The predator, with its new name and the unheard-of superpower of thinking about things before they happen, began its plan to consume all worlds everywhere.

It immediately put its plan into motion, sneaking up on the ground it was standing on and piercing it with its fangs.

…Nothing happened.

The Devourer of Worlds couldn’t devour this world.

Why? Is it not alive?

In its experience, there were were only two kinds of worlds: Ones that moved, and ones that did not.

Perhaps it’s only the worlds that move that I can consume. Does that mean they aren’t worlds at all?

A touch of squirmy dread played at the edge of Devourer’s mind as it considered the scale of these worlds. If they weren’t worlds and were instead creatures, then…

A tremor of an odd feeling circulated through the Devourer of Worlds. It was almost like the instinctive sensation that prompted it to scuttle and hide in dark places, but it was about something that hadn’t happened yet. A maybe-thought. Fear of the unknown.

Strange.

The worlds that moved were the most dangerous. One wrong move and the Devourer of Worlds would be rendered into chitin and paste.

How can I repeat that accomplishment? How can I catch the moving worlds?

Of course, the answer was simple enough: With the same nets as always, but they would have to be placed higher. In order to catch worlds, they would have to traverse worlds themselves.

Devourer of Worlds didn’t want to do it. It’s instincts protested against the idea, but it knew with it’s newfound intelligence that another miracle would not happen by acting in accordance

Against its nature, the Devourer of Worlds climbed up higher up the current bark-world, leaving it exposed to the bright sun, a dark spot on the side of the bark-world, plainly visible from above.

Any passing monstrosity could see the Devourer of Worlds and swoop down to end it.

In the distance, Devourer of Worlds could make out another bark-world, thousand, even tens of thousands of Devourer-lengths apart. Entire worlds could pass between them.

Could I see that far before?I don’t think I could. Thinking about the future wasn’t the only power Devourer of Worlds had. It also had the amazing ability to compare the present to the past and make determinations based on that.

Abilities unrivaled by any who li-

MONSTROSITY!

A monstrosity swooped down from above, its beady, lifeless eyes fixed on the Devourer of Worlds. Its brutal beak, a massive clumsy thing larger than The Devourer of Worlds itself, attached to a head hundreds of times larget than the Devourer’s entire body, designed to crush and pierce simultaneously.

In a fraction of a second the Devourer of World’s life would end.

Time seemed to slow, and yet, this provided no benefit. Its instincts screamed to run and seek a dark crack in the bark where it could escape the predator-eating monstrosity, but the Devourer of Worlds’ mind knew there was nowhere to run.

Nowhere to run.

I must fight.

In the fraction of a second before impact, the Devourer of worlds did the only thing it was able to do in the face of the overwhelming onslaught: it flung a feeble amount of net forward with its forelimbs while shifting to the right.

The massive beak swept through the net and suddenly the Devourer of Worlds was whipping though the air along the side of the monstrosity, whipping through the air, dangling from the net in the monstrosity’s beak.

The devourer detached the net and swiftly took shelter in the forest of feathers, gripping tightly with all eight limbs for dear life. But this couldn’t last forever.

It was only a matter of time before the monstrosity landed and gave the Devourer it’s full attention. Something needed to change. NOW.

Through great struggle, the Devourer managed to climb through the forest of feathers and find its way to the creature’s head.

The Devourer wove a rope and when the confused monstrosity passed by a bark-world, the Devourer whipped the net against the creature’s eyes and yanked to the side.

Crack!

The monstrosity slinched, veering sideways before impacting against a bark-world. It’s beak got stuck in the bark and its long, flexible neck snapped, leaving the enormous creature dangling lifelessly by it’s beak. The Devourer tumbled forward on momentum, landing beside one of the lifeless eyes.

I AM VICTORIOUS! The Devourer of Worlds thought, raising its forelimbs to the sky in the ecstasy that comes from escaping death.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Now, back to work….where am I now?

While on the monstrosity, the Devourer of Worlds had traversed many hundreds of worlds, and was once again adrift with no idea where it was.

With an inward sigh, The Devourer of Worlds got back to work.

***** William Oh*****

“This thing is great!” the priestess marveled, practically drooling over the automatic crossbow.

“It is great, but there are some weaknesses to keep in mind. You already know about the squirrely aim, but also remember it is not a Relic. The amount of damage this thing does is purely physical and not reinforced by the System.” Will said. “So without System integration it’ll only reliably kill Climbers below….I wanna say 40th level.”

Climbers had 2 Resistance growth on average, so at level 40, adding another 20 points from their

kit, the average Resistance was about 100, or five times tougher than human baseline. Above those levels, people could expect to start bouncing off the bullet itself, rather than it going through them.

“If the enemy has magical damage reduction, that level is even lower, because magical damage reduction drains the magical momentum of Anchorite a lot faster than plain Resistance. I wouldn’t risk this on a fully kitted Tank at level 20 or above. But for most monsters and people up to the 5th Floor, this should work just fine.”

“What do you mean by not system integrated?” One of the girls asked, raising her hand out of habit, not having shaken off the schoolroom yet.

