A challenge accepted is already won; a challenge declined is a challenge failed.

- Ancient proverb

“It had some sort purging technique with it’s light mana that stopped me. If I had expected it I could have got around it, of course, but it caught me off guard. That spell of yours is pretty useful.” Meyrin seemed impressed.

“Yeah, that’s why I picked it. I’ll have to make more enchantments of it though, I’m running low.” Lino tried to deflect the praise.

“Don’t you still have, like, fifteen?”

“Exactly. I need at least thirty or I’m not safe out here.”

Meyrin shook her head. “You’re crazy.”

“Better to be crazy than dead.” Lino replied, matter of factly.

“True. Maybe I should look into enchantments…” Meyrin wandered off, muttering to herself, presumably about what enchantments she would make.

That last part of the battle had been a scare, but Lino was satisfied with the results. He was pleased that he had been able to last for the five seconds he had said, and impressed with Meyrin’s ability to just instantly kill something a stage higher than her. The fight had gone much better than he had expected it would.

That evening, he questioned Meyrin about her abilities. He hadn’t got a good look at what she was doing, and he wanted to know how she had done everything.

She, in turn, questioned him, but she had pretty much seen everything he could do. He explained his total affinity for shadow magic. She seemed perplexed, but understood now why he used the techniques he did — restricting himself to using abilities and spells requiring shadow or just any mana.

She revealed that she predominantly used life and lightning mana, but not exclusively. Some of her abilities were combinations with one of those and other miscellaneous elements.

Apparently, life magic was incredibly complicated. Meyrin said that she had studied human anatomy for five sun cycles to know what to heal, and then another few for combat applications on animals and monsters. Without the correct knowledge it was supposedly very easy to kill someone in your attempts to heal them.

Then Meyrin told him that she had ‘healed’ the creature’s skull into a spike that impaled it’s brain.

That killed the conversation. Lino was glad now that it had taken so long to learn that, and that basically every settlement had laws against doing it on people and sufficiently sapient animals and monsters.

After their teleportation to the next safe ring but before they turned in for the night, Nerloth insisted on a meeting between the three of them.

“Overall, I am satisfied with how you dealt with the Superior Rhinocer. However, there are areas where both of you can improve.” He turned to his granddaughter. “Meyrin, although it worked out in the end, it’s best to get the offensive heal on the first go. I have trained you enough to get through any resistance offered by a mere low Diamond, and I’m sure you could have succeeded had you not been unready and underestimated your opponent.”

Meyrin lowered her head. “I will endeavour to do better next time, grandpa.”

Nerloth continued, silently acknowledging her apology. “Other than that mistake, your performance was solid. You laid out a good plan, and adapted to execute it well. Your reaction with lightning that shocked and slowed the beast was great, and you managed to apply the knowledge of general monster anatomy that I have taught you effectively.”

She perked up after that, realising she wasn’t being chided for a bad performance.

“Lino, you were successful in the execution of your part of the plan. You managed to slow and stop the target, than adapted to assist in doing so a second time. On the surface, it was an exceptional performance.”

Lino nodded, knowing there was more coming.

Nerloth cleared his throat. “There are still easily visible areas you could improve in. The first, obviously, being to advance to a later stage with access to more and stronger abilities. But ignoring that, you could still have done more with the resources available to you at the time.

“Coordinate better with Meyrin. If you communicated exactly when you were going to attack the creature, she could have begun her attack at the same time, while it’s attention was split. You also had a bag full of enchantments holding the disruptor spell, but opted to cast one instead. A better idea would have been to use those, and save your mana for a stronger attack or to use on other enemies that may appear later.”

They were all good points. Lino could clearly see how he could have contributed more with his limited resources. “Understood. Thank you for the advice.”

Nerloth clapped his hands. “And with that, my teachings have concluded. Get some rest, tomorrow we have another hard day of travel.”

* * *

The tent was packed up in much the same fashion it was before, with only the things they had brought in after it was set up being required to be brought out. As such, they were ready for an early start on training. This time, Nerloth would be directly tutoring him. He had topped up his disruptor enchantments the night before, but he was still going to be adding to them every day, making the most efficient use of his mana.

Nerloth brought him to a particular tall and thick tree, one that cast an especially dark shadow. “Today, we will focus on improving the mana efficiency of your solid mana and tendrils. At the moment, I can tell that they are incredibly draining for you.

