“If you look to your right,” Nitana energetically said as if she were a tour guide, “you’ll see the site where the vicious Megantress sentenced dozens of harmless trees to a fiery death because she wanted an ice wand that she ended up not using anyway.”

“They’re not harmless,” Megan said. “They can cast spells and whip their branches at you. Those hurt, you know? The only reason I survived farming them and their mini-boss is that they couldn’t uproot themselves to chase me. Walk in there and you’ll see how dangerous they are.”

I held up a finger. “But not all of them are dangerous. Some of them don’t attack. Right?”

“The trees that cry and do nothing else,” said Melonomi. Was she joining in ribbing Megan?

Indirectly, I supposed.

Good for her. And good for my plans too if she became more cooperative.

Nitana wagged an accusatory finger at Megan. “Since you got the Ichor from the Hoarfrost Yews, that means you killed the super harmless trees. They’re even crying, Megan. Have you no heart?”

“I-I didn’t me-mean…” Megan threw up her hands as she stuttered.

“Stop bullying Megan, guys,” said Kezo. “This Ichor should be easy to get—and we should finish this quickly so we can return to tracking Mr. Bear. We don’t want anyone killing it while we’re tied up here.”

The Hoarfrost Yews ranged from around half taller than me to more than twice my height, which is still short compared to yew trees in the real world. And unlike the other trees on this mountain, these didn’t have grotesque veins pulsing with golden liquid. They looked like boring trees… except for the human-like faces, very expressive at that, carved deep into their bark. Most had more than one face. Their eyes glowed red, and their mouths were deformed holes. They cursed and yelled at us when we passed.

“Hate! Hate this Four Legs!” cried out one tree as it brought the upper half of its trunk low to bludgeon Megan.

I taunted it in the nick of time. The trajectory of its branches curved left to me. I caught them with both shields. Megan trotted away. I casually walked while tanking the hits because I shouldn’t be seen running from something this harmless.

“The abomination has returned!” called yet another tree, its voice creaking. It swung its branches back and then forward, flinging glowing icicles at Megan. “Kill! Revenge! Kill!”

I erected two Totems to catch some of the icicles. My efforts weren’t needed because the icicles were more of a nuisance than a threat to Megan. But I had to show I cared for my party. Herald Stone, the Caretaker… or something.

“They seem to remember you,” I said, casting [Healing Touch] on Megan. Eclairs should see how attentive and reliable I was.

“Wow, Megan,” said Nitana. “You traumatized these monsters so much that your face is forever stuck in their memories.”

“Melonomi also killed them but they’re not reacting to her,” I said.

“It was my friends who did most of the killing,” Melonomi said. “Also, we focused only on the crying trees. That might explain why they don’t hold a grudge against me.”

“It is odd for monsters to react in a certain way to an individual player,” said Paritor. “Unlikely that these Hoarfrost Yews are survivors of Megan’s hunt. Many players farm them for they provide essential ingredients for Healer potions. This means these Hoarfrost Yews are several generations removed yet maintain a grudge for Megan. Fascinating.”

“You make it sound like that’s a good thing,” said Megan. “Anyway, let’s quickly get this over with. I don’t want to be here with all of them cursing me. Oh yeah, and Mr. Bear might be getting far away too.”

“There’s a crying tree,” I said. “It’s behind those two that are about to—” The Hoarfrost Yews swung their gnarled branches at me. I blocked them with my shields. My [Greater Pyro Shell] didn’t break. “—attack us,” I finished my sentence.

“Dibs on that one!” Nitana sent her fairies to explode not only on the crying tree but also on the others surrounding it. “Time to be a war criminal like Megan,” she said with uncharacteristic glee.

“I’m not a—ugh, whatever.” Megan stomped away.

I hung back while my party mates dispersed to hunt the crying trees. It’d take too long for me to kill one, so I didn’t bother. And if Megan herself could solo this whole forest of Hoarfrost Yews, there was no danger. Though many, the Hoarfrost Yews couldn’t mob us because they couldn’t move from their spot. Melonomi followed Paritor for some reason, giving unneeded buffs to his summons. An odd pair, the two of them.

I’ll ask Paritor about his Big M quest later, I thought, going in the opposite direction.

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

I circled the outer perimeter of the orchard of Hoarfrost Yews, my eyes on the ground, not minding the attacks of the trees more than a dozen levels above me. This was the fun part of being a tank.

Entrenched in the human psyche was the need to be invincible… immortal. History was full of crazies doing this or that experiment to find the cure to all diseases or, better yet, escape the inevitability of death.

Both the young Herald and the adult Herald shared that same desire. Only now did I realize why I wanted to be unkillable in games—because I was following a normal human desire. I supposed all power fantasies in RPGs, including being a monster DPSer, shared the same root.

