Having never before ventured into a completely new plane that was still in the process of being mapped out, Leo hadn’t really known what to expect.

  Though he definitely wasn’t prepared for the base camp they found surrounding the rift they needed to go through.

  Leo blinked in confusion from up on a nearby hill as he and Taylor watched the few dozen people meandering around the makeshift campsite, laughing with one another or repairing gear as they went about their days. A handful of them were sporting some nasty-looking injuries that had been professionally bandaged, and Leo quickly realized what they were looking at.

  “It’s a safe haven for those exploring the new plane,” he muttered, eventually spotting the tell-tale crack in the fabric of reality that marked the colossal plane’s rift near the center of camp.

  “So they come here to lick their wounds and recover,” Taylor said, nodding her understanding. “That makes sense. Should we talk to any of them?”

  “I don’t know,” Leo said, slowly scanning the crowd as he hunted for some sign of the Planar Lords’ agents. Unfortunately, unless they were on official business, the agents didn’t exactly walk around with their fancy uniforms and badges on. But with how much a brand-new colossal plane would potentially end up shifting the current status-quo of the planarverse, he couldn’t imagine some of their agents not being here to check it out. “There have to be some agents here that we want to avoid. And what better way to monitor who goes in and out of the plane than standing guard over the rift?”

  “Doesn’t look like anyone’s standing guard,” Taylor pointed out, staring at the lone rift.

  “Not directly, but there are plenty of people keeping their eyes on it,” Leo said, pointing out a few faces who seemed to always have the rift within their field of vision. “I think we go in and hit the rift fast. If they want to know who we are, they’ll have to follow us in, and then we’ll know who we need to avoid.”

  The good news was this current plane they were in was only a tier 17, and the colossal plane itself was tier 22. That meant even if the Planar Lords had sent any truly deadly agents to monitor the rift, their souls would be dampened, and Leo and Taylor would stand an actual fighting chance. Leo still didn’t like their odds of going toe-to-toe with any elite warriors, soul dampening or not, but at least they wouldn’t be facing anyone with overwhelming skills and power.

  “Good plan,” Taylor nodded, stretching out her legs before hopping up and down in place. “Last one to the colossal plane rots the eggs?”

  “Is a rotten egg, come on. Are you just doing this to mess with-”

  Taylor took off at a dead sprint, leaving him standing there dumbly with his mouth open. Shaking his head, Leo took off after her, leaning into his physical evolution to try and catch up. Now that he was stronger, he was able to put more force behind each step as well. Not fantastic for nimble movements and narrow dodges, but excellent for having to cross a straight line as fast as possible. Despite her head start, Leo quickly caught up with her on the edge of camp, and he grinned as he pulled ever so slightly ahead. They were running fast enough that he barely managed to make out a handful of surprised looks at their sudden appearance, before they hit the rift and shot straight through into the colossal plane.

  “Behind the trees!” he shouted as soon as they were through, barely slowing down as he dashed behind an oddly large tree. It seemed this plane was a dense, giant forest, with trees larger than entire buildings stretching up into the heavens. He and Taylor barely made it around one of them before someone rushed through the rift after them, turning to look every which way with a snarl on his face.

  That must be one of the Planar Lords’ agents… Leo thought, making sure he remained hidden as he watched the stranger from his hiding spot. That or he’s some gem holder who likes to try and prey on those he deems weaker than he is. Either way, we made the right call rushing in without talking to anyone.

  The stranger spent another minute trying to figure out which way they’d gone, but there were countless tracks going every which way away from the rift from all the recent traffic, and he quickly gave up. Cursing, the stranger turned and vanished through the rift once more, leaving them alone. At least for the moment.

  “He didn’t have the hour-long wait period to go back through the rift… which means he was dampening his soul to enter here,” Leo muttered, turning to look at Taylor. “Let’s put some distance between ourselves and the rift. He could be back any minute, and if he’s truly an agent of the Planar Lords, he might have some more specialized skills used for tracking that he could swap out for.”

  Nodding, Taylor turned and began heading deeper into the massive forest. The two of them kept their guard up as they traveled, not wanting to accidentally run into a magical beast too powerful for them to take on. Leo felt pretty confident in their ability to fight anything Grade 19 or lower, but 20? 22?

  It was a good thing they were both good runners.

  As they walked, Leo took in the plane as well, marveling at the gigantic growth of plants around them. A single one of these trees looked like it contained enough wood to build houses for an entire town. That alone was incredibly exciting for the future, as planes that held the resources needed to support life were highly sought after and the first ones to be settled upon. Whoever ended up settling here wouldn’t need to rely on gem holders to bring in resources from neighboring planes, which meant this plane could truly become a serious powerhouse.

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  “Whoever lived here wouldn’t need to rely on the Nexus at all,” Leo muttered as he pushed through a large bush, wondering just what such a society would look like. “Taylor, you’re doing your weird soul-opening thing, right? I need to know how many rifts this plane has.”

