Charles finished up hunting his snakes even quicker than he’d promised, appearing off in the distance with his sled and presumably now-filled crates behind him. Or at least, Leo thought he finished faster than he’d promised.

  He was very excited to finally return to using Nexus time again.

  “You two ready?” Charles called out as he approached. Leo didn’t miss the fact that while the gem holder was covered in blood, none of it seemed to be his own. To be able to single-handedly take down a number of Grade 13 magical beasts without suffering so much as a scratch meant the man either had a much higher soul rank, was incredibly skilled, or potentially both.

  “Ready when you are,” Leo confirmed, gently kicking Taylor in the shin to get her to stop flexing her fingertips into claws while staring at the spearman.

  Thankfully, Charles turned to double check that his crates were fully sealed and secured on his sled, which meant he missed Taylor rearing back and returning Leo’s kick with far more power than was necessary.

  “You sure you don’t need a minute?” Charles asked after turning to find Leo wincing as he rubbed at his reddened shin.

  “We’re fine,” Leo reassured him, making a mental note to add enough spices to the next meal he cooked to set Taylor’s tongue on fire. “After you.”

  With a nod, Charles approached the rift, opening it with a simple tap and dragging his sled through. Leo followed immediately after, noting the slightly lessened pressure of the plane around him as he walked into a new plane of existence.

  So this plane has to be around tier 11 or 12, seeing as I didn’t have to dampen my soul… Slowly but surely, Leo was learning how to better pick up on things like that. Honestly, having Taylor and her freaky open-soul technique helped him a bit, as she was able to confirm most of his findings pretty easily.

  As Taylor walked out behind them, Leo looked around, noting the arctic nature of this plane. The temperature had dropped tremendously, low enough that he could now see his own breath, and there was nothing but ice as far as the eye could see. Even the ground they stood on was a wet, slippery ice, and there were giant clusters of icicles jutting up out of the ground all over the place, obstructing their vision.

  “Sorry, I probably should have warned you guys about the drop in temperature,” Charles said, laughing as he watched Leo shiver. “We won’t be in this plane for long though, so I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”

  “I guess that explains the sled,” Leo said, rubbing his arms as he tried to combat the cold. Naturally, Taylor seemed completely unbothered by it, despite the fact that she was wearing little more than well-maintained rags.

  “What is this?” she asked, narrowing her eyes as she crouched down and tapped a finger against the ground. “The ground is cold and wet. Why?”

  “It’s ice,” Charles explained, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t know about ice?”

  “She actually suffered a pretty severe head injury and lost most of her memories!” Leo quickly explained, putting his arm around Taylor and pulling her in for a half-hug. “I’m worried sick about her, which is why we’re heading to town.”

  “Ah, that makes sense,” Charles said, giving Taylor a sad look. “The town does have a healer, so maybe they’ll be able to do something. In that case, no sense in wasting time. This way!”

  Charles took the lead, dragging his sled across the ice. Letting out a sigh of relief, Leo turned to find Taylor staring at him with eyes colder than the surrounding ice. Instantly, he let go of her shoulder and leapt back, his body moving so fast he actually slipped and fell onto his backside.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to hug you without asking,” he said, wincing as he rubbed his back.

  “Don’t tell people about my memories,” Taylor said, still glaring down at him.

  “Wait, that’s what you’re annoyed about? You always act like you don’t care about your missing memories!”

  “I don’t… but it makes me sound weak. Broken,” she tried to explain, growing frustrated. “I’m not.”

  “Understood, I’ll keep the memory situation under wraps,” Leo said, realizing Taylor wasn’t about to help him up and finally pushing himself to his feet. “But if that’s the case, you need to make sure you don’t ask questions like that where others can hear you. We’re Cartographers, you can’t ask about basic terrain like that. Not knowing about ice is pretty much a dead giveaway we're not telling the full truth.”

  “Fine.” With that Taylor turned and followed after Charles, and Leo shook his head as he did the same.

  True to his word, the next rift they were going to take was barely half a mile away, and while they spotted some adorable penguins sliding around on the ice off in the distance, they didn’t end up running into any magical beasts beyond a few ice sprites lazily drifting through the frigid air. Leo was a bit sad to see this plane go, as the cold reminded him of his mother and her element of choice, but they had a job to do.

  Stolen story; please report.

  The next plane was subterranean, and Leo got to utilize his Darkvision skill sooner than expected. With how often Charles made this trip, Leo wasn’t surprised to discover the gem holder also had the Darkvision skill, and they carried on through the tunnels without any need for a light source. This path was a bit more hazardous, however, and they didn’t manage to make it to the next rift without running into trouble.

  “Something’s coming,” Leo warned them after they’d been walking for a while. “In the earth, to our left.”

  “Useful skill you have there,” Charles said, dropping his sled and pulling out his spear. “It’s always fifty-fifty if I run into anything in this plane. Stay back and let me handle this.”

  Knowing that this plane was the highest tier they’d been in so far, somewhere around tier 15 if his guess was right, Leo was more than happy to do just that. Even so, he made sure his sword was in hand and at the ready, and good thing too.

  This magical beast was large.

