Magic prompted growth. Evolution that nature unaided could have never aspired to. And change sometimes engulfed an area after magical cataclysm, creating another biome at speeds that would have astounded any [Biologist]. And in Baleros—they knew of one such place as The Dyed Lands of Seequal.
The result? Magical devastation for hundreds of miles. Both army and nation had been wiped out. But the rampant magic had provoked the natural wildlife to adapt or die. And so—The Dyed Lands had come into existence.
And of course, terrible danger. The kind that had eaten entire armies who had tried to burn The Dyed Lands and establish control. Now, only a few people made their homes there. [Hunters] and [Alchemists] and [Gatherers], looking for new and rare ingredients—Saliss of Lights himself bought the immortal Ske-eel’s liquid at a premium for his potions. There was a fortune to be made if you had the wits or courage.
But most kept far from The Dyed Lands. It was a kind of death. If you weren’t eaten by the swarms of flying midges who would devour you piece by piece, or ran afoul of one of the giant apex predators, like the teleporting cavernous maws or stumbled into a field of plants whose poison no [Healer] had ever seen before—why would you live there?
He was an explorer. No—not just an explorer. An [Explorer]. From Earth. He had set up a camp fifty miles into The Dyed Lands and ventured forth after wandering into the maze of a biome. He had tried to catalogue the natural landscape. Experimented; found what was good to eat and what was poison. Set traps, hunted for food and other resources.
“Yessir. The shining zone. The Dyed Lands come in colors. The shining zone is—bright. Monsters hunt by blinding each other. The damn plants make it hard enough to navigate. Some of them are big. Claws—fast—it must have been looking for food. Went through all his traps. That was how we found him.”
But it was not a language the young man from Australia read. Still, the description of the body—and the location matched up. Kirana and her group from Earth had been split up when they first appeared. Some went their own ways and the rest stuck together, to later be killed for thievery or at the hands of [Bandits]. This brave [Explorer] had wandered into The Dyed Lands and never come out.
“It’s miraculous he lived that long, Adventurer Daly. Your pardons, but we were shocked a Human managed to live in The Dyed Lands at all. Even my team only has a border camp. But this [Explorer] survived over five months there. He must have been a true hero of our class. That’s all I can say of him.”
Daly looked up. Siri shifted as she glanced about. They were at the edge of The Dyed Lands, and the ‘Red Zone’, or the Crimson Blend as it was known was ahead of them. Camouflaged plants that would attack you, predators large and small—and you wouldn’t even see your blood among all the colors.
“Oh. Of course. Well then—my team and I would buy whatever notes this fellow had on the wildlife. Anything, actually. We’ll share it around—us [Explorers] and [Adventurers] do. It’d be more a service to us that enter The Dyed Lands, sir.”
“Call me Mexy. And—of course! I live to explore places like this. The Dyed Lands consumed an ancient empire. Not that I’m a [Treasure Seeker]. But once I hit Level 40—I might push for the interior, Blue Oblivion. Or—go somewhere else. The High Passes, the Bloodfields—this is my life.”
The Dyed Lands waited ahead. The red jungle was like the Bloodfields—at least, that was what Mexy compared it to. But it was dense and within a few feet you would lose all sense of direction. A hell of confusion. Daly would never enter it willingly.
Her team whirled. Daly looked around. Siri reached for something at her side. A bag of holding. And in it—a weapon that could probably wipe out even one of The Dyed Lands’ larger monsters.
