A cloud of dust filled the air around Leo as he tried to brush off the dirt he had accumulated in his fight. He went through his mental checklist; he had water, food, and wasn’t covered in blood, pretty much the best state he had been in since crashing on this forsaken planet! Now the only item left unchecked was figuring out how to get back to Melody, except he had no idea where to even begin on that front. All he could do was keep searching and moving forward while trying not to die in whatever encounter came next.

It was strange how quickly his mind had adapted to his new circumstances. Just yesterday he had nearly been mauled to death by wolves, but the memories of that harrowing event hardly weighed on him today. It was hard to get hung up on past trauma when even living through the next hour was uncertain.

Leo turned his head and eyed the multitude of flora that covered nearly every inch of the cavern. If he listened closely, he could hear the faint scuttling of movement from unknown creatures deep within the depths of the garden’s underbrush. With how massive the garden was, there were bound to be ingredients that would prove invaluable to him, but he needed to be wary of how he tried collecting them. As fun as rushing into unknown places sounded, it was liable to get him killed. He was impulsive, not suicidal.

If he stuck to the stone path, he might be able to avoid most of the lurking dangers while browsing the ingredients. The walkway would also provide an easy route to escape by, and he wouldn’t have to worry about getting lost. With a semblance of a plan, Leo started down the winding path as it took him deeper into the garden’s depths.

He scanned the plants lining the walkway as he proceeded nervously forward, aware that each step he took deeper into this tropical jungle was one step farther from the exit. He was a little disappointed to find the plants closest to the walkway only appeared to be of the common and uncommon variety. He did manage to spy a flower whose petals shined like starlight farther out in the underbrush, but he didn’t dare to try to harvest that rare ingredient.

The sound of various creatures could always be heard deeper inside the garden, and their noise only increased as he drew closer to the cavern’s center. Once he came across a small, green sprite wearing a crown of petals and picking at the nectar of a dark purple tulip near the roadside, but it scurried off when it noticed his approach.

Leo tried harvesting useful ingredients as he passed by, as long as the plants were directly next to the trail. Most of his attempts ended in failure, with a small portion or sometimes the entire plant quickly wilting away when he messed up. It seemed he really was destroying nature one plant at a time.

His success rate was always significantly lower when he tried to harvest one of the few uncommon ingredients he found. He had no idea why the Pandorian had been so easy to pick, or why the Rumored ingredient wasn’t tucked farther back in the garden. He was able to successfully pluck two more types of ingredients, filling the pouches in his belt to the brim while leveling up his herbalism three more times.

After a time, he could hear the roar of the waterfall off to his right, the mist it generated growing thick enough for him to taste the cool moisture out of the air. As he kept walking, the light beaming down from the ceiling overhead was refracted by the small water droplets, forming small rainbows everywhere he looked.

He was so caught up in the spectacle that he was taken by surprise when the walkway abruptly ended and his foot left the hard stone path for the squishy, mud-covered ground below. He took a few hesitant paces farther as the plants to either side of him fell back. The multitude of colors dancing in the air began to grow a more prominent shade of red from something glowing far off in the distance.

Curious, Leo squinted, straining to see through the thick mist in front of him. The faint red light was like a far-off beacon amongst the myriad of colors displayed in the mist. He drew closer and the light began to deepen, coating the world around him in crimson. The water that soaked his clothes and dripped off his skin made it look like he had bathed in a river of blood.

The path he had come from quickly vanished in the thick oppressive mist, but he pushed forward, determined to find out what was causing the eerie atmosphere.

The source soon came into view. Before him, towering hundreds of feet in the air, stood the largest tree he had ever laid eyes upon. The branches of the behemoth were the size of buses and the leaves as large as his entire body. From the branches draped thousands of massive vines, each wider than he was. They fell all the way to the ground before sprawling off in the mist.

From the vines closest to the base of the tree grew ruby-colored flowers, each one emitting a different brilliant shade of red. Their individual lights intertwined, forming a constantly changing color of limitless depth.

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Skill level-up! Observation: Novice level 3! Access general information about your target up to (10 -> 15) levels higher than you.

Leo’s breath caught as he read the item’s description. The flowers arrayed before him were no doubt the most valuable treasure in the whole garden. Such potent ingredients would offer him near-endless possibilities. He had barely taken two steps before almost impaling his foot on a large thorn-covered vine half-submerged in the mud.

