“Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.”

Confucius, Chinese Philosopher

“Oh, this kind of bark repels wood ticks if brewed together with oil from those flounders that Samson has been pulling out of the bay,” Rain said excitedly as they followed the river north up the valley. Jagged peaks rose up on either side of them, beautiful and terrifying. “An extract of this moss will help clear up eye infections. Passi! Take this jar and collect that deer scat. It’ll make an excellent addition to our nausea poison.”

“Rain, please don’t ask her to collect deer shit,” Calista sighed, her eyes fixed on the path before them as she scanned for enemies. Rain and Passi meandered this way and that, collecting whatever alchemy ingredients Rain spotted, comfortable with the notion that Calista would spot any dangers before they arrived.

Right now, they seem to be collecting the entire valley. But at least Rain seems happy.

“Fine, fine. Anchovy can collect the scat with his Invisible Hand. Pumpkin, why don’t you collect the purple flowers off that bush instead?”

“What do these do?” Passi asked curiously as she severed the stem of the first flower with her dagger and watched it fall gently down into the jar. She’d collected six more before Rain answered, her wrist flicking across the stems with lightning accuracy.

“It’s an aphrodisiac,” answered Rain with a mischievous grin. “I want to try making it into a poison. Apply a bit of that to your daggers and watch the monsters…”

“Rain! My daughter is not going to fight with your weird sex poisons,” Calista insisted.

“What’s an aphrodisiac?” Passi asked innocently.

Rain ruffled her purple hair. “Auntie Rain will tell you when you’re older. But don’t worry. We’re only an hour away from the meadow, and already the materials are stronger and more versatile than those around the Castle, so I’ll be able to brew you something cool. I wonder if the materials are like the monsters – the further away we get, the stronger they are. Oh, hold on a moment.”

Rain dashed over to a boulder off the animal path they were travelling and pressed her hand flush against it. Channeling her metal magic, she began to draw out the iron particles contained within.

Calista held her arm out and snapped her fingers, summoning her spiritual eagle familiar. Its ghostly form materialized on her outstretched arm as Passi rushed over to scratch under its chin. As usual, her fingers passed right through, but the bird didn’t seem to mind.

“Did you name it yet?” Passi asked hopefully.

“Not yet,” Calista said, as she threw her arm out and launched the eagle into the air.

“Aquila,” called Rain from the boulder. “It’s Latin for eagle. It fits with the whole vibe you have going on.”

“How the hell do you know that?” Calista shouted back.

“Greek history. It was my elective… before I dropped out.”

“It’s a pretty name,” Passi agreed, staring up at the soaring eagle. “You shall be Aquila, right Calista?”

“I… sure, okay Passi,” Calista relented. She’d tried to avoid naming the creature – the severing of their minds when it was unsummoned was painful, as if the eagle died each time – but the combination of Passi and Rain was like kryptonite to her usual stubbornness. “Rain, keep an eye on Passi. I’m going to use… Aquila… to scout ahead.”

Calista took a deep breath and focused on the eagle. She felt her mind drawn into it. A second later, she was looking through the eyes of the spectral predator, able to see across the entire valley with its piercing gaze.

A herd of elk to the west – I’ll need to let Mohammad know when we get back. That waterfall might have a hidden cave behind it. In the east… shit, that bear must be twenty feet tall. And… is that a beak instead of a mouth? I don’t think we want to mess with that. I wonder what…

Her pendant activated, and a new entry to her bestiary was added.

Unique Beast: The Valley Champion

All kneel before he who bests the champion.

The Valley Champion stalks the river to the north of Calista’s Twin Peaks. This alpha predator is known for slicing open the stomach of its prey and feasting upon its innards while it is still alive. In addition to its vicious claws, razor-sharp beak, and colossal toughness, it is able to learn and wield any talents used against it, making this Unique Beast more powerful the longer the battle lasts.

Weaknesses: Fire, Illusion

Recommended Player Level: 34

A unique beast. That changes things. We can get a permanent boost if we bring its meat back to Billy.

Calista closed the eagle’s eyes, and opened her own, her mind returned to her body.

“What’d you see?” Rain asked, carrying a perfectly round sphere of iron in her hand.

“A unique beast at the river bend to the east. Level thirty-four, but I think we can take it.”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Gorath and Fairy Killer were level thirty,” Rain reminded her. “And they weren’t even remotely easy to take down.”

“We’ve got the advantage this time. We’ll ambush it – hit it hard and fast using your poisons. Weapons only though – it can copy talents used against it,” Calista advised. “Passi, it’s too strong for you to fight directly. You stay hidden, and when Rain and I have weakened it enough, you strike it from a distance. That should be enough for you to get some of the experience.”

Passi drew her twin daggers from her belt, her face fixed in the serious manner of a child when trying to appear brave. “I can do more. I’m ready.”

“You’re a little scary, pumpkin, you know that?” Calista chuckled, until she saw Rain had also drawn her dagger, her hand shaking like a leaf. “Rain, we don’t have to do this today. I can come back later and…”

“No,” Rain interrupted, steadying her hand with the other. “No, I need to figure out how to live with this. If we were back home, I’d be in therapy right now. But we don’t have that luxury, do we? If we aren’t strong… we aren’t going to survive.”

Calista wanted to reassure her – to take her back to the meadow where it was safe – but Rain wasn’t wrong. Would any of them come out of this whole?

Probably not.

“Alright, but let me take the brunt of it. Throw me over one of those poisons – the paralysis one. The description doesn’t say anything about it copying poisons and such, so we’ll rely on those. Did you make more exploding ones? It’s weak to fire.”

Rain held up two bright orange vials.

