Seven logged back onto Zodiac early into the afternoon.

“Oh.”

TidalWave, Third, Archy and Attracting. All four of the people on her friend list except for IEatTortillas were logged in. Unlike Attracting who was already level 17, the other three hadn’t levelled up at all.

[TidalWave has won the duel against player: Archy]

She automatically joined the party channel as soon as she logged in and she laughed as she saw that they were all dueling each other. It looks like they had taken the word practice seriously.

-Have they been fighting long?- She sent a message to Third.

-That makes it the 114th consecutive win for TidalWave.- He replied. She could tell he was probably laughing while typing it.

-Wow, that’s a lot.- She thought about the way Archy had acted after losing to Attracting -How is he taking it?-

-Really well actually. He is improving with every match. But your friend is even more impressive. He improves just as much as Archy when fighting so even when Archy catches up to his level of skill, TidalWave improves as well and defeats him. At this rate, we’ll be mowing down mobs easily once we get into battle.-

‘Damn, they’re both getting ahead of me.’ Seven felt bad that they’d all logged in early and had apparently had time for a lot of duels since then.

She began to walk towards them since she could see on the map nearby. They hadn’t moved far from where they all logged off after their first duel yesterday.

-Those two are on a roll. They’re concentrating hard enough that if we interfere we might break what is a great chance of improvement.-

-Let’s practice some of that rift defending you were talking about then.- Seven waved as she saw Third sitting by a log.

TidalWave and Archy barely noticed her as they were already beginning their 115th duel together.

She sat next to Third and watched them. It looked like they’d agreed on a set distance to start at but she still thought TidalWave was a bit too close since a couple of leaps could make sure that his sword was within stabbing distance of Archy’s stomach.

“He has already learned to delay his attacks by a bit.” Third commented for Seven’s benefit as the two duelists leaped into battle.

“But a delayed arrow will only result in a hit twenty-five percent of the time. After all, TidalWave has already learned the arrow travel time and will try to dodge when he notices that Archy hasn’t shot at him immediately.”

She watched intently as Archy shot an arrow and TidalWave dodged it, only to meet another arrow to the face. She gasped as TidalWave used the split second before being hit to dodge to the side and cause the arrow to miss. Third laughed as though it was expected but he had reacted to TidalWave’s movements and results earlier than she had. He was also reacting to a few things that she hadn’t even noticed happening.

Third was clearly seeing more than she was while watching the fight.

“Well, then those two will be at it for a while.” Third stood up and brushed his robes. “Let us go and practice a bit.”

They walked towards a small clearing, big enough to shoot magic in whilst not being too close to the trees.

“Well, although I would love to practice defending with my rifts, I feel like we need to practice your aim first.” he smashed his hand against a tree and caused the leaves to begin falling. “After all, your improvement will mean a lot to mine.”

She waited for the first leaf to fall halfway before shooting at it. The moment her magic blast got near it, a rift formed and the leaf changed direction, causing her to miss.

“You’re already rifting them?” She felt cheated.

“Archy developed bad habits because he practices with only the natural path of the leaves. You are lucky that you don’t have any habits at all yet. I will make sure that you don’t develop any if we can help it.”

*BANG*

He smacked the tree again.

*BANG*

*BANG*

*BANG*

“I can’t hit a single leaf!” Seven felt frustration course through her and it showed in her voice.

After adding the rifts into the practice she couldn’t even beat her record of hitting a single leaf as they fell down. She had tried several times to predict the movement of the leaves but she always seemed to be that little bit off.

“Yes.” Third agreed with her, “but you are improving remarkably fast.”

“I am?” She perked up. “What do you mean?”

“I presume you have only slain wolves and rabbits? Perhaps the odd dryad or treant?” Third asked her.

“Yeah.” Seven nodded.

