Once everyone had eaten, the conversation quickly turned to the buffs—particularly the bread rolls.

As Jen pointed out, it shouldn't have worked. I'd done tests with Geo, and any time he helped me with cooking, I couldn't infuse the food. So how was this dough any different?

"Milo, any ideas why this dough let me infuse it, but all my tests with Geo ended in failure?" I asked.

Milo looked to be deep in thought for a long while.

"Well, I have a couple of theories… The first being the simplest: your restrictions might have been tied to your starting skills. Now that you've evolved out of them, you may have lost those limitations. It would be easy enough to test—and I think we should test it later today," he said, still looking thoughtful.

"It didn't say anything like that in the evolution, though," I countered. "It did clarify that the buffs now affect anyone who eats the food, but that's all."

"True. My second theory is that perhaps the baker you bought the dough from uses some kind of evolved class skills to prepare it. Maybe his ingredients are processed without any manual labour—and it's the labour that matters here," Milo said.

"The system can be odd in how it interprets intent," he continued. "It's possible the baker didn't consider the rolls truly started until he portioned or altered them. If that's the case, the system might have recognised his intent, and the dough was still fair game for you."

He glanced around. "But again, this is something we can test."

"How?" I asked, feeling a bit stupid.

"Simple," he said. "You've got the ingredients for dough on you. One of us will help you knead it, and then you take over from there. Do exactly what you did with these rolls—portion them, add the dried herb, bake them. If you can't infuse it, the theory holds. If you can, then the restriction might be gone entirely."

He sounded very sage-like at the end of that, and it seemed I wasn't the only one who noticed—Liane gave him a light slap to the back of the head, laughing.

"Stop acting like you're some wise scholar."

"Compared to you lot, I am a scholar!" Milo retorted, rubbing the back of his head.

We quickly wrapped up breakfast after that. I stored the leftover porridge, and everyone took a spare roll for their storage—leaving me with just one extra.

Would you like to store [Common] Rockin' Roll x1 for 5 mana? Yes/No

Strange name.

It didn't take long for camp to be packed up, Crisplet to be back in his brazier and strapped to the horse. I couldn't help but stare in awe at the scene—the two burning Treants were now nothing more than piles of ash.

Today, we'd continue along the forest edge until we hit the mountain base. From there, we'd backtrack almost all the way to town before turning down the path that cut through the forest. We'd have at least two more days on the road.

As we travelled, something became very clear: unlike yesterday, there was a lot more activity near the forest's edge. In just the first couple of hours, two packs of Sky Wolves tried their luck. Unfortunately for them, both were cut down before they even reached Hari.

"What level would they be?" I asked curiously, wondering where I'd sit in terms of strength compared to one of them.

"We don't really know exactly. Usually, on the forest edge, you'd expect creatures between level ten and twenty," Milo said.

"But with the migration away from the centre, I'd say those Treants yesterday were at least in their high thirties—maybe low forties," he added.

"How do you know if something's too powerful if you can't see its level?" I asked. I'd always wondered how people could just guess a monster's level like that.

"Did you not feel it with the cat?" Jen asked, sounding a little surprised. "The higher the monster, the greater the pressure. You get this sense of ominous danger—it's obvious when you're facing any non-stealth creature."

"I mean… I felt a bit of pressure, yeah. But it wasn't that bad? Honestly, Kara's glare felt worse," I said with a nervous chuckle.

"That's very curious," Milo said. "When that cat appears, for me, it feels like the weight of the world is on my shoulders—while I'm being doused in freezing water. And we're mid-forties level-wise."

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"Same," Jen added with a chuckle. "I can barely move when it's there."

"That's something we'll need to look into," Milo said, frowning slightly. "Because that's certainly not normal. I wonder if it's just the cat. I assume so—since you said Kara gave you pressure too." He pulled out a notebook and jotted something down.

We travelled for another couple of hours before finally reaching the base of the mountain—or rather, not even the true base. Even here, rockslides were evident, and the terrain quickly shifted from scattered trees and grass into a grey, rocky wasteland.

Liane emerged from the forest and rejoined us.

"How's it looking in there?" Hari asked as she returned to her horse.

"A lot more lively than yesterday. There are a couple of large Phase Spiders lurking near the edge, but I don't think they're brave enough to come out into the open and fight," Liane explained.

"Is it worth engaging them? Do they appear hostile?" he asked.

"Oh, absolutely hostile. If you had approached the treeline, they'd have gone for it. I think it'll be a simple fight if we can draw them out of the trees, but we shouldn't fight them in the forest. Their abilities will be far too effective in there," she advised.

"Well, we shouldn't just ignore them. If they're stalking us, it'll either be us or the next patrol that ends up dealing with them," Milo added.

Jen groaned. "I hate spiders."

Liane looked way too excited. "Wait till you see them! They're at least twice the size of the one we cooked before!"

And then she was gone again.

"That girl, honestly…" I heard Jen mutter.

