Amak led me to a small clearing in the forest where the two of us found Rock waiting for us. Immediately upon entering said clearing, one thing stood out to me more than anything else.

Rock looked like shit.

Hasn’t it just been a few days?

Dark circles crested his eyes. The green sections of his skin were more muted, looking grayish now. Hell, it could have just been my imagination, but the cracks of light on his skin even looked a bit dimmer.

I was of half a mind to tell him to go take a nap, truthfully. Despite his condition, however, he wasted no time, launching into what he had to say as soon as we neared.

“I will first report: There have been no casualties on either side. A few scares, here and there, but thankfully, no real fighting broke out between us and the kexids.”

Even his voice sounded a bit scratchy. How much had he been running around for this?

While the literal sound of it was rough, however, the words themselves were a sound for sore ears. Having people dying out of a misunderstanding would be a double tragedy. Plus, even with how relaxed — if perhaps a bit delusional — Ava was being about everything, I doubted she’d be happy to hear it if her people had been killed.

“Luckily, it turned out one of the kexids had a rare comprehension skill. Invaluable. We were able to open a line of communication.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. Being the single person — well, sort of outside of Barb — who could communicate with both the shadows and the kexids had left me feeling a pressure I really hadn’t wanted. It sounded like I would be a bit less vital on that front now.

“I spoke with the Elder and updated him on the situation. Though this sudden kexid business is a rather large burden and he was not overly happy about the situation with the Heart, he is immeasurably pleased to hear the deadlands will no longer be expanding. He wishes to pass on his thanks to you, Protagonist.”

Nice. I nodded.

With the kexid issue taken care of and the Elder informed of everything, I wasn’t sure what else there really was to talk about. Rock, on the other hand, seemed to have a good deal more on his mind.

“There are four more things I have to share with you two. First, the kexids plan to come here en masse. They are aware there is not enough food to sustain them here and are working out the logistics, but you should expect more of them to start showing up soon.”

All right. Nothing really unexpected there. Ava was here, and I’d been expecting the kexids to catch up to their Hive Queen eventually.

“Second, I am…” He paused, gritting his teeth together with a scowl. “I am stepping down from my position as Forest Commander. I am informing both of you so that you are aware. However, I am not taking questions on this or discussing it further.”

Wait, what?

The kexids coming here hadn’t shocked me too much, but this one was coming out of left field. What could possibly convince Rock — Mr. Gung-ho “For the forest!” — to step down? He hadn’t been fired had he? While I wasn’t always his biggest fan, the guy had literally died trying to save his home. If anything, I’d figured he’d get some sort of medal.

Maybe it’s for a good reason? Now that the deadlands weren’t expanding and the kexids were no longer hostile, maybe the position just wasn’t as important. Still, that didn’t explain why Rock seemed so bitter about it.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t really my business. For Amak, on the other hand…

I could almost see him failing to parse the commander’s — the ex-commander’s — words. Were it not for Rock’s express statement that he wouldn’t take questions, it looked like Amak would be bombarding him with them. Even now, I thought he might ask them anyway.

Eventually, however, whatever words he had died on his lips. He schooled his expression and nodded, signaling Rock to continue.

“Third — and this is provisional, but barring any changes, will likely be the case — we will be moving a large contingent of the Redmoss Tribe to Emer’Thalis. They will be arriving in the coming weeks to establish a permanent village.”

I paused, certain that I’d misheard him. Stepping down as the commander was wild enough. He couldn’t have actually said what I thought he’d just said, could he?

“Sorry. What? Why? The whole point of the shadows even being here in the first place was to stop the deadlands from expanding and then scram. Why would you actually move here?”

It was, to my knowledge, pretty much the crappiest real estate imaginable — many times smaller than their own forest; surrounded by cracked, dry earth and ruins; and filled with freaky dark-veined trees.

“The dryad,” he answered. “And the Heart.”

