Verlon pulled himself over the final ledge and wiped the sweat off his brow. It had been a long climb to get so far up the vines, and he could feel his muscles burning like a fire was set on his back. He had to stop occasionally on the boulders interlaced with the vines on his way up to rest his shoulder. The stops and relying on his other three limbs allowed him to ascend, albeit painfully.
The darkness of night only offset by the brightness of the moon met him as he glanced back down the vines. What a mistake that was. Even just looking at the ground so far below made him feel as though he was falling. He took a step back and recentered himself. Avoidance would be the best solution in this case.
He stood on a flat part of the Floating Mesa, granting a brilliant view of the terrain. It was called the Floating Mesa, but the actual landmass was made up of dozens of mesas and buttes. They appeared as stony outcroppings standing tall like valiant warriors from the greenery below. The areas in between the mesas were filled with life and plant matter. The place looked like a reverse oasis where the mesas were the only bits of inhospitality.
He couldn’t see it, but he knew water trickled along the expanse of the Floating Mesa split into hundreds of smaller streams leading two big rivers. The rivers terminated into a massive waterfall that poured off the side of the landmass into the open air. He had seen several works of art dedicated to the flowing water, though usually, the perspective sat from far below.
The river, instead of bringing awe as it should, brought questions. For one, how the hell did it still have water flowing off of it? The river was literally dumping all of its contents off the side with no way to refresh. Sure, storms were frequent in the Graviton Highlands, but not enough to continuously fill a draining river. Verlon chalked it up to more miasmic reality-warping. Reality did tend to become less ‘normal’ in the higher concentrations of miasma.
According to his research, the wildlife around him shouldn't be too feirce. Gravitic Wyrms rarely came up above as they tend to stick to the shadowy underside like the scavenging brutes they were. That just left the flying beasts of Endenheim, but even those were rare since Gravitic Wyrms almost acted like stalwart guardians.
The majority of wildlife on top of the floating land were small rodents and the occasional birds. They had almost no miasma exposure or mutation, so the animals shouldn't be a threat as long as he avoided the occasional beast lair. If he did have to run into a threatening beast, he would need to hope and pray his revolver would be able to finish the job.
He pulled at the fabric of his cloak as it scratched up against his skin. The clothing piece wasn't a fashion statement, but his third relic: the Illusory Cloak. The fabric was quite rough on the skin, though he could deal with it considering its usefulness. The cloak was long and covered the majority of his body assuming he didn’t intentionally push it aside. The cloak could warp light to hide from observers. Anyone looking at him wouldn’t see anything except for a faint distortion.
The cloak was an imperial relic, meaning it was man-made instead of found in a ruin. The cloak came from the pelt of an Illusory Cow, one of the few non-violent herbivores in Endenheim. The beast sat rather low on the totem pole, seeing as its habitat was only in the tier-one contamination zone Roving Grassland, but had high survivability from its ability to go invisible. The cloak had two charges before it turned into normal fabric, each lasting roughly twelve hours.
As long as the beast didn’t have some kind of special sensory and relied on their eyes, the cloak was effective up to tier-three beasts. Of course, there was still the off chance a creature would notice the slight distortion from the cloak, but he could minimize the chances by slowing down. It made him take longer, and by extension ate up more of the charge's time. Safety was worth it, however.
The Illusory Cloak was the perfect defense against Gravitic Wyrms who relied on their eyesight to hunt, though it would be a poor matchup against Stormhounds. They not only had incredible hearing and noses, but they also seemed to just know where people were in a certain radius. Quite the scary thing considering he tended to focus on avoision and sneaking to get through dangerous zones.
Verlon normally wouldn’t walk around at night, but he had reason to this time. Not only to look for the Heart Bloom but also to get to his destination before his invisibility vanished. He had four or five hours left until the first charge of his cloak drained itself, and it was the prime time to get a move on. Even with the danger of nocturnal predators, the cloak should protect him.
Traveling through the Floating Mesa was quite the boring venture since there were few dangerous areas on it. Not that he was complaining. Boring was fine as long as he enjoyed the luxury of safety. The only dangers of his travel were the occasional drops and rises in altitude. The gravity well was known to be unstable, but he didn’t think it would be so bad. He tripped on the first couple shifts, though he quickly got used to it.
Verlon stopped as his destination came into view. He was to search the very center of the Floating Mesa, according to his contract. From what his very rich employer said, the area held an important building to the fallen civilization. His employer had apparently spent a couple years scouring the Sekorium’s records about the various locations of ruins and wrote a complicated formula to locate more using a mathematical approach.
