Chapter 41

Finn and Ava disappeared into the Drowned Goblin as soon as they got back to Pura, while Hert and Leon stopped outside his shop. Their walk back had been tense and quiet, even though Leon had divided the loot as equally as he could between them.

Hert turned his head to Leon and chuckled. “I honestly didn’t think you had it in you to threaten someone.”

Leon looked toward the inn. “He needs us. We want the boost. With his behavior thus far, that wouldn’t last. I needed to get the point across.”

Hert nodded. “I wondered how far your patience would take you. You think it could work on Ava, too?”

Leon gave a deep sigh. “One troublesome person at a time. Finn’s the one dealing the most damage to our team, so getting Ava to see things differently is… low priority.”

“Bet she’d start crying.” Hert shook his head and turned toward the door. “Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna take a nap.”

Leon nodded. “Yeah, sounds like a good plan. See you tomorrow.”

“Um… we’ll see about that tonight. We might need to skip tomorrow, if what Finn said was true. But if there’s no news, let’s do that.”

“What do you mean?”

Hert scratched his beard. “Well, season shift is… tricky. You’re usually advised to stay within the city once it comes, but the system will notify us about it.”

“Okay? Well, we still need to meet up to decide what we want to do.”

Hert nodded. “Eight it is, then.”

They parted ways, and Leon went to the crafting merchant to sell off his part of the loot. If there had been the mood for it, they could have divided the loot through Leon selling all the parts and then splitting the coin between them, but no one had even raised the idea.

He’d kept the bread, and the goo, since no one wanted that, while the others took the rest. The breads weren’t worth much in of themselves, but they could be worth something for boosting his rations. The green stuff, even though it was classed as junk, sold for one coin and left Leon with seventy-nine coins in total. Not a lot, but he could hunt more as soon as he’d lowered some of his fatigue. Might be good to recoup some health, too.

Leon walked toward the plaza and opened his inventory to take out one bread. He frowned. There were only four there. He glanced at the rabbit in the two inventory slots.

“You like bread, too?” He took one out and bit into it, trying not to think about where it came from.

He wondered how the effect would affect Trouble, but he supposed she knew what she could and couldn’t eat. Besides, he had nowhere else to store food if he got it as loot. He chuckled as he remembered what the man at the hamburger stand said; don’t ask what’s in them. Though, thinking of that and the bread in his hand made him wonder about what was in the food at the inns. It tasted good and hadn’t made him sick, though, so no use in thinking more of it.

Leon walked into the Laughing Bard and stopped when he saw Red sitting at the bar, talking with the old innkeeper. He had forgotten about taking the quest today. He glanced at his fatigue. It was at sixty-four percent. It should be possible.

“Ah, here he is.” Crag smiled. “How did today go? Is Finn finally settling in with your group?”

Red looked over her shoulder at Leon. “He’s in your party?”

“Not for much longer, unless he changes.” Leon approached the bar. “What can you tell me about him? He has a knack for putting other people in danger, that’s obvious, so what happened to his previous groups?”

Crag leaned on the bar and scratched behind one of his enormous ears. “I wish I knew, lad. But all I know is what I’ve heard from the man himself. And that’s not much.”

Red shook her head. “He’s not one I’d trust.” She turned in her chair and pushed her hair over her shoulder. “I don’t know if it’s true, but I think one group disappeared.”

Leon sat on one of the bar stools. “They died?”

She shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they just went into the next part of the city and split up there. An acquaintance of mine was in it, and I haven’t heard from him since.” She sighed. “Maybe he’s just not gotten around to visit me.”

Leon nodded. That was the most likely, especially if she hadn’t heard of their deaths. Finn could have turned his back on them, but there was nothing to gain for him if he left a party that wanted him there, especially since that meant he needed to fight alone or find another group. Maybe they’d hear some rumors about it once they got to level ten and could proceed. Though, Finn likely didn’t have enough impact for people to gossip about him for long. Unless he’d made himself so unwanted that people forced him out of there.

Leon smiled to himself. If Finn sought a new party, a lower leveled one, it might have been because they wouldn’t think of using force against him, since the ones with the NooB-title would be immune to such attacks. And that had been true for their group as well, for a short while.

“So, shall we?” Red jumped off the chair and walked around the bar.

“Uh, sure. I’ll go to accept the quest.” Leon walked toward the stairs.

Crag grabbed his arm. “I’ll do that for you.”

The quest box popped up and disappeared in a flash, and Leon received a notification that the quest had been added to his log.

Red opened the trapdoor, and Leon quickened his steps to enter the staircase before it closed. As it did, he heard Crag chuckle behind him.

Leon frowned, but didn’t think much more of it as he followed Red downstairs.

