C33 Trash Forest

The Wanderers, plus Eddie and his three golems, headed off towards Druid’s Recluse. They were an hour into the walk when Eddie noticed a small wooden village at least a mile to the right of him. The smog of the trash dump was heavy but he could definitely see some framework.

“Hey, Mira, what’s that over there?” Eddie asked curiously.

“Bookworm’s Booky. Bookworms, every mages worst nightmare. Kinda rare spawn actually.”

“Why is it a wooden village then? Are there people in there?”

“I did some research on it for a video idea I have. It’s the old mage college, they did a huge teleportation spell to put it in the trash dump rather than demolish it.”

“Oh, so Bookworms are attracted to books? That… Makes a lot of sense actually.”

“No one likes fighting bookworms,” Viktor added, puffing away at his cigarette. “Once you hit any of them with magic, they build resistance to it and share it with the other bookworms in an aura sphere. It’s like fighting a losing battle.”

“What do they look like?”

“Big brown armored worms,” Mira said. “I don’t mind worms actually. I know their bugs but the little ones are kinda cute.”

“But bookworms aren’t,” Viktor remarked. “They have no teeth since it constricts them with mana. They look like that old grandma from Spongebob. Their bodies are extremely adaptable and go wherever there is a heavy mana source. They’re a couple metres in length and can range from level 5-25. Their loot isn’t even worth much.”

Eddie was absorbing all the info. He kinda wanted to explore the rest of the dungeon by himself. “And Esps Enclave is after that? Right?”

“Yup,” Denzel said. “Esps are entirely magical. They’re kinda easy if you have good magic but apart from that they’re a pain in the ass to deal with. But I’d rather take them than the bookworms.”

“Good loot though,” Mira countered. “The higher ones drop essences, like the ones that make up the relic.”

“Hmm,” Eddie pondered on the thought of different monster types. He really wanted to see more. “All these seem really interesting. The only things I’ve seen are goblins, loot moles and trash pandas.”

“YOGURT FRIES! YOGURT FRIES!”

“Bear asks: what’s a loot mole?” Mira translated.

“A mole and it hides under loot in the Trashlands,” Eddie replied simply. “Interesting right, one caught me off guard but Frank saved me.”

They continued walking through the dungeon, passing Hell’s Hole. It was the furthest distance Eddie had been from his base and he was feeling slightly anxious. Most of the monsters at Hell’s Hole and past it were going to be extremely tough. Sure, he had some murderous killing machines acompanying him but there was still the fear of unknown that was lurking over his shoulders.

Eventually, huge trees stretching into the smog were spotted in the distance. It looked far larger in person than on the video; they loomed over the guild, belittling them. There was an eerie silence in the forest and there were no sounds of life- no birds, no sway of trees- dead silence. They were a dark green that blanketed any of the artificial light from above from coming inside. There wasn’t much shrubbery around, but moss completely covered the ground and bark on the trees.

Viktor threw his hands up in excitement. “Now this, this is a dungeon! I feel my butt cheeks clenching just at the thought of going inside. There is no over use of skulls or an aura of death, only instant death with a side order of druids.”

Eddie gulped as a shiver ran down his spine. He didn’t share the same outlook as Viktor did.

“Oh, Sir,” Frank said. “This will definitely be interesting.”

Eddie gulped again. “Y-Yeah, sure.”

“I wonder what sort of critters will be down in the undergrowth,” Grabby wondered. “I can’t see much life actually.”

At the front of the large party, Akira and Brody took the lead towards the right edge of the forest. Akira was nervous herself and apparently her fire magic was going to be useless. She brought the antidote one of her guild members had made and examined it again. They were small vials of purple liquid.

118x {Antidote To Evergrowing Moss}

Grade: Uncommon

Description: An antidote to the ravenous moss known as Evergrowing Moss. Last up to 3 hours.

“Two doses each,” Akira said, handing them out to everyone.

“Keep those 18 to ourselves,” Brody instructed.

She nodded. “I’m getting cold feet.”

“We’ll be fine,” Brody said, squeezing her shoulder.

She smiled at him and turned to the guild. “We only have two doses for each person. That’s six hours in total. We need to find the boss as quickly as we can and try and take it out. Put your tryharding boots on guys.”

