In a world of stones, it turned out that perception was key. From what Vend explained, the guardian was hidden somewhere in plain sight, waiting for the conditions to react. The problem was that “plain sight” referred to a realm that spread thousands of miles in every direction. There were some pillars, stone piles, separate stones, and an endless supply of pebbles that composed the ground. Each of those could effectively be the guardian—as Dallion knew well, size was also flexible in the realms. Supposedly the appearance of the guardian, even in its sleeping state, was such that they would know it when they saw it.

“I saw it’s blue,” Veil said. Like everyone else, he was bored out of his skill after an hour of walking. And when he got bored, he liked to fight or talk. Since there was no fighting involved, the rest of the group had to suffer every thought that came out of his mind.

“You said that five minutes ago.” Gloria gave him an irritated glance. “You just changed the color.”

“Not my fault I’m low on perception.” He shrugged. “Any of you watch birds see anything?”

Obligatory silence followed. The truth was that despite their high perception, neither Gloria nor Dallion had spotted anything remotely different. If there was a case of every single rock and pebble looking like every other, this was it.

If Eury were here, she would have spotted it by now, Dallion thought.

The gorgon’s perception was out of this world, or at the very least in the mid-thirties. It had been two weeks since Dallion had seen her, much longer in terms of real time, and despite all the challenges that constantly occupied his mind, he hadn’t stopped thinking about her. Lately, one of the things he would play over in his mind was how to handle the moment she and Gloria met. Logically, there was nothing wrong with him introducing one to the other. He and Gloria were just friends, so there was no reason for jealousy. However, in the back of his mind, Dallion dreaded the day. Focusing on his real-life splitting might be a good solution for this.

I’m going to get this as a challenge in my realm, aren’t I? he asked.

Oh, definitely, Nil said with a note of scorn. That’s the price of youth.

In moments like these Dallion wished he could have a long discussion on the matter with the armadil shield guardian. If anything, the dryad had centuries of experience in that area. There also was the option to talk about it with Harp, but Dallion felt ashamed. Discussing it with her felt like discussing his girlfriends with his mother—ultimately useful, but left as a very final resort.

“We’re taking a break,” Vend said, then pointed to one of the taller pillars in the vicinity. “Up there.”

“Out of curiosity, have you ever done this before?” Gloria asked.

“Once. That’s why I told you it’s an unpleasant experience. And it’s not only about the loss of level.”

“Oh?”

“You’ll find out soon enough. I don’t want to ruin the surprise.” The momentary smirk indicated that it was going to be anything but that.

It took five minutes to reach the pillar and twice as many to reach the top. Vend and Gloria were first thanks to their athletic and acrobatic skill combination. Veil could have been there as well, but he chose to help out Dallion climbing up and not miss an opportunity for chatting on various topics. Most were boring topics, but out of nowhere, an interesting topic emerged.

“How does it feel being a double digit?” Veil asked as they had reached a third of the way up.

For the first time, it was Dallion on the opposite side of the “tell only what you know” situation. While he considered Veil his friend and wanted to help him pass his double-digit test, he had to abide by the restrictions imposed by the Moons. As far as the world was concerned, Veil remained a single digit awakened and could not be told anything specific about the things that were to come.

“It’s different,” Dallion replied after some thought. “You’ll find out when you pass the trial.”

“I see. Do you think it’s worth it?”

“Was passing the trial to full awakenedness worth it?” Dallion tried not to laugh so as not to lose his balance. Despite his many improvements, scaling a stone pillar—even one made of massive stones one atop the other—remained difficult without the appropriate skills.

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right,” Veil smiled. “You’re really bad at climbing, you know?”

“I do know. That’s why Vend is asking me to do this.” At least he suspected as much. “Would have helped if I had some athletic skills.” Or carpentry. Maybe then he could chisel some footholds.

“You’ll get your chance. Lower tier skills are easy to get.”

The conversation then quickly devolved on philosophical topics, then to Dherma village. Apparently after just a week Veil was starting to get concerned about the place. His mind was set to remain until the end of the festival, of course, but that didn’t stop him from worrying. That was what it meant to be a domain owner, apparently. Dallion couldn’t empathize, but he had a vague notion of what it was like.

As it turned out, his suspicions that the area was linked to Veil were correct. Gloria, while also taking an active part in leveling up Dherma, was not linked to any area, not even the village chief’s mansion.

“Anytime today will be good, Dal,” Vend shouted from above. Patience was clearly not his strong suit.

“Getting there!” Dallion shouted. “It’s not easy when you don’t have the skills, you know!”

“Just grab hold of me,” Veil whispered.

“You sure?”

“Heh. This isn’t the first time I’ve done this.”

In almost any other circumstances this would have been humiliating, but given how difficult it was, Dallion gladly let Veil give him a piggyback as the blonde climbed his way up to the top. Once there, the view of the entire realm became visible. In the past it was difficult for Dallion to spot the end of a realm, but thanks to his improved perception, he was now able to see a faint mist on the horizon. Even so, the sight was impressive. Back on Earth Dallion had never been to mount Everest or any mountain top for that matter, but he had a vague idea it could be something like this.

