“We’re coming up on the last floor,” James said into his handheld.

“I’ll kill you if you die,” Tsukiko said.

James chuckled as the reception fell away. They were in Nadia’s vehicle, taking the grand elevator down to the lower floors. Hunters waited with them. Some familiar, like Seok. Some, new faces.

“Beasts this journey is a chore,” the young hunter behind James complained.

He was dressed in fine clothes, finer than anything James had ever seen. The cloth oscillated in the light, shifting into a variety of styles. One moment, the robes were a deep royal purple that hung loose at his shoulders, the next a red, high-collared tunic with gold trim. A hat shifted with the image and James couldn’t help but wonder how it worked.

“Grumbling gets you nowhere,” Seok said stoically.

He had a new arm, James saw. It was silver in color and lined with numerous lines of conductive metal. He tried not to stare.

“Grumbling gets you everywhere,” the man said. His called himself Fu, which was not in fact his name.

“It means rich in ancient tongue,” the man said when James had asked. “Back when blood hadn’t mixed into the slurry it is now.”

“A fairy tale,” Seok had said with a huff.

That hadn’t set Fu against Seok, not at first. No, it was the man’s refusal to acknowledge Fu in any historical capacity. Everything about the posh hunter was ‘historical’ in some manner. It got worse when Seok laughed.

“An abaya is for women,” the man’s gruff voice had said.

“It is not!” Fu had argued.

The rejection made Seok laugh harder. Fu had changed his clothing at that, moving from more flowing robes to the complex regal fabrics he wore now. They argued a lot, James saw. Fu had a lot of ‘historical’ clothing that Seok needled the man for.

It had made the trip below interesting, that much was true at least. James had learned a number of new ‘historical legends’ from Fu.

“Fairy tales, one and all,” Seok had said.

It didn’t stop James from enjoying the tales of the man and his bottled wishing machine, or the story of the woman who tricked a despotic robot sultan with stories that never ended. There were others as well, stories of cybernetic animals that changed into humans and humans that changed into animals. Fu had an impossible amount of them.

“Oh, everyone needs a hobby,” the man had said when James asked why.

Seok snorted. “He thinks there’s truth to the tales, that’s why he collects the stories. Still looking for true immortality then?”

Fu flinched at jab. James opened his mouth to ask why.

“We are here,” Nadia said.

The elevator opened and James was assaulted. Color attacked his senses, greens and browns charging together in a surprise attack. Reds, blues, and yellows waited behind, hidden behind their brethren in a surprise attack.

The sounds came next. This was nothing like the towers, or the megacity above. People had a certain hum to them, a rhythmic nature if James had to describe it. Sounds came in patterns from machines and people. Not so here. The lower floors didn’t hum so much as screech incoherently.

James heard the sounds of people from the camp before them but it was mixed with an impossible mix of sounds . There was no rhythm here, no beat that James could put a machine to. The sounds of life bombarded him in the second wave.

And then came the heat. The tower had heat, sure. So did the megacity. But it was something you chose to seek out, controlled with racks of metal and ventilators. Not here. Here the heat stood uncontrolled, untamable as the jungles James saw in front of him. He looked to his master in surprise.

“The plains will be further in,” Nadia said. “That is where the Oxen will be.”

The other hunters nodded, their lax attitudes now gone. James suddenly felt smaller, somehow.

The feeling passed as his master led him and the others through the camp. She walked with purpose, as if she had every right to be there. She did, but James kept having to tell himself that.

It was the heat, he decided, that was making him feel nervous. It was all so unfamiliar to him, and it was making him uneasy. At least Cyber Crane Megacity had a familiar air to it. These jungles had nothing.

“Halt,” a guard said.

James looked up. He realized he was so focused on the jungle he hadn’t gotten a good look at the camp. A fence bordered the perimeter, one entrance manned by a squad of cultivators that took turns on watch, none more than a few minutes at a time to ensure none lost their edge. A single building sat in the center, a tall apartment complex that didn’t even reach half the height of the nearest tree. There were at least ten floors.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

More cultivators sat near the fences in groups. Some practiced while others enjoyed some free time. All of them had a wary look in their eyes, as if at any moment something could come from the trees to attack them. A series of automated cannons stood on the poles of the fence, tracking anything that moved too close. They covered a clearing of around ten feet past the fence.

There was a hiss from the cannon as it released a magnetically charged bolt at a curious but stupid animal that decided to see what this clearing was about. It died before James could find where the bolt impacted.

Nadia strode to the guards near the gate, pulling her handheld out for them to scan. One of them recognized her.

“On another job already, Nadia? I thought you had an apprentice to train.”

“This one couldn’t wait,” Nadia said. “Which is why my apprentice is with me this time.”

James gave a polite wave, unsure how to act. The nodded at him. James was amazed, they were already more respectful than any other new cultivator he’d met. Even Fu had ignored James’s greetings until he expressed interest in the man’s obsession.

“A plains job this time?” the man asked. “Seems like a journey for just an apprentice.”

