“The colossal plane?” Leo asked, blinking at the reveal that Steel and his companions were heading toward the same place they were. “How come?”

  “‘How come?’” Steel repeated, chuckling as he shook his head. “Do you have any idea how rare discovering a new colossal plane is? The last one was found almost forty years back, and it was an arctic wasteland. This one is apparently a temperate, green forest, which means it might seriously turn into a new hub one day! Any gem holder with half a brain would have an interest in checking it out. If we can find a decent plot of land to lay claim to, it could really be worth something one day!”

  Leo merely nodded, looking into the fire as he went over the idea in his head. Steel wasn’t wrong by any means, but he was being a bit overly optimistic. At least in Leo’s opinion. Colossal planes were unique enough that, due to their massive size, gem holders were technically allowed to lay claim to small plots of land if any so wished. The Planar Lords reserved the right to take whatever land they wanted from pretty much any plane, but they would pay handsomely for it, as they had so much money they could probably fill an entire diminutive plane with their coin. Allowing people to grab property in this way helped with populating the new, massive planes whenever they were discovered.

  “Are you planning to actually settle down, or are you just hoping for some giant payout?” Leo asked, watching Taylor shove her arms far too close to the fire to speed up how fast her clothes dried.

  “We haven’t fully decided yet, to be honest,” Steel admitted, smiling as he looked over at his companions. By now, Ember and Willow had finally stopped arguing, and from the sounds of the hushed whispers and quiet giggling coming from the other side of the giant mushroom stalk, Leo felt pretty certain the two of them were officially ‘on-again.’ “I don’t intend to stop exploring the planarverse anytime soon, but Ember and Willow are thinking about trying for a family. They think the stability of staying in one plane might help with their relationship. I might actually try my luck at becoming a Cartographer when all is said and done, but we’ll have to wait and see. I mean, a person can’t just decide they’re now a Cartographer, after all.”

  “Why not?” Taylor asked, now leaning close enough to the flames that Leo was pretty certain she’d be cooking herself if she were a regular person.

  “Official Cartographers have a whole mentoring system. It’s an entire process,” Steel explained, waving his hand dismissively. “I won’t bore you with the details. Regardless, that’s where we’re headed. What about you two?”

  “Same place,” Taylor said before Leo could stop her. Pinching his brow, Leo sighed.

  “We were thinking about going to the colossal plane as well,” Leo admitted, glaring at his companion for giving away their plans. Taylor merely shrugged before going back to staring into the flames. “Though we already have a route planned.”

  “Don’t worry, I wasn’t going to try and make you come with us,” Steel chuckled. “I’ve known Ember and Willow for years and I can barely put up with them half the time. I wouldn’t force anyone else to do the same. Just be careful. A tier 22 plane is no joke.”

  “We can handle ourselves,” Leo said, wisely choosing not to mention that their souls were severely under ranked to take on such a plane as they were. Ideally, they’d close that gap a good bit during their travels, but each soul rank was going to come slower than the last at this point.

  “I don’t doubt it,” Steel said. The three of them sat around the fire in comfortable silence for a bit, listening to the sound of rain hitting the top of the mushroom overhead. While thinking about their next moves, Leo’s thoughts were interrupted as the hushed whispers and giggling coming from behind the giant mushroom stalk suddenly turned into quite different noises that confirmed Ember and Willow were definitely on-again.

  “Oh, for crying out loud,” Steel muttered, his face turning red as he put his greatsword on the ground and got to his feet. “Sorry about them! Let me just…”

  Leo tried not to laugh as Steel quickly ran over to the mushroom stalk and started quietly yelling at his companions on the other side. Taylor seemed oblivious to the whole ordeal, content to simply watch the wood crackle and burn as she warmed herself.

  “Glad the three of them seem like decent people,” Leo said, lowering his voice a touch so he wouldn’t be overheard. “Just know that’s not always going to be the case. I know these three are fine, and Charles was nice, but I don’t want you to think that means everyone we meet is going to be friendly.”

  “I’m not stupid,” Taylor muttered, rolling her eyes at him.

  “I never said you were. Just making sure,” Leo said, smiling as Steel rejoined them and sat down heavily beside the fire once more.

  “Sorry again for them. I swear, it’s like clockwork with those two. Whenever they make up…” Steel paused, clearing his throat rather than continue down that line of thinking. “Anyway, they’ll rejoin us in a minute. Once they’re decent.”

  “Actually, we were planning to keep moving pretty soon,” Leo said, ignoring Taylor’s frown she threw his way. “I’m assuming this plane is always raining like this, right?”

  “Indeed. At least, it’s been coming down like this ever since we got here a few hours ago,” Steel confirmed. “And watch out for the crabs. Swarms of them like to rush out of the river every so often, and it’s a real pain to deal with them one at a time. Ember is usually our guy for dealing with swarms of weaker enemies, but the rain doesn’t do his firepower any favors. There are stronger, deadlier magical beasts in this plane, but they stay within the river. So long as you don’t venture in for a dip, you don’t need to worry about them.”

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  “Do you know what skill the crabs offer?” Leo asked, thinking about all he’d learned about crab-based magical beasts. From what he could remember, there were a shockingly large number of variants.

  “These ones? Water Breathing. Useful skill for exploration, but not so much for combat,” Steel admitted. “If I was wealthy enough to have a gem box, I’d love to keep one of those in my back pocket. Especially as I bet there’s some water on the colossal plane.”

