Chapter 31 -Litle test.

"Help out you say? Well having more people is always good, but what do you exactly mean?" – asked commander Alex.

"Well, like you said you don't have enough people, right? I can try maybe attacking the enemy and weaking as much as I can. Since you can't leave this place anyway, its good deal, right? I maybe be even able to take out enemy leader if I'm lucky." – said Forge.

"Hm…."

"It's true. We can't dispatch any guards to deal with the threat because we need to hold this outpost all the time."

"However, sending just a one person won't be enough. So, I don't know if its good idea."

(NPCs right now are nothing like they were before, they are like real people right now. I guess I need find a way to convince him.)

"Could you please wait a moment? I will be right back."

Forge got up and left the room.

(He said sending me alone won't be enough. So maybe if I bring someone with me, I will be able to be more convincing.)

(Maybe somebody from the group could help me out.)

Forge begin calling everybody in the group.

Sometime later.

"…."

"!"

"They here." – said Forge while spotting some people approaching from afar.

The figures approached the outpost while the Forge waited near the entrance. 

"Sup." – said Avalanche.

[Avalanche] – [Level 82]

[Job Classes: [Warrior – Level 10/10] [Shield User – Level 20/20] [Axe User – Level 10/20] [Orc Warrior – Level 10/10] [Frozen Mounty Orc Warrior – Level 10/20] [Fighter – Level 10/10] [Soldier – Level 12/20.]

"Sorry for the delay. Those lizards were really annoying to deal with." – said Try.

[Try] – [Level 81]

[Job Classes: [Priest Of Light – Level 10/10] [Devoted Priest Of Light – Level 20/20] [Priest Of Light – Path Of Hope – Level 10/20] [Priest Of Darkness – Level 10/10] [Devoted Priest Of Darkness – Level 20/20] [Priest Of Darkness – Path Of Suffering – Level 10/20] [Priest Of Light And Dark – Level 1/20]

"Well, the only good thing about them is that there are slow and are big. I can fire my spells at them without much problem." – said Phiul.

[Phiul] – [Level 82]

[Job Classes: [Mage – Level 10/10] [Fire Mage – Level 20/20] [Advance Fire Mage – Level 20/20] [Earth Mage – Level 20/20] [Advance Earth Mage – Level 12/20]

"Thanks that you came guys." – said Forge.

"No problem. If anything, we may be able to get something ourselves by helping you." – said Avalanche.

"It's shame that others couldn't come because they were dealing with their own quests right now. I guess we will have to manage somehow by ourselves." – said Try.

"Welp, let's hope so. Come. Commander Alex, the guy that run this place needs to see you. I already told him about you guys."

Forge led the group to the outpost to meet up with the commander Alex.

"So, you are the wanderers that are willingly to help out huh?"

"I should probably introduce myself. I'm commander Alex of the Bronze Wood City private army."

"Greetings. I'm Avalanche. The girl here is Phiul and that guy here is Try."

"Hi." – said Phiul.

"Hello." – said Try.

"Hm….." 

"Well then. Before we do anything, I got to test you out. The mission I want to give you isn't easy one. I need to see if you are strong enough for the task. I saw Forge fighting and I know that he can handle himself, but I have yet to see you fight. You don't mind testing you out?" – said commander Alex.

Avalanche, Phiul and Try looked at each other's eyes.

"No problem. So, when do we start?" – asked Avalanche.

Moments later.

"The test is simple. Those two soldiers over here will be your opponents. The battle will be one vs one combat. Defeat them and we can talk. Simple?" – said commander Alex.

Try doesn't take part in the test since he is support.

Avalanche was facing off against heavy armored soldier wielding a great sword, while Phiul was facing off against the mage wearing a pointy hat.

"First round will be between Avalanche and Eren."

"Both sides are ready?"

Both man titled their head in response.

"Then…. Begin!"

As soon as commander Alex gave signal, the first one to make the move was the soldier caring the great sword. 

Despised caring a great sword and wearing a heavy armor, the soldiers was quiet was fast despised his appearance and in just matter of seconds, he manage to close the gab distance.

The soldier then lifted his giant and tried slashing Avalanche with it, he in response lifted his giant rectangle shield and blocked the attack.

"Tch."

The moment the sword attack was blocked by the rectangle shield, the outer parts of the shields on left and right side with the blades sticking out from it, launched and flipped like a bear trap, catching and trapping the sword in their grasp.

"The hell- "

Avalanche quickly pulled the shield with the trapped sword and the soldier holding the sword, tossing the soldier to the ground and before soldier could get up from the ground, Avalanche swinged his axe straight at the soldier head.

"…. I think I won."

Avalanche axe landed right next to the soldier head, not killing him.

"…. A-Avalanche won!" – said commander Alex.

"Yikes. I assume that shield was your creation." – said Try.

"Yeb. It's called trap shield. Simple put it's a shield that is also a bear trap. Avalanche can manually set the shield to activate or can make it to automatically active the moment something powerful hit the shield." – responded Forge.

