---

Holly wasn’t as optimistic as River was about Prome, but his reasoning was correct. ”Ugh… Prome is a conundrum of the epic portions.” Holly thought to herself. It was a bit too much to handle with his constant disappearing, and utterly ignoring everything. As if he got a personality disorder or something. However, the more important topic was at hand, which was the information that Willow had about the Welkin quest. It was still slightly in the back of her mind that what Willow will say will freak her out a bit.

Her train of thought got distracted by something, which Cecilia said. It made her imagine Prome dressed up as a puppy and put on a leash to keep him from running away. Her imagination basically made her laugh out loud big time about what Ceci said. ”Oh my god, C-Ceci… you made my day with that. Promie, the puppy would be his name...” Holly said, however, was highly embarrassed with what she had said. She looked at everyone with like, a ‘what look’ on her face because it was highly embarrassing to her. It’s mostly as if she had never had a pet either, even though she lived with highly rich parents or something. ”W-Whoops… my imagination g-gets a bit wild… but it would be cute though.” Holly said, with a highly embarrassed look on her face.

She got back to the task at hand, when Willow started talking about the Welkin, and her back of her mind was telling her, I told you so. Her eyes went a bit wide about what technique the Welkin have about aggroing on someone via vomiting on them. It made her specifically freak out a bit because she couldn’t have herself vomited on because that would be utterly gross. Not to mention she is an only child in her family. She definitely had a definitely a bit of a yucky feeling to the entire ordeal. ”Eww, that is utterly gross Willow… feels like I should take a bath after the ordeal had finished up after dealing those yucky creatures. I will definitely make sure to use all my abilities on them to get rid of them as quickly as possible.” Holly said, with a definite feeling of oh god should’ve been more prepared for this game mentally. One like herself doesn’t get herself dirty without a just cause, alike planting flowers, which usually doesn’t involve getting vomited on. It was a bit of a good thing she was an only child in her family.

Holly tried to get the image of a welkin vomiting on her out of her mind, however, it was pretty hard. The basically like rallying cry of Willow wanting to kick some virtual ass, made her calm down a bit and was in agreement about kicking some virtual ass. ”Yeah, I am ready to kick virtual ass since it requires an ass kicking. For being a tormenting place as it is...” Holly said, with a bit of a smile on her face. However, she did keep a mental note of a chitter since she doesn’t really know what they look like but will keep an eye out for them. Even if she cannot really know their stats alike, River can.

She heard River’s oxy-moron remark about Prome and agreed with that too. ”Y-Yeah, he is. But he’s our oxy-moron at least.” Holly said, towards River. It’s pretty much obvious she cares about all her friends even though she does get a little jittery from time to time and is very not that good when she doesn’t get a goodnight sleep. She has her routines and usually keeps on them all the time, even though she easily embarrasses herself much, which she did earlier about saying Promie.

“The enthusiasm is much appreciated! We’ll do great things together, great things! I feel it in my bones!” Alfor chuckled with a clap on Prome’s shoulder.





Willow turned and lead them beyond the town borders. A soft ding went off in everyone’s ear, a symbol disappearing off their dashboard as they left the safe zone. Various animal cries bounced around the gradually thickening forest that surrounded the town and bugs almost immediately started buzzing around the group. There was a soft rustle ahead and two small creatures, no taller than Cecilia’s hip, popped out of the undergrowth.





The two Chitters hissed softly and then a rapid chittering, not unlike squirrel's conversing, sound came from their throats as their heads twitched in unison. Their neck frills only partially expanded as they seemed to watch the group’s movements.

"Sounds like you've seen too many bad parties then," Cecilia smirked, her hands resting on the back of her head. "But hey, no point in applying that sorta strategy without that tank girl, right?" The Lancer made a big show of looking around, before shrugging. "...who doesn't seem to be coming, so I guess that's a wash." They had spent enough of the morning dilly-dallying around, at any rate. Kicking her spear up onto her shoulder, Cecilia strode off, resolved to be the only frontliner in the party.

