"Something's been on your mind ever since the bear incident," Cam says as we walk out of our current hunting range, going into a wider scope to tackle some of the more worrisome areas the two of us haven't been hitting these last couple of weeks. "Something other than the crystal not falling."

"It's probably nothing," I shake my head. "This Swarm is getting to me."

"If you say so," Cam says skeptically.

He knows me well enough to know when I'm worried, and that it always means something. But this really is just the Swarm, I think.

The forest fades away as we continue our trip, the two of us eventually reaching the Pits. There's no official name for them, but that's what we call them. A series of pits in the ground ranging from four feet deep to twenty, of various widths and lengths. They're home to spiders, snakes, scorpions, and other insects.

We usually avoid it because Cam is squeamish about all sorts of crawlies and the danger level has always been low. Normally, they keep to their normal diet and die within a year, two at most. While they do eat each other from time to time, it tends to not be enough for evolving past Tier Two, though we do sometimes see a Tier Three.

The reason this is one of the concerning areas is because it's always full of monsters. A high-density location that may have been affected by the Swarm, and we don't even need to draw too close to confirm it is.

Hissing, clicking, and other sounds of crawlies fill the air, and we can see the monsters in a shallower pit, there are so many of them. Quite a few larger ones, too. There are definitely Tier Four and Tier Five monsters, and probably some Tier Six monsters.

However, now that I am Level 20 and Cam is Level 16, the latter due to a particularly rough set of fights the last three days, we should be able to take on a Tier Six as long as we only fight one of them at a time, don't have too many other things around, and are well-rested between fights.

Only Cam's fears might hinder us in a fight here. His issue with all sorts of crawlies isn't a simple one, and stems from an incident years ago that we've never bothered working on overcoming. I don't tease him about it or anything, and have my own fears.

"Are you ready?" I ask, glancing at Cam.

He's standing stiffly, yet is also trembling at the same time. My friend gives a stiff nod, though I can tell he's doing his best not to put a fair distance between him and here.

"You can just back me up from a distance, if you want," I tell him. "Rather than draw close."

"N-no," he swallows hard. "I should help handle things. I can deal with a lot of the weaker ones while you handle the big ones."

"Just make sure to focus," I tell him. "And not let your fear overcome you, okay?"

"I know," he nods, swallowing hard again. "This is something we have to do. Let's get started."

"Step back if you need to," I tell him, then walk towards the nearest pit.

Once I'm ten feet from it, I hold out a hand, then summon fireballs above me, sending them into the pit in a hail of fire. Cam does the same, the two of us just raining fire down upon the crawlies in the pit.

They crackle and pop, crawlies flying up from the impact. Others scattering, attempting to flee the pit, but are unable to scale its walls. If I see any that might be poking its head over the edges on any side, I send a firebolt its way, frying it.

The few stronger ones that notice the rain of fire do their best to avoid it, and a few do try to climb out of the pit, heading towards us. I leave the hail of fire to Cam as I turn my attention to these monsters, which come towards us rather than fleeing.

They're smart enough to attempt to stop the attacks.

Holding out a hand, I send bolts of fire at the crawlies, striking them with as strong of spells as I can. My attacks char their scales and burn their flesh, and I notice the hail of fire growing weaker, more hesitant, as the crawlies approach.

"Cam!" I call.

"S-sorry!" I can hear the tremble in his voice.

"Just focus on what you're doing," I tell him. "I'll handle these, okay?"

"I will do my best," he responds.

The hail of fire returns almost to how it was, and I continue my attack, blasting crawlies repeatedly, breaking through their scales and setting them aflame. There are only a few of them, and they're all Tier Four or Five, but it still takes me a bit of time.

As I'm finishing off the last one, a scorpion whose poison shots I have to stop with my magic, something rises from the pit, and Cam's attacks stop as he whimpers behind me. Rising up from within the pit is a snake.

Snakes are something Cam can handle. Quite easily. However, there are a few cases where Cam cannot handle a snake. One such instance is when they are as thick as our torso, have six heads, three tails, and each head has a third eye.

This snake is one of those.

A smaller snake with six heads? Cam might blast to bits. A snake big enough to swallow him in one gulp? Cam probably wants to run in terror. Even I feel hesitant here, this snake is at least forty feet in length, and that's my guess without being able to see it.

It was hiding under the other monsters in the pit, and I can see a few char marks from where my spells hit it. Light, and barely there. At Level 20, I'm barely powerful enough to scorch its scales, and only where the strongest part of my attacks hit.