Lino agreed. A usable sized tendril would drain his entire pool in just a few seconds.

“For now, manifest a small pinprick of solid shadow, then zoom in on it with your inner sense. Notice how it is completely filled with solid shadows and shadow mana.”

Lino did as he said, and, as expected, saw a solid formation of mana and shadow.

“That is inefficient. It is more efficient to build up patterns. They will use less mana and increase the flexibility, whilst also making it harder to snap.”

Lino could sense what Nerloth meant in the structure he was viewing. Once it had been pointed out, he could clearly tall that lots of little formations were a better idea than a solid block.

“The best formation to use is for what you are trying to achieve is a pattern of solid and empty truncated octahedrons.”

Lino blinked. He had no idea what that looked like. “I have absolutely no clue what shape that is, so I’m going to need some more information than that.”

Nerloth sighed. “I thought so. Hold on, be ready to memorise it. I’m not going to hold it for long, to save mana.”

“Okay, I’m ready,” Lino replied. Almost instantly he saw the structure in his head. It was almost spherical, with faces made up of four and six sided shapes. It rotated once before disappearing. “I think I’ve got it,” he said.

Lino spent the rest of the training session that morning practicing forming the structure quicker and to the larger size he was used to, in order to save mana in his technique. The new formation used half of the mana and was stronger and more flexible, as Nerloth had said.

Lino could now use his shadow tendrils, or any solid shadow, with twice the mana efficiency. He was grateful for Nerloth’s expertise and help.

Soon enough they set out again. There wasn’t much of anything that posed a significant threat to them. They did have to skirt the edge of fungus infused patch of forest, though. Lino didn’t want to find out what hallucinations he would see when they entered the ‘vision inspiring death absorbers’.

They encountered a few creatures with Platinum advancement, but compared to what they had fought the day before, these monsters were trivial to deal with, especially working together and heeding Nerloth’s advice.

They managed to come in range of teleportation with plenty of time to spare in the evening. That meant that they had extra ‘free time’ — which Lino heard as private study. He enchanted another batch of disruptor tablets, then looked back over the books he had found.

He wanted to see if he could put shadow tendrils into an enchantment. Between the description fo the ability and the chapter on enchanting, he eventually determined that he couldn’t, at least not without more complex runes.

That was a shame. He had wanted to fire them off in quick succession. It would have looked so cool. And also been insanely powerful. That too.

With that time spent and some of his mana regenerated, Lino spent moved to increasing the efficiency of his solid shadow with the lattice that increased it’s potency so well. He was able to get a better understanding of the shape and create a pattern with it more quickly, almost returning to the same ease he had been able to use the solid shadow with before introducing the new complexity.

Another great meal led to a good night’s sleep. Lino felt that the mattresses in this elaborate structure that Nerloth and Meyrin called a tent — but was really bigger than his entire living space back with Tingrath — were of about the same quality as the one he had slept on for most of his life. Which is to say, worse than you would probably want for a lifetime, but good for a temporary arrangement.

The next morning, Nerloth announced that their training was going to be a little different than what Lino had been expecting.

“So far, during this expedition, I have trained each of you individually.”

Both Meyrin and Lino looked towards Nerloth with dread. Nerloth’s tone was not giving a good omen. They both tensed in preparation for what was coming next, knowing that Nerloth wouldn’t have spoken to them like this if there wasn’t going to be a big change.

“Today, you will be dueling each other.”

Lino groaned. Dueling a Platinum? One that was ‘well trained’ by Nerloth’s standards, and therefore probably better than any of the elders?

Lino made it his goal to last ten seconds.

“Now, obviously, there are going to be some restrictions. I don’t want any deaths or permanent injuries, and it would also be extremely unfair setting a Root against a Platinum.”

Lino relaxed a little. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

“Of course, It’s still going to be fairly one sided, but I aim to make it less so.”

…Never mind.

Nerloth took the last sip of his orange drink before explaining the full rules to their duel. “In this duel, Meyrin’s goal will be to to connect these —“ he held up two metal discs about the size of a palm “— two discs with each other. You will both start holding one of them.”

That was an interesting concept for a non-lethal battle. Lino wondered where Nerloth had got it from, or if he’d come up with it himself.

“Lino, your aim will be to prevent that from happening for as long as you can.”

