Debuffed Farmer

The three of us were awkwardly strolling through the dirt path.

The chemistry of our group was lacklustre at best, you wouldn’t want us three together in your Fifa Ultimate Team. Although to be fair, it was mostly Clara that was dragging down our group dynamic. She was the definition of a lone wolf and now she’s hanging with a cool guy like me and a mysterious jock-looking guy who only speaks in puzzling statements.

“So, where exactly are we going?” I asked.

“We’re going to where the Revengers live, obviously,” Clara responded.

“And where is that…?”

“It’s at the end of Cemetery Forest, which is quite far from here. It’s where criminals are buried. Normally no one is allowed to go there since it’s so dangerous.”

That seemed like some weird exposition. It seemed that these Revengers were quite clearly the direct outcome of those buried criminals, yet they’re still burying criminals in the same spot. I guess stuff like this is usually a result of the government.

Maybe they couldn’t be fucked dumping them somewhere else or are purposefully creating Revengers for some unknown purpose (population control?).

Regardless, these bad guys must be tough.

“Clara, how strong are these Revengers?” I asked.

“Can you shut up for one second? I swear I’ve been answering your questions all day.”

Jeez, sorry for wanting some information.

We hiked our way through some thick terrain before getting into a land filled with very many trees. They weren’t just any trees, they had long, skinny stumps and dense leaves creating an atmosphere straight out of a horror movie. There was so little light penetrating through the dense shrubbery that it felt as if it was basically nighttime.

With our arms out, we felt our way through the dark path and gymnastically bent ourselves around the tree roots and low-hanging branches (that was an exaggeration, I only had to take some big steps through the dirt—with slimy leaves tickling my legs).

*

Eventually, we reached quite a large opening in the forest. The branches and leaves of the skinny trees still created a roof far above our heads, but the number of stumps suddenly decreased.

“We’re near the area now. Keep your eyes out for Revengers or Ghouls.”

Ghouls? There was more than one type of fantasy monster in this general area? That’s not very nice to know. I thought most novels lacked the artistic ability to create a fight scene with several combatants.

Hyocal leaned up against a tree.

“Oh yeah, I’m not really a hand-to-hand combat type. So I’ll be waiting around halfway up the tree. I’ll try to help out a little, maybe.”

Yo, hold on.

So basically, we’ve got a level 3 (me), who has never fought anything in this new fantasy land, a level 4 who seems to have some level of proficiency and an unknown level, random person who doesn’t even do hand-to-hand combat.

And we’re fighting something that’s supposedly for a level 5.

“Hey, I think we should turn back.” <— famous last words

Both of them ignored me.

Well, I guess this is where it ends.

It was dark, eerie, cold, wet, slimy, moist, arousing—okay maybe my adjectives are getting a little out of touch with reality. Still, it was basically a scene straight out of a horror movie (okay I’m running out of ways to describe this, ignore the fact that I used the same analogy twice).

All of a sudden!

Okay, I’m just kidding, there was nothing. In fact, that probably made things more eerie, like what the hell? Where’s the jump scare?

“Where are all the monsters and shit?” I asked.

“We’re waiting, they’re not just gonna pop out the moment we arrive, you know.”

Ah, no convenient timing for us then.

Clasping her hands together, I could feel the number of EM-waves rapidly increase in that area. Drawing out what looked like blue sparks, she slowly conjured a thin black rapier from the air (EM-wave-filled air). It was the same colour as her hair—quite fitting if I do say so.

“Ooh, do you get to choose the colour of your sword too?”

“You do realise most swords are this colour.”

“Aha, it just looks suspiciously like your hair colour.”

“Only an idiot like you would make that type of observation in this type of situation.”

“Hey, you’re acting as if you’re not the one who peer-pressured us into this.”

“I didn’t do shit. You’re the one who wanted me to go out on a job with you.”

“Well, you’re the one who forced us to pick something way out of our skill range!”

“Speak for yourself! Just because it’s out of your skill range doesn’t mean it’s out of mine!”

Okay, we really needed to stop shouting, we didn’t want the entire forest’s monster population to know of our whereabouts.

Around her wrist, Clara played around with her EM-wave-conjured sword. It was no wonder she had such a cliche name as the ‘sword princess’, she flipped and flopped it around like a circus performer performing with a stick.

Okay, that might’ve sounded derogatory but it was genuinely a compliment. When the blade moved close to me, I could feel the electric feeling of concentrated EM-waves.

I wish that I had some sort of cool power like that. At the moment, I could just punch slightly harder than usual.

…

There was some ruffling in the bush.

A semi-permeable grey creature showed its face from within the dark green leaves.

My eyes barely even had time to process its existence before it was brutally massacred.

Clara’s blade slashed through the creature in an instant. Her dark blade slid right through the monster, sizzling its insides.

Some dust dissipated into the air before a small grey gemstone fell to the ground.

Well, that was a bit underwhelming.

“What’s that?”

“It’s just a Ghoul Stone, it’s not very valuable.”

“Can I have it?”

“As much as I don’t want you to get credit from my work, I have no use for it.”

“Alright.”

I picked up the little grey stone.

Score! Maybe I could sell it for some money.