The jungle floor was full of activity today with all sorts of monsters I hadn't seen before from giant vine snakes to terrifying gorillas, Venus fly traps, and massive walking mushrooms. I kept close to Dahlia as Fiona and Garrik rushed out to defeat them each time. They were like a well-oiled machine even though they'd just met. One would go high while the other went low or one would lure a monster as the other set up a trap. They also had the support of Dahlia and Camellya's magic. It was all so well thought out, as if Fiona belonged with their party.

I didn't like it one bit, but fighting monsters was how they leveled and that's what the dungeon was made for. I'd made them promise to only go after monsters who attacked them first though. I needed them to get me to the Living Trees, so there wasn't much room for me to make demands. We all knew I'd never make it alone, not with the dungeon this out of control.

Plus, this was a system quest, so even if I convinced this group of adventurers to leave the trees alone, there would be more to take their place. Apparently, that's what happened whenever the dungeon was out of balance: a cleanup team showed up to fix it.

Was that going to happen to my cafe one day too? Or was I exempt because it was a mini safe zone?

The dungeon had to of put it there for a reason, no matter how random it seemed now that I was thinking about it. After everything I’d learned about the dungeon, a cafe really did seem out of place. There was nothing calm and comforting anywhere else that I knew of, so why on this floor? Why my cafe?

Maybe Dave had been behind it somehow. He was the one who'd given me the key after all. I reached into my inventory, holding the key tight. It was still warm, as if it had been sitting by a fire, and for some reason it made me think of Cole all piled up with fire slimes sitting outside the cafe. What had he been up to lately? I'd assumed he'd be back for another meal soon, but it felt like a long time had passed. Maybe he'd found something else to pique his curiosity...

Fiona slung her hammer across her back, rejoining our group with a grim look. "This doesn't even feel like floor 6 anymore. It's like we've jumped ahead past floor 10."

"Ohh, that boss is tricky," Dahlia said. "It's a creepy mushroom that has way too many spore attacks."

"What's after that boss?" I asked, realizing I'd made no effort to see the rest of the dungeon. Besides the Solhorn floor, of course, and that had been a disaster.

"Water, lots and lots of water," Camellya said. "Hope you like swimming. It's a bioluminescent underwater adventure."

"Really?" Fiona whistled. "That sounds pretty awesome actually, but I think my hammer might weigh me down."

Garrik shook his head. "Everything's weightless in the water. You also can't drown. It's a bit unsettling at first, never breathing but still swimming."

Dahlia smirked. "You should have seen him panicking the first time."

"As if you were so put together," he snapped back. "Why don't you join us, Fiona? We can help you get past the boss and onto those floors. Honestly, with your skills, you could catch up to us pretty quickly."

My chest tightened. Fiona was going to go with them? I glanced at her level and was surprised to see that she was already level 16! How had I not noticed that before?

She shook her head. "Thank you, but I think I'm good here."

"Strength stagnates if you stay in one place too long," he said. "You've gotten too comfortable here. I bet you haven't leveled in a long time. You get better XP from monsters who are stronger than you, but these are all so much weaker."

"Is that true?" I asked. "Have you been stagnating here?"

Fiona caught a vine snake in her bare hands, tossing it aside before it could get to me. My heart thudded in my chest. I hadn't even seen it coming my way! She really was far too skilled for this low-level floor, wasn't she? Garrik gave me a knowing look, as if he expected me to do something about it. Wait. Was I the one who was holding her back?

"Fiona," I started, but the words stuck in my throat. A buzzing that had sounded like background noise at first was getting louder and louder the closer we got to the forest. Giant fluffy black and yellow creatures flew around us on glassy wings that glittered in the light. "Are those...bees?"

"Sugar Stingers." Garrik cursed. "What are they even doing on this floor?"

"Who knows, but keep your guard up." Fiona gripped her hammer tight.

Garrick drew his sword, Dahlia pulled out her spellbook, and Camellya held her staff at the ready, but I didn't really have a guard to keep up. Unless she wanted me to pull out Dave's Lunch. I had a feeling the others would leave me to fend for myself if I did that. It didn't seem like the bees were after us though. It was more like they were flying formations around the forest, keeping guard.

I hadn't needed weapons against the trees last time and I wouldn't need them now either. We'd come to an understanding over good food and kindness, just like before. The trees weren't evil, just stressed out and tired, probably terrified too with adventurers coming from all over the dungeon to attack them.

I had to do something. Even if I had to feed a few Sugar Stingers in the process.

"Remember that this is my fault," I said, striding forward, "so I'm going to be the one to fix it. Don't you dare kill any living trees."

Camellya rolled her eyes, but let me take the lead. "Do you even have the quest to defeat them?"

