The New Arrival's Guide to Common Things

by Jorbon Delivas

Beyond planetary law are universal 'rules'. These aren't laws, as such, but they are globally understood limitations and behavioral expectations. There are, honestly, too many to cover in a short guide. The LLI module mentioned previously has a sub-module called 'Localized Social Informant' which includes both universal 'rules' and a list of planetary social norms.

There are several universal rules which are extremely important to be aware of. The first and foremost is the 'law of might'. The law of might is, quite simply, the understanding that the strongest beings can and will do as they please. If the guards, or police, of a planet are ranks one to fifteen, there is no chance they will be able to enforce their laws if a legend visits. That being said, planets are intentionally vague about their ruling body's level of power, which ensures that only the most fool-hearty, or confident, abuse this universal rule.

Another universal rule is the 'law of backing'. The law of backing often works as a counter balance to the law of might, as it is the understanding that anyone at any rank might be backed by an organization or entity far beyond one's own means. The law of backing is similar, in many ways, to knowing that everyone may have a bigger sibling more than willing to come and beat up any harassers.

Finally, the last important universal rule you should note is the 'law of vengeance'. Almost all beings respawn upon death, as covered previously, therefore you must understand that someone you slay today may very well train and track you down in the next hundred years. There are many, many, beings who are caught in perpetual cycles of vengeance. This causes both beings to stagnate in a specific rank range, as neither is able to make enough progress to outstrip their rival and become free of their desire for revenge. Be wary of striking down another being without cause, lest you become their target and reason for swift advancement.

Willow

???, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

Slinking forward, Willow took care not to make any noise. The rest of her party, and Frella's, were following with equal caution. Jonah had alerted them to the group of little creatures that she'd have thought were the little cousins of goblins. They had massive round eyes and ears, with tiny little mouths. Each of them was bald but for random tufts of hair which seemed to sprout somewhere on their bodies at random, and their fingers were almost comically long and thin.

Besides all that, they were fairly normalish humanoids. The walked upright for the most part. Though, Loivl noted they were known to crawl and even hop around on occasion. No one knew why. The things were called chaslims and were known for their absolutely incredible senses and shocking ability to turn from a docile appearing community into a swarm of vicious little terrors.

Luckily, Piper had confirmed they didn't actually need to go down the tunnel the chaslims had claimed. They only needed to pass by and they'd be fine.

Not that I expect it to go that smoothly… Willow thought with a definite grump to her mental tone. They'd fought six different groups since the one that assaulted Frella and co's base. Each time they were attacked it was sudden and with unnerving cunning. Frella's group, and especially Loivl, was absolutely certain something weird was going on.

Apparently pack tactics weren't unheard of in the third layer and lower. That said, packs were comprised of a single group of monsters, not multiple creature types all working in shockingly effective unison. Something, or someone, had to be controlling them and intentionally targeting them.

Willow had her suspicions, given the suspicious lack of a certain 'mentor' and his history of inflicting unnecessary danger and pain on her in the spirit of 'training'. Though, according to Piper, Madrick was just following them around looking amused. She'd specifically been told to keep an eye on Madrick to see if he was doing anything, in the hopes they could get some forewarning of upcoming attacks. Unfortunately, Piper had thus far not caught him doing anything nefarious.

"We may have been detected… Two of the chaslims just went sprinting down one of the tunnels leading off from their little cavern." Jonah's voice came through the party chat.

Naomi clarified immediately, "Toward us?"

"Away, almost directly away as far as I can tell. They're beyond my sight, so I can't say what they're doing."

"Understood, tighten up the formation and expect another attack."

A round of acknowledgements came through, including Willow's own 'got it.'

Poli moved up to walk, still being quiet, on her right. Their formation had been drastically changed since joining Frella's party and hers. After the second attack, which almost saw Hosh and Koll sent for respawn, Naomi - or Prism, as Frella's party knows her by - had taken charge of the entire group.

She'd done so politely, asking to speak to Frella in private, then letting the elf woman announce the new chain of command. It was almost scary how well Naomi had taken to leadership. Now, Prism was number one, Frella was two, Poli was third, and everyone else was kind of equally not-in-charge. Jonah might be a fourth, given he was always part of the decision making given his unique capabilities. Willow got the feeling he was reluctant to truly accept a lead position though, despite already being a joint captain of a massive space ship. A space ship Willow had only explored a tiny portion of during her agonizingly short time aboard it on the way to this much less interesting ball of dirt.

