Xalazuniox took a moment to digest what Nero revealed. When he showed the cards he gained from farming the new Dungeon boss, he was forced to admit the boy's theory was correct. A piece of equipment and a Skill straight from the history books. As much as he wanted to trade these cards with Nero and add them to the Lyceum's museum, he couldn't bring himself to suggest that. He meditated for a moment and pushed his innate greed away. For all the boons the draconid race had, they also suffered from the woes of dragon-kind.

"These three cards can be your ticket to solving the issues with the kingdom, Nero," the draconid said. "The claw, on the other hand, I'm willing to trade with you. The Kingdom won't be interested in it."

Nero, on the other hand, didn't hesitate. "I can see that. If you lend me your assistance in solving this matter, Dean, it is yours. I don't require anything else in exchange. Let's package these three to give as a tribute to the King, then."

"Isn't there anything you want?" Xalazuniox insisted.

Nero looked at the draconid sitting across him in the square arrangement of the couches. He was sitting in a wide three-seater, with Bezzias and Tinkwezilsky by his sides. Glom was alone in an armchair. They were nibbling on pastries and sipping tea as they chatted.

"No, sir. Having your support is reassuring. That's enough for me."

Xalazuniox smiled. If smiling for most beast-folk made them look feral, the draconid seemed downright frightful. The raw power his race had was astonishing, comparable only to the pixies or other rare, mystical races. It was a gap as wide as the earth and the clouds, comparing the draconid to the minnid, the ape-kin dispossessed of any special features. One could get used to the sights but Nero grew with very little contact with beast-folk.

"Nonsense, Nero!" He opened his arms wide. "You are staff here at the Lyceum, and I read the reports the esteemed professors here wrote on the research you conducted together. You gave us valuable information and insight over and over again, even now. I won't sugarcoat my words. You are valuable to the Lyceum, in several aspects: as a unique specimen, as a contributor, and as a thinking mind."

As Nero kept lolling at him in disbelief, Xalazuniox continued.

"The latter is the most important of them all and you don't even know why. You have a flexible mind, able to see a problem from several points of view. Most of us don't have such a gift. It is a tiny thing, but it brought you from your village into this office and will take you places I can only imagine. I want to see them. And for that, I need you free to soar, little minnid. Protected, safe, but not coddled. Therefore, pick something valuable you want to trade for this card."

Nero sighed, smiled, and felt a warmth spread over him. Then he spoke his mind.

"I want to do an experiment in my shelter. See if I can grow Essence-infused herbs in an environment that simulates a Dungeon. Altia tried to brew mana potions with the herbs I created in the shelter, the results were disappointing. Here," He took some mana potions from his dimensional storage. "These only recover two or three points of mana. And they will lose potency in a matter of days if my [Essence Analysis] Skill isn't lying to me."

The other three [Gadgeteers] next to Nero nodded in agreement.

"What do you need to test it?" Bezzias asked and quaffed one of the potions to test it. By the face he made, he hated the taste.

"A portable Essence infuser like the one I used against the late professor Holmes."

"That's dangerous," the bat-kin retorted.

"I can try to build one myself," Nero shot his rejoinder. "It won't have the safeguards I am sure you finished implementing by now."

Bezzias smiled and nodded. He had the safeguards built and tested.

"Kid's got a point, Bez," Tinkwezilsky quipped.

"I'll trade it for a portable infuser with Bezzias' safeguards if you vow to not use it offensively," Xalazuniox concluded using his authority as the Dean. Nero had to remind himself that inside the Lyceum, he was as powerful as a King.

"I'll need three days to build another one," Bezzias warned.

"That's more than acceptable, professor," Nero beamed.

"Wait!" Glom suddenly jerked into motion and jumped up, almost hitting the ceiling. "You can't do that! It's obvious why!"

The diminutive Squiig seemed flustered. Tinkwezilsky stared into his large brown eyes. "Yes, you two are fools," He mocked. "You can't use infusers in Nero's shelter."