“So what level are you, anyway?” Leon asked as he caught up to her in the kitchen.

“Eight.”

That was higher than he’d expected. That meant she must have cleared the first floor, too.

“Did you go into the first level of the tower alone? That’s courageous.”

She stopped and sighed. “No, I didn’t. Stop trying to gain information from me. I don’t want your pity.”

“I get that,” Leon said as Red opened the door to the room with the barrels. “Being curious is in my nature. And I don’t exactly pity you, except that you didn’t get a fighting class rather than a supporting one, while you want to do everything alone.” Leon smiled. “I actually got an idea yesterday, if you’re willing to hear me out. A non-binding agreement of helping each other.”

“After the quest, maybe.”

“Sure.”

Red held open the door to the cellar, and Leon let Trouble come out.

“Hi, Trouble.” Red let on a smile. “How have you been?”

Trouble didn’t move forward to greet her, but stood by Leon’s side, looking from the woman to him, then stayed still, her eyes on the door.

Red nodded. “Shall we?” She walked through first and stepped to the side to let Leon take the lead while she pointed at something in front of her.

He stopped at the top of the stairs, staring at the creatures in the small room below. “What the hell are those?”

Red drew out her lute. “What do you—” She froze in her movement and frowned. “Fungi?”

“Well, yeah. I see that’s their name, but where are the rats? And why do they move?”

Below were twelve three-foot wide mushrooms, some green, and some purple. Their feet were creme colored and pointed toward the ceiling. They wobbled as they rested on top of their hats, and all wore white tags stating they were ‘Fungi Level 1.’

“So… how do you think they attack? Have you ever fought anything like them before?”

Red shook her head. “No. I’ve never seen anything like them. Why are they upside down?”

Leon frowned. “Do you know how to cure poison?”

Red shook her head again. “Um… I think we’d better tell Crag about this. Maybe he knows? I don’t want to fight something that might inflict something we can’t cure.”

Leon drummed his fingers on the broadside of his sword. He looked at Trouble, who gazed up at him. He still didn’t know if potions worked on her, so if the Fungi attacked and she got poisoned, there was no way to be sure she’d survive. Besides, if he remembered correctly, poison was one of the few things sleep didn’t cure.

He sighed. “Yeah. I had a question I wanted to ask him, anyway.”

They left the cellar without another word.

When they came upstairs, Crag turned toward them with raised eyebrows, placing a newly cleaned tankard on a shelf. “The quest hasn’t ended, so what are you doing here? Did something go wrong?”

“What does a season shift mean?” Leon asked. “Earlier today, our group fought a large group of monsters, and now there are mushrooms instead of rats in the cellar. Are those things related?”

Crag’s eyes widened. “So soon?” He glanced at the ceiling, then tugged at his ear. “Have you noticed that the weather never changes? How it’s always sunny? That’s one season. Next season, it will rain, endlessly, and the monsters will change, too. The caves and dungeons change first, then the surrounding areas. My dungeon is no different.” He glanced at the ceiling again. “I’ll cancel the quest for now. Please head out of the inn. I need to inform the city council, just in case.”

The old innkeeper walked toward the two tables where the regulars sat. “Season shift.”

The three men nodded, emptied their tankards, and hurried toward the door.

Crag turned and waved his hand toward Leon and Red. “Go tell the guards, please. You can come back in a few hours.”

When they exited the inn, Crag turned and locked the door, held a hand over his eyes, and hurried toward the northern corner of the square. Leon looked on as the old man took a turn into a street he’d never noticed before. That was… odd.

And where was Finn? Considering the man locked the door, he must have been sure no one else was in the building. Was he and Ava still at Margaret’s inn?

“Okay…” Red sighed and pushed her hair under the collar of her black shirt, concealing most of the port-wine stain. “That was weird.”

“Yeah.”

She sat on the stairs and sighed. “Guess we’ll just have to wait.” Then she looked at him. “What did you want to ask me, anyway?”

Leon crossed his arms and peered toward the sky, expecting to see thick clouds rolling in. But there was no change. “About collaboration. Though, with the changes that come tomorrow, or whenever, I don’t think it’s going to work.”

She shrugged. “Nothing else to do, anyway. What did you have in mind?”

Leon looked at her and smiled. “I got one strength point when I carried you, and you need experience. So, I thought I could ask you to be my weight training if I helped you get experience through holding down monsters. That’s probably not going to be a good option now though, if it’s going to constantly rain.”

Red’s face had grown redder as he talked, and when she spoke, her voice was barely a whisper. “I… I gave a point in strength?” She clenched her arms and chuckled. Then she looked up at Leon. “Thanks, but no. The experience wouldn’t be worth—” She stopped, grimaced, and closed her eyes. “I’ll have to think about it.”

