It was around breakfast when a Dungeoneer scouting party returned triumphantly to town, carting in the spoils obtained from their exploration. As they passed through the main street, onlookers gathered and gawked at their parade of bloodied carts. Among them, there was one cart that stood out especially from the rest, for it was a whole corpse.

The corpse was of a humanoid creature with a large, muscular build. It had a large snout that was shaped like a malformed human nose as well as a pair of pointed ears like those found on the elves. It had hair of deep green and skin the shade of emeralds. Protruding ever so slightly out of its lips, there were tusk-like teeth that seemed like they could tear out someone's throat with ease.

According to the Dungeoneers that had brought the corpse in, creatures of this sort made their home deep in the rocky hills to the north.

Looking at the corpse as it passed by the main street, heading towards the Dungeoneer's Guild, Auguste was reminded of something. Gladiolus once told him that the elves have a tinge of green in their hair because the elven ancestors used to travel long distances by ship. In order to survive the long journeys, they made themselves akin to plants, making it so that their hair would turn green entirely when supplies were low and gain part of their daily energy from the sun through something called photosynthesis. Apparently, in times when supplies were dangerously scarce, there were cases where elves would turn entirely green and enter a vegetative state to conserve energy.

With as much subtlety as he could pull it off with, Auguste took a peek at Gladiolus' expression. What he found was a clam gaze, one without turmoil of any sort. Gladiolus was looking at the corpse as he would any of their marks, with the same calm, attentive eyes he would use to skin the creatures they've slain.

Seeing that Gladiolus was acting no different, Auguste put the thoughts he had behind him. It was time for them to be setting out as well. There's no time to be distracted.

The task for the day was to collect materials, wood, for their makeshift spears and lances. Usually, spears are avoided when entering the Dungeons, mostly due to the limited space to wield these long weapons and hitting them against the ground or ceiling might wound up attracting unwanted attention. Not to mention, a great many creatures within the Dungeons, such as the undead, tend to be harder to kill than regular creatures and stabbing them might not be as effective as cutting off a limb or two. Halberds on the other hand saw more use, though they can still cause trouble in narrower spaces.

With that being said, swords were generally useless against the Great Apes, a creature in the Hidden Haven Dungeon known for its bulk and thick hide. For that reason, the Henrietta Company decided to add spears and lances to their arsenal. There was also the case where Lilia, suggested that Henrietta use a lance, to both make up for her lack of reach and to make use of her tremendous strength.

Arriving at the woods south of the Hidden Haven, the party got to work. The lumberjacks of the Lumbering Guild were there as well, the lumber of unclaimed land too valuable to ignore. However, as the land was unclaimed, anyone could procure lumber here, though only the guild had the manpower to move enough logs to truly make a profit. That's not mentioning that fact that the guild was known to send 'negotiators', thugs in other words, after notable establishments to coerce the signing of contracts.

Moving to a location away from the lumberjacks, Gladiolus, Auguste, and of course, Finn, were tasked with chopping down suitable trees while the other three stayed on the lookout. Originally, Henrietta was supposed to be in the tree-felling group, but after breaking one axe too many, she was put on lookout duty. That being said, this too, was an important job as whispers had been going around speaking of lumberjacks going missing in the area. The Lumbering Guild had not yet made an official statement on the matter, likely because launching an investigation and halting their work would make their profits suffer.

With the suitable trees cut down, they began shaving down the lumber into wieldable shapes. It was too much of a pain to haul everything back to town and as such, they performed it on site.

"It looks a little crooked, doesn't it?" Auguste commented after completing his third spear.

"What does it matter? It just got to be good enough to swing around, right? Henrietta replied him, carving away at her log without grace.

"Balance is important too you know. And also, lances aren't usually for swinging."

"I swing them though."

"I guess you do..."

For the makeshift spears and lances, they were made shorter than usual as Auguste and Henrietta both prefer them that way, with it being easier for Auguste to throw them and Henrietta to swing them around with.

By the end of the morning, they have made a set of eleven spears and three lances, and with that, they began packing up their things and started heading back to town.

