Zone 37-A turned out to be refreshingly normal, which immediately made August suspicious.
Regular trees, regular grass, regular sky that was just blue without any geometric complications or biological modifications. After the nightmare of the previous zones, the normalcy felt almost aggressive in its ordinariness.
"This is definitely a trap," August said, checking his Foundation monitor. Steady blue, no green flickering. "Nothing this normal exists in the deep zones without a really unpleasant catch."
He consulted Arthur's notes: "Standard clearing operation. 12 Forsaken eliminated. Zone King (Mimic-class) destroyed. Recommend extreme caution regarding environmental authenticity."
"Environmental authenticity," August read aloud. "Right. So this place looks normal but isn't actually normal. Got it."
August had been walking for about an hour when he noticed something odd about his Foundation monitor.
The display was showing his current immunity list, and it was… shorter than it should have been. Yesterday he'd been immune to forty-seven types of biological warfare. Now the readout only showed thirty-one.
"Huh," August said, stopping to examine the monitor more carefully. "That's weird. Where did the other sixteen go?"
As he watched, another immunity disappeared from the list. Acid resistance, gone. Just vanished from his system like it had never existed.
"Oh," August said, understanding dawning. "Oh, that's not good."
His Foundation had limited storage capacity. It could only maintain so many immunities at once. As it adapted to new threats, it was apparently deleting old ones to make room.
August sat down on a conveniently placed rock to think through the implications.
"So I'm not permanently immune to everything," he said. "I'm temporarily immune to recent things. The older the immunity, the more likely it is to get deleted."
He checked his list again. His very first immunities - fall damage, cold, pressure - those were still there. But the more specific biological warfare protections were disappearing one by one.
"Great," August said. "So if I run into those escaped biological Forsaken again, they might actually be able to kill me now."
His Foundation monitor pulsed, as if acknowledging his concern. The display updated with a new message: "IMMUNITY STORAGE: 67% CAPACITY. RECOMMEND THREAT PRIORITIZATION."
"Threat prioritization," August repeated. "Right. Because apparently I need to manage my immunity like it's a filing cabinet."
August pulled out his journal and started making notes.
If his Foundation had limited capacity, he needed to be strategic about which threats he encountered. Core immunities like fall damage and temperature resistance seemed to be permanent, but specific attack types were temporary.
"Okay," August said, writing. "Avoid repeating encounters with things I'm no longer immune to. Don't get cocky about previous adaptations. Assume anything I haven't faced recently can probably kill me."
It was a sobering realization. August had been growing confident in his immunity, treating it like a permanent shield against the world's dangers. Now he understood it was more like a limited-use emergency response system.
"Good thing I created Arthur to be competent at this," August said. "Because I'm apparently running on a biological trial version."
The first test of his revised immunity system came about an hour later.
August was following what appeared to be a forest path when the trees around him started looking… familiar. Too familiar. Like he'd walked past the exact same oak tree three times in the last ten minutes.
"Mimic zone," August realized. "The environment is copying itself to create loops."
His Foundation monitor flickered green, analyzing the spatial distortion. Within moments, August felt the adaptation take hold - immunity to environmental mimicry and spatial loops.
But as the new immunity locked in, August watched two more biological warfare protections disappear from his list.
"Wonderful," August said. "Now I can navigate fake forests, but toxic spores might kill me again."
The path continued to loop and repeat, but now August could see through the illusion.
What had appeared to be a winding forest trail was actually a simple clearing with the same few trees copied and repeated to create the impression of an endless forest. It was elegant in its simplicity, and probably very effective against people who didn't have adaptive immunity to spatial manipulation.
"Nice work, Zone King," August said appreciatively. "Very efficient trap design. I like the minimalist approach."
He cut directly across the clearing toward where the real exit should be, ignoring the illusory paths that would have led him in circles forever.
That's when the Forsaken attacked.
There were three of them, hiding in the spaces between the real trees and the fake ones.
They looked almost human at first glance, but as they moved, August could see the wrongness. Their proportions were slightly off, their movements too fluid, their faces just perfect enough to be deeply unsettling.
