Sais stirred, blinking against the dim morning light filtering through the trees. His body felt heavy. Then he heard it.

  “Sais. Wake up.” Cromus’s voice. sounding urgent.

  Sais sat up stark, “Wh–What is..” He stopped mid-sentence.

  Cromus wasn’t near him.

  Sais’s eyes darted across camp. Cromus sat by the fire, poking at the embers with a stick. Mouth closed. Not looking at him. He kept looking around.

  Henry was the only other person in sight perched nearby, silent, the soft ticking of his gears the only noise.

  Sais frowned. Maybe he imagined it. Maybe he’d half-dreamed Cromus waking him.

  He stretched, rolling his shoulders, but the uneasy feeling didn’t leave him.

  Then, just as he turned to grab his boots— He thought he saw something shift at the edge of his vision.

  Sais’s breath hitched. He whipped around—Nothing.

  The trees loomed, unmoving.

  His pulse steadied, he even placed his fingers on his neck to confirm it.

  Henry tilted his head. “Something wrong?”

  Sais exhaled. “I fell a little off. Maybe the food? Did anyone else seem off today?”

  Henry’s mechanical eyes whirred softly. “No, everyone seemed normal a bit ago.”

  Sais nodded slowly. He didn’t like the feeling but Cromus was making his way over.

  “Morning Sais, how did you sleep with a good meal on the belly?” Cromus asked.

  “Better then I would of hoped, I mean I didn’t even make it to the nest, so I must of been good.” He said chuckling, letting the unease be washed away by his friend's happy attitude.

  “I’ve got a couple of things I want to talk about,” Cromus said, crossing his arms.

  Sais arched an eyebrow. “Yeah? What’s on your mind?”

  “Now that everyone has a class, I think it’s time we start looking ahead—figuring out how far we are from Red Fist’s camp.”

  Sais considered it. “Moving forward isn’t a bad idea. But… maybe we should focus on levels and fixing Kaazz’s class first?”

  Cromus shrugged. “I figured we could do both at the same time—level as we travel. No telling where we’ll find what Kaazz needs. And honestly? Just the fact that the goblins have real classes now will sway some of Red Fist’s followers to our side.”

  “I still think we should prioritize leveling and teamwork,” Sais countered.

  Cromus nodded after a moment. “Alright, we won’t seek out Red Fist just yet. But I don’t want to get too comfortable here, either. We should explore more.”

  Sais smirked. “So what you’re saying is… you’re getting bored.”

  Cromus scratched his cheek. “I’m saying I don’t like sitting still. The moment you’re too comfortable, that’s when something goes wrong.”

  Sais sighed. “Fine. But what about Athas? You planning on carrying him around until he gets back to normal?”

  Cromus snorted. “Oh, no—he’s fine. He’s actually up there.”

  He pointed toward the branches above.

  Sais followed his gaze and blinked. Further down from where Henry perched, Athas lay sprawled across a thick limb, limbs dangling, tongue lolling out the side of his mouth.

  Sais raised an eyebrow. “I don’t remember him being able to climb trees.”

  Cromus grinned. “That’s the ability he got from absorbing the Slynx core. Pretty cool, huh?”

  Sais hummed. “Definitely fits with his other skills. But that reminds me—we didn’t go over everything you dealt with yesterday after we split up.”

  Cromus let out a breath. “Now that I think about it… yesterday was very eventful.”

  He ticked off with his fingers.

  “We fought a Slynx—basically a lynx-spider hybrid. Annoying little shit, but fragile once we landed a solid hit. Loose Tooth hit me with one of his exploding pods, though.”

  “Then, we found salt underground but ran into a Salt Mine Stallion and its herd. When I used Identify, their levels were just question marks. Freaked me out, so I grabbed as much salt as I could and got the hell out.”

  Sais had been listening, nodding along, but suddenly, he squinted at Cromus’s chest.

  Cromus frowned. “What?”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  Sais didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he activated Identify.

  Basic Tunic of Mending

  This tunic has been infused with the mending spell by Glean as a final gift to Cromus.

  Ability: The tunic will mend itself over time unless severely damaged or fully destroyed.

  Sais smirked. “Well. That explains it.”

  Cromus blinked. “Explains what?”

  Sais gestured vaguely. “Why your shirt never looks like shit. Use identify on it.”

  Cromus looked down at himself. “…Oh.” He did as he was told.

  Sais nodded. “Yeah, Turns out all our basic clothes have it.”

  Cromus scratched his chin. “Huh. Glean really looked out for us. Huh?”

  Sais chuckled. “Yeah could you imagine if our clothes got wrecked the first day, man that would of been awkward.” He chuckled a bit more. “Anyways, what else happened yesterday?”

  Cromus’s face lit up.

  “Oh! I finally ran into something that wasn’t trying to kill me.”

  Sais raised an eyebrow. “That’s rare.”

