Chapter 256: Terra Vine (Part 1)
Morning sunlight spread across Mythal as Kai, Lily, and Elden walked through the eastern district. Unlike the city from only a month earlier, this one felt genuinely alive.
Hunters filled the streets before sunrise, some sharpening weapons outside guild halls, others comparing dungeon maps over quick breakfasts. Several newer hunters practiced formations together in an open training square nearby.
Kai watched them pass. "There are more than before."
Lily nodded. "The mentoring program." She pointed toward a plaza where a veteran hunter was patiently correcting the stance of three teenagers who looked barely old enough to have awakened at all. Nearby, another group huddled over copies of the Dungeon Guides her team had released weeks earlier.
One of them pointed at a sketch. "So the boss always charges after this attack."
Another nodded confidently. "Captain Kai wrote that part."
Kai looked away immediately. "Please stop saying it like that."
Lily smiled. "You know they’re proud of it."
Kai sighed. "I know."
A young hunter suddenly hurried toward them. "Captain Kai?"
Kai stopped. The young man bowed nervously. "Thank you."
Kai blinked. "For what?"
"I cleared my first C-Rank Dungeon yesterday." He grinned broadly. "I used your guide."
Silence for a beat. Kai returned the smile. "Congratulations. You earned it."
The hunter beamed and jogged off toward his waiting team.
Lily watched him go. "Looks like all those late nights were worth it."
Kai nodded quietly. "Good."
The eastern B-Rank Gate came into view a short while later, and Kai stopped in his tracks. "That’s new."
[Dungeon Found]
[Terra Vines — B Rank]
An Association guard approached and saluted. "Leader Kai."
"The dungeon has remained stable?"
"No unusual activity."
Kai nodded. "We’ll take it from here."
The guard stepped aside immediately.
The three stepped through the Gate, and sunlight vanished behind them, replaced by an endless forest.
Then, as the light swallowed them:
[B-Rank Dungeon: Active]
Towering trees reached impossibly high overhead, roots twisting across the ground like enormous serpents. Glowing flowers covered nearly every visible patch of earth, and the air smelled clean and fresh.
Too peaceful.
Kai drew the Fractured Blade slowly. "Something’s wrong."
Elden nodded. "It’s too quiet."
Lily stopped writing mid-sentence. "We’re already surrounded."
The forest moved. Not the monsters hiding within it.
The trees themselves. Entire trunks shifted position, roots crawling slowly beneath the soil, the battlefield rearranging itself around them in real time.
Kai smiled. "Interesting."
The ground exploded without warning, vines erupting upward as three Bloom Wolves burst free from beneath the roots.
[Bloom Wolf – Level 59.]
At the same moment, Root Hunters emerged from the surrounding trunks, not charging in, simply watching.
Kai caught it immediately. "They’re coordinating."
Lily raised her bow, calm and level. "So are we."
Instead of attacking outright, Lily produced one of Gabriel’s silver relay relics and activated it. A circular rune spread beneath her feet, and Spirit Archers began appearing around her one at a time.
One. Three. Six. Twelve, standing silently among the trees.
Kai noticed something different immediately. "They’re connected."
Lily nodded. "They’re sharing information across the whole network."
Normally each Spirit Archer predicted independently, calculating its own angle without reference to the others. Now every prediction spread instantly across all twelve at once.
The first arrow fired deliberately wide, missing on purpose. The nearest Bloom Wolf dodged, straight into the exact spot the second archer had already anticipated. That arrow forced another dodge, which fed straight into a third prediction, then a fourth.
The Wolf never realized it had already lost the fight three moves earlier.
The twelfth arrow punched clean through its skull.
Kai whistled. "That’s terrifying."
Elden agreed quietly. "Efficient."
The dungeon adapted almost immediately. Roots tore up through the ground, trees leaned across established pathways, entire routes vanishing while visibility collapsed into a green haze, perfect terrain for an ambush.
Lily reacted instantly, repositioning her archers. Some appeared perched on enormous branches overhead. Others emerged from behind roots at ground level. Two more materialized directly behind Kai without warning, covering an angle he hadn’t even thought to watch.
Crossfire blanketed every possible escape route within seconds.
Kai grinned. "You just turned the whole forest into your bow."
Lily didn’t answer. She was already three moves ahead, predicting the next thirty seconds before it happened.
Elden watched her work for a moment, then smiled quietly. "Understood."
Gravity runes bloomed into existence, not beneath the monsters directly, but beneath the exact spots Lily’s predictions said they’d dodge toward next. Every escape route slowed the instant a monster committed to it, every hesitation turning fatal a half-second later.
Kai burst through the resulting opening the moment it formed, Fractured Blade flashing twice. Roots shattered under the strikes, and three monsters fell before they even hit the ground.
None of them needed instructions. Each simply expanded on what the others were already doing, the whole fight flowing like something rehearsed a hundred times even though it never had been.
The forest fought back immediately.
Roots burst from beneath Kai’s feet, thick as tree trunks, trying to bind his legs.
He didn’t even stop moving.
The Fractured Blade flashed.
Three roots split apart.
A fourth lunged toward his back.
Before Kai turned—
THUNK!
An arrow buried itself into the root’s center.
The entire vine exploded into splinters.
Kai smiled.
"Thanks."
Lily simply nodded, already tracking another target.
More Bloom Wolves burst from the undergrowth.
