Virginia from the Grand Canyon was over twenty-two hundred miles away. Assuming they could average around one hundred and fifty miles a day. Then it would take two weeks to reach the state, plus another day or two to get to the dungeon.

  That was only an estimate. It could be less, or more, and it wasn’t counting any stops they made at various cities along the way. This was supposed to be a trip of growth and learning, not something that they simply blew through as fast as possible simply because they could.

  The trip was meant to be enjoyed.

  Once the trip stopped being fun and became a chore, then they knew they needed to change things up.

  In many ways, they were all exploring the world together. During his first life, Nathan had been too sick to go on any road trips after college. After that, all he could do was watch the world through the TV screen.

  In this world, road trips simply weren’t a thing. People rarely left their cities by a large distance, with most only ever going a couple of hundred miles. Angelica had been slightly farther due to her family's mercantile business, but that was it.

  As it was, they were avoiding the cities where the main branch of her family lived. On the final leg of their trip, they would be hitting the main city where they resided. It was a meeting that she was not looking forward to in the slightest.

  As the days passed, they quickly settled into a new pattern. Working together to clear the area around the RV each night and talking to any locals they found about areas to avoid.

  It didn’t happen often, but occasionally stronger beasts and other monsters would wander away from the rest of their group. When that happened, they had two choices, run as fast as they possibly could, or attack it. If the being truly was alone, then they would attempt a few attacks to determine if they could even hurt it.

  Usually, they couldn’t, but they had gotten lucky once or twice.

  The drive took them through the top corner of Texas and into Oklahoma. From there, the highway diverged depending on whether they wanted to go through Missouri or Mississippi.

  None of them really had an opinion, so they decided to stay on their current track and go through Mississippi and then Tennessee.

  Parts of the country they had only ever heard about in old songs or textbooks were constantly coming into view. They saw real trees, not just pine trees, but actual trees with leaves and weeping willows. They walked across bridges that looked as though they might collapse at any moment and more.

  Every day was an adventure, and every time they were close to a city, they made sure to phone home and talk to their parents. Pictures were taken of everything, factories, barges, and water monsters that the cultivators all worked together to take down.

  Life was different out here than they were used to, but it was similar at the same time. It had the same undercurrent of life and rhythmic notes as back home. Everyone was working, watching out for each other, and pushing ahead. They had carved out a way of life in a world that had changed around them and come out stronger for it.

  Nate was sure that there were people and families like Jace or his parent’s old boss in there, they existed everywhere after all. By and large though, they were all honest, hardworking folk just trying to stay alive and get ahead. Same as anyone else.

  During that time, they passed two separate dimensional zones that possessed dungeons he had created. They didn’t stop, but it was interesting to see how the cities near those locations had changed.

  Two weeks later, they were in Virginia and near the location Nate had wanted to bring them all to. They needed to hike a fair distance as well. The dense forest and backcountry had long since swallowed the roads that used to exist in the area.

  Nate stored the Overlander RV once they reached the forest, and the four of them prepped their armor and weapons.

  “Are you going to tell us what we’re doing out here, yet?” Angie asked while checking over her blade and pouch of steel ball bearings.

  “I thought it would be obvious,” He replied with a grin. “We are going to check out a dungeon.”

  In all honesty, that wasn’t all they were going to do; it was merely the stage for what he actually had in mind. It was time to tell the girls the truth, and this was how he was going to do it.

  Lindsay checked over her own equipment and once everything was in order, they set off for the new dungeon.

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  The four of them followed one of their usual group tactics and had Nate in the back with his crossbow. Lindsay was in the middle, where she could do the most good with her halberd. Angie, in turn, took the front with her fast light sword. Aura would handle recon duties, one of the items that Nate occasionally did with her when they were part of a larger group.

  They had managed to avoid the areas of the states they had driven through. They had been completely lost to the beasts and other invaders. Most of those locations were a result of poor planning or inadequate information during the early days of the dimensional zones first appearing. Before their city had fallen, it had been over thirty years since the last city fell, and that one had not been anywhere close to as prepared as theirs was.

  In the end, it led to even more areas becoming part of the unexplored wilds.

  The dungeon they were heading to at the moment somewhat belonged to that group. There was a small city, or large town somewhat nearby, by which they meant it was two hours away from where they had initially chosen to park. Or roughly eighty miles, give or take a few miles away from where they were. There used to be more, but over time, they had all been abandoned as people congregated together.

  “There is a pack of wild dogs up ahead,” Aura sent back to Nate telepathically.

