“Your main problem, daughter, is that you are an impatient little turd.”

  They were sitting at a meal of tacos. Her father had wanted a fancier meal, but her mother had vetoed the idea and called for a simple bit of flavor served buffet style. After the cafeteria food, it went a long way towards helping her feel better.

  Alex glanced back at her mom, still filling the most recent taco with ground beef. She reached for the salsa as she answered. “What are you talking about now, Mom? Are you still that sore about the fact that I got the first taco?”

  Eric coughed and chuckled. “She’ll bear that grudge to her grave, mark my words.”

  Muriel ignored them both and waved a fork at her. “I’m talking about your little investigation, my dear. The one you and your friends are so enthusiastically throwing yourselves into over there.”

  Turning from the counter with her plate, Alex frowned. “You think we should wait until more people get hurt?”

  “I’m saying that if you go about it the wrong way, you get hurt, and then the bad guys continue hurting everyone you tried to help.” Muriel made an expressive gesture towards her own face and missing arm.

  Alex winced as she sat down. “So, what are we supposed to do? Just sit on our hands and hope they slip up?”

  Her mother snorted. “Kind of.” When Alex opened her mouth to protest, her mother shook the fork at her again. “Before you get all high and mighty, remember that I’ve put more criminals away than you’ve ever seen. Don’t preach to me about your experience with a grand total of two successful operations, oh daughter dearest.”

  She shut her mouth, and Muriel beamed. “See, husband, she can be taught.”

  He rolled his eyes and gestured for her to continue. Muriel looked back at Alex, her eye growing serious.

  “Searching for information can sometimes be like using a flashlight in the dark. It’s really helpful to see clearly, but it also can make it so people see you even better than you see them. Makes you a target.” She took a bite of taco and chewed for a moment. When she swallowed, she continued. “I could afford to be obvious sometimes, because I had Regulation’s backing. You don’t.”

  Alex nodded slowly. “So, what do we do instead?”

  Muriel grimaced. “Work hard, stay quiet. Keep watching, but don’t push too fast. Conspiracies like this are extra cautious when they are getting started. Lots of secrecy, and a lot of paranoia. It means that the most dangerous time to search for them is right now, when things are getting going.”

  “Once they are in motion, they’ll get sloppier. A few of them will get cocky, or start complaining about things where they shouldn’t. If they know someone is after them, though…”

  Alex nodded. “They’ll stay careful, and we’ll never find them.”

  Her father broke in. “Not only that, but let’s say you find them right now. What are you going to do about it?” He gave her a frank look, and Alex hesitated. “I’d assume at least a few of the C ranks know what’s going on, if not that B rank you met. You managed to kill Wells, but I doubt you can take on a whole team of C ranks. A B rank could smash you and your friends without much trouble.”

  She winced. “We were planning on getting Regulation involved.”

  “You’re assuming that Greylight hasn’t already covered their bases there—or that they wouldn’t be willing to kill any Regulation agents that get close. They certainly have arranged it before.” Muriel tapped her cheek under her missing eye meaningfully before she continued. “Your father’s right too. Better to get a plan of your own in place before you go chasing after them.”

  Then she gave Eric a frank look. “Though I hope it would be a better plan than ‘burn the whole place down’.”

  Eric snorted. “Oh please. My plans are always a work of art.”

  “A work of something, sure.” Muriel rolled her eye and then looked back at Alex. “The point is, you’ve only been at Royal Purple for two weeks. You have time to figure things out. Don’t rush in and get yourselves and your friends caught.”

  Her mouth full of food, Alex nodded. The words stuck in her mind as she finished the meal and headed back to the dorms. It seemed fair on the face of it, but she couldn’t make herself agree. She might have time, true, but the people who were being hurt by Greylight’s scheme would not—and no matter what she did, she couldn’t ignore the urgency that made her feel.

