Symon and Entisse emerged from the narrow hole in the wall they'd been hiding in. He flopped out awkwardly, as there was no easy way to gracefully crawl out of a cave headfirst when it was two metres above ground. At least, that was what he thought until he saw the elf flow out of the entrance like a snake.

With a rueful shake of his head, he turned his attention back to the forest in front of them. She had her talents, and he had his, though neither of them would have time to develop them unless he kept his head on a swivel. The winding tunnel had been deep enough that no noises from his training should have escaped, but Second Step monsters would have more powerful senses than he did. They could also just get unlucky and have something stumble upon them. It wouldn't be the first time.

Nothing jumped out at them, and nothing dropped down from above, either. A quick check had confirmed there weren't any more giant spiders waiting to find him.

The sudden light from the golden crystals glittering across the cavern's roof made him squint, his eyes unaccustomed to the light after the absolute darkness of the tunnel. Still, nothing chose that moment of distraction to attack, so he was satisfied that the nearby area was safe enough.

He turned to Entisse, finding her large, onyx black eyes peering unblinkingly this way and that around the forest.

"The light doesn't bother you?" he asked, a little confused by how quickly she adapted to the change in brightness.

"No," she answered simply.

"But earlier, you seemed to be really uncomfortable with the sunlight outside the manor. I was even thinking about where I could find some sunglasses."

"What are these… sunglasses you speak of? Would they not burn?" she hissed incredulously, using the Common word for it. There wasn't actually a specific word to refer to them, so the words he'd said had literally translated to "glasses of Sun."

It was also one of the few times she'd spoken a Common word. The 'S' noises were sibilant and sharp, though they weren't drawn out in the way that snakes spoke in cartoons.

"No, no, they're like dark glass that blocks some of the light from reaching your eyes," he quickly explained.

"This is an interesting prospect," she said, nodding appreciatively. She stared unblinkingly at the sun-emulating crystals covering the ceiling, then back at him. "They are unnecessary now."

"I can see that. You don't know why, though? I'd guess those crystals are about as bright as the Suns are."

She shook her head. "This is unknown to me, but the benefit will be taken all the same."

Symon mentally moved on. If it worked, then it worked, and he could worry about her eyesight under the real Suns once they actually escaped the dungeon. "Anyway, can you watch over me while I check my Ledger real quick?"

She nodded wordlessly, then put her back to him. He turned as well, focusing on the wall they'd just emerged from and summoning his Ledger.

[You have acquired a new passive: Natural Weaponry]

[Natural Weaponry (0): Boosts combat ability for weapons intrinsic to your body.]

[ Status:

Name: Symon

Class: Cursed Healer

Strength: 1.15 {+0.03}

Constitution: 1.66 {+0.2}

Acuity: 1.18 {+0.01}

Intelligence: 1.17

Will: 1.73 {+0.2}

Vessel (Vitality): 8/23

Passives:

Natural Weaponry (0) {New} ]

"Hey, not bad. Cool name, too," Symon thought.

<The wording isn't exactly what I was expecting, but we did it. Good work, kid,> Keelgrave said.

"Uh, thanks," Symon said, a little caught off guard by the unusual display of positivity. "Thanks for your help, too." Keelgrave had taught him how to throw a punch long ago, but he'd helped him refine things a little more in the cave, though he had only needed the advice at the start. Still, he would respond to Keelgrave's politeness in kind.

His healing hadn't levelled up, but he hadn't been expecting it to. He'd need to push it much harder now that it was on the First Step. Fighting a monster would be great for that, but it would be an equally great way to get killed. They couldn't go blindly charging off into the forest, not when they'd only recently escaped so narrowly from that Second Step spider.

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His ledger vanished with a wave of his hand, and then he walked up to Entisse. His thread lashed out at the vegetation as soon as it could reach, slowly but steadily refilling his Vessel. He didn't want to be caught out with it nearly empty, so he focused on guiding it to the largest plants and ripping the life from them.

"Any ideas?" Symon asked. "We don't want to go back to where we killed the spider, so we either go straight and into the forest, or left and continue along the outskirts."

She nodded, though her eyes remained focused on the forest. "We must take calculated risks to grow, or else we will surely die. The interior of this forest is an unknown. Perhaps the spider was the most dangerous foe, and the weak monsters cowered under the canopy. Perhaps it is the opposite."

"Hmm, good point…"

Estimating the strength of others — both monster and humanoid — was not an exact science. Keelgrave was skilled at it, using a combination of his mana and life sense, as well as decades of combat experience up to the Third Step, to narrow things down. Even still, it was just an educated guess.

Keelgrave hadn't been too impressed by the giant spider, however, and Symon trusted his fighting instincts. "I think the strongest monsters are deeper in the forest." The dungeon had given a recommended level range of 40 to 50, which typically referred to one's highest levelled combat Skill. For a larger group of people in that range, the spider probably would have been an easy foe. There were so many factors influencing the outcome of a fight, and the level of a single ability wasn't the be-all-end-all some might think it was, but Keelgrave was as confident about it as he could reasonably be.

