Several hours later, Hiral stood in front of the raid-zone interface, his raid group at his side. They hadn’t found any sort of function within the Party Interface to add two additional groups, but that didn’t stop them from calling it their raid group.

Looking over at Nivian, though, he quietly tsked to himself. He’d finally remembered to offer the Apple of Glacial Potential to the twins, and neither of them seemed to have the affinity for it. Unlike when Yanily, Seena, Seeyela, and Drahn had seen their fruit, neither brother had felt any sort of craving for it. Though Wule had the orb and rod that seemed to be ice-type, they hadn’t bled over or mixed into his own solar energy. In fact, now that the man didn’t even have solar energy – per se – he was even less inclined to be interested in it.

As for Nivian, his flames felt cold, sure, but they weren’t cold-typed. He said something about the cold touch of death – which Li’l Ur only nodded at – then turned down the fruit. Apparently, the living felt cold when exposed to the blue flames of unlife, while the undead felt the opposite. All very interesting, but it didn’t find them a home for the extremely valuable Apple. So, for the time being, it remained in their Shared Storage. A problem for another day, like so many others. Today… today they had a new zone to enter.

Behind Hiral and his parties, thirteen other raid groups stood ready. All in all, they’d had almost two-hundred-and-sixty battle-ready people. There were the two B-Rank groups – with the second one being led by Burs – as well as three C-Rank, four D-Rank, and five E-Rank raid groups. With how there tended to be more lower-Rank people, the groups had worked out well.

On top of that, there were another almost two-hundred support personnel, all ready to enter the raid zone.

Hopefully there will be something for everybody to do.

Miraculously, the gathered force hadn’t been hassled at all by the Enemy, and even if the raid zone didn’t prove as beneficial as they all not-so-secretly hoped, there was a lot of talk about making this ready-area a trading and meeting hub. With Discs of Passage and the proximity of the Hanging Garden, it was an easy place Bonders, Growers, and Makers could meet.

All of that was more talk for later, though, the timer until the raid zone unlocked ticking down to one minute.

“Everybody ready?” Hiral asked the nearby groups.

It had been “decided” his groups would go first, despite some of the political pushback Ilrolik had foretold. The Maker council was turning out to be a bit of an embarrassment to the impressive coalition everybody else was working to form, as they’d demanded to be the ones to go in first.

A few gentle… reminders… of what the B-Rank Chimeras were capable of eventually got them to change their minds. Still, they weren’t far away, and planned to enter as quickly as they could. Hiral still wasn’t sure what kind of advantages they were looking to claim by their actions, but his inner circle had decided they needed to be kept a watch on.

If Vorinal really was entering the zone from the other end, there was always the possibility they were working together somehow. Nobody on the council had been implicated in the rebellion, but… still…

Elezad had taken it upon himself to watch over them and communicate anything he saw with the other racial leaders. At B-Rank, and with at least three dungeons’ worth of abilities and gear under his belt, he wasn’t a complete push over. That put him – individually – above the strength of any of the other council members, though they’d all learned the hard way how efficient backstabbing and plotting could be.

Luckily, Elezad also had Grandmother on his side. The two of them would keep an eye on things while Hiral and his parties – along with the other raid groups – were taking care of whatever they needed to inside this zone.

“Ready here,” Nivian said, responding to Hiral’s question and pulling him out of his internal thoughts.

“Here too,” Ilrolik said. “You’re going first?”

“Wallop is,” Hiral clarified. “But, our group, yeah. Follow in quickly. Not sure what we’re going to be up against, though the PIMP probably called this a raid zone for a reason.”

“We’ll be right behind you,” Wule said. “Buffs?”

Hiral looked at the timer, down to thirty seconds. “Long duration ones,” Hiral said. “Nothing shorter than ten minutes.”

“Got it,” Wule said, solar energy rolling off him. The same thing happened on Hiral’s other side, as Ilrolik’s group applied their own buffs.

Unfortunately, they’d learned quickly that most of the area-of-effect buffs only applied to people within the buffer’s party. Seena’s group didn’t get any benefits from the other two groups buffing up.

