I continue pulling threads of Aether. It bucks and tries its best to eighter control me or escape my control but inch by inch I reel it in and cut chunks of it stuffing it all safely away. In the end, I gather a portion that is a fraction of a percent of my dindling Aether stores. It all goes into a bottle using their very Aether I take tied together so that I only need to make sure the last thread is not pulled which would unravel it like a crochet sweater.

I let a sigh of relief, as my vision comes to fruition and a wisp of my will keeps it in place. This time something even easier than doing the same with the Automaton’s Aether that doesn’t seem to have a will of its own.

That was just stupid. Why did I ever try to meld my Aether and his? I stopped using Aether for a while exactly because I feared that contamination of my thoughts, and then I try to mix my Aether with someone else’s?

But even as I walk down memory lane, the impressions from the island of calm amidst the storm keep coming back. I never knew I had something like this within me and even as I seek it out, I can only rely on memory to guide me to the eye of the storm, the little patch of safety that let me keep my sanity.

It doesn’t feel like it has anything to do with the system, simply another piece of the puzzle in figuring out what I could have accomplished before the system if I had the time and will.

This either saved my life or my sanity as it stopped me from going on a murderous rampage and even without knowing more, I’m deeply grateful.

Even after a minute, I fail to notice even the slightest difference compared to the enormous area within myself that I consider my mind. But the real world catches up to me and I realize where I’m.

Better to leave this for later.

“Ready?” Asks Greg who is tentatively acting as our leader given Richard opted to stay behind to deal with other matters only joining through the comm network for the combat and the aftermath.

I nod, instantly opening up 5 portals to the inner world and this time all of the beast corpses drop in without a fuss and we all march out of the HLZ. We finally have a little experience of it to work off and the next outing will be all the safer for it.

As soon as everyone’s spears, a frantic message arrives thought from the village:

“Holy shit, you are not going to believe it,” the comm operator says.

“What?” Asks Greg.

“The map has changed. It’s no longer green for LLZ, yellow for MLZ, and red for HLZ, there is now a grey area a couple of kilometers wide. It is about the estimated territory of the five beasts you have slain.”

“So, we can remain inside and nothing will happen?”

“Yeah, it seems that way, at least for the time being.”

Greg looks at all of us resting and patching the small wounds accumulated in the battle but his doubts are soon wiped away and a plan visibly forms in his face.

“Nash, keep an eye out. I want to stay a few meters inside with everyone. If you and Merlin can raise some fixed defenses I would greatly appreciate it.”

I simply nod as I begin the hundred-meter march pulling the little cocoon that was saved from Max’s attack in what seemed a lifetime ago and I invite Merlin in.

Combining our capabilities, we set out to build a double layered defense that would take even a dozen beasts a good few seconds to pass through which is enough time for everyone to prepare for battle.

No sense in tempting fate and doing a poor job considering we are so close to the HLZ.

Metal banging, to fix the small dents on a few people’s arms. Resource fruits and even a potion or two speed up everyone’s recovery. The rest take these few minutes to meditate and gain a little mental clarity.

Just 15 minutes later everyone can do nothing else but twiddle their thumbs or meditate and wait for their slowly filling bars.

Noticing that, Greg asks everyone to form a circle and calls the village relaying in more detail what happened to Richard who only had limited to work with during combat. Everyone else adds quite a few details Greg either forgot or didn’t notice in the heat of battle until we all have a good idea of what went down from start to finish.

“Look, we can divide most ideas in two camps, we either head as deep as we can or to move nearby a mine and take over that territory. We can put all the toppings and fluffy cream on each idea, but any of the workable ones fall in one of these two camps.” Greg cuts through the mess of ideas being thrown out.

“Headin' in deeper sounds like the more dangerous prospect for little gain,” Richard calls out from hundreds of miles away.

“I agree. If something goes wrong and we are kilometers into the HLZ, we would have an even harder time getting to safety, such as it is given the beasts can roam outside of it blurring that line a little. And we can always do that later if playing it safe is not wielding the results we want.” Says Alex.

The debate goes back and forth and while I interrupt once to add a detail or two, my mind spends the time grinding at the problem.

We really don’t know enough and though there are possible advantages to going full bore at once, Alex is right, why should we risk it at all? We can simply train ourselves on the outside borders and as we grow used to the beasts and then if we choose, we may choose to head in deeper.

With a clarity and sense of purpose, I say exactly that.

“But I don’t think that is the case,” A fighter in our group that is also part of the scout core, refutes my argument. “We are not really risking ourselves by any meaningful degree above just staying on the outside edge of the HLZ. It makes no sense for heading in deeper will be any more dangerous given that the grey territory is now ours, and the potential gains from exploring a place you haven’t reached with your roots…”

“Maybe, but I don’t feel it is worth risking it, even if I felt as sure about the permanence of this territory. I’m also not quite as optimistic as you about the safety of deeper layers of the HLZ. For all we know, as soon as we start engaging, new ones may be dispatched to close our retreat, or maybe it takes a few hours or days for ‘respawn’ or migration to occur and this hasn’t become our territory, just empty land until them.” I say to him.

“I just don’t want to waste our time dipping our toes in the water, when we could be actually swimming.”

“But we are not, we will need to clear a couple of mines eventually. Might as well start now as we slowly and carefully poke our heads in. I could be wrong, but we don’t need to take this risk.” I say and even without me having tried to come up with words worthy of a speech my intent and the thought process I followed drag everyone to my camp with everyone nodding by the end.

“Fine have it your way.” He says relenting after seeing the other's reactions.

“On we march,” Greg concludes and soon we are all in the slightly cramped flying bus given the five extra people inside.