This is a Tier Six snake, and judging by the pattern of its scales, it evolved to hide among the crawlies. There is also a high chance its different heads can do different things and focus on different things at once.

Even though there is only a one-Level difference from when I fought that flying gaia bear, it's still significant. I have more sacred power, it's stronger, and I am stronger, too. Yes, I would much prefer to have a lot more of my sacred power at the moment, but I should have enough to deal with it.

The amount of strength and sacred power acquired upon gaining a Level is at least twenty percent of the current amount of it plus however much was gained naturally between Levels, with more being given for use and training. In other words, even with my rapid Leveling from Level 19 to Level 20, I still became at least a fifth more powerful than I was before, gained at least a fifth more sacred power than I had before.

That can make a world of difference.

Holding out a hand, I summon my sacred weapon, manifesting flames around its head as I use wind magic to take flight.

"Encase yourself in a dome," I tell Cam. "I can handle this."

He's hesitant, but trusts me, summoning up a dome of stone to surround him. This way, the Tier Six will focus on me, and only me.

The Tier Six attempts to attack me, and I swiftly shift to the side, stopping another attempted bite with a slash of my spear. That particular head hisses as flames lick across its jaw from the strike I delivered, then pulls back.

Twisting, I stop another strike, summoning up a stone spike behind me to push another head up, causing it to miss me. Gesturing with one hand, I send a powerful gust of wind into another head to push it to the side as I strike at another one.

To kill this, I'll need to sever all six heads, and only my spear can do that. Unfortunately, that means needing to be between two heads, which increases the danger to me. I'd like to use my lightning body spell for the added speed, but am making do with the flight spell. Using the lightning body spell drains my sacred power much, much faster than flight.

When the head in front of me opens its mouth, I release a blast of water inside. The inside is going to be a little more sensitive than outside, though it's still tough enough that a spell like that won't do much damage. It does, however, cause the head to choke, and I take advantage of the moment to slide beside it and slash with my spear, the bright blue and white flames around the spearhead extending out, creating a much larger spearhead, this one of fire.

The flames recede as the snake's head drops, and I shift out of the way of another head. One down, five to go. Twisting, I slice at that snake's head as well, severing it, too. Two down, four to go.

Sadly, a Tier Six monster is intelligent. It's now learned that the person with the pointy, burning stick can remove its heads if they get too close, and I'm much too weak to attack it at a distance with any form of success.

Now, the snake's four remaining heads enter into a dance with me, where they snap at me, pulling away just as quickly or working with another head to distract me. Meanwhile, I stop their attacks with gusts of wind, spikes of stone, or just shifting out of the way with my flight.

At the same time, I read its movements, its patterns, just as it's doing to me. After the gaia bear, I've tried to start shifting my pattern as soon as my opponent starts to learn it, but that's hard to adjust to in only a week, especially when most monsters aren't actually intelligent enough to adjust to an opponent's patterns.

One of the snake heads' fangs scratches my arm as I manage to slice off a third head, and I hiss in pain as my arm feels as if aflame, despite there being no flame present. Venom, as expected. I'll need to end this quickly and have it taken care of.

Not just for the venom, though. I'm running out of sacred power, but with only three heads left, this should become much easier. It would be even easier if I could make it to where the heads all connected and just cut through that, but the snake makes that even more difficult, especially as its tails seem to have some scorpion trait in that they can sting. Avoiding that is easy, as I can shift to the side to avoid one or the other, or summon up a wall of wind to stop the attack, though the latter tends to just shift it away from me rather than stop it completely.

Floating backwards, I avoid another attack by one of the remaining heads, then release three blasts of water into the open mouths. One of the mouths clamps shut in time and lifts up to look at the sky, the other two choking on the water and shaking around. Targeting the closed mouth, I soar forward in a burst of speed, slashing with my spear, cutting clean through the neck with a burst of blue flames. Four down, two to go.

The tails blindly attempt to sting me, and I shift out of their way as one of the heads begins to recover, then slash through it as it stills. Five down, one to go.

Holding up a hand, I snap, pointing at the last head, which keeps its mouth shut as it focuses on stinging me with its tails. Spikes of stone form and fly at the snake's eyes, the monster jerking its head to the side so that my attack bounces off its scales.

