An Unbound Soul

I sat in the guild bar with the rest of my party, sipping a glass of cider. Another day of grinding the same floors of the same dungeon, returning to the same guild hall, drinking the same drink. Later I'd return to the same home, sleep in the same bed, and start the whole thing over tomorrow. It's so boring! We need a bit of excitement! Of course, the rest of my team would disagree. Xander would say that boring is safe and excitement gets you killed. Alas, he's right; I'm not strong enough to go anywhere else. The dungeon here is low level, just like me. Once I reach rank three, I'll be able to think about moving, but for now, boring is my life. I just wish something interesting would happen.

"Oi! Xander! The guild master is calling for you. Bring your party."

I closed my eyes and wished really hard for a million gold, but nothing happened. Damn, for a moment there I thought I'd gained magical wishing powers. Xander was looking surprised, so this was obviously something unexpected. What did the guild master want with a party like ours?

When we arrived in his room, the guild master was wearing his unhappy you're-making-me-do-work expression, and he wasn't alone. I didn't recognise his visitor, and a glance around our group was enough to tell me that no-one else did either, so I fired off [Appraisal].

Henry, Human, Trader (14/24)

A rank two trader. What business did he have in the guild?

"Xander, this is Henry. Henry, Xander and his team. Xander, I'm dispatching your party to deal with a new mana field that's opened up on our western border. Strictly speaking, it's in elven territory, but it's directly threatening one of our villages, so we'll deal with it ourselves before it grows. Henry, would you please repeat the details?"

"Of course. Monsters were encountered in the forest bordering our village by a couple of women who were out foraging. Given the frequency with which people forage in the forest, the mana field should be less than a week old or someone would have run across it before now. On fleeing, the women were followed by a group of about thirty slimes, which our villagers were able to dispatch without injury or property damage. We currently have villagers standing guard over the side facing the forest and have evacuated our children to a safe place, but no-one has ventured back into the forest."

"Wow, how slow were those women to be pursued by slimes?"

Everyone turned around to stare at me, and it took me a few seconds to realise that I'd spoken that out loud. Oops... Stupid mouth, stop saying everything I'm thinking before you get me into trouble! Anyway, everyone else must be thinking the same thing. Slimes are slow. A child could out-walk one!

"The women made it back to the village long before the slimes arrived. We had enough time to gather a fighting force before they even reached our fields, hence the lack of damage."

Huh? Right, check my mouth is switched off. Yes it is. Good. Safe to keep thinking. That's not possible; monsters only pursue what they can sense. Slimes can't track and have no long range senses. If the women were that far ahead, the slimes would have returned to the mana field, not slowly made their way to the village.

"That's strange behaviour. Unintelligent monsters only pursue enemies that are in their line of sight. If the women pulled that far ahead of them, they should have stopped following and returned to the mana field. Slimes aren't capable of tracking. Did you appraise the monsters?"

Dammit Xander, that's exactly what I was thinking. Stop stealing my glory! Maybe I should have said that one out loud after all.

"Yes. There were two people capable of using [Appraisal] in the fight, and both reported that the monsters identified as level one slimes. While we do have someone in our village capable of using [Analysis], he didn't make it to the defence before the fight was over."

"And this is the reason I'm dispatching your team rather than a group of rookies that would normally be sufficient to dispatch some slimes. You'll be leaving first thing in the morning."

"Not immediately?"

"Even if you left now, it would be dark by the time you entered the forest. If monsters are behaving abnormally, I want you there during daylight. I'll prepare horses for your transport."

"As you wish. Okay team, you've heard our orders. Go and rest up, and we'll meet here crack of dawn tomorrow."

Well... Not quite the level of excitement I was hoping for; I can't imagine slimes being interesting, however oddly they behave. I'll take what I can get, though, and at least it'll be a day off from the dungeon tomorrow. I downed my glass of cider and headed back home with slightly lifted spirits. Who knows; we might even discover some new species of bloodhound slime or something. They can't have appraised all thirty. There might have been a variant mixed in.

