Tuning everything out, Le0n let his task roll over him. Words came in one ear and went out the other. Hours flew by, time was distant, then as the sun set for a second time. Since Le0n entered the workshop, Le0n had an idea.

“What if, they need us to stay here?” He murmured, setting aside the last chopped log. Getting up he stretched, popping his back. Happy to see that his wood carving skill was already at beginner two.

There was a clear line between want and need. Want is essentially like and need is basically a necessity. I would like some water versus I have to have water to survive.

But why would they want us? They already stated that- ah how was he kidding they’d open up Warwood to the open forest full of wild monsters. With Theodore gone a power vacuum had opened up. After all was said and done whoever rose to power wasn’t likely to be as ‘kind’ as that lumbering bear.

They’d probably attack anyone who came near just to gain an edge when some other monster invaded their territory. That's how life was a series of gains and losses. Hopefully he could gain more than he lost, by the end of the day. He was immortal after all.

But if was stuck here. Only limited by the primitive crafts they could offer. Then the double progress was counterproductive. It really did matter on the tools you used. If you were an expert chef and was given a lighter to roast a potato it would be impossible.

He had to get out of there, but how? He could leave Jazz and Marlow behind and they would get punished for him leaving. Plus Jazz had already proven to be something of a potion prodigy and Marlow a micro master with animals.

Looking around, Le0n began scheming for a way out of this invisible prison. The logs would make for a great fire but they’d be put out too easily. Going out by brute force seemed ill advised. Since the three elders gave the impression of being some sort of boss fight.

But what if everyone was distracted? Then they could just walk out the gate with no one looking. He’d have to give the others some excuse on why they should leave but they’d believe him since he was their team leader after all.

The excuse could come later; he had to figure out a plan. What could he use now to set them free? Wait didn’t That greasy guy say something about forcing them to respawn here? If he could change that then next time they’d die they would pop into Ardania. The current, closest, trustworthiest, closest to Geasy guy was Jazz. This was not going to be easy. But nothing ever was.

Collecting his belongings, Le0n made his way out of the mill house. Down the streets getting lost a few times. Then with the sun in the middle of the sky finally made it to the library without any help from anyone. Okay that was a little, but he had gotten here at least.

Knocking on the door a librarian answered. Grumbling as he was let in. As he followed the skeletal woman Le0n got a look at the old tome on the shelves. Since there wasn’t really anything else to look at.

“That is why you should never touch anything after handling alchemical ingredients. Else you may contaminate something ordinary and make it unordinary. Does that answer your question?”

“It doesn’t actually.” As le0n round the corner he spotted Jazz and Greasy guy having a chat. In a classroom with glass bottles everywhere, each one filled with liquids, solids, and gasses. With all of them being a different color of the rainbow.

“Apprentice, Le0n of Redwood has arrived to see apprentice Jazz of Blackwood.” That was his name. Thank you old librarian. That could have led to an awkward conversion later.

“Hey Jazz, can I talk to you for a second?”

“Yeah sure.” Jazz gave a nod, waved to Black before leading the two of them deeper into the maze of books.

“I was wondering if you had any time to go snooping around? And by any chance did you find how they are forcing us to spawn here?”

“I did actually have some sort of magical contraption down stairs called a ‘capture field’. I saw it when Black went into the basement, but it looks to be broken. My guess is that's what's keeping us here. I was planning on looking at it tonight when everyone went to bed.”

“Exilent, if you could find a way to shut it down then I can work on a plan for getting us out of here.”

“Sounds like a plan!” After getting directions from Jazz Le0n made his way to the little playground where Marlow was playing a horrible note to the disorganized gathering of rats.

Talking it over with Marlow. They both agreed that they should leave, but neither of them could come up with a plan that would keep everyone safe and leave no one grievously injured. Seeing Aspin round the corner, Le0n took off waving goodbye.

