For a moment, Jake and the Lunewood Hunter made eye contact. Jake knew it could see him through his stealth immediately as he prepared himself mentally for what was to come. However, even after a solid second, the Hunter just kept observing him without making any aggressive moves.
Frowning, Jake tried to step to the side as its gaze followed him. Was it looking for an opening or something? Its actions didn’t make any sense at all. Even when Jake began walking, it just kept looking at him.
When he tried to pick up speed, the Hunter finally moved but still did not attack him. It just followed Jake as he made his way further into the forest, confused as hell. The Hunter even kept the same distance from Jake, its eye never leaving his body for a split second as it ran after him. He had already cut off his conversation with Villy, but now he seriously considered asking if this Hunter was broken.
Something definitely felt off, and Jake released a Pulse of Perception to scan his immediate area and instantly saw that three more Hunters were making their way toward him, all coming from the direction of the Wood Meteorite.
Is it not attacking because it judged it can’t beat me alone and is waiting for backup? Jake questioned as he once again prepared himself for a fight.
Yet when the three Hunters arrived, they proceeded to just join the first one in looking at him. It was honestly eerie as fuck, having four large creatures made of vines and stone constantly just stare at you without doing anything. They even stood entirely still when Jake didn’t move, only adding to the creepiness.
Deciding to just say fuck it, Jake proceeded toward his target. The four Hunters followed along as Jake got closer and closer to the Wood Meteorite and the army that surrounded it. While he wasn’t confident in beating them, he was confident in escaping should things go south, as while the Hunters were the strongest Lunewood creatures he had seen, they were still low-tier.
Soon enough, he reached the Wood Meteorite. Jake entered a large clearing created from the impact crater of the Wood Meteorite, finally laying eyes on the thing. It honestly looked a bit like a spherical spiky pinecone, except it was utterly massive and pulsating with power, as blueish veins covered the entire meteorite.
Through his sphere and with another Pulse, he also saw how extremely long vines extended down from the Wood Meteorite, piercing many kilometers into the moon. These vines spread like the roots of a tree in the immediate area, but they primarily reached downward in a pretty straight line, going directly for the core as far as Jake could see.
Yet he didn’t feel as if the Wood Meteorite was actually siphoning any energy out of the core, making him guess it hadn’t reached it yet. Even if it did, Jake wasn’t sure it would be capable of absorbing anything, as the moon’s core remained a lot more powerful than this meteorite.Checking with the four Hunters, who had now been joined by five more who had been chilling around the Wood Meteorite, Jake saw the nine of them still didn’t seem interested in attacking. To check further, Jake floated into the air as he made his way toward the meteorite, but even as he approached, they didn’t make any moves.
They clearly knew he didn’t fit there, and yet they didn’t see him as an enemy for some reason. It didn’t make any sense at all. Was it that they didn’t judge him a threat? Or because he hadn’t attacked them or destroyed anything yet? Or were they broken somehow? They hadn’t even alerted all the other Lunewood creatures to his presence, and Jake felt that it was only the Hunters who even knew he was there due to the peculiar nature of Unseen Hunter.
Once more, trying to ignore them, Jake studied the Wood Meteorite more closely as he flew right up to it. He felt it pulsating with energy, sending waves of its corrupted life energy into the world. This energy also tried to affect him, but he had made sure to cover his body in a few layers of stable arcane mana to ensure his own safety.
Reaching out, Jake touched one of the spikes of the meteorite. The moment he did, he felt a pulse of energy enter his body, but more than just energy; it carried some kind of… desire. Jake felt something go for his soul, as he allowed just a little bit in to understand what was going on. He felt as if he heard a faint whisper telling him to accept it.
The spike Jake was touching then broke off, and he knew what it wanted him to do. It wanted him to take it and absorb it into his body, allowing the Lunewood energy to take over his body and become one with the forest like all the other creatures there.
No… more than that.
It wanted him to become the Lunewood Forest. To merge with the meteorite and be its host. Perhaps it instinctively understood its own shortcomings, and it wanted something to help control it and grow. Jake wasn’t sure why, but it seemed to believe he was a good option to make that happen.
Jake was confused, though. Why did it need him? Sandy hadn’t mentioned anything like this. According to the worm, these Moon Meteorites didn’t have any ego or control at all but were more like a natural force only seeking to expand, and-
It was wilting.
He finally remembered. At the edges of the Lunewood Forest, it wasn’t expanding, but the grass was wilting. That’s also when Jake understood why it wanted him. A Wood Meteorite only sought to spread its affinity and grow, but this one was broken, and it needed something. That something being Jake.
Needlessly to say, that wasn’t anything it could have.
