sed the dense undergrowth, automatically keeping an eye on the jungle and the obvious threats lurking just out of sight. The air was filled with shrieks, howls, and the crash of battling mohat percoted through the tarees. It had not taken more than a few minutes of hiking through this jungle for them to run into the Radiant Brawlers.

  “We o be more careful,” he said, as everyone finished rec their mana.

  “Yes,” Malika said, nodding emphatically.

  was just grateful that Malika had a haste skill – even with his high dexterity and advanced perception, he had still struggled to even track the fight with the brawlers, let alo one of them sistently. Perhaps if his arrows were faster, he might have stood a better ce. His mind ran through optiolessly. Pin them down somehow? Trap them? How best to use Ali’s barriers? Tease them out with an arrow up the snout? Although they don’t even have snouts, he thought, sidering the featureless alien faces that tained nothing more than an oversized mouth with endless rows of teeth.

  For the sheer volume and range of monster noises he could hear, he would have expected to pick up something a little closer to their resting point. They had just had a battle here – and a noisy o that – and he would have expected that after their twenty-minute rest, at least some creatures would have returned. But it was as if they sat in the eye of the storm – dead quiet nearby, but beyond hearing range, chaos and violence reigned supreme. It was as if something was watg. The hair down the back of his ned arms prickled uneasily.

  He gnced about, but all he could see were more derees with heavily den boughs stooping toward the ground uheir load of moss and vines.

  What is that? He sed the trees ily, but he couldn’t shake the unease and the sense of something lurking just beyond his senses.

  “Let’s tinue,” Malika announced, getting up.

  “I’m ready,” Ali said, gathering her minions into some sembnce of a marg order.

  Must be my imagination, decided, dismissing his worries. Ohey got moving, he would be back to scouting and he would easily be able to answer his questions. He stood. But as he did, something caught his attention, a fsh of white seen from the er of his eye.

  He snapped his head to see. Deep among the trees, he caught a glimpse of a woman vanishing among the broad trunks. A broad-rimmed white hat ulled low to ceal her face, and the ripple of a white cloak trailed in her wake, both trasting with the practical leathers she wore oall, lean frame. She moved like the barest whisper of a breeze through the foliage, her skill and jungle-craft supreme.

  Is that… His heart began to ra his excitement. He had read of the legends of the elusive realm-walker, the patroy of trackers, and hunters. A being so rare, most people dismissed her as a myth – a story told aold till people somehow began to believe it might be true.

  Fuck, he thought as he realized he hadn’t been quiough with Explorer to identify her and make sure.

  “Who was that?” Ali asked. “She had a very unusual mana signature.”

  “You saw her too?” had been half-vinced she was a figment of his imagination, jured from tiredness after the battle, mixed in with a rge helping of muggy humidity and wishful thinking.

  “White cape, fancy hat,” Ali firmed.

  “I think that was the legendary Wanderer – uh, Demi-god and realm-walker. The patroy of trackers and hunters. Acc to the stories, she is very selective about her followers, appearing to them at random, aing a test to see if they are worthy of her patronage,” said, quoting from the passages he had memorized in his youth.

  “Really?” Ali asked, surprised.

  “Yes, I used to dream of meeting her one day, but…” he trailed off as he recalled some of his more youthful dreams. He had read the story one day and spent the several weeks searg everywhere for her. He remembered being mocked for it pretty severely.

  “And then?”

  “I grew up, I guess? It was just a story.”

  “Ah saw her?”

  “Yes?”

  Ali pursed her lips prettily, but he still felt the sass radiating off her. “Why are you still here?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Clearly, whoever it was was real. If it really is this wanderer person from your story, the only one of us she would be ied in is you. Shouldn’t you be off… finding her?”

  “I…” Ali’s words left him stunned and speechless. It had just never occurred to him to believe it. Yet, both of them had seen the woman, and the hat and cloak were exactly as described iories. So was the appeara random in an unexplored territory. A chill ran down his spine as fi shimmered into reality. It has to be a trick, right? A lure set by one of these monsters? But what I sensed… no. Ali’s right, this is real and I o get a grip.

  Yet he stood there, frozen in indecision.

  “We’ll wait for you,” Malika said, joining the discussion.

  “Just be careful, ok?” Mato added. “The jungle is dangerous.”

  “Um… uh… you’re all ok with this?” he stammered.

