"What kind of mission is this?" - I asked, surprised.

“Help for mages. There's so much work to do that I'm going to plough through till tomorrow night. Because of their beast. Every night, and sometimes during the day, the local gardens are ruined. And those who want to become a Healer need to clean it up.”

"And what's the point of all this work if beast ruins everything the next day?" - I asked.

"Is that what you're asking me? The point is that I have to check the box and finish the quest.”

“Forget about this boring work. Better, let's go on a hunt for an Unknown Beast. It is necessary not to fight the consequences, but to eliminate the cause, I mean, the local enemy of the people. You want to perform a feat and become a hero, don't you?” - I ended my speech with a provocative question.

"A feat? Yes, a feat! I'll do it!!!” – Suddenly, Straight Black Iron Sword inspired. – “Where should I go? What need to do?”

Heh, a typical Fire mage. No need to explain everything to him, so that he will do everything what others say.

"We need to go there which I don't know where, and do something which I don't know what.” - I replied with a proverb in the best traditions of the Chaos adepts. - "But first we need to find a local hunter named Liquid Striped Fluff.”

"Oh! I see him.” - The Iron Sword exclaimed.

"Where?" - I asked, looking around.

"Over there, between the red-striped tent and the birch tree.”

I immediately found the target and rushed to him, knocking down all the unfortunate ones who dared to stand in my way to greatness and dominance. However, everyone was running around like that, so no one even paid attention to me.

"Hello, I want to pass the test for Healer. What are you hunting for an Unknown Beast here, and what should be done?” - I immediately blurted out, literally grabbing the hunter by scruff of neck, because just before my arrival, he tried to sneak away. Straight Black Iron Sword followed behind me, keeping a step behind me.

The hunter turned his sad-faced gaze on me, sighed, and began to explain.

"An Unknown Beast is ravaging the alchemy plantings in this forest.” - The hunter waved his hands, pointing at the surrounding area.

"Is this a forest?" - I asked suspiciously. Actually, there weren't many trees in the area, because the entire surface was planted with various kinds of alchemical weeds.

"There used to be a forest here.” -The hunter sighed. - "But after that the Earth mages bought this territory and started growing plants for their own needs. And since they have a lot of money, soon the entire forest was turned into a botanical garden by the forces of thousands of magicians. But recently, an Unknown Beast has become accustomed to ruining crops, because of which the profit of magicians has decreased to zero.

"What a useful beast, though.” - I said, grinning maliciously. - "As an Air mage, I'm completely on his side. So, what should I do?”

The hunter gave me a strange look, then sighed ruefully, sticking to his stage image.

“You need to find an Unknown Beast and prevent it from ruining the gardens. Then it will hide for a while, and the mages will have time to grow at least something.”

"How to I find it?" - I asked.

“Depends on you.” - The hunter waved it off lightly. – “Go through the forest. Pay attention to the footprints. Perhaps you will be able to find the place where the Unknown Beast will strike its next blow.”

With these words, the hunter suddenly rushed forward and disappeared from me in the crowd of scurrying magicians. Oh, bastard! Gone!

"Did you hear that? We face the heroic task of finding and neutralizing the Unknown Beast.” - I informed to the Iron Sword.

“I was thinking, maybe it would be easier to plow the flower beds and water the seedlings? At least result is guaranteed there. It will only be necessary to work hard and do the job.”

"Why are you such a coward?" - I struck him below the waist with argument. - "Scared of obstacles? Are you afraid to fight a forest monster?”

"I'm not afraid of anything.” - My free labor force began to justify himself.

"Then, let's go! We just need to find the elusive Unknown Beast in this endless forest. Since there are almost no trees here, it will have nowhere to hide. Consider that 90% of the work has already been done for us.”

"Yes, we have only 10% left?"

"Exactly! Let's go!” - I grabbed Iron Sword by the hand and dragged him forward, not looking at the road. - "Where we go with the Straight Sword is a big, big secret, and we won't tell about it, no, no, no!" - I started quoting Winnie-the-Pooh. The local civilization was not familiar with these weapons of mass brain destruction, so my victim immediately suffered critical brain damage and followed me, singing along as best he could.

Since I didn't know where to go, I also decided to look at the map for places suitable for charging my amulets and talismans. Surprisingly, one suitable place was found at the edge of the scanning area, and I rushed there, along the way carefully scanning the surrounding area for 'traces of Unknown Beast'. And that my companion not to suddenly start thinking, I send to him an invitation to group and began to retell Pushkin's 'Lukemory'.