Lino grinned. That was beneficial to him. His shadow magic was better suited for evasion. Although, he supposed, that would mean the expectations were also higher.

“There are a few further rules I’d like to implement. Firstly, no serious permanent harm may be dealt, obviously including death. As a result of that rule, and because of the stage difference, Meyrin will limited to using her lightning only. No life magic or tertiary elements.”

That was a pretty big handicap, but Meyrin still outclassed Lino by multiple levels.

“Additionally, the metal discs may not be destroyed or their enchantments tampered with, or do anything that prevents them from functioning. They will make a loud buzzing sound when pressed together, signalling the end of the match. You will start five metres from each other, and are limited to five hundred metre spherical radius from the starting point. You must keep the discs on your person at all times — either in your clothing or touching your skin.”

Well, there went a few of Lino’s plans. He had been thinking of throwing the disc outside of the accessible area, but he thought that would probably count as something that would ‘prevent them from functioning’.

Lino had already decided that he was going to pull all of his tricks out the bag for this fight — possibly quite literally. This was the best practice he was going to get against more powerful opponents, and it would have a better effect if he used the full scope of his abilities.

* * *

Lino almost didn’t notice that time had passed, he was so focused on strategising for the fight. To him, it felt like only a few seconds later when he was stood outside, Meyrin five metres in front of him, and Nerloth standing in between them and slightly to the side.

The time they spent standing there, perfectly still, felt longer than the half an hour since Nerloth had announced the challenge.

In reality, it was probably only a few seconds before Nerloth signalled their start and started his magical timer.

Lino immediately turned on his heel and began running directly away from Meyrin. As a Platinum, she would be much faster with a much more enhanced body. In the long run — hah, run — she would outpace him easily.

But Lino didn’t need to get far. And, he had a buffer of five metres. He used it to reach the nearest tall, branching tree. He had already tucked the disc into a tight pocket — so when he shimmied up the trunk and reached the canopy, he felt no danger of it falling out and being the cause of his disqualification. Lino’s slightly-better-than-human body allowed him to reach the wide branches in record time.

Meyrin was right behind him, though and she could climb it even faster. Lino dropped one of his enchantments down on her head, hoping to distract her, and left another on the branches he tread across, swiftly moving to the next tree.

The shadows and foliage of the canopy helped to obscure his movement, giving him cover. As such, it was harder for Meyrin to track him, and he gained distance away from her.

Lino used the opportunity to drop back down to ground level, but then did the opposite of what he was hoping Meyrin would expect — he ran straight back towards her.

Arriving below her, he threw another one of the tablets up at her.

She did what would be expected of her when an indiscriminate projectile entered her senses, and attempted to pulverise it with a burst of lightning.

Unfortunately for her, though, enchantments didn’t just vaporise.

No, when anything attempted to affect them, the results tended to be… explosive. That effect was magnified the when incompatible mana types collided, and the magnification was more powerful the closer to opposite the mana types were — say, for example, lightning and shadow.

As you can imagine, the resulting spectacle was something to behold, powered by the comparatively astronomical energy of a platinum’s lightning.

It wouldn’t hurt Meyrin badly — Platinum bodies were too strong for that — but it would stun her and grant Lino some crucial time.

The second part of Lino’s plan also worked well. That explosion caused the second enchantment he had set down to detonate as well, resulting in a tumble to the ground for Meyrin.

By that time, Lino had already made some ground. Not straight towards the starting area, that was too obvious. Instead, he randomly chose to go left and took off in search off the perfect place to set up his defensive structure.

Lino only had limited time before Meyrin caught up with him, so he took what he could get in the ditch a small stream had carved. He set up a line of disruptor spell enchantments and then hid in the trench, keeping one eye above ground on look-out.

It was a surprisingly short time until Meyrin found him. Either she was faster than he thought, or Lino’s blast didn’t have quite the impact he had hoped for.

She was running towards him, having seen him go that direction and no doubt confirmed it with her spiritual sense. He watched as she slowed, no doubt sensing that he was in the near vicinity.

She approached more carefully this time, and Lino was forced to fire off the disruptors more quickly, for fear she would recognise and avoid them. They had little effect, as Meyrin wasn’t using many active techniques. She was immediately drawn to his location, and so Lino threw some rocks he had picked up to his left, imitating splashing footsteps.

