Midday had the home to himself for a while before anyone else showed up, during which time he actually did manage to plug up the holes in the ceiling and walls with a haphazard concoction of sticks and mud. Midday had no idea how long the seal would hold, but he was nonetheless satisfied with his work—even if the floor was currently flooded to the point that only the topside of the table at the center of the room was unsubmerged.

Romulo was the first one to return to the cabin. He came inside soaking wet with an unrestrained frown and depressed shoulders. Upon seeing Midday sitting atop the table with blank eyes on his face and a ring on his finger, the frown deepened even further.

“What the hell is happening out there? I was just about to corner this Greenhorn Centipede that probably would’ve been worth 50 XP when the rain started coming down. The stupid critter scampered off into its burrow as soon as the first drops came down! And then the mud started getting thick and walking back was a pain and—”

“Was that centipede thing in the old growth?”

Midday already knew the answer. Anything worth that much XP had to be at least somewhat noteworthy. The single highest XP reward Midday had ever received in his whole life had been from euthanizing a disease-ridden bull a few years back to prevent the illness from spreading throughout the cattle, and that endeavor had netted him something like 40 XP. That meant that this centipede had probably been stronger—at least by the somewhat unreliable assessment of The Voice—than an animal that had been large enough to survive multiple arrows to the head before finally croaking. The regular forest could be dangerous, sure, but it was only in the old growth where things were that dangerous.

“Yeah… That’s an oddly direct question, what is it to you?”

Midday wasted no time in explaining the whole situation: from the details of the ring to the mission he had received to the vague warnings Mulberry had provided. It was a nice feeling to get everything (besides anything relating to the Elvanerean Ring) off his chest, especially when the person he was divulging the information to was Romulo—who was trustworthy and strong. If anyone could help him, Midday felt that it would be the giant.

“So this is all just for some sort of experiment?” Romulo, who was still standing, his back hunched a great deal to avoid hitting his head on the roof, stuck his hands into his pockets and bit his lip. He had expected the rain to be indicative of something undesirable as soon as it had begun, but this was beyond his wildest expectations. Cold sweat, mixed with the rainwater he was still drenched in, dripped from his chin.

“That’s what she said.”

“And a ton of people are going to die because of this experiment?”

“Probably so.”

There was a short silence before the conversation resumed. Romulo, who stood uncomfortably, his gigantic feet still submerged under the floodwater, was deep in contemplation, trying to come up with the best course of action. Midday tried to do the same, of course, but his mood was much too sour to think at full capacity.

“So what do we do?”

“There should be no issues with telling Glauster everything, but we’ll have to be careful with what we say to Gork. He’d spread the word to as many people as possible if he found out, and the ensuing panic very well might actually increase the number of casualties… and, while I hate to be thinking this way, him leaking this stuff to everyone would result in us losing the advantage we hold regarding information.” He looked down at his feet, which were starting to wrinkle up in response to the lukewarm water below. “It’s hard to know what to do when the details we have are so vague. For all we know, this Mulberry person might have been intentionally trying to deceive you.”

“Doubt it.” Midday raised his finger to Romulo. “This ring is proof enough of that, I think.”

“I guess you’re right.” Romulo pressed his index and middle fingers into his forehead as though he had a headache. “Plus. Someone that strong has no reason to bother with things like deception. Based on what you’ve said, she’s probably a fair bit above level 30.”

“Who cares? The important thing is that she gave us information. I don’t know what this Siempre individual is planning, but we should be fine—at least in the short term—if we stand at the back of the crowd during tomorrow’s announcement. Following that, I’m not sure how things will proceed.” Midday let out a big sigh. “I plan to meet with the other people Mulberry selected directly afterward and head straight into the forest. How about you?”

“Hard to say but, depending on the immediate severity of the situation, I might try to climb a tall tree and watch the ground below in search of information as the chaos breaks loose. If things are looking especially bad—and my gut is telling me that they will—I’ll retreat to the old growth and camp out until things go back to normal. I already have an underground safe house of sorts that I use to hide from high severity monsters, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to stay alive. If things conditions are looking decent, I’ll probably try to reconvene with you at some point.”

“Got it… By the way, just how dangerous is the old growth to begin with? I know there were some fairly dangerous creatures out there, so I guess I’m just trying to calculate my odds of survival.”

“The highest you’ll see regularly is severity 2; the highest you’ll ever see is severity 3.”

“Severity 2… On a regular basis? How the hell are you alive?” Midday frowned. He had already known this information for quite some time because of Romulo’s stories but, now that he was faced with the prospect of actually going there, it somehow felt as though he was hearing about it for the first time.

“I’m good at avoiding them. Most of my XP grinding is just waiting in safe places for easy prey to show up and fall into my traps. I only go out into the open when I absolutely have to.”

“R-right… But how do these animals get so big, to begin with? What’s so special about the old growth?”

“As I’ve said before, it all comes down to Valley Algae—a highly nutritious food source that covers the area in its entirety. It provides absurd amounts of energy to the animals that eat it while still being incredibly abundant and quick to grow. That means that the herbivores can eat nonstop without ever having to worry about running out of food which, of course, results in them achieving incredibly large sizes. Because these herbivores are so big, the predators that eat them have to be even bigger to successfully hunt them. That pattern continues up the food chain.” He grinned. “It’s a really interesting ecosystem, actually, and the Freshwater Oaky Mangroves that define the look of the place are a sight to behold, with many of them exceeding 200 feet in height and 50 feet in trunk diameter. The branches are so big that even someone as large as me can walk on them with ease.”

“I see…” Midday gave all that information a subdued sigh. He knew how enthusiastic Romulo was about all things nature and, to an extent, he appreciated the giant’s dedication to studying it—with those height and diameter statistics probably having been the result of him actually going around and measuring the trees manually just for the sake of satisfying his curiosity—but he didn’t care much for how outlandish the old growth seemed in comparison to everywhere else he had been throughout his short life. Thinking about the alien nature of the environment in which he would soon find himself gave Midday a sense of quiet anxiety that he knew would not dissipate until he was there. “Well, in any case, I suppose you and I have ought to start making preparations for tomorrow then. Sorry that the whole “coaching thing” you wanted to do fell to the wayside so soon after it started.”

“Then how about we kick it back into motion after we both get through the coming month?”

“Sounds good.” Midday shrugged. He had a hunch that, should both of them survive the experiment, neither of them would be the same person by the time it was all said and done. There was a good chance, thought Midday, that he would gain enough experience during his time as Solomon the Frog’s bodyguard as to not necessarily need coaching afterward. “I’m going to head out and try to find the other Raincoat Ring holders.” Midday, of course, was lying in saying this. His real intention was to have another Devil Peppercorn-infused blackberry feast and to recover the Elvanerean Ring so that he would have it with him during his time in the old growth. “Be back in a bit.”

“See you soon. I’ll wait here for Glauster and Gork.”

With that said, Midday left for the garden.