Where the Dead Things Bloom. [35, 36]

35 Eyes of Glass

“Kale!” Krysanthea's feathers flared, the iridescent patterns along her mane shifting with agitation. "We're in the middle of a slime crisis and you're focusing on this?"

"Answer the question, sis," Kaledoniya pressed on. "What's going on with you three? You've been acting real sus since you returned. Bringing Alec to the family dinner, not telling us where he's been, now risking your life on the word of this... this dog? I’m not going anywhere until you explain things!"

Nessy's tail stiffened behind her, but she remained focused, her nose twitching rapidly as she sniffed Kaledoniya. I noticed her attention shifting to the younger raptor’s wrist, her blue eyes narrowing with sudden intensity.

"I don't owe you an explanation," Krysanthea snapped. "As Chief Ranger, I'm making a tactical decision based on new intelligence—"

"New intelligence from a husky with an IQ of seven!" Kaledoniya snarled, feathers bristling. "The same husky who's been obsessed with claiming your boyfriend for herself! You can't possibly—"

"Your bracelet," Nessy interrupted, her voice suddenly sharp. "The glass one with the eye beads. That's a Systemfall artifact. That's how you moved so fast just now and got ahead of us in the tunnel."

Kaledoniya's scaled hand instinctively covered her wrist where a delicate bracelet of translucent glass beads glinted in the dim light. Each bead contained what appeared to be a tiny blue iris, like miniature eyes suspended in glass.

"You don't know what you're talking about," she hissed, her feathers rising defensively.

"I smell the truth," Nessy continued, undeterred. "Superstore Aisle 45’217 – 'Enhancement Accessories.' You've been to the Superstore, haven't you? Went looting outside Ferguson's boundaries after Systemfall?"

The accusation hit with precision. Kaledoniya's expression shifted from anger to shock, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. The hand covering her bracelet trembled slightly.

"Kale..." Krysanthea's voice had changed, concern replacing anger. "Is this true?"

Kaledoniya's feathers flattened against her head, her aggression instantly deflating at the mention of the Superstore. She shot Nessy a look of mingled hatred and fear.

"What the shit Kale!" Krysanthea snarled, her voice tight with controlled fury. "I've seen what these ‘artifacts’ do to people!"

Kaledoniya's earlier confidence had vanished. "Listen, it's fine. It just helps me run faster. It's useful. We need every advantage we can—"

"What happened to the Superstore on Dimmsdale exit?" Krysanthea demanded. “Why the fuck does it have fourty two thousand isles offering fucking magical accessories?!”

“I, urm, erm…” Kaledoniya produced somewhat coherent noises. “It’s… umm… infinite now. We’ve been getting… groceries for town from it.”

“A dungeon,” Nessy exhaled with wide eyes. “The Superstore’s become a dungeon, just like this place! That’s why the shops are full of fresh produce!”

“You’ve been feeding the people of Ferguson fucking Systemfall food from a fucking dungeon?!” Kristi exploded.

“It’s not weird stuff! It’s normal food… the weird stuff smells weird, we don’t take that.” Kaledoniya deflated slightly.

The first slime rounded the corner behind us, its purple core pulsing with menacing light.

"We don't have time for this," I said urgently. "Slimes incoming!"

Krysanthea straightened to her full height, assuming the absolute authority of her position. When she spoke again, her voice carried the weight of command that brooked no argument.

"Kaledoniya Strand," she began, each word precise and edged with steel, "as Chief Ranger of Ferguson Valley, I am giving you a direct order. Return to the surface. Organize the volunteers into three groups of runners to lead the slimes away from town.”

"But—"

"This is not a discussion!" Krysanthea cut her off. "This is a command decision in an emergency situation. Obey it or face disciplinary action. We will address your... Superstore shopping spree... when this crisis is contained!"

For a moment, it seemed like Kaledoniya might defy the order. Then she glanced nervously at Nessy, who was still staring at her bracelet with an unsettling intensity.

"Fine," she finally let out.

