“It really isn’t endless,” Sunie said, the two of us stepping out of the Tower portal. “I can see some mountains way out there.”
I couldn’t see anything and had to hold back a ‘what do your elf eyes see’ joke. He wouldn’t get it for one and two, I didn’t know him well enough yet to know what he’d find offensive.
“At least I think they’re mountains. Even with my enhanced eyesight, it’s really far out. Just a smudge that indicates something is there.”
Behind us was a small grass covered hill, the portal set into the side like a cave. The hill was almost a perfect mound, the top only about fifteen feet tall. There was nothing else for miles, just endless waist high grass. It was a strange shade of green. Kind of a blue-ish tint to it. I could see a couple of small copse of trees, but nothing substantial. And those were pretty scattered.
For the most part the land was pretty flat.
“It’s endless enough for me,” I said, stepping away from the hill.
“Cryim has at least three plains that have endless in the name,” Sunie said, pulling the hood up on his cloak. “From what I’ve been told, there’s an Endless Plains on a couple of higher Infinite Tower Floors too. I guess there’s a lot of repetitive naming when there are an infinite number of biomes.”
The sun was high, with little cloud cover. It was brighter than I’d expected.
“What do you think?” he asked.
I pulled up the Climber’s Log for the Endless Plains Biome.
CLIMBER’S LOG
FLOOR: ONE
BIOME: THE ENDLESS PLAINS
DUNGEON: DARK STALKER RAVINE
QUESTS:
FIND 300 CLUMPS OF CRYSTAL GRASS STALKS 0/300
FIND 150 PLAINS BIRCH LEAVES 0/150
FIND 200 RAVINE SIDE MUSHROOMS 0/200
GATHER 500 BLUE PLAINS OXEN HIDES 0/500
GATHER 100 SCREECHER RAPTORS HIDES 0/100
GATHER 150 HORNED BOUNDERS ANTLERS 0/150
PERMITS:
HUNT ALPHA BLUE PLAINS OXEN 0/1
HUNT ALPHA SCREECHER RAPTOR 0/1
HUNT HORNED BOUNDER QUEEN 0/1
HUNT DARK SKY BAT KING 0/1
SLAY 500 BLUE PLAINS OXEN HIDES 0/500
SLAY 100 SCREECHER RAPTORS 0/100
SLAY 300 HORNED BOUNDERS 0/300
SLAY 250 DARK SKY BATS 0/250
SLAY 100 PLAINS CHARGERS 0/100
SLAY 200 SHADOW FOXES 0/200
TOWER POINTS:
49,360/200,000
Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
The Plains were larger than the Forest. More things to kill and in greater quantities. The biome seemed like it was just going to be a lot of walking and fighting.
Which is why we had chosen it as the place to test out how well we meshed. The Plains were pretty simple. Just walk out there and fight. Endlessly fight.
“The Dungeon is to the east?”
“I think so,” Sunie replied, looking that way. “A ravine right? Probably won’t see it until we fall in.”
I laughed.
We started walking that direction. About a mile of walking later, I looked back and could barely make out the hill.
“You know the way back right?” I asked after another mile and not able to see the hill anymore.
“Yep,” Sunie chuckled, pulling what looked like a compass.
It was pretty big for a compass, maybe three inches in diameter. Made out of a black stone with heavy decorative designs along the surface. Sunie popped the top and the interior was pretty standard for a compass. A needle that shifted as we moved. The needle was a silver metal and heavily etched in a pretty fanciful design. I could see the cardinal directions and in the corner a small glowing rune.
“It’s a pretty simple device,” Sunie explained. “Just lock it to a single location and you’ll be able to find it.”
“I want one.”
“Talk to Master Sumerio,” he said with a chuckle. “This is a product invented by his family.”
We had compasses on Earth still but they were the old style. Just pointing toward magnetic north, which thankfully hadn’t changed when the world did. The North Star was still there but it was no longer the brightest star in the sky, there were a couple dozen or so that were just as bright. That had been a fun thing to discover the first couple of years. Led to a lot of people getting lost. The changed world, with no familiar landmarks, helped get ‘em lost too.
I needed to get my hands on one of those compasses. I wondered what could be done with Solace’s crystal tech.
We heard a scurrying in the tall grass. A lot of things were coming our way.
I moved to the front. As the default tank, I’d hold the attention while Sunie did his Controller thing. Before entering the floor, we’d talked about our Abilities and how we used them, trying to gauge how to integrate those Abilities. My approach was simple. I just punched things and let them hit me so I could punch them harder.
Sunie, as a Ranged Controller, had a strange Path. It was probably why Jeriyan had picked him to possibly work with me. It wasn’t something that could integrate with a lot of other Paths easily. His Path Of The Chillblade sounded great, to me at least. Unlike a lot of Controllers, who stood motionless during a battle, Sunie was in constant motion. The sword he wore wasn’t just for defense. He ran around the battlefield, cutting into the enemy, which would then allow him to use the Temperature Essence to freeze their blood and slow them down. He had the Elemental Essence so he could combine the two and form ice barriers or encase foes in ice.
The reason it didn’t work with most other groups was that they required their Controller to stay motionless. Moving around would get in the way of the Ranged DPS. For most groups, like Nathan and Tracy’s team, it was about holding the ground and keeping the enemies tied to that spot.
For me, and why I worked solo, the battleground was fluid. I moved around the enemy, keeping them twisting and turning. Sunie did the same. There was a lot where our two styles might conflict. Pretty easy to run into each other. Timing and anticipation was going to be vital for us. But that was stuff that could be learned through experience and just doing.
His Path sounded pretty cool and I couldn’t wait to see it in action.
Sounded like we’d get the chance pretty quick.
I could see the tops of the grass stalks waving in the breeze but nothing else. Whatever was coming at us was small. With how much the stalks were moving, and the area covered by the movements, there was a lot of small things rushing us.
“What do you think?” Sunie asked.
It had already been decided that I was going to be the fight leader. That was always the toughest thing to figure out when working with new people. Who got to be the one to shout orders and redirect the battle when needed? Most people could be trusted to know what to do, but sometimes the boss guy was needed. A lot of potential teams broke up over not figuring out who that boss during battles was.
Sunie was older, had a bit more experience, even though he was a Level behind me. I was a faction leader, which I kept stressing shouldn’t matter, and hopefully it didn’t. But Sunie hadn’t put up a fight, even suggesting me as I had been saying his experience and ability to see the larger battlefield would make him a good choice. I’d sighed, grumbled and accepted.
“Let’s see what it is and how many,” I said. “But be ready to throw up a chill field.”
“Understood,” he said, moving a bit further back.
This could prove to be a good test for our first fight. It sounded like a lot of critters and I wasn’t a tank where I could use a taunt, manipulation or pull Ability to get the aggro on me. Maybe that would be a good Ability to get for my last Essence Slot. Something to help me control the monster’s attention so Sunie could do his thing easier.
I stood there, moving some Force around my fists, waiting to see what was coming.
The waving stalks got closer, only a couple feet away. I looked toward the bottom and middle of the stalks, expecting something around that size. I was not disappointed.
A rabbit with a small rack of antler burst out right in front of me, jumping up to gore my chest.
