The area around Sentinel Station was busier than ever as we passed through, with every able-bodied person brought out to fell trees or work on the defences. The town was beating back the wilderness, turning it into a deadly and industrial zone.

  "Impressive," Roq spoke into my mind. "Humans build walls to keep out monsters. Adorable, really. Not that it will do much if one of me would attack. I would cause such devastation that–"

  "As if. I beat you the first time we met in your monster form, buddy. Don’t push it. Also, this is called survival.”

  “Survival should be done face to face with the enemy!” he said indignantly. “In a battle to the death. Their death, of course.”

  “I’d prefer a good wall between me and the monsters, but I do agree there is something unique about taking the fight to the enemy.”

  He broke off there and remained silent as we trudged on across the killing field, and then the forest. A few hours on foot and we’d made it deeper than I'd ever been before. Oddly enough, we'd yet to encounter anything more dangerous than splinters and blisters. The area seemed completely cleared of any kind of monster .

  "Boring," Roq complained. "Where are all the things to kill? Did someone beat us to them?"

  “There’s been an awful lot of adventurers lately, Roq. Or the impact of destroying the breeding chamber was larger than we thought.”

  As we continued onward, I found myself pondering how much experience I would gain from slaying the Treeshakers. Leeched through Roq, of course. Marked as a yellow quest, I'd expect the monsters themselves to be at most yellow since we'd been looking at quests for adventurers between level ten and twenty. Would I gain the equivalent of one mind gem per ten slain monsters? More? Less? Either way it boosted our growth as a party, with me leveling purely from killing.

  I trailed my hand across the bark of a steelhusk tree, keeping careful watch to our right, which was what we’d agreed on. Eryn watched our left, Knut the front, and Nabeeh the rear.

  If we didn't find a way to solve Roq's breakthrough for a while, maybe I could slay my way up to level twenty without needing another gem. It'd save us over one hundred and fifty extra mind gems to work with. The thought of such a mind boggling sum brought a smile to my face. If nothing else, we'd be able to pay off the smithy’s loan, and still have enough left to get both Eryn and Knut their class gems.

  Was Roq right? Did I truly want him to break through, or was there a part of me which wished for him to stay stuck?

  A twinge in my gut was all the answer I needed.

  Knut interrupted my thoughts.

  “Shrooms.”

  His single word drew my attention immediately and I stopped daydreaming.

  I glanced forward through the trees, seeing an edge to the steelhusk forest. Ahead of it stretched a bizarre landscape.

  Massive fungi of every imaginable color rose from the ground. Some resembled traditional mushrooms with caps as wide as wagons. Others twisted upward in spiraling columns, their surfaces blinking with light. Mist curled around their bases, and the air was so thick with floating spores that they glittered in the sunlight.

  "Whoa," Eryn said. "It's beautiful."

  "And probably deadly," I added. “These remind me of the Glowcaps we fought in the Cathedral of Bone.” I looked over at Nabeeh. “They exploded when killed."

  "Exploding food!" Roq said. "My favorite kind! Think you can ask that fiery mage friend of yours to see if she can set the mushroom forest ablaze?"

  Nabeeh, who had been quiet for most of our journey, eyed the fungal landscape with interest.

  “Went bang? How big of a blast?"

  "Big enough to knock Knut on his butt,” I replied. "And he was wearing his full plate armor."

  “Fun day," Knut said, grinning.

  “The way he flew backward was quite amusing,” Roq said. "Do you think we could make him do it again?"

  “No explosions today. We finish the quest, then return home all safe and sound.”

  Nabeeh studied the fungal forest, her eyes narrowed in calculation. "So they're volatile. Interesting." Without warning, she raised her hand, flames dancing between her fingers. "Let's test something."

  "Wait—" I started to say, but she had already launched a fireball into the fungal grove.

  “Mayhem! Fire! Destruction!" Roq cried excitedly. “That’s exactly my kind of hammer-lady! Find me one, will you?”

  The fireball arced through the air and struck a massive purple mushroom about fifty yards in—and the world exploded ahead of us.

  The initial explosion triggered a chain reaction as spores ignited along the ground. A wall of flame raced outward in all directions, consuming fungi and releasing more spores, which in turn ignited and only added to the destruction.

