The path downward was a long staircase that extended further than they could see and took much longer than they expected. The stairs to the first floor only took about five minutes as did the travel from the first to the second floor by the magical longboats. They had expected the path to take a similar amount of time, but they didn’t see or sense any differences in the path until thirty minutes had passed. This was when they started to notice roots covering small areas of the steps and it wasn’t until another half hour had passed that they could feel a breeze from ahead.
The entire staircase after the roots started was slowly dominated by plants and roots until the entirety from floor to ceiling was covered by roots and vines. The party could tell the end was near as they saw a source of light that was bright through a wall of plant life. The breeze continued to get stronger as they reached the shroud of leaves and vines. Gaia couldn’t sense anything beyond the wall which was odd, but she guessed it had to do with the fact it was the entrance to a floor.
Griff moved to the front and pushed some of the vines out of the way after activating all of his armor and gauntlets. Nothing happened and the party got a view on the other side. Gaia’s field could pass through now that the wall had been moved, so she got an idea for how it looked.
The area just inside the entrance was a clearing with a small spring bubbling at its center from a stone. The stone was only about three feet high with water bubbling at the top into a very small natural basin and flowed down the sides creating a small pond. The pond extended for a dozen feet before ending with a single creek flowing languidly from it, away from the entrance. The clearing was about a hundred feet in diameter had short grass with a couple bushes dotted throughout and was surrounded by enormous trees. The trees lined the perimeter of the clearing with vines hanging to the floor and smaller trees within the shaded overgrowth. The clearing seemed to be the only place not overgrown with everything surrounding it fighting to grow higher or over growing filling the spaces between trees completely. It was almost like a wall of vegetation surrounded the clearing without encroaching on it.
The party stayed behind the curtain of plants, while Griff stepped out to check its safety. He took a few wary steps before walking normally around the clearing a few times. He even sent a ranged kick at the wall of plants surrounding it to test for lurking monsters. After not getting a reaction, he motioned for the others to join him. They moved into the clearing and Gaia could feel the warmth of a light that seemed to be as bright as regular sunlight. She could also feel the grass which was soft to the touch and moved slightly with a constant breeze.
The clearing seemed to be a kind of safe area for lack of a better term. She didn’t believe it to be completely safe since they were in a set of ruins, but that was the feeling she got from the area. The breeze was constant keeping it cool, but not cold. The grass was soft and she wanted to lay down in it, but kept herself from doing so, at least for now. The pond was shallow only around a foot deep with the stone being on a small shelf just above the pond’s surface. Malachite, upon seeing the pond, dashed towards it and shrunk down before splashing into and swimming around it in his small form. Gaia moved that way and took a couple steps into the water. It was refreshingly cool and she went to check out the stone that the spring stemmed from.
She reached it and realized the shelf it was on was actually just the floor of the ruins, which had curved up to make it flat. This made the small pond similar to a donut around the shelf. She dipped her hand in the water and brought it to her lips for a drink. It was just natural spring water with nothing added. Her companions were nearby in case the water was tainted in anyway so they could rush back for healing, but were relieved when they saw that nothing happened.
“It’s just regular spring water guys. No need to be so tense. I feel like this spot is oddly calm, almost like the monsters on this floor can’t enter it. I don’t know why, but that’s just the feeling it gives me.” Gaia stated.
“It does seem weirdly tranquil. I still don’t trust that it’s completely safe so we should still keep our guards up.” Griff replied.
“Yeah, but I get the same feeling that it’s pretty safe.” Fergus added.
“Well, I say we stop here rest for a bit then head back. We got our first look at the third floor like we planned, right?” Stephanie asked.
The others agreed and they rested for about half an hour. They were still on alert just in case the area wasn’t safe, but nothing happened during the entire break. Then they travelled back up the long staircase and reached the second floor. They decided to take the new shortcut that appeared after clearing the floor and returned to the camp in about a third of the time it took when having to go through the first floor. As they returned, they stopped by the Guild Master’s house to inform her about the possible safe zone.
“I’m sure you’ve already sent some scouts into the third floor, but we think the entrance to the floor is a safe zone. We only stayed there for about a half hour, but nothing attacked us or moved into the area. There’s also a clean water source in it as well.” Griff explained.
