They had seen it all when they not only knew about shrunken people, but shrunken Treasure Chests and shrunken Food as well. Nothing was going to surprise them, at this point. They were about to enter this huge log or tree or whatever you wanted to call it. They figured they'd have to squeeze between each piece of bark until they could get to the other side, hopefully not finding many insects along the way. Their plan was the same, but they had a little more tension, knowing that Masako may have thrown this tree in their path, meaning that she'd somehow already left the Shrine and was well on her way into the academy.

When they got inside the tree, they were expecting small, nearly-impassable crevices for them to squeeze through. What they found when they got inside, however, was something completely different than what they were expecting. As they got inside, the stopped and looked at one another. Rubbing their eyes, they looked back, not believing what was standing before them. Within the three was a clear path with plenty of walking space and “walls” of bark that followed the path. It almost looked like some sort of dungeon or maze, crafted by someone, or something. They thought they'd seen it all. Clearly, they hadn't.

Not bothering to wait too long to wonder why a dead tree looks like a maze, they decided to just start heading into it, so they could get to the other side. A lot of things were confusing them, at this point, but there was no point in worrying about them when they had much bigger issues to worry about here. They headed around a few corners, seeing giant clods of dirt and a couple skeletons, belonging to who-knows-what that had been through here. As they made their way around a few more corners, they came face-to-face with a new enemy, one they hadn't seen out in the fields. In front of them stood a small scorpion.

This scorpion was looking at them, it's pincers pinching together and it's tail swaying from one side to the other. They looked at each other and grabbed a hold of their weapons. They weren't going to just sit by and become Scorpion food. Even though the scorpion was much larger than they were, they'd stand and fight, because they had to. As the beast started crawling towards them, they all jumped to the side as Tarou fired off a Quake spell. As they jumped, Sei had gotten brushed by one of the scorpion's legs, feeling that hard, moving surface, push him even further away. As the spell went into effect, however, the monster got shoved into the air and fell on it's back.

Hitoshi quickly ran in to finish the scorpion off with a quick Double-Slash. After having dealt with the scorpion, the trio sighed a breath of relief. Although that wasn't exactly the easiest of fights, it meant that the fights weren't getting a terrible amount harder for them. As long as their battles stayed at around this sort of 'difficulty', they would be fine in getting through to the academy. As the fight ended, they noticed they were at a branching path. One path led south, and one to the east. Hitoshi ran down the East path, finding a Treasure Chest that had a Mana Nectar in it. Not worrying about shrunken items anymore, he quickly pocketed it and returned to the others.

Regrouping, the trio fought a few more scorpions on their way through the tree, going around another path and coming to a smaller box that had an Herb plant in it. The more they traveled through this place, the more it looked like these walls of bark were actual, solid walls, man-made or something of the sort. This certainly was a strange place and, having gotten used to the fights in here, had the concentration to think about this sort of thing, as they made their way between two walls into the next part of this place. As they moved forward, they came to three walls, the path splitting five ways.

Taking a look at one another, they began to split the paths up, between them. Tarou took the left-most path, and Hitoshi took the path next to it. It seemed as if the 3rd path led to the next area of the log, a strange light coming from that direction, but they wanted to check on all of the paths, just in case they would find something to help them. As they had suspected, they did find something. Tarou came to a box at the end of his path, procuring a vile of Smelling Salts, and Hitoshi was able to switch out his Head Equipment with a small, brown helm that he found in a Treasure Chest.

As soon as they got back, Sei left to go down the fourth path, while Hitoshi and Tarou looked down third as they waited. Quickly rushing down the fourth path, Sei procured a new Bandana to go around his head. Having gotten it so quickly, he returned to the fork, only to see that Tarou and Hitoshi were still looking down that 3rd path. His ego getting the best of him, he turned and decided to go down the fifth path, to see what he could find from there as well. He set his sights towards the end of it, looking at if it might turn and come out where the third path did as well, Sei rushed along, getting through the place. However, as soon as he found a corner, the currying of legs began to come into his ears.

Sei was caught off-guard when something ferocious came out in front of him. It wasn't a bug, but something much worse. Before him was a huge spider, it's spiney legs hitting the ground as it crawled towards him. He fell to the ground and felt one of it's hairs being launchs and scratching against his arm. He screamed out as he threw his weapon at the beast, severing three of it's legs. Falling to the ground, the spider became immobile, giving Sei time to retrieve his weapon and hold onto his arm as he retreated back to the fork. As he got back, Tarou and Hitoshi were at the top of the path, ready to help him, having heard his scream.

Sei immediately fell to the ground, his arm starting to change color. It was starting to become as purple as his hair from the wound he'd gotten. Hitoshi yanked the hair out of his arm and laid him down in front of Tarou. His arms were shaking, suffering the effects of not an injury, but poison. Tarou held his staff over Sei's arm as he cast a spell. “Heal!” A bright light enveloped Sei's arm as the gash began to disappear and his arm returned to it's natural color. When Sei recovered, they all went down the third path, together, not willing to split up for awhile. With bugs around, it wasn't bad, but with poisonous spiders around, it was a different story.

As they worked their way down the third path, they found something they weren't expecting to see. Against a wall was the light of a Crystal. It was the same kind of healing crystals that they'd seen at the Beach and Mountain, at normal height. These things must have gotten shrunk, too, or were always around. No matter the reason, they all decided that, since Sei had nearly gotten fatally wounded, they would take a rest and use the Crystal to their advantage, as they did so.