Entisse gave him a measured look, the first time she'd taken her eyes off the forest for more than a brief glance. "We are not yet strong enough," she said. Her disappointment was so clear he almost wanted to put a hand on her shoulder, but he thought she was about as likely to bite a finger off as she was to draw reassurance from it.

"We'll get there," he promised. He'd have to, if he wanted to ever rescue his friends. Or even just survive.

"Then we shall investigate towards the left." Symon nodded and started walking forward, the clock ticking at his heels, but Entisse raised a single, slim finger. "If we encounter a foe too mighty, we will retreat to the burrow. If we are too far, we will find another. They are plentiful. If we find worthy prey, we shall hunt it and claim its strength."

Symon nodded in agreement, but maintained eye contact and only started walking once she lowered her hand.

For how dangerous it was, the forest could be deceptively peaceful. Occasional roars and screeches echoed out from deeper in, but they were rare enough that he could almost trick himself into thinking he was going for a simple stroll along the forest's edge. This only grew more true as they travelled further and further, as he noticed the presence of crystals growing rarer.

Occasional purple growths burst from trees like mushrooms, but they'd gone from being on every second tree to maybe one in a hundred.

"You have anything like these crystals back where you lived?" Symon asked.

Entisse was silent, and he thought she was going to ignore his question to instead focus on keeping an eye out. The next time they passed by one of the crystals, however, she paused and crouched next to it. It was purple, which seemed to be the most common colour, though he'd seen every colour of the rainbow represented in smaller quantities. Straight-edged, hexagonal prisms with a pointed tip grew from the large roots of a tree on the periphery of the forest, around a handspan in length. Symon thought it was quite pretty, and its soft, even glow was still barely visible in the 'daytime'.

"Not exactly," she answered. Her eyes gained a faraway quality for a few moments before returning to normal. Those black orbs could be surprisingly expressive. "Many things glow in the depths, plants and creatures both. A warning or a trap, in most cases." She traced a clawed fingertip against the crystal, eliciting a squeaking screech, like nails on a chalkboard. Symon winced, and the tips of her ears twitched at the painful noise.

"Which one is this?" he asked as he leaned closer, eyeing the crystal suspiciously. "Warning or trap?"

"I do not know." She tugged on the crystal, and a small piece snapped off effortlessly. "It contains some mana, though far less than a core would. Perhaps it would be useful for someone else, but it has little benefit to us." She still slipped the piece into a pocket, the sack with their food having been left back in the cave. They were supposed to be the ones ambushing monsters, so they didn't want one picking up on its scent and sneaking up on them.

"It didn't, like, zap you or anything? I was thinking I could put one in the cave so I could actually see."

"I am unharmed. The mana would not be enough to kill us, even if it did react."

"I suppose…" Symon said, unconvinced. Entisse seemed unconcerned by the crystal's presence, but he wasn't a fan of them. They looked harmless enough, sure, and would make for a great decoration, but he still didn't trust them. He didn't like the way they grew out of the trees, almost like they were alive.

She poked and prodded at the crystal again. "You would treat any wounds I acquired, anyway."

"Well, yeah, of course. That doesn't mean getting crystal shrapnel in your eyeball would be fun."

She shrugged in response, but she at least stopped touching it. Symon wasn't bringing up another concern he'd had, though it wasn't specific to the crystals. His magic could restore literally every part of his body, as far as he could tell. Even his fingernails and hair came back to how they had been before damage. But his brain?

When he'd cracked his skull open after the fall, Keelgrave had told Symon he'd had brain damage. Technically, he wasn't wrong; a concussion was a brain injury, though they were generally temporary and weren't too bad as a one-off thing. He was pretty confident that his healing could fix any permanent damage from building up if he did manage to concuss himself more often.

But what about real brain damage? Of course, if a monster chewed him up bad enough to cause serious brain damage, he'd probably just be dead. But what if he survived? Everything else could be regrown, so bits of his brain probably could be too, but the brain was more than just meat. What if he lost his memories? What if the Symon that emerged after was different from the Symon before? Was that worse than just dying? At least that would be a clean break.

"Are you poisoned?" Entisse asked, her seemingly random question snapping him out of his dark thought.

"Uh, no, why?" he asked in turn, thrown for a loop.

"Your face is all…" Instead of finding the right words, she mimed squishing both her hands together. "I do not understand this face."

"Oh, right." The translation ring did a surprisingly good job with tone, but it did nothing for body language and facial expressions. They'd been lucky to get this far without any serious miscommunications. "Just thinking about the types of things that could kill me through my healing. You know, being decapitated, head crushed, running out of vitality. That sort of stuff."

She nodded sagely. "I understand. We must cover this weakness with the blood of worthy prey." She turned, pointing deeper into the forest. "And I hear something worthy."

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