The Outlands

“Sorry for the wait.” Tess said, opening the door to the private room where everyone was meeting. “We were just working things out, you know how it is.”

“No, I don’t think I do.” Alice said, a faintly amused expression on her face. “I don’t think…how’d you put it in your text…‘stopping by Fortune’s place for an hour or two to talk with her’ is normal.”

“Ah. Um, well…you understand, though, right?” Tess asked.

Alice chuckled. “Yes, I understand. I’m just teasing.”

“Oh. Good.” Tess replied. “So…what’s the plan, then?”

Jin stepped forward. “Well, we’re going to be training the three of you as a group.” He said. “And we think you’re about at the point where you can handle Jagged Cliffs, one of the city’s two mid-level dungeons.”

Maven blinked in surprise. “That’s…for people level thirty five-ish, right?” She said warily. “Shouldn’t we be trying something…closer to our level if we’re not boosting?”

Ker shook his head. “No. You all are roughly level thirty, and given what I know about your abilities, you should be able to handle this. It’ll be a challenge, yes, but it’s one that you three can take.”

“Of course, we’ll be there to keep an eye on you.” Ava said reassuringly. “If it ever looks like you’re going to die, we’ll step in and save you. Hopefully it shouldn’t come to that, but it’s possible, so we’ll be vigilant.”

Ellie nodded. “Alright. So, should we get going now, or...is there anything we need to do first?”

“This dungeon is a little different.” Jin said. “We’re going to need to prepare for it a bit more than the others. We’re going to want to head down, get an information pamphlet, and then we’re going to have the three of you decide what you’ll need. We already have everything we need on hand, so you won’t need to worry about actually getting it, but we want you to get used to preparing.”

“Sounds sensible.” Ellie replied. “Let’s get going, then.”

With that, the group went out to the guild’s main hall, which, while busy, was much less busy than it normally was earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. That meant that the personal receptionist line was empty, so they walked up to the counter and waited for Graham.

About half a minute later, Graham made his way to the desk, giving them all a smile. “Big group today. What can I do for you all?”

“We want the information packet for Jagged Cliffs, as well as to officially accept the standing request for clearing it.” Jin explained.

Graham raised an eyebrow. “You’re having them take that on already? Impressive. Give me a moment to go grab that for you.” He stood up from the chair he had sat in, bending down so he could access the drawers below. He rummaged around for a few moments before coming back up with a pamphlet, which he handed to Jin. “Looks like that request’s reward is five gold right now, I’ve gone ahead and updated your bands with that. Anything else I can do for you?”

Jin shook his head. “No, thank you very much.”

“Don’t mention it.” Graham said, waving a hand dismissively. “Best of luck out there!”

“Thank you, Graham.” Tess said. “I’ll see you around, I suppose.”

“See you later!”

The group retreated from the desk, and made their way back to the private room. Jin handed Ellie the packet, and she opened it and began to read. “So…it looks like, as the name suggests, the dungeon is a bunch of cliffs. Unlike the dungeons we’ve been going to, there are some levels in it that are like…vertical, and we need to mountaineer up.”

“I can work with that pretty easily.” Tess said. “I can just walk straight up. But we’ll probably need climbing gear for you two, ropes…uh I don’t know what else you need for climbing, but climbing stuff.”

“Hold on for a second.” Maven said. “You can just walk up?”

“Yeah, when I was clearing the dungeon that I got Silky from, all the spiders had this Trait called Spiderclimb that lets me just climb up walls. I’ve kept it on just in case.” To prove her point, Tess got out of her seat and moved over to the edge of the room, where she placed her feet on the wall and walked up.

It was a bit of an odd sensation. She felt like gravity should be pushing against her body at every step, but it just…didn’t. In fact, it felt like gravity was pushing her against the wall, not the floor. She had asked Fortune about it once, and Fortune had told her that gravity actually was pushing her against the wall.

“Gravity doesn’t actually use the formula you’ve been taught.” Fortune explained. “Well, it does, but that whole ‘gravitational constant’ isn’t a constant. It’s a value that’s dependent on a bunch of other things, the biggest of which are Mana and a value that we set for every plane, so the main planets all have roughly the same gravity as the main planets of other planes.

“And…well, you’re kinda really really similar to a monster in a lot of ways? Basically, that Trait works by stimulating its user’s background Mana, so it changes gravity to pull them towards the wall. Not your active Mana pool, the stuff you can’t normally use, the stuff that’s always flowing through you to make you…work. And most people don’t have enough of that, but you have about as much as a monster now, so…it just works.”

Tess walked up onto the ceiling, then sat down. “It’s not perfect, though. If all my body parts lose contact with the wall, then I just fall off completely.”

