Space twisted and churned in ways that Niko couldn’t comprehend. The weight of the world pressed in on him, and for a horrifying moment he thought that it was going to crush him outright, like a melon beneath a bulldozer. Yet, in a flash of light and essence, the pressure vanished, and with it everything around him changed.

Except for the fact that Niko’s beak was still cracking through the solid object amidst the gelatinous flesh of the Memory Thief that had just taken him for a ride through space.

‘And Skye,’ He made the rapid addendum as he heard the thrashing and tearing that marked his comrades' current efforts alongside his own.

The flesh around him contorted, and Niko felt his feathers stand on end as essence began to build up once again. ‘Nope! We’re not doing that again!’

He bit down harder, surging his Sharp Strike pattern as much as possible. It worked for the entirety of his beak, though he generally had no use for it in biting through materials. However, whatever he’d snatched was very tough, and if his hopes were correct, might be just important enough to the Memory Thief that it would interrupt the teleport.

The orb cracked under the building pressure, but withstood. Niko continued biting down, the pressure in his jaws making it feel like his beak was going to shatter, but he didn’t let up. As the essence once more built, and an otherworldly sensation crawled over his hide, Niko snarled out as hard as he possibly could with his bite.

With a loud crunch, the orb shattered, and Niko felt the essence all around him within the creature surge outwards, control suddenly lost. That was followed by the sensation of a free fall, as whatever method the monster used to hold itself up vanished.

He braced himself, deathly afraid of a long fall within a meat sack to the forest floor. Though only a second later they hit upon something, the flesh around him cushioning and constraining him at the same time.

‘Okay, that wasn’t too bad,’ Niko thought to himself, relief flowing through him. Silently, he reached out to his connection to Skye, ‘You alright?’

The answer came immediately, ‘Yes. Covered in gross, kinda stuck, but yes.’

Niko snorted at that, before considering the material still in his mouth. The orb had mostly ruptured there, and was seemingly melting into something that tasted divine to his tongue. With a shrug, he swallowed it down, feeling the wild burn of what he guessed was somehow concentrated tier three essence. Yet, oddly, it didn’t go straight into his depths, cycling instead through his body.

For a moment, Niko almost tried to control it, but his gut made him hesitate, so instead he just watched what was happening. It seemed to move with purpose, flowing along his physical body and pseudo-body like a gentle river. Well, mostly gentle, he winced here and there as the essence flow slowed through certain areas of his body, forcing the stream to pile up and build pressure until it was forced onwards feeling like liquid fire all the while. Niko grit his beak in pain, but after seeing the flow pass through easily enough, relieving him of the discomfort, he couldn’t help but marvel at what he was witnessing.

‘It’s expanding the essence veins?’ Niko blinked, looking inwards with his Aether Sight and doing his best to keep track of what it was doing. ‘That should help with throughput and – Ow.’

He winced as a particularly large buildup occurred in his chest, and then blinked as it moved straight up into his head. Niko frowned, unable to watch it further as it passed his neck and–

Niko startled awake, his head laying on the fleshy ‘floor’ beneath him. He rose then, looking down at himself in alarm. His Aether Sight flicked on, even more smoothly than before, and he watched as the stream of essence moved down and away from his head, much depleted in quantity. With a shiver, Niko realized that it’d just gotten done with his brain. Was that… dangerous?

He looked at the rest of the orb, half of which still sat there. Niko picked it up in his beak, but didn’t consume it. What he did begin to do, though, was draw in the essence that was fleeing from the Memory Thief. It was difficult, though, much more so than anything he’d absorbed before. Niko scowled as he flexed his will, pulling taught against the essence that seemed to want to do everything it could to escape outwards and away from him.

‘Is it because this thing is a higher tier?’ Niko wondered, before shaking his head vigorously at that, ‘No, that shouldn’t matter at tier three. I haven’t had trouble with that before. Is it something unique to the Memory Thief?’