"Doesn't every adventure have it?" I frantically pulled up my quest menu. I hadn't actually seen it, not once, even though Fiona obviously got it a while back. I scrolled through the cafe upgrades, but there was nothing there. "Umm...Sweet Potato? Any idea why I don't have a dungeon-wide system quest?"

[You are a culinary mage]

"Yeah, but I'm still an adventurer," I whispered. "Shouldn't everyone have it?"

[...but you don't enjoy fighting]

My frown deepened. "When has that ever stopped the system from trying to make people fight? Did I do something wrong?"

[No, of course not. You just kind of...break things sometimes and this really needs to get fixed]

I stared at that blue message box until the color faded. The system didn't give me the quest because I broke too many things? Seriously? I shook my head, laughing to myself. If it thought I'd been breaking things so far, it better buckle up, because I was about to break even more.

"I'll fix it, I promise." I crossed my arms, drawing stares from the rest of my party. "Just give me the quest already."

[...]

[Adventurers don't usually order the system around like that, you know]

[But since it's you, I guess I don't mind. You can have your quest...]

[New Quest: Exterminate the raging living tree monsters on floor 6. Reward: One full level up]

The new quest appeared in my list, bright and shiny and ready to be broken. I grinned, reading those words very carefully. If the system wanted to get rid of the raging living tree monsters, then all I had to do was calm them down, right? Once they weren't raging, the quest would no longer make sense.

"Thank you for the quest." My grin stretched from ear to ear now and Fiona was giving me a concerned look. I picked up the pace as if nothing happened. "I won't disappoint you, Sweet Potato."

[Are you sure? Because your tone is kind of saying otherwise]

[It’s fine. Just deal with the trees, please]

And deal with the trees I would. In my own way. I searched through my inventory while we walked, relying on Fiona to guide me a bit. I had some chamomile tea that Marvin had grabbed from the safe zone, which might help, but didn't feel like enough to calm a raging tree down if it really was raging. Hmmm...I had rosehips as well and just enough valerian root to really make this drink sing. Or sleep, I guess.

If only I had some nectar for the bees, then we’d be set. I glanced around the area, spotting big purple bell-shaped flowers growing on some vines nearby. I hurried over, reaching high to pick a few.

They smelled sweet and were hopefully fragrant enough to appease the bees.

"If you're done smelling the roses," Camellya said, "then maybe we should get going?"

This time it was my turn to roll my eyes. Her lips quirked up in a smile right before she raised her staff at a bee.

"Wait!" I held the flower up instead, offering it to the bee and trying not to cringe as the massive insect flew closer to me. This would work. It had to work. My arm trembled as the bee seemed to sniff the flower. "We aren't here to hurt anyone. I just want to talk to the trees."

"Do lines like that really work for you?" Camellya asked. "Or have you just never been stung by one of those beasts? I promise you, it's not sweet and sugary like the name makes it sound."

Fiona stepped closer, but I shook my head, holding the flower up higher.

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"I'm fine, but I'm glad to know you care, Camellya."

The two sisters exchanged worried glances as the bee grabbed the flower, tugging it away from me as it took off towards the trees. I let out a breath, almost collapsing on the ground.

"I can't believe that worked." I laughed, shaking my head as the adrenaline swept over me. "Let's pick some more flowers, yeah?"

Garrik snorted. "Here I was thinking you knew what you were doing, but you were just flying by the seat of your pants. You've got courage, that's for sure."

"Maybe a bit too much courage," Fiona said, putting a hand on my shoulder. "Try to be a little more careful. Not every monster is as nice as your slimes."

I'd learned that the hard way after meeting the Solhorns, but I had to at least try. If a monster didn't attack me first, then I didn't want to attack them either. Changing the way this dungeon worked would take effort, but every little bit mattered. Every time I befriended a monster, it let other adventurers know it was possible.

After we each gathered a handful of flowers, we continued on towards the forest ahead. Adventurers dangled upside-down from tree limbs with their weapons littering the ground while others were climbing the trees and getting swatted by painful-looking branches. A group of Sugar Stingers was giving chase to about a dozen adventurers while a higher leveled party watched on from the outskirts, as if making their plan of attack based on everyone else's failures.

My stomach turned. This was wrong. I had to put a stop to it before things got even more out of hand.

Garrik nudged me. "If you're going to do something, now's the time."

"Right, of course." I took a few steps closer to the trees. "Hello, you remember me, don't you?" One of the biggest trees lurched forward, slamming its roots on the ground so hard I almost fell over. "Okay, maybe not. I made you some tasty fertilizer and you gave me wood in return. Ring any bells?"

