The L.F.T.O group sat atop the hill from which Bonifacius, Crown and John spectated the group of seven.

Unfortunately, after John was violently bitten, clawed and mangled by Crown, they discovered JohnWillStab’s body mysteriously mangled, clawed and bitten.

The now-healed John mumbled while unconscious.

“…D-demon...” John whispered, remembering the group's salt-based assault as they called him a demon.

“A demon?!” Crown asked,

She looked over to Bonifacius.

“Are thou saying this is the work of a demon-king!?” Bonifacius asked, turning to face Crown and John.

Bonifacius shook John’s unconscious body gently trying to get him to wake up.

After a few seconds, he picked John up and placed him over his shoulder.

“Attempting to awake JohnWillStab is pointless… we need to act quickly!” Bonifacius thought.

“We must make haste back to the group! We know not what to expect of a demon-weapon!” Bonifacius exclaimed heading down the hill accompanied by Crown.

“Right…” she nodded.

They made their way down the hill, trying to go directly towards the camp would be difficult due to the steepness of the hill, not to mention how wet and muddy it was, instead the L.F.T.O group was forced to travel the same way they came.

They made their way through the rickety old bridge and over dozens of small streams feeding into the large swamp, the energetic water buried deep holes in the soft soil, forming shallow water-cracks in the soil.

Quickly, the light of the campfire at the main camp became more visible.

Bonifacius stepped into the light of the camp, immediately met with the collective killing-intent of all seven trainees.

“It’s just you guys…” Alistard breathed a sigh of relief.

The group lowered their weapons

“Indeed, tis just us!” Bonifacius exclaimed.

“You’re back already?” Chaz questioned smugly.

“Yes, it would appear there is a demon-god somewhere within these woods!” Bonifacius exclaimed.

“Demon gods?” Chaz questioned.

Bonifacius nodded.

“Indeed,”

Bonifacius placed JohnWillStab down on the ground.

“We should confirm that is the case…” Crown suggested.

“Bony, you call Bromy and check if there are any monsters around here that could mangle John like that,” Crown instructed.

“I’ll call Alex and see if Thal can confirm there is a demon-god that can do this kind of thing,” she continued.

“Alright!” Bonifacius agreed.

He looked around and saw the ring of salt.

“Salt?” Bonifacius questioned.

“W-well, the demon appeared after Chaz told us the tale of the ghost of a hanged maid!” Heike explained.

Bonifacius leaned down and inspected the salt.

“I’m sorry to say, regular, non-purified salt is a useless weapon against ghosts and demons in this world, in fact, there used to be an achievement in-game for using regular salt to combat a spirit!” he explained.

Bonifacius thought back to the picture of a laughing ghost attached to the achievement called “Did you really think exorcisms were that easy?!”

“It did work! When it touched the salt it jumped back and screamed!” Sepukku4me_n_u explained.

“Hmm…” JohnWillStab sat up.

“What’s…going on…?” he asked.

“John! Thou are alright!” Bonifacius exclaimed.

“Y-yeah… my memory’s a bit fuzzy though…” he replied.

Everyone looked at JohnWillStab, his clothes were badly damaged.

“W-what did that to you!?” Alistard demanded.

“I… I can’t… remember…” John replied.

He stood up.

“Anyway, if the monster is hurt by salt, I think we can narrow things down…” John replied.

“Huh?” Crown asked.

“Yeah, what do you mean? Aren’t all things hurt by salt?” Chaz asked.

JohnWillStab flicked his hair smugly.

“Heh-heh-heh, you underestimate the great strategist that is JohnWillStab!”

Everyone except Bonifacius looked at him with an awkward look of pity, Bonifacius clapped enthusiastically.

“First of all, you said it was hurt by salt, meaning it’s not from around here,”

“Look around, this is a saltwater swamp, it’s linked to the sea,” John continued.

Chaz’s eyes lit up.

“You’re right!”

John grinned.

“Of course, the concentration of the salt in the water actively mixed with rain and the streams feeding into the swamp is nothing when compared with a whole pile of it!” he gestured to the ring of salt.

He walked over to the place he unknowingly touched only fifteen minutes earlier.

