Descending the stairs to the Dungeon was a different experience, now that I had a core.

The creeping darkness didn't seem so oppressive anymore. Almost as if the depths of the shadows were somehow diminished by my own power.

"Well? What did you expect silly?" Elsie quipped from the side. "The Rippers up here were already too weak to hunt local children if, by some coincidence, one or more managed to get out. The magic up top simply isn't enough for them yet, and they're not natural beings like us. Meaning they can't make their own magic. On the other hand, you're a proper magical being now. With a level and skills and everything. Not to mention those muscles."

She and Fernanda tittered by themselves. In a way that was singularly suited to setting my teeth on edge.

"Honestly, I'd be very surprised if any of them had the strength to bite through your skin as it is now."

I turned to look at her. My feet pausing their descent as my body stiffened.

"You're reading my mind." I said flatly.

The lack of humor in my tone only made her smile.

"Well, duh. I'm reading everyone's mind. Comes with the core."

'Well isn't that nifty.' I groaned internally. 'Means the old codger was reading me like an open book the whole time we were together. Same with him and Uncle Uter. No wonder he had me dancing in the palm of his hands. Going on and on about saving the world and whatnot. Does he actually want to do it or was it all a ruse to get me on board with terrorizing a town?'

"The former." Elsie said, unprompted. "Grandpa's been trying to save the world for a long, long time. Even before me and my dad were born. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna sit here and tell you he's a choir boy with perfectly clean hands. He definitely gets ahead of himself on occasion. But the one thing you can always count on is that he's trying to save the world. Or, at least as much of it as he can. Whatever he had you do, I highly suspect it was for the greater good."

"Okay, you guys need to stop talking so ominously." Ramji chided with evident frustration.

Then he pointed at her.

"I thought Sean was supposed to be the sinister one here Elsie. You've been making fun of my friend here since we started heading down. Actually, scratch that, you've been bullying him for over a month now. So, you either cut that shit out or you get lost."

I whirled to him. Thankful that someone else said something, while also a bot confused.

"Did you just call Sean sinister?"

"Yes! Because he's always going on about feeding people to dinosaurs! Besides, he came up with the nickname. Not me."

"That's right." Sean said. Speaking for the first time since I'd been introduced to him. "I am indeed Sean the sinister. Though I don't want to feed people to dinosaurs. I want to bring dinosaurs back from extinction and release them to live out their lives. Big difference."

"How is that any different!?" I found myself asking. "And why would you call yourself something like, 'The Sinister'?"

Sean looked at me, cackled softly while touching his fingertips together and then looked away as if we were done with this conversation.

"Oy! No! We are not done here!" I turned to the others.

"Are we just going to ignore the massive red flags there!"

Elsie barked out a laugh.

"He's messing with you!"

"It sure as shit didn't feel like it! What did you say his core was again?"

Sean turned to me once more. Cackled once more and then turned away again.

"Seriously? Am I the only one who sees a problem with this?"

"Dude, its fine." Marco assured me. "He's always like this. Let's just keep going before someone misses us."

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Elsie agreed.

She hopped down seven steps in one swift motion. Landing perfectly with both feet planted firmly on a single stone tile. Her posture and demeanor remained relaxed as she did so. Her superhuman dexterity making such a leap triflingly easy.

'She's like a cat.' I thought to myself. 'All grace and guile and fluid motions. Her being level 3 means she should have at least six times as many stat points as me. Them being doubled after level 2 and then tripled after reaching her current level. The thought of falling probably didn't cross her mind. Dammit. Of course she isn't worried about Sean saying creepy things. She could probably take us all on if she wanted.'

"Thank you." She beamed. "I do love cats. Though I prefer dogs. Also, you're quite right. The thought of falling never occurred to me. After all, what would happen if I did?"

I couldn't help but notice how the last few thoughts I'd had weren't addressed. The fact of her obvious superiority remaining unsaid.

I thought about those stat points again. Imagining how, despite the obvious difference in our body types, she was probably much more solidly built than me. Those arms and legs might be thin, but the point values alone meant that she was head and shoulders above any normal bodybuilder in existence.

'She might even be at a level where she can tank bullets without a problem. At the very least, gravity certainly wouldn't be an issue. Unless she was falling from a skyscraper or something. Even then, normal people do sometimes survive those kinds of falls. Shoot. I'm going to need to ask Marco about the kind of damage I can expect from falling before I start trying to fly.' I considered, with no small amount of bitterness.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Probably not much." I allowed. "And stop reading my mind."

"Nope!" She denied. Shooting me an impish grin as she did so. "Great grandpa Carlyle says you're important. So I can't have you doing something stupid now can I? I have to keep both eyes and my brain locked on to you at all times, in case I have to stop you from hurting yourself."

My eyebrows furrowed as I took her meaning.

"Is that why you're here? Because Mr. Robertson told you to come?"

She brought up a hand to her face and snickered. Her eyes narrowing in a way that made her look cartoonish as she mocked me.

"I'm here because I want to be here silly. Though great grandpa did ask me to keep tabs on you after your expedition. Again, something about you being very important. Kudos by the way. There aren't a lot of people out there who can get a compliment out of him these days. Especially not so soon after meeting him for the first time."

I snorted.

"Please. You're making Mr. Robertson seem like some dour old man. The guy couldn't stop cracking jokes with coach Russell the whole time we were together."

I'd expected her to keep up her teasing after that. But the reactions I got were very different from what I had in mind.

Elsie stepped back. Schooling her expression and looking thoughtful.

All the others had gone slack-jawed at my words. Eyes popping out as if they'd just seen Terry Fox himself bursting through the walls behind me, riding a grizzly bear and juggling lemon pies.

