"Contact! Contact!" Clara yelled as she flared her caustic fog in a wide blanket forward.

A low groan rippled through the mud, loud and baritone enough that vibrosense responded to the feedback. With a frantic mental slap, I vanished the sense to the back of my mind as I flared . I didn't trigger the Skill, but instead took hold of the terrain the Mud Gator was trying to use against us. I brushed against a budding resistance, almost like a primal spell chain, as the creature tried to push for control of the mud we were ankle deep in. My mana started to fall precipitously.

"It's trying to bury us!" I called out. "Hit it!"

The words were barely out of my mouth when water, fire and a glob of acid crashed against the alligator's flank. The creature hissed loud enough to make my ears ring. When I tried to cast , the mana side effects nearly caused me to lose control of 's spell chain. I couldn't multicast while I kept the ponderous beast engaged, so I jumped to the fore with my shield in hand. That's when the tail whipped and tossed me back against a tree.

My teeth rattled in my mouth, but my Traits were able to handle the half hearted turn. The mud gator's hiss was much louder as fire dried the creature out and I saw that a thin covering of mud had been baked right off its already-tough scales.

"Hit it again!" I shouted as I extracted myself from the mud almost twenty feet from the fight. "It's got mud--!"

My next words were cut off as vibrosense pushed through my own mental restraints, coupled by an alarmed mole, to warn me of a ripple behind me. I had just enough time to put my shield between me and another, smaller, gator before the creature chomped down on my whole upper body. Frost flashed around me as the jaws clamped shut on the other side of my tower shield. Not even the Force Dispersal Trait was enough to melt the ice that started to coat my surroundings.

The mud started to swirl under me, as if it was being slurped up through a straw, and I realized I'd lost my hold on my Skill. With a groan, both pushing against the alligator that had blindsided me and the will of the Q5 mud lizard, I took my feet. The swirl stopped in its tracks and I heard the crackle of magic behind me as I shoved the gator off of me.

That's a juvenile! The creature was nowhere as small as the creatures I'd seen in the Death Territory. Dundee had mentioned most of the water attuned gators were somewhere in the twenty foot range in length. The one in front of me certainly matched that size, but it took a while for my brain to process the sheer bulk of the creature. It has to weigh a ton! I almost looked back over my shoulder at the ambulant island that was the mud gator, but I resisted the urge as the juvenile charged me down.

For a thing three times my size it was fast. I deflected me with the help of my shield. The gator plowed into and over a nearby tree like it was almost not there before it noticed that I wasn't the only thing harassing its larger buddy. Fievel!

My mental scream was answered as the Shard Weapon fed energy into my shield and I extracted myself from the mud with a sucking squelch. My chitin axe crashed against the creature's tail, easily parting the scales to the bone. Its blood sizzled as the Force Dispersal of the material exploded on impact. That's when I was introduced to the turning radius of the gator's maw.

Had I not pulled Fievel back from the creature's tail after my attack, the jaws would have locked around my entire arm. Instead, they got a mouthful of axe hammer. The force of the bite was enough to trigger the crystal spikes out of the hammerhead, two of which punched right out of the top of the gator while the axe blade sliced through the tongue and out the creature's gullet. It thrashed for a handful of seconds before dropping to the ground.

Its death had been so sudden I almost froze up. Thankfully, I had my mana to remind me that the fight wasn't over. Muscles coiled in protest as my mana fell down below the fifty percent mark. My eyes zeroed in on the Q5 gator and I gasped in surprise. It had somehow managed to lift itself out of the canal and turned to the rest of the group. The nearly thirty foot monstrosity was snapping at a pirouetting Dundee while Clara's eyes blazed purple with her Gift. I wasn't sure what that did if it didn't take, but it seemed to provide the agile cowboy enough leeway to cut into the mud gator's flanks. A simmering cloud of black fog clung to the wounds on the creature as if it was emanating from within them.

Like a crashing rocket, Daniela landed at the base of the creature's neck, daggers first. The Q5 bellowed, doubling the drain on my mana and dropping me to a knee as I kept its magic locked down. When a ripple of fire exploded out across its skin, I knew the fight was over. Gouts of necrotic blood spurted from the dozens of cuts Dundee had made even as the scales dried and cracked. Danny had used her Skill, and it did a number on the Mud Refined alligator.

With a thunderous splash, it dropped its head to the ground, less than a foot away from Dundee. The lizardman didn't hesitate, and coiled his whip tight around the gator's snout, jumping on and clasping the other end of his weapon to keep the thing sealed. He also braced the jaws with his legs, but they barely made it around the massive gator's jaws. The Mud Gator thrashed for a good minute longer, doing its best to buck and roll off the humanoid lizard and fiery latina on its back, before it deflated like a balloon. The four of us stood there, panting for several seconds just to make sure the creature was truly dead.

Dundee released his whip, splatting onto the mud in a messy lump. "Crikey."

