By early afternoon, we all met again, comparing the information we had found about the place we were supposed to clean up. Sadly, the more we talked, the more it became obvious that the information we had managed to gather wasn’t quite making sense. Some of it meshed well, painting the picture of a magical forest, inhabited by strange spirits, what some called Fey. The image presented was one of mischievous, but ultimately innocuous creatures that merely wanted to exist in their own, little corner of the world. Other tales were much darker, speaking of stolen children, dark dealings and horrific monsters that tore honest people apart.

Which of those two pictures was the right one, we had no way of knowing, but I had a feeling it would be neither. Either way, we just had to travel through the area and, if at all possible clear a path. Or remove the obstacle entirely, but that wasn’t the preferred way of handling things.

When we retreated to our cottage for dinner, Doris came to meet up with us again, just like she had in the morning.

“Good Evening,” she greeted us, her usual, polite smile on her face. If I wasn’t aware that she was amongst the leaders of a rebel base, I would think her some sort of customer service representative, trying to keep a diverse set of personalities from causing too much trouble. Calm, polite, professional but never speaking so much that she got herself into trouble. “Given your inquiries over the day, I presume you are going to take the quest I offered you?” she asked, after the usual exchange of pleasantries.

“We plan to at least take a look, we won’t promise more than that. It highly depends on the System’s rating of danger and how we rate it ourselves, once we are close enough to actually take a look,” Adra replied, following the previously agreed script. Given that Doris was quite adept at negotiations, I had decided to take a step back and let Adra handle things as much as possible.

“That’s all we can ask for,” Doris nodded in acceptance, “Now, to make this formally, do you accept Jenn as a member of your party?” she asked, looking at the five of us. There was some apprehension in my mind, I barely knew Jenn and she wasn’t really an asset to us. From what I’d heard, she was a reasonably competent fighter, with a bit of training as a tracker, her skill-set quite similar to Adra, only without the powerful dryad magic to build upon. Jenn apparently had some minor skills to hide that bordered on magical but weren’t quite there yet. Maybe in the future, with some instruction, she would manage to get abilities somewhat close to Rai’s, if she had the affinity for them, but maybe not.

Either way, for now, she was weak and not terribly skilled, making her a burden. But sadly, the burden was the one who knew where to go and would likely act as a leash on us as well.

“We accept,” I formally replied, after getting prodded by Adra. Intent and perception were the key in the formality, and the system recognised me as the group’s leader, so I had to act as it.

“Thank you, I accept entrance into your group,” Jenn nodded and there was a faint change, subtle and barely noticeable, but she became a little more familiar to me. Not in some powerful way, but a soft and gentle nudge, connecting us just a little. If the connection between Sigmir and me was a thick, powerful rope, strong enough to anchor a ship, the freshly formed connection was more akin to a string of twine, easily snapped, more a reminder than a restraint.

“And with that done, I would ask you to clear a path through the Forlorn Forrest. A safe and hidden road to our other outpost would give us massive advantages, especially when it comes to the evasion of hostile forces.” As Doris finished her words, a blue box appeared before us, giving us the details.

Quest Alert! Forlorn Road Quest Difficulty Hard

The Free People have asked you to clear them a path through the Forlorn Forest.

Quest Reward EXP, Information on a valuable location

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see Jenn tensing up for a moment, visibly swallowing, before reaching forward in an all too familiar gesture.

After a quick glance at the others, I repeated that same gesture, accepting the quest and looking at Doris again.

“We shall do as you ask,” I formally addressed her, getting a smile in return.

“Thank you for that,” she looked at Olivia, “If you don’t mind, we’d send you out tomorrow, there’s going to be a group heading out. When would it be convenient for you to head out?” she asked, now focusing back at us. While she wasn’t quite kicking us out, it was quite obvious that she wanted us to leave and take care of that problem as soon as possible. Or maybe, she just wanted us to leave.

“I believe we can set out tomorrow, too,” I looked at Adra, Sigmir and Rai, to confirm their thoughts on the matter. They all nodded, while I briefly considered what supplies I was carrying in my bag. Given the local laws about hunting, we needed to get some extra, as there was little possibility to head into town.

“Jenn, what do you need to prepare if we want to head out tomorrow? And could you spare some time for us later, I believe we need to find out just how competent you are in a fight If you are travelling with us.” I asked her, mentally dismissing Doris.

“I have most of my things packed, I can easily be ready in the morning,” Jenn promised, looking eagre and scared at the same time.

“Excellent,” I nodded, “About that training?” I prodded and she accepted.

After dinner, Sigmir and I headed to one of the clearings with Jenn. It was used for training, so there was a bit of equipment there.

“Sigmir, why don’t you test her abilities first?” I asked, conjuring up a blunt Axe of Ice for her to use. It wasn’t a Lok’Nar, the weight would cause serious injuries even with a blunt edge, more something to give Jenn some reminders if needed.

Jenn prepared herself, wielding a morningstar, a shield along with sturdy leather armour, reinforced with some metal. It was quite similar to Sigmir, only less well-made than her dwarven-made equipment.

Sigmir let Jenn show her stuff first, dodging, blocking and working defensively, merely using some feints and jabs to keep her on her toes. That went for a minute or two until Sigmir started to actively fight, slowly at first but quickly speeding up and forcing Jenn into a more and more difficult position. For once, Sigmir wasn’t fighting to win a battle or training to help a partner, she was fighting to find out how competent her foe was.

Some might compare it to torture, and Jenn was certainly receiving some painful blows, but far more than that, Sigmir was pushing her to the absolute limit, forcing her to fight as well as she could, or suffer some painful, and at times humiliating, blows.

Finally, after a good ten minutes of brutal training, far worse than anything Mrs Wu had ever done to me, Jenn was sprawled on the ground, some unbidden tears in her eyes and a lot of bruises and welts all over her body. Sigmir had been careful not to cause lasting wounds, but the pain Jenn was feeling had to be intense.

“She’s not bad,” Sigmir judged, looking down at the panting figure, “Why don’t you heal her up and test her yourself?” she asked, a vicious smile on her face. Nodding, I stepped up to Jenn and placed a hand on her shoulder to send my magic into her body. I had to leave it to Sigmir, she had beaten Jenn black and blue, to the point that I doubted she’d be able to move for a couple of days without healing magic. But luckily, I had just the magic to help her.

A few minutes later, Jenn was still covered in a cold sweat from the pain, but her body was no longer bruised, only exhausted.

“Get up, now you can show me what you got,” I challenged her, “And better step up, I’m only a feeble Sorceress, so don’t think I’ll be as gentle as Sigmir was,” I added, noticing that the sweat suddenly intensified, even as she forced herself into a standing position.

My method was very similar to Sigmir’s and I pushed Jenn more and more, even using Blood Magic to speed both of our bodies up, simply to let her experience the possibility. Granted, I wasn’t kind enough to constantly heal her, letting her feel the pain of her body tearing itself apart as she was forced to push it beyond her limit, but it was a lesson that would stick.

By the time I was done with her, she was more dead than alive, fainting away the moment I let the magic that kept her going fade.

“She’s got a bit of potential,” I judged, making sure that she’d recuperate during the night. Healing wounds you caused yourself was always the easiest, especially if you were careful how you caused those wounds.

“They say pain is the best teacher,” Sigmir smiled, as we started to walk back to our cottage, “I reckon she has learned a lot,”