Author's Note: I was debating whether or not I should post this chapter up early since I had finished it ahead of schedule (last night, YEAH!). I wasn't going to post it until the date I had said that I would release it early, but I figured since people gave their time to comment, I'd give you all a little something as well.

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Misa straightened up and brushed off some of the soot that the wind had blown onto her.

"Oy! Where the hell do you think you're sending that stuff to? Keep it up and you might find yourself enjoying a nice 10 hours watching yourself re-form from mist." Zhang threatened.

She wasn't worried. She knew that he was actually pretty happy right now, considering that they'd just destroyed the monkeys that had humiliated them in the past and sh*t on his armor. Still, she did move back a few steps so that the soot and ash she brushed off wouldn't land on him anymore. With Zhang, you'd never know what could set off his ridiculous determination to do something.

As she moved back, Zhang stood up and stretched out his arms towards the sky, his bones cracking in an oddly refreshing way. Looking around and seeing the destruction that was outside their small circle, he whistled appreciatively. "Damn! We really did it this time, right Misa?"

Looking over to her, he whistled sharply to get her attention. "Hey, what do you think the odds are that those two are still alive?"

She furrowed her eyebrows in a cute way as she gave it some thought. "I don't know. I want to say that she and the NPC died already, but I swear sometimes she's better at surviving than a cockroach. I'd say it's a toss-up, it could've gone either way." Her face lit up as if she had just thought of a great idea. "Let's bet on it. What do you say? The odds are 50-50 that they died. How about it? 50 gold says that we find their bodies off somewhere in the direction that they ran off."

Zhang scoffed. "50 gold? What, are we betting on the little league's baseball tournament at a community park?" He paused. "Make it 200 gold and I'm in."

"Wooow! 200 gold?!" She said in a slow, sarcastic way. "You must be real confident if you're betting you're pizza money!" She teased. "Alright, let's put it this way. 500 gold says that she and the NPC's bodies are so badly burnt that we'll barely be able to recognize them when we find them. Deal?" She stuck her hand out.

After a moment's thought, Zhang shook it. "Deal. But if they are alive, you better not "accidentally" burn them up before I see them! I don't want you ruining my chances of getting whatever the hell quest that NPC will give us."

Misa gave him a weird look. "If you were worried about him that much, why'd you want me to go and let out a [Helios Flare] when they're close by? You know once I use it, I'll have to go meditate under full sunlight or some other BS like that for a full day before I can use it again."

Their hands dropped back to their sides as Misa asked the question.

Zhang shook his head while wagging his finger in front of her face in an all-knowing manner. "Misa, misa, misa. I can't believe you haven't realized it yet. That spell of yours might be good against small-fry like Bambi and all his little woodland creature friends," He sneered, "but how is it going to stand up against a Gorgon? Or a Griffin? Or hell, even a Treant?! Those freaking stick-figure-like trees are a hell of a lot bigger than the ones your spell uprooted. All it'll have to do is have one of its big-a** acorns fall on us before you finish your spell and we'd be dead. It's best to use it now, where at least it had some effect before we go deeper in."

He walked off in the direction that Alexa had dragged Wahshi towards. "Besides," he called out over his shoulder, "I might want that quest that the NPC might give us, but I'm not THAT interested in it. All we're doing now is letting him tag along with us. We needed a meat-shield anyway right? If he becomes too much of a deadweight, we'll just let him die off in some dark corner somewhere."

"Hmph!" She puffed her cheeks angrily as she strode to catch up with Zhang. Misa couldn't care less about what happened to Wahshi, or as she thought of him, 'that good-for-nothing NPC', but she didn't like the way that Zhang had just said her most powerful spell was basically useless against stronger enemies.

Catching up to him, she said to "herself" out loud, "At least I'm not a class-less loser like SOME people are!"

