The guild master stood on top of the city walls, gazing at the two dozen monsters running towards the city. Just in the last few weeks the average level of the town guards increased by two which was a much bigger deal than it sounded on paper.

Before the monsters met the frontline, the backline of mages formed earthen spikes, killing half a dozen and injuring most of the rest. The earthen spikes disappeared soon after and a quarter of the frontline charged ahead to finish off the greatly wounded ones while the rest stayed behind to protect the backline in case a monster decided to make a dash for them. Half a minute later the backline attacked again, two of the mages creating a torrent of water with another one casting a lightning bolt. Three other mages threw cutting blades of wind or ice and the rest created more earthen spikes underneath the monsters.

Before a minute had passed over two dozen monsters were laying dead and the city was none the wiser.

That sort of change in levels normally took months to happen, if even, considering most guards plateaued in mid to high silver. Still, it was hard to be happy about this considering the level of danger involved.

Next to him stood a lanky man with dark hair and long black robes, his image the total opposite of the muscular guild master, "Garel, fancy meeting you here, old friend," the man said, pulling the guild master into a firm hug.

Garel hugged him back, "Could have been under better circumstances, but you would not believe how happy I am to see you here, Darol," he said, his voice not betraying how anxious he really was. "So, what do you think about our situation?"

Darol took a moment to think about his answer, "It's... bad?" he said hesitantly, cracking his neck out of habit. He continued without that hesitation, "It's more annoying than you would think. Space continues to degrade outside the city. The only thing preventing the same thing from happening here thus far is the living ether in the city and the otherwise weak natural ether in the area."

The man sat down, gazing at the city's guards fighting yet another high silver monster that found its way out of the forest covered in wounds. "But looking at how the forest is faring, I don't imagine this lasting for long."

Garel laughed, sitting next to his friend cross-legged and close to the edge, "That's why you're here, friend"

"I'm not your friend, pal," Darol replied with a smirk, "and you need to start evacuating the city." The smile gone from his face.

Garel grimaced at those words, "For one, I asked for help because we can't afford to do that," he said, counting with his fingers, "and even then, it's not my choice to make. Unless you think you can convince the noble to give up his city, our best bet is to weather the storm."

Raising his second finger he continued, "And two, the surrounding forests have grown too dangerous for most civilians. The average level of monsters in the low ether density forest has risen by seven, and that's not counting outliers and a few gold-ranked monsters that most certainly have slipped through."

His face did not change as he mentioned that, but his fist clenched unintentionally.

Darol nodded, "In that case a few casualties are expected, but-" he started saying before Garel interrupted him, his fist now clenched tightly enough to draw blood.

"A few casualties? Thousands of people would die, Darol." He turned to face the city behind them animatedly, with Darol already regretting his words, "A bit over a hundred thousand people live inside this city, most of which are bronze ranked and have never fought anything stronger than a beetle."

Darol nodded in turn but kept his silence. The silence seemed to stretch on when they both started laughing out of nowhere.

"I see..." Darol said first, slowly getting up. In an instant a monstrous will descended on the weakened space and to the surprise of the guards down below, space stopped trying to kill them. The same effect expanded outward as space healed where Darol's will touched.

The man's will and ether seemed inexhaustible as the effect expanded to cover an area of over a kilometer out of the city and then using the ether of the world spreading the effect even further at a slower pace before stopping five minutes later.

"in that case, drinks are on you," he said, taking a deep breath, almost completely out of ether, a tired but faint smile visible on his face.

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Kiel meanwhile was busy pleading his case, "We have to know what's going on in order to plan ahead!" His meows trying to convey the proper serious tone, along with him putting his paws down. Unfortunately Melissa wouldn't budge, and Cassandra was left dying from laughter, hugging Edel for support.

Melissa looked at her friend, "Cass, tell him!"

She waited for her friend to speak after regaining her ability to breathe, "Tell him what? You are the only one that can speak to him." A teasing smile painted on Cassandra's panting face.

That made Melissa switch topics for a second, "Well give him a month or two and he probably won't need my help translating anything," she objected proudly, "but that's beside the point." Melissa pointed at the cat doing its best impression of puppy-eyes, "He wants to go into the forest... alone!"

"Wait, so the alone part is what's bothering you?" Cassandra couldn't help but facepalm, "The climbing idiot could probably escape from a low-gold if he decided to run away." She said, looking at Kiel who was now trying to climb out of the back window.

Melissa took one look at the cat sneaking away, narrowing her eyes, "Don't. You. Move." She said threateningly.

Cassandra was having the time of her life, but it was also her who put a stop to the argument, if she could call it that.

