Chapter 17

Hope

With the sun out, they encountered no animals. Rome told them of one of Ristopan’s lessons. “There are these things called Ley Lines. Each has a source of magical energy. With an enchanted pair of bronze mirrors, you can talk to someone up to a thousand miles away, as long as you’re standing on the same Ley Line. Each of the sons of Muldwil built their keeps on a convergence of Ley lines, and can talk to two of their brothers, if the other is around to answer the call. But the Ley Lines are less than three feet wide, and incredibly difficult to detect, so they have the mirrors mounted on a wall, so as not to move it from the exact intersection. I wish we had the skill to detect the lines here and the skill to enchant bronze.”

“Maybe, but we would never stand in one place waiting for a call. Still, some phones would be nice,” answered Torger.

Tyler slapped his forehead. “At the ship most of the high tech stuff was broken, but I could have patched together some short range walkie talkies. That’s a simple technology. Sorry everyone, I wasn’t thinking clearly while looking at all the severed limbs.”

“Maybe we can make it back there again,” said Brun.

Rome shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about this timer in our vision I asked Elora about. We have ten days until we lose all speed bonuses. Does that mean there is a final cave to conquer? And this is a training center for the tyters. There had to be something they had to accomplish here, gain points, then leave the planet. If we can figure out what to accomplish, then maybe we can leave. But our timer is already at four days and three hours. If we don’t finish by ten days, does that mean we’re stuck? We have to find another cave so I can ask Elora these questions. Her answers are brief and specific, so it might take two questions, assuming she is at every cave.”

They thought about this as they walked, entering the frozen tundra. They shivered and staggered without resting until they got to the entrance portal. As they approached, Torger, Brun, and Rome could see writing above the door.

Cave 1. Level 0

Torger shook his head. “We never turned around once we walked out.”

They entered and a display appeared in Torger, Brun, and Rome’s vision.

Your training has already begun. You can gain nothing more here.

That sucked. Rome saw another touch screen display on the wall. He touched it, and the same message appeared. Then Gary walked up and touched it. He couldn’t read the alien writing, so Rome read it to him. “Would you like to form a squad? There are four available hunters. Joe, Susan, Nikko, Tyler.”

Rome directed Gary where to push the screen as prompts came up, and after a few screens a new squad was formed. Instantly a light shone on the five of them, and their vision changed.

“Wow!” exclaimed Tyler. “There’s a timer in my view. It says one minute.”

The others had the same thing happen, and five heavy blankets and five regular satchels materialized on the floor at each of their feet.

“I wonder if that means you didn’t get credit for completing the two caves?” Rome wondered aloud.

Tyler ran out and looked at the door. “I can see it! Words hanging in the air above the door. Cave one, level zero. Just like in video games. This is the coolest RPG ever!”

“Wait, you have a RPG!? Where? Why didn’t you tell us? We need that for defense. Take us to it, right now!” Torger hollered.

“How is a RPG a defense?” asked Tyler.

“RPG, rocket propelled grenade. A modern bazooka. If you have one, we need it right now.”

Tyler laughed. “No, RPG stands for role playing game. I said this is the coolest role playing game ever.”

Brun saw a roc flying in the distance to the east. “Look at that. Too bad we don’t have ranged weapons. We could use Jex right now.”

Susan responded “Oh? You found a woman who was useful to you bunch of misogynists? I find that unlikely.”

Torger replied “Jex was the best archer I’ve ever seen. She could hit a sparrow in flight from over a hundred yards away. Not only that, she got dirty gutting her kills and cooking them, and she wasn’t hesitant about helping set up tents or carrying heavy bags. We don’t hate women, we hate lazy people. Next time we kill a panther and gut it and cook it, jump in and help out. Be useful to our group.”

Susan turned up her nose and walked away.

The Roc got Rome’s attention, and he couldn’t shake it. “I think we should go check it out. Rocs ate sheep on Nuva, and sometimes dwarves, but there’s no life in this flat frozen wasteland. It shouldn’t be there.”

Everyone was shivering in the cold and wanted to head south where it was warmer, but Brun and Torger agreed with Rome. They walked due east for over an hour, but the three rocs they saw never attacked them. Brun saw they were level 16, not much of a threat.

Coming to the top of a hill they saw a cave mouth.

Hidden cave 2. Level 12

They all walked in, but a strung gust of air drove them to step outside again. A message appeared in their vision.

Only one squad at a time may be in a cave.

Tyler said “The caves didn’t recognize us before.”

