Lars Murst was tired of the young master of Aitmurn’s idiocy. This entire expedition had been badly organized from the start, courtesy of that pathetic excuse for nobility. Lars had worked his way up in the Empire’s Legions, grinding his path through the mud, blood, and ashes. When the Emperor had been murdered, he had seen the writing on the wall and quickly distanced himself from the Legion. It hadn’t been his proudest moment, but staying alive was the first thing they taught you in basic training.

He had spent the intervening decades after the Empire’s fall moving from one kingdom to the next. The five houses like to style themselves as Royalty even though they were barely in the upper five hundred levels. Any single Delver Guild’s Branch Master could crush them like a wet sausage in a market rush. At least, if the Delver Guild ever bothered to get involved in local politics, that is. The chances of that happening were on the same level as the Goddesses of Love, Sex, and Peace, giving him a blowjob, so he didn’t see it as a likely happenstance.

If that fop hadn’t been raised on the bullshit tales of the Legion of the Wolf, we could have all avoided this farce. Lars thought, mopping the sweat from his brow. A Lv. 40 mage could easily regulate his body temperature if he were willing to spend the mana to do so. However, Lars had been trained by battlefields, where the slightest sliver of mana meant the difference between survival and defeat. Long years of campaigning had made him save every iota of power unless it absolutely needed to be spent.

Too many times, he had seen mages confident in their regeneration rate run afoul of something that crippled, canceled, nullified, or blocked it. A mage without mana was a fish without water, nothing but meat on the chopping block. Lars wouldn’t be caught dead without enough mana to conjure a Mage Shield even in the middle of an encampment surrounded by upper-tier mercenary guards.

Constant vigilance is the price of avoiding the Dark Lady’s touch. Lars thought, remembering the words of his trainers. Going into the depths of the Forest to find Deep Forest Wolf pups was easy. Getting out, though, is another problem entirely. We couldn’t even injure any of the adults, and if it weren’t for the obvious threat to kill the pups unless they let us go, young master clueless would be breathing out of a ripped throat.

The escape route back had been checked a month ago, but like everything in this shitty forest, things grew fast. Take the clearing in front of them, for instance. An enormous vine had grown to epic proportions blocking their way forward.

Lars moved to the front where the other mage, along with the young moron, were talking.

“Just burn a path through it, you worthless Low Mage!” Devon Aitmurn said, waving a hand dismissively at the enormous vines in front of them.

“Sir, doing that will leave both Muggins and me completely out of mana.” Lars said as he joined the conversation continuing, he said, “It would be best to look for a way around through the forest. That way, we save both mana and time.”

“Did I ask what you wanted, Low Mage Lars? No, I did not. I gave you a command, and I want it done, now.” Devon said, his eyes starting to glow with his House’s trademark fire mana's deep fiery red.

Lars bit his tongue before bowing low and saying, “Of course, sir. As you command.” With a gesture to the other Low Mage in the party, Muggins, he moved to the party's front. As both mages approached the vine growth’s outer line, Muggins said, “Remind me again why we hired on with this braindead ball buster Sarge?”

“Because his family is paying us enough to buy the materials to breakthrough Lv. 50, as well as Evolution crystals to upgrade our Paths, that’s why.” Lars said, gritting his teeth. He thought of finally breaking through the Lv. 50 bottleneck and gaining another chunk of time. Lars had experienced the effects of breaking a bottleneck, and the years after had allowed him to enjoy a body able to use all the parts. Moving in front of the other mage, he conjured a basic fireball increasing the size by making the air inside the core superheated. It looked impressive, powerful, and, best of all, cost a minimal amount of mana.

Lars made focused on the orb before turning his attention to the vine maze in front of him. Just as he was about to throw the fireball, a pathway opened in the maze leading straight forward.

“Sarge, you don’t think?” Muggins asked, his voice shaking.

“Quiet. If it went to this length to pretend, we don’t want to draw attention to the thing,” said Lars. He threw his fireball forward, watching it vanish into the distance, and score the vines with carbon markings.

“No reaction. You think it might be afraid of us?” Muggins said.

Lars used a spell to identify the plant before letting out a soft sigh and saying, “I think it doesn’t want to take the chance of being injured in a Forest filled with plant-eating things. We look good. It gets to survive with minimal damage. This way, we all win.”

Throwing another fireball to mark the end of the exit in the distance, Lars turned around and started moving back to the party, “No mention to our glorious leader about this. He would probably order us to attempt to find the Root, which will end badly.”

Muggins nodded, agreeing in complete silence. As they reached the party, Lars put on his snake oil salesman face and said, “The path is clear, Lord Devon. I have ensured there is an easy way forward.”

“Finally, a Low Mage who can do something right!” Devon said, his eyes bright with glee. “Once we return with these wolf pups, my grandfather will ensure you are rewarded with double pay!”

Not likely, you moronic fop, he’ll most likely have you killed for pissing off creatures from the Deep Forest. In all the tales, the Legion of the Wolf never forgets or forgives. These might not be the same wolves, but then again, I wouldn’t have taken the risk if it wasn’t for the profits. Lars thought, bowing low while saying, “Thank you, milord Devon!”

Muggins walked with him as they moved behind young lord Devon as he moved forward. Since beasts of burden tended to go mad in the Forest, everything had to be carried by hand. It was tedious, sweaty, and brutal labor, which made Lars thankful once again he had the gift of mana. If he had been forced to take a physical Path, there was likely no way he could have ever have made it to his current age.