Madrick really loves dumping us in relatively boring places. She noted, curious if it was an intentional decision on his part or some kind of subconscious bias toward the bland. At least this one isn't almost entirely deserted like the first one…

"Incoming. Not chaslims. Esquien riding hocheths, more of those grubuers, and a couple little goblin sized humanoids wearing cloaks that obscure their features. Loivl, idea on the cloaks?" Jonah reported, jolting Willow back into the moment.

Forcing herself to alertness, she started flicking her eyes around the tunnel ahead. Others were in charge of keeping their flanks and back secure, she and Poli had point.

Loivl replied with more hesitation than usual, "I can't be sure… It could technically be almost anything. I would guess they're gemacers, though. They're somewhere between an earth elemental and a goblin. Very territorial, most can shift the earth within a handful of meters around them with the ease of a few hand gestures. Very very dangerous in a place like this… There are gemacers on this layer, but they usually guard resource nodes and other key points."

Although she was burning to know about resource nodes, given it sounded almost like a game term, Willow just made a note to ask later. She grinned as the sound of shuffling paper informed her the note-taking had been successful. Despite not having too much time to breathe or think with the constant attacks, she was still working toward expanding her capabilities and using her advantages.

The soft sound of a scuffing foot reached Willow's ears and she glanced at Poli, sending him a private message through the channel. "Hear that?"

"No."

"Sounded like a foot scuffing earth, just ahead. Think we're about to have some action."

"You going to just charge in again?"

Willow made a face. She hadn't 'just' charged in before! She was always tactical! Something she could prove now. "No, the tunnel is thin enough here we can easily hold a hold horde between the two of us if we stick together. Can you make more than one of those shield things at once?"

"I can, it's difficult but not impossible." The frog-man agreed, though his slow blink probably meant something derogatory. Why can't all non-humans just have the same body language and vocal patterns?! Urgh!

Channeling her annoyance briefly into her focus to make sure her mana was topped off, she sent him a picture of herself giving a thumbs up, "Great! If you can put one directly in front of you, and another maybe a meter in front of me, that will tunnel them to me one at a time so I can smash them."

A very soft croaking sound came through the mental link, along with the feeling of resignation, "Every strike against one of my shields drains some mana. You can't use it as the anvil to your hammer."

"Pft, why don't you make your shields better, then?" She poked the uptight amphibian. Are wāskan amphibious? Another note to ask later! Shuffling paper confirmed her design.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

In the same moment, System's voice returned, "Point will make contact in three…"

A small creature, about half Phoenix's height, stepped out in front of them and lifted a tiny hand. It was just beyond the light cast by the various illumination gear they all had - so it was hard to make out any details.

"Shit, contact!" It clearly disturbed System to have his countdown undermined.

One of Poli's bright orange shields sprung up in front of them, dividing the tunnel. Another appeared directly above them and stretched back for several meters. Before Phoenix could wonder about the overhead shield, the ceiling rumbled and begun to crack.

Suddenly understanding Poli's roof-shield, she leapt up and slapped her hand to it. Grow she demanded as a portion of mana flowed out of her to enforce her will. The shield had just managed to cover the entire party as rocks begun breaking off and plummeting the few meters down, clanging against Poli's shield with dull 'thump' sounds.

The little man grunted, staggering. "I thought impacts just took mana?!" She demanded over the private channel, taking off toward the source of their problems at the same time.

Two steps brought her within her moment of focus's normal range and she activated it. Weight slipped from her chest as relief poured through her veins. It'd worked! For once, something on this stupid planet was properly affected by her ability.

"Phoenix! Above! Dodge!" Poli's harsh shout caused her to leap to her left, tumbling into a roll without question. Still, the crossed streams of three assids brushed across her arm as she somersaulted, an unpleasant reminder of the previous day's horrific near-death.

"Hey! I don't have an endless supply of shirts!" She roared in indignation. The monsters didn't seem to care.

As she came to her feet, the earth rumbled ominously. Glancing back, she saw Poli's shields still in place and he was steadily making his way toward her. Behind him, the party was split in two. Half of them were following Poli, while the others engaged another force that had attacked from the rear.

