Meryl panted as quietly as she could after having run all the way back to her cover. Repurposing the rock that previously had been her base camp, she hid from the Mushmen she had been trying to hunt. They were almost worse than goblins. At least when you stabbed a goblin, it could bleed out. No need to mention why goblins were worse than a monster that just wanted to kill you to grow its children on you.

So, she had been trying to hunt them for one of the Guild's endless quests. It would be a reliable source of easy money is what she was told. Go hunt them outside the gates and make a few silver bits a day. That would have helped Meryl and her family immensely.

The lithe teenager was wearing a tanned leather chest armor piece over her clothes. An old backpack at her side that had obviously seen better days. She also held a blade that was as long as her forearm in her right hand. Meryl had her back pressed her back against the rock she was hiding behind as she ran her hands through her loose hair. She thought about what she wanted to have done.

Instead, what she found out in her foolish attempt to make some quick cash would be a bit of honest truth. That a teenager with a long knife, and decent agility, was going to be the next Mushmen bed if she made even a single mistake.

Meryl knew she would need to spend at least half the money she would be earning to buy the anti-fungal potion for the bite she got from the Mushman. She regretted she let it get too close to her. She looks down at the wound seeping through the hasty bandage she had wrapped around her bare calf. Tears started to bud in her eyes as she thought about what an idiot she had been to listen to those southern Mercenaries. She had stars in her eyes, blinding her to what they were doing.

Her voice was soft and full of sadness as she spoke aloud to herself. Meryl now realized what had happened. the weight of it all started pressing on her shoulders as the words spilled out of her. “They’re all probably betting on whether I’ll die or not.”

Meryl scrubs her hands across her face and then pulls her light-blonde hair back into a ponytail to keep it out of her way. She was going to prove them wrong. She was going to get home and with enough money to pay for the potion at least. One day without income would not break her. Meryl had to be able to make more tomorrow.

Mushmen did not really have a lot of blood. Which is one thing Meryl felt thankful for. No need to wash or throw out her clothes as they had not been stained in any of the monster blood. Mushmen were mushrooms that had become magically charged with power and just attacked anything made of flesh to make new beds for their spawn to grow on.

Then just as Meryl was prepared to find a few stray mushmen to cull, to at least get the minimum for the quest to pay for the medicine. She heard a woman yell ‘FOUR!’ in the distance. Then a mushman corpse sailed over Meryl's head to land a significant distance away from her.

It looked like it had been hit by, no not hit, run over by something heavy. The mushman was dead on impact with the ground. Meryl could tell simply for the fact that it had stopped twitching or moving in any way. Then she heard a series of loud thuds coming from the other side of the large rock. She would have sworn that she had felt them through the stone.

Then Meryl remembered that that was the direction the dead mushman flew from, was the mosh pit of Mushmen were. She clambered quickly up to look over the rock she had been hiding behind. As Meryl tried to see what group was attacking the large group of enemies, as she knew she would have needed a large group to deal with that many enemies.

What she then saw made her wonder if the mushman that bit on her leg was from some mutated version of the breed. As the scene that had unfolded before her eyes made her wonder if she had been hallucinating. A purple-haired fighter wearing heavily armored gauntlets and swinging some massive metal club swatted the Mushmen aside like they were straw dummies. As she watched the scene continue to unfold, she watched the fighter swing the club in a deep low arc and smacked another of the Mushmen into the air with a meaty sound.

The mushman flew in a trajectory right towards where Meryl was sitting on her rock. Before she could panic, the mushman slammed into the rock below her, making the same vibration she felt earlier. Which caused Meryl to move forward and look down over the edge of the rock she was sitting upon. Which let her see the small pile of squished Mushmen corpses that had been made from the fighter that seemed to have aimed them at her cover.

