Blake unleashed a Mind Blast against the Mander on his left to interrupt its cast, and thrust his sword forward. It pierced through the throat of the monster before him and became lodged within.

Rather than take the time to extract his weapon, he left it behind and bashed the third Mander with his shield. Once the enemy was stunned, he grasped the knife at his belt and pierced the monster’s left eye.

Blake whirled.

The last living Mander was across the small room in the midst of a spell form. His Spatial Step was still on cooldown, as was his Mind Blast.

No choice.

Blake immediately reused the psionic spell and interrupted the Mander’s cast. A spike of pain burrowed through his mind, and he felt blood drip from his nose.

He ignored the discomfort as he extracted his longsword and ran down the last enemy. By the time he reached his prey, it recovered and launched itself at him, fangs wide.

Blake slipped to the side and carved a new mouth in its chest.

You have successfully completed the Combat Scenario. Would you like to choose your reward now?

He selected no and kneeled down on the hard floor to collect his breath. As usual, the fight had exhausted him. He wiped the blood from his nose and grimaced at the pounding in his head.

As much as Blake hated the migraine, the second use of Mind Blast was necessary. The spells mana users cast were incredibly powerful. If he were not careful, he could be heavily injured, despite his high Magic Resistance.

A mana user’s greatest weakness, however, was their long cast time. As long as he was able to disrupt their spell forms, they were the easiest opponents for Blake to defeat. His headache was an acceptable payment to ensure his victory.

I wonder if I can evolve it to get rid of the headache.

Blake checked his status.

Nano - 56m

He now had enough nano to upgrade his Mind Blast spell. However, he had also promised to upgrade the landlord’s attributes. Blake momentarily contemplated making the old man wait a few days more, but quickly dismissed the option. A promise was made.

Wait a minute! What about Oliver’s gear?!

He quickly contacted his mother through holochat.

“Hey, mom, have you confiscated Oliver’s nano-gear yet?”

She nodded. “Yes, and he wasn’t very happy about it.”

“I’m sure he wasn’t,” he snorted in amusement. “I have a favor to ask. Can you give that gear to Mister Grayburn? I promised him I’d give him the nano to upgrade his attributes, but this can be a temporary fix for a few days. It’s kind of bothering me that I haven’t paid up yet.”

“If you promised him something, you should uphold that promise,” she warned him. “The second you start reneging on deals, people will lose their trust and respect in you.”

“Oh, I know that,” he assured her. “The gear will accomplish the same thing as giving him nano, but I intend to do both. I just need a bit more time before I transfer it over.”

She nodded reluctantly. “As long as it’s the same, I’m sure he won’t mind. I’ll explain to him that you’re working for the nano but the gear is to show that you intend to uphold that commitment.”

Glad his mother understood the issue, he nodded. “Also, can you go into the treasure room and look for some jewelry that will increase Brent’s physical attributes? I promised him he could borrow some.”

“If you’re going to start loaning out gear, we should probably keep a log.”

“That’s a good idea. We should also get an inventory.”

“I’ll put Oliver on it,” she suggested.

Blake winced. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

His mother frowned. “You don’t trust your brother?”

He shook his head. “Not really. He’s been making a lot of bad decisions lately. I’d rather not tempt him to make another. Also, I spoke with Brent and there may be some jealousy within the faction regarding our treatment of Oliver. Best to not show any semblance of favoritism.”

Donna took a deep breath. “You’re probably right. I’ll start the log myself, I wonder if there is an assistant position to the Chancellor?”

“Probably. It felt like my old chancellor had a thousand people doing his bidding.” Blake grimaced at the memory of the lazy man. “Oh, can you tell dad he can head here to pick up his Mander meat now? I finished the scenario, now I just need to drag them to the portal and wait for the reward. I’ll send him a group invite.”

“Sure.”

“Thanks, mom. Love ya.”

Donna smiled. “Love you too, Blake.”