“I could tell. Your attacks at the beginning were missing the leaves themselves by a wide margin, but they were still in the area of what a wolf would be. After all, you probably had no trouble hitting the wolves when they got up close to you. But the leaves are far smaller than a wolf, so rather than looking at how many leaves you are hitting, if you view it from the perspective of how close your shots are getting towards the leaves then you will realise that rather than having the shots miss by a wide margin they have centered closer towards your target.” He looked up into the air as though deep in thought, “I would say that if before you could hit a wolf with no issues, you could definitely hit something around double the size of a rabbit with no troubles now.”

‘How frightening.’ he thought to himself while giving the explanation, ‘And I thought that the warrior was the scariest of the bunch, but, both in the duo are talented. Very, very talented.’

“Again.”

*BANG*

Seven smiled as she saw he was right. She still wasn’t hitting the leaves with her magic blasts, but they were definitely a lot closer than they had been when she first started.

She was improving.

[Archy has won the duel against player: TidalWave]

After their 200th duel, Archy and TidalWave finally took a break. Their chances of winning against each other had reached about 50/50 but as the player with the longer range Archy held the advantage if he kept his distance. If he slipped up for a moment then TidalWave would destroy him within seconds.

“So what do we do now?” Archy asked.

Seven was content to continue practicing but admitted that she could understand why the others looked so sick of it.

“You know.” She suddenly recalled the strange conversation she’d had with Barnacle while waiting for her friends to receive their classes. “I think I have something we can do.”

[You have received the quest: Dragon’s Legacy. Deep within the Signet Woods lays the lair of a once-mighty dragon. Though now deceased, in life the dragon was widely feared as one of the rulers of the Signet Woods and nobody knows what wonders may appear in its collection. Find the dragon’s treasure hoard deep within the woods before others do. Quest condition: Quest will fail once the treasure has been located by other players or NPCs. Quest will automatically cancel if the details are shared with the player: Attracting.]

TidalWave and Archy whistled. A dragon’s treasure sounded very attractive.

“I’d wager that little detail lies in the class he has chosen. If he is truly a priest as Seven has told us” He recalled the talks they’d had during their long practice, “Then it is possible he had chosen a class disliked by the priests of Verm. Perhaps a corrupted priest or a priest class that worships another god.”

“Well,” TidalWave smiled. “We definitely have a goal now. If we need to buy supplies we can do that now or try and get as close to the treasure as we can and see what we can scrounge from mobs and the woods along the way.”

“I want to fight.” Archy said to nobody's surprise, “Let’s head out straight away.”

They all agreed and began to walk deeper into the woods.

The loud thumping of fists against trees accompanied the entire walk as both Archy and Seven refused to move a few meters without shooting at leaves. Their dedication to practice was as inspiring as it was annoying, so TidalWave was scouting ahead and Third spent the time recovering mana and reminding Seven to stay above a certain amount just in case they ran into mobs they needed to fight seriously.

She couldn’t see how far they were from the treasure; Instead, the quest marker gave her a vague direction and she followed it. This meant that they could be walking through the woods for days and still not have gotten near it.

The obliterated most of the mobs the moment they came into view. Despite spending his time on shooting leaves Archy had amazing situational awareness, the moment TidalWave threw his first slash an accompanying arrow was already flying into the head of the enemy monster.

[Player: Archy has slain a Dryad with a critical hit. +20xp to all party members.]

It turns out that every shot that hit the monsters in their weak spots would usually have a higher chance of a critical hit. Because the Dryads and Treants that inhabited the forest were slower and larger than TidalWave, Archy would almost always hit them in their heads and cause a critical hit to emerge.

“I hope you realise,” Seven watched the mobs going down like flies and smiled, “That there is almost definitely going to be a boss-type mob at the end of this quest.”

“Oh heck yes.” Archy fired arrow after arrow whilst running through the trees. “A big dark cave filled with dragon treasure? If that’s not the stage for a big fight I’ll eat my shoes.”

“I thought from your breath that you already had.” Third commented flippantly.

‘Damn Third chill.’ Seven giggled.

“I doubt it’ll be another dragon.” TidalWave was juggling the aggression of two treants and a dryad, dodging and attacking with ease, “Maybe something we’ve never encountered before moved in while the dragon was out.”

