“Wow,” Nate muttered. “That thing is huge. How far around does it extend for?”

“As far as they can make it.” One of Lindsay’s guards replied proudly. “Dirt is plentiful, so they are always expanding it, or making it wider, harder. They’ve been working on the wall for years now. They have the basic, small version all done now. It’s only like ten feet tall in places, but around three-quarters of it looks like this now, from what I hear.”

“What does the gate for something like that even look like?” Lindsay asked, straining her neck to see the top of the wall as they got closer to it.

“Heavy,” Nina replied. “Each time they open it, the process takes a few minutes and they generally only do it at scheduled times. There is a smaller gate for people to enter through if they are in a hurry, like if they were being chased by beasts. They would have to leave their truck and trailer behind, but they would be safe.”

A crevice that extended almost all the way to the top of the wall appeared before them, with a long line of rigs waiting for the gate to open. The builders had decided to not go for a tunnel during the wall construction and had instead slowly shrunk and tapered the existing crevice. If they had gone with a tunnel design, they wouldn’t have been able to compact the dirt properly. With this design, they avoided that problem entirely.

Niall checked his watch and put the truck into park. “We should have a couple of minutes before the gate opens. There is one last thing we need to cover, well, two really. That is what kind of beasts we’ll be likely to run into on this expedition and each of your positions on the team.”

“We already talked about our positions at lunch the other day, among the three of us,” Nate told his father helpfully, identifying the three spots they had each mentioned that day.

“Alright,” Niall slowly nodded, his eyes taking in their weapons and how their bodies were built. “That will do to start. We’ll explore other positions for each of you as we go. It’s not always just about the weapon, it’s also about the person and their instincts for the position. Some people are better protectors because they are more willing to take hits, while others will go for the risky but potentially fight-ending blows.”

He shrugged. “I won’t say one is better than the other, merely that they’re different. Now, on to the beasts and other monsters we will likely be facing then. Notice I said beasts, as I’m sure you know the portal in the dimensional zone nearest us only has beasts. There are no humanoids, elementals, dragons, orcs, or other such monsters of that nature.”

Nina was digging through the bag at her feet when her hand reappeared with a bundle of those old instant photos you had to shake. Each one showed a different dead beast, animal, or other monster. She quickly flicked through the bundle, separating out the ones she thought they needed to see.

Unsurprisingly, each of them was of a beast he had seen pass through the dungeon at some point in time.

By the time Niall put the truck back into gear, she had passed them back and they were reviewing each one on their own. Written on the back of each picture were the particulars of each beast.

Nate spent a moment confirming that they were the same as what he had seen before passing the pictures on.

The view outside the windows darkened as they entered the crevice. Ahead of them, the line of rigs and trailers all had their headlights on. This section of the wall was especially thick at around a hundred feet.

Sitting at the end of it was a block on giant rollers that they used as the gate. It was a hulking behemoth that was easily twice as big as the hole it was blocking.

“No wonder they only open it at set times,” Nate said in awe, twisting around to catch the full size of the block as they drove past it.

“Keep your eyes open, everyone. We have an hour and a half drive ahead of us before we reach the beginning of our expedition area. We will go a little further before parking the truck and going on by foot. Either way, this is where we need everyone to start keeping their eyes open for anything outside the vehicle.” Nina explained and warned the kids of the situation.

This was a teaching weekend, and she and her husband were taking their duties seriously. They had to, since their own kid was part of the group. They would have anyway, but it was certainly a good extra incentive to do a decent job.

The line of trucks and trailers slowly spread out as they each headed to their own destined areas.

Nate could see the overgrown grass and trees waving in the early morning wind as they passed by. In areas where it was less overgrown, he was able to catch the occasional glimpse of a derelict building or a destroyed vehicle. It was a reminder of how much the people of this world had lost.

Anywhere with a dimensional zone nearby was confined to walled cities. Even those that didn’t have zones nearby had undoubtedly seen the monsters creeping toward them. They were slowly making this world their home, overtaking it a portion at a time. It was an invasion, and the dimensional zones were the breach points.

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Nate shook his head, dispelling his own overly dramatic thoughts. It didn’t matter whether it was an invasion, or something else entirely, they still needed to be stopped.

No one had managed to do that up to that point, and it seemed to him that humanity had largely given up on that front. They were content with surviving and not taking any more steps back than they already had.

However, he had the key to slowing the beast’s progress even more, and maybe, just maybe, even stopping them. One zone at a time.

He shook his head again and yawned. He had never realized how odd his thinking became when he was tired. Granted, he had only been woken two hours early, but it still made a difference.

