We ended up staying at the Brewery that night, in the Inn upstairs. It was a cozy little spot, but we made do. Huddled around the big fireplace with our bedrolls, it felt sort of like a sleepover.

  Except with adults, magic, and way too much beer.

  It was a good night. It was the first real night I had felt like I was on an adventure, living the life I had always dreamed of when up late playing games. Though the brewery was no Prancing Pony, and I was not on the run from malevolent wraiths… I was pleased. Not that’d I’d want to be chased by wraiths or anything.

  Just trying to make a point.

  Fantasy shit, right?

  Cyn was all aflutter after I gave her the vial, and she couldn’t stop talking about what she was going to make with it. She’d change her mind every ten minutes or so, which wasn’t a problem. Every time she did, I learned a little more about the vial’s capabilities. That one was hers, after all… the thing came from the nests she destroyed the previous day.

  But we still had a few more, and if the Flittermouse nets continued with this drop pattern, then we’d soon have more.

  We set off early the next morning, not wanting to beat around the bush with eighteen more nests to destroy. Cyn elected to stay behind, too excited about her new project. After “wasting” her first Enhancement Vial, she was determined to make good use of our gift. At the end of the night, she said something about wanting the enhancement to be “explosive” … whatever that meant.

  We were all at little mixed about Cyn staying behind, Maleena the saddest. But she wasn’t an Initiate and couldn’t take nearly as much of a beating as the rest of us. Also, we’d never seen her fight.

  So, it’d be extraordinarily dumb to take our quest giver’s niece out in the wild with us… only to get her killed.

  Cyn had more value back in town, as an alchemist than on the road. Plus, we all just… liked her. No one wanted to see her in harm’s way if we were unsure if we could protect her.

  Cyn did gift us with half a dozen of her newly crafted bombs. That would only cover about a third of our targets, but that was only dependent on if we could sneak up on the nests like we had the day before. Before we left, she asked us to keep an eye out for a few more things while out on the quest.

  Thankfully, the quest system in my HUD took care of tracking that. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have remembered after a night of copious amounts of alcohol. Approaching thirty, I couldn’t drink like I used to and my memory suffered all the worse for it.

  New Side Quest! An Alchemist’s Request.

  Retrieve the following ingredients for Cynthia Horngold:

  Magma Core: 0/2

  Elemental’s Tear: 0/1

  Hardened Elmstier Bark: 0/3

  Petrified Scarab: 0/1

  Pardoned Peach: 0/1

  Ancient Leech: 0/1

  Tin Ore: 0/10

  Lead Chunk: 0/20

  Retrieve Cyn’s ingredients and receive an updated quest.

  Upon receiving this quest, I had tried asking Cyn what the specific ingredients were for. But, at that point we were deep in our cups. I think she had said something about fire control about one of the things.

  But I couldn’t be sure.

  All I knew, mostly because my HUD knew, was that these were for the Enhancement Vials.

  The glossary told me that the ingredients were extremely rare, so I wasn’t under the impression we’d have them any time soon. A long-haul quest it was. I could live with that. Besides, if the vials were as strong as Cyn said they were, it’d be worth the wait.

  A little while into the journey East, past the first two bombed out nests. I remembered something from several days ago, before we had even left The Forest of Gene.

  “Hey Benji? Did you manage to get Cyn to identify that bloody roiling vial you got from the Canary Cave?” I asked.

  “Huh? Oh yeah. Though I’m not sure I understand it. Trelain didn’t even. And you know how long he’s been around,” Benji said.

  “Weird,” I said.

  “Super weird,” Benji said, and then pulled it out and shook it, “Anyway, what I’ve got here is my very own molting potion. The description isn’t much help either, look:”

  Molting Potion: For molting, if you’re into that.

  “Why’s your Party System so…”

  “Like me?” I answered.

  “I was going to say unhelpful,” Benji said.

  “Snarky,” Dane added.

  “Pedantic and verbose when you don’t want it to be,” Maleena called from over her shoulder.

  She was near the front, leading the group with a torch. We had gotten deep into the woods, now. And despite Benji having the Light Domain, none of his spells helped us see better… especially not Blind.

  “Overly glib,” Benji continued.

  “You guys are too nice to me,” I said, sarcastically.

  “Eh, we know,” Dane said wryly.

  “Desperate to be funny,” Benji said.

  “So, you gonna molt, Benji, or what? Because I think you should.” I said.

  -

  The first couple of nests were clustered in a clump of three… in a bog. The trees had opened up and formed a sort of ring around an ever-sinking ground. When we approached, our boots (and moccasins) squelched with ripe, grimy mud. It was still plenty light out, the sun’s rays seeping into the land around us and making shadows from the trees.

  The first Bloodthirsty Flittermice we fought were in broad daylight, though. So, anything could happen. They just naturally slept off a feeding during the day and apparently enjoyed flapping about at night.

