No sooner had Taylor warned him than Leo heard a distant voice calling out to them.

  “Hello there! Are you folks heading over to the colossal plane as well?”

  The voice belonged to a man in dark green clothing, with an aged crossbow hanging from his belt. To Leo’s surprise, the man seemed to be entirely on his own. It was rare to find gem holders who dared to travel into largely unexplored planes without anyone to watch their backs, but not entirely unheard of.

  “Yeah, we were heading over to the rift when this magical beast tried to run us down out of nowhere,” Leo called back, seeing no reason not to at least be cordial. “Are you going in there all by yourself?”

  “That’s the plan!” the man grinned from across the meadow. “I’m Troy, by the way! And don’t worry about me, I can hold my own against whatever beasts might be in store for us in there!”

  “Leo. And if you say so,” Leo said. With how far removed they were from general civilization and how many weeks had passed, he’d eventually given up on bothering with the fake name, just so he didn’t slip up and get caught in a lie. His 'death' should have been reported to the hunting agents long before now, so he shouldn't have anything to worry about on that front. Gesturing to the bull he was still sitting on, he nodded toward the stranger. “If you don’t mind, we’re going to finish up here. Maybe we’ll see you inside.”

  “Maybe!” Troy said, giving them one last wave before continuing on. As soon as he’d vanished, Leo let out a sigh of relief. Ranged experts were always the most worrisome people to come across, according to his parents at least. Hard to fight against someone capable of sniping you in the head with an arrow or a crossbow bolt from afar before you even knew they were there.

  “Friendlier than the last group,” Taylor said, staring at the hill Troy had vanished behind.

  “Not exactly a high bar to beat,” Leo snorted, recalling the last group of gem holders they’d come across. A group consisting of two men and two women, all four of whom had refused to say so much as a word to them when they turned their heads and carried on as if Leo and Taylor hadn’t called out to them in the first place.

  Over the past few days, they’d begun encountering more and more random people, all of whom were heading toward the colossal plane like they were. New planes of existence were discovered all the time, but a colossal one that was a favorable environment? It was no wonder so many people were headed over to check it out. This was the find of the century, and whichever Cartographer had actually added it to the map would go down in history books.

  Waiting a few more seconds to ensure Troy wasn’t going to pop back over that hill, Leo nodded for Taylor to get to work. Even dead, the magical beast had enough dense muscle that it took her a couple of minutes to carve her way into it and retrieve its gems, but the search was more than worth it. Leo marveled at the dense, red gem in his fingers, faintly able to detect it had something to do with strength from pushing his soul up against it.

  “Is this what I think it is?” he asked, handing it over to Taylor.

  “Yeah,” she agreed, pointing at each gem in turn. “Grade 7, some sort of strength booster. And Grade 8, durability. So Grade 15 beast, just like we thought.”

  “Damn, those are both great finds for me…” Leo bit his lip as his eyes bounced back and forth between each of the two gems, unable to come to a decision. Either one would require him to give up Venomous Jab, but that was a trade he was more than willing to make.

  The strength booster skill had to be that strange ability the bull revealed where its power seemed to temporarily double for a few seconds. Temporary boosts like that were tricky to time right, but could result in landing devastating attacks if timed correctly. The durability was much more obvious, it would explain why he’d struggled with getting his blade to pierce into the beast in the first place.

  “Okay… I’m going with the strength boost,” Leo decided, confident in his speed being enough to allow him to dodge most attacks anyway. “That way I get to keep Darkvision as well. Though I think we should hold onto the durability gem. Sounds like a good one to have on standby, and it’s never too early to start thinking about what gem I might want to use for my Grade 20 evolution. A more durable soul sounds like a fantastic upgrade.”

  “So we’re getting rid of the Water Breathing gem?” Taylor asked, watching him as he pulled the black gem box out of his pack. Currently, the black box held one of the Water Breathing gems they’d taken from the large crabs back in the always-raining plane. Leo had figured it would be a good gem to hold on standby, as if someone needed to breathe underwater, they often needed to do it immediately.

  “Not like you ever go within a hundred feet of an open body of water anyway,” Leo teased, laughing as Taylor glared at him. She’d at least gotten better about bathing regularly, after he needled her down for long enough, but she really didn’t like getting wet.

  Tucking the defensive gem into the box, Leo held the Water Breathing gem against his chest, breathing in and converting the entire thing into power in a single moment. The gem was a far lower Grade than his own soul, and it only took him a few seconds to lay out the trickle of power he received from it. Picking up the strength boosting gem from the bull, Leo went to free up some space in his soul before Taylor stopped him.

  “Can you give me your Venomous Jab skill? I don’t think my Weakening Bite is doing much at this point, and I’ve got plenty of space in my soul.”

  “Weakening Bite is only Grade 2,” Leo agreed. “Definitely time to swap that out for something better, and adding poison to your claws isn’t a bad idea.”

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  Rather than convert Venomous Jab into raw power, Leo took the time to carefully extract the power from his core, reforming the gem in his hand before handing it over to his partner. Thanking him, Taylor popped the gem into her mouth, tucking it against her cheek as she began drawing the skill from it.

  “Ridiculous,” Leo muttered, still beyond jealous of how easy everything was for Taylor even after all this time. Having to do things the hard way, Leo closed his eyes and pressed the new gem against his chest, cautiously breathing in and slotting the new skill into his core. With his soul rank and all the practice he’d had, the bundle of power didn’t so much as twitch in the face of his soul hungrily trying to fill the sudden void, and Leo grinned as he successfully incorporated the gem without issue.

