I glanced over at my status. I had just leveled up to 35, the difference in leveling speed when I was alone was staggering. I couldn’t be sure how much time had passed really, but it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks, and I had already well passed the halfway mark to my next familiar. Lately though my leveling had slowed.


    Master, we need to move deeper into the Underhollow. I can barely find anything to kill these days.


    I groaned and stretched my stiff joints as I stood up. Fine, I guess it would be better to leave something for that old man to fight…


    He can take care of himself. He’s lucky he can stay here anyway.


    Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just come get me, let''s look around for a better hunting ground. I said as I pushed the door of my camper open and glared at the light that accosted me. My eyes adjusted quickly and I sighed, “Well, I guess I’ll be leaving this view behind soon…” I mumbled to myself as I took in the rolling hills and rivers that cut through them. At one point I detested them since they were infested with slimes, but it was undeniably the most gorgeous area of the Underhollow we had access to. I’d gotten attached to it.


    I’ll miss it too. It was nice to bask in the warmth on the side of the hill when I had a full belly. Aureus commented as he landed beside me. We both stood in silence for a while, letting our bittersweet feelings seep into us.


    Alright, let’s go see where we should go next. How about we start with the forest? I said with a tinge of excitement as I vaulted up onto his back. I’d always have appreciation for that saddle that I’d bought from Caroline


    Highway robbery was a better term for it, but there wasn’t anyone else I could get one from so I put up with it. The sheer amount of potatoes she demanded… I mean exactly how many potatoes does one woman need?


    “You’re the one in need, I’m fine with trying to find food elsewhere in the shop.” She said as she defended herself, I couldn’t really disagree. Plus it wasn’t like I could eat all of the potatoes we were producing. Paige, the newest and only teen resident of my Underhollow, had a surprisingly green thumb. She and the younger child Ava had expanded the garden significantly so we had plenty. Though none of us had ventured into the forest to find new plants to eat until that point. Well that was if I was able to find something edible.


    We weren’t in a rush so we made the rounds first. Just as we had when we first arrived back in the Underhollow, soaring over the mountains and out to the lake. The forest was too dense to really see much of a difference, but we did get some sort of fruit lobbed at us by a monster that might have resembled a monkey? It was hard to tell, we didn’t get a good look at the assailant. The more we traveled the more there was. I really wasn’t sure where to stop, how far to go, and if we were going to find ourselves in some kind of trouble because we ventured too far.


    I sighed, “Alright, I guess let’s just go back to the mountains. I wanted to explore here, but it really isn’t feasible with your size. Maybe we can find some materials that might be useful there. Some metal or something I dunno…”


    Are you sure? You don’t want to check that out?


    Check what?


    That thing over there. Aureus motioned with his head to a section of the forest that was much less dense than the rest. When had he noticed that?


    Okay sure, you think there’s something there?


    I dunno, but it’s the only difference we’ve seen in the forest so far.


    True.


    It looked like a clearing created of several smaller clearings. It was dotted with a few trees here and there with fewer as it approached the center. As we approached it, I got a little excited. Life in the Underhollow was immensely boring lately. I’m sure that most people were frantically trying to stay alive and get ahead, but I didn’t have much I needed to do. Aureus was more than enough for the enemies we had so I had no reason to get off my ass. I spent most of my time browsing Celes, and chatting with guild members.


    We gently landed in a small patch of grass between several massive trees, it was basically the edge of the clearing. A small pocket where the trees thinned then a few trees lined the edge prior to the larger clearing. I stood at the line between the forest proper and the transition of the clearing. I’d noted that as we got deeper into the forest the trees continued to get larger and more… dangerous looking? They were sort of ominous, a deep purple bark and gray leaves. It created a feeling of incongruity to the rest of our surroundings. The juxtaposition of the gentle pink sky almost caused the darker vibes of the forest to intensify.


    I dismounted and carefully explored our direct surroundings. The grass that we landed on looked to be the beginning of the only grass in the area. The rest of the ground where the trees were thicker, was covered with vegetation or just dirt. Around the base of the large trees were mushrooms with small holes in them that looked as though they might explode if you even brushed against them. They were the only splash of bright color in the entirety of the forest floor. Not that it made them look any safer. The stems were a sickly white color and the caps were nearly neon orange, but it was off just ever so slightly.


