Honestly, just walking around, taking in the forest felt nice. Especially after the constant battles of the last two days. Mark seemed to be a bit more quiet too. Maybe he was so tired of the two constant yapping that came from being in a bigger group? I couldn’t really blame him, even if I’d grown a little bit fond of Crudia.

  The forest stretched for a long while, slowing my path. It took about two hours to even reach the end of it, but once I did, I was rewarded by a sight more beautiful than any other.

  A field of flowers just went for forever, bathing the field in red and violet. The flowers were EVERYWHERE, fragrant all the way from where I stood. This whole scenery made me wonder- why not build out base here? Instead of the kinda-boring forest? I much preferred it to the trees, even if those had their own vibe to them as well.

  "That’s… gorgeous. Don’t you think so, Shrimpie?"

  "It is. I wouldn’t have thought that you would appreciate it that much too. Thought you liked your city life and such."

  He smiled. "I used to go camping with my dad a lot when I was younger. I’ve seen a lot of beautiful flower fields, but never one that was this vibrant. Can you pick up one of the flowers? Maybe they are usable in some potions."

  Would I have to listen to a sob story? I didn’t feel like listening to a sob story. He didn’t continue though, so I went with the diplomatic option of ignoring half of what he’d said. "Shouldn’t you know about how to craft potions? Like what the ingredients look like and such?"

  "There were no pictures in the guides. I’m doing my best, okay?"

  Sheesh, okay Mr. Prickly. I was just asking questions!.

  "Just do it, please?"

  Ugh, fine. Flower picking I go. It definitely didn’t make me happy to take a few of these flowers into my inventory. Definitely NOT! Okay, who was I lying to. I wanted them. Wanted them now. Oh god maybe I could use some for a decoration of sorts. The colors of my skin were beautiful for sure, but I reckoned that these flowers might end up enhancing even my perfect complexion.

  Maybe I could give some to Crudia as well. Surely even she would appreciate the beauty of these. I was just about to use [Analyze] on one of them when Mark interrupted.

  "Get down, Shrimpie!"

  I did so as quickly as I could, no questions asked. If Mark seriously began helping out, who was I to refuse? I listened for any sounds that could tell me what he warned me about.

  "Tengus, Shrimpie," he said, looking over the flowers. If only I could get an ability that would let me take his state for a while. What a great scouting tool.

  He went on, not lifting his gaze from the enemies not far away. "It’s a bit weird. Weren’t they level 5 two days ago?"

  I tried to remember, but there were so many numbers flying about these last two days that I had trouble keeping up with all of them, and that was without having to remember the less useful ones. "I think so? I remember them being a level higher than Crudia."

  "They are level 7 now. That… doesn’t make sense. Why would they level up?"

  Dude, you should be the one to have the answer for that.

  Who was I, some kind of an Exercia guru? I didn’t know anything about the vast majority of things going on. And the things I did know, I didn’t know that well. It felt like every time I learned something new, there were ten new things to learn just beyond the corner, waiting to jump at me and put my life in danger once again.

  "I don’t know Mark. Maybe they killed some other creatures and leveled up?"

  He shook his head, confusion visible. "No, no, no. That’s not it. The creatures shouldn’t be able to gain levels. That’s not how most survival games work, and the written guides mentioned nothing like that as well. It’s almost like…"

  "Like the difficulity is increasing?"

  Mark remained silent, which was answer enough. Well, that wasn’t that good. Or was it? Would them increasing in level mean that they’d give more XP?

  See, this is just the damn thing I was talking about. I learn one thing, opens up other questions. Frustrated, I just let the matter be, and stood up, deciding that the Tengus must have passed already. I was right.

  I didn’t even see the Tengus, dang it. Whatever. I let Mark contemplate, think of strategies or whatever, and plucked up one of the crimson red flowers.

  [The Vasdii Flower]

  Type: Alchemical solution

  A legend somewhere in the universe says that getting buried in a field of these flowers guarantees you a second chance at life and gets rid of all the sins in your body.

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  We’re happy to confirm that this legend is complete bullshit. The Vasdii flowers are invasive species that rely on herbivores eating them so they may spread their seeds. The fact that they have healing properties makes them so popular in the fauna that they’ve basically dominated the landscape of this continent.

  Just don’t tell the part about the legend being crap to the residents. They don’t take well to it.

  Can be used in crafting.

  It seemed that Mark was right on the mark with his deduction then. I picked up like a hundred of them in the next few minutes, definitely not giggling at the tickly sensation that came from making skin contact with them.

  "Mark, I’m done plucking up some flowers. What’s next?"

  God, that man was still lost in thought, looking over the never-ending horizon. Was that how all humans were? Learn something new, and then just crash and freeze? How fragile.

  Finally shaking himself, he pointed to somewhere in the distance. "Good job on the flowers. We’ll make some potions later today if Crudia and Talisha bring everything we need. What we’ll do next is scout the area. Those mountains should be a good vantage point, don’t you think?"

