The Outlands

Tess flinched as she stepped through the door into the dungeon proper and was immediately hit with a rush of cold air. It was an odd sensation; she felt like the wind should be making her colder, and she could somehow tell that the wind was cold, but the hoodie Alice had given her kept her perfectly warm.

She took a moment to survey her surroundings as everyone else entered the floor. Unlike most of the dungeons she had been to, this one recreated an outdoor space; there was a sky overhead, and the area to her sides and behind her was flat and wide open, stretching out as far as the eye could see. The only exception was the door they had come through, which was standing in stark contrast to the completely natural-looking area near it.

More immediately attention-grabbing, though, was the mountain in front of her. It was…well, big. Bigger than anything she had seen in or outside of a dungeon; it seemed to stretch up and up with no end in sight. It was…awe-inspiring, something that made Tess feel very, very small. The only mountain she had ever been on or near was the one where the Appointed safehouse was located, and she couldn’t really…see anything while in there, so this felt like her first time really seeing a mountain.

“Jaws off of the floor, you two.” Alice said. “Don’t forget this is still a dungeon.”

Tess shook her head. “Sorry, I forgot. I’ve just…never really seen a mountain before, you know? We didn’t really travel much on Mael, so I just saw foothills. This is…something else.”

“I’ll say.” Ellie said. “I feel…tiny.”

“You get used to it.” Ker said. “You stop even noticing they’re there after a bit.” He smiled wistfully as he looked at the mountain. “Kind of a shame, really. They can be so pretty, but you just start to take them for granted when you’re around them for long enough.”

Tess shook her head once again, forcibly clearing out the wonder, then began to activate the Attributes and Skills she kept off in public.

Maven jumped as Tess burst into flame, a thin layer of fire spreading out and covering her body and clothes.

“Sorry.” Tess said. “Probably should have warned you. I’m…still not quite used to this ability, so I’m not great at controlling the appearance.” She focused for a bit, mentally willing the fire to become as thin and cold as it could go. Eventually, it settled into just giving Tess a faint glowing outline. “There we go. Uh, give me a moment here…”

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a thin, circular badge of sorts, which she affixed to the hoodie. “This neutralizes the smell of my Blighted Air, that way you don’t have to smell that.” She activated Blighted Air, then turned on Tremorsense (Perfect).

She took a moment to process the new information, then nodded. She still wasn’t fully used to it, but she had been practicing leaving it on when she wasn’t focusing on anything, so she wasn’t completely overwhelmed whenever she tried to use it in more…stimulating situations. She had yet to use it in a real fight, but she was confident that she would be fine, at least while she was scouting.

“So, I’m guessing the floor’s exit is going to be up the mountain?” She said. “I can’t see anywhere else important to go, and it would be weird for it to be elsewhere, right?”

“Yeah.” Ellie said. “Apparently once we get high enough, a door will appear next to us and we can leave that way.”

“What happens if we keep going up?” Tess asked. “Surely there’s some sort of size limit or something…right?”

“For this dungeon, yes.” Jin said. “If you start getting too high, you’ll be surreptitiously teleported lower down the mountain, so you’ll just keep climbing forever. Same thing happens if you try to go too far in any of the other directions, you just get teleported back and it feels like the plain keeps going forever. You won’t even notice if you’re not paying very careful attention.”

Tess nodded. “Interesting. Well, I’m going to start scouting ahead. I’ll let you know if there are any traps or monsters hiding in the undergrowth or anything.”

Ellie looked like she wanted to protest, paused, had a brief moment of internal debate, and then nodded. “Stay within eyesight.”

“I don’t plan to be farther than a hundred yards or so.” Tess said. “If I raise my hand, stop moving. That means there’s a monster or a trap and we’re going to need to deal with it. If it’s a monster, I’ll come back and tell you about it. If it’s a trap, I’ll try and disarm it, and I’ll raise both arms if I succeed.”

“Understood.” Maven said. “I will keep my eyes on our rear. If any monsters come, I’ll give you a shout.”

“I guess I’ll watch the sides, then.” Ellie said. “And I’ll keep an eye on you too, of course.”

