Mia scratched her strange, not-cat behind the ear and tried not to get weirded out by the purr-like sound it was making in response. The emphasis was on purr-like. It was an ethereal rumbling sound that was just not quite what a real purr would sound like.

Is there such a thing as the uncanny valley effect, but with cats? I guess it's weird by itself that an arcane elemental is even trying to make a purring sound.

"Is there some stashed XP mechanic for this damned System?" Mark asked, staring squarely at Mia. He nodded towards Nikki, standing to the side of the group. "Ask her that. Are the levels we should be getting but aren't because we are locked at level 10 getting stored away somewhere, or is it just going into the void?"

"Do we get anything from killing monsters as we are?" Mia asked the woman in Common. "Beyond the materials, I mean. Do we get the levels we should be getting once we get to Rank 1?"

"No," Nikki said. "The System isn't that lenient. As an aside, I'd say the added time you all got to practice your Skills and upgrade them before Classing Up will likely be to your long-term benefit either way. Those are worth more than a few levels."

"Really?" Mia asked curiously. "What sorts of benefits would we get? I never really even asked what exactly Ranking Up will do, now that I think of it."

"Better Class choices for one, if you want to go for the Class-merging route," Nikki said offhandedly. "Then better options for your Main Skills, and more Trait Tokens, which allow you to take Traits from either your Class or Bloodline library. Those are the main things, really."

"Would you say that helping to hunt down some sneaky Rift Guardians around the city would help with either?"

"Sure," Nikki said, raising an eyebrow. "Is that what we are to be doing today? Hunting down the Guardians who still lurk within the city?"

"That's the question," Mia said, waving a hand at the group now back to bickering about that very question. "Some clear benefits to doing so would convince them. Otherwise, I think we'll just be pushing for the rift to clear it out as fast as possible. All of us want to get to Rank 1 yesterday."

"Understandably so," Nikki said, nodding. "It is a dangerous world we now live in, more dangerous than either of us grew up in."

Mia nodded, turning around to find her friends engrossed in a heated debate. The two main sides were Lina and Mark with Brent and Helene acting as mediators between them. Meanwhile, Camie and Clive stood off to the side, keeping themselves out of it and looking like they'd be happy with either decision.

"We might not be getting levels out of it, but I've got a promise from the Colonel to pay us for every killed Guardian with Natural Treasures for all of us," Brent said. "None of us managed to push our Attributes to the upper limit yet, and while these fights will be dangerous, we have fought worse and came out better for it."

"This is a needless risk," Mark said for what felt like the hundredth time, his nostrils flaring in agitation as he looked for allies among the others. "These damned things are all Rank 1! Let the damned military deal with them, or some other group of idiots without someone who isn't actually suicidal around to tell them how dumb they are. Mia almost fucking died when that bird ambushed us, I almost died to the Juggernaut. We have been really fucking lucky so far, but sooner or later, we will run out of luck and someone is going to die. Are those damned natural treasures worth dying over?"

That poured a bucket of cold water over everyone's moods, making even Brent look awkward. Mia had little doubt the man wanted to fight the Guardians himself, just so others didn't have to. He was heroic like that, almost suicidally so. But he at least didn't want to force any of them to come along with some nasty attempt at guilt tripping them.

Diving the Rift would be dangerous enough. More so than any of their previous dives had been. Rifts also had clear benefits, beyond the fact that destroying the last two would net them an Obelisk, like the Rewards at their end.

"If we are careful and know where a Guardian is, we could kill it with minimal danger," Helene said soothingly. "Also, keep in mind that with the two that ambushed us being so high level, the others still on the loose should be the ones that got kicked out of their Rifts in the first week. They'll likely be much weaker."

"The Colonel has a Diviner looking for them," Brent added, his arms crossed and fingers tapping on his biceps in apparent impatience or frustration. "We will know where they are, how many of the regular monsters are around them and we will have backup. We will ambush them and overwhelm with numbers. The Colonel only needs us specifically there to minimise the casualties among the soldiers and the weaker 'mercenaries' who'll jump at the opportunity to get some free levels."

