No more small humanoids crept from the brush as Matthew continued following the faint sliver of mana.
Slowly but surly, the sliver grew, becoming more and more dense.
Eventually, he reached another opening in the trees.
The slivers of magic pooled on the center of clearing. Several other strings of mana flowed inward from other sides of the opening.
In the center of the clearing was a mote of green swirling mana hovering a few inches above the grass.
Matthew stepped forward, towards the swirling mass of mana. While the mana didn't have any sort of force pulling things towards it, nor any temperature, physical mass, or much form to begin with, Matthew still felt an immense pressure pushing him back. He didn't feel any resistance as he stepped forward, but something in the back of his mind kept telling him to step away.
But his curiosity got the better of him.
Then he walked into something.
He held his forehead for a moment, before the air in front of him began to shimmer.
Instinctively, Matthew leaped a few steps backwards, something crunching under his feet as landed.
The air around him shimmered in waves, revealing a form around the more of mana.
Throughout the entirety of the clearing was a hut, complete with a small garden of roses- a bush of which had been unintentionally crushed under Matthew's feet.
He had slammed into the front door- or what he assumed was the front door- if the hut.
It was made nearly entirely of wood. Not carved planks of wood neatly fitted together, but large branches and trunks crudely carved and magically stuck together.
The door had a small circular hole in its center for a window that hardly had any use as, even with Matthew's heightened perception, he couldn't see anything through it.
Matthew carefully stepped out of the small garden he had leaped into, harming no more bushes in the process.
He walked up to the door and put a hand on the handle; a curved bone from an unknown creature stuck to the wood.
Checking no one else was around, Matthew pushed the door open slightly to peer inside.
Somehow, the interior was exactly as he expected.
The interior of the hut was made from the same wood as the walls. It all seemed like one massive cluster of branches and trunks melded together into a hut.
Directly after the door inside was a small rug made from the pelt of a wolf with green and brown fur.
Deeper inside was a small stair case, only 2 steps, that led up to a common room, complete with a cobblestone hearth glowing with shimmering blue fire. A cauldron hung above the fire, bubbling with some form of stew. It smelled good, making Matthew's mouth drool slightly as he suddenly noticed he hadn't had lunch.
Matthew cautiously opened the door- it letting out a creak as he did so- and stepped inside the hut.
A wave of scents washed over him as he crossed the threshold of the doorway.
Matthew couldn't place any of the smells, but they were all earthy; the scents of different plants and flowers.
For once, Matthew regretted having heightened senses. The best he could do with the overwhelming smells was to attempt to tune them out.
Bits of carved wood stuck out from the wall, acting as shelves for several containers, and jars filled with a modicum of different things Matthew couldn't identify.
The steps to the common room creaked slightly as Matthew stepped on them towards the hearth and the cauldron that rested above it.
The simmering stew was an odd brown with several herbs swirling around within.
A wooden ladle hung from a side hook of the cauldron.
An intrusive thought in the back of his mind wanted him to have a taste of the substance, but the hunter quickly shoved the thought deep into his mind.
Matthew looked around the hut from the common room once again.
On a far wall was a small cubby in the wall filled with a table and shelves.
Several vials and various alembics propped above strange sigils written on paper were scattered across the table.
The wooden shelves were filled with jars full of various liquids, substances. And parts from magic beasts.
There was a jar filled- and nearly overflowing- with large cricket-like legs, some of which still twitching as if to escape their confinement.
Another jar was filled with pickled eyes with multiple pupils all over its sclera. Matthew swore a few of the eyes followed him as he approached the alchemy table.
He scanned over the contents of the table once again.
The wall behind the table was a window that revealed the dense forest beyond. In the windowsill was an opened book. The edges of its pages were old and parts of the ink was faded and hard to read. The cover was made of cured leather and stretched as he turned to look at its cover- which was blank.
Astoundingly though, the book was in English. It was hard to read due to the faded ink, but it was still definitely legible.
However, that didn't let Matthew understand what he was reading.
He was no scientist, despite his 'intelligence' stat having gotten higher as he leveled up, it hadn't actually made him smarter. But nonetheless he wasn't an idiot. He knew some basic math equations, though his brain had mainly lost any form of algebraic knowledge after his junior year of highschool.
Even after the awakening of mana throughout humanity and the appearance of gates, most laws of physics, matter, and the like stayed the same. Flames summoned from the mana of a mage could be doused with normal water just as any normal man-made flame, with a few exceptions from high ranking hunters who could augment their flames to make them intake less oxygen and exude more heat- overall making them harder to put out.
In general, with the implementation of mana, it added new things to take into account when thinking of how the world works- not necessarily changing them outright.
But the equations on the page just seemed impossible. They weren't necessarily difficult to understand, but difficult to produce.
"How do you manage to make fire a liquid? And.... boil it?"
Then Matthew heard the creaking of the front door.
