“We have a jackalope den to the east about ten minutes out from our current location, there are signs of jellies straight ahead but I didn't actually see any. Oh there is also a nest of chinchero ahead as well but only the young were present when I passed by.” Zaz informed the group after he emerged from the treeline. “do we want to go out of our way to collect the jack horns or should we continue to the pond?”

“I wouldn't Mind the extra experience before the real fight ahead.” Mary interjected. “I can't Speak for the rest of you but I feel like I'm close to a level up.”

“I won't refuse a few extra points of skill experience if the rest of you are up for it.” Crag added.

“I'm in.” Thorn said while raising his hand. “Ember?”

“Huh?” Ember asked with a distracted look on her face. “Sorry my mind was somewhere else. What was the question?”

“No worries.” Mary said with a smile. “We were just asking if you're ok with a small detour to take out a jackalope den.”

“Ah. Yeah that sounds good.” Ember said with a forced smile.

“Alright, with that settled, if everyone will follow me I'll lead us to the den.” Zaz said energetically. he then spun on his heels and started back into the overgrowth.

Everyone fell into formation once again, Zaz led the group as the scout closely followed by Crag, who was holding a large wood and leather shield, after crag Ember and Mary stood together as support and utility types and finally Thorn took up the rear.

While the newly formed team made their way through the underbrush Mary walked closer to Ember and asked her in a whisper, “Hey,are you feeling alright today? You seem a bit out of it, or maybe upset by something. I don't mean to pry if you don't want to talk but…” Mary paused for a moment to think over her words. “I would like to be someone you feel you can talk to.”

“I… Uh…” Ember stumbled over her words. “I’m just… feeling a little down today is all.”

“I can see that” Mary said with a small laugh. “Is something bothering you today?”

Ember took a deep breath before letting it out in a long sigh. “It's nothing, really. The hike today just brought back some old memories from a few years back.”

“Oh? Tell me about it?” Mary asked. “My mother always told me that talking out your issues with others will get you through them stronger and wiser.”

Ember looked around to assure she was keeping pace with the rest of their group then let out a small huff. “Fine… Three years ago a group of my friends came out to join me on a week-long hiking and camping trip in the mountains north of where we all went to school.” She looked over to see Mary with a slight look of concern growing on her face. So she threw her hands up and started to wave them in front of her. “Nothing bad happened, don't worry. I'm not down because it's a bad memory, it's actually one of my favorite memories. It was our first big act of freedom. We were all adults, living on our own, and just out of our parents' houses.” She said with a soft smile on her face. “I guess I'm just feeling a bit down because I don't know when or if I will see them again.” she gave another sigh.

“Oh, umm, uh, I'm sure you will see them again. Nothing is impossible, if you can't accomplish your goals now then you're just not strong enough.” Mary said, punctuating the end with a fist pump.

“Now you're quoting dad?” Crag butted in with a laugh.

“Shut it!” Mary snapped back. Which caused Zaz and Thorn to join in with his laughter.

“Thanks Mary.” Ember said with a smile. “I hope you’re right, that’s the only reason I'm trying to level and grow stronger. So I can go home and see my friends again… see my mom again…” Ember said solemnly.

Mary’s face scrunched up when she realized her efforts were reset with that last statement. “Okay, let's focus on growing stronger then.” Mary placed her hand on Ember's shoulder. “First this den of jackies, then the crystal crown and her jellies. Seriously, Think about it, a crystal crown. That's a level ten beast minimum. I know higher level beasts give more experience, but evolved beasts are supposed to give even more.”

“Realy?” Ember asked, her attention thoroughly captured.

“Yes!” Mary replied. “If a level ten jelly gives one hundred points a level ten crystal crown would give something between one fifty and two hundred points.”

“Why though? Is it increased just because it evolved or does the increase change based on what it evolved into?” Ember asked.

“Oh it's based on the rarity of the evolutionary path the beat took.” Mary answered.

“That and how many evolutions the beast took to reach its current form.” Crag interjected. “If the crystal jelly became a greater jelly before a crown it would be worth more than a jelly that evolved straight into a crystal crown from base form.”