Leon shrugged. “I’m not sure we should, even if you say yes. I could hold down a wolf for you, but if the monster type changes, I’m not sure. And I’d carry you through rain, and being wet all the time might not be something you’d want.”

Red looked at the ground and didn’t reply.

Leon opened up his status screen. If the wolves grouped up like the grasshoppers, he probably had to help Trouble fight them, and his fatigue was already high. But he also needed the coins. His week at Crag’s inn wasn’t over yet, but it looked like he would need another one.

“If you want to, you can come to the forest with Trouble and me today. It might give you some experience. You’d just sit here anyway, right?”

Red bit her lips. “Okay. Just don’t—” She rose. “Never mind.”

Red took the lead through the square, and Leon followed. They stopped beside the guards by the arch to the Slums.

“Innkeeper Crag says a season shift is underway,” Leon said. The guards looked at each other, and without saying a word, one dashed from his position, passed one street, and headed into the next.

“What was that about?” Leon wondered, staring after the blue-clad figure.

“Ah, it’s your first shift?” the remaining guard asked. “No wonder you’re confused. Well, I won’t spoil the surprise for you, but I’ll give a word of advice. Don’t get stuck outside the city or the Slums tonight. You’ll have a hard time getting back.”

“What does that mean?” Red asked.

“You’ll see. Well, go on. If you have any business in the Slums, you better complete it now. Be back here by nightfall, or the system won’t care which side of the city you’re on. The barrier will disappear, anyway.”

Leon and Red looked at each other, then shrugged.

“Oh, and please tell any Scabs you see as well. Nine or ten are usually taken, but with a fair warning, there will be fewer casualties.” Then the guard waved them on and walked forward to talk with a group of people a short distance away. He told them ‘the shift’ was coming, and they scurried off.

Leon and Red started walking. Why was everyone on their toes? Was a different season really worth so much fuss? How could it be?

“—myself.”

“What?” Leon’s mind snapped back. They’d almost passed the portal to the first tower.

“No offense, but I have a hard time humiliating myself.”

Leon stopped and frowned. “What do you mean?” He looked around and cupped a hand over his mouth. “Season shift is coming!”

The groups of Scabs that had started their approach stopped, then turned, quite literally, on their heels and ran. As they did, Leon wondered if shouting ‘do you have a coin’ would activate his skill. They weren’t monsters, but they sometimes behaved like such. Maybe he’d try it the next time he wanted to dish out coins for his quest.

“I mean, it’s embarrassing to be carried on your back. You must feel the same, right?”

Leon turned back to Red and shrugged. “I don’t really care what people think. At least if it’s opinions about what I do to grow stronger. My goal is to return to the real world, so what people think in this one doesn’t actually matter. Well, except if it’s emotionally hurting someone here. That’s already backfired at a shop and an inn.”

Red didn’t respond. She tugged at her hair and pushed it tighter under her collar.

As they walked toward the exit, Leon stopped once in a while to call out the news to the Scabs, and every group reacted in the same way as the first. Running, not caring about asking for coins. Since Leon and Red were on their way to the closest exit, they didn’t have the option to call out to all of them, but Leon hoped the Scabs would spread the news among themselves.

He wondered why Ava hadn’t commented on the season shift when Finn mentioned it. She’d lived in the Slums for almost a year, so she should know what happened. Same with Hert, but he hadn’t said anything except that the system would warn them. But then again, maybe this season happened within an unreasonable time frame, like once every one or two years.

“What do you think he meant with the barrier disappearing?” Leon let Trouble jump out. “Finn mentioned something about one that protected the city from monsters, so will monsters invade the Slums?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Red took out the lute as they walked over the crumbled stone and through the arch. “Didn’t know there was such a barrier at all.”

“Then I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.” Leon peered at the space between the trees, looking for the wolves. They’d probably be there, grouped up, but how many? It was odd that the dungeons were supposed to change first, but his party had still met grasshoppers. Maybe it didn’t count as one, since it was a semi-dungeon?

“So… are we going?” Red nodded toward the forest with raised eyebrows.

“We don’t need to. You ready?” He aimed the question at both Red and Trouble. Red nodded, still wearing a confused expression, while the rabbit hunkered down, ears pointed toward the forest. Leon nodded, cupped a hand around his mouth, and let out a howl. A message popped up that the skill had activated.

Red stared at him, frowning.

“Incoming!” Leon closed the blue box and drew out his sword and dagger. The sense of wanting to step back increased, and Leon wondered if he’d made a grave mistake. Only the level five and six wolves triggered his sense, and if the monsters emitted this amount, they were up for a challenge.

“Step back.” Leon took a wide stance. “There are a lot.”

They stood still and listened, Leon barely breathing in anticipation of what they were going to meet. Which felt both ridiculous and concerning since there were no enemies approaching.

