Cultivators give up food, choosing to use their mana as sustenance. This is foolish because they forget that food doesn’t just nourish the body but the Soul!

~Cerridwen, Goddess of the Cauldron & Hearth

After leaving Kafe, Nadia went to the nearest Keystone and left. Only a few people realized she had a Wood-9 Shield, so she went directly to the ninth floor.

Everyone called this place the Misty Forests, and for a good reason. Nadia knew there were a lot of secrets here because it was hard to navigate this place if people didn’t follow the established routes. Only once a month would they gain any reprieve, which was during a full moon when the mists receded.

The mists were confusing and caused even the most experienced woodsmen to get lost. Nadia stopped on this floor because she liked the silence here the most. The mist muted sounds and made the environment mystical, serene, and forlorn.

It also suppressed her physique, making men less likely to be inappropriate around her. She knew she was a walking disaster, and Kafe initially made her feel like she was something special. Ultimately, he showed his true nature, and she realized he was more of a disaster than she was.

The reason she left him was that she had gained her answer. Kafe loved no one—probably incapable of it. She was silly, thinking any man could resist her seductive nature.

The Keystone on this floor was in a hollowed-out tree several hundred meters wide. She always wondered what type of tree it had been, but even it had succumbed to time.

This was the only place she could see the stars above every day. Something had cleanly topped this tree, and it had no branches. Still, it rose so high that its top was above the mists, and its interior could also repel the mists.

No one built a city around this place, but not for lack of trying. This tree might be dead, but whatever residual power existed in its trunk and roots had the power of compulsion. It compelled anyone that tried to build here to leave and preserve the surrounding environment.

On top of that, she had never heard of anyone capable of harming another person here. Those that tried ended tragically, or so the stories go. Not even thieves could operate here without being targeted.

Nadia had never witnessed what happened to those violating these unspoken rules, but had heard about their tragic ending. The compulsion wasn’t so strong that it couldn’t be resisted. However, anyone that felt the power of the compulsion usually sobered up. Those that ignored the warning were the ones that were too foolish to live anyway.

These events turned this place into a legendary trading and market venue. While the tree prohibited permanent structures, temporary camps were allowed. So once a month, there was the Moonlight Market, which started the day before a full moon and lasted three days. Three days was the limit allowed for a temporary camp before those merchants were compelled to leave.

That isn’t to say the place was completely void of people after the market. Some of the bigger merchant groups had people here most of the month. They just had to switch out the merchant.

Nadia arrived during a full moon while the market was at its peak. She always liked the Moonlight Market because they were rarely busy during the day, and the bustling night market always felt special—otherwordly.

Walking among the various shops, she found many interesting things but never cared much for treasures. Maybe it was because men always gave her treasures and jewelry without her ever interacting with them. A perk of her physique, but it also annoyed her to no end. She didn’t even resist the gifts anymore because they’d hound her if she did. Only after accepting would they settle down and back off.

Nothing she did would prevent them from approaching her, either. Masks, cowls, secret methods, and even dressing as a man—none of it worked.

She stood at a gap in the trunk facing the surrounding forest while staring at the moon. Her lonely silhouette was bathed in moonlight, making men and women both sigh in admiration at the beautiful scene she had made. It was like the gods created an ethereal painting, and everyone could only look on in silence. They couldn’t see the front of her face, or they’d have seen the tears that flowed non-stop. Her body might be undead and her heart broken, but her soul refused to give up the fight.

“Excuse me, miss?” A man approached her, holding a silver bracelet with strange runes. Nadia recognized them as Ogham Runes because Crow had taught her some formations. Seeing the arrangement, her wet eyes turned cold as ice. “May I put this on your wrist?”

The man’s black hair was slicked over, making him look like a dandy, and his smile made her feel dirty. She knew these types of men and hated them the most.

“You wear it first. I’d like to see what it looks like,” Nadia said with a face as serene as the moon she bathed under.

“That… heh,” the man coughed nervously. “It’s for women, you see. It isn’t appropriate for a man to wear.”

“Then I don’t want it,” she said without reservation and knew what would happen next. There was no doubt in her mind that the man had already felt the effects of the compulsion with an object like that. Even as the guy reached for her wrist, she was moving away. Not because she was afraid of him, but was fearful of what came next.

The massive trunk of the tree became three degrees brighter. A thick root pierced upward from the ground right between the man’s legs before bisecting him. Blood splattered the surrounding area, and it sucked the two halves of the man below the ground, nourishing the roots below. All that was left was a puddle of blood and a silver bracelet, which Nadia took and placed into her Shield. The function of the runes was to enslave someone; she didn’t want it to be left lying around. She felt Crow would have a way to destroy it.

“Crow…” Nadia sighed. She didn’t have romantic feelings for him, but she enjoyed talking to him because he seemed immune to her physique. He never looked at her with lecherous eyes or treated her as anything other than a friend.

Staring at the moon once more, she decided what to do next. A strange determination she’d never felt before filled her. She’d wait here for Crow and his people and ask if she could join them. It was the only place she didn’t feel lonely. Never having a family, she didn’t know how much of an impact those people had on her until she was away from them.

While she waited, she’d spend her time learning a Scholarly Talent. All the people around Crow seemed to have something they were good at, and she didn’t want to be a burden. Nadia knew she already had something worthy of helping them because of her undead body. But she wanted to be something more than that because it felt like she was still using her body to get what she wanted. She wanted her contributions to be more than her body. It was hard for her to articulate what she wanted, but she felt that she wanted to accomplish something that would let her gain self-respect, despite what others might say about her.

After a time, she smelled something delicious and realized her undead body had heightened her sense of smell. She could differentiate the ingredients of the different delicacies the food stalls were selling. After eating to her heart’s content, she knew what she wanted to do. Very few people hoarded culinary-related arts, so she bought several introductory manuals. Learning to cook was easy, but mastering it was a lifelong pursuit. A month flew by, and she realized another Moonlight Market had started.

The tree hadn’t compelled her to leave, which she felt was odd. However, she now understood why Crow enjoyed the process of learning. It gave her life a new outlook, and she felt this kind of life was really enjoyable.

Months flew by, and the only time she left the safety of the Keystone was when she went hunting for meat and other ingredients. Every market, she’d find more books and even pulled out the introductory manuals on alchemy that Song Lin gave her. She combined herbs used for things like healing potions into her meals.

She’d open a food stall and sell her goods during the Moonlight Market. It didn’t take long before she became popular, and the only thing she used the money on was rare ingredients and recipes.

Like that, a year passed, and she hadn’t realized that not only was she smiling more often. Her damaged soul from Kafe’s meddling was repairing itself at an abnormal rate.