Solbasks were formidable monsters. The magical solar panels they carried may be valuable but not worth the risk and effort of hunting them.

  Their exoskeleton looked like rocks but was harder than steel armor and some inches thick. These creatures were practically tanks. And for offense, their magical solar panels could fire concentrated sunlight, barbecuing those who’d disturb them. They’d often cause forest fires—another reason, in addition to their excavation activities, why this hill had a different landscape compared to the others.

  Can I tank them? Elian couldn’t recall if the Solbask’s attack was magical damage. Gathering energy to be fired as a beam had to have some magic along the way. Partly magic, at the least.

  He shouldn’t risk it.

  Opening Gideon’s bottle, Elian poured a few drops on his palm. The smell of flowers, the artificial kind from detergents, went up his nose. Memories of his mother smacking their broken washing machine to make it work flashed by. He rubbed the liquid all over his body before resuming to crawl on the ground, his trusty blanket of leaves draped on top of him.

  He aimed to pass between two Solbasks to reach the one with the special flower behind them. The two in front were fairly spaced apart and hopefully wouldn’t mind him going through. If they showed any hint of agitation, he’d sprint away immediately. Solbasks take a couple of seconds to charge their lasers.

  Another Solbask wasn’t contented with the sunlight it got from its spot and transferred to block Elian’s path. It started digging its hole while looking at him.

  I can still squeeze through, he thought, turning left to pass behind the newcomer Solbask. It paid him no heed and focused on getting comfortable in its hole. Elian did a little shake of his fist after he went past the sunbathing creatures without issue.

  His target Solbask was asleep, its panels folded down into its shell. No hesitation. He pulled off the flower and hurried away, his leafy blanket rustling as he headed to his next target. A few seconds later, he had a flower. Was that a third one over there? As long as he smelled of soapy flowers, he’d search this group of Solbasks.

  “I can’t believe it is this easy,” Elian whispered to Thorren, showing him four flowers. The odor from Gideon’s concoction was fading, so Elian made his exit. “A few more Spectral Fairy Azalea’s over there, but they haven’t bloomed yet.”

  “How many blossoms are you looking for?”

  “As many as I can gather. However, it’ll take the whole day to search the entire hill. Let’s just aim for two more groups of Solbasks, and we can return to camp. By tomorrow, we’ll be back at the Temples of Tribulations. Depending on our pace, we’ll probably be late to class by a couple of hours.”

  “I’m not too concerned with missing classes,” Thorren replied. “Meditating for hours on end, trapped indoors with a fake sky above, is not for me. My brain becomes as mushy as the Grumpbeing’s insides after your Tribulation. We can find four or even five more Solbask groups to harvest.”

  They didn’t let their initial success reduce their vigilance. Shadowing another group of Solbasks, they spotted a smoldering tree, a victim of a stray laser beam. The charred landscape told the dangers and unpredictability of the hill.

  “If the Solbasks are spooked, they just shoot everywhere,” Elian said, repeating the warning from Gideon.

  Thorren nodded. “I suggest we only harvest from Solbasks if there’s a cover nearby. Presumably, these ruins can handle the creature’s beams.” He nudged its head at a scorched pillar with a crater in the middle.

  “Probably some kind of special concrete the catfolk used,” Elian said. “We can also jump into tunnels. There’s an opening back there. And I suspect there are more on this hill. The cat people were very busy with digging if their underground network reached here.”

  Around midday, Elian and Thorren decided that the next Solbask they’d harvest would be the last.

  Very fitting that their last target was an impressive specimen, twice the size of an average Solbask, with crystalline panels so wide they looked like wings. Its backside was covered in purple, a carpet of Spectral Fairy Azalea.

  “Fifteen blossoms, sixteen, seven—oh, it turned,” Elian said. “Probably a couple dozen fully bloomed flowers in total.”

  “Equal to what we currently have,” Thorren said, patting his backpack.

  Elian had given Thorren the flowers for safekeeping. As the tank, Elian might need to jump into trouble again. Better if the flowers they worked so hard to get were far from him if that happened.

  “I’ll have lots of growth potions for my plant friend.” Elian poured the last drops out of Gideon’s bottle and showed Thorren it was empty. “This really is our last harvest. Funny how things lined up.”

