Emerald eyes flitted from place to place, searching the forest undergrowth beneath the mottled light seeping through the canopy above.  On the lookout not for monsters, but rather for herbs.

“Could you tone it back a little, please?”

Gauge called out from the trail, some thirty or fourty meters to the left, clearly frustrated by Argent’s less than subtle crashing and snapping through the trees and plants.  The Alchemist had cut off to the sides of the path not long after they had begun their journey, gathering up various usable plants.  Once the first two or three miles had shown nothing more threatening than the songs of fluttering birds, he considered sticking to the path an undue caution, and the bushes and ferns covering much of the forest floor were not so overgrown that they blocked motion or visibility to a serious level anyway. The only true hazards being the occasional fallen logs, large stones, or dramatic changes in the terrain’s elevation.  These things were few and far between, thanks to the normal day-to-day travel this immediate area saw from the orchards.

“Relax. I can’t see through these ferns if I don’t move them a little… Besides, if something does get close, won’t you be able to sense it?”

“That’s not an excuse. Also, that’s not how it works, either.  Even if I did sense something, I wouldn’t know what it was unless I’d had a chance to see it before.”

“You have to see things to identify them?”

“No, not literally. But I don’t know what everything’s aura looks like just because I can sense them. There are colours, and wavelengths, and… Ugh.. It’s just a lot, okay? Unless I know what I'm looking at, half the time auras may as well be psionic white noise.”

“..Huh..”

Argent thought he understood what Gauge was getting at.  The closest thing he could approximate was learning another language, or writing system, he supposed. 

“Still, that’s not really a problem for now, is it? It just means if you see something weird or unknown coming towards me, then you-- AH!”

“Argent? Argent!”

Gauge shouted Argent’s name as the alchemist let out a shout and suddenly disappeared from view into the forest.  Dropping his pack from his shoulders, the rogue drew his bow and nocked an arrow while running towards the last place he had seen his friend. He hadn't sensed anything other than Argent, had he somehow missed something? Drawing back and spinning himself around a trunk, he jumped in surprise and nearly put an arrow through Argent’s foot as the white-haired boy popped up from the ground where he had been crouching over a swath of jet-black flowers.  

“Look! Raven Daisies.”

“Kioku’s tits…”

Gauge swore, rolling his eyes in exasperation as he lowered his bow.  Argent had already knelt back down to begin cutting flowertops, separating the stems and placing them into a glass jar from his belongings. He spilled a few with a yelp as he received a reserved yet firm kick in the hindquarters.

“You can’t do that to me! You were in the middle of a sentence, for God's sake.”

“Sorry, these are really useful.  I wasn’t expecting to find them in a place like this.”

“...Uhhuh.”

Gauge scoffed, but he knelt down all the same to watch his companion work.  He looked at the growing pile of flowers being left on the ground, reaching down and picking one up. Rolling the pitch black petals lightly between his fingers, he noted that even the leaves and stems were coloured a deep, blue-black hue.

“No use for the flowers?”

“Ah, not really… For these, you want the stems.  They’re very energy-sensitive, and can be used to make inks that are good for inscriptions.”

“Kinda seems like a waste..”

The rogue commented, tossing away the flower he had been examining with a small frown.

“That’s unexpected, I wouldn’t have taken you for a conservationist.”

“Tch... I just hate not getting full value out of things, is all.”

Argent laughed at that response, it was fitting enough.  Taking a few minutes to finish up what he was doing, he straightened up and carefully stowed the glass jar away in his pack, stopping to take a swig of water from his canteen before hoisting the bag onto his shoulders again.

“Fair. Sorry you can’t sell them.”

He teased as they made their way back onto the main path, agreeing to stick to the trail for a while as penance for his little scare.  Argent’s eyes fixed on the road ahead as he considered the things Gauge had been saying, coming to a sudden realization.

“So.. You’ve never seen a Jellycap?”

He pointed out, fishing for confirmation but already confident of the answer. Between the way Gauge had spoken about their auras, and remembering also that the rogue hadn’t known that they didn’t have eyes.