Ember turned to listen to Crag while he gave his explanation. “Okay, that makes sense. So in simple terms, the more experienced the monster is the more experience it will give?”

“Pretty much, yes, but be careful not to mistake critters, beasts, and monsters.” Crag replied.

“Oh, right. My bad, I keep forgetting the difference between them, but is there a way to tell how much experience a beast will give you before killing it?” Ember asked.

“Technically yes, but unless you have an inspection or identification skill you won't be able to tell.” Thorn answered from behind. “Out of the five of us Zaz is the most likely to have a skill like that since he has scouting skills. But that still doesn't guarantee he would be offered one.”

Ember shot a quick glance to Zaz to see if he would interject but he remained silent and continued to lead the group forward. “Oh…” Ember said thoughtfully. “I knew your actions and in the future, your class determines what skills you're offered but I didn't think your current skills would influence it as well.”

“Everything about you influences your skill choices.” Zaz stated without turning around. “Red scales or hair tend to get fire, small and quiet types get stealth, things like that. Now quiet, we are getting close. They will be in sight any minute now.” He then slowed down and crouched to aid in stealth. At the same time he used his right hand to direct the rest to follow his lead.

After only a moment of silent travel Zaz stopped the group and directed their sight to a group of jackalopes. At first look Ember could see three white jackalope eating berries off of the brambles growing near the base of the trees. ‘Jackalopes really like berries.’ She thought to herself. ‘Next time I go on a hunt for them I should just find a berry patch and wait for them to come to me. Oh there are more!’ Right when her thoughts started to drift she saw a small brown jackalope shoot out of the brambles followed closely behind by a small white one.

Right after the two younglings started to play Mary started to swat Ember's arm softly but repeatedly. Ember shot a sharp look at Mary which accomplished her goal of getting her to stop smacking her arm. “What?” Ember mouthed silently.

“They. Are. So. Cute.” Mary mouthed back. “And one has an affinity.” She whispered, no longer able to hold her volume back any longer.

“Earth?” Ember asked.

“To my best guess, the brown fur should be.” Mary replied.

“Shhh…” Thorn Interjected from behind.

“Ember,” Zaz started. “We’ll have you lock down the group first. After your skill goes off Crag will run in and draw their attention and while he is doing that the rest of us will focus on damage. Go for the leader first, the one in the center that looks a little bigger. It is likely the highest level and could do the most damage. The young ones are old enough to care for themselves, I vote that we leave them to grow in size and level.”

“Agreed.” Thorn and Crag said in unison. Ember and Mary both gave a nod.

“Alright. Everyone ready?” Ember asked. She counted to five in her head before she lifted her hand to aim at the group. “Ensnare!”

The skill activated as soon as she spoke the command. thousands of thin white hairs shot out of the ground and started to entangle themselves in the fur of the three adults. The two smaller jackalopes screamed and struggled against their bindings to no effect. The larger of the three was able to break a leg free from its bindings but before it could fully free itself Crag appeared in front of the group with his shield held forward.

“Shield bash!” He yelled while he drove his shield down on to the horn of the largest of the three. Before the jackalope could free another leg the leather covered shield impacted its horn snapping the first two or three inches off from the tip. The injured one then released an ear piercing pained screech while the remaining force from the blow sent it tumbling across the ground in a ball of fur, blood, and mycelium.

“Thorn!” Crag shouted, but before he could finish his call a bolt of electricity shot past his head to impact the still rolling body of the first jackalope.

“Got it!” Thorn replied.

When Crag turned his attention back to the two ensnared jackalopes he saw the roots binding them were already tearing and slipping loose. “They're breaking free, I'm launching the second one now. Shield bash!” He cried out as his shield impacted the next jackalope closest to him. The small ball of fur didn't make it more than three feet away before Thorn caught it with another bolt of lightning. When the tumbling red and white ball stopped rolling it collapsed into a sprawling mess of burnt and bloodied fur with two of its legs facing directions they were never intended to face.

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

“Oooo… ouch.” Mary said in a hush.

“Last one!” Crag shouted.