    The further I ventured from the lit patch of grass the more I had to be careful about where I stepped. There were creeping vines that crossed the forest floor every which way. Based on a strange dried dark liquid around them, I suspected that I shouldn’t touch them. Among some plants that looked like shrubbery was a well hidden and ridiculously large venus fly trap. I shivered, “Jeez, there isn’t anywhere to step.” I whined as I backed into the small clearing again. Aureus’ tail twitched as he focused on not allowing it to flick to either side.


    I don’t like it, it’s cramped. I could feel his annoyance. He was a little claustrophobic, he was much too large to comfortably fit in between trees here, so I understood why he felt stifled.


    “Just transform!” I laughed at him and elbowed his side.


    I wanted to but you haven’t taken the saddle yet. And give me my clothes! He whined at me. Caroline had made him some shorts and a halter top shirt with a low back to allow for his wings and he’d gotten quite attached to them. It was an ordeal getting him to decide on what he liked since shirts with sleeves were stifling, but he wanted a shirt and wasn’t budging on that. And then he didn’t want to wear pants anymore but the shorts he had weren’t comfortable enough. After a lot of back and forth we settled on that outfit thankfully. The whole thing was made of well worn leather and in some areas lined with fabric she’d created that mimicked my slime set.


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    “Alright, just a second.” I replied as I hummed. I was in a good mood. I handed the clothes over and turned around, he didn’t mind if I saw him change but I made it a habit to give him privacy regardless.


    After he got himself together and dressed I looked past him to the other side of the clearing that I couldn’t see prior due to his size. I could see into the other clearings, or rather the sparseness of the trees that created several small clearings leading up to the larger clearing of sorts with a few trees here and there. Within the largest one was a large moss covered rock that settled just to one side closer to a tree there. It stood out compared to the lush landscape.


    Aureus flew carefully around as I wandered a bit aimlessly. As long as I wasn’t careless and didn’t touch anything I assumed that we wouldn’t have much of a problem. The only odd thing was that there didn’t seem to be any monsters in this area. I wondered if it was due to the obviously hostile plants. Though it didn’t look completely deserted. There were various signs of life passing through, scratch marks on the bark of the trees, disturbed soil and plants, and even a few of those mushrooms that had been disturbed or crushed. The plants around them were wilted and coated in spores.


    Good thing I didn’t touch any of those. I don’t have Reid around for emergencies anymore.


    You have to be careful, Master… maybe you should just wait here?


    No, I don’t wanna sit around right now. I''m bored and I want to explore.


    Ugh… well you better be careful.


    Oh don’t whine, we’re just going to look around a bit and then head out. We never come to the forest anyway so it’ll be fun.


    No, we never come to the forest because it already is no fun. This place is the worst. I can’t fly, there’s nothing to eat, and I have to be on guard in case some crazy plant tries to kill you.


    I chuckled and scooped up a small rock at my feet. I grinned as I tossed it towards a suspicious looking bush a few feet away. Its branches curled in around the rock as it crashed into them, coiling around it and pulling it down and to its center. “Well that was anticlimactic.” I sighed as I repeated my experiments on the remaining plants around me.


    The venus fly trap hissed in my direction when I pelted it with rocks. It didn’t eat any of them to my disappointment, but it did make use of its leaves to shield itself which I wasn’t expecting. I didn’t test the mushrooms because I wasn’t positive on the range of the spores or what they might do. The next thing I tried were the vines, they were the only ones to shock me. There was no reaction when I threw rocks at them, they just sat there like normal plants. I wasn’t completely satisfied with that experiment, so I retrieved a carcass from my inventory and cut off one of its feet. When I gently nudged the vine with it a long and sharp thorn shot out and skewered it.


    “Gross.” I muttered as I watched the foot start to melt? Or at least it seemed like that was the case since a somewhat familiar acrid smell of carnivorous plants met my nose shortly after.


    “Exactly, you shouldn’t be in such a dangerous place. Let’s go.” Aureus chimed in from behind me.


    “Oh calm down, I’m already level 35. Nothing’s actually been a threat to me in weeks. Plus I’m being careful, don’t be such a party pooper.” I grinned the excitement of exploring and danger was stronger than his worry.


