The tunnel on the left was nothing like the one that led to the spiders.
That path had been lined with crystal veins pulsing softly with light, jagged ores and mineral growths thrusting out from the walls. It had been the very image of a crystal cavern.
This was different.
Rune slowed, taking in his surroundings.
The ground beneath his feet was no longer bare stone and earth. A thin layer of pale moss covered the floor, releasing faint clouds of dust-like motes with each step he took. They drifted lazily through the air before settling again.
Mushrooms clustered along the walls, their caps broad and faintly luminous. Between them, thick roots pushed out from the stone itself, veins pulsing slowly beneath their bark, as if something alive moved within.
The air felt heavier here.
Rune exhaled quietly.
'You know… I never actually checked my status after that last fight.'
'Summary.'
[Status Summary]
Name: Rune
Age: 22
Race: Human+
Element: Light
Element: Shadow
Element power: 31
Physical power: 33
Stored Money Value: None
[Perks]
Memories of the World
One That Has Started to Remember
Perseverance
[Qualifications]
None
'I do feel stronger. More than when I first got here.'
Rune clenched his hand into a fist, flexing his arm as veins rose beneath his skin. The strength felt real. Earned.
'Time to check these new perks.'
'I can already guess what the new one tied to remembering is. So… Perseverance.'
[Perseverance]
Only when standing near death can one learn to look past it.
Those who possess this trait may ignore pain and movement restrictions caused by damage while close to death.
'Useful, but I really don't like the idea of needing to be on the brink just to make it work.'
He shook his head slightly.
'Even if this world seems determined to put me there again and again.'
After walking for some time, the tunnel widened and opened into a vast chamber, unlike anything Rune had seen before.
It felt less like a cavern and more like an underground rainforest.
Giant leaves slowly curled and unfurled overhead. Mushrooms the size of trees rose from the ground, their broad caps forming natural canopies. Small ponds dotted the chamber floor, their surfaces disturbed only by drifting spores and falling droplets.
Life was everywhere.
Then Rune saw them.
Two enormous figures moved through the chamber.
Men. No. Trees shaped like men.
Their hulking forms lumbered through the greenery, movements slow and heavy, as if tending to a garden that had grown wild. Thick plates of bark shifted and ground against one another as they walked.
Beneath the bark, a pulsing green light burned softly, visible only when their forms shifted, like a living heart glowing just under the surface.
Rune stood still, watching.
'I'm guessing those are the sporewood sentinels. Which means they should have the cores I need.'
Rune reached into his pouch and drew out his axes.
'No time to waste. Let's see how strong you really are.'
He burst forward, closing the distance, and opened immediately with Triple Judgement.
The first axe struck. The sentinel staggered.
The second blow followed, heavier and more precise. Cracks split across its layered bark armor, glowing faintly as green light bled through the fractures.
The third strike landed fast.
Light erupted in a violent burst, blasting outward from the point of impact.
But instead of being thrown back, the sentinel dug its trunk like legs deep into the earth. Roots tore through soil and stone, anchoring it in place as it absorbed the force.
For a brief moment, through the scorched bark and the jagged hole torn into its chest, Rune saw it.
At the center of the creature's body floated an orb of glowing green energy.
A core.
The light from the burst did not scatter. Instead, it folded inward, drawn back into the sentinel's body, spiraling straight toward the exposed core.
Green light surged.
Bark plates regrew over the wound, fresh layers forming and sealing the damage as if it had never existed. Roots pulsed beneath the surface, strength returning faster than Rune could track.
Understanding struck Rune.
His element was light. The power of the sun.
And here, against a creature born of growth and renewal, it was not harm.
It was nourishment.
"Damnit, I should've known."
He clenched his jaw, eyes fixed on the restored bark.
"When the weaver said green cores had regenerative properties… this should have been obvious."
The sentinel stood taller, stronger than before, its core glowing steadily beneath newly formed bark.
The sentinel turned toward Rune and attacked.
One sweeping blow came from the left.
Another followed from the right.
Then both massive arms rose and smashed down together.
The strikes were heavy enough to crack stone.
But the creature was slow.
Rune stepped aside from each blow with measured ease, movements controlled and efficient. He didn't even need to call on Shadow Reflexes. Compared to the spiders, this was predictable.
As the sentinel's arms slammed into the ground, Rune was already moving, eyes sharp, mind steady.
'Strong… but not fast.'
Shadow flowed up the handles, then slid along the rune carved blades of his axes.
'If light won't work… let's try this.'
He unleashed a flurry of strikes at the sentinel's chest, targeting the bark plates that had just sealed over the core.
Even as he attacked, he continued to slip past the creature's heavy swings, never lingering in one place.
Each axe swing cut into bark.
Shadow clung to the wounds, wisps of energy seeping into the husk and refusing to fade.
Where the darkness touched, the wood began to wither. Life drained away, the vibrant green dulling as the bark blackened.
The edges of the plates curled inward, brittle and scorched, peeling back as the shadow spread deeper into the sentinel's body.
The green light within the sentinel flared, attempting to repair the damage.
Bark regrew and put itself back together, but the restoration halted the moment it reached the shadow infested wounds. Even without light, the green core could heal. But where shadow had taken root, the process stalled.
Rune pressed the advantage.
He hacked into the sentinel's chest again and again, as if he were felling a massive tree. With each strike, the bark grew weaker, darker, until it finally became brittle.
The plating crumbled. The core was exposed.
Rune swung with everything he had, the axe crashing directly into the glowing orb.
He expected it to shatter.
Instead, the blade rang out with a sharp clang, rebounding off the condensed energy.
Rune was forced to leap back, narrowly avoiding a final crushing strike from the towering creature.
As it tilted forward, the core slipped free.
It tumbled from the sentinel's chest and rolled across the cavern floor.
Rune's blow had dislodged it from within. It had never needed to be broken, only freed. Once the creature moved, the core had found its own way out.
The moment it separated, the sentinel collapsed, its massive form breaking apart into dust that sank into the moss and soil, melting back into the living floor of the chamber.
"That was easy enough, much better than the spiders."
The moment the words left his mouth, the second roaming sentinel turned toward him.
The chamber felt different now.
Everything here was alive. Everything was connected. Everything watched.
A deep green glow rumbled beneath the sentinel's surface. With a heavy thud, large sections of bark plating tore free and crashed to the ground.
New plates formed in their place.
Smaller. Lighter. Streamlined.
It had adapted.
The sentinel lunged forward, its massive body moving with blistering speed that tore across the chamber in an instant.
Rune's eyes widened.
"I spoke too soon…."