The ground shook again as we gained distance. A scream broke through the night, as a giant wormlike creature broke through the ground, shedding sand like rain.

  [Sand Dragon, Swallow, Level 190, Predator, Unknown]

  The ground started rumbling in other locations, all scattered behind us.

  I pushed a little more into my running, yet I didn’t let any of the others fall behind me. Asceto and Lenna, along with Dengu, crossed first, followed by Kabi and I.

  Sile crossed the threshold of stone, but lingered near the area, looking back into the sands.

  We all stopped to watch.

  “He woke the Sand Dragons…” his words trailed off, and for once I felt fear from the man. “What other creatures heard the call?”

  “Are we going?” I asked, ready to take a nap somewhere.

  The canyons had just started, and based on how long it took to get to the Fortress, crossing the canyons it was going to take longer than any of us wanted to find a safe area to rest.

  Sile shook his head then nodded. “We need to reach one of the barrows to get some rest, the blast took out the overlook.”

  Dawn had fully broken across the horizon by the time we reached one of the safe towers to rest.

  I was tired.

  Sile pulled all sorts of supplies out of his inventory, including enough food to feed me and Dengu.

  Lenna set up a campfire and sat back as Sile took over with cooking.

  Asceto had handed over the Storm knife, and my Whiplash Knife as well. It was good to have them returned, he must have picked it up when destroying all of the remaining equipment in the laboratory.

  As we rested, Sile roasted thick slices of meat on a grill that he set over the fire.

  It smelled amazing, and my stomach kept growling.

  Dengu hovered near my shoulder, also wanting food as soon as possible.

  “How long is the slow path, in your mind?” I finally asked in the comfortable silence that had fallen.

  Sile flicked some root vegetables in a pan, of all things, before he set it back on the coals, slightly under the meat so drippings fell inside.

  “We should take at least two weeks to get to Steadfast, if not a little longer.”

  “Why?” This time it was Kabi who asked the question. He leaned closer to Sile.

  Sile let out a deep breath. “The First waking will change many things in Steadfast, all things your Father wants to keep you away from.”

  Kabi started to speak but Sile put a hand up.

  “This is serious. Being of the immortal bloodline means you do have bonds in place that cannot be broken. Your brother broke them when he pledged to become an apprentice, and it was allowed, grudgingly, but would not be for you.” He motioned between the two of us. “Your bond to Alex is not on the same level, and some would argue easier to break than your familial ties.”

  “I will not break my bond,” growled Kabi. For once, he sounded more like Dengu.

  “You act like you’d have a choice.” Sile stirred the vegetables.

  “No one can break a bond like that…” Kabi almost stood up, but I grabbed his arm.

  “Just like no one can bind their experience to a sword?” asked Sile, with a sad glance. “There is much you don’t know, and taking this time will give your father the opportunity to fix many things your grandfather should have fixed before they headed to the south.”

  Kabi opened his mouth, and then snapped it shut before settling back in his seat.

  “So we take the time. That’s not a bad thing,” I added, patting Kabi’s knee. “Plus, some recovery time is important, right?”

  Lenna jumped in. “Recovery time is very important. Rest, plus some light training would be good.”

  “Food.” Dengu sniffed, his head inching closer to the grates.

  Sile rolled his eyes and pulled out a raw chunk of meat that he tossed Dengu’s way.

  I had to still myself to not snatch it away from my friend.

  Dengu moved away from us with it in his mouth, and I suppressed my snap of envy.

  “Food will be done shortly,” Sile said with a frown.

  “The Rune Challenge will take time as well,” I said. I felt like I should warm him, at the least.

  Sile smiled. “As much as I want to take it now, I only need the location. Once you are delivered, I will come back and take my time.”

  He even had plates that he pulled out for each of us to use.

  Somehow, the meal was pure perfection. The meat was juicy, still slightly rare with the perfect char on the outside. Not too much, but a little.

  For once I ate slowly, enjoying each bite I cut off with my knife. Even the veggies were perfect, reminding me of something like sweet potatoes, but the wrong color and texture. More grainy.

  Still tasty.

