Kalani turned towards me, face unreadable through the mask, then they said, “Jacob, what does this mean?”

  ‘Damn it! Stupid, stupid, stupid, why didn’t I think of this, gah!’

  My throat went dry, Kalani patiently expecting an answer, and I tried to keep calm as I said, “I don’t know, I mean, I guess I already completed a quest the last time I was here, so you might only need to do one to be able to leave?”

  Kalani nodded, “Hmm, maybe.”

  One of the scientists, the same scrawny one who had brought the quest up before me, said, “That’s all you’re going to question? This is unprecedented.”

  “Well, I would, but the Quest I was given was to kill a Consortium of Tree Octopi, and they were marked in my vision, and they're currently getting closer. So everybody, get into god damn formation!” They yelled the last part.

  And everybody followed, the two firing squads pointing their gun at the place Kalani indicated, while the scientists and I fell back, using my power to hide them. Originally, I had been placed with one of the fire squads to spread my power to, but invisibility just increased the rate of friendly fire.

  And so I watched from the back as the Marines opened fire at the canopy above, the Octopi dropping down. The bullets barely tickling them at first, but as the blessed gave them their power, I saw their Mana infuse into the weapons through the system. And when the newly infused bullets hit their targets, they tore right through the barklike skin of the giant Octopi. Answering a question about why the previous expeditions had failed so badly, and that the Military didn’t seem to know about it since they didn’t cover it in training.

  ‘Guess I should tell them about that, but how would I without them getting suspicious of me?’

  But I was brought out of my thoughts as I saw the Octopi keeping the tide of the battle on their side, having gotten close enough to attack and grapple the guns away. I cursed under my breath and covertly used my Domain to subjugate them without my Dust, the method significantly harder, especially since I was trying to keep it subtle so none of the Bosses would notice.

  But I succeeded, slowing down the Octopi as much as I could without getting the Marines suspicious while they mowed them down, emerging victorious a moment later. And after the dust settled, everybody convened, Kalani cursing under their breath.

  Charlotte went up to them, “What's wrong?”

  “I failed the quest, someone else killed them before I did.”

  I internally groaned.

  “What?”

  “Yeah, apparently my party was supposed to be the one to finish them off.”

  “That… that doesn’t seem fair. Wait, are you going to be able to leave, since you didn’t complete your quest?”

  “It’s saying it’s assigning another one, but it hasn’t given one yet,” They took a deep breath through the rattling respirator. “Anyway, while that’s happening, what’s your Quest Charlotte?”

  “Oh, me, um… It’s saying that I have to collect the heartwood of something called an Emerald Pine.”

  “What’s an Emerald pine?”

  “It’s probably one of those,” I said, pointing towards the pine trees surrounding us after using appraisal on them.

  “Are you sure?” Kalani asked.

  “Do you see any other Pine Tree around us?”

  “Fair, but how are we going to get to the heartwood of one? I could lay spread eagle on one of the smaller ones if they were a stump, and we didn’t even bring anything that could cut them.”

  “Ahem,” The scrawny scientist cleared his throat to get our attention, “We may not have to cut them down.”

  “What do you mean,” Kalani asked, “Mr. Uhh.”

  “Paul, and I mean that we have a drill meant to take rock core samples, and it could reach far enough into the tree to get to the heartwood.”

  “Then let's do it.”

  The scientists then brought out a spear like drill with a hollow center meant to contain samples of whatever it was drilling. Then they gave it to the Marines inside Charlotte's party to operate, having a heart attack at every misstep they made.

  But I wasn’t paying much attention to that, having sat down near a tree and zoned out, planning failsafes for a million different scenarios where something went wrong. But then something touched the edge of my magical senses, and I opened my eyes, whirling my head towards it. But I found nothing, even with my other senses, but my search was cut short when Kalani walked up to me, touching my shoulder to get my attention.

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  I looked at them and asked, “What?”

  “I got a question for you.”

  I nodded, “What is it?”

  “Since you’ve been in here before, do you know what a Mountain Walrus is?”

  I blinked, “It’s a popular local hoax.”

  “It is?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Huh, that’s weird, the new quest says I need to kill one.”

  I shrugged, “It’s not that weird, the Tree Octopi are a hoax too, it seems to be a theme.”

  “Theme?”

  Kalani didn’t have much more time to question me as Charlotte announced the completion of their quest. After that, Kalani announced their quest, telling them that the enemy marker was in the mountains that you could barely see beyond the canopy.

  So the scientists finished collecting their samples in their large plastic boxes and went back through the Gate. With the ‘deadweight’ gone, as some of the Marines described it, we made our way towards the mountain, my legs burning at the long walk through the forest. Making sure that it would go as smoothly as possible by subjugating any creature in our path, with the happy side effect of replenishing my minion stores.

