With their crafting quests completed, Kaldalis and friends took one more pass around Cotanaku to turn the quests in before heading out to the jungle. After a subtle hint from Myrin, Kaldalis also circled towards the beachside gate, where he found Foturns. The old Suyon had a handful of fishing quests for him, and once the group finished their adventure into the jungle, Kaldalis was going to need all the help he could get to top off his fishing skill after he leveled up.

In addition to the usual profession quests, Foturns had a special quest just for him. He wanted to see Kaldalis push his new Relic fishing rod to its limits, and told him to bring back something called a Greater Beguiler, which would not be overpowered with the strength of the Weichen Rod, but could only be defeated by Kaldalis’s skill.

With that quest secured, Kaldalis reunited with his friends at the jungle-side gate, where the gathering of adventurers flitting about had redoubled since the last time they were there. He was pleasantly surprised to find that Dalgaard and their crew had apparently decided to follow suit and stick together with Kaldalis’s party.

“Crowded,” Courbois observed.

“And I’m not sure if it’s going to be worse or better once we get out there,” Kaldalis added, jerking a thumb over his shoulder out to the jungle. “I think we need to take some steps.”

“What steps?” Balrim asked.

“I think we need to split the party,” Kaldalis said. “If things are going to be as busy out there as they are in here, we could make the congestion a lot worse.”

“You’re never supposed to split the party,” Myrin muttered.

“No, it makes sense,” Courbois said, hooking her thumb towards a smaller group that was visibly turning in jungle quests already. “I was just talking to Bogram, and he’s saying people are already struggling to get kill quests done in certain areas. If our goal is just to get it done for ourselves, we have the numbers to monopolize the spawns and speed through. But if we’re looking to help support everyone’s growth, we need to be working with the crowd, not fighting against it.”

“I’ll take my people east,” Dalgaard said, pointing that direction, “and then work my way around counterclockwise to the west. You go straight north and work counterclockwise as well, and rotate around to the east side when you reach the beach on the west side.”

“I’m not sure if that’s enough,” Kaldalis said. “We need to split into even smaller groups. I think even just six of us is still too many at once. We need to shrink it even more.”

Dalgaard made a wordless gesture, and their group evenly split into two groups of four.

“Janeyin will take her group straight west, and they’ll cycle in right behind my group,” Dalgaard said, their tone still full of command that didn’t quite match how small they were in comparison to the large Bhogad woman who was serving as their second in command. “You split and go northeast and northwest. I’ll chase one of your groups, and the other will chase Janeyin.”

“I’ll take Balrim and Myrin,” Kaldalis said to Courbois. “You take Reno and Ess. We’ll stay partied up, though, so if there’s any serious danger, we can drop everything and meet back up.”

“Is there-” Ess cut in, but stopped herself as she cut a glance towards Dalgaard. “Can I talk to you for a second, Kal? Privately?”

“Sure, of course,” Kaldalis said, looking between Ess and Dalgaard briefly before leading Ess just a few feet away. The din of the surrounding crowd of adventurers meant that even this short distance meant they wouldn’t be overheard.

“Are we okay?” Ess asked as soon as they had a reasonable approximation of privacy. She tucked a bit of hair behind one pointed gray ear. “Did… did I do something to piss you off?”

“No, we’re fine,” Kaldalis said immediately, blinking in confusion at her. “Of course we’re fine. Why? What did you do?”

“That’s what I want to know,” she said. Despite the obvious aggravation in her body language - arms crossed and brows drawn together just shy of a scowl - she was keeping her voice calm and even. “You and I and Reno? We don’t hang out anymore. Not that we ever really did in this world. And now that there’s a chance, you shove us away?”

“It’s not like that,” Kaldalis said, though he immediately realized that it certainly looked that way. He tried to relax his body language but he felt tense all over. His arms hung loosely at his side but his fists were clenched. “It’s… it’s just the most logical course. Courbois and I have to split up because we’re both tanks. I need Balrim because I’m pretty sure Courbois is higher level than me, after the adventures in Kayore, and so she’ll be able to handle more than I can without a healer. Balrim and Myrin are a package deal, so you and Reno go with Courbois. It’s not…”

Kaldalis tried not to let the frustration take hold of him. He let out a sigh and relaxed his fingers. They immediately bunched back up into fists anyway.