"Now then, if you'll give us just a moment," Auguste announced vaguely as he headed off a little deeper into the woods with Finn.

The rest knew what he meant and let them go without a fuss as none could resist nature's call.

One of the rules in the party was that in whatever you do inside a Dungeon, you have to do so in at least a pair, just in case you get caught with your pants down. The two would take turns, one keeping a lookout while the other relieves themselves of excess hydration.

"We're doing pretty good lately, aren't we?" Finn struck up a conversation as to not feel awkward in the situation.

"I don't know, it still doesn't feel like we're walking on solid ground yet. Who is to say we're not just getting lucky here and there."

"I think we *are* steadily getting better at this though."

"I don't disagree. Especially you, Finn, you taking the center as our frontliner really changed things up for the better. I never realize how important a solid defense line was until you took to being on the forefront. Not to say anything bad about Henri, but I'm glad you stepped up."

"R-really, you think so!?"

"I don't think so, I know so. The results speak for themselves."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me."

"Alright, don't make this weird. You should have brought this up over a drink or something. Anyways, I'm done. You want to have a-"

"What's wrong?" Finn turns around just as Auguste slowly pulls up his pants.

"Is it just me, or did this tree not have this many roots exposed before."

"Maybe you washed the dirt off?"

"What am I, a walking stream? Well, whatever, maybe I'm just seeing things. Maybe..."

Moments later, a cry could be heard from the woods, prompting the rest of the party to hastily put on their gear and advance into the shaded grounds. What they found upon chasing after the source of the voice were Auguste and Fin, entangled by roots emerging from the ground. All of the roots could be traced back to a singular unassuming tree. Auguste was the closest to the tree of the two and was entangled with enough roots to obscure most of his body. Finn, on the other hand, was still able to struggle against the roots, his arms and legs fighting to break away in a battle that he was slowly losing. Seemingly having realized that reality, Finn desperately reached for the battleaxe hanging on his back, though to no avail with the roots holding his arms in place.

Seeing this, both Gladiolus and Morganna swiftly decided upon and course of action and made their move. From Elaine, Gladiolus took a woodcutter's axe and rushed towards Auguste's side. He recognized that the roots were tightening on him and should nothing be done, he would be suffocated to death. Meanwhile, Morganna drew two of her wands from her sleeves, the wand made of an evergreen's branch and one made from miller's bran, and made her way over to Finn. In the rear, Henrietta stayed behind to guard Elaine, just in case something comes up to them from behind.

As Gladiolus swiftly chopped at the roots connecting to those entangled around Auguste, Morganna used one of her wands to freeze parts of the roots coiled around Finn's arms and legs and crushed them by unleashing a concentrated force from the other, freeing Finn with time to spare. Once freed, Finn hastily pulled out his battleaxe and join Gladiolus in hacking Auguste free. As the two worked on Auguste, however, more roots emerged from the ground, coiling around everyone near the unassuming tree.

Reaching out as the roots twisted around her slender body, Morganna called out to Elaine. In response, Elaine quickly tossed Morganna's ashen staff towards her. Catching the staff, Morganna wasted no time at all before reaching towards the Ether within and conjured up a swirling inferno from the Abyss, turning the bark of the tree and its roots ashen and scorching the leaves.

The unassuming tree, half of it on fire, began to shake violently, pulling itself from the ground and began dragging its lumbering body with its roots, trying to escape deeper into the woods. In its attempt to escape, those within its grasp were let loose.

In a surprising twist, no one was brunt by Morganna's fire. Their clothes and hair became a little singed and they breathed in some smoke, sure, but none of them suffered a major injury. Even Morganna was surprised that no one was even a little hurt. It would seem that in the heat of the moment, Morganna had managed to exert full control over her flames, though whether or not she could replicate the feat remained to be seen.

Regardless, upon realizing that the woods were far more dangerous than they had initially realized, the Henrietta Company swiftly pulled out. They later wrote a report on the encounter and submitted it to the guild for further verification. If the guild determined that the information was true, then they'll receive a small reward for their trouble. In a sense, this system ensures that the Dungeoneer's Guild will have plenty of willing informants, but this also meant that Dungeoneers weren't inclined to share information with one another, not when there's more profit to be made keeping it to yourself, making it so that the only sure way to get proper information was through purchase from the guild. And while nothing really stops anyone from sharing the information after purchase, few would be willing to give up an advantage that they've bought with their own coins.

