The scream echoed through his mind as Max jerked his head around. Were they under attack? He swung his arm back to his backpack and fumbled one handed with a side pouch. He pulled out a long knife and dropped into the martial arts stance he had trained in for years.
Everyone was looking around but no enemies appeared. The dense jungle hemmed them in from every side, the vibrant flora looming over the newcomers. It was quiet, no sounds besides the wind blowing, not even insects chirping. Max took a step back, but the entryway to the tower was already blocked by people who had thought to run before he did. He looked back to see if anything had jumped out of the jungle.
He saw Ebba standing alone. Two hands were resting on her thighs, touching the pockets there. The other two hands held weapons. One was a bone knife covered in scrimshaw and the other looked like a large stick. It might be a magic wand, but Max thought it looked like she had picked up a stick off the ground.
Just then, a hairy monster burst out of the foliage. It was a huge green cat, its head was taller than Ebba’s seven foot frame. It had six legs and a mouthful of jagged spikes for teeth. Each claw was long and thin, like knives on every paw. The claws cut the surrounding plants with ease and bits of greenery exploded out as the monster jumped forward.
The monster saw Ebba first and leapt at her. It covered fifteen feet in a single bound and had its two forepaws swinging as it landed. Ebba took a short step back and stood there motionless. The great cat put its forelegs down and looked around in confusion. It was standing directly in front of Ebba, but it was acting like it had lost sight of her.
Now that it was standing still, Max was able to tell the cat didn’t have fur, it was covered in long spikes. He was sure that if it brushed by him, he would be torn to shreds. He took another step back, and ran into Yang. She was holding on to Lily and trying to push her into the tower. The dozens of people crowding the doorway created a bottleneck. There was plenty of room inside, but those safely inside wanted to see what was going on so they didn’t get out of the way.
Max turned back to the spiky cat and cursed himself. He should have gotten his real weapons out when he had the chance. He knew there were monsters in this new world, but all he had to defend himself right now was a knife.
The monster had grown frustrated and let out a screeching howl. Ebba was unperturbed. She ducked out of the way of a wild swipe of its claws and counterattacked. Her lower arms came together and a ball of blue formed between them. She thrust her hands forward and a thin shard of blue shot out. It was like a shard of glass, one sharp enough to slice off a dozen quills from the monster’s neck.
The six legged cat spun and sliced the air in random directions. It still hadn’t found Ebba even though she was only standing a few feet away. She waited until it stopped flailing about and tossed her scrimshaw knife in the air. The knife paused in the air and then she swung her stick around. The bone knife followed the path of the stick, flying through the air as if held by an invisible hand. She took a few steps towards the cat and swung the stick down. The knife whistled through the air and embedded itself into the nape of the cat’s neck.
An instant after the knife was in, a sudden wave of electricity passed through the cat. It grunted and fell to the ground, twitching. Ebba curled her hands in a smile. She reached to her pockets and pulled out a long spear, one that couldn’t possibly have fit inside.
The monster was still alive, trying to get up, but whenever it seemed like it was about to get up, Ebba twitched her stick. That jostled the knife and sent the cat twitching to the ground once more. She stepped forward and viciously stabbed her spear into the monster’s skull. It died instantly.
Ebba pulled on the spear, but it caught on the bone. The lifeless head bounced up and down while she jiggled her weapon. Eventually, she got it off. She twirled the weapon to get rid of some of the blood and then wiped the rest on a nearby bush. An orb slowly rose from the monster’s body, about fist sized and glowing yellow and purple. Ebba quickly grabbed it and stuffed it in a pocket.
Max gathered his courage and walked over to her. “Thanks for saving us from that monster. Are there more of them out there?”
“More Quill Cats? Without a doubt. They are endemic on this layer,” Ebba said and slid her spear into a pocket way too small for it. “Likely none nearby though. They all have their territories.”
Once the spear was put away she said, “Butchering them is hardly worth the effort so I try to avoid them. In fact, it’s strange that this one found us. I have protections against that kind of thing. Something must have drawn it in.”
She walked off, following the path of destroyed vegetation. Max followed her, James close behind. They walked through the forest a short while and came across a grizzly scene. It was a dead body of one of the portal jumpers. It was covered in green quills and had a crushed skull. Max turned away, but not before he recognized who it was. It was that obese man that had traded magic cards with Yang.
Max shivered and felt bile rising up. The copper tang of blood crept into his nostrils. He clamped down on his stomach and emotions. He wasn’t going to fall apart. This wasn’t the first dead body he had seen, he could handle this. After a long moment, the feeling passed. He followed the purple skinned Lunuk back to the group.
“You seem like you can direct your fellows. Gather everyone here so they can listen,” Ebba said to Max. “I see we need to have the Spinworld talk sooner than expected.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Max wasn’t sure why she had picked him. He didn’t seem like a leader at all. Maybe just because he was the closest human. He walked over to the tower and loudly said, “The danger is over. The monster is dead and more won’t be coming. Ebba wants to talk to us all, everyone come on over.”
