Once we get to the forest we stop walking next to each other and instead have Hugh walk in front of me and Cathy since he’s the only one who know the way.

By the way Cathy, I’ve only met one spirit before and he didn’t really tell me a lot about the way they live, well, other than that they don’t like flesh that is, but do they like, do they live in villages or…?

“I dunno, I’m not the one who tries to go visit them every week. Hey Hugh, what does the place the spirits live in look like?”

“Well the entrance is in the side of a mountain so I’m pretty sure they live in a cave, but it could also just be a tunnel leading somewhere else.”

“You’re pretty sure? What do you mean by pretty sure!?”

“Well I’ve never actually gotten to their town, I’m always forced to leave at the entrance if I don’t want them to splatter me.”

How can they even splatter someone like Hugh? The one I saw was only slightly taller than me.

“Well they come in different sizes, some of them are us-sized while some are as large as a cottage, and from what little we’ve been able to see the different sizes seem to have different jobs in whatever community they might have, whenever we see ones of the same size they’re always doing the same things, yet we’ve never seen any other size do those things.”

What kinds of things?

“We don’t actually know why they do it, but the small ones seem to crush any large flowers they see, some of the mediums ram themselves into trees, and the large ones we have no idea what the hell they’re even doing, no one ever sticks around long enough after they see one of them to find out what they do before running away.”

All this talk about the spirits reminded me of something.

‘Hey Lizz, when I first told you that I had met a spirit of the mountains you immediately wanted me to take you to them, why would you want that if they would try to kill you immediately?’

‘Fair enough.’

After that we were all mostly quiet until we reached a clearing next to one of the mountains, and on the side of that mountain was a large opening, however we couldn’t see very far into the opening due to it being covered in vines.

“Alright little guy, it’s your turn from here on out, go talk to that guy in front of the entrance and prove to use you really can, we’ll be staying here and watch.”

I look in front of the large cave entrance and see that there was indeed a boulder hidden in a spot of tall grass

Okay.

I then walk out of the bushes we were hiding in and approach the boulder, now feeling somewhat worried since I now know what these guys can do to people.

The closer I get to the boulder the more familiar it looks, until eventually.

‘Charlton?!’

I realize why it looks so familiar and start running the last bit.

*Rumble? Rumble?*

‘It’s me, you met me less than two weeks ago Charlton, and what do you mean by father?’

*Rumble, rumble. Rumble.*

‘Oh… okay… Don’t get me wrong Charlie, it’s nice to meet you and all but I was really hoping to meet Charlton again.’

*Rumble.*

‘Really? That would be great! But are you sure? I mean, how do you know I’m not lying?’

Rumble, rumble.*

‘Okay, just hang on a bit’

And just as I turn around to return to Cathy and Hugh I turn again, making a full circle, and ask:

‘Oh yeah, how can you guys even hear what I’m saying?’

*rumble* *rumble*

‘Oh, that explains it.’ (AN: Y’all better believe I’m not going to explain that properly.)

I then turn around, again, and walk back to the bush.

Well? Believe me yet?

“Ah… Ah… Yeah…” Hugh doesn’t quite seem to know what to say, while Cathy seems mostly uninterested.

‘Guess she actually believed me already.’

Also it turns out that this fellow is the daughter of the guy I met before, I was actually invited in, though I don’t think it would be a good idea for you two to come along. Her name was Charlie by the way.

“Yeah… Sure… We’ll head back to the guild, we’ll… *sigh*... We’ll see you later…”

Hugh then turns around and starts walking away while looking heartbroken, and Cathy follows along, but before she does that she gives me a handful of blue jellies.

“Take these, for safety's sake.”

Can I even use them if I don’t have a mouth?

“Just channel energy into them and they’ll return to liquid, if the liquid seeps into you it should still work.”

I pick one of the jellies up with my other hand and channel energy into it, as though I was trying to use Phasing on it, and it turns into a blue liquid that looks like soda.

Also of note is that it’s the very same blue color on the jellies as the books pages.

When the liquid starts going through my textile skin I start feeling a lot less tired, not less tired like I can use Phasing or other skills more, but just less tired in general.

‘Maybe that has to do with what Hannah said about me being made entirely of energy veins.’

I nod towards Cathy and she nods back, I then walk back to Charlie.

*rumble rumble*

I do as she says and follow her into the cave, all the while she’s making rhythmic *thumping* sounds by walking.

After a fair number of twists, turns, and inclines we come across a large room with a hole in it and large mounds of dirt all around.

The hole in the wall is roughly the size of me, for whatever reason.

Charlie tells me to stand still for a while as she walks right next to one of the mounds and...

Both me and Lizz think in surprise as Charlie starts falling apart into a pile of dirt, and out from the pile climbs a small creature.

“Alright, let’s go.”

Still not having recovered I start walking after her on auto pilot.

Charlie looked kind of like a small human, same size as me, but her hands and feet were covered in brown fur which reached up to her elbows, though I can’t see how far the fur on her legs go due to her clothes, her feet had two large claws, both facing forwards, and her hands had three equally sized claws, with one each facing the opposite direction of the other two, making them look like thumbs.

She wore simple brown baggy pants which reached to her feet and a tank top made of the old cloth that you would expect of a medieval time period.

Her hair went all the way down to her knees behind her back, it was the same color as her fur, and she had metal bands in her hair that tied it all together into a long stream, making sure that it doesn’t go to her front side and get in the way of her eyes.

She had armadillo looking ears as well as beige scales going down from her forehead like a triangle and ending at the tip of her nose, she also had a few scales right below her eyes.

We walk through the hole in the wall, the hole continues as a very small tunnel which goes about twice as far as the other cave, even though this smaller tunnel had as many twists and turns as the previous one, this one always went downwards.

Once we get through it we come into an incredibly large cavern, with loads of small square houses across the floor as far as the eyes can see, and the houses at the walls of the cavern having enough floors to go all the way up to the very distant roof.

Speaking of the roof, it’s filled the same glowing moss that I was collecting mushrooms from before, however this was glowing much brighter, bright enough to light up this entire place almost like we were outside.

Currently we’re standing on a large hill, the hill was large enough to put us in the middle of the giant cave, Charlie talks with another one of whatever kind she is, this one wearing metal armor and carrying a spear, and then returns to me.

My mind then finally decides to restart again, and the first thing I think is:

‘...Armadillo people…?’

“Well, I guess that’s kind of correct…” She says while scratching the back of her head.

“But please don’t call us that. It’s rude.”

‘Err… Okay…’

She then turns towards the giant underground city, stretches out her arms and proudly says:

“Welcome to our home! Now let’s go find dad.”

Her hair then becomes a beige color, they also turn more matte, making her hair look like her scales.

She then runs towards the hill, jumps and crouches into a ball, her hair then covering her almost completely, and she rolls down the hill.

‘Erm… When in Rome…?’

I run towards the hill and jump just like Charlie, however rather than use my non-existent natural scales to cover me I make my own by covering my entire body in a shell of solidified air and roll down after her.

'Let's hope my Brainless skill makes it so I won't get dizzy from this.'