This is an event that happened at some point in time…

“Phew! Another successful day of gathering ingredients.” Kukis wiped the sweat off her forehead and took a glance at her surroundings. The usual group was currently in the Forest of Fog, and were doing a few fetch quests and monster hunting to level up. Q was lazily floating in the air, drawing a bunch of runes. Cinnamon was sitting on a branch, lightly flapping her wings to create a light breeze for Q to enjoy. Phanos was attending Brie, who was poking some weird mushrooms with her sword. “Hey Brie, that’s a neutral mob that makes its spores explode if you hurt it.”

“Hm?” As Brie turned to look at Kukis, her sword happened to lightly stab into the mushroom, causing it to start shaking violently. Phanos immediately moved to defend Brie, and was rewarded with a face full of paralysis inducing spores. “Ah, my apologies Phanos.”

“I-it’s quite al-... alright, milady.” Phanos managed to say.

Wow, she can speak through the paralysis effect. That’s some willpower right there. Kukis silently appreciated Phanos’ tenacity, and brought out a potion to cure her paralysis.

“Hold up, I got a status recovery rune, er, rune combination so I can do that instead of having to waste your potions.” Q offered.

“Nah it’s all good. Besides, my Alchemy skill goes up the more potions I use so it also benefits me.” Seeing that Q made a noncommittal shrug, Kukis went ahead and used the potion on Phanos.

“Thank you, Kukis.” Phanos bowed slightly.

“No problem. Let’s go back? I have enough ingredients to last me a long time.” Kukis said. The rest of the girls agreed, and they all headed back to the Witches Village.

They were going to greet the witch who let them in, but were surprised to find a scarecrow with a purple pumpkin head on it. The girls were incredibly puzzled, because not only was seeing a scarecrow here odd, but they hadn’t seen the witches bring out any pumpkins at all until now (though according to Kukis, they were being grown somewhere in the Experimental District). As their attention was mostly focused on the scarecrow, they didn’t see the thing creeping behind them.

“Boo!”

““AAAH!”” Kukis and Cinnamon screamed (though in Cinnamon’s case it was so she could have an excuse to grab Q).

“Aw, I was hoping to get all of you with that.” A familiar witch appeared behind them.

“Hey Wendy.” Q said nonchalantly. “What’s up with the scarecrow?”

“Scarecrow…? Oh, you mean my hex charm!” Wendy patted her charm. “Tonight’s the Wa… Wapu… well it’s a special night where the various residents of this village are visited by mysterious spirits. The charm is designed to attract them.”

“What kind of mysterious spirits are you talking about?”

“They’re… well they seem to be things that possess these vegetables called harvestears. The bigger the harvestear, the stronger the spirit is. The harvestears also show weird faces when they’re possessed, so it’s sort of entertaining to see what kind of spirit possesses them. Come on, everyone else is already prepared for the spirits appearing!”

The young witch lead them to the village, where they saw countless residents running around in weird clothing. More accurately, they seemed to be wearing what people in real life would call halloween costumes. Many were dressed up as ghosts and ghouls, while some looked like tattered zombies and others looked like classic monsters. “What’s with the getup?” Kukis asked.

“I’m… not really sure. That’s just how it’s always been on this day.” Wendy shrugged her shoulders.

“I can answer that for you.” Another person appeared. Q identified her as the ever kind Pamerun, who was currently wearing some outfit which resembled that of a vampire. “Tonight is Walpurgis Night! Some of the younger witches have been calling this night ‘The Purge’ for short.”

““Pffft.”” Q and Kukis suppressed a laugh.

Pamerun gave them a strange look before continuing. “The reason we wear these outfits Is because it appeases the spirits possessing the harvestears. If we wear elaborate outfits and fulfill a request of a spirit, it will gift us with some item. If you aren’t able to please it, it will become hostile and attack. The stronger the spirit is the more complicated it’s request will be, but in exchange it will also give a better reward if you complete said request. Either way, it’s been proven throughout the years that the spirits are more pleased when we wear varying clothing, which is ultimately why we wear these things.”