He then moved more silently to the right and emerged from the trench, then took off again.

He took stock of his situation. He was running low on disruptor enchantments, and Lino doubted that Meyrin would fall for his tactics again. So he ran.

Hiding would just result in being found quickly again, and so, Lino ran to the opposite edge of the area they were allowed to fight in. Meyrin wouldn’t have been confused for long, so Lino had to make the best use of every moment he had

Lino thought he was doing well until a bolt of lightning descended from the skies and knocked him to the ground.

* * *

“Thirty-seven seconds and thirty-four milliseconds.” Nerloth’s voice rang out from the fallen log he sat on. “That was some good thinking and tactical use fo your resources Lino. You took full advantage of your situation to neutralise an opponent three stages higher than you for an extended period of time. It may not seem like it, but thirty-seven seconds is a very long time when it comes to any sort of combat.”

Lino grew uncomfortable, unused to the praise. He still didn’t know how Meyrin had got him without being seen, or why she hadn’t done whatever she did earlier. He was proud of his performance, and resolved to train harder so that he could consistently pull something like that off.

He was confident that he would always be able to think of a good strategy like that, but it wouldn’t work as well if his opponent was used to his tricks and prepared with how to counter them. While Lino would never use the same trick twice, his overall strategy would still be impacted by someone who was ready for them, ‘expecting the unexpected’, if you will.

Meyrin frustratedly blew a strand of brown hair from in front of her face. Lino could tell that she was dissatisfied with her performance. He would be too, if he was in her place.

“Meyrin, you also performed admirably. While it may seem like you conceded too much time, you did the best you could given the situation. With restrictions like that, the runner was free to dictate the tempo and play to their advantages. Most in the Gemstone Realm would be similarly countered, and you haven’t even reached that yet.

“You used your superior speed to follow Lino closely, never giving him a moment to breath unless he created one. You used your most powerful technique to end the match at the first opportunity you got. You didn’t underestimate your opponent by holding back too much, and you recovered from his deceptions quicker than could be expected.”

Meyrin cheered up a bit after that, but was still noticeably downcast.

During the daily journey, Lino approached her. He had some questions about the techniques she had used in their fight.

“Do you have an ability that enhances your speed? Why didn’t you use it during the fight? Lightning should definitely be able to affect speed somehow.”

Meyrin snapped back at him, “I did. Don’t tell me you thought Platinum’s are naturally that fast.”

Lino stepped back, embarrassed. He had thought that Platinums were that fast, and he couldn’t really deny it now. “I, um… I’ve never seen a Platinum up close before.”

She sighed. “Sure, you get faster as you use more magic, but not that much. My technique doubles my speed, but that uses a mix of life and lightning, so I had to settle for an inferior version.”

Lino nodded. He would have to adjust his expectations for people’s power levels… but what Meyrin had said made sense.

The way she had said it, though, tipped him off that she wanted to be left alone. Lino had been planning to ask about the lightning bolt she had used at the end, but he recognised that it probably wasn’t the best time.

The next few days were relatively boring, with only small scuffles and subtle changes of scenery to amuse Lino. He made steady progress on improving his abilities and could now say that he had mastered both the shadow tendrils and disruptor spell — at least for his level of advancement.

He did manage to get more information out of Meyrin about her final technique, though. Apparently that was the first time throughout the match that he had been under open sky for more than a fraction of a second, and she had managed to call down a strike on his head. She assured him that it had a high mana cost and he wouldn’t be bombarded with them against any lightning mage.

She was still distant and had withdrawn, refusing to speak beyond what was required.

Lino was alerted that their seventh morning in the wilderness would be different from the previous when Nerloth oh-so-subtly told him so.

“This morning is going to be different from the rest.”

Well, here we go.

“You are going to advance to silver.”

“Are you sure it’s time?” Lino replied, a hint of surprise in his voice.

“Yes. Now, there are a number of different effects we can help you to take on after your breakthrough. We can look to increase you physical strength, speed, resistance to toxins, pain tolerance, — what do you want to do?”

Some of those suggestions from Nerloth seemed… unpleasant. Lino had long ago decided what he wanted to do with this opportunity.

“I want to improve my resistance to light magic and light in general. I’m always going to be at a disadvantage in a bright environment and against light mages, so I want to work on that. I think it’s a good idea to work on my natural weakness.”

