[-=Nox=-]

The tunnel ended in a collapsed section, featuring a few vines hanging from the ceiling.

"Freaking finally!" I smiled. I must have gone through the entire damn spiral to get to this point.

"I rate your dungeon zero out of ten, Archmages! Not a single enemy for me to kill." I complained as I climbed up a pile of broken ceiling rocks.

I reached the vines. They looked very wilted upon closer examination. Not a smart idea to grow vines so close to the death spirals, I noted.

Whatever. Nature shall aid my escape! I grabbed at a vine and it instantly wrapped around me, pulling me up. Someone in the world above clearly had respect for me. In just a few moments I was out of the spiral labyrinth, staring at a whole lot of green forest.

[Quest completed! +1000 points!]

[100 points to level 1!]

The System dinged. I grinned. That was easy. I only had 100 points to go and I could finally evolve my human! I pondered what line of possible evolution I could select for my human as the vines held me up in the air.

"Thanks, forest. You may bow!" I said to the vines.

The vine suddenly tightened around me, cutting into my human meats.

"Hey. I said you may bow!" I choked, annoyed, wincing in pleasure.

The vine unceremoniously dumped me on the ground.

"Well screw you too!" I growled.

A bush slapped me on the ass. I jumped.

"You dare insult me, insolent forest avatar?" I kicked the bush with my boot.

A wooden maw opened up within an enormous tree in front of me. A female figure made of bark and moss stepped out from within. Various blue flowers and green vines draped from her wooden antlers. Extra sets of eyes watched me from within the flowers. It was a dryad.

"I think someone needs to be taught a little respect, human!" The dryad spoke, her voice a whisper of leaves rubbing against leaves.

"I do believe this belongs to you?" The trees dropped a white robe down on me.

"I am a Goddess and you shall address me as such!" I announced, grabbing at the white robe. This honest declaration got me another slap on the butt.

"Stop this insolence at once!" I yelped as the bushes slapped me. “I said, I’m…”

"You have no respect for the forest, mortal!” The dryad interrupted me. “You failed to heed my warning and fell into a hole. Now you are being a rude butt after I helped you out of it."

"I am Nox... Aaaahhh!" I cried, trying to defend myself with the white robe in my hands. It was working very poorly. A cloth robe wrapped around my hand made for a very bad shield against omnidirectional attacks of various plant life.

"Don't worry. I shall teach you to respect nature!" The dryad circled me as I shuddered from the blissful agony she inflicted upon me with her leafy attack.

"Had enough yet?" The dryad asked.

"Go suck a pinecone." I ground out.

"Very well." The dryad said. "Perhaps more education is in order."

Vines swung at me left and right, whipping at me. I cried as my body ignited with pleasure. I refused to submit to a sentient bush of all things.

"You dumb forest bitch!" I whimpered, shaking.

"Oh? Still not enough?" The dryad observed my thoroughly whipped body. “We can do this all, day you know. I’ve got all the time in the world.” She looked at her nails as vines increased the intensity of their attack.

“I’m a Goddess!” I tried to stand up, panting. My tongue was sticking out. Larger tree branches descended. They shot through the air, hitting me, leaving red lines wherever they struck. I screamed and moaned. The thrice damned dryad was playing with me! The amulet of healing flashed harder, working overtime.

“There are no Gods.” The dryad smiled serenely. “There are only nature spirits, beasts and mortals. Mortals must respect us, or suffer. This is the way of the world. This is how it’s always been.”

I blessed myself with a new quest.

Valerianne Yul

Quest: Murder the annoying forest Dryad. Reward: 1000 points.

“This isn’t how it's always been! Of course there are no Gods, foolish spirit…” I paused, my fingers twitching. The dryad raised an eyebrow at my declaration.

“That’s because I ATE them all!” I yelled, throwing the robe at the dryad to momentarily distract her, finally activating the magic circle that I was weaving above me. The circle flashed with brilliant radiant colors, coming into existence. Dryad’s mouth fell open as she pulled the robe off her face. She’s likely never seen a magic circle that big. The circle was enormous, several hundred meters long, covering her and her huge tree. I put nearly a hundred thousand Void mana into the thing.

I flung myself backwards into the hole as the magic circle overhead came into full power. Just as I suspected it would, the magic circle detonated with a blinding flash and the world ignited.

[Valerianne Yul]

I woke up with a gut-wrenching cough. It felt nice to cough. Too nice. What in Gaia's name was wrong with me?

My skin burned with pleasure. I looked down upon myself and saw that I was covered in welts and burns. The amulet of healing was slowly sealing off the injuries, new skin slowly growing atop them. It felt amazing. Why was pain amazing now? I didn't understand.