  “You have stealth and you’re fast,” Ali said. “I’d send some minions with you, but I doubt I have anything that keep up.”

  “Ok… ok!” he said. “I’ll be back… soon.” He dove into the jungle, sprinting in the dire the woman had left. I just hope I didn’t leave it too long.

  While his mind still grappled with the absurdity of the enter, suddenly finding himself alone in the raucous humid juriggered his instincts. Automatically, he activated both Eclipse and Explorer to ceal his movement and presence from ears or eyes as he slipped through the undergrowth without leaving even the slightest trace of his passing. eling a little stamina, he augmented his sight with his trag senses and began sc the dirt fns of her passage.

  As soon as his Explorer trag skill activated, his sharp eyes began to pick out the signs. There was nothing as obvious as an actual footprint, but a swig on a bush, and a freshly overturone in the grass stood out as obviously as a written signpost. It was almost as if she wanted him to firail – yes. She wouldn’t be this careless. He sprinted onward, careful to keep his eyes on his surroundings and not just searg for tracks. He was alone in an unexplored jungle full of unknown monsters, after all, and he wasn’t about tet that.

  The trail took him to a small clearing, aook a moment to survey it from cover before rushing in. His skin prickled and he felt the tiny drops of sweat trig down his ba the overly humid air. The dank stench of unnatural growth pressed in on him like a heavy, wet bhe trail tinued, clear to his enhanced perception, tinuing right through the ter of the clearing and out through the other side.

  But in the ter of the clearing stood another monster of wood and bark – a Forest Guardian – surprisingly well camoufged against the jungle’s verdant backdrop of green and brown. His sharp eyes caught the wheeling shape of a Poison Wyvern cirg above, searg for prey.

  He immediately Identified the Guardian.

  Forest Guardian – Wood Elemental – level 43

  [Explorer]An enormous nature affinity elemental.Category: Mohreat Level: EliteMoype: ElementalDamage: Melee, Physical, Nature, HealingKnown Vulnerabilities: Fire

  That’s a high level!

  snuto the clearing, quiet and invisible to all but the most powerful perception skills. Quick as lightning, he rushed across the open grass, giving the enormous elemental a wide berth, lest its aura skills serve as a different mode of magical perception, relying heavily on Eclipse to keep him invisible to the wyverns flying overhead. He was sweating, and his heart pounded in his throat as he passed the elemental from a distance of less than thirty feet. This close, the monster was truly intimidating, standing taller at the shoulder than his full height, with a weight and bulk that dwarfed his own.

  But his skills miraculously kept him from being noticed, and a rush of relief surged through him as he returo the tracks ahe monster behiering the retive safety and cealment of the dense jungle. He followed the trail carefully, at times losing it, but alig it up again after a quick sear the nearby area.

  A fsh ht blue-white light from up ahead warned him of danger before he stumbled into the Radiant Brawler.

  Radiant Brawler – Elemental – level 36

  [Explorer]A bulky quadruped elemental of light affinity.Category: Mohreat Level: EliteMoype: ElementalDamage: Melee, Physical, LightKnown Abilities: Haste, Teleport

  There was only one, rooting around and uprooting bushes with broad jaws filled with far too mah, but was by himself, and without Malika, he stood no ce. He paused. Again, the trail led him right past the elemental of light, but this time he felt the prickle of uainty crawling down his back. The monster had her eyes nor ears, just a mouth, and those straentacles that could shoot powerful beams of light were waving in the air as if sampling it somehow.

  He had Eclipse, which made him virtually invisible. And Explorer allowed him to move silently. But not all monsters relied on vision or sound. Against something with more exotis of perception, he would be effectively unprotected and if anything had alternate perception skills, it would be this thing.

  Carefully, he judged where the trail led, and then began to circle around, giving the monster a wide berth. As he came within thirty yards of the monster, all four tentacles whipped sideways suddenly as the mourned with a roar. Without hesitation, the shining elemental rippled and shimmered across the damp ground leaving a trail of afterimages in its wake.

  Crap! bolted, dropping both his Eclipse and the silent movement from his Explorer skill as he sprinted off, dodging trees and hurdling bushes with low, skimming leaps. Eoo close behind him, he could hear the terrifying ripping snap of trees and branches being broken, and the vibration of the heavy monster’s bulk as it charged toward him. had no illusions about being able to outrun a hasted monster. His wings sprouted from his back, and he shot up into the air. Aiming fap in the opy, he twisted, spinning to the side, barely avoiding a ng beam of light that tore through the tree branches, sending many of them plummeting to the ground below.

