Xavier sped away through the forest, leaving the other members of his party to locate the dungeons that had appeared on their new mini-map.

It still felt so surreal, being back on Earth. The trees looked familiar, and at the same time incredibly different. Though he had never spent all that much time wandering through forests, he was sure they’d never had trees as large as this.

I wonder where we are, he thought as he ran, taking in his surroundings, sensing a few weak auras nearby. And how far away Fronton is.

He had to say, he was more than a little bit frustrated at the System for having left them out here, without even a quest. He’d thought things would be straightforward when he returned to Earth. He’d chosen to defend his planet, and as of yet he hadn’t even had a chance to do that.

The Tower of Champions had been so linear, his path expected, predictable even if the floors themselves weren’t. Now, he wasn’t sure what to do.

He headed toward the nearest weak aura, sprinting through the trees. His speed felt incredible. He’d run through a forest much like this before, on the seventh floor, when he’d gotten Princess Narella to her peace treaty.

This almost felt the same.

His feet never slipped along the leaves wet with dew, or missed a root that jutted out from the dirt, his perception and balance and reaction speeds were too advanced to let that happen. It was almost as though he were running on solid ground.

Xavier quickly came upon the beast that had produced the aura. When he saw it was only a beast, and not an invader, he was disappointed. It wasn’t as though he was going to get any Mastery Points from either one, so he’d much rather fight an invader.

Maybe I should just leave this beast alone.

He tilted his head to the side, watching the beast. It was a brown bear—at least, it had been before the System had integrated it. It looked as though the System changed the animals of the world far more than it did the humans. At least visually. Bears had always been strong, but this one looked weirdly muscular, and its claws were more like blades than something natural.

It reminded Xavier of his own… alterations, from assimilating so many different materials from beasts. Thankfully, his advancement to E Grade had smoothed much of that out, though his nails were still sharper than others, his skin rougher, at least he didn’t ­look particularly bestial.

The bear loped over to a tree on all fours. The tree’s trunk wasn’t the widest he’d seen, but it was about as thick as a lengthways small car. The beast rose on two legs and slashed its blade-like claws through the tree, clearly activating some kind of spell.

A portion of the tree was cut away, one just large enough for the tree to topple toward the ground. Xavier had been standing in what now was its path and stepped to the side as it slammed hard into the grass.

The bear gave out a small roar and stalked over to a massive beehive that had been attached to the tree. The hive was glowing, and the bees inside of it were not normal bees by any stretch of the word. A sudden loud buzzing sounded as they flew out of their hive and attacked the bear.

{Venomous Honeybee – Level 1}

Since when are bees venomous? Also, can’t bears climb? Did it really cut down an entire tree just for some honey?

Xavier shook his head a little incredulously and moved farther through the forest, leaving the beast and its lunch behind.

Civilisation couldn’t be that far away, could it?

~

After ten minutes of swift running through the forest, ignoring the beasts he encountered even when they caught his scent and thought to attack him, Xavier came upon a large cluster of auras.

The instant he did, a notification appeared in his vision.

Quest Log Update (New Quest Available)

A new quest?

Excitement bloomed in his chest as he opened his log.

Current Quest: You are in possession of a Seed Sanctuary. This area is currently in dispute. To claim this area, you must:

1. Defeat the enemy invaders and close their portal.

2. Clear the Crystal Dungeon and defeat the Dungeon Boss.

3. Clear the Deathly Dungeon and defeat the Dungeon Boss.

4. Clear the Moon Sky Dungeon and defeat the Dungeon Boss.

Progress: Incomplete

Reward:

1. Bonus Mastery Points

2. Unknown Item

3. Land Claiming Rights

Xavier tilted his head to the side. Finally, a quest! Though this wasn’t exactly what he’d been looking for. He hadn’t expected to have to go up against dungeons.

Not that I have to. I could simply ignore the quest, couldn’t I?

He frowned as he read through the description again, then touched a finger to his Storage Ring. He’d thought about the Seed Sanctuary a few times since he’d arrived here, not sure of where to actually plant it. He’d planned to find civilisation before he did, and all of their families, not to mention other Denizens that could help run the place.

