Chapter 12

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Chapter 12: The Watchfulness of Oak Elder

"Did she just say something about not eating the same kind of meat again?" Tasha asked uncertainly.

"Hmm? That’s her idea," Victor replied through the link. "Not a bad idea, anyway, those meats would go to waste."

Tasha rolled her eyes in frustration and looked back at the girl with animal ears lying on the ground, tears in her eyes. She felt helpless.

"Are you feeling guilty for peeking into someone else’s thoughts?" Victor shouted. "Don’t be ridiculous. It’s her fault for thinking so loudly and not protecting her mind from the covena nter. Who’s to blame for being so naive?"

Marion’s thoughts were too strong, Tasha didn’t need to peek deliberately, she could already hear them. Tasha made a mental note to be more careful with her emotions in the future, especially around covena nters like Victor who had malicious intentions. She didn’t want Marion to know that her thoughts would leak when her emotions were intense, as the poor girl was already scared enough.

Tasha quite liked her, she was sixteen and still in high school in Tasha’s world. Marion’s ears twitched as she ate, her big eyes alert, occasionally glancing at Tasha as if she was going to steal her food. She ate so happily, just watching her made Tasha happy. Tasha felt like she could watch her eat all night, like an aunt feeding a skinny poor girl, or a caretaker feeding stray cats under a bridge. The feelings were similar.

She explained to the Worgen girl that it was a misunderstanding and offered water and bread to the embarrassed girl. The kitchen produced bread, meat, and a white melon-like fruit between vegetables and fruits. Tasha didn’t know how it tasted, but it was nutritious. Magic was so convenient, each unit of the cafeteria could magically produce a hundred units of food in each unit of time. Forgive her vague explanation, Tasha found it difficult to measure and convert these things from the past, so she preferred to calculate and plan in her mind, her dungeon instincts were proficient in this, easily figuring out how big a kitchen residents needed.

The bathhouse and restroom were the same, after Tasha stopped the slimes from eating any guests, they settled in the bathroom and began to deal with waste. It sounded a bit gross, but having employees who could turn waste into valuable items, what was there to complain about? After getting organic matter, the slimes even started to slowly reproduce by division. Where they often crawled over, they left a substance that glowed in the dark, similar in brightness to a Magic Stone. Tasha realized she could use this to set up an underground lighting system.

"….?"

Tasha snapped out of her thoughts from other parts of the dungeon and quickly recalled what Marion had just said.

Oh, she said she wanted to go out.

Marion avoided eye contact and said she needed to go to the ground to scout where the enemies had gone. Without reading minds, Tasha could tell that Marion was hiding something.

"I’ll come with you," Tasha said deliberately.

"No!" Marion blurted out, then quickly added, "It’s okay, I can handle it alone. I’m smaller alone, so if I’m caught, I can escape quickly."

She noticed that the ghost wasn’t very fast, but was a bit clever.

Tasha paused for a moment, until she saw Marion’s ears twitching nervously. Tasha regretfully decided that if she ever got a physical form, she would definitely pat Marion on the head first thing. She nodded and said, "Don’t die out there." Marion visibly sighed in relief, nodded repeatedly, and ran out.

"You’re just letting her go like that?" Victor said, "You should teach the pup some manners. She knows nothing about the contract, be careful she doesn’t try to run or pass on information."

"She won’t."

"Because you trust her?" Victor sneered.

"I trust my instincts," Tasha said, watching the Worgen girl walk away, "The others are still with me."

——————————

Marion was still holding a white loaf of bread that the ghost had asked her to bring before leaving. "I can’t eat it," the ghost said, "and don’t die outside, or I’ll be in big trouble."

The last sentence made her- her concern sounded much more understandable, not as intimidatingly friendly. Marion secretly felt she was kinder than many humans, as long as she did not ask the wanderers living there for compensation. Marion was unsure about this, her experience and wisdom were not enough to handle it, so she had to go out and find someone who could understand. This would be much better than directly questioning the ghost for release.

She stuffed the bread into her mouth, the bread was still warm, soft like clouds in Marion’s imagination. The white bread was fluffy and sweet, with no sand or bran filling inside, as if it was all made of flour (saying "as if" because Marion had never eaten that kind, couldn’t judge). Her hunger was awakened and then soothed, her stomach gratefully relaxed.

The surroundings brightened up, revealing the true sky and ground once again.

Marion took a deep breath of the air on the ground, the air still had a human scent, but much fainter than before, they might have left. It was afternoon on the ground, the sun made her just-escaped-from-darkness eyes blink for a while before being able to open them again. The ground’s smell was fresh, open, and dangerous, Marion carefully found the direction and ran towards where they came down.

