Chapter Text
"Look, look, Aruru!" Currently hunched over and playing with a pitcher plant that could rip her finger off if she gave it the chance, Nonomiya Lalafin was giggling uncontrollably. Watching the thing spit up a cloud of frustrated spores every time she yanked her finger out at the last moment, she seemed infinitely entertained.
As Ootsuki Aruru skipped over to Lalafin's side to join in with her, Claudine sighed. "Are they always like this?" Speaking through the wet flannel she - and every other member of their expeditionary party - had held over her mouth, she couldn't say she was still shocked by the nonchalance of Aruru and Lalafin, seeing as they'd been practically skipping through the green-and-orange hellhole of the Fungal Plateau for about an hour. At this point, Misora, Tsukasa, Shizuka and now Claudine too, could only say they were 'tagging along'. It seemed to be no problem to any of Frontier that the two were so giddy, but it set Claudine's teeth on edge.
The members of Frontier were all outfitted in identical sets of leather armor, as well as the typical grey duster coat that passed for uniforms in their ranks. And with the flannels they each held other their mouths, Claudine wouldn't have been at fault for not being able to tell them apart had they all not had wildly different colors of neon hair. Their similar outfittings only told Claudine of their expertise, though; less experienced adventurers would probably have waded into the place with full platemail, and drowned shortly after. Light, full-bodied leather was a must in the Fungal Plateau, and Claudine had even had a set of black lizardskin armor tailored for her for this particular expedition.
"Usually they're worse." Misora's head poked out from the ream of parchment she was currently sketching her maps on, checking on Aruru and Lalafin momentarily like a tired parent before turning to Claudine. How she managed to pay attention to so many things at once, Claudine had no idea, but she was sure it was a side-effect of the madness of their entire squad. "Just be thankful they're poking mushrooms, and not goblins."
Oh, so this was a good day.
"At least when we're raiding caves it doesn't stink up your hair..." Kicking another bloated toadstool out of her path, Tsukasa ran her hand through her hair for the third time this minute, clicking her tongue as she found it was just as matted with airborne goop as it was the last time she'd checked. It was the same for everyone; the barely-breathable air of the Fungal Plateau was cloying and choking, biting away at the edges of their weapons or ruining their food at every opportunity. Even Claudine had done her hair up in a ponytail a few hours ago, no longer able to bear the sensation of her clammy hair brushing up against her neck.
"We'll be out soon." Misora reminded them all, pointing to the gaping hole of the Plateau's southern exit: a yawning mess of sloughed off bark. The six were on their way towards a recently fallen branch, eager to explore it, and perhaps find a new horrific strain of mushroom, or perhaps loot a decade-old corpse. Well, the members of Frontier were. Saijou Claudine had recently joined them, the company helping her stay sane as she traversed the sickly jungle, looking for little more than a challenge.
The Fungal Plateau was one of the outermost regions of the Seisho Kingdom. A gigantic tree, probably predating the kingdom itself, dying from the bottom up and gradually being replaced by an army of greedy mushrooms. It was tearing the earth up around it as it gradually collapsed, forming dozens of mile-deep chasms that crowned it, making the cursed tree somehow even more hostile to anyone who dared venture there. The rotting trunk alone was so big that a troupe of unprepared adventures could take hours walking from one end of the to the other, and dangerous enough to kill them five times over during the journey. Having to climb literal mountains of decaying plant matter would be disgusting and exhausting enough to keep most away, even without the unbearable heat and lakes of acid. The only attraction, besides the questionable aesthetics and the palpable air of mystery about the place, was the fact that this incredible growth had been no-doubt made to spring forth by some magical artefact, buried somewhere deep in the tree's core. And thus, most people kept to spreading rumors about the place instead of actually taking the time to venture out and test their luck.
Claudine, however, wasn't most people. She'd been taking baby steps into the tree for the past month, each time testing her endurance to the limits, so that one day she'd be able to safely descend into the roots. At this point, she was confident she could last almost half a week in the place. And in all those weeks, she hadn't found a single person in there with her. That fact supplied her ego with a healthy boost of confidence, enthused by her reinforced position as the top mercenary of the Kingdom. Well, maybe not the top, but certainly the bravest. And that counted for something.