  Cromus grinned wide. “It was an Elemental Dreadnoughtus Titan.”

  Sais’s face blanked. “A what now?”

  “A giant dinosaur, Sais. Its snout was wider than my entire body! And it had plants growing on its back.”

  “…What.”

  “And when it walked? The entire forest moved for it.” Cromus exhaled. “It was like… I don’t know. The world itself respected it.”

  Sais studied him for a moment. The excitement in his voice was genuine.

  “Well,” Sais said finally. “That’s new.”

  Cromus chuckled, shaking his head. “Damn right it is. Not everything here wants to murk me, after all.”

  Sais smirked. “Eh. Give them time to get to know you.”

  Cromus joy fleeted for a moment, eyes narrowing.

  “Cromus!”

  Jagz’s voice rang through the camp as he ran over, excitement clear on his face.

  Both Sais and Cromus turned as he skidded to a stop. “What is it, Jagz?” Cromus asked.

  “Can I get some more of those mushrooms?” Jagz asked, practically bouncing on his feet.

  Cromus folded his arms. “You already had a portion.”

  “But I’m still hungry!” Jagz whined.

  Behind him, Ush, Loose Tooth, and Kaazz approached, already guessing what was going on.

  Cromus sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Alright, I’ll make you a deal.”

  Jagz’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of deal?”

  “I’ll give you one more portion.”

  “YEAH!” Jagz whooped, immediately lunging toward the food.

  “BUT!” Cromus’s sharp tone froze him inches away from the leaf-wrapped mushrooms.

  Jagz turned, eyes wide. “But… what?”

  “One of Ush or Kaazz gets to hold onto it—and you all share it.”

  Jagz’s jaw dropped. “What?! But that’s not enough for all of us!”

  Cromus smirked. “There is, if you eat like a reasonable person.” He leaned in slightly. “And besides… you don’t want me using up too many mushrooms, do you? If I do, then the next time we have meat… it won’t taste as good.”

  The horror on Jagz’s face at the thought of returning to bland, unseasoned food was instant.

  “OK, OK!” he yelped, quickly grabbing one of the mushroom portions and shoving it into Ush’s hands. “Here! You hold it. Don’t let me eat it too fast, alright?”

  Ush smiled, a little proud of him, while the others—who saw right through his tactic—chuckled.

  Sais crossed his arms. “If portions are such a big deal, why don’t we just go back to where you and Loose went yesterday? Stock up on ingredients. Grab more salt.”

  Cromus and Loose immediately froze.

  Slowly, they turned to Sais, matching expressions of disbelief on their faces.

  “I… I don’t know about that,” Cromus said, clearly skeptical. “Did you not listen when I said there was a herd of creatures down there with question-mark levels?”

  “I did,” Sais said, completely unfazed. “And you still made it out fine—while panicking.” He smirked. “If we keep a level head, we’ll be fine. Plus, let’s be real—none of us want to go back to unseasoned food.”

  The goblins collectively nodded at that.

  Sais gestured around. “This is our chance before we set off to who-knows-where. If we don’t stock up now, we might not get another shot.”

  Cromus exhaled and exchanged a long look with Loose Tooth.

  “…What do you think?” Cromus finally asked.

  Loose Tooth grimaced. “I think he’s crazy.” He sighed. “But he’s not wrong.” His eyes flicked to the food. “Salt is important.”

  Cromus let out a defeated sigh. “Ok you are right, we can also grab more mushrooms, onions, and maybe find more things to make the food even better, but if we get a hint that the herd is near by we get the fuck out of there?”

  “Yes, if we see anything too dangerous. we will get out. it will just definitely be worth the effort.” Sais “Now, where is my breakfast?”

  Cromus smiled softly at him and handed him a wrapped up portion of mushrooms and meat. “Alright while you eat we will start gathering up camp, want to hand me the necklace for now?” Cromus said, holding out his hand.

  Sais easily handed it over and Cromus started dumping things into it, the necklace the goblins helped by bringing other things to them.

  After Sais ate the group seemed to be ready, Athas quickly came down to them, Henry floated to Sais, as Cromus handed over the necklace.

  “Shall we?” Cromus asked.

  “YEAH!” The group chimed as they headed out.

  The trip was pretty uneventful, they found more usable mushrooms, some berries that Cromus wanted to try using. They stopped by where Cromus and Loose tooth saw the Elemental Dreadnoughtus Titan.

  The area, you think would be bare were it laid but no, the land was lush with grass, flowers, and young trees.

  Cromus stopped and just stared.

  “Cromus you ok bro? I get its gorgeous but.” Before Sais could finish Cromus sprinted to the field and was digging at something.

  “AH HA!!!!” Cromus yeah laughing as he lifted up. “SAIS LOOK!” as he held up one of the most versatile veggies ever known to man.

  “Potatoes” Sais whispered