Rome’s squad decided to go check it out and told the others to stay away from any monsters. They walked in, but Elora was not there. A message appeared in their vision.

You have found a hidden cave. Bonus 45 points.

As soon as they read it, the back wall opened, but there was nothing there. It opened into the outside. They walked to the side and could see the other squad looking at them. Suddenly three rocs dove out of the sky to attack them! Rome dove to the ground, narrowly missing getting snatched away, Brun cast Shield 1 and the roc slammed into it, shattering the shield, but the bird was disoriented and flew back up. Torger ducked and swung his sword, cutting off the claw of the one who attacked him. The roc screeched in pain and circled around preparing to dive again. All three dove at the same time, but this time all three hit a Shield 1, shattered it, but then hit another Shield 1. The second impact knocked the birds to the ground.

Torger beheaded the one near him, while Brun and Rome each stabbed a wing with their crude spears. Torger wanted to help them, but three more rocs dove out of the sky. Torger cast two more Shield 1’s and knocked one out of the sky, but the other two sunk their talons into Brun and Rome. The birds tried to fly away with them, but Torger cast a Shield 1 above each of their heads, and the birds released their grip as they tried to fly through the shields, getting hit with Lightning 2. Then Torger killed the second one that attacked him while Rome and Brun cast spells at the two that had a spear sticking out of a wing.

Soon there were two injured rocs left. Torger was out of mana, and Rome and Brun were low after casting Cure 2 on themselves. The birds dove again. Torger ducked and rolled, while at the same time swinging the claymore, and cut off a claw, while Brun and Rome thrust their spears into the wings of the other bird. That roc collapsed and it tried to bite Brun, but Rome stabbed it in the head with his copper knife. The bird died, but the knife was even more bent and dull than before. The last one flew away without a foot.

Well done hunters. Your score is 87. Total points available to spend: 136

Hidden cave 2 difficulty: 12.1

Squad strength: 36.1

Time: 5 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Rome spent sixty-five points to buy Torger a respawn, then the same for Brun, leaving them with six points. They walked back to the others. “Do not go into that cave.”

The others looked panic stricken, having seen the whole fight from a distance, and easily agreed with Rome.

By the time they got back to cave 2, Rome’s squad was a little past five days. He told Gary “Ask Elora ‘What are all the consequences of staying here more than ten days.’”

“I would love to, but when you speak to her all we hear is their alien language. I don’t know if we’ll be able to communicate.”

“Do the best you can.”

Gary’s squad walked in. Tyler carried Torger’s sword and the others stayed away from him, as Tyler looked too happy making wild practice swings. Joe and Gary carried spears, and Nikko and Susan had a knife in each hand. Elora appeared.

“Kaciz gont ung alel tereen. Pertu zine gelte?

“How can we understand you?”

Elora looked confused for a few seconds. Then she pointed at the touch screen on the wall and she disappeared. Gary touched it but couldn’t read it. He touched it again and heard beep beep beep.

The back wall opened and they walked in. They knew from last time there were fifty snakes and fifty spiders. All did little damage, but a bite meant three seconds of paralysis. Having come prepared, Joe used the lit torch and set the webs on fire. There was a whoosh as the fire traveled down the cave, slightly injuring every spider and snake. Nikko rushed forward like the mad man he was, stabbing as many spiders and snakes as he could. He didn’t make it long until he got bit and froze in place, taking more and more bites.

Tyler had a manic smile on his face as he swung the big sword too hard at the snakes on the ground. After killing only three, a jumping spider bit him and he too froze. Gary looked at Joe. “Shall we?”

They calmly walked forward methodically killing any snake or spider that got too close, but always careful to stay out of harms’ way. Susan clutched the knives to her chest and didn’t move away from the entrance. Once Gary and Joe made it past the paralyzed Nikko and Tyler, they could move again after three seconds. Both screamed in pain and rolled on the floor, shallow puncture wounds all over their bodies. They had about fifteen lightly bleeding spots each, painful but not deadly. After all, this was supposed to be the first cave the tyters faced.

Gary and Joe slowly cleared the cave, then all the corpses disappeared. Neither had taken a single bite. Gary couldn’t read the screen, but if he could he would have read:

Well done hunters. Your score is 77. Total points available to spend: 77

Training Cave 2 difficulty: 3.9

Squad strength: 10.2

Time: 31 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary touched the screen at random. Before his vision, all the symbols on the screen changed. It read:

You have spent all your points from this cave to be able to read these messages and understand Elora. Points available: 0 Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary touched the screen and got the same audible beep beep beep.