  Long, almost furry tendrils ripped themselves out of the tunnel wall, immediately stretching forward and angling to wrap around all three of them. Luckily, with Leo’s warning, they were all more than ready for the surprise attack, and they all got to work chopping back the tendrils. Charles stabbed and slashed out with his spear, spinning the weapon in a wide arc and taking care of nearly half the tendrils all by himself. Leo relied on his own speed to twist and turn out of the way, throwing out quick slashes to cut through any tendril that got too close. Taylor didn’t even bother moving, lashing out with both her claws and using her teeth to rip a tendril that came for her to shreds.

  It wasn’t until he’d severed his fifth one that Leo finally realized what the tendrils actually were, and he blinked at the discovery.

  “They’re roots!” he called out, cutting off another giant root tip even as more kept coming. “It’s a plant-based magical beast!”

  “Yep!” Charles confirmed. “Without a skill to dig through the earth, we won’t be able to kill the beast. But once we cut through enough roots to show it we’re not an easy meal…”

  As if the beast was listening, Taylor bit through one last particularly dense root, and the rest of the roots all shuddered in unison before quickly being pulled back through the tunnel wall. Spitting the root into her hand, Taylor walked over and poked him with it.

  “You’re serious?” Leo asked, looking between her and the outstretched root. “I thought you were a carnivore or something?” Seeing the blank look on her face, he shook his head. “I thought that you only ate meat.”

  “If it moves, I eat it,” she declared, prodding him with the root again and again. “What is the word for that?”

  “I don’t think there is one,” he admitted, finally giving in after the fourth prod and snatching the root from her hands.

  Charles, who had watched the exchange with a raised eyebrow, couldn’t help but chuckle. “Are the two of you… foodies?”

  Leo recognized the slang term for the crazy Cartographers who were all about hunting for beasts to cook, and he sighed, deciding that was as good a cover as any. If anyone asked what they were looking for during their expeditions, he’d rather say exotic magical beasts to try cooking up than reveal they were actually trying to find a replacement plane for the Nexus. “Yeah… I suppose we are. Let’s keep going, I can cook this up later. A chunk of root isn’t exactly going to spoil like meat would.”

  They stumbled upon a few tiny, non-magical critters and insects roaming the tunnels after that, but nothing else that wanted to take a bite out of them. Eventually, they came to another rift, which Charles informed them would lead them into town. Leo told him he wanted to have a quick chat with his partner before they ventured into civilization once more, so Charles waved and bid them both farewell.

  “Stay safe you two! And find me if you ever end up discovering one of those delicious magical beasts the legends talk about! I’ll pay handsomely for a bite!”

  “Will do!” Leo promised, waiting for the gem holder to vanish through the rift before letting out a sigh of relief. Turning toward Taylor, he pointed at the rift. “Alright, that plane is probably somewhere around a tier 5 or 6. Which means we’re going to have to dampen our souls to enter. I know I’ve mentioned the concept to you before, but we didn’t really talk about it in length yet. Do you know how to do that?”

  “Pull my soul into itself?” Taylor asked hesitantly, actually remembering the main concept of soul dampening somehow.

  “Yes, that’s correct,” Leo said, smiling at her. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think you were listening. Though knowing the concept and actually doing it are two different things. I’ve been practicing here and there in my downtime these past few weeks, so I think I’ll be okay. And we’re not in any rush, so you’re welcome to take as long as you need to get the technique down. Again, as a reminder, you’re going to feel weaker in that plane. I know strength is sort of important to you, so don’t freak out, it’s only temporary. And you don’t have to focus on keeping the dampening up once you’re in the plane, the lower tier will naturally hold it for you until you exit via one of the rifts.”

  “I don’t want to feel weaker,” Taylor frowned, crossing her arms. “Why do we have to dampen ourselves?”

  “Because our souls are too powerful for the lower tier to support them,” Leo tried to explain again. “The rift physically won't let us enter unless we dampen our souls to match the plane’s tier. You want me to pick up some new spices and make you even better tasting meals? We can’t do that unless we dampen our souls and go in there.”

  Taylor’s eyes widened, and she turned, quickly hurrying over to the rift.

  “Glad that got you moving,” he chuckled, watching her reach for the rift. “Wait, it’ll shock-”

  Leo stopped talking as the rift opened without issue, and Taylor hurried on through. Blinking in shock at the rift that snapped shut once more, he could only stare at the crack of reality hanging there.

  …Of course she’s a natural at soul dampening. Her soul is flexible enough it probably does it automatically without her even having to do anything.

  Leo could only grumble to himself as he walked up to the rift. Taking a deep breath, he looked inward, focusing on the outer layers on his soul. With a mental heave, he folded up and squeezed his outermost layer, wincing at the discomfort as he grew an entire rank weaker. Again and again he compressed his soul, until sweat was dripping down his forehead and his body was beginning to shake. It was a good thing the weaker tier plane would hold this for him, because he wouldn’t be able to maintain this for long. The moment he reached a soul rank of six and felt the rift almost sing its approval at his weakened soul, he reached out and activated it for himself, chasing after Taylor before she could get into any sort of trouble in his absence.

  Who knew what she would end up doing if left alone in a town filled with regular people?

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