By the time Bennin was able to log into the game, he was exhausted. Every time, he underestimated how rude people could be, and every time, he wished with all his heart that he could break his contract and move somewhere else. But breaking his contract and moving would leave his brothers alone, and he couldn’t do that. They needed him.

“Huh… Yarn isn’t here.” He muttered as he spawned in just inside the gate. “Weird.”

From what he knew of the half-elf, she would be working her ass off to make the most of her time, now that she was no longer working a job. But she was nowhere to be seen, and since Bennin was online alone, he couldn’t leave the area - otherwise, she’d respawn by herself, and considering the quest and the player killers who had chased after them, he couldn’t let that happen, which meant he was stuck.

“There’s gotta be something I can do without leaving the area… oh!”

He swiped his hand through the air, bringing up the system interface, and clicked on the quest before reading it carefully. He’d skimmed over it when he first got it, but not looked closely, and now was his chance.

“The devil’s in the details…” he murmured, squinting and wishing the creators of Alphine would enlarge their fonts. “Let’s see…”

= CO-QUEST - SUPPORT THE ELF! THE HALF-ELF, YARN, IS LOOKING TO RETURN TO ADVENTURING. SUPPORT HER AND GET UNFATHOMABLE REWARDS!

TASK: RAISE THE HALF-ELF’S LEVEL TO 32 (INCOMPLETE)

TASK: ENTER THE HAUNTED FOREST (COMPLETE)

TASK: SURVIVE 15 IN-GAME DAYS IN THE HAUNTED FOREST (INCOMPLETE)

TASK: FIND THE SECRET OF THE FOREST (INCOMPLETE) =

“Secret of the forest?” 

He was confused. Not once had he heard anything about a secret about the Haunted Forest, and he was sure no one else had either. But just in case, he turned to his guild’s group chat.

Bennin: Yo, anyone hear about a “secret of the forest” in the Haunted Forest?

ClayJoe: No… 

Almond: Secret of the forest?

Alaric (Guildmaster): Does this have anything to do with the thing you dm’d me about the other day?

Bennin: Yes.

Alaric (Guildmaster): I see. I’ll ask some of the other guild masters I know. Maybe they know something.

Bennin: I appreciate it, Al, but I’d rather you didn’t. This thing is confusing enough, and I suspect getting others involved will only make it worse.

Almond: Wait, wait, hold up! What are you talking about? I smell tea!

ClayJoe: Yeah… what’s going on, Bennin?

Bennin: …

KatieDoll (Vice-leader): Leave him alone, guys. It’s his business and not ours.

Almond: Tch.

MelMel: Doll’s right, guys. Back off. Btw, Bennin, I think I had a quest previously that mentioned something about the Haunted Forest. I was given a reward with the forest’s name in it… I’ll dm you about it.

Bennin: Thanks.

He then waited, and after a moment, a message popped up on his private message list.

MelMel: Here. Hope this helps. Lmk if you have any questions.

An image popped up - a screenshot of an item description, and Bennin squinted to see it more clearly.

= ITEM: HIKANA’S HAUNTED FOREST POTION. A SECRET POTION FROM THE DEPTHS OF A MYSTERY FOREST, CRAFTED BY “HIKANA”, AN UNKNOWN CRAFTER FROM THE SOUTHERN CONTINENT. EQUIPPING THIS POTION AS AN ITEM WILL GRANT A RANDOM BOOST TO A RANDOM SKILL. USING THIS POTION AS A NORMAL POTION WILL GRANT AN UNKNOWN… EFFECT. NO ONE IS QUITE SURE WHAT IT IS. WILL YOU BE THE ONE TO FIND OUT?=

“Haunted Forest Potion…” Bennin glanced up and around him. The dark woods around him were eerily silent, just like always, but now that Bennin knew an item had come out of them, he was somewhat worried. Despite his extensive experience with the game, he had never once seen an item come out of the Haunted Forest. No one had. Even the rewards from quests located in the Haunted Forest didn’t give items, only experience and stat points. The potion MelMel had shown him was the first he’d ever seen.

Bennin: MelMel, when did you get this? And where?

MelMel: From a merchant that I ran an errand for back in the Magician’s Tower, about three weeks ago. Did the description help?

Bennin: Very much. Thanks.

While Bennin was messaging MelMel, a set of yellow eyes watched him from a nearby bush, suspiciously.

“He’s really here,” the youth whispered into his watch. “Did you find the information for him?”

“On ID #BenninYoung? Yes. He’s a knight in the guild/organization Legion of Valor, and while he’s not of a high level, he holds a relatively high place in the guild,” a voice answered.

“High enough to make friends with the innkeeper in Marksville?”

Silence.

“Axa, did you just say this player is friends with the innkeeper in Marksville? Yarn?”

“That’s right,” Axa whispered, keeping his voice low. He couldn’t let Bennin see or hear him. “They seem rather close. They even drink together - I’ve been in the game a long time, and never seen anything like it.”

“There’s no way… isn’t she…”

“Yeah,” Axa whispered and took a deep breath. “I have another concern, too. It seems this player, Bennin, has received a co-quest with Yarn.”

“A co-quest? Do those exist?”

“They do now, apparently.”

“Axa, listen to me carefully.” His fellow moderator’s voice came through as a mere whisper. “That shouldn’t be possible. It can’t be possible. The game wasn’t designed to allow co-quests. Whatever is going on… it’s not right. Something is wrong; it must be some sort of glitch. I need you to stick close to those two players and see if you can track down who they got that quest from, when, and what it’s about.”

“I can’t access the info,” Axa whispered. “My moderator permissions don’t work on it, which was what made me concerned enough to call.”

“Well, if you can’t access it, neither can I, so just keep a close eye on them. If we’re lucky, they’ll talk about it among themselves, and we’ll get our hint.”

“And if they catch me?”

“That’s your problem, not mine. This is your job, Axa.”

“Right.” Axa ended the call and turned back to watching Bennin. “My job.”