Tristan dashed through the woods at a breakneck speed. With [Nighteyes] activated for sight, not to mention the passive physical boosts ranking up to Apprentice had given him, he was clearing space almost uncomfortably fast.

The moon was beginning its descent by the time Tristan broke through a line of trees and came skidding to a halt in a vast field swallowed whole by crumbed leaf dust. They decayed with every passing second, letting loose flecks of iridescent dust into the air.

He slowly craned his head up, up, up.

The Great Oak. It was one thing to see it from afar; it was another to be right underneath it. A weird sensation shivered up-and-down his body, a sensation he could only describe as reverse claustrophobia. It was almost choking how large the tree was, stretching so far up into the sky he couldn’t even see where the canopy began and the trunk ended.

Clearly, the tree had seen better days. Pulsing iridescence clung to its bark like some feeding parasite, and it was shedding bits of itself every second. The sight of its decay spurred him to shake aside his feeling of awe at this otherworldly sight and push on.

He saw the entrance to the [Withering Roots] at the base of the tree, a massive hole burrowed into the trunk. Tristan went right up to it, noticing a thin shimmer of thickened air blocking the way.

He raised a hand to it, feeling it resist him like trying to push an object underwater.

He quickly double checked his deck and made sure it was correct.

Deck (10/10):

* [Apprentice/Dark/Summon] — Shadow Wolf

* [Apprentice/Dark/Attack] — Dark Spear

* [Apprentice/Dark/Attack] — Bleeding Hamstring

* [Apprentice/Dark/Attack] — Darkstar

* [Apprentice/Dark/Support] — Nightmark

* [Apprentice/Dark/Support] — Shadow Step

* [Apprentice/Dark/Support] — Wolf’s Grace

* [Apprentice/Earth/Support] — Wood Shell

* [Apprentice/Earth/Support] — Stonehold

* [Apprentice/Earth/Support] — Healing Juice

Satisfied, he closed the screen and pushed his way into the Dungeon.

You have entered the [Withering Roots] Dungeon. Leaving is only possible through an [Exit Pass] or upon successful completion of the Dungeon.

The world warped around him. He shut his eyes, the sensation dizzying and nauseating, until at last everything snapped into place.

Tristan opened his eyes and found himself in a massive underground chamber the size of an arena. Tightly compacted dirt surrounded him, except for one wall which was entirely made of a blackened, wood-like substance. He walked up to it and touched it. The root of the tree, he realized. It ran off to the north, breaking through the dirt.

Thankfully, there was enough ambient light in here for him to see emanating from the thin, membranous veins running all throughout the dirt. The light was dark and dim, but enough to see. He didn’t want to waste a deck slot on [Nighteyes] if he didn’t have to.

Looking around, he saw that there were two passageways to his sides. From what he remembered of this Dungeon, there were three floors; he was currently on B1F, and on B3F was the entrance to the boss room. Unfortunately, by the time he cleared [Withering Roots] in the game, he was already much stronger than the recommended high-Apprentice rank, and he’d blitzed through it with ease, not really paying attention to the intricacies of the Dungeon itself.

He worried he was too late. Thoughts of Eila and the others getting ripped apart by the boss had lent even more fire to his steps on the way here. But now that he was here, the sheer size of this one room made his heart sink; how long would it take him to find his way down to the boss room?

There’s a [Dungeon Map] somewhere in here, he thought. Usually locked behind an Elite mob or a puzzle of some sort. I need to find it on this floor, quick. Those would reveal the stairways down to the deeper floors. Thankfully, a Dungeon of this low rank would only require one [Dungeon Map] to reveal the whole structure, not multiple.

With that in mind, he made a quick plan. Tristan summoned Rommie, the wolf appearing, and commanded her to explore the passageway to the right. She yipped in assent and ran off; her being only Apprentice-rank meant they couldn’t get too far from each other before she was recalled back to his side, but hopefully she’d get far enough to see something.

In the meantime, he would take the passageway to the left and see what he could find there.

***

Withering Roots B2F…

Eila scrambled out of the way as Duran cast [Explosion]. The Adept Attack card flew from the Guildmaster’s hand, glowing incandescently hot, and slammed into the ground between a clustered group of [Withering Roots Guardians]. The monstrous ants had only a moment to clack their mandibles in distress before the card exploded.

An incredible bloom of fire erupted, incinerating the monsters. A wave of heated air rushed outwards, sending Eila’s hair aflutter.

A moment later, Duran’s {Cascading} Perk triggered, activating a secondary, smaller explosion—it was unnecessary, though, as the ants had been killed in the initial explosion. The Guildmaster really is strong, Eila thought in wonder. It had been a while since she’d seen him fight in earnest. These days, he was usually confined to his desk at the guildhall, doing paperwork, signing item acquisition request forms and the like.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

To Eila’s left, Genn and Mosi worked on finishing off a duo of [Withering Roots Worms]. Genn focused on using his Earth Support cards on buffing Mosi’s Summon, an Apprentice-rank Order [Corporal Knight]. Mosi manually commanded the Knight, its metallic body encased in a layer of glimmering stone, a ring of sharpened rocks surrounding it.

To Eila’s right, Varya handled a [Withering Roots Defecator] by herself. Her nose was wrinkled at the disgusting smell emanating off the two-headed dung beetle as she quickly dispatched it with a [Boulder Bash].

