Darkness. Mountains of bones. The Still Forest?!

“Back again, huh?” I thought, looking up.

There was no sky there, only more bones and murky darkness, an impossible, alien landscape without gravity or air that operated on its own laws.

I extended my threads out of my anti-phantom armor and inhaled, drawing power and life in, towards myself. I felt it once again... the whisper of static, the voices of the dead myriads, memories, dreams and hopes of the ancient ones that I could not understand.

I had to return to the world of the living. Had to get back as quickly as I could… for Alessi and for the human girl that I had rescued from the twenty-armed Folding Seed.

I felt something… a distinctive signature, a warmth in the void. I opened my eyes.

A little, brittle, dim brown star shimmered beside me in the silent void. I reached out to it. It undulated and twisted, momentarily forming the rough outline of a very skinny thirteen-year-old human girl. There was no expression in her face, not even a sign of any emotion or recognition.

I recognized her. It was the girl I carried through the flames! The brittle star flashed one last time and fell apart, blooming into a gray cloud, shards of her soul drifting apart like little dying fireflies.

“I’m sorry,” I thought. “I tried… I really tried to help you.”

The cloud of whatever had remained of the girl’s soul dissolved into me as I breathed in once again. As I unintentionally absorbed the remnants of the human soul next to me, the voices of static merged together into a new crescendo, a symphony of clarity that I had been trying to find for three years... since the day the phantom ripped it out of me.

Blue sparks flickered in my vision, forming into readable white words on a blue screen.

[System connection re-established]

“I… I’m really sorry,” I thought with a pang of regret. “I didn’t mean to eat you… I’m no better than a phantom, aren’t I?”

This. This pivotal moment was what Eunice had been training me for.

For three years my Master had shoved knowledge into my head, gave me power and ability to consume other souls that fell into the Still Forest along with me.

“I finally have my System back,” I thought. “Does it mean all of my Stats are back too?”

A large blue window manifested itself in my vision.

Name:

Juni Tokimorimïtuti / Grogtilda Lic Misem

Age:

4 years, 60 days

Species & Subtype:

Chimera Stripling

Astral Phantom

Level:

4

Experience:

1657/1250

Health:

4/4

Stamina:

3.97/4

Mana Capacity:

4/4 [+1]

Mana regen:

4 m/hr [+4]

Strength / Fortitude:

1 [Mitchell Shield]

Agility / Folding:

1 [Air Compressor]

Dexterity / Dominion:

5 [Pneumasomatic Actuators]

5 [Dominion saplings]

Vitality / Anima:

1 [Slow Mirror]

Charisma / Resonance:

1 [Allure Halo]

Magic / Power:

1 [Battery]

4 [Generators]

Luck / Destiny:

1 [Luck Tree]

Intelligence / Mind:

1 [Calculator]

Wisdom / Seeking:

1 [Seeking Arrow] - [Damaged]

Soul: Base value: 21 threads In Dominated Folding Seed [Saccy]: 12 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]

8 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Damaged] In Dominated Chimera Stripling [Alessi Tokimorimïtuti]:

3 [Pneumasomatic Actuators] - [Active]

1 [Pneumasomatic Actuator] - [Damaged]

My eyes settled on the fourth line. Astral Phantom.

I was an Astral Phantom now, there was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The System had defined me as a monster from the Still Forest, a ghost that ate the souls of others! I despaired and looked further down.

A new stat was there… it defined my soul?! I went over the other lines. The System defined my Dominion Saplings in Alessi and Saccy. Hum. Well… that’s nice to know, I guess? The damaged Actuators data was a bad sign, especially the one in Alessi. Did she get hurt from the fall?

I had to get back to the world of the living, but had no idea how to do it.

Something flickered in the distance with silver and blue. Well…. Shit. The hollow, hungry bastard was back. Not this time, pal. My shield is still intact… right? Right.

I drew all of my threads inside of myself.

