Re:Crafting in Another World
Chapter 60: Sense of a woman

Chapter 60: Sense of a woman

The jungle was silent, unnaturally so.

Yenissa stood at the edge of a massive hole, the earth yawning beneath her like the mouth of an ancient beast. Her chest rose and fell violently, her breaths sharp, ragged, and heavy with urgency. Vines curled around shattered roots at the rim, the remnants of whatever cataclysmic force had carved the earth open.

Her knees trembled.

Too fast... I got here too fast.

More than half her energy was gone. She could feel the emptiness in her core, her essence pool dangerously low. Even her wings — ethereal, dark, once proud — were flickering at the edges like smoke fighting against a storm wind. If Rilith or Velara turned on her now, she wouldn’t last more than a few seconds. It wasn’t just exhaustion.

It was fear.

She looked down the hole again. Darkness stared back. That was the only place he could be — Shennong.

Why aren’t you here yet? Why aren’t you waiting like always?

She stepped forward, preparing to drop in—

"YENISSA!!"

Her body froze.

The voice came from afar, but it pierced the jungle canopy like a lightning strike through dry wood. She turned her head slightly, her eyes narrowing at the two approaching blurs. Dust and leaves trailed in their wake, branches snapping underfoot. Both Rilith and Velara staggered out of the trees, gasping, clothes torn, magic flaring unevenly.

Rilith dropped to one knee, panting. Velara stumbled, nearly falling, before slamming her spear into the ground to hold herself up.

"Don’t—" Rilith coughed. "Don’t go down there, Yenissa..."

Velara’s voice followed, firm but shaking. "We were told... Shennong said... he begged us to stop you if you tried. These tunnels could collapse at any moment."

Yenissa didn’t reply right away. She kept her gaze on the darkness below.

He told me not to come. He told all of us.

Her hand touched her stomach.

The womb tattoo — the precious mark she got from Shennong during their sacred act of mating like beasts, her love — was bleeding. But the blood wasn’t hers. It was darker, richer... very young. It was the blood of a human.

Why is it bleeding? she thought, trembling. Why is something ancient inside me crying?

Her knees nearly gave out.

"I..." Her voice cracked. "I’ve never... felt like this before."

She touched her lips and stared at her own shaking fingers.

"Is this... fear?" Her breath hitched. "The fear humans talk about? The kind that makes your insides twist and your chest feel too small?"

A broken chuckle escaped her.

"This must be what a succubus feels when she fails in front of her Queen. When she sins... and knows there’s no forgiveness waiting."

She turned to Rilith and Velara, her voice steadier now but hollow.

"This is the only hole he went through. This is where he started digging into those damn tunnels. If he’s going to come back... it has to be from here."

Velara clenched her jaw, her fingers tightening around her weapon. "He told us to stop you. He said the structure is unstable, that going in could bring it all down—on you. On all of us."

"But he’s not here!" Yenissa shouted, tears welling up in her eyes. "Don’t you get it?! I can’t smell his presence. I can always smell him. I know his breath, his sweat, even the dirt stuck under his fingernails. But now? There’s nothing."

Rilith looked away. Her silence was agreement. Even without Yenissa’s sharp senses, she too could feel the eerie absence of Shennong’s energy. He was like wildfire—impossible to ignore. But now, not a single spark remained.

"He’s in danger," Yenissa whispered. "And I’m wasting time."

She took a step closer to the hole.

Velara moved as if to stop her—but her legs didn’t follow her will.

Yenissa turned to them both. Her wings folded tight, her body trembling as she clenched her fists.

"Shennong... he’s the reason I’m still here. Not in the Succubus Realm. Not trapped under Agraval’s curse. Not dead in some battlefield."

Her voice cracked as her tears finally spilled down her cheeks.

"If anything happens to him, my life has no meaning."

She looked over her shoulder, back at them — her face stained with emotion neither of them had ever seen before.

"I’m going to find him. I’m going to join him."

And without another word, Yenissa jumped.

The wind howled. Her body disappeared into the void below.

Rilith reached forward too late. Velara stood frozen.

Silence.

Just the sound of leaves rustling.

Rilith stared down the hole. Her hand trembled against the hilt of her dagger.

"What... are we even doing here?" she murmured.

Velara didn’t answer. Her gaze was distant, lost in memories.

"We followed her because she was our mistress," Rilith continued. "Because of the curse. We couldn’t disobey her. But now that curse is gone... so why are we still here?"

Velara closed her eyes. "We could leave. We’re free now."

"We could. But we didn’t."

The silence stretched between them.

"It’s not Yenissa," Velara finally said, her voice quiet. "It’s him. Shennong."

Rilith nodded slowly. "He’s... different. Not just a master. Not just a summoner. He’s something else."

"The first being in any realm I’ve met who looks at the world not for what it gives him—but for what he can uncover within it."

"He’s curious," Rilith whispered, a faint smile touching her lips. "More curious than Agraval. More than even Yenissa. That’s what drew us."

They stood in silence for a while longer. The wind blew gently through the jungle, but the hole below seemed to pull at them like a whisper.

Velara looked to Rilith. "Do you think she’ll hate us if we said it out loud?"

Rilith shook her head. "She wouldn’t. She knows too."

Velara exhaled deeply. "Then I suppose..."

They stepped forward.

"If this is our final journey," Velara said.

"Then let it be beside the one who made us feel alive again," Rilith finished.

And together, they jumped.

Darkness swallowed them whole.

The tunnel devoured all light within seconds, the descent rough and fast. Dirt and loose stones scraped against their skin, and every second felt like it could be their last.

But none of them screamed.

Because down below... was Shennong.

And for all three of them, he was worth the fall.

