Climbing cave walls without gear wasn’t exactly something I excelled in, especially with only one working arm. If my third fall in five minutes hadn’t taught me that, then the fourth had really cemented it.

  Didn’t help that I had the same weird creature that had stolen my crystal looking down at me and occasionally screeching. I couldn’t tell if it was intentionally trying to goad me, but it was definitely succeeding.

  I let myself slide down the last few feet of wall, sagging against the ground as I tensed and untensed my right arm. It felt sore from holding my entire weight for so long, and my fingers were red and aching.

  [Kinetic Shell] was proving useful in my attempts, allowing me to dig small crevices and divots into the wall using the barriers I generated, but with only one arm, I was forced to rake my way up the wall single-handed, and I could only make it about five or six feet into the air before my muscles gave out.

  The barriers [Kinetic Shell] created were potent when I focussed them on a narrow point, strong enough to allow me to dig my fingers a half-inch into the rock. I imagined if I was more adept with the skill, I could make platforms of sorts below my feet and jump or even run my way to the top, but I was nowhere near skilled enough. As of now, I could barely conjure the weakest barrier using my legs. I imagined that had something to do with the mana in my legs being largely more dormant. That or the fact I’d not gotten used to using the gates in my legs.

  Either way, the process was frustrating, and what had started as a spontaneous excuse to practice my skills was quickly turning into a showcase of my limitations. I was almost sure that if not for my noodle arm, I’d have made my way up this wall as if it were nothing.

  Every now and then, I heard the creature shouting and hollering from above. There were still more quadrupeds around, and they seemed somewhat curious about me, but none walked too close. Mostly they walked and chattered amongst themselves.

  Probably for the better. I was in a foul mood right now. I wouldn’t attack one of the little things but I very well might scream at it.

  I took a deep breath. Was this worth my time? I wondered if I should just cut my losses at this point. It was only one Spirit Stone, and I was hardly in a state to climb this wall. I’d have to scale it at least four times as far as I’d previously managed if I wanted to see what laid above.

  Somewhere about halfway through my contemplation, the offending, theiving creature stuck its head over the wall once more.

  It stared at me for a good five seconds. I stared back.

  Then, it stuck its tongue out and blew a raspberry at me.

  Okay, that’s it. You’re dinner tonight.

  Stubborn attrition wasn’t going to get me to scale this wall any time soon, so I needed a plan. Irritated as I might’ve been, situations like this were a good reminder that anger led me to rash decisions. I needed to be smarter.

  There were probably about eight of these little creatures wandering around the other side of the cavern right now, at least in sight. I’d seen more only minutes ago but they constantly came and went.

  They clambered up things using their entire bodies. Hand-like front paws, feet, and I’d even seen one wrap its tail around a protruding rock formation.

  I was stuck using one arm. Maybe I could make divots for my feet?

  No good. Making them in arm’s reach might be doable, but what about higher up?

  Unless I could find a way to stick to the wall without relying on my new ability?

  I reached into my [Hoard] and started mentally rummaging around. I had those ice crystals still not seeing use, was there anything I could do with those?

  Hmm, doubtful. Freezing myself to the wall might stop me from falling but I wasn’t going to be able to traverse it. I did wonder if I could partially melt the ice and let it re-freeze in order to move but…

  No. It was a bad idea. Even if I froze myself to the wall from the forearm down and used that as an anchor to take breaks, I was pretty sure I’d only wind up damaging the limb even more doing so.

  What else could I use? Rush Stones sprang to mind. Was that physical boost enough to get me past this?

  It took longer than I’d have liked for me to discard the idea. Logically, I understood committing resources to recovering one Spirit Stone didn’t make much sense, but in contrast, I wanted to. Plus, I enjoyed using Rush Stones.

  It was when I’d made that realisation that I put the thought out of my head entirely. They’d be saved for emergencies only, and this definitely didn’t qualify.

  Okay, I was digging my heels in until I had this figured out. I had plenty of materials to work with, plus the ability to craft. Surely I could make some climbing gear that would accommodate my current disability.

  I decided to do a quick sweep of the area to ensure there were no nasty monsters lurking nearby before getting ready to attempt crafting. I assumed the area was fairly safe, considering arguably docile creatures lived here, but it didn’t hurt to check. Thankfully, nothing threatening seemed to be present, even when I swept with [Moonlit Grace].

