Chương 115: 113 - Husks

[Believing they had things under control, the leaders of Maligar allowed the Great Tree to live. Believing in Patience as a Virtue, they were not alarmed at its Evolution. Believing in its outwardly benign nature, they partook in eating its mysterious fruits. And the people, believing in the words of those the tree had conquered, were content with their position. Few saw the danger, and none acted, all taken in by the plague of Patience. But the nature of Patience is not to be endlessly idle. Patience cannot exist without an end goal, and the Great Tree's goal was Evolution. Once it accomplished its goal, it acted, taking over the entire city in days. Few managed to avoid its first move, and only one survived its second, and his survival marked the end of the new Maligar.] [Dungeon Challenge: Witness the end of Maligar] [Floor Challenge: Escape Maligar with the Diligent Watcher] Unlike every other Floor so far, when the darkness fades, we do not find ourselves on the road leading into the city.

Instead, we are in a candlelit basement full of dust and cobwebs. No one else is here with us, but I can sense movement all around overhead. There are people walking the streets, birds flying through the air, and little critters all over. And none of them are alive. All of them have the same seedling growing inside and taking over their bodies.

"This is probably where that Platinum rating comes in," says Lauren, staring in front of her at what I assume is the Annoying Yellow Box.

"So who's this Diligent Watcher guy?" I ask, reading through the Floor Challenge.

"Do we need to go out and find them?"

"Maybe," says Lauren.

"We should scout around first and see what we're dealing with, though. Yona, you've got Spatial Sense, right? What do you see?"

"Well, technically it's Food Sense, but…" I go on to describe everything happening around us, taking a bit longer to observe it myself. The people are moving around, and they kinda look like they're moving normally until I notice what they're doing. They're tearing down the city. None of the buildings have roofs anymore, and the cobblestone streets have been replaced by dirt.

All the materials that used to be the city are being taken away somewhere that I can't see, but it's pretty clear that the tree doesn't want any remnants of human civilization left around it. On top of that, the root system below the ground has changed drastically. There are roots everywhere. And many of them are moving. It's fairly obvious that all those fruit trees are now tree monsters, or perhaps just extensions of the base tree monster.

Their roots wriggle around below the earth, impaling and draining any unfortunate insects and rodents they touch. The house whose basement we're in is almost gone as well. All that's left are some walls, and then, of course, the trapdoor leading down to where we are. There are a few similar basements in the remains of nearby houses, but for some reason, only ours is free of roots. Probably a result of Dungeon stuff. One thing that I notice that kind of bothers me is how eerily silent everything is.

None of the people are talking. They don't grunt with effort when lifting something heavy. They don't cry out in pain when one of the other clumsy husks drops a rock on their foot. None of the birds are chirping. None of the rats are squeaking. The only sounds are those of movement.

"Can you tell how far we are from the edge of the city?" asks Lauren.

"No, I don't recognize this place," I say.

"It's definitely not in the area immediately around the castle, though."

"That's good, at least," says Lauren.

"But it sounds like we'll need to go aboveground. We need to figure out where we are, and see what's going on beyond the range of your senses."

"Right."

"At least we can tell which direction the tree is in," says A. We all glance toward one of the walls, beyond which the mana is noticeably denser. It doesn't take Food Sense to be able to tell that.

"I'll head out to do some quick scouting," says Lauren.

"I should be able to stay out of sight. I'll be back in five minutes after taking a quick look around. If I'm not back in five, assume I'm in danger." We all nod, and Lauren takes a step backward, seemingly melting into Chad's shadow. Right as she does, though, one of the shambling husks suddenly starts approaching our trapdoor.

"Wait!" I say. She reappears from the shadow, then follows my gaze upward. While none of them are quite near my level, we all have high enough Sensitivity that we can hear the footsteps approaching. We all ready our weapons and Lauren quietly slips into the wall, and we watch the trapdoor as it opens, letting in a flood of sunlight. The husk steps down, raising its hands, and to everyone's surprise, it speaks.

"It's just me," he says. [Maligar Husk, lvl 4] We lower our weapons in slight confusion as we all recognize the young man before us. It's Folsa, the kid who stalked us on the last Floor and tried to give us information. I look closer at him with Food Sense, and after a few seconds, I realize that he's not actually the husk he appears to be. He does have a seed growing in him, but it's not controlling him.

