Callously, Don pushed Ritand down the slope, sliding toward the attacker gallopping away.

The adventurers stayed back and watched Don dashing and grabbing at anything to help boost her.

They wanted to know if Don was the powerful hermit they used to see her as.

Calli, who was standing far off from Don, near the attacker, watched the small attacker split to three forms. Each of these forms had twisted, spiraling appendages.

Don stopped.

Zooming into a magical illusion cast by the enemy, a parade of the crowds from Sam’s time rang in Don's ear, turning the ground into another playground for his whispers. Cali’s long complaints about Sam echoed through Don's body with Birdie’s narration. Sam’s strange stare blew against Don until she was skinless. This imagination was a wet stain on her muscles, growing every time she imagined herself rubbing her skin.

Returning to reality, the forms left the scene, and Ritand sat up, pushing the blood off himself. He dried his hands with a cloth, imitating Don one time.

Don sat down and glanced at the adventurers, goblin workers, two goblins, mother and child, and Solvent in the distance.

She interlaced her fingers and grinded them back and forth, and, after a long mouth smile, put her fingertips together into a steeple.

She stood up and walked up to the cart, passing it and stopping in the middle of the road.

She tilted her head, raising her gaze from the ground toward the distance ahead of her.

Even after being unable to catch the enemy, Don only looked a little bothered.

Later, Solvent arrived, walked up to her, and said, “Are we leaving again, the Don?” She was sweating and pretended to be tired by panting because she didn't want Don to feel threatened.

Heading into a new stage, some time after this event, some of Solvent’s new members in the church asked one of the city officials if they could help sweep the streets with the older women.

Transitioning to the road leading inside the city, there, Solvent sighed, looking between Don and Orlanta City, which lay at the horizon.

Embarking on a metaphorical journey, the looping spiral of architectural comprehension welcomed the used coffee grounds. The coffee grounds provided the coffee plants their precious fertilizer. Solvent opened the gates and closed them, and she put the coffee grounds in sacks and removed them. The looping spirals were the gates, and the coffee grounds were the people: the gates and the people were the city. She said, “The city is right there.”

Falling back to the moment, Solvent looked at Don, curious.

Don stared long, ignoring Solvent and the city, imagining the horizon.

Progressing into the inner city, humans patrolled around with a troll there. “Helping is not obligatory,” said the troll, blocking traffic and directing the traffic to another road that he opened up. “I need every one of you directly combined with the small task force in Small Blithe.”

When Ritand cast the magical explosion, most of the inner city burned down, representing the loss of the city's first layer of skin.

Alongside this loss, opportunistic monsters from outside gathered around and replaced the gangs that fell apart. Adding to the chaos, bandits waited outside the city, offering a way for these monsters to get inside smoothly, and once the monsters took the bait, they robbed them.

In response to the chaos, the city authorities created many new provisional forces. As a result, the bandits stopped after only one day. Coincidentally, mage apprentices and squires practiced their hands during this time, being part of the forces.

Returning to Don, as she walked toward the city.

Meanwhile, Solvent remembered her dream two years ago.

In this dream, she and Don fought each other. Don gave her a light slap and asked her what she needed to be strong. In response, Solvent threw out a flock of orbs from her rolling fingers and let them bloom in the whirls of the air and fade. She tore gasses from her mouth with her nails, letting the pressure explode. She tired and dropped to the ground, making a light hiccup. Don put each orb down and slammed her fists against the pavement, bringing the stones to slam against the orbs. She sucked the gasses that flew across his face, coughing them out until she laughed, roaring all the air out. Solvent died soon after.

Returning to reality, some time after Solvent and Don entered the city, many things occurred in different locations and times.

First, Solvent’s eyes moved from Don to small goblins. These goblins greeted humans and asked them about their opinions on clothing.

Second, Don could only have gotten stronger since then. She strided across the road and reached the city, towering above the guardstones of the gate. Her presence demanded a coalition against her, but she was too far from them to feel the pinches of one.

Third, Calli recruited, screened, and interviewed applicants from a human influx that Solvent provided.

Progressing to the fourth longer scene, Jared dropped by a shop and asked as he waved goodbye at the Don and the others. “Oh, dang, the prices have gone up. Is the price the same there?”

