"Feeling better?" Elaine asked as Isaac emerged from the tent.

He managed a weak smile. "Slowly getting there. I should be good to go by tomorrow," he said, settling beside her near the campfire. He gestured toward their remaining teammates. "James looks excited."

She snorted. "What else is new? I'm more surprised Marie isn't eager to transform. I could barely hold back when it showed me what my form is."

True to her word, the shorter woman looked almost embarrassed, shrinking a little under James' endless chatter. Isaac wasn't sure if it was because of how her Legacy form looked, or if her introvert tendencies were flaring up. He could understand the latter well. Then again, Marie had been mostly open to them while they worked together. For her to retreat into her shell now of all times was interesting.

Or maybe it's just James… he reasoned, rolling his eyes. There was only so much of that man's babbling a person could handle.

"Okay, okay! I will do it," Marie called, raising her voice enough for both Isaac and Elaine to hear. "Just give me a second. And shut up, please, you oaf."

James stepped back at that, raising his hands in surrender. Though, the grin on his face was telling. That guy would never change. Which maybe was for the best.

A moment later, Marie took a deep breath and nodded to herself. "All right. Here it goes."

Just like with all Legacy transformations, hers, too, was instantaneous. One moment, a short, blonde-haired woman stood before them. And in the next, a long, serpentine creature floated a few feet above the ground.

Isaac narrowed his eyes.

An eel? Snake?

The serpentine, at least ten-foot long, body matched that of both species. But snakes didn't have thin, light-blue fins running along their spines. And at the same time, he didn't remember eels having small, dragon-like scales protecting their insides. Then, there was the head, a strange hybrid of both, though still looking a bit more reptilian than anything else.

All in all, Marie's Legacy form was beautiful, if a bit alien. Her ocean-blue scales seemed to glint in light that wasn't even there. And Isaac swore he could see a thin layer of water clinging to her body. Was that what let her float? Maybe, he would have to ask later.

"Wow…" Elaine muttered next to him.

"Wow is right," James, who was standing nearby, added. His grin widened. "Ari, you there? Can you even move like this?"

The eel—snake?—turned her head toward the man and shot forward, slicing through the air as if it were water. She made a few rounds around them, definitely going faster than she could usually run. Then, once she finished her test run, more water seeped out of her body, forming two familiar whips.

Without even moving her body, they snapped forward, shattering the branch of a nearby tree. A shield of pure water rose before her next—one of Marie's newer skills—only for it to fall apart and flow toward the three humans in the area.

Isaac let out a sharp breath when the liquid touched his skin, forming a familiar blue swirl on his hand. The traces of exhaustion vanished from his body and mind, leaving him fully awake.

Huh… She did that without touching us directly.

He was about to say something, but just then, Marie transformed back into her human form. Unlike before, now a wide, bright smile lit up her face. Next to him, Elaine jumped to her feet and approached the other woman.

"You're beautiful," she gushed. "Your scales looked like sapphires."

Isaac blinked. He wasn't so sure about that comparison, but maybe he was just uneducated. What did he know about sapphires anyway? At least, based on the look on James' face, he wasn't the only one confused.

Not that the older man stayed confused for long. His grin snapped back into place as he stepped up to the two women. "So, Ari? How did it feel?"

"Wonderful," Marie muttered, looking a bit dazed. "Well, maybe a bit weird too. I don't really have any limbs in that form. But it still felt so natural… like I was born that way."

"The weirdness will pass," Elaine reassured. "We might not be in the same boat as you, but we all had to get used to some nuances of our new forms. Give it time."

Marie nodded. "I know. Thanks."

James suddenly clapped his hands together. "Enough 'bout that! Ari, did you get some good Inheritance and Ultimate?"

A fair question, though not one anyone was obligated to answer. Elaine, for example, only shared her Inheritance at first, which pretty much amounted to night vision and full resistance to all kinds of flashes of light. She could look straight into a flashlight and still see what was ahead now. Quite useful considering her Origin.

James' Inheritance, on the other hand, was a simple reinforcement to his muscles. More toughness and power. Trying to push him away or even force him to move now was a losing battle.

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"It's called Ocean's Heart," Marie finally said. "I can sense any water within about twenty feet now. That's what let me use River's Blessing from range. Probably what keeps my other form floating too… though I'm not entirely sure how that works yet."

Isaac hummed, speaking up for the first time. "Useful. Water's everywhere. Could work like a radar."

"An early warning system," Elaine agreed, though her brow furrowed. "Only the range is kinda small."

James waved that off. "It will grow stronger. All Inheritances do." He turned back to Marie. "And Ultimate?"

"It's supportive and covers a limited area," the woman said, furrowing her brow. "If I got it right, then it's like my River's Blessing on steroids. You can't get tired as long as it is active, and it will heal you and regenerate Viron much faster. Oh.. and it boosts all my Origin skills too."