“Alright, we can work with that.” Nerloth stroked his beard, thinking. “Before we start, you need to know exactly how to trigger the breakthrough. I’m sure that since you reached peak Root you’ve felt… full in a way, with mana ready to burst out?”

Lino nodded. It was difficult to explain, but… he could definitely feel something.

“Right, so, you need to embrace that. Focus on that feeling, then try to fit more inside your core, using mana in the environment. Without compressing your mana you will end up instantly reaching the next stage, but we don’t want that. Hold the mana in, don’t let it out. Stuff it full, until your will is about to break and let it all free.”

“Then, let it out, but control where it goes. The way it bursts out will determine where your channels are carved. You want an even spread throughout your body, unless you’re going for a very specialised role. You need to control the spill of mana and lead it on a winding path to the extremities of your body, then looping back to your core.”

“After that, you form another channel. This one can intersect the previous, but after the beginning of it’s part should head to it’s own area of your body. Aim to repeat this so that you have two channels in your abdomen, one in each arm and leg, and one in your head. Incorporate as many twists and turns as you can, but be careful to spread your mana evenly between channels. You only have a limited amount and you want to have each channel at an approximately equal size.”

Lino thought he got the gist of it. He already knew most of what Nerloth was telling him through his research, but it was nice to hear it from someone’s lips and to get a slightly different perspective. Nerloth also incorporated some new tips, like the bit about his will. The books had just said to go as far as he could.

After a few seconds of silence, Nerloth added an afterthought to his instructions. “…And, of course, then you use the higher quality of mana and your channels to reinforce your defences and save you from the situation we put you in.”

“Right.” Lino was concerned about how little importance Nerloth seemingly placed upon that point. “So I’m guessing, because you want to turn everything into to training for both of us, you’re going to have Meyrin attacking me with lightning, practicing her control while you supervise.”

“Am I really that predictable?” Nerloth’s expression softened as he felt genuine concern.

Lino groaned as they moved to find a bright patch of forest to maximise the challenge for him.

* * *

Lino was confident going into his arranged breakthrough. Meyrin would fire a slow lightning bolt at him and he would block it with a shadow tendril.

He was confident until Meyrin spontaneously fired a relatively fast bolt straight at him.

Lino scrambled to form a tendril to block it, stopping the bolt moments before it impacted him.

He was furious. “Why did you—“Lino was cut short as a second bolt curved around from behind him.

This one struck with more force, breaking through his first attempt to block it and only stopping when he thrust up a stronger manifestation of shadow.

Lino never got another chance to strike conversation as beam after beam was fired his way, and he was forced to frantically put up his defences.

This wasn’t part of the plan!

Lino was swiftly running out of both mana and options. One of the few ways he saw out of his situation was to start the breakthrough, but if he took his attention away from defence he would very quickly be overwhelmed.

He wasn’t sure what to do until he saw Meyrin pause for just a moment, gathering up a stronger attack. She released a continuous stream of lightning at him, gradually growing stronger.

Perfect.

Lino threw up a shield of solid shadow. It bent and caved in, but didn’t break. He focused on reinforcing it in the next few seconds.

With the attacks focused in one area, Lino could push his attention inwards and have enough time to form a strong breakthrough before he was overwhelmed. Lino made sure that his barrier would hold without active management from him, at least for the moment, and turned his attention inwards.

Time seemed to slow down around him as Lino drew in the lingering shadow mana in the air. After much practice, he was able to easily find and pull out the trace amounts of shadow in a bright environment, bring them together, and stuff them into his core.

To him, it seemed as if he spent an eternity packing in more and more mana. His practice had honed his mental force, so the point where he could feel the mana was about to break out was much further along than it would have been a few weeks ago.

Then, as instructed, Lino let it all out.

He guided the escape of mana to a small tube, a tube that would become his first channel. He felt the built up energy draining as he wound through the crevices of his body. Lino took a winding path, trying to reach as much of his physique as possible before reconnecting with his core when he estimated he had spent a sixth of the extra mana available from his breakthrough.

All this happened in a fraction of a second, but to Lino, it seemed to like an aeon. He was exhausted having only completed one of six conduits.

* * *

Lino emerged from his slumber feeling refreshed and full of energy. His mana pool was full as well.