Next morning came, and I was up before dawn to get armoured and ready. I wish my armour was easier to get on; every morning I regret forgoing the usual comfort enchantment. I have no idea how Xander manages at all with his half-plate. Maybe there's a skill for it? Instant dress or something? But however much I regret it in the morning, I know that the first fight I get into will change my mind again, the fire resistance enchantment letting me use my spells at short range with impunity. I grabbed my trusty staff and headed back to the guild. As ever, I was the last one there, but I wasn't late. Everyone else was just early!

We were able to set off very shortly after dawn, and Henry was with us to lead the way; calling the road a dirt track was being optimistic, and in places it was hard to see where the 'road' even was. Without Henry, we'd have needed Robin's [Tracking] skill just to find the place, especially given that we didn't even have full daylight yet.

On arrival, we met up with the village's hastily recruited militia. It was being led by a catkin, who admittedly looked the part with a nasty scar crossing his face, which, for some reason, hadn't been healed. They'd put up a pretty respectable barricade. Shame it just kind of ended after ten metres or so in each direction, so any competent enemy could trivially walk around it. They were fortunate that slimes weren't competent enemies.

"Camus?"

Huh? Xander had a look of surprise. He recognised the catkin, muttering his name under his breath, and was obviously not expecting to see him here.

Camus, Beastkin, Farmer (?/?)

Woah... A farmer that's too high level for me to [Appraise]? There's obviously a story there... "Who..."

Xander grabbed my shoulder. Hard. "Shut up."

Well, that wasn't nice... I watched Xander walk up to Camus and introduce himself as if they were strangers, shrugged and walked up to listen in to the conversation.

"We were attacked by a second group of monsters yesterday evening. This time they were big slimes with a single giant slime mixed in."

"And they weren't led here, or were chasing someone? They just turned up on their own."

"Yup. Just a group of slimes, all on their own. We've not seen anything since then."

Looks like the slimes are continuing to act strangely. Maybe bloodhound slimes are a real thing after all?

"We'll head in immediately. If we aren't back before sunset, something dangerous is happening, so immediately evacuate the village to Dawnhold."

Camus nodded, before suddenly frowning and looking behind us. "No, you are not going with them. Forget it."

Oh, a wannabe hero? How quaint. I turned to get a look at who he was talking to, but there wasn't anyone there except for a titchy little kid. Who was holding a staff as tall as he was...

"I didn't want to. I may be able to pop some slimes, but I'm a bit young to go running into a mana field. Besides, there's no way I could keep up with a professional monster hunting team."

"Did that kid just..." Oops, my voice leaked out again.

Jared answered me: "Yup, I heard it too."

Camus sighed. "He's an abnormal one. Just roll with it."

Oh? This village has abnormal kids to go with its abnormal slimes? How interesting. The kid gave a cute little bow and an introduction. "Peter, apprentice mage, almost five years old."

Mage? He has a mage class at five? Oh my, this needs an even more urgent explanation than the relationship between Xander and Camus. But before I could even open my mouth, Xander the slave-driver grabbed hold of me and started dragging me towards the forest. "Nooo, don't drag me away. This is far more interesting than a brand new mana field that only produces slimes, even if the slimes are acting a bit weird!"

Peter, Human, Apprentice Mage (6/16)

"It's not even as if he's only just switched class. He's level six already!" Alas, Xander was merciless and didn't let go until we were well out of sight. Dammit. Ah well, this mission will be over quickly enough, so I can go poke the kid on our way back. If he has some sort of secret to levelling up rapidly, I want it!

As we drew near to the forest, I spread out my [Mana Perception] and the mana field immediately lit up. I glanced at Jared and pointed, and he nodded back. "The mana field has come into range of our perception. That way. Looks like the edge starts barely into the forest."

Noah was no longer here. It was a trick that never ceased to impress me; one minute he's walking alongside us, and the next he's nowhere in sight. Who needs invisibility magic when they have [Stealth]? We continued walking towards the field, with Noah popping back into existence as we reached it.