I stared at the distant silver-blue trail and tried to replicate the sensation of stepping back through the End-Gate. I had no idea how long it took, no idea how long I kept trying to return to my body. One moment everything was dark and the next…

I felt my body. I couldn't move, couldn't speak. Right. I slowly restarted my heart, uncrystallized my organs one by one, checking that everything was okay.

It wasn’t. My leg felt wrong, shattered… broken. Damnation.

I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying on a pile of moss beneath our glider tent.

Argh!

I moved my head, observing the tent’s interiors. The glider tent was smaller than I remembered, parts of it held together by ropes and mud. How long was I out?

Right… I had the System. Thirty two days? I spent that many days floating in the Still Forest? God damn it!

I groaned.

“Juni?” A very tired voice resounded. I turned my head. Alessi was there, sitting in a lotus pose.

“Alessi!” I smiled as my sister came to me and wrapped me in one-arm embrace. Her right hand was wrapped up in cloth and ropes... like a cast.

“You wouldn't wake,” she said. “I was… worried.”

“Is your arm…?” I started to speak.

“Broken,” my sister nodded.

“My legs busted up too,” I said. “Where’s Saccy?”

“She’s close by… regrowing her shell, kneading herself back together. She got pretty busted up when we crashed into the river. She’s growing her allure back too… it is different.”

“Growing?! How? W-what’s she eating?” I asked in surprise.

“The human you’ve rescued,” Alessi said.

“What?!” I barked. “You’re letting her feed on the human?”

“Saccy is our only way out of this place,” Alessi said, her eyes beneath her mask turning into two slits. “Decisions had to be made. You weren’t awake.”

“You can’t just…” I muttered.

“That human body is terribly burned and has far too many broken bones,” my sister said sternly. “She is dead, Juni. That human died a month ago, maybe longer. The twenty-armed Seed sucked far too much life out of her. There’s no consciousness in that body, I’m certain of it. It’s just an empty, ruined shell. If I cut… it off from Saccy, the body will begin to rot.”

“Oh…” I muttered. “Are you certain of this?”

“Saccy’s been talking to me,” Alessi said.

“WHAT?!” I barked.

“Well, Saccy doesn’t exactly talk… it’s more like she complains with emotions. A Folding Seed seems to be about as smart as the creature it's connected to. When I woke up from my Still trance Saccy had grown another mouth-root and was already connected to the human. She couldn't get us because of the helmets.”

I blinked, feeling disgusted and angry. I wasn’t mad at Saccy. The Folding Seed was a predator, I could not shame it for eating people. I was angry at Eunice, angry at myself for unintentionally absorbing the poor girl’s soul in the Still Forest.

“Saccy can’t move away from the river. The fall busted up her body, broke all of her leg-roots. I threatened her... a lot... with the soul-cutting knife. I think she understood. She didn’t grow another love-halo… the song she now broadcasts is less ‘come in’ and more like ‘please don’t set me on fire again, I’ll be a good girl, just bring me more food.”

“I see,” I sighed, rubbing my aching leg. “Did you bring her… more food?”

“No,” Alessi shook her head. “I can't go far. Way too many Seeds around.”

“I think… that my leg broke during the fall and hasn’t healed yet. I’m going to need a crutch,” I sighed.

“Yeah, our situation is not great,” Alessi nodded. “We’re currently surrounded by about a few thousand Folding Seeds from all sides. I’ve dug this alcove in between the roots and covered it with what remained of the glider, keeping my body suspended to conserve food. I don’t trust Saccy enough to stay anywhere near her.”

“Still trance doesn’t heal broken bones… does it?” I asked.

“Not really,” Alessi sighed. “Once a limb is suspended it does not heal.”

“Well, this sucks,” I groaned.

“I was wrong to bring us here,” she sniffed. “We lost against a twenty-armed Seed. A thousand-armed one would be our end. We can’t make it to the Heart. My mask is cracked somewhere… I can hear Saccy in my mind too clearly… she’s begging for food.”