So, when she'd found someone half her size - and perhaps half her age, too - drifting around the outskirts of her camp, Claudine had almost had a heart attack. At first, she'd assumed them to be one of the husks littering the Plateau, considering she was drenched in slime. The husks were dead humans, hotwired by the fungi to drag the living into the slime and have them join their ranks. She'd raised her blade, but when Claudine had seen the girl laugh after bopping one of the mushrooms at her foot with her cutesy warhammer, her fears had been put aside. They were quickly replaced instead by a striking pain. An awful inferiority. If this child could waltz around the place as she pleased, then surely Claudine was doing something wrong if she was having so much trouble. Was there some kind of cheat? Some kind of trick Claudine didn't know? The idea enraged her, and she paced towards the girl with a grim expression scarred across her face.
"You!" Not knowing how else to get the girl to respond, Claudine barked out, storming across her camp towards her. They leapt a good foot into the air, landing squarely on their feet before turning to Claudine. Pink hair, pinned back with two rabbit broaches; a cute, naive face; and a familiar pin on her right breast. Frontier. This was Nonomiya Lalafin. She wasn't a child, and she wasn't a rookie, either. The throbbing in Claudine's chest calmed as she approached Lalafin, who was now merrily bouncing towards her, as well. No matter her appearance, Lalafin was one of Claudine's more learned colleagues. It was obvious, once she was face-to-face with her - the girl's hidden strength and competence practically radiated from her, quietly threatening Claudine with her unassuming power.
"Ku--" Lalafin began, but stopped after realising she couldn't quite remember her host's name. "Kuuuuuu--- Kuro!" She hopped and pointed as she recalled it, keeping a comfortable distance from her, but smiling enough to tell Claudine she wasn't an enemy. She'd met Frontier plenty of times before, but every time the two frontmen had paid little attention to her.
"...Claudine." Claudine reminded Lalafin to use her real name, and not a nickname. "And you're Nonomiya Lalafin, right-hand of Frontier, correct?" She invited Lalafin into her camp, but the girl decided to stay on the edge. She was pleased to see her reputation preceded her, even here. Lalafin nodded in response, looking around herself as she was reminded that she was, in fact, part of a party. "Speaking of Frontier, where are they?"
Lalafin had no answer. The muted shaking of her head told Claudine what she need to know, though.
"You're..." Claudine held back a groan. "You're lost?" Checking again to make sure Lalafin's neon-colored companions were nowhere to be found, Claudine came up empty. "What happened?" Getting lost in an expedition could be a death sentence in the more dangerous areas of the Plateau, so it came as a surprise that Lalafin was still so relaxed.
"The ground gave in, and I fell, and..." Lalafin looked genuinely apologetic, and even slightly scared. It was good that Lalafin had the sense to know how much danger she was in. Cave-ins happened a lot in the Plateau, the rotting wood that passed for floor being less than reliable. "Maybe... Can I... Stay here?" Lalafin peeped out, shuffling her feet and making Claudine curse herself for being so intimidating.
"Go ahead." Claudine gave in in a moment, showing Lalafin to a less sodden spot around the campfire she'd set up. "I should have a few flares somewhere." Claudine had no need for 'flares', considering she was a one-man-team, but an explosive arrow should do, if she shot it upwards and took cover. Did she really need to, though? It felt unpleasant to admit she was so eager to get rid of the girl. Surely, with her expertise, Claudine would be able to deliver Lalafin to her party with ease.
"Lalafin, do you remember where you were when you fell?" She turned to the girl - who was already enjoying some of the jerky from her backpack, tearing the stuff apart like an animal - and found herself at ease. She was clearly happy to have the chance for a rest. Undoing the plate of leather over her chest, Claudine took the opportunity to take a break as well, throwing herself onto the floor gingerly after finding a spot clear of fungi.
Lalafin's head bobbed up, and Claudine remarked on just how similar she was to her trademark rabbits. "Hmmm... Oh! We were walking, and everywhere we went it went poof poof poof, but then I fell, and the whole lake splooshed on me!"
Despite Lalafin only talking in onomatopoeia, Claudine had a good idea where that was. She sat down across the fire from her, rubbing her chin as she tried to find the best way to properly communicate with the girl. "You were walking on a bridge, right?" Fortunately, the place Lalafin had apparently fallen from wasn't far. A lake of acidic slime, able to ruin your weapons but not to hurt the owner, bridged by a series of mushrooms growing from it that gave off characteristic plumes of spores when touched. The clues certainly connected. To fall through the lake, though, must've taken a toll on Lalafin, and the journey through the roots back to the surface would have been ever worse.
She'd let her rest for a moment, and then they'd go to find Frontier together. Claudine certainly didn't mind the momentary purpose - just wading through the Plateau was getting tiring, so a makeshift quest was a welcome break.
