I let out a sigh of relief.

"Looks like we pulled it off. Great work guys." I congratulate them while trying not to wince. The adrenaline is starting to fade and I'm really feeling that hit I took.

Kurt gives me a pat on the back that would have been too hard even if I wasn't injured. "Didn't know you could pack a punch like that Thompson. Not bad!"

I shake my head, "I didn't either. It was more instinct than anything to be honest."

Carla whistles, "That's pretty dang good for self-taught. I'd have to put Luchi and Pele together for that kinda kick."

"Yes, that's all well and good but look at your clothes." Velora interjects with what feels like contempt. "You took a lot of unnecessary damage during that scuffle; I was sure someone with your reputation was a smarter combatant than that." I turn back to face her, she continued with her arms crossed and a look of disapproval. "If I had known you any better, I'd dare to say you were pantomiming. Acting in a way you thought was needed, but your reactions, your attack patterns, even the way you took point... It's like you're filling in for someone else."

Her gibbering was getting frustrating, "Listen I can take all the unsolicited criticism you want after this is over with. You won't have to work with me again if it suits you."

That seemed to frustrate her, she threw her hands up as if to say fine, whatever. I took the chance to break off from the conversation and start looking around for a way to the next floor. I scan the room for a few moments, to my horror I start noticing movement from the components that had been scattered throughout the room. They were converging on one another.

Luchi barked cautiously at the parts as they began to reform the machine's core and chest piece. I grit my teeth and grasp the saber hilt again. Kurt and Carla stand in front of me, readying spells. I must look worse off than I feel. I definitely didn't have another one of those sword bursts in me. Something was different this time however, the lights weren't gathering around Carla, Luchi, Pele, or Kurt. The centerpiece emitted a beam that coated everyone in blue light.

A display then appeared above the machine, this time showing an old man sitting in an office chair. He had an air of wisdom to him, kind of how I thought Hank would look in a few decades, except this guy traded in his suit for an embroidered lab coat. He had a pallor that lets you know right away that he never spent much time outside. Despite that, the geezer had a jawline like a sledgehammer, and a physique that would give Hank a run for his money even before he got injured.

"Hey, I know this guy from somewhere." Kurt pointed at the man in the display, the fire flickering on his fingertip looked like he was pointing a candle.

"Thomas Tinworth." Velora confirmed, "You could have at least read the titles on the portraits upstairs."

The video started, Thomas slicked his dull brown hair back and cleared his throat. "Congratulations, seekers of knowledge! Both scholars and plunderers alike, whoever you are you have proven yourself proficient enough to tackle the machine of merit, in one way or another. You may have surmised that this trial was not meant to be toppled by a single mage. However, in the off chance that you overtook this challenge as a solitary endeavor, I really must tip my proverbial hat to you."

We collectively roll our eyes as he does a weird little flourish with his hands and bows his head.

"Everyone remaining in this room has now permanently gained access to the halls of Tinworth Tower, an invitation has also been extended should you wish to work with the current head of the Tinworth house. You will find your new key cards being dispensed from the Machine of Merit momentarily. I wish you good fortune in your future pursuits."

The display dissipates and four metal cards slide out from the front of the machine's chest piece. Although it looks like we got what we need to move on, I'm hesitant to take another step towards that thing.

"Neat!" Carla wasn't with me in that sentiment. She lets out a whistle and sends Luchi prancing over to the machine to retrieve our prizes. "Go on Luchi good boy! That's the way!" His ears and tongue flop about as he grabs all four cards with a chomp and hurries his way back to the group, wagging his tail the whole way. This is just another day out to this mutt; he's having the time of his life. Carla nuzzles him briefly before taking the cards.

"Well dang, they even got our pictures on 'em. Catch Wy!"

She sends the card my way like a throwing star, splashing spittle on my shirt and face. I manage to force a grin and give her a nod.

"Here you are Tobias!" She slams his into his chest, he looks a little grossed out while he takes the card and wipes it onto his pant leg without looking at his picture.

Velora was ahead of both of us, meeting Carla halfway and carefully taking the card from her with a handkerchief she had handy. Because of course she did. She takes a glance at the photo before clasping her hand to her cheek in admiration. "My, my, I look rather fierce when I'm on guard! I can't wait to use this for reference."

"Uh-huh." I don't have it in me to humor her at this point. Only one fight in and I'm wearing down. What am I going to do once Strauss comes? I have to figure something out soon; I can't remember the last fight I was in where I didn't get mangled.

"Looks like we just use these things on that elevator we came in, right Thompson?" Kurt points out the obvious, probably because he saw me zoning out there. Get a grip, Thompson.

"Right, let's give these things a shot." We all gather into the elevator from before. Carla has Luchi jump into her backpack, and Pele is returned to her glove.

"One of you try and press your card on the tablet, so we can see how easy it is for you to access this place without me now."

Kurt flicks out his card and presses it against the tablet. We wait for a few a bit while the card takes on an orange glow form his channeling. "What am I supposed to be thinking here?"

"Just think about going deeper. Something along the lines of that."