“Yeah yeah, but it’s more like a fashion show as of late.” Wendy jumped in. “We’re always wearing those stuffy robes, so it’s a great way to release the stress that we’ve been accumulating! Like… we can pretty much do anything we want tonight without any consequences whatsoever! Ow!”

Pamerun bopped her apprentice on the head. “Of course there are consequences! This isn’t some fictional story. Anyway… would you girls like to join in on the fun?”

“““““Yes!”””””

[Event Quest] - Walpurgis Night.

Objective: Explore the village and fulfill the spirit’s wishes. Rewards at the end of the night vary depending on how many spirits were helped.

*****

“I now regret my decision.” Q frowned looking at the outfit she was given.

“Oh come on, it’s not as bad as mine.” Kukis slid over. She was dressed in a costume which resembled that of a certain monster… to be more precise, a slime. She was dripping goo all over the place and felt pretty miserable, but on the bright side Asphy seemed to be happy and content to sit on her head and not envelop her.

“Yeah, at least your costume is actually elaborate. Mine is just a sheet with holes in it.” Cinnamon said as she hovered in the air. Her costume was that of a ‘ghost’, except it was just as she had described - a simple white sheet over her body. Despite looking very crude, it was also strangely suitable.

“Come now Q, we all wore our costumes. It’s time for you to do so as well.” Phanos said with a wicked smile. She wore a white garb that went down to her thighs which were covered with pure white knee-high socks. A small hat with a red cross was on her head, and her eyepatch even changed into a square medical eyepatch. That’s right… Phanos was dressed up as a sexy nurse.

“...” The only one silent the entire time from the moment she received her costume was Brie. She was wearing a mascot costume one would often see at amusement parks, except this one was a terrifyingly realistic bear. What was even worse is that the head actually matched the expressions of the one wearing it, meaning that they would see all sorts of strange faces on a bear.

“I… fine.” Q resigned herself to her fate when she saw the expectant eyes of her teammates. I am still a man! This will not hurt my pride! With fierce determination in her eyes, she equipped her outfit and her clothes disappeared in a bright light. What replaced it was a shiny, glittery orange ballgown complete with detached long sleeves and a dainty tiara on top. “Why… why did I have to get the pretty princess costume?” Q’s determination instantly broke once she saw herself in the mirror.

(A/N:Knowing that Q is wearing a princess outfit… it fills you with DETERMINATION.)

“Oh my princess, are you complaining about your clothing?” Kukis poked fun at her. “It was your idea to have our costumes randomly chosen for us after all.”

“Hmm? Is Princess Q dissatisfied about something?” Phanos spoke up. “Oh, I see! It seems that this outfit isn’t shiny enough for our princess! Excuse me miss? We’re going to need a fancier dress!” She began to call over a witch who was randomly walking by.

“No we don’t!” Q picked herself off of the ground. “Ahh damn it! I am going to be a pretty princess, and I am going to rock this outfit!” With an attitude that seemed like she didn’t care anymore, she walked away in a huff.

“Hehehe.” Brie giggled and was finally in a good mood seeing Q’s antics. The only problem was that when she giggled in her costume it looked like she was planning to devour something, and it came off as incredibly sinister.

The girls stepped outside of the room they were in and saw the entire village was covered in spooky objects. Severed heads, flickering lights and flying bats were all over the place. Q could swear that she was able to hear some terrible moaning in the distance as well. “More hexes?” She wondered aloud as she stared at all of them.

“No, they’re just decorations.” Pamerun’s second apprentice, Lea suddenly appeared and explained. “We always have a surplus of items after the Purge, so we turn some of them into decorations and just hang them around the place. The only difference between these decorations and the hexes is that one has magic inside, but otherwise they’re pretty much the same.”

“Why don’t you keep them around all year? I really like the look of the town right now.” Q poked a skull placed on a rafter and immediately regretted it as a centipede-looking creature crawled out and began to writhe angrily.

“Because it gets cluttered and messy if we leave them around. Not to mention they’ll probably get ruined from the weather or random spell backfires. More importantly, my master asked me to tell you girls to head to the fountain. That’s where everyone else is meeting up.” Lea left but not before saying, “Oh yeah, you look really good right now, Princess.”

