They walked deep into the forest. Despite Marcus and Evan on either side of him, Richard didn’t dare let his guard down. He was painfully aware that he was the lowest-level member here, and he refused to be a burden.

  Evan whispered directions to Elias at the front as they walked. The birds chirping in the forest sounded shriller. Was he supposed to be happy he could hear birds? He wasn’t sure what the rules were in here, but he assumed that everything in this forest wanted to kill him.

  Marcus studied a scroll with what they needed. Savannah was next to the volunteer farmers, Dennison and Rochel, talking to them quietly. It took another few minutes before Richard realized she was talking to them to ease their fears.

  They moved quietly and slow. The oppressive nature of the forest made Richard want to run to safety, but he smothered those feelings. It was a while before he realized what was so different about this forest. He didn’t hear insects. No chirping of any kind, no humming. It was odd. He remembered what Dmitri had said about insects and the shudder that followed. Perhaps he should be glad he couldn’t hear that constant hum.

  They slowed to a stop, and Richard glanced around. Despite how dark this forest was, he knew where base two was. He turned his head in the general direction, wondering how he knew, then he remembered. He opened his skill tree and saw under advanced mental that his navigation skills were increased by 20%. It wasn’t that big of a percentage, but it still surprised him to know which way to go for base two. He shouldn’t complain. If he got separated, he could find his way back.

  If he survived long enough to reach there.

  Marcus approached a small clearing. “Alright, Evan and Elias, keep your backs toward us. Everyone else.” Marcus pulled out a bag with three glowing runes running down the side. “Our record is a hundred and twelve same items in this bag. Let’s see if we can break it.”

  Richard walked forward to see a huge clover field. Cautiously, Marcus knelt down and pulled up the clover. He held it up to Richard.

  “Only creatures give you a loot option. These you have to do by hand, and make sure you pull up by the root.”

  Richard nodded, then joined the circle. They pulled up clover after clover, taking turns stuffing them into the bag. Richard wondered if they would pull all the clovers in this little clearing, and the answer was yes. Richard tried not to draw any parallels to farming. Here they had spent at least an hour making sure they got every clover and stuffed it in Marcus’s bag. Savannah and Elias took turns keeping watch.

  Richard worked next to the farmer named Dennison. They had been quiet for some time, but Richard was too curious.

  “What do clovers do?” Richard asked.

  Dennison smiled, then pulled up the clover to show the root. Thin red veins pulsed like glowing embers on the roots. “If we weren’t so desperate, you could toss fifty of these into a pot and you’d have fertilizer. They’re small, though, so even tossing a handful with other ingredients will help make it so we won’t need as much of the other ingredients. They’re an important filler to make sure other, rarer resources get saved. Collect as much as you can.”

  Richard nodded and went back to work.

  When they got the last of the clovers, Marcus closed the drawstrings and placed the sack in his inventory, smiling. “Eighty-six. Not bad.”

  “We should keep an eye out for more on the way,” the woman farmer, Rochel, said.

  Elias snorted. “If you’d like. It’s an easy way to die.”

  Rochel glanced at Elias, frowning. “I didn’t mean…”

  Savannah shot Elias a glare. “Please ignore him.”

  “Pick nothing unless a higher-level scavenger like myself has identified it.” Marcus again studied the forest. “There are many creatures here with fast evolutions that create physical lures on themselves, and they often show themselves as a cluster of useful plants.”

  “Pick the plant, and—” Elias made a chomping sound, causing Rochel and Dennison to both jump. “You’re buried into the ground with digestive juices already dissolving half your body.” A wide smile flickered across Elias’s face as he said this.

  Marcus held up a hand to Elias as though that would shut him up. “Higher level snaproots do that. Those are far deeper in the forest. The ones here don’t get nearly as big.”

  Richard was grateful for the clarification, but he still felt sick to his stomach. Like he needed any other proof that the forest was deadly.

  A loud click sounded, and Marcus held up a hand.

  “What was that?” Rochel asked.

  “Nobody move.” Marcus’s voice had dropped to an almost imperceptible volume. “Not a muscle.”

  Savannah, Elias, and Marcus all glanced at their feet before moving away. Marcus gave Richard a grim look. “You stepped on it.”

  “Stepped… on what?”

  “We have a crawler. Don’t talk, don’t move.” Marcus pointed to Savannah. “Lead Dennison and Rochel away. Elias and Evan, help me find the heart. It will be buried under the soil.”

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  Richard let out a breath, wondering what they were talking about. Sharp pricks bit into his ankles, and he made the mistake of glancing down. Thorny vines slowly wrapped themselves around his feet, creeping up his calves. Savannah guided Dennison and Rochel a safe distance before returning. Marcus, Evan, and Elias scurried around the area, using weapons to dig in the dirt.

  A deep groan vibrated from the ground, and Richard couldn’t help but stare at his feet as they sank into the ground. The vines moved past his knees. Richard closed his eyes, his legs turning numb.

  “The important thing is not to panic,” Marcus said.

  Richard let out a breath. “Seriously? That’s your advice?”

  “Crawlers can sense when you’re scared.” Marcus dug a bit into the ground before moving on. “They feed off that energy, giving them strength to pull you under.”

  Richard closed his eyes. “That doesn’t help me not panic.”

  “Apologies. I always find it calming to understand that they won’t suddenly suck you under. Just pull slowly but steadily,” Marcus said.

  He could no longer feel his feet. His heart rate skyrocketed. Vines shot up him, passing his waist and circling up his stomach. The vines forced him down, and his ankles snapped as they were thrust against the hardened dirt. Richard let out a scream before muffling it. His entire legs were now numb, but his ankles pulsed with pain.