With that, the bracelet on her wrist glowed ever so slightly with an eerie blue light. In a blur of motion too fast for my eyes to track properly, Kaledoniya vanished down the tunnel, leaving only a faint disturbance in the air to mark her passage.

"I do wonder how many of your sisters are secretly Systemfall-afflicted," I remarked.

"Not now, Alec," Krysanthea growled. "We need to move. The slimes are coming."

Nessy's nose twitched rapidly as she scented the air. "This way! Follow!" she said, pointing deeper into the tunnel. 

The pungent odor of acidic slimes grew stronger behind us, spurring us deeper into the cave system. We moved as quickly as we dared, our headlamps casting jittering shadows on the limestone walls. The tourist path soon gave way to rougher terrain—natural cave formations untouched by human development.

"Watch your step," Krysanthea warned as we navigated a section where the floor dropped away suddenly into a narrow crevasse. "The mapping stops about fifty meters ahead."

"You've never been past this point?" I asked, carefully testing a stone ledge before putting my weight on it.

"No need," she replied shortly. "The slimes never came from this deep before. They always emerged from the same tunnel at the same time."

"’Cus they've been playing you," Nessy said, her ears swiveling to track sounds behind us. "Using predictable patterns as a trick while they multiplied in the deep."

A distant squelching echoed through the tunnel, followed by an unnerving chorus of wet slithering sounds.

"They def’ know we're heading for the source," Nessy growled. "We're a threat now."

We reached a fork in the tunnel, both paths disappearing into darkness. Nessy paused, her nose working overtime as she analyzed each option.

"Left," she finally decided. "The control smell is stronger that way!"

No sooner had we turned down the left passage than a wave of slimes poured from the right, moving with alarming speed. These weren't the slow, amorphous blobs we'd encountered earlier—they were streamlined, almost arrow-shaped, and they flowed across the cave floor like liquid mercury.

"Run!" Krysanthea shouted, firing several shots at the leading edge of the slime wave. The bullets passed through harmlessly, but the impacts momentarily disrupted their formation.

“Grab Alec!” Nessy barked. “Follow me! We’re gonna have to move at top prad-speed! Just like during track events!”

Kristi picked me up over her shoulder and both of them took off on their digitigrade feet, tunnel walls flashing by us. The passage twisted and turned. The air grew warmer, more humid, carrying strange metallic undertones.

Nessy led on, rushing through tunnels and intersections, deeper and deeper into the darkness.

"There's a chamber ahead," Nessy called over her shoulder. "Large one. Intersected by water. It’ll help get ‘em off our backs!"

The tunnel opened abruptly into a vast underground cavern, at least the size of a football field. Unlike the tourist areas, this space had never been touched by human development. Massive stalactites hung from the distant ceiling like stone daggers, while crystal formations glittered in our flashlight beams.

Bisecting the cavern was an underground river—its waters flowing silently from one dark tunnel to another.

"Good," Krysanthea breathed, scanning the chamber. "Water slows them."

“Swim across, don’t drop Alec! Follow!” Nessy barked, already leaping into the river.

Kristi followed without questions, exploding into the river. I clung onto her, spitting water. In less than a minute we were on the other side, all three of us soaked to the bone.

Nessy inhaled and rushed down another tunnel. Kristi went after her, water dripping from her feathery mane.

We rushed down a few more tunnels and reached another massive circular chamber with a silver-violet looking lake. A wide stone island stood in its center featuring what appeared to be a softly glowing tree. Emerald and violet, pale, transparent leaves fluttered in the invisible wind.

"There," Nessy pointed to a series of stone projections that formed a natural bridge across the narrowest section of the lake. "We can cross there to the island! The core is there!”

“Kay,” the raptor nodded, following the husky.

"Something's wrong," Nessy said suddenly, stopping halfway across the stone bridge. Her nose twitched rapidly, ears flattening against her head. "The water... it's not right."

"What do you mean?" I asked, glancing down at the water beneath our feet.

"It smells like..." She paused, struggling to find the words. "Like slime, but different. More concentrated. More... alive."

