Our knowledge of the Wildlands is limited by the sickness which resides there. While our knowledge of the sickness is also limited, we have learned by observing expeditionary troops that it comes in three distinct stages.

The onset of the first stage happens on average after about two weeks in the Wildlands. At this point, the soldier will manifest symptoms of discomfort, aches and hard rashes. These symptoms will get worse as the soldier remains in the Wildlands. In as few as three days, the soldier will begin manifesting demonic growths; at this second stage of the sickness, the soldier’s fate is sealed. Once the demonic growths begin to manifest, regardless of if the soldier remains in the Wildlands, they will undergo dramatic change before becoming a mad abomination. It is suggested the Soldier be euphemized before reaching this final stage.

—Abnormal Ailments, Vol. II

This was not the first time Aiden had entered the so-called Wildlands, but this was the first time he’d gone more than 5 meters from The Wall. No big deal right? Compared to the massive scale of The Wall 5 meters was minuscule, but 5 meters was where The Wall’s influence ended abruptly, and voracious greenery took over. Four steps further, was all it took for the comforting sight of towering white stone to become obscured in green, ten more steps and it became a memory.

The men’s training squad and women’s half squad trekked through thick foliage, being forced to hack away at greenery with their swords. So much so that within 5 minutes, almost every trainee had gained the gardening, forestry, and machete skills if they had not already possessed them. Aiden’s hiking skill finally reached level 20 after having stalled for days and his vaguely phased Trail Trotting perk came in handy.

He’d been disappointed when he’d gotten the perk upon reaching level 15 of hiking. Its description simply said that it would make finding the easier path forward, well, easier. Since he’d been following nothing but obvious hiking trails and didn’t see that changing he’d thought the skill useless and was peeved that he didn’t get something to help him in reaching the wall that at that point was long in sight and never seemed to get nearer.

Oh, how little past Aiden knew… Present Aiden was way smarter, and better looking. He was waking weeds and taking names, and the weeds didn’t have any. The Wildlands would come to fear Aiden Weedkiller; trotter of the easiest trails.

“just what are you looking so smug about?”

“Morrigan?” Aiden jumped and spun to face the sneaky redhead. “What are you doing over here? I thought the women’s squad was at the back of the formation.”

“They are, Lieutenant Brent has us on rotation levelling our scout skills and it’s my turn right now.”

“Then shouldn’t you be up ahead?”

“I thought it would be fun to visit you and Arthur on my way. I wasn’t disappointed.” She said with a teasing smile.

Aiden chose to ignore the blatant provocation. “So then how’s Arthur doing?”

“Oh, you know…”

“I don’t know.”

“Well he’s just so handsome and the NPCs don’t know its fake—my squad mates haven’t left him alone since they saw him at the end of the men’s line.” Lost was the teasing glint—there was now mischief in Morrigan’s eyes.”

“And why are you smiling that?”

“Well, I might have said a few things, suggested a couple more… insinuated the rest. Arthur is quite the dashing figure in their eyes.”

“That should be a good thing. Why does this sound horrible?”

“Oh honey,” Morrigan stopped Aiden with a hand on his shoulder and looked straight into his eyes, “just wait until you hear what they say about you.”

“Morrigan!” The harsh call of a woman cut off whatever response Aiden was working on.

“Shit, that’ll be Brent, gotta run!” She gave Aiden a wink and a wave before disappearing into the green.

Aiden stared for a moment at the stare-shaped shrubs Morrigan had disappeared behind and slowly shook his head. “da’ fuck?” Aiden didn’t think he would ever understand that girl.

“What are you spacing out for? You better get a move on before the lieutenant notices.”

“Right.” Aiden nodded thanks to his helpful squadmate and hurried on with felling grass and bush.

He was near the front of the snaking line of trainees—luckily just out of conversational range of the lieutenant who was at the very front guiding them. The frontrunners hacked away a small portion of the greenery; enough to make the path visible and Aiden, along with a few others, hacked away further to make that 'path' into a proper trail. This had started as a rotational duty, but the lieutenant caught wind of his hiking perk and thought to exploit it. What had once been a refreshingly easy task had quickly morphed into unending drudgery.

While not difficult, the work was mind-meltingly boring. Combined with the oppressive heat and humidity, Aiden felt like he really might just melt in the godforsaken place. There was a reason the Amazon got torched and walled off—rainforests were awful.

Luckily there was a cure for boredom. A nice little patch added to the game ten days earlier when too many passengers complained about the boring realism. Aiden thought to the System Resume play and let his mind drift into a world of action, adventure and magic. Supposedly he was already in one such world, but (virtual) reality being what it was, he would settle for the book version during the slow bits.

The narrator was good, he had that ancient British accent that just went so well with swords and sorcery. His voice just had that quality that dew Aiden in and made him forget about his surroundings, disregard the odd shaking of a bush and react late to his neighbour's screams.

“Holy shit.”

