Chapter One Hundred Thirteen

Joe rested at the small poorly made sofa chair between the eleventh and twelfth floor. A certain amount of relief passed through him at the knowledge that there was only one more floor to go. This one done… and… He grit his teeth as he continued the thought. Hmm… not sure if I should try for the last one. Kinda dangerous… deep inside the clan itself. But … He sighed, relaxing. Three’s enough. Don’t need to make it so absolute. These are the ones that’ll crush them anyway… We can move when we come back out. All done. Time to get outa dodge. We’ll head out tomorrow. Joe glanced over at the other three, still studying diligently, although Kalia pretty much acted like the delinquent who sat at the back of class and refused to learn. They were putting effort in being able to read, and it was paying off. Gwenvair was able to read all the numbers on her status display already, and while only a few of the words on her main status were legible to her, she was getting better at bringing her system into the ‘reading’ age.

She’d even begun to ask the help function questions, the message box popping open with maybe a quarter to a third of the words actually written in the new alphabet she was learning while the rest were the squirming can of worms that refused to hold any kind of shape, twisting in mad disorder. Still. The words that did take to the new alphabet borrowed from English were things she sounded out and easily made sense to her once she did. That only drove her to more excitement, especially since when she asked the help about her skills, the skill name was usually a couple of the words written in legible alphabet. Reading them and realizing what she was reading about along with the few words in the description offering a tantalizing view into the suggestion or help about the skill drove her onwards. Her excitement spiraled higher and higher as she realized that not only was she able to read her own status, she would also be able to get helpful messages and deeper understanding into the system using the help system.

Joe snorted and looked away, hiding his smirk when a passing thought hit him. Wonder what she’ll feel like when she sees what the actual help is. He smoothed his face and turned back to look at the others, then sighed with some relief when he realized that they hadn’t really noticed his joke. Tired though. Really tired. Their diligence did not hide their exhaustion, and Joe was pretty certain it was just because it was a long day. He’d long past sleepy exhaustion and ran full on into his second wind. He knew he would struggle to sleep tonight. And they… had a long day! Yeah… sleep tonight… head out tomorrow… maybe day after, but… really don’t want to wait that long. Yeah. Tomorrow. We can push and sleep outside the walls… maybe at the village later.

Joe sighed and turned away from the others, and turned to evaluating his own status. Check some of the gains? He opened up his skills, then paused and went back to check out the titles. The titles remained unchanged, for the most part, although a couple of his dungeon related ones now at a multiple next to it or a few had gone up one or two iterations. His eyes glancing across the myriad of titles, now so many Joe had a hard time really caring or noticing many of them, almost simply moved on. Too many… to really care, so… But his eyes caught on Endless Endurance and the memory of it quickly came back to him. Oh! Use ten thousand of my own personal SP. Then I can turn it on and off. And… it’s off, good. Remembered to do that, at least. Important to keep in shape… Never got the chanced to play with it, so… hmm…

Joe’s thoughts turned towards wondering how he could figure this out and glanced at his pools, noticing that his SP was maxed, despite feeling a bit winded from his confrontation with the large stone elemental thing. So… really does … basically nothing for me now… good for my health, but… hmmm… Joe flipped his system stamina back on again and his SP immediately dove hundreds of points, almost a thousand, out of the approximately twelve thousand that he had. He immediately felt refreshed, the feeling of overheating melting from his body and the burn in his muscles from lactic acid build up evaporating. He huffed in surprise, eyes blinking in shock even as he considered the ramifications. Insta stamina potion… basically! This… Joe grinned and then shivered, frowning before realizing he was feeling cold, the beads of sweat all over his body now evaporating and cooling him beyond what his optimum was. He huffed a chuckle and quickly wiped the sweat from his body. Nothing’s ever perfect, right? Joe grinned. Still, a very nice thing to have in the back pocket! Wonder if it’s a one off or a bit like the Titular series of titles? I get more… or use more in this case. Or … maybe a bit like the throne and killer titles? Increased percentage capabilities… Nah, that wouldn’t make sense cause the reward is just to turn it off. How would…ooh… or maybe I could turn off by a percentage amount? That… would be weird and interesting! But still very useful. Burn through another ten thousand stamina and now I can change the percentage? But what would be the third ten thousand? And fourth, fifth… Hmm…

His mind wandered for a bit before his eyes narrowed and another thought came to his mind. He turned his gaze back to his main status page, focused on his pools. HP. SP. MP. Does that mean I can get the same thing for HP and SP? Endless… HP? Endless MP? Then I can turn them off like stamina and have… ooh… that’s… His thoughts glanced up at HP. Over ten thousand HP already, that would be… Joe blinked and then frowned. Ten thousand, doesn’t that… He flipped back to his blessing and titles, then back to his status. Yup! He had several more stats over ten thousands: HP, SP, Attack, Magic, Strength, Endurance, Wisdom, and Will. And luck… but that one was unique. Got it at one thousand, so… He looked back at his blessing and titles to see five new ‘Quarks of’ titles, all of them dao seeds in their respective areas: HP, Endurance, Strength, Magic, and Attack. These were the new ones Joe had, the other four, Luck, Wisdom, Stamina, and Will, were all old dao seeds. Still don’t understand what these are and what I’m looking at. Oh…

“Kalia? What’s a dao seed?”

Kalia’s head whipped to stare at Joe, eyes rising even as Xylarnae also turned around to look at him with avid interest. Gwenvair turned back but seemed more disbelieving than greedy as Kalia and Xylarnae were. Stephliquen noticed the disturbance and ended her reading and writing practice to glance back before dismissing the interruption and returning to her own practicing, soft mutters under her breath repetitively coming out.

“You have a Dao Seed?”

“Uh… I got nine?”

Kalia’s face shattered, the carefully constructed calm broken before utter shock, Xylarnae also joining her in Kalia’s amazement as both of their gazes mirrored Gwenvair’s now disbelief and awe.

“They’re real?” Gwenvair whispered in wonder.

“Of course they’re real,” Kalia snapped back her disbelief shattered before the quick dismissal and retort directed at Gwenvair before she turned back to Joe, “Nine? You are sure?! Nine!”

Joe nodded, “Yeah. The Quark of H…”

“Quark?”

Joe looked at her, “Yeah.”

“You said Dao Seed.”

“Ah. Yeah. It is described as a dao seed, but mine are labeled as Quarks of … whatever.”

“What is… a Quark?”

“The smallest known particle that makes up our universe. I guess… particle. Energy would be a photon, I think?”

“Smalle… ener? What is this?”

“The basis of our… you know what. I’ll teach all that later, but physics and the material world isn’t likely to be something that I can… really explain. It’s going to take a lot of background information, but… all this,” Joe slapped his arm, the ground, his clothing, waved it through the air, then slapped against the wall, “is made up something called atoms. The atoms form together to create different materials. Atoms combining are called molecules. Some of the material we have are made of atoms, some molecules. For example, iron is an atom while water is a molecule. You can asked Gwenvair more. We talked about how air is made up. All these atoms are made up of quarks. And all these atoms move and act with energy.

“Ene… ah… that’s getting a bit too deep. Like I said, it’ll take a lot of basic education to get some of this. I don’t mind going over it with you, but…” Joe shrugged here with a sigh before continuing, “Yeah… it takes my people twelve years to really explain and teach it, just the basics! Twelve years to teach it and explain it to our children. You… will go much faster, but it is not something easily learned in a single discreption.”

Kalia stared at him, her gaze burning, “So then… a quark is the smallest object as you understand this universe.”

“Essentially. But it’s not simply understanding. It’s what we found. We are … well… to the best of our abilities, we are not forcing our knowledge on the universe except in some peculiarities… to understand… I guess… time is us pushing our und… you know what, never mind. We can go with it. It is our understanding of the universe… but as much as possible based only on what we observe, not what we assume or force upon it. Or… as best we can,” Joe ended with a sigh.

“That… is wise then.”

“What is?”

Kalia grit her teeth some, then frowned. She shifted to worrying her lips and Joe began to frown. She’s… always been rather calm and in control. Joe smoothed his frown and watched on. Kalia seemed to be wrestling within herself, coming to decisions and wrestling with ramifications that had her seeming uncomfortable. Finally, she firmed her gaze and turned to him, her face smoothing even as she stood and marched to sit next to him. Her choice was rather decisive, from what Joe could ascertain.

“You guys keep… reading and writing. I’ll come soon, but I must instruct Joe on the Dao.”

The others turned away, although Xylarnae and Gwenvair appeared to be rather hesitant, the longing on Gwenvair’s face rather obvious. Joe noticed and made a rapid decision.

“Is what you are teaching something new and special?”

“Quite so.”

“Do you mind if the other’s listen in? What they’re doing is important, but only practice. They can do it at any time to excel. If this is as important as you are showing it to be, they should also learn of this.”

Kalia’s avid interest blanked and took on a studied neutrality and Joe noticed that she’d clammed up pretty quick. Ugh… secrets. Kalia glanced over at Gwenvair and the others, her eye’s hooded in thought. She glanced back at Joe and searched his face and Joe almost spoke up before slowly closing his mouth, allowing her to consider carefully. Gwenvair proved prescient and she stepped up to his side.

“I am his Queen.”

Joe struggled to hide his grimace, grinding his teeth but saying nothing when he noticed Kalia’s interest quickly shift to positive. Kalia frowned a bit then finally sighed and waved Xylarnae over as well.

“Come. Come. Know that the training of a Peak Lord is no small thing.”

Gwenvair settled in next to Joe with some excitement but rather sedately. Xylarnae proved to be the oddest, leaping and rushing to their side too quickly, almost like a child offered ice cream or sweets. Joe rose an eyebrow in consideration and reevaluated what Kalia was going to be teaching him.

When he glanced back at Kalia, her lips were raised in a soft smile with a small quirk pulling up the left side of her lips. Joe noticed before she quickly smoothed her quirk to bland noble superiority. Huh… glad Xylarnae did that… guess she wants me to know just how amazing this is. So… take it seriously, I guess. Joe’s thoughts began twisting, pattern recognition systems spiking harshly. Is that… she’s playing some kind of political game… wants something in return. Seems obvious… and how it was working before… Warnings flashed in the back of his mind and he flared his nostrils when he took a deep breath. Even as he started to open his mouth, worried about taking the chance but rather certain he would have to, Gwenvair spoke up again.

“We are grateful, as always, for the training of one who once was a Peak Lord.”

Joe struggled to keep the smirk from yanking up the corner of his lips even as he felt a swell of gratitude and some respect for how Gwenvair had handled that. Huh… nice… gratitude… and admitting her position, but also firmly pointing out the flaw in her attempt to claim superiority.

Joe’s careful searching of Kalia’s face showed Gwenvair’s verbal sparring hit, and a small twitch formed at the corner of her eye even as Kalia bowed slightly, her posture taking on a significantly different regality.

“As you say, but still of worth.”

Gwenvair nodded her head slightly and acknowledged her statement, “But still of worth.”

Kalia seemed to deflate slightly in relief and nodded back, grateful at Gwenvair seeming to toss her a bone, “Of worth. Please accept my observations, if you will.”

This time Gwenvair remained silent, subtly brushing a hand across his arm. Joe glanced at her, checking to see if she wanted him to take over before he began.

“Great. Please teach us about dao seeds.”

* * *

Gwenvair brushed Joe’s arm, informing him that it was now his time to continue negotiations, not wishing to take more from him than his do. Joe proved perceptive and quite kind by glancing over at her and ascertaining her approval. Doing so both acknowledged her place and elevated her position within the eyes of the once Peak Lord, and Gwenvair shivered softly, grateful for such honor from her husband. Truly, only he deserves to seek out the dao. I have none, and he already has nine dao seeds! And seems to have greater potential. His kindness is deep, if naïve. I will have to put effort to protecting him from those who might take advantage! Gwenvair tore her thoughts away from Joe, feeling a slight guilt in doing so, her duty as Queen warring with her desire to learn and grow. That argument was quickly put to rest when she scolded herself, reminding herself that Joe had specifically asked for all three of them to benefit from this lesson. Of course, she and Xylarnae would remain silent, as Kalia had only offered to train Joe. But even listening in!

“Excellent! I beg for your instruction in the way of Dao Seeds.”

* * *

Joe leaned forward, eager, before raising a hand and begging for a pause before digging in his inventory for a note pad and pencil. After he pulled them out, he turned to focus on Kalia with his pad and a pencil ready in his grip. Seems to be a rather vital … whatever, especially if the others are so eager to hear, so notes are probably important!

Kalia took that as a sign to begin, “The Dao. It is the path. It is the destination. It is the way. It is the one. It is the completion and the development. It is the arrival and the travel. It is the source of the river and the river. It is the support and the structure; the foundation and the building. It is the result and the growth to that result. It reveals and is revealed. It is revelation and is imbued. It is truth and observation. It is reality and perception. It is and is made. The Dao is the path to walk, the destination once arrived, the path created, and the destination desired of the traveler.”

Kalia ended her description and Joe found himself staring at her with consternation and annoyance. He struggled to keep from gritting his teeth and keep his eyes from glazing over. It surprised him to hear this type of philosophy, especially as he’d heard a lot of it from his own teachers and various martial arts that dipped heavily into the philosophy behind some of the Eastern Martial Arts. Still, he nodded and replied.

