Caldwell turned toward the horizon, eyes narrowed as the thick mist swirled beyond the shattered treeline.
"But this is just the first floor..." he muttered, voice tight with tension. His knuckles whitened as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his blade. "If it's already this bad... then something far worse is waiting at the top"
"...You're right," Reza replied, his tone sober. "But the good news is... our level increased. And because you just killed that many enemies..."
He trailed off, glancing at the frozen corpses of the decayed dryads.
One by one, the withered husks shimmered and dissolved into shimmering particles of greenish light, like fragments of data dispersing into the air.
The motes slowly coalesced into a floating object before it fell to the ground... a dark green, pulsating magic core.
"Huh?" Asahi blinked, eyes narrowing at something just beyond the core. "Wait... that one doesn't look like a Magic Core at all"
He pointed at the ground, where something thin and fluttering had caught the breeze.
"...A piece of paper?" he said, puzzled.
"Let me take a look," Rijal offered. He stepped forward and picked up the mysterious item.
As soon as his fingers made contact, a glowing system interface appeared in front of him, suspended in midair like a hologram.
[Rotleaf Talisman: Reveals safe paths through corrupted undergrowth]
"...A talisman?" Rijal murmured. "It says it reveals safe paths through corrupted undergrowth"
"Then this thing can show us the way out?" Daniel asked, a flicker of hope in his voice.
"I don't think it's that simple," Caldwell said grimly. He scanned the surrounding area. A thick, almost unnatural fog blanketed the forest, curling like tendrils around their legs.
Without his Werewolf trait enhancing his vision, even he would be blind in this soupy gloom.
"Rijal, let me see that item"
"Sure," Rijal replied, walking over and handing it to him. "Here"
"Thanks," Caldwell said, examining the strange talisman in his clawed hand. It was brittle and dry like ancient bark, inscribed with faint runes pulsing in sickly green.
Carefully, he poured a small stream of Mana into it.
Suddenly, the talisman ignited in his hand.
"Shit!" Caldwell flung it instinctively, but the flames didn't burn like normal fire, they were cold, flickering with emerald and black hues.
The paper disintegrated midair into ashes that didn't fall but floated upward, spiraling like smoke caught in reverse gravity. Then the fog around them shifted.
A path slowly revealed itself through the corrupted trees, parting the mist like a curtain.
The undergrowth along the route turned gray and wilted, while faint green glimmers lined the edges, a corridor of safe passage opened before them.
"...Looks like you activated it after all," Reza said, cautiously approaching the newly formed path.
"But it burned up," Rijal added, confused. "Is it one-time use?"
"Seems like it," Caldwell muttered, flexing his frostbitten fingers. His breath curled in the cold air. "We made progress, so that's good enough for now"
"...Then," Daniel said, eyes fixed on the faintly glowing trail that had formed through the mist-choked forest, "...should we follow that path?"
"Do we have any other choice?" Asahi asked, glancing at the dense wall of thorns and twisted trees behind them.
"We don't, right?" Reza echoed, voice quiet.
"We don't," Rijal confirmed, his tone resolute.
Caldwell gave them all a nod, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
"Since we're all in agreement," he said, stepping forward, "let's follow it. As for whatever's waiting for us down that path..."
He paused, eyes narrowing slightly as he gazed into the creeping fog.
"...We'll deal with it when we get there"
And so the adventure continues.
From a high vantage point, Taufik watched the fading echoes of Caldwell and his party's battle. The distorted cries of decayed dryads still lingered faintly in the air, swallowed by the creeping mist. As he observed the group discovering a way forward, a small, satisfied smile tugged at his lips.
"…The drop item feature is working nicely," he murmured, nodding to himself. His eyes scanned the battlefield below, where jagged frost still clung to scorched earth and shattered bark.
"But…" His gaze narrowed. "…Why didn't they take the magic core with them?"
The moment the question left his lips, his figure shimmered, blurring like heat haze before vanishing with a soft whoosh.
In the next instant, Taufik reappeared amid the aftermath of the fight.
Cracked branches, frozen roots, and faint glimmers of Mana residue surrounded him.
His boots crunched softly on brittle ice as he knelt and picked up one of the glowing, dark green stones left behind.
The system interface blinked into existence in front of him, floating in the air like a pane of light.
[Magic Stone: A magic stone]
Taufik stared at the simplistic description, unimpressed.
"…That's it?" he muttered, frowning. "That's all the description?"
The system's voice responded smoothly inside his mind, tone matter-of-fact and slightly robotic:
[It is a stone imbued with magic, Master. The system can only display that much with the current data access level. There is no error]
"…But that's way too vague. I want a full description. Give me a detailed analysis of this magic stone"
A soft DING echoed in his mind.
[As you command, Master]
Origin: Monster Core.
