Chapter 14: Magical Forest

  “Oh! Fay!” Marx ran over, followed by a long black-haired boy holding a scythe, decked out with accessories, two bracelets, two rings and a necklace. Most likely all uncommon like Fay’s were. A girl beside him had similar long black hair, though curled and clumped together from the lack of hygiene they had in the forest. Fay assumed those two were in some way siblings, or looked that way. Behind them was a tall and slender boy holding a hammer, he had a backpack on him too, something Fay desperately needed for their squad. He had shorter brown hair with little blonde stripes from sun bleaching.

  Then, behind him was a blonde girl with the exact same robe as Millie. She held her hands in front of her and walked with the same polite motion as her counterpart. She looked pristine, pretty, her hair was washed and her skin wasn't muddied. Her eyes were a striking grey, with dots in the middle for pupils.

  “So this is Fay?” The leader held his hand out, “I’m Joey, this is Jacky.” He pointed to the girl beside him.

  Fay shook his hand and nodded, “hi…”

  “Eddy is the tall dude, he’s our crafter, then back there is our healer, Grace, she is very shy so don't expect to get a word from her.”

  “Hi Fay.” Grace smiled and walked forward, grabbing both his hands and leaning into him, making Fay stumble a foot back, “hi, hello, hello.” Her face was scattered with freckles against the abnormally pale skin, “nice meeting you, I like your robe, very much, very pretty, and your arms and your…” She removed the robe hood and saw his white hair, “ahhhh pretty, your hair too.”

  Joey looked confused and walked into the middle between the two, “usually she isn’t so upfront,” he laughed nervously, “but, yeah, this is our team… you’ve already met Marx so.” He smiled, “oh! And you must be Jason?” Joey quickly moved onto introducing Jason to the group as Fay hadn’t really been talkative.

  Marx stared at him, trying to communicate a “she’s creepy right?” about Grace by glancing at him and then at the girl. Fay nodded and decided he would stick with Marx for the day, since he wasn’t very good at getting to know people.

  Grace walked over to Millie, who was watching from the cabins steps while Bark repaired them. They bowed and exchanged words that Fay couldn’t really hear, even with his perception it seemed like they were wary and spoke in whispers.

  “Why’d you change your mind?” Marx asked and patted his shoulder, “I assumed you wouldn’t come.”

  “I have a curse apparently.” Fay sighed and moved his hand off, he was being too friendly, “I’ll keep out of your way. Don’t expect me to do anything.”

  “Ohhh you think we coordinate? Well… we do but Joey is good with people, don't worry, he won't be like:” He deepened his voice. “Fay, you must secure the back part of the enemy soldier, do not move for thirty seconds. Or whatever, he won't do that.”

  That's a relief. Fay nodded and Marx continued on, “anyways, you’ll be with me, we won't all be clumped up fighting one enemy at a time, we usually go on in trios or duos if Grace is feeling like doing anything…”

  “That's good…” Fay played with his dagger, he could deal with this, they were apparently going to a magic forest somewhere, level threes… that king had been level three so he wasn’t too excited, but with Marx maybe it could be a chance to practice more with his betting skill.

  Jason seemed to have a lot more ease when it came to the onboarding process, he made Joey laugh and talked to the Eddy person, apparently Jason would be partnered with Joey while Eddy was with Jacky, based on Joey’s assessment.

  “So how’d you meet him?” Marx asked, pointing at Jason.

  “Oh… he saved me… and uh yeah we were friends on the island, kind of, we hadn't talked in years, and barely talked when we knew each other as children… he’s an acquaintance. Not really a friend.”

  “You sure have a high bar for friendship.” He laughed, "don't say that to his face, I’m sure he considers you a friend.” Marx wandered over to go greet the guy. Jason was in his element, to have teammates that were capable of more than cheap tricks, to have a leader that could actually put him to use.

  “Grace! We’re going to get going!” Joey shouted out, Grace skipped over to the main group and they started moving like a flock into the forest. Marx patted Fay’s back and made him follow, they had a direct path apparently.

