The next day we are standing by the treeline with some cheap equipment loaned from the guild. Jezabel thoroughly kicked our asses yesterday and then made us spend an hour using our weapons. My arms are so sore I can barely hold them above my head. On top of that, I've still got these metal rings on my body. They adjust to the shape of our bodies using some weird magic and they're comfortable enough that I can forget I'm wearing them. together they probably only weigh something like twenty five pounds but it's still exhausting.
"Nice to see you all alive." Travis beams a smile at us when we arrive. His pearly whites shine all the brighter against his dark skin. Now that I look at him, I think he's the only dark skinned person I've seen in town. He has bulging muscles on his arms and wears only a pair of leather pants held up by suspenders as if he enjoys showing off his toned upper body.
"Nice to see you as well." I say. "By the way, why aren't you wearing any armor?"
"Hah! I guess it's a hold over from my time in the east. The desert tribes never wear armor in order to train their resilience stat. Pretty soon you won't need armor because your flesh will be tougher than iron!" Travis says as he flexes. With a little sweat from the humid day he strikes an impressive pose.
"So, you're saying that if I swing my sword at you it won't do any damage?"
"Why don't you give it a shot?" He smiles and exposes his forearm.
"What? Are you sure?"
"Of course! I can even take one of Yuki's punches, your little swords and spears won't do anything." He doesn't seem to feel bad saying her name even though Jezabel told us she's now missing an arm.
"Alright, you asked for it." I say as I grab the sword from Josh. "Hah!"
I swing the sword down as hard as I can.
'Tunk'
His arm emits a dull thud and the sword harmlessly bounces to the side.
"Wow." I gasp. Once again I'm struck by the power of the seal system.
"My turn." Josh says as he takes the swords back.
'Tunk'
He doesn't fair any better.
"Showing off for the kids?" A woman in a white two piece outfit walks up to Travis with a smirk. I assume she must be Yuki from the stump where her right arm should have been. Now that Travis explained how the resilience stat works her exposed mid riff makes a little more sense but it still feels ridiculous.
"It's good to give them an idea of what to aim for." Travis laughs.
"You just like flexing for people, you freak."
The rest of Ironhead approaches as Travis and Yuki shoot the shit. They don't appear to be injured so apparently Yuki was the only one to take any damage from the massive Brontobeasts. That alone is still impressive.
"Hey, now that I think about it, wasn't there another kid missing from the expedition?" I ask
Travis's shoulders slump when I finish my question.
"Yes, I've been waiting for him at the treeline for weeks now, but I'm afraid there's very little chance he survived the storm, even if he was protected by the forest."
"Damn." A reminder that as jovial as people are acting, we're still risking our lives by being here.
I had a conversation with Nick last night and he went on and on about how important it is to get stronger, even if it involves taking some risks. I think he's still shaken up by what we saw after the storm and is determined to be of more help next year.
"Anyway," Travis continues. "Jezabel wanted us to collect a green mushroom that glows green or something?"
"As eloquent as ever, I see." Yuki scoffs.
"Hey, we know what we're looking for. What else do you want from me?" Travis smiles at Yuki with his arms out to the side which causes Yuki to roll her eyes.
"Sounds good." I nod. "Where do we look?"
"That'll be in the Fungal Layer."
Makes sense.
"This time we're going to all be tied together so no one else gets lost."
We all tie in and Travis leads the way into the woods. It never gets old seeing the incredible natural light show. Maybe it's just my imagination but it seems like there's a whole host of new fungi on the Mammoth Trees.
Sakura really shines during this expedition and points out most of the caps we find. While walking I believe I see a few glowing objects that are fluttering around but I can't be sure.
"Ha!" I hear Travis shout from the front of the line. We all run up and see him holding down a two foot long insect. It looks like a praying mantis but the head has a sharp beak extending from it and it doesn't appear to have wings. The exoskeleton is also a complex of different colors. I guess this helps it blend in with all the glowing fauna down here.
"This is an Equuinoid, but most people just call it a horse bug." Travis explains.
"Why do they call it that?"
"Cause it's big and fast."
"Cool."
We all walk around him and examine the impressive insect.
"Now, Jezabel tells me you haven't leveled up yet. Is that right?"
"Yeah." I say as I glance at the other two kids and they nod back.
"Be careful the first time you do. Leveling up is a hell of a feeling and it can really fuck you up the first time it happens. I've seen plenty of promising upstarts lose their minds the first time they level up and never come back down."
"Damn."
"It's probably best to hold off on that for a while, so I'll just kill this one myself." Travis says as he bisects the monster and removes a small orb from its center. "Always make sure to grab the Monster Core."
We spend the next few hours gathering mushrooms and fighting off the occasional monster. Most of them are Equuinoids but we encounter a few others including a weird floating octopus.
By the end we have three bags of Viridian Caps and are all chatting as we carry some Mammoth wood back to town. The tree is so large only a tiny portion of it has been harvested over the last few days.
