The portal room was a vision of chaos. It was packed with Surveyors, many of whom looked vaguely disoriented in the mass of people entering and leaving the vortex. Alex stepped around a group of new E ranks who were looking for their Vanguard, and made her way over to where Joanna and Audrey were waiting, pressed up against the wall.
“Alex, so glad you could join us.” Joanna shook her head.
Alex winced. “Sorry, my run lasted a bit longer than I thought it would.” She’d spent extra time on the wall, hoping to push herself that much harder. Marathoning had gone up another level, but she was still nervous that she was going to fall short.
Audrey shook her head and laughed. “You really went on another run today? Aren’t you going to be tired enough?”
“I’ll be fine.” She gave them a smile, though her legs did ache a little. Meditation had removed some of the fatigue, but not everything. There just hadn’t been enough time. “Have either of you done a Salvage Survey before?”
Joanna shook her head, and so did Audrey. Alex sighed. “Well, I guess it’ll be a new experience for everyone, right?”
She just hoped it would be a good one.
[D Rank Surveyor Alex, Gatekeeper]
[Ascension Level: 6]
[Role: Porter (Role Skills: None]
[Role Level: 1]
[Experience: 420/2800]
[Attributes: Strength -> 6, Speed -> 10, Life -> 2, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]
[Current Skills: Combat Balance(22), Meditation(25), Marathoning(22), Melee–Axe(25)]
[Permanent Skills: Battle Maneuvers(17)]
[Current Titles: Empress of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by five.),
Aggression (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, Combined Arms, and Combat Balance Skills by five.),
Fated Hero (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by five),
Relentless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, and Marathoning by three.)]
Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery Skills by three.)
Inborn Warden (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by four.)
Internal Calm (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, and Sense by two.)
Alex looked over her abilities for a moment, her eyes lingering on Marathoning. If she wanted to put the next step into her advancement forward, she needed to gain three more levels in that Skill by the end of the mission. It would mean a lot of running, but it would be more than worth it.
[Please select your intent]
[Exploration]
[Vengeance]
[Patrol]
[War]
[Salvage]
She selected Salvage, wondering what sort of Quest she was about to be given. Hopefully it would be something as simple to clear as Patrol and War turned out to be.
[Your intent is to Salvage]
[Quest Issued! Gain three Hidden Flowers.]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
[Hidden Quest Issued!]
She frowned at the text, confused for a moment. She’d never heard of a Hidden Flower before; most of her mother’s stories mentioned Quests that were probably more like War, Patrol, or Vengeance rather than Salvage. Then she shrugged. All she really needed was to complete her Skills, and things would be far clearer going forward.
Alex relaxed, and the light swept her far from home…
As they stepped out into the other world, Alex sighed. “Anyone know what a Hidden Flower is?”
Audrey shook her head and chuckled. “Maybe we could ask our resident telepath.”
Joanna glared at her. “Shut up, Audrey.”
Alex blinked. It wasn’t something that either Surveyor had mentioned before. “You took Arcane–Mind?”
The Adept nodded. “Yeah. Even Chained it with Inspect.” Then she shrugged her shoulders. “It turned out to give me Mental Search, but it doesn’t help all that much. I can mostly just explore my own mind or someone else’s if I’m touching them.”
“She keeps asking me if I want to volunteer to help her train it, but I think having my own voice in my head is bad enough.” Audrey chuckled a bit. “Feel free to volunteer, though, Al.”
Alex shook her head. Even if she wasn’t keeping secrets, it seemed like a bad idea. “No thanks, sorry.” Joanna looked a little disappointed, so she tried to continue in a hopeful voice. “Does it work on Grue? Maybe we could pin one down for you.”
Joanna paused, her eyebrows rising. “Maybe. Never actually tried it before.”
“We might as well give it a shot. Is the rest of your magic coming along?”
The Adept nodded. “Yeah. I’ve already got Concentrate–Thermal, and I am working on Focus and Arcane–Time to go along with it. That and Seraphblade should keep me okay.” She shook her head, her expression going a bit sour. “Makes it hard not to be a frontline fighter, though. Always thought I should be a backline person.”
