“Are you sure about this?” William questioned a third time as they entered a tunnel, one that was partially filled with overgrowth from the tree’s roots.

“I think so. It just feels right,” Princess Jin replied before hesitantly continuing, “Unless you prefer to go another way?”

“No,” William said immediately, “If you think this is the correct path, I trust you.”

He smiled slightly when her face pinked at his words, but his mind was more on his system, mostly about why Lord Paddlington contacted him and why bother to do so when it had only been one sentence.

William wondered how it knew he had finished the task in the first place. He looked up at the ceiling, narrowing his eyes as he searched, almost expecting to find a smug turtle hiding among the overgrowth.

He didn’t.

William scoffed lightly to himself. If that thing had the power to casually open voids, it likely didn’t need to be present to know his actions.

“AH!” William shouted when he felt his leg get wrapped by something, jumping to the ceiling as he stomped down with all his power.

He heard Princess Jin scream when the roots that had previously existed below him before the attack were pulverized. His heart nearly beat out of his chest as he clutched onto a root hanging off the ceiling, ready to jump down and slam his fist into the ground to finish whatever had touched his leg.

However, all he saw when he looked down was a barely noticeable depression in the ground, an area void of overgrowth, and a glaring Princess Jin.

“Wei Liang!” Princess Jin yelled shrilly, “Are you crazy?! I thought we were being attacked!”

William’s heart was finally starting to calm down. He ignored Princess Jin’s questioning and stared at his exposed leg, noticing the faint brown mark on his shin.

Nothing had grabbed him unless having his leg caught in the roots was considered a grab. He avoided the princess’s eyes and let himself land on the ground, more than a little embarrassed at overreacting to such an extreme.

Who knew that having his leg ripped off was still weighing on his mind? It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but he supposed that he was good enough at hiding it that even he had no idea it was an issue.

“What was that for?” Princess Jin still sounded mad, which was understandable.

“Nothing,” William replied awkwardly, “I guess I’m still jumpy. The nerves will go away.”

The princess eyed him suspiciously as she hummed, sounding doubtful about his claim. “We should be about to reach the center. Do you want to take a quick break?”

William was about to agree, thinking it would be best to settle himself and maybe cultivate until the hidden trauma was further suppressed. However, it would just be a delaying tactic.

He was honestly terrified of meeting a monster as strong as the highest-level corrupted beast he had seen.

Even with his increased attributes, he held no misconceptions that he could beat that thing. Given that thought was always in the back of his mind, it was no surprise that he was always hyperaware, ready to flee back to the specter standing guard a few tunnels behind them.

“No, let’s keep going. Delaying only had negatives attached to it. We don’t know when this place will get reclaimed by the hell outside the walls. Plus, your grandfather’s specter will disappear in a few hours. After that, we will have no other path for survival.”

“Good to know you’re considering everything,” Princess Jin muttered as she waved for him to walk beside her.

William winced, seeing a familiar look return to her eyes. One that was of an older sister. So much for gaining her trust a short while ago. He had significantly undermined himself by acting like a startled cat.

He kept pace with the princess as he quickly checked his stats, or rather, the condition of his body. It would be necessary to ingest another Vitality Restoration Pill before they reach their destination.

While it might be better to wait until he had taken more damage and could use the full effects of the pill, it wouldn’t be ideal to waste time taking a pill when in a life-or-death situation. It had already happened, and putting himself in a position to do so again was the height of negligence for his own life.

William glanced at the princess, seeing her focus intently on their surroundings. She was doing a far better job with contorting around all of the root overgrowth and avoiding contact with them.

He had tried to mimic it, but it seemed that higher agility didn’t automatically mean excellent flexibility. He failed miserably, so he ended up not bothering. He consoled himself by mentally saying that these roots were as dead as the plant-like growth surrounding the tree outside, so there was no need for the caution the princess showed.

William pulled himself out of those thoughts and used the opportunity to draw a pill out of his spatial stone when Princess Jin made a little jump to avoid a twisting root sticking a few feet out of the ground.

[+237 HP]

[Health: 1263 —> 1500/1500]

[Impurity Increased]

[Stage 2 (37%) —> Stage 2 (52%)]

If there was one positive that came out of using a pill, it was finding out that it only worsened his impurity by fifteen percent. A reduction of two percentage points from the previous minor realm.

However, on second thought, was that really a positive? That meant that each pill restored a reduced amount of health.

William sighed and shook his head as they approached the next split in the tunnels. As with the previous sections, this part had a similarly enlarged chamber that allowed the following tunnels to be almost the exact size as before.

Princess Jin looked at him with a question, making him shrug with little care. “Choose what you feel is best. Same as the ones before.”

“Why?” Princess Jin blurted out, “You’re the one that made it possible to get this far. Don’t you want to see if you can find the best path? At this point, I’m just guessing!”

That was precisely what William wanted. Not that he would say that to her. It wouldn't be great to let a young girl know that the one she was depending on for life was literally relying on luck, or rather, the Luck attribute.

“Don’t worry about it, princess,” William rubbed her head with a smile, finding her frustrated look a little cute. It would have been more natural if he was taller than her, but he would take what he could to make himself look less childish. “We’ve gotten this far safely, right? Why change things now?”

Princess Jin batted his hand away from her head, making him laugh when she let out an annoyed growl.

“Fine, don’t blame me if we die,” Princess Jin faced away from him and studied the tunnels.

William left her to do the only job that she had, being an excellent compass.

[Lord Paddlington: Why have you not returned? You are not hurt, but I cannot sense your location.]

He looked away from Princess Jin to glance at the alert, frowning slightly as if the turtle expected him to magically leave. He was under the assumption that they would need to find a way back through the hellish landscape.

It was one of the reasons that he decided to go forward with this tree quest in the first place. He hoped to find something that would let him survive longer.

Nonetheless, William was about to ask the princess if she knew this method of escape the turtle was implying, not that he had any hopes that she did. After all, Princess Jin might have been pushing to go deeper towards the center of the tree at the start, but that had changed.

[Lord Paddlington: Do you not know how? Cultivate and focus on the completion of your task, just like how you entered the depths of the Oasis.]

He blinked in surprise. He supposed that it wasn’t necessary to ask the princess.

[Lord Paddlington: Forget it. I will not let my Lady’s hopes die like this. If you can read this, prepare yourself.]

William’s heart skipped when the chamber rumbled like it was about to collapse. He immediately wrapped an arm around Princess Jin’s waist and picked her up in a princess carry, ready to leg back to her grandfather’s specter.