With that, Edge’s consciousness slid back into his body.

  After conferring with his skills, he felt calmer, and his mind was clear. Putting the dynamics of his situation into words had helped him face his long list of problems head-on. He was still afraid, but he no longer felt overwhelmed.

  If he was being honest with himself, part of him was buzzing with excitement—eager to use the Savage Garden as a whetstone to hone him to a razor’s edge.

  He chuckled at the pun, then sighed. Shit. Now I’m doing it too. The deputies would have loved that one. Edge realized that he was smiling—thoughts polished to a feral lucidity as every sense became crystal clear. Knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that death lurked behind every corner brought out the best in him, which was exactly what he needed to survive.

  He was alone and surrounded by enemies. Locked inside a maze of monsters who wanted to rend him asunder and feast on his remains. He was trapped within the depths of a kodoku jar of epic proportion—filled with deadly predators warring for supremacy.

  Old Edge would have snapped under the pressure—let fear drive him straight into a shallow grave. But after binding Skill-Eater and surviving the wilds of Ord, he was a predator too. Working alongside his skills and the ravenous lord bound in chains, he would conquer this dungeon, no matter what horrors stood in his way.

  In that moment, Edge made a vow—elegant in its savage simplicity. I will fight. I will win. And I will eat.

  He would fight, win, eat, and then do it all over again. Consume and evolve until he was powerful enough to take down the dungeon’s most lethal inhabitants. Ascend the food chain one rung at a time until he was straddling the apex. He would devour the boss, claim the core manufactory for Puppet Town, and bring the pain to the convicts who had dared to harm his friends and threaten his home.

  It was Edge and Skill-Eater versus hundreds of bloodthirsty monsters, dozens of ruthless killers, and four immensely powerful elites, and he was ready to make his first move.

  That thought reminded him that he had encountered the second elite monster dwelling within the Savage Garden, and that reward for killing it should have been added to the quest. Sure enough, when he opened his menu, the text had been updated.

  Supplementary Quest: Open the Boss’s Chamber

  My day just got a lot more interesting, and something tells me that yours did too.

  Here’s the deal. The door to the boss’s room was sealed after an unsuccessful “attempt.” To break the seal, you must first defeat three elite monsters roaming the Savage Garden. You can think of them as mini-bosses, including the slimy fellow you came oh so close to getting to know on an intimate basis before hiding like a bunch of cowards.

  Stop edging me and fucking fight it already! But all risk and no reward makes for a dull show. So, in addition to opening the door to the final room of the dungeon, each person participating in a mini-boss kill will receive a fantastic prize, the details of which will be revealed after you encounter them for the first time.

  Your reward for defeating the slime mini-boss will be (divided evenly by your team): 250,000 Credits. 50 Mortium. 25 high-grade potions.

  Your reward for defeating the monkey mini-boss will be (divided evenly by your team): 15 Mortium. 2 Skill-Merger Tokens. 1 Skill-Mutation Token. 3 Mid-Grade Spellshots (Stage 4 Pillar of Flame).

  Edge did a double take when he read the reward. That one is exactly what I need. More merger tokens would be a godsend at this point, and so would the spellshots, even if they weren’t quite as powerful as the ones Warren had been packing. It was also a ton of Mortium for a single kill, which would allow him to consume more Rare and Epic skills.

  The most intriguing item was the Skill-Mutation Token. He had never even heard of it and had no idea what it did. It meant that the token had to be incredibly rare, given his voracious consumption of the feed prior to arriving on Ord.

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  While it was a fantastic reward, he didn’t let it distract him. He would deal with the elites when the time came, but Edge had other goals that he needed to accomplish first if he wanted to make that dream a reality. After all, those rewards were intended for an entire team. If he were to have any chance of soloing the dungeon’s elite monsters, he needed to evolve, cycle up, and steal more skills without losing his life in the bargain.

  He had to work fast, but he couldn’t afford to rush either, given the power of the creatures dwelling in the dungeon. He was dead certain that there were monsters in here that could kill him in the blink of an eye. Many more would be manageable under specific conditions, but they would end his day in the worst possible way if he tried to take them head-on.

