Down With The Gods

“So, which one are you? Tagaloco? Claimbodian? Wetameese? Loudian? Thigh?”

“‘Thigh’, ha?”

“So you ARE from Trapland, eh. Were you from Bangdik?”

“How does that matter to you? You had an experience with a trap there?”

“Yes, I cried, running out of my hotel.”

“You should've tried it. You might like it.”

“It was bigger than mine, eh,” James says, showing the size with his hands.

“‘Eh’? Funny how he doesn’t need to rest after all,” Yu whispers to Anish and Christine, while walking behind the other three.

Despite Wyn’s repeated requests for James to leave him and his team alone, James persists in striking up conversations. Mira, on the other hand, remains quiet, observing James intently. She had previously tried to convince Wyn to visit a campsite, but her efforts were in vain.

As they journey deeper into the Haunted Forest, the sky darkens. Anish and Mira create a fiery wind barrier around the team for both protection and light. Most of the creatures they encounter are under one hundred in essence, posing no threat to the team.

“Why haven’t you been introducing yourself as ‘Trip U’ anymore?” Wyn asks, quietly.

“You still remember it? To be honest, I lost confidence after your ‘Quad U’ remark.”

“So much for the small party we talked about at the gate.”

“So far, we get along with all these guys, so it’s not too bad.”

“‘All’? Hmmm…”

The forest plunges into darkness. Anish checks their location on the screen and finds they’re fairly close to the Mystical Land. That’s also when the team discovers they can use the virutal screen as a steady light source. This proves useful in the Haunted Forest, scaring off creatures that aren’t adapted to light. The journey seems smooth until they spot a familiar set of eyes. The creature retreats from the flashlight and then attacks.

A large shadowy mass surrounds the party, attempting to absorb them. When they shine the flashlight at it, the creature retracts and moves away from the light. It’s unmistakable – they’re up against another traineater. While the party could easily chase it away with more screen light, Wyn decides to fight it to test how much stronger his team has become since the metro station.

Christine volunteers to beam the flashlight upward, providing much-needed light. Mira sets up multiple fire pillars around the team for extra visibility and protection. However, the traineater proves quicker than expected, maneuvering its eyes and shadowy mass with surprising agility. Yu releases a continuous stream of water from his blade tip, chasing after the eyes. Wyn and James erect pillars to obstruct the creature’s movement, while fiery gusts fend off the creeping shadowy mass.

“‘Tis time for Triple U!” Yu announces.

Similar to the disfigured water dragon, Yu creates two water fountain copies of himself, each equipped with a weapon. Unfortunately, the copies lack mobility, and Yu struggles to control both simultaneously. Meanwhile, Anish launches a hook head from his javelin, but initially pierces through the shadowy mass. After several attempts, he manages to catch an eye and slowly drags the creature toward Mira’s fire pillars as he retracts the hook. The traineater responds by unleashing a shadow ball, rolling toward the team. Wyn destroys it effortlessly with a cyclone, but his counterattack also blows the creature further away and off Anish’s hook. After rising back up, the creature begins to merge its eyes. During this process, Wyn calls for his team to stop all attacks. With chakrams at the ready, he launches himself at the center of the creature, ending the battle swiftly.

“I’m impressed, but we could’ve split up to surround it, eh,” James comments.

“It wasn’t our first time against it, ‘eh’,” Wyn responds with air quotes.

“Well, still, you could be more effective during the fight. Why risk yourself like that?”

“Says someone who has only three thousand essence.”

“I may be weak right now, but I’ll have you know I attended an Ivysore League school!”

James and his former preppy teammates were relatively unprepared for the Dark Forest. Having spent little time training in the Abandoned City, they overestimated their abilities. However, their strategy to collect catnips allowed them to purchase the bestiary, which James uses as the only reason to stay with Wyn’s team. To get information on a creature, the user must look it up from a list of names under a specific section and area. Wyn has found the bestiary to be rather useless, especially when facing unknown creatures.

“At least you don’t have to purchase it with me around, eh.”

“Still doesn’t make you useful.”

The two bicker like a married couple, causing Mira to step between them as a shield. Even then, the men occasionally spark arguments, forcing Mira to adjust her breasts to distract James and give Wyn puppy eyes, begging him to let it go.

“I’ll have those when we get to a campsite. Wait, you’re not a trap, right?” James asks.

“You wanna check now?” Mira replies, pulling James’ hand for a thorough inspection, which makes him lick his lips.

Anish observes the exchange with agitation, though he remains silent. As they advance further, the party is suddenly surrounded by a handful of traineaters. Unwilling to risk major injuries before reaching the Mystical Land, they flash the creatures with their screens. Annoyed by the slow progress, Wyn launches the entire team into a cyclone after Anish lifts them higher than the traineaters. Everyone except Wyn spirals out of control within the cyclone, despite Anish’s attempts to stabilize them as Charlotte did with Fatima. Fortunately, they make it out of the Haunted Forest safe and sound, aside from a few faceplants.

“Where are we now?” Anish wonders.