Verlon was the scout for the maiden trip of this ruin-locating formula, hence he had little hope of actually finding a ruin up here. In his opinion, if such a formula truly existed it would’ve been far more important than hiring any other scout to go and take a look. Maybe his employer was under a tight budget? But then why offer so much money just to look at it the location? If it was to raid the ruin, that would make far more sense.
It would’ve been a waste of time for most other of the few yellow cross scouts, especially considering the dangerous location of the ‘ruin’. Although the contract paid well, no amount of money could be spent from the grave. At least, that's what he suspected others thought since the contract sat out for a day before he took it. The thought process would make sense, assuming he didn't have a way to 'cheat' his way up to the mesa with the Illusory Cloak. The advantage of knowledge, he supposed.
He originally took the contract to kill two Wyrms with one shot. It gave him an excuse to look for the Heartbloom mentioned in his mother’s notes, and also paid fairly well. Sure, a large portion of the pay disappeared to pay back the cloak, but if he could find a Heartbloom it would be worth it. And who knows? Maybe there really is a ruin in such a secluded spot.
The area he needed to search sat in between three mesas overlooking a jungle. A tall butte, the landmark for the center of the Floating Mesa according to his notes, sat in the middle of the valley surrounded by a pool of crystalline water. The pool fed into both of the two major rivers atop the Floating Mesa as they siphoned off water to throw off the edge.
The greenery bloomed into a full-blown jungle in between the three mesas. The sight felt quite weird considering the place floated over a highlands. Weirder things occurred in Endenheim, however, so he didn't give it too much space in his mind. The greenery stretched from mesa wall to mesa wall and climbed a little way up before fading to the plain stone with the occasional vine.
Verlon walked around the walls of the valley for a while, long enough for his cloak to turn visible once more. He was looking for a spot to set up a base camp considering he would be here for a while searching. Although he didn’t think he would find anything, he would still be diligent and give a couple days to scour the place. That, and he would have ample time to find a couple Heartblooms.
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He ended up settling on a small cave on the side of one of the mesas. It had a good vantage point, was mostly obscured by greenery, and offered a great defensive position considering its location on the face of a cliff. Sure, that meant it was slightly annoying to climb up and down, especially with his injured arm, but safety was worth the hassle.
He rested for a few hours before heading down into the micro jungle. He set traps, nothing too fancy, all around the path up to his camp. Most were just pitfalls and the occasional vine trip wire. They were designed to warn him of oncoming danger rather than actually hurt an intruder. He spent half a day setting traps before turning in for an early sleep.
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Verlon spent two days searching the area. He would sleep for four hours at dawn and twilight and spend the rest of the time looking around. During the day he hunted for the supposed ruin or anything else of note. During the night he spent his time looking for a Heartbloom. He moved with a methodical approach as he marked down areas in his journal. He took note of all caves and POIs in a far more detailed manner than how he usually operated. Mainly, it was so he could show his employer he actually did scout out the place. If he was lucky, his employer might be satisfied with his ethics even if he didn't find something. Rich people made some of the best employers, so getting into his boss's good graces would be well worth it.
He wasn’t too surprised when he found a Heartbloom before he found a ruin. It was a bioluminescent plant, so it stood out during the night. The red glow gave away its position as soon as he noticed it. The glowing plant looked as though it had been plucked right out of a person. Where the veins would be attached sat the root structure and the fleshy bulb acted as the fruit of the plant. The fruit's bioluminescence pulsated with a red light reminiscent of a heartbeat.
He carefully inspected the surroundings of the Heartbloom. The plant sat right at the root of a tree, which wasn’t too surprising considering the density of trees in the jungle-like area. Its faint glow boosted the visibility, which wasn’t all that great since the moon's beams only penetrated in certain areas with a weak canopy.
Verlon walked over to the glowing plant and knelt down over it. From what his mother wrote, to harvest it he needed to-
He heard the leaves of a tree shake slightly. His boots activated purely on instinct, spewing steam as he launched off to the side. Mid-flight, he pulled his revolver out and turned around, sliding back a foot as he steadied himself. He didn’t even know if he was under attack, but there was little breeze in the valley, so something must have shaken the branches.
A spotted cat-like creature pounced protectively over the Heartbloom where he just stood. The beast's appearance didn't match anything in memory. Really, it wasn't all that surprising since he avoided jungle areas and hardly researched them. Considering the unknown nature of the creature, he made the quick judgment to play safe.