  In a rush of leaves and swigs, he burst from the treetops, s out above the opy, suspended above the strangely lit jungle and the darkness of the cavern and presumably the ruins of the suspended city above. He breathed a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived.

  With a roar, the hunting wyvern – or one just like it – dove toward him and his indest wings, which he betedly realized had been a bright, waving invitation to the local predator popution. He swerved to the side, barely avoiding the spray of poison and the raking cws, and then he shot off as fast as his wings would take him. He was the intruder here, and the wyvern was hunting in his home territory. In just a few seds, was dodging again, spiraling to his left and diving recklessly toward the opy. This time the monster was closer, and his back burned in the wake of the raking cws that ripped through his leather armor, slig gashes in his flesh.

  With a frantic desperatiourned his dive into a barely trolled plummet, pulling up only at the st moment to avoid being dashed oree branches, and then he zigzagged down through the trees, finally alighting on the ground once again, panting, with the warm sensation of his own blood and sweat running down his back.

  Brilliant idea, . Let’s not do that again!

  As he broke the line of sight to the wyvern uhe opy, he activated Eclipse and crouched behind a massive oak, sing through the leafy branches for any sign of his pursuer. He huddled for a while, pressed up against the tree trunk and breathing heavily. After a few moments, when nothing came crashing through with cws ah i oing him, he emerged from his cover and looked around. There was no sign of the brawler, nor the wyvern. Nor could he see any of the tracks he had been following.

  This is stupid. He had just almost beeen by two different monsters while running around alone in a dangerous jungle, chasing the elusive wisps of a fable – the hope of a childhood story. He didn’t even know if what he had seen was actually the Wanderer. For all he k could be an illusioed by a moo lure him in and trap him.

  I lost the trail… but I’m alive. He tried to shake the w cws of disappoi clutg at his heart. Carefully he reviewed his situation in his mind, visualizing the forest, and the path he had taken, mapping it all out carefully. If he was right, he had entered the brawler several hundred yards to his left. He wasn’t about to go poke it with a stick or anything that ridiculous, but the reference point was also where he had st had the trail.

  I should go back. But he would have to go quite far out of his way to avoid another enter with the Radiant Brawler, and he would only risk flying above the opy if he had no other choice. She probably went that way, he thought, his mind helpfully juring the trajectory of the trail he had been following on his mental map. He wrestled with his options for a few long minutes.

  This is not helping, he thought. He o either press o back. And the smarter choice was to go bad give up on this dangerous wild-goose chase. But…

  His curiosity was like a force of nature pulling him onward. It’s not that far out of my way… I might just cross her trail again.

  sidering the dires carefully, he headed off toward where the trail might have gone, spending the mana and stamina to keep himself cealed. He crept through the jungle, relying heavily on his enhanced eyesight to search fns of the lost trail. It took about twenty minutes and backtrag a few times to cover mround before he finally saw it. Bent grass in a slight depression that was clearly the outline of a footprint. He had misjudged the trail slightly, but now that he had a reference point and also a dire, he ranged outward, searg for eg signs that would firm the trail.

  He k in the shade of a massive tree and picked up an a that had been pushed into the earth by something with weight. There were no ns of footprints nearby, but something had stepped on the a.

  Suddenly sensing eyes on him, he looked up and found her sitting calmly on a branch, high above the trail. Her wide-brimmed hat shaded her fapletely that even his enhanced perception could not pee it to make out her features. But he knew she was studying him – ign his stealth skill. Immediately he activated Explorer, keen oifying her before she vanished again, but to his surprise, his skill failed to activate. It was as if she wasn’t really there. Slowly, he got to his feet, dropping the a, and he bowed his head respectfully toward the being, still not certain if she was real – the deity from his stories – or a figment of his imagination, an illusioo fuse him.

  As his eyes came up once more, she dropped from the branch, her white cloak trailing behind her as she fell. But before she hit the ground, she vanished like the mist in a m breeze. He rushed forward and when he reached the spot, all he found were signs that the trail tinued onward.

  I guess I keep following? The mysterious person may be toying with him, but the trail before him seemed clear, so he pressed onward. A few mier, he emerged from the dense undergrowth into a sed clearing. The trail led once again right to its ter, but this time there was no monster waiting for him, just a small stone stru that looked a little like a shrine, just made from pin granite.