Not three this time.
Eight.
They attacked together, spreading apart instead of charging in a straight line.
"They’re learning," Elden observed.
Kai rushed forward.
Tempest Fang replaced the Fractured Blade.
Lightning danced across the blade.
He swung once.
BOOOOOOM!!
A compressed shockwave tore through the center of the pack, launching three Wolves backward.
The remaining five scattered immediately.
Exactly as Lily expected.
Spirit Archers rotated through the trees.
THUNK!
THUNK!
THUNK!
Three arrows crossed through the forest from different directions.
One Wolf dodged the first.
The second arrow was already waiting.
It twisted away again.
The third pierced directly through its eye.
Another Wolf leaped toward Elden.
Before it landed—
Gravity suddenly doubled.
Its body slammed into the ground.
CRACK!!
Stone pillars erupted beneath it, launching the stunned monster back into the air.
Kai appeared above it.
One clean slash.
The Wolf dissolved into blue particles before touching the ground again.
They continued deeper.
The forest refused to let them advance peacefully.
Mirror Vines dropped from the branches overhead.
Root Hunters fired sharpened wooden spears from behind massive trunks.
Bloom Wolves circled continuously, trying to separate the trio.
None of it worked.
Every time Kai stepped forward—
Lily’s arrows had already cleared his path.
Every time Lily repositioned—
Elden raised stone walls or gravity fields to keep monsters away from her.
Whenever Elden paused to prepare another spell—
Kai was already intercepting anything that came close.
The three moved through the dungeon like one person.
A Root Hunter suddenly emerged only a few feet from Lily, spear already descending.
Kai started turning.
Too late.
Lily calmly sidestepped.
The spear missed by inches.
One Spirit Archer appeared directly behind the monster.
THUNK!
An arrow punched through its chest.
The Root Hunter collapsed without Lily ever looking back.
Kai laughed.
"You’ve gotten scary."
"I’m improving."
"That’s an understatement."
The deeper they traveled, the larger the monsters became.
Towering Thorn Bears lumbered through the forest, each one nearly four meters tall, bark-like armor covering their bodies.
[Thorn Bear – Level 60.]
One charged straight toward Kai.
The ground shook beneath every step.
Kai switched to Rootbreaker.
The massive greatsword crashed downward.
BOOOOOOOOM!!
The collision blasted leaves from every nearby tree.
The Thorn Bear actually stopped.
For half a second.
Then Lily’s relay network finished calculating.
"Right shoulder."
Kai didn’t ask.
He trusted her completely.
He shifted his swing at the very last moment.
Rootbreaker smashed into the creature’s shoulder joint instead.
CRACK!!
Its entire foreleg shattered.
The massive beast collapsed sideways.
Elden calmly pointed his staff.
Three Arc Lances pierced straight through its exposed neck.
Silence returned.
Several blue windows appeared one after another.
[Distortion Applied.]
[Drop Quality: Optimized.]
Rare materials scattered across the forest floor.
Living Bark.
Verdant Crystal.
Bloom Essence.
Adaptive Mana Seeds.
Kai crouched to collect them.
Lily was already examining one of the seeds against the light.
"Interesting."
Kai laughed.
"There it is again."
She ignored him.
"The mana structure changes depending on who’s holding it."
Elden immediately looked over.
"Really?"
She nodded.
"I want five more."
Kai sighed dramatically before standing.
"So we’re farming now?"
Lily smiled for the first time since entering the dungeon.
"Obviously."
Kai rested Tempest Fang across his shoulder.
"Fine."
He looked deeper into the endless forest.
"Let’s clear the rest of it."
Elite monsters kept falling as they pushed deeper, and twice, blue windows bloomed in front of Kai.
[Distortion Applied.]
[Drop Quality: Optimized.]
He gathered the drops by hand each time: a Verdant Crystal, still faintly warm. A Living Heartwood chunk, pulsing with slow rhythm. An Adaptive Mana Seed. A Bloom Core, petals still faintly unfurling around its edges.
Lily picked up one of the crystals immediately. "Interesting."
Kai laughed. "You’ve said that six times already."
"This one’s actually interesting."
Elden smiled faintly. "She said that about all six."
Then the forest trembled. Every tree began moving at once, not swaying in wind, but walking, entire sections of forest shifting into new positions. Established paths vanished outright. New cliffs rose where flat ground had been a minute earlier.
The whole landscape had reorganized itself around them.
Kai looked around slowly. "The dungeon just changed completely."
Elden nodded. "It restructured the entire battlefield at once."
Lily’s eyes lit up. "Perfect."
Kai laughed. "Normal people don’t say ’perfect’ when the dungeon just got harder."
"Normal people don’t get new research opportunities out of it."
Kai couldn’t really argue with that.
They climbed onto a massive ridge overlooking the next stretch of the dungeon, and below them an enormous valley opened up, thousands of luminous flowers swaying beneath ancient trees taller than anything they’d passed through so far. Even from this distance, they could sense dozens of powerful presences waiting somewhere deeper within it.
Lily summoned another formation of Spirit Archers without being asked. Elden rested his staff against one shoulder, already scanning the terrain below for anchor points. Kai drew the Fractured Blade slowly, eyes fixed on the valley ahead.
Nobody spoke. There was no need to.
After this much time fighting side by side, all three of them already knew exactly what came next.
Together, they stepped down into the valley.