The resinlings were a chore to fight, and they would occasionally be quicker to latch onto her hand than she would be to attach them to a rough surface. They would also lob anything they could gather up when she got too far away from them, but she eventually managed to slay ten of them without taking too much damage. The small tree she had been using to scrape them off of her shield was a lot worse for wear, however, with big chunks of bark and soggy wood starting to crumble away from it. It looked like it might melt into a puddle at any second.

  That was nice! The resinlings already gave 15 experience, so hunting them could be a quick way to level up other classes. There were at least two dozen left on the main tree trunk and milling around on the ground around it, plus every couple of minutes a new bead of sap would leak out of the bark. As it stood, Shelby had gotten 150 experience from the slimes and 98 from the fruit rats. Checking her character sheet revealed that she was just 2 away from level 3. So close!

  What was even nicer was that the second slime had dropped an uncommon necklace:

  Shelby equipped it and it slotted into one of the right-hand boxes, which was level with her character’s neck. It appeared on her physical body too, a small red pearl that clung tightly to her, rather thick, capybara neck. She immediately gained 4 health points, bringing her total to 52. Even accounting for the necklace, she had a lot more health than her rabbit character, Caramel, did at the same level. She asked AIDAN about the difference.

  "It is an effect of your base class and race variant. You were given 2 additional Constitution on top of the standard 6 points as a result of starting as a Hidor, or capybara, Daizi, and you gain an additional 2 per level as a Briarknight. Because of your uncommon necklace, you now possess 13 Constitution, each of which contributes 4 points of health."

  Shelby nodded along as she sat cross-legged in the soft dirt, "So Brushcoursers and rabbits must get less, then."

  "You are correct, Sylvi Daizi, or rabbits, start with 1 extra constitution, and Brushcoursers gain only 1 point per level."

  The slimes had also dropped 2 items simply called [Red Sap], which seemed to be something only used for selling, and the final slime dropped the token AIDAN had promised, a [Copperglade Resinling - Event Token]. AIDAN informed Shelby that this token was special because it started an event rather than spawning a rare monster. She considered using it, but they had already spent 20 minutes methodically killing the resinlings and she thought they should move on to finishing the rat quests and seek out the Apprenticeship target to the west. Also, the timer on the completed slime hunting quest was nagging at Shelby. You're missing out on bonuses, She reminded herself.

  She headed towards the farthest west green circle on her mini-map. They were approaching the high ridge of the clustered hills running north and south over the Copperglade peninsula, and the headwaters of the many small streams she had crossed over on her way was visible as a spiderwebbing scar coming from the north. The vegetation around it was much greener than the surrounding area, which was a mix of pale greens, oranges, and reds. She spotted a fruit rat splashing through shallow water and she stalked along behind it for a few yards before she tagged it and backed away. It would be difficult to retrieve its body from the central stream, so she waited out the tether's slowly accumulating damage. Success, another seedling, and a level!

  With that came another big increase in health, from 52 all the way to 64! She wanted to see what had changed, so she opened her character sheet and examined her stats.

  Ah, right, the necklace’s effect increased too, she noticed as she focused on the small choker. Everything is coming up Shelby!

  On top of all that, she also completed the codex entry for natural spirits, giving her +1 to experience gained and another small item drop bonus. A lot was riding on that one rat!

  She checked her quest status while she was immersed in her menus:

  Those seedlings aren't dropping very quickly... She skirted around the area until she spotted another pair of fruit rats. She was getting good at avoiding the spots where they could hide and ambush her, such as the spaces under thick roots and bushes, or in the smaller gullies. She quickly finished one with a critical blow followed by a dozen seconds holding the tether, then traded blows with the remaining rat instead of waiting for the skill's cooldown to finish. Even without her skill it was a lot easier to fight the rats since she didn't have to worry about creating room or aiming when she was fighting with a shield, and she had so much health that taking a few bites wasn't a big deal. Just another single seedling, come on...

  As she snuck up on a lone rat resting on the downward slope to the west, she had an amazing idea. She tagged the rat and then flung her shield back up the hill about 5 yards, then got ready to run the other direction. If she was right, then the rat would follow her and detonate the tether itself!

  She was not right. The second her shield left her hand the tether faded into pale yellow flecks and dissipated. She stared at them as they scattered in the gentle breeze, then turned back to the rat with her hands raised in apology. The rat was not open to a peaceful resolution, and took a running leap at her. She ducked its attack, but it managed to sink its claws into her back and grasp on, biting her on the shoulder and side as she reached back to grab it without any luck. She let herself fall back on top of the rat and then grasped it by the tail after it was pinned. The damage was piling up quickly as it kicked and bit at her, bringing her down to 20 of 64 health points. She ripped it away, stood, and spun on her heel, throwing the rat downhill like an Olympian heaving a hammer. She watched it sail away, then hustled uphill to grab her shield, which was stuck halfway into a particularly soft berm. With her shield back she was able to smack the rat across the neck with a precise jab and put it down for good.

  AIDAN vibrated at a high frequency to her side, "I could have informed you that your plan would not be successful, if you had only consulted me."

  "Ha ha. It would have been nice if it had worked..." Shelby crouched down with a sigh and grabbed another sapling off the body, as well as a cluster of [Spirit Grapes]. Now that she looked, the rat’s tail was covered in the small, dusty grapes, like the kind you would use for making wine, and a lot of them had scattered across the hillside when she had thrown it. Such weird creatures. She tried to pop the scattered grapes into her inventory, but they refused to be taken and were already slowly deflating into puddles.

