Bonded Summoner

Book 9. Chapter 37: The Hunt Begins

During their travel, they had hit the confirmation button for accepting The Burning Steps’ Conquest reward and began the merger. In the end, the cost was nearly one-third of the usual, faction-draining cost, and it would take a little more than three months.

During that time the Pelagos natives would be in stasis, and the water continent alone would be too. The water elemental was being nurtured by the Framework itself, and the native population was aiding in this cosmic repair as well. The world was already shifting, and the natives had already reported a gradual cooling of the heat. Sporadic storms were already starting to form throughout the world, as water mana started becoming more prevalent.

In all, Jake saw it as a complete success, this odd faith-and-terraforming repair his guild had completed with the help of the natives. The idea that his people had all the disciplines necessary to make this happen was rather exciting.

The Burning Steps would definitely become one of their stronger worlds, its Energy Rating rising far beyond the original estimate and close to the Third Tier. The natives would undoubtedly hold a lot of gratitude for Hearthtribe and Clan Hart for the specialized rescue. While it wouldn’t become a part of Jake’s Territory right now, he thought he just might be able to convince them to join the War Trial once the poll came out.

Eventually, Clan Hart arrived at their destination. Stepping through the portal from the HQ Tower of The Great Maw into the wilds was an exercise in extreme planetary whiplash.

The tower itself was an indestructible, gilded cage, the insides of which weren’t all that different from most Alliance HQs he’d been to. It was one of a handful of safe zones anchored across the world–a towering spire of black stone Framework shielding that couldn't be breached or conquered unless the entire planet was officially lost to Tartarus.

But you couldn't just walk out the front door and start marching.

During their week of preparation, Clan Hart had analyzed the brutal mechanics and mathematics of Beast Worlds, and specifically, The Great Maw. The planet was roughly ten times the size of Earth. It possessed over one hundred Mid-and-High-Grade Primal Dominion Nodes at any given time.

Capturing approximately twenty-four of the High-grade variants, or some combination including many of the Mid-grade, was officially required to enact the Battleground-like event that would allow the Alliance to claim the world officially from Tartarus’s grasp permanently.

If a faction tried to field a traditional army to take those nodes, the sheer concentration of forces and ambient mana would trigger a massive Beast Tide. It was like the planet's immune system would simply wipe them out. Armies could work, but only with a ridiculous investment in heavily fortified outposts and supply lines and a slow, meticulous crawl toward victory. Clearing millions of square miles of jungle to claim so many High-grade nodes was no easy task. This was why few guilds expended much effort. The value of the world was simply high enough in its neutral state that both Alliance and Tartarus often did not bother.

To conquer the world efficiently, the strategy the Alliance favored was decentralized, elite strike teams. And to find two arrogant, demigod-tier apex predators looking for a fight, you had to check the biggest, most violently contested Nodes.

That had been the plan from the beginning, at least. The issue was that little information on the nodes was given from the map aside from ownership, and on top of that, stepping through the portals would take them to a random location. They could also see the outpost locations and some of the special claimed resources the Alliance had, but that was about it. A lot of things would need to be discovered on their own.

Jake stepped through the tower's randomized deployment portal, the spatial magic immediately spitting his strike team out into a dense, completely unknown sector of the planetary wilderness. The air hit them like a physical blow–a hyper-dense expanse of primordial jungle smelling of rotting vegetation, ozone, and the metallic tang of fresh blood. The mana was dense and chaotic, with a cocktail of energies within.

On most worlds, mana was available, and while Qi was not often a primary energy, it was still something that was present on all the worlds they had been on. But here on The Great Maw, cultivators wouldn’t be able to cultivate at all, not even to recover their spent stores–because the energy was just so full of chaotic energy not suitable for cultivation. Unless they located a source of pure essence, like a treasure or one of the Primordial Nodes.