"Mimics," August said, his Foundation monitor flaring green. "Of course. Mimic Zone King, mimic Forsaken."
The first one spoke in August's own voice: "Hello, August. We've been waiting for you."
The second one continued in the same voice: "We know all about your immunity system."
The third one finished: "And we know exactly how to break it."
August felt his Foundation adapting to voice mimicry and identity theft, but the process felt… strained.
His monitor was flashing yellow warning indicators now, showing that his immunity storage was approaching maximum capacity. Each new adaptation was forcing his system to delete multiple old ones.
"Okay," August said, backing away from the advancing mimics. "That's concerning. My Foundation is starting to run out of room."
The lead mimic smiled with August's own face. "That's the point. You can't be immune to everything forever."
"We've studied you," the second one said, also wearing August's appearance. "Watched you adapt and lose protections. We know what you're vulnerable to now."
The third mimic pulled out what looked like a simple knife. "Slashing damage. You lost that immunity two adaptations ago."
August checked his monitor and swore.
They were right. Slashing resistance had been deleted when he adapted to the mimic zone's spatial distortions. The knife could actually hurt him now.
"Well," August said, "this is a new kind of terrifying."
The mimics attacked in perfect coordination, using August's own voice to coordinate their assault. But they were also using weapons and tactics that targeted immunities August no longer possessed.
His Foundation flared green, working to re-adapt to slashing damage, but the process was slower now. His system was overloaded, struggling to manage its limited storage capacity while responding to immediate threats.
August barely managed to dodge the first knife thrust.
The blade scraped across his ribs, drawing blood for the first time since the wolf-pack encounter. His Foundation was adapting, but not fast enough.
"You know what the beautiful thing is?" one of the mimics said in August's voice. "Even if you become immune to our attacks, you'll lose immunity to something else. And we know what all your previous vulnerabilities are."
"We've been comparing notes with the other zones," another mimic added. "Biological warfare, geometric attacks, sonic manipulation - we know exactly which buttons to push."
The third mimic lunged with its knife, and this time August wasn't fast enough to dodge completely.
The blade punched through August's jacket and into his shoulder.
Pain shot through his system, but his Foundation finally completed its re-adaptation to slashing damage. The knife blade suddenly couldn't penetrate his skin, but the damage was already done.
"Adaptive immunity," August panted, pulling the knife out of his shoulder. "Still got it."
"For now," the lead mimic said cheerfully in August's own voice. "But look at your monitor."
August looked. His immunity list was now critically full, with red warning indicators showing that any new adaptation would require massive deletions of old protections.
"We're not trying to kill you," the mimic explained. "We're trying to break your immunity system by forcing it to overload."
The mimics resumed their attack, but now they were using weapons and techniques from every zone August had encountered.
Geometric crystals that tried to transform him. Biological toxins that targeted his cellular structure. Sonic attacks that mimicked the Chorus's reality-warping music. Each attack forced August's Foundation to adapt, and each adaptation deleted more of his existing protections.
"This is really clever," August said, dodging a crystalline spear while his Foundation struggled to re-adapt to geometric attacks. "Diabolically clever. I'm actually impressed."
"Thank you," all three mimics said in unison. "We pride ourselves on efficient threat elimination."
August's Foundation monitor was now flashing red, warning that his immunity system was approaching critical failure.
That's when August realized what he had to do.
Instead of letting his Foundation adapt to every attack, he started choosing which threats to adapt to and which to simply avoid. When the mimics used geometric weapons, August dodged instead of adapting. When they tried sonic attacks, he covered his ears and ran.
"Immunity management," August said, leaping over a biological spore cloud. "I need to be strategic about this."
His Foundation monitor stopped flashing red as August reduced the adaptation load. He was still vulnerable to most of the mimics' attacks, but at least his immunity system wasn't in danger of total collapse.
The chase continued through the fake forest.
August ran between real trees and illusory ones, dodging attacks and only allowing his Foundation to adapt to threats he absolutely couldn't avoid. It was like playing a deadly resource management game.