  Alex’s first week of on-call work began almost like any other. She woke and went out on a run. Sam joined her for a bit, though he didn’t have anything notable to report. After the run, they ate breakfast with Joanna and Clara.

  Then, however, they didn’t report to the training room. Combat training, or any kind of heavy exercise, had a risk of injury, after all. Teams that were expected to drop everything and board a Greyhawk couldn’t be allowed to hurt themselves in practice duels, so Alex and her friends were comprehensively banned from the training room.

  Alex almost considered trying to sneak down there anyway, at least until she heard Abbott was going to be present leading teams through the portal. He probably wouldn’t be very amused if he caught her neglecting her on-call responsibilities. Besides, Royal Purple had provided something for them to do, anyway.

  So instead of improving their Skills or going through the portal to gain power, Alex and her friends found themselves in a conference room, enduring an extended version of the lectures on client portals. It didn’t take long for her to conclude that she would rather face the Grue.

  When she made the mistake of muttering that fact out loud, the lecturer, a clerk by the name of Georgia Araujo just laughed. “Not the most exciting thing, is it? Still, knowing this kind of thing can be the difference between life or death on a mission. Better to bore you now than to have things a little too interesting later.”

  Joanna nodded along sagely, and Alex gave her a glare. The Adept sniffed. “Just because some parts of the job don’t involve Grue or fighting doesn’t mean they aren’t helpful. How much more quickly could we have moved in that last mission if we had already known where we were going?”

  The question made Alex sit back slightly. Grudgingly, she nodded her head. “Yeah, I get it. It’s just…”

  “It’s not exactly what you’ve been dreaming of doing?” Georgia’s question carried a bit of irony. She grinned as Alex winced. “Hey, I wasn’t exactly looking for an office job when I became a Surveyor. Life takes you in unexpected directions—someday it might be you sitting here giving a briefing to a bunch of newbies.”

  Clara spoke up before Alex could make a vociferous denial. “You reached D rank, right Georgia?”

  The lecturer nodded. “Yeah, I did.” She peered at Clara for a moment. “Let me guess, some kind of sight technique? I’ve heard of quite a few Skills that can help people analyze other Surveyors.”

  As the Acolyte nodded, Georgia continued. “Of course, once I reached D rank, I’ll admit I was… unenthusiastic about going any further. You’ve all seen the inside of a C rank portal plenty of times by now, right?” The lecturer shivered a little. “I went inside one once, and that was enough. Shifters and worse? No thank you, I’ll stick to the outside.”

  Sam looked up from his own notes at her. “You could have just stuck at D rank. Just not completed any of your Quests to advance.”

  “True, and there’s plenty of people who do that kind of thing.” Georgia shrugged. “Abbott might be one of them, though he doesn’t usually talk about it. The problem is that you can’t always guarantee that things turn out that way, especially at the D rank level. C ranks have harder Quests, so it’s easier to fail them, but at D? You’ll probably always get at least one success, and that means as the years go on, C rank becomes inevitable. As long as some Grue doesn’t get you first, of course.”

  For a moment, Georgia seemed to stare off into the distance. Then she shook herself. “In any case, you’re all too young and brave to worry about something like that. All you need to worry about is preparing yourself to do what you came here to do, and to get every single one of you home alive. And to do that, we’re going to study the data on the Steelgrey Facilities portal in—”

  She cut off a moment later as the alarm echoed through the facility, and the same alert buzzed through their phones. A flash of sadness and regret went across the lecturer’s expression. Then she stepped back and gestured to the door. “Do your best, team, and make sure you come back. We have plenty left to look over, after all.”

  A very short time later, Alex found herself back inside the Greyhawk, waiting to take off once again.

  This time, she knew exactly what she was in for, and her stomach was already roiling in response. She mentally tried to browbeat it back into good behavior—they weren’t even off the ground, after all—but the nausea steadfastly refused to listen to her reasonable arguments. If anything, it just grew a little worse.

