(Luca)

Time for my awesome powers to shine! Yes!

Holy Arrow! Holy Arrow! Holy Arrow! Take that, undead scum! Blessing of Intellect to myself! More Holy Arrows! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! These undead goblins and frogs stand no chance against the mighty me! With my Blessing of Intellect, I have more than 1,000 Intellect, making my Holy Arrows especially powerful against these things! It only takes a few hits for them to die!

Hey, Max! Stop attacking my monsters! Okay, fine, you can kill that one.

Gaviiiiiin! Stop that! Those are mine! I wanna kill everything here!

Well, at least Braden and Lord Zack are letting us handle things. Lord Zack is because he isn't needed, and I think Braden is actually looking for the Death Mage or whatever it is that raised all of these skeletons. They're just climbing out of the swamp and onto the path to attack us.

Okay, so maybe I need a little help to kill them, because it seems like there's a never-ending wave of these things.

At some point, Braden suddenly turns into a white liger, then jumps off the path, landing on another path. He performs several more leaps before he's out of my sight, and after about a minute, the army of skeletons stops arriving. We finish off the last of them, then I look around at all of the bones.

This sucked!

I kick some of the bones. Stupid undead, thinking they could take us on.

"Found the Goblin Death Mage which raised all of those," Braden says, and I notice that he returned. "It was hanging out a fair distance away."

"Thanks," Gavin says. "The skeletons just kept coming back together. They shouldn't have been able to do that for the ones Luca and I slayed, we took them out with holy attacks."

"Oh," I say. "There are some monsters which has a Skill which allows them to ignore that. We have to do a Blessed Purification on the bones to prevent that. I dunno how to do that, though."

Gavin sighs, realizing that there's yet more he didn't know. It's okay, he's not a Priest or advanced Paladin. He's new to the job. I only know about it because Sir Travis mentioned it to me while we were in the mines, and it wasn't even important there.

Most of the monsters which can learn the spell live in places like swamps, not mines and caves. That, or wastelands. Environments like that. Full of foul smells and decaying things and ugly monsters.

Okay, most monsters are ugly. Except things like the Fluffy Monavar. That was adorable, and its wool is so soft! I love just feeling its wool! If things weren't getting ready to end in the next several months, I'd have asked Lord Zack to have mine made into a blanket or a shirt or something. Maybe a scarf, to keep me feeling awesome.

Well, I wouldn't wear it in the swamp. I don't think this smell is ever coming out of my clothes! But for outside of the swamp. Definitely outside of the swamp.

As we resume our journey, me walking for this part of it, since my stamina's built up a fair bit and I can go longer without being carried, now, I think about things. Mostly because the fluffy wool made me think about the end of things.

It's coming soon, I can feel it in my tummy.

I'm definitely reincarnating, if I'm able to reincarnate with my brother. I miss him, and will miss my memories from here. That's part of why I want to reincarnate. If I do, then I can make new memories, have new adventures, and have lots of fun.

I think… I think I want to reincarnate with Braden – my brother, not my friend – and go on adventures with him. We grow up training together, then set off. He'd be a wind mage, and I'd be a healer. We'd have a ton of adventures together, doing this and that and whatever else we want.

He'd probably be the stubborn, hard-headed member of the pair, and I'd be the calmer one who bops him over the head whenever he needs it. In my next life, I hope I'm a lot more aggressive with stopping him when he's an idiot.

A lot of things would be different, were I like that before he died again. Braden would be alive, and this team might not have worked out the way it is. Gavin would have two people he'd have issues with, so he'd have likely left us. Max might not have become a mage first, since we'd already have a mage. Or he'd clash with Braden because my brother would be stubborn and annoyed at having another mage.

Well, that's all in the past now. I don't even know if I'll get to pick the setting for reincarnation. But if I do, then I already know what I'm going to do, what I'm going to pick.

Was everything always that fuzzy?

I look around, then rub my eyes. Maybe I'm just tired.

Gavin and Braden both look tired. They're moving more slowly than I am, and it looks like they're starting to drag, struggling to keep their eyes closed. Gavin, I can understand, but Braden? That's just weird. He's the most alert out of the four of us, and I know he's been sleeping well, even if we're all a bit exhausted from the long journey without any real rest other than sleeping at night.

Turning into a white liger doesn't do this to him, either.

Strange.

We continue walking, and I notice Max starting to do the same as them. At the same time, I notice that I'm starting to feel sluggish. It's hard to explain, but it's like my mind's not as strong when it comes to controlling my body. That's weird. And strange. It's like my body doesn't care what my brain says, and is barely under the control of my brain.

What's going on?

"Lor' Sack?" I try to speak, only to find my words slurring.

Lord Zack looks at me and frowns, then looks at everyone.

(Zack)

I'd assumed they were all just tired. Even if they get a night of rest every night, being on a journey for weeks in a row can wear on anyone. We have just two more Cities before we're resting and waiting for Bryce, so I was thinking we'd be able to finish off today's trip and tomorrow's without a longer rest, without resting for a few nights or a week.