He snorts trying to hold in a belly laugh.

"Really?"

Carla turns to me holding back tears, "You should really watch how you phrase things Wy...pft!"

*SHFF*

We've been jumbled around again, so it looks like Kurt can focus on a task after all. The door opens in front of him, and we each look over and around him to take a peek at what's next.

"Guys I think we found the mother lode! Finally got a way out of paying the school or some freelancing hack for a casting focus!" He runs into the room and starts darting around like a kid in a candy store. "There's gotta be something I can use in here! C'mon Thompson help me look!"

"We've got all day man, let's take our time." I call out to him, knowing it won't do me any good. Velora and Carla follow Kurt and start exploring the room as well. I make my way over to sending a tablet near the elevator door and give it a whirl.

PROTOYPE PLAZA

I start to relay what they could've learned if they had just slowed down a bit. "This place is where the researchers kept their unfinished works before ditching the tower to start at a new facility. Since we have access, everything is pretty much up for grabs. Just be careful and make sure to-"

"Hey check me out!" Kurt brandishes a hand caster, like most of the equipment seen on the racks and tables of this area, its materials were a clay-like bluish grey sort of color. He started to twirl it around on his finger and posing with it, which made me notice the design of its muzzle. It had a brake design to it that made my body jump up a couple notches in temperature when I realized what was going on.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"TOBIAS PUT THAT DOWN YOU PSYCHO!" I start to make my way over to him waving my hands, because I honestly don't know what else to do.

He keeps spinning it and gives me a sour look, "Relax, will you? I know this thing aint a toy. I'm the champ, remember? I'm the next top-ranking marshal in the-"

*POOMPF*

A bead of energy rockets into the ceiling, and explodes sending a wall of flame burgeoning back towards us. I can't believe what's happening to me, this idiot who I had just started to take a liking to is going to have us roasted before we can even make any progress! I never learned any sort of elemental emission, so I just hope that Velora and Carla can protect themselves, I know I'm toast. I can already feel my skin starting to boil up. I close my eyes and shut down completely.

But the heat begins to fade.

I open my eyes again to see Carla absorbing the brunt of the flames with her glove. The marking on it representing Pele's presence grows blindingly bright as it becomes a host to the insane output of magis Kurt just pulled off. Carla grunts as the energy struggles to settle within her grasp. "Ah dang, this really kills! I can't!"

"Release the bird into a corner or something before you lose your arm!" Velora barked.

Carla sends Pele flying into the furthest corner from us, the raptor became a sweltering singularity that caused us all to sweat in her presence, even those of us who were able to cast shields in time.

Which reminds me.

"Hey dipshit!" I stomp may way over to Kurt. I'm so pissed my breathing's gone ragged.

"Aw man, Wyatt, Carla I-"

I can't listen to another word. I can feel the stress already making my arm stiff as a board. Doesn't matter. I send my fist crashing into that empty skull of his. He hits the ground, but I stay on him. " You could have killed me!" I get a couple more hits in, but he stops using his arm to block and instead grabs my shirt to connect with a headbutt that has me reeling on the floor. "Fuck!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself Thompson, you dough-fisted dweeb!" He takes a step and kicks me, hard. Right where I had taken a hit from the machine earlier. It leaves me gasping for air, hacking before he sends another jolt of pain shooting up my ribs. I struggle to get back up until I hear growling and see a steady arc of electricity scorch a line between us on the floor.

Baring his teeth, Luchi decided to reel us in, bringing us both back to our senses. At least for a moment anyway.

I take a look at Carla, who has Velora tending to her arm. Judging from the fog coming off of her hand, she's making herself an ice pack for the time being.

*Ptoo*

Kurt spits some blood on the ground, I got him good. But on a closer look I see it's only because whatever tool he just set off completely sapped him. His movements were sluggish, and his right arm is just dangling at his side like a limp noodle. Even with that he still got over on me?

I rise back to my feet, trying to gather some semblance of a calm, rational thought. I bite my tongue waiting for something to come to me.

"Way to overreact bud." He hissed, "Seriously everything's fine. Carla handled it."

Screw it, I should've just shot him.

"She shouldn't have had to handle anything Tobias. Why in the name of piss did you decide to play around with a casting focus you didn't know a damn thing about? I really could have bit the dust there!"

He throws his hands up in frustration, "You could have just calmed down and put a shield on yourself instead of pissing your pants and throwing a tantrum. Everyone else did. It's a basic art!"

"Yeah, well I can't do that!"

"It's not my fault you didn't pick up the simple stuff and decided working with a basic element isn't worth your time. Maybe spend less time with your fancy gadgets and come back when you've got your fundamentals handled."

My jaw aches from gritting my teeth through all of this drivel. "I can't emit attributes you moron! I've never been able to as hard as I've tried since I was a kid. What's more, is you're missing the entire point of this conversation. Do you even know why I'm upset? Aside from the big fire. Like you said, whatever it got handled."

