(Book 1 Complete!) Side Quest [Isekai / LitRPG]

Logan hacked at some of the brush with his gauntlet. Senna had sharpened his claws for him as they listened to Eurelius share the rest of what he knew. While the seer had not known what happened to the other half of the Adventurers' Guild, he had listened intently to the party's recap of their trip so far, and was especially interested in hearing about Flick's perspective.

"It sounds like that dark green fissure must have been the source of the blight. It was expanding, but after the explosion, it stopped." He cast a mystified look at the trees. "For now, at least."

"Do you know where the source is coming from?"

"Not exactly, but somewhere deeper in the valley, northeast of here. It must be something near the Boundary's limit there. If you do head that way, be careful. The blight may not be actively expanding, but it isn't gone yet. And if mana imbalances caused the explosion in one place, they might do that in another. The blast likely caused further scarring in the ambient mana, too, which means monsters could be nearby."

After he sent them away with all the treasures, they had spent the day making their way deeper into the woods. The thorns were a nuisance with Logan's close-distance method of clearing the brush, but he was hoping to gain another level in Pain Resistance from it.

To Logan's left, Bromlin hacked through the rotted, but still dense, overgrowth, with Senna right behind him, and Mishki next to her. Flick perched on the goble's shoulder, casting nervous glances at the trees, and they were all checking for any sign of prowlers.

Senna was taking drakla pits one by one from the little flicktail squirrel (the squirrel wasn't even that big, but half his size seemed to be from all those drakla pits stuffed in his pouch). She drilled tiny holes in them, stuffed them with some powder, and then handed them back to the squirrel.

Alden was on Logan's right, clearing a path with necrotic mana. Sweat beaded on his brow. Logan could tell he was annoyed by how much mana it took. He was using a basic decay skill to rot debris. It was doable, at least, considering how much necrotic mana was in the area, but Logan knew the elf was itching for better, more efficient affinity-aligned abilities.

Cassandra stood behind Logan and was lighting the way for them all with illuminating orbs overhead, which also helped reveal signs of any other dangers lurking in the branches. She seemed confident and at ease.

"So," Logan said to Cassandra, "we're headed to Caerwyn. That's where your family is, isn't it?"

The light from Cassandra's orbs thinned slightly up ahead before stabilizing. "It is," she sighed.

Logan winced at how his question disrupted her composure. He brought up her family as a lead-in to the gift, not to ruin her mood. "I was thinking about what you said about them, and how they thought they could just forget about you in a small corner of the Fold."

Her light didn't falter this time, but her eyelids did.

Logan sucked air in through his teeth. He was really putting his foot in his mouth, wasn't he? "Uh, that's actually why I made something for you."

Her eyebrows rose. But he couldn't tell if it was in a good go-on-I'm-interested way or a bad stop-pitying-me way.

Moodprint.

A cloud of dread lingered around her. For a moment, he worried she dreaded the gift, but then he realized it was actually because he had just mentioned her family. Yeah, maybe I should have led with something else. Oh well, I have to keep going. And hopefully this will make her feel better.

He pulled out a glowing silver potion.

"Is this a skill potion?" Cassandra asked.

Logan nodded. "From all the combat wombats."

"But we fought those in the Ruined Wilds. I thought the gardener said that cores from outside Gnashridge Heights only gave stat points, not skills."

"Ah," Logan said as she took the potion from him. He swiped at a patch of thorny brambles blocking his path as if they were cobwebs. "Yes. But when I was there with Bromlin and Senna, we got a little more detail. The whole 'stats-not-skills' thing is specific to cores collected inside Kural. But the Ruined Wilds are between Kural and the Fold. She suggested that cores from the Ruined Wilds might follow the rules of both regions."

Cassandra tilted her head as she inspected the draft. "Meaning they can provide skills and stat points?

Logan corrected her. "Not and, but or. After the ceremony with the guild, that gave me access to the core distillery. I had Senna help me out, too."

