Daniel unlocked the front door of his house and walked inside. There in the living room of their small house his father sat reclined in his customary spot on his favorite chair taking an afternoon nap. His father loved that chair more than Daniel thought was normal, but who was he to judge. As a young man not much older than Daniel was now his father had bought that chair. He had saved for years to buy a chair that he could use for the rest of his life. He had taken great care of that chair over the years and to his younger self’s credit it still looked almost brand new even after owning and using it every day for a little over thirty years now.

“Hey, Pops! I'm home from school.” Today had been the last day of his junior year of high school, and summer vacation had just begun.

His father woke up with a slight jolt. “Ah, Daniel, you're home.” His father stood from his recliner and grabbed a duffel bag that had been on the floor next to it that Daniel had not noticed until his father had grabbed the bag and tossed it to him. “Quickly come with me I have a surprise for you. I already packed your bag. Get changed into some outdoors clothing and meet me in the car. I'll be waiting for you, everything is already packed.”

Before Daniel could even say anything his dad was already out the door, and a moment later Daniel heard the sound of his dads pickup start up. With nothing else to go on Daniel went to his room threw his backpack in the corner and got changed. He was ready and out the door in five minutes. Daniel hopped into the passenger seat and put on his seatbelt. A second later his dad had pulled out of the driveway and they were off to god knows where.

Daniel was only able to hold in his curiosity for five minutes before he began to pester his dad with questions, but his father remained steadfast and didn't tell him anything besides that they were going camping somewhere special. Daniel knew his father, so he knew he wouldn't be getting any more information from his dad. Instead Daniel turned the conversation to other things, and just like that the three hours drive went by in the blink of an eye as they talked.

Eventually my father got off the highway and started taking some one lane roads. By this time they were deep in the middle of nowhere. Daniel knew that they had to be getting close so Daniel risked asking another question. “Where are we going exactly?”

“I asked for a favor from a friend of mine asking if we could go camping on his property for a couple of nights. With your classes finally being done it will be good to get away from the city for a couple of days. Also don't forget I still have a special surprise waiting for you.”

A few minutes later they arrived at a closed off gate. His dad reached over and handed him a key. Go open the gate for me. With a nod Daniel hopped out, unlocked the gate and held it open for his dad as he drove through. After closing and relocking the gate Daniel got back into the car and they were off again. The property they drove through was gorgeous and very well maintained. Taking up the center of the property was a very large grassy hill that stood alone surrounded by trees. His dad drove all the way up to the base of the hill where he stopped and parked the car.

“From here we hike.” His father turned and looked at Daniel. “We will be camping at the top of the hill. Its peak is nice and flat so we won't have any problems with setting up tents.”

“Why are we camping up there?” Daniel asked his father.

His father just smiled at him. “It's part of your surprise. Now give me a hand unloading the car. We will need to make a few trips to get all of the gear up there, and we will want to finish setting up camp before the sun sets in about an hour and a half.”

Together he and his dad got to work hauling their gear to the top of the hill. Together it only took them a couple of trips. Then they got to work setting up their tents. Once they finished setting up camp the sun had finally just set, and his father had started making dinner on a gas powered stove they had brought. Dinner was fairly basic. They had mac and cheese with chunks of sausage mixed in, but Daniel thought it was delicious.

After they had finished eating his father got to his feet and gestured for Daniel to follow. They walked to the edge of the hill away from the fire light. There he sat down then laid down on the grassy hill. His father patted the ground next to him. “Come lay down with me. Your surprise should be starting any minute now.”

Daniel laid down on the grassy hill next to his father and looked up at the night sky. Hovering large and bright in the sky was the full moon which shone down its radiance. The moon was not the only thing that hung bright in the sky. Being so far away from the city the sky was filled with stars that tried their best to out shine the moon. Then out of nowhere Daniel saw a shooting star. In a joking tone Daniel turned to his father and said, “Make a wish.” His father didn't turn his head to look at Daniel, but from his silhouette he could see that his father was just smiling. Daniel turned back to look at the night sky.

Just then Daniel saw another shooting star then another. Before Daniel knew it the whole sky was filled with comets streaking across the sky. Daniel saw at least half a dozen meteors a second streaking across the sky. Daniel watched for several minutes in stunned silence before his dad finally broke the silence.

“I hope you are enjoying your surprise.” He said somewhat rhetorically.

Daniel was still stunned and it took him a minute to gather his thoughts enough to speak. “Dad, this is amazing. I have never seen anything like this before in my life. This has to be the most amazing thing I have ever seen.”

