"How did it go, boss?" James asked once Isaac returned from his short trip back to the Safe Zone. "All good?"

Isaac nodded. "Told Daryl everything we have seen so far. How do they use that information?" He shrugged. "Well, that's on them. We have to move out. You ready?"

"Not yet!" Marie called, stepping up with a small bag in hand. "That's all we managed to gather after the corpses disappeared."

He took the offered bag and glanced inside, his eyes widening as he did. "Huh… That's a lot more than I expected," he muttered, easily counting over two dozen Inferior Virality Gems. "To get this much from Wretched…"

"We would have to kill double—or triple—the number," Elaine finished. "Yeah, we already talked about it. With Integration officially underway, it looks like the drop rate is just better."

Isaac hummed, nodding. That sounded about right. It would also explain how Hosts were supposed to balance the steady growth of their Virus and buying an occasional item or two from the Nexus shop. A pleasant surprise, all things considered.

"Split it between you and Elaine," he said, handing the bag back to Marie. "You two need to get your Virus Stage at least to James' level. And no arguing, Inferior gems barely do anything for me anymore. I can wait."

It wasn't just generosity—he meant it. On the way back to Galt, they had killed enough Wretched to get at least a couple of Inferior Virality Gems. He had used two of them, hoping that maybe they would push him over the edge. Yet they had done next to nothing.

Instead of a steady trickle of power into his Virus, those two gems felt like drops of water added to a large lake. Almost unnoticeable.

So yeah, he could afford to wait for better loot.

With a nod from James, Marie, and Elaine each took their share, with the first woman taking a few more. After all, she was the only one still stuck at the first stage of the Virus. However, that was solved with this bag of gems. She must have been close to advancing. Now, she just had to wait for the process to finish.

"Now, are we good to go?" Isaac asked again.

This time, everybody nodded, and they all moved further south. At the very least, compasses still worked, so their odds of finding LA weren't that horrible. Besides, even if they got lost, they just had to reach the coast and go from there. His Legacy form should be quite helpful, too.

That said, Los Angeles was still far, far away. First, they had to get out of this creepy forest and figure out what awaited them beyond it.

No biggie. All in a day's of wo—

A sudden squelch coming from underneath him made him freeze. He signaled a quick stop and made another step, earning a similar sound in return. Unfortunately, at this point, the fog had thickened, making it almost impossible to see the ground.

Which was why he backed off and raised his leg to check for damage.

"Eww." Elaine gagged, stepping away from him. "What the hell is this? It smells worse than a burned corpse."

Isaac grimaced, too, eyeing the green-red sludge smeared over his sole. There were remnants of something else scattered in the mix, too, but most of what he could see was just the disgusting and smelly goo.

"Looks like you stepped on a bug," James commented, sounding more curious than disgusted. "A very large bug… Let me."

"No, wait!" Elaine cut in. "Let me try something first."

Just like that, they all stepped back, giving the woman some room to work with. Not that she needed it. A fist-sized orb of light formed in her raised hand, pulsing softly. At her nod, they all averted their gaze.

A moment later, a small explosion went off a bit away from them. The wave of heat hit them first, but what followed next was ten times worse than the stench from a moment ago.

Isaac coughed, doubling over as the foul air filled his lungs. He tried to push it out of his body, but it didn't work. And going by the sounds around him, his team wasn't faring any better.

"That… was…a… horrible…idea!" Marie choked out between coughs.

"You don't say!" Elaine shot back.

Still trying to ignore the stench—some unholy blend of rot, burned flesh, and death—Isaac looked toward the blast zone. To his surprise, the fog had cleared from that area.

Bugs… James was right…

While there wasn't much left on the ground after the explosion, he still spotted the remnants of some green worms twice the size of his fingers. A few more even skittered out of the fog and began feasting on their fallen kin.

"Elaine!" he shouted, gesturing to the worms. "What are they called?"

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"What?" She followed his gaze and groaned. "Oh… Rotgrubs. All level ones." She coughed. "Dear god, the smell…"

Isaac didn't need more convincing. He signaled for the team to move, and they broke into a light jog, hoping to put some distance between them and the burned worms. The smell clung to them for a while, and not even a group of Barkspawns was enough to make them stop. They became collateral damage after James had transformed into his Legacy form and crushed everything in his path.

A minute or two into their run, the smell finally vanished. They all stopped and breathed in the fresh air of the forest.

"Let's not do that ever again," Marie said, a bubble of water covering her nose. Whether it helped or not, Isaac couldn't tell.

"Agreed." James nodded. "I didn't even know worms could smell that bad when burned."

"Sorry," Elaine winced. "But in my defense, at least now we know what those things are. Small wins, right?"

Based on the looks she was getting from the other two, they didn't really agree. That said, in Isaac's opinion, they all had no room to complain. They allowed her to proceed with her plan. And besides, hindsight was twenty-twenty, as they said.

