The three of them moved until the screams were wind and the scoreboard glow behind them flickered out like a memory.
Paari set their first halt on a low ridge, the ground tufted with short, waxy grass that squeaked underfoot. From here he could see the glassy plain where they'd fought: a smear of ash, the faint gleam of the invisible barrier catching light. Farther off, crystalline obelisks throbbed like heartbeats, washing the sky in pulses of pale blue.
[Party: Spearpoint — Shared Awareness I]
Paari: HP 100/100 | ST 80/80 | MP 40/40
Meera: HP 70/70 | ST 60/60 | MP 60/60
Arav: HP 110/110 | ST 70/70 | MP 30/30
The overlay hovered at the edge of his sight, comforting in the way a sightline is to a marksman. Paari let the numbers pass through him and focused on breath—on the weight of the spear, the ache riding his shoulders, the energy from leveling still fizzing under his skin.
"Sit," Meera said, voice hoarse. She squatted, set down the crystalline club she'd used to brain a thing that wanted Paari's throat, and forced her hands to still. They shook anyway. "Just… two minutes."
Arav paced, bow in hand, alive in the way people are when they've cheated death and haven't decided if they deserve it. "We need water. Food. A place to sleep that doesn't get us gnawed."
"Agreed." Paari scanned the slope below. The grass swayed one way, then the other; where it bent and didn't bounce back, a shallow depression threaded the land like a scar. "There. A run-off. If there's a stream anywhere, it'll be near that line."
Meera drew in a breath and stood, tucking loose hair behind an ear. "Let's move. Before it gets dark."
They dropped from the ridge, following the dent through the grass toward a stand of pale, fan-leafed plants. The air cooled as they walked, the ground softening underfoot—until the dent became a shallow trench, and the trench a narrow runnel with a skim of clear water trickling along the bottom.
Arav dropped to a knee. "I could kiss this ditch."
"Don't," Meera muttered. "We should boil it."
"We don't have pots," Arav said, deadpan. "Or a kitchen. Or a building. Or—"
The obelisk to their right chimed.
A translucent wedge unfolded above its face, casting silver light across the three of them.
[Local Orientation Node – Inactive]
Calibrate this Node to reveal a regional mini-map and unlock Basic Camp protocols.
Calibration Steps (2):
Attune: Remain within 20m for 60s while the Node synchronizes with your party.Stabilize: Eliminate ambient hostiles that respond to resonance.
Reward (per party member): +2 TP, +10 EXP, 3× Beacon Shards (temporary ward anchors), Mini-Map (Local).
Optional:Claim Camp within 200m using Beacon Shards (grants an 8h ward, minor regeneration aura).
Warning: Node resonance attracts Skitterlings.
Arav squinted. "Skitterlings?"
The grass rustled—soft at first, then with intent.
"Those," Paari said, and planted his spear.
Two smaller, sharper versions of the insectoids popped their heads above the grass. Their shells were thinner, their legs wirier; they moved like anger on six points.
"Attune," Paari said. He nodded at the obelisk. "We stay within twenty meters. We hold them when they come."
Meera swallowed and stepped close enough that the Node's light painted her shoulder. Arav set himself slightly behind Paari, drawing a slow breath, bowstring coming back to the corner of his mouth.
[Attunement: 00:60]
The first Skitterling darted low. Paari slid his front foot a handwidth, dropped the spear, and let momentum do the work. The point caught the creature beneath its chin, lifted, and tore out through soft plating.
[Enemy Defeated. +1 TP. +12 EXP.]
[Paari Vel — EXP: 42 / 200 | TP: 42 → 43]
The second bounded sideways, juking like it knew arrows. Arav didn't aim where it was; he'd leveled, and his eyes had learned a new math. He aimed where it would be and loosed.
The arrow punched through a joint. The creature pinwheeled, skidded, and lay still.
[Enemy Defeated. +1 TP. +12 EXP.]
[Arav Krishna — EXP: 27 / 200 | TP: 41 → 42]
"Nice," Paari said, without taking his eyes off the grass.
Arav breathed out. "I saw the path. It's like… like the world tells me where it's going to be if I listen hard enough."
[Attunement: 00:33]
Something hissed beyond the plants; Meera's overlay flashed as a faint scratch on her forearm ticked her HP down by two. She didn't gasp. She pressed her palm to her skin and let light bloom.
[Minor Heal Activated. +2 HP.]
[Effective Heal — +5 EXP.]
[Meera Iyer — EXP: 5 / 200]
"You don't have to heal scratches," Paari murmured.
"I know," she said, and kept her glowing hand ready. "I need to keep the rhythm. If I stop, I'll… think."
