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Chapter 8
Schimmel sat on the ground, he had completely
forgotten about the violas for John. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his back,
he jumped up and drew his sword as he saw the spiked blue mushroom that had just
stabbed him. He took care of it with a single Power Strike, but fell over on his
hands and knees from the pain now surging through his back. He stood up and
sheathed his sword, then limped over to the pit Ayunli had come from. He looked
down to see more platforms, all covering the bottom of the tree so he couldn't
see the bottom. He began his climb down, only to trip and fall on his first try
climbing down a vine.
He landed hard on his already sore back. He moaned and rolled over onto his
stomach. What he saw ahead was strange, it was brighter than the rest of the
forest, and no monsters were swarming the place. He struggled to get up, and
after a few minutes, was back on his feet. He limped forward into the bright
area and began seeing small mushroom-shaped houses. He found Sleepywood! Before
he could jump for joy, he fell over the sudden drop of walkway into the village
and landed on his face.
In the village, he found the sauna, the pathway to Ant Tunnel, and a strange
brown statue that was just a small platform with a head shape on it. The statue
was the same as the one shown in the job request paper. Following the
directions, he stepped up to the statue and it began to talk.
"You would like to challenge the Forest of Patience?" It spoke in a low, deep
voice.
"Yes, with the pink viola flowers as the prize."
"Very well then."
As it finished speaking, Schimmel saw his surroundings change instantly,
without any feeling that he had moved. Just ahead of where he stood were small
platforms, just barely big enough for him to step on. They seemed to float in
midair as each step rose higher until they reached a larger platform. Looking up
from where he was standing, he could see something floating around the smaller
platforms.
He approached the first step and placed all his weight on it, hoping it
wouldn't fall. It didn't. From where he was standing, he could tell that the
Forest of Patience would be much harder than it had first seemed. The next
platform was such a distance away, he would have to jump to make it. Jumping
from tiny platform to tiny platform wouldn't be easy. He tried it, and made it
by holding onto the side of the platform in a crouch. He made it halfway up when
he was hit in the face by something before he saw it and fell back to the
bottom. He landed on his back, making it pain worse than it already was.
He looked up and saw what hit him, it was those strange, green, pollen-like
orbs that were floating around the platforms. He tried it again and watched out
for the orbs. Halfway up, he saw one coming at him and managed to jump to the
next platform before it hit him. A few jumps later and he had finally made it to
the top. He punched the air in victory just as he saw the surroundings around
him instantly change again. He looked around to see where he was and realized it
wasn't done with him yet, he figured it was too easy if he was done anyway.
He looked up at the new puzzle and found that it wasn't so vertical this
time. It was more like platforms going horizontally across, up for a bit, then
back the other way. It seemed to have four floors to it. He began on the first
floor and saw that there were already a few of the orbs. He timed his jumps so
that the orbs didn't hit him and made it to the other side easy. He followed the
platforms up to the next level. As soon as he made it to the top, he noticed
something new. There was a red pollen-like orb this time mixed in with the green
ones. It was moving much faster too. He tried to get across but was hit by it,
knocking him back to the first level.
After a few tries, he made it to the third level, where there was now about
five red orbs zipping around the area. He had to try it another few times before
he got finally got through the pack of them. At the end of it, more platforms
led him up to a small patch of flowers. He picked ten of them and the
surroundings around him instantly changed again, this time leaving him in front
of the statue in Sleepywood again. He travelled the long way back through the
dungeon to Henesys, and in turn to Lith Harbor. John thanked him for the flowers
and gave Schimmel the reward mesos, the currency around the three islands. He
checked his badge and saw that it was now twenty-one, so he decided to go try
the Party Quest and hopefully meet up with the others there.
Once in Kerning, he stepped down the small staircase into the Party Quest
area, which was based around a sewer. He found J Man and Bryenn talking to each
other, along with someone else wearing green chainmail, a feathered round-rimmed
hat and had a yellow bow with a red arrowrest strapped to his back behind a
green, yellow-outlined cape. Schimmel approached the group of three. As soon as
J Man saw him coming, he ran up to him, grabbed the collar of his armor and
dragged him over to where they were all standing.
"Where've ya been?" J Man yelled at him, "We've been waitin' for a fourth
person to go Party Questin' with for a while now."
"Great to see you again Schim, and we're both much more experienced now,"
Bryenn greeted him, "I can't wait for this!"
Schimmel laughed, "Great, let's get at it then!" He said that with a punch in
the air as he noticed the one who was going to be joining them, "Ah, you'll be
joining us? I should at least know your name then," he said as he gave him a
polite smile.
The man smiled back, "Nemorian. Nemo is fine though. I heard your name is
Schim, right?"
"Yeah, which is short for Schimmel. I don't mind Schim though. You already
know Bryenn and J Man here, eh?"
"Yeah, we had a bit of time to chat while waiting for a fourth person,"
Nemorian explained, "But now that you're here... shall we head on?"
"Yeah, let's go!" J Man cried in anxiousness. They approached the girl who
was watching them for the entire time, waiting for them to start the Party
Quest. She was a young woman with very revealing pink clothes. Her pink shirt
was in the shape of a bra covering only the chest, and she wore only a small
pink cloth dress. She held a rigid brown staff topped with a blue gem. Her long,
pale green hair reached the floor.
"To introduce myself, I am Lakelis. You four will be attempting the Party
Quest, correct? A show of your badges is necessary to make sure you meet the
requirements," she explained. They each stuck their badges on their shoulders
and each glowed twenty-one, except J Man's, who was twenty-five.
