“You seem to know a lot about it.” - I nodded respectfully. – “Are you the leader of the Autumn Maple Leaf?”

“What? No, I'm not. I'm just an officer. Our guild started on the second server over a year ago. And then Pal Palitch decided to move to a new server. About a third of the guild went with him.”

“Pal Palitch? Is that a name?” - I turned my attention to the information important to me. Mentally slapping my forehead, I opened the guild information and found Autumn Maple Leaf. Pal Paliych was indeed listed as the leader there.

“Yes. Unusual name.” - Fox nodded. – “It is strange for you too. Cheater... Is it a kind of cheese?”

“Yes. A type of cheese.” - I agreed, barely able to keep from laughing.

“That's what I thought. Okay, turn right here.”

We turned into an inconspicuous crevice, and after a hundred yards we came to a large hall with dozens of worms crawling around. But here they were not one at a time, but in threes.

“We made it. Even no other opponents here.” - Fox rubbed his hands together in satisfaction. – “If we hurry, we can make a hundred before anyone else gets here. And then we'll rush to do the second part of the quest.”

Killing three worms at a time proved to be quite a challenge. When fighting a single worm, we could dodge spits and interrupt shots with spikes, but when there were three opponents, controlling all three was unrealistic. It is true that with Paralysis we managed to 'put to sleep' one worm out of three, but it did not help much at the beginning of the battle when there were three worms.

The main problem was that although the worms were relatively small, they had tons of life, so they killed slowly, which in turn meant that there was a lot of damage coming at us that was impossible to dodge. Moreover, the worms constantly tried to surround us to prevent the 'rags' from hiding behind the 'tanks'. As a result, after killing one group, we were left with only half of our health. After three groups were cleaned out, it was clear that we are wasting too much time on recovering our health.

“Do you have any Healing Chamomile seed?” - White Fluffy Fox asked me after the fight was over.

“I do.” - I nodded. – “But I can change nettles for chamomile only in a safe zone.”

“Now it will be. Let's go there.”

We moved away from the cluster of worms, hiding in one of the passages, and then the Fox took out... a log and 'used it. It turned out to be a game item, which creates a fire. There was a 'peace zone' within two meters of the fire. However, the fire only burned for five minutes.

“One silver cost, bastard.” - Fox said contritely.

“Done.” - I answered, using the Grow a Weed spell along with the Chamomile Seed.

As a result, a green 'glade' appeared on the ground with cheerful flowers that immediately began to heal us. Each chamomile healed only a few points, but since there were quite a lot of them, our health rose quickly. The radius of 'aggression' of the chamomiles was quite small, so to speed up the healing we had to run circles in this area. In a minute we were all healthy.

With this healing, we could now beat the worms without stopping. In fact, at one moment there were four people in the battle, while the fifth 'ran' through a nearby clearing to 'collect' the healing. After that, the recovered player ran to beat the worms, while the lowest health member went for healing. This 'merry-go-round' allowed us to maximize the healing we received, plus it prevented the worms from attacking the camomiles. I could only control one 'clearing' at a time. If I made the plants ‘ownerless’, they began to heal not only us, but everyone else, and the worms immediately ran for free healings, ignoring all our attempts to keep them in place.

“I suggest that after completing the quest, I should plant this cave with my weed.” - I suggested my 'genius' idea. – “Then no one would be able to play here.”

“It's not a new idea.” - Fox grinned. – “But any druid can take control of your flowers and just undo them.”

“Where do you see any Druids?”

“Overall, they exist. Serious guilds always have druids.”

“Why don't you have any?” - I grinned.

“Well... There aren't many, who want to join to us.” - Fox sighed.

“So, what's up? Are we going to sabotage the place?”

“No. A couple more of our groups are coming here tonight. If you start messing with others like this, they'll start messing with you in return.”

“And as a result, everyone will be at war with each other, and groups with druids can progress without problems.” - I expanded my idea.

“That's already happened too. At the end, everyone else will unite and start killing druids without regard for their losses. On the first server, because of this very difficult to find Druids. On the second, there was not such a brutal massacre, but still, everyone considers druids as main pests. And players like you only confirm it.”