“So the path becomes the destination and the destination informs the path.”

Kalia’s eyes flickered open in surprise before she nodded, “You have heard this before.”

“Some of it, but not so much the aspects of the development both being inherent within reality as well as impressed upon reality by the observer.”

Kalia paused at that, staring at Joe with narrowed eyes, appearing quite a bit more reserved and less certain of herself, “Just so.”

Joe nodded, “Then dao seeds?”

Kalia stared for a few more moments before nodding, “You seem reluctant to accept the latter?”

“That reality can be imposed upon by the perceiver?”

“Yes.”

“Why do you think this is not so?”

Joe shrugged, “’Cause the last hundred years of science pretty much doesn’t seem to point to anything else, even taking into account the weird stuff that happens at the quantum level and how the observer affect seems to affect even static materials at that level. At least, once you’re out of the quantum level, observer affect has no impact on the word, and neither does thinking really hard at something.”

Kalia sat back at that, staring at Joe with confusion and Joe quickly waved a hand away, apologizing, “Ah! Sorry. Sorry about all that. Just… yeah. What we as people walking the path of the dao think really doesn’t have too much impact on the path or the … well… anything else at all.”

Kalia seemed to regain her footing with that, although she seemed to take a moment to consider what Joe had said previously, committing it deeply and deliberately to memory before continuing, “You think you have no impact on the path as you walk it?”

Joe sighed, “Not so much.”

“Your steps do not firm the path and create greater definition to the path you are walking?”

Joe opened his mouth then quickly closed it with a grin, “Of course. If you want to use real world analogies, then a person walking a path day in and day out will wear out the grass and leave a dirt path through where people walk. More and more people will make that path semi-permanent until it is destroyed by weather and environment, but were talking about metaphors and if you want to become an excellent uh…” Joe dithered, waffling his head back and forth in thought before continuing, “say… pilot, then there are certain requirements; sight, reflexes, etc, and there are certain skills and pieces of knowledge that you need to know. You aren’t going to be able to change that.”

Kalia frowned and replied, “I do not know what a… pilot is, but if you were to speak of the path of fire, or say illusion, then how you wish to express them are your own.”

Joe frowned in turn, “I’m… not sure what the dao of fire or illusion would look like, but the dao of the sword, to pick maybe something we would both now, would still require using a sword in combination with bodily movements that match well with your body. I can’t wield a sword like a… slime could, morphing my body into any shape without concern or worry. The path is not so unlimited. There are boundaries limiting the paths available to you, least of which is literally just physical constraints. I have two arms. I can use one sword, two swords, or one large sword with two hands. I cannot use three swords… not meaningfully, nor can I use four, five or more. But a race with four arms, or six, could do exactly that. Well… if their mental capabilities are up to par.”

Kalia paused at that, seeming to sigh in a bit of frustration, “This certainty is wise, once you have found your path, but how can you judge a path you’ve never been upon.”

Joe paused at that, “So you’re saying I could wield six swords?”

“Why not? What is limiting you? Four more arms? You believe the dao could not give you four more arms? Why limit yourself to four arms? Why even use arms? Why not simply use swords? Six of them, where you need. Or sixty? Or six hundred?” Kalia smiled softly, a small mocking smirk on her lips.

Joe found himself floundering, visions of what could be possible blossoming in his mind. His thoughts went into literal insanity, seeing visions of ridiculous possibilities before he finally shook his head and snorted.

“Seems like pretty visions but… I won’t say anything against it, but it seems pretty spectacular.”

Kalia smiled at that, her first genuine one, “And there is wisdom to being cautious of impossible dreams.”

“Well, three swords seems to be an impossible dream.”

Kalia snorted, “I’ve seen sword masters use thousands.”

Joe’s slightly mocking smile from his statement fell from his lips as he realized she was being serious, “Thousands?”

Kalia simply smiled at that, her smile growing and Joe’s disbelief grew, “Where would he even hold thousands of swords.”

Kalia smirked, “Where do you hold your bag?”

Joe sat back at that, taken aback, and just lost himself in thought. His imagination swelled at that and his eyes lit up, lost in possibilities that went straight into the bizarre. Kalia noticed that and began laughing, clear bell like tones ringing out through the room they sat in and echoed throughout the room; elegant yet loud. Joe pulled his attention back to her and noticed that she seemed just as surprised by her own laughter as she was exhilarated by Joe’s obvious exploration. Joe smiled back and Kalia settled her laughter.

“You have had visions of the dao.”

Joe’s smile faltered at that, considering, “I’m not sure, but maybe?”

“It seemed to me, but you would have to evaluate for yourself.”

Joe fell silent at that before nodding. Not my expertise, but really opens my mind to the possibilities here, so… Joe remained silent, lost in thought, and Kalia blessed him silence to allow him his moment to think. All remained silent for a time until Joe suddenly came back to awareness. When he did, he blinked and looked at the others, almost all of them staring at him; Kalia with a soft smile of understanding, Gwenvair and Xylarnae with a look of curiousity.

Joe glanced around at the three, “Oh. Sorry. Kinda got lost in my thoughts.”

Kalia nodded, “It was a good time to do so.”

Joe paused at that, thoughtful, then replied with a short but meaningful bow of his head, “My thanks.”

She smiled softly and nodded back, “Then, shall we continue?”

“Please.”

“The Dao is the path and develops the end as the path is formed. The choice of the path chosen and is the beginning of the immortal’s journey from mortality. Once a path has been chosen and begun, its formation offers a path; the path offers a formation. And from the formational path and the pathful formation forms a Seed; a Dao Seed of the path and of the formation which begins the path, leads to the formation, and is formed by the path.”

“So,” Joe struggled to comprehend and encapsulate the ideas presented in words, “uh… my Quark of Luck is a Dao seed which… hmm… is what, a path leading to a power based in… um … or… hmm… Is it instead powerful luck?”

“Both? Either? It is the path you chose to pursue.”

“Hmm…” Joe considered that, ruminating on it as the idea twisted through his thoughts before sighing and beginning, “Then what does the Dao Seed have to do with jobs?”

“Jobs?”

“The jobs we can take in our status, like priest, or magician, or swordsman. Things like that.”

Kalia frowned a bit, then seemed to grasp what Joe was saying, “Do you mean the jobs available in this cradle? The cursed guardian?”

Joe considered, then realized what she’d said before, “Yes, the jobs in this system.”

“It has nothing to do with them. The path of the Dao is unrelated.”

Joe grimaced, wondering, “But the Dao Seeds I gained was because I received ten thousand stat points in the related stat.”

Kalia’s frown grew at that, eyebrows knitting together, “Truly?”

“Yes.”

Kalia took a moment to consider that, chewing on her cheeks and her lips for a time, her eyes drifting around the room before turning to look back at him, “I… am uncertain of how to speak to this. I can only teach you of what I do know.”

Joe nodded, confusion still subtly crushing his eyebrows, “Ok.”

“Then. A Dao Seed forms to guide the path and begin the formation. You may grow the seed through developing mana points, although how you develop your mana points will depend upon your path. You may choose personal internal development or external power. My power was one of external development, but either path is quite viable.

“I can teach you well of the external path. It is quite long and detailed and only of meaning once you have developed quite far into collecting your points, but it is essentially accumulating and organizing your points. You accumulate points, then develop their organization, practice mana transfer, and finally control the position and formations of the points in their formation. After, you continue into the condensation stage, although you continue point formation and accumulation simultaneously with condensation. Once condensation has been completed, you continue on to runes.

“I’ve been very… simplistic. Each stage I’ve described is actually a compilation of several stages, each unique and various. The same is true for the internal dao, both requiring significant efforts for each individual step within each group of stages and require simultaneous development of ever increasing stages. But, all of them are founded within and depend upon mana points. And now you possibly understand the insidious nature of this prison.”

Joe took a deep sigh, staring to Gwenvair and the others with a bitter grimace, “Yeah. It seems to make sense.”

“But, if you’ve formed a Dao Seed,” Kalia grinned with some hope, “I’m hopeful. It means you must have potential for mana points. Do you know how to capture your own mana points?”

Joe nodded, “Simply express mana in hopes of capturing a free floating mana point around you. But, you said a dao seed requires mana points, so how could I have a dao seed first?”

Kalia grimaced at this, gritting her teeth, her cheek flexing and relaxing a few times as she did so before responding, “I am uncertain. You are correct. Seeds are formed once the path has formed and once the formation has been pathed. And formation and path develop from mana point growth.”

Joe frowned at that, pursing his lips before turning to chewing on the sides of his lips a bit, losing himself in thought. Then, I’m guessing it has much more to do with this cradle… with Aelthron’s Cradle and what’s going on in this planet… or… Joe glanced up at the quarter slice of the gas giant above him, lost in thought and considering as his gaze flicked to a couple of the other moons that were just barely visible in the distance, although there was one in the sky that seemed much closer than normal and loomed high in the sky as an incredibly small disk. I guess it’s on all the moons in this gas giant, so… technically something somehow related to gas giants. But… he grimaced, lost in thought before turning back to Kalia.

“I think it probably has more to do with this cradle, than with what you are saying.”

Kalia nodded, “You may be correct, but all I know is this system offers nothing … it doesn’t even exist outside this cradle. This … this cripples the path to power, blocking all from gaining mana points.”

Joe nodded with a sigh, “Yeah. This is something I’ve seen as well. Nobody here has mana points.”

Kalia’s eyes widened in excitement and Joe suddenly realized he’d revealed something he had no desire to reveal. He quickly tried to control his reaction, keeping his face as unchanging as possible and turned his thoughts to desperately changing the subject.

“So, if it is something from this plane, what do you think it could be?”

Kalia searched his face a few times, then softly nodded, her smile quickly shifting from excitement to understanding before the smile blanked and she took the change of conversation that Joe offered. Joe kept his face neutral but cursed mentally, struggling to keep from revealing more.

“If it is from this plane, it is… a very unique and odd use of the Dao and Seeds. I truly do not know of any explanation. Aelthron’s cradle is a rumor of a rumor; myth told in fairy tales and whispered conversations for fear of capturing the Emperor’s clan or any Ancient One’s ear. And the Prison cradle is a tale told by mothers and fathers to children to keep them obedient and safe. There is nothing of the Dao or Seeds that is specific to Aelthron’s cradle… or to the Prison cradle. I’m sorry. There is little I can do to help with this.

Joe frowned and nodded, ‘Thank you.”

His last response was a dismissal and the others quickly took it as such, although they slipped away quietly, returning to their own practice with even Kalia being more diligent in her practice of reading and writing while Joe lost himself in thoughts of the increasing oddity of this cradle.

More mysteries, and more strange unique oddities to this place. Joe sighed and wrestled with the cradle and the strange aspects it exhibited for a time but quickly dismissed his efforts simply because there was no possible way for him to get any kind of answer. His mind soon began to lose interest with the bone he was attempting to wrestle and allowed himself to get slowly distracted before turning to his status once again, flipping through pages before he came to the curses page again and stopped to stare at the red flashing source of his current problems. His calm equilibrium slowly slipped under a growing burning rage and he felt tension returning to his body. He glanced around and saw the efforts of the others and took a moment. Got some time… and I can get some preliminary data. I’ll need a much safer and longer place and time, but… Nobody else is coming here… I can take a bit of time. Joe turned his focus back to his curses title page.

Use magic on tha… Aaahh! Joe’s mind flinched as pain punched directly into his mind, an immediately pressure forming around his brain and squeezing even as a singular point at the center of his mind erupted outwards in a spider web of jagged lightning, pain twisting and exploding at ever location the lightning plunged into his mind. No… no magic… not going to use magic on the collar… not the… Pain continued to throb through his mind in pumping waves that pushed and receded but did not ebb in any appreciable way in the amount of pain it slammed into his mind. Not going to magic… not the colla… Why? Why isn’t it… Joe quickly realized that the pain wasn’t subsiding, the pain identical to the pain he felt when he tried to bring magic to bear upon the collar but then shuddered. Oh… aaaAAahh! Not… no magic on the curse… oooooohhh… The pain immediately subsided and Joe found himself struggling to breathe normally, not wishing to catch the attention of the others or bother them, although his eye lids fluttered even as he drooped forward, dropping his head down a bit to rest it on a hand although he was able to stifle his moan.

OK! That… sucked. I was hoping I could at least start learning some things. A bit too scared to do it outside… but this dungeon … haven’t seen anyone else for … should be safe… I’ll… let me try once more

He turned to looking at the curse again, but a blinding pain much like a migraine headache began to gain in pressure right behind his eyes and closing them did nothing to reduce the pain. His temples began to tense in reactive sympathy and he could feel his entire sinuses crush to a singular point of pressure deeply behind his nostrils. Nope… nope… not going to… not the curse! Nope

The pain immediately evaporated although the sympathetic response of his temples and sinuses took longer but soon he was back to normal. He took several deep cleansing breaths until he grit his teeth and turned back to his thoughts, dismissing his status page. Let’s… take a break. Wonder if I can … He stopped his thoughts and deliberately turned away from thinking on the topic. Maybe … drop the vigilance level… Joe huffed, laughing a bit as his memories took him to some stealth video games in which he would have to hide or escape the immediate notice of the local defense so that things would go back to normal. His surprise turned to consideration when he noticed that the tension and inner throbbing discomfort had quickly dropped once again and his eyebrows knit in consideration. Maybe… something to this… so… put a pin in this… do it after … Joe immediately dropped his thoughts and turned to other topics. Can afford a bit of a break. Then… try one… nope… I’m not going to do anything! Joe quickly changed his thoughts, not sure if he actually noticed the slight phantom twinge that shivered through his skull or if it was just his imagination.

