Angerly trudging through the dense forest path Mia berated herself, she was once again alone with nothing but her hastily prepared tools on her person. Despite her best efforts it turned out that her aunt was right, trying to convince the village without solid proof was a waste of time and effort.

She tried her best, tried multiple different approaches, but nearly all of them ended the same. They would leave too late or not at all, resulting in the events of the second day taking place on schedule. In a desperate attempt she even tried to get Maria involved as early as possible, but what ever was going on in that forest surrounding her shrine out right rejected her from entering.

Be it entering the proper way via the dirt path next to the chief’s house, or trying a different route, she’d always find herself at the start of the dirt path a few hours later. After more experimentation Mia found out it had something to do with the chief, she never got a proper explanation but much like the first time when ever the chief approved of a trip to the shrine, she would arrive there a few hours later.

The time passing was a damning factor, it left her with little time to convince Maria before Eldaha set up their camp, and with it a perimeter around the village. Mia guessed at most, they had till just past noon to somehow get everyone out or risk bumping into the church.

“Stupid…” Mia grumbled, climbing on top of a large root. If she just had proof…or more convincing power, then people wouldn’t just take her as a small child…which meant Maria was right again.

Mia leaped from one root to another, she’d have to figure out how to do that. Right now, she was heading west, deeper into the beastmen territory, going back to the original plan of finding a way to get stronger but after an hour of progressing it was getting to be more of a struggle.

“*hup*” Another leap, wincing at the impact she lifted herself up and stood at the top of the large root. She looked around, wondering since when did the trees get so large? The roots were larger than her! Which wasn’t saying much, herself only being 116cm, but these were twice that! Even weirder the trees themselves had thin trunks that extended high into the sky, spreading out to create an all-encompassing canopy that only let light through.

She looked back at the sea of roots, exhausted from her climb she plopped down on her butt, deciding to take a break. She’d hope she would encounter a monster by now so she could level up to make her journey easier, but there was nothing, only seeing the occasional bird. She also expected there to be some sort of search party for her, or did a level 1 little girl really manage to run away from a village potentially filled with higher level people?

“Hmm…” She was troubled at that, she knew for a fact her mother was at least high enough level to fight off some people even when under the effect of that unknown anti-magic barrier, she could even use magic while under it… “Next time, should ask.” She mumbled.

There was also Maria, hard to imagine out running her when she could blow everything in this forest up. “Well, no point in waiting.” She sighed, having finished her small rest she stood up and faced her next leap, a quick look down into the darkness below caused her to instinctively save as she took a few steps back and leap towards the next root, barely managing to make it and pull herself up.

This cycle continued for another hour; her breathing was now haggard after a recent jump. Panting she clutched her chest, a sudden sharp pain assaulting her “Need another break…” she flopped down on top of a root, just how big is this stupid forest? While laying there she checked her status, her eyes going wide at what she saw.

Name: Mia

Status: [Exhausted(extreme)]

Age: 8

Race: Fox Beastman

LVL: 1

HP: 25/30 MP: 100/100

She was losing health? And her status was [Exhausted]… She sighed, going a few hours nonstop was definitely too much for her young body, in fact she was surprised she made it that far to begin with, maybe it was a species thing? Regardless, like her status said she was exhausted. She didn’t feel like moving and now that she was losing health from forcing it, she decided to rest.

While laying there she pondered, she figured she wasn’t that far away from the village, these stupid roots slowing her progress, as far as the exact distance…she had no clue, to be frank she wasn’t paying attention, she had just picked a direction and mindlessly walked while fuming at her failure. In hindsight she found it dumb, but whatever, no point in brooding over it any longer.

She repositioned herself, placing her chin on the root as she inched towards the edge and looked over it, still unable to see the bottom through the darkness below. “Might be easier going down…” She glanced at the distant root ahead of her, navigating like this was getting annoying but the darkness below was…questionable, she wanted to get stronger, not die to something she couldn’t see coming over and over.

She took a deep breath, her status now healed “Better go.” Telling herself that she started to sit up, only for her hand to slip off the wet root “W-wa-?!” she tried to catch her balance, but it was too late, she fell forward, bumping her chest against the root and bouncing forward, falling into the abyss below as she screamed.

As she fell, she felt like she passed through a thin film of some material, then a loud thud and metal clangs were the next thing Mia heard, quickly followed by pain shooting through her body as she gasped for air. Her whole body twitched as it laid spread out on the cold stone floor, Mia barely conscious mind registering that she was, somehow, still alive and…on a stone floor?

First, she checked her health finding she had 5 remaining, next she painstakingly turned her head to see that she was, in fact, on a bricked stone floor in a well-lit room “What, where?” She coughed, spitting out a bit of blood she brought her gaze to the ceiling to see a strange sight. The ‘ceiling’ was a see-through substance that flowed gently and obscured the roots above, like she was underwater and looking up.

Figuring that was what she passed through she tried to sit up, but quickly gave up on that after finding out everything hurt, so she instead looked around some more. Besides the ceiling and floors, she noticed she was in a square room with the walls made from dirt? With thin roots spread through them. She also noticed an archway leading out of the room she was in. Seeing all this she knew exactly where she had found herself at.

She was in a dungeon.