(Y7, January 21st-February 2nd)

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Quandocor’s Sense of Life and Death suddenly detected the rank 57 Elite presence deep under the ground. He instantly knew what it meant.

“’ware creature. Looks like there is an Umbra Dominus coming.”

“What? I do not get anything that high?” Thalokainy exclaimed.

“I’m not sure they count as being around for your Skill. Since they are immaterial, deep within the ground.”

All of them readied themselves. They knew about the psionic shadow’s capacities. Immutable Minds came up almost immediately, the two Brethren being aware of the Umbra's attack mode.

Since Thalokainy still couldn’t detect anything, Quandocor kept tracking the creature.

“It’s… circling?”

“It’s not attacking?” Goglas asked.

“Seems not.”

“How high is it?”

“Somewhere between 55 and 60, I’d say. That’s my error range for that rank.”

“Not too hard for us thousanders. Maybe even doable solo.”

“It was weak to physical attacks. We were in the two hundreds, with three veterans or almost veterans.”

Quandocor kept turning, tracking the slowly moving presence underground.

“Is it afraid?” Berkleyyan asked.

“No idea. The one we met attacked immediately with its… Oh.”

“What?”

“We’re all shielded.”

Quandocor could almost see the Earthen Brethren facepalm metaphorically.

“It knows it can’t use its main attack.”

“So now what?” Jonkartman asked.

“I assume it will wait in ambush until it can attack. Which means we have to draw it out. Berkleyyan, don’t refresh the Immutable when it drops,” Quandocor asked.

“It’s fixed duration for everyone. The buffs start dropping off in ten seconds.”

“Shield back everyone but me. I’ll draw it out.”

“You’re sure?”

“Lowest level. I still remember having to deal with one of our veterans before we realized we had to shield ourselves. Thankfully, it cannot use the host’s magic Skills but it transfers some psionic ones. Once it’s committed to the attack, it will – should – come out when there are no other targets.”

“In three… two… one.”

Quandocor felt the Umbra stop moving. Then he found himself with his staff half-raised and Theavilast’s hammer blocking it, and the presence he still felt was coming upward.

“Incoming,” he announced, drawing back his staff.

For all of its terrible and otherwise irresistible mind control, the Umbra Dominus proper was as weak as he remembered. Made physical by leaving its chthonic surroundings, it lasted all of nine seconds against the melee surrounding it. It expired noiselessly, the smoky outline of the monster dissipating and leaving only a tiny orb and broken glassy things without any physical corpse.

Psionic Core (lvl ?), ultra-rare crafting component.

Psionic Shard × 2 (lvl 25), rare component.

“Interesting,” Jonkartman said. “The only time I’ve ever heard about that type of component was two months ago, at an auction.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the one we got when coming here. The Valkyrie leader couldn’t find any mention of it, and we sold it since nobody could even identify it, and none of them had skills high enough to craft with it without wasting it. Van said it was 55, based on Aether.”

“That’s the one at auction then. This one’s 59…” the Cotton Road crafter said.

“… and that what my Skills said was the creature rank after it came out,” Thalokainy confirmed.

“May I?” Jonkartman asked.

“Good for me,” Quandocor said, shrugging.

As they started again walking east, he came along the crafter.

“Any idea what it’s for?”

“Not a common recipe, that’s for sure. Ultra-rare designation things never are; it’s only the common stuff that people design easy, clean recipes around that are. I wasn’t at the auction, but I think it was won by a Gamma crafter. Probably Vongraff. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was not trying to get it into a crafted staff since it is a psionic-tagged item.”

“High-end crafter?”

“A good one. Independent, but wealthy – probably wealthy from Earth too. I think his public profile advertises a 61-skill level in Fittings and 56 in Weaponshaping. Meaning if he gets it right, it could end up with a level 55 staff with psionic properties, given that the Core he got at auction caps it at 55. Probably not as good as dungeon item of that level, but electrum-level prices still.”

Quandocor looked at his staff.

“Well, I’ll keep this one for now. Getting 55 Perception will take a long time. And besides, I’m not a psionicist anyway. Now, if it was for Vantegaard…”

“He uses staves?”

“No, swords. And he also upgraded recently, thanks to our Earthen Brethren buddies.”

“Oh?”

“Traded at 44 item for two 30s.”

