"Hey, Clover, come check this out," Claire said as she fiddled with a bracelet made of tiny interlocking leaves that seemed to be held together by only intricately knotted twigs. She knelt with her back turned to the tree, utterly engrossed in her inspection of the item - utterly unaware of what lurked hidden within the tree’s branches, preparing to pounce.

The leaves softly rustled once again, barely making a whisper’s worth of noise. If Clover hadn’t gotten lucky - if he hadn’t been staring up into the tree’s branches, he never would have noticed.

Clover twitched his head, breaking himself free from his inaction. “Watch out!” he shouted, trying to impress a sense of urgency upon his voice.

“Huh,” she said as she turned to look at him.

A slim branch - not much larger than a twig - cracked with a loud noise, then fell from the tree. To him, it seemed to fall in slow motion, his Intelligence and Perception Stats boosting his processing speeds to superhuman levels. His breath hung in his throat like molasses.

He thrust his hand out, pointing it at the tree, as he called upon his magic. [Unstable Mana Bolt] rumbled to life in his soul space, drawing together disparate motes of mana, folding them into something greater.

“Oh,” she said, a look of understanding dawning on her face as she snapped her head toward the noise.

If his prediction was wrong, and the twig had fallen from natural causes, he’d be left in an embarrassing situation, but he was willing to take that risk. Countless movies and TV shows had created a sharp spike of anxiety in his chest, warning him of what was to come.

A fraction of a second later, out of the tree, a squirrel unlike the others, with black fur and a nascent spark of intelligence in its eyes, leaped from the tree with its claws extended, launching itself at Claire. Despite his warning, the monster would likely still catch her unaware. - she wasn’t turning fast enough, and he hadn’t warned her early enough.

Mana flowed out from his chest, running down the length of his body to gather in the palm of his hand, racing to meet his demands. It wouldn’t be fast enough.

Damn it, he didn’t want to lose…

Following instinct more than anything else, Clover smashed his will into the half-formed bolt. He met a brief resistance, but it easily gave way. He took a fraction of a second to aim, and then, still half-formed, the orb of magic blasted out from his palm.

The unstable construct rapidly disintegrated as it arced toward the monster, racing to intercept the monster before it landed on her. Magic and mana fell from it like drops of water, leaving fading streaks in the air.

The bolt of unstable magic slapped into the squirrel as its claws were a mere foot away from the crown of her head. Instead of knocking it aside like he had expected, [Unstable Mana Bolt] met little resistance as it blasted through its flank, leaving a gaping hole the size of a tennis ball.

Claire screamed, a delayed reaction as black motes of energy rained down on her like confetti.

With a hollow sound, the monster fell to the floor limply. However, no blood leaked from its wound. Instead, like a balloon that had a hole popped in it, streams of cloudy shadows leaked out of its side.

Congratulations! Unstable Mana Bolt has reached Level 30. +1 Skill Point.

“What the hell was that?” Claire said between rushed breaths. She swiped a chunk of the shadow-like energy out of her hair - the rest had fallen harmlessly around her. She stared down at it, entranced for a moment, then she shook her hand rapidly, dropping the fading mote of energy. “It stings,” she muttered, voicing the words like they were a question.

The ink-black monster disintegrated, leaving a circle of wilted grass and stone where its body had lain. Clover blinked, confused, then glanced back at the tree, narrowing his gaze as he searched for movement. "Be careful. I didn't get a kill notification. I think its main body is still hiding somewhere.”

Even though he visually couldn't see any signs of movement from the tree, he had a strong suspicion that the monster was still hiding in there.

He activated [Mana Sense] for a tick, burning 5 MP. All around him, flows of magic came to the forefront of his senses. Like always, he was awed by how he and everyone else could be so blind - mana literally surrounded them from every direction, and yet most could not sense it.

Above, the three fruits made a distinct impression in the ambient mana, sending rippling waves outward that distorted his senses. They were hard to ignore in the way a lighthouse in the dead of night was. Or rather, they were hard to ignore in the way that it was hard to ignore a TV as it played on full volume when you were in the same room.

He pushed himself harder, blocking out the distortions as he delved deeper into the perception, casting his [Mana Sense] to the tree’s upper branches.

There, on its leftmost side, he felt something - an aura - dark and jittering, slowly growing larger - no, splitting into two.

Congratulations! Mana Sense has reached Lvl 6. +1 Skill Point.

"It's in the tree," Clover said as he pointed. The monster did not react to his words. For one, it didn't understand English, and for two, it was confident in its stealth.

Claire ran a cursory hand through her hair. A patch of it had turned gray and wilted - some even fell out, sticking to her fingers. “My hair!” Claire clenched her fist, her shock turning to anger. "I'll burn those bastards to the ground."

An ember of flame sparked to life in her hand. Compared to when she had first gained the skill, the fire now burned brightly, much hotter than before. Even the size had increased—roughly double what it was before. She stomped forward with determined steps, a flickering ball of fire in her hand, ready to set the entire tree ablaze.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Clover looked on; he had learned from TV shows, not from personal experience, that sometimes it was best to get out of the way when a woman was angry. This was one such moment. He wheeled two paces backward, not wanting her ire to turn toward him.

“Wait. Wait. Slow down. Don’t burn down the fruit,” Ron said.

She stopped her approach, taking a slow breath. “Fine.” She let the ball of flame fade away. “But you do realize how long I spent trying to get my hair to look natural, right? The dye was expensive!”

"I didn't know you dyed your hair," he said, alternating glances between the tree where the monster hid and her hair.

