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Chapter 40: Whispers Beneath the Roots
The night was quiet.
Too quiet.
Elric stood at the village border, pack beside him. Rocky's stone muscles were tense, claws dug into the dirt. Hiss coiled low, almost invisible in the grass. Melo's petals trembled despite the still air.
And still, the glowing eyes in the fog didn't move.
"Why are they just... watching?" Elric whispered.
No answer came—not from the forest, not from the System, not even from his own pack.
But his instincts told him: this wasn't a simple hunt.
It was a warning.
---
Back in the village, the tension was growing like a storm before the rain.
The village chief, a broad man named Feron, called a meeting. Only a few trusted elders, and Elric's grandfather, were allowed inside the gathering hut.
Elric wasn't.
Not officially.
But he still sat close to the wall, pretending to carve a stick. Listening.
"We've lived here for over two hundred years," Feron said, voice low but tight. "The forest has always been strange, but this is new. The beasts are organized. They aren't attacking livestock anymore. They're circling us. Testing."
Someone cursed under their breath.
Another whispered, "Could it be the curse returning?"
Elric felt a chill crawl down his spine.
Curse?
His grandfather finally spoke. "It's not a curse. It's a call. Something woke up."
A pause.
Then: "The dungeon?"
The word echoed.
Elric clenched the stick so hard it snapped.
---
Later that night, he returned to his room, thoughts racing.
A dungeon? Here? He had always thought dungeons were like stories—underground places full of monsters and treasures. But now, he felt them. Deep beneath Greenrest, like a heartbeat.
The System pulsed softly in the corner of his mind.
> [Main Menu]
— Pack Members: Rocky, Hiss, Melo
— Bond Status: Stable
— Summoning Skills:
—— Golem of the Grove (Dormant)
—— Undead Vine Serpent (Locked)
—— Ashfang Emberling (Locked)
— Dungeon Awareness: [High]
— Anomaly Countdown: 2.8 days
New Notification: Summoning Skill Progress Achieved. Golem of the Grove may awaken in time of need.
Elric blinked.
May awaken in time of need.
It wasn't a direct command. Not a system task. It was... advice.
A quiet nudge.
He liked that.
---
The next morning, Elric woke early and walked to the old shrine outside the village.
This wasn't a real temple. Just a stone circle with overgrown roots and faded carvings. No priests. No holy chants.
Just the wind. And memory.
He knelt and placed a hand on the earth.
"System," he murmured, not expecting an answer, "what happens when the dungeon awakens?"
There was no voice.
But something inside the System stirred. Not code. Not a task.
A vision.
Elric saw flashes—dark tunnels beneath roots, filled with stone doors and breathing walls. He saw a child—his own reflection—walking down endless steps. He saw beasts born from shadows, molded from sorrow and hatred.
And he saw one figure.
A woman with a bone crown and wings of molten ash.
She smiled at him.
Then the vision vanished.
---
When Elric opened his eyes, the shrine had changed.
The roots were gone.
Replaced by strange moss with glowing blue edges. The stones had shifted, rearranged themselves into a circle of symbols.
And in the center?
A seed.
Perfectly round. Dark green. Pulsing.
Rocky approached behind him and rumbled softly.
Elric picked it up.
> Pack Instinct Triggered: Bond to Grove Detected
Golem of the Grove — Awakening State Initiated.
Please place seed where roots run deepest.
Roots.
He remembered the old well behind the village. Once part of the forest, now long dried up. Its bottom was filled with vines.
Without thinking, Elric ran.
---
The well was older than the village itself. Cracked stone surrounded it like teeth around a mouth. The bucket rope had long since rotted, and no one dared go near it since a boy fell in decades ago and vanished.
But Elric climbed down with Rocky's help. The stone beast anchored a vine and slowly lowered him into the darkness.
At the bottom, it was damp.
The air was thick with the scent of earth and rot.
He knelt, found the center, and pressed the seed into the soil.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the ground shook.
Roots exploded outward. Vines wrapped around his legs—not harming, but anchoring him as the seed sank deeper into the earth.
Then light.
A pale green glow filled the well.
A voice—not the System's, but something older—whispered.
"Grove accepted. Guardian waking."
---
Back above, the village bells rang.
A beast had entered the farms.
Elric scrambled out of the well and ran.
The fields were a mess. Crops burned. Smoke filled the air. Villagers grabbed pitchforks and tools. And standing in the middle of the farmland was a creature with four legs, twisted bark for skin, and a head shaped like a bird skull.
It let out a screech that cracked windows.
Elric didn't hesitate.
He reached out to the bond he felt in the roots.
He didn't command.
He called.
And from the earth behind the beast, a new figure rose.
Ten feet tall.
Shoulders wide, body carved from wood and stone, with eyes like tiny moons.
The Golem of the Grove.
---
The villagers gasped.
The beast turned.
The golem stepped forward, each foot shaking the ground. It raised its hand and struck the bird-skull monster across the field with one hit.
No flash. No dramatic skill effect.
Just raw, ancient strength.
The battle was over in seconds.
The golem turned to Elric and knelt.
A bond formed—not through dominance. But through trust.
> Pack Updated: Golem of the Grove added
New Skill Tree Unlocked: Nature-bound Constructs
Dungeon Depth Pulse: 76%
Anomaly Countdown: 2.1 Days
The villagers stared.
But no one cheered.
Because behind the silence, they could all feel it now:
This was only the beginning.
---
That night, Elric sat on the roof of their home. His sisters were asleep. His mother was sewing by the firelight. Juno was still helping the hunters repair the walls.
And his grandfather?
Sitting beside him, chewing on a stalk of something that smelled bitter.
"You've awakened it," the old man said.
"Yeah."
"Do you feel it?"
Elric nodded. "The dungeon."
"It's waiting. But not for long."
They sat in silence for a while.
Then Elric asked, "Why does it feel like the world is watching me?"
His grandfather didn't smile.
Because it was true.
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