  Cautiously he approached, but nothing flew out of the sky to eat him, nor burst from the cealment of the grasses with a roar. In fact, the clearing was quiet, not even a breeze disturbing the grass.

  Shrine of the WandererA simple shrio orate all who yearn to explore.Mana: Make an Shrine – Artifact

  There was nothing else besides the mysterious stone shrine. Everail led right up to the shrine, but there it ended. exami carefully, but it seemed to be a simple stru of stone, about waist high. The only iiure was the hollow depression i top and the fun. That and the fact that, inexplicably, Explorer was able to identify it.

  He puzzled over the simple statement ‘make an ’ for a while, but then he recalled a se from one of his childhood stories. Reag into his ste ring, he retrieved one of the gold Dal’mohran s from his rapidly shrinking share of the treasure they had discovered in the ruined vault. He tur over the backs of his fingers, watg the gold fsh in the light as he rolled it over and over. He flipped it high into the air, and as it came down to nd in the hollow depression of the shrine, he gave the shrine some of his mana. Before the even reached the sto vanished, leaving behind a rapidly fading sparkle of light.

  The Wanderer offers her patronage.Godly Patrohe Waraits: Trag, Dexterity, Deity, Stealth, Explorer, Perception, Discovery, Movement, LuckReputation gained enhahe reputation of the Wanderer. As your patron’s reputation grows, boons and enhas may increase.Minor enhao Movement and Perception skills in uncharted or fotten pces.Mana: Offer an item of value as a request for the insights of the Wanderer.Entment – TitheAccept this patronage?

  felt an inner shift as he accepted even before his notification sounded. Like somethily settling within the very core of his being, ging something profoundly fual, yet remarkably subtle. It was a geouch, leaving who he was entirely unged, a he felt somehow… more.

  Patroy has been updated.

  But his notification chime tio sound, as if i on celebrating his achievement.

  Archer of Light has reached level 33.+10 attribute points.

  Explorer has reached level 20 (+2).Eclipse has reached level 16.Eyes of the Ar has reached level 18 (+2).Azrael's Wings has reached level 3 (+2).

  Cartography has reached level 9.

  I got a css level? He stared at the glowing lines of text in surprise. There had been no monster battles, and nothing killed, but the trial had been difficult and challenged his skills and trag ability, and his sense of dire and stealth too. It seemed that was enough in alig with his css that he had gained experience for it.

  He had even gained a level in Cartography without drawing a map. That must have been when I lost the trail. He hadn’t drawn the map physically, but it had been clearly present in his mind. He had already charted out how he would spend his points, so he assighem quickly: three to dexterity, two each to wisdom and vitality, and one each to endurance, perception, and intellige was roughly how important every attribute was to his build.

  His notification chime echoed in his mi again. Huh? What now? He read curiously.

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Explorer has reached at least level 20.Patroy: The Wanderer.Passed the trial of the Wanderer.

  Explains Sense Prey.

  Explorer – level 20You have enhanced spatial perception and perfect recall for pces you have explored. You dis importaails about the pces you are expl and the creatures that inhabit them.Stamina: Use your enhanced perception to track your prey.Stamina: Move without leaving traaking sound.Mana: If you focus, you sehe dire of a retly observed prey or target.Knowledge, Movement, Stealth, Trag, Perceptiohis adva?

  Just the fact of his passing the trag trial the Wanderer had set for him, and the acceptance of her patronage, had already begun to influehe dire of his growth. Immediately, he was offered a trag adva.

  And it looks really good. admonished himself, ed that his doubts may be interpreted as ingratitude. The skill adva didn’t give musight into how long ‘retly’ referred to, but it seemed that he would be able to track things that he couldn’t otherwise sense. Several times during his trial he had lost track of his quarry, and it took time to reacquire the trail. This new skill meant that, barring magical cealment, he wouldn’t be able to lose a trail.

  He accepted the advance, and immediately tested it.

  He used the new skill, spending a little mana, and fog on Ali. Instantly, he had an uny sense of precisely which dire she was from where he stood. He could poily to her through the intervening dense jungle. He had been out trag for a little over an hour now, and this little test told him that was still within the appropriate range of time for his new skill to work. He tried it again on Mato and Malika, firming that it worked just as well. Theried it with his mother as the focus, finding that even though he had st seen her almost a day ago, he could unerringly point in her dire. The Guildmaster, however, was indistind difficult to pinpoint. I st saw her about two days ago.

