Listening to the cries of the beasts that had been driven into the highlands by the rising sea, Nick found himself wide awake, breath steaming as he stared up into the predawn sky. He was lucky that he had gotten any sleep at all, considering the circumstances. Although he let his battered body rest for a few final moments, his brain was hard at work, taking in the condition of the lemur warriors and the size of their remaining stockpiles.
While he wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and drift away, he rose to his feet with a groan and then walked over to the communal store—a dwindling pile of dried meat and berries that would run out sometime over the next few hours. Nick ate breakfast and drained the rest of the water in his canteen, then went to find the Elder, wincing every time he put weight onto his injured leg.
His thigh was swollen, and his bruises throbbed with every step. But at least the puncture had scabbed over, and his leg could bear his weight, as long as he carried the spear that he had conscripted for a walking stick. He wouldn’t be able to run to help reinforce the line, like he had the day before, but he could still defend himself and help coordinate the overall defense. On the bright side, Nick’s wounds didn’t seem to be infected. He wondered if it was due to sheer luck or maybe a result of his dramatically increased Toughness. Perhaps the local bacteria were unable to infect creatures that had evolved on an entirely different planet.
In the end, he dismissed it as one of the many mysteries posed by Taltos and the System—mysteries beyond his ability to solve for the foreseeable future, although he would definitely pick up some disinfectant and sterile bandages as soon as possible. Maybe even a fancy healing item if he was lucky. Nick had enough problems to deal with without tempting fate. In addition to his mangled leg, he was covered in a host of lesser scrapes and bruises acquired during his brief battle with the pack, culminating in a painful tumble down the hillside.
As the horizon ran red with the break of day, he found the Elder standing on the bridge leading to the mountainside. She spent long minutes staring down at the valley that was still filled with komos, then looked directly at the gate, or perhaps the painting of the System emblazoned upon its face. Nick raised a hand in greeting and then came to a stop beside the lemurs’ leader. The position offered him an excellent view of both battlefields, and he took the opportunity to inspect them in detail.
The view of each valley was a mirror of contrast. Except for a few bloody patches of grass and the fresh gouges torn into the dirt, Nick would never have known that the valley running between his hilltop and the spiders’ had been a killing field less than twelve hours earlier. It soon became clear that the spiders had launched a night raid after all, because the last score of komos that had fled to the furthest corner of the basin were nowhere to be seen. Following that train of thought, he saw a pair of spiders dragging the last of the corpses over the web-barricade, where they would become food for the colony.
Except for a half-dozen guards posted atop the web-wall, he had no idea what the spiders were up to, as the view of their camp was obscured by their fortifications. Regardless, Nick was immensely relieved that he hadn’t been forced to fight the intelligent arachnids, as it dramatically improved his odds of surviving the remainder of the tutorial. Now that one valley was free of hostile beasts, the lemurs could concentrate their forces on the other side of the hill. He was thrilled that they no longer had to worry about being caught in a pincer attack, although there were more than enough problems to contend with as matters stood.
Over on the other hillcrest, the acid-slinging frogs were huddled along the interior of the giant serpent’s bones, shielding themselves from the frigid mountain breeze to preserve body heat. Peering through his spyglass, Nick could see a faint emerald glow emanating from the chest of the largest frog, which he suspected was the product of a spell or spell-like ability, as the surrounding air was warped with heat displacement.
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Deciding that the frogs had no reason to assault the lemurs’ position, Nick turned his gaze to the valley between them, where the most pressing source of danger resided. Using the sheer side of the mountain as a windbreak, the komos were bunched together to preserve heat. But without any supportive magic, the cold-blooded creatures appeared to be significantly impaired by the chill. The few that were awake looked lethargic, although the carnivorous lizards would perk back up once the sun was high enough to shine down into the valley floor.
Even still, this was a welcome development. Every hour of peace was precious, buying Nick and the tribe time to recover before the next battle began.
While he pondered the distribution of the various beast armies, he took the opportunity to Size Up every creature in sight, even though it took him a good half hour to finish. The skill had saved his life on a regular basis, and Nick wanted to max it, if at all possible, before he switched classes and lost the opportunity.
When he was finished, he walked back across the bridge and ate one of the last berries from the communal pile. He refilled his canteen with the water in his pack, drained it dry, and finished off the last strips of dried meat as well. He was going to run out of water before the tutorial ended. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be long enough for dehydration to impair him.
Deciding that his pack was too heavy to carry up the hill on his injured leg, he dumped all the raw resources out of his bag, keeping only his equipment and a small trove of items that might be valuable or could come in handy later. Nick dropped off the rocks and sticks he had removed into the piles sitting beside the lemurs’ line. That’s a lot better. He gave his backpack an experimental heft. I should be able to carry it up the mountain without all that junk weighing me down.
With his pack sorted, Nick moved on to his toolbelt, making sure that each item was stowed securely and in working condition. He wished that he had more flashbangs, antidotes, or other useful consumables, but he had finally run out of the supplies he had collected throughout the tutorial. Even his trusty wand was out of juice, leaving him with far fewer tools at his disposal than he preferred. At least one of Nick’s Mana Darts had recharged overnight, bringing the total that he could cast back up to two, and he would recover a third sometime within the next few hours.
After completing his prep work, he stopped to say hello to Bandit, then took up his place in the defensive line. For now, half of the tribe was resting. The others were in formation along the flat strip of hillside, ready to face off against the komos below at a moment’s notice.
Unable to work out while wounded, Nick passed the time until the next battle began by trying to anticipate what awaited him on the summit. He was certain that he would have to race the rising sea up the mountainside, but he had too little information to make predictions past that point. He had considered everything from a kaiju boss battle to a lava-lined obstacle course, but no one possibility seemed more likely than the rest.
The only clue that Nick had was the spiders’ behavior, since they presumably knew what was up there. Why are the spiders waiting for the gate to open? They can clearly climb the mountain without using the pass. There must be a good reason. Those web-slingers are way too smart to waste time or lives. They must have an incentive for clearing out the beasts in the valley before ascending to the summit. They saved you on purpose, so hopefully they don’t have any nefarious plans for you later.
As baffling as their behavior was, he could sense an underlying logic to the spider colony’s choices. He had even made some hypotheses regarding the patterns he observed. Over the last week, Nick had come to the conclusion that the Searing Isle was not only a tutorial for him but for all the beasts living on the island. At least the ones that were not native to this planet.
Now it was time to find out which of them would live to see the tutorial’s end.