Jill stepped into the portal, Red looking on from behind. Jill noticed the strings attached to her friend didn’t lead to the portal but didn’t bring it up. She trusted her friend and believed that Red would know what she was doing. Still, she felt a little strange abandoning her friend to whatever it was that bothered her. Hopefully, her trial wouldn’t take too long, and she could go and help her soon.

Her vision went black as the portal consumed her. It only lasted an instant, and she found herself standing in the center of a forest. Instinctively, she turned around only to see the portal fade away as if it were a mirage. It looked like she wouldn’t be lucky enough to leave on demand. Some people would get trials like that, where they would be free to exit and try again when they wanted. It didn’t look like she would get so lucky. She looked around the forest, a thick fog flowing in between the trees. It looked like the clouds had descended.

She could feel magic in the air and wondered how that even made sense. Was it mana? How thick would ambient mana need to be to feel it? She didn’t even know it was dangerous or not, but her senses weren’t triggering so she guessed it was safe. Safe-ish at the very least. She looked around the groups of trees trying to find a semblance of a direction to go. Her skills weren’t much help here. It felt like something was limiting her skills, and she couldn’t make out any threads. Was the place able to hide from fate or was it just messing with her magic? Testing the waters, she attempted to use a small-scale spell.

Her hand raised toward one of the trees. Palm open as she attempted to distort the space there. It bent slightly, and she could tell that her magic was working correctly. That meant that her vision was the only thing affected. The fog was mostly magical and meant to interrupt observational skills. She considered fling over it but felt something telling her that would be a bad idea. Her instincts were usually right, so she avoided that option for the moment.

Instead, she opened her storage space and brought out a large glass jar. The others hadn’t understood why she had bought them, and her explanation didn’t get through to them either. She didn’t blame them; they couldn’t understand just how skilled her mother was. Her skill at duplicating magical effects onto items is almost unparalleled. It might not be as strong as Mash’s ability to just steal them, but she could make items that anyone could use. Jill popped open the lid of the jar and captured as much fog as she could in it. It was thick enough that she could actually see it within the jar.

She had picked up a few things for this purpose, and her storage space was quickly growing crowded. She had several things from the previous dungeon and hadn’t wanted to risk sending them through a currier. Nobody was likely to steal from Mash’s family, plus his gift was an unassuming seed. However, sending something to her family would be far more susceptible to petty theft. That wasn’t the only reason she held off though. She still remembered the convenience of long-distance teleportation and was hoping her next advancement would make it viable.

Well, seeing as she had no way of knowing which way to go, she just picked a random direction and started walking. The forest looked identical, no matter where she looked. The ground was unusually soft and almost seemed to bend at her steps. That was unlikely. She weighed less than normal after her last advancement and didn’t think that her weight should be able to bend the ground like it was doing. The fog clung to her body, turning to moisture as she passed deeper into the woods.

She was walking for a long time before hearing the first distinct noise. Throughout the trip, she had heard nothing but the occasional rustle of leaves as a small gust of wind passed. Now, she heard something that was obviously music. There were no words to the music. It was just a combination of simple notes that rang softly from her right. Looking toward the sound was pointless as the fog seemed to completely obscure it. If this was another world, there was a good chance that the people playing music would be intelligent. Perhaps, she wouldn’t need to fight to get out of the dungeon. While she was as against fighting as Luke, she wouldn’t try to start a fight where one wasn’t needed.

As she followed the sound of the music, she started humming along to the simple tune. She should probably be more worried about danger considering where she was, but she was confident in her abilities. The chance that a creature would even be able to hit her was low. That was one thing she was certain of. Her skill set made her too powerful in a defensive sense, and her ability to run away was unmatched. Honestly, she was hoping that this dungeon would be able to prove more of a challenge than the previous ones.

After following the music for a minute or two, she noticed that the trees had become smaller. Some of their leaves hanging like drapes to bar her way. Now, she needed to push aside long wide leaves to make a path for herself. The music didn’t stop, and she wondered why. She was not making her approach quiet, and they could certainly hear her pushing the leaves. It wasn’t that she couldn’t approach stealthily, it was that she chose not to. She didn’t want to alarm the people, and skulking about was a good way to offend someone.

