We decide to hunt on the fifth floor. It is a maze that Zeteo confirms he can get us through easily.

I am prepared. I have a map of the entire dungeon thanks to Zeteo and his control of my C-unit. I make my way up to the fifth floor, tunneling easily through the stone even liquifying myself a set of stairs. I have to mute the uncomfortable sounds of so much limp stone through my helmet.

Thermons are the target. They are dual-cored, oversized gorilla looking beasts that are ambush predators. They hide in the stone itself, attacking their prey without warning. Crushing them with superheated bodies in a brutal hug of death, or pummeling them with wrecking ball sized fists.

I am so happy to have someone to talk with. I only ever dared to dream that maybe I would be able to talk with other Harvesters, when I joined a real squad. This is better I think. The Vangians are a ruthless, broken people.

Then I think of Khloris. She was kind. They can’t all be bad. Maybe I am the one that is broken. That does seem pretty accurate.

After all, I have just willingly partnered with a dungeon that has probably killed more people than the Vangians have during its thousands of years. Not only that, the dungeon eats them.

I don’t have all of my memories. I couldn’t bring the entirety of my being into your body, but I can tell you with certainty that I have not “eaten” more people than the holy war has. Zeteo says defensively. Then he sounds sad.Vangians once wiped out an entire planet because they were too strong to conquer with troops. Even without advanced technology the Ildren were unbeatable on their planet. They never even saw the moon sized rock the Vangians dropped on them.

Shit you can still hear my thoughts?

Yes, only some. I heard the eating Vangians part pretty clearly. I am a predator, and I have been successful. I won’t apologize for it. Vangians are the only beings to visit anymore.

How do you know the Vangians committed Xenocide?

You are not the first Vangian I have talked to. I’ve had conversations with a few of your kind over the centuries. For a long time your people would confess their sins to me.

I was never taught that piece of history. It’s fascinating.

I enter the fifth floor maze, coming up through the floor of what Zeteo called a safe room. Even from here I can feel a Thermon waiting on the other side of a door marked with a beware symbol. If Zeteo was still a part of the dungeon, I would not be able to sense the creature, or manipulate any of the stone of this maze. With him inside me instead, I should be able to kill the Thermon easily, just crush its skull while it thinks it is hidden from me, conveniently already in a tomb.

On instinct I reach out to do exactly that, confident in my new abilities.

It explodes into action before I can Gain control of the stone, erupting into the hallway on the other side of the door. Then the door slams into me, knocking me back a step. It comes to rest in front me, crumpled. It happens so fast, and without a sound.

With a thought, I unmute. Stupid mistake. The roars of the creature are so loud it’s hard to believe I couldn’t hear anything through the armor.

The Thermos doesn’t give me time for anything else, it’s already hurtling at me, thick, red hot glowing arms outstretched. It bellows angrily as it charges Wildy.

I dodge the embrace, ripping strength from the stone around me. I land a solid blow to the back of its head as it flies past me.

The safe room melts, limp stone dripping from the ceiling and down the walls. It splashes thickly as we stomp around. The piercing sounds the stone makes is lost to the screams of the Thermos trying to kill me.

When the enraged gorilla swings at me I bat the arm away, and slam my armored foot into the side of the beast's knee. it swings again, and I go low this time, angling for another kick to its knee. Something cracks but it doesn’t go down. It just get angrier.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I have to leap back from another swing, and return two swift jabs of my own. It doesn’t even seem to notice my fists wailing against its face. It dives at me again trying to hold me in place. I grab an arm and use my hips to throw it to the ground, limp stone flying in every direction. I stomp on its face once, twice, still holding an arm.

The arm I’m holding pulls me towards it before I release it, and the beast's other arm catches me with a powerful blow, straight into my chest. From a prone position the strength behind that strike was incredible, and I slide backwards through a puddle of liquid stone.

