-Callen-

  I wipe my sweat off my face as I finally make another void gate frame. Learning from my last attempt, I didn’t even try opening it in the void. I don’t need more ominous spheres of doom floating hazardously. I even built a small shack around the existing sphere so I wouldn’t accidentally bump into it. Right as I’m about to reach out to Callia, she contacts me first, leaking emotions of startledness and confusion.

  “The queen is abducting me for a bonding experience? I may be unable to help you get out until later.” I blinked blankly at that statement. Why is the queen ‘bonding’ with Sis? Well, it seems getting out of the void has been put on hold temporarily. I look over to the field of flowers, and a thought comes to mind. Sis wasn’t my only connection to the physical world. I sat down and started focusing on my bond with Nightshade. If I couldn’t escape through Callia, then maybe I could visit home instead. The thought of giving Crescent a surprise visit gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling.

  -Callia-

  The moment I had dressed sufficiently for a hunt, Karia wasted no time snatching my hand, eagerly dragging me down the corridors into the inner palace. While I was a helpless passenger to the queen, I reached over to Callen, updating him on the circumstances. I wanted to get Callen out quickly, but it was feeling a bit less urgent after the crisis had passed. His various reports while I got settled showed he was curious enough about the void’s effects on magic to keep himself entertained. Maybe he’ll even figure out some interesting new application for us to use.

  Shifting my positioning, I got my feet under me and started running alongside the queen hand in hand as we reached a Shifting Plate that was guarded by two fully qualified knights and what seemed like hundreds of veterans. The men parted before the queen, saluting with respect. The look I saw in their eyes wasn’t the kind generated by submission to authority but that granted in respect. My only thought on the matter was that Karia might not be interested in the politics of her role, but that didn’t stop her from forming a faction of supporters.

  “Here we are,” Karia announced as we reached the Shifting Plate. “I suppose I should give you a general idea of where we are going. This plate is the foremost treasure of our kingdom. It grants access to the interior space of the Council tower. There’s a bunch of history there that I don’t think really matters, but what is important is the private world where dangerous but limited monsters are readily available for us to hunt. This place has been the training ground of our ancestors, using the carefully controlled environment to optimize hunting against monsters that are ideally leveled for challengers.” The idea seems solid in practice, but if this worked, why didn’t people breed and slaughter low-level monsters like livestock?

  “I can already see the question on your face. If it works here, why not elsewhere? The main reason is that isolating a region and managing the levels to an acceptable standard for new trainees is prohibitively expensive. Then if you trap the monsters, leaving them unable to resist, you get almost no experience for the effort. Both my brother and Duke Harlanou have private training grounds for their children. Your overlord Duke Harlanou is a real piece of work; consider coming south sometime, and I’ll have my brother prepare a grand welcome.” I smile a bit at the offer. While Port Town was the home I knew and loved, it also had no small share of hardship. Leaving Callen to deal with it alone didn’t seem quite in the cards yet. Noticing Karia signaling the soldiers to activate the transfer plate, I forcefully focused inward, closing my senses to the outside. A firm pat breaks my focus as I realize the transfer was completed.

  The sound of a small bird chirping was a foreign one. I looked around to get my bearings at the new location. The trees were small, and nature didn’t radiate a hidden hostility that had been almost natural outside. It looked like a normal forest from Earth.

  “Somehow the ancient wizards and witches of the council managed to isolate each floor by level. It’s strange to imagine, but this is what the world might look like if everything within was limited to level 10. Brace yourself, I'll be taking us up significantly higher so we can have some real fun.” This time I didn’t brace myself prior as we shifted again and again. At some point my mind went numb as various regions flashed by in quick succession. I lost track of how many went by as I stared up at the ceiling while coated in my own vomit.

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  Finally it stopped, but I didn’t have the strength to get up as the world seemed to spin relentlessly. Seeing a shadow appear in the sky above me, I weakly muttered, “Too much.” Still the dizziness passed, and I managed to get up off the ground and evaluate the new environment. The forest now matched what I was more familiar with. The trees rivaled those around Port Town in size as they towered overhead ominously. There were no small birds, and the forest was silent with the edge of tension and death promised to all.

