It was the beginning of Rainier’s third week in Ademptis. He focused solely on gathering minimal amounts of strength with the razor and gathering a suitable food source. Unfortunately he could not find a decent source of water, which was understandable considering the area that Rainier was making his home was at a high altitude.

“At least I can survive off the juice of various fruits. Even so, how do all of these plants get so much moisture?” Rainier hypothesized that there was an aquifer or something to do with magic in general. Rainier had the basic knowledge of geology and then some, but he wasn’t greatly educated on geology or magic.

Rainier looked back on his encounters with the arachnacosas and the evoants and found himself far too arrogant. He needed to come up with a surefire strategy to fight against the various weaknesses of each monster he came across.

Every now and then, Rainier saw an arachnacosa skittering about or an evoant scouring for food. Due to the keen senses of the latter, Rainier was forced to flee back to Outpost Roseir whenever he noticed or was targeted by one.

Thankfully, Rainier found it far easier to truly escape from danger due to the effects of the Razor of Envy and memorizing the general layout of the immediate area of Roseir Plateau. He only found himself forced to fight once against another arachnacosa, which Rainier barely managed to come victorious out of.

This most recent foe he fought was certainly more skilled and used to combat compared to the other two arachnacosa Rainier fought. It unnerved him.

To Rainier, it seemed like the group of arachnacosa were sending stronger forces into the area as a result of losing two of their kind here. What Rainier couldn’t understand was why.

Surely the arachnacosa had lost some of their kind just about anywhere, why bother with focusing on the Roseir Plateau? ‘Though the encyclopedia did mention that the arachnacosa like high areas. Perhaps they simply want to take control of the plateau as soon as possible.’

Rainier pondered the grand scheme of things as he explored a new section of the plateau he had yet to enter. It was relatively the same as the rest of the plateau as far as geography and life went. As mysterious Ademptis was, it was like it could have a surprise around every corner.

“…Or can it?” Rainier stopped to see an outcrop of dusty brown rock jutting out from very edge of the plateau’s precipice.

The rock formation was in the shape of a spiraling goat horn, in fact, there were two outcroppings exactly like one another but spiraling in different directions. It was like a mirror was in between the two. However, it was not the exact formation of rock that surprised Rainier, but what exactly was hanging below it.

Attached to numerous ropes were rectangular coffins made of a sleek black wood. And piercing through upper left portion of each coffin was a polearm of nearly every variety with at least a spear tip.

The Hanging Cemetery of Ladia- The Ladia family is an ancient coven of dhampirs that were rumored to be born and laid to rest in the sky. Not much is known about them, as they interacted very little with anyone outside of their circle of foes and family like other dhampirs or vampires and select humans. The Ladia family members specialized in spear techniques and low aerial combat and were sought after as teachers. They are believed to have perished along with the extinction of humans.

“Dhampirs…? Aren’t those like half vampires or something?” Questioned Rainier out loud to himself. He didn’t really keep with that sort of supernatural stuff back home, but he had read a book or two involving supernatural existences and vampires were included.

Rainier ultimately knew nothing was off limits here in Ademptis. Reality as he originally knew it no longer had a meaning and he was forced to embrace a new reality. With that thought in mind, Rainier began his trek back to the outpost. There was no reason to investigate the graveyard which was somehow hanging precariously under a cliff without any rock climbing gear or skills.

Rainier speculated that the coffins held two different possibilities: The first was that each coffin held a surviving dhampir, hostile or not (most likely the former). The second was that each coffin either held a dead dhampir or none at all. The second theory was more likely considering the fact that there were weapons piercing the portion of the coffin where a bipedal humanoid’s heart would be.

Perhaps the coffin held some sort of treasure or magic item? Realistically speaking, Razor of Envy was of course not the only magical artifact in Ademptis. The world was far too vast. Rainier thought that maybe one or two of the coffins may hold some useful items, whether they are weapons or something else of value.

‘Still, it’s not like I can get those coffins onto stable ground. I’d need some serious strength to pull off a feat like that. Even then, I can’t guarantee the stability of the outcrop of the cliff.’ Rainier shrugged and made his way back to the outpost without any outstanding incident.

The next day, Rainier attempted an experiment. He gathered several spiny sweet ferns and “declawed” them, relieving the fruits of their needles. Then Rainier wrung the elongated fruits as if they were rags, forcing as much of its juice out as possible. The juice was collected into clean ceramic jar that Rainier had found in the outpost. Considering the sheer amount of liquid from each of the fruits, it only required three fruits total to fill the jar.

Relieved by the small success of his experiment and the surprisingly small amount of effort needed, Rainier threw both fists into the air and jumped up and down as if cheering on any random sports team (he preferred participating rather than watching).

