The obvious question sat unanswered.
What does Unclassified mean for me. Two subclasses running simultaneously. What does Drauven actually mean in this context.
The system offered nothing.
He closed the window and pulled up the contracts while moving toward the assigned location.
[CONTRACT 1: OBTAIN 10 FOREST CRAWLER HIDES — REWARD: 25 COINS]
[CONTRACT 2: CULL STONEHIDE BRUTE CLUSTER, EASTERN SECTOR — REWARD: 30 COINS]
[CONTRACT 3: COLLECT NIGHTROOT HERB, NORTHERN MARKER — REWARD: 20 COINS]
Twenty five. Thirty. Twenty. Seventy five total if they ran all three clean. These don't amount to much. He pocketed the contracts. But everything builds from somewhere.
Ten creatures burst out of the undergrowth from the left flank with the low fluid certainty of things that had territory and were enforcing it. The system tagged them above their heads automatically.
[FOREST CRAWLER — TIER 1 DREG]
Similar build to what Marcus had seen in Cave Mrellie but adapted for open woodland, leaner through the body, pale skin carrying a faint green tint that blended into the undergrowth well enough to explain why they hadn't been spotted earlier. Same flat heads. Same overlapping teeth. Same six legs moving in the way that made every instinct register wrong.
Renn had his sword out before the tags finished rendering.
"Finally!" The word burst out of him like he'd been holding it since breakfast.
"Left two are mine." Marcus was already moving.
"Liz watch my right. Sable hang back and watch the perimeter."
"And me?" Renn called from behind him.
"Try not to get in the way."
"That's not a position!"
"Am not your dad." Marcus was already gone. "And stop talking."
He took the first crawler mid lunge, stepped inside the arc, drove the old sword into the joint at the base of its head. The resistance pushed back but he pushed through it and the crawler folded.
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +2 COINS]
The second came from the left before the first finished dropping. He pivoted and caught it across the neck joint on the redirect, felt the blade find the gap properly this time, cleaner than the first.
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +2 COINS]
Third and fourth came together, coordinating in the loose way Tier 1 creatures coordinated, which was less strategy and more shared aggression pointing in the same direction. Marcus stepped between them, used the angle, took the third on the forward momentum and redirected into the fourth.
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +2 COINS]
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +2 COINS]
A fifth came out of the undergrowth late, trailing the pack, smaller than the others. Marcus put it down before it reached him.
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +2 COINS]
Five down. He straightened and looked at the remaining three that Liz and Renn were finishing with varying degrees of elegance.
Liz took two simultaneously with the clean economy that was becoming familiar. Renn took the last one with considerably more celebration than was warranted and looked around to see if anyone had noticed.
Nobody acknowledged it.
"Nothing?" He dropped the pose.
Marcus crouched over the five crawlers he had killed and began cutting the hides. He glanced at Liz.
"Keep these." He handed them across without explanation.
She took them without asking why and added them to her pack. Marcus looked at his inventory mentally and dismissed the idea of using it.
Not with everyone watching.
He pulled up his stats quickly while his hands worked.
[STR: 17 / 100]
[SPD: 24 / 100]
Same as before. He looked at the numbers and put them away.
Low tier creatures don't move the needle. He already knew it but seeing the flat numbers confirmed it. Volume isn't the answer. Tier is.
They were heading toward the Brute cluster location when Sable stopped walking.
"Wrong way."
Marcus turned. She was pointing right down the narrower path, the one that looked less used and considerably less inviting.
He went right without arguing.
They were twenty meters down the new path when the undergrowth on both sides erupted. Not Brutes. Forest Crawlers, eight of them, pouring out from both sides and converging on Sable's position specifically, moving with the directed aggression of creatures that had already chosen a target.
Marcus moved toward her.
Sable formed a gesture with one hand, fingers spreading slightly, and the air around her responded.
Water erupted from the air , not a stream but a concentrated burst, hitting the lead crawler with enough force to fold it sideways into a tree. Another wave followed immediately, precise and surgical, catching two more mid stride and driving them into each other hard enough to finish both.
The remaining five scattered and she tracked each one with the same unhurried focus, the water responding to her attention rather than her movement, and inside eight seconds all eight crawlers were down and the path was quiet.
She looked at Marcus who had stopped three steps from her and was still holding his sword.
"Seems I wasn't needed ."
"You underestimate me these weak creatures don't amount to much".
The Brute cluster appeared exactly where Sable had redirected them.
One each.
Marcus took the left one. He read the joint lines in the plating from the approach, let the Brute commit to its swing first, stepped inside the arc and drove the sword into the gap at the shoulder where the stone hadn't fully closed. The Brute staggered. He hit the same spot again before it recovered and it went down hard.
[VOID HARVEST: DEATH BLOW REGISTERED]
[CURRENCY CONVERTED: +8 COINS]
Liz took the center one with the precise economy that was becoming her signature. Two strikes, the second one lit at the blade edge, and it dropped without drama.
Renn took the right one with the theatrical overhead arc Marcus had come to accept as part of the arrangement, held the finishing pose for a full second, looked around.
Nobody acknowledged it.
"One day," Renn said to no one and wiped his blade.
The third contract was herb collection at the northern marker, ten minutes of work that Sable located before anyone finished complaining about it.
[AUTO ALLOCATION: ACTIVE]
[STR: 17 → 18]
Marcus read the notification on the walk back.
"Seems I Need to level up with a different approach ". He closed it.
They all headed back to the guild hall after today mission load was completed.
*******
SHING!
The redemption desk processed the three contracts without ceremony.
[CONTRACT COMPLETION: +75 COINS]
[VOID HARVEST TOTAL FROM SESSION: +10 COINS]
[TOTAL CURRENCY: 116 COINS]