The path out of the village sloped gently upward, trading cobblestone for packed dirt and scattered roots. Morning light spilled over the hills, turning the low grass silver and gold. Ahead, the treeline rose in a soft wall of green — the start of the Gathering Woods.
It felt different already.
Not like the starter fields or the training paths. There was a depth to the trees, a weight to the air, as if the zone itself was saying:
If you mess around here, you might actually die.
Aria inhaled dramatically.
"Smell that," she declared. "That's danger."
Hayes glanced at her. "That's… pine."
"And danger," Aria insisted.
Gobbles waddled along at her heels, chewing something that probably wasn't food. Dot clung to her shoulder like an insectile guardian, eyes glittering.
Sofia walked on Riley's other side, light mantle swaying as she moved. Echo trotted slightly ahead, tail swishing, nose twitching at every new scent.
Hayley and Hayes brought up the flanks, shields on their backs, swords at their hips, their Feral Cats prowling beside them. Kipp stayed a bit closer to the center, Mossling half-floating over the ground like a moss-covered marshmallow.
Riley opened his map as they crested a small hill.
The village dot pulsed faintly behind them; ahead, a shaded region spread out in layered greens, annotated with symbols — leaves, mushrooms, curling vines.
> NEW REGION DISCOVERED: GATHERING WOODS (EASY–MODERATE)
He dismissed the notification and focused on the terrain.
Trees thickened steadily as they descended the far side of the rise. Leaves overhead filtered the sun into layered patterns of light and shadow. Plants along the ground glowed faintly — not enough to feel magical, but enough to hint that things here were just a bit… extra.
Sofia slowed, eyes wide.
"It's… beautiful," she whispered.
Echo stopped too, looking back at her like she agreed.
Kipp knelt beside a patch of low purple flowers, Mossling bobbing near his elbow.
"These are new," he murmured. "Texture's different. And the glow… they might be reactive to certain essences."
Aria crouched beside him.
"Can you make things explode with them?"
Kipp considered.
"Probably not."
Aria's shoulders slumped. "Disappointing."
Riley scanned the undergrowth.
Prism Petals. Dewcap Mushrooms. Vine Resin.
He knew roughly what they'd look like. He'd seen them a hundred times before — years from now, after patch notes, meta guides, balance changes. It was strange seeing them again so early, in this untouched version of the game, before everyone knew how important they'd be.
"Let's not get separated," he said. "Woods can be deceptive. Good line of sight now, but that changes fast when mobs start spawning."
Hayes nodded. "Formations?"
"Standard," Riley said. "Hayes front-center. Hayley front-right. I'll sit mid-left, Sofia and Kipp behind me. Aria can float, adjust where she's needed most — usually punching the wrong thing first."
"RUDE," Aria said. "Reasonable, but rude."
They moved deeper.
Bird-like cries echoed faintly between the trees. A wind picked up, rustling leaves, making shafts of light sway across the ground. Little particles drifted in the air — not dust, but pinpoints of colour, like somebody had shaken up a bottle of tiny glowing seeds.
Lumi shifted against Riley's neck.
The small Spirit's glow brightened for a moment, then dimmed. Riley's interface pulsed softly with his status, confirming nothing had changed.
"You alright?" Riley murmured quietly.
Lumi peeped once and nestled closer.
Sofia glanced back.
"Is he okay?"
"Yeah," Riley said. "Just… curious."
Echo padded up to Lumi's side along Riley's shoulder, balancing with easy grace as if she'd done it a thousand times, not just a handful of days. She gave Lumi a gentle nudge with her nose.
Lumi responded with a shy flicker of light.
"Partners," Sofia said softly, smiling.
"There," Hayes said suddenly.
He raised his shield slightly and pointed with his sword.
Movement in the brush up ahead.
Riley followed his line of sight.
At first, it was just leaves. Then he caught it — a flicker of pastel motion, a pair of long ears, petals where fur should've been.
A rabbit-shaped creature hopped into view, its body covered in soft green grass-like fur and blooming blue flowers. Petals formed a ruff around its neck. Its eyes glowed with faint, excited light.
> BLOOMHARE — LV 5
More shapes shifted behind it.
Three. No — four.
