Unusual Encounter in the Wilderness

Meham and Aram reached the far barren land north of the town.

"Okay so let me revise the assignment, there is one specific plant in the Dry Land wilderness, it turns carnivorous in the afternoon, we have to discover it before the afternoon and harvest it when it turns since it is useless if it's not biting you."

"Yeah because if you don't harvest it in time, it will turn back into a normal plant and that is useless."

"What is it called?"

"They call it Meatarian, there is no limit, he will pay us two copper for one plant, so one silver coin for five, and for your information one copper is enough for one time meal in the inn. "

"That sounds generous" Meham seemed satisfied with the exchange rate.

"Well normally in the Quest station, the amount would be one silver for 10 Meatarians."

"I see"

A pack of small wild dogs start approaching them.

"What are these, Hyenas?"

"Dunno but Tim said everything out here which bare fangs is out to kill humans, so we better kill them first"

Aram hold his twin blades while Meham is using a staff(stick) which he got from Barbara as spare.

"Are you sure about this, you can have one of my blade" Aram took a defensive stance one of the beast run and jumped double to it's height aiming Aram's face.

*Swish*

*Slash* he dodged it quite easily and slashed the beast mid air.

"I am good. I reinforced the staff with mana. " the staff was glowing green slightly.

The beasts around Meham were wary of attacking him, Meham instead dashed and hit two of them with the edge of staff simultaneously, he then dispel his reinforcement.

'These guys seems to be not much of a danger, a normal person can take them on aswell, that is why they are attacking in pack, still lets not waste my mana on these.'

They both took down 8 of the beast without getting a single scratch, the rest wounded retreated to the forest.

"Phew, for the first fight we did pretty good " Aram wiped his Blades with beast corpse.

"They are less provoking than a big mice though."

"Yeah that is true, will they worth anything to sell?"

"We can't bring the whole thing with us , and neither of us know how to skin it, so lets just focus on our initial quest"

"Okay, look there is one of them" Aram pointed at a huge orange flower bud which is around two feet tall.

"I see it's in prestage_" Meham suddenly reaized something.

"Cant we just dug it out along the roots?"

"..."

"Why?" Aram seemed confused.

"I can feel it, it has slight mana converging in its peduncle, it is entering through roots, if we just dig out the root along with some dirt it should work"

"I mean you are right, why they did not told me about it " Aram is having doubt on this idea.

"There is still atleast three hours before sun descends, you go find them and I will dug and collect few of them, if it works its good otherwise, we will get them the original way"

Aram sprint out to look for more of them while Meham start digging around this one.

'He always prefers smart work over hard work, its like his motto, so why now?' Aram thought to himself, he reached at a pair of two Meatarians, and he head further.

"Good the roots are not too deep, it means it does not take too long to nourish" He picked the whole thing out along with a small capsule of dirt he made around the roots.

"Well it did not stop its sucking business so it should be fine" He tore the cape Barbara gave her and made small clothes out of it to wrap the roots and bud part, "Sorry Barbara will definitely pay you back"

He used thick grass as binds, and wrap the plant first then he create a carrier using stick and rope out of grain grass.

"Hey, it worked?" Aram returned.

"Yeah this guy is still thriving"

"Okay, then let's do your method, I found about a dozen."

"We will harvest ten of them, I want to wrestle the two as a test."

Meham followed Aram, they reached the pair of Meatarians, Meham started then Aram followed, their enhanced strength and stamina did not let this labour demotivate them and finished harvesting the ten right moments before dark.

They are now just waiting in front of another pair of buds, they start to bloom as the last ray of light fades away, they start to mutate, the wild vines start growing beside them and the petals opened up showing a void-like mouth in between with sharp teeth like needles around it.

"Are you ready?" Meham looked at Aram.

"On second thought I am allergic to sunflower seeds_" Aram backed off and hand over his blades to Meham.

"Sure, I can take them on" Meham approached them.

*Swish*

Meham dodge one piercing vine but it grazes his arm a little, "Hmm, " he tried again but had to back off because of the unpredictable attacks.

"They are not interested in attacking just want to be left alone."

"Hmm, it reminds me of someone close" Aram giggled.

'How can I predict its attack, should I counter or just outpaced it.'

'...,' Meham felt furious that he has to struggle with plants.

"Fuck it!"

"You are giving up?" Aram seemed surprised, "why don't you try that air slice, like last time."

"I won't, not on this" Meham just chucked the blades back to Aram and start going back while wearing the carrier on his back, Aram followed him.

"Ohh!" They both reached their stockpile of Meatarians, they were just flopping like a fish out of water,

"I can't believe it worked this good, they are alive and not in rage, I feel like I caught a great fish" Aram was holding one with both hands.

'So these are stable, their mana is not exploding like those two '

"Let's just make one carrier for you too" Meham told Aram to collect sticks and thick grass and made the carrier for him, they started piling the plants on the carriers.

Meham's expression changed in an instant, "Someone is coming!" he looked in the direction of the forest west north of them, after few seconds a silhouette slowly appeared.

"Is there only one or more!" Aram prepared himself for fight.

"Only one and she seems wounded" he could feel a very slight speck of mana and she was stumbling then she started running toward them.

"HEY, BACKOFF!" Aram warned her, Meham felt a chill.

"Meh… Meham…" the girl approached them her face light up with their fire torch, she collapsed on the ground.

Aram looked at Meham, "It's Bekaar…"