Tess gave another nod, then made her way out in front of the party and began to lead them towards the foot of the mountain. It was an unusual experience for her; not because she was leading Ellie and Maven now, but because there just…wasn’t anything. Usually, when going through a dungeon, there was always something to keep track of, be it monsters ahead or a trap or even just carefully walking over very rough terrain, but here there was…nothing. She didn’t encounter any signs of trouble for a solid five minutes, at which point something finally came up.

There, in front of her, expertly concealed in the underbrush, was a rectangular pitfall, about five meters deep, ten meters across, and five meters wide. It wasn’t just…leaves on top of a hole, either; there was a thin layer of soil over the hole, with grass on top. She might not even have noticed it were it not for her tremorsense, the only real giveaway was the lack of any large vegetation on top of the trap.

She held up a hand, waiting to confirm that the group behind her had stopped before continuing her investigation. The trap would probably be simple to disarm, she just needed to put enough force on top of the trap to collapse it, but she activated Reverse Engineer anyway.

The Skill told her that the soil on top was held together by a thin layer of magic, there was another layer of magic on the bottom, and that the layers of magic were the “key” components of the trap.

Tess frowned. Usually, she would just collapse the trap and be done with it, but she was wary of that other layer of magic on the bottom of the trap, so she took a moment to cast an analysis spell on it.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get much out of the spell. The layer of magic keeping the dirt together was muddying the results, and Tess wasn’t great at deciphering this sort of thing in the first place. Ava had been teaching her how to, but it was still rough trying to figure out what was important and what was superfluous, and that was without another layer of magic on top making things worse.

Tess sighed, and made her way back to Ellie and Maven. “It’s a pitfall.” She said. “There’s a really loose layer of soil held together by magic on top of it, and if you fall in it’s about five meters deep, but there’s also another layer of magic that will probably trigger when the trap collapses. I tried to figure out what it did, but with the other magic in the way I just couldn’t, sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Ellie said. “So, are we just going to go around it, then?”

“I believe the information packet should have something on the trap.” Maven said. “Perhaps we should check that first?”

“Good idea.” Ellie said, reaching into her bag and taking out the packet. “Let’s see here…ah, apparently, if you trigger the trap, it summons a couple of monsters to attack you while you’re trapped in there.”

“Probably best we go around it, then.” Tess said. “We don’t want to tire ourselves out before we even get to climbing.”

“Yeah.” Ellie replied. “That good with you, Maven?”

“I will defer to your wisdom on this.” She said. “When I was boosting, we went out of our way to fight every monster we could, but I imagine that doesn’t really translate to actual dungeon delving.”

“Correct.” Ker said approvingly. “It’s vital to know how to pace yourself. Otherwise you’re going to end up slowing down your progress, since you won’t be able to do as much in a single day. If you can avoid confrontation, it’s often best to do so.”

Maven nodded. “I understand.” She said. “Very well.”

“Stay close to me, I’ll lead you around it.” Tess said. “You’ll be able to see where the trap is if you look for a rectangular area with nothing but grass on top of it, but it’s best if you just don’t stray too far from me anyway.”

Tess carefully guided the group around the trap, and they resumed their march towards the mountain. After another uninteresting few minutes, the ground began to slope upwards more, and another few minutes after that, Tess’s tremorsense picked up their first monster. It was a snake, hiding in one of the bushes.

Tess signaled for everyone to stop, and cautiously made her way towards the snake, inspecting it carefully. Like most monsters, it showed no reaction to her presence, and she was able to get a good look at it. It wasn’t particularly big, but it was colored such that it blended in with its surroundings near perfectly, and Tess could only assume it was venomous.

She regrouped with the others, letting them know what she had found. “How do we want to deal with this?” She asked. “I could just take it out on my own, but we want to share experience, right? It doesn’t look particularly durable, so…”

“I can set the bush on fire, and Ellie can kill it when it comes out.” Maven suggested. “That should get us all experience, right?”

“I think so.” Ellie said. “But I’m kind of worried about starting a wildfire.”

“We can just put it out with magic.” Maven said confidently. “It shouldn’t be a big deal.”