As they all walked south looking for cave 3, Gary told the others what happened in there. They agreed being able to speak and read tyter was the best thing that could have happened.

An hour later Torger walked over to Susan who had been quiet the whole time. “Hey Susan, where are you from?”

“Utah.”

“You know what I mean.” Susan clearly had Asian parents and spoke with a slight accent.

“I know you actually don’t care, so quit trying.”

“Look, I’m just trying to extend an olive branch here. We don’t see eye to eye on, well almost everything. But we’re going to spend at least the next few days together. Let’s just try to get along. What happened in that cave back there?”

They walked in silence for several minutes and Torger had given up. Then she started talking. “My grandparents were born in Japan. As young children they came here, or to America, and a few years later they were placed in internment camps during world war two. I’ve always hated that happened to them. I wanted to be a judge since I was a little girl, to make sure I could undo injustices to people. Going through law school taught me our system doesn’t work like that, but I was the best judge I knew how to be.

“As for the cave, I’ve never been outdoorsy. I don’t go camping, fishing, or clean animal guts. I’m not a vegetarian, but I can’t kill an animal, let alone slice it open to cook it. I grew up in a home where meat comes from the grocery store plastic wrapped. I think if all Americans had to kill our own dinner, most of us would be vegetarians. I don’t belong here. My place is going to cocktail parties with politicians so I can get re-elected or appointed, wearing a silk dress and high heels. I’ve never worn boots in my life.”

They walked in silence for a while longer. “I’m going to give you the same training we gave Antic. He turned out to be a better than average spearman.”

When they stopped to rest, Torger worked with Susan. She drove her spear into a tree over and over again, Torger and Rome correcting her grip and stance.

They rested, ate nuts and berries, then headed toward the west to look for cave three. They found it at the southern part of the forest, just before it turned to jungle. It was level five, and Rome’s squad entered. Elora asked for their question.

“What happens if we stay here longer than ten days?”

“You earn points for how quickly and easily you defeat each cave, and how long it takes until you defeat the final cave. If it takes you more than ten days you will receive no time bonus points, and lose status among other tyter squads. Have a good fight.”

“That wasn’t the answer we wanted to hear, but it doesn’t sound like we’ll be stuck here, locked out from returning.”

The back wall slid away and they encountered a marshland. Hidden in the mud were level five simmets, the snake heads on alligator bodies who could run incredibly fast and were four feet long. Torger led the way since he was the only one with a real weapon. They easily spotted and killed the simmets, who always attacked in groups of four, spaced thirty yards apart and always buried in mud. When the last one died, the water sunk into the floor and they walked back on mud instead of ankle deep water.

Well done hunters. Your score is 79. Total points available to spend: 85

Training Cave 3 difficulty: 5.2

Squad strength: 36.1

Time: 22 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Rome looked up Enchantment Gems. They added Ice 1 to Ice 3, same with Fire, Lightning, Slow, and Poison. They were insanely expensive, Ice 1 was 48p and Poison 3 was 519p. Rome bought a “Customize” enchantment gem for 75p. When prompted, Torger laid the sword on the table, then a program appeared on the screen for Rome to modify the sword. He could lengthen or shorten it, curve the blade, and change the balance. He lengthened the pommel slightly and took an inch off the circumference of the pommel, but that cost all his customizing points available. The display suggested buying a second customize enchantment gem to make further changes.

Rome pressed Accept and lights shone down on the sword. The pommel lengthened and narrowed. When Torger picked it up, it felt perfect. He gave it a few practice swings using both hands and was pleased to see his two handed swords skill return to the full 64. He didn’t realize how awkward it had felt when fighting the rocs and simmets, but now he had much more confidence. During the fight with the simmets he had actually dropped the sword twice.

Rome briefed Gary on the fight. “When you see an unnatural bump in the mud, a simmet is hiding under it. This is a fight for spears, keep them away from you. Their fangs and claws are sharp, and they run very fast for short distances. They’re ambush predators.”

Gary entered, and each had a spear in hand. Elora appeared. “Welcome to training cave three. What is your question?”

“How many training caves are on this planet?”

“There are sixteen standard caves on TZ eighteen. Have a good fight.”

This time Nikko and Tyler didn’t rush forward slashing at everything. They moved very slowly, always afraid of an alligator jumping out of the water. Gary and Joe took the lead. As they were walking, four simmets jumped up and rushed them. Gary thrust his spear into the leg of one, but Joe lost his footing and fell into the water. Three simmets all attacked him. He blocked as best he could, but they all bit his forearms, releasing sprays of blood.

