It took only a few minutes of waiting before Mordecai spotted a flying figure approaching them. The white-and-gold griffon looked almost like a gilded marble statue, but Mordecai was suspicious that the golden claws and metallic edge to its feathers were of a harder alloy that had a similar color and luster.

Also, the fact that he was able to start noticing details this quickly implied something else, and his suspicions were quickly proven true as the form kept getting bigger as it grew closer. The griffon wasn't just large for its kind, it was large even compared to a dragon!

Mordecai frowned as he observed the approaching creature. He was certain from its aura that the griffon was Dersuta's avatar, which meant that it had to be an internal avatar. Well, maybe not, if he had an avatar capable of changing its shape that far, but Mordecai was pretty certain that even his draconic form wouldn't be able to get that big without reaching heights his avatars had never reached before. Only an internal avatar was normally capable of such size.

Besides, it fit what Mordecai knew of Dersuta, as well as what Seshadri had said. Dersuta was far from sociable, and if he no longer felt the need to explore the outside world, developing a specialized internal avatar made sense, as there were fewer restrictions on an internal avatar. Mordecai's restrictions had been self imposed as part of the price of having his current avatar's pattern saved and available for an invested avatar.

Which meant that the giant griffon circling overhead was the equivalent of a raid boss for a nexus this old and large.

Great.

At least the griffon wasn't able to circle directly above them; that avatar was far too large to risk getting too close to the edge of the territory.

When Dersuta began his slowly spiraling descent, his avatar gradually shrank until it was 'merely' the size of a small house when he landed. Mordecai was slightly amused at that bit of flexing and showing off; he and Dersuta might not be friends, but there was always a bit of competitive drive to show off. The griffon avatar tilted his head to the side as he examined the group, then tapped the ground once to trigger a privacy ward.

"Mordecai," Dersuta said, "it seems you survived your mistake. Yet you still insist on continuing to get entangled in relationships. Hmm." He paused, then blinked and stared intently at Mordecai. "Did- are you a faerie king? And your wives are queens? What did you get yourself into this time?"

Electing not to get into a useless debate about their incompatible views, Mordecai skipped straight to asking a question. "How many nexuses are there on this continent?"

Dersuta looked warily suspicious as he replied, "Including yourself? Four. Five if you and Kazue count separately."

Naturally Dersuta would be aware of Kuiccihan. He would have felt her if he’d been near her area at any time these last few hundred years. Mordecai shook his head. "Five, or six under that alternative count." He gestured at the group behind him and said, "About half of the people here will be participating directly in an invasion and rescue mission. The head of the Puritasi has been effectively holed up thanks to Trionean forces, but I'd rather not see the mess that would result from amateurs leading the mission, so they are waiting on me, thanks to some leverage I have. I also don't trust that they'd free the nexus, rather than eliminate a potential threat."

The change in Dersuta's mildly condescending attitude was immediate as he focused on the presented issue. "I see. What do you need?" With few exceptions, there tended to be solidarity among nexuses when it came to matters such as this.

"Training, supplies. We plan on using groups separated by experience while within your territory. The youngest will take the lead until they can't keep up, then we rotate and they become active support. My avatar is freshly awakened, but I sacrificed all my previous avatars to create the pattern for it, so expect my personal growth to be accelerated. We don't have the time to pull out all my potential, but I need to make sure that I am prepared against a wizard who has had months of prep time while using an enslaved nexus as a lair."

"Understood," Dersuta replied, "I'll give you a customized run once I observe how you groups handle standard challenges. Anything else?"

Akahana raised her hand and said, "The four of us would like to do a separate run. We're not a direct part of the final stage of this plan and we don't need teamwork experience with anyone else here."

Dersuta examined Akahana, Ricardo, Zara, and Tiros before nodding. "Very well, I can lead you to an appropriate area to begin. I take it you will not be needing me to tune your delve? Good." He turned back to Mordecai as those four separated from the rest of the group. "There is much you and I do not agree on, but we have always been clear on this subject. I have not invested in an avatar in a long time, so any fresh one would be too weak to join you, but I will help you how I can, within the bounds of fair challenge and reward."

He gestured toward what was currently a small bump on the southern horizon. "So long as your path takes you south and roughly toward those mountains, your challenges will increase. You are not obligated to follow the ritual paths that the locals have arranged with me. There are few safe areas, as I have become focused on testing warriors to ensure they are up to their clan's standards, which includes the ability to arrange safe sleeping spaces in the wilderness. The few that exist are very clearly marked."

"Thank you," Mordecai said. "I appreciate the information." This included indirect information; Mordecai was fairly certain that there were many surprises outside of the more well documented hazards of the trials.

Dersuta inclined his head. "You are welcome, and I am glad you have the wisdom to seek help this time. I will leave now to let you prepare." He turned and gestured at Akahana's group to follow him before he took off into a slow flight.

Kazue sneezed at the dust Dersuta kicked up and rubbed at her nose, then she frowned and said, "That was a little rude; he barely acknowledged the rest of us."

Moriko had a similar scowl as she stared after the departing griffon.

Mordecai shrugged and sighed. "I know, but he doesn't care for entangling himself with outsiders, and he's always had disdain for the way I 'mingle' with the rest of the world. So he showed himself strictly for business, and I am the one who can get through that business fastest. He has no intention of being insulting, he simply doesn't care about what he sees as extraneous social interactions. Now, come on, let's get organized."

They divided the junior members into two groups.

The first group consisted of Fuyuko, Amrydor, Shizoku, Derek, and Galan.

The second group consisted of Yugo, Taeko, Ranulf, the young ranger apprentice Rika, and the elven acolyte Allania, who had been trained by Traxalim. This gave both groups healers, with Derek's water and wood affinities able to provide gradual healing to supplement the faster but more limited healing of Shizoku's potions.

