They had barely made it five minutes away from the stream, when a massive, glowing green and purple snake leaped from its hiding spot to try and swallow Viy whole.

It had been perfectly masked within an agglomerate of green glowing bushes and purple fronds, but fortunately, the halberdier had reacted quickly enough to just about get out of the way, and there was enough room for half of them to pile onto the 16-feet long snake and pummel it to death. The beast's HP soaked up a lot of punishment, much more than they were used to from their previous fights, but eventually, it died under a storm of angry, startled and sweaty delvers.

They had then stopped around the snake's body for another while, while they harvested its shimmering, glowing scales, fangs, reservoir and other organs, when a trio of the same land-based birds that Nar, Tuk, Rel and Leta had faced the previous day decided to try their chances. They heard them from a mile away, however, and we're able to bring down the birds without too much trouble while the harvesters continued their work.

Once they were done, they set out once again, continuing to make their way in their three lines. The rest of the journey was thankfully peaceful, and a couple of hours after lunch time, they made it to what was supposed to have been their target destination for the previous day.

"It's going to rain tonight," Sarke suddenly warned them.

She had stepped away from the auramancers to hold a little device up in the air. The aether device sported small, black, rounded blades spinning atop it as she considered the readings on its tiny, green glowing screen.

The guide had needed to walk increasingly further and further from the gathering of auramancers before the little device had deigned itself to finally start working properly, and while nobody had said anything, it was a glaring confirmation of all that they had been warned about considering aethertech and their auras… Just by standing together, even without cycling, the natural emanation of aura from their bodies was more than enough to interfere with the machine.

"Is it bad?" Sej asked.

The guide had stayed with the rest of them, but her tense posture told Nar that she was ready to leap for Sarke at the first sign of danger.

The reptilian, whose race Nar was still unaware of, nodded and stored away the machine.

"It's going to be an absolute downpour," Sarke said, walking back to the party. "And it will probably last a couple of days, too. Maybe more."

"We should spend the remaining daylight setting up our camp, then. Right?" Kur asked them.

Sej nodded.

"There's no point in trying to gather or set out to fight any herds if we're just going to end up soaked for the night," the guide said. "Let's find a spot in this area and set up shop properly. We'll be around here for at least a full week."

It didn't take them long to find a somewhat elevated spot that, with some landscaping, would accommodate them all and help them stay away from the water that would soon come pouring down upon them. It would be so heavy in fact, that according to the guides, it would filter through the dense canopy overhead as though it wasn't even there.

Given that there was plenty of rain coming their way, they didn't bother looking for a stream to camp nearby, instead deciding to set up their rain-collector.

"And if anything, it just removes the hassle of having to deal with water beasts," Sej had told them, as they cleared through the underbrush and small trees to make up space for the ground tarp. Gad, Tun, and Raf armed with shovels, even made sure to raise parts of the jungle floor to even the surface as much as possible.

Then, the ground tarp was laid down, followed by yet another, thicker and somewhat even more padded layer that would keep the extra wetness away. Then, they set up thick, adjustable poles with large flat bases around the floor tarp, and those would hold up the weight of the slanted, heavy duty, anti-rain tarp that would go over the large, outer tent.

Then, they set about erecting the inside of the tent, setting up the sleeping tents, showers, toilets, and water-purifiers, though this time they also set up a proper communal space for meals, with tables and chairs, and one where they would be working on prepping all the harvested and gathered materials that they collected on their field trips. Doing so properly would increase their value by almost 60% according to Sej, and would be well worth the effort and time they put into it whenever they had some downtime.

"It looks cozy," Kur told Sej, as they neared completion. "But I've been wondering… Aren't we just trapping ourselves in here? Beasts can still attack us, right?"

Sej grimaced. "Yes, and yeah, we are. That is a very real danger, but with the amount of rain we're about to get, you will be really happy to have a clean and dry space to return to. Plus, when it rains, insects do their best to find somewhere high, nice and dry to hide out from the rain, and without the outer ten, that would be in here… And if that isn't enough of a bad picture yet, know that eventually, no matter how careful we were, they would get into the sleeping tents, toilets and showers too."

