Morning dawned. Light streamed into the rooms of the Boar's Head. I was used to waking up early as my mornings were most of the free time I got for the rest of the day when I was working for Elena. I woke up as per usual and this was it. The day where the 4 of us could finally venture outside to city walls, into the neighbouring forest, towards other cities, all of our own free will. I was excited. My curiosity was boiling, over the top and I couldn't take it anymore.

“WAKE UP IDIOTS. IT'S A NEW DAWN IT'S A NEW DAY IT'S A NEW LIFEEEEEEEEEEEE FOR MEEEEEEEEEEEEE.”

“Five more minutes mum.”

Nope. No time to waste. I opened the window leading to the main street.

Time to put mana manipulation to its fullest use.

I made them all significantly lighter and I flung them all out of the window one by one. Of course I made them heavier again before they landed onto the pavement below which luckily was still sparsely populated due to the time.

“OW WHAT THE FUCK?!”

“NO MUSIC FOR YOU TODAY !”

“Loki gave you a 6 Jinx. He said it was ingenious use of your skills.”

I jumped down into the streets making myself lighter and landed softly on my feet.

“That guys is how its usually done and alright I can't wait to get started. Let's all gear up get ready and meet back here in an hour. We should go and get some levels. Elena told me last night that her friend needed a favour which is supposedly quite a challenging quest in the forbidden forest just beside Junad. I trust you all are awake by now. Oh and Soup here's my katana please repair it for me thanksssss.” I announced before dashing off into the West Spine.

I needed to get myself some equipment. Without the boots from the Boar's Head I had 0 defence. Sure I had 900HP now but with 0 defence i'm pretty sure a critical hit from a level 50 monster which are aplenty in the forbidden forest would reduce my HP significantly. Plus I was in essence a close to mid range fighter. I had Soup as a tank but since I would be near him dishing out the damage I needed to have protective gear as well. Thus, I decided to buy a full set of leather armour. I went to the leather armour shop in the West Spine to get the items.

“Hello Mister, I'm looking for a full set of armour. Can I take a look at your goods?”

“Sure go ahead.”

I rumaged through his goods and found out that the newbie armour really didn't give much but they were really cheap. I had earned my fair share of silver from working with Elena and I figured this would be the time to use it. I finalised my purchases for just a mere 4 silver and walked out of the shop.

Equipped : Leather Bracer

A very simple bracer crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Dexterity +1

Defence +3

Equipped : Leather Boots

A very simple pair of boots crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Defence +3

Equipped : Leather Helmet

A very simple helmet crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Dexterity +1

Defence +5

Equipped : Leather Gaunlets

A very simple pair of gaunlets crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Dexterity +1

Defence +3

Equipped : Leather Armour

A very simple armour crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Dexterity +1

Defence +8

Equipped : Leather Pants

A very simple pair of pants crafted out of leather by a tailor. Provides very basic protection for adventurers.

Required level 1

Dexterity +1

Defence +5

In total, I received 5 Dexterity and 27 Defence just by spending 4 silver. It would definitely be a psychological boost in dealing with the monsters in the forbidden forest. Monsters there were on average about level 50. I thought it would be a challenge that was possible for us. Breadtalk and I had bonus stat gains so by our stats alone we were about level 40 based on estimates. Soup was already 30 so there was no problem. If anyone were to die, it would be Beathoven but I trust his ability to stay alive. In previous games he was so timid he would always be the last man standing as he had an outstanding ability to run around trying to survive because he was so scared of death. It was extremely commendable actually if not for the fact that it looked extremely shameless and hilarious at times.

I made one last stop to the market in order to stock up on ingredients. Elena's recipe book had a few useful recipes I could make in the forest so we would not have to worry about or satiety levels dropping if I had enough food to serve. After finishing up my purchases, I went back to the Boar's Head to rendevouz with the party and received instructions from Elena about how to start the quest.

“Alright Jinx, when you venture out the west gate into the forbidden forest, there will be a fork immediately. Take the left path and follow the path, turn right at the next junction you see and after that all you need to do is keep going straight. There will be a small village of cottages and the person you should speak to is the leader of the village, Kyle. Good luck.”