  “So Fay!” Eddy slowed down to walk beside them, “I hear you have a nullify ability.”

  Nullify? Is that what it looks like? “Uh, yeah, a rare one from my class.” Fay lied, he guessed with how he could remove Marx’s flames and rupture a telekinesis users hand it was pretty convincing.

  “Nice.” Eddy said, waiting for Fay to say something else.

  “Thanks.”

  They walked in silence for a bit before Eddy sped up and talked to Jason some more, they had a much more lively back and forth between them. “You’re cool.” Marx smiled, “so mysterious.” He hopped over a small stone in the path and skipped forward.

  Fay wanted to say sorry but really couldn’t be bothered, just as he thought this whole thing would be a chore. They arrived back at the lake, something Fay actually liked to see again, it gave him nostalgia despite only being two days ago. He could probably combat those eels now, “Hey are the animals in that lake sea snakes?”

  “Ohhh yeah, I almost bit my leg off when I came for a dip… I killed one, said it was a level two sea snake… so yeah, I guess?”

  Fay wanted to leave the group immediately and just slaughter the whole lake’s worth of animals, but had to resist the urge. “Cool.” They walked around the lake and into a deeper part of the forest. There were a lot less animals now, some corpses with deep cuts in them from a blade, some bashed in and some completely grinded into a paste. It smelled disgusting. Fay put both fingers on his nose and followed the group.

  “Most level one creatures are dead by now, sorry.” Marx whispered, “most of the lower level twos as well. Except for those sea snakes you mentioned, but that's so tiring, I doubt anyone wants to deal with that just for 10 xp a pop.”

  “True.” Fay noted this important information, it was true that if he were to fall behind then he would be in the same spot Lily is in, too weak to fight any of the monsters left alive, but too strong to grind out basic bugs to increase his level. It was a real issue that he didn’t take lightly.

  They arrived at the entrance of the magical forest, the trees leaves turned from green to a dark purple and the logs were pitch black, it made the place feel haunted in a way, wrong. Light barely got through to the grass through the thick branches and foliage.

  “Alright!” Joey swung his scythe and marked a tree at the entrance, “go in your groups, Fay with Marx, Jason with Eddy, Jacky and Grace with me.”

  “He’s collecting women.” Marx whispered as he tugged Fay’s hand, “alright, seeya!” He dragged him away from the group and to the left of the forest, still skirting the green and purple perimeter. “We need to avoid some animals because my fire can barely dent it, so we will be fighting some magical mantis.”

  “What?”

  “Big ones, they’re annoying, but I think it’s the easiest level three there is.” He started to whistle and stopped beside a big boulder that was the size of a tree, “okay this is our recollection spot if we get lost somehow, so commit it to memory. The animals here are fast and mean and smart. I've only been here a couple times but they also have skills, unlike the animals in the normal forest… you getting this? You look bored.”

  I am bored. “Yeah.” Fay walked in, “genocide, got it. Go in and kill things.” He pulled up the hood and took a breath of stale air, the place smelt earthy and his eyes had to take time to adjust to the darkness.

  It was about ten steps in until Fay felt the prickle of something about to cut his head off. “Oh.” Marx shoved him out of the way as a large bird swooped down from above and tried to use its blade-like wings to slice him into pieces. Fay fell onto the ground stomach first, feeling a gust of wind from the creature's flapping. Its wings were bright red at the ends, where blood coated the edges, while the rest of the feathers were a purplish black.

  “Hah! Dumbass!” Marx laughed and fired a ball of fire at the creature, missing because his flames still had a lack of velocity, he had to get close for it to be useful. This was a bad matchup for him and he knew it from the moment he saw it.

  Fay got up just in time for another swoop, this time heading for Marx, he took out dirt and held it right in front of Marx’s head.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  The bird's wings slapped the static dirt, lifting it up and causing an uneven wingspan, Marx ducked under the attack while the creature whipped both of its wings back. A gust of wind physically made Fay recoil and stagger. The dirt didn’t do any damage or catch the bird, all it did was confuse the creature and cause it to land around a couple meters away.

