Kerii left the scene of the fallen tree-like stalk and couldn't help but wonder what was going on. Like the curious person she was, she immediately hit the library and cracked open a book on nature magic. She had never found the need to research it before, as she had only ever possessed magic of the wind element, and she didn't think she would find the need to research it until later in life, but here she was. Kerii wasn't entirely sure what she would discover, or even if anything she read about nature magic would help, but it was worth a shot. After a couple hours of skimming through pages in hopes of catching a glimpse of something to her benefit, nothing even remotely close to a magical tree growing into the sky with harmful sap showed up. Shocker. It was almost as if the incident wasn't common enough to include in Orchidia's library books. Kerii highly doubted that she would find her answers there. If she wanted to know what was going on, she had to be on the lookout for that request like Inspector Nilan said.

After leaving the library, Kerii made sure to get to bed early so that she would awake early and hustle on over to the request board, and, well, that could've gone a little better for her. Instead of falling asleep as soon as she could, Kerii's mind kept her up late obsessing over countless theories. It wasn't until a little past 12:00 AM until the finally managed to fall asleep, only to have to wake up at 5:00 AM if she wanted to get ready in time to be one of the first ones to the request board. The first thing she did when she woke up, was brew a ton of coffee. After getting dressed and drinking her coffee, she was essentially running on five hours of sleep, sugar, and caffeine, which was good enough for Kerii. If it got her through the day, that's all that mattered.

Kerii went straight towards the request board, and was relieved to see that nobody else was crowded around it. She looked frantically at it, desperate to find a quest from Inspector Nilan. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw his name on one of them. She tore it off the board and began to read it. Once again, he needed help with the whole beanstalk situation. This time, he wanted to be met along the outskirts of the Orchidia Forest. She wondered what in his investigation led him all the way over there, and would soon find out. Upon arrival, she could see a Inspector Nilan among a group of bickering scientists. From where she was standing, she couldn't quite make out what anyone was saying, but it didn't seem like the conversation was very productive. She heard them progressively raise their voices and make grander hand gestures. Whatever was going on, they needed to work it out. She could see why Inspector Nilan wanted someone's help with this.

WC: 511/1000

As Kerii drew closer to the crowd of scientists and whoever else Inspector Nilan had tag along, she could finally make out what exactly they were arguing about. Each person was proposing a different theory. Kerii could only catch bits and pieces of them, so she couldn't confidently state which one she agreed with. In fact, she didn't even know if the scientists understood each other's theories, but it didn't matter at this point. They were so fumed, if someone tried to be reasonable, everyone would find fault in it. When Inspector Nilan finally saw Kerii approaching, he raised his voice to quiet them down. "I apologize for that. Those scientists were just debating some hypotheses. Though they're all different, they have all have at least came to the consensus that before any conclusions can be drawn, more samples are needed. How well do you know these forests?" Inspector Nilan asked, hoping she could help out. "Pretty well. Why do you ask?" "Okay good. I need you to take samples of anything that seems out of the ordinary, especially any flora that is in any way off. If you even have a slight suspicion that it could be related to the beanstalk, we need a sample of it." "Got it." "Alright, then go into the forest and get us some samples."

Once Kerii entered with the various tools the Inspector Nilan gave her, she heard the arguing resume. Shaking her head, she went further into the forest. At first, early on, nothing seemed strange. But then, once she went deeper, she started to see things she swore she didn't when she camped out. Glowing mushrooms in the day? Sticky algae on dry rocks? Vines coated in a similar colored sap as the beanstalk? Clearly, something was going on, and Kerii took a sample of each thing she found suspicious. Although it seemed like it was at first, that beanstalk was clearly not an isolated incident. She wondered what kind of evidence popped up that made the scientists think otherwise.

As the elf searched for more oddities, she began to feel rather fatigued. At first she thought it was the caffeine wearing off, but then it felt too profound to be solely that. Maybe she was going too deep into the forest, getting too close to the strange plants. Maybe if they were all concentrated in one place, you didn't have to touch it anymore to get sick. Whatever the cause, Kerii knew she had to get out before any worse symptoms could set in. She hurried out of the forest with a variety of samples and explained what she felt while in the forest. Inspector Nilan seemed a bit concerned at first, but Kerii reassured him that she was fine. In fact, after a few moments of being out of the woods, she already felt some energy returning to her. Inspector Nilan took the samples she gathered and in exchange for them, gave Kerii her reward. He once again hinted on potentially requiring more help. She needed to see where this would take her.

WC: 514+511=1025/1000