They emerged from the chamber into a sky tinged green, where the sun bled through a haze of clouds and moss-covered hills rolled out before them.
The air was thicker here.
Alive.
And not with the hum of machines or the pressure of systems, but with growth itself. The land breathed. Vines curled at their feet. Leaves turned to follow their motion. Insects hovered in swarms like scouts. Trees shifted as if listening.
The Verdant Domain.
Second of the five towers.
Ren had expected ruins or overgrowth—but not this. Not presence.
"This place feels like it's watching," Kael muttered, hand hovering near his blade.
"It's not watching," Ilis said softly. "It's remembering."
The land here was intelligent in a different way than the system. Less precise. More… intuitive. Everything felt as though it had purpose, and that purpose had little to do with them.
The system pinged as they stepped deeper into the domain.
Welcome to the Verdant Tower Domain
Alignment Detected: Partial Sync
Environmental Modifier: Adaptive Flora – Memory Growth Active
System Effect: Regeneration Increased / Weapon Efficiency Down
Trial Type: Renewal
Objective: Heal What Was Broken
"Heal?" Meka asked, frowning. "I thought the trials tested power."
"No," Ren said. "They test balance. Ember was willpower. This… this is something else."
The trees opened before them as they walked—parting into paths, then closing behind. The path was being shaped as they moved, and it forced them toward a clearing at the heart of a ravine.
There, a tree stood alone.
Massive. Pale. Wounded.
Its trunk was cracked through the middle, sap the color of silver dripping slowly to the roots below. Around it, dozens of glowing forms moved—beasts of bark and bone, guardians shaped by the tower.
But none attacked.
Ren stepped forward and the system flared again.
Trial Initiated: The Broken Grove
You are tasked to heal the Verdant Core.
Restrictions Applied: Offensive Skills Locked
Required: Use of System Comprehension, Memory Link, Emotional Resonance
Begin.
The others glanced at him. "You're the Seed bearer," Ilis said. "This one's yours."
He approached the tree slowly.
It pulsed once as he neared—emotion radiating from its bark like waves: sorrow, confusion, grief. Then… a flicker of memory.
Ren reached toward it.
The moment his fingers touched the trunk, vision overtook him.
He was inside the tree.
No, part of it.
He saw its past.
How it had once stood alongside four others, roots woven together in harmony. How one root—dark, sharp, foreign—slithered into its base and corrupted the flow of its energy. He saw branches break, leaves blacken, the tower retreat into dormancy.
And then it saw him.
The Seed.
A new root.
A chance.
Ren breathed deeply. He called up the interface—not the combat menu, but something deeper.
[VERASEED PATH - SYSTEM INTEGRATION]
Sub-Routine: Soul Sync
Memory Fragment Detected: "The Fall of Verdant"
Reconstructing...
Memories flooded his mind—images of ancient beings weaving threads of life across valleys, binding emotion to soil. He felt how they grew forests with laughter, calmed storms with compassion, cured rot with truth. There were no spells. No stats.
Only connection.
Ren opened his eyes and stepped back.
"Ilis," he said. "Can you… share memory?"
She blinked. "Like what?"
"Like a feeling. A real one."
She hesitated, then nodded slowly. "I can try."
Ren turned to Kael and Meka. "Same. You too. Whatever's real."
They all stood around the wounded tree. Not in battle stances. Not with weapons. Just with presence. And together, they reached out.
Memories moved.
Ilis offered a moment from her childhood: a home lost, then found.
Kael gave a moment of forgiveness—bitter, but honest.
Meka gave warmth, drawn from a life before pain.
Ren gave all of it.
And in return, the tree began to hum.
Resonance Achieved
Core Healing: 21%... 43%... 67%...
Emotional Threshold Crossed – Memory Bloom Unlocked
Verdant Tower Status: Awakening
Trial Passed
The bark sealed.
The silver sap crystallized.
Leaves the color of fireburst bloomed across every branch, and a wind swept through the forest—not with warning, but with welcome.
Above, far in the canopy, something shimmered.
The Verdant Tower revealed itself—no longer hidden, no longer sleeping. A spire of living wood and crystal, rising into the sky.
And at its base, a door.
Carved not with command, but with invitation.
Ren looked up. Then back to the system.
Seed Path Progression: 2/5
New Trait Unlocked: Verdant Resonance – Enhanced Memory Link
Path Sync: 48%
Next Target: Veil Tower