“I have prepared accordingly,” Nadia said. She jerked her head at Fu and Seok. The two guards nodded, understanding in their eyes.

“Well, good hunting,” one said.

“And safe travels,” the other finished.

“May your watch be dull,” Nadia answered.

The gate opened and James stepped out of civilization and into chaos.

He was exaggerating the action in his mind, but it felt like a big step. Here he was, a courier nobody who had nothing to dream about except a nice mechanic job fixing hydroponics and vertical farms. Now, he stood outside of civilization in the vast wilderness that claimed most of the empire.

He kept an eye out for dangerous beasts until Nadia’s hand calmed him.

“Do not worry, disciple. The jungle might seem imposing, but it is a respectful area. We will not be bothered as long as we play by the rules.”

James looked at his master. “But how are we going to know the rules?”

“Fret not, young listener,” Fu said with a flourish. “You will find my skills in this unparalleled!”

Fu spun and his clothing changed to roughspun clothes fit for any tracker. He kneeled and felt the dirt, scooping a handful as he stood again. Flowers started to grow, spiraling out of the dirt and blooming bright yellow. The yellow faded in moments, leaving behind a puffball of shimmering gold seeds. Fu exhaled, sending the seeds floating. The plant regrew another ball of puff a second later.

“The net is made,” Fu said. “No creature can hide from my sight in this moment. Now, let us away into the flatlands ahead!”

Seok grabbed James, the disciple’s protest dying on his lips as he felt the world around him lurch. They moved with a speed and grace that James knew he couldn’t match, circumnavigating the trees as if they grew up in the jungles. Animals scurried away as they moved, none of them stronger than the three cultivators.

James started to grow bored of the movement after a short time. The speed still surprised him, along with how long they kept running, but there was only so much greenery a person could take at a time. It was all the same blur after a while as well, and James found himself falling into a lull.

He didn’t sleep, but his focus expanded. Instead of every small detail, he looked at things as a whole. Trees blended into blotches of green and brown while the few animals or flowering plants added dashes of color. James felt like he watched the world out of a rainy window. He had a feeling they traveled downward at times.

The first surprise came when the green of the jungle started to change into a darker hue. There was less vibrancy to the flora around him now. Green, yes, but mixed with more browns. The trees grew sparser until the eventually fell away completely. That had woken James from his fugue.

“Scrapped beasts,” he whispered.

He had thought the megacity was open. That was nothing compared to this. There were no buildings, just ground covered in shrubs and grasses. And it continued past James’s vision, uncaring in its vastness.

"Are we still in SeeSee?" James asked.

"On the lowest floor," Nadia said.

“I remember my first time seeing it,” Fu said genially. “My master scolded me for leaving my mouth open. ‘Bugs will fly in,’ he said.”

“How can it be this big?” James asked softly.

“I believe only someone dedicated to studying the world could answer,” Nadia said.

“Why do we live in such small towers when there’s so much space?” James couldn’t help but ask.

“It is the way the world is,” Fu answered with a shrug. “Not my place to question.”

“The beasts is why,” Seok said. “Too wide an area and the beasts get in, cause trouble.”

James looked to Seok in surprise. He hadn’t expected the stoic man to answer.

“Come,” Nadia said. “We must find what we are here for.”

Seok picked James up again and the group ran. James looked back to see the trees eventually fade, leaving only the plains around him.

They stopped next to a series of mounds.

“Burrowing Rodents,” Nadia said. “Here we are.”

Seok let James down as his master looked at the handheld. “We will need three,” she said. “Alive if possible.”

Seok shook his head. “I do not have the control to pick three from the ground.”

“Do not worry,” Nadia said, looking at James. “It will be good training for my disciple.”

James made a face but nodded. “What do I have to do?”

“First,” Nadia pointed to the ground. “You will sit. We are catching Burrowing Rodents, a simple beast worth perhaps a credit at most on a good day. These vermin are barely able to tap into the element of earth and shift it around as they work. They shore up their tunnels with their meager mastery, doing their best to strengthen it against stronger predators.”

“Does it work?” James asked.

“No,” Nadia said. “But what they lack in individual power they make up for in numbers. You will not exterminate Burrowing Rodents, because for each one you see there are two more. And they run faster than cultivators without a core.”

James’s face fell lower. “How am I supposed to catch them, then?”

“You will have to predict their movement, disciple. You will have to see where they travel before they can do so and intercept.”

She smiled at him. “Do not worry, I am sure you will succeed in this like you have in all others.”

“Oh, good,” James said dryly. “No pressure then.”

“Disciple, if I did not think you capable I would not have brought you,” Nadia said.

“I thought it was because you thought I’d cause more trouble if you left me alone,” James retorted.

“Perhaps if you thought of the consequences more, disciple, you would not be catching vermin in the dirt,” Nadia answered with mirth.

James sighed. “Alright, let’s get this over with.”

Seok nodded and started taking steps back. Fu grew more strange flowers and scattered their seeds to warn them of any incoming threats. Nadia gave Seok a sign and James felt the world below rumble.