“So, that’s why you didn’t want to switch Gates before,” Jonathan noted as the team entered Vuneras using Fast Travel.

“Still faster than picking almost any other Gate around here. We turn back to Outapis, spend an hour or two getting to the Gate to Airaneron, and then we’re on,” Jonas replied, doing the mentioned switchover and heading immediately back into the still-familiar tier two.

“So? Two full zones to cross? That’s what we do,” Ira immediately added.

“The only thing is that we will still be cutting it close for the lairs, my meeting with the Duke, and the rest. But at least, Fleming got us lair licenses for an entire four weeks, and relatively close to the Quanchal Gate. People are going to talk since we already have three year-long licenses for our people headed toward the Great Line. Everyone’s curious about the Office ‘moving’ into Zilbarn. The Duke is famous, after all.”

“Couldn’t we use those?” Jonathan asked, curious.

“They’re only a bit higher in levels, but the teams heading to the trunk have priority for the lair completion,” Jonas replied.

The ochre desert of Outapis welcomed them, and they turned, following the invisible and slightly distant zone border. Despite being miles away, anyone could actually see it, as the desert slowly morphed in the grey featurelessness of the outzone near the horizon.

“Anything special?” Ira asked.

Jonas laughed.

“In a hurry? But no. They’re simple lairs. Another fox-themed area, and some crumbling ruins inhabited by giant snakes, both around 130. Unfortunately,” he added looking back at the other three Professionals chatting animatedly behind, “none are heroics. That’s strictly the level 190 Fox Warrens – which we’ve actually done – and the 140 Spire – where we traded for your gloves because it had been emptied already.”

“Not doing it?”

“It’s too much a risk. Obviously, if there is an actual Ancient up there, we fail the completion.”

Ira deflated slightly.

The wind was howling across the icy plateau in Airaneron when they made camp next to a small thirty-foot tall cliff, to get some protection from the biting cold. Even if you had enough Stamina to endure it, it did not mean it was comfortable.

Jonas grimaced and raised his hand, firing a Flame Bolt into the meagre campfire bundle. Guss merely shrugged in apology.

“You really did not want to be stuck lighting campfires, do you?” Jonas asked in a half-joke.

“Can’t be helped. The build switch cleared all my aether-control skills. And I wasn’t about to invest my only Milestone into keeping that one.”

“Now, environment-support sounds fun,” Laura added.

“A bit too situational for my tastes. And we don’t even have stored skills for that one yet. But I now have six Milestones at least that can still improve my most important ranks,” Guss replied.

“My new team-offence sphere is directly useful,” Alton noted.

As one could expect once you started to get into tier four and side Professions, skill spheres started to flip to various directions. Deciding whether or not a specific skill was worth keeping in one’s build, rather than keep on piling ranks on main skills, was going to be a regular decision in the future.

Speaking of abandoned skills, Jonas examined again his newest from the Archives.

Earth Body

Aether/Defence

Rank 0: Increase the effectiveness of armour rating by 10% against physical damage and by 50% against Earth-based. Costs 1% aether per armour rating per second while maintaining.

As Babbage had guessed the previous time they’d checked the unknown skills stored at the Archives, Earth Body was indeed an aether-defensive skill, which Jonas’ current sphere allowed him to take. He was almost certainly not going to raise it. Aether Window, the one obtained from Guss’ core, he was uncertain about. The ability to raise what amounted to a temporary shield between anyone and an enemy caster was tempting, even if it took away from the pure offensive focus of Jonas’s style.

Boneshatter remained elusive - definitively not team-offence since Alton could test that now - but Jonathan had still managed to obtain two skills – the Spectral Shield that Ira had obtained last time, and a known one, Stack that was a staple of shield users.

Stack

Equipment/Defence

Rank 0: Add 10% of your highest non-held equipment rating to your shield’s defence rating.

Stack had been the only one the Archives could offer. They focused on keeping equipment with the highest plus-rank values for skills, to explore the depth of the skill rank descriptors, and those pieces tended to be of a much higher level than the team was going to reach for years.

Jonas could remember Jonathan’s discussion with Babbage on this one.

“You probably could get away with changing styles during your two Milestones. You are not too deeply committed to a specific combination of weapons.”

“Would it help?” Jonathan had asked.

“All styles have their strengths. Shieldbearers natural build from that tier one is obviously efficient against basic and physical attacks, while a two-handed focus tends to fare better against many special attacks and a dual-weapon against magical ones. Your typical healer loves shield users because of less health lost over a fight, but the other styles mean less frantic healing when things become complicated.”