From the side, Senna looked up from her drakla-pit modifications and smirked. "You know, he gained a full 8 levels making that for you."

Logan rubbed his neck, and his face heated. He quickly dismissed that. He had really only gained 5 levels after successfully creating the potion. The other 3 were actually from failing to create a stat potion, which had used up three of those cores.

At first, Logan had felt bad about wasting the cores, but Senna shrugged it off, saying sometimes you had to experiment with stuff, and as long as you learned from it, it wasn't a waste. He had gained additional skill levels, after all.

"Once we reach Caerwyn," Senna said, handing Flick another enhanced fruit pit, "I want to compare a forge with a skill distillation set." She shook her head. "I should've realized stat potions and skill potions use different setups. Skill potions need twelve cores, while stat potions only need three, which is more like how weapons are infused. Considering I was only using three of the twelve core-holders, it's no wonder it failed." She let out a frustrated breath. "I think the distillation set needs to be reworked entirely to match a forge layout instead. I put too much trust in my theshold perk."

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

She had reached the second threshold in Crafting when she had made the concoction that temporarily disabled the Devouring Coil's Consume ability. Her new perk improved the likelihood of success for her first effort at making something. However, that apparently didn't apply if she was using the wrong tools.

Logan noticed Cassandra's feeling of dread was slightly rising. "Don't worry," he added. "It was only my loot that got burned up in the failed potions. We still have a bunch of cores, and we're going to try it again when we have the right setup."

Cassandra nodded slowly in thought. The dread remained, but at least it wasn't growing.

Logan hoped that was a good sign, but something didn't make sense about all this dread. Cassandra wasn't one to fret over something like loot.

"Anyway," Logan said, nodding at the potion in her hands, "the point is, since this skill potion comes from the combat wombats, whatever skill it gives should use Force mana. I figured it might be kind of nice for you to get a skill specifically focused around Force mana."

He knew the way she used Force mana was really just an application of her existing radiant wards rather than a true skill of its own.

Suddenly, her level of dread skyrocketed, and Logan missed a swipe at the underbrush. A huge thorn dug into his knuckle.

Pain resistance is level 41.

He rolled his eyes at the System. Then the cut burned.

Acid resistance is level 2!
…
Acid Resistance is level 6!

"Oh," said Cassandra, distracted. "Let me help you with that." And she healed him.

What was Logan missing? If she were mad at him, she probably wouldn't be helping him heal so quickly. Or at least he would expect some annoyance in her voice. Had he overstepped his bounds by making the potion for her?

"Sorry," he said, trying to recover. "I know you never asked for a Force skill. I just thought it might be a nice little gift."

While her dread levels didn't drop, she smiled genuinely at him. "No, I actually think that was very thoughtful of you."

That's right. Moodprint only shows the strongest emotion.

If she was grateful for his gift, maybe all this dread was about something else after all. He would hate to be the reason she was feeling this way. "Uh, is everything okay?" he finally asked.

She broke from her distraction and then smiled even more warmly at him. "Yes, thank you." She hesitated a moment and then gave him a small hug before pulling away. He noticed a little blush on her cheeks. "I'll drink it when we set up camp."

"Well," said Alden, "that might be right now." He halted them all as he pointed to a patch of mushy plant growth that he had sped up the decay on.

"What is it?" Bromlin asked. Senna blocked his view, so he bounced on his tiptoes to peek over Mishki's head, who was closer to his height.

Logan saw it, though, even before Alden swept the guck away.

Flick squeaked on Mishki's shoulder and ran for cover on the other side of his neck, pulling one of Mishki's big ears down to hide himself. The critter was clearly traumatized by the mere sight of the blight source. Nugget flitted over and perched on Mishki's shoulder, too, extending his wings to protect the squirrel.

Good job, Nugget. Logan was proud that his little buddy was being such a brave defender.

They all examined the matted, dark green goop on the forest floor. This was only a small rivulet, and it led deeper into the woods.

Aetherlens.