Crossing the vine pathway was smooth and without issue, all the way until the halfway mark. At that point, Lars mana sense detected something massive nearby, it was like someone had opened a shuttered lantern, and the spotlight was shining on them all.

“Mug, right!” Lars shouted, turning as he instantly snapped his Mana Shield into place. Muggins shifted in step with the command, his shield overlapping a fraction of a second later.

The moment both shields were in place, the vines to the right opened up, and Lars realized they were completely and utterly fucked.

The figure moved towards them in clothing that put out so much mana he didn’t even waste time identifying the attacker. It was one of the most basic tricks to hide, and most people didn’t bother due to the cost. For those with mana to spare, though, it was practically a cloak of invisibility in terms of attempting to identify someone.

Lars pulled mana from his inner mana pool, creating several spheres of fire condensed into tiny coin-sized spheres before he thrust his arm forward, throwing the scattershot at the attacker in an attempt to slow them so Muggins could get an opening to land a bigger strike.

He watched with shock as sheets of paper flew out from behind the attacker, a single sheet for each of his spheres. When the fire met paper, the result was a complete defeat. His spheres were wrapped and crushed like so much wasted garbage. Lars realized two things he shouted in a vague hope Lord Devon had a trump card, “Domain user, Scholar class type, miscellaneous element!”

I’m not really sure if those are correct, but everything I see fits. Lars thought a moment before more sheets of paper flew out from behind the attacker. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating, as it looked like six of the sheets of paper were made of glowing iron. Reality quickly showed him it was far worse.

“Sarge?” Muggins said, his expression pale.

“Drop to the ground, shields to the max, and beg for mercy. A fucking Domain user with some sentient or possibly, sapient weapons is far out of our league. What the hell is someone like that doing out here?” Lars said, dropping to the ground as the paper began to fly like shearing planes of force thrown by an angry god.

Lars watched the Domain user cut the arms and legs off of all those carrying the wolf pups. He recognized instantly that they were either being attacked to rescue the pups or to capture them for the attacker’s own profits. Turning his eyes to Lord Devon, he watched as the young lord was hemmed in by all six of the glowing mana weapons. If it weren’t for the mana shield being incredibly effective against slashing attacks and Lord Devon’s own gear focusing on mana regeneration, he would likely already be in pieces.

“Mercy!”

“Mercy!”

Lars and Muggins both called out as paper flew towards them and watched as it instantly deviated from the lethal strike.

We aren’t dealing with a psycho then. This is a planned attack. Wait, are those vines moving towards us? Lars thought, watching people’s severed limbs wrapped in paper as vines from the plant around them quickly pulled them all into the maze. Shit! The Domain user set up this entire thing! I fucking told lord soon-to-be-dead going through here was a bad idea!

As the paper kept Lord Devon constantly on the defensive, Lars watched the attacker saunter over to stand beside them. Narrowing his eyes, he was reasonably certain they were dealing with a woman, which was utterly bizarre because any female this strong should be well known in the surrounding lands. However, he had never heard of a female scholar since most powerful women went the Charm route or chose Elemental Water to keep their youthful looks.

“Stealing from me, that’s a bad thing, have the tales been forgotten already?” the female attacker said as she watched Lord Devon flail about, “It never ends well for outsiders, without fail.”

“I’m sure we can come to an arrangement. That little shit that you are toying with is worth his weight in Evolution crystals.” Lars said, attempting to open a dialogue with their attacker. Buying his life wasn’t anything new to the old mage, and he knew Devon’s grandfather would certainly reward him if he could get the kid home from this stupid adventure.

“Oh, that so? Too bad.” the woman said. Lars watched in horror as a single sheet of large iron paper balanced itself on top of the egg-shaped Mana Shield that protected Lord Devon.

“You ever spent a few years cracking eggs? They have a single obvious exploit, let me demonstrate.” the woman said, raising her right arm.

Lars witnessed a terrifying sight as countless paper sheets that clearly had their weight increased struck the single sheet of paper on the top of the egg-shaped shield. Like a custom chisel driven through steel, Devon’s shield cracked instantly to deadly effect. There was a second where the young man looked almost confused before his body split into two halves and fell to the ground.

“Messy work, egg cracking; splatter everywhere.” the woman said, turning to the two men flat on the ground next to her.

Vines snaked out of the maze around them, approaching them before pausing outside their shields.

Lars watched cold silver eyes barely visible from the depths of a sinister hood evaluate them.

“Drop the shields, and you have my word. I won’t kill you where you lay. Pump out all your mana, and block your pool from drawing.” the female attacker said with a cold tone.

“I-I can’t do that. I don’t know how.” Muggins said before Lars could agree.

“Oh, too bad, good luck in the next life.” the lady said.

Lars looked away as the same crunching noise of a shattered Mana Shield that had just been heard was repeated. Lars dumped all his mana into the surroundings without a word before blocking his inner mana pool from regenerating. As soon as his mana pool was empty, the vines grabbed him holding him tight.

“Touching mana is death. Lying, death. If I have to make my point again, what happened to your friends here will be a mercy. Ok?” the woman said as the vines began dragging him back into the maze. Lars had only a brief moment to hear the woman say, “Wilson, can things in my inventory be tracked?” As a strange vine with dripping thorns scratched him, he felt darkness creep into his vision.

What a clusterfuck. Lars thought as the poison knocked him out.