As if in response to her words, the surface of the water began to ripple. Small whirlpools formed, spinning faster and faster until they rose up like liquid tentacles. The dark water was transforming before our eyes, its consistency changing from fluid to something thicker, more gelatinous.

"It's all slime," Krysanthea uttered in horror. "The entire fucking lake!"

The liquid tentacles reached for us, their tips forming into something resembling hands. One brushed against the stone bridge, and the rock sizzled, dissolving on contact. The acid in this form was far more concentrated than anything we'd encountered before.

"The stone bridge won't hold!" I shouted as more tentacles struck the stone beneath our feet. "Run!"

We scrambled forward as the bridge began to crumble, stones hissing and smoking as they fell into the slime lake below. Nessy leaped the final gap, landing gracefully on the far shore. Krysanthea leapt with me to safety just as the entire bridge collapsed behind us.

“Sheet,” the raptor looked back and what appeared to be a gargantuan human hand made of slimes slowly rising from the lake behind us.

“Get to the tree! The tree has the dungeon core in its roots!” Nessy barked. “Shoot it! Drop Alec so he can distract the giant hand!”

“Drop Alec?!”

"RUN to the fucking tree and shoot the glowing thingy!" Nessy barked. "We’ll draw its attention here!"

Without waiting for a response, Nessy veered sharply left, sprinting along the edge of the island. Her white and black fur made her a perfect target against the dark rock as she howled and waved her arms.

"Hey! Slime brain! Over here, you gelatinous freak!"

The massive, glowing hand of acidic slime pivoted, tracking her movement. Tentacles of slime rose from the lake, whipping toward her with frightening speed. She dodged with preternatural agility, her husky reflexes allowing her to anticipate each strike moments before it landed.

Krysanthea set me down roughly, her amber eyes meeting mine for just a heartbeat.

"Sorry," she said, then took off toward the glowing tree, her raptor legs carrying her in powerful bounds across the uneven terrain covered in stalagmites.

I stood alone, momentarily forgotten. The slime hand loomed above me, its massive form blotting out the cave ceiling. Suspended in that moment of terrible stillness, I had time to observe its structure—not a solid mass, but thousands of individual slimes working in unison, communicating through some invisible network of signals. Purple and green light pulsed through its structure like a heartbeat of undulating waves reaching up from the glowing lake.

From across the island, I heard the crack of gunfire as Krysanthea reached the tree. The sound seemed to trigger something in the slime entity. The massive hand froze mid-air, its attention diverted from Nessy.

It turned.

Toward me.

"Oh, shi—" was all I managed before the hand descended on my person.

The impact was both burning and crushing—acid eating through my clothes, my skin, my muscle, while the sheer weight of the slime mass flattened me against the rock. Pain exploded through every nerve ending, a supernova of agony that overwhelmed my senses.

Then… darkness.

36 Dungeon Core

[Achievement Unlocked: "Helping Hand" - Successfully distracted the dungeon boss by becoming a pancake! That's what we call taking one for the team!]

[Dungeon Progress: Birchwood Cavern Level 1 Boss Encounter Cleared!]

Level one?! That was fucking level one?!

[Deploying Reconstitution: Body severely compromised. Regeneration sequence commencing...]

[Warning: Clothing and equipment lost in acid dissolution. Backup attire not available. Prepare for tactical nudity upon regeneration.]

Tactical what now?!

Awareness returned gradually—first as abstract sensations, then as more coherent thoughts. My body knitted itself back together cell by cell, bone by muscle by skin, the Reconstitution energy flowing through me like liquid silver from my mostly melted remnants.

I gasped, drawing air into newly formed lungs. My eyes snapped open to find myself lying naked in a shallow depression in the rock—a perfect handprint seared into the stone. Around me, smaller slimes flowed back toward the lake like retreating waves with shredded remnants of my hockey goalie armor and clothes.

The lake itself had gone dim and still as glass, its surface reflecting the crystalline glow of the tree at the island's center.

