Back to the Surface 2

The living pine is quite known in the dungeon, to all of its sapient races. Xyn uses it for many things, especially in alchemy. The Jakari uses it for sorcery etc. 

The value of the dew of this pine was undoubtedly high, so whenever one heard a mass, a flock of people who wanted to get rich would put their hands on it. 

Leonard was aware of such a thing, he was looking around for the Living pine, only going searching for the text that best describes it. 

Well, it wasn't going well. Pine is common in these woods and the Living Pine couldn't care less how it is described as it blends well with anything. 

"Where is it…"

It may be possible that the description of its location may be fake, but if one is caught handling an unreported valuable item the entire Jakari War Council will be brought down on that group or person, that's how valuable the dew of the Living pine is. 

Though, they allow fair game and make it free to take to whoever is first. This is something questionable from Jakari society to treat something valuable as something to be taken like a trophy if you got it first. 

Leonard didn't bother to think over it and continued searching, well until he felt something creeping up on his shadow. He jumped off the branch he was crouching on and saw multiple wooden tentacles surrounding where he was previously standing. 

Leonard let out a cold sweat from almost dying then and there, but he wasn't panicked, instead pulled out his gun and shot it. It didn't shoot out bullets, it shot out a magic bolt. Singing the wooden tentacle. 

"Is that a tentacle or… no a vine is green…"

Leonard muttered looking at the singed wooden tentacle as it squirmed after having something burn it. It immediately withdrew and Leonard carefully followed it. The tree looked so normal it was identical to any other tree. 

Well, if looked from afar. Leonard took note of the massive differences if one looked below the tree. The leaves looked alive, Leonard didn't know how to react but one thing is for sure. 

Within that tree is a valuable resource. 

He aimed his gun directly at its trunk, carefully looking at his surroundings for any sneak attack. Shot multiple times till he could see bluish nectar bleeding out of it. 

"There we go."

Leonard took multiple tools and started working with them, he wouldn't dare just walk up a dangerous tree. Once he set up everything he started walking towards it carefully. 

He activated an amulet and multiple copies of himself started walking around the tree, every so encroaching. The main body just stood as far as a hundred metres away from the tree. 

That seems to be the right decision as the copies immediately got attacked by the wooden tentacles. Ripped to shreds as it coils around the victims with no respite nor pause. 

"It's a bit fast…"

The wooden tentacles were extremely fast and agile like a homing missile; they went ahead and grabbed the copies even though they tried to run away even with the complete set of Leonard's magical skills. 

It was tough, but Leonard isn't discouraged by that. Leonard activated another amulet this time with another strategy, the copy was running around the tree with the mana it was supplied with. 

Multiple wooden tentacles went after the duplicate, Leonard kept observing, the number of tentacles rushing towards the duplicate. 

Leonard activated the amulet once more and a few more copies of himself came out. Leonard instructed them. To run around and wreak havoc on the pine. 

And that they did without being touched, he made the living pine occupied with all of its wooden tentacles. With the distraction, Leonard went in as he saw that one of the duplicates inside the range of the tree didn't have any pursuers. 

But instead, he gave the duplicate the tools to gather the dew. Couldn't hurt to be more cautious around the tree. Once the dew was extracted he went out of there. 

"Five litres, this is good enough!"

Leonard started packing up all of it before something came, he had this nagging feeling that he was being watched, one of the reasons why he had the choker on at all times. 

He started going back home. 

***

"That child is amazing!"

"What did he do?"

"He kept all of the roots of the tree occupied before having a duplicate from the amulet take resources and then leave."

One of the Rangers smiled eerily as he looked at his scrying crystal. He was observing Leonard who he thought at the time was a jakari. 

"And that weapon he has! Incredible!"

The Jakari saw how powerful the weapon the young Boy has, it has a trigger and it would scorch anything that the blue light touches. 

"I don't mind your enthusiasm but the tree?"

"Ah, the tree? He left it alone after getting a few jugs worth of dew. Looks like he isn't that greedy."

"Just needy huh."

"Yes, we should try and find him. His potential is high; it might give our clan some newfound prestige."

"That would be later. Let's grab what's left of the pine."

With those words, the group settled out. 

***

Unlike the razor centipede, the living pine was much easier to handle, well the pine at least had a weakness, unlike the razor centipede that he had to grind for hours. 

