It took me a few moments to adjust to actual sunlight after living in a cave lit only by man-made light strung along the ceilings and walls. I squinted my eyes to slits as we exited the Lord Solomon facility after having traversed through the facility’s winding corridors for a good half an hour, all the while climbing up a steep incline as we trekked toward the surface. I’d almost forgotten how far underground the city was.
As soon as I blinked away the bright spots in my eyes from the overwhelming amount of warm, yellow light flooding my vision, I felt a sinking relief wash over me. The air I breathed in deep through my nose was fresh… clean–free of the odor that came from packing immense amounts of people into an enclosed cave. And there was a subtle scent of salt in the outside air–I could taste it, especially as I turned my head toward the sparkling blue waters of the ocean.
The ocean surrounded us on every side, but we were closest to one of the banks to our left, though it was still at least five or six miles away. Though it would take a long walk to arrive at the sandy beach, I could still see it clearly. The ocean waters were so vast and seemingly unending, and some golden sand banks towered as high as a small building. They acted like the rolling hills of this alien landscape.
Our entire party had stopped for a moment, everyone taking in their fair share of fresh air and enjoying the warm sun penetrating through their skin. I took advantage of the break and set down the bag I was in charge of. I craned my neck up to the mesmerizing blue sky and smiled at the wisps of clouds within the blue. The clouds swirled and traveled as an unseen wind caressed them. It looked similar to the way streams of blue essence danced around people’s heads and weaved in between bunches of tree leaves like they did now as I studied my surroundings.
I consciously drew in as many streams as I could see, especially as a few dozen whipped toward our group, as we were the only living creatures in the vicinity. I wondered–if one of the scouts’ purposes was to kill monsters and harvest their parts–what sort of creatures we’d encounter on this excursion.
Gareth, who stood at the front of our messy line, turned to face us. “We are heading east today. We will gather whatever we can find and kill whatever gets in our way. I intend to make it back underground before midnight, which is just over three hours from now.”
And with that, Gareth made a sharp right turn and disappeared behind a cluster of the strange trees that dotted the landscape, with bent-over trunks and giant green leaves that nearly brushed the sandy floor.
I directed just enough essence into the arm and shoulder portions of my armor to lift my bag with ease, which allowed me to keep my breath steady as I moved to keep up with the scouts’ fast paces.
My fellow scout supports had a slightly more difficult time maintaining the speed with their bags in tow. Although, Will and Rory seemed more used to it and handled their loads all right, heavy breathing and all, and they each carried two bags instead of just one. But Patricia was having a really difficult time. As she ran, the bag she carried over her shoulder trailed all the way down to her knees, and the force of her movement swung the bag back and forth, each swing impacting the back of her legs on the way down.
I sidestepped over to her and offered a sympathetic smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Patricia. Are you new to the city?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. I was born here.”
I hadn’t thought much about the fact that a good portion of the Solomon’s Realm Academy city had been born and raised there. I’d mostly thought about those who had traveled here in search of higher education at the academy. I sometimes forgot about the actual living that happened in the underground city, as well.
“Are you a student at the academy?”
Patricia’s head shook again, making her short, tight curls bounce around her cheeks. “They’ve never accepted me.” She paused, taking a long breath and wiping at the beads of sweat on her forehead. “So, I just needed to find a job to help my parents support our large family.”
“Never accepted you?” I said. “Why’s that?”
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She shot me a reluctant look with her dark eyes, and I realized I might be getting too personal.
“I’m sorry,” I chuckled. “I’m being too nosy. You don’t have to answer any of my questions.”
“No, it’s alright.” Patricia sighed. “Uh, well… My Skills aren’t very noteworthy, and the academy likes to train people who… bring something worthwhile.”
I drew my brows together and said only a thoughtful, “Hmm…”
She laughed. “Don’t worry about it. Are you not going to ask what my Skills are?”
I released a hesitant laugh. “If you wouldn’t mind. I am curious.”
