“Anyone has an idea about what is a ‘trunk’ zone?” Jonas asked.

“No. You’re the guy who spends his time with the Archives,” Ira replied.

Guss kept watching the cow-like creature who appeared to take no notice of them, while he was giving his opinion.

“The Gate was hidden behind a door and was different. So, it’s obvious this zone is somewhat different from the rest. Although, how different… that bull has a normal descriptor, though.”

“Maybe a bit high. Do tier two zones go that high? The tier twos near Grailburg were, what, 70 to 90?”

Jonas pulled out his reference booklet and flipped over the various zones.

“The six tier-two zones listed in here besides Othary are ranging between a 50 to 95 and a 60 to 100. So it’s possible that it’s the upper limit. Although it is strange that it would be high so close to the Gate. I think.”

“So, what do we do?”

“Except for that trunk mention, the zone seems normal. Gate, recall, normal creature, everything is ok. Well… no Fast Travel charging,” Jonas replied.

“How does that happen?” Ira asked.

“I got told that the Recall charge is based on the sun’s course, and the Fast Travel charge is based on the moon’s course. So if the Fast Travel isn’t charging, it means that it’s a zone without a moon.”

“That happens? Really?” Alton asked.

“It’s something that has happened in higher tiers. Even Othary has weird stuff associated with the moon. So… here it’s no moon at all. But otherwise, it should be safe to explore. I think we should do that.”

“So, find the Plaza and Profession, find the Gates, see if we spot a lair kind-of-thing?” Ira asked.

“Anyone feels like reporting immediately instead?”

Seeing as nobody replied, Jonas pointed out the Wary Bovine and said, “Let’s start by seeing if the critter is normal as the descriptor says or something else. Worst case, we run to the Gate and flee. Creatures can’t cross.”

“On it,” Ira replied immediately, starting his sword swinging.

The bovine creature took notice of the incoming Professionals and stomped with its talon-ending hoofs. Then, as the Careful Barrier was less than fifteen yards, it charged. Ira narrowly moved out of the way of the incoming critter.

Wary Bovine horn gore misses

“Looks like its special attack is with the horns,” Jonathan warned.

“They look really sharp,” Ira said as the beast turned and started attacking at closer range. Laura, Alton and Jonathan had spread to the sides and closed in as soon as the bovine was distracted by Ira. Stabs, bashes and slashes quickly rained on the huge critter.

Wary Bovine: 878XP/6 contributors = 146XP.

“Looks normal.”

“Well, cows don’t have talons, but as far as Labyrinth creature go, this one fits the bill for a normal of that level. Not too complex attacks, normal health.”

The bovine’s decomposing carcass did not leave anything, as one would expect from an outdoor normal creature. As far as Jonas could see, the so-called trunk zone still obeyed basic Labyrinth principles.

They moved back to the Gate, checking the surrounding valley. Jonas immediately noted that, like the Ovildian Gate in Othary, this one was just next to the zone border. The low grass ended a dozen feet behind the Gate stone ramp’s end, leaving the small patches of the mysterious grey moss that was the dominant vegetation behind the invisible zone wall.

“You know what? I feel like one those British Scouts guys. To enter a zone for the first time in history. Or at least recorded history. I can see why they like doing it,” said Ira.

“We also didn’t know what was waiting for us in Ovildian or Othary,” Alton noted.

“Yes, but that’s different. This is the first genuinely new zone that no English Professional ever saw. Possibly no Professional ever. And it’s all ours.”

“Well, not to rain on your parade, but it’s still just a tier-two zone out in nowhere,” Laura said.

“The descriptor singles it out, though. And the entrance Gate marks it clearly as something different as well,” Jonas defended his friend.

“And unless we find out, nobody will,” Guss added.

“So? What do we do first? Round the zone for Gates, or centre for the Plaza?”

“Well… the Gate coming in wasn’t at the edge like the normal Gates, but in the depth of a lair in the middle of the zone. But this one looks normal. So, I’d say, let’s make a full round of the zone first. See how big it is, and how many Gates it has,” Jonas said.

The first thing they noticed for the zone is that it wasn’t just the no-moon recharge. From Jonas’ estimation, it had looked like they’d entered the zone close to noon.

Yet, hours later, as they followed the zone border, keeping the moss-covered Outside on their left, and the normal zone grasslands-and-hills on their right, it still felt like noon. The sun had not visibly moved.

They encountered more of the Wary Bovines. The lowest was 101, the highest 104. The split in levels was extremely short – the zone notebook listed a much larger spread of levels in outdoors for every tier-two zone. But whether this was only for the border areas or it applied everywhere too, so far this trunk zone had only the highest levels for the tier present.

At one point, they had to make camp. Despite the sun still being near the zenith, it did feel like late evening. No Tired status yet or anything, but the team’s internal clocks said: “we’ve been at it too long”.

Trying to sleep with some cloth over your face didn’t really work for Jonas. So he stayed awake, laying on his side, watching the plains and the barely seen far silhouettes of the bovine sole inhabitants of the zone.

