Noon had passed when Jonathan stopped thrashing on the Plaza’s marble. Alton had stopped half an hour ago, and Jonas had started to be preoccupied.

Even if Jonathan had one more Adjustment, this seemed to be longer than it should be.

That led him to wonder what other factors might play into Adjustment. Focus might? It let you feel more accurately things happening, and Jonathan had a lot more, both as base and gear than Alton did.

On the other hand, Ira hadn’t come out of Adjustment that much later after Guss. And he had both lots more gear Focus and less base one. One more data point into their unique Profession switching process. Speaking of which.

“Welcome to Adjustment VII.”

“Talk to me again once I figure that one out,” Jonathan replied, drinking from the sweetened content of the wineskin.

“Your apothecary is mistaken if he thinks his preparation helps,” he added handing back the wine to Ira.

“Couldn’t hurt to try,” he replied.

“And you are mistaken if you think I’ll drink that one, seeing how it works,” Laura interjected from her side of the Plaza. She and Guss had helped Alton settle with some juicy rations from Grailburg, supplemented by the local fruit, which seemed to be directly useable.

Sweet Cones

× 28

Basic item

Requires: none

Provides: cooking component, food

On the outside, these looked like pinecones, but you could bite into them and the inside was closer to a small brownish pear than anything else.

Jonathan finally came over, picking a skewer of vegetables and meat, before carefully biting into it, slowly.

“Take your time, both of you,” Jonas said. “We’ll move and see what we can do before nightfall whenever you feel ready.”

Both men looked up at each other before finishing the light meal.

It was half-way through the afternoon when finally all was packed, ashes dispersed, left for the Labyrinth to clean up, and the team started following a half-visible pathway across the deciduous trees of Markandon.

“Where’s that Gate?” Ira asked.

“West-southwest. Not too far from the one to Othary, actually,” Jonas replied. “But the direction matters little, the distance will be mostly the same.”

So far, they hadn’t seen anything but aggressive Green Apes, sometimes in small packs of a normal and half a dozen minion “children”. Jonas had looked into the Zone guide, so he knew, but left the surprise for Ira. Assuming they’d find one.

They needed nearly half a day to find the Gate proper. While Gates were usually close to the zone’s border wall, most of the time they were not next to it. And, in a forested area like most of Markandon, that meant looking around until you finally spotted some metal reflection.

When they crossed, night had already fallen in the new zone. A vast expanse of darkness, barely lighted by starlight. The team debated for a few seconds on whether or not to make camp or cross back, but Jonathan noted that evening was close on the other side anyway. At best, they’d hunt a few apes if they could find any before camping.

Guss started a fire next to the Gate, and they made short work of the evening’s meal under the Gate’s light. Despite the liquid light appearance of every Zone Gate, the actual light projected was fainter than it should be. Slightly less than moonlight.

Speaking of which, Jonas failed to spot a Moon. It should be full – at least if it followed the normal cycle. The Zone guide mentioned nothing about it, but then, it listed very little information on this zone.

“So, we’re in the Colonies?” Ira asked.

“Strictly speaking, if you count the number of Gates to cross in the shortest direction, we are exactly halfway. The big difference would be that in the direction of Marsden, you’d need to go up a tier to four for that short path, then start going down, while for Grailburg, you can go down all the time. That’s what I heard, based on the lists they have at the War Office.”

“Did we explore this?”

“The team – or teams, maybe? – that did the scouting, over a decade ago, stopped at Markandon. Apparently, someone came through, recorded the zone’s connection and the Plaza Profession list, and went back.”

“Why?”

“I think that, at that point, it was obvious that these zones were too far from Grailburg to be of much use. There would be plenty of closer tier three to use. And nobody had any idea of what the Great Line would end up being. The United States ‘sector’ this way, and the French the other.”

“Is that the shortest way?”

“For the Americans, there’s a shared tier-five link that was found three years ago, I think. Just luck, a mapping team from the Royal Company – before those teams became the British Scouts – went through a Gate to check what the other side looked like and found the remnant of a camp next to the Gate that the Labyrinth hadn’t recycled yet.”

“How do we know it was the Americans?”

“I think we didn’t. Until we got their zones lists and found the name.”

“And the French? Or the others?”