So… what can I … oh! Joe’s thoughts turned back to his last fight against the elemental stone thing. Earth? Probably, if water is liquid, then … solid, right? He replayed the combat in his mind, evaluating how he’d taken out the dust elementals, which seemed some kind of combination of wind and earth. He found his efforts pretty strong in that, although he had to reevaluate how to infuse his arrows. The timing of it was tricky, and he didn’t have the lucky effect of having his mana points automatically shoved into his spear or arrow tip when the arrow or spear hit a target. He considered how he could more easily work with infusing mana points into an arrow for such creatures as the wind elementals for a bit before he put that aside. Gonna have to work on that a lot more. Not sure how I’m going to do that… but, hmm….

He turned his thoughts away from that and to how he took the actual earth elemental down and found his memory of the events inspiring, very exciting, and no small amount of worrying. Why did I just… charge it. I felt… so certain, and … I was excited. Very excited. I’m always excited to try a fight. But… a hill sized hill of stone and I just ran at it? I… He grit his teeth and grimaced a bit. It was easy. So… easy. I just… moved, and it was so slow. His breathing increased a bit, excitement intertwined with fear coiled through his guts as he looked back on the memory of his fight and realized that his actions were not exactly in character. The fight, that was all him. He could see that very easily, but the immediate drive to close with it. Something’s… not…

He took a deep breath and cleansed, a feeling of peace sweeping through him and calming him and he smiled softly. No biggie… I got this. And it went down immediately, so … yeah. A soft grin of confidence returned and he soon found his thoughts forgotten and he stood, bouncing on his toes a bit, stretching a few times before he stretched his neck in a wide sweeping circle then sat back down. Right… next. I can do this.

His status popped back up and he deliberately ignored the curses page and looked at the other pages. He stopped by the blessings and titles once again and grinned at its rather full range as he swept his eyes down it before pausing. Right. Endless Endurance. Yeah. This thing is going to be nice. He flipped to the next page then paused, eyebrows knitting even as his thoughts tickled at an idea that he couldn’t quite grasp but refused to release its grip on his mind. He turned back to the titles and blessings and stared at Endless Endurance for a time, his eyebrows knitting more and more before he took a deep breath and turned to look at his main status page, then back to the titles and blessings. What’s… why can’t I let this go? He stared longer, attempted to move on to the available skills, then found himself returning to and questioning his inability to let this go. Endless Endurance… for stamina. SP. But why… He blinked, a piece clicking into place. It’s a pool title! His eyes flicked over even as his status page changed to his main status and his gaze settled on the other two pools. Endless Endurance… Endless SP. Is there… Endless HP? Endless MP?! Joe’s thoughts began to twist in excitement as his thoughts turned to what that would mean. His breathing deepened and he turned back to his blessings and titles. Would those be… Endless Health and Endless Mana? That…

He grinned and began to wonder. Probably a … well… still a long way away from health, but I have been pushing with mana, right? That… and how would … A frown returned to his face as ramifications set in. How would endless health work?

Joe pondered for a time, considering the question deeply, already dismissing mana as he was rather certain of how to do that, and so immediately began doing so. While his mind dove into the understanding of what a personal HP system would look like, he emptied his mana rapidly and began spending mana. After he began shooting mana out randomly into the air, his thoughts were ripped away from considering HP. Wait… is it just pushing mana out? Or… should I do spells? Joe considered, then out of concern he swapped to a water mage and began pumping out water point after water point, the ground under where he was forming the points quickly getting wet with the drops of water dripping to the ground. Man… bits a bit harder to do than just spewing out mana. Joe grimaced and after a bit, when his mind was able to go on autopilot with casting water points, turned his thoughts back to understanding a personal HP system.

Well… first, empty my system HP, I guess. Then I’ll… ugh… Joe grunted, the next water mana point a bit difficult to bring into being and he huffed a bit before continuing. So… empty the HP. He took out his sharpest dagger while pulling up his HP display, showing actual numbers; current in comparison to the max. He began poking at himself with the knife over and over again, dropping his health as rapidly as he could until he was able to get it down to a couple dozen HP left before he began to cautiously drop it down to zero.

When he made it to zero, he watched carefully, counting softly to himself. Five seconds… or whatever my counting is before I get another HP. So… Joe dropped it again to zero and then began counting to himself carefully while rapidly turning his gaze to the back of his hand. He made sure the hand was placed right next to the HP display so he could watched both. By the time he counted to two, he was ready and quickly dropped the point of his dagger against his skin, barely piercing it. He narrowed his eyes and leaned closer in. He glanced at his HP, seeing it still the red flashing zero and turned his gaze back to the dagger barely stuck into his skin, blood welling up from it. He quickly whipped his dagger out, avidly focused on the wound. His guts twisted and a small grin hit his face with it as he leaned closer to look. However, his grin flipped to a grimacing frowned when he realized it was completely covered with blood. This… isn’t really going to be… He sighed and growled softly to wipe away his blood and turned back to look at his HP, seeing it still at zero. He frowned and turned back to his hand. His eyes knit. What?! He wiped the back of his hand, even dropping some water on his hand and spreading it carefully across his hand and found nothing but smooth skin.

He absent mindedly cleaned his dagger completely as his eyes flickered back to the flashing red zero displayed next to his HP and his frown grew deeper. What happened? Did I accidently get a couple HP right before I pulled it out? His frustration mounted as it took a good minute or so for his HP to begin refilling and he took the time to prepare. Wanna get this done before I even count to two. That’ll make sure it’s not my HP!

After HP started refilling, he emptied it out again rapidly with soft slashes, then narrow jabs on his left forearm. As soon as it hit zero, he immediately jabbed down and ripped out the dagger again on the back of his left hand but on another spot, just to be cautious of any odd ‘extra damage for striking the same spot’ shenanigans. Not even sure if that applies for real life, but…

His thoughts stopped, eyes widening even as he boggled. The jab of the dagger had been just a bit harder than the first one. No blood! No hole! No… wound at all… Joe wondered as he stared. He turned his gaze to the knife and saw a barely visible trace of blood and wonder gripped his heart even as it began beating faster. Really? Is that…

Joe’s breathing grew erratic as the ramifications hit in and he began to wonder in awe. Again! I gotta… no… wait… if… His thoughts turned to understanding what was happening and quickly came to realize that if he now had some kind of internal personal HP similar to the HP of the system, he had to wait for it to recoup. Although… if it also works a little like normal health recovery, wouldn’t that mean that … uh… not quite a hard line where it ends. My stamina doesn’t just… run out like fuel. I can push it, so is that the same with HP?

Joe grinned at the thought, his mind wandering over the possibilities with a grin and considered some tests he could do. In the middle of his plans, his eyes flicked back to see his HP was already pretty much recovered into system HP by a good hundred or so, and he began poking at himself to drop HP back down to zero, then prepared. Right… let’s do this right the first time. And… uh… first time is I’ll do it without effort… relaxed.

He poked away the last of the HP until his HP displayed the red slowly flashing zero, then took his dagger and scored a shallow but long lined from his wrist all the way up to his help on the back of his forearm. Then, he watched with avid excitement. The line healed up slowly till about half way between a quarter and half of the line before petering out and Joe grinned, a soft excitement driving his breaths just a little over into pants of excitement. Slow… much slower than the system HP, but… wow! This… haha!

Joe grinned with excitement, then turned to his next task. Gotta heal it up… not sure if… oh! Good test! Although… it should… yup… no change! His system HP began accumulating but didn’t do anything to the line, although he thought he saw it hitch a few times, healing a small portion until it stopped and his HP just started filling back up. Right. So… knew that, but makes sense… although I wonder … how it will work if I do get something like Endless HP… will it do the same as Endless Endurance? If I swap it off, then turn it on right when injured, will it still heal? SP seems a bit different… it’ll ‘heal’ all my exhaustion as soon as I swap it on. Will HP do the same? Wonder how ‘old’ the injury can be before it won’t heal it anymore… and probably a good test for SP? Although… Stamina… a bit different.

Joe’s mind wandered for a time over the possibilities and then when he focused back on his system HP, he cursed a bit under his breath and turned back to his efforts, having to drain another couple dozen of HP again. Oh… wait… Joe paused, looking at the previous line scoured on his forearm with consternation. Probably should heal that, then… for best comparison? Yeah? Joe then fiddled with his system to gain his healing skills and quickly healed the last of the shallow scratch before once again emptying his HP.

Right… so… now with effort! Once his HP was gone again, he focused carefully, attempting to cut the same line at the same depth, if over an inch or so, scoring the line up from wrist to elbow. Then, he grunted and stared at the line on the back of his forearm as he fought for whatever was happening to him would be done till exhaustion. Heal! Heal! Heal! Do… whatever it is you’re doing! More! MORE! Joe had no clue nor understanding of what was happening as it seemed to be essentially an autonomous function, much like breathing or his heartbeat. Still, he pushed against whatever metaphorical wall was there and hoped he could get just that bit more effort out of it.

The shallow cut healed up as rapidly to where it had healed before, and appeared to be just about the same area, despite Joe’s grunting efforts. But, just when Joe was about to give up, a small smile pulled the corners of his lips up and he redoubled his efforts. The line had slowed, a lot, but Joe noticed it was still progressing, and as he pushed more of his effort into it, it seemed to gain that slight bit more speed. However, his stamina in this aspect was poor, and Joe found his exhaustion rapidly climbing through the roof as sweat broke out all over him and Joe collapsed back into his seat, smiling at the proof of it, but quite unsatisfied with his performance. He panted, huffing in exhaustion, and smiled to himself at his success. So. Not sure what all that was or even what I was doing, but something… Definitely not something … well… I’m not even sure what I’m looking at. I thought I was basically dealing with some magical made up stupidity… but something… Joe sighed as he considered it all and saw only something else he had to now add to his regular daily practice. Excitement thrummed through him even as he realized that he had way too much to do for all that was available to him. Still… very, very cool. Although… I wonder how much HP … points… the health points… wonder how much personal ones I have? I kinda gotta feel for my own personal stamina, but I’m not sure how my personal HP measures up to the system HP. I wond… ooh! Test two! Ha!

Joe looked at the last line he’d healed using his own HP and measured them, identifying their starting and ending locations on his forearm with a couple freckles. Their basic lengths were essential identical, even if his second more effortful healing went that tiny bit further. He took a deep breath then healed the rest of the second line that was left over. No variables… Joe then glanced to his HP and saw that it had recovered close to a hundred, and just popped over a hundred when he glanced at it. He began poking himself, dropping his HP by small amounts as he began preparing for his next test. Hmm… maybe test twenty HP first?

He got it down around twenty one then poked it again, dropping it rapidly to thirteen. He frowned but left it as is and waited patiently for the HP to begin refilling. HP took a hit and waited to refill, then when it did, it seemed to refill at a steady rate. It wasn’t very fast, and Joe was able to watch with concentration and then begin the slice exactly when it hit twenty HP. The initial slice bit too deeply and Joe hissed and pulled back up as he pulled it down then stopped, realizing that he’d ruined the test by slicing in too deeply. He grimaced and pulled his knife out and saw the twenty HP vanish in a blink and barely heal what he’d cut. Maybe I was too optimistic? But…

Joe grimaced and considered. Maybe thirty then? His hand had healed back completely, so he had no need to cast a heal from his healing mage job and he only had to wait for his HP to slowly climb back up to thirty this time. When it hit twenty seven, he turned his focus to the dagger on his arm and prepared to slice as close to what he’d done before. I can afford being off a bit… He jumped the gun, starting the slice at twenty nine HP, but Joe didn’t let that affect him, focusing on the soft shallow cut which healed following right after the dagger as he sliced it up his arm. He made it to his elbow and pulled his dagger up, seeing the last of it heal over and Joe grinned before looking at his HP, then frowning. Uh oh… that’s not good! That shallow slice had cost him just around ten or a little more HP, if he was calculating things correct, with his HP sitting at sixteen. Exactly thirteen HP, if everything was all the same… which means I’ve got what amounts to about five or six… six point five if everything was perfect, personal HP. That’s… Joe grimaced and sat back. So… not something really game changing then. That’s…

Joe sighed as he sat back. Wonder if it grows? Maybe? That would be pretty cool, but… Well… stamina does grow… right? Practice and you can run further and longer… so maybe this is similar? Would definitely make sense that my HP stamina is real low… never practiced it at all on Earth, so… but still… And it’s slow… very slow. Will that get better with practice?

Joe looked back at his Endless Endurance title with a grin and then huffed. Should be Endless SP. Makes more sense and not so confusing. System, please? Endless SP for the title instead? Joe turned to his titles page and watched, then grinned when the title changed name. So much better, thank you!