"Alright, let's get some buffs and prepare for a fight. I'll approach the treeline and try to draw them out. You two, back me up. Trevor, I need you to stay back with the horses—away from the treeline," Hari instructed, pulling out his roll and taking a bite.

"Oh—I have the melons with the runes, if that will help?" I offered, pulling one out of storage.

"Perfect. Pass it here," Hari said, taking the melon from me. He took a bite and handed it off to the others. Even Liane reappeared long enough to grab some.

"Thanks, Trev. That'll help a lot," Hari said, as Liane passed the melon back and I stored it away again.

A few moments later, I found myself watching from a short distance away inside a small stone shelter Milo had set up. It was just three walls and a roof—barely enough to keep the horses calm and stop them from running.

Crisplet was under instruction not to join the fight, but that didn't stop the little flame elemental from leaving the brazier. Glowing a violent red, it paced back and forth in front of the shelter, taking up an almost defensive position.

I watched as Hari's skin turned a pale grey, activating the new Stone Skin ability, and stepped into the trees. He stood still for a moment.

It dragged on long enough that I thought nothing would happen—then, in a sudden flash, like an afterimage, a large grey-blue spider, that was almost the size of Hari himself, appeared beside him, striking out. It was intercepted by his shield before vanishing again, flickering out of existence as if it had never been there.

I couldn't tell if they were illusions or if the spider had truly only been there for a split second. From this distance, it was hard to make sense of it. But I got my answer when the spider appeared again—only to be struck in the side by one of Jen's arrows.

It let out a piercing screech and tumbled to the side. The others didn't miss their chance. Hari brought his sword down, only to have to twist mid-swing as a second spider blinked into existence behind him.

I thought it had landed a hit—until I saw its fangs glance off a shimmering blue barrier.

Another arrow found the first spider's abdomen. At the same time, the second one had one of its legs sliced clean off by a wind blade, the attack tearing into its side and spraying viscera across the dirt.

Hari recovered fast. He slammed his shield into the spider just as it turned to face Milo, then cleaved off two more legs in one heavy strike.

The first spider never got off the ground again. Two more arrows pierced its abdomen before Liane appeared—her daggers sinking into the creature's head with surgical precision. Her eyes were already locked on the second one, watching for an opening.

She got it when Hari bashed the creature again, knocking it off balance. In that instant, Liane vanished from view, then reappeared beneath the spider. Using the open wound from Milo's earlier strike, she drove both daggers deep into its underbelly.

The spider reared up, legs flailing, trying to retreat—only to be caught in the face by another wind blade. It collapsed moments later, unmoving.

I was a little worried Liane might be crushed—she was directly beneath the thing—but once again; I was surprised to see the barrier skill kick in. The spider slammed down onto it, then slid off to the side, allowing Liane to roll free with a giant grin on her face, though still covered in spider guts.

Hari remained on guard, scanning the treeline for more threats, but Liane was already hauling legs out of the trees and making her way towards me.

The moment she was close enough to speak, she tossed the severed limbs down in front of me.

"Did you see that, Trev? That barrier is so good! I barely got any of the crap on me!" she said happily.

It took another five minutes or so before Hari was satisfied the area was safe. He dragged one of the spider corpses out of the forest while Milo used his magic to levitate the second.

Jen flatly refused to touch either of them.

Once both bodies were clear, I stored them—legs and all.

Milo conjured a stream of water to help Liane clean up before she re-entered the woods to scout. The rest of us remounted and prepared to continue on.

"Crisplet, did that contribute towards your quest?" I asked, glancing down at the brazier.

A burst of bright sparks answered me. I could've just pulled up the status screen and checked for myself, but this felt more personal.

"Oh? What did Crisplet do?" Milo asked, having overheard.

"Took a defensive position at the shelter you made. I think he was ready to intercept anything that got too close to the horses or me," I replied, looking down at Crisplet again. Another burst of sparks confirmed it.

"And that counted toward the quest? That's really good," Milo said, pulling out his notebook and scribbling a note.

"One day, you're going to have to show me that thing. It probably has more information about me than I know about myself," I said with a laugh.

"You're probably not wrong—unless you've got a really high Wisdom stat," Milo replied with a grin. "That's why I write everything down. It also serves as a historical record. If someone ever ends up with a similar class or companion, they'll have a reference. Could be incredibly useful to society."

He held the notebook as if it were a priceless artefact.

And I supposed to him, it was.

We rode until late afternoon, passing a fresh group of adventurers heading out. After Hari informed them of the recent events—including what happened with the Treants and the spiders—I noticed that as we parted ways, they immediately shifted into a much more serious formation than the one they'd approached with.

By early evening, we had the forest path back to town in sight. Technically, we could've taken it and made it back to the city that night, but it would've been late, well after dark by the time we arrived.

Instead, Hari and Milo decided we'd camp out one more night. Milo added that he wanted to test the bread roll theory before we returned to town and spoke to the baker.

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