Edge sprinted across the Ivory Plains with superhuman speed, devouring the miles beneath his boots as he made his way from Puppet Town toward the far corner of the biome.

  Rue’s head was sticking out from the top of his backpack, watching the world go by with an occasional yip whenever the golden fox spotted something interesting. He laughed at his Companion’s antics—a welcome distraction that helped take his mind off their latest dilemma.

  Puppet Town’s executive council had met shortly after dawn to discuss the kaiju Sakura had discovered and its army of undead beasts. Unlike the last stampede, which had been relatively easy to deal with and was a valuable opportunity for the settlement to grow stronger, this was a true emergency—a threat that would raze the town to rubble if they couldn’t come up with a plan to eliminate the titanic squid in the two weeks they had at their disposal.

  While a horde roughly three times the size of the last was a frightening proposition, if they used both turrets, were willing to burn part of the grasslands to bare earth, and blew through every consumable in the settlement, Dialla and Earl were confident they could win, though the cost would be considerable.

  The real problem was the kaiju itself.

  Puppet Town’s turrets were powerful, but two of them had been destroyed by the Crimson Claws, and the top-grade devices weren’t designed to kill a stage-four cephaloid the size of a city block. If the immense squid reached the wall, it would destroy the barrier, and the kaiju’s legion of undead would come pouring through, overwhelming the defenders within a matter of minutes.

  Ander had suggested entering the Sweltering Green to start thinning out the horde, but Sakura had informed him the kaiju could replenish its troops whenever it wanted. There wasn’t any point in destroying them until the creatures crossed into the plains, where there weren’t nearly as many high-stage beasts to Reanimate.

  That being said, preparations for the looming battle were already underway. The crafters and alchemists were mass-producing consumables, and Puppet Town’s factories were pumping out everything they could think of that might help.

  There were hunters in the field setting traps that were far more extensive than anything they’d tried before, and other teams were brainstorming on how to use the terrain and Ord’s plethora of magical phenomena to turn the tide in their favor.

  The militia were working with the settlement’s stage-one hunters and peacekeepers to complete their own plans. They would be facing off against the army of the dead, since there was no way they could hurt a stage-four opponent. Meanwhile, the town’s uncored residents were helping however they could, serving in support teams and performing any tasks that needed doing.

  Dialla was meeting with the various factions to coordinate their efforts, and there was a settlement-wide meeting scheduled a little later in the week. While the rest of the town was working around the clock, its elites had been left to their own devices for the time being—trusted to use their time as wisely as possible.

  For Edge, that meant cycling up as fast as possible while stealing the best skills he could find to maximize the growth of his powers. His best bet was to head away from the center of the plains—toward the boundary of the biome where the magicytes were thicker and the beasts were stronger, although the difference was shrinking by the day.

  While he ran, he called up his Guide to review the message the System had sent to every resident of Puppet Town shortly after Sakura reported her discovery.

  Quest: Defeat the Cephalopod Kaiju

  Since you were able to follow the blindingly obvious trail of breadcrumbs all the way back to the big slimy bastard and its moldering legion, I’ve decided to make this an official quest and fill in a few details while we wait for the fun to begin.

  Though it would have been entertaining to watch the horde fall upon you unaware, a dramatic last stand should be even better. Hell, I’ll even lend a hand by including a helpful timer at the end of this message. Now we can count the seconds until your inevitable doom together!

  If you somehow manage to defeat the kaiju, (and both “if” and “somehow” are doing some heavy lifting in that sentence), I’ll throw in a reward for your settlement and something juicy for the most entertaining contributors.

  Let me think… How about enough components to fix that Dome of yours half the materials you’ll need to upgrade that sweet little core manufactory (assembly not included)? That way, if you win, Puppet Town will be in a solid position to survive what’s coming, and if you lose, it won’t matter anyway. You’ll all be dead (or more likely undead) by that point, and I’ll have a blast either way.

  Time until the kaiju’s arrival at its current velocity: 13 days, 11 hours, 14 minutes, 7 seconds.

  Quest rewards: All the stuff I just mentioned (faction). Some other stuff I’ll decide on later (individual).

  Edge dismissed his Guide with a wave of his hand while shaking his head at the phrasing. The System is getting weirder by the day. I’m glad it’s contained to my quest and trait messages, at least for now.

  After the anomaly, the System had begun to change, going from displaying a clinical neutrality to exhibiting a clear personality and the desire to be entertained. He was deeply uncomfortable with the AI’s growing obsession with throwing him from one deadly situation straight into the next. On the other hand, the System had never forced him to do anything, and the rewards it provided had saved his life on numerous occasions.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  In addition to its growing penchant for snark, the planetary AI occasionally acted with genuine empathy and an unambiguous desire to be helpful. It had let Edge know that none of his people were trapped in the Savage Garden when the dungeon sealed itself, and the clock it provided would make sure Puppet Town wasn’t caught with their pants down if the kaiju sped up.

  Since they had to defeat the horde or die anyway, an extra reward was more than welcome. In this case, he suspected the System would have offered a quest even before the anomaly, as this was the kind of event that racked up incredible views on the feed.

  Edge pondered the matter a while longer, then returned his attention to the task at hand—crossing the biome, cycling up, stealing some skills, and gathering intel on the ravenous lord.