Nar suppressed a shiver. Let the beasts come then. Better that, than waking up to find several large and very venomous critters sharing his blow-up mattress with him.

"Can't we use the repellants?" the party leader asked.

"The rain will just wash it away. And we would need to be applying them constantly to get any results," Sej said. "And even then… Well, you know that bugs still attack us, even with those stinky things on us. And, even with the outside tent over us… Well, some bugs just seem to find a damn way in, usually carried in by us."

Mul gave her a blank, suppressed stare. "Lovely…"

"It will be okay!" Row said, for everyone's benefit. "We'll come out of this stronger and tougher! It's not a few bugs that's going to stop us!"

"I think there's more than a few in this place, boss," Jaz said, dubiously.

"Well, if you want, you can be on duty to kill anything that enters the camp."

"Was already planning on that," the archer muttered, earning him a few laughs all around.

"So, this is home," Rel said, coming to stand beside Nar.

He looked up from the trench he had been digging around the ground tarp, as a further measure to divert running water from their tent, and wiped the sweat from his forehead. All things considered, the white cube and the tents within, with their facilities, common area and other little nooks and crannies set around the place with benches and stools did not look so bad against the backdrop of that fierce jungle.

"It could be worse," he said, shrugging. "It's no Scimitar though."

"Oh, it could be a whole lot worse," she muttered.

Her expression had gone darker, and he didn't pry by asking her what it was that she saw as her eyes grew distant. It didn't take much effort to compare their campsite with its tents to the cannibal base they had escaped from in the depths of the B-Nex.

Anything is better than that, he thought. With a deep breath, he got back to digging the trench, but unfortunately, thoughts of the B-Nex invariably drew his mind homewards, and that he still had no way of escaping from.

**********

The noise of the rain pounding the tarp overhead was enough to almost drown even thoughts. It was more than sound. It was a presence. An existence. A reality…

Nar had found the rain a respite from the incessant bug noises that filled the night, but after a couple hours, and with the rain only getting more and more intense, he was starting to wonder if the bugs hadn't been the better option after all.

In the distance, he heard the occasional low rumble of thunder, though the canopy was so thick they didn't catch any flash of lightning. And as he sat beside the others in that dark night, a few aura lights illuminating the communal area besides the water-purifier and their yet to be used kitchen, he felt an immense joy and comfort in the fact that their shelter felt so sturdy, and that they had decided to spend the rest of the day setting it up ahead of the downpour.

And beasts be damned, he thought, as he sipped some purified water.

"Those tokens are going to take a lot more effort than I thought," Kur was saying. "Only two from all of those tygalos? And nothing from that snake and those three aleptios?"

That was the name for the land-based birds that attacked them. With their short, stubby wings, bright red and green plumage and heavy-set, powerful thighs, they would've made for fine meals if they had been aethermancers, even if the meat was supposedly tough. In fact, they had harvested and set aside some of said meat for Sarke to eat later on in their delve.

"Yeah… I wasn't expecting the guardian to be so stingy," Row muttered. "And that damned prep file didn't say anything about it either."

Kur had asked Nar to stick around for the first watch, as the leadership all stayed up to discuss their delve. Even though he had been awake the previous watch, he didn't really mind it. As the delver with the highest stamina in the whole party, with Viy coming up a not so far off second, and with his [Vigor] standing at a respectable 10 points, he didn't feel all that tired. Plus, anything was a welcome distraction, as the jungle heat and pitch-black darkness at night evoked painful memories in him.

Meanwhile, Jul had asked to stay up to continue practicing the sensing exercises that Sej had shown her earlier, and she now sat quietly beside Nar, and mostly ignoring their conversation.

Sej herself had also elected to join them, mentioning something about letting Sarke have some space to use some kind of research devices to analyze some leaf she had plucked up earlier. None of them had pried into what that meant, uncomfortable at yet another reminder of their forbearance from aethertech, and from those who used it.