  Thus, his first goal was to scout the borderlands running between the jungle and the swamp. Edge needed to know what was out there. Where the monsters were lurking and the details of the terrain, including potential shelters and any resources that could boost his odds of surviving this trial.

  After that, he would chart a course back to the maze, where with any luck, he could hunt stage-one monsters until he hit the last cycle of his stage. It would also be a good opportunity to learn more about the jailbirds while they were concentrated in a confined area—where the walls of vegetation would offer him a considerable advantage thanks to Penetrate Foliage.

  When Edge stepped outside, he learned that he wouldn’t be doing any of that today. In part because the sun would set in another hour or so, but mostly because of the mist. A vast bank of fog was flowing in from the direction of the swamp. While it was thin right now, he knew that before long, it would become impenetrable.

  The convicts shouldn’t be able to travel in the mist either. Unless the monsters find me, this works to my advantage. I need time to recover and refine my plan. If I make a single mistake and the jailbirds catch me, it’s game over. There won’t be any second chances past this point.

  He hadn’t brought his bedroll into the dungeon, but he did have the gear he used while stalking prey—a waterproof tarp to keep the moisture in the ground from soaking his gear, and a small, squishy pad to rest his head on.

  Given the heat of the Savage Garden, Edge didn’t need his poncho for warmth. Instead, he hung it across the entrance to the hollow, where he could peer through the crack, but no one could see his gear spread out inside.

  He wasn’t going to snack in here, since the smell would draw unwanted attention. On that note, he moved a few hundred yards out, ate some rations, relieved himself, and buried the mess. Then he walked back to the hollow trunk, using Conceal every now and again so that he didn’t leave a trail.

  Edge sat down, staring into the mist while he reviewed everything that he knew about jailbirds. The info that had been available on the Prison World feeds, and what he had learned since arriving on Ord from talking to Sam, the deputies, and Trapper’s crew.

  Jailbird societies were varied and complex, but there were some common threads that ran through them. The first was that the planet’s prisoners rarely played nice with each other. Most of their settlements were brutal, anarchistic places, where “might makes right” was the only law that mattered. This many convicts working together was rare—a clear indication that they were led by a powerful warlord.

  Even still, Edge doubted that the jailbirds had much experience operating in coordinated units. They also had no reason to wake up with the sun most mornings, unlike the hunters of Ord. It meant that if he wanted to learn more about them, his best bet was to head out at the crack of dawn, or the asscrack of morning as Jumo liked to call it.

  I’ll use Penetrate Foliage to scout them out while they’re still in the maze. Even if they notice me, I have the map of trails memorized and losing them should be easy by combining Shadow Step and Conceal.

  With a plan in place, the next thing he needed to do was find a way to sleep in the dungeon without being eaten by a prowling predator. Fortunately, Edge had come up with an idea that might work. He willed his consciousness into his core, then headed over to his skill garden.

  He walked up to the blurry figure that represented Conceal, who was playing tag with Shadow Step. Those two really get along. I think they’re friends. Once they were done, he waved Conceal’s avatar over. After thinking about it for a second, he had Chibime join them too. That little guy is way smarter than my other skills. Maybe he can help convey what I need.

  Edge said hello, then got down on one knee. “Like I mentioned earlier, I’m trapped in a dangerous place right now. I’m going to be stuck here for a while, and I’m all alone. I need to be able to rest without getting eaten while I’m asleep. Conceal, I was wondering if you would be willing to turn yourself on whenever I pass out. I normally need to focus to keep you running, but I was hoping that you could activate yourself while I’m unconscious.”

  He frowned when the transparent man scratched its head in confusion. Then Chibime made a series of gestures and Conceal shrugged in reply. This back and forth went on for several minutes until both skills turned to him and nodded.

  “You can do it?” Chibime offered an enthusiastic thumbs up. “Fucking awesome. You guys rock. Thank you.” He poured on the praise a little longer, then returned to his body. Communicating with my skills is strange, but it’s already making a big difference.

  Edge closed his eyes—trying his best not to think about where he was—and eventually slipped into a deep and dreamless sleep.