"A bridge? Yeah!" Lalafin's memory seemed to come back in bursts. Claudine handed her a towel, and Lalafin thankfully wiped her face and hands down with it, and then mopped up her jerky, eager to finish the rest. Lalafin even offered some to Claudine, but she refused after having seen the state it had been in. "Misora told me to be careful, but I guess I wasn't..." Lalafin huffed, depressed for little more than an instant before she dug back into her food.
Lalafin's complete indifference to her situation was perplexing, Claudine mused. Lalafin was painted as Frontier's 'tank' - even if all that meant was she was the one who fell over the most - but really, the protector of a party should be the one who looks after themselves the most. Lalafin was the complete opposite to Claudine's meticulousness, and despite it being confusing and frustrating and nonsensical, it was strikingly refreshing. "Mmff... I just hope everyone else is okay..." Even if she was talking whilst she ate, Lalafin sounded more than genuine.
"They'll be fine." Claudine nodded, convinced that the rest of Frontier was plenty competent to survive without their titular tank for an hour or so.
Lalafin finished her meal quickly, and after trying to wipe the worst of the fungal slime off her leather armor, the two set off, throwing their packs over their shoulders and stamping out the fire. Lalafin was an exceptionally polite companion, to Claudine's surprise. Perhaps she'd been told by one of her party members not to cause trouble for anyone, but the tiny girl took more than the necessary amount of care to not set off any fungi or run off on her own. She was even well-mannered enough to make small talk about Claudine's broadsword when she drew it to cut through some vines in their path.
"Kuro, isn't that heavy?" Lalafin watched Claudine swing the blade in wide, careful arcs with a slight twinkle to her eye. She was still calling her by her nickname, but at this point Claudine didn't care to change that.
"Of course it is. But it's well balanced, so--" Claudine grunted as she cut another swathe through the glowing vines, taking care not to be caught by whatever substance leaked out. "Wait, don't you use a hammer?" Kicking down the last of it, she sheathed her blade after snapping the goop off it, looking sceptically at Lalafin, and the soft-pink warhammer attached to her hip.
"Well, with a hammer you just go bonk bonk, but you go swoosh swoosh with your sword." The two walked as they spoke, Claudine having to stress her brain to understand what Lalafin was actually getting at. The girl made arm-movements to accentuate her point, imagining how awkward it would be to swing her hammer like a sword. "Why don't we trade weapons? Just for a little bit."
Claudine laughed, picturing Lalafin try to use Claudine's sword when the thing was already almost half her height. "Just for a moment." The Fungal Plateau, or at least this part of it, was devoid of actual enemies, so Claudine indulged Lalafin's request. She unsheathed her sword again, taking a moment to admire the craftsmanship of it - craftsmanship that had partly been ruined, unfortunately, by the stinging acid in the air, dulling the sword after a month of exposure. Still, the crisp black of the pommel, and the amethyst embedded in the crux of the hilt had a satisfying familiarity to it. Not afraid of the blade, she switched her hold on it and held the grip out to Lalafin.
The girl took it, almost falling forwards as the weight made itself known. She brandished the thing with a grin, trying to swing it as Claudine had done earlier. Claudine almost found herself laughing at the display.
"Oh--! Oh god! Lalafin!" From a few feet away, someone called out. "Give her her sword back before you kill someone!" Claudine's eyes were drawn across the opening to find Ebisu Tsukasa sprinting towards them. Considering the girl's reputation as a barbarian, Claudine almost took a terrified step back.
On command, Lalafin handed Claudine's sword back. The rest of Frontier came from the same entrance Tsukasa had, each one of them breathing a sigh of relief as Lalafin came into view. Claudine sheathed her sword wordlessly as Lalafin was bear-hugged by the rest of her team. A job well done, not that it had been particularly difficult.
After they had all had their reunion, and Lalafin had been wiped down and forced to drink an antidote by Shizuha, Misora's attention was turned to Claudine, instead. Aruru, on the other hand, was bumbling on to something else, tugging Tsukasa along with her. "Saijou Claudine, right?" Misora reached out a hand, looking her up and down for any wounds. "I trust Lalafin wasn't too much trouble. We were all terrified when she just dropped through the lake. I thought we'd be searching for a good few hours before we found her."
Claudine took Misora's hand gracefully, trying to keep the interaction as short as possible. "No, actually she was rather well-behaved." Recalling Lalafin's politeness on the way over, even if it was for a short time, Claudine managed a cordial smile.
