Wraithwood Botanist

B2 - R: Chapter 2 - Equipment Choices

My arms prickled with gooseflesh when I read the notification. It only occurred to me that people were coming here, here, to the Fourth Ring of the Areswood Forest—and there was a period that was supposedly even more dangerous.

They’re all gonna die... I thought in horror, and I could truly appreciate that now. The chances of anyone getting my equipment were low. I would probably need to make the trek. It left me with a twisted smile, part bitter, part disappointed—part guilty.

"Hey Lithco," I said. "Is there any way I could just... you know... pick up my equipment during the Harvest?" The Black Harvest was only around four months out. At this point, I felt it would be far more prudent to just pick it up.

Lithco materialized in person—unprompted—unfolding a chair and dusting it off daintily before sitting and crossing his legs. I wonder if guides materialized randomly for other people. I doubted it.

"No," he said.

My cheek twitched.

"Why the hell not?"

Lithco smiled thinly and snapped his fingers lightly, rapidly, as if he were thinking. "Technically, you can. Yes. But. I doubt you’ll get the chance. This’s a domain quest and hundreds of participants have arrived to challenge it. There’s a lot of talent, so at least a few of ’em will hit the halfway mark and gain the right to make the drop."

"Halfway mark... so what? All these people’ll die and I’ll still needa recover my stuff from the most dangerous part of this forest anyway?"

"Most dangerous part of this ring, yes."

I rolled my eyes. "What type of bullshit is that?"

"Do try to remember that you’re not a unique and celebrated dandelion," Lithco said with a mocking smile. "There are other people in this world."

"I know, but... I’m going to lose my access to the temporary shelter once there’s a delivery." The rule was that I could use the temporary shelter until I got my equipment, ostensibly to get access to a tent.

"Once you get a delivery," he clarified. "As long as you are preparing to make a trip to retrieve it, you’ll be able to keep your access to the shelter."

I bit my lip and remained silent.

"Listen, Mira. This isn’t about you. All neophytes must be part of my request network. It’s a requirement. You chose to come here with nothing but your supplies—you chose to order everything now because you’ll need supplies to survive the next few months. Now you gotta face that."

I looked away. There wasn’t much of a choice. There was already a domain quest, and I needed to add at least something.

"Besides, it’s not like you’re S.O.L. here. In the worst case scenario, you buy some new gear during the Harvest, and challenge it then. If you do, you’ll be able to go to the area your stuff dropped, cutting your challenge in half. You’ll be fine."

I looked away.

Lithco moved his body to try to catch my gaze. I looked at him, and he repeated himself. "You’ll be fine."

I swallowed and nodded.

Lithco slapped his thighs and stood up with a midwestern gesture and dusted off his pants. "In better news, you have a few days to do whatever you want. So... go foraging or... whatever you plant lovers do."

My heart fluttered. "Okay." I looked at Kline. "You wanna explore?"

Kline meowed.

"You wanna hunt?"

He meowed loudly.

Lithco smiled. "Then I’ll take my leave."

He did, and my little warrior and I slipped into the forest, adventuring into the great beyond.

It was magical to just explore the forest without direction or necessity. We came across a fallen tree a mile out that was more moss than tree, carved in sections by creatures decades long past. Whatever it did, it petrified the tree, preserving it as a home before the beasts died or fled, leaving highly poisonous fungi to grow in the nests.

We moved on.

Another mile out we found edible fruits on trees the size of bushes, each the size of cherries, tasting of tart apple pie. We snacked and then searched the area, finding dozens of important plants.

Now that I had an alchemy subclass, I got information on alchemic use cases for plants, so I collected them by the boatload, sealing them in preservation cases.

On the way back, we heard a crack in the forest. Kline pawed a log, sitting me down as he disappeared, barely rustling a bush before disappearing.

Ten minutes later, he came back covered in blood from a creature the size of a boar he had killed. It was strong, proof in the dark green core in its spine.

I skinned it in the hot afternoon and we both took a hind quarterback to the camp, one in my arms, one in Kline’s invisible jaws.

I didn’t ask questions.

