I wasn't panicking, but only because friend of fear wouldn't let me. I should have been. My own armour had turned against me, threaded through with vines under something else's control. Something that could perceive me, and react to my attempts to remove it. Respawning wouldn't help, nor would my other skills. It was letting me move around normally as long as I made no attempt to free myself, but I suspected the only reason for that was to give the vines a chance to grow. If the existing vines could mostly restrain me already, then with a bit more growth, they would be able to control me like a puppet on strings. Whatever I did, I needed to act fast.

I could see two options. I could walk back towards the fourth floor on my own, which I imagined was what the vine's controller wanted, so I doubt they would stop me, and hope my zombie twin could free me when I reached her. Alternatively, dragon. His flame breath would doubtless purge the vines, and if the control over the vines was limited by distance, jumping to the top floor might weaken them, or take me out of range completely.

On the basis that I'd end up crossing through the throne room regardless, and that the vines were bad enough already without getting blighted, I decided to try the dragon first. I placed a hand against the statue and invoked fast travel, hurrying towards the dragon's chamber the moment I arrived.

My whole body locked up as soon as I started running, sending me sprawling to the floor.

"Why do you flee, my wayward child? Return to your home, and enjoy the bliss of servitude."

The heck? My armour was speaking to me now? I wasn't going to justify it with a response, so I concentrated on making it to the dragon. Trying to stand was a losing proposition, but I still had enough movement to drag myself along the floor. The corridor wasn't a long one.

"Your efforts are pointless, and will only lead to pain."

The vines constricted, crushing my limbs and torso. I couldn't breathe, but despite the claims of the mysterious speaker, there was no pain. It didn't know about my pain immunity skill, and it didn't know about the dragon. Even if it could see what I was doing, that was all it could do. I kept crawling, desperately trying to suck in what air I could. It wasn't enough, but I didn't have far to go.

"Naughty children must be punished."

The vines squeezed harder, but they didn't seem to have enough strength in them to break my bones. One of them wrapped around my throat, crushing it completely. It didn't matter; I was seconds away from getting vaporised. I saw no point in stopping.

"But good children will be rewarded."

Without letting up on the restrictions, the vines began to massage my intimate areas. Yup, stereotypical rapey living tentacle armour indeed. I was hardly going to let that convince me to stop. Besides, my zombie twin was better.

Suffocation tolerance advanced to level 3

I made it to the entrance, and saw the dragon open one slitted eye, just before I collapsed from lack of oxygen.

"Oh," came the voice of my armour, and I stood up and turned away, no longer in control of my body. The vines forced me to start running, and suffocating as I was, I had no strength to resist. It didn't matter. My controller wasn't fast enough, and I saw the red glare reflecting off the rock in front of me moments before the flame hit.

Heat tolerance advanced to level 6

That worked well, I thought, as I woke back up in my nightie with not a vine in sight. My magical duplicating nightie was weird. If I died while wearing it, it didn't teleport with me, but I got a fresh one. If I died naked, I likewise got a fresh one. If I died wearing something else, it didn't turn up. Very convenient for preserving my modesty, but how did it know?

So, there had been a bit of a hiccup there, but I'd successfully got my disease immunity skill. Hopefully, that would be enough to avoid me willingly letting the drones plant seeds into me again. Was it the tree that was speaking to me? This world had some very strange ideas about the proper behaviour of a tree, given the first one I'd seen, then all the crystal ones, and now this new cavern-sized one.

I'd also had my armour completely destroyed. Whether any of the chitin had survived, I didn't know, but even if it had, it obviously hadn't been considered equipment at the point I respawned.

Improvisational artisan advanced to level 15

Thank goodness for my oversized item box and plentiful resources. This time, with my strength further enhanced by my magical ring, I used more of the giant centipede chitin, but I still wasn't strong enough to fashion the entire thing from it. There would still be weak spots. Then again, the best armour in the world wouldn't save me if I lay down and let my enemies have their way with me. Or let a slime fall on my head and block my nose and mouth.

Armour remade, I stepped out into the catacombs, happy to discover that the ambient blight had no effect on me whatsoever. A good start. Then it was to the throne room, regaling my zombie twin with a quick catch-up on everything that had happened since my last visit, and then down the stairs and out into the cavern.

Where a group of nine carnes multiformis guards stood behind a lone specimen, lumpy and misshapen. Unless I was mistaken, it was the elder from the first village. He was... male? Yes, male, but still a little different from the second village. The guards behind him were similar. Six male and three female, but not the same male and female as those from the second village. All ten of them were wearing the rock camouflage perfume. The English-speaking elder being this far away, camouflaged, implied that they were here waiting for me.

"Again you return, immortal one," he said, his pronunciation much better this time. He must have been practising.

The guards stood with their spears pointed upwards, in their stance of non-aggression. This was strange...

"Immortal one?"

"You come from the path of death and undeath. One at a time, and the next shares the knowledge of the last. You are the same being that has visited us twice already, and our ancient enemy once."

