Suchi. A forested area near The Earthfriend Habitat.

  “It reeks of monsters,” complained Donkey Bro. “You will return to my innards spilling from my belly and my dead face contorted in a blissful grin at having been released from my eternal torment.”

  “Correct," replied Henry, ignoring most of what it'd said. "This forest is crawling with monsters for training the Earthfriend initiates. That’s why you should gobble these down to grow strong enough to defend yourself.”

  Dismounting from the donkey, he summoned half a dozen piles of dripping red meat that he’d picked up at the gala market. One was built from the hearts of Whitenose Plains Hyenas, one from the hearts of Angry Zebras, another from the hearts of Duskstalker Harpies. These monster hearts were typically used by Beast Tamers to power-level new animal companions.

  Donkey Bro neighed in complaint. “This is not what I meant by a bit of everything.”

  "Work from left to right. Skipping any will cause you to miss the levels from subsequent ones. If you eat them all like a good boy, you'll grow up into the strongest monster on the playground, the king of the jungle."

  The ones here maxed out at level 10.

  That last sentence caused the donkey’s ears to perk up.

  Henry summoned his portable Transmogrificator and entered it to alter his appearance. He felt that snooping around The Habitat with a mask would draw suspicion.

  When he re-emerged, his avatar had become a German guy with a blonde ponytail and robes a mixture of sky-blue and snow-white. These colours were emblematic of the snow-dusted tundra of The Republic of Gu, from where he would pretend to be a travelling player.

  Using a pocket mirror, he tested a set of expressions until he found one that was fitting, an arrogant, determined scowl.

  Around him, the heart piles he’d summoned earlier had vanished. However, the donkey’s appearance was the same as always: shabby.

  “Did you eat them out of order?”

  “Don’t insult my intelligence, human. Through my veins courses the strength of the universe! You will soon squirm for mercy under my hooves!”

  “So did you gain any abilities?”

  Non-boss monsters should on average have four or five, while this donkey had two, its and its .

  Donkey Bro pouted. "With the months we’ve spent together, all I am to you is a show-pony performing tricks at your command.”

  “So I take that as a no. Well, if you end up being able to create them yourself, try learning invisibility. It’ll synergise with your chomp.”

  “I’m already invisible. In the eyes of this image-obsessed world, the ugly have never registered.”

  Henry resisted the urge to kick it.

  Leaving the moping donkey to its own devices, he made the short trip over to The Earthfriend Habitat.

  His plan was to abduct and cure Earthfriend Rikard, his personal trainer, and then inform The Earthfriend Society about Ramiro's schemes. Without solid evidence that the cure worked, it would be his word against The Empire's, and people here were dumb enough to trust them. An additional benefit was that, should The Society not be convinced, his trainer would at least survive their annihilation and Henry could continue levelling.

  It should be pretty straight-forward. A simple abduction, how complicated could it get?

  Naturally, no sooner did he arrive at The Habitat was a monkey wrench tossed into this perfect plan.

  An Earthfriend, mid-transformation, was being shuttled off to a cage in a containment zone. Notably, there were 350 filled-cages already, far more than should be expected at this hour.

  Henry identified the cause of this anomaly immediately. A bunch of assistants were 'helping' the comatose Earthfriends by applying a balm to their backs. This was an Accelerant, which would increase the speed of transformation.

  Skimming his cross-comparison of the research notes in his ML, he saw now that the section on this balm had been doctored to indicate that it had the opposite effect. Another greedy little trick.

  What was the purpose of accelerating the transformation pacing? Henry guessed The Empire was going to release all the developed moths at once, causing a state of chaos in which they could assassinate some of the key Earthfriends. By making this happen sooner, The Empire could still come under the contracted deadline for producing the cure and receiving his final payment.

  Henry, having planned this cure before realising The Empire's murderous designs, had thought it unnecessary to stipulate that the Earthfriends had to survive. That seemed like common sense.

  Alas, he should have known not to rely on common sense within The Slums.

