1. Silas Wycliffe - level 48 - Duellist
2. Dominic Wood - level 47 - Black Knight
3. Natalie Svoboda - level 46 - Cryomancer
4. Mia Pascall- level 44 - Elementalist
5. Josh Thompson - level 43 - Nemesis
6. Iris Azer - level 43 - Lifetree
7. Lina Radhakrishnan - level 40 - Blazeblade
8. Diego Garcia - level 39 - Supay Summoner
9. Brigette Wagner - level 39 - Bladesinger
…
14. Clio Tiafel - level 39 - Halberdier
15. Elise LeBeau - level 38 - Minister
…
172. Damon Hersey - level 32- Metalworker
…
176. Amara D’Aegor - level 32 - Commander
…
301. Rolf Ruttering - level 29 - Tactician
…
781. Zita Miniati - level 25 - Beautician
…
1404. Tessa Flowers - level 22 - Alchemist
…
2104. Olivia Green - level 19
…
2433. Ethan Wycliffe - level 14
…
3590. Sion Breckon - level 4
Josh leaned against a wall, his boot tapping impatiently on the cobbled street. The blond was wearing New Derby’s set of dark armour with a kite shield strapped to his back and a longsword and compact assault rifle hanging from his waist. Although his face was mostly calm, the hint of creasing on his forehead gave away his growing irritation. He was leading the envoys to the mycelia; their group was made of ten, including Iris, Lina, and Diego, the other six being weathered warriors. Eight of these ten were here right now, one of the missing ones late by nearly thirty minutes to their gathering, the other missing one having gone to find him.
Don’t worry, Lina found him. They’ll be here in a bit, Iris told him telepathically, no doubt just having received a text. Despite this, it was ten minutes longer before the wiry Blazeblade appeared, dragging along Diago by the scruff of his neck. The Supay Summoner had dusky skin and a drawn face, currently looking sick as he moaned with half-lidded eyes while being pulled forward.
Josh would have replaced him from the envoys and left long ago if not for the red child-sized, bipedal jackal which skipped beside him. Instead of ears, it had curved horns, and instead of a filed snout, it had a bull’s wide nose. It was thinly furred and wore a dark satin skirt around its waist, although Josh was pretty sure it was male. On seeing Iris, it began yapping and ran ahead of its master to leap into her arms. She giggled silently, scratching it by its neck as it turned and tossed its head in pleasure.
Ignoring this, Josh donned a stern expression and glared at Diego. “Well, what happened to meeting at nine then?”
The summoner blearily looked over, cringing his head away from the sunlight. “Josh, you know how easily one drink can turn into two and two into four. I thought I had double vision there for a moment; then I realised it was just magic, and a man like me can never deny the wonders of this world.”
“You went drinking the night before we head into enemy territory?” Josh was usually calm and cool with most things, but the eccentricity of this man flummoxed even him.
Diego flashed a grin. “Live each day like your last, my mamá always said. Although, that was also because she threatened to beat the life out of me every other day.” Several warriors chuckled at this, and he continued. “Now I’ve got this mamacita roughing me up, and I’m wondering if it’s really my mamá returned from the grave to finish the job.”
Lina pushed him out of her grasp, causing him to stumble and trip. Clutching his head with one hand, he picked himself up and pouted. “I curse you thrice, woman: one, for waking me this morning; two, for dragging me here; and three, for humiliating me so that tears now trickle down my face.” There was a notable lack of tears running down his face. The Blazeblade rolled her eyes at the theatrics.
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Stepping forward, Josh caught Diego by the shoulders and made level eye-contact with him. “Alright, Diego, enough messing around, man. If you’re not up for the job, say it now and I’ll switch you out. We’re all risking our lives here, so it’s really not cool if you’re taking this as a joke.”
This sobered up the Summoner, who slightly dipped his head in shame. “No, I’m sorry. Just the hangover.” He grunted. “I’m sure I’ll be better once I recover from it.”
“Good man,” Josh said, clapping him on the shoulder and releasing him. “Alright, since everyone’s here now and we’ve got all our supplies, let’s go. Remember, this’ll take about a day but don’t let down your guard because of that since we can still get attacked at any time.”
The envoys set off, following the same tracks that Silas had taken some hours before them in his ratman form. However, they went at a far more cautious pace than him, ignoring most of the beasts but working together to slaughter the arrogant few who challenged them. They stopped for the night and made rest, only coming to the edge of Riverside’s communication device’s range the next day. Instead of forging ahead as Silas had, they veered hard west, steering clear of ratkin territory and scans as they made directly for mycelia lands. At least it was easy for them to know when they had reached their destination as the forest came littered with mushrooms and mildew and sludge that clung to their boots.
