Mel hung her head and sighed. She looked at the warm fire, then at her resources. Thanks to the food, she was back to full fighting strength. In fact, she was better than before due to the [Roasted Death Morel].

Rather than increase the size of her health and stamina bars, it added a second bar overlaid onto the first of each. It was just a sliver, but Mel wasn’t going to complain about having more health and stamina.

It could mean the difference between life and death.

She chewed another [Roasted Death Morel] as another scream, this one closer and more desperate than before, echoed out of the forest.

Drumming her fingers on her knee, Mel couldn’t help herself. She stood, grumbling all the while, and stalked off into the forest.

A small voice in the back of her mind said she needed to help whoever was stumbling around in the dark out there. She felt certain that whoever was screaming was fleeing rather than fighting for their lives.

That didn’t immediately make them good, but it likely meant she wasn’t about to walk right into a trap.

Then again, if it was a trap, she would probably walk right into it anyway just to trigger it and kill those who had set it.

It would take somebody particularly devious and cruel to set something like this up. Bandits or murderhobos setting up a trap didn’t strike her as being inventive enough to be behind something like this.

Even with her [Ghostflame Lantern], Mel couldn’t see well in the twilight of the woods. The sun hadn’t fully set, but night had come on in full within the woods.

Noises sprang up all around her. Birds hooted, animals snuffled about, things stalked in the dark, and Mel realized she was very much alone.

The woman screamed again, though Mel couldn’t be certain it was the same one as before.

The prudent play would be to use her [Hidden Mist], stalk the person and see what all the fuss was about. However, her delay could cause their death if her mist didn’t render their flight completely useless.

I can do this, I’ve defended myself before. It’s probably way easier when the arrows aren’t flying at me .

With Mel’s head still cloudy, she wasn’t certain of much, but there was one thing she knew with iron certainty: she was no hero.

Then why am I haring off into the dark after a screaming idiot?

Mel didn’t have an answer to that.

Apparently, that was enough of a choice to stir up a prompt.

New Quest: Into the Night

Track down and slay the monster hunting in the night before it’s too late.

Objective: Slay the unknown nearby monster (0/1).

Reward: (10) [Copper Rune Coins]

Runes of Mist aspect experience.

She was forced to use [Hidden Mist], expanding it out a few yards and burning extra mana to illuminate the space.

Everywhere the mist touched turned into pale twilight. Not enough to see perfectly, but a far cry better than the [Ghostflame Lantern].

Colors washed into each other, but she could make out the small creatures hunting in the night. Droplets of black blood splattered on broad gray leaves brought her to the trail of the fleeing screamer.

Mel followed them as fast as she dared, her twinblade out, held to the side. She came upon the monster first, following quickly and low to the ground.

The mist hardly bothered it. Then again, that could be because the mist was thin. It was just enough for her to see by. It wasn’t meant to obscure. She saw the wolfish creature lunge through the air. It shot out like a missile beyond the range of her vision.

Another shrill scream split the night, followed immediately by a heavy thud.

Mel sprinted forward. The monster was now hunched over a form on the ground, its large gleaming claws poised to rake and rend. Her twinblade got there first, slicing into its back and forcing the creature to roll off the woman and face the new threat: Mel.

With both hands on the twinblade, she spun and countered the monster’s blistering assault. Yellow teeth sharpened to a razor’s edge snapped at her throat, but she managed to put the twinblade’s handle up to block the bite.

Scratching claws lashed out, but Mel’s reach was larger than the monster’s. Its red eyes gleamed in the night. It snarled and hissed, constantly trying to get through her guard. Mel swung the smaller creature around until it was forced to release its hold on her weapon.

It crashed into a nearby tree, stunned for a moment. Mel was on it as it returned to its senses. With a curving slice, a spray of blood arced through the air from its shoulder.

A whip-like tail snaked around and ensnared her left ankle. The creature pulled with far more strength than Mel had given it credit for, and Mel was forced onto her back.

The humanoid, rat-like monster crouched and sprang. Mel could have rolled and dodged the attack. Instead, she stabbed her twinblade into the dirt beside her hip.

As the monster lunged at her, she tilted the blade and skewered the creature right through the middle. Before it could do more than claw at her a few times, Mel rolled out and away.

The creature thrashed a bit longer, but she could tell that it was already dead. Blood flowed freely from the grievous wound until the monster finally stopped moving.

You defeat the [Rattin Youth (Rodent Beastman) (Mundane Rank)].

You gain runes of Mist aspect experience.

You gain Battle Points.

An arrow thudded into a tree beside her head. Mel kicked the creature she had initially mistaken for a runty werewolf off her twinblade and snatched it back up. She spun to face the new threat.

“Put it down, lady!” a quavering voice called out to her. “And step away from Sabrina.” He glanced at the groaning form on the ground. “Sabrina, you okay? Did she hurt you?”

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

The woman on the ground slowly got to her feet. Mel watched with interest as realization dawned on her fair features. Sabrina couldn’t have been more than a few years older than herself, putting her somewhere in her mid-20s.

Quest Complete: Into the Night

Objective: Slay the unknown nearby monster (1/1).

Reward: (10) [Copper Rune Coins]

Runes of Mist aspect experience.

From the quest’s completion, a stream of light filtered into Mel’s storage ring. A sign that the coins automatically deposited into her inventory.

Mel didn’t pay it much attention. She was more concerned with how this was going to play out.

She didn’t want to have to fight anybody because of a misunderstanding.

“Bernard, no!” Sabrina got up and put herself between Mel and the Archer. “She saved my life! I would have been killed if not for her. Please put down the bow.”