    The closer we got to the center of the clearing the fewer plants littered the ground. The grass spread further and the trees were further apart. It was comfortable, I didn’t have to be careful about where I stepped and there was a gentle breeze. It would have been an ideal napping spot if it weren’t in the center of a dangerous Underhollow forest. Well that sucks. I thought we’d find something cool. I mused as I kicked at little pebbles and wandered back towards the forest.


    What about the boulder? Aureus responded from a distance, I glanced over to see him standing in front of a pointed ledge on it.


    “What about it? I mean it’s just a rock, why would you want me to come look at it?” I replied as I sauntered over.


    “It’s just the only unique thing here…” He muttered as he examined the mossy surface. I wondered if it was cold to the touch, and if that thought was a weird one to have. Are mossy things normally cold?


    “I guess? It looks a bit boring though, it’d be nice if it weren’t covered in moss then we could set it in the sun and have a good nap.” I chuckled at the picture of the two of us curled up like cats on a warm rock in the middle of a place like that.


    “I don’t think so. It’s weird. This rock feels weird.” Aureus replied seriously, he was scrutinizing it and I could see his indecision on whether or not he should touch it.


    “What do you mean?” I asked as I gently pulled him back, no hurt in being careful when everything around us seemed to be poisonous.


    “It doesn’t feel like a rock. Like I don’t know it might not be a rock? Or maybe it’s a type I’ve never seen before?” He sounded confused but mostly intrigued.


    “Ah so you’re wanting to try out your earth manipulation on it to get a better picture of what it is?”


    “Maybe…”


    “What if it’s just not a rock. It might just be a weird plant or mushroom or something?”


    “Still…” He was circling around it as his tail flicked this way and that. After a few seconds he backed further into the clearing and sat on the ground. A small bump of dirt sprouted out of the ground and started making its way over to the boulder. I provided ambient music as it approached its goal, duunn-dunn duunn-dun duunnn-dun. And finally they met, but nothing. The small pile of dirt just poofed into the side of it without much fanfare.


    “Ah, well, I guess it’s not a rock. Good job Aureus, you were right.” I patted him on the head and turned to leave.


    “No… I think maybe it is a rock?” He muttered from behind me, I whipped around and he was still sitting on the ground glaring in the maybe rock’s direction.


    “Okay? Then if it is a rock, why can’t you like… manipulate it like usual?” I asked.


    “That’s what I want to know. How dare this rock defy me?!” He was starting to get agitated.


    “Maybe it’s too dense? Or maybe you can’t manipulate it from a distance? Are you sure it’s a rock?”


    “I… no I’m not, but it feels like… I dunno something sort of like earth I’m not sure.” He’d gotten up and started pacing at that point.


    “Well let me try. Maybe I can help.” I replied chipperly and walked just a bit closer to it. I didn’t have quite as skilled control over earth manipulation as he did.


    I plopped down and dug my fingers into the moist dirt beneath the grass, I’d found that significant contact with the soil made it so much easier to manipulate it. I focused as I spread my mana through the dirt, it slowly spread through the ground and around the roots of the plants around us. Finally my mana started to enter the very edge of the rock in question and… it… Kinda seemed like a rock…


    “What the hell?” I cursed as I furrowed my brows.


    It felt like a shell of a rock? Maybe sort of like an egg? Would earth manipulation work on eggs because of calcium? Or bones? We’d never really tried something like that before. But it wasn’t really a shell or an egg because it didn’t coat the whole thing. It was also thicker and thinner in places.


    “It doesn’t exist where the moss is, I think?” I could hear Aureus muttering his theories from behind me. But it didn’t pull me away from my examination of the thing in front of us. Sweat started to bead on my forehead as I widened my search area, I was looking for anything that might be similar to this thing. Rocks, soil, roots, I continued to look around in my mind''s eye as my mana spread in tendrils from my seated position.


    “Found it.” I muttered as I located something that wasn’t too far from us. It had a similar feel to the rock shell, it was an odd thing, but most rocks had their own feeling to them. The heaviness of the dark rock back in the other Underhollow, the moist and lightness of the soil here, and this rock felt brittle and stiff. I started using the dirt to drag the rock I’d found towards us. After a few seconds I opened my eyes to find a thin light gray rock sitting in front of me.