“Something big and evil most definitely.” Third finished the dryad with a rift to its body, “But the real question is whether it is something within our level to fight. It is very possible that something far outside our level will guard the dragon’s treasure.”

“So we check it out and then level up to match our opponent.” Archy said it as though it was simple. “As long as we know our opponent, then we can plan to beat it.”

Seven watched them talking with ease as they slew the mobs that kept appearing out of the woods. She could hardly focus on listening to them let alone taking part in the conversation whilst she was aiming her shots to hit the nearby treants attacking TidalWave.

She was trying to make sure to hit only their heads. She still missed most of the time, but if she aimed for the chest instead, she could hit it around eighty percent of the time. From her distance in the backline that was a big improvement compared to only a few hours before.

[You have slain a level 13 Dryad. You have gained +20xp]

The experience wasn’t that enticing if she was being honest with herself. Because there were four party members with varying levels they all gained less experience because of the even spread. But with three of them being so skilled, and with Archy and TidalWave almost designed to destroy mobs, fast pace that she received experience made up for the amount she received.

-29

She blasted a dryad in the stomach as it crawled out of a hidden nook in the woods to attack her. Their frontline took most of the aggression, but because this area had no other players around they were slowly being overwhelmed by more and more monsters.

The dryad itself wasn’t that difficult to fight but it would cost her a decent chunk of mana. Their attacks mainly consisted of high speed, close-range attacks with their hands. Green mana spewed forth from their fingers in the shape of talons that looked like they could shred through one of the great trees that surrounded them.

“Stone shift.”

She sidestepped the dryad as it screeched at her and attacked. She didn’t have to stone shift every time, but it provided her a better spot from which to orient herself because it slid her further away from the monster than a normal sidestep would.

-11

-11

The moment she sidestepped it, rifts opening inside and around it assaulted the dryad. Third had already predicted that she would dodge the monster and had summoned the rift directly into the spot she’d been in before so that the dryad would slash right into it.

“We might need to stop for a bit.” He said to her as they pelted the dryad with spells, “So that we can clear the mobs and recuperate.”

“Hey guys!” The dryad fell and she turned towards them to signal a stop.

Then she saw that they’d already killed all the mobs in the area.

They quickly found a clearing that was monster-free and looked at their path and supplies.

“Where are we at the moment?” They sat down and attempted to find out how far they’d walked.

“I’d say we’ve already passed out of Torkay’s territory and entered the Signet Woods outer ring.” Third tried to pinpoint their location taking into account how they’d slowed down to kill the mobs surrounding them.

The layout of the woods was grand. The entire area they’d been walking through so far was considered to be inside the jurisdiction of ‘Torkay’. The game still considered it to be within beginner territory so the mobs weren’t that difficult to deal with. From here on there was the outer Signet Woods and inner Signet Woods. They had no idea what kind of monsters would be within both but they knew that they were already going further than the beginner village potion shop could provide them for. TidalWave had already used up two of his potions and he had five left. Seven had a basic idea that the others were also not that prepared by luckily these were the woods and there was plenty of materials the could gain by looking around.

“I have the foraging skill.” Archy nodded, “Learned it from one of the farmers in the village.”

“Good.” Third nodded appreciatively, “Then here’s what I suggest we do…”

They nodded and began to set out to do their respective jobs. Third and Archy went off to forage since they could provide good cover for each other and TidalWave and Seven went looking for the location of other plants and things that Archy could forage later.

If they were lucky they might find natural food and remedies that could do a lot more than simply restoring 25 HP or MP like the lesser potions from Torkay.

“What are you doing?” Seven watched with fascination as TidalWave squatted next to a plant and began writing earnestly inside a little book in front of him.

“Recording journals. I do it for all the enemies we encounter using the system’s journal feature.” He stood up after noting the plant’s location, “I also like to write down the plant descriptions so we can weed out the useless ones that we don’t need to waste time looking for.”

“Show me, show me.” She looked at some of the entries.