  Her mood was not improved by the arrival of their official C rank teammates. At least, most of them were C rank. Rabbit led Jester and the rest of her team up the ramp and into the Greyhawk, laughing and joking amongst themselves while mostly ignoring the D ranks in front of them.

  As soon as they were secure, the ramp closed, and the pilot lifted the Greyhawk off of the landing pad. With a quick look at Alex—who was desperately trying to ignore the way the craft was lurching and shifting—Sam leaned forward and shouted over the sound of the engines. “So where are we headed? Is it another new client?”

  Rabbit gave him a raised eyebrow, but she still responded. “No. It’s a call out to Brownhat Portals.”

  There were a couple of groans and chuckles from the C ranks. For her part, Rabbit seemed ready to lapse back into silence, but Jester leaned forward. “Don’t you worry, little gophers. The portal’s going to be just fine.”

  Joanna gave him a skeptical look. “Then why are they calling us?”

  With a braying laugh, the swordsman—Alex remembered him being called Snickers—shook his head. “Brownhat is a shoestring corporation. Trying to just scrape by without any expenses. Barely hiring any real Surveyors at all.”

  Mushroom, the group’s apparent magic user, nodded. Her hands were wrapped confidently around her staff. “Yep. They don’t maintain enough Surveyors to clear out the portal well, so every few months we get called in to take care of it for them.”

  Frowning, Joanna leaned back in her seat. “So it’s not an emergency?”

  “Not really. At least, not for the likes of us.” Jester leaned back in his harness and folded his arms behind his head. “For a pack of gophers, however…”

  Snickers rolled his eyes. “Even D ranks should be fine with this mission, Jester. I don’t think a single gopher’s ever gotten hurt at Brownhat.”

  Jester raised his eyebrows. “There’s always a first, Snickers. You know that as well as I do.” He shrugged and gave Alex a lazy grin. “Just look at Valkyrie, there. She’s looking green around the gills. Are you worried about a bunch of scary Grue after your last Survey?”

  She glared at him, but her expression was ruined by the way the Greyhawk lurched its way through some unpleasant turbulence. Alex gritted her teeth against the nausea and shook her head. “Wouldn’t send you, if it was that bad.”

  Jester’s casual expression darkened immediately. The humor vanished from his voice like it had been erased from a blackboard. “You should watch yourself, gopher. Just because Abbott’s been taking it easy on you in a training cage doesn’t mean that you are anywhere near my level.”

  “Sorry, Jester.” Sam gave the C rank a smile and casually put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. She felt him give her a quick, warning squeeze. “She’s just not a fan of air travel most of the time. We’ll all be fine when we hit the ground.”

  The C rank started to speak again, but Rabbit’s cold voice cut him off. “You had better be.” Alex’s eyes shifted to her, and found her looking at them with contempt. “Each mission comes with its own set of responsibilities. Your last Survey had an unknown portal involved, so you were closer to scouts. This time, I expect you to be able to clear out a good number of the Camps so that we can focus on harvesting resources from the Outposts. I also expect you to move quickly. Orbit told me about you dawdling inside the portal. That behavior will not be tolerated here. Understand?”

  Alex fought the urge to snarl at the B rank, something which another helpful lurch of the Greyhawk helped her avoid. She swallowed down a throat full of bile, trying to keep herself from swaying with the motion of the tiltrotor. “We move quickly, Rabbit.”

  The others nodded along with her. Rabbit watched her for a moment longer and then settled back to stare off at nothing. Jester gave her a smirk and then went back to chatting with Mushroom and Snickers. None of them appeared to have anything else to say to their support team. Her friends exchanged uneasy looks, which only seemed to make the C ranks that much happier.

  As far as Alex was concerned, it was just fine with her. She just had to survive the flight. Another lurch, and she repressed a groan. How long would this one last, anyway?