Description: Once the crystallized core of a defeated monster, this stone retains residual mana and essence. It can be used as fuel for low-grade enchantments, crafting materials, or exchanged. The quality, color, and density of the stone reflect the strength of the monster it came from. This specimen is of 'Common' grade and contains minimal magical essence]
Taufik raised an eyebrow.
"…Now that's more like it"
He turned the stone in his palm thoughtfully, watching the faint green glow pulse like a dying heartbeat.
"If even common monsters drop these… I need to prepare a proper extraction system," he murmured, a calculating glint in his eye. "There's profit in this. A lot of it... But, did we have a [Shop] feature in our duplicate System?"
"... I see," Taufik said while nodding in understanding, "Remind me to add that feature later"
As the party moved deeper into the corrupted woodland, the fog thickened, turning darker, heavier.
It clung to their skin, soaked into their lungs. The safe corridor marked by the Rotleaf Talisman glimmered faintly ahead, but even its light seemed swallowed by the miasma.
The trees parted suddenly into a wide, unnatural clearing.
At its center stood a grotesque monument to decay: a pulsing, rot-slick tree, its trunk hollowed into a crude throne. Seated upon it, motionless and regal in its ruin, loomed a massive creature forged of bark, bone, and bloated fungus, the Decayed Dryad Lord.
Twisted branches curled from its crown like antlers. From its eyes burned a sickly green hatred that pulsed with centuries of festering magic.
With a sound like cracking wood and breaking bones, it rose, towering, slow, deliberate.
Caldwell instinctively stepped forward, shielding the others. Excalibur rested on his shoulder, its blade emitting a soft mist. Frost coiled at his feet like wolves waiting to pounce.
"Eyes sharp," Daniel said grimly. "That thing isn't just a Dryad. It's something ancient. Something corrupted beyond saving"
The Dryad Lord opened its mouth and screamed, a banshee wail that trembled through the earth. The trees shuddered. Vines, thick with venom and death, exploded outward.
Reza stepped up beside Caldwell, crimson aura flaring around his arms like molten metal.
"I'll draw its attention. Asahi, flank it!"
Without waiting, Reza shot forward. His aura intensified, launching him through the wall of vines like a cannonball. With each swing of his sword, he crushed tendrils and opened a path, raw might driving him forward.
Above, blue Mana wings flared wide behind Asahi. Radiant, feathered, and sharp as blades.
He soared upward in an arc of blue light, katana already in hand.
His strikes came fast, blades of air following each slash, severing corrupted limbs mid-flight. Sonic arcs screamed through the air, carving through the battlefield.
At the rear, Rijal raised both hands, his irises glowing. A spectral fox's silhouette shimmered around him.
"Spirare Ignis, Bind and Shatter!"
Chains of glowing spirit energy burst from beneath the earth, coiling around the Dryad Lord's legs. The creature roared and slammed a foot down, cracking the ground, yet the chains held. For now.
Daniel unsheathed his cross-shaped sword, which blazed with divine light. He whispered a prayer:
He thrust the blade into the soil. A shockwave of radiant energy pulsed outward, purifying the corrupted roots and incinerating swarming parasites in a burst of holy fire.
"This forest's been cursed long enough," Daniel growled. "Time to put it to rest"
The Dryad Lord screeched and raised its staff-like arm, launching a volley of thorned, necrotic projectiles.
Caldwell stepped forward into the storm. With a swing of Excalibur, he conjured a blizzard that froze the deadly thorns mid-flight.
He vanished into the swirling ice, then burst from the mist, leaping high, fangs bared, blade shining with cold light.
"Frost Fang... Cleave!"
He struck downward with devastating force. A jagged wave of frost energy erupted, shearing through one of the Dryad Lord's antlers and sending the beast staggering.
"Hold on!" Reza yelled as he was flung back by a whip-like vine. He hit the ground hard, coughing, aura sputtering. "It's adapting! It's learning our attacks!"
"Look!" Rijal pointed from the backline. "It's absorbing ambient Mana... the fog! It's feeding on it!"
Above them, corrupted light spiraled into a runic glyph forming above the creature's head.
Daniel's eyes widened.
"Oh no. It's casting something big... something devastating!" He surged forward, blade raised. "I'll disrupt it... cover me!"
Asahi's wings exploded in speed, trailing comet-like energy.
He dove from the sky in a blinding streak of blue, katana gleaming. At the same time, Daniel rushed in, golden aura blazing.
Asahi struck first, his blade sliced clean through the glyph above the Dryad's head, dispersing it in a flash of shattered Mana.
Daniel followed an instant later, driving his holy cross-sword straight into the Dryad Lord's chest.
An explosion erupted, divine energy and frost colliding in a violent, purifying blast.
The clearing lit up with white-blue light, the fog blown back by the force of their combined strike.