[Starving Magical Wolf: Level 5. Armour; Nil. Can attack by lunging from medium range or using claws to swipe or push when in close combat. Prone to over-committing to long jumps allowing for easier access to the neck for a short period of time. I can counter-attack it without repercussions after I dodge the primary attack. Threat level: Low.]

“Wow. Those are some detailed notes.” She admired them and saw that he was completely correct, and because he’d only ever fought that creature once this was one of the less detailed notes.

“You should start doing some of this yourself.” He smiled and they moved onto the next section of the woods, “It’ll help you memorise their weak points once you can hit them accurately. Even if you can’t then who knows, a critical hit during a crucial moment might save you from dying.”

“Oh. I’ll give that a try as well.” Seven opened up the section that TidalWave was talking about and began to write.

[Wolf: It is grey. It is a big dog. Smaller than a person. Longer than a person.]

[Dryad: It is green. Kind of looks like a woman made of bark. Bigger than a human.]

[Treant: Looks like a tree. Is bigger than a Dryad.]

‘I am not cut out for this.’

“Practice makes perfect.” TidalWave checked her notes and then pretended to check out a tree so she wouldn’t have to see his laughing grin.

“You know I’ve been thinking.” He turned serious as they parted a bush to see if anything was growing underneath it, “We need a tank. Or maybe even a priest.”

He and Archy had been doing just fine fighting in the front line against the Dryads and Treants, in fact, they had been doing excellently, but they couldn’t dodge every attack and in the end, both were in classes made for dealing damage. They were only dealing so well because they were both skilled in dodging and had very high damage outputs.

“Third and Archy are great, but if we keep on going like this then even if we don’t have trouble in the woods we will at later levels of the game.”

“Are we still going to be in a party with them afterward?” She tilted her head and saw a small blue mushroom growing out of the ground.

[???. Requires appraisal skill to see the information.]

“Good question.” He nodded. “Maybe we’ll just wait and see until after this quest then.”

She was pretty amused to note that he hadn’t considered ditching her after this quest but found that she didn’t have the intention to stop playing with him either. She was improving so rapidly that it was almost mind boggling to her. Let alone TidalWave, working with Third and even seeing Archy in battle had led to her improving her aim, dodging and even timing of her attacks.

She just had to ignore that dread that came with the fact that the three monsters in her party that seemed to have all those things already.

Their journey came to a rather abrupt end as they found themselves in a spacious open area of the woods. The area itself had some very nice looking plants for picking up in the middle; however, there was a bigger problem in the area that made them hesitate.

[Corrupt Magica: level 20]

A wilted, purple flower was shuffling along the space using its roots to move. It was smaller than a person but looked sinister as it stood alone in the field.

“Guess we found something pretty interesting.” She watched its dying petals swaying in the breeze, “Those plants in the middle look pretty valuable to me.”

“Yeah, that’s one big flower. Looks like this is the border into the outer area of the woods.” TidalWave noted, “Let’s meet up with the guys and see if they want to take this thing out.”

They retreated after marking down the location in their journals.

‘Thank god he has a good memory.’ Seven had already forgotten the way they’d walked to get to the flower creature, let alone where all the plants they’d found were.

“I’m telling you this isn’t the same place that we agreed to meet!”

They arrived to find a very surprised Archy gaping at them and checking down on his map.

“Or maybe it is.”

At that moment, they made an implicit agreement between the group that they wouldn't allow Seven nor Archy to roam by themselves. Otherwise, once they’d wandered too far, it would be nearly impossible to find them again.

They quickly explained what they’d found. Because Archy didn’t have the appraisal ability they would need to eat each one of the plants at least once to identify their impact.

The plants came in four different kinds.

A bright red mushroom that varied in size depending on where the found them. The damper and darker the area, the larger the mushroom.

A glowing blue mushroom similar to what Seven had seen under the bush.

A spiky purple fruit that was extremely menacing. It looked like it would spear their cheeks if they ate it.

A green fruit shaped like a bean that they found growing off of the broken bark of trees.