Meryl decided to simply wait and watch. She hoped a mercenary able to do this kind of damage was not looking for the chump change that would come from cleaning up these little monsters. Perhaps she could make a profit today after all.

~~~

Iris grinned as she swatted the little fantasy mushroom monsters with glee in her heart. They barely reached her knees, and while it felt like she was bullying the little monsters. It was just too much fun to stop.

When she stumbled on the little hive of the mushrooms, she had thought it was only a handful of them. As Iris prepared to knock the squishy little monsters into orbit, more of them kept popping up out of the little cave entrance she had only just noticed.

They had seriously flooded out and tried to take her down with their numbers. Their red mushroom tops opened and showed a maw full of razor teeth as they ran at her and tried to bite down on their attacker. Iris had decided to start swinging for the bleachers as she wondered when Doxan was coming to help.

Then after she sent the sixth one careening off a nearby boulder, Iris had come to the realization that they could not actually swarm her. They had no arms to clamber upon each other to get at her or grab her to slow her down. Then their large mushroom heads caused them to have to space themselves out or risk damaging their own allies as they snapped at her wildly.

Any time Iris felt they were getting too close, she simply kicked out and put her armored boots to use. Iris would kick a couple of the little red mushroom monsters back into their little friends and knock their formation to pieces. It then gave her the time to swat at a few more of the monsters before she had to worry about their numbers gathering up again.

Iris noticed that when the numbers started to thin. Doxan had been walking over to the boulder she had used as a backstop for her golf practice. Perhaps something had been interesting about one of the ones she had sent over there.

She shrugged and wondered what she would find at the bottom of the monster den she had uncovered. Iris remembered the scenes in the games she once played. That any encounter like this would always be capped by finding some new trinket. Or even some quest item to start a chain quest.

Then as Iris slammed her foot into the nearest mushroom monster and punted it across the heads of its friends, she remembered that this was not a game. She was going to probably find a lot of poop. Possibly some rocks. Most likely a lot of poop and a lot of dead things. Anything that would be found at the bottom of a pile of living mushrooms was likely to be not worth the effort of decimating the little monsters.

Iris started then to play whack-a-mole and proceeded to start just making it quick. No longer that excited to finish off this monster den to find the possible treasures in its murky depths. She discovered that the monsters were not that smart, as they just kept coming at Iris as she just methodically put an end to the game.

She was not disappointed with this fight, and in fact, she was delighted that she got to have such an exciting first encounter. She had been worried when the initial wave rushed out to attack. Iris quickly had found her rhythm and a method to deal with the Mushmen as Doxan had called them. She wondered what kinds of monsters there would be that would be harder to fight.

Iris knew she had not been someone that had liked to fight in her previous life. Not at least someone who had enjoyed it. In this new life, though? The prospect of getting into fights with strange monsters and going on adventures into dungeons, and other wondrous fantasy places, was getting her blood boiling.

Which made Iris think harder about it. Had this desire been her own? Or had it simply been an instinctual reaction? The idea of charging into these monsters just had felt right to her as she had not felt any sense of danger from them. It was not until they had swarmed her that Iris had felt a sense of worry.

Worry was all it was in the end. A sense that Iris needed to be more careful with her actions. To be more tactually aware of her surroundings. To not just be a wild berserker on a killstreak.

Then again. Not one of these monsters had been anything like Iris's previous sparring partner. They did not make Iris feel like she was about to lose a limb if she made a mistake. Seraph was a billion times scarier than some bobble-headed mushrooms that happened to have teeth.

Iris laughed as she finished off the last monster by planting her weapon into it and then stopped to look around at her surroundings. She then spoke to herself, “Okay. New note to self. Maybe think about the aftermath a bit more. Sending little mushroom guys off for flight tests may be fun, but it is infinitely more annoying to have to find and check them all.”

With those wise words spoken out loud and Iris having committed them to memory. She then trudged her way over towards where Doxan had ended up. Wondering what had piqued the old dwarf’s interest in the Mushmen she had launched over there.

When Iris got there, she discovered the old dwarf looking at a young teen’s leg that looked like it had gotten bitten. She gasped and rushed over to his side, “Oh no! Did one of the little monsters take a bite out of her when I launched it over here?!” Panic in her voice as she moved to see if she could help.

Doxan shook his head at Iris, “No, none of the ones you launched were alive when they landed. This young lass managed to get this one on her own.”

Meryl looked up at Iris with her eyes wide, “You’re the fighter that was destroying those Mushmen! How did you g-Ow!” she winced mid-question as Doxan started casting a healing spell on her leg, then she panicked, “Wait! Please! I can’t afford a healer!”

Doxan raised an eyebrow as he continued to cast his spell, “Young woman, I am a priest, I heal whoever I want. I do not charge for casting a small spell like this, and if I find any priest or priestess charging for it, that is part of the church, I will see to it they are stripped of their robes.” his smile bristling out his large beard.

Iris smiled at Meryl, “Yeah, I was the one beating them up. Little bitey buggers, aren’t they?” holding her hand out to the teenager, “My name is Iris. I’m a priestess, not a fighter class.”

Meryl looked a little shell shocked at what Doxan said, but then took Iris’s hand to shake it. Then it looked like someone tilted Meryl's world on its side as she finally took in the second thing Iris had said, “Wait. Did you say, priestess? When did priestesses become front-line fighters?”

Doxan laughed at Meryl’s response, “Iris here is in the middle of her training, I doubt she’ll be a priestess for long, but I expect you’re not going to be the last one to ask that very same question.”

Iris got her hand back after Meryl froze up mid-handshake. “I’m not even at the middle yet Doxan, I’m about as fresh as they come.” she then laughed and looked around the area, “Damn. Maybe I should have held back a bit.” She then looked back at the ragged teen in her cheap gear, and asked Meryl, “I’m guessing you were out here trying to get a few silvers from a quest to kill those mushroom guys, right?”

When Meryl nodded in response, Iris plowed on. “Look, I don’t want to bother with the cleanup. You can have whatever you find here, okay? If you feel guilty about it, just drop whatever you think is fair up to the church. It’s where I’ll be later.”

Meryl’s eyes widened as she got that offer, “B-but those were your kills. Why would you share them?”

Iris plastered a big grin on her face, “Because, honestly? I was just having some fun. Look, do you want them or not? I could go back there and get all the bits myself, but I want to go and see if I can find something else to test out some magic on. You get your quest done, I get to ignore the mess, and we both get a profit.”

Meryl nodded quickly in the affirmative and then hopped up to her feet. She grabbed Iris’s hand and shook it vigorously. “Yes! Please! I’m happy to do that!”

The teenager looked up at the slightly taller woman in front of her, “Thank you so much!” She then turned to Doxan and smiled happily, “Thank you so much for healing me too! I’ll swing by the church after I finish up here!”

With that, the girl grabbed her backpack and then ran off towards the decimated den of the mushmen. Leaving Iris and Doxan behind, waving to her retreating back.

Doxan then spoke when the girl was out of earshot, “I am going to be very angry when I speak to the priests running the church. Charging for healing that basic? That’s not how we operate in towns like this.”

Iris was still smiling but her eyes were definitely not. “My question is, why is a teenager like that, who is woefully underequipped out here doing something like monster culling, alone. This is a recipe for disaster.”

Doxan looked up at Iris and nodded, “So. Two very important questions. With both requiring some very definitive answers.” Doxan smiled darkly as he asked, “What will happen if you don’t like the answers?”

Iris stopped and thought, “First, if it’s just some mercenary punks being shits, I’ll probably see if I can fix the issue. If they’re stronger than me, then it’s a matter of figuring out how to help that kid, and any others that are getting dumped on.”

Doxan nodded as he listened to her, “And if the rot is deeper?”

Iris returned his dark smile, “I don’t know. Tell me Doxan, what would you do?”

Doxan tilted his head back and let out a laugh, “Oh, I’d probably toss the problem at Milly. She loves dealing with this kind of issue.”

Iris giggled at his response, “I really can’t wait to meet her. She sounds like my kind of person.”

Doxan simply smirked at Iris as he watched her giggle, “I think the both of you are going to get along just fine.”

Iris smiled as she looked off towards the city walls where they were heading to meet up with Stavic, “I want to test out my nature magic attacks and see how my light magic works here. I can probably do both at the next den of mushmen, then we can go have a look at this city.” She grinned at Doxan, “Have you been here before?”

Doxan shook his head as the pair turned and walked in a leisurely fashion towards their goal. “No, I have not had the pleasure of traveling to this city before. It shall be a new experience for both of us.” he patted the mace on his hip, “I might see about shaking some of the cobwebs loose while I am here. I think it might be fun to go for a wander through some of the dungeons they have here.”

Iris had a wide smile plastered on her face as Doxan told her his plans, “Make sure to invite me along. I’d love to see you in action.” she really would love to see Doxan let loose. The idea of a dwarf letting loose in a dungeon just screamed fantasy to her.

