I stopped walking when I noticed that Imaya stood on her rock still, bow in hand, aiming with an imaginary arrow off to the distance.

“It feels like a story, doesn’t it?” she asked, loosing her arrow. “It feels like we can end up anywhere.”

“I hope I’ll end up home in my bed,” I said.

“How boring!” Imaya said. She gestured at the two Sylven who passed us by, looking at her strangely. “Don’t you see, Randel? This is an entirely new world with entirely new opportunities! A new start for all of us! We could really end up anywhere.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m so afraid of,” I said, thinking about early graves and stuff. “But go on, Imaya, tell me where you think we’ll end up.”

“Well,” she said, jumping down to the road with a little flourish, “we know too little about this world of Players to tell for sure. What I do know however, is that I’m the main character.”

I couldn’t smother my laugh at her bold claim. “Wow, who would have thought?”

“Surprising, I know,” she replied airily, then walked past me. “But you see, it is entirely possible from my perspective that you guys are just a bunch of AI-controlled NPC-s. Worry not, though! No matter what your brain is made of, I like you all anyway. We make a great team!”

“Uh—”

“Like every protagonist in the beginning of their story, I’m the weakest member of the group. You all received awesome powers, while all I got is an enhanced vision. But after the training arc you’ll all realize my true potential! I’ll be as strong and capable as any of you. You won’t be in the limelight for long, Randel!”

“Um—”

“Don’t worry, I haven’t told the others about your evil weapon,” she said, winking conspiratorially. “It’s our secret for now. I hope you’re prepared though, because I feel it will be the center of some drama. I’m almost certain it will form a vital plot point!”

“What—”

“Yes, yes, I know that I haven’t answered your question yet. Our endgame. Well, I think we might be down a few members by that point, but a team of four or five sounds just about right. We can become famous adventurers down the line, working flawlessly together and clearing Quests one by one.”

I opened and closed my mouth uselessly, trying to process everything she had just said. I had so many questions, and I was so afraid to ask them. It felt strange to be on the receiving end of this, for once.

“That’s it?” I finally said. “We’d be adventuring together, doing Quests and stuff … forever?

“Umm, yes,” Imaya said. “Maybe also figure out a way to go home, I guess? There might be a win condition.”

“That didn’t sound half as convincing as the rest,” I pointed out, smiling.

“I didn’t try to be convincing,” Imaya said, crossing her arms. My smile froze on my face as I realized that we were once again back at the topic of our curious family situations. But before I could have replied to Imaya, Pell started to yell.

“Guys, we found something!”

The big guy was standing on a hill up ahead, pointing over the trees.

“Another footprint?!” Imaya shouted back, skipping forward to catch up to him. I followed her with a resigned sigh, not sure whether I felt happy or not that our conversation was interrupted at this point. I might need to continue this with Imaya later on.

“This is something better than footprints,” Pell said, pulling Imaya up by her arm. “We have found Fortram.”

Not bothering to climb up the rocky slope, I flung my dagger up and teleported myself to it. I dropped to one knee as I landed, but it was still a considerably smooth arrival; my practice sessions were paying off. The rest of the team was already standing on the top of the small hill, peering at the grayish-black speck that perched atop a distant mountain. Damn, the city lay much farther away than I had hoped! I could barely make out the concentric rings of the city walls and the tall towers of the innermost district. The midday sun painted sharp shadows all over the city, playing with the shapes of the buildings. It almost looked as if—

“They are moving!” Imaya exclaimed, jumping up and down in excitement. Her pupils were aglow with light, greenish smoke trailing down the corner of her eyes as she watched the city.

“What are moving?” Simon asked, furrowing his brow.

“The city walls—no, the entire city! It is rotating around the city center!”

I squinted at Fortram once again, trying to see—

“Eek!” Imaya yelped, bumping into me as she backpedaled abruptly. The ground underneath us shifted in the very next moment, so much so that I could barely stay on my feet. Not everyone was as lucky; Devi’lynn tripped backward and tumbled down the small hill even as Teva’ryn dove after her to catch her.

“Earthquake!” Pell shouted over the rumble. The ground beneath us still hadn’t stopped shifting, groaning ominously.

“N-No,” Imaya stuttered, looking down with wide, glowing eyes. “This isn’t an earthquake, this is a—”

Her sentence turned into a shriek as the earth beneath us rose, the entire small hill lifting upwards seemingly by itself. For a brief moment I saw Tamara run to Pell with her anti-gravity ball, then I was tumbling down the slope, scraping my knees and elbows all over. A well-timed kick ensured that our body came out of the roll briefly, flipping us over. We stabbed our dagger deep into the thing beneath us, arresting our momentum. I hung in the air hopelessly, clutching the dagger with all my might while the creature I was hanging onto rose higher and higher, lifting me above the treeline. Something wet splattered against my shoulder, and I noted that it was some sticky blue ichor, dripping from the wound Soul Eater had carved into the skin of the giant.

Quest received: Huge trouble

“Run!” Imaya shouted down below, and I desperately wished I could.

“Back to the road!” I heard Simon. “There was a cave entrance by the—”

The rest was drowned out as the enormous creature let out a deafening noise; an elongated chittering cry. From my vantage point I had a terrifying view over the forest as it came to life, small rocks and boulders responding to the cry. The monsters I had mistaken for rocks rose to their feet, tearing thin insectoid limbs out of the earth—eight legs for each.

“Camouflaged giant spiders,” I groaned. “On a second thought, I really-really want to go home now.”

The nightmare didn’t end here, however. The monsters down below rose even higher, their spider-like limbs leaving the ground as a pair of human legs was revealed beneath them. Gigantic, naked human lower bodies, to be more precise—with the entire upper body swallowed up by the lumpy spider caricature that could be considered their body. No eyes, mouth, or even any head that I could discern from this distance. The spider-giants came in differing sizes, though none of them was as tall as the one that I was clinging onto. The one that – quite inconveniently – started to sway on its feet.

I spent the next couple of seconds holding on for dear life, but it became increasingly clear that I was losing the battle. My legs found no purchase as I dangled in a dizzying distance up in the air, and I wasn’t strong enough to pull myself up. To top it off, Soul Eater was coming loose even after I twisted the blade to latch onto the giant’s flesh better. All in all, I saw only one way out.

Taking a deep breath, I pulled my legs up, tore Soul Eater out, then pushed myself off the giant. I twisted in the air, and for a moment I froze in fear. I was so high up, and I was falling. What the hell was I doing? The wind tore at my clothes, sharp and cold, and the ground was coming at me rapidly, tall trees with branches like spikes ready to catch me—but then my eyes found the rest of my group running down below, and I flung Soul Eater in their general direction.

I had to time it right. When Soul Eater disappeared among the trees, I waited for just a little bit longer before teleporting myself to it. I felt solid ground beneath my feet, and I let out the breath I had been holding. I was uninjured; teleporting to the Soul Eater had rendered the momentum of my fall to nothing. I looked back quickly, noting that the mega-giant towering above me had trouble moving. Another small relief, that one. It seemed to me that the giant’s legs were too weak to support the spider-bulk on its top.

I wasn’t planning to find out whether that was actually true, however. A small part of me hoped that these giants wouldn’t try to eat us – we were barely a morsel for them, after all – but somehow I had a hard time believing that they awakened just to have a friendly chat with us. I located the road winding among the trees, then started running. Eighteen seconds. With my Spatial Symbiosis Ability at level two, that was how often I could use my teleportation. It wasn’t much, I lamented as I climbed over an upturned tree, but it had to be enough to catch up to the others.