During our lunch break, I show the two tailors my blueprints for clothes and they are professional about what is possible and what can be improved. They also write out the formula we need to start using the dye in the crafting. It's as simple as adding a drop or two during the crafting process on whatever we want colored, but the option wouldn't present itself until the tailors wrote it out on something for us first.

We move the vardo at the edge of the valley entrance and create a perimeter of soldiers around it. After everyone else ate, many people start getting materials prepped and ready for The Vanishing while I take one last look inside the cave systems. There may not have been a dungeon close by, but I figured there had to be something good if the creatures that pop out of them were significantly higher in level to the ones in the valley.

After a while, I learn there's just colonies of different monsters roaming the dark tunnels and they're all killing and eating each other like an insane Pac-Man game, the strongest being the Spores and the Gorshix. The smell of mold is overpowering the subtle flavor of dirt and I wonder if it's because of all the mushroom men. It blends with the smell of old fish and something else I can't put my finger on. Perhaps the sweet odor of overripe fruit?

I must have killed at least fifty of the Red Spore and a dozen Purple Spore. The Purple's Miasma Ability involved regular damage-over-time poison as apposed to the Red's Slow inducing Spell, a Spell which finally triggered Adaptibility.

[+Lethargic Miasma (45MP) self/ Release a pink mist into the air up to a 10ft radius. Lasts 15 seconds/dismissed. Any creature that breathes in the mist receives the Slow Debuff for 20 seconds from the first moment they breathe it in.]

By the time I finally learn it, I'm a lot further and a lot deeper in the guts of the tunnels than I probably should have gone. I find a small, empty chamber to hide in until my rainbow bars top off.

Although I crossed the paths of several more of the Gorshix, none of them attack me unprovoked, compiling my frustrating guilt for killing the first one. In retrospect, their passive nature is advantageous to me. If they charged in the barely nine or ten feet in diameter tunnels, I'd have a tough time with just one.

Speaking of tunnels, after slaying another Red Spore, I find myself at a Y junction. I can see the feint green trail in my grayed out Dark Vision veering to the left. That tunnel will eventually lead to the valley. The one on the right contains a whisp of a different colored trail. It grows the longer I stare at it. From the thickness of a strand of hair to that of a pencil, the yellow trail beckons me. I feel the allure of that odd sweet smell again. It's stronger now. It buries the moldy musk and reigns supreme in my olfactory receptors. "What is that…" I say in a low voice, less like a question and more like a demand. I need to know what it is. It's not curiosity now, it's desire.

[Minor Quest: What's That Smell?

[Discover the origin of the strange and alluring odor in the tunnels.

[Reward: 150XP, ???]

Well, that seals the deal. A Quest to do exactly what I want to do? I grin behind my mask and ease my way along the yellow trail. I remember noticing right away that the tunnels had a gradual incline as I burrowed deeper into the tunnel system. The trail going back is, of course, the opposite. The Quest line, however, seems to be going higher still and curving to the left, like a large, spiraling ramp.

I'm trudging along when I realise that I haven't fought a single Red Spore after seemingly dispatching one every fifteen steps. I've gone several minutes without encountering anything except for a stronger odor and a feint, dripping sound. Water perhaps? The Gorshix breathe in fresh water, something IRL caves would have. But, and my brain is still trying to justify this, I'm going uphill where the chances of water should be less than downhill. It could be possible. Hell, this is a world of magic and monsters. Water flowing up the walls would sure be as creepy as shit, but it would also be possible.

I did not find my creepy, gravity defying cave water, but instead find a chamber the size of one of those stores where you buy things in bulk. Things like toothpaste come in a big tube and there's two in a pack.

A few steps away from the entrance to this chamber, the floor declines again under stagnant water. The whole chamber is like a pitch black beach frozen in time. Because of my Dark Vision, the water looks a little murky and menacing. I blink, switching over to Thermal and see nothing of note. I switch back and hear the drip again. A single ripple across the surface of the water comes from further in and I'm loathed to disturb the water. The yellow trail, however, seems to want me to do just that, passing over the water. I realise that it's probably late and I check my messages and the ingame clock. No messages. 4PM. It's only been an hour and a half since I left on my own and no one will try to come after me in the tunnel. I still have two hours before everyone should be coming back, so I decide to press on.

I store my mantle, removing the set bonus and the chance of it snagging on something unpleasent. I'm not worried about being weighed down by my armor since I'm not that worried about drowning. My first few steps into the water, however, are painfully cold. This pool must've been buried in here for a long time for it to be so cold. I don't get a debuff, but my HP drops by 1 every few seconds. After it hits 149/156HP I hit myself with a First Aid heal. My MP and SP are unaffected by the cold so I establish a pattern.