“Nah.. They’re just giant mushrooms, right?”

Gauge replied indifferently, shrugging his shoulders beneath the straps of his pack.

“Well, I guess.. sort of.. I mean, if you had to put it the most basic way possible.”

“Okay, alright.. Sheesh. Enlighten me, then.”

“Hmm.. For starters, do you know the difference between an animate and a construct?”

“Gods, are we really going to do this now?”

Gauge groaned.

“I could always go back to looking for herbs...”

That suggestion was all it took to effectively corner the unfortunate rogue into the coming lecture.  For the next twenty-five minutes or more, Argent went into a full length explanation concerning the creatures they had come to hunt, starting from the top.

“So a construct.. To put it very simply, a construct is something unliving given autonomy, and intelligence.  This is different from what you might call an ‘animated object’, something simple like a sword enchanted to mindlessly attack intruders or something such… A construct is, for lack of a better word, sentient. As the name partially implies, it is something that was deliberately and specifically made.”

“I’m following, yeah. Things like golems, or sentinel statues.”

“Exactly.  A construct and an animate are very much alike, the only difference is that an animate originates from something that was living before it was altered. Something organic, existing, but not able to naturally think or act.”

“...Like our Jellycaps.”

“Yes, like our Jellycaps. This is where the waters get muddied a little bit, though, in terms of what is truly an animate and what isn’t.  For instance, something like a Treant, while you might assume it was a tree that was given life and therefore might be categorized as an animate, you would be incorrect. There are many flora based races and species that just.. Are.  Distinguishing them from artificial animates can be tricky.”

“Uh...huh.. Does that.. Does that matter here?”

“Well no, but it’s incredibly interesting don’t you think?”

The two looked at each other, Gauge remaining silent.  After a few moments, Argent cleared his throat and continued.

“Anyways. Jellycaps are in fact true animates, given life by the residual effects of Fae arts in an area… And they are, as you put it, Giant Mushrooms.  Younger ones tend to sort of bounce upright off their heavy base, while larger specimens have been known to develop rudimentary limbs.”

“Limbs?? You mean like, hands. Claws?”

“Ah.. Claws, probably not... hands… It’s possible? But mostly we’re talking something more like crude appendages to assist with movement and balance.  Either way, that’s not going to be the thing to look out for.”

Argent raised his hands, waggling his fingers in a squiggly motion.

 “The big danger is the stingers.”

“Mm.. Like Jellyfish stings. That’s where the name comes from, after all.”

“Yep. It will make perfect sense, when you see them… Though, did you know that ‘Jellycap’ is actually a purely colloquial term because of their appearance? They’re scientifically known as Myśliwy-Grzyb.  Huntsman Fungus, in common tongue.”

“Myz.. Mush... Myshli.. The hell did you just say?”

Gauge stumbled over the native pronunciation while Argent chuckled at his admirable but failing attempt. He kicked a small rock, watching it tumble along the path as he stretched his arms above his head and as far behind his back as his gear would allow.

“Aahhhg… Gahh.. Phew… Let’s just stick with ‘Jellycaps’.”

“Stellar. Don’t have to tell me twice.”

“Worth noting, they DO have mouths, though they’re not great for biting.. Mostly just for eating things after the stingers have done the work… But that doesn’t mean they won’t try.”

“Got it. No no areas; Stingers first, mouth second.”

Argent snorted at his companion’s sarcastic choice of words, but it was essentially accurate. They walked and talked for a bit more time, joking back and forth as they began to wonder how big a deal this actually was.  The contract had said that the Jellycap presence had made the woods ‘unsafe’ for travel, it had made it sound like the things were crawling all over the place, and yet…

“We aren’t going to make any money at all, this way.”

Gauge complained halfheartedly, sighing as he folded his arms behind his head.  As if on queue, spoken into being by his nonchalant remark, a scream echoed through the woods from further along the path.  The boys looked at each other before hurrying into action.

“Careful what you wish for.”

