“Slagging, briar infested hinterland!” Bragden snarled, forcing his way through yet another bramble bush bigger than he was tall. “Why anyone would live in such a bloody green place is beyond me!”

  Glade couldn’t keep himself from chuckling, which darkened his friend’s mood considerably. There was a kernel of truth to the dwarf’s statement. They had been working through the thawing forest for the better part of an hour, slogging through mud, melting snow, and thick evergreen brush at a snail's pace. It was obvious that Bragden lacked any talent one would consider woodcraft.

  Not that Glade minded. In his humble opinion, any time spent under the open sky was far preferable than being trapped underground. Besides, he was built for the outdoors. Years of specialized training allowed him to traverse the wooded terrain with skill and patience. Though, even his abilities paled in comparison to the elves’ natural dexterity.

  Where he was built for the forest, Kedryn and Riya had been born to it. They strolled through the budding spring landscape with otherworldly grace, like two great mountain cats perfectly at ease with their surroundings.

  “Remind me again why we brought Bragden along?” Kedryn asked Gent in a stage whisper.

  “For the comic relief!” Gent roared with laughter.

  Even Riya laughed, though it was more of a subdued thing. She was doing much better now that she was back within the forest’s embrace.

  “Go ahead and laugh it up, needle ears,” Bragden all but snarled. “You won’t be smiling so much when I give Croon permission to cook yer supper… oh, for storms sake!” Bragden swore, pulling up short as his pack snagged on a vine.

  “Would you like some help?” Kedryn asked, his poorly repressed grin antagonizing the dwarf even further.

  “Shut up,” Bragden groused, yanking his pack free. The sudden release surprised the old dwarf, sending him flailing into another briar patch.

  Everyone laughed all the louder. Heaven above, it was good to laugh. Even Ember was enjoying the experience.

  Knowing the prideful dwarf wouldn’t take his help, Glade turned his gaze to the north to confirm their heading. The waterfall that marked the site of their recent victory was up ahead, its dull roar a clear indication they were close.

  After their battle, the group had decided that retrieving the star silver spear was of utmost importance. Unfortunately, the spear head had still been imbedded within a large section of slime, which had gone over the waterfall. It was far too precious a resource to simply let go.

  By retrieving the metal, they could not only destroy the last remaining slime, but they could also confirm that no other slimes had gone over the waterfall. While the paralyzed slime was the only one they had seen go over the edge, they didn’t want to risk the chance they had missed others. That was the reason that he, Kedryn, Riya, Gent, and Bragden were tramping through the forest while the rest of their party had made their way back to Storms’ Rest.

  Taking a deep breath, Glade exulted in the freedom that could only be felt by walking through the woods. He could just make out the foamy rush of water falling down the cliff face from where he stood as the musty smell of plant decay hit his senses. They were close.

  Ember exalted in the same sensations. The trees, the wind, the smell of water, even the spring cold were all new sensations for his little friend. For probably the first time since his arrival, Glade didn’t feel rushed. Instead, he took in his surroundings, letting every one of his senses expand to their fullest. He even went so far as to cast mana manipulation, watching the multi-hued flows mana interact with the forest background.

  It was calming. Peaceful. Almost hypnotic to watch…

  The prompt didn’t disturb him like it had the first time. Instead, he took the notification as the reminder it was. He had prompts waiting for him.

  As the group began again working their way through the forest, Bragden grumbling the entire way, Glade pulled up his logs.

  The barest hint of a smile curved at the edges of Glade’s lips. The battle had been close. Too close if he was being completely honest. If it hadn’t been for Bragden’s enchantments, Kedryn’s fire, and Ember’s direct intervention, they would have been overrun. But despite the surprises, they had not only walked away triumphant they hadn’t lost a single dwarf.

  Completing the settlement quest brought Glade a great sense of relief. Ever since he had returned from his visit with the Adjudicators, he had felt like an executioner’s blade had been hanging over his head. He had almost ignored that feeling. There had been so many other reasons to push off pursing the quest. They lacked proper shelter, their food situation was tenuous at best, and the catacombs were still not fully cleared even though they had sent several spider golems to investigate.

  Fortunately, he had listened to that quiet voice. If they had delayed just one more day the greater slime would have shattered the well and created hundreds, if not thousands, of slimes.

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  The very thought sent a shiver down his spine.

  As far as lessons learned went, nothing said ‘stop ignoring quests’ quite like this one. From here on out, he needed to review their quest logs on a regular basis. Who knew what rewards, and potential lifesaving actions, he was missing out on.

  Looking over the quest results one more time, Glade couldn’t help but notice on the note at the bottom, explaining that he needed to return to the core vault. Hopefully, this would lead them to learning how to enhance the mana link. 1 MP every hour was far better than 1 MP every three days. But that was a bare trickle compared to the flood of mana they would need to survive.

  Promising himself to do better at managing his quests, Glade opened his next prompt.

  Glade’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. That one battle alone had increased his level three times! That was 15 attribute points he could allocate! While the urge to spend them now was difficult to ignore, he forced himself to be patient. He was going to pick a specialization soon and didn’t want to make the mistake of incorrectly allocating his precious points. That meant he needed to consult with Bragden sooner rather than later.

  Eyeing the dwarf, who was thrashing his way through yet another thorn bush, Glade decided that waiting until they were back at the settlement was the wiser choice. Instead, he pulled up the next prompt.