"Coming around to fighting some full, uncommon herds?" Sej asked, a sly smirk on her face.

"You knew this was going to happen, uh?" Kur asked.

"I did. But it's always better to let people come to that realization themselves," the guide said. "It avoids a lot of fights, especially after a party has faced their first uncommon. A lot of apprentices get badly hurt in their first uncommon encounter, and all of a sudden, things start falling apart as they do the math."

"I can see that," Gad said, nodding sagely at her words. "As it stands, we will need to fight a lot more beasts than anticipated just to get out of the Brightnight. The common rewards now require an extra 2000 tokens on top of the 20,000 needed to leave, the uncommon are an extra 10,000, and the rare are an extra 25,000. And there's no point in even thinking about the epic rewards now. They would be amazing, of course, but we need to be realistic here. No way we're earning the extra 500,000 tokens for even the rares."

"So it seems," Tun said. "But even the uncommon rewards are the same quantity as what we need just to exit. If we take the two tokens we earned from the tygalos as a measure of what to expect, we could be facing hundreds, maybe even thousands of fights. In that scenario, we might have to consider dropping the uncommon rewards as well…"

A heavy silence followed the tank's words. There was no denying them, but nobody was exactly happy to hear the reason in them. To leave with just the common ranked rewards seemed just wrong.

"In order to aim for uncommon rewards, you need to hunt uncommon herds," Sej said. "And if you want rare rewards, you're gonna need to bring down rare beasts too. And not just a few of them! That's the way it goes, and there's no way around it."

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"Is it doable?" Kur asked.

Sej hesitated, then grimaced. "Honestly, I haven't really seen what you guys can take on yet, so I can't say for sure. You look like a capable bunch so far, but… I think for now, I recommend sticking with uncommon beasts. We know where to find uncommon herds if you want them, and we can guide you to those fights. Once you level up a bit, and get your jungle feet under you, maybe we can re-think about the rares again. But ideally, you need three parties to take down a rare. Or… A couple of very powerful delvers. I've seen it done, so I know it's possible, but they have to be very strong. Like insanely strong."

"Damn," Row whispered.

Kur exchanged a discreet glance with Nar, and all Nar could do was offer him a raised eyebrow look in return. Was he at that level of strength? Were any of the others in their combined party?

"When fighting full uncommon herds, the number of tokens you'll earn will be a lot higher per beast. That said, you will still be going through a lot of fights. But hey, the uncommon rewards are already pretty good for your levels," Sej told the deflated delvers. "Even for elite apprentices like you guys, uncommon skills, gear, AUCs and the like will be tremendously helpful for your careers! Besides, you have no actual requirements to bring in any rewards, right?"

Nar scratched his neck.

She's not wrong, he thought, staring up at the ceiling. The rain outside continued to come down in a ceaseless rage, and he was actually surprised the inside of the tent had remained watertight.

Movement drew his eyes, as in the guide's smaller tent, Sarke got up to grab something, and he eyed her shadow, highlighted by the small, flickering orange aetherlight she used to be able to see.

"You're not wrong there," Kur said, hesitant. "But this is only our first proper delve. Whatever comes after this… We've been told that it's going to be worse."

"Oh," Sej said, wincing. "Fair enough."

"Yeah. Anything we can earn here that will make our lives easier going forward is invaluable to us," Kur added. "That's why we're so hesitant to drop those rewards."

"Hmmm," Sej said, playing with her fingers over her lap. "In that case, my advice stays the same. Let's hunt the uncommon, and get our shit together first. Right now, you still don't really know anything about the jungle, and that tygalos fight was a mess. Once you guys get closer to level 50, we can see how things stand and we can think about hunting one of the weaker rares in the Jungle Tops."

"Wouldn't we be at risk of other parties taking down the rares first?" Tun asked.

Sej shook her head. "They respawn within a few days, and Helenorea! I really hope no one is rushing to one of them! I'd report any guides that allowed such stupidity! You guys seriously have no idea how strong these things are! I swear by the Crystal that I am not being overcautious nor blocking you guys just because. These rare beasts rule the jungle. They are the apex of the apex, and you need to respect them. Or you will become their next meal."