Though Willow decided the direction, Cecilia stood at the vanguard, nimbly crossing over gradually thickening vegetation. It really was a jungle, wasn't it? She turned her nose up at the flies that buzzed around, dodging under veils of vines and skirting around suspicious, stagnant puddles. The air was unpleasantly humid, but her jungle wear seemed adapt for these circumstances, at least. Sweat that built up underneath her clothing was quickly whisked away, while the leather that constituted the exterior of the set of clothing protected her from the moist atmosphere. Her ponytail swung from side to side as Cecilia turned around, scanning her surroundings. But no ambush burst from the undergrowth, only a couple of adorable little dinosaurs with big brows and bigger frills. The creatures didn't look all that aggressive...but goblin babies didn't look aggressive either, till you turned around and they bashed your head in with a rock.

Cecilia was gonna kill these little twerps. Wait, no, she'll half-kill it and then let River do the actual killing so he can crawl into their skin and become them. Excellent.

Giving a backwards glance towards the rest of her party, the Lancer nodded once, before shooting off towards the pair of reptiles. The distance was crossed in an instant, a black shadow landing between the two monsters. As they turned towards her, Cecilia grinned, felt her mana flow through her virtual veins, and became incandescent.

"Radiate!"

A star burst beneath the folds of the Light's Bane Cloak, white resplendence chasing away all shadow. In the afterimage of the corona, Cecilia's Mythic-Rank Steel Spear swung out, arcing into a crescent Cleave, then another, followed up by a quick thrust into each of the beasts. Her steps sped up now, and she shifted to the left now, legs torquing before she fired off a Piercing Lift right into the chest of the small beast. It was light, thankfully, and the Lancer hefted it up skyhigh, twisting her spearhead into its ribcage. The monster squealed and spat, but she winked at it in response, her arms flexing as she knocked it up into the air with a Strong Arm Push. It flew towards a bundle of vines hanging from the trees, and hopefully, that was where it would stay.

Sensing the vengeance of the one she turned away from, Cecilia pivoted off her right foot in a quick Sidestep, her spear swinging horizontally to catch the remaining Chitter's flank. Her eyes flickered to her surroundings, noting where the trees were, and she adjusted a couple of steps to her left, shifting her grip on her weapon. Before the Chitter could entertain thoughts of running away, Cecilia snagged its shoulder with her spear, pulled it in, and simultaneously charged in. The rim of her buckler caught its snout, and then the rest of her body followed, slamming into its body and pinning it against a tree.

It wasn't a Devastating Charge, but that move could be saved next.

---

---

As they made their way out of the safe zone and into the jungle, the growth was becoming thicker and harder to move past. The humidity in the air was clinging to his skin as his ginger locks began to droop and glue themselves onto his face. The environment didnt bother him too much, having been in enclosures with similar atmospheres for the animals, as well as having been to a fee rainforests in field studies for college. He began to think back to his time in Costa Rica, a very similar climate to this one and with an exceptionally refreshing drink called Horchata. Rivers mind wandered as he thought of the cold drink and began to wonder if they sold it in town or if any of his guild mates had a culinary skill to be able to replicate it in game. "When we're done with this does anyone have-"

He cut himself off as he noticed a pair of blue prints off to the side. His eyes followed the markings, a larger creature with wide set feet that seemed to dig a bit deeper into the hot soil on the ground. Danger level moderate? Perhaps they were territorial creatures like rhinoceroses? All theyd have to do is make sure they don't provoke the beasts and press forward searching for their targets. His eyes began to scan the surroundings for more tracks, now piecing together the large plants with having to fo with larger creatures, namely dinosaurs so far. He whispered out to the group "Theres a pod of triceratops over there, they won't attack us but if we give them reason to they can be quite dangerous. Let's try to avoid them while we're searching for chitters."