I could kind of understand why they’d want to move to be near Elphaea. Dryads were a huge deal to the shadows, and Elphaea was, after all, trapped here for now. Still. An entire village? And Elphaea being trapped was supposed to be a temporary issue anyway.

“What do you mean about Hartha? Why would she factor into this at all? Once she’s back, just get her to bring Elphaea back to the main forest with her.” Hadn’t that been the plan all along?

Amak frowned knowingly, and Rock shook his head. “You saw the class change she underwent, yes?”

I nodded. Of course I had. Hartha had suddenly solo-killed a full room of shades in the dungeon with some ridiculous class skill. Afterwards, she’d had dark veins running across her body, and her class had updated to Dark Heart of the Forest. I still didn’t see what that had to do with anything.

Rock grunted. “If you recall, she mentioned some… consequences with the class. It is not particularly difficult to deduce what those consequences are. In some way, shape, or form, her class is now specific to dark forests.” He gestured around us to the trees and the inky mana running through them. “Many of her skills and quests are likely tied to this area now. She will find it difficult to level or use her skills effectively back home.”

Huh. No wonder Hartha hadn’t immediately picked that class up. It was kind of sad, honestly: If the rest of us hadn’t been so useless against the shades, she wouldn’t have had to. She’d knowingly stunted her path forward to save us all.

Should really throw her some kind of party when she gets back.

Ultimately though, when she did come back, she’d either be stuck here, away from her home, or stuck back in the main forest, feeling useless and never leveling.

Unless they moved with her.

“So, just like that? You’re all moving?” It was kind of hard to take in. And sudden.

Rock scoffed. “No, girl, not ‘just like that.’ It is a lengthy and ongoing discussion which is receiving input from much of the tribe. In the end, however, we did not establish contact with a dryad and gain a Heart just to toss them away. There is some level of curiosity about the dungeon as well.”

Hell. First the kexids. Then Elphaea. Then Tuk. Now this. It seemed like every time I expected people to start heading out, more people just arrived instead. What was happening?

Well, fine. Despite nominally owning the area, it wasn’t really my business anyway. I was glad to be told, but it wasn’t like I was going to try to say no to them.

“You said there were four things to report?” Hopefully the last one would be something smaller.

Rock grunted, this time turning squarely to Amak. “The Elder has decided to stay behind and lead the members of the tribe that will remain in the forest. He is passing all control over the Emer’Thalis settlement over to you. I am aware that this is a change in plans. It was to be many more years before you took over for the Elder, but it was widely agreed that this was the proper call to make.”

This announcement seemed to shake both of us, though our reasons were probably slightly different.

How the hell did no one ever tell me Amak was in line to be the next chief? I mean, admittedly it kind of made sense. He was always with the Elder. And he was involved in a lot of important decisions.

But why on earth had he been the one in charge of taking care of me then? I’d had the future leader of the tribe prodding me awake when I slept in!

Ughh. Why does this feel so embarrassing?

Amak’s reaction was perhaps a bit different. He stared at Rock for a time before opening his mouth just to utter a single syllable.

“Oh.”

His silence renewed itself, growing uncomfortable for a second before he at last broke it.

“If you’ll excuse me, then. Going to take a moment.” Without waiting for a response, he turned around and left the clearing.

The two of us stood there mute, watching as he left. When at last he was out of sight, Rock let out a sigh, although it came out raspy, halfway to a cough.

I turned to him, taking in his rundown state. After briefly fishing through my inventory, I brought out the last of my bottle of wine.

“Drink?” Seemed like he needed one.

He eyed it over for a moment, looking like he was about to turn it down before changing his mind. He nodded and grabbed it from my hand, taking a long swig.

It could have been a trick of the light, but it seemed like some color returned to his face almost instantly. He turned the bottle upside down, and much to both of our dismay, nothing came out.

Did he really have to drink the entire rest of it?

Well, whatever. Looked like he’d needed it.

