Grey found himself At the entrance of a building labeled golden embrace it was a giant brown rectangular building made of spider silk. With doors to accommodate even larger animals.
He entered only to see it was divided in two the upstairs looked to be full of hammocks and cacoons hanging from the ceiling while the lower half had half buried large animals covered in a silk blanket.
He looked around and saw the head of a bear sleeping soundly on a pillow and a moose not much farther sleeping in a hole next to it. Above a crow came out of a suspended cocoon and flew over to the entrance to leave.
"Woah!" Was all he could say with a amazed face.
"This must be your first time here? Need something." Came a small voice from behind grey.
Grey immediately felt chills run down his spine since even before he awakened he could always tell if someone was nearby with his exceptional hearing but this voice sounded directly behind him.
But for some reason all the spiders here made no noise of any kind and unless he was actively looking for them he couldn't hear them.
He quickly scratched the back of his head nervously "Yeah it's my first night here and I was told we could rest here but, it's so different from what I imagined you guys are amazing." Grey said full of sincerity while still looking around.
The brown fired spider just laughed as he hopped on greys shoulder "your an honest little rabbit but I like that. Welcome to my golden embrace where any beast is welcome to rest and luckily for most first timers don't know the rules so they get one free night of rest and have to pay with crystals or food."
Grey seemed to realize something in that moment "Say if someone had a crystal rune can they make a bunch to get whatever they wanted here?"
The spider stared deep into his eyes for a few seconds before bursting out laughing at the top of his small lungs.
A few passing beast that heard him also burst out into laughter.
Grey looked around absolutely confused "What? Did I say something funny?"
The was still laughing so hard that he rolled off of greys shoulder and fell on the floor.
A passing pigeon walked up to grey with a smug face trying to hide his laughter but failing. "Little one the reason everyone is laughing is because the crystals we trade for here are two types beast crystals and rune crystals."
Grey looked even more confused now "Wut"
The pidgeon continued smiling even more now as everyone's laughter was slowly dying down.
"Beast crystals come from us rune beasts carnivores eat it to become more powerful while most herbivores don't know about it they really hunt others but once you awaken you should naturally figure this out."
Grey started thinking hard every beast he killed and ate and couldn't think of anything that seemed different about their bodies. Everything crunched and tasted the same to him after all food is food he thought.
The pidgeon saw him thinking really hard causing him to chuckle. "While Rune crystals a formed naturally in certain areas. They have the raw flowing essence of a element and if you have a matching element it can significantly boost your energy and enhance your body in various ways."
Grey finally had a understanding look. "Oh"
The brown spider finally pulled himself together. "The only thing that's equally valuable to every beast to trade with are crystals and food since every beast needs them."
Grey just nodded "so that's why there is a cave for everyone to explore and gather resources to trade here."
The spider quickly corrected grey "Yes but you still need to pay a five crystal Tax when you leave as compensation for using the golden fang cave systems. If you just go in there for free and take what you want then what's the point of it all."
The spider quickly pointed upwards "just go and rest for now and pick any cocoon and thanks for the good laugh! I haven't laughed like that in years!"
Grey embarrassingly went upstairs with a bright red face. When he finished climbing the stairs he saw the hammocks near the wall and the suspended cocoons.
Now that he was closer he saw a small slit near the top half of it.
He soon remembered how the crow from earlier just pushed it aside before jumping down and flying off.
"Here goes nothing." He told himself to mentally prepare as he charged his body and jumped on a nearby one.
He landed on top of it before quickly grabbing the string holding it to keep his balance.
After testing the slit on the cocoon a few times by testing it with foot and head a few times he hopped in.
Surprisingly enough it felt like a warm stretchy embrace from all corners while stretching to accommodate his body.
"Huh feel like a group hug in the dark or like being coiled up by Jade? It's surprisingly comfortable and soft." Grey commented.
Everyone downstairs continued laughing and talking laughing as grey soon dozed off after listening in on the useless talk.
Back at the hills of endless mist Jade was slithering towards a giant blue mound of fur.
"HEyyyy! Ted I'm sssoooooo bored and all you do is sleep. I love sleep more than anyone but unlike you I have to wake up is there anything here I could do. Pleeese."
Ted just grumbled as he slowly lifted his head "my bad I forgot non dream users have wake up instead of sleeping all day. Is there anything in particular you want?"
Jade sat still thinking hard "Hmm well I've been training grey and lily for a while in our dreams while I've just been eating eating mice and I've already explored your very plain territory. So maybe some place I could fight or train myself?"
Ted just let out a tired "fine" before releasing some blue mist that slowly formed into three blue bipedal turtles with a white cloud pattern shells. "Just play with these dream echoes far away so I can sleep."
Jade examined the three turtles and even poked one with her tail to see if it was solid only feel actual skin. "WOW these are so life like these are perfect for entertainment thanks so mu—" she soon noticed the snoring bear was no longer paying attention.
"Welp time to have some fun with these guys… wait do you guys talk?"
… no response came after a few seconds
"Fine! I guess I'm all alone again, listen up you in the middle your going to train with me while the rest start building a few homes near that river over there."
The turtles started moving to her orders like drones.