Here, Diego showed some of his worth as he summoned a thin staff with decorative feathers of various types and colours into the hands of his supay. The small beast swished the staff this way and swung the staff that way, a sudden breeze coming over the group, clean and refreshing. “Those spores in the air were making me want to puke,” the Summoner said, spitting on the ground with a soured expression. His supay regularly repeated its motions to keep the breeze over the group.
They continued on their path, keeping an eye out for any mycelia in the region. It was several hours before they found a troop of them. Unlike what Silas had suggested, the fungal creatures failed to notice them, even when they yelled out and waved wildly. Instead, the creatures and their zombie thralls walked right on by them, making them feel invisible. When Iris tried to catch one’s attention by forming a vine by its foot, the mycelia simply tripped over it and picked itself up again, acting as if nothing strange had happened.
Here, Josh raised an open hand to pause his fellows. “Well, this is different from what the reports said. But then again, Silas did say that he wasn’t sure about these creatures’ intelligence, so maybe it’s just that. The only one he talked to was that prophet, so maybe we should search for him instead, you know.”
They hadn’t the slightest on how to find the prophet, especially since the mycelia refused to acknowledge their presence, let alone reveal their master’s location, but that didn’t stop them from carrying on through the forest, travelling in circles in the hope they would come upon their target. To their luck, this worked as the fungal satyr found them an hour later, coming from their flank to meet them.
“Good humans, what is the nature of your visits to my grounds?” it asked.
Josh, there are a hundred or more of them around us right now. They’re standing still, just out of sight.
Iris’s warning made Josh tense up, and he ordered the group to prepare for a fight. “We’ve come to see if you’re serious about that alliance to beat the ratkin,” he yelled back to the Rooted Prophet.
“Why, of course. I am glad to hear my request was passed onto your leadership, after all.”
“Then do us a favour and clear the troops in the area, would you?” Josh said. “You’re giving us double meanings right now between your words and actions.” While he wasn’t panicking from the knowledge of enemies surrounding them, having trust in the chosen soldiers for this mission and all, he wasn’t exactly calm either in this situation.
The prophet paused, appearing taken aback for a moment, before offering a genuine smile. “I am surprised at your sharpness - it is undoubtedly a quality which will serve us well in our fight against the vermin. My apologies about my troops, I was simply unsure about your intentions here since you so adeptly sneaked in here.”
Josh was about to ask where this accusation had come from, given that they had been very open in their coming and all, when Iris stopped him.
Don’t make him aware of it yet. We must have done something to hide from their scans without knowing, so it’s best we figure out what it was before we let him know we did it unwittingly. Also, half of the mycelia around us have walked off now.
Half was all Josh could ask for, after all, the mycelia and humans weren’t proper allies yet. He called out to the prophet again, “So where do you want to discuss our plans? Right here, or do you have somewhere else in mind?”
“Come, follow me,” the prophet beckoned. “Allow me to show you my hospitality.”
And as such, they followed. The number of mycelia around them never went lower than fifty, but at least they no longer attempted to hide their presence since they walked in the open beside the prophet. The fungal satyr must have known of humans’ wariness as he kept his distance throughout the trip, only attempting to close the distance when they came to another area. It was still forested and spotted with various types of fungi, but there were a collection of clean log cabins in front of them. There were two dozen mycelia working on making more cabins, creating furniture and raising logs into place with magic.
“I built it as accommodation for you folk in case you desired extended stays,” the prophet informed them, leading them into one. It was furnished plainly with a wooden table and chairs, a large bed woven of thick vines, and a simple cooking area. “I will verily admit that your race’s wants and needs are still alien to me, but I have tried my best at making it comfortable based on what I know. Do not hesitate to inform me if there is anything missing that you should want to have.”
“Ah, I appreciate it, man. Right now we don’t know how long we’ll stay - I guess it depends on how our talks go,” Josh said, dipping back out and watching the mycelia go about their work. He found it strange how they acknowledged him now, in fact, how they had begun acknowledging them all ever since the prophet had met them, almost as if they had been blind as bats until then. Of course, he could see they lacked eyes, but they had spotted Silas all the same.
“We can begin immediately,” the fungal satyr said, taking to the outside too and wordlessly ordering his creations to set up chairs in the central circle between the cabins. The suns were shining down, and the breeze was cool, so it was pleasant to sit outside. “I would imagine we begin by sharing information on our common enemy.”
“Of course,” Josh said, raising his hand then. “But I should warn you now that the information will immediately be relayed back to Riverside - we have a monument there that allows texting over large distances. Just saying that in case you think you can gain the advantage here by shearing us for all our information, and not letting us go back afterwards.”
“I would never do that,” the prophet said, surprisingly sounding both unoffended and genuine. “I can assure you that I want a co-operative relationship, nothing less than that.” It smiled then, a gentle, assuring smile, showing no reason for them to distrust it. And this was precisely the reason Josh doubted it.