“Lucky I can make up for it, then.” Audrey stretched, her kanabo still in her hands. The club looked like it had been enhanced far beyond any of Alex’s equipment. “I took Heavy Assault for my Permanent, and I’ve already Chained my way up to Evasion. Working on getting Blocking up so I can take Weapon Mastery, and from there I’ll get Blade Dance. Heard that’s a good one.”
Alex nodded easily, though she winced internally. It sounded like they were so far behind in their Skill development. What kind of obstacles had Wells been putting in front of them? “Okay, so first things first. Let’s find where these flowers are, and then we can work on knocking out some of the Hidden Quests for you. We should be able to get most of that taken care of.”
They nodded, and together they set out across the broken city. All they had to do was find a patrol, and then they’d put Joanna’s powers to the test. Failing that, they could find some kind of map to guide them. There had to be some way to find what they needed, right?
It turned out that Joanna’s ability did indeed work. When they met the first patrol, Alex led them into battle and scattered their opponents, killing the Brute and the Archers with very little trouble. Joanna lashed out with waves of fire and hedges of ice. Alex saw one Knight lumber forward to attack her, only to freeze in place when Joanna threw out her hand, allowing the Adept to duel another with her flaming sword.
Audrey, on the other hand, simply hammered her way through the assembled Grue. Every swing of her kanabo sent monsters flying, and at one point she simply shattered a Knight’s shield outright. The wild laughter didn’t make her seem any closer to sane, but then again, Alex didn’t think that sanity was really her goal.
In the end, Joanna managed to freeze one of the Knights again, and when it got free, Audrey broke its legs and Alex wounded its arms so that they could force it down. Joanna reached out to its head hesitantly, and then closed her eyes.
The instant that she touched the thing’s mind, Alex could see Joanna tense and grimace. “Ugh. It’s just… it’s like wading through a sewer.”
“See if you can find anything for the Flowers.” Alex fought to keep the thing’s shield arm pinned as it struggled and thrashed. Audrey grinned at her from where she held its sword arm motionless on the pavement. Joanna paused long enough to glare at her and then closed her eyes again.
“Hold on… hold on…” The Knight’s thrashing grew worse for a moment, and then Joanna nodded. “Got it.” She delivered a single lethal thrust with her sword, and the Grue went limp. As the bodies began to burn, Joanna stepped back and shook her head.
[Hidden Quest Progress: 1 of 8 targets destroyed]
[Hidden Quest Progress: 6 of 24 targets destroyed]
Alex shook her head to dismiss the text. “Where are we headed?”
Joanna spared her a quick glance as she unfurled the crude map the company had provided. “Some place they called an Outpost. It’s up on top of one of those skyscrapers.”
“Wait, an Outpost?” Alex groaned. She’d heard plenty of times about Outposts. Her mother had not been a fan.
Audrey chuckled to herself. “Let me guess. You have a ‘hunch’ that those are pretty bad?”
“You could say that.” Alex paused, trying to figure out how to phrase it. “You know how Camps produce new Grue? And how they only show up every so often because the magic level of the portal has increased?”
The others nodded, and Alex sighed. “Well, Outposts are what happens when there are enough Camps scattered around. The Camps themselves don’t produce a ton of advanced Grue, though, or at least not enough to send out on patrols or to protect important stuff.”
Joanna blinked. “Do Brutes count as special?”
“Yeah. So do Killers and worse.” Alex clenched her teeth for a moment before she continued. “To get those, they need to set up Outposts where they harvest some of the special materials they need. They tend to be really well guarded, too.”
The Adept nodded. “The thing saw a lot of Brutes and Killers up there.” She shivered. “Are we sure we want to deal with this? We could always just try to get by on patrols.”
Audrey grinned. “I think we should do it. Why not at least hit this place?”
Alex glanced back and forth between them. “I agree. Better to face it, at least. We can always run if we need to.”