Bernard looked doubtful, but he did as Sabrina asked.

The girl looked like…well, like she had just been chased and batted around by a giant rat, actually. So, pretty much how you’d expect.

“My name is Sabrina. I can’t thank you enough.” She extended a grimy hand. “My friends and I have been running all day from every kind of beast imaginable.”

Mel looked at the hand, then at the woman’s other hand to make sure it wasn’t behind her back. She saw nothing duplicitous in her stature, much less her hopeful tone.

She’s scared and just looking for a friend, a small voice said in the back of her head. Not everybody is out to get you. Most people are normal and just want to be safe.

Mel dismissed her weapon in a swirl of silver ash. “I’m Mel.”

The woman started, her blue eyes going wide with amazement. Excitement coursed through her as she lunged forward and grabbed Mel’s hand and shook it exuberantly. “That’s so cool! How did you do that?”

“Everybody can.”

Sabrina screwed up her pretty face, what wasn’t covered in old cuts and dirt at least. “I don’t think that’s true. I sure can’t.”

Mel didn’t feel like arguing. Her vital resources were plenty high, but she still hadn’t slept yet. She gently extricated her hand and looked from Sabrina to Bernard. “There more of you?”

As if to answer her question, the sound of a rampaging boar turned Mel around. She had her twinblade in hand with a swirl of silver in an instant. Before she could get into a stance, Sabrina grabbed Mel’s arm. “No! That has to be Shane. We got split up when the monsters attacked. He must have come looking for me. Please don’t hurt him.”

Mel relaxed slightly, but did not release her twinblade a second time until she saw that Sabrina was right. A man in rusted chainmail was wheezing and jogging through the forest, crashing into every damn thing in front of him like a juggernaut.

“Sabrina!” he called excitedly before seeing Mel. He slowed his pace and took up a defensive stance. “What’s going on?”

Tugging on her arm like a child, Sabrina said, “This is Mel! She saved us from the monster!”

A high-pitched scream echoed off to the left.

Shane lifted his shield and rushed off in that direction. “That must be Trav! We got split up.”

It was startling just how slow they all were. Mel had dismissed the fog when the monster was killed, but she now realized if she used the skill again, she would probably hurt these people.

They couldn’t see the patches of slick ice that formed randomly on the ground, and worse, they were slow . Even if she gave them a head start, she could outpace them jogging backwards.

Mel sprinted past them, straining her ears for the sound of another scream, but nothing came. She did pick up several grunts and thuds, however. Using that, Mel pivoted her direction, calling out to the others where she was going.

She doubted they would be able to find her, even if she kept shouting her location, but she kept it up anyway.

Crashing through the underbrush, Mel found herself in a small clearing backed up against a squat hill. At the base of the hill were four figures. One was slumped on the ground and another was on their feet, fighting off two beastmen with what looked like a large shepherd’s crook.

Mel summoned the mist to her side and sped across the glade at record speed. As she passed the slumped form, it was clear she was already too late to help that one.

Using all her momentum, Mel drove her twinblade into the spine of the rattin on the right. It let loose a gurgling scream, and the older woman who had been fighting both jumped back in startlement.

Ripping the blade out, Mel shoulder checked the creature out of the way to get at the other beastman.

You defeat the [Rattin Youth (Rodent Beastman) (Mundane Rank)].

You gain runes of Mist aspect experience.

You gain Battle Points.

As fast as she was, even with the element of surprise, the second monster had its guard up in time for the strike. A shining silver light coated the beastman’s crossed forearms as Mel’s twinblade struck.

The blade rebounded hard from the strike, like hitting stone. She nearly dropped the twinblade from the recoil, her hands going numb from the vibrations rolling up the blade.

Quick as lightning, the beastman dropped into a crouch and tackled Mel. She couldn’t get her weapon up in any semblance of defense as she was driven to the ground.

The rattin snarled, its yellow teeth gleaming like filthy ivory in the night. Mel wasn’t about to go out on her back, but she couldn’t push the stocky creature off her and avoid its oversized teeth and sharp claws at the same time.

Instead of trying to avoid the bite, Mel leaned into the attack. She snapped her head forward, crushing her forehead painfully into the creature’s snout.

It yelped in pain and reeled back long enough for Mel to knee its groin and throw it off her. Before she could finish it off, the older woman who had been fighting came over and caved its skull in with her staff.

Mel gingerly got to her feet, shaking the feeling back into her hands. “Nice one.”

The woman tried to blow a strand of blood-soaked hair from her gore-splattered face. She looked like she was holding on to her sanity by her fingernails.

Her tenuous grasp flew away altogether when she noticed the bloody body beside her. “Travis!”

Crawling on hands and knees, the woman went to the side of the body. Mel took a few tentative steps back, partly to give the woman her space, and partly because she didn’t want to be too close in case she snapped.

One by one, the rest of the group entered the glade. They immediately went to the woman’s side, giving Mel an easy out.

She started to back away, but Sabrina broke away from the group, calling over her shoulder, “Maybe Mel can help him!” She looked at Mel, realizing that she was several feet away from the group and slowly backing away. “Please. I know you’ve already done so much, but we need you. Travis needs you.”

New Quest: How to Save a Life

You’ve been asked to save Travis’ life. It looks bad.

Objectives: Administer life-saving aid to Travis, ensuring he survives.

Rewards: (5) [Small Health Potions]

Mel looked at the quest. You’ve got to be kidding me. Just give me the potions now and I’ll save him!

The system, of course, didn’t respond.