"ALEC!" Nessy's voice broke through my disorientation. She skidded to a halt beside me, dropping to her knees and wrapping me in a fierce embrace that knocked what little air I'd managed to gather right back out of my lungs.

"You're okay! You're okay!" she repeated, her voice cracking with emotion. Her fur was a tad singed in places, her hockey uniform and clothes torn and melted in others, but her blue eyes shone with fierce relief. "I saw it crush you, but I knew you'd come back! I knew it!"

"Nessy," I managed. "Can't breathe."

"Oh! Sorry!" She eased her grip slightly but didn't let go entirely. Her nose pressed against my neck as she inhaled deeply. "You smell… new. Like fresh snow and ozone."

"I feel like I've been through a meat grinder," I admitted, slowly sitting up with her help. "What happened to the slime monster?"

"Kristi shot the core," Nessy explained, helping me to my feet. "The slimes are on their own now, clueless and confused. Come on, you need to see this."

She shed her somewhat melted hockey uniform top with number 7 and tied it around my waist, creating a makeshift covering that preserved at least some of my dignity. Together, we made our way toward the central tree where Krysanthea stood waiting.

The tree was unlike anything I'd seen before—its trunk and branches made of what appeared to be crystallized slime, transparent and glowing with internal violet light. Its roots plunged deep into the rocky island, spreading like a network of glass veins.

And at the base of those roots lay a body.

A human male, perhaps in his late forties, in a ranger’s uniform, his chest split open like a grotesque blossom. Inside the cavity where his heart should have been sat a small, shattered crystal sphere, its fragments still connected to the tree by thin filaments of same glassy material. 

"Holy shit," I breathed. “Who’s that?”

Krysanthea stared down at the body, her expression grim. 

"Ferguson's old park ranger," she said quietly. "Richard Thornhill. He went missing in Birchwood the day Systemfall hit. We couldn't even locate him by prad smell." Her clawed finger traced the air above the crystal structure in his chest. "The System must have found him. Used him. Turned him into... this."

"A dungeon core," Nessy said, her voice somber. 

I stared at the dead man, trying to process what I was seeing. "He was controlling the slimes? From inside the tree?"

"Not controlling," Nessy corrected, her nose working as she analyzed the scene. "He… he was the slimes. Some mad, confused, angry fragment of his consciousness dispersed across thousands of individual organisms, turned and connected through this crystal network." She gestured to the tree. "When Kristi shattered the core, she broke the connection."

Krysanthea holstered her gun, wincing slightly as the movement pulled at her acid burns. "I knew Richard. He was a good man. Loved these caves. Spent more time down here than anyone." Her amber eyes narrowed. "The System must have perverted that connection, turned his love for this place into... this."

A somber silence fell between us as we contemplated the fate of Richard Thornhill.

"Is it over then?" I finally asked. 

Nessy closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. "Yes," she confirmed after a moment. "The coordination smell is gone. They'll revert to simple organisms now—predictable. Manageable."

"We… should recover Richard's remains for proper burial." Kristi let out.

“Umm… how are we getting back across the slime-sea?” I asked, eyeing the eerie lake of slimes behind us.

“We…” Nessy sniffed the body. “We use Richard. The slimes won’t melt him. He’s still their master, even in death. Kris–carve him outta there with your talons.”

The raptor-girl nodded, proceeding with the grim task of obliterating the crystalline webwork of threads leading from the dead man to the tree overhead.

As I stood there, naked save for a Nessy-granted hockey shirt around my waist, staring at the remains of the first dungeon level we'd conquered together, I felt something shift between the three of us. An unspoken acknowledgment that we'd faced death together and emerged victorious. 

[Achievement Unlocked: "Dungeon Delvers" - Completed your first proper dungeon-boss murder as a pack! Rewards: Increased pack synchronization granted to all members!]

[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: "Core Breakers" - Destroyed your first dungeon core!]

[Pack XP: 100/100% - Level Up Available!]