"I saw nothing but slimes, and nothing higher than level three. They're all packed into a small clearing though, with no sign of monsters outside it beyond some tracks that looks like the trail of the slimes that attacked the village."

Weird. I looked out with [Mana Perception] again. "Umm... That's not right. Jared, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

Jared closed his eyes briefly. "If what you're seeing isn't possible, then yes, I am."

That got Xander's attention. "What's wrong?"

"The field is tiny; I'm guessing that the reason the slimes were packed into the clearing is because the clearing is the whole field. Mana density is so low that it would only be able to support level one monsters. It can't possibly have produced big slimes, never mind giant slimes."

"Okay, we'll clear the field first, then do some investigation afterwards. If there's nothing over level three in there then they aren't a threat, however densely packed they are. Freya, please try not to set the forest on fire. Move out!"

What? How mean... I hardly ever set things on fire! At least, large or important things, like forests. It's not like I need magic for slimes anyway, so I joined the rest of the team in our silent charge, broke into the field and started whacking away with my staff. Jared was waving his staff around too; there was no healing to be done in this battle. Instead, I used my mana for [Appraisal], checking every slime I whacked to make sure they weren't a new variant species. None were, and it took only a few minutes to clear the, ha, clearing.

I looked around with senses magical and mundane, but nothing looked out of place. With the slimes gone, this looked no different from any other newborn mana field. Or at least, what I'd been told they should look like. It wasn't like I'd seen many in person. The mana density was already starting to drop back to normal levels, and the field would dissipate before any new monsters formed. I saw the others looking around using their own skills and abilities, but it was obvious that no-one else found anything out of place either.

After some searching, Xander called us back together. "There don't seem to be any clues here. We're going to split up and conduct a wider search. Freya and Noah, head north. Jared and Robin, head south. I'll head west, deeper into the forest. Freya and Jared, keep a lookout for any anomalies in the ambient mana, or any other mana fields. Meet back here in one hour. The mana field should have dissipated by then, and I want to confirm it before we leave."

The following hour was uneventful. There was nothing abnormal here. No sign of further mana fields or monster activity. Not a tree out of place. Arriving back at the clearing, Jared and Robin had already returned and claimed not to have found anything either. I could see with [Mana Perception] that the field had indeed fully dissipated as expected. Xander returned last, having bumped into an elven scout and given them a report on why we were in the forest, but not having found anything suspicious.

Not long later, we were heading back to the village. I was pondering the slime problem as we walked, but I really had no clue what was going on here. The mana field was simply too small to have produced those slimes. I'd never heard of anything like this. I wish we could have observed it for a bit before we cleared it.

"Yes, you've said that a dozen times. We'll report it to the guild. That's all we can do."

Hmm? Said what? Why was everyone looking at me? Was I thinking out loud again?

"What happened?"

Oh, we're back to the village already. It looked like Xander was going to give a report to Camus. Why to Camus, anyway? He didn't seem to be the village chief or anything. In fact, I don't think this village even has a chief.

"[Appraisal] called it 'giant slime, level three'. There was only one of them, the rest were big slimes."

My brain gave me a kick to let me know I was letting my thoughts wander while something interesting was happening, and I played back the previous sentence. I looked down at the one who had spoken it. Quite far down. He was very short, largely due to his age... I was almost twenty when I got that skill, dammit. How is he doing that?

"You can use [Appraisal] too? That's... No, not important right now. What's important is that the mana field we found could not possibly have produced a giant slime. Not even a big slime. It was tiny!"

We chatted briefly with Camus, but my attention was torn. I thought this trip would be barely more exciting than a dungeon run, but now I had three mysteries I wanted to solve, and even better, it had all been completely safe; even if the anomalous mana field had been producing emperor slimes, they wouldn't have been able to put up a fight against us. Shame it was almost over. I just needed to chat to the kid for a bit, and then we could head back to the guild and royally screw up the guild master's day.

"We'll need to head back immediately. We're certain that there are no further mana fields in the area, but I advise you to remain vigilant."

Wait, I just missed something important again. What did he just say? Why is he untying the horses? We aren't done here yet!

