Hidden Boss

It had been a few days since Evelyn had entered the forest by now. She kept using her ability 'steal life force' on any vegetation she passed, and it appeared it had no restriction on how much it could be used.

At least, she hadn't felt any of the fatigue she usually felt after using heal for too long.

She had felt it often when she first started to heal for her parents in her past life. She would often have to spend time recovering after seeing patients.

She also kept trying to eat any plant life she passed along the way. She had stopped a few times, when night came and it became too dark for her to see where her feet were treading, but she felt no fatigue.

The ability felt like a cheat, but maybe that was the strength of a class gotten from a hidden legendary quest.

Opening up her information page, Evelyn saw the changes to her health stat.

Name: Evelyn

Race: Human

Title: Returned (L)

Age: 19

Level: 1

Class: Black Healer (Healer)

Stats: STR: 1 DEX: 1 CON: 3 INT: 3 WIS: 3 CHA: 2 Health: 20 (+76) Mana: 20

Skills: Basic heal, Wound care, Steal life force

Her basic stats hadn't changed, but her health stat now had a (+76) behind it from her use of the ability steal life force.

"I wonder…" she mumbled to herself, "what the benefits of the (+76) is…"

As Evelyn continued walking through the forest, leaving a trail of dead trees and vegetation behind her, she had no idea of the commotion she had caused for the group behind her.

***

"What the hell is this?!" a muscular man shouted as he looked around him. He had short hair and a longsword on his back.

Beside him stood four other people, two men and two women, all looking at the dead flowers.

They had purposefully come to the meadow on the first floor to collect the purple and yellow flowers that were only produced here.

"Why the fuck is the flowers all dead?? What will we do if all the rest flowers die as well?! How the hell are we going to make potions in the future?"

The man looked at his companions, worry etched into his face.

One of the women in his party looked around, examining the dead flowers. As she tried to touch them, they crumbled underneath her hand, turning to dust.

"They're not just dead," she told her companions as she touched another flower, "they are all completely crisp, as if they have been dried out."

"What does that matter? The reason why there they are dead doesn't change the fact that they are dead and our resources for making potions are disappearing."

They had all come back to the first floor just to get these flowers. They needed them to fight against the elemental wolves on the seventh floor.

Their group took great pride in being some of the forerunners in the tower. The highest floor anyone had announced completing was the ninth floor, and they were already on the seventh. The reason they were behind was only because of the elemental disadvantages against the wolves.

From what they had gathered they would mostly meet different types of wolves for the next few floors, and those wolves would also be different elemental types.

"It is important, David," she countered exasperated. "The fact that they are dried out, and if you look a bit farther, seem to follow a path, means that there isn't any disease among the flowers."

She pointed towards the path she had seen, showing it to her party members.

"So, I don't think we need to worry about the flowers running out and disappearing. Rather, we should make some potions now and follow the path," she continued excited.

"Follow the path? Are you serious Andrea?" David asked incredulous. "Shouldn't we just collect the flowers so that we can continue on the seventh floor? We need to quickly catch up to those red bastards. I can't stand that they have come further up the tower than us!"

"Of course we should follow the path! We need to find out what it is that is drying up the flowers. It might be a hidden boss or something! We could end up getting a hidden achievement defeating it!"

Andrea's cheeks were now tinted pink in her excitement.

"Can you all imagine? A hidden boss. A special achievement. A monster no one else has encountered or defeated before!"

"Andrea, how can you be so sure it is a hidden boss," one of the other men in the party asked. He was a tall, lanky man with long auburn hair. He was standing closely beside the other woman, who shared a striking resemblance to him.

"Yeah, how can you be so certain?" she echoed, clearly siding with the lanky man.

"Tom, Tammy," Adrea started, still excited. "This tower is like a video game, right? So, doesn't it reason that there would be hidden bosses and special achievements?"

Seeing that they were starting to agree with her, she decided to drive her point home. "Consider how many times we have visited this meadow now. There has never been a phenomenon like this before. This is also not a natural occurrence. The flowers aren't sick but have rather been dried up making a path towards the forest. This means that something has dried up the flowers along its way."

She smiled. "And since it starts in the middle of the meadow, that means that it's probably a monster that has spawned. A person, or a climber, would have arrived closer to one of the slime fields once they went through the portal. And if it really was the ability of a climber, wouldn't they have started at the outskirts of the meadow, and not in the middle of it?".

Andrea sucked in a large breath of air, having become short of breath from her quick barrage of words.

"Hmm… It does make sense, I guess?" David answered uncertainly, scratching his head.

"I guess it so…" Tom agreed, Tammy nodding along to his words.

"And what do you think, Matthew?" Andrea asked the last guy in their group.

He was the tallest in the group and his sandy hair gave off a refreshing feeling. If you just looked at him, he seemed like any other good-looking guy. The type one would often find at bars and such establishments, flirting with abandon.

But Matthew just nodded to Andrea, not a change in his expression.

"Quiet as always, as expected," Andrea laughed before clapping her hands. "Then I guess it's decided," she smiled. "We will first collect flowers to make some additional potions before heading out in search of the hidden boss!"