“Morning” saw the team far more subdued than usual. In Ovildian, they hadn’t known anything, and expected nothing. In Othary, they’d expected the same, and were not disappointed. But this new zone, even a new zone type, felt just enough unsettling. Besides, breakfast at what seemed like noon was a novel experience.

An hour after breakfast, they spotted the silhouette of a Gate along the zone border. They reached it relatively quickly, and found their first unexpected variation.

Transit: Donerkal - Parsming

Integrity: 100%

Active

Stability: 100%

Lairs: 0/2

“Well, that’s new.”

“That’s also the first unqualified Gate we’ve looked at since we got to see the descriptors.”

“It is handy,” Jonas admitted, before adding, “Of course, that’s something we could get easily by attempting to cross.”

Ira immediately ran up the stone ramp to the Gate, and came out as soon as he had entered.

“Yup. Need two Donerkal lairs completion, alright.”

Jonas immediately pulled out his reference book and looked at the master zone list.

“No Parsming either.”

“Wow. We are truly in uncharted territory,” Ira said.

Jonas scribbled another set of notes.

Transit: Donerkal - Castikal

Integrity: 100%

Active

Stability: 100%

Lairs: 0/3

“Well, this one has the different look.”

The Gate they’d spotted from afar had the block shapes entirely covering the gate circle, rather than the usual critter head sculptures they’d seen on their incoming gate and the previous one.

“Not on the list either. But…”

“But what?” Alton asked.

“The names look similar. Does this means it’s a ‘trunk’ zone as well?”

“From the Gate look… I’d say yes. This is so weird,” Ira said.

Alton looked at him, slightly incredulous.

“Says the Professional who runs the Labyrinth for a living.”

“Well, can’t check until we find three lairs to unlock that Gate. And all of the rest at the same time,” Ira replied.

Transit: Donerkal – Othary

Integrity: 100%

Active

Stability: 100%

“And that’s the full circle.”

“I am starting to hate this zone, though. It’s noon. All the time. It never ends,” Laura said.

Jonas tried to organize his notes.

“So… we have four tier-two Gates, all looking normal… we have one tier one Gate, to a Szinkal, with the blocky style. One tier three, to Castikal, also a blocky style. Not a single know zone.”

“Meaning the blocky Gates lead to ‘trunk zones’, whose name end in ‘kal’, and the other Gates lead to normal tier two?”

“Can’t see why it wouldn’t. Of course, we’ll have to find and complete lairs to unlock every other Gate beyond this one.”

Jonas looked again at the notes.

“The placement of the Gates look regular too. They’re all equally spaced, or nearly so. And the two blocky are at opposite positions on the border.”

“Does that happen often?” Ira asked.

“Don’t know. Othary’s were all over. The Outapis zone we were going for next has three Gates clustered within an hour’s walk of each other, then another nearly opposite.”

“I assume we’re not heading back yet?” Guss said.

“We easily could. The molemen should not have regenerated yet. Maybe in a day or two. It would be weird to fight our way through the lair starting from the bottom, though. But this is more important,”

Jonas slapped back the booklet closed. He’d been writing at the end, which had blank pages, apparently for the case where you had notes that didn’t fit in the zone description themselves.

“Next, the Plaza and listing the Professions available, just in case. Then we’ll see how it goes. It shouldn’t be long. That zone is much smaller than Othary – after all, it took us barely over three days to make the full circuit.”

Moving inward felt weird. All zones had some variation. Othary was mountains, but you had plateaus, gorge, and the like. The swamp areas of the tier ones they started in led to solid areas, or varied terrain.

This Donerkal was exclusively grassy rolling hills. The same short grass, similar-looking leafless trees everywhere. And the local bovines.

Once a bit further from the zone border, the team started spotting veterans, and once an elite.

Prowling Bovine

Level 103 elite

Health: 2839

Mind: 978

Endurance: 2636

Aether: 0

“Lets’ avoid that one.”

“Why? Sounds doable.”

“Not a lair. I know, it sounds slightly weaker than the last Elder of that lair, but why waste time fighting those,” Jonas replied.

“Well, we do get some nice XP from the rest. Not as good as it would be with the Markandon apes, but there’s a lot more of the cows. Or bulls. I get confused since they look neither,” Ira said.

It was Alton, rather than Laura, who spotted the box. It was chest-sized, larger than most of the treasure boxes they’d seen, save for that outdoor box back in that pass in Othary. And there was a very obvious guardian for that one.

Sentry Bovine

Level 101 elder

Health: 4684

Mind: 1620

Endurance: 2488

Aether: 633

All the bovines they’d encounter were relatively alike. Very cow-like, if you could forget about two pairs of horns rather than one, and the talons behind their hooves.

This one looked like its siblings, save for the fact that it stood on two legs. Its front limbs dangled to its sides, the hooves seemingly split so that it looked like the bovine Elder had two enormous rock-hard digits. With nasty talons coming out of each.

“Do we try it?” Ira asked.

Jonas had a quick look at the team descriptor, to check their current status.

