by H. C. Mills
The next order of business for me would be to go check out ‘Moonshade Glade,’ but I have this gnawing suspicion that just walking off to do something dangerous isn’t going to help me get back in Kaitlynn’s good graces.
So I decide to bite the bull in the horns, or something like that, and take a seat next to her.
She glances at me, then resumes studying the plant in front of her.
“Look,” I start quietly, “I get it. I get that you worried. I straight-up hated it when you were in that temple.”
I glance over to see if she’s listening. She glances away again.
I soldier on, not entirely sure yet where I’m going with this. “This place we’re in, these Trials we’re facing... it’s all super dangerous. It’s all deadly, one way or another. I just feel like playing it safe isn’t necessarily the safest thing to do. You know what I mean?”
She purses her lips. “There’s a pretty wide gap between playing it safe and attempting a speedrun, Emma. Or gargling Moonshade Sap, for that matter.”
I hesitate, then nod. “Granted, I may have gone a little overboard at times, but the risks I’ve taken so far have paid off. The Toxic Energy Tolerance I recklessly fostered might very well be our ticket to getting Stardrops. And breaking the temple’s record got me a Power-Up for Dave.”
Kaitlynn turns to face me, her eye red-rimmed. “But Emma, gamblers always lose in the end. If you keep gambling your own life like this, you’ll wind up dead! All it takes is one instance of bad luck, one slip-up, and you’ll be gone.”
I frown, hold her gaze for a long instance, then put my hand on hers. “I’m not going to slip up, Kait. I’m going to get stronger. The speedrun was dangerous, yes, but it helped me raise my Agility to 13. Every risk I’ve taken has helped me grow, and that’s the whole point. The only way to be safe is to grow faster than the difficulty of these Trials, so we’re never faced with something we can’t handle.”
Kaitlynn holds my gaze for a moment longer, before she finally deflates with a sigh and leans into my shoulder. “Maybe you’re right. I don’t know. I just don’t like the idea of you taking such crazy risks.”
I hum happily, putting my arms around her and leaning my chin on the top her head. My breath comes a little tighter now that we’re touching again, like a tightness has left my chest.
And I didn’t even need to apologise. Shows what you know, Dave.
Of course, I don’t express this sentiment out loud.
“Let me make it up to you,” I say instead.
She pulls back and gives me a questioning look.
“I feel like a celebration is in order—since we’ve all overcome the temple—and I still have some food in my backpack that I bet you’ll love...”
I bring out my cup noodles to great cheer all around. It turns out I wasn’t the only one holding on to some food from back on Earth. Dave brings out a small bag of dried fruits, and Kaitlynn a box of mixed candy. I consider bringing out my bag of Doritos as well, but decide to save it for our next celebration. Optimists live longer, after all.
Alec had already eaten everything he brought, of course, but he turns dinner into a celebratory three-course meal, with my noodles serving as the starter.
They taste similar enough to how they did on Earth, though eating cup noodles here comes with a strange sense of hollowness, due to the lack of Lavi in the food. It’s kinda like eating empty calories, except not even that, since this food literally doesn’t contain energy.
All in all, it’s a happy night, with a right feast.
Kaitlynn clutches my hand as we go to sleep.
As I’m about to doze off, I hear her whisper to me. “Emma... will you please promise me you won’t take any too crazy risks anymore? I don’t think my heart can take it.”
“All right, Kait. I promise,” I whisper back.
I do cross my fingers behind my back though, just in case. I like to keep my options open.
CHAPTER 38
A rose by any other name
WHEN I GET MY FIRST proper look over the Moonshade Glade, my heart sinks.
Because it is huge.
I’m perched high up on a tree branch, out of the Toxic Aether, yet I can barely make out the other side of it.
Well, mostly out of the Toxic Aether, anyway. I take in a deep breath. Mmm, there’s that sweet burn I’ve been missing.
Anyway, I can see how the glade got its name. With its long stem and large petals, the Moonshade sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the flowers, despite the large variety thereof.
That brings me to my second problem: I have no idea what a Stardrop Flower looks like.
Part of me felt this was going to be easy, like I had it in the bag. I really should’ve known better.
“Suri... any chance you can describe a Stardrop Flower to me?”
[Sorry, Emma, that’s classified.]
“Can you at least tell me if I’ll know it when I see it?”
[How would I know?]
Ugh, this sucks.
[You have received a pre-recorded audio message, sent to all contacts of Samuel, would you like to listen to it now, or later?]
“Yeah sure, hit me. I mean, play the message, please.”
[Will do.]
Oh boy, I’m not sure I like where this is going.
Yeah, thanks for reminding me.
I apply my palm to my face with a hearty groan. At least they removed the ‘Girl’ at the end.
Well, shit. I’m definitely feeling the pressure now. Since I’m currently lacking a better method, guess I better go down there and start appraising flowers...
I take a deep breath. I mean a really deep one; one that I intend to hold. Although my Lavi will start to drop after a little while, I will also pick up less Toxic Energy, which is currently a more pressing issue. In the long run, this will allow me to spend more time in the glade.