Nikko and Tyler rushed forward and tried to jab the simmets, but they were clumsy using the crude spears. Nikko dropped his and pulled out two knives. He thrust both into the head of one, and it died. Then the one next to him died. He looked and saw Susan, a scowl on her face holding the spear that was lodged into the simmets mouth.

Gary killed the one he had wounded in the leg initially, and Tyler stabbed the side of the last one attacking Joe. Gary ran over and skewered it through the neck.

Joe stood up on shaky legs. Blood flowed freely from both his arms. They had no more bandages, but Nikko cut off his sleeves and tied them around Joe’s arms. The blood slowed but didn’t stop. Joe looked to Gary. “We need to get out of here fast.”

Gary nodded, and surprisingly so did Susan. Joe stayed to the back as the others walked forward at a brisker but still cautious pace. This time Gary saw the bump in the mud. He waved for the others to stay back and silently approached. He jabbed the spear into the mud as hard as he could. The simmet squirmed but was nearly dead. The other three burst from the water and rushed Gary. Susan, Tyler and Nikko ran forward and each pierced a simmet. The spear lengths kept the simmets from retaliating. The fight lasted only a few more seconds.

They moved on and did a rinse and repeat with Gary puncturing the back of the first one while it was still buried, the others rushing in a second later and each person taking one out. Susan had a smile on her face for the first time since coming to 1PX. “This is actually kind of exhilarating.”

Tyler smiled and patted her on the back. “I know, right?”

They finished a total of thirteen groups, fifty-two dead simmets disappeared and the waters receded as they jogged back to the entrance. By then Joe was looking ashen from blood loss.

Well done hunters. Your score is 92. Total points available to spend: 92

Training Cave 3 difficulty: 5.2

Squad strength: 10.2

Time: 17 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary was the only one who could read the screen, but quickly selected one mana point for twenty-one points, then selected Joe. He exited the screen as a light shone on Joe, and they half carried him out.

“He needs healing, quick!”

Rome saw his brother was barely conscious. Brun called “Magic will harm him even more. Lay him down.”

“No I bought one mana point for Joe, and light shone on him.”

Torger called “Brun, analyze.”

Brun cast Analyze 2 and saw Joe had 9/100 health. Torger cast Cure 1 and Joe’s health went to 16/100. “It worked! Cure 2” Brun said, bringing Joe’s health higher. A few more Cure 1’s brought him to near full health.

While Joe slept, they discussed the cave. Gary told them there are sixteen standard caves, and the only thing he bought was the one mana point to save Joe’s life. Tyler gloated that their score was higher than the veterans score, and their time was faster too.

Chapter 18

Billiks

As they headed south, Gary discussed strategy with the veterans. They were going to the billiks cave. “Their shells are very hard. The copper knives will be useless against them, but the titanium spears will pierce through. Before entering, you guys need to practice thrusts just like we taught Susan. And one of you should take Torger’s sword. You guys would be much better off with shields and armor. Their legs will easily pierce all the way through you, and they can bite your arm clean off. This has to be a defensive battle.”

Torger picked up when Rome stopped talking. “As for how to spend your points, I urge you to each get one mana point if possible, so we can cure you like we did with Joe, and if possible, give Tyler some stamina. His constant lagging behind is getting super annoying.”

Elora said “Welcome to cave four. What is your question?”

Tyler was jumping up and down with anticipation, and Gary rolled his eyes. “Does the weather effect the monsters that come out?”

“In the forest and jungle, if it is cloudy, monsters level two to ten come out. If it’s a light rain, monsters level eleven to twenty come out, and if it’s raining hard the monsters are level twenty-one to thirty. To find out about the desert and tundra, find a cave in each of those regions to ask the same question. Have a good fight.”

The wall slid back and they stepped forward. Gary told Tyler the answer to his question, and Tyler was very pleased with himself for having guessed right.

Seconds later five billiks were attacking the five humans. The spear practice paid off as four of the five were hit in the face. But billiks don’t die easily. The brain dead cockroaches ran around in circles, running into each other and the walls. Tyler was the only one who didn’t puncture the face of a billik. He had insisted on using Torger’s sword and ended up dropping it, slicing open his own hand. If that wasn’t bad enough, the point dropped straight down going through his boot and cutting open the top of his foot.

The others were too busy to help him as he dodged the legs of the angry billik in front of him. But then a brain dead billik ran into the healthy one, crushing it into the wall and breaking two of its legs. Tyler remembered what Torger had told him about it being easy to cut off their legs with the steel sword. He pulled it out of his foot and began slicing off legs of the ones running around in circles. Spears finished them.

