A week passed by after my tumble with Starface however, no monsters had directly invaded my camp. I ran into more of the boars and goats while out training, but nothing in my actual camp. Even grew the courage to make another table. One that hopefully won’t be destroyed. Now that the attacks calmed down, I could focus on figuring out why they were happening in the first place. “Was it only because of the flowers?” I said, voicing the thoughts out loud.

“Wassup?”

“Hmmp, oh sorry just talking to myself. Contemplating on the cause of all the monster attacks lately.”

“IDK, I figured it was the flowers.”

“I’m not totally convinced of that. Sure, the timing matches, but once I planted the seeds inside the cave they stopped roaming into the camp. Also, who the hell says IDK? Just say I don’t know like a normal person you degenerate.”

“First off, uncalled for. Second.” She blew a raspberry. Which made the inside of my head vibrate. “Thirdly, what’s your other reasoning?”

I shook my head, trying to disperse the sensation. “Real mature. I guess the other reason why I don’t think it’s the flowers is that I’m getting attacked outside of camp way more now. Usually I was left alone when I’m at the training area, now monsters are almost always there when I show up. There aren’t any flowers at the training zone.”

“Then what else changed before the monsters showed up?” Her voice had a different quality to it. It didn’t sound like she was genuinely asking but more like how I would ask questions to my students, attempting to guide them to an answer. It's common practice among teachers. At least decent ones. I wonder if I will ever teach again, it might not have been my first career choice but I enjoyed it. But now's not the time for that.

“Hmm.” I thought for a moment and then it dawned on me. I’m stupid.

“It was the fire. Len’s little flame he left behind that I put out.”

“Bingo.” Tutor’s words were followed by a screeching chime. Which rang in my head and made me flinch.

“Hehe sorry, volume was too high.”

“But how does it work?” I asked, rubbing my ears.

“Don’t know.”

“Cool, another mystery to add to the ever-growing pile.” I bet there is some kind of aura or field of some kind that monsters and splicers give off. Like when Len pretty much subjugated me over the feather. I sighed and rolled my head around, stopping when my gaze focused on the indoor flower patch.

This group of seeds was the first monster-free trial. Only issue was that my seedlings weren’t showing any signs of sprouting. I know some plant seeds take a while to sprout, but flowers grow pretty quick. They typically take less than a week for their seeds to sprout. But this is a fantasy world, and the flowers themselves give a completely literal buff. They simply might not play by the same rules as they did back on Earth.

I don’t think sunlight was the issue. The snowy weather seemed to be lessening, meaning I didn’t have to use the roof covering throughout the day. Maybe it's about the temperature.

The campfire in the cave kept it bearable for me, however that might be too hot for the flowers. The days were also warming up. Not a substantial amount, but I wasn’t shivering every moment I was outside of the cave. Yet they might need the cold. The flowers were originally growing directly out of the snow.

It could also be the quality of the soil. Maybe this dirt patch doesn’t have enough nutrients. I should go back to the original patch and investigate some more. I snacked on the breast portion of one of the magical moose and headed out.

 

Finding the trail that led to the flower patch was trickier than I imagined. I returned to my moose hunting ground, but with the snow melted, the forest looked completely different without the blanket of white. More details pop out now. Different plants and trees growing around I didn’t see before.

The snow also made finding the trail to the flowers way easier. Just follow some footprints and boom. Magical flower patch. Now, I had to look for an animal trail. Broken sticks, tracks, markings on trees, stuff like that.

After a brief disagreement with a magic moose(it disagreed with being my dinner), I found a promising trail. Leaving the carcass to be collected later, I walked along for a while and found what I was looking for, sort of. I found a patch of gardenias, but they no longer had the same luster. While the striking blue hue still painted the petals, the beautiful shimmering glow had disappeared. Maybe they just looked like they glowed when they had the white backdrop. I walked up and plucked one, putting a petal in my mouth. It still tasted delicious, but I didn’t get the energized buff like last time.

What’s different this time? I searched around the patch, not finding anything of note. “What about the soil?”

I plucked a few flowers and stored them away, then dug underneath where they grew using a spare gremlin dagger I kept on me. The soil was rich and dark, much more than that of the cave dirt. But it reeked. The deeper I dug down, the worse the smell became. I had to take a few breaks just to catch my breath.

Finally, my dagger hit something, something hard. I poked around the object, finding its shape, and then began my excavation. The object’s surface was white but stained by the dark earth that encased it. I pulled the object out. It was a skull, a monster’s skull. Worms and maggots squirmed throughout the dirt still held in it. I dropped it out of reflex. Dirt scattered and the skull cracked in half.

“Hmm, odd.”

“What?” Tutor asked.

“Nothing, just realized this is the first skull I’ve seen here. I killed dozens of monsters by now but I’ve never really seen the bones. I either eat them or throw them in the corpse pile. Weird.”

I’m pretty sure I haven’t run into the monster this skull came from. It looked canine-like in its shape and I haven't encountered any dogs or wolves yet. I separated the broken skull further and moved the dirt around that was once inside.

“Ahh this must be it.” I found a small sprout in the dirt, presumably a flower seedling. The seeds must need fertilizer, and monster corpses most likely provide a bunch of nutrients. But then why is the magic gone? I picked up one of the skull fragments and examined it. It was lighter than I was expecting, especially since it looked twice the size of a large dog’s head. I tapped it with the butt of my dagger and it crumbled immediately.

“It’s fragile.” But why? Monsters are pretty durable, that mole’s skull took incredible force to crack. I've also done more than my fair share of munching on bones, even the squirrel bones were hardier than this. I guess there’s a chance these dogs have really thin bones, but that seemed unlikely. I dug around more and found the rest of the skeleton and sure enough, each of the bones were just as brittle.