Riley held up a hand.
"First pack," he said. "Good warm-up."
"THEY'RE SO CUTE," Aria hissed. "I love it. I want to kill it. I'm confused."
Gobbles licked his chops in a way that suggested his confusion was entirely absent.
"Positions," Riley said calmly. "We'll test our baseline before they get any harder."
Hayes stepped forward, shield raising in a smooth, practised motion.
Hayley fell in beside him, staggered slightly to the right, shield angling to cover the flank.
Sofia and Kipp moved back almost at the same time, stopping where Riley had mentioned earlier, behind his left shoulder.
Aria bounced into place on the other side, Dot shifting her weight, eight eyes gleaming.
Riley's bow formed in his hands with a familiar hum — threads of soft light weaving into a solid shape as he pulled his fingers through the air.
Spirit Shot charged along the string, waiting.
"Hayes," Riley said. "Tag one and pull it. Don't overextend."
Hayes grunted in acknowledgment and stepped into the open.
The first Bloomhare perked its ears up.
Hayes slammed his shield forward.
"SHIELD BASH."
Blue light flared at the edge of his shield as it collided with the creature's face. The Bloomhare squeaked and tumbled backward.
Three more shot out of the brush.
Riley exhaled.
"Focus the first one," he said.
He loosed.
The arrow of light traced a clean line across the air and struck the staggered Bloomhare in the chest. It burst into a splash of glowing petals and pixels.
> BLOOMHARE DEFEATED
XP GAINED
"Sofia, keep an eye on Hayes' health," Riley called. "Kipp, don't worry about attacking yet. Focus on not dying."
"On it!" Sofia said.
"I am VERY good at not dying," Kipp replied, even as he stepped further behind Sofia.
Two Bloomhares barrelled toward Hayes and Hayley. A third veered left, aiming for Riley's open side.
"Dot!" Aria snapped. "Sticky, now!"
Dot spat a thread of web that slapped directly into the third Bloomhare's face. The creature flailed, veered, then planted its face into a tree with a sad little squeak.
Aria cackled.
"I LOVE HER."
Hayley stepped into a Bloomhare's path, shield coming down.
"GUARD STANCE."
A soft shimmer wrapped around her, giving her stance weight and solidity. The creature's attack hit her shield and rebounded.
"Guard Pulse next," Riley said. "Then let Hayes bash and rush."
Hayley nodded, timing her breath.
Echo darted forward, eyes bright.
"Echo— Quick Attack!"
The fox blurred, closing the distance in a streak of light. She slammed into a Bloomhare's side, knocking it off-balance — not hard enough to kill, but enough to leave it open.
Hayes stepped into it with a grunt.
"SHIELD RUSH."
He charged, shield first, and smashed into the creature. Blossoms, leaves, and pixels erupted as it vanished.
The second Bloomhare lunged toward Hayley.
Aria darted in with a wild grin.
"FLURRY COMBO!"
Her gauntlets flashed, and she unleashed a rapid three-punch sequence that sent the creature flipping end over end. It landed in a heap and exploded into petals.
The last Bloomhare finally managed to pull Dot's web off its face and turned toward them just in time to see Gobbles waddling up.
The mossbloom creature stared at it.
The Bloomhare stared back.
Then Gobbles gently bopped it on the nose.
It fell over and burst.
"Leaf Bop," Aria said, smug. "Devastating."
The air settled.
Leaves rustled.
Glowing petals drifted downward and dissolved into motes of light.
Soft chimes rang through everyone's interface.
> PARTY EXP GAINED
PROGRESS TO LEVEL 6: 28%
A small notification popped up in the corner of Riley's vision.
> YOU HAVE RECEIVED: BLOOM PETAL ×2
He opened the party loot distribution and set petals to shared.
"Alright," he said. "That's the baseline. Everyone okay?"
Hayes rolled his shoulder, flexing his shield arm.
"Fine," he said.
"Barely a scratch," Hayley added. "They hit softer than the training mobs, actually. Just faster."
"They're supposed to be deceptive," Riley said. "Cute, then stabby. Classic dev trick."
Aria snorted. "Respect."
Sofia checked her interface.
"Health looks good," she said. "I didn't even need to heal yet."
