Two days later, Landsknecht gathered outside terrarium three. The plan was simple– kill two birds with one stone. Ophidian Pact’s job was within terrarium three, so they might as well train with their new jumpboots and get a feeling for the new environment.

  Well, it was only new for Viviana. The rest of the Landsknecht members were more lucky. Back when they had no idea how to make money, they had checked it out and immediately ran away.

  Something about a giant frog or something?

  Normally, entering a terrarium just meant finding one of the dozens of entrances located all across campus and stepping in. Terrarium three was different. Because as soon as they stepped in, they found themselves teleported into a random location.

  Terrarium three was a vast, flat salt plane as far as the eye could see. In fact, it was almost too large. “Is it just me, or is this bigger on the inside?” Viviana asked.

  Thomas nodded. “It is. Terrarium three is non-euclidean.”

  “How do we get out, then?”

  Lucian shrugged. “We found a portal. Last time we entered Bena found a portal pretty quickly.”

  They all turned to Bena, who shot a thumbs up. “This place is super flat and simple, so my skill has crazy range here. There’s a portal about ten kilometers in that direction,” she said, pointing.

  They squinted in that direction but it was futile. They didn’t have scout skills of their own.

  A brief wind picked up, blowing white salt around. The sun shone down from a blue sky. It was quite pretty. Even the temperature was nice. Not too hot, but not cold enough that many layers were necessary.

  Viviana didn’t like it. It was too calm, too comfortable. “Well, let’s test out our boots. We’re heading to the portal at top speed. Hopefully we’ll encounter some monsters.”

  Thomas shuddered. “The last time a monster showed up at ‘training’, we nearly all died.”

  Viviana put her hands on her hips. “It was a good training session, no? Did I not teach you all the basics of grapple usage?”

  “Well, Lucian taught us how to use it, and then you kinda just led a monster to us and told us to figure it out on our own…”

  Viviana looked at Lucian, who just shrugged, placing a hand on the back of his head. “Yeah, you kinda did that.”

  Viviana looked at Bena. Bena spoke enthusiastically “Well, there are no monsters within ten kilometers, so we’re safe! Well, actually, I can’t sense underground stuff too well, so maybe not!”

  Viviana snorted. “Don’t worry. I’ll find us one.”

  Thomas shook his head in exasperation. Bena looked a little scared. Lucian didn’t seem to react.

  Viviana turned away from them, instead looking in the direction that Bena had pointed. “Well, I’m gonna be heading off. I suggest trying out the boots a couple times before you start going. I’m going to get training materials.”

  Time to look for a monster.

  Viviana raced through the salt flats, elated by the sheer speed she felt. She had tested out the boots before, but a couple revelations had made her relatively fast travel speed even faster.

  Jump boots were used to propel forward or upwards in short bursts of speed, much like dash-type skills, but the loose salt and flat terrain meant that each step was less like a singular stride and more like gliding. This, combined with frequent use of [flash step] made it feel like Viviana was skating.

  The revelation was that she could power up electronic devices with her [lightning trap]. It seemed obvious in hindsight. Lightning was electricity. If she could control the output, she could power stuff.

  I have to thank Fortuna for that one. If she didn’t mention it, I would have never thought of it.

  It meant that she could put a little more power into the boots than what they normally wanted, pushing her even faster and for longer.

  I think I’m moving faster than an Armored Personnel Carrier can cruise!

  It didn’t even take five minutes to get to the portal. Viviana had stopped in front of it, or at least tried to. She realized her momentum was going to take her crashing straight into it, so she veered to the side. Bad move.

  A catastrophic crash. Viviana thought she tumbled for a minute straight. At some point she thought she died, but no, it was just a concussion. She pulled herself to her feet, her pride and dignity damaged more than anything.

  Thank god this terrarium is full of absolutely nothing. Nobody could have seen that.

  Now, where are the monsters? Bena said there were no monsters within the ten kilometer range. The portal marked ten kilometers out from our starting location, so monsters should be showing up soon…

  Viviana decided to keep going, moving a bit deeper into terrarium three. It didn’t take long before she felt something. Mana. Something's in that direction. I should check it out.

  Eventually Viviana stumbled into something. A chasm, marring the surface of the salt bed. It cut straight down and continued until the horizon.

  It was ethereal. Like she was at the edge of the world. The scene stole her breath for a second.

  What was very, very real, was that the chasm was only a couple meters deep, and that people were close by. Multiple people in black armor, moving around fluidly with jumpboots of their own, attacking a massive monster that looked like a cross between a giant frog and a snake.

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  It looked like if you took a frog, made it the size of a building, and decided it wasn’t long enough so you extended it a couple hundred meters.

  Simply put, the snake-frog was massive.

  To think I wanted to lead one of these guys back to the rest of the Landsknecht. Yeah, no.

  The circling black figures looked more like flies, or gnats, trying to kill something far bigger than they should even attempt. But it was working.

  The black figures used grapples, scaling up the beast as it trashed and shot spines, small, hidden projectiles in its skin. They dodged and weaved expertly, skating up the skin with their jumpboots.

  Better than my squad, for sure. About as good as The Adapter’s… or even better.

  Viviana just watched. She had never seen a conflict this big before, or even a monster this large. The biggest monster she had ever encountered was the centipede she led to a Pact base. Even that one she could do nothing but run away from.

  Viviana watched as everything stilled. The monster stopped thrashing, looking around, confused, despite the black figures still ascending and still moving.