“Hmm.”

 

I collected a few more flowers, even if they didn’t have the same kick, they still had the potential to make more that did. I returned to the moose carcass I left behind and found a small group of gremlins hacking away at it. They’re not even worth the trouble anymore and didn’t bother with them, instead choosing to walk back to camp. Besides, I’d rather focus on the flowers. Dragging the body around in Ursa mode wouldn’t help with that.

“Did you ever think the flowers absorbed the nutrients from the body and bones?” Tutor electing to ask me a question first.

“Well yeah, that’s a no brainer. Of course they must have. But where I’m stumped is what exactly fueled their effects. Like does the dog have some special type of property and that’s why the flowers were so potent. Or can it be replicated with any monster? Also, what nutrients are there in bones. Sure the marrow, but not the bones themselves.”

“IDK, probably magical fantasy bullshit.”

“Again with the IDK. You really need to get away from your computer screen and touch grass.” I put a hand on my head.

“I go outside all the time.”

A wild smile grew on my face. “SO you are in front of a computer screen! Gotcha bitch!”

“You’re an idiot.” Click.

 

I arrived back in camp soon after the exchange with Tutor, my head still churning about the flowers. I sat down at my new table and pulled out a few of the non-magical flowers to chew on. They may not have the buff but god are they delicious. Before I stuffed another one into my mouth, I heard a rustle come in from my cave. “Dammit, I should really make a door.” I looked at the 10 foot tall cave entrance. “A big one.”

I shifted into Ursa form and walked on in. It was one of the blue-green goats, digging through my indoor flower patch. My vision flashed red for a moment, but I caught myself. I didn’t need to rage over a single goat. I walked up next to it and, with one great swing, slammed its head into the cave wall, leaving a worrying crack. Funny how all skulls seem brittle to a good Ursa swipe. I shifted back and looked at the seeds.

“Yep, it ate all the seeds. Awesome.”

I lifted the body and walked back to the corpse pile.

You would think the smell would stop bothering me after the countless trips here. But no, I swear it's a new type of awful every time. I plopped down the goat in the pile. It landed on top of the pile awkwardly, which led to another body shifting and sliding out of the pile. Which moved another. Shit.

Next thing I knew, half the pile avalanched down, opening my nostrils to new and untold horrors. One body slid down in front of me. It was one of the boars, except half of its skin was falling off the bones, while the other half writhed with maggots.

I only gagged a little.

But a part of its skull was visible which made me wonder. Trying my best to not directly touch the rotting corpse, I used some vines I had lying around. Once the vines were hooked around the carcass, I pulled the body out more. Then I poked the exposed bone with the dagger. Tough, not brittle in the slightest.

A morbid curiosity took over. I started examining more of the fallen bodies, checking for brittle bones. Finally, I came across the mostly decomposed body of a goat. It was from the first batch. I hit the skull with the dagger. The bone immediately crumbled. In the words of an annoying and loud tutorial, “Bingo.”

——

Fennel was cleaning his blade and shield in the squad hall. Half of his squad mates were there, each maintaining their weapons, natural or manmade. One of the crew, a young elf with blue scaled arms, stood up and walked over to him.

“Hey Fen.”

“Yeah Rook, what’s up?”

“Is it cool if I head out now? Don’t seem like anything is gunna hap’n today.”

Fennel nodded his head slowly. “Sure, only if you got Gloria covering for you? I’d rather not be down a medic.” But before Rook could answer, a human girl with olive skin and a head covered in white feathers walked into the room. She walked over once she noticed Fennel and Rook.

She stuck her hand out toward Rook, looking at Rook, then back to her hand. Rook nervously laughed. “Owe you one? I’m meeting up with an awesome chick later. So you know…”

Her gaze never wavered, she just moved her hand closer to the scaled elf.

“Fine, here.” Rook dropped some coins in her hand. She looked down at the offering and coughed once.

“First ones almighty, you sure you weren’t raised by gnomes?”

Fennel answered this time. “Hey. We don’t do that racist crap here. Understood? If I hear another comment like that, you’ll be on wall duty for the next month. Now get out of here.” One of his archers was a gnome and a damn good one at that.

Rook shot out the door without another word. Fennel turned around and held his shaking hand. He hated commanding like that, but he had a duty to these people. So he shoved the nervousness down before turning towards Gloria.

“Thanks for stepping up. I’ll cover him.” Fennel went to grab his money pouch, but Gloria stopped him, shaking her head before walking away.

Fen caught a glimpse of the scar that started under her chin and ended at the center of her throat. A wound she received three raids ago. She could still speak, but elected not to. She held the Dovis gene, splicers that usually had beautiful and soothing voices. Ones they treasured dearly. Hers turned gravelly and rough ever since the injury.

Fennel looked at everyone present. A tense air hung in the room. Fennel understood why. The last raid was three full weeks ago, and the longer the time between raids, the deadlier they typically were. He couldn’t blame any of them for their mounting anxiety. He had his fair share as well, but it's his duty as the leader of this squad to see them fit for it. And to keep them alive.

“Round up! I want to see everyone’s sheets. Any changes could be a benefit or hindrance to our strategies.”

Each soldier lined up in front of Fen. While going through the character sheets, Fennel felt an odd sensation pricking in the back of his head. He shook his head, his golden ears flopping the whole time. Once he stopped, he saw his squad snickering and holding back laughs.

“What’s so funny?”

A resounding “Nothing Sir!” belted out of the group of 10. “Then get back to it.” Fennel shifted his body around, hiding the mounting blush on his face from his squad. He returned to his sword and shield and continued with their maintenance.

But the feeling never quite went away. And in a hushed voice he said to himself, “I don’t know why, but I’ve got a bad feeling about the upcoming raid.”