The demon, or whatever the being in front of Vivi was, stuttered a few incoherent noises. He was definitely not an amalgamation, but Vivi wasn't sure if he belonged to a species of demon. His skin was red and crumbling. Some parts of his face lacked skin entirely, showing burned muscles. He had curled horns and a scraggly beard. Unlike the monsters, he wore clothes . A brown robe with a blue cloak on top.

"No horns?" the demon said. He wielded a rusting runic sickle with a defensive posture, though most of the runes on the hilt looked ruined. Only a couple were still intaking ether. "A bloody witch!"

"No," Vivi said calmly. "I'm just an adventurer…"

"Thirty years in this beautiful mess, and there's still new discoveries every fucking day," he muttered as he pushed himself up. Vivi wasn't sure if he was speaking to himself or her. Something must have been wrong in his head.

The demon patted his robe with the hand that wasn't holding the sickle. He wore thick gloves. Then he frowned at Vivi. "You kill me?"

"No kill… you?" Vivi said.

"You after me? What's the word… Capture?"

"I don't know who you are, sir. Where are we?"

The demon still looked cautious. "You a straggler?"

"I'm Vivi," she said. "A human from the surface. I'm looking for my way to the fifth level. What's your name? Sir…?"

"Oh," the demon said. "You're not after me. Good, good. So you an ally? Good. I'm Antonio Giovann. A researcher. Maybe you know me."

Oh lord, Vivi thought.

"We've been following a book written by this coot!" Lucius said. "He's a trickster! Punish him now!"

"Nice to, uh, meet you?" Vivi said. Gods, I really have forgotten how to speak.

"I'll help you if you need me to," Lucius said. "Just ask me for the words to say. I think next you should say, 'To the ground with your hands behind you!'"

We are not robbing him, Lucius. He doesn't know we're criminals. Maybe we can have a friend for once.

"Vivi," Antonio said. "Been long since I said names. Looking for the exit? Yes, that's interesting. The fifth level. Been there once. Funny place."

Something about the way Antonio spoke creeped Vivi out. His writing style in his book was sane. Sometimes even clever. It must have been an old book. The sentences he spoke now were rather unnerving.

But he wasn't a monster. And he had been in the blight for years. Vivi would be stupid not to work with him.

"Do you know about the exit?" Vivi asked.

"Yes, of course," Antonio said. "Follow, follow. My house is near that place." He turned backward and began walking. Then he muttered under his breath, "A beautiful shack it is indeed. I should have prepared for visitors, shouldn't I?"

"It's fine. Any shack is better than the blight." Vivi followed him cautiously.

Antonio blinked. "Shit, I said that out loud?"

"Yes?" Vivi said. Is this man crazy?

"Flipping timbers," Antonio said, whatever that meant. "You actually understand words? I can't believe it. Last I spoke to someone who wasn't Boblin was… probably sixty water seasons ago! I lost my speaking words long ago, but it was really my thoughts I lost? I've been speaking out loud all this time?"

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Vivi laughed awkwardly. "I know the feeling. This forest makes me forget everything I knew about myself."

"Give it a few months more, and the blight will eat your perception of reality," Antonio said. "And bring a few books with you, and you'll start believing the flipping age of chivalries and typhoons still exists outside."

Vivi let out another light laugh. That response seemed to work for everything Antonio said.

"What are you doing so deep in the blight?" she asked.

"Research," Antonio said. "At this moment, I am researching the effects of a miracle plant; the cure for all diseases. Since the discovery of this amazing plant, I haven't felt an inch of an ache or a pain."

You look like you're made of one big pain, sir, Vivi thought. "That sounds amazing," she said.

"It's called mudweed," Antonio said. "The most beautiful plant you will ever see. If you know how to make use of it, of course."

"Alchemy?" Vivi asked.

"Alchemy for the mind, perhaps," Antonio said. "Come see my house. I am glad to offer you a taste."

Vivi's next laugh came out as perturbed, but she tried not to let her discomfort show. She just had to act nice until she could ask him about the way out. "Sure, I'll visit."

A path had been cleared through the foliage. Antonio used his sickle to cut anything that attempted to grow back onto the path. He knew this path well, and he stepped forward with confidence.

Most of the trip was spent discussing mudweed. Antonio explained how he discovered the plant by accident when a batch of mudweed plants caught on fire and he breathed in their poison. Ever since then, his research had fixated entirely on the magic of mudweed. The only times he even left his shack, like today, was to gather fertilizers for his mudweed plants. A surge unfortunately spawned on his path. He was about to go around, when he saw someone killing the monsters.

Vivi responded to each pause in the conversation with non-answers that didn't contribute anything to the conversation. She was glad to listen—to be around another person that didn't try to kill her—she just didn't know what she should be saying.

Antonio didn't seem to mind. He had minutes upon minutes of rambles and words to spread. Vivi didn't gain much information out of him. His rambles reminded her of a priest's long-winded preaching.

A few monsters attacked the path on the way. Vivi sensed them right away. She could have summoned her sword and killed the amalgamations, but she waited to see how Antonio dealt with them.

The researcher kept walking. He pulled out a vial filled with orange liquid from his pockets and flicked the liquid in the monster's direction. The insect-amalgamation scattered away as if it had been hit by fire.

"This is redworm extract mixed with anything that's flammable," he said. "Any monster that touches it will catch fire. The tongue-lizards hate this enough that they'll run away. The other monsters vary. Some variations might run, others you'll have to watch burn. The pink goblin gnolls are the worst. They keep running at you even while they're on fire."

"Uh-huh," Vivi said, wondering what the names could have referred to. To her, the monsters were all just amalgamations, but she wouldn't have been surprised if Antonio had figured out a name for each monster.

Antonio led Vivi to a mound, the bottom of which was surrounded by bones. The mound wasn't tall, but the sky was so low around here that climbing the mound felt like entering a dungeon. Antonio pushed a tree branch out of the way and held it up for Vivi to pass.

On top of the mound, surrounded by a thicket of trees and bushes, sat Antonio's rather peculiar shack.

The area was filled with vegetation. Moss, plants, tree branches. Vivi could hardly walk without stomping on something. The house itself wasn't really a house. It consisted entirely of vegetation, mostly more tree branches. An open hole sat where the door was supposed to.

Antonio stepped in. "Cozy place, don't you think? No need to fear the surges. Everything here is alive one way or another. The house's foundation is built of what my friend called ether root wiring. It's made of metal. Metal that's filled with ether. The branches form around the wiring to make my walls."

Vivi looked around herself with honest admiration. Antonio's clear explanation surprised her. Every now and then, the man actually said something sensible.

The shack looked decent on the inside. Antonio had a bed with sheets, and he had an ethereal lamp. He had a small bookshelf and a table.

Most of the space was devoted to a ladder leading down. Antonio was already on his way down, nudging Vivi to follow. Vivi stepped down the ladder. To her right and embedded into the wall was a bucket. Water droplets dripped from the stone above the bucket. It looked like clear water. Antonio had a water source in his house?

The crazy researcher didn't look interested in explaining where the water was coming from. He continued his rambles and headed down. Below was a workstation that resembled an alchemist's lab. There was a herb crushing bowl and bottles full of some yellow salve.

"My mother used to love me before I started researching the blight," Antonio said. "She even congratulated me when I finished my book. When I found mudweed… She stopped. But it's okay. Mudweed loves me more than my mother ever had."

A strong herbal scent filled the air as Antonio proudly showcased a greenhouse that appeared more like a pigsty.

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