“Interesting, what were you two talking about?” Aspin commented as she was set down from Pogo’s shoulder.

“Not much he was just coming by to see if I could do another dungeon run.”

“The one Lythopyte handed out?”

“Yep we’ve tried it a few times now, but can’t get past the second wave.” A small chuckle escaped Aspin’s lips. Feeling a bit brave, Marlow asked a question that had been on his mind.

“Why are you all named plants?”

“Tradition.”

“What else does the tradition entail?”

“Nothing important to you Traveler.” Facing Marlow fully Aspin held out a pocket sized book. Waiting for him to take it she shook it.

“I don’t like sitting down and teaching what’s what. Classroom setting bore me. So I wrote everything you need to know about surviving out in the wilderness, with pictures.” Taking the booklet Marlow began reading.

“Consider this a training guild. Come see me after you finish with the book.” With that Aspin jumped back into Pogo’s massive arms. The small book seemed filled with knowledge, but some of the information seemed blurry at times.

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

Pocketing it for later Marlow turned back to the awaiting rats. If he wanted to be on par with Jazz and Le0n he needed to work just as hard as they did, then more if he ever wanted to catch up to them.

It was mid afternoon when he finally sent the rats out hunting. There wasn’t anything else to do. They were trapped there. Tied down, sure it was great for him. But for Jazz and Le0n they must be bored to death with the medieval classroom setting they were in.

“Psst Marlow.”

“Hello?”

“Over here.” Le0n waved his hand from across the street. Not wanting to alert anyone to the audible past. Marlow jogged over to Le0n with Opal under one arm.

“I found a way to get us out of here, without killing anybody. But we are going to have to run as soon as the smoke starts.”

“Smoke?”

“I may have nipped a few things from Jazz’s bag. To make a couple distracting firework smoke bombs.”

“Excuse me?”

“Don’t worry about it, now let’s start making our way to the gate. Jazz should be catching up with us. As soon as she fixes the forced respawn here thing-a-majig. After that we are going to Ardania to restock up on supplies. Then venture back out here to find our guild base.”

“Why don’t we just go find the guild when we leave?”

“Because if they have someone follow us. Then they can launch an attack whenever they build up a strong enough fight force. But if we head to the capital then they give away their secret town!”

“That sounds good but-” A low explosion rumbled brightening up the sky. Spinning around Marlow saw several smoke pillars ascending to the sky. With each pillar having a red and orange glowing base.

“Le0n what did you do!”

“I said don’t worry about it. Now come on, let's go!” Le0n said, pulling on Marlow’s arm. Together they ran in the opposite direction the villagers were heading. Ducing into and out of alleyways. Taking the nearest route to the town’s gate.

“Le0n this isn't, right.”

“We’ll talk about this later. Come on, let's go!” Le0n yelled as they passed through the open gate. The terrain became rougher and harder to trevers until they made it to a familiar clearing.

“Isn’t this where we fought?”

“Yes, the place where we fought the bear. Can you summon your rats?”

“Yeah, but le0n you just set-”

“We’ll talk about it later, right now we need to get away. Right now, summon your rats so we can get a ride out of here!” Begrudgingly Marlow held his flute to his lips and played a tune.

This wouldn’t get all of his rats but it should get the ones close by. Any rat that didn’t hear the note should go back to the village and wait until he came back. As the note wavered Marlow looked up and saw that a good portion of his rats had heard his tune.

A few bushes rumbled as Jazz stepped from the underbrush. Giving them awave, Marlow motioned for them to hop on the three biggest rats.

“We’re heading to Ardania, right?”

“Sure are! Hey how did you get these rats too, umm, change?” Jazz replied, throwing a leg over one of the mounts.

“Oh I found out that I can assign classes to my tamed creatures. Which gets rid of their ninety percent reduction.”

“Very cool, now let's get out of here. Before someone notices that we are missing!” Le0n yelled, thrusting his boots into his mount’s side. Causing it to start running.