Seven and TidalWave added to that their discovery of an orange flower than sprouted in odd areas here and there. Apparently Third and Archy hadn’t come across any but since Archy had the foraging skill, they would need to pick up the orange flowers on the way to the plant monster.

“So who wants to try them first?” Archy turned his head towards them only to see them all staring at him.

“Oh come on.”

“Makes sense to me.” TidalWave shoved the spiky purple fruit towards Archy, “You’re the one who has the foraging skill. You should have the information on whether these things are good or not.”

“Can’t I start with the green one?” He whined but took the purple fruit and shoved it into his mouth with a quick movement.

“Oh.” His eyes perked up.

[You have consumed a Spikey Killer. Monsters despise the smell of the fruit and will do their best to avoid it. Although they will not completely avoid attacking you because of the smell, it is less likely that monsters will target you while team members are around. Lasts 15 minutes.]

[You have consumed a Red Mushroom. A common ingredient in quality health potions it is better used during the practice of alchemy. Effect: gain +20 health over 5 seconds upon consumption.]

[You have consumed a Blue Mushroom. A common ingredient in quality mana potions it is better used during the practice of alchemy. Effect: gain +20 mana over 5 seconds upon consumption.]

[You have consumed a Green Bean. An uncommon ingredient in quality strength potions it is better used during the practice of alchemy. You can feel the power coursing through you. +1 Strength for 5 minutes. Is not stackable with other Green Beans.]

He quickly showed them the information from all four plants.

“We should save these.” Third immediately concluded, “We have enough health potions to last a while. These all look like extremely good items. At least once potions and alchemists become more common we might be able to get some decent ones made for us. Even if we split the finds equally, we’ll come out with a good amount later on.”

They agreed with him and decided to only give the two magic users a Spikey Killer each so that they wouldn’t be in too much trouble if they were caught in a monster swarm. They also made sure that they would look out for any strength increasing beans. It appeared they were rarer but they could be used to create strength potions, something which would undoubtedly come in handy later.

[Orange Sunflower: An uncommon ingredient in quality strength potions it is better used during the practice of alchemy. You can feel the power leaving you as you take a bite. -1 Strength for 5 minutes.]

The flowers turned out to be useless as a consumable but they were apparently another ingredient crucial for making strength potions.

They soon found themselves hiding behind trees and staring at the level 20 monster, which was guarding a group of plants. None of the plants seemed like the ones they had picked up so far. Seven could see Archy’s eyes sparkling as he eyed the greenery and she could see him thinking of the abilities they would have. It seemed he had developed a taste for consuming wild forest edibles.

“So we can definitely take that thing on, right?” Archy asked while he eyed the plants. “I mean, it’s only a level 20 monster.”

“It’s all alone and in a wide-open field with a big treasure in the middle,” TidalWave countered. “That screams boss fight to me.”

“Indeed.” Third agreed.

Together their average level was around 14. Archy was level 15 and TidalWave and Seven were level 14. Only Third was level 13 after all the fighting and Seven had gotten up to the cusp of level 15. If she killed this monster then she would definitely level up.

So there was around a six-level difference between them and this creature. They were all in full health and mana but it was still a big difference. They didn’t know what kinds of attacks it had either.

“I think we can do it.” She nodded towards Archy. “We have a pretty high damage output.”

She looked at the monster, “And it’s a giant flower. I think it’s pretty obvious what its weak spot is, and I don’t doubt Archy can hit it.”

The petals had wilted over the monster's face but between each petal was a gap the size of a melon through which they could see a bright purple bulb. It was giving out a pulsating glow that screamed ‘giant weak spot’.

“Let’s go.”

TidalWave made the final decision and moved towards the creature with the team following behind him.

The monster screeched and tentacle-like roots sprouted across its body as they came into its sight, and it rushed towards them. Archy and Third fanned out to the outer rim of the arena to pepper it with ranged attacks while Seven and TidalWave ran towards it and met it head-on.