  I also tried to see if I could spot any alternate paths up the stubborn wall, maybe another walkway or tunnel that looked easier to scale, but no luck there. In fact, walking further beyond this area led me to at least two dead ends where the only paths ahead seemed to be upwards. It seemed it was gonna be somewhat necessary to figure out how to climb here and now if I wanted to have an easier time going forwards.

  So, I reconstructed the elements of my previous fire and set it alight. I struggled less to light this madmaw carcass than the last. [Kinetic Shell] provided increasing heat the more I layered the barriers, and with enough focussed effort I was able to make a spark that ignited along the dry pelt.

  It wasn’t the most pleasant smell, even through my mask, but it was a fire, and it was warmth. The rift creatures stared as I began pulling gear from my [Hoard] and laying it out in front of me, careful not to leave anything out of arm’s reach. Last thing I wanted was more of my stuff being snatched.

  I had a couple of pickaxes in my possession, one reinforced, a variety of metals, some miscellaneous clothes and a spare jumpsuit, and all kinds of crystals. I laid it all out and began to use my imagination.

  I was going to make… a spike suit.

  ***

  “Still no luck?” Maisie asked.

  Jackal and Finn looked between one another, expressions glum.

  “Nada,” Jackal answered.

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah, it sucks.”

  “The calico’s not checked in yet,” Finn reminded them. “Maybe he’ll have found something.”

  “Where would he even have gone?” Maisie started up again for what was likely the fourth time in the last two days. “Probably more of his ridiculous training, right? He’s probably fine?”

  “He’s probably fine,” Jackal nodded, not wanting to bring the mood down any further. “We’ll… we’ll keep looking. Just to be safe. This place is easy to get lost in. Not like the fucker’s killable anyway.”

  There was a snicker from Ceri, but it was half-hearted. Adam wasn’t the first one to go missing from this group, and they all knew ‘missing’ usually meant ‘dead’.

  They’d all seen Toar kill Fallos. Jackal remembered the way the bastard had laughed when Toar had started fighting back, and the way his face twisted when he’d realised he couldn’t breathe anymore. Watching someone be choked to death was kinda horrifying, but Jackal couldn’t think of a more deserving victim than fucking Fallos. Toar might’ve been a lot of things, but he’d saved us from someone a hundred times worse. Someone straight up sadistic.

  Fallos was the reason two previous members of their group had gone missing. Surella had been seventeen, and she’d disappeared after being sent to mine in an unfamiliar area, then being repeatedly sent back until she didn’t returm. Titch had only been fourteen. Titch was a mouse beastkin, and one of Fallos’ favourites to fuck with. He ran off one day and never came back. We’d searched then, too, but it was useless. You could find bones if you walked far enough through any cavern, but telling whose they were was anyone’s guess.

  But sometimes missing didn’t mean dead. Adam had been missing once already. Even Finn had disappeared for a full day once after a nasty cave-in. Sometimes ‘missing’ meant missing.

  But it had been two days by now. Jackal wasn’t willing to cut his losses, yet, though. He hadn’t managed to find Surella, or Titch, but that didn’t mean he was giving up on Adam. The kid had done too much for him and his group already, he didn’t deserve to die down here. If he was laying under some rubble somewhere, starving and hurt, or if he’d broken a leg exploring on his own, Jackal wouldn’t forgive himself if he didn’t find the kid before something else did.

  “You ready to head out again?” Finn asked, prompting an immediate nod from Jackal.

  Finn didn’t say much, and Jackal didn’t really know him that well considering how long he’d been part of the group, but he’d been consistently willing to help look, and that was good enough in his book. The two of them wolfed down some meat and grabbed their light crystals. Before they could leave, however, Marcos told them to wait.

  “What is it?” Jackal asked.

  “It’s the third of the month today.”

  “Yeah?” Jackal cocked his head. “What’s your point?”

  “We’re going to be audited soon,” Marcos explained. “Audits happen on the fifth of every month, and this will be our first one without Toar. Our first hand-in without Toar, too.”

  “Do you have a point?” Jackal asked, not willing to hide his agitation.

