The last few weeks had been spent looking for the entrance, but so far, she hadn''t found anything. She had first assumed the search would be quick, since her roots traveled through several of the rooms, but that knowledge hadn''t led anywhere. The room that felt closest to the surface was roughly a ten-minute walk south of her house, but every trip she made south had yielded no results. She''d dug through rubble, asked the local plants for help, but the dungeon stayed hidden despite all her efforts.
Today, she instead decided to continue checking in on her other projects. She had no idea where else to look, and after a particularly frustrating day at work, she wasn''t thrilled about the prospect of another several hours of disappointment. She finally let herself step out of her Tree and started towards her next task.
While Alicia''s mornings were often spent checking in on projects that needed more attention, such as daily watering or pruning, she liked to spend her afternoons jumping between her multiple long-term projects. Today, for instance, she''d resolved to check on the reservoir that fed her river. It was a longer walk, roughly a few miles west, but it was good to walk the length of the river once a month or so. In the past, the river had dried up a few times, and she was always hunting for possible problems to prevent that from repeating.
The peaceful walk was only an hour, and thankfully everything seemed in order. She made note of a few bends in the river that might benefit from some restructuring, but nothing else jumped out at her.
The next item on today''s agenda was a house several blocks north of her home. Several years before the Change, someone had bought up the shabby split-level that had previously occupied the lot and replaced it with a pretentious manor. Elegant brick walls, a garage meant to hold far too many cars, and a whole slew of expensive decorations. On the night of the change, the unfortunate owner had transformed into a dragon, destroying most of the house instantly.
All the valuables in the house had been picked clean years ago, but that wasn’t why Alicia was here. As a newer piece of construction, this plot of land had a significant amount of fresh concrete, and its presence had been a constant thorn in her side.
Over the last year, she’d been asking the local foliage to creep into the house, break its foundation, and loosen things up enough for her to dispose of everything. It was the same process she used to disrupt all the streets, except the concrete poured for this house had proved significantly more resilient than the cheap asphalt the city had used to pave the roads.
She hadn''t visited the house since late June, and she was eager to see what progress had been made in her absence. Now standing on the edge of the property, Alicia let her roots dig deep into the ground and got to work. To an outside observer, it would appear as if the dryad were standing completely still, doing absolutely nothing. In actuality, she was working hard to find weak points in the concrete, to urge all the local weeds to keep pushing for entry. She was, according to the Status, literally One With Nature, which meant it was easy to impose her will on all the plant life around her.
The basement had been a particular sticking point. Weeds and vines had started working their way into several corners, but she also had to contend with all the layers of insulation and flooring. Today, happily enough, she was excited to sense that some of the local plants had finally broken through into the open air of the basement. She checked in with them, making sure everyone was still happy and healthy, when she suddenly froze in fear.
There was something in the basement. She could feel footsteps reverberating through the concrete, and after a minute, something heavy stepped on one of her intrusive roots.
It was far too large to be the local wildlife.
Swallowing nervously, she uprooted herself and ran to the entrance of the house. She had previously cleared a route to the basement, originally meant to have a path to clear away the rubble she hoped to create, but now she found herself on the defensive. She stepped carefully, inching down into the dark cellar, when she finally heard something.
A low, rumbling growl. A footstep, followed by a strange shuffling noise. Once she was close enough, Alicia peaked around the corner and gasped.
Ahead of her, on the far wall of the basement, a large tunnel had been created. It seemed oddly purposeful, as if someone had long ago tried to start a mine here, and she knew she''d found the entrance to the dungeon. The composition of the walls didn''t match the surrounding terrain, and a series of wall sconces appeared ready to hold the torches of potential delvers.
In front of the dungeon, now turning to face her, stood a lone monster. It appeared to be a zombie, looking as if it had crawled directly out of an old 80’s movie. It stepped closer, one foot dragging behind it, as it growled in anger.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
In a panic, Alicia ran back up the stairs. She turned towards the basement, breathed deep, and summoned a wall of bark and vines to block off the passageway. It might not be permanent, and it certainly felt odd to be using a class ability after four years of ignoring them entirely, but it seemed to work.
She flinched as the zombie struck the barrier, hoping it would hold. It attacked a second time, then a third, before it seemed to lose interest and walk away. She waited for a minute, then several more, before finally releasing the breath she didn''t realize she''d been holding.
Wait, I just used a Class Feature, didn''t I?
Unsure what to expect, Alicia decided to check her stats.