He fell back into his seat then groaned when his back hit the seat and thunked into it. He grimaced and sighed a soft ‘ouch’ before shifting to stretch his back and give it some relief from his pain. He glanced over to see the others and found them still avidly interested in their language studies so he allowed himself a moment to rest. So… Endless SP, probably HP as well… definitely MP, I think… so… heh. Make sense it would be for all my pools… except HP. That seems … weird to me. SP and MP are definitely… well, they fell natural, anyway. A form of energy your body uses to act out moving your body and … mental? Things? Huh… not sure… but HP … that’s weird… although… the energy relating to my health, so… yeah?

“Joe?”

“Hmm?” Joe looked up, glancing over at the others.

“You looked like you were done, and we just finished what we were doing. Wanted to check if you wanted more time to rest or head out now?”

Joe considered, evaluating his condition before jumping up and bouncing around the room, “Huh… feel pretty good. How about you all?”

The others nodded their heads, turning confident after consideration before all calling out in the affirmative. Joe glanced back and nodded as well.

“Right. Then lets head on to the last one, OK?”

The others smiled and Joe grinned in return. They all turned to the hallway leading deeper in with Gwenvair running on ahead and Kalia stalking after her with regal authority. Joe chuckled to see it, glad the others were starting to feel comfortable. Xylarnae and Stephliquen instead settled in beside him Stephliquen starting up a conversation while Xylarnae simply walked quietly by his side. Joe had glanced at her, curious if she wanted something from him, but she simply glanced up at him with a soft grin, staring at his face without any response. He waited for her question, but none seemed forthcoming. Oddly, it wasn’t uncomfortable for her to stare at him. She simply seemed to be acknowledging him nonverbally in a way that had no need for words yet somehow held poignant meaning. He stared back, waiting, and didn’t turn away until Stephliquen spoke.

Joe turned to Stephliquen, falling into a simple conversation without much meaning and seeming to just focus on small talk and while he did fall into a conversation with Stephliquen, he found himself oddly pondering Xylarnae’s completely comfortable and simple interaction that normally would have been uncomfortably odd for him.

The trio passed down the hallway until they came around the corner and saw the large door awaiting them, Kalian ad Gwenvair waiting on both sides of the door. Joe hid his frown, unhappy that they seemed to wait for him but hiding his sigh and frustration. He wasn’t sure what to really feel about it, except that he was rather certain that they waited for him to make the decision instead of simply waiting ‘cause it was the smart and safe thing to do. And that reason was an uncomfortable burn itching at the back of his mind. Guess I would feel more comfortable if this was more formal… or they asked… Maybe I should ask? Might be a good idea.

Joe’s thoughts were interrupted by Stephliquen’s next question and he fell back into an easy conversation before he smiled with some wonder when he saw Stephliquen step forward with easy confidence and press a hand into the door to open it. Joe grinned, happy. Nice… nice…

He turned his happy gaze from Stephliquen and looked up at the door, noticing the rather more ornate door, but not noticing any other locations to add other medallions or other inserts. What was odd, however, was the more intricate ornamentation he’d noticed. Didn’t… yeah… the other doors in the other dungeons for the final boss and the first eleven floors’ doors also were basically the same. This one is special… beginner and advanced dungeon all just … even on the boss floor, yeah… yeah… pretty sure all the doors looked all the same. This one…

Joe glanced towards Gwenvair, “This door is different.”

Gwenvair glanced back at it, Kalia also turning to gaze at it for a bit, “Hmm… looks like your right.”

Kalia narrowed her eyes, “You are correct, eccentric. Although I’m uncertain … I’ve never seen a door of this style before. I have heard rumors.”

Joe nodded, both eagerly and with some concern, “Could you tell me?”

Gwenvair huffed, laughing, “You and rumors!”

Joe glanced over at Gwenvair and smiled, “Yup! Very important… rumors!”

The others noticed Joe’s byplay with Gwenvair, soft smiles coming to their face before all turned to face Kalia. Kalia’s own smile grew before falling and she began speaking.

“I am uncertain of what I can tell you as I have only ever seen the previous doors as you have, but more ornate doors warn of more difficult encounters. It is unlikely that news has been revealed on this plane, and those that do know hoard this information for their clan and people. I am uncertain what this door represents, but I have heard of doors representing unique scenarios, difficult monsters, or even unusual environments. Those who know of the doors know of their meanings. It would be wise to make note of this.”

Joe nodded and whipped out his notebook, doing exactly that. He carefully drew the door, but as he had no way to matched the color, he noted the color as best he could with description. He then passed it around to the others and noted any other observations they made, including descriptions of color. Xylarnae proved to offer the greatest help, speaking of a flower that actually followed the color scheme of the door itself, the flower capturing both colors of the door, although the flower had three colors and he had to mention which two colors were the matching ones. Still, that didn’t take long, and they were soon preparing to go inside in a matter of a few minutes, although Joe was much more cautious.

Joe stared into the room carefully, but didn’t notice anything too odd. It seemed to take on the typical forest meadow environment with the sun low in the horizon. Sunset? Sunrise? Hmm.... Orange colors melted across the sky in lazy swirls and painted everything in a deep reddish tint, the meadow taking on the burnt look of morning or evening. Trees covered the edges of the meadow in the typical rectangular shape that this dungeon seemed to prefer with the trees in this forest being much greater in variety. Some were short; others quite tall; some thin and others wide branching shadowy trees that arched across their shorter brothers. One was massive, stretching in from deep in the forest yet arched far enough that a portion of the foliage branched up and over a small corner of the meadow that would be their battlefield.

Joe frowned, disturbed by the odd variety of trees. The forest was a mix of such disparate types that Joe had a hard time classifying the forest, seeing examples of swampland, high cold or far north cold weather species, some obvious temperate forest trees, and even some vaguely tropical looking fruit trees. It was disconcerting, and left him feeling uncomfortable in the strange space. The trees were unimportant, but somehow, all his thoughts and focus kept being driven back to them as he searched what was strange.

Finally, unable to drive his thoughts clear of it, he gave in. I’m still in the safe room. All’s good. He held himself behind the threshold, not allowing himself to pierce the plane of the doorway, but still stretched as he could to take in the entire place until he’d stared at the strange forest enough to feel some sense of calm. He looked on for another few moments then forced himself to move on, and this time, he was able to begin searching the meadow for the enemy they would have to face.

Any sense of calm, however, quickly began to vanish as try as he might, he struggled to find anything that appeared remotely threatening. He stared some more and began to frown before growing upset. Guess that’s the MO for this dungeon, but man… wish I could look at and evaluate before I head in. Way too many of them are basically step in blind kind of thing! Joe felt his lips curl in bitter worry as he continued to search through the room, but still found nothing! Guess its like the rests: go in and get shot at! Joe barely resisted the sigh and stepped into the room. Now I know why no one is coming in here! This place… kinda sucks! But… I guess it does pretty well at training a variety of boss fights? Maybe?

Joe grit his teeth and stepped into the room cautiously, staring around with rapid intense glances as he tried to keep everything in view and to notice any meaningful difference in case of subtle changes. His tension ratcheted up as the cool evening meadow peacefully rested between the trees, soft trilling of a beautiful chorus of bird song drifted across it all. Behind the bird song, rustling of various scuttling small animals could be heard throughout the meadow and scurrying up the trees around them. Insects buzzed around him although none seemed to target him, for which he was quite grateful. The peace of the meadow screwed up his concern even more, watching as none of the animals seemed to react to any serious danger. Not even me? Why are they not reacting to me? Joe stared around, noticing some squirrel like rodent darting through a bald patch in the knee high grass. Doesn’t notice me? Why… Joe took a step forward, and immediately, all the rodents and small animals in his general area skittered away in fear and Joe paused at that, taking it in. Huh… notice me now… but still rather calm. Where’s the big bad? Joe looked around with some confusion then grimaced. Please… not like the beach… just send the thing out!

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Joe began turning in a circle, carefully looking around. Huh… still nothing? Please… seriously, not like the beach! Joe took another step out into the center of the meadow, cautious in his movement as he slid his leg forward in a slow and silent stop.

The ground shuddered. OK. NOT like the beach. Got it. He immediately turned to the source of the sound, eyes searching into the woods since the sound came from deep within it. Another resounding thud echoed through the meadow and the ground shook even as the trees on that side of the meadow swayed, even the massive tree that reached out over and shaded a portion of the meadow with its massive branches. OK. Something REALLY big. Joe curled his lip in frustrated worry, eyes searching across the tops of the trees and peering into them as deeply as he could. What is it? Where is it? Come on… Come on… show me!

Nothing was immediately visible, and tension continued to ratchet up as Joe found his eyes pegged to the direction of the massive noise. But nothing came of it. Just a slow steady thrum vibrating through the ground, violently shaking the trees and the ground of the meadow. Nothing! Why is… Joe’s eyes widened in fear and he whipped around, quickly turning his gaze to their rear. His heart pounded as he searched but the worry quickly settled and his gaze turned to bitter frustration as he zipped his eyes back and forth, searching for anything. After a few moments searching, with frequent glances back, he seemed relatively certain his rear was clear and he whipped back around to the front, but he did worry about an attack from the rear.

“Stephliquen, could you watch our back? Just… a bit worried.”

Stephliquen quickly nodded, “I’m not feeling to great myself about that.”

Joe nodded with a grimace, “Thanks. I’ll shout out if something comes.”

“I, as well,” Stephliquen offered.

Then, all fell silent again, four pairs of eyes forward, one back. But nothing changed except the thrumming of the earth grew, the shaking of their calves and need to maintain balance becoming more difficult, and the certainty that something was coming closer ever so very, very slowly. The trees increased in swaying, the massive one swaying so violently Joe feared it would topple. After another five minutes or so, the thrumming hard movements were now causing a constant shake to thrum through the earth of the meadow so violently that it was quite difficult to remain standing still. Joe growled in frustration.

“This… is dumb!”

Gwenvair agreed, “But terrifying!”

Stephliquen, obviously nervous, interjected with worry, “What’d you say?”

Joe growled back, “This is dumb!”

“Yeah… but I’m not feeling too comfortable. You sure you’re not seeing anything?”

“Nothing.”

All fell silent, and Joe grimaced. Leaves began to fall from the massive tree, now almost above them, and Joe glanced up but ignored it. Then he glanced up again and frowned. Pretty good holding on to all its leaves… must be used to things like this. His eyes flickered back down to the lower trees, searching into their depths or just over their tops, but found nothing. He frowned. Huh… other trees losing a lot of leaves, even the pines… if they’re pines… but… Joe glanced back up at the massive tree above him and frowned. A leave shook loose and drifted down slowly, then landed on the back of his hand. Pain unlike anything he’d ever felt swelled up his arm and he cried out loudly, leaping backwards even as he shook his hand and whipped the leaf from his arm. The leaf seemed to stick there and he flopped his hand a half dozen times without anything useful done. The others whipped around, some searching and others staring at his arm and crying out in confusion.

Joe mostly ignored the others and finally reached over with his left arm and ripped the leave from his hand, his skin on the back of his hand peeling off with it and he cried out louder with ripping it away. Stephliquen stumbled to the side with a lurch while Gwenvair cried out in worry. Kalia simply frowned and Xylarnae stepped back with a pale face. Joe stared down at the leave in horror as it chewed through his skin, slurping it up with a thousand different miniscule little mouths. Joe struggled to keep his stomach from lurching, stepping back in horror. Instinct took him and he stabbed down with his spear, straight through it. An infantile small cry rose up from the ground, a gurgle from a thousand mouths as all died then flopped, dead, to the ground.

Joe struggled to keep his stomach from roiling even as he stepped back another half a dozen steps before glancing at his arm. It had been red and swollen, massively bruised, but now appeared perfectly fine, and Joe looked up at his health, seeing a massive chunk gone. Dangerous! So dangerous! His eyes whipped back up at the tree and saw another half a dozen leaves tumbling down.

“Stay away from the leaves!”

The others scrambled away with cries of fear, Gwenvair ducking with some fear as a leaf brushed across the top of her head and Joe stabbed forward with his spear in a bit of fear, a mana point puncturing into his spear shaft to infuse it. The leaves cried out in fear as soon as he infused his spear shaft, shifting from a harmless looking drifting to mad fluttering flaps trying to escape away from Joe. Joe’s first thrust brushed against the leaf that he’d aimed at, but like trying to cut a piece of paper or stab a floating piece of tissue, there was no resistance and the leave mainly folded around the spear point without being pierced. Joe growled.

He glanced around and took count of everything. Seven leaves! He aimed once again, and thrust with massive force, the spear punching through the leaf with ease which withered immediately under his infused strike. Another six strikes had the other six leaves dead too, although another three had already started falling, and Joe looked up at them with a grimace. Pretty far… got a few moments.

He turned his gaze to the massive tree instead, and studied it. His focus was at first upon the massive branches above and his eyes trailed along them towards the trunk of the tree. His face firmed even as he began to grimace, the massive thing swaying, and with his focus on the tree’s swaying, the realization of it. The tree is moving! The whole freaking tree! That… Joe paused, taking a shuddering breath as a might thump came through the forest, along with the crunch of a couple trees brushed aside or branches cracking under the passing of the massive tree. From between the trees forming the meadow, a massive root rolled out like a snake uncoiling and flipping upwards before rolling down in a long wave until the tip slammed into the earth before digging into it like a twisting snake before it dug in and pulled hard. Joe’s eyes widened. That’s the thumping!? Another rolling wave of a root came out, thrown into the air like a heavy rope before flopping up, over, then down again to slap into the ground where it dug into near the first.

