Maybe her mama would call her reckless for wanting to jump glaives-first into the thick vertical vines, but she really couldn't afford to shimmy down at a snail's pace. It was either go or die, and losing her mama's book without even having read a page of it would kill her inside.

Sucking in a sharp breath, she leaped down the hole, stabbed her glaives into the vine, and gravity did the rest.

… Oh.

This feels kinda wrong.

Fifty meters was a long way to the bottom, but her glaives carved through the vine as gravity dragged her down, a funnel of wind rushed through her hair. It was almost a free fall, though not quite. For a second, her brain scrambled to make sense of the suddenly rising ground. Before she even knew it, though, she slid all the way down to the bottom and started sliding down an extremely steep slope of tough soil and sand.

She regained her bearings and focused on keeping her balance as she continued sliding down. Her eyes widened at the underground coral-crystal forest around her.

What is this place, anyways?

[I have no explanation.]

As she skated after the crab boy, her eyes caught on the giant coral lumps sprouting from the ground like trees. It really was a peculiar sight: it was an entire world hidden beneath the island: the ceiling was fifty meters overhead, the end of the cavern was nowhere in sight, and giant aquamarine crystals rose everywhere like braziers lit with bluish-pink light. Vibrant shrubs, discarded giant crustaceans shells, and tons of what looked like aquatic vegetation were all around her. It made her wonder if this massive underground cavern used to be submerged—if it was one of those 'low tide, high tide' things she'd read about as a child. Maybe this dried-up coral forest was supposed to be submerged normally, but on low tide days, people could traverse the island through this underground cavern?

It was all the more reason for her to catch the boy and get out quickly, though, if the entire cavern was liable to flood at any given moment.

… Easier said than done, of course. She was also constantly distracted by the scenery. As she skated across the coral forest, chasing the boy's skittering shadow, her eyes latched onto the dazzling crystals all around. She looked at the vibrant corals growing upside-down on the ceiling like chandeliers. There were shimmering bubbles floating everywhere, and on more than a few occasions, she felt like jumping off to poke one with her glaives—

[Please refrain. I know this is all very pretty and you have never been outside your boring desert town, but please focus on your target.]

Right!

Poking and admiring the scenery could come later. Chasing the boy down had to come first, but damn if he wasn't a dozen times faster than his tiny body suggested. She had to be skating as fast as she'd been on the stormy seas, but the boy's sideways skittering was just as agile, if not even more so. She had to make sharp turns a couple times as she skated through the coral forest. Since her glaives were technically carving through the hard soil as she moved, turning was extraordinarily difficult. She had to slow down just to avoid flying off the ground during especially sharp turns.

The straw that broke the camel's back was when she chased him into the denser parts of the coral forest. Walls of vines started appearing in her way. Every time she faced one head-on, she had no choice but to brace her arms in front of her and ram through, wall after wall. Her forearms started bleeding and the pain started to get to her. Her skating balance began to falter. Her average speed dropped drastically. The boy was always only ten meters ahead, but she was fatiguing and the distance between them steadily grew.

At this rate, she wouldn't just lose him. She'd probably break her body ramming into the vines over and over, and then…

The crabs will get to me. They'll eat my corpse—

[No, they will not. You have nine points remaining, remember? I would recommend either increasing your toughness or strength to level three. Both options would cost eight points, but considering you are running headfirst into every single wall of vines, I would recommend toughne—]

Talking to Archive while skating at insanely high speed broke her concentration. She crashed into a particularly thick wall of vines, but she didn't break through this one as usual; something tripped her up, and she lost her balance entirely.

A small gasp escaped her as she flew forward and landed hard on her chest. The air had all been knocked out of her lungs, and in came the pain.

She had to get back up and start skating again, else she'd run the risk of losing the boy's retreating shadow entirely.

… No.

Toughness ain't right.

A Sand-Dancer has no business getting hit by anything while dancing.

She inhaled sharply, invigorating her mind, body, and spirit. She had more power still. She had more stamina still. She shoved herself onto her glaives, cracked her neck, and began speeding after the boy once more.

This time, she stopped thinking about toughing it through the walls of vines. She recalled her mama's techniques, the many bedtime stories she'd been told while lying on the shared bed next to the window, staring out at the starry night sky. There was always, always, always a sand-dancing technique to overcome every obstacle, and while she'd never had to get too technical with her routines entertaining a crowd for donations, this was a scenario where she had to remember her more special techniques.

She did know a way to get through the walls of vines, didn't she?

… 'Sand-Dancers were not always mere performers for children and guardians for caravans', she thought, her mama's bedtime story so clear in her head. 'In the far, far east, where the mountains pierce the skies and the lands are shrouded by an eternal fog as dense as a brick wall, the Sand-Dancers were warriors against the Swarm. They developed jump techniques for the sole purpose of war.'

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[Marisol. Focus. Another bad fall like that and you may break a bone or two—]

There are hundreds of different jumps a Sand-Dancer can perform, but the fundamentals of every single jump boil down to the same four parts, she thought, interrupting the Archive as she gritted her teeth, skating straight ahead at the next wall of vines a hundred meters away. There's the 'lead-up', which is where you build momentum. Then, there's the 'launch', which is where you gather up all your momentum by clenching every muscle in your body. After that, there's the 'flight' where you have to control your spin while maintaining your balance, and then there's the 'landing', where you hit the ground with only one foot while the other is stretched out parallel to the ground.

I can already do a double spin jump on sand, but on solid ground like this, and with powerful glaives for legs…

If I can build up enough momentum and do a double spin jump, wouldn't I be able to bash through any wall standing in my way?

