Three more brownies wandered through the area. These were slightly different than the ones Joe had fought previously. They seemed a little taller while their claws reached about an inch more. No one was going looking for handys from these monsters. A croak in the far tree drew his attention. A crow sat on the bottom limb, staring around the area. It was solid green and matched the leaves of the trees to an unnerving extent. When it bent down to preen a wing, Joe noticed that its beak was odd. He couldn't get a clear enough view to know why at the moment. He motioned Diana back, and she spoke as soon as they were clear.

"Well fuck Identify. I got almost nothing. The brownies had a bunch of question marks next to their names which turns out to be lesser dwarf gnoll. The bird is a green camo crow."

"The skill will probably get more useful as you level up and evolve it. None of the common skills are particularly strong I've noticed. It's still more information than we had before." Joe paused a moment and continued, "I'm going to draw the gnolls in take them out as quickly as I can. Try to keep the crow off me. Don't take these lightly. I'd bet money they're a higher level than anything but the fox so far."

Diana nodded, and they both moved towards the clearing again. Joe had retrieved his rock from earlier. He wanted to throw it at the crow, but he didn't know how agile it was. If he missed, it would alert the monsters to no gain. Joe decided to go with the known strategy and beaned the lead gnoll when they were on the far end of the clearing. It went down in a heap, weakly struggling to rise. The other two screamed and charged at him. Joe prepared to dodge and let them hit the thorns.

Joe dodged, but the rest didn't go to plan. The two monsters stopped short and came at him again, claws swiping frantically. His bat still gave Joe a reach advantage, but the insane nature of the monsters made them fight without restraint or fear of injury. Joe managed to kill one with a brutal hit to the skull but took a swipe along his calf from the other. He dodged back, but it was clumsy with him compensating for the fresh injury. The gnoll came forward again, and Joe moved forward to spear it in the head.

That was the point Joe would have lost a chunk of his face if he was alone. He saw the crow diving in at the last moment, but it was too late to do anything about it. A yell from behind him preceded a staff appearing over his shoulder. It didn't make contact, but the crow veered off to the side in avoidance. The last fully mobile gnoll was back on him, and Joe planted his foot right in its chest. The shock was back to hurting again, confirming what Joe already knew. These ones were stronger.

The ugly little monster staggered, and Joe ignored the twinge in his right leg as he almost turned its head backward with an adrenaline-powered horizontal swipe. With two down, he remembered to look up in time and threw himself to the ground. The crow shot over his head, and Joe gave himself some props for the dodge. That was until he heard the yell over his shoulder. Diana was holding the monster off, but its claws dug into her forearm, staining the area around it with crimson.

He jumped up and ran over as she throttled the bird and kept it away from her face. The distance was too close to use the bat, so Joe dropped it and wrapped both hands around the bird's body. He squeezed with everything he had and felt bones crunch under his grip. The monster finally released Diana and Joe wasted no time throwing it to the ground. A growl behind him made Joe spin and face the last dwarf gnoll. It had regained its feet and was starting to run in their direction. Joe didn't waste any time with it and crushed its skull once it was close.

Joe looked over to see Diana finishing off the crow. He picked up the loot and threw the berries to Diana. He noticed the crow dropped a sizeable green feather in addition to a pair of copper coins. The rest of the rewards were standard. At least in this rift, it looked like stronger monsters dropped the same stuff as their lower-ranked counterparts. Last but certainly not least, Joe picked up his rock. It was a reminder that anything could be a weapon in the right hands.

"Let's head back and heal up. We'll try this room again."

Diana nodded her assent. Her face was pained, and she had ripped the bottom of her shirt sleeve off to bind the wound on her forearm. It still wept a steady trickle of blood but didn't look debilitating, just painful. They moved to the halfway point between rooms, and both sat down.

"Try to move the berries energy towards your injury. Moving mana in my body was how I raised Connection. It also seemed to get more out of the berry."

Joe ate a berry and took his own advice. There was no opportunity to raise his Attributes until he leveled up, but it wasn't going to hurt anything to practice. Doing so took all his concentration, the mana feeling resistant and sluggish to his attempts. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and tried again with berry number two. Joe knew that magic was not his strong suit, but ignoring it wouldn't fix the problem. After twenty minutes, his various wounds felt better, crusted over as if they'd had several days to heal.

"Nice." Diana jumped slightly at Joe's word, opening her eyes. "Let's head back and try that again. I'll bait them in like before, but you handle the gnolls and I'll take out the crow as soon as its in range. How's your arm?"

Diana grimaced slightly as she put weight on the appendage and got to her feet.

"It hurts, but it's functional. The berries helped."

Round two with the monsters went a lot better. They divided their tasks; fortunately, the crow was a real lightweight. One solid hit took it out of the fight and let Joe attack the gnolls from behind. He made Diana finish everything but the bird monster to get her essence levels up from her inevitable level. They wandered back and saw the empty fox clearing before moving forward again. Either boss monsters took longer to respawn, or they didn't do it. Time would tell. They quietly scouted the next clearing before drawing back to discuss their plan. It held two gnolls, a crow and a snake.