Gently setting his foot back, he traced the vine back to the tree well over a half mile away. It was only then he noticed that the entire area was littered with them. Like a swath of tentacles, the red mist-soaked vines grew in size and number as they neared the tree’s base. They created a veritable forest all on their own as they slumped and grew over one another, forming a natural barrier that barred access to the Radiant Hearts. On a whim, he tried to pull up the tree’s information.

Leo froze—the tree was alive?! The world seemed to pause as he comprehended just what he was seeing. Those question marks meant the creature was at a minimum fifteen levels higher than him. He took a few slow retreating steps back in the direction he assumed he had come from, trying not to make the slightest sound lest he rouse the being’s attention.

The thick red mist took on a more sinister undertone to his wild, wide eyes. If that monster noticed him, he was dead, plain and simple. It only made sense that the most valuable treasure would be guarded by the most dangerous creature.

He continued slowly backing up, eyes permanently glued to the powerful being, his heart beating wildly in his chest. Only once the mist completely obscured his view of the monster and retook its original rainbow display did Leo sit down and breathe a sigh of relief.

How was he still alive! He had no doubt that creature could have killed him in a heartbeat, but it had let him run away. Why? His fight with the wolves had shown him that in this world you stole experience from what you killed, so there was no reason a monster wouldn’t take the chance to gobble some free XP, no matter how meager it might be.

Leo lay down on the grass, the cool dew providing a nice relief against the heat of his body. He just couldn’t seem to get his heartbeat or breathing under control. His mind was wandering to all of the horrible ways he could have died from his encounter.

The monster’s vines could’ve skewered him in place, draining his body of blood until he was nothing more than an empty husk. Or maybe it wouldn’t even have killed him at all, but bound his body and branched a new root system through his skin, keeping him alive as a perpetual food source. That mist might just be the airborne blood of its previous victims.

Leo sat up and held his head in his hands. Shock was causing his thoughts to keep pace with the fear running amok within him. He took in a long, deep breath and slowly wrestled his fears down. Panicking wouldn’t help and he needed to be able to think logically about this situation. After what felt like an eternity of ragged breathing, he finally managed to slow his racing heart.

He could only think of a few reasons the creature hadn’t attacked him. Either it was sleeping, didn’t notice him or considered him too weak to be even worth killing. The last didn’t seem likely for his earlier reasoning, and he had been walking out in the open for all the world to see. That left the possibility that the monster was asleep. If it was, he might be facing a once in a lifetime chance.

The Radiant Hearts were the invaluable resource he needed. The ability to heal any injury and even revive the dead was not something he could just lightly pass up. After coming within an inch of death twice during just his first day on the island, he needed to get his hands on it. So far, he had survived by a mixture of sheer luck and caution; eventually one or the other just wouldn't be enough, and he needed a fallback for when that time came.

Leo took another long, deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to do. No risk, no reward, right? Then he got up and started forward again. If the tree was sleeping, he had a shot at stealing the flower and if it wasn’t…he would just hope that it could only act like a normal tree.

It wasn’t long until he was back in the eerie red mist, creeping slowly forward. Even though the taste of the mist told him it was water, he couldn't help his darker fears from resurfacing.

The tree towered before him as motionless as before, having no reaction to his nearing presence. The red light from the Radiant Hearts leaked through the forest of vines, similarly to how a lighthouse would warn ships away from imminent danger. Red liquid dripped ominously off the points of the massive thorns that coated every inch of the tree’s long, winding limbs.

Leo reached the first of the outlying ivy and deftly started stepping over it. After seeing how sharp Aveth was, he didn't trust his boots to offer him any protection from the vicious-looking thorns.

He cautiously made his way through the outlying field of vines, more than once catching himself just before his foot fell on a creeper half-submerged in the earth. Eventually, he made it to the outer thicket, where the vines went from the size of a baseball bat to that of a person.

The density had increased to maze-like proportions as all the vines in the outer regions began to converge. He ducked his head to avoid running into a low-hanging spike while stepping through a narrow opening into the depths of the intertwining masses.

Leo’s heart began to beat faster as the thicket around him slowly closed in, limiting the free space around him. Several times he was forced to double back as he reached an impassable wall. Doubts crept forward in the back of his mind as he continued to struggle through the mass of blade-like thorns.

He crawled under an inverted U-shaped vine, a piece of his shirt tearing from just breezing against one of the sharp protrusions. Backing off now would be as much of a risk as pressing forward. Getting this ingredient would allow him to leave without worry and give him the best chance of survival for the future.

