The moon reflected off the packed dirt as Reivyn trudged along the barren landscape. He led a group of three other individuals as they crept their way in the bright night. Reivyn kept his eyes scanning the horizon, able to see for miles in the open plain. Forty other groups, spaced quite a ways apart, marched in parallel in the distance. The sounds of combat reached Reivyn's ears, and he looked to the west to spot one of the groups engaging in a swirling mass of dirt, dust, and wind. Three other groups sprinted toward them to surround the ambushing enemy, and those closer to, but too far to help, paused in their advance. Reivyn and his group didn't stop on their trek across the desert. It wasn't the first encounter of the evening, and it wouldn't be the last. Reivyn had already personally dispatched three with his group, and they had assisted the other squads nearby several times. The truncated company had been traveling steadily north, and they had ambushed several supply convoys on the way. The enemy, for one reason or another, hadn't been able to fully react to their actions by the time they had traversed a couple of hundred miles, and the convoys remained exactly the same. They were the same size, the same route, and the same timing as what was on the information they had stolen. Reivyn had slowed down the operations against the convoys as they moved further north, though, because he had spotted a glaring issue on the map. There was a large stretch of perfectly flat land that had zero convoys moving through it. In fact, the supply lines showed that they were specifically giving the area a wide birth. "Probably a den of snakemen," Jekle had said as Reivyn pointed it out. "Look, this type of terrain is perfect for some dust devils to hole up, and the snakemen like to settle nearby." "Dust devils and snakemen?" Reivyn asked. "Yeah, the snakemen are kind of a mix between the sapient lizadlons and the feral ones. They're sentient, smart, and move in groups that use tactics, but they are extremely vicious and fierce, and they attack people on sight no matter what. They're far more dangerous than the feral lizaldons, though, not only because of their groups and tactics but because they use weapons and armor." "Hmmm, they sound like the orcs that can be found in Tier 1 regions," Reivyn mused. "Exactly," Jekle nodded his head. "Every region has three types of 'nuisance' monsters: Low-Level and stupid, mid-Level and smart, and high-Level and stupid. The feral lizaldons are like goblins, the snakemen are like orcs, and the dust devils are like ogres. If we're going to use Tier 1 Regions as a comparison. "Though, I don't know why the enemy doesn't just sweep through them. It wouldn't really cause them much damage, considering their numbers." Jekle scratched his head. "I can think of two reasons," Reivyn said, tapping the large open space on the map. "One, they don't want to waste resources on something they might deem 'unnecessary.' Sure, it might not pose any real problems for them, but what are they going to get out of it? Fighting against us, well, that's necessary. "Two, it's a trap for inexperienced or inattentive people. I'm new to the Region, and I didn't even know that snakemen and dust devils were a thing, so I would have marched our men right through there without a second thought. I would have just assumed that the enemy wanted to stick to the cover and concealment of the more hilly terrain, which, they might actually be doing, honestly. "Either way this is actually a good opportunity for us," Reivyn smiled. Reivyn bent down and buried another beacon in the dirt. It was attuned to his Mana signature, infused with the Light Affinity, surrounded by Veridical. If Reivyn let the Spell lie dormant on the beacon, it wouldn't expend the ten-minute duration of having the Mana locked to it, but it would still slowly dissipate. He could leave a trail that would last about a week with this method. The two platoons were moving in a fairly loose, four-group staggered column through the desert. It was much wider than they would normally be moving about while Marching in formation, but relative to the size of the area they were covering, it was like threading a needle. Reivyn perked up as he Sensed coalescing Mana, and the pebbles and dust nearby started to quiver and shake before they levitated and started moving together. Reivyn held his fist up high to notify the three people following him of the impending ambush, and he gathered his Mana in his two hands. They didn't have to wait for very long before the dust devil formed and struck at Reivyn in his leading position. Dust Devil: Tier 4 Level 44-56 Danger Level: Very High Reivyn had been practicing his Sense Threat Skill, and it had gotten slightly more precise as it had Leveled up. The dust devils had been mostly in the mid-Tier 4 range, though he had spotted one that had an upper range over Level 100. The dust devils were slightly more than Reivyn could safely handle on his own if he didn't go all out with his Spell Casting. He didn't want to expend too much Mana, though, and not have anything left to deal with emergencies. He had thought that he would only need to use Level 4 or 5 Spells, 50 and 100 Mana, respectively, but the dust devils had shown that he had been naive to think so. Reivyn's success with his Spells, lately, had been against some fairly weak humans, all things considered. He could blast hundreds of Tier 2 and low Tier 3 enemies with ease, killing them instantly, but the dust devils were a different story. Either they inherently had a Magic Resistance, or it was because they were Tier 4. Reivyn knew from his education that Tier 4 beings all had access to their Mana. He just didn't know if that was the factor here. Kefira knows the answer. I'll have to consult her the next time we meet, Reivyn idly thought. I could ask one of my soldiers with a hybrid Class, but I don't want to appear as if I don't have all the answers. Confidence is key, and if this is common knowledge in these parts, it could be demoralizing to the troops to find out I don't know such a basic thing. It didn't really matter, though, as they weren't immune to mundane attacks