Rune Matrix: Programming Magic After Transmigration-Chapter 126: Spirit

The lightroot tendrils were numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They covered every part of the cavern, except for the expansive underground lake. Within a few seconds, the entire cavern became brighter.

Zephyr had initially failed to notice this change. He was preoccupied, observing the lightroot piece he had chopped off.

However, when the wisp floating beside him began to flicker out and disappear, he finally began to sense the change in light.

Looking behind the lightroot tree, he saw the tendrils.

Snapping his head around, he looked.

Taking him by surprise, the lightroot tendrils were waving at him.

Watching a few growing next to his foot, he took two steps back.

’What the heck?’

Honestly, the sudden change scared him.

’This shouldn’t be normal, right?’

He carefully looked at the tree in front of him, but he couldn’t see any change. The lightroot tree looked as if it were frozen in time.

’I chopped the branch. It must have triggered it.’

The tendrils on the ground grew only a few centimeters. Like grass, they poked out of the ground in clusters.

The tendrils on the ceiling were growing into thicker vines, dangling downwards, wrapping around the stalactites.

Depending on the size of the tendrils, the brightness of the light was changing. The thicker vines were now bright enough to illuminate a large portion of the cavern.

Finally, Zephyr could see the scale of the place he was standing on.

Looking over to the lake, he stood there gobsmacked for a good minute.

The cavern was far larger than he had imagined. The lake nearby extended hundreds of meters, possibly kilometers. The light from the lightroot was not bright enough to let him see what was on the other side. To his eyes, only a shroud of darkness remained in the far distance.

Rising from the lake, massive stone pillars were propping up the ceiling hundreds of meters above him.

The measurements he made were crude. The ceiling was bumpy, rough, and irregular; the pillars were also not of the same thickness. It was hard to speak about their scale. Still, it was enough to send shockwaves through his mind.

’If I had swum that way, I would have been totally lost.’

The entrance through which he entered the dungeon was barely visible from where he stood. The hole through which he fell was illuminated by the expanding vines.

’Wait a minute.’

Suddenly, Zephyr paused.

’Were the vines growing... or were they there the whole time?’

The tendrils that emerged from the ground were new. But the vines were too thick to have grown spontaneously.

Now that he thought about it, in total darkness, it might look like it was growing when it became emissive.

’It could have been there the whole time.’

Zephyr looked at the ground and the lightroot tree, which now looked like a dwarf compared to everything else. He paused for a few seconds.

"Did I... perhaps... awaken a monster of some kind?"

He mumbled.

—

Meanwhile, another person had jumped into the dungeon entrance, expecting to follow Zephyr from afar. His body fell faster than Zephyr’s for a few seconds. But vines of light suddenly emerged from the walls, grabbing onto his body.

The thick vines wrapped around him, dragging him to the side of the wall, pinning him to it.

He gasped.

The sudden weight around his chest made the man uncomfortable. Instinctively, mana flowed out, protecting him from being crushed under the pressure.

"Stop."

Suddenly, a gentle, feminine voice spoke, taking the man by surprise.

"Who?"

He twisted his head around, peering into the darkness of the dungeon entrance.

"Who is there?" he asked, exerting force, trying to wiggle his way out of the vines binding him.

The glowing vines were something he was seeing for the first time. It tensed his nerves.

However, decades of combat experience allowed him to think rationally. Even while asking questions, his eyes darted around, searching for an escape path. At the same time, his muscles expanded, loosening the vines around his body. Any second now, he would free himself.

"No, don’t do it. It will kill everyone within."

The voice spoke again.

"Kill!" The man snapped his head around, turning to look in the direction of the voice.

A glowing figure was approaching him from below.

"You will?" This time, his voice contained a dangerous quality to it. The glowing figure stopped for a second.

"No," it replied, continuing to move towards the man. "But that creature will."

"That creature."

The man paused.

He couldn’t sense any killing intent from the glowing creature approaching him from below.

"Explain."

He broke away the vines over his chest, freeing himself.

"Explain, right this instant."

As he was speaking, he grabbed what remained of the thick vine, stopping himself from falling into the dungeon. The warning influenced him and made him stop.

The new leader, selected by the mask, was within the dungeon right now. He wanted to observe the young man. If required, he wanted to protect him too.

But the warning hung heavily over his head.

His eyes moved to focus on the creature emerging from below.

It was a bundle of roots. Wrapped inside was a young maiden who looked exactly like a person. Light was flowing through the roots, pulsing occasionally. The most noticeable feature about her was the thin, wavy, cascading roots on her head, similar to hair, glowing brightly.

The incandescent glow mesmerized him.

"What are you?" he muttered slowly.

The humanoid suddenly opened her eyes.

The eye sockets were empty. The hollow eyes were staring at him.

"I am a spirit. The spirit that guards this land," the young maiden spoke.

The man noticed the melancholic undertone in her voice.

"A spirit," he repeated.

He was suspicious.

The existence of spirits was not a secret. He knew about them. He had also seen quite a few of them before. However, only high-ranking spirits can take on human form.

Was what he was seeing a high-ranked spirit?

"I thought all high-ranking spirits left the human domain fearing enslavement," he said slowly, expecting an answer.

"They did..." The young maiden wrapped in glowing roots nodded her head. "But I stayed behind. Because this is my... home."

There was a short pause between the words ’my’ and ’home’.

"Though you call it the human domain now, it was our home," she added.

What the man said seemed to unearth some sad memories buried within her mind. However, he was not interested in hearing about that.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, "What do you mean, everyone will die?"

The man knew about the dangerous creature. It had also tried to influence his mind. Fortunately, he was strong and had the resonance mark on his body, so he could resist the creature’s deceptive, mind-manipulating powers.

However, while he was dazed, the dungeon entrance opened, making the rest of the people walk into it of their own volition. So, he failed to provide help.

The failure was still in his mind.

Besides helping Zephyr, he also wanted to save the innocent who were brought into the dungeon by the creature, which included both the mages and villagers.

As a high-ranking knight from the order, he couldn’t leave them behind. So, hearing that descending into the dungeon could kill them made him pause.

Meanwhile, the spirit came close to the man and said, "The vile abomination merged with the dungeon. It now controls the dungeon. The moment a master like yourself enters, it will sense danger and mobilize everything it has to fight you. You will die at its hand if that happens. Everyone else will also die."

"What abomination?" The man squinted.