My bruises looked kinda weird too. The worst of them were a rich, deep purple that shimmered like the interior of a seashell.

I looked away from my body, examining my surroundings. I was in a tunnel of the same cursed dungeon, spiral runes on its walls. Ashes rained through a hole in the ceiling. My ears were ringing. I touched them and drew my hands away. My hands were covered in blood. Damn it. Wait a minute? Since when is my blood glowing and purple? What?! I licked my blood. It tastes incredible, fantastic, wonderful… just like the thing in my dream.

What. The. Fuck.

I was quite deaf, but my hearing was slowly coming back as the amulet healed me.

What happened?

How did I get here? I had no idea. I remembered getting shot with arrows, and then nothing. I noticed that I was bandaged up with bits of my cape where the arrows had struck me. When did I do that? How did I get to this section of the dungeon?

I refused to think about the horrible thing made of darkness and stars in the underground lake. It couldn't be real, but there was no other rational reason for the eight million void mana and my incredibly delicious, glowing, purple blood. I realized that I was vigorously licking the purple blood from my hands. Damn it!

Did my family have a curse or something?!

No, my parents had been honest farmers as had their parents and so on as far as I knew. We lived far from the city of Amarillia in the sacred forest of Bree. There was nothing monstrous or unwholesome about my family that could have caused the Void mana to be passed down to me. The evaluation orb would have seen it!

I sat up and started to cry, while I continued to lick my fingers. It was too horrible to think about, but there was no other explanation. There was a monster of some sort inside me, doing horrible things whenever I passed out. It had changed me somehow, made my blood indescribably delicious. I couldn't even stop licking my hands! It tasted so good, called to me, demanded to be consumed. Damn it!

I wept for a few minutes, letting the inner turmoil burn away.

I will free myself of the monster. I will become an adventurer. I will overcome this. I can do this. I’m strong. I’m strong.

Damn these memory gaps. I sniffed my hand. Even my tears smelled delicious. Damn it all to hell!

“Quests.” I whispered, wiping my tears, wanting to know what else was new.

A window appeared in my eyes.

Quest: Acquire a deadly weapon. Reward: 100 points.

Quest: Look so hot you impress others into becoming your worshippers. Reward: 100 points per true worshiper.

Quest: Murder the annoying forest Dryad. Reward: 1000 points.

Quest: Murder a strong unbeliever and drink their essence of life. Reward: 2000 points.

Quest: Open a new temple of the Void. Reward: 10000 points.

“What the fuck?” I gasped. What the hell were all of these insane Quests. Where did they come from? Who gave them to me and why?! Did I unknowingly meet some ancient evil in the dungeon that gave these insane fucking quests? Why would I accept these?!

“No. no. no.”

I shook my head. There was no way that I would kill another person stronger than myself and drink their blood. I wasn’t a murderer! I wasn’t some kind of a horrid vampire or a ghoul! I had pure white aura! I’ve never hurt another human being in my entire life. An unbeliever? An unbeliever in what?

The Void?!

Build a Void temple?! What the shit?!

Was the thing inside of me a ghost of a long dead Void Archmage? A vampire ghost? Were those real? Why did I have to take that stupid shortcut through the forest? I was such an idiot. Did the vampire ghost archmage walk my body to some ancient, evil underground temple that cursed me with purple blood and gave me these insane quests? It was the only thing that made any semblance of sense.

Crappedy crap. I couldn't do these quests! I adamantly refused to let the evil win. I would sacrifice the opportunity to become stronger, if only to impede the evil within me.

“System - Cancel all current Quests.” I whispered, my lips trembling.

Quests failed!

-13,200 points!

x 10 Penalty on current requirement for next level for multiple Quest cancellation!

[Progression to next level]: 0% [133’000 points required]

The System wasn’t happy with me. I let out a breath. It was a small, albeit very painful victory.

One of the cancelled Quests was extremely concerning. Murder a Dryad. How? Why?

I looked up at the hole. What was outside? Why were ashes raining from the sky? I had to know. I climbed up the pile of broken rocks, wincing and whimpering with pleasure as my injuries made themselves known.

I emerged onto a gray wasteland. Hundreds of meters of forest all around had been scorched, blasted away, vapourized, turned into ashes and dust. Further away, blackened stubs of trees were visible. They were smoldering, sparking ever so slightly. Stone ruins of an ancient, long destroyed city were visible here and there between burning trees. Even further away, the forest burned, smoke columns blooming into the sky. Who had unleashed such horrid devastation upon the world? Who could have done something so monstrous against nature itself?