  Soul Rank: 16 (0 available)

  Physical Evolution (Dash): Increased speed and reflexes

  Beast Gem: Ogre (7)

  Skill: Minor Strength+

  Beast Gem: Rage Bull (7)

  Skill: Rage+

  Beast Gem: Tunnel Rat (2)

  Skill: Darkvision

  “Ah, crap,” Leo muttered, finally realizing exactly what skill the bull had utilized to increase its strength. “This might be a problem. The bull had the Rage skill, which is one I’ve read plenty about. It enhances strength significantly, no question there. But it tends to have a bit of an influence on the user’s judgement as well.”

  “How much is a bit?” Taylor asked, giving him a cautious look.

  “It depends on how much the skill is used, and the user’s willpower,” Leo shrugged. “Someone with a weak will? They’ll run around attacking anything that moves without so much as a second thought. Those with more impressive self control? It’ll just make them angry. Really, really angry.”

  “Where do you fall under that scale?”

  “I’m pretty proud of my mental strength,” Leo admitted. “My parents had me solving complex puzzles while they did their best to distract me all throughout my childhood. It shouldn’t be that bad, but still, I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk.”

  “We’re about to go into a tier 22 plane, which will be filled with things many Grades above our two souls,” Taylor pointed out. “We can probably use all the added power we can get our hands on. Why not try it out and see what it’s like?”

  “From what I remember reading, it’s not really a skill you want to trigger unless you’re actively looking at something you want to destroy. I want to test it against an actual magical beast and see how it alters my mental state before I risk using it in a sparring match or anything like that.” Leo shuddered at the thought of him roaring like one of the rage bulls before grabbing Taylor and trying to rip her limb from limb. The knowledge that he had such a powerful, unstable skill inside his core was more than a little worrisome, but Taylor was absolutely right.

  They needed every edge they could get if they wanted to survive within the tier 22 plane.

  “In that case, let’s wait one more day,” Taylor decided. “It hasn’t been long since you hit rank 16, and you’ll feel more comfortable getting some practice with the new skill.”

  “Yeah, that’s probably for the best,” Leo begrudgingly admitted. Now that they were a single rift away from the colossal plane, he was eager to finally get over there and see if it might be the plane they needed to house all the people living within the Nexus. Despite the fact that he still didn’t have the faintest idea how he was supposed to get the citizens of the Nexus halfway across the planarverse and into the new plane without the Planar Lords’ help, his father’s final words had been clear enough. Without any other options, he’d decided to focus on finding the colossal plane before he worried about the next part of the plan. So if this plane truly did end up being everything they needed it to be…

  Then he’d be that much closer to fulfilling his father’s dying wish and saving everyone.

  It didn’t take the two of them long to find another rage bull, and Taylor stepped back, motioning for him to take the lead. Cracking his neck, Leo began walking toward it, waiting until the bull spotted him before triggering his newest skill.

  Immediately, Leo saw red, and he gasped as raw fury swept through his entire body. His peripheral vision winked out, and suddenly, nothing else in the entire world existed beyond him and the bull angrily running toward him. He didn’t think about tactics, he didn’t think about utilizing his superior speed, he didn’t think about anything as he charged himself, meeting the bull halfway and driving his fist straight into the charging bull's head.

  There was an explosive shockwave of air that blasted out from the point of impact, and Leo suddenly found himself standing in the middle of a field, panting and drenched in sweat as his senses came back to him. Blinking, he looked down at his feet, taking in the downed magical beast that had just had its head caved in. Shaking slightly, Leo looked at his fist, noting how the skin of his knuckles had been shredded and was covered in blood, both his and the bulls from the looks of things. The thought of drawing his sword hadn’t even crossed his mind, and he shuddered as he realized he’d even forgotten Taylor’s existence for a few seconds.

  “You okay?” Taylor asked, walking over to him and giving him a worried look. Worried was not an expression he saw much of on his partner’s face, and that scared him almost more than losing himself to the rage had.

  “Yeah… Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Leo said, not sure if even he quite believed his own words. “It’s a freaky skill to use, that’s for sure. But the results speak for themselves.”

  Leo stared down at the Grade 15 magical beast he’d taken down with a single punch as he rubbed his bloody knuckles. Due to the skills each being a slightly higher Grade, the skill synergy between Minor Strength and Rage was far more potent than it had been between Venomous Jab and Poisonous. Even without triggering Rage, his Minor Strength skill had gotten a significant upgrade just from having Rage nestled within his soul beside the older skill. Enough that he felt a lot more confident about his fighting prowess.

  Leo started as he felt Taylor’s arms wrap around him, and he stood there for a moment, looking at her in confusion. “Why the sudden hug?”

  “Your face,” she said, frowning up at him. “You look like how you sometimes look when you talk about your home plane.”

  Only then did Leo realize his brow was furrowed and his lips pressed thin. Taking a deep breath, he let the tension from using the dangerous skill flow from his body, reminding himself that like any skill, he’d get better at using Rage with more practice. After another few seconds, he returned Taylor’s hug, his troubled face slowly morphing into a small smile as he realized he was finally strong enough to withstand her too-tight hugs without feeling like he was being crushed.

  “You know, you’re really getting good at this whole comforting thing. It’s pretty remarkable.”

  “I had a good teacher,” Taylor muttered, giving him one last squeeze before stepping back and nodding at him. “Alright, you are now comforted. Time to practice!”

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