Its roots spread through his body, but there's a paper-thin shell of mana around them, keeping them from going too deep, and none of them reach his brain.

"He's fine," I whisper. The Namecard must be fake.

"Folsa?" says Lauren, stepping out of the shadows again.

"Yep," he says, lowering his hands.

"Just me. How are you all doing?"

"Fine," says Lauren, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Well, lucky for us, I've got good news," he says with a smile.

"I think we'll be able to leave soon!"

"Really?"

"Yeah," he says.

"Maligar preparing to Evolve again."

"Already?" I ask. Despite the fact that I am still in my cat form, he seems completely unsurprised when I speak, and responds naturally.

"Yes. Don't you remember how it sent all the warriors out as soon as it Awakened? It used them to raid all the nearby Dungeons and it must have just gathered enough experience to reach the next threshold."

"Ah, right," I say.

"I forgot." Abby, you hear that? It's evolving again! That means a free kill!

"I have a feeling it won't be that simple. Why would the Dungeon Core have been so against it if killing it was that simple?" Because he doubts my great abilities.

"Or there's more to it than just hacking away at a defenseless tree." Nah, it'll be fine.

"How do you know it's going to evolve soon?" asks Lauren.

"All the warriors have been returning back lately, and the walls are being fortified. I don't see why it would do that if it wasn't going to evolve soon. Either that, or there's a big threat on the way, but that would be good for us too. If the tree is occupied, we'll be able to safely leave."

"Ah, of course," says Lauren.

"How could I forget? Also, could you remind me how you're able to safely move around aboveground?"

"It's my Class," says Folsa, looking a little embarrassed.

"I happened to reach the threshold right as I was being taken over, and got a Class to help combat it. The tree thinks I'm one of its husks, and as long as I don't act too strangely, it doesn't pay me any mind. It's too busy doing other things. If I tried to leave, though, it would definitely notice, so I've just been pretending to be one of the husks, gathering information."

His speech feels a little strange and unnatural here, but I guess that's just the compromise the Dungeon has to make if it wants us to have the critical information that we're supposed to have. Either way, it's pretty obvious that Folsa is the Diligent Watcher.

"Right, right," says Lauren.

"Your Class wouldn't happen to be Diligent Watcher, would it?"

"No, that's my Profession," says Folsa.

"But I'm glad you at least remember some things! I know this time has been hard on your minds, but don't worry! We'll all be out soon!" If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. Damn, we're supposed to be mentally challenged on this Floor.

"You're–" Shut up.

"I didn't–!" I knew what you were gonna say.

"How soon?" asks Lauren.

"Tonight, I think," says Folsa.

"Most of the warriors are already back, and the walls are just about done."

"How long until tonight?"

"Four hours or so. I came by to update you, but I have to get back to work now, or else the tree might be suspicious. Just remember to stay down here and not leave. If the roots detect you, we could all die."

"Thanks for everything," says Lauren.

"Just doing my duty," says Folsa, his expression turning dark.

"It might be too late for Maligar, but it's not too late for you and I, and it's not too late for the surrounding cities. At least one of us needs to escape and get the word out, or else the whole continent will be in danger. So prepare yourselves for tonight. We might not all make it." We all nod in response, and his smile returns.

"Well, I'll see you all in a few hours, then. Be careful."

"You too," says Lauren. As soon as he leaves, Lauren turns back toward the group.

"I changed my mind," she says.

"It's too risky to go out and scout. Not when we know the tree will be evolving soon. If it detects us early, and we're not with Folsa, we're going to be in deep shit."

"We agree," say the twins.

"Are you sure that's not just Patience talking?" I ask. All three of them pause.

"Sure, it's risky, but the whole point of this Dungeon is teaching lessons, right? And the lesson of the previous Floor was about the plague of Patience. So maybe this is a test. I mean, the fact that we're here and that Folsa showed up right after makes it clear this is all an intentional setup. Maybe the test is not giving in to Patience and just taking him and leaving immediately."

"Or, it could be a double-layered test," says A.