Instinctively, Matthew turned and leaped towards the door, grasping his spear to attack whoever stepped through.
The tip of his spear stopped a few inches from someone's neck.
They were not a magic beast, nor some humanoid creature manifested by the dungeon, but a person.
She had long green hair that went down to the center of her back. She wore a green and brown mage's robes that were stained in several layers of dirt. She stood about an inch higher than Matthew's relatively short stature. Strung across her waist were several leather satchels as well as a leather book similar to the one near the alchemy table.
The two shared a confused glance for a moment, scanning eachother up and down.
"You're new..." the woman said. Her voice wasn't soft, but quiet, as if she wasn't used to speaking loudly- or at least hadn't done so in a long time.
Matthew took a step back and lowered his spear, still looking at the woman. He didn't sense anything hostile about her, but he could feel the faint buzz of mana radiating from her.
"Are... you a hunter?" He asked. "How... why are you here?"
The woman closed the door to the hut behind her, keeping an eye on Matthew's spear.
Matthew glanced down at the spear in his hands before looking back at the woman. He loosened his grip on the weapon and altered the grip to set the weapon at rest at his side.
"Who are you?" Matthew asked.
The woman relaxed slightly. "My name is... Susie. And yes I am... was a hunter."
Matthew nodded. "Alright Susie... how did you get here?"
"Same as you: through a gate." She stepped forward towards the common room as Matthew stepped aside to let her pass- though he wasn't intending on blocking her way to begin with.
"Did you come in alone?"
The woman walked over to the cauldron of stew, grabbed the ladle from the side and began stirring. "I had a squad with me. But they abandoned me to leave the gate."
Matthew raised a brow. "Why would they do that?"
Susie lifted part of her pant to show a large scar across one of her legs, from her ankle to mid-thigh. "I was wounded at the time. My squadmates were injured and couldn't carry me. It was either them or me." Her voice trailed off.
A part of the wooden floor next to Susie began to radiate the same green mana Matthew had seen before and began sprouting a small sapling that lifted a few feet off the ground before growing outwards at a curve to form a wooden bowl. The mage snapped the bowl from its stem and poured some of the stew into it.
"What rank are you?" Matthew asked.
"I w-... am D-rank." She said as another bowl sprouted from the floor. "Would you like some?" She asked, gesturing to the caldron.
Before Matthew could answer a small round table grew from the floor boards as well as two chairs.
"You seem to be very capable for a D-rank.... no offense. I'm an E-rank." Matthew added.
Susie shrugged. "A lot has changed since I got left here. I was attuned to nature magic back when I was hunter. Ironically, this was probably the best possible dungeon I could have been left in." She took a seat at the table, putting a bowl in front of each chair. "So why are you here?"
Matthew took a seat on the other side of the table, propping his spear on the back of the chair. "Same as you were. A gate opened... and we answered the call." He stirred the stew around with a wooden spoon that had materialized from the wood of the table. "We can take you back. Where are you from?"
Susie titled her head to the side. "We?"
"Well, I didn't come here on my own, especially as an E-rank. I have a whole squad out in the dungeon somewhere." Matthew explained.
Susie shook her head, taking a bite of her stew. "I don't want to leave. I didn't have much back home, being a D-rank. Things have gotten better for me here, oddly enough."
Matthew looked down at his stew before taking a small bite. It wasn't great. Edible for sure, and not making him want to hurl, but not great, just acceptable. "How long have you been here?"
Susie shrugged. "A month maybe? The dungeon has no day cycle. It's always sunny here."
"How hard is it living in a dungeon? Don't you have to deal with magic beasts?" Matthew asked.
Susie shrugged again. "I've found ways around it. Most magic beasts don't come for me as long as I stay close to the hut I built."
Matthew tapped his foot on the floor a few times before standing. "I suppose there's no need for me to stick around then. Are you sure you don't want to return to earth?"
Susie didn't look up from her stew as she took another bite.
Matthew sighed inwardly before grabbing his spear.
"You aren't leaving, Fragment."
Matthew turned back, raising an eyebrow. "Excuse-" suddenly something pierced through his back.
[HP: 250/250 > 50/250]
Matthew looked down to see a large sharpened branch impaled through his chest. The tip dripped with a mix of his blood and a black substance.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
[You have been poisoned by 'Haze Sap']
[Sense has been reduced by 5 for 1 hour]
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-
His eyes drifted up to Susie.
Before her was an eerily familiar translucent screen rimmed with branches and leaves.
~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~
[Name: Susana Hitir]
[Level: 31]
[Job: Witch]
[HP: 225/225]
[MP: 163/178]
[Available Status Points: 0]
[Strength: 41]
[Agility: 52]
[Vigor: 45]
[Intelligence: 71 (+5)]
[Sense: 55 (+5)]
~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~❦~
"You aren't leaving here Fragment of Light."