“Good, I'm glad you like it. Your grandfather did something very similar to this for me when I was about your age. I thought it would be fitting to do the same for you. I was hoping I could find a good meteor shower for you sometime over the summer while you were out for school, but wouldn't you know there just so happened to be one on your last day of school. What are the odds?”

“How long is this going to last for?” Daniel asked.

“Oh, if we are lucky… a couple of days.”

There was no more conversation for a while after that. Daniel and his father just looked up at the sky observing one of the natural wonders of the world. Eventually they he made small talk as they watched. They talked and laid on the grass all night until the sun crested the horizon ushering in a new day. At this point Daniel was barely able to keep his eyes open. His dad helped him up and walked Daniel to his tent.

“Get some sleep buddy. I’ll have some food ready for you when you wake up.” With that his dad zipped his tent closed, and made his way back to his own tent to also get some sleep.

Daniel however had not heard anything his father had said. By the time he had laid down on his sleeping bag he was fast asleep.

This was how the rest of their weekend went. They would stay up all night talking about random subjects as they watched the meteor shower. Then they would sleep until the afternoon when they would make food and go hiking around the property his dad had taken them to. On the third and final night as the meteor shower slowed down and they would only see a couple of comets a minute his father broke out a telescope he had borrowed from another friend.

Neither of them knew much about the stars and constellations, but with the help of the internet they managed to locate all of the major constellations, as well as several of the other planets. In this way the night quickly passes. That morning they once again slept until around 2 pm. They then ate a quick meal before they began packing up camp to head back home.

Once everything was loaded back into the car Daniel looked at his father. “Hey dad.”

“Yes Daniel?”

“Thanks for taking me out this weekend. I had a great time.”

“That's great to hear Daniel. If you want we can do this again sometime.”

“That would be awesome.”

With those words the memory that Daniel had been reliving faded from his mind. He could feel the tear streaking down his face at the bittersweet memory. They never had managed to go watch another meteor shower. The timing of school and his dads work had just never managed to line up like that again. And just a few years later his dad had gotten cancer. After a long hard fight, his father had lost his battle to the cancer.

Daniel wiped away the tears from his eyes. He then took a moment to gather himself before he looked down. There in his lap was a leather bound book. Daniel took the book in his hands which were slightly shaking. Opening up the book Daniel saw the memory he had just lived through play out in still frames on the pages before him as he quickly flipped through the book. With a thump Daniel closed the book.

There was one last step Daniel needed to do to gain the skill, and it was by far the simplest. With one final deep breath Daniel placed the book onto the bookshelf in front of him. A moment later Daniel the ding which he now associated with gaining a new skill ring in his mind. Without any hesitation Daniel opened up the new notification.

Congratulations, through your own efforts and your skill as a psionic you have learned a new General Class Skill ‘Stronghold of the Mental Archive’

(T5:G) Stronghold of the Mental Archive ( 1/5 ): you are a defender of knowledge and should any try to raid your mind to destroy such knowledge they shall discover the fortress you have made to protect your mental library. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).

Level 1 (Passive): Enhanced the resilience of any defensive structures made in your mindscape by 5%. You are also able to make information and memories into tomes made of psionic energy. You will be unable to forget any knowledge contained in these psionic tomes while they are placed on a shelf in your mental library. Increase the speed of recalling any information in psionic tomes by 5%.

Level 2 (Passive): Enhanced the resilience of any defensive structures made in your mindscape by an additional 10%. Enhance your memory recall of psionic tomes in your library by an additional 10%. (Current bonus 5% and 5%)

It was a great skill just like Ulgatha had promised. I would help him in both protecting his mind and in collecting and storing information. Even now the psionic tome containing the memory of Daniel and his father was fresh in his mind. He could recall any part of the memory with just a bit of effort. When viewing the memory it felt like Daniel was watching a video and was able to skip to any part of the memory at will and continue watching it from there. Daniel sat there with his eyes closed for several long minutes replaying some key moments from the weekend he and his dad had spent together.

Eventually the sound of footsteps on stone brought him out of his recollections. Daniel opened his eyes to see Ulgatha standing before him. It was still slightly weird to Daniel that she now lived in his mind, but it was just something he would have to live with from now on. “What can I do for you Ulgatha?”

“I think the real question is what I can do for you. I told you before that I can read your surface thoughts, but with your surface thoughts also come your emotions. I don't know what memory you used at the foundation you used to make your ‘Stronghold of the Mental Archive,’ but I know it was one that holds great personal importance to you.”