Argent scolded, disengaging the buckles on the straps of his pack and allowing it to drop onto the side of the trail.  Gauge only huffed in response, as he was in the middle of swinging his own bag off his shoulders to toss it onto the ground alongside Argent’s.  Free of the unwanted weight, the two took off at a sprint in the direction of the sounds of panic and struggle.  

“I’ve got it, it’s dead ahead. Three? Three signatures I don’t recognize.”

Gauge disseminated the information his arts were feeding him, as he and Argent came around a small twist in the woodland path.  There, just past the edge of the trees, was a sturdy wooden handcart full of harvested fruits.  To the side, halfway up a tree, an orchard worker held herself against the trunk whilst two Jellycaps aggressively bounced around below.  The woman was clearly distressed, but seemed unharmed-- if nothing else she was in a better position than the man laying in the middle of the path.  Seeing the students of X13 approaching, the woman started screaming again, pointing desperately towards the male orchard worker.

“Help! Help him, please!”

The man was sprawled on the ground, roughly attempting to drag himself away from a large Jellycap that was steadily advancing upon him, crawling forward on several root-like tendrils in a way that was visually similar to an insect.   The glowing blue and white spots of its mesoglea vibrated in hungry anticipation as its stinging tendrils reached forward along the ground like creeping vines, seeking their prey as its drooling mouth chittered and bit at the air.  It was quickly gaining on the orchard worker, who upon close examination seemed to have festering burns trailing up the exposed portions of his legs, preventing him from regaining his footing to flee.

“Argent!”

“On it.”

The two communicated in synchronicity, as Gauge slid into a forward crouch, both drawing and loosing a shot from his bow as he did so.  The projectile split the air with a forceful whistle as it hurtled forward and struck the Jellycap dead in the center of its bell, causing the creature to flinch backwards with an ear splitting shriek.  Coming in behind the shot, Argent wasted no time in filling his role, hooking his arms beneath the shoulders of the injured man and quickly pulling him back and away from the threat.  The man grimaced as his injured legs slid across the dirt due to the unceremonious drag.

“W-where did you come from?”

He asked in bewilderment, clearly taken aback by the sudden appearance of two unknown teenage boys.

“Watch out!”

Gauge shouted from the back, as the temporarily stunned Jellycap righted itself to stand on its base, hissing violently.  Bouncing on its stem, it launched itself forward in pursuit of its escaping quarry.  Argent looked up in panic, holding an arm out defensively as he quickly stepped infront of the injured man, ready to take the hit.  Blinking as the air swept past him following the path of an arrow in flight, as Gauge’s shot skimmed his body with dangerous precision, hitting the Jellycap mid-leap and knocking it back to the earth.  An angry shout from the rogue followed in pursuit.

“What the hell are you doing?!”

Putting aside any response for the time being, Argent reached into the aether plane, manifesting the command for an art. [Web].  Throwing his open palm out in front of him, sticky ropes of webbing launched outwards and tangled the Jellycap, sticking to the ground, the cart, the creature, everything it touched.  Effectively turning that entire portion of ground into a massive crowd control zone.  With the breathing room this provided, Argent finished dragging the man to the far side of the path opposite to the two unstuck Jellycaps, which by this point had taken interest in the conflict and given up on attempting to chase the woman up a tree.  Gauge had readied himself for a third shot, but was tentatively holding back on his bow, a small droplet of sweat tickling the side of his brow.  Arrows weren’t going to be enough to kill these creatures, he realized, not without an incredibly lucky shot.  Ruefully he grit his teeth as he was forced to internally admit that Argent’s previous lecture had paid off, allowing him now to understand that due to the Jellycap’s nature as an animate it had no true vulnerable spots.  No vital or sensory organs to exploit.  It was essentially a giant mass of organic material given life by the world energies flowing through it, and could only be destroyed by dealing devastating enough damage that the flow of kai was shorted out or expended; or by striking it at the very heart of its kai source somehow.  

