The two faction representatives stood staring at Rick having demanded he chose a side.

Gambit stepped up beside him. "They're not giving us much time, are they?"

Rick shook his head. "What do you think?"

"If all we're going by is who's less of a jerk, then I would say let's stick with the farmers."

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But it isn’t much to go on." Rick turned back to the representatives. "We'll help the farmers."

"What?" the mining representative shouted, her face contorted with anger.

The farmer beamed. "An excellent choice. Our other allies will be most pleased to hear it."

"Other allies?" Rick's heart leaped. Could Sam be working for the farmers?

The mining representative stabbed her finger toward Rick's chest. "And our allies will make you regret this."

Rick's heart sank. Of course, both sides had people working for them.

The farmers all cheered with way more enthusiasm than Rick thought necessary and insisted they should escort the adventurers to their village immediately.

“You’ve made the right choice,” Andrite declared to Rick, Gambit and Daniel as they went.

“What about our caravan?” Daniel asked. “Don’t we need them to move?”

The Rork seemed confused. “Caravan? Why would they move?”

Rick intervened. “This village is probably close by. So, Farmer Andrite, tell us your troubles.”

That was clearly the right thing to say. Andrite launched into a long tale of how the miners were polluting the irrigation channels with run-off from their levistone quarries, and refusing to come to any civil arrangement. Rick half-expected a quest to pop up, but it didn’t.

The farm village buildings were stone and mud huts, resembling those found in desert regions on Earth. The farming representative, Andrite, showed them into his home and continued to gush enthusiastically. His wife, however, seemed sullen and indifferent.

When Rick got the chance, he asked her, "What do you think of this conflict with the miners?"

She shrugged. "I think it's a waste of time. I've told him time and again that even when we do nothing, the corruption never spreads beyond the contested fields. The village has more than enough other fields to feed us. We're better off just leaving them alone."

Now the quest announcement popped up: [Defend the contested fields!]

Rick frowned. "I thought the miners were polluting your water source. What is contested about your fields?"

The woman sighed. "Oh, you got the quest, didn’t you? Even when I tell people it’s not necessary, that thing pops up. You’ll have to ask my husband about the corruption." She leaned in conspiratorially. “He doesn’t like it if I tell his quest."

At that moment, another quest popped up: [Trace the source of the corruption!]

Rick glanced over and saw Daniel talking with Andrite.

Rick looked back at the farmer’s wife. She shook her head with a resigned air. "Your friend got it, didn’t he? Before you get going, make sure you talk to my son." She gave a lower shoulder shrug. "He’s got one, too."

The son was just outside the front door. Had he been a human child, Rick would have guessed six or seven years old. He was playing with a stuffed animal, old and bedraggled. It was difficult to tell what it once had been. Maybe a six-legged rabbit?

The kid glanced up at Rick and turned away.

Daniel and Gambit stepped out of the house. "Are we getting going?" Daniel asked.

Rick shook his head. "There’s another quest we need." He pointed down at the kid.

They all looked down. The kid ignored them and continued playing with his stuffed friend.

Rick crouched down. "Can you tell me about your friend?"

"This is Mr Poopy Breath," the boy with no enthusiasm. "He likes to play in the field with his other friends. But now his other friends have gotten mad and don’t like to play anymore."

The boy gave the adventurers a strange look. "That’s what it wants me to say. I don’t really like hexabunnies. At least they let me name this one.” He waved the toy around, indifferently. “I want to play with my toy boat on the canal. I made a new sail for it."

The kid perked up as he talked. "This new sail is good, I think it’ll go upstream against the current. It has two hulls, just like the ones on Lake Arthon here."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Rick sighed. "Look, uh... we didn’t get the quest yet. Can you tell us any more about... Mr Poopy Breath??"

The child’s face fell. He sighed. "Oh, let me think… They used to be nice. And then the robots came, and now they’re not nice." He low shrugged. “That is about it.”

[New quest! The Strange Hexabunnies are overrunning the farmer’s fields. Find out what has them agitated. Could it have something to do with the corruption?]

Rick smiled. "Thanks, kid! You can probably get back to your boat now. There’s no one else coming for the quest." He glanced at the others. "At least as far as I know."

The kid sprang up with a small whoop, tossing aside the stuffed six legged rabbit thing as he ran off.

The farmland just outside the village was a network of irrigation ditches and paddies. They mostly grew water corn, though some were empty.

Gambit glanced dubiously at the fields. "How long do you think it’ll take to dry off if we have to go wading in that stuff?"

"I don’t know," Rick said. "That’s instantaneous in most games."

“Bet you it’s not here,” Daniel said. “Wish I had my combat boots.”

After getting directions from the farmers, Rick and the party started working their way north toward the edge of the farming district.

Rick was pretty sure all three of their quests would be in the same general area. The fields started abruptly at the edge of the village, and soon the party was walking down narrow levees between water-filled paddies.