---+---

It didn't take long for the rest of the group to arrive, all of them staring somewhat stunned at the trashed forest. It wasn't even comparable to the almost idyllic sight that was upstream of our fight. Mud had exploded in a radius all the way up to the canopy, while several trees had just been straight uprooted during the scrap. Diana, Samuel and Dennis fussed over us for any injuries, but other than three broken fingers on Daniela and a sprained ankle on me we'd come out peachy.

We finally turned to look at the beasts we'd killed, and unsurprisingly, Dundee was there with commentary.

"This one you killed, mate, is the bulk of their number. About twice as many of the smaller 'youth' ones lurk around, but those are more liable to leave you alone," Dundee said, gesturing to the Q4 gator I'd soloed. Then he turned to point a clawed finger into the dead mud gator. "This guy is our second concern after the momma lizard."

"How many of these things are out there?" I asked, worried about the disparity in strength between the Q4 and Q5. Galloway and the Death Crow weren't good representative samples of the capabilities of wild beasts. The presence of a spell chain instead of just wild magic effects was what had me the most concerned.

"I've only ever seen three of these big bastards. I knew this one, the mud one, and another was a frost one, but the third I've not seen since the Implant. Not sure what tickles the fancies of that chap."

"And you haven't seen the boss, either," Sam added unhelpfully.

"No, no I haven't," the lizardman shook his head, serious for once since the time I'd known him. ”I can only guess it's a female if it's able to chunk out more babies than I can smite.”

"Do we abort?" Diana asked weakly. The other late additions to the Dungeon infiltration seemed to quietly agree with the question.

"This is the minimal level of danger we expected," Clara said, shaking her head. Diana looked like she'd been punched in the gut, but she didn't waver. Despite her desire to flee, she'd faced unknowns before and I was not worried about her flaking. The others... not as much. "Our baseline expectations were to at the very least get eyes on the creature holding the Metier Crystal. If we need to run, then we run and rethink the plan. Probably the extra patrol we'd been discussing."

"We should take five then and brace to gather the Pith while we rest," I said, eyeing the Q5 creature. The energy the creatures would provide was still barely a dent in all the Dreg I had to collect for my Traits, but I'd managed to solo the juvenile and contribute in the fight against the elite reptile; the distribution should be weighed in my favor.

If I didn't keep working on my Level and Traits, then I would lag behind the monsters that were surely lurking out in the world. As much as the human herding the Aberrant did over the years hurt the Allied Towns, it had kept them safe from the bigger responsibilities holding a territory on an Attuned Earth entailed. If I wanted to make a difference, I had to collect the power to do that.

"I'll do the honors," Daniela said, sauntering over to the two corpses.

I watched with fascination as the entire creature immolated. The fire was so intense, the latina actually had to intervene with a flex of her magic lest we burn the forest. The dissociation followed a second later, turning the two bodies to ash and letting the torrent of energy flow into us. I tracked the Q4 gator's Pith and saw most of that cloud of glimmering energy head to me, but some still split off to join the significant cloud forming over the Mud Gator.

snapped on around me as the energy was filtered by the spell chain bubble. I noted that the ferns and grass around us quickly grew verdant and straighter as the Pith brushed through them, perfectly separated from Dreg. Then the pain hit and the world was agony for several minutes.

My eyes locked on to a flashing set of words that appeared in my vision.

I saw the counter flash and tick up every few seconds until it stopped at 6%. It was more than I'd expected, but I wasn't going to complain, especially when I'd paid for the gains by writhing on the ground like a worm. I briefly considered asking for us to extend our break in order to assign the Dreg to a Trait, but I opted against it. Engaging the alligators when they were most likely to be resting had already worked in our favor.

"How's everyone?" I asked, doing my best to stretch out my body. It creaked in protest, but I knew the muscle soreness would pass quickly. No pain no gain, or so Ava would say when I didn't meet the health goals she set. I was immensely thankful for that mentality now that my body was being put through its paces.

"B-b-bit chilly, mate," Dundee clattered. He tried to move his tail, but it moved with a jerky twitch instead of the graceful coils I'd seen it do. "G-give' er a minute."

"Good to know bigger doses still suck," Clara said from where she was leaning against a tree. For a gray colored demoness, she looked quite green.

"Is this what we have to look forward to?" One of the Q5 Stoneshapers asked as he looked at us with concern. He'd been part of the deluge of Pith the battlefield had provided but he hadn't seen how it had affected the existing Q6ers.

"It's not as pronounced if it's from smaller creatures," I answered. "The alternative without is much less appealing."

"You know that's right," Daniela agreed as she swat dried mud off her still steaming skin.

The whole group spent a few minutes working through the side effects before straightening. I glanced at my Status to refresh myself and was stunned at the changes to my Attributes. I quickly realized I hadn't looked at it since before my jaunt through the final portion of the obstacle course and my efforts had been more than rewarded.