“Come on…”

He muttered under his breath, as he pursued this second option.  Straining his mind beneath the demands of his arts, he alternated in flashes between [Sense Aura] and [Find Aura], searching for any sign of what could be the animate’s core. Breathing shallow as his arts capacity neared its limits, Gauge was forced to deactivate his arts before it made him lightheaded, shaking his head in frustration.  But before he could simply lob another shot, a metallic clinking sound from his side caught his attention as Argent chambered a shell and stepped past.  Leveling the pistol into an aiming stance, the alchemist sighted down the weapon and depressed the trigger with a controlled squeeze. The burst of concussive force echoed through the surrounding woods, a hailstorm of iron pellets erupting from the barrel, blowing apart the upper side of the nearest Jellycap. Viscous blue and white splatter painted the area behind as smoke wisped from the weapon, Argent snapping it forward at the break to send the ejected shell flying into the air with a dull plink.  It was a colour Gauge had not seen him use before, a matte grey with two black stripes. 

Argent took a deep breath after firing the shot, inhaling long and fully before breathing out again.  His hands moved quickly, retrieving another black and grey shell from his belt and chambering it.  Flicking the pistol closed, he ensured the weapon was in battery before raising it up again and repeating the offense against the second Jellycap.  The animate’s unnerving chittering and chattering was silenced immediately as it caught the blast full center in the mouth, blowing into two pieces at the middle. All eyes were fixed on Argent in that moment, as the alchemist once again snapped his weapon forward and ejected the spent casing, loading another before spinning the weapon lightly acrost his palm and back into its resting place at his side.

The moment was broken after those few seconds of awe, as the clicking and hissing of the web entangled Jellycap slowly came back into focus after the overwhelming volume of the shots faded away.  The creature, stuck though it was, fanned its long stingers out as far from its bell as possible.  The thin, almost feathery appendages flailing and waving angrily as the Jellycap did whatever it could to try and spin itself, wielding the stingers like whips or flails.  But the more it struggled, the more it became glued, rendering it virtually harmless.

“Are you alright?”

Argent asked, returning to the man he had pulled out of harm's way and kneeling over him, while Gauge helped the woman out of the tree in the background.  The man nodded thankfully, letting out a pained sigh of relief.  He sat up, wincing a little, and extended a hand for Argent to shake.

“Burns like the nine hells, but I’ll live. Thank you for your help.”

The alchemist nodded, accepting the gesture and shaking the man’s hand.  His grip was firm and his palms calloused from labor in the orchards and fields.

“Did Brandubh send you?”

“Sort of. We’re here on contract.”

“On contract? But you’re so… Well, you look young.  I guess that doesn’t always mean you are.”

The man said, looking both alchemist and rogue over again.  It was a hard truth in this world that appearance often had little if anything to do with anything.  Frankly, as the shattered realities had all been pieced together, the ideas of what race and age even meant in a fundamentally ‘normal’ setting had been all but lost.  The young could be exceptionally dangerous.  Ancient beings could look like children, children could look like monsters, monsters could look like literally anything. Illusions and form shifts were abundant.  Judging a book by its cover was even less reliable than it had ever been before.

“We’re uh.. Students. At the DCA.”

“The Academy? In Tenebris?”

He let out a low whistle, both impressed and surprised.

“That’s something, for sure.  I’m real glad for it… We were worried the two silvers wouldn’t be enough to draw anyone in at all, but the Elder wouldn’t budge on it.”

“Thank you so much, dears, thank you for coming to help us.”

The female orchard worker crooned over them like an old auntie, her hands clasped together gratefully as she smiled at them with sparkling eyes.  Gauge stepped back a little, raising a hand in a dismissive gesture.

“It’s nothing, don’t mention it.. We’re just doing what we contracted to do.”

“Ohhh, what good boys. So responsible. My Nikki could learn a thing or two from you.”

She beamed as Gauge closed his eyes to hide his frustration, clearing his throat.  Before the situation could progress further and risk turning sour due to whatever smart-mouthed comment the rogue might have made next, a tremendous growling noise from the depths of Argent’s stomach pulled all attention back to him.  His cheeks flushed with red as he put a hand gingerly over his beltline, looking down at himself as he did so.  He hadn’t thought about it, but due to the rush to depart this morning, he hadn’t eaten anything all day.  Hunger had become lost to the excitement of adventure, but now after a long hike and the adrenaline dump of combat, the emptiness in the pit of his stomach hit Argent full force.

