The Priests at the Saint’s Hall had always taught Kaden that a strong routine and sticking to it were the secret to having his soul fed and warm in the afterlife, particularly when that routine involved work that paid coins, and especially when those coins went to the [Priests].


    They would choke now to see him keeping no schedule beyond ‘Come and see this’ or ‘Do you mind ordering the poisonous cyclops that fires mana blasts not to?’ or even ‘You’ll never regret letting this toad lick you.’


    Trella slept a good four days, rising only to eat and then relaxing in her root-hammock.


    Sara was spending a huge amount of time with Sevin, and Kaden understood why. The [Necromancer] had lost his pale complexion, grown lean and fit, and never missed a chance to eat a meal with the group and laugh.


    “Skully is essential,” he said around the lunch fire. “That Mortis-cursed dragon has been creating new life. Brand new life you can barely see, but that’s all it takes to begin growing again. And he got you a present. Last night, the dragon tried to force his way across Mortis’s river.”


    Skully had sat silently, staring with [Plague Crow] eyes at the fire, but he reached into his chest and pulled out a smaller skeleton, which carried a bottle around the fire. “Gif-t.”


    Suspended in a crystal flask was a large, round chunk of flesh that, even now, tried to re-grow a dragon around it. Veins arched off into the bottle before turning black and drifting to dusk. “A scale.”


    “Don’t use it yet.” Sevin spoke with dead seriousness. “Right now that dragon is too strong. Every dragon has a balance to it, and that one doesn’t. It needs a balance.”


    “I sent word to Ashi,” Kaden said. “We can only ask King Najur to give up his pet.”


    A storm of wind roved through the grove, as dust filled the air in a howling tornado. Trinity lay in one corner nursing wounds she didn’t want Eve to heal. Eve had offered. Eve had insisted. Eve had gotten to heal her own set of wounds rather than Trinity’s and that was the end of the discussion.


    As the air cleared, one of the [Druid] sworn stood, out of breath, probably out of mana. [Storm Flight] was a powerful second tier skill once developed, but righ now it looked like it took all the man’s energy. He glared at Kaden, then looked to Sevin. “The Warden requests your asisstance. You’ve been allowed on the continent in spite of your stain for this.”


    “What about me?” Kaden pulled back his tunic to remind them of the metal there. “Carrying the artifacts of a mad necromancer. Embedded deep in my body for all eternity. So evil!”


    “Hello?” Sara held up a hand. “These aren’t snakes, they’re the end of everything in the universe. Want to see me devour a piece of Nature forever?”


    “One of us is [Priestess] of a forsaken goddess and everyone else is not!” Eve protested. “Please, if you must thump your chest and spit bile in someone’s direction, at least acknowledge you’d never survive my attacks.”


    “Oh, shit, this potion’s going to explode!” Trella shouted, then laughed as everyone dove for the ground. “Just kidding, it’s not going to explode. For the love of gods, it’s an Attribute enhancement potion. It’s not going to explode. And if you’re all done pretending to be dangerous, the [Shadow Blade] in the room would like to remind everyone—but specifically you, druid—if you lay a finger on my party you’ll never see me coming and your corpse will never be found. Now, can we all settle down? Sevin, you want to see what this one is?”


    He gave a short bow. “How could I ever refuse?”


    Trella didn’t look, hurling the flask end over end.


    It wasn’t clear to Kaden when Skully moved. One moment the behemoth was standing to the side, the next he was catching the potion. Then smoothly, almost sluggishly, turning to hand it to Sevin. “No.”


    “He’s fast. When did Skully get fast?” Trella asked.


    Sevin accepted the potion. “So much of him was damaged I wound up re-doing all the bindings. Almost no bone here is original. The undead are, typically, sluggish. But what if they didn’t have to be?”


    That sounded great to Kaden. “What’s the catch?”