Of course, Fhesiah and Jake’s wives were different–they had hearths that burned away the impurities of the chaotic cocktail. And there were other exceptions among cultivators, but ninety-nine out of a hundred would be living off Qi crystals to recover on this world.

Jake hadn't brought the entire family of warriors with him through the portal. Because his Hearth Bond and Sanctum allowed him to perfectly shield and buff his wives across vast planetary distances, they had split up to cover more ground. The portal had dropped most of them in the middle of nowhere, not all that near any node or outpost.

He kept only three companions with him, and the rest went solo. Ira, his familiar, melted instantly into the shadows of the canopy, acting as a silent, lethal guardian. This was on top of his own Umbral Gaze which provided Jake with a flawless, 360-degree anti-assassination radar, and his Sanctum in passive mode.

Ruby floated at his right, her crimson eyes scanning the dense foliage. Because she wasn't officially Hearth-bonded yet, Jake needed to keep her within his physical aura to ensure her safety. Plus, he could always use another guard.

Jake was the only Champion who was unsealed, as they preferred not to risk Tartarus showing up with crazy stacked beasts. They weren’t here for a fight with Tartarus–they were here for Bree’s sisters. Aside from searching nearly two billion square miles of jungle for them, this was nothing more than a simple task.

Despite having faced the Champions and Aspects already for their simultaneous conflicts, Beast Worlds ran off of a separate ruleset. His presence and the other Divine Entities presences may or may not cause Tartarus to bother sending a special set of threats of its own in counter. With such a large world, however, and the idea that anyone they sent would need to find his people... Jake thought as long as they didn’t stay for too long, his opponents wouldn’t bother.

Which was another reason why Bree was with him. “Well,” Bree grinned, her chaotic energy flaring as she breathed in the heavy, aggressive mana. “Smells like home. Let's cover some ground.”

Bree released the extreme compression that kept her in her tall, humanoid shape. Her body violently expanded, flesh and fiery plant matter weaving together until a multi-ton apex predator stood in the clearing.

The woman was a beautiful fusion of prehistoric violence–a massive, wolfen-jawed beast with the heavy, twin-horned crest of a triceratops, armored in emerald and red scales and flaming hearthvines, ending in the devastating, spiked mace-tail of an ankylosaurus.

Jake grinned, effortlessly vaulting up onto the natural saddle behind her armored crest. Ruby floated into the air, riding on a blood blade as several swirled around her. Covered in her bloodplate and with her giant, crafted digger claws covered in runes, she looked every bit her own dangerous predator.

“Let’s conquer us a node.” Jake ordered, his Crucible humming as he tapped his staff against her armored flank.

Bree let out a rumbling, earth-shaking growl of agreement and tore into the jungle.

Trees shattered against her horns as she moved with thundering speed. A few beasts eventually leaped out, trying to contest her presence. With a quick piercing vine, a blood blade from Ruby, or an elemental bolt from Jake quickly ending the threat, they dispersed the monster into motes of light as they were automatically looted by his skill.

Bree chuckled. “Nice. Plenty of free loot is coming at us when I make enough noise.”

They traveled through the jungle, crashing into trees and drawing out all sorts of enemies for a time. To find a node wasn’t that hard–they just needed to follow the leylines of the world until they found one, much like following a river that flowed beneath them. There were definitely wellsprings of energy that didn’t follow this too, but this was the surefire method.

Ira nudged them to travel in another direction of interest, noting that there was something off in the distance they may want to see. Eventually the dense foliage broke, revealing a massive, scarred clearing.

Down below, a squad of Earthlings was fighting for their lives, and they were losing badly. A few of them were actually not quite human.

How did Jake know they were probably Earthlings, then? The way they were shouting and how the rogue had some dwarven tech–a viewfinder–a helmet with a computer, and a crystalline visor with tactical information displayed on it.

Jake hadn’t seen many people using such a tool–all it did was scan an opponent, give it a name and a possible level and stat measurement, and encyclopedic information. All the information was just guesses that may or may not be accurate about what was in front of them because many beast types had layers of uniqueness.