  I cleared away my vomit and got on my feet quickly, identifying the tracks of Karia leading into the forest. However, despite the clear tracks, I easily identified her behind me. It seems while I was recovering, she wanted to play a game of hide and seek. I kept track of Karia as I started following the trail she left. No reason to spoil the game early, and I kind of wanted to see where it led. Still, even if she was following me, it didn’t mean I needed to play nice.

  In a familiar environment I let my old skills take hold as I blended with the terrain, moving quietly through the branches. I smirked in satisfaction as Karia fell behind, struggling to keep track of me in the forest proper. Still, I followed her path quietly to the base of what appeared to be a small mountain. While finding a mountain in the tower was interesting, what caught my attention more was finding the spot where Karia’s tracks ended just before the entrance of a grand cave. I carefully inspected the cave, but I didn't need to look long. Resting on its side was a T-Rex. However, its size was massively enhanced by its level. At a standing position it might just match the height of the Great Bear.

  My mind short-circuited at that thought. Immediately I countered that revelation with the fact that T-Rexes were always significantly bigger than bears, so being the same size as the Great Bear actually meant that it was lower level. My only assumption from the elaborate setup was that Karia wanted me to fight the beast while she watched secretly from the side, ready to intervene as necessary. On the plus side hunting something like this would definitely be bragging rights once Callen got back.

  I stopped evaluating the situation and shifted into my hunting mindset. The fact that the monster feels safe to expose itself like this in a region where rivals all had similar levels meant that it likely had some instinctive survival sense. So the moment my attack began, the monster would likely recognize and resist the situation. Another issue was the size.

  While my mines and traps might be strong enough to hurt it, the beast was so big that getting anything deeper than a surface injury would require extensive work. If I wanted a trap with sufficient impact to do real damage, the first thing that came to mind was a rocket-powered swinging log or a generous helping of Nightshade's poison. Neither of which was particularly applicable at the moment. Instead of external traps, I focused instead on finding the natural weaknesses. I smiled predatorially as I formulated a plan.

  Reining in my bloodlust, I slowly and cautiously approached the T-Rex as it peacefully lay there sleeping. I reached the end of Karia’s footsteps and stopped as a whisper in my gut told me that even one step further might be my last. It was a proximity sensor skill. Carefully withdrawing, I instead moved up to the top of the cave. Looking down, I struggled to see the T-Rex itself, but I could easily identify the line that would alert the monster. Nestling carefully into my cover, I prepared to launch my attack when a familiar presence finally caught up. Just in time to watch the show.

  I focused decay energy into my arrow as I let it loose down into the cave. Before the first even landed, I set up another, but with growth energy crashing into the end of the footsteps just below my position. The meaty thunk of the first arrow followed by a mighty roar declared the hunt's real start. I nestled into my cover, watching intently towards the growing shrubbery at the cave’s entrance as the ground shook.

  Port Town Visit

  Callen smiled as Nightshade’s flower phased into existence next to him in the void. Quietly he handed her the Void Gate before she disappeared back to Port Town. Moments later the gate opened up. Stepping through, Callen stopped as the familiar sound and sight of Nightshade’s tower welcomed him. Standing at the ledge looking down on his town, he let out a sigh, letting the humid salty air he had grown up with soak in. After a brief pause to take it all in, he conveyed his thanks to Nightshade.

  Then he jumped down from the tower using a carefully timed airburst to slow his landing. Without a moment's hesitation, he ran over to town hall. Just outside he saw a small crowd of civilians holding signs protesting against Crescent. Callen struggled to understand how things had gone wrong so fast. Entering the building, he was stopped by a guard, but upon recognizing him, they enthusiastically let him through.

  Stepping into the office, he gave a big grin as he locked eyes with Crescent. She gave out a quiet noise of disbelief and shock, but that didn’t stop Callen from giving her a warm hug.

  “You ok? I noticed a bit of trouble outside.” Crescent seemed to struggle for words, instead choosing to hug Callen even tighter. Eventually a small voice leaked out from the embrace.

  “Better now, but how are you here?” Callen reassuringly rubbed her back while narrating the grand adventure that he had gone on.

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