    “The faster he moves in bursts, the slower he has to move afterwards. But imagine ambush guards that move so fast [Triple Cut] can’t get started!” Sevin swigged back the potion. Unlike others, Attribute enhancing potions had to be completely swallowed to take effect. And while everyone wanted the permanent boost, most of Trella’s were neither permanent nor the attribute she targeted.


    “Soul, plus eleven, duration of three minutes. My spells will hit so much harder,” Sevin said. “Skully, we have work to do. Follow, catch up when you can.” He sprinted off into the jungle with a horde of re-animated rats, birds, and bats following.


    “Such a pleasant man when you get to know him,” Sara said with a smile.


    “And you got to know him very, very well. Good for you,” Trella said.


    For once, Eve kept any comments to herself. “Why are you all looking at me? I’m happy for Sara. I’m happy for Sevin. I’m happy they both left me and Vip out of it. Isn’t that right?”The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    *Love.* Vip crawled up into Sara’s lap and sprawled, her legs flopping over each side of Sara, her head down. *Fast love.*


    “Vip says you smell happy,” Kaden translated. In the days since she had reached Enlightenment, Kaden hadn’t noticed many changes. Perhaps she watched things more, but Vip had always been clever. Definitely she clung to Eve more, but Vip had always had a special bond with Eve.


    He’d sent a bird to Mr. Dervish asking for advice on how to handle her, and been pleased with the answer. She’s half Midnight Chevalier, and they’re smart to start. Tack on the levels and [Intelligent] and it’s no surprise. You’ll know what she needs better than I will. You might know it better than she does, thanks to that Soul Bond. Give her time and space, she’s going to learn quick and make a ton of mistakes doing it.


    Kaden could give her time to learn and space to do it. Right now, he had the chance to see some of the most deadly beasts on the continent, the chance to tame them and gain talents from them. But first, he had a plan to get a boost of his own. “Rooty?”


    The vine-monster burst up from the ground, shaking clods of dirt from its green tendrils.


    “Just need you to hold still.” Kaden focused on [Identify], a supposedly basic skill he’d probably never master.


    [Rooty - Monstera Mundi Continentia]


    This is the worldboss who presides over the southern continent—even the parts of it sunken and destroyed. Once a simple tangler vine, this is no longer plant or animal, Beast or Boss. It transcends normal categories like ‘vegan’ or ‘meatatarian’ to become far more. To truly destroy it, one would need to raze the entire Southern Islands, and even then, if a sprig survives, it would return with a vengeance. That it serves the Warden of the Southern Islands is its own choice, one monster recognizing others who must be contained. *Beast Knowledge - met it on the Shromland Valley mouth, a nest of thorns and vines we had to burn to ashes to pass. And again near the river delta, and when we sailed to sea, it was waving from the shore. There’s eleven more continents and nine Hells, it can have that one.


    *Curious*


    You have encountered a mythic Beast.


    You have gained a Constitution Bonus.


    Oh, that hadn’t been what Kaden expected, nor what he wanted. Soul would have let him store more Beasts. Constitution made him tougher in every way, but Kaden was mostly damage for the party. Strength, Agility, Soul, any of those would have been good. Still, a bonus was a bonus. “Hey, Sara. Rooty was a tangle vine once.”


    “I doubt that. Was it?” Sara pulled something from Inventory, a short length of tangle vine she kept as utility. The living vine would wrap around anything it encountered, then twist while piercing with thorns. Like most carnivorous plants, blood was as good as flesh.


    She gently set the vine down. “I barely see a resemblence. Both are vines, but Rooty is intelligent. And fast. And mobile.”


    “Not so mobile. Rooty’s just everywhere,” Kaden said. “I think it overgrew most of the continent.”


    The worldboss produced a vine which flicked the tangle vine, exploding it, then shrugged, a difficult task for a boss with no shoulders. Or arms.


    “Well, I’m sorry,” Sara said. “My gardening skill isn’t that high, and it’s not like they sell World Boss seeds at the market.”


