“What the hell is that?” Seven squinted her eyes. “A moving mountain?”

Part-way into their adventure they had found themselves looking up through the leaves at a large furry creature that was ambling around the outer ring area.

[Behemoth (Field Boss): Level 150]

The mammoth of a beast let out a mighty roar and the party scattered behind the nearby trees to prevent it from seeing them. A pack of large black and red birds accompanied the monster, flying around its head.

[Red Striped Crow: Level 30]

There were at least fifty of them.

“We can’t beat those things.” Seven said with certainty.

“Indeed,” Third and Spark Joy both nodded.

All three of them had snuck behind the same tree. Nearby Archy, TidalWave and Roxxy clumped together and watching the skies warily. Seven didn’t think that having Roxxy and Archy in the same area during a crisis like this was a good idea, but hopefully, TidalWave would prevent them from doing anything stupid to antagonise the sure-to-kill them enemies.

Spark Joy let out a dry chuckle at Seven’s Expression, “Roxxy is smarter than she acts.”

“I sincerely wish I could say the same about Archy.” Third shook his head in disappointment.

“Can that guy find us if we’re here?” Seven didn’t want to peek outside of the treeline in the fear that one of the monsters would spot her head as it bobbed out.

“I doubt it.” TidalWave was gazing at the creature intensely. “That thing is amazing. It would probably crush us with a toe if we provoked it.

She was sure that if a single one of those crows fought against them that they would have a difficult time. Mostly because the enemy was in the air. They would probably win eventually, but it was the massive behemoth that really worried her.

“They could have infrared vision for all we know.” Archy called out from the other side, “I could try to pick off one of the bir-”

“NO.” Spark Joy and Third called out simultaneously.

Their combined voices rebounded and echoed over and over again. The forest seemed to amplify every word as each one came out and Third’s face instantly paled as he realised what they’d done. In seconds the echoes had stopped but he feared they'd already done all the damage they needed to. The team waited while holding their breaths trying to hear any response from the bird monsters or the field boss.

*ROAR*

Everyone flinched as the behemoth made a sound that caused the ground beneath them to quake. They struggled to get their footing as the trees and the ground vibrated around them. They simultaneously glared at Archy and he put his hands up defensively.

“It wasn’t me.”

“It wasn’t us either.” Spark Joy commented dryly as the vibrating stopped and they watched the behemoth turn the opposite way and walk away.

The crows shrieked and began to dive-bomb the treeline in front of the behemoth. The trees repelled them from whatever forces were attacking them but it wouldn’t be long before they realised that they just had to calm down and start trying to filter through the cracks in the branches.

Seven could see arrows being fired out in retaliation to the kamikaze attacks but most either missed or dealt little damage. The behemoth began to stamp towards their source and she could tell that whoever was there was most likely going to die soon.

“Well great.” Archy looked relieved, he hadn’t thought that something else had attracted the monster's attention despite his words, “This clearly doesn’t involve us at all. We should get out of here.”

Seven was curious to see what kind of person had provoked the mighty field boss, but even she could see it was a lost cause. The person would probably be dead before they could reach them because the behemoth had accidentally stamped them underneath its foot.

“COME KNIGHTS OF MAGNOLIA AND FIGHT.”

“Oh-oh-oh.” Roxxy was clearly excited by the battle cry and was staring at Spark Joy with big round eyes to try and convince her to investigate, “Come on, it sounds like they have a big group.

“Archy?” TidalWave’s voice was low because he was still conscious of the mighty behemoth turning its attention towards them. “What’s up?”

Seven saw that Archy had turned pale. “I know that voice.”

“A companion?” Third asked calmly.

“A friend?” TidalWave asked at the same time.

If there was a friend in trouble, it might be more difficult to convince Archy to leave. Luckily the archer didn’t seem too keen to step in and fight the big creature. He even seemed a bit more eager to leave than before.

“I hope not.” Archy’s face returned to normal, “but since there’s no way to know for sure I’d say it’s safe for us to just leave and not look back.

“I, LEO HENTUS AM BEGINNING THE ATTACK.”

“What kind of showy moron announces his name like that.” Spark Joy said as she broke free of Roxxy’s tugging hands.

Seven faced Archy with a look of realisation, “So they’re related to you?”

“Please, I have class.” Archy tried to look nonchalant as he slowly grew more and more worried.