“Decent. You can hold on to it for the future, but the bird in hand vs. the two…”

Quandocor laughed.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“It’s two in hand versus one in the bush in this case.”

The Cotton Road crafter laughed.

“Stop destroying my analogies.”

“Sorry…”

The group started walking again as the two kept discussing the crafting aspect of the Umbra.

“What about the shards?”

“Those I know about. They’re relatively rare; you need a significantly psionic creature to get a chance to have some inside the corpse, and those types are usually on the higher end for creatures. That dissipating corpse makes it much easier to get them; otherwise, you need to dissect corpses to see if it has one or some Aetheric sense to detect them. It is good for armor crafting with psionic-related stats, and there is probably a potion or two that can use crushed shards, but the price would be too high for consumables. Alchemy’s not my specialization, so I’m not going to speculate more.”

“Well, three. In a single day.”

“The no-mans-land between Human sectors and the Deva zones must be lousy with them,” Quandocor mused. “We, or those dead Deva, must have been lucky not to encounter more.”

“No wonder there has been not any contact between us. The ranks are not high; you could have an expedition of veterans crossing easily otherwise. Even with the drakes west. But these…” Thalokainy said, “… until you know about them.”

“So much for ultra-rare components,” Goglas said, slapping Jonkartman’s back.

“Not complaining. We will probably have to discuss loot split because if each one drops a core – which seems to be the case so far – even with lowering prices due to supply, we’re still going for silver pieces per. I mean, I’d like to keep all of them for trying my hand at crafting these, but if I have to buy your shares, that’s quickly getting insane.”

“That expedition is historic AND profitable, you mean,” Theavilast said.

“Speaking of which…” Quandocor added, drawing it out.

“Don’t tell me? Another Dungeon?” the Cartographer asked.

“Far range to our North. Only one item, but lots of critters.”

“I don’t even know if I can get that location sold.”

“Maybe Deva will want it,” Thalokainy countered.

Psionic Gem (lvl ?), weird-shaped component.

“New drop,” Quandocor commented.

“Level 51 only. Seven less than the Umbra’s core,” Jonkartman commented. “This one’s possibly good for jewelry. The size screams pendant or flashy ring.”

“It’s been the only one we found today, and it’s evening already. After the last two days, we might be getting outside of their area.”

“If the cores turn out to be reliable for crafting items, I can see regular expeditions coming this way to farm the Umbra Dominus. All it takes is two geomancers with the right Skills…”

“The Earthen Brethren can probably provide those services. New recruits will probably be very happy to find jobs like that, and roughly a third of us have the Skill,” Berkleyyan immediately offered.

The critter looked like one of the weird wolves you’d find everywhere on Northworld, but Thalokainy had highlighted something a bit more out of the ordinary.

“You see, even Pumilus have five digits. This one beast has six,” he said, letting the paw drop.

“So, this is really their territory,” Berkleyyan replied as Quandocor bent and drained the rank-44 creature.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “They do have six digits on their hands. You’ve all seen the items we brought back.”

“You know, I’ve wondered,” Theavilast said. “The critters back in the sectors usually look like weird versions of Earth fauna, the ruins we find look fit for humans, and everything looks… well, fine. Northworld looks like it’s a fantasy Earth.”

“And here, it changes.”

“For the first time. As Thalo said, even Pumilus, which aren’t quite sapient despite their tricks, have five digits. Here, we’re heading into six-digits land.”

“So, each territory has been designed to fit the Gaters.”

“Well in advance.”

“The globe map in the Pyramid showed only the extent of the currently occupied territories, though. And I suppose that, once you figure out what lies between, there is nothing to stop us from coming.”

Theavilast nodded.

“Made to avoid being early?” Thalokainy asked.

“Well, the more questions we have, the more likely we are to find at least one answer,” Berkleyyan said.

“Earthen wisdom,” Goglas joked.

“Targets northeast, about 11 kilometers,” Thalokainy said.

“Targets?”

“Levels 400-plus.”

Everyone whistled. There it was, finally. Something with Gater levels, not critter ranks.

They immediately veered off their current path, heading toward where the scout had remotely sensed the others.

“Any details?” Berkleyyan asked.

“Look like three Gaters. All close levels. I need spend more time in cities to level Skill if I want more precision.”

They started jogging.

