With a rush of stale and humid air, the three cloaked individuals found themselves crouching in a pitch-black cave. Air was displaced by the teleportation, but the surrounding wind soon turned sluggish. All three looked down in annoyance as they found themselves ankle-deep in cool and murky water; they hadn’t noticed this issue until their shoes were soaked through. And by then it was too late.

Well, two of the figures seemed distracted by the state of their damp feet.

“Ah!” Raymund released a thunderous sigh that echoed in the enclosed space. Although he couldn’t see him, DiOrtho could clearly feel his movements as the vulpine raised his arms, as if to pray. “Such sweet release…”

DiOrtho Vant clicked his tongue at the display, even if he inwardly agreed. To be finally freed from the excessive restrictions of the Ghosthound’s suppression array was a great relief. After their own training weights had been individually retooled to help with their training, they had literally been left with no spare energy for any thought but their tasks.

The mission was mysterious and strange, but at least it was a vindication.

Overseer Helen gestured sharply and hopped out of the puddle. The two recruits tried to mimic her silent steps as they followed her, even as their senses expanded through the cave system in front of them. They both soon had to curse and accelerate without concern for the noise they made, as Overseer Helen shot forward through the branching tunnels. She seemed perfectly content to leave them behind.

Of course, both recruits could now keep up with her explosive movements. Their coiled muscles flexed as they left a spray of dirty water in their wake as they pursued the Overseer. Both loped forward with uncanny balance and grace; their time training their bodies meant that tasks like this were refreshingly simple.

A new place… DiOrtho’s image whirred with excitement. Those ancient steel mandibles, covered in stains of long-forgotten blood, began to stir. The ancient machine horror chirped as its engine slowly initialized. A new sacrifice to return to perfection…

The unbidden thoughts were as unpleasant as always.

DiOrtho kept his eyes forward, basically ignoring the words from his image as his feet padded silently against the stone ground. He wasn’t sure how effective the training had been for Raymund, because the foxman seemed remarkably confident and relaxed during their debriefing meetings, but there had been no change with his image. At best, DiOrtho had taken the distractions as a chance to reassure himself that although his image might now seem to possess an independent consciousness, it wouldn’t do anything independently.

It was quite safe to ignore his image’s mutterings.

It only took a few minutes of running to reach the edge of the cave. Before he saw the light, DiOrtho felt the wind on his face. His nostrils flared; for the first time in a long time, he smelled organic matter other than the soft, fresh scents of gardens and bamboo. The warm and slightly spicy scent of autumn leaves reached his nose. Soon, the trio slowed down and steadily walked out of the mouth of the cave to a high ridge along the side of the mountain. A thick slope of slowly dying trees was all around them.

Overseer Helen gestured to the land below. “Welcome to Jewel, the capitol of the Shelley Kingdom. This will be where your mission starts.”

“A beautiful location,” Raymund replied inanely with an absolutely goofy grin across his snout. Tsking in annoyance, DiOrtho pulled his cloak’s hood down to reveal his horns and studied the landscape below.

Despite the fact that only the moon was present in the night sky, there was plenty of light to see the surroundings. The ground rapidly fell away before them as the forest transformed into low plains that was heavily cultivated. Due to the fall weather, the fields were half-cleared as the owners of the land steadily harvested their gains from the summer. Large piles of compost matter could be seen dotting the landscape, dark lumps next to the half-sheered farms.

DiOrtho’s eyes wandered even farther. Truly, from their vantage point, it was possible to see for quite a distance.

Beyond the farmland were several small clusters of buildings. Even from here, DiOrtho could see an impressive amount of craftsmanship in both the orderly roads and neat buildings. No movement was visible during the night, but the area seemed completely picturesque. On DiOrtho’s homeworld, such an area would be an easy target for raids. His fingers itched just looking at it.

Sacrifices… The machine horror hummed. Ignoring his image, DiOrtho looked further.

Beyond the small towns, there was a massive lake. It was so large that the far edge was beyond the capability of his eyes. The water that he could see was so placid that it almost seemed fake. The perfect replica of the hanging moon seemed to have been painted onto the water, rather than being a fragile construct of refracted light. Several boats could be seen drifting across the lake’s surface, but those left no mark either, as though the water-craft were simply specters gliding across the surface.

And beyond the lake, with its perfect reflection crouched underneath it like a shadow, was the indicated capital of Jewel. The buildings of the city were tall and tan. The roofs were a distinct red color that could be identified even from a distance. Unlike the small towns, Jewel was alive even at night. Several massive buildings along the shore were illuminated by ambitiously large bonfires. DiOrtho narrowed his eyes; he had seen such large cities in the Nexus, but never on normal worlds; there simply wasn’t enough Aether present to support populations that large. With a frown, he cast his mind back to what he knew about this world.

Over the past six hours, they had been forced to sit through a mildly detailed history of this continent in order to prepare for their mission, which the Overseers had refused to explain to them until they were set loose. Basically, this continent was ruled by two large political entities, the Armgrast Empire and the Shelly Kingdom. While the Empire was the larger and more centralized power, the economic strength and political connections with the smaller, unaffiliated States allowed the Shelly Kingdom to stand toe to toe with the Empire.