“We have sent some scouts in, but we haven’t heard from them since they entered. I was going to send a rescue team in there in the morning. It’s only been a day since they entered so I don’t think they’re dead. If it truly is a safe zone we can make a small encampment to resupply the rescue teams more easily. Did you go in enough to encounter any monsters?” She asked.
“No. We just went to the entrance to get a look at the floor. We noticed there wasn’t anything in the area just inside, so we checked it out. We didn’t go any further, but Griff did launch a couple attacks at the plants around it and didn’t get a response. We were planning to try and go in a bit further tomorrow.” Stephanie replied.
“Alright. I’ll start setting up a test for the safe area tonight. We should have an encampment and the rescue teams searching by midnight tonight, so we’ll probably have a bit more information for you in the morning. Thank you for the information.” Delilah finished as Fauna left to continue their day.
The party split up to do their own things as usual and met back up at dinner time. They enjoyed a meal and began to plan for their first true excursion into the third floor. They initially planned to cut their way into the plants, but Gaia asked if they should try her poison. If the plants were monsters or being controlled she guessed her poison might work. She wasn’t completely sure if it would work on the plants unless they were monsters, but figured at worst it would just delay them a bit. At best it could allow them to travel through the jungle a lot easier. They agreed to at least try it first and planned to only search a small area around the safe zone to ensure they didn’t get lost.
After the discussion ended, they all headed to bed planning to get up early to begin their exploration. They awoke early the next morning and started heading to the ruins. They stopped by the Guild Master’s house but couldn’t find her so they continued on their way. The travel was relaxing as they didn’t come across any monsters and went straight to the second floor. They immediately made their down the long passage leading to the third floor. The closer they got, the less they talked so they could be prepared in case anything had changed. They found the curtain of plants at the end of the passage and moved it aside to find the clearing very different than they had left it.
Firstly, there were a couple groups of people within it. Secondly, there was a large tent to one side with a table inside. Finally, there was an area of the plant wall around the clearing that had been cut out. They approached the tent since Gaia could sense an iron rank was there, assuming it was the Guild Master. Her assumption was proven correct when she heard Delilah’s voice from the area.
“What do you mean you can’t find any trace of them? There were three groups of scouts sent in here, and we can’t find any clue indicating that they were here?” She yelled angrily. There were a few moments of silence before she spoke again.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to take my anger out on you. Keep searching. We need to find our scouts.” She finished.
The other person left immediately after and Delilah saw the party approaching.
“I’m guessing the scouts are still missing? Do we have any info on the floor yet?” Griff asked.
“Yeah, sadly they’re still missing. We have a bit of information for you though. The plants are all either monsters or being controlled by one. Some can blend in with the regular vegetation and attack using the element of surprise. We haven’t found anything to indicate how to open the path to the fourth floor though, and we haven’t searched very far. The plants continuously grow at an almost visible pace.” Delilah explained.
“Well, it’s more that we knew before. Is there a direction you haven’t searched yet?” Fergus asked.
“Pick one. We’ve really only been able search the direction our cut tunnel is in. If we don’t constantly maintain it, it’ll grow back cutting the search party off from us.” She replied.
“Alright. Which direction do we want to try?” Gaia asked.
“Let’s try this way. Do we want to start by testing if Gaia’s mana field works to clear the way, first?” Fergus asked as he gestured in a direction.
“Let’s try it first and resort to cutting our way if it doesn’t.” Griff replied.
Fauna moved in the direction Fergus indicated and sat down around twenty feet from the clearings edge. Gaia pushed her mana field out to its full area covering a little over a hundred feet. She then focused on the field and tried to sense any monsters within. There were a couple, but none that were close to the clearing. She then tried to poison everything with her field aside from the people. She’d never tried this before as there was never a need to do so before now.
It was difficult to pull off and took her around two hours to figure out how to do so. Her companions were getting bored and had already started cutting a small tunnel into the plants. She’d let them know she was trying something so when they noticed the plants start to slightly wither they knew she’d succeeded at whatever she was trying. She had figured out a way for her mana field to poison things even if they weren’t monsters.
It was easy to do now that she had it figured out. All she had to do was create a list of what the poison should effect. Like if she wanted plants to be effected she added it to the list and her poison would start stacking on all of the plant life within the field. She could also remove things from the list with a thought meaning she could add and remove things whenever she wanted. She also discovered she can choose to have the poison effect anything that held ill will towards her. Like if someone was about to attack her without her knowledge, her poison would start stacking on them the moment her instincts labeled them as a threat. It was almost overpowered since her poison could start effecting a monster before it even attacked from stealth.