He cleaned the blood off his blade, sheathed it, retrieved his dagger, and repeated the action. Then, he grabbed two Manders by their tails and began the trek to the entrance.

Once he arrived at the glowing portal, he dropped the bodies and looked through his potential rewards.

Yes!

The third option was a new ring that would increase his Physical Resistance by three. The jewelry was a direct upgrade to his current ring, which only added two.

For the last week, Blake had become increasingly frustrated when a higher level replacement for his gear failed to appear. With this reward, he now only needed to replace his gaudy earring, which provided just two Magic Resistance.

I bet dad could use this.

While he waited for the reward to materialize and his father to arrive, he stalked back through the caves and collected corpses to spare his father the heat of the tunnels.

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As he worked, he messaged Montgomery and Jeff.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Are you guys okay?

Montgomery Brown: Yeah, dude, just waiting on the reward.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: No problem taking out the goblins?

Montgomery Brown: You mean, besides the fact that there’s a million of them? Naw. It was touch and go there for a bit, but we came, we saw, and we kicked their asses!

Blake laughed.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Good, I’m glad you guys are doing well. After this, are you going to do another?

Montgomery Brown: Hell no! I’m exhausted. I don’t know how you can do two a day, you’re like a machine!

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: I suppose it comes from not being lazy. I bet Jeff is ready to go again, am I right?

Jeffrey Miller: Meh.

Montgomery Brown: Screw you! After this, I’m gonna relax with a nice cold beer!

Blake ended the chat with a grin and continued to drag corpses to the entrance. Thirty minutes later, his father finally contacted him.

Peter Summers: Hey Blake, I’m outside the portal. Thanks for marking it, by the way. I don’t think I’d have ever found it otherwise.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: No problem. All the carcasses are waiting for you at the entrance. You can also have my old ring that increases your Physical Resistance. It might make the heat a little easier to take.

Peter Summers: Oh, great! Can you pop out and hand it over?

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Sorry, if I leave the scenario, it closes forever.

Peter Summers: Darn. Oh well, I guess I’m coming in then. Wish me luck.

Blake waited patiently for his father to appear. After a minute had passed, and he remained alone, he began to worry. He was about to contact his father again, when the man suddenly appeared before him.

Peter immediately knelt down on the hot stone floor and vomited.

He must have had to psych himself up.

Blake approached his father, grasped his hand, and slipped on his old ring. He watched as beads of sweat dripped down the man’s head, and his skin became flushed.

Luckily, the ring’s effect was immediate. The temperature would continue to be oppressive, but would likely no longer lead to heat stroke.

At least, not within the next five minutes.

“The first time always sucks,” Blake said softly. “Let me know when you’re good.”

Peter nodded and rasped, “And I thought… Phoenix was hot…”

A few seconds later, his father stood and observed the pile of Manders that surrounded him. “That’s a lot of meat.”

Blake smirked at the double entendre, but kept his usual response to himself. “Yeah, is there room in the warehouse for it?”

“Actually, it goes straight into the cellar beneath the cookhouse. The colder temperature will help preserve it a bit longer, but it won’t keep long enough.” He gestured at the bodies. “I can process and cook maybe five or six of these before they start to go bad. Too bad we don’t have a walk-in freezer like the restaurant.”

“I’d say you can drive them over there in the back of a truck, but I don’t think it’s worth the risk.” Then he grinned. “Look on the bright side, once we upgrade the cookhouse, I’m sure you’ll get one. My old faction never seemed to have a problem storing meat.”

“Really? What powers it?”

Blake shrugged. “I dunno, what powers any of this stuff?”

Peter laughed. “Good point. Okay, I’m going to get this stuff out of here and pop back over to Earth. Even with your ring, this place sucks. How can you stand it?”

Blake smiled. “Magic.”

His father shook his head and touched a dead Mander. Suddenly, the corpse disappeared. He repeated the action five additional times and stepped back through the portal.

