'They will do their own thing? Maybe talking to the other group members would help me steer their plans a little.. What were Edmund's words when he introduced us to his game? Frozen when caught? Another source of warmth? Maybe it's a similar state to what he was in when I last saw him at the camp. Either that meant heat like flame or warmth of other people.. He acted like I wanted to usurp his leader position.. inferiority complex?'

His thoughts were running in circles, trying out strategies and failing different imaginary situations.

'They will fight him so we will have to keep up and support them. Be there when they engage so we can help at any moment's notice.'

Looking around, Dave noticed Ray coming out of the chapel, carrying a tiny satchel bound to his left wrist and a whistle to the other. "Seems like the boy is finally done, quick tell us what you got so I'll get my charm and we'll be on our way." Alexander snarked as he noticed the same thing. Ray flinched at the verbal lashing, before looking at Dave. Taking a deep breath he stepped close and whispered "The changing animal..."

Putting the jester and plant charm in his pocket, he put the beast charm into Ray's hand and walked up to Alexander.

Dave glanced over at John, who was in a surprisingly calm discussion with Kelly about how to smack someone good before talking in hushed tones. "Let's fight Edmund at the campfire, John didn't take my plans well, but you seem like the more sensible of you two.

I'm sure you can see the advantages of working together and I feel like it will be easier for you to make slight suggestions to John.. We'll at least be able to join in as support if things go wrong." For a good measure Dave put a few nuts into his hand. "I don't know what weapon you got, but your symbol, the green glowing ichor.. it reminded me that I still had some left over.. I feel like your skills could be connected to salves and poison? These nuts have a paralytic agent in them. They should help in the fight against Edmund, if your class can boost them."

Alexander's eyes lit up as he quickly put away the charm and nuts. He gave Dave a subtle nod, which looked more like a head tilt and went back to his group as their discussion veered towards low blows.

Seeing their last member rejoining the group, John started walking.

"We got all we need, I hope to see you at sunrise."

He gave Dave a confident grin, before walking back towards the campfire with the other two in tow.

Ray stood awkwardly in front of Dave, before gathering his resolve. "I inherited the legacy of the beast masters. Not only will I be able to bond with an animal or beast, I also gain their abilities. The whistle can be used to call for it after bonding, to confuse or distract enemies. The satchel produces special feed after I bond with my partner.." Visibly deflating, Ray looked unsurely at Dave. "I'm sorry that I'm not much of a help.. but I promise to do my best.."

Dave put one hand on Ray's shoulder and gave him his most charming smile. A smile so beautiful, it would be able to conquer nations and beauties all around the world, of course that description was only in his head.

His other hand pulled something out of his satchel and put it into Ray's open hand. "Ya like rocks?"

Their eyes widened as the rock began to crack and glow. Dave took a few steps back as Ray started shouting. "Did you make me bond with a rock?!"

The rock slowly crumbled apart to reveal a small chick, with onyx colored rock like feathers. It blinked with it's beautiful golden orbs as it chirped at Ray and pecked his finger, showing him either love or hunger.

"Uh.. we could ask it what it's cooking? To finally find out what the roc is cooking?" Dave said with a wobbly smile and stepped back closer to look at their new companion. "Thank God I won't have to change my rock puns too much.."

"..thank you Dave, this is the best companion I could ever hope for." Ray gave Dave a hug as the chick jumped from his hand to his shoulder to peck his cheek.

"You are..welcome? Take good care of Rocky." Dave said in fond reminiscence as he tried to pet the hatchling only to get pecked.

"So.. that happened? I mean, I'm glad it happened after they left.. now we should discuss plans and abilities after Evergreen rejoins us." Dave uttered, rubbing his temples while sorting his thoughts.

"Evergreen?" Ray questioned.

"Evergreen." Dave said as he looked behind Ray.

Ray felt someone tap his shoulder and turned around to be greeted by a masked and hooded person, making him jump as he let out a squeaky shout.

"Indeed, let me introduce: Evergreen. Not a very vocal person but quite talkative."

After the short introduction Ray and Evergreen stared at each other, Ray was slowly calming down only to be smothered by the ensuing blanket of awkward silence. "Uh.. talkative?" He tried to start a conversation.

Her gentle nod made him light up. "I'm Ray! I was at the campfire too! Gods, I was so happy to meet people for the first time in a while, so I'm glad I finally have someone to talk to who is enjoying it as much as I do. I hope we can be good friends Evergreen!"

Dave watched as one babbled and gesticulated like mad, while the other one answered with calm nods or headshakes, rarely pointing at different things like him or Ropey. He slowly tuned out their talk to go over the future course or action.

'If I'm right, the stones and the throne symbolize the same order which was in the chapel. The stones only lack the symbol of the paintings. Everyone with a class has a charm and has to put it down on their respective stone.. the throne was in the middle with the other stones surrounding it. What was the order of the paintings when I came into the chapel again? From the right of the entrance towards the big painting.. it was the seed and the shield first, I vividly remember the ripped painting of the seed.

Luckily I got my class before the others so I could look at all the paintings.. Nobody took notice of the details and Evergreen saw a different chapel.. Did they hold back information? Possible.. Back to the order. After that came.. the beast? The mace? I know the last one was the musical notes and dagger.'

