Ethan trudged toward the light of the higher camp he could see in the distance, eyes peeled for Liz and her group. He tried to sense Ember, thinking it might be possible through their pact, but if it were, he’d have to do more testing because he got nothing.

  Still, he kept the scales on and his [Mana Heart] pumping. The pressure in his soul wasn’t getting any easier, but it wasn’t the sharp pain of mana exhaustion and well, if he were to build a tolerance to the taxing weight of higher-tier spells, it wasn’t about to happen in just an hour, so he kept both spells on.

  On the way, Ethan quickly dispatched a couple of sub-thirty water monitors that quickly fell to an improvised gout of fire after being marked by the Harvester’s dagger.

  He hadn’t been expecting much from the dagger, considering its disappointing showing back in the cave below, but something new happened.

  As the blue light pulsed around the monitor’s ruined eye, a strand of smoke-like blue thread drifted out of the wound, materializing just past the scales. It began folding up on itself, twisting, pulling more of itself out of the corpse and then it brusquely shrunk with a flash of light, almost as if it had imploded, and a fingernail-sized stone clinked against the scales and fell to the ground.

  Ethan lunged forward to catch the object, afraid it would be lost in the mud and growth of the underbrush, but there was no risk of that. The stone kept emanating a soft blue glow, and it was frankly impossible to miss.

  It was like a tiny blue-gem. It felt wet and cold against his fingertips, as if it was made of solid water. Not ice. It wasn’t that cold. But the tactile sensation wasn’t too far off.

  Assimilate [Primagem of Water (low-grade)]

  What?

  Ethan looked down at the small gem and back at the interface. What would this do? Was it similar to fragments? Was this a spell?

  He rolled the gem for a few seconds in his hand, then accepted the prompt.

  The gem dissolved back into blue droplets that sunk into his arm. They flowed up his arm like a breeze, and came to a stop near his chest, and as Ethan eyed his interface for changes, he found a new line under his stats and above the tokens.

  Primagems: Low-grade: Water

  I guess a use for this will come up, eventually. Ember alluded to something as well. I could ask her.

  Ethan grinned. Just like that, the dagger redeemed itself. The tier-2 spell was great, sure, but he’d expected more from it. Now that he’d gotten something else from the dagger, he was feeling better about the choice.

  Good thing I didn’t select the fire primagem. Though the shardpurse would have been pretty useful right about now. I could have gotten to the 500 fragments for tier-3 faster.

  Ethan quickly collected the fragments into the Elemental wand, cut off a good portion of the monitor’s tail and roasted it as he walked through the biomes until finally, around ten minutes later, he saw the familiar lights of a campfire a bit closer to the cave walls.

  He washed his hands from the grease in a nearby stream, then approached, unsure of who he was about to find, when a familiar voice called out from above.

  “I see you figured out a solution for your clothing problem,” Liz said, sitting atop a smaller mushroom tree. She let herself slide, then drop, and Ethan was alarmed for a second before he realized that she’ll be just fine.

  Liz landed from a nearly twenty-foot drop as if she’d just jumped down a pair of stairs. Her clothes were in a rougher shape, with a nasty tear around her right knee and when he saw her face, he thought he’d noticed some redness around her eyes, but Ethan didn’t comment and instead, he returned the smile and tapped the clothes wrapped under his left arm. “Less chance to burn these.”

  They walked back to the camp and, as she kept eyeing her surroundings, Ethan noticed a small bit of reserve. They exchanged pleasantries in the few steps that separated them from the camp, but there was noticeably less energy in the woman’s voice. It didn’t seem like hostility. Just fatigue.

  Maybe now that the rush and scares of the first couple of days were over, people were beginning to process what was happening around them.

  When she saw him glance around the new camp, she added. “We had to move. Too many water monitors. Both living and dead.”

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  Ethan nodded, recalling the tunnel he had to collapse. “I don’t know how bad it has gotten up here, but… yeah. It’s literally swarming with them down below. Had to collapse a tunnel behind me so they wouldn’t follow me up.”

  Liz sighed, and her shoulders drooped as they closed on the small campfire. “Oh. Of course.”

  Audrey came behind her and gave her a firm pat on the back of the shoulder that made the mechanic tumble forward. “We might get to thirty tomorrow, then. About time.”

  At that point, everyone else showed up. Gerald had been resting, but you couldn’t tell from the dark circles under his eyes, while Amelie seemed in an alright mood, if not a bit tense. She stood a few feet away, gave his scales a once over, then nodded appreciatively. “Yup. It works.”