As on queue, two medium sized creatures came out from the underbrush, chattering to each other and seemingly communicating with both sound and frill flairs. A new notification popped up on Rivers screen and his eyes went wide. Before he was capable of saying anything Cecilia proved her speed and rushed forward attacking them. Stupid stupid stupid. "Cecilia watch out their dangerous! Willow go with Ceci and keep her healed. Holly you're with me, we need to split these two up and hope more don't come out. They gain bonuses when they're attacking the same target." River started making his was towards the right of Cecilia, trying to put some distance between them but still keep them in sight. "They have an ability called Venom Spray it's an AoE dot that deals poison damage. Keep your eyes peeled because they seem to be great at stealth so there may be more we don't know of. Or...they could die by just your hands..."

---

Holly had somethings on her mind, while traveling with her friends out of the safe zone into the jungle. She noticed the growth getting thicker and harder, which made her a bit annoyed. The one thing her father usually says, going through a jungle usually requires a knife or a large blade to hack through the growth. However, what hit her like a ton of bricks was the humidity. The primary reason, is because she usually stays at home and don’t really travel much. Her father is used to the humidity of jungles and other type of environments since he travels all over the place. She looked a bit at River, since he said something but stopped his train of thought. ”Ugh… this humidity is… dreadful.” Holly said quietly, feeling as if she is sweating bricks.

She noticed something that caught her eye, which was pretty big blueprints. They were glowing a faint blue, however. All she could really get out of them was the direction they were heading, how many there is and the weight. It was a bit extreme for them to be that heavy, which meant they must be large creatures to the least. She heard what River whispered to them, which made her a bit freaked out. It made her think it mostly is the fact they are going to face dinosaurs. ”T-That’s good to know. Guess’ we are going to face dinosaurs on this floor. This knowledge of monsters is definitely a good thing.” Holly whispered to the group, which primarily was aimed at River.

Holly noticed the two medium sized creatures coming out of the underbrush, which shocked her a bit more. She remembered a movie called Jurassic Park, which had a man getting ate by a dinosaur that looks exactly like that. It made her know she should be prepared for what they will do. However, she noticed Ceci being reckless as usual. ”D-Damn it… Ceci, why do you have to be reckless now? We don’t know what they do yet...” Holly thought to herself. She shrugged her shoulders at what’s going on. She heard River, say her name, which made her be grateful he’s here. ”I’ll definitely stay with you River. And I agree with what you say.” Holly said. She stayed with River, while trying to reach Cecilia. Her eyes tried to keep an eye on every single thing that is happening while in combat. It is better to be focused on them.

She heard what River said, about their capabilities and sighed slightly. It was the primary thing about Poison damage, which they can deal with a Venom Spray. Her eyes were looking around, while that was happening she pulled out her bow and put an arrow in. She kinda of knew that Cecilia probably got the two in question, since how reckless Cecilia is. She saw Cecilia cut them down with ease, as if they were nothing. If there is going to be more enemies, because it’s never easy with this game. Better to be on your toes than being attacked. ”Need to be ready for anything… these Chitters sound pretty dangerous from River’s descriptions of them. Whoa... Ceci killed them both easily...” Holly thought to herself.

Health: 2100/2100
Mana: 2000/2000

---

Prome quickly realized that in his zeal, he had forgotten to actually accept the quest. Fixing that, he pressed Yes and said "I look forward to it!" before thinking to himself 'I wonder what would have happened if I pressed No after everything I just said. These NPC's have some amazing AI, but how would they react to that? I wonder if the people who programed the AI for NPCs even consider such a thing, or maybe I'm just over thinking things again. Oh well, it's fun to overthink sometimes.'

