It was cold. Cold enough to freeze off balls and tits quicker than you could feel if they were still there. That is, if you didn’t possess the hardy physique of a high-ranker.

  And on top of the cold was the dark. Deep and looming, the combination made it beyond difficult to see ahead and if one just so happened to be feeling uneasy already, the mind could swiftly conjure up all manner of foul horrors lurking within the blackness.

  Sireal watched the fat, heavy flakes of snow flop onto the barrier high above his head. He would probably be dead in a minute if it wasn’t there to protect him from the weather. Would there really be monsters in this hellish place? He imagined they would be almost grateful to be vanquished by the warriors here, just for the fact that they no longer had to live here.

  They appeared to have landed on a small plateau on the side of a large mountain. The only place that seemed to offer at least a sliver of natural light was the sky above, although clouds and falling snow made it barely visible as well. It was, however, enough to contrast against the mountain peak towering up above their heads. They wouldn’t be climbing that… right?

  “I can tell what you’re thinking, craning your neck like that,” one of the genuine members of Eik’s Great Group of Guys snorted good-naturedly. “And you can dismiss your worries. No, we are not going to be hauling our asses up there,” he assured the cartographer as he turned around an pointed toward the edge of the plateau, beneath which the mountain would be descending just as steeply. “We’re going down that way.”

  Sireal wasn’t sure he was very excited about the thought of that either. He took moment to study the man. He was huge for his species—the same as both himself and Eik Magnasen, Andihar, Gul, and a majority of the civilizations in the Unified Mass.

  Exactly why most species developed to more or less resemble each other despite entirely different home worlds, while some took on wildly different features during their evolution, was a topic widely discussed to this day.

  There were many theories, and while similar home world environments could explain why similar features had evolved to support intelligent species, it didn’t explain why there were so few differences between these species. Gul Ougi’s species all had the same bright, yellow eyes and Andihar Dayarunar’s had pointy, elongated ears, for example, but otherwise they could all have been related. There should have been more species with an extra set of arms, or legs, or this and that.

  But there just weren’t that many outliers and it puzzled the academic community to no end.

  This particular man was a giant by those standards. Rippling with hard muscle, somehow his odd choice of weapons seemed to suit him well—a pair of enormous twin shields.

  “Are the monsters close by, sir…?” Sireal fished.

  “The name’s Kalavax, and no, not really. Considering the very high chance of numerous S-ranked spawns, it is best to come in at a distance so we can control the encounter. We wouldn't’ want them to sense us and jump us before we have even gotten through the fracture, now would we?”

  “I see your point…” the cartographer acknowledged, swallowing hard.

  Seeing the newcomer’s nerves, Kalavax huffed and showed teeth. “If you stay within this nice barrier you will probably be fine. Due to this world’s proximity to the Chasm, a little guy like you would probably be squashed flat by the crushing Ak’ki in the atmosphere. I’m pretty sure the barrier has a little extra something that makes monsters less likely to go for those inside, so I’ll focus on the stronger people on the outside.”

  Sireal narrowed his eyes. “You’re pretty sure?”

  Kalavax looked at him like he was an idiot. “Do I look like I made that?”

  “Well… no…” These high-rankers weren’t quite as frightening as general reputations said. Maybe Eik had purposefully gathered those he liked. “Have you been with Eik Magnasen for a while?”

  Kalavax tilted his head from side to side. “On a few missions at this point. First time I ran with him I was nothing but a mercenary expecting another pompous idiot to pay my bills, but… here I am. The guy’s really something, I tell ya. Are you a drinking man?”

  “You mean alcohol?”

  “Is there anything else?”

  “It happens that my wife and I have a glass or two at the end of a long week, yes.”

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “That’s it, then!” the huge man said and hammered Sireal in the back, knocking the wind out of him. “We’re drinking together after this! None can drink the boss under the table, but I reckon I can take a twig like you!” His mirthful voice was incredibly loud.

  “I-I see… Are you an S-ranker as well?”

  “A,” Kalavax grumbled. “But running with Eik, I reckon that won’t be forever. I will be in charge of protecting you and the other A-rankers. So by watching me, you can always know how it’s going. If I’m still alive, then so are you, and if I’m dead and bleeding on the ground, then you probably won’t be far behind.” This time he roared with laughter. Wasn’t this guy a little too comfortable with risking his life?

  “All right,” Eik called, walking back from the edge of the plateau, hundreds of little blue creatures trailing him and leaping into his skin. He had been outside the barrier right in the middle of the raging snowstorm without proper clothing but didn’t seem to have even noticed. “I’ve located the site. It’s pretty crowded. Mostly A-rank and B-rank but enough S-rank that I think we should be careful.”