Her poison took a bit to work, but was still much faster than trying to cut a tunnel. It took about half an hour for everything within her field to wither, leaving a large area the party could cut and search through. As her companions searched the area she created she moved in and started the process again. The plants killed by her poison regrew extremely slowly even after she’d moved past it making the area explorable with minimal effort.
The difference in time wasn’t massive, but they didn’t need to worry about continuously maintaining a tunnel. Since their idea worked, they decided to slowly progress through the floor and have Gaia sit by the edge of her current clearing and ramp up her poison. This meant they needed to wait about a quarter hour before moving again. It seemed her poison was very effective against the plant life as it worked quicker on them than most monsters. Her poison usually grew stronger much slower and didn’t cause the enemies to show any signs of it, but the plants showed signs almost immediately. The only reason it took so long was the sheer number of them, making the process take longer due to the sheer volume.
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The plants would usually regrow within a couple minutes, requiring constant maintenance for the tunnels, but the plants affected by her poison didn’t fully regrow even after an hour had passed. They had definitely grown back a bit, but to a much lesser extent. They continued this way for the rest of the day without much progress. They had to stop a few times since poisoning so many things constantly required a lot of mental energy and put a strain on Gaia.
The day passed by quickly and soon it was time for Fauna to head back to the camp. They talked to the Guild Master for a bit relaying what they discovered which she was excited to hear. She was especially happy to find out how well Gaia’s poison worked in the plants. It had worked so well that the other groups had eventually asked if they could search the areas that Gaia had cleared. Fauna wasn’t being overly observant in the areas they cleared, instead focusing on keeping Gaia safe as she had to stay in a small area for short periods. She focused on poisoning everything while her companions searched the area for anything that could give them a clue in the way downward.
They weren’t really looking for the scouts, but kept an eye out in case they found something. They didn’t focus on that though so they likely had missed something without realizing. They left the other groups to focus on the rescue and researching how long it took for the plants to completely regrow. They returned to the camp around two hours later. They hadn’t been rushing and instead took a slow pace since Gaia was exhausted. They wanted her to relax and not overdo it so they leisurely walked back to the camp. They didn’t come across any monsters and thankfully didn’t hear the warning bells from the camp.
After returning to camp and Gaia checking in on her garden. She always seemed to relax more when she was in her garden, which the others were thankful for after she had strained her brain all day. They all relaxed for a bit and told some stories until dinner time. They told Flora and Legion about their exploration for the day and eventually made their way to bed.
The next week passed by quickly. For their last day off they’d spent it relaxing and doing their own things. The biggest change was that Stephanie had finally figured out how to create a magazine for her rifle. She was now able to fire much quicker than before and didn’t need to reload as often, reloading was also much quicker too. Their days on watch were uneventful without any major attacks and instead just had a few stone rank monsters come close. These were quickly dealt with by Fergus and Stephanie as needed. When their next free day came up, they prepared to delve back into the third floor.
Their first delve was fruitless, with them not discovering anything. This time they planned to move as quickly as possible while still having Gaia poison the plants for a while. They wanted to try and figure out whatever it was they needed to accomplish in order to continue to the next floor. The day passed by both quickly and slowly. The time passed slowly since they had to wait for Gaia’s poison to stack enough to kill the plants, but as soon as they could move they meticulously searched the areas she cleared. Due to their enhanced senses the searching didn’t take very long and they tended to finish the search of an area around the time Gaia finished clearing another area.
This delve was almost fruitless as well, but they found some traces of the scouts. This led to the entire rescue group converging on their area and asking them to continue clearing the area. They stayed on the floor clearing areas long into the night and the next day. It wasn’t until what they guessed was noon of their second day that they found one of the scouts. They were still alive, but barely. The plant life had grown around and trapped them where they were. They had also fallen unconscious at some point after being trapped. It also looked like some of the plants had grown through them that would have made the extraction extremely difficult if not for Gaia’s poison. They were able to extract them and heal them soon after without much problem.
