Chapter 3: **The Cunning Fool Falls Upward**
Vito hit the ground with an unceremonious *thud*. Pain shot through his back, but he groaned more from indignation than injury. As he blinked away the darkness, he realized he wasn't splattered on some dungeon floor. Instead, he was sprawled in a dense, glowing forest. The trees radiated an eerie blue light, their branches twisting upward like skeletal fingers clawing at the sky.
"Well, this is new," Vito muttered, pulling himself to his feet. The shard he had grabbed earlier was still clenched in his hand, warm and pulsing faintly, like it had a heartbeat of its own. "Cursed artifact? Check. Strange magical forest? Check. Bad decisions? Triple check."
He dusted himself off and looked around. The forest was unnervingly quiet, save for the occasional rustle of leaves in the nonexistent wind. His instincts screamed *trap*, but when had that ever stopped him before?
---
The shard pulsed harder, and Vito felt a tug—a faint pull in the back of his mind, urging him forward. He groaned. "Of course. The magic rock wants me to go somewhere. It's not like I have a choice, do I?"
He trudged along, muttering to himself about the universe's unfairness. "Why couldn't I have been cursed with something useful, like invincibility or the ability to find loose change? Nooo, I get the glowing evil rock."
As he followed the pull of the shard, the forest seemed to twist around him. Paths doubled back on themselves, trees shifted when he wasn't looking, and he was pretty sure he saw his own footprints circling around a rock he hadn't even passed yet.
"Alright, I get it!" he shouted into the trees. "You're spooky and mysterious! Can we move on now?"
The forest, unsurprisingly, didn't respond.
---
After what felt like hours, Vito stumbled into a clearing. At the center stood a massive, gnarled tree, its roots clawing at the ground like the tentacles of some ancient beast. Hanging from its branches were dozens of glowing orbs, each one pulsing faintly, like miniature stars trapped in glass.
"Okay, that's either really pretty or really dangerous," Vito said, squinting at the orbs. "Probably both."
Before he could investigate further, the ground beneath him rumbled. From the shadows of the clearing emerged a creature that made the beast from earlier look like a lapdog. Its body was a mass of writhing tendrils, its face—or what passed for one—a gaping maw filled with needle-like teeth. The orbs above it flickered, as if in warning.
The creature let out a low, guttural growl that vibrated through the clearing. Vito, ever the optimist, raised his rusty dagger and gave a mock bow.
"Greetings, terrifying abomination. I'd like to propose a deal: you let me leave, and I won't stab you with this… very intimidating piece of scrap metal."
The creature didn't seem impressed. It lunged, and Vito barely managed to dive out of the way.
---
"Alright, Plan B," he muttered, scrambling to his feet. "Run like hell!"
But as he turned to flee, the shard in his hand flared with light. Vito froze as the creature hesitated, its tendrils recoiling slightly from the glow. A grin spread across his face.
"Oh, you don't like this, do you?" he said, holding up the shard like a talisman. "Big scary monster afraid of a little rock?"
The creature growled again, this time more in anger than fear, and began to circle him. Vito's grin faltered.
"Right, taunting the monster. Always a great plan," he muttered.
The shard pulsed harder, and Vito felt a surge of energy course through him. Without thinking, he thrust it toward the creature. A burst of light erupted from the shard, slamming into the beast and sending it skittering back into the shadows.
"Ha! Take that!" Vito shouted, then immediately winced. "Oh no. I just made it angrier, didn't I?"
---
The creature roared, but instead of attacking again, it slithered back into the forest. The glowing orbs on the tree dimmed slightly, as if the threat had passed.
Vito let out a shaky laugh, collapsing against the tree. "Well, that wasn't so bad. I mean, I'm not dead, so… win?"
The shard in his hand pulsed again, softer this time, almost… approvingly? He frowned. "You're enjoying this, aren't you?"
Before he could ponder further, the tree behind him groaned. Vito yelped and jumped away as the bark began to split, revealing a hollow interior. Inside was a staircase spiraling downward, its steps lined with faintly glowing runes.
"Of course," Vito said. "Because why not go deeper into the death maze? What could possibly go wrong?"
The shard pulsed again, urging him forward.
Vito sighed, glancing up at the glowing orbs above him. "Next time, I'm picking the bread loaf with less magic in it."
With one last look at the cursed forest, he stepped onto the staircase, ready—or more accurately, resigned—for whatever awaited him below.