  “Who’s handling the audit?” Marcois asked. “Who’s dealing with Cerrick when he comes in two days?”

  Jackal shrugged. “I dunno. You can.”

  “Okay,” Marcois frowned. “And what do I tell him about our group situation? Toar’s incapacitated and we don’t know when he’s waking up. Adam’s missing, possibly for good—”

  Jackal saw Maisie flinch.

  “—and what about our inventory? You’re paying people from Naska’s group to help you search. Is that coming out of your haul? Adam’s?”

  “Everyone’s, equally,” Maisie told him.

  “Okay. So where does that put us? Are we still at quota? Behind quota? Do we even know?”

  “Grr… what’s it fucking matter?” Jackal sneered at Marcois from where he sat. “You don’t gotta say shit about Adam. Not like there’s any reason they’d know. If they ask, he’s off mining somewhere. And if we’re a little behind quota, so what?”

  “So what?” Marcois repeated. “You realise that with Adam and Toar gone there’s only five of us, right? Even if Adam were here, we’re a group of six with a comatose group leader. What do you think happens when Cerrick decides we can’t pull our weight without Toar here to guide us?”

  Jackal growled. “Gee, I dunno. I’m not as smart as you. Why don’t you just tell me.”

  “Two options. One, they break us up and place us all in new groups. Two, we get assigned a new leader from a larger group.”

  “You’re being dramatic,” Jackal shrugged, waving his hand. “This group’s been going for years. You telling me we’ve never once been behind quota?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Marcois nodded. “Even when we had to run around scavenging, Toar made sure we always hit it. And you remember how hard we worked back when Fallos—”

  “I remember.”

  “So you get my point. We need to be over quota. Whatever searching you’re doing, pause it and help me take inventory.”

  “If you knew this stuff was coming up, why didn’t you say anything until now?” Jackal asked.

  “I didn’t know you were spending out of our haul until today,” Marcois answered. “I wasn’t involved in the conversation.”

  “Sorry, I didn’t realise we had to run everything by you. I figured saving Adam would be worth us earning a bit less this month.”

  “Not if it jeopardises the group,” Marcois said. “If we’re under, we’re gonna have to mine the difference before audit.”

  “Wow! What a cold thing to say.” Jackal stood, wagging a clawed finger. “You know what, fuck this. Do your inventory. If we’re under, take the excess from my haul. Say I slacked off all month and I’ll take whatever disciplinary they wanna throw at me. I don’t care anymore.”

  “I know finding Adam is important to you,” Marcois started.

  “Well why isn’t it important to you?” Jackal spat. He marched forwards. “We’ve all been running around like crazy looking for the guy the last two days. Maisie’s barely slept. MAISIE has barely slept, and she spends her whole life fuckin’ sleeping. And you’re sat here talking about some fucking audit?”

  “Someone needs to think about the group’s best interests,” Marcois defended. “I do think finding Adam is important, but I also—”

  “No. No. You know what? I see through you.” Jackal jabbed a finger at Marcois. “You think you’re better than us. Or… or better than this! Yeah. One of those. Both, in fact.”

  “Excuse me?” Marcois said. His brow furrowed. “What exactly are you talking about?”

  “You heard! You, with your whole gentle giant thing. I’ve always wondered why you don’t fucking react to anything. I get it now! You think you’re above it. We’re all just stupid fucking kids to you, aren’t we?”

  “I never called you stupid,” Marcois replied levelly.

  “No? Because you’re looking at me like I’m a fuckin’ imbecile.” Jackal glared daggers at him. “Be honest. You think we’re wasting our time searching, don’t you?”

  “I never said it was a waste of time to search—”

  “Then why haven’t you been looking, Marcois?”

  “I was out with Ceri for four hours today, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh! Four! I was out all fucking night! I haven’t slept!”

  “It’s not a contest.”

  “Well it fucking should be!”

  Jackal heaved. “Same shit as before… Same shit as every time someone’s gone missing. You’re always the first to stop looking!”

  “And you’re always the last. We aren’t going to find someone after they’ve been gone for weeks.”

  “But how do you know that?!”

  Maisie and Finn both stared at Marcois. Ceri looked away.

  “Because it’s obvious,” Marcos intoned, his voice raised. “Because I’m not going to trade what little sanity I have left refusing to let go of the dead.”

