Records of Rebirth

When it came to collaborating with each other, Artemis's team was the least efficient out of all the others.

As it tends to happen when there were more than one strong voice in a party, the role of 'captain' that was originally Artemis's was openly being contested by the unruly spaded snake.

This was in part Artemis's fault.

Although he received clear instructions to lead his team to hunt. Once outside, he became in awe of everything new he could find. The many monsters interested him, as did the plants and the many mysteries they contained.

Thus far, he was far more interested in studying the natural ecology of the environment and seeing how the plants and monsters interacted. He had already learnt plenty from experiencing their leaders' venom and he now wished to study those effects in other creatures.

His keen insight naturally took on an interest in studying the various venoms of the plants around him and observing their effects on the monsters to establish natural patterns he could exploit. 

Although Artemis was rather stoic in nature, he was actually a good Captain. So far he had looked after his team and prevented them from harm.

However, much like a new captain, he failed to take the opinions of his team members into account and had led them solely defined by his own interests. 

He would replace a particular plant he had seen a creature eat, with the various plants or mushrooms he already established as poisonous. Then he would wait patiently, just to see how long it would take for said creature to succumb to the poison after consumption.

His team hadn't fought him on anything so far because his methods were all well thought out and organised, and none of them had come to harm.

But rather than hunting, a great deal of time had been spent stalking various creatures – not to attack, but for Artemis to indulge in his research. And this led to many heated exchanges between himself and the spaded snake.

Their efforts weren't completely fruitless however, occasionally his attention would switch to focusing on studying the effect of the venoms of each snake on his team, to differentiate between the time of death for each creature they bit in relation to their size.

So far, his venom was the most potent, followed closely by the spaded snake and finally Europa. The difference, he recognised to be the result of his [Poison Fang] being at LV7, while Europa's was still at LV4.

Since he did not know the spaded snake's stats, he concluded she must be somewhere in between. His team was mostly okay with this hunting tactic, because it earned them a free meal. But these kills were tiny in comparison to those of plant poisons.

And so, after Artemis let yet another creature perish to test out another mysterious plant, the spaded snake reached her limit. Contrary to expectations, she was actually willing to follow their leader's command and hunt, and she had followed Artemis's instructions quietly until now, but she was beyond bored!

They hid in the bushes, observing yet another creature move towards the poison trap Artemis had set. Rather than letting poisonous plants do the work, she was more interested in doing the killing herself. Or at least as a team!

The sneaking around was too much for her to understand and she wasn't interested in plants or what creatures ate.

[How long are we going to do this!] The spaded snake complained, for the nth time. [This is the tenth one!]

She wanted to go out into the grassy fields where there were plenty of large creatures to hunt. She had even spotted some spiderlings earlier and was eager to test her strength, but Artemis had forced her to stay with the group.

[Knowledge takes practice to obtain.] Artemis calmly replied. [I wouldn't expect a meat head like yourself to understand.]

[Meathead?!] The spaded snake screeched in anger. Although she didn't know what he meant, his tone was enough to make her offended. [I'm done with this! Let's fight right now. If I win, I'm the new Captain!]

Artemis scoffed. [What would I gain by fighting you? I'm already the Captain. Unless you offer me something similar in exchange, I see no point in this.]

[You weakling!] The spaded snake gasped in disbelief.

[Insults won't strengthen your argument.] Artemis sneered. [They only make them weak, and make you look stupid.]

The spaded snake was taken aback at his words, and with her pride wounded she was determined to give him a beating. However, Europa moved to intercept her attack, coming between the two snakes.

[No fighting. We have to come up with a solution everyone can agree to.]

As neither could decide on where to go or what to do. Europa had taken the initiative to force them to compromise.

[And how do you suggest we do that?] The spaded snake snapped.

Europa was thoughtful, but then he looked at the remaining two members of the team, the male and female snakes who had both been relegated to a mere workforce. Like them, he was also troubled as he had been unable to practice his healing skills at all.

[Why not see what everyone else thinks? Those that agree with spade should say so and those that agree with Captain should also say so.]

The spaded snake looked confused.

[A majority vote?] Artemis mused.

Europa nodded and the other two snakes perked up, happy to finally be given a voice.

They immediately started moving and Europa could see their eyes heading towards the spaded snake, so he added a quick warning before things became chaotic.

[No one is allowed to fight if they lose.]

[Fine. I agree.] Artemis was filled with confidence.

However in the end, it was only Europa who sided with him, to his surprise. The other two snakes went with the spaded snake and with her vote, it counted as three against two. However, Artemis would not allow it.

[Alright, we can do what you want for now, but after that it's back to the usual.] he said.

[You agreed not to take it back!] The spaded snake was fuming and rightfully so. Artemis on the other hand did not see anything wrong with what he said. To him, Captain's were decided by their leader alone, hence the vote was null regardless of the result.

[I'm the captain. That won't change because of some flimsy vote.]

[Hah! Don't be a sore loser. I won fairly!]

Europa sighed.

When he suggested a compromise this wasn't what he had in mind. At this rate, the team was going to split in half. What if they went off to hunt and encountered something they couldn't take on?

If that happened, since he chose Artemis the spaded snake would be without a healer and he didn't know if she would survive without him on their side. 

[Do you know where to go? Or how to get back?] Artemis raised his voice at her. [You as a Captain will run this team to their deaths.] 

He wasn't wrong. The spaded snake had no idea how to track their location back home, nor could she properly decide on where they could go to find suitable prey. She was only interested in killing something because of her boredom.

[Like you haven't already done that! We haven't improved much at all!] She retorted.

Unbeknownst to their leader's approach, they had devolved into bickering. Europa looked at the two snakes, each refusing to give in to the other. Like him, the remaining team members were also split on who to follow.

He was fine continuing studying poisons with Artemis because it increased his knowledge on what symptoms to heal, but he also wanted to hunt, though not under the spaded snake's reckless leadership. 

So while the two bickered, he went wandering to search for a good alternative. And this made him notice a rather unusual forest.

It wasn't unusual in the sense that it was dangerous, rather it was the opposite. It was completely devoid of large predators and was instead filled with numerous kinds of small, colourful winged creatures and birds, that were just perfect for a couple of snakes to hunt. 

It was lush with life and filled with all kinds of unusual things. All of its trees were covered in green moss as was the ground, and here was a travelling network of roots and vines that covered the sand, making it very soft to slither over. The trees were also rather strange, Europa could spot many brightly coloured objects of unusual shapes growing on them – a stark contrast to the other forests they encountered that grew nothing.

Many docile creatures traversed its mossy roots, attracted towards the unusual plants growing there which they ate, and Europa was drawn towards them as well. 

It was perfect! The forest contained the two things his team needed, creatures to hunt as well as unusual plants to study. 

The unusual thing about the forest, however, was that he recalled passing the area with his team members prior to this. At the time, the area looked very different. There was no moss covering the trees, and neither were there any vines scattered on the ground. But now, the green moss covered almost every tree he could find.

Still, as strange as the forest appeared to be, it was worth reporting back to his Captain.

And so Europa rushed back to his group to tell them what he had found.

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