‘Huff huff… How the hell is she running so quickly with all that weight?’ I cried, vision starting to blur because of the headache and exhaustion.

‘I don’t think that can be called running,’ Liz giggled.

I wiped the sweat from my eyes and focused on Coffee’s figure as it moved down the forest trail, head bobbing up and down. No wait, that wasn’t right. It was in view, then not in view, almost as if she was…

Rolling?

…

Well, then.

It gave me an excellent idea, though. I created a ball of mana, converted it into a series of Manifestation Vectors, and modelled a flat board with a curved tip. I jumped up and connected the vectors, causing them to transform my lower body into a makeshift sled. I landed squarely, and began to slide down the dirt road at an astonishing speed.

ssssssSSSSSSS.

‘AGHHHH!’ I screamed.

The base of my body was immediately subjected to the fires of perdition that couldn’t be compared to a simple carpet burn. I could feel each grain of dirt dig itself into my flesh. Releasing the spell, I skidded to a stop and started to nurse my wounds. I had the unfortunate experience of learning what cooked slime would smell like.

‘You uh… okay?’ Liz stopped beside me, and blew on the steaming wound. Kalli, who was now piggybacked on Liz, was trying to stifle his laughter. Aweh, he was so cute. I guess it wasn’t so bad. I made him smile at--

Liiick.

‘OW!’ I yelled, pulling away. ‘What was that for?!’

‘Mimic saliva has healing properties,’ Liz said, licking her lips. Her cheeks were tinged with red.

‘Healing my ass. It just hurts even more,’ I complained, glaring at her.

‘It’s true,’ she insisted. ‘If you let me lick—’

‘No way.’ I said, holding my pseudopods out defensively. ‘C’mon, we have to catch up to Coffee.’

‘Fine.’ Liz looked dejected.

‘You taste so good though…’ she muttered barely audibly.

‘Sorry?’

‘Ah, nothing!’ She smiled. Danger signals went off in my head, and I shook my head vigorously to refocus on the task at hand. At least the headache was dulled, replaced by the burning sensation below me. There had to be a better way to get down the mountain… Ah!

I extended Manifestation Vectors to create a tall cylinder in front of me, and applied a thin layer of Collision mana over the inner walls. Then, shrinking the cylinder lengthwise, I compressed the air trapped inside into a thin disc, using the displaced Manifestation Vectors into bind the cylinder tighter like a system of latches. Hoverboard complete.

Carefully, I dragged myself onto the board and hopped up and down to get a feel for its stability, finding that I was essentially able to float 10 centimeters off the ground.

‘Hop on,’ I motioned to Liz and Kalli, who were watching with great interest.

‘Ooooo… I’ve never seen an application like this,’ Liz said, stepping onto the hoverboard. ‘This is similar to Air Space, except it doesn’t manipulate wind at all.’

‘Air Space?’ I asked, trying to figure out how to move the disc efficiently. Unlike what I was expecting, it didn’t slide downwards on its own, despite the decline of the ground. Just moving it by shifting the vectors was slow and tedious... Maybe I could fire collision mana backwards?

‘It’s an Advanced Wind Spell that compresses the gas forcefully by creating a countercurrent air flo—AHHHH!’

We blasted forward as I released a decent amount of collision mana behind us, and I instinctively remodeled the cylinder to surround us with a cushiony wall of compressed air, keeping us from flying off. In a few seconds, the acceleration stopped and we continued to move at a decent velocity, which was fine. Except that we were hovering at least twenty meters off the ground.

‘Whoa, lets go up higher,’ I said, a little excited now. I pushed us upwards until we reached a height of about a hundred meters, looking over a breathtaking view of the isolated world we were in.

The sun was slowly setting behind the extensive mountain range in the horizon, basking everything before it in a dim orange glow. Beyond the forest were hundreds of kilometers of green plains populated with dispersed villages that were connected by long, winding roads.