Calli glanced between him, Kyra, Algae, and Kloe. Algae exchanged four silver coins for lettuce and said, poking a curious child on the hands, “It’s somewhat thrice as expensive—” A mother shouted at him, telling him to stop touching her child. He apologized and bowed his head, grabbing his 10 bronze coins change. “It might be temporary because of the fire.”

“Fire,” Calli said, frowning, looking at Don. She thought Don might tell her about the fire since she told her that she killed Sam.

Kyra looked at Algae, asking him if he preferred people with children.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Algae thought she asked him if he felt a kinship with people with children. He nodded, having a goodbye with the child, hiding himself when he saw the mother glance at him. He had been entertaining the child before the mother finished her business with the vendors.

Jared poked inside one of the stores, finding an empty rocker. “I notice that some of these stories have weird scratchings. Do you guys see this in the others, too?”

Algae frowned and arrived first before Calli, who was busy asking Don about the fire.

Venturing into the fifth scene, Kloe was making his rounds when he saw a bunch of hare people gathering to demolish a house.

Sixth, a group of human contractors put down the last goblins in front of them. They tore through the books that the goblin warriors stole from their client by accident. Three goblins, friends of Birdie and Twerp, died.

Seventh, Solvent used the spell Heaven’s Joy and fractured the shields and armor until they fell upon the stalagmites that awaited them. She laughed, remembering the story Birdie told her about Calli. She burned the contractors, whose gambesons read “NCA,” and “Hellioawwerax.”

Eighth, Exterme was sitting down, waiting for his wounds to heal, remembering the quest that the hermit Don told them. He said the words: “‘Go to the city to the west, and I’ll reward you with a pretty heavy wand.’” Also, he remembered Algae, Kloe, and Jared’s words and actions.

“I should know that all hermits ask you to get something faraway as a last request,” he quoted Algae, imitating his movements when he said this, shaking his leg as if he had cramps.

“Assuredly, you know the foes of the hermits—the warlocks, remember?” he quoted Kloe. In imitation of him, he rolled his shoulders around and pressed against his waist, failing to crack his body when he twisted around.

“‘I wouldn’t know—’” he quoted Jared, imitating him by chewing on air, drinking from air, and faking a lame burp.

After doing this, he greeted a young man with uneven eyes.

Diving into the ninth scene, three hours ago, in the city Hereas, a young man lifted both whips of his hair back to its place, tearing open a large chest, leg pressed against it. He sighed and removed all the weight of his voice. “Howdy, little chesty. Make sure you’re tight and hungry.” He gave the mimic a light slap on the side. “Oy, I know you’re in there, Funny!” He already had a name for this random mimic.

The mimic felt the boot with cone-endings, metal straps around the middle, and a long blade jutting out from beneath.

The man kicked the mimic to the wall, jumped, and caught it. “Oh, silly Funny!” He ripped apart with his hands the mouth that had failed to open and dumped poisonous leaves inside. He laughed, watching as the mimic went ballistic and rolled around hoping for its tongue to get every inch of poison out.

He stopped laughing when the mimic threw its tongue and wrapped it around his leg. He cut it in an instant, putting back in its place his short sword. “I suggest you put that down, Mister.” He chewed his lip and squatted in front of it, leaning his head. He grasped it on the side and stared inside, caressing it up and down. “You need to stop and give me the core.” He whispered hushes and tight nudges along where its shoulders and back would be.

His voice turned to shallow breaths.

The mimic jumped and ran away out of the room and around a corner.

He laughed with giggles toward the end, his smile softening his masculine grippy features. He waved his hand from side to side, saying “Bye,” a poof escaping his mouth.

A few minutes later, the mimic yelped after he turned another corner.

The human was in the distance in front of him, leaning the side of a knee against the wall, resting both hands on it, and stretching his other leg forward. His head pointed toward his other leg, and he eyed him, smirking, as a dimple formed on his face’s one side.

The mimic gasped and hyperventilated, running down a flight of stairs.

The human left the dungeon and appeared in front of a monster group, the weight returning to his voice. “It’s there, but I can’t beat it. Can you help me—”

A troll slapped him. “What is it with you?” she said, her voice mirroring that of a neglected child. “Respect those who’ve come to help you in the first place. Say ‘may!’ ‘May!’”