"Haha, that's good. She's so hard to control, I was worried she might run into someone and drive them crazy. God knows she's already done that to us." Misora chuckled lightly as she watched her party trying to control eachother, dragging their partners one way or another. "You did us a favour by bringing her back to us without even a scratch. How about you tag along with us for a while? We're going to inspect the new fallen branch, we could use a hand."
Claudine had heard the tremendous 'thud' of it's landing a few days ago, and had wondered what it was at the time. As the tree gradually melted and fell apart, the branches and twigs, each the size of a highway, came with it. The amount of adventurers who'd somehow climbed the tree could be counted on a single hand, and despite everyone being able to see the top of the thing, what was actually up there was a well-kept secret between them. So, when something from the enigmatic upper reaches of the bough came down, it attracted a small influx of dedicated, hardened adventurers.
Claudine mulled it over. The fallen branches were typically less infected and less dangerous than the lower parts of the tree, seeing as the fungi hadn't quite reached the canopy yet, but the mystery alone was good enough to attract her out of her hole for an hour or two. "That sounds like a good idea. Sure, I'll accompany you."
And that was how Claudine found herself where she was, sandwiched between Tsukasa and Misora as they followed Lalafin and Aruru through the Fungal Plateau. Lalafin had clearly been forcing herself to be calm around Claudine, seeing as she was now as hyperactive as Claudine had expected her to be from the start. Fortunately, they were almost out of the main trunk, the fungal rash that covered most of the insides gradually dying out as it was exposed more and more to the outside world. Claudine, for one, was certainly gracious for an excuse to beathe her first full lung of air in a few days, after hesitantly taking her hand-towel from her mouth, wringing it out and sticking the thing in her pocket.
Tsukasa chuckled as she watched Claudine's shoulders drop. "How long you been in there, Kuro? You look like you haven't even seen the sky in weeks." Even still, Tsukasa's deep, thankful breathing told Claudine she was in the same situation.
"I wish that weren't true. I've been training to go into the roots, so I've been spending a lot of time here." Claudine wasn't shocked when both of her companions leapt back. In fact, she took a grim satisfaction in their horror. The roots of Fungal Plateau were still her dominion. Even the fearless Frontier wouldn't dare go there, where all the sickly detritis and offal of the above world drained, to only become more poisoned and dangerous.
Misora laughed it off. "Even Aruru isn't stupid enough to go down there alone..." Looking at one of her maps, it was more than obvious that their party had only teased at the entrance, as the scrabbled tubes opened up but never closed. Frankly, Claudine didn't appreciate the use of 'Stupid'. She would've preferred Misora use 'Brave' or 'Strong', but that was just Claudine's insatiable pride talking.
"Can I ask why? You must be getting one hell of a paycheck..." Tsukasa asked as the hull of the fallen branch opened up in front of them - having barely survived the fall, it had crumpled in on itself slightly, but an entrance was still more than visible. An entrance that Aruru and Lalafin were already trying their best to get in, going so far as to use their caretaker Shizuka as a barely-consenting stepladder before hauling her up as well.
"Money comes and goes." Claudine began stepping carefully through the orange blood leaking from the tree, evidence of the infection having taken root. "Expertise however, stays. If I find something down there, then all the better, but I'll be more than happy to get a challenge."
"You sound like a real smartass." Claudine was met with another round of laughter. She didn't mind though; she knew it was more a laugh of admiration, at this point. Adventurers had to push themselves every day, and Frontier was no stranger to this fact.
The three jogged to catch up to the others, getting caught up in the excitement of discovery themselves. After dancing around some pools of unappealing gunk, they helped eachother up into the hole in the crest of the branch, and began to shuffle in single file through the channel of rot.
The interior of the branch was somewhat of a bust - Aruru and Lalafin had been expecting some incredible riches to have dropped from the sky, but the majority of what they found had been the typical strains of mushrooms and stinking pools of goop. That was, aside from the corpse they found at the very tip of the thing, half-buried by bark and fungal growth. After speculation at how long they'd been up there (Lalafin had guessed one-thousand years, and Aruru had naturally one-upped her with a billion.), they dragged the skeleton out and inspected their belongings.
Pulling his half-rotten bag off, they found the thing fell apart before they could even open it up, spoiling the surprise. Kicking away the mould-engrossed packages that might have once passed for food, they scavenged the thing for all they could find.
