Yep, this was a group date, Hugo thought to himself. Alice was hanging over Oliver since before they got in the mana carts to go out culling monsters. The four people he didn’t know were also established couples. Lenna didn’t seem too interested in Mark, which threw Hugo off at first. Later he realized that Mark was certainly interested in her, and kept trying to engage her in conversation.

With the group of ten mostly strangers, it should have been more awkward, but it wasn’t. The conversation flowed easily and the jokes came often. They stuck together through the cart ride, and while the group was mustering in front of the forest. Others were looking around nervously, but their group was having fun.

It helped that Hugo didn’t feel out of place in the mostly noble group. He had his leather armor with metal inserts, his crossbow, and a belt with the three healing potions Mihai had made for him. It wasn’t quite a display of wealth, but it meant that he fit in with the group. Daniela and Hugo discovered that they had plenty in common despite their disparate backgrounds.

“... which is why I will never eat hardtack again,” Daniela said with a laugh.

Hugo joined her laughing and said, “I can’t believe your dad made you eat them in the first place. It wasn’t your fault you made a bad deal, you were still a kid! Anyway, I totally agree with you. I have eaten hardtack for the last time in my life. Doesn’t matter how poor I am in the future, I will never touch the stuff again.”

“Looks like they are getting ready to start,” Daniela said with a frown. She was sad the monster killing was going to interrupt their conversation. She reached into her bag and handed him three palm sized orbs, “Take these. I forgot to give them to you earlier because we were having so much fun. These are alchemical bombs called grenades. You activate the rune on the top just before you throw them. Rasmus Jr is going to bring us to some slow moving monsters. We should all be able to rank up quickly and have the rest of the day to relax.”

“You really thought of everything, didn’t you? Thanks so much,” Hugo said.

Daniela blushed, “It’s nothing. I didn’t even buy the grenades.”

Hugo pulled her into a side hug since one hand was still occupied with his crossbow. He said, “Still, I appreciate it.”

Lenna walked up to the two of them and gestured at his weapon, “I can make you a strap for that thing. That way you have your hands free.”

“Yes, please. I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before,” Hugo said happily.

Within moments, Lenna had attached a woven spider silk strap to his crossbow. He knew that she was just doing it to get out of talking with Mark, but it was still appreciated.

Once he had it slung across his back, he turned to her and said, “Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Oh, by the way. I heard an interesting rumor about your family’s warehouse. I will have to tell you about it later.” There probably wouldn’t be a better time to talk to her, so he was going to warn her about the tiger gang stealing the mana cores. She probably wouldn’t want anyone else to know that her family worked with the tiger gang, but he was sure that they could find a few moments to talk in private later.

The ten of them were grouped up, standing right in front of Rasmus Jr when Sage Hanna started the assignments. While they were waiting their turn, a sage walked up to their group. Hugo didn’t recognize her, but she was obviously a runic sage by her outfit. She glanced over the group and locked eyes with Hugo for a long moment.

“I am taking this group, scooch over,” she said to Rasmus Jr.

Their group stood there in shock as their outing was hijacked. Hugo couldn’t help but feel awkward. This was probably his fault. The dean had likely assigned the runic sage to protect him from the hedge mages. The danger was past since the hedge mages had certainly left the coalition by now, but Hugo knew that arguing with the sage would be useless.

“I see a few competent students in this group, good job for getting a mix of domains. I am Sage Emily. We don’t have a long hike, but we might as well get started now. Go ahead and organize your formation and head northwest to that ridge over there,” she said.

They had already discussed this on the way here, so they quickly sent the barrier and formation students up front and the life mage in the middle. Hugo started to feel hopeful when she said that their culling grounds were close. Maybe they could get done quickly and still have time to hang out with each other.

His companions must have had the same idea, because they were in motion right away. They walked at a good clip. They chatted quietly until the sage asked them to stop. She was right, they were supposed to avoid noise as they traveled to avoid drawing in unexpected monsters. Still, the mood of the team soured. Hugo could see several nasty glances sent her way.

A short while later, they came to a ravine. It was deep with sheer sides leading down to the river below. Sage Emily directed them to a rope bridge that spanned the chasm. Hugo’s fear of heights reared its ugly head as he stopped at the edge.

He could see that the ropes were thick and the bridge didn’t wobble much as the group walked over it. This was a sturdy bridge with strong handrails for safety. That fact didn’t help much, Hugo was still frozen in fear.

Daniela could see what was going on and waited patiently for him at the edge of the bridge. Most of the group was halfway across the bridge by now, and Sage Emily tapped her foot impatiently near the beginning.

