Beyond the dense woods of Etheria, the trees gave way to an open stretch of land, a peaceful expanse of grass plains where sunlight bathed the earth in warm gold. At the center stood the colossal mana tree, ancient and impossibly tall, its massive trunk wide enough to rival a castle tower, or perhaps a skyscraper from tales lost to time. Its branches curled into the clouds like arms holding the sky, the weight of centuries etched in its bark like silent memories.
Kyle stood at the base of the tree, gazing up with narrowed eyes. "Still too tall," he muttered, poking at the trunk with the tip of his mana rifle. "I swear I almost reached the second branch when I was five."
Sinryo, lounging on a rock nearby with a blade of grass in his mouth, rolled his eyes. "That was a beetle you tried to ride up the trunk. You screamed when it moved."
"That beetle was cursed," Kyle said flatly. "Definitely an illusion-based monster. Trickery of the forest."
From behind the tree's roots, Fahleena came skipping into view, trailed by Jessica, Adiw, Orchid, Yetsan, and Gigih. Fahleena waved dramatically, her keyblade glinting in the light. "All who breathe, rejoice! For the starlight sovereign of fate descends!"
Kyle blinked. "Oh great, the narrator's here."
Fahleena struck a pose. "Narrator? Nay! I am the destined soul with the luck of thirteen comets and the will to bend chaos!"
Jessica exhaled a slow breath. "Just nod. She'll run out of quotes eventually."
Behind her, Adiw mumbled, "Unlikely."
From another path, Yuuna arrived, dragging a reluctant Fuhiken and Gabyola by the sleeves. Fuhiken's expression suggested he'd rather be anywhere else, possibly being bitten by a manticore. Gabyola maintained elegance, but there was a faint tremble in her smile.
"We're here," Yuuna said simply. "Because I refuse to let Kyle and Sinryo do this unsupervised."
"Oh come on," Kyle protested. "We were almost done digging a cave before someone threw water on our hard work."
"You were mining with pudding spoons," Yuuna deadpanned.
Sinryo coughed. "We were carving artistic tunnel shapes, thank you."
Yuuna ignored them. "Let's make this clear: we are not building a cave. We are creating a dungeon. One that could exist independently, safely, and with basic internal logic."
Kyle waved a hand. "Dungeon, cave, burrow, don't get stuck in the details. The important thing is: I brought snacks."
He reached into Sakura's magic bag with practiced stealth. Unfortunately for him, the bag had been enchanted, by Sakura herself, with a particularly dramatic anti-theft alarm.
"WARNING: SNACK ACCESS DENIED. INTRUDER DETECTED. PLEASE STEP AWAY FROM THE FOOD," it blared in a food-themed voice loud enough to startle birds from the canopy.
Kyle yelped and dropped the bag.
Sakura, eyes wide, lunged forward and scooped it up. "My bag is not public property!"
Kyle grumbled. "You've got, like, six bento boxes in there."
"Seven," Sakura corrected. "And three pudding containers."
Yuuna stepped in before another food war could erupt. "Kyle. Focus. Where is the staff?"
Kyle grinned and dramatically pulled out the staff of creation from behind his back. It shimmered with power, its ironwood frame glowing faintly, and the large hexagonal crystal pulsing with contained mana.
"Ta-daaa," Kyle said proudly. "Behold the key to our new home-slash-trap-filled-possibly-treasure-laden future base!"
"Hey!" Kyle protested as Fuhiken swiftly snatched the staff from his hands without a word. With a stern glance that spoke volumes, Fuhiken turned and held the staff out to Sakura.
Sakura took the staff, but immediately wobbled. "It's… heavy…"
Fuhiken sighed and took it back. "I'll hold it. For everyone's safety."
Kyle leaned toward Sinryo. "I almost had it. I was going to name our first trap 'Operation Sticky Pudding'. You would've loved it."
Sinryo nodded solemnly. "RIP, pudding dungeon."
Yuuna pinched the bridge of her nose and turned to Gabyola. "Gabyola, can you scout the area? We need a clean entrance, flat terrain, not too damp."
"On it," Gabyola said softly, adjusting her bow and vanishing into the grass field with quiet grace.
---
The rest waited near the roots of the mana tree, idly watching clouds drift. Gigih opened his spellbook and accidentally caused a page to burst into brief, harmless flame. Yetsan sat on a rock, helmet off, grumbling about dirt and the lack of milk.
Minutes later, Gabyola returned. "Found something. A shallow cave beneath the east roots. Flat terrain in front, no creature activity nearby."
Yuuna nodded. "Perfect. Everyone, let's move."