Joanna grunted. “I suppose I should have expected that answer from the Valkyrie.” Alex twitched at the nickname, but Joanna didn’t seem to notice or care. “All right then, let’s go. If we’re doing this, we need to reach the place before I lose my memory of the place.”
They gathered up the materials the Grue had left behind, and then they started off again through the city, with the sounds of battle elsewhere echoing off the buildings around them.
They ran into another three patrols on their way to the building that housed the outpost. Each time, Alex went through the Brute at the center of the pack like a battering ram, butchering her way through to the Archers while the others mopped up the Knights. Each fight proceeded just a little more easily as her Skills climbed, and by the time they reached the skyscraper, Alex was starting to actually feel confident.
Then she looked up… and up. “What floor is the Outpost on?”
“The very top.” Joanna looked grim.
Audrey grunted. “How many stories is that? Twenty? Thirty? It’ll be like running a marathon to get up there.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Alex perked up at the Squire’s words. She looked up at the towering building, her mind working through the possibilities. “Do you guys… think I could scout ahead? With my Skills I can probably run up those stairs pretty quickly.”
Joanna gave her a skeptical look. “You’re sure you aren’t going to wear yourself out? We have to fight at the top, remember.”
“I should be fine.” It should also be enough to gain her at least one level in Marathoning, which seemed even more important. “As long as we stick to the stairwell, we shouldn’t get jumped on the way either, and if I get ambushed, I’ll just retreat.”
“Sure you will.” Audrey snorted and shook her head. “Look at it this way, Jo, at least she asked permission to run off and do something crazy. I think she won’t try to take on the Outpost alone.”
The Adept sighed. “Fine. We’ll see you at the top.” Alex nodded and started up the stairs, her legs pumping hard. One way or the other, she needed to make this Survey work for her, and no matter how much her legs burned, the struggle up the stairs would be part of it.
[Marathoning advances to 24!]
Alex paused at the landing before the last stairway up. She’d run up countless stairs on her way up the building. It had to have been at least thirty floors, maybe thirty-five, and now her legs were burning badly. Even Marathoning’s power hadn’t been able to keep her from breathing hard.
Luckily, she still had Meditation to make up for her fatigue, and there hadn’t been any sign of Grue in the stairway. She had no doubt that there were probably some prowling through the hallways of the other floors, but they seemed to be ignoring the stairway that she’d taken, which was not a bad thing at all.
She settled in on the landing to meditate, letting the magic of the other world sweep away her aches and pains. Audrey and Joanna weren’t likely to sprint up the stairs, and she figured she would have plenty of time to recover.
Alex wasn’t exactly wrong about that assumption. After what seemed like an eyeblink later, she heard her companions struggling and sweating their way up the stairs. She opened her eyes and grinned as they rounded the landing below her. “Hey guys.”
Audrey glanced back at Joanna. “See… told you.”
Joanna was red-faced and sweating hard. “Shut… up.”
The Squire grinned. “Have you… seen… the Outpost?”
Alex shook her head. “I was just waiting for you guys.” She stood up, feeling only a slight twinge in her legs. “Should we go see what we are up against?”
A handful of minutes later, Alex stared out across the rooftop garden. Her friends were crouched beside her, panting softly. She’d given them a bit of a break to try to recover their stamina, but now they were all trying to breathe quietly. Audrey summed it up for all of them a moment later. “That is a lot of… everything.”
Alex had to agree. So far she’d counted at least twenty Knights, and about as many Archers. There were at least six Brutes too, with about the same number of Killers. There didn’t seem to be any Soldiers milling about, but there didn’t need to be, not with that number of advanced Grue waiting around to attack any intruders.
She looked back at her friends, both of whom were still obviously winded from the climb. In the open, they’d do all right, but it would be dangerous. They would run the risk of being overwhelmed by an avalanche of enemies.
Joanna seemed to be making the same calculations as well. “Any ideas? I don’t want to get squashed today.”
Audrey shook her head. “I’m not… all that… stealthy. Don’t think we can… sneak in.”
