From amidst the crowd of green and brown clad apprentices, Nar stared up at the glowing red, half cube before him.

The gathering of the Scimitar's apprentices was being herded by their guides towards either of the two middle and crimson shining cubes jutting from the impossibly tall wall of the Labyrinth towering above them. The cube they headed for would take them to the boundary of the Jungle Tops, which stood at the very North of the Brightnight, while the cube besides it would take the other half of the apprentices to the South-East border instead, and into the swap-like Marshlands.

Standing a head taller than most other apprentices, Nar had no trouble stealing a glance at the purple cubes shining on either side of theirs as the queues of apprentices slowly edged forward and entered the jungle.

The cube to the far right, which lead to the Bloodrot, was ominously empty. The purple cube glowed with an almost malevolent shine, as though daring anyone to approach it, much less enter through it and brave the horrific swamp within.

In stark contrast, the purple cube to the left of theirs had what appeared to be a full, fortified encampment of some sort built around it. Makeshift palisades of a dark gray material had been erected to block the access to the Lands of the Atlatl entrance, and there was even a tower built of the same blocky material standing watch over the gate into the fortified compound. The logos of both the Gathum Intertwine and of the Blue Dn'Arrah Fighters shone brightly from projectors by the gate, and the two logos spun lazily in the air, declaring for all to see who were the owners of that dungeon gate. And besides the fortifications, there were also the delvers.

"How many are there?" Tuk asked. He too had been staring at the compound.

"There's about 2000 of them around, between combat and non-combat delvers," Sej said. "About a third of them are currently inside the domain, protecting their assets, while the others are out here."

"Are they just going to wait for us to be done?" Gad asked. "It will be months…"

"No. They've been delving into all the nearby dungeons," Sej said, sighing. "It's become a real knock-on effect of displaced guilds and businesses, and I think some people might even lose their jobs for it."

"Really?" Row asked.

"At least temporarily. Once the big guilds pack up and leave, business will return to normal. There's just too much XP to be made," Sej explained. "But that should give you an idea of the kind of power and effect that a big guild can have."

"Damn…" Jaz said.

"Good thing we're with a big guild then," Teb muttered.

"Damn right!" Sej said, laughing. "Stick with Tsurmirel, and as long as you survive, your future is practically assured!"

Nar glanced over at the compound again. The delvers in green and blue were watching the apprentices with an intensity that bordered on hostility.

"I don't like the way they're staring at us," Jul said, pursing her lips.

"It makes you wonder about all those warnings, doesn't it?" Mul asked, his tone composed. "The strong eat the weak, and right now we are the strong because of Tsurmirel. But if we weren't with them, or if we were somewhere the System can't see…"

He left his words hanging in the warm air, and Nar felt Tuk shifting uncomfortably at his side.

"That's the right attitude to have at least," Sarke suddenly said. "If you want to survive as a combat class."

"And as a non-combat class?" Tun asked in a low rumble.

"We are always at the mercy of the strong," Sarke said, her face neutral. "Whether strength by physical power or strength by social power, all we can do is do and go as we're told, and hope we don't get gobbled up in their games."

Well, they did warn us, Nar thought, clenching his jaw.

"Helenorea, Sarke… You're going to depress the kids," Sej mumbled.

"What? Why?" Sarke said, startled. "You were the one who said we should teach them?"

"I mean… Yeah, but…"

Sarke frowned at her companion in obvious confusion.

"It's alright," Kur said, staring up at the red cube as they edged closer. "We've been warned about it, and we appreciate someone explaining it to us. It's good to be reminded once in a while why we need to continue to work hard."

"That it is," Row said, her face taking in the red tones from the dungeon cube.

Nar took a deep breath and straightened his back.

I think we'll be targeting those rare rewards after all, he thought.

"Anyways, don't you guys need to join our party?" Kur asked.

"Oh, shit! I forgot!" Sej shouted. "There!"

"Accepted. Welcome to the party," Kur said, smiling. "I hope you enjoy working with us."

"I think we will, Kur. I think we will," Sej said, returning the smile.

Curious, Nar checked their party view.

Sej. Level 70 auramancer. Class… Hunter Trapper? I think that's something useful for where we're going, he thought, rubbing his chin absentmindedly. And Sarke is a level 70 aethermancer, with the Botanical Researcher Gatherer non-combat class. I guess that means she specializes in plants?

