The next couple weeks passed with them following their new schedule of three free days a week. It allowed them time to practice their hobbies or do other things they enjoyed. Gaia spent most of the time tending the garden or playing with her bonds. Around once a week she’d go talk to Esbert since she enjoyed his company and learning the history of the world. He would always welcome her and they’d talk for a few hours while having some tea before she’d head back to the inn.

  Fergus spent his free days sparring with Griff in the mornings, and woodcarving during the afternoons, when he wasn’t going on a date with Gaia. He would carve animals and give them to the kids that sat and watched him. They were fascinated by the speed in which he was able to create the wooden figurines and how realistic some looked. Many of the kids really liked his figurines of Shadow and Malachite. He’d even made a small figurine for each of the party members but hadn’t shown any of them yet.

  Stephanie spent most of her free days smithing or tinkering. She’d spend most of the time working with the metals and materials she’d gotten. Then she’d try and work them into her already existing weapons or try to make some new ones. She’d managed to make some improvements to her hammer and musket. She had been able to essentially remake her musket into a single shot rifle by using the little bit of knowledge Gaia had to guide her. She’d been able to add some rifling and created a bullet that only needed the explosion magic behind it to fire. She was now much more accurate and could fire faster.

  Griff spent his time while not sparring with Fergus in the library researching new magic. Other than that he spent it drawing. He would spend his free time relaxing at the park drawing whatever he saw. He’d even been asked to draw a few portraits for couples when they’d happened to catch sight of his work. They’d offered to pay him but he just gave them to the groups.

  The party would always meet back up on their last free day to relax as a group before getting back into taking requests. Time passed quickly and they were finally only a week from the start of the commission. As they’d already decided, this last week would be a free week. The party went shopping for the first few days to stock up on supplies then Stephanie took the party’s armor to repair them.

  This mainly consisted of her own armor and Fergus’ armor. Griff didn’t need the few pieces of armor he had before outside of his leather chest piece. She then went into her portable forge for a couple days. Griff spent his time in the library researching monsters and magic or rather, sorcery. This left Gaia, Fergus, and her bonds by themselves for a few days.

  Gaia spent her time gardening, playing with her bonds, and relaxing with Fergus. They didn’t really have anything they needed to do and wanted to use the little time before the commission to relax. It was their first week of straight free time, at least when no one was injured. Gaia and Fergus spent most of their time together.

  The final week flew by and the commission was about to begin. The morning of the commission’s first day arrived and all of the parties would meet up at the Journeyman’s Guild. The parties arrived at the guild just after dawn where they were met by the Guild Master. The guild had prepared early and the caravan was ready to set out when everyone was prepared.

  The caravan set out about a half hour later when each party was in their assigned area. Gaia’s party had been relegated to the middle back section of the caravan. Flora was taking the head of the caravan while the Legion was taking back. The Guild Master would be in the middle so there was someone ready to deal with a higher ranked monster no matter where it appeared. Gaia was riding on the front seat of one of the wagons her party was assigned to.

  Her Mana Field was out to its maximum range so she was able to cover their party’s assigned section and part of the area in front and behind. It wasn’t due to a lack of trust in the other parties by them, but more a precaution since she could sense everything in the area including through the ground. The first day was relatively uneventful with only a few monsters wandering into the road or attacking the caravan. Most were normal or stone rank so they were easily dispatched.

  When dinner time camp her party’s camp became crowded. They had a small pot set up for stew and Gaia added some spices she carried with her. The scent had wafted through the air towards the other camps, and they’d come to investigate. Most hunters still viewed spices as unimportant and made bland stew or soup for their meals. When they had gotten a whiff of the party’s food they were interested. Some even asked if they’d be willing to share, to which Gaia agreed. Griff added in the stipulation of a price since they’d be giving away some of their food supply.

  The parties paid them with some of their own rations or cores. A few even offered to hunt some meat for them tomorrow if they’d be willing to share. They all agreed and were excited for the next night’s feast. After the parties wandered back to their respective camps, Gaia’s party set about their usual watch schedule and the night went by without any surprises.

  The second day onward was where the monsters could become difficult. The further they continued into the forest, the higher the chance for stronger monsters to appear or attack. The caravan’s expected travel time was a week. They were expected to reach the ruins in nine days but had a day or two of leeway they could add in case of attacks or repairs. They planned for some monster attacks but there hadn’t been any sightings of high-level bronze or iron rank monsters so they were expecting only stone rank or lower monsters.