He raised his revolver and shot and pulled the trigger as he moved backward. Smoke and sparks exploded out of his barrel as the bullet accelerated through the air. It connected and the feline flickered out of sight with a yowl of pain. Verlon paused for a moment and cautiously eyed the area. Teleportation? Unlikely. Probably invisibility then. It would make sense considering he hadn’t seen it when looking around the area. But why weren't any of the plants moving with the beasts passing? Maybe it was just good. It made sense, considering it had the home-field advantage.
Verlon carefully inspected the area with his revolver raised as if to intimidate his attacker. The giant predator seemed to be a careful type by how long it stayed invisible, so he needed to keep his wits. Easier said than done considering the adrenaline surging through his veins. He felt the urge to just light up the area, but then he would leave himself open to attack. The creature obviously focused on ambushes, so leaving an opening was a terrible idea. Even just a second ago, if he hadn’t instinctually reacted the ambush would've cut his life short.
Time seemed to tick slowly on as he played a game of cat and mouse with the beast. Who was the mouse and who was the cat was up for grabs. His advantage lay purely in his range. There was a terribly low chance he would survive if it closed the gap with him. If, even for a moment, he was caught off guard he could lose his life. His boots were a great crutch to remove himself from a bad engagement, but even then he only had two more charges. Maybe he should look into learning how to melee fight sometime.
Foliage moved off to his side, causing him to light the area up with the rest of his revolver’s chamber. Contrary to what he was expecting, he didn’t hear a yowl of pain or any indication of scoring a hit. On instinct, he dodged once more, eating another one of his boot’s charges as he ejected the bullet shells across the jungle ground.
Right where he was, the black spotted cat appeared once more in a lunge. Since he was in the process of reloading his revolver, he couldn’t shoot and could only helplessly watch it vanish from sight once more. With his revolver loaded again, they entered a stalemate. He ceaselessly circled the location of the Heartbloom. The cat stalked him invisibly as it protected the plant, and he couldn’t just grab the glowing fruit since the cat would attack him.
This couldn’t go on. He had one last charge on his Boosting Boots before he lost the ability to put distance between his adversary. He could still dodge, sure, but he would be in close enough range to get torn to shreds anyway. Worse case scenario, he runs out of charges and swaps to his sword. Even a minimal chance was better than a zero. What to do… what to do…
The beast had only ambushed so far, so he could try to bait it out by firing a single shot and then dodging to catch its lunge. He would then shoot behind him with the rest of his bullets. The issue is, he would be using his last charge. He would be practically cat food without his capability of putting up distance. It was a gamble, dare he take it?
The game continued for a few more minutes. The large cat was incredibly skillful at moving around without stirring the foliage, so he couldn’t just shoot towards moving plant matter. That left him with his previous idea. It was risky, but it could play out in the end. At this point, it was his best bet other than flat-out leaving. Even leaving might not be a good idea since he's already drawn the ire of the invisible cat.
Verlon steeled himself and waited. He wanted the beast to feel like its strategy was intelligent so it would fully send its next attack. He didn’t just shoot into the jungle since the feline might see through his plan, he waited for a part of the greenery to move. The nearby brush twitched slightly, instantly catching his attention. The predator probably thought it was being smart by toning down the moving foliage to make it look like it ‘accidentally’ tripped up.
This was it. He fired one shot before dodging off to the side once more. Contrary to his expectations and analysis of the beast's movements, he smacked face-first into the pouncing jaguar. The cat seemed to be just as confused as it entirely missed its swipe and fell to the ground on its side. Verlon wasn’t too far off as the impact sent him careening at an odd angle and landing next to it.
He threw his confusion off first and immediately opened fire. With the cat on its side, he had ample opportunity to fire away. He landed four bullets into its back before the thing vanished from sight as blood trickled out of thin air. His last bullet also connected based on the splash of blood from the same direction.
He didn’t hesitate to roll off to the side as the trails of blood streaked to him. He felt rushing air pass by him a mere second after he moved. Verlon quickly reloaded his revolver, feeling his hands shake slightly as the adrenaline urged him to move faster. He resisted, slowly and smoothly pushing three bullets into the cylinder. He would’ve put more in but had to cut himself short as he leaped to the side.
The cat had tried to take advantage of his reload and swept at him once more with its murderous claws. Little did it know he could see its position thanks to the streaks of blood dripping off its fur. He took full advantage of this and shot three more times towards the invisible predator.
His bullets must have hit something vital as the cat lost its invisibility entirely. It made one last attempt to take him down, though this one was much weaker than the previous attacks. He easily dodged out of the way of the weak strike and the ones that followed. Even then, it showed the true indomitable will of a beast as it tried to approach him and tear his insides out. It didn't stop approaching him until the last of its blood drained out and it collapsed to the jungle floor.