Lots of Notifications filled my vision.

  THE WHITEMOSS FOREST BIOME

  DUNGEONS: 11

  SOLO: 4 (Completed 2/4, 1 Repeatable)

  DUO: 3 (Completed 1/3, 1 Repeatable)

  PARTY: 3

  RAID: 1

  QUESTS: 10

  SOLO: 6 (Completed 3/6, 3 Repeatable)

  PARTY: 3

  RAID 1:

  HUNTING PERMITS: 7

  MULTIPLE ARCANEBEASTS: 3 (Completed 1/3, 1 Repeatable)

  ELITE ARCANEBEASTS: 4 (Completed 1/4, 0 Repeatable)

  QUESTS:

  FIND 120 CLUMPS OF WHITEMOSS 101/120

  FIND 300 OAKEN ACORNS 300/300

  GATHER 100 BUSHELS OF PONDTAILS 100/100

  GATHER 120 STACKS OF BIRCHEN LOGS 120/120

  GATHER 75 WHITEMOSS WOLF HIDE 65/75

  GATHER 100 HORRISLEAF ELK ANTLERS 84/100

  PERMITS:

  HUNT ALPHA HORRISLEAF ELK 1/1

  HUNT ALPHA WHITEMOSS WOLF 0/1

  HUNT ALPHA URSASPINE 0/1

  HUNT ALPHA WHITEHILLS WYVERN 0/1

  SLAY 50 WHITEMOSS WOLVES 50/50

  SLAY 50 URSASPINES 43/50

  SLAY 30 WHITEHILLS WYVERN 4/30

  THE ENDLESS PLAINS BIOME

  DUNGEONS: 9

  SOLO: 2

  DUO: 4 (Completed 2/4, 1 Repeatable)

  PARTY: 2 (Completed 1/2, 1 Repeatable)

  RAID: 1

  QUESTS: 16

  SOLO: 6

  DUO: 5

  PARTY: 4

  RAID 1

  HUNTING PERMITS: 10

  MULTIPLE ARCANEBEASTS: 6

  ELITE ARCANEBEASTS: 4

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  QUESTS:

  FIND 300 CLUMPS OF CRYSTAL GRASS STALKS 231/300

  FIND 150 PLAINS BIRCH LEAVES 0/150

  FIND 200 RAVINE SIDE MUSHROOMS 35/200

  GATHER 500 BLUE PLAINS OXEN HIDES 0/500

  GATHER 100 SCREECHER RAPTORS HIDES 27/100

  GATHER 150 HORNED BOUNDERS ANTLERS 133/150

  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 27/100

  SLAY 300 HORNED BOUNDERS 180/300

  SLAY 250 DARK SKY BATS 15/250

  SLAY 100 PLAINS CHARGERS 0/100

  SLAY 200 SHADOW FOXES 0/200

  Multiversal Credits: 73,532

  Tower Points (First Floor): 89,720/200,000

  REQUIREMENTS TO CLEAR INFINITE TOWER FLOOR ONE:

  200,000 TOWER POINTS

  I really needed to get back to the Whitemoss Forest. Had a lot to finish up there.

  “Sunie?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Had you started the Whitemoss Forest?”

  “Nope, did you?”

  “Yeah, I suppose I’ll need to finish that one up.”

  “Let me get the quests and stuff after the next run into the Endless Plains. We can start banging out some of the Dungeons and such. We’ll do those two Biomes and then hit the others after.”

  “That’ll work.”

  We bumped fists and Sunie headed out of the Hub. I lingered a bit, looking through the other options. I did a quick search of the leaderboards, not seeing any names I recognized, but noting a few of the frontrunners and saw my name had a pretty decent ranking overall. Both in time and in points. Doing a lot of it solo, and not at the recommended party size, was really helping. I chuckled, seeing that Subudai wasn’t doing anywhere near as good as me. He was doing okay, but nothing that really stood out. Kind of average. So was Fred, but that was to be expected. He’d never planned on being a stand-out in the Tower.

  It had been my plan because the Solace Fellowship was small compared to so many others. Aside from the crystals, which we weren’t ready to introduce to the wider Multiverse yet, we didn’t have any real unique goods or Resources. Didn’t have that many high-Leveled Adventurers. Nothing to really stand out. So we, or more accurately me, had to stand out in other ways.

  I could feel some stares on me from the folks in the Hub. As I turned, no one was paying attention, but I knew someone was. I scanned the area, not seeing anyone sticking out.

  Closing out the menus, I headed for the portals out of the Hub. I chose the one that would take me directly to the Solace Compound. I appeared, stepping out of the mine entrance. The Compound was the same as it had been, except the Crafting Hut had been converted to a brewery. No one was brewing yet. Needed to get another Clanmember to Level 100, so we could bring over more non-Adventurers.

  I added ‘kick the team in the butts to get them moving’ to the list of things to do once back on Earth. Really needed to get Tracy and the others to push for their last couple of Levels.

  Neither Tammy or Fields were out in the Compounds yard, so I headed into the longhouse. Tammy sat at the head of the table, in my chair, looking up as I entered. She had a half-dozen notebooks spread out around her. Some were opened and she made notes in those. Tammy was an excellent multi-tasker.

  “No Sunie?,” she asked.

  I rolled my eyes, taking a seat at the table.

  “That’s my seat,” I said.

  “You weren’t using it,” she replied.

  Which was true.

  I started pulling the day’s loot out of my inventory, piling it not-so-neatly on the table. Shooting me a dirty look, Tammy moved her notebooks out of the way. There were bat wings, ears, rabbit’s feet, antlers, and so much more. It was a pretty good haul. The Crawler’s teeth really made a big pile. Maybe over a hundred of the things.

  I was really curious how many it would take to make a sword.

  Tammy stood up, moving to the other side and started separating everything. She had to move down to the other end of the long table so there was space to make piles. I could have helped her, instead I got up and went out back to the office and the fridge, which was really just a rune-marked and crystal powered wooden box. I pulled out a beer, grabbed a bag of chips off a shelf, and went back out to the table. Tammy was still sorting.

  “Not a bad haul,” she said.

  “That’s not even the good stuff,” I said, setting the bag of chips down and pulling out the Essences.

  I laid them all on the table. Tammy looked them over, touching each one to get the Notification of what Essence they were. Each glowed a different color, but there were lots of duplicate colors and the color meant nothing. Some Essences that worked together were different colors and some that definitely should not be used together were the same color. No one had found a rhyme or reason to it yet.

  “Destruction?” Tammy said, holding one up.

  “I thought about that for my last slot,” I said.

  “That would be a good choice Nick,” Stylo said, appearing off to the side.

  Tammy jumped, which made me think Stylo was doing it on purpose.

  “You’d be absolutely terrifying with a Destruction Essence,” Tammy said, setting it down.

  “Yeah, Sunie thought so too, but it’s so rare that it’d take me a very long time to catch up to the others. And while it would give me a lot of power, it doesn’t really work with my build or fighting style.”

  “You have a build?” Tammy said.

  “Ha.”