Limits

Collecting the needed herbs in the forest was not that difficult. Hunters almost never picked them up and people who knew stuff about medicine would grow simple herbs themselves or would simply walk in the vicinity of the village where it was relatively safe.

Because of that and because the forest was so huge while villages were like grain of sand on a busy road, the herbs could grow in great quantities. I picked up Poison Grass as it was the easiest to find, then I looked around for a dump area that was open to the view of sky. This was the type of environment where the Cloud Mushroom would grow.

After a while of searching, I found the Cloud Mushrooms and I picked couple of them. I would need to make about a dozen of vials with the Cloud Haze Poison and so I would need more Cloud Mushrooms than just one or two. I stuffed the mushrooms inside the bag and waited to hear news from Shelly.

I gave the task of finding the Haze Flower to Shelly because it was the rarest of them three. I showed Shelly how it looked like and also explained the likely location of the flower. I've waited for a while but Shelly didn't find me yet. I thought 'Maybe Shelly can't find me?' I screamed "Shelly! Where are you?" after a while I could hear rustling sound and saw Shelly running towards me.

I asked "Did you find it yet?" but Shelly shook it's head to mean that it didn't find the flower yet. I said "Not to worry, I have all other ingredients right now so we can search together". Shelly nodded it's head and we went together to look for the specific area where the Haze Flowers would grow.

The area would need to be near the water. The flowers pollinated themselves through the use of water. The mist that those flowers produced allowed for fertilization of new flowers. So a river or a stream or even a waterfall would be an ideal area for these flowers. I took out a map to see if there are any rivers or water reservoirs near this area.

There was a pond displayed not to far away from the mountains location so we headed there. When we arrived at the pond, I could see the haze around some parts. This meant that the Haze Flowers we were looking for, were here. After taking couple of steps, I noticed something else.

It was an insect that looked like a caterpillar but there were two differences. First of all, it was black in colour and secondly it was the size of a dog. I thought to myself 'This creature is not friendly, probably'. I then said to Shelly "We need to watch out, we don't know the behaviour of those creatures. It's best that we get couple of flowers and then leave". Shelly nodded it's head and we moved slowly towards one of the patches with the Haze Flowers.

All of a sudden a caterpillar creature came out of the ground and charged at us. To my surprise it didn't spray any venom and simply charged with its body. I flung my hands and threw couple of daggers at the charging creature.

"Cling" "Cling" "Cling" "Cling"

All my daggers got deflected, 'What a strong armour' I thought and backed away. Shelly saw the opponent as well and charged with the greatest speed it could. Shelly and the creature rammed into each other and I could see Shelly being blasted away by couple of metres due to recoil. This time the creature was not so fortunate compared to getting hit with my daggers. It flew up into the air and when it landed it didn't move.

I was not interested whenever that creature lived or not, I was more concerned about Shelly. When I arrived next to Shelly, I could see some cracks on its shell but other than that I saw nothing else. Shelly was a bit stunned and also in pain but it didn't cry out. I said to Shelly "Wait here, I will take the flowers very quickly and we will leave".

I didn't wait for the response from Shelly as I ran at my fastest speed to collect some flowers. When I was about 5 metres away from the patch of flowers, I could hear another creature breaking the ground and resurfacing behind me. I didn't turn around and simply went forwards. In the patch of the Haze Flowers, I picked up about a dozen of them and jumped to the left.

"BAAM"

The next thing I heard was a loud bang in the place I stood. It was the caterpillar looking creature that tried to ram into me. I sprinted towards Shelly and could hear more of those creatures popping out from the ground. There were at least 4 of them behind me now.

When I arrived next to Shelly who was still a bit dizzy, I picked Shelly up and ran towards the forest. I ran like crazy, as if the devil himself was chasing me. After about 30 minutes of such running, I finally stopped. When I looked behind, I saw nothing and when I put my ear to the ground I also heard no digging or noises coming from underground.

I placed Shelly down and said "That was dangerous. These creatures are quite sturdy. My daggers do nothing against them". I looked at Shelly's shell and said "Wait a minute, I will give you some medicine to recover". Shelly seemed happy about that and I gave it some Vital Liquid to drink while I rubbed another vial on the shell. I then said "Alright, we have all the ingredients we need. Let's return to where the cave is and I will make the poison there". Shelly nodded it's head and followed after me.

Walking back towards the mountain cave that the furry deer creatures occupied, I noticed some strange tracks. When I examined them, the seemed to be made by humans. I though 'Probably hunters, it is possible they are here for the furry goats'. I then said to Shelly "We need to look out, those tracks probably belong to hunters who are not greatly experienced. From what I know, hunters would leave almost no tracks behind them and I probably wouldn't be able to find them. We need to be on our guard".

Shelly nodded it's head and we moved forward towards the cave. When we were about 10 minutes away from the cave, I could see some frightened furry deers, Shelly called out to them and the furry deer came over to interact with Shelly. I looked with interest at the interaction and wondered if Shelly can actually communicate with all animals.

After a while, Shelly pointed at me and then draw something on the ground. When it finished, I saw a sword again. I asked "Are the hunters here for the furry deer to harm them again?" to which Shelly nodded it's head. I said "Alright, I already promised to resolve this and so I shall take care of those hunters as well".

I moved towards the cave and could see furry deer hidden everywhere. I then noticed couple of humans holding 3 furry deers that were tied with a rope while around them were couple of carcasses of said creatures. I could see that they were laughing and joking about something, so I pricked my ears to listen in on the conversation.

"Hey, Denis. If we bring him more than 3, will we get bonus money?"

"HA! As if! This old miser will never give us additional money, he would just take it as a donation. Don't be greedy Mark, we still get good money for that task".

"True, let's just stick with 3 of them and it will be easier to carry them as well".

After hearing this conversation, I was now sure that someone needed those furry deer for some kind of experiments. He even paid for them to be delivered. I didn't wait for them to leave as I simply drew my daggers and threw one after another.

These people may have been beginner hunters of some sort but against my daggers they were nothing. All the daggers connected the unexpecting targets and all of them died. When the animals saw this, they stopped trembling or hidding and ran towards me.

I could see that all the furry deer were grateful for my help and some even licked me like dogs. I said "That is enough, I promised you to take care of this problem", I then walked towards the three furry deer that were tied and undid the ropes. I took the ropes with me because they were not that heavy and one or two more ropes would always be useful.

I then said to Shelly "I shall make the poison now, when I'm done with it, we will got to that village and take care of it". Shelly nodded it's head and communicated this to other animals.