This was the limit of most dwarven tech–to provide information or creature comforts that did not truly translate to personal strength.

His family hadn’t seen enough value in any of this. They always had the Refuge portal for the creature comforts, and ‘potential stat ranges’ didn’t mean anything when they could feel and measure a creature’s magical aura due to their incredible sensory capabilities. The viewfinder didn’t really work regarding unique monsters’ abilities anyhow, the object providing a lot more guesswork than certainty.

But gamers from Earth found this incredibly valuable, as they were used to this from when they played the game.

Also, their guild’s name was [Rogues Do It From Behind], and if that wasn’t a guild from Earth, then Jake would eat his shoe.

The likely ex-gamers had clearly been engaged in a grueling fight with a pack of razor-beaked, reptilian dino-birds. But the noise and spilled blood had attracted a roaming boss-level creature, like what might come out of a Rift.

A massive, six-eyed giant reptile with brown and darkened purple armored scales. It was indiscriminately tearing through the birds and the Alliance party alike, and while it was not at the level of a Beast King, it was far too much for the party of five to take on without preparation.

“The tank is injured! Kite it for now!” a woman in wizard's robes shrieked, firing frantic elemental bolts against the monster's thick hide as she backed away.

“I have zero mana!” a blue-skinned rogue shouted back, parrying a beak with his daggers. “We can't outrun it! Try to make it to that big tree over there and climb it!”

The tank limped as a healer channeled energy into his wounds and actually sort of rode his shoulder, the bone in one leg completely shattered. Even on one leg, the Tier 2 almost-human from Earth leaped as he hobbled away as the large beast chased him, the guy looking like some kind of lion man, including a muzzled face.

Humans from Earth had earned a treasure from the fifth floor of their introductory dungeon event that enabled many of them to activate bloodlines from various Origins. Whether from their own personal ancestry or to simply infuse a new one of their choice. Jake guessed that one or more of these people could be from another world, but it was entirely possible they were all from Earth, even the Lionid.

“Let’s clear the board,” Jake said calmly, looking down from Bree's back.

Ruby simply waved her clawed hand. The blood that had already been spilled across the muddy clearing instantly crystallized into razor-sharp, crimson spikes, impaling the remaining dino-birds from the ground up.

The armored reptile roared at the sudden localized slaughter, turning its massive, six-eyed head toward Bree as she leaped down into the clearing.

It didn't get the chance to step forward. Two flaming vines whipped from both sides, mimicking two hands clapping. Only instead of an open hand, the plant maws she formed bit down into the monster’s sides, with a manifestation of dinodogs biting fiercely into its flesh.

Jake then sent three flaming contradictions at its face, fiery bolts made of two conceptual fiery elements. Light and dark, lightning and cold, and Faye’s yin and yang. They exploded as they covered the monster’s face and neck and took off such large chunks of its flesh. The flames ran rampant, and it wasn’t long before the nearly headless body fell to the ground.

The surviving ex-gamers slumped in the mud, staring at the sudden silence of the clearing. The wizard lowered her trembling staff, her eyes wide as she looked from the blood to the headless boss monster and finally to Jake sitting atop the multi-ton dinosaur.

The healer was breathless. “Thank you, strangers. That would have been tough.”

The lionid groaned as he fell to the ground. “Thanks for the help.”

“Holy shit,” the rogue breathed, likely noticing his Framework designation on top of his expansive magical aura–and probably the viewfinder providing him weird information, besides. “You're... Lord Hart! I recognize you from the integration event!”

Jake nodded as he sent the flames of Hestia to help them recover, the lionid requiring a fair bit of healing for him to mend his broken bone. “No problem. You guys are all from Earth, right? How long have you been here?”

The lionid stood on his previously busted leg, and the healer’s eyes widened at that. “So easily...”