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “So you’re saying he’s dead? That we should stop looking?”

  “Stop putting words in my mouth.”

  “But if he was gone for say, four days. Five.” Jackal prodded him. “You’d give up, right? That’s what you’ve done every other time. Not worth your time. Not worth your energy.” He prodded him again. “Easier to just move on with your life, isn’t it Marcois? Why don’t you care, huh? Is there a reason that other people matter to you so fucking little?”

  “This place is hell!” Marcois roared, standing himself. “It’s a pit of monsters and death! If someone’s been gone for that long, they’re never coming back! And if your nose can’t sniff them out, then what in blazes am I going to do to track them? If you couldn’t find them, if Toar couldn’t find them, then how could I?!”

  Jackal flinched from his volume, but he didn’t back down. The orc had never reacted so strongly to him before. Any other time, he might’ve been intimidated. But now? He was too tired, too emotional to care.

  “You didn’t do anything to stop Fallos.”

  “Don’t put that on me,” Marcois started.

  “What? You didn’t! I tried standing up to him! Multiple times! I’ve got the scars to fuckin’ prove it!” Jackal pounded his chest, right where those scars laid. “And what did you do? Sit there and let it happen! When you were strong enough to stop him!”

  “I wasn’t strong enough,” Marcois started.

  “You are literally THREE TIMES my size.”

  “You ingrate,” Marcois said it like a curse word. “I took beatings for you. Mined for your quota when you were too tired to stand. I replaced your gear when you lost it, and never asked for anything. You think I liked working under Fallos? You think I wouldn’t have done something about it if I could have?”

  Jackal stared up at the six and a half foot orc towering over him, growling, baring his teeth, mammothine tusks jutting from his maw. He felt like a rabbit faced with a bear.

  But this bear had no teeth.

  Or so he said.

  “No… you couldn’t do anything. Because you’re too moral.” Jackal sighed. “I shared my meals with you for months. I kept trying to pay you back. Couldn’t bare the sound of your stomach fucking growling. You were always fine taking from me.”

  Jackal felt tears around his eyes. He didn’t bother forcing them back. “You don’t have any feelings, Marcois. All you care about is yourself. You’d rather hide in your own bullshit than stick your neck out for anyone, and yet you act like you’re the victim. Like you’re punishing yourself by not helping.

  “All you do is make everything worse.”

  “Jackal,” Marcois started as he turned away.

  “No.”

  Marcois was breathing loudly, the anger stripped away from his voice. “Jackal, I do want to help.”

  “I’m fucking leaving.”

  Jackal knew how he sounded. His voice peaked as he spoke, cracked a little. Maybe he was being unfair. Putting too much on Marc. Maybe he resented him because he was weaker. Or because he wasn’t stable. Or smart.

  Jackal didn’t know. All he knew was that he wanted to find Adam.

  He resented all of them. None of them stood up to Fallos for months. All of them gave up searching for Titch. Titch was a sweet kid, too. Completely unsuited to this kinda place. He deserved a nice school and good friends. Not us.

  Jackal resented himself. He had given up searching too. He’d tried to challenge Fallos but only embarrassed himself. He’d become bitter and callous going from one asshole leader to the next, never strong enough to do anything about it.

  He was pretty sure that once upon a time, a decent guy existed beneath the asshole he presented. Now he wasn’t sure.

  All he knew was that he wanted to find Adam. He wasn’t concerned about whether it was the decent thing or not, he just didn’t wanna fail again. Plus, Adam made him feel useful. The group felt stable with him around.

  “Hey,” Jackal said to Finn, who was walking silently beside him.

  Finn’s face was framed by a blonde fringe. He had shiny blue eyes that paired with his quiet demeanour always made him look as if he were thinking. He flinched at the mention of his name.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Do… do you think what Marc said is true?”

  “Which part?”

  “The part about us being fucked if we miss quota.”

  “Probably.” Finn nodded. “Toar always seemed obsessed with making sure we hit it.”

  Jackal bit his lip. “Yeesh… Do you think I was totally too harsh on Marc just now?”

  “Maybe?” Finn shrugged. “We’re all on edge, though. Don’t beat yourself up over it.”

  “Do you agree that he was being cold, though?”