He wanted to get a lay of the land.

But there was something alluring about planting his Seed Sanctuary in the middle of a forest. Carving out a place for it amongst the trees. It felt… right in a way that he hadn’t expected. He supposed the fortress had seed in the name, maybe it even required a place like this where it could flourish? Did he expect to be able to plant it in concrete?

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Well, it is magic…

Another thing that was curious to him was the Bonus Mastery Points the quest said it would reward. It was good to know that completing quests would bring him Mastery Points.

He had a lot of levels to gain if he wanted to bring Sam to this world.

He shrugged away his thoughts and stalked through the forest toward the invaders. Whether he wished to claim this area or not, he couldn’t tolerate invaders of any sort on his world. He especially couldn’t let them gain a foothold out here in the middle of nowhere, growing stronger from fighting off the beasts in Earth’s wilderness.

[I just got a quest,] Xavier told Siobhan through the Communication Stone.

[So did we!] she replied, sounding excited. [It says we can claim this area if we defeat some invaders and clear some dungeons.]

Xavier blinked. [Huh. I guess being in a party shares the quest between us.] That made him wonder if there were any solo quests out there, or if he would always gain quests with his party.

[Have you looked at your mini-map?] Siobhan asked.

Xavier hadn’t. He did so now. “Whoa.” The mini-map looked so much more filled out than it had the first time he’d looked at it. No longer was the entire thing wreathed in shadow but for where he was standing. He could see large swathes—mostly going in a straight line—of the forest that had been revealed.

His party—three green dots—were no longer visible on the map, but other things were. A single yellow dot showed what he assumed was one of his quest objectives. He selected it in his mind and a bit of text appeared above the dot.

Invader Camp

Xavier smiled. It wasn’t a lot of information but this mini-map was going to come in handy. He certainly hadn’t expected it to reveal this much to him. There was another yellow dot, showing one of the dungeons, and two yellow arrows, pointing back in the direction he’d come from.

The other two dungeons. My party must be heading toward one of those.

Then there were the red dots.

[That’s awesome,] Xavier said, responding to Siobhan. [I didn’t realise we’d be able to see enemies with this thing.]

[Right? ] Siobhan sounded just as excited as he did. [I think it’s only the enemies we can sense an aura from, though. I’m not sure how to test that theory, however, but it makes sense. I’ve been keeping an eye on the mini-map as we move through the forest, and none of the red dots had appeared on it until we’d sensed one of the enemies’ auras.]

Sometimes Xavier forgot that the others were able to sense auras since they’d gained their classes at Level 10. Though they weren’t yet able to hide their own, something that made it a little dangerous for them walking around the forest. Their Aura Sight also wasn’t near as powerful as his, so didn’t work at the same distances.

He bit his lip, starting to wonder if he should have left them alone in the first place. He didn’t know how far these invaders had gotten in the forest. What if they came across his party while he wasn’t with them?

Xavier shook his head. They can take care of themselves. Besides, they have one of the Portal Stones. It wouldn’t take me long to get back to them if they were able to set it down.

[Just be careful out there,] he couldn’t help saying. [I can see the invader’s camp in my mini-map. The quest didn’t pop up until I sensed what must be one of the auras of the invaders.]

[Are you going to take it out alone?]

[I don’t see a reason not to.]

[Understood. We’ll let you know when we get to the dungeon.]

They were still heading toward the dungeon? Part of him thought they should have reached it by now. The radius of the mini-map wasn’t all that large, after all. At least, as far as he could tell. It didn’t mark distance.

Xavier touched a finger to his Storage Ring again, contemplating the item he’d purchased through the Item Broker—the one that had pretty much cleared him out.

How far away is this camp? He was staring at the camp in his mini-map as he said that. He’d half expected some kind of measurement to appear, or for it to tell him his travel time. All right, so it isn’t exactly Google Maps.