“Are you sure that shout actually worked?” Red leaned on the lute, following Leon’s eyes.

Leon squinted at the space between the bushes. “Yeah. The skill tells me if it worked or not, and it did. Besides, can’t you feel all that energy coming toward us?”

Red shrugged. “Or you’re pent up from your earlier fight with your group.”

“Should we go further in, then?”

Red sucked on her lip for a moment, then she nodded. “You lead the way.”

Leon drew a breath and stepped past a couple of bushes. When his sense didn’t increase, he breathed out and continued at a quicker pace.

They walked for five minutes without meeting anything living at all. Had the skill failed, even though it had told him otherwise? There was no other explanation. What a bug.

Then he stopped and looked into the tree crowns ahead. The leaves rustled, but nothing was big enough to move them in this forest. Unless the mobs had changed already and something that climbed trees had taken over.

“Activate insight.” The skill made Leon take a step back. Okay, something was clearly up. But what? Trouble stopped beside him and he caressed her head. “Stay here.”

He took a few cautious steps forward, pushed two bushes aside, and stopped. Between the stems stood more than twenty wolves, level one to six, muzzles pointed toward a gray fur ball in the middle, which was as tall as the yellow leafed trees and looked like it boiled from within. One by one, the monsters charged at it and disappeared, and each made the bulging ball grow.

What the hell were they doing?

“It’s like… it’s like the Rat King,” Red said in a faint voice. “Right?”

A chill went down Leon’s spine. How many had already merged? If it formed into something like the behemoth wolf, did they have a chance to take it down? No, not with his current level of fatigue, and the penalty for reaching 100% in the first level was still active, and he didn’t want to increase its duration. Could they get away if they ran? Maybe they stood a chance if they could split the monster before it finished.

Something told him that once the transformation was complete, it would catch up to them, no matter if they had a lead. Leon sprinted toward the wolves. Him against twenty. Scatter them, before it’s too late. Would it be enough?

Leon threw himself toward the closest two wolves, both level four, and slashed out at them. His weapons hit one over its back, and he kicked the other. Both turned toward him, while the others seemed transfixed by the ever-moving ball in the middle.

“Get back!” Red shouted as another wolf jumped into the bulging furry mass and disappeared.

Leon backed a few steps as Trouble launched and landed in front of him and Red. She bit down on the wounded wolf and stomped her paws on the one Leon had kicked. It snarled at her and struck out with a paw. She greeted the attack by jumping up and stomping its shoulders. She fell as the wolf flew into another one, which turned toward her. Trouble kicked with her feet to get up.

“Trouble, back off!” Leon ran closer, ramming his sword into one beast, allowing Trouble some time. She gained her footing the second later, but instead of retreating, she launched again.

“We can’t fight it,” Red said. “It’s going to be too strong!”

A wolf dashed toward Leon, and he stepped back in time to avoid the fangs coming toward his throat. He held the sword sideways, and the wolf yelped as the jaw struck the edge. There were only five alive wolves left outside the gray ball. One of them snapped at Trouble as she attacked, and another joined in, circling her. Leon kicked his attacker, forcing it down on the ground.

“Finish it!” Leon called over his shoulder, and ran toward Trouble. There was a dull clang as the fangs grasped his ankle. They didn’t go through, but made him fall.

“Rockstar!” Red shouted behind him, and the force released him.

The two wolves circling his rabbit jumped toward her at the same time. Her head turned this way and that, eyes wide.

“Dodge!” Leon screamed, and Trouble sank down. The two beasts slammed into each other and fell on top of her.

Leon kicked at the mossy ground and pushed himself up to his feet, and as soon as he was able, he shot forward, leaving his weapons on the ground. He tackled the two beasts on top of Trouble, falling with them to the side. They snapped their jaws at his arms and legs, but the bracers and leg guards were too hard for them to get any leverage. He smashed down his elbow on one and punched down as hard as he could on the other. Bones cracked and snapped within their bodies, and they whined.

From nowhere, two rabbit’s feet crashed into their bodies, and the wolves’ chests sunk in from the blow. Leon scrambled up on his feet and backed off as the last wolf launched toward the bubbling mass of fur. Red finished off her wolf and stood with her legs wide, staring up at the gray ball.

Now or never.

Leon picked up his weapons, sprinted toward it, and struck. The blades bounced back as the ball straightened itself out, becoming something that looked like a giant, humanoid wolf standing on two legs, back slightly bent. Spiky fur sprouted out from its arms and legs, and it grew a few more feet. It spread out its heavily muscled arms, where claws big as Leon’s dagger grew out, and a tag popped up over its head.

‘Gray Wolf King, Level 6’

The tag was red.