  A moment later, the blast wave hit us like a battering ram, knocking us flat on our backs.

  "Magnificent!" Roq said. “That’s the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! Better than blueberry pie and satin pillows!”

  The roar was deafening and for a moment I lost all of my senses. My sight blurred, I turned deaf, I couldn’t smell anything but burning mushroom…and several other things I couldn’t quite describe.

  When I blinked my eyes open a good minute later, I was met with a scene of utter devastation.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Where the fungal forest had stood merely a minute ago, there was now only charred earth and smoldering stumps. The blast had cleared an area at least a mile wide and twice as long, stopping only where it met the fire-resistant steelhusk trees at the edges. Not a single fungi remained.

  "By the rifts," Eryn whispered, pushing herself up on her elbows and dusting her armor off.

  Knut stood, extending a hand to help Nabeeh up. She stared at the flaming inferno with wide eyes.

  "That was... unexpected," she said.

  "Unexpected?" I sputtered, getting up, too. "You just blew up half of Riftside!"

  "I didn't know they'd be that volatile," Nabeeh said, though I could see the corner of her mouth twitching upward. "Besides, we've cleared the path. You're welcome."

  "You're insane," Eryn said. "We could have been killed!"

  "But we weren't," Nabeeh pointed out, trying to sound reasonable. "And now we know: fungal forests and fire magic don't mix. What if we’d been in there and I tried to fire a spell?"

  "Yes, efficient," Knut grunted, surveying the devastation with what might have been approval.

  "Efficient?" I echoed. "You call this efficient?"

  "Hours to go around," he replied with a shrug. "Minutes to cross."

  "I really like our new mage," Roq said. "DId I say that already? She has a very direct approach. No hesitation. Just destruction."

  "You would.”

  "We should move," Eryn suggested, taking an arrow from her quiver. “If experience has taught us anything, that explosion probably attracted every monster within miles."

  “If any still lives,” I said.

  Though she was right.

  As we cautiously entered the charred wasteland, the smell of burned fungi thick in our nostrils, I pulled my shield from the storage after plopping on my helmet. The ground was still warm underfoot, and wisps of smoke curled around our ankles as we walked.

  "I like this heat," Roq said. "It reminds me of the forge. Comfortable and cozy."

  We'd made it about halfway across when Eryn stopped suddenly, looking around at the devastation.

  "You know," she said, "If there were any adventurers here when you did that, they'd be all dead. Blown to bits and pieces."

  Nabeeh waved her hand dismissively. "There shouldn't have been anyone here so far up north anyway. Not these days, right? The only people crazy enough to venture this deep are us. There’s a reason Petra upped the reward.”

  "Still," Eryn persisted, "We should be more careful with—"

  Her words cut off as a roar came from our left, and two shapes charged at us from the forest edge, smoke twirling around them.

  "Bramblebacks!" I shouted, stepping in front of the girls and right next to Knut.

  Their heavy, hammer-like claws pounded the charred earth as they ran, throwing up burnt chunks and soil.

  "Focus on the leftmost one," Roq said.

  "Nabeeh, Eryn—take the one on the left!" I said, trusting him to have a reason.

  "Why that one?"

  "It's being noisy," Roq replied simply. "And I can imagine smelling its blood from here. Sweet."

  Nabeeh threw a Fireball at its face, but it tucked its shoulder and took the spell on its heavily armored shell, barely scorching it. Eryn followed with an armor-piercing arrow that glanced off its plated hide with a spark, and flew off to the side.

  "Damn it," Nabeeh muttered. She pointed her staff at the closing beast, or rather the ground in front. "Come on, you ugly brute."

  The Brambleback thundered forward, oblivious to the trap she’d just sprung. When it crossed the sigil, a column of fire erupted from beneath it, flipping the massive creature to land on its side, exposing its softer underside to us.

  Eryn didn't hesitate. She loosed another armor-piercing arrow. It sank deep into its exposed underside, and the monster bellowed in pain, arching its back.

  Nabeeh finished it with a Fireball to the neck, silencing the monster’s wails.

  Meanwhile, the second Brambleback went right for me. Knut set his stance, shield braced firmly before him. I glanced anxiously at the girls, wanting to stay close to protect them, but we still angled off to the side just in case.