Maven stared up at her curiously. “How long can you keep that up for?”

“Forever?” Tess said. “It doesn’t use Mana or Stamina, no more than regular walking does.”

“But…” Maven began, “stuff like this usually costs Stamina, right?”

Tess thought that over for a second. “To make a long story short, I qualify as a monster for things like this. I’m using the monster version of the ability, not the person version.”

“Surprised me at first too, but I’ve come to find that it’s pretty safe to assume she’s using monster stuff if the ability is…unusual.” Alice said. “And they generally don’t have the costs that people versions have. Like everything else with that Class of hers, it’s kind of super unfair.”

“I’ll say.” Maven replied, watching as Tess got up and walked down the wall and back to her seat. “Seems useful, though.”

“Yeah, it is.” Tess said. “I figure I can act as like…an anchor for us. Like, I’ll be the one in the lead, and then we’ll all be tied together by rope, and then if one of us falls I can help keep us on the wall.”

“Are you strong enough for that?” Ellie asked. “I’m going to start wearing plate armor, and that’s kinda super heavy. I don’t want to pull anyone off because I got swatted off by a monster.”

Tess hesitated. “Um…worst case scenario I cast some flight magic or something. It’d take most of my Mana, but I can probably carry you until you can get back to safety.”

Ellie pondered that for a moment, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “Actually, let me try something real quick.” Four translucent, wickedly sharp blades popped into existence, orbiting gently around Ellie. They didn’t stay blades for long, however, as they stretched and widened to an appearance that looked more like a long, rectangular beam. The four “blades” fit themselves neatly together, forming a sort of floating platform, which Ellie stepped onto.

“Sick.” She said. “Can this take me up, too?” A moment later the platform began to rise, though its ascent was much slower than its formation. “Alright, not very fast, but it can.”

Then the platform moved to the side, unceremoniously dropping Ellie to the floor. She managed to land on her feet, but teetered a bit, nearly falling over. “Okay, maybe I tried to get a little too fancy a little too fast.” She said, a chagrined expression on her face. The platform separated and the components turned back into blades, which began to orbit Ellie once more before they vanished completely.

“I did not have nearly as much traction as I thought I did.” She explained. “So…for now it looks like it’s only a up and down thing, but I can probably catch myself with it if things get too dicey. Which…just leaves Maven, I guess.”

Maven flapped her wings. “I can fly.” She said. “It’s tiring, but no more than climbing would be. A fair bit easier, too. Tess, you have those…attendants you’re calling them, yes? Will they be fine?”

Tess nodded. “Isabella mostly stays inside of me, and Silky can climb walls like me. Even if she couldn’t, I recently gave her wings, so she’s totally fine.” She reached into a pocket and took Silky out. “Wanna show them?”

Silky saluted. Yes, ma’am! She replied, and part of her back that had been covered in glossy carapace split open to reveal two beetle wings, which Silky used to fly around for a bit before returning to Tess’s hand.

Apparently not wanting to be left out, Isabella drifted outside of Tess. “I…can fly too.” She said, rising a few feet in the air. “And I can catch mistress if she falls.” And, having said her piece, she floated back into Tess, leaving the room silent for a moment.

“So…I suppose that’s the climbing taken care of.” Tess said. “Are we missing anything?”

“I want some gear just in case.” Ellie said. “For if we need to move sideways. I’m not confident I can get the hang of doing that in the next…twenty minutes or however long it’s going to be before we go to the dungeon.”

“A wise decision.” Ker said. “Fortunately, climbing isn’t as hard as it is on Mael. We have magic items that let you cling to walls much easier, so you shouldn’t need anything too crazy. Just some good rope and something to make handholds, but those swords or Tess’s claws should more than suffice for that.”

“What else does the packet say?” Tess asked.

Ellie opened the packet back up. “It’s apparently cold. Like…well, like climbing a mountain. And a bunch of the levels have snow or fog or other environmental effects on them. It seems…nasty.”

Maven frowned. “I’ll say. What are the monsters like?”

Ellie flipped through the packet for a bit. “Not bad, actually. There apparently aren’t as many as there are in most dungeons, and while they’re at the dungeon’s level, they don’t seem to have any crazy abilities or anything. Honestly, it kind of seems like the environment itself is the biggest challenge here.”

“It is.” Jin confirmed. “But that doesn’t mean you can ignore the monsters. They’re weak on paper, but they’re not affected by the environment whatsoever. They’re a lot harder to deal with when you can’t see more than ten feet in front of you and you’re in the middle of scaling a mountain.”

Tess nodded. “So…we’ll want really warm clothing, probably some goggles or something, and…snow boots, maybe? I’m not sure how that’s going to work with armor.”

