On the next day, Angela and Brayno woke up and approached the old lady. They asked her if this village needs help from other people. The old lady told them that they may help her, but told them,

“We can give you GolCreds, but it probably won’t be enough for travelers or mercenaries such as yourselves.”

“We’ll still help you. If the task is challenging enough, we can get stronger, which is one of our other objectives.”, said Angela.

“I like your spirit, young woman. Tell you what, if you find a gem in the forest, you can keep it. Some of the gems in this forest are very valuable and can be traded for a large sum of money.”, said the old woman.

“Thank you, uhhh.”, said Angela.

“Gobren. I am the current leader of this village.”

“Thank you, Gobren. So, what help do you need?”, asked Angela.

“Hmmmm. Since most of us here are druids, we need as much ingredients as we can. Here is a list of plants and herbs that we might need. Who knows, maybe you’ll stumble upon the gems along the way.”, said Gobren.

“Alright. We’re going to get those ingredients.”, said Brayno.

“Wait, wait. Before the two of you leave this village, I’ll give you these special watches. These watches are essentially your compass. Just follow the arrow back to the village whenever you get lost.”, said Gobren.

“Thanks for the assistance.”, said Angela.

Angela and Brayno then ventured out into the forest and started to look for the first ingredient in Gobren’s list. It was the blood of a feral black bear with pointed ears. As the two would imagine the beast, they encountered a large white gorilla. Upon seeing the large gorilla, the two decided to retreat.

Although the combined strength of the combined duo can take down the gorilla, they proceeded with caution. Before they went to the forest, Gobren warned them of the number of wild beasts roaming the forest. A very unnecessary attack might lead to packs of beasts to attack the two of them.

Retreating to the forest path, the pair looked at the watches given by Gobren and saw that the arrow still points to one direction.

The old lady was right. The arrow indeed points at the direction to the village. If we keep our watches, we’ll be fine. thought Brayno

The duo continued their search for the ingredients. Eventually, they went into a grove. There, they saw the different beasts at peace with each other. Alongside the beasts, there is a lone person there. Unlike the other parts of the forest, this grove has no skeletons or any dead creatures. For Angela and Brayno, the peace itself is unsettling, since it is an island in a forest full of dangers.

Suddenly, the lone person stood up and approached them.

“Greetings. My name is Luuriya, I am the head of the guardians at the village of Caltron. What are you doing in this grove?”

“My name is Brayno and this is Angela. We are currently collecting ingredients for a person named Gobren.”

“Can I see the list?”, asked Luuriya.

Angela handed out the list to Luuriya who looked at it intently. After reading the list, Luuriya told them,

“These are all easy to find. I can help you look for them.”

Despite Luuriya’s plea to help them, the duo quickly told her,

“No need. This challenge is ours alone. We need to find them to earn our keep.”, said Angela and Brayno.

Curious about the behavior of the beasts, Brayno asked Luuriya about the place.

“Even I don’t know why the beasts here are at peace. But there are no violent incidents in this grove as far as I know.”, said Luuriya.

“Hmmmm. This is rather strange.”, said Angela.

“Agreed. The beasts outside of this place are violent and would attack without notice.”, added Brayno.

“Maybe the beasts just consider this place their home or maybe there is something in this grove that unites the beasts together.”, said Luuriya.

The duo wondered on what could make the beasts more docile and less aggressive in the grove. But before they could wonder, the list of ingredients caught Brayno’s eyes. He realized that they still have a mission to finish.

“Sorry Luuriya, but we have to go. We still need to gather all the ingredients from this list.”, said Brayno.

“No worries. I wish you two the best of luck.”, said Luuriya.

With that the duo shared their farewell with Luuriya and continued deep in the forest. There, they found more dead beasts as well as dead people, wielding weapons in their attempt to hunt down the beasts in the forest. After wandering around, the duo stepped on something hard. Angela leaned down to pick up the rock and saw some shine on it.

After removing some of the dirt in the rock, Angela saw that it was a gemstone. After looking at the gemstone, she realized that it is indeed one of the rare gemstones told by Gobren. There was a time that she saw how much this gemstone sold on the market and realized that this gemstone alone can support their entire group for 2 months.