  Audrey grabbed her sister by the shoulder, forced her to sit on a stump, then shoved a still smoking skewer in her hand.

  Ethan smiled at that, while Audrey bossed the others, ordering them to eat and drink some water, and as he looked around for the cat, he was quick to find her. Ember looked up at him from her boulder, yawned, then curled back and went to sleep.

  Ethan shook his head. Classic cat behavior.

  ***

  Main Quest: Gain access to the second floor within 4 days, 23 hours, and 41 minutes.

  Reward: 1 tier-0 wand.

  Ethan filled in the group with his recent discoveries, though he still kept the details vague about his Prime wand, just in case. Even though he checked his surroundings with [Detect Life], he felt instinctively that such information shouldn’t be shared willy-nilly.

  While he recounted his encounters, Ember had come closer and requested a meal, which he obliged. The team now knew about Amanda and her vague plans, about Diego, about the ever-increasing number of water monitors, and about what to expect once they finish getting the three forms of their wand.

  “That’s gonna take us a minute,” Liz said after a moment. The food and conversation had energized her a bit.

  “And the cost for the forms? All of those fragments? At this rate…” Gerald said, lips drawn into a line as he stared pensively into the fire, a frown on his face.

  “It would take us days. While everything keeps getting worse under our feet. If we want to matter, we’ll have to start pushing down,” Audrey said, voicing Gerald’s concerns. “We can do it. The more we level, the easier it will get,” she added encouragingly.

  Amelie twirled her wand, staring thoughtfully at the purring cat. “We could try doing something in a tunnel. Lure them in and kill them?”

  The others nodded appreciatively at the idea, while Audrey winced but still nodded. Ethan could empathize. If it was her job to hold off all those jets of pressurized water, he didn’t envy her position.

  Then again… I could work with them on this. There’s plenty of water monitors down there for us all. All of them have passed the twenty-five mark thanks to the increased number of monsters and soon they’ll hit thirty. It might take them a minute to get through the path stuff, but once they do, they’ll start leveling faster.

  Ethan didn’t mind the idea that much, but he kept it in his backpocket for now. It was risky, and it might be too much for them. Instead, he glanced down at the cat he was feeding.

  “Do you know what’s going on with the lizards? Why are there that many of them?”

  Everybody else looked down at the cat as it chomped into Ethan’s flames and when it was clear it had no intent to answer, he lowered the fire output.

  The cat growled and finally answered. “[Rift. Probably.]”

  Ethan relayed the information to the others. Amelie blinked and tilted her head. “What’s that?”

  Ethan was ready to pull the flames back, but he didn’t have to. The cat stopped eating and sat on her haunches as she licked her paw and wiped her face.

  “[A small world connected through a tear in the larger world. They happen sometimes. That’s probably where the lizards are coming from.]”

  Ethan relayed the information, but he never looked away from the cat. This confirmed that the cat had a life elsewhere, and she hadn’t just been born in the ritual. How old was she? How did she end up in this place?

  “[I don’t want to answer all of those. I’m sleepy. Pick one.]”

  Right. She could hear him.

  “Two questions. Why were you summoned, and where did you come from? It didn’t look like those lizardlings were too happy to see you.”

  Ember looked up at him and flicked her ears in annoyance, but she still answered. “[We were hunting. The magic tried to catch the fat lizard we just killed, but it was dead, so it picked me. I come from a world of fire. I don’t know where it is or if it's even… connected to this world. Everything feels different. But I don’t mind it.]”

  Ethan relayed the details, and the four listened, enraptured, and to be frank, so was he.

  Other worlds? Small words attached to larger ones? What was even happening out there?

  “I wish this had come with a guidebook or something. This sucks,” complained Liz as she threw a piece of bone into the fire. “When I get a new apprentice, I don’t just give them the toolbox and point them at a car. You can’t just throw someone off the deep end and expect them to do well. Some might, but that doesn’t work for everyone.”

  Audrey and Gerald nodded at that, while Ethan scratched at his chin and said nothing. It worked for him and clearly it worked for Diego, but he was aware enough to know his reactions to things weren’t very… conventional.

  “What was the name of the lizard? Was it like these monitors?” asked Amelie, eyes shining as she leaned forward.

  The cat stretched her back while the others stared at Ember and at Ethan. “[I don’t know. There are no titles above anything back there. Unlike this place. And they look nothing like these things. Their hatchlings might. Now, let me sleep. I’m tired.]”

  Ethan stared down at the cat as it curled under his feet. Tired from what? Sleeping?

  The cat kicked him with her hind leg. Ethan chuckled and shelves his remaining questions for later. After all, he needed some rest as well.

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