“I’m not being malicious,” he said, finally. “I’m just not letting my feelings get in the way of being a proper leader here.”

Ess grimaced at that, but didn’t provide any further objection. Her own body language was overly tense as well. She seemed to want to say something else, but thought better of it after a second. After a moment she cast a glance over towards Reno, and when Kaldalis followed her gaze, he saw that Reno looked just as frustrated. He recognized that it probably seemed like he was leaving them behind, but there was too much going on at the moment.

He couldn’t slow down. Especially not now that there was a harsh deadline.

“My first priority is doing what’s right,” Kaldalis said quickly. “Everything else comes second, no matter how much I may want to-” He stopped for a moment. “Wait.” He reached over and took Ess’s hand before pushing through the crowd towards Courbois and Reno, immediately asking: “where did everyone go?”

“They wanted to get started,” Reno said. “We were only waiting on Ess.”

“And Balrim and Myrin?” Kaldalis asked, gesturing at the spot where the two were standing just a moment ago.

“They said they’d meet you out there,” Courbois said.

Kaldalis felt that frustration creeping up on him again.

“I don’t know how Dalgaard does this,” he muttered, turning towards the jungle to race off after them. “We’ll talk later,” he called back over his shoulder to Ess. “For now, I’ve got cats to herd.”

He wanted to give Balrim and Myrin a talking-to about their behavior, but when he caught up, they were already waist-deep in grizzled dragons. The giant scaled monsters were higher level than the last time Kaldalis had been out here, and so there wasn’t time to get into it while they were mobbed.

Judicious use of Sweeping Strikes and the overworld aggro system got control of the situation rapidly. As soon as he touched an enemy, it would utterly ignore Balrim and Myrin - or any other non-tank adventurer in the area - and his Sweeping Strikes ability meant that he could cleave the head of his spear across the scales of every foe in reach.

The quest credit system was nice and forgiving, though, and so Kaldalis rounding up all the grizzled dragons didn’t impede anyone else’s questing. In fact, gathering up three times as many as the quest called for meant that those who weren’t here in a party were able to complete their objectives quickly and safely.

All Kaldalis had to do was to stab everything one time, and everyone was kept safe.

The grizzled dragons were a kill quest, intended to keep the population from getting too big. The monsters were high enough level that before they were done, Kaldalis was level 16. Reviewing the quests, their next stop was to pick up the medicinal herb for the rashy researcher. As Kaldalis saw how much farther to the northeast they were going, he checked the quest text and grew more nervous.

“This is probably fine, right?” Kaldalis asked.

“What do you mean?” Balrim asked.

Kaldalis just pointed at the extended quest description, giving Balrim a moment to pull it up and read it.

Rashabout

Find the medicinal herb. (0/1)

Researcher Ouisi is suffering from an allergic reaction to something in the area around Huajia. Before he can return to work there in Kayore, he needs a solution. A medicinal herb in the Mallia region might be just what he needs. According to local sources, though, it may be under guard by a dangerous foe, with many limbs and a poisonous sting!

“That’s…” Kaldalis gestured between the quest text and the map. “The quest warns about a poisonous monster with many limbs, and we’re going to be within a stone’s throw from the ruins where the Jormongumo were living?”

“Oh,” Myrin said, visibly paling. “I see what you mean.”

“Maybe that’s a good thing,” Balrim ventured. His eyes darted back and forth. “We already know about the Jormongumo. They can’t surprise us, right? And we’ve… Kind of made peace with them? Maybe we won’t be facing any opposition.”

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Kaldalis said, glumly leading them towards the direction of the quest. “It’s perfectly safe to let our guard down, even for a second.”

“You sound so sure.”

Kaldalis glared at Myrin, who laughed and shook it off. But Kaldalis didn’t feel like it was funny.

He didn’t look forward to seeing the many-armed snake women again. Not after last time.