The slicers didn’t have anything worth harvesting. After everyone swapped who they were hugging while savoring their battlefield reunion, the crew returned to the passage Edge and Mel had been following.

  After making sure nothing hostile was headed their way, the hunters sat down to catch their breath and nurse their wounds, bubbling with excitement that despite being dropped into the depths of a deadly biome, everyone was still in one piece.

  Once their cuts were bandaged and the adrenaline had faded away, Edge pulled out some provisions from his vault. Everyone washed up and started to eat—enjoying a victory feast while bringing each other up to speed on everything that had occurred while they were apart.

  In between bites, the hunters briefed each other on what they had experienced after stepping into Ella’s trap. He had been worried about the range of toxic spores the mycanoids employed—especially the parasitic variant the redcaps used—but the veteran shadowkiller had a means of protecting herself from airborne pathogens, along with anyone who was standing nearby.

  When he inquired about the details, Lilly handed Edge a magitech device that created a bubble that filtered any foreign particles from the air. It only had enough aether to run for a few hours, but it had been enough to shield the hunters from the mycanoids’ spores during their battles with the fungal beasts.

  It turned out that Sasha and Lillian had found each other right away—since they had been teleported to opposite sides of the same enclosure. The duo had been looking for Mel and Edge ever since. They had been planning to turn around and head back the way they had come if they didn’t run into any markings soon.

  “I’m glad the shrooms didn’t get you.” Sasha turned to face Mel. “This is a dangerous biome, even for a stage-two hunter.”

  “I wouldn’t have made it without Edge,” the guardswoman replied. “Those mushroom bastards are fucking awful.”

  Sasha nodded vigorously. “I would have been screwed without Lilly. On that note, I need to hit stage two as soon as possible if the creatures migrating onto the plains are anything like the beasts we’ve seen in the bordering biomes.”

  The crew spent the better part of an hour catching up while stretching out, sharing their observations of the creatures they’d encountered and the tactics they had used to bring them down. Then everyone rose to their feet and got ready to head out. Edge put the extra supplies into his vault, and they resumed their trek across the biome.

  Before long, the hunters passed into a sub-biome that none of them had explored. They soon learned the humanoid mushrooms weren’t the only predatory fungi down here. The crew ran into several species that could form blades or fire projectiles, although nothing as dangerous as the mycanoids’ attacks.

  Fortunately, none of these shrooms were ambulatory, so they were easy to avoid. There were, however, quite a few blocking the way forward, including a massive black mushroom that could extend spear-like projections from its stalk. But thanks to Fire Breathing and Purge Fungal Toxin, none of them posed much of a threat unless the team stumbled upon them unaware.

  As they continued crossing the caverns, Edge used Gauge Depth to chart their progress. By now, they had climbed more than half of the distance between their starting point and the surface. However, the skill couldn’t tell him how much further they had to go, given the twisting network of tunnels and caverns comprising the Deep-Gill Grottos.

  Along the way, they collected a range of valuable resources. Some were already exposed, but most were revealed by Sense Treasure, which Sasha and Lilly were suitably impressed by. Their biggest finds were a pocket of living iron—a magic-infused metal that could be used to forge malleable weapons—and a deposit of true-steel, a high-grade resource that was always in demand by Puppet Town’s crafters.

  “Once we deal with the Crimson Claws.” Sasha gestured as they harvested the final deposit. “We should come back here. It’s a great place to cycle up, and we can pick up some valuable resources that will let us improve our gear while helping the town in the process. I’m sure Dialla would be happy to foot the bill, and your vault will make transporting our finds a trivial task—instead of having to haul everything by hand through miles of underground passageways.”

  “That’s a good idea,” Edge agreed. “I’ll ask Trapper and Dialla about it once the crisis with the Claws is in the rearview mirror and we have some time to spare.”

  ***

  When Extraction came off cooldown, the crew stopped to take out a squadron of slicers so Edge could steal their skills.

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  By this point, the hunters had grown accustomed to battling this species of mycanoid and could defeat small groups without wasting too much time or mana. While everyone who had cycled up decided how they wanted to spend their points, Edge put the skill experience from Absorbing the shrooms’ powers into Double Slash, filling the avatar’s cup to the brim.

  When he popped into his inner world, the stone statue of a man holding a doubled naginata started shining, and his Guide appeared to confirm its advancement.

  The skill Double Slash has advanced to Rank 3.

  Its mana efficiency has been enhanced.

  Upon reaching rank 3, you may control the volume of mana the skill consumes, adjusting its output at will.