“Gah! I will rip this costume to shreds before the day is done…”

“Eh, don’t mind it so much.” Kukis said. “I have to admit though, with the addition of magic, these costumes and decorations are way better than the ones we have in real-life! Look at this spider, it’s so lifelike!” She picked up a spider decoration that was dangling from a roof but was surprised to see it move and scurry on her hand! The spider tried to climb up onto Kukis’ head, but Asphy instantly jumped forward and swallowed it into its body, slowly dissolving the creature.

“Oookay then. I’m going to the fountain now.” Q suddenly seemed a lot less interested in the decorations as she left for the fountain at a brisk pace. The rest of the girls hurriedly followed her and they made their way to where the rest of the witches were. The entire square was filled with people in varying costumes, and even the familiars weren’t exempt from this as they wore cute little outfits resembling random monsters in the game.

“Is something wrong Q?” Brie asked. “You are not jumping at the familiars like you usually do.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Absolutely nothing is wrong.” Q responded immediately. “I am just respecting the time they took to dress up their familiars and don’t want to ruin the costumes. Now let’s listen to what Pamerun has to say.” She redirected their attention to the top of the fountain where Pamerun stood with the other Grand Witches.

“Welcome everyone, to the 617th Walpurgis night!” Pamerun said. “The spirits will arrive very soon, so make sure that you prepare the harvestears! Us Grand Witches will be going around to judge them for the largest harvestear contest as well. Remember, if you accidentally anger a spirit that you should seek help from any nearby witch, especially if it’s a spirit in a large harvestear.” With that reminder, Pamerun leapt off the fountain and landed on a broom, then flew to the north of the village. The rest of the witches similarly scattered, and Q and the others were left wondering what to do.

“Shall we walk around the village?” Brie suggested.

“Let us depart.” Phanos agreed.

The girls walked down the main road of the village, and saw that witches were going into their houses, and came out with large purple-colored pumpkins. “I suppose those are harvestears. It looks like a pumpkin with a purple color scheme… very original.” Q said.

“Yeah. Get this, they don’t have any insides either. It’s just perfectly smooth and hollow inside.” Kukis added.

“That sounds strangely disturbing, and makes me question how it even grew like that in the first place.”

While they made small talk, they suddenly heard a loud thundering noise. The girls looked above them to see that the sky was dark and overcast with black clouds. After a few seconds of watching the clouds swirl in the sky, they separated to reveal a hole in the center. From this hole, gray things began to fall out and descended on the village. As one of them got closer, Q could make out a form which seemed vaguely human, except there wasn’t any face on it. The gray thing then went into a nearby harvestear. The harvestear began to shake, and the girls heard tearing sounds as the surface of the harvestear began to twist and form into a shape that looked vaguely like a face. Ooh, that’s why they call them harvestears. Q thought as she listened to the sounds the harvestear was making.

Finally it stopped shaking and the girls were facing a harvestear with sunken eyes and a crooked smile. They exchanged looks with each other and were unsure of what to do. At this point the harvestear began moving its mouth and said, “Sing me a song.”

“...” Q wordlessly pushed Kukis forward, which made the harvestear turn its head to face her.

“Damn it Q! Uhh… uh… Spooky scary skeletons send shivers down your spine~”

“PFF-AHAHAHAHAHA!” Q couldn’t hold it in and rolled on the ground while laughing.

“Sh-shut up! I blanked out okay?” Kukis was going to protest some more, when the harvestear said “Thanks” and the top of its head popped off. Kukis took a look inside and found that there was a few pieces of candy inside. Once she took the pieces the head snapped back in place and the face on the harvestear disappeared, turning it back to normal.

“Hey, what’d you get?” Q and the rest of the girls went beside Kukis to look at what she grabbed.

“It’s… candy. According to the description it heals quite a bit of HP and MP, but I can also trade it to someone else at the end of the night.”

“Awesome! We’re trick-or-treating now!” The girls left in search of another harvestear to talk to. For the most part the harvestears they found weren’t much larger than half a meter, and the requests were usually simple like ‘spin five times’ or ‘make an angry face’. The problem was, that the harvestear would only reward the person who did what it asked. This meant that travelling in a group of five wasn’t very efficient, so they split into two groups, the first being Brie and Phanos while the second was Q, Kukis and Cinnamon.