“It was a memory about me and my father and a camping trip we went on together.” Daniel looked at the ground as he spoke, not wanting to look at Ulgatha. She didn't say anything in response. If she could feel his emotions she could probably guess what was going on in his head.

Ulgatha walked over and sat on the floor next to Daniel. They were quiet for several minutes until she eventually broke the silence. “The skill you just gained is considered powerful for many reasons, but the primary one is its ability to perfectly preserve memories. This ability however is a double edged sword. The mind is sometimes meant to forget things as time dulls the events of the past.”

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Even though Ulgatha was now sitting next to Daniel he still did not turn to look at her, “But what if I want to remember.”

She was once again silent for a minute as she gathered her thoughts about what to say. “Imagine for a moment that you made a book that contained the memory of the worst moment of your life. You would forever have that memory preserved for the rest of your mind. The emotions of that memory would be just as fresh as the day the event had occurred. Imagine what something like that would do to your mind over the course of years or even decades. It would eventually drive someone with extremely high Willpower insane. On a much smaller scale this is what you are experiencing now. Even though the memory contained in the psionic tome you made is a happy one with it now being so vivid in your mind compared to your other memories you can't help, but replay it over and over again. It's like an itch you need to keep scratching. If you continue down this path the emotions this memory evokes in you will eventually turn sour as you think about how much better life was before.”

“What do I– No, what do we need to do?” Daniels' voice slightly cracked as he held back tears. Seeing his father again had been harder for Daniel than he had expected, and even now his emotions were in turmoil.

“Well, the first and easiest step we can take is adding more psionic books to your new mental library that are more focused on knowledge and information. These kinds of books do not carry any of the emotions that a tome based on your own memories bring with them. I have already started on organizing the information contained within your mind with the psionic constructs you made. This brings me to another reason I had you learn this skill. I as a psionic being am also able to make psionic tomes. This is not something unique to me, but something all psionic beings connected to the psionic web can do. I mentioned to you before that knowledge is the primary currency for psionic beings, and these psionic tomes is the primary way this knowledge is traded between psionic entities. I will be able to make tomes with the knowledge scattered in your mind by your feet and shelve them in your mental library.”

Daniel just sat and listened to Ulgatha's short speech. As she spoke she gathered himself, and when her speech ended Daniel spoke. “What do you need from me to speed up this process?” His voice cracked a little when he spoke. His emotions were still in turmoil.

“Well, there are two things you can do to help at the moment. The first is to make some raw building materials. You have made your psionic library, but we still need to make fortifications to defend it. It would take you a lot of psionic energy to make the defenses yourself, but if you make raw blocks of stone I can direct the psionic worker constructs to actually build the fortifications. We will also need many many more psionic constructs. Based on my current estimates on how fast you generate psionic energy you should be able to safely make ten worker constructs and one psionic legionnaire every hour.”

Daniel nodded and stood. Together he and Ulgatha walked out of the mental library. They emerged at the base of the grassy hill. Daniel walked about twenty feet away and began to use his psionic creation to make piles of nearly stacked blocks of stone. After he had made around twenty piles Ulgatha told him to stop.

“This will be plenty for the time being. I would just say to make another couple of the piles every time you enter the mindscape to make more constructs just to make sure we don't run out.” Ulgatha gestured around them. “Soon your mind will be a fortress. Just leave it to me.”

Daniel nodded his agreement. “Thanks for all of your help Ulgatha. You have helped me more than you know.”

“It was my pleasure Daniel. This is just the start of a long and fruitful relationship.”

Daniel gave Ulgatha a small smile and forced himself out of his mindscape. Daniel opened his eyes to the blank stone walls of his room in the training hall. He still sat cross legged on his bed. As Daniel moved from his cross legged position and flopped down onto his bed. His whole body complained as he moved for the first time in several hours. He had been sitting in that cross legged position for the last five plus hours while he had been in his mindscape. As he lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling the memory of him and his dad once again entered the forefront of his mind. Daniel however wasn't able to dwell on the memory for long.

As soon as Daniel had started moving Kota who had been resting on the floor next to his bed had stood and hopped up onto the bed. Kota then began to try and excitedly lick his face as he vigorously wagged his tail. Daniel laughed as he pet his companion. It seemed like Kota hadn't liked Daniel ignoring him for so long as he had been in his mindscape. Daniel spent the next several minutes playing with his dog. As he did the slight air of melancholy that had been clouding him faded away.