  Trapper’s crew had agreed to meet up in two days to discuss their plans for the upcoming battle. He was using the time to rank up Warlord’s Mantle and start working on Elemental Blade while embarking on a short solo mission.

  After some consideration, he had decided to head to the southeast corner of the Ivory Plains in the hope of learning more about the insatiable entity bound inside him. He wasn’t sure there was anything to find, but he was desperate, and this was his only lead that might help him get a handle on the situation.

  He hadn’t spoken to Skill-Eater since the vision he’d experienced during the battle for Puppet Town, where his core’s intention to turn him into a skill-devouring killing machine had been revealed, along with the memory of how it had come to be bound in endless black chains.

  During the brief moments when the ravenous lord was awake, it hadn’t said a word. Edge hadn’t broached the matter himself, since the trust between them had been shattered by the deeply unsettling event.

  Sakura didn’t know anything about his core’s history or nature either. Lore-Weaver flat-out refused to volunteer any information about the twenty-one Unique cores or their bearers—part of some ironclad pact the spider had made.

  He’d received a few tantalizing hints from his conversation with the Gardener, as well as some comments from Skill-Eater itself. Those were both dead ends at the moment, but there was one place that might be able to shine some light on the matter—the underground temple where he had discovered the reliquary and bound the core burning behind his ribs.

  It had taken him the better part of a week to make that first journey from the temple to Puppet Town, almost losing his life on several terrifying occasions along the way. But Edge had undergone a remarkable transformation since the early days of his adventure. The powerful monsters and beasts that were migrating onto the plains didn’t scare him anymore. Not nearly as much, at any rate.

  Many of these stage-two predators were bigger and tougher than he was, but the gap had narrowed considerably. He had twice as many skills as other creatures his stage, many of which were Rare or above. And while most beasts were stronger than himself, by this point in his adventures, he was considerably faster.

  With the incredible boost to his attributes provided by Warlord’s Mantle and Fear the Seasons, Edge could cross the grasslands at a rate that would have blown his mind before coming to Ord. It still did, if he was being honest with himself.

  Combined with the ability to swing from the canopy with Manifest Chain and skim across the surface of rivers and lakes with Repel Water, he never had to slow down—no matter what type of terrain the Ivory Plains and its various sub-biomes threw in his path.

  Every now and again, he ran into a creature that was strong enough that he didn’t have time to fight it, although he made an exception whenever Extraction came off cooldown to keep his skills growing as quickly as possible. With All-Seeing Gaze’s power to peer through plants and navigate total darkness as easily as a sunny afternoon, he saw danger coming well before it arrive, then used the Concealment aspect of Shadow Play to evade detection.

  From time to time, he stopped to harvest resources that were valuable enough to trigger Sense Natural Treasure, since the various ingredients and materials would be useful for strengthening the town. Even with the occasional fight and resource-extraction break, Edge judged that he could travel from Puppet Town to the mysterious gorge in the southwest corner of the biome in a little over 24 hours.

  Before long, he started passing familiar landmarks, beginning with the Guide’s Fingers and ending with the glade where he’d battled a weasel for a mana-seed mushroom only hours after binding his core.

  When he spotted the first crack splitting the grassy soil, he knew he was getting close, although it would be several more miles before he came across the cavern-studded ravines he’d discovered in the aftermath of the anomaly.

  We never did explore the rest of them or give that city a thorough assessment. They clearly came from an extreme-threat biome and might have some interesting things inside. Since he didn’t have time to deal with it now, Edge added the gorges to his growing list of areas to explore, penciling it in below a resource-gathering trip to the Deep-Gill Grottos.

  After running for hours, he was getting hungry, and Rue was asking to stretch his legs. Since he planned to stow the pup inside his dimensional den after entering the ravine, he decided it was a perfect time to take a dinner-and-pup-petting break.

  By the time that Edge had buried his cookfire, stowed his gear, and bid his Companion good night, sunset had come and gone, bathing the Ivory Plains in silvery moonlight. He took a moment to bask in the biome’s abundant natural splendor before moving on.

  This far out, the magicytes were so thick he could taste them in the air, saturating the prairie in the scintillating colors of magic that were unique to the planet Ord. The patterns were dazzling, otherworldly, and utterly captivating. The splendorous sight filled him with awe, driving home the realization that he was living the life he’d always dreamt of and exploring the world that had captured his imagination for as long as he could remember.

  An autumn breeze sent waves rolling along the blend of yellow and white grass that gave the biome its name. In the distance, he could see buffalo grazing by moonlight, grinning at the colossal creatures that were the undisputed kings of the Ivory Plains.

  He would have sat back and soaked in the sight for hours under other circumstances. But tonight, Edge was on the clock, so he picked out his path and continued on his way.

  The bottom of the ravine would offer next to no light, and the subterranean city beyond was shrouded in perpetual midnight. He could have switched on a magelight from his kit, but that would reveal his presence to everything lurking below. He wasn’t feeling particularly tired, and time was of the essence, so he didn’t want to wait until morning either.

  Fortunately, he had the power to navigate both environments with ease, thanks to the Darkvision component of Gaze. After scanning his surroundings to make sure nothing nasty was prowling nearby, Edge located the right ravine, found the earthen incline leading to the bottom, and began making his way down.