The pair restocked on mundane food they could take with them before taking the bus back to Bianca’s. She provided them with a tin of garlic knots imbued with her [Enchantment of Healing].

  Then they left the restaurant, bussed back and began heading to the edge of the jungle where Annabelle had first entered it.

  The fence the military had set up had extended here as well, Lucian had no doubt it either already had encircled the entire jungle, or that it wouldn’t be long.

  Lucian waved down a group of troopers as they walked along the barrier. They looked at him, spoke amongst themselves, and then approached.

  “Lucian?” One of them raised an eyebrow.

  “Uh, yeah. Have we met?” Lucian blinked a few times.

  “Not to my knowledge. But there has been word about you.” The man replied.

  “Ooooh someone’s famous.” Annabelle nudged Lucian’s side, he rolled his eyes and chuckled.

  “More or less.” The man affirmed, leading Annabelle to laugh, “We won’t stop you, if you want to pass.”

  Lucian briefly remembered the captain from before they ventured to the tree dungeon, he had said he would tell some people Lucian was free to enter, “Thanks.”

  “There’s a gate further down that way, we can unlock it for you.” The soldier gestured along the fence.

  “That would be nice, thank you.” Annabelle smiled. She knew Lucian could jump over the fence easily, but he couldn’t bring her with him in one trip, being down an arm and all.

  The soldiers continued their patrol, heading in the direction of the gate. Lucian and Annabelle followed them, and it wasn’t long until they were walking through the jungle’s foliage yet again after heading through the gate and separating from the patrol.

  “So, the first dungeon we both found appeared near some buildings.” Lucian started, “Reckon we should look near more buildings that remain undestroyed?”

  “Good enough a place to start as any. I figure if we find any kind of more natural opening like a cave we should check that too.” Annabelle chirped.

  “Fair enough!” Lucian glanced up at the trees above, “Give me a moment to take a look around.” He pushed off the ground and leapt, darting upwards and landing deftly on a sturdy branch before repeating, moving up the tree and vanishing from sight amongst the leaves. Lucian had bad memories climbing trees, “Overgrown lightning rod with wings…” Lucian cursed to himself, briefly remembering running for his life from the thunderbird. He looked around up through the leaves for a moment, confirming he didn’t see the bird flying around. He saw some smaller bird monsters, more akin to the ones he had battled in the city - he doubted they would be flying about if the lightning bird was around so he took that as a sign to keep going. He reached the top of the tree and perched there, looking around.

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  Of course, the Great Tree still dominated the skyline. He recognized the collection of buildings off in the distance that he had originally gone to - there were other clusters of buildings as well, some closer to them than it was. Lucian took it in, then made his way back down to the forest floor.

  “Why’d you go to the one where we met?” Lucian asked Annabelle, “There are others closer to us.”

  Annabelle laughed, “I’ll admit, I didn’t climb a tree and examine all my options. I just picked a direction and went.”

  Lucian chuckled, “You would.”

  “Hey!” Annabelle playfully hit his shoulder, “So, we check out the closer ones?”

  Lucian nodded and pointed off in the direction of the nearest cluster, “That way to the closest one.” The pair agreed, and set off in the direction he had indicated. It didn’t take long for them to get where they were going.

  A group of medium height brick buildings stood before them, overgrown with thick vines and ivy that snaked in and out of windows. As they walked around the block, they quickly found something strange. The side of one of the buildings was open, the bricks rearranged to form a large archway, framed by sturdier looking vines from which sprouted hundreds of blue flowers.

  “Definitely a dungeon.” Annabelle raised an eyebrow, “It looks kind of like a weird flower crown.”

  “Huh, yeah it does. Let's leave the tents and stuff out here and go take a look?” Lucian looked over to her, and she nodded. He set their supplies down along with his backpack and cracked his neck. As soon as they stepped through the strange archway, the system announced itself and confirmed what they had assumed.

  The interior of the building past the dungeon’s entrance sloped down into the ground with a large stone staircase, the tunnel into the group supported by thick roots that grew across the walls in the ceiling in a patchwork lattice.

  Lucian activated [Manifest Weapon], the dull light from the glowing blade combined with the feeling of [Spirit Barrier] enveloping him provided a sense of comfort. He took a breath then began to walk down the stairs, “Let's go. I won’t be losing an arm this time.”

  “Hope not!” Annabelle followed behind him as they descended the staircase.

  The darkness swallowed them as they descended, the glow of Lucian’s sword the only source of light. Annabelle pulled out a flashlight they had brought with their camping supplies and clicked it on, illuminating the tunnel around them - she didn’t want to be in a situation where the only way for her to see the enemy was because of Lucian’s sword again.

  The staircase brought them to a large underground space. The floor looked to be made of bricks, not unlike the ones the building far above them was built from. The walls and ceiling were dirt and stone, held together by the same patchwork of roots.

  “This looks more like what I expected from a dungeon.” Lucian said as he quickly scanned the chamber for threats. The only thing of note he found were several tunnels leaving away from the entry chamber in various directions, “I don’t think this one is gonna be as linear as the spider cave.”

  Annabelle shined her light around, “I vote for that one.” She illuminated one of the passageways.

  “Sure, why not.” Lucian shrugged and the pair began to move. The tunnel was fairly straight and quickly opened up into another, albeit smaller, chamber. There didn’t seem to be anything strange about it, so Lucian stepped into the room.

  Then the rocks that made up the far wall began to shift.