This scout relayed what they knew after waking up from the healing causing a new slew of requests to clear different areas. Fauna did their best, but Gaia was the only one able to clear as large an area as they did. Stephanie tried her flamethrower to no avail. Fergus cut through some plants but only cleared a small tunnel about ten feet in. Griff tried his miasma which only worked a bit better than Fergus’ attempt. This caused everyones hopes to fall on Gaia, making her even more stressed. The clearing of an area took a large toll on her mind and the continuous use only made the stress and strain compound. She continued clearing areas for another day before she ended up blacking out.
Luckily, by that point all of the scouts had been found thanks to the freed scouts tracking and Gaia’s clearing. They had cleared a large area allowing for extensive movement through the floor, but hadn’t found any indication of how to clear it. Fauna had immediately retreated when Gaia dropped, worried for her and the healers checked on her. The healers explained she had apparently worked her brain too hard and it shut down out of exhaustion and strain. She would be fine, but needed to sleep and let her brain rest from the overexertion. They weren’t sure when she’d wake up though since her Mana Field wasn’t an ability and they weren’t sure how much it strained her brain. Their best guess was at least a day from the continued exertion over the course of almost two or three straight days.
The rest of her party stayed by her and helped out with the exploration when they could, but one of them was always by her. Her bonds were constantly by her, on guard like usually were when she was out of commission due to something. Gaia awoke two days later with a massive migraine, but was otherwise alright. Her party relaxed after seeing her awake and they rested for the day. The next day they continued clearing areas, but went much slower and took a multitude of breaks throughout to let Gaia rest so she didn’t over exert herself again.
Fauna had been pulled from their watches by the Guild Master since they were indispensable for this floor’s exploration. Usually, the Guild Master would have the scouts search the floor for any clues, but due to the environment of this floor they couldn’t do so. At least not without taking months to cut and search. This was why Fauna was essentially required to help with the search. They spent nearly a week down in the floor poisoning and clearing the way for everyone. After the last time she’d passed out, they were required to take breaks more often, even if they already did so.
It wasn’t until almost the entire week passed that Gaia noticed something odd. The demon associated with the floor was called the Verdant Colossus, so why was it that it felt like the plants weren’t all one monster. She could sense multiple monsters in her field, but none of them seemed to be connected. They all attacked together whenever someone got close to the area they were in, when it wasn’t already poisoned or dead. This mainly happened when one of the search parties got over zealous and searched right on the boundary of the cleared area. They were usually killed quickly so there weren’t many injuries.
The plants all seemed to be controlled by the monsters or at least that’s how it seemed. So why couldn’t they find the Verdant Colossus for the floor or at least find a mechanism yet. Based off the last two floors, there was either a guardian monster or a mechanism to open the way down, but they hadn’t found any indication of either possibility yet. Could the guardian monster be hiding or could there just be a tunnel down hidden somewhere on the floor? It was when she thought of these questions that she sensed something.
The monsters on the floor so far had been vines, trees, and moss. She hadn’t found a single monster that had differed from these three. They were all different sizes and shapes, but there hadn’t been any other monsters aside from those three plants. Now she sensed a tiny flower with mana like a monster. The main reason this caught her attention was the fact that the mana it had far exceeded anything the other monsters had. She focused on clearing the area towards it with her poison. She tried poisoning it, but it didn’t seem to affect the flower. When her poison finally killed off everything else in the area, she called for her party to come to her. They were always nearby, so they quickly came over.
“What’s up? Did you sense something?” Stephanie asked.
“Yeah. There’s a tiny flower up ahead. It seems like a strong monster and is different from all of the other monsters I’ve sensed so far. I just wanted to let y’all know to be careful. I don’t know if it’s the guardian or not.” Gaia replied.
“Isn’t the demon called the Verdant Colossus? Why would it be a tiny flower if it has Colossus in its name?” Fergus asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe it controls plants around it to take its form, thus making it huge. Let’s just be cautious. If you think it’s a strong monster, we’ll trust your judgement and be careful.” Griff stated.
“Thanks.” Gaia replied.
The party moved cautiously into the area with the flower and warned the other explorers to be careful. They slowly approached the flower, which seemed smaller and smaller the closer they got. They were right in front of it when they finally got a better view of it. To Gaia, the flower was around the size of her palm on a thin stalk only about six inches long. There were twelve petals, six still clumped together as if it wasn’t quite flowering yet with another six already out. Each petal was rounded and had a little protrusion in the middle of the curve. The protrusion stuck straight out like a needle. The smell of the flower was almost intoxicating in its sweetness.
