"Are you sure about this?" Lowe asked dubiously.

The closest Dungeon to the Celestial Temple was surprisingly near where Latham had outlined his plan. It was easy to forget when going about your normal business in Soar that - within walking distance - were these giant infrastructures just beneath your feet.

It had been a short stroll to the stone staircase that led to the undercity and then a slightly longer walk to reach the staging area.

"If you know a better way to put on levels, I'm happy to hear it. Legally, of course. I'm assuming you'd look askance at me just beating people 99% to death and letting you make the finishing blow."

"I'm just going to throw that out there, shouldn't you be looking askance at that?"

Latham shrugged. "If you think I reached my illustrious level without making questionable moral choices, you're kidding yourself. I doubt anyone above Level 40 in the city hasn't needed to treat 'right' and 'wrong' with an element of pragmatism. If you'd like, I can call in a few favours in the cells. There's all sorts of high-level fuckers down there no one would miss."

Lowe wasn't sure if Latham was joking, but looking at the man's severe and broad face, he decided he probably wasn't. "So, just as a standing order of business, shall we take murder off the table?"

"Suit yourself. Well, that does kind of leave us with limited options to help you quickly jump five levels. This being the most obvious one."

Lowe looked at the console pillar in front of him. It stood about four feet high, its chipped stonework revealing its age. The inscriptions that ran up and around its base may have said anything: if you squinted just right, you might make out the words "Abandon All Hope" or maybe "Beware of Dog"—Lowe thought it was hard to tell, really.

At the top of the pillar, a gemstone, the size of a dragon's egg, sat nestled in a cradle of bronze. Every few seconds, it emitted a half-hearted glow as if unsure whether it wanted to light up or return to bed.

The pillar’s control panel itself was a testimony to overengineering: a series of levers, buttons, and dials covered its front, with one particularly ominous button labelled "Do Not Press." The lever next to it was stuck in a position that could have been "Open Sesame" or "Release the Kraken."

Quite a queue was building up behind Lowe as he took all this in, but - hardly surprisingly -no one was that anxious to give a the hurry up. "So, what do I do?"

Latham reached forward as if to touch the gemstone, then hesitated. "I better not touch it. I'm good, but there is no way I will be able to power-level you through a dungeon that is appropriate to me. Put your hands on either side of the stone and clear your mind."

"Fuck's sake, noob. Get a move on!"

Latham turned around and glared at Level 58, almost bouncing up and down in frustration. "I so much as hear you breathe again, and the only place you will be going is the Medical Tower. In pieces."

The moaner flushed red. As a , and a highish level one at that, he probably wasn't used to being spoken to like that. Pride warred with self-preservation, and he took a half-step back.

Hoping to avoid conflict - Lowe assumed Latham could take the guy, but the fallout was likely to squash the lesser beings in the queue flat - he put both hands on the console and cleared his mind.

Dungeon Delving had never really appealed to him. Even in a profession that was solitary by its very nature, he had been considered a loner in the Security Services. Success within a Dungeon needed you to make nice within a team, and that had never been his preferred approach to things.

In fact, his lost Class had given him all sorts of crunchy benefits for operating alone. Besides, joining a random pick-up group to grind out some XP had just had no draw.

"Welcome, Jana Lowe," a screen popped into being above the gemstone, filling the centre of his vision. "Please select your chosen difficulty."

A large number of greyed-out options appeared before him. The only one he could seemingly select was 0-5.

"Fuck's sake." Latham was reading the screen over his shoulder. "Have you seriously never done any of these?"

"I told you I hadn't. So what do I do?"

Latham gave a weary sigh. Lowe was starting to get used to hearing him make this noise around him. "No choice, really. Just pick it. We might able to get some sort of bonus if we're quick about it."

Lowe chose the option, and a further three screens appeared.

* Castle of Otrantly

* Swamp of Melum

* Forest of T'Keth

"Shit, I forgot about all this crap. Little man, you are fucking disgrace. My niece has done these three and plans to be a . Fucking hell. We're going to be here all day. Just choose the Castle."

Lowe did so, wisely biting back any snark. From what he understood, what Latham was proposing was the sort of deal only the highest of high spenders had access to. Letting a veritable, certified monster boost you through dungeons for the XP was frowned upon, but it was one of the easiest ways those of an insanely high level could generate gold for the gear they needed. For example, Latham could have hired himself out - for one boosted run - to that Level 58 Paladin for several years' salary as a .

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Once Lowe had selected the Castle, there was a short countdown, and then he felt the same way he did when operating a portal stone. His eyes streamed with tears, and—when they cleared—he stood in the middle of a medieval Castle's courtyard.

Latham was next to him, a look of profound disgust on his face. "Do you know how long it's been since I had to come to this fucking place? Shit, let's get this over with."

"What do you want me to do?"

Latham strode to the door in the corner of the room and kicked it open. "Just try to keep up."

*

It took three minutes for the to complete the dungeon, and that was only because he got lost at one stage and had to bring down an entire section of the wall in order to get back on track.

Lowe was intellectually aware that the colossal number of casualties that were racked up was not 'real' in any way that made sense to him, but he still found the level of slaughter distressing.