She took in their eyes one at a time with her firm, yellow glare.

"Unless I know that you are taking one of these fights seriously, with the proper preparations and precautions, and that I think you stand a proper chance at taking one down without casualties, then as guides, we reserve the right to not lead us all to our deaths," Sej said, her tone resolute.

Kur sighed, but he gave her a firm nod.

"That's fair. And don't worry, we're not stupid," the party leader said. "None of us are in any rush to die. Like I said before, we will listen to you."

"Good," Sej said, her posture easing. "That's good. That alone increases your chances of making it out of here with good results."

"Those uncommon were already pretty strong," Nar said. "I think it's a good idea to focus on them first. Especially if we'll be fighting herds full of them."

And especially if we're already struggling with the common beasts' greater HP and attribute densities, he thought grimly. Turns out that all of those damned warnings about this place were for a reason.

"Right, I think we'll start with common herds first," Kur said, eyeing Row, who nodded. "The beasts attribute density is proving higher than I anticipated, so we're all a little bit under leveled for this area, and as you say, even those common tygalos were a handful. So, I don't think we should rush to any uncommon fights just yet."

Around him, heads bobbed in agreement.

"Let's get some gains first and focus on gathering and harvesting all that we can while we do that. That list is an actual requirement for us, and we can't leave here with a single thing missing," Kur said. "Besides, we need to start thinking about food as well. As we expected, we have no need to worry about water, but our rations will only last us this week and we haven't spotted anything we can eat yet."

"Any ideas for that?" Gad asked Sej.

"It is a bit troublesome to feed an auramancer party in the jungle," Sej said, crossing her arms. "Usually people just bring in enough rations to last them the whole delve. But elite apprenticeships always like to do things the hardcore way… And your rules even extend to us guides, so I'm on the hook as well."

The ashen blue woman pursed her lips and shook her head.

"Any beasts we find will be aether beasts, which leaves us to hunt birds and forage around. There's a few none-aether infused berries, fruits, and others in the Brightnight, and if we're truly desperate, we can also eat some of the unripened aether infused ones. Those only get infused as they reach maturity," Sej said, then she twisted her nose, even as she smiled. "They taste like ass, though. Be warned."

"As long as we don't starve, we'll eat whatever," Row said. "It's not that long ago when all we knew was crackers and jell-o."

"True. Crystal. Very true," Sej said, sighing. "I kinda forget that…"

The boiler-purifier suddenly beeped, cutting through the roaring sound of the rain above and all around them.

"I'll swap it out," Tun offered.

"I'll help you with the containers," Gad said, following him.

"Crystal. I wish we could just store liquid directly in our inventories," Row said.

"That kind of storage is way too expensive," Sej said, smiling as she shook her head. "I've only ever seen it a couple of times, and those parties were either rich corpo, nepo babies or nobles."

"How… How were they?" Kur asked. "The nobles, I mean? We've heard that… Well, that we basically owe them obedience."

Nar leaned forward in his chair as Sej considered her words.

"That we do. And, well… There are all kinds, I guess," she said. "I'm fortunate that I've never met the real bastard ones, and the few that I guided were polite enough, even to an auramancer like me."

Even to an auramancer like me, uh? Nar thought, leaning back again.

"I have heard some horror stories, though," Sej added in a whisper. "Thankfully, our company doesn't place auramancers with nobles unless there's no other option, so I've really only guided a handful of noble parties."

"That's fair," Kur said. "Anyways, we should work out the teams for tomorrow. I think we should keep half here, to protect the camp, and then send half out there for harvesting. At least for now. Once we get a few more levels, we can try having three teams instead. What do you think, Sej?"

"That's the way to do it," the guide said. "And then the two teams take turns heading out and taking breaks, so that there's always someone gathering/harvesting and fighting. We need to make sure that both teams are still strong enough to fight off any surprises, but even just one of your parties is enough to clear out the smaller, common herds."