Not that it meant they wouldn’t have anything.

A thread of energy to his own runes connected a scarf of energy to each of his party members, increasing all their stats by almost twenty percent. On top of that, everybody in the group other than Gran gained an additional fifteen percent to their physical attributes, thanks to one of the new abilities – Blood Doping – she’d gotten from taking her advanced class.

As the notification popped up, Hiral took a quick second to review the class details she’d shared with them.

Advanced Class: (Lost) Sanguine Seamstress of Fate.

The tapestry of your fate is your own, threaded by the blood of those who would try to show you otherwise.

Class Abilities

Gain +4 attributes per level, starting in B-Rank.

Class Ability (Active): Blood Doping – Unlock the potential fate of party members’ blood by sacrificing some of your own, increasing their physical attributes while reducing your own.

Note: Attribute increase / decrease based on Rank. Current amount is 15%.

Note (2): Increase / decrease remain in effect until canceled, and stack with any other attribute increasing affects.

Note (3): Works on targets with or without actual blood.

Note (4): Can be used on multiple targets within party.

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Class Ability (Active): Threads of Balance – Connect the fates of party members to balance health and solar energy equally among them, while leaving a lingering regenerative effect.

Note: Regenerative effect restores 5% of maximum health over 1 minute, and increases solar energy regeneration by 1 Rank for 1 minute.

Note (2): 1 minute cooldown between uses.

Class Ability (Active): Snip the Thread – Dispel buffs from opponents or debuffs from party members by removing the future where they are affected by such abilities.

Note: 30 second cooldown between uses.

Note (2): Opponents have a small chance to resist the effect of Snip the Thread.

Class Ability (Passive): An Unfinished Weave – The future isn’t set, or is it?

Party members have a 2% chance for their fate to be altered, turning a disadvantage into an advantage.

Note: The more potent or powerful the disadvantage, the more potent or powerful the advantage will be.

Opponents have a 2% chance for their fate to be altered, turning an advantage into a disadvantage.

Note: The more potent or powerful the advantage, the more potent or powerful the disadvantage will be.

Class Ability (Passive): Sanguine Supremacy – Any abilities or attacks that involve blood benefit from a 15% increase in efficiency and effectiveness.

Note: This includes all offensive, defensive, and healing effects.

All in all, it was a solid advanced class – a Lost one at that – and Gran barely grumbled when she took it. Two percent for An Unfinished Weave didn’t seem like a lot, but it also read like an ability that could completely change the tide of a fight if it triggered. They’d need to test things out to see how much impact it had. Beyond that, everything else was great. More healing, the ability to balance their health and solar energy – much like Equilibrium – but with a lingering regenerative ability? Yes please. Gran had already talked about how she planned to use it right at the start of a fight to give them the boost with no downside.

Smart.

And, opening and closing his hand, he could feel the effects of Blood Doping on him. More dexterity? Also, yes please. There was always the chance it would improve from just their physical attributes to increase the other three mental attributes as well – Int, Wis, and Atn – if she managed to upgrade the ability down the road.

Speaking of upgrades, Hiral quickly checked what he’d gotten for being nearby when she’d evolved.

Evolutionary Inspiration: An ability granted through achievements has been chosen at random to be upgraded.

Chosen ability: Class Ability – Right Back at You becomes Class Ability – Right Back at You+

Right Back at You+: When you or those connected to you avoid or block attacks, a calculated portion of damage that would have been suffered is instead stored for later use by you.

Note: Calculated damage has limits.

Note (2): Stored damage can be used on an attack or ability of your choice.

Note (3): Stored damage can be maintained for up to 3 minutes per Rank.

Note (4): New instances of stored damage refresh storage timer.

Note (5): Due to interaction with advanced class: Vanguard of the Runic Cycle, those chosen as your Sword and Shield of the Vanguard are considered ‘connected’.

Hiral had to resist the urge to cackle madly – again – as he remembered who was connected. It wasn’t just his Sword or Shield, but also Left and Right. He figured he might be able to work something else out by using his Rune of Connection, but his limited time testing hadn’t come up with anything. Yet. He’d get there.