The rogue replied, “We just got here a few days ago. It’s...a lot harder than worlds with Rifts.”

Jake realized they likely wouldn’t have any useful information, but he asked them anyway. “We're looking for someone. Have any of you seen a massive ice and lightning canine operating in this sector? Two distinct Alliance predators traveling together.”

The gamers exchanged exhausted, bewildered looks.

“An ice or lightning...canine on our side? Is that even possible without it being a tamed beast?” the wizard asked, wiping blood and mud off her cheek. “We haven't seen anything but hostile trees and unfriendly teeth until you. Look around. This world is huge. You could hide a dozen armies in this jungle and never bump into them.”

“True enough. Have you been to the nearest outpost?” Jake was curious about any guilds that might be present.

They shook their heads, but the rogue spoke, “We just got here, and we’re not so sure if we’ll stay here much longer than making it to a tower to leave. We thought we’d claim a low-grade node, but...”

The Leonid finished, “We almost got taken out by just random wildlife. I don’t know how anyone can run solo on this world.”

It was the paradoxical nature of Beast Worlds. Their party likely attracted far more attention than a solo Adventurer, and so the solo person would be safer for numerous reasons–should they have the right skills. It would be the same at the nodes when they contested them.

“I think you’ll be fine. If...you take proper precautions next time. Always have an escape plan, and do everything possible to secure an advantage or control the encounter. These beasts can smell blood for miles, and the world is full of ambush predators. Scouting is always important, but here...it’s critical to your survival in a much bigger way than in a Contested World. Engage on the best possible terms, and after you’ve secured the area, or don’t engage at all.”

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The mage smirked. “That was a lot of words to call you a noob, wasn’t it, Dare?”

Dare groaned. “Shove it, Raine. It’s not just my job to scout, and he said it was an issue of tactics, too. That’s up to leadership, not me.” He looked over to the Leonid.

The Leonid looked thoughtful. “The Lord is right; perhaps we were a bit careless. But you know... for some reason the advice he gave us doesn’t land that well when he comes stampeding through the jungle like he owns the place.”

Bree chuckled at that, a deep rumble from her large throat and maw. “Such is the privilege of the strong. He might not own the world now, but he just might soon enough.”

Raine’s eyes widened. “What the fuck, it talks?!”

Dare stepped closer to Bree. “Holy shit! That’s awesome! ...How do I get one!”

Bree tilted her head. “Get one? If you meet a speaking beast in the Second Tier, you start by asking real-fucking-nicely, I’ll say that much. But you guys don’t have a chance in hell–nearly all beasts that are intelligent enough to speak, besides maybe a few birds, are going to be high-grade bloodlines. They are going to be prideful and aren’t going to want to be some weakling's pet. Friends, maybe.”

Dare looked wronged. “Daaamn, that was cold as ice. Still, I’m realizing that we could probably benefit from some...extra allies. Maybe I should try to become a beast tamer, even if getting a talking one may not be happening any time soon.”

Jake said, “Well, there’s Beast Realms that will have cultivating beasts. Much more of those can talk. But none of you are cultivators, right?”

The group shook their heads, but before they said anything else, the mana of the world shifted, like a strong breeze rolling through the clearing, mixed with a strong smell of ozone, a metallic tang that was distinct from blood yet similar.

The lionid looked around and said, “What...what was that?”

Jake cleared his throat. “It was nice meeting you guys, but it looks like we need to go, and you should probably hide somewhere. The world is responding to so many of us being present in one area. You guys stay safe out there.”

Jake patted Bree's armored neck, signaling her to move out, and Ruby moved to intercept a swarm of beasts that started to gather a few miles away to help that party out.

As Bree eventually continued her pace into the deep jungle, Jake closed his eyes and sank his consciousness directly into his Bonds.

Thankfully, Jake didn't need to physically sweep such a huge planet by himself. His wives had split up as solo Adventurers, having different paths to finding information on those beasts' whereabouts.

