Octavius felt a warm breeze ruffle his hair as he gripped the small crack in the rock face with his left hand. His right hand stretched out to the side and grabbed a small outcropping that was barely visible in the dim starlight. His fingers curled around its edge, and he hauled himself up and to the side. The tips of his boots scraped against the stone until they caught on a small ridge.

He looked up and over his shoulder toward the alcove that he was climbing towards. All of the three alcoves that he'd investigated had followed the same general pattern so far. They each contained only a small alien garden and residence of some type built into the stone wall.

He had noticed one thing, however. The higher in elevation that he climbed, the larger the alcoves appeared to be. He was hoping that one of them contained something useful to him.

As he peered over his shoulder, he tried to estimate how far up the spire he was. Below him, the curved stone surface of the spire stretched out before giving way to the dark mountain tops that stood as monolithic sentinels over the silent alien landscape. Maybe halfway up? he guessed, far from certain in his approximation.

In the instant that his movement ceased, a voice reached his ears. It was only that barest whisper carried upon the wind, but it was undoubtedly present. Frowning, he tried to figure out what it was. Is that music? he wondered.

The voice, for that was what it clearly was, was lilting. Every syllable was spoken with a strange inflection and delivery. Without being able to hear what was being said, or perhaps even sung, his ears listened for any hints.

He hung perfectly still from the stone wall for half a minute before he began to move once more. With a frown, he decided that the sound was most likely coming from above him. Its strange pitch made him think of music, but the more he climbed, the less apparent that assumption became.

By the time that he was able to make out a single word in twenty, he'd decided that it wasn't some form of alien song. Instead, it was the strange, lilting accent of the voices he'd heard on the hovercraft. Beyond that, he was able to differentiate two separate voices having some form of conversation.

"... think ..."

"...torically dis..."

The few fragments of words that he was able to make out sounded to be English, or at least like a common rank humanoid language that was translated to English. He was also able to determine the direction of the voices more clearly. They were far closer than he had expected, given their volume.

Adjusting his course, he climbed toward the nearest alcove. It was a mere fifty yards away from him. In the gentle glow that it exuded, he was able to estimate its size to be far larger than the few that he'd inspected thus far.

His fingers curled around a small ledge, and he pulled himself around a small outcropping. His legs dangled dangerously over the open air as he steadied himself. Once his swaying movement had diminished enough, he found a small foothold and continued his climb.

With every yard he climbed, the two voices grew more and more clear. Soon enough, he was able to make out complete sentences when his focus wasn't devoted to not falling to the alien planet below.

"Either way, I doubt that we'll see any of them anytime soon if we even do at all," one voice said, its voice growing more melodic in some form of emotional expression that was clear despite its tranquil tone. Huh, I guess that the speech skill doesn't translate every aspect of a language, Octavius realized, It seems like these aliens use some type of musical sound to express their emotions.

"Yes, yes," the other voice said with a carefully clipped pause between the two words, "If they've been handed over to the Glirinsi already, we won't catch a glimpse of them without giving up something valuable in trade."

"Aikaa!" came a strange shout from the alcove, only to be quickly followed by the sound of cracking wood.

Octavius quickly took advantage of the silence that followed the outburst to scramble up to the bottom edge of the alcove. Looking up, he was barely able to make out its lip a half dozen feet above his head. Pausing, he debated moving farther up for a peek inside.

There probably won't be much risk in the low light here, he reasoned, but for all I know, these aliens see in infrared or something... Ah fuck it, if I peek in from the corner, the chances of them seeing me are tiny.

Moving slowly to the side, he climbed toward the neared corner of the opening. As he moved, one of the aliens spoke again, this time with its strange pronunciation growing more pronounced. The end of each word seemed to blend with the start of the next, making the content of its speech difficult to decipher.

"We could try to look for more," it said, "With an entire clan's worth of them out there, we must be able to find at least one for questioning."

"We are already out in force looking for the smallest hint of a signal. We've found nothing but a handful of corpses," the other alien said with the same pronunciation, only stretching the words until the single sentence took up a dozen and a half seconds, "Just what is it that you are proposing?"

"Well, for the Vilea to have discovered the three of them, they must've been on the lower levels," the first alien responded before pausing for a long moment.