Before she could leave the area and simply take more gemstones, Angela saw the list of ingredients in Brayno’s hand. Realizing that she still has a job to do and that their group was made to help others, Angela simply pocketed the gemstone. Telling Brayno that she found a gemstone that Gobren is talking about, the duo continued their task.

As they were walking through the forest, the duo found one of the ingredients on the list, a rare grass with a bluish flower. The beauty of the grass is that it manages to glow even in the relative darkness of the forest. Placing the herb in one of their pouches, the pair crossed it on their list.

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After finding the herb, the pair found a feral black bear. The bear was enormous and as large as a two-story building. The two drew their swords and got ready to attack. Even without much practice by the two for the last few months, they were still in sync and were ready to take down the large beast.

“Ready, go.”

Brayno approached the beast from its left side while Angela approached the beast from its right side. The bear faced with two targets decided to attack Angela, perceiving her to be the weaker of the two. With that in mind, the bear charged towards her.

To prepare for such an attack, Angela changed her stance to a more aggressive one. She pointed her sword towards the bear and stabbed the beast thru its hand. With careful precision, she sliced off the bear’s right hand.

With a loud roar, the bear became more aggressive. Changing its color into red, the bear went on a frenzied attack. To stop the rampaging animal, Brayno charged towards the bear and yelled,

SWORD STRIKE: FINALE

With a large gush over the bear’s body, Brayno managed to cut down the beast. With the animal dead, the duo gathered the next ingredient on the list, the blood of the feral bear with pointed ears.

With two of the five ingredients secured, the duo went further into the forest. Sensing a heavy rainstorm, Brayno and Angela looked for a cave to sleep. With their belongings closely guarded, one of them fell into sleep, while the other guarded the area.

Brayno kept guard for the time being while Angela went into sleep.

Her name really suits her. thought Brayno upon seeing her sleeping face.

With Angela deep in her sleep, Brayno looked at the ingredients to know what Gobren is looking for. There, he saw one ingredient that piqued his interest. It says hair of a triple fanged Hippo. For him, he does not know if such a creature has hair since he has yet to encounter a hippo with hair.

With the rain stopping, Brayno woke Angela up. The duo continued with their quest. When they reached the part of the forest with large webs, they knew that it is the place where they can find another one of Gobren’s ingredients. The fang of the hairy brown Spider. As far as Brayno is concerned, this spider is one of the more elusive creatures in the world. They are very hard to catch and would never appear outside its natural environment.

Suddenly, steps of a beast were heard, and when Angela turned around, she saw a large spider carrying two beasts trapped in its web. Just like before, the duo drew their swords, ready to attack. This time, Brayno quickly went on the offensive, and with a swinging motion, sliced down the spider.

But unlike the earlier encounter with the bear, the Spider did not fall upon being cut. It managed to reattach its body together.

“It can move its organs.”, said Angela.

“This is a harder fight than we thought.”, said Brayno.

“Agree. We just need to take its fangs and leave quickly. We don’t have to waste time.”, said Angela.

“Let’s aim at its mouth.”, said Brayno.

With that in mind, the duo attacked the spider, this time, with the intent to take down its fangs. Once again, Brayno went on the attack, and with his sword drawn, he sliced the spider’s eyes.

With the spider temporarily blinded, Angela attacked the spider’s mouth. Charging towards the spider, Angela’s sword sliced one of the Spider’s Fangs. Upon doing so, Brayno brought out one of his pouches to store the Spider Fang. With the item secured, the duo retreated outside the spider’s lair, intent on avoiding the wrath of the spider and its possible reinforcements.

“Another one down. We need to get sap of a black tree and the hair of triple fanged hippo.”, said Brayno.

“The list mentions that the black tree can only be found in a large waterfall with fish swimming upwards.”, said Angela.

“This is one strange forest.”, said Brayno.

“You can say that again.”, said Angela.

With no idea on how to locate the river, the two decided to follow some animals to see if they would lead them to the river. After a while, the duo walked in a darker part of the forest, which manages to cover the sky. Only a fraction of sunlight enters this portion of the forest. However, it appears that this is also the location of the river that they were looking for, since the animals stopped, and they heard sounds of the river.