[Countdown until Birchwood Dungeon Level 2 is unlocked: 77:77]

“Second level?!” Kristi groaned, pulling the body of the ranger from the roots. “How many bloody levels are there?”

The system didn’t reply.

“Dunno,” Nessy sniffed the air. “I smell nothing of interest below. Maybe it’s dimensionally sealed off somehow? We’ll know in seventy seven hours, I guess?”

Nessy turned to examine the crystalline tree more closely, its translucent branches still glowing with an ethereal violet light despite the core's destruction. With a decisive motion, she reached up and snapped off a substantial branch about the length of her forearm.

The branch came away with a musical chime, continuing to pulse with internal light in her paws.

"What are you doing?" Krysanthea asked, her voice tight with exasperation as she struggled to maintain her grip on Richard Thornhill's remains.

Nessy held the branch up, admiring how the light played through its crystalline structure. "Souvenir!" she declared with a bright grin. "Pretty, isn't it? Might look nice on the RV shelf. Or maybe I could make it into a lamp!"

Krysanthea's left eye twitched violently. "A souvenir?" she repeated, her voice rising an octave. "From a Systemfall dungeon? Are you completely insane? One crystal tree in the RV isn’t enough for you?!"

"Nope, gotta collect ‘em all," Nessy replied cheerfully. "But you gotta admit it's pretty. Besides, your sisters have been stealing Systemfall shit from the infinite Superstore for weeks! Why can't I take one pretty slime-tree branch?"

Krysanthea opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again. Her shoulders slumped slightly as the fight visibly drained from her. "Fine," she muttered. "Whatever. Just don't blame me when it tries to take over your brain while you sleep."

"Nah," Nessy shrugged, waving the branch about. "Besides, I have a feeling it might come in handy."

"For what purpose could a glowing slime-tree branch possibly—" Krysanthea began, then shook her head. "No. I don't want to know. Let's just get back to the surface before my sanity completely evaporates."

With Richard's body carefully secured by Krysanthea, we approached the edge of the slime lake. 

"So," I said, eyeing the expanse of gelatinous fluid that separated us from the tunnel back to the surface, "any bright ideas for crossing?"

Nessy nudged Kristi forward. The slimes seemed to recoil away from the dead ranger’s body, creating a round depression in the surface.

"Just like I sniffed," Nessy nodded sagely. "Master imprint remains active even after death. The slimes recognize their leader." She turned to us with an unsettling grin. "Time to part the Still Ocean, Slayer-style!"

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare us to biblical figures while I'm holding a corpse," Krysanthea grumbled.

“Onwards!” Nessy ordered.

We moved towards the lake. The effect was immediate and astonishing—the gelatinous mass parted before us, creating a sphere of dry stone surrounded by wobbling, wave-like walls of slime.

"See?" Nessy beamed, her tail wagging triumphantly. "Told ya!"

"This is deeply disturbing on multiple levels," Kristi commented, staring at the glistening walls of slime that towered on either side of our newly formed bubble of safety.

"And yet significantly less disturbing than being dissolved alive!" Nessy pointed out, taking a tentative step forward. When the slimes remained parted, she grabbed Kristi’s elbow and pulled the raptor after herself.

We proceeded across the lake bed, the walls of slime undulating gently around us. Occasionally, a small blob would extend slightly out, as if curiously examining us, before retreating back into the mass.

"I think they're saying goodbye to Richard and to us," Nessy whispered, waving at a particularly inquisitive slime formation.

"They literally tried to kill us fifteen minutes ago," Krysanthea reminded her.

"That was when they were being controlled by a hungry, dead, Bloom-tree-man," Nessy countered. "Now they're just regular slimes, doing regular slime things."

"Like what?" I asked. "What do regular slimes do?"

Nessy considered this for a moment, her head tilting thoughtfully. "Slime around? Dissolve stuff? Procreate through mitosis? Ya kno’, normal slime activities!”

"Fascinating scientific analysis," Krysanthea deadpanned. "I'll be sure to note that in our official report. 'Slime activity post-core destruction: sliming around.'"