Her roving eyes finished their movement on her attackers. Standing above, along the edge of a dome-like alcove that had clearly been purpose-made, was a trio of assids. Each of them was readying another spout.

Unfortunately for them, their trap had failed. Now that she was aware of the ambushes, there wasn't a chance she'd let them ruin any more of her clothes. More importantly, she wouldn't let them distract her from the original objective.

In fact I see two birds just begging to be beamed… Spinning, she eliminated the remaining distance between herself and the little earth manipulator. It was small, and the upraised hand was covered in brown matted fur. Not having time to properly examine the attacker, Phoenix grabbed the outstretched arm and hauled. Releasing it from her moment she maintained just the focus component as she manhandled her enemy. With a roar, she spun and heaved, throwing the now fearfully screeching creature directly toward her would-be wardrobe slayers. She attached a packet of imperative command, but didn't immediately feed an instruction. Instead, she kept the thread of instruction mana connected to herself as her impromptu weapon flew. Moments from impact, she sent her instruction. Explode.

There was a sharp resistance, a kind of refusal that attempted to subvert her demand. A child would have had more success arguing against a drill sergeant. Phoenix's will solidified, her demand unyielding and unshakable. A small stream of both discipline and instruction mana reinforced the spell and the little enemy burst from within. Bone and blood flew indiscriminately, violently.

Scrunching her face, Phoenix made another mental note. Making enemies explode is gross, and only kind of effective.

One of the assids had caught an incidental bone through something important and toppled over the edge of its position. If the bone shrapnel hadn't killed it, falling directly on its head with enough force for her to hear the 'SNAP' several meters away surely must have.

I really need better ranged options. She stared up at her out-of-reach attackers for a moment, before deciding she had better things to do. Rushing back toward Poli, she nodded her thanks as he opened his shield for her to slide through.

"I can't reach the last two." She explained, a bit pained to admit it.

Surprisingly, Poli didn't seem either surprised or upset. Instead, he just waved back toward the rest of the party. All of whom had turned to fight the flanking force. "Looks like they put too much stock in their ambush. They should be done soon and then someone with a ranged attack can finish the annoyances."

She nodded, before sending a quiet update to Prism, "Earth guy and one assid dead. Two more assids out of reach, they can't reach us right now either."

"Stay on point. We're wrapping up here. Ten mounted assids, one of the gemancers, and another grubuer. System is concerned there may be more hiding that he wasn't able to detect."

Nodding, Phoenix returned her gaze away from her battling party, keeping a watch on her edge in case any more hidden enemies were laying in wait.

"They're retreating." System reported a moment later, sounding disgusted.

That was the other thing about these attacks, beyond being generally organized, which was baffling. The monsters retreated once they were certain they were going to lose. In fact, that was apparently the grubuer's main role in the entire operation - cover for retreat. The worms were so massive that it was nigh impossible to kill them quickly. They used their bodies as walls, cutting off the defenders as their attackers rushed off to lick their wounds.

Sometimes the worms tried an attack, too, but they weren't very effective. Since they were aware the massive things were there, it was easy to notice the unique liquidification of whatever surface they were about to burst out of and dodge out of the way.

Their normal strategy would have been to find a likely ambush position, set themselves up directly under or over their intended target spot, and wait. It would be much harder to avoid a grubuer's strike if the distance between itself and the ground it had to swim through was counted in centimeters instead of meters.

The thought actually gave her pause and Phoenix dropped her ability, then restarted her focus with an intent to notice ambushes. Nothing popped out, though she hadn't really tried this before so who knew how well it'd actually work.

Yet another attack repelled, the party regrouped and began their forward march once more. Although it wasn't surprising, Phoenix was still disappointed the ambushing assids had somehow gotten away. Even their little alcove was gone.

"There must be more of those gemancer things." She noted in the party channel as they carefully made their way around the still bubbling acid she'd, mostly, avoided.

Jonah

Searching for a Gnoll Shaman, Second Layer, Chimera M 63

The entire day had been one long running battle and it was beginning to fray at Jonah's nerves. He'd thought his mettle had been tested when he and Naomi had to carefully position, plan, and recruit under Jemer's suspicious gaze. He was starting to think of those days with fondness.