  “I think Marc acts mature. I dunno if that makes him cold, but he obviously doesn’t wear what he’s thinking all the time.”

  “You mean like me.”

  “Yeah, obviously.”

  Jackal chuckled. It was a dry laugh, but it was genuine.

  “Well, sorry. I didn’t mean to be so dramatic.”

  Finn’s eyes flicked to him as they walked. “It’s fine. Don’t think it’s me that needs the apology, though.”

  “I’ll apologise to him when we’re back.”

  “Alright.”

  They walked in silence for the next thirty seconds, half-formed thoughts dying on Jackal’s lips. He wanted to talk to distract from his feelings, but he didn’t want to hear himself inanely ramble, either. It was a weird conundrum.

  Strangely enough, it was Finn that broke the silence.

  “I’ve got a question.”

  Jackal almost did a double take.

  “S-sure? What’s up?”

  “Do you think that if we don’t find Adam, we’re all gonna end up being split up? Or that things’ll completely go to shit some other way?”

  “I mean, I wasn’t thinking that. Then Marc said his whole thing and… I dunno.” Jackal did a mental stock-check. It was in the list of worries, somewhere. “Maybe?”

  “But that’s not why you’re out searching day and night.”

  “I looked hard for the others, too.”

  “Not this hard. You seem sick with worry.”

  “I mean…”

  Jackal struggled to formulate the words.

  “I dunno…” He scratched the back of his head. “He was nice to me. I was my normal asshole self, and he was nice. I’m not putting on any illusions about what I’m like to be around. I fucking suck. And look how he put himself out for Maisie! Kid chopped off his own finger. Like it was nothing.”

  He paused for a moment. “Someone like that? He wouldn’t sleep if it was one of us. He’d be out looking every day too.”

  Finn nodded. “I agree. But I think he’d find time to work too.”

  “You think?”

  “Yeah. If it meant looking after himself. That and keeping the group together.”

  “Maybe…”

  “I want him back too. Place felt better with him around. He’s done a lot of good for us.”

  “I know. Work’s been so much easier since we stopped having to sneak around.”

  “Yeah. People have seemed happier, too. Even after Toar got hurt.”

  Jackal peered at him. “I mean, dude. I don’t think anyone was that cut up about Toar.”

  “You don’t?” Finn asked.

  “The huge asshole leader that used to threaten us daily?”

  “Toar saved us from Fallos,” Finn reminded him.

  “He didn’t ‘save us’,” Jackal answered. “He just got pushed too far and snapped. Fallos wanted him to eat out of a fucking cat bowl, the asshole. I think any beastkin would’ve seen red.”

  “Assuming they can see red.”

  Jackal tutted. “You know what I mean. I remember I wanted to kill him just seeing that shit happen. And then he died. And no one cared. Why would anyone care about Toar, even if he had kicked the bucket?”

  “Toar’s flawed,” Finn said. “I’m not arguing that. I do think he’s a bit of an asshole.”

  “That’s the understatement of the century. Remember when he made me eat my own shoe?”

  “He didn’t make you,” Finn argued. “He flipped out at you for eating his rations and took your food the next day. You ate your own shoe out of spite. Or hunger. Probably a mix of both.”

  “...not my proudest moment, I’ll admit.”

  The pair of them rounded a corner, crystalline lights coming into view.

  “I’m not gonna pretend that Toar is a well-adjusted person. Or that he didn’t deserve to be knocked down a peg or two. But I don’t think he’s an irredeemable asshole. I think he tried his best with what he had, and probably what he learned about leadership from Fallos once he’d taken over. Not exactly the best teacher.”

  `”I always just thought you sucked up to him because you were scared of him,” Jackal admitted. “I didn’t think you actually liked the guy.”

  “I mean, I’ll freely admit that I’m a pussy,” Finn said. “But no. I like him. Even if he’s not the best person, I can see all the good he’s done for us.”

  “I think you’ve got a condition or something…”

  “I dunno. We’re all flawed one way or another.”

  A short pause.

  “I think we’d manage without Adam, though. Or without Toar, or without anyone.”

  “If you say so. I barely manage with those people around.”

  Finn snickered, and Jackal returned to his thoughts.

  They felt a little calmer now. Still, the seeing red thing had reminded him of his experience collecting dunseldorf plants with Adam.