  Then a massive spear slowly appeared over the frog-snake’s head. It stretched into the sky, scraping at the clouds. The spear took a long, long time to form, but it was still an insane display of power. Viviana could feel the mana in the air surge and convulse in response.

  Viviana watched as it slowly plunged down. How is this possible? How is the frog-snake not sensing this?

  It was almost creepy. The frog didn’t do anything as the spear went down, descending into the massive monster’s head, killing it slowly. Just how is this possible? Paralysis? A skill?

  And then it was finished. Viviana stared, mesmerized. This is just a fraction of the power the guilds wield.

  From hundreds of meters away, across the great salt plains, one of the black figures turned their face toward her direction. Then another did. Viviana tensed, instantly snapping out of her mesmerization. Should I leave? They’re clearly guild affiliated.

  Then two members of the black armored squadron broke off the rest, heading in her direction. Fast. Wouldn’t even be a minute.

  Fuck. I wasn’t even doing anything! Why are they approaching?

  Viviana weighed her options and found that running wasn’t one. They were faster than she was when she travelled here. They had even better equipment. Viviana had one of the latest models of jump boots, but these guys probably had something the market wouldn’t have access to. An experimental one, perhaps.

  So Viviana simply waited for them to get here. Her hands tightened on the handle of her sword as they approached. And then they loosened, just a little bit.

  Black armor, and those movements… Selenne?

  “Yo, Adler-Stern!” A garbled voice shouted, right as the black figure reached the chasm wall, expertly skating to a stop and firing grapples to ascend.

  “Hello, Selenne,” Viviana said as Selenne pulled herself over the wall. Selenne didn’t have her sword drawn, and neither did the other armored person, but Viviana remained cautious.

  “Did you fall on your face or something? They’re salt in your hair,” Selenne’s voice, clear and melodic this time as she pulled her helmet off. Something about the whole thing ticked Viviana off.

  “No, just the salt kicking up,” Viviana said. “Who’s the other guy?”

  “Oh, him? That’s–”

  “Hello, Viviana,” the armored person said, taking off their helmet. A darker complexion. A scar on their face. Kassan?! “Selenne, we should leave now. We have confirmed that this person isn't a guild scout.”

  After Viviana got over her initial shock, recognizing The Hunter from the orientation that seemed like ages ago, Viviana blinked, realizing she had nothing to say to him. “Selenne, did you replace your goons with him?”

  “Goons? What goons?”

  “Those two guys that followed you around during orientation. I haven’t seen them around.”

  “Oh, those guys?” Selenne said, nodding, stroking her chin like she was thinking. “Yeah, I got rid of them.”

  Viviana sighed. “What are you doing here, Selenne?”

  “Just guild stuff. Killing big, big, froggy-snakes. One of my scouts sensed you watching, so I came over to check if you were a threat.”

  Viviana folded her arms. “Well, am I?”

  Selenne grinned. “Nope. Harmless. Mission complete.”

  That rubbed her the wrong way. “Alright. Good talk. I’m on a very important mission myself, so I’m leaving now.”

  Selenne grabbed her shoulder, facing her. Something changed in her expression. More serious now. Melancholy. “Wait a second, Adler-Stern. I’m glad… that I bumped into you. How is Landsknecht doing? How is… how’s Lucian?”

  Viviana just rolled her eyes and stared back up at Selenne. I’ve never cared about my height, but I hate that I’m shorter than her. “You know, you could ask him yourself. Or call him. Message him. The wonderful age of smartphones is here.”

  “I can’t,” Selenne said. Her posture shifted slightly. She looked smaller.

  Viviana shrugged off Selenne’s hand from her shoulder, turning around. “Unfortunate. Well, if you don’t need anything else, I’m leaving. Unless you wanna spew some cryptic bullshit, like last time?”

  Viviana took a couple steps away, getting ready to leave. She heard Kassan’s voice from behind her. “We should head back, Selenne. Guild is calling us. Urgent.”

  But Selenne didn’t acknowledge Kassan’s concerns. Instead, she raised her voice, calling out to Viviana.

  “Well,” Selenne said. Something changed in her expression. A small smile. “I’ve realized I can’t stop you. I warned you not to participate in the war, and look at you now. You even made a montage out of my boss’s squad.

  “So how about this, Adler-Stern? We do a little spar. If I win, you pull out of all war-related missions from now on.”

  “And If I win?” asked Viviana.

  “Whatever you want,” Selenne said, turning her hands to the sky. “You make a good opponent, but you won’t win.”

  Viviana turned back around. “First you call me harmless, and now a good opponent? Which is it?”

  “A harmless good opponent. True, you’re the only person to have ever defeated me one on one. But judging by how easily I won the last fight, and how much stronger I am now? You don’t stand a chance.”

  Viviana snorted. “I win, and you strip.”

  “...the fuck?”

  “I need breach armor. Actually, I need Kassan to strip, too. He’s about Lucian’s size.”

  Selenne laughed. She walked backwards, placing a hand on her sheathed sword. It was as good as confirmation. “I don’t think you’ll fit in my armor. I’m too tall.”

  Kassan spoke up from the sidelines, completely ignored by the two women but still present. “Selenne, I don’t think you should be gambling my dignity like that–”

  “This isn’t a gamble. I’m just getting what I want,” Selenne said, drawing her sword, moving into a stance.

  “I wouldn’t be too sure,” Viviana responded, drawing her own blade. She prepped [flash step] and placed optimized [lightning traps] on her jumpboots.

  Kassan sighed. “I hate my job.”