Lovely Trees

"Always be on guard from now on—as long as you notice them before they come at you, you'll have no problem taking them out." The way Arial is so nonchalant and indifferent about murder is bizarre to me—the way he says it dehumanizes them to monsters rather than humans. Ella and I were freaked out—Xter, as usual, didn't particularly care. "So, uhh…" I voiced, "who were they?" 

Arial proceeded to glance at me, and then without concern said, "most likely, organ hunters."

Even Xter broke his little emo character—all freaked out, began looking at Arial with wide eyes. "O— organ hunters?! The fuck is that…" I said in bafflement. Ella was silent, but her face was ridden with shock and fear. Arial sighed and stated, "just as the name of our City suggests, we have a lot of immigrants… so there's some gangs on the outskirts of Im City collecting immigrant organs or just reselling people as slaves; it's a rather unpleasant blackmarket."

We were all really uncomfortable by this, and Arial easily picked up on it, "but don't worry, kiddos! You're safe with me! Plus, they have no chance against people with Systems or Magic Weapons; don't let them get a sneaky one on you and you'll be fine!" Subsequently, Arial stopped smiling and got a serious expression just as he looked away from us; what exactly is on his mind? Didn't he say it's safe around these parts? Wasn't he really confident in that?

Coldly, Xter carried the tone of someone upset in his voice, "didn't you say that these areas are safe, Leader Arial?" The realization that our organs could've been harvested while we were camping set in—we were at death's door right after leaving the City.

Arial stared at Xter for a few seconds, clearly assessing the situation; then broke the ice rather formidably, "organ hunters being active so close to the Im City is unprecedented and has never happened before, so while I acknowledge that my trust in the Association's Information Network put you at risk, I can't take responsibility here—we'll have it reported once we return." With Xter, Arial's response didn't flow all that smoothly—he ensued glaring at our Leader with cold eyes and ended up looking away without replying anything.

I don't believe we're particularly at risk here and neither do I think Xter thinks that, it's just a little unsettling that there might be people after our organs—and Ella on the other hand, might just be targeted to be sold to slavery. "Anyhow, everyone, I'll set up some protection once we camp—let your worries die out, nothing will happen." Rather joyfully, I gave Arial's leadership some re-affirmation, "sounds good! I'm sure all of us trust you to keep us safe—I know I do"; hopefully I didn't sound fake.

We continued going through the forest—even if slightly felt like walking on eggshells—until abruptly someone got rather unpleasantly hungry.

"Wooooooomp!!" Everyone got jumpscared!! A tree opened a massive mouth!!

"Ella!!" I shouted.

She instantly turned around just to see the mouth trying to swallow her; Arial was already next to it and then proceeded to cut the tree's mouth; the cut-off part fell on her—she pushed it away from herself completely unharmed.

Green blood started seeping out of it and it began screeching loudly. "WOMP!! WOMPPP!! WOMP, WOMPPPP!!!"

"Sucky Tree, Level 2," said Xter while looking at me, "let's do it, Dantes?" Hearing him say that made my chest burn warmly—he sees me as an actual comrade or even a friend now, doesn't he? I smiled and re-affirmed, "let's go!"

We took out our weapons and leaped forward—we cut the tree smoothly into many pieces; I could feel a tiny block when cutting it, however, I guess that's a level 2 monster for you.

Subsequently, from all sides, a bunch of red eyes started glowing. "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" "WOMP!!" they were everywhere!!

A drop of worry ran down my face, "we sure have a bit of work, don't we, team?" Then instead of upholding any vigilance, Arial let out a small confident giggle and sat down on the grass, "this one's on you—take care of them without a droplet of any red blood, guys."

Xter and I smiled at him, seeing him rely on us in respect like this made us burn in bright confidence; Ella wasn't feeling it to our extent, but it also got to her to a level. That said, I guess in spite of the difference in our levels, there's really not as much difference in what we can do—I suppose the gap in our abilities might start showing with stronger enemies, though; that seems like a realistic hypothesis to make.

"Let's go!!" "Fuck 'em trees!!" "Y— yeah!"

A long battle of tree-slaying began!!

After roughly half an hour… we came on top!! We deforested a massive part of the forest—it seems like they waited until someone got into the middle of their swarm, then attempted to eat up their victims.

Honestly, felt like I got stronger as I killed the Suckies—pondered if others observed the same feeling of progress. "Hey guys, did you also feel like you were getting stronger as you killed them?"

Ella, strangely, answered instantly, "yeah! I did—I thought I was the only one." Xter then added, "I definitely got stronger as well—what's that about, Leader?" He glanced at Arial with arrogant eyes and a cheeky grin.

"Hmm…" giggled… "placebo!" Xter and I simultaneously sighed; both of us were getting tired of Arial's roundabout answers.

Afterwards, "anyhow, time to set up camp! It's getting a bit late," stated Arial. "Dantes, go find actual wood—monster wood won't work here; Ella, here are the tents—go set them up; and finally, Xter, go hunt some animals—we'll eat something fresh this time and you're responsible for it!"

"Huh… but it's dark already," claimed Xter in uncertainty; just to have it immediately killed, "don't worry! I'll show you how to…" Arial began holding his palm and… a fire popped up from thin air!! "Damn…" went Xter.

"Want it?~ Want it?~~~" While giggling. Fucking Arial being all cheeky and goofy; what an unserious man he turned out to be.

"I— I mean, sure?" Yet again, Arial proceeded to chuckle. "Okay then! I'll give it to all of you! Not just you, Xter!!"

All of us? Oh… "Okay, guys!! Close your eyes!!" We did just that…

"I'm kidding, you don't need to close your eyes or anything—already done giving it to you!! Check your spells!!" This asshole…

"Wowww!!" "Thank you, I guess." "O— oh shi— wait, I don't have a System!!"