I couldn’t exactly make ritual sacrifices to gods to bless me with immortality, like some ancient civilization probably did, or waste millions to research an anti-aging serum… well, I could do that second thing now, but our current technology was probably centuries away from achieving immortality. I’d be really wasting money. The best alternative to fulfill my desire, my need, was making tank characters in RPGs.

Something on the ground interrupted my philosophizing.

I paused for a couple of seconds to examine it before continuing onward, holding my head high and pretending nothing was amiss.

There were many hoof prints on the snow because we passed this way earlier. But the curious thing was a set of tracks crossing over ours diagonally. It veered off away from the pack of prints, going in a separate direction before fading away. The rest of my party mates were hunting the crying trees. No one had come back here, or I would’ve seen them. Only I backtracked this way, and I hadn’t stepped over our earlier tracks.

It was obvious who owned the extra set of hoof prints.

I stopped walking and snapped my fingers. “I forgot to tell Kezo about the concert tomorrow,” I loudly said, turning around and heading for the heart of the Hoarfrost Yew orchard.

Was that convincing enough? I didn’t want him to prematurely act and do something dickish like killing the mini-boss before we could.

After running around the noisy Hoarfrost Yews, I found Kezo and the others gathering around the [Lvl 51 Elder Hoarfrost Yew] at the far end of the area. They had killed all the crying trees, confirmed by the mini-boss becoming enraged, growing purplish ice weapons that it wielded and threw with its branches. Thick and tall, that’s what she said, the Elder Hoarfrost Yew looked like it had lived for a thousand years. The dozens of faces circling its trunk babbled gibberish before contorting into expressions of sheer hatred.

“Woah, this is big-time creepy,” said Nitana. “Oh, here’s Herald.”

“Right on time.” Kezo beckoned at me. “I was just about to message you. This’ll be a quick fight and we can—”

“Kezo, can you secure the last hit?” I asked.

He looked at me with a raised brow. Then he nodded. He began summoning the massive Mardukryon spirit he used when we fought the Blighted Vinereavers. Those poor plant monsters, test subjects of Mad Brewer Bawu, had massive reflect damage. Since Kezo died when he as much as sneezed on them, I came up with the simple strategy of using the hardest-hitting skills to make every death count.

Kezo rarely used this skill because it took too long to charge. Calculating the charging time and the damage dealt, it was better to stick with weaker but faster skills DPS-wise.

“What’s happening?” Melonomi asked, tilting her head at the ghostly Mardukryon towering over us.

“I want to see Kezo’s strongest skill,” I said.

“You can start attacking now, guys,” said Kezo.

“Why would you—oh.” Melonomi looked over her shoulder. I wanted to stop her from making it obvious that we knew someone else was out there, but Kezo not joining the attacks was notice enough, I supposed.

The Elder Hoarfrost Yew wailed in agonized voices as it suffered attacks. A weak mini-boss for its level, its health bar shortened quickly. Kezo charged at the Elder Hoarfrost Yew when only a quarter of its life remained. The colossal Mardukryon spirit followed Kezo and mimicked his sword slash. The Elder Hoarfrost Yew instantly died in one hit.

Rewards flowed in, including an Ichor for most of us since only Megan had the Ichor from this place, but we didn’t pay attention. All of us scanned our surroundings.

“Herald, are you sure that RailGunLord prick is around?” Nitana asked.

Megan gasped. “Oh, so that’s why Kezo—I’m so dumb. I was wondering why all of you looked around, so I just followed along.”

I led the party to the tracks I spotted to show proof, but upon my return, all the hoof prints were gone.

“It was supposed to be here.” I gazed at the sky. “A light snow. This couldn’t cover our tracks that fast. Could killing the mini-boss disturb the snow here?”

“I don’t think so,” said Megan.

I trotted back to the fork. The others followed me. “Look, our tracks are still here.”

“There is a Skill Shard that generates a mild blizzard,” Paritor said. “Useful for blinding enemies to escape… and for obscuring disturbances in the snow.”

“I remember something like that,” I said, smoothly going along. “The suspicious hoof prints may have been erased, but that’s also proof someone was here.”

“He’s not here now,” muttered Nitana.

“Mr. Bear!” Megan exclaimed. “Maybe he’s after Mr. Bear?”

We hurried to the left path of the fork, chasing after the humongous paw prints of the Oyi Oso. They weren’t erased. There were no other tracks. Did the RailGunLord or whoever the bastard Pathfinder was shadowing us not go this way?

Or he could be behind us. We could’ve passed his invisible ass.

“I hope we catch up to Mr. Bear before we near Rabisu Peak,” said Kezo.

I trotted up next to him. “Why? Because we’ll meet strong monsters?”

“That’s if we went the other way, the actual path to Rabisu’s Peak,” he replied. “Here, we’d reach the bottom of the unscalable cliff wall. The problem here is we’ll pass by PvP zones.”