The orc lowered his weapon. Belmont and Malissa gaped at him.

“What was that? How did you move so quickly?” Malissa asked, shaking her head to clear the shock away.

“My runes,” Arek said, somewhat unhelpfully. “The majority of them enhance my fighting abilities.”

“That’s fair enough,” Malissa said, her daggers vanishing from her hands. “But you definitely changed the way you were fighting at least twice. What was that about?”

“I learned several different forms of fighting throughout my years adventuring, and the different styles go well with different runes,” Arek replied. “I’m a little out of practice, and I don’t want to use too many of the runes yet, so I’ll be sticking to the two you saw for now.”

“Why not test out all of them?” Belmont asked. “You might need them in a more dangerous fight.”

Arek scratched his chin. “I noticed that I was feeling a little bit of orc battle rage. Not the artificial one that Vell accidentally gave me, but the real one. I want to take things slowly to keep an eye on it.”

“Should we be concerned?” Belmont asked.

“I don’t think so,” Arek said, shaking his head. “Not yet, at least. It’s a natural part of me, but I think being overly cautious is best.”

Belmont and Malissa nodded.

“Probably for the bes–” Belmont started. The sky lit up with pale blue light. A loud crack ripped through the air, sending a shockwave of air that buffeted Arek’s hair back.

The three of them spun towards the source of the noise. Ming looked back at them sheepishly through the smoking hole in her tent. She lowered the gnarled wood staff in her hand and cleared her throat.

“I figured out a new spell!”

“Blast it,” Belmont cursed. “She’s gotten ahead of me! Arek, Malissa, please excuse me. I have to get back to reading.”

He dashed back to his tent, closing the flap behind him while the other three watched. Ming stepped through the new entrance to her living enclosure, taking care not to touch the molten material surrounding it.

She sniffed the air and licked her lips.

“I smell something smoking,” Ming said. “Are you cooking again?”

“That would be your tent,” Malissa said, lowering her weapons once it was apparent that there was no new threat to the party.

“Oh,” Ming said, her face falling.

Arek chuckled and allowed his weapon and armor to fade away into particles of light. He rolled his shoulders and yawned even though the sun was still high in the sky.

“I think that’s enough excitement for today,” Arek decided. “Let’s rest for another hour or two before we head off again. We don’t want to be camping here for too long. Don’t forget there’s a guild chasing after us.”

“Why not leave now?” Ming asked before turning and blowing on the side of her tent, trying to cool down the molten fabric.

“I don’t think Belmont would appreciate that very much,” Arek said. “He wanted to study his book since you figured out a new spell. And, speaking of spells, what did you do?”

“It’s called a pure magic chain reaction,” Ming said proudly. “It’s similar to a lightning bolt, but the book says that a lot of other spells build off of it. It’s one of the most important pure magic spells beyond just being able to use a bolt.”

“That’s amazing, then!” Arek said. “Although it might be wise to do it outside in the future. I don’t think your tent was meant to have that much extra ventilation in it.”

“I think you might be right,” Ming agreed. “I hope it doesn’t rain.”

“Now that you’ve mentioned it, it will,” Malissa said, shaking her head. “If we aren’t going to leave quite yet, I’m going to relax in my tent until we do. I’ll start packing up in about an hour, if that’s okay.”

“Works for me,” Arek said. “I’m going to check on my plants. Ming, please try not to blow the camp up while we’re gone.”

“No promises,” Ming said, looking very serious. “I’ll do my best, though.”

“That’s all anyone can ask,” Arek said, hiding his smirk and pulling out the gold medallion. He pressed the inlaid button at its center and popped out of existance.

The orc was greeted by a swathe of greenery. Even after the period of time where he’d forgotten to water them for a while, the plants had come back strong. They’d more than doubled their original size.

Arek wasn’t sure if he could be proud, as the only thing he’d done is bring barrels of water. Luckily, he owned the garden, so there wasn’t anyone around to argue with him.

He walked down the rows of crops, pausing to sniff the basil and marvel at how large plants had gotten. He plucked a leaf from a large, purple hued basil plant and popped it into his mouth.

The orc grimaced. It tasted like cinnamon more than basil.

“I’m sure there’s some use for you,” he informed the plant before turning towards what Lewis had referred to as cuttings.

They’d grown even further. They didn’t quite resemble full miniature trees yet, but they were working on it. Several of the leaves on the cuttings were larger than his hands. The wood seemed to have thickened slightly as well.

Several of the cuttings had miniscule green bumps sticking out from between the branches. Arek frowned, peering closer at them. The bumps were rather bulbous and the same color as the leaves.

They seemed to be part of the plant, but they were different from the buds that the leaves came out of. Arek sniffed one of the bulbs, but it smelled no different from the rest of the plant.

He contemplated pulling them off, but since the plant seemed to be thriving, he decided it would be best to leave it alone. Perhaps someone in Red Mount would know something about cuttings.

Satisfied, Arek blinked back into the real world. He brushed some of the dirt off his pants and headed into his tent to absorb everything that had happened today.