[Attunement: 00:07]
Two Skitterlings broke through the grass in a staggered pounce, one at upper thigh height, one low at ankle. Paari kicked the lower and met the higher's leap with the haft, turning the flurry into angles and lines his body understood. The spear point kissed the first through the eye; Arav's arrow stitched the second to the dirt.
[Enemy Defeated. +1 TP. +12 EXP.] — Paari
[Enemy Defeated. +1 TP. +12 EXP.] — Arav
[Paari: 54 / 200 | TP 44] [Arav: 39 / 200 | TP 43]
[Attunement Complete.]
[Orientation Node: Calibrated.]
Reward (to each party member): +2 TP, +10 EXP, Mini-Map (Local), 3× Beacon Shards.
[Stabilize: 2/2 Hostiles eliminated.]
Optional: Use Beacon Shards to Claim Camp within 200m (8h ward, minor regen).
A translucent ring pulsed out from the obelisk, washing through them like warm water. Lines sketched into being at the corner of Paari's vision—hollows, ridges, the bright dot of the Node itself, and a thin ribbon of blue that marked the trickle of water beside them.
Meera sagged with relief as a small pouch materialized on her belt: three slivers of prismatic crystal, each letting off a slow, steady pulse.
"Beacon Shards," Arav said, fishing his own out. "We can make a camp. For a night, at least."
"We should," Meera said quickly. "Before everyone else decides to take what we already have."
They placed the shards like the Node indicated: one by the water runnel, one halfway up the ridge, and one tucked behind the fan-leafed plants. When the triangle closed, a faint film settled over the ground like a dew of light.
[Camp (Basic) Claimed: 8h Ward Established]
Light regeneration aura: +1 HP/10 min, +1 MP/10 min inside the perimeter.
Reward (per party member): +1 TP, +5 EXP.
Meera exhaled something too ragged to be a laugh. "We have a home. For a little while."
Arav cupped water and let it run through his fingers. "We have a ditch."
"Ditches are good," Paari said. He checked the map again: faint dots moving at the edge of range, too far to read names, close enough to be trouble by night. "Let's get what we can done before the dark makes us stupid."
They worked—if the word could be stretched to cover three people with no tools and less training, turning grass and grit into shelter. Arav braided fan leaves into a makeshift mat and windbreak with a speed his callused hands had learned at the workshop. Meera dug with a flat stone to deepen the runnel and set a couple of crude reeds as a tiny sieve to catch grit. Paari picked a line where someone approaching would have to stumble and scattered knee-high rocks there, a clumsy caltrop field.
The work let the shaking ebb.
Half an hour later, two shadows drifted down the slope toward the glimmer of the ward. The Shieldbearer—R. Patel—moved like he'd finally remembered the rhythm of his weight. The Swordsman—K. Rao—had blood flaked on his sleeve and the eyes of a man trying not to look backward.
Patel stopped at the perimeter and lifted both hands, palms out. "We saw you set the ward," he said. "We're not here to take it. We'd like to sit inside it for an hour. We'll take the far edge. No trouble."
Paari watched their bars in the party-adjacent overlay the System floated when someone came close. Both men were ragged. Not dying. Not lying.
"Sit," Paari said. "But don't start a trade you can't finish."
Rao's mouth twitched. "Meaning?"
"TP," Arav said before Paari could answer. "We're not buying protection you can't guarantee or selling points you can't return."
Patel nodded like he was too tired to argue. They settled by the ward's rim, backs to the pale plants, weapons unstrapped but not in hand. The ward's subtle warmth took the first layer of their shiver.
"People are already selling TP," Rao said, eyes on his hands. "Ten points for a promise to join some guy's group. He says he'll keep them safe. Says he'll pay them back after he gets top three."
Meera's mouth flattened. "And if he doesn't?"
Rao didn't answer. It was answer enough.
"Don't sell," Paari said. He kept his voice level. "Trade chores. Trade watch shifts. Trade information. TP goes one way. You can't pull it back."
Patel's eyes flicked to the obelisk, then to the map shimmer at the corner of his sight. "Information, then. The Node there—when we calibrated the one near our drop, something else thrummed across the plain. Like this one, but… louder."
"Another Node?" Arav asked.
"A bigger one," Patel said. "It pulsed twice and then quieted."
Paari filed it behind his eyes. Bigger nodes. Regional? A way to link camps? Or bait for something that didn't mind when people gathered.
The map pinged softly.
[Leaderboard: Hourly Update – Zone 113]
Names crawled. Numbers shifted.