Eddie leaned into Mira. “I don’t have those.”

“It’s a saying, we need try-hard.”

Eddie clicked his teeth. “Ohh, gotcha.”

“Right!” Akira shouted. “Get into the same groups as last time. Things might change up. Focus on your sense skills and take every precaution. This is serious, Wanderers, focus up!”

“Yes, Guild Master!”

Eddie was put into the same group with Mira and Akira. He was in the centre of the party since the mages needed to be protected. His golems were surrounding the group if anything was to go pear shaped. As he entered into the forest, darkness was swept over him and he could only see ten metres in front of him.

“Eddie!” Akira shouted for him. “Try and use your new golem.”

“Sure,” Eddie said. “Grabby, can you try to pull the tree in front of us out.”

“Alright, can do.”

The group was halted as Grabby went to the front and extended his drills into the moss covered ground. He double checked his balance was alright before aiming the crane-like hands towards the tree in front. It wasn't large and thick but tall and skinny and the crane-like hands were wrapped around it. Tension was immediately created as Grabby started to reel them in. “It’s right tough,” he commented.

“Can you get it up?” Eddie questioned.

“Aw, yeah… That is what she said.”

Eddie couldn’t help but chuckle as the rest of the guild did. Soon, the tree’s roots started to break off and it was pulled towards Grabby. “Aw, shoot,” he said calmly. He brought up his shields as the tree crashed against him. The rest of the guild members had all parted to the side and Eddie ran over to Grabby. The golem seemed fine as it moved the tree with its shields. “Grabby, you ok?”

“Aw, ye, fine. That tree was nothing.”

Eddie sighed a moment of relief but it soon turned to dread as thousands of shreeks echoed around the forest. They were terrifying yet harmonized together. They sounded female- druids.

“We pissed something off,” Viktor remarked.

“Tanks, cover around! Mages, stand on the tree!”

Frank grabbed Eddie like a child and hoisted him onto the mossy bark. His feet felt firmly planted as apparently his boots identified this as trash.

“All eyes open!” Akira shouted.

Eddie peeled his own as they stared off into the darkness. Apparently, the trees didn’t produce the darkness aura. Not only did they waste time in doing so, but now the forest was angry towards them.

“Something’s coming!” a mage shouted, using a skill. “Lots of them.”

The thud of the quadrupedal from the video could be heard all around them, followed by some shreeks. “Spells- ready!” Akira shouted, a hint of fear in her voice. The thuds started to get louder and louder, getting closer and closer.

Denzel slammed his fists together as he waited on the front line. Brody was just behind him along with Bear.

But then, when the thuds were almost next to them, everything went quiet.

“Too quiet,” Eddie finished in a whisper.

“What, Eddie?” Mira asked.

“Oh, nothing.”

Eddie could hear everyone’s heartbeat; it was that quiet. Too-

From the darkness on the edge, two large yellows stared at the guild. The monster let out a deep snarl as sharpened wooden teeth came next from the darkness. It was the size of a lion, but made entirely out of wood; moss grew everywhere on its body. There were flowers on its back but that didn’t take away from how frightening it looked.

Wooden Hound, Level 23

“They’re being controlled,” a whisper came from Akira, noticing the yellow eyes.

Then, other yellows were illuminated from the darkness. Eddie wished he brought a diaper with him because he was about to lose his lunch- not from the traditional way.

“Hold,” Akira whispered as more and more showed themselves.

There were about twenty surrounding them now, with the thing controlling them nowhere in sight. The guild were on eggshells and Akira was hesitant to give the order to attack.

“Ah, fudge it! Viktor shouted, letting off an arrow towards its eye.

The wooden hound reeled back as it’s eye exploded from the impact. The rest of the wooden hounds started sprinting towards them. “Engage!” Mira bellowed. “Don’t let them in!”

“Grabby, get down to the front,” Eddie instructed as he shot out a dead rat from his woggle staff.

“Righto,” Grabby said, unusually calm. The guild parted out of his way as Grabby headed towards the frontline. Once there, he slammed his Hansel and Gretel together to form the Meat Mower.