"Another of the lessons was not to blindly follow," adds B.

"Blindly following the previous Floor's lesson and acting on it without thought would be foolish."

"I believe that the Dungeon is not trying to teach wariness of any one particular thing, but rather the importance of independent thought."

"Thinking for ourselves, rather than going along with what we are told."

"Looking at the facts of the situation, and making a judgement on that, rather than trusting in something superstitious." I frown. That also makes sense. And logically, there's no reason to leave if we know that the tree is going to start evolving tonight. And there's even less reason to leave now, because if we clear it too early, the tree won't start evolving, and I won't get a free shot on it.

"Yeah, you're right," I eventually say.

"I think you had a point, though," counters Lauren.

"What if Folsa gets caught while we're waiting in here, and we fail the Floor because he dies?"

"He's still within my range for now," I say.

"And it doesn't look like he's going to be leaving. He's taken the role of grabbing bricks and handing them off to other husks. He's not actually carrying them anywhere, so he should stay here."

"Hmmmm… Alright. But if he does move…"

"Then we can discuss the risks again." The next four hours are tense. We all spend time working on our Professions, but all of us have our senses peeled for any sign of danger. Surprisingly, however, despite all the tension, nothing happens. Folsa stays in range of Food Sense, and nothing else comes into our safe basement. It's only at the end of these four hours that something changes, and that something seems to be exactly what Folsa promised us.

There's a shift in the mana all around, and when that shift happens, all the husks around us suddenly stop what they're doing and start moving away from the tree. Folsa slips away from the crowd as it moves, and opens the basement door again.

"It's starting!" he says.

"Get ready! We'll leave as soon as it starts evolving." We all put our tools away and wait for another tense half hour with Folsa sitting on the stairs, occasionally cracking the door open so he can see out.

"Okay, now!" he says, bursting through the door. We all follow him immediately, but rather than running immediately, I turn to look at the tree. It's enormous. Since the last Floor, it's grown to more than triple its original height, and towers over what used to be the city. Fruits the size of cars hang from its branches, all so high up that even my Food Sense doesn't quite reach them, and the branches obscure the sky, only letting occasional glimpses of the stars through.

[Maligar, the Patient Mother Tree (Evolving)] The city itself is almost leveled. The foundations of most of the houses are present, alongside a few of the sturdier walls, but for the most part, everything is gone, and now that we're aboveground, it's easy to see where it all went: the walls. The walls are ten times as high as they used to be, and are made of an amalgamation of all the bricks and stones the tree took from the city.

They are held together by a root system climbing up from the base and digging into the stones. For a second or two, I am somewhat dumbfounded by the sheer scale of it all. The walls of Maligar were already pretty high, but now they're positively ridiculous. It almost looks fake. And the tree is so huge that even if I went all out with everything I had, and everything my sword could absorb, I don't know if I could destroy the tree in an hour.

Especially not when the tree is so much more powerful, and has so much more mana than last time.

"Maybe the Dungeon Core had a point." Shut up.

"Move!" says Folsa behind me.

"We need to stick together." I turn to see him in the lead, and the others close behind. I Blink to catch up, and together, we all run toward the wall. As we get closer, I note that there are almost no entrances in the wall, and the ones that do exist are surrounded by hordes of husks. None of the husks seemed very powerful when I was observing them earlier, but they weren't that weak, either, and Folsa did say that most of the warriors were on the walls. The ones above us were probably the civilians.

The husks made of actually powerful people will be stronger. The first husks we run into die easily. Cutting through what used to be humans seems to make Lauren and Chad a bit uncomfortable, but they still don't hesitate. The husks don't live long enough to use many abilities, but a few of them started sprouting roots and branches from their skin, so I believe it's safe to assume that the rest will be similar. The deaths of the first husks seem to alert the rest in the vicinity.

I keep an eye on the more distant parts of the wall, but their guards seem to be dutybound to their sections. That is good, because if they all crashed in around us, we would have to take some more drastic measures. For now, we're conserving energy. My sword is building up charge. We're efficient. But as we draw closer to the walls, it gets harder to move quickly. The husks not only get stronger, but also more numerous.