Uncertain of the reason, Niko simply absorbed as much as he could while clambering out of the corpse. Niko took a deep breath, but instead of feeling the refreshing air of the forest, he tasted an earthy, stale, and somehow ‘empty’ feeling air. Disconcerted, Niko took in his surroundings before he followed the sounds of cursing and slopping, tearing sounds.

With a riiiiip, Skye pushed out of the side of the body, her previous ingress having been landed on when the monster fell. “Finally, free! Ugh!”

“Wow, you look as gross as I feel!” Niko cawed, holding the half-orb in one of his wing-claws.

“Thanks,” Skye dryly stated, “Right back at ya… Where in the hells are we?”

Niko shook his head, peering to earthen walls that looked to have been carved. They were in the center of the space, and one third of the walls exposed massive, tough roots that undoubtedly belonged to some truly massive trees.

“Well, rough guess is under the titanwood,” Niko shrugged, not finding anything threatening on a quick perusal.

“Probably this thing’s nest,” Skye kicked a tentacle at that, “The grooves on the walls match the bigger tentacles.”

Niko blinked and looked back up, realizing that she was probably right. Still, the Phorus frowned as he looked around more, half having expected a pantry of creatures drooling on the ground, mentally debilitated by the monster. Instead, the cave was largely spotless, and as he tasted the air, not likely something that others stumbled upon often. In fact, the only thing that Niko noted was out of place was a depression in the center of the chamber, where the body of the Memory Thief now lay.

“If the shoe fits,” Niko mumbled to himself. It was likely safe to assume that they weren’t about to be ambushed by a swarm of the jellyfish-like monsters, at the least. Niko waited for Skye to at least somewhat clean herself off, before offering her the other half of the hardened core of material he’d found in the Memory Thief. “Here, have this. I ate half of it and it seemed to help me out. Is that normal?”

Skye looked at the strange object, rolling it between her hands. She frowned as she continued to consider it, before saying, “I’m not sure what… Oh.” Her eyes lit up in recognition, “Oh, nevermind, this is a monster core. They only really start appearing around tier three and up. Very rare, though.”

“Are they… good to find?” Niko tilted his head, unaware of their uses.

“Very,” Skye nodded vigorously, “You can consume them straight up to help make your essence flow more efficiently, and other stuff, like what you probably did? It’s generally better to have them processed by an alchemist into an elixir, though. A raw sphere sells for a lot on the open market.”

Niko winced, “So… don’t eat them raw?”

With a pat on Niko’s shoulder in comfort, Skye shook her head, “Definitely not. Though, you probably got a lot more out of it than anyone else would have even in its raw state.”

“Is it still good?” Niko looked to the half-sphere, feeling bad about having eaten it now.

“Probably?” Skye shrugged, holding the thing much more carefully now that she knew what it was, “I”m not the alchemist. We’ll have to ask Mithel when we find them.”

At that, Skye put the half-eaten monster core into Niko’s storage. They looked around the cave more, noting that there wasn’t any exit that they could see.

“This thing… needed to breath, right?” Skye swallowed hard, while Niko eyed the earth around them with much more alarm than before.

“Ah, peck… Hopefully? Lets check the walls, just in case.” Niko suppressed the feeling of fear that threatened to quicken his heart. The last thing he wanted was to be entombed in the Memory Thief’s lair.

Even as he approached the wall, Niko tried to peer into the dirt with his Aether Sight pattern. Immediately, though, he realized a problem.

“There’s barely any essence around here…” Concerned, Niko spoke aloud, “I can barely see anything with my Sight.”

Skye flared her own pattern, before she cut the flow of essence with a curse muttered under her breath. Then she said, “I can’t connect to the forest around us like this… One second.”

The Phorus watched his companion as she walked up to one of the larger exposed roots and pressed her bare hand to it. With another flare of essence, she activated her pattern, before letting out a breath of relief. “I can connect to the trees like this. Let me take a look around, maybe we’ll find something.”

