Jay noticed from the game’s party interface that he and Taylor Lynn were both level ten. He opened the logs to check how much experience the boss battle had been worth.
System Message: 3,700 Experience Gained. You have reached Level 10.
The boss itself had been worth a total of 2,500 experience, more than a single level’s worth of experience. To Jay, the experience alone made the whole fight worth it. The party was battling above their level, but the rewards showed it. They were experiencing the railroad ease of lower-level gameplay, but it wasn’t going to hold.
Jay checked his abilities to see what he had acquired at level ten. The new ability was called Rapid Fire. When activated, it allowed him to reload his crossbow at double speed. The ability lasted for one minute but required ten minutes to recharge. Jay knew it was perfect for boss fights. Unfortunately, his crossbow was shattered into hundreds of pieces of wood.
“That could have been a lot worse,” Jay said as he closed the stats display. He was trying to look on the bright side, but the shattered crossbow hurt. The broken crossbow rendered multiple of his abilities useless.
“No use crying over a stubbed toe,” Taylor Lynn agreed with a mischievous grin. The others chuckled, which made Jay concerned a new forever joke was being formed. On the other hand, he knew that gentle harassment was part and parcel of bonding. It was better to let it go.
“Very, very funny,” Jay said, his voice dripping with sarcasm, but a grin gave him away. “No, I just meant we’re leveling seriously fast. It’s only been a couple of hours and we’re already level ten.”
“Remember, we’re all hyped up on ice cream, too,” Jenny said with a shrug, unconcerned. The rest of the group seemed as nonchalant about their pace as she was. The pace mattered much more to Jay to the tune of three million. As he thought of her, he hoped Sarah was doing well with her new doctors.
“Before I forget,” Jay said. “I’m still holding these potions. Everyone trade me for two of each.” He distributed two health and two mp potions to the other members of the party. The distribution left Jay personally with three of each potion.
The party moved on, heading deeper into the forest. It was only a few minutes of travel before the group ran into a small mass of purple and yellow vines, which Jay sliced through by using his dagger like a machete. When the tangles of vine fell to the ground, Jenny immediately stepped forward to collect them.
Jay shot her a confused look, but she just shrugged. “They’re crafting items for alchemy.”
Jay felt a little weird sharing crafting resources so readily since he had no idea if Ken and Jenny planned to join them on future quests. After they went back to Nora’s, their main reason for cooperation would be over. Especially with how Ken seemed to feel about Jay, he couldn’t be certain they would want to continue to tag along. He wasn’t certain Jenny and Taylor Lynn’s forming friendship would be enough to keep the party together.
“What are you staring at, freak?” Ken said, stepping closer to Jay.
Jay braced himself, knowing the fight he’d anticipated was coming. He wasn’t going to roll over and lose a level of progress. He didn’t want to fight, either. He steeled himself for the coming onslaught, hand drifting to his dagger, but it never came.
Taylor Lynn cut into the conversation, spilling vitriol all over her words. “What’s your problem? You’ve been on his case since the moment you freaking met. You don’t have to like him, just lay off.”
“I don’t even know you,” Ken shot back. “I’ll lay off him when you stop acting so stuck up. Wouldn’t want you to fall off that high horse, so I’ll give you a hand down.”
Taylor Lynn glared at him, as Jenny anxiously cut in, “Guys, what happened?”
Nobody answered her.
“Whatever, dude,” Taylor Lynn said. “Keep your serious issues to yourself and I won’t have any problems.”
“Right now my serious issue is you,” Ken said.
It seemed to Jay like they were still angling for a fight. He had already beaten the Scoundrel once before, but he was missing his crossbow this time. He looked around for defensive positions. The environment of the forest would hinder them both. He would have to choose a particular moment to use his ability that actually worked with a dagger. The fight was not to be.
“Ken,” Jenny said. It was the most serious tone Jay had ever heard her take. “Please take a walk.”
To the surprise of—everyone—Ken took a walk. As he cut into the foliage with renewed vigor, the group heard him grunt in pain a few steps ahead. He held up his hand for everyone to stop. As the party came to a halt, Jay couldn’t see what made Ken hunch over. His back was blocking the view.
Cautiously moving forward, Jay managed to see what Ken was inspecting. The rest of the group caught on as a thorny bush came into view, blocking the way forward. The type of plant was different than before. As Ken tried cutting through it with his sword, everyone noticed the plant material was slippery, so the blade slid off without doing damage. His hand, however, got caught on the thorns, which needled his health slightly.
“Great,” Ken muttered. “They’re poisonous.”
He continued to try and slice through the thicket with growing frustration. The attempt was no more effective, but his frustration, powered by the earlier conversation, caused more poison to accrue. Jenny activated a rune tag to cure his HP. After a minute of fierce failed butchery, the damage taken was outpacing the healing. With a glare at the poison bushes, Ken finally took a step back to rest at the party’s urging.
