While these thoughts passed through Nick’s mind, he looked up and then lowered his gaze to the horizon, trying to determine what time it was and which way he should go. The sun was high overhead, the sky a mixture of endless blue and patches of puffy white clouds. It must be sometime around noon, however long the days on this planet happen to be.

At least not all the mist on this world is made of impenetrable darkness, he noted with relief. I should start looking for shelter well before the sun sets. I don’t want to get caught out in unfamiliar terrain after dark. He turned in a slow circle, trying to get a sense of the local terrain. To make sure nothing dangerous was nearby, and that no more blackmist was headed his way.

To the south lay a solid wall of green where the great forest began, the terrain he had flown over before his pod landed. Fortunately, he would be heading in the opposite direction of that impenetrable mass of vegetation, toward the crater’s edge a few hundred yards to the north. When he got there, Nick was hoping to find a trail that ran along its perimeter. Otherwise, walking through the knee-high growth was going to be a chore.

He crouched down to take a closer look, hoping that there weren’t any more surprises in store before he headed out. The groundcover was different from any grass he had seen. The end of each stalk bent back down and appeared to grow into the soil, leaving a curved loop of green that looked a bit like needlepoint. It didn’t seem dangerous, and he eventually spotted a game trail leading in the right direction. He tightened the straps on his pack and began to follow it.

In addition to being the stage for Taltos’s challenge, Nick needed to enter the marsh if he wanted to live past the next few days, when his food and water ran out. Because the grasslands bordering the crater containing the bog were featureless and unwelcoming.

Other than the trail he followed, there were no signs of animals living anywhere nearby. No edible plants or a source of water in sight. Even though this elevated biome looked safe, he proceeded with caution. He was certain that this moment of calm was not fated to last for long, whether or not he entered Blackmist Bog.

After all, the System seemed geared toward forcing people into conflict. It would turn up the heat sooner rather than later, driving Nick and the other volunteers into the tower. Not that they had much choice regardless, unless they wanted to eke out an existence in this random corner of the multiverse for the little time they had left.

With a shrug, he shelved these thoughts until later. Right now, he needed to cover as much ground as he could before danger reared its ugly head once more. As he walked, he took in the sight of the tower rising above the marshlands, jutting above everything lying on the surface of the planet. An endless onyx pillar that bridged the heavens above and the earth below.

Nick set his gaze upon Darkstone Tower, where the guardian stood waiting at the top. Hoping that he could catch a glimpse of the creature from this distance, which might offer him a hint as to its nature, he took out his spyglass and followed the tower’s profile as it stretched up to kiss the sky, so large that it made him feel infinitesimal, even from this distance.

Unfortunately, the top of the tower was still covered by clouds, offering him nothing beyond an appreciation for the sheer scale of the edifice, which would have cost trillions of dollars to build back on Earth, assuming that engineering such a marvel had been possible to begin with. With any luck, he would uncover some clues as to the tower’s nature and purpose before he set foot inside.

He slid his spyglass into his belt pouch and returned his attention to the crater’s edge, a barrier that he would have to scale before long if he wanted to help pry the Earth free from Taltos’s grasp. Nick wasn’t sure why the Mad God had stolen the planet only to offer humanity a chance to win it back. But he was certain that whatever the reason, Taltos had nothing pleasant planned for the Earth and its inhabitants.

A few minutes later, he could see the rim of the precipice looming ahead, leaving him with one final question to ponder. How the hell am I going to get down there? He closed the last stretch of ground and found himself standing at the edge of a cliff, able to get his first good look at Blackmist Bog.

Before he went to work searching for a way down, Nick took the opportunity to cast his gaze across the marshlands, surveying the region while he was still standing above it. Most of the bog was hundreds of feet below the level of the grasslands, offering him a glimpse into the first strata of the biome.

Low trees covered much of the ground bordering the crater’s rim, but they were clustered compared to the forests on the Searing Isle, granting him a clear view of the terrain below his boots. Close to the crater’s edge, the soil seemed relatively solid, which was a relief. From the name, he’d been afraid that the entire bog would be wetlands, but it seemed that there was quite a bit of variety to the terrain.

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Further in, there were fewer trees and more brush. He saw stretches of brown mud interspersed with the occasional flash of sunlight reflecting off water, but fortunately nothing that appeared as extensive and inhospitable as the swamp on the island. Rather than forming a continuous marsh, the bog was home to thousands of shallow ponds, with streams and channels running between them to form an organic maze.