His consciousness effortlessly multiplexed, riding the tethers of the Hearth directly into the minds of his wives scattered across the globe.

Nessa was thousands of miles to the east, and she was riding along the path of a river and heading toward one of the nearby low-quality nodes. An aquatic reptile of some kind came toward her, and her tail head just bit into its side and tore it away before it could even reach her, turning it into loot when it finally expired.

She popped up from the river to look around, using her Divine Sense as she scanned what little she could see through the dense, primordial jungle. A massive mountain and waterfall could be seen in the distance, covered in trees from bottom to top.

[I’m not seeing anything yet,] Nessa’s cool voice echoed in his mind. [No sign of the sisters.]

He switched to Fhesiah’s senses in the north. The dragoness was actually traveling low to the ground and through a rather chaotic storm. The wind and rain blew heavily with dense mana, lightning pulsing, and other elements blasting through the clouds. She nearly had to hide herself, it appeared, but her ability to handle simple chaotic mana with her will alone was enough to keep her protected.

She noticed his attention and said, [Nothing in my sector but overgrown weeds and an annoying storm for now, Husband. Even the beasts are hiding. When I rose above the boughs, I couldn’t see anything of import through the dense thunderheads.]

He checked with Bloodberri near the equator and quite far south from him. It was a sweltering hot jungle, and this area actually had magma from an active volcano rolling through.

And of course...she found some snake friends, some kind of magma serpents that were about half her size. They wrapped around and tore through some monsters, her healing Dark Siphon allowing them to damage enemies and heal at the same time.

Berri noticed his attention. [I like this place, Jakey! You should get some templates here. Blood and I are going to go claim one of those node thingies. That’s okay, right? But I don’t see any signs of Bree’s sisters. It’s probably too hot down here.]

It was something they talked about when they decided on this strategy for looking for them. To Divine Entities like Isolyn and Ainora, as they claimed an area or node, the world itself would respond. The mana would shift, calling in waves of beasts and elite monsters, challenging their claim.

As strong as their connection to Echidna was, beasts were still chaotic and would fight them. And Tartarus or just those same neutral beasts, could just flip other nodes throughout the map, turning the world’s conquest into a game of Whack-A-Mole. So, odds were, they would still seek out areas where they were at their strongest.

Jake asked, “They wouldn’t separate just yet, would they, Bree?”

“Not yet. The conquest map did show that they have likely made some progress past the middle point of ownership, but they are probably digging in somewhere and waiting to see how Tartarus would respond, if at all. It’s all one big hunt, not just for the Alliance, but also for the top Beast Kings for special nurturing resources, and Tartarus trying to claim a piece of the Adventurer’s souls.”

They did have three likely locations for finding them, based on recently flipped nodes, but with over 150 Primal Dominion Nodes of High or Middle rarity scattered throughout the gargantuan world, it wasn’t so simple. Nodes changed hands weekly with or without Echidnean descendants dominating the board.

The way Jake saw the Beast Worlds and how they worked was that they were truly set up as a farming area for both the Alliance and Tartarus. The worlds would remain neutral for hundreds of years. The Framework used its incredible methods to nurture the world and slowly grew it, like a giant, ripening fruit not quite ready to be plucked. And the overall Energy Rating would rise far faster than Jake’s simple planetary network and even his Territory with some upgrades.

Meanwhile, both the Alliance and Tartarus would enjoy slowly pruning what they wanted from the plant. Tartarus with killing Adventurers and taking a small chunk of their souls and probably training up assassins and warriors. Alliance by having a place to obtain rare materials, rare beasts to tame or bond with, and experience and levels for Adventurers in general.

And the beasts present on it just lived, grew, and evolved. The primordial soup contained in the resource nodes and the chaotic energies of the world itself were usually enough to evolve bloodlines and, in time, could allow apex predators to far exceed the Energy Rating of the world itself.