  “Damn.” Marx shot another fireball at the beast, it simply slapped it away without an issue, grew confidence and decided to flap upwards again. Gathering speed, it held its talons out in front of its body so it could swoop down and catch Marx as prey. He shot another fireball that hit the body of the bird while it swooped down for a decisive attack, its confidence at an all time high.

  Fay made a wager that Marx would survive, so he yet again, like last time, stepped in the trajectory of the bird and held out the knife to be forward facing.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x2]

  The bird twisted upwards and swung away from the weapon just a second away from being impaled, flying just above and slashing Fay on the top of his head with its sharp talons.

  [Bet succeeded: 2 strength for 20 seconds]

  This was going terribly, Fay felt the blood drip down from his new cuts, head injuries always bled a lot but at least the cuts stopped at the bone of his skull, any lower defense and the wounds would’ve struck his brain. The blood kept giving sensory issues that Fay couldn’t ignore with his high perception. Marx rolled upwards and stood beside him, “this guy is annoying.” He said the obvious.

  The bird landed on the ground yet again, prancing about in front of them with a gloatful look in its eyes. “Fuck this guy.” Marx said, “this guy sucks.”

  “It’s not a ‘guy’, it's an animal.”

  “It knows what it's doing.” Marx pressed his hand to his neck, scratching, “I have a pretty bad base skill… urgh… I’m sorry Fay but I’m not too strong when my fire doesn’t work…”

  Fay just decided to move his leg back, charge up a throw, and shoot the knife forward right into the bird's chest, however, the thing moved to the side and the knife only skirted its wing, causing a slight bleed, but not anything substantial.

  “Really?” Marx sighed, “now you have no weapon.”

  “It’s poisoned.”

  “Yeah? I doubt that this thing doesn’t have poison resistance.” He groaned and took out his own weapon from his sheath, “use this.” He handed Fay a common sword that was already chipped, “I don’t use weapons anyway.”

  The bird flapped up again and swooped downwards with its talons out, just like before. While Marx moved out the way, Fay tried the same tactic.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  I’m probably so close to losing MP. He lifted upwards using his strength, gripping the handle of the sword with both his hands, with the frozen sword as leverage he pulled up enough to be at the base height of the flying bird. It looked confused as to how a human suddenly levitated up and quickly decided to turn into a retreat. Fay grabbed the base of one of its talons and caused it to lopsidedly fly as it took its return. He held the sword in his other hand.

  He swung left and right as the bird tried to rip him off its leg, using the talon on its left to swipe at his arm, luckily the calcified wounds kept catching the talons and caused them to bounce off. Fay kept hacking away at the side of the bird with the sword until it managed to swipe it with its wing and knocked it out of the air. It screeched loudly, so loud that Fay almost passed out, his heart skipped a beat as his eyes blacked out. The bird took him higher, and higher, and higher until he was above the trees. And he could feel his hair and robe being brushed by strong aerial winds.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  He used stop momentum on himself, causing the bird to be slingshot back into his grasp, it lost the ability to fly and began to tumble downwards, Fay held onto the birds leg as it span upside down and started to fall, blood from its wounds flew upwards and into Fay's face and eyes which made it hard to see where he was headed. Fay felt a nice and calm weightlessness, and he shut his eyes before a few cuts appeared from the bird's wings sliding across his chest.

  The moment he passed by the leaves of the trees, where he could feel wind piercing and bursting his eardrums, he let go and used his skill.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  Thank god that worked. He stopped, feeling that floaty feeling yet again as his body forgot the stress it was put under, and the thought that, if he were to die right now, it wouldn't be so bad. And then, slowly, he continued to fall down the rest of the way, landing with a thud right on top of the bird. It was still alive but barely, breathing in little whistles, its brittle bird bones had crumpled in on themselves and its eyes were losing focus. It tried moving with its wings but they spasmed chaotically.

