The occasional jackrabbit or hawk flew overhead. I shot everything I could and wound up with a couple of skill seeds, combining two of them into [Double Jump: Activate to turn an ordinary jump into an incredible leap upward or forward as much as 6 meters, landing safely and with precision on your target] and two more into my first passive [13-Second Rule: When you receive damage that would be fatal, instead you take no damage and return to the location and condition you were in 13 seconds previously. 3 hour cooldown].

That one went straight into my Passives slot and would probably never leave it. Too cool.

The advantage of my Multitool, instead of just pulling stuff from my inventory, was that tools I stored in it could receive buffs. Using any of them leveled up my [Tool User] proficiency. Right now it was at [Novice] which granted me a 2% efficiency boost and reduced the likelihood I accidentally cut myself or chopped off my foot. I had a nice experience bar for it, showing I was nearly a quarter of the way into Novice.

I was making good time until I got to the river. The mucky green-brown water ran fast here. Boulders stuck out, the water breaking white around them. It looked deep. Fortunately, I had no intention of swimming. I swapped out Read the Dev Notes for Double Jump, tested it a couple of times, and then activated it, leaping from the bank to the first of the boulders.

I crossed the river quickly, but as soon as I landed on the other side, something erupted from the bank, rushing at me. I didn't have time to pull my weapon from inventory. On instinct, I activated my very first ability, Pause Game. The world around me paused. It was only a five-second freeze. That was long enough for me to pull a grenade from my inventory, shove it into the gaping mouth of the monstrous catfish that had leapt up onto the bank to try to swallow me.

I jumped back as the time stop faded. The grenade went off, exploding the catfish’s head into chunks. I had my gun out and fired a couple more rounds for good measure, but the catfish's headless body flopped around on the riverbank. Even at this range some of my shots missed. How was that possible?

I approached gingerly and extracted a skill seed. My book allowed me to sort my known skills into categories: offensive, mobility, defensive, and utility. That would come in handy as my skill choices increased. I’d already added two actives and a passive to my starting six, and I’d been here only a few hours. I was a bit worried that I had no offensive skills at all yet, and hoped that would change.

I swept wide as I hunted for my next clue, flushing out prey. I had less than two hours on my “save the children” countdown timer when at last I spotted a plume of smoke on the horizon. I’d gotten my Tool User proficiency halfway through Novice and picked up four new skills that felt almost too good, like they’d been tailored for me. I wasn’t sure I liked that idea at all.

The smoke plume was coming from a blind canyon. It started out wide but narrowed as it went along, zigging and zagging. A small stream of water ran down the middle, and I had to hop across every few meters or step down into the water.

The walls of the canyon rose above me, towering over my head, grey, yellow, and orange sandstone, rough and cool to the touch. Little bushes clung to the walls. At one point, the canyon narrowed, the walls overhead coming together almost enough to block the sun. I hesitated before passing underneath. An enormous pile of weathered wood was lodged in the narrow crack above me. If it had washed there by some enormous flood then the water must have come four or five meters up the canyon wall. I hoped there was no chance of that happening while I was here.

I continued on, and the slot canyon widened out a bit. The walls were lower here and the stream ran between wide sandy banks. Lizards basked on the sand, and I saw footprints here, all muddled up together.

I was no expert tracker, but I activated Analyze. Information popped up: six humans, one Grignarian — whatever that was — and one orc passed here within the last five hours.

The other footprints belonged to a band of a dozen rustlers led by a Necromancer — capital letters and all — who have followed them.

Well, that didn't sound good, but at least I had an idea of what to expect. A necromancer would have minions, while the rustlers were likely going to be fighters, probably ranged. They must have treed all eight of the kids. Perhaps they were paralyzed with fear in whatever hiding place they’d found.

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I could still see the smoke. I guessed that it was an attempt by the bad guys to smoke out their quarry. I checked my timer. I still had a little over an hour. I didn't want to waste any of it, but there was no reason to hurry into a trap.

I studied the land carefully. Ahead the canyon narrowed again. Here where it was wide there was room to climb out and onto the higher ground. That looked like a good way to procided without getting caught in a tight spot.

