[Connecting to the higher being…please get into the zone to make connections with the brain of the groove.]

The message was clear and I decided that I needed to find the source of this message.

The previous god I had met had not been able to help me. Heck, it would be better to say that I had been scammed.

But I still had hope that this time, I would be helped properly.

I slipped into a quiet corner between shelves and pulled out my phone. My fingers shook as I opened the internal campus app. For a moment the screen only loaded, eating up precious seconds. Then a notification blinked:

[MAP AVAILABLE — LOCATION: CONNECTION ZONE]

I tapped it.

A blue path highlighted across the university layout, guiding me straight to a separate building near the north wing. My stomach dropped—of course it wasn't going to be nearby.

I moved.

Every shadow felt too loud. Every breath felt noticeable.

I cut through the aisle, following the glowing route on my screen, and the library became eerily quiet as if every living thing knew I wasn't supposed to be here.

When I reached the building, hope shattered instantly.

I wasn't the only one guarding important things today.

Four guards stood posted outside the entrance—alert, stiff, and definitely not asleep like the first ones I had passed. Worse, these ones didn't look bored. They were watching every angle.

My heartbeat rattled against my ribs.

I didn't have time. If Professor Maron woke up and reported me missing, this whole mission—and probably the rest of my career—would be over.

I pulled out the small pouch of fairy dust with a hand that barely felt like my own. One toss—that's all I needed.

I took a breath, stepped from cover, and flicked the sparkling dust into the air. It spread like a glittering fog, drifting over the guards before they even registered movement.

Their eyes grew heavy and knees buckled. Four bodies slumped silently to the ground.

I didn't stay to admire my luck. I ran.

The marked chamber was deep inside, down a hallway of odd purple-lit stones. I stopped at the door the map had highlighted—but reality hit me like a brick.

'How do I enter this door? I do not see a lock here…and I do not have a key either.'

Just a polished, seamless metal surface, that was what I had in front of me and I wondered how to move forward.

Panic clawed up my throat. After everything—after the risk, the guards, the time slipping away—I was stuck in front of a wall.

I slapped the door in frustration—and the world vanished.

My body slipped through instead of hitting metal. I stumbled forward and landed on solid ground again.

I spun around.

The door wasn't there anymore.

Only a silent, plain chamber… and in the center of the room, spreading across the floor like glowing roots, was a giant blooming mycelium network—a fungus that pulsed faintly, alive and breathing.

My skin crawled. Instinct screamed to run.

Before fear could root me in place, the system chimed in my vision.

[YOU HAVE RECEIVED A MESSAGE.]

A voice echoed through the chamber as my phone dined. The empty air around me made the message tone even more prominent.

I decided to check the message without much delay.

[Welcome, proxy of the shopkeeper… descendant by right. What is it that you have come here for?]

The fungus wasn't threatening me.

It was addressing me.

My breath hitched, caught somewhere between terror and disbelief. The fungus wasn't moving, yet I felt watched—seen in a way that bypassed sight entirely.

Every part of me screamed to step back, to put a wall between myself and that enormous living network spread across the chamber floor.

But my feet wouldn't move.

The voice wasn't spoken aloud. It didn't echo off the walls. It reverberated inside my skull—measured, old, patient.

[What is it that you have come here for?]

I swallowed hard. Words refused to form. I hadn't expected… this. A map, a door, a security breach—that I could handle. But a telepathic… thing? Nothing in my training prepared me for that.

I mentally replayed the mission. I didn't come here for power. Not for knowledge. All I needed was a way out—something to help Maron regain access and reverse the situation.

I opened my mouth, still unsure if sound was required.

"I… need answers. Answers about why I am here and what brought me to this world."

The network rippled—like light passing under water—and my knees nearly buckled. Not from fear, but from the weight that pressed into the room, an intelligence older than everything I knew.

[Help is relative. And costly. Your answer has too high of a cost to pay. Calculating risks…cannot access information. Access: Denied]

The words crawled down my spine.

Before I could decide how to respond, the system chimed again.

[The connection with the higher entity has been established. Seamless communication has been established.]

A pulse of light expanded from the mushroom core, sweeping across the room and up my legs. Not painful, not cold—just invasive, like fingers probing through bone and memory.

My phone vibrated violently. The screen flashed in warning.

[CONNECTION ESTABLISHED — Please confirm your identification number to proceed.]

I froze.

Identification number? What the heck was that?

I wanted to deny it, to demand answers, but the fungus continued, as calm as if confirming weather.

[You carry the mark of the shopkeeper. It remains unresolved, but intact. Your presence here is not forbidden…but not accepted either. Please enter your verification number so that I can check your information.]

My heart hammered.

I wasn't supposed to be captured. I wasn't trespassing.

I was meant to be here.

"I do not have an identification number."

I felt shaken but my voice did not show it.

[If you do not show me an identification number, then I have no way to help you. I hope you will have a better time with someone else, proxy of the shopkeeper.]

I suddenly understood why people guarded this place—not because it was dangerous to approach… but because deals were made here, deals powerful enough to rewire fate.

I took a step closer, cautious.

"Fine, I will look into it. But I am not here for myself. I am here for Leo and Luna today. They need help with their condition."

Silence answered me first, long enough to make me fear I had asked the wrong thing. Then a soft thrum echoed through the network.

[You wish to help my weapons? That is simple enough to do.]

Simple? My entire body sagged with relief—

[But not free.]

My relief shut to ice.

Of course there was a price.

I wanted to yell at the god and tell them that those kids were his people, thus his responsibility. But something told me that this god would not care, and would not understand that either.

A tendril of light rose from the mycelium—thin, flickering like a thread of phosphorescence—and hung in the air between us. Not touching me, but waiting.

[What you request affects the balance. You may pay through memory, through body, or through vow.]

I didn't understand what any of that meant, and the fungus didn't explain.

My throat tightened. I didn't have time for riddles—not with guards outside, not with Maron unconscious, not with the timer ticking.

"I need to get going for now. I did not have much time to spend here anyway. But our conversation is not over…"

I questioned, only to get a quick answer.

[Do not worry. I shall call for you again, if you so wish me to. Temporary access will be granted to the shopkeeper's proxy…forming file…]

A card appeared in my system and when I took it out, it looked like an ID card.

[Highest authority has been granted. We shall meet again, shopkeeper's proxy.]

The mycelium told me before it went quiet.

I stared at the card in my hand, afraid to even breathe. It felt wrong to be holding something so important—like I was one mistake away from shattering whatever fragile truce existed between me and that… thing.

The chamber stayed utterly silent. No lights. No thrum. Not even the faint pulse from before.

The mycelium lay still, as if it had never spoken to me at all.

But my system notification glowed bright.

[Permanent authority granted. Exit immediately.]

The urgency made my blood run cold. Whatever communication window had opened… it was closing.

I backed away slowly at first, then turned and sprinted. The wall I had phased through earlier shimmered back into existence just seconds before I reached it—but this time, the metal parted on its own, letting me through. I didn't question it. I just ran.

My footsteps echoed too loudly in the hallway. I expected guards to rush me from every corner.

I expected alarms or for someone to yank me to the ground and demand to know what I had done.

But nothing happened.

The building was silent.

I glanced at the card again, fear curling deep inside my gut. This wasn't just authorization.

It was a leash.

A reminder that the higher being hadn't helped me out of kindness—but because it wanted something later.

And whether I was ready or not… it would call for me again.

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