We gathered at the west gate and then it was time. It was time to take our first step out of town, fight monsters as a whole team and having fun our way. However I remembered one last task we had to settle first.

“Guys. We don't have a name for the party. And we are going to be stuck in this party for literally forever. Anyone care to weigh in?”

“85Kg.”

“Breadtalk be serious you fatass.”

“Hey thats a good party name but it's abit too long.”

“Fatass?”

“Only Breadtalk is fat.”

“We The Kings?”

“Only one of us is a musician and none of us are kings.”

“Ghostbusters?”

“Ballbusters?”

This is never going to end...

I took it upon myself to give a name nobody could ever argue against. Outsiders or party members ourselves.

Party Name : Bunch Of Tards. Party leader : Jinx.

Jinx, Level 1 Elemental Swordsman

Beathoven, Level 10 Bard

Soup, Level 30 Gladiator

Breadtalk, Level 1 Trickster

“So. We are the BOTs eh. Thats actually quite nice Jinx.”

“Oh yea! BOT. NICE!”

It was purely coincidental that the short form sounds cool. Oh well lets just let them think I have superb naming sense then.

“Autobots move out!” Breadtalk shouted.

And so we did.

We followed Elena's instructions. Left.. Right... Straight.... Sure enough it wasn't too far away. A cluster of cottages soon appeared down the path. We walked into the village and asked the first villager we saw where could we find Kyle.

“Kyle? He should be in his cottage. Right there.” The villager pointed us to the cottage located right at the centre of the cluster.

We walked over and knocked on the door.

“Come in.” A seemingly dejected voice answered.

When we walked in, any idiot would be able to tell that the mood was not good. Kyle wasn't what you expected a village leader to look like. He was disheveled, his eyes had major dark circles around them and his eyes gave off a feeling of a man who had nothing left in the world.

“Good Morning Sir, we were wondering if we could provide you with any help? Elena sent us.”

He eyes immediately brightened up and he begun to told us what exactly happened immediately.

“Our village was a normal village. People went about doing their farming, hunting and gathering as per usual. Our village was blessed by a small demigod that made our jobs alot easier. Weak monsters were attracted while strong monsters were kept away. Our livestock matured faster, became fatter and of higher quality. Farming yielded maximum output every time despite rain or shine. All that was due to the statue someone made for us when we created the village.”

“However, about two weeks ago, a monster managed to steal the tiara of the goddess which was what she imparted her holy powers into. Since then, the village was in shambles. Crops did not grow well. Livestock were unhealthy. We were even attacked by a pack of dire wolves about three nights back. I need to solve this problem ASAP but our village does not have the resources to send hunters after the monster. We have eyewitnesses saying they saw something like a tree stealing the tiara so we believe treants have stolen the tiara. The problem with treants is identifying them and then killing them. They blend in so well with the forest I do not have the ability to clear a large amount of them in a short time. Please. I formally request you, the.. Bunch Of Tards to help us find our tiara back!”

Quest Received : Tiara retrieval

Kyle has requested you to find the tiara of the Korsak Village and restore the village to its proper order. They have been stolen by treants who are hiding within the forbidden forest. Eliminate treants until you find the tiara.

Quest Difficulty : D

Will you accept?

Yes | No

“Yes. Don't worry Kyle, we can't turn a blind eye to this.” I said.

“I wish for your success. Please. The fate of the village depends on you.”

We proceeded out of the village and had a team meeting.

“Okay tards how are we going to do this? Do any of you even know how to identify treants?”

“Why don't we slash every tree once? Treants should lose HP and have some sort of reaction when we damage them right?”

“One slash might not be enough damage to force a reaction if they are hiding. Too many would damage the forest as well.. Oh boy just starting the quest and we are stuck already. Usually you are the one with the ideas Jinx. Any now?”

I considered my options using mana manipulation. I could maybe use earth affinity to make the trees grow extra branches and maybe it would not be applicable to treants. However I could not be sure this would work.

“No... I don't have anything for now.” I muttered.

“Oh wait. I have a skill called bersekers call. It aggros any monster within a 5 meter radius from myself. So we can just use it! “ Soup said.

“Sounds like a plan. Alright let's do this.”