Jake let go of the meteorite that had broken off and let it rest on top of another part of the meteorite. Once more, a pulse of energy was released, and Jake felt a rudimentary soul attack that once more tried to compel him.
Shaking his head, Jake turned as he looked at the nine Lunewood Hunters who still stared at him. He still didn’t feel any traces of hostility, even as he walked away from the meteorite. They just kept staring creepily, even as Jake began to explore the rest of the crater, finding many smaller Meteorite Fragments he assumed were from slain Lunewood creatures.
There were a lot of them. Thousands, at least, meaning something had killed them, right? Or was this the fragments it made new creatures from? As Jake was thinking this, he saw something in his sphere. A Stalker was approaching him, walking with steady steps.
Turning, Jake was prepared for it to do something, but all it did was jump on top of the pile of Meteorite Fragments. The second it did, its entire body wilted away in seconds, making another fragment fall atop the pile.
”It’s losing energy,” Jake spoke out loud with a serious look on his face. The forest was already dying by itself for some reason.
One thing was for certain, something very weird was happening on the moon.
Something that was further confirmed after Jake had spent an hour or so inspecting the crater while considering how he would put down a ritual when he received a message from Sandy, passed along by the Viper, saying just one word:
Stolen story; please report.
”Run.”
Sandy wiggled their way through the many tunnels leading deep into the moon. Using the awesome spatial senses that only a worm as awesome as Sandy could have, they quickly realized the quickest way toward the center of the celestial object. It wasn’t even that complicated, as there was what looked like a deep shaft that led most of the way there, just large enough to fit a growing worm.
Getting further and further down, Sandy made a few stops to gobble up something tasty. There were only a few weak elementals here and there, all way too slow for Sandy. Many of the snacks weren’t even that tasty, but they were different and worth a try. Variety is the spice of life, after all.
Days passed, with Sandy getting closer to the core. It was a bit odd, but in the cases of most planets or even larger celestial objects like the moon, the core wasn’t some large super-dense area of pure molten lava and metal. Instead, it was a vast open space with a relatively small spherical metal ball floating in the middle.
True, sometimes the temperature was really high in the core room or chamber, or whatever one called it, making the room far from a healthy environment. Not that it bothered Sandy much the times the worm had seen other Planetary Cores. None of the weird phenomena that could happen close to a planet’s core ever really bothered Sandy before. However, as Sandy got closer to this core, there was something really annoying.
Because, while Sandy wasn’t an alchemist like Jake, the worm was pretty sure large vines weren’t supposed to grow this deep underground. What’s more, all the vines felt really weird. Like, they had the same aura, but one that felt a bit different than the Lunewood stuff above. It was clearly still related to the Wood Meteor, as they looked the same, but something was definitely different.
It didn’t take Sandy long to get close to the center of the moon, where the worm quickly went straight for the core. It was super easy to feel where it was, as it gave off a powerful response from Sandy’s treasure-sensing skills.
The odd vines also only multiplied in number and looked even weirder the more Sandy saw. Some of them went through solid rock but didn’t penetrate it. No, it was more like they phased through the rock as if they were ethereal.
These vines didn’t move around or do anything, though Sandy was on watch, being careful. There was no doubt in Sandy’s mind that these vines were related to the B-grade, so caution was key. Even if the B-grade hadn’t shown any aggressiveness yet.
Passing through a few more tunnels, Sandy finally entered the large open space that also contained the core. However, rather than see a core, Sandy saw a giant mass of vines where the core was supposed to be, with the actual core likely within.
The space containing the core was many kilometers in diameter, yet Sandy felt that the environment was oppressive. The cause of this wasn’t hard either, and a moment later, the being revealed itself.
Energies gathered to form a ghostly shade of sorts that regarded Sandy as it sent a powerful telepathic message filled with… a lot of things. It wasn’t really words but more a collection of images, emotions, and what Sandy could vaguely interpret as words, with the shade asking just one question:
”Why are you here?”
One Sandy could naturally easily answer.
”I’m here to explore,” the worm responded in a neutral tone, as Sandy tried to be as non-threatening as possible. ”Not going to bother you at all.”
There was no response for several moments. This gave the worm some time to take in the entire core room and detect everything there. It didn’t take long to figure things out.
Sandy was a smart worm. So Sandy quickly realized, as they expanded their senses and felt the traces of what had once been a great natural treasure inside the core room. One provided directly by the system, not unlike the ones Sandy had consumed during their younger days, albeit far, far more potent. With this and everything else, Sandy put together what had happened.
The Lunewood Meteorite had begun to spread all over the planet, and its vine-like roots had drilled into the ground, seeking out the greatest energy source available: the core. It had succeeded most of the way, as it had likely sent some of its creatures down to clear out elementals and stuff in the way.
