“We are to provide support for Cowen’s team? Us? For real?” Ira said when Jonas started to explain the planned mission to the team.

“Well, not on the critters. She’s still going to slaughter those bovines handily once she’s in the zone – if that works. It’s more of being guides. And staying the hell away from the lairs once they dive in. Just one of us, to avoid interfering with lair completion.”

“That’s the exact opposite of what we did back then,” Alton noted.

“It is. But that’s in a few weeks. She estimates that she needs about three weeks of walking across the Great Line until she’s back at Othary. All of her team has Gates all across the line – the only closest one is Aubert who has the Gate between Markandon and Vuneras.”

“So… we have three weeks,” Alton said.

“Yes. Actually, once they reach Markandon, they’re going to drop a note to give us a better estimate of the exact day they arrive. So, we are supposed to check regularly here at the Boar. Then, we’ll meet them at the Plaza, again,” Jonas explained.

“So, what do we do until then?”

“Well, for now, we have two days to clear the Lingering Death status. Then, we can head back again. Probably have to fight our way from below the lair instead of the top.”

Ira leaned back in the chair, tankard left alone.

“You know, we could skip that.”

“How?” Laura asked.

“We all have that old Zolferras tier one Fast option, right? We never did use it, even.”

“The Gate to Zolferras… but it’s the one from Ovildian. Let me see… did we ever cross the Zolferras Gate from Othary? We never did any lair there, so we wouldn’t qualify, but if we unlocked from the other side…” Jonas said.

“I don’t think we did,” Laura said. “We made the border checking, saw the Gate, and did a test, but we didn’t do the lake until later. And we never went back to the Zolferras Gate.”

“So, we need to trek back across Ovildian. Then I suppose we could reset our Gate so we get one closer to Othary in case.”

“The same as our previous, but the other way. That’s what I was thinking about,” Ira explained.

“But that will still take us two, or three days.”

“Even if your weakened state, those Ovildian critters are easy. We can go there without waiting for you to recover.”

“The experience will be tiny. At our current level, a normal level 10 critter like the ones we’d find outdoor is… what, 30XP? Less? I’m sure the dive across the ruined plaza will give us nearly as much,” Jonas replied.

Ira was visibly deflated.

“It’s a good idea, I mean. Any XP is good. But I think we can get more if we don’t spend four or five days mucking in Ovildian then Othary. The ruined Plaza is less than a day walk to the Markandon gate – once we’re out of the lair, we’ll make it across quickly. We could probably even spend a day in Donerkal killing cows for the experience if need to be… but the apes in Markandon are still worth a bit more.”

“Okay. There’s a reason you’re the boss, after all.”

Jonas swallowed a quick sip, then went on to explain his planning.

“So, we go back from below the lair. I think the original plan is still unchanged: we go to Markandon, go to Vuneras and its Plaza for Jonathan’s tier three. Then we head to Outapis, pick the Gate back to Markandon there now that everyone, including Jonathan, has a tier three. Then, basically, we have two weeks to find good lairs, get fifteen-twenty levels and at least one Milestone, get some good gear.”

“And once we get the word, we fight our way back across packs of molemen. Oh, joy,” Laura said.

“Everyone’s good for Fast Travel?”

“Four charges and ticking on the fifth,” Ira said.

“Same,” Jonathan announced.

Despite the Lingering Death slowing their recharge time, Jonas, Laura and Guss were also okay.

“Then, we start in two days.”

“I’ll leave a message with O’Hogan that we won’t make it for the next faire, if we leave that early.”

“I hate skipping on the Sunday office, but we have a deadline now,” Jonas said.

Laura slammed the treasure box shut.

“Nobody touches this box. Or I have a pair of hammers with the imprint of your face on it.”

Everyone backed off as she twirled her main hammer, to show how serious she was.

As they were heading out of the room, the rear door closed itself with an audible click. They started toward the next room

They went on through the tunnel to the ‘previous’ room and its pack of veteran moles. The molemen seemed almost as surprised as the triple elite pack on seeing a team of Professionals spring from behind. The six fell on them, Ira and Jonathan dragging them across their rest room, Laura and Alton going from veteran to veteran to finish them while Jonas pelted them with Flame Bolts.

Then, they gathered and trudged on.

Jonas found himself near the back, along with Laura.

“By the way…”

“Two bronze chisels. And a pair of leather boots. All basic.”

As they came out on the plaza-like ruins, Laura could sometimes feel like the lair was trying to compensate for the horrible treasure box at the end. The loot in the previous two encounters was… decent. No, more than decent. Only quality gear, since they were not fighting last guardians, but the second chest had two items instead of the usual one. All in all, the haul included new leggings for Jonathan, a straight-out upgrade for Guss’ head – same potentials, just 2 more of them – and another set of trousers for Jonas.

Of course, nothing for her. And she expected nothing better to come from that… hole… in two weeks when they came back to meet the tier six team.

The team quickly headed toward the path leading in the direction of the Markandon Gate. A lone Snow Leopard that was lazing next to it sprung, surprised at seeing Professional coming from nowhere and got promptly slaughtered, its level 34 frame falling under a handful of blows from the team. The experience was tiny, compared to what they usually did, but it still accumulated.

Standing at the Gate leaving the zone, Jonas turned, watching back the mountains that they’d been travelling back and forth since last summer.

“It’s not the last time we’re here, but it’s going to be the last time we’re here seriously,” Jonas said, his arm encompassing the expanse of Othary.