Treants were about level 40. Not too high but way higher than our level anyway. Before we set off into the jungle to start on our quest, we made our necessary preparations. Breadtalk still had the score of 4 from Loki's entourage last night since it lasted 24 hours so he casted Loki's armoury. A spear popped out in front of him. He tried it out by poking Soup with it.

“BOOM!”

“YOU FUCKING RETARD CHILD WHY DO YOU TEST IT ON ME WHEN YOU HAVE SO MANY THINGS AROUND YOU TO POKE?!”

Soup caught Breadtalk in a headlock and begun grinding his knuckles on his head while Beathoven and I were busy clutching our stomach, busy developing 8 packs from laughing too hard at what just happened.

We caught our breaths and Beathoven begun playing a melody with his lute. It was strange. It sounded like a messy jumble of notes at first but after listening to it for awhile, within the seeming randomness and clashing sounds, a consistent melody could be heard in the background. The melody was beautiful and after awhile, one need not even need to put in the effort to hear the melody in the background. Before you realised, the melody was now all you could hear with the jarring sounds in the background which unknowingly gave the song a consistent bass and treble along with the accompanying melody.

Received buff: Chaotic Melody.

This is the original song Beathoven the bard came up with as his answer to the initiation test. It was a song that described his true wants and feelings. The desire to be around his friends that were seemingly chaotic and ridiculous which actually always brings him joy and laughter. This song will give special buffs to Beathoven and his three friends whom he created the song for.

Special Buff:

HP regen +50/s

Mana regen +50/s

Teamwork +50

*All party song buffs for last for 1 hour after they are heard. Cannot be stacked with another party song buff and will be replaced if another song is played.

“Oh cool! I didn't know what were the buffs it gave to parties because it's my first time playing it for a party but it seems this system really treats musicians with respect. They even acknowledge the people the song was made for. The buffs seem to reflect my desire for us to keep partying together thus increasing regeneration and teamwork I guess.” Beathoven commented.

Such buffs were rare to come by. Usually buffs improved overall stats but this buff increased regen. It could help us fight longer and more efficiently, especially in boss fights so it seemed extremely useful.

“Ok i finished my preparations as well.” said Breadtalk.

“WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR NOSE?”

“I wanted to train my shapeshift skill so I used it to increase the size of my nose. Its the only skill I can train with an since the mana cost is 10/s I can use it for unlimited amounts of time since Beathoven's buff overwhelms the mana needed.”

“Oh yeah! Alright i'm training my skills as well.

I turned on wind steps and electrical impulse. My mana did not decrease due to the overwhelming regen and I was extremely happy to be able to train my skills. Looks like Zack's decision to become a bard would greatly benefit us indeed.

The preperations were all set and we ventured into the forest behind the village.

“Soup, do the honours please.”

He let out a large howl that was not high pitched and long like a wolf's. It was a deep, nerve trembling roar that sent shiver's down your spine. However I guess to monsters that would be the call inviting them to do battle. My thoughts were suddenly interrupted though.

I expected us to take a few calls to locate some treants. I couldn't be more wrong. Every single tree within 5m moved towards Soup.

“DAFUQ?! HELP!!!!!!!”

But all of us were laughing so bad it took us about 3 seconds to recover from shock and laughter. Apparently teamwork does not mean we don't get to laugh at each other. I assessed the situation briefly and decided that taking down the number of treants was priority. I wrapped fire around my blade and didn't scrimp on the mana cost.

“Gravity crush.”

A fire element attacked coupled with the help of gravity made my blade flow through the treant like it was cutting paper. However, since treants had high defence and hp by nature, one such attack was not enough to cut it down and I needed to add a few normal fire slashes to make it fall for good. Beathoven whistled behind me while playing his lute to give himself invisibility from enemy eyes while staying away at a safe spot.

“BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

Breadtalk was just poking his stick everywhere and laughing his ass off enjoying every moment of it. However ,due to his absurdly large nose I really couldn't stand looking at him for long. I wouldn't be able to concentrate at all.

Soup was taking the rest of the treant's bashing though. Apparently berserker's call lure the treants within 5m towards him but once the treants started their attack, some further than 5m away also joined in. They were swiping at Soup with their branches at thick as clubs and all he could do was activate his iron stance skill which enabled him to stay rooted to one spot and increase his defence. He was parrying blows left right up down and it was obvious if this keeps going on we would be overrun.