Once we got back to the alchemy station, I took time to go over my equipment. There was a lot of it because I got a group-level request for every five levels, starting at zero to 24. It gave me one gold, two platinum, and two diamond requests for each category. I had used most for skills and spells, but I still had all five for equipment. I also got a platinum equipment reward for finishing the Confront Your Trauma quest, where I returned to the wandering reaper. I spent five of the six rewards and some free requests, saving a diamond, should I need to initiate another quest.

I decided to save my new rewards for a Bramble pickup.

Grade: Gold

Description: Everything you need for cooking spirit beast meat—an important skill for making the most of your soul force gathering—and a magical pop-out cooking stove you can port around on your backpack. Arrays really are something.

-----

That was it. I decided to leave the rest of my rewards for the Black Harvest when I would actually get them.

As for the Epic Alchemy Equipment, I could only sigh. It had too much to list. There was a full CDC-sized lab of equipment that would would need to be flown in—

—and it would probably be dropped in the Bramble with the Spatial Dividers.

Perfect.

I sighed and swiped away the notifications. There were so many things I wanted, but many of them could be made up for with magic. I mean, I could create water from scratch and increase my small knife’s power with raw mana.

It would have to be enough.

I stretched my limbs. It was still in the afternoon, and I still had alchemic creations to make, threading to do, and mental fortification training. The Trial of Survival was coming fast, and I had to be prepared for any.

Everan was speaking to two cute humans and a strange woman with animal ears when Aiden’s carriage arrived. There was still a week before the Trial of Survival—the trial that would determine eligibility to drop off Mira Hill’s equipment in the Fourth Ring—and Aiden was returning home to spend time with his pets.

Everan knew this because the Oracle knew this—

—and he paid multiple types of requests to obtain this information.

Aiden was in the most lucrative position in what sounded like First Domain history, and Everen wanted to help him capitalize on it—as a business partner.

"I apologize, but I need to go," Everan said to the women. "My friend’s returned."

"Aw. Come by the Wreal later on tonight. The missus is holdin’ a feast."

Everan eyed the woman’s cat-like ears, wondering just how far Aiden’s love for animals went. He smiled. "I’ll tell my friend about it."

He said his goodbyes and walked forward, listening to the swollen crowd of business folk rushing the carriage. The Domain Quest was a huge deal, and Aiden hadn’t invested in information control like Mira, so everyone knew about him and his special entrance into the Cursed Aviary—and they bombarded him with questions about it on all sides.

"Move away!" Alitalia yelled. "The vraxle refused, and Aiden declined the mission. Anyone who pesters him will be escorted out of the conservatory!"

Half the people left, but the calm and collected ones—the ones working for the Legacy Families—remained, daring Alitalia to back up her bluff. She didn’t, so Aiden was bombarded with dozens of subtle inquiries, with people passing him business cards.

Everan watched this all from the corner of the conservatory’s porch. Then he walked into the barracks, waiting at the door for the teen to throw his few meager belongings into a bag.

Everan whistled, and Aiden looked back, realizing that the barracks were empty and deathly still.

"Uh... Everan, right?"

"That’s right. Take this." Everan threw him a cloak.

Aiden smiled wryly. "Doesn’t matter much if we’re the only ones in here."

"That’d be true if it was true."

Suddenly, Brexton spoke, and Aiden looked up, noticing the man sitting on a barrack’s bed for the first time. Aiden’s face was priceless—clearly fearing that he had suffered a brain hemorrhage and lost his ability to see. Brexton was, after all, rather noticeable—when he was visible.

Brexton jumped down to the floor, wrapping himself in a hypnotic whirl of colors before coming out of it as a polar reflection of Aiden in appearance, height, and clothing. It was an exact clone.

"W-What the hell’s going on?" Aiden asked, stumbling onto a bed.

"Your getaway, obviously," Everan said. "Brexton here will play you, cringing and cowering under the crowd while you," He lifted two tickets. "Come with me."

Aiden swallowed and looked between them suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"Good will," Everan said.

"I don’t believe that."

"Well, you can roll the dice with..." Brexton turned to the door, "bad will."

Aiden looked between them like a cornered animal. "I don’t want to owe anyone."

"You don’t owe us a crow," Brexton said.

"So?" Everan asked.

Aiden swallowed. Then he put on the cloak as Brexton shrugged and opened the door, wearing Aiden’s face, skillfully cowering as he faced the bombardment of offers and inquiries head-on.