-20

-20

Archy’s arrow dealt huge amount of consistent damage as they struck the roots and body of the monster. He gauged its ability to defend against his attacks was almost non-existent as long as TidalWave and Seven took care of the aggression.

-5

Unfortunately, when he hit the petals that guarded its main weak spot the damage was mitigated. They seemed wilted but a strong purple aura destroyed the arrows that came into contact with them. As the creature struck at TidalWave with its roots Archy rushed to be in line with his ally so that he could aim at the monster’s head.

-5

-40 (Critical hit!)

-5

He grinned in satisfaction. Although he was sure that not every hit to the weak spot would cause a critical hit, each one he got dealt double his usual damage. However, the moment he struck its core the flower screeched and spines shaped like spearheads shot out from its body towards Archy.

-10

-10

“Tch.” He cursed himself for not having dodged in time. He had dodged the third spine aimed at him but the first two had dealt a lot of damage. He would die if a couple more hit him.

“I’ll aim for the body.” TidalWave witnessed Archy getting hit and decided that he needed to keep his consecutive hit streak so that his passive would activate.

-27

-30

His sword lanced through the creature’s skin easily. As he struck it the monster sent more vines to attack him, but he smiled as he hit them as well to stack up his passive.

He was designed to kill monsters like this.

Seven dodged by him as the roots aimed for her as well. Unlike TidalWave she was using her ranged attacks to shoot at the creature’s bulb hoping to damage it more.

-24 (Critical hit!)

The moment she shot a magic blast at the creature’s core, it stopped moving. She jumped back at the sudden halt, fearing a retaliation similar to the spines that had shot at Archy but tiny roots sprouted all around the plant and began surrounding her from all sides.

[You have been grabbed. You cannot move for 0.5 seconds.]

She came to a halt as one a root wrapped around her leg. She took the opportunity to shoot out a magic blast. Luckily the flower was busy attacking TidalWave so she was soon moving again.

“The roots stop you from moving for half a second!” She let her team know just in case they hadn’t guessed already.

TidalWave gave her a small nod as he stabbed his sword into the plant, causing a small piece of it to carve away and fall to the grass.

-25

His passive that allowed each consecutive attack to do more damage than the last was kicking in.

The roots continued to multiply around her as she moved from side to side. Finally, the flower began to move again and Archy shot an arrow towards it.

Suddenly she felt a root reached up to grab her as she attacked the flower.

“Stone shift.” She acted out her emergency escape ability despite the fact that it cost mana.

The flower turned around and screeched at her just as Archy’s arrow came into contact with it.

“Ah damn.” Seven saw the arrow hit the side of the flower instead of the bulb. It dealt less damage due to not hitting a vital area.

By moving to the side she had accidentally caused the monster to face her, meaning Archy’s arrow had hit the wrong area.

“Never mind that.” TidalWave struck it from the side and another slice of its skin fell to the ground. “Keep an eye out for the roots.”

The pesky things were growing from the ground all around her and trying to grab her ankles. She could hardly sit still for a second before she had to dodge another one.

“Reaper’s fury.” A row of damage numbers appeared as TidalWave destroyed the roots nearest to him.

If she had the mana to spare Seven would have done the same with a wind blast. Unfortunately, the length of the battle was taking its toll on her. She stuck to the odd stone shift and peppered the flower with magic blasts. Because it was shorter than she was she could aim for the head easily, but hitting it between the petals was beyond her at the moment. She could only hope to hit it by luck or during small windows of time that it stood still to spread more roots.

-20

-10 (Fire damage)

-5

-5

-5

“Alright!” Archy yelled out gleefully as a flaming arrow hit the flower’s bulb and caused the entire plant to burst into flames.

For a few seconds, the plant hesitated as it seemed to be paralysed by the flames. Persistent burn damage was being dealt every second as well.

“Ice bolt.” Seven took advantage of the moment to charge and shoot

“Void Spear.”

Seven watched as her ice bolt and an ancient spear flashed by the petals and smashed against the inner bulb of the monster.

-27

-5

-88 (Critical hit!)