When I reached the desired anomaly, I began to cut circles, choosing the best place to charge the amulet to increase the health reserve.

"Where are we going?" - Iron Sword asked, also looking around carefully.

"We're following my intuition.” - I lied without blinking an eye, simultaneously adjusting the map to a more contrasting display of the energy combinations I needed. – “It is there.” - We walked a couple of hundred meters, and I stopped, studying the map. - "It's here somewhere.” - I said under my nose.

"Look, the claw marks!" – Iron Sword shouted, pointing at the tree with its striated bark.

"Yes, it's here.” - I agreed, walking over to the spot and activating the amulet charge.

“Um-m-m… what are you doing?” - My companion asked suspiciously, seeing that I am not paying attention to the tree.

"I am consulting with the Spirits of Air.” - I replied, starting to charge the second amulet.

"Are there any air spirits in this game?" – Iron Sword asked incredulously.

"Well, is there air? We breathe it. So, there must be air spirits, too. And even if they are not there, it does not prevent me from communicating with them.” - My companion froze again, trying to understand my logic. - "By the way, with what spells are you equipped?" - I asked, distracting him from this dangerous course of thoughts.

"Spells? In talismans?”

“Yeah.”

“All standard ones available to the mage at the fourth level.”

I distracted myself from the charging process and noticed that the magician is really only level four. Only starting from this level next profession can be chosen. I got the sixth level right away, without choosing a profession.

“And what is your element?” - I asked. Normally, a mage's element could be determined by his energy, but we hadn't used magic for a long time, so now our energy coincided with the surrounding world.

“Air.” - He surprised me. I thought he was more in line with the Fire magician. However, in the soul, he can be an adept of Fire, but in the game he chose Air to become a Druid.

"If we engage, don't use the Bombardment without my orders.”

"Why?"

"It's a waste of energy. It is better not to use it against one target.”

While we were talking, I finished charging three amulets, looked at the mangled bark on the tree, and abruptly turned in the other direction - a suitable place for charging the second batch of amulets appeared on the map.

Just as I took a step, the branches of the bushes and the grass swayed in front of me. The movement was brief but noticeable. And since no one was visible in front of us, the question arose whether the invisible man was chasing us. After taking another look at the 'claw marks', I headed forward.

This time we had to make a couple of circles, because in side there were ruined gardens. On closer inspection, I saw several huge paw prints on the ground. At the same time, the plants were uprooted and thrown near the place where they grew.

This time there was nothing remarkable at the site of the anomaly, so I just froze in the middle of another flower garden, charging amulets.

"Are you charging talismans here?" - My companion has finally figured it out.

“Well, yes.” - I nodded.

"Ha! But, what about the quest? We're supposed to be looking for an Unknown Beast!”

"We're looking for him. Right here. This place is no worse than any other.”

"Looks like I'd better go back and do the earthworks." - Iron Sword lost faith in me.

"Don't be so upset. I still have one more place to visit, after which we can immediately destroy this beast and become heroes whose names will be sung in legends.”

“Are you kidding me?” - The mage flared up, displaying his fiery nature. - "Go alone. Why are you dragging me with you?”

"Oh, how difficult it is with these noobs.” - I sighed.

At the same time, I wrote a text in the chat:

'Use a Bombardment between a large pine tree and a rowan bush.'

'Why?'- Sword also asked in the chat.

'You'll see. Just do it.'

Sword didn't ask any questions, but cast a spell. In his area of action was our invisible pursuer, who of course took damage and came out of invisibility. The shadowy figure leaped out of the spell's range, and the red name above its head turned yellow, indicating that this NPC would not be attacking us right now.

“Liquid Striped Fluff.” - I greeted the invisible man. - "So, you're the Unknown Beast?"

"What?" - Straight Black Iron Sword exclaimed.

"How did you figure it out?" - In fact, the hunter confirmed my assumptions.

"Like you said, I studied the tracks.”

"What's wrong with them?" - The saboteur-pest frowned.

"They were left on purpose. Moreover, these traces have nothing to do with the destruction. For example, in one place, the grass was pulled out of the ground by a human hand. At the same time, there were many prints of a cat's paw nearby, but all of these prints were left-handed. I didn't see any right paw prints.”