Willow opted to stay silent, staff at the ready as Cecelia dispatched the two creatures with relative ease. She hedged a bit closer to Cecelia as they burst into pixels and searched the surrounding foliage. There didn’t seem to be anything else but if River said they gained bonuses when they attacked the same target, she was willing to bet there were more near-

Angry chittering exploded around them as five more monsters burst out of the foliage, frills puffed out in fury, as they bombarded Cecilia. In a whirlwind of teeth and claws, they tore into her as best they could in order to remove the largest threat to their pack but it seemed… Ineffective. The Lancer handled herself well, well practiced steps earning her solid blows and turning the tide in favor of her companions. Although their numbers may have seemed overwhelming at first but Cecilia managed to slam most of the monsters on their backs.

---

---

The fight had seemed a tad anticlimactic. With the stats and abilities that these creatures had, you would think that they were pack hunters that traveled in larger sizes than two. But hey, he wouldnt look a gift horse in the mouth. As River went to put his wand away, there began a cacophony of chittering that surrounded the party. At once these agile monsters ambushed Ceclia and River could just watch at they took their surprise round upon her. There was a certain gracefulness to how Cecilia fought, dodging each and every one of them and managing to trip quite a few of the chitters so that they laid prone on the ground. Perfect. River held his wand out in his left hand, static beginning to form at its tip before arcing over to his right hand and back again. The smell of ozone building up until he outstretched his right arm, fingers forward, as the lightning danced from his hand to the third Chitter, then the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. His Energize ability proc'd and the spell duplicated, this time staring with the seventh Chitter and working it's way backwards towards the third.

---

Holly had other thoughts in terms of what is going on, which Ceci should seriously stop being so reckless. She didn’t want to put away her weapon nor arrow she back into her quiver. Her father constantly told her to be prepared for anything it was definitely great advice. Then a shock to her system, when she heard about more chittering coming from more Chitters. It was a bit terrifying when she saw the Chitters going after Cecilia, since they took their surprise round at her. However, Ceci gracefully dodging and fighting the Chitter’s off it made her smile at her amazing moves. Ceci basically knocked over most of them to the prone status, which was great. Especially for River, anyways since he enjoys stationary targets with his magic attacks.

She shaken her head for a bit because Ceci and River’s excellently timed attacks were great. It was definitely a great thing she’s apart of this guild, everyone works so well together. She moved her Ivory Bow to a more offensive stance, which she started to pull back on the bow for an extra six seconds while holding onto the arrow. It’s mostly because she was keeping an eye on the chain lightning arching throughout the Chitters and released her bow from what she was doing directly at the Fourth Chitter. She was hopeful she was going to finish off the chitter since it was injured, while she was keeping an eye on her mana since it did go down to 1,500 after using her Greater Power Shot on the creature.

---

Aura gave a salute back. "For the Glory." She assumed that this was the correct response. Aura wondered if the Purifiers would have to follow a strict regiment, banging gauntlets all the time. Either case, Aura had a mission to pick up. She had already spent too long on her unfruitful coffee quest, and she would have to pick up her pace here. Aura turned and stepped into the sanctuary.

The 'sanctuary' was hardly larger than the chapels that Aura had seen, with only modest tapestries and torchlight to break the stoicism of the brick walls. It reminded Aura - Ciara, rather - when she had helped out in volunteering for a charity. Aura tended to hang out with the pragmatic sort, who would ask for the wage first, job later. So when the posters came around asking for help, it was mostly met with a stiff dismissiveness accompanied by a swift change of discussion. Ciara did the same.

But she showed up. Ciara didn't understand why, really - but she tended to do things on a whim back then, and she had free time after work. The chapel there was tiny. The sort of tiny that would make you question why someone had bothered to even build the damned building in the first place, if all you could fit in there were three rows of pews and a podium. When she had arrived, it was exactly like what Ciara was seeing right now. A single person, illuminated by a frame of light, kneeling over in meditation.

When Ciara approached her...well. Maybe Ciara - no, Aura - should mull on it further after this whole interaction. Maybe this Ser Wilka would be completely different to the person she had encountered in the chapel, and break Aura out of her stupid tendancies for flashbacks.