His face showed the conflict of his choice; Between the feeling of wanting to leave and wanting to help.

“If they’re in a big enough group, they might be able to get away from the birds.” TidalWave was the first to gather his thoughts together. “We just need to distract the behemoth away from them. I’m sure if we can figure out a way to run since it's far away from us. Maybe split up in different directions if it seems to be too fast.”

“But we’d have to get close to it to get its attention.” Spark Joy tried to imagine a scenario in which they could get close enough not to die once it discovered them.

“Not if we have long-range weapons.” Roxxy’s eyes sparkled as she eyed Third, Seven and Archy.

“My rifts cannot reach that distance.” Third immediately refused her.

“I don’t think my magic can reach that far.” Seven concurred.

Archy eyed his bow with suspicion. He was calculating how far he could shoot.

“It does not matter.” Third interjected, “Even if we could reach it with an arrow, the attack would never grab its attention. I doubt that mysterious party directly attacked the beast but even if it hasn’t completely gone aggressive against them, I would still need to hit it in a vital area in order for it to shift its attention away from such close targets.”

“We need to piss it off?” Seven translated.

“So what are its vital areas?” Roxxy asked.

“The eyes. Perhaps the inside of its mouth or maybe its neck.” Third shook his head. “All the areas we can’t reach.”

The behemoth had turned to face almost completely in the opposite direction because of the enemy party attacking the crows. They couldn’t reach any of the vital areas that Third had listed. It was going to be impossible to grab the field boss’s attention even if they did manage to hit it with an arrow.

“I got this. Flame arrow.” The arrow notched in Archy’s bow blazed into flames as he activated his skill.

It would provide 10 extra damage to his attack. If he was lucky it would activate a burn effect that would light the entire behemoth on fire and would deal a fixed five damage per second to it. It might attract its attention long enough for those under its attack to get away.

“Vital area… vital area…” Archy whispered it to himself like a chant as he fired the arrow.

The flaming arrow flew true and far in the air. The small trail of embers left in its wake contrasted beautifully with the colours of the monstrous beast and Seven watched it for several seconds before turning around and realising that Archy had already ditched them and was running off into the woods. She admired that he had such confidence in his shots but stayed around with the others to watch it. She didn’t know what he was thinking but even with the extra damage from the flaming arrow it probably wouldn't even phase the behemoth.

She watched the arrow fly and then she frowned. It was definitely going to hit the behemoth but she suddenly realised that there was one vital area that Third hadn’t mentioned. One that would definitely piss off any monster or person if they attacked it. And then she saw the arrow fly true right into its target.

Right into the small hole-like vital area between its butt cheeks.

-66 (Critical hit!)

The behemoth’s body lit up as the flaming arrow set the entire beast on fire, activating the burn effect. The huge beast let out a strangled yelp before rising and letting out a roar that shook the surrounding trees.

It immediately turned around far faster than it had been moving before. It’s four legs not wasting a second as the giant fiery monster rushed towards them with all the force of a moving mountain. They could see a different fire in its eyes as it seemed to pinpoint their location with frightening accuracy and then they shuddered as they realised it was too angry to even care about the trees causing it damage as it crushed everything in its path into a fine paste.

It was at that point that Seven began to run.

“SPLIT UP” She heard TidalWave’s voice yell out before the sounds of the raging behemoth destroying everything in its path completely overcame it.

The team didn’t hesitate to split off into groups. She and Spark Joy ran to their left, Roxxy and Third ran to the right. TidalWave was the only one fast enough to catch up to Archy who had gotten a head start on them all so he went straight forward. They hadn’t planned for this but they intuitively knew that if they each ran away individually the monsters nearby might pick them off once the crisis was over. If push came to shove, they could always private message each other the locations of nearby landmarks to group up.

Shrieks and yells resounded through the forest as the behemoth crushed monster after monster underneath its feet in its rage. The creature was seeing red as it made a beeline for the area from which the arrow that had shot into its ass originated.

Seven and Spark Joy breathed a sigh of relief as the behemoth stopped, confused, in the area that they had been in moments before. It sniffed the air and they nearly stumbled as the air seemed to suck them towards it. After a few seconds, the sucking force stopped and the beast ran forward with renewed rage.

It had smelt Archy or TidalWave.

“What do we do now?” Seven didn’t want to stop running in case the behemoth changed its path and started going after them.