The group approached the cave in a loose formation, boots brushing over soft grass and scattered wildflowers. At first glance, it seemed like nothing more than a moss-covered hollow nestled beneath the sprawling roots of the mana tree, so unassuming that even a passing beast might miss it. But as they drew closer, subtle signs of ancient magic stirred in the air. The entrance was framed by thick roots like natural pillars, their surface pulsing faintly with residual mana. Inside, the cave walls curved in gentle arcs, lined with crystalline veins that shimmered dimly, soft blues and purples flickering like the breath of a sleeping dragon. The air was cool and hushed, carrying a faint echo, as if the cave itself remembered every spell ever cast nearby.
Yuuna stepped forward, planting the staff of creation in the soil just outside the cave mouth. "This will be the entrance. Now for the activation process."
She directed Sakura and Gigih to form a triangle around the staff. They obeyed, standing equidistantly, placing their right hands on the staff's smooth surface.
"Focus your mana," Yuuna instructed. "We'll synchronize the staff with this location using flow resonance. Just concentrate and match the ambient mana frequency."
At first, the process went well. The staff's crystals began to glow, soft white from the center, pulsing yellow, blue, and magenta from the satellites. Sakura's aura flared gently around her, pink with a faint aroma of sweet rolls. Gigih, on the other hand, immediately began overloading his flow.
Crackles of unstable energy burst from his palm. "I can't hold it, it's too twitchy!"
Sakura squeaked. "Too much, it's drawing too much!"
Kyle, watching from behind, leaned toward Sinryo. "Five mana seconds until explosion?"
"Three. And a half," Sinryo replied.
Just as the glow intensified, mana pulsing faster, the staff of creation humming with raw energy, and tiny sparks crackling around its base, Kyle, ever the opportunist, quietly crept closer to Sakura's second magic bag. With utmost stealth (or so he believed), he reached in, fingers wiggling past bundled cloths and utensils, zeroing in on the hidden compartment labeled "Emergency Snack Stash – Do Not Touch".
The moment his fingertips brushed a wrapped pudding bun, the bag flared with light. A magical seal snapped open and a voice, cheerful, accusatory, and painfully loud, blared through the clearing like a festival announcer:
"CANDY SECURITY BREACH! SUGAR SUSPICION DETECTED! STEP AWAY FROM THE BAG, UNAUTHORIZED USER!"
Sakura flinched, the mana burst out of her hand like a fountain. The resonance collapsed.
BOOM, POOF, ZAP!
Smoke billowed, light flashed, and the grass around the cave turned purple.
Kyle coughed. "My eyebrows!"
Yuuna shook her head, already writing mental notes. "That was our second worst activation attempt."
"The worst being?" Fuhiken asked, fanning away smoke.
"Gigih sneezed and triggered a fireball inside a pudding cooler."
"That was a sacred experiment!" Gigih wheezed.
As they recovered, Orchid approached Kyle with a cheerful smile. "Want to try my new snack? Chocolate creamed sardine toast!"
Kyle paled. "No."
But Orchid was persistent. "Just a bite! I even shaped it like a heart!"
Kyle tried to run, legs pumping, eyes wide, sheer terror in every step. "Nope nope nope!" he chanted, zigzagging like a panicked rabbit dodging imaginary fireballs. But Orchid was faster. With the reflexes of someone who had practiced food-based ambushes far too often, she lunged forward and grabbed the back of his collar mid-sprint.
"No escape for your taste buds!" she chirped.
Before he could protest, she yanked him backward and, with a horrifyingly graceful motion, shoved the toasted monstrosity straight into his mouth.
"Mmmphhh, !!"
His eyes bulged. His legs went stiff. He trembled. A single tear slid down his cheek.
Adiw turned away. "I can't watch this again."
Sinryo solemnly removed his hat. "He died doing what he feared most."
Kyle staggered back, foam bubbling from the corners of his lips, skin flickering between shades of mint green and despair blue, before he collapsed with a dramatic plop, twitching like a poisoned squirrel.
Fuhiken sighed. "Why didn't he dodge?"
"I did," Kyle rasped, eyes swirling. "She… she teleported."
"It's just chocolate," Orchid pouted.
Gigih inspected the remains of the toast. "There's… something moving in there."
"I call it a 'wrigglecore'," Orchid beamed. "Secret ingredient."
Jessica looked to Sakura. "You can revive him, right?"
Sakura nodded. "Later. He's still twitching."
Yuuna rubbed her temples and addressed the group. "Let's try again tomorrow. No snacks. No traps. No chocolate fish."
"Hey!" Orchid exclaimed.
The group slowly disbanded, drifting off to rest or collect what was left of their dignity. The sun dipped lower behind the mana tree, casting long shadows across the plains. It was, all in all, a typical day: a failed experiment, food poisoning, a screaming snack alarm, and one charred circle of mana-scorched grass.
Exiastgardsun wouldn't have it any other way.
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