  I looked where he was pointing again, and saw that he wasn’t pointing at whatever was beyond the field of flowers. Instead, he pointed at the volcano that stretched to the sky.

  "You can’t be serious. I am NOT climbing that. Do you know how hard it is to walk in this body? WALK, Mark. Not climb mountains or volcanoes."

  He shrugged. "Those skills and skill levels won’t appear on their own. There might be some material on top of it, or at least we’ll see more."

  "No."

  "It’s not that high, I promise!"

  "No." What was this guy not getting about my answer? It was a no, and nothing could change it, ever. Was this a scheme in which he’d tell me about a terrible proposition first, just to downplay it by making it less of a chore? A no was a no.

  Besides, I was kind of enjoying walking around the forest.

  "Hmm.. I’ll teach you how to take those flowers and make body paint out of them. How to pain-"

  I was sprinting toward the cliff before he finished the sentence.

  Oh. My. God. I could make myself look more fabulous with these flowers in a way that I didn’t even realize was possible. The possibilities were endless. I was undoubtedly to be the champion of this whole thing, but with the possibility of enhancing my charm, I would undoubtedly be remembered for eons to come.

  Climbing was just like walking, no matter what I said to Mark. I was just being lazy. But this truly ended up being the motivation I needed. Maybe he should do it more often. Perhaps it would be a bit more bearable to listen to his droning then.

  I kept climbing, the cliff getting steeper with every passing moment. But soon enough, my hand reached out to grab another rock, and found air there instead. I was up! Finally.

  Shaky breath escaped my lips, just as Mark floated in front of me. I knew what evolution I wanted right then and there. A bird. If I got wings, I would be able to dominate all three spheres - Land, water and air. It was a bit astounding that it took me this long to realize this fact. How would I be able to fight birds? Or bats or whatever else.

  I wanted to ask Mark, but he was already deep in thought, typing something I couldn’t see into his stat view interface, looking over everything around us.

  That was okay. I could ask him later. Instead I joined him in the survey of our surroundings, looking for nothing in particular. I honestly just wanted to see how the area looked, if it fit my aesthetics.

  To where we came from, there was the field of flowers, followed by the trees. A bit more in the back I could see the river where I caught the crabs, and somewhere near must have been my base, though I could not see it.

  Other than that, there were a few things I could see in the other directions, On the west there was a swamp, the trees much more sparse, the colors much less vivid. But hey, it was water at least. On the other side there was some kind of weird grass that grew in patches of black. I’ve never seen grass up until two days ago, yet I immediately recoiled at the thought of black grass. What the hell was wrong with it?

  "Why the fuck is the grass black? Mark exclaimed, as if reading my mind. Yeah, you tell them! Weirdo gods with their weirdo grass.

  "Beats me. Tell me when you figure it out."

  Welp, that was enough sightseeing for now. I began picking up rocks and analyzing them, trying to look for anything at least remotely useful. The crater of the volcano was honestly less wide than I’d expected it to be - it only made up about one third of the surface of the mountain, leaving it to look as if unfinished.

  Soon enough, I filled my inventory with a new item called [Mysterious ore], whatever that meant. What was the point of [Analyze] if it could not even tell me what it was?

  I was just about to ask Mark if we could go back, but he beat me to it. "Let’s get back, Shrimpie. We don’t want to be caught away from your base once the night comes."

  I nodded and followed him. And then I realized I had a really thick piece of treebark in my inventory. And also realized that I have this knowledge about the activity that the humans called snowboarding.

  I took it out, and prepared for the slide. Mark looked at me, trying to decipher what exactly it was that I was about to do.

  His horrified expression showed that he finally understood. “No, Shrimpie…”

  And I was off. For about five meters, that is, before I fell down on my face. The damage was negligible, however, and so I tried again. And again. Aaaand again. It took me about eight attempts before it could actually be called snowboarding and not a weird form of self-abuse, but the experience was well worth it.

  If you’ve never slid down a mountain, then let me tell you that you’ve been missing out. It was the single most fun experience I’ve had here in my new life. I honestly thought about going back up just to do it again, but we simply didn’t have enough time, much to my dissatisfaction.

  Mark chose to distract me from the idea by talking about his new findings. "Well, that was more fruitful than I thought it would be.”

  “How so?” Seriously, how? We didn’t see much except the bog and the weird black grass.

  “Did you not see? In the swamp?” He watched me closely, and sighed. “There were Carp men there. Hundreds of them, moving around a hole in the ground.”

  “And that helps us because?”

  Whatever the answer was, Mark didn’t answer. Instead, he stopped, looking dead straight into my eyes. What was his deal?

  Oh, did he want me to answer for him? But that was his role! I did the punching, and he was supposed to do the thinking.

  Okay, whatever. I thought back on the message I got from the Carp men, and the meaning of his words struck me instantly.

  "Oh. We’ve found our first boss then."