The Dungeons that dotted the continent had been uncovered centuries past and had been a mainstay for those seeking XP ever since. For a small fee, people could be transported to an instance of another location - and a different time - and work their way through a series of mini-bosses before ultimately battling a boss who would drop level-appropriate loot.

The residents of these Dungeons were, for all intents and purposes, 'alive', but no matter how many times the individual Dungeons were completed, the set-up remained the same.

"Who are these all?" Lowe said, looking - although not too closely - at the defeated boss. He had been an eight-foot tall . Or he had used to be. Latham had chopped him into two, even four-foot sections with one swing.

"Who cares?" Latham's eyes unfocused for a second in a way Lowe recognised meant he was checking out his stat sheet. "Fucking hell. I got more XP for my last bowel movement."

The Castle vanished, and the two were stood back at the console pillar.

"Go on, time's a wasting. Let's get cracking."

"You're not doing a second? For fuck's sake, you know the rules . It's one and done. Everyone knows that." The had managed to find both his balls and also failed to read Latham's level of frustration.

Sensing some real-world violence was imminent, Lowe chose the Swamp and triggered the console.

*

It took most of the rest of the day before they reached the Dungeon Latham had initially planned to power-level Lowe through. The queue behind them had become disgruntled, then irritated and then, finally, vocally pissed off. So much so that, at one stage, they'd returned from burning the fleet of a Pirate King to ashes to find a waiting for them.

Like Latham, she was a Level ?? and did not look like she was delighted to make the pair's acquaintance. The was almost effervescent with joy at this turn of events. "Warder Latham, am I to understand you are hogging this console?"

The woman's voice was oddly raspy as if she had spent her life on smokers. Compared to Latham, she was ridiculously delicate in size - was she some sort of gnome? - but obviously had the power to bounce Lowe around the staging area without using a single Skill.

He briefly wondered if he'd enjoy it, but one glance at her expression cleared that up nicely.

"Keeper Rosaline, long time no see."

The small woman glanced at the console and then turned and spat on the floor in disdain. "Power-levelling, Latham? I never thought I'd see the day." She then glanced at Lowe and then up above his head. "And a Classless at that?"

"A guy's got to do what he needs to do to make it through the day. Especially when a certain Keeper refuses any attempts to go for a drink."

"So, it's because I stood you up that you're causing a ruckus at my work? Smooth. What would you do if I fucked your mate? Level this place?"

Lowe enjoyed the moment of awkwardness. Although he was growing to appreciate Latham's protection, the whole omnipotent, insufferable thing got old.

"Look, I know this has taken a while. Trust me, it was never part of the plan. But he's never so much as stepped in one of these places before, so I've had to put in more groundwork than expected."

A little burst of air exploded upwards to move a stray strand of hair from the Keeper's forehead, followed by a little puff of mist over her face. Lowe took another step back. He seriously doubted he wanted to be too close to a Level ?? Kineticist if she decided to get into it with Latham.

"I'm hearing a lot of 'your problems', but I am unclear how they became mine?"

"Look, I just need to run him through 'Ambush at Iralkion' one time. We've unlocked it now. Just one more run. Please?"

If the had been pissed off before, the look she gave Lowe now could have curdled not only milk but the entire herd of cows.

"Fucking hell. The gods save us from noobs."

"Tell me about it. Just one more run. No need to be a fey-bitch about it, Ros."

"Don't call me that." There was a pause during which Lowe was sure the

The groan from behind them stopped the moment Rosaline glanced backwards. The pulse of fire that whipped over their heads probably had something to do with their new-found respect too . . .

"Thank you, Keeper. One run, and we'll be out of your hair." Latham motioned for Lowe to access the console and to be quick about it.

Needing no further encouragement, he leant forward and selected the 20-30 option for Dungeons, which was no longer greyed out. He was about to choose 'Ambush at Iraklion' when the Keeper leant forward and tapped it for him.

The words changed colour, taking on a deep, glowing red, and two skulls appeared on either end of the phrase.

"Ros, that's not going to work for us. Dude's Classless!"

"Tell it to someone who cares. You've blocked this console for the last few hours, and - what's worse - you've caused me to need to get out of bed on my day off. I have no fucks left to give if your little payday doesn't come through. Truly, my fucks have run dry as far as you are concerned."

Latham looked at Lowe, grimacing. "We can come back tomorrow, little man?"

Rosaline shook her head. "Nope. I'm locking you out for the week. Need to show that don't get any special treatment."

There was a reasonably comical moment whilst the vast man and the tiny woman squared up. Mainly because the pretty gnome clearly got the better of the hulking giant in the face-off.

"Shit," Latham sighed. "You win. Come on, let's go. We can find a different way to do it."

Lowe paused, hands hovering over the console pillar.

Truth be told, he'd made out like a bandit during the day's Dungeon runs. Not so much in terms of XP, Latham was too insanely over levelled for that, but in terms of coins and gear, the gains had been insane. By the time he'd flogged all the stuff he'd accumulated to the nearest , he reckoned he'd be close to bringing one of his skills to the Epic tier.

But the point of this exercise hadn't been about money or Skill upgrades. It'd had been to get him access to the Celestial Temple. For that, apparently, they needed this last run.

How hard could it really be? Lowe triggered the instance before Latham had the chance to clear that one up for him . . .