I find out the other members of Ironhead are Mark, the archer, which feels a little on the nose, and Sam, one of the mages I saw moving stones at the North gate. Mark and Sam don't talk much but they are both polite and answer all my questions.
What I'm most curious about is how Sam moved the stones. She explains that she's a Kinetic mage that specializes in inertia control, which allows to move solid objects around at will. Apparently, the other branches of inertia control involve liquids and gases but she chose to specialize in solid inertia. I try asking about other types of kinetic magic and she explains that the other two main branches are friction and pressure, but she doesn't know very much about those.
"What does Jezabel use to make flames? Does she make a bunch of friction in the air or something?" I ask as we approach the door to the Adventurer's Guild.
"No," Sam laughs. "Although that would be an interesting way to use that branch. Jezabel is a Thermodynamic mage like Travis, but she specializes in exothermic spells as opposed to endothermic."
Sam opens the door, and before i can keep badgering her with question, I notice Catherine talking loudly to a person wearing heavy clothes with a hood covering their face.
"You need to at least stop by and let us know what's happening." Catherine shouts.
"I know, I'm sorry." Ashley's voice flows out from behind the hood. My heart leaps when I hear her voice and run over to talk to her.
"Ashley, you're okay." I smile but she turns her head away.
"And what happened to your guild robe?" Catherine continues berating the dog-eared woman.
"I... Lost it." Ashley stammers. She hold her head down so her face can't be seen.
"You can't continue to work here if you behave like this."
"..."
I step forward when Ashley doesn't respond and see her fiercely biting her lower lip. A tear falls from her face and my heart drops with it. I jump up and pull off her hood.
"Wait!"
Catherine gasps and steps back when she sees Ashley's face. Both eyes are swollen almost completely shut and her whole face is covered in bruises.
"Ashley..." I don't know what else to say.
"No, it's really okay." Ashley says, he swollen eyes filling with tears. "It's my fault really. I shouldn't have stayed at the guild during the storm. It's not that bad, my boyfriend just gets a little passionate."
Other people begin to notice her face and react with gasps or mutter to each other quietly.
"Excuse me, I need to use the restroom." Ashley pulls up her hood and runs into the back room.
"I thought something might be going on but I never would have thought it was this bad."
"She'll go back to him," Catherine says as she shakes her head. "They always do."
I grimace at the thought.
"Would you mind if she crashes at your place for a while?" I ask. "I think it would help if she could just get away from him."
"Sure, I guess." Catherine shrugs. "But I don't think it will help."
"Let me talk to her first. Could you go check on her in the bathroom?"
"No problem."
We walk into the back and I wait by the women's restroom door while Catherine heads inside. I hear a scuffle and then Ashley is dragged out a few moments later.
"She was trying to escape through the window."
"I just need to get back." Ashley stammers. "If I don't get back soon he'll get mad at me."
I'd seen it before at the trailer park. Bruised women running outside while being chased by shouting men. It always felt so distant. It was so easy to just blame the women and not think anymore about it; what could i do anyway. But here I felt I had to say something.
"If you get back soon he won't be mad and everything will go back to normal. After all, he only hits you because he cares, right?"
Catherine looks at me like I'm crazy but Ashley nods along.
"That's right. I just need to do everything right."
"That's all, just do everything right. But you can't can you? Something is always wrong."
Again tears well up in her battered eyes.
"It's my fault, I'm just a worthless idiot. I don't deserve to have people love me."
"That's not true," I say as I place my hand over hers. "Look at all these people who are worried about you."
Ashley looks up and sees people peeking in through the door to the guild hall and Mary standing beside Catherine looking nervous.
Ashley sniffles.
"You need to leave."
"I can't!" She shouts. " I just can't,"
"Catherine here has offered to let you stay at her place. Ashley, if you stay with him he's only going to continue escalating until something really bad happens. You have to leave while you can. I know you want things to go back to the way they were when he was different but that's not going to happen; that person never existed."
Ashley slumps her shoulders and falls to the ground. Mary and Catherine rush to comfort her while I take a step back. The three women whisper to each other for a few minutes and eventually help Ashley stand.
"Okay," Ashley sniffles. "I'll do it. I just need to get my things and I'll stey with Catherine for a while."
"You should take someone with you, I don't want you to get hurt." I say and glance over the people still watching.
"No. I-I need to do this on my own. I can do this." Ashley says as she pumps herself up.
"You should really reconsider." I say again.
"No, I'll handle this myself. I got myself into this mess and I'm going to get myself out." I can hear the determination in her voice and put my head down.
"Well, good luck."
"Thanks." She smiles. It's the most radiant smile I've ever seen. Even under all the bruises, she shines. Everyone encourages her and says good bye as she walks out the door.
"Still think she's going to stay with him?" I ask Catherine after Ashley is gone.
"No." She says while looking out past the door. My heart clenches as she seems to know something I don't. All I can do now is hope.