“You brought it on yourself,” Zane said, having no sympathy for the woman at his side.

He downed another mug of the local brew, wincing at the kick.

The woman huffed as she devoured her fourth plate of meat, still removing parasitic seedpods and cursed splinters of a thousand agonies out of her arms.“Sure, but did she have to fill my lungs with ants? I can still feel them in there,” Perhal complained, hacking up one of the venomous breeds as she spoke.

The tavern owner didn’t look happy but they were still paying customers.“You ate her family,” Zane was unmoved by her plight.

Perhal smiled at the memory.“That I did, but to be fair.

They weren’t innocent tree folk.

That tribe was dangerous, and at the rate they were spreading, that forest was dangerous or something,” Perhal said, waving her hand to show that the details hadn’t mattered enough for her to remember them.“And you tried diplomacy first...

right?” Zane said, a knowing look about his face.“I got as far as ‘Aren’t you scrumptious looking’ and the rest is sort of hazy,” Perhal agreed.

Zane shook his shaggy mane with a sigh.“Look around Perhal, this is where we would have ended up if we didn’t bend the knee.

Tottering around like old-timers.

Not sure if this place is hell or paradise.

So much trouble in one place,” he grinned.“Not so quiet now.

You taste that mana?” Perhal commented as she cleaned the meat bone of all substances before crunching the bone itself like a snack.“I feel it on my skin.

I’m more a touch-base rather than a taster,” Zane reminded before he shook his head with his nose wrinkled.“Tasters are weird...

how do you even sense Mana through your tongue?” he asked his companion.

Perhal thought about it.“You eat a lot of rich things then the tongue knows...

Touch users are the most common anyway, Zane.

Don’t act so special.

You got hit in the head with a spell or touched some old thing and peed yourself,” Perhal said with a gleam to her eyes.“Could be worse,” Zane pointed out.

Perhal nodded slowly.“Could be a scenter...” she agreed.They both took a moment to think of the requirement it would take to activate the mana-gland in one’s nose and shuddered.True madmen, those kinds were.---Haldi inhaled his new cheese with delight.

The new creation was a complex mixture of manticore milk and herbs being cooked 1 minute before afternoon.It didn’t do anything, but the taste was good! The smell was eye-watering and made Haldi curl his toes with joy.

The village was going to be swarmed soon and Haldi had to make sure he’d fleece every single one of them for all their cash.The village needed a hut to be constructed or was it a blacksmith?Haldi looked out the window and wished Durence Village didn’t jump between having this many buildings one day and that many the next.

The town was almost alive due to the sheer amount of stories living in it and it was a dramatic gal, changing outfits every so often.It became a pain to find the bakery or Mila’s house...

but now with the Mana? Exotic things were just popping into existence.Benches dedicated to Lich Bats.Statues of giant chickens destroying some rotisserie food market.Once, an entire card shop appeared, devoid of any owners and was gone the next, leaving only some playing cards behind.

The nice boy, Grim, kept them proclaiming them to be messages, but what a bloody red ace and a coffee-drinking joker spoke about, Haldi hadn’t the faintest clue.Really, some of the space was free real estate at times, only for your perfect villa to end up on the edge of the village with the pigpen for a week.Haldi guessed the village needed...

a quest board.The word soured his mouth, but there was nought for it.

Adventurers with no oversight bred plotlines and those things could infest a house for years.

They just cluttered one’s home up with impatient vibes of ‘something must be done’.The people of Durence didn’t have time for those things anymore.Nobody had time for that.---Delta found Nu attempting to scream some mushroom out of existence.

It was some yellow mushroom that looked like a strawberry in texture.She blinked once as she examined it deeply.

Tongue Twister:A harmless mushroom that if devoured will cause one to speak in tongue twisters for some time.