As they continued to move rocks until midafternoon, Cyn was surprised that Cirrus did not make any more attempts to approach her and question about what he had seen happen with Donovan, nor did he appear to tell anyone about it. She felt both relieved, and suspicious, about his lack of action. Or perhaps it was just her innate discomfort around the man that made Cyn struggle to see Cirrus’s seeming cooperation as purely a good thing.

  Regardless, if it was a problem, it would be one for a later time. By midafternoon most of the raid party was exhausted from lugging around rocks and fighting the night before, necessitating a chance to rest before the sun set in case there was another Vampire incursion. Most just laid down in the grass and dirt, passing out quickly or using Meditate. Included in those passed out was Fish, who had left to rest near the others from the mage’s home world after Spam refused to leave its pocket to be fawned over. Cyn was a little surprised that her familiar had just outright refused to allow Fish to hold it, since the fat frog seemed to love being Pet, but Cyn chalked it up to the fact that Spam was still inexplicably unhappy.

  Not being tired herself, since carrying the rocks was boring but not strenuous, she briefly wandered over to Sam. Dana and Hex were still MIA, and Cyn wanted to check if the Berserker needed any more help before she worked on her personal to-do list. As she approached, Cyn saw Sam was working while talking with Mountain, the only other builder in the raid party. She could hear the Berserker attempting to teach the boy about legitimate construction techniques, all the while steadily shaping the mass of rocks into a solid wall. Cyn ended up as enraptured by Sam as Mountain was, albeit for different reasons. While he was greedily eating up the stream of information Sam provided, she was fascinated watching the process itself.

  She had seen Sam work stone a few times, in small amounts, but those instances were not nearly as dramatic as when he was working on a larger scale. The Berserker would lay his large hands on one of the rocks that been put in place, and after a few seconds it was as though the stone became liquid. The liquid-like stone would flow away from its original form in small streams, suspended in the air, before settling into its new shape and rapidly hardening. Because of the size and multitude of stones Sam had to build with, each one would only end up creating a kind of large brick, which he then had to adhere to each other using a similar process. It was infinitely faster than traditional building, and downright fascinating to watch.

  It did not take a lot of mental focus for the Berserker either, allowing him the opportunity to freely talk to Mountain and Cyn. After listening to a handful of the boy’s questions regarding building without the assistance of a profession, a topic she found a bit moot, Cyn could not help but step into the conversation herself. “Not to interrupt, but is there a point to learning any of that now? It seems like your skills would solve most of the problems for you.”

  Mountain looked sheepish, but Sam shook his head vigorously at her. “The skill does the hard work, but you still have to know how to make something that won’t collapse the moment you step on it. How to properly put the different parts together so they won’t break each other, and actually make something out of it. Magic isn’t holding this together for me. I just made a brick, without tools, and stuck them together, without grout. My skills are simple.” Sam paused, scratching his beard a moment. “If I had bigger chunks of rock, or if we were underground like back in Cogtopia, I might be able to make entire sections of wall out of a single piece, like a big brick. But I would still have to consider the structural integrity so it didn’t crumble. There might be ways to cheat it when I level up more, but not right now.”

  “The profession skills are pretty limited, like your mage skills from what Fish says. You can change little things, like sacrificing thickness for length in a material. Or making Mana Ball smaller. But you can’t use Mana Ball to make a Fireball, or make a wheel using a brick-making skill.” Mountain was clearly trying to be helpful, but unfortunately that logic just did not apply to Cyn. She probably could make her Light Ball into a Fireball instead, or any mana for that matter. As soon as she took the time to figure out how mana attunement worked. It wouldn’t technically be the same skill anymore, she supposed, but in general Hubris made everything Cyn did a ton more flexible.

  She got the point, though.

  “I see, I didn’t realize it was still so involved. Creature Handler is a bit more... nebulous. Every time I look at a profession skill being used to make something, it looks like it just works .”

