At Parish's warning, Sam realized the Troll wasn't actually looking at any of them but was only scanning the area. “Is this thing like a T-Rex or something?” Sam thought as the Troll continued to munch on his meal of fresh human food.
“What is a T-Rex?” Nara asked in Sam’s head.
"It's like raptor but larger and chunkier," Sam sent back.
“Why is the troll like a—”
"Please stay focused, ladies," Parish said, even whispering through the voice chat, "Sam, since you probably do not know, this creature is motion and sound-sensitive. Do not let the dirt and mud in its ears fool you; it senses vibrations through its skin."
"Okay, so what's the big deal? I know it's big, but so were the Spine Beast and Gilabear. How is this guy any different?" Sam asked, wincing internally as the giant creature ate the last of the Poison Mistress, shoving the legs in its mouth, boots and all, and crunching down.
"Because I don't think anyone here has a fire or acid spell, and that is the only way to kill this particular species of Troll," Parish said.
Sam started thinking about how to combat such a threat when the Troll reached under its filthy loin cloth to scratch and let out a loud belch. The stench nearly made Sam vomit, and it was only through some serious mental gymnastics that she kept from retching and gagging at the foul stench.
“Oh…that is…vile,” Parish’s pained voice filtered through the mental agony of Sam’s mind, “I think I might pass out…”
"At least you don't have a front-row seat," Sam said, "I took the full hit. It's in my mouth…I think I'm going to puke…"
“I like it,” Lupie commented to everyone else’s horror.
“Me too,” Nul intoned a moment later.
“Focus,” Nara said, “it is about to move.”
Sure enough, she was right; the giant creature yawned, continuing to scratch its privates, the tattered loincloth allowing Sam a view she knew would haunt her dreams forever. After a moment, the Troll proceeded forward with heavy thumping steps. One clawed foot nearly crushed Sam as it passed, missing her by less than a meter.
When the Troll got close to the fire, its demeanor changed. It roared in rage and smashed the fire with its club repeatedly. Sam was terrified it would hit Parish accidentally with one of the wild swings. The Battle Healer was so close to the fire that several burning sticks bounced off her armor. Thankfully, the Troll didn't feel the need to snuff out the scattered embers of the campfire, many of which had fallen around Parish. After one final roar that made Sam's knees weak and Nul melt onto her head even more than usual, the enormous beast thumped farther down the tunnel in the direction they had come from.
No one moved until the flashing red and black skull on Sam's map was around a corner farther down the tunnel. When the icon of the deadly monster disappeared from Sam's map, everyone let out a collective sigh, except for Nul, who apparently didn't breathe.
Sam had felt it and had to admit to the group as she rejoined them, “I think that is the first creature on this planet I’ve met that I would not have survived a fight with. Was it even evolved?”
"No," Parish said with certainty, adding, "Just because a monster has evolved doesn't mean it is stronger than one a grade lower." She gestured to Sam, "As you well know. I believe you have an E-grade corpse yourself." Sam nodded, and Parish continued, "Think of it like this, Sam. If a small worm evolves to E-grade, and trust me, they do, would it be a contender for a level fifty Brighthawk?"
Sam just stared at Parish blankly. She understood the woman's words but wasn't sure what a Brighthawk was. At her shrug, Parish rolled her eyes and summed up her lesson, "Although there are some exceptions, the general rule is: little things with high levels are still weaker than big things with lower levels. A worm might receive a single stat point per level, whereas a hawk would receive three. That Troll probably gets at least thirty stat points per level now, and it could be as high as sixty once it evolves."
"He evolves," Sam said with a shudder, "it was definitely a 'he.' I would burn my eyes out to get rid of that memory if I didn't know they would grow back instantly, and it wouldn't work anyway." Sam shook her head, "Man, that was gross." To Parish, she said, "I get it now. Thanks for the info."
“Levels,” Nul purred from its perch.
Sam wanted to check her own notifications but decided to wait until they were somewhere more defensible. Parish must have been thinking the same thing because she moved to the woman she killed, saying, "We should search these bandits for valuables. Hopefully, they will have some information regarding their employer we can send to the Guild." Looking at what was left of the warrior that had been smashed to meat paste by one of the Troll's wild swings, she tisked, "Maybe the other will have something on them one of us can use."
