A/N: I've lost my mind to polish and edit the first half especially, but I'm really happy how it turned out :)
3k chappy
“Help me!” A feeble cry echoed through the foggy woods. A girl's voice, young and terrified, seemingly both close and distant. “Please… Help me…”
“I’m coming!” Kai ran down the branching, shrouded trail. His steps thumped over the roots and weeds. Mist clung to the weeping willows swaying on both sides. Whispers prickled at his mind; he ignored them, the cries drowning out any other thought. “Where are you?”
“Please… I’m scared…” A broken sob came from the deeper fog, the voice a little clearer. “Help me… Anybody…”
“Wait for me! I’m almost there!” Kai pushed harder, lungs heaving for air, sword gripped in his hand. A sweet floral scent tinged the air. The run turned his mind fuzzy—only the calls mattered.
Hold on. Just a little longer.
Finally, he spotted something.
The figure of a girl sat alone through the swirling mist, knees drawn to her chest. Her shoulders shook with sobs. “Help me…” She weakly stumbled to her feet, long hair trailing behind her. As she turned to him, her arm extended in plea. “Please…”
“I’m here.” Kai smiled, the sense of relief sweeping through his thoughts made his head light. He just had to save her. Everything would be fine. Just one more step…
The girl's arm reached for him. The limb stretched longer with his hesitation, then longer again, bent into three articulations. A gust blew aside the mist, letting his Perception pierce the veil.
That’s… not a hand.
Writhing roots grasped toward him. The limb connected to a figure of wriggling vines, bark, and knotted wood. Tendrils of black ivy hung over her features in place of hair. A gnarly branch protruded from behind her head, keeping the body suspended like a grotesque marionette.
The thing raised its head. Ivy fell away to reveal its face. Bark split into hollow sockets and a gaping mouth, bleeding reddish sap. The crack seemed to curve into a smile. “Help me…”
What the—
Kai jolted back and coughed on the overbearing floral scent. His eyes traced the branch that held the puppet afloat.
The limb thickened into a bough, linked to a massive canopy. An old willow tree with thousands of twisted branches. More figures swayed among its boughs. Rough human silhouettes of bark and vine. All of them turned towards him. Half-formed mouths opened and closed with different voices.
“Help us…”
“Please…”
“Somebody…”
The voices pressed on his mind, choking his thoughts.
Gnarled roots writhed beneath his feet and for meters along the trail.
With a creak, the gnarled trunk split, exposing a wet crimson cavity. Reddish sap oozed out, doubling the sickly sweet scent that tinged the fog.
Kai smiled at the haunted monster. He took half a step forward, inhaling the cloying air to shout, “Now!”
Light burst above him.
Standing several meters back, Valela raised her fluted wand. A wave of brilliance chased away the mist shrouding the willow. Its entrancing calls faded with it.
Much better.
Kai squinted at the swaying willow.
With a crack of wood, the puppets lurched toward him. Twisted fingers stretched toward him, while ancient roots tore the ground, spraying dirt and sap to entangle his legs.
Kai threw himself into a dodge. Mana rushed through his channels as he sliced the ones he couldn’t avoid. From the wounds, sap stuck to his skin. Above him, half-formed branches twisted into new figures, bark splitting into hollow faces.
The monster’s essence lashed through the mist.
“Big… brother…”
"Matthew!" Another shadow joined, wearing his mother’s voice. “Help us…”
“Brother…”
Kai glared at the twisted mockeries, his hands tightened on his sword.
You’ll regret that.
He flowed between the grasping coils, hacking the limb that puppeted the smaller figure. Sticky sap splattered on his blade. Other marionettes thrashed and screamed with the voices of men, women, and children, their cries distorted with begging and laughing.
The chorus stabbed into his skull.
“…ēlesse ne isheel!” Valela finished her chant. Light flared again. Puppets flailed as the spell peeled away their illusions. Hollow mouths gaped in mute screams, stripped again of their entrancing allure.
Mana mounted through the trunk in response, dense and blinding. Kai braced for an attack, but the pulse flowed into the ground behind him. The willows around the trail groaned, their roots and branches whipped, bridging the gap toward Valela.