“We hope they don’t die.” Spark Joy said gravely, “Even if they do, we can meet back in Lum if they respawn there. We should be able to farm back the levels soon enough. Hopefully they don’t lose any good equipment.”

“Oh.” Seven eyed the crows in the distance. Most had gone after the behemoth but a few stayed behind to keep up the attack on their original targets. “Let’s go help those guys. Maybe we can find out who caused this mess.”

She also wanted to know their connection to Archy.

“Good idea.” Spark Joy didn’t give out a peep of emotion, but her agreement made Seven suspicious.

Seven got the feeling that the tank wanted to torment the people that they’d risked their lives for. They rushed through the forest, quickly killing any dryads or other monsters they came across. She wondered if they could reach the other party before the level 30 flying monsters wiped them out.

-Hey. Are you guys safe?- Third’s private message went through to the entire team.

Seven and Spark Joy confirmed they were fine and heading towards the group of people that had started the attack. She could imagine Third sighing as Roxxy tried to convince him to join in fighting the crows.

-We’ll join up with you.- Roxxy messaged back.

They could all see from the party log that TidalWave and Archy hadn’t died yet but the two were probably still running from the giant angry monster crushing the forest. They could see the mountain-sized creature stampeding around trying to find their teammates. Luckily they were far enough away from it that there was no way it would find them.

The crows were a more immediate concern. Seven and Spark Joy were being slowed by dryads and treants enough that the sounds of fighting in the distance were growing more frantic. Soon they could visibly see a small crowd of figures fighting against three of the crows and losing. A few lay dead on the ground but there were still ten left fighting the crows.

Every single one of them wore hoods that covered their features.

The level 30 creatures were clearly too much for these guys to handle, but they had already heavily damaged two. Seven and Spark Joy were quickly closing in on the back of the pack, and the nearest crow was the most damaged.

“Hey, do you guys want help?” Seven decided to be nice before going in for the kill.

“YES PLEASE.” The loudest one that they’d heard screaming during the beginning of the attack shouted at them and they felt like covering their ears.

The crow also reacted to their presence and began another fierce attack. The two ran towards it and Seven began to rain fire from behind some of the cloaked figures. The three crows were huge enough that they almost seemed to blot out the sunshine.

“Sickle drag.” Spark Joy ran to the front of the crow and let her weapon fly.

The sickle and chain wrapped about the crow, disabling it. Then Spark Joy ran past the crow, dragging it alongside her. The chain began to flow back towards her, bringing along the struggling creature, and she followed the attack with a ground pound attack with her shield.

The hooded figures ran after her and the crow, crowding around it and smacking it with their swords.

‘Are these guys only warriors?’ Seven was confused.

She knew she had seen arrows being fired into the air but there were no archers around her now.

She fired magic blast after magic blast at the crow. She was trying to aim for its eyes, neck and other vital areas that Third had listed but the thing was thrashing around so quickly that while she hit its body with complete accuracy, she couldn’t get any critical hits. She wasn’t even sure anything except the eyes could be used to make a critical hit. But the things were only slightly bigger than the leaves.

Seven continued to rain down magic blasts on the heavily injured crow. Around her another hooded player cried out as they fell to the ground, dead. Despite the fact that the other players were slowly dropping like flies, she could tell that with Spark Joy’s tackiness the fight was coming around the manageable levels. Once Third and Roxxy joined up they would probably win quickly.

Spark Joy looked like she was enjoying herself. Seven could see that unlike what she’d thought previously, the tank’s strategy consisted of getting hit as little as possible. Spark Joy was dodging much like TidalWave did against the wolves. When she had to take a hit she moved her massive shield in the way at the last second to take the minimum amount of damage.

It was a simple display of raw skill but Seven had seen enough of her team fighting to know that Spark Joy didn’t lose out at all compared to them. Perhaps only TidalWave was clearly better than Spark Joy. If she combined forces with Roxxy as well, Seven could see how they would increase their combat power exponentially.

The nine hooded players had split up to destroy the crows or at least fend them off. While Spark Joy, Seven and a couple of other players dealt with the heavily injured crow, seven others scrambled around the less injured and the healthy crow.

-25

-25

-25

Her magic blasts were dealing steady streams of damage. She had no doubt that if they fought another Corrupted Magica the entire team would decimate it. However, these crows that had followed around the field boss were on another level altogether. On the ground they posed a threat but she was sure that if she had to fight them as they swooped in from the sky even with her practice she would probably miss the creatures until the moment they were right on top of her.