As the last one was dying, five more rushed in. This time after Gary hit the first one in the head, Tyler ran forward and cut off its two front legs, then did the same for each one that started running around after having been skewered in the brain.

They had to climb over the billik bodies and walk further into the cave, and fought the next two groups of five. During the fight, Nikko had been knocked down by a wildly running billik, and another one stepped on his leg, piercing his calf. He had to hobble back to the mouth and let the others fight on.

The final batch of billiks were a little bigger and stronger. Gary stabbed the first one in the head and it turned its head violently wrenching the spear out of his hands. The same thing happened to Susan. Tyler cut off the front legs of the first one, but he was exhausted. Gary ran over and grabbed the sword, and took over leg duty while Joe was left alone holding a spear.

Gary called out “Get back! Retreat!”

They walked backwards, fending off the two remaining healthy billiks. Gary was uncomfortable holding the sword, and he swung clumsily at the one advancing on him. Joe got in another successful thrust, and retracted his spear in time before it tried to rip it out of his hands while jerking away from the pain. Joe then thrust it into the side of the one facing Gary. The billik turned and bit the spear shaft, breaking it. Gary chopped off one of its front legs, then they took several steps back.

“Tyler and Susan get back. You’re unarmed and no help to us.”

They hurried to the entrance and watched with Nikko. Joe also retreated a few seconds later, and Gary cautiously but quickly darted around the billiks chopping off legs. He succeeded in chopping them off most of the time, but occasionally missed and the blade glanced off the hard shell. Eventually they were all dead, Gary bruised and tired from the billiks running into him. He walked back to the entrance.

Well done hunters. Your score is 65. Total points available to spend: 136

Training cave 4 difficulty: 5.8

Squad strength: 10.5

Time: 42 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary bought one mana point for each of the remaining four of them, for a total of eighty-four points. Next he bought ten stamina for Tyler for another ten points. He was left with forty-two, and bought an iron round shield for thirty-eight points.

They walked out and all received a Cure 2, except Nikko who had a big hole in his calf. A few extra Cure 1’s had him patched up.

Gary complained “I don’t know how these tyters do it. Without you guys here we would die from our wounds.”

Rome answered “They drink potions. They have that dimensional pouch that holds a lot of stuff, including potions that replenish health, strength, stamina, and mana. I don’t know where they get the potions from.”

Tyler said “Our squad strength went up by point three. Is that from having Torger’s sword with us?”

“Either that or your skill with spears went up when you practiced.”

Brun may have been right, but they had no way of knowing. Torger looked at Maps. “The caves are not in a perfect line, but go generally south. The next one should be in the desert.”

“We’ve walked around there, and didn’t see anything near the ship. Do we go East or west of it?”

“These beginner level caves seem to be on the east coast. Let’s stay to the east of the ship.”

Everyone agreed. As they got to the edge of the jungle, they were in better spirits because Tyler now had a little better stamina than Susan, and they walked a little faster and a little longer between breaks. Brun mentioned it. “When we first set out, Torger and Rome came south at a little over nine miles per hour, and we went north at about two and half miles per hour. Now we’re going almost three. Gary I think some more stamina is in order after the next fight.”

Everyone cheered up at the idea. Susan, for the first time, took initiative and went to filter water and refill their canteens and water bottles. When she came back she said “Bad news. We just used the last of our filters. We need to go back to the ship to see if we can find more.”

“We’ve searched the wreckage pretty thoroughly and it looked like the others had gathered all usable supplies before… they uh died.” Gary was sad at the loss of the entire crew, over two thousand people he was responsible for.

“I think we can figure out a way to purify water,” said Rome. “We did it on Nuva. And we have more than a day of water with us now, two days if we ration.”

They headed south east and eventually came to the coast. They walked along the beach for a few hours, stopping at a tide pool filled with mutated starfish and squids, but didn’t dare touch them. Even though it was a coast, there was still no vegetation, the constant sun scorching anything that tried to grow near the equator.

Rome commented “This planet seems small. Really small, like the size of the moon. Why aren’t we able to jump fifteen feet in the air?”

Tyler said “It must have a dense core. Something much heavier than nickel.”

They made small talk as they walked, and finally came to another cave on the south side of the desert.

Cave 7. Level 13

“Seven, and thirteen? What happened to caves five and six?”