Both groups travelled around the village, doing random things for the harvestears. The larger ones asked for more varied things, like certain items, or a set of very specific actions. The rewards also began to vary a lot more when it got to the larger harvestears, as they would sometimes be a rare monster material or in some cases, a special weapon. While Q walked around the village, she saw that other witches were also doing things for the harvestears. Everything seemed to be all good and fun, when suddenly a witch screamed, and Q looked over to see that some dark substance was leaking out of a harvestear!

The dark substance gathered in the air and created a sinister body that looked human, except it didn’t have a head. The dark body turned around and picked up the harvestear, then placed it where it’s head was supposed to be. The harvestear also began to turn dark as its mouth turned into a scary frown, and a red flame appeared in its eye sockets.

[Harvestear] - Level 30

The harvestear’s arms then elongated and became sharp and flat, and it began swinging them wildly in the direction of the fallen witch! It was stopped very soon though, as Q sent a bullet of light flying towards it. The harvestear’s movements were temporarily stopped, which gave time for Cinnamon to put herself in between it and the witch, ready to protect her. The harvestear then switched its target to Cinnamon, but its arm blades bounced harmlessly off her wings, and it was instead hit with a spear with a shining tip. This spear pierced through its body, and left a large gaping hole.

The harvestear looked unsteady, but before it could recover it was suddenly hit by a blast of fire magic from Kukis. A pillar of flame descended on it from the sky, burning away the dark substance. After the spell ended the dark substance disappeared, revealing a burnt harvestear with its head open. Kukis looked at the remains of the harvestear and saw that there were a few pieces of candy scattered around.

“Hey, are you alright?” Q extended a hand to the fallen witch.

“Y-yes, thank you.” The witch got up and dusted off her clothes.

“What happened?” Cinnamon showed a face full of concern. “Did you fail the harvestear’s request?”

“Yes. It asked me to turn around and ‘shake my booty’. I have no idea what that means, but before I could do anything it got mad and attacked!”

Ugh… What the heck are the game developers thinking? Q shook her head in disdain. “Well as long as you’re safe, it’s okay.”

“Here’s your candy.” Kukis extended a palm of candy gathered from the remains of the harvestear.

“Oh no, please keep it. I couldn’t possibly take it after you three helped me.” After saying this, the witched bowed and then left.

“That was only a small-ish harvestear. I wonder how strong the larger ones are going to be…” Q wondered.

“We’ll find out one way or another.” Cinnamon said.

As they continued to ‘trick-or-treat’, they found that some harvestears they already finished a request for got another spirit inside it, so they completed new requests from them. At some point in their walk, Q randomly said “27.”

“34.” Kukis responded.

“24.” Cinnamon followed suit.

“Hmm… I propose we split up for a while instead of rotating whoever gets to do the harvestear’s request.” Q said.

“What’s wrong Q?” Kukis smirked. “Don’t like the fact that I’ve gotten more candy than you?”

“Hahaha- yes.” Q’s face became incredibly serious. “I’ll see you after my inventory is full of candy! Also no following me Cinn.”

“Aww.” Cinnamon was sad, but she walked away in another direction.

“Seems like she’s strangely competitive…” Kukis stood still for a moment and pondered. “Hold on… if I can get more candy than Q, wouldn’t that mean that I’ve beaten her? Ohohoho… Today’s the day you’re going down Q!” She became incredibly motivated and began running around the town looking for another harvestear to talk to.

*****

“Okay, that makes 139 pieces of candy for you milady.” Phanos said as she handed over some more candy to Brie.

“Phanos… you have just been giving me yours. Is this really necessary?” Brie seemed a little bothered with the large amount of candy she had in her inventory.

“But of course milady. Knowing Q, she’s definitely going to turn this candy-gathering into a competition, and I couldn’t possibly let you lose to her. Furthermore I couldn’t bear to see you do some of the things these harvestears are asking. Can you believe their gall? To ask you to dance in front of them.”

“I would be fine with dancing though…” Brie murmured.

“Ah, another harvestear.” Phanos walked over to a harvestear that was a little larger than half her size. When it saw her it said, “Feed me 5 splugs.”