Don’t you dare!
Kai spun back. But the distance that had kept her safe now left her out of his reach. Instead, he dug his left hand into the damp soil. Nature mana flooded through his palm, contesting the magic of the monstrous willow.
Trees creaked, roots locked together, and branches entangled themselves.
The willow’s essence swelled to respond, vast and ancient.
Immediately, he could tell he was not its match—neither in power, skill, nor reserves. The whole woods seemed against him. And he was rapidly burning through his mana.
Is this what people felt when I animated the woods against them? Ugh, I much prefer being the one in control.
Luckily, Nature wasn’t his only element.
Puppetering other willows had left the monster's own branches limp.
Kai pushed his mana to stall the contest and shifted. A flick of silver. He reappeared in front of its trunk. Casting Water Cannon to blast the branches in the way, he plunged his sword deep into the exposed crimson cavity, where its brightest mana veins pulsed.
A warbled scream stabbed into his skull. The Puppeteer Willow thrashed in a mad frenzy, branches and roots flailing to seize him.
A shell of ice froze to slow them as he shifted away.
Before the willow could react, a brilliant lance of Ice and Light parted the mist, piercing straight through the crimson cavity. Sap and splintered wood burst outward. The hanging puppets stilled. With a horribly human groan, the willow shuddered and split apart, collapsing into itself.
Silence returned.
“Hmm… great shot.” Kai double-checked on the monster’s bleeding mana channels. Only then did he lower his sword arm, gripping it with his left to stop the slight shaking. “It’s dead.”
The voices and images made his head throb, the air still thick with the nauseatingly sweet scent of the sap.
“Are you hurt?” Valela rushed forward, looking him over.
“Just a few scratches. Nothing to worry about." A Water jet washed the sticky sap from his blade and arms. Kai sheathed his blade with a nonchalant twirl. Red droplets still clung to his shirt, refusing to peel away without tearing the fabric. “I think this sap made people more susceptible to the willow’s magic. Maybe mind magic or just suggestions in general. But it doesn’t seem poisonous.”
Not the deadly kind, at least.
Valela watched his cuts as if worried he might keel over. “How can you be sure?”
“What? You’re doubting a master Alchemist?” He sniffed haughtily, brushing a stain on his shirt and rubbing two fingers. “This sap could probably be used for a peak Yellow hallucinogenic potion. We should grab a bottle or two. It should sell well.” He searched his ring for one, hoping he’d correctly interpreted the inkling from Herbology.
Valela bit her lip, not entirely sold by his act. Clearly, she wanted to say more, but held back.
The plan had been his idea. Once they realized the pleading cries belonged to a creature in the mist, what better way to find it than by pretending to fall for its lure? He would not admit how close he came to falling for real. Her Light Magic had worked as intended. The willow had just proved a tad stronger and creepier than he’d calculated.
“Come on, let’s get our loot and find a decent place to rest away from creepy trees.”
“Mhmm… that’d be nice.” Valela approached the fallen willow and jolted back. Misshapen puppets lay about with frozen expressions. Some in agony. Some crying. Some smiling. “Spirits… I thought I saw someone I knew. Those voices felt so real… Do you think they came from actual—”
“They were illusions. Just that. It parrotted back the names it heard, mixed with mental suggestions, so we imagined hearing actual people we knew.” If the willow had read his thoughts, he would have called him Kai, not Mat. “It was just a trick.”
Valela nodded slowly, though her gaze lingered on the marionettes.
Something familiar glowed at the bottom of the splintered cavity, still bleeding red sap onto the grass. Pinching his nose from the sickly scent, Kai filled a couple bottles before draining it and splitting the knotted wood. Water and Nature Magic dredged up their bounty. The violet shimmer of Moonlight Shards lay among bleached bones and other remains. The dull glint of metal caught his attention.
Valela leaned closer to him. “Is that…”
One rusted sword etched with Raelion’s crest on the pommel.