To be fair, short of not dying, it was hard to keep that secret, so I couldn't complain too much about them noticing.

"And what is it that my twice murderers want, waiting for me with so many guards?"

The elder shuffled, in one of the few mannerisms I could recognise without the aid of novice empath. He was nervous.

"We wish for your help in defeating the guidance," he said.

I stared in disbelief, but he said nothing further. Apparently he was serious. "And why, exactly, would I help after you murdered me twice?"

"Once, when you trespassed on our land and ignored our warnings to leave, continued to move towards our village when attacked, then failed to explain yourself when captured and questioned. We knew not what you were. That you couldn't perceive our markers, speak our language, or even comprehend our threats, was not something we considered. Our enemies would have treated you in exactly the same way, had you headed in that direction first."

That... made sense. And it was true the second village knew who I was before I got there. If they hadn't, would they have attacked me too? "And the second?" I asked.

"You appeared in the middle of our village without warning, and the first thing you said was to point out our killing of your predecessor. That you had come for revenge was a natural assumption, so we switched from requesting cooperation to a show of force. Even so, you were not supposed to die. When it was noticed that your first corpse was infected with guidance yet showed no symptoms, we wanted a live sample. The dose you were infected with was not intended to be fatal."

That was less plausible. If I was there for revenge, I wouldn't have hung around for so long without doing anything. And that hardly excused them using me as a human lab rat. "So, you have prepared excuses, but that doesn't answer why I'd want to help you."

The bundle of flesh and limbs shuffled around again. I rather suspected his opinion was that I had no reason to want to help him. "You have already made a deal with our enemies, and got nothing out of it," he said. "Were you to use their shrine to teleport, they plan to immediately confine you under the guise of ensuring you are not infected, while using you to conduct further research. You are not welcome there as a guest, regardless of their promise."

Just like the second village seemed to know everything that went on in the first, the reverse also seemed to be true. Was half the population of each village spies or something? "And I suppose you would claim that you would welcome me instead?"

"No. We promise no further deception. I cannot claim you would be welcome in our village, because you will not be. We offer precious goods instead."

That gave me pause. If they had offered me the same deal as the other village, I wouldn't have been interested. I'd already got a deal with their species recorded against my class, and beyond its use as an emergency respawn point, I had no reason to want to visit. A one off trade of goods for blood was far more enticing. "What sort of goods?" I asked.

The monstrosity in front of me remained silent for a few seconds before answering. "We do not wish to make the same mistake again. What we consider precious may not be so for you. You have not shown interest in the crystal harvested from the roots of the great tree."

What could they offer me? More magic items would be nice, but given their insane physiology, I couldn't imagine anything they made would fit me. Unless they had enchanted scents. That would be cool. A better option would be mana crystals, though. I still had some of Ja'yakril's, but not enough to repair a shrine with, and I had a couple from the arch-mage, which were larger but by no means the biggest I'd seen. "Do you have mana crystals? The spheres taken from monsters capable of using magic? Something worth more than a thousand mana?"

Yes, that was far more than I needed to repair a shrine, but the bonus quest rewards for larger offerings were often better than the default one. If there was the possibility of earning a third class, I wasn't going to turn it down. If they turned out to only have smaller ones, I'd take whatever I could get away with. They had, after all, murdered me. I didn't see the need to play nice.

"We possess a number of such crystals. I do not know what measurement units you use for mana, but some of them are large, and would surely meet your requirements. We would be willing to trade one of our larger ones for your aid."

Cool. A new mana crystal, ready to earn my next level-up, and maybe something more. I'd take that. Besides, it would let me get a feel for my new disease immunity somewhere well away from any drones trying to plant seeds in me. The only problems were of trust and logistics. Given their prior behaviour, I didn't want to enter their village without the safety net of trigger respawn, but an hour wouldn't be enough time. I'd need to rely on sense danger to let me fire trigger respawn at short notice.

"Very well. I agree," I answered. I would rather both villages develop a defence anyway, rather than helping one to win.

The elder did an odd little jump, the fingers of the three limbs in contact with the ground clenching together and launching him a short distance into the air. Novice empath told me it was an expression of happiness. It almost reminded me of a guinea pig popcorn, except that, unlike these monstrosities, guinea pigs were cute.

Novice empath advanced to level 10

Evolution conditions met: Novice empath ranks up to proficient empath

A good adventurer should always know what their opponent is thinking. Allowing an enemy's calm facade to mask their seething rage is a good way to end up with a knife in your back. After reading a wide range of species from an aranea regina to the carnes multiformis, you have earned this upgrade from novice to proficient. This skill will help you read facial, body, voice or other cues to let you know your opponent's emotions and intent.

Added bonus. Apparently I could read intent now? Was that like the fox-kin truth-sense? Shame I didn't have it at the start of that negotiation.

I followed the group back towards the first village. Alas, while I'd only been concerned with what would happen once we arrived, a sudden rain of crystal arrows reminded me I should have spared a thought for the journey first.