  With all the recent kills near town, the creatures were fast asleep with blood in their bellies. The nests were built into a sinking log, with a massive and stinking pile of guano surrounding it.

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  Without saying a word, Dane held his hand out meaningfully until I pressed one of Cyn’s bombs in it. He nodded once and began the slow and methodical slog towards the compound of nests. When he got close, the mud’s squelching came up a few more decibels than he was comfortable and he stopped.

  Dane turned around, looking at us for confirmation. We were at a higher angle than he was, down in the bog, and could see if there was any movement in the log. There was not, so he continued the advance. When he got just a few paces away, he lit the fuse and summarily tossed the bomb in.

  Cyn’s device touched down with a THWUNK and we were sure that was it. Soon we’d face a horde of angry little fuckers. But thankfully the noise was from it hitting the trunk’s hollow and not a Flittermouse.

  Dane, however, widened his eyes in horror as he struggled to free himself from the bog. Instead of moving back our way, the faster he tried to go the more he sunk into the muck.

  The fuse he had lit wasn’t a long one, and it would go off any second now. We watched in abject horror as Dane continued to slide deeper and deeper into the bog until his chest met the top of the slop. He was only a few feet away from the nests, not far enough to avoid the blast himself.

  The bomb went off.

  “Dane!” Benji screamed.

  But we couldn’t see anything. The explosion had blasted bog water in all directions, accompanied by guano, Flittermouse carcasses full of blood, and wood from the stump. We covered our eyes, best we could, but the muck got everywhere. Benji cast Ice Shell on himself to avoid getting hit by any flying debris.

  Ice Shell: [Active] [Elemental/Defense Spell] [Domain: Frost] Create a protective frost barrier over yourself, invulnerable to frost damage, semi-resistant to normal attacks (Mana cost: moderate).

  Because of his quick thinking, Benji was the only one who saw what happened. When I finally regained any semblance of sight, I looked to my right to see the redhead smiling and shaking his head. A chuckle had come on, too.

  His mirth was confusing, at first.

  But then I turned to see Dane standing there, shield up around his face. He didn’t have time to cast Shield Wall, but by the looks of it The Informant had given him enough cover to compensate for his proximity to the bomb. The muck of the bog was his other savior.

  “Well, that worked out,” Dane said, smiling.

  We all just stood there dumbfounded until he spoke again, “Get me a rope, would you? I’m still sinking.”

  We happily complied.

  Nests Destroyed: 5/18

  -

  The next five nests were uneventful. Two were just north of the bog and inside separate dead trees. Electing to save the other five bombs for more clustered nests, I cast Furnace and burned each tree and their nests to ash with a touch.

  Furnace: [Active] [Elemental Spell] [Domain: Metallurgy] Engulf your body in flames as hot as your forge (Mana cost: moderate).

  Nests Destroyed: 7/18

  The other three were a quarter mile away from the ones I burned and in a rather inconvenient place. They were up in a jumble of sticks and vines and flora I didn’t know how to categorize. With the bomb tactic ruled out due to distance, and my Furnace trick not helpful, we were discussing how to best tackle the problem.

  “We could climb up there and put the bomb in, that’s all I’m saying,” Benji said, “Not me, though. Because… well..”

  “Not a good idea. Climb up there and then what? Toss the bomb and climb down before it blows you into the ground? I got lucky with what happened earlier, but even I can’t climb and hold a shield,” Dane reasoned.

  “Okay fine, what do you think Maleena?” Benji said, impatiently.

  “I guess we could fight them all? We’ve got decent positioning where we are,” she said.

  “Too risky with three nests. There’s something like thirty bats in each, if I’m understanding the loot drops so far,” I said.

  “Okay so, we shoot them?” Maleena asked, “All our ranged spells and Dane’s crossbow,” she said, nodding at his blood red bow at his side.

  “Ice Lance won’t do shit from here. And my bow would take out one or two before they got to us,” Dane said, running through the options, “GZelle, you think a flaming hammer throw would work?”

  “I donno, maybe? Maybe if you hit it again like with those Frog knight dudes,” I said.

  “I still say we—”

  Benji interrupted Maleena by casting lightning bolt.

  Lightning Bolt: [Active] [Elemental/Destruction Spell] [Domain: Shock] Hurl a bolt of lightning at a target. Shock damage. Increased damage to targets that are wet or wearing Armor (Mana cost: Low).

  The three nests when up in a burst of static that caught them on fire, almost immediately. Guts and putrid blood squirted out, fizzling with crackling energy. One or two Bloodthirsty Flittermouse escaped the nest as the rest of their mates were electrocuted.

  Dane shot one in the head, immediately.

  The other screeched loudly and started flapping angrily towards us, claws outstretched. Dane got that one too.

  Nests Destroyed: 10/18

  “Benji?!” Maleena exclaimed.