"See? You're getting it!" Nessy grinned, completely missing or ignoring the sarcasm. “Oh, oh! We should use this place for garbage disposal! It’s totally a great idea, right?”

“Sure,” Kristi huffed.

As we reached the far shore, the slime sphere vanished behind us, returning to their lake-like state with a series of wet plops. The tunnel ahead led back to the upper caverns, promising a return to the surface and civilization.

“You know the way back, yes?” Kristi asked tiredly.

“Yepperoni,” the husky nodded. "I’ll lead us back to the tourist section," she bobbed. 

"And then what’s the plan?" I asked as we began walking back.

Krysanthea's gaze met mine. "We debrief the team. Submit our report. Prepare for whatever comes next."

"And what comes next is level two in seventy-seven hours!" Nessy added cheerfully. “Ke ke ke.”

"We don't know that for certain," Krysanthea argued, though her voice lacked conviction. "The System message could be a lie."

"You think that the System would lie about that?" I asked.

The raptor shrugged wearily instead of a reply.

Our journey back through the cave system was mercifully uneventful with the exception of crossing the river once again, this time Nessy carrying me. The smaller, random slimes we encountered seemed docile, sliding harmlessly out of our path rather than attacking. The tunnel gradually widened, rock formations giving way to the recognizable tourist path with its safety railings and lights.

As we emerged into the larger chamber on the beach, we found most of the team missing, the rest attending to the wounded. Officer Grayfell was the first to spot us, her silver ears perking up.

"They're back!" she called, prompting a wave of surprised exclamations from the others.

Katerina pushed forward, her golden eyes widening at the sight of her sister carrying Richard Thornhill's remains. "What the hell happened down there?"

"We found the source," Krysanthea replied simply. "And neutralized it."

The team gathered around, a mix of awe and disbelief on their faces as Krysanthea briefly explained what we'd discovered. She left out certain details—notably the System messages and our stats—but conveyed enough that they understood the threat had been contained.

"So the slimes should be manageable now?" Katerina asked.

"Yes," Krysanthea confirmed. "They'll still be acidic, but they've lost their coordination. No more tactical awareness, no more evolution."

"Alec..." Katerina suddenly said, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "Where are your clothes? And why are all three of you completely soaked?"

I became acutely aware again of my near-nudity, the only covering being an old hockey jersey tied around my waist. "Acid incident," I explained awkwardly.

“We got wet because we had to cross an underground river,” Kristi replied tiredly.

"Convenient," Katerina muttered, her claws flexing.

Dr. Barksdale approached, examining Richard's body with professional interest. "How curious," he murmured, adjusting his spectacles. "The crystalline formation appears to have integrated directly with his cardiovascular system. I'd like to conduct a full examination back at the lab."

"Maybe after his family has had a chance to say goodbye," Krysanthea stipulated firmly. "This was a person, not just a specimen. Whatever, please deal with it. I’m beat from running through wet caves.”

The retriever nodded solemnly, accepting the body of the dead man. "Of course, Chief Ranger."

As the team resumed the debriefing, occasionally coordinating with the others in town via walkie-talkies, I found myself standing slightly apart, still processing everything that had happened. Nessy nudged my side, her blue eyes studying me.

"You okay?" she whispered quietly, wrapping me in another fluffy, wet hug from crossing the river a second time. "Being dissolved and reconstituted can't be a pleasant experience."

"I'm fine," I replied automatically, then reconsidered. "Actually, no. It was... pretty awful. Being conscious through it all.”

Nessy's paw found mine, her fingers intertwining with mine. "But you came back. You always will," she whispered, leaning in to give me a face lick.

"That's both comforting and terrifying," I admitted.

"Just Systemfall things," she said with a small smile. "Where everything is both amazing and awful at the same time."

“You!” I heard as Kristi accosted her sister on the beach. “I left you in charge of the Superstore supply runs! Why the shit haven’t you told me that…”

“Shhhh,” Katerina hissed, pulling the angry raptor aside. “Not around others.”

They began to angrily whisper-hiss at each other.