Rainier immediately gulped down the contents of the jar, wiping his mouth dry after. “Delicious…”

Glad to have made a true liquid type drink, Rainier celebrated within his mind. Rainier wished to make more of the concoction considering its relatively simple process, but refrained from doing so because he had no actual way of storing the liquid.

There were obviously no such things as refrigerators in Ademptis, so Rainier was out of many options of storage. However, even though Rainier lived an urban life with several appliances, his financial situation in the past made it so he to rely on some very mundane ways of keeping healthy life.

It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Rainier was having a camping trip every day inside his home due to how many cutbacks on expenses he made. You could count the number of electronic appliances he regularly used on one hand: a fridge, a handful of lamps, and a laptop. Everything he owned was also not very high on the tech scale.

Rainier thought of various methods of storing food and drink. Each of which he had a general understanding of thanks to his expansive knowledge from the large quantities of books he had read.

He could dry and salt meat into jerky, which would be great in supplying energy on his forays into the unknown. He could also ferment the juice he had just made, but decided that would not be an option mainly because drinking any sort of alcohol in this sort of environment would be his death.

‘And it’s not like I’ve built any tolerance towards it, I’m only nineteen after all. I don’t even have any equipment to process such a luxury.’

Water was the only thing on Rainier’s list. Above all necessities that he needed, Rainier coveted water. There was in fact a well inside the outpost, which in fact was in the same room that held all of those corpses. Unfortunately that well was as dry as bone left over in a desert. It was probably contaminated too, for all Rainier knew.

After several different forays into plateau, Rainier was worried that he would have to leave the plateau itself in order to find water. It would be impossible for Rainier to move back and forth from the bottom to the top of the Roseir Plateau. So if Rainier did leave the high altitude the plateau offered, it would be a permanent decision.

Rainier leaned back into a stone chair, which was actually hewn from the stone inside the outpost, and sighed melancholically. “This is such an annoying ordeal.” He pulled out the Razor of Envy, admiring its luster. “I’ve got to deal with a hostile ant race and a hostile spider race… All the while trying to find some water.”

Unless he found a body of water aboveground, Rainier would probably have to dredge up an aquifer, which in itself wouldn’t be problem. Locating one would be.

“Tomorrow… Let’s find some water tomorrow as well as something to eat other than fruit.” Rainier slid the razor back into his makeshift scabbard and prepared for the night.

Rainier had developed a handful of ways to keep Outpost Roseir safe from any intruders. He couldn’t do some measure which would take time, but the temporary ones were quite effective.

Rainier used dark green leaves the size of a beach towel to cover the sole ground entrance. In case an enemy like an arachnacosa stumbled its way through, it would then be skewered on about a dozen stakes aimed outwards.

Rainier noticed that the Razor of Envy never seemed to dull, no matter how hard he struck a stone. Taking advantage of that trait, Rainier sharpened sticks into wicked stakes into the shape of slim evergreens. This ensured that once skewered, it would be near impossible to free yourself from the trap without severely damaging your insides. It was quite a sadistic trap Rainier created, one he learned from books back home and taken a step further.

Rainier could keep using that entrance if he wished, but he also found a second way into the outpost to the top of the plateau. In the stable devoid a wall to the open air was a stable, but narrow, outcropping of rock. That outcrop didn’t directly lead to the top of the plateau, but rather another set of outcrops where one could climb onto and eventually reach the plateau’s precipice. In the off chance a hostile foe discovered this secret entrance, Rainier hid several bunches of blaze crystals in areas only directly noticeable to the one who placed them. Once stepped upon, the crystals would scratch against another and ignite, destroying the outcrop and forcing anyone nearby to fall off. On a side note, the ledge outcrop was about as wide as a foal.

Lastly, to stave off any flying monsters, Rainier rolled bunches of a strange vine over the side of the cliff, holding them in place with heavy rocks. The hairy vines acted as a sort of camouflage in place of the missing wall. These vines were actually dead limbs of a deadly plant labelled a Carnifer by the encyclopedia.

Carnifer- A carnivorous plant which subsists off of the flesh and blood of its prey. It uses long vines to act as tripwires, which if triggered, will instantly wrap itself around the legs of its prey and bring it to its mouth. It then swallows the prey whole, stinging its prey if it proves to be too unruly. It is somewhat intelligent, as it memorizes the shape of creatures that traverse near its sight and identifies possibly dangerous individuals. It prefers to eat prey that may harm it over more peaceful food. Unless the bulb of the Carnifer is found, or you trigger one of its vines to attack, it is near impossible to find a Carnifer.