Then, one day, a Lunewood creature reached the core room and absorbed that special system-provided item, for it to then evolve into what Sandy was currently seeing. Sandy also vaguely felt the concept of death in the air, so it was even likely the creature had died and been brought back to life. Maybe it had been cut off by the Wood Meteorite once it began to change, thus dying? There were many potential explanations, but Sandy was pretty certain they had reached the right one for the most part.
As Sandy had just brilliantly deduced what was going on, the creature spoke again, the message far more coherent and simple this time around:
”Leave.”
”Alright, alright,” Sandy said, remaining calm. ”I didn’t mean to intrude, I was just curious, and I’ll be on my way,”
Yep, definitely no reason to annoy the B-grade creature that Sandy didn’t at all understand. It was some weird undead creature that somehow still gave off eerie life energy. What’s more, Sandy hadn’t even found anything they could Identify yet. It didn’t work on the core or the weird ghostly thing that honestly looked a bit like a large floating carpet.
”Leave,” the message echoed again.
”Going!” Sandy responded as they turned around and began flying toward the exit of the core room.
”Leave… now.”
Sandy got a bad feeling and picked up more speed as-
”LEAVE NOW!”
The telepathic message itself carried so much malice that Sandy temporarily froze up as vines flew out of all the walls, seemingly summoned out of nowhere. Reacting quickly, the worm teleported forward to avoid them as more vines moved to block the worm off, making Sandy curse.
”Did you want me to leave or not!”
There was no answer, as a massive vine was summoned out of a wall, slamming into Sandy’s side, sending the giant worm reeling as they were blasted away. While flying, Sandy did two things… finally managed to land an Identify and sent a message to their Patron to be passed along to Jake.
[Ghostvine Sovereign – lvl ???]
He had to get away… because there was no way they could fight this thing. Sandy felt the blood run down their side as the worm’s thick skin had been sliced open, and powerful energies of death were seeping in.
This isn’t good.
Jake reacted instantly, despite not having any sense of danger yet, as he flew into the air. This proved to be a good decision, as only a moment later, he felt it. An aura washed over him as if something had spread out its presence to where he was.
He saw the Wood Meteorite practically shiver as all the Lunewood Hunters, for the first time, diverted their gazes from him as they instead stared at the ground. Jake released a Pulse of Perception, trying to feel for what was coming, but there was nothing but an odd energy permeating this area of the moon, and nothing that should-
Suddenly, a vine shot out of the ground below, aimed straight at Jake. His eyes opened wide, as he barely managed to dodge due to the forewarning from his danger sense. The vine extended many kilometers out from the moon and swung as it tried to whip Jake again.
That’s when the Lunewood creatures made their move. All of them moved at once, attacking the vine with all they had, the hunters throwing stones infused with energy, with the thousands of Stalkers, Keepers, and Vipers also attacking.
The response from whatever the fuck attacked Jake was to release another dozen vines, all seemingly summoned out of nowhere. They just sprung up from the moon despite seemingly not coming from anywhere. It was like they had just been stuck onto the moon’s surface, only attached with a bit of energy.
These new vines didn’t attack Jake, but instead, they attacked some of the Lunewood creatures. Jake saw how the vines whipped a Stalker, leaving a deep gash… that then began to rot, as Jake felt the unquestionable concept of death within the attack.
With a single whip, the stalker wilted away, dying. Jake was alarmed as he’d stopped mid-air. Something that proved to be a bit decision, as that had only led to the continued ire of what he was now certain was the B-grade.
The presence all around him intensified as Jake felt a shiver run down his spine. Below, the Lunewood creatures were getting slaughtered, but they did manage to tear apart many of the vines. But as the atmosphere intensified, they all froze up, and Jake’s eyes opened wide.
A wave of energy washed over him as the moon’s surface erupted with vines, as far as he could see. Thousands… no, tens of thousands of vines shot up from the moon, seemingly not targeting anything or anyone in particular.
Then, right below Jake, floating just above the treetops of the Lunewood Forest, mana gathered as a giant eye dozens of kilometers in diameter formed, staring straight at Jake as it sent a powerful telepathic message slamming into Jake’s head and making him reel backward.
”Begone!”
Jake didn’t hesitate as he used One Step to repeatedly teleport upwards as vines chased after him. Once he got far enough up, they stopped chasing, but Jake still kept going as he wanted as much distance as possible. Many thoughts ran through his mind, but one more than any other:
What was happening with Sandy? He still had a Mark on the worm, and he felt that they were still deep down inside the moon and-
It disappeared… and he instantly knew:
Sandy had died.