Damnit, Octavius cursed to himself, who are 'they'?!

He wasn't able to understand much of what was being said, but it was clear that the aliens were discussing something important. In the moment of silence, he tried to break down what he had heard thus far. Ok, so the something that began with a G found 'them,' and these aliens don't like that. Was it Gilrini? Glisrini? Whatever. These aliens are trying to find more of 'them' somewhere and seemed to have not had much luck. Now, what are these lower levels? The bottom of the spires?

What he had heard so far was quite likely packed with valuable intel; he just needed to piece it all together. That was a task for the near future, he reminded himself as the alien spoke once more, this time in a wild rush. Piecing together what it had said was annoying, and he was glad that he was so close to them.

"Perhaps we shouldn't search the mountains and instead search the Great Below?" it said. Knowing for a fact that he had no idea what they were talking about, Octavius took the short silence that followed the question to pop his head up and to gaze into the alcove.

The alcove was similar in style to the others that he'd inspected thus far. Pastel-colored flora dotted the landscape that was protected by a translucent forcefield. Sitting on a pair of chairs under a dimly glowing orb were the two aliens that he had been listening to. Even seated as they were, their height was obvious for all to see. Maybe eight feet? Octavius estimated.

They both wore seemingly simple robes with some form of intricate design that he couldn't make out through the dim light and forcefield. They seem to be influential, or at the very least members of whatever this society has for an upper class, he noted, they'll probably give me a good idea of the level of the stronger adversaries that I might have to deal with.

With that in mind, he attempted to use identify on them, only for it to fail. With a frown, he tried again with the same results. I don't think that they're too far away. Maybe it has something to —

His thoughts were suddenly cut off when the alien to his right began to speak. "And why would we do that?" it said with short, distinct pauses between each word, "It would be a costly course of action. Not to mention that I seriously doubt any of the thralls could've survived down there for more than a day."

This time, there was hardly a pause before the alien on the left spoke in its defense. "This could be our best chance," it said, speaking each syllable clearly defined in pairs, "If we could learn what they discovered, we could make the breakthrough we've been waiting so long for."

"Do. Not. Take. That. Tone. With. Me." the first alien spoke with sharp pauses between each word. Octavius wasn't exactly sure what tone it was so offended by but was glad that their hierarchy was made clear. So that one's in charge, he noted, quickly casting what little he could see of it into his memory.

The second alien seemed to freeze in place before suddenly lifting its head high into the air. Looking at the ceiling, its throat was pointed at the first alien as it spoke in what was as close to normal-sounding English as Octavius had heard one of them speak.

"I apologize, Lord Niolae," it said, "I was out of line."

"Hge," the now identified Lord Niolae made a strange guttural sound in the back of its throat before speaking, "Very well. Your idea has merit; we've hardly made any progress over the entirety of the past two decades."

The still-unidentified alien lowered its head once more. "Thank you, my lord," it said, "Who shall we send down, then?"

There was a long silence that lasted nearly a half minute, and Octavius decided that these aliens had some incredibly irritating conversational tendencies.

"I will assign the task to the Kilne and the Djicae," the alien lord said, "And my son as well."

Immediately, the subordinate alien's head snapped to face its lord with wide eyes that reflected the dim light. It opened its mouth to speak but was cut off by some gesture that Octavius couldn't see. In a split second, the alien was staring at the ceiling once more.

"Maeki has been... a hassle recently. It will do him good to face physical hardship and gain experience leading the thralls personally," Niolae explained, "Not to mention that he can make a quest out of it. His level is lacking."

The other alien clearly wanted to speak but merely lowered its head and made some gesture with its hand.

"Very good," the lord said, its words flowing together from one to the next, "It is very nearly true night. Send word to the Kilne and Djicae to be ready tomorrow at local midnight; I will send Maeki to meet them before leaving to begin their search."

The aliens stood from their chairs and made a strange bowing motion to each other before walking toward separate entrances on the building carved into the far wall. Once he was sure that there was no more information to be gathered, Octavius carefully filed away all the intel for later analysis and began to climb once more. He had much to think about and still had to find shelter before the next sunrise.

