afterlife to vent it. And while I only chose to worship for some extra power, I still did my best to have a "proper death". Which for a 'Shadow God' servant is in the dark, not out in the open.

But when that lady looked at me, I could sense my demise was close at hand. It was her gaze. It was so piercing that I knew I wouldn't have time to retreat. Then the lady seemed to get distracted, and the feeling of impending death passed. I held my breathe until she turned her head away. By the time she looked back, her eyes had returned to emerald green. I heard her say, "We're under attack!" How she knew, I couldn't tell but before I could act something shot out of the ground and grabbed my leg. I looked down and saw pale hands had grabbed me. Tiny hairs came out at the tips of each finger and burrowed below my armor and into my skin. It itched. I pulled my dagger and with a quick prayer plunged it into the things arm. I slipped into my shadow and out of its grasp, but it took a toll. When I reappeared in the shade of a nearby tree my shadow wasn't as dark. If I called too often and lost my shadow, I would lose my life and it was already faint from overuse. With all the attacks today, my shadow was already very dim, so I had to be careful.

I saw the fine hairs burrowing into the others' armor and the brown hairs slowly began to darken. They weren't idle though and like me had attacked the hands. Bret had the best results as he raised his sword and severed the pale hand that had held onto his leg. Nathan slammed his makeshift staff down onto its "wrist" but while it indented and bled a milky white blood, it didn't let go. He slammed it over and over, but it held on, and its milky blood slowly turned pale pink. He finally let go of his staff and simply grabbed the hand and pulled. His arm bulged and slowly, a pale emaciated child was yanked out of the ground.

As Bret pulled it up, I got the first look at the monster. It looked like a plant monster we had fought on the way in but much, much bigger. The ones we fought were only about the size of our hands and weren't very dangerous. This one bent, twisted, and wrapped its pale legs around his waist. It bent unnaturally and once it locked its legs around him, I could see his look of horror as it began to suck his life away. Maybe I was too involved in watching because I didn't even see what got me. I just felt something bump into me and then the world went dark.

I felt thousands of barbs tearing away my skin as my God's voice came once more, "Do you want to be saved? I can save you or leave you. The choice is yours. The price for my help is that girl's life. CHOOSE!"