Her hair was a mix of brown and blond - not an impossible combination, but certainly rare. If she hadn’t told him, he never would have realized. When it came to these things, he wasn’t the most observant.

"Thank you," she said simply as she strode over to the cavern wall and roughly began ripping off tangles of the vines of moss. It seemed that while Ron had talked her down for the moment, she hadn't given up on her plan to burn out the monster.

With a flicker of intent, Clover sent Bob the Elephant off to retrieve the magical fruits. The Golem leaned up against the tree, propping itself up on its hind legs, and then stretched its trunk to its limit, snagging the fruits one by one.

It walked back, depositing them in Clover's lap for safekeeping.

Through his [Mana Sense], he could feel that whatever the monster was doing in the tree was getting closer to completion - its dark and dense energy continued to fragment, a second identical half almost completed.

Congratulations! Mana Sense has reached Lvl 7. +1 Skill Point.

"Get ready. It's going to attack again soon," Clover said as he closed out the notification - Skills seemed to Level much faster in combat.

“It won’t get the chance,” Claire said. The rage in her voice had cooled, and yet…

With a heave, she threw the tangled mass of vines she had collected at the base of the tree. “We’ll see how you like getting surprise attacked, bastard.”

Clover wheeled another pace back, away from the tree. It seemed that all it took was her hair being slightly damaged, for her reservations - for her concern of burning down the museum to go up in smoke.

"[Ember]," she muttered under her breath. Then, with an angry concentration, she threw the ball of flame at the tree.

The vines ignited into a conflagration of tinged-green flames as if they had been dipped in gasoline. A wave of heat radiated outward, drying out his skin. Flames licked at the tree's trunk for a handful of seconds, and then, it too caught flame, smoking lightly.

Higher up, hidden in the tree's branches, Clover spotted a rustling of leaves. Though, even as tongues of flame slowly crept up the tree, the monster didn’t abandon its hiding spot. Perhaps the magic spell it was weaving would fail if it moved?

Claire summoned forth another [Ember] of flame, not satisfied with the rate at which the tree was burning. Sparking slightly, she launched it into the tree’s upper branches. One by one, the leaves began to light aflame, spreading outward.

A concerned squeak rang out.

Off to the side, Ron nodded, speaking to himself. "So the equation is true. The more you fuck around, the more you find out."

Slightly singed, a monstrous squirrel with jet-black fur leaped from the burning tree, unable to bear the heat any longer. A red series of words hung over its head, indicating that it was the original. Well, red wasn't the right word; it was a tinge more purple than that, but he didn't know the name of what that color would be.

Clover raised his hand, preparing to blast it with a bolt of magic. However, Claire beat him to the punch. She chucked her sword at the beast, throwing it like a baseball.

It twirled through the air, tumbling end over end, and then, the moment the strange monster’s feet touched the ground, its blunt side smacked into its head. It stumbled, stunned from the blow.

Out of its shadow, another squirrel, identical to the original in every way except the absence of the System given title over its head, sprouted to life. Like the original, it stumbled drunkenly.

Before the monster could even begin to attempt an attack, Ron lunged forward in a burst of speed. “[Power Strike],” he called out as he finished off the monster with a series of heavy strikes.

Congratulations! You have significantly contributed to the defeat of a Mutated Two-tailed Squirrel - Lvl 2. +156 Exp.

While its ability to make toxic clones of itself could have been troublesome under the right conditions, when up close and personal, the monster was weak. Though, for its Level, its abilities had been unusually advanced - maybe the proximity to the fruits had caused it to mutate.

“Did you get an Aspect?” Clover asked casually as the tall tree continued to burn. He made a note to ask Claire if she’d be willing to repeat the feat on a later date - he had a tree he wanted to burn down.

Claire nodded as she dusted off her hands. “Ya, I got a Shadow Aspect.” A burning branch fell from the tree, spreading a wave of sparks like fireflies as it smashed into the cavern's stone floor.

“I didn’t get anything,” Ron said. It was hard to tell if he was just joking or if he was actually upset that he hadn’t gotten anything.

“Here, have a fruit,” Clover said as he held out one of the magical fruits.

Ron took it with a murmur of appreciation.

Next, Clover held out one of the apple lotus hybrids to Claire. "Here. You get one, too."

“Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, we’re even,” Clover said.

“I would have been fine.” She stopped herself, biting her lip. “Thanks. Thanks for everything. I…”

“Not to interrupt the moment, but what am I supposed to do with this thing,” Ron said excitedly, almost bouncing up and down as he cut in, unable to contain himself any longer.

He wondered what Claire had been planning to say next, but he couldn't really blame Ron because he, too, was curious to an almost unhealthy degree what the fruit did. They had gone through a lot of trouble to get them - they had to have been good.

Clover used [Appraisal].

Congratulations! [Appraisal] has reached Level 14. +1 Skill Point.

Fruit of Twice Blooming Enlightenment.

An unlikely hybrid that, when consumed, allows for the chance to improve or unlock an Affinity.

"Eat it, I guess. It's supposed to boost your Affinity. Or, in your case, unlock it."

“Cool,” Ron said.

Clover stared down at the strange fruit in his hands and wondered if eating it really was a good idea.

“Aren’t foods supposed to be, like, scientifically tested before they’re consumed? What if it's poisonous?” Clare asked, mirroring his thoughts.

Clover shrugged - with 21 Vitality, he should be able to brush off any ill effects. A potential increase in his Affinity was too big of a boost to pass up. Besides, if the System really had left it in the Monster Nest as a reward, then the odds were that it wasn't poisonous.

Well, there was only one way to find out. He bit into its flesh with a juicy crunch.