“Got it!” Zaz replied. Then he freed an arrow from his bow which pierced clean through the jackalope's neck burying the head of the arrow in the dirt which pinned the struggling beast to the ground. Before it could struggle and bleed out on its own, Crag lifted his leg and brought it back down on its head, crushing it and ending its life before the creature could suffer needlessly.

“Nicely done.” Crag said with a smile as he turned around to face the group behind him. “Ember, your ensnare skill worked better than I expected. I knew it would lock them down but I didn't think it would get all three and hold them still. No offense, I expected all of our skills to be on the low end of useful, but yours almost felt like it was a higher level based solely on its staying power.”

“Agreed.” Mary added with a nod.

“Oh and don't think I forgot about you two.” Crag continued, facing Thorn and Zaz now. “Great aim and timing, both of you. That electric skill looks nasty, is it pure damage or does it carry an effect?”

“Oh, it's called Volt, and yeah, it has a small chance to paralyze the target on hit.” Thorn answered.

“Nice, does the percentage go up with its level or just damage output?” Mary asked this time.

Thorn looked a little nervous to share too much about his skill but he also continued to describe it, his pride in the skill overpowered his unwillingness to disclose its description. “Yeah… it is a really useful skill. The damage and chance to stun both increase with the level. It blew my mind on the first level up, I only expected to get the damage buff but to my surprise there was a small increase in the probability as well.”

“That's going to be a very useful skill in the future.” Crag added. “Oh Zaz, that last shot you made, was that the piercing shot skill? Or maybe trap shot?”

Zaz released a pleased hiss, which sounded similar to the hiss of an alligator. “Nope, it was my skill not a skill.” He said with the reptilian equivalence of a smirk.

“Wow...” Ember muttered.

“Right...” Mary agreed.

Crag cleared his throat. “Good to know… now, uh, back to the fight. Did anyone else want to add anything?”

“Oh, yes.” Ember said. “That shield bash seemed really strong, does it drain your mana quickly? Also how many times can you use it back to back like you did?”

“Oh, thank you.” He said back shyly. “But uh, it doesn't use mana at all.”

“What!?!” Ember nearly shouted.

Crag threw his hands up defensively. “Calm down.” He said with a laugh. “It's not like it's free. I still have to pay to use the skill, I just use Ki instead of mana as my resource.”

Ember released a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness or I was about to get super jealous.” She joked.

“But to answer you fully, I can do it about four or five times in a single fight before I'll need to stop and recover some ki.” Crag finished. “Also is everyone good on ki and mana?”

“Yep.” Mary and Ember replied together.

“Yes.” Zaz answered.

“I'm a little low on mana but I'll be in a good spot by the time we reach the pond. I probably overcharged my attacks a bit since I didn't factor in the damage from your shield bash.” Thorn explained.

“Nothing to fret over.” Zaz responded. “Better to overspend your resources than get ambushed by someone or something you thought you killed.”

“Someone?” Ember asked quietly.

“Yes, you won't always fight beasts.” Zaz answered her. “There are monster races like goblins and orcs, plus some of the cruelest monsters I've seen were human slave traders. One day you will cross paths with an intelligent enemy and they will kill you if you don't kill them first.”

Ember shook her head. “No, I don't think I could do that. I…” She looked down to her open palms. “I don't think I could end another person's life. Beasts and critters are one thing, I need to eat them to survive. But another person, they should be able to be reasoned with, right?”

“You would hope so, but not everyone has a good heart.” Thorn said with his head lowered. “Father works hard to keep our town safe but once you're more than a day's ride out from any city or town the chance of running into a bandit group jumps exponentially.”

Ember shivered. “I don't think I'll be traveling anytime soon then.”

“Agreed.” said Mary.

“Well, at the level both of you are currently at, I wouldn't recommend going this far out alone, if not for bandits then for the simple fact that at level two it would only take four or five good hits from a Jacky to take you out.” Crag stated.

Ember's eyes grew wide. “That few?”

“Yes.” He answered earnestly. “A level five jackalope can do up to something like twelve or thirteen points of damage in a single hit, and that's only if it's non vital. The high level ones sometimes gain skills that help them land critical blows to your weak points. I once took a horn to the back of my knee, if Mary hadn't been there to help me heal I could have bled out that day.”

