Lifting himself from the crevice, exhaustion weighing on him like a sack of bricks he flopped onto his back at the lip of the crevice, spitting out some bile and half digested food he stayed on the ground as he did not trust his legs to support him from the sharp bout of nausea that slammed his senses.
Letting out a slightly delirious laugh breckan felt some tears leak from his eyes dropping silently to the mossy rock, not even moving to wipe them away, after all there was nobody to see him being weak down here, he would be surprised if there was.
The tear will, in no doubt be used to grow by the moss, of that he was unhappy.
"What have I gotten myself into, I've definitely bitten off more than i could chew this time" chuckling at the last bit breckan wished he would have seen more of Orth during his time at the surface, because he in all seriousness doubted that walking out of this one alive was an option available to him, he had no food, no water, no gear, barely any clothing, was heavily injured and was completely out of his depth, he hadn't even been on first layer exploration delvings yet, this was his first time ever.
and he ran what, like 400 meters and fell an extra 500 meters? He was probably well into the second layer by now, maybe half way towards the third? Hell he didn't know his mind was scrambled, what does all the theoretical knowledge he knew matter if he had never put it into practice under controlled circumstances, doing things you only have an idea of how to do in a survival situation is a surefire way of getting killed.
Detaching himself from the dreary musings he took stock of his surroundings, the cliff he slid down landed him in a large field covered with strange trees akin to large large land borne lilypads, with stems at that, strange was taken to a new level down here, breckan supposed they would provide good cover from flying predators, he hoped that they emitted some smell as well, reeking of blood and all. what stood out the most however was how they all had amagiri moss growing on them, he thanked the beings that let it be, that he had out of curiosity, read the book rico had stolen, sure he was ashamed about it, though now for certain he knew he had to thank the crazy brat, the book contained some general beginner delver information, such as history and anecdotes of the abyss, depth of the layers, stories about the abyss, and some rudimentary information on plants added for the sake of needing it to complete the book, thankfully one of the more known plants of the abyss, amagiri was included, probably because it was used by delvers as a makeshift compass since the sprouts of the plant always grew north on the north side of trees, they were specially common on the lily pad like trees that grew in the forest of temptation above the horrifying entrance, which looked more like an entrance to hell, probably was the closest you could get to it too, hey at least he knew his location right? Like it matters, he was probably going to die anyways.
Breckan had to move, standing around doing nothing might attract predators with keen noses along with not finding any food, if push came to shove he could always eat leaves, knowing his luck they would probably be poisonous and he would probably drop dead after imeasurable pain from putting one in his mouth.
muttering "lets not do that, for now " breckan began walking.
he could see it up through the trees, he wasnt that far off, maybe 100 meters away? His unconventional path must have taken him pretty close to the entrance.
He wasn't too anxious to see the entrance to the inverted forest from up close, That being the next thing he was to have to brave, the inverted forest was notorious for how difficult it was to navigate, the spaced out trees with no paths outside climbing through the inverted trees roots like some sort of monkey made sure of it, not to mention the crazy winds trying to knock you over, which lead to a freefall where he would end up like a broken egg or as bird food, the madokajacks would eat him while falling, which would be the worse thing that could happen to him, getting ripped apart by an animal is way slower than hitting soil at terminal velocity, atleast he thought it was.
His ambling stopped, reaching the jagged descent to the inverted forest, staring at it gave him a feeling of loneliness which he could never have imagined having, breckan had never been particularly social but he was never alone either, there were always kids in the orphanage traversing around the hallways aimlessly laughing along to some thing or another, riko would always be at the mercy of belchero's yelling, along with having jiruo as a room mate, he was never truly alone up on the surface.
oh God if he felt lonely right now, there was not a single human being near his part of the abyss, he felt the true weight of loneliness settle on his shoulders, huffing at the tear rolling down his cheek, he resolved that giving away his life savings worth of money to see a friendly face would be marvelous, loner persona be damned.
the curse was definetly as punishing as other delvers described it to be, suffocating and pressuring, like being stuck inside a pan of water with a lid on it while the heat is steadily turned up, the humidity certainly didn't ease his distress either, it seemed like the natural processes of photosynthesis in the strange giant lili trees evacuated an enormous amount of water vapor into the ambience, annoying but interesting.
Settling on his haunches, having a perfect view of the inverted forest breckan decided to take a much needed respite, Sighing breckan weighed his odds, he could always backtrack while trying to find a delving trail that led back up to the surface, beyond his current position, maybe even find some delvers, but of course, if he decided to ascend, the scale of the forest of temptation had to be accounted for, the place was huge, not to mention that there were some pretty serious rock climbs to reach the first layer, and he had no climbing gear, no rope, anchors, no rappel device, one wrong move and he was gonna have a repeat experience, along with him not exactly using an orthodox trail to achieve his current position, meaning that he was definitely far as hell or very close from any trail people used, The risks with this choice would be considerably... Not pleasant, along with not even accounting for the curse, which would be incrementally more detrimental in his state. he was lucky so far not to run into any nakikabane, those things terrified him, what type of demented creature imitates the sounds of the things its eating? Thats convoluted on so many levels, he didn't even want to observe one from afar, they were ugly as far as he was concerned, ugly and creepy, now apart from the nakikabane, there was still the splitmaw out there, granted the abyss was large, but theres always the chance of it finally securing its snack, not to mention his rather awful luck with these things, then there was the silkfangs, another nasty creature that wants nothing more than to rend his flesh of his bones, though it probably wouldn't even mind rending it to begin with.
the ascension effects of the curse, though minor, they could still lead him to make a fatal mistake, one does not walk well with nausea, numbness in the extremities, and headaches after all.
Not to mention that going up would in no doubt take him more than a day, that being one day too much, breckan wouldn't last, the seeker camp on the third layer was his only option, and maybe hope that he would run into delvers on his way there for a more concrete chance at survival. " theres no way climbing up is an option, i dont know just how bad I'm hurt, God knows i could be internally bleeding, th" breckan felt phantom pains on his wrists, "lets hope not" with that parting thought, he grabbed a tree root, beginning his next tour through a new cave of horrors.