The massive tree shuddered again, waving forward through the trees even as the tree tops of the lower trees wavered back and forth or to the side if they were directly in the path of the massive tree. Joe took a step back then notice a flutter on the wind just out of the corner of his eyes and glanced up, seeing the three leaves now become five, the first three close enough for him to do something about it. Crouching low in a stance, he readied himself even as he turned his gaze back to the tree in the time it took to get himself prepared, then turned his focus back to the leaves. His spear stabbed out, rapid fire flicks that were almost machine like in their instantaneous punches outward then a return to origin. Three times, and when the spear returned, three leaves cried in piteous terror, soft baby screams of pain as they withered, stabbed through and laying on the spear. Joe felt his lips turn down even as his stomach curdled and he struggled to keep his stomach calm. Leaves… just leaves… not bab… no… no… just leaves!

Joe shut down that line of thought, refusing to think of what it sounded like he was hearing and turned back to look at the massive tree. Kalia came to his side and bumped into him, catching his attention slightly but not drawing him away from his focus.

“I can take the leaves. You focus on the dryad!”

“That’s… a dryad!?”

Kalia glanced at him, taken aback by his outburst and stared at him, “One corrupted by rage, yes.”

“Got more questions, now.”

Kalia frowned but Joe shook his head, and brushed her comments away, “Not right now, but definitely later.”

Kalia nodded as she whipped her sword out, slicing a leaf in half, albeit poorly, and she cursed as she swung her blade around until the leaf was almost at the ground. She let it finish falling to the earth before stabbing through it and turning back to the other leave that was tumbling close behind it. Joe left her to it and turned to look at the massive tree slowly shimmying into the meadow, somehow sliding in and through the trees of the forest, pushing past them with minimal disruption, if not silently. Another massive root waved out from the forest and slammed into the meadow before crunching down into the earth and shredding the meadow.

The locations of where the three, so far, roots had slammed down into the earth of the meadow looked like some monstrous tiller and ripped through the earth, tossed and turned earth rippled and twisted under the passage of the root. Deep dark soil came into view and Joe found his eyebrows narrowing again, wondering where the volcano was. Way to rich of soil… good for the forest, but…

Another root rolled up and through the air before slamming down with massive concussive force, the grace of the meadow flattening before it in a soft wave outward. The root dug down into the earth, the tip turning downwards and drilling into the soft soil, digging deep. Being closer, Joe was able to more easily see what the tree was doing, and the root dug down into the ground and seemed to be curling back towards the trunk, pulling the tree forward, but the root wasn’t anchoring enough of the soil, so was also tearing through it as it pulled the massive tree forward, the earth churning under the massive dryad’s efforts to move into the meadow. Huh… wonder if it’ll be easier with the churned soil, or if…

Joe’s thoughts cut off when the flicker of movement caught his attention above him and he stepped back to glance upward. A couple leaves tumbled down towards him and he glanced over to see Kalia with the others, pushed into the corner. Kalia was doing well dealing with the leaves, all the rest still beyond the canopy of the tree. Joe had moved to the left and away, so was just at the edge of the canopy, so glanced up and saw a couple leaves drifting down. Joe glanced back at the tree trunk sliding into the meadow, then up at the massive canopy that covered the meadow between him and the tree trunk. Then down at the churned soil and flopping octopi-like root tentacles that wriggled through the ground and sometimes slapped up and out before thundering down on the ground to churn the soil even more. He grimaced. This… is really going to suck!

The tree paused, and Joe frowned, putting his plan to skewer some leaves on hold, but did take the time to shift back towards the girls a half a dozen steps to get out from under the current falling leaves. Huh… what’s going on? The tree shivered slightly, then seemed to turn slightly. Is it… facing me? Joe frowned, staring, then blinked in surprise when the bark of the tree squirmed, shifting on the surface. From the surface of the bark, something like a face appeared, a twisting snarling face. It was somehow the embodiment of rage, a massive dark hole forming as the bark of the tree twisting up its lips from snarling rage to a roar of bitter hate. How is there a hole? Wouldn’t the tree trunk be visi… Joe blinked, glancing up with some worry when the tree shivered again, but this time shivered the entire trunk and branches above. Infantile cries of glee rose like the sound of a coliseum of children far in the distance before hundreds of leaves detached and began drifting down from the sky.

Joe shivered, grimacing with visceral upset as his stomach churned and the leaves began drifting down through the sky. Yup! Knew this was going to suck!

* * *

Xylarnae watched on, her thoughts running rampant but never revealed upon her face. True, there was fear and worry for she was in many ways helpless, but what she sought was so close to in her grasp, that she cared for little else. The base was extraordinary, there was no denying that, but more importantly was his willingness to defend. Xylarnae felt hope swell and she bound it tightly beneath a cruel fist of reality as she took a deep breath, then remembered Kilniara’s story of how she’d met the base and how the base had acted towards her and her brother. Xylarnae closed her eyes for a bit, then looked at the man before really looking, seeing his unbound core. No chains! She breathed, and allowed the fist to relax, just slightly.

* * *

Kalia cursed and whipped her blade out once more, slicing through another leaf, then grinned when her blade bit deep enough. She sighed. Maybe I’m getting my skill back! She flourished the blade then whipped it out at another leave then cursed when the leave only cut slightly before wrapping around the blade. She cursed again. Maybe not! The blade whipped down to the ground where the leaf slid onto it and she brought it down in a stab through the heart of the leaf. Its whimpering cry let her know it was dead and she zipped the blade back up in another flourish to prepare for the next lazy assault. She glanced up to find the skies clear and turned her gaze back to the eccentric. She frowned.

He stood off to her left, just at the edge of the dryad’s canopy, much too close to be safe. And in proof, he whipped his spear around and stabbed a half dozen leaves in rapid succession, leaving six dead leaves impaled on his spear before he swung his spear in a wild swoosh across his torso, the six leaves fluttering off his spear and tumbling to the ground, their corpses spread across the field. No experience, either. Such worthless… Kalia froze then grimaced in rage and no small amount of despair. No! No… Her fervent denial slid to boneless despair in seconds and her shoulders slumped, the fierce glare she had before now burdened by the remembered knowledge that she was trapped upon the Prison Cradle within the grasp of the guardian. Trapped under a false heaven! Kalia moped for a time before a soft cry of warning from the cradle local called her attention to another leaf.

A half-hearted swipe pushed the leaf away and to the ground where she was able to stab it, then return to her despair. Unseeing eyes stared into the shadows under tree before a soft cry of surprise behind her brought her attention back to the moment, and she saw Joe charging under the depths of the tree’s canopy. Her curiosity and wonder at the eccentric’s prowess drew her away from her thoughts and she soon began to critique the base’s efforts. As always, she was both impressed and dismayed by the eccentric’s abilities.

Such… almost perfect movements. His bodily control is… incredible, yet he flounders with infusion and even the simplest of magical attacks. He never uses his dao. But… Her eyes traced across his movements, each flowing from one to the next where the base pressed on into the storm of leaves drifting from the sky. Some of the leaves he impaled upon his spear while others he brushed aside with haft or shield, his movements all driven to push him deeper in towards the dryad’s trunk.

As he drove closer and closer, Kalia could feel the tension amongst them all rise, his slides, twists, and turns brushing him past a multitude of falling leaves until he reached the base of the tree and without even breaking his stride, his weapon shifted from the mild deadliness of subtle infusion to a massive beam of pure terror, its infusion power spiking considerable. Another two simple twists and a leap over a wallowing root, Joe plunged his spear directly into the tree then left it there as he immediately continued back away from the tree and another two leaves drifting down upon him, twisting in and through the blizzard of falling leaves.

Kalia glanced up at that tree, turning her gaze from Joe to watche the dryad’s demise but then began to frown. The infused spear pumped millions of mana into the dryad’s trunk, but the dryad seemed unmoved, easily defending against the infusion strike even as the spear’s power dropped rapidly. Kalia frowned, then breathed in terror even as her eyes opened wide. She shouted out without thought.

“Mana beast!”

Gwenvair erupted out in fear with that cry, grasping Kalia’s shoulder in worry and need of confirmation, “No! Please! Are you certain?!”

“The spear is empty! The infusion failed.”

Gwenvair’s worry turned to despair even as Kalia frowned, turning her gaze back to Joe. Xylarnae stepped forward and spoke quickly and calmly and Kalia looked at Xylarnae with considering eyes.

“Joe! It’s a mana beast!”

Joe grunted, twisting through the falling leaves before calling back, “And? What’s that mean?”

Kalia felt her eyebrows fall. How is he both so strong… so knowledgeable, but like a newborn babe without thought the next?”

Xylarnae didn’t seem taken aback by the obvious contradiction of an unknowledgeable eccentric and continued immediately, “It cannot be harmed by infused attacks. It is infused as well, a barrier protecting its core from the backlash of the mana embedded in infusion strikes!”

Joe didn’t seem affected by the news, already having pulled out his second beautiful enchanted spear, an obviously superior spear Joe cared for with great concern as he only pulled it out when he had no other options. Joe continued his dance under the canopy, destroying dozens of leaves in a few moments as he twisted between them all and never remained in the same place, constantly moving several paces every moment or two while twisting, ducking, and sliding between all the leaves.

“So. No infusion.”

“No, Joe. It is useless,” Xylarnae offered back with calm.

It seemed like Joe nodded, although it was difficult to see, the base’s speedy movements through the falling leaves never allowing his head or body to remain still. Joe twisted through and killed dozens of leaves for a few moments before seeming to come to a decision and turned back towards the trunk, driving straight for it.

“Well, guess the spear isn’t going to be useful,” the eccentric spoke to himself, barely heard above the swirling rustle of grass and small cries of the falling leaves.

The base pushed forward until he reached the trunk then the beautiful wooden spear disappeared from his right hand even as his shield arm reached out, hand grasping upon the steel shaft before it suddenly vanished into his spatial ring. Wish I had… Kalia grimaced and stifled her envy for his spatial rings, remembering her own. Her focus returned to the eccentric and she frowned, seeing has he fumbled with an axe he’d just taken from his storage. She sighed. Sometimes genius, sometimes utter fool! The dichotomy was strange, and left her both impressed and dismissive, even a little revolted, not understanding how the man could be both so impressive and so lacking.

She smoothed her face and watched on as he finally grasped the axe correctly, a massive battle axe that would require two hands or massive strength. He grasped it with two, swung, then ripped the axe from the tree trunk with a single arm before swinging with one, quickly shifting to one handed combat. Her frown returned, but now tinged with a bit of awe. And sometimes… inspiring genius!

Joe seemed to move in odd spurts and starts. His form would blur, his twist or slide so quick that it was almost impossible to see before he would pause and shift slightly one way or another before blinking in a blur to another location or position. His movements and speed grew faster and faster, their power growing with each strike of the axe against the dryad.

The first strikes were cautious and slow before they became heavy and hard, thudding into and finally through the bark of the dryad’s trunk. Once he broke through the bark, the dryad began roaring in rage and pain while Joe would come to the trunk, leave a massive trunk shuddering strike into the dryad trunk before ripping the axe away and turning into a whirlwind of contortions that allowed him to slide between the random drifting of the leaves. After a time, he would return to the trunk and leave another massive strike into the dryad trunk before ripping the axe from the trunk and slipping away back under the massive canopy and away from any leaves that had drifted down upon where he was striking. Kalia huffed.

He’s driving in and retreating to stay away from any concentration of leaves falling upon him. Or… not letting them focus on a single space, but… the dryad’s not that dumb… well… Kalia turned her gaze back to look at the increasingly enraged dryad and frowned. Maybe it is kinda dumb… now…

Joe seemed to come to the same conclusion she had and twisted through the leaves to the opposite side of the trunk and slamming his axe into the trunk once again. Why? Oh… The cut was at the same height of the trunk and Kalia breathed deep. Makes sense.

Soon, Joe was twisting under the canopy, now also slashing out with his infused axe at leaves that were within range as Joe seemed to be disturbed by stepping on crying leaves that still lived upon the ground. Most of the strikes were helpful, adding to Joe’s movements with the mass of the axe head helping twisting or pull him into various positions. Some, however, seemed to slow him and Kalia frowned at his inefficient combat choices. Why is he trying for them when unnecessary. The leaves will die quickly once disconnected… and even if they didn’t, how could they have any impact upon him with his excellent boots protecting him.

She sighed and turned her attention back to Joe, once again finding his incredible physical competency strangely at odds with his knowledge and magical skills. Almost like he has no knowledge of magic, but his movements are obviously reinforced with mana. Her thoughts were disrupted by another mighty thunk and she looked up to see Joe ripping his axe from the dryad’s trunk. The roars of the dryad were now much cries of pain, rage having slowly become overwhelmed by the pain as Joe continued to smash into the sides and front of the dryad’s trunk.

Once Joe was about a quarter of the way through the trunk on three sides, he began to focus on the rear of the tree, slamming his axe from top and bottom. Kalia’s respect for Joe plummeted at that, displeased with his inability to strike at a single location, until she quickly noticed they seemed to be deliberate, follow up strikes hitting the same location. Why? That doesn’t… Her thoughts meandered, then ended as she turned back to focus as his meandering dance through the falling leaves came to an end and had him back at the tree, bringing around another massive cut to the trunk. This time, the two cuts seemed to meet in the middle and a huge chunk toppled out from the tree. It was difficult to see from this side, but she quickly realized his strikes were angled and she immediately understood what he’d done. He can easily strike deeper!