Spark Joy downed a health potion as the crow shrieked at her, swiping its claws down and getting angrier as it missed her. The girl incapacitated it again as her sickle drag came off of cooldown and Seven ran up to the crow as it was on the last sliver of health and sent a windblast its way.

-39

The crows began to disappear and Seven was happy to see that she’d gotten a huge chunk of experience in her bar. It left a white item light on the ground but they decided to move straight onto the other enemies. Seven and Spark Joy turned to the other two crows just in time to see them swipe at a player together and destroy the warrior’s health. There were only eight hooded figures left now.

“THEY’RE ALMOST DONE FOR.” Their leader took the death in his stride and renewed his attack on the two monsters.

Spark Joy and Seven sent glances at each other and moved in to attack the slightly more injured crow. The two monsters were working in tandem to fight their group now but one was moving slightly slower than the other.

“Shield Throw!” A voice called out through the treeline and a shield flew out and smacked against the injured bird.

Roxxy burst out through the trees and caught her shield as it flew back towards her. Then from the treeline Third followed it up with a giant void spear that came flying through the air and striking the stunned bird directly in the neck.

Roxxy and Spark Joy didn’t waste time getting into a rhythm as they moved around the crow, hurting it and drawing its aggression. Roxxy was a short-ranged fighter, but Spark Joy’s sickle could let her attack from a few feet away. The two alternated between tanking attacks and dancing between their ranges to spread out the hostility of the monster.

Third walked out calmly behind Roxxy and slowly made his way towards Seven as he fired off rift after rift into the crow. The hooded figures began faring a lot better once half of the enemy firepower was being concentrated on Roxxy and Spark Joy.

“TidalWave and Archy will be here in a few seconds,” Third updated them all as they fought.

The two unlucky teammates had bared the brunt of the behemoth’s anger, but luckily its giant size had worked against it. It hadn’t been able to spot them underneath the trees of the Signet Woods. They were running towards them now with TidalWave leading the way.

Fortunately, they hadn’t left Archy by himself or else the player would have gotten lost forever.

The crow began to shriek as its health dropped below a quarter. It thrashed crazily and blew Roxxy and a couple of the hooded figures back with a flap of its wings. Seven saw Spark Joy immediately take over tanking duties but the other crow took the chance to break through the other parties line up and focus its attacks on the sole tank.

“HELP HER.” The hooded figures leader jumped in front of Spark Joy and was promptly knocked flat on his butt as a crow claw swiped at him.

“Thanks.” Spark Joy otherwise ignored the bumbling figure and began dodging the crow attacks.

She wasn’t dealing as much damage as the others but because of her constant swipes she still managed to stop the crows from aiming at the fallen figure. Then after a second Roxxy joined up with her and the pressure lessened immensely. The magic blasts from Seven and rifts from Third were quickly bringing down the crow’s health despite the level disparity.

She sincerely regretted that the hooded figures were almost completely useless. They made good shields and dealt okay damage in numbers but individually they weren’t high leveled enough or skilled enough to fend off the monsters for long. Now that there were only seven left they were nearly dealing negative damage.

She was tempted to throw some of them into the crow claws to buy herself time to rest.

She wiped the thought out of her head as an arrow flew by and struck the heavily injured crow in one eye, immediately followed by another arrow into the other eye.

“You always get yourself into the funnest situations.” A warrior dashed out from behind the crow with his sword pointed outward.

“Hey guys.” Seven’s cheerful voice called out as TidalWave jumped into action and Archy fired shot after shot into the crows.

In a matter of seconds the arrows had struck the crow’s eyes enough time to critical hit it to death. The bird disappeared into dust and left behind a bright blue light. They turned to face the final crow and Seven could see that TidalWave was already ducking and weaving between its body and dodging its attacks. Roxxy joined him as they slashed the monster’s body and along with the others quickly brought down its health.

They didn’t suffer any more casualties as they quickly brought the other crow down. If the seven hooded figures had been by themselves, it might have been a different story but with TidalWave, Roxxy and Spark Joy sharing joint aggression the bird didn’t get another attack off on them before dying. It left a bright white light as an item dropped and Seven alongside the others except Roxxy, Spark Joy and Third levelled up.