~~~

The guard on the city wall had been half asleep as always. He had long ago learned the requisite and necessary guard skills from his predecessor. Specifically, the ones on how to lean just right on his spear and put just the right amount of lean against the crenelations to seem like he was watching out across the plains to the forest. When he had, in reality, been napping and making up for the sleep he lost when he had gone down to the bar last night to spend his paycheck.

This is why, when the three consecutive lightning blasts struck in the plains in front of him, he had fallen back onto his ass and let out a very unmanly scream of terror. He looked up to the sky, looking for the storm clouds that had to have snuck up on the city.

After he clambered his way to look out over the valley and the sky above, all he could see was a clear blue sky that had a few white fluffy clouds. What was worse, he could not have seen where the lightning fell because his eyes had been closed.

He then resigned himself to his inevitable future of being chewed out by the guard captain for having nothing to report and that he had not seen anything.

Which he gauged was about to happen very quickly from the sound of men in armor running up the stairs, echoing up from the passage nearby him.

“Oh, by the dragons. Why was it on my shift?”

~~~

Doxan stood there beside Iris, eyes on the steaming pile of mushmen, his beard puffed out in a static ball.

Iris was looking up at the sky, her eyes glazed in the fashion of someone trying to escape reality. Her own purple hair was puffed out in a copy of Doxan’s beard.

Doxan coughed and looked up at Iris, “You are banned from using that spell until you have learned basic mana control. Banned. Got it?”

Iris nodded and frowned as her shoulders slumped, “Got it.”