The st few weeks had bee looking for the entrance, but so far, she hadn't found anything. She had first assumed the search would be quick, since her roots traveled through several of the rooms, but that knowledge hadn't led anywhere. The room that felt closest to the surface was roughly a ten-minute walk south of her house, but every trip she made south had yielded s. She'd dug through rubble, asked the local pnts for help, but the dungeon stayed hiddee all her efforts.

  Today, she instead decided to tinue cheg in oher projects. She had no idea where else to look, and after a particurly frustrating day at work, she wasn't thrilled about the prospect of another several hours of disappoi. She finally let herself step out of her Tree and started towards her ask.

  While Alicia's ms were ofte cheg in on projects that needed more attention, such as daily watering or pruning, she liked to spend her afternoons jumpiween her multiple long-term projects. Today, for instance, she'd resolved to che the reservoir that fed her river. It was a longer walk, roughly a few miles west, but it was good to walk the length of the river once a month or so. In the past, the river had dried up a few times, and she was always hunting for possible problems to prevent that from repeating.

  The peaceful walk was only an hour, and thankfully everything seemed in order. She made note of a few bends in the river that might be from some restructuring, but nothing else jumped out at her.

  The item on today's agenda was a house several bloorth of her home. Several years before the ge, someone had bought up the shabby split-level that had previously occupied the lot and repced it with a pretentious manor. Elegant brick walls, a garage meant to hold far too many cars, and a whole slew of expensive decorations. On the night of the ge, the unfortunate owner had transformed into a dragoroying most of the house instantly.

  All the valuables in the house had been picked years ago, but that wasn’t why Alicia was here. As a newer piece of stru, this plot of nd had a signifit amount of fresh crete, and its presence had been a stant thorn in her side.

  Over the st year, she’d been asking the local foliage to creep into the house, break its foundation, and loosen things up enough for her to dispose of everything. It was the same process she used to disrupt all the streets, except the crete poured for this house had proved signifitly more resilient than the cheap asphalt the city had used to pave the roads.

  She hadn't visited the house sie June, and she was eager to see rogress had been made in her absenow standing on the edge of the property, Alicia let her roots dig deep into the ground and got to work. To an outside observer, it would appear as if the dryad were standing pletely still, doing absolutely nothing. In actuality, she was w hard to find oints in the crete, te all the local weeds to keep pushing for entry. She was, acc to the Status, literally Oh Nature, which meant it was easy to impose her will on all the pnt life around her.

  The basement had been a particur stig point. Weeds and vines had started w their way into several ers, but she also had to tend with all the yers of insution and fl. Today, happily enough, she was excited to sehat some of the local pnts had finally broken through into the open air of the basement. She checked in with them, making sure everyone was still happy ahy, when she suddenly froze in fear.

  There was something in the basement. She could feel footsteps reverberating through the crete, and after a minute, something heavy stepped on one of her intrusive roots.

  It was far te to be the local wildlife.

  Swallowing nervously, she uprooted herself and ran to the entrance of the house. She had previously cleared a route to the basement, inally meant to have a path to clear away the rubble she hoped to create, but now she found herself on the defensive. She stepped carefully, ing down into the dark celr, when she finally heard something.

  A low, rumbling growl. A footstep, followed by a strange shuffling noise. Once she was close enough, Alicia peaked around the er and gasped.

  Ahead of her, on the far wall of the basement, a rge tunnel had beeed. It seemed oddly purposeful, as if someone had long ago tried to start a mine here, and she knew she'd found the entrao the dungeon. The position of the walls didn't match the surrounding terrain, and a series of wall sces appeared ready to hold the torches of potential delvers.

  In front of the dungeon, now turning to face her, stood a lone monster. It appeared to be a zombie, looking as if it had crawled directly out of an old 80’s movie. It stepped closer, one foing behind it, as it growled in anger.

  In a panic, Alicia ran back up the stairs. She turowards the basement, breathed deep, and summoned a wall of bark and vio block off the passageway. It might not be perma, and it certainly felt odd to be using a css ability after four years of ign them entirely, but it seemed to work.

  She flinched as the zombie struck the barrier, hoping it would hold. It attacked a sed time, then a third, before it seemed to lose i and walk away. She waited for a mihen several more, before finally releasing the breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

  Wait, I just used a Css Feature, didn't I?

  Unsure what to expect, Alicia decided to check her stats.

  “Status!”

  —

  General Information

  Name: Alicia Davenport

  Race: Dryad

  HP: 80%

  SP: 87%

  MP: 100%

  —

  Attributes

  STR: 12

  END: 13 (+2)

  DEX: 9

  AGI: 10

  INT: 11

  WIS: 15 (+2)

  CHA: 12

  LCK: 9

  PER: 15

  HLT: 17 (+4)

  —

  Racial Features

  Heart Tree (Cherry Blossom)

  Seion

  Oh Nature

  Seeds Of Life

  —

  Css

  Bulwark

  Level: 1

  Progress: 15%

  —

  Css Features

  —

  “Fifteen pert?!” Alicia gasped. She hadn't made any css progress sihe ge, and had long ago given up on it ever happening. Still, if the only way to gain progress was to see her home invaded by monsters, she would much rather stay at Level one.