At the center of these plains was an immensely large, vine-like construct that was almost as wide as the mountain. Interestingly, there were a series of fruits that seemed to bud from the top of the vines, some which were tall like bananas and others that were small like mandarin oranges. And all along the vines were small ant-like figures moving like a bustling crowd, some vines more active than others.

‘Holy shit, is that what I think it is?’ I asked in awe.

‘That would be Orbis City, the biggest Leafe city in the subdungeon,’ Liz whispered, putting a hand to her mouth and looking very green indeed. ‘By the way, I would appreciate it if you could tell me next time before you launch us FOOOOORRRWAAAARRRRD!’

‘Sorry, you should’ve have said something sooner!’ I yelled, accelerating us downwards and forwards so that we could catch up to Coffee. I could’ve stayed forever and watched the sun set, but we needed to finish the mission as soon as possible. I also had no idea what we would do if night fell and we didn’t find an inn or something.

‘Bleeeeeeeeh…’ Liz threw up on the ground after we landed and dispelled the hoverboard, leaving a worried Kalli to rub her back and console her. I felt bad for Liz, but I was more relieved than anything. Coffee was on the ground, sleeping safe and sound with a nice puddle of vomit next to her. I guessed the extensive rolling adventure wasn’t very pleasant to the stomach.

‘Seems like we’re okay for now,’ I plopped onto the ground, tired as fuck. I felt my eyes drooping, but then slapped myself in the face. We needed to go to Cairne village and find somewhere to stay the night. There was about two hundred meters to the village entrance ahead, which was barred off with a wooden gate.

‘Hup!’ I gathered some air inside my body using Manipulation Vectors to make myself a little bigger, and lifted Coffee onto my back, which molded to her figure like memory foam would. ‘Hurry up, Liz.’

She wiped her mouth and grumbled about how I was a slave driver, which I ignored. Carrying Coffee was much more difficult than I had imagined. She weighed a ton. How a little girl managed to shove that much food inside her bewildered me.

As we approached the village gates, we saw a sign in front that said clearly: [Cairne Village]. A hostile voice called out from behind, resembling an Australian accent.

“Who goes there?!”

“We're not enemies!” Liz called out in response. “We’re just looking for a place to crash for the night!”

“We ain’t taking strangers no more. Not after ‘em fukin’ Moobs took a few of our babes the other night,” the voice shook with rage.

‘We tried to save them,’ I lied. ‘But we were too late. We did, however, get revenge for you! Those manamoos are dead!’

“…” The voice fell silent and seemed to mull this over. “Show me some proof, yeah?”

Liz wordlessly took out a manamoo head from the void ring which she had been lent to store the leftover meat from our meal. Why she kept the head, I had no fucking clue, but I was glad that she brought it with us. She threw the head over the gate, which we heard land on the ground with a thud.

We heard frantic whispering among several people, which then quieted down as if they had reached an agreement.

Creaaak.

The gate opened to reveal two strange figures. They were standing on a pair of legs and spouting a pair of arms, but their body and heads were definitely vegetable. One was a potato, and the other was a single stalk of green onion; both were human-sized and smiling,

“Welcome to Cairne Village, heroes!” The green onion said.

Ting!

Quest Updated: Current Mission changed to ‘Speak to the Village Elder’.

Walking towards the center of the village, the sun finally set and enshrouded the area in darkness. The villagers lit a bonfire in the village square, and were chatting happily with each other. There was quite a variety, ranging from garlic to cucumbers to radishes to peppers. All around were buildings made of large, colorful fruits, some of which I assumed were homes and others that looked like a community center and town hall.

Seeing me look around in amazement, the potato chuckled, “These are all imported from Orbis City. Beautiful, aren’t they?”

I nodded in agreement, to which the green onion smiled at me sadly. I asked him why, and he merely shook his head. I was curious, but I didn’t want to poke my head into somewhere I shouldn’t be. We were brought before a sagging tomato, who was sitting on a chair made from what appeared to be a large seed.

“Greetings, heroes. My name is Toto. I humbly thank you for dealing with those Moobs. They have terrorized and killed many of us, and I cannot express my gratitude in words,” the tomato said, bowing.