"Fine damnit," Mark said with a glare and his arms crossed in a huff. "I can see when I'm outvoted. Alright. At least we are not letting ourselves be used as disposable grunts for these cunts. On that note, fuck them giving us a pittance of Natural Treasures as a reward. The least they could do if we are to delve into that Rift is to give us everything they have to boost our chances, and do so before we head in."

"That sounds fair enough," Clive chimed in with a grunt at that. "It's only logical … unless they want to keep some in reserve for those who go after us if we fail."

"Fuck that," Lina said with feeling. "I agree with Mark on that one. If they send us in there to save the damned city, we shouldn't be the only ones gambling with our lives on the line. We are doing all or nothing. So should they."

Mia felt the sentiment resonate with her. If she risked her life to save the city, the least they could do was to boost her chances of success with everything they had, not keep stuff in reserve in case of, or expecting her to fail.

That might have been the logical move on their part, but she wouldn't really care what happened to the city if she died. Nothing mattered if she died, since the dead cared for nothing … excluding strangely lively dead redheads with a taste for blood of course.

Mia nodded in assent, which prompted a similar response from Carmilla, leaving only Helene and Brent unspoken for.

"How likely do you think it is that they give in if you demand that?" Helene asked, looking worriedly at Brent who rubbed his bearded chin.

"I don't know," the man said thoughtfully. "I know we should be among the strongest groups in the city overall, of the ones willing to delve into the Rift anyway. But I can't know whether the army'd rather risk sending someone marginally weaker in or risk losing all their Natural Treasures with us. If there is another team that's our rival in strength, and is willing to head in without the Treasures, I think they'll just tell us to pound sand."

"It wouldn't hurt if we showed just how powerful we are before making any such demand by hunting down some Guardians today, would it?" Helene mused aloud. "Afterwards, in that meeting they hold every evening, you could try to gently suss out how the Colonel feels about taking the gamble and placing all his resources into making sure we succeed, hmm? No need to instantly get to making brutish demands like common thugs."

That plan managed to, if not please, then satisfy everyone and was the end of their discussion. They set out, just like they had for the last two days with an armoured vehicle already waiting for them at the foot of the building.

Whatever doubts and gripes Mia had about working so tightly with the military, especially after some of their bad apples had made a rather negative impression on her, couldn't make her dismiss how useful it was to have a whole platoon of soldiers on the lookout for trouble for twenty-four hours a day. Her Alert Ward was a good protective measure, but it couldn't beat having actual sentries keeping watch.

It also helped that Camie assured her none of the soldiers watching over them stank of malice or felt like they had any obvious signs of bad will against them.

Speaking of people stinking of malice.

"Hey, does anyone know what the army guys did with that asshole who shot me?" Mia spoke up, her gaze swinging back and forth between Camie and Brent.

"Interrogated him, then stuck him in a cell with all his moronic buddies," Brent said, his face twitching into a scowl. "They shouldn't be a problem anymore … their group shouldn't be, anyway."

"What do you mean?" Mia frowned. "Did they not catch that guy who gave them their fancy toys? You think he'd find other idiots to dupe into trying to assassinate us?"

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"Maybe, but not what I meant." Brent shrugged. "From what little I heard, that would-be assassin wasn't some sleeper agent or paid assassin. He was hurt during this shitfest and decided the people to blame were the ones who got 'changed' by magic."

"Changed? You mean people who got a race-change?" Mia asked, a frown worn deep on her face. Camie's words of how terrified she was of her own vampiric self still sat fresh and raw in her mind. "And what? He thinks killing us will make it better?"

"I can't know," Brent said, shaking his head. "I only got the abridged version of the interrogation from Kelvin, I wasn't there myself."

"Do you think they will try again?" Lina asked nervously from the other side of the armoured van, her voice almost lost beneath the rumbling engine. "The Starhaven assholes I mean. I don't even get why they'd want Mia and Carmilla dead … aren't we in enough danger already?"

"Who knows," Brent said with a sigh, leaning his head back against the headrest. "They haven't tried again yet and it's been days. We can only hope and prepare for if they do try again. Mia's Wards, and Familiar are a good start, as is the army surveillance we have around us around the clock. Beyond that though, I don't know what else we can do at the moment."

"Get stronger and get better gear," Lina said with a huff. "If all of us had an Amulet like Mia did, but a Rank or two higher, we wouldn't have to fear any regular weaponry. With a Rank 0 Amulet almost stopping what had to be a magic enhanced sniper bullet, a Rank 2 one would probably negate just about anything of a lower Rank."