A wooden hound went to bite into the Meat Mower, but only found that it’s wooden teeth were chopped up like mere branches. It’s mangled face was now caught between Grabb’s shield and the Meat Mower. The poor monster was torn into nothing but shavings as it fell down into a pile.

You have slain Wooden Hound, Level 23

+93 EXP

+4 Living Wood

+2 Dark Sight Eyes

+21 Copper

“Nice job, Grabby!”

“Ye, no problem, mate.”

The battle ensued, it was brutal. The wooden hounds were powerful for their level and would take at least a team of five to bring only one down. They were relentless, fast and held no sense of self preservation. Frank and Robo stayed just behind the front line, it was too dangerous for them to head out. Frank kept stabbing over with his spear while Robo wrestled with the legs of the monsters, holding them still long enough for someone else to finish them off. Eddie was shooting trash left right and centre, he kept holding onto his trash wall spell in case of emergencies.

As the last of the hounds fell, an instant silence spread over the battlefield. Every groaned and moaned; littered with bite marks and wounds. Everyone started popping potions and the healers focused on the ones with low health.

“There’s something still out there,” Mira yelled.

Everyone dropped what they were doing and grabbed their weapons.

“Where?!” Akira shouted.

A woman's high pitched laugh came from the darkness, sending shivers down everyone's spines. “Humans, coming into our paradise. What a foolish decision.” It sounded like there were a thousand voices saying it at once.

“Hey, lady!” Denzel shouted. “Show yourself!”

A figure floated out from the darkness, drenched it white apparel; the white cloth draped over the moss as she floated a few feet from the darkness. She was glowing a soft white and she was-

“Damn, she’s hot,” Viktor said.

“A man akin of sin should not look upon a druid of the Evergrowing Moss.”

MINIBOSS

Druid Of Evergrowing Moss, Level 28

LEADER

CONTROLLER OF HOUNDS

ANIMATEAWOOD

Viktor shook his fist at the druid. “I’ll say what I like, thank you very much.”

Eddie had stopped and was admiring her beauty; the problem was, she was a mini boss. He didn’t think he could try and be friendly. Not everyone was like Sculptor. Plus, she was way out of his league.

“Hey there,” Eddie said as charismatically as he could, buying the group some time. They quickly caught on. “Mine name’s Eddie, what’s yours?”

“Foolish human!” she screeched, echoing a thousand other voices.

“Woah, woah, I just wanna talk. What’s been going on? Family problems? You know, is it that time of the month?”

All the women dropped their mouths at what Eddie just said. The druid went to speak but was hit by a huge fireball to the face from Akira. The druid’s health bar barely dropped a centimetre. She screeched and let out a sound wave, silencing everyone. Roots started to grow out from the moss and started attacking the group.

“I can use my magic!” Akira shouted.

“Same!” Mira shouted back.

“No skills from me either,” Denzel said.

Every started ducking for cover as the roots turned into spears and were fired at them. Most people stood behind Grabby as he raised his shields high up in the air. As Eddie was hiding beneath the log, all the mages and healers were panicking.

“She’s silenced everyone,” Akira said. “We’re gonna need to wait it out.”

“Wait it out?!” Mira angrily responded. “We’ll all be dead by then.”

Wooden spears pierced the tree they were hiding against and took out a mage and healer instantly.

Eddie was curious what a silence was but decided to hold his tongue for now. Just to test it, he aimed his woggle staff at a nearby tree and shouted his spell. He expected nothing to happen but rotten bananas sludged against it.

Everyone paused for a moment.

Nice Job! You have discovered a trait of the Trashmancer class.

Your magic falls under Unorthodoxy, therefore you cannot be silenced.

This one is actually pretty neat.

“My magic is unorthodox,” Eddie said.

“Of course it is!” Mira shouted. “Get up there and start firing.”

“Uhh, ok,” Eddie said, hopping up.

“Sir! Get down!” Frank shouted.

Eddie summoned the trash wall a dozen metres away from the druid and started moving it towards the druid. His mana plummeted as the speed of it increased tenfold. The druid saw it coming and braced for the impact. But even at the druid’s level, trash flying at 50 miles per hour would still hurt- a lot. It smashed against her, sending her barraleing back into a nearby try.

