Hera and the others were standing outside the outpost, looking at the road leading to the next room.

"Everyone ready?" Alex asked.

"Are you really asking that? We spent the last 30 minutes prepping and double checking if we had everything," Blue turned to the assassin.

"Besides, we are just going to the city in the Forest of Dreams. It's not that far away," Hera nodded.

"Yeah, but last time we got surrounded by penguins," Alex rolled her eyes.

"True, but what are the odd of…" before Blue could finish her sentence, both Alex and Hera covered her mouth.

"Don't fucking say another word. We know what you are going to say, but don't tempt the MAZE like that," Alex stared at the controller.

Leo chuckled, "I guess that's something everyone does. There was a guy in my squad that got body-slammed before he finished speaking something similar. No one wanted to tempt fate."

"Can you blame them?" Alex asked.

"Not even a little."

With that, the group started walking towards the doorway to the Forest of Dreams. They had bought a few supplies, but since the city in the next room was much better established, it was a better place to grab what they might need for their journey in the Wailing Valley. Hera was feeling particularly good today. After going to the guild with the corpses of the penguin during the previous day, she found out that her poison now would leave her target after they died. This meant that now she could still use poison and sell the monsters to the guild. She would have to let people know that she used poison before selling, and some parts of the monsters would be unusable, but at least, she could make some money out of it. Not that she needed the gold, but ever since she started focusing on poison, she felt troubled for completely destroying resources while she fought. She was also excited about her poison spells. They were not only much more powerful, but the [Naga Poison] skill seemed to have changed them on a more fundamental level. Before going to bed, she asked a few questions to Yarnball, trying to find out more, not just about that skill, but about others that could give similar effects. Unfortunately, all the five attempts she made, two of which happened today, resulted in an answer from the magic 8 ball version of Yarnball. The answers were similar to 'signs point to no,' or 'try again next time.' Hera had learned to identify when the mana she used for the question was wasted. When that happened, Yarnball vibrated slightly and the hologram of a die with several words on each face of the die.

Hoping to evade any large group of penguins, they moved quickly through the road. The guild was still trying to figure out if there was any pattern to the monster's movement, but they didn't have any luck so far. This resulted in many groups encountering a flock of penguins and an increase in escort missions. However, since the outpost was still being properly set up and the guild's attention was focused on the next room, there weren't that many quests available that would let them get a bigger group before heading out. If they were going to wait for one of those, it would require them to wait for a couple of days until a new shipment of materials came around.

There were a couple of penguins moving through the area, but despite Tiger staring them down, ready to fight, the monsters didn't seem to mind the people on the road. Maybe they were getting used to the presence of humans, or perhaps they were less aggressive for some reason, but everything seemed fine here. It took them just under an hour to reach the doorway and cross over to the Forest of Dreams. Leo was already aware of the things they would find there and that there was a high possibility that he would see something worthy of his nightmares. He understood that, and that he might have to use a spell on Tiger to force him to obey his commands. It wasn't something he enjoyed doing, but it was the only way to keep the frog focused on his task in certain situations.

As they crossed the doorway, the group was greeted by that same forest that Hera had seen before. Trees with vibrant green leaves and beautiful flowers were all around them. Fireflies and specks of light floated around, giving a soft shimmer to the entire area. A light mist enveloped the woods making this place feel like something from a dream. The main difference was the lamp posts that now surrounded the road. Large metal rods with blue crystals on top. This was the new mechanism that the guild had set up to avoid the spirit's attacks. Thanks to it, the mana each person had would be hidden from the sleep spirits that inhabited these woods. That was only the case if you were walking through the road, and even that still posed some risk. If someone had too many mana crystals of different elements or was having trouble keeping their mana inside their bodies, the spirits would attack.

Without wasting time, the group started moving. Leo kept his hand on Tiger's back to calm him down while they walked. Hera was looking around, ensuring that the weird suffocating monkey or the panther wendigo were not around. Those creatures were terrifying, and just remembering them already made her flinch. She didn't find anything like that. However, what she saw was a small blue creature, about the size of an olive, floating around one of the lamp posts.

