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Ollie cleared his throat, "There is a reason there are very few Citizens here. Double-A is crazy. But this is our best chance to get a lot of Stardust, fast. Plus, a bunch of Boons for clearing Complexes."

Jace got on top of the wall and saw a shimmering, golden barrier just at the edge – slightly opaque but still just transparent enough to get a glimpse of the surroundings. He could see the forest Ollie had talked about. It extended in all directions away from the city until the edge of the horizon. "Can you pull up the map?" Jace asked.

Ollie did so, and Jace saw that the city was located on a peninsula. All the dungeons were on the mainland – and this gate faced the direction he needed to go. If he went in any other direction – he would arrive at the ocean. And there\'s no dungeons out there, he thought. The mainland was split up almost like a game board into various regions with different terrain and environment types. An intentionally terraformed and designed world made for a game, Jace realized.

There were fifty \'tiles\' of various terrain types, and ten Complexes inside each \'tile\', marked out on his map with glowing, gold dots. The tiles were 50 square miles apiece. He could see the purple dot marking him, and the blue dot marking the portal. Everything else was unmarked. I can\'t track other Aspirants, he thought, as he glanced back to the town center. Aspirants were leaving the area and heading towards the gates just below him.

Jace shook his head and refocused on the map, trying to plan. Everyone is going to rush to the dungeons closest to the city here. The way I\'m traveling, I need to avoid regions without high objects to grapnel to. That meant, ideally, he would be heading towards the mountainous regions. One of the two regions had a volcanic area at the center, the other had a glacier. I don\'t have any means to stop from getting fried. And this gear protects me from the cold.

He began outlining his plan in his mind. There were two forested regions just off the starting peninsula – he could use the trees to launch himself with a Dark Energy Mine removing gravity. That would get him a huge lead on his competition, who would have to navigate the trees on the ground. And it\'s not technically flying, since I\'m just weightless and falling.

"Five seconds," Ollie whispered.

Jace nodded and focused on his torso. Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). The bead of black light appeared on his chest, and he looked out, spotting a small tree, raising the Wirecannon Arm.

<<<<<>>>>>

[Day 1 of The Dungeon Run.]

<<<<<>>>>>

The golden barrier vanished, and the gates below began to open ponderously. Jace fired the grapnel, saw it sink, and activated the mine on his chest. It exploded with a faint boom and shockwave that distorted the air around him. As soon as he felt weightlessness, he retracted the grapnel line.

As he shot to the tree, he thumbed the release and kicked off the tree-top to ascend at an upward angle. Glancing back, he saw that there was a stampede of Aspirants – thousands of them – rushing out of the gates and splitting off into the surrounding forest. They vanished into the canopy and from his view. And now I can drop the Dark Matter Cloak. He let the Skill fade as he sailed over the forest.

‎

‎The 30-second timer finished, and he felt gravity reassert itself. Angling his body towards a large tree, he shot out the grapnel, latched onto the tree, let himself swing down before coming back up into an arc, and re-activated Dark Energy Mine (Rank 1). He felt slightly winded from the use of the Skill, but over the course of twenty minutes, he had cleared the forested region and arrived at the flat plains. This is where it gets trickier.

Ollie flew up from around his neck and resumed his full, starry form. "Nothing to grapple to, here," he muttered, putting his small paws on his hips and scanning the terrain.

"I don\'t need it," Jace replied. The vast expanse of grassland filled him with a sense of exhilaration, and he took off at – what to him was a leisurely jog. In reality, he was running close to 20 miles-per-hour. The Dragonclaw Devastation Legs gripped into the dirt and soil under his feet, propelling him forward at a pace he would have never imagined reaching running through the streets of New Jersey for his courier gig.

The wind billowed through his hair, and he let out a laugh at how easy it was to run this fast. The serum that had enhanced his body, plus the Cosmic Infusion Skill, and the CIF fluid that made his legs feel like his legs filled him with a sense of joy that he hadn\'t felt in years.

He hadn\'t really had the chance or motivation on Velenar Prime to run at top speed over the large grasslands…but here? Here he was unrestricted and pushed himself as fast as he could – entering a full-out sprint.

Two hours of running through the plains and he had to stop for a quick water break. Thankfully, the grassland had small pools here and there he could refill from. "Why not do any of the dungeons in this terrain tile?" Ollie asked. "We have passed three already."

"Too close to the forest," Jace replied between puffs of breath. "It could take as little as two days to get through the forest region on foot. About twenty miles in a day walking. They\'re probably like me in some way – Cosmic Infusion or another Skill. I\'d bet that a few of those groups will clear the first few forest tiles at the end of the day. I don\'t want to be anywhere near them."

He pointed to the far-off, icy mountaintops. "I\'m going to start at the farthest end of the world I can and work my way through the terrain tiles that no one else is going to get to anytime soon." He put the enhanced canteen away in his pack and took off once more at a sprint, reveling in the feeling of the wind flowing through his hair and streaking past him.