He crosses his arms and breaks eye contact, "How was I supposed to know that you of all people... "

"Seriously Kurt, think about what just happened and why the in the depths I'd be so pissed about this situation."

He looks back over to Carla and Velora for an assist, from the look on his face it doesn't seem like they're willing to oblige him.

"It's not fuckin' hard dude. After what we've been through lately, I started to think I could depend on you. The first person I call when I need something done, when Tyson first said he wanted to bring you along I thought he was being an idiot, but you really did come through when it counted. But then you do some shit like this, almost incinerating the room without a care in the world because you wanted to show off some shiny new thing you found. Yeah, he was an idiot and so am I."

His posture softens up a bit and he let out a sigh of exasperation. "Listen Thompson, I get it. I should have been more careful and considered everyone involved. Is that better? Sorry I clocked you and all that."

I don't know what I expected from him. The apology felt so half-assed, but I've wasted enough of our time bickering here and I might need him to get further than this. I'll swallow my pride for now, but this is the last time I compromise for this bozo.

"Yeah, yeah let's just salvage what we can from here I guess and move on."

The corner where Pele was released to was reduced to scorched earth, so about a third of the tech we could've made use of in here was reduced to molten scrap. I do my best to try and stay positive, there still has to be something around this place that I can make work for me or the others. Velora pokes around not too far from me, but she doesn't seem to be finding anything worth taking back either. After a handful of duds that I couldn't find any application for, a pewter colored kit catches my eye. I give the receiver tablet a quick scan and ponder the intel for a moment, inspiration strikes and I'm the most elated I've been in weeks. Jackpot.

Carla took notice of my mood change. "Find anything decent around here Wy? I can't make heads or tails of what I'm supposed to do with most of this stuff."

I give her a nod. "If this works the way I hope it does, given enough time this will give a lot of us a leg up! Or at least me. They're called reservation armaments; the basic idea is that the tech here siphons off some of your magis to be used at a later time. So you'd be working at a lower capacity than normal, but in a pinch you could ideally cash in on what you saved up for a power boost. Plus getting used to working at a lower capacity should help train to get more efficient at your general usage and output."

"Aw, well that sounds neat. I'll keep lookin' in this area and maybe we'll find somethin' that goes with it. I'm not expectin' to find anything super useful for my team, there's not really a way I think a tool could help us out."

"We'll see if I can't whip something up for you guys after I get some time to study, until then just keep working on your teamwork, and keep an eye out for anything I can help with."

"You betcha." She walks a few stations over and activates the tablet, and starts scratching her head at it. At the very least I appreciate how earnest her effort is.

Between Velora and I, we actually find a few decent components that we could make use of once we get back. The prospect of it excited me, I might even have even have enough to make a few casting catalysts for everyone. Soon enough I may not have to worry about my lack of affinity if I manage to use it all effectively.

Together we spent roughly an hour looking through what was left of the place, and ended up with quite a haul of stuff to work with.

"I believe we've done enough thrifting for today." Velora suggests, "Tobias dear, since you unwittingly cut our chances of a profound discovery earlier, and your arm seems to be feeling better, how about you put those muscles to work and start carrying our spoils to the surface?"

Kurt opened his mouth as if he had a retort in mind, but then his eyes flashed over to Carla and I. He opted to start picking things up without so much as a word.

Velora waits until she hears the elevator activate before she approaches me. "Are you alright?"

"Doing great." I feign as I study this last structure towards the center of the storage space.

"I had mistaken you two for being rather close... Carla and I gathered that you couldn't emit attribute based magis from our skirmish earlier, how did he not know?"

I shrug without looking her way, "Just never came up. Listen, I appreciate you trying to check on me, but I'd rather have some help figuring this thing out."

She clicks her tongue and decides to oblige me, " Well, it seems that this pylon has been given a fair amount of space from all of the other structures, and it there doesn't seem to be any corresponding one within the room. I trust you tried magis emission to check for feedback?"

"Obviously, with no response whatsoever."

We both stare at the pole, as if it would tell us its secrets if we only did that for long enough. Carla strolls are way with Luchi and Pele packed up.

"What're we lookin' at here?"

Velora and I don't break focus, "We're figuring that out, this thing is too out of place to not do something right?"

"Did you try-"

"YES" We groan in unison.

"Hm, well let me try mine, I guess. Maybe ya'll did it wrong." Carla whips out her key card and taps it onto the top of the pylon, which immediately responds by sinking into the floor and re-purposing the flooring beneath it to create a black rim, its circumference perfectly matching the space the original structure had between the surrounding racks.

"Okay I don't know why we didn't try that" I admit, embarrassed as we hop outside of the rim just in case. The black circle rises slowly to about waist height for me, and the flooring on the inside of the rim begins to collapse after some whirring noises go on for a few moments, a spiral staircase to a deeper level had formed. A fog rises up from beneath. The mist is cool to the touch, but smells like cleaning supplies.

The three of exchange looks of uncertainty. Our test dummy just went topside after all... I knew there had to be more to this, we're only two-thirds the depth Kurt and I went down in that tunnel at this point.

"So, who's going first?"