  The group prepared to meet them, with Angie quickly exchanging her gauntlets for a heavier, thicker pair. They would slow her down some but would protect her from bites and powerful jaws much better than her normal pair.

  A few seconds later, the pack came into view and immediately attacked the group.

  Simply calling them wild dogs was doing them a severe disservice, Nate thought. These were dogs that had been affected by qi and changed. They were closer to the dire wolves from fantasy novels on OE than anything even remotely normal. Each of the wild dogs was a massive beast, just a little smaller than a horse.

  “Holy smokes,” Lindsay muttered with a grunt, already swinging her halberd in a fierce downward chop. “These aren’t dogs! They’re bloody ponies.”

  Angie’s sword was leaving thin scratches across their noses, her current strength too little to do more damage than that against them. Tufts of hair fell to the ground as she shaved them bit by bit, revealing the bare skin that had once been protected by thick hair and fur.

  As these bare patches were revealed, Nate would take the opportunity to release one of his bolts. While the crossbow was no longer as powerful as he wanted, it still had plenty of power for most beasts.

  Behind the wild dogs, Aura nipped at their heels and activated one first tail energy skill after another. Energy skills belonging to the first tail were Aura’s weakest, least qi-intensive skills. They didn’t necessarily have a lot of power, but as a result, she could spam them like they were going out of style.

  With all of them working together, they were able to wear the wild dogs down, and then bleed them out. It wasn’t the most glorious of wins as they came. Not when you considered how long it took them to eliminate the entire pack. However, they did manage to get through it with nothing more than minimal scrapes and injuries. They weren’t out there trying to impress anyone, but in an effort to stay alive and get even better as they continued to practice.

  Nate stored the bodies, and they all took a few minutes to rest and regain their strength and energy.

  “How many dimensional zones are out here?” Angie asked after a moment, looking squarely at Nate. “You don’t hear about wild animals growing to that size very often. Either their original pack has been out here for several of their generations, or there is more than one-dimensional zone nearby increasing the level of qi.” She breathed in deep, her eyes closing for a moment. “And the qi in the area IS rather high.”

  Nate looked away, unsure how to respond. It was obvious that Angie had her suspicions; she was a smart girl. They both were. More than likely, they had known something was off since before the attack on the city, and simply been ignoring it. This trip had put them in close confines with each other and made that harder to do. Possibly even impossible to do. For all he knew, it might even feel like he was being disrespectful to them at this point.

  He thought back to when he had created the dungeon. “Two, there are two-dimensional zones in this forested region. There is also a third one over the mountain range about a hundred miles away. So, there are three fairly close together.” He answered finally; sick of keeping secrets from them.

  Lindsay narrowed her eyes and looked from him to the depths of the forest. She slipped the halberd into the straps on her back as she stood. “Let’s not delay things any longer, Angie. I’m pretty sure Nate has something to show us at that dungeon.”

  “What would have given you that idea?” He asked with a roll of his eyes. “It’s not like I already mentioned that or anything.”

  Angie tossed a piece of bark at him. “You hush. You have been keeping us in suspense for months now.”

  “He wasn’t even sure that he was going to tell you the truth until recently,” Aura told them both. “It’s a dangerous secret to know, for all involved. His parents didn’t even want to know the real truth. They undoubtedly have their own theories, but they were content to stick with the same story he told the two of you.”

  The two girls looked suitably chastened, realizing that they were asking for more knowledge than even his parents had received.

  “It’s fine,” Nate told them. “I’ve been mostly prepared to tell you both for a while now. I just needed to find a good way to do it and doing it in the middle of the woods where no one can hear you scream is what I came up with.” He finished dramatically.

  Lindsay yawned. “Right. Are we supposed to be scared of you or something?”

  He clicked his tongue in annoyance. Yet another thing that didn’t really cross over from OE. Movies existed, though in a much more limited form. Only a few were made each year, and the horror genre had pretty much vanished over the years. It was no surprise that she hadn’t understood the admittedly pitiful reference.

  “Anyway, we still have a way to go before we reach the dungeon,” Nate glanced at his watch, and then at the position of the sun above the trees. “If we’re lucky and move quickly, we might be able to make it there by tonight.”

  “Yeah, because the odds of us not getting attacked again are sooo high,” Angie quipped as they began jogging through the forest.

  “Eh, we might get lucky,” Nate rapped his knuckles against the side of a tree as they ran past, warding off the jinx his words could have brought.

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