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Sleep Sprite - Level 16 - Elemental Spirit (Sleep Affinity)

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After confirming what the monster was, Hera watched it blend with the blue light coming from the lamp post and appear on the other side. The more she looked at it, the more confused she got. The sprite would vanish from the top and, in less than a second, was flying much lower in a path that didn't make sense. She tried using her [Observe - Red Sight], but the sprites were the exact same color as the light emanating from the crystal. After they walked a few more meters, Hera understood that each lamp had several creatures flying around them, and the more she realized, the weirder things seemed. The sprites weren't simply flying around. They seemed to be dancing with each other. A few were almost swimming around the crystals. It seemed like they were at a party. For a split second, Hera could've sworn that one of the sprites even had a cup on its hand.

Feeling more and more weirded out about this. Hera decided to pick up the pace. Being around these partying creatures made her feel like she was near a college campus. Even if the monsters weren't talking to her, she half expected one of them to come up while screaming, 'Dude.' The rest of the group didn't seem to be bothered by that. In fact, they didn't even seem to notice the sprites flying around the lamp posts. Even Tiger seemed not to notice the monsters, which was good since the elemental spirits looked like small bugs at a glance. The frog might be much larger than before Leo went to the coalition, but a frog was still a frog. If he saw flies roaming around, there was a considerable chance that he would try to eat them.

The group misunderstood Hera's hurry and picked up the pace along with her. While she was mostly uncomfortable and worried about Tiger causing problems, everyone else assumed she had noticed something in the woods and tried to keep it cool so as not to attract their attention. Hera didn't say a thing during their travel, and they managed to leave the forest without any issues.

"Can you tell us now what did you see back there?" Leo asked.

"Oh, yeah. The Sleep Sprites were kind of having parties near the lamp posts. It freaked me out. I don't know why," Hera replied.

"Wait, really? I thought it was something like a monster you saw in the woods. They were just having a party. Why is that an issue?" Blue scoffed.

"I don't know. I just felt weird in there. Sorry, I should have told you guys."

"Well, you are more sensitive to mana than any of us. Maybe that had something to do with your reaction. That place should be filled with sleep mana, right?" Alex suggested.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if it was that or me just being weird," Hera replied.

"Either way, we are out of the woods now. I mean literally," Leo pointed back to the forest, "We can hang out in the city and see what we are doing next. The other room is pretty close, right?"

"Yeah, the doorway is just on the other side of the city. We can go there today if we want. Or, we can hang out here and see what's all the rage about these spirits," Alex was staring back at the forest.

"You are interested? Really? I didn't see that one coming," Blue looked at Alex.

"What? It's interesting, and Shane's explanation didn't quite make things clear. Like when you make a contract, do you feel what the other feels? Since you are more emotional, can your personality change? Or would you find something funny that wasn't before? Would that have any changes on your body, like more hormones or chemicals that give you an emotion? And what about the spirit, would they change? How would that work?" Alex seemed really excited about the idea.

"Alex… are you thinking about…." Hera didn't want to finish that sentence in front of Blue and Leo. After all, she had no idea if Alex ever talked with them about her struggles.

"I know where you are going, and no. That's not the thing. I just think that having a connection like that could be interesting. That's why I want to learn more."

"Well, if that's the case. They were setting up a research center for the spirits here, weren't they? If any place is good to teach us more about that, it would be there. The building should be right by the city entrance. That big one with a blue Crystal on top," Hera pointed at what looked like a lighthouse right by the city gate.

"I'm sure you just figured that out. It's not like you also wanted to know about the spirits and already checked where the research center was, right?" Blue rolled her eyes.

"Of course not. I'm just that good of an explorer," Hera joke. She, Bonnie, and Helena were interested in the spirits, and she had promised to get some reading materials for the two who stayed back in Boothudurn. Even if a sleep spirit wasn't something she wanted to get, she wanted to know more about those creatures.

But first, the group stopped by the hotel in the city to get some rooms. Leo had learned the hard way that this should always be the first thing to do when arriving in a new room. In one of his trainings with a battalion, they had to march for hours under the scorching heat of a desert until reaching the next room. When they got to the city in question, they had just a few minutes to report to one of the commanders of the coalition. Most people took that time to eat or refill their water bottles, and no one looked into hotels. When they returned for the training drill, all rooms were already taken, and the battalion had nowhere to stay. This was something set up by the trainers, who had reserved all the available rooms. It was a mean but effective way to drill the right procedures in the heads of the battalion.

This room also had a small stable where Tiger could sleep more comfortably. They got their rooms and headed to the research center to learn more about the elemental spirits.