  While forcing myself to slowly eat, I finally opened my notifications.

  [You have gained insight into Venomous Chomp: Your teeth have been strengthened along with your jawbone, increasing the damage from bite attacks. A second set of teeth have formed behind your first. You have glands behind your jaw that create a sedative in your saliva. You have increased knowledge of biological venom and poisons.]

  [Monstrosity has increased.]

  [Warning: Monstrosity has reached 11%.]

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  [Warning: Devourer threshold reached.]

  [Devourer Form Unlocked.]

  [Devourer Form Unlocked: Shadowstalker.]

  [Devourer Skill Gained: Shadowstalker Form: A silhouette of pure, predatory efficiency. Your skin hardens, darkening into a layer of segmented, matte black armor that actively absorbs surrounding light, allowing you to dissolve into any shadow or poorly lit corner. This natural carapace provides an immediate and significant increase in Damage Resistance.

  Your fingers are replaced by Claws, sharp enough to rend metal, extending the reach and lethal potential of every strike. The transformation culminates at the jaw, with two staggered sets of razor-sharp teeth. Glands behind the jaw instantly flood your saliva with a potent, incapacitating venom, ready to be delivered with every bite.

  In this form, you gain immense athletic grace and brute power, allowing for impossible leaps and crushing blows. You are no longer just a hunter, you have become the hungry shadows.]

  [You have gained bonus experience from combat for surviving against a level 185 Garlo.]

  [You have leveled.]

  [You have leveled.]

  [You have leveled.]

  [You have leveled.]

  [You have devoured Garlo, The Guard, and gained insight into mana barriers.]

  [You have gained a pledge: Asceto.]

  They told a simple story, one I’d been worried about since I discovered the strange monstrosity stat to begin with. It finally answered the question about what it meant, at least.

  Now I knew, 11% gave me a monster form. No, not a monster. A Devourer, a Shadowstalker.

  And Asceto was now on my list of people who were pledged to me. Somehow, he’d removed his offender status.

  Good for him.

  The only other big question mark was, what the heck were mana barriers, and where did that insight go?

  I found it under Mana Channeling.

  [Mana Channeling: You can locate and manipulate mana sources like crystals and runes including cleansing them of impurities. The voices within mana sources are easier to hear and understand. You have an inkling of barriers created from mana.]

  Well, that wasn’t helpful, but at the same time it at least let me know it was possible. They weren’t something I knew how to create with runes or crystals yet, but I’d learn. I wanted those barriers.

  The free stats from the levels were waiting for me, yet I closed my notification screen and my focus went back to my dinner.

  Tomorrow, I needed to show Sile where the Rune Challenge was located, but did we really need to get to Steadfast? Besides Strange going to Steadfast with the healer…

  Strange.

  He needed to be okay. He would be, I had to believe that. That meant he could always deliver messages to us, no reason for us to go to Steadfast at all.

  A small smile crept over my lips as I plotted. First, I needed to see if the others were down as well.

  Slowly, I finished the food on my plate and surprisingly I felt very satisfied. “That was a really good dinner. Thank you…”

  Sile smiled. “I figured I’d celebrate with the good stuff.”

  “I’m shockingly full.” Which was nice, though I still had nothing in my inventory. That would be a problem.

  “I’d hope so, with the level of the creature and the magic that went into it.” He chuckled. “That was from a level 150 beast with rune magic imbued.”

  I sent him a confused look. Food was food, wasn’t it?

  “You can prepare food in different ways to have different effects.” He pointed to the fire. “This meat was prepped to be extra filling and to help with recovery.”

  It was like the noodles in the market. I just didn’t think we could do something like that out here. Still, he’d done that with runes. Could I do the same?

  “We should be able to get some short sleep in before we continue on,” he continued. He smiled as he started to put away all of the cooking stuff.

  “Are we not resting here for awhile?” asked Lenna, practically glaring at him.

  “We can rest somewhere farther from the Fortress.”

  Kabi pressed his lips together, but said nothing. He pulled his sleeping roll out of his inventory.

  I followed suit, but then stood. “I’m gonna walk up to the top and check out the view.”