  To Alex’s eternal relief, the Greyhawk was only in the air for forty-five minutes, most of which seemed to be a fairly smooth experience. Once it had leveled out, the tiltrotor actually didn’t experience much turbulence at all, though landing was once again an unpleasant reminder of how far up in the air they were.

  Once they were settled on the ground, Alex once again led the charge down the ramp. She heard Jester making some comment behind her, and Snickers laughed, but she ignored them and tried to take in her surroundings.

  The Greyhawk had set down in an empty parking lot. There weren’t many buildings here; in fact, the only one that she could see, outside of a lonely guardhouse a short distance away, was something that almost reminded her of a high school. It looked old and ill-maintained, as if it had been there from before the Fracture. None of the parking spaces had been well-defined, and weeds grew almost everywhere.

  For half a second, Alex thought she could have pictured it as a location in the other world, with its neglected state. Then she shook her head and focused on the Surveyor coming to meet them.

  He wore a brown uniform, with a cheap-looking logo plastered across the back. The man seemed to slump even as he walked, more just sighing his way across the ground rather than hurrying to meet them. Jester and the others might have been unpleasant, but they clearly hadn’t been lying about how urgent things were.

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  The man came to a stop in front of Alex and then looked past her at the C ranks still sauntering down the ramp. “Who’re these?”

  Jester answered, his voice mocking. “Oh, just our new eager little gophers, excited to get started.”

  The other Surveyor grunted and turned his attention back to Alex. “Is that so?”

  Alex glanced at the others and then stuck her hand out. He took it with a baffled frown, and she shook. “You called us. Where’s the portal?”

  He blinked, clearly not expecting such a brief introduction. Glancing at Jester, he poked a thumb back over his shoulder. “It’s back there, in the lobby.”

  She nodded. “Anyone trapped inside? Or something we need to know?”

  The Surveyor shook his head, clearly even more confused. “No. Why would anyone be inside? The PAD’s been telling us things were bad, so we just stayed out and called for you to clean it up.”

  Alex felt a brief stab of anger at his complete lack of interest, but smothered it behind a neutral expression. “All right, then. Let’s go.” The others nodded, and they set out at a jog towards the portal. She could feel the C ranks’ eyes on her as they headed towards the portal, but she ignored them. If there was a horde waiting for them, the last thing she needed to worry about was a bunch of fools.

  They found the portal in the lobby, as the Surveyor had described. It didn’t crackle with energy the way the one at Emerald Bay had, and there wasn’t a torrent of magic pouring from it. Alex paused for a moment, eyeing the swirling vortex. The thing mostly just looked like a normal D rank portal, though it did seem to be moving a bit faster than it should have been.

  She shrugged and walked over to the portal. The others followed her as she strode forward into the light…

  [D Rank Surveyor Alex, Gatekeeper, Realmwalker]

  [Ascension Level: 8]

  [Role: Porter (Role Skills: None]

  [Role Level: 3]

  [Experience: 520/4500]

  [Attributes: Strength -> 8, Speed -> 10, Life -> 6, Devotion -> 0, Control -> 0]

  [Current Skills: Combat Balance(20), Motion Trance(19), Combined Arms–Axe/Shield(35),

  Holy–Storm(35)]

  [Permanent Skills: Battle Maneuvers(16)]

  [Current Titles: Empress of War (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Combined Arms, Weapon Mastery, and Battle Maneuvers by five.),

  Aggression (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, Combined Arms, and Combat Balance Skills by five.),

  Fated Hero (Increases Skill grade of Dodging, Anticipate, Battle Maneuvers, and Inspect by five),

  Eternal Motion (Increases Skill grade of Recovery, Running, Marathoning, and Motion Trance by five.),

  Tireless (Increases Skill grade of Recovery Skills by three.),

  True Sentinel (Increases Skill grade of Deflect, Dodging, Blocking, Resist, Zeal, and Combat Balance by five.),

