Chương 145: Chapter 142

The second run was the same, though Sam would have said that the raging demons charging at them seemed to be a little angrier. It wasn't visible in the damage they did to the team. Neither did Clarissa complain that she had to heal more than previously. Katie wasn't asked about this, naturally, but even so, every one of them noticed the difference.

An hour later, after fighting through the throng of demonic moss monsters with treants trying to tie them up with their non-consensual vines, they once again stood at the bend that led to the giant cavern that housed the dilapidated fortress, protected by gleaming walls and a broken-down gate. Sam looked around the corner while the others hid behind him like extras from an eighties movie and took in the scene. Still the same as previously. He retreated from his lookout and turned to his teammates.

"I know so far there wasn't much difference, but still, keep your eyes peeled. I don't want to have a party wipe because of a surprise second phase or hidden boss. Alright?" he told them, then watched their reaction. Katie eagerly nodded, probably already imagining what it would be like to fight a boss like that. Dan and Clarissa weren't as confident, but even they weren't too worried.

'Ugh, sometimes this time-travel business is a pain in the ass…' Sam mused as they got ready for the fight. He cracked his neck, and readied his weapon, before pointing it toward the gate.

"Katie, go fetch!" The berserker girl let out a loud whoop, no doubt warning the demons of their presence, and with the assistance of her skills she was inside the fortress within a few seconds, bisecting an unfortunate demon. Soon, they were fighting the same horde as previously, until there was a familiar roar and the giant demon appeared. And for the first time, they could see a visible difference.

The monster was still twice as big as the regular demons, it was still garbed in leather armor reinforced with metal, and the sword it wielded was still big enough that it was more like an enormous sheet of metal. However, the sword's edge was lit by sickly blue flames that ran along it, sometimes dripping, but before the somehow liquid-looking light could hit the floor it vanished. Katie immediately charged at the monster, ready to repeat their strategy with Lucky lurking nearby for the same reason.

However, when she parried the first strike, the liquid-like flame splashed at her as the demon's sword made contact with hers, causing Katie to cry out in pain.

"Shit! It's DoT damage!" she cried out while executing a backward jump. Lucky didn't waste a second, appearing from a nearby shadow, sending the monster stumbling. Clarissa didn't even need an order. She was ready to act, proving once again that she was a rather competent healer.

"What kind of DoT?"

"Fire!" Her next spell caused Katie to sigh in relief. The berserker girl sent the healer a thumbs up and was back in the fight. Now that they knew what the effect on the sword did, Clarissa could cleanse it at a moment's notice and they could continue the fight just as they had previously. As the monster lay before them, the liquid blue fire sizzled a few times along the sword, then it went up in a literal puff of blue smoke.

'So many IT jokes…' Sam thought while swallowing a few snickers as they collected the loot. Even more metal ingots, and for some reason a scroll that contained a cookbook. Unscrolling it, he saw that it was a recipe made for the fruit that the demons found and caused their demise. As the others read through it, Clarissa was the one who voiced what all of them were thinking.

"This is a goddamn poison recipe!"

"A poison that only we know about," Sam stated with an evil smirk.

"And based on the evidence, Poison Purge doesn't work on it."

"Oh…" He nodded with a smile, pocketed the recipe, knowing that they would need the actual fruit to make use of it. Until then, it was just a simple curiosity that added to the lore of the game.

"Let's go back to the house…" Approaching the house, they were once again vigilant, but to their relief, they could move without anyone bothering them. Everything was the same, even the ruined parts were in the same place. However, here once again, a small difference appeared. The dark crystal, where the priestess's heart should have been, was still as black as the blackest night, but they could see a small spark of familiar blue light in its depths.

"Oh, boy…" Sam murmured, then he shook his head.

"Let's check the loot to see if it shows anything new." They all agreed and as a team, they gathered around the book under the rubble and, as one, they looked inside when Sam dug it out. This time there was no case, just a skill book and the same collection of notes, but visibly different.

"Huh, Stasis. Places people under five percent health into stasis. They are unable to move but they can't lose health from DoT damage. Nice…" he said before handing it over to Clarissa, who simply learned the spell without a word. Then he took out the monocle and began the translation. Half an hour later, they were all ready to listen to the story he was reading them out loud. Sam put away the monocle, took a look around with a smile, and began.

"This was clearly written by somebody else…" he stated, before continuing with the actual notes.

"Day Forty-five. The fruit found is oddly filling, but something is suspicious about it. There were no animal tracks around the tree, nor were there any other remnants of the local wildlife." Stolen story; please report.

"Day Fifty. Still haven't eaten the fruit, keeping to the supplies, letting the rank and file eat the fruit. They seem very happy to do so but I don't know…"

"Day Fifty-six. The rain is still horrible. Something is blocking any magic that we are sending out. Priestess is still unbothered."

"Day Fifty-eight. Got bored. Tried the fruit drink they made from the fruit. Pretty nice. Priestess is still unbothered."

"Day Sixty-apple? It's fruit punch day! A pretty bird flew by. Today's we meat, boys! Priestess is still unbothered."

"Day something… I should write here something. A number, I think? Dunno… let's go drink! Priestess is still unbothered."

"The rest is just mad ramblings about the perfect preparation of alcoholic drinks made by the fruit," Sam finished the reading and put away the notes, making sure that the part about the brewing process went next to the recipe they found earlier.

"Go purge the crystal. We still need to do it five more times…" The third time, the flames on the boss monster's blade were much bigger, and every time the monster swung it, it launched a crescent of liquid flame that tried to burn everything that it touched. At the end of the run, they found no skill book, only a few magically reactive crystals, perfect for enchanting and more writing. This time, they read the notes about the scout who found the tree.