  “Oh, really? My handgun worked so well, did it?” Dana’s voice was followed by a loud, carefree laugh as the Tactician approached Cyn from behind. She had felt the other woman approach, but not until she was quite close. Cyn would have to tweak her awareness to find the sweet spot to both not be overwhelmed, or snuck up on.

  Turning with a chuckle, she shrugged at Dana’s rhetorical question and responded, tone teasing. “I thought it worked great. As a stick of dynamite, that is.”

  That caused Dana to laugh even harder. “Yah, well... even dynamite isn’t supposed to go off while you are still holding onto it.” Stifling her laughter, she continued after looking around a moment. “I take it Hex isn’t back yet?”

  “I haven’t seen him since the two of you apparently ditched doing manual labor while I was Meditating.”

  Dana scoffed, gesturing for Cyn to follow her a little further away from Sam and Mountain. The pair had returned to their own conversation, and there was no reason for all of them to be in range to talk over one another. “I wasn’t ditching anything!” The Tacticians tone was not believable, but Cyn just rolled her eyes and let Dana continue, “We decided to split up scouting. Sure, a wall is a good start, but we need to get a handle on whatever is going on everywhere else on this floor too. Quickly.”

  “The raid already has maps of the floor, according to Scott.” Dana had led Cyn up the mound while she spoke. When they stopped near the Territory Heart, Cyn stopped to cross her arms and gave the other woman a reproachful look.

  A look that Dana clearly ignored, leaning in towards Cyn to speak softly. “These people tore themselves apart before we got here, and they have contradicting accounts of what happened.” Cyn had not heard more than one version of the story, but she did not think Dana was lying either. She had just not bothered to ask more questions about the days leading up to their arrival yet. “You can’t seriously think we can blindly trust whatever any of them tell us.”

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Of course not.” Cyn sighed. She might have defended the survivors more, if not for the feeling Cirrus gave her anytime he was near. She did want to believe them, though. Donovan’s party in particular felt genuine when they spoke, even if it was depressing. Fish, and to a lesser extent her party, also seemed genuine. “So, what did you find?”

  Dana explained how she had scouted what they assumed was north of the camp, so long as the sun rose and set in the same direction as Earth, starting by following the river that sat to the north upstream to the north-west. The Tactician already knew the mine would be at the foot of the mountain where the river started, but there was also a small, deep lake that had formed under the waterfall coming down off the mountain cliffs. In that lake was an island with a tall, decrepit-looking stone tower. There was something large moving in the water of the lake, deterring her from investigating further.

  With this side of the river appearing to be more woods, and the mountain being too dangerous-looking to climb unprepared, Dana then crossed the river at a shallow spot back downstream to check out the rolling plains. Both the woods and plains were teeming with wildlife, and while she was able to avoid most of it either by hiding or it running from her, that became harder and harder to do the further away she got from the Territory Heart.

  “I had the same problem. Things get higher level as you get further away, quickly, and fucking everything wants to kill you. I made the mistake of thinking a goddamn rabbit wouldn’t be a problem even though it was the same level as me. How the fuck does a rabbit get to level twenty-three? By taking out your kneecaps with a high-power kick, apparently.” Hex had returned by the time the Tactician reached this point in her report, looking worse for wear and clearly frustrated. The Seeker’s clothes were torn up, splattered in blood she was not sure the origin of, and he was sopping wet. He did not feel injured to Cyn, so it couldn’t have been too bad, but Hex had clearly had a more difficult time than Dana scouting.

  Or he had done something stupid while off on his own. Maybe even a few somethings.

  Dana nodded grimly, briefing her own difficulties with the local wildlife. At least on the plains she could see most of it coming, but when she was blasted into the air by a wind elemental that was practically invisible when it was right in front of her, the Tactician decided it was time to head back. Dana expressed then that she didn’t even know how she was supposed to fight something like that. There was also some kind of flying creature circling high above that plains that she was not able make out because it was so far away, and as she was making her way back she also noticed a towering tree that stood far above the others, deep in the forest southeast of the camp.