His next strike, after wandering out under the canopy again, struck deep into the dryad’s heartwood, and the shriek of pain and immediate rain of leaves that came after made it abundantly clear that Joe had both garnered its attention and hatred. Joe spent precious seconds removing the axe blade as it had struck deep, then fled away from the tree trunk as quickly as he could, his body weaving in strange contortions to pass by each leaf but somehow doing so with a grace that belied the effort.

Joe made it about three quarters of the way back to the group when the leaves that had shaken free finally reached a height that they could threaten Joe, and Joe’s flight slowed to a crawl as he quickly shifted to defense, his body twisting to give himself space even as his hands disappeared into a blur of movement. Kalia hadn’t even noticed when, but in that time, Joe had lost his axe and replaced it with two daggers, his hands and arms blurring with their speed. Joe did not move from his spot, but he did dance in place, creating a small curtain of steel beneath which he huddled, body twisting and spinning even as his head whirled, eyes darting for any leaves that may be tumbling towards him.

Kalia didn’t even know she was holding her breath until the leaves that had been shaken from their branches finally all fell to the ground. Joe was panting with exhaustion and Kalia was almost as much because she’d held her breath. Joe relaxed then, walking back to them with a casual swing of a dagger to clear any leaves from his path until he’d escaped the canopy and arrived by their side.

“Give me a minute. That was a bit exhausting.”

Gwenvair spoke up at that, asking a prisoned question and Kalia couldn’t help but snort at how weak those imprisoned here were, “Did you use all your SP, Joe?”

Joe grunted, laughing, “No, but that’s a good reminder.”

Kalia found her eyebrows rising with surprise when Joe suddenly rose, hale and hardy. An empowerment? He is… certainly interesting. And quite strong, unchecked and unweakened by this plane. Gwenvair spoke on with surprise.

“You did not use SP?”

Joe smiled, “Got a title… I can turn it off. I’m heading back in.”

Gwenvair seemed shocked, and surprised by Joe’s comment, but Kalia found herself both interested, in a fascinated yet horrified way, and equally disinterested, unwilling to fall ever further into the thrall of this prison’s guardian. However, his observation that he’d somehow gained an empowerment from the prison’s guardian piqued her interest, and questions were added to the rather large number drifting in the back of her mind.

Joe didn’t wait, somehow immediately refreshed, and sped back under the canopy. He kept his daggers wielded until he closed with the trunk then pulled out his axe in his left hand before passing it to his right. Kalia frowned at that, once again frustrated by Joe’s strange mix of competence and incompetence. Her critiques quieted when he slammed the axe home, and the dryad screeched once again, her thoughts returned to the moment.

The attack struck heartwood once more and Joe immediately sped away directly back to their group as the tree screeched and shook wildly, leaves raining from the sky in even greater numbers than before. However, Joe’s experience from before allowed him to escape almost to the edge of the canopy before he was required to really start dancing amongst the leaves. He was able to make the edge, though, and with his back clear of any leaves, it was quite easy to slice away at the falling leaves in front of him and he only needed to step back to escape any errant leaf that came too close.

And soon, Kalia watched as Joe soon was methodically dancing in, striking deep into the tree, then fleeing back until the dryad was almost empty of leaves, and then he returned to sliding into and out from the trunk with ease and grace that belied intensive training and capability, so easily done with exactly measure and no struggle. So… perfect! So… how?! Joe’s movements were sublime, if limited, but Kalia found herself mesmerized until suddenly a loud cry and the crackling of wood shattering yanked her gaze back to the tree.

Joe was fleeing from the tree with rapid steps and she looked up with some fear then relaxed when she saw the tree was tipping away from them and back into the forest on the far side of the meadow. Joe’s mad sprint slowed when he glanced backwards and saw the tree falling away from him so he turned and back walking backward, cautiously looking at the falling tree while periodically glancing upwards to watch for any leaves.

* * *

Joe came back to them while still watching the tree fall with a thunderous crash, fetching up against several of the trees bordering the meadow and angled up off the ground between fifteen and twenty degrees, if he was to guess. Joe stared at the tree a bit longer before turning to look at them with a smile. He then turned back to face towards the tree once again, then laughed softly. Kalia and the others stared at him. Joe’s grin grew and he laughed again.

“Never thought I would have to fight a tree. Nor did I think a tree would be so hard. Heh.”

Gwenvair started giggling at that and Kalia snorted while Xylarnae gasped with some shock but hid a smile behind her hand. Joe noticed their interaction and while he was still enjoying the good humor, his smile twisted to subtle confusion, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“What?”

Kalia grinned at that and Gwenvair interjected with a soft giggle, “It’s, well, quite rude to say such things of dryads.”

Joe blinked at that and his smile quickly fell, “Oh! Yeah… huh. I guess I never really thought about that before. Kind of a good point, I guess. Sorta like calling base humans monkeys or Ulvan dogs… or wolves?”

Everyone listened politely at that, even smirking when Joe mentioned base humans, although the good humor quickly changed for Gwenvair when Joe spoke of Ulvan, a scowl quickly coming to her face.

“That... is quite true. Please refrain from such.”

Joe glanced at Gwenvair with that, noticing and nodding his head to her, “You know I meant nothing by it.”

Gwenvair sighed and nodded, “But it is still … unpleasant.”

“It truly is.”

Joe kept his eyes on her for a time, considering saying more, but her frustration was still strong until she finally sighed and looked up at Joe, “I’m sorry. I should understand such with you.”

Joe nodded, “Yes, but it is likely still quite painful.”

Gwenvair’s pained look softened and a bittersweet smile came to her face, “Yeah.”

Joe nodded and sighed, then offered his own bittersweet smile, “Yeah.”

The conversation lulled at that and the fell silent, enjoying the moment, a soft sense of melancholy blanketing the moment. It took a few moments, Joe wasn’t sure how long, before someone shifted and broke the mood. Joe blinked and found himself glancing around, taking in the area and grinning. The tree remained toppled over on its side and within its massive trunk, door appeared. Off to the side of the stump, opposite of the fallen tree trunk, another stair well appeared leading down into the forest ground, much like a cellar stair well. Joe glanced at the stair well which he was pretty sure was the exit, then looked to the door in the tree trunk. He huffed and glanced at the others.

“So, shall we?”

Gwenvair grinned and nodded with excitement while the others simply nodded, although Kalia did show some hint of greed. Joe noticed then grinned a bit.

“You’ll get your dungeon reward, don’t worry.”

Kalia flushed with some embarrassment at that and turned away, although she did sigh softly and respond, “It will not likely be much of use. My participation was rather minimal.”

Joe found the revelation interesting, and pocketed the idea as something to explore, but nodded and simply offered agreement with her, “Ah. True.”

Joe began walking and Stephliquen quickly came up to claim a place by his side, quickly asking questions about the dungeon and what happened for the last few moments as well as from several of the previous floors. Kinda become more relaxed, I guess. Joe answered all of them as best as he could and found a measure of solidarity as both evaluated the insanity of magic and mana upon the mundane world. The two laughed and pointed out the bizarre and the fascinating, coming to a stop before the tree where they actually paused to continue their conversation while Gwenvair, Kalia, and Xylarnae turned to their own conversation while they were waiting. Joe enjoyed the conversation for a time but then called an end to the conversation, growing worried about time. Lots to do, and not enough time.

“Can we talk back home?” Joe asked, “I’d love to talk more, but I do want to get this done and get back home… kinda exhausted.”

Stephliquen paused at that, then blushed a bit as she nodded, “Certainly! Sorry about that kinda feeling lonely, I guess.”

Joe’s grin grew as he nodded, “Trust me… I know what you mean.”

She sighed with some relief at that before nodding and stepping back. Joe stifled his relief and a yawn as he turned to the door in the tree trunk before opening it. Sooooo tired! Joe struggled to continue, the relief of having completed the dungeon washing through him even as he pushed on to complete his self-assigned task. The door opened to a small room oddly designed to be exactly perfectly oriented in a vertical fashion despite the tree having fallen on its side at a slight angle and not fully on the ground. Joe frowned, grimacing then gave up on caring about the strangeness availed to it and simple stepped in, the others following after.

It wasn’t until he had stepped inside that he realized the room was actually much too big for the dryad trunk. He turned back to the door and stared out of the door, noticing that it was exactly flush with the horizon of the ground outside, despite the fact that the tree trunk was tilted. He looked up at the lines of the room, finding them matching the line of the door as well and realized that if the room was in the trunk, the think would have been tilted at a strange angle no matter any natural orientation of the tree except for this specific one, crashed and held up by several of the trees bordering the meadow. Weird… really weird… convenient, but so weird.

Joe looked at the pedestal in the middle holding the dungeon core and then to the side, seeing the reward chest on a small pedestal of its own off near the wall. It was quite ornate, much more so than the chests he’d seen in the advanced and beginner dungeons, but didn’t think much of it until the others gasped with gleeful shock. Joe glanced back at the three manaborn.

“What?”

“The chest… It’s…”

Joe frowned, “Is it bad?”

“No. It is very good!” Gwenvair exclaimed.

Kalia huffed with some mockery and interjected, “More than very good. When was the last time this dungeon was conquered? Or even delved?”

Gwenvair shrugged, “I… I do not know.”

Kalia grimaced then laughed with disbelief, “It must have been for quite some time for the dungeon to be driven to such rewards.”

Joe knit his eyebrows with some confusion, glancing at Kalia, “A dungeon will increase rewards?”

Kalia nodded, “Especially if it is mana starved or close to doing so. It will attempt to tempt others in with greater rewards. A difficult dungeon that has not been conquered in some time will also offer great rewards, but the greatest way to do so is simply starve a dungeon.”

“And it will be driven to entice more adventurers into its depths?” Joe asked with some understanding.

“Yes. These are the most consistent methods, although doing so causes the dungeon to become… quite vicious. It is a danger.”

Joe frowned then quickly understood, eyes widening with epiphany, “Starve it too much and it will become incredibly dangerous.”

Kalia nodded, “Exactly.”

Or it’ll just get tired of being played with… donno if I would call these things biological, but… living? Maybe? Just… weird.

Joe sighed and turned back to the chest, “Well, let’s check the chest, then.”

The others grinned and nodded with excitement and Joe turned back to it and Gwenvair came up behind him and pushed him forward, “Go!”

Joe laughed and stepped forward, touching it to bring it open before finding the display of items shimmering before him once again and he began swiping through all his options. Huh… looks like accessories… mostly. Hmm… There were so many and Joe found some odd and bizarre examples that left him bewildered as to their purpose or even how to wield or wear them. He soon came to the point that he was simply swiping through them without thought until one quickly caught his attention as well as all the others behind him as they all gasped with varying degrees of shock. He swiped back and saw a quiver highlighted a beautiful glowing gold. Joe sniggered when he saw it, laughing. Someone’s been gaming a bit too much! The affect was alluring and quite obvious in its attempt to highlight the object and Joe stared at it for a bit before dismissing it. Already got a quiver, so… He went back to swiping through the list and soon came to the end and found nothing that really connected with him. He sighed, then rolled his eyes and swiped back. Well… the pretty glow will at least make it easier to sell, I guess? Get a couple bucks back now that I lost all my cores… well, not all. Still have my small back of cracked cores.

Joe sighed once more and pulled the quiver out of the chest once he’d chosen and then stepped back. Stephliquen went forward with excitement while the other three chose to crowd around him and Joe laughed and handed it to them. They all quickly took it and examined it with some excitement although Kalia was the first to give up, complaining about not being able to inspect it and understand its capabilities. Xylarnae and Gwenvair, however, seemed simply excited to be able to hold the quiver for itself until their turn came up and they were searching through the chest for their own options.

Joe didn’t really watch the others, not really caring to as he turned his attention to the quiver for a bit. It was an odd one, if he were to be honest. There was no belt to attach it anywhere on his being, and that annoyed him. Guess not going to be using it … ever… don’t feel like getting this thing kitted out. Heh… The quiver itself, however, appeared to be nicely made. Its holding area was divided in two with a narrowing at one end that was obviously designed to have the arrows line up and fall into it so that it would be very easy to pick the next arrow. Joe grinned at the innovation, rather impressed by it. Guess the general movement and vibration of drawing and firing a bow will jiggle the arrows and cause another to slide down into the slot. If it works… really could speed up shots. I’d know exactly where the next arrow is… perfectly lined up to grab the next one. He glanced at it a bit more and found one other oddity but could understand its purpose. At the top of the quiver, if the long jiggle line that lined up the arrows for easy drawing was the bottom which it would have to be to have gravity feed the next arrow down the line, was a small hole, just large enough to comfortably hold a single arrow which he knew because he did exactly that.