  Elian reached the massive Solbask’s backside without any hitch. As he started to pick the flowers, a smaller Solbask to his left stood up and faced him. Parts of its armor with the magical solar panels swiveled forward. Elian didn’t react—another flower and another flower. So long as the Solbask’s crystals weren’t glowing, he was safe. It was likely just adjusting its position to take in more sunlight, or it could be curious of him. Gideon’s potion hadn’t failed him yet.

  “Keep on sunbathing there, big fellow.” Elian alternated his gaze between the purple flowers and the Solbask eyeing him.

  Just a few more. He scooted left to reach the flowers there. No reaction from any Solbask. He could scarcely believe he’d complete his mission with flying colors, mostly purple. Given his various experiences in the first few weeks of his second life, it was reasonable to expect there’d be some last-minute hiccup that’d—

  Scratching noises. He tensed. Sounds familiar.

  He turned right.

  How the hell is that here?

  A spear lobster was creeping towards a small Solbask about ten feet to Elian’s right. There must be a hole nearby connected to the catfolk tunnels. The spear lobster wasn’t camouflaged whatsoever, its blue and green shell stark against the dried brown ground.

  The armored worms noticed the very noticeable intruder. They stirred from their sunbathing, panels flaring wide open and the crystals glowing white.

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  “Elian, get out of there!” Thorren shouted, jumping up and down to get his attention. Subtlety was useless. The Solbasks were already agitated.

  Profanities flooded Elian’s mind. He ran in Thorren’s direction, leaving behind six or so flowers. In the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the spear lobster stabbing a Solbask with its sharp arms. He gasped as the spear penetrated the sturdy shell. Those spear lobsters were powerful. As the injured Solbask shrieked, the rest of the group charged their attacks.

  A couple of seconds of humming was the calm before the storm.

  “Elian! Faster! They’re going to—”

  Blinding beams of light strafed the pockmarked landscape. Elian dropped on all fours and madly crawled while keeping himself as small as possible. Dried and sparse trees burst into flames around him. He shrugged off his burning cloak of ferns. His hair got singed by a beam that got too close. With a smoking head, he continued fleeing.

  Thorren shot his arrows at the Solbask. Wasn’t sure what Thorren was trying to accomplish there. The Solbasks didn’t stop their disco party of death. Elian reached the statue of the giant hand Thorren used as cover. He tore off the smoldering parts of his clothes before they burned the flowers he collected. Luckily, the Solbasks were only reacting to the noise instead of targeting him.

  “I should stop expecting things would go well,” Elian grumbled. “Did they at least cook that pesky spear lobster? It just had to come and ruin my harvest.”

  “It remains alive,” Thorren said.

  “What? How?” Elian peeked from behind the statue. The spear lobster generated a shield as it dragged the small Solbask it had killed. The shield deflected the lasers. That said, most of the lasers missed their mark since the Solbasks wildly fired in panic.

  One of the beams shot their way, breaking off a finger of the giant hand statue. The finger dropped on Elian’s head and cracked before dropping in pieces to the ground.

  “Ah! Are you fine?” Thorren exclaimed.

  “A Grumpbeing can’t chew me,” Elian replied. “Of course, I’m fine. But we might not be fine for long. Look over there.” Rocky humps loomed over the crest of the hill. Reinforcing Solbasks attracted by the shrieks of their fellows. Their solar panels were open and ready to fire “Let’s run!”

  A second after they left the giant hand statue, it exploded. More lasers came. Elian led the way, making sure to keep themselves covered by the charred remains of trees and the mounds of dirt left behind by Solbasks as they zigzagged down the slope. As if Lady Fortuna wasn’t done making their life harder, some Solbasks tucked into themselves, forming boulders, and rolled after them.

  “Why us?” Elian shouted over his shoulder. “We didn’t do anything bad to you!”

  “They’re exceedingly fast,” Thorren said. “Their weight, the steep slope. How do we lose them?”

  “I know where to go.”

  The racket of the Solbasks would attract more of their kind. The hill would soon be ablaze. And it’d take some time for the armored worms to calm down. Hiding behind rocks or ruins wouldn’t be a hundred percent safe. Elian wouldn’t allow himself to get barbecued right after he completed his task.

  Since they couldn’t stay up here, they had to go underground.

  He made a beeline for a tunnel opening they found earlier. Easy to spot because all the vegetation had been burned away. He paused for a moment on top of the broken stairs leading to the darkness, recognizing they could meet spear lobsters down there. A laser lancing an inch past his head convinced him to choose the spear lobsters—better chances of tanking their spears than the lasers that could be magic.