like the Revenants had been. Reivyn doused the fully formed dust devil with a torrent of water, and then he froze it with his second Spell, spending 200 points in a second. The dust devil, after unsuccessfully sneak attacking Reivyn, had its movements frozen in place for several seconds. The frozen ice sculpture of a dust devil suffered several powerful blows from the hammers of the three soldiers following Reivyn, large chunks blasting off and falling to the side. The two Level 5 Spells, despite how effective they were at freezing the enemy in place, would only last a few seconds, and they didn't do any inherent damage itself. It only served to magnify the damage of the blunt weapons of the fire team. Reivyn's sword was next to useless against these things, even when he used Elemental Weapon on it. Instead of using his sword, Reivyn simply infused himself with the Skill. He covered his body in Plasma, superheated fire, as the three hammer soldiers disengaged, and he charged his entire body into the dust devil. The Plasma instantly turned the ice into steam, and using a bit of Mana Manipulation, Reivyn arrested the whirlwind that formed to gather the steam and blasted chunks off, compressing it all and exploding it once more. The rest of the dust devil went with the explosion, and the creature was no more. After some experimentation, Reivyn and his fire team discovered the most efficient way to deal with the dust devils. If they retained too much of their mass before Reivyn detonated the final Spell, the shrapnel would be too heavy and cause injury to Reivyn and the others. If they destroyed too much of the dust devil, conversely, there wouldn't be enough material left over to trigger a detonation. The dust devil would just get smaller and continue to harass them. Reivyn's group was the only one that didn't need anyone else to rush over and help them deal with ambush predators. The other four-man groups would be able to hold their own, but it would take too long. Reivyn had designed the staggered column for optimal support so that they could squash any threats as quickly as possible. Enemy defeated Exp +1,044 Level Up! Level 23 Tier 4 Level 48, Reivyn noticed. Reivyn had discovered something about the Experience values gained from combat after overhearing several of the soldiers talking about their gains from the battles. It turned out that one didn't always get 100% of the Experience from killing or participating in combat. Only Tier 1's and 2's unconditionally got 100% of the Experience, no matter how many people were in the Party. Once someone reached Tier 3, there were different calculations for Experience added to the base numbers. Parties started off with two or more individuals, and a Party of two people ensured that each person got 75% of the Experience from combat. The next two-Party members would reduce the Experience gain by 12.5% each, for a total of 50% for a four-man Party. The Experience gain would be reduced by an additional 5% per member for the next four, down to 30%, but any Party over eight people would get zero Experience. Tier 1 and 2 members still got 100% of the Experience, but they also counted as full members towards the Experience penalty of the ones above Tier 3, and there was apparently a hard-cap of 15 members for a Party consisting entirely of Tier 1 and 2 members. Large-scale battles operated on a different equation, but Reivyn understood that the Tier 3 members also experienced a penalty, though he didn't understand the mechanics behind it, yet. Adventuring Parties had to hit the sweet spot between safety and return on investment. Too few members and they couldn't do much if they weren't strong enough, but too many people and nobody would get anything worth the trouble. According to Jekle, most Adventuring teams in Drallo consisted of between three and six members, with larger organizations banding together in order to create Parties with good synergy for their official members. I'm getting really good Experience out here, but it'll drop off once I reach Tier 3. I've gained fifteen Levels since the first battle a couple of weeks ago, but from the chatter I've heard, the most anyone else has gained is three. Not only do they have to get far more Experience per Level in Tier 3, but they also get less. The only two instances that they don't suffer a penalty are going solo and the monthly calculations. There was one final discovery that informed Reivyn of his troops' slower Leveling speed: There was no bonus Experience for fighting things in a higher Tier, but there was a steep penalty for fighting lower Tiers. Killing an enemy that was one Tier lower than someone had a 50% penalty, two Tiers lower was a 95% penalty, and three plus Tiers lower gave one Experience. The enemies with the "1's" branded onto their foreheads were almost entirely Tier 2 with a few Tier 3 outliers, and the ones with a "2" brand were all Tier 3. Reivyn had no idea what Level those with a "3" would be, but the one guy he had killed with a "4" was only low Tier 3, so it wasn't guaranteed they would all be a higher Level. The dust devils didn't drop any magic cores or anything else that could be worthwhile loot, so the group just kept going after dealing with the monster. Most "nuisance-grade" monsters didn't have anything worth taking until the Tier 5 Regions and higher. Reivyn continued to plant beacons every fifty yards or so as the soldiers traveled deeper and deeper into the flat zone. Eventually, no more dust devils were encountered for several minutes, and Reivyn guessed that they had entered the territory of the snakemen. He called for the two platoons to form back up, and they marched forward in a proper column. The territory of the snakemen was large, but it was concentrated in the center. The area consisting of dust devils was considerably larger, but it was dispersed around where the snakemen den would be located. Snakemen were apparently hit-and-run raiders, and Reivyn was confident they wouldn't attack the two platoons of heavily armored soldiers as long as they stayed well enough away from the actual den. Reivyn had plotted a course that would cut through the edge of the central zone