The moment the detritus surrounding them, and covering much of the visible area, was launched in the air in an awesome explosion, the team moved with lightning speed.

Katie was at the forefront of the team, each and every spike on her gruesome armor glistening with eldritch energy, while also somehow vibrating, causing a mild illusion of even more spikes appearing, ready to receive whatever attack the true boss monster of the fracture would send their way.

Isabella and Sam were a step behind, weapons ready, looking to the sides slightly, just in case the monster would attack from those directions. Isabella was slightly humming and moving rhythmically, sending out pulses of buffs, covering the party while Sam was ready to weave the void into a beam of destruction at a moment's notice.

'I can't let Dan have the biggest laser beam…' he thought humorously, while focusing his magical senses at the monster. He thought about acting surprised at the reveal, but he didn't think even Katie would pretend to believe him.

Dan was also there, taking deep breaths, while fire began to swirl around the team, surrounding them at the level of their ankles, seemingly like a snake patrolling its territory, ready to lash out at any invader.

Clarissa, as usual, cool as a cucumber, went through her pre-boss buff list, made sure everyone was topped up in the health department, and cast a shield covering the party, made out of hexagons joined at the edges.

"Heh, hexagons…" Sam exclaimed.

"""…are the bestagons!""" Dan, Isabella, and Katie replied in unison with a grin on their faces. Clarissa just pretended she didn't mouth it with them.

The team ready, they watched as the cloud of dust cleared out – with Sam helping it along – and giant roots, like tentacles, burst from the ground, spiraling in the air, waving together in a dance of madness and pure rage, as it began to take a rather odd shape.

Granted, they could have rained down doom on poor boss monster the moment it revealed itself, but the team silently agreed to let it finish the transformation sequence. On one hand, it was the proper thing to do; on the other hand, it looked freaking cool.

The thick roots swirled and weaved around each other, first creating a frame that quickly filled out, revealing a quadruped skeleton that quickly began to gain even thicker muscles that wound themselves around the previously arranged skeleton, creating a fearsome visage.

Then some thick wooden scales crawled up, like it was growing on it with moss peaking out here and there, finally the entire frame shuddered as it came truly alive and let out a fearsome roar.

RAAAAAAAAWR

A long neck, covered in wooden scales, with moss-as-fur neck cover, and seven beady eyes – one big one, and six smaller around it in a circle – all trained on Sam and his team. It radiated a desire to consume and destroy.

Dan let out a whistle. "Dang, that's a big one!" The wooden dragon, or at least something that looked like one sans the wings, was around twenty feet high and long enough that its tail was hidden behind its bulky wooden body.

RAAAAAWR

THUD

The monster let out another roar and took a massive, earth-shaking step forward, claws out and ready to rend them into pieces.

"It's a pity it's made of wood…" Sam mentioned casually as he raised a hand, palm facing toward the approaching monster.

Katie let out a laugh that one could charitably call hyena-like like and her greatsword, which was probably at least a whisper away from a war crime, burst into black flames. Black flames that somehow radiated cold.

The fire surrounding them swelled as Dan channeled more mana into it, and Sam did a last check before speaking up casually.

"Fire…"

One would say that the monster recognized the danger it was in, and did some miraculous or even fiendish magic that allowed it to defend against beams of nothingness and plasma, bolts of fire, and many more spells, or even evade them and counterattack and show the team that they still had somewhere to improve. Who, in turn, could recoup, then come together as a team, and defeat this menace.

Alas, as Sam beheld four sizzling legs, which were already slowly falling apart, that doesn't happen when you come prepared for a fracture like this.

Walking closer, he reached down and picked up one of the drops from the boss. It was a moss-covered book with a tangled root stitched on the cover.

A quick identification later, he shared what he had found with the team.

[Book of Uncontrollable Growth: Allows you to learn and perform the spell Uncontrollable Growth!]

[Uncontrollable Growth: Level 0/100 (0%) (Active) Gathering the natural energies of an area, you agitate the mana and unleash an uncontrollable growth in the local fauna, turning every leaf, blade of grass, and tree into a berserker, intent on devouring everything alive or moving. This includes you, so we recommend running. Or a lot of fire.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Group spell: The spell is a group spell, requiring several mages to work together to cast it. When casting alone, the caster receives several penalties, and the casting time and cost are increased accordingly.]

Another group spell, not the best one on account of friendly fire, but strategically used, it could devastate a lot of armies.

They all looked down, and it was Isabella who spoke up first. "Plants don't have blood, right?"

All of their eyes widened, even Sam's, as they realized the implications. Clarissa's hand reached out with impressive speed, and the book soon vanished into green motes of light. She spent a few seconds reading and understanding the instructions before nodding.

"Doable," she finally declared, and the team let out a cheer. Sam joined, but his eyes were searching the group for something else. Something he was actually here. He ignored the lesser drops – reagents, actual junk, a few more skill books – before his eyes alighted on the item he wanted to get.

Quickly walking over, he picked up a gray orb with a rough surface and bland, gray color.