“Give one to Passi,” Calista said. Rain passed one to the fairy girl, who stashed it in her inventory. “Now, this thing is fishing at a bend in the river, a five-minute sprint from here. It’s distracted, but it won’t be for long. There’s an old avalanche trail that leads up right behind it. We’ll hide there and prepare the battleground. Come on, let’s go.”

* * *

The whitewater flow of the valley river slowed at its bend, creating pools of still gentle water where plump trout gathered to rest from the current. The mature pines cast their gentle shadow over the water, protecting the pools from sunlight and the gaze of the birds of prey that soared overhead. Unfortunately for the fish, it did nothing to slow the giant bear with the hawk beak, who was currently decimating an entire school of trout that had sought shelter in the safety of the pool.

Calista watched as the beast skewered a trout with its foot-long claws and devoured it whole. It had another two in its grasp before the first had slid down its throat. A gluttonous feast of violent proportions.

“Voracious little guy, isn’t he?” Rain whispered from their hiding spot behind the largest boulder. “Are we ready?”

“I’ve got the trip lines set between those six pines,” Calista said, pointing towards the edge of the tree line a few paces away. “Passi, did you activate the bear traps?”

Along the way, Calista had used her Wilderness Logistics talent to summon her mobile Tutoria Emporium to see if it had anything of use. She’d purchased six bear traps at the exorbitant price of a thousand gold each. These were magical traps that would root a beast-type enemy in place for ten precious seconds, though its effectiveness diminished if the beast was a higher level than the player. Tutoria had assured her that The Valley Champion would still be held for a few seconds, though Calista was suspicious of their effectiveness with Tutoria pitching the traps to her like a sketchy used car salesman.

“Yes, I put them a couple traps behind the trip lines,” Passi replied, proud of herself. “We should have bought these for the goblins.”

“It would have made our ambushes easier, that’s for sure. Good job, pumpkin. Now for the finishing touches.”

Calista activated her protective shield, and a one-shot, invisible barrier snapped into place around each of them. Next, her Soldier’s Morale activated as she mentally linked them together as a squad, increasing each of their attributes by twenty percent.

“Remember the side effect,” warned Calista. “If we need to retreat, our attributes are going to decrease by twenty percent. This is going to make running away much harder, so use your Waypoint Crystals instead. If we get separated, our gathering spot is Harriet’s board in the lobby.”

Rain drained a vial of paralysis poison into her Dagger of Lugh Samildànach, and helped Passi apply a coat to her twin daggers.

“You’ve got preparing for battle down to a science, Calista,” Rain praised, feeling a little more confident. “It’s impressive.”

“Cally and I got lots of practice taking out the goblin camps,” Passi said proudly, swirling her dagger across her fingers in a way that made Calista’s fledgling parenting instincts cry out.

Calista focused and transitioned to Battlefield Communication.

Passi, if you nick your fingers with those daggers, you’re going to paralyze yourself. I’m not going to carry you home if that happens.

Sorry, Passi apologized, stowing the dagger back in its sheath.

It’s okay, pumpkin. Just be careful. This enemy is much stronger than anything you have faced, and you need to treat this seriously.

Passi nodded resolutely, the only trace of her fear a tiny twitch at the corner of her eye.

Okay you two, mental communication only from here on out. Passi, fly up and take your position in the pine above the tripwires. Rain, you station yourself by those rocks. Explosives and… are you sure those things will work?

Rain held up a handful of golf ball-sized iron spheres. In theory. I lay them all out and soak them in paralysis poison, then use my magic to launch them like musket balls at the creature. I’ve been wanting to try it ever since I took advanced metal magic.

You’re a creative woman, Rain. But don’t use that until it’s almost dead. We don’t want it to copy your magic and start shoot them back at us.

As Passi flew up to her branch and Rain prepared her weapons behind the boulder, Calista crouched low and made her way towards the beast. It stood ankle-deep in the current, devouring the trout and oblivious to the three players behind it. It was an alpha predator in its kingdom – unafraid of any that might seek to challenge it.

Calista readied her Spear of Pinga and activated the Double Speed bonus of her Talaria of Mercury, which she usually kept dormant lest she accidently dash ahead and leave Passi behind.

Passi and Rain… here we go. On my count. One. Two. Th… oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me!

Calista caught the flash of movement from across the river just as Cynthia Carthage emerged from the woods, her two earth-formed wolves trotting at her side. The wolves had grown significantly over the past week, their heads now level with Cynthia’s shoulders.

What? What’s wrong? Rain asked.

It’s the woman with the wolves, Passi said, her thoughts shaken. She could see the woman approach from her vantage point in the pine. The one that attacked me that day on the beach.

Passi, don’t be scared. We’re here for you, Calista comforted her.

I'm… I’m stronger than I was back then, Passi said coldly after a moment’s hesitation. She doesn’t scare me anymore.

That’s my girl, Calista praised, though deep down she was seething as she stared at the woman.

Calista, I know what you’re thinking, Rain projected to Calista alone. But we can’t afford to lose any more players.

Is she another one of your favorite customers, like Xavier and Stone? Calista replied sarcastically, though there was no malice in her words. She knew Rain did not exclude anyone from Rain on my Parade.

Umm… no, she’s not one of my favorites, Rain said hesitantly. It was the greatest condemnation of a person that Calista had ever heard Rain utter. Let’s just say if I weren’t self-employed, she’d be asking to see my manager.

The Forest Champion raised its head from the pool, three trout skewered on its claws, and bellowed in rage as it spotted Cynthia and her wolves. Its muscles tensed as it prepared to charge across the river and obliterate the woman.

Shit. Here we go. Stick with the plan you two. Stay sharp!

Calista raised her spear and dashed from cover, straight towards the bear, as the colossal beast’s roar echoed off the mountains.