It turns out the bird's drops were nothing to write home about especially after sharing them with the other team. Seven received a couple of potions and the respectfully gave most of the loot to the other party to make up for their losses.

Seven looked at the people they’d saved and realised that each of them was at most half the height of her party. Even Seven who was the shortest of the group by a fair margin, was a good foot taller than these newcomers. Each one threw back their hoods to reveal young faces with rather tacky beards attached.

“Good lord,” Seven breathed. “It’s a party of tiny dwarves.”

The loud-mouthed leader of the dwarves was at the front and he suddenly looked very nervous as he came face to face with an angry Archy.

“Augh. They’re just super small in real life.” Archy slammed his palm against his forehead. “That’s my little cousin.”

“We are dwarves!” One of them at the back cried out but their party ignored them.

“Y-your cousin?” Roxxy was taken aback, “How do you know that?”

“He didn’t change his avatar at all.” Archy seemed like he wanted to run from the sheer awkwardness of the situation. “Leo, how the hell did you find me here?”

Zodiac was huge. He refused to believe that his little cousin had stumbled across him with a party of people in the middle of these huge woods on this particular continent. The coincidence was shockingly unlikely. If it really was a coincidence he would ask Leo to buy a lottery ticket when he logged off.

“Hi, Archy.” Leo waved nervously then laughed, “When I went to your place I saw your internet history and checked which village you’d been researching.” His chest puffed out in pride at his admission.

‘Archy researching?’ Seven couldn’t help but think the two words didn’t go together.

“You shouldn’t be proud of that.” Roxxy seemed to have taken personal offense to the little man.

It seemed she had expected more from the person who had loudly attacked the monsters around the behemoth.

“That still doesn’t explain why you’re here. You weren’t even in Torkay… were you?” Archy looked uncertain at Leo’s team who all shook their heads. “Wait a second is that Melissa and Tommy?”

“Hi Archy.” The two kids called out sheepishly as he spotted them.

They shuffled their feet nervously as Archy’s gaze shifted to them. Tommy’s face grew red and Melissa elbowed him in the side as he tried to shrink away behind her.

“Wait.” Archy’s eyebrow rose, “Leo are these all people I know?”

“Not… all of them.” Leo also began to shuffle his feet nervously. “Just the ones that are here. Some of the dead ones. Some of the ones in other villages… Hey.” He gestured his hands at Archy’s team. “Do they have to be here for this?”

“Absolutely” Third stated.

“Hell yes.” Roxxy was having fun with it.

“One hundred percent” Seven nodded her head.

“I’m enjoying myself.” TidalWave added.

Archy groaned. “I don’t even know what this is. Scratch that.” He changed tactics and walked towards Tommy and Melissa. “You’re going to tell me what this is. Right now.”

“B-but it’ll sound super lame if we say it out loud.” Melissa all but disappeared as she decided that wrapping her hood further around her face and not responding any more would save her from this situation.

“Then you’ll have to tell me.” Archy walked up to Melissa and grabbed the tiny figure trying to conceal itself behind her.

Tommy looked at Melissa in horror as Archy turned on to him, but the hooded girl ignored the pleas for help his eyes were sending her.

“W-we’re the Knights of Magnolia.” Tommy’s face grew redder with every word. “We formed to protect our fair lady!”

“What’s a magnolia?” Seven was curious.

This little dwarf group had created a secret society. To her, it was completely and utterly adorable. The whole group of them called themselves knights but were quaking in their boots as Archy turned his gaze to meet all of theirs. They brought their eyes down to the ground but some were hiding smiles as the archer berated their companions but they got off scot-free.

“I think it’s a kind of fruit.” Spark Joy, who had been silent the entire time, answered her question from the side with an amused expression on her face. “Or maybe a flower of some sort.”

Archy’s face had slowly turned paler and paler as he registered the words that Tommy had said.

“I think it’s not important.” A new voice resounded in their ears as Third interrupted the entire event.

Archy reacted to his statement with a gaping mouth. This was the last person he thought would try to get him out of this situation.

“What but that’s not fair!” Seven turned to TidalWave. “This is just getting interesting.”

“I think he’s right.” TidalWave agreed.

“In that case, we don’t need to know.” Seven did a one-eighty.

Third looked a little miffed as she agreed with TidalWave and not him. But he knew that they had been friends for longer than she and he had been. Even when they’d formed the team, those two had been their own group.

Of course, he didn’t know they’d only met each other a day before meeting him.