“I was starting to get used to it,” Alton said.

“We are probably going to spend more time in Markandon later. But for a few weeks or a couple of months, it’s probably Outapis,” Jonas announced.

“What does the booklet says?”

“You’ll see. From the description, it will be different than what we’ve seen so far,” Jonas replied mysteriously.

“Ah.”

“Uhuh.”

“Can’t wait,” Ira said.

“Okay, so let’s head to Vuneras first. We need to activate Jonathan’s tier three so that all of us can pick the Gate from Outapis. Then we start getting serious.”

Coming out of the Gate from Markandon, Jonas reflected on the difference and similarities between zones.

Markandon was a dense and deep forest. Tall deciduous trees, small clearings, with relatively little in the way of visible paths. Vuneras was a forest, but the resemblance stopped there. From the Gate, you could see the shore. Half of the zone was a sea, actually. The useable parts of the zone was a huge expanse of light forest along the shore and a small bay digging in. Tiny rivers came from distant mountains, slithering across the forest floor until they all reached the sea.

The Vuneras-Markandon Gate was in a small clearing that opened to the shore. This part was peebles, but you had some fine sand further. The biggest difference was temperature… and humidity. Vuneras was hot and muggy. The combination of the worst of London summer, with the worst of autumns when the Thames brought out humidity that smelled of the sea. Like near fog.

The forest was home to bear-like creatures. They were called Bearlings in the descriptors, but the team nicknamed them quickly sleek bears, based on the elongated frame and sleek fur. The shore was almost entirely populated by crabs.

“Like last time,” Jonas announced. “We follow the shore until we reach the bay, then we head inward toward the Plaza. Be careful then.”

“I remember those sleek bears veteran pairs. These days, we can handle them,” Ira reassured him.

Foraging Bearling × 2

Level 144 veteran

Health: 2478

Mind: 783

Endurance: 3085

Aether: 0

Jonas reflected on the lair fights they’d done recently. These were slightly above the molemen elite, but then, they could do a three-pack of the elites. Those were just a pair. The last time, they’d been on their way as fast as possible, to make the deadline before his trip to the Colonies.

“Okay, let’s make this quick. The Plaza should be an hour away.”

“By the way,” Jonathan said.

“Yes?”

“I’m getting close to 14. And after that, there’s only a single level to 15 and the Defender Milestone.”

“Sounds like we should spend a day doing experience around,” Alton said.

Jonas thought about it.

“Everyone’s in favour?”

Seeing the team’s approbation, he summarized the new plan.

“Then let’s kill this pair since they’re there. Then we’ll probably head toward to the shore, avoiding the streams since that’s where you usually find veterans instead of normal. Nothing wrong with those, but that’s still like fighting an elite with no treasure to be gotten. Normal is easier and good XP.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Despite the health, fighting veterans was uncomplicated. They simply attacked what was in front of them, and that was that. The only complication was that bearlings simply emitted… malodorous emissions regularly, causing a big drop in mind, but the team still finished with more than half of Jonathan – their weakest member on that point – still available.

Foraging Bearling × 2: 4820XP/6 contributors = 803XP.

And, to put the lie in Jonas’ words, there was a trace of cloth from under the second bearling’s corpse. A rare find on creatures outside of lairs. Laura rolled the dead beast away, letting it start its decomposition, and picked the vestment.

Padded Burlap Half-Robe

Torso

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 129

Provides: 36 defence rating, FOC+17, AGI+10

“Whelp, that’s a weird one,” she said, holding the piece of equipment. It looked like a robe’s top, ending just a bit below belt.

“Too high level, weird look, weird potentials, I agree,” said Guss, looking at the oddity.

“We’ll see if anyone at the faire wants it for the future. Otherwise, it’s one for the broker, for sure,” Jonas said.

They broke morning camp in the small pond clearing they’d set up the night before. Jonas checked his experience total, which he knew would be exactly equal to Jonathan’s due to their Profession swaps – even if they occurred weeks apart.

“Less than 12k experience to get. We should be good once we get to the Plaza.”

They ended up going around the Plaza area to find more bearlings. Like most Plaza areas, the area was relatively sparse in creatures, and they ended up finishing some bearling cubs minion-type to get experience at 100 each.

But for now, Jonathan was looking pale and bracing himself in anticipation. The experiment he'd done for Babbage nearly two weeks ago still left lingering memories of the pain that was coming. All the team remembered bits and flashes of that pain.

“I wish there was another way,” Guss whispered as he and Jonas contemplated the convulsing Layman – now Calculating Barrier – held on the ground by Alton and Ira.

“It’s that or retire,” Laura said.

“I don’t know,” Jonas replied.

“The British Empire hangs on us. Until we can find someone who can do what we do… and volunteer for it, that’s all we can do,” Guss said.

“The thing is, I don’t think anyone can volunteer for this. Maybe you can delude yourself into thinking it’s not that bad since you haven’t experienced it, but you would be wrong,” Jonas replied.

“There are bound to be people who will do it. Even knowing.”

“Yea. Assuming they survive the Gate explosion. Cowen said there were people sliced because they weren’t fully within the Gate like us when it completely stopped.”

Calculating Barrier

(tier 3)

Required: 45 CON, 20 INT

Provides:

+12 health/+3 endurance/+7 mind/+5 aether per level

+1 Milestone/13 levels

Calculating Barrier Milestone: +7 CON, +4 PRE, +3 AGI, +2 FOC, +1 STR, 5% health per CON

Skill set: Personal / Defence