“I’ll… fix it. We’ll figure something out. Just let me get my bearings,” I said.

“Oh. I almost forgot. I have something for you,” Alessi said.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The human had a book in her bag.” My sister leaned down and pulled a slightly scorched, leather book from her backpack, handing it to me. “I found it in her bag. Anyways, I’m… very tired and Saccy is starting to irritate me immensely with her constant nagging. Wake me up when you’ve fixed my helmet. She’s seriously grating on my nerves.”

Alessi's silver-blue eyes closed as her body stilled completely.

I reached into the backpacks and checked our supplies.

We had a single steak left with about five berries. At the very least the beetle-bottles were full of water. I knew that Alessi had left the food and drink for me, likely getting the water from the river. It was up to me now.

Up to me… to do what? I had no idea what I could do. My broken leg ached. I Stilled it, trying to think.

Maybe the book would offer me some answers? Perhaps there was something there, some vital bit of information that could help us?

I opened up the slightly-burned book, reading the jumpy, uneven Basq handwriting.

[ Adventurer’s Log, year 8066 ]

[5 - 14th]

[ Our group's leader, Mergul Klaips, gave me this journal.

It is part of the Diver's initiation. I am supposed to write down my progress in it so that if I perish in the Infinite Dungeon, some other idiot will find my body and learn a thing or two from the words on these pages. Mergul said that the survival rate in the Dungeon for low-level Adventurers like us with used equipment is about five percent. Yeah. It's bad.

Sadly, I don't have a choice. Thanks to my father's gambling debts, I am property of the Fighter's guild. Since I'm absolutely shit at fighting, the Guild assigned me to Mergul's diver group. Our job is to fetch Topaz from the 20th Level of the Dungeon. Topas is a great painkiller and a paralyzing drug. It is also extremely addictive. The Topaz Dens pay good money to Divers to obtain the stuff from the Folding Forest.

There are five of us in our group.

If you find all of us dead and dismembered here's what we looked like while we were still alive:

Me - Grogtilda Lic Misem. I'm thirteen, have black hair, black eyes and I'm very skinny and pale. I don't get to eat much in Undertown. Mergul gave me and the others headbands that are supposed to protect us from mind-control or whatever. My headband smells and has questionable stains. Pretty sure someone died in it.

Mergul - He is a large, hairy man. His face is covered in scars from years of fighting. He is an experienced fighter and leads our group. He has a really big, rusty sword and a compass artifact that's supposed to show us the way out of LV 20. He's got a Hex-lantern that's supposed to repel ghosts or some shit, so we ain't allowed to go too far from him.

Hummi - A decent-looking girl, slightly older than me. Brown hair, green eyes. She is an aight archer. She has a slender body and is quite tall.

Slippery Jimbo - Jimbo is a skinny teenager. He has long, black hair and blue eyes. He said he is good at sneaking around and pick-pocketing. Must not be that good if he's down here and not stealing stuff or working for the Thieves Guild.

Borijac - Borijac is an old man. Most of his teeth are missing and he's got these freaky, shiny lesions on his arms. He has silver eyes and short, blond hair. He is supposedly good at magic. He is also quite good at brewing potions, I'm told. I'm pretty sure he's a Topaz addict though.

We have been in the Dungeon for two days now, and Mergul gave everyone these books and told us to write our progress so here I am writing things down and feeling like an idiot. I saw dragons in the distance. They're massive. I didn't like them. I am not sure what else to write, so I will end this entry here.

[5 - 15th]

We found a nest full of weird, shiny, giant bugs today. Borijac was able to kill most of them with a spell and Hummi got the rest with arrows. We were able to skin them and cook them over a fire. They tasted terrible, but I was so hungry that I didn't care too much. We also found a few mushrooms, which we added to the soup. It was still terrible, but at least it was filling. We are now resting near a waterfall. It is wet. I don't like it. Hopefully, we will find some better food. Borijac made our books waterproof, the old addict isn’t a complete incompetent it seems.