His ears reddened as he caught that comment. "Who are you calling a class-less loser you pathetic excuse for a Sun Mage!" Not missing a beat, he continued on. "Isn't your class supposed to be promoting peace through love and tranquility?" He sneered. "What is it that your instructor said to you a lot when you were still training with him? 'We share one sun with everyone, why then can we not share the world?' Didn't he disown you as his student half-way through training when he found out what a sadistic little hell-raiser he'd been teaching his powers to?"

Hearing this, her long brown hair almost went frizzy as her hair stood on end, crackling with power! She was FURIOUS. There was no going back! She had to hit him where it hurt the most. "Shut up My Little Pony lover-boy! Why don't you go screw a horse next time we're in the city?! Oh, wait. I forgot that you're a pedophile that likes only the small ones!" She paused and said in a mock comforting tone, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure there's a small young mare out there for you somewhere! You just have to go out and find her, that's all!"

Zhang was so angry that he couldn't speak straight! "You... You!!" His face was so red with anger that you could almost see the steam rising off of it! He stuck out his index finger with the back of his hand facing towards her. "ONE TIME!! You watch an episode ONE TIME and people NEVER let you live it down! What about you, Miss—"

.....And they continued arguing and bickering as they walked through the forest, the complete destruction and desolation that they were walking through were ignored as they both focused on trying to one-up the other in insults, striding towards the place where Alexa and Wahshi lay sitting up against a couple of trees.

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Wahshi blinked away some of the blood that still flowed from an open wound into his eyes. The rest of the blood had dried up and crusted over some of his other wounds, which helped to stop more blood from coming out. It had also crusted over what remained of his clothes though, so there was that as well.

Black spots dotted his vision. Every time he moved his eyes, it was like his vision swam, making him almost nauseous. Trying to suppress the feeling as he looked over at Alexa, he still couldn't believe how lucky he'd been. She'd made sure to take the brunt of the damage as they were dragged along the ground by the ferocious wind, by hugging him close and making sure she was the one on the bottom being torn apart by the ground more often than he was.

He couldn't help the heartwarming feeling that rose up in his chest when thought about how painful it must've been for her to do that. They might not have been able to feel everything like they would have in real life, but 40% of that pain was still more than most people could handle. It had been a big issue when the game first came out, according to his research. Since then though, most people had found skills that lessened it, and those that didn't only did so because they loved the thrill that having more pain gave them.

The feeling in his chest lessened though when he thought of the reason why she had probably saved him. 'They think I'm just some NPC that'll give them a big quest. I guess it's not that surprising that she decided to take the blow for me. She thinks that if I die, I'll be gone forever, and so will that quest that they think is hanging over their heads, just out of reach.'

There were many things that you could say about Raes Bastion, all of which you could probably say about his alter ego Wahshi as well. But one of the things you wouldn't hear people say about him, was that he was stupid. How could he be? He'd survived for twenty years in a prison full of people that wanted him dead! Even before they'd entered the forest, he'd figured out that they thought of him as just another NPC. However, seeing no way out of this situation, he'd gone along with it seeing as how traveling with these people would be better than wandering around aimlessly.

Now however, he was rethinking his decision to go with these people. Even though they'd saved him from dying, they'd also taken him to this place full of creatures and monsters that would be able to kill him easily! 'I should think of a way to get away from these people as soon as possible!'

But then again.... He couldn't help being conflicted every time he saw Alexa. She reminded him a lot of a certain person he'd known once, before everything had gone to hell. Always trying to be strong, making sure that everyone came out of a situation happy, and tough as nails when push came to shove.

His ears perked up.

"Alexa, do you hear something?" He called out with a hoarse voice.

She was in better shape than he was by now. Her health regen was a lot higher than his, which was obvious considering that she was a lot higher than he was level-wise. Even though she still wasn't able to move her body due to all the broken bones she had that were still healing, most of the scrapes and superficial wounds on her had disappeared. Even moving her head now was no problem! Unfortunately though, that was about the extent of her ability right then.