"I can probably still get something from her with my Loot skill," Sam offered, then winced when Parish whipped around to stare at her.
“Is there any ability you don’t possess?” The healer asked incredulously.
“No,” Nara said dryly from her perch on Lupie.
Instead of wasting time explaining, Sam gave Parish access to her stat sheet in their party menu. Then hummed a happy tune while the pretty half-elf had a meltdown. She first looted the Rogue and Hunter, storing their bodies afterward, before returning to loot the two warrior types after receiving permission from a still exasperated Parish and a happy Lupie.
When she was finished, she stored them in her inventory for Nara to dissect later. With one last check around the destroyed campsite and finding nothing they had missed, they moved on, wanting to put as much distance between them and the Troll as they could before needing to rest.
Parish promised Sam they would talk at the next Safe Zone they made, regardless of whether Sam wanted to or not! Sam laughed it off but figured that since there was still too much she didn't know about this planet and the System, it couldn't hurt to hear the healer out.
***
Many hours later, Lupie spied a small crack in the tunnel wall they were traveling. What was strange about the crack was the blue X painted above it. After investigating, they found it opened into a small room about twenty meters into the rock. Similar to the first room they had camped in, this one also had a small glowing pool in the center, painting the walls and ceiling with dynamic waves of soothing blue-green light.
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In blue paint, three words were scrawled on the back wall: 'Do not drink.'
“Now I want to drink it!” Sam whined when she read the warning.
Every eye turned on Sam, and she shrugged, "What? Haven't you all ever heard of FOMO?"
A thirty-minute back and forth followed as they set up camp. Fortunately, the possibly toxic water didn't prevent them from establishing a Safe Zone. In fact, the safe zone wound up being the first level three Sam had seen.
'Bing' Safe Zone [Level 3] created: Your party has met all the requirements to form a level 3 safe zone. This zone will not leak sounds, scents, light, or mana. A class 1 minor barrier has been erected twenty meters from the center of the zone. All creatures up to level 70 will be diverted from approaching the barrier. Any creature that breaks the barrier will receive a 60% debuff of all attack and defensive power.
“Damn,” Sam whistled, “that’s one hell of a safe zone!” She looked at Nara, “Now I know why that spatial cabin was so expensive.”
"There is no time limit on the safe zone, so we should take as much time as we need to prepare for the remainder of our journey," Parish stated. She displayed Sam's map for everyone to see and examined it for a while before saying, "I think I have heard of this safe zone before…if it is the same one Master Harold spoke of, then we are less than a day from the Beastland border." She looked at Nara and asked, "How much longer until you can summon Naris again?"
“A few days,” Nara responded, “Do we have enough cooked food to last us that long?”
Looking up, Sam mused, "We might be able to build a fire." She pointed to a small hole in the cavern's roof, saying, "If that is the case, then I have thousands of kilograms of raptor and salamander meat. And we still have many spices and vegetables left from before, plus all the herbs we found."
It turned out that Sam was right. They built a small fire using a few of the hundreds of dried logs Sam had collected on her travels. The smoke lazily trailed out of the natural chimney, aided by a slight breeze from the crack they had entered through.
Once the fire was going and everyone was confident, they wouldn't have to rely on mana to breathe; they all relaxed. Sam didn't even realize how tense she had been for the last couple of days until she felt the tension drain from her muscles once they had some meat cooking. Dismissing her tattered armor and clothes, Sam flopped back on the soft moss on the floor. "This stuff is better than a mattress!" She said, enjoying the cushiony feel of the spongy moss against her naked back. Nul had flopped off her head and was rolling around on the moss, purring its agreement.
Sam felt a cleaning spell wash over her, which, unsurprisingly, worked much better than a cleansing spell. The spell gave Sam an idea. She summoned all her tattered and filthy clothes from her inventory and piled them against the far wall, saying, "If we are going to be here for a few days, then clean all of this. I'll repair all the organic materials." She looked to the warped steel pauldron on Parish's left shoulder, where one of the Hollow Stalkers had got in a lucky bite during one of their encounters. She shook her head, "I can't do non-organics yet."
"Good enough for me," Parish said, removing the armor like Sam had, "do what you can." She kept her clothes on, though, casting a furtive glance at Nara and blushing slightly.
Sam looked between the two of them and guffawed. "Seriously? We are all freaking girls here." Nul made a warbling noise, and Sam corrected, "Well, girls and whatever that is." She pointed at Nul.