“Why do you think I became a druid?” - I laughed wickedly. – “To be able to decide which lives to make easier, and which to make a living hell.”

“Oh, be beware by such approach.” - Fox shook his head.

In about half an hour we had indeed killed a hundred worms, as the quest required. After that, I destroyed all traces of vegetation, and we headed into the depths of the caves, wandering through tangled corridors. I noticed that almost everywhere we encountered worms, there was a way around them without engaging in combat. After ten minutes of wandering, we reached a large cave lit by a flickering, mysterious light. Although there were almost no sources of light in the cave, I could distinguish my surroundings perfectly. But if there was a source of light, it illuminated the area around it, making the world more colorful.

“Okay, we're going to have to act fast here.” - Fox stopped us for another briefing. – “There's an area up ahead that has a strong shift in the element of Air. So now, quickly run forward, look at the crystal and roll back. Cheater, you heal those who are losing most of their health.”

“Okay.” - I nodded.

The map, indeed, indicated an area of Air energy influence. The rest of the cave was 'saturated' with Earth to about 3/15. It was barely a noticeable reduction in the effectiveness of my magic, but it didn't do any damage. Here, though, the shift in Air was gradually increasing to an 8/15, so Earth adepts must be feeling pretty uncomfortable. I, on the other hand, felt only a comfortable 'breeze' blowing in front. It seemed that the worms had decided to escape from the caves because of this elemental influence. After all, they were 'earthy'. It would be enough for us to see the source of the anomaly to accomplish this part of the mission.

Running through the big cave was not as dangerous as I had feared. My allies only lost twenty percent of their health. I didn't take any damage at all. After running a couple of hundred meters, making the most of the jumps and rolls, we could see the local 'miracle' in the distance, and then, at the same pace, we rushed back.

“That done, the mission was accomplished. Now all we had to do was get to the surface alive, and we could go to return.” - Fox reassured his comrades-in-arms.

“I think I'll stay here.” - I 'reassured' my companions. – “Can you get out of the cave without me?”

“We can.” - Fox nodded. – “What are you going to do?”

“I'll look around. Maybe I'll find something interesting.” - I answered vaguely.

“I don't think so.” - He shook his head. – “The players were already checked these caves a hundred times. If you go forward in cave, you'll come to the passageway through which the regular players come. There are crowding down there. That way is shorter, but more dangerous.”

“I'll keep that in mind.” - I nodded. – “So long.”

With these words I turned around and slowly walked in the direction of the anomaly I was interested in, looking around carefully. Fox nodded to me and, along with the three ninjas, ran away. I used the map to see that they weren't going to stop and come back, and then I concentrated on my surroundings.

In my opinion, the execution of this quest should not be so simple. Came, saw, left? That's heresy. There must be something interesting here. Since there were few Air mages in the game, perhaps there were some 'secret passages' left undiscovered. If this place was related to the element of Air, only a true 'Chaos mage' could come to the right conclusions. With so many Earth adepts in this world, there's no such thing as a true Air adept.

Alas, my examination of the cave did not reveal anything interesting. The closer I got to the source of the light, the greater became the shift in Air. Around the point where we'd run to as a team, I began to take damage from the Elements, but it was not much at all. As I got closer to the anomaly, I carefully examined it and its surroundings. Since the damage was more substantial, I had to grow a field of chamomiles and walk around it, looking around at the same time.

The center of the anomaly was a large glowing transparent crystal, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. This thing was shaped like a cube with a side of thirty centimeters. This cube stood on a stone pedestal, which had been built on a small 'island'. Here the cave was crossed by a fast underground river, which carried its waters in a deep crevice. In the middle of the river there was a 'pillar' on which the crystal was located. At the side next to the wall of the cave a narrow stone bridge was stretched across the river. The central part of the bridge was collapsed, but it was possible to jump over the gap.

On the other side of the river, the cave continued forward, and there was a steady stream of players who ran out from around the corner, glanced at the quest crystal, and then disappeared into another passageway. Some druid had grown a couple of chamomile fields in the way of this crowd, so players could run to the safe zone without dying. Because most of the players were Earth adepts, and the place itself was close to the source of the anomaly, they took quite a bit of damage.