image [https://cdn.midjourney.com/e1b5f4df-a88d-47f5-bd54-021382ce1db0/0_0.png]image [https://cdn.midjourney.com/72e800ff-4b17-4b29-8e39-0a8867e7044a/0_1.png]

Although Vincent managed to get one more hour of sleep, he still woke up before Lila. Tiptoeing out of her room, he stopped short in his tracks because he did not remember the new layout. There were many more corridors and floors than before. Starting to err around, he found a terrace offering a magnificent landscape view. The door was opened, and Bee was outside, struggling to tie a message to a goose’s foot.

“Morning, Bee,” Vincent said in a low voice.

“Hey,” Bee said without turning, throwing up the bird to let her fly away.

“What are you doing?”

“Sending a message to Barbara. Jorge with their group, and there’s no other way to speak to her without the drone.”

“Are you… doing well?” Vincent asked, noticing his friend was pale and looked tired.

“My mother disapproves of our relationship…” Bee sighed. “She came with the group, you know.”

“I do now.”

“She wants me to return to Earth and continue my two PhDs.”

“Sorry to hear that… Maybe I could speak with her and tell her how much you grew into a real man and stuff?”

“I’d appreciate it,” Bee nodded.

“What’s her name? I mean… She doesn’t have a tag: Bee’s mom, right?”

“She’s the only Chinese woman among the guests. I’m half Chinese if you don’t know.”

“I didn’t,” Vincent confessed. “If you have some spare time, please start enchanting some new gear… Ask Titan. He’ll tell you what are the priorities.”

“I put an engraved gem in the big drone, and I’m working on the test satellite… Man, I’m impressed… you brought a ton of useful stuff.”

“How come you woke up so early?”

“I couldn’t sleep… Mom and I argued too much…”

Vincent patted his friend’s back. “I’m sure she’ll like Barbara when she meets her. A question… Which way to the cantina? Oh… and I need a shower first…”

“We have showers and toilets in each room now, plus common ones on every inhabited floor.”

“I’ll use the common ones. I don’t want to wake the girls.”

“There is a Mini-Map in the Menu. Just think about activating it. The lighting adapts to the surrounding luminosity to let you see where you walk.”

“Perfect! Thanks, my friend. Ah, I just remember. Core, if you hear me, include all the guests in the Guild. Give the relatives visitor status and the mercenaries junior members status.”

Prodigia Guildchy Core: Wilco. Core over and out.

Was that humor?

Giving Bee a short hug to cheer him up, Vincent followed the arrows on the map to the common bathroom, washed himself, and went downstairs. The eating room was a total mess. No one had cleared after the party, a stale beer odor lingered in the air, and there was no fresh food. Vincent wondered if the inn’s staff had kept their jobs and if there were enough of them to cope with the influx of visitors. However, that was a problem for another time. Some cold pizza remained, and he picked a slice.

In a corner, Titan—the merc responsible for logistics—and Hari talked about seeds. They looked sober. Titan was both a vegan and put no alcohol in his mouth, living a spartan life, and Hari was much the same: business at any time of the day.

At another table sat Ludwing’s daughter, Jong, and Thug. The latter was snoring, his head on the table. A pile of empty glasses told Vincent about a drinking contest… what was to be expected from Thug… Yet, the merc had rushed to compete against people with bigger stats and magic and had lost.

“I… yield,” Jong blurted, bending in two and vomiting on the floor.

The Half-Sidhe, on the other hand, finished the glass of vodka in her hand and slammed it on the table. “I’ll have my horse fuck you in the ass!” she yelled in Hungarian, her eyes wobbly and hazed. Vincent didn’t know Hungarian but was familiar with the swear, a mild one by Hungarian standards.

“Hey, stop it,” he put down the half-eaten slice of pizza, grabbing Jong’s arm because the youngster had removed his T-shirt and wanted to clear the vomit with it. “The boys will clean it up. There’s always someone on cleaning duty.”

“Uh…” Jong mumbled. His head fell next to Thug’s, and he lost consciousness.

“Ahaha…” the woman let out a sardonic laughter, showing the middle finger to her vanquished foes, then posing a kiss on each one’s head, her lips leaving behind a wet lipstick mark on Thug’s bald forehead. “Hmpf…” she snorted, shook her head, and lighted a cigar. “It was a tough match…”

To get over the task and mind his other important businesses, Vincent approached her. “Ludwing told me to say hi. He’s alive but stayed behind on my planet.”

Stretching her hand behind to grab a chair, the woman pulled it near the table, inviting Vincent to sit. “Stayed behind, you say? All for the better…. Are you a good fuck?” she asked, half-closing her eyes to scrutinize him. “Any of you two, I mean?” she moved her eyes between Vincent and a vacant space a foot away from him. “I could do twins for a change,” she nodded to herself, dozing off for a second.

“The fuck?” Vincent gasped, surprised by her question.