“I see.” The human, Hellioawwerax touched his face, tilting his head downwards at her necklace.

It shone bright every time its owner was emotional, and it wasn’t shining now.

“Good one!” He laughed, placing a hand on her shoulder.

She kicked him on the balls and got one of the other monsters beside her to punch him in the face.

He fell to the ground, his body aching on the belly, sides, balls, and knees. “Ah, did it break?”

She raised an hatchet and hurled it down in an arc, stopping before it hit his face. “You see this. Beg.”

“Ah, sorry, let me just—”

“Beg!”

“Not sorry anymore—” He disappeared and appeared behind them with a mimic under his arm, looking at it. “Howdy, Funny. Howdy, Missus.” He grinned, his face red, but the mimic’s eyes redder.

The mimic lashed its tongue and broke their armor, as Hellioawwerax swooped in to unarm them from their weapons and shields. He jumped over them in a front flip, placed sticky glue where their limbs folded, landed with outstretched arms in a bow, and dashed away. “Hehe.”

The mimic jumped toward him, and he caught it in the air as he jumped, falling over the cliff. “See ya, major suckers for life!”

“I love you, little Funny. Remind me of this when I get old, okay?” He gave it a warm smile, making the mimic his little pet.

“I should really give you a hug.” His voice was distant as if he remembered something.

A dragon arrived to catch him, asking him about the rest of the monsters.

“‘They died because of their weakness’—” He laughed, interrupting himself. He patted the dragon and pointed a sword to the horizon, where they landed in a forest below them. He sang a song about the city mayor Sam, as the dragon finished flapping his winds.

A tall forest of trees that covered the sky welcomed him with melodies of the flapping of birds and the calls of animals of big and small. He shook with excitement, holding onto the dragon’s bone’s wing, bouncing with rotation.

The mimic struggled to get down, being careful as it edged its way.

He caught it, hugged it, and put it down, listening to the growing whispers of the forest. He gulped and looked at his dragon and then at the mimic’s back in front of him. He took a deep breath and sped up his walk.

He saw a small bouncy woman dancing in a clearing in front of him.

He frowned because he was thinking, but then, he smiled because he had an idea.

He cast a spell of protection for himself and had the dragon sit and watch. He brought the mimic with him and joined the woman, standing in front of her and starting with a kick to the left.

He danced, watching the slow fall of her arms as she spun and spun as her eyes locked with his.

He was amazed by how well she kept her gaze and applauded her, nodding, clapping, and saying goodbye to the mimic by tapping it.

He asked her, “Is the sun bright today? Or are you one of the forest elves?”

“Yes.”

“Uh, I see, bright today, huh? He looked up where the clouds and the trees covered the sun. “W-what? You’re an elf?”

The elven woman smiled and nodded. “Yes,” she repeated.

“I see. How about this?” He handed her a large orb and deepened his already low voice. “Do you like orbs?”

The woman screamed.

She galloped toward the orb and swallowed it whole, choking on it.

He stared at her, glancing between her and the mimic walking up to his side.

She stopped choking and got the orb down in her stomach.

He puked and watched the ground turn purple and red.

The woman’s legs got taller, as her head reached higher and higher up up to the forest canopy. She manically laughed as her voice dried up, cracking and disappearing into nothingness.

He gave a nervous laugh and walked away, hiding underneath the dragon’s wing.

The woman swung her fist at him.

He caught it, but his hand slipped in a second, half-tripping.

The adventurer Exterme stabbed the woman, pulling her left and right and failing to kill her. He struggled to pull it out and stabbed her again on the cheek. He winced, running away when the woman clawed at him.

Meanwhile, Bata and Ritand followed behind him, slumping down on the ground.

They had avoided talking and reacting to Exterme when they reminded him about the quest a long while ago.

Exterme grew frustrated, punching the woman on the cheek until she avoided his middle-finger punches.

Hellioawwerax took a deep breath and sat down a distance away from the woman, Exterme, Bata, and Ritand. He continued the song from a while ago.

Jumping to the broader level concluding these nine scenes, this was a very surreal, ambiguous, and disjointed series of events.