    The root tip swiveled to point at Sara, rubbing other roots together like fingers plotting. A moment later, three more root-vines errupted, ripping at the first until clumps of dirt flew and Vip hid behind Kaden. With a screech, the battle ended.


    The earth furrowed as a root-vine approached Sara, clutching a short second of white root that writhed.


    Sara accepted it. “It’s a cutting. One day it will grow, but [Gardening] says it could be years to establish a root network. In the mean time it will throw off shoots with different abilities I can harvest.”


    The root-vine whipped up in down in an expressive nod. Years for sure.


    “What is this going to cost me?” Sara asked. “You’re surrounded by [Druids]. You hardly need me to spread your roots. What do you get from me planting you?”


    The roots swiveled and pointed at Kaden, then began to wave in patterns, patterns [Beast Soul] interpreted for Kaden, and he relayed. “Growth. Rooty covers the southern continent. He’s a World Boss. He’s near indestructible, but he hasn’t gained a level, talent, or skill in centuries. With you growing him, and me near him, he’s hoping the new growth will gain talents and skills he’s never had.”


    “But the new plant won’t be you. Won’t you fight?” Sara asked.


    The root-wiggle was short and deliberate. Kaden understood. Trinity would approve. “Rooty devours other plants to gain their abilities. May the best continent covering World Boss win.”


    Sara cradled the rootling. “In that case, I’ll add it to my garden. In a few thousand years, if fortune favors it, you’ll have a battle to the death. And in the mean time, I’ll welcome a few new weapons.”


    Rooty gave off a deeply pleased feeling that came from all around Kaden. The World Boss was truly everywhere. He’d need to speak with Sara about the wisdom of unleashing it on another continent.


    “Anyone else worried about Ashi?” Kaden asked. “She hasn’t sent a dragon in days. Not at night, not during the day.” With that, he summoned the [Falcrow] and sent it to Ashi, along with the idea that if she were even remotely agitaged, it should feel free to harrass everything and everyone bothering her.


    Minutes passed.


    Almost an hour.


    Sevin returned with Skully clomping along behind him and headed straight to Trella. “Whatever you did with that potion, don’t ever do it again. When the potion wears off it’s minus eleven. All my abilities are mana based, and if it weren’t for Skully, I’d have had a very hard time escaping.”


    “Not what I intended, but these are experiments. Sara got permanent plus one to agility. Kaden’s skin turned blue for four days. I’ll get better with every success and eventually raise my [Alchemy] skill further.” Sara offered him another. “Probably not the same. I hope.”


    He reluctantly accepted. “The cooldown on attribute modification is twenty four hours. Eve?”


    “No, thank you,” Eve said with a small bow. “My faith in Trella’s skills is moderated by my memory of her track record. In fact—” She stopped as a Messenger Dragon landed on her arm, then leaped up. “Ashi’s in trouble. The Resyr camp, the Tun, the Skan, all of them were attacked simultaneously this morning. She was teaching fire spells in the wasteland, but now they are huddled down in the wastes.”


    “Kai Fen,” Kaden said, the name of a dead man, even if the dead man hadn’t gotten word yet of his immenent demise. “Sevin, can you tell the Warden I’ll be back to help when she needs it?”


    “I owe the [Polymage] a debt I will never repay in this life. Her [Fate] left Oberix a puppet for my sister to use,” Sevin said. “If you go into a battle, then we go as one”


    Kaden was already dressing in his [Ulfen Armor], already preparing. “I’ll go first through the FarPortal. If the Fen are attacking, I’ll clear the Portal and let you in.”


    “We need to be careful,” Trella answered. “Clear the FarPortal, but don’t rush to bring more of them after us. The party that prepares is the party that survives.”


    Peace was the season he loved, but his armor, and the gentle hum of Remembrance said it was no longer the season for peace. It was time for war.