Pulling out a half a dozen of his good carbon fiber like arrows, he dumped them into the quiver and settled them in before giving it a shake and tilting it slightly as if it was holstered on his hip. The arrows settled down and did quite well lining up in the feed, if not exactly at the same heights since some filed in at odd angles that had them poking back up at the top of the quiver or off to the sides instead of sliding down completely upright into the feed line. He tried a few times, but while it was a good idea, the issues with it were rather obvious. Still… not bad. Would do pretty well… seems like nine times out of ten it feeds well enough and even if the height isn’t exact, the placement is pretty much close to it. Probably some kind of magic thing. Huh. Pretty nice!

Joe turned his focus on the strange singular hole at the top of his quiver and dropped an arrow in it, then raised an eyebrow when he saw that the depth for the hole was enough that it took almost the entire arrow, including the quiver. Joe almost worried about being able to get it out, but noticed that the hole was designed to all his fingers just the room needed to grab the nock and pull it out, the end of the hole flaring wider for his fingers to fit. But even after he put the arrow in, shook it, and looked for any possible ‘on’ buttons, nothing seemed to happen, and he found himself staring at it with narrowed and confused eyes. He would have played more with it, but the last member was searching through the reward chest and Joe still hadn’t touched the dungeon core, so with a sigh, he emptied the quiver of all his arrows and then slipped the quiver and arrows into his inventory. Guess Kalia was right… some kind of analyze might be nice… heh.

Joe glanced at the others and grinned to see what they had chosen. He saw a belt, two necklaces, a ring, and a rather ornate hair pin. But without some kind of inspect… or analyze. Joe frowned and then turned away with a sigh, turning to the core. The others didn’t really notice, all too busy showing off their choices to really notice him anymore. So, he connected with the dungeon core. No data dump to the brain, please… just an interface like before.

Nothing happened, and Joe began to frown, wondering at what was going on until a very weak questing touch came to his mind. Joe’s frown deepened and he tentatively allowed the connection and tried again. Interface please? There was no response, just the normal original data dump, but incredibly weak and slow as well as somehow barebones. Joe flinched then calmed as the connection proved almost relaxing. Well… what do I do then? I guess… conquer? And prepare for extract? Uh… remember … uh… at least the monsters. Those were good examples of a variety of combat experiences, but you can scrap all the rest. Got the mana and capability to do that?

A soft weakened negative returned with that and Joe then frowned, digging in deeper. How much mana do you have? And… how much is needed? What came back proved almost useless, as what he received was a feeling of ravenous hunger followed by a feeling of slightly less ravenous hunger. Joe huffed, and then rolled his eyes. Right… well, I’ll make sure to complain to management!

Joe settled in and then began sending a trickle of mana to the dungeon who glommed onto it with ravenous delight and Joe began to slowly increase his output until he was going at full speed, much to the dungeon’s obvious delight. He settled in for a long night, regularly asking the dungeon if it was full enough for its extraction. The replies slowly shifted from emphatic rejection to reluctant possibility, but Joe kept on feeding the dungeon for the next hour. The others noticed and left him to his efforts, although Gwenvair seemed worried for a time before calming, staying by his side with a hand on his shoulder. After a time, she soon turned to the others’ conversation and joined in while Joe continued his vigil.

Stephliquen tried speaking with him for a time, and while Joe was grateful for her effort, he found feeding mana to the dungeon while talking with her to push the boundaries of his capabilities, much to his surprise. He took it as a challenge and did pretty well for the first half an hour, answering many of her questions on dungeons but towards the end of the half hour, he grew strained and overwhelmed, having to beg off continuing. Stephliquen proved gracious and ended the conversation, taking the promise of more later with eagerness and Joe fell into silence as he continued his feeding.

After that first hour, the dungeon was reporting certain success and Joe almost decided to take that as enough but then remembered the possibility of the cores needing to be in stasis for awhile and worried about their power needs during this time. Asking the dungeon this only returned confusion and so Joe pushed on for another hour, struggling against the exhaustion that had hit like a freight train now that his goals for the day were reached. After the second hour, the dungeon was almost vibrating like a newborn puppy in excitement and Joe took it. Too… tired! Initiate extraction… leave enough for ten more days of operation.

* * *

A mana wave encircled the last plane of the Aelthron cradle, also now known as the Prison Cradle to the greater galactic community. The mana wave was soft, subtle, and virtually unnoticed by all on the plane. Some few noticed something odd with its each passing as it circled the globe, but other than odd aches, pains, or a sinus effect or a few shivers with its passing, no one noticed or knew of its passing.

It was doing exactly as it was designed to do, having been formed some weeks ago by two massive mana point constructs working in tandem, sending out a soft mana wave. The first mana wave was to trace and pinpoint any spatial gates, locating and identifying origins and destinations for any local planar gate travel. Once these were identified and the timing of various openings and closings were verified, a mana wave was constructed to take advantage of the various gates and their timing and the constructs fell quiescent.

Until an extra planar gate opened, connecting the last plane of Aelthron’s cradle to the cradle’s fourth plane. The wave passed through and attempted to maintain itself, collecting and storing data until the connecting gate between the fourth and last plane opened once more and the last plane’s mana wave carried the data back to the two constructs. Analysis was performed and data prepared for the next opening to the fourth plane.

The next extra planar connection, however, was to the fifteenth plane, and the wave passed through and struggled similarly to the wave that had passed onto the fourth plane. By the time the fourth plane gate opened once more, the wave on the fourth plane had collapsed, but the wave propagated to the fourth plane with the analysis needed to form a stable wave construct to circle the fourth plane and was also carrying the data for the fifteenth plane. As luck would have it, the fourth plane connected to the fifteenth plane only a few days later, and while the wave was in its last desperate gasp to survive circling the fifteenth plane, the power refresh along with the analysis of the fifteenth plane’s local gate travel and possible interruption patterns to the wave when they opened were incorporated in and immediately stabilized and empowered the wave on the fifteenth plane.

Over the next month, the wave pattern traveled to, analyzed, and returned the analysis on each of the planes in Aelthron’s Cradle until all planes had a soft and subtle wave of mana encircling the globe about a dozen times each day, unnoticed and silent. Not even the greatest members of the Great clans and hidden powers nor the guards of Aelthron’s Cradle felt the wave of power swell and flow passed then ebbing once they passed by. It settled into the natural ebb and flow of the mana within the plane, becoming another simple cycle of nature within each plane.

* * *

Kainaro, slaver extraordinaire hired by the Patriarch of the Galgandar clan centered in Coushar, strolled through the gate leading to Coushar in the early afternoon with consternation and no small amount of worry. Tension roiled through his guts and he glanced around, tension ratcheting up even as he searched for the eccentric in fear, his hand holding the tools given to him by the slave guild with agitated grip. Fear had him pulling the hood of his cloak further over his face, hiding himself. His gaze searched the plaza and found nothing, so he turned and headed to the inn where he knew the eccentric was staying, weaving through the streets with rapid strides and darting gaze.

There was no sign of the eccentric, and that did nothing to calm him, his tension only climbing until he made sight of the inn and came to its front, across the street from it. He stared at it for some time, worry twisting through his guts until a deep sigh and firm will drove him across the street and he walked into the inn. He deliberately kept his head down and hood low, turning immediately to the left once inside the door towards where the tables were available to guests seeking a meal. He found a corner of the room then cursed, seeing the table already occupied, but no sign of the eccentric, so took another table against the wall and chose the seat that was uncomfortably jammed in between the table and the wall.

He didn’t look around the room until he was seated and the coiling tension in his body evaporated when he found the room devoid of the eccentric. He took a deep shuddering breath and then decided to take a moment to collect himself, ordering a meal and beer. It wasn’t until a half an hour later that he tension had returned once again, and drove him onwards. The eccentric was not here and the information he’d gained told of the eccentric spending the afternoon outside the dungeon, in leisure at the baths or a meal at one of the guild halls. Still time… not really here until the meal, so…

He convinced himself to wait, cautious and comfortable but still agitated but as afternoon melded into evening and the crowd grew, his tension only spiked as no sign of the eccentric was readily seen. He grimaced for a time, and continued waiting until well after evening meal. Finally, he called over one of the workers tending the tables.

“Is the eccentric here? I have need of him,” he asked quietly, not wishing to draw attention to himself.

The tender noticed and slid their hand to the table, caressing it with a thumb and Kainaro slid a coin onto the table which was quickly vanished.

“He’s is not here.”

“He no longer has a room?”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“Some few days. I do not know exactly.”

Kainaro felt all tension flood from him as he nodded to the tender, “My thanks.”

The waiter turned away without care and disappeared into the tables, winding his way through with practiced ease.

Kainaro basked in the moment, allowing the tension to be robbed from his body before he finally acknowledged what this would mean, and tension immediately returned even as he cursed. I will have to go hunting for him!

He tried to convince himself not to go tonight, but he knew if he did not continue on, his cowardice would have him fleeing the city in moments and he gritted his teeth and stood, turning to leave the inn.

Right. Need my own inn! I’ll stow my stuff there, sleep early, then rise with the slaver’s hour. Can’t be gone far from the city. If he was unable to leave before, he will be unable to leave now. But likely he is still in the city. He’ll be driven to seek safety, but wandering the night at the slaver’s hour … would be foolish for him, especially in the rich districts. Wandering the streets in the middle of the night in such places would be foolish. He will be in the poor quarters, walking the slaver’s hour each night…

Just thinking of that sent shivers down his spine, fear worming its way through him once again. This was normal, common even. It was what almost all runaway or rebelling slaves did. They were unable to flee far, but they still fled, but the agitation that had them unable to sleep the night, driving them away from their beds in the early morning, robbed them of sleep and revealed them easily as they were often the only ones on the street. But to wander the streets in the deep night like that drew too much attention in wealthier quarters. Smart ones immediately went to the poor quarters. Foolish ones were driven there. And this eccentric was no fool. He will be out, somewhere… wandering…

* * *

Joe stood once he had the core of the dungeon and slipped it into his inventory, staggering as he did rise. He looked at the others and sighed in exhaustion.

“Right. Ready to go?”

The others seemed pretty tired as well, and all nodded as the rose, Stephliquen proving a bit grumpy as she did so.

“’Bout time!”

“Heh! Sorry. Trust me. I wanna be home already. So exhausted!”

“Bah! I’m already hating the idea of going to bed without a bath.”

Joe glanced at her then grimaced as he turned to the others, “A bath? Would the baths be open at this time?”

Gwenvair shook her head, “No. It is likely quite late, although we will not know until we leave this dungeon.”

“Hmm… how ‘bout a bath at home?’

Gwenvair grimaced and huffed, “Not this late. There are no water runners likely.”

Joe sighed, “Well, that sucks. I don’t really want to head out tomorrow for a long trip without cleaning up.”

Gwenvair glanced up that, a look of hope on her face, “We are leaving?”

Joe nodded, “Yup. I figure we shouldn’t stick around anymore.”

Gwenvair smiled, nodding slowly, “You will take the mundane gate?”

“The one out through the commoner’s entrance? Yeah. Why?”

“Just wishing to leave rather silently.”

“Yeah. Me, too.”

Gwenvair sighed, “Then we should probably take a bath before we leave.”

Joe frowned while also struggling to fight against the relief of being able to be clean once more, “Don’t really want to waste a lot of time. Is it really necessary?”

Gwenvair nodded, “Leaving while dirty and unkempt, that will probably raise questions and maybe even cause guards to wonder if we are attempting to escape.”

Joe’s frown vanished with that thought before nodding, “OK. If you say so.”

Joe fell silent at that and Gwenvair joined him, silent in response to his shutting down. They came out of the tree trunk and back into the meadow before Joe came to the stairwell leading down into the ground. He stared at it in a bit of a daze before finally beginning to climb down. He didn’t stumble, but it was a close thing with the first few steps and he raised a hand to trail it down the wall as he walked. Man… rails would be nice! His thoughts wandered to modern safety conveniences and continued down into the stairwell.

The others joined him, and soon all were in the stairwell walking down. They walked for a couple steps and the lighting changed rather quickly to the flickering of the torches that lit the stone stairwells and hallways between each level. Huh… that was only ten … twelve steps down? Joe turned back to find an infinite staircase leading back up, the opening to the meadow now gone and replaced with a never ending staircase leading up.

Joe found himself in wonder at it, but too exhausted to really care and simply huffed before turning back to walking down the stairs. He went down another ten or twenty steps then began to huff, struggling to push up the stairs. Man, always a good exercise to climb stairs. Still gotta go down mor… Joe froze, blinking in shock and turned to look back the way they’d come. The stair well stretched down behind him an infinite distance, torches flickering at even intervals without end. Joe glanced back the way he was walking, took a single step and struggled to step up to the next step.

Exhaustion fled from him and he turned to look down the way he’d come and stared with some shock. When did we start going up? Joe almost began staggering back down the stairs to find the moment downstairs became upstairs but then stopped when a single stepped down had him wobbling with exhaustion and he paused. Right… figure this out later! This… is just … insane! How does that work? Downstairs just suddenly is going upstairs?

Joe struggled to wrap his mind around such a bizarre experience even as he turned back to heaving himself up the stairs. The torchlight wavering against the walls suddenly faded away in only a step or two and he looked up to see a dark opening into a night sky brightened by a quarter slice of the gas giant above throwing enough light down into the stairwell to wash out the torchlight to an extent.

