Pieces of Sonder

“Freya take the lead, K13 follow her, then Heilong, and Diviner Houkyu. I’ll take the back. If anyone sees any movement, call it out,” Infamous Biscuit instructed.

Leading the way down the trail, Freya pushed away vines, trying not to let them slap back at K13 behind her. The vines seemed to get worse the further they went. Behind her, K13’s armor quietly clinked. He had his full armor on now, except his helmet, which he carried in one arm. Freya couldn’t blame him for not wearing it before; it looked hot and uncomfortable to be trekking through the tropical rainforest in.

Then just in front of them, Freya noticed the vines thinned a lot.

“Hold on,” Freya called and held up her hand for them to stop.

Narrowing her eyes at the trail ahead of them, she realized what she was looking at, “The vines up ahead look cut. Like maybe someone came through here, from the opposite direction.”

Heilong pushed her way through the vegetation to the front of their group. She examined the trail ahead of them. Crouching down, she looked at how the vines were cut.

“Definitely cut with a tool. An animal didn’t do this,” Heilong said. She stood and started swiping around her game interface, “Would anyone usually be walking from the opposite direction Diviner Houkyu?”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ve only known folks from Kai Nai to use this trail.”

Heilong nodded, “We are quite far from the next city or town. I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but these cuts don’t look that recent. They might have been made this morning or yesterday.”

Looking carefully at the ground and surrounding vegetation Heilong began to follow the trail, “I’ll take the lead for now. My tracking skill works better if no one else has trampled over the trail.”

At first, the trail of cut vines kept to the dirt path, but soon it wandered off. They followed it for a little bit until Infamous Biscuit told them to turn around.

“This might be the trail of the orc we just met. Let’s just continue on to the cave.”

Freya took the lead back, and they continued down the path. Finally, after a little less than an hour of trekking, they reached a towering pile of rocks that just barely reached above the tree canopy.

“We actually made it!” Diviner Houkyu said, wiping the sweat on his face with his tunic. “I thought for sure we’d be turned around again. It’s been so long since I’ve last seen this place.”

Heilong and Freya both noticed the alarming amount of unnatural crushed and slashed vegetation around the area.

“When was the last time you actually made it to this cave?” Heilong asked nervously.

“Oh, maybe two months ago or longer than that,” Diviner Houkyu said, still cheerful they found the cave.

Freya paled.

“My Geologist’s Eye skill is telling me this rock formation is not natural,” Heilong said, scanning their surroundings. Freya didn’t need a skill to tell that. With no surrounding mountains or volcanic-like activity in the area, the odd pile of rocks looked out of place. The shape of the rocks also seemed unnatural to Freya. While weather-worn, they still looked too square-shaped.

Infamous Biscuit started climbing up the rock pile to the entrance of the cave. Freya and K13 followed him.

Just as they crossed the threshold of the cave:

Beep!

[Ruins of Old Kai Nai]

[Major Dungeon] [Suggested Level: 18]

[Note: Meridian Manipulation based skills are highly recommended]

“I’ve never seen a suggestion like that before,” Infamous Biscuit said, taking a step back from the entrance. “But level 18? I don’t know…”

Freya stared down into the depths of the cave. Then she turned around. From the higher vantage point, she noticed Heilong hadn’t come up to the entrance with them. Instead, she was crouched down, looking at something at the perimeter of the rocky outcropping.

Jumping down from the rocks, Infamous Biscuit went over to her to relay the situation.

Heilong nodded absently, focused on some twigs she had collected from the ground.

“I’m level 20,” Infamous Biscuit said. “You’re 15, plus 15, plus 14… divide by 4… our group average is 16. Tackling a level 18 dungeon isn’t a good idea.”

“But it looks like orcs are already escaping, and what about Diviner Houkyu’s dream vision?” Freya said, looking up at him.

“Maybe we can advertise this dungeon to some higher-level teams.”

“But how many other groups know Meridian Manipulation?”

Infamous Biscuit frowned, “Still, you’re really the only one who can use it in a fight. Your Shockwave was really effective against that orc, but we can’t rely on that to take down every single orc in that dungeon.”

“Still-”

“Good news!” Heilong interrupted. “I don’t think any orcs have left and not come back except for one, which we can assume is the one we killed. Also, another piece of good news, they always seem to go out individually, not in groups.”

Heilong dusted off her hands. She looked between the two of them. “I think we could do the dungeon. We just need some prep time. I can set some traps around here. We can take shifts. We all have to log out at some point, but Freya doesn’t need to, and she’s the one that can deliver finishing blows for now. Someone just needs to keep watch while she sleeps.”

Infamous Biscuit looked at her skeptically, “How long are you thinking of prepping?”

She shrugged, “Long enough for us to learn a Meridian Manipulation based skill and for K13 to learn the skill to begin with.”

“We’re going to suddenly learn a Meridian Manipulation based skill?” he said, scoffing at the notion.

“Come on, you must have come across some skill books specialized for your class that had Meridian Manipulation as a prerequisite. Just pick one and try it out. Plus, we have two meridian manipulation experts to help us.”

Infamous Biscuit looked over at Freya and Diviner Houkyu. The latter looked confused about the conversation but gleaned enough out of it.

“I’ll help in any way I can!” the diviner said enthusiastically. Pekkae, the spirit bird on his shoulder, also chirped encouragement. 

Everyone looked at Infamous Biscuit.

“Okay, okay,” he said, giving in. “We’ll give it a try.”