Niko nodded, before turning his attention to the walls himself. Rather than waste even the miniscule essence it cost for his Aether Sight to run at all times, he began to turn it on periodically. Every few steps, he would knock on the wall with his beak, listening for any change in pitch, while simultaneously flipping on his Aether Sight. If they couldn’t find a tunnel, they had to assume that the Memory Thief had somehow teleported straight into the earth and begun to move things in such a fashion. It wasn’t impossible, but it could potentially be the worst case scenario for them, lacking any method of exiting.

“I have something,” Skye spoke, eyes closed in concentration. Only her arm moved as he gestured to a wall a few meters away from her. “There’s a cavern past that wall, but I don’t know the exact distance. The trees say it’s a short distance, but… well.”

“They’re titanwoods,” Niko nodded, finishing her thought, “Well, hopefully it’s not that far, but it’s not like we have another option.”

Skye nodded at that, and together they moved to the wall, with Niko trying to figure on the best method to start digging. The half-elf beside him flared her pattern, bark covering her hands with large, scoop-like forms. “I’ll dig, you just keep kicking the dirt out into the main space?”

“Sounds good to me,” Niko nodded, “If you get tired, we’ll swap.”

Roles assigned, Skye reached forward and began to carve through the tough earth like a mole. Surprisingly, she was able to punch through the packed earth like parting water, and Niko suddenly found himself rushing to kick and shovel dirt out of the path behind her with his feet, beak, and wings. In moments, the pair were covered in a combination of damp earth and remnant monster guts, but neither complained. The idea that they were in a room full of air that might at any time cease being breathable was more than enough for them to push forwards.

After three meters, Skye paused, looking at the dangling roots that were unearthed from her digging. She looked back at Niko, cheeks flushed.

“What?” Niko looked around, confused, “Something wrong?”

“Uh… no. More like I just realized that we don’t need to be worried about the air…” Skye gestured to the roots wordlessly.

Niko blinked, confused still, “I don’t follow.”

“Oh, well. Plants produce breathable air through their roots, too… I just… forgot at the moment.” Skye answered, and it was only then that Niko felt embarrassed as well.

“Oh… uh. Well. That’s good then.” Niko cleared his throat, “Still, definitely good to get out of here, yup.”

“Absolutely, yep, gotta get back topside.” Skye nodded vigorously, decisively turning back to the dirt and continuing her digging, albeit with a much more manageable pace.

Niko eyed the roots, feeling silly now in spite of all the things he knew. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if roots actually did do that, but if the half-elf said they did, he was certain she had reason to believe that. It wasn’t as though he thought it were far fetched, in fact he realized that his Earth-knowledge hadn’t told him that plants had to release oxygen from only their leaves.

It took them a great deal of digging at a modest pace before the texture of the earth they dug through changed. The air around them was somehow even more deprived of essence, such that both of them had to actively focus on themselves to keep from bleeding off. It was getting to the point that Niko was beginning to feel acute alarm. The sense of foreboding only grew with every step, until the both of them stopped, seemingly reaching a silent accord at the same time.

“My guts telling me somethings wrong, are you feeling anything?” Skye frowned, looking down the nearly thirty meter long tunnel they’d spent a considerable amount of time and effort on excavating. Neither was looking forwards to the possibility that they weren’t going to be getting out this way.

“There’s almost no essence in the air,” Niko warbled worriedly, “It feels like where the hornets had been, but… worse, somehow?” He tried to express the strangeness he was feeling. It was similar to the dead zones he’d felt in the Evergreen a long time ago. But worse, because it felt like the essence in the area was even less responsive. The scraps that yet lingered in the air slowly drifted. “Give me a minute.”

Skye nodded, letting Niko push his Aether Sight around them, watching the flecks of essence move with a lethargic pulse occasionally. It was odd, no small part due to how essence usually had a kind of flow, moving in large, all encompassing tides. Here, it was a still-water pool, drying out in a desert sun.

