Cipher chuckles, but he doesn’t say anything else.
Stepping out of the safehouse feels like a dangerous decision, especially when Locke tells me about the tunnels filling up with water after the Minor Boss battle. Neither one of us knows how long it lasts, how often it happens, or if it’s triggered by the boss itself. When we ask Cipher, he isn’t willing to give us any of that information, so we decide we’re gonna have to risk it, if at least long enough until we can get out of the caverns.
We open the loot crate immediately outside of the safehouse. The largest item inside is a Vambrace. The forearm armor is made of leather, so it won’t offer much protection at our current tier, but it could at least shield a bit of skin. I offer it to Locke, but after he tries it on his forearm and messes with the ties, he decides it doesn’t fit him very well and passes it back to me. I strap it around my forearm and flex it, getting used to the feeling of it around my arm. There are also four more Harrow Coins, which we split, and a small sharp, glowing blue stone.
“What is that?” I ask, leaning over the small chest.
I hold my hand over it and a small description menu pops up.
Shard:currency used for leveling up a Glitch
“Oh. It’s for once we level up, I guess,” I say. “You take it. You killed the Boiúna.”
“You sure?” he asks. When I nod, he tucks it away in his inventory. “We need better weapons if we’re going to level up.”
I nod. “Yeah, we do. My dagger doesn’t cut anything. It’s too blunt. My pocketknife is barely sharper, but it’s too small.” In fact, the blade is two inches long. It won’t do much good against anything larger than a rat.
Locke straightens. “Alright. Let’s get out of this place and find the next zone then. I’m tired of the dark tunnels. Once we get out, maybe there’s something we can stab with your tiny knife and get XP for. I’d prefer we didn’t run into anything in the dark again.”
It takes us hours to get out of the caves. During that time, I have to spend another twenty XP on charging up my sunlight medallion, dropping me back down to fifty-five. Once we finally see daylight again and exit the caves, it takes us another hour to get out of the sinkhole itself before we stand at the top again. We pick our way through the Secret Abyss slowly, careful not to step in any smaller, hidden sinkholes as we go. We have a few close calls, but we manage to slowly make it closer and closer to the border of the next zone. Locke keeps an eye on his map, much better at navigation than I am, trying to decipher how much longer we’ll have to walk.
When we finally find it, though, he doesn’t have to announce it.
The foliage shifts. Not drastically. The trees are the same, tall and imposing. It’s still unbearably hot, our skin coated in sweat as we cut a path through the humid rainforest. The shift comes from the feeling in the air, a vibration that tells me we’re in danger more than we’re prepared for.
NEW ZONE UNLOCKED: Welcome to the Red Bloom Court
Watch where you step. The foliage has teeth.
“What’s the percentages?” I ask Cipher, pausing just at the edge of the zone after the notification. “In this zone?”
Cipher laughs. “With the weapons you currently hold, your chances are less than thirty percent.”
“And Locke?”
“Are you sure you wish to know, Vespera? It isalwaysless than yours.”
“Tell me,” I whisper.
He hesitates, not because he’s scared to say it, but for dramatic effect. I’m learning that Cipher really likes the theatrics. “Five percent,” he finally says. “Welcome to the Red Bloom Court, Vespera.”
I suck air through my teeth. “Stay close,” I tell Locke.
He nods in understanding, even if he doesn’t fully understand why I’m telling him that. He thinks it’s because I’m being cautious. Instead, it’s just because Cipher told me he has a ninety-five percent chance of dying in this zone and that scares me. I’m not prepared to go through the Harrow alone. I definitely don’t want to learn what that’s like, so I need Locke to keep breathing. It’s selfish of me, and I’ll never tell him that I need him, but I’m only human.
“You have me. You do not need him,” Cipher murmurs.
You’re not flesh and blood, I think.It’s not the same.
He has no answer for that.
There are new plants in this zone, small ones, big ones, some that look stranger than anything we’ve seen so far. To my right, a particularly large flowerhead sits, closed up as if it’s preparing to bloom. It’s larger than my whole upper body, bright red and waiting.
“Look at this thing,” I say, leaning in closer to it.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Cipher advises.
I stop, frowning at the warning, but clearly, Cipher doesn’t warn Locke the same as he did me.
