Air blasted my face and I flinched at the force of sudden acceleration, but I didn’t let my eyes close all the way. I wanted to see what was going on. From the outside, I’d seen the Hunters turn into blurs of movement. Now that I was using the transportation magic myself, I could see the thin pale purple membrane over my body. The magic was like a cocoon on a barely visible string that arched from the Gate’s location to where the Feng Jungle had to be, which both protected and accelerated my movement at the same time.

My speed seemed to stabilize and the g-force on my body lessened. I finally relaxed enough to notice that Emma was traveling just forty feet in front of me, also tied to that same purple magic string. I looked down at the world below me. “Amazing.” My whisper echoed back at me. I’d never been this high up before with a bird’s eye view. Like a giant 3D map, Gate Vale spread out below me with vivid colors and clear borders between different locations.

Even the forests had distinctly different shades of green that clearly separated them. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to where each location was arranged — like how the sandy Sun Desert was right beside the pale green Feng Jungle with no physical barrier between. It was just sand one step, and jungle the next. Or the grayish Skull Bog on the other side of the Feng Jungle, sandwiched between the rim of the golden Prine Lake, the jungle and the mountains that encompass Gate Vale.

I sailed right over the rainbow hovering above Prine Lake. I couldn’t help but stare down at the thick golden mist that blocked the water. Right, I still needed to find time to cultivate today. Ugh, that might be hard. But I wasn’t going to mess up another Daily Task. I doubted there was any benefit in cultivating in the Feng Jungle — I didn’t know if there was even any mist there — but as long as I spent the thirty minutes doing it, even if it proved fruitless, it would still check off the task. Lame, but it might work, right? Hopefully.

I passed over the corner of the bog and began to arch down toward the jungle. As I approached the ground my speed decreased. I glanced at Emma ahead of me. With the speeds we were going, I would catch up to her right after we landed. If I wasn’t careful, I might land right on her.

She flipped around in the air until her feet were first. Through the purple magic cocoon, she looked up and mouthed something to me. I had no idea what she said, but apparently she was fine because she looked down at the approaching ground and the purple magic circle she was aiming at.

Following her lead, I flipped around too. The mere thought of needing to turn caused the magic to automatically support my movement.

Emma landed on the circle and staggered forward toward Mason who stood at the front of the team. He lifted his arms to steady her ... but didn’t need to. Emma planted her feet then spun around. She braced herself and reached out in my direction.

I landed, and the momentum that had kept me airborne suddenly propelled me forward. I couldn’t help stumbling from its strength. Before I could duck around her, Emma steadied me. I blinked at her. “Ah, thanks.” I was weak, yeah, but my agility was good enough I would have been fine if she hadn’t grabbed me. Ah, well, she was sweet.

She beamed at me and patted my shoulder. “You’re welcome.” When she turned around, I met Mason’s eyes.

“Sorry,” I mouthed.

He blinked, as if surprised, then gave a gloomy nod. Then he jerked his head to indicate that I should join the rest of the team. When I was grouped with them, he stood in front and opened a Guide window. He flipped it around and the image on the transparent blue screen became visible to us all. The Guide detailed Feng Jungle terrain, marked with the natural paths, a tunnel-like cliff structure on the northeast side, and a river that snaked around the west side of the jungle.

Mason pointed to a purple dot at the bottom of the map. “This is where we are. The jungle has been divided into nine sections.” He motioned to the dotted lines that broke up the map. “Each team is in charge of a section. Our job is to get to our section and thoroughly search it for the energy crystal. Rumor has it, this crystal is as big as a car and will be divided between Eden’s and Garden City’s hospitals to replace their old crystals. It’s gonna improve a lot of lives. We’ve gotta find it.”

My eyes widened. Suddenly, I felt like a jerk. I mean, this was going to power hospitals where injured and sick people were being treated. Where my own mother was laying in a coma. But I couldn’t let that crystal get out of Gate Vale. Task or not, a crystal that size would cause a lot of damage for Earth. It was common knowledge that the bigger the crystal, the more energy it had. I didn’t want to think about how much magic one that size held. Or how much closer the parasite planet would be to swallowing Earth.

