Jay's skeletons breached the vine wall and stepped inside, all of them looking around for threats, while behind them Jay looked on in wonder.
The ancient roots of the trees were covered with a lattice of crisscrossing vines, forming an elaborate mesh over them.
It seemed that the vines didn't need sunlight as they grew where they wanted; their food was blood instead.
Within the wall of vines was also something that seemed like mounds, but as Jay stepped closer and prodded one, he could see bones inside.
Each of these 'mounds' were actually a sort of cocoon formed by the blood-vines, sealing the trapped creatures in tombs as they drained them of blood.
There were many cocoons between the trees, within the circle wall of vines, and Jay guessed there were close to one hundred of them in this storage prison.
“Well, don't mind if I do.” Jay thought, soon using his gauntlet to pull the bones out of the vine coffins.
Some of them were stuck tightly inside, so he skipped over those, but he soon managed to get around twenty skeletons worth of bones as he walked past them holding his gauntlet out.
Since he was in a hurry, he only pulled out the bones from the ones along the way to the other side - he had already sent the skeletons forward to cut open the other side of the vine wall, making a straight path through.
As he walked through the lair of bone-filled cocoons, something caught his eye, glinting in the sunlight.
“Huh?” he raised a brow, looking over to see another one of those white-silvery feathers, sparkling as if it were a treasure.
Jay didn't really believe in luck or coincidences; he even felt a little wrong telling people 'good luck' so he rarely ever did it.
Walking over to the feather which was sitting just past a large tree, he picked it up and was about to add it to his inventory - however, he saw something behind the tree, nursed between the roots.
If he didn't walk over here to grab the feather, he wouldn't have seen it at all.
It was another vine cocoon, it almost seemed like it was hidden, however this one was different to every other cocoon here: it still had some shades of red in the vines.
They seemed like they were barely hanging on, but still alive, slowly moving around.
The skeletons were busy cutting away at the wall, so Jay inspected it himself.
Bending down, he curiously pulled out an ossein sword and began to cut away at the nearly-dead vines.
“What could have survived for so long...” he wondered, his curiosity driving him forward.
The vines put up little resistance as they were weak. A few times, they even tried to reach out to Jay to drain his blood, but he simply swatted them away and cut them to pieces.
He was getting close to the centre, so he bent down, and using his gauntlet hand, he finally pulled away the vines, half-expecting to see a mummified animal or rotting corpse inside; however there was no smell.
“Final... Huh?”
As the vines parted, he saw two half-opened purple eyes, weakly gazing back at him.
A girl was inside.
She shut her eyes slowly as her life seemed to dwindle, dangling by a thread.
The vines were trying to drain the last drop of her blood to keep living, jealously wrapping around her body.
As soon as he saw her pale face he knew it was an emergency.
Jay furiously started slashing and cutting away the vines, ripping them apart with his gauntlet.
In no time he made an opening big enough for her body to be pulled through.
The vines had attached themselves to her at the wrist, creeping under her skin to source her blood. She was kneeling with her arms at her side, he palms facing upwards as it pulled her lifeforce out of her.
Jay brutally cut the vines near her wrist and then pulled the creeping blood-sucking roots out of her arms.
Barely any blood came out at all, and he wondered how she could even live through this.
For just a moment, he paused, reciting his own thought: “Yes... how could a human live through this....”
Quickly, he analysed her.
[Asra - Level 11]
[HP - 3%]
[MP - 0%]
That was all he needed - if she were a monster it wouldn't have shown her health as a percentage.
The vines were already trying to find their way back into her wrists, as well as into Jay.
Without a second thought he grabbed her weak, slender body and pulled - however she suddenly opened her eyes and grabbed the vines as if fearing to come out.
It was not enough strength to stop him, but enough to make him hesitate as her expression was that of utter terror.
All she uttered were two words before she closed her eyes again.
“Sunlight... hurts” she let go and her body went limp.
Jay hesitated for a moment, but quickly pulled out the noon-leather blanket and placed it around her body with enough to cover her head and quickly pulled her out. He wanted to question it but would save that for later.
After catching his breath for a moment, he stood there with the girl wrapped up in the blanket next to him.
The vines reached out and still tried to consume both of them, but Jay released a barbaric assault on the remains of the cocoon until no red vines were left.
Finally it was dead.
Jay propped up the girl, leaning her against the roots of the large tree as he wondered about her.
“No sunlight huh.” he looked up at the dense canopy above, wondering how much it hurt since barely any light got through the tree tops in the first place.