That precarious balance was slowly shifting toward the Empire as it consolidated its control over certain areas that it had recently conquered, but then came the Great Migration. Although the lecturing Overseer was suspiciously vague about the details, DiOrtho could only accept that a several million individual population appeared out of nowhere. Even now, Overseer Muareth’s refusal to answer filled DiOrtho with annoyance. The way they explain it, it’s like the entire Northeast portion of the continent was simply dropped onto an already present landmass… perhaps it had something to do with the System…? Or a powerful Skill? Bah, what nonsense.

Just tell me what I need to do to fix this fucking Skill...

Either way, a current of rising power had gushed forth from within the Shelly Kingdom. In addition, the advent of Class Lighthouses, another concept from this world that mystified DiOrtho, seemed to favor the Shelly Kingdom. The locations of this world’s version of the System Village were unfairly distributed to the North and East parts of the continent.

In order to combat this rising combat potential, the Armgrast Empire was forced to make several political sacrifices to control a significant portion of the large mountain range the formed the lion’s share of the border between those two political States. This area was the primary source of Netherite, a powerful and dangerous mineral that appeared to truly just be steel that was infused with Nether.

Within the past six months, things had settled into an uneasy truce as both sides settled on cultivating their newfound resources. It was a race to see which could weaponize their advantage fastest.

This, at least, DiOrtho understood implicitly. A similar phenomenon happened when two rival demon tribes agreed to a temporary truce to each attack other factions. Both sides knew that the peace would end quickly: it was a matter of who was willing to take the gamble first.

Initiative was important, but so was having the conviction to follow through with the strike.

During the lecture, DiOrtho had been shocked at the way that Raymund Ballast had simply nodded and accepted everything that the spider Overseer had been saying. The stupid fox didn’t question a single strange fact about this world. Classes from lighthouses? No fear from Calamities or history of dealing with the Calamities? Nether was a part of the mineral composition on this planet?

Unless this planet was testing a new arrangement of the System… most of these facts seemed simply to have been invented by Overseer Muareth. It went against every established and uniform custom of the Nexus.

Yet now, as DiOrtho looked down over the city below, he could feel the truth of those facts in the surrounding air. Nether swirled in thick currents above them. As he pushed his Perception to the limit, he could feel areas where a dominant, yet somehow inert image held sway in the larger world; these would be the Class lighthouses.

“Any questions before I give you the mission, recruits?” Overseer Helen said. “Because afterward, the twenty-four-hour time limit will begin and you will receive no further help from me.”

DiOrtho suppressed his instinct to observe that the Overseer had provided no help at all thus far anyway. Then, just as quickly as he backed down, the muscles of his shoulders tightened in self-hatred that he had been so easily cowed. His eyes narrowed. He was about to open his mouth and spew verbal bile when Raymund spoke in a careful voice. “No images or Skills, correct…? But I must inquire, how would you rate the capability of this world?”

“If you were allowed to fight at your full strength… perhaps there are one or two individuals present that could rival you…? Which is why you are restricted to solely your physical force. Demonstrate the results of your training over the past ten days.” Overseer Helen said. Then she folded her arms. “Anything else?”

“What happens when we crush this ‘task’ you keep teasing us with?” DiOrtho growled.

Overseer Helen’s mouth twitched. “I’m so glad you asked. There is one other fact you need to know about this world… there are demi-gods running much of the normal System behind the scenes. A hybrid position between Village Spirits and the Nexus technicians that handle the finer points of Skills and Paths. In fact, your ‘client’ for this mission is-”

“Me.”

Despite himself, DiOrtho Vant took a sharp step to the side as an image abruptly manifested. A horrifying avatar of ash and self-immolation spoke up behind him. He whirled around and lowered himself into a fighting stance. This figure radiated woe and regrets so deeply that the ground underneath her feet began to shiver and crack. Her body seemed to be burning itself from the inside out, fueled by a horrible hunger for destruction.

The Machine Horror in DiOrtho’s chest stirred. Within that glowing figure, it recognized a kindred spirit. It clicked its mandibles excitedly.

But then that inner fire flickered and died, revealing a rather young looking humanoid woman who studied DiOrtho with interest. Then she looked to the side at Raymund and smirked. “If you manage to complete my mission, I’ll assemble a personalized Path for each of you. I hope you’ve been saving your PP, because my product will definitely be more lucrative than your usual Path.”

Her gaze lingered on Raymund for several more seconds. “For you, the Path will be a key to open up the darkness in your heart. And for you…” The woman’s eyes flicked to DiOrtho. For a split second, they glowed red-orange, like the dying embers of a fire. “For you… you don’t need the key, your darkness is already rampant. But you need the courage to face it.”

“You think-” DiOrtho took a half step forward, but Overseer Helen blurred into motion. Despite his improvements, DiOrtho was unable to respond before the Overseer had speared his thigh from behind, pinning him to the ground with her weapon. As his body shuddered in pain, more and more of the thick muscles of his leg were torn open.

Just as quickly, Overseer Helen removed her spear and spun it, flicking away DiOrtho’s blood. “No more questions, recruits. It’s time to start. Alta here will be providing you with further instructions when you finish the first task, but for now… you are here to kidnap the princess of the Shelly Kingdom. Good luck. Oh, and one more thing… no killing. If you take anyone’s life, you are immediately disqualified.”

While DiOrtho was staggering and putting his hand over the wound, Overseer Helen jabbed him in the back with the butt of her weapon. “That means you, Vant. Play nicely with the locals, okay? Or I’ll bury you here myself. And enjoy it.”