As that happens, I release a dense sphere of water in the direction of the snake, then shoot it with a blast of blue flames just before it reaches the monster. With a thunderous boom, the sphere of water turns to steam, blasting out in all directions. Only a wind spell protects me from the scalding heat and the force of the explosion. Still remembering where the head was, I soar forward, striking with my spear. The slight resistance of the scales and immediate flaring of the blue flames informs me of my success.

Immediately, I release the spear, then drift backwards, using wind magic to disperse my steam, giving me enough clear air to land as my combination attack fades away, dispersed on the natural wind as well.

I'm dangerously low on sacred power, so I walk over to the stone dome protecting Cam and place a hand on it, opening a hole into it so he can see me.

"It's dead," I tell him. "But I'm as low on sacred power as when I fought the bear, so I need to rest, but Cam, I need you to take a look at my arm and patch it up."

I hold up my arm, which has turned purple as the feeling of fire continues to spread through it. With more of my scared power, I immediately apply light magic to it. Now that the fight is over, my body is starting to register the effects of the poison and deliver to me the sensations I should be feleing.

"-me?" The voice speaks again.

This is the first time since the bear that the voice spoke to me, and it startles me enough that I stop the spell.

"I'll need some of the snake's venom," Cam tells me, opening a bigger hole in his dome, then walking over to the snake. "Which head was it?"

"The one lying over there," I point at the head which managed to graze me.

At the same time, a suspicion rises in me. The voice went silent after I heard that one word, but I think I know what it was asking: the same thing as before. And I think I know why I heard it, too. It's a bet, but considering that there was exactly one circumstance that's the same now as it was when I heard it before, I'm going to take the chance, even if I turn out to be wrong. It would be useful information to tell the Elder Hunter.

As Cam gets to work on extracting venom from the snake, I use more sacred power to soothe my pain with light magic, pushing back the effects of the venom in my veins.

"-you hear me?"

"Yes," I whisper, willing my voice to reach the voice within me.

"Hello, there," the voice changes from the previous contact.

"Who are you?" I ask, continuing to heal myself as I watch my sacred power levels.

"I am me, and you are you," it responds. "You are wounded badly."

"My teammate is working on making an antidote," I tell the voice.

"I only wish I could help you."

"Who are you?" I ask.

"I am me, and you are you," it responds, echoing its previous answer to that question.

"That doesn't answer my question," I say.

"It is best that you do not know who I am," the voice responds. "Unless you absolutely need to. But it is good to be heard. It happens so rarely for one to be Open to our voices."

"'Our'?" I ask. "There are more of you?"

"Yes," it responds. "There are a great many of us, but only one can be heard by each. You are as intelligent as the others. Few take longer than the second time to realize the truth. However, you need to rest, Rex. And do not attempt to hear me too often. It is enough that you have become Open. Your friend will take care of you, so do not worry."

I nod, stopping my spell. I'm even more dangerously low on sacred power than before, so it's best if I stop there. Ceasing my spell, I watch as Cam approaches with a small glass jar in his hand, a yellowish-clear liquid contained within it.

"Goodbye," I whisper.

"We shall speak again," the voice tells me.

"I wanted to make sure the venom matched," Cam tells me as he sits down and begins pulling various things out of his pouches. "Thankfully, this one didn't spoil immediately, or healing you would be a lot more difficult."

He begins working on fixing up the antidote as I mull over the voice in my soul. It's some other force, that's why the others who have heard the voices have always said it's not their soul speaking to them. We can only hear it when we're low on sacred power, too – much lower than I normally allow myself to be.

It seems that nearly everyone who hears the voices figures that out fast, too, since the voice said that most only require hearing them twice to determine how to allow us to hear it.

What is the voice, though? And why did it refuse to tell me what it was?

Cam finishes the antidote, then applies it as a salve to my arm as he uses light magic to help deal with the flow of the poison. The injury is pretty bad, and my arm will be unusable until at least tomorrow, so he collects more of the snake's venom from that head, then the two of us begin the journey back home. We'll return tomorrow to deal with the rest of the monsters there.

Though we do debate on leaving it and calling for someone stronger once the Swarm ends in a couple of weeks. That's also a possibility for us, including for the other worrisome areas. In the end, though, we decide to handle them ourselves. We can do that, as long as we're careful and continue our normal way, and as long as we don't have any strokes of bad luck like I did with the snake.

"Welcome back," the Gate greets us when we approach. "That arm looks worrisome."

"Nothing some rest and antidotes won't handle," I tell it.