Claudine, on the other hand, had spied something deeper in the mess of mucous the skeleton had left behind; a gleaming sheathe, which she extracted after requesting Lalafin's warhammer to turn the remaining bulbs of slime into inoffensive piles of mush. Frontier was slightly disappointed they hadn't been the one to find it, but finders-keepers reigned supreme in the world of the adventurer. Whilst the rest of Frontier obsessed over the blade, Shizuka dutifully took the bones of the deceased adventurer in her arms, taking it outside of the branch and burying it. Considering her role as the party's priest, it was no surprise that she felt it was her responsibility.
"What is it?" Aruru bounced up to Claudine, showing the first bit of interest in her since they'd first met. The sheathe itself was slim and short, resembling a dagger. After a bit of a tug, Claudine unsheathed the dagger in a shower of encrusted sludge, to find it all but rotted to the core. The acid in the air, even at the branch's height, must have eroded the thing to it's hilt over the years. Claudine tried not to think what a lungful would do to her lungs if given the chance. Despite the rust, though, the slightly magical core was evident, still glittering despite it's trappings. A good blacksmith would be able to recover it, for sure, and Claudine knew just the person for the job.
A magical weapon, or even the core, was an incredible find considering magic was a dying art in the Kingdom, and collectors were always eager to snatch them up and keep them in dusty glass-cases instead of using them. Claudine had to admit she felt rather guilty taking it.
"You should keep it, Kuro." Misora told her, despite Aruru's whining. "We've got plenty from the sack." It was the truth - Claudine hadn't been watching, but the four had found a small pile of gold coins in the pits of the man's bag, along with a few books to keep Shizuka entertained on the way back. Lalafin had taken to beating apart the throne of vines they'd found the man in, searching quite desperately for any more, but the fact that she hadn't tried to take even so much as a look at the blade told Claudine she was happy for her to have it, too. "Just give us a peek at it if you see us again."
"You can take the sheathe. Not like it needs it anymore." Not willing to take the best find all to herself, Claudine handed over the sheathe to Aruru, who immediately began inspecting the elegant red and purple jewels inlaid across the sides, already satisfied. True to her words, the blade was no longer of any worry to Claudine, having been worn away to a stub, and she stashed the thing in her pack. With that sorted, and Claudine's conscience stilled, the group rejoined Shizuka outside of the branch, who had just finished the funeral rites. They each spent a moment respecting the dead adventurer - after all, they'd just profited quite handsomely off his death - before begrudgingly returning to the interior of the Fungal Plateau. For Frontier, it was the fastest way back to the Kingdom, and for Claudine, she had to return to her training.
"Good luck with the roots, Kuro." Shaking her hand, as was expected after a successful expedition, Misora and Tsukasa politely bid their goodbyes. "As for us, we'll probably be going down there next week. Not much left up here, after all."
And there it was. As if a snake leaping from the brush, Claudine was bitten by a seizing pain. Even though she'd just been happily cavorting with them, Claudine was immediately caught by the desire to outdo Frontier. If they were going down next week, then Claudine would be descending now. And as such, Claudine made that fact known. "I'll be heading down in a few hours. I just need to clear up my camp." Her voice stunk of confidence, and she was fully aware of it. If she could have her way, Claudine would have the whole Kingdom know that she, Saijou Claudine, had been the first to brave the blasted roots - and return alive.
Misora shied away, swallowing as if she'd tasted something awful. "Now? Really? Well, if anyone can do it, it's you..." Misora looked almost uncomfortable, not sure how to deal with Claudine's cocksuredness. "Oh!" Her face lighting up, Misora shuffled about in her bag and promptly handed Claudine one of her maps. "I started a map of the roots a while back, but we never went any further down. I'm sure it'll help us both if you use this." It was an unexpected bout of kindness, but it made sense once Claudine thought about it; Misora's map would be completed, and Claudine could rely on the quality of it as she ventured into the unknown.
Claudine unfurled it and looked inside. It was the completed map of the interior of the Fungal Plateau, including all of the entrances - and exits - to the roots. Claudine had her own version, but it was childish in comparison to Misora's penmanship and attention to detail. Considering Misora was responsible for half the maps in the Kingdom, all of them having been scribbled down as she chased after Aruru, it was no shock. "I'll be sure to finish it." Claudine hoped she could at least try to match Misora's standards.
"Good luck!" With that, Misora bid Claudine goodbye with a curt nod of the head, before turning and having to almost sprint after Aruru, who Tsukasa was barely managing to restrain. And as Frontier walked off, Claudine caught Lalafin smiling at her out of the corner of her eye.