He stared at the empty bottle, frowning. “That was… significantly better than expected. Thank you. Is this the stuff they serve at that bar?”

Having only been here briefly for the dungeon run and then having turned right back around, Rock hadn’t had a chance to avail himself of the city’s amenities yet. I nodded.

“Interesting… Well. That’s all I had. If you’ll excuse me, I’d like to rest for a while.” Without waiting for my response, he followed in Amak’s footsteps, departing from the clearing. With the two of them gone, I stood there all alone.

Weirdly enough, this probably ranks pretty high on strangest mornings I’ve had. First the giant fish. Now all of this. For all that I’d expected things to die down after finishing my quest, it seemed that they were starting to ramp up.

Hopefully things will calm down at least a little bit?

~~~~~~

For a few days, things did calm down at least a little bit. It felt like some sort of miracle.

From a training perspective, I spent the bulk of my time working on cantrips. With my Wisdom offering me a means of casting the spells essentially nonstop, I became constantly surrounded by short-lived flames, motes of light, and patches of wet earth.

The actual leveling speed of the spells was sadly fairly slow — and the leveling speed of the spell classes trailed behind even that — but in fairness, I’d only been at it for a few days. There were, after all, people who’d spent decades on this sort of thing, and I couldn’t expect to reach them after a few hardcore training sessions.

Despite the timer having long since elapsed, I notably did not return to my class space. I would eventually, but frankly, I wasn’t sure how I was going to deal with those teeth-fish. And while perhaps this shouldn’t have been such a big consideration, Rock had finished the last of my wine, which — healthy or not — was occasionally a nice thing to have after getting violently killed.

Not all of my time was spent training and thinking about skills. I took walks. Spent what was perhaps an unreasonable amount of time in the personal section of the bathhouse. Got a bit more woodworking done. Trying something new this time, I was working on a little owl figurine instead of any jewelry. So far, it wasn’t much to look at, but that’s what practice was for, right?

Occasionally finding myself at a loss for what to do, I realized the extent to which I truly missed Cal and Hartha. For all that they weren’t the only friends I’d made, they certainly had been the closest, and I really just wished they’d come back.

While I was busy training, relaxing, and being moody about my friends, the rest of the city around me was not idle. Carpin, bless his logistical soul, had already started sending people through the dungeon. He’d picked out a few dungeon upgrades as well, spending some of our settlement energy to speed things along.

From what I’d heard so far, many groups were finding the dungeon difficult, as it contained a number of enemies that were highly resistant to physical damage. Thankfully, however, information was shared freely, and everyone knew what to expect going in. As of yet, no one had died.

As for Tuk, he and a number of other builders had started up on a storage house for food. Apparently, all it required on the magic end was a few ice mages for a freezer section. Once finished, the system would apparently kick in, automatically slowing the spoilage rates of all food items stored within.

It would have been nice if things continued just like that for a while. Slow. Uneventful. Sure, eventually, the kexids and the shadows would arrive, but even then, that wouldn’t be all that big a deal.

The peace and quiet, however, was broken all too soon.

A few days after my meeting with Rock, I was taking a short midday stroll through the ruins. The (somewhat eerie) calm and silence of it was broken by a voice which sounded out from above me at an impossibly amplified volume.

Initially, only a single word was shouted.

“BOY!”

Craning my head upwards, I spotted the source of the noise: A man who appeared to be riding a gryphon of all things. He was outside the city barrier, and it was only thanks to my Perception that I could see him half as well as I could at this distance.

Seemingly oblivious to my attention, he shouted on.

“I DON’T KNOW WHERE YOU’RE HIDING, BUT IF YOU DON’T GET YOUR WRINKLY ASS OUT HERE IN THE NEXT MINUTE, I’LL GRAB SOME SOAP AND SCRUB THE VERY TONGUE OUT OF YOUR MOUTH. GET OUT HERE! NOW!”