A dryad rose from the ashes. She was very badly burned, her entire wooden body was scorched black, ashes and sparks falling off her. Her antlers were broken, mangled, simmering as they still still burned from within. I didn’t know how she was still alive. I’ve never seen a Dryad this injured. Her face was askew with rage.

“YOU... THERE YOU ARE!” She screamed, emerald eyes flashing, a blackened claw pointing at me. “I WILL FUCKING END YOU! I WILL TURN YOU INTO FERTILIZER, YOU FUCKING HUMAN WIZARD!”

I froze in panic. The Quest to murder the Dryad! Had I done this? Had I destroyed a sacred forest grove? Oh no. My hypothesis was right. There was an Archwizard vampire in me and he had set this poor forest on fire using the Void mana!

I saw titanic Life-Citadels turn towards me. They were NOT happy. The ones closest to me looked slightly scorched from one side. Their butterfly swarms were gone, likely shredded or blown away by the giant explosion that had done this. Enormous eyes of the colossal beasts focused upon me. Thousands of legs stepped in my direction. This was a fight I could not win. I fell onto my knees and put my arms out in prayer.

“Forgive me! Forgive me! I didn’t mean to do any of this! This was an accident! A mistake!”

The Dryad slowly walked towards me with a limp. One of her arms broke off, sparkling. She was terribly injured, near death, I knew. She would not listen to my excuses.

The tree which gave her life was likely incredibly damaged. It would probably take just a punch or two to finish her off. I didn’t attack her. I pointed my hand at her, drew the magical circle of healing with my hands, focused upon drawing power from the gemstone on my neck and tried extra hard to avoid using the foul Void mana.

“Heal!” I yelled. “HEAL! HEAL! HEAL!”

I shot healing spells at her, one after the other as she slowly stepped closer and closer, eyes blazing with desire for murder. As my spells struck her, the dryad turned a bit greener, moved a little faster, became less scorched. Green vines blossomed from the broken arm, forming a new appendage. She still looked incredibly mad, furious at the deforestation caused by my dark side. One of her hands snapped at me, ripping the amulet of healing off me.

"You’ll die in agony without your healing amulet, wizard!" She hissed.

The newly formed, green hand made of vines wrapped around my neck choking me.

“My name is Lyrria and I speak for the trees!” The Dryad growled. “I will kill you VERY slowly and painfully! I will put seeds into your blood and make them blossom. You will suffer horribly for what you have done!” She hissed, emerald eyes glowing.

“Please don’t kill me!” I cried, standing on my knees in submission. “I’ll serve you! I’ve already healed you a little! I’ll help you!”

“Help me with what? You’ve already fucking helped soooo much! You destroyed one of my favourite groves, you dumb fuck! My main tree is a fucking barely alive stump now!” She angrily pointed at a large burning stump nearby. “It took me three thousand fucking years to grow a grove here! This land is already poisoned with dark magic that I’ve spent thousands of years fighting and now you come here and undo all of my hard work!”

Poisoned land. Dark magic. I remembered the spiral runes underground. Of course!

“Lyrria! I know how to cleanse your land of the curse in the ground beneath!” I whimpered. “Please! Let me help you!”

“You have ten seconds to impress me, human.” The Dryad let go of me. She was wise, ancient, a survivor. She must have known that I wasn’t lying to her. “Fail and I will make you suffer. You’ll beg me for death.”

Quest: Aid the Forest of Lyrria. 10’000 points.

The Life-Citadels stood all around me, enormous legs pointing in my direction. They would strike me down if I did anything wrong.

I lowered myself down on my knees and touched a rock on the ground. It was one of the spiral runes. The runes that have fed on my White aura and on the Void mana within me. They were part of a giant underground system, a dungeon that drained life from this land. I put a hand down onto the rune, pouring all of my vile Void mana into. The Knights of Virtue would find no pestilence within me. The vampire Archmage would not be able to create more spells without his mana!

I would become pure again. I was a good person, not a monster. One million, two, three. The Void mana left me, spreading across tens, hundreds, thousands of interconnected runes beneath me, filling them to the brim.

The dryad watched me curiously.

“Heal.” I called upon the only spell that I knew, pushing my focus into the cyclopean formation of Void mana in the ground beneath me.

One hundred thousand spiral runes beneath the ground shattered, exploded all at once as Void and White mana inside them controlled by me activated, cancelling each other out. The ground shook, sinking all around in a massive spiral pattern across the forest.

[Quest completed! +10’000 points!]

[123’000 to next level!]

“You.. you actually did it.” The dryad whispered with a smile.

I nodded, feeling beyond horrible. I had used too much power all at once. The world spun in my eyes. I collapsed in exhaustion, falling into darkness.