Hearing the noises coming from the distance, she let out a relieved smile. "Yeah, I hear it. Looks like we'll be fine after all. There's only two people I know that could make THAT much noise and not care about who heard it at all."

Somehow managing to arch an eyebrow, Wahshi said, "You don't mean...?"

"Uh huh. Looks like Zhang and Misa are finally on their way here."

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"—and I bet that you don't even have a man's most important...." Misa paused. "Wait, do you what I'm seeing over there?"

Zhang put his hand just above his eyes as if he were trying to block sunlight from entering them in order to see well. "I think I do. Those two things lying up against a couple of trees over there?"

"Yeah, that's it. I think it's them!"

They hurried over to Alexa and Wahshi's position, each secretly hoping for the best outcome for themselves. Neither one of them wanted to lose the bet after all!

'Alexa you better not have gotten yourself and that NPC killed just yet!' Zhang thought as he completely ignored the fact that he was partially to blame if they had gotten killed.

Finally arriving before their injured party member and the meat-shiel— ehem, fellow traveler, they both saw that it was indeed Alexa and Wahshi!

Alexa was sitting there leaning against the tree in her blood-stained, ripped-to-shreds, dark leather armor otherwise looking completely fine. Her hair was matted with blood, but it was almost unnoticeable considering how dark her hair color was. Wahshi on the other hand, looked as if he'd gone three rounds with a country's top Black-Ops Investigator (torturer) and had managed to hang on by the skin of his teeth. It literally looked like another scratch might've killed him as he sat there. His normally jovial brown eyes had turned grey as ash, and they looked over Zhang and Misa in such a manner that one might've thought that he was fluttering his eyes in his sleep!

Neither of them noticed this however, because they were too focused at staring at his injuries! Broken bones protruded from parts of his legs, and while blood was no longer flowing down his body in small streams, there were clear signs that he had lost a lot of it. His clothes and entire body were caked with it after all! Deep cuts slashed across his torso, easily visible as most of his shirt had been shredded open as if he had been mauled by a bear. Seeing this, they immediately turned to Misa.

"Misa, if he was this badly injured you should've taken him to see us sooner! The least you could've done was run back and gotten us, you don't even look like you're that injured!" Zhang accused. Misa glared at her in silent agreement with him.

Under the force of these two working together to accuse her, Alexa visibly shrank.

Seeing the person that had worked hard and endured so much pain to save him be verbally attacked by her teammates, he couldn't help but jump in and try to protect her in return. If only to help pay her back in some small way.

"Please, do not worry about my own health. Miss Alexa saved my life by taking most of the damage during that catastrophic event. Even now, although her superficial wounds have healed, most of her bones still remain broken. The only stroke of good fortune she had is that none of them have penetrated her skin like mine have."

Now that the immediate danger had passed, Wahshi had gone back to his incredibly formal tone! Since Zhang and Misa had not been there when they were in danger though, they of course were not able to hear Wahshi speak as though he were an average person. However, there had been a person that was there with him when he had slipped up and spoke as he normally did outside of the game. That person was Alexa!

'!! Did his way of speaking change just now compared to before those two came back? Did I just imagine it?' Alexa wondered. Even though she had noticed, she still put it to the back of her mind. After all, it was something that was practically impossible. In her mind, he was an NPC after all! No matter what station, what class, or what kind of person they were, all NPC's had spoken in the same formal way for the past 5 years throughout the game!

Embarrassed looks now replaced the glares that were previously on Zhang and Misa's faces! "I apologize, I did not know that her injuries were so severe that she would not be able to move. Misa, give her a potion."

After a moment's hesitation, she pulled up her [inventory] screen and took a glass flask with a cork from seemingly thin air! In actuality, there was nothing that could be seen when someone pulled up personal screens such as the [inventory], [status], or [main menu]. Of course, there were always exceptions to the rule. One could always share the screen with another person, and under the right circumstances or using a skill such as [Observe] with a high enough level, someone could easily take a peak and ignore the privacy of another person's screens.