The noise hadn’t gotten much louder, but she heard the sound of shuffling from not too far away. It sounded like there were a lot of people, and she guessed that they were dancing. Pushing aside a wide leaf that seemed to almost be acting as a door, she got her first glimpse of the people. They looked to be children, only reaching her hips despite standing. They were all facing away from her, but she could tell that they were children. They were dancing, but she couldn’t see where the music was coming from. It sounded like it was just part of the environment.

They were all in a small clearing the forest flowers occasionally peeking out from the dancing children. She could finally see the sky, and her eyes went wide as she saw the moon. It looked like it was close, and it gave off a bright bluish light. Their movements were strangely stiff, and only when one child turned in a twirl did, she realized what she was looking at. An obviously wooden face, with what looked like painted on eyes revealed that they were puppets. She didn’t see any strings but could imagine them existing when she saw their dance. However, the one that had spun froze and stared at her with its painted eyes. Like a wildfire, the stare spread from the puppet to the others. Before long, all of the puppets were facing her. They were still dancing though, their legs moving rhythmically from side to side.

She felt a new fear start to develop. It was deeply disconcerting to have hundreds of childlike puppets stare at her. To make matters worse, she noticed some of the puppets seemed even stranger. Some of them had misaligned or misshaped eyes. Others were missing pieces or had cracks that were stained by a red liquid. She didn’t think puppets could bleed and guessed that it would be something else. Feeling a shiver run through her spine, she mustered up her courage to speak.

“Hello?”

Her hesitation entered her mouth, and her greeting turned into a question. Although, she did feel a little stupid for trying to speak to a puppet. They all wore identical clothing. A blue shirt and pants that looked to be connected into a single outfit. It didn’t even look like they had mouths. However, the puppet’s mouth slid down vertically like it was going to speak. The mouth kept sliding until it fell to the ground, making it look even more ominous. The puppet's head slowly drifted down to the fallen part. It let out a screech, one that sounded distinctly inhuman. It sounded like a high whistle.

It slowly bent down picking up the fallen mouth and jamming it in place. None of the other puppets even tried to speak, but they did start approaching her. Jill took a step back but kept looking at the puppets. She couldn’t back up much, otherwise, she would be back in the forest. A puppet suddenly flew at her, as if something had picked it up and thrown it. Her danger sense triggered, and she got an idea of what would happen.

She didn’t hesitate to teleport to the opposite side of the clearing. The image she saw was horrifying. Her glimpse into the future revealed how dangerous the puppets were. She had seen it touch her and begin to change her into a wooden puppet. A chill ran through her spine, as she appeared behind the puppets. The skill was useful, incredibly so, but it was deeply disturbing to see your own death so often. She hadn’t mentioned it to the others, but the skill was giving her more than a few nightmares. More than just seeing her death, she saw herself get injured from everyday things. Those injuries were only ever minor, but every time got her to react. The skill didn’t work any differently for small injuries or fatal attacks. Every trigger made her worry that she would see her dead body again.

Pushing down the image of her body turning to wood, she opened her palm to the puppets. Using a large amount of mana, she focused her spell on the center of the puppets. The space warped, pulling in several puppets before exploding violently. Pieces of the puppets went flying, red liquid spraying over the rest of the wooden monsters. After seeing how it had wanted to turn her into a puppet, she reconsidered her earlier evaluation. That liquid might very well be blood.

She was going to keep fighting but saw that the broken pieces of the puppets were being drawn toward one another. They were connecting together; many pieces obviously didn’t match one another. Deciding that running would be the best option, she pushed past the leaves behind her and teleported as far away as she could see. The music had died, and an eerie silence filled the forest. The wind was gone too, and she couldn’t hear anything. A vision passed through her mind, dozens of puppets crashing into her from behind. Instinctively she teleported to something within her sight. It wasn’t as far away as she would’ve liked but it was enough.

The puppets were moving faster as if their operators had given up on making their movements look human. Instead, they practically flew through the air on invisible strings. Trusting her instincts, she teleported further into the forest and kept teleporting when she landed. There was no delay, and yet she kept seeing visions of herself turning to wood. Where were the puppets coming from? She wasn’t worried about getting hit by the puppets her foresight was enough to dodge them. The real issue was the drain on her mind. Seeing her own death was quickly growing heavy. Then she noticed a thread. It hung from above, and she glanced upwards.