  Withdrawing the payment wasn’t an option because it was held in escrow by a third party. Well, technically, he could because that third party was The Company, but the damage to their reputation as impartial arbitrators wouldn't be worth it.

  He could also blackmail Ramiro into giving up, but that screwed The Empire over less than he wanted to.

  Anyway, focusing on the present matter of abducting Earthfriend Rikard, Henry had to modify his plans. At the standard curse progress rate, he should have been able to slip in here and steal the trainer's unconscious body. With this balm, though, Rikard would have transformed already. He would be locked in one of those guarded cages, a giant moth, complicating things severalfold.

  After reminding himself of the brighter future inside The Cap of a Thousand Dreams, he put on his metaphorical thinking cap.

  He needed to manufacture an escape that didn’t clue The Empire into their scheme being discovered so revenge could be had later...there were Alchemists roaming about testing...the security in the containment zone was relatively lax...asking for the trainer’s cage would clue them in after the escape...

  When his plan was complete, he marched up to a young Earthfriend NPC resting on an over-sized toadstool. The boy’s skin was tinged green with chlorophyll, indicating he’d followed the Flora Path, a healer. Healers tended to be easier to push around.

  Henry pointed at him rudely. “You there, Earthfriend, your name and rank, what are they?”

  Acting like a foreigner, he spoke in the language of Chayoka, which was used for international communication.

  The youngster was startled out of his thoughts. “Jozsi, sir. Tier 1-2.”

  “Jozsi, have you been a part of The Society long enough to know the ranks of your peers who’ve metamorphosised?”

  The last word caused the youngster to become morose. "Yes, sir."

  “Spectacular, you’ll do, then. I’m Niklas Schneider, Alchemist, Tier 4-2. We’ll be surveying your transformed companions in order to achieve what none of these Suchi perfume brewers could. Follow along.”

  Without waiting for an answer, he turned on his heel and strode over to the containment zone. The youngster soon caught up with him.

  Henry rambled out a bunch of semi-plausible nonsense. “I have a suspicion, using the Goka incident of 6173 as inspiration, that the solution to this trifle will be found through a Reverse Helioskoritic Parellotroposcopical Analysis of Crossranked samples. Any questions? I will not be interrupted once we begin.”

  “Does that mean you’re developing a cure for the post-transformation state?”

  This question was confusing to Henry. The cure’s efficacy was unaffected by the Earthfriend's state. This information must have been altered by The Empire, too, although the value in doing so wasn’t apparent to him.

  He scoffed. “What do you think an RHP-Analysis of Crossranked samples means? Is your brain made of leaves as well? Kid, cures aren’t always derived from the corresponding stages. If you’re unfamiliar with the Goka incident, then look at last year’s treatment of Basindi Voidfireleria, for which the cure for the Apocalyptic stage was derived through studying the carriers’ eggs.”

  “Oh...” the young Earthfriend became morose again.

  “Jozsi, lift that chin up. The post-transformation cure will no doubt be as trivial as the initial one.”

  Entering the containment zone, they were blocked by a guard with a spear and a shield.

  “Halt. Who are you and what is your purpose?”

  A Tier 2-1 Crusader, he wore a sand-coloured uniform with an insignia on the chest of a crown carved from driftwood – the official iconography of The Slum Empire. Like the other guards, he was an NPC, players tending not to have the patience to perform such a static duty.

  Henry roughly restated what he had to the youngster.

  “We can’t let you enter without an escort,” replied the guard.

  “Fine. Then you'll be my escort. I needed a brute just like yourself for collecting samples.”

  As Henry barged forward, the guard sighed. The Empire wasn't paying him enough to argue with these delusional Offworlders, whose immortality had lifted their heads far into the clouds. He decided to follow along.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  The sound of their approaching footsteps caused a cage to rattle.

  At Henry’s orders, the guard removed the blanket to reveal a moth the size of an elephant.