"The snake is called a green sneaky snake. These names are awful. I'd kill these things based on the names alone."

Joe smiled before he answered. "It could always be worse. Maybe. Similar plan. I open with the rock and you take the two gnolls. Once I've handled the snake and the crow I'll back you up. Be careful and remember retreat is an option if we're over our head."

The fight went smoothly for the most part. The snake was much faster than its lesser brethren earlier in the rift, and Joe barely managed to spot it before it was on him. He kept clear and focused on smacking the crow out of the air. The left-handed volleyball spike he used wasn't going to make any fighting technique manuals, but it did the job. He stumbled when landing and moved forward with the momentum. It brought him far too close to the thorns for comfort, but the angry hiss behind him let Joe know that the snake had been too close for comfort.

Now that it was one on one, Joe finished the fight quickly. The snake was fast, and its bite was almost definitely venomous, but it didn't have much durability, just like the crow. He looked over and saw Diana wearing the gnolls down. She was slowing again, and these were stronger than before. Joe ran over and hit both of them in the back of the knees. The ugly little monsters went down with matching howls of pain. Diana finished the fight quickly after that. They retreated for another rest and healing session before trying again with similar results.

This was definitely a rift for absolute beginners. Joe knew he wasn't close to a combat genius, and he was accompanied by a mage with no magic attacks. If this rift had been anything other than the very lowest level, he doubted they would have even made it this far. The slow and steady pace was a little grating at times, and Joe forced down his impatience. It would only take one bad fight to kill him. Regeneration couldn't even fix arm gouges yet, and he doubted it would do much for a torn-out throat.

It was during their rest before scouting out room three that Diana finally got her last attribute. Joe couldn't contain his curiosity once the involuntary twitches had stopped.

"Which one?"

"Connection. You were right about the berries. Moving their mana around seemed to force the upgrade."

"Great. Let's head back and get you leveled."

Diana nodded her assent, and they made the short trip back towards the first boss clearing. The fox was still absent, but Joe carefully checked to be on the safe side. He hadn't forgotten the trap that had almost ended him the first time he encountered it. He gave the all-clear, and Diana spoke before engaging the pillar.

"What free Attribute do you think I should increase? If I had actual magic it would be an easy decision, but between that and the bonus Attributes I'm not sure where I should put it."

"That's going to be your call. You can either use it to lean into your strengths or shore up your weaknesses. I do know that Fortitude sucks to earn. There doesn't seem to be any way to gain it without getting the crap kicked out of you."

She nodded and placed her hand on the pillar. A short minute later, she moved away with a thoughtful look on her face. She rejoined Joe, and they moved forward. She spoke as they walked.

"I put it in Reflexes. It increases senses a bit as well. I feel like I have the Strength to keep up, but can't move fast enough to take the openings I see." She sighed before continuing, "It's probably going to suck to raise Vigor and Fortitude, but they are low enough I didn't want to spend my only point of either of them. I'm going to try and not get hit instead."

"That's probably a good idea. If you get some magic skills, you probably won't need to tank a lot of hits. Solid long-term planning. I was thinking about Senses myself for my next level. You ready to keep going?"

The next clearing was the same, with only an extra gnoll upping the difficulty. Diana did seem slightly faster, and her strikes were more sure. That was great as she had to hold off two healthy gnolls while Joe ran around spiking crowns and stomping snakes. She managed to only take a few scratches on her calves this time, though she was still gasping for air when they were finished. Joe was about to move back down the path when she held out a hand to stop him.

"Let's move forward. It's been a long day and I don't have anything close to your level of Vigor. I'm getting tired. I've probably only got a couple more fights left in me."

"OK, but we run the risk of getting stuck if we push too far forward without clearing the respawns behind us."

Diana grimaced. "I know but I can feel my body getting slower. If it follows the same pattern there's only one more room before a boss."

Joe nodded his head. She had a point. He wasn't tired enough to get sloppy yet, but it had been a long and very stressful day. He knew it wasn't the safest option, but damn did he want to level up. Joe supposed that was how these places usually killed people. The allure of power at your fingertips and money in your pocket probably encouraged people to move a little too far and fast. Still, he really, really wanted that next level. There was no way he stood a chance against the monsters on Earth at level two, and the thought of the monsters in the fields weighed heavily on him.

"OK, that sounds like a plan. If I call the retreat, just book it back to the portal. I don't know if any of these things can follow us through, but it beats dying either way."

They moved forward, and a pair of crows and snakes resided in the last clearing. Diana kept the birds off him as he killed the serpents, and they finished the crows together once they weren't worried about being poisoned. They quickly moved forward again and sat down to recover on the path. Each ate two berries and let the energy soothe their bodies before creeping up to the next clearing. Joe's heart soared when he saw the telltale pillar sticking out of the grass at the back edge of the meadow. He couldn't spot any monsters, just a really ugly tree.