I am uninjured and still standing, but my armor is cracked and burnt. Another roar, and it charges again in another simple headlong rush, arms to its side.

I sidestep, easily avoiding an awkward grab, and I stomp kick the same knee again. Something pops this time. The full weight of the Thermos is too much for its knee to support now and it stumbles. I mercilessly kick the knee again as it tries to keep itself up, and fails. The beast’s roars become pained for the first time.

I do not pause, smashing it relentlessly while circling it, keeping out of its reach. I aim for the head and neck.

It notices my blows now.

The wild creature fights to the very end, screaming and roaring until it slumps to the ground and its glow begins to fade as it cools. Its head is pulped and unrecognizable.

My armor is covered in blood. It has held up well, only slightly burnt, and a spiderweb of cracks marks my chest.

We should grab the cores and go, a new team of Vangians has entered the dungeon, eight of them. They are rapidly heading in this direction, one floor above us. They brought large weapons, and are breaching my walls probably looking for me, or whoever “killed” me. They seem pretty angry.

I don’t want to have to fight an entire squad of whoever was sent to investigate the dungeon. I remove both cores from the steaming corpse swiftly, A Thermal and a Geo. I can’t wait to absorb the Thermal core.

The room is a mess, the limp stone already rehardening as it absorbs ambient mana from the air, and even the corpse. The walls look like wax, melted in drooping waves. The ground around the dead Thermos is already rock hard again, but brittle. It has clamped down on the submerged parts of the body. It’s a macabre sight, like the work of a deranged sculptor of flesh and stone.

With a beast core in both hands. I tunnel upwards again, careful to replace the stone behind me this time. The screams of displaced stones should be lost as I put enough distance between me and the squad behind me.

I go like this for a time, just beneath the surface of the planet, in the general direction of the space elevator. I make holes for air ahead of me while I walk, keeping them as inconspicuous as possible. My suit isn’t equipped to provide me with breathable air, but it can filter and purify.

A relatively small mountain range stands between us and the elevator. I’ll stay underground until I reach the trees in the shadow of the mountains, and I can decide how to proceed from there.

Zeteo, you said you chose me because my Angos’ are unique, and that I have more than three right? Does that mean I can still absorb a core into my Nouse? Can I absorb more than one core in each?

What I said was I chose you because you are an oddity. While you are unique in that you are you, I doubt you are the only one with layered Angos’. I’ve only started scanning your kind as they enter me in the last century or so.

He pauses for a moment as I walk through the dripping tunnel. I have to walk slowly, replacing the stone behind me is tedious.

It does seem likely that you will be able to absorb more than one core in each. I can not tell you how many with any certainty though. My scans are different than Vangian scans. The information I receive is more a feeling than hard data. I’ve had to reverse engineer everything brought into me, and then make it so that I can use it.

It is dark when we arrive at the base of the mountain range. I wait a while, just to be sure we have no pursuers. I sense a cave nearby, unoccupied. I leave my subterranean hiding place, and walk to the cave to settle in for the night. I am drained from my fight, and the sheer amount of stone I have manipulated.

I can absorb the thermal core in the morning, and We can come up with a plan tomorrow, but for now I just need some sleep.

I decide to leave the armor on, it’s actually quite comfortable, and temperature controlled.

I will watch over you while you sleep Quall. You were impressive today! Thank you for allowing me to travel with you, this is the most fun I’ve ever had!

I am glad you are here with me Zeteo. Do you sleep?

Not really. I have before sort of, when I was really bored , or when I didn’t have anything to eat for a long time. That’s more of a hibernation though. I’m excited to watch you sleep!

I decide to just ignore the creepiness of that last statement. I’m too tired. My thoughts turn to worries for the future. I have no idea what I should do next. I don’t know how I’ll get food, or gain access to the space elevators, let alone a ship. I don’t know how I’ll avoid the Vangian military. For all my worries, one thought makes me smile as I drift to sleep.

I am not alone.