"Neat," James muttered before perking up. "So now we have Isaac's army, my unstoppable charge, princess' mini-nuke, and now your AoE buff. Not a bad loadout for when shit hits the fan."

"AoE?" Marie asked, looking more confused than ever.

"Area of effect," Elaine explained. "Pretty self-explanatory."

Right… Forgot she was a gamer, apparently, Isaac thought, fighting back a yawn as Marie's blessing faded from his hand. Time to go back to sleep… Let them have their fun.

And so, as his teammates kept chatting, he slipped back into the tent and closed his eyes, letting the darkness claim him. Tomorrow would be another long day.

To Isaac's surprise, the second day was almost uneventful.

After waking up nearly fully healed and ready to fight again, his team packed up their camp, ate some light breakfast, and continued down south. He had also mentioned to them that soon they might have to change their approach to every threat they found on the way. After all, the monsters should only get stronger and stronger.

Only, he was wrong.

About three hours in, the beasts in their path started growing weaker rather than stronger. All Flamebone creatures they met? Barely reaching level ten at this point. The occasional goblin tribes traversing the Peaceful Plains? At best, level eight.

Of course, it didn't take them long to figure out what was happening. The transmission before the Integration stage explained it well, after all.

There had to be another Contamination or Safe Zone not that far away. It was the only possible explanation, even if Isaac couldn't see anything on the horizon after flying close to the clouds.

That said, once they stopped and looked at the map, it wasn't hard to guess where the next Safe Zone was.

San Francisco, or San Jose. Or both, really. With how large the Sacramento Contamination Zone was, it wouldn't be a surprise if the one here covered both of those cities. They definitely had the population for it.

Not that anyone even considered heading west to verify. Two reasons for that.

One, the obvious. They just couldn't waste time on detours. They might be running fast, much faster than an average human, but every hour still counted. And two, none of them wanted to go west, not with what was waiting there.

Large snowy hills, with even higher mountains visible in the distance. Isaac had only seen all that from high up, but when he had told the others, it wasn't even a discussion. No one felt like freezing their asses off trying to cross that kind of terrain when the plains were open and easy.

They were loosely trying to follow the path of old Interstate 5 anyway—though 'trying' was a very generous word here—so straying off course wasn't the smartest idea right now. The time to explore different territories would come in the future when they weren't in a hurry.

As such, they ignored the mountains growing in the distance and stayed on the path, running even faster now that the monsters had become weaker again. Of course, this didn't mean they ignored everything in their way. Monsters died while nests were conquered.

Or well, one nest.

Sacrificial Crimson Death.

A massive spear, wreathed in black smoke, shot past Isaac, aimed straight for the car-sized black widow just beginning to stir at the heart of the nest. The spider's eight yellow eyes snapped to him, but it was far too late.

The Crimson Death plunged head-first into its body, freezing the beast in place. A moment later, the spear erupted, showering the entire chamber in bits and pieces of chitin, green blood, and other gore.

[Forest Widow (LVL. 10) slain.]

Well done, Hosts! You have managed to destroy the core of this nest. Without a source to sustain it, its collapse is imminent. Your reward shall arrive soon. Level progression will be distributed between all contributors.

You have leveled up! You are now level 16. Distribution of Ascension Power in progress. Regeneration has advanced a tier.

Crimson Death has advanced a tier.

Isaac smiled. Not only at the notifications but also at how the thick spider webs making up this nest's walls withered in front of his eyes. Smaller spiders, ones the size of a dog, skittered out of their crumbling hiding spots and ran as far away from here as they could.

Within seconds, instead of an area covered from head to toe in webs, now only a small forest filled with half-dead trees remained. After everything the spiders did to this place, it would probably take a while for it to recover.

Anyway…

"Not leaving any fun for us, huh?" James teased, slinging an arm over Isaac's shoulders. "Still, one hit, one kill. Nice."

Isaac chuckled. "You three told me to handle it. I could have watched."

The older man's face scrunched into a grimace. "Yeah, no thanks. Those smaller bastards? Sure, I can kill those. But that thing." He gestured to the remnants of the Widow. "Nuh, uh. No spider should ever be that big."

"He's right," Marie added as she joined them. She refused to even look at the corpse. "Whoever made those things deserves a special place in hell."

"Can we go now?! Please?" Elaine's yell came next, and they all turned toward her.

She was nervously scanning the area, flinching every time a smaller spider darted out of the trees and ran toward freedom. Still, it was a miracle she even came this far. She had flat-out refused to set foot in the nest, calling it a 'nightmare pit from hell.'

Not that Marie or James had been much better. They had gone with him inside, but no matter what the older man said, they barely killed anything. How the hell Isaac ended up with three teammates terrified of spiders, he had no idea.

I swear, someone up there must be laughing at me right now.

Just then, a familiar flash erupted close to him.

At least let the rewards be good…

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