Ember glanced at Mary before returning her gaze to Crag. “That's terrifying. I'm so glad Mary was with you when that happened.” She then turned to face Mary. “And I'm so glad you're here with us now too.”

Mary could see the fear hiding in Ember’s eyes as she spoke so she laid a hand on her shoulder and replied, “You have nothing to worry about. First off, big bro won't let anything get close to you. Secondly, even if it's only a scratch or bruise I'll heal you up.” She reassured Ember, while ending her sentence with a calming smile.

“Thanks.” Ember said. “Both of you…” she looked around. “All of you.” She ended with a forced smile.

“Anytime.” Zaz said with a hint of charm. “But for the moment I think we should continue on. I expect this upcoming battle with the crystal crown to be a complete slog. They may not do much, if any, damage but each jelly has a massive health pool and their queen is sure to have an even larger one.”

“Tsk.” Ember chided. ‘I forgot how many times I had to hit that first one with my staff before it finally went down. Bah! This is where a huge mana pool would come in handy. Just let me blast the whole pond with my rot aura. See if they survive that.’ She thought to herself, which caused a small laugh to escape from her.

Mary gave Ember a side eye at the sound of her chortle.

“It's nothing, just wishful thinking.” Ember told her.

“Ah.” Mary responded.

“Alright! Everyone back to formation.” Crag announced. “Zaz, lead away, if you please.”

Zaz gave a nod in reply before turning to start back on their path to the local pond.

As they made their way farther along Mary scooted closer to Ember to continue her thought from earlier. “So, when you said wishful thinking earlier, what were you thinking of? And I totally get it too, I don't even have a combat related skill.”

“Oh. Uh…” Ember started nervously. “I was just thinking about how easy the fight would be if my mana pool was big enough for me to cast my strongest skill at full blast for longer than a couple seconds.”

“Oh?” Mary raised an eyebrow. “decent damage output?”

“Kinda? I think so at least.” Ember answered honestly. “It averages to about one and a half points of damage per two points of mana spent channeling.”

“What!?!” Mary almost shouted before she covered her own mouth. “Sorry, but how do you already have a skill giving nearly one to one damage at such a low level?”

Ember shrugged. “I'm not sure. It was my fist skill and it's supposedly a rare skill type. So that may have something to do with it.”

“Yeah… rarity can play a role in how powerful a skill can be but still if you dump a full level one mana pool into it you'd dish out more than thirty points of damage in one blow. That's ridiculous for a low level and even more so since you're still unclassed.”

“Yeah… I can't do that.” Ember replied.

“Do what?” Mary asked.

“Dump my whole mana pool into the skill.” Ember answered. “It is a channeled skill and it caps out at five mana per second for my maximum output. I'm hoping that it will increase as well as the skill levels up. But so far I haven't noticed any change in its maximum output.”

“Okay, that makes it much less broken.” Mary said with a laugh. “Channeling it into a damage over time type of skill with an output cap definitely makes it sound more in line with a low level classless skill.”

“Thanks?” Ember asked jokingly. Which led to the two girls laughing together.

“Good thing we don't need stealth for this one.” Crag quipped.

“Shut it!” Mary retorted. “If you don't have anything interesting to add then stay out of it.”

“Fine, fine.” He answered before he turned to face Ember. “Has she told you how broken her main skill is yet?”

“No?” She answered curiously. “You have a broken skill?” She asked Mary with her head tilted.

A small smile grew on Mary's face due to Ember's reaction. “Yes and no. Yes because it works by consuming the target’s resource pool as well as my own. No due to the ratio of input to output. Basically every two mana I spend one mana of yours will be used as well to provide one point of health regeneration. So on your end it would seem like a one to one while in truth It's a three to one.”

“You're skipping the most broken aspect of your skill.” Crag interjected.