  Still Flow (Increases Skill grade of Meditation, Focus, Recovery, Arcane, Sense, and Motion Trance by five.),

  Elite (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Battle Maneuvers, Battle Mastery, and Battle Dance by five.),

  Lethality (Increases Skill grade of Melee, Weapon Mastery, and Combined Arms Skills by five.),

  Consecrated (Increases Skill grade of Holy by five.),

  War Prowess (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Rush Assault, and Heavy Assault by five.),

  War Momentum (Increases Skill grade of Combat Balance, Riposte, and Battle Dance by five.),

  Blitz Master (Increases Skill grade of Combined Arms, Lunge, and Charge by five),

  Ambidextrous (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Anticipate, and Combined Arms by one.)]

  Alex considered her Skills and nodded slowly. If there was a horde, she was far more ready to face it than she had been the last time. Her maxed out Combined Arms and Holy Skills alone would give her more than enough to lay waste to anything waiting on the other side, though she did have a brief wish that she had gone through another day of training.

  She shrugged off her regret, and the text changed.

  [Please select your intent]

  [Exploration]

  [Vengeance]

  [Patrol]

  [War]

  [Salvage]

  A part of her almost wanted to pick War—after all, they’d be specifically clearing out Camps now, if they followed what Rabbit had said. It wasn’t like the B rank would know, after all, and it was hardly the first time she’d lied about her Quests before.

  At the same time, she hadn’t talked about it with the others, and even with their briefings, she had never been to the place before. Knowing where to look for the Camps would be just as valuable as destroying the Camps themselves, and if they ran into something worse…

  She sighed and chose Explore

  [Your intent is to Explore]

  [Quest Issued! Explore one of the following Areas: River Bridge, Football Field, Market.]

  [Quest Issued! Explore one of the following Areas: Hidden Grove, Power Plant, Charging Station.]

  [Hidden Quest Issued!]

  [Hidden Quest Issued!]

  [Hidden Quest Issued!]

  She examined the locations, trying to match them up with what she remembered of the briefing package on the portal. If she remembered right, the Field and the Charging Station were the closest to where the portal was. The Bridge, Market, and Power Plant were known locations a bit further away, and the Grove had never actually been found. Apparently, there were a lot of woods scattered around the area, and no one had bothered to scour them enough to find the place.

  Grimacing at the obvious signs of neglect, she stepped forward into the light…

  Her feet landed on the cracked pavement in the other world. Alex tensed immediately, preparing to charge forward into the mass of Grue—only to realize that there were absolutely none of them in front of her.

  She looked behind her, half-wondering if the Grue had decided to ambush them from behind, but the only thing behind them was another, slightly different abandoned school building. Sam, Clara, and Joanna arrived heartbeats later, with similar tension in their postures. They all slowly relaxed as they looked around and discovered that they hadn’t been thrown into the middle of a ravening army of monsters.

  Joanna grimaced. “Should have reset more of my Skills last time.”

  “Tell me about it.” Clara shook her head. “If I’d known…”

  Sam nodded. “Next time, probably. Or the next after that. Either way, better to be safe than sorry.”

  “We do still have a job to do.” Alex shook her head. “Do you guys have the Field?”

  Clara nodded, but both Sam and Joanna shook their heads. He responded before she could. “The closest one I have is the Bridge. What about you, Professor?”

  She grimaced. “Same here. Not exactly encouraging.”

  Alex grinned. “Hey, just be glad we don’t all have the Grove, right?” The others grumbled a bit, but they nodded, and she looked around until she spotted the exit to the parking lot. It was a road that ran west, which was apparently where the Field was waiting. “Let’s get going. I wouldn’t want the snobs thinking we were running late.”

  The next hour was spectacularly underwhelming.

  They ran into a patrol a few minutes after they had left the portal area, catching the Grue as they were idling down the road. The creatures had been loping along as if they’d owned the place, and they charged eagerly into combat. Unfortunately for them, they had no Mages or Killers with them. It was just a pack of Soldiers, a handful of Knights and Archers, with a single pair of Brutes along for the ride.