That was true enough, Mia supposed. Though she was pretty sure the powers they'd have to face up against, and whose attacks they would have to fend off would increase the more powerful they got. By logical conclusion, the only reason their mysterious enemy was using random disgruntled idiots with guns to target them was because it was cost efficient. Aka, they thought those very same idiots had a fair shot at taking them down, sparing the powers that hid behind them of acting themselves.

It was a grim thought, and she still didn't have a damned clue about why someone would want them dead. Did those people just want Graz to fall? Did they somehow benefit from monsters spreading or from the collapse of civilisation?

That too was assuming she and Camie had been targeted because they were the two preeminent Rift delvers, the two people whose loss would most negatively impact the city's chance at overcoming the Rifts plaguing them.

Maybe they had some more nefarious reason. For all she knew, they were just some cabal of xenophobic assholes with a mindset similar to that Greg guy's, people who loathed those who won the genetic lottery. Vampires and Halvyr were unquestionable winners when it came to the magical genetic lottery for sure, so both of them would be prime targets.

Sighing to herself, Mia shook off those depressing thoughts. She had problems right in front of her, problems she could help solve with an immediate application of some explosive magic. Worrying about hidden dangers wasn't productive to her short-term survival. Brent was right, they had done all they could to protect themselves from and another ambush.

Kill the Guardians, bully Zeigler into giving us Natural Treasures, destroy the Rift and then … make sure those damned beastkin do the same with the last one. Then we can finally Rank-Up and maybe fuck off to Vienna.

The Capital would be a place she would have to visit. From what her memories told her, it was the closest place that might fulfill both locational requirements of her Spirit Genesis Ritual with both huge sieges filled with carnage and heroic last stands having taken place there in abundance throughout history.

It'll have to do.

*****

Agent Xir stood with his arms crossed, feet tapping nervously at the damp undergrowth as he studied the darkening forest around him. Turning his head, he made sure he had empowered the beacon properly for what felt like the thousandth time and, like every single time before, he decided that no; he had not messed up anything. That meant the problem lay not with him.

His contact was simply late.

He didn't know who they'd send, but he had been notified it'd be a peak Rank 1 operative, maybe even a proper Shadow. No, that was a longshot. Even still, he was just a humble Agent at the bottom rungs of the organization with only mediocre achievements to his name. The fact they'd sent him out to this place alone spoke of both a shortage of manpower and hurry beyond what he had come to know about the organization.

Alas, it made sense that getting dumped in a whole new Realm and suddenly having other continents to share the Plane with shook even the most experienced.

Xir twitched as his ring buzzed an alert, his gaze snapped to the location the Alert Ward enchanted into the piece of jewelry indicated. A small creature hopped along a thicker branch, barely the size of an outstretched palm and with a bush tail trailing after it as it hopped along.

He shook his head and let out a breath. In this forest, one could never know for certain whether they were predator or prey. Starhaven had been stable, a Plane conquered and known, its mana had flowed calmly and without shifting, its monsters were predictable and known, its dangers measured and documented. Everyone with even just the tiniest measure of sense got their hands on a local map, or asked around before heading into dangerous territory and would know everything they should expect.

Xir still remembered his first foray into the Crimson Woods, a forest thick with monster Nests and alchemical ingredients. He had known to fear the Crimson Tyrant, the master of the forest and avoid it, he had known the apex predators just under it in strength were the Bloodied Drakehounds and the Sanguine Serpents. He had known the latter had dangerous anticoagulant venom and thankfully, the younger him had enough sense to buy a vial of antivenom for it.

The locals also told him that other than those monsters, which all would be at most level 5 to 7, with only the Tyrant being at level 10, all critters were near harmless. Here though? He had almost been killed by a bug the size of his pinky that looked like a damned twig the first time he dared to traverse the woods. For all he knew, that bushy tailed critter was actually capable of telepathy and was just a single instance of a planet-wide hive mind manipulating the world from the shadows. It was highly unlikely, but with information being near nonexistent about the strange creatures populating the unexplored continents, Xir couldn't be sure. He could never be sure about anything here. Expect the unexpected and prepare, for it had been his creed ever since that embarrassing twig encounter.