It was a sharp contrast to the exhaustion that had wracked his frame moments before. In the instant before reconnecting his final channel, Lino had felt extraordinarily lethargic, only his will keeping him from fading into unconsciousness.

The moment the connection was made, however, Lino’s eyes flew open and he felt renewed, energised beyond anything he had ever felt.

With enhanced clarity, Lino saw a resplendent, painfully bright projectile of electricity hurtling towards him with incredible velocity. It must have broken through his temporary shield.

Lino commanded a tendril of shadow mana to condense in front of him, protecting him from the blast and testing his new channels.

A pillar of energetic darkness shot out from Lino’s entire frontward-facing body, engulfing the lightning and rocketing past it towards Meyrin, who hastily dodged with wide eyes.

Woah.

It seemed that Lino had had an increase in both mana quality and accessibility, potentially as well as an advantage against light.

This is amazing, he thought, marvelling at the newfound power he had. He looked down at his hands, and he could feel now that he could release mana and spells from them.

“Well done.” Nerloth’s voice echoed over to Lino from behind him.

“Thanks.” Lino grinned. He was ecstatic with his progress.

Meyrin grunted, then reluctantly let out a small acknowledgement. “Yeah, good job.”

Meyrin’s words brought to Lino’s mind what had been happening right before his advancement. Meyrin hadn’t stuck to the plan, and she could have killed. But thinking it over now, Lino recognised that it had been one of the driving factors pushing him to make the breakthrough, and it had probably helped him in the long run. He would leave it… for now.

Lino’s new status as a Silver brought with it new opportunities, especially in the abilities he could learn… but they would have to wait for now. There wasn’t enough time while they were travelling, and Nerloth would probably have something that he specifically wanted Lino to work on.

Their journey continued from there. Because of Lino’s breakthrough, they got a bit of a late start, but still managed to get to within teleportation range of the next safe point before the end of the day. There was no noticeable conflict, Lino’s new strength aiding in keeping the wildlife back with greater ease.

Occasionally, Lino would hear loud howls, roars, and screams from further parts of the jungle. It really struck him then that they were taking the safest path possible, and he would be dead if not for the knowledge of animal territories and Nerloth’s teleportation.

While they were travelling, Lino began to learn how to utilise the new abilities that came with being a Silver. Nerloth coached him on how to control his new power and the ways that he could use it. He learned how to restrict some of the raw power that he had released in defending himself earlier.

Lino had a lot more raw power than he had had before. The mana he generated as a Silver was of a higher quality and more versatile, and Lino could use it more sparingly to receive the same results. He was also much better off in light filled surroundings and against light. Before he had been pushed down to about a tenth of his ability when faced against full light, but now he was only down to a quarter.

With his new power came a new difficulty in controlling it. Lino was so used to the amount of effort he put into all magical tasks, and it was difficult to rewire his brain to apply lesser effort. He had to consciously remind himself to use his channels, which increased his efficiency by releasing spells and mana directly from wherever on his body he wanted to.

Lino’s network of channels circulated mana through his body, strengthening the tissues around him. Over the course of a few days, his physical ability significantly increased, and Lino felt other aspects of his body becoming enhanced, such as a sharpening of his senses. Mana constantly moved through his channels and vitalised his body. A part of Lino’s mana pool was always stored in his channels, and it flowed parallel to his heart beat. It was a new sensation to get used to, but a welcome one.

Nerloth assured him that such rapid progress wouldn’t be a regular occurrence. The first sip of mana delivered directly to the cells of his body had a disproportionate effect, and his physical enhancement would have diminishing returns.

After several further days of travel and training, Lino had a better grasp on his abilities and felt that he could use them with more control now. He found that the the wild animals he came across were good practice in that regard.

As they neared a full ten days, a full week spent travelling to the city Nerloth was taking them to, Lino was finally informed that they were close to their destination. They were about to reach a new civilisation with technology and information that Lino could never have dreamed of accessing. Lino hoped he could continue to travel with Nerloth and Meyrin — and they would probably ask favours of him in the future — but the truth was that would be much better off just having got this far. Here, he could learn much more and go much further than he ever could back in Ramaat.

Bored and itching for change, Lino was excited for a change of scenery. As he parted the last green leaves of the jungle that had seemed endless, Lino looked out on the landscape in front of him.

…And saw an empty beach, devoid of any sign of life.