The trees groaned as they moved closer to me, their wood creaking with the effort. Roots cracked like whips, making me dodge more than once or get clobbered by them. Okay, maybe they remembered me, but they just didn't like me. I was the one who'd put them through all this pain after all. Maybe they hated me. Maybe they wanted to send me back to Dave in the tutorial zone. My pulse raced as my head started to spin. What was I doing out here? I was a baker! I should be at home, in the kitchen making pies, not having a standoff with some angry trees.

Fiona stepped up next to me, putting her hand on my shoulder. "It'll be alright. Just talk to them. If it doesn't work out, we'll jump in to back you up."

I glanced over my shoulder to see them all nodding. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and pulled the biggest pot out of my inventory along with my travel heater.

"Would you like some tea?" I asked, forcing myself to take another step closer to the angry tree who'd tried to knock me over. "It'll calm your nerves and reduce your stress. You don't have to keep fighting if you don't want to. I'll help you."

The trees swayed, noises traveling over the wind like they could somehow communicate through their leaves. While I waited, the other adventurers in the area started whispering too: about me. They thought I was an idiot about to get herself killed. Maybe they were right, but I still had to try, so I sat down right in the middle of all the chaos and got to work preparing the tea.

"This is my fault," I said, adding water to the pot. "I only wanted to help you, but I accidentally overpowered you so much that the system took action to fix it. I didn't really know how my skills worked at the time and I used them without thinking." A tree took a big step forward, branches swaying dangerously close to me. I held my hands up. "Let me make it up to you!"

The trees stopped moving, as if waiting.

I pulled out the chamomile tea leaves. "See these? They're very tasty when steeped in water. I'm sure you'll like them."

"You're making tea?" Garrik asked. "Right now?"

"What else do you suggest?" I whispered back at him. "The problem isn't that the trees are overpowered, it's that they're raging. If tea can calm them down, I might as well try, right?"

[That's your grand plan? Sleepy time tea?]

"Pretty much, yeah." I couldn't help but smile at that message, grateful that the system was interested enough to keep watching. The whole thing hinged on me being able to convince it to cancel the quest once the trees were calm again. "Keep your eyes on me, Sweet Potato. I'm about to do something pretty impressive."

[You have my full attention, as always]

My hands froze, dropping the tea leaves in the water. "As always?"

But the system didn't answer and the adventurers weren't waiting. A group of them charged the trees.

"Wait!" I shouted, but Fiona was already darting out ahead of me to intercept them, just like when I'd decided to rescue Boss. She was always so reliable, backing up every crazy plan I had. I'd have to find a way to thank her.

"The lady said she'd handle this," Fiona said as gripped her hammer, "so I'd suggest you stay back and let her try to calm them down."

The adventurers eyed her warily as one of the guys spoke up. "Those trees are using half our party as playthings. I don't care if she can calm them down or not. I'm going to kill them."

I winced, adding the rosehips and valerian root to the pot as well. They had a point, even if I didn't like their plan. The sweet floral aroma of the tea wafted out of the pot as it steeped. I took a deep breath as one of the trees moved a bit closer, leaves reaching for the pot.

"Careful, it's hot," I said, taking it off the portable stove to cool. "Why don't you let the adventurers down first, then once the tea cools, I'll make sure you all get as much as you want."

Garrik sighed, joining Fiona as a defensive line between the two groups. He seemed pretty reliable too. I was glad they'd shown up at the cafe today. The trees groaned, but eventually dropped the adventurers, who thudded to the ground painfully. They stood up, rubbing their shoulders and backs before picking up their weapons. Thankfully, they seemed too dizzy to attack right away, so they just stumbled back to their groups.

"Is that good enough for you?" I asked the man who said he wanted to kill the trees. "They gave you back your party members, now why don't you let me do the rest?"

Fiona and Garrik got into a fighting stance, as if to say they'd make them agree by force if they had to. This quest had a really good reward of gaining an extra level, so I knew those adventurers wouldn't back down easily. Maybe if I gave them something else to think about? I reached into my inventory again, pulling out some cookies I'd made earlier for Boss.

"Here, take these as an apology." I walked over to the group, handing out cookies one by one. "They'll change your life, I swear."

Dahlia rushed over, dropping her spellbook like she didn't care about this fight at all. "Ohhhh, you've got cookies? I want to try one!"

I laughed, handing her the rest of them. When she bit into it, she moaned, rushing over to shove one into Camellya's mouth too. "You've gotta try this!"

Camellya mumbled something I couldn't understand around the cookie, but it sounded like she was irritated. One by one, the other adventurers tried them too, even the dangerous one in front who wanted to kill my tree friends. Their eyes widened as the delicious taste of chocolate started to win them over. I smiled, going back to the pot of tea which was still warm, but not hot enough to burn the trees. I'd normally strain it, but they might like the leaves and herbs too. I think I'd leave it as is for them.