Alex nodded slowly. Her mind went back to how she’d handled the Camps on her own, back when Paul’s team had betrayed her. She looked back at the stairwell and thought back to the time they had taken on their first Camp. “Huh.”
The others looked at her, their eyes a little concerned. Joanna spoke first. “You aren’t thinking of something crazy, are you?”
“Maybe.” Alex smiled. “What if we have you guys hide in the door one floor down? I can hit the Outpost and run back down the stairs. Then when they run past you, you can come out and hit them from behind.”
Audrey stared at her with wide eyes for a moment, and then chuckled softly. “You sure you’re not trying to kill them all yourself?”
Alex grinned at her. “No. Believe me, you’ll have to hit them hard, but it will be easier to deal with them all this way.” She glanced back down the stairs. “They’ll only be able to come at us one or two at a time, and if it gets really bad, I can always just run down a flight or two of stairs to give you more time. What do you think?”
Joanna stayed quiet for a moment longer. Then she nodded. “We’ll hit them as hard as we can, but don’t let them overrun you. Get out of there if you need to; don’t worry about us.”
She nodded, not trusting herself to say it. There was no way she was going to abandon her friends, no matter what Joanna said. “It’ll work out. Like that first time we cleared a Camp, right?” The others smiled at that memory, and then she shooed them back down the stairs. “Go get in position. I’ll hit them soon.”
A few minutes later, Alex was breathing easily and trying to prepare herself. Just because she’d run into a Camp on her own before didn’t make her any happier to be doing it again now.
Still, there weren’t a lot of other options. Her friends had disappeared downstairs a few minutes ago. She could wait a little longer and let them get their feet under themselves a bit more. In the end though…
Alex stepped out into the rooftop garden. It was the verdant playground of some idle rich family, one that would have provided a flourishing carpet of green in the middle of a city filled with concrete and steel. A glass dome rose overhead, providing a shield against the elements; the permanently grey sky glowered at her through broken panels and dusty windows.
She ignored all of it and crept forward. A pair of Knights were idling along the part of the garden closest to her. Alex waited until they’d almost reached her, crouching down behind a half-shattered planter.
Then she jumped on them, axe already flashing as she yelled a warcry.
The first Knight went down almost immediately. She gave the second one just enough time to bark in shock and rage before she took it down as well. Then she ran back to the staircase as the howls rose behind her. Arrows whistled through the air, and she spun to catch two heavy blows on her shield. The Killers were already drawing back their second shots as she dashed through the doorway and into the staircase below.
Alex ran down the stairs, her boots thundering down the concrete. More arrows slapped against the walls, but she ignored them as she hit the next landing and pivoted to her left to continue running downward. She caught a flash of the first Grue already shoving their way into the stairwell and grinned. It looked like some Knights had managed to reach the opening first, so they’d be the first ones she needed to kill.
She kept running down the steps, hearing the enemy thundering down the stairwell after her. They weren’t catching up as fast as she’d expected; if anything, it seemed like she was actually gaining distance on the creatures, something that would probably only enrage them further. Alex wound her way down six floors of stairs, careful to keep just in sight of her pursuers.
Then, breathing easily, she reached the next landing and stopped. Backing away from the stairs themselves, she readied herself for the incoming rush of Grue and waited. Her breathing was still steady, and her legs only hurt a little from pounding down the steps so quickly. Hopefully, the Grue wouldn’t be quite as well-off in terms of their stamina.
Alex didn’t need to wait long. Two Knights came hurtling down the stairs towards her. Because of where she’d stood, they couldn’t just barrel down the stairs towards her; they had to pause and turn to face her, something that robbed them of their possible momentum.
She caught them as they tried to manage the feat. Her shield slammed into a Knight’s shield, shoving it off balance and making it stumble into its friend. For a heartbeat, they were thrashing and fighting each other rather than her, a fact that made it all the easier for her to cut them to pieces with her axe.