“Status!”
- - -
General Information
Name: Alicia Davenport
Race: Dryad
HP: 80%
SP: 87%
MP: 100%
—
Attributes
STR: 12
END: 13 (+2)
DEX: 9
AGI: 10
INT: 11
WIS: 15 (+2)
CHA: 12
LCK: 9
PER: 15
HLT: 17 (+4)
—
Racial Features
Heart Tree (Cherry Blossom)
Solar Regeneration
One With Nature
Seeds Of Life
—
Class
Bulwark
Level: 1
Progress: 15%
—
Class Features
- - -
“Fifteen percent?!” Alicia gasped. She hadn''t made any class progress since the Change, and had long ago given up on it ever happening. Still, if the only way to gain progress was to see her home invaded by monsters, she would much rather stay at Level one.
She looked up at the sky and realized the sun was significantly closer to setting. She could already feel its warmth beginning to fade, and she knew it was time to wrap up.
She walked slowly, her thoughts spinning as she tried to think of a plan.
“Well, if nothing else, that monster seemed pretty weak, and it will be easy to block off the staircase. I might actually be able to ignore this!”
As she walked home, she found herself in significantly better spirits than she had expected. Sure, being attacked hadn''t been an item on her bucket list, but the placement of the dungeon entrance seemed promising.
She yawned as the sun started dipping beneath the horizon, the lack of its warmth already affecting her. Some of the flowers near her house were already closing for the night, and she could feel several birds and squirrels settling in as they prepared to go to sleep. When she finally made it back to her Heart Tree, she eagerly merged with it again and drifted off to sleep.
- - -
Alicia woke with a start several hours later. She knew it wasn’t daytime yet, the familiar warmth of the sun was still absent, so something else must have shaken her awake.
That’s when she felt it again, something moving around her main trunk. As she tried to focus on where it was coming from, she felt one of her sturdier branches shift downwards, and it was clear it was now supporting something. It felt much heavier than an animal, and she feared it might be a dungeon monster. Moving quickly, the dryad shifted through her Heart Tree until she’d found the source of the commotion.
As she peeked her face out of the trunk, she was pleased to find the source of the commotion wasn''t a monster. It was a woman nestled up against one of her main branches. She wasn’t just a woman, though; she had to be the most gorgeous woman Alicia had ever seen.
This stranger wore casual clothes and was sitting with one leg hanging off the branch, yet it looked like she were in the middle of posing for a magazine cover. Her incredibly pale skin was completely flawless, which led to every one of her striking features being accentuated by comparison. Her hands were perfectly manicured, and her off hand casually tapped her thigh as she relaxed. Her tank top did little to hide her impressive bust, and Alicia couldn’t help but marvel at how much more well-endowed this stranger was when compared to her. Her pale face radiated confidence, and as Alicia watched, the stranger’s mouth opened to start drinking some kind of juice.
Unusually, her two canine teeth seemed quite long. As the dryad kept watching, she also noticed that this stranger’s eyes were bright red and glowing intensely. The juice she was drinking, Alicia finally realized, wasn’t juice at all, but blood.
She was looking at a vampire.
She’d never seen one in person before. Actually, now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen anyone in person for the last three years. Some distant instinct of hers urged her to be afraid, but for some reason she felt completely enraptured by this stranger.
The vampire took a deep drink of her blood, closing her eyes in pleasure as her body seemed to warm slightly. She smiled as she pulled the pouch away, then unlocked her phone and started scrolling.
For the next several minutes, the vampire occasionally took small sips of her blood while continuing to surf the internet. After a while, she turned the phone off and set it down on her lap, then leaned back against her perch with a heavy sigh. There was a sense of longing in her deep, crimson eyes, as if she were looking for something just out of sight.
When she finally shook herself back to her senses, a soft breeze had begun sweeping through the neighborhood. All the branches in Alicia’s canopy began to sway, their peaceful sounds threatening to lull the dryad back to sleep, but she didn’t dare turn away from this magnificent creature in front of her. The vampire reached out for a nearby branch, her hand softly tracing its leaves and flowers, and Alicia shivered.
Her hands are so soft, so gentle… How long has it been since I’ve felt like this?
As the breeze faded, the vampire’s eyes seemed to focus on a spot above Alicia. Actually, they were looking at her hair, and they kept traveling down until the two girls locked eyes with each other. Alicia felt the vampire flinch in surprise, her breath catching, and the dryad finally dared to speak.
“What are you doing in my tree?”