They were halfway down the first field of water corn when the water exploded all around them. Six-legged bunny rabbits lept at them from every side. Gambit, who had been fingering his square razorblade-shaped sword as soon as they cleared the village, lunged to meet the attackers, his blade flashing. It was a nice swing, but it left Gambit overbalanced. When two more of the bunnies attacked him low, he lost his footing and toppled down the short slope into the pond. The water was only knee-deep, and he was up again in an instant.

Rick knocked two of the hexabunnies away with Force Wave and used Soothing Mist to top Gambit off. The other man splashed forward and finished off the damaged hexabunnies.

Daniel was shooting arrows into every ripple in the water, and judging from the notifications, he had already killed three the hexabunnies they hadn’t even seen.

Rick was just thinking how well the attack had been handled when sharp fangs sank into his calf.

He shouted and spun as two more of the biting fluffballs struck him in the chest. He toppled off the levee and fell into the water not far from Gambit with a tremendous splash.

Shallow though the water was, it was a dangerous place to wrestle small, biting creatures. Rick thrashed in the water and got some up his nose. A [Drowning] bar appeared over his head but disappeared an instant later as he came up coughing and spluttering.

Two hexabunnies were latched onto his chest, their teeth sunk into his flesh. Agony shot up his leg where the third was attached.

Rick beat at them ineffectually. Suddenly, an arrow shot through one of them and embedded itself in his chest.

Rick cried out in dismay but then saw, to his relief, the skewered hexabunny falling away, taking the arrow with it. Underneath, his chest was a mass of blood where it had been latched on, but he didn’t think any of it was from the arrow.

He was just about to hit himself with a Soothing Mist when he realized his mistake. Instead, Rick cast Protection.

Water exploded below him. The two hexabunnies were blasted away from his flesh as the globe of magic popped into being. A huge wave of water erupted as the one on his leg rocketed across the field. Another struck Gambit in the back of the head as he fought several others.

A moment later, the last of the hexabunnies were dispatched by a sword slash and a poison arrow.

Rick’s bubble popped. He stood there dripping, staring around with wide eyes for any sign of further attack. The ripples in the water slowly faded out.

At last, Gambit and Rick clambered back up the steep bank and onto the narrow levee.

When they started forward again, everyone was cautious—eyes out, hands up, watching in all directions.

By unspoken agreement, Gambit watched their right while Daniel kept his bow pointed to the left. Rick split his attention. They passed beyond the field and into the next before another attack came.

At the first ripple of water, Daniel let fly an arrow. Rick used Force Wave, but it threw up such a tremendous splash that he couldn’t tell how effective it had been.

Several of the beasts made it up the levee and did minor damage before Gambit and Daniel killed them all. Soothing Mist kept everyone topped up, and no one fell in the water this time as they picked the hexabunnies off one at a time in rapid succession. The last survivor of the pack was larger than its fellows. Its eyes glowed red, and its fur was a strange hue of purple.

Gambit hit it with a sword-slash as it came in, but it didn’t die like the others. Its health bar was knocked down to [16HP]; it had more than twice the health of the lesser bunnies.

It landed on the levee between Rick and Gambit, snapping at them before an arrow and another sword-stroke dispatched it. With a final angry hiss, like air escaping from a bike tire, the oversized hexabunny slumped to the ground.

This one glowed, so Rick looted it. “Did you get anything good?” Gambit asked immediately.

“Tainted organ. Ew. Nothing good.”

The quest pop-up appeared.

[Part Two. Investigate the source of the hexabunnies’ irritation. A child in town told you the hexabunnies in the area have been behaving strangely. This hexabunny appears to have been affected by some kind of corruption.]

“That sounds a lot like our other quest,” Daniel noted.

It sure did. Rick pursed his lips. “It’s pretty normal to bundle similar quests together. It can be pretty convenient.”

“Or,” Gambit interjected, “it’ll get us into way more trouble than we can handle.”

“I think we can handle a lot,” Daniel said confidently. Rick hoped he was right. The party moved on into the next field. This one was blighted. The stalks of water corn were brown and withered. "What do you think is wrong?" Daniel asked.

“At a bet, it’s the contaminated water from the miners the farmers were talking about,” Rick guessed.

“I think there’s a plant over there that’s lootable,” Gambit pointed.

Rick squinted. Through the mass of withered crops, he spotted one that looked like it was glowing.

“Should we go around to the other side, or…” Daniel looked dubiously down at the water.

Rick considered their options. “It’s better not to wander around too much. I think we should go straight toward it.”

Gambit was nodding, but Daniel didn’t look convinced.

“If you want to stay here and cover us so you don’t get your feet muddy, feel free.” Gambit’s tone was mocking. “Just watch your behind.”

Daniel scowled. In the end, he climbed down into the muck with the others.

The knee-high murky water wasn’t exactly pleasant, but it wasn’t difficult to move through either. Gambit took the lead as they made their way carefully through the maze of dead corn plants. Just before they got in looting range of the strange glowing stalk, Rick held up a hand.

“Watch out. Looting that thing might—”

At that moment, Gambit looted the plant, and the field exploded with a dozen of the large purple-tainted hexabunnies and one that was much, much bigger one.