“I was getting to it.” Mary answered before she immediately stuck out her tongue in his direction. She then turned back to Ember. “So what he was referring to as broken is the fact that the resource used up by the target of my skill switches based on what resource is least used by them. So for Crag, he never uses mana, so it steals his mana for the heal. Now if I were to heal you I'd be willing to bet it steals from your Ki pool.”

“Yeah that's broken.” Thorn agreed.

“Yep.” Zaz also agreed.

“Broken, but super useful.” Ember added. “Plus it's not that broken, it still costs three points to heal one. Right?”

“Yep.” Mary replied. “Perfectly balanced in all ways.” She joked.

The group marched on as they laughed together. A few light hearted conversations popped up here and there as they made their approach until finally Zaz spoke up. “Clearing ahead. Pond should be coming into view any minute now. I say we stop here and set up for lunch. After we eat and regenerate our missing resources then we can gather the last bits of information we need to form a strategy and attack.”

“Oh thank God, I'm starving.” Ember stated.

“Hmm? Weird.” Mary said quietly.

“Hmmm?” Ember questioned. “What's weird?”

“Oh, heh, sorry, your phrasing was odd. I'm just used to hearing people say either thank the gods or they thank a specific god by name.” Mary answered.

“What? But there's only one God, the king of kings? Lord of lords?” Ember replied.

“Okay, yeah everyone worships the creator god but only as much as he is tied into their specific minor deity's worship. If you choose to follow one at all, that is.” Mary answered.

“Enough talk about religion.” Crag chimed in. “Can someone magic us up a fire while Zaz and I gather wood and intel?”

“I'm on it.” Thorn answered. “I'll zap one up, but don't expect me to cook anything if you want to survive the meal.”

“Ha!” Ember burst out a laugh. “Sorry. But that was funny.”

Thorn gave a smile in response before he made his way to a somewhat open area which he then started to clear of rocks and leaf litter until a nice fire ring was built.

“I guess that leaves us to cook?” Mary asked Ember.

“Guess so.” She replied. “Good thing I always bring my travel spices.” She said as she pulled a baggy out of her hoodie pocket filled with small packets of various herbs and spices. “I can at least make it taste good. Whatever we have.”

“Whatever we have?” Mary asked. “Unless you brought something in one of your secret jacket pockets all we have is the jackalope we killed earlier as far as I know.”

“Ah, I guess I can make rabbit stew.” Ember answered.

“Rabbit?” Mary asked after she lifted an eyebrow.

“Uhhh… well, it's something like a hornless jackalope.” Ember explained.

“That just sounds weird. How would it even defend itself?” Mary asked.

“Oh, they didn't. Not really. Rabbits just run away, unless you catch them. Then you'll get bit and kicked but it doesn't amount to much damage at all. That is only if it doesn't carry any diseases.” Ember informed Mary.

“Still sounds weird, like it should have been hunted into extinction unless it had a speed affinity or something.” Mary mused.

“Something like that… I mean, I haven't seen a rabbit once since I arrived here so maybe they are extinct here.” Ember answered.

“Yeah…” Mary started. “About that, where are you from? You don't have Tila here to distract me from getting my answers this time.”

“Fine. I told you I'd tell you where but I'm not going into any more detail than the names.” Ember relented.

“Deal, I've probably studied the local geography more than anyone else here.” Mary responded proudly.

“Okay.” Ember said with a laugh. “I come from the city of Suches, in the state of Georgia, in the country called the United States of America, on the continent of North America.” Ember blew Mary a raspberry. “Happy?”

“No!” Mary got loud and dropped the jackalope carcass in front of Ember. “I haven't heard of any of those. And did you say continent!?! Like the lost continent across the sea? Is the lost continent called North America?”

“Yes and no. I really can't go into much detail for now. I'm sorry.” Ember said. ‘If I understood how I got here and how to get back I'd happily explain it to all of you.’ She thought to herself. “Can I start cooking now?”

“Fine.” Mary said with a huff. “I'll be right back, Crag has the pot in his pack. Do you have enough water to spare for cooking?”

“Yeah, thanks, but I brought an extra.” Ember answered.

With that said and done Mary ran to gather the pot for Ember while she spent the few minutes she had to wait cleaning and preparing the body to cook.