They'd discussed falling back to Frella's base, of course. Unfortunately, with the assid's ability to turn the sturdy enchanted stone into so much slush, they'd quickly decided against that particular course of action. Instead, they were going to continue with their quest to find the gnoll shaman, Hama.

The rationale was simple enough: they didn't have any better course of action. They could try to follow one of the retreating attack parties, but everyone agreed that would be a poor idea. Even if they were being harried, they at least had breaks. If there was some kind of horde hiding out in a cavern somewhere and they followed a little raiding party back to it, they'd be giving up the short periods of rest they currently enjoyed.

Honestly, the thing that had Jonah entirely on edge was the simple fact that they had nowhere to run. Some fights were rougher than others, though for the most part they got easier each time as they got used to the monsters and their capabilities. The first time a new monster showed up was always, inevitably, the hardest. They'd taken several injuries, though thankfully the drawf, Kash, had some healing light spell - which everyone was grateful for. Apparently it was part of his path of Sanctuary's Hope.

For the thousandth time, Jonah saw movement at the very edge of his perception and resisted the urge to alert his party. It'd become clear after the last two encounters that the 'attacks' weren't really attempts to defeat them. They were probes. The monsters were, for some reason, coordinating and learning about their strengths and weaknesses.

No two attacks were exactly the same, and each difference was very pointedly made. Willow was targeted heavily a few times, as was Poli, Hosh, and Frella. They'd identified the group's most dangerous damage dealers and were specifically checking for their weaknesses.

That wasn't to say the rest of them were in no danger. The first fight had made that very clear, as Jonah had been sure he was about to get sent to his first 'respawn'. Then Willow had swooped in to save him, nearly dying herself again in the process.

"She's crazy." He muttered to himself. Unfortunately, Loivl had shockingly good hearing and no sense that humans might quietly talk to themselves. The minotauress replied at a quiet volume that he only barely heard, "Who's crazy?"

He thought about pretending he hadn't heard her, but from previous interactions Jonah was fairly certain she'd just ask again but louder. Instead, he replied with a single, drawn out, sighed, word, "Willow."

"Oh. Yes. I think you're right. When we met you we all assumed she was your party leader. Then we saw some of her…. Antics, and grew concerned that your group was doomed to swift death."

Jonah snickered. "Yeah, she'd probably just tell us to 'go kill the monsters!' or something."

Loivl made a deep thrumming sound which he thought meant she agreed. It was still a little strange that Loivl's voice, and really all the sounds she made, were so gentle and pleasant. Far from the cow-like mooing he'd unfairly assumed upon meeting her. He'd never met another minotaur, after all.

"What do you think of Frella's decision to stay with us? It's probably our party the monsters are targeting, you know."

Gently chucking, she agreed, "Likely. We have been on the layer for a week or so. After being hunted by the gnolls everything was pretty calm. We were able to choose our encounters. Frella is a cautious leader and wanted to slowly step the difficulty of our fights up, mostly for Hosh's benefit as he'd had little actual combat experience until we got to Chimera's sixty third moon."

"Heh," Jonah laughed humorlessly, "Then you met us and got pulled into a running battle."

She shrugged, "That's how things go sometimes. It has been interesting. Besides, the offer to free us of our previous contracts is certainly worth a bit of danger. Though…"

Jonah waited, letting her have her moment of hesitant thought, "We did notice that instead of actually being freed from our contracts, they've been 'transferred'?"

"Yeah, it's a paperwork thing. You can ask Chaven whenever we get off this rock, or…" He thought for a moment, "if you wanted to talk sooner than that Na- Prism, would probably let you talk using the comm relay. It's a little unreliable since we descended to this layer, so I doubt it'll work at all on the next one, but it's still usable. I know Prism checked in last night without too much trouble, at least."

"Ships… Relay?" Loivl asked, hesitant. It was a bit weird to realize that Loivl, and the rest of her party, really knew nothing about any of the adventures he, Naomi, and Willow had been on. Though, to be fair, they knew little about them either.

Although he still kept attention on the edges of his perception, Jonah leapt at the chance to distract his overwrought mind for a bit. "Right, so Prism and I kind of took over a space ship…"

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