I wouldn’t call myself a smart man, not by any means, but That doesn’t translate to not knowing when I make mistakes. I have a decent bit of an ego so actually speaking up about said mistakes is a different story altogether, but there are times when you don’t have much of a choice on a matter.

  Now, while I couldn’t really mention the whole rebirth and reincarnation thing, I was also fairly hesitant to speak up about the blood runes. Though I didn’t really have much of a choice if I wanted to get out of this.

  Taking a moment to get my thoughts together from what I had just experienced, while also thinking up a way to try and deflect the situation, a thought crosses my mind. ‘What if I just tell the truth?’

  Not the full truth of course, but a bit of a mix between reality and falsehoods. After all, if even they didn’t know what I am, I could probably come up with something to explain what happened.

  “I wasn’t lying about being hungry, I can only eat by feeding on creatures' magic.” Did it make sense? Not even slightly. Was it plosable? I’d be willing to debate that, but judging by how that seemed to calm them down a bit, it would work for the meantime.

  “I’ve heard of monsters that can only eat magic, but they’re usually elemental creatures.” Atkin says with a thoughtful look, saving me a decent bit of trouble by coming in and reassuring my claim. His words seem to act as a final nail in the coffin as I see the look of skepticism on Rayners face disappear and Malcolm simply shrug.

  Atkin being the one to say that was a bit of a surprise considering that Rayner was the one who studied monsters, but overall I’m not complaining much. It did seem to do the trick and act as a good cover story, and it also meant there wouldn’t be as much of an issue later down the line, even if it was a bit of a gamble.

  Regardless, with how things had happened, the sleep was kicked out of everyone, so there was no way they were resting again. Now feeling a bit restless, we decided that it was enough of a rest to continue on instead of waiting out the last few hours of ‘night’, planning to make it to the junction we were heading towards.

  Packing up the few things that we had, we immediately head out in hopes of reaching the next part of the trek by the end of the day.

  During the walk, I noticed a surprising amount of things for a barren cave system, ranging from weird rocks growing in the walls to even smaller wildlife. How little squirrel-like creatures survived down here was a mystery, but it was helped along by Rayner who was more than willing to discuss what I saw and explain them.

  We spent a fair few hours simply talking back and forth about whatever it was we saw, while he also asked a few questions in return about what I was. When I say that by the time we would inevitably part ways in the future I would be a renowned storyteller, I would be selling myself short because of how much overtime I had to put in to make up answers for him.

  As chaotic and as many times as there were close calls, it was fairly uneventful, only stopping for the others to eat somewhere around the halfway point while occasionally slowing down if Atkin noticed something.

  We didn't have any encounters by the time we arrived at our destination, which was weirdly enough, slightly disappointing to me, but I had noticed that the closer we got the more the walls and rocks around us slowly shifted into having more dirt and random drying moss scattered about.

  By the time we arrived it was fully set in stone that we were either nearing the surface, which I didn’t believe for a second, or there was some sort of underground biome with plant life near or at our destination. And that theory would be proved to have been correct soon enough.

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  Exiting a particularly curvy patch of tunnel, we were quite abruptly spat out into a surprisingly big cavern, its walls and ceiling expanding so far that it honestly took me a moment and a decent amount of squinting to see their ends. What was honestly even more surprising was the fact that there was green and blue scattered everywhere. And not as in green and blue rocks, but plant life stretching the entire expanse of the cavern.

  Strange trees almost seemingly moving and swaying to some none existent wind made up of a strange fungus-like tissue sprouted in abundance, their tops almost looking as if they were birds nests as they abruptly stopped and spread out in tendrils reaching upwards towards the ceiling.

  Nestled around their roots were odd patches of random vines and shrubs that were all upright and reaching for the roof as were the trees, strange little blooms of various colours hanging from the nooks and angles of the vines as they twisted as if coiled around an invisible object.

  To really set everything in an alien theme was the fact that almost everything was in the green and blue colour scaling, save for the multicolour buds. The bark of the trees varying shades of blue while the branches and ‘leafs’ were all shades of green a bit too bright to be considered normal. And most of all? Almost everything was glowing.

  Walking into the cave, the others stuffed away the little light orbs they had as I was reminded that I was the only one that could see in the dark, which was incredibly nice I’d like to say. If I couldn’t see and still not fully accustomed to my own body I easily would have fallen at every other step.

  Waltzing through the greenery, still with Rayner proving himself as a god of knowledge, we slowly came to a dip in the ground near the center of the cavern. Stopping at the edge, Atkin turns around and starts to speak. “Rayner, Malcolm, you already know how this will happen, but Erja doesn’t. So just to have them understand, and also as a reminder, I’ll quickly explain what’s about to happen.”

  Looking to me, he pulls out another of the little light orbs and hands it to me, “If you come across something and we aren’t within the range of our own lights.” He says.

  “When we head down into the hole, we will come to another tunnel, but this time it will be a lot bigger than before and hold various monsters that we can’t avoid like we have been. Some we will be able to wait out, but most will result in a fight. When that happens, don’t feel the need to keep the aggression, we can very much hold our own if need be, and you fighting is simply a bonus.” He explains.

  “Understandable.” I respond.

  What else was I supposed to say? They know what they’re doing and if anything I’d just end up getting in the way. Going over a few more tidbits, we eventually go over everything we needed to discuss and then some, and only after did we then proceed into the tip in the ground.

  Now, Atkin said that there would be a hole we’d descend, so I thought he meant the dip we were already in would expand or something like that. It could only be noted that my surprise as we walked over a little lip that quickly transformed into a sheer cliff that fell down so far I could barely even make out the bottom was very warranted.

  The otherside of the hole was very much the same, with the clifface wrapping all the way around its circumference of what could only be a few hundred meters as the crow flies to the otherside with no visible way down.

  Peering over the edge, I wonder how we were going to not only get down, but if we came back this way get up. “Alright then, see you at the bottom!” Rayner says before just walking off the edge.

  My heart seized for a moment as Malcolm followed suit and jumped off the edge and let himself fall down as if he was skydiving. “Ah, I forgot to mention, you have to take a leap of faith to get down.” Atkin says.

  Turning to him, I can’t help but hide my confusion as he gives me a slight smirk before following the other two and stepping off the edge without explaining any further.

  Now, I wasn’t afraid of heights, I wasn’t really afraid of dying either by this point, but the sheer confusion at watching them so casually jump was enough for me to stand still for a good ten seconds before finally letting out a slow sigh.

  ‘I’ve already died three times, what’s a fourth, right?’