I started meditating on the flying bus during the two hour plus trip heading for the closest mine whose location is still a mystery to our enemies from Walter’s villages.

“So, did you like the inner world?” asks Alex out of the blue in the direction of the miners talking behind me.

“Ughh.” I hear from one of the miners. “I mean, we didn't explore too much. We only had some 30 minutes inside, but man those rabbits are smart. They are doing magic left and right. I even saw one of them that was engraving or something.”

Alex’s eyes shot up in wonder, at the thoughts that must be passing in his head. All you have to do is ask for a visit if you want to come inside.

Five minutes later as the most outspoken miner finishes regaling everyone with the tales of my inner world, Alex then asks me.

“Can I visit it?” He asks, his voice small like a child that fears being denied a trip to the candy store. How can he be our strongest fighter? Have some dignity, to represent our village and instance.

“Huun, I suppose I could make an exception,” I say, making it clear that I’m joking. As I open the portal, everyone turns their gaze inside, including the scout driving the flying bus, I grin widely and say:

“Yeah, everyone can enter. Well, everyone but the designated driver. I’m sorry, but unless one of your friends wants to trade places with you…” He just nods dejectedly, as everyone heads in.

Now, this is such a good way to transport people. I can stuff thousands inside and spew them out after a quick flyover, that would even save mana.

Time passes quickly and I don’t even close the portal given that every five minutes one of them takes a break from playing in Bunny land.

I just hope I haven’t shot myself in the foot allowing people inside, this won’t come back to bite me in the ass, will it? I can’t enter the inner world and now I have just made it something of a destination.

Even throughout all the pilot shift changes, the craft keeps its heading perfectly straight, and no one deviates from our precise course along the danger line. Arriving at the mine, I connect more fully to the network just to confirm that there are no enemy scouts nearby and then I call everyone back out.

Most leave reluctantly, having enjoyed the time to stretch their legs or train their skills in safety feeling much more comfortable than the cramped quarters of the Flying bus. But after their mind is back on the task it barely takes a minute to get their serious face back on and venture inside the HLZ.

We don’t follow the access tunnel, given that it is circuitous and ends up some 2 kilometers down the road. We follow what would be the tunnel if we didn’t have to worry about people stealing our mines, the closest path.

Just a 190-meter march to the mouth of the cave and then we wait.

Like last time, nothing comes for a couple of minutes. Not a single hint of an enemy. My root network sometimes gets a little vibration, but it is too faint for me to know if it is real or imagined or just the wind. Nearly 4 minutes in, however, from the edges of their territory I find the group coming to defend their territory.

This on quite different than most neighbors on the edges of the HLZ, though we already had an inkling.

“Like we expected. Five enemies, two Wolkins, a Bison, a Leopard and the last one it pulled was from the territory to the right, not the left. A massive Gorilla.”

With the predominantly feline inclination of the HLZ beasts we knew, this was a rare occurrence, but instead of despairing, the focus and drive that took over the last battle, quickly finds its pace again and we are fully ready even before the beasts cross half the distance.

But there is something different this time.

The lumbering gorilla stands at the back, at a slow march, not because it can’t move quickly, but simply because it doesn’t want to rush. I train my perception field fully on it and start analyzing its muscles down to the fibers. It seems a lot more inclined for toughness and strength rather than speed, but while it may lack agility, it can still throw surprisingly fast blows.

“This is the beast with the highest strength and toughness I heard from in the HLZ and the perception field nearly confirms it.”

“I’m not liking this.” Says someone amongst the fighters.

“Don’t worry,” Richard calls out through the comm network.

Greg then completes what imagine are Richard’s thoughts. “It’s something new, we should keep our eyes open, but no need to retreat yet. For all, we know these are just the quirks from a gorilla.”

With my perception field trained on them, I call out:

“I can’t sense anything out of the ordinary. Last scouting put him at level 154 two days ago, and what I’m seeing doesn’t reveal anything the people proding it haven't found out.”

I keep my eyes on the gorilla, a different experience to the agile feline beasts through the HLZ. The very way in which its bones are structured also emphasizes slower movements with higher base strength. The way that each of its moves leverages its muscle power differs a lot, but it was the same for real gorillas back on Earth.

I widen my eyes a little, trying to recall when I ever actually studies the musculoskeletal system of gorillas and nothing comes to mind. If I spend a day or so in my memory palace I may be able to recall something, but it could have been on the summer I took to studying human anatomy and I don’t care about this particular question as much as a dozen other more important things.

I open my eyes, to stare at the enemies just twenty meters from us showing such unique behavior. With a grasping hand, the 10-foot-tall beast punches the ground a couple of times loosening a foot and half rock.

I try to extend my roots from the ground to ensnare this slow-moving enemy, but as soon as I do that not only do all the others move away it simply rips the thin roots. Its lumbering steps take it forward faster than a sprinter back on Earth, but now that seems so very slow. The huge rock that it dunks at the shield clad in the mana disruption skill however is a lot more pressing.

The whole shield bangs and cracks with a loud noise, from the ponderous but extremely powerful attack.

Stone dust flies off and the mana batteries take a deep hit.

The beast moves to enter the hole it expected to open, but there is no breach. A genuine smile comes to my face, as I see it halting its move halfway in confusion.

“Take that,” Alex shouts echoing everyone’s pride.

“My qi along and Merlin’s special touch are too much even for the Gorilla,” I say.

“That attack drained 213 mana from the shield. That is less than a tenth the normal amount with only weak-willed people empowering it.” Merlin finishes off.

“We finally got to even footing, even if we need a numerical superiority to take advantage of that.” Says Greg.

He is right, we need more people, but have finally come to a balance with the HLZ beasts. Now we just need to hope we have enough stamina to last the battle.