It took a little more prodding to get everyone to leave the tower, but eventually, they all gathered around Ebba. James and Lily stood by Max, with Yang behind them. Everyone was standing huddled together, close to their friends. The adventurous five, the Chinese four, the gun enthusiasts, even the loners had grouped up. There wasn’t enough room for them to stand comfortably, the jungle and the quill cat hemmed them in from both sides.
Ebba pointed at the monster corpse and said, “This world is a dangerous place. Everything will kill you if you let it. You humans may think you know everything, but when it comes to Spinworld, you are hatchlings. Follow me to the next clearing and I will tell you what it takes to survive.”
She turned with a swish of her silver tunic and strode away. Max was quick to follow. She followed the path the quill cat had cut through the forest. Along the way, she passed by the body of the obese man. The fragment card hovered over his caved-in chest and she snatched it as she walked by.
Max assumed that she was leading them by the body to hammer home the danger they were all in. He kept his lunch, but there were several that didn’t. He was glad to be in the front of the line and didn’t have to smell that. He felt vaguely guilty about the man’s death, but he knew it wasn’t his fault. There was no need to borrow guilt, he had plenty on his own.
Ten minutes later they arrived at a clearing in the dense jungle. Several tall trees had been cut down, mashing down the undergrowth as they fell. The cuts on the trunks were precise, but at an angle. Like someone had an impossibly sharp sword and they had cut the trees down in a single stroke as they walked by. At least Max hoped it was a person. He shuddered to think about a monster with the ability to cut through a six foot wide trunk in a single blow.
Ebba hopped on top of one of the tree trunks and pointed up. “Look up there, that’s Spinworld. It’s huge, it’s magnificent, and it’s going to try and kill you every day. You need to listen to me if you want to live.”
Max looked up and swayed on his feet. He heard gasps and thuds as people fell over after looking up. The world curved up around them. There was no horizon, no sky, only land curving up and around them. There were bands of flat land separated by tall mountain ranges. He saw two bands before it curved up and out of his view.
He could see the sun sitting in the middle of the world, brilliant but not so bright that he couldn’t stare right at it. The light was white, a purer white that he was used to back on Earth.
“It’s a Dyson Sphere. The whole world is a Dyson Sphere,” Max said in awe.
“I know I’ve heard of a Dyson Sphere, but I’m not sure I remember correctly,” Lily said as she looked up in wonder. “It’s where aliens build a huge dome completely around their sun and harvest all of the solar energy, right?”
Max replied, “Yeah, that’s what it means. The ability to build something like this is so far beyond us. I can’t even wrap my head around it.”
James shuffled to the side and tilted his head, “I don’t know. I don't think this is big enough. We can see most of the sphere from here, but with a true Dyson Sphere, we wouldn’t be able to see that far. This is a Land of the Lost situation.”
Max nodded, “You mean the new one with Will Ferrell? Ok, yeah, I can see that. You might be right.”
“A little help for us that didn’t waste our lives watching movies?” Yang said irritably.
“It’s an inside out world. The sun up there is just a tiny one, and we are in the center of the earth or something. This whole area is probably only as big as Ohio,” Max replied without looking back.
“That’s still pretty big,” Lily said. “Besides, Ohio sucks. I’m saying this world is the size of Kentucky. That’s a way better state.”
Max shrugged and didn’t reply. It was unimportant compared to the majestic beauty in front of him. The mountains were gray and snow topped, but the bands of land between them were vibrant green with splotches of different colors. A bit of violet, orange, and blue broke up the carpet of green. He wasn’t sure, but it looked like the jungle didn’t continue on to the other side of the mountain. It looked like a temperate forest, and the next band was grasslands. There were rivers snaking through the land with occasional cities throughout.
“Return your gaze to me, hatchlings,” Ebba said in an exasperated voice. “You need to know about how mana will change your life. You saw earlier that the quill cat attacked a person that walked only a few steps away from me. All animals need mana to survive. Predators see you as a concentrated source of mana now that you have a magic card.”
“Are the monsters hunting us now?” Kathrin called out.
“Yes. If they smell your mana on the wind or see your glow through the trees, they will come after you. Your low level will make you attractive prey,” Ebba answered.
“Are you going to protect us? Is that why you are here?” Max spoke up.
“Yes,” Ebba replied. “Although the task of protecting you here is negligible. Beasts do not wander far. Unfortunately, you cannot stay here.”
“Why not?” Max said.
Ebba raised her hands to the sky, “The mana, it changes more than just your scent. It destroys the delicate balance your technology needs to work, and if you stay here, it will do the same to your bodies. In a moment, the builder’s system will talk to you and then I can explain what I can do for you. We will wait so you understand the stakes.”
There was a collective intake of breath and the group stared off into space. Nothing happened. They waited longer, starting to grow bored.
Ebba mumbled to herself. “Whale shit. I thought they said ten minutes. What did I do wrong...”
She continued to talk to herself, but Max wasn’t listening anymore. He was completely distracted by a blue message that had appeared in his vision.
Mandatory Quest
Your body cannot handle the high quantities of mana in the local area. Although mana is normally beneficial, healing wounds and strengthening bodies, your biology hasn't adjusted to it yet. Return to a low mana area within [28] cycles or you will develop incurable cancer.