  Alex and the others barely even had to pause; if she had been asked, Alex probably could have dealt with the entire pack by herself. With the others along for the ride, the battle lasted barely half a minute, and left them almost chuckling over the remnants. It nearly took longer to gather up the materials than it had to kill the things.

  None of the other three patrols they ran across were any more dangerous, and Alex was beginning to worry about how she would finish her Hidden Quests when all she had gotten were the assignments to kill a ridiculous number of Knights, Brutes, Archers, and Killers.

  Her concerns were solved a moment later, when they reached the Field and saw the Camps settled there. Normally, getting the Quest to deal with six different Grue Camps would have been unpleasant, but there were already two of them squatting on opposite ends of the football field, the purple crystals hovering above matching sprawls of ragged tents. Grue wandered between them without much care, while sentries walked the chain-link fence that surrounded the place.

  They descended on the closest one like nightmares come to life. The Grue had half a moment’s warning before fire and lightning ripped and tore among them. Plants ensnared Archers who were attempting to fire, and the Knights and Brutes that charged in met axe and spear. Soldiers died so quickly that it was almost like they weren’t even there, and any Grue who got lucky enough to land a hit was forced to watch the wounds heal as soon as Clara noticed them.

  Reinforcements from the far Camp were still charging to help when the first crystal shook itself to fragments. Alex met the incoming Grue a quarter of the way across the field, ripping and tearing through their lines. After the horde, she had very little to fear from such a small group. The others crashed into them behind her, and they quickly crumbled back to fight around their own crystal. A few moments later, that batch of Grue fell dead, and a second Camp was broken. Purple flame roared to life all across the battlefield, and they spent a few moments gathering the remnants out of the wreckage.

  All told, it was barely more than five minutes of fighting, and left the others with all of their Hidden Quests completed, while nearly finishing most of hers. It was hard not to feel smug as they moved on, heading for the Charging Station.

  They found the place a handful of minutes later, having destroyed another two patrols on the way. Unlike the Field, they gave the place a wide berth. Even through the trees, they could see the massive Ogres stalking around an Anchor Point. Alex got close enough to complete her Quest, and then they cut through a patch of forest and turned south, heading along another neglected road. As they followed the winding, weather-cracked pavement, they fought another two patrols and finally reached the Bridge.

  It wasn’t all that impressive, just a broad crossing supported by concrete pylons over a decent-sized river. Alex counted no less than three Camps there, with one for each end and one built within a cluster of cars in the middle. Grue roamed the surface, looking out over the dark water or peering into the woods on either side. Killers and Archers made their perches on top of cars or the parts of the bridge that stuck up on the sides, while Brutes and Knights stalked among the lesser Soldiers, encouraging their brethren to stay alert.

  Their efforts didn’t make any difference. Sam led them in close while he and Joanna befuddled the minds of any Grue looking too closely. Then they charged in, and they brought death with them.

  The fight took barely ten minutes, and by the end of it, all three Camps were down.

  Alex looked around as the Bridge lit from end to end with purple fire. She sighed. It was going to take a long time to pick out all the debris from the battle. Magic had made a royal mess of the cars, and there were chunks where Joanna’s flames and Clara’s vines had taken actual bites out of the concrete. At one point, she’d actually gotten worried about whether the whole structure would collapse into the dark, foreboding water below.

  The Surveyors hadn’t exactly come out of it intact, either. Joanna had taken a Killer’s arrow in the leg, and Sam had been knocked flying by a backhand blow from a Brute, but Clara was already healing them back to normal. Alex had avoided almost everything but a handful of scratches, partially due to the fact that she had killed the Grue almost quicker than they could charge her.

  Orange text flared to life as she looked around.

  [Battle Maneuvers advances to 30!]