"At least we learned our lesson," he spoke up. "Let's just avoid burning Rotgrubs from now on."

Elaine ducked her head, still a bit embarrassed, but nodded with the others. Isaac sighed.

"Good… James, up front. No more stopping."

The older man mock-saluted and transformed again. And just like that, they were back on track.

This looks familiar, Isaac thought as he scanned the vast creation sprawled before him.

It was a tangled mess of roots, branches, and who-knew-what-else, all woven together to form walls so thick there was no seeing beyond them. Even better, they were half as high as the massive trees around him and stretched so far in both directions that even his enhanced vision couldn't find the ends through the dense forest.

Then there was the notification that appeared when he and his team reached the walls.

Warning! You're approaching a monster nest of the Rotborne Woods. Destroy the core living inside the guardian of this instance to neutralize it. Note: As this is your first encounter with a nest, the Interface has prepared a short guide for you.

That last line was unexpected. The Interface wasn't in the habit of hiding information, but it also rarely handed things out for free. Yet here they were.

Still, there was one big problem with this entire notification. A problem that rooted all of them except Marie in place.

Guardian.

Isaac took a steady breath. He wasn't scared, not exactly, but the sight of dozens of bodies and people dying left and right was still fresh in his mind. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since the fight with the Minotaur. And now… this.

"Guys…" Marie's voice snapped him and the others back to reality. "I don't know what you're feeling right now, but this is just a starting area. There is no way the Guardian here is anywhere as dangerous as the one you fought last time, right? Just think about it. Read the guide. There is no mention of the Broken Realm there."

She had a point. Isaac nodded and summoned the Interface's guide.

[Monster nests or villages - Common instances that occasionally form in the wilds of every Integrated world. Due to the stronger presence of the Broken Strain, these territories allow monsters to multiply and reproduce faster. Always protected by a single guardian—a champion. If given enough time, a nest may develop into a Dark Pit.]

As Marie said, there was no mention of the Broken Realm. And from the sound of it, nests were nowhere as dangerous as he had thought. This Dark Pit, though, now that was something to look out for.

Isaac sighed.

"All right, let's take it slow then," he announced, breaking the silence. "Look around. Try to find some gaps in the roots. I will check from above, see if there's an opening up top."

While the two women nodded right away, James needed a nudge to give a half-hearted reply. No one could fault him for that. The fight with the Minotaur hit him the hardest.

Still, there was no time to waste. Isaac transformed and shot skyward, quickly reaching the top of the wooden wall. Despite that, there was nothing there for him to see. This place was sealed tight. That said, at least now he realized just how big this nest was. It stretched on and on in almost every direction.

Will be a pain to find an entrance…

Isaac was right; finding an entrance to the nest was a massive pain. Sure, they could have just left this place alone and been on their merry way, but in a unanimous vote, they decided that it was better to learn more about it now than later. This was the starting area, after all.

"We can split up," Marie suggested as they stood in the entrance—a wide arch filled with glowing moss. "Go in pairs."

Why such a proposition?

Because in true "new world" fashion, this entrance offered them two paths forward, one going left, the other right. And given how massive this place looked from above, leaving one side unexplored didn't seem like the smartest move.

"Fine," Isaac agreed. "But if you find the guardian, don't engage. Wait for everyone to arrive. We have two radios, so use them."

"If they even work inside," Elaine muttered under her breath.

Isaac ignored her and continued. "Also, teams?"

"Ari is with me," James announced instantly, giving the woman his best pleading look. "Please?"

Marie rolled her eyes and sighed. "Yeah, yeah, you oaf. I will go with you." She reached into her backpack and took out their spare radio. "Here you go."

Isaac accepted the device and clipped it to his belt. Afterward, they all stepped into the nest. "Good luck and stay safe," he said and headed down the right corridor, Elaine following after him.

"Place is even creepier than the outside," she muttered.

He nodded as the Root landed in his hand. Unlike in the forest, here the fog reached all the way to his waist, though at the very least it wasn't as thick. Still, if not for the glowing moss growing along the walls and ceiling, only he would be able to see anything.

"Some music would be nice," Isaac commented to keep the conversation going.

Elaine snorted. "What? Like a background soundtrack?"

He shrugged. "Why not? Better that than silence."

"I guess…" she muttered. "For a nest, this place is pretty empty, no?"

Isaac hummed as they rounded a bend. Up ahead, he spotted a couple branches poking out of the fog in the middle of the corridor. Without hesitation, he summoned three Blood Daggers and let them sail forward.

[Barkspawn (LVL. 4) slain.]

The branches shattered, and the walls around came alive as Barkspawns began to emerge from them. One, two, five, over a dozen.

Isaac shot Elaine a wry smile. "Empty, huh?"

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