He turned to look at her, still weakly breathing under the blanket.
“Oh... oops.” he scratched his head, realising he made a mistake.
The fur of the blanket was on the outside; the waterproof, leathery part of the blanket which was still covered in blood from some half-cooked meat was on the inside.
“Uh I guess we will need to find a stream so she can clean herself?” Jay thought.
“But why should I help her anyway...” he wondered, “I guess now that I'm a necromancer, nothing is to stop me from keeping a slave... or a servant?” he thought for just a moment.
“I mean, if I wasn't here she would have died... without my further help she will die. Her life is in my hands, so if I do save her...”
“Ah what am I saying... I have skeletons to serve me. She would just be an unreliable burden.”
Part of him was looking for a reason to help her, as he currently had his own problems to deal with, however the thought of leaving her behind didn't sit right with him.
For a moment, he simply sat there, looking at the blanket with the purple-eyed girl inside.
He was both looking for a good reason to keep her or to leave her.
Soon though he had an epiphany.
“Perhaps I have enough skeletons to support two people, and maybe she will give me some ideas for skeletons.” he thought.
“Hm.. But ultimately, I think I'll do it because I want to. Because I can. Because I'm strong enough” he nodded, “I'll do it at my leisure, like a noble would.” he smiled.
“But I'll have to keep her with me for a while. Can't let her escape and go blabbing her mouth to the mage hunters. I suppose if she wants to do that I could just kill her... or trick her.” he shrugged.
At Jay's command, a skeleton came rushing over. Red rushed to his side.
Jay opened up the blanket, feeling a little silly as her face was already smeared with blood and traces of half-cooked meat.
He tried to give her some water but as he tried to open her mouth she kept it shut tight.
“Mmh” she turned her head away.
“Relax, it's water. You'll need it.”
She shook her head with an annoyed frown.
Jay tried a few more times but to no success, assuming she must have just been crazy from the blood loss, but after some time he gave up.
“Suit yourself.” he said, tucking the blanket around her again - but just as she was about to get covered up completely, she raised her hand and held out a strange pendant.
“...what am I supposed to do with this?” he asked as he grabbed it.
The girl simply kept her eyes shut and tucked her hand back inside the blanket.
Jay shook his head, wrapping her up again before he turned to his skeleton.
“Red. Carry her. Protect her... for now - and don't let the blanket fall off.”
Red bowed its head and tenderly picked up the girl, also sensing that she was weak and delicate.
And so, Jay had another member in his party - Asra. Level eleven.
Like Anya, she had purple eyes, though her hair was a very dark brown, almost black with an ever so subtle sheen of red in it.
Even with her pale skin, her face was beautiful and had a look of elegance and authority about it.
Her attire however seemed weathered and old, as if she had been travelling for years in it - or perhaps, being held captive in a blood-vine cocoon.
Her outfit was quite different to anything Jay had seen. He assumed she must have received it as a dungeon quest reward, or perhaps was from a noble family - though he dismissed the latter thought as they were so far away from the capital that the idea of a noble being out here in the hollow forest seemed like lunacy.
Her long-sleeved top was black with subtle diamond shapes on it, while an insignia of a gold moon was on the top right with 'Luna' written underneath, with a golden trim around the shoulders. It matched her delicate face; it was both simple, elegant, and had an air of authority about it.
Jay walked behind Red, making sure it was carrying her properly while he still held the pendant in his hand.
It was round and thick, cut from a light-grey stone with a flat black stone in the centre. The grey outside stone seemed like an ancient stone, as it was slightly weathered, but the black stone in the centre seemed almost like a polished gem. It was as pristine as ever, and reflected Jay's hazel-grey eyes and dark-brown hair perfectly.
He thought he looked a little dirty, but analyzed it.
<[Guidance]>
[Location locked - Luna]
[Unsated]
[May this serve you well, my Aris]
“Aris? But her names Asra? ... maybe she stole it” he gave a cheeky smile towards her, then looked back at the stone.
“So this is a guidance?” Jay scoffed, thinking she had been led astray.
“Maybe it's faulty” he though, wiping his thumb over the black stone in the centre.
“Ah- prick.”
Despite being a flat surface, it somehow cut him.
Blood dripped from his thumb onto it's black smooth surface but quickly disappeared. Jay stopped walking and watched it closely - the black stone at the centre began to change.
Jay simply stood there, as curious as he was confused.