[Jory approached the dark emperor and drew his vorpal bla­-]

“Stop! Fuck. System, stop.” Aiden panicked and only belatedly remembered to raise his blade in defence as he turned to his suddenly silent squadmate. Douglas? Or was it just Doug but no, that was just blood in his hair—he wasn’t really a redhead—he was blond now that Aiden looked closer—so not Doug... Charles maybe? Fuck, he needed to focus. Assess the situation.

[The emperor laughed a single harsh note-]

“God damn it System.” Aiden hissed, forgetting the proper protocol.

[and looked down upon the so-called hero, eyes laced with derision.]

Aiden fought to ignore the stupid book and latched his attention onto the body before him. Big mistake. Its eyes were wide with shock and red with blood. Lost of life; the eyes stared unblinking and burning holes of accusation into Aiden. Why hadn’t he been paying proper attention? Why the fuck where a bunch of trainees led out into a place with fucking hit and run monsters? Why wasn't Aiden the dead one?

["Well 'hero’ " the emperor sneered, “with what do you grace me with your presence?"]

Aiden tore his gaze away from the haunting eyes only to become transfixed upon the ribbons of flesh and blood that once comprised the poor man's limbs.

[“You Know full well why I am here!" Jory yelled.

"Enlighten me." ]

Focus! Aiden needed to focus.

Object of note one: Doug—Charles was dead. Two: Charles died quickly. Three: whatever killed Charles was nowhere to be found but whatever killed him had a penchant for tearing people to sheds. Four: lucky it didn’t have the strength to shred chainmail—little victories.

[“Today will mark the end of your rein-]

“Aiden!” His name and a slap to his face brought Aiden back to the world around him. How long had he just been standing there? Shit, that thing could have snuck-

“Aiden!” he was slapped again, and this time Aiden focused on the face belonging to the man holding his.

“Arthur?”

“You, with us buddy?” Arthur asked, his face laced with concern.

[“My rein will never end!’ the emperor screamed and called thunder down upo-]

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let go of me, will ya’?” Aiden smiled and forced out a short laugh. “I’m not about to blank out again.”

“You better.” Arthur let go and gave Aiden a big slap on the back.

“Enough with the slapping!”

“Then look alive and get in position so I don’t have to.”

“Right.” Aiden took his place in the defensive circle that had formed around him and Charles and corrected his stance. A yell erupted from his right and blood sprayed in a long ark, painting bright crimson on the verdant green.

All hell broke loose.

[Jory lunged out of the way of the heavenly strike-]

Men were yelling. The demon was on the right. "Left!" called a woman somewhere behind him.

Bz’Atran called for order, “You will call direction like in training drops!” and the demon took another life. For a moment there was peace and the women arrived to reinforce the defensive circle.

“Men keep your eyes out for movement. Women, I want eye’s up in the trees.” Bz’Atran ordered.

Aiden watched the heart-shaped leaves, now grizzly and splattered with blood. They swayed slightly in the breeze. There was no breeze.

“3 o’clock!” Aiden yelled and cursed that he had left his buckler strapped to his back. He was such a fucking idiot.

[Jory emerged from his roll, sword already drawn, and charged at-]

A beast with twig-like limbs and emerald scales launched from the gore-splattered leaves and swung its hooked claws at Aiden’s face. He cringed and held his sword up to make an inelegant block, barely managing to arrest the motion of the wicked claws. One claw had already penetrated the soft skin of his cheek and drawn a red bead.

[The emperor grinned madly and goaded the hero, "come!"]

Finally, Aiden got a good look at the thing's face and stumbled back in terror of the razor teeth and calculating eyes.

[Jory accepted the challenge and approached while dodging the invisible onslaught of blades the emperor sent his way-]

A wild swing of his blade managed to catch it hip and bring it to the ground at which point Aiden’s squamates made short work of it.

[Finally, Jory made it before his hate foe and made to strike the mortal blow.

‘To slow,’ admonished the emperor.

Jory fell to his knees, a small dagger having pierced-]

System end playback. Silence was never so beautiful.

The demon was dead, and now that Aiden could take a good look at it, he saw that it was small, scrawny, and kind of cute actually.

“That which we just fought here” Bz’Atran announced, “That thing which killed a man and wounded three more. That was a demon child. That was the least of the enemy which you have signed up to face.”

The lieutenant paused and levelled his gaze upon the trainees one by one. They were shaken. Aiden saw that many of the gathered recruits were pale-faced and to his left, he saw a woman gently pat the back of a man dry-heaving on his knees.

“Congratulations!”

Aiden looked up to his lieutenant and recognized that same smile he could never quite describe plastered on Bz’Atran’s face.

“You can now call yourself puddles.”

The fight had taken less than 2 minutes all told, but no one who had been there would see demons in the same light ever again. Aiden shivered, then joined the procession of soldiers following Bz'Atran back to the Wall. He took care to avoid the puddle of Charles' blood.