“If you say so.” Ellie said. “Tess, can you lead me to the snake? Maven, when I raise my arm, you set the bush on fire.”

“Got it.” Maven replied.

Tess nodded, and brought Ellie forward until she was about twenty meters away from the snake. “It’s in that bush.” Tess said, pointing at the snake. “Get ready.”

Ellie maneuvered the Swords of Death so they were just above the bush, then raised an arm. Maven began to chant, and a moment later the bush burst into flame. The snake shot out like an arrow, heading straight for Ellie, but Ellie swung down with the swords, cutting the snake into neat slices.

The snake burst into rainbow particles, and Tess waved away the message detailing the experience she gained as she walked over to the core the snake dropped and absorbed it.

“Anything good?” Ellie asked.

“Not particularly.” Tess replied. “Though there is a weaker version of the tremorsense I’m using. I’ll have to start building those up so I can get some good tremorsense for Silky. Oh, and I can make her venom better, too.”

Thank you very much, mistress, but I would rather you get your own upgraded first! Silky said. I have plenty of other ways to sense things right now!

“That’s…going to be a lot of ejecting cores.” Ellie said. “Are you sure about that?”

Tess shrugged. “Well, these cores aren’t anywhere near as big as Silky or Isabella’s cores, and I’ve more or less grown used to things this small. I can…probably handle it.”

“What are you two talking about?” Maven asked, walking up to them.

“Oh, I was just saying that the snakes don’t really have anything good, just some Attributes that’ll make venom more powerful and some weak tremorsense.” Tess explained. “I’m going to be combining those up so I can upgrade Silky later.”

“But…what was that about ejecting cores?”

“Oh. Uh…it’s not a particularly…pleasant process, so Ellie was just making sure I’d be okay with that. And I am.”

“I see. In that case, shall we continue?”

The three continued to make their way up the foothills. There were a couple more pitfalls and a few more encounters with snakes, but nothing really seemed that bad yet. The floor was just…bigger than all the other floors Tess had been on before. In terms of sheer distance traveled, it felt like it was at least twice as large as the next largest floor she had seen, and this was just the first in this dungeon.

Eventually, as Tess was walking, a door just appeared out of nowhere in front of her. She stopped, turning back to the rest of the group, and waited for them to catch up. “So…looks like this is the end of the first floor.” She said. “Everyone ready to leave?”

“I think so.” Ellie said. “That wasn’t so bad. It probably gets a lot worse later on, sure, but I think we can handle this.”

“Don’t get cocky.” Jin warned. “This was a warm-up, I’d be concerned if you didn’t find it really easy. The real test comes later.” He opened the door and stepped through, and everyone else followed.

“The next floor has intense snow, so here are some goggles.” Alice said, reaching into her bag and pulling out three pairs of goggles, which she handed to Tess, Ellie, and Maven. “We’re going to stay behind you, but you can barely see, so it’s really easy to get lost. I’d advise you stick together as much as possible.”

Ellie nodded, reaching into her bag and taking out two coils of rope. “Let’s tie ourselves together.” She said, handing a coil to Tess and Maven. “Tie one end around your waist and then the other to me. Sound good?”

“I think so.” Tess said. “I can probably mitigate at least some of the danger with tremorsense, and help us keep our sense of direction, too. We want to just keep going up, right?”

“Yes.” Alice confirmed. “Much like the last floor, a door will appear once you’ve gone up far enough.”

“This good with you, Maven?” Ellie asked.

“Yes.” Maven said, handing Ellie one end of her rope, the other already tied securely around her waist. “This is sensible, I think.”

Ellie took the other end of the rope, then reached into her bag and pulled out yet another coil, which she tied around her own waist before tying one end to Maven’s rope. “Good.” She said. “We’re probably going to be mostly relying on Tess for things, but keep your eyes on the sky. I’m guessing her tremorsense won’t be able to see through the falling snow very well.”

“Don’t see why it wouldn’t.” Tess said idly, tying her coil of rope around herself and handing the other end to Ellie. “There’ll be a lot of interference in the air, but if I just look for one huge blob of something then I should be able to find airborne monsters. That being said, tremorsense doesn’t have a lot of aerial range, so…yeah, might as well keep your eyes peeled, I guess.”