Joe stared, took a long slow blink, convinced himself he didn’t care, and pushed on out of the dungeon before staggering out of the gate, the others following behind him. The dungeon guards there simply looked at him, noticed his exhaustion, and ignored him as he left. Joe didn’t know whether to be grateful to not have to deal with exit fees or feel annoyed on Gwenvair’s behalf over their failed duties. Still, he couldn’t find himself to care, not now with how her brother was running things and he knew it was wrong, but the rage that swelled to remind him why he cared not burned away any desire for doing the right thing. He struggled to keep his mouth shut and grit his teeth before turning it into a long low grinding of his teeth before he finally sighed and released it when they made it out into the dark streets of the night.

“Sorry, Gwenvair. Could you lead the way?”

Gwenvair smiled and took over the lead, Xylarnae joining her side to keep her company while they all marched on through the night. Kalia tried to engage him a couple times in conversation, and Joe thought he actually did pretty well in the conversation but he was deeply relieved when she ended it. He stumbled the rest of the way home in a deep daze, losing time to the travel haze until he suddenly found himself before their new home deep in the slums. There was some kind of talk and a slow down at the door, but Joe noticed none of it and simply stood around in a daze waiting to get in. Finally, he was able to pass through the door and remember little else from that point, passing out almost immediately as his head hit the pillow.

* * *

Gwenvair watched as Joe bee lined straight for his room, exhaustion evident in his every movement and felt a small twinge of concern. So tired… so often. It’s not normal. She glanced over at the supper then back at Joe, raising a hand to call him back to his meal then stopped. He was utterly exhausted, that much she knew, and despite the niggling fear worming its way through her, she shoved it down and allowed him his rest. He will not disappear simply because he missed a meal after a dungeon run! Gwenvair chuckled, forcing herself to good humor before turning to the others.

“Hungry?”

The others all proved amenable to a meal, although Stephliquen seemed pretty closed to exhausted as well, if not as much as Joe was. She ate quickly, unable to join in the conversation, and immediately headed to her bed, falling asleep almost as quickly as Joe had.

Kalia and Xylarnae proved more resilient, if still slightly more subdued than usual, and Gwenvair stifled her smile as she knew exactly what was swirling through their minds. She offered them some relief from their curiosity, turning the conversation towards Joe, and they avidly took the bait, asking several questions with cautious curiosity.

When the meal ended, Gwenvair did not allow the conversation to continue, despite the other two’s obvious desire to know more and she called an end to the meal and conversation. The others accepted graciously and then headed to bed. Gwenvair, however, had many needed preparations if tomorrow was to be their last day.

She called for the house steward and while she trusted the steward to get the tasks done, she did not reveal details on what their group would be doing. They would gain the villa to themselves after she was gone and likely no one in the clan would even know the villa was technically clan property. Messages were prepared and sent out, messenger boys called and messages memorized before they ran off to pass them on, scattering across the entire city.

Those that needed to go into the inner city and into the clan grounds itself would run on the morrow, delivering their messages when they arrived and the gates were opened to allow others in. She and Joe had spoken often over the last few days, covering details and plans, most of which she approved of. Joe, thankfully, was quite free in the actions he desired, and allowed her leeway to accomplish tasks, often trusting her in how such actions would be taken. Some few where they conflicted on, Joe allowed her knowledge of Galgandar clan particulars to guide rulings and only in one thing had Joe been adamant, unwilling to bend. She considered this last request for some time, uncertain how any meaningful gain could be found, but it was really only the one request Joe had asked for that had concerned her. And the concern was not because it was unwise or that it would endanger them any more than any of their other plans and those they’d informed. Truly, her only concern was of the waste. She played with a strand of her hair before sighing and calling for one last messenger boy.

The message was passed on, verified, and completed rather quickly, the boy already running out the door to pass on the information. The house for the breeder girls was in the outer city and the messenger boy could easily reach it even in the night. They would not appreciate the late night message, but they would need all the time to prepare. Why? They offer nothing… Gwenvair sighed one last time and turned to her bed, then paused, calling for the steward of the home and demanded a hot bath for all in the early morning. The steward accepted the demand easily enough, if not exactly happily. All messages and plans complete, Gwenvair went to bed with anxious hope. It’ll work, right? And then we’ll all be safe, right? Fears invaded her dreams that night, but despite that, she slept well and long.

* * *

Kainaro the slaver woke with the witching hour and lay in his bed for several moments before he could steal his resolve. Dressing quickly, he covered everything with a heavy cloak pulled tight over his face before grasping the slaver tool and heading out. Making it downstairs to the common room and up to the door proved easy enough. Pushing himself to open the door and finally step out into the streets was a powerful struggle, fear twisting up and coiling through his heart.

He took a deep breath with closed eyes before reaching out and opening the door, eyes still closed. Another breath was needed before he finally opened his eyes and stepped out. He glanced around, unsurprised to find the streets empty. He came out and took in the streets then glanced towards the walls, quickly finding what he was looking for. Right. Clan that way, so… He turned in the opposite direction, easily finding the way towards the poor quarters, his long years of experience teaching him both how to find slaves and a deep understanding in how cities tended to develop.

Diving into the slums, he wisely stayed in the quieter wealthier parts of the poor quarters as most slaves of higher status tended to be uncomfortable with the truly poorer sections of the city. There were exceptions, of course, but his experience pointed him to search the obvious.

After almost an hour of cautious exploration, Kainaro began to doubt his expertise, cursing quietly under his breath as he continued his search for a little more before turning deeper into the depths of the true slums. An hour or two later had him completing his search of the entire poor quarters and also feeling very frustrated, his earlier tension and fear forgotten. Where is he!? Did he truly leave the city? I should have found him by now… or the city guard!

* * *

Joe roused as he always did in the middle of the night, although this rousing seemed more like a nightmare gripping his thoughts and ripping sleep from his mind than the normal slow rousing of rested sleep. He grumbled, still so exhausted from the long run in the dungeon the previous day, and turned back to sleep. But no matter what he tried, his mind twisted through the events of the day and stole sleep from him, and after a good ten or twenty minutes of struggle, Joe finally pushed himself from the bed and paced the room.

As was the case lately, it was not enough and he exited to the living room for more space then finally slipped out of the house to wander the streets. He didn’t know why, but wandering the streets was the only way to really calm the agitated itch that twisted through his mind the last couple weeks, his thoughts often driven to Garn… Kil… Joe grit his teeth and turned his mind away from them, taking a deep breath as he paused in the middle of the street to calm himself. After a few moments, he came to grips and moved on, turning the midnight walk into an attempt at an evening stroll, trying to keep his mind rather emptier just to enjoy the view, as best he could.

He glanced up and saw a quarter of the gas giant very low on the horizon, barely visible that low but still brightly burning light across the sky and he frowned a bit. Man… really late! Usually I’m out earlier… must be pretty tired, but… Joe shrugged it off. Makes sense… yesterday was very long… and I went to bed much later! Heh!

Joe relaxed, feeling a sense of normalcy return as he wandered the streets, taking the ones he’d always taken the last couple nights, circling the place they were staying a couple times before he would normally then feel relaxed enough to return home. His first circle around proved normal enough, although he found one new homeless person curled up at the entrance of an alleyway. He didn’t notice him the first time until he was already passed, taking the man or woman to be a pile of garbage. It was only with a glance back from a soft snore that drew his attention that he noticed. He thought little of it, and continued on, his mind wandering over their soon escape into the country side and the return to the village, plans and contingencies swirling through his mind.

However, on his next lap, knowing a new denizen occupied the place, he found his curiosity drawn to them and fixed his gaze as he came upon them. Huh… wonder what their story is. He sighed, stepping on while gazing at the pile of cloth. As he got closer, the bundle of cloth shifted, the person crying out softly in their sleep. Their face shifted from shadow into the brightness of the light cast by the gas giant and Joe froze, shock paralyzing him in place until rage overwhelmed and he lost all control of himself. Zilnek!

Joe found himself standing over the body of the prone Acokzau, spear in hand and already plunging to take the throat of Zilnek. Just when the spear point would have punctured his throat, Joe froze once again, awareness returned and rage warred with morality and mercy and for the first time in his life, Joe found himself struggling to control his anger. His morality shattered beneath the weight of his rage and the simplistic arguments for the superiority of mercy or calls for doing right seemed to pale before his desire to obliterate the being before him. He doesn’t DESERVE ANYTHING! The thoughts raged through him, and his mother’s soft teachings and his father’s stern examples felt like foolish sophistry against what the man had actually done.

His breath came in heavy pants even as his spear arm quivered, shivering against the equal demands to kill and resist what amounted to murder. His panting increased and his struggle to resist murder began to collapse before all-encompassing rage.

He didn’t know how long he stood there, spear in hand and begging to plunge into his throat. He saw nothing; only felt rage. He felt nothing; only saw Garnedell dead again and again. After a time, Joe slowly became aware again, his effort to resist finally calming his rage and when he realized who was he was looking at, the rage returned as cold controlled hatred. Zilnek… Joe grit his teeth, stared for a time then stood up, putting his spear away back into his inventory and turned away with the cold rage.

Something came to the edge of his attention, blue floating in a screen but Joe dismissed it in his rage. He cared not. His rage remained cold, but it pushed him, and he was marching around his circuit in a bit of a rush. By the time he’d returned, his rage was rather controlled but coming back around revealed Zilnek once again and the hot rage began to swell once again. Joe breathed, grit his teeth, closed his eyes, then took another deep breath. I can’t do this… I can’t…

Joe ground his teeth for a few moments, his body uncontrolled as his rage twisted and twitched his body in strange and grotesque ways. He took another deep breath and finally forced a decision. He looked at the man and walked up to the kid, pulled a couple cloaks out of his inventory and laid it across the boy cautiously before turning and walking away. I can’t stay… I can’t stay… Blue flashed into being at the corner of his periphery but he dismissed again, rage punching it away.

The rage began swelling again beyond his control and he turned to sprint away. I have to get away! I gotta get away! His thoughts sought any escape and finally he found something; an old plan he’d dismissed with a decision to give up on his revenge and rage, but with its return, he sought escape in an act that wouldn’t see a man dead.

Joe sprinted from the area into the night towards the walls of the inner city, howling in silent fury, mouth opened and arms and fists tensed in raging anger. No one heard the silent scream; the only man aware of the painful wrath the one expressing it.

* * *

Kainaro finished his sweep of the most disgusting and dirtiest sections of the poor quarters and turned to look back at the rest. He considered heading home, but he finally sighed and turned back to his search. Can’t fail this… really can’t.

* * *

Gwenvair shivered, calling softly in her sleep as unpleasant anger twisted through her dreams, shifting them closer to nightmares. She whimpered, and turned.

“No!” was the soft cry, although others included other forms of the negative.

But she did not wake, her exhaustion too complete to allow her to wake.

* * *

Joe raised through the narrow alleys and stayed away from the main thoroughfares, not wishing to be more of a target than a running man at midnight normally was. He came out of a small alley and hit the wide road that circled the inner city wall, leaving a wide empty kill zone of a good two or three dozen paces. The long width to the wall gave Joe the time to really open up the speed and he rushed at the wall. Stupid… stu… His mind shut off and he cared not. Anger drove him and he allowed it to do so.

Coming to the base of the wall, he planted his forward foot and took all his forward momentum and converted it to a jump that would push him up the wall. He knew that it was all pointless. The wall stood fifty meters tall and he wasn’t getting to the top of it. He just needed to get away from Zilnek before he did something stupid. All he could think was that it was better to do it here, away from any other, than where someone might die.

He squatted, taking his form deep to put his best and most explosive power into the leap and let his instincts drive him. Mana swelled from his core, spreading through his entire being and time slowed. Mana spiked down into his legs and swelled massively while another large chunk of mana punched down to his feet and passed it into the ground before spidering out like roots of a tree or badly made spider’s web spreading from both of his feet. He noticed it, but his rage was overwhelming and focused purely on his task.

Mana swelled, pumping from him and down into and around his body as if there was a heavy pump from some kind of heart. Again, he noticed, but cared little for what was happening except to notice it.

His knees continued to flex, lowering himself deeper to his optimum location to begin his leap. The moment compressing and things crushing together to form the leap like pieces of a puzzle slotting into place. Time continued to slow, the moment crystalizing to perfect clarity and all the parts of what was going into this leap indelibly burnt themselves into his mind even as perfection solidified and he knew that this was about as perfect as he could get in a leap.

He reached his perfect form, knees bent and ready to leap and time exploded! Wind rushed past his ears and he climbed into the sky like a rocket, the wall rushing past him at insane speeds until suddenly he was above the wall a good dozen meters or so and staring down into the inner city. Shock shuddered through him, absolute and crushing the rage that had been driving him. Joe began tilting forward as the wall passed underneath him, arms wind milling to keep his orientation as he rushed back to the ground below.

* * *

Guarding the inner wall was rather boring because nothing ever happened on the wall that separated inner and outer city. He tended to prefer looking into the inner city than the outer, but the sound of rushing wind had him spin around. He rushed to the walls edge overlooking the outer wall then froze, staring up into the sky to see a form leaping up and over him, clearing the wall in a single leap. He froze, terror twisting through him. Please… please don’t see me! Don’t see me! I’ll say nothing! Nothing!

Remaining frozen for a few moments more until a rumbling thunk echoed in the inner city behind him, he then turned and marched away at rapid speed. Nope…. Nope nope nope! Not my clan, not my level, not my problem!

* * *