The truck swerved, sending everyone straining against their seatbelts, as Niall tried to dodge around a beast in the road. It was a buck with a massive rack of glowing antlers. The tips of each one were white hot. His eyes were ruby red as he stood before them, as though daring the armored truck to take him on.

The guards cursed as the buck turned to watch them pass him by. Only then did he stamp his hoof and call for the rest of his herd.

“I haven’t seen one of those blasted things in over two years!” A shaken guard said.

“Why are you all so worried about it?” Angie asked, seeing how upset the adults were. “It was just a beast deer, right?”

Niall slowed the truck and pulled off to the side of the worn, bumpy road with a grateful exhale.

“It’s a ‘Lightning Buck’,” Nina explained, as calmly as she could. “The number of points it has on its antlers indicates how often it can fire its lightning. The glowing tips meant that they were all charged. The true threat, however, wasn’t the buck, it was the herd of does it was protecting. Even if we had somehow managed to kill the buck, the herd would have decimated us. Imagine a dozen deer, each one with lightning abilities of some kind. That is the true danger of their kind. They never travel alone.”

Niall, who had been resting his head against the headrest of his seat, opened his eyes and put the truck back into gear. “If I had accidentally hit him, it would have been over for us. With that size of rack, he probably would have survived the hit and simply electrocuted us all as retribution. Let that be a lesson to you all about staying on your toes while you’re out here. And never forget, we aren’t the only ones who can grow stronger. I can guarantee that buck didn’t come through the portal looking like that.”

He steered them around the worst of the potholes and sections of road that had gone missing over the years. Eventually, however, it was time to simply call it quits and truly go off-roading.

They bounced along in four-wheel drive for a little over a mile before coming across a decently sized clearing. It was large enough to park the truck and trailer, and also turn them around in. Something that Niall did immediately. He didn’t want to risk getting stuck facing the wrong way because someone else had come along and parked too close to him.

“Everyone out, time to strap your weapons and packs on.” Nina turned to face the three teens. “I know you will be tempted to goof off and joke around while we are out here. I’m not going to tell you not to. I was a kid once, and I know how pointless it is to ask you to not behave like that. Instead, all I’m asking is that you keep things to a minimal, reasonable level. Don’t forget where we are and do not endanger the rest of us with your antics. Is that understood?”

Both girls replied with a quick, and respectfully decisive, “Yes, ma'am.”

Nate gave her a more solemn, “Understood, mom.”

She reached out from the front seat and stroked his cheek. “There’s no need to be that serious, sweetie. I want you to enjoy your time out here with your friends. That goes for you girls as well. I just don’t want you to forget where we are. The outside world is dangerous for a normal, experienced cultivator. You three are fresh-faced cultivators, with newly created cores.”

Niall let her words sink in for a moment before shutting off the truck and opening his door. The action broke the spell her words had weaved and jolted them all into action.

Nate hopped down from the lifted interior and pulled out the running board steps for whoever came out next on his side.

His father was already in the bed of the truck and quickly tossed him the first of the bags.

“Where do we set up camp if not right around the truck?” He asked with a grunt, as a particularly heavy bag hit him in the chest.

“Well away from the truck,” One of Angie’s guards said as he pushed the running boards back into position. “We don’t want to be anywhere near the trailer once it has our first catch in it. This will become our best hunting spot, and the most dangerous area to be in.”

Another guard nodded. “You see those vents near the top of the trailer?” Nate looked at where he was pointing and nodded. “Those are fan vents. As soon as we catch something, your father will turn on the vents and let their aroma blow away on the wind. Everything in the area will know that there is a fresh kill in this spot. They’ll all come running for a taste. Then once we have enough, you shut the vents and turn off the fans.”

“That’s almost diabolical,” Nate muttered, quickly pulling out his notebook to write it all down. He didn’t think the idea would work in the dungeon, especially in its current form. However, he might come up with another use for it down the line at some point.

“So, this is what an expedition is? Hunting for meat and paring down the beast population?” Lindsay asked as she picked up her pack.

“For the most part, yes. We also patrol areas and do a few other things. The requirements for a student’s expedition are never strenuous and are the easiest to complete. As your first one, we’ll only be doing a few items this time around.” Niall tossed a pack to his wife and went to lock up the truck.

“Remember the map I showed you at the house? We’ll be sticking in that area, but we have a request from a client to find some herbs that may be growing in this area.” Nina’s eyes flicked toward Angie’s direction for a split second.

“We’ll be patrolling away from the rig toward where we were told the herbs might be growing. You three kids will be in the middle for the first couple of hours. I want you to watch how we, more experienced adults, handle things. Then we’ll start pulling you out one by one for some experience. By the end of the day, you should be able to operate without us. Any questions?”

There weren’t any, and with that, they finished strapping on their gear and hit the trail.