As we continue to walk down the road in silence, I can’t help but notice how giddy Alex seems to be. Ever since I offered him that deal, he’s had an extra pep in his step that someone missing a chunk of their leg shouldn’t have. I definitely undersold myself there, oh well. Unfortunately, our pace seems to have slowed instead of picked up on the road. The condition is so poor we spend just as much time dodging potholes as we do moving forward.

“At this rate we won’t even make it to town before nightfall” I say.

“Yea but we will still get inside, they will have to take us inside to answer questions once I tell them about the dryad.” Alex replies

“You mean the dryad that vanished overnight, can those things even move? Your description made it sound like they stay in one place.”

“No they can’t move, they are rooted to their area by their pod. And yes I know what I saw, it was a dryad, I even identified the thing by it’s name and race. Petal some sort of dryad called a willow dryad.”

“Is that like a subspecies or what?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never heard of a willow dryad but I’m telling you it was real. It even fixed up my leg so it could keep me for later.” Alex points down to his leg for a moment, then resumes hobbling.

“You’re sure my healing didn’t do that?”

“No, if it hadn’t patched me up, I would have bled out before sundown yesterday.”

This is perfect, once we get back to town they hopefully won’t be able to distinguish between my healing spell and the sap. The sap has mostly dried up and flaked up, and with the way Alex is moving it should all be knocked off by the time we get to town. No one is going to believe him, especially if I emphasize the fact that the glade was empty, and dryads apparently can’t move. Funny, the pod on my back and the fact I’m walking begs to differ but, I digress.

“So, how long have you been a hunter?” I ask.

“A few years, started in my seventeenth year, on my twentieth year now.” Alex replies.

“Any tips for someone starting out?”

“Yea, number one, don’t group up just because you want to do something bigger than solo or gathering requests. I’ve seen it to many times and was almost a victim myself of it. It’s tempting but you just can’t trust others, whether it be a lack of skill, bad intentions, or poor coordination. Too many things can go wrong and I’ve seen many a big group leave and only a few return on even the most basic of missions. Don’t group up unless you work together well, and make sure you know how to coordinate with one another. Second, if you run into another group out in the wilds, avoid them at all costs. If they start following you, turn and try to focus your efforts on injuring their weakest member, it will save your life.”

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I give Alex a questioning look, why the hell would I need to fight other hunters. Seems stupid to fight other people when the whole point is monsters but who knows, people are stupid. Alex seems to have gotten this question before because his response is quick and clear.

“It’s because they are trying to kill you. Some folk got it stuck in their heads that if they remove the competition then there will be more and better work for them. It’s not unheard of for veteran groups to follow out newbies and kill them out in the sticks, then say monsters got to them.”

And there it is, greedy idiotic humans killing each other for personal gain? Never heard of it happening. Still good to know about, need to keep my wits about me around others. I knew I needed to be careful about my identity but apparently, I need to worry about physical attacks not related to my identity too. Great, I honestly should have expected this. There are always people who are evil.

“Any good ways to get out of that if it happens? Say they get the drop on you.” I ask.

“Yea, like I said target the weakest member. Almost every party would rather risk a 'he said she said in town' than a death in the sticks. Guards don’t ever do shit, so don’t expect them to get their deserved punishment. Of course avoiding a fight is the best course of action. I know I said turn and fight but that’s only if you know you won’t lose them. Sometimes you can run back to town or get near a nasty monster they don’t want to risk dealing with. You got to be careful though, some guys are just bandits masquerading as hunters. They take a race upgrade that centers around fighting other people. Then they look the weakest but when you hit them, they take reduced damage and are actually the hardest to kill.” Alex says.

“So everyone gets race upgrades? But your race reads as regular human.”

“By the gods, your parents didn’t teach you anything did they? Everyone has a race, only your main race shows when others look at you, not the upgrade. That’s why those hunters can take those upgrades and still blend in.”

“What about monsters, do they show their upgrades on their race?”

“No, nothing shows its upgrades. Not even monsters, which can make them extra dangerous if you’re not careful and don’t know what you’re dealing with. The rarity still shows on monsters, so you have an approximation on how dangerous it is at least.”

As Alex winds down his lecture we reach a fork in the road. Another dirt path merges with this one, it’s just as worn down and full of holes. The paths merge together into a single one that is just as decimated as the other two. They definitely don’t have a D.O.T keeping the roads in good condition around here.

“Almost to town, just about twenty more minutes of walking” Alex says.

“Yea but remember it will take us twice that time.” I say.

“Nah, we are making good time. Only twenty more minutes.”

With that we descend back into silence and continue walking. I’m focusing on the story I want to spin when they ask about the dryad and Alex is focusing on hobbling at max speed. Wait I just realized something. This might be a big deal, especially if I can’t play it off as Alex hitting his head. They might try to verify my identity or something, which could end poorly.

Before I can think of all the ways this could go wrong we round a bend in the road and the forest suddenly ends. Standing before us are about a mile of giant fields of various crops, ranging in size from purple melons half the size of a person to rows of bushes containing blue berries. Off in the distance is a massive wall.