“My most powerful Skill gives me the ability to turn my left pinky toe invisible. Does that give you an idea of how useless my talents are?”
I guffawed a boisterous laugh, then immediately winced at myself and bit my lip. “I’m sorry.”
Patricia threw her head back and laughed along with me. “No, no. It’s funny–I get it.”
I smiled. At least she had a good attitude about it. Some people were content with their simple lives. I wondered what that would feel like. My life was anything but simple. Although… if my life was more… calm, would I get bored with myself? Yeah, just the origin of my existence added complexity to everything I said and did, but maybe I could be happier if I had just accepted that Lady Euridice would never give me a Mark, if I had never found that cave where I’d learned of my clone-ness, and instead lived with Drayek for the rest of my life–never worried about fighting off monsters or advancing through the Tiers. That is, if the Nagari had never attacked and massacred all of Edrona.
I had to admit, it sounded kind of nice.
I allowed Patricia a reprieve as our scouting group continued running through the sandy ground, which was much harder than I thought it would be. My boots sunk through the grains, and my calves burned as I had to essentially pull my feet out with every step. I directed some of my essence stores into the armored boots and my vambraces, which did help the strain but didn’t stop my feet from sinking into the sand.
Everyone else, especially the main scouts, seemed adept at running through the dirt. They almost glided. Did it have something to do with lots of experience? I peered through the sweat stinging my eyes and studied the scouts’ boots. Though each of them had differing colors in their armor, all of their shoes shone with a slight, reflective green around the soles. And the closer I looked, I realized that the scouts hovered about a centimeter above the ground.
So, the scouts have special equipment. Do the scout supports have those boots, too?
Patricia’s boots looked like they’d been made from leather and nothing else, but Will and Rory had the same shoes as the scouts.
I urged more strength into my feet and caught up with Rory, who was closer to me than Will. Will was right on the heels of Leandra, the scout with the long braids.
“Hey, Rory,” I said.
Rory glanced at me but kept his head forward. “Hey! Welcome to our party, by the way.”
“Thanks.” I smiled. “Uh, were Patricia and I supposed to get those…” I gestured to his shoes with my elbow, unable to take even one hand off the cumbersome bag slung over my shoulder. “Those shoes?”
“Oh, no. I mean, you should get them. But it took me a while to save up enough credits to buy my sandsoles.”
“Sandsoles? That’s what those are called?”
“Yeah.” Rory turned his head toward me and gave a subtle shrug. “You seem to keep up your pace fine without them, but they really help with these long runs we tend to do with the scouts.”
I nodded. Just another thing on my growing list of things to buy. Now, I just needed to decide what was most important to obtain first: Tier-appropriate armor (I was going to be a Tier 4 soon) or these so-called “sandsoles.” Of course, buying food on a day-to-day basis was obviously my top priority. No matter how nice he was about it, I didn’t want to keep taking advantage of Emmett’s food stores.
At the front, Gareth skidded to a halt and called out for the rest of us to stop, as well. I immediately dropped my bag and stretched out my stiff fingers. I caught Will, Rory, and Patricia doing the same.
Gareth whirled around to face everyone. The look he gave us distorted his features in a severity that brought me concern, yet he seemed so nonchalant at the same time.
“I can hear a landwalker somewhere above us,” he declared.
Landwalker? What’s that? A tight-lipped smile stretched across my face.
Was I about to see a monster associated with this world? I eagerly rose on the tips of my toes to try to peer through the tall trees and sandy hills to catch sight of the creature. And that’s when I noticed the rest of the group crouching to the floor. Realizing I was being stupid, I got down with everyone else.
A strange clicking resonated through the area and grew increasingly louder, making the ground rumble. Grains of sand spilled from the peaks of the high hills as the unseen creature drew closer.
“Supports,” Gareth called quietly, “hide behind the palm trees to your right. Keep watch while we take on the landwalker.”