After playing with Kota for ten plus minutes his companion finally calmed down. Kota laid on the bed next to Daniel as he idly petted Kota's fur. His thoughts were a lot more clear than before as he laid on the bed next to Kota. Daniel thought about the conversation he and Ulgatha had just had before he had left the mindscape. With his mind more clear than before he was able to think more logically about what she had told him. She had been right. With the memory now being so fresh and vivid in his mind he just couldn't help thinking about it. His other memories were dull compared to it. Kota had helped him get out of his self imposed misery, but now he needed to do something. Daniel forced himself to sit up and get out of bed. He needed to do something to distract his mind.

Daniel left his bedroom and entered the main hall with Kota padding along behind him. Steve on any of the sofa’s of the main room, so he moved on. Daniel then entered the room where the obstacle course was. Steve also wasn't in this room, but that was fine. Daniel didn't need to go out of his way to look for the man. The training hall wasn’t that large and they would run into each other eventually.

Now that he was here Daniel considered what he should do. He still had several skills that he still needed to learn from Virgo’s guide to Skills Every Aspiring Adventure Should Have And How To Level Them. He still needed to follow his training plan for ‘Physical Fitness’ for a couple more days before he would gain the skill. He also still needed to learn a weapon skill for his maul and an armor skill.

Daniel decided to start with ‘Physical Fitness’ as a bit of a warm up. After his routine of stretching, weightlifting and some running Daniel moved onto his weapon skill. To gain a basic general skill for a weapon the process was relatively simple if a bit time consuming. Based on the information in the skill book Daniel would need to perform a number of different attacks on a target. There were a couple of other ways to gain the skill as well, but Daniel didn't think he would be able to show enough proficiency with the maul for the system to recognize him enough to gain the skill.

This process turned out to be easy for Daniel. The training hall had a weapons training guide where Daniel would follow one of the shadowy construct movements which showed the proper movements for various attacks. Daniel performed all manner of different attacks with his maul from various angles. overhead strikes, underhand strikes, horizontal strikes, underhanded strikes just to name a few. He also performed the same attacks with the spiked end of ‘Ice Fang.’ He also performed quick thrusting jabs with the top of the maul, and the bottom of the spiked handle. Daniel didn't know the technical terms for the attacks he was performing, but that didn't really matter to him. He was slowly learning the proper form and the correct ways to hold and wield his maul.

This process went on for a couple of hours of constantly swinging his weapon around. Daniel however never stopped to take a break because he never got tired. With his skills feat, and new capstone skill Daniel felt constantly refreshed as he trained. Towards the end of the second hour Daniel heard a ding in his head signaling that he had finally gained his new weapon skill. Without wasting any time he opened the new notification and read the skill.

(T1:G) Weapon Proficiency: Maul ( 1/5 ): You have just stepped onto the path of weapon proficiency. You may be a beginner now, but with dedication one day your weapon may become a part of you in such a way that it's an extension of your body. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).

Level 1 (Passive): Gain a 1% greater understanding of your maul and how to properly use it

Level 2 (Passive): Gain an additional 2% greater understanding of your weapon and how to properly use it. (Current bonus 1%).

Daniel nodded. Even now with just a 1% bonus Daniel could feel the difference. He instinctively held the maul in his hand slightly differently and it felt more comfortable in his grip. The skill book had said that weapon proficiency was the most common kind of evolving General Skill someone could get. Once Daniel got the skill all the way to level 5 he would be able to evolve it into Tier 2 skill. This would reset the level of the skill, but its bonuses and effects would be better. This process would continue through all of the tiers. Apparently some geniuses had such innate understanding of a weapon that they could gain a weapon proficiency skill all the way in the fifth tier, but of course something like that happening was exceedingly rare.

Now that Daniel had gained the weapon proficiency he was after Daniel then moved on to gaining an armor proficiency. Like before the training hall already had a built in program for gaining the heavy armor proficiency he was after. There was also an option to gain the shield proficiency at the same time so Daniel decided to do that as well.

The process started off by instructing Daniel how to properly equip his armor by showing him the proper way to adjust the straps which would allow the armor to fit more comfortably on his body and make sure that it did not restrict his movements in any way. The same thing was true for the tower shield Daniel decided to use. It showed him how to adjust the leather straps on his arm and how to help the shield.

Next came the hard part. Now that he was properly wearing his armor and holding his shield he now needed to use his armor and shield to defend himself. This is where the room he now stood in came into play. The room was a circular dome with holes evenly spaced about one foot apart which covered the whole room from floor to ceiling. Daniel stood in the center of the room with his shield raised ready for the next step.