  Savannah let out a groan. “Where’s the heart!”

  “Got it!” Elias said.

  “Kill it!” everyone else said in a strangled whisper.

  Richard knew it happened when the vines themselves shrieked. The thorns trembled, then fell off him one by one. It was then that he realized he was buried in the dirt up to his knees. Savannah and Evan started digging around him as Marcus grabbed one of his arms and flung it over his shoulder.

  “Don’t use your heal wound ability until you’re out of the dirt,” Marcus said. “That tightly compacted, it’d just break your ankles again.”

  Richard forgot he had that ability. Despite using it all day yesterday, he still wasn’t used to using it the first time he thought about it.

  Dennison came around the other side of Richard, and the two of them eased Richard out of the dirt. As soon as his legs were out, he mentally chose his ability. His ankles were in different directions, and they snapped back into place. The sudden lack of pain in itself felt like such a shock that it was somehow a pain in itself.

  Richard sucked in air as Dennison and Marcus eased him to the ground. Elias was on the ground, collecting the loot.

  “You did well.” Marcus was brushing dirt from Richard’s leg before easing the pant leg from the wound. Despite Richard healing his broken bones, his skin had been cut from what he could only guess was the bone itself breaking out of the skin. That wasn’t part of the healing wound. There were also multiple cuts on his body from the thorns digging into him. Marcus opened a healing potion and spread it over the cuts on his legs. Richard didn’t know how long he’d been holding his breath until the potion got rid of most of the evidence of the attack.

  “Does this happen a lot?” Richard asked.

  “Yeah.” Marcus extended his hand to Richard. “I’d say half of our loot comes from creatures we fight, while the other half comes from the specific resources we’re looking for.”

  Richard took Marcus’s hand, climbing to his feet. He took a few steps before his knees gave out. Marcus still had a hold of him. Richard didn’t understand why his knees gave out, except for the feeling in his brain screaming at him that his ankles were still broken and he shouldn’t be standing.

  “You’re all right; give your brain a minute to realize you’re fine.”

  Marcus’s words were comforting, but Richard was more grateful for Marcus never letting him go.

  “Can you walk the toddler a little fas—” whatever snide remark Elias was about to say was cut short when Savannah pulled out a dagger. The deadlier weapon was the glare in her eyes. Elias grumbled something before moving away. Savannah kept her scowl and her dagger unsheathed. Marcus said nothing, pretending his full attention was on Richard.

  “There, see?” Marcus said as Richard’s steps became more sure. “Excellent.”

  Richard let out a breath. “I hope the loot was worth it.”

  “It always is. Order doesn’t give us anything we can’t use.”

  “A very… benevolent being.” Richard tried to hide his wince. He didn’t know why he felt so uncomfortable talking about Order and the other beings that were apparently not gods or goddesses but still on a higher plane of existence.

  A smile flickered across Marcus’s face. “Mmm. Your tone of voice reminds me you’re from Earth, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  He nodded. “Thought so. There’s something about Earth that makes you all so damn critical of a higher power.”

  “Probably because of our deep instinct not to trust anyone who has complete and total control over our every move, no matter what we do,” Elias said from within the trees.

  Marcus clenched his jaw. “See, I understand why you feel that way, but it seems to be a common enough trait that I thought I’d ask.”

  Richard brushed the leftover dirt off his shirt. “Where are you from?”

  “Callro,” Marcus said.

  “Leylah, right? She’s from Callro,” Richard said.

  “Indeed.”

  He didn’t know what to say after that.

  “That’s, um… cool. Good for you.” It would have been wiser to keep his mouth shut.

  “If you’d like the stereotype, we tend to be really driven,” Marcus said.

  Richard smiled. “That describes Leylah.”

  “Everyone from Callro also really hates a certain hand gesture,” Elias said.

  “Don’t.” Marcus’s voice dropped to deadly levels as they moved through the forest.

  Elias chuckled, but no one joined him. “I’ve been trying to convince Dmitri to do that gesture to check if newbies are from Callro, but he disagrees.”

  “Elias, kindly shut up,” Savannah said.

  Elias turned his conceited look to Richard. “Try it out sometime, newbie. It’s hilarious how angry everyone from Callro gets. It almost makes me curious to see what kind of world they have when a simple gesture makes them get so angry they want to kill me.”

  “Oh, believe me, other people not from Callro want to kill you,” Evan mumbled under his breath.

  Elias smiled, walking with his hands behind his back. “What an absolute pity, then, that base two would crumble if I wasn’t here.”

  “You’re not that good,” Savannah said.

  “Remind me again how long you’ve been a scavenger?”

  Savannah shot Elias a glare and was about to respond when mist rose out of the ground. Everyone but Richard stilled, staring at it. He was confused, staring at the circling mist. Strange symbols and lines danced around his vision. They shifted and changed, morphing into four squares in close succession. He was so confused by this, and about opened his mouth when Savannah beat him to it.

  “Four. Shit, there’s four.”

  Everyone else must see the boxes, too. “What the hell is happening?” Richard asked.

  “Chaos beast.”

  Richard moved his eyes away from the mist to stare at Marcus. Marcus did not meet his gaze, instead focused on the mist with his dagger clenched in his fist.

  “Chaos beast?”

  Marcus nodded, but gave no indication that he would fill in what that meant. Instead, Richard heard a ringing in his ears. His stomach churned, and he stared again at the mist and the four thin squares it had created. Another time anomaly was happening suspiciously close to this chaos beast. There was a clue here, one he should have realized. What if this time anomaly wasn’t from Order at all? What if it was from Chaos?