“Splug?” Phanos looked down at her feet to find green glowing slugs crawl out of the ground. Upon seeing these splugs, she instinctively froze remained like that for a while.

“Oh Phanos, still bad with slugs?” Brie crouched down and picked up the splugs and cupped them in her hands.

“O-of course not! I’ll even prove it to you!” Phanos took the splugs from Brie’s hands. “See? I’m per… perfectly fine.” Her face was cramped as she felt slime get spread all over her hands. I’m different from before! I can handle slugs fine! Besides, I can’t possibly let milady see any weakness.

For a moment it seemed like she would be fine, but one of the splugs suddenly opened its mouth and began to ‘eat’ Phanos’ hands. She immediately dropped it, but that was a mistake because as soon as the splugs hit the ground, they exploded and spread their goo all over her. Phanos was silent as she was processing what had just happened, and as soon as she realized that she was covered in slug slime, she shrieked.

“KYAAAAAAAH!” She attempted to wipe of the slime in panic, but only succeeded in spreading it further, causing her to get even more dismayed.

“Honestly.” Brie let out a sigh of exasperation, but she still had a smile on her face. “You still have yet to get over slugs hm? You did not have to put on a front with me.” She used her bear costume to wipe away most of the slime that was on exposed skin.

“I-I am sorry, milady. I have shown you a miserable sight, and I have even caused you to dirty your costume.”

“Haha, It is alright Phanos.” Brie continued to clean up Phanos until she calmed down.

“Where is my food?” Suddenly, the harvestear spoke. “I AM HUNGRY!!!” A black substance spilled out of the harvestear, and it began to gather into a large figure holding what seemed to be a machete. The harvestear was placed on the head, and some more substance poured out, creating a mask with holes in it.

[Harvestear] - Level 65

“You bastard… you’re the one who forced me into such a sorry state!” Phanos suddenly directed all of her aggression towards the harvestear, and attacked it with unbridled rage. She ran circles around it, simultaneously casting hexes and throwing knives at vital spots. The harvestear didn’t seem to be affected by her attacks as it simply swung its machete with great force. At this point Brie felt like she should step in, but once she saw the ferocious expression on Phanos’ face, she decided to refrain from doing so.

Phanos’ speed increased more and more, and eventually the harvestear wasn’t able to see her. It then changed its target to Brie, but as soon as it did, Phanos appeared in front of it and thrust with an open palm. In the palm was a small doll, and once it made contact with the harvestear it was sent flying. The harvestear laid flat on the ground, and before it could make a move Phanos was already on it, using multiple knives to stab its body. She stabbed with so much force that some of the knives even passed through its body and pierced the ground, keeping the harvestear anchored to the spot.

“Repent in the afterlife, you filth.” With those words, Phanos snapped her fingers and every single knife on its body exploded, completely dissipating the dark substance and leaving only the harvestear’s head. Phanos stepped on it, turning it into gross purple mush. “Hm?” Noticing a slight gleam amongst the purple mess, she picked it up and found a shining necklace, which she then gave to Brie.

“Apologies for taking so long milady. I was unable to find any candy, but hopefully this necklace will do.”

“Thank you Phanos.” Brie accepted the necklace and they left the area, looking for another harvestear. “Next time, I can do some of the harvestear’s requests.”

“I… of course milady.”

“...Holy crap.” In the shadow of a building, Q was hiding with her [Stealth] ability on. “I was going to say hi but then that happened… Note to self: never make Phanos angry. Also note to self: Phanos doesn’t like slugs. Hehehe” After mentally engraving these facts into her mind, Q left the area as well.

*****

Around 3 hours later, a loud voice resounded throughout the village. “Everyone, the winners for this year’s largest harvestear contest have been chosen. Please make your way to the fountain and we’ll proceed with the award ceremony.”

The girls sent messages to each other and made their way to the fountain. A large crowd of witches were already there, all of them carrying large bags overflowing with candy and materials. Once the girls met up, Q started off by saying “213.”

“WHAT!? How did you even… ugh. 210.” Kukis’ slumped her shoulders in defeat, as she was incredibly close to beating Q.

“192.” Cinnamon followed up. “Though that was only because I kept getting items and materials…”

“Umm, what is everyone talking about?” Brie asked.