The mimics kept up their assault, cycling through every type of attack August had previously encountered. But now that he wasn't adapting to everything, they couldn't overload his system.
"You're learning," one of them called out in August's voice. "That's unfortunate."
"We'll have to try a more direct approach," another added.
The third mimic pulled out what looked like Arthur's resonance weapon.
"Where did you get that?" August demanded, skidding to a halt.
"We study everyone who passes through," the mimic explained in August's voice. "Arthur Solvain left quite an impression. We learned to copy his equipment along with everything else."
The weapon charged with a sound like reality tearing itself apart.
August's Foundation monitor went completely red. Whatever that weapon did, his immunity system had no idea how to protect against it.
"Harmonic resonance weapon," the mimic said cheerfully. "Designed specifically to kill Zone Kings. Should work quite well on overconfident protagonists."
August dove behind a tree - a real tree, he hoped - just as the weapon fired.
The sound was indescribable.
Reality itself screamed as the harmonic beam tore through the space where August had been standing. The fake trees dissolved, the spatial loops collapsed, and even the real trees looked damaged by exposure to whatever Arthur's weapon actually did.
"Okay," August said, crouched behind his hopefully-real tree. "That's definitely not something I want to adapt to."
The mimics were advancing with the copied weapon, preparing to fire again.
August looked around desperately for an escape route and spotted something that made him grin: a hole in the air, exactly like the exit Arthur had blasted through the geometric zone.
"Arthur's emergency exit," August realized. "He fought these things and made his own way out."
August made a run for Arthur's exit hole.
The mimics fired their copied weapon again, the harmonic beam searing past August's head close enough to make his ears ring. But August dove through the hole in reality just as it started to close.
He tumbled out onto solid ground in what appeared to be normal countryside, gasping and shaking.
Behind him, the hole sealed itself with a sound like cosmic zippers. The mimics were trapped back in their fake forest with their overloaded immunity-breaking tactics.
"Well," August said, checking his Foundation monitor. Still red, but no longer critical. "That was educational. And terrifying. Mostly terrifying."
August found Arthur's next message carved into a nearby boulder:
Zone 37-A cleared. 12 Forsaken eliminated. Zone King (Mimic-class) destroyed. WARNING: Mimic entities have adaptive intelligence. They learn from every encounter and share information between zones. Recommend avoiding repeated engagement patterns. Proceeding to Zone 38-C. - A.S.
"They learn from every encounter," August read aloud. "Great. So now the zones are networking to share anti-August strategies."
He checked his immunity list, now much shorter after the mimic encounter. He'd lost most of his biological protections, several geometric immunities, and half of his sonic resistances.
"I need to be more careful about this," August said. "My Foundation isn't unlimited. And apparently the zones are getting smarter about exploiting its limitations."
August shouldered his pack and started walking toward Zone 38-C, following Arthur's trail deeper into increasingly dangerous territory.
His Foundation monitor gradually faded from red to yellow to blue as his immunity system stabilized. But August was now acutely aware that his adaptive immunity was a finite resource that needed to be managed carefully.
"Good thing Arthur knows what he's doing," August said. "Because I'm apparently walking into zones that are specifically designed to counter adaptive immunity."
The thought was sobering. August had been relying on his Foundation as a safety net, but now he understood it was more like a limited-use emergency tool.
"I wonder how many other Foundation types the zones have figured out how to counter," August mused. "This job really is impossible, isn't it?"
The trail stretched ahead toward Zone 38-C and whatever new challenges Arthur had already faced and overcome.
Somewhere out there, Arthur was continuing his work with the knowledge that every zone was learning from his methods, adapting to his strategies, and sharing information about how to kill Founders.
"Hang on, Arthur," August said. "Your creator is still coming to help. I just need to figure out how to not get my immunity system destroyed by clever mimics first."
August walked on through the countryside, following the trail of someone who'd been fighting an increasingly intelligent enemy for longer than anyone should have to.
And trying not to think about what would happen when the zones learned enough to start winning.