However, the only person who had done such a thing was Zhang! Having leveled his [Observe] skill to a high degree, and having left it on since they entered the forest, he was easily able to see everything that Misa was able to access in her inventory. So he was able to verify for himself that the thing she had actually taken out was something that would be beneficial to Alexa. After all, he knew best what kind of a person Misa was!

Misa popped the cork and bent over Alexa, slowly tipping over the swirling green contents of the flask into her mouth. As she did so, she sent out a [whisper] over the [party chat]. 'If it's really as bad as he said, why didn't you just send us a [whisper] over the [party chat]? We would've rushed over here faster if you had, instead of just walking around wondering if you were still alive!'

Zhang arced an eyebrow. Since it was something said over the [party chat], all members of the party were able to hear the telepathic conversation between Misa and Alexa. That included Zhang, but of course didn't include Wahshi. He was just an NPC after all! And if he was completely honest, he was also curious about why Alexa hadn't let them know that she was still alive.

Alexa laughed dryly over the [party chat]. 'Oh really now? But knowing you two, you probably made a bet to see if we were still alive or not, didn't you?!' Zhang and Misa shared a guilty look. They hadn't said anything, but this was more than enough proof for Alexa. 'I knew it! You guys ALWAYS do this kind of thing!' She said, more than a little irritated. 'Why should I ruin your fun and games for you guys? I still remember the last time someone ruined something between you two, and you didn't let him forget it, did you?' Even though there was no visible reaction from either of them, Alexa knew she had struck a sore spot. Ever since a former friend of theirs had ruined the deep feelings between the two, anytime someone got close to going against what those two had agreed upon, their fate was sealed! This was one of the few things left between the two that had formerly almost shown mutual feelings for each other, and the fact that there was anything left was a sign of how strong those feelings might once have been.

In all this time, Wahshi knew that they were most likely deep in discussion of something which they didn't want him to know, using one of the various party skills. Having no way of listening in on their conversation, he could only hope and pray for the best. It wasn't the first time they had unnaturally paused like this, and undoubtedly it wouldn't be the last.

Mira was the first to speak up so that Wahshi would be included in the conversation. "Well, I suppose it can't be helped after all. Sorry about that Alexa, we shouldn't have doubted you." Everyone but Wahshi knew that she had purposely steered the conversation in another direction, and had even included Wahshi so that they couldn't keep talking about what they were before. In her opinion, some things were better left in the past.

The entire silent exchange between the three couldn't have taken more than a few seconds, but in that time, various noises could be heard coming from Alexa, as the bones in her body shifted back into place. In the time that it took for someone to say Abracadabra, she was able to stand up on her feet fully healed, just like magic.

Except for the fact that even though they were in a world with magic, they'd actually just used the equivalent of this world's science to heal her.

Taking another swipe at seemingly thin air, Misa brought out another potion. This time for Wahshi. The color of the liquid inside was one that was slightly different than the one that was used for Alexa, which was a swirling dark green, whereas his was a light green. She walked over to him and brought it up to his mouth, but he stared at her suspiciously.

Unable to verify the contents of the potion himself, and unable to bring himself to fully trust Misa, he glanced over at Alexa for confirmation.

She smiled and nodded. Putting his trust in her, he let Misa pour the contents of the flask into his mouth, and down his throat it went.

Wincing at the salty flavor, he immediately felt the effects of the drink take place. He could feel his cuts and wounds disappearing, and could actually see the bones in his legs going back in place before the wounds on his legs closed as well. In no time at all, he was fully recovered just like Alexa had been moments before. Surprisingly there was no pain to be felt as the recovery had taken place.

Wahshi stood up, marveling at how an action that would have nearly killed him not even 10 seconds ago now had no pain at all. "I must ask, what was that thing that you gave to me? All of my injuries disappeared in less than a few seconds, with no pain at all!" He asked.

"Eh? Could it be that you do not know about potions, Wahshi?" Misa asked.

