Nicolas was the first one to exit the Gate, followed by his wife. He found Gonzalo Abellán waiting, as expected. Accuracy and punctuality were virtues the Castilian from the 16th century’s Divergence valued, and the Gides owed to him and his team not to arrive late.

As usual, the various members traded current descriptors. Nicolas noticed that Gonzalo had obtained two full Milestone in his side progression. One more, and he’d switch to the next one and get on the final, shorter stretch to his tier eight. That might even occur during this expedition.

“No escort?”

“We came straight from Panomekon this time,” Anne answered, this time in half-decent Catalan. The two had been working on their language skills. The teams from Earth-441 usually spoke Sabir at least a little, but the more polite way was to use local, rather than insist on the Divergence-wide hybrid language that worked across centuries and distant lands.

A Labyrinth prompt inviting them to the team followed, and they both acknowledged the request for “help” joining them to the four-man team.

“Thanks again for having room for us.”

“No problem. It is an honour to have Holy Professionals in your team.”

“Besides, the two of you have much more power for your levels and a lot less Professional burden. Honour be thrown, I’ll take that,” Àïxa Rubira added.

The young-looking woman was often blunt and spared no jokes. Of course, she was also much older than her looks suggested. All of the Spanish were first or second-generation Professionals, people whose parents or grandparents had not even been born when the Gate opened, but they had also operated in the Labyrinth for at least thirty years, getting close to tier eight.

The main vanguard of the local Professionals from the early days of the Gates were mostly in their mid to upper nine. And of course, the handful of Adapted ones would be pushing eleven or even twelve. But newer Professionals kept cropping up and slowly catch up to the tiers of their predecessors.

“The on-off progression works good enough for us as well, with our adjustment speed,” Anne replied. “We should be able to keep this going for as long as your team is willing.”

“You are still Orphans?”

“Yes. No sign of our Divergence. That is quite uncommon these days – usually, proto-Gates are noticed during formation, since that takes fifty to sixty years. So normally some explorers would take note of them. Even when you find a minor sheaf that seems empty, you can take notes and come back every forty years or so to check.”

“So everyone missed it?”

“Yes. We take those breaks from you to go along with them, just in case. The prevailing wisdom is that it must be a sheaf that is quasi enclosed, with very few connections. Worst case? Our divergence might be on one of the other major sheaves with only Panomekon or a very high tier link and we ended up dumped in alpha ‘because’.”

“That must be unpleasant. To be cut from home.”

“You get used to it. We wandered the Labyrinth for more than fifteen years until one of those scouting teams found us. I’m guessing Panomekon is home these days.”

“With just two, that’s harsh.”

“Oh, we deduced the basics relatively early. I started as a Watcher. Not that good in terms of vitals, but still some basic defence skills. My wife started as Arcanist, and we took turns tackling basic creatures,” Nicolas said.

“No healing? Really?” the woman said, turning to look at Anne.

“No. Once we figured out the lair enable mechanic, we took it very safe. Never tackle any creature unless we both had more health than it had. I think we finished our first lair at level 38. It helped the zone was underpowered, like all starting ones for shanghaied Professionals,” she said.

“Then you found out about the tiers.”

“Yes. The tier two Professions were obviously much better than what we had. We decided that support seemed necessary, and the only one available on the tier two Plaza we had access to was Hospitaler which means we lucked out on finding healing. So if you are wondering why I have four Milestones in Arcanist as my first Profession, that’s why. I needed eight points in Wisdom to unlock it.”

“I went Torchbearer because it was the first defence Profession I had available,” Nicolas added. “That’s when we found out about Adjustment. After that, we were always very, very careful about changing, even if that meant delaying things. But yes, we always had a bit of weirdness in Profession choices, even with a defence-support focus. We usually went for the ones with high health. Taking our first side Profession was a huge decision, but we couldn't make anything work without at one point, based on available Plazas.”

“Now, what’s on the program?” his wife interrupted.

Inevitable Bulwark Gonzalo turned and gestured toward the zone. Geldmonde was an ‘urban ruin’ zone, as classification of types went. A rocky desert expanse filled with ruins of stone-like buildings, sometimes separated by hundreds of yards. No matter where you went, there were always lots of those in view, even if they never rose much in height.

“The Abyssinian team has moved to a different zone for the time, so we have free reign over this entire half. So, some experience, and but mainly trying to get more easy Ancients. I know, everyone will be back for the Legendary Brick Worm, but that’s not for another two months.”

“We should still be there for this,” Nicolas answered.

“Then let’s go.”

Inevitable Bulwark

(tier 7)

Required: 365 CON, 292 STR, 188 DEX

Provides:

+65 health/+35 endurance/+20 mind/+15 aether per level

+1 Milestone/10 levels

Inevitable Bulwark Milestone: +22 STR, +19 CON, +4 FOC, 5% armour

Skillset: Equipment / Defence