“It’s for the people,” Mason went on, “but there’s a bonus for whoever finds it first.” Mason nodded to the side. “That would be great, yeah? I don’t know about you, but I’d love to upgrade my gear with all that cash.” He grinned as a light of competition lit in his eyes. “Let’s hope it’s in our section.” He pointed to the upper northeast corner of the Guide map. “This is our spot. We can take this trail up until it bends,” his finger slid across the screen from our location along a thick line. “Then we have to trek the rest of the way up.” His finger continued to slide up through the tunneled cliffs to the space on the other side. “Keep your eyes peeled. Not just for monsters, but for our target. We know it’s huge, but we don't know if it’s above surface or buried in the ground like the one the Firebird Guild dealt with last time.”

He took a breath and looked at everyone. “We good? You all understand?” He asked the group, but his eyes lingered on me and Emma, since it was our first time on a Guild task. “Glory is great, but being alive is better,” Mason said. Unlike the Guild leader, there was a deep truth in Mason's words. “I hate burying my friends. Let’s not do that today. Work as a team and everything will be fine. Deal?”

I nodded with the rest of the group. As of right now, I was part of their team. And until my contract was over when the mission ended, I was going to try my best to help.

Mason smiled. “Okay, let’s get going.”

I was shifted to the middle of the formation as I turned and finally took my first good look at Feng Jungle. It was beautiful. When I’d first walked over to join the team, I saw the random rainbow colors between the trees and thought they were flowers. I was wrong. Between the tall trees, nestled against smooth, silvery bark, were clusters of rainbow crystals. Some of the spires were as small as my pinky nail, while others would reach up to my knee if I were standing by them. And they were everywhere, on the ground, on the branches, hiding up in huge, deep green leaves. I even saw a cluster hanging from a vine that looped two trees together. Silvery green bushes and the tall grass collected on the ground. The shrubbery naturally parted to create the path across the rich brown soil.

“It’s beautiful,” Emma whispered next to me. “Like a fairytale.”

The corner of my mouth kicked up. “Yeah, well, the prettier it is, the more it wants to kill you. Right?”

The melee tank on the other side of me snorted. “Hell yeah. That applies to Gate Vale and women in general, right?” He smiled, his brown eyes light with humor.

I paused, surprised. Then I bobbed my head. “Right.”

Reina whacked the melee tank on the back of his steel helmet. “Shut it, Billy.”

“Abuse! Abuse!” He moaned and made a show of dancing down the trail in pain.

“Knock it off.” Mason scolded from the lead position, but he didn’t pause to see if Billy’s acting was real or not.

A quiet settled over us. Feng Jungle foliage began to thicken and everyone’s weapons appeared in their hands.

The forest was quiet — beautiful, but eerily quiet. There were no sounds of leaves rustling in the wind, because there was no wind. It made the air stagnant and stale smelling, even though we were surrounded by visual signs of rich resources. Even the random puddles of water that reflected the rainbow crystals were perfectly still, without a ripple of disturbance. There were no sounds, no movement whatsoever. Was it because the rest of the Guild had already taken care of the monsters on the path? I could only wonder as we walked for twenty minutes before Mason suddenly stopped.

At the same time, Emma notched a silver and maroon arrow in her glistening silver recurve bow. She twisted to the right and drew back just as Mason motioned to the bushes on the right. She loosed her arrow as the rest of the team lowered into position. Billy didn’t even flinch as the arrow sailed right over his shoulder.

A monster leapt out of the bushes. It looked like a huge wolf, but instead of fur, it was covered in long grass. It’s face and paws were silvery white, but the rest of its body was green and covered in vines. The red title above its head read: [Verdure Wolf Lv 36]. It wasn’t even all the way through the bush when Emma’s arrow sank into its chest. It yelped and landed on the ground, but it kept coming at Billy. His heavy two-handed claymore was up and ready to attack.