Rainier was actually quite worried about the carnifer. He could potentially set off one of its vines at any moment. However he noticed that its behavior was somewhat similar to the steel deity. As long as he did not provoke a carnifer, he had a higher chance of not being attacked by one. Thankfully the vines he used were from a dead carnifer as compared to a live one.

And those were the only the traps he installed right at each entrance, Rainier had more hidden and waiting. It made him feel a little like that Kevin character that defended his home against burglars with outrageous yet clever defenses.

After looking over his ingenious defenses, Rainier smirked and let himself drift off into a peaceful sleep for the night.

Although it was three hours since, it felt like mere moments since Rainier fell asleep. As he had no water to wash them with, the sheets above him were dusty and dirty, but they kept the cold out.

In any case, Rainier was awake, and not to the soothing sound of crickets and wind. He heard the harsh language of the arachnacosa. Judging by the lack of cries, none of them have made their way into Rainier’s traps.

Rainier slept with all of his clothes on and the razor nearby, so he immediately went into action.

Rainier strode steadily and quietly over to the side entrance, confident that only he knew about it. He stepped over the deposits of blaze crystals until he climbed onto the final ledge just below the cliffs precipice. He peered over ever so slightly to see a large force of the scary looking demi-human race.

He didn’t count every single one, but Rainier figured there were at least forty arachnacosa, mainly battle hardened males, surrounding Outpost Roseir.

Rainier needed a way to lure this cohort of monster warriors away from the outpost. Most likely they had tracked down the one who had viciously killed off a few of their comrades over the past couple of weeks.

Rainier was too careless. He had figured that the sheer diversity of hostile being in the plateau, let alone Ademptis itself, would be enough to throw any would be pursuers off his tracks. How wrong he was.

Thanks to the Razor of Envy reaping effects, Rainier was quick on his feet and agile. He was more than confident he could simply run away from an arachnacosa. However these half spiders were supposed to be quite intelligent. According to the encyclopedia, the arachnacosa were effective in waging war against other species. Rainier inferred from this that they have developed many different countermeasures for various situations. In a manhunt like this, they without a doubt had something in place to hunt down Rainier.

A vague plan formulated within Rainier’s head. On his person was the Razor of Envy, a pouch filled with a moderate amount of blaze crystals, and a vial of concentrated poison extracted from the poisonfingers.

The cliff became windswept, causing grass and dirt to bellow about as Rainier dipped a slim blaze crystal into the poison vial. He then pulled himself up on top of the cliff and instantly hid behind a boulder. With the poison coated crystal in one hand and the razor held in reverse grip in the other, Rainier formed a coagulated glob of saliva in his mouth. He waited for that cry of pain Rainier knew he was going to hear eventually since seeing the arachnacosa soldiers.

The cry came after a dozen seconds. Two of the arachnacosa had fallen through the leaf pit Rainier created and impaled themselves on the barbed stakes, mutilating their limbs and body alike.

Rainier took advantage of the sudden turmoil to dash from behind the boulder. He instantly located the largest gathering of arachnacosa and threw the poison covered blaze crystal at them. It exploded on impact into dozens of poisonous shards each finding their way into the body of an arachnacosa.

Rainier took aim with his mouth and shot out the acid spit he built up. Although disgusting, it was a nifty ability which Rainier managed to master aiming with. The spit hit an improvised rope up near a tree branch. That gave way to hundreds of small to medium sized rocks falling down on the arachnacosa. That wasn’t all, intermixed with the rocks was a small handful of blaze crystals which also exploded on impact, sending shards of rock in every direction like a grenade.

Lastly, Rainier homed in on what he thought was the leader of the punitive force of arachnacosa. It was actually a female arachnacosa judging by the type of garment it wore with a decorated headdress holding strings of small bones dangling and clicking together like chimes. Rainier no longer found anything about the female arachnacosa important as he managed to use the confusion to loop around to the creature’s back and slice across the back of her neck and stab it once more into her neck’s side.

And Rainier instantly fled afterwards.

Several seconds after Rainier fled the scene, the commotion was dying down between the arachnacosa, though Rainier knew the confrontation was far from over. Luckily he noticed that in the trees was an intricate maze of webbing created by the arachnacosa. In order to bypass this, Rainier ran along the edge of the plateau, ignoring how dangerous it was on the very precipice of a fall to his death.

He heard the harsh language of the arachnacosa shouting furiously far behind him. Apparently they were only now beginning to realize where the perpetrator of the uproar was just now and begin the chase.

‘I’m not safe at the outpost anymore… Not as long as the arachnacosa still have a foothold on the plateau. I need a way to eliminate them…’ Rainier wasn’t sure how he was going to go about such a genocide, but it was either them or him.

And his life be damned if he was going to roll over and admit defeat.