Nick opened his journal to update his map. He began scanning the area as thoroughly as he could, cataloguing any interesting features and the various creatures living within the bog. Here and there, he saw the occasional patch of what appeared to be white rock, interspersed with shattered pillars like a mouthful of broken teeth.

Eventually, his brain pieced together the significance of the scattered outcroppings, which no longer appeared continuous now that he was on the ground. The white stones are the remnants of the road that winds throughout the marshlands. It hasn’t been maintained and is gradually being reclaimed by the wilderness.

Now that he knew what to look for, he saw signs that buildings had once lined the roadside, and the tops of what looked like crumbling towers in the distance. The decaying infrastructure made it clear that people had lived in the area at some point. They had abandoned the bog sometime within the last few decades, judging from the state of the ruins. It seemed that there would be more places to explore than the endless expanse of wilderness. With any luck, some of the structures would still have valuable items inside.

It made Nick wonder if the locations of the quests and dungeons were real places with their own history, or if they were merely simulations or stages created by the System. While anything was possible in a multiverse filled with unfathomable magic, his instincts told him that it was the former. Everything he had experienced so far, especially his encounters with the ratmen in the sewers of Kastilla, pointed to them being real.

He wondered why the System chose these places for its events. If the presence of humanity on alien worlds was intended to accomplish something beyond fulfilling the parameters of Taltos’s challenge. If Nick’s decisions would have lasting consequences for this land and the creatures who called it home.

Let’s worry about tomorrow’s problems tomorrow. For now, you need to keep your mind focused on today’s.

With that, Nick returned his attention to the crumbling roadway, recording its twists and turns so that he could use it to gauge his progress once he was out on the bog. It would serve as a useful landmark, giving him another way to judge his location in addition to the position of the sun, stars, and the black tower looming in the distance.

When he was done updating his map, he added his observations to the page and outlined a tentative route. Once he got down there, he would try to stick to dry ground, which seemed to be concentrated along the road, the wooded areas, and the rim of the crater.

After a bit of consideration, Nick decided that it would be too dangerous to hike along the roadway. It was an ideal place to launch an ambush or set a trap, and walking the intact portions of the elevated highway would make his movements far too predictable for anything smart enough to anticipate his route to the tower.

Before continuing along the crater’s perimeter, he decided on a whim to use size up on Blackmist Bog itself, by far the largest area he had ever evaluated. He honestly hadn’t expected the skill to do anything and was surprised when he felt just a ghost of a response, although he couldn’t be sure that the sensation was anything more than his mind playing tricks on him.

Nick thought that he felt a faint ping of danger, like a signal at the edge of a radar’s range. It offered the impression that the marshlands were home to creatures far more dangerous than the residents of the Searing Isle, and that the terrain contained hidden threats as well.

But that was all he could process before the feeling faded away, leaving him wondering if the experience was anything more than a figment of his turbocharged imagination. In the end, he supposed that it didn’t matter. Regardless of whatever was waiting for him down in the bog, it was time to find out what dangers it held firsthand.

His next order of business was to figure out how to climb down from the rim of the crater and enter the periphery of Blackmist Bog. Along the edge near where he had landed, the incline was too steep to scale without specialized gear or a proper path. One wrong step, and he would tumble down to the level of the marsh, breaking every bone in his body along the way if the fall didn’t kill him outright.

Thus, his next objective was clear. He needed to find a path leading into the crater that was wide enough for him to follow. Well Nick. Your first choice is simple enough. Left, or right?

After a few more minutes spent studying the terrain, he turned to the right and began following the contour of the precipice. In part because that side of the basin seemed slightly less steep, but mostly because he could see dry land running in that direction. More of the long fingers of earth covered in vegetation, and fewer of the lakes and rivers running between them.

With any luck, he would get a chance to study more of the bog’s inhabitants before he found a way down. It would be good to have a better sense of the local predators before he was forced to fight them. As he walked, he eventually spotted some massive creatures out in the distance, including what appeared to be a titanic turtle with a bright red shell.

It seemed that some of the bog’s most fearsome residents lived within the water, a lesson he would take to heart during the trying days ahead.

With a grin that was even parts apprehension and excitement, Nick picked up his pace, eager to discover what strange twist of fate the multiverse had in store for him next.