Chapter 12

“This map is shit!” Nix burst out. She stood over Ciara, who was resting on her haunches in a way that made my knees hurt.

Ciara’s matted hair hung over her form, nearly obscuring the map.

I hung back, because… well, they were maps. What the hell would I know? If it wasn’t a navigation app, it wasn’t going to do me any good. We’d been walking for an hour and a half now, and had yet to spot any enemies to attack. We’d seen Collectors hard at work on extracting resources from the ground, bushes, even chopping down the occasional scrawny tree. Three times now, we’d also seen other groups in combat with beasts of different kinds. But we’d spotted nothing that we could claim for ourselves. Except for my very first skill.

You have earned a new general skill:

Endurance

Passive skill

You are no stranger to toil or long hours watching your stamina slowly drain. Every level in Endurance will marginally reduce the stamina consumed by non-talent use.

All of us had gotten it at this point. Only, for me, it would have a fifty percent increase, making my life comparably easier. I looked forward to all of us getting it a bit higher – especially Nix, who was slowing us down, complaining at the pace.

Honestly, I’d expected Elio to be the slowpoke of the group, but he soldiered on, one hand on Ciara’s arm, with no complaints. Meanwhile, Nix was complaining about everything. Being out of breath. Her shoes. The mud. How we were practically running. At one point, Haddock even carried her for a while.

After a brief moment of silence, Ciara grimaced. “No. The map is decent. The issue is the competition.”

Elio added, from behind. “Ciara is right. It is only logical.”

Nix snorted. “What’re you on about, Gramps? You can’t even see the map?”

“Is a modicum of cordiality too much to ask? I do not demean you when I address you, do I?”

“Except when you act like I’m a piece of gum stuck under your shoe… but okay, di Fiore. What do you mean?”

“We are undergoing the largest civilian exodus since the Age of Discovery, when Europe aimed to take over the Americas. Yes, the issue of the positioning of Portal Home back on Earth as well as the bickering for positioning and favoured access slows the process down somewhat, as does the mortality rate among our kind. Yet, we are as ants, having discovered a picnic blanket filled with sweet treasures. As such, any maps will become rapidly outdated, any information targeted by dozens of groups the moment it is returned to camp. The competition will only increase.”

“Well… okay.” Nix grimaced. “What should we do then?”

“What they did back then, of course.” I grinned, adding my two cents. I’d been mentally prepared for this anyway. “Go in blind. No offense, mate. We aim for one of those blank spots on the map. Hope we don’t stumble onto monsters that are bigger and meaner than us.”

For a second, the world was put on pause, as yet another one of those not-screams tore through everything.

I shared a glance with Haddock, who shuddred.

Elio bared his teeth, but ignored it, like most other things he didn’t care for. “Just so.” Elio added with a lazy wave at me. “We do not wait around for the leftovers from others. We go out there and pave our own way. Unless you would rather build a castle first, and hope the enemies come to us?”

Nix stared at him, loathing unhidden in her expression. “Just try to keep up, Gramps.”

An hour later, we were staring out at… something. I wasn’t quite sure what. We’d crossed an uneventful stretch of mud and tired grassland. Ciara and her impressive Perception insisted that the far reaches held tons of wildlife that the rest of us couldn’t see, including several bipedal figures. She said she thought they were all human. But now, we’d found something.

Before us lay a watering hole. At least, that’s what I’d have called it if I spotted it in a wildlife documentary. Only, where those silver and black capillary-like things usually stretched in random directions, here one of them circled the entire way around the watering hold, before grasping on to itself.

“Anybody know what those blood vessel thingies do?” I asked. “Besides looking like they’ll come alive and make you relive some tentacle horror nightmare, of course.”

“Blood vessel thingies.” Elio’s face scrounged up in distaste. “Ciara, please inform him what you were told.”

She grimaced. “Good news? While they look horrid, especially with their unknown origin within that far-off canyon, they’re inert. Bad news is, they’re not entirely dead. Some life Mage, whatever that is, reported he could feel the residue of life within. Also, those tremors that mess with our heads? That’s where they come from.”

I shared a look, first with her, then with Nix and Haddock. “Did we just cross over into Cthulhu territory? Sure feels like it.”

“Not likely. They’re petrified, or close enough. Apparently, some Collectors mine materials from the capillaries.” Ciara’s otherwise passive face shivered in distaste.

“Okay. Okay. We’re going to act like those things definitely aren’t going to wake up and try to slaughter us all. But then what the hell are those?” I pointed at a bunch of vividly coloured growths attached to the tentacle-like things.

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“They.” Ciara said, and got up. She started windmilling her arms, and cracked her neck. “Are prospective targets. Core Leechers, apparently. Levels 4 through 12. Try to look at them more closely.”

I squinted at the tiny, red-and-black striped things. Again, my imperfect eyesight wasn’t doing me any favours here. At this distance, they looked like oversized cabbages with legs who’d decided that the Mad Max colour scheme was the best sort of camouflage.

Suddenly, a notification emerged.

You have earned a new general skill:

Identify

With enough care and practice, you will never be taken by surprise by your surroundings. Every level in Identify will improve the chance you have for earning information about others, monsters and people alike.

In addition to the skill, another descriptor appeared.