Chapter 12 – Into Eden Part 1
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I ran down the rocky path and into the forest. It went from dirt and rocks to lush foliage in an instant. As I progressed further, the noisier it became. Unlike the desert pathways where all I could hear was the occasional rocks shifting somewhere in the distance, this area was teaming with life. Birds twittered among the branches. I heard them talking about their breakfast and how many eggs were in their nests. Aged voices came from the trees as they went on about the good old days. Other beasts were warning their friends about the leopard that was skulking about looking for food, new additions to their families, the best hunting grounds, weather, oh and a berry bush screaming it had been violated by a chipmunk. The forest looked like something you'd see on the Nature Channel, but it sounded like I was standing in Grand Central Station at peak rush hour. That was on top of the natural noises of thing moving about. It was a sensory overload and I found it overwhelming.

Unlike the cavernous side, the blue energy veins that ran through the dungeon were thin but there were thousands more of them. They ran into all the plants. The blue energy mist that floats in the air is gobbled up by the birds that flittered among the branches, leaving very little energy for the dungeon to absorb. The desert area felt dreary and lifeless but as I made my way among the trees, it felt alive. I felt safe and comfortable, and soon found my pace slowing subconsciously.

It was the notification ‘Move Corrupted Nature Spirts from Floor 3 to Floor 2 (Yes/No)’ that brought me out of my stupor. Ugh, what was I doing goofing off and allowing myself to get distracted? I had a mission! I ran. It got denser the more I moved, but I moved with ease. The branches seemed to move to allow me through. The only time I slowed was when messages appeared. The first couple were normal.

*Summon two Tangle Vines for 55xp (Yes/no)*

*Summon A Lover's Regret for 80xp (Yes/no)*

They were worrying but expected. It was when I got messages:

*Tangle Vines x 4*

*Tangle Vines x 8*

*Tangle Vines x 16*

That I began to think something was amiss.

I had been too caught up trying to get Amy out of the dungeon to think about how the putrid squirrels had been multiplying. According to what I was taught at school, dungeon monsters shouldn’t be able to do that. It went against everything that was taught. Was it because the dungeon upgraded? Did all the tougher dungeons have this ability? I needed to hurry. While the vines weren't multiplying fast, I knew time wasn't on my side because even at a slower growth their numbers were growing. The only bright side I saw was that the DP points the dungeon was receiving from explorers had diminished with every number increase. I slowed down to a walk and cast 'Know the way' hoping to find the only other humans in the dungeon quicker. Then followed it up with 'A dryad's song'. I was not sure I would ever get over the awkward feeling I got when singing but the results were always worth it.

As I finished, I heard a crack coming from a thick tree near me. Green fingers came out from inside the tree and bent the bark away creating an oval aperture that a green skinned lady stepped out of. Unlike all the teenage dryads I had summoned before this one had a mature look about her. She had wrinkles and her hair was a faded pale green. She stepped out in all her naked glory and after rubbing her belly as if she was hungry said, "Hello mistress, how can I help you?" causing me to do a double take.

I hadn't expected her to speak although I should have. I had met Silvia the dryad. She was the dryad that lived inside the school, and she talked to all the students. It was just that the only times I had summoned them they were younger and didn't speak at all. Still, I could use the help, so I answered with the first thing that popped into my head, "I need to get to the adventurers party that is located somewhere inside this forest. They should be in that direction. Can you help me get there any faster or protect them until I get there?" Actually, I knew she could, but if she was intelligent enough to ask me questions, she should have enough willpower to deny my request even though I summoned her. But unlike the monsters I summoned, I didn't feel her resisting me.

She just smiled and answered, "They are too far from my tree for me to help them much but if you're willing to step inside my home I can get you there." She made a 'this way please' type gesture toward the hole in the tree.

"Thank you." I said and stepped inside. It was a gamble because if she fought my hold over her and I lost control she could keep me inside her dimension forever. A wave of dizziness washed over me as I stepped inside. When it passed, I found myself inside a wood paneled room. A table made out of a stump sat in the middle of the room. It had moss covering it with branches shooting out of it forming chairs that people could sit on. But that was all that was in this plain room. The dryad soon appeared inside the room with me and with a wave of her hand, leaves crawled up the wall. The leaves began to shift colors, from bright reds, greens to dull browns and rotted blacks, and a picture quickly came into focus.

The picture was of a forest. The the colors inside the leaves started moving showing a scene as if a person was running through the forest. It was like I was watching a movie. It wasn't long before a group of young adventurers came into view. They were standing close together and looked as if they were arguing but without sound, I couldn’t tell what they were arguing about. "I found them but they are on another floor. I can't send you there. The best I can do is send you to the portal to take you there. Of course you can stay here until they appear on this floor, if you desire. Before you go, if it is not too impudent, could you do me a favor?" I looked at her. I swear that was all I did but she covered her belly and fell to her knees, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean any disrespect. I will open the way out for you. Please don’t mind."