"Void Slime," Nul cried, helpfully bouncing once on the spongy moss before continuing to roll around.
“Not all of us prefer nudity, Sam,” Nara chimed in from behind her.
"I do!" Lupie called from her spot next to the fire pit. Jumping up, she twirled in her human form, "I'm always naked!"
Sam laughed as a bushy tail swiped her face. “Good girl!” Sam said with a toothy grin.
"Please don't encourage her," Parish pinched her nose. Then, waggling a finger at the Pathfinder, she said, "And do not think I have forgotten about having a talk with you."
Sam held up her hands, “Okay, okay, calm down. I have no problem with answering a few questions if you don’t mind doing the same.”
The conversation died down, and at Sam's suggestion, everyone waited until after the meal to speak of any serious topics. So, the adventurers spent the next hour talking about small things and laughing at the playful Lupie as she and Nul engaged in a hilarious game of tag. It was entertaining for Sam because she had never expected to witness an anthropomorphic Bloodmorph try to catch a teleporting Void Slime; both of which she had used magic coins to summon them from the void. And she was doing it while she used magic to repair her armor and the armor of a Half-elf and a Moonblight, both of whom she had slept with!
"What a weird life this has turned into," Sam mused to herself, watching the antics of her two summons with a wistful expression. She didn't even realize she had spoken aloud until Parish and Nara leaned against her, giving her a seated side hug.
Sam looked back and forth between the two women with a pleasant smile. She asked Parish, “What do you want to know?”
"Only what you wish to tell," Parish responded, "but first, I believe I should confess something to you and, more importantly, Nara."
Sam looked to Nara, wondering what Parish was talking about, but the Moonblight seemed just as confused as Sam. Both women turned to Parish for an answer. Instead of speaking, Parish shared a screen with the two of them.
'Bing' Congratulations! You have received a generational progressive quest: The Blue Star Throne.
Note: This is an optional quest. Refusal will reset the quest to the following generation.
Objective: Restore the Blue Star Queen to her throne and assist her in its defense for one cycle.
Maximum Participants: 7.
Maximum Level of Participants: Dynamic [No minimum level].
Recommended Level: 1-250.
Current Number of Participants: 0.
Time until the quest is rescinded: the death of the Blue Star Queen.
Failure Conditions: the death of the Blue Star Queen or the loss of her throne before the end of the first cycle of her rule.
Reward(s): Dynamic rewards will be distributed upon successful completion of each stage of the quest. The respect of a Queen. Epic title. Solar body 'Tenaris' will be upgraded to a level 2 planet with its own orbit. System Shop network will be made available and linked to a single hub on the new planet. Level cap of Tenaris will be increased to 500.
Failure penalty: None.
Accept Quest? Yes/No.
"What the fuck…" Sam trailed off, lost in thought, "There is a level cap? What is it on Hallista? Who the fuck is the Blue Queen Star person, and why should I care? And why is Nara crying—” Sam turned to her friend, who was still staring unfocused at the quest message with tears streaming down her cheeks. Whipping back to Parish, Sam snapped, "You better have a good reason for this!"
Parish nodded solemnly and selected 'Yes.'
A bright blue light shone through Nara's shirt, and Parish grunted, clutching her chest as if in pain. Sam grabbed each of their arms. Not knowing what was happening, she tried healing both of them, but there was nothing wrong with either woman. When Parish and Nara started crying out in pain, their bodies convulsing, Sam called Lupie to help her hold them down, trying to keep the glowing women from harming themselves.
“What is going on?” Sam asked as she held her thrashing grey friend as motionless as she could.
"I do not know, but she is getting very hot," Lupie responded from where she was sitting on top of Parish. She had returned to her beast form and used the added size to her advantage.
Sam had noticed that, too. She could feel the heat coming from Nara's chest. Her shirt began smoldering, and her mark was glowing under it.
With a final cry, both women stopped thrashing, and the light faded.
Sam and Lupie stared at each other in the now quiet room. Tendrils of smoke trickled up from the unconscious women. Sam looked down at where Nara's shirt had been burned away and gasped, “Her mark! It’s a blue pentagram! A blue star!” Sam stared at her friend for a long moment, her thoughts chaotic before finally blurting, “Holy shit! I fucked a queen!”