Ellie finished tying the ropes together, put on her pair of goggles, and began walking to the door. Tess and Maven followed, and the moment they were through, the atmosphere changed drastically.

The biting wind from the last floor was now pushing countless flakes of snow, all but erasing visibility after only five or so feet. Snow was slamming against her, only to melt against the thin layer of fire coating her, and then evaporate into steam, causing a loud hiss as it did.

Tess turned off Phoenix Fire, and the snow immediately began to pile up on her hoodie. She ignored it, instead focusing her attention on her tremorsense. The air around her felt like…like looking at static on a TV, but she was able to make out the ground and things attached to it just fine.

She motioned for the team to follow her and began to lead them up the mountain. It was a difficult trek, but the traps and monsters were the same as they were on the floor below, pitfalls and snakes. Admittedly, both would have been much harder to spot and deal with were it not for Tess’s tremorsense, and they still had to be a bit more cautious when it came to fighting the snakes, but they still made it to the exit without much issue.

Ellie breathed a sigh of relief as they left the floor. “I did not like that.” She said. “But I’m glad you were here, Tess. I really don’t know what we would have done without your tremorsense.”

“Move a lot slower, probably.” Ava said, smiling faintly. “Much of the threat of that particular floor is in the surprise factor of the enemies and traps, forcing you to take it slower so you don’t get caught off-guard.”

“Is the next floor still going to be snowing?” Tess asked.

“Shouldn’t be, no.” Alice replied. “You should be good to take the goggles off, if that’s what you’re wondering. It’s going to be foggy, though, so might want to consider keeping that rope on.”

Tess nodded, taking off the goggles and putting them into her pockets. “Right. Shall we get going, then?”

Fighterman481

So, uh...I'll be honest. I kind of had a hard time writing someone's reaction to seeing a mountain for the first time. I've lived around mountains (the Rocky Mountains, specifically) for a long time, and even before then I had family in the Rockies and had been visiting ever since I was a little kid.

Ker's rumination on forgetting the mountains are there is also something that comes from experience. You move into a place that has gorgeous mountains and for the first while you just sorta look at them in appreciation and then, after a few months...they just become part of the background. A fact of life.

I dunno, maybe I'm talking too much about mountains, but I find the psychology fascinating. They're these huge, impossible to miss things, and then after enough time you just...stop noticing them, at least consciously.

Uh...the other thing I wanted to talk about is rope. I've actually kind of experienced being tied to other people with a rope like this except also not? Basically, when I was in high school, I was on the cross country team, and there was this one race we'd do where they would have groups of 5-7 people run together while holding a rope for the first ~2 miles.

Oh, and it started and ended on a horse racing track and it was dusty and the start was the WORST since there were like over 100 people all in that little space and...anyway, it was a really interesting experience. My first time in that race I was one of the worst people on the team (though, you have to cut me a little slack there, I had never done any sort of distance running before then) and made a personal best by like a minute (which is a huge deal, though not as much when your time was as bad as mine lol).

But the other time I was one of the best...well, in that race. I was, for most of the time after my first year, "JV man", or the guy who was one spot below varsity. For the uninitiated, varsity/JV were the two categories of people (and this was separated by gender, too, so there were separate varsity/JV splits for men and women) that races were held for, with varsity being the better and JV being the worse. Unlike in some other sports where the coach would pick, varsity/JV was decided purely by time, with the best 7 runners being varsity and the rest JV (Except in first race of the season, then the coach picked). Wasn't necessarily a bad spot to be in, though, our team was 2nd best in the state (though it was neck and neck for first), so varsity had competition.

Uh...anyway, that particular race where I was the best in the JV team, I was like...a minute slower than usual. I guess it's just the difference between pulling and being pulled. It was a very interesting way to make a sport that was usually pretty individual a team-based thing.

...I talked for way too long about stupid things. Next time, we'll be getting into a bit more of the dungeon, so look forward to that!

And, as always, thanks for reading!