Marr remained beside Eila, the two of them ready to support the others as needed. But the battle was over as quickly as it began, and soon everyone reconvened after grabbing their loot. Eila didn’t receive a share of the loot as she didn’t participate enough in the combat, but that was alright. Her chosen path wasn’t to fight monsters, but the [Blueprints] that allowed her Guildmembers to defeat the monsters so well.

Still a part of her wished she could join in.

“It’s strange,” Duran said, his eyes distant as he swept the remains of the monsters. “These monsters are the same as they were every other time I cleared the Roots.”

Varya brushed a piece of splattered Defecator off her arm, grimacing. “That’s why when we entered the boss room, we were so caught off guard. With the four of us working together, these monsters were difficult but not life-threatening. We thought the Devourer would be the same. By the way,” she turned to Eila, a [Blueprint] forming there, “I got a little treat from that disgusting creature.”

Eila rushed over and snatched it out of her hand. A part of her recognized what Varya was doing, distracting her from thoughts of Aidas with a shiny new [Blueprint]. She let herself fall for it, grateful for the distraction.

It was a [Blueprint] for [Decaying Sap], an Apprentice-rank Earth Attack card that shot out a spray of poisonous liquid, dealing damage and reducing the target’s defences. She rubbed a thumb across the [Blueprint], reading the item requirements.

The base is formed from the shell of those beetles… light pumps to melt the keratin in then, then a succession of harder pumps to liquify it to the right temperature. The ink is from their liquified dung—gross—but the shades of brown within them are actually quite nice. Two [Minor Earth Sources] as the foci… no need for an attuner then, just coaxing the sources into viewing the card as their new ward to grow…

A hand on her shoulder drew her out of her thoughts. She looked up and saw Marr gesturing to join the others, who’d started walking towards the next room. Sheepishly she made to hand the [Blueprint] back to Varya, but she just shook her head and gestured for Eila to keep it.

The three of them joined the others, and Varya took the lead. The layout of the Dungeon remained the same as when they’d entered just a few days before. According to Duran, the layout would stay the same during each Dungeon cycle, only changing when they regenerated after being cleared.

A part of Eila was upset that the other Guilds didn’t agree to clear Roots with them, especially the Earth Guilds. Then again, the greater part of her recognized that her perspective of Dungeons were skewed being a member of Duran’s Guild; the man was a legend of sorts in Sol, having cleared [Withering Roots] three times in his twenty-year stint as a professional cardbearer.

While the regular monsters inside a Dungeon were stronger than the monsters found outside, co-ordination and tactics could bridge that gap and then some. However, it was the boss and elite monsters that really rocketed a Dungeon up on the danger scale. Not only that, the main impetus to clear the island Dungeons—loot—had also weakened somewhat throughout the years, following new trade treaties between Sol and the Continent.

Nowadays, it was primarily a safety reason to keep the Dungeons in check on Solossi, to prevent any Breaks from occurring. That wasn’t as exciting for most people. Guilds used to fight each other for the right to clear a Dungeon; now the Mayor had to force them to do it.

Or some idiots will try to clear it themselves, Eila thought bitterly as they made their way to the stairwell leading to the third floor. She clenched her jaw and steeled herself.

Soon, they would arrive at the boss room. She had to be prepared for what she might see when they arrived.

Aidas, I’m coming.

***

Tristan scrambled backwards as three [Withering Roots Larvae] burst forth from the ground beneath him. He set Rommie to focus on one of them, manually controlling her, while he took care of the other two.

They were [Apprentice | High], and each of the gross, wrinkled bugs were the size of him. They unleashed some sort of acid spray attack, and Tristan used [Shadow Step] to safely get out of range. The acid landed on the ground and melted it, releasing noxious gas into the air.

Rommie drew one of the larvae away from the other two as Tristan pulled and cast [Wolf’s Grace]. Dark energy surrounded his cards, and the symbol of a clock appeared on their backs.

He cast [Nightmark], tagging the two larvaes wriggling towards him on their heads. Due to [Haste], the cards just appeared in his hands directly, saving him a few precious movements.

The two larvaes rolled up into a ball and spun towards him like an out-of-control wheel. He used his last charge of [Haste] to [Stonehold] one of them, locking it in place briefly, while he rolled out of the way of the other one. It slammed into the dirt wall behind him, and he cast [Bleeding Hamstring] at its back.

The Attack struck, slicing into it and applying [Bleed] and [Slow]. He twisted around and used {Sanguination}, removing the [Bleed] from that larvae and empowering his next Dark Attack.

He pulled and cast [Shadow Spear] at the larvae now freed from [Stonehold]. Empowered by his Perk, the spear was larger and crackled with Dark energy. It struck the monster on the [Nightmark], and the combo was enough to blow its head clean off, killing it.

He quickly finished up the [Slowed] larve inching its way towards him and helped Rommie with the last one.

You have defeated 3x. [Withering Roots Larvae].

You have acquired 12x. [Larva Skin], 10x. [Larva Feelers], 8x. [Larva Acid], 8x. [Larva Slime], 4x. [Minor Earth Source], 3x. [Hatchling’s Essence], 1x. [Earth Wheel Blueprint].

A stunning amount of drops. He couldn’t wait until he got back to town and sold everything.

He collected the loot, quickly checked the [Blueprint], saw that it was an offensive Earth card and moved on past this chamber. Worryingly, he hadn’t found any sign of Eila and the others’ passing yet, though it was possible they simply had just started the Dungeon at a different entry point than him.

Regardless, he sped up. He needed to find them, quick.

Before it was too late.