  “What?! We’re wasting time arguing. We’ve got, what, eight more to go? It’s getting dark and you know I don’t want to be here after dark,” Benji yelled, rounding on her.

  “Damn, sorry… I’m just asking for a little warning,” Maleena said.

  Benji sighed, wiped his face, and ran a hand through is hair. His whole demeanor changed back to the normal, kind, jovial Benji.

  “You’re right, of course. I’m sorry. Of course you’re right. I just… really… don’t like those things,” Benji said, exhaustion after his outburst evident on his face.

  “It’s alright buddy, we’ll handle the next few,” Dane said.

  “Thanks,” Benji said, sitting down on his heels.

  We gave him a minute to catch his breath. Eventually he looked up at us, all trying to nonchalantly give him space.

  “Gotta admit, though. That felt great!”

  -

  We had eight more nests to destroy, and it was close to around midafternoon. The winged horrors were spread all throughout this forest, making the job not so simple a task.

  Though we knew it’d become even harder at night. So, we pressed on, only stopping to drink some water and eat a few sticks of jerky.

  Dane found a random peach tree, and we ate a few of those while walking through the woods. There were a few extra, so I put them in my inventory. The group had decided before the trip to use my dimensional inventory space as our team storage, since it was bigger. So, I was stuck carrying around the stacks of bones, flittermouse wings, and other drops. They’d keep theirs clear for the good loot.

  I reminded myself to check out the stuff from the last several nests we destroyed, later. We were mostly concerned with speed at the moment. Though, ever the loot bug, I was excited to see what we got.

  I wondered if there were any skill books or uncommon drops that might be helpful in the upcoming fights. But I elected to wait. We had what we needed at the moment and anything else would be a bonus later on.

  Nest eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen were all in a straight line on the way to a cluster of what looked like the remaining four. Each nest was in a tree, an overly woody bush, wedged between two boulders, or one time in a decrepit outhouse.

  Depending on who was closer to the target, we’d them out accordingly. Though Dane didn’t have a large multitarget attack spell.

  So, he mostly did the directing.

  Benji fried one with a lightning bolt. Maleena took a nest out with a combination of Windsheer and Ice Lance. I burned two of them to a crisp. It was pretty quick work, in all honesty.

  If I was playing a game with my ass on my couch back home, I would have been yawning.

  Not that I wasn’t having a good time. Well, except for the looting exploded Flittermouse corpses.

  That part was gross.

  Really, really gross.

  Nests Destroyed: 14/18

  “You would think this would’ve been harder,” Benji was saying, now gaining quite a bit of confidence around the winged bloodsuckers.

  “Hey shh, don’t do it now,” I warned.

  “Seriously though, this is easy. Where’s the challenge?” Benji continued.

  “It hasn’t been a total walk in the park,” Dane said, probably thinking back to being stuck in the bog.

  “Yeah, I guess. But… I donno. It’s been kinda quiet…” Benji said.

  “Aw now you had to go and say it, didn’t you?” I whined, half joking.

  “Say what?!”

  “Benji, you never tempt fate like that. How do you not know this? Listen, when we’d be out on the rig, jumping from minor scratch to broken wrist call… you’d never say it. Never say the night is slow. Never say it’s not that bad. And you never, ever say it’s quiet. Because, Benji. It can always… ALWAYS… be worse,” I said, raising my voice a little too loud for the rapidly approaching dusk.

  “Okay, sorry. I’m just saying. We’ve made good time. We’ve got four left to go, I don’t see what the big deal is about celebrating the wins,” Benji said.

  “We can celebrate when we’re done,” Dane said, out in front and scanning the upcoming clearing and planning our approach.

  The cluster of four was just North of us, in the little clearing with all of them crammed in between a couple of boulders that had fallen from the cliff above. It was a small cliff, and the forest kept going up the hill in that direction.

  But the clearing had a backdrop of cold, hard earth. Which was good, in a way. That meant that there was nowhere to go for the Bloodthirsty Flittermouse but towards our frontal assault. But that also meant there was no sneaking around behind them.

  We had a couple of Cyn’s bombs left and had debated just keeping them for another quest down the road.

  But it was getting dark, fast.

  If we didn’t bust up those nests soon, there’d be some one hundred and twenty odd blood hungry winged beasts in the air. Once they were up, it was hard to target them. Especially for our power suites.

  So, we were keen to get it done quickly.

  Just as we rounded the last tree, the last vestiges of light that were illuminating the clearing like some holy sign… faded. A few heartbeats later, the world filled with a horrible screeching. The nests began to pulsate with movement. The air in the forest grew thick with a musty odor, coppery and tangy.

  In an instant, the sky was filled with tiny, winged monsters hungry for blood. They hadn’t seen us yet, but it was only a matter of time.

  Waiting for Dane to call the shots, and never wanting to miss an opportunity to harass my new friend, I calmly turned to Benji and said,

  “That, my friend, is why you don’t say it.”