"Okay, it's ready." I picked up the pot, lurching from the weight of it, and carried it over to the first tree. Its branches swayed, curling around me like it wanted to drag me in. "Ummm, should I just pour it on your roots?"

That's what I'd done with the fertilizer, so it made sense to do the same thing now. I gently ladled the tea onto its roots, which shivered. The trees' branches shook, then settled as it seemed to sigh. Its roots calmed down too, no longer thrashing the ground in anger. It looked like it was working!

I made my way around the forest of monsters, giving each tree a generous drink of the sleepy time tea. When the pot was empty, I made another. And a third. Eventually every tree had had their fill and the forest was quiet, unmoving. Their rage had dissolved just like this tea seeping into the ground.

"She actually did it," Garrik said. "I knew her food was good, but not good enough to calm a rabid monster. That's crazy."

Dahlia rushed over to hug me, practically knocking me over as she did. "I knew you could do it! You're the best baker ever."

Fiona nodded, but kept her eyes on the other adventurers. She must have expected them to attack still, so I needed to finish this quest for real.

"Okay, Sweet Potato," I called out, "I finished the quest. There isn't a single raging living tree here."

[...]

[You just had to find a loophole, didn't you?]

I grinned. "Isn't that what you like about me? It keeps things interesting."

[That it does. Congratulations, Hazel]

[Living Trees Defeated]

[Exterminate the Raging Living Trees Quest Completed]

[Reward: 1 full level up]

Music chimed through the air as my level went from 9 to 10! Hunks of wood rained from the sky along with what looked like honey and maple syrup. Now that was the kind of reward I could get behind! The items all disappeared with a happy little chime as they got close to me, adding to my inventory.

"I leveled up too!" Fiona said, hugging me from the side. "You did a great job."

Garrik grunted. "I guess she did. We all leveled, so we're good."

"More than good, we're hungry," Dahlia said with a laugh. "Got any more cookies?"

I shook my head. "Sorry. I can bake more though if you want to stop back later and pick them up."

"Sounds like a plan to me!" She turned to Garrik. "Ohhh please tell me we can come back."

He frowned. "I would, but it's just not that simple. It took a long time to come all the way back to this floor. Maybe if she had a teleport or something, but without that, I just don't see it happening."

Dahlia's face fell. "You're right. Sorry. I just got excited, that's all."

"Well," Camellya scuffed her boots in the dirt, "I do have something that might help."

She pulled two sets of lanterns from her inventory, shrouded in smoke with a flame flickering inside each one. One set was bathed in a warm golden light while the other had deep purple flames, creating a magical aura like I'd never seen before.

Garrik sucked in a breath. "You're really giving those up?"

"What are they?" I asked, leaning closer for a better look. There didn't seem to be a wick or anything keeping the flames lit, they just hovered in the center of each lantern. "And why are you giving them to me?"

"For Dahlia." Camellya shoved the golden set of lanterns at me. "So she can eat cookies whenever she wants."

Dahlia leapt into Camellya's arms. "Ohhh you're the best! I knew you liked that cafe too."

"Oh shut it," she said, but hugged Dahlia back. "Now are you going to take them or not, Miss Baker?"

"Definitely taking them!" I grabbed the lanterns before she changed her mind. "But what do they do?"

Garrik sighed. "We'll explain on the way since we need to link them to your cafe now. Great job, Camellya."

Dahlia grinned. "Yes, great job, sister!"

Fiona and I exchanged glances. "Great job?"

The others marched forward like we were on a new mission. I hung back, staring at the trees. Leaving them here would just cause more issues and they'd probably get enraged again, especially if people kept attacking them. I walked up to the tree who'd loved my tea the most.

"Would you like to come back to my cafe with me?" I asked, touching its bark softly. "Nobody will hurt you and I promise you'll get lots of tasty treats."

The tree's branches swayed as it turned back to the others who didn't budge an inch.

I smiled at them. "It's a monster friendly place as long as you promise not to attack anyone. There are dozens of slimes there already, so why not at least come check it out?"

The giant trees groaned as they inched closer, swaying back and forth until they surrounded me. I leaned my head back, marveling at how tall they all were compared to the scraggly trees I'd first encountered.

I patted the tree's bark. "Let's go home."

It wrapped a branch around my shoulders as its leaves patted me on the head. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh at how absurd this must look. A tree patting a woman on the head. I knew these trees were kind, I just knew it. I turned to head home, the trees following in my wake one by one like a line of very slow-moving ducklings.

At least the slow speed would give me time to think on what to do with them once we got back.