“Looks like the shield isn’t that good then.”

“Oh, it is. When you look at tier five and six zones, the fights there are very varied in styles. What works extremely well in one zone will be average the next. It is really about preference and habit rather than perfection.”

“We don’t have many skills available for it yet,” Jonas had noted.

“Yes, but with Spectral Shield and a dual weapon style, Jonathan here can swap to shield regularly and unlock basic ones. With five Professions already, it’s a bit harder to do than if you have only one, but the tier one skills still come relatively easily. It’s just that you typically only have a single equipment-defence option per Profession tier unless you go into Stamina builds, which limits your opportunities to pick new skills. So it’s up to you,” Babbage concluded.

As the team munched on their hot rations, Jonas craned his neck to look for the zone’s Moon. He’d missed it last time they travelled here, as it was close to new moon locally. This time, it was well past the first quarter… and here it was. A Moon with a massive blemish on it, like a shining circular dent that covered almost a quarter of it, erasing the old maria.

Then, they tucked themselves at the base of the cliff. Two to four days to trek across the zone, depending on how many fights they did for experience during the crossing. Then five to six days across Quanchal, and they would be in the real British sector and their target.

“And here we are,” Ira announced ostentatiously.

“Everyone swapped their Gate?” Jonas asked in confirmation.

He watched the rest of the team confirm the new tier three Fast Travel option into Zilbarn.

“You really think we won’t be able to do it before your mission?” Ira asked.

“Based on progression speed, there is no way we can get your second Milestone by then. We will certainly have to come back to finish that and get into tier four for you. But thankfully, we don't need to cross back again. The trunk shortcut leaves us in a good place two days from Markandon.”

“Hey, who’s that?” Jonathan pointed in the distance.

Jonas turned and squinted. Coming out from between two mesas of the badlands of Zilbarn were five… no, six silhouettes walking toward the Gate area. Jonathan waved and was obviously noticed as one of the distant Professionals waved back.

They started toward the approaching team, closing the distance on the slope leading from the raised Gate area to the gorges that crisscrossed the terrain.

“Hello,” one of the figures shouted as they got near.

“Didn’t think anyone was using this area. Oh wait… you’re Sims?” he added looking at Jonas’ robe.

“That’s me,” he replied, proffering his wrist.

They traded descriptors, and Jonas experienced a slight recognition. Spry Borer Wilburn Sherris… that name had been on one of the panels at the Office.

“You’re headed to the Line?” he asked.

“Yes. Our ad-hoc team gathered for the occasion,” he gestured at the rest of the team. Three robed aether users, an armoured defender, and two melees including Sherris.

“I’m missing my usual healer. She’s up in that tier-four zone – close enough to tier six to be snatched for there instead of coming with us. Pity, our normal team all had access to that one. But the upper lairs would have been hard.”

“You get two kick-ass Professionals instead,” one of the women added.

“I already had a spellcaster, thank you,” Sherris replied gaily.

“Two are always better than one,” she countered, smiling.

“Enough. We got a lot of lairs to run, and only a month to do so until we get to watch that mountain pass.”

He turned back to Jonas to ask, “Any tips on the path? Got the booklet on the final zone, but just the normal Guide for the line.”

“Not much. We got carried across, but you’re, what tier five?”

“All low-mid fives except that kick-ass caster,” he said.

“Who is getting her five as soon as we’ve finished there,” she replied.

“You shouldn’t have much of a problem getting through fast. If you’ve mapped the shortest path for the lairs. Hope you have good Stamina, though. Those nights in Airaneron are harsh. It’s apparently some kind of cold season there, much colder than it says in the Guide. Othary is cool but very reasonable. But it won’t be any harder than the lairs around here.”

“Bah. No upgrades. We got only one Ancient, at that Spire lair, but of course, nothing good. Let’s hope we get something decent while we’re going through. Most of us still have exceptional stuff, and we could use some decent pieces.”

“Oh?” Ira said.

The man fished out a pair of gloves from his bag.

“This, but of course, Rube has better.”

“I think I recognize that,” Ira replied.

He flexed his hands, comparing the items.

“They said you did not run standard zones?”

“Got mine in trade the one time we came around. A team had done that same Spire and gotten underleveled gloves.”

The man laughed and threw them to Ira.

“Those are not.”

Steady Steel Handgrips

Hands

Heroic equipment

Requires: Level 116

Provides: 142 defence rating, +195 health, +171 endurance, CON+15, STR+15, +2% regeneration

“Whoa.”