Aura carefully approached the kneeling figure, making sure to minimise her noise, then quietly addressed the NPC. "Ser Wilka? If I may interrupt, I am here to ask of the Battle Cleric quest."

“Well, that was… anticlimatic.” Willow muttered after a sigh of relief. When that many creatures burst out of the woodwork, she’d been concerned that Cecilia was going to need more than just a band aid but clearly they were exactly what the players considered them: Trash. With a brief flick of her wrist, a beam of healing light stretched from Willow’s finger to the Lancer, restoring 595 health, and then again a few seconds later to top her off. She wasn’t bothered to watch her mana. Her passive restored the same amount as soon as she finished casting it and instead turned her attention to the loot page that popped up in front of her.

"Definitely don't compare to Goblins," Cecilia remarked, flicking the last bits of pixelated gore off her spear. She hadn't exactly expected to do so much damage as well, but it was good to have a general idea of her range against these fodder creatures. Trip had been a wonderful passive throughout the second half of the extermination, and it was nice to see that there were monsters who she could consistently evade against. A couple of Redeeming Glows later, and the Lancer was back in optimal condition, hardly touched by that scuffle in the jungle. She pulled her cloak over her shoulders once more, before turning to the other members of her party. Sticking her spear in the ground to free up her hands, Cecilia pulled out three sets of Java Jungle Wear, unceremoniously tossing each to the others.

"Figured it wouldn't help Prome when he's suffocating in his suit, so y'all can have these. Does pretty good with dealing with the heat, at least." She tilted her head inquisitively towards River. "And this means you can turn into those little lizards, right?"

---

Holly’s sensibilities were definitely running thin with how hot it is in this jungle, which caused her to deeply sigh. She, then heard Willow talk about how anticlimactic it is, which she agreed with. ”Thank god they were only trash mobs… but I really hate this heat its making me feel like I am melting.” Holly thought to herself, with a definite look of needing some relief. She kinda wished she was in her mansion right this second with the cool refreshing Central Air Condition system, which is top of the line. It was obvious it would be a long time until she can feel that for awhile now, which made her sigh. The one thing she did was put back her bow on her back, so no unnecessary prat falls will happen since that happened once before already. It was a bit too funny for everyone to laugh at her for on purposely falling because she tripped over her own bow.

She looked at Cecilia, which put her spear into the ground to free her hands, which caused her to be at least a bit curious. It took her a bit to see the necessary thing that might help her against this heat, which looked like jungle gear. She happily but ungracefully caught what Cecilia tossed to her, which helped. It definitely helped her mood a bit more since she was utterly hurting for some relief. ”You are a lifesaver… Ceci. If it wasn’t for you I would probably be dreading walking any further because this heat is making me exhausted.” Holly said, with a happy smile. She straight up decided to put on the Java Jungle Gear on right away, since without out she would be utterly not happy about the whole ordeal within this jungle. It was obvious she was happier now and had a grateful grin on her face.

Holly was indeed curious about with what Cecilia was asking River. It would be different to see River as a Chitter. ”That would be so cool.” Holly said, with an additional hopeful tone in her voice. Instead of a question towards River. She did read up on all the classes in the game but not really about their subclasses, which is the primary reason why she picked Archer over the others. The trainer class was interesting to say the least in her eyes.

The rest of the trip was similar, a few Chitters popping out to distract the group before the remaining pack members swarmed them. They didn’t encounter any other packs the size of the first but their tactics did change. More often they started going for the back and, in one case that River had only a few HP beneath his maximum when they started, aggressively attacking already damaged party members.









“One quest down, one… er, two more to go.” Willow corrected herself as she accepted the gift, remembering that Cecilia mentioned picking up an additional quest. “The Welkin quest is gonna take us on a hard east along the coast. I’m not sure where yours is so if it’s closer, we can knock that one out while we are at it. Hopefully, we’ll find something more fun than these shitty ankle biters.” Willow’s enthusiasm was waning with the heat and she used the equipment menu to equip the new clothing. She wished an equipment menu was a thing in real life. How easy would it be just to change clothes and get ready without leaving bed.