For the others, they were able to see the vibrant colors of the petals. The petals were multicolored with small triangular shapes of bright blue that almost seemed to give off a faint light. The more the party stared at the flower the more hypnotic it became. Gaia could barely stand the flower’s aroma due to its sheer strength. She noticed her friends just staring at the flower and doing nothing.
When she went to get closer, she felt a slight tremble from the ground and tackled her friends out of the way. Just as the moved roots emerged from where they were standing spearing straight upwards. Once her friends had been knocked out of the hypnosis she quickly dived for the flower. The flower seemed to notice, and a root shot out of the ground and curled around it. Then, it shifted from where it was. The ground barely seemed affected, with only a small line in the dirt indicating the flower had moved. Gaia didn’t know what to do. The flower seemed to be able to sense what was happening through the ground.
She also seemed to be the only one unaffected by the flower’s hypnosis. She chased after the flower for a few minutes before she thought of something. She had Malachite grow so she could sit in his shell and then use telekinesis to hover off the ground. As he did, she had him move towards the flower so she try and grab it without it noticing. The idea worked and she was able to dive off him to grab the flower. As she did she pulled up in it, only to find it securely rooted in its place.
She pulled on it to no avail, until Malachite grabbed her armor and pulled. Then Shadow joined in and her party members. She didn’t have to try and uproot it alone, she had friends and family to help her. With her bonds and companions help she was able to slowly pull the flower and its roots free. The endeavor took around five minutes as she realized the flower was tiny, but the roots of the flower were thick, sturdy, and deep. When the entire flower, including its roots, was removed it measured around ten feet long, from flower to the ends of the roots. Each root was at least nine feet long and around two inches thick.
When the flower was pulled, there was an almost inaudible screech and Fergus shot it with an arrow just to be safe. After around ten minutes had passed, the flower dissolved. It left four small sections of its roots behind and Gaia analyzed them after Griff asked.
Verdant Roots - A section of the main roots of a Budding Verdant Colossus that was used to absorbed nutrients and mana. Can be used to implant or upgrade a bound item. Bound item must be of a Floral type. Must be implanted in the arms.
Flexible Root – A portion of the offensive root of a Budding Verdant Colossus that was used for attacking and movement. Can be used to implant or upgrade a bound item. Bound item must be of a Floral type. Must be implanted in the hand.
Colossal Root – The end of the defensive root of a Budding Verdant Colossus that was used for protection. Can be used to implant or upgrade a bound item. Bound item must be of a Floral type. Must be implanted in the forearm.
Leeching Root – The tip of the vampiric root of a Budding Verdant Colossus that was used for leeching mana and blood from a victim. Can be used to implant or upgrade a bound item. Bound item must be of a Floral type. Must be implanted in the arm.
After Gaia analyzed the roots she relayed the information to everyone. The flower actually was a Verdant Colossus. It’s such a misleading name, after seeing the form of it. The explorers celebrated for a bit after hearing the Verdant Colossus was killed. Then it was back to clearing and exploring the floor. The roots were Fauna’s to do with since they had dealt with the monster and had been the main reason the exploration had progressed as fast as it had for the floor.
The exploration continued for another week before they discovered the way down. It was in the side wall of the floor almost directly behind the floors entrance. Had Gaia not been there to clear the area with her poison they guessed they would have been stuck on the floor for an extremely long time before ever finding the path down. With the path found, Fauna bid their farewell and made their way back to the camp.
They returned to their inn and discussed what they wanted to do with the roots. The roots were all different. The Verdant roots were a pair that were each about four inches long and around an inch thick. The Flexible root was thin at only about half an inch thick, but around a foot long. The Colossal root was the thickest at around three inches thick and about a foot and a half long. The Leeching root was thin at about a quarter inch thick and around six inches long, but felt withered.
It was decided that each of them would get one and they let Gaia choose first. She chose the Leeching Root, Fergus got the Flexible Root, Stephanie got the Colossal Root, and Griff got the Verdant Root. They decided to wait a bit before implanting them though. Since they needed to return to their watches the following day, they chose to wait until their next free day.