“No idea. We don’t have French or Chinese lists to compare to. At least not a full list of the French ones. I think,” Jonas said.

They had trudged for nearly two days across the Mirolon swamp. The entire zone seemed to be that way, marshland with ankle-deep puddles, shrubberies with bright red thorns and the occasional sickly looking tree. The fauna, so far, was grey-brown giant insects, grasshoppers blown up to five foot tall. The contrast against the landscape made them slightly harder to spot.

When Jonas finally found the whiteish spot in the distance that marked the marble-like stonework of a Plaza, they were a bit weary from those insects. Despite spindly legs and incredibly squashed-thin heads, they screamed during battle. The sound was horribly human-like – and did a lot of mind-related damage as well – making every fight unpleasant, even if not overly challenging.

The terse notes on the guide told Jonas to expect horned toads, but so far, none had been spotted. They probably inhabited a different area of the swamp.

Once on firmer ground, they spotted something unexpected. Near the circular expanse, there was a stack of three large stone globes. Ira started toward the pile, but Jonas pulled him back immediately.

“Be careful. That is a Recall Stone. Unused, unmoved.”

“Touch it, and you lose the Grailburg recall immediately. No confirmation, no nothing,” Guss added.

“Just looking. From afar, don’t worry,” Ira replied.

They gathered half a dozen feet away from the sculpture. It was a larger dark grey stone sphere, maybe three feet across, with two smaller two-feet wide ones just under and above. From there, Jonas could see a small circular stone base set in the ground.

“That’s the anchor,” he pointed to the team. “Once you move it out of the ground, the stone deactivates, and your Recall gets immediately reset to the Plaza of the zone you’re in when that happens. Or the Plaza of the first zone you’ll enter if you’re on Earth.”

“It looks heavy.”

“So, nobody really uses these zones?” Laura asked.

“I guess not. You know, the Royal Society was a bit overboard with Recall Stones. They moved them close to Gates, which is practical because that lets you Recall and immediately Fast Travel to wherever you want to be. Some, like Ovildian and the like, they snatched to put next to some huge lairs they wanted regularly used. The Americans probably didn’t bother.”

“And they are all unique.”

“There are usually some themes that reoccur.”

Ira added, “There was a huge book a few years ago, I think, called ‘Art of the Labyrinth’. With drawings and description of over a hundred of those along with the zone they were from. The Morvells had it in their library.”

“Wait, you read books? I thought you liked your letters as much as I used to?” Jonas exclaimed.

“This one had pictures. I snuck in when they went on a trip.”

“Well, this particular one probably wasn’t in it,” Alton laughed.

Jonas turned and went into the Plaza proper to check if the guide was correct regarding the local Professions. It was, and it held the required Precise Grinder for Laura’s changeover.

Precise Grinder

(tier 3)

Required: 45 STR, 20 DEX

Provides:

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

+1 Milestone/13 levels

Precise Grinder Milestone: +7 STR, +4 WIS, +3 FOC, +2 INT, +1 AGI, 5% weapon application

Skillset: Equipment / Offense

“Not particularly useful,” her voice came from behind him.

“For skills? No. The versatile ones are at a higher tier,” Jonas replied without turning. “But the bonus can still be useful, even with only one application. That one works on any weapon.”

“Just because it works with anything doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile,” she said.

“We’re doing this for speed anyway.”

“I know. No regrets. Not really.”

Jonas turned just in time to see her fall. But both Guss and Ira were there, ready to catch her as Adaptation began to work its torture.

There was little to do and Jonas went to join Alton and Jonathan at the edge of the Plaza, as night neared. Clouds had come out, in a rare display of changing weather. You did have weather in the Labyrinth, it was just that rare. Almost nobody ventured in the few zones that were mainly rainy. Even for a Professional that didn’t fear getting ill or clothes rotting, being poured upon day after day appealed little.

“Any inkling about the new power?” he asked.

“Nothing so far. But then, we’ve done little anyway. Kill a few apes, kill screaming grasshopper, got over three levels already, but no special descriptor or anything,” Jonathan replied.

“We’ll see.”

“What about you? You’re the last.”

“After this, we’ll start being serious about the experience. My guess? Eleven to twelve days, maybe. For my level and a half. Then it’s Markandon Plaza.”