Subject: Ronan Terrigan

Health: 87% (Unafflicted)

Mana: 32%

Metier Quotient: 6 (19.25%)

Dreg Accumulation: 6%

LPS: Wildwood Bunker, FL

Communications

Party

Skills - (1) Selections Available

Traits - (14% Banked)

Attributes - Growth Quantified

Skills:

Offensive

- / /

-

Defensive

- / /

-

Misc

-

-

-

-

Traits:

Limestone Skin (14%)

Quake Osseum (24%)

Slurry Ichor (8%)

Harmonic Sinew (31%)

Attributes:

Strength: 1.95 > 2.09

Mobility: 1.75 > 1.73

Perception: 2.20 > 2.23

Refinement: 1.57 > 1.59

Containment: 2.41 > 2.43

I just leaned against the tree and let the changes wash over me. It was hard to conceptualize the growth of my Traits and Skills and Attributes, but at the same time it was also inherent. I'd noticed how I'd been just that bit stronger or just that bit more perceptive. It wouldn't have been possible to get as early a warning for the mud gator--even if Dundee squandered most of it-- without the growth to my Harmonic Sinews and Perception Trait.

Rommel came by and nudged me with his foot while I was lost in thought. He didn't say anything, but he used his head to point to where the rest of the group was gathering around Samuel. I tuned in to the conversation as I walked over to the gathering.

"--only have a handful that I felt comfortable carrying, so we'll leave them with the fast members of our group for deployment. Remember these are very breakable, and remember not to take two doses back to back," the blonde said, handing over five of his healing smoothies. One went to Clara and her team, while my team and Dundee's received another two.

I was distinctly aware of how fragile the containers were. They were scavenged, glorified mason jars that had Fowler the light mage not cleansed with burning light, according to Sam, they would have been more of a health concern than not. Maybe we can use one of those bamboo Materials as carriers...

"Alright, let's head out," Clara said. "We'll hold on to the drops, but they are minor priorities if we get in a fight. I want full alertness. Ronan should be the last person warning us of danger."

"Hey!" I said, frowning as the demoness strode away after Dundee. Samuel just hit me with a shrug when I looked in his direction and Daniela was chuckling silently as she took to the canopy. I wanted to call out to her that she looked just like a monkey if she planned to make fun of me, but I didn't get the chance before she was out of sight in a hazy blur of heat.

Our group slunk through the trees with renewed purpose. While the cobbled together group was still somewhat hesitant, they plowed through the foliage just the same. Dundee looked not at all diminished as he made his water blade wider to clear a bigger view. Before long, the vegetation started to recede from untamed wilds to something our group was more familiar with; overgrown structures.

Some cracked asphalt there, a shed that was more plants than building, and the distinct gaps in the trees that even three decades of magical overgrowth hadn't been able to erase. A few minutes of wading through, instead of chopping through, these obstructions led us to a mostly intact but overgrown building. I barely spotted the restroom signs thanks to my growing Perception, but what the building was didn't matter. What it let us see, did.

"Crikey," Dundee said. I almost slapped the man across the face for saying the very thing that had broken our stealthy approach but I realized he'd said it via the comm-plant. I took a steadying breath before turning back to the 'rec' area.

The evidence of the world before the Fall was actually clear before us. The thin coating of ice over the walls and concrete boat ramp seemed to do the buildings justice even under the Florida heat. They glistened like a painting of the world before, trapped in time. The things above, around and within some of the ice were what was concerning.

Two of the massive thirty foot gators loitered at the base of the ramp into Lake Weir proper. Around the two monstrosities were a half dozen of the Q4 gators and a smattering of lower Quotient ones. Despite the reptilian soup of death sunning before us, the thing that my eyes locked on was the jagged glacier floating almost casually out in the lake.

Thanks to the bend in Lake Weir's western shore, the thing wasn't visible unless you went out near the old rec area. A thick mist hung over the lake, obscuring the majority of the glacier even as the wind whipped wisps of it away, revealing the jagged spires of ice floating around the main hunk of ice.

"We need to go," I whispered.

It was through the comm-plant, but the tension that hung in the air made my heart clench even through the mental call. I wasn't sure what about the situation didn't sit right with me, but I felt very familiar levels of uncomfortable whenever I gazed at the glacier out in the lake. The hammer on my back quaked with anticipation, but thankfully I was able to stamp down any magical response from it before we were given away.

"Agreed. Slow retreat. Dundee take the lead. Bunker Busters at the back, Dennis will take midpoint to cover our tracks," Clara said.

Me and my friends extricated ourselves from our viewing location with ease, but a whimper drew my attention louder than a gunshot would have at that moment. One of the Stoneshapers was trying to yank its arms free from the ledge of the building and failing. Frost started to crawl over his fingers and up his arm at a visible rate. The panic screamed out of his eyes.

"Daniela!" I called, but Rommel and her were already there. The orc was pulling away at the poor dwarf while the woman produced a flame that blazed up her arm but retracted to just her palm after a moment of concentration.

"Oh no," Dennis whispered, hand wrapped around one of the vines on the building. "It's a trap!"

That's when the hail started to fall.