"Huh. It was quiet nasty. The fight didn't even lasted minute."

"Em…. I was not expecting that. Anyway! Next fight! Phiul versus Agnus. Please step in." – said commander Alex.

Phiul and the mage stepped onto the field while Avalanche and soldier left it.

"For some reason, I don't I will like this." – said the Agnus.

"Both sides ready?"

Both sides titled their head.

"Then…. Begin!"

"[Fire Bomb]!" 

The first one to make the move was Phiul. She shot fire type spell [Fire Bomb]. In response the mage used the [Mana Shield] to defend himself from the attack. When the projectile hit the mage shield, the explosion of flames happened caused by the Phiul spell. 

When the flames disappeared, the mage tried counter attacking, but before he could finish casting the spell, the ground behind him formed and attacked him right in the back.

(SHIT! [Earth Strike]?! The first attack was distraction!)

The mage tried regaining his focus, but before he could do that, he saw another projectile made out of fire right in front of him.

(Oh. I can't defend. Mommy.)

The attack hit directly the mage, damaging him and before he realized, Phiul aimed an earth spell at him while he was laying on the ground.

"Give up?"

"Y-yes!" 

"…"

"W-winner Phiul!" 

(…. I kind of feel bad for those two. Both fights didn't even last a minute and they got owned like nothing, that will probably hurt their pride like hell.) – though Forge.

"O-okay…. I saw and now know that you can handle yourself. Well then please fallow me." – said commander Alex.

Group fallowed the commander Alex back to his office.

"Okay. I think you want to get straight down for the business. So then let's talk."

"Forge told me that he explained the current situation to you and what sort of monsters we are dealing with."

"With that in mind, are you sure you want to continue?"

"Yea." – said Try.

"Pretty much." – said Avalanche.

"Well that is the reason we came here." – said Phiul.

"Well then, let me give your first assignment."

"Your first target is the living trees leader, the living tree that went rouge and fused itself with the device that creates living trees. Right now, he possess bigger threat to us than those lizards. It needs to be stopped before it creates way too many living trees and we get overwhelmed by them. The main threat that living trees possess is their leader that possess the device. Once the leader dies and the device is dealt with, there will be no longer problem with new living trees being created."

[The quest have been generated.]

[Adventure Quest: Forest Problem – Living Trees.]

[The Bronze Wood City had major problem of reclaiming their territory after the tree eating lizards took over. In their desperation they made the deal with Ahrj kingdom, those useless prideful elves screwed up big times and now there is living trees monster problem.]

[Complete Condition: Find and slay the living trees leader and destroy or bring back the device that allowed the monster to create the living trees.]

[Failure condition: The emergency defense outpost destruction.]

[Reward: ???]

[This is shared quest with players: Phiul, Avalanche, Try and Forge.]

"I will send some of my men to accompany you and lead you to the main territory of the living trees where that living tree with the device should be. Please deal with that monster first." – said commander Alex.

"Good luck."

The entire group left the office and waited outside of the outpost.

"Its still bit hard to get used to the NPCs." – said Phiul.

"I get you. Well, at least the city is more lively now. I think it was bit more weird with only players acting and everything and just having NPCs everywhere acting like dolls. It was kind of creepy. The NPCs back then were giving me the creeps." – said Try. 

"…"

"So. While we wait, can you tell me how the tests went by?" – asked Forge.

"Hm? Oh, that. Well, we have to wait anyway, so let's do it."– said Avalanche.

"What two are you talking about, if I may ask?" – said Try.

"Oh. Well Forge asked me to test out some stuff he made in the field. Axes, shields and some other stuff. I'm supposed to find out how effective those weapons were and all. He in return gives me bit of the discount for some stuff. Pretty simple deal."

"I see…. Hey, do you have any stuff you want us to test out?" – asked Phiul.

"Sorry, but no. I don't have any weird spellcaster weapon or others things you can test out."

"Oh…"

"Anyway, how did the shield test went?"

"Did it worked well or is there anything to work on?"

"Hm…... First thing first the weight of the shield is problem. It weighs more than normal great shield."

"All of my classes gives me nice boost to [Strength] and all, but the weights still bothers me."

"The great shield users are believed to be slow and all, but they do need bit of speed so they can quickly change location and defend others."

"I'm the great shield user, but I focus on the defense and attack power. I also need bit more speed than other shield focused classes because of that. For people like me, this shield is bad choice, the benefits it gives is bit too small in the exchange for speed."

"The other problem is that targets can break free after few seconds or instantly, it all depends on how physically strong the target it. Don't take it wrong, but that shield kind of sucks."

"I see. Well, I was kind of expecting that." – said Forge.

"The shield doesn't have enough energy or power. The trap doesn't have enough power to hold strong enough, so it's not like it's hard to escape or anything, that guy you fought could probably escape if had time. I also tested it on myself once and didn't had much trouble escaping."

"Most of the energy is used when this thing is activating the launch mechanism, so I was kind of thinking that the holding power will be bit lacking. On top of that, the trap needs to be manually set and all."

