Porter trailed along behind him, effortlessly keeping up with his ludicrous pace—something that he could only keep up for another few seconds.

  Boy, was his math wrong because he gave up after half a second, heaving and panting, but still walking towards the edge of Brinebrook.

  He knew that the Butterfly Gingers were somewhere in the forest. Just not where specifically in the forest. But maybe a certain tattered clothed friend did.

  “Hey, Port,” Colby wheezed out.

  “Yeah, Colby? Are you okay? Is it your hand? Are you sure you don’t want me to get a Health Potion? Also, are you really okay with you know… the A word?”

  “In order. No, I’m Colby. No. No. Depends on what’s the A word.”

  Porter bit his lip.

  “I don’t think I should say it.”

  “Yeah, sure. You and Laine can keep your secrets.”

  “Secrets? Colby, you know I’d never keep anything from you.”

  “I thought I knew that. I mean, you can’t even keep a surprise party a surprise. But, I guess people change.”

  “No, Colby. It’s not that. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Hurt? Honestly, right now, the thing hurting me the most is the lack of cheese time—and having cheese aging in my Core does not count—which is why I have to ask you something, Port. Do you know where exactly Butterfly Gingers grow?

  “Not exactly, Colby. I know they grow in the forests nearby. They’re completely white and look like butterflies and like to rest on flowers.”

  That information wasn’t exactly useful. He already knew all of that back when he retrieved whatever knowledge about gingers growing near Brinebrook that had been buried deep in his mind, while analysing the potential gingers that Ms. M might’ve used for her candied ginger.

  “Thanks, Port,” he said.

  “No problem, Colby. Actually, Colby, do you mind if I help you out on this quest?”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yep!”

  “Weren’t you at the guild to pick up a Supply Runner job? Did you do that while I was doing my test?”

  Porter shook his head. “This is more important, Colby. It’s your first quest.”

  “Thanks, but I can handle it myself. It’s just some Butterfly Ginger.”

  “But, Colby. There are monsters in the forest. What if you get hurt?”

  “Relax, Port. Do you think I’ve never dealt with a monster before? I did capture that lob-stir for Laine, remember?”

  “I-I guess.”

  “If you want to help me, I won’t stop you. If you don’t want to help me, I won’t stop you either.”

  “But I do want to help you, Colby.”

  “Then come along. It’s your choice. Also, I’m really proud of you for making your own decisions and standing up for yourself,” he said, grabbing Porter’s shoulder and bringing him in for a hug.

  “Thanks, Colby.”

  “No, problem,” he said. “But one last little question. Again, you can always say no. Do you mind carrying me? I am pooped.”

  “I don’t mind, Colby. Anything for you. Hop on.”

  “I was really hoping you would say no, but if you really don’t mind.”

  Colby hopped onto Porter. This time, instead of a bridal-style carry, he was being given a piggyback ride. With his weight [Lightened], the Supply Runner [Dashed] off towards the walls encapsulating Brinebrook and into the nearby woods.

  “There!” Porter said, pointing at something.

  Colby tried his best to see whatever Porter had spotted, but everything was just a blur of brown and green—the wind drying out his eyes wasn’t helping either.

  Porter stopped, allowing him to get down and work through the nausea by fertilizing the soil with his breakfast. Finally able to see straight, he saw what Porter was pointing at.

  It was the Butterfly Ginger. Who would’ve guessed?

  To be more accurate, it was Butterfly Gingers.

  Under the shade of a tall tree of species and age that only a Timbermancer would care about, lay a patch of red-petaled flowers dotted with a couple of white gingery bugs. They crawled from flower to flower, stopping within their yellow center before scuttling on to the next. Their white wings occasionally flapped, but they never took flight, simply crawling along the connective canopy of green leaves.

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Interestingly enough, they never crossed paths. It was as if each Butterfly Ginger had claimed its own tiny cluster of flowers.

  Using his advanced arithmetic skill—fingers—he counted five of them. That was half of the quest there already.

  No time like the present.

  Before he could take even a single step forward, Porter called out to him. “Colby, do you want me to grab them for you?”

  “The lazy in me says yes. The guilty part—where you carried me here, are helping me out even though it’s not your quest, and that I’m probably wasting your precious time—says no.”

  “It’s no biggie, Colby. It might even be faster if I do it.”

  “Because?”

  “They fly away if you get too close.”

  “So you have to grab them before they fly away, and you’re basically fast enough to do it since you’re a Supply Runner?”

  He nodded. “It’s no biggie.”

  “For you, maybe. What if I get another quest to grab more Butterfly Gingers? I need to learn how to do it myself.”

  “That makes sense. Sorry for not thinking about you.”

  “Nah, it’s okay, Port. You were thinking of me, it just wasn’t the right thoughts.”

  Time to learn how to nab a Butterfly Ginger all by himself.

  First things first, he had to test whether Porter’s claim had any merit. It probably did, but just like adding raw Shell Ginger to his mozzarella, he wanted to experience it for himself.