  She looked up at the sky and realized the sun was signifitly closer to setting. She could already feel its warmth beginning to fade, and she k was time to .

  She walked slowly, her thoughts spinning as she tried to think of a pn.

  “Well, if nothing else, that monster seemed pretty weak, and it will be easy to block off the staircase. I might actually be able to ighis!”

  As she walked home, she found herself in signifitly better spirits than she had expected. Sure, being attacked hadn't been an item on her bucket list, but the pt of the dungeorance seemed promising.

  She yawned as the sun started dippih the horizon, the ck of its warmth already affeg her. Some of the flowers near her house were already closing for the night, and she could feel several birds and squirrels settling in as they prepared to go to sleep. When she finally made it back to her Heart Tree, she eagerly merged with it again and drifted off to sleep.

  —

  Alicia woke with a start several hours ter. She k wasn’t daytime yet, the familiar warmth of the sun was still absent, so something else must have shaken her awake.

  That’s when she felt it again, something moving around her main trunk. As she tried to focus on where it was ing from, she felt one of her sturdier branches shift downwards, and it was clear it was now supp something. It felt much heavier than an animal, and she feared it might be a dungeon monster. Moving quickly, the dryad shifted through her Heart Tree until she’d found the source of the otion.

  As she peeked her face out of the trunk, she leased to find the source of the otion wasn't a monster. It was a womaled up against one of her main branches. She wasn’t just a woman, though; she had to be the most geous woman Alicia had ever seen.

  This stranger wore casual clothes and was sitting with one leg hanging off the branch, yet it looked like she were in the middle of posing for a magazine cover. Her incredibly pale skin was pletely fwless, which led to every one of her strikiures being atuated by parison. Her hands were perfectly manicured, and her off hand casually tapped her thigh as she rexed. Her tank top did little to hide her impressive bust, and Alicia couldn’t help but marvel at how much more well-ehis stranger was when pared to her. Her pale face radiated fidence, and as Alicia watched, the stranger’s mouth opeo start drinking some kind of juice.

  Unusually, her two e teeth seemed quite long. As the dryad kept watg, she also noticed that this stranger’s eyes were bright red and glowing intensely. The juice she was drinking, Alicia finally realized, wasn’t juice at all, but blood.

  She was looking at a vampire.

  She’d never seen one in person before. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen anyone in person for the st three years. Some distant instinct of hers urged her to be afraid, but for some reason she felt pletely enraptured by this stranger.

  The vampire took a deep drink of her blood, closing her eyes in pleasure as her body seemed to warm slightly. She smiled as she pulled the pouch away, then unlocked her phone and started scrolling.

  For the several mihe vampire occasionally took small sips of her blood while tinuing to surf the i. After a while, she turhe phone off a down on her p, then leaned back against her perch with a heavy sigh. There was a sense of longing in her deep, crimson eyes, as if she were looking for something just out of sight.

  When she finally shook herself back to her senses, a soft breeze had begun sweeping through the neighborhood. All the branches in Alicia’s opy began to sway, their peaceful sounds threatening to lull the dryad back to sleep, but she didn’t dare turn away from this magnifit creature in front of her. The vampire reached out for a nearby branch, her hand softly trag its leaves and flowers, and Alicia shivered.

  Her hands are so soft, so gentle… How long has it been since I’ve felt like this?

  As the breeze faded, the vampire’s eyes seemed to focus on a spot above Alicia. Actually, they were looking at her hair, and they kept traveling down until the two girls locked eyes with each other. Alicia felt the vampire flin surprise, her breath catg, and the dryad finally dared to speak.

  “What are you doing in my tree?”

  —

  We finally get to meet our other lead! If the title hadn't clicked yet, I trust it all makes sense now. We eve some hints at where this story might be heading! I've got a lot of fun pns, and hopefully I'll be able to ti a pace of two chapters a month, but I'll certainly keep you all updated if that's ever not the case. Don't fet that there are many other stories set in this universe, and if you want to find those you — Oh , are you serious?

  "Wow, Katrina was right, you really o this desk up."

  You're not a Bard, why are you here?

  "And she said the audience was... ah, here we are. Hi guys! I'm Alicia! Like Nyx said, I'm not a Bard, but Katrina insisted that we keep sharing music with you all. I wao reend the song of the goldfinch that lives in one of my branches, but she said that doesn't t. So, today's reendation is "12 Graudes: IV. tabile" by Adriaiani. Katrina says 'This song is perfect for Alicia's debut. It starts with a jaunty melody, but there are hints of u sitting just uhe surface, with the song taking a surprisingly somber downturn at the end.' I don't see a link, so you'll have to head to Google or YouTube or something. See you guys ime!"

  Sigh. I guess this is my life now? At least the music is good...

  Until ime! Nyx <3