Neither sight was helping Hugo, he felt rooted. He could face down strix and owlbears without fear, but the sight of the sheer drop had him terrified. Every time he glanced forward, he felt like he was losing his balance and he was about to fall in.

“Would it help if I held your hand?” Daniela said.

Hugo had to bite back an angry retort. He was frustrated with himself, not her. Eventually, he nodded. He knew that he needed to get going, and her holding his hand would help.

She grasped his hand firmly and led him along. He found it helpful to focus on her instead of the bridge. One hand in hers and the other on the rope handrail. It felt like an eternity but was less than a few minutes. The ravine wasn’t that wide after all.

Once they were back on solid ground, Hugo felt his courage return and he thanked Daniela. Sage Emily just huffed and directed them forward. They walked deeper into Pummits forest, keeping an eye out. Now that they were deeper in, they could be attacked at any time.

Hugo started noticing the underbrush thinning out and mounds of dirt everywhere. He was about to say something when Sage Emily said, “We have arrived at our assigned culling grounds. Does anyone know what we are hunting?”

There were a few confused answers, no one having seen a monster yet. Eventually, Mark offered a guess of giant ants. Hugo swung his head around. If the mounds were the giant ant’s tunnels, then there was an ant mound around here somewhere. He didn’t see one though.

“No, that’s not it. It is a tunneling monster though. Anyone else?” the sage asked. When no one ventured a guess she said, “Come on. There are only so many tunneling monsters and it isn’t giant ants or acid moles.” When no one could come up with something, she said, “It’s purple worms.”

That didn’t gain the reaction she expected and she said, “Purple worms? Doesn’t that ring a bell with anyone?”

“We haven’t gotten to that section of the book yet,” Hugo said.

Sage Emily grumbled under her breath. Hugo was pretty sure he heard her cussing out their cryptozoology teacher. He agreed with the runic sage, their monster teacher was terrible. Eventually she said, “Alright. Purple worms are tunneling monsters that are three feet wide and typically fifteen to twenty feet long. They can’t tunnel through the roots of the trees around here, so standing directly beside the trees is a safe bet.” The team shuffled towards the nearest tree as she continued, “Their skin is incredibly tough, but their insides are not. Most teams bait out the worms and take turns stabbing through the mouth and into the brain. But be aware, they are ambush predators that hide underground. You will need to pay attention to your surroundings.”

The team discussed strategies for a moment. The light mage was positive she could pinpoint the purple worms once they started moving. Her hearing was excellent and her domain only improved on it. The ritualist on the team said he could detect them, but it would take five minutes to set up his ritual, and he would have to re-cast it every hundred feet.

They were going to go with that plan, until Hugo remembered he had just the thing for this. “Wait up, everyone. I can create a detection ward. Give me a second.”

Hugo created a twenty foot wide ward and attached it to his left foot. It was set to alert him when it encountered a large enough source of mana. This way they would be able to walk through the forest, and he would be continually scanning for monsters under ground.

He thought he was incredibly clever, until he took his first step. The ward tilted with his foot and got set off by the team behind him. He dismissed the ward and tried again, this time having the anchor be several feet below his torso. This time the ward seemed to be working.

They cautiously walked through the forest. His untested ward didn’t give anyone reassurance, so they walked as if they were going to be ambushed at any moment. Ten minutes later, they still hadn’t seen anything move so they picked up the pace. It took another five minute walk before Hugo stopped the group.

“I detected something, twenty feet that way, just to the left of the tree,” Hugo said. They all stood there for a moment before Hugo continued, “Now what?”

They knew that the monster was there, but it wasn’t moving. No one wanted to walk forward and be the bait for a fifteen foot monster. Eventually, Mark tossed his shield out, making it land in front of where Hugo said the monster was.

Seconds later, a huge armored worm burst out of the ground and attacked the shield. It tried to get the whole thing in its mouth, but it wouldn’t fit. It thrashed around, trying to kill the inanimate object. While it was distracted, the group spread around it. Physical and mana shields slammed into the monster, trying to pin it down.

All four of the attackers were knocked away, Hugo among them. His head had been hit, and by the time he got up, things weren’t looking good. Ranged magic and arrows were bouncing off its hide and the purple worm was heading right at their healer.

Just before it reached him, chains erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around the monster.

“Hurry!” the ritualist yelled, “It won’t last long.”