“Time for a few more practical tricks,” Vend said. “Unless in times of war, area guardians are pretty quiet. For the most part, they don’t want to get involved. For the most part, that’s good—we don’t have to worry about them during sanitation missions. It also means that they’ve become very irritable.”

Dallion felt uneasy for some reason. Was Vend suggesting what he thought he was suggesting?

“If we can’t spot a guardian outright, the solution is to peeve him off enough. There are lots of ways to do this. I’ll show you the simplest.” He looked at Veil. “Shatter this pillar in two.”

Silence hung in the air.

A crude method, but efficient, Nil said. The only drawback is that it also makes the guardian aggressive. Normally I’d say it’s a balancing act, but knowing Vend, he’s probably not thinking that far ahead.

“Up to the bottom, if you could,” Vend added, as if to confirm Nil’s statement. “The more we hurt the realm, the quicker the guardian will pop up to stop us. When he does, we’ll see his hiding spot and then get to fight a bit in order to get a feel for the real thing.”

“Won’t that ruin our efforts?” Dallion asked. Personally, he much rather would have the guardian surrender than deliberately hurting the realm. “I mean we spent a lot of effort getting the realm fully mended…”

“We’ve already been paid for that job. This one is only to get the area leveled up. Besides, you can always mend to a hundred percent afterwards if you want to.”

While the answer was perfectly logical, it wasn’t what Dallion wanted to hear. Knowing Vend’s opinion on guardian surrender, though, he was unlikely to be convinced by anything Dallion could say.

“Also, you’ll get to see one other treat—how cracks are born within a realm.”

Dallion looked at Veil. The blond was somewhat taken aback, but even so summoned Hannah’s sword. The weapon glistened red in bloodlust, knowing what it would be used for. Everyone stepped towards the edge of the top rock of the pillar. Then, Veil performed his strike.

There was no long preparation, no warnings, just a single chop that split the air and the rocks beneath. It was nothing like slicing a cake, nor was it like any of the animations Dallion had seen back on earth. The sword stopped halfway in the rocks. The force it projected, however, created a crack then went on down, breaking rock after rock like a lightning bolt.

“Jump!” Vend said.

Everyone did so, with Gloria grabbing Dallion—the only person who didn’t have the skills to actually do so. Beneath them the entire pillar toppled, like during a controlled explosion. Black wolf-like silhouettes of shadow emerged from within the pillar as it crumbled, let loose into the realm. As they did, Dallion heard Nox hiss within his realm—a new pack of cracklings was born.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the creatures rushed in all directions. A few leapt in the direction of the falling awakened, only to get a few daggers in them from Vend. By the time the ground reached the ground, all cracks were either dead or rushing off in the distance.

“Those aren’t gremlins,” Veil noted as he put away his sword.

“Sudden cracks are always wild. Give them a few years and they’ll turn into packs and then who knows.”

Why am I feeling so sick by this? Dallion fought to suppress his urge to vomit. Feeling something was wrong, Gloria let go of him.

“Guard up,” Vend said, paying absolutely no attention to Dallion. “The guardian will appear soon.”

“How can you be so sure?” Veil wondered.

“What would you do if there’s an ant biting you?” the elite replied. “Squish it or chase it off.”

The ground trembled. It started as a slight shake, then increased in intensity to the point that Dallion had difficulty standing. Then, all of a sudden, the rumbling stopped. A few miles away, the ground erupted in a geyser of rocks. Peddles rained down as water, while the massive form of the guardian emerged.

“There,” Vend pointed. “Remember the location!”

Everyone looked in the direction in question. The most distinguishable characteristics were three stone pillars next to each other. One of the really tall pillars was also visible in the distance behind them. As far as landmarks in the realm went, these were as good as any.

A giant hand of stones rose up from the ground, followed by a second a short distance away. In cartoon fashion the two slammed down on the ground, pushing up the entire torso of the guardian. It was enormous—roughly the size of the mountain colossus Dallion had fought. Dallion was probably half the size of its little finger, but that was not the worse part. As the guardian rose up, some of the larger rocks that were thrown into the air by its action did not fall back down. Instead, they started circling the creature of their own volition.

STONE GARDEN GUARDIAN

Species: Mountain Colossus

Class: Air

Statistics: 100 HP

Skills

- Rock projectiles

- Rain of pebbles

- Air shield

- Air tendrils

Weak spots: Tendons

“Fought anything like this before?” Vend asked, amused by the thought.

“Once,” Veil replied. “But it wasn’t this big.”

“Don’t worry. We’re not here to kill it. All we need to do is figure out how it fights. Everything else can wait for the real thing.”

“Sure…” Dallion uttered under his breath.

“One last piece of advice. Attack as little as possible. Area guardians are fast at picking up combat moves. Leave your best for the real fight.”

COMBAT INITIATED