A terrible howl rose from her right, and Alex ducked beneath a Brute’s hammer. She spun, building momentum, and smashed its backhanded blow with her shield. The counterattack threw the Brute off. As it staggered, stumbling over the corpses of the Knights and turned half in the wrong direction, she hamstrung both of its legs. The thing went to its knees, and Alex dodged an incoming Knight’s sword so that she could plant her axe in the back of the Brute’s head.
More Grue were charging in now, and Alex backed up to make sure they couldn’t just dive at her from the other landing. Her axe cut and hooked them, her shield blocked and battered them, and another three Knights went down before a second Brute smashed their bodies aside to make room for itself. This one tried to take a moment and kick a space clear for it to stand, but the Brute behind it tried to shove forward, making it trip over a shattered Knight’s sword.
Alex was on the Brute before it could recover. She had to back away again, or risk being crushed by the Brutes behind it, but when she danced back, she left yet another Grue on the floor with its throat cut.
Above her, she heard an explosion of magic and Audrey’s warcry as her friends began their own assault. Alex tried not to glance, keeping her own focus on the creatures clambering over the bodies of their comrades to reach her. At least one Grue corpse fell into the space between the stairs, thumping off of the handrails on its way down. She grinned and continued her own fight, giving ground slowly as the press of bodies continued to spill towards her.
Then abruptly, they were turning to head upwards again, as if the pack had suddenly realized they were being surrounded. Alex’s grin grew as she chased after them, bringing down a Brute that had made the unwise decision to turn its back. She killed a Knight that spun to face her at the last moment, its sword swinging in a desperate bid to ward her off. The blade caught in the handrail, and she laughed as she finished the thing. Alex rushed back up the stairs, cutting down another Knight before it could reach the next landing, and then two more turned and fought her in a delaying action there while the others tried to push back upwards.
Just as she finished shield-checking one of them to the floor while she cut through the other, she heard another explosion, followed by Audrey’s laughter. It couldn’t have been more than three or four floors overhead. Alex grimly finished her work and rushed forward again, facing another Knight on the stairs, and cutting down three more on the landing after that. The ring of steel on steel, mixed with the snapping sound of summoned ice or the roar of searing fire, made the entire stairwell a cacophony.
When Alex made the next turn to go upwards, she found herself facing another Brute, this one standing halfway up the stairs. It turned to regard her with clear malice, its hands clenching around its hammers. She paused, suddenly realizing that she’d been lured into a trap, just before it dropped both weapons and leapt at her.
Alex managed to brace herself and get her shield up, but it didn’t do as much good as she hoped. The Grue smashed her backwards, nearly throwing her into the wall. It tried tearing at her around the shield, its claws scrabbling across the plates and fabric of her armor. One of them nearly reached her eye, barely deflected by the metal of her helmet.
Then she ducked low and chopped at the Brute’s feet and knees. The weapon drove hard through its skin, severing tendons and crunching bone. She felt the strength go out of its push, and she sidestepped it as it tumbled to the floor. Before it could recover, she attacked, axe chopping down again and again.
The sound of footfalls hammering down the stairs told her the other Grue had noticed her, and she jumped back in time to avoid the lunge of a Knight. It and another sword-wielding Grue came at her, their wolf-like features twisted into snarls. Alex met them in a counter charge, pushing them back hard enough that their expressions briefly became panicked before she cut them down.
As she stood over the pile of Grue corpses, she heard another pair of Brutes coming down at her and grimly set herself to receive them. Then one of them paused on the landing, and Audrey came hurtling down on it like a meteor. Her kanabo came around with all the force of a cruise missile, and the Brute’s skull crunched as it was thrown back into the wall.
The last one crouched as if it was ready to pounce at Alex, despite the bad angle, and she braced herself again. Then it froze in place, suddenly utterly still. Joanna hopped the handrail from the stairs above, landing a little clumsily in front of the Brute. Her sword glowed an angry, white-hot color as she drove it into the frozen Brute, slicing up through it like it was made of nothing but the smoke it seemed to be.