-5

-5

A string of damage numbers rose above the monster’s head as it finally stopped burning and instead slowly turned a pale shade of white and blue as Seven’s frost slowed its movements by 15%. Third’s spear didn’t have a disabling ability but instead caused the monster to cry out in pain as it dealt a massive amount of damage in one go.

-12

-24 (Critical hit!)

-12

Third was dealing the most damage out of all the team except for TidalWave. Rift after rift formed within the flower’s bulb as he waved his staff.

-10

Despite the size of his avatar he wasn’t a stranger to dodging, the moment his attacks struck and the flower retaliated, he moved to the side to avoid as many of the spines as he could, summoning rifts into their paths when he could.

-5

-5

The spines passed through the rifts and caused minor damage to the monster. Unfortunately, he missed most of the retaliatory spines because he couldn’t match their speed, but even minor damage was good. By the time the spines passed through the rifts the ones within the flower’s bulb disappeared and he was ready to start the cycle over again.

-25

Seven was blasted back a few steps as a stray root struck her. A single root had left her with only 4 HP. It was definitely a strong opponent. If they didn’t have the ability to dodge, especially TidalWave, then their entire party would have probably wiped within a few seconds.

+25

She chugged down a potion immediately and shot back into the battle. At this point even if she landed a critical hit TidalWave was doing so much damage that the monster was almost completely focused on him.

-57

-63

His damage was becoming increasingly insane as the creature’s size and concentration of roots towards him allowed him to keep an uninterrupted combo up against the mob. His attacks were dealing chunks of its health bar with each hit.

The flower seemed to perk up as it finally fell below a quarter of its maximum health. With another screech its petals opened up, leaving the bulb wide open, but at the same time forming a barrier around its head that shimmered bright purple.

-4

-4

-4

Third, Archy and Seven suddenly found their attacks dealing less damage as they aimed for the head and they switched to the body.

“It looks like it’s going to blow.” TidalWave warned them as the bright purple shield steadily grew in size and began pulsating.

“Indeed.” Third summoned another spear as he decided that using the last dregs of his mana would be worth it to make sure the creature died before it went off.

-44

-76

TidalWave and Third’s attacks brought the creature’s health dangerously low but with their combined damage the flower finally exploded as the shield burst and a glowing beam formed from the bulb, ready to fire out and hit the closest enemy.

TidalWave saw that it was too late to jump to the side and cursed. He only hoped that the beam wouldn’t have enough damage to kill him in one shot but it was a slim chance.

Seven saw the beam charging and ran straight to the monster, dodging the roots as they attacked and lifting her wand to slam into the creature’s side.

“Wind Blast!”

TidalWave looked at her in surprise as the monster took minor damage and was shifted by one foot to the side, causing its beam to fire and narrowly miss him. She breathed a sigh of relief but then realised that she hadn’t killed the monster with her attack.

-25

A root struck her and she jumped back to avoid the other roots.

TidalWave saw her health bar reaching critical levels but he wasn’t close enough to attack the plant with his sword. Seven saw him hesitate as he tried to figure out what to do and she realised that she would probably die and respawn all the way back at the village. Instead, she saw him lift his sword and throw it like a spear towards the creature, just like he had done against Attracting during their duel.

-153

An insane damage figure floated above the monster’s head and immediately the roots closing in on Seven turned to ash as it died. With a final screech of defiance, the flower exploded into purple light and ash, leaving behind a single blue glowing light in its place.

[Player: TidalWave has slain the creature: Corrupted Magica Level 20. Congratulations you have slain a creature far above your level! You have gained +2000XP.]

“Whew.”

All the party members burst into light as they levelled up at the same time. They had even gained extra experience for defeating an opponent well above their level. Seven saw her remaining 4HP and sighed. It had been a close call, but they had all made it out alive. She decided not to risk allowing it to heal back naturally over time and opted to eat one of the red mushrooms that they had foraged.

“Well then,” Archy stared greedily at the pile of plants that the Magica had been guarding and the blue light of the items it had left behind, “let’s see what we got shall we?”