The ambient mana was intensely out of alignment here, and it only got worse deeper in. "Yeah," he said, "if there are monsters, they'll be here."

"I don't think it's just monsters we have to worry about," said Senna. She gestured towards the perimeter of the light cast by Cassandra. Two prowlers lurked just beyond the light's touch, one at level 40, the other at level 43. There were signs of others further back, too, although they were keeping their distance, probably until the group got tired.

Logan had seen worse. Quite frankly, he was less worried about fighting off familiar beasts with known attack patterns than about facing unfamiliar monsters with unknown powers.

Especially if the latter struck while they dealt with the former.

"Well," Cassandra said as she lifted the potion, "I suppose I should see what this does sooner than later." She drank it and glowed silver for a moment and tilted her head as she read a System prompt. "Well, that makes sense."

She explained it was a rare skill, but she sounded pleased.

Logan almost apologized, but had to remind himself that Rare was still better than Common and Uncommon. Now that he had collected Epic and Legendary skills, it was hard to remember that, not to mention he had a Celestial core he was really itching to crack open.

The skill worked similarly to how the monsters used it, with Cassandra being able to punch with a cushion of Force mana gathered around her fists.

Only now did her dread levels finally lower enough that a different emotion replace them. Logan thought it was either resolve or indignation, and he couldn't help but picture those scenes in movies where the underdog got the means for revenge. The sudden change was actually a little scary, especially coming from her, since she was usually so composed all the time.

Alden stopped everyone before they went too far in preparing to fight the prowlers. "Perhaps we can let Cassandra and Mishki handle the prowlers, with us to back them up if necessary. That will allow Cassandra to grind a few levels with this new ability of hers, and Mishki to gain more experience."

Mishki was the lowest leveled among them now, only at level 23, while the others were at levels 26 and 27, and Logan at level 29. Mishki had delivered the final blow to the warlock, but had not actually taken part in the Devouring Coil fight.

"That's a good idea," said Logan.

"Of course it is," Alden said primly. "That's what happens when you have an Intelligence score of 107."

Mishki nodded. "I'm not the only one who might gain some extra levels." He glanced at Flick on his shoulder. "How would you like to test out Senna's drakla bombs?"

Flick suddenly seemed to take courage, and shook a tiny fist at the apex predator of the forest. Mishki laughed and had to calm the squirrel's excitement before it hopped away to take the prowlers on singlehandedly.

A grating croak rose behind them, and Nugget jumped off Mishki's shoulder from beside Flick to glide around Logan. He ascended to a height and hovered in a spot as if he were staring through the thickets.

"I've never heard anything make that sound in these woods before during any of my foraging trips," Senna said.

Flick chattered at Mishki, who then told them that the little critter had never seen whatever was the source of that cry, but had seen the devastation left in its wake.

Nugget suddenly descended and glinted brightly in Cassandra's light. He swooped above Logan and Alden, brushing his wings against both of their heads and tousling their hair lightly with his wings. Logan's hair was always messy so that didn't bother him, but Alden let out a small sniff before patting his silver hair back into place.

"Yes, Nugget," said Alden, "we will be mindful of it."

The dragon repeated his little swoop maneuver, causing Alden to fix his hair again, this time with more exaggerated annoyance.

But Logan shared a look with the little dragon.

"I think," said Logan, "Nugget's saying just you and me should fight the monster while the others watch Cassandra's and Mishki's backs."

"Why would we do something so reckless as facing an unknown monster on our own?"

"I don't know. Maybe 'cause a lucky dragon thinks it would be a good idea?"

Alden squinted at the flying bolt of gold and dodged as Nugget tried to tousle his hair once more.

"Fine, but let's stay within shouting distance of the others." He leveled a brow at Nugget. "And enough with the hair."

Nugget chirped and whirled, a small mischievous gleam in his eye that made Logan stifle a laugh lest Alden scold him too.

"Now," said the mage, who had clearly noticed Logan's subtle snort, "let's see what this is all about."