These were called Beast Kings, and even though this world had an energy rating of 2.53, there were likely several Tier 3 Boss-level monsters roaming throughout the world. If Jake’s family tried to claim one of the few highest-grade nodes, they would definitely have to fight one or more of these creatures to fully claim it.

The Framework brought new monsters to the world to ensure it was always teeming with life and danger, or otherwise directed and incentivized the beasts to behave a certain way. In many ways, it felt like they were on a jungle floor within the dungeon with how the events were automated. The Framework would be the one to govern how the beasts behaved instead of Tartarus. Even the outpost system somewhat resembled it.

Jake checked on Valora and Ophelia, who were heading through the sky towards one of the three likely points, and he saw an incredible aerial view of exactly why the world was called The Great Maw.

A massively giant skeleton was draped over the top of a mountain, and Jake wasn’t sure what he was looking at exactly. It had six legs and was likely reptilian with its long tail, but it was covered in so many trees and the mountainous stone overtaking its body. There was even a river flowing through it, and it was only because they were so high up that Jake could tell it was a monster’s bones at all. It was larger than an entire city, draped over a large mountain range.

[This is the second one we’ve seen. Val says this is pretty common.]

Bree nodded at that. “That’s right. The Framework is a master recycler. A peak Tier 3 Beast Lord corpse or just its bones is excellent fertilizer for this world. It can even occasionally transport a recently deceased corpse and mark it as a resource node, though not likely quite at that level here.”

“Val having a good time, Lia? She’s from a world similar to this.”

[You’re right. She’s from a Beast Realm, which is more like the cultivator equivalent. Those don’t have Tartarus involvement. But she’s loving it! We’re on the lookout to find her some friends as we head to the likely point.]

Jake was a bit excited about that. Not only would the family be on the lookout for Jake to grab any special Templates, but they would also be capturing any interesting creatures. They had some spatial cages that were capable of placing a mindless beast in stasis, allowing them to shove the cage into a Storage Ring.

Avalara was happily stomping through the jungle elsewhere, trouncing whatever got into her way–which wasn’t a lot as she headed toward the nearest node.

Tanda found some interesting plants as she flew through the jungle, snatching some seeds from special plants and tracking potential prey.

Sati flew around unbothered by the native fauna, following her sense of fate and her Divine Sense to find unique treasures. She was heading toward the nearest outpost, as she had found herself near one. Asking around was definitely a good move, as the two Beast Avatars would certainly get noticed by people.

Because while they were looking for Bree’s sisters, why not try to get some benefits? This was going to be a marathon, not a race. And Jake had doubts the prideful beasts would face him the moment they found them. Something told him they were going to be a real pain in his ass. At any rate, it was worthwhile to farm some of these ripe fruits the Framework had prepared.

Throughout the hundreds of miles of travel, each group fought numerous monsters that got in their way. Tanda was the first to get to a low-grade Node, where the Framework had brought a threat her way–a flock of spellcasting, feral, harpy-like creatures that she had to fight to claim it.

She had no trouble outmaneuvering the creatures, striking down the non-sentient, almost-humanoid monsters even as they fired chaotic blasts of light-blue mana. When she got to the node, it was some interesting bloomed fruit, like giant grapes full of mana and life force. Refined, it likely could make a lower-end potential improving treasure like a stat-boosting potion.

It was the true paydirt that the first group Jake had met would be searching for, getting something nearly equal to defeating a boss inside the dungeon.

The trio had traveled several hundred miles to arrive at the Middle-grade node. The High-grade, Primal Dominion nodes were like a permanent, replenishing resource that, barring something like a Champion, likely wouldn’t be taken by an individual elite or perhaps even a small party of elites.

But a middle- or low-grade node either provided a place for an outpost, cultivation, or an individual treasure to be seeded. Once the node was taken, it would either disappear as the prized treasure was consumed or go inactive, claimed by one side and potentially allowing a special fixture such as the outpost. It depended on the location.