“The poison stacks,” Ken acknowledged.
Jenny stepped into the freed space to inspect the plant. She was careful not to touch anything as she looked it over. Her face went through a series of expressions during her inspection.
“I think you’re supposed to use special herbalism tools to harvest this,” Jenny proclaimed with a thoughtful look. “I’m not sure why it’s growing over the obvious path for travel. We could try to go around, but I think you can just burn it.” She turned to Taylor Lynn as she continued, “I think the secretion on the branches making the material slippery is flammable.”
Taylor Lynn grinned as if Jenny offered her a great gift. She began to mutter some words under her breath as sparks of fire came to life around her fingertips. The spell formed into a small bolt, hovering in the center of her palm.
“Take a step back,” she called out, her cautious words at odds with the manic smile on her face. “If it does turn out to be flammable, it might combust. I don’t want to take us all out in an explosion.”
The others took a step back. Jenny rushed to her brother to check on the poison and healing magic warring in his body. As soon as the area was cleared, Taylor Lynn threw the bolt of fire directly into the center mass of shrubbery.
It did not combust, but tongues of flame began to lick their way through the whole thicket. The scale of the densely packed area became obvious as the party stared at the blaze. The whole lot of them were pyromaniacs. The fire spread fifty feet to either side of the party as it licked through the plant stems. The whole group stood mesmerized for a beat.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Isn’t nature pretty neat?” Jenny asked, breaking the silence as the flames died down into a large pile of ash in the middle of the path.
Jay couldn’t help himself, laughing at the juxtaposition of her statement against everything else. Looking at Ken and Taylor Lynn, both of them were fighting it, but soon the whole party was laughing along.
With the path cleared, the party continued on their way. They walked for hours without seeing any pests or critters, or even an unusual plant. Nobody complained, instead enjoying the break from the hectic pace and constant battles to relax and recharge along the way.
They walked past the eclectic collection of Burlen trees. The Elvish trees melted into a normal forest. When the beautiful Elven forest didn’t return for fifteen minutes, Jay resolved to share his unease.
“Isn’t it kinda weird we haven’t seen any wolves yet?” Jay asked.
Ken shook his head. “Not even a little bit.” It didn’t do anything to quell Jay’s growing unease, because Ken was obviously going to disagree with him.
“We’re the predators now,” Jenny said brightly. “Much stronger than wolves.”
Taylor Lynn smiled as she ducked another patch of the purple and yellow thorny vines hanging off a tree. Jenny stopped to collect another portion of the plant since those could be collected with normal tools. She found herself wishing someone had a proper herbalism ability to identify the plants. When no one spoke up, she continued, “I can’t imagine any wolves wanting to hang out in this part of the woods. These plants are driving me up a wall.”
“Did we leave Elvish territory?” Taylor Lynn asked.
“It seems like it,” Jenny said. “But I think we’re getting close. Here, look at the map.”
Jenny pulled a small map from her inventory and showed it to Taylor Lynn. Jay peeked over her shoulder so he could see it, too. The map showed the trail system they were following but didn’t show the designated territory.
“What are the other territories, anyway?” Jay asked.
Jenny looked like she was about to answer, but Taylor Lynn beat her to the punch this time. “There are four other territories. One belongs to the humans. One belongs to a group of demons. One belongs to some rock elementals. The last one belongs to-”
“What a racket,” Ken said, cutting her off before she could finish.
Ken abruptly paused in the middle of the path. Taylor Lynn lost the thread on her explanation, giving him a look she reserved for telemarketers.
There was a collection of leaves and twigs on the forest floor. Nothing abnormal about that. Ken continued to kick at the dirt, sending some leaves soaring into the air. Ken gave the fallen debris another solid kick.
Suddenly, the whole thing collapsed in on itself. A well-concealed net closed and tumbled into the pit which everyone else finally noticed in front of Ken. It appeared about fifteen feet deep. The trap was unlikely to kill anyone, but it would be annoying to climb the smooth dirt walls without a friend.
“It’s a pitfall. Only an idiot would fall for a pit trap,” Ken said with rising disdain in his voice.
“Those could be useful for monster hunting,” Jay mused. “Do you think the game will let us make traps?”
Instead of answering him, Ken grimaced at him before stepping around the outside of the trap and continuing. The rest of the party took a brief moment to exchange shrugs and hustled after him. Jay could feel himself glaring at Ken’s back because he couldn’t figure out how to make progress with the Scoundrel. Something had to give, or they would come to real blows sooner or later. He knew from earlier that Taylor Lynn wasn’t going to be any help, either.