"So, you are saying the shield isn't worth using because of the weight and grip power of the trap, right?"

"Yea. Don't take it wrong, but during the hunts the shield wasn't that good or anything, sometimes it hindered hunting even. Maybe if I had higher [Strength] stat and all, caring this thing wouldn't be that much of the problem."

"On top of that it would be nice if I could set the shield mechanism faster or it does that automatically. I don't have time to set it up my self when I'm fighting nonstop and because of that I rarely used that trap mechanism and all."

"Hmm... I see. Well, I may be able to make shield lighter and have more powerful grip. There is material called green iron, its way lighter than regular metals and more powerful, it should deal with the weight problem and all, but the problem is mana."

"I need higher grade mana stones, but so far, I couldn't get any D rank ones. Without them, the grip power of the trap will be still the same. And about that automatically setting up, I'm currently doing experiments with it, but it will take time before I manage making one."

"Oh. Well, if you manage to make to make that, let me know, I maybe will buy it from you." – said Avalanche.

"No problem. One more thing. Here is the shield you wanted per out little deal. It doesn't have any special mechanism or something, but it's still good shield that entirety focus on the defense."

Forge handed over the great shield to the Avalanche and Avalanche gave back the trap shield to the Forge.

"Nice. This will do. If something, contact me if you want me to test out anything else." – said Avalanche.

While the group was chatting between themselves, a pair of soldiers came out from outpost and headed their way.

"By the look of things our guides are coming. Get up." – said Avalanche.

The pair of soldiers approached the group.

"Greetings. Commander Alex ordered us to show you the way to the living tree territory. Are you ready to go out right now?" – asked one of the soldiers.

"Yea, we are ready." – said Avalanche.

"Well then. Fallow us."

The group begin fallowing the pair of soldiers while leaving the area.

Sometime later.

"Huh, by any chance we are in the tree eating lizards' territory? This part of area is the complete waste land, not even bits of grass remains or anything." – asked Forge.

"Nope. We are not. If anything, we should by now enter living tree territory." – responded one of the soldier.

"Are you sure? I mean, should this place be, you know, green?" – said Phiul.

"That is because of that living tree leader. It is absorbing life and mana from surrounding area so he can create an army. Its causing everything besides trees to die out. It is the reason why this place looks like wasteland."

"That monster is currently bigger threat than those lizards. The longer it lives the more living trees we will have to deal with and more damage will be done to area as well. Literally here there was a forest with animals and trees, but now? Just look at what that monster did to us!"

"…. Wow. I wasn't expecting for the plant monster to make area into wasteland of all things." – said Try.

"But aren't the those aren't those monsters a plants? Doesn't that kind of environment harmful for them?"

"Well, not exactly. They have area that could be called their base is one of the spots where we harvested bronze trees and magic trees. By the look of things, it takes much longer to turn those species of trees into magic trees."

"The environments there are probably still good and all for them, there is even a lake there near it. If they didn't had that terrain then they wouldn't be able to fight at top shape against us. When they are not attacking us, they just stay in that place."

"You will noticed their base right away, it's a forest surrounded by wasteland." – said the soldier.

"I think this mission is time based. If we drag this for too long it won't be good." – said Avalanche to the group.

"I think so too. It maybe bit similar to that quest I was doing with kobolds." – said Forge.

"He also said that the longer they live the more damage they cause. This is just a theory, but maybe if we finish this thing early, the rewards will be way better. The reward is unknown and there was some quests in beta where the better you done the job, the better the rewards. Since less trees will be turned into monsters and less damage will be done to the territory if we finish fast, the rewards may end up becoming better." – said Avalanche.

"What do you think guys? Should we try to aim only for the boss only?" – asked Avalanche.

"Sounds good." – said Phiul.

Avalanche closed the distance between him and two the two soldiers.

"Excuse me. I have some questions regarding the enemy. When it comes to the living trees, how intelligent are they? Do they have any form of detection ability or something?" – asked Avalanche.

"Well, from what I can tell after fighting them for long time, they are not very smart, but they are tough and can hit hard. As for the detection, they don't possess one. They relays on their sight and hearing, but they are not perfect. As long as you don't make very loud sound like big explosion going off or something, then you won't have to deal with having to fight with."

"Hm… Our objective is to only kill their leader and deal with the device that made the problem, right? Is it possible to sneak into that place?" – said Avalanche.

"You can try, but the area will probably be swarming with the living trees and all." – said other soldier.

"What about the enemy leader location?"

"Don't know. He could be anywhere. All we know is that he is inside of that forest."

"Stop." – said the soldier.

"See that place over there in the distance? That is the place we just talked about."

"You probably won't encounter any living trees until you get inside there. So, make sure you are ready before going near that place."

"If there is nothing else you want, then we will be going back to the outpost."

"No. We think we will manage." – said Avalanche.

"Well then. We hope that you succeed."

The two soldiers left the group and headed back towards the outpost.

"Well then. Let's go." – said Avalanche.