  And just before the sun set, we reached the foot of the mountain, Kalani deciding we would make camp and go up tomorrow. So we put up camouflage tents, eating dinner in the form of Liquid MRE pouches, we would insert into a valve in our mask and drink through an internal straw. And they actually tasted decent since they didn’t taste like anything.

  After that, we went to sleep, some staying up on night watch in case of monster attacks, but that once again left me bored and unable to sleep. I reached out with Lunar Aura to watch through the eyes of my minions, but there wasn’t any moon out, so I had to stop it so I wouldn’t faint from MP exhaustion.

  Then I realized something, there was barely any security, so I let out my real body from Slip Away. Geting past the guards, and spreading my wings for the first time in weeks, feeling the wicked cold wind through my fur and scales. My antenna catching every scent in the chill, damp air for miles.

  Then I flew up, breaking through the canopy, flitting about in the starlight, and when I grew exhausted, I landed on the canopy branches. And I watched the stars above, the tapestry of light melding together in a web of strings through my weak eyes.

  Then I heard Jacob say to me, “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, but it’s a poison, a prison.”

  “It’s still beautiful, though.”

  “It’s killing us.”

  “That’s always happening…”

  “I want to survive, I want to live.”

  “We don’t have a life, we’re just a drop of water in the ocean being tossed about by the whims of the tide, might as well not fight it. After spending all that time resting, I've come to realize I should be content with what I have.”

  “Then why do you still fight?”

  Jacob didn’t answer.

  I scoffed, “You’re fucking disgusting.”

  He didn’t answer, as he didn’t have a chance to because I felt something approach me, like I had earlier this day when Charlotte was completing her Quest. I didn’t physically react, though, to prevent spurring it into action, but I pushed my Domain sense outwards, and I recognised it. It was the same power as the place that wasn’t there in the track on the compound.

  I pretended to be oblivious to it as I moved around, trying to make it look natural. But that only made the thing that wasn’t there move faster, almost touching my wing before I hid myself in Slip Away. My consciousness going back towards Jacobs' body, where I stayed up all night to make sure I was prepared for its next move, but it didn’t appear all night, and the next thing I knew, it was morning.

  And Kalani didn’t waste time, sending us up the mountain after eating breakfast, while I kept an eye out for any unwelcome visitors. And it did come, I was poised to attack whatever it was, but all it did was steal MREs and run away.

  I scratched my head over that one for a while, but soon enough it was time for the fight. We were positioned on the edge of a cliff, a Mountain Walrus with stony skin and obsidian spikes on its flippers, below, on its back, sunbathing.

  Then Kalani and a few other people pulled out belts of grenades, sending a dozen down at the same time, the explosive shrapnel kicking up a cloud of dust. And when it dissipated, it revealed a pissed off Walrus with small cracks in its armor, then it roared, sounding like an engine revving.

  “Fire!” Kalani called out.

  A deafening barrage of bullets raining down on it, but they only left scratches on it as it waddled over to the stone wall.

  “Thank God it can’t climb!” one of the Marines said

  But of course, in my experience, I have found God to be a bit of a prick, so the Walrus, of course, started climbing the sheer wall, digging the obsidian spikes on its flippers into the stone. And despite its ineffectiveness, the Marines kept firing at it, chipping away at its stone hide, then they started to fall back when the Walrus summited the wall.

  But one of the Marines hadn’t retreated quickly enough and was in the range of the Walrus as it brought down its tusk on them, goring into his leg with a snap. The Marine fell with a gurgling scream as the Walrus raised its head to finish the Job.

  But I reached out with Domain as quickly as possible without a second thought, stunning it, only taking care not to make it their minion. And while the Walrus had its head raised, its center of gravity misaligned, Kalani took advantage of it. Pushing at it with their wind, sending it crashing below.

  Then Charlotte went up to the edge, firing a brilliant white laser at a crack in its armor, exposing flesh, taking care not to kill it. Letting Kalani throw a grenade at it, guiding it with their wind into the wound, the grenade blowing up inside the Walrus with a splat.

  There was a breath of silence before Kalani said, “We killed it.”

  There was an uproar of cheers and celebration, but something else had caught my attention. When I used my Domain to shock the Walrus, I hadn’t concealed it, and I had felt a response from a Boss, and felt them rapidly coming towards me.

  I looked through the eyes of my minions to coordinate my attack, but I was stunned frozen. It was a white ape covered in gray chitinous armor, with two heads and eight arms, a few of them cut off. It was Second of the Snow…