"Can't we stay just five minutes?"

"No."

"Just me then. I'll catch up!"

"No."

"Aww... Fine..."

Damn slave driver. My next day off, I'm coming straight back here. Although now that we're safely away from the village, I guess I can solve one of the three mysteries. "Hay, Xander. What's up with Camus? You obviously knew him."

"The same thing that's up with a lot of ex-delvers," Xander sighed. "A dive went wrong, people died, and he took it pretty hard. Survivor's guilt. It was nice to see that he has a family now; he was a complete mess at the time. When he quit the guild, I had no idea where he had gone."

Fair enough... A common enough story. Guess I should be thankful to Xander for stopping me from putting my foot in it back there.

We made good time back to Dawnhold and ended up back in front of the guild master to make our report. Xander explained what we had found, and I drew some satisfaction from watching the guild master's frown steadily grow as he realised this was going to be his problem to deal with.

"I've never heard of anything like this either. I'll check with headquarters and see what they make of it. Please stand by here until I call you back."

"Bleh. There goes the rest of the... I'm thinking out loud again, aren't I?"

Everyone nodded. I really must stop doing that...

We piled out into the bar area for some food. The guild eatery believes in quantity over quality, delving being a rather physical occupation, but I really wish I could have something a little nicer once in a while. Something I didn't feel the need to devour as quickly as possible to get the taste out of my mouth. At least the cider was palatable. The others were drinking beer, a drink that I've never understood. It's disgusting. My pet theory is that it's a peer pressure thing; no-one actually likes beer, but they drink it because everyone else is drinking it, and no-one wants to be the one to admit they can't actually stand the stuff. Well, personally I'm very happy to be that one.

My musings on the nature of alcoholic beverages were interrupted by a receptionist summoning us back to the guild master's office. When we arrived, there was someone in with him again. Again it was someone I didn't recognise, although Xander obviously did, giving a quick bow of respect.

Silvanus Reid, Human, Lord Of The Fertile Plains (?/?)

The town lord? Wow, this blew up quickly... What the hell did headquarters say for him to end up here?

"Headquarters has never recorded a phenomenon like this. They are at as much of a loss as we are; what you've seen goes against the established behaviour of mana fields. They agree it's possible that it's something unique to this part of the world, and that since such mana fields would burn themselves out rapidly it's possible that no-one has witnessed one before... But Silvanus has a more concerning theory."

"Is it possible this was an attack? Two waves of monsters attacked the village, not because they were in pursuit or because the village was within sight of the mana field, but apparently on their own initiative. From my perspective, it appears that the monsters were spawned specifically to attack the village."

Huh? You can't just create a mana field... And to attack a village? That theory makes no sense. Then again, maybe you do need a nonsensical theory to explain away nonsensical evidence...

Xander answered after a moment's thought. "If it was an attack, it was not a competent one. Slimes, even giant slimes, are not going to do much damage to a village. If every slime had attacked at once then perhaps the defenders would have been forced to retreat, but they would have had no trouble running away even with their children, and there would have been no danger to life."

Lord Reid was tapping a finger against his chin. "Better safe than sorry. If it was an attack on him, then I can't risk leaving the village undefended. I want a couple of guards stationed in the village."

Huh? An attack on 'him'? Who is that? But never mind that, isn't this an opportunity? If I'm stationed in the village, I can befriend that kid and nick his levelling strategy. I could be rank three by this time next year! I need to volunteer. Wait, why is everyone staring at me?

"Umm... Did I possibly say any of that out loud?"

"Freya, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but we aren't dispatching a whole party, nor can we take away Xander's only offensive mage."

"You could, actually," Xander responded resignedly, much to my surprise. "Robin is near her rank three breakthrough. Spending time solo in the dungeon would be the perfect way to advance. If you send Freya and Noah back to the village, myself and Jared can supervise Robin."

"Very well. Freya and Noah, you are dispatched to the village for two weeks of guard duty. I'll find someone to take over from you on a more permanent basis following that."

Yes! Victory.