  The second day was also relatively tame. The caravan was attacked a few times but the monsters were killed soon after being spotted and never made it to the wagons. Gaia was able to point out some monsters that were hidden along the edges just before they attacked a few times. The day was overall quiet but the night was where that changed.

  Multiple groups of monsters attacked the caravan’s camps throughout the night. A few groups barely got sleep due to the number of monsters. Most attacked the front end of the caravan but none got close enough to harm the wagons, but a few people were injured. Thankfully, no one was killed and all of the injuries were superficial when Gaia asked about them. The third day was slow since the path they were taking was narrow and monsters were becoming more frequent. The caravan had gotten attacked multiple times during the day and almost been split up. The Guild master dealt with the stronger monsters allowing the hunters to regroup and repel the attack.

  That night was just as bad as the one before, but the monsters mostly came at the back end of the train of wagons. Gaia’s party was thrust into the battle soon after the initial attack. She had sensed the monsters a few moments before they attacked her area, allowing her group to be a bit more prepared. The monsters weren’t overly strong but there were a few she could sense that were close to their level. Most were lower level stone rank or normal rank monsters that her party dispatched almost immediately.

  The few she could sense were spread out with two being at the edge of her Mana Field on each side by the other parties while one was coming right for her group. From what she could sense, the monster coming at them was a ball and it was rolling at them. It wasn’t until she analyzed it that she realized what it was.

  Name – Thorn-blossom

  Level – 50

  It was a spherical mass of thorny vines. The Thorn-blossom rolled directly at the party but when it got close the ball shape exploded. Gaia felt something try and pierce through her defenses when the ball erupted and she sensed the monsters shape change. It went from the almost three foot comical ball to a fifteen foot mass of writhing vines that tried to wrap around her and the party. The party was luckily able to dodge it. The monster didn’t roll back together immediately though. From what she could sense, the vines all met in a central mass and was constantly shifting around.

  Fergus fired an arrow at the Thorn-blossom’s center mass, or core, hoping to kill it quickly but the mass shifted and started moving down one of the vines. Griff and Stephanie were trying to hit it with kicks and bullets respectively. Shadow was jumping and blocking the vines as they lashed out at the party. Liv was firing some poison shots at the monster while also shooting some at the monsters other parties were fighting. Antonio was doing the same as Liv with his spikes while Malachite bit at the thorny vines. Gaia just studied the monster’s movement. She noticed the core always moved down a vine but the respective vine started wrapping around it to bolster its defense. Each time it moved down a vine it stayed wrapped up.

  The monster seemed to roll and then explode outward to wrap up its victims before slowly wrapping back into its ball one vine at a time. Each vine that was still unwrapped squirmed to try and grab or lash out at the party members until the monsters core started moving along it. Whenever the core started moving along a vine it stopped trying to lash out. She relayed this to the party and they started to slow down. Fergus and Stephanie in particular started to focus on the vines to determine where it would be moving next.

  They started landing their shots on the monster’s core and could tell they were dealing some actual damage. Gaia’s poison had been slowly applying to the monster but it seemed to have a natural resistance to it. Whether it was due to its level or a natural resistance to poison, her poison had only started dealing small amounts of damage to it. The arrows and bullets Fergus and Stephanie were hitting the core with were starting to cut or blast off some of the vines.

  This caused the monster to start wrapping up much quicker than before but it had lost some of its mass. It had been about three feet wide when balled up before but it was only about half that size as it finished wrapping itself up. It moved towards Stephanie and Fergus before once again exploding. Gaia once again felt something attempt to pierce her barrier and heard Fergus grunt in pain. When the Thorn-blossom exploded outwards it fired off thorns in every direction and hit Fergus.

  This caused him to flinch and he was caught in the monsters vines. He quickly pulled out his Arrow Dagger and started to try to cut through the vines entrapping him. He was able to slice through a few before the vines began to constrict and forced his arms to his body where he couldn’t move them. Gaia quickly had Malachite try and bite through some of the vines while Griff ran in to rip the vines away.

