The climb to the higher tunnels could wait.
The threads above tugged at me — promises of a world I had never known.
But before I went…
I turned.
And crawled home.
My den hadn't changed.
The Spring of Leaves still bubbled gently, the green-tinted water glowing with faint bioluminescence. A few larva husks floated in the corner. The bones I once chewed on had settled into the mud.
Above, the silk I had spun — crude, but sturdy — still hung from the low stone arch. My apartment.
I slid back in with a strange feeling in my chest. Not hunger.
Just…
Something close to warmth.
"Syrri?" I whispered, inside.
Her voice was quieter now.
No longer laughing. No longer torn.
"Still here, little king."
"Then… this is where I came from. My first home."
"I know."
I turned to the side crevice where I had once hidden leaves — the kind that healed, the kind that crunched dry and bitter but made my shell feel stronger.
I gathered them now with thread. Folded them carefully.
Stored them in the webbed corner of the Spring.
[Inventory Updated: Medicinal Leaf x6]
Then I slid to the cracked wall beside the spring. A small cluster of residue crystals remained — oblong, pale-blue, smelling sharp and sweet with raw mana. I'd gnawed on one before.
Now?
I bit again.
CHHK.
[Mana Influx Detected – +3 MP]
[Minor Resonance Achieved – Core Temperature Stabilized]
[New Trait Potential: Crystal-Touched (Locked)]
[Item Stored: Mana Residue Crystal x2]
I spun a silk pouch beside the water. Padded it. Stored the rest.
Then I crawled to the front of my web-nest and etched a crude message on the outer thread wall — not with ink, not with words, but with pattern.
A sign.
A trail-mark.
Something that would be read only by those who could feel silk like memory.
"Be Back In A Jiffy."
— Ren.
As I pulled away, a thought struck me.
Not instinct.
Not survival.
Just… curiosity.
"Hey, System?" I said aloud.
No response.
"You too, Syrri. This whole 'voice-in-my-head-showing-screens' thing?"
"What is it?"
Silence.
Then Syrri chuckled faintly.
"The system isn't a god, Ren."
"It's a pattern. Like silk. Someone made it. Then it just… stayed."
"So it's not watching me?"
"Oh, it's watching. But not like that."
"It listens to what you do. Then shows you how far you've come. That's all."
"...Can I name you?"
Another pause.
"You devoured me, and now you want to give me a name?"
"I like Syrri," I said."Short. Has that 'Siri' vibe. You know… clean. Digital."
"I have no idea what that means."
"It's fine. You wouldn't."
And then I whispered to the web, as if it could hear me too:
"Alright, System. Syrri. Let's go see that forest."
"From this day on… the Spring Den belongs to the Threadling King."
And I crawled out.
Upward.
Toward the light-soaked tunnels.
The tunnel ahead narrowed.
Stone walls pressed inward like the throat of some great beast.Roots cracked through the rock in long spirals, stained with moisture and time.
And in the distance — a faint whistle.
Wind.
The promise of a world that breathed.
I crawled forward slowly.
This wasn't a charge. This wasn't war.
This was pilgrimage.
And with every inch I climbed, I gnawed.
The first thing I chewed was a moss-stone — slick, veined with a pale green.
Tasted like iron and bitter grass.
[Item Consumed: Moss-Stone]
[Stamina Recovery Efficiency Increased]
[New Trait Potential: Mineral Affinity (Suppressed)]
The next: a brittle cluster of dried chitin husks, molted from something larger than me — maybe a tunnel crab or a blind serpent.I bit deep.
[Item Consumed: Hardened Molt Fragment]
[Jaw Endurance Lv.3 → Lv.4]
[Chitin Armor Lv.3 → Lv.4]
Halfway through the climb, I paused.
Licked the wall.
Crystals.
Tiny, flaked veins of mana ore hidden in the granite.I chewed carefully — slow, delicate.
Like eating glass soaked in moonlight.
[Item Consumed: Dull Mana Ore (Trace)]
[+1 MP][Arcane Filtration Lv.2 → Lv.3]
[Trait Progression: Crystal-Touched (9%)]
And above…I found something stranger.
A dormant vine, dried and coiled, wrapped around the tunnel's ceiling like a sleeping snake. When I bit into it, a puff of spores escaped.
Faintly sweet.
Mildly dizzying.
I blinked.
[Item Consumed: Mycoweave Vine (Aromatic)]
[Silk Secretion Lv.2 → Lv.3]
[New Thread Effect Discovered: Scent-Trail Silk (Locked)]
I sat there for a while.
Not tired. Just… savoring.
Every bite told me something.
Every taste opened a path.
My scarf fluttered faintly with the wind now — caught on a breeze trickling downward.
"We're getting closer," I said softly.
Syrri's voice replied, subdued.
"Almost there."
I crawled again.Higher.
At the lip of the final incline, the stone gave way to clay. Softer. Damp. Smelled of rot and sunlight.
A final chew.
[Item Consumed: Sunclay Sediment]
[Material Recognition Lv.2 → Lv.3]
[New Instinct Triggered: Burrow Behavior (Suppressed)]
Then I reached the top.
The tunnel split open, not into another chamber…
But into light.
I froze.
Not from fear. But from sensation.
Warm wind.
The scent of bark, pollen, ash.
The buzz of insects. Distant birds. Screeches. Leaves rustling.
A sky — not blue — but golden-green through a high canopy of layered trees.
For the first time, I heard the forest breathe.
[LOCATION REACHED: Outer Root Veins – Border of Forest of Oukra]
[New Biome: Surface Forest – Exploration Unlocked]
[Achievement Gained: "Up From the Hollow"]
I pulled forward, scarf trailing, my eyes wide.
The world above did not roar. It did not greet me like a king.
It simply… existed.
So I took a breath.
And whispered:
"Be back in a jiffy…"
And left the den behind.