With a hiss and a spray of grey mist, the circles sink completely into the floor. What's left of the smell disappears as the magic spreads, and I look out over the dead constructs to see what's happened to them. None of the bodies disappear, and neither do the magical remnants they left behind. Moments later the sound of Clutter's feet on the stairs reaches my ears, and soon enough, he jogs into view with his hands still wrapped but his invisibility dispelled.

"Oh, it's done?" He notes as he walks up to the window. "I thought we'd get a notification the second it happened."

"So did I." I agree and pull out my Class Card. "Nothing new yet. Maybe there's a second stage to this?"

He shrugs. "I didn't even think there were going to be enemies. Want to check inside the wall before we hole up?"

I nod. "Probably the right idea."

As I turn to walk down the stairs, Clutter walls away from them and stands at the window I was just at. He stares out over the wall with a pensive expression, his wraps billowing out behind him giving the scene a strange sense of melancholy. Then the frown fades, his tail starts to wag, and he pulls one of the construct heads out of his inventory to start messing with.

Whatever was there, it isn't any more. But I'm not confident it's going to stay gone. That's a talk for when the quest gives us a blatant safe zone, though, so I wave at his reflection in the glass and start down the stairs. He waves back energetically, and as my awareness lowers with me, I catch the start of some experimentation with the yellow-magic-filled sphere.

"Mrrh… Shelby?" Pearl yawns, stretches, and smacks her lips. "How long was I asleep?"

"About two hours? Maybe a little more or a little less–we don't have an accurate clock in here. You missed some interesting things and a whole lot of walking and talking." I say as I lean down and open a door on the floor. Before I even step down, a cable of blue magic catches my eye. "Well, looks like that worked pretty damn well. Eh, might as well go down and see if it produced anything else."

Pearl oohs and aahs as I slip into the wall, turning her head in all directions to take in how the tower has anchored itself to the wall. All of the grey tentacles sway lazily underneath the tower, gently brushing the walls and floor every now and again with a crack and sizzle of magic, but the real star of the show is the blue.

Massive cables of the stuff embedded themselves in the ground, ceiling, and the walls. They start off as thick as tree trunks right underneath the tower, then branch out into smaller and smaller tentacles that stick to and shoot through the hall like elaborately carved patterns. Most of them completely ignore the rectangular protrusions for some reason, but the thinnest tentacles gently lie over them like overgrown ivy.

"It's strangely beautiful." Pearl notes in disbelief. "All the roots, all the magic… if I didn't know the system was doing this, I'd almost think this was the work of old-style artisans. How'd you get it to happen?"

I carefully drop to the ground, making sure that I don't roll an ankle or zap myself on a hanging tentacle, and slowly walk towards the thickest blue roots. There are six of them in total–four for the floor, ceiling, and walls, and two that seem to go deeper below.

"We just put the catalyst Clutter found into the tower. Then time did its thing." I shrug as I brush away a strand of sticky blue magic. "Did you see the constructs? I'm pretty sure they use similar tech to the liquid magic you were so pissed the forgeries were misusing."

Pearl perks up at the mention of liquid magic. "Really? That's a great sign! Or… a really horrible one. Can it be both at once?"

"Of course."

"Then it's a really great, horrible sign." She says confidently. "If I can take some samples, I might be able to reproduce it for you. But that also means the system can reproduce this stuff, so it's definitely not the one that made the really crappy constructs down in those tunnels. Or it did make them with the sole purpose of not letting me get the designs we needed to recreate it ourselves."

I whistle as I brush through the grey and blue tendrils. "Sounds like a good and horrible thing."

"I know, right?" Pearl sighs and crosses her arms. "All it means is that more possibilities just… opened up… um… Shelby, what the heck are you doing?"

A blue tentacle slides over my cheek, and a grey one looses a magical discharge at the ground not five inches from my feet. I tilt my head to the side in confusion at Pearl's confusion.

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"Walking into the tentacles, obviously."

Pearl's eyes widen. "I can see that. But… why?"

"Why? Why, she asks." I chuckle and shake my head. "Isn't it obvious? I'm doing this because… because… uh…"

I snap my mouth shut and glance over my shoulder. The tentacles have completely closed me in, and now I'm just walking through the space made by the six huge blue ones. With absolutely no recollection of ever thinking–or wanting–to do exactly what I'm in the process of doing.