  Gaia ran up to him trying to help loosen the vines but her inability to damage anything and her low strength made themselves known. She wasn’t able to do anything to help outside of trying to poison the monster or getting her bonds to help. She had Shadow try and bite or claw through the vines which in tandem with Malachite and Griff’s efforts allowed Fergus to wiggle an arm free. He then swiftly used his gust shot and arrow stab skills on the arrow dagger before stabbing the Thorn-blossom’s core.

  The monsters vines immediately slackened and Griff was able to pull the dead monster’s vines off Fergus before helping him up. After he was up the party quickly made their way to help the other parties and the monsters attack was repelled around thirty minutes after it had started. There weren’t any casualties from this fight either which was good but a healer did check on each person.

  Apparently, some of the monsters were poisonous so they were checking everyone. The Thorn-blossom had managed to poison Fergus slightly since he was the only one that had taken a direct hit through his defensive barrier. Thankfully, it hadn’t progressed as quickly as it should have due to the poison resistance he gained from Gaia’s Mana Field. After being checked on by the healer the night went by with a few more small attacks but only one required their party to fight.

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  Gaia was mad at her inability to help Fergus when he’d been bound up and failure to keep him from being poisoned. She hated that she’d not been able to keep him from being poisoned especially. That was one of the few things she could actually reliably do and she’d failed at it. While Gaia was beating herself up in her head, she heard a voice that was familiar and extremely unwanted.

  “You shouldn’t beat yourself up over something so small. You are weak, you just need to get stronger so it doesn’t happen again.” The amalgamation stated.

  “You think I don’t know that?” She spat aloud before collecting herself as her party members stared at her.

  “What do you want anyway? I thought you wouldn’t be able to speak to me unless I initiated the conversation.” She finished a few moments later.

  “I got tired of waiting. I wanted to let you speak to me when you wanted or needed but seeing how weak you are I decided it was time speak.”

  “Ok. So what did you want to say? I don’t like you in the slightest so I’d rather get this over with as quickly as possible.” She replied.

  “You need to go to another city after this annoying detour. You’ll just wither away without getting stronger if you stay and I can’t have that.”

  “Why?” She asked.

  “I need you to be stronger. That’s all you need to know for now.”

  “I’ll figure that out after this commission’s over. Are you done bothering me?”

  “Yes.” The amalgamation finished, sounding annoyed, before going silent.

  Gaia was silent for a bit, letting the conversation sink in before she realized someone was shaking her slightly.

  “Are you alright?” Fergus asked as he shook her shoulder.

  “Yeah. Sorry. What’s going on?” She asked.

  “You were talking out loud like you were having a conversation with something. Then when we tried to talk to you, you just ignored us until now. Even Malachite and Liv were nudging you.” Griff stated.

  “Sorry. I didn’t notice anything.”

  “What happened?” Stephanie asked.

  “You all remember that Amalgamation thing I talked about a while ago?” Gaia asked.

  “Yeah.” They all replied.

  “It can apparently talk to me whenever it wants now. I was talking to it.” She explained.

  Her party members broke out into questions about the conversation. She answered them for a few minutes before deciding to just tell them everything it said. They were all worried since it was cryptic in how it replied to her but there wasn’t anything they could do about it. The party continued on like usual after that aside from her party members keeping an eye on her in case something else happened.

  The third day went by with a few more fights but none left anyone with more than a scratch. The monsters were becoming more frequent but were still mostly stone rank. There were a few bronze rank monsters that were quickly dealt with but still caused the caravan’s tension to rise. The night went by similarly with monster attacks. None were overly strong or even above level forty in the stone rank so they were dealt with quickly. The number of attacks was increasing as the travel continued they had dealt with almost twice as many attacks on the third day and night as they did the day before.

  The fourth day was exhausting. The hunter’s were starting to jump at everything they saw expecting a monster attack. There were a few attacks before it even hit midday and when another attack happened a few hours later, chaos erupted. This attack was much larger than any of the others they’d dealt with. Gaia barely had time to warn her party before the monsters were upon them. There was a group of monsters that sprinted towards the caravan causing confusion and panic before a second wave entered the fold. The initial monsters were fast but relatively weak while the second were strong and robust.

  From what Gaia could discern, the fast monsters resembled wolves and other forest inhabitants but were twice their usual size. They were also much faster than their mundane cousins. The second wave was made up of a multitude of creatures. Some were large humanoid monsters while others were moving trees. The oddest of them were massive blobs that were similar to slimes but were the size of the wagons.