“That looks too old to be from our class. And the style of the hilt is different from the weapon caches we came across." Kai stepped up to shield the view, leaving unsaid that the sword must have still belonged to some past student.
Rest in peace. You’ve been avenged.
Aside from the Shards, everything else was too decayed to be useful. He quickly gathered them into his satchel when another glow caught his eye, from the spot where he’d plunged his sword. With a grunt, he broke apart the wood and reached inside, extracting a bulbous dark-red gem with a hairline crack.
Huh, not much of a looker. But with this mana density, it must be worth something…
“Wait…” Valela leaned in with sudden interest. “Is that a crystalized mana heart?”
“A mana heart? They actually exist?”
“Yes, of course. They’re simply rare to encounter. Only very powerful or ancient beasts can develop one, and not all of them. Usually not until Green.” Her eyes were glued to the bulbous gem.
“So this will sell for a lot, huh?”
She looked at him flatly. “Yes, Mat. That too.”
“What? I’ll give you half. Well… minus the commission.”
Valela swatted his shoulder, muttering something very much like ‘Idiot’, then strode along the trail that wound beyond the willow. “Let’s find the next clearing. We must be close.”
“Hey, wait up! Really, no pity for the wounded!”
“Didn’t you say they were only scratches?"
“Yes, well… Very annoying and painful scratches. Ever had a paper cut? They’re the worst!” He jogged to reach her, pushing back the gloom with light banter. If the Veiled Woods had one redeeming quality, it was the abundant mana fueling Nature Healing.
“How many Shards are we at?” Valela asked.
“Hmm, lemme see.” Kai opened the flap, enjoying the clinking crystals. “With the last ones… twenty-three.”
“That’s more than enough to pass the Trials. And likely the year.”
“Yeah, but the higher we rank, the better the rewards. Top scores get priority in second-year courses.”
However that works.
“I know, and I want that too. Just… the Shards we gather only matter if we leave the woods before the fifth dawn. We must keep in mind how long we’ll need to exit. It must be part of the challenge: correctly assessing our limits and not overstaying.”
“That does sound appropriately sadistic to fit the academy.”
Above them, the mist refracted the morning sun of the third day into a diffuse glow. Focusing his senses, he could feel the flow of essence, growing ever denser along the trail. That at least offered a clear direction to leave. Over the last day, he’d noticed how the challenges had become deadlier the deeper they delved. Though Shards had also grown more bountiful.
Valela watched him with a worried furrow. “Do you still feel them ahead?”
Kai massaged his eyes. “I do.” The whispers urged him onward. Someone he knew still lay ahead, amid the increasing danger.
“Then we'd better reach the next clearing. It’ll be extremely far and deserted.”
“Uhm, are you trying to use a reverse jinx?”
“Yup. Did I do it wrong?”
“Nope. The next clearing will definitely be extremely far and deserted.”
As they walked, his thoughts drifted to his pending skill evolution. He should probably save his mental energies, but how could he? He’d reached the threshold for his first Green skill.
Summoning the window, Kai reviewed his options again. Four paths were better than one could hope for an uncharted skill tree. Only their slot requirements were… suboptimal.
His eyes moved over the lines. Fortune’s Reader felt like the skill for finding yourself in the right place at the right time. He couldn’t begin to imagine the opportunities it’d open.
If only it didn’t cost three slots…
Taking more than one or two of those risked crippling his future XP growth; that’s how more than half the people reaching Green never advanced beyond one ★.
Not ideal.
Up next, Calamity Premonition read like the ultimate danger skill: predicting danger before someone even targeted him. It enhanced his main use of Hallowed Intuition and cost only two slots. It would keep him safe, but it did only that. He’d just been learning how to divine potential future paths; he didn’t want to lose that ability so soon.
That’s what Wanderer's Instinct specialized in, for only two slots too. But it lacked the danger component instead. He might be able to work around that by divining the risk on a path, but that only worked if he knew to look. The most deadly dangers were the ones one didn’t see coming.
Hallowed Intuition’s warnings were what allowed him to get away with taking measured risks.
It’s a risky pick.
