I crept a couple feet farther down the branch and watched the Velociorhea below me, waiting to see what it would do. Its nose didn’t follow my exact movements, but after a minute, its nostrils flared again and it tilted its head. Beady yellow eyes followed the branch I crouched on, but it seemed to have lost my exact location.

The other three slightly smaller monsters sniffed at the ground then lifted their bald, rainbow colored heads and looked in my general direction. They obviously couldn’t see me through the thick mist that clung to the branch, hiding me, but they could smell me through the drizzling rain. The question now, were they like bloodhounds that kept after a scent come hell or high water? Or would they give up after a while since their target was sixty feet above their heads?

Trying to find a tiny blue mushroom on the ground was hard enough from this height even with my improved sight. When I did find one, going down and getting it with those hungry monsters hanging around would be more than a little tricky.

I sat down and retrieved a pencil and the Josu Rainforest printed map from my Items Bag. The paper wilted a little because of the mist, but I laid it on my leg and hunched over it to protect it from the rain as I marked where I was, indicating that I’d already searched this area. I also added a few details and landmarks to the map, so that I could distinguish one tree filled section from another. It wouldn’t do any good for me to go in circles, and this was the best way I could think of to mark off territory. If this didn’t work, then maybe I’d look into dropping a hundred bucks to buy a map of the rainforest for my Guide, but for now that thought made my stomach hurt. The cost of traveling to this location was hard enough to swallow. My transportation token was only valid for a week, so if I didn’t finish this task by week's end, I’d have to buy another one.

I glanced down at the Velociorhea still sniffing me out, so intent on my direction it was like they expected me to spring into their mouths. Creepy, but I could live with it for now. What else was I going to do? As long as they stayed down there and I stayed up here, they could stare all they wanted.

I put the map away and stood. A glint of silver in my periphery caught my attention and I turned quickly. About forty feet away a squid flew through the air, drifting around trees like a silvery ghost. Its pointed, cylindrical body was roughly a foot long and eight arms added another foot. The arms wiggled, flexing and straightening, propelling the monster through the moist air as if it was swimming underwater. Two long tentacles that ended in suction cups trailed behind almost lazily.

I couldn’t resist perking up. That was an Aero-Teuthida, one of the two that I needed for Maveric.

One of the long tentacles twitched. Like a bullet, the squid monster shot at the tree to its left. Its arms opened up wide like a squiggly maw, revealing a sharp white beak as big as my fist. It chomped down on the body of an Assassin Vine, engulfing the whole thing in one bite. The green vines tangled with the silver arms for a couple seconds before they went limp. The Aero-Teuthida pushed off the side of the tree, ripping the Assassin Vine right off. Then the floating squid started pumping through the air casually, as if its body wasn’t bloated from digesting another monster and several inches of the green vines weren’t still hanging out its beak.

Sneak attacks. Was this whole rainforest full of sneak attacks? And wiggly vine-like things? Ah well, if the Aero-Teuthida was going to show itself to me so fast, I’d take advantage of the chance to catch it.

My lips curled back and I activated Feather Step. I leapt from my branch, the toes of my boots barely touching damp bark before I was shooting to the next branch. At this speed, the rain was hard on my face and body, but my defense was high enough to take away the sting. It was almost a little odd to get wet now, after spending so much time in mist and staying dry. The mist that I cast earlier stayed around my body, swirling like a hurricane as it kept up with me, spilling over the branches and encasing trees. I kept it smaller, only about ten feet in diameter for now. If I needed, I would open it up to its whole forty feet without paying the extra MP, but for now this was good enough.

The other thing that kept up with me were the Velociorheas. They ran below me, darting around trees and changing directions, keeping up with their target as I closed in on mine.

Twenty feet from the Aero-Teuthida, I Mirrored my kindjal and got ready to throw one at the monster.

If I could pin it to a tree, that would make it a lot easier to kill. But I had to be careful. Maveric needed the carcass as intact as possible. If I mangled the body too much, I’d need to get another one — which also meant that I couldn’t destroy the energy crystal.

A bright flash of light arched through the sky and a bolt of lightning cut through the Aero-Teuthida, leaving a gash big enough that the semi-decomposed Assassin Vine fell right out of its stomach.

I skidded to a stop, my boots slipping on wet bark till my toes hung over the branch’s edge, just one leap away from my thoroughly damaged target. The blackened monster flailed in the air, body punctured and flattening like a slowly deflating balloon.

To add insult to injury, a black arrow thudded into the dying squid. It dropped to the ground.

Mouth parted, I watched it fall in the middle of the Velociorheas. They apparently weren’t picky because I hadn’t even heard the thud of its fall before the dino-birds were tearing apart the fried squid. I sighed and looked in the direction the arrow came from.