By the time the scenery changed again, daylight faded into night. The game followed the day-night cycle of the real world. It was getting late.
“Do you all have anywhere to be tonight?” Jay asked. “It’s getting late.”
“Yeah. We have a quest to finish,” Ken parried.
This time, Jenny waited for Ken to get out of earshot. “We don’t have anywhere else to be. We both play a lot of games.” She frowned as if weighing whether to say more but decided to continue: “It’s kind of a long story, but thanks for going easy on Ken. I like you guys and I hope he’ll get used to you soon.” She gave Jay and Taylor Lynn an encouraging smile before darting ahead to catch up with her brother.
“Are you mad at me?” Taylor Lynn asked, now that they walked alone.
“What do you mean?” Jay asked.
Taylor Lynn looked at him, appraising something Jay couldn’t see. “You haven’t spoken to me much, if at all, since Ken and I poked at each other.”
“Oh that. You don’t want to bother with that,” Jay said, shying away from the conversation he knew was coming anyway. He didn’t relish starting a potential argument with his close friend, especially considering the feelings he still harbored. But he needed to be able to speak for himself.
Taylor Lynn looked at him expectantly, so he dove in headfirst, “I’m not mad, but I can speak for myself. Ken is annoying, sure, but I’d rather just let him be annoying. Get this thing done. I don’t need him and the gameplay means something much different to him, more than likely.”
“We’re friends,” Taylor Lynn said. “Have been for a long time. Doesn’t it make sense for me to be upset about how he’s treating you?”
“Yes, but it’s my place to say something,” Jay said, trying to keep his tone level. He wanted to correct her, not start a whole new batch of drama. “I’m having fun, but I’m not playing the game for fun. I’m playing for Sarah. From here to level one hundred.”
Taylor Lynn looked so sad as he explained himself. Her pain made him want to relent, but he needed to control his relationships with other players. It was going to be a long leveling process and he couldn’t have her stepping in everywhere. She opened her mouth to say something but never verbalized the thought. They just walked together for a few minutes.
Ken and Jenny stopped, so Jay lunged at the way out of the conversation. Taylor Lynn followed him quietly. The map marker led the party to a log cabin in the middle of a small clearing. The main feature, aside from the cabin, was a stump with an axe stuck in it. Firewood piled high beside the stump.
In the air was a lingering smell of smoke, even though the fire pit was dead. The cabin looked small and the logs composing it were worn from the elements. It looked at least a few decades old. Jay looked around the ground for tracks but found none. The lack of tracks was strange if people lived here as the smoke smell implied. He wrote it off as more strange developer choices.
“We need to search the cabin,” Ken said. “There’s a wedding ring around here somewhere. Bertha lost it while visiting her friend.”
Without further delay, Ken walked into the cabin to search. He was doing an awful lot of walking off, but Jay didn't mind the space from the other player. Jenny hurried in after her brother, which left Jay thinking about how she seemed to chase after him an awful lot.
“Should we search the outside?” Jay asked.
“Hmm,” Taylor Lynn said, chewing on her bottom lip. It was one of her typical habits when she was upset. “The quest does say to search the cabin, which implies inside. But we can be thorough.”
“Catch up with Jenny. I’ll check the outside.”
Jay knew they would both feel better if he gave her time to think everything over. As Taylor Lynn went inside, Jay combed the outside ground, looking for the small ring. He quickly realized the process was going to take forever with this method. He was a little short on metal detectors, so that was how it needed to go. He contented himself with the sensation of the blades of grass tickling his hand. It made for interesting deep immersion.
The sky was dark already, leaving little light to utilize. Looking through his inventory, Jay didn’t own any gear like a candle or a lamp. He looked like a maniac, chuckling in the dark and muttering about how useful the Torchbearer class would have been.
He moved his focus to the areas around the path up to the cabin, since those were likely spots for dropping items. It reduced the area he needed to focus on. He checked around the fire pit, as well as around the stump where wood was chopped. Nothing.
Off in the woods, a twig snapped. Nocturnal animals were waking up, which explained the lack of wildlife during the day. The region could be focused on a nighttime design. Jay looked around, hoping for something new to add to the Bestiary.
“Found the wedding ring,” Ken yelled from the inside. Jay watched as the quest updated itself, but instead of being marked as complete, a second objective was added.
System Message: My Friend’s Hut quest updated! The enigmatic old lady, Bertha Longshadow, has lost her wedding ring at her friend’s hut in the woods outside Ilra. Make your way to the hut and find her ring. Wedding Ring Returned: 0/1. Ambush Survived: 0/1.
He barely read the quest change before the peace and stillness of the night was broken. He didn’t recognize the foreign language of shrill notes and guttural words. Every word sounded garbled to him. Even so, some things, like battle cries, were universal.