I'm forced to drop a few of my stored Fireballs on them to clear large sections, and those explosions draw the ire of the husks from further away. It's like a miniature zombie apocalypse, except all the zombies are sprouting angry roots. We draw even closer to the wall, and our progress slows even further. It makes me wonder how Folsa ever made it out of here in the first place. He must have just walked out using his disguise. I guess he wouldn't have had to bring five undisguised people out with him way back then.

But maybe he did have a group of warriors that he somehow managed to keep safe, and they sacrificed themselves for him? It doesn't really matter. We keep cutting through the former Maligari people until I get annoyed at how slow we're going. We'll eventually make it at this pace, but it'll be tedious and leave us all drained. Instead, I start summoning some of the mana constructs I've stored, and while the others battle, I shape them into an enormous mana hand.

It's bigger than anything I've ever made before, but I've never really pushed my limits on size, and this doesn't feel that strenuous.

"Everyone in!" I shout once it's done. The twins notice first, but I sense them send telepathic messages, and a moment later, Chad picks up Folsa and flings him into the hand. Folsa isn't totally weak, but he's definitely a bit of dead weight in this situation. The twins enter next, followed by Lauren, as Chad holds back the horde before jumping in himself. As soon as everyone is inside, I float it up and out of reach of the husks.

Some of them leap after it, or fire roots at it, but B conjures shields all around to keep them from getting through, we are able to pilot safely to the top of the wall. The most powerful husks seem to be stationed here, based on the amount of mana they have, and how quickly their roots fly, but it doesn't matter. As soon as they attack, I simply take the whole construct and Blink us past the wall.

We quickly descend back to the ground, and as soon as we land, Lauren, the fastest of us, picks up Folsa, and we all start running. Only the strongest husks can even kind of keep up with us, but a few well placed Spatial Slices and explosive projectiles from A and they all fall behind. After a quarter hour of running, when all the husks have fallen far enough behind that we can't even see them anymore, we finally get the notification. [You have successfully escaped Maligar with the Diligent Watcher! Reward: Potion of Diligence] [Waiting for Party Leader to select course of action…]"That was kind of anticlimactic," I comment.

"After how complicated the other Floors were, that felt too simple."

"Maybe the challenge was our discussion earlier?" suggests A.

"If we had acted based on the lesson we learned from the plague of Patience, the Floor would have been much harder," says B.

"And you have to keep in mind that we cleared the previous Floors unusually quickly. The third Floor should have taken at least a week, based on the timeline for the city lord's announcement.

"And I doubt the second was supposed to be so fast either. As you said, your abilities countered the challenges quite effectively."

"What in the world are you talking about?" says Folsa.

"And why have we stopped? We need to keep moving!"

"You go on your own, Folsa," says Lauren.

"We have some unfinished business to take care of."

"What? Why? We can all–""Just go," says Lauren.

"No! I'm not leaving you!"

"Folsa…" I say.

"I'm sorry to tell you this… but we've been infected."

"What?"

"We've been fighting it off, but we won't last another hour."

"I– You–""If we're with you once we're taken over, it will all be for nothing. So we'll use our last moments to fight off the horde." Folsa seems lost for words for a few seconds, and his eyes well with tears. However, rather than protesting further, he sets his jaw and nods, wiping his eyes.

"I won't forget you," he says.

"I'll make sure you get the recognition you deserve."

"Thank you," I say.

"Now go."

"Right," he says, before turning to run.

"Anyway," says A once he's gone.

"As we were saying, we were likely supposed to come away from the previous Floors with the lessons a lot more deeply-ingrained in us."

"Also, without you, would we have been able to tell we could trust Folsa?"

"Oh, good point," I say.

"It still feels a little too straightforward, but whatever. It's not really important. What is important is that we have a Named monster to kill."

"What?" says Lauren.

"Why?"

"Because unlike on the last Floor, this one is real. Plus, it's evolving. When else will we get an opportunity to kill a Named monster this powerful? Besides, if it gets dangerous, you can always just accept the prompt to go to the next Floor, and we'll be fine."

"…I guess," she says.

"And I know you want to try those fruits too."

"... Yeah."

"Alright, then let's go!" Time to see why the Dungeon Core was being such a drama queen.