"And who shall you designate as the leader of the Quest?"
J Man spoke up right away, "I'ma be the leader, I'm the highest level so I'ma
handle the toughest monsters."
"Does the leader need to be the strongest?" Bryenn asked Lakelis.
"The leader only requires leadership skills," Lakelis explained.
"Ah well, I don't wanna be doin' that then," J Man said, "I'ma fight the
monsters while Schim does the leadership thing."
"M-Me?" Schimmel exclaimed, "I have no clue what I'm doing in this, how could
I lead us?"
"You'll learn on the way, come on already!" J Man started to get impatient.
"Okay okay, I'll try I guess," Schimmel said, a bit nervous.
"Very well then. Proceed." As she spoke, she raised her staff and the
surroundings around everyone instantly changed to a swamp-like area. A hologram
of Lakelis appeared behind them, "Speak to me if you wish to give up, or if you
have passed the trial and are ready for the next area."
"The first trial is this," she began to explain, "Everyone will be given a
question except for the leader. They will gather coupons from the monsters in
the area according to the answer to the question. They will give the coupons to
me and receive a pass. Once you have all three passes, hand them to the leader
and you will complete this stage of the trial. Now, receive your question." As
she finished explaining, her lips kept moving but she wasn't saying anything,
seemingly saying something only they could hear.
Schimmel became confused as everyone seemed to know what to do except him. He
approached the hologram of Lakelis.
"Uh, what exactly is it I do as leader?"
"You shall be the only one who can allow everyone passage into the next trial
with the passes."
"Uh, yeah, but what exactly is it I do?"
"I already answered that question."
Schimmel became annoyed and sat down, waiting for the others to finish. He
decided to go check on them. He found J Man slaughtering the crocodile monsters
with ease. Bryenn was struggling a bit, and Nemorian was sniping them from a
ledge. He sighed and waited next to Lakelis. After a few more minutes, they had
gathered their passes and Schimmel gave them to Lakelis. Their surroundings
changed again, this time with four ropes hanging from floating ledges.
"This time, you shall have the three besides the leader climb up on three of
the four ropes. You shall try different combinations of three ropes until you
find the correct one. You will know you have found the correct one when the
leader receives the pass and you are warped to the next trial," Lakelis
explained. Bryenn, Nemo and J Man started climbing the first three ropes without
saying anything. Schimmel approached the hologram Lakelis, which was following
them room to room it seemed.
"You mean I don't do anything here either?"
"You shall be the only one who can allow everyone passage into the next trial
with the passes," she repeated like a drone.
"In other words, no..." Schimmel sat on the ground, annoyed again, waiting
for them to find the right combination. Once they had, he handed the pass to
Lakelis who warped them to yet another room.
This room was a room set with five platforms. One platform had one cat on it,
while the others had two, three, four and five cats sitting on it. They seemed
to be statues, which explained why they wouldn't move.
"This trial requires you to find the correct combination of platforms to
stand on with your three members. Remember, once you have found the right
combination, the leader will receive the pass and complete the trial," Lakelis
announced again. Again, the three went to work while Schimmel sat next to
Lakelis, wondering why he was stuck with nothing to do.
"How exactly does this require me to have leadership?" Schimmel inquired to
her.
"You shall be in charge of receiving the passes from your party members and
completing the trial."
Schimmel sighed as she gave the same drone-like answer.
"This trial requires the three party members to find the right combination of
boxes out of the six," Lakelis droned on again as they entered the next trial.
As usual, Schimmel sat next to Lakelis waiting for them to get the right
combination. As they found the right combination of boxes, they were warped into
the final area of the Party Quest.
"This trial will require some battle skills. Collect a total of ten passes
from the monsters below and you shall complete the Party Quest."
"Finally some action!" Schimmel yelled as he jumped into the pit which held
three green one-eyed monsters. J Man, Bryenn and Nemorian all followed him.
Schimmel, J Man and Bryenn fought them up close while Nemorian sniped them as
usual. They were quickly defeated and received three of the ten passes.
In the next area, they found six small green snakes. They lashed out biting
at the three fighters but Nemorian easily sniped them and destroyed all six
quickly, receiving six passes. Only one more to go.
They stepped into the final area of the Party Quest and found something they
didn't exactly expect. Holding the last pass was an enormous slime monster,
surrounded by smaller slimes that would fight with it.
"Okay, we should make a battle plan to tackle this thing..." Schimmel
suggested a bit late. Bryenn and J Man had already jumped in swinging at the
slimes. Nemorian shrugged at the confused Schimmel and started firing arrows
rapidly into the slimes. Schimmel jumped down to fight alongside them, but was
instantly tackled by slimes.
"Slash Blast!" Schimmel yelled as energy waves swung from his sword and
dispersed the crowd of slimes around him. He looked around to see that J Man and
Bryenn were holding their own against hordes of small slimes, so he decided to
go after the giant one.
He ran at it, charging his sword, "Power Strike!" He called as he brought his
sword down into the slime. The slime that Schimmel hit just fell off and formed
smaller slimes. He knew right then what they had to do.
"Guys, we need to break th-" Schimmel was cut off as the giant slime smashed
into the ground, causing a shockwave that sent Schimmel smashing into the wall
with a yell. He fell to a sitting position as he tried to look around, but
everything looked blurred to him and he couldn't make out what was happening. He
stood up and wobbled a bit, trying to keep his balance. As his eyesight
returned, he could see that everyone else had taken care of the small ones and
were now breaking down the larger one into small ones to defeat. He was just
about to start a run toward the slime to help them when his legs gave out and he
fell on the ground, unable to move.
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