I tried something new. I tried to wrap Soup's weapon with fire and it worked. He now had the added fire damage to his sword as well but I still didn't think it would be enough. There were about 20 treants around us, most of them aggro-ed towards Soup so I had to think of a solution. Then one of my bright ideas struck me. I needed quite a lot of mana for this though so I cut off using my electrical impulse and wind steps which were not of much use in these type of battles. Instead, I concentrated my mana onto the floor around Soup. I manipulated it in such a way that fire columns the height of 3 meters suddenly wrapped around Soup. There was only one area which did not have fire and that was directly in front of Soup. The treants around him stopped attacking him as they were lit on fire except for the one directly in front of him. They tried to go to where there was no fire but as they were still aggro-ed towards Soup, most of them tried to make their way towards the space directly in front of him.

I can manipulate the terrain to maze it in a systematic way so that they will all be lured to a position that will be to our advantage. Handy!

With this realization, I asked Breadtalk to stand side by side with Soup. I then begun to maze the treants such that all of them could only attack us from the front unless they were in the fire and begun to hack away at them, one on one. Beathoven could then stop his invisibility tune and just sat down behind the three of us, playing a tune that reduces their defence instead.

However, my mana couldn't last forever and a fire pillar surrounding our back and sides resulted in quite the mana consumption. I could only last for about 8-9 minutes and a debuffed treant still proved a slight difficulty for me. Luckily they were rather weak to the fire mana around me and Soup's weapon. Breadtalk had an exploding spear so I guess it was his lucky day. When my mana ran out, there were only 2 treants left so Soup and Breadtalk were the ones who took them on while I just concentrated on recovering my mana and maintaning the fire mana around their weapons. Soon, dead corpses of 20 treants lay around us. It took us about 10 minutes.

“Okay. I was not expecting every tree around us to be a treant. Any more and it could've been trouble. Sorry guys.”

“No harm done man. It was honestly one of the funniest things that could happen in that situation. Loki said he would have given you a 9 or 10 but he couldn't.”

“My stomach gave it an 11. If we weren't in battle I would probably still be laughing at it now.” I added.

“Well this plan seems pretty solid. Lets stick with this but try to aggro less trees?”

“Yea.”

And so we did. We proceeded to use berserker's call on no more than 10 trees and surprisingly, almost every time we found some treants. We must have stumbled upon their nesting place by pure luck. It was not far from the village though so I wonder what they were doing so close to the village.

After an hour of hunting, we still did not manage to retrieve any tiara so we decided to take a break and have lunch instead.

I started a fire and took out the ingredients I bought earlier today at the market. I started making basic anchovy sandwiches for the group and they had nothing else to eat so they couldn't complain about it. The recipe was only level 1 so the food did not give bonuses to us as it was too simple and easy a meal to prepare. We filled our satiety bars to the maximum and decided to press on.

Our pace gradually increased steadily as we gained levels and allocated our stats. I decided on a balanced stat build as I needed both intellect and strength as a spellsword. As such I could maintain my mazing fires for a while longer and I required less strikes to cut down a treant. Breadtalk concentrated on luck as much as possible as he did not have a fixed weapon. Strength was for melee and dexteriy was for ranged weapons and he had both. Thus he had so much luck that it was insane. Almost every attack by treants missed him when we were at the later stages of the hunt.

Skill proficiency levels were also increasing quite quickly as we had the mana regen to always activate our skills. We hunted about 1000 treants before we finally found the tiara. It was a tedious process and it was already dark when we were done. However, I realised something amiss from our surroundings. It was so foreboding that I felt a chill shiver down my spine and goosebumps appeared all over my skin.

“Guys. Look at the area we've been hunting in... Now that many treants are removed.. Doesn't this forest look more.. Organized? There's a path. Look. And if you follow that path... it looks like there's a building ahead. And I'm feeling a vibe from the building that makes me extremely uncomfortable”

“Holy shit. You're right. There is a path towards that building which the treants have covered. Why?”

“I don't know but it can't be a coincidence that all the treants just decided to plant themselves on the path. Looks like they wanted to hide this path or maybe this was the only place they could find? Anyway let's return to Kyle to finish the quest first.”

