"So, we're going to stand this thing up, huh?" I asked, staring at the leaning communication tower. It was still encased in sparkly mist, the bottom half of it frozen solid with thick ice. I frowned, worrying about the metal. Stone elements become brittle and weak when they change their temperatures too quickly, and this tower was really old. It's already gone through decades of unrepaired weather damage. I just hope that it didn't snap when Karmin took away her ice.

"Um," I looked at Karmin. "You can remove the ice, right? We aren't going to have to chip it all away ... right?" That would suck. I doubt I could even chip A ranked ice.

But there were a lot of mages that couldn't undo their magic. Once the spell left their bodies, it was its own entity. My ability to maneuver water like I did was unique. I thought I was alone in that aspect until I saw Terre move his mist. Maybe it was a System thing?

"Yeah, I can take it away," Karmin reassured. She stood next me with her arm folded.

"But let's go over everything first," Terre said from my other side.

I wasn't short by normal standards, but I sure felt it right now with one on each side. Terre was over six foot and Karmin was at least 5 '8. Mentally I sighed, empathizing with tiny Levi yet again. Unfortunately, unlike him, the odds of me growing at this point was slim to none. Kicking myself, I focused on what Terre was saying.

"Like I said before, I have some chain tethers that we're going to use to straighten the tower and keep it standing." He pointed to the midpoint of the tower. "If we connect a tether to each side of the tower about right there, it should be good enough."

"And attaching them to the ground?" I asked.

Terre waved his hand. A clunky industrial electric drill appeared on the ground. The shining steel stood out against the tarnished stone at our feet. "This should do the trick."

My brows rose high on my forehead. "Yeah, that would do it. Did you buy that just for this task?" I mean, he had the money to buy as much useless junk as he wanted.

He shook his head with a smirk. "No. The government asked us to do this, they can foot the bill for the gear." He tapped on the shining cylinder tube that encased the engine. "You could say it's on loan, but they won't complain if it gets ruined during the task."

I swallowed a snort and nodded slowly. Yeah, who had the guts to get mad a Noble? Never mind money, his aura alone would cower anyone.

Karmin's eyes lit up. "Can I operate the drill?"

Terre nodded, as if he expected her to say that. He held out his hand and paper appeared in his fingers. "The instructions."

Karmin snatched the paper and read it with delight.

Amused, I turned back to the tower. The metal beams had gone through a lot of wear and tear. Something that looked sound from down here, might actually be crumbling on the inside. "I can inspect the beams," I suggested. "I know metal."

Terre stiffened and Karmin looked up from the paper.

Terre opened his mouth, but Karmin bumped him with her shoulder. "Just let her, Terre. She is Maveric's niece. She might know things we don't."

Terre frowned at her then focused on me. "And if you fall?" he asked.

Honestly, I'd had so much experience falling down mountains that at this point, I wasn't worried. This tower was nothing in comparison. Mentally, I winced. That wasn’t something I should be proud of. "I'll be okay. If I do fall, just catch me." Although I didn't plan on giving him the chance. I'd catch myself.

"You could always just balance on your snake, you know," Karmin suggested nonchalantly. “Have it wrap around a beam and stand on it.”

I had a feeling that Levi would object to being used like that. It wasn’t dignified enough. Although, there was a more pressing concern. I glanced in the corner of my vision, at the count down bar below my HP bar. There was only a minute left until Levi’s enhancement. It was better to rely on myself the whole time, then to have him shrink to a thin little noodle under me while up there. "No, I'll be fine."

Levi hid in the pool, unwilling to come out. Dread was thick in our connection as he thought about others watching him shrink.

I looked back at him. "Are you coming with me?"

He lifted his tail out of water and wagged it in dismissal, then ducked back under.

I turned to Karmin. "Can you take away the mist now? You can leave the ice there for now." Had to admit, I was pretty intimidated by her frosty mist. It sounded dangerous.

Karmin waved her hand and the mist disappeared, leaving the bottom half still encased in ice.

"Do you need help up?" Terre asked and turned to Ghost, who was sunbathing not far away, before he listened to my answer.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

I cut him off. "Nope, I'm good." If I wanted him to stop babying me, I needed to show him that I was fine without him. …As long as there wasn't a high ranked monster around.

Before he could object, I cast hydrokinetics and reached back to the water pool behind me. A thick stream rose up, like a water snake, and flew to me. One side wrapped around my hand. The other side shot up to the metal tower, stretching thin like a bungee cord. It wrapped around a beam just above the ice and snapped back together. I jumped, and let the momentum carry me up.

When I got too close to the ice, I kicked my toe off it and jumped higher to help the water pull me up. Just the chill of the ice through my boot for that split second was enough to send goosebumps up and down my body. So cold! I landed on the narrow beam with bended knees, determined not to wobble and ruin any cool effect the whole process gave. I had to say, as a whole, the process was very smooth and successful.

I looked down at Terre, mentally daring him to point out a flaw.

His brows rose high on his forehead. "That's a unique way of traveling."

I smiled with pride despite myself. "Well, there's a lot of cliffs around here."

