EX-Grade Grass

Chapter 10

Five days passed quieter than Ren expected.

He hunted every day on Floor 2. His level reached 5. The grass listened better now. He could make thicker shields and faster spears. The cut on his arm healed. Lisa stopped asking so many questions when he came home with coins and meat. Luna smiled more when he brought the sweet red fruits she liked.

But the badge under his shirt never felt warm. And Drake never showed up.

On the morning of the fifth day Ren went back to the rocky hill on Floor 1. Kael was already waiting.

“You’re stronger,” Kael said when he saw him. “Good. You will need it.”

He took out a new map. This one was marked with a red X deeper than anything Ren had seen.

“Floor 3,” Kael said. “There is an old supply cache hidden in a broken stone tower. Inside is a small black box. Bring the box back. Do not open it. Do not let anyone else touch it. You have until tomorrow night.”

Ren looked at the map. Floor 3. The monsters there were higher level. Parties of five or six usually went together.

“Why me alone?” he asked.

Kael’s face stayed calm. “Because the box reacts to certain talents. Yours will not set it off. Most others will. That is all you need to know.”

He handed Ren a small bottle of dark liquid. “Drink this if you get hurt badly. It will keep you moving for a few hours. After that you are on your own.”

Ren put the bottle and map away. “What happens if I fail?”

“Then the protection on your house ends,” Kael said simply. “And the people who want that box will start looking for the boy who carries our badge.”

He left without another word.

Ren stood alone for a long time. Floor 3. A black box that reacted to talents. And a clear threat against Lisa and Luna if he failed.

He went home first. He told Lisa he would be gone longer than usual. She packed him extra food without asking why. Luna made him promise to come back. Ren only nodded.

He used the badge and stepped onto Floor 3.

The air felt thicker here. The sky was darker. Trees grew twisted. Strange bird calls echoed in the distance. Ren kept to the edges of paths and used Inspect on everything that moved.

The first monsters he met were wolf-like creatures with black fur and yellow eyes. Level 7. They hunted in pairs. Ren trapped the first one’s legs and finished it with a spear through the neck. The second one almost reached him before vines pulled it down. He harvested quickly and moved on.

The map led him toward a low ridge. After three hours he saw the broken stone tower. It stood alone on a flat rock, half collapsed, covered in moss and vines.

Ren watched it from the trees for a long time. No other adventurers. No movement. He grew a thin line of grass and sent it ahead to check for traps. Nothing happened.

He walked to the tower and stepped inside.

The air was dusty and quiet. Broken crates and old weapons lay scattered on the floor. In the far corner, under a fallen beam, sat a small black box no bigger than his two hands. It had no lock and no markings.

Ren picked it up carefully. It felt cold and heavier than it looked. Nothing glowed. Nothing made a sound. He put it into his inventory and turned to leave.

A slow clap came from the doorway.

Drake Kane stood there again. This time he was not alone. Two of the dark-coated men from the street fight stood behind him. All three looked ready.

“I followed the badge,” Drake said. His cheek still had a thin scar from the cave. “Did you really think I would let you keep working for that man after what you did?”

Ren’s hand moved toward his seeds. “You’re making a mistake.”

Drake smiled. “Am I? I did some asking. That badge you carry belongs to a group that most nobles hate. They call themselves the Quiet Hand. They steal things that are supposed to stay buried. And you just picked up one of those things.”

The two men spread out, blocking the sides.

Ren felt the black box sit heavy in his inventory. Kael’s words echoed in his head. Do not let anyone else touch it.

Drake raised his sword. The red glow along the edge was stronger than before. “Hand over the box and the badge. Do that and maybe I only break your legs. Refuse and we take them from your body.”

Ren did not waste time talking.

Grass exploded from every crack in the stone floor. Thick vines shot toward all three men at once. Sharp leaves flew like arrows. The tower filled with green in seconds.

Drake burned a path through the first wave. The two men cut and slashed. But Ren had grown stronger since their last fight. The vines came faster and harder. One man got wrapped from knees to chest and slammed into the wall. The second man lost his weapon when a vine tore it from his hand.

Drake forced his way closer, fire wrapping both arms. He swung the glowing sword in wide arcs, cutting grass and stone alike. Ren met him with a solid green shield and a long spear. The sword slammed into the shield and cracked it. Ren staggered back.

The black box in his inventory suddenly felt hotter.

Drake’s eyes locked on Ren’s chest, as if he could sense it. “There it is.”

He pushed harder. Fire roared. Ren’s next wall of grass burned almost as fast as it grew. One of the free men grabbed a fallen axe and came from the side. Ren had to split his focus. A vine stopped the axe, but the delay cost him.

Drake’s sword cut across Ren’s shoulder. Pain flared. Blood ran down his arm. The shield broke completely.

Ren dropped low and poured everything into the ground. Grass burst upward in a sudden thick forest inside the tower. Stalks as hard as young trees filled the space, pushing the three men back and trapping their legs.

For a moment it held.

Then Drake shouted a word Ren did not know. The red glow on his sword exploded outward in a wave of fire that filled half the tower. Grass blackened and died in a wide circle. The heat made Ren’s eyes water.

Drake stepped through the smoke, sword ready for the final hit.

Ren’s mana was almost gone. His shoulder burned. The exit was blocked by fire and angry men.

He did the only thing left.

He took the small bottle Kael had given him and drank it in one swallow.

Heat flooded his body. The pain in his shoulder faded to a dull throb. Strength returned to his arms and legs like a borrowed second wind. The grass that still lived suddenly felt sharper and stronger in his mind.

Ren stood up straight.

Drake hesitated for half a second.

That was enough.

New vines, darker and thicker than before, shot from the ground and the walls. They wrapped Drake’s sword arm and both legs at the same time. The other two men got pulled off their feet and slammed hard into the stone. Ren did not stop. He grew a dense wall of green between himself and them, then turned and ran through the broken side of the tower where the stones had already fallen.

He heard Drake roar behind him. He did not look back.

The borrowed strength from the bottle carried him down the ridge and into the trees. He ran until the tower was out of sight and his lungs burned. Only then did he slow down and check his inventory.

The black box was still there. Still closed. Still cold again.

His shoulder was bleeding, but the cut was not deep. The bottle’s power was already starting to fade. He had maybe an hour before the pain and weakness returned.

Ren looked at the dark trees around him. Floor 3 was not safe to stay in while hurt and low on mana. He needed to reach the teleport point and get back to Kael.

He started walking, keeping one hand ready to call whatever grass he could still control.

Somewhere behind him, Drake Kane was alive and angrier than ever.

And the black box in his inventory suddenly felt like it was watching him.

Ren touched the badge under his shirt and kept moving.

He had the box.

But he was no longer sure that bringing it back would be the end of the trouble.

It felt more like the beginning.