  When Slash’s avatar stopped glowing, the coating of mana covering the overlapping polearms was longer than before, which offered Edge a clue as to how its upgrade would work. Unlike most of his powers, which grew stronger while flaring them with extra mana, he hadn’t been sure which aspect of the complex skill would be empowered by increasing its drain.

  It seemed that instead of bolstering Double Slash’s sharpness or disruptive elements, which had originally come from rank-two upgrades, the rank-three boost would increase the length of the field covering his weapon instead.

  Edge spent a few minutes praising Slash’s avatar for its accomplishment, then leapt back into his body to give it a try. He decided to start with the knife Trapper had given him instead of his polearm—just to be safe.

  When he ignited his core and Slashed while infusing the skill with as much mana as he could, the speed of his swing increased just like always. However, the coating of magic encasing the knife was quite a bit bigger than before. A pair of offset three-foot blades went flashing through the air, carving parallel gouges into the stone wall before the skill ran out of juice.

  “Holy shit.” Mel jumped out of the way as debris went flying. “Warn a girl before you do that.”

  “Sorry,” Edge said, then flashed a sheepish grin. “Rank-three upgrade… again.”

  When they entered a sizable cavern, he moved to the center, gave the crew a heads-up, then tried out Double Slash’s upgrade with his naginata. The razor-sharp, Disruption-coated field covering the blade doubled to form a blurry offset of the weapon as his swing speed up. A fraction of a heartbeat later, both fields expanded, doubling the width of the blades and extending their length by almost five feet.

  He smiled wide as the women offered a round of applause. I need to practice using it, but this upgrade is fantastic. Being able to extend my weapon’s reach at will, combined with Slash’s explosive speed, should make it easy to surprise my enemies. I can’t think of a use for reducing the mana Double Slash uses right now, but maybe I’ll come up with something later.

  Savoring the satisfaction of upgrading one of the foundational powers in his skillset, Edge rejoined his team and started walking, pondering which skill he should upgrade next.

  ***

  They spent the rest of that day crossing through another new sub-biome. It was formed almost entirely out of black stone, which meant there weren’t any mushrooms to deal with—bestial or otherwise. While there were some dangerous predators in the area, the lack of cover made them relatively easy to avoid, thanks to the range of sensory-enhancing skills the crew had at their disposal.

  It provided the team with a much-needed break—a chance to unwind and enjoy each other’s company. While they were locked in a race against time, dialing the pervasive tension down a notch boosted their morale, letting them come down from the adrenaline-soaked hypervigilance evoked by their prolonged ordeal.

  Edge had fun watching the women decompress. It was clear that their time in the jungle had deepened the bonds between them, cementing their transition from acquaintances into allies. He listened to them tease each other and tell stories, suffering an occasional joke at his expense with good grace.

  He hadn’t been sure how Sasha would take his growing attachment to Mel. If anything, the hunter seemed happy about the development—even a little encouraging. Edge had never been in the position of being interested in two women at once before. Back in his old life, he had led a solitary existence. His only social outlets had been visiting his mother and chatting with a collection of online acquaintances too distant to call friends.

  He had no idea how the situation was going to pan out. Since no one seemed worried about it and they might all be dead before they saw their next sunrise, he decided to simply enjoy his good fortune, play it by ear, and figure out what came next after the war with the Claws was over.

  After watching him steal and upgrade some skills, Lilly was more interested in Skill-Eater than ever and talked Edge into upgrading his implants once they made it back to town. He had a sneaking suspicion that the shadowkiller just wanted to cut him open so she could tinker with his core. But it was good use for all the Mortium he’d collected in the Savage Garden, and Lilly had saved his life on more than one occasion, so he figured that satisfying her obsession with his insides was a small price to pay.

  The trip through the high-threat biome had granted everyone quite a few cycles, especially Mel and Sasha. They were progressing through stage one at a rapid rate, and Melenia was getting close to hitting the final cycle. Since she had a Common core, meeting the requirements for evolution should be relatively simple, and everyone was looking forward to boosting the strength of the crew.

  Along the way, Lilly advanced Scattershot to rank two. She picked an upgrade that increased her bolts’ penetrative power, increasing the potency of the already-lethal skill.

  Late in the day, while they were looking for a place to camp for the night, it finally happened. Edge felt a flurry of activity occurring inside his core, as his avatars clamored to get his attention. When he realized what was going on, he broke into a shit-eating grin.

  Fear the Seasons is getting ready to hatch. It’s time to slot a new Epic skill and acquire my very first domain.