Yora Root

The pulsing roots around him would shift every few seconds, ever so slightly, like they had a vast heart connected to the entire structure. It was alive, and it scared Arino, but the lack of an instinctual pull made him feel like he was heading in the right direction at least.

After about an hour of crossing intersecting gorges and ravines, with him stopping to feel the earth beneath him and try to examine it for any pulls from his [Blessed of Stone] attribute, but he felt nothing except the ancient nature of the earth beneath him. 

It was old enough to empower him a bit, but it felt nothing like the unfathomably ancient stone he had encountered in the Nightmare. It wasn't too many hours of that stop and go before he started to feel an inkling of desire to take a left down a gorge that shot almost straight out into the earth. 

Arino took a few steps before a heavy vibration at his feet began to form. He stopped, letting the feeling cascade over him before taking a step back, only to have it cease. According to his instincts, he had been a step away from death. It had absolutely not been his unique attributes pulling him, something far more sinister.

He turned and began his stop and go again, but instead of turning back onto the path he went the opposite direction of the deathly gorge. He wanted to head to the surface, or at least the floor of the main canyon.

There wasn't a mention of the strange vines on the surface of the Reach in his guide, but there was a chance that whatever it was had simply advanced to a new class or rank. Ascension or Corruption of any sort was anything but simple, but still, it seemed possible.

Somewhere way off deep into the reach however, something stirred. Ancient stones were being overturned for the first time in millennia as some slumbering horror awoke from what would have been a never-ending slumber.

But, rather than the wave of terror that an awakening Great or Cursed creature would emit, a pillar of pure, untainted essence shot out from the deepest reaches of the canyons. Arino, as close to the surface as the gorges he traversed were, was still unaware.

He sensed no danger, no spur to pursue the source of power, just a strange feeling of Home.

He felt an indescribable longing, no pull of a devilish mind hex, no instinctual air of danger, just a homesickness within his very soul.

He may not have known it, but his innate ability [Forlorn Spirit] was forced awake with whatever resided deep within the Jormir Reach. An itch was growing in his soul core in his chest alongside the longing, and Arino didn't see a need to resist it. It wasn't like the illusions of the Silver Lotus, or the pulling of his almost supernatural sense for danger, at least until the vines pulses began to come with shorter and shorter intervals between them.

They twitched and danced as his steps became faster and faster, until he finally saw a gap in the ceiling of the tunnel he could fit through. He sent a little pulse of his ability through his body, leaping through the hole with a bit too much force. His shoulder clipped the edge of the hole, shattering the stone there and bruising his arm.

Arino dropped and dismissed the dagger he had in that hand, but the silvery essence it dissolved into did not dissipate. It went in the direction of the pull Arino was feeling. Had felt, he realized. When he activated his ability, it had gone away until the itch returned.

He was hungry, or at least his soul was. He had to hunt and devour something's core or cores, and he knew just what to eat. 

The Stymphae was large enough to form an additional couple cores, but he hoped it was not sentient, or maybe unintelligent. Otherwise the methods listed in the hunting guide could be fully obsolete.

He figured if he could utilize his ability in a short, powerful pulse he could keep up with even a fast Awakened Noble Beast for but a moment. The Lucent horde he had previously outran was especially slow for Awakened Nightmare Creatures due to the originator of the lucent being only a Fallen.

Arino planned on finding some berries or local tasty looking foliage to use as bait for his quarry, and he wasn't going to wait for the ache in his left arm to pass. Short trees grew all around at strange and jagged angles, but they all had little leaves and sharp thorns which didn't seem very appetizing.

His eyes darted from side to side as he ventured through the thicket, crouching under various low hanging branches and trunks. He searched and searched, but no fruits of any sorts seemed to be growing. The tree was fruitless, so he turned his attention to the ground. Far sparser than the tree-like thicket, there was the occasional reddish sprout sticking out of the ground.

They had little yellow flowers at the top of the tallest ones, and he tugged at the base of one of them. It was no trouble for his dormant physique, but it was thoroughly rooted. 

Finally, a yellow bulbous root plopped out leaving a hole in the ground he paid no attention to. It looked like it would be delicious when cooked, and he pulled out his hunter's guide to try and identify it.

It wasn't among the resources he was meant to bring back to Master Gird, but it was described as being partially saturated with essence like everything else in the Reach and quite delicious. The skin had a numbing toxin, but skinning it wasn't troublesome. It wasn't particularly uncommon, but this area was just not it's optimal habitat.

He plucked a quarter of a bag's worth of the roots, amounting to 8 of the fruits. This supply run had a chance of running across several days, or even weeks, but this would make sure he didn't go hungry. He skinned all but one Yora Root ahead of time, leaving the eighth ready to be used as bait.

Arino went back towards the hole he had come out of the tunnels from and began his plan. He stabbed the dagger with the essence poison into it's underside. It ate away at the energy inside the root, bringing it to a mundane state before it began to saturate with the essence condensing his ability. It didn't seem too different from before, aside from a tinge of ill intent a

He had all the preparations he would need; bait, a place to hide, and a way to kill or at least slow down the Stymphae to kill it himself. He knew however, that past the sanctuary of the Soul Tree's branches, one plan was never enough.

What better way to stay prepared than to use two blades instead of one? He pierced the blade he didn't know the specific toxin of into the root, but it started to slowly eat away at the flesh.

After a second of letting it flow to test it, he pulled the blade out at last. The area where he stabbed still bore a festering hole but it wasn't noticeable as long as he set it with that side on the ground. He didn't touch the wound, for fear of the enchanted poison not differentiating from it's wielder.

No caution should be spared with an unknown power like the Nightmare Spell. Despite Elder Iranea seeming to sense the Spell and know some inkling of it, it was unknown to him. Due to that, he decided to venture from the constraints of the spell and a second means of dealing with the Stymphae outside of it.

Elder Iranea had partially explained the rune he described to her from the blade he wielded in his Nightmare, saying it represented a "will to overcome". Now, he knew the rune itself and it's pronunciation, it's meaning, and now it was trial and error. He would have to try to agitate his essence into resonating with the rune to really use the sorcery.

His [Blessing of Stone] made him feel like the deeper into the earth he went, the better chance at success he would have. After all, the more ancient the stone, the greater it's effect on his sorcery.

Arino put away his preparations, stuffing them into one of the little bags he had been given before summoning the bulkier regions of his armor. If he was to venture deeper into the Reach, he wasn't going to do so unprotected. 

He set off, visualizing the rune in his mind and repeating it to himself as his essence trickled in a similar pattern in his core. He laid his hand against the edge of a hole in the earth, easing him through it and down into the Jormir Reach's roots. He felt the ease with which the rune formed in his mind the second he laid his palm against the ground, and it disappeared as soon as he let go to reach the bottom of the tunnel.

He felt he wouldn't have to go deep for the assistance required to comprehend the rune quickly, which was nothing short of a blessing considering the awakened and fallen horrors that resided within the earth's depths.