"Helpful and dangerous," she said. "Of course."
She wiped her hand on her trousers and rolled her shoulders.
Tactically, the place was both a blessing and a nightmare.
The crystal trunks offered plenty of cover. Line-of-sight would be short. Good if something threw projectiles. Bad if something liked to lunge from behind.
She drew one of her blades and used the tip to carve tiny marks into the nearest trunk.
Breadcrumbs.
If she had to run, she wanted some hope of not sprinting in circles.
She moved between the columns, steps soft on the moss.
The jelly constructs ignored her, drifting along their own paths. Once, one floated close enough that she felt its mana field brush her skin—a tingling sensation, not immediately hostile.
"Let's keep it that way," she murmured, easing past.
Near a cluster of three columns that leaned together, she found a small hollow filled with crystalline shards.
They gleamed faintly, as if recently broken.
She crouched and sifted through them.