Apparently, the tree was exactly in the middle of the area where they set up the fort, but for the life of them, they couldn't even find an odd root or rotten trunk anywhere. When Clarissa went to purge the crystal on the dead priestess, the blue flame was noticeably stronger, yet still remained the size of a spark.

The fourth time, the flames weren't only the giant blade wielded by the equally giant demon boss, but the metal parts of its armor let out an occasional burst of liquid flame that burned whoever touched the monster carelessly. Poor Lucky got the brunt of it before the clever wolf learned to only touch the demon with his claws. Thankfully, the magical flame, which was in no way suspicious, still only did fire damage, so Clarissa's spell took care of it pretty handily.

Burned Shadow Spirit Wolf fur smelled like smoke from a kiln, at least according to Dan, who identified the smell. Who knew? They looted the bag, as they named it, which contained even more writings and a skill book. This time, it was called Life Burn, a skill that allowed the player to sacrifice their life for more mana. This one went to Katie because it synergized with several of her berserker skills. The notes this time contained the records of a cook-slash-quartermaster who was charged with feeding the party.

From the notes, they learned that the party set out at the priestess' order once she received a revelation, though the demon writing the notes didn't mention what the revelation was before inevitably going crazy from taste testing all the meals made from the mysterious fruit. At least the demonic cook managed to leave some more notes about the fruit that was added to the recipe they found in the second round. The fifth round also went off without a hitch, but they were starting to tire mentally.

One can only discuss the same news so many times while slaughtering oddly cute moss monsters before they give up on it. The boss monster this time was fully wreathed in the blue fire, and they had to time their hits to the blue fire. When it vanished for a few seconds, they could hit the enormous monster without punishment, but the DoT damage from the fire also got stronger, which meant that Clarissa actually had to pay attention to cleansing it.

Still, it was a mad beast that had no clear thoughts or knew the concept of tactics, so as long as they played it smart and used distractions, they easily circumvented the fire. Some time ago, Sam convinced his teammates to turn their notifications off in the same way he did, and all of them were super eager to see the fruit of their labor. The loot bag, once again, contained only magical crystals perfect for enchanting and would make Liz pretty happy, but it was a little disappointing.

The notes were much more interesting. A direct servant of the priestess wrote it. It was rather cryptic because the writer clearly didn't trust that the text would remain private but it still revealed some much-needed information.

"Mistress has ordered us to gather… Mistress received revelation today. Mistress was very angry…"

"I was chosen to accompany Mistress. It is a great honor!"

"When the rain started, Mistress got sad. Mistress ordered us to make camp and sent the scouts out. They reported they found a nice clearing with a copse of fruit trees. How lucky! Clearly, the Gods favor my Mistress!"

"The fruit is tainted by darkness, but Mistress shouldn't be bothered. I don't know what to do… My prayer hasn't been answered…"

"I took the darkness inside me. The hunger was too much… Mistress shouldn't be bothered."

"Mistress shouldn't be bothered." There were a lot of repeating sentences, then one clearly written line.

"I have awoken. Mistress spoke to me. I shall be her blade." And nothing more after that. The dark crystal was almost three-quarters filled with blue fire when Clarissa went to purge it. It looked rather foreboding. Before the sixth run, they took a brief break, organized the random loot they got, and checked up on the battle happening outside of the cave. The Storm Eagles seemed to be winning, but most of the forest still stood.

They had to retreat when a conjured storm cloud started spewing lightning strikes too close to the mouth of the cave. The boss monster looked the same as previously, with blue fire dripping from its sword and its armor pulsing with the same substance. However, this time one of its eyes shined with inner blue light. Which, in turn, meant that the demon didn't act like a fully crazed berserker. It was finally capable of thought, and it ignored the simple distractions in favor of delivering devastating strikes.

Still, this only meant that instead of passively sniping at the monster, Sam and Dan had to join Katie in actively fighting the demon. Defeating it took a little more time, but it still fell all the same. Though it was still stingy and only dropped a greatsword skill that Katie already had, so it went into the to-be-sold-later pile. The notes this time were simple, but were visibly written by somebody who had trouble holding a pen or whatever these demons used to write.

Didn't take long to figure out it belonged to the giant demon they had been fighting. It mostly talked about the journey and his annoyance at protecting the priestess when the demon could be out fighting the enemy of their ruler. Still, the demon was rather dedicated to its duty. Sam looked at the others and sighed.

"The next time its full mind will return, that's clear. That will be the hardest fight." Clarissa frowned.

"We only have so much time before our playtime is up. Can we do it?" Sam shrugged.

"If it doesn't change the attack pattern radically, then I think we're golden."

"What if it changes?"

"Continue tomorrow?" She stared at him for a moment then shrugged before standing up and going back to the crystal that was shining with ethereal blue light, its previous black appearance nowhere to be seen. On the last run, the moss monsters were extremely aggressive, trying to swarm them, and the treants changed from molestation to full-on hardcore bondage.

Katie seemed to find it funny, with Puffball laughing at the treant, once again proving it was not a normal cat, with a deep reverberation that came out of nowhere. Very disconcerting. Then they reached the still gleaming walls of the fortress. However, this time they couldn't sneak around as instead of a mad rush of mad demons, they were met with the silently standing enormous demon, holding its greatsword in one hand and both of its eyes shining with blue light and cruel intelligence.

The other hand rose and pointed directly at the approaching team, then the demon let out a roar. Instead of an incomprehensible sound, it was in an accented but clearly understandable human language.

"Defilers! Intruders! I kill you ALL!"