  Exposed to the light, its colouration, which had previously been black, transformed to blend with the metal bars and the grass around the cage.

  The transformative property underlying this chameleon-like shifting was why the moth species been selected for use in the Earthfriend curse. The curse relied on a common factor between their transformation abilities.

  When Henry moved closer, the moth charged at him, the collision against the bars causing the cage to tip forward, before rocking back in place.

  He noted that the cage’s lock was a simple latch mechanism. There was no chance of the moths undoing it themselves. For game balance reasons, flying animals and monsters, except dragons, could not become Sentient, as flight altered medieval battle too significantly. Similarly, Earthfriends could not normally transform into flying creatures - at least, not with the level that any players currently possessed.

  He closed an eye as though he were adding a picture of the specimen to his Mental Library.

  “Jozsi, name, rank, path.”

  “Friend Irenka...3-1...Fauna.”

  Henry pulled out two vials. Into one, he scooped a couple grams of neurotoxic dust lying around the base of the cage. For the other, he turned to the Crusader.

  “Guard, biological sample!”

  “How?”

  Henry pointed to the man’s spear and made a stabbing motion. “Anywhere around the thorax.”

  The guard hesitated.

  “Just enough force to scratch the exoskeleton. Hurry. I’ll take responsibility for any mishaps.”

  The guard, shrugging, delivered a quick thrust.

  The Earthfriend youngster covered his mouth in shock. “Nerin, save us.”

  Henry used a pocket knife to scrape the spear point into a vial.

  “Next.”

  In this way, they wandered around, Henry learning the names of the Earthfriends while having the guard stab some randomly so there'd be a plausible explanation for why Moth Rikard would escape from his cage. Simultaneously, he studied the rest of the guards, determining their classes and levels and tagging them using a Commander skill.

  A few cages after locating Earthfriend Rikard and having him stabbed through the cage door, near the lock, Henry ended the charade by claiming to have collected enough material.

  As he and the Earthfriend youngster were leaving the containment zone, he asked the latter to identify the empty dwellings of some of the transformed Earthfriends so he could collect samples of their unaltered cells.

  The youngster pointed them out. “You’ll have to go alone, though. My shift on balm-duty is coming up.”

  “No worries, Jozsi. Your help has been adequate. May your boots stay intact.”

  Henry used the farewell for those from the Gu Republic, whose citizens were fond of travel. In turn, the Earthfriend youngster used his class's.

  “One with the world, comrade.”

  The ‘comrade’ wasn’t supposed to be a part of it.

  Having received an excuse for breaking in, Henry ducked into one of the empty grass-covered dwellings.

  It lacked doors, the Earthfriends believing that their home and the rest of world were inseparable. The class's lore was riddled with this hippy garbage.

  Hidden away at the back of the dwelling, he summoned The Cloak of Water and Flame, the one he’d received from the wolves, a Paralysis Potion that he slotted into his belt, and a stat-buffing scroll. In addition to these, he equipped several Spelltomes, including one for , one for , and a new one with a cover picture of a brain being sliced into eighths.

  This last tome was for the Tier-5 Bloodmancer spell . It was single-syllable, short-range spell that made the victim babble word salad while undergoing terrifying hallucinations. Functionally, it caused them to flee while randomly activating their abilities.

  After buffing his stats, he cast on himself.

  Invisible, he snuck back into the containment zone, moving with haste because the spell drained his Stamina each second it was active.

  With the information he gleaned about the guards, he highlighted each of them with a neon sphere indicating their detection range. Calculating the distance on the fly was too much effort because the range varied with each guard, being determined by a comparison of the observer and the target’s Tech stats. The neon spheres simplified the sneaking process, making it a matter of avoiding colourful areas and employing real hiding tactics when inside them.

  Navigating the containment zone wasn’t too challenging, though. The guards were sparse and low-levelled, creating tons of gaps for him to slip through undetected.

  At least, that's what Henry thought. Hundreds of metres away, a blowfly with azure wings noticed his blurry form running around. Intrigued by the curious actions of this Offworlder, it flew over for a better look.