Mergul is hoarding the salted meat for when we get to Level 20 as it's apparently very hard to find food down there.

[5 - 16th]

We found a group of dead adventurers today. I think it was another group belonging to the Fighters Guild, cus Mergul's artifact compass led us straight to them. They were all killed by a giant, black thing with too many legs. We were able to kill it. It tasted even worse than the bugs, but at least we had something to eat. Mergul told us to undress the bodies. I got a set of armor. Now I definitely know that someone died in it. It was a girl about my age. I didn't bother learning her name. Mergul read over their journals and copied some details into his book. They had a tent too. We are now resting in the tent. It is drier and warmer here. I am grateful for that.

[5 - 17th]

We were ambushed by a group of massive flying things. I was able to hit one of them in the head with a rock. It whined like a little bitch as it died. I don't think this swarm will be bothering anyone anytime soon. I got to Level four. Yay for me. ]

I continued reading but there wasn’t much else of note. Most of it was just Grogtilda and her companions murdering monsters and complaining about the dungeon. I leafed through the rest of the journal but there wasn’t anything else that could help me. I had reached the last page.

[6 - 9th]

[ We are screwed. Mergul's gone. Something took him during the night. Maybe he walked off on his own, because his pack with stuff from the dead group and the hex lantern is still here in the tent.

Without his magical compass, there's no way for us to get out of this blasted forest. I think that the artifact bandanas that were supposed to shield us from the Folding flowers' songs aren't working properly. I don't know what to do.

We are all going to die here. I am going to die here. I'm very hungry and thirsty.

Borijac says that we can survive inside a Folding Seed, if someone finds us in time before the thing sucks out our brains. He said that it takes a month for the Seeds to turn our brains into mush. He said that there’s a chance.

I think that he's nuts.

Borijac's gone. He walked straight towards a LV 20 Folding Seed. I'm pretty sure that's what got Mergul too. I don't know how long I can hold out.

I can hear the thing's voice in my head. I put all of the bandanas and artifacts that I found in Mergul's sack on top of my body and shoved the hex-lantern into my side-bag.

The others walked to the Flower, leaving me alone in the tent.

I am… still resisting its song.

The damned thing promises me eternal love and salvation. It promises me that I will not sink into the darkness of the Astral Ocean. My idiot parents, Illatius, Undertown, Rimmersville, the Guilds. I wish that it would all fall into the abyss of this accursed Dungeon! I want to go to Heaven…

No, these thoughts are not my own. It has to be that accursed twenty-root Folding flower, forcing me to forsake what I am.

I wish that I was stronger. I really wish that I wasn’t born as a debitor. I wish... that I could have graduated from an Arcanarium, seen the Empire, done something with my life. I wish that I could grow up and help my family, aid the misfortunate children of Undertown doomed to starvation, crime and debts.

If you found my dead body, keep my possessions. This armor is worth at least a few hundred obliss, even though it wasn't mine to begin with. Please, just tell my parents and cousins in Undertown that I loved them.

I really wish that someone would find me, before I am completely gone…]

The last few words were blurred, lines of ink streaked with something...

As I stared at the yellowing page, I somehow knew that it was Grogtilda's tears. I suddenly remembered writing these words.

The remnant of her soul, a shattered fragment of her mind that was not digested by the Folding Seed was inside me now. Smallest, barely active flickers of memory danced in the back of my head like a theater of shadow puppets.

I put down her… no, my journal.

According to what Eunice taught me about the Illatius calendar it was now the 9th month of the year 8066.

The impoverished adventurers spent three months inside Folding Seed. Their minds and souls were gone. Grogtilda held on only because of the numerous artifacts that she had strapped to herself. I had found them too late. The bodies I’ve accidentally set on fire were already empty, dead. This thought made me feel only marginally better.

“I’ll live out your dream…” I whispered to Grogtilda’s ghost, feeling my own tears raining down beneath my mask lenses. “I will take your body from the Seed, find a way to heal it and do what you could not.”