Team

Professions

Health

Mind

Jonas Sims

Solid Aethershaper (81)

630/630

655/655

Jonathan Gilbert

Layman (83)

1335/1335

647/647

Ira Heard

Careful Barrier (91)

1832/1832

822/822

Guss Fullmore

Abiding Assistant (88)

652/652

784/784

Laura Harvey

Calculating Grinder (88)

900/900

838/838

Alton Raby

Solid Gouger (88)

845/845

666/666

“It doesn’t look doable. Unless it has attacks that are not too big a problem. Guss?”

“My gear is shit, but I still managed to heal us across five critters in a row. Even if the last one was, like, 70% of this, if you add the rest, that's pretty much it…”

“Speaking of gear… almost certain we can’t even use it.”

“The idea is to get lair completion to see what’s beyond those Gates, Jonas,” Ira replied.

“Okay. If you’re all good for this?”

Jonas saw that everyone’s hand was raised. Even Jonathan. But then, it did not look like there would be a second critter to fight… although who knew.

“But if it has large attacks or bad status, we run for it, right?”

“Right.”

“Ira?”

“Let’s go,” he replied.

The Bovine spotted the ringmail-clad man jogging toward him fifty yards away. Jonas saw the “digits” on its front limbs clench visibly.

Sentry Bovine bellows the alarm.

“OH BALLS!” Jonas yelled.

Ira started to slow down. Jonas turned his head, checking… to his right, there was the silhouette of one bovine already at full run toward the team… then, just behind, the more distant one of another.

“RUN! STAMPEDE!!!” he yelled, before turning.

All of them had kept careful track of their trail, across which they had slaughtered every Wary Bovine and every Bovine Patrol on the way for the XP. That path now offered their only chance, as it was the only way free of the angered cows.

Relatively free. Probably free.

They all ran as if their lives depended on it, which was certainly the case.

That is where the Potentials showed their difference. Jonas had learned that, for Professionals, Agility was the main factor that governed their running speed. Endurance governed how long, but, typically, the higher your Agility, the faster you ran.

The results were obvious. After two hundred yards, both Alton and Jonathan were forging ahead of him. Then, despite having started from closer to the Sentry, Ira started to pass Jonas. The Barrier threw a quick glance at him, but Jonas made a quick head gesture to tell him not to bother.

Then a large curse told him that Guss had… been caught, probably. A few seconds later, Jonas felt a massive impact and was bowled on the ground.

Wary Bovine tramples you for 102 damage (38 defence). -4 all Potentials.

Then, another similar notification. Then a third. Then more.

The only sensation Jonas could feel was atrocious nausea and a burst of acid taste in his mouth. He turned on his elbow, retching.

“Okay. Who?…”

“You, Laura, Guss.”

Lingering Death. -50% of potentials and vitals, regeneration halved.

The status effect confirmed what he’d expected.

“Half of the team.”

“Thankfully. Jonathan nearly lost it as well, but they started to turn back. If it had been just me and Alton… we probably could never have brought all of you back in time.”

Despite the -50% making him cotton-headed, Jonas could remember the math he had previously done for various combinations many times. Just in case.

“You could. Sacrifice is only 25%. Alton can bring back Guss then me. You can bring back Jonathan and Laura. Worst case, you strip us of any gear with health or Constitution before.”

Ira raised his hand to avoid the next remark.

“And yes, you were right to be cautious. As usual. I should know better after all these years, even before the Labyrinth.”

Jonas looked at the team and the relative pallor on the faces of the other two with Lingering Death.

“I think that ends our try at this zone. One dead, we might keep going to the centre to see how it looks. Three, we do need to wait the two days to recover.”

Jonas looked back at the way they’d come.

“I might be tempted to say, let’s wait and try to bypass the Sentry, but we do risk a lot by overreaching like that. And that also shows how far we have to go to attempt those tier three lairs.”

He looked at Jonathan.

“Sorry, Jonathan, we should have gotten you your tier three, but I think we do need to Recall first thing, notify the authorities, recover, and then, we come back with a plan and your tier three.”

“I can wait a couple of days. That’s not going to change much anything.”

“Okay, then let’s head back to the Gate. It is too precious to lose. So, I want us to switch our tier two Fast Travel from Othary to Donerkal. That way, we can come back anytime. Then we Recall.”

They retraced their original path in silence for a few hours until the silhouette of the Gate rose. They crossed, ending back into the small room with its torches and the weirdly different Gate shape.

Switching one’s Fast Travel option was easy. A professional just focused on the appropriate Fast Travel but mentally selected the right choice. Then the next Gate he crossed, he just needed to accept the new option.

Use one Fast Travel charge to Othary?

Yes

No

Drop option

Gate to tier 2

Set your Entrance for tier 2 to Donerkal?

Yes

No

“That’s done. But how do we get back to Othary now? Oh…” Jonathan’s voice trailed off as the obvious solution offered itself.

Ira almost said something, then stopped himself.

Knowing his friend, Jonas could guess what bad jokes he almost made. But alas, he was right. They’d have to do the molemen again to come back next time.

Assuming the door opened again from the inside, that is.

“Okay. The Frozen Boar might be surprised to see us so soon, but that’s where we’re going for now.”