"Potions?" He returned with a quizzical expression. After all, what would he know about such things? Wahshi was a lot of things, but he was not an avid gamer before all of this. Ex-millionaire, arrogant, intelligent, and a party-lover were all things that one could have described him as. "Gamer" however, was not something that could have been attributed to him though, even when he had a lot of free time as a single, millionaire party-boy.

"Liquids that are made through the use of various plants and/or other materials which are crushed and then refined using magical means. The results vary depending on what items you use, and the strength of the effect is different depending on how you refine it, but that's typically what a potion is. What I gave you just now was a level 1 healing potion." Misa explained.

"Do you not have potions where you come from, Wahshi?" Zhang was more curious than ever! An NPC that was from a place that didn't use potions? Something like that was unheard of! 'Maybe I'll even find new items that didn't exist before!' Similar thoughts were flashing through Misa's mind, but Alexa felt a seed of doubt start to grow.

'What NPC doesn't know about potions? Is he really a Ralian?' She felt a pang of guilt at the thought, but it stuck with her nonetheless. Zhang and Misa had a habit of being the ones to jump into things without fully thinking them through even though no one would doubt that they were intelligent people. In certain situations, their previous dispositions and confidence in their strength made them blind to danger. Alexa had long ago gotten used to being the one who held on to rationality when their curiosity and (although she wouldn't admit that her friends had it) when their greed took over.

Trying not to act suspiciously, Wahshi replied, "Ah, no actually where I come from potions don't exist. We have other methods of treating people."

Unwilling to tell the truth to people he didn't completely trust, and unwilling to lie to people that had so far given him no reason to doubt, he settled for a compromise. Saying something that was completely true, but that could be taken in any number of ways.

Zhang's curiosity piqued, he couldn't help but say, "You know, I wouldn't mind hearing about some of those methods that you were talking about sometime."

"As far as that goes, I am sorry but I would not feel comfortable in sharing such things at the moment." Wahshi replied. After all, what could he say? The only thing left was to deny them now and hope that they wouldn't bring it up again in the future.

Zhang cursed inwardly. 'Is our intimacy level with him still not high enough?! This is so FRUSTRATING!' Having no other option, he forced himself to calm down. 'Whatever, it's fine. He'll tell us eventually if we just keep at it. This secret of his has to be big if it needs us to have such a high intimacy with him!' Consoling himself by thinking of the possible future rewards, he was able to convince himself to be more patient.

"Of course, you are entitled to keep anything you want to yourself. I apologize if I seemed overly curious."

Wahshi of course wanted the matter to be buried, and gave an affirming nod of thanks and a vague response in reply. With the matter now settled, they turned back towards their goal. This was the 2nd layer of the forest. The deeper in you went into the Boundary Forest, the bigger and older the trees were. Not only that, but the creatures started disappearing, and were replaced with monsters that were of higher levels. While creatures were normal animals that one would see back in real life, monsters were the things of legends, myths and nightmares. Even the lowest of them started at level 20, having a natural disposition to being stronger than the typical creatures of the wilds.

As they went deeper into the forest, none of the creatures or monsters gave them any trouble. They all seemed to be busy fighting among themselves, and didn't bother themselves with the humans that were passing through their various territories.

Seeing something out of the corner of her eye, Alexa turned to see it and realized that she'd been ignoring something that was in her face the entire time! "Misa, Zhang, did you guys know that you both have titles now?"

Floating next to them were windows that only fellow party members could see if those people had given them that option. This was what was in the air next to Zhang's head.