“The barrier is broken here… I bet this is the place the monster touched!” John exclaimed.

“Yeah!” Dun nodded.

“Meaning they came from deeper within the swamp!” John exclaimed.

Everyone looked at John with a little less pity.

“So, if we know that A; the monster isn’t from here, and B; it came from the forest itself, it’s my best guess that it’s just an animal that got wounded in a fight!” John explained.

“A human would try and wash off the salt and ask for help!” He continued.

“There are crocodiles, snakes and who-knows-what living in these swamps – it got hurt, looked for an easy meal and a place to heal up – it touched the salt and its open wounds began to hurt!” John finished presenting his theory.

“That… actually makes sense…” Crown remarked.

“But, does thou think an animal could truly hurt thee this badly?” Bonifacius asked.

John sighed, looking down to his feet with a sad smile.

“As much as my ego would like to say otherwise, clash and fangs hurt all the same…”

Crown crossed her arms.

“That still leaves one question…” she said.

“Why did you mention a demon while unconscious?” she asked.

“…”

“…”

“Shit…” John hung his head even lower,

“There goes my detective work…”

“Come to think of it, why did you guys call it a demon if you thought it was the ghost of a maid?” Crown asked turning to face the group.

“Oh, it just kind of slipped out while we tossed salt at the enemy,” Alistard replied.

“…”

“And we saw the maid hanging in the distance!” Sepukku4me_n_u explained.

“Thou did?” Bonifacius questioned.

“Yeah, over there!” he pointed to the distant hill where Crown hung John.

“…”

“…”

Crown was starting to piece the puzzle together.

“And then she was yelling about getting revenge and only trying to be nice!” Heike butted in with a shaky voice.

“Yeah, shit was whack, guys!” Abutron said spinning his scythe in his hand as if it was a pen in the middle of a particularly boring class.

He was trying to improve his dexterity; this was a trick Bonifacius suggested to him.

“Really?! Crown, JohnWillStab and I have been right there this entire time! Tis so strange!” Bonifacius scratched his beard.

“Mm, surely I would have noticed some hanging body when Crown hung me earlier on that exact tree!” John sighed, scratching his head.

The entire camp went silent.

Everyone except JohnWillStab had just figured out what happened.

“…”

“…”

“What is it?” John asked.

Meanwhile...

In the distance, atop an old, abandoned tower sat the green-feathered harpy, the self-proclaimed stalker.

“Looks like the misunderstanding was cleared up!” he said with a smile and a self-satisfied nod.

His skin and clothes melted off, pooling at his feet.

In the light of the moonlight now stood a nude, white-feathered harpy, around his body coiled the tenecirus tentacles, forming a black coat that still only covered the man from the waist up.

“First the town of glorified bandits and now this… why it almost feels like the L.F.T.O and I are bound by a red string of fate!”

The man smiled as he looked up to the starry sky.

“Though… they still didn’t get any field practice done… and after I went through the trouble of implanting the idea in Bonifacius’ head…“ the man frowned, reaching his hands into his pockets.

“This simply won’t do…” he sighed.

“I can’t have my prime candidates slacking off!” the man thought, his tenecirus tentacles reached into his pocket and pulled out several white orbs, they looked like regular, opaque marbles.

He produced about two-dozen of them, he glanced down at his stats.

“Ouch… that’s quite the stat penalty!” he thought.

“Bit harsh!” he exclaimed, looking up to the skies where he thought Lorb resided.

He pulled his hand back and threw the orbs down into the trees below.

When the orbs hit the ground they cracked, the leaves of the canopy below blocked the man from seeing his creations, though he could feel they were there.

“Go, fight! Show no mercy!” he commanded.

The man scratched his head.

“I don’t like tossing souls away… what if they get lost? I feel so defenceless!” he shuddered, wrapping his arms around himself.

Even so, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face.

He looked down to his stats again.

Dexterity: 1334288799

Perception: 1837495736

Stamina: 1128574958

Athletics: 1325646843

Strength: 1558340658

Weapon skill: 1674574234

Magic: 1883211235

Intelligence: 1996557854

Luck: 1123335688

Charisma: 1152356342

“Whatever… I’ll get them back in no time!”