Elizabeth was at the fountain square at 08:00 with dark circles under her eyes and the specific energy of someone who had not slept and was not going to discuss why.

"You look like you’ve been hit by a truck," Liam said, glancing at her.

"Insomnia," Elizabeth said. "i was up thinking about planning please don’t worry about it."

Liam looked at her for a half-second with the expression of someone filing information under not his problem, and went back to checking his gauntlets for wear.

Rogue was already there, leaning against a stone pillar, tossing a dagger and catching it with the practised casualness of someone who had been working on looking cool since waking up.

Mirra was adjusting the straps on her thigh-high boots, the slit in her mage robes sitting at an angle that had already caused two passing low-level players to walk into a wall and one to walk into the fountain, and she had not adjusted it because it was hot and she had decided comfort was the priority.

"The gang’s all here," Rogue grinned, catching his blade. "Ready to kick some Lich teeth in? I heard the loot in the Catacombs is top-tier. I need a cloak that says ’dangerous’ and ’rich.’" "We aren’t going to the Catacombs yet," Liam grumbled, his voice cutting through Rogue’s posturing. "The Gardens, first, we are not fighting a boss on an empty stomach."

Spring found them before they could move, emerging from the market crowd with the slightly winded energy of a man who had been looking for them. He looked at the party, at Rogue’s sharpened blades and Mirra’s lethal grace and Liam’s sheer presence, and something fatherly and proud crossed his face.

"Hell," Spring said, "you look like a proper team. I remember when you were a toddler carrying a pot."

"Those were simpler times," Liam said.

"I have a favour," Spring said. "Not a quest, just a request. There’s a rare Taro Root in the deep mud of the Sunken Gardens. I’ve been trying to recreate my Taro Coffee for months, and everything in the market is garbage. If you find some, bring it back."

Liam’s eyes sharpened at the word taro with a visible internal conflict, his fingers twitching at his side while he did mental inventory calculations. "I’ll look," he said. "But I can’t promise I’ll bring it all back. The starch content is perfect for a mana-restoring glaze, and the party needs that more than you need coffee."

Spring laughed. Then his expression went somewhere more serious. "One more thing. There’s a hidden lake in the centre of those gardens. XP multipliers, healing properties that persist in the water for five minutes, the kind of thing that compresses a week of grinding into one swim. But nobody who’s gone looking for it has come back. Something guards it. Something fast."

"XP water and a hidden boss," Rogue said, his eyes going the shape of gold coins. "Say no more. I’m in they’re in and my intimidation stat is genuinely lagging, and I need the levels."

"Just don’t die," Spring said. "I still want that coffee."

The Sunken Gardens hit them with humidity the moment they stepped through the tree line, the air thick and warm and clinging to everything, the kind of heat that made armour feel like a poor decision and made light clothing feel like a reasonable one. Within five minutes of pushing through the dense ferns, everyone was regretting their gear choices except Liam, who was a wall of focused intent moving through the undergrowth like a bulldozer and had apparently decided that heat was not something that applied to him.

Mirra led the way, her staff sweeping vines out of the path, and every time she reached up to clear something overhead her mage robes did what mage robes do in tropical humidity, which was ride up in a way that made the slit sit significantly higher than its designed position, and the athletic line of her thighs caught the dappled light filtering through the canopy in a way that made Rogue walk into a tree.

"I’m fine," Rogue said, from the tree.

Elizabeth was not doing much better, her light leather armour doing nothing useful in the heat, her chest heaving with the effort of the terrain, her pink tail lashing back and forth with a life of its own and repeatedly brushing against Liam’s thigh as they pushed through the brush, which she was not doing on purpose but also had not moved away from.

He didn’t care about the heat, and Liam certainly didn’t notice that his party was basically turning into a swimsuit calendar.

Liam crouched, pressed his fingers into the earth, rubbed the soil between his fingertips with the focus of a man reading a very specific language. "Wrong composition," he muttered. "The basil needs shadow and decay we need to go lower."

"Like goth girls?" Rogue said, from behind a fern. "And can we go lower where there’s a breeze?" Rogue complained, wiping sweat from his forehead. He was lagging behind, mostly because he kept getting distracted by the way Mirra’s robes fluttered every time she jumped over a root. "I’m pretty sure my boots are melting, and I’m definitely seeing things pretty things and thigh-high things."

"Focus," Mirra said, not bothering to pull her hem down because she was too busy fanning herself with her free hand. "If Liam says lower, we go lower. I am not losing the legendary roast because you’re dehydrated and horny."

"I’m a man of many needs, Mirra! Loot and legs are at the top of the list!" Rogue shot back, grinning.

The slope down to the garden’s center was steep and muddy, and Liam took it the practical way, sitting back and letting his weight carry him through the silt in a controlled slide that carved a clear path. The party followed, and the result at the bottom was significantly less controlled.

Elizabeth went face-first into a patch of soft moss with her rear end up in the air, tail twitching frantically, which she became aware of approximately one second after landing and addressed by pulling herself upright with the dignity of someone pretending the last three seconds had not occurred. Mirra came down beside her with her robes in a state that made Rogue, who landed last.

"Critical hit," Rogue whispered, with genuine reverence. "I think I’ve reached enlightenment."

Liam was already on his feet. He was not looking at anyone. He was looking at a patch of deep, vibrant green tucked under the overhang of a glowing mushroom, leaves pulsing with a faint heat that pushed back the insects on the garden floor, and the expression on his face was the one he got when something had exceeded his expectations.

"Legendary Basil," he said, voice dropping into the register it used for significant discoveries. "Perfect condition. The aromatic oils are at peak concentration." He knelt, his hands moving with the careful precision he brought to anything worth keeping, harvesting each stem at the right angle, and behind him, Elizabeth and Mirra were dusting moss off themselves and fixing their gear, and Rogue was staring at the middle distance with the expression of a man who had seen something that had reorganised his internal rankings. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

[Verdant King’s Basil obtained — Legendary Grade.]

[Flavour Text: A herb so rare it only grows in soil enriched by the remains of failed adventurers. Scent: sharp, peppery, with a hint of I’m better than you.]

Liam stood, turned, looked at his party and the various states they were in, and said nothing about any of it because he had the basil and the mission objective was complete, and everything else was their business.

"We go deeper," he said, pocketing the herbs. "The lake is in the centre."

"Obviously," Rogue said, still in his enlightenment state. "Lead the way, Big Guy. I will follow you anywhere."

Something in the dark below them moved. Fast.

[Tool Tip]: Item: Verdant King’s Basil (Legendary Grade)]

Type: Tier-4 Alchemical Ingredient / Culinary Herb

Scent: Sharp, peppery, with a hint of "I’m better than you."

Description: A herb so rare it only grows in the Sunken Gardens, specifically in soil enriched by the decaying remains of failed adventurers. Its leaves are a deep, pulsating emerald, and it radiates a faint heat that wards off minor insect-type mobs.