Lee, Regina, and Jeremy slowly traversed the village of Lopus, keeping their eyes peeled for potential threats. Well, Jeremy and Regina kept their eyes peeled for potential threats, and Lee swept around for those who required healing. While he knew he wasn’t a genius, it didn’t take a genius to see what the aftermath of a stomping behemoth left in its wake. Many were dead, but those who were on the brink were healed along the way by his Healer’s Beacon and Healer’s Touch combination.

Lee barely spared a glance at the notification and continued to focus his efforts on healing those nearby. Medical Attention was quickly growing to be one of his most used skills. Being able to differentiate a corpse from someone with a sliver of health at a glance was a boon for which he was very thankful. Without the skill, he would have easily passed a few of those nearby without a second thought.

Most of those damaged were injured from either building collapse, trampling, or falling debris. Lee tried his best to ignore the massive stone boulders and lumps of stone with bloody pools beneath them. He knew there was no chance of survival against forces of terminal velocity and mass to such a degree.

Villagers quaked and trembled in their homes in fear as Jeremy did his utmost to have the residents flee and evacuate. Many heeded his words, but others remained rooted in place by fear or inability. Some were elderly, unable to quickly flee the village in the required amount of time, or some had children who were too terrified to move a muscle.

Regina was an unreadable mask as she glanced about. Her arms were placed around her midsection in what Lee would describe as a typical maid gesture, but he knew better than to assume. For all he knew, this was her defensive stance. An assassin of her caliber probably needed to blend in, and what better way was there to appear defenseless?

As they made their way through the now nearly empty streets toward the towering monstrosity, Lee began to see what he feared most—Petrification.

“Regina, I thought you said that petrification was caused by its third eye?” Lee asked as he looked upon the dead individuals slowly completing their new stone forms.

She didn’t even spare them a glance as she responded. “I assume the statues themselves can inflict the curse on their victims.”

Lee had been here for well over a month now, and he had not seen or heard any confirmation about what caused the petrification. Many adventurers had delved into the depths, and for all the statues that were culled, he never once heard mention of those who had sustained injuries being transformed into stone. He had severe doubts about this being the case. It didn’t sit right with him at all.

“That’s a very dangerous assumpti—” The collapse of a nearby building cut off his words as he swiveled his head, alert and wary. A minute pulse of his wisdom was all he needed before he cast on instinct. Since he had heard about the third eye of the basilisk being the cause of the curse, he had already formulated a plan to hamper its effects.

A pitch-black sphere of pure void encapsulated the front half of the crumbled building as Lee’s Void Sphere materialized. From the corner of his eye, Regina actually seemed to jerk from the sudden spell, either from surprise or from something else.

Lee didn’t move as he waited for any signs of movement to escape from the void. No sounds escaped from the void, no light, no indication of anything from within from an outsider's perspective, but he knew. Somehow, he knew something was in there, and it was large. Much larger than a human or statue.

A crumpled and scrunched dark green face slowly made its way through the edge of the void sphere, gasping for breath as its third eye slowly opened.

Lee wasted no time before casting Wall of Earth. The erupting wall uppercut the much smaller basilisk and knocked its head back into the domain of the Void Sphere, as well as blocking off its exit path. Lee quickly encircled the sphere with multiple walls, blocking out all forms of escape he could see. From his new skill, Lee could tell that the basilisk was wailing and stumbling around in the dark in a panic. It repeatedly slammed into the walls of earth, hoping and desperately attempting to escape. Slowly but surely, it succumbed to the effects of the void, collapsing lifeless.

Lee spared a glance at his status, looking for his XP.

Combined with the five hundred XP from his class quest, he estimated that he had gained three hundred XP from this creature. He wished he checked his XP more often, as he wasn’t a hundred percent sure about where his total was before his class quests rewards.

Regina spared Lee a glance and gave him a nod. Lee let loose a shaky breath he didn’t know he held in. “I guess the big one has some babies. I didn’t bother using Identify, but it’s dead now.”