  “Thanks for the heads up, we’ll be extra careful,” Leo said, spotting Ember and Willow finally coming back from around the other side of the mushroom, their clothes in a rather telling, disheveled state. Getting to his feet, he brushed off his pants and held out a hand for Taylor. “Well, we should probably be off. Though we appreciate you letting us get out from the rain for a bit.”

  “Oh, you’re not leaving on our account, are you?” Willow asked, at least having the decency to look a bit embarrassed, in contrast to Ember’s wide grin.

  “Not at all, we just have a schedule to keep,” Leo said, frowning down at Taylor as she ignored his hand and continued slowly grilling herself beside the fire. “You know, we want to make sure we become strong enough to handle the colossal plane by the time we get there.”

  That seemed to do the trick, as Taylor sighed and took his hand, nearly yanking him into the fire as she pulled herself up.

  “Don’t like getting wet,” she grumbled, not so much as even waving to the others as she walked off and vanished within the rain once more.

  “Good luck with your trip!” Leo said, hurriedly chasing after her and smiling at the chorus of ‘you too’s’ that followed after them.

  “Come on, you heard what they said!” Leo shouted over the rain after catching back up with Taylor, pleased to find she’d at least remembered to storm off in the correct direction. “This plane is always raining! There wasn’t going to be any waiting it out!”

  “Yeah, I heard,” Taylor grumbled, glaring at him as they walked. She was probably trying to look intimidating, but Leo could only imagine an angry black cat that had just been given a bath.

  Granted, she could still rip out a man’s throat in a heartbeat, so probably wise not to poke her buttons too much.

  “It should only be another hour of walking,” he tried to reassure her. “We’ll be out of here before you know it!”

  Of course, it was never quite that simple.

  Roughly thirty minutes after their pitstop with Steel and the others, Leo noticed some color out of the corner of his eye. It wasn’t easy to make out with the constant downpour of rain and the sweeping river, but he spotted what looked like a large number of dark-red blobs heading their way.

  “Magical beasts!” he shouted, adjusting his grip on his sword and wiping water out of his eyes as he prepared himself.

  Leo had been expecting a large wave of tiny crabs after what Steel had said, but as it turned out, the magical beast crabs were just a touch larger than regular crabs. Coming up to his upper thigh, a dozen crabs scuttled out of the wall of rain, pincers clacking menacingly as they came straight for them.

  “Careful, if they surround you-!”

  Leo didn’t know why he even bothered, as Taylor launched herself directly at the nearest crab with a hungry snarl before he could get his warning out. Sure enough, while she smashed into the first crab hard enough to crack its carapace before punching a hole through it, four more crabs immediately moved to surround her, their razor-sharp pincers looking to slice her apart. Shaking his head, he dashed forward, heading off two of them with his speed and thrusting his sword straight into the first one.

  Rather than worry about ensuring his foe was down, Leo triggered his newest skill as he struck, spotting the purple sheen glow down his sword as he activated Venomous Jab. His blade only pierced the crab’s carapace by a few inches, but that was more than enough for his skill to take effect. Once he ripped the blade free, the crab immediately seemed to shudder and collapse, its constitution not strong enough to hold up against Leo’s venom.

  Granted, Leo barely even noticed the crab’s slow death, as he was busy keeping Taylor alive. Deflecting a pincer with his sword, Leo kicked the crab away when it tried to disarm him, slicing through some of the crab’s legs before it could right itself. With half its legs missing, the crab could barely even move, and he quickly put it down with a well-placed thrust.

  By this point, Taylor had finished up with her first crab and had already taken out three more, taking on a handful of minor injuries in doing so. Her fighting style of ‘Caution? What’s that?’ meant that her opponents rarely lasted long, but she took plenty of damage along the way. Leo was confident she could have taken the entire swarm of crabs out on her own, but she would have been in a horrific, bloodied state afterwards.

  The two of them worked in tandem to dispatch the remaining six crabs, Taylor fighting with reckless abandon, and Leo much more cautiously. While he was fast, his body wasn’t nearly as durable as hers was, and he really didn’t want to check and see what one of those large pincers would do to his limbs. Eventually, the battle came to an end, and Leo let out a breath of relief as the rain washed away all the blood in real time, leaving them with a dozen giant, dead crabs scattered all around the riverbank.

  “That felt good,” Taylor grinned, wiping the wet strands of hair that had come loose from her braid out of her face. She had a number of tears in her new clothes from where she’d been hit that would need mending, but at the very least, she looked far happier than she had a minute ago. “Cultivate?”

  “You’re seriously offering to sit here in the rain while I cultivate?” Leo asked, shocked she would even entertain such an idea. “I thought you hated the rain!”

  “We need to grow strong,” she shrugged, picking up the nearest crab and plunging a clawed hand into it. Plucking out the gem, a sparkling, teardrop-shaped stone, she tossed it to him. “I’ll keep watch. Get started.”

  “...Thanks,” Leo said, sitting down in the mud as he watched her carefully. After a few seconds, Taylor hesitated, gripping the crab a bit more tightly as the rain pelted her from above.

  “Once you’re done… and we’re out of the rain… maybe try cooking the crab?”

  Ah, Leo smiled, laughing at her eager expression as she licked her lips. There it is.

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