Just that quickly, the battle was over. All three of them had a heartbeat to grin at each other, their shoulders heaving as they tried to catch their breath.
Then the corpses began to ignite, and they were forced to dodge the flashes of purple around them. Audrey laughed, her voice still a little breathy. “Just like… old times, Al!”
Alex rolled her eyes, and orange text flared to life.
[Hidden Quest Completed!]
[Hidden Quest Completed!]
[Battle Maneuvers advances to 24!]
Apparently, she’d managed to kill enough Knights and Brutes to finish those tasks, at least. All she had left was to find the Flowers. She shook her head and started collecting materials. All that mattered was that they would finish the Survey. Everything else was a bonus.
[Main Quest Completed!]
Alex frowned down at the dark-colored, tulip style flowers in her hand. They glowed softly under the grey sky, veins of purple energy running along their stem and petals. It had taken a while to find all three, but she’d managed. Joanna and Audrey had found theirs a little quicker, but they’d needed a bit more time to rest afterward, anyway.
She looked over and waved to them where they were lounging on the step that led up to the stairway. “Got the last one! We can probably just head back now.”
Joanna snorted. “About time. Let’s go. Hopefully those stairs aren’t as bad on the way down.”
Audrey groaned as she stood up, clearly unhappy at the prospect of going down all thirty-odd floors. “Well, as long as we get home and sleep.” Then she paused. “Though maybe you should let us handle the Brutes now? I think you have your Quests, but I still need another one for mine.”
“Same here. If the illustrious Valkyrie could spare some.”
Alex rolled her eyes. “Sure, sure. Let’s see if we can find a couple of patrols. Then we’ll all go home happy.”
“Or as close to it as Jo gets.”
“Shove it, Audrey. Go find something to smack your head against.”
Alex rolled her eyes as they started off down the stairs. It was looking to be a good day, after all.
[Mission Report]
[Successful Return! +20 Experience]
[Main Quest Completed! +120 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]
[All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! +80 Experience]
Yet another full clear, probably despite Wells’ expectations. Alex grinned to herself and then turned a gloating eye to the report on her Skills.
[Battle Maneuvers increased from 17 to 25!]
[Combat Balance increased from 22 to 25!]
[Marathoning increased from 22 to 25!]
She’d made it. Marathoning’s last level had come through just as they had charged at the last patrol of the day; it had made her warcry just that much more triumphant. Now she was ready to set the last of her plans into motion for her Skills.
[Combat Balance has reached level 25! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]
[Reset Combat Balance to gain a Title?]
She agreed immediately. The higher she could get the Skill, the better off she’d be against Wells. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to a direct fight, but still...
[Title Inborn Warden upgraded to Title True Sentinel (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by five.)]
She ignored the offers to reset Meditation, Marathoning, and Melee—Axe. It had taken too much effort to ignore her plans for two of those Skills now.
[Skill Chain available. Do you wish to combine Meditation and Marathoning?]
[Warning: Chained Skills lose all previous levels]
Alex grinned as she accepted the change. Power rushed through her, surging through muscles that weren’t nearly as exhausted as they should have been.
[Skill Chain unlocked! Skills Meditation and Marathoning removed. Skill Motion Trance gained! Skill Chain bonus gained! Title Relentless upgraded to Title Endless Motion (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, Marathoning, and Motion Trance by three.) Title Internal Calm upgraded to Title Calming Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by two.)]
There was some fatigue now, as that flash of power faded, but Alex still couldn’t stop grinning. She had three top tier abilities, and even if she couldn’t Chain much else until she reached C rank, she’d still be a force to be reckoned with. Besides, she had a hunch that her next run along the wall would be much, much easier.
[Skill Choice available. Please select an additional Skill.]
With yet another sigh, Alex chose Melee–Shield again. It was a little tiresome to make the same selections again, but regaining Combined Arms would be a significant boost to her combat strength. She couldn’t afford to ignore that while Wells was still around, and until he wasn’t, her friends would be depending on her to fight him off if push came to shove.
Her selections made, Alex closed her eyes and let the light take her home…