  “I’m working on it, but the larger the plane, the longer it takes,” Taylor reminded him, slapping a buzzing mosquito out of the air. “Never done a colossal plane before. It will probably take a while. Might not even be able to do the whole thing in one go.”

  “That’s fair… Colossal planes are truly a different beast. Unlike the other categorizations, they don’t have an upper limit to how large they might be.”

  Any gem holder worth their salt had the standard categories of planes memorized. Leo himself had all that information tucked away in his head since he was a little kid. When it came to planes, they fell into one of nine size categories. Minuscule, diminutive, tiny, small, medium, large, huge, gargantuan, and colossal. Minuscule was any plane less than a mile wide, while colossal was any plane greater than thirty miles across. That meant this plane was over seven hundred square miles of terrain at a minimum. There was no telling how large it truly was.

  The exact size of the Nexus was technically a secret, but everyone knew that it was roughly forty seven miles in diameter. Which, along with being the only tier 50 colossal plane in existence, actually made it one of the larger ones discovered as well.

  Taylor stopped all of a sudden, causing Leo to nearly walk into her back before he paused as well.

  “Do you hear that?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she looked at the forest around them.

  “Hear what?” he replied, straining to pick up whatever it was she was talking about.

  “Not sure… Sounds almost like… scuttling?”

  Before Leo could suggest they move, a giant, brown spider appeared out of nowhere directly above their heads, hanging from a thick line of silk. The moment it appeared, it dropped down, landing on Taylor and sinking its fangs into her shoulder.

  Without hesitation, Taylor snarled and sank her teeth right back into it.

  “Taylor!” Leo shouted, whipping out his sword and thrusting it at the back of the massive spider. To his shock, one of its many legs lashed out, slapping into the flat of his blade and deflecting his powerful thrust like it was child’s play. The force of the deflection was strong enough that he stumbled back and nearly lost his grip on his sword, which was not a great sign as to the strength of their opponent.

  While he was recovering from his failed thrust, Taylor and the spider were engaged in what looked like some ferocious wrestling match. The spider’s legs were hard at work attempting to pin her down so it could bind her up in thread, but Taylor's claws were shredding the dense threads just as quickly as the spider could pull them out of its spinner. The two of them tumbled across the ground, neither one quite able to get the upper hand on the other as they continued biting one another all the while.

  With a roar, Leo triggered Rage, throwing his sword to the side as he launched himself directly onto the dogpile. Grabbing one of the spider's legs, he pulled with all his might, ripping it clean off the spider and eliciting a shrill hiss from the arachnid as green ichor began spilling out from the missing appendage. Leo managed to rip one more leg off the magical beast before the spider retaliated, slamming two legs into his gut with enough force that he was sent flying. Crashing into a nearby tree hard enough to crack the bark, Leo gasped as the wind was knocked out of him and he was snapped out of his Rage skill.

  Thankfully, tearing off two of its legs tipped the tide of the fight in Taylor’s favor, and the feral warrior took advantage of that in a heartbeat. Slicing through another one of the spider's legs, and then a fourth, it wasn’t long before Taylor found an opening and plunged her clawed hand deep into its abdomen, ripping out what looked like the beast’s still-beating heart of all things.

  The giant spider managed one last shrill screech before going limp, finally rolling off of Taylor. Shakily getting to her feet, Taylor wobbled for a moment before grinning at him, holding up her newfound prize.

  “What do you think… Salt? Or pepper?”

  Finally managing to free himself from the tree he’d been semi-lodged into, Leo could only laugh as he took in the sight of his smaller companion standing victorious over the surprise magical beast with its heart in her hand.

  “How many times do I have to tell you? There are other spices beyond salt and pepper.” Pulling her into a quick hug, Leo looked her over more carefully. Shifting her collar to the side, he winced at the sight of the green-tinted skin all over her shoulder. Even with Taylor’s strange resistance to poisons, it seemed as though the spider was a high enough Grade magical beast that she wasn’t able to shrug off its venom completely.

  “I’m fine,” Taylor assured him, yet she didn’t make any move to stop him from fussing over her injuries. “Dangerous enemy.”

  “No kidding. Did you get a good read on how powerful it was?” Leo asked as he began disinfecting and bandaging her wounds using some of their first aid supplies.

  “Grade 20… maybe 21,” she said, shrugging as she watched him work. “Not going to suck out the poison?”

  “What? No, that’s a myth,” Leo chuckled, shaking his head as he finished up. “That could result in tissue damage, infection, or worst case scenario, in me getting poisoned. We already know your body has evolved to enhance your survivability. Seeing as you’re not already twitching on the ground, and the color isn’t spreading from the point of injection, you should be fine before long.”

  All of Leo’s first aid training resulted in him having her wounds patched up in no time, and after retrieving his sword, the two of them took in their reward for managing to take down an opponent multiple Grades stronger than they were.

  A magical beast corpse absolutely radiating power, just ripe for the taking.

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