She found where they had landed, there were some black bloodstains on some rocks and tree stumps, it seemed like it hadn’t rained in the past few days. She walked along the stream for a few steps, momentarily unable to find where Oak Elder was hidden initially. A few seconds later, Marion took a breath and realized what was going on.

There was a big tree among the bushes in the distance.

She ran over, pushed aside the bushes, and called softly, "Grandpa?"

For a long time, Marion heard nothing but the whispering sound of oak leaves rustling in the wind. When Oak Elder was dormant, he was just a normal oak tree, but he once said that after he died, he would also turn into a normal big tree.

Slowly, a pair of eyes opened between the rough lines of the tree, and the flat hollow drooped downwards. A dull, slow voice sounded in Marion’s ears like a heavenly sound, saying, "Marion…"

"Grandpa, we survived!" Marion said joyfully. "We hid and Ella said most people are still alive. Are you okay?"

"Not bad," Oak Elder smiled with wrinkled eyes. "But I’m afraid I can’t move much recently."

Marion nodded and looked around futilely for a while. It was time to talk about the difficult topic, they couldn’t keep hiding forever. She licked her lips and said in one breath, "Grandpa, it’s like this. There were many soldiers at that time, and it was hard to get everyone out. Then I happened to meet a ghost who asked me if I wanted to sign a contract… Actually, I couldn’t understand what it said, but it took out a piece of paper, and I felt like it wanted me to sign. I mean, there were many human soldiers approaching at that time…"

Oak Elder’s eyebrows furrowed when Marion mentioned the ghost, because she was speaking too fast, he only managed to speak after she finished. "You signed, on a paper you didn’t know the contents of, with a ghost?" the old man asked, his brow wrinkling like a tree knot.

"I had no choice, I was about to die," Marion said, biting her tongue at Oak Elder’s expression. "No, I’m fine now! I’m okay!" she jumped in place twice, trying to put on a big smile. "The ghost healed me! She opened the ground as I asked, hid the survivors, treated me, and gave us food. I think she’s a good ghost. Ella thinks so too."

The last sentence was not convincing at all. Ella saw everyone as good people. Marion had a lot of doubts and worries in her heart, but facing Oak Elder, she couldn’t help but say good things, not wanting to worry the old man, as if saying it that way would make everything okay.

"You hid them underground?" Oak Elder’s eyes widened, speaking at a speed almost like a regular person.

"Um, because there was nowhere else to hide?" Marion said uncertainly. "There was a big space underground, with maze-like tunnels and many rooms, enough to fit all of us. I saw her commanding giant statue mice to dig, they were very skilled at it."

"Underground cell!" Oak Elder exclaimed.

Marion wanted to say that it probably didn’t count as a city, most of the places were quite simple, but Oak Elder’s tone and expression made her stop explaining. Grandpa Oak had never looked so serious before, Marion felt a pang of guilt in her heart, sensing she had made a mistake.

The oak tree sighed deeply, leaves rustling, the face on the trunk looking even older. "Marion," he said solemnly, "don’t let that ghost know, get everyone out quickly before others make a pact with her."

"Okay," Marion answered. She should have felt relieved to have a clear plan, but a bunch of questions tangled in her mind. Grandpa Oak seemed to understand what that strange ghost was about, was the ghost also ancient? She didn’t seem too bad, the food she provided looked good too, making Marion unable to resist entertaining unrealistic hopes. This feeling was clearly weak and foolish, but Marion couldn’t help asking, "Why?"

Oak Elder stared at her, as if reproaching her for wasting time asking questions. Marion quickly found an excuse, saying, "The human army hasn’t gone far yet, it would be dangerous to leave hastily…"

"There’s nothing more dangerous than staying in the underground cell, for any creature on the surface," Oak Elder interrupted her, "It’s the outpost of the abyss, the devouring giant mouth, the great enemy of all surface beings!"

"Worse than humans?" Marion said, not fully convinced.

"Worse than humans." Oak Elder shook his head, branches trembling in unison, "We fought alongside humans for centuries, sacrificed nearly half of our people, lost a quarter of the land, just to drive the abyssal creatures out of the surface. They would destroy all beauty on the surface, crush living beings, devour the souls of the deceased."

"But I’ve never heard of the Abyss…" Marion seemed to understand vaguely, "If that’s the case, why aren’t humans fighting against the Abyss anymore?"

"Because we succeeded." Oak Elder said bitterly, "The Abyss and the Heavenly Realm, both are no more."