"You will," Riley said. "That was just the welcoming committee."
Kipp knelt where the Bloomhares had fallen. Mossling floated down beside him, poking at a glowing petal with stubby arms.
"These," Kipp said, almost reverently, "are perfect."
He picked up a Bloom Petal. The texture shimmered between his fingertips.
"They've got light affinity and a soft regenerative property," he said. "If I combine these with the Prism Bloom ingredients we found in the cave… and maybe adjust the ratio…" He mumbled the rest under his breath, lost in the alchemical spiral.
Aria leaned toward Riley.
"He looks almost possessed," she whispered.
"That's how you know he's happy," Riley murmured back.
Lumi shifted again.
This time, the little Spirit raised his head and stared into the trees ahead — not the direction they'd come from, not precisely where the last pack had been.
Off to the right.
Deeper.
"Riley?" Sofia asked. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he said reflexively — then reconsidered.
"Lumi?" he said quietly. "What are you looking at?"
Lumi's body glowed faintly, pulsing in a steady beat that didn't match any UI alert Riley knew. The Whelp's gaze stayed locked on a particular gap between the trees.
Riley squinted.
It looked like just more forest.
He opened his map, checked their position.
The Gathering Woods region was broad — and not fully explored yet. Blank fog covered much of it, only the trails and edges faintly inked in.
Somewhere out there, he knew, would be the spots that future players would mark as "must-farm," "avoid," or "secret." Right now? It was just potential.
"Probably just ambience," he muttered.
Lumi's glow brightened for a moment as if offended.
Echo pawed softly at Lumi's tail, distracting him.
The pulse faded.
Riley made a mental note.
"Stay alert," he said. "We'll follow the main path for now. No detours until we've tested the zone properly."
They moved on.
The forest deepened quickly, trees crowding closer, roots rising out of the soil like knotted ropes. Glowing plants became more frequent — tiny bulbs of blue, streaks of luminous moss.
The next group of Bloomhares appeared almost casually — grazing on glowing clover at the base of a large tree.
"Same deal?" Hayley asked.
"Yeah," Riley said. "Hayes starts. Control the flow. Aria, try Sticky Trap this time. I want to see how far you can place it. Kipp — if you feel brave, toss in some basic attacks. Mossling can heal chip damage."
Kipp swallowed, then nodded.
"I can… do that."
"Echo and the cats take flanks," Sofia added, gaining confidence. "Gobbles stays mid in case we need emergency healing."
Aria gasped.
"Sofia's calling shots. My heart."
Sofia turned pink. "Someone has to keep you focused."
The next fight went smoother.
Hayes pulled cleanly. Hayley intercepted flanks without needing prompting. Aria placed a sticky patch of web just ahead of a Bloomhare's hop, making it skid and flail. Echo darted in and out, her movements fluid, confident. The cats moved like small shadows, claws flashing.
Mossling sent a thin thread of shimmering moisture to patch a small scrape on Hayley's arm — a tiny heal, but meaningful.
They didn't just win. They flowed.
The after-battle notification felt almost like a reward for that alone.
> PROGRESS TO LEVEL 6: 54%
"Okay," Riley said. "Three, maybe four more packs like that and we hit six. After that, we'll push a little deeper, see how the mob mix changes."
Kipp raised his hand.
"Quick question. What, um… happens if we hit something too strong for us?"
Riley considered.
"Then we run," he said simply. "We're not here for heroics. We're here to build momentum. If we die, we lose time. Time is what gets us ahead."
Aria folded her arms.
"I still vote for heroics."
"That's because you like punching things that are too big for you," Riley said.
"You say that like it's a flaw."
Sofia smiled faintly.
"I trust you," she said softly to Riley. "You know where we should go."
He felt that trust like a weight and a buoy both — heavy, yes, but keeping him above water.
"Then let's go where we need to," he said.
They continued deeper into the Gathering Woods, the village fading behind them, XP bars inching higher, pockets filling slowly with petals and herb fragments — and somewhere ahead, unseen, Lumi's unseen path tugging faintly at the edge of Riley's awareness.
The woods weren't just a zone.
They were the first step toward the dungeon.
And the first test of whether Riley could truly change the shape of the story this time.