The group quieted down after the attack, not wanting to draw attention from anything else that was lurking within the woods. They carried on for a few more hours without interruption, but as they came upon a clearing, it was clear that the sun was soon to set.

“We’ll set camp here for the night, I got tents, Koram makes food, you keep an eye out,” ordered Budmuk.

Leo saw the two get to work as if they’d done this a hundred times before. Budmuk cleared out some grass and set up a fire pit. Budmuk’s eyes shined green once more, as nearby twigs and sticks flung themselves towards him. With the fire pit filled and stones set around, he set it alight.

As the fire burned, Koram started his work of preparing dinner for the group. A hefty pot was propped above the campfire, filled with water and all sorts of spices that Leo didn’t recognize, as it seemed to be some type of stew. Budmuk set up their small tents while Koram cooked, and while they weren’t large or fanciful they would be a nice place to rest for the night.

Leo walked around the outskirts of the clearing. He ventured into the forest here and there to see if there was anything nearby. Despite his attempts to keep an eye out, he wasn’t familiar with the touching grass, let alone surveying a forest. Leo didn’t see or hear anything approach their camp, despite the heavenly aroma that filled the air from Koram’s stew.

With the setting sun on the horizon, they gathered around the campfire and sat down for a meal. Koram served everyone a bowl of the hearty stew. This meal felt as if it was made for adventurers, each bite filled Leo with energy.

“So, what are you two? What was up with the green-eye magic stuff earlier?” Leo asked in between mouthfuls of stew.

They looked amongst themselves as Budmuk shot Koram a confused look. They looked back at him as if he were stupid, which in their defense, he was stupid.

“We’re druids, we channel our connection to magic through flora and nature,” explained Koram.

“That’s sick, mind telling me more about it? I don’t really know a lot about that kind of thing,” asked Leo, with his masterful skills of persuasion and active listening.

Before Koram could respond to him, Budmuk interjected as he started to go on a tirade.

“The way druidic magic works, we use nature as our conduit. Normally a druid manipulates the nature around them to their needs. What’s real fascinatin’ is seeing all the different ways nature can be used and interacted with. Trust me, if you ever put a fungi druid and a prey druid in the same room, you’d get just how different we can be,” Budmuk ranted, he barely caught his breath between sentences. “Me and Koram fight differently, which is what makes us a good team. I studied weaponized botany back in my apprenticeship. Everything in nature is bound to die, hitting it with a tree trunk speeds up the process.”

Using the brief gap in Budmuk’s rant, Koram jumped into the conversation.

“In college I studied spatial magic. I love nature, but normal druidic magic tires me out. My spatial magic isn’t much to behold, but it can help with studying and helping plants. Whenever we run into danger in the forest, I use some basic druid combat abilities to fight. There is so much potential with each class, and I’m certain you’ll find something that feels right,” added Koram.

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“Huh, that’s actually really cool. So can I basically find a class for anything?” Leo asked.

“Generally yes, if you’re interested I can help you consider what it is you’d like to study,” said Koram.

“Well, are there any classes that can reduce strength?” asked Leo, with hope in his voice.

“Why yes, there are all manner of classes to weaken your enemies,” responded Koram.

“Well, actually, I meant to weaken my own strength,” corrected Leo.

“Excuse me? Why would you wish to do that?” questioned Koram.

Koram and Budmuk had stopped eating, as they now looked at Leo in confusion. Leo felt uncomfortable with their staring and was desperate to find a way out of it. He couldn’t think of any way to just deflect the question, so he decided to play around the truth.

“I don’t have anything special going for me like fighting techniques or magic. I only rely on my brute strength, and that scares me. I don’t want to accidentally hurt someone because I couldn’t control myself,” replied Leo.

“Hm, I understand,” Budmuk interjected, “only natural to worry about hurting someone innocent. I don’t know of any classes that specialize in that, I think you’ll need to search for that with some other people.”

Koram agreed with him, and the conversation died down. They each had multiple bowls of stew until they were satisfied, and after doing some light washing up, they each headed off to bed. Budmuk assured Leo that there shouldn’t be any activity while they slept, as only a few of the forest creatures were nocturnal.

Leo went into his tent and got comfortable on his bedroll, as he realized how much better he felt knowing that nothing would bother them at night. He couldn’t help but find the idea funny, as he doubted there was anything that could harm him let alone put him in actual danger.

The bedroll was nice and comfortable, the buzz of bugs in the forest acted as a nice ambience while Leo dozed off. He awoke to the sound of sizzling in the air and the scent of delicious pancakes. This marked his third conscious day in this new world, and Leo had already started to like it more than his previous life.

He crawled out of bed to see Koram cooking breakfast, as Budmuk sat by the fire drinking from his canteen of water. Leo decided to start off his morning with stretches, but his lack of experience quickly showed as he moved through all the stretches he knew within a minute.

“Good morning, Leo, we’re gonna have breakfast then keep on going!” exclaimed Koram.

Leo sat down and grabbed a plate, which was soon stacked high with pancakes and a thick syrup globbed on top. He wasted no time digging into them, savoring the syrup tasted like a wondrous combination of every fruit he’d ever had. While Leo ate, he saw Budmuk pack up each of their tents into his shed of a backpack, the whole process took him only a few minutes. He finished eating around the same time as Koram, and he assumed Budmuk had eaten earlier as the dwarf didn’t ask for any breakfast.

The shining sun helped illuminate their path to the mountains in the distance. They finished cleaning their campsite and headed onwards. The song of insects seemed to have quieted down in the morning light, as the chirp of birds rang through the air instead. The trees seemed to be more dense this deep into the woods, but the sun gave them enough light to carry on.

Despite there not being any risk to his safety, Leo couldn’t help but be vigilant and afraid of anything that may try and attack them. If he hadn’t alerted them to the snakes in time, who knows what could have happened. He’d prefer to be their living shield than let them get harmed. While their trek through the forest progressed they had idle chatter to stave away boredom.

Koram and Budmuk told Leo more about the forest, and how it teemed with unique flora not found anywhere else. They warned him of the more common dangers here, whether it be a wandering bear or a tribe of orcs. This eased his worries, as they assured him that this has been an unusually quiet passage, so most of the monsters may have migrated to another part of the forest.

They had no more interruptions during their trip, except for Koram and Budmuk, who took notes on a now missing body of Cadav moss that had once coated a now clear lake. They had exited through the other side of the forest, and before them stood the Eversunk mountains. Leo looked up at the mountains, while they hadn’t seemed so grand in the sky, up close they looked unbelievably massive.