He spared a quick Medical Attention scan on Regina and Jeremy before quickly scanning himself for any signs of the curse of petrification. Thankfully, it seemed his quick actions saved them from a very unpleasant healing service.

Jeremy, sword and shield at the ready, wordlessly entered the building through a nearby window after Lee’s Void Sphere ended. He quickly returned, holding a small pile of assorted items.

“It was level nineteen. It also dropped some interesting loot.” He held out a small amount of coins, mostly silver and copper, a rough hoof, and a smooth ribbed stone ornament of some kind.

Lee hover-handed the loot into his Hidden Cache as he gazed around for more threats. Regina tapped her foot, disrupting Lee from his task.

“It appears that Hemsworth might be in for more than he bargained for. If the elder basilisk had an entourage of smaller friends, he would be in more trouble than I thought. These are not creatures you can simply ignore for being weak. No matter one's strength, the curse of petrification will be an unavoidable threat.” Regina narrowed her eyes as she gazed upon the gargantuan basilisk still traveling atop the large village.

Jeremy nodded in agreement, and Lee grew more worried about Em. She was exactly the type of person to underestimate the threat presented by weaker individuals. He had no doubt in his mind that she would casually disregard them for being weaklings and not take them as seriously as she needed to.

As the giant basilisk let loose another reverberating call, he was torn between helping end the giant threat and searching for his dear friend. If Em died, he wasn’t sure if he could continue along with the remnants from the Wall of Shadows. She was a nice anchor for his emotional well-being. At the end of the day, she treated him like a normal person. Yes, she was definitely more violent than he would have liked, but she was special in her own way.

Seemingly sensing his inner turmoil, Regina spoke casually as she started to continue onwards toward the enormous creature stomping about the village. “The quicker everything is delt with, the quicker you can focus on other concerns. You said you have the capabilities to either kill or severely damage the basilisk and I’m putting my trust in you to do what must be done. Let us be off.”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now this is adventure! Em thought as she scuttled along the ruined cobblestone roads alongside a semi-familiar group of actual adventurers. Ones that she could actually work with. Well, mostly.

With a shining grin full of pearly white teeth, Em excitedly gazed around with her dark crimson eyes at her not-so-merry band of companions. The one leading the way was a shorter female ranger, scouting the path ahead for any imminent danger. Walking on slightly behind her and to her sides were two men. One was a frontline fighter, despite his smaller stature, and the other a cleric.

The fighter handled a gleaming two-handed longsword, foregoing any type of shield for strict offensive brutality. Brutality she had personally seen up close as he cleaved through a smaller basilisk not two minutes beforehand.

The cleric was a class she never really thought much about, but he showcased its worth with his dangling flail, which was imbued with skills from the gods or gods he followed. He smote foes and has even recently learned to cure that pesky petrification—a great companion for her mighty quest.

The last member was the one she was most familiar with and the one Lee wanted to be most familiar with. She at least remembered this one's name, Annalise. Apparently, she was some sort of monk. A class she had never heard about in any of the tomes she’d read through.

The statues they came across shattered under her quick, heavy, decisive blows, and even though she wore little when it came to armor—much unlike herself—she could take some punishment—a trait she much respected.

She gazed above the nearby buildings at the ‘final-boss’ of her adventure. An enormous basilisk, she was told—a perfect adversary for one such as she.

“Em! We found another!” The female ranger… Clarence? Yes, Clarence shouted at her from up along the path. In her arms, she carried a young human child.

Em tsk’d and lost her joyous smile as she scuttled forward and wasted more of her precious mana on healing the weak. Mend Wounds was both a blessing and a curse it seemed, and she hoped that the other spells she was going to steal from Lee were not the case. So far, she hadn’t managed to steal any more of them, but she had made some spells of her own.

After waving her hand and healing the young child, who was at most maybe ten years old, Em had to do a doubletake. The pristine purple clothes and immaculate, unmarred skin of the girl prickled something in her memory. Something on the tip of her tongue…

The girl lazily opened her eyes and glanced about, seemingly unaware of her current predicament. Then, she laid her eyes upon Em.

Em sighed as she knew what was about to transpire.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”