“Get here!” Brody shouted as the guild members on the other side of the log all strinted towards her. They pounced on her with everything but skills; arrows, swords, Meat Mower.

“NOOOOO!” the druid screamed as it let off it’s final attack. Wooden spears exploded out from her, killing multiple guild members and heavily injuring others.

Eddie was smiling up on top of the fallen tree and he didn’t even realise that one of those wooden spears had completely taken his arm off. He threw both of his hands up in the air and sprayed himself with his own blood. He looked at it for a moment, then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fainted.

Eddie was dreaming of eating piles of goblin meat. It was so juicy… So juicy. He grabbed one with his fork and it suddenly slapped him in the face. He cocked his head as he pulled it away. “Well that was rude.” He moved it closer to his mouth again but it slapped him for a second time.

He put it down on the plate and its face slowly turned into Akira’s.

“Eddie!” the meat shouted in her voice. “You’re fine! You just fainted!”

“Akira..? You’re one tasty piece of meat.”

The meat slapped him a little bit harder this time and Eddie eventually opened his eyes wide. He suddenly shot up and looked towards his arm. Akira quickly blocked his vision in case he fainted again. His arm was regrowing. He tried to wiggle free but found it useless.

“Eddie?” Akira asked him.

Eddie looked panicked but calmed down when he met Akira’s eyes. “Is my arm ok?”

“Yeah, fine, it’s regrowing from a healer's magic. It’s really gross so don’t look, ok?”

Eddie breathed a sigh of relief. It felt awful losing a limb. He looked up at Akira who was resting on his side. She caught his eye and blushed. “Eddie, stop.”

“I was just looking at you,” he professed.

She smiled as she rolled her eyes.

“Did we win?” Eddie asked.

“Barely, we lost five in total. A healer was among them.”

“So, my magic can’t be silenced?”

Akira shook her head. “No. Silence someone is a spell that disrupts the five main magics in the game. Unorthodox is anything that falls outside it.”

“So I hit the jackpot?”

She giggled. “I don’t think shooting trash is a jackpot.”

“Good point,” Eddie said, releasing a breath and lying back down.

“How is my master, Lady Akira?” Frank asked, kneeling down.

“He’s fine. He would have survived the attack anyway. He just fainted.”

“Not very manly of you to faint in the presence of such beauty, is it, Sir?”

“I’m not sure if we’ve been introduced yet,” Akira said, extending her hand out to Frank. She of course had seen Frank and knew that Eddie had built him. She just didn’t want to get that close to him right now.

“My name is Frank, Lady Akira. I am Master Eddie’s butler.”

“Does he ask you to call him master?” she questioned.

“Guys, I’m right here.”

“No, it is how he designed me,” Frank replied, ignoring Eddie.

Mira was next to bend down and check on Eddie. “Hey, nice thinking by the way,” she said. “You took a third of her HP off with that attack. That’s definitely going into the highlights.”

“Thanks, Mira. At least someone appreciates my trash magic,” he joked, glancing at Akira.

They all laughed until Eddie’s arm was regrown. It was strange, all he could feel was a soft numbness. It did completely ruin one the greaves he borrowed though. He sat up after and thanked the healer immensely.

“Oh, Eddie,” Akira said. “Next time, can you not take the tree out?”

“You asked,” he countered.

“I didn’t know a miniboss would show up.”

“That’s a fair point… Did Brody die?”

“No I’m here,” Brody responded a few steps away.

Eddie scowled and Akira noticed but didn’t say anything. She jumped on the fallen tree and clapped her hands together.

“Ok. From now on, no one will take out the trees or damage them in any way, right?”

“Yes, Guild Master.”

“Ok, good. Now will someone with a high carpentry skill chop this up because it’s uncommon,” she instructed, pointing beneath her.

While the guild was cutting the tree down and sorting themselves out, Eddie checked over his golems. Grabby himself didn’t have any damage but the wooden spears had taken off quite a bit of his shield's durability. Frank and Robo also seemed ok. After they were all sorted, he checked his own notifications.

You have slain MINIBOSS, Druid of the Evergrowing Moss, level 28!