But, it moved, even so. It took him several minutes of examination before he noticed that the flecks were all moving towards the direction he and Skye were digging. Niko frowned at that, “I think whatever’s going on with the essence is happening in the direction we’ve been digging.”

“Of course it is,” Skye scoffed, before glaring at the wall, “Fine, fine. Then… we’ll have to start digging parallel to the tunnel. I can kind of tell where it is.”

That sounded like as good a plan as any to Niko, given how he was less than eager to find whatever was drawing so much essence from the environment. More digging continued, mindnumbingly boring, but they traded off from time to time. It took three times as long as they’d spent on the initial tunnel to finally start feeling the ambient essence levels rise.

Niko cawed happily at that, and he turned to Skye, “Should we go collect as much of the body as we can? Now that it’s looking like we’ll be okay?”

Contemplatively, Skye tapped her dirt-covered digits against the bark of her other hand, “Mmm… yeah. Mithel would probably love to get her hands on the tentacles, at least.”

The two marched down the tunnel, traversing the roughly made earth carefully. In short order, they’d arrived at the corpse of the Memory Thief, now containing only what essence that could remain saturated in whatever parts the monster used the most. That was somewhat helpful, as those parts tended to also be the most valuable. It was grisly and messy work, made worse by the dirt they were already covered in, but the pair didn’t want to waste any more time down here than necessary.

With packs newly full of various parts and oddly transparent and squishy organs, limbs, and whatever else they could fit, the two reentered the tunnel and climbed the angled path upwards. Tired out after hours of work, they rested in the tunnel itself, enjoying the relatively heightened essence compared to the depleted depths they’d come from.

As they rested, Niko chirped up, “It’s odd that there’s so little essence down there, right?”

“It is,” Skye answered, gnawing on a hunk of jerky while handing a slab to Niko, “There’s usually the same amount of essence, if not more, under the ground. Massive cavern systems and under empires usually enjoy huge areas of homogenized essence levels. That’s why the dwarves and gnomes tend to be, on average, a higher tier than humans.”

That interested Niko, as he hadn’t really heard too much about the differences between the races. “Is it similar for the elves?”

She paused at that, before grunting, “Meh, somewhat. It depends on the group. Mine generally get more powerful by bonding with groups of trees, which grow more powerful in turn, and then feed them with essence. They cycle back and forth until you have groves hundreds of trees strong at a higher tier than the surrounding area. It’s all very synergistic, and doesn’t require much effort,” Skye seemed annoyed at the last part of that.

“So… why not just stay and do that, if you wanted to get stronger?” Niko asked, but he was pretty sure he knew the reasons.

And, as he suspected, Skye started, “Because it’s boring, takes forever, and the elders like to make up all kinds of ‘rituals’ and a bunch more annoying traditions that just made the whole thing annoying.”

“Hence when you wanted to try being a ranger?” Niko then tilted his head and smirked, “Funny, though, that you still wound up talking to trees a lot.”

Skye snorted in amusement at that, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Guess that part’s stuck in. Can’t say I can complain, trees are a lot easier to deal with than people.”

The two rested against the tunnel wall, with Niko curling up and putting his head on Skye’s lap. It was colder than he’d expected underground, and neither felt like breaking out the camping gear for what was going to end up being a short nap.

“I hope the others aren’t freaking out too badly right now,” worriedly, Niko chirped, thinking about what Ronald, Mithel, and Dachna were feeling and doing right then.

“Mmm… I just hope Ronald is alright. He took a direct hit from that thing…” Skye’s voice was full of concern, and Niko had to admit that he was afraid for the side effects, too.

“Hopefully he’s alright. Nothing for it now but to wait, though…” Niko mumbled, with Skye grunting in acknowledgement. Even with those thoughts hanging over their heads, the two managed to fall asleep within moments after closing their eyes.