Blowing his flute the horde of rats took off following Le0n. The rat mount were surprisingly much faster than anything he’d originally thought. Then again he’d only used them to pull lumber or getting back to Warwood. So it was an amazing change of pace to be going at eleven miles per hour, in this medieval fantasy world. His legs didn’t even hurt, while they rode on.

They could even be pushed on through the night! His hoard even rolled over night monsters that popped up along the way. Sure they got lost a couple of times, but they eventually did find their way off of the forestry mountainous plateau.

During their long trek to the capitol Marlow had some time to think about some things. Mainly was Le0n a good person? Sure he’d gotten him into the guild but then again he did sort of set fire to a village. There was no coming back for the regular inhabitants of this world. He didn’t view them as equals; he saw them as less then. Kind of ironic since technically speaking everyone here is digital code.

“Le0n? Did you really set their houses on fire?”

“What no of course it didn’t” Le0n responded turning in his saddle to face his party member. Petting the rat's fur too let it slow down.

“Well there were some thin smoke columns.”

“Well of course there were. They came from the massive pile of wood chips I helped carved up. Wood chips that came from the lumber you brought back, thank you for that by the way. Did we claim the reward?”

“No, I didn't see him. But I think we can visit him after we stock up on supplies and head off to go find Thunderdome?”

“That sounds like a good plan.” Jazz chimped in cutting of le0n’s retort. Pulling from her bag a bottle with a purple liquid. She downed it blinking a few times as her eyes shifted from green to a light lavender.

“I think we should rest for a little while. We’ve been at a forced march for half a day now. Marlow’s rats need to catch their breath. Le0n I think you should keep an eye out for danger. I need to talk to Marlow about alchemy stuff, k?” Rolling his eyes, Le0n got off of his mount. Kicking the sand as he walked up the nearest hill, already pulling out his bow.

“Why? Would you?”

“Marlow, I have a question for you? Have you been feeling feral?”

“Um no, why would you ask that?”

“Well, you kind of smell, have been hanging out with rats, and you look like a caveman. I’m just curious if you've, you know, reject humanity, returned to monkey?”

“What no, just that finding a shower is kind of hard in this new world.”

“Oh. well would you like one of my concoutions? It’s a body cleaning potion. You drink it and everything nasty just goes bye bye. You will have to drink from two different bottles.” With a nod from Marlow Jazz handed over two bottles. With a small sip from the bottle all the muck Marlow accumulated just slid off.

“Just take them and let me know when you run low.” Jazz winked before calling out to Le0n for him to come back. As soon as Le0n got back they took off again making it to the city gate. The only problem they faced was the guard’s stationed there.

“I’m sorry sir, but we can’t let wild animals in without a permit. That permit your friend had only covered three animals and there clearly more than at.” The large guard said from under his bushy beard.

“Yes we know that, but can you atleast let one of us through so we can go get more of these permits you keep talking about.”

“No can do sir, how can I know that you sir are hiding any rodents on your person?”

“Does it look like I’m hiding any rats while wearing these clothes?!” Le0n replied, spinning around in his tight clothes.

“I’m sorry but I can’t take that risk. I’d get fired if I even let a scorpion wander on through.”

“You know what? Fine. You boys look like men who like to gamble? Does that ring any bells? I’d like to make a bet. If we lose we go away for a couple of days and try again later. But if we win you gotta let one of us go though? I mean this is probably the most eventual today has been for you guys. I mean who enjoys standing outside the wall looking at sand dunes all day, umm…” Le0n cleared his throat.

“It’s not like we're going to rush you or anything. You two men look strong enough to take on an ox, am I right. Plus if you win we're willing to throw in a couple of copper your way. To ensure that the city guards are well fed, of course.” Le0n whispered, putting an arm around the large guard’s neck, pulling a couple of dice from his pocket.

“What do you say boys, are you feeling lucky today?”