+390 EXP

+24 Living Wood

+Living Wood Spear

+Wooden Druid Statue

+4 Silver

You have levelled up Trash Chute VI→VII

Mana Cost: 13

Distance: 8(+1)-48(+3)m

Damage:8(+1)-55(+3)

Cooldown: 4s

You have levelled up Trash Wall VI→VII

Mana Cost: 30

Defense Rating: 52(+2)-89(+4)

Damage: Undetermined

Cast time: 2.5s

Cooldown: 37s

You have levelled up Trash Wall VII→VIII

Mana Cost: 30

Defense Rating: 52(+2)-89(+4)

Damage: Undetermined

Cast time: 2.5s

Cooldown: 37s

Debuff: Smelly IV

-11 Charisma

Debuff: Dirty

-6 Charisma

“Damn, it’s levelling up fast now,” Eddie commented. He had also been covered in his blood so he wasn’t surprised he got even more dirtier and smellier. Before he went through the items he got, he brought his stat sheet up. It had been a while since he had properly looked at it.

User: EDDI3456

Level 6 (4 Points to Allocate)

Progression to next level: 10,118(+7,972)/16,400 EXP

Titles: Mage, Homeowner, Landowner, Landlord, Head Hunter, Genocidal Goblin Maniac Murder Hobo, Coward, Golemancer, Teacher,

Stats:

Constitution

8(+4)

Wisdom

28(+9)

Health

80(+40)

0.8 HP/S

Strength

3

Intelligence

17(+4)

Stamina

50(+20)

4(+0.2) SP/S

Dexterity

4(+2)

Luck

7(+2)

Mana

280(+90)

1.7(+0.4) MP/S

Endurance

5(+2)

Charisma

(-1)x-15=15

Status Effects:

Smelly IV: -6(-5) Charisma

Dirty III: -6(-3) Charisma

Classes

Professions

#1

Trashmancer

#1

Golemancy

#2

Golemancer

#2

None

#3

None

Passive Skills

Skills

Spells

T1 Trashman’s Eyes Rank II

T1 Golemancer’s Lifeline Rank I

T1 Trash Chute Rank VII

T1 Metalworking Rank III

T1 Trash Wall Rank VIII

T1 Engineering Rank II

T1 Flash Of Metal I

T1 Golemancy Rank III

T1 Weaponsmithing Rank V

T1 Cartography Rank II

T1 Armorsmithing Rank I

T1 Smelting Rank II

T1 Alchemy Rank I

Perks (Class)

Perks (Profession)

Trashmancer’s Deodorant

Classes For Thee

Eyes And Ears

“Oh, fiddlesticks,” Eddie cursed, he didn’t use his new teleportation skill. Then again, he struggled to think of the uses it could have had during the fight. “I’ll need to practise it sometime anyway.”

“Sir, are you talking to yourself again?”

“No. I just got something for you but I don’t think I wanna give it now.”

“My apologies, Sir. Deeply sorry,” Frank said, curving the side of his eyes- literally puppy eyes.

Eddie huffed as he brought out the living spear.

{Living Wood Spear}

Grade: Uncommon

Durability: 51/51

Damage: 37

Effects: Hikikomori II (+4% to all nature type enemies)

Description: A spear forged from the insides of a druid. Was she hot? Maybe. It is a spear made for killing nature type creatures.

“Holy hell, this is pretty good,” Eddie commented, gripping onto it with both hands.

Frank fell down to his knees and clasped his hands. “Please, Sir, accept my apology.”

Eddie pouted. “You kinda embarrassed me earlier.”

“Sir, that was for your own benefit. She laughed, didn't she?”

“Ugh, you’re right- again. Here you go, Frank.”

As it touched Frank’s metal fingers, Eddie could feel the murderous impulses ooze out of his body. Regardless, Frank was happy. As Eddie was sorting out the rest of the loot, he noticed his inventory space had increased.

“Mira,” Eddie said, calling her over.

“Yeah.”

“Why is my inventory bigger?”

“It gets like that per level. You can also buy more inventory space at the central square in Arindought, or get the little cute pouches.”

“Oh,” Eddie pondered. His inventory could probably fit Grabby and Frank.

“We need to go now!” Akira shouted on top of the fallen tree.