‘Dang it.’ Seven was unhappy that she’d have to leave the mystery of the young bearded dwarf society alone, but she trusted TidalWave and Third.

The only reason she had agreed to leave it alone after TidalWave had said to was because she was convinced Third had already worked out far more than she had. She didn’t think it was fair that he got to know and everyone else didn’t. But if TidalWave knew and said that it wasn’t important then she thought she could try and get it out of him later.

Third’s thought process was a lot simpler than Seven gave him credit for. He could see that Archy was a lot more serious and nervous than usual and that the archer didn’t have the normal lighthearted and annoying nature about himself that he normally did.

He also had a hunch based on the reaction to the word Magnolia that he knew what Archy was trying to hide.

If his hunch was correct then there was no need to pry further into this matter because quite frankly, it wasn’t any of his or his team’s business. What Archy wanted to keep secret about himself outside of the game was up to him and not them.

“Alright then.” Spark Joy followed their lead. “Let’s head out.”

Roxxy’s mouth made a series of shapes as she tried to get out some words. She helplessly watched Spark Joy leave with Third and TidalWave in her wake. Seven could tell that she also desperately wanted to know about these ‘Knights of Magnolia’ and that her curiosity was killing her. Seven laughed and wrapped her hand over Roxxy’s shoulder, dragging the girl along as she followed her teammates.

They left Archy behind to talk to the dwarves and he shot them all a grateful look. Seven realised they’d made the right choice when she saw that. There were some things that just didn’t need prying into.

“That’s a lot of dwarves.” TidalWave was amused by the encounter despite being one of the people wanting to leave, “Can you imagine if they get a few hundred together? That’ll be one hell of a sight.”

The team nodded and Roxxy finally saw her chance to start the conversation she’d been wanting to have.

“Why do you think they’re only dwarves?” Roxxy chatted with the team as they moved out of hearing distance but made sure that Archy could still see them so he wouldn’t get lost, “Do you think they only take dwarves or was the party originally dwarves that made a group and now they take anyone?”

“Originally dwarves.” Seven responded immediately, “They all looked young and comfortable with each other.”

TidalWave agreed, “But I don’t know if they only take Dwarves as members or if they accept everybody. They mentioned a few people weren’t there with them, right?”

“Oh yeah.” Roxxy nodded enthusiastically. “If they’re knights they have to take everyone. The real question is whether they’re a big group that is all over the place or a little one that’s only in this area.”

“Maybe ju-”

“We should stop the speculation now.” Third interrupted them as he spotted Archy dislodging from the hooded group and walking towards them.

“Aww.” Roxxy and Seven looked like they wanted to fight back.

They clearly wanted to interrogate Archy a bit when he came back.

“Let’s put it like this. If I asked you a personal question about real life would you want to answer it?” Third asked.

“Probably not.” Roxxy and Seven admitted.

“Then it isn’t our place to ask personal questions about Archy. He’s our teammate for this mission and a fun person to play with. That’s all we need to know.”

“Dang it.” Seven knew he was right. “You’re right. But if we come across any other groups and we're not related to any of them I’m allowed to ask them as many questions as possible right?”

“Absolutely.” Third agreed with her, “I’ll even join you. It’s not every day you come across secret societies in games.”

Archy rejoined the group just as Third finished speaking.

“Heck yeah.” Seven cheered and they moved away from the topic of the young dwarves towards the behemoth that they had barely escaped.

“I can’t believe you shot that thing in the ass.” Spark Joy was the first to turn to Archy and the archer immediately looked guilty.

“Oh-my-god that was so much fun.” Roxxy eyed the lumbering beast in the distance.

It had already gotten over the attack and was walking off into the distance. They would have to avoid it in the future if it did the rounds around the Signet Woods.

“I understand it.” Seven nodded her head. “I think anything would get angry if it got shot up there.”

“I definitely didn’t expect it. Quick thinking.” TidalWave complimenting the archer.

“I meant I can’t believe he shot it at all.” Despite her words, Spark Joy didn’t seem angry about the situation to Seven.

‘Then again it’s kind of hard to tell.’ She thought to herself.

“I think this presents us with a rare opportunity.” Third interrupted them with some unexpected words. “Now that the behemoth has left, we should retrace its steps.”

“You think we’ll find something in the wreckage?” TidalWave was curious.