"Right," Kur said, rubbing his chin. "Let me go to the toilet, and then we can talk about tomorrow then."

Nar checked on Jul, who had remained quiet beside him, her eyes closed as she focused on her [Hearing]. Sej had given her some pointers to start off with, and her antennae had been wiggling without rest for hours now.

Missing those beasts really got to her, Nar thought, with a light smile. And in this jungle, beasts just seem to decide whether to attack or not in a split-second, so her [Instinct] is reacting too late to it.

He raised a hand and gently placed it over her antennae.

"Ah-What?" she startled.

"It's late," Nar told her. "You should get some rest. Tomorrow is another day."

She pursed her lips, frowning at him, and shook her head with a determined expression. "I'll go to sleep when you guys go. And you can't stop me!"

He chuckled, but he relented.

"Fine. How's it going anyways?" he asked her.

She sighed.

"It's hard. The jungle was already very bad for hiding sounds, but with this rain now?" she shook her head. "I can't really hear all that much. Just some birds in the trees, some bigger insects in the ground. And there's something big and slow moving away from us…"

Nar's eyebrows rose.

"That's already a lot, isn't it?" he said. "I tried listening like she told you, but I couldn't hear anything through this rain!"

She swatted at his leg.

"I've got almost double your [Hearing]!" she said, flashing him with a stern stare. "And an attribute modifier in it!"

"No need to rub it in," Nar said in mock sulking.

"Ugh! That's not what I mean!" Jul said, panicking.

Nar chuckled and patted her leg.

"Relax. I'm just kidding," he said. "But this is bothering you, isn't it? That you can't sense as well as usual?"

She nodded, her eyes falling to the padded, gray tarp under their feet.

"From the moment we left our cubeplant, my senses have been there to keep us safe. To let us know what's going on around us, and prepare for danger before it hits us," she mumbled. "But in this damned jungle, the beasts are so quiet. They are so good at disguising themselves and being still, waiting for the right moment to attack… Or to not attack! That snake today, and that watan, they were right there, just feet away from me, and I still couldn't sense them until it was too late. Not even with [Instinct*]!"

She huffed, and rubbed her forehead.

"All of the beasts in here… It's just like Sej said. They're either incredibly good at staying hidden, incredibly good at being quiet and keeping out of sight, or both," she said, rubbing her forehead in frustration. "And they don't even know if they're going to attack or not, so my [Instinct*] has been useless!"

"Hey! Come on, don't do that!" Nar said, pulling her hands away. "Your forehead's all dark now!"

"Bah!" she said, looking away.

"I know it's frustrating, but we all just need to adapt and get better," he told her. "This place is nothing like we've ever been through before, and we're all going to have to suck a little bit before we can figure things out."

She scowled at him. "You're not sucking!"

Nar sighed. "I am. I let Teb get dragged into that stream."

She frowned at him. "That was not on you, Nar… Without taunting skills, and facing beasts five levels above yours? Come on! And you jumped right in to grab him!"

"Right," Nar said, his turn to look away.

He was a self-tank, rather than a proper one, and perhaps, it was going to show more and more as they progressed deeper into the Labyrinth and leveled up. However, just like Jul had kept them covered since the cubeplant, so had he protected and watched over their backs, and even though he had already been moving away from that role by the end of the of the Climb, and throughout their few months of apprenticeship, it was still hard to stomach the idea of not being there when one of them needed them.

Soft, but firm fingers lifted his chin.

"We have Gad to protect us, and we're a lot stronger now too," Jul told him, her big, green-blue compound eyes pulling him in. "You just need to keep clearing the way for our future. Just like you've always done."

"I… Do?"

She grinned at him. "Yes. You do."

Then she tensed, her hands cupping her ears. "Oh, I caught something! Some kind of beast is up on a tree and… Ugh! I lost it!"

"Good one, Jul!" Sej said, from where she'd been talking to Row. "That one's a tricky one too. See if you can catch it again."

"I will!" Jul said, frowning in determination.

A smile touched Nar's lips at her expression.