  Eventually she managed to find and quash four more rats and collect the final two seedlings. All of that together put her 101 points into level 3, out of a total 450 needed. With all three quests complete, she hiked towards an elevated clearing and scanned the horizon to the west. Although it was hard to make out, she thought she could see some glittering lights about a half mile away in a small valley ringed with particularly rocky hills. She nudged AIDAN with her elbow, "Is that the place we're looking for?"

  "Indeed. We are not too far away."

  They spent 10 minutes navigating the slope, which was a bit steeper than the other side of the ridge, and managed to avoid any serious danger. One fruit rat surprised Shelby as she took a running jump across a slippery gully. Since she was already headed in the opposite direction from it she paused to give it a not-so-gentle tap and continued running towards the lights, letting it die from her tethers pulse as it chased after. Navigating towards the lights became more difficult the lower they got in the valley, but after some backtracking she spotted the area again and descended into it.

  It was a camp of about a dozen large linen tents arranged in a ring. There were stacks and stacks of crates, low tables, tarps, and what looked like some mining supplies. At the center was a recessed firepit where a handful of sleepy-looking mice sat with tin coffee mugs in their hands. She coughed into her hand as she walked up, hoping they wouldn't be alarmed by her sudden appearance. Regrettably, one of them was startled so badly that they ended up throwing their mug right into the fireplace, but the rest of the mice looked up with mildly interested expressions. The mug throwing mouse grabbed a stick and fished their mug out of the embers, then gathered themselves before turning back to look at Shelby.

  "Well! Who do we have here? A wanderer from Copperglade village, perhaps?" The mouse was short and grey, with an especially squeaky voice, but her most notable feature was that she wore gigantic, thick-lensed coke-bottle glasses that completely obscured her eyes and about a quarter of her face. She had incredibly bushy hair that framed her face with blunt bangs and shaggy locks. Shelby took a long moment to notice that the mouse was extending her small paw towards her, and Shelby bent down to shake it.

  "Yes! I'm..." Shelby paused, now that she thought about it, she had never introduced herself to anyone in the game thus far. Her pause extended awkwardly as she fretted over whether she had been rude to the people in Copperglade Village, and then she fretted even more as she considered whether she should introduce herself as 'Shelby' or 'Ginger', deciding after some deliberation that it would become way too confusing if there were 3 different Shelbys running around the area. She pretended to cough and clasped her throat to mask her prolonged silence, and the mouse stepped back a few strides with a bemused smile.

  "It's a tough one, I know..." she said with a smirk.

  "Sorry! A-allergies," Shelby fumbled, "Anyhow, I'm Ginger!"

  "Nice to meet you Ginger, I'm Rifu-ra-Trin. I'm the head researcher of this magnificent camp!" She swept a hand outwards and gestured to the arrangement of tents.

  "Ah! How... great for you," Shelby rattled off, still feeling two hot coals burning in her cheeks.

  "Now, did you come because of the request I put in? It feels like I've been waiting weeks for a response!"

  A lanky white mouse reclining by the fire chimed in, "It's been less than two days, Rifu."

  "Silence, you." Rifu turned towards the man and barked her words, her hair standing on end for a split second, then she smoothed down the long, white cotton jacket she was wearing and turned back to Shelby, "Ahem, well any delay in progress is sure to feel like an eternity. So are you my backup? My Briarknight in shining armor?"

  Shelby rubbed her shoulder uncomfortably, "Um, no, sorry, I'm not. I'm actually here because I heard I could learn, uh..."

  Shelby dropped her voice and whispered to AIDAN, who was perched on her shoulder, "What was it again?"

  AIDAN responded without suppressing his volume at all, "Excavation."

  The mouse, Rifu, had a disappointed look on her face until AIDAN spoke, at which point she rushed forward and stood on her tippy-toes to peer at him, sliding her thick glasses down her tapered nose to see him better. She began to speak at an increasingly frenetic rate as she tilted her head from side to side, "What an interesting little orb you've got there. Not often that you hear an orb talking, is it? Say, why don't we make a trade, I'll teach you everything I know about Excavation, which is a tremendous amount, and I'll take this orb off of your hands. Does that sound like a deal?"

  Shelby took a step back with her palms held forward, "Unfortunately, I am unwilling to part with him. He's my friend, you see."

  Rifu looked put off and huffed, blowing her bangs up into an even messier spray, "Too bad, I'd really love to have a talking orb. Well..."

  She studied Shelby intently, taking a few steps to her left and right as she scrutinized the stranger that had walked into her camp, "I'll settle for your assistance in that matter I sent a request for help with instead, how about that?"

  Shelby nodded, but stopped herself, "Conditionally yes, but... what did you send off for?"

  "Yes yes, the task, the critical task!" the mouse enthused, laughing into her hand, "That would be helpful to know, wouldn't it? Well, I will gladly tell you all about it. You see, we are researching something tremendously magnificent and transformative here. This is a dig site, and we are researchers of the archaeological pedigree! Come all the way from Haven's College! I'd love to get into the details, but in the interest of securing your agreement, I will simply say that an infestation of Earth Spirits has made continuing our research intractable."

  Shelby nodded along, "I could take care of some Earth Spirits," maybe. Hopefully.

  Rifu shook her head, "No, no, we can handle mere Earth Spirits, but for some reason whenever we exterminate those spirits, we inevitably gain the attention of an Earth Golem. I could easily dispatch such a pitiful creature if I had just a smidgen of help distracting it. I would have already put my graduate students to work doing just that," She glared daggers at the other mice lounging about as she punctuated her words, “but I have been informed that endangering students repeatedly might have a negative impact on my funding. Thus, the request."

  Shelby wanted to sit down, but gathered her willpower to untangle the mouse's twisting phrases, "Okay... So, if I help you defeat the Golem then you will teach me Excavation."

  Rifu stepped forward and extended her hand again, "Of course, we have a deal!"