“We’re comparing how much candy we got.” Q explained. “How about you two?”

“297.” Phanos said with a superior attitude.

“That’s not- wait, you gave all your candy to Brie didn’t you?” Q eyed Phanos with suspicion.

“You never said we couldn’t share our candy with each other.” Phanos simply shrugged.

Just as Q was going to say something, Pamerun’s voice rang out. “In third place, it’s actually one of Caryll’s apprentices, Cybil! Congratulations to her for coming up with a new innovative spell to enhance growth in vegetables. In second place, we have our very own Grand Witch, Haeldrix! This year she not only infused the ground with magic, but also had Suina pour in some magic-infused water to grow them as well. Finally in first place… the owner of the Nine-Lives Inn, Clair! Who has won for the seventh time in a row...” She said the last sentence with less enthusiasm.

“Oh, I won? Yaaay~” A cat in the crowd jumped up and sat on the fountain.

“Yes yes, very good Clair.” Pamerun lightly clapped. “Also, you’re not going to share your secret?” She whispered.

“I like winning, so nyah.” Clair licked her paws and lazily stretched out.

“I see. Caryll, if you would please do the honors?”

“Gladly.” The Grand Witch of Void stepped out and cast a spell. A large circle appeared above the spectator’s heads. A flash of light appeared, and suddenly a giant object fell from the circle! With a loud thud, it landed on the ground, and its size was comparable to that of the upside-down fountain.

“Is that… Clair’s harvestear?” Q said after a moment of silence.

“That’s stupidly huge. How did she do that?” Kukis stared wide-eyed at the giant vegetable.

“Now everyone, it’s the time you’ve been waiting for! It’s time to take down the strongest spirit of them all! Prepare yourselves!” After Pamerun said this, everyone backed away from the harvestear and waited. After a minute or so, the sky let out a booming sound, and everyone looked up to see that every single cloud gathered together and became a mist-like substance. This substance went straight for Clair’s harvestear, and sank inside it.

A few seconds passed with nothing happening, but then they heard a tearing sound, except this time it was ten times worse than before. A pair of hollow eyes with fierce flames and a mouth with an evil sneer formed on the harvestear. “Hahaha, I have revived yet again!” A deep and imposing voice came from the harvestear. “Fear me mortals, for I am the Spirit Ki- urgh!”

The giant harvestear’s speech was interrupted by a giant boulder falling on its head. “Yeah yeah, you say that every year. Everyone, attack!” Haeldrix shot out more stones, and the rest of the witches followed suit. Soon enough everyone was bombarding the giant harvestear with all sorts of spells, and the rest of the girls followed suit as well.

Brie rushed up to stab the giant harvestear, and then cast a spell with her sword, causing a small implosion inside the harvestear. When Brie pulled out her sword, a cascade of candy came out! “The first wound!” Some witch called out, and others began to collect the candy while also damaging the giant harvestear.

“Oh my.” Brie quickly stepped away from the crowd and made her way back to the other girls who were lobbing their own spells and attacks at the giant harvestear. As it got hurt, more and more wounds appeared on its body, causing candy and all other sorts of goodies to spill out in large amounts. Throughout the entire thing, the giant harvestear kept trying to say and do something, but the ridiculous amount of spells and firepower kept it down, reducing its status to that of a mere sandbag.

In 5 minutes the giant harvestear was killed, and with its last dying wail its top popped off and a fountain of candy gushed out! Every resident cheered and ran around, scrambling to get as much candy as they could. Of course the girls were also in this group, as they abused their inventories and crammed as much candy as they could carry inside before physically grabbing them. Eventually the fountain of candy died down, and so did the commotion as the people regained their senses and dispersed, or remained behind to clean up.

“So, how was your first trick-or-treating experience?” Q asked Brie. “I know it’s not like how it would typically be in real life, but this was still fun wasn’t it?”

“Absolutely!” Brie nodded enthusiastically. “It was very fun participating in this event.”

“I’m glad to hear that.” Pamerun approached the group of girls. “I can see you’ve gathered quite a bit of candy. Would you like directions to the person who trades them?”

“Yeah!”

[Quest Complete] - Walpurgis Night