  Dana’s final scouting observation was that they appeared to be limited in where they could go. She could not see it well, but there was a shimmering wall on the far side of the plains she was barely able to make out. Everything on the other side of the wall was distorted and blurry, and the Tactician reasoned it was probably the edge of the dungeon. Cyn and Hex both agreed that was probably the case, though Hex did not find anything similar on his trip. With the density of the forest, he would have to be right on top of it to see it anyway.

  Hex had followed the river east at first, finding a multitude of small stone ruins along the shoreline and in the woods as he moved away from the water. Near the camp, they were predictably empty of both threats and loot as far as the Seeker could tell. As he stumbled across more of the ruins further away, they began to have small groups of creatures living in them and he was able to feel hidden treasure. His next admission proved that Cyn had been correct in assuming Hex had done some stupid things.

  Despite already having had his ass nearly handed to him by a rabbit by this point, he still made an attempt to sneak into one of the ruins to get some treasure and hopefully a few kills. Thankfully, the Seeker quickly realized he was in over his head and managed to escape the group of skeletons that spotted him with only minor injuries. Empty handed, so at least he had not been rewarded for the behavior.

  Following the river further after it curved south, Hex was able to catch glimpses of a massive tree deeper in the forest, the same that Dana had been able to see from the plains. The river widened as it went further south, and Hex found a larger set of ruins on an island set in the middle of the fast-moving water. He had not intended to go into the water, but something reached out when he was standing in the shallows to peer at the ruins, pulling the Seeker under the rapids. He was able to recover and scramble ashore after only being pulled a short distance downstream, with the assistance of one of his skills, but that was when Hex decided he had had enough and came back to camp. Whatever had grabbed him had left a hand-shaped wound on the Seekers ankle - completely removing the skin where it touched - that took a long time to heal, and left him with a limp most of the way back.

  Regardless of his current frustration, Hex seemed pleased there was adventure to be had. Even if he was too weak still to do it by himself. Cyn shared his eagerness, and felt a tiny bubble of relief that he had failed enough to be unlikely to go off on his own, but had not been seriously hurt. She just did not want to be left behind.

  There was a lot of things to explore, provided they could get this camp safe and the survivors motivated enough to level up. But before night fully fell, there was one more thing that needed to be done. And based off of the people starting to gather around the pyre, it was time.

  ***

  I hate this. Cyn chose to keep her distance from the burning pile of wood and bodies lighting up the night, though not so far as to be picked off by a Vampire. There were eulogies, and crying. So much crying. She did not blame any of the raid party for their sorrow, Cyn just did not know how to handle it. Made worse by being a small woman, since that inherently made her seem approachable. Any words she might give, rooted in her own habit of continuously moving forward and bereft of the experience of true grief, would be horribly out of place in this moment. She had already been seen using Pet to calm someone, and, combined with the fact that that too would probably be seen as unwelcome and out of place, she chose not to use it. So instead she just kept silent.

  Fish had held onto her a while after the fire was lit, before Cyn was blessedly saved by Sam, who actually knew how to comfort someone. Dana, Scott, and Sam all bonded with their raid party, offering kind words and sympathy. Scott was an expert at proving a sense of hope, keeping the mourners from falling too far into despair, despite the conditions.

  Even Hex was able to keep up a passable mask of sympathy, though that was probably in part because no one was actively looking at him for comforting words so he did not have to do much. Instead, he stood with Cirrus and Donovan, quietly discussing the next steps for the points of interest that had been found. She chose not to join them. Cyn was already on edge, she did not need to add close proximity to Cirrus making it worse. Especially since there was a knowing look in the man’s eyes every time she caught him looking at her, a weight of unasked questions.

  Instead, Cyn sat almost alone in the shadows, guiltily hiding from a sense of responsibility marbled with failure, holding tightly to a very sad and very scared three-eyed frog.