I grab the handy vine I found and rappel down.
I’m an idiot.
Obviously, it’s rather difficult to hold your breath when you have to say ‘appraise’ every three seconds.
I think I appraised about ten flowers before my lungs were empty of Aether and I was forced to cut my run short and climb back on my branch. To make matters worse, I hardly remember the names of the flowers I just appraised or what they looked like.
“God, this is going to take forever. Suri, you wouldn’t happen to know an easier way of doing this, would you?” I ask hopefully.
[If by ‘this,’ you mean finding the Stardrop Flower, then that’s classified.]
I groan.
[If by ‘this,’ you mean appraising a bunch of flowers while holding your breath, well, you could just ask me to appraise anything you point at.]
My eye twitches. That’s an excellent suggestion, but did you have to use that condescending tone?!
“Yes, please,” I sigh.
Five minutes later, with my Lavi fully restored, I head back out with renewed vigour.
By the time I
start trudging back to the hut, I’ve lost track of how many different plants I appraised. It doesn’t help that I often mistakenly appraised the same kind of flower several times. They all look alike to me and I keep doubting if I’ve seen them before.
None of them were Stardrop Flowers, at least.
Honestly, if it weren’t for her terrible Toxic Energy Tolerance, Kaitlynn would be much more suited for this task, as she probably already knows most of these plants.
The most frustrating thing is that I feel in my gut that the people who built this place definitely put that damn flower deep in the glade, which makes my search on the outskirts kind of pointless.
Except, even if I head in deep, I probably wouldn’t be able to recognise the Stardrop Flower. In fact, knowing my luck it’s some small, unassuming flower, hidden in the cracks between rocks or some bullshit. That means I first need to learn to recognise at least most of these stupid flowers before I risk entering the deeper, more toxic areas, so I can see which flower stands out as new.
Basically, I’m stuck searching for it in an area where I’m very unlikely to find it, to practise searching for it in the more dangerous area where I am likely to find it.
This whole thing sucks, and it’s giving me a headache. Though that might also be the Toxic Energy.
Speaking of which, time to check the damage. “Status window.”
Oof. Looks like I took in quite a bit of Toxic Energy during my search. I’ll need to do some serious detoxing before I go back out there again. Hmm... Rebecca did say the council would offer me assistance, perhaps I should swing by and see what they can do for me.
When I return to the hut after my detour to the council, I find Alec and Kaitlynn, well, sparring, I guess?
At least, that’s what it looks like, but it doesn’t explain the lightsabre noises. Those are definitely not coming from their spears.
I clear my throat. They freeze up, then look my way kind of guiltily. Huh, do they expect me to berate them for wasting time? Well, maybe I should. Awww, Kaitlynn’s blushing though. I can never stay mad at her.
“Why Alec,” I say sweetly, “you seem to have a lot of free time all of a sudden...”
“Hurk! Ehm, we were just taking a break. Actually, I should really get started on dinner!” He runs off into the hut.
The confused expression I put on afterwards is purely for Kaitlynn’s entertainment. “Was it something I said?”
Her face blooms into a grin, as she probably correctly guesses that she is exempted from my wrath. Honestly, why do they treat me like some kind of scary drillmaster? I haven’t been that bad, have I?
Anyway, Kaitlynn happily smiles as I saunter over, and she leans into my hand when I reflexively give her head a rub.
“So, how did it go?” she asks.
I groan.
“That bad, huh?”
I nod. “I’ll explain over dinner.”
“Oh my, are you asking me out?” Kaitlynn jokes, her eye twinkling.
I snort. “Would if I could, milady, but there don’t seem to be any fine-dining establishments in the vicinity.”
She pouts.
“But I did get you something,” I continue, taking off my backpack to rummage around in it. Kaitlynn looks on curiously as I pull out and, with a flourish, present her a familiar-looking blue mushroom.
“A Blue Angel for a blue angel,” I quip.
Kaitlynn accepts it with a giggle, “Did you find this in the glade?”
“Nope, it’s courtesy of the council; they promised me two a day to fight off the Toxic Energy,” I say, pulling out a second one. “I believe that makes us even, in the respect of mushrooms.”
Kaitlynn shakes her head in amusement. “Shouldn’t you just eat it? Or... do you need some help chewing again?” she asks with a shit-eating grin.
“Shut up,” I say with a laugh. “I’m not that intoxicated. And eating them would be kind of a waste, as I have access to a certain amenity known as ‘Dave,’ don’t you think?”
Kaitlynn’s mouth drops open as if in shock. “You little sneak, you’re just going to keep accepting the council’s Blue Angels and work Dave to the bone Purifying you, aren’t you?”
I don’t reply, but my grin probably says all there is to say.
Kaitlynn shakes her head. “You are just... evil.”
“Sticks and stones, Kaitmonster,” I say, before offering her my arm.
She makes a show of considering it for a moment, before accepting with a giggle, and allowing me to escort her back to the hut.