That newer version was slightly similar, with minor differences, like the loss of a skill rank and its replacement by a regenerative effect, but the main one was the much higher values on it. The defence was close – it was never much affected by underleveling, unlike Potentials and vitals.

“They would end in the Office’s stores once we’re done with the trunk enabling anyway. Saves you the trip.”

The Professional team waved as they started toward the Gate to Quanchal, and the Adapted waved back.

“Good trip!”

Ira turned toward Jonathan, with the glove pair in hand, implicitly asking about them.

“Keep them. I’m starting to get ahead of you in vitals. And your old version is at least a small upgrade over the ones we got from that spider Ancient that was in tier one.”

“So we end with identical-looking gloves? How are people going to figure out who is who?”

Jonathan laughed, pointing out the jutting claymore at Ira’s side.

“Point taken.”

“Now, we’ve got a day trip until we get the Fox Alley, our target,” Jonas reminded the team.

“Lead on.”

Gorge Foxes × 49: 28217XP/6 contributors = 4031XP.

You have completed Zilbarn Fox Alley Lair.

The team started breathing in the middle of the sprawl of fox corpses. There were so many, and they had yet to start decomposing. The Guide had warned that, if you did not take out the elite, more and more would be showing as soon as you killed one of the normal or minion versions, or whenever he howled, which he did often. At the moment they finally killed him, there were over a dozen foxes biting and tearing at all team members.

“That was… intense.”

“But no one died,” Jonas breathed out.

“You came close,” Guss replied.

Fox Alley Field

Elder Treasure

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 124

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 109

“And the bonus equipment just appeared,” Laura announced.

“I can see it, too,” Guss confirmed, as Alton did.

“None for me. So that settles it. Just one ring and necklace for this Milestone,” Jonathan announced.

“The next question is… do all three of you get something?” Jonas asked.

The three tier-four Professionals shrugged near-simultaneously, and Laura came to the wood-covered stone box to see what was inside.

Brown Fox-Tail Charm

Neck

Exceptional equipment

Requires: Level 124

Provides: 2 defence rating, WIS+14, AGI+12, +159 mind

“Oh, looks like it’s for you, Guss,” she announced before pulling out the leather doublet that was under the necklace.

“And all the items are gone. So only one bonus per chest,” Alton confirmed.

“The vest should be yours, though,” she said.

Brown Fox Shirt

Torso

Quality equipment

Requires: Level 109

Provides: 40 defence rating, DEX+12, STA+11

“At last, an upgrade,” he smiled.

“Only one so far,” Laura said.

“Can’t be helped. And since it’s all common stuff, the Office will sell these for operations.”

“At least we are drawing a fixed income these days, not a single shilling per month,” Ira noted.

“It’s not as if we’re spending much. We no longer have to worry about housing, and we almost always live in the field,” Alton replied.

“True, but still. You need to buy those bottles for the common room since we don’t find them in chests,” Ira countered.

Jonas let the team unwind from the fighting, and started to thumb though the Zone Guide to look at the Crumbling Tower entry. He’d read it all earlier, but it didn’t hurt to refresh his memories. As the discussion was winding down, he closed the booklet with an audible snap.

“Come on, guys. That Crumbling Tower isn’t going to finish itself.”

“In a hurry?”

“The Duke expects me for a briefing on Monday. That’s six days from now. If we don’t slack, we can get to the Plaza by then unless the zone is particularly dense. If not,” he shrugged, “well, we get some experience for Ira and Jonathan, and we do it next time. But I’d like to avoid needing to do it twice.”

“I’m nearly 21,” Ira said.

“And it’s still going to take maybe two weeks to finish those last levels.”

“Then let’s get going.”

Transit: Zilbarn - Walsmagne

Integrity: 100%

Active

Stability: 100%

Jonas breathed deeply. Three days. Just enough, if all went well as it had in Petarose. The zone was supposed to be an open tundra, with only a few groves, meaning they could avoid combat.

He looked back at the team as he crossed into the zone, wishing for more time. Maybe they were immortals, but time truly waited for no man or Professional.

Spry Borer

(tier 5)

Required: 145 DEX, 68 AGI, 68 CON

Provides:

+13 health/+27 endurance/+11 mind/+9 aether per level

+1 Milestone/11 levels

Spry Borer Milestone: +12 DEX, +7 STA, +5 WIS, +4 PRE, 0.5 endurance per AGI

Skillset: Environment / Offence