We'd been walking for several hours. The forest was mostly rolling hills under the tree canopy with shrubs and smaller plants spaced out here and there. Mostly it was just trees and hard packed earth in between. Most of the trees had about a one and a half meter radius and towered hundreds of meters tall, making them looming giants overhead.

  As we searched the forest we came across several small game animals. Akira was quick on the draw, pegging the majority of them with a nightbolt before the rest of the guardsman knew what'd happened. I had one of the guardsman keep the carcasses in their inventory to cook later.

  Lagging a decent distance behind us, by request of the other guardsman were Marks undead goblins. He was able to raise 10 at his current level, but he said that would increase as he grew stronger. Alas, even if I seen the utility of his undead, most of the villagers and guardsman were very unsettled by them. So he politely kept them at a distance. We walked for a while more but other than the small game we didn't find anything.

  We looped back around to the village making the first hunting party rather uneventful. Shortly after we arrived, though, Cheryl came up to me.

  "Sir do you have a moment to talk?"

  I turned towards her "Sure thing Cheryl, what's up?"

  "The pass... Well I guess now its the villagers have brought up a concern. While you were waving your magic wand or whatever making these buildings, you left out a crucial part."

  I furrowed my brow. "I... I did?"

  She nodded. "Yes sir, while these long houses are nice for staying out of the elements, they don't have a bathroom."

  I barked a laugh. "Yea I suppose that is a bit of an oversight. I'll take care of it now."

  I walked over to the pillar interacting with it until my vision transitioned into construction interface mode. Glancing at the mana I seen that there was just under 390 available. Ok so the 500 regeneration per day was a constant not all at once. Looks like I get just under 21 mana an hour. Good to know.

  Glancing through the tabs I found that there were restrooms, but they were under the infrastructure tab instead of being attached to other buildings. I suppose the village does kinda have a medieval feel. Maybe as buildings level up they'll get restrooms and other amenities. Oh well.

  I selected the latrine option.

  Wooden Latrine:

  Mana cost - 50 mana

  Simple wooden outhouse. Collects waist and creates fertilizer.

  As I went to place one, I seen that the latrines were small buildings that had 2 doors side by side. I put 3 off to one side of the long houses and confirmed my selection.

  My vision returned to my body and I walked over to the latrines as they were forming from the ground up. By the time I reached them they were fully formed, so I poked my head in one of the doors. It was quite spacious inside like one of the handicap stalls in restrooms before the integration. There was a mana torch on both the inside and outside walls and it smelled clean and fresh.

  I closed the door back nodding with approval as I walked away. Then I muttered under my breath. "better than most airports I've been to."

  We set out on the second hunting party later that day, and after several hours of searching Akira held up her hand motioning for us to stop, then waved me closer.

  "I think I may have found something. There are some tracks here that look similar to dear tracks. Though they are much larger and deeper. Meaning whatever made them was quite heavy."

  I nodded along trying to see what she was talking about about as she pointed towards the tracks. "That's a good sign then. It means we may have found one of the beast dens the quest was talking about."

  She straightened and started walking into some taller brush. "I agree. I will start following this trail then."

  I told the other guardsman what she'd found as we started walking again. Then we continued on for another half hour or so before Akira stoped us again. She indicated some movement far ahead of us, barely visible past the trees. There was definitely something there. From where we were though, there were to many trees to make out what it was.

  We all slowly made our way closer untill finally, we got a good view of the beast. I looked closer untill identify gave me a description.

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  The stag was a dear about the size of a large moose. It had a giant rack of antlers on its head glowing a deep red and it's fur was such a dark shade of brown it almost looked black. It stood there pawing at the ground gnawing on some underbrush.

  Behind it there were another couple dozen stags all with their heads down eating brush, oblivious to the guardsman only a couple hundred meters away. One of which was about one and a half times the size of the others.

  I turned to share a glance with Akira, then addressed the rest of the guardsman. "Looks like they're all about level 5, with one level 9 Alpha off to the side. This isn't going to be easy. We'll need to come up with a plan."

  Through the gaps in-between the massive trees, we could see the herd grazing in the clearing. Two dozen Ember Stags, with antlers glowing like the coils of a forge, stood in a relatively open section of forest. One of the monsters stood off to the side. The alpha. Its rack burned brighter than the rest, and I could practically feel the heat radiating from where I sat just 50 meters away.

  We stayed just far enough away that the herd couldn’t spot us. Sierra crouched low, preparing to sprint twords the stags. Greg was already palming one of his lightning orbs, faint sparks dancing across his knuckles.

