The ominous warning pulse of Azoth’s jade leaves casted a green tint on Nico’s stunned expression as the terrifying implications of "localized mana desertification and death of local flora" sank into his brain.
[This thing can spread to the city?]
The thought sent a violent shiver down his spine, conjuring apocalyptic images of Shinkotsu turned into a grey, barren wasteland, stripped of its crops and the mana that fueled the city’s infrastructure.
The damage to the agricultural sectors and the foundation of magecraft would be incalculable, a catastrophe that would leave them defenceless, specifically now, with the Night of the Red Moon looming only a few months away.
But as the terror of the potential destruction reached its peak, the gears in his mind clicked into place with a sudden, sharp clarity that replaced the image of a dead city with the mory of a wounded dragon.
He saw himself floating near Nom-Nom’s massive snout back on the island, staring at the jagged stump where her upper right wing used to be, rembering the crushing weight of the vow he had sworn to her in the silence of the aftermath.
[I promised her she’d be back in the sky in no ti...]
Nico stared at the glowing jade leaves with wide eyes and ragged breathing, realizing he was looking at the miracle he hadn’t known how to find.
[Its leaves are the active ingredient for a Grade 1 Healing Potion.]
-Ding!
{Host, I recomnd repotting it.
Suggested items for purchase: Small Shovel, Mystic Jade Pot, 2 Kg Spirit Soil.
Cost: 1273 Credits.
Advisory: Azoths are extrely fragile in their infancy. Handle with care and store in the inventory imdiately after repotting.}
"Make the purchase..." Nico whispered, his voice trembling for the first ti since the fight ended.
[Okay, okay... calm down... Do not ss up the only good thing to co out of this entire charade...]
-Ding!
{Items purchased and stored in the inventory.}
Nico withdrew the items with shaking hands, setting them down on the ground to prepare the vessel for the transplant.
The pot was a simple, elegant vessel carved from pale green jade that felt cool to the touch, acting as a stark contrast to the heavy cloth sack beside it, which held soil so dark it seed to swallow the light, radiating pure mana that made the fine hair on his arms stand up.
With trembling hands that he forced into steadiness by sheer will, he poured the soil into the jade vessel, filling it halfway to create a bed before turning his attention to the parasitic salvation in the mud.
The trowel sliced into the ground, soaked with his blood and the potion, with a wet squelch as he carved a wide, cautious circle around the sapling’s base, terrified of severing even a single, hair-thin root.
As he leveraged the root ball free from its gory cradle, the Azoth shimred violently with its jade leaves pulsing with an agitation that sent shivers of panic through his chest before he quickly lowered it into the waiting pot.
He packed the remaining Spirit Soil around the exposed roots, burying them deep within the high-density dium until the agitated pulsing slowed into a steady, contented hum.
The crystalline leaves brightened imdiately, drinking in the pure mana of the soil like a starving man offered a feast, glowing with a stability that finally allowed Nico to exhale the breath he had been holding.
Not willing to risk exposure for another second, he banished the potted miracle into his inventory with a thought, and its green light vanished instantly, leaving him alone once more in the encroaching darkness.
The sudden darkness invited the silence back in, and with that silence ca the mories as his mind drifted inevitably back to feeling his bones snapping.
The trauma began to claw at the edges of his consciousness, threatening to pull him under, until a primal sound shattered the spiral.
-Awooo!
The hungry howl of a wolf echoed from the deep woods, sobering him up instantly, and snapping his head toward the noise while his survival instincts overrode crawl of phantom pain across his body.
He didn’t hesitate.
He shoved his entire capacity of 55 MP into activating Ice Reinforcent.
Frost snapped over his feet instantly, encasing them in armor while forming gauntlets over his fists.
The magic instantly enhanced his eyes, flaring them with a predatory blue glint and turning the forest into a crisp, high-definition monochro, making the pitch-black path ahead navigable.
[I’ll cry about it later...] Nico shook his head as he straightened his legs and stood up.
"Mimi did say there’s a shrine... a small shop for potions and gear... and an inn right outside the Dungeon," he whispered, his breath pluming in the artificial cold. "Maybe I should just start running... again."
He flicked his finger in the air to summon the System Map and zood out to view the dense canopy from above before pinching out on the stylized ’Cave Icon’ that marked the Dungeon’s entrance.
With another ntal command, he dropped a waypoint on the location.
-Ding!
The top of his vision rippled, and a dynamic compass bar materialized, a sleek, translucent white strip with an orange diamond that pulsed steadily in the center, hovering over the faded white ’W’ of the western horizon.
The white text hanging just beneath the pulsing orange diamond read [40.2 km].
Nico tugged on the leather sling to settle the shotgun, inhaling the cold air before forcing his legs to drive against the ground to eat away at the number one step at a ti.
He started with a walk, letting the Ice Reinforcent numb his senses, but the silence of the forest pressed against his back with an urgency that eventually pushed him into a jog.
The wind had just rushed past his ears with a roar that felt like freedom, but the sensation warped instantly as his mind superimposed the mory of the ambush over the reality of the run.
The whistle of the wind morphed into the crackling thunder of a fireball in his head while his healed arm throbbed with the phantom agony of being ripped apart.
He instinctively skidded to a violent halt, strangled by the ghost of Arlath’s brutality.
It wasn’t entirely the fear that ground him to a halt, but the sheer, crushing weight of dejection as the injustice of it all clawed at his throat.
He had been happy, running toward an adventure, only to be hunted and butchered like an animal.
"Dammit!" The curse ripped from his throat with a raw, jagged fury as he scrambled upright, pulling his fist back, ready to smash his knuckles into the trunk of the massive oak standing before him, desperate to hurt sothing, desperate to-
[Master!]
The voice rang out in his mind, shattering through his thoughts.
User Comments
0 comments from readers