Despair, however, flooded my familiar bond. I looked over to the ice pool and wasn't surprised to see the long shadow of Levi's enhanced form was gone. The timer ran out on the spell, so he had to be small again. Now, the question was, was he going to hide in the pool all the time or eventually come out?

Karmin gave me a thumbs up, then moved to the drill and started inspecting it, comparing the machine with the manual, and talking to herself.

I turned and focused on my task. The beam that Terre initially pointed to was three beams above, roughly fifteen higher. I reached up and grabbed the next beam, planning on hoisting myself up. As soon as I put weight on it, the end of the beam attached to the corner pole shifted. Something that looked like rusty sand rained down from the joint, tarnishing the ice below.

Well, that was a bad sign. I paused, not daring to hold on anymore.

"What's wrong?" Terre asked from below.

"Hang on." Carefully, I tapped the beam, pressed my ear to the metal, and sent my aura out towards where the rusty sand came from. The vibrations followed all the way through the beam. I didn't hear anything wiggling inside, but I did feel something weird on the metal near the joint.

"I think there might be rust worms in the metal," I said and leaned back, looking up the length of the tower.

Weak monsters naturally fled from strong monsters. The fact that ChoCho was so chill with Ghost was probably the result of months of training. Since mounts didn't view other mounts as threats or food, the effect was lessened. But in the wilds, that rule was law. It was also the reason why the communication tower was still standing — the stone giant's presence probably scared away all the monsters that might have trashed it. Well, 'larger' monsters. That particular rule didn't really apply to insects. For the most part. Larger insects, like the gigaroaches, fell under the large monster category.

But the tiny ones? Well, they were just like native insects that covered the world, even after the rest of the inhabitants were wiped out of existence. They were everywhere, and they didn't give a damn about how big or strong a monster was. They took up residence on any compatible lair. As long as there wasn't a conflict — like with aggressive acid wasps — the lair's owner rarely cared about the insects. But insect monsters sure wreaked havoc on humankind, and often made salvaging past tech a pain.

Rust worms were, unsurprisingly, an armorer's nightmare. They dug through metal, eating out long tunnels and pooping out rust, just like Earth's natural worms. It left the metal in terrible shape, weak and hollow inside. And when they got into precious welding metal, it was a financial disaster. One of Uncle's competitors once tried to sell a spear full of them to the Eden store when I was younger. If I hadn't noticed the strange wiggling where a rust worm already ate through the metal, and the spear was put in the vault with the rest of our products, our entire stock would have been ruined by morning. I heard that Uncle used a contact to return the favor, only the competitor didn't notice the rust worms in time. That competitor went out of business a year later.

Rust worms also loved the taste of decaying metal and helped old ruins collapse faster. There were a lot of places humanity couldn't easily salvage from, just because the structures weren't safe or already collapsed. These three inch long nightmares were partially responsible.

Terre's face turned grim. "How bad is it?"

If the whole tower was hollowed out by rust worms, it needed to be completely rebuilt — which was what the government didn't want.

"Let me check." I walked along the beam, more careful than before. What if rust worms damaged the one I was currently on? But it handled my weight just fine. At the joint where the cross beams attached to the side poles, I crouched down and tapped the beam under my feet, searching with my aura. It was solid as steel. Encouraged, I focused on the beam above me. I didn't have to look hard to see the telltale holes in it. There was even the end of a worm sticking out of one hole.

"Definitely rust worms," I called down, watching the monster. They didn't normally bite fleshy things, so most of the time they were safe to handle with bare hands. But when they did bite, their sharp little teeth dug deep. It paid to be careful.

I took a pair of pliers out of my items bag and carefully gripped the rust worm with them and pulled. The monster came out of the squelching pop. Adrenaline pumped through my body, ready to drop the tiny thing if it turned to bite me.

The rust worm flopped in half, as energetic as a gummy worm. Frowning, I tipped the worm around with my hold, but the monster never responded. It was dead.

I looked down at the ice that still covered the bottom half of the tower then glanced at Karmin. Understanding dawned on me.

She was done examining the drill and stood back with Terre, watching me with interest.

"Are we going to have to kill the rust worms before we proceed?" Terre asked. "What's the damage?"

I held the dead rust worm, wondering if they could see it. I mean, A ranked Hunter's had insane eyesight, both in distance and in low vision. "I think they're already dead. They're only an E ranked monster and prefer stable climates. It doesn't matter if it’s hot or cold, as long the climate stays relatively consistent. If the climate changes, like winter to spring, it just has to be gradual. They're susceptible to quick changes in temperatures," I explained. I didn't know how much Terre and Karmin knew about rust worms. I, personally, knew a lot about these little annoyances. "I think Karmin's ice mist killed them all. It froze really fast, and I bet they couldn't handle it."

"Ah," Karmin hummed in understanding. "That's what that random EXP was for."

Terra glanced at her.

"What?" She shrugged. "It was only a tiny bit. I thought the S—" She stuttered to a stop, as if tongue tied. She huffed a breath, and simply said, "I thought it was a fluke."

*****