---

The woman looked up from her prayer and gave Aura an unimpressed look over. “Excellent. Yet another wet behind the ears welp here to claim devotion to our Goddess in hopes of fame and riches. If that is your intent, leave while you can otherwise you’ll find yourself in the next realm before you raise your blade again.” Ser Wilka’s words dripped with bitterness and resentment, a sarcastic snort at the end of her statement. A myriad of jagged scars crossed her face and one eye was clearly damaged beyond use.

“But if you really think you’re up to the task, I’ll give you your trial. The path of the Battle Cleric is one destined to be endless and drenched in blood, both yours and your enemies. We are beacons of hope on the battlefield. We provide succor and relief to our allies and crush our foes beneath our blades. And your trial will reflect that. Steel yourself, Paladin. For your time of reckoning is nigh.”

---

“Well, what are you standing around for?” Rowina asked waspishly. “Are you staying for tea or are you going to run off to God knows where and get yourself in more trouble?” While the pair had been speaking, Rowina had been laying out some snacks and tea for her husband and herself, a third cup set off to the side just in case.

"Well, the heat wouldn't be a problem at all if we had an ice mage with us," Cecilia replied, shooting a grin at Holly before feigning despair. "But alas, all we have is shadow and lightning, very very frightening."

That was all the conversation the party really had though, as they continued to pick off the Chitters that popped out of the woodwork. Though the creatures came in large numbers and often struck from the backline, Cecilia's mobility made it easy enough to answer such assaults, and in the meatgrinder of River and Willow's respective magical AOEs, none of the creatures lasted all that long. It was good farming though; very efficient EXP ratios for the amount of effort expended. And the intelligence of the creatures could be abused as well: by intentionally leaving a party member not fully healed, they could collect all the Chitters in one location and drop them with a single well-placed Action or Spell. Maybe that was a flaw that could be taken advantage of throughout this Floor?

Really, the only disappointment that struck Cecilia's heart was that Dinosaur Hide drops were so damn rare. Cleaning her Mythic Spear, she took a quick breather as the Chitter quest was completed, looking around to check the status of the others. Hardly any injuries and definitely no consummables used. That was the sort of situation she loved. Maybe after getting the funds for an updated set of armor, the Lancer could even go on a solo adventure again? That'd certainly be pleasant...no matter the amount of PMs she'd get from River about it.

Blinking when she realized that Willow had asked her a question, Cecilia nodded. "Yup, the quest's more of a foraging one, but I think it's another case of 'two birds, one stone' here. The little lady, y'see, wants us to collect twenty Java Roots, and was kind enough to enlighten me to the fact that the biggest Java Trees have the most Baby Blues in them...which certainly coincides with Holly's little subclass quest, no?"

She retrieved a bottle of milk from her inventory, taking a swig. Mmmm, delicious liquid protein.

"No idea what Java Trees look like, but I suppose while we head over to the Welkin spot, we can be on the lookout for blue monsters hanging around big trees, and go from there?"

One of the cynical types. Looks like someone did a cut and run. Hmm. Perhaps Aura had assumed too much. This was a Cult of 'Morrigan' after all, and if the circle of blood outside wasn't hint enough, Aura should expect to meet more hardliners here. Aura maintained a respectful neutrality as Ser Welkin gave Aura her quest. Best not to get entangled.

"I shall serve." Aura turned and left, back unto the streets. She decided to maintain the sort of religious discipline, at least around here. It would get tiresome after a while, so Aura hoped it wouldn't be the same deal for all Paladin quest givers. People told Aura that with her stature, she could certainly have a certain 'assertive presence', but Aura really wasn't the type. Aura focused on the practicalities, not chasing lofty distinctions or leadership.