“You poor darlings, haven’t you eaten?”

The woman fussed, looking at Argent in alarm.  There was a worry and pity suddenly in her eyes, as though she had made a misleading assumption.  Before Argent could explain that they were not infact poor, destitute amatuer adventurers taking on cheap contracts because they were desperate, he felt that same strong and calloused grip from before pat him on the shoulder.  He looked over to find the male orchard worker’s eyes filled with a solemn concern.

“No, wait.. It’s not like..”

His arms were being laden with fruit before he could finish his protest, the woman preening over him and Gauge like a ruffled mother hen.  She clicked her tongue in dismay as she piled the goods onto them, patting Argent on the head whilst doing so.

“That no good, militant school. Sending children out with empty stomachs! Why, I ought to..”

Her bitter mumbling continued as she paced back and forth, giving the two boys a moment to breathe at last.  Finally getting into introductions, it was revealed that the man’s name was Dakker and the woman was Lea, they were siblings who had grown up working the fields since their youth.  Over all their years in the orchards, they explained how they’d never had trouble with the Jellycaps before this year.  It was as if the animates were not only more plentiful, but also larger, more violent, and more durable.  All eyes gradually shifted over to the last remaining Jellycap where it still squirmed beneath a net of webs.

“How long will that webbing persist, Argent?”

“I put a fair bit of Kai into it.. I’d say two hours or more, before it starts to weaken.”

“Hm..”

The rogue stood up from where the group had been sitting, leaving Argent to continue administering medical aid to Dakker as he made his way over towards the restrained Jellycap.  He stood over the creature, tapping the head of one of his tomahawks where it hung from his belt, but remaining just out of reach of the thing’s stingers.  Slowly, he began to alternate between his aspect arts once more. [Sense Aura]; in the back of his mind, partially laid overtop of his vision, a rushing of colours and traveling lines manifested upon the world.  As though he were viewing reality in some form of strange sketch, or abstract art piece.  He hummed with concentration as the signatures of the Jellycap at his feet swayed and shifted, a sort of pale green and silver energy that overlapped with itself in spirals. [Find Aura]; the images shifted. No longer laid over his vision, but more a subconscious spatial awareness.  Highlighted points of which he was magically aware, knowing their distance and location from his position should he choose to focus on them.  Unfortunately, try as he might, he still could not garner a lock on any sort of specific energy source inside the captured monster.

[Scan Alignment].  The world greyed out as though drained of all colour.  As expected, the Jellycap too had gone entirely grey.  Gauge hadn’t figured this particular art would amount to anything, but had tried on a whim, simply going through the paces at this point.  Turning his head briefly to the side, he saw Argent with his familiar green glow.  A gentle shade, like the forest surrounding them before it had lost its colour.  Dakker took on a dull, off-white silver, whilst Lea glowed with a bright amber light. Blinking lightly, Gauge considered these things for a moment before turning his attention back to the monster with a frown.  Deactivating his arts and letting the world regain its natural appearance, he crouched down over the Jellycap.

“How do I kill you…?”

He asked both it and himself, voice quiet and thoughtful.  He received nothing but hissing in return. Eventually he stood up, walked off to the edge of the forest while drawing one of his hand axes, and after some clamour returned with a lengthy stick.  Carefully using the head of his tomahawk like a whittling knife, he stood overtop of the monster while sharpening the haft of his new ‘weapon’ into a rudimentary spear.  Shooting it full of arrows would be tedious, and it risked breaking a few of their heads in the process. Wasting another of Argent’s limited shells was out of the question, and the last thing Gauge wanted was to step in close enough to hit it with his axe, and risk having those stingers find some way of springing up and wrapping around his legs, or even his arm.  And so, finishing his crude makeshift armament, the rogue paced off from the Jellycap and with no form or finesse began to impale it repeatedly.  It was a messy thing, but soon the deed was done, and Gauge wiped his brow with a sense of accomplishment.