  "Ruptureborn!" Eryn suddenly called out, pointing to three lean, sinewy shapes racing toward us from the right, their scythe-like arms glinting in the smoky light.

  “Get on them," I said, coming to a split-second decision, and moved off to the other side to attract the three newcomers.

  “My fireball is on cooldown!” Nabeeh said. “Not in range of any other spells. Except this.” She touched Eryn’s shoulder and the arrow on her bow lit up.

  “Awesome,” Eryn cheered, loosing the flaming broadheaded arrow. It tore through the first Ruptureborn's chest, dropping it without so much as a sound onto the scorched ground.

  I glanced over my shoulder and eyed the Brambleback as it crashed into Knut's shield with tremendous force. Our tank had learned from the dungeon, and this time he held, grunting as his boots dug furrows in the charred earth.

  "Kill it!" Knut growled through gritted teeth and I obliged.

  Having brought along one of the Shardfang carcasses, just in case, I activated Armor Break and Roq glowed red.

  "It’s feeding time!"

  I struck the monster on the side of its armored head. With Roq’s ability activated, and our passives, it didn’t stand a chance. The monster collapsed, its head smashed into mush.

  "More!" Roq demanded as I turned toward the two remaining Ruptureborn.

  Nabeeh’s Fireball had come off cooldown, and she launched one, catching the Ruptureborn mid-stride. The monster staggered but continued its charge, a chunk of its body missing and the rest smoking. As it closed into range of her other spells, Nabeeh focused on the monster again.

  "Immolation!" she yelled, and the creature's entire body erupted in persistent flames. It shrieked, thrashing wildly as the magical fire consumed it from the inside-out. outside in

  The third Ruptureborn didn’t seem deterred by the death of the other two, and kept its charge.

  "Forge Anchor.”

  I struck the ground and Steelhusk bindings erupted from just in front of the Ruptureborn, stopping its charge and wrapping its legs and torso, immobilizing it.

  "Delicious! I can feel its blood through the tendrils!”

  Nabeeh drew a breath and raised her staff, and Eryn was ready to loose another arrow.

  "Wait!" I said. "Let me finish this one. You two focus on those!" I pointed to a group of Mossback Boars charging from the direction we'd been heading, their tusks lowered and the spikes on their backs bristling. Whether these had come from the dungeon, or if they were also found throughout the rift, I didn’t know and didn’t care. Killing them was the only thing that mattered.

  Knut was already moving to intercept them.

  I ran to the trapped Ruptureborn, which was struggling against its bindings.

  "This one is ours," Roq said eagerly. "Its blood will be warm and fresh!"

  With a single powerful swing, I bashed the monster’s head in, and then checked my stat sheet. No new mind gem. Still stuck on five of eleven.

  Nabeeh launched another Fireball, killing one of the boars. Eryn's arrow found another mark, piercing into its skull.

  Knut met the remaining three, leaping into the air before slamming down among them with earth-shaking force, staggering all three, breaking their charge.

  I rushed to join Knut as he cracked one skull with his mace. Eryn and Nabeeh both stopped attacking, likely confident we had it under control, and not wanting to risk injuring us.

  Knut pushed the spikes on his shield into one of the two remaining boars, laughing as it gored itself and grew increasingly enraged.

  It never saw me coming as I brought Roq down on its spine with a satisfying crunch.

  “I am become death!” Roq cried in ecstacy as the creature collapsed. Silence fell across the charred landscape as the boars died and we caught our breath, letting the adrenaline fade.

  "What a glorious day," Roq said and sighed dramatically. “Explosions, spikes, death, and blood. Life is good.”

  "Glad you're enjoying yourself.”

  “Any gems?” Nabeeh asked, raising her eyebrows at me.

  “Well?”

  “One in the first boar Knut killed.”

  “Take that one,” I told Nabeeh, pointing it out. “It’s got a goodie inside.”

  “Can’t wait to check,” she said, and smiled at me.

  “Let’s store the rest and head out before any more monsters show up,” I said.

  “About that.”

  “What now?”

  “You might want to head over…there.”

  “Why?”

  “Just call it a hunch.”