Unfortunately, that reminder did nothing to prevent the knot of tension in his stomach from twisting further with each step closer to the base of the massive monster. Anxiety coupled with the physical activity made it hard for him to keep his breathing under control, and each deep intake he took sent enough water into his lungs to trigger a fit of coughing. Each time it occurred, he’d desperately try to choke back the noise, each time terrified that this had been the slip-up that would draw the creature’s attention.

As the size of the vines continued to grow, the openings they left for him to squeeze through narrowed even further. Twice more his clothes tore as loose fabric got caught by a razor-sharp point. He was crawling in the red mud through a narrow, thorn-covered tunnel when his hand slipped on the ground’s sludgy texture. He barely managed to regain his balance before his eye was impaled on the jagged tip of a thorn mere millimeters away.

Slowly, he moved away from the incident and the crawl space opened up into a small, narrow area he was finally able to stand upright in. The ever-glowing light of his goal shined through the thicket, and he had to suppress a shiver at how close he had come to the unmoving giant.

He stared at the towering tree through a gap in the ivy, tracing his eyes along the thick wooden roots that formed into the base of the massive behemoth, before he took a moment to admire the light show given off by the thousands of Radiant Hearts wrapped around its trunk.

Even though he was terrified, he couldn’t deny the sense of grandeur the creature held. He could easily spend hours mesmerized by the flowers and their infinite hues of red. They never repeated a shade twice, making it seem like each flower was giving off its own unique show. He never realized how many layers a color could have—it was like staring into a ruby of bottomless depth and perfect clarity.

As he stood transfixed on the dazzling lights, a slight burning pain in his shoulder snapped him back to reality. Without realizing it, he had let his body sway ever so slightly to the right and brushed his shoulder against one of the surrounding thorns. It had silently cut through his shirt and scratched him with no more than a whisper of its touch. He watched as a thin, red line formed over the tiny cut, trepidation building at the sight of his blood leaking out.

Creeping Horror poisons you with flames of eternity.

“Oh gods…” Leo whispered. Then he started screaming. It felt like the blood at his shoulder had started to boil and his veins were slowly melting from the heat. He collapsed in the small clearing, feet no longer able to hold his weight. The agony had taken control of his limbs, and he cut himself a multitude more times in his fall, but the pain from the lacerations was hardly noticeable next to the fire that raged to life inside them.

Leo flailed for the pouches of ingredients—there had to be something, anything that he had gathered that could help stop the poison! Then it started to spread.

Tears ran freely down his face as he cried in agony. The uncontrollable torment caused his muscles to twitch and spasm, making him lose control of his limbs entirely. One of his hands shot out, puncturing on another thorn, spraying his face with his blood as the needle-like point ripped clean through the palm of his hand. He hardly even felt it, so dwarfed as it was by the pain the poison was causing him. The liquid fire traveled through his circulatory system, boiling his blood until it melted through the vessels carrying it, and then continued to melt whatever it landed on thereafter.

His screams turned soundless as the poison started to work its way up his throat, melting his vocal cords. It felt like a blessing when his vision finally started to fade. The angel of mercy had finally deigned to grace him with the sweet bliss of unconsciousness and he greedily gave into it. Just as the last vestiges of light disappeared from his sight and all-consuming numbness ebbed at his limbs, the poison reached his brain.

Consciousness flared to life inside his body once more, something in the poison refusing to let his mind escape into that dark, blissful relief. His entire nervous system shrieked as his nerves broke apart on a microscopic scale. The poison had heightened his senses to an acuity he never thought possible—he could feel every organ, tissue, and fiber within him slowly burn away. Light brightened before completely vanishing as his optical nerves were destroyed, forcing him to lie in blackness without sight, smell or movement as the poison continued its horrible work.

In the remnants of his tattered mind, he begged for death. The toxin had become both his damnation and salvation, the pain it brought his only companion. He pleaded with it to finish, to leave him be so that he could rest.

It took an amount of time that his mind couldn’t grasp before his torture started to come to an end. If he could have cried for joy, he would have as the last of his nerves broke down. His ruined mind grasped at the cold numbness that started to ebb over his limbs, fully supporting the icy feeling that washed away his misery. As he felt the nothingness creep up his neck, his broken mind thanked his companion for finally letting him go.