  He had meant what he’d said before. He did wanna make things up to him.

  He remembered how many times he’d brought Adam the wrong plants at first. He’d said it was okay, though. That he’d look at selling off what was left after, though he went missing before he ever did it.

  Wait.

  He did go missing before selling the other plants, right?

  Jackal and the others had checked his tent after he’d been missing a full day, searching it for any obvious clues.

  No plants in there. They weren’t valuable enough to hide from the rest of the group, Jackal assumed, plus they all knew he had them, so where had they gone?

  Had he sold them off on the day he’d gone missing? We knew he went to Mercury and got his finger sewed because the first thing we’d done is ask that.

  Jackal relayed his thought to Finn a little excitedly. It was the closest thing to a lead anyone had thought up all day.

  The two of them headed off to the doctor’s tent together after a brief discussion. Hopefully, Adam had swung by there on the day he’d gone missing, and the doctor himself would be able to clue them in on something regarding where he headed off to.

  Renewed by hope, they marched on in search of answers.

  ***

  On my fifth attempt of scaling the wall wearing my new spike suit, two things happened.

  One, my [Climbing] skill progressed to level nine.

  [Climbing: 8 >> 9.]

  And two, I finally managed to clear the bastard.

  I pulled myself up onto the platform above with a mighty heave, panting and sweating. Once I was finally all the way up, I simply laid on my front for a full minute, panting and catching my breath.

  If something decided to leap out and attack me right now, then screw it, good job. Kill me. Gods, did I feel wiped.

  Honestly, half of the exertion had been making the spike suit. Only with repeated combinations and deconstructions did I learn that using [Hoard] to craft could be so mentally taxing.

  I’d repeatedly broken down the spare pickaxe I’d found into its metallic parts. Sharpening those took repeated separations to make the metal less sturdy, then a ton of shaping using the heat from [Kinetic Shell] to guide the metal bars I’d created into pointier versions.

  Then it was trying to combine those to create something sharper that was still pointed. It took six rounds of deconstruction, metalworking, and reconstruction before I finally had sharp metallic spikes that felt relatively sturdy.

  Then it was finding ways to reinforce those. I found that while item combinations could be forced, not all raw materials fused well together. Ariline didn’t want to pear nicely with iron or steel, and attempts to use the small amount of thirum in my [Hoard] to strengthen the metal left the spikes feeling too dense to really penetrate stone, even if incredibly sturdy.

  In the end, opalite ended up being the ticket. It was a crystalline-looking metal. Sharp, but durable in nature. It paired nicely with steel, causing me to create translucent silvery spikes that glinted in the light and reflected the colours around them.

  Next was fitting those to clothing, which turned out to be surprisingly easy. I selected my spare jumpsuit, combined it with a dozen spikes, and bam, spike suit. I supposed the creation was fairly intuitive to [Hoard] considering how little else there was to do putting these items together…

  However, the first spike suit was flimsy. The spikes themselves were sturdy enough to climb with, but getting them to stay on the suit and not tear off meant finding a way to reinforce the jumpsuit itself.

  I didn’t have any means to make leather from the madmaw pelts I had leftover, nor could I preserve them out in the open, but I found that I was able to combine a madmaw pelt with my jumpsuit and create something more durable.

  The resulting outfit was somewhat itchy, but it was both warm and sturdy. It was a temporary solution, as I couldn’t wear an untanned dead animal long-term, but thankfully, every trace of fat, gore, and blood had been removed from it as a result of the madmaw’s deconstruction, so it didn’t feel anywhere near as unhygienic as it could’ve been.

  Besides, I was used to dirty clothes.

  The last hurdle had been making the spikes stay in place. I had two half-inch spikes on the inside and outside of each wrist, as well as short spikes at the side of my ankles and knees and longer ones near the elbows and shoulders.

  I tried multiple solutions, but in the end, the one that made the most sense was stabbing small holes into the jumpsuit and creating forked ends to each spike which I could just barely fit into the holes.

  Doing it like this meant I could add and remove the spikes as needed, though I likely wouldn’t do too much of the latter as I didn’t want to unnecessarily stretch the holes. This suit was definitely a prototype of something I’d try to make a refined version of later, but as for right now, I just needed it to be functional enough to get me through this cave an arm down. As long as it could hold my weight without the spikes slipping out or the fabric suddenly tearing, it would do the job.