Which brought him to the last and, perhaps, most unpredictable evolution: Luck’s Favorite. Its effect sounded simple: the skill would make him luckier, passively amplifying his Favor attribute for no cost. He didn't need someone to tell him how broken such an ability could be. It would also seem the easiest one to level, just growing by following his Luck.
That was probably why it cost three slots too.
Higher slot requirements didn’t always correspond to stronger abilities, though the exceptions were the skills everyone wanted.
What a headache…
Passing over a potentially superior evolution to save a single slot would be foolish. Fewer synergistic skills would outperform any cobbled-together status. But skill slots did matter—especially if he aimed for the higher grades. The backlash from discarding a Green skill was so severe that most considered the choice permanent. A choice for a lifetime.
Thankfully, the Guide would mitigate the strain to free slots for an evolution. Though he still needed to choose one or two skills to abandon.
Kai grimaced, his eyes lingering on the names.
None of them were bad, even if they all felt less versatile than Hallowed Intuition; the qualitative power leap to Green should more than make up for it.
Whatever I pick, I’ll have to wait until I leave these Trials.
Even disregarding the toll from the actual evolution, the Veiled Woods were too dangerous to switch out Hallowed Intuition for an unknown variable.
The whispers had been behaving strangely for months, and had grown louder and more garbled since entering. Pushing through his pulsing headaches, he still caught a familiar note humming amid the clouds of danger.
Huh…?
“Mat.” Valela stopped. “Is that…”
“Yes.” Kai squinted through the misty alders. “There‘s a clearing ahead.”
Their postures tensed, hands reaching for wand and sword. Meadows could be just as dangerous as the trails. Though, unlike the trails, they could also be safe-ish.
As the fog thinned, voices reached them with distinctly human tones. Lots of them.
Kai relaxed slightly. The presence of people was usually a good indication that no carnivorous flower was waiting for them to lower their guard to suck their blood—one time had been enough.
They still advanced with caution, tempered by recent experiences.
Finally, sunlight broke through the canopy, banishing the fog.
A sloping meadow opened around a rocky outcrop, the widest one yet. Wildflowers and purple grasses swayed in the breeze. Makeshift campfires and tents dotted the field. Students from all three courses milled about, tending to injuries, bartering for intel, or simply basking in the sun.
They look almost civilized.
For the first time in hours, the smell of cooked food—often with a tinge of burnt—drove away the wet moss and monster sap.
“Moons be blessed.” Valela breathed.
“Definitely far and deserted,” he deadpanned.
Valela smirked. “Clearly.”
No troupe barred their path as they approached; the gathering was probably too large for one group to hold authority. Hopefully, that meant no wannabe tyrants would try to extort or rob them.
That quickly grew tiring.
Taking in the bustling activity, they were still enjoying the warmth of a clear sky when a figure came striding through the tall grasses.
“Mat!” Rowan bounded over with a rare smile, red hair braided into tiny plaits held back by a leather band. Dark stains and cuts marred her clothes and mismatched leather armor.
“Hey, glad to see you alive!” Kai smiled despite the exhaustion. “You're looking well.”
“You should’ve seen the other guys,” Rowan snorted, stabbing down her spear. “It’s been… intense since I entered alone, but it worked out. What about you? Have you met anyone else from the team?”
“No, not yet… Only the usual haunted nonsense.”
“Tell me about it.” Rowan gave a repulsed shudder. “Sorry, you must be tired. Come sit at our camp. I’ll introduce you to my team. Just ignore the jokes about mage bookworms.”
“Sounds fair.”
The three of them sat around one of the campfires while Rowan caught them up on her experience, complete with a battle against a swarm of flesh-eating beetles. She ventured with a troupe almost entirely from Martial Studies. Aside from the jokes, they seemed nice enough, even offering the charred rib of some unknown beast.
Better not to ask.
As Rowan went to yell after one of her teammates, Valela threw him a serious look. “Is she not the person you foresaw finding?”
His smile turned stiff. “No. At least not just her. There is someone else…” The cheer around the campfires felt more distant. Whispers still prickled his mind, tightening his stomach.