“Yeah, that. Are you a good one?” the girl bobbed her head up. “That’s the code, you know… If Pa had said, ‘Tell her I said hi,’ it would have meant hi. ‘Tell her hi’ means he wants me to seduce you. So… are you a—”

“Weirdos, both of you,” Vincent blurted, jumping on his feet just in time. Irene had entered the room and was heaving in panic, looking at the disaster, hand over her heart, her pupils dilated, her mouth taking a reverse curved shape like an upset child. “I promise, honey, the boys will sort it out in no time. This is nothing compared to—”

“Why did you bring them here?” Irene began crying. Vincent tried to grab her shoulders, but she snatched herself off and ran away, only to bump into Titan, who had appeared on her back and grabbed her by the arm.

“To take a bullet for you,” the man said deadpanned. “Fighting is not for everyone. It’s better for scientists to stay scientists; we are here to protect them. Vincent, the first communication satellite is ready to launch.”

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“We have communication satellites?” Irene’s eyes widened.

“Moment,” Titan raised a finger at her to ask for silence. “Cleaning team, cleaning team, this is Titan. Execute, execute, execute! Over.”

“Titan, this is Cleaning Team Officer Steel. Roger, Wilco. Out,” a voice replied on the radio.

“Yes, we brought twenty satellites for communication and intel gathering,” Titan told Irene. “Are you interested in checking the launch?”

“Absolutely!” Irene clapped.

Good, she got over it… Vincent felt relieved.

The cleaning team entered the room running; they had probably been very close to arriving so fast. They wore hazmat suits and had mops, cleaning products, and bodybags. One checked Thug’s throat for a pulse, then signaled with a thumb up. The rest busied throwing the old food and the bottles into the body bags and cleaning the floors and the tables.

“Come,” Titan beckoned.

They followed him out of the tree and into the new Main Square. Krivoburg had kept the old one, but a new one had appeared on the other side of the tree. For now, it was an empty space paved with slabs of stone, with a tall and wide building, a clock tower on the far end, and mansions on the sides.

An open truck trailer displayed twenty-one spheres three feet in diameter in special metal nooks, one of which was being removed with a forklift.

“It’s the test satellite,” Titan said. “Functional, but with fewer functions.”

Bee and a couple of mercs were inspecting a command desk installed near the truck, pushing or moving buttons up and down. Ten feet farther was a crate about ten feet tall.

“Hi, Irene,” Bee waved. “I put a second gem with enchantments on it, just in case. Once up there, the satellite can use both Mana and fuel to maintain a relatively low synchronous orbit.”

“Where’s the rocket?” Irene asked, looking around.

“Here’s the rocket,” Titan slapped Vincent’s back.

“No, no, no, no!” Irene stepped between Titan and Vincent, confronting the man with fiery eyes. “I won’t allow my boyfriend… fiance to jump in outer space! It’s dangerous!”

“Technically, it’s not outer space,” Bee said. “Just a few hundred miles.”

“I said no!” Irene blurted.

“He’ll be safe,” Titan waved his hand. “Vincent has a bespoke space suit and already did a spacewalk back on Earth.”

“Your parents… well, more Elina, to be honest, made me train hard at many things to push my limits,” Vincent said. “They paid a lot of money for it.”

“Yeah, that sounds exactly like them. Pushy!” Irene crossed her arms. “Irene, you have to learn horse riding. Irene, what about violin lessons? Irene—"

“It was for the best… I would have gone crazy if I didn’t have something to keep my mind busy,” Vincent hugged her.

“Let’s get you ready,” Titan said, breaking the charm.

Helped by the merc and Bee, Vincent dressed in the space suit, then put on the boots, gloves, helmet, and finally, the air tank.

“Pressurized,” the merc remaining at the command desk said.

“OK,” let’s do this,” Vincent said through his radio comm, touching the satellite.

“It’s just the test!” Bee yelled at the mayor, who was running toward them, dressed in his best suit and ceremonial decoration. Disappointed, the man returned toward one of the mansions.

“How will I know if I’m at a good altitude?” Vincent said.

“Look at the light,” Titan touched a panel on the satellite. “If it turns green,” it’s OK; let it be, and the satellite will do its job. The factory managed to put many more things in these things because they didn’t have to withstand the rocket launch.”

“In ten… nine…” Vincent started to count down. At one, he looked up, aiming for a point in the sky, and at zero, he activated his skill.

He exited low, maybe twenty or thirty thousand feet above the ground. The landscape looked like from the planes he had flown with.

There’s a storm coming. Black clouds were coming toward Krivoburg from the East. Before falling too much, Vincent Strode again, further up. This time, the sky around became black, but the indicator remained red. He was beginning to feel how much distance he covered—about two hundred and fifty miles—and control his skill better.

At the third jump, he got blinded. All around him was a dust and debris cloud rising slowly like the disturbed mud on the bottom of a pond.

