"Understood," Yates said, already turning away.

The young man gave Crimson Reaper a parting nod, exchanged brief greetings with Sword Song’s two stewards at the tree line, and then led the group into the Forest of Strange Sounds.

He noticed, with the quiet attentiveness that had become second nature to him, that Yates seemed to hold a mild opinion of Crimson Reaper, though that was their personal business and none of his concern. What was more interesting was how Yates had handled the situation. Young as he was, he was sharp. The offhand remark about being a "studio player" had drawn a clean, subtle line between himself and the newcomers. It was the kind of move that took experience to recognize and instinct to execute without thinking.

Once inside the instance, the group broke into a run toward Diana and the others.

"Don’t rush," Diana’s voice came through the team chat, unhurried and steady as ever. "The Crystal Lion still has just under half its health left. There’s no need to sprint, catch your breath."

Yates had clearly filled Cappuccino in on the situation outside. Cappuccino, being the shrewd operator he was, chose his moment carefully. With the young man and Lily present as relative outsiders, he spoke up in the team channel with practiced gratitude.

"Sister Diana, thank you for your help. Without you, Yates would have dropped two more levels."

Diana dismissed it without ceremony. "It’s nothing. We have our own ties with the Gon Alliance."

Cappuccino left it there. He knew Diana well enough to know that pushing further would only invite a dry laugh and a sarcastic remark about him being long-winded.

They reached the boss.

The young man didn’t waste time. He surged forward in a few long strides and drove a backstab clean into the Crystal Lion King’s flank, ripping away over four thousand health in a single strike. The Crystal Lion King didn’t so much as glance in his direction, Diana had its aggro locked down cold, every taunt precisely timed, the creature’s attention fixed on her like a compass needle on north.

Watching her work, it was clear Diana had mapped out every one of the Crystal Lion King’s patterns. Yates’ death, in hindsight, had been a matter of cruel luck, the boss distributed its skills at random, and he had simply walked into the wrong moment.

Diana moved like water finding the path of least resistance. Her retreats traced wide, sweeping figure-eight arcs, and her attacks carried the circular footwork that old veterans still associated with Tian Ge, the sword god whose techniques had become something close to legend. Her blade never drifted far from her chest, edge angled outward, layers of cold sword energy coiling around her in a slow, killing spiral.

She was extraordinary. But not quite Tian Ge. His self-created forms moved in ways that the body wasn’t supposed to move, built on an instinct and physical genius that couldn’t be taught. Diana had studied what could be studied, and mastered it, which was already more than most could claim.

With three strong attackers back in the rotation, the boss melted. In less than five minutes, the Crystal Lion King’s health dipped into its final threshold.

Strangely, it didn’t go berserk.

Diana held up a hand. "Everyone stop. Yates, push him."

Lily didn’t fully understand, but she lowered her crossbow without question. Yates stepped forward without hesitation, drew back, and drove his halberd’s tip straight into the Crystal Lion King’s forehead with a single, decisive blow.

A sharp crack split the air. Fluorescent liquid and pale chunks oozed from the wound as the Crystal Lion King toppled without ceremony, its nameplate blazing with golden light before fading clean, the reward for defeating a boss well above their level bracket.

The experience was distributed evenly across the party. Even the lower-level players walked away with a significant haul.

The young man checked his status: level 22, 87% completion. One more decent run and he’d be knocking on 23.

Lily threw her hands over her eyes with a theatrical shudder upon seeing the bloody sight... "Waaah, that’s completely ruining my appetite."

"It’s almost midnight," the young man said, not looking up. "What’s affecting your appetite?"

"I want late-night snacks when we log off. I’m a little hungry." She turned to him with bright eyes. "Don, what should we eat?" 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

He didn’t answer.

His eyes had locked onto the towering ancient tree rising from the center of the lake, a colossus so vast that a dozen people standing hand to hand couldn’t have encircled its trunk.

It had been there the whole time, unremarkable in the way that very large things sometimes become invisible simply by being too large to register.

Then two eyes opened on the bark.

Green. Gleaming. Burning with something cold and venomous.

Below them, where a nose should have been, there was nothing. Only a mouth, a vast, yawning cavity of rotting wood and darkness, wide enough to swallow a man whole.

One by one, the others followed his gaze.

The young man kept his voice low and level. "Everyone start looting. Sister Diana, can you read its attributes?"

Diana’s eyes narrowed. She shook her head slightly. "I can’t. I’m level 24, 97% completion. This boss is at minimum level 30."

Indeed. When a monster exceeded a player’s level by more than five, the system reduced its profile to a wall of question marks. What little text resolved itself read:

[Elder Treant Huron] [Rank: Enhanced Boss] [Level: ?] [Health: ?] [Physical Attack: ?] [Physical Defense: ?] [Magic Defense: ?] [Skills: ?]

[Boss Introduction: An ancient tree that has grown for thousands of years, a silent witness to the war between the Heavenly and Demonic Realms. Infected by demonic aura during the conflict, its spirituality and mind were corrupted, turning it into an enemy of humans and all righteous races.]

The ancient trunk began to tremble.

Slow at first, then with growing rhythm, until the tremors reached the lake and spread outward in dark, spreading rings. The ground beneath their feet shook with it, just slightly, just enough.