Daniel stood there in complete silence waiting. Then he heard a ping behind him and he turned, raising his shield to cover his body. Daniel felt something impact his shield, then impact the floor. Daniel slightly relaxed and lowered his shield slightly. There on the floor he saw a metal ball about one inch in diameter rolling away from him. A moment later another ping sounded behind him. This time however Daniel wasn't fast enough to turn and the metal ball impacted on his back with a thud. Moments later another ping sounded above him and this time Daniel managed to couch and raise his shield above his head to block the metal ball.

This process went on for about an hour. The goal of this room was to use his shield or armored body to block the fast moving incoming projectiles. Every ten minutes the interval between projectiles decreased and the metal balls being shot at him got slightly faster which required Daniel to be even more precise when blocking the projectiles. Even if Daniel could not get his shield in the way of the projectiles fast enough he still needed to position his body in such a way that the balls impacted on one of his pieces of armor rather than his body.

It was a grueling way to train and if not for his ‘Troll Regeneration’ his body would have been covered in bruises. Thankfully these skills took much less time to gain than his weapon skill had been and only one hour into the training Daniel heard two chimes ring in his head. A moment later Daniel instructed the AI to turn off the room. Daniel exited the room and began to read his two new skills.

(T1:G) Armor Proficiency: Heavy Armor ( 1/5 ): You have just stepped onto the path of heavy armor proficiency. You may be a beginner now, but with dedication and training your armor will become another layer of your skin. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).

Level 1 (Passive): Gain a 1% greater understand of heavy armor and how to properly use it

Level 2 (Passive): Gain an additional 2% greater understanding of heavy armor and how to properly use it. (Current bonus 1%).

(T1:G) Shield Proficiency: Tower Shield ( 1/5 ): You have just stepped onto the path of tower shield proficiency. You may be a beginner now, but with dedication one day your shield may become a part of you in such a way that it's an extension of your very body. Cost to increase 2 Skill Point(s).

Level 1 (Passive): Gain a 1% greater understand of your tower shield and how to properly use it

Level 2 (Passive): Gain an additional 2% greater understanding of your tower shield and how to properly use it. (Current bonus 1%).

Daniel nodded happily at his improvements. He had done a lot of work to improve himself over the last couple of days after the events of the team dungeon and was happy with his progress so far. Moments later Steve walked into the training room.

Noticing Daniel he waved and walked over. “I see you are out of your room. How did the whole process of absorbing the skill gem and gaining your new specialization go? From how long you were gone I hope you have some good news to share.”

Daniel nodded and began to explain to Steve about the new specialization he had gained and about how there was now a psionic creature living in his mind. He also told Steve about some of what he had been working on in his mindscape, and the new general Ulgatha had given him. He left out some of the details about the memory of his dad, but finished off his explanation by telling Steve about the weapon, armor, and shield proficiency he had gained over the last few hours.

Steve breathed out a puff of air. “Well it sounds like a lot has happened for you over the last twelve or so hours. This psionic matriarch is now living in your mind.”

“Ulgatha.” Daniel said, interrupting Steve.

“Right, sorry Ulgatha. You said that she will be able to make essentially clones of herself that you are able to put into other people's minds which can help them defend and reinforce their mind? Is that right?”

“Yeah that's basically the gist of it. Why do you ask?” Daniel questioned.

“It just seems like a very strong ability that will continue to grow stronger as the network expands.”

Daniel hummed to himself in a thoughtful tone. “You know I hadn't thought of it like that before. Ulgatha had told me that her mother and this spider are the creators of the largest information network in the entire universe. I doubt I will ever get that large, but the implication of what I could do is surreal.”

Steve gave a loud hearty laugh then spoke with humor in his voice. “Well while you were working on your first steps to taking over the world I have been working on a few new spells, and I cleared a few more floors of the solo dungeon.”

“What were they like? Now that I gained some additional skills I was considering clearing the next few floors as well.”

“The basic answer is that there are more goblins and more varieties of goblins. On one floor in the final room there was even a lesser stone troll that was helping the goblins.”

Daniel and Steve talked about the dungeon for several more minutes. Eventually Daniel decided that he had heard enough and was ready to enter the dungeon once again. “Okay Steve, thanks for the information. I think Kota and I will try our luck at clearing the next couple of floors.

Steve nodded, “Okay sounds like a plan to me. Good luck there. Also remember John the other Hero I talked about should be arriving within the day just so you know.”

Daniel nodded his understanding then waved as he walked away. “Thanks for letting me know Steve.” Daniel walked out of the training room they had been conversing in. As he walked away Daniel turned his mind back towards the solo dungeon. It was once again time to kill some monsters and Daniel had to admit to himself that he was looking forward to it.