When Claudine returned to her camp to pack up and prepare to leave for the roots, it became painfully aware to her just how much she'd painted herself into a corner. Her better sense told her she'd need a few more days of preparation, but her pride told her she couldn't make what she'd said to Misora into a lie.
"I'm ready." Claudine told herself, forcing her hands to move as she scooped a pack of wool-wrapped food into her bag. "Of course I am, I've been training for this for weeks." There was no better time than the present, after all. Best to strike now, while the iron was hot and her confidence was slightly bloated. She prepared in silence after having convinced herself, attaching her her quiver to her bag, making sure the arrows were still organised, and re-stringing her bow. Drawing her broadsword for a moment, Claudine reassured herself of it's sharpness by swinging it through the air and revelling in the crisp swish of the blade. She'd kept good care of it, and the rot had only taken hold in a few spots, not enough to capsize it's ability to kill.
She took one last look at the map Misora had given her, trying to assume some of the roots' layout by the arrangement of the entrances. As she'd expected, they were nebulous and confusing, and Claudine couldn't find a single scratch of sense to them.
Not discouraged despite the task ahead, Claudine finished packing, making sure the firewood tied to the bottom of her bag hadn't spoiled, and that she had more than enough tinderboxes to last the journey. After confirming what she'd made sure of countless times before she'd left in the first place, she hoisted her bag onto her shoulders and set off, enjoying the mix of fear and excitement that swelled in her chest.
The roots of the Fungal Plateau were exactly as sprawling and complex as the rumors had made them out to be. As every intersection and corner became another set of tunnels, Claudine had to stop every few minutes to scratcher choice onto Misora's map. At first, they'd been a clone of the world above, just without the sky above. But once Claudine had navigated through a forest of hanging bulbs of infection, or scrambled across the lips of a house-sized trapper, she knew she had truly entered the nether. It had all been true - how the worst of the Plateau had drained into the roots, adapting to the lack of sunlight and poisoning eachother as they fought for survival. Claudine's eyes had adapted to the pitiful luminescence of the walls, still having to strain to see properly, but aware enough of her surroundings to plant her sword in a oddly-shaped bough as her fear began to get the better of her. The Plateau was gradually becoming utterly corrupted; every step Claudine took brought a puff of pores into her face, or drenched her boots in mucous. She walked through the entrance alone for almost half an hour, only knowing the time thanks to the jingle of her hourglass as it finished draining.
Once the initial strangle of roots gave way to a series of separate channels, Claudine felt as though she could breathe, or at least finally make some progress. She padded cautiously down stairways made of slime pools, or tried to hold onto the least poisonous-looking plant as she climbed down a cliff-face. The air was becoming thicker, as well, to the point where a wet flannel over her face wasn't enough, and she found herself stopping for air every few minutes, her legs burning as they were forced to run on empty. Every so often she had to have a mock duel with a thorned tentacle that whipped out from the wall, or swat at fist-sized drone flies. Claudine welcomed the challenge, but she knew she was being worn down.
After she was sure a few hours had passed, Claudine decided to make her camp. Beheading a gigantic toadstool, and kicking it until no more pores could come out, Claudine dragged the float over to a corner of the chamber she now found herself in. Planting herself comfortably on it, she was surprised at just how appealing the sensation was. Finally able to take stock of her situation, Claudine examined her surroundings.
As she'd found many times in her journey downwards, she was sitting at the base of a crook in the root. The slightly slanted face she'd just crawled down was covered in fungal bulbs that had sprung up from the slime draining down the cliff, and Claudine could point out the path she'd cut through them. Every once in a while, one of them burst, showering the bulbs below it in gunk, which dripped downwards and collected in a pool that was no doubt nursing some new strain of fungi. The roof of wood above her head was clear, at least to the point she wouldn't have to be afraid of anything dropping onto her in her sleep.
The oddest part of this chamber, however, was the unsettling thing that waited in the corner. Claudine had seen a few of them on her way down, but to see one this large was something new. A tentacle of stark white plant matter, that slowly but surely dragged itself across the floor, trawling the spare mushrooms around it into the pool at it's base, freakishly akin to her own tongue. Usually, a find like this would interest Claudine, but the fact that the fungi was learning how to move at such a pace was petrifying. If she went any lower, would she find fully autonomous toadstools? She dismissed it as fearful daydreaming, and forced herself to close her eyes.