"Indeed," the Gate opens, and Cam and I enter and make our way to the Elder Hunter's shop.

After we receive our rewards, Cam helps me walk home, my legs a little unsteady. As soon as we arrive, Liam is in worry mode, fearful that something will happen to me, but we assure him I'll be fine. I sit at the table as Cam start preparing another dose of salve, and I use some light magic to soothe the affected areas.

"That looks really bad," Liam says as he stares at my arm.

"It's not the first time I've been injected with venom," I tell him. "As long as we give it a couple of more treatments tonight, I'll be fine by tomorrow morning. It's already feeling much better than it was, which is a good sign."

"Okay," Liam still gives me a worried look, then moves to watch Cam work.

As Cam prepares the salve, my mind wanders back to what I had been thinking about when we were making our way to the pits. Once the Swarm dies down, I want to check on some stuff, stuff unrelated to the swarm.

Things could always be a coincidence, but sometimes, a coincidence isn't a coincidence. We had two Tier Six monsters in our area that normally wouldn't be. A Tier Six gaia wolf and a Tier Six flying gaia bear.

Supposedly, the former moved to where it was after getting chased out of its own territory by a stronger Tier Six river wolf and the latter was there seeking out stronger prey to eat after noticing the Swarm going on.

But is that really true? Were those really coincidences? These are things I can investigate and potentially receive answers for, unlike with the voice in my soul, which I'm pretty sure will remain mysterious when I ask it questions, should I communicate with it again.

Some part of me says that the reason the gaia wolf and the flying gaia bear were here are connected. If that's the case, though, then why would they have been there? More importantly, does it have to do with the Gate's warning from before we found the gaia wolf?

Is the monster that may become a Star-Level beast still out there? That part's nagged at me, too. The gaia wolf was strong, but there was another Tier Six around, and the Gate never did say the threat was taken care of.

After Cam applies the next dose of antidote and light magics, I tell them I'm going for a walk.

"Is that a good idea?" Liam asks.

"I'll be fine," I promise him. "As I said before, this is nothing new to me."

"I'll make dinner," Cam tells me. "Be back in two hours, maximum. You still need to rest and recover, and I want to do another dose then."

"I will," I tell him, then leave.

I pull on a cloak to hide my arm from the townsfolk I will surely pass, then I walk through town and make my way to the Gate. Many of the homes have been rebuilt since the earthquake, and a few are still recovering. There were relatively few injuries, and only two deaths as a result of it. All in all, a positive outlook for us. Things could have been much, much worse.

When I reach the Gate, I look up at it. It's rare for me to be here alone.

"It is not often you come without Cam, Rex," the Gate comments.

"I had a question for you," I tell it.

"You may ask," he answers. "And if I know its answer, then I shall tell it to you."

"A few weeks ago," I say. "You said that there was a monster which may become a Star-Level monster. Does that still hold true?"

"Yes," he answers. "The monster is still out there, gaining power. He is unaffected by the Swarm, which is at least a relief."

"Thank you," I tell the Gate. "Where is the monster located?"

"It is somewhere high, yet concealed," he answers. "Low, yet open."

That doesn't help in the slightest, though I have a suspicion already of where it might be.

"Can you be more specific?" I ask.

"It is where it is," he answers. "And that is all I know."

"Alright," I tell the Gate, then begin the walk home.

As soon as this Swarm is over, I am going to where I suspect the monster to be. As long as it does not reach Star-Level before then, I should be able to handle it on my own, even if it's Tier Seven at the time.

That's the difference a sacred weapon makes, allowing someone to fight things up to two Tiers higher than they should be able to in a team of five. Before then, I'll need to take out as many Tier Five and Tier Six monsters as possible. That way, I will gain at least one more Level, possibly two. That will make all the difference in the world when it comes to fighting a Tier Seven.

We really should have confirmed this with the Gate before my brother's team left. I don't think Cam and I actually told them the full warning the Gate issued, we were just focused on the wolf and taking care of it, then learning new things. Otherwise, my brother and his team might have thought to ask the Gate if the threat was gone.

Now, Cam and I need to scout it out, decide if we can fight it, then either fight it or send for help. However, all I can think about as I apply more light magic to my arm as I walk is that I really hope it isn't in a cave.

Cam has fears of all types of crawlies, while I have fears of dark, tight spaces. With the Gate's answer and my suspicion, the chances are high that the monster is in a cave, too.

Please, powers that be, let it not be in a cave.