"Hey Ray, was the picture of the beast to the left or to the right of the huge painting?"

"Uh.. the left? It was the only picture left except the big one.. and the seed one.. yes it was to the left of the big painting!" Ray confidently answered.

'So it was seed, shield, mace.. then we have the throne, beast, corpse and at last musical notes.'

Taking a twig and starting to draw on the ground Dave started explaining. "This stone here is where you need to paste your charm, we have to make sure everyone puts their charm on the right place."

Ray and Evergreen turned to look towards his drawing, confused at Dave interrupting their chat.

"What? Why?" Ray looked at the drawing in confusion.

"Well, we got welcomed at the very beginning to be participants of the game, I still have some memories about games I played before. Rpg games usually dropped stupid hints to silly puzzles like this."

"Games? Puzzles?"

"Indeed. From the very start the arrangement of the stones and the throne was a hint, in combination with our side quests we got another one.

It's like a bad mystery quest in some rpg. When I saw the lore drop and the order of the paintings I was sure. Edmund is Edmund, but at the same time not. If this was a murder mystery in a mansion the murderer would have been the butler.

Edmund is the hunter but at the same time the hunter isn't Edmund, look at the side quests description. So.. We have to make sure he stays alive and make him paste the last charm on the stone. Evergreen doesn't have the seed class so the logical conclusion is that Edmund has it. I don't think the game would give us unbeatable quests. To finish it off, we smash the throne and pull out the party poppers while waiting for the sunrise."

Ray and Evergreen looked at Dave in confusion, he spoke words and Ray knew the meaning of the words, but combining them into that order just stopped making sense and confused him greatly. "Did you.. understand what he just said?" He whispered to his cloaked companion. A hand waving in a so-so motion cheered him up. "That means I'm not stupid thank the gods." With a heavy sigh Ray looked back at Dave, who watched their skit with a deadpan expression.

"Unga bunga, Ray stick paper on magic stone!" Dave pointed at a stone in his drawing. "Was that understandable?"

Ray, as his name implied, ignored the sarcasm and shot him a beaming smile. "Thank you, yes it was."

Evergreen pulled at Dave's shirt and pointed at herself. "You? Well, if everything goes as planned, we won't have to do much, but you will be our wild card if that's okey?"

She tilted her head in thought and Dave noticed the top of her hood twitching again, before she agreed with a soft noise of affirmation.

"The plan is, you both remember the layout of the stones and symbols, we go go the campfire and paste out charms while they are fighting. Then we take off the heat and let them put their own charms on the right stones. Either of you can help them find the right spots. My guess is that Alexander's class is alchemist.. so he turns those paralytic nuts into a potion and throws it at Edmund.. that's how we get all the charms down on the stones.

Then we break the throne and wait till sunrise. Evergreen as our wildcard, will be hiding and if we get caught, she'll bail us out. It could include copious amounts of smashing fists into enemies." Dave summarized and gave Evergreen a grin at the end.

"Bail us out?"

"Remember how Edmund was in stasis when I rescued you? I have a feeling if he catches us we'll be like that until someone else touches us. Also talking about fighting.. what kind of abilities did you get?" He asked, looking at his companions.

"Uh.. I can take some of the abilities of my companion beast and morph partially into it? I feel a connection to the earth and fire, but I don't think I can morph into Rocky's form yet.. I'm probably able to spew some fire?" Ray tried to put the feeling of his abilities into words and looked at Evergreen and Dave. "I don't think it's strong enough to deal a lot of damage.."

"We should try it out later and see how it affects you.. I'm able to play a song and make people happy if it's a happy song." Dave proudly announced and looked at Evergreen expectantly. "Your ability is to make people..happy?" Ray asked uncertainty. "I.. I don't want to be rude.. but making your enemies happy during combat doesn't sound helpful.."

Dave shrugged. "I mean.. it can also make them sad? I can probably give people a second wind-like ability too when they are out of steam? It's more of a support ability really. It's just some light buffs.. Not everyone can be a badass fighter like our missy here" He finished and pointed at Evergreen, who already walked a bit off to the side and prepared for a demonstration.

Both watched in amazement as she started shadowboxing with high speed, picking up twigs, branches and stones, incorporating them into her fighting style. She finished by tackling the unsuspecting Dave to the ground and stopping her headbutt short of hitting him. Gasping for breath the downed youth looked into ruby eyes behind the mask. "This time you were even faster than before.. you are a closeup and personal.. Streetfighter? Maybe a forestfighter currently?" He said, unable to tear his gaze away.

Before she could answer, Ray started cheering.

"That was absolutely amazing! You went like whoosh and then bam bam and then you made stones and branches fly and appear from nowhere! That's so cool!!"

She stood up and dusted off her cloak. Dave could swear he saw her fluffy tail twitch, but chalked it up to weird magical shenanigans. He was very open-minded and would not judge a person's hobby.

"Let's collect some stronger vines if we see them and prepare for the coming fight shall we?" He tried his best to act in a noble manner, striking a lackadaisical pose while lying on the ground, only slightly ruined by a happily wiggling Ropey some dirt marring his face.