Bezzias' jaw dropped. "I see! Of course, that's... Oh, I'm terribly sorry for not seeing it before. You have my thanks, professor Glom."

Glom chuckled. "You're most welcome, professor Bezzias! I'm sorry for overreacting!" He rubbed his ears then scratched his whiskers clean.

"Nah, that's fine, little one!" the three-and-a-half foot tall gnome joked.

Nero raised a hand. "Why can't we use infusers in my shelters?"

Glom stifled a chuckle. "Sorry. I shouldn't be laughing --"

"It's the thrill of discovery," Bezzias excused Glom than waved back at him. "Go ahead."

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Glom took a deep breath. "What happened the last time someone used an infuser in your shelter?"

Nero raised a hand to hold his forehead and lowered it. "I... I got it. The proto-Dungeon will eat up the Essence and then it will blow up and become conscious again."

"Not really," Glom corrected. "I doubt you'll pump millions of Essence for however long the prince did. But the risk exists, and your best-case scenario would be to just lose the Essence."

"Worst case, you awaken something hungry for a purpose and it grabs the nearest creature and makes her a Dungeon boss," Tinkwezilsky added.

"We're lucky the Dungeon that woke up agreed - no, resonated - with your strong opinions and feelings about prince Tyre and went for him," Bezzias pondered.

"I don't think the choice was that random, gentleman," Even without being a [Gadgeteer], Xalazuniox joined the discussion. "You have to remember that this shelter didn't pop out of nothing. I also highly doubt that it gained awareness in a single event. I do think it might have watched people inside it for quite some time, learning and adapting. I would dare conjecture that it was drawn to strong emotions given how it echoed Nero's words during its awakening. If it is a proto-Dungeon like you said, it might've eaten the lifeforce of the people murdered inside it. Would it be too far-fetched to believe it felt sympathy for the murdered women as their last feelings were of resentment and betrayal toward the prince?"

"No, I don't think it is entirely wrong, Dean," Bezzias replied.

Nero felt a shiver. Do the shelters watch everything? "Like some kind of cosmic voyeur?" He mumbled out loud.

Tinkwezilsky snorted. "That's one way of putting it. Were you doing naughty things in your shelter, Nero?" He joked and slapped the minnid's back. Nero shrunk and blushed. "Oh, sorry."

Xalazuniox clapped his hands twice and suddenly it was impossible to pay attention to anything but him. "Let's see adequate compensation for our friend Nero here if the infuser is out."

"Yes, compensation," Bezzias smiled, glad that the subject changed. The teenager spent a month and a half away from his wife, for crying out loud! He glared at the gnome. At least Tinkwezilsky seemed genuinely sorry. "Is there anything you need, Nero? I did notice that your new Class has two open Skill slots, have you filled it yet?"

"No," Nero replied. "I am waiting for the best card possible. But it is hard to choose."

"That's choice paralysis," Glom remarked, then explained. "When someone is faced with lots of options to choose from but those are orders of magnitude greater than the choices to be made, they get this indecision you're feeling now. Most people focus on one build and of the thousands of Skills available, the greatest majority is rubbish. They can focus and narrow their options into meaningful choices."

"But Nero here changes builds easier than we change clothes," Bezziaas agreed with a nod.

Tinkwezilsky deadpanned at his colleague. "Not all of us have wing membranes."

"Not all of us worked in strip clubs," the bat-kin spat back.

"That was ONE night on a dare, dammit," the gnome protested. "I was too young and stupid."

Nero gave Bezzias a thumbs up. "Thanks." The awkwardness was successfully shifted.

Xalazuniox laughed. "Skills it is then! Adequate for all builds. Since this is a one-of-a-kind card and you did the favor of knocking your Dungeon's grade to gray, I doubt another copy is coming anytime soon. Therefore, let's upgrade this one's grade based on scarcity a notch. What do the gentlemen suggest for our young hero here?"