“Reina, Emma, left,” Mason commanded just as another Verbure Wolf appeared on the left side. “Kip with me, ahead.” He raised his own sword and met a third Verdure Wolf that appeared.

Billy worked together with an axe-wielding Hunter against one wolf, their heavy movements were slow but flawless. As soon as Billy lifted his sword, the other man’s huge, double-sided axe smashed down at the monster. When the monster attacked, one blocked while the other countered. On the other side, Reina’s lightning quick movements and Emma’s endless string of arrows kept the wolf on defence while its HP steadily dropped. Ahead, Mason went at the final monster with his shining bastard swords, while the mage Kip backed him up with fireballs that caused the monster to lose clumps of grass at a time.

All the while I stood there like a plant next to the healer. At least she was waiting to help someone if they needed it. With my current strength, I literally had nothing I could contribute to the fight. I couldn’t even hold bags because everything was kept in people’s Items Bags. Just a delicate little flower that needed to be protected. So useless. So frustrating. I couldn’t believe they agreed to let me come along.

In minutes, the monsters were dead. The healer stepped in and took care of some scratches on Reina and Mason while I helped retrieve and clean Emma’s arrows. Billy and the Axe Guy dug out the energy crystals, but Mason stopped the Axe Guy when he pulled out a skinning knife and squatted in front of one of the wolves.

“Leave it. We don’t have the time.” Mason jerked his head down the trail.

The guy nodded slowly and stood up.

“Damn,” Billy moaned and sighed down at the dead monster. “That grass fur is so cool too. Do you think it would grow if you planted it in a garden?”

I gaped at him while Emma cringed in disgust. She grabbed me and dragged me over to Mason like she was scared that my ears would get tainted if I kept listening to him.

“That is so gross, I don’t even want to know the answer to that question.” Kip gagged and walked over to Mason.

“Ditto.” Reina caught up with us.

“What?” Billy asked when suddenly he was left behind. He hurried over and fell into place. “I mean, if you think about it, we’re wearing and fighting with pieces of monsters already. What’s so weird about planting—”

“I think that’s enough, Billy,” Reina cut in. “You’re going to make Morgan sick.” She glanced at the healer by me whose cute face was starting to look as green as the carcasses we left behind.

I glanced back at the dead monsters. I didn’t get any EXP or drop items from them. Was it because I didn’t participate in the fight even though I was in the team? Or did I have to personally kill the monsters to get it? I also couldn’t help but think of the energy crystals that were dug out of the monsters — the carcasses didn’t disappear when they were taken away. So there was something different either about my System or my sword that exploded the remains when I destroyed a crystal.

But more pressing were the crystals that Mason, the leader of the group, had in his Items Bag. Now that I knew how dangerous crystals were, the idea that they were in Emma’s friend’s hands bothered me.

Emma glanced at me. “Are you okay?”

I blinked out of my thoughts and looked at her. My lips parted, ready to ask them to leave the crystals, but I found myself pausing. I was here because they let me come. I was already going to purposefully screw up their mission to the best of my abilities. Should I really try and convince them to drop hundreds of dollars worth of crystals too? The violent reactions Hunters had to my online posts came to my mind. Did I really want to deal with that right now when I was so weak? I’d never be able to survive if they abandoned me here. True, I didn’t think they’d purposefully do it — for Emma’s sake at least — but they didn’t have to make sure that I was safe in the circle either.

I forced a small smile on my face. “Ah, I was just thinking how impressive your guys’ teamwork is. I can only think of a couple of times I saw such flawless coordination like that.”

Coward, I thought to myself. But what if Emma, and her blind adoration in me, believed me and no one else did? I didn’t want to cause a rift between Emma and another team. Especially when she was in such a good group of people that obviously cared for her.

My compliment distracted Emma and she started to whisper, telling me all about the hours they’d spent working on formations and tactical moves, and all the other things that she’d learned since she joined the group. Instead of shushing her, the team kept a better look out and let her ramble under her breath as much as she wanted.

*****