She seemed so afraid of me and gave a very human reaction. So much so, that I was caught off guard. She had to be old to give off that feel. It was a testimony to her strength. She got up and moved to a wall and pushed her hands into it before I could speak. With a crack, the wall was pulled apart leaving a portal out of the room I was in. I asked in a soft voice, "What did you want to ask? I don't mind helping those that help me." I didn't want to scare her and if it was quick I would help her, but it had to be quick, since I was in a hurry.

"Could you bless me and my child?" She rubbed her belly as she spoke. I stared at her belly wondering how she got pregnant. Then decided it didn't matter and then thought about how to go about blessing her. After a minute, I laid my hands on her smooth stomach and cast 'Blessings of the Goddess' while hoping that it would protect her. It wasn't what the spell was designed for, but I didn't think a simple 'bless you' was going to do it. Either way, I did my best with the time I had. I stepped through the opening she made and missed the golden circle that was slowly forming around where her belly button should have been.

I stepped out, stumbled a little due to the vertigo, hit something hard, and then another wave of dizziness hit me. When it passed, I noticed that there wasn't any tree near me but a stump that glowed in a green energy indicating it was a gate to the lower floor; or I should saw to the upper floor since my message log indicated I had teleported to floor two. The message indicated that I was in area G3. When I looked up three seventeen to eighteen year-olds were warily watching me. Two of them had weapons in their hands, while the third stood behind them. She was clad all in black. Even her head was covered and if it wasn’t for the obvious curves she had, I would have thought she was a boy. She had her hands behind her back so I couldn’t tell what she was holding. I kept my hands where they could see them. Combined with the tight leather armor I was wearing that couldn’t conceal anything, it was obvious I didn’t have anything I could pull out quickly to hurt them. It didn’t mean I was helpless, but most people would be, so it helped with my “helpless” look.

The boy on the left spoke first. He was taller and more muscular than the other two, with black patches of new stubble starting to form on his cheeks and chin. The cheap sword and wooden shield showed how new they were, as did his aggressive tone as he spat out, “Who are you and why are you here?”

Didn’t he know how screwed they were? Ugh, why did I even bother? I was sure my impatience showed as I replied, “I’m here to help you escape. The dungeon has changed and has become stronger.”

“We aren’t leaving.” He glared at the guy next to him when he said it.

“Come on Bret we should go. We can always come back in.”

“We can’t leave. If we do, our friends would have died for nothing. I’m going back; it was a mistake to turn back when we could see the core.”
The girl spoke with coldness in her tone, “They died, we lived. If we go back, we will just die along with them. We can’t beat what’s there.” This must have been what they were arguing about, but we didn’t have that kind of time.

I was going to let them know it was worse than they knew but more messages began appearing filling me with dread. The ‘Move Putrid Squirrels to entrance (Yes/No)’ wouldn't have been that bad but their numbers now were in the thousands. The ninja looking girl and the warrior boy were unlikely to have area of affect attacks. I looked over at the other teenage boy. He stood around five' nine, clad in leather armor and had a thick staff that seemed like it could double as a club.

More messages quickly followed. The ‘Reset All Traps for 424XP (Yes/No)’ and 'Place Explosive Traps in G2, G1 for 67XP (Yes/No)’ made it impossible for me to get this group out without summoning up my own horde of monsters. But there were dozens of other messages as the dungeon placed more traps. I was almost sure that the areas it placed the other traps were in locations that would block our retreat. They kept appearing until a message of ‘Insufficient XP’ appeared.

I reluctantly cut into their argument, "How far away is the core?" I needed to know since it might be easier to simply destroy it. While I could use the dryad to move around in the forest, I could still easily step out and onto a trap. I thought about trying to get to the desert side of the dungeon and only worrying about the exit traps but there weren't any trees growing inside those fissures.

Bret the warrior was the one that answered me, "Half a day’s travel that way there is a tree. Inside it, you can travel into the roots of the tree. It's a maze that we managed to get past, but once we did, we ended up in a weird room. It's hard to describe but near the far wall we could make out parts of what should be the core. We couldn't stay long because the room came alive and attacked us. Claire said she saw a green lady with wilting leaves for hair but neither of us did so..."

"She was real damn it! How you missed a six-foot tall woman just shows that you're incompetent." She gave a huff before scanning the forest once again. She was constantly looking for trouble to come to them. Out of the three of them, she was the most vigilant.

I wasn’t listening. Instead, I was reading the two messages that just appeared...

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