"What's that?" Katie asked inquisitively, looking over his shoulder.

Sam simply shared the description with everybody present.

[Orb of Parasite: The core of a parasite that preys on plants. Can be used for many different alchemical concoctions and rituals.]

"Huh… I had heard about it," Clarissa spoke up after reading the description. "It can be used to prevent crop-eating insects and bugs, and pests of all kinds. The Healer's Guild is always looking for it…"

As one, the entire team turned to Sam and stared at him. Nobody mentioned, but with the impending siege, that would be an invaluable item for the newly built town of Farabor.

He just smiled and raised his hand defensively. "What luck, huh?" He didn't tell them that the orb was a first kill reward for figuring out the fracture's secret, and getting more would be like winning the lottery. The stares, however, didn't abate. They just intensified…

Sam let out a sigh. "How about we run it a few more times? Maybe we can get more…"

And that's what they did.

After collecting the rest of the drops, they quickly left the fracture, spent a few minutes resting – mostly to avoid even more suspicion from the rest of the teams present – and returned to the fracture in a short while.

Now that they knew the secret, it was trivial for Sam with his wind magic and Dan with his absurd fire magic to whip up a plasma storm or two, completely devastating the forest, letting them skip the fight with the minion mobs, summoning the hidden boss almost instantly.

The second time, they also let it finish the transformation out of pity, but by the third time it surfaced, the team simply waited until most of its body resurfaced before unleashing an unfair amount of destruction on it.

Following that, they just did that, averaging a run every half an hour. Except for the one where Katie tried to ride the wooden dragon, which ended with the poor pseudo-dragon collapsing to the ground, breathing heavily, and its eyes begging for mercy, or one where they let their pets have a go at the boss monster.

Isabella's spirit even tried to take the wooden dragon's form, but it had proved too big a bite for the little familiar. Still, it managed to transform into a gigantic snake made of intertwined roots and covered with wooden scales, so Isabella was happy.

Unfortunately, no more orbs dropped or important skill books. Still, with the reagents they gathered, added to what the guild already had, Sam was pretty sure they would be able to perform the ritual to protect their crops even more.

After abusing poor boss monster, which at the last battle looked rather reluctant to leave the hole in the ground, though Sam suspected he was projecting, they decided that it was enough.

Another fracture waited for them…

They spent the rest of their time going to some popular fractures, some to experience them, some to collect some reagents, and some just to flex on people with their record-breaking clearing speed.

By the time they had finished the third fracture, the forums were already buzzing with the results. Naturally, it was paired with accusations of cheating and favoritism from the company.

Sam didn't really care… He was just happy that he managed to get back into the groove and in sync with the team after their time apart. They would need it soon…

Noting that it was time to leave, Sam bade them goodbye and left the game, promising another round after the servers opened.

Opening the pod, he climbed out slowly, making sure everything was alright and nothing was bleeding, broken, or turned into goo. Bravely ignoring how his hands shook, he was still glad to note that nothing unnatural happened to his body, so Sam went to perform his after-game ablutions and take a shower.

By the time he exited the shower, simple pants on him and toweling his hair, Lucy was already sitting on his sofa, screens all around her, and snacking on some deliciously smelling take-out boxes.

"Oh! Nice! Thanks for bringing food!" Sam threw the towel into the hamper, missed, and threw himself onto the sofa and reached for a piece of chicken. "Just what the doctor ordered…"

Lucy didn't say anything but nudged the container of his favorite dipping sauce closer while keeping an eye on the screens.

He was nomming on some delicious chicken tenders when Lucy spoke up. "Looked into your ritual. I'll have the druids do it tomorrow."

"Groovy…" he replied between two bites. The ritual wasn't something impressive, but it was rather rare and hard to find, and he wanted to stack the odds in their favor. He was pretty sure that the blood magic-slinging maniacs would try some biological warfare, so anything that prevented some of it was good in his eyes. "How is Farabor?"

"Almost ready. Lara reports that we're ready to open next week earliest."

"Capital! Still planning the press conference?"

"Why not?" Lucy shrugged, but Sam could feel the concentrated smugness radiating from her. "We're the first to set up a completely player-designed and built town. It's natural to capitalize on it…"

"Want me there?"

Lucy spent a few moments waffling about her answer before replying. "On one hand, everywhere you go, chaos follows. On the other hand, your presence alone would be enough to scare away several guilds that are planning to disrupt it."

Sam was the one who shrugged this time. "Just tell me the date and I'll be there… Or somewhere else creating distractions. Meanwhile, I'm planning to hit the fractures hard. I need a few more levels…"

Lucy sent him a queer look. "Why? You're already in the top 100…"

Sam grinned. "My Wisdom is awfully close to one hundred…"

"Oh boy… here we go again. What new manner of way are you trying to break the game?"

"Well…I'm glad you asked!" Sam replied before taking another piece of food. He dunked into the sauce then took a slow bite, savoring as the flavors mixed together. Finished with it, he cleaned his fingers and turned to Lucy. "Let me tell you about it…"

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