"Maybe something that increases Attributes across the board. Like this [Chains of Kherghak] here?" Glom suggested.

Nero shook his head. "I have this 'of the Meek' series here, it is incomplete but I won't use them," Nero showed the purple Skill cards. "I'm not looking for plain buffs I can obtain in other ways. What I think I need are things that broaden my horizons. Flat upgrades to base statistics or resources are out. For Attributes, I know I'll grow and gain Accolades. Oh, right!" He slammed a fist on his open hand. "I forgot to mention this, but I am pretty sure the rate of Accolades increases as the monster level relative to my own goes up. That's speculation, but the amount of Attributes I gain from an Accolade also goes up for every fifty monster levels. For my first kill of the orange-grade second-tier boss, I got twelve points of Vigor."

"That's good!" Tinkwezilsky interjected. "How are the diagnosis cards working?"

"Fine. I worked with them and didn't get a single Accolade as a level up. Only when I was pinned in my hiding spot during the war I got level up Accolades," Nero lowered his head, the enthusiasm gone. "I'd rather not have gained them," He shuddered. "I've killed in cold blood before, but I don't think I'll ever get used to it."

"I don't think we'll find an answer from memory," Xalazuniox said. "Why don't we do it this way. Let's pose this as a challenge to some of our students and the curator of the museum. Maybe they can come up with interesting suggestions."

"I like that," Glom nodded. "However, the information will be biased. If we go for unique abilities unavailable otherwise, I think we should go for survivability. Nero's weak point is that as versatile as he got, he'd be forever blocked from higher-tier Skills."

"That Kherghak guy's tale got me curious," Nero said. "If his level cap was high enough to put him on the seventh or eight tiers and he wanted to decrease it, how would he solve the problem of Skill slots?"

"We don't know," The draconid answered curtly. "But I'll task some history researchers with finding out. Maybe send letters to other academics and librarians out there. Maybe we can find other copies of Kherghak's Skill cards."

"Godmother said they weren't very popular," Nero reminisced.

"Godmother?" Xalazuniox asks.

"Guild Master Amaryllis," Glom volunteers. "She adopted Nero as his godson partly to shield him from abuse by the prince."

"Didn't work at the end," Nero sighed. "He used a mind control Skill on me to force me to take them behind enemy lines for the final assault."

"Despicable," Xalazuniox did the draconid version of clicking one's tongue, a low hiss. "Truly shameful."

Nero nodded slowly, the strain of the ordeal still burdening him. "Everyone was going crazy in that castle. And they knew Coriander's goal was to crush everyone inside. They had these massive trebuchets."

"We're digressing," Tinkwezilsky warned.

"I think anyone can see why the Kherghak cards wouldn't be popular," Bezzias returns to the main subject as he points to the mockup in his hand. "Voluntarily lowering one's level cap is insanity. In fact, a level zero person would be no better than an unactivated one if it weren't for Nero's unique cards. You could invest in getting someone with high Attribute values and farm lower-ranked Dungeons consistently, but at the higher tiers, you need specialized Skills. You felt that in your Dungeon, didn't you, Nero?"

"Definitely. The monsters were smarter, and the presence of elemental attacks changed the dynamics of the fight. With the lightning lynxes, my gun was close to useless. They were immune or healed by lightning."

Someone knocked on the door. Xalazuniox stood up to answer, pulling the door just a bit. Nero could hear what the messenger was whispering, though. "Dean, the Guild Master, and two Adventurers are here to see you."

The draconid glanced back at Nero and then grinned. "Send her in," He said and the clerk rushed away. Closing the door, he met Nero's eyes. "Your parents are here to pick you up."

Nero groaned. He was an adult, for crying out loud.

Soon Amaryllis flutters into the room, this time spreading sparkling dust as she flies by. Probably just to spite the draconid. She waves at the scaled Dean. "Hey, Zuni. How're you treating my kid?"