“Not well.” Alice replied, grimacing. “I have a hand-me-down set I can give to Ellie, it has some enchantments that help you walk in snow and sand and stuff. Temperature control, too, so that should settle her.”

“My armor has temperature control too.” Maven said. “So, that will be no issue. I would like an extra set of climbing gear, however. I don’t want to risk flying if the storm gets bad.”

“We can arrange it.” Jin replied. “How about you, Tess?”

“My armor will get some temperature control effects later, but it doesn’t have them yet.” Tess said. “I’ve only unlocked the first effect, so I’ve still got quite a ways to go before I get it, too.”

“Less of a ways than you think, actually.” Ava corrected. “The armor’s designed to hit full effectiveness when you hit level forty, so my guess is you’ll get that effect sometime around level thirty-five or so. Until then, you can probably get away with just wearing heavy winter clothing, since you don’t need to worry about monsters targeting you.”

“Isn’t there a magic item that will keep me warm?” Tess asked. “I think Atum mentioned he had one.”

“They’re usually built into clothing.” Alice explained. “I got a hoodie for you that’ll provide that effect for your whole body without being too bulky.”

Maven shot her a surprised look. “That’s pretty expensive, isn’t it?”

Tess frowned. “Didn’t you say your armor has temperature control?”

“Yes, but that’s different. My armor has gloves, shoes, a helmet, basically a piece for every part of my body. It’s relatively easy to apply temperature control in bits and pieces spread over a set of equipment, but it’s pretty hard to put it all on one piece and have it cover the entire body. And that difficulty makes it much, much more expensive.”

“Consider it a graduation present if you want.” Alice said, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s really not that expensive, so it’s no big deal. I picked it up more as a whim than anything else, don’t sweat it.” She reached into her magic bag and pulled out a red hoodie, which she tossed to Tess. “The hood will morph to fit your ears, too. That’s pretty standard for hoodies, though.”

Tess caught the hoodie, then put it on. The room was already at a pretty comfortable temperature, but the moment the hoodie was on it just felt…better. Like the air conditioning had somehow reached that temperature that was just right, not even the slightest bit hot or cold. She reached up to her neck and felt at the hood, which did indeed have two flaps for her fox ears now.

“This feels…really good, actually. Thank you!” She said.

Alice gave her a satisfied smile. “Don’t even mention it.” She replied. “It’s no big deal.”

“It looks good on you.” Ellie said appreciatively.

“It feels like you say that every time I wear new clothes.” Tess said, smirking. “You’re going to wear that compliment out.”

“It’s true!” Ellie protested. “You look great in like…everything! You’d make me jealous if we weren’t dating!”

“Get a room, you two.” Ker teased. “If you’re going to keep flirting, then we’ll just take Maven to the dungeon on her own and leave you behind.”

Ellie blushed, looking away. “Sorry.” She said. “Couldn’t help it.”

Ker laughed. “I’m just messing with you. That should be just about everything you need, though, so I think it’s about time we got moving.”

“Give me a minute to go change into my armor.” Ellie said. “Then I’ll be ready.”

“I will need to change as well.” Maven added.

“We’ll wait for the two of you here.” Jin said. “We’re hoping to clear the dungeon at least once before the day’s over, though, so try to hurry a little.”

A few minutes later, Ellie and Maven returned, and then the group set off for the dungeon. As far as dungeons went, it wasn’t anywhere near as popular as any of the beginner dungeons had been, which Tess supposed was to be expected; there were less people capable of clearing it, and it was a much riskier thing to clear than the beginner dungeons.

But even beyond that, it just seemed…emptier than a dungeon in a city like this should have been. “Do people not use this dungeon?” Tess asked. “No one’s here, and the standing request reward was pretty high too. At least, high compared to what I’ve been getting, more than just the level difference would suggest.”

Ava nodded. “Even for dungeon standards, this one is not fun to go through. There aren’t many monsters, so you don’t earn much from their drops, the weather effects and climbing sections are pretty miserable, and it takes a long time to boot. The only people who really come here are people who are getting the Skills from it and the people who live here.”

“Makes sense.” Ellie said. “Now that I’m thinking about it, though, I realized that I never checked for a Challenge in the packet, Ker stopped me before I got there. Does this dungeon have one?”

“Yes.” Jin said. “It’s a particularly rough climb in especially harsh weather, but there are no monsters. You have to make one of the climbs after floor fifteen in under ten minutes to be offered it, we’ll help keep monsters off your back once we reach a climbing floor so you can attempt it.”

“Thank you.” Maven said. “Shall we use the Party Crystal and be off, then?”