I’d gotten so used to feeling monsters around me in these woods, I’d just let the presence of Hunters blend together with them when I went after the Aero-Teuthida. Not smart, but I was counting on my mist to keep me concealed. I mean, who in their right mind would attack swirling mist when they couldn’t see what was at its center? Now, if they knew there was a person inside, that would be another matter, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. Mist was, after all, a limited ability. Limited to one person — me. I wasn’t strong enough to let the world know about me yet.

A group of Hunters stood on branches roughly fifty feet away. There were six of them, all C ranked and all of them had a different color dyed in their hair.

A female Mage with yellow streaks in her long brown locks smiled at a man with bright green hair. “I told you I could get it first. Who's the quickest shot now?” She brushed at her red sleeves with an exaggerated movement.

The green haired man shifted his compact bow from one hand to the other. “What? It's not like you actually have to notch a lighting bolt.” He scowled.

Yellow tilted her head back and smirked with pride. “Right, i.e. I’m faster.”

My lips pursed together in accepting defeat. Yes, I just totally lost $250 to a couple of showoffs. Ah, the irony.

The oldest member in the group, a man who looked about thirty with blue hair peeking out of his helmet, rolled his eyes. “Why don’t you two compete to see who’s going to get the energy crystal now?” He looked pointedly down at the monsters eating their kill.

Green and Yellow immediately shut up. They looked into each other’s eyes then slowly turned their heads to the side, as if pretending that they weren’t there at all.

Blue looked at them. “Well?”

A girl in dark pink robes and pale pink blended into her blonde hair piped up. “We should get out of here soon. I’m almost out of MP.”

I turned, ready to leave them to their bickering. I was still 0/2 on flying squids and I still had a mushroom to find.

“We can’t leave yet,” Green objected. “We haven’t found that damn blue mushroom.”

For the second time in a few minutes, I skidded to a stop. My mouth gaped open as I turned back towards the colorful group. Now wait just a damn minute! The words nearly exploded out of my mouth but I was able to choke them back just in time. First they took my kill and now they were looking for a blue mushroom too?

Pink glared up at him. “Then stop getting stabbed by plants. Half of my MP has gone to patching you up alone!”

“Sorry, sorry!” He gave her a helpless smile. “What did that quack want with it again, anyway?” Green glanced at Yellow as if she might know.

She shrugged.

“Hey,” a quiet looking man with orange hair and wearing tank armor motioned in my direction. “Does anyone else think that cloud is weird?”

“That’s what I was just thinking,” the remaining Hunter with purple woven through her black hair commented. “I saw it moving earlier before you guys attacked. But it hasn’t moved since. I don’t think it’s a real cloud.”

“Huh.” Green notched an arrow and aimed it right at my chest.

I dropped like a stone, flattening myself on solid mist behind the branch. An arrow rocketed through the middle of the mist, missing me by half a second. Carefully, I peaked over the branch in their general direction. Is he shitting me? Who just shoots randomly like that? How many arrows did he lose a year?

Green gave Yellow a cocky smile. “How was that for a quick shot?”

“You missed,” she said in a deadpan voice.

Blue thumped Green on the top of his helmet. “Knock it off.” Then he peered closely in my direction. “But there is something in there.” His eyes narrowed, trying to see through my billowing barrier.

“... Do you think it’s a ghost?” Pink said quietly, looking nervous.

Purple shot her a glance. “Monsters, magic, and morons are real. Ghosts are not.”

Orange chuckled under his breath.

I’m done. So done with them. They didn’t come across as bad people, but I needed to get going, and fast. Especially if I was going to have competition riding my coattails.

There wasn’t a time limit on how fast I got the Cyan-Agaric. I think it's because the System knew that one might not appear every day. But the sooner I found everything, the sooner I could go back to harvesting every monster in a zone and finding ingredients for the Sleeper cure.

I wish I could say that I was ready to do that here, but lying to myself would get me dead fast. I wasn’t ready to take on the Velociorheas. Not yet.

Maybe the reason why the System wanted me to get the Cyan-Agaric had to do with the antidote, maybe not. I wouldn’t know until I found them. But right now, I thought the best thing for me and Mom would be to get this task over quickly so I could go back to the level D locations and grind to get stronger and get lots of drop items.

A sting shot up my leg. I gasped and glared down at the now red flower drifting away from the hole in my boot.

Luckily my gasp was masked when Green yelped. “Damn flowers!”

I couldn’t help but smirk at the shared misery. I let out a silent sigh and leaned my forehead on my arms, looking down. How many people would be freaked out right now, lying on ‘air’ sixty feet above the ground? I’d gotten so used to heights that I was quite comfortable … as long as I wasn’t bitten by another flower.

The largest Velociorhea snapped at another one, chasing it away. Then the monster leaned down and picked up the devoured Aero-Teuthida’s glowing energy crystal with its mouth. With a crunch that echoed, the crystal broke into pieces and disappeared down the monster’s gullet. Then it looked up and licked its lips, as if waiting for another meal to drop.

“Well,” Orange’s flat voice drifted through the air, “at least we don’t have to get the energy crystal now.”

*****