He considered the two guides in their brown-gray jungle suits that looked to be of a much higher quality, and lower weight and heat than their green-brown ones.

And look at that… Sej is human after all! A blue skinned, yellow eyed human, uh? I guess Creation really is endless.

He grimaced as a dollop of sweat ran down his side, and resisted the urge to loosen his neck clasp.

Sej had been adamant that they had to keep it closed and tight at all times, or else, they would really regret it. And while her tone had spoken of previous experience, her haunted expression had been more than enough to ensure that Nar stayed compliant.

He glanced down at his brown and green gloves. He had tried his sword with them on, and found that the rubbery grip built into the gloves palm sides was strong enough to keep up with his swings, though he hadn't tried going at full [Strength].

Hopefully it doesn't just slip and disappear somewhere… he thought, wincing at the thought of having to dive into a river to collect his sword.

As for his hood, it was nestled neatly and folded behind his neck, and the respirator mask was safely stored in his storage ring, ready to be drawn at a moment's notice. Kur and Jasphaer both had insisted that they practiced the movement, both on donning the masks themselves and on placing it on the others, and just in case, they all carried extras of every piece of gear in everyone's sizes.

As for shoes, they wore even thicker boots than the daily Scimitar ones, the kind that had metal built into its structure for further resilience and toughness. Hopefully, it would all prove to be enough to keep the nasties of the jungle well away from their bodies, and to add to their efforts, they had also sprayed and rubbed several different types of insect repellants across their bodies and their suits.

Crystal… Nar thought, his nose crying in that mess of humid sweat and chemical concoctions as their turn to go inside slowly approached.

His heart hammered in his chest and he was drenched in sweat. He wasn't even in the jungle yet, and already the heat was suffocating him.

Just think of it as training, Nar told himself. Just another way to get that passive pain resistance faster.

"Alright, people. We're here," Kur announced.

There was only one group of people ahead of them.

"Let's keep our heads cool, look out for each other, and do our everything," he said. "We'll all come out of this stronger."

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"And richer," Row added. "Don't forget that."

A ripple of laughter spread throughout their ranks.

"See, I told you it was a good bunch!" Sej said, throwing an arm around Sarke.

"Ugh, please! It's hot enough!" the reptilian woman said, shaking her off.

I still don't know what her race is, Nar thought, eyeing the shimmering green scales as he stepped forward.

"Here we go!" Kur shouted.

And then everything went white.

**********

The first thing Nar felt as his senses returned to him was, unfortunately, the heat. And he immediately realized just how wrong he had been by thinking the heat outside the dungeon had been suffocating…

As he took in his first gulps of heavy, wet, scalding air, he almost burst into a fit of coughing, and several of the others did.

Then came the smell of wet dirt. Of a thousand flowers and fruits. And of blood…

Nar blinked, and suddenly he was there.

For a moment, he had trouble making sense of what his eyes were showing him. The darkness was almost blinding after the glare of the outside, but slowly, as his eyes adapted, it was peeled away by the soft glow of dozens… Then hundreds… And then thousands of pops of many colors spread across his surroundings.

Birds cawed in the distant, shadowed branches far above his head, the roars of distant beasts filtering through the thick tree trunks and foliage.

All around him, every single shrub, every single flower, every single leaf… It all glowed in a neon harmony of purples, yellows, oranges, blues, reds and many, many others besides, and behind him, a particularly massive, smooth, pale tree trunk glowed in an eye widening neon light blue. Tracing the trunk upwards to its heights revealed not the presence of distant branches, but a wide, circular ceiling that spread far and all around them, peeking through here and there through actual tree branches.

That's… That's a mushroom… Nar thought, his mouth dropped and forgotten despite Sej's warnings of what might fly into it.

Around him, in the cloying, smothering heat, the jungle was alive in a way that defied description, and all of it coated in a faint, luminescent mist of faded neon green that grew denser in the distance that surrounded them, obscuring their view.

"My Crystal…" Tuk whispered. "My Crystal…"

His face shone bright yellow from a flower that grew from a stalk that was as big as him, and his mouth too was hanging ajar, his face an expression of pure wonder.

"This is beautiful!" Jul whispered.