While on full days the groups could rotate more, today they only had a partial day to get some delving in before it would be time to make camp, so the two groups set out at an angle from each other with their accompanying adults split into the same groups they would be using for their part of the delving in the future.

Mordecai, Moriko, Kazue, Kansif, and Takehiko trailed Fuyuko's group while Bellona, Xarlug, Bridgette, Orchid, and Paltira followed the other one.

The first creature that the first group fought was a boar; it was just barely an adult but still potentially dangerous. To most people.

Fuyuko's arrow drove into the boar's skull, sinking more than half its shaft into the creature, which simply fell dead. The teen girl stared in shock, and Mordecai grinned. His daughter had no idea how strong she really was because they had always kept the training just tight enough to keep pushing her, though they had been careful to make sure Fuyuko knew she'd done a good job with mastering a new skill or with her performance in a spar.

Now it was time for a type of training that hadn't been available in the nexus, as she hadn't ever been shooting at living targets that she was capable of really hurting. "Fuyuko," Mordecai said, "you need to pay attention to how strong your target is. For weaker creatures, you will want to get into the habit of not always fully drawing your bow if there are several targets, as you can release arrows faster if you only partially draw."

Of course, her partial draw was still as potent as an unaugmented heavy crossbow's full-strength shot.

With the boar dead, it was time to field dress it and then portion it with basic butchery. As all five teenagers had expanded space storage of some sort, it was easy to wrap the meat and put it into sacks that were then stored away. The tusks were of only mild value, but they were collected too as part of proper habit forming.

This started the pattern for their afternoon of training as the party faced slowly growing groups of aggressive animals, and occasionally plants. A normal badger wasn't a threat to anyone with a large stick that wasn't trying to get into the badger's lair. A group of five badgers that were each the size of a pony was a different issue, though in this case, none of them survived more than a few seconds of contact with the frontline of Amrydor, Derek, and Galan.

Amrydor was clearly the most powerful of the three, while Derek had the widest variety of abilities at his command. Galan was stronger than Derek as he had been training for longer, but he had yet to awaken any special techniques in his swordsmanship. Then again, with a good enough blade, the simple combination of skill, strength, and speed made up for a lot, and Galan had been delving enough to win himself a high-quality alloy sword with some basic reinforcement and sharpness enchantments.

Their first boss had been a large black bear supported by three boars, but by then Fuyuko had been starting to get used to measuring the force of her shots, and she had quickly downed the boars. This left the bear alone to deal with the young men who quickly surrounded it. Derek grabbed it with a sudden growth of vines, making it easy for Amrydor and Galan to drive their blades deep before the bear could rip its way free.

Shizoku held back until late in the afternoon, when six giant mantises rose from the grasslands ahead, followed by over a dozen giant wasps that flew out of reach of Amrydor and Galan, clearly intending to attack Fuyuko and Shizoku while the front line was engaged with the mantises.

Almost half of the wasps died to her first spell, a simple but effective fireball. They were too spread out for her to catch them all at once. Fuyuko stayed focused on the mantises, taking the time to fully draw her bow to drive each arrow into the giant insects, but that only left Amrydor and Galan to directly engage with them, because Derek stepped back to support Shizoku.

A hail of stones and clods of dirt shot up from the ground, slamming into many of the remaining wasps and tearing holes into them or ripping open their wings. Still, there were a few left to continue their attack, but they didn't fare much better. Shizoku took down the one that got near her with her foxfire, which had taken the form of a shimmering ball of white flame since last year, when her tails started shedding white sparkly dust.

Fuyuko simply sidestepped the charge of a wasp as she stayed focused on her targets, trusting Shizo and Derek to finish the wasps off.

By the time Amrydor had engaged his first mantis, one of them was down with three of Fuyuko's arrows in it. The reach of his war scythe allowed him to engage it with relative safety, batting the long claws aside before driving the blade into the center of the carapace and ripping up into the thorax.

Galan had a slightly more challenging task, given that he did not have the same reach, but after a bit of weaving at the edge of the mantis's range, he sliced one claw off, creating an opening to let him step close while using his shield to ward off the other claw. A simple diagonal slash cut cleanly through the hard chitin, leaving the insect's fluids to flow out as it died.

Shortly after Galan made his kill, another mantis half-collapsed nearby, then dropped as an arrow pierced through its head.

Amrydor killed his second mantis quickly after that, and Galan's second kill went more smoothly than his first, as he had a feel for the mantis's motions and attacks now.

Their third boss fight was a male lion larger than most tigers, supported by four females who were only slightly smaller, and a trio of giant vultures.

None of these went down in a single exchange of attacks, and Fuyuko swapped out her bow for her pair of guns as their party changed into a simple formation with her and Shizoku at the center. The others were fast enough to mostly cover the gaps between them, and those same gaps allowed Fuyuko and Shizoku to attack without worrying about hitting their friends. This also kept the three boys from getting isolated and surrounded.

Nothing ever goes perfectly of course, and the boys were less effective in guarding from aerial attacks. All five of them ended that battle with heavy bruises and shallow cuts, but nothing had been serious enough to make Mordecai consider intervening.

Shizoku, with Derek's assistance, took extra care to ensure that everyone's wounds were thoroughly cleaned. Scavengers like vultures were much more likely to carry diseases.

Once the cleansing of wounds was done and the edible bodies field dressed and stored, Mordecai spoke up. "Alright, the sun is getting low, and Orchid has verified that the other group has just finished with a fight themselves. It's time to meet up and put together a camp."

Mordecai hoped that Derek had plenty of energy left; he was planning on pushing the boy's endurance to help create a fortified campsite.