  So, about a day? His testing would o be tightened up before he was satisfied, but for now, he was happy to know the approximate range of time was well beyond what he had hoped for.

  On a whim, he focused on the woman with the white hat and cloak. What came back was fusing. He could sehe skill w, but the sense of her dire was somewhere his mind couldn’t uand. It ecific dire – but nowhere he could point to. It was weirdly disorienting, but he chalked it up to normal for what he had experienced so far from her.

  As he stood, the stone shrine shimmered and vanished, leaving an unblemished carpet of grass behind, as if it had never existed.

  Fog on his friends, he set out to return.

  Aliandra “We shouldn’t have let him go by himself,” Ali said as the Poison Wyvern faltered uhe onsught of lightning and fire magid began to spiral down toward the ground trailing a dark cloud of smoke.

  “He’s going to be fine,” Malika said, but Ali could tell she was just as worried as she was.

  “How do you know?”

  “Of all of us, he has the most escape skills. He fly, he run fast, he has stealth and silent movement. And, failing all that, he still has the recall potion,” Malika said. “We have to trust him.”

  “But it’s been so long…” It had been over an hour. Several monsters had interrupted their camp, but nothing they couldn’t handle among the three of them. This test Poison Wyvern robably the biggest threat that had appeared since his departure, and her mages and shamans had made short work of it. She had been the oo suggest pursue his dream, but now she was having serious sed thoughts. What if I sent him to his death?

  “We would just have slowed him down,” Mato said, shifting back to Beastkin.

  “Ok,” Ali said, sighing heavily. She walked over to the smoking corpse of the wyvern.

  “Hey, you hold off on destrug that one?” Mato asked.

  “Why?” Ali asked, looking up in surprise.

  “I’m hungry,” Mato said, rubbing his belly. “How do wyvern skewers sound?”

  “You’re always hungry,” Ali groused, but Mato being Mato chased some of the worries into the er of her mind. She gri him to show she wasn’t that upset. “Got some new spices you’re pnning to test on us?”

  He grinned, “Would I?”

  “You got it, didn’t you?” Mato said as soon as walked into camp. Unsurprisingly his friend was fident in his guess, and equally unsurprisingly, he was cooking something that filled the air with a delicious aroma. One way to attract all the local predators, he supposed!

  “I did,” he answered and then shared the patroification with them. Before they could s him iions, he told the eale from beginning to end, with all of them listening raptly to what had transpired.

  “Wow, a deity patronage!” Ali excimed.

  “gratutions,” Malika said.

  “I knew you had it in you,” Mato said, pumping a fist in the air and then handing him another skewer from the cookfire.

  “Thanks guys,” he said, blushing just a little, and then his chime sounded with something new.

  Your as have increased the reputation of your patron.

  You have gaihe Blessing of the Wanderer+1 to Perception and Trag skills.Blessing – Duration: 1 day.

  Oh, this is nice!

  ***

  Name: AveryRace: Half-Elf

  Active Buffs: Blessing of the Dawn, Blessing of the Wanderer

  Css: Archer of Light – level 33- Radiant Archery – level 21- Arrows of Brilliance – level 24- Motes of Light – level 12- Explorer – level 22 (+2) - Blessing of the Dawn – level 16- Eclipse – level 16- Eyes of the Ar – level 19 (+1) - Righteous Fury – level 9- Azrael's Wings – level 3- [Locked]

  General Skills- Bowcraft – level 7- Wood Carving – level 3- Cartography – level 9

  Aptitudes- Languages: ana (Affinity): Light- Perceptive (Racial): +11 to Perception- Quick (Racial): +5 to Dexterity- Timing (Css): You have an innate sense of timingPatrons & Tithes- Deity: The Wanderer

  Attributes- Vitality: 39- Strength: 9- Endurance: 25- Dexterity: 213 (+91) - Perception: 149 (+58) - Intelligence: 141 (+55) - Wisdom: 44

  Equipment- on: Hunter's Bow – level 10- Body: Leather Armor – level 20- Hands: Bracers of Accuracy – level 10- Feet: Simple Boots of Swiftness – level 15- Ring: Silver Guild Ring – level 30

  Evasion: 240Dodge: 20.61%+5% to Accuracy rating.+5% to Movement speed.

  Health: 390/390Stamina: 250/250Mana: 352/440 (88 Reserved)

  timewalk