“Here we go,” Seena said, the timer on the interface ticking down the last few seconds.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

One.

As soon as it changed to 00:00:00, a new, simple option popped up to those closest. One very familiar, but just a little different.

“Enter raid zone,” Seena said, and the massive slab of stone directly in front of them began to rumble. This one didn’t simply vanish like a wall on Fallen Reach would. No, it was far more mechanical, like the brass wall back in Tomorrow’s Vigil, steam or mist of some kind venting out from the edges as it slid aside from the rest of the wall on the left.

Moving a few inches a second, the space between door and wall remained filled with the thick steam, solar energy swirling within to Hiral’s Cycling senses. And, more than that, something else swirled within the mist. Ethereal and on the tip of Hiral’s tongue, he couldn’t quite put words to what he felt.

There wasn’t a creature or monster springing out to try and kill them. No, this was mixed with the solar energy, like oil on water. Meaning? Concepts? Ideals? Inspiration?

It was impossible to put his finger on it, but he practically felt his mind expanding as new ideas began seeding. Like his thoughts were ordering themselves to point out things he’d missed. Nothing quite resolved, but the atmosphere leaking just out of this one entrance made Hiral eager to get into this raid zone.

If it was all like this inside, everybody who entered would vault ahead with their skills and abilities. It would almost be impossible not to get an advanced class with enough time. At least, that was how it felt.

“That’s good stuff,” Yanily said, taking a deep breath like it was the freshest air they’d ever found.

Behind Hiral and his raid group, the same mist had continued to spread, and surprised whispers filled the air as people realized the same thing Hiral had. A veritable hunger emerged behind him, and it wouldn’t surprise him if somebody rushed ahead at the opportunity.

“We should get in there before somebody else tries,” Seena said.

“Agreed,” Hiral said, while Nivian and Ilrolik both nodded their groups were ready.

“Wallop,” Seena said, tapping the full-sized Rune-o on the shoulder.

Not hesitating, the companion strode forward, his steps each causing the mist around his feet to jump. Between the door and the wall, the hanging wall of steam completely hid whatever lay beyond, but now wasn’t the time to hesitate. Weapons came out – Hiral had his RHCs ready – and in they went.

Hiral wasn’t far behind Romin, who followed right after Wallop, with Left and Right at his sides. When he reached the billowing steam, the whole feel of concepts and inspiration only grew stronger, until the cool mist – like fog – washed over him. So dense he couldn’t see his own hand in front of his face, he extended his sensory domain, then reinforced his Connections with his party members to make sure they all went the same direction. A few more threads spread out to the other members of the raid group, though he needn’t have bothered.

Three steps was all it took to clear the wall of fog, and the group found themselves in another stone tunnel. The walls were bare on both sides, though the tunnel wasn’t terribly long, scarcely fifty feet. However, a sudden rumble behind them, and they all spun to find the entrance they’d come through closed off.

Compared to how long it had taken to open, it’d closed in a heartbeat.

“The other groups aren’t going to be happy about that,” Yanily said.

“We should probably be worrying about ourselves right now,” one of the Growers from Ilrolik’s group said – their new healer, Yully.

“Nah, we’ll be fine,” Yanily said. “You’ll see.”

“I think we’re about to see something else as well,” Hiral said as a shape appeared to his sensory domain outside the tunnel and in the large space beyond. “Something’s there.”

“Welcome,” a voice boomed. “I didn’t expect guests so soon after the seals opened, but perhaps I should have. The Custodian of Tomorrow was very specific about what would trigger this facility to unlock.”

“So, this is one of Tomorrow’s places,” Seena whispered.

“However,” the booming voice continued, originating from the large shape Hiral felt through his sensory domain. It had to be almost forty feet tall, and generally humanoid. “If you think access to the research and opportunities found within the Cradle of Tomorrow is as simple as walking through a door, you are sorely mistaken.

“Come, visitors, so I may explain the rules of your visit. Come, so you may challenge me. Come, so you may begin your growth, or become fertilizer for those who come after.”

“Oh, this place sounds great,” Wule said flatly.