for just this reason, but he wasn't taking any chances. Instead of dispersing scouts far and wide to keep a lookout, Reivyn had them go only a short distance away and monitor every direction. The desert snakemen variants not only wore clothing that blended in with the desert surroundings, but their own inherent coloring was also a natural camouflage. That being said, as long as there was fast enough movement to indicate an incoming assault, the scouts would be able to see them. Camaflouge worked best when one didn't do a whole lot of dashing about. The only thing that Reivyn was truly apprehensive about was the fact that the desert variant of snakemen was venomous. Not only did their bites have an extremely painful paralytic venom, but they coated their weapons in it, as well. He was confident their armor and shields would deflect most attacks, but it was inevitable that some would get through. There had been no antidotes for the paralysis with the supplies they had raided, so they would just have to wait the symptoms out. Luckily the venom wasn't fatal, and it didn't do much more than superficial damage to one's Health. Reivyn hadn't needed to be worried, though, as they never even spotted any scouts from the snakemen. That didn't mean they weren't there, watching, but they didn't judge Reivyn's group enough of an easy target or threat to engage. Once the two platoons encountered their first assault of dust devils on the other side, four at once because of how they were formed up, Reivyn once more ordered them to disperse into the staggered column of groups. It would have been safer to stop and rest halfway through the ordeal if the snakemen weren't an issue. As it was, the two platoons had to race the rising sun to reach an area on the other side so they could hide through the daylight hours. The sun had risen in the east, exposing them further to any patrols, before they found a suitable location, but they were lucky that they didn't run into anyone. The enemy force, for the most part, also moved about more in the evening than in the daytime. It made sense to Reivyn, as they were obviously not native to a desert climate. Another three days of sneaking around in the night found the platoons looking up at a steep cliff face. Reivyn had led them to a large plateau a couple of hours away from their target. It would take several additional hours to go around the plateau on either side, and they would be fully visible to any watchers if they ascended it. Reivyn was sure the far sides were also under scrutiny. Reivyn stepped forward in front of the troops, and using Earth in one hand and Gravity in another, he began to drill a hole straight through the hill. He steadily operated with his Mana as he built a tunnel. The Earth Mana moved the dirt to the sides, and the Gravity Mana held the dirt above them in place. The soldiers worked quickly to build support beams like a mine shaft would have as Reivyn delved deeper into the center of the hill, making sure he kept sufficient ventilation for breathable air by making holes upwards to the top as well. His Mana wasn't infinite, though, and he could only take them about a third of the way before he was too exhausted to continue. The soldiers lit up torches as Reivyn created a thin barrier, sealing them inside with additional small holes to assist the airflow, as he took a rest. The other soldiers took turns manually continuing the dig from there. The dirt was hard-packed where it existed, but it was mostly solid stone. Reivyn's Earth Mana worked almost as well against the stone as it did the dirt, but the soldiers had a harder time clearing it out. Their pace increased noticeably, though, as people started to gain the Mining skill like Reivyn had so long ago. Reivyn would use his Mana occasionally as it restored to meld the loose material back into the hill so they didn't leave any kind of trail. Once they reached the far side of the plateau, Reivyn sent out several of the Scouts with higher Stealth abilities to keep an eye on enemy movement and check the numbers of the enemy camp. They would wait another four days to see if they would send out any troops in force to react to the attacks on their supply line that the rest of Reivyn's company had enacted. If they didn't spot any movement, though, they would have to take the risk and just go on their scouting mission. Reivyn was relaxing by himself in the little alcove he had dug out for himself, trying to recover his Mana. He had used a lot of it digging the tunnel, but it usually only took a couple of days for it to return to full even when he got all the way down to close to 10%. His Mana was sitting at around 60% after two and half days spent in the completed tunnel when his high Perception picked up on some dust falling from the ceiling. It was normal for dust and dirt to fall occasionally as the men moved about in the tunnel, but Reivyn noticed that it was far too consistent to be attributed to them. Not only that, but it appeared that the concentration of the dust falling was moving deeper into the tunnel. He didn't have to wait long for his hunch to be confirmed. "Sir!" Jekle came running up to where he was laid out. He quickly stumbled to a position of Attention and offered a salute. "A scout just reported a large force moving away from the target." "Excellent," Reivyn said, returning the salute after standing up. "Get back to your squad and stand by." Jekle, Paul, and Laris soon showed up as Reivyn tidied up his gear. They were ready to go, and Reivyn nodded at them as he turned and headed to the front of the tunnel. There was a little window about waist-height cut into the little doorway, and one of the scouts was on the other side. "What's the situation?" Reivyn asked the scout in a whisper. "An army-sized unit is passing over the plateau," the scout replied, equally softly. "I would say about three-quarters of the strength of the enemy camp from what we could determine." "Good," Reivyn said. "We'll give them an hour to get far enough away before we move out." He turned to the leadership of the two platoons. "Alright, remember the plan. We're about to see if we can decide the war in just a little while."