[Cass]
The cavern narrowed into a throat of stone. Glowshrooms clung to the walls in thin strands, their pale light like drowned stars. Cass ducked low, boots squelching on damp earth, lantern flame trembling in stale air.
Five Warble scouts followed in silence. They didn't need light. He did.
Ahead lay the grove of Glowtrees — said to bleed Purity Sap, the only thing that could keep Meriv alive long enough to craft the Spore Ward.
Eshna had begged to come. Cass had refused. If she fell, Rootwater fell. Her fury had nearly cracked stone, but she stayed.
Now, in this suffocating dark, Cass wondered if he'd been right.
At a fork, the lead scout, Brik, crouched. One passage sloped dry and brittle, the other damp and cold.
"The down-way," Brik rasped. "Smell the rot. Glowtrees drink rot."
Cass knelt beside him. The floor shimmered faintly — sticky spore-dust. Not just Glowtree dust. Something else.
"What else lives down there?"
Brik's ears twitched. "Things that drink sap. Things that hate light."
Cass lifted the lantern higher. "Then we move careful."
[System Prompt]
Quest: Save Meriv – Purity Sap
Progress: Enter Deep Tunnels ✔
Next: Reach Glowtree Grove (0/1)
The descent thickened. Each breath tasted of mold. Cass fought the urge to cough. The lantern flame guttered, smothered by spores, until he fed it more resin.
Then the tunnel widened.
The grove opened before them — a forest of glass pillars, each trunk translucent, veins of green-white pulsing like arteries. Sap dripped in glowing beads, pooling across the ground until the cavern floor shimmered like a lake of stars.
"Beautiful," Cass murmured.
Brik hissed. "Beautiful kills."
The scouts moved to work. Curved blades cut shallow, resin flasks caught the dripping light. Cass pressed a hand to a trunk. Warm. Alive.
[System]: Resource Acquired – Purity Sap (1/3). Stored.
The hum of the trees deepened. Light pulsed faster. The ground shivered.
Brik's ears flattened. "Too greedy. They wake."
From between trunks, eyes opened. Dozens. Shapes uncoiled — leech-thick bodies slick with glowing sap, mouths ringed with grinding teeth.
"Back," Cass snapped, lantern raised. Flame flared, the leeches hissed, circling.
[System: Threat Detected]
Glowleeches (6). Pack predators. Weakness: Fire. Resist: Piercing.
One lunged. Brik slashed, ichor burning his arm, but held the line. Another slammed into Cass, lantern tumbling. He hit the ground hard.
Cold slime brushed his wrist. Jaws opened above him.
He shoved the lantern up between them. Flame kissed flesh. The leech shrieked, convulsed, collapsed in burning coils.
Cass staggered to his feet. "Keep the fire alive!"
The fight turned frantic. Scouts hurled resin torches. Trees blazed brighter. Leeches recoiled, then struck again. Knives flashed. Blood and sap sprayed.
Cass rammed his spear through a writhing body, twisting until it stilled. Another tried to coil around his leg. He lit it with a torch, burning it free.
Minutes blurred into gasps, cuts, smoke.
Then silence. Six corpses steamed on the grove floor.
[System]: Battle Complete. Glowleeches Repelled.
Resource Acquired: Purity Sap (3/3). Quest Objective Complete.
Brik limped, ichor eating into his arm. "You risk too much."
Cass wiped blood from his cheek. "We get the sap, Meriv lives. We don't, we all rot. Not risk. Math."
Brik studied him, then gave a short nod.
They packed the flasks. The sap glowed faintly, humming like bottled stars. Hope in liquid form. And danger, too. If guilds above learned of this… Cass pushed the thought down.
One fight at a time.
[Forum – Global Noise]
[EchoHunter]: "Deep Tunnels = death trap. Lost my party to glowing worms."
[LoreSpade]: "Rumor: rare resin drop. Worth it if you survive."
[AnonShadow]: "Ghost Lord seen down there. Coincidence?"
[IronFist88]: "Stop crying. Can't handle leeches, uninstall."
[Cass]
On the march back, the flasks glowed in their packs, pulsing with every step.
With this, Meriv would live. The ward could rise. Rootwater would hold — for now.
Cass touched the satchel at his side. He thought of his mother, IV lines in her arms, her smile when he promised.
He whispered so no Warble could hear: "I won't let you die again."
[System – Quest Update]
Quest: Save Meriv – Purity Sap ✔
Return to Rootwater for completion.