The following day began with no fanfare, apart from the continued scraping of the fungal tongue. Ignoring the temptation to slice it apart with her sword, Claudine went on her way after a short breakfast of soup and crackers, both of which she'd made sure to keep safe behind layers and layers of cloth. She smiled for a moment, realising she'd really come this far. Looking up, she recalled the journey she'd made yesterday. Her confidence had paid off. She'd made it this far, and although she had no idea how much further she'd make it, she would keep moving. She left a stake of wood in the head of the toadstool she'd slept on, as she had been doing on her way down, and then set off.
Perhaps she'd passed a threshold, or perhaps she'd forgotten how difficult the journey the previous evening had been, but the Fungal Plateau's roots suddenly seemed more hostile. Familiar white appendages reached out from every surface, sometimes wrapping their makeshift fingers around Claudine's foot, and being sliced in half for their trouble. Some of them already had their prey - mostly rotted carcasses or the bones of an adventurer - and Claudine passed by unaffected, even if she occasionally cut them down to free the skeletal prisoner. At one point she was forced to use some of her already scant water supply to wash an adhesive slime from her boots, and at another she had to carefully throw rocks into the mouths of trappers to bait them into closing before sprinting across their heads. It felt like the place was evolving as she delved deeper, learning her tricks and figuring her out as she plunged into the hellscape. The simple fact that she, Saijou Claudine, had made it this far without help was enough to keep her moving, but the increasingly menacing fungi were finding ways to drag her back.
Her first real challenge was a chamber of dangling orange banners - as if the mushrooms themselves were claiming their domain. At first, Claudine hadn't worried about them, but when she found her knee stuck fast to one she'd rubbed against, she leapt back and took stock of the situation, cutting away the organic fabric glued to her leg feverishly. She looked up to the find the roof littered with corpses, all bound with vines and mould. This was the same trick that humans used against flies. Against pests. Afraid of losing her sword to the tapes, Claudine set her bag down and took a piece of tinder from it, lighting it and throwing it into the mess.
Her plan worked instantly, and the tapes caught fire with a satisfying roar. In fact, even the air caught fire once the flames were large enough, forcing Claudine to barrel herself out of the chamber and hunker down in a nook in the corner. As she covered her mouth from the smoke, she could hear the dozens of corpses splatter to the ground as their captors burnt up, making Claudine sick. After complimenting her resourcefulness, Claudine continued on, making a mental note to watch out in the future.
In her cockiness, Claudine had really thought she'd dealt with the worst of what the roots had to offer her. Instead, the place threw yet more horrors at her.
"Get back!" Claudine yelled as if the thing in front of her could hear her, her voice hoarse and weak from the thick air. Her blade was drawn, and sweat was already dripping down her forehead, teased out by the cloying heat. By now, she was sure she was hundreds of metres below the surface, but Claudine could have imagined she'd reached the very centre of the planet, considering what was currently in front of her.
A husk, and not a fake one, either, loomed up in front of her, howling as the fungi in it's head tried to throttle the beast's ruined vocal chords. It was - once - a kobold, judging by the scales still remaining on it's bloated carcass, and the elongated snout. The creature's gigantic body consisted more of entangled, straining fungi than anything resembling a living being anymore, and as it forced itself to move towards Claudine, entire globs of unnameable matter came pooling out of it's chest. It's movements were sluggish but powerful despite it's apparent fragility. Claudine was sure she could take it, even with the crooked horn of rusted steel in it's right hand. She steeled herself and levied her blade.
Leaping forwards with an overhead swing, intending to crack the head open and end the fight in one strike, Claudine kept herself composed and dignified, even as she strode through the rotting entrails of the former kobold. What Claudine hadn't expected, though, was how heavy her own body had become. Not only weary and weak from the trip down, her leather armor had practically grown it's own strain of fungi itself, and had become weighted down with the slime and discharge she'd accrued over the last few hours of struggling through the roots. And no doubt, her lungs were probably growing full of the same pus the air was full of. Her lethargy made her swing entirely lacking in power and precision, and Claudine could tell before she'd even completed the arc that she'd missed.
She stumbled forwards, missing the skull by an inch. As Claudine's perspective on it changed, the kobold's mouth looked like it had twisted into a smile. With speed unbefitting such a ramshackled monster, the beast twisted sharply, smacking Claudine in her flank with it's club. She'd managed to shield herself from the worst of it, but the sheer force sent her tumbling across the plain, sending uprooted mushrooms and vines flying into the air. "Ugh!" A disgusted groan was all she could get out of her mouth as she tried to throw herself to her feet. No longer able to manage her bag, she let it drop to the floor and stood, ready for another round with the monster. Running wasn't an option; her pride wouldn't allow it after coming this far. She charged, and--
Thwap!