  And to my utter surprise and astonishment, after multiple tweaks and a lot of wishing, it worked, and I was absolutely astonished to find myself dangling off the ground, a dozen spikes assisting me in my defiant climb.

  I even got a new skill for all my efforts, plus multiple increases:

  [Trap Making: 7 >> 8.]

  [Tinkering: 7 >> 8.]

  [Crafting: Level 1 Acquired!]

  I felt pretty happy with that. I guess creating spikes had applications with trapmaking? I was hoping to gain a skill in metal-working too after so many repetitions heating and shaping it, but a general crafting skill was hardly something to scoff at. If anything, it was likely the best one to get.

  All that and the increase in [Climbing]... honestly, all of it paled in comparison to the feeling of being at the top. By the time I’d made it, I’d almost forgotten why I was even bothering to do this. The catharsis of having conquered the stupid wall felt satisfying enough in of itself.

  Then I heard that demonic screech, and I remembered exactly why I’d come up here.

  I got up. I looked around. Instantly I found that I’d wandered into some kind of nest for these things. There were as many as thirty little quadrupeds in the immediate area. The ones who were sleeping soon woke up as a giant wandered into their nest. They shifted warily as I wandered through.

  It wasn’t long until my eyes fell upon an odd sight. One of the creatures was still sleeping. It was a bit larger than most of the others, and its chest seemed to flutter with each breath. It almost looked ragged. Around it, various gems and valuables semeed to be scattered in some sort of haphazard shrine.

  Among them was my Spirit Stone. Or… maybe it was. There were enough scattered there that I couldn’t really tell which was mine. Not like it mattered.

  I made my way over to the pile of valuables when a familiar screech sounded. Honestly, I couldn’t really tell these creatures apart, but I recognised the thief’s voice, mainly because it was louder and more shrill than any of the others. It stood between me and the haul of goods, looking ready to fight to defend them.

  Which… was honestly kinda funny. Almost unexpected, too. I was pretty sure I could kick this thing once and it would die.

  I spent a few seconds simply regarding it, simple curiosity taking over, and as I did, I heard a cough from the creature that laid behind it, and the quadruped before me flinched.

  I began to readjust my earlier assessment. The creature might not have been guarding the treasure… but the creature that laid behind it?

  I peered ahead and looked at the sleeping monster.

  Was it sick? It looked sick. Every other one of its kind had sprang to attention at my arrival and was watching me intently, ready to run a mile if I came too close.

  But this one didn’t even acknowledge me…

  I moved closer. As I did, I felt the thief attempt to jump on my leg.

  I simply shook it off and kept walking. When I arrived at the nest of the sleeping monster, I realised it was sweating in its sleep.

  I didn’t think about it for long. I reached into my [Hoard] and pulled out a health pot, one of Selsor’s.

  This time the little fucker really tried to bite me. Thankfully, the speed at which I flinched created a barrier that stopped it from breaking the skin, and I shoved it off once again.

  I unstoppered the potion and fed a few drops to the sleeping creature. It stirred momentarily, then began to shake.

  All the others reacted to that, chattering and screeching.

  Then the sleeping one opened its eyes, and the screeches became much louder.

  It stood up. The thief rushed over and pressed faces with it. Then it looked at me.

  I was half expecting another bite. Instead, it started flinging treasure at me. All of the contents of its little shrine ended up piled up at my feet.

  If I had to guess, it’d been gathering different materials hoping one would fix what ailed its… mate? Queen? I wasn’t sure what they were to each other. Its fellow creature.

  And now I’d fixed it and it had no use for treasure anymore. So it was offering it all to me instead.

  There was something I realised in that moment, looking down upon the happy rift monsters and gathering the new materials I’d been rewarded with.

  Even after a score as big as the one I’d made only hours ago, I was always more than satisfied to receive more loot. I was definitely more than satisfied with this result.

  That wasn’t the only realisation. Helping things felt nice. Even if it was a group of little monsters.

  But I was done here. I could climb now, and there was nothing stopping me from moving on, my confidence fully regained.

  Next stop, the facility. I’d get that quest done and get the hell out of this cave.