The SCABA—which he thought was a terrible acronym—would block communications for a five-mile radius, at least until he got it upgraded. He wanted to lay the spikes down near where the enemies were, just to ensure that none of them got a message away. He checked his soulkeeping threshold. He had a good few hundred souls at his disposal, from when he’d harvested them after the final fight on the ninth floor with all those spiders.

More than enough to deal with these invaders.

To be honest, he wouldn’t even need to use Soul Strike. Part of him wondered how he should go about this. Information gathering… that was probably the smart way to go.

But honestly, right now, a part of him just wanted to blow off some steam and get rid of these bastards.

Gaining alliances with invaders didn’t feel like an option, even if he’d considered it. Not just because they were invading his world, but because if he formed an alliance with them, they would know how strong he was, and send through more powerful fighters—ones that might appear anywhere in the world. They could even have their soldiers hide out until he was returned to the tower.

He moved swiftly though the trees, determination setting his jaw, closing in on the auras he sensed. As a precaution, he set down the Subspace Communications Area Blackout Array, spiking the ground in several places. When he was finished, he frowned, unable to sense anything.

Did it work?

He realised it should be easy enough to test. He tried to contact Siobhan through his Communication Stone and wasn’t able to. He bit his lip again. He was glad it had worked, but he was also worried now that they wouldn’t be able to contact him.

Xavier released a sigh. He brought up the mini-map and tilted his head to the side, eyes widening slightly at what he saw.

There was a shaded circle inside that of the mini-map, one that depicted the blackout’s radius. The red dots were well and truly in the middle of it. The description said the radius was five miles wide, which gave him an idea of how large the mini-map was.

I wonder if I can improve this mini-map by obtaining the Pathfinding skill?

He filed that thought away to come back to later. First, he pulled one of the spikes out of the ground and deactivated the blackout so he could send a message to Siobhan.

[I’m going to put down the blackout array and deal with the invaders myself. You won’t be able to contact me for a little while. I don’t know what threat these guys pose, so can you all sit tight and not move forward with checking out that dungeon until this is done?]

There was a pause before she replied. [All right, we can do that. We’ll sit tight, though Howard’s frowning at me. I think he wants in on the action. So do I, to be honest.]

[You’ll have plenty of opportunities, I promise.]

Xavier cut the communication short, slamming the spike back into place and reinitiating the blackout area. He was glad to see that the yellow dot depicting the enemy invader’s camp sat at least a mile within the radius.

He headed toward the cluster of auras he’d first sensed, the red dots on his mini-map. He approached slowly, his steps careful and quiet. He could have killed them all with a Soul Strike from afar, but he wanted to get eyes on the enemies before he just outright attacked.

As Xavier approached the camp, part of him wondered if he should purchase a stealth skill, but he hardly needed to be stealthy.

Stealth isn’t exactly a part of my path. Hell, I could probably control them all with Willpower Infusion alone. What reason would I have to hide?

Xavier pushed a branch out of the way and got his first glimpse of the enemy invaders. Part of him had been expecting to see goblins—they were the first and only invaders of Earth he’d encountered, after all—but it wasn’t goblins.

It was humans.

He frowned. They were several campfires dotted around the area, campfires that curiously weren’t giving off any smoke. That was strange. Some sort of magic that prevented the fires from revealing the invaders’ position? He saw at least a dozen tents, with one large one in the middle—no buildings—and smelled cooked meat, which set his stomach to rumbling.

Is that… beast meat they’re cooking?

So far, he wasn’t impressed by the invaders’ camp in the slightest.

Around the nearest cookfire several warriors and a single mage sat, chatting and laughing together. One of the warriors held a length of chain attached to a metal choker.

A choker that was around a man’s neck. A man who looked battered and beaten, stirring a pot on the fire. The man wore what looked like basic warrior armour—he was the only one in the camp with basic armour. His arms were bare, and on his wrist, Xavier glimpsed a tattoo.

A very Earth-specific tattoo, of spiderman’s mask.

Xavier looked around the camp and quickly discovered this man wasn’t the only one the invaders had taken in as a slave.

This might require a more delicate touch than I’d planned.

Good thing he hadn’t blasted the camp with Soul Strike from afar.