  Colby inched himself closer. He took one teeny tiny step, waited for any reaction, then proceeded again. After the umpteenth step and wait—about five paces away from the closest Butterfly Ginger—it flapped its wings and took off to the sky.

  Guess what Porter had said was true.

  He also said that as long as you were fast enough, you could grab them before they flew away.

  Colby cycled through the list of currently available options that’d make him faster. It was a very short cycle—also because it wasn’t even really a cycle. All he had were [Cheese Boots] made using cream cheese.

  Sure, it helped when the ground was cobblestone bricks or even roof tiles, but soil left much to be desired.

  As he was busy debating the best way to be fast, the Butterfly Ginger fluttered back down onto the patch of red flowers, moving towards the most extreme end of its little territory of plants.

  Well, that’s handy. If they returned after a while, then that gave him another option. He didn’t need to be fast; he just had to be patient.

  Back in his Core, he made a single ball of mozzarella. Just like during the race, he broke them up into tiny little balls—bocconcini. He got a couple of them and let them roast under Stove’s flame, letting them get all sticky. Then he awkwardly approached Smart Waiter.

  “Sorry. I really need you to do this,” he said. “It’s just three spells, it shouldn’t be that hard now that you’re upgraded, right?”

  The Core Construct opened up his hatch, showing off a sign that read, “Sigh.” Another sign flipped up beside it that read, “Fine.”

  Colby loaded up the sticky little balls of mozzarella into Smart Waiter and closed the hatch. The Core Construct churned, struggling to deliver the spells outside of his Core, but ultimately succeeding.

  In his hand, five [Stickious Cheesious] [Marvelous Mozzarella Marbles] appeared.

  Congratulations! [Stickious Cheesious] has reached Level 3!

  Woo hoo. A level up. Now these mozzarella balls would be extra sticky.

  With dopamine flooding his brain, he enacted his plan. Instead of creeping slowly towards the Butterfly Gingers or even moving faster than they could react, Colby walked normally.

  The Butterfly Gingers flew up into the sky, leaving behind a sweetly spicy, earthly scent. Moving over to the plants, he planted the [Stickious Cheesious] [Marvelous Mozzarella Marbles] on the patch of flowers, one for each territory that the Butterfly Gingers had carved up.

  Done, he walked back to Porter and waited.

  “Oh, that’s so smart, Colby,” he said, realizing the idea he had come up with.

  “I know, right. That must’ve been what Ms. M was talking about—about how there were multiple paths to the same destination. You said that the only way was to go fast, but this way, I can go as slow as I want.”

  While waiting for the Butterfly Gingers to come back down, Colby pulled out the cool-looking stick that looked like a gun and showed it off to Porter, regaling the tale of how he managed to dupe double dagger girl and the dull duo—leaving out the part where he had carried him back to safety.

  “Look!” Porter said, pointing behind him.

  Colby turned to find that the first of the Butterfly Gingers had fallen for his trap. It had returned to the flowers, moving along the pathway of leaves until one of its legs was caught in his [Stickious Cheesious] [Marvelous Mozzarella Marbles].

  The rest descended, moving along with their business before waltzing into the trap he had set up, except for the third Butterfly Ginger. For some reason, it had accepted its fate, choosing to land on his cheese.

  Eventually, all of the Butterfly Gingers had been caught.

  He moved closer to the Butterfly Gingers once again. They attempted to take flight, flapping their white wings in a panic, but it was no use. Their legs were stuck within the stickiness of his cheese.

  Colby grabbed the first one, taking extra precaution not to harm a single hair—if insectoid-plants monster hybrids even had hair—on the Butterfly Ginger. Instead of plucking it directly, he reached for the [Stickious Cheesious] [Marvelous Mozzarella Marble ]. As he lifted it up, it pulled on the leaf beneath, a thin line of cheese being stretched until it finally snapped. The leaf wobbled back and forth before settling down, a small remnant of cheese left behind.

  Colby opened up his Inventory. Just as he was about to push the Butterfly Ginger stuck on his cheese through the screen, he remembered a very crucial detail.

  Something annoying about the Inventory System was that you couldn’t shove things with sentience inside. Or was it sapients? Potato, potahto. Cheddar, Chedduh. Didn’t matter to him. What did matter was how he was going to carry around the Butterfly Gingers.

  He could kill them, but what if Ms. M gave an extra reward for delivering them alive? There had to be some sort of freshness bonus, right?

  He looked down at his fingers. Since she only requested ten Butterfly Gingers, he could slot them in between his fingers. But there were only eight slots between his fingers, and unless he grew two extra fingers—could be a finger on each hand or two on one—he wouldn’t be able to carry them all.

  Or he could do the more logical option of two Butterfly Gingers sharing a single slot. Perhaps even the even smarter option of sticking all of the cheese back together into one big lump so he could just carry them around at the same time.

  “Colby, I could lend you this.”

  He looked up from his ridiculous ideas to find Porter holding a wooden box.

  “This is what I use whenever I have to Supply Run something that can’t go into my Inventory. It’s no biggie if you want to use it.”

  That was it!

  No, not using Porter’s box.

  He would make his own box. A cheese box.