Chapter 342: An investigation on anomalous regions, as requested by the adventurer’s guild

Chapter 342: An investigation on anomalous regions, as requested by the adventurer’s guild

“So what do you think we should take today?”

“I vote hunting.”

“We always go hunting, I want to take it easy and do a gathering quest for a change.”

“Just let Pato decide.”

“Ha, girls, girls relax, we can figure it out when we get to the guild,” The man, Pato said to his four companions as he wore a broad grin across his face, happy to be alive even in the face of the coming war.

And why wouldn’t he be? He was well respected as one of the few rank-one adventurers, he had four beautiful companions, each wanting to be the one to get the most of his affection for the prestige it could bring them, and even over three years later now he was still happy to not only have received his second chance at life, but to be free of the suffocating culture he had been born into, getting to enjoy the far laxer one that the melting pot of a world he now lived in had produced.

Unlike the others he’d arrived with, he had decided to strike out on his own, making his way in the world instead of being tied to some dusty nation as he waited for his second death, and he’d done it for one simple reason too. Impact.The initial posting of this chapter occurred via N0v3l.B11n.

If he had been taken in anywhere, he knew he’d have just been finding himself compared to the soul mage that had arrived with his group, a thought he couldn’t stand. It was much better to be the star of his own life than the side character of someone else's, so he’d made the choice that could give him exactly what he’d wanted, and since then he’d done nothing but thrive as he completed quests and raised his fame.

“Pato!” Called out the guild worker the moment he and his group came in, waving him down with zeal as he tried to return it with his most winning smile. “I was hoping you’d come in today, we received an interesting quest that was looking for you specifically.”

“Ah, you know I get plenty of those Caxy,” He told her, waving it off. “So is it actually interesting, or just something the guild’s trying to tempt me with by dressing it up as interesting?”

“I mean, it might be interesting,” She told him, leaning in close. “A couple of deep woods expeditions have found something bizarre and we need someone to look into it. Well, both of them actually ‘cause there’s two and you’re the only one in the guild with an awakened space magic. Do it for me?”

She batted her eyes at him as she always did when she wanted to be playful and pulled a laugh from him. “Tell you what, I’ll do it if you grab drinks with me this week, what do you say?”

“Ha, I’d say your companions look ready to shoot death rays from their eyes at the thought.”

“Bah, they knew they’d have to share me when they joined up, and how could I not want to share some company with a beauty like you? What do you say? All it is is drinks.”

She pretended to think for only a moment before giving in. “Mmh, alright, just drinks for now so long as you work hard on this investigation,” She told him happily, fine to take the date and even happier knowing the task would get done.

All of them felt shaken and unsure about what they’d just seen as they moved on to the next area of investigation, not needing to take notes of the last one with it permanently lodged in their minds as they went, unable to shake the feeling of danger that such an environment had invoked for them as they traveled to what they believed would be a far easier area, where all they needed to look into was some unusual plant growth.

Pato opened portals one after another, feeling eager to get it done with to get home and enjoy the strongest alcohol he could find, only to be able to tell he’d reached their destination without needing to ask the others as he opened the next tear, trying to understand what he was seeing.

All around them, thousands and thousands of trees were growing, a huge mix of species of plants that could only exist on that patchwork planet with each of them exhibiting the same unnatural trait. On every single one of them, there were at least some branches that were growing unnaturally straight, bending at right angles to form squares and cubes of all sizes in a way he was sure couldn’t be natural.

“Maybe we found a plant mage’s garden?” He asked hesitantly, not really believing it. It wasn’t that it was impossible, he just didn’t see the point and there was more oddness that he couldn’t put his finger on as he looked around. Still, it was less immediately worrying than the last area, so while staying on guard with weapons in hand they started walking around.

Unlike the prior stretch of woods, this one seemed full of the smaller life he would expect, with rodents and insects, flying reptiles and birds, along with any other small creature to exist in the world that wouldn’t fit those categories, all making their homes there. Every tree was filled with nests. It was a living forest, and if they could have gotten past their sense of unease it would have been beautiful in its own way, but as they kept walking farther and finding no end in sight to the strange cubed trees, Galda grabbed his arm and spoke quietly for only the group to hear, seeming like she was on the verge of panic.

“Pato, we need to get out of here right the fuck now.”

“What is it?” He asked, gripping his staff to try and prepare for any attack she might have detected.

“These cubes are everywhere and there’s no way this is safe. Let's get out of here before anything happens to us too.”

He felt himself relax since it seemed like it was just the nervousness getting to her as the others tried to calm her down, even as they felt nervous themselves.

“Don’t worry so much, it will be fine.”

“Yeah, it’s just some trees.”

“Except it’s not just trees,” She hissed. “Open a portal and you all can actually look around while I’m safely on the other side of it if you don’t believe me.”

Not seeing any harm and ultimately beginning to want to get out of there himself, Pato did as he was asked, opening a portal for her to step through that was at least close to the gate if anything happened and then looking around, trying to see just what she was talking about as it all fell into horrify place.

With the branches being so clear, it was easy to miss out on the smaller details with that large one being right in front of their eyes, but as he looked past it others started to emerge. While not all of them, some of the trees were growing leaves that were misshapen in a way that could only be square, or at least nearly there, and that wasn’t all. There was plenty of life around and plenty of nests in the trees, but when he looked there was always one on each that was unusually angular no matter what creature made it, and bigger than all of the others that would be on the same plant.

It was as a chill ran down his spine and he was already forcing the rest of his teammates through the portal that his eyes focused in on something completely unrelated to the plants around, small swarms of bugs flying through the air in geometric patterns, that he resolved to take a break from his hunts for a while as they all fled, going home to drink away their memories after giving their reports and dreaming of bloody thrones and fields of cubes.