  Nearing Rikard’s cage, Henry spotted a Beast Tamer, his pet Goldquill Hyena, and a Fighter heading in the same direction from the opposite side. Making a split-second decision, he broke into a sprint.

  With half a minute before they would arrive walking, he slipped under the blanket, unlocked the door, and swung it open. With a twitch of its antennae, the giant moth span around, fluttering its wings, and charged him, who'd become visible up close.

  He paused, one hand placed on the Spelltome for , the other with its thumb in his mouth, which he bit.

  “RENG!”

  As he formed the corresponding spell gesture, the blood oozing from his thumb exploded, every droplet being flung out into a mist that then condensed into an arrow.

  The spell had a slow travel-speed, but, confined in the cage, the moth would be unable to dodge.

  After the blood arrow was let loose, he activated his cloak.

  Half a second later, the moth collided with him, the impact seeming to shatter him into hundreds of thousands of water droplets.

  A guard pointed at the moth that’d broken loose. “One's escaped!”

  From the moth’s perspective, an eighty-foot golem of sand was stretching its claw to snatch it up. Terrified, the moth retreated to the safest space it knew, the skies.

  The Beast Tamer approaching from the other side yelled at the Fighter. “Maria, Vadkya!”

  Vadkya was the name of his hyena. If a Beast Tamer or their animal companion could make physical contact with a target, they could scent mark it for tracking.

  Hearing her fellow guard’s order, the Fighter made her arm muscles swell. Her hand, tripling in size, scooped up the hyena.

  Lining up the shot, though, she shook her head.

  “Too far.”

  They and all the other guards running over could only watch the moth fly away, a random spurt of neurotoxic dust showering from its wings. Its body, glittering as the sun sparkled in the water droplets covering it, faded from view as it blended in with the sky.

  Even after the curse wore off, the moth continued flying, further and further into Suchi’s barren interior.

  In his aqueous form, Henry monitored the scenery passing below. One moment, they were above an open quarry with thousands of Landworkers hacking the earth apart with pick-axes. The next, they were flying above a caravan of Merchants guarded by a rag-tag squad of hired adventurers.

  The further they travelled across the red plains, the more the markers of human development grew thin. Herds of monsters started to dominate the landscape, led by giant variants and chased by small bands of hunters.

  Once they reached somewhere clear of people, Henry redirected the water droplets to slip inside of the moth, into the hemolymph-filled cavity around its internal organs.

  Inside, it was pitch black. The moth's heart was creating a mild current in the fluid that he needed to resist to avoid being dispersed.

  He felt around blindly until he sensed a gap large enough for him to reform into a human. When he did, though, it was a bit cramped, so his cheek was smooshed against a pulsating organ.

  The moth, feeling him inside it, began to jerk around erratically.

  Ignoring the motion sickness, Henry undid the Paralysis Potion from his belt, held it far away from himself, then unstoppered it.

  Before the potion's contents could diffuse and reach him, he activated .

  The next instant, he was hanging in the open air.

  The moth tried dive-bombing him, but, before it could close the distance, its wings froze and the monster began a rapid descent.

  Both of them being fairly durable, they landed without suffering any significant damage, the moth creating a small crater.

  Since the Paralysis Potion would wear off soon, Henry sprinted over, a gladius forming in his hand and his Spelltomes being switched to offensive spells that would maximise his burst damage.

  When he reached it, he gripped the sword tight.

  “Sorry, Rikard, but we can’t have you flying away while the cure takes effect.”

  Strengthening the blade with the maximum for a single six-second cycle, he thrust the sword into the moth's abdomen. Unsummoning the weapon to his inventory to save time extracting it, he cast a spell, blasting open a gaping hole.

  Cycling through spells and attacks, he quickly worked its health pool down to zero. Then, he climbed on top of the monster and hacked off its wings.

  Afterwards, with it immobilised, he took a short break to clean off the goo he was covered in and catch his breath.