Now...time to join up with the rest of the group. Aura looked around, the market bustling with the sounds of trade. Not coffee though. Aura thought with some residual bitterness. Some time had passed since she split off from the rest of the party - most likely, they had themselves set off for their respective quests or started to process one of the quests that the guild had taken on. Either way, Aura's quest was to be in a party and draw aggro - so her best chances were to help with the guild.

She opened up the messenger. It occured to Aura that she had never used it before; she was used to travelling alone and when she talked with others, it was face to face. Messages hardly came through, and if she did receive any, it was usually some party invitation that she turned down. Aura fiddled with the controls. It should intuitive enough, right? And since Willow was probably - no, most definitely - the new leader, she should message her.

Willow,
Ignore the previous message. I am not familiar with this.
I have found my subclass quest and am free for any kind of combat.
Turns out the market doesn't stock coffee after all.
Are you nearby?
-Aura

Aura frowned as she received her own message. Damn it. Let's try again. Aura sent the message off, realized that she sent a blank message this time, then annoyedly stamped the message in. She thought she could see the interface shaking, although it was most likely her imagination. Hopefully, this should go through.

Health: 2100/2100
Mana: 2000/2000

---

"Ah, as lovely as that sounds, I really should be getting started. We can't keep progress waiting for tea after all." Prome said before leaving the house. Once he was alone, he began coming up with a plan 'Now then, I should probably start with the steel. I believe I can get that myself...but I'm not sure about the rubies. I know that I'll have to buy the wood, but it hopefully won't cost too much.' He began making his way out to field in search of ore deposits 'Now that I think about it, I might want to keep an eye out for crystals too. Since I might need some when I begin construction. Actually, I might want to stock up on steel too just in case. Oh boy, this is so much fun! I wonder if this is what it feels like for girl's when they go shopping for clothes and such.' With a smile and a giggle, Prome began skipping along on his search for iron ore.

---

Holly heard what Cecilia and giggled at what she said. It was mostly because Cecilia did know how to make people laugh when they need it. ”A ice mage would be lovely, however you are very funny Cecilia.” Holly said, with a giggle. It was something that she enjoyed about Cecilia, even though her reckless nature was a bit much. But it if wasn’t for her guildmates it would be definitely boring for her trying to deal with all this by herself.

She continued with her allies, throughout the jungle while decimating Chitters left and right, which popped out of the woodwork. The chitters were intelligent enough to start changing their tactics by attacking the backline fighters. However, she kept her cool and kept up her attacks, while Cecilia was basically quicker than everyone in the group. These creatures were pretty easy to trick by keeping one of them at lower hp, which made it very easy to kill a large amount of them in one go. She was grateful that it was all over after that. ”Thank god, we finished that quest against these annoying creatures.” Holly thought to herself, with a sigh. It was a definite annoyance against these ankle bitters, as when Willow said about them.

Holly looked at Cecilia and Willow, which Willow finally put on Ceci’s gift to get rid of the heat especially. She sighed a bit, which she agreed with Willow about the whole thing, at least the quest is finished in terms of this one. However, when Ceci said something about her subclass quest, which made her smile. ”Yes, that’s apart of my subclass quest to gain favor with my class trainer, even though I can’t deal with rolling dice that well.” Holly said, with a dreadfully embarrassing realization of what she had said. Her eyes definitely went a bit wide and it was grateful that River wasn’t the one that blurt it out but herself. She put her hands on her face and was like completely blushing bright red and trying to cover up her blunder. It was pretty obvious, what she meant by that she absolutely sucks at dice games.

However, she calmed down a bit, just so she can drink out of her canteen of water she has. She was still blushing like crazy, however. She put away her canteen after she drank out of it, which it was refreshing water. ”C-Crap, why the hell did I say that out loud…? Ugh, this is the most embarrassing thing I have ever embarrassed myself with. I do hope it doesn’t get any worse than I feel right now.” Holly thought to herself, trying to keep herself from panicking from what she had said.

