"Yes, I did.” - The hunter decided to ease his soul with a sincere confession. - "This forest used to be a paradise for animals and plants. Now it's just a big vegetable garden, where plants grow only because they are allowed to. Therefore, I decided to create problems for the Earth mages so that they would refuse to use the forest. But in response, they began to increase the area of crops to compensate the losses.”

"I suggest to burn everything." - The hunter and the mage, both made faces at the same time, as if I'd just kicked them in the balls. - "What? After this the mages will definitely get out of here.”

"I want to restore the original forest!" - Liquid Striped Fluff exclaimed.

"Then you need to kill everyone." - I gave out another radical solution. Compared to me, the local terrorists looked like innocent kittens.

"I don't have the strength to do that," - The hunter admitted.

"Yes, I thought so.” - I nodded in response. - "Since you're so weak, then we'll just kill you and complete our mission. Iron Sword, behead him with your sword.” - I gave the order.

"What?" – He exclaimed. – “But this will put us on the side of evil!”

"This evil that gave us the task. And until it is satisfied, you won't be a healer.” - At the same time as this speech, I wrote to the group chat. - 'I'll distract him, and you need to use the Paralysis on him.'

The Iron Sword took up my game again, pretending to be sympathetic to the hunter.

'All right.' “But how can we become heroes if we fight on the side of evil”

“Hm-m-m... Almost effortless?” - I made a assumption. – “You do have to realize that the evil is more likely to declare us to be heroes, if we will fulfill the order. Heroic deeds - they're all like that. The main thing is good advertising. With the right serve, any nefariousness can be a feat.”

"So, you're on their side…" - The hunter appreciated my speech.

"Hey, hey, hey! I am on the side of the law, on the side of the strong, and on the side of money.” - I began to circle the hunter in arc, approaching him at the same time. - "Offer me more, and I'll take your side. How about some gold stuff? Maybe then I will go to clear the forest of the filth in the face of Earth mages.”

"I have nothing to offer you...” – Hunter said. He wanted to add something else, but at that moment he was struck by lightning, paralyzing him for 10 seconds.

"Then you will die." - I said, quickly closing the distance between me and the target. - "But I can promise that after you die, I will try help to this forest. After all, I'm a future druid, so it won't be hard to plant a lot of predatory, poisonous weeds here.”

The hunter's eyes widened at the realization of what I am going to do to his beloved forest. But since he couldn't move, he could only watch as I took out my spear and attacked him.

This boss had more than 7000 hp. It was too much for me alone. On the other hand, this quest is meant for level 4 mages, so it couldn't be too difficult. After getting hit, the hunter tried to retreat and use invisibility, but I caught up with him with a jump and hit him with a Discharge, interrupting the use of his skill. At the same time, I sent another message to the group chat.

'Hit him with the Discharge when he tries to go into invisibility, when my Discharge will be on cooldown. If yours is also unavailable, then hit the area with a Bombardment.'

'Understood'. - I received a short answer.

To my surprise, the Iron Sword also charged into the melee fight, swinging his sword, which was indeed long, black, and iron. I constantly ran after the hunter and poked him with spear, guessing the use of Discharge to interrupt the invisibility cast and using the Burn on cycle. With the three amulets for energy regeneration in my bracelets and hat, I could no longer care about the energy consumption of these spells. Iron Sword also chased the hunter, repeatedly using evasive skills and swinging his sword with great skill.

The boss's life began to go down. He constantly tried to escape, but without invisibility, he had no chance of doing so. His retaliatory attacks in my direction usually were useless, and I did not allow him to attach my partner, because as soon as the hunter turned to his side, I went behind hunter and began to attack with a spear with maximum speed available to me. In addition, the Iron Sword himself was quite good at dodging, using the corresponding skills almost without interruption. His weapon did much less damage, so the boss had no choice but to try to attack me. After all, I could not attack while dodging, which means that the damage will be reduced. But no matter how hard he tried, the hunter's life only decreased, while our health froze at the maximum mark.

Actually, the boss, designed for level 4 players, could not be strong. There are no healing spells at this level yet, so it was assumed that all of the boss' attacks could be evaded. And with my combat foresight, the hunter had no chance of getting me at all. When the health of the Liquid Striped Fluff decreased by a third, he began to turn into an animal. His left hand became a huge cat's paw, his legs changed to look more like a werewolf's, and his face showed the features of a tiger's face. The enemy's behavior also changed. He started moving faster, plus he used his left paw to throw wide, circular punches that I constantly had to dodge.