ZHANG "THE SPARK OF GENOCIDE"SHORT BIO:

HAVING BEEN ANGERED, HUMILIATED, AND HAVING HAD HIS EQUIPMENT DEVALUED BY THE NOW EXTINCT IRON SH*T MONKEYS, HIS VENGEANCE LED TO THE GENOCIDE OF THEIR ENTIRE RACE.TITLE EFFECTS: ABILITY TO ACQUIRE A TRAIT FROM EACH SPECIES YOU EXTERMINATE, EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM DEFEATING LOWER-LEVELED ENEMIES IS CUT BY 2/3, FAME WILL DECREASE IF YOU DEFEAT ANY CREATURES OR MONSTERS THAT ARE MORE THAN 5 LEVELS BELOW YOU, INFAMY GAIN WILL REPLACE LOSS OF FAME SHOULD FAME REACH 0. ENGENDERS HATRED FROM ALL MEMBERS THAT HAVE A RELATION TO THE EXTERMINATED SPECIES.

CURRENTLY HATED BY: MARTIAL ART MONKEYS

Misa and Zhang looked at each other before turning to Alexa. "Oh yeah, there was something about that in the alerts and notices we got, right Misa?"

MISA "REVELER OF GENOCIDE"SHORT BIO:

THERE WAS ONCE A CERTAIN BRANCH OF A RACE THAT CAUSED PROBLEMS FOR HERSELF AND ONE THAT SHE CONSIDERED A FRIEND. WITH A CRUEL AND SADISTIC SMILE, SHE ANNIHILATED THE ENTIRE BRANCH OF MARTIAL ART MONKEYS. NOW, THE IRON SH*T MONKEYS LIVE ONLY IN FADING MEMORY.TITLE EFFECTS: ABILITY TO ACQUIRE A TRAIT FROM EACH SPECIES YOU EXTERMINATE, EXPERIENCE DOUBLED FOR FIGHTS IN WHICH YOU REVEL IN YOUR SADISTIC TENDENCIES, PROLONGED BATTLES WITH LOWER-LEVELED MONSTERS AND CREATURES WILL CAUSE ALL OF THE MEMBERS OF THE RACE IN THE AREA TO ATTACK YOU IN FEAR THAT THEIR RACE WILL BE WIPED OUT IF YOU DO NOT DIE. ENGENDERS HATRED FROM ALL MEMBERS THAT HAVE A RELATION TO THE EXTERMINATED SPECIES.

CURRENTLY HATED BY: MARTIAL ART MONKEYS

"I think so. I didn't really read them all, I just skimmed through a few." She looked over at Alexa. "Did you know you got one too?"

"Huh?" She checked her [general status].

ALEXA "WITNESS TO THE SLAUGHTER"SHORT BIO:

EVEN THOUGH HER HEART TOLD HER THAT SHE SHOULD HAVE DONE OTHERWISE, HER INACTION ALLOWED FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF AN ENTIRE BRANCH OF SPECIES THAT HAD BEEN PLAGUING THOSE SHE CONSIDERED FRIENDS. EVEN NOW SHE WONDERS IF HAVING DONE NOTHING WAS THE RIGHT THING TO DO. HOWEVER, EVEN IF HER FEELINGS CHANGE, EVEN IF SHE FEELS REGRET, NOTHING WILL CHANGE THE FACT THAT THE IRON SH*T MONKEYS NO LONGER EXIST.TITLE EFFECTS: THOSE WHO KNOW OF THIS DEED WILL BE LESS LIKELY TO TRUST YOU, CHANCES OF GETTING RARE ITEMS FROM LOWER-LEVELED MONSTERS AND CREATURES IS DOUBLED, ENGENDERS HATRED FROM ALL MEMBERS THAT HAVE A RELATION TO THE EXTERMINATED SPECIES.

CURRENTLY HATED BY:MARTIAL ART MONKEYS

What she had seen left her reeling. There was nothing that she could refute though, everything that had been in her [general status] was completely true.

Zhang laughed as he saw what Alexa had gotten. "Good thing most people won't be able to see our [general status] without our permission, huh Alexa?"

She lowered her head in shame, but there was nothing that she could do. They kept going deeper into the forest towards the 2nd layer, with Wahshi wondering what exactly it was that everyone was talking about.

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SO AGAIN...... Please leave a few ideas for me on what monsters would attack people in a forest.

YOU!

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