“How old are you boys…?”

Dakker asked, trying not to make it sound judgemental but failing as he glanced between Argent and Gauge with a little more respect than before. Lea kept quiet, trying to force a smile as she struggled not to cover her mouth with her hand.

“Ah, sixteen.”

“Eighteen.”

Argent and then Gauge replied.  Truly, if the harsh brutalities of the world were considered, both of them were of age to be considered ‘Adults’ in many regions.  This didn’t seem to comfort Lea any, though.  She still fussed over them for the next several minutes as the four of them said their goodbyes, the boys helping set the handcart in order.  They walked with Dakker and Lea back along the road, just far enough to collect their packs whilst ensuring that they were well enough to continue pulling their cart, before waving them off as they disappeared into the distance.  Returning to the scene of their small skirmish, the boys moved to the side of the woodline and found a relatively clear area to place their equipment, as the conversations with the two townsfolk had revealed that beyond this point was essentially the furthest edge of the final orchard.

“Seems like the best spot to try our luck.”

Gauge said, referring to the plan they had formed back in town.

“And I sure hope it works, too, because Kioku’s tits… I don’t know if I can go on fighting these things with knives and sharp sticks.”

Argent laughed.

“I tried to tell you, but I seem to remember someone insisting that they quote; weren’t very tough.”

“I.. Might have misunderstood them… A little.”

Gauge admitted, sitting down on a fallen log.  He watched as Argent began digging into his alchemist’s kit, setting out several intricate looking measuring tools and a large glass bauble with a set of valves.  

“I had figured they’d be more like Myconids.”

It was a fair enough mistake.  Their overall form was tremendously similar, and both fit the bill of being large, angry mushroom creatures.  The difference was in typing, as Gauge now understood.  Regular Myconid variants were natural species, organic lifeforms that were as vulnerable as any other animal...  Jellycaps, were not.

“At least your Argent Pistols are still as impressive as ever.”

He added on, reminded now of the new type of ammunition that had been used.

“What kind of shells were those?”

“Scatter shells.”

Argent replied, standing up after situating his tools and devices.  He began to wander around the outskirts of their makeshift camp, gathering up small sticks and other forms of potential kindling as he went.

“They’re basically identical to blasting shells, in composition… The main difference is they’re filled with about twenty smaller projectiles rather than one large one, so you have to be careful with them.” 

Gauge shook his head, looking over at the tattered remains of the two shelled monsters.

“Well, it sure as hell did a number on those things… Speaking of.”

He drew a simple steel dirk from his boot, standing up and making his way over to the Jellycap remains.  Still being highly cautious of their lifeless stings, he began to work his way through in search of any potential Argonite housed inside their bodies while Argent collected firewood.  By the time a sizable stack of branches and stumps had been collected so as to keep a flame lingering throughout the night, Gauge had virtually dissected the entirety of the three animates.

“Not much luck… But.”

He held out a small, singular shard of soft-green crystal. It caught the light with a dull sparkle as he rotated it between his fingers, the edges and spaces in its form almost giving it the impression of being a cut gemstone.

“That’s one on the books.”

“That’s great, Gauge!”

“Eh.. It’s something, at least.”

The rogue didn’t quite catch Argent’s enthusiasm in full, but the alchemist’s positive attitude did manage to at least force a smile to tug at the corner of Gauge’s mouth. He tucked the piece of Argonite into a pouch, sighing as he looked around the woods.  Yet again, everything seemed completely peaceful. There was no movement, and no auras… Frankly, he didn’t like it.

“I’m going to get on with my part of the plan, then. Scout ahead, get things ready.”

He said after a while of watching the alchemist absorbed in his work.  Argent was entirely lost in his own world, so much so that it made Gauge wonder if it was safe to leave him sitting here unattended. At Gauge's words, however, Argent nodded, looking up from his tools for a brief moment and proving at least that he was not completely oblivious.

“Alright.  I’ll get this made, and something for supper too.  Depending on how far you go out, I should be done by the time you get back.”

“Stellar. Wish me luck.”