“It’s not a Relic, and the System doesn’t register it as a proper weapon,” Will said. “So you can’t use active abilities with it, nor can you use accuracy boosts or anything that passively increases the damage of the weapon. It also doesn’t count at your kill, because the System is stupid and just sees you holding some rocks and the enemy creature dies. It’s unable to tell the difference between you killing it and an avalanche.”

“New weapons can be integrated by The System if enough Climbers use them. You’ll know if they start dropping as Relics. You can also submit a patent to the System by Sacrificing the weapon to The Tower and submitting a description of its name, mechanism and use, which should speed up the process of integration.” Jason said from where he was poking the fire with a stick, cooking the kid’s lunch.

“Is that true?” Will asked.

“Huh, what did I say?” Jason asked, glancing up at him.

“Nothin’.” Will replied, digesting that information.

Once Will had handed out all his prototypes and the ammunition for them, he gave the Earth mages their maps, and gave the smaller Parties a pep-talk.

“The most important thing while you’re out there is teamwork. Keep one eye on your buddy at all times, because it only takes a second of inattention for you to get knocked down and your throat clawed out. And when you fight a monster, always try to outnumber it whenever you can. Numbers advantage is nothing to scoff at.

“What’s this cowardly drivel? A young man said, planting himself directly in front of Will. “I thought you were William Oh. Or at least, you claim to be. Do you take every pain to let others do your work for you?”

Will blinked.

“What’s your name?”

“Aaron.”

Will raised his gaze to look at the other assembled kids.

“Aaron has kindly offered to demonstrate the advantage of fighting two-on-one.”

“Wha-“ Aaron started, his eyes going wide, raising his fists to defend himself.

“Jason, would you mind?” Will asked, causing the young man to tense up.

“Aaron, you look like you fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down. at least those freckles give your face some character, but it’s offset by your disgusting fish-lips.” Jason said, looming over the young man.

“Uh.” Snickers spread through the assembled Climbers.

“You look like your mom was addicted to Trava root. She probably tried to sell you for a fix, but the sale fell through because of how stupid you are.” Will said.

“I’m having a hard time figuring out which part of you is your ass, and which one is your face.” Jason followed up.

“Well, you-“

“You look like a whore I know. How old are you, twelve? I think I’m your real dad.” Will interrupted.

At this point the rest of the Climbers were laughing uproariously at the young man’s growing shame.

Will and Jason didn’t let him get a word in edgewise, pummeling him with insults until he lost his composure and tried to attack Will.

Shing! The sword whipped out of the boy’s sheath and was leveled at Will’s face.

Will snatched it out of the kid’s grip.

“Do they make these for men?” Will mused, inspecting the blade.

“It’s probably an heirloom from his great grandmother. The last warrior in his lineage.” Jason said.

Aaron ran away with tears in his eyes.

“Thank you for helping us with the demonstration, Aaron!” Will called after him, using Phantom Hand to re-sheathe the boy’s sword.

“And that’s what teamwork is all about,” Will said to the rest of the group. “I don’t expect you to believe I am who I say I am, and I’m not going to go out of my way to prove it to a cluster of snot-nosed brats.”

“But.” Will said, raising a finger. “I do expect you to understand that the reason I’m here at all is because I am much more experienced than any of you. You understand?”

Scattered nods.

“Alright, get started. I’ll keep an eye on everyone from above.”

Will flew up into the sky and settled in to watch the event.

The rookies broke up into two big central groups and a rough fan of scouts as they entered the Maksu territory.

Following Will’s map, they made their way across the land collapsing the network of tunnels that the Maksu could use to outflank them while the smaller groups scouted for ambushes and stragglers.

There were dozens of minor wounds. Wounds of note: One kid got stabbed in the ankle, and another lost a finger. Some friendly fire from an overeager priestess tore a chunk out of a young man’s arm and nearly ended his career.

Will used Sourdough to give any rookie with crippling injuries a Supreme healing potion, reversing the damage, but not until they made it back to camp.

Bleeding all the way back to home base builds character.

From Will’s position above them, he watched nearly a dozen failed ambushed by the blue-skinned Maksu.

Some of the kids didn’t take his lessons to heart and struggled. That was where most of the injuries came from. Other groups did a good job of hitting the feral raiders from two sides at the same time, cutting down their work and lowering their risk as they cut their way through the Establishing Quest.

From his vantage point, Will watched the surviving Maksu begin to congregate in their fortress, now fully aware that they were under siege and preparing for tomorrow’s assault.

Those weapons look awfully shiny. Will thought, sending a Phantom Eye down to investigate the metal weapons the Maksu were wielding.

After a while, he found the reason for their weapons: several mummified corpses covered with dirt, seemingly dragged straight out of their graves and looted before being left to wither in the beating sun of the 1st Floor.

Apparently the Maksu had uncovered some kind of treasure trove in the form of an ancient graveyard. When Will had fought a small tribe of them, only one had a metal weapon while the rest used bone and rocks.

Who buries Climbers with their Relics nowadays? That seemed antiquated and wasteful. Most people took their parent’s Relics when they passed. Often Relics went to the city, or a local Lord as estate taxes.

Something about the circumstances behind those Relics didn’t feel right.

Just to be safe, Will moved the main camp further back from the Maksu fort and set extra watch overnight.