“Yea you're right.”

We set off towards the village and returned to Kyle immediately. Upon seeing the tiara, his face lit up and he seemed like a child who got a lollipop for the first time.

“You did it! Oh man this is going to change everything back to normal!” He ran outside and placed the tiara on top of the statue's head.

Quest Complete : Tiara Retrieval

You managed to obtain the tiara from the treants.

Reward : 3000 EXP, 50 Silver

“Alright guys look like our job here is d-.” I said.

Just when I was about to finish my sentence, the statue glowed brightly and suddenly a splitting image of the demigod appeared beside the statue.

“Dear adventurers, thank you for guiding me back to my home. I am but a small demigod that manifests my power from this tiara. However, treants managed to take me away from my rightful place in this village but it was by no coincidence. Treants are usually nature loving monsters that do not attack unless provoked. I sense a foreign presence in this forest. And unusually dark and powerful presence. I believe this force was responsible for manipulating the treants to steal the tiara. Can I trouble you all one more time to get to the bottom of this matter? Unless this is resolved, I am sure I will be taken away by treants or other monsters again.”

Quest Received : Eliminate the Dark Forces

Demigod Valhalla has requested you to investigate this strange dark presence she has sensed and suspects that it will bring alot of future harm to the village of Korsak. Will you help this village and this demigod restore their former peace?

Quest Difficulty : C

Will you accept?

Yes | No

I was extremely hesitant about this. We already nearly died doing a D difficulty quest and this was one level higher. It might even be a high tier class C quest as it was given by a demigod. My nature eventually helped me decide. I was not one who would back down if i could give help upon seeing people in need of it.

“Yes.”

“Typical Jinx, doesn't even discuss it with us before accepting the quest. Still the kind natured ass that we know huh.” Beathoven snickered.

“A real man always says yes.” Soup added.

“Then suck my dick now Soup.” said you know who.

“Yes. I'll bite it off ass.”

“I'm still here you know. A female demigod at that. I suppose you all will need help against this evil foe though. Take this along with you. It's my pet, Xantos. It's a light type roc which is still young and developing, she is capable of casting some holy spells. Treat it with care. I will be waiting here for your good news.” Valhalla said before vanishing.

Xantos looked like an elegant eagle. Except... She was about the size of Breadtalk.

Still young and developing?! How large will it become..

“Alright guys. Based on what happened earlier, this is my hypothesis. The dark force came into the forest and set up their castle at the location we saw just now. This happened to be where treants used to live until they chased them out. They settled down in the path leading from the village to the castle instead. The dark forces then asked the treants to steal the tiara which the treants had no choice but to do. IF this were so, the enemies in that castle would be of a much higher level than the treants. Also, this would require some castle sieging skills. As we are now, I see no way of succeeding in this quest. We need to level up further. We also need to form an “army” to siege the castle with us. I suggest we do the easier bit first which I think will be levelling up. Anyone got complains or suggestions they wish to raise?”

“Nope. Let's clear the forest mobs first and show them who's boss. We still haven't explored the entire forest yet and there may be hidden information we could find out after exploring the whole forest as well.”

“Sounds good.”

“Xantos, you mind hunting with us? You can also gain levels right?”

Xantos nodded.

“Well, first we need to get a good night's rest. We'll continue tomorrow. I talked to Kyle, there's an empty cottage that we can use for tonight.”

I cooked dinner for the night which all of them ate without complains again except Xantos.

“Xantos what do you eat then?”

“Mana.”

Looks like I was meant to be the cook after all. I channeled all my mana into a highly condensed ball and converted it to light mana. It was shining so brightly that I couldn't even look at it directly. Xantos on the other hand looked like Kyle did when I brought him the tiara. With one huge chomp, the light was gone and I felt extremely drained. We all turned in for the night, knowing that the task that was ahead of us was not going to be easy but who could resist the idea of solving a hard mystery?

The BOTs would make our mark. Slowly but surely.

Party Name : Bunch Of Tards. Party leader : Jinx.

Jinx, Level 29 Elemental Swordsman

Beathoven, Level 35 Bard

Soup, Level 41 Gladiator

Breadtalk, Level 29 Trickster

End of Chapter 7