She put an arm on Melissa's shoulder and pinched her nose, finding her increasingly annoyed expression too cute and getting caught up in the moment. In the end Melissa was glaring equally at both of them and Cass was nursing a painful flick to the forehead.

While she didn't like Kiel going out alone in the forest either, he was uniquely suited to survive in that environment, and the information wouldn't hurt. The guild master would probably have been able to help with that, if they could get a chance to meet the busy man.

"Don't worry, he's going to be alright. If anything, you can join me in finding a new party member and Edel can guard the house while we're gone, or better yet she can come with us." Her eyes practically shining as she thought about that last part.

She looked at Kiel with those same eyes and then at Melissa who sighed as she translated her words.

The chain continued with Kiel translating for Edel.

Edel growled lazily in response, interested in doing anything but staying inside the house. She sent him an image of extreme distaste of going back to the city after finishing a dungeon delve instead of relaxing in the forest.

He was surprised at that and in response proceeded to change Cassandra's plans immediately, much to her chagrin.

Maybe the east side of the forest was too dangerous for a picnic, but they had another half of the forest all for themselves. And if he was honest, returning to a picnic instead of home seemed more fun to him as well.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

And since the dungeons were in the same general direction, if the others were still up for it, they could finish at least one on their way.

And while they were at it, he could fit everything they needed to camp comfortably in the forest inside his Spatial Storage. The more he thought about it with Edel, the more excited he could see her grow to be.

Melissa was still pensive about him leaving alone, but she seemed excited about camping outside with the rest of them. Kiel reassured her it was going to be fine and got Edel to agree as it was to her benefit as well.

Cassandra on the other hand didn't seem to be too dissatisfied with the outcome as she was already preparing camping supplies with a smile on her face.

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Kiel was running on top of the rooftops, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his fur. No one noticed him hopping from building to building, mostly because this was a much quieter affair without Edel running next to him. He couldn't help but laugh at the thought of Edel being offended of him asking about her weight. It wasn't him that'd damaged some of those buildings the previous time after all.

In the few minutes it took to reach the city's walls, his mind wandered back to Cass, Melissa and Edel.

He couldn't help but smile at their antics though his face didn't show it. And although he and Melissa were stuck arguing the last few days, in all fairness he had given her a lot of reasons to worry about him.

Not to mention she was translating everything everyone was saying to him, almost reflexively at this point, and speaking from experience, working with the bond like that took no small amount of effort.

Sending over images, or feelings? It was barely worth mentioning, but to send precise words, or better yet, translating someone else's words... that wasn't as easy as Melissa made it out to be.

She didn't even say anything when he asked her if there was any way to remove the language mastery skill, doing the opposite in fact, and supporting his decision, even though it meant he would be relying on her translations even more.

Edel was another big part of his life, a part that he felt he'd been neglecting lately. It was easy to find himself speaking to Melissa alone when she was initiating every conversation and translating everything there was to see. Edel on the other hand was unused to their bond, opting to communicate mostly through growls, howls and her cheerful demeanor. For the friend that never gave up on him, however, he vowed to never let her become a quiet part of his life.

She could be a bit quieter though...

She was so loud when she decided to be, it was hard to imagine ignoring her if she put her mind on it.

He wanted to laugh at those who said dogs, or wolves in this case, weren't intelligent. Had they even gotten to know one before making that kind of comment? It was easy to judge videos on a screen, but to put it mildly, Edel was smarter than half the humans he'd met back on Earth, himself included.

After all, what kind of idiot would have let himself rot when he could have met people who would risk their lives for him... people who considered him a friend. He lived more in a single month here than a dozen years back on Earth.

He shook his head out of those kind of thoughts. Dwelling on the past wouldn't help him now, or ever.

He was close to the gates now, and stopped to take a look at the streets down below. These streets never had too many people going through them compared to the city's center, but combined with the empty houses, the place resembled a ghost town more than anything.

He didn't even debate leaving the city the normal way, opting to take a detour and avoiding the eastern gates entirely. Instead when he reached the wall a few minutes later, he teleported out with none being the wiser.

Outside the city he had no time for idle thoughts.

Focusing his senses on the space around him, he felt something was wrong almost immediately. The space itself was fine, but it was like someone's will was exerting pressure on it to keep it as it was.

What challenged that theory was the sheer scope covered. No matter how far he walked, the feeling remained the same. No human can possibly have that much will and ether.

It was only a few kilometers away when he reached the end of that influence, and the difference was immediately apparent.