Two kilometers away from their targets, they slowed down. As the Brethren officer said, there was no sense making them worry about weird beings bearing down on them at high speed.

Finally, Quandocor spotted the distant silhouettes. From that far, they could easily pass for normal, if tall, Earth Gaters, and he supposed that would be the same for them. Given that the three Gaters they were tracking seemed to walk at an angle to their own course, they probably had not noticed anything yet. No applicable tracking Skill, probably.

The three walked briskly, but not clearly not running. The expedition matched the speed, angling. A few minutes later, the three distant Deva stopped abruptly.

“Spotted.”

“Now, for the moment of truth.”

Close by, the three silhouettes were obviously not actual humans, despite the general human appearance. It wasn’t just the height – all three of them seemed to be just above seven feet – or the odd skin color but also the relative size of the limbs. The shape triggered that uncanny valley effect of being close to humans, without being actual humans or anything in their human experience.

For Quandocor, it also triggered Associative Memory as he recognized the shapes of the four bodies he’d found. Kept nearly intact by the weird delayed decomposition of Northworld, they had looked dead but intact.

If the three Devas looked odd, it was equally obvious that the seven humans did the same for the alien Gaters. One had raised what looked like a spear with many saw-like teeth, while another unrolled one of those weird whip-like weapons they’d found. But the third looked at them intensely, and when they started getting ready, he raised his own spear under the front-liner’s.

“ʌǟĦ ễḥýť ẛḻểṽɞƛ.”

The voices were deep, and the sounds were as weird as the appearance. Quandocor knew people could make all sorts of odd sounds, ranging from those African clicking languages to all sorts of tonal things. But that one would stretch their throats.

“Time for Panglossia,” he said. “Me first, as agreed.”

The three Devas were animatedly chatting. The hands moved up and down in gestures that felt significantly different from the way people punctuated their talk. They immediately stopped and focused on him as he pulled out the Skill Stone from the side pouch where it had been stashed.

Panglossia (skillstone)

Tier 5 Reasoning

Passive/Triggered

All the modes of expression, all the time.

Cost: 23 seconds

Ongoing

He didn’t know why, but they seemed very interested in the stone he kept. He guessed they knew about Skill Stones, although they couldn’t know what this one was.

The seconds ticked as the Stone counted down, one second per point he wasn’t spending. Then the rounded marble went inert… and the voices’ meaning became clear.

“What is it using that for?”

“Am I made of wisdom?”

“Me, I don’t think it’s for an attack. You don’t spend a fortune in Stone to… to do something.”

Quandocor refrained himself from smiling. Fictions about how aliens interpreted teeth display as a threat were ubiquitous, after all.

“It’s to talk,” he said tersely, not entirely trusting his voice to go well.

Hearing himself making odd sounds felt simultaneously weird and normal. He guessed he probably had a thick accent, but his own speech seemed understandable – by himself, at least – despite the abnormal sounds.

“What the?”

“And it is considered cheap. The stone provides language knowledge, with limits.”

The three almost spoke over each other before the one who’d pushed up the spear interrupted.

“What are you? I mean… you’re level 340, I can tell. So you must be a person.”

“True. I am…”

He realized he had the name. Silvergate. There was a name for the Gates – it translated as the Pulling Silver, but it was clearly the right concept. So he could qualify himself.

“… a Pulled. We call it Silver Gater among us.”

“How can you be…”

“It’s from another world,” the whip holder interrupted.

“He, not it,” Quandocor corrected. He hadn’t been sure from the corpses' appearance. But they had genres, two of them. Again, the words for male pronoun vs. female pronoun were there.

It was odd knowing an entire language without having learned it. He looked at his Skill.

Panglossia

Tier 5 Reasoning

Passive/Triggered

All the modes of expression, all the time.

Master language and corporal expression of Gaters.

Languages mastered: 3

Skill level 5 (base 0)

Advancement: 0%

3? Oh, right, probably Thalo and Varmatan.

“People have speculated for ages about who might have built the Second Home…”

Home was the name for Earth, he knew automatically. Or rather, their “Earth”.

“… so we might…”

“I’m sorry, but we are not the world builders. Just your closest neighbor. Among the five.”

“The five?”

“There are Gaters from five different worlds in this Second Home,” he said.

The fun bit about Panglossia was that he could now tell they were totally flabbergasted.

And that smiling was safe, if weird-looking.