***

Darkness was all around Shennong.

No wind. No sound. Just that overwhelming silence—the kind that made your heart beat loud in your ears. But then, the stillness began to fade. Light shimmered like soft brushstrokes across a canvas. His vision adjusted, and the world around him changed.

He was no longer in the Core.

Instead, he stood in a place that looked like it had been painted by some divine artist. The sky overhead wasn’t blue or black—it was a pale swirl of colors, like a sunset trapped in time. Everything shimmered faintly, like it wasn’t quite real.

A tree stood in the middle of it all. Grand, ancient, and gold-leafed. Under it, a figure sat quietly—neither man nor woman, or maybe both because Shennong couldn’t tell. They had long, flowing hair, shimmering silver, and their robes blended with the earth as if they were part of the land itself.

They held a golden apple in one hand, untouched. In the other, they were sculpting something.

Shennong narrowed his eyes.

"A person...?" he whispered, almost afraid to break the silence.

The thing being crafted was humanoid, yes—but it was not yet alive. Its face had no features. Its limbs, half-formed. Like a statue made of mist and light, still waiting for the final stroke.

Shennong took a step closer.

"What... is this?" he muttered.

He looked down, realizing he was clutching something tightly in his own hand. His weapon. His pickaxe.

But—

His eyes widened.

It wasn’t a pickaxe anymore.

His arm... had changed. His weapon had vanished. In its place, a hand—flesh and blood—but not his own.

The skin was pale, glowing softly with a faint golden hue. The fingers were long, delicate, neither masculine nor feminine. He couldn’t tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. But it pulsed with a strange warmth—like it had a life of its own.

"What the—?"

Then he looked again at the person beneath the tree.

They were missing a hand.

Their right arm ended in smooth skin—no wound, no pain. Just... absence. Like they’d never had a hand at all.

His breath caught.

The sculptor looked up. Slowly. Their eyes were not like normal eyes—they were endless, deep, like wells that held all the stars.

And then—

Their body began to melt.

Shennong stumbled backward.

The sculptor’s form dripped like candle wax. The golden apple fell from their lap and rolled across the grass without a sound. Their body unraveled, skin becoming smoke, light, fading.

But even as they disappeared, they raised their remaining hand.

They pointed.

Directly at Shennong.

Mouth moving.

Silent words.

Were they calling him?

Were they becoming him?

"No..."

His chest tightened. He reached out with his strange new hand—

"NO!"

He gasped.

Air rushed into his lungs like water to a drowning man. His body jolted upright.

He was lying on stone. Cold. Solid.

The dream was gone.

Shennong looked around, panting. His heart thundered in his ears.

The Core.

He was still inside the Core.

The warm glow of the dream was gone—only the pulsing red and violet walls of the Core remained. The cavern rumbled faintly, alive but asleep.

He sat up quickly, his hand moving instinctively to his side.

His pickaxe—it was back.

He clutched it tight, then pressed his forehead against the shaft. Still real. Still cold.

"I’m still here..." he whispered.

But something was wrong.

The hole—the one he’d entered through, the one that had let him into the Core’s chamber—was gone. Vanished. Sealed as if it had never existed.

Panic threatened to rise in his throat.

"No, no, no—"

He stood up and rushed to the wall, slamming his pickaxe into it.

CRACK!

He hit it again.

And again.

Stone split, and bits of shining Lunamarite dust scattered around him. He didn’t stop. His arms screamed in pain. His breath came fast.

"I’m not dying here... I’m not staying buried..."

He dug faster. The Core trembled under each strike, responding to him like a beast stirred from sleep.

And then—

Light.

A thin etheral blue light peeked through a crack in the wall. Faint. Almost a whisper. But it was there.

Shennong roared.

He raised the pickaxe high above his head.

And brought it down one final time.

BOOM.

The wall collapsed.

Blinding light rushed in, slamming into him like a wave.

He flew backward, tumbling across the Core’s floor. He covered his eyes, shielding them from the glare. It wasn’t sunlight—not exactly. It was softer, more ethereal.

When his vision cleared, his breath left him completely.

In front of him lay a vast cavern. No—something more. A world tucked beneath the earth. Trees towered overhead, their trunks twisting with veins of glowing blue. Giant mushrooms bloomed across the land, radiating a soft, pulsing light. Crystals floated mid-air, spinning gently like lazy stars.

The entire place shimmered with color. The air smelled like sweet earth and spring.

He took a step forward.

And then another.

His voice came out hoarse.

"...Is this paradise?"

The breeze—yes, a breeze—answered him with a gentle caress against his cheek. Petals drifted down from one of the glowing trees, and he caught one in his palm. It melted into light.

"This place..." he murmured. "It’s not like anything I’ve seen."

Behind him, the Core’s entrance closed with a rumble. He didn’t even look back.

His eyes were fixed on the impossible beauty ahead.

The cavern of Lunamarite had been stunning, sure—but this?

This was something else.

Alive.

Divine.

And for a moment—just a moment—Shennong felt like he belonged here.

The dream flashed in his mind again.

The tree.

The apple.

The sculptor.

The missing hand.

The pointing finger.

His hand trembled.

He looked down at it.

Still his.

Still the same.

But deep inside, something had shifted.

He could feel it.

The dream wasn’t just a dream.

It was a message.

A warning.

A beginning.

"...What are you trying to show me?" he whispered.

No answer came.

Only the faint sound of leaves rustling far above.

And yet, somehow, that silence felt full—like the world was listening.

Shennong took another step forward.

He didn’t know what lay ahead.

But one thing was certain.

He wasn’t the same man who had entered the Core.

And the journey wasn’t over.

Not yet.

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