No one knew the answer to Tyler’s question. Rome’s squad said they would go in and see what it was. After Elora asked her question, Rome asked “Where are caves five and six?”

“Ask just one question at a time. This is your only warning. Next time I won’t answer either question.”

“Sweet Elora, would you be so kind as to tell us where cave five is located?”

“I have placed a marker on your map for the location of cave five. Have a good fight.”

Elora disappeared and the back wall slid open. It opened into the ocean! Brun shrugged his shoulders and waded in. After several steps, the floor sloped downward. A few more steps and a sangler swam up and wrapped a tentacle around his right arm.

Rome cast Poison 1 on it, and Torger sliced off the tentacle. The sangler kept trying to wrap a tentacle around anyone it could. Once Torger sliced off all eight tentacles, the sangler swam away, but two more swam up. Brun cast Analyze 2.

Sangler. Level 14.

Health 250/250 Strength 10 Stamina 40/40 Mana 0/0

“They’re not so bad. Just level fourteen.”

The two that swam up went after Torger and Brun. Torger stabbed one through the face killing it instantly, and Rome cast Shield 2 around the other. Torger waited for it to almost break the shield, taking multiple Lightning 2 shocks, then killed that one. Next four sanglers swam up, instead of two, and Brun and Rome cast Shield 2 twice each, and Torger killed three of the four before the fourth one broke out. It grabbed Rome and tried to drag him to sea, but Torger was there quickly and severed all its tentacles. They killed another batch of four the same way, but were then out of mana, and Brun and Rome had to use spears to help out Torger. They killed a total of forty-three, usually coming in groups of three or four, and the last group had five.

Well done hunters. Your score is 93. Total points available to spend: 103

Training cave 7 difficulty: 13.4

Squad strength: 37.9

Time: 17 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Rome decided to save all the points. They easily defeated cave seven, so cave five should be simple.

Back outside, they talked to the others. “It’s your call to go in there or not. There are groups of giant octopi with ten foot tentacles, and they attack in groups of three or four. You’ll be standing in waist deep water.”

Tyler asked “Why could we see you in the outside environment of the rocs, but we couldn’t see you in the outside environment of the sanglers?”

Rome took a guess that it was because the rocs were a hidden cave, and the sanglers were a standard cave.

Gary talked it over with his squad and they decided to take their chances. He was silently cursing himself for having bought an iron shield. That would do them no good here, but he couldn’t have known.

He asked Elora for the location of cave six, and she said she marked it on his map, but he couldn’t access a map or his own stats like the veterans could. That would have to be his next question to her.

As the first sangler swam up, Nikko said “This reminds me of Jaws.”

“Oh don’t say that Nikko,” bemoaned Susan.

It gripped Gary, and started dragging him out to sea! Nikko started running after it, but Joe threw his spear. It embedded in one of the tentacles, but the monster didn’t stop swimming away. Gary couldn’t get a good grip on his spear, and finally held it with his left hand. He grabbed a copper knife from his boot with his right hand and stabbed the octopus in the head over and over. When it finally died, he was a couple hundred yards from shore. He started swimming back, and saw the others battling two more sanglers.

Gary was exhausted when he got back, and had to kneel in the water for several minutes to catch his breath. Meanwhile, the others killed the two and four more had come. But they had formed a strategy of using the spears in one hand, and a knife in the other, except Tyler who again had Torger’s sword. He gave his spear to Joe, whose spear was lost at sea. Tyler cut through the tentacles, while the others could only slash them. It was slow going and then they fought another group of four. They could never get close to the sanglers’ heads to kill them, and had to slowly chop off each of the eight tentacles before each one would die. They didn’t know it, but these “training” sanglers were only trying to drown them, not eat them like they had almost eaten Rome on Nuva. After the fourth batch of sanglers died, Gary rejoined the fight, being mostly rested after his near death drowning and long swim back.

The next group was three, and Gary told Tyler and Susan to take a break while they killed the three. They rotated after that, one person always on break until the final fight when five sanglers attacked. Everyone was beyond exhausted, and during the final fight Susan and Nikko got dragged to sea. Joe and Gary swam out and helped kill the sanglers, then had to help Nikko and Susan swim back. They sat in the shallow water for a good ten minutes before walking back to the cave mouth.

Well done hunters. Your score is 61. Total points available to spend: 65

Training cave 7 difficulty: 13.4

Squad strength: 10.9

Time: 2 hours, 4 minutes

Would you like to make a purchase?

Gary didn’t know what to do, but they would never get into a marathon battle again. Everyone was given ten stamina and one strength, leaving him with five points.