Magic pours down my back, and I shudder as it slides off my clothes. "Pearl, why the hell am I standing here?"

She furrows her brow and glares at me. "You're not making fun of me?"

I shake my head.

"Oh, then that's not good. Is it subtle mind control? Bioluminescent prey wrangling, maybe?" She looks around seriously, all doubt completely evaporated by my assurance. "Or… what if your skill's still working right now? Do you know if your Class Card thinks you're in the quest proper right now, or are you still in the preliminary steps of it?"

I pull open my Class Card as I make a mental effort to stay in place. My feet don't move against my will, but I can feel my body itching to move the second I let my guard down. I read through the quest description a few times, but no matter how many times I read through it, I can't tell if the quest is technically 'found' yet. We're still sort of purposeless at the moment, but the quest did tell us the ultimate objective for this thing.

"I'm ninety percent sure the quest has started." I say with… well… ninety percent confidence. "So I'm more inclined to believe your suggestion. But I've got a coin up top still, so what's the harm in checking it out?"

"Physical harm. That's the harm." Pearl giggles, but doesn't try to stop me. "I can't feel anything malicious yet. And I have to admit I'm pretty curious."

"Then let's check it out."

I send away my Class Card and summon a few shield coins just in case, then venture deeper into the mass of magical roots. All of the stuff brushes against my skin like refrigerated syrup, slightly sticky but still very much a liquid, yet it doesn't leave a residue. It just rolls off and splatter to the ground, which absorbs it like dry soil devouring a stray drop of water. I raise a hand to brush aside a curtain of the silkier blue magic, then slowly walk into a naturally formed alcove where the six roots have met.

Pulsing blue roots surround me on almost all sides. A soft hum is constantly undercut by the snapping of the grey tentacles outside, but I can feel the hum just as much as I can hear it. Something tells me that there's something important right in this closet-sized alcove with me. Not my awareness, though–that just mumbles at all the magic.

"Do you think it's another phase-thing?" Pearl wonders as she takes a look around. "Because I'm not seeing or… aware-ing anything right now."

"Seems like it." I turn to face the entrance and slowly back up until my head bumps the wall. "The entrance was completely covered, so I'm going to assume the way to see whatever's in here is actually in here with it. Keep an eye out for–"

Pearl points at a point almost on the ceiling. "Symbols?"

I follow her finger to what obviously looks like an eye painted on in sticky, blue magic. "I was going to say clues, but that's way better. So now I guess I just walk around this little place while staring at the–"

"There's another on the floor." Pearl motions at another spot on the ground–this one an obvious 'X'. "They're really making this one idiot-proof, aren't they?"

"I… thats… I had to do a much harder puzzle just to get into the quest in the first place." I grumble as I back onto the 'x'. "What's the point of dialing back the difficulty so much when we've already proven we know how to do this?"

She shrugs. "I have no idea. But it makes your life easier, right?"

"Sure… I guess." I mutter and stare up at the eye. A glistening blue sphere pops into existence halfway between me and the symbol. "Okay, and now it's set to be perfectly at my eye level. The damn thing lured me in here, gave us the easiest 'puzzle' in existence, and dispenses a suspicious orb. I'm going to be pissed if this isn't a trap."

I lean in, shield coins primed in the corner of my mind, and brush my fingers against the orb. A shiver cloaked in blue works its way from my fingertips all the way to my toes. Just as the sensation starts to build, it disappears. And in its place is some brand new text.

Defence successful.

Tower anchored to the city.

Participants: Shelby, Clutter.

If unchanged in 60 seconds, both participants will continue the quest.

"That sounds like it wants you to attack Clutter." Pearl notes. "Weird. Has the quest said anything about losing rewards if there are more of you?"

I shake my head. "Nothing but the assumptions of how splitting loot normally works."

"So… just wait out the timer?"

"That's the plan."

Sixty seconds tick by relatively quickly. No outside forces try to push me to attack Clutter, no constructs appear to attack me, and the root-closet doesn't change at all. I count down the last few seconds in my head as I stare at the screen produced by the orb, and right on time, it changes. At the exact same time as a notification from my Class Card.

Participants: Shelby, Clutter anchored to the city.

Once (4) total towers have been anchored, the quest will progress.

Until then, your time is your own.

Use it wisely, as the anchor is more than it initially seems.

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