"It is… By the Crystal, it is!" Viy breathed.

"So this is why it's called the Brightnight," Nar whispered.

He didn't even know where to look. Every knock and cranny shone with the glow of a myriad colors as mushrooms, leaves and even berries competed for attention, but a sudden flap of wings startled them, and suddenly the spell shattered.

Around them, Nar heard the sounds of other apprentices, not too far from them, and remembering where he was, he quickly scanned his surroundings for any danger.

"We're okay for now, so I let you guys take it all in," Sej said, smiling. "The Brightnight is as incredibly beautiful as it is deadly. But we should get going and put some distance between us and all these people. Before we go anywhere though, make sure that your compasses are all set!"

Nar checked his UI, and sure enough the North point arrow was now present at the bottom right side of his UI. And because he was unable to resist it, he peeked at their party view as well.

0/20,000 tokens, he read, under everyone's faces. And so it begins. No one is leaving here until we have at least that much.

"Leaders to me. Let's have a quick chat about which way we're heading, now that we know where we are," Sej said.

Kur, Row, Gad and Tun formed a circle with her at the center, and while they discussed, Nar once again allowed his eyes to roam around the two parties.

Other apprentices walked through the brush around them, speaking in excited but hushed tones, and a lone bird's song rose above the general cawing, its tune but ethereal and haunting in its beauty, and Nar couldn't help but feel lost amongst all of that serene, lit up beauty.

"What do you think?" Rel asked him.

Nar exhaled slowly. The air, even as dense with humidity as it was, carried a heavy fragrance with it, though as before, he could smell the blood underneath. The touch of rot and death too.

"It's beautiful," he conceded. "But I think the warnings were right. This place is going to be a handful."

"I think so too. But hey!" she elbowed him. "It's all color and light. Just like you like it!"

Nar gazed around him, a slow, shy smile spreading across his lips. "It is, isn't it?"

Light and color. Just like dad always said, he thought, a pang of loneliness ringing across his heart.

He took a deep breath and stowed the thoughts away. He looked back at Rel, but before he could say anything, he noticed something he had hoped to never see again… Her right thumb and index, rubbing hard against each other.

"Are you okay?" he asked her.

She frowned. "Yes? Why?"

He motioned at her hand with his chin.

"Oh…" she said, looking down.

She scowled.

"Always have to be careful around you…" she muttered.

He fixed her with a hard glare. "No. You have to be open, and tell us everything so that we can help you and plan properly."

She winced. "I know. I was just joking…"

Nar bit a retort, as he doubted she was.

"I'm sorry. I know! I'm just a bit nervous. Four months is… A really long time to be away from It," she said, her tone dropping. "I don't want to go back to the way I was before…"

Nar considered a particularly bright, glowing burst of flat purple mushrooms growing from a down trunk.

"Can it happen? Can it revert all the way to being like that again?" he asked her.

"It can… But I should be okay," she quickly added. "I might just get a bit cranky near the end of it."

"And mean?" he asked.

"That too. And… Well, you remember," she said, looking everywhere but at him.

Nar swallowed a sigh. "Well, we're better prepared for it this time. And if it starts to happen, we'll just drop everything and get out. It will be okay."

"Hmmm," she said, nodding. But Nar wasn't sure how convinced she was.

"Uhm… Tuk, is it?" Sarke suddenly asked.

"Yes! That's me!" Tuk said, taking his eyes from that same bright yellow flower that he kept staring at.

"I know that flower is pretty and that it smells good, but it will burn you badly if you touch it," the gatherer informed him.

"Oh…" Tuk took a half-step away from the plant, and then, on second thought, took another full step.

"Do you see the sticky, shiny stuff covering it?" Sarke asked, approaching the plant.

"I thought it was just water…" Tuk said, making a face.

Sarke actually smiled and shook her head.

"This plant is called a yellow siren. It grows a very bright, big flower that releases a very sweet smell which is meant to attract insects to it. Those that can fly are meant to pollinate it or their pollen gets stuck to them and they will pollinate another yellow siren instead," the reptilian guide explained, her voice carrying with surprising enthusiasm. "However, for insects that cannot fly, they will instead get stuck to the plant's sap instead. The sap will dissolve them and they'll become nourishing for the plant…"

"Damn. This place is crazy," Jaz said, with a slight nauseated look.