I scrambled up the slope. From above I was able to circle ahead . from here the canyon was only a crack in the ground. It was astounding that there was a whole passage down below. What was even more amazing is that I’d heard real places on earth were something like this.

I proceeded cautiously following the crack in the ground. Here and there it widened out. The finally it opened up into a round hole in the ground dozens of meters across. I peered down into the pit.Fifty feet below an entire mob of men wearing dark blue Levi’s, vests, bandanas, and black cowboy hats.

At the front of the pack was an eight-foot-tall black-robed figure. He had a hood pulled down over his head and a staff taller than I was in one hand. The staff had a skull atop it.

Beside him were half a dozen humanoid skeletons. They milled about in front of the dark opening, with the fire between them and it. It looked to me like they'd lit it, trying to smoke out someone but that didn’t make…

Then I spotted them. In the shadows half way up the cliff was a ledge. On it were a cluster of dark shapes. They seemed to be keeping low out of of the line of sight of those below but the smoke fire below their ledge told me they had been spotted.

I retreated a little ways and considered my options. I didn't have a good way of taking on this many people. I could try to lure them away, but odds were they'd send a couple after me and keep the kids bottled up.

I scanned through my inventory, looking for something that jumped out at me. I considered and discarded several ideas before I found exactly what I needed, a Keyed Swap Beacon Misfits Guild had given me. It had a 50-meter range and could only be used by people in my party. Now just needed a way to get it down to them and contact them.

Suddenly a message popped up from Sage Williams.

Hello Colin. Who are you and what are you doing here?

For a moment I just looked at in surprise. Finally I replied back, How'd you get my contact info?

It's not hard to find friendlies in the same area. You’re in my guild.

Of course. I felt stupid for not thinking of it.

A moment later Sage messaged again. What's your plan?

Have you heard of a swap beacon?

Her reply was almost instant. Hah! Good call. Then a moment later. Give me a minute to let everyone know and then toss it down. Sage tossed me a quick group invite. I joined and was immediately plunged into a group chat where five or six people were all asking questions at once.

We don't have time for questions, Sage was saying. Just be ready.

I took a deep breath, placed one end of the locator beacon on the ground well back from the edge. Then I stepped the the edge and gauged the distance. I hadn’t been into sports since my injury and suddenly I had doubts about my throwing arm. A boom echoed from below and chips of rock sprayed from the cliff edge near me. I had been spotted. I stepped quickly back from the edge out of sight.

The necromancer is casting something. You better hurry.

I grimaced, I hated it admit it but… I don’t think I can hit your ledge from here. Give me a second to think of something.

She replied before I could dive back into my inventory. Just throw it down. I’ll do the rest.

I hesitated. I could think of something if I just had time. Then the Necromancer’s spell finished and the dead started crawling out of the solid rock all around me.

I tossed the beacon. It arced up over the hole and started to fall. Before it had dropped more than a meter something darted up out of the hole and snagged it out of the air. A rope. In an instant the beacon was gone.

The skeletons were still prying themselves lose from the rock so I took a chance and a moment to glanced over the cliff. Far below a slim figure on the ledge held up the beacon triumphantly. In her other hand she had a loop of rope.

What kind of girl was this?

Down below, the rustlers began firing their revolvers. Two of the kids on the ledge below performed a combo move. I couldn't make out the details, but the bullets bounced off whatever they were using to shield themselves. Meanwhile, Sage was yelling directions to her team. "Amaya, you first!" She sent me a message. "Colin, clear up there?"

I sat down at my end of the beacon and backed away. "It's clear. Send them through."

A moment later, a dark-skinned girl stumbled out from away from the beacon. I extended a hand to steady her and nudged her away. A moment later, a human boy appeared, followed by the weirdest looking alien I'd ever seen. It made me think of a drooping plant made of rubber as it shambled away from the beacon.

Seconds later, they were all up, Sage appearing last of all. Shots ricocheted off the edge of the cliff.

"Let's get clear," I urged.

"We couldn't climb the cliff. What makes you think they can?" one of the kids asked.

"You want to stay here and risk it?" I challenged.

“Run!” Sage ordered, and they all took off cross-country after me.