  “HOLY SHIT!” Marx ran over and pulled Fay away from the creature, “what the hell!?” He shot the bird's face with a fireball multiple times until it smelt of cooked chicken. Fay had to take a moment to get his eyes adjusted, his ears kept ringing and pulsating a heart beat paced pain.

  [Slain Steel Feather Eagle (LVL 3)]

  +40XP

  Only 40? He guessed he probably was sharing some of it with Marx. The scrapes he accrued weren't too bad, the wound on his head was already clearing up, the worst one was on his chest where the bird swiped for its last time with its wing, but that didn’t hit anything major. It was just a lot of little things that would hurt soon, or itch. Fay guessed that most battles would end decisively now for him, as his vitality was high enough to make smaller scratches inconsequential.

  “Right! So birds are an instant runaway, not a good matchup for either of us.” He walked over to the knife that Fay had thrown and gave it back, “not too bad, but we should have run… but this place is brimming with things! Reminds me of when we first got here and a bear made me jump.” He laughed and took a few steps back, “you want to continue?”

  Fay nodded.

  MP: (74/200)

  He used over half during that fight, which wasn’t sustainable, he decided the next one he would let Marx do most of the work and he would sit back and rest. He did fail most of his attacks so it made sense, but still.

  HP: (120/170)

  Thank god for the extra vitality and defense. He followed Marx deeper into the forest, the ringing from the bird's screech finally mellowed out and he could think again. He kept himself high on alert, checking every time a crack of space opened up between trees. “You said you were here before?”

  “Just to scout.” He looked just as lost as Fay, though, so he probably wasn't here for long, “maybe we should check on the others… I know Joey will be fine but, ya know, we don’t really know how strong Jason is.”

  This place was right up Jason’s alley, Fay thought, “it’s fine, he will be good. Eddy’s in good hands.”

  “High praise for an 'acquaintance.'" He laughed while taking a turn, there was a sound of shouting in the distance, then a squeal of a pig-like creature. Someone just killed something. Marx suddenly stopped, “egg sack, nice.” He pointed in the distance where a pulsating spider egg sack was, attached to the side of a tree with large rope like silky tendrils, “these things are free XP.” He shot a ball of fire at it, causing the webs to ignite in a flash like fire, burning up all inside, “nice, that's a hundred.” He continued strolling and whistled.

  These things can be bred, then. Fay assumed, if these monsters could procreate then that is a good way to farm XP, slow, but again, all ideas are welcome. He continued to follow Marx, stopping at the edge of a river that was impossible to pass with its fast currents.

  “Well, that's annoying.” Marx chose a random direction and walked that way, “where are all the animals? Thought there would be more.”

  “Shouldn’t we take a break?” Fay was seriously questioning Marx’s leadership skills, Fay was low enough on mana that another big fight would be deadly, and he could barely damage anything with his special skill.

  “Are you tired? I’m not.” He played with his sword, “and with you on my side I should be fine, that bird thing was seriously cool-“

  That was when a claw the size of a trunk reached out of the river and clobbered Marx’s side.

  The thud of multiple legs stabbing the ground hid the sound of Marx being hit by a tree, he crashed his shoulder into the lower trunk and dug there under some dirt. Fay watched as a giant crab rose out of the river, quadruple the height of him. “Theres…” Fay’s voice was quiet, he didn’t even know who he was talking to, the crab’s multiple legs stabbed into the earth as it completely ignored Fay and tried to pick Marx up with its claw. The thing was a deep sea blue, aqua. And blocked the sun with its body, looking like a building.

  This was level three, truly. Fay ran forward, underneath the crab's legs, between two that almost crushed him. When underneath the body he held the knife upwards and slid it underneath, the knife had a hard time breaching the exoskeleton, but it was felt, clearly, making the creature stutter its reach for Marx and try to slam its body down to get rid of this ticklish feeling.

  [Activated Stop Momentum x3]

  He is almost definitely out of mana now, he kept the blade upright as the crab tried to slam down, “MARX!” He screamed, looking over at the boy who was still unconscious. The weight of the crab pushed down onto the fine point of the knife, bending the tip slightly from its immense weight.