After a long day, the Henrietta Company sat down around their camp, set up in a corner of the town for those who could not or were unwilling to pay for lodging, as they waited for their dried meat and salted vegetables to simmer in an iron pot. Ever since the incident with the Mimics back in the Iotas region of the Theocracy of Arithmi, the party had been very careful with handling their food. Even dried food they found themselves hesitant to eat if it weren't thoroughly roasted by a fire, just in case.

It was impossible to tell day from night in Hidden Haven as the sky there was no sky at all, but a ceiling filled to the brim with bioluminescent vegetation giving off an illusion of a blue sky. As such, the Dungeoneers, as per usual, tell time by their stomach. For the Henrietta Company, this was the third time their stomach growled since they've woken up, making this dinner time and most likely evening outside.

"I can't believe I almost died to a tree," said Auguste, perpetually curled into a ball. His tone carried a flippant attitude, but his expression suggested otherwise.

"Well, at least we're getting paid for running into it," Elaine mentioned, trying to cheer Auguste up.

"We don't know if we'll get paid yet," said Morganna, being a stick in the mud.

"By the way," Elaine turned towards Morganna with a smile "the magic you unleashed back there was amazing. I was a little worried at the moment, but it's incredible that you could make it so that the flames only burned the tree."

"Oh, that? I'm sure that was a fluke. Even I'm not sure how I did it," Morganna replied with her face turned away, becoming a little red in the cheeks. Embarrassed to show it and knowing that Auguste would tease her about it, she instead cast her eyes upon a blob of animated liquid settled by her side as she peeled off small pieces of meat to feed it. It was the Slime Auguste had brought back in Iotas Tria. She dropped the pieces of meat into the Slime's body and watched it dissolve till nothing more can be seen but the blob's transparent form.

Admittedly, there's something hypnotic about watching things dissolve within the Slime's body, at least, Auguste thought so. More curiously, however, was how taken Morganna was with this thing that one could barely call a creature. Originally Auguste only brought it back due to having experienced how harmless it was during the Mimic cleanup. Other than Mimics, the Slimes also have tendencies to 'eat up' microscopic matter such as dust and even mites. Auguste thought that it would be useful to have one and decided on a whim to snatch one up and stuff it into a bottle.

At first, Morganna looked at it as a curiosity, being something other witches had supposedly made, but after spending some time with it, somehow, she wound up treating it like a pet of some sort.

After 'feeding' it, Morganna runs her hand over the Slime's gelatinous surface. In response, the Slime began vibrating in a frequency pleasant to the touch, or so Morganna claimed, but the Slime didn't seem to respond to Auguste the same way. Perhaps it just likes witches better, if it even had the cognitive ability to prefer one thing over the other, that is.

"Seeing as we could barely handle that creature, perhaps it's best we stay away from that forest for a while," Gladiolus suggested.

"Agreed," said Auguste promptly before turning to Henrietta. "And you're going to be more careful about how you go through those lances."

"Hey! It's not my fault that they're so breakable!" Henrietta retorted.

"I still can't wrap my head around how someone so small has so much power. I mean, look at Finn. He's a big, strong guy, but he barely has half of your strength."

"Huh!? W-what about me? Did I do something?" His gaze raised from the bowl in his hands, Finn gave Auguste and Henrietta a quizzical look.

"No, no one did anything wrong," Gladiolus assured with a smile. "It's just how things are."

"How things are, huh..." said Auguste, followed with a sigh of vague significance.

After deciding where they shall head off to the next day, the party called it a day and went to bed while leaving Auguste and Gladiolus on the first shift of nightwatch. In the morning, they'll be heading off to the caverns found in the vicinity of the rocky hills, where creatures with long limbs and claws had been sighted. Bounties had been issued for them, and though they were said to be tough opponents, the party felt confident enough to take them on. Hopefully, such confidence was not misplaced.

***

End of Chapter 56