She inhaled deeply. Around her, all became clear: she smelled freshness in the air, tasted salt on her tongue, and listened as the winds funneled through her hair. She imagined the wall of vines as just another wooden board she had to kick through, like she'd done hundreds and thousands of times.

So she willed the Archive into action.

Deposit all my points into strength!

[Strength: 2 → 3]

[Aura: 565 → 573]

[Points: 9 → 1]

Then she kicked one leg back, and launched into a double-spin with all her strength, all her speed, and then some more—and she smashed through the wall of vines with her shoulder mid-air, landing without losing a single bit of momentum.

Thrice the strength and speed of an average human was a lot of power, after all.

She continued skating along the forest, and now she grinned with wind battering her cheeks as she chased down the crab boy's shadow.

[... Impressive, indeed,] the Archive muttered, sounding slightly disappointed, [but you could have just put your points into toughness and continued crashing through the walls of vines head-on, no problem. Your momentum was only slowing because you were unconsciously flinching and braking whenever your forearms were scraped.]

Thick skin ain't a good look on a Sand-Dancer! I'm putting all my points into strength and speed from now on!

[Increasing your attribute levels does not affect your surface appearance. Therefore, increasing your toughness level will not change how your skin looks, not to mention… ah, whatever. Do as you will for now.]

Having bashed through a vine wall once, she bashed through a second wall, then a third, then a fourth, her momentum nigh-unstoppable. That giddy feeling started bubbling in her chest again; that sensation of speed. It was exhilarating. She couldn't see what sort of smile she was wearing on her face, but the fifty meter gap between her and the boy quickly became forty. Thirty. Twenty. Ten. She was skating so fast it almost felt like fire was sparking in her trail, and when the boy eventually glanced around, likely curious as to what was making the horrific screeching noise behind him—

She launched off the ground, did a double spin, and smashed into the boy's back with her shoulder.

Ow!

[You could have just grabbed him normally, idiot. Are you trying to kill him?]

She didn't have time to lament her mistake. Adrenaline had gotten the better of her, and the two of them started tumbling down a small slope, coming to a halt as they rolled into the shallow end of a little lake. Pain stung her body from all receptors—the sudden deceleration nearly knocked her out. She managed to scramble up first, though, spitting freezing water as she pounced at the boy. He was unsteady too as he tried to claw to his feet.

With how fast he'd been skittering away, she thought he would try to dodge as she lunged. Instead, her tackle hit and they started rolling again.

So many spins. So many stars in her eyes. Eventually, they came to another rolling halt and she found she was straddling him on the sandy beach; she recovered from the stars in her eyes first again and immediately shot her hands around her mama's book, trying to yank it out of his arms.

But the boy wouldn't let go.

"Just… let go!" she said, almost snapping at the boy underneath her. "Give me mama's book back! It ain't yours! Don't go around stealing other people's stuff!"

The boy may not have understood her words, and he may have not understood what was inside her book, but he must have sensed the urgency and understood the emotion behind her voice. Quite suddenly, then, his arms relaxed and she was able to yank out her book. She fell flat on her back as she did.

Ow!

[You have the strength of three average adult men. There was no need to pull that hard against a little boy whose strength level is probably two, maybe three at best if he has been eating a few crabs here and there.]

He wouldn't let go! What was I… supposed to do…

She sat up in the shallow end of the lake and checked to see if her book was damaged in the tussle. The boy stood up and stared at her, not even bothering to shake off the sand atop his crab helmet.

The way his eye stalks looked at her felt so incredibly… sad.

And lonely.

If she could see his face underneath his helmet, she was sure she'd be looking at a pair of sulky, teary eyes. Before she could reach a hand out to ask if maybe he was injured, he turned away and sprinted off into the coral forest, leaving her utterly alone next to the sparkling emerald lake.

… Dammit.

Why do I feel like the bad guy here?

The Archive shrugged on her shoulder. [You crashed into him with the force of three grown men. I believe you may have broken a few of his bones.]

She gulped, her lips twisting and quivering a little. Should I… maybe go after him? See if he's alright? I… I didn't really mean to—

[Leave him be. You retrieved your book, and he is a native. He probably has ways of mending himself,] the Archive interrupted. [Now, please make sure to secure your book around your waist properly. You were lucky the boy did not run off into some coral crevice you could not follow him through.]

She stared in the direction the boy ran off to for a few more seconds, and then she let out a small sigh. She clapped the sides of her cheeks to pull her from her thoughts.

… Alright.

While she secured the cord on the leather book behind her waist, the Archive cleared her status screen's objective and gave her a new one.

[Objective #4 Completed: Pursue the boy and reclaim your book]

[Reward: The Vellamira Sand-Dancing Technique Book]

[Objective #5: Find a stable food source]

[Time Limit: Undefined]

[Reward: Survival]

[Failure: Starvation]

… And, you know, now that you're mentioning it—

Her stomach growled, and she held her belly as she swiveled her head around, looking to see if the crab boy was still hanging around. She'd be sorely embarrassed if he heard her make such a noise, but thankfully, he didn't seem to be near. If he was, she couldn't see him.

Besides, the Archive was right. She was still hungry. The last time she'd eaten a full, solid meal was back on Captain Antonio's ship. That strange white fruit didn't count, because for all the points it gave her, it had the texture of slop… and according to her growling stomach, it was also as weightless as air.

She needed food.

Real food, preferably cooked over a proper campfire.

She was just about to ask the Archive for help when she spotted movement. It came from a deeper patch of water, not that far from where she was dipping her glaives into the lake.

There were fishes swimming in the lake.

[... While you may not have a fishing rod, you have two glaives for legs,] the Archive said. [Hailing from a land of sand as you do, do you know what 'spearfishing' is?]

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