  [Combat Balance advances to 35!]

  [Hidden Quest Completed!]

  [Hidden Quest Completed!]

  [Hidden Quest Progress 5 of 6 targets destroyed]

  She sighed and dismissed the notifications. Two down, one to go. Where was she going to find another Camp, though? If the others were already taking wounds, they probably weren’t going to want to throw themselves into another fight like that one, and every minute they stayed was a risk, especially with Rabbit breathing down their necks.

  When she looked up, she saw Joanna and the others waving her over. Bracing herself, Alex trotted over to them, ready to hear their plan to return to the portal.

  Instead, Joanna surprised her with a tired smile. “Up for a slight diversion? I think we can hit a Camp on the way.”

  Alex blinked. “Well, sure, but—”

  “You have another Camp to destroy, right?” Clara smiled. “We wouldn’t want you to miss out on the full clear, after all.”

  Sam nodded. “There’s plenty of places around here that probably have one. I bet we could hit two or three if we wanted, just on the way back.”

  Joanna shook her head. “Oh, no, I have a better plan.” She gestured to where the remnants of a Killer were burning away. “I managed to get one of them with Flash Scan again. If what I saw was right, I think we’ll be able to bring something special back. Something that’ll shut those C ranks up.”

  The Adept paused and smiled. “Anyone else interested?”

  Another hour later, with little more fanfare, they made their way back to the portal, weaving through the patrols trying to hunt them and making note of any further Camps they passed. None of them bothered with the road; after all, they just wanted to head straight home, and nothing in this place threatened them.

  By the time they had left the forest west of the portal, it felt like they had barely spent any time there at all. Compared to the previous mission, it had been as easy as breathing. Clara’s healing had even reduced their wounds to mere aches and twinges of pain. Alex felt a hint of disbelief as they returned, wondering what Brownhat was even doing. Did they just not have any Surveyors at a high enough rank? Or was there some profit in asking other Surveyors to handle it for them?

  Either way, they stepped back through the portal, and the light washed away her doubt once again…

  [Mission Report]

  [Successful Return! +20 Experience]

  [Main Quest Completed! +160 Experience]

  [Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]

  [Secondary Culling Quest Completed! +80 Experience]

  [Secondary Purge Quest Completed! +80 Experience]

  [All Quests Completed! Glorious Victory! +80 Experience]

  Another successful Survey, at far less cost than she had paid before. Alex shook her head over the difference and then moved on to the next part of the report.

  [Battle Maneuvers increased from 16 to 30!]

  [Motion Trance increased from 19 to 20!]

  [Combat Balance increased from 20 to 35!]

  Seeing her Skills increase was always a pleasure. It made her think she would be that much more capable of handling the next horde whenever it decided to appear.

  [Battle Maneuvers has reached level 30! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

  [Reset Battle Maneuvers to gain a Title?]

  She accepted, knowing that despite the cost, it was the best way to increase her abilities. It still was unpleasant to feel the potency drain away, even if it was replaced by more potential.

  [Title Ambidextrous upgraded to Title Coordinated (Increases Skill grade of Battle Maneuvers, Anticipate, and Combined Arms by two.)]

  [Combat Balance has reached level 35! Skill is at Max Level and can no longer increase.]

  [Combat Balance has reached capacity for Titles. No more are available.]

  [Reset Combat Balance to add maximum levels?]

  She frowned over the choice and then sighed. Without having access to training, she couldn’t make even a small amount of progress on the Skill. Resetting it would leave her dramatically weaker compared to her current ability. If the next mission was another version of what she’d just faced, that would be fine. If it was another horde, however…

  Disgruntled, she left Combat Balance alone, as well as both Combined Arms and Holy—Storm. It was galling to bypass the Skills, but it would be better than allowing herself to be completely vulnerable to an unanticipated threat. Besides, she needed to be able to support and defend her friends as well.