I keep up my slow moving pace underwater, weighed down by my armor but breathing just fine. I admit I was scared to try to breathe in the water so I tested it by trying to drink when the water's surface reached my neck. Instead of stale water, I got a rush of cool air in my lungs, like breathing in the first few chews of minty gum. After my HP drops by a total of 7, I top it back off and continue on my way. The water causes my vision to be somewhat hazy, like I'm walking through dense fog, and unable to see further than ten yards. Odder still, as I walk I notice I'm not disturbing any silt or sand and this chamber is more like a large swimming pool made of limestone or something similar.

The trail is hair thin again and just above the water, the floor leveling out when the height of the water reached ten feet. I guess it makes sense in a way. I can't smell underwater so the scent wouldn't be down here. But, since it was already established, I can still follow it.

My head is still on a swivel, looking anxiously this way and that way for any signs of sneaky creatures. After a dozen or so yards the only things I find are loot sacks. Every step I take seems to conjure dozens more into view until I couldn't drag my feet without pushing ten of them aside. There must be more loot sacks here than I've seen in total since I started. I look up and the trail ends, but I don't receive the notice of completion yet.

I pick up one of the sacks and peruse the content list. It's full of Gorshix Scales, Fins, and Spoiled Meat. *Did they all die here?* I mentally ask myself. *Did something kill them here?* That is the question I need answered to settle myself down. My claws are bared and I'm stuffing my inventory with as much Scales and Fins as I can carry, keeping a watchful eye throughout the water. I also dump out a lot of the Spore parts out of my inventory, valuing the Gorshix parts much higher. I get both my Ring and Bracelet dangerously close to full, before I stop. Once again, I'm wishing I had one the Rucksacks or the time to empty the place out. I bring up a map and do my best to mark where I am for later.

All of the sacks are the identical: between thirty and fifty five Scales, two to four Fins, and an average of forty Spoiled Meat per bag. From what I figure is halfway through the cavern, I can see the floor clearly rising in large steps. Steps. Stairs. These stairs are too large for a person to take in stride, but this room isn't tall enough for anything that large. I take a chance and store all of my heavy armor, filling my storage to 99% capacity. I swim up and look around the surface of the water. I'm not far from where the steps breech the surface and meet the end of the cavern. I can see an altar of some sort, so I take a swim to get closer.

I finally get the Quest completion notification, but at this point I don't care about a measly 150XP. Maybe it could've benefitted everyone in my party, but it got disbanded when I left the vardo without them.

The smell is heaviest here, almost perfume like. Or like walking into a soap and lotion store for the first time. I'm flipping through my modes of vision to see if I can properly picture exactly what it is that I'm standing in front of and to ensure my safety so I can invest all of my attention in this endeavor.

The stone altar is cracked down the middle and a portion of it has fallen off to the side. The large cracks are filled with piles of dirt, and a cursory glance upwards shows where it came from. Growing out of the dirt is a tangled mess of branches and thin roots scrambling every which way. Some roots snake up the nearby rocky wall, finding a fissure to slip through. I turn back around, tracing a few roots that have found a way down the steps and into the water.

Nestled within the branches, as if in some sort of wooden cage, are five lotus-like flowers in bloom. I can't see their colors with my Dark Vision, though I doubt that any flower that blooms in the total absence of light would have any colors. Analyze works just fine on them.

>Scan[This flowering plant can only grow under the most stressful and special circumstances. Up to seven blooms may appear, though only one is needed to produce a sweet smell that attracts monsters to their death in a unique trap that the Lotus uses to absorb them through its roots. Not much else is known about this plant since only two specimens have been found. One under the Capitol City, Coronus, and one in the jungles of Sat Eltas.]

So, it wasn't just cold water sapping my HP after all. This plant was trying to eat me. The description may say it only needs one, but my Alchemist instincts tell me to leave two, much to my desire's dismay. I make space in my storage by reequipping my armor and use my claws to clip and store three flowers as carefully as I can.

[Level up! +7 Alchemist Level!]

If the sudden notification didn't stop my heart, the tone of an incoming message does. I can almost literally feel the organ jump up into my throat and I start coughing. The noise echoes fiercely and I ready myself for a fight. Still, nothing comes. I steady my breathing and my heart rate before I read the message.

[Message From: Richter Pryce

[Hey bro! We finished Rachel's Quest and came back to the vardo. We also ran into Dawn and Victoria and they told us to bring everyone back into town. We have a safe place to hide everyone until we come back from our break. Attaching a map of where in town to go. Good luck, buddy! Hit me back if you need help, okay?]

[Message From: Ardacen Winters

[Thanks, man. I'll be heading out soon, just found something pretty amazing. Tell you about it when I get back.]

I take another look around, making sure I'm not missing anything else. Another plant. A hidden skeleton. A sleeping creature. I find nothing. I check the walls and altar for hieroglyphics or pictures. I check the ground for patterns. I check everything I can possibly think of. Still, I find nothing of note.

After making my way across the pool, I equip my mantle and feel the familiar invigorating rush of energy. I look back towards the altar, still smelling the sickeningly sweet aroma, though not as strong as before. I hear the sound of a single drop of water hitting the pool and I leave the room behind. For now.