“And we can shoot for tier four.”

“Actually, I’ll hold a briefing for everyone tomorrow morning. We do have a lot to prepare now.”

“Oh?”

Morning came, and everyone crawled out of their sleeping bags. Laura was looking the worst of them after her nightly ordeal, but she gulped the hot porridge without difficulty. Once they finished washing away the meal with some hot infusion, they gathered around Jonas.

“I’m still significantly behind, but now, we can detour to kill anything we spot. Even if the local critters are not inspiring, it’s still experience.”

“And besides, we do level fast now,” Ira added.

“Yes, you do. That’s the whole point. However…”

The team perked, waiting to hear about Jonas’ plans.

“We also have to move fast now. You should all be getting around level eleven or twelve when I switch, meaning the first Milestones won’t be long coming.”

“And that means getting to the tier four Plazas.”

“And that means unlocking the first three tier-four Plazas and fast. Now, with the extra Adjustment, we have our pick of any basic tier four, but if we want to attempt tier five without another extra side Profession, then we’re still at only one choice available to us. Just a different one than the previous.”

“Me and Jonathan, we have more time, anyways,” Ira commented.

“Yes. And Jonathan now has two different picks again, since he does have one more side Profession.”

Guss raised his finger in interrogation.

“You said: if we want to attempt. Why?”

“It’s a question of levels. Babbage warned me about it, and I dug a bit into the calculations. The truth is, even without needing side Professions, we are bypassing one Milestone in our main one whenever we switch. We may have more vitals and Potentials than a Professional of our level has and even more since we got good gear,” Jonas said. “But we will be around team level 130 average to enter tier four. That’s only doable because we need at most one lair from all the Great Line zones. Two for Zilbarn once we do the one for Ira. But once we want to access tier five…”

“How high are those tier four zones?”

“There is a lot more variability in those than tier threes. The lowest have level 180 critters outdoor, but most start at 200, and some even at 250. And the lairs typically start around 20 levels above the lower bits of the zone. And remember, we will need five different lairs in each tier-four zone to access the tier five we need. But we would only be about level 205 when we reach tier five Potential requirements.”

“Ouch.”

“Yes. I’ve made a quick calculation, and it’s very obvious we are getting tiers probably a bit too fast.”

To tier

Adapted

“Normal”

Lair levels

4

130

250

150 ± 50

5

205

425-500

325 ± 125

6

390

650-700

550 ± 175

“By the time you need to reach a specific tier, you are usually well over the levels of the lairs you need. We do lairs maybe 5-10% under our levels, while normal Professionals usually do that 20% under… Normally, if we didn’t receive a Milestone from forcing the Gate or switching, we’d have needed maybe 30 more levels to reach each tier. Meaning lots more vitals, and maybe a few more among the easier lairs.”

All of them looked at the scribbled notes.

“Whoa? We can really get to tier six in 400 levels?” Jonathan exclaimed.

“By the shortest build path. Assuming we go straight for the obvious tier five – and I do recommend we do so, just in case – we would then need a single tier-four side Profession, then we can get tier six. With only eight – nine for you – Professions total instead of the usual ten. It’s just that getting to the right Plazas will be very hard. Thankfully, all of the tier six Professions I’ve noticed for us have been found.”

Ira thought for a while, before asking.

“How long to tier five, though?”

“It depends on the experience. Something around… well, five hundred days at least.”

“Can we switch to plan B if that doesn’t work?”

“What plan B?”

“I don’t know. You’re the guy who consults with our progression specialist.”

Jonas frowned, before replying. “You are right. Worst case, we do switch to a side Profession, since we will have extra. It slows us down, but we remain good.”

“Then let’s go. You said we needed to do a lair. Or is it six?”

“We’ve already done Vuneras and it’s good for Guss – and Jonathan. Only four more in three zones, including Zilbarn. First stop is back to Markandon, while getting as much XP we can.”

“Then lead on.”

“Straight to the Gate. Even if we knew what Professions were in this zone’s connections, we’d need four lairs, and we don’t even have a list.”

They all packed their bags and left the solid ground around the Plaza for the marshy expanse of Mirolon. And more screaming grasshoppers.