  Those were just the ones she could sense. The fighting began immediately with the first wave being slaughtered relatively quickly but a few hunters were killed. The second wave was a different problem. Gaia and her party were beset by at least ten different stone rank monsters while others were fighting similar numbers. They luckily had enough time to prepare and weren’t injured when the stronger monsters had reached them.

  Liv had set up some trapped webs around them causing the monsters to slow considerably and allowed Stephanie and Fergus to land some attacks. She was also firing poison shots when she could while binding any that got close enough to stop them. Malachite was blocking and attacking the monsters coming on the side Fergus was on, with water shots and a few shell bashes. He was able knock them back into the webs whenever they escaped them. Shadow was darting in and out biting or slashing monsters with her claws while blocking any attacks for the party when she could.

  Antonio was firing his Phantasmal spikes and psychic stings from Gaia’s shoulder. Griff was dashing in and out landing punches while using his extra reach to land kicks on other monsters simultaneously. Gaia was using her vines and chaos pathways to bleed any monsters that got close enough to her while taking attacks to weaken them as well, due to her irradiated defense. Her toxin was also stacking poison on them as the fight continued.

  After around ten minutes most of the monsters within her Mana Field were staggering due to the poison and wounds allowing the hunters to finish them. Once the monsters that were attacking her party were killed they moved out to help the other parties. Thankfully, those closest to them benefited from her mana field and the monsters were swiftly dealt with. The party moved down the caravan helping any party they could and Gaia healed a few people with a couple healing shots.

  With her Healer ability from Antonio, she was able to increase its effects. Antonio even used his first aid skill on a few people to help relieve the pain. While Gaia did so her party was attacking and killing monsters around her giving the other parties a short break. If a monster broke past the party Liv would bind it up and Gaia’s vines would bleed them.

  The party continued their way forward in this manner for the next half hour, when the parties they’d helped earlier had recovered enough to rejoin and help. The fighting ended after another hour or so when the attacking monsters were either dead or had fled after being heavily injured. The monsters were getting more coordinated the further they went into the forest which was worrying. She voiced her concern when they reached the front by Flora.

  “Is it normal for the monsters to be this coordinated? I know that it’s weird for the outer edge of the forest but I don’t know about further inside.” She asked.

  “Yeah. It’s more coordinated than we’ve ever seen, since we’re never in such a big group.” Jess stated.

  “It’s pretty normal for this far in. The higher a monster’s rank the more intelligent it is. Therefore if they see a large group of people they’ll gather more monsters together to attack hoping to overwhelm them.” The Guild master, Delilah said as she walked up.

  “This number is a bit high though. I’m guessing it’s just because there are a lot of us.” She finished.

  “I didn’t know monsters also got smarter when they ranked up.” Gaia stated.

  “Yeah, it depends on the type of monster though. Some don’t. Beast type monsters, like the saber wolves we fought earlier, mainly get their instincts heightened instead of intelligence. Most only get intelligent when they reach bronze or iron rank.” Delilah explained.

  “So we should expect this kind of stuff more often?” Gaia asked.

  “Yeah. Expect it, but it may not happen again for a while. Most times a big attack like this happens and then there’s only small attacks for a while. At least that’s how it’s been when I’ve been out here. So stay on alert just in case.” Delilah suggested.

  The parties all moved back to their designated areas after that and the caravan continued onward. Like the Guild Master had stated there were only small attacks the rest of the day that targeted a section of the caravan, but not the entire thing like earlier. The caravan stopped to set up camp for the night an hour before sundown. The night passed by relatively quietly, there were a few small attacks and one that Gaia’s party repelled before it even got close.

  The fifth day was relatively tame compared to the day before. There were a few small monster attacks throughout the day but none that were overly difficult. This day Gaia’s party got to talk to one of the other stone rank parties. Their position was just in front of Gaia’s in the caravan. They were a group of four guys around Fergus’ age. The weird thing about their party was that they all had the same name, but were quite different.

  They were all named Jeff but each was spelled differently, which apparently mattered enough for them all to stress it. Their leader was Jeff who was a swordsman. Everything he wore was red including his leather armor and even his sword was red. Then there was Geff who was an axeman. He wore all black including his chest plate and axe. Next was Geoff who was a scout. His color was yellow which also included his daggers. Lastly was Jeoff, he was a bowman like Fergus. His color was pink which included his bow and leather armor.