From the side of the chasm, a thorned arm of fungi leapt out and whipped across Claudine's face, cracking it to the side with an awful noise. She tumbled and fell to the floor, howling as the shock and fear of having her eye almost taken out took hold of her. Unable to fully open her eyes through the pain, she scrabbled for her sword.
Damn it!
The thorny root continued to thrash, having tasted blood, and it tore at her armor as she scratched about on the floor. Claudine could hear the kobold coming closer, gurgling slime as it tried to breathe, giggling affectedly. If Claudine could just cut off the thing's arm, she'd have a chance. Lifting her blade with the intent to catch it as it tried to strike her, Claudine backed herself up against what she hoped was a wall, propping herself up on it slightly.
Come on, you--!
It wasn't a wall. As she pressed her back against it, the hard surface immediately gave way to a softness, and Claudine began to melt into it, immediately feeling the scorching of the acid inside it.
The next few moments were a blur. As Claudine disappeared into what she was sure would be her grave, the blurry figure of the kobold paused, it's strike fixed in mid-air. After a second, the arm was torn off, being thrown across the chasm like it weighed nothing. As the shadow of the kobold became two, another shadow approached Claudine, grabbing her feet - Claudine could see she was grabbing her feet, but she couldn't feel it - and dragging her out of the orb of poison, standing over her.
"Geez... Now!" The shadow that had attacked the kobold shouted out, and Claudine's saviour stepped forwards, sending a stinging bolt at the creature that hit it square in the chest. After being thrown into the air, the monster crashed into the floor, immobilised by it's now shattered limbs.
"Disgusting..." Came a voice from above her. They bent down to pick up Claudine, but the mercenary's eyes were elsewhere.
She was watching a streak of chestnut lighting bolt across the battlefield. It leapt into the air, as the kobold just had, and then plunged down onto it, skewering it with so much ease it made Claudine gawk to think she hadn't even been able to land a single hit. As the goop drained from her eyes, she was suddenly able to tell the figures apart. She already knew who they were, though.
It was her, wasn't it?
And she blacked out.
"...Maya, can I punch her in the stomach? She needs to throw up anyway..."
Claudine felt movement below her. They were running.
"...Oh fuck, I dropped her bag..."
Climbing, now.
"...She had better have some money. I didn't come all the way out here to not get paid..."
She was falling. Oh. She was being dumped on the ground.
"Is she even awake?"
"She's breathing, at least. Hand it over, Kaoruko."
Slowly, some kind of liquid was poured down Claudine's throat. It went a short way before fizzing, sparking, and then forcing it's way back up again. Claudine was wracked from her half-conscious state by a hacking cough, and then threw up. If there had been anything worth throwing up in her stomach, she was sure it wouldn't have hurt as much as it did, but Claudine knew the majority of what came out was from the pits of her lungs.
"Looks like your potion worked. Well done."
"Of course it did."
"Well, we don't actually know if it's working. Kaoruko's potions always make people throw up."
"That doesn't matter!"
Seemingly ignoring Claudine throw up her insides, the three bickered amongst themselves. The grass around Claudine eventually grew a sickly orange, reminding her of the innards of the Fungal Plateau--
Wait, had they really carried her all the way out?
Claudine's head darted up to look at her saviours - or perhaps, her captors. Forcing some kind of dignity onto her face as she wiped the remnants of her episode off her face, she was hardly shocked to find who had rescued her.
"Why?" She spluttered, mouth still half-full of fungal goo. "Why did it have to be you?!" If what she was seeing wasn't a hallucination, it meant that she, along with her comrades, had really managed to get in and out of the roots, taking an unconscious Saijou Claudine with them, in record time. In short, they'd stolen her prize.
"You're not going to thank me? I just saved your life." She laughed, more amused by Claudine's sudden liveliness than anything else. Her two companions were ignoring them, still arguing about the finer points of the potion they'd just fed Claudine.
"Of course not! I know you just leapt at the opportunity to steal my thunder, didn't you?" Making her true feelings known, she tried to stand. She quickly found she couldn't, however, and collapsed back onto the dirt. The four weren't far from the Plateau, having made a small camp outside the forest that crowned it. Claudine tried to turn her head and look at the looming tree, but it made her head swim to focus on anything.
"If that's what you want to think, then so be it." She shrugged her shoulders, knowing she couldn't change Claudine's mind when she was like this. "It's partly true. After all, I'm an exceptionally greedy woman." As usual, Tendou Maya's appetite was reserved for two things; glory, and Claudine's dignity.