  “How many S-rankers would that be?” Kalavax asked.

  “About fifteen that I could see. More will probably show once we engage.”

  “F-F-Fif… Fifteen?” Sireal exclaimed before he could stop himself.

  “That does sound a bit steep, boss.” Kalavax muttered.

  “What do you mean?” Eik asked.

  “Shouldn’t we be getting a few more guys for this?”

  Eik grinned. “Nah, we can take them.”

  ***

  “What’s he doing?” Sireal whispered to Kalavax as they watched Eik work.

  He had been given a few minutes to commence his initial surveys of the topography and general environment of the area. Besides the obvious mountainous terrain and the tightly packed snow banks covering everything, he had noticed something odd beneath the rocky surface.

  Beginning a few meters down, mineral deposits whose signature he wasn’t familiar with were scattered throughout the rock in intricate veins. Having worked for many very wealthy people, throughout his lengthy and really rather impressive career he had had the opportunity to closely inspect and use his surveying abilities on nearly all valuable commodities commonly traded on the markets of Gimleh.

  Everything from monster parts and rare gems and minerals, to expertly crafted armors and weapons. He knew the signatures of most things worth knowing the signatures of. But this mineral—and he could tell that it was a mineral—he had never come across in his life. He was certain of that.

  And if it was rare, that would mean it was valuable, even if it had no other useful properties besides its rarity. That alone would fetch a disgusting price.

  “Beats me. This is not something I’ve seen him do before.” The man was taking his role as Sireal’s guardian seriously and had already taken up position next to his foldable travel work table while the cartographer drew the finishing lines on the initial map drafts for this particular area, which he would finish and draw in detail once they were back home.

  The task of digging up the mineral had already begun but at his rank, Sireal’s part in it had ended with the discovery.

  For the past ten seconds, the S-ranker had been constructing something enormous out of the blue crystal he could manipulate and shape so expertly. It was a gigantic dome mounted on top of an even larger solid foundation buried deep in the icy ground.

  Eik seemed to be agonizing over something as he circled the the construct.

  “What is it, boy?” Gul called through the snow storm, he voice carrying on his Ak’ki as he shuffled closer to the experiment.

  “It’s just…” Eik muttered as he scratched the back of his head. “I’m not sure how big to make it.”

  “That’s it?” the old clan leader asked gruffly. “Big as you can make it, no?”

  “I mean… Yeah, okay, I guess. But I’ll have to make sure I can control it.” Eik said and expanded the detonation chamber to three times the capacity of the one he’d used during his first run against the mountain with Chop.

  He didn’t know enough about ballistics to know how barrel length would change things, so he kept it at the same length it had been before and instead added three times the reinforced crystal to make sure it wouldn’t explode from the sheer force of the shot.

  This was bound to pack an absolute shit-ton of power. Eik could hardly contain himself.

  “Almost there,” the called as he checked over the final safety measures.

  Well, he called them safety measures, but it was really more like a cursory glance at the different connecting part and a double check of the thickness of the walls to make sure they could probably hold the explosion on the inside of the chamber and barrel.

  Again, while it wasn’t something he would say on purpose to anyone, he was far from and expert in any of the physics or ballistics involved in what he was about to do. It would probably be more accurate to describe him as a toddler with an infinite supply of sticks of dynamite and lighters to ignite them.

  “All right, if I could get you lot to step away a bit for me. This is going to get bumpy… and loud. Actually, now that I’m looking at it, this whole plateau might not hold. Well, be ready to deal with that, I guess. And make sure the barrier stick with our low ranked friend.” he said nonchalantly.

  “How about we get this mineral dug up first, hm?” Gul broke in before Eik got too caught up in his project.

  The Earthling stopped and stared as if he had forgotten about it entirely. “Ah, right.”

  Five minutes later, they had uncovered a good five hundred kilos of the material to bring home for further study. It was a bright green metal that glinted as one turned it in the hand. It was beautiful, but whether it had any valuable properties would not be revealed until they got back.

  “Can I shoot my ERBARG now?” Eik asked.

  “Yes…” Andihar said, not bothering to ask what the abbreviation meant.

  “ERBARG stands for Eik’s Really Big Ass Rail Gun,” Eik elaborated unprompted.

  “You don’t say,” Gul deadpanned. “Can we see what it does now?”

  “Sure,” Eik grinned and triggered the Accelerant on the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Profound Toxic beasts, the cannon practically tearing a hole in reality as it fired its loaded bullet straight for the monster horde kilometers in the distance, announcing the beginning of the extermination.

  Check out my Patreon if you'd like to read even more than what is currently posted on RoyalRoad

  cat videos