"What?" I asked, getting a distinctive feeling I'd committed some kind of social faux-pas. "Stop looking at me like I'm somehow weird due to how Mr. Robertson acts. I didn't do anything wrong."

Marco gulped. Looking a bit sick all of the sudden.

"Dude, no one is saying you did anything wrong. Its the opposite. You're a bigshot."

I scoffed. Trying to play off the awkwardness as nothing of note.

Meanwhile, my mind was abuzz with the details of Mr. Robertson's ambitions. Faint recollections coming back to me all of the sudden, regarding the overseas businesses and shell companies he and coach Russell and many others in town were involved in.

How Mr. Robertson had emphasized my own importance in his grand design. Not to mention the role I would play in his food distribution scheme.

I was about to try and deflect once more, when Elsie cleared her throat.

"Never you mind that Marco. My family's business stays in the family until pops says otherwise. If Cecil feels like talking about it, then he's more than welcome to. If not, then you really shouldn't be stepping over his boundaries like this. Especially not now, after you've already agreed to help him train. Let's just go down to the first floor and see what he can do. After that, if he wants to go deeper or talk about is recent experiences, that's on him. Real friends wouldn't be pressuring him though."

"That's right." Fernanda said haughtily. "There's no reason for you guys to pry any deeper into this. We're here to help a friend and that's that."

"Right on." Her brother Julian agreed. Both of them managing to sound remarkably like coach Russell as they echoed each other.

"Wait a second, since when are you guys friends with Cecil?" Drew asked pointedly.

"Since none of your business." Fernanda followed up without missing a beat. "All you need to know is that Cecil is our friend and we want to make sure he's all right. Isn't that right Emma?"

Emma looked up from her bracelet for the first time in the conversation.

"Uh, no. I'm just here to burn stuff without getting into trouble. I couldn't care less about the rest." Then she went back to her videos. Seemingly done with the conversation.

Yuann and Sean looked at her, shrugged and chipped in.

"I'm here because I want to advance my goal of total dinosaur resuscitation." Sean confessed. Before releasing another, fainter cackle.

"I'm here because Ramji asked me to come." Yuann offered.

I shook my head.

"It doesn't matter. I... Enough. Let's just get to training already."

----------------------------------------

The training in question involved some seeds I'd brought with me. Courtesy of Sava's gardening supplies.

They were supposed to be a diverse assortment of different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Ranging from mangoes to apples to watermelons, tomatoes, potatoes and green beans.

"The idea is that I can test out a whole bunch of them at once and see which ones are the least aggressive." I explained.

Ramji looked perplexed at that.

"Um, I know I'm not an expert or anything, but wouldn't you want to find the ones that are the most aggressive for fighting in the Dungeon?"

"Not if he wants to throw them at his sister for free training." Drew countered.

"Yeah, but that shouldn't be your concern right now." Ramji insisted. "I mean, she's what? Eight? Even if she starts hitting mutant potatoes all day every day, she won't get a core until she's like, thirteen or something."

"True." I granted. "But I would still like to be ready for when that happens. I don't want her to go through the kind of training and monster hunting that I went through."

Emma piped up at that.

"I hate to break it to you man, but I don't think that's a healthy attitude to have. I mean, I'm not gonna stand here and tell you to bring her along right now, but she's going to start hunting monsters eventually. Whether you like it or not."

"She's right." Fernanda piled on. "As good as our perimeter defenses are, the odd Ripper or two will still slip through the net. And that's right now. Before the whole world comes crashing down. Could you imagine what it'll be like when the first monsters start spawning on the surface?"

"Actually, I can." Sean interrupted. "It'll be another mass extinction. Like the one that killed the dinosaurs. We already know the top soil layer has been degraded by magic and we already know its causing food shortages worldwide. Plants are having to adapt and the one that can't adapt fast enough are going the way of the dodo. They won't be the one ones either. With the plants go the herbivores and with the herbivores go the carnivores and with the carnivores go the scavengers. It's a vicious cycle. A race to the bottom. Where only the most well-adapted animals will get to incorporate magic into themselves fast enough to remain competitive in the ecosystem. Animals like pigs or wild cats, for example, will most certainly survive. As will diverse species like foxes, owls, spiders, scorpions and crocodilians. Even if one or two species go down, there are enough around that the overall Genus will remain. Just like what happened the last few times the earth underwent a mass extinction."

He cackled again. More furiously this time.

"After all, crocodilians and their ilk are literally millions upon millions of years old. Something like this won't faze them in the slightest. If anything, it will make them even more awesome."

He turned to the rest of us.

"On the other hand, things like pandas or koalas or those cute little monkeys whose names escape me at the moment are cooked. Absolutely, positively cooked. I will be very surprised if any of them make past the first month when the big changes start arriving. Let alone the first year. Heck, pandas are so bad at surviving that even zoos struggle to keep their numbers up and that's with millions of dollars going into getting them paired up and breeding all around the world."

Sean shook his head sadly.

"See? This never would have happened to dinosaurs. They went down swinging when their time came and some of them managed to evolve out of the mass extinction. Just you wait. I'll start with getting crocs back to their former glorious size and then, I'll go for the lizards, and the snakes and all the other..."

"Okay Sean, we get it. You're passionate." Elsie groaned. Suddenly looking a lot less cheery than before. "Leave it for a second and let Cecil do his thing. Okay?"

Sean looked taken aback and grumbled something before shuffling away.

"Thank you." Elsie called out from where she stood. "Now then, Cecil. Let's see what you can do with those seeds."