"Goddamn this is heavy," Greg growled out as he wrestled the Vyrknadine onto a small, flat-bed truck that Quinn was standing in the bed of.

She pulled as he pushed, and they strapped down the sedated creature. She pulled up her Broker interface and checked off something on her list. "Okay. That\'s a male. We need a female for a breeding pair."

Greg wiped his brow, "Right, and then?"

"Then we can deliver them. This is easy, compared to what we could be doing."

"Speak for yourself," Greg muttered as he rubbed his still-sore arms. Velenar Prime was a great place to get stuff to sell – mostly more of those flowers. Plus, they could bring a transport with them to load up more cargo. She had found someone who wanted a pair of predator creatures for a private zoo to train them up as guard animals.

The hefty amount of Stardust from selling the flowers, plus the contract for these predators was just too good to pass up.

Greg sighed and got into the cab of the truck as Quinn slid through the back window to join him. She had a pissed-off look on her face as she clicked her seatbelt and crossed her arms. "You\'re angry at something, and you\'ve been stewing for days now…Want to talk about it?" Greg hesitantly asked as he turned the vehicle on and began driving along the cracked road to their next destination.

"…Gah." Quinn put her head in her hands and shook it. "I…I\'m not sure what to do," she muttered. "It\'s stupid! The St-" She stopped and glanced at Greg before crossing her arms once more. "Sorry, can\'t tell you." She winced and rubbed her temple, and her face went a little red.

Greg chuckled, "I know what\'s going on." He put on a taunting voice, "You like Jace."

She went flush and frowned, "No! No way!"

"Please. I heard the way you were talking to him. Totally out of character. You were putting on a face. Trying to impress him."

"I-you-no!" she exclaimed as she stomped her foot down, the cybereyes in her head whirring rapidly and with a seeming fury of their own. "I\'m not…into him."

"Well, that Shhiv lady was. And Sera? She seemed like a good friend to him. And rich. Loaded in fact." He chuckled as he put his left arm out the window, the cool, winter air passing over his scarred forearm. "I was going to ask if Jace would let me and Missy stay in one of the sections of his larger place. He\'d probably let us live there rent-free. I mean, Missy\'s place isn\'t expensive, but being able to save Stardust would be nice."

Quinn frowned and stared forward, the anger giving way to a begrudging puzzlement. "I don\'t know what that Sera lady was up to…but Shhiv? She was just horny for Jace. All over him. Obviously trying to impress him. It was so…desperate. Ugh." The last few words came out with a heavy feeling of disgust. "Stupid shark-woman with her stupid smile, her stupid eyes, her stupid tail. Stupid, muscle woman. She probably has no brains in her noggin."

"Are you racist? Er…speciest?" Greg asked cautiously.

"I don\'t get what he sees in her," Quinn muttered. "Maybe the exotic angle? Alien species? But, oh, that little dress she wore left nothing to the imagination-"

Greg smiled, "You\'re into him."

"No, I\'m not!" she insisted.

"Even if your boss put you up to it. "

Quinn\'s face paled and she looked at him. Greg brought the truck to a stop and met her gaze. "What?" she asked.

"Please. It\'s easy enough for anyone to figure out if they\'re paying the least attention. The Star Council wants to take over Earth. To do that, they need allies. Jace is from Earth. He knows how things work there. And he\'s got a unique Cosmic Power no one else has. That\'s a huge asset in an operation. Your boss put you up to getting into Jace\'s pants so that you can manipulate him into helping. Honestly? It\'s smart play. The man is, as far as I know, completely inexperienced with women. It also explains why Jace almost instantly fell in with the shark woman."

She set her mouth into a frown once more and stared ahead. "We aren\'t talking about this," she muttered.

Greg just nodded and stared ahead as well, "Suit yourself."

Night began to fall as Jace arrived at the edge of the plains. He had traversed over 150 miles in a single day – with 100 of that on foot. He was panting with exhaustion and began looking around for a place to set up camp. Taking in deep recovery breaths, he took in the world around him. The skies above had dulled to a soft, silvery glow. There were no stars overhead, just thin lines of silver and gold intertwined and running throughout the atmosphere.

The grassland was green and lush, with just a whisper of wind slowly rustling the grasses. "What types of predators will I be dealing with out here?" Jace asked.

"None," Ollie replied. "The only threats are other Aspirants, and inside the Complexes. Double-A has fully customized this world, including imprisoning or selling off much of the local wildlife." He crossed his arms and tutted, "It is a shame, too. This world used to be full of fantastic creatures."

Damnit, Jace thought as he was digging through his (Heavy) Venture Pack. I didn\'t get a sleeping bag, tent, or anything like that. Sighing, he dug out two of the survival meals he still had from Velenar Prime, cracked the pouches, and scarfed them down. I suppose… He pulled out his sword and began hacking away at some of the grasslands surrounding him. After ten minutes, he had cleared a small area and piled up a bunch of cut-down grass to make a bed. Laying back on it, he shut his eyes as the whispering wind sang a silent lullaby.