Blake followed him.

“And Blake, is it possible to clean those clothes, your mother didn’t want to say anything, but they really do stink.”

Blake laughed. “Ya, even I can’t stand to smell myself.”

After he hugged his father goodbye, he sat down under the overhang in the canyon and contemplated his spell, Mind Blast.

What I really need is to be able to cast it over and over again without getting a headache.

Blake focused on the intended change and spent fifty mega-nano to evolve the spell. As his nano was consumed, he felt the Collective resist his intentions. He concentrated intently on the idea and fought against the Collective’s opposition.

Finally, his struggle ended, and a message appeared.

Evolution failed. 45m nano refunded.

Damn!

He had not only failed to upgrade his spell, but he also lost five mega-nano in the process. This was the first time in either timeline he received such a message. He quickly checked his status and saw that he now held only fifty-one million nano.

One last try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll have to start another scenario.

Blake thought about how else he could change Mind Blast to make it more effective. In the past, the few times he upgraded his spells, he had followed the guidance of his faction leaders.

I could make it stronger, but that’s not really the problem. All I need it for right now is to interrupt their spell forms. Maybe if I made it affect an area around me?

He considered the change. Currently, the spell affected a single target up to a decent range. If he altered it so it affected everyone around him, he was certain the Architect would increase the cost exponentially. All of his psionic energy would be consumed at once, and he would be unable to reuse the ability for hours.

Okay, that won’t work. Maybe a cone?

If the spell’s effect began at himself and spread outwards in a cone rather than a sphere, it would affect a much smaller area. It would still consume additional energy, but not nearly as much as his last idea.

He currently held only a single psionic spell. As long as it did not consume more than a third of his energy reserve, he felt it would be worth the cost.

Let’s try it.

Blake focused on the change he wanted to make and spent the fifty mega-nano once again. This time, he felt less resistance from the Collective, and the process went far smoother. A moment later, he was presented with a message.

Mind Blast has successfully evolved.

Nervous to see how effective his change was, he checked the spell’s new description.

Directed Mind Blast - Focus your psi energy into a mental blast. For a high amount of psionic energy, you direct a burst away from you in a cone. All targets caught within the twenty-four-foot blast have their thoughts disrupted. Distance affects the severity of the disruption. Targets are not permanently harmed.

Interesting.

Almost the entire description had changed. All the alterations were expected, except the last. It had originally stated that it does not harm the target. Now, however, it said the targets are not permanently harmed.

It did say distance affects the severity. Does that mean if something is directly in front of me, it’ll be temporarily harmed? I need to test this out.

Blake was eager to tackle the next scenario. He quickly recast Flame Shield and entered the portal. Once inside the new scenario, he rushed down the winding cave until he located the first group of Manders.

They were clustered on the glowing wall, fifteen feet ahead of him. Three out of five immediately entered their spell forms, while two faintly glowed with chi.

Okay, let’s see how well this works.

Blake used a Spatial Step to close the distance while he simultaneously repositioned himself. The moment he arrived next to the Manders, he released a Mind Blast in a cone before him.

His psionic energy dropped by over a quarter, as expected, and all creatures were hit with the spell. Blake did not wait to see how long they would be distracted, and immediately flew into action.

He killed the closest three monsters within seconds. By the time the fourth recovered enough to rise, he skewered it‘s neck. Only the last Mander was able to put up a fight.

Enhanced by chi, its fangs glowed bright in the dim tunnel, as it launched itself toward him. Blake was about to raise his sword to intercept the attack, when he noticed its body froze.

Shit! Hardened Shell

He dove to the side.

The Mander, unable to adjust to his movement, slammed into the ground. Blake rolled to absorb the impact and quickly regained his feet. Before the creature could rise, he rushed forward, his sword before him.

A moment later, the Mander died.

Even with two chi users, that was so much easier! Totally worth the upgrade!