The trio traveled several hundred miles deep into the primordial wilderness, the sheer density of the jungle canopy blocking out the alien sun and moons. They didn’t have to search blindly for the Middle-grade node; they could literally feel it. The chaotic, ambient mana of The Great Maw was being sucked toward a single focal point through the leylines, creating a localized atmospheric pressure that made the air hum against Jake’s skin.

Bree broke through a final wall of vines, her massive armored form skidding to a halt.

They stood at the edge of a massive, bowl-shaped crater. At the center, the skeletal remains of some ancient, colossal beast had formed a natural basin. Dripping from the ribcage was a thick, glowing, golden sap–pure, unrefined primal essence that pooled into a small, radiant lake. The mana here was so dense it was actually raining upward, small droplets of golden energy defying gravity to return to the atmosphere.

“That’s pretty,” Ruby murmured, floating down from her blood-blade to hover near Jake’s shoulder. “And it smells like pure power.”

Bree nodded. “I can smell it through the Framework barrier. There are a lot of beasts in the area. If we try to take them all out in order to claim it, the world will probably just send more or make us wait even longer to claim the contested node.”

[Mid-Grade Primal Node Discovered: The Titan’s Chalice]

[Conquest Event Initiated: King of the Hill]

[Objective: Hold the perimeter of the Titan’s Chalice for 18:00:00. Defeat the Guardian Tides to claim ownership and the resulting bounty.]

[Warning: The first Guardian Tide is approaching.]

“Eighteen hours of waves,” Ruby whistled, her crimson eyes flashing with anticipation. “That’s a long wait. Are we really going to have to stay here that whole time?”

Bree shrugged. “We can stay within a few miles. It will give us an approximation for the next Guardian Tide, and in theory we could just leave and come back at that time to defend it. But beasts can always just wander in to try to claim it, too–and we’ll lose it if someone isn’t here and they contest ownership for too long. The world doesn’t want us to get anything for free, making us fight for it. Only the low-grade nodes can be mostly uncontested. Some of those can be in hidden, difficult-to-reach locations, and it’s not required for those to be contested by the neutral beasts. But Middle and High, even Tartarus, get a bit of a map ping if they’re near to come fight over it.”

That was the reason for the wait in claiming the node, Jake had learned. The world was gargantuan, with hundreds, even thousands of miles between High and Mid-grade Nodes. The idea was this map ping would give neutral beasts and Tartarus a chance to come from hundreds of miles away to try to claim this special treasure.

Jake considered dropping some Array Flags but had decided against it for two reasons. For one, the chaotic mana rendered them mostly useless unless he placed dozens of them down. They could work in many environments, but taming such chaotic energies required quite an investment.

And there was a second problem. The world’s ‘immune system’ would work against any man-made construction. Whether they placed a bunch of array flags or created a giant castle out of stone as an earth manipulator, the world would attempt to work against it. It would send beasts or the chaotic mana to remove the disruption to the natural order. The territory ownership of Outposts had distinct, ordained paths to be used to claim it, to bring order to the chaos of the jungle.

The beasts, as if driven by the Framework itself, would come and remove his flags.

The treeline violently exploded as the first wave of the Guardian Tide erupted into the clearing. They were massive, quadrupedal beasts that looked like a cross between panthers and rhinos, armored in jagged plates of obsidian bone. Their eyes glowed with chaotic, ambient mana as they charged down the slopes of the crater in a frenzied stampede.

“Mine!” Bree roared.

The Savage Forgemother charged up the slope, her multi-ton bulk hitting the front line of the stampede like a freight train. After her charge knocked two aside, her heavy, ankylosaur-like tail mace swept through another she passed in a brutal arc, the kinetic impact shattering obsidian armor and sending the multi-ton beasts flying through the air. Flaming hearthvines whipped from her shoulders, wrapping around the charging rhino-panthers and pumping them full of chaotic, superheated fertile flames that cooked them inside their armor.