"Rule of thumb? Just remember that the prettier and shinier something is, the more you want to stay away from it, as most other things in the Jungle Tops shine just enough to blend in. Things that don't either do it as a warning, or as an attempt to draw attention. Either way, you want to stay well away from them," Sarke said.

"Got it," Tuk mumbled. "Stay away from the pretty shiny stuff."

"Exactly," Sarke said, smiling.

Her scales glowed lightly in the dark, the blue dots in them popping as she moved.

I wonder if she feels at home in this kind of place, Nar thought. Also, we told Tuk to stay away from the shiny stuff!

"Interestingly enough, this yellow siren is on our list," Sarke continued. "The sap itself has a lot of medicinal properties if you know what to do with it, but what we're after is just the flower itself… It makes for insane dyes, maintaining its bright, neon yellow for a long, long time."

"Is it rare?" Lim asked.

"Not really. There's plenty of other flora in many other places across the Labyrinth that can achieve the same effect, but like all things, it has its place in the markets," she explained. Then she turned her look to Mul, startling the brawler. "By the way, Mul. You're right next to a netweaver, and the spider is looking straight at you."

The brawler went deathly pale in the yellow glow of the flower he had been staring at.

"W-What? Where?" he asked, not daring to move.

"To your left."

"I don… Oh my Crystal! It's the size of my head!" he shouted, leaping away from it.

"Oh, my Crystal!" Cen cried, covering her mouth as she spotted the arachnid.

"I don't want to look at that!" Cor muttered, turning around. "I don't want to look at that!"

Shivers ran down Nar's spine as he stared at the creature. The spider hung seemingly in the middle of the air, perfectly disguised in its dark subtle colors, and despite its comparatively small size, it somehow evoked in him a more visceral response than the mechanical horrors he had faced in order to earn their freedom. However, the most chilling fact was that had Sarke not pointed it out, he would've missed the spider entirely.

"Don't worry, it's not after you. It's aiming to eat the insects that are lured over to the flower, even any small unfortunate birds that get tangled in the web," Sarke explained. "But it might have bit you out of fear if you got any closer."

Out of fear? Nar thought. He pulled on his [Sight] and at last, he was able to just vaguely make out the outline of the vast web that the spider had woven in between the dense underbrush of vines, leaves and other vegetation.

"And is it poisonous?" Mul asked, slipping behind Tuk.

"Why are you hiding behind me?" the ring tosser shrieked.

"Yes. Though not too bad for someone your size," Sarke said. "You would just be somewhat tense, muscles wise, and you would hallucinate. It wouldn't be pleasant, but you would be okay after a few hours. Maybe less depending on your aura."

"Fire?" he told her.

"Ah, then! It's a very low-level beast, and your aura would burn the poison fast enough. Maybe even in a few minutes. But the pain from the bite would still be significant. But fire? That's a good aspect to bring into the jungle!" she said.

"Great!" Mul said in obvious delight.

"And just like that, welcome to the Brightnight!" Jaz said, laughing. "We just got here and there's already a burning flower and a poisonous spider!"

Lim and Nar shook their heads in unison.

"There's actually more stuff to be aware of right around us," Sarke warned them.

"I actually can't decide if I want to know or not," Viy muttered, scanning the foliage covered floor into which her feet disappeared into. At her side, Jul gulped and stared around her with a frantic look, her antennas wiggling this and that way atop her head.

"You definitely should know," Sarke chastised her. "But, while we wait, why not learn how to gather this flower? Your list calls for a lot of them after all."

Tuk grinned and moved out of Mul's way.

"You a gatherer?" Sarke asked the lengos.

The brawler sighed. "Yes. Yes, I am."

"Alright. So, here's what you got to do…"

As she explained it to Mul, and to Jul, Jasphaer, Lim and Raf, who had approached from where they had been chatting, Nar scanned his surroundings once more. The dense, dark and stiflingly hot jungle looked a lot more threatening than their first dungeon ever did, and even pulling more from his [Sight] and [Hearing], he couldn't tell what was hiding in the chaos of glowing color and shadows. For all he knew, anything could be staring back at him, waiting for the right moment to pounce…

Enjoy your time in the jungle. I doubt you'll ever forget it, Tys had told him.

And for each second he spent there, the more he believed her.

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