According to the map, they should be within the Mystical Land. However, it appears they’re inside a cloudy gray area where their vision is limited to roughly a hundred meters ahead.

“What are those?” Wyn asks, pointing at the flying lights coming toward the team.

“Fireflies? So pretty,” Mira guesses.

While the rest of the group enjoys the light show, James pulls out the bestiary to identify the creatures. Unfortunately, this part of the Mystical Land doesn’t have its own section yet due to the recent revamp. Hurriedly, James browses through the extensive list of creatures.

“My sedation! They are…eek!” Mira screams, hiding behind Wyn.

The incoming creatures turn out to be giant flying cockroaches with lights on their rears, resembling fireflies. Besides the glowing butt lights, they have small bulbs at the tips of their antennas that also light up. From a distance, there are too many to count, flying slowly toward any soul they see.

“Ah! Here it is! The fireroach. ‘Watch out! It explodes!’ Wait, ‘explodes’?” James reads the description with growing concern.

Immediately, the team attacks the flying roaches with everything they’ve got. Even a tiny impact causes them to explode, setting off chain reactions that dispatch nearby roaches. The stench of the smoke clouds isn’t as repugnant as Gluttony’s burp but is strong enough to induce nausea. That said, the explosions attract more fireroaches to Wyn’s location. Seeing how easily they can be killed, Wyn decides to obliterate all of them. Despite the stench, the team manages to dispatch hundreds of the creatures, earning thirty essence each from the fire and poison roaches.

As they continue through the clouds, Wyn and Anish work to clear the lingering stench. Midway, a field of catnip trees comes into view, each tree suspiciously spaced apart. Yu, excited, approaches a tree, ignoring the team’s warnings. As expected, a large creature emerges from the ground, trying to snap Yu up with its mouth. Like replaying a movie scene, Wyn blows Yu high into the air with a cyclone.

“WAHHHhhhhhhhhh,” Yu cries.

“Ugh! Didn’t I, like, tell you to stop doing that?” Christine complains.

“See? You could have…,” James starts to say.

“Just shut up! All of you!” Wyn snaps.

The team quickly dispatches the catfish. Once Yu is back on the ground, they decide to tackle the remaining catfish in view, remembering the valuable essence they provide. Though there are no catnips to collect after the battle, the team happily shares the essence dropped by at least ten catfishes. Their recent encounter has pushed Wyn's essence count past five thousand, while Yu and Mira hover in the mid-four thousands. Anish and Christine, however, trail just a couple hundred behind Wyn.

The remaining clouds are devoid of creatures. The team begins to hear noises and see shapes ahead – it's finally the exit.

“Hello! Welcome to the new Mystical Land!” a voice calls out.

Emerging from the clouds, they’re greeted by a demon maine coon, much like those they’ve seen before on the other levels. Regular demons, various creatures, and many souls crowd the space, making it noisy with their chatter and the sounds of the creatures.

“What’s all this?” Wyn asks, looking around in confusion.

“Why is it so hard to get here, eh?” James interrupts Wyn, visibly frustrated.

“We are aware. There is a temporary campsite until we find a more convenient way for souls to get here,” the demon maine coon explains.

“You mean there’s a campsite here all along?” Wyn asks.

“Yes, it is accessible via the band,” the demon confirms.

“You motherf…”

“So, what’s going on here?” James asks, drawing a sharp look from Wyn.

This part of the Mystical Land spans the borders between itself and the other two forests. The ground is covered in lush green grass, though there are no trees. At the center, where the borders of the two forests meet, there’s a campsite with only a campground – no cat host or lobby – available for resting. Portals are expected to open inside the campground. Surrounding it are tamed creatures and their demon handlers, who serve as the only mode of transportation for now.

Most of the creatures wear muzzles and have mounts on their backs. Fares are zone-based, with prices ranging from ten to fifty catnips per zone, depending on the size of the creature and its passenger capacity. There are currently four zones, including the starting zone where Wyn and his team have arrived. Each zone has one drop-off station.

“This zone is the smallest and does not have anything mystical about it. You can start your journey from any other zone,” a handler cat suggests.

“What about the village?” Wyn inquires.

“You will need to travel to zone three and sail the sea,” the handler replies.

“The sea? We’ll start from the cheapest – zone two, please,” Wyn decides.

However, Mira insists they rest for a while before exploring. After all, they’ve been on foot since falling into a pit in the Haunted Forest. Making their way to the campground, as expected, Mira wants James in her tent, claiming that no one on the team can contact him since he’s not officially part of it. Despite Wyn’s countless objections to ditching James, Mira argues for the bestiary’s usefulness. Reluctantly, Wyn allows James to temporarily join the team.

“Can I come in too? I’ll, uh, just watch,” Anish asks hopefully.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but why are you all dressed the same?” James asks, looking around.

Ignoring Anish’s and James’s questions, Mira forcefully pulls him into her tent. The team splits up, sets the countdown alarm for ten hours, and calls it a day. As usual, Wyn finds it hard to sleep, troubled by the feeling that he might be slowly losing control of the team.

“Am I happy?” is the last question he asks himself before the alarm goes off.