Joe wasn't so clueless as to believe that the tree in question was normal and could be ignored. The tree was about ten feet tall and about a handspan thick. A few thinner branches hung down, with mottled yellow leaves unevenly distributed at the tips. It seemed covered in a black splotchy fungus that formed irregular lumps and looked diseased. Joe took a deep breath and caught a robust mildewy smell from the clearing. The thing screamed trap, and Diana confirmed his assessment by pointing straight at it.

"Corrupted Treant."

"Same as the fox then. I don't know what this thing can do, so try to keep behind me until we figure it out."

They moved into the small meadow, and nothing happened. Joe stared at the tree for a minute, and still no changes. He looked around in case they were wrong, and other than the ubiquitous thorn walls having a new yellow tinge, nothing seemed different. Uggghhh, this rift was starting to piss him off. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to have a face, so there was no convenient target for a rock. Joe settled for aiming at the trunk and let the stone fly. It hit with a satisfying smack, leaving a minor crack in the bark, and then all hell broke loose.

There was no roar of pain or rage, just the sound as the roots tore themselves free of the ground and branches whipped through the air in their direction. They were still out of range, but that would change shortly. The treant "stood" on five wobbly root legs and scuttled in their direction. Its size took up almost a quarter of the space for the clearing once you took its ridiculous reach into account. Joe pointed towards the left edge of the clearing and yelled as it picked up speed towards them.

"Move!"

Diana didn't hesitate and followed him as they ran to the side. The treant kept going for a moment but stopped well short of the thorns. There wasn't going to be any easy kiting in this fight. Joe discovered the other major problem this opponent presented. Once the treant had stopped its forward momentum, it didn't turn around. It just started going in the new direction, the multiple root legs moving as quickly in any direction. Joe pointed across the clearing as he yelled again.

"Don't get caught between it and the wall. Once we're past it I'm going to try and hit the roots. If we can slow it down we can do this."

They moved around the treant, and Joe caught a stinging slap on his shoulder as one of the branches reached down and swiped at him. It stung, but the damage wasn't causing any difficulties. Diana kept running once they were past, but Joe turned at aimed straight at the closest root. He hit it solidly but took two more hits on his shoulder for his trouble. He backpedaled out of range and considered his options.

It wasn't a good matchup. The root might be a little slower, but the wood took the hits from his bat better than flesh or bone. He needed something sharp to sever the damn things, but he'd been focused on blunt force trauma lately. Fortunately, this time he remembered his backup knife and drew it while dropping the bat. Secondly, the hits the treant landed were more annoying than damaging, feeling like a solid smack with a switch. But those were glancing blows, and Joe doubted he'd fair well if he got caught between its mass and the thorn wall behind him.

"I'm going to try again. Use your knife. My bat didn't do shit. If you see an easy shot, take it but be careful."

Joe ran around the treant again, earning two more hits for his efforts. They came in from a high angle, and Joe couldn't dodge them and ensure that he was out of root range simultaneously. Maybe he could get some spidey senses in the future, but for now, it was just eyes. Once the monster started to slow, Joe ran in and swiped at the root. His knife cut through the bark but stopped before it was more than a quarter of the way through the root. Joe ripped it back and saw sap glistening on the new wound. This time the treant did react, a mouth opening on its trunk. A thorny tongue snaked out, and the tree gave a coughing screech.

Joe stopped for a second at the sight, and it was a second too long. Instead of settling for whipping him, a branch the width of his thumb tightened painfully around his upper bicep and started to pull Joe towards the gaping mouth in the trunk. Joe activated Bite and craned his neck over towards the branch. He bit cleanly through the wood and stumbled backward before scrambling away. He spat the chunk of branch out of his mouth and continued to spit several more times. The sap tasted like lighter fluid mixed with pickle juice, and the burning let him know it was probably poisonous.

The treant screeched again and came towards Joe, branches whipping in a frenzy. He definitely had its attention. Diana came in behind it a second later a swiped at another root leg. She managed about the same damage and backed off quickly. She still yelped as she took a glancing swipe across her back. The treant had paused at the new damage, and Joe ran in to attack another root.

The fight took another ten minutes of back and forth before they each severed a root. At that point, the treant's mobility slowed enough to make the fight more of an inevitability. Ten minutes after that, the rest of the roots were gone, and Joe worked on pruning back the branches. His body was striped with welts from the monster's branches, and his skin felt on fire from the sap. Tough Skin was getting a workout from this boss, and despite the pain, Joe was happy with his purchase.

Eventually, nothing was left but a trunk with a mouth on the meadow grass. The damn thing was still alive, and Joe and Diana took a moment to catch their breath. Joe felt his stomach drop as a new shoot started growing out of the base.

"Fuck, it's healing. Help me kill the damn thing."

Two knives descended on the root and then the trunk. Joe took a couple swipes from the thorny tongue. Each of them burned just like the thorn wall, which was unpleasant. Joe ate a berry each time, though he couldn't focus on the energy in the middle of the fight. Finally, they sawed through the back of the trunk, cutting the monster in half. Joe backed off as fire finally consumed the boss, and a portal opened behind the system pillar.