After that, as the life of the boss fell by another third, he finally turned into a werewolf, but his 'second form' was not a wolf, but a tiger. As a result, he retained the general humanoid body shape, but his hands now resembled paws with long claws. His body was covered with fur, and most of the clothes were turned into some kind of leather strips, resembling either a harness or a BDSM gear. Then I had to fully focus on the fight, and my partner completely switched to using magic, because in close combat he constantly got punches to his face.

When the tiger’s health dropped to ten percent, he finally discarded his human form and turned into a huge saber-toothed tiger that was rushing around at great speed, no longer thinking about hiding under invisibility or escaping. From time to time, he let out a loud growl that paralyzed Iron Sword, but never worked on me.

Finally, I gave the last blow with my spear, and body of the huge tiger fell to the ground, letting out a plaintive roar. Immediately, system messages appeared in the chat.

*** 'You have accomplished a feat! For killing the unique boss Liquid Striped Fluff, you get a permanent bonus of +5% to your health and Hero title'.

*** 'Players Cheater, Straight Black Iron Sword has accomplished the feat of destroying the unique boss of the Star Forest. Their names will forever be carved on the Heroes' Stele in the Street of Fame.'

“Yes!!! Feat!” - Iron Sword shouted, leaping into the air and doing a somersault. - "I'm a hero now!"

Immediately, his name was colored gold, surrounded by flames. In addition, the inscription 'Hero' appeared above the name. I looked into my character settings and saw that I can now choose a title, and when the title Hero is displayed, a Heroic Aura is activated, which changes the name display and surrounds the player with a 'mystical' glow. Not bad. Appearance is main thing. I also activated the title and enjoyed the picture in the interface showing how I will visible to others.

"What fell out of him?" - Iron Sword asked, dancing beside the corpse. In the group's settings it was stated that only leader has right to take the loot, that is me.

I opened the loot collection window, and found two items there. The first was the Tiger's Paw, a quest item that I had to pass to prove that I had completed the task. But the second item was a purple bracelet. It had a slot for a large amulet, plus a built-in active spell 'Invisibility', which allow for wearer to use invisibility, even while in battle. Apparently, this bracelet was used by the hunter, trying to hide from us. And the very fact of having such an amulet in the game was still a cheat.

In general, invisibility was an active spell obtained by a Ninja at level 7. But that spell only worked for a limited amount of time, plus it consumes energy at a rapid rate. Here, the invisibility could last indefinitely, plus the energy consumption was quite small. It could easily be recovered with a few mana regeneration talismans.

“Wow!” - Iron Sword's voice rang out. – “Purple bracelet of invisibility. How will we divide it?”

“We will not divide it.” - I replied, taking the bracelet for myself. - "But I can give you a purple wand for a mage as compensation."

I opened the trade window and inserted my wand. Iron Sword immediately confirmed the exchange and began to examine the wand enthusiastically, twirling it in his hands.

"Wow!!! A real purple wand! Thanks! It's just as awesome as the bracelet.” - The voice of the future healer was so enthusiastic.

“Really?” - I asked skeptically. – “It contains a first-level spell.”

“But at the tenth level, you can complete special quest, and replace the spell with a high-level one. Didn't you know that?”

All I had to do is make a facepalm. Who knew there was such a quest here?

"No, I didn't.”

“In general, there is a quest that can only be taken once, and if you pass it, you can change the spell of purple wand. At the same time, if the wand is suitable for the magician, then you can take any spell from any profession of the magician. Wizards usually take healing, and healers take something from the Destroyer's spells. Plus, wand strikes don't consume mana, although the spell's power should match its energy regeneration level. This wand has a regeneration rate of two units per second.”

“Okay, use it.” - I waved, wearing a bracelet and inserting a talisman into it to increase my maximum health. All of my energy-regeneration talismans were already packed away, including one in the bracelet I'd just taken off. The energy regeneration from the three amulets could completely cover the mana cost of invisibility, but right now I was wearing only two such amulets.

“Thank you!” - The mage thanked me again.

I tested the bracelet, making sure that the invisibility works exactly as I expected.

"I wonder if we killed this NPC." - I voiced my questions, not really hoping for an answer. – “Who will now issue the task for the Air mages? And what will happen to the forest at all if no one here is engaged in wrecking?”

"Since it was a unique boss, it won't be revived.”- Iron Sword answered. – “And the local quests will change because of this, but in general everything will be the same as before.”

“Did you complete your quest for a profession?” - I asked.

"Nooooo!!! I still have a task to restore the garden beds." – Fu-u-uk!!! Well, at least I became a hero!" - It seems that my partner just could not give in to despondency for a long time.