Unknown — Lv.2 — 75 TP — Alive
Paari Vel — Lv.2 — 45 TP — Alive
Arav Krishna — Lv.2 — 45 TP — Alive
Meera Iyer — Lv.2 — 40 TP — Alive
Shieldbearer (R. Patel) — Lv.1 — 29 TP — Alive
Swordsman (K. Rao) — Lv.1 — 27 TP — Alive
Paari flicked to the extended listing, heart choking his ribs until the names resolved.
Rajan Vel — Lv.1 — 24 TP — Alive
Priya Vel — Lv.1 — 27 TP — Alive
Ravi — Lv.1 — 31 TP — Alive
Numbers. Just numbers. But Paari could hear what lived beneath them: the grind of fight, the slog of fear, the way his father would square his stance without thinking, the way Priya's jaw would lock when a bully said no.
"We'll get to them," Meera said quietly, not asking if he was looking. "We will."
He nodded. The motion felt like a vow.
As dusk bled in, the Zone changed. The alien sky took on depth; constellations deepened from blue-white to something closer to purple fire. Distant, a sound like stone grating over stone rumbled once and died. The ward's skin grew more visible, a faint, nacreous sheen over grass and dirt.
The obelisk chimed again, as if it could feel the shape of night setting in.
[Night Advisory – Tutorial Zone]
Threat Profile: Elevated (roving predators, increased Skitterling activity).
Recommendation: Shelter within a ward. Rotate watches. Avoid luminescent ravines.
Micro-Quest Available:Hold the Line — Keep a claimed camp occupied and unbreached for 4 hours after dusk.
Reward (per party member): +1 TP, +5 EXP.
"Do we take it?" Arav asked.
Paari looked at their faces—the flushed burn of new strength, the bone-weariness under it. He looked at the patchwork camp and the two men at the perimeter pretending not to listen, because pretending was a mercy.
"We were going to do that anyway," he said. "Might as well get paid."
They set watches. Arav took first; his new eyes made night a set of slow, solvable problems. Patel volunteered to sit with him. Meera insisted on second; she said she wouldn't sleep through her own heart anyway. Paari anchored last, when he knew he would wake whether he wanted to or not.
They ate nothing. They drank careful mouthfuls of clear water and let the ward's warmth unknot wrists and calves. Meera cleaned the scratch on her forearm like it mattered—because it did, because caring now trained her hands for when the wounds were worse.
The night breathed around them. Twice, pale shapes drifted at the limit of vision, the ward's surface rippling as if it wanted to recoil. Once, something shrieked in a ravine and fell abruptly silent. The Beacon Shards pulsed in slow, patient time.
Near midnight, a Skitterling tested the ward like a stray thought tests a scab. It skittered sideways, found nothing to grab, and went looking for easier mistakes.
[Micro-Quest Complete: Hold the Line]
Reward: +1 TP, +5 EXP to each party member.
Arav let out a breath he might have been holding since the light took the gym. "Day one," he said softly. "Well. Half a day."
"Fourteen and some left," Meera murmured.
"Don't count them out loud," Paari said, almost smiling. "You'll jinx it."
He didn't sleep when it was his turn to. He sat with his back to the fan-leaf windbreak and watched the ward lift and fall like a sleeping thing's chest, and when his eyes slipped to the leaderboard he didn't stop them. The names held. The numbers edged upward like a tide.
He let dawn find him awake and ready.
When the first light broke, the Node threw a pale spear into the sky. The Beacon Shards shivered and went steady. The regen aura ebbed to a whisper.
"Again?" Arav asked, rolling his shoulders.
"Again," Paari said.
He looked at the map: the water ribbon, the ridge lines, the faint indication of another Node on a line of low hills two kilometers out, and—beyond that—the gray suggestion of something larger, unlabeled.
He didn't know if the bigger pulse Patel had felt was a promise or a trap. He knew the difference didn't matter. In a place like this, everything worth having was both.
"Pack up," he said. "Leave the ward standing for now. If we're not back by dusk…"
"We will be," Meera said. No bravado in it. Just a choice.
They stepped out through the ward's skin, and the day met them without apology.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Current Status — Spearpoint (end of Ch. 3)
Paari Vel — Spear MasterLv.2
HP 100/100 | ST 80/80 | MP 40/40 | EXP 82/200 | TP 45
STR 11AGI 12PER 10END 8WIS 8VIT 10
Skill: Basic Thrust
Arav Krishna — ArcherLv.2
HP 90/90 | ST 70/70 | MP 30/30 | EXP 67/200 | TP 45
STR 8AGI 11PER 13END 7WIS 7VIT 9
Skill: Basic Shot
Meera Iyer — HealerLv.2
HP 110/110 | ST 60/60 | MP 60/60 | EXP 40/200 | TP 40
STR 5AGI 7PER 10END 6WIS 13VIT 11
Skill: Minor Heal