  Several steps later, I felt Lenna following me. By the time we arrived at the top, steam practically rose off her.

  “We need rest, and not just a short nap…”

  “Do you want to go to Steadfast?” I asked, very bluntly.

  She jerked back, anger suddenly gone. “What?”

  “We should head south, to Kabi’s old village like we spoke about before.” I stared out at the bright landscape. The purple and blue light over the red rock made me grin a little. Nothing moved near the Fortress.

  My bond with Strange stretched out in a different direction, and still moved. They weren’t stopping for a break like we were. Then again, we were the lowest leveled ones in the group, and had a reason not to rush back to Steadfast.

  It’d taken us forever to even reach here, through the canyons and across the fields when we left Steadfast. I wasn’t sure how Sile thought we could get back even in two weeks, unless he had a better path then what we’d taken.

  Or we sprinted non-stop.

  “I have a plan,” I said. I quickly explained it to Lenna, who started laughing.

  “You are devious, my friend. I’ll let Dengu and Kabi know.” She smiled, shaking her head, now in a much better mood.

  “We had a plan, they don't get to stomp all over it,” I shrugged, grinning. I turned back to the view as she headed down the stairs.

  #

  The rest of the day passed surprisingly quickly.

  We made it to the tower which held the Rune Challenge faster than I thought possible. Then again, the runes Sile put on our feet in the morning sped things up by more than double. I sketched them into my notebook, but didn’t have a chance to really study them, let alone test them.

  “What is this place?” Sile asked as we walked through the tunnel.

  Lenna and Dengu, along with Kabi, headed to one of the bunk rooms to get settled, while I led Sile deeper toward the ‘broken’ archway.

  “There it is,” I said, moving very close to the archway. “All you need to do is touch it and step inside. You can check out the waiting room before deciding what challenge to do.”

  Sile nodded, eyes wide as he touched the archway, then vanished.

  “Sucker…” The weight of my promise lifted off my shoulders as I twisted back. “Guys, time to scram. He can probably get through the first one without much issue.”

  Everyone had already gathered near the exit.

  I smiled at Kabi.

  “To my village.” He nodded gratefully to me. “It’s time for me to decide what I want to do.”

  “To your village,” I said with a grin. We had miles to cover, but plenty of monsters to hunt along the way. Not to mention, I now had a second form I needed to figure out, and a dungeon to grind. We’d spend some time doing normal adventuring instead of trying to save the whole damn planet. At least, until something else came up.

  #

  Ivkar, elsewhere…

  I popped the lid on the healing drink and sipped it slowly. The slower one drank, the easier the healing worked. I rested my head back against the bench next to the crate of goods. These were supposed to be heading through the portal to one of the other worlds.

  I didn’t care.

  The path of destruction that led from where I’d come to one of the other portals made it clear something dangerous had beat me here. It’d removed all of the guards, and what was left of them made me frown.

  Somehow, I needed to swing this the right way.

  I stared at the damn glowing white light waiting for Garlo to come through. We needed that damn monster's body to help sell the story to the council. Something to throw to them and point to a child's nightmare to take the blame.

  An actual Devourer. Not a cosmic horror, not yet, but one still on the same climb as the rest of us. This information, in the right hands, would buy me a path closer to the Motherworld.

  And that was something I needed. Especially since Dilom was dead, along with his backups from that damn planet.

  While he wasn’t the only scientist who dealt with cloning, he had the best track record, which is what the council cared about.

  An explosion rocked the neutral zone, rippling through the crates and creatures who had been stored in cages, waiting.

  The portal collapsed on itself, the bright light dimming. Several alarms blared as I stared in shock.

  She did this. That creature. That Devourer. A feeling stirred, long suppressed.

  I didn’t get angry, anger only made thinking harder, leading to mistakes, to failure. Anger was not helpful. But this, this could not be allowed to be.

  I let the anger grow. I stoked it, I felt it stir sides of me that I hadn’t used in centuries. I knew about her, the thing that should not be, and she had done this.

  Others, more powerful than I, would want to know. Would want to end her. I could use that.

  She had hurt me.

  I would make her pay.