  The increase in his tactician skill was most welcome. He had been the one to outline their proposed assault, which likely was the reason for his skill increase. But it was working as a team that had made their victory possible.

  The increase in both personal and skill levels weren’t the only rewards gained from the battle. They were one step closer to raising Storms’ Rest to level two. Apparently, clearing out the ice drakes counted as clearing out a den. They still had a lot to do, but at least they was seeing definite progress.

  They had also gathered an additional 39 ice drakes for their dinner pot plus their shards and over 100 loose shards from the Greater Slime.

  But the real treasure was what they had pulled from the center of the unique creature. It was an amalgamation of fused shards that looked like a preschooler’s failed art project. That is, if said preschooler had partially melted hundreds of glass marbles into a shape that was as spectacularly ugly as it was shiny. However, what made it invaluable was after the slime had evolved, it had apparently evolved its shard into a mana stone. A pure mana stone.

  Bragden had practically swooned when they found it on top of the mana well.

  But out of all the notifications, the last one left him with the largest impression.

  Glade stopped walking, stunned at what he was reading. By allowing Ember to cast through him, Glade’s own fire attunement had not only risen to the sympathetic rank, but his attunement was now unique. More specifically, living flame.

  He had just learned the day before that anyone with a fire attunement was hunted down. What would people do if they learned he could not only cast fire, but that it was considered a unique attunement?

  “We be close,” Gent announced, interrupting Glade’s internal musings.

  Putting aside his thoughts, Glade decided it was likely best to talk with Bragden and Kedryn as soon as they got back. Besides, it wasn’t like he could cast a fire spell even if he wanted to. He didn’t know any.

  “How can you tell that we’re close?” Kedryn asked Gent with genuine curiosity in his voice.

  “Well, I’d wager that me having to slagging yell to be heard over the waterfall be as clear a sign as any!” Gent laughed.

  “Obviously,” Kedryn said with a roll of his eyes. “I was asking what other signs were there. I’m wondering if I can pick up the woodcraft skill or something similar.”

  “Bah, I’m just jokin with ye,” Gent replied with a wink. “The signs be easy enough if’n ye know what to look for. There be an increase in foliage in the immediate area. Also, the mushrooms be larger where ye see deadfall and the like.”

  “Speaking of deadfall, there seems to be a lot more than there should be,” Riya commented, looking at their immediate surroundings with a look of concern.

  Now that Riya had pointed it out, Glade couldn’t help but see the dead or dying plants all around him. Even the evergreens looked to have shed most of their needles, the sickly sweet smell of plant rot filling his nose.

  “Aye, I have to agree with ye, Mistress Riya,” Gent said, his joviality fading. “The forest here be sick, that be stone certain.”

  After a moment, where Riya stared intently at one tree, then another, she gasped, raising a hand to her mouth.

  “The woods are tainted!”

  “I see it as well,” Bragden grumbled. “Me aura sense shows that the rot has traces o’ slime acid, which makes sense. That greater slime beastie must have been taintin the water slowly over time. It might take a few weeks, but the taint should wash away.”

  Curious, Glade used his aura sense.

  “I can see the question in yer eyes,” Bragden interrupted Glade. “And no, I’ll not be explainin how I could sense the taint came from the slime until later. That’ll take a good deal longer than I have patience to teach. Mayhap after yer done raisin yer mana channels to level two.”

  Glade gave the dwarf a nod to show his understanding. It was uncanny how easily Bragden could read him.

  Putting the bald dwarf out of his mind, Glade and the others made it to the edge of the lake. The waterfall was a good distance to their left, far enough away that they weren’t drenched, but close enough to feel the spray in the air. A sheer cliff rose to their left, the sun having risen above the tree line to illuminate the spray.

  If it wasn’t for the dying trees, which happened to be centered around the waterfall itself, the view would have been stunning.

  The lake itself wasn’t that large, less than 70 meters to the other side. But what drew everyone’s attention was the thick mist that hung heavy in the middle of the mountain lake, like a permanent fog that slowly churned within itself.

  A stiff wind picked up, showering them with droplets of water from the falls.

  Bragden yelped, causing everyone to jump.

  “What’s wrong!” Glade snapped, an arrow already nocked as he prepared for an attack.

  “Slagging water went down my slagging back!” Bragden snarled. “By the Mother, I was made for stone walls and workshops, not for stinkin bogs!”

  Relaxing, Glade let the tension on the bow ease. As he watched their surroundings, the wind blowing through the trees, an odd thought occurred to him.

  “Has anyone else noticed that the wind didn’t move the mist?” he asked.

  There was silence, everyone looking first to the swaying trees and then back to the mist.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he sighed. Without being asked, Glade used his telepathy skill. Normally, when he triggered his skill, he had to mute the noise around him. Insects, grubs, and a thousand other mental signatures would, and could, overwhelm him. It was all but second nature to him now.

  But what he felt in that moment was like nothing he had ever experienced before. The area was silent. Like the muted silence one would find an abandoned cemetery. There were no bugs, no fish, no birds. Only his friends and one other that he was all too familiar with.

  “The good news is that there only seems to be one slime,” Glade said after making a mental sweep.

  “What’s the bad news?” Kedryn asked, still looking at the wall of mist.

  “It floated into the mist,” Glade replied with his usual stoicism. He would have to think how he was going to explain the lack of life in the area.

  There was a moments pause before Gent spoke up.

  “All in favor of makin the royal swim after it say aye!”