Anyways, after the much-needed material was extracted Leonard immediately started heading back home. Thankfully the travel was short and he got back to the cave that is Jai and his hangout area. 

"Hmm…"

It seems that she isn't here yet, so he decided to go and study the circle he had for a long time. He was here for a whole year. It seems to be a long and eventful time. 

He sat down as he reminisced about the time he had stayed here. Bad and good memories flowed, but one thing that occupied his mind the most. It's Jai, like a sister, like a family. 

He had developed some bad habits thanks to her but he couldn't help but smile. She was a great reason to stay and live, a part of him was thanks to her, even forgetting what he's been through from the 1st iteration. 

He started setting up what he needed, from alchemical items to magical items. Today he'll see how good of a performance the magical circle could make. 

He prepared, Leonard made preparations and finished the same hour, his due diligence properly expressed by the circle he had made. 

"Okay…" 

He grabbed a notebook and started writing down the process of his preparation and placed it down on the table nearby. 

"First test…"

He placed a hand on the circle, prepared for a certain backlash or whatever might cause harm. The teleport circle was activated and he felt a lot of mana gathered around it. 

Leonard took a step back and observed. The magic circle dimmed once again after, he couldn't help but be frustrated. 

"There was a lot of mana from the dungeon though… does it need a specific type of mana…?"

Leonard murmured as he wrote down his observation, writing theories and assumptions, before long Jai came back and tapped Leonard's shoulder. 

"Leo! You're already back!"

"Ah– yeah. I'm back." He smiled. 

"Is it the teleport scroll?"

"Yep, I finally got what I wanted, it was easier than the centipede."

"You're comparing a moving blade and a tree, Leo."

"Hush… I needed something to compare a tree to."

Jai giggled at his nonsense, Looking over the circle Jai noticed something looking closer. It seemed nothing but in the circle, one of the thousands of lines, two or three circles would overlap. She inquires about d this to Leonard. 

"Leo, one of the lines has an intent saying respond and location." Jai pointed at two Lines. 

For Leonard who just copied the circle from the circle perfectly nothing seems amiss, but he trusted Jai's concern, she's a dungeon born and she's sensitive to intent out of all things. 

"Really?"

"Yeah, there's a lot of them."

For the record, Leonard is over 98% sure he had almost deciphered the circle. But what if there are hidden intents… what if. 

"J-jai… could you please tell me what the others are?"

"Mm… yeah, vaguely… there is Rift, location, point… and share…?"

Leonard tried to piece things together, Respond, location, rift, point and share… 

'Respond… Location… Rift… Point… Share…'

'No way!'

Leonard realised that the circle was rigged, the advanced circle given to him has an inbuilt GPS to it!

"Wait, I've been doing these things for two years!"

Leonard came to a horrifying realisation. He's been giving away the location of the Jakari, all in the guise of a teleportation circle. 

'Response from Location, Rift Point shared.'

That's the simple meaning of those words, the teleportation scroll was working, but not to his expectation. 

"Jai, let's go!"

Leonard destroyed the circle he had built, out of worry that the Xyn would come here and invade them. Leonard thought that everything would be fine since when he got here he was teleported out… 

He looked at the teleportation scroll. Instead of sending mana to destroy it, he started ripping it to shreds.

"Jai, Jai let's go…"

Leonard said, horror in his eyes. Fear occupied it and it was so noticeable for Jai. 

"Leo, w-what's going on—"

Before Leonard could speak a large rift opened in the air, the two looked at it and were in shock to even move. Leonard was the first to break free from his emotions and grabbed Jai's hand to run, only having his gun in tow. 

"Wh-what was that?"

Jai roared, fear settling on him. 

"The Teleportation scroll was rigged from the start!"

Just as they were running, Leonard felt an immense pressure from his side making him launch into the nearby wall made of rocks, his choker broke and removed the illusion coating him. 

However, his head rang. The force wasn't nice and soft, he barely managed to use mana to protect himself from colliding into stone. 

"ugh… "

He groaned. Eyes blurry, he looked up, at a familiar spider-like silhouette, a thing he would rather not meet in this setting. 

"Took you a long time to rip the scroll… well whatever, you've served your purpose here. Time for you to go back on the surface…"

The words drifted away and his slumber took Leonard away.