She's right, isn't she? Nar thought to himself, stretching. And I did get him out. Though hopefully, with more [Awareness], I'll be able to protect them better…

"Anyways, what about your new… Fear sense?" he asked the quam, who had her eyes closed in concentration. "Could it help? Beasts… Fear, right? Even predators need to have some kind of fear in them, no? Even if just of going hungry."

"Hmmm…" Jul said. "Maybe. Fear can have many faces. Anxiety, dread, phobias. Even panic. And even just a fright, or apprehension could work… But that's all just a theory for now, and I can't control my fear sense yet. It just triggers randomly…"

"Is it going to become a skill?" he asked. "A passive, maybe?"

"The master thinks so," Jul said. "And unlocking it is actually my main goal in the Brightnight. Without being able to control my fear sense my path won't progress."

"You'll find a way!" Nar said, smiling reassuringly at her. "If there's a place full of fear to be sensed, it's this place."

"I guess…" she said.

Then she tensed again, her eyes going wide.

"Shit!" Sej cursed. "All the fucking Radiants preserve us!"

"What's going on?" Kur asked, as he rejoined them.

"There's something in the jungle," Jul said, closing her eyes and cupping her antennae again. "Something… Laughing?"

"What the fuck?" Row asked, going pale.

"Cacklers!" Sej said. "Just our fucking luck!"

"Oh, I remember those," Gad rumbled, her eyebrows raising.

"They're some of the worst things you can find in the Jungle Tops!" Sej said. "Sadistic predators that take pleasure in torturing and eating their prey alive. That laughing sound you hear is them rubbing their four mandibles together to incite fear and panic in their prey. It's all part of their enjoyment."

"Are they coming for us?" Tun asked. "Do we wake up the others?"

"We do! Quick!" Sej said, and Tun and Gad immediately sprung to action. "Right now, they're heading west, and whatever they're chasing after is taking them away from us. But they're less than a quarter mile away from here. If that herd hears us… Or smell us…"

She clenched her jaw. "It could go bad. There's a lot of them, and those things are level 46 and above."

"46?" Row whispered. "I thought this area started at 40! Why's everything above that?"

"A delver of level 40 should be able to fight something four or five levels above theirs, and these cacklers don't usually show up this close to the boundary," Sej said, frowning. "Something must have really riled them up and drawn them here."

"They sound so evil!" Jul whispered.

"That's because they are," Row said, going pale. "Fuck."

Sej stalked over to the tent she shared with Sarke and poked her head in.

"I'm awake," Sarke said from inside. "Do we turn off all the lights?"

"We do, and from now on we all go quiet!" she said, eyeing the ranks of bleary-eyed apprentices as they assembled, weapons in hand. "If those things come for us, in the best-case scenario, the camp is getting trashed. At worst… Well, let's not think about it."

That makes it even worse, Nar thought. He pulled on his [Hearing], and just at the very edge of its range, he heard them, cackling in the dark downpour. And as faint as it was, it was enough to fill his veins with ice.

This jungle is crazy, he thought, as people huddled up together, and lights were turned off, plugging them into a deafening darkness of pounding rain. You never know what's going to happen next, and it's hard not to feel like you are the prey in here.

"Combat gear?" Teb asked.

"The rain would deplete us in seconds," Row whispered, shaking her head.

They waited, heartbeats galloping in the tense downpour, and Nar tracked the cackling sound as it passed by them, continuing on its way westward and growing fainter.

That's it. Just keep going, he thought, holding his breath. Just keep…

Jul suddenly gasped.

"Fuck! Crystal damned, fucking fuck!" Sej swore.

"What happened?" Kur hissed. "Are they coming for us?"

"Worse!" Sej whispered.

"There's people being chased!" Jul said, her voice muffled. "They're shouting for the Crystal's Mercy!"

The Crystal's… Oh.

"You don't mean…" Mul whispered.

"They're calling for help," Sej said, sounding as though she was speaking through gritted teeth. "And we heard them!"

Holy Crystal, Nar thought. Here we go.

"We have to get out there," Sej told them. "We have to help them."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.