“The fuck?” he groaned. The only thing visible was the satellite and the light, finally green. His feet touched something solid, and Vincent pushed himself against it instinctively, letting go of the satellite and flapping his arms around.

The view became clear with each second. Vincent was floating up, the down being the surface of an asteroid he had crashed against, digging a crater at least twenty feet deep and as large. Not even fifty feet from the crater’s edge was… someone.

The individual couldn’t be anything else than a dwarf. At most five feet tall and likewise large, with the beard one would expect a dwarf to have, only dressed in a space suit, riding a sort of space scooter, a red flag painted on the chest of his suit, with a crossed hammer and a pickaxe emblem.

A communist dwarf? Vincent asked himself.

Heavy metal cables linked the scooter with the asteroid. The dwarf began gesticulating at Vincent, screaming something with bulging eyes.

Take it easy, comrade Stalin Balin. Vincent raised his hands in a peace gesture. Suddenly, the dwarf’s eyes bulged even more. He looked behind the young man at the bottom of the crater, making Vincent realize the man wasn’t angry; he was scared.

Pressing a button on the scooter’s board, the dwarf jettisoned the chains and activated his vehicle’s trusters, becoming a tiny dot in the black sky in seconds. Vincent had a feeling its propulsion was at the maximum.

The dust had either flown away or settled, and a glint attracted his eyes toward the crater he had made in the asteroid. A few strands of an unknown material, a shiny, off-white color. Then, the filaments started to rise, and before he could count to two, he was looking at a woman’s head, then a neck, the whole body inching up from the bottom of the pit.

The strands were the woman’s hair, whose color was similar to her face and had a milky white nuance, like a pearl. She was gorgeous… The moment Vincent saw her, he knew she was unique… a goddess he was destined to serve and love...

Irene and Lila would not say no, would they? After all, we’re already in a polyamory, right? Vincent swallowed hard, waving at the naked woman. She returned the gesture, smiling. There were blinking blue and red notifications in his peripheral view that he ignored. Also… a man's silhouette, but that was unimportant… unworthy to detach his sight from the divine beauty.

[Hubris (the Archetype of Darkness and Wisdom)]: Vincent! Snap out of it! Vincent! Wake up!

He perceived the Archetype’s voice like a distant and annoying buzzing bug.

[Hubris (the Archetype of Darkness and Wisdom)]: Vincent, it’s not a girl. It’s a monster! C’mon… you can do better than this… Think of Irene… Lila, Raya… the ones you really love… C’mon!

The names made Vincent hiccup, and then he saw reality as what it was. The beauty of the woman-like shape was undeniable, but there was more to it. Her body continued into a giant insect beneath. It seemed she was riding it, but her thighs and calves were fused into the mount. If her color was pearl white, the insect had an iridescent tone, as if it were made from mother-of-pearl material.

What kind of abomination is that?

[Hubris (the Archetype of Darkness and Wisdom)]: Thank goodness! MOVE! RUN! NOW!

Vincent Strode to the clearing he had used twice to arrive in the Realm instead of the town because he needed the solitude to concentrate and find more information. He took off his helmet and yelled: “Hubris! Come here this instant and explain yourself! What was that thing?”

“The boss of the most dangerous Dungeon ever, the one who took over a planet,” the Archetype appeared near him, speaking normally.

“But it was destroyed,” Vincent frowned, trying to recall exactly what Boory had said to him before their fight in the Vault.

“The core and the planet were destroyed, but the boss wasn’t. I tricked it into a volcano, and a friend solidified the lava around it. That allowed us enough time to crush the core and run, but we never received the notification about the boss being dead.”

“You tricked it?”

“Yes. I was one of the first Summoned. All Archetypes were,” Hubris said. “But not all remember. I’m among the few who kept their memories.”

“Like the Raven…”

“Yes… He was a good friend… before going nuts.”

“What now?” Vincent asked.

“This is above your pay grade. We’re gathering a raid of a thousand top-level elves as we speak— Shit!”

Message from The System: The System considers Vincent guilty of breaking its trust. Vincent has been Summoned to save the Human Realm, not to unleash Calamities on it.

“Hey, cut me some slack; how could I know?” Vincent yelled in the air.

Quest: The former boss of the Fairy Forest Dungeon has detected that the progeny of its former master is alive. Its protocols have kicked in, and its objective is to secure what is now the Prodigia Guidchy Core. This cannot be allowed to happen. Destroy or capture the Boss of the Fairy Forest Dungeon within an hour. No other Archetype except Hubris will assist you.

Reward: TBD

Penalty for failure: Krivoburg and the core will be destroyed by orbital bombardment. The Dwarves’ Comradery of Balangastan has been tasked to pull asteroids into firing positions.

“That thing is a fairy?” Vincent asked.

“Mutated by the dungeon. And it’s coming here.”

“Shit… On a scale of one to ten, how strong is that thing?”

“A hundred?” Hubris turned his palms up.