————————

Octavius leaned back against the stone wall and looked over the sea of alien trees far below. After another monotonous hour of climbing, he'd found what he guessed would be the best shelter that he'd be able to find. It was a ledge in the sheer face of the floating spire about a quarter of the way up from its base.

He had no idea what means the creators of the three spires used to make them, but he could guess that the spires used to be part of the mountain chain below. In fact, he could see one spot in the distance that reasonably could've been where one of the spires was once part of the alien planet. Either way, whatever magic was used to create the spires left their sides pitted and irregular.

Case in point, the ledge that Octavius was taking shelter in was thin, only three or so feet tall, and stretched two feet into the stone. What made it a suitable resting place was its incline inward. Once it was lying down inside, he would be protected from falling in his sleep. Beyond that, it was just about perpendicular to where he estimated the sun would rise and set during the day.

With his shelter secured, for the time being, he pulled the Cloak of the Great Huntsman tighter around himself and gently fed mana into it. After failing to find a source of water during his exploration, he'd gained the dehydration status effect. As soon as he found the ledge, he immediately selected the cloak from the reward menu and swept it over his shoulders after it coalesced into existence in his hands.

Cloak of the Great Huntsman (Epic) - This cloak is woven from the silk of a now-extinct species of magical spider. This grants the cloak a substantial passive stealth bonus. Sometime after its creation, it was enchanted by a master huntsman to aid him on long hunts. The enchantment allows the wearer to sustain themselves of mana alone, preventing the status effects of starvation and dehydration.

If he was being honest with himself, he would've preferred the armor. Its description made it clear that it would've been a great fit for him in battle, augmenting both his physical and magical abilities. Alas, sometimes circumstances force one's hand.

As he poured more mana into the cloak, he nodded to himself. It was far better than he feared it would be. The description's lack of mana cost had made him worried that its enchantment would be incredibly pricey.

Contrary to his fears, however, it only took him twenty mana for his debuff to vanish from his status page. The dull headache that he had only been peripherally aware of cleared in an instant and saliva once more coated his aching throat. The only thing that the effect lacked was the soothing coolness that a drink of water would bring.

As he ran his hand over the cloak, he admired its intricate pattern of mottled browns, greys, and blacks. Swishing it through the air, he grinned at its lack of weight. He'd been worried that it would hinder his ability to move and fight efficiently, and it certainly would, just not nearly to the extent that he'd feared.

As he leaned back into the ledge, he swung his legs inside and laid down. Laying his head against the bundled cloth, he double-checked that the halves of his spear were both secured and within easy reach. With nothing immediate to do and not feeling tired enough to sleep yet, his mind went back to the conversation between the two aliens that he'd listened in on.

Finally, having a chance to piece the tidbits of information together, he realized that he didn't like the picture that was being painted. It seemed as though multiple factions of the aliens were searching for a clan of thralls, and there was only one clan of thralls that he knew of that might have recently been scattered across the area.

After failing to encounter any thralls in the wild for the past day, he had thought that he was the only one to have been transported through the portal. If that wasn't the case, however, he could be in some serious trouble. It was clear that these missing thralls had some information that the aliens wanted to get their hands on, and when in doubt, he had to assume the worst.

These aliens might be looking into how the thralls escaped, he realized, And such an investigation has a good chance to lead them straight to either the tutorial or even Earth itself.

Even with the few assumptions that he had to make to come to such a conclusion, he felt a sickening certainty in his reasoning. For there to be a further threat to Earth at the hands of these aliens, a great many events had to line up. Unfortunately, even a minor threat of such a magnitude was something to be treated with extreme caution.

Thralls getting to Earth would have been manageable, but their masters? This has the potential to go horribly wrong, he decided, Well, at least I have a good lead toward how to return to Earth myself.

Out of the corner of his vision, a dark blue glow began to blot out the stars. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and shifted against the hard stone. He was a great distance away from comfortable in his position, but as he pulled his new cloak around him, he knew that it was much better than dying or being discovered by a group of alien slavers.

With a sigh, he began to replay every word of the alien's conversation in his head over and over again. With each iteration, he scanned it for any hint or tiny piece of information that could be added to his understanding of his current situation.