  I cast my Cabin Pressurization spell on everyone in the party, leaving an almost invisible green soap bubble around everyone. It took a couple minutes because I had to wait on my mana to replenish more than once.

  After my mana toped off I glanced toward Mark, who was a ways away. The necromancer raised a brow and, with my nod of approval, sent his ten goblin corpses shambling forward. They stumbled and snarled, clattering bones and dragging rusted weapons as they moved in from the far side of the clearing. They didn’t need finesse, they just needed to be loud.

  The first stag lifted its head at the noise, then another. The alpha’s glowing rack turned slowly toward the sound, a molten crown in the dim forest. Perfect it's distracted.

  “Alright,” I whispered. “Greg and Jeffery, hit the center. Akira, take the outer stag on the left. Reyna, Sierra, be ready for anything that comes through. I’ll focus on the alpha.”

  The goblins burst through the brush like idiots, yelling in wet gurgles. The stags snorted and stomped, shifting their attention toward the distraction. Then Akira’s shadow bolt cut through the air, and buried itself in the chest of the outermost stag. It went down like a sack of bricks.

  Greg’s lightning bomb hit next. It exploded in a blinding white flash, arcing between several stags. They bellowed, stumbling back. Then Jeffery’s fireballs roared through the clearing, bursting next to a stag in a plume of flame and dirt. The herd jerked into full alert, chaos rippling through them like a wave.

  I tightened my hand around the familiar wood of my staff. Mana pulsed through my veins, sharp and electric as I cast Arcane Squadron.

  Emerald green airplanes weaved between tree trunks like hunting falcons before slamming into the alpha’s chest in a chain of explosions. The beast roared, antlers flaring like a furnace.

  “Here they come!” Sierra barked.

  The alpha threw its head back and fired a lance of flame from its antlers. It carved through the forest like a lightsaber, splintering bark and igniting dry leaves. My Cabin Pressurization flared to life around a couple guardsman, catching the edge of the beam in a rippling green shimmer. The impact left cracks but the barrier held.

  More fire beams crisscrossed the clearing as the herd retaliated. Most went wide, hitting trees and goblins. Two goblins evaporated in bursts of flame, but they’d already done their job. Half the herd had charged at them, not us.

  “Akira, alpha’s open!” I called.

  “On it.” She starting loosing more bolts that joined my stream of squadrons. One bolt hitting the alpha's eye Drawing a howl of pain.

  Three younger stags broke from the left flank, heads down and antlers glowing. Reyna met them head-on. Her chains snapped out, wrapping around the lead stag’s front legs. She spun, yanking with brutal force. The beast stumbled sideways, crashing into its companions. A heartbeat later Sierra slammed into them as well, rock armor cracking under the impact but holding. Two stags went down. One bolted.

  “Dean!” Greg shouted.

  The alpha was charging straight for me.

  I pushed more mana into Arcane Squadron. A half-dozen planes materialized around me in a tight halo, before streaking forward with a high-pitched whine. They slammed into the alpha’s chest and shoulders, each impact peeling away burned flesh and blackened fur but It didn’t stop. It lowered its rack, eyes blazing.

  “Reyna!” I yelled.

  She pivoted, her chains whipping out again, this time snaring the alpha’s front legs. She braced against a tree and pulled. The stag stumbled, lost its balance, and skidded to the ground in a shower of sparks.

  Sierra was already moving. She jumped, rock armor grinding like stone on stone, and drove her fists straight into the stag’s neck and side Breaking bone. Then it bucked standing back up.

  Siera fell back as Akira sent a final shot piercing the same eye as earlier cleanly.

  The alpha shuddered, then collapsed with a ground-shaking thud.

  The rest of the herd froze for a moment and then broke. Half scattered into the woods. A few turned to fight, but without the alpha’s direction, their movements were disorganized and frantic.

  Reyna and Sierra tore through the flankers. My planes hunted down stragglers. Fire and lightning lit up the forest like a storm in a forge.

  Finally the last stag hit the dirt, as smoke curled through the clearing. The trees were scorched, the ground blackened, but we were still standing.

  Sierra leaned against a trunk, armor crumbling away in chunks of rock. “Well,” she panted. “That was fun.”

  Jeffery laughed, tossing a fireball into the air before letting it fizzle out. “looks like venison's on the menu for tonight."

  Then a smoking tattered stag, half on on fire, rounded a tree making everyone jump back and ready their attacks before we noticed Mark sitting on top waving with a grin. "Check out my new ride. This things smokin hot."

  I looked up at the necromancer. "Your jokes are bad and you should feel bad."

  Then I turned to the rest of the guardsmen. "Now comes the best part. Levels."