The two quietly moved towards the direction of the animals and felt the ground around them. Just like before, they found another gemstone. Keeping it in their pouch, the two continued walking towards the supposed river. Eventually, Brayno managed to touch liquid. To ensure that it is indeed the river and not the mouth of some animal, Brayno took a large stick and poked the liquid.

Expecting the worst, Brayno braced himself for an attack. Luckily for them, the stick did not contact any teeth or any skin, it merely contacted the soil below the river. With the river seemingly found, the two walked in the river coast. Due to the darkened area, Brayno held Angela’s hand tightly, ensuring that he would never lose her.

Along the way, they fought certain wild animals and feral beasts, but the two managed to take these threats down. As they continued to walk, they heard sounds from a waterfall. The two rushed towards the source of the sound and heard another sound coming from the waterfall. It was the sound of fish flapping around.

They were at the place of the black tree. Now, the two decided to search for the black tree. But because the area was very dark, Brayno and Angela decided to use some of their old runestones. Pouring magical energy into their runestones, they glowed and showed some light on the area.

The two explored this part of the forest and looked for the tree. Even with the guide of their runestones, they had a hard time searching for the black tree. After searching for about half an hour, Angela managed to find a black tree. Using her knife, she cut the tree and gently sliced it. Soon, sap poured outside the tree. Bringing out another pouch, Angela gathered the sap.

After reaching the right amount of sap, the two went back on their trail, guided by the watches pointing at the village of Caltron. With them back on the road, they sought out the final ingredient needed by Gobren, the hair of the triple fanged hippo.

With the duo reaching the gates of the village, the duo talked to some patrol guards, hoping to find a clue on the location of the triple fanged hippo.

“Ahhh. The triple fanged hippo. Unlike the other items in your list, the hippo is very easy to find. However, they are also the hardest to subdue. Their hair is very valuable, but you also need to survive since the hippo is very relentless and would hunt you once their hair was taken from them.”, said one of the guards.

“How is it different from the feral bear?”, asked Brayno.

“The bear attacks individually, whereas the hippo attack in groups. When you take one, their entire group would go after you. You need to take down their entire group if you hope to survive.”, said the guard.

“How about if we kill them?”, asked Brayno.

“No can do. It is strictly forbidden to kill groups of hippos. If you kill one in self-defense, we may look away, but killing a group would destroy them. Just try to get their hair and either knock them out or outrun them.”, said the guard.

“Alright then. We shall give our initial ingredients to Gobren and go after the hippo.”, said Angela.

The two went back into the village and handed their items to Gobren. Upon seeing the items, Gobren was surprised that it took less than a day for the two of them to gather enough ingredients for the village.

This two must be strong individuals. Hmmm. This is interesting. thought Gobren.

“Alright. The ingredients are fine. I can give you the portion of your reward right now.”, said Gobren.

“Nah, we’ll get it after we get the hair of the hippo.”, said Brayno.

“Yeah. We’re going to take its hair. Don’t worry, we won’t kill them.”, said Angela.

“I hope you’re right. No hippo means no more ingredients for medicine among the druids here.”, said Gobren.

“Yup. We understand.”, said Angela.

“Good luck then.”, said Gobren.

When the two of them left the village, the young girl, Vivien bumped into them. She asked the two,

“Have you seen my big sister? I think she is hiding from me again.”

“No, we haven’t.”, said Angela

“Alright. Sis, I you’re here in this village.”, said Vivien, as she run towards another direction.

As soon as Vivien disappeared, Luuriya showed up behind Brayno and Angela.

“Thought she’d never leave. Anyway, that is my sister Vivien. I’m hiding from her right now since she won’t let me go if she sees me. Hahahaha.”, said Luuriya.

“What do you mean by won’t let you go?”, asked Brayno

“Sis can be a handful, but she is a good kid. She can be very exhausting though, and I do have a job of being the village guardian. Anyways, I will play with her after my duty, so for now, don’t tell her I’m here.”, said Luuriya.

“Alright.”, said Brayno and Angela.

Soon, the two set off to find the triple fanged hippo.