One never knows how valuable something they have is until they lose it. Xir mused, rolling the popular saying around in his head. It probably wasn't used to refer to convenient tools like mana-powered showers or to carefully made maps that had been made with diligent research, but it rang true nonetheless. He never knew how useful those things were, and just how inconvenient not having them freely accessible would be. I could kill for a shower. Who thought I'd be stuck out here for a month without any backup arriving? Damnit, they promised I'd just be the forward scout.

They must have been even lower on manpower than he'd initially expected. They went so far as to give him a mission that involved active sabotage, then had the absolute gall to reprimand him when he failed. Xir was a scout, damnit. He could function as a spy if his task was espionage, but sabotage? He had no training or experience in that. None at all.

His fast-tracked espionage training at least taught him how to scrub a safe house or hideout of all signs of your passing, which should count for something as the locals would be testing his capabilities in that department in the very near future. He had little doubt his pair of chosen operatives were already singing in captivity like a pair of songbirds.

At least I managed to accomplish the latter tasks. Xir mused darkly, knowing his superior likely wouldn't be pleased either way. To that man, the only successful mission was where you managed to exceed expectations, anything less was a given and deserved no praise or rewards. Simply doing as he was told only saved him from getting a pay cut or a horrid assignment.

His ring buzzed again, vibrating around his ring finger instantly like it was trying to break the digit. Xir grimaced and grasped the offending piece of jewellery before he cast a suspicious gaze up at the canopy where he expected to find another critter of some sort.

He heard no approaching footsteps, so he doubted any ground-walking beast was near him, but- … wait a second.

Xir's gaze snapped down at his hand. His eyes zeroing in on the Alert Ward enchanted ring on his index finger, then slowly slid over to the ring on his ring finger. That one was supposed to alert him of some higher Ranked magic being cast near him and it was now buzzing up a storm.

A shudder ran down his spine.

He was poised to flee, his other hand already snatching the Farstride spell scroll out of his pocket and primed his mana before his mind caught up with what he was doing.

He had been told the contact — who was going to be his superior for as long as this task lasted from the moment they actually showed their face — would arrive by magical means. Which made sense. His current location of deployments was as far from Starhaven's nearest border as the entire width of the erstwhile Plane. Magic or no, travelling halfway across the globe took some doing.

Crossing that distance without the use of a portal in any meaningful time was something only Rank 4s and 5s could manage. Maybe 3s too, if they specialised in something that helped with travel like Aether, Wind or of course, Space magic.

Still, the possibility existed that one of the locals from a nearby city with an Obelisk had tracked him down and was preparing to launch some great offensive magic at him.

The mere possibility of it forced Xir to act. Activating the spell scroll, the parchment burst into mana and surged into his body. Before he even knew what happened, it spirited him away and deposited him five hundred metres away.

Xir spun around, found a friendly-looking bush and leapt inside. Another surge of magic activating a druidic spell inscribed on a piece of bark hanging around his neck like an amulet. His skin rippled and went green as the bark turned into ash, while the bush's branches and leaves moved to form a protective cocoon around him.

It wouldn't save him from an attack, but the Nature's Refuge spell was one famed for hiding the caster from even higher Ranked onlookers when used in an optimal environment. Which is of course why Xir dove head-first into a bush.

Unless a Rank 2 diviner came around, he should be safe.

The pin he wore on his shirt, at the moment hidden under a jacket and a forest green cloak, sent a tiny jolt into his body. It was neither pleasant, nor unpleasant, but the implications relaxed Xir's nerves.

Quick as he could make it, he extended a tendril of mana into the pin and let the foreign mana stored within intermingle with his own. A few moments later, the telepathic link was established and an authoritative feminine voice spoke right into his skull.

'Agent Xir, present yourself.'

I suppose that means it was my new boss arriving after all. Xir mused, dismissing his active spell before setting off in a quick jog back towards the beacon. As he did, he projected back an answer.

'At once ma'am, a few minutes and I'll be there.'

He just hoped this meant he could head back home, but the realist in him told otherwise. Whatever the Shadows wanted to accomplish in this new continent, they needed grunts in abundance, and Xir unfortunately fit the bill.

This was likely to be the beginning of the real work.

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