JohnWillStab and the rest of his party headed away from the town, the warm rays of sunlight once more giving JohnWillStab the illusion of easy levelling.

"I think I've had enough civilization for now..." sighed JohnWillStab.

"Seriously? I mean... yeah it was a little shit, but it could have been a lot worse!" Alex replied.

"It's nice that we helped them out like that," said Jordan smoking a cigarette.

They travelled along the long, cobblestone road, on each side were low lying valleys or other depressions in the land.

"I think this is the one," JohnWillStab said pointing at one of the large depressions, inside was just a cluster of four or so bushes.

The group looked at the collection of bushes located at the centre of the hole beside them.

"Are you sure... it looks a bit... small," Alex replied.

"Fair enough..." Jordan sighed waiting for the rest to descend down into the jungle.

As soon as the party made it down, they noticed the ground below was unsteady, much like a beach, when they pressed their feet down on the mix of grass and moss, a muddy liquid would rise from it.

"Be careful, we're looking for mossbacks, so for all, we know they could be hiding behind that bush!" JohnWillStab announced dramatically pointing at the bush from behind which left a... nothing.

"...gasp..." Alex announced tiresomely.

"Alright, maybe not that bush, but what about that one!" he pointed at another one equally dramatically.

Again, nothing came out from behind there.

"Jane... are you alright?" Jordan asked putting a hand on his shoulder.

JohnWillStab snatched up the quest paper from his pocket.

"What the hell's this about?!" JohnWillStab demanded looking over the quest.

"Quest difficulty: D"

"Quest level range: 10 - 20"

"Task: Defeat the mossback alpha found at the marked location."

"Reward: 2000XP, 10 gold, [Secondary-Stat Boots.]

"This is the location for sure!" exclaimed JohnWillStab, looking at the map and seeing a clear indicator of the mossback quest directly below them.

"Yeah, I see it," Jordan said looking at the map.

"Hey guys, why is the water level increasing?" asked Alex now standing in a knee-deep body of water slowly forming from the depression.

"What the hell!?" JohnWillStab began making his way away from the centre of the pit only for it to start sucking everyone in as the knee-deep pond filled the entire depression.

JohnWillStab looked around the flooded area. beside him suspended in the water was a passed-out Alex... turns out he couldn't swim and was too stubborn to run to shore.

The grass lining the walls of what was clearly a death trap were coated in grass that wriggled in the blue-green water, the rays of sunlight coming in through the surface.

"This kind of looks nice, If we weren't about to die, I might just chill here for a while..." sighed JohnWillStab.

He began making his way to Alex seeing Jordan was already on his way towards him.

"Look at him, trying to show off again! I'll get Alex out first!" John thought swimming up and grabbing a hold of Alex.

"He's trying to take the glory for everything, again! No way I'm letting him do that!" Jordan grabbed Alex from the other side.

The two played a tug of war with Alex as the rope.

"I'm going to save him!"

"I'm going to save him!"

They both thought.

"The brat is dying for sure." sighed Thal.

Moments later JohnWillStab felt Jordan give in so he dragged Alex by the hand to the beach.

Gasping for air, Jordan called over from the other side of the newly-created lake.

"Looks like I win!" he exclaimed.

"You win?! Open your eyes I clearly have..."

They both looked at what they dragged out of the water, JohnWillStab was clutching a torn-off arm which belonged to Alex, while Jordan was holding onto a torn-off leg.

They looked at each other and back to the lake seeing a massive red stain on its surface.

"..."

"..."

They did just remove two of their friend's limbs, if he wasn't dead yet, then he would be in a fair bit of pain.

Furthermore, they put petty competitions over the safety of Alex.

"An arm is more important than a leg!" JohnWillStab announced.

"Like hell it is! Without a leg, he can't go anywhere!"Jordan retorted.

"He couldn't fight without the arm!"

"He could use the other one, but without one leg, you can't run or walk!"

"This is Alex's right hand, I am holding the entirety of his love life!"

"THAT'S GROSS!"

They kept yelling louder with every sentence.

"DIDN'T HE SAY HE WAS GOING OUT WITH THE HARPY?!" Jordan demanded.

"HE DID, GOOD FOR HIM!"

"I'M SURE THEY'LL MAKE AN ADORABLE COUPLE!"

"YEAH, HALF-HUMAN HALF-BIRD CHILDREN!"

"BEOPLE!"

"AN ADORABLE SWARM OF BEOPLE!"

"I'M SURE THEY WILL BE JUST THE NICEST!"

"ABSOLUTELY!"

"I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M SCREAMING!"

"ME NEITHER!"

"HELP YOUR FRIEND, YOU ASSHOLES!" Thal called out as Alex was being swallowed up by a sudden vortex, like a piece of paper being flushed down the toilet, before JohnWillStab or Jordan could react Alex sunk into a small fissure in the ground.

Jordan and John eyed the fissure.

They looked at each other and back to the fissure.

"Don't worry, I'll save him!" they both said in unison before running in towards the hole, both of them slipping on the wet, mud and grass, falling and sliding directly into the hole after Alex.

Moments before falling they noticed it, the crevice led to a massive cave, filled with springs and river, below, on a plateau eroded by water lay Alex, it was just one of dozens of similar-looking plateaus.

"I GOT YOU!" JohnWillStab announced holding onto Jordan's leg with his hand.

JohnWillStab was using Alex's hand to hold onto the edge of the fissure.

"DON'T LET GO ALEX!" JohnWillStab said climbing up the hand and sitting on the surface, Jordan followed.

"We're alive!"

"Somehow..."

"We need to get Alex..." sighed JohnWillStab.

"Yeah..." Jordan looked through his sack, "I have some rope." he offered.

"Nice!"

"Yeah, I picked it up in the town," he explained.

JohnWillStab looked at the hand clutching onto the edge of the hole and at the hand.

"I think I have an idea..." he said scratching his chin.

He tied the end of the hand to the rope and slowly let the rope down into the hole.

"I'll grab him with the hand, pull him out!" John exclaimed

"Thus proving that the hand is the superior limb." the thought smugly.