  Still grumbling to herself, she let the light sweep her home…

  She found Rabbit and the others waiting for her back in the real world. The C ranks had scattered over the breadth of the lobby, lounging around while the sour-faced Surveyor glared at all of them. Jester perked up a little as Alex and the others stepped through, a smile flickering over his lips, and the others straightened up as well.

  Alex walked over to where Rabbit was waiting. The B rank was watching her with ill-concealed contempt. “Well? What is your report?”

  She smiled. “We destroyed six Camps, and plenty of patrols. There’s an Anchor Point at the Charging Station that is still completely guarded. Most patrols aren’t much tougher than a standard D rank portal. No real surprises.”

  Rabbit raised an eyebrow. “It took you that long to accomplish that much? I guess Orbit wasn’t wrong about you taking your sweet time to accomplish a Survey.”

  Alex smiled. “Well, there was just one other thing.” She glanced at the others, who were also smiling. “We found the Hidden Grove.”

  There was a moment of surprised silence, and then Rabbit blinked. Snickers let out an incredulous chuckle. “Yeah, right. Pull the other one!”

  She looked at him and tilted her head. “I guess you aren’t interested in it then? It seemed like it had plenty of things waiting to be harvested.”

  Rabbit spoke up before the swordsman could. “Let’s pretend you did find it, then. Where is it?”

  “Southwest of the portal, about twenty minutes’ walk. If you look for the third hill in that direction and follow it, you should get there eventually.” It was closer to thirty for someone who wasn’t used to running, but Alex wasn’t going to make it easy for them to find. After all, Joanna had found the thing, and it had cost them a little extra time to make sure of the location. If she had to turn it over to someone like Rabbit, she was going to make the B rank griefer work for it.

  The B rank was still clearly skeptical, but she seemed a little less sure of herself now. She glanced back at the C ranks and then nodded. “We’ll investigate this, of course. If it’s true, we’ll make sure you have an appropriate amount of credit.”

  Alex glanced at where the sour-faced Surveyor from Brownhat was staring at them, mouth hanging open. “I’m sure you will, Rabbit.”

  She saw the woman’s expression tighten in anger, but Rabbit didn’t say anything. Instead, she brushed past Alex and led the C ranks to the portal. A moment later, they were through, and the lobby was empty except for her friends and their host.

  He looked at her with a mildly stunned expression. “Are you sure you found it? We’ve been looking for that place forever.”

  Alex gave him a frank look. “It doesn’t look like you’ve been doing much of anything in there. How many Surveyors do you have here?”

  Guilt flashed across his expression, but he folded his arms and looked away. “We only have five or six at a time. Management doesn’t have a lot of funds to spare on this site, you see. They see it as cheaper to spring for specialists like you than to shell out what we’d need for more.”

  She started to rebuke him more, but paused. He obviously wasn’t actually in charge, and she’d known what it had felt like at Golden Swallow to be sabotaged by her superiors. While she paused, Joanna spoke up. “Have you tried to take care of it yourself? You’re a D rank, at least.”

  He speared her with a look. “And I’m the only one. The rest are high E ranks at best. I’ve got my hands full making sure they don’t get killed.” His gaze returned to Alex. “Unless you expect me to go do it by myself. I’d wager none of you have tried that, have you?”

  Sam broke out laughing, and the man shifted his glare. He waved at the sour-faced man. “Sorry, it’s just… With anyone else, you’d have a point. With her? It’s kind of a bad habit we’re trying to break.”

  She felt her cheeks heat a little and shrugged. “You’re right. It isn’t easy.” Then she looked at him. “But you can always still do your best. Make progress day by day and keep your people alive.”

  The man paused, and she held out her hand. He shook it numbly, and then watched as they tromped over to the Greyhawk. Alex slumped into the seat and sighed in satisfaction. It had been a good Survey.

  Then her thoughts turned to the return trip, and her good mood evaporated. There had to be a better way to get home, didn’t there?