Ruby let out a calm breath, but Jake could feel her anticipation for violence.

As the first wave of beasts bled, Ruby seized control of the battlefield. The spilled blood on the crater floor instantly crystallized, erupting into a forest of razor-sharp crimson spikes. The charging beasts impaled themselves on the sudden barricade, their own momentum turning them into shredded meat. Chaotic elemental bursts were fired from their downed forms, but many went askew or hit Bree’s fortified armor.

And Jake just acted as the executioner, finishing off the various beasts with his flames. The beasts were numerous, and a few other beast packs and random monsters eventually started arriving. While Jake’s party had no issues dealing with them, he could easily see how even a group of fifteen to twenty-five could have eventually been overwhelmed if they didn’t use sound tactics. This was rather fitting for Jake, Bree, and Ruby’s Battle Power.

The bodies dissolved into motes of light, leaving behind a shower of crafting materials and rare-grade beast cores that Jake’s Auto-Loot system instantly swept into his storage.

[First Guardian Tide Defeated. Next wave approaching in ~6 hours.]

Bree shook the gore off her horns, shrinking down from her massive dinodog form to her tall, amazon-like bipedal shape. She cracked her neck, and the three moved to stand near the glowing pool of sap.

“Not bad for a warm-up,” Bree grinned, her chaotic vines retracting to weave back into her armor. “If they keep coming at that level, these eighteen hours will be a vacation.”

Ruby said, “This is going to be kind of...boring. If you want, Chief, I can hold this one while you two travel to the next. I’ll just build up my Den, and then nothing should be able to touch me.”

Jake smiled at Ruby. “I’m sure that’s true. Thanks for the offer, but I’m fine with mostly sitting it out here for now. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t have had us head to a Node in the first place. Let’s camp here for now, and you both can keep me company. If you get too bored, we can swap places with one of the other girls.”

Ruby’s eyes widened. “M-Me? No, that’s fine. I...like just being next to you. I just...wanted to help.”

“Don’t worry about it. Similarly, we can give the other girls a chance to rest if I Reverse Summon and Call Summon to move us around. Well, rest being relative, of course. And if one of the girls gets close enough to a tower or outpost, a few of us can pop back to the Refuge and rest there for a bit, too.”

Bree snorted. “18 hours is no big deal.” She closed her eyes and expanded her senses while Jake walked over to an outcropping in the craggy crater.

He manifested several bird templates and sent them out in the cardinal and ordinal directions, pumping plenty of mana into them so they could be sustained for many miles. The minimal intelligence in them wasn’t incredibly helpful, but Jake could use their eyes to comb the landscape for anything of interest periodically.

Then he pulled out some crafting materials, forming the stone into a bench using the Nordic Rune spell for granting him some mild earthen manipulation. His Storage Ring always had something to work on between downtime, whether some items to enchant or something he had been experimenting with. But Jake had just gotten several beast cores, so he decided to play with them a bit.

Ruby looked over them with interest. “What are you going to work on, Chief?” She sniffed. “Oh, that’s from the tiger monster Bree killed earlier.”

Jake chuckled at that. “You’re right. Just going to see if I can make anything of use; it’s been a while since I played with a lot of beast cores. If we weren’t on this world, I’d probably be in my lab anyway. So now I’m just bringing my lab to the jungle.”

He watched the timer in his Menu ticking down. No doubt, in about six hours, there would be a powerful wave of beasts, and maybe even a beast king, bringing unique beast cores and alchemical materials their way. It was exactly the kind of predictable rhythm that made conquering Middle-grade nodes a favorite grinding tactic for organized Alliance guilds, and Jake wanted to experience it to get a full understanding.

The hunt for Bree’s sisters was on, and it was...hopefully not going to be all that exciting–who knew what Tartarus might do? But when they found them, Jake wasn’t going to look down on that challenge.