  Staring at the bulky nuisance, which had required so much effort to abduct because of The Empire's idiotic meddling, he felt himself becoming increasingly annoyed.

  The Cap...think of The Cap, Henry.

  “It could have been worse, I suppose," he said, after calming down. "You could have flown towards the ocean.”

  With his potion-use cooldown needing time to reset before he could administer the cure, he got to work creating a pit that would house the moth during the treatment.

  As the Paralysis Potion’s effect subsided, the moth began hissing and trying to wriggle over to bite his head off, not caring one iota that he was saving its life.

  "Stupid brainless camouflaged ungrateful moth."

  When he’d dug deep enough, he summoned a squad of skeletons to help him roll the monster inside. Then, he covered the pit with a roof, spread the earth to make it less visible, and cast an illusion for a final security measure.

  He jumped inside the pit with the skeletons. After his potion cooldown refreshed, they held the moth still while he sliced open its abdomen and poured into the wound the fuschia contents of the vial he’d filched from the big-headed Alchemist. Lastly, he sealed the site with to prevent Earthfriend Rikard from bleeding to death.

  As the potion began to take effect, the moth’s flesh became hot to the touch and started to give off steam.

  “So the cure definitely works,” said Henry. “Now, you just need to hurry up and heal so I can get to power-levelling.”

  Given the quality of potion, he estimated it would take six in-game hours for Earthfriend Rikard to regain normal functioning. This was slightly longer than he predicted for The Empire to carry out their assassination plan.

  However, his part in this matter was mostly done.

  He scribbled out a letter snitching on The Empire’s plans, along with some copies of the original research notes.

  Now, he could return to The Habitat and gift The Society this pit's coordinates. The remainder, trashing The Empire’s reputation, the Earthfriends could handle themselves. In the meantime, he would make further preparations for maximising his 19-year holiday in The Overdream.

  Finishing up, he used the Transmogrificator and The Ring of a Thousand Souls to transform again, this time into a typical, vile Slum Villager.

  Pulling out a set of local-style clothes, before adorning them, he rubbed them on the ground, slashed them up with a dagger, and opened a vein to bleed over them. Dressed like a mess, he climbed out of the pit and began the long trek back.

  A few kilometres away, he encountered a troop of horsemen The Empire had sent out to hunt down the moth. Claiming it had attacked him and eaten his mount, he pointed them off in the wrong direction.

  Shortly after Henry left the pit, an azure-winged blowfly landed in front of the notes he’d written.

  It'd been stalking him throughout this curious episode, having hitched a ride on the moth as well.

  It felts its decision had been wise. Following the curious Offworlder had exposed it to many, many curious sights.

  The blowfly began to expand in size and height. While it grew larger, its wings and the middle pair of legs shrivelled back into its body and its compound eyes shrank into two ovals.

  Its final form was a man with alabaster skin, large nostrils, and a pair of spiral antlers that, unfurled, would reach two metres in length.

  Standing upright, the Earthfriend was barely a head shorter than the giant moth.

  “Curious,” he remarked, rubbing a chin covered in a beard as azure as the curly mess atop his head.

  The sound of his voice caused the giant moth to hiss at him.

  “Rikard, was it? Shhh. I need to read.”

  Raising his finger to his mouth, the Earthfriend exuded an aura of unimaginable power.

  The moth was stunned silent as it felt that the next word from this mighty figure might crush it with the force of a stampeding herd of Golden-horned Wildebeest. Although it desired to wriggle back further, it could not summon the strength to move.

  The Earthfriend stooped down to pick up a copy of the letter Henry'd left behind, the paper seeming no larger than a shopping receipt in his massive hand.

  As he perused the contents, his lips curled into a mischievous smile.

  “Curious. VERY curious.”

  He performed a dozen spell gestures and then a tangle of vines sprouted from the dirt to cover him from toes to antlers. A moment later, when they retracted back into the earth, he was gone.