  They stuck out like a sore thumb in the forest but they seemed to be around the same level as Gaia’s group. They guessed the guys were just skilled enough that it didn’t matter too much. They proved this thought correct when a small attack came and they killed the monsters within a couple minutes almost by themselves. They were strong but not arrogant like a few parties had been until the attacks started. They were also just a friendly group that liked to talk.

  The two groups talked whenever they were taking their breaks from watches and when the caravan set up camp. They quickly became friends and gave tips to each other where they could. They’d even agreed to try some sparring whenever they reached the commission site and had a break. They separated for dinner but the group came over not long after when they smelled the soup Gaia had helped make.

  After they had some, they became regular dinner time companions and even offered to help cook, or at least bring the supplies they had to add to it. They enjoyed the camaraderie with the new party but had to split up for their watches throughout the night. Gaia as usual took the first watch with Liv who sat on her head the entire time. They talked a little bit throughout but Liv focused on creating stuff with her webs while Gaia was focused on paying attention to her mana field for threats.

  Her watch passed without incident and she woke up Fergus for his watch before quickly falling asleep. Fergus’ watch also went by without anything happening as did Griff’s. Nothing happened until halfway through Stephanie’s watch when she noticed something small dash straight for her from the forest. She immediately pulled her musket from her Weapon Ring and fired a shot straight into what she assumed was its skull. Sadly, she was mistaken as the monster continued its beeline straight towards her. Her gunshot woke up the others and the parties on either side which was lucky. Her party moved straight into action with Fergus having his bow ready and launching a couple arrows and Griff moved to be in front of her. Malachite did the same ready to shell bash the creature if needed and Shadow was beside them ready to guard if needed. Gaia already had her vines and webs out moving in front of everyone as well. Liv had a few trapped webs and poison shots ready as well.

  When the monster reached them, they all swiftly struck it with their prepared attacks. Gaia bound its feet as Malachite shell bashed it knocking it back to where Liv’s trapped webs were tossed. Fergus hit it with some arrows and Griff hit it with a flurry of ranged kicks. Antonio hit it with a few Phantasmal spikes as Shadow dashed in and slashed it with her claws. Stephanie fired another shot but hit it in the chest this time and the monster fell after the onslaught of strikes. Gaias vines quickly wrapped back around her arms when she realized the monster was dead.

  The party moved to identify the creature and were surprised to find a small creature similar to a humanized weasel but with its face in its torso. Stephanie had hit the appendage that appeared to be its head which was completely gone. It had been a non-vital area though. As they marveled at the creatures anatomy it dissolved and left behind a small fang. The party quickly made their way back to the caravan after collecting the item where they found an annoyed party and interested party of Jeffs.

  They quickly explained what happened and the other parties went back to their respective areas. Gaia’s party didn’t go back to sleep as it was only about an hour early and they started the sixth day. The day went by the same as the fifth with a few attacks throughout the day. There weren’t any massive attacks and none of the hunters or caravan members were injured. The sixth night was quiet without many attacks. Any that happened were dealt with quickly or at the other end of the caravan.

  The seventh day was extremely tiring. The day started with an attack similar to the waves they’d fought before but were continuous. The fighting started as they were breaking down camp and after the first hour of fighting the caravan members started to run and pack everything up while the fighting was happening. The hunters protected the members as they prepared to move hoping to lose the monsters attention when they were traveling.

  That didn’t happen. The monsters pursued and the commotion caused more monsters to attack the caravan as they moved. The caravan now had monsters on each side and just hoped to reach the commission camp and get the defenders help. The hunters were fighting constantly as they ran alongside the caravan trying to keep the monsters from destroying the wagons wheels. Gaia and Stephanie had to hop on Malachite’s back in order to keep up with everyone. The hunters were tiring quickly from the continuous strain of keeping pace with the fleeing caravan and defending it at the same time. The hunters were starting to take more and more hits and getting wounded. This went on for about six hours before the commission camp could be seen on the horizon.

  Seeing it, the caravan picked up pace as did the hunters and after another hour they had reached the gate where they had all the wagons move into a semi circle. The hunters then moved to the outside to fight the monsters and the camps defenders launched attacks from the top of the wall. It was another two hours before the monsters were killed or ran away and the caravan entered the camp.