Much of the forest had become swathes of destruction when the behemoth had stopped avoiding the trees when rushing and instead had crushed the foliage and greenery in its rampage.

“Indeed.” Third nodded and the party became interested in his analysis, “As we were running towards the crows to help Seven and Spark Joy I came across this,” He brought out a small red bean, “Inside the remains of a destroyed tree. I believe several rare ingredients could reveal themselves only when the trees or whatever was hiding them has been completely destroyed. We are the only players in the area aside from the dwarves-”

“Who have left immediately for their village to group up with their dead and will not bother us again.” Archy butted in.

“-That have access to this opportunity.”

Seven recalled one quest that Archy had procured them.

[You have received an invitation from team member ‘Archy’ to take on the quest: Greater Signet Woods 1 exploration. Information: Explore the Signet Woods Outer Ring and discover 10 kinds of plants. Reward: ???]

Alongside the ones they had found after killing the corrupted magica they had discovered eight kinds of plants. Apparently the blue and red mushrooms did not count towards the quest although the green beans and spikey killers did.

Alongside this red bean, the total went up to 9 discovered plants.

“Alright then.” Archy was quick to take the lead now that they had moved on from him attracting the behemoth, “We should go immediately. Before the forest trees start coming back or something.”

He was more than overjoyed to find that they would gain a benefit from the incident.

“Yeah.” Seven followed him.

“You guys are going the wrong way.” TidalWave appeared next to her and Archy and pointed them in another direction. “Follow me.”

“Yes.” They agreed and soon the entire party was combing through the wreckage of trees and foliage that the monster had destroyed.

They fought against the dryads and treants that the behemoth’s rampage hadn’t destroyed and Third soon began frowning.

“What’s wrong thinker man?” Roxxy was digging through the rubble nearby and probed the frowning wizard. “We’re finding plenty of these red beans aren’t we?”

Behemoth, red striped crow, dryad, treant, and corrupted magica. He had confirmed with Seven and TidalWave that these were the only monster species that they had encountered so far. The two had written intricate journal notes on them. Well, TidalWave had intricate notes. Seven just had notes.

The quest they had received to find seven species of monster was confounding him. It was clear that inside the inner ring there would be these ‘wilder’ creatures, and it was possible that normal magica were in the outer ring. But that still left one species left and they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of it.

“It’s probably something rare. Or maybe one of a kind.” Roxxy said when he explained the issue to her, “We’re missing a plant too right? Who knows, maybe they’re both in the same place. Maybe they’re in a cave or a special tree. It’s a big area. We’re pretty close to finishing a few quests though, yay.” She stayed beside him and continued to pick through the bark and branches.

“I should have asked those little dwarves when I had the chance.” Third muttered under his breath.

It turned out that whereas the green beans were on fallen bark that had happened naturally, the red beans grew deep within the trees and they couldn't access them before the destruction of the tree. Luckily most of the beans hadn’t died off alongside the trees so they were gaining quite the bounty.

[You have consumed a Red Bean. A key ingredient in quality strength potions it is better used during the practice of alchemy. You can feel the power coursing through you. +3 Strength for 5 minutes. Effect is not stackable with other Red Beans.]

They all tried a bean but agreed to save them alongside the other ingredients after doing it once. These were probably the final form of the green beans after they had been allowed to age within the trees.

Third walked past the debris frowning. They were definitely profiting an immense amount because of this. The treants and dryads swarmed into the open area with Seven and Archy picking them off, and the destroyed trees revealed a lot of ingredients and the red beans. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were missing something.

“You sure spend a lot of time thinking.” Roxxy continued her trek through the field and continued commenting by Third’s side, “What would you do? Have the entire party comb the area meticulously and in a grid-like pattern for this plant and monster you're convinced is here?”

“Did I mention the word convinced?” Third smiled, “And no, I would never impose such a thing on everyone. That wouldn’t be fun at all. But I’m missing something and I’m sure I can work it out. Perhaps the monster has hidden inside the trees or is airborne. I just can’t hel-”

[Quest completed; Greater Signet Woods 1 Discovery.]

[Quest completed; Greater Signet Woods 1 Exploration.]

“Hey guys, I think I stepped on something.” Archy’s voice rang out towards them, “Augh it’s all over my boot. Oh hey, it dropped a plant.”

“Of course.” Third sighed and felt like punching something. “I should have just tried not thinking at all.”