Dave begins Purifying me as soon as I ask, but reminds me that his Skill will soon stop working when the Toxic Energy in my body drops below my Tolerance Limit, and that I will have to rely on the Blue Angels and Respiration in a low-Toxic-Energy environment to lower it further.
Wary of the Blue Angel’s bitter flavour, I suggest to Alec that he cook it up for me. It’s mostly a joke, but he runs with it enthusiastically and ends up preparing a lovely meal of braised trigot and crushed, spiced jicca nut, supplemented for me with a surprisingly tasty, baked Blue Angel.
The bitterness is mostly gone, replaced with a surprisingly sweet flavour. Thankfully, the detoxifying energy inside won’t be affected by adding such a ‘weaksauce amount of Heat,’ according to Alec’s AI, Sarge.
“So, what’s our medium-term plan?” Dave asks when we’re about done eating.
“Well,” I say, “we’ve got our pearls and our hunting permits, so I guess the three of you need to try and hunt down three more Blue-Scaled Trigots for their Minor Lavi Crystals as fast as possible while I’m out... picking flowers. Man that sounds lame in comparison.”
Dave nods. “I came to the same conclusion. Regarding the plans, that is, not the flower-picking being lame. I’m still on the fence about whether the three of us should split up to hunt more efficiently, or stick together for safety. What do you reckon?”
I hesitate. “Before, I would’ve responded ‘hell no’ to the suggestion of splitting up, but with the council running things now, perhaps it’s our best bet. We’re probably behind in collecting Minor Lavi Crystals compared to most teams. It might not turn out to matter much, considering the hunting permit system, but I still don’t like it.”
“Well, let’s see how far behind we could be,” Dave says, pulling a piece of bark with notches in it out of his back pocket. “I’ve been in this Hub for about 31 days, and I believe the first survivor got here maybe nine days earlier, so that’s potentially forty Minor Lavi Crystals—though probably more like thirty-five—that have been collected, of which we currently own one. Considering the number of people in Hub Two, that would mean there’s enough Lavi Crystals going around for two-thirds to level up with, which suggest we are indeed kinda behind on average.”
“Forty days?” Kaitlynn asks incredulously. “It can’t have been that long since we got here, right?”
“I mean Twin-Star days,” Dave clarifies, “those are roughly seventeen hours. A relevant difference, because the Blue-Scaled Trigot shows up shortly after Twinrise. In Earth-days, I’ve actually been in this Hub for about three weeks.”
I see. Kaitlynn once explained the frequency at which the Blue-Scaled Trigot appeared as ‘once a day’ but it makes sense that that wouldn’t be an Earth day. More importantly, Dave really is convenient to have around; I’ve totally given up on keeping track of time in this place.
“Bruce should have been here for about a month in Earth time,” Dave adds, “and taking into account the time he must’ve taken in the Trials, that means we’ve been here for at least five weeks. Of course, since we all went unconscious in Hub One, we can’t be sure how much time passed between our arrival and the start of the Trials—Rose wouldn’t answer my questions about that—so it could be more still...”
He falls silent with an odd look on his face.
I study him curiously. Is it just me, or does he seem a little obsessed? I wonder what that’s all about.
Alec frowns. “Look, that
’s fine and all, but to be honest, I don’t think I stand much chance at taking down a trigot on my own, even with our new spears. Those things are bloody nimble; you really have to drive them in a corner to even get a chance to hit them.”
“Also a valid point,” I muse. “I guess Kaitlynn’s the only one really capable of hunting one on her own, thanks to her Astreum Blast. Also, I doubt many people would be willing to dispute the kill after seeing her use that Skill.”
Dave nods thoughtfully. “Perhaps Alec and I can take one of the five exit points, see if we can lay some traps or something to help us kill one, while Kaitlynn takes another.”
I glance over at Kaitlynn, who nods in agreement. “Sounds like a plan.”
I stand up, then raise my leafy cup of birberry juice. “To Earth!”
“To Earth!” the rest echo as they raise cups, their shadows following suit on the wall in the glow of the fire still blazing beneath the stove.
Despite my toast, I’m not sure if I would choose to go on if we get the option of giving up and staying here forever. At least in Hub Two, we’re relatively safe. But I’ll be very surprised if that turns out to be an option.
I just can’t shake the feeling our time here is running short.
CHAPTER 39
Let’s pave paradise, and put up a parking lot
THREE DAYS AFTER THE hatching of our new plan, we finally obtain another Minor Lavi Crystal. The Blue-Scaled Trigot crawls out of the hollow stump Kaitlynn’s perched at, and she manages to strike it down with a well-aimed Astreum Blast.
Since the chance the trigot comes out of any particular stump is only one in six—and there are other hunters Kaitlynn has to contend with—this is already pretty darn lucky.
Of course, we don’t plan to just rely on Kaitlynn’s aim and luck. Alec and Dave came up with some kind of spear-slinging contraptions which they’ve been setting up around one of the other hollow stumps.