  They descended the stairs just as a rolled-up Solbask landed on the opening in a powerful crash. The ancient ceiling broke from its weight, sending large chunks of debris down on Elian and Thorren. Elian could shrug off the pieces of concrete, but the olden steps couldn’t.

  “Woah! The stairs are giving way!” Elian hugged Thorren, making sure to protect his head as they tumbled into the abyss.

  “This is the third time you’ve saved me,” Thorren said. He tucked his lit lantern orb under his arm as he pulled himself forward, crawling through a small hole Elian kept open.

  “Third time?” Elian asked. The weight of a few tons of magical catfolk concrete was on his shoulders and back. Dull aches and protesting joints. Good thing he managed to pull out his cleaver to add to his Armor. Too bad he lost his Jawbreaker Knuckles and helmet, or this would’ve been just an enjoyable massage on his shoulders. “This is one time; the other was with the Grumpbeing. What’s the third?”

  “When you fixed my uncle’s necklace.” Thorren exited the hole and started to pull their bags out.

  “I wasn’t saving you there,” Elian said. “Even without the necklace, you would’ve survived the Tribulation, no problem.”

  “I’m not referring to my Tribulation then. A future one. There’d come a time when the necklace would save me. Be it from a Tribulation or some other danger.”

  “We’ll count it when that time comes then,” Elian said. “You’ve saved me once, digging me out of the Grumpbeing. After you’ve helped me get out of his, that’ll be twice. We’re even.”

  Thorren found rocks to use as support for the load Elian carried. Then he tied a rope around Elian. “On the count of three. One, two, and three!” Thorren pulled Elian with all his might.

  Elian dove forward. The pile of debris sunk as he left, caught by the rocks Thorren placed. But the weight was too much and too sudden. The rocks crumbled, and the rest of the pile cascaded down. By then, Elian was already free. He and Thorren ran away from the dust clouds coming for them.

  “Quite an adventure this has become.” Thorren walked ahead with his lantern ball. “I thought we were done with the excitement after collecting the flowers. A dreary return trip is, understandably, preferable. But this is what fortune sent our way.”

  “Misfortune, you mean?” Elian replied with a snort.

  “Perhaps not, my friend. Gaze ahead. I spy a purple sparkle.”

  It was a flowering Spectral Fairy Azalea growing on a broken piece of Solbask shell. “This must’ve fallen off from the Solbasks killed by spear lobsters,” Elian said. “The plants can survive in the darkness? Amazing. Must be something inside the shell. There could be more.”

  There were indeed more remains of Solbasks and other creatures, but it took them around an hour to find another Spectral Fairy Azalea. And then two more fifteen minutes after that.

  They followed the tunnel—they had no choice of where to go—picking up animal parts that looked valuable along the way. Thorren fiddled with his compass, tuning it to another Aether line opposite the previous one. He assured Elian that they were going northward.

  “Back to the Dark Forest then,” Elian said. “All good. We’ll find a way out through—what in a groff’s udder?”

  They entered a cave with a ceiling so low they had to bow their heads. The stalagmites and stalactites, poking up the ground or down from the ceiling, whichever was which, made moving around difficult. The cave was about the size of the Stage of Devotion. Elian could tell how wide it was because its walls were stacked with pulsating sacks that gave off a green glow.

  Elian and Thorren crouched as they cautiously navigated the cave, their shoes getting stuck at times to the slimy floor. Some of the sacks burst when they passed, spewing out wriggling creatures. Their sharp forelegs made it obvious what they were.

  “A nest of spear lobsters,” Elian said. “We need to leave before their parents return.”

  “Which way?” Thorren asked.

  Three exits out of the disgusting cave. Four, including the way they entered. They couldn’t go back because the exit out of Solbask hill had collapsed. Out of the three, the middle was painted with even more glowing green slime with a pile of skeletons littered right outside—it couldn’t have been clearer not to pick that one.

  “Am I imagining it, or are scratching sounds coming from there?” Elian pointed at the left exit. “Lots of scratching sounds. Right, it is!” Before he finished speaking, a spear lobster shot out of the left tunnel like a torpedo, spears at the ready. Several more swooshed out and skittered toward them.

  Elian and Thorren ran with all their might to the right.