The forest was eerily quiet, with most of the trees either sporting numerous small gashes. Deciding to ignore the growing dread in his stomach, he continued at a faster pace inside the forest, finding more and more of the surrounding space destroyed. It didn't make sense to refer to the destroyed spaces as quiet zones, not when the entire forest was like this.

He barely paid attention to the few cracks that formed in the space around him. Closing them was second nature by now.

Still, the cracks were enough in number and intensity that he had to slow down. He considered trying to heal the space the same way the will he sensed in front of the city had, but that wasn't an easy proposition. He had tried something similar when he first encountered the problem of quiet zones and it took disproportionally more ether to reinforce the space than to just focus on the cracks in front of him.

It was hard to imagine that was the level of strength of just a gold ranked. For if the city was under the protection of someone like that, it was better news than he'd been expecting to return with.

Nonetheless, he continued, trying to reach the familiar tree by the river where him and Edel spent so much time together. Guided by a feeling of longing and melancholy, he spent hours upon hours trudging in an increasingly deadlier space.

He wasn't sure what he was looking for and by all means he should be returning, but... well, he hoped his favorite tree still stood.

He'd already spent two hours inside the forest and learned a great deal.

Every so often he would spot a badly injured monster trying to make its way out of the forest. Some were less affected by the violent space around him while others fell after taking a few steps. When a monster fell, its corpse was quickly devoured by the unstable space, erasing any and all traces of the monster's existence. It was unsettling to say the least.

The ones in better condition, however, were distinctly different from the monsters he remembered in the forest. More worryingly, their state reminded him of the zombie-like monkey that'd chased him and Edel out of the deeper parts of the forest, only with less injuries.

The best and closest example was the squirrel in front of him.

The squirrel's fur had lost its natural brownish color, a pale white coat replacing it instead. Its jaw was halfway open revealing numerous sharp teeth and its eyes looked vacant, or at least they did until he went to take a closer look. The squirrel's eyes went from empty to full with hunger and its fur rose to its ends as it attacked him without hesitation or consideration.

The monster managed to surprise him with its speed, though it was still unable to land an attack on him. With half of his attention spent on closing the cracks in the space around him, he wasn't able to focus enough to teleport and avoid cutting himself to ribbons, but his speed and reflexes were enough for the time being.

He tried to observe it for a while longer, but the small creature kept growing faster, disregarding the tumultuous space around them and earning dozens of small wounds for its trouble, though none as deep as he was expecting.

When it managed to scratch him for the first time, however, he decided to put an end to it. He enhanced his body with ether and sacrificed his vitality for perception and strength. No better kill than overkill after all.

Before it managed to take another step, its head was separated from its body.

Inspecting its body, he found it was a lot tougher than he expected for a low-level monster like a squirrel. He bet his claws could cut stone easier than the body of the monster in front of him.

Knowing more about monsters and ether, his first idea was that this was the result of ether adaptation. Much like how plants took unique characteristics to survive in harsh environments, ether did the same to these poor guys, the space taking its pound of flesh in a different way instead.

Another possible answer was the alien monsters, though just thinking about them brought chills down to his paws. Both were equally likely, but he much preferred the former.

Moving forward was slow and exhausting work. He was debating whether to return or keep going when he found himself in a zone where space was far more stable than everything he'd trudged through to get here. He felt like he'd gone from the inside of a blender to a mild breeze. He didn't bother to question how it worked, his spatial senses not finding anything different about the space here than the blender a few meters away.

Opting to follow the path of least resistance, he followed the path leading deeper inside the forest.

Once he started using his spatial senses to guide him towards more stable paths, the journey went much faster.

Following one such path he found the last thing he expected to see inside a forest of destruction. In the middle of a somewhat stable space stood an encampment of goblins currently fighting against dozens of zombie-like monsters.

Oh how the tables have turned.

Leading the goblins was a familiar morbidly obese goblin standing taller than any other. As familiar as it was, however, it felt incomparably stronger than last time he and Edel had seen it, numerous battle scars adorning its body.

It raised its hand in the air and dozens of earthen spikes erupted from the ground, the spikes bending to pierce the torso of every monster charging at them, putting an end to the fight the same instant it bothered to act. The earthen spikes resembled the maw of a giant beast when he looked from afar.

The monsters that didn't die immediately were killed by the ravenous goblins charging at them and the the large goblin sat back down, lazily and arrogantly looking down at the dead monsters.

He couldn't help but shake his head, transfixed as he was at the sheer power of the goblin in charge.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, but... which enemy do I go for?

He didn't have much time to consider the dilemma with more corrupted monsters finding their way into the encampment.

Eh, who was he kidding, time to grab the popcorn.