The talk about Java Trees, however intrigued her at least. ”Ugh… I hope these Java Trees look interesting while we are taking out Welkins on the Beach. Since I would so love a different scenery over the Jungle after all these annoying creatures anyways.” Holly said, sighed deeply. She had a slight smile on her face since she was so wanting to see a beach basically, even though she never left her home. It’s probably why she embarrasses herself at every turn lately, guess that’s the perks for opening up to people.

Willow nodded her assent to Cecilia’s suggestion and they took a hard right once they found a clear trail. The group must have cleared out the wandering Chitters, or perhaps they realized this was not a group to be trifled with, because they encountered very little threats along the way. Most trees were simple brown trees but every now and then, the group would cross a particularly dark one with large blue and black mushrooms growing along it. These mushrooms seemed to glow faintly on the bottom side of their caps and closer inspection would reveal these as the Baby Blues. Most trees playing host to these were only covered in one or two but some hosted up to six or seven, though the vast majority preferred to grow higher up. A small glint of yellow would ping across the player’s vision when they crossed one of these trees, drawing attention to a section of their large, warped roots that seemed to claw their way out of the ground.

Those roots with little yellow flashes were each surrounded by 3 Baby Blues.

A series of soft pings caught Willow’s attention and she glanced at her dashboard, opening up the new messages when they appeared. She snorted at the messages and sent her own reply to the last one.

“Aura,

Perfect timing. Looks like we’re about to clear up one more quest for Ceci and then we’re moving onto the Welkins. I’ll send you an invite and then you can just follow the map to meet up with us if you don’t want to sit around. Be careful though. The Chitters like to bite from behind!

Willow

She sent the group invitation from her friend list and turned her attention back to the task at hand. “So… mushrooms with health bars. Fantastic. It’s going to be poison all around tonight folks. Got anything before we get started here, River?” Willow asked as she swapped out her staff for her wand. If poison DoTs were involved, she was going to need the MP mitigation.

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The Market was bustling with people and calls for wares from everything from food to textiles were overlapping the general babble. A few stalls sold iron products, though they would reveal they didn’t particularly carry the materials to craft it themselves and ultimately would send Prome along to Bidthrone’s Smithery.

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Aa the fight concluded everyone seemed to want to gather themselves for a hit. Each person drinking from their canteens, taking a moment, and seeing where the next plan of action was. River meanwhile was stretching himself out as he kept an eye out for any more tracks or possible monsters that they may come across. He couldnt help but smile and laugh as they poke fun at the idea of having am ice mage around just for the sake of cooling off, as if anyone would waste mana like that. As he saw the coast was clear and their direction was now known, he pressed forward using his stealth skill to help alleviate the sounds of his footsteps and any trace he may leave behind for animals to follow. As they neared some gnarled trees with large blue mushrooms River started getting system messages as he did before.

River examined the Baby Blues that sat before them, noticing their statted up like creatures rather than commen plant life that was strewn about. Once again their abilities and stats popped up for him, allowing him to see more than what others could. He took out his notebook and began to jot down what he had learned about them quickly, using his shorthand so that they wouldnt be caught off guard and attacked while he was busy. As he wrote he spoke out loud, answering Willows question about how these creatures functioned. "These seem to be a bit trickier than the Chitters. They're immobile creatures, but their immobility allows then to regenerate health and mana every 30 seconds. Aside from that they're ranged combatants that reduce damage by a moderate amount unless its piercing damage. So looks like this is your bag Holly and Ceci. They're poisonous so they shouldn't be ingested, not like I was going to try, and they can poison us with an AoE attack called Pulse of Posion. They can also affect others to give them damage reduction so long as the Baby Blues HP is lower than 100% meaning unless you're doing piercing damage you lose 40% of your damage output. Lastly...probably the worst part...at 50% HP they will attempt to call any and all Chitters in the area who will come and fight for the Baby Blues. I can try to put these creatures to sleep but I don't know how we want to proceed."