Together, the Mark and Oliver stabbed at the worm with their swords. Each of them missed. Lenna snuck in with her spear and impaled it through the brain. Moments later, it dissolves into motes of blue light and chunks of meat. It looked like a half butchered snake.

“Huh, must have been an older one,” Sage Emily said. She was referring to the fact that the longer monsters lived, the more they turned into flesh and blood. After a long while, they fully converted into a physical organism. It also made them much harder to kill. The sage walked up to where the monster’s head had been and cut out a small manastone.

The life mage checked everyone over. The bruises and injuries of those that had been attacking the side of the monster didn’t need healing. Mark’s shield was mangled beyond repair though, and Daniela said she was sorry for him.

“It’s fine. I can make another one, no problem,” Mark said as he concentrated and slowly recreated his shield with his fabricate skill.

Once he was done, Sage Emily said, “In the future, I recommend keeping your shield on hand and throwing something else.”

Mark nodded sheepishly.

Hugo recast his ward and they walked on, looking for more monsters. They discussed options for attacking this new enemy. They liked the chains, but the ritualist only had enough reagents for two more monsters. They would have to kill dozens to have everyone rank up to twelve today. Lenna did mention that she ranked up once from just the one kill, so they wouldn’t have to be here all day as long as they had an efficient way to kill them.

When Hugo found the next purple worm, they still hadn’t decided on a good strategy. Lenna offered to make some rope out of her spidersilk, but securing it to the monster presented some logistical problems.

Hugo was considering if there was a solution he could offer. He thought of and discarded a few terrible ideas. As they talked, he stuck a hand into his bag by his side. He felt the crossbow quarrels, which wouldn’t be useful in this situation. Then an idea occurred to him.

“Hey Daniela,” he said, “How long do these grenades take to explode?”

“A few seconds. Why do you ask?” she responded.

“Can we just chuck them out there and have them eat the explosion?” Hugo said.

Everyone turned to him and a few people smiled. Alice said, “Ok, now we absolutely have to try it out.” She grabbed a grenade from her bag and had Hugo point out the area the monster was hiding in. Carefully she activated the grenade and tossed it out. The alchemical creation hit the ground and rolled a bit. They could hear the purple worm start towards it as it exploded.

The monster burst out of the ground, even angrier than the first one, if that was possible. The ensuing fight was longer than the first one, but didn’t involve anyone getting hurt. Eventually the monster was dead, this one dissolving fully into motes of mana.

“That almost worked,” Alice said sadly. “So close, and yet so far.”

“What if we throw something heavy first, then throw the grenade as it eats the first thing?” Mark said.

Hugo shook his head, “That requires perfect timing and a flawless throw. It isn’t worth wasting the grenades for such a low chance.” He recast his ward and started walking forward. He was glad that wards didn’t cost too much mana, he was going to be casting a lot of them today.

“I bet I can do it,” Oliver said, “I can just add a delay rune to the activation signal.” He whipped out his aluminum etching pen and carefully added a rune to the grenade. Sage Emily looked over his shoulder while he worked, since she knew how dangerous it was to modify existing creations like this.

When he was done, she nodded and stepped back. It wasn’t too much longer that Hugo found another one. Oliver threw his modified grenade out. And missed. The alchemical ball rolled the wrong way after it hit a root.

The purple worm still attacked the ball though. The monster swallowed the ball and less than a moment later, it exploded into a shower of mana and guts. Daniela quickly threw up a huge barrier to shield the group from raining guts.

“It worked!” Oliver said and danced with joy.

Alice hugged him tight and gave him a kiss. They all agreed that this would be their new plan of attack. Everyone handed over their grenades to Oliver and he modified each one. It took twenty minutes, but soon enough they were on their way again.

The plan worked flawlessly. Monster after monster exploded into a mist of guts and or mana. Even when there were two of them right next to each other, they just threw out two bombs at the same time. When they were out of grenades, only three of them hadn’t gotten to rank twelve yet. They helped out their team and soon they were all done. It wasn’t even lunch time and they were already heading back.

The team was quiet on the way back, but spirits were high. Everyone but Hugo was smiling. He was still nervous about walking back over the bridge. As they got close to the bridge, a shrill whistle sounded faintly in the distance. Then it repeated, three times.

Sage Emily looked off into the distance, then back at them. She seemed torn.

Hugo knew that she had been tasked with protecting him, but that whistle was obviously a distress call of some sort. Eventually she said, “Ok. Stop right here. Set up defenses and wards. Treat this as a test. I will be right back.”

Her robes started glowing, and she raced off into the distance. The ten students stood there, shocked.