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

Logan ducked and crouched beneath a branch. Nugget perched tense on his shoulder, and based on his body language, Logan could tell whatever the little dragon had seen wasn't far away, and so he kept quiet.

At first, it had been strange to Logan that Nugget had seemed to insist on him and Alden pairing up for this. But he had a suspicion why. Logan paused and turned his neck to look at the dragon. He didn't have Unrelenting Hunt to track the monsters with, and Moodprint wasn't showing anything. That was because either nothing was nearby or monsters didn't have feelings like sentient beings. And based on the dragon's heightened alertness, he figured it was the latter.

From his perch, Nugget stiffened and extended his neck, his head angling forward. Logan followed his gaze to the expanding patch of decay in the ground and saw it. Two eyes and the faintest hint of a broad, toadlike forehead peered at them through the matte bed of decay. It must have been using some stealth maneuver, but now that Logan had seen it, he could Analyze it.

Name: Plagued Toadkin
Type: Monster
Level: 32
Health: 376/376
Mana: 200/200
Lore: Born from decay, these toads are unbothered by rot. They, in fact, seek it out, and are often found wallowing in regions where sickness rules. They absorb rotten filth through their permeable skin, which raises their defenses, and at a moment's notice they can spew it back out with an additional acid bonus. However, that takes energy, and they are lazy, so they rarely move unless they have to.
Weakness: Rot-reliant hide.
Strength: Poison, acid, and necrotic immunity, slashing resistance.

Logan silently elbowed Alden, then nodded toward the monster. The elven mage cocked his head and peered, spotting the monster too.

"So," the mage whispered, "I suppose we just have to draw it out of that… well, whatever that is," he said, referencing the peculiar sludge-like patch on the ground. "Then maybe it will dry out."

"Sounds good," Logan said. Once they goaded it out, they would also need to keep it from returning to the sludge.

Alden continued to puzzle over the blight source's strange consistency. "According to the monster's description, that guck might just be liquefied rotten matter. If that's the case, then I may be able to manipulate it slightly."

As Alden extended a hand, Logan activated Aetherlens to get a sense of what was happening with the ambient mana. As Alden prodded it with what looked like mini-tornadoes of necrotic mana, it responded. The targeted patches rippled as if Alden was blowing through a straw aimed at a lake surface.

Both adventurers shared cunning smiles.

Logan deactivated Aetherlens and began instead focusing on his own part in their quickly crafted plan. First, he had to make sure it would work.

The monster saw them but wasn't moving, and so they pretended as if they hadn't actually noticed it. Walking away from the monster so they wouldn't aggro it, he snapped off a branch from a nearby tree. He had to snap five branches in total before finding one healthy enough that it didn't crumble apart into withered splinters at a mere touch.

Once he had one with structural integrity, he poked the matte surface. It quivered slightly, and the stick sank deeper than expected, well past where the ground should've stopped it.

When he pulled it back out, the tip was cleanly severed, like it had melted away in hot water.

So, definitely don't touch that. He made a small face because for this to work, he'd have to be pretty close to it.

Next, Alden tugged on the necrotic mana to make it gather at the edges, which created a small breach in the sludge as if he were pushing a bunch of slugs aside to make a path. Despite the experiment with the stick, which had apparently partially dissolved before giving them their answer, the goop was only four or five inches deep.

Once Alden cleared out a reasonable space, he revealed some of the soggy ground underneath it. Logan poked that with the stick too. Other than being a little mushy with mud, at least the stick didn't come back as if acid had eaten through it. Whatever the corrosive aspect of this liquid was, the scary part of it seemed to float up at the top, with just typical moisture getting stuck beneath it.

Still a little way from the toadkin, Alden continued to disrupt sections of the sludge.

Logan stretched his arms as if he were getting ready for a marathon as Alden tested how many patches of the sludge he could disperse at a time, which ended up being five. They really only needed two for this plan to work, but having five gave them a bit more flexibility.

And so Nugget flew up higher into the branches to watch as they started.

Alden made the safe spots one by one, and they formed like the rings a pebble makes when it skips. Logan didn't doubt that if a stone actually hit the sludge stuff, it would disintegrate. But, these little steppable areas provided a slightly spiraled arc around the toadkin, with each one approaching the monster closer but on a curve. Once he and Alden started, they had to act fast because likely the monster would flee when Logan reached the closest spot.

On Alden's nod, Logan began.

Slipstream Mirage!

Logan jumped onto the first patch of safe land. His boot squelched into the mud, but it wasn't so hard to get free. He swiped his hand through empty air.

On the second jump, he counterbalanced with another swipe. Here, his right shoe did get stuck.

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Meditate!

His mana burned faster, but he needed to resolve this fast. If his afterimage lingered in this spot too long, it would lose the effectiveness of their plan. He supposed the closest mirages were the most important ones, though.

Meditate gave him a tiny advantage in an extra moment of thought, so he reacted by slipping his foot out of the shoe. He would just have to be careful not to touch the sludge-like blight source.

He kept Meditate active since precision was even more important now, and he could drink a mana potion if it burned through his reserves too fast. With time slowed enough, he jumped to the next spot with ease. He landed on his left foot, and the shoe stayed on.

The next jump was on his bare right foot. Despite his tests with the stick, he was a little concerned about his bare skin coming into contact with the boggy soil. Aside from the uncomfortable squish of mud between his toes, though, it didn't do any damage.

The monster was starting to move now that Logan was closing in. But it was moving in the wrong direction.