  Fay made a wager, more of a prayer, that this knife would pierce through the exoskeleton. Knowing the success rate would likely be high, well, had to be high or he would be minced.

  There was a definite low crunch as the crab let its weight settle, the blade broke through but no blood ran through. Do crabs bleed? Fay had to crouch down and lay backwards because the knife barely kept it from crushing him.

  MP: (44/200)

  MP: (40/200)

  MP: (36/200)

  Shit.

  [Activated Stop Momentum]

  He applied it one final time and leapt away from the crab's large body as it was still trying to crush whatever was beneath it. A second later it slammed down onto the dirt, lifting up sand and water and soil into the air. It rained down on Fay as he stumbled backwards, splattering across his cloak and tree leaves.

  [Bet succeeded: 2 endurance for 60 seconds]

  MP: (6/200)

  This place is annoying. Fay ran forward and grabbed Marx by the shoulders while the creature was still under the assumption that it caught whatever was below it, a knife stuck firmly into its lower body. Fay ran into the forest, hoping the trees would stop the animal's predatory instincts, but it did not, and the moment it saw its prey getting away it began to rush forward, slamming into trees and uprooting them as it did so.

  “Stupid...” He groaned in anger while trying to keep up pace, the crab was gaining, just barely, if the trees weren't there to consistently keep it bumping back then Fay would be a paste alongside Marx. “Wake up dumbass.” Fay was not carrying him kindly, he was dragging him by the pits while his feet were left to bump against the ground and whatever rocks might poke up, “wake up!” The crab gained after using its front claw to swipe away a large chunk of trees, almost knocking one directly into Fay. “WAKE UP!”

  “Mmmmm one more minute…” Marx groaned out. The lack of sleep from the night before, the fight with Thomas and now this had left him completely spent, and was now deep in exhausted sleep. He flicked his wrist and a fireball flew out and hit one of the legs of the crab, puffing away and doing no damage. “Thereee…”

  “MARX!” Fay screamed out as he lost even more distance from a trip against a tree root, the crab, however, was slowing down, through its tiny mechanical looking mouth was water, slipping out as a drool.

  Does it have poison resistance? Fay questioned, it might not have thought it needed it, with an exoskeleton like that, maybe nothing should’ve been able to pierce it, especially venom which usually comes from snakes. The crab slipped on its own leg and bashed its face into a trunk, looking drunk as it slipped again towards Fay, holding its claw out it tried for a final swipe, but Fay continued to pull Marx back.

  Finally, the crab just ceased to try, and flopped over on itself, one of its legs continued to try and kick itself upwards, but the rest of its body was completely incapacitated. Its small beady bug eyes gaped open and turned silver.

  [Slain River Crab (LVL 3)]

  +160XP

  “Urghhhh.” Fay sat down and groaned, he was out of breath. “Hope the others are doing better, huh Marx?” Fay slapped the boy's face weakly, wondering just how he would collect his knife from under a giant crab body. He couldn’t find any use for the betting skill in this fight, or most, it seemed useless just as Millie had told him.

  Speaking of useless, Marx was horrible with fighting monsters. His flames never worked and he likely didn’t have any alternative uses for it. If he was a flame mage, why was he only using fireball? He should be trying all different kinds of things.

  —

  “Theres another!” Eddy gave Jason a thumbs up, they had a pretty good system, Jason takes the brunt of an attack, holding out for time while Eddy charges up a big swing on an alpha boar bone axe, an uncommon weapon he had made that had horrible stats but had a special skill on it that made it so if he charged it for four seconds with MP it would do triple the damage. It worked perfectly every time.

  Jason breathed in and out, they had just killed a praying mantis creature, its arms kept trying to slice him open but couldn’t quite find their grip. He leveled up his class to 2, receiving another 4 defense. “Damn…” they took another four minute break, deciding it would be stupid to continue walking after each fight, they knew these creatures had a sort of territory so it was unlikely any would encroach. “Are we doing okay? Are we strong?”