But when Luca spoke, I realized something was wrong. They aren't just sluggish, their minds are slurring, too. Something is affecting their minds. A psychic attack, like Roar, Growl, Intimidate, Taunt, and other similar Skills.

Inhaling deeply, I take in the scent of the pollen I'd noticed awhile back. Looking back into my memories, when I first smelled it was a little before Gavin and Braden started acting looser. They have the lowest Willpowers, so magical attacks are more effective against them. Max and Luca were next, and they have more Willpower. It also took a heavier concentration of the pollen to affect them.

Judging by the various scents, there are several plants emitting this. One of the newer scents probably belongs to the one which managed to affect Luca and Max. A bit of a nasty thing, and I'm sure that most Adventurers who had lived here never really had to worry about this.

Level Cap back then was Level 5, not Level 15, so the attack wouldn't have been as powerful. Most who were affected would have someone able to resist it with them, meaning they'd be able to kill the monster emitting the pollen.

Since I have 1,616 Willpower from all of my Classes, it seems I'm safe when it comes to resisting this.

Chances are, Luca won't be able to use any Skills in this condition, and a Blessing of Willpower doesn't last that long. That means I need to move fast, find the monsters with the spores, and then kill them.

I cast a Blessing of Willpower on Luca and Max, then wait for them to start to come to, the effects of the pollen fading. It takes almost three full Blessing of Wisdoms for them to become lucid and in control of themselves again, their minds no longer relaxed by the effects. That's a good sign, it means that the attack won't affect anyone with under around 800 Willpower.

"Luca," I say as I give them a fourth Blessing. "Use Blessing of Willpower on yourself and Max before it runs out. Keep that up until I return, understood?"

"What's going on?" Luca asks.

"Yeah," Max nods. "Me not like the way that felt."

"There's a group of monsters performing an attack using spores," I explain. "It's performing an attack that requires Willpower to resist."

"Okay," he says. "Will do."

"Max," I say as I refresh my Blessings on them. "If something attacks, it's up to you to defend against it. Braden and Gavin have too low of normal Willpowers for the Blessings to help them resist it. Just stay here."

Max nods, then I make sure everyone is good before I send my tunic into my Inventory and take on Eidolon Form, stretching out my wings. An idea hits me, and I move back, my tail swishing in anticipation.

Then, I begin beating my wings as quickly as I can without actually flying away. It creates a small breeze that blows the spores away. That should help a little, though I know that the spores will just drift back in.

So I take off, following the path of the spores. Without my immense Perception, I'd likely have had a hard time tracking it, and my even greater one from Eidolon Form makes it quite easy.

The plant turns out to be some giant, bulb-like thing that is shooting it out of a gap in the top where the petals meet. It's rather ugly, and its design makes me think of a monster that would be in a swamp in a video game or something.

Fireball kills it pretty easily, so I move on and quickly track down the others, killing them with barely any actual effort because of Fireball and a Blessing of Intellect.

Tracking them all down and killing them takes me a couple of minutes, then I return to my team. Gavin and Braden are still off, while Luca is using Water Jet to push the corpse of a Swamp Toad off the path. Judging by the burns, Max took it out.

I remain in my Eidolon Form, using my wings to push spores away once more, then tell everyone to come on. We travel for another thirty minutes before leaving the range at which Luca and Max are affected, even without Blessings, and it takes them a few minutes to recover, as Luca had to stop casting due to Mana issues. I could have helped them with my own Blessing of Wisdoms, but with the flapping of my wings, I was able to weaken the spores somewhat, too.

Another hour passes before Gavin and Braden start to come to, and they both look rather annoyed.

"What was that?" Gavin asks, so I explain about the plants. "That was awful. You didn't know they were there?"

"I mean," I say. "I knew about the pollen or spore or whatever it was. I didn't realize it was an attack until Luca grabbed my attention. I just thought you guys were tired and needed a few days or so to rest from the journey."

"We could use that, too," Braden softly says. "Traveling is fun and all, but we could really do with a bit of rest."

"We have one more City," I say. "Then we're out of the swamp, and the City after that is the one we're meeting up with Bryce in. Do you think you guys can wait an extra day before that rest to recover from the exhaustion of a long journey?"

"Yes," they all answer in unison.

"What about you?" Gavin asks. "You don't seem affected by it at all. You're as sharp as ever."

"As if exhaustion would ever bother Lord Zack," Luca mutters.

"I'm used to running on very little sleep," I remind Gavin as I ignore Luca's comment. "You guys might have gone through a hellish training, but it never lasted as long as this journey of just walking has. I spent months with only a few hours of sleep a night due to my stress. Compared to that, this is actually quite relaxing."

Okay, so I have to be honest a little bit.

"That said," I tell them. "I would enjoy getting to sit down for a few days and not worry about walking around or killing the Level 35 Bounty Beast Swamp Toad that thought we looked like a delicious snack."

Everyone stares at me in shock, and I laugh at their expressions. Yeah, they knew I was killing stuff, but forgot about the really strong stuff that would show up.