‘It’s no problem at all, but if you don’t mind me asking, why couldn’t you fight them off yourselves?’ I asked.

“To strong warriors such as you and your friends, perhaps defeating such a foe may have been an easy task. We are but simple villagers that live for the sake of living, and bask in the sun to photosynthesize until the day we pass. We have no strength to oppose them. The warriors of Leafe, who might be able to, are all in Orbis City, defending our people from the Moob Army, even as we speak,” Toto said. The flames from the bonfire flickered and illuminated the heavy sags on his red face. They glistened brightly in his black eyes.

Over to my right, Kalli was being surrounded by small broccoli that tugged at him to go play with them. He looked expectantly at Liz, who smiled and nodded before turning back to Toto. Kalli ran off to play with the other kids.

“Great heroes, I have a request to make of you,” Toto said with a serious face, making his wrinkles look even more defined than they were previously. “Our enemies have been gathering a powerful force at the Temple of Figus to launch an assault on Orbis City. We are afraid that our entire civilization is doomed if we stand by idly. Would you be willing to help protect our homes, our children, and our families? We could use—no... we absolutely need your help.”

Ting!

Quest Update: Current Mission changed to ‘Defend Orbis City’.

Holy crap, this was a pretty huge request.

I was all for helping people, but to engage in a war? Jesus. How would we even contribute? We were only three people and a child. And one of us was currently undergoing violently gluttonous tendencies.

Watching the children play by the bonfire with Kalli, wrestling playfully and laughing joyously, I remembered when Ellie and Andrea would sit and chat, while Lily and I would play in the pond near our house. No, stop that. Focus.

I took a deep breath and thought about what was most important to me right now. Immediately, I glanced up at Coffee, who was still snoozing away calmly. Even if she was annoying at some times, blantantly opinionated at others, and violent to a fault, at her core was someone who truly cared about the people nearest to her.

I took a deep breath.

Yes, my priority right now was Coffee. We had to complete the mission if I wanted to save her.

‘We would be happy to help,’ I faked a smile.

“Fantastic! I shouldn’t have expected anything less from a fine group of heroes,” Toto bowed again. “Onnie will show you to your lodgings for the night. You must be very tired. Please rest well, for we must travel to Orbis tomorrow. I will provide you with more details in the morning.”

‘Wait, could you at least tell us what we will be doing, exactly?’

“I will be coming with you to advise the war council of Leafe on tactical strategies. It will also allow me to introduce you to the army generals, whom you will work with to instruct our warriors in the ways of the Heroes, and teach them the skills they need to defeat the enemy.”

‘…I see.’

It was a big responsibility, being an instructor, but at least there was more hope in this strategy than merely slapping the four of us onto their defensive forces.

“It’ll be fun, mate. I’m comin’ along too, yeah?” Onnie the green onion smiled and nudged me in the side. I grimaced, not having experience with teaching at all. I knew that Coffee would be a perfect military teacher, so I could only hope that she’d be in a good enough state to instruct. Unless?

‘Liz, are you familiar with teaching?’ I asked.

‘Hell no. Good luck, Bell,’ she said, patting my back.

God dammit.

‘Alright then… good night, Toto. See you in the morning,’ I said, following Onnie to a shiny apple that was about the size of a large shack. Toto and the others said their farewells as we took our leave.

Liz waved Kalli over, who ran to us grinning from edge to edge on his chesty face, eyes sparkling. I was impressed at how much he had improved a lot over the past day, and I was happy for him. Maybe it was the power of youth? Since we had escaped the manion, I caught him looking down from time to time. Now, though, he was finally acting like a kid should.

“Good night, heroes!” Onnie bowed as we opened the door to the apple shack and entered our temporary home. What we saw almost brought tears to my eyes.

Hell yeah! Beds~!

I decided to push off thinking about everything till tomorrow, because I was unbelievably exhausted. Placing Coffee on the bed nearest to me, I plopped myself next to her, leaving the other bed for Liz and Kalli. I passed out within seconds.