Logan pushed off faster than he had originally intended, reaching the fifth and final spot Alden had cleared away. The patches were only about two feet wide, but to get the monster back on the course he wanted to force it into taking, he stepped as close as he could to the outer rim, where a glint of golden light shone from Nugget's Guidance. The sludge hissed as it ate through the toe of his shoe, and a sharp sting almost made Logan flinch. He was grateful for his Pain Resistance, because otherwise he might've fallen face first into the guck.

The monster rose from the filth. It was surprisingly larger than Logan had expected, as if it had been squished and spread out beneath the shallow surface, and on coming out it ballooned like a pufferfish. Logan hoped his other swipes would still connect with it.

At least in meeting it here, Logan forced the monster back on track, and he released Slipstream Mirage. His mana was still at 10%, but he drank a mana potion anyway because he needed to change their initial plan.

Dreambrand!

He swiped and connected with the toadkin. He couldn't reach its head given its unexpected size, but he inflicted a burn on it, and it croaked.

Now he hopped out of the sludge, aiming right for the point where Alden had a small platform of ice that Logan could hop on to reach safe ground again.

The freezing cold made his bare foot go numb when he landed. He shouted up to Nugget and told the dragon to guide Alden instead.

Rather than jump off the ice platform, Logan hopped backward into the sludge again.

Alden knew to be alert, and had already stopped focusing on the sludge. Logan caught the shimmer on the surface where Alden was clearing a spot for a safe landing.

Meanwhile, Logan's first mirage hit empty air. That was fine, and had only been there in case the monster was faster than they expected. But from the way Logan landed, he forced the monster into jumping straight into the next volley of attacks from his mirage.

The forceful blows landed, not dealing slashing resistance but force damage, which actually came out to about the same as Logan's slashing damage. That was good to know—the force damage was based on the base rate of his slashing damage, not calculated after the reduction from his slashing damage given the monster's resistance.

Now, the force damage wasn't strong enough to sweep the monster up in the afterimage's path. Logan hoped it would reach that level of strength now, acting more like an impenetrable wall that could hit something and keep carrying it forward.

But for now, he jumped to a new clearing Alden made. And then Alden created a fixed ice point that the monster struck into. Its blubbery body went backward with the recoil, which made it get hit by the next mirage-Logan's attack too.

Logan was close enough to slash again with his Dreambrand-cloaked gauntlets, and this time connected with the monster's head. The monster was struck with terror and ran from the mirage, which, in turn, meant it got caught from behind by each of the final blows.

As Logan hopped back onto safe land, the toadkin smacked right into another ice blockage that Alden had put up at the final destination just as Logan's final mirage smashed into the monster.

It let out a croak, then deflated like a whoopee cushion.

You have helped kill a level 32 Plagued Toadkin! Shared experience earned!

Meditate is level 29!

Dreambrand is level 22!

Slipstream Mirage is level 25!
…
Slipstream Mirage is level 28!

"Nice job, Alden, Nugget!"

He got the notification that he had earned the Force of Habit threshold perk, and he smirked with satisfaction.

As Nugget glided to perch on Logan's shoulder, he peeked at the core left behind after the monster's corpse dissolved in smoke. There was another item, too, and suddenly he really understood why Nugget had urged Logan and Alden together for this fight.

He didn't pick anything up, and instead stepped back, presenting the loot with a flourish.

Alden cocked his brow as he passed Logan, who smiled as he waited to see the look on the mage's face.

At first, Alden's expression was blank. But then, the edges of his lips pulled into a tight smile.

"Congratulations, Alden," Logan said. "You should take it."

Alden sparkled as he consumed the Life Shard.

Even after the flashing sparkles disappeared, when Alden faced Logan, his eyes still gleamed. "I have waited for this for so long. Thank you." He faced Nugget too. "Both of you."

Logan grinned. "Hey, I'm glad you've gotten it. I'm sure the others will be too."

Alden glanced behind them, where the others were fighting off the prowlers. They were just barely visible through the trees. "I told them as soon as I got it I would leave on my own to join the Mage's Guild."

"Will you, though?" Logan doubted it.

With a shrug, Alden sighed. "I suppose I can decide when we reach Caerwyn."

"Well, hopefully you stick around." Mention of Caerwyn turned his mind back to Cassandra, and he stared at her with a frown.

Alden snickered beside him.

"What," Logan asked, embarrassed Alden had caught him.

"I don't think you realize, do you?"

"Realize what?" Logan asked, now confused. "That she dreads the idea of seeing her family again? That was why I gave her that gift." He sighed. "I don't think it worked, though."

"No," Alden said. "That wouldn't fight back whatever dread she's feeling. Likely that caused more of it. Her father holds tremendous influence within the guild. Cassandra never had to worry about getting caught up in his schemes when she could only wield Radiant skills. But when her father discovers she can do more, she could very well become a pawn. So no, I think your gift probably reminded her that he's probably about to get more controlling."

Logan palmed his forehead.

"Well," said Alden, "let's return."

He cleared a patch in the sludge so they could take a shortcut, but before taking a step he paused and tilted his head.

Logan looked down and saw what Alden was looking at—a small metal tube. It was similar to the mana-scarring detection rod they had once received from the guild, but this appeared to be more robust despite being only a splintered fragment of what was likely a greater whole.

"Do you think that's part of the device that caused the blast?"

"Yes," Alden drawled, bending down to pick it up. "But I don't suppose you received the notification, did you?"

"What notification?"

Alden lifted the tube in front of his face, inches from his nose. "It's a quest." He lowered the tube to meet Logan eye-to-eye. "But one only visible to members of the Mages' Guild."