  “Sure are…” Eddy took some food out of his bag and gave it to Jason, it had a buff on it to restore mana and heal, because Joey made it. “You’d be good on our team. Honestly.”

  “Yeah?” Jason ate like a wild animal, chewing down the dried boar meat, “I’d join.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.” He bit and chewed, speaking with his mouth open, “I mean… we don’t really have a team, we don't fight together much… it's sorta just a band of misfits.”

  “Oh… well we can talk about that after, we’d be happy to have you… I could even make you some armor.” Eddy laughed, “is that your starting gear?”

  Jason nodded, “all except for this scaley glove, Bark made them, our crafter…” he played with them with his one hand, twisting the fingers to click against eachother, “they kinda need me… I hope… Fay is good and all but… kinda selfish? I guess. And then we have Lily and she has been nothing by a liability… I mean they’re fine, they’re good.” He finished his food and stood up, “let's continue.”

  —

  “You got it stuck under the crab?” Marx groaned as he rested on a tree. Fay was trying to move the crab in any way but couldn’t wedge it. “Bad luck.”

  “Not bad luck…” Fay was pretty much accepting that his new knife was gone forever, that’s an extra agility and strength wiped. He kicked the crab a final time and settled on a tree as well, a bit away from Marx.

  “Are you moping? Come on, you just won.” He unsheathed his sword and threw it over, landing by Fay's feet. “We’ve had bad matchups, that bird was fire resistant and my flames don’t do well against exoskeletons since I usually stoke them at low heat?”

  “Why low heat?”

  “Mana, don’t have much… I wish I could do some cool stuff like fire arrows but it’s just so costly.” He groaned as he stood, “I only have eight intelligence so, it’s not ideal. But yeah, let’s continue.”

  Fay stood as well, “how long are we doing this for?” He was ready to go home already, or at least to the lake.

  “Until I’m at 8000 xp, duh… I’m halfway… I’m tryna focus on killing with my flames to upgrade my class but can’t get past level two.” He began walking the opposite way of the river, Fay followed with his back posture terribly forward leaning.

  8000?

  XP 625/8000

  Really? He's halfway? I guess he was up all night…

  Now that Fays MP was back above 100 he felt better, though he hadn’t even thought about class leveling, he needed to use his gambler ability to do that, which sucked because the zone skill so far had been useless. Maybe it was about time to put some focus into his luck stat, but it was hard to say what exactly it affected, luck was such a vague word and could go both good and bad ways. Being struck by lightning was lucky, that didn't mean he wanted that to happen.

  They happened to find an “alpha boar” but the fight was over before it even started, Marx set it alight and allowed Fay to cut the charred creature so they shared the XP.

  [Slain Alpha boar (LVL 2)]

  +25XP

  Practically useless. But he was pleasantly surprised to find a level two in this part of the forest, this was more up his alley. And also to see Marx fight something that wasn't immune to his magic, it was strong, especially when he infused more mana into it.

  “You know after all this we are going to be messed up, right?” Marx whipped his hand around, “like soldiers to war.” He laughed and put his hands near the smoking creature, “if we get out, that is.”

  Fay nodded along, accepting the rest he had decided they needed, it was true that most, if not everyone here is going to crack soon. That Thomas boy certainly was, anyone who is put into life and death situations multiple times will begin to think that they are either gods themselves, or begin to believe that they had died already, and lose track of reality. Fay felt it a couple times, in that dungeon with that snake king especially, “we’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah?” He smiled, “we can come back a couple of crazies and terrorize the whole island, burn it to the ground.” His grin quivered, “yeah?”

  “There’s a lot of innocent people on the island.” Fay nodded regardless, feeling the warmth stroke his hands nicely, when was the last time he had felt nice? Since the first day?

  “They didn’t help us, did they? So who cares if they're 'innocent'? Burn it all down, leave our loved ones to reclaim it.”

  “Kay.” Fay moved away, if that vengeance dream kept Marx going, who was he to say it was wrong? “Let's kill more things.”