Since the Manifestation there have been numerous attempts to invent a comprehensive system of categorising power types and power levels. So far, no system has been foolproof. The system currently used by many nations is a brief description of the broad categories that apply to the meta followed by a quick description of observed powers. The priority is to quickly determine how difficult it would be to capture and detain the metahuman. The categories commonly used are,

Mobility- How they move. Teleporters, speedsters and flyers each get their own designation, while those with secondary movement power receive a ‘mobile’ designation.

Range- How far can their power be projected. Extreme range, long range, close range, touch or internal.

Active/Automatic/Passive- is their power always on, does it respond automatically or do they consciously need to use it. Can they be taken by surprise?

Expression- Do they create, destroy, or manipulate something that’s already there. Can they be disarmed by removing the target of their powers?

Comparatively the tier list is much simpler. It starts at zero and up to tier five it compares what mundane resource would be required to contain, eliminate or otherwise equal that particular metahuman.

Zero- A normal person with neither training nor equipment up to a martial artist armed with a melee weapon.

One- From an armed police officer to a fully equipped special forces operative.

Two- A squad of trained soldiers or Improvised Fighting Vehicle.

Three- Armoured Fighting Vehicles up to tanks.

Four- Warships. From corvettes to Cruisers and aircraft carriers.

Tier five and above are defined as matching a team of metahumans the tier below them. I.E., it might require a team of three to five tier fours to take down a tier five. This is incredibly variable due to the unpredictable nature of metapowers.

The training ground was basic to put it generously. Nothing more than an empty space with a selection of targets in a couple corners. Most of the targets were simply weighted metal pole wrapped in layers of plastic and cheap carpet to provide a striking area, however there was an impromptu firing range, the targets spray painted on a thick slab of concrete.

Leading Big Al and Donga over to the ‘training dummies’ Mickey instructed them to give the targets a few warmup whacks to warm up before trying to activate their skills.

‘How do we even activate our skills?’ Alphonse asked between strikes.

Mickey shrugged.

‘Yell out the attack name like they do in anime.’

Alphonse eyed Mickey sceptically before he turned back to the target and muttered ‘’.

To his surprise his flail and his lower arm were covered in a red glow. Thinking fast, Big Al reared back and swung his flail into the target. The glow burst from his flail and slammed into the target, rocking it back on its heavy metal base before it righted itself with a thud.

‘Well shit I’m amazed that worked.’ Mickey said.

‘How do you feel? Your arm not hurt?’

Alphonse rotated his arm experimentally.

‘No, my arms fine. But my chest mark feels pretty cold now. Not like ice or anything but cold.’

Mickey nodded.

‘I suspect the crests are what power your skills. And call them crests, it sounds better than chest marks. I’m gonna have enough trouble marketing an eldritch murder-hole without people worrying about chest marks. C’mon. Righto Dolphin, your turn.’

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Dolphin walked up to the dummy and muttered ‘’. Immediately his arm started to vibrate and glow with a pale blue light. After his first strike connected, Donga’s arm reflexively repeated the motion, pulling back and rapidly hitting the dummy three more times. After the glow faded from his arm, he stepped back rotating his shoulder tiredly.

‘That was weird. Couldn’t stop hitting it. Crest’s not cold at all.’ He said.

‘Involuntary muscle movement? That’s interesting, how’s your arm feel?’ Mickey asked.

After Donga confirmed it was a bit sore Mickey instructed him to let his arm rest between uses before turning to Alphonse.

‘Could you use your ability a couple more times. I want to see how many times you can do it and what happens if you over use it. If you get injured, I’ll use a healing needle so don’t worry,’

Big Al was somewhat hesitant, but still stepped up and hit the dummy with another . After he called out the skill a third time the red glow failed to appear.

‘The skill isn’t working anymore, and my chest feels like ice.’ Alphonse gasped out.

‘Hmmm.' Mickey nodded. ‘Working hypothesis. Your skill,’ he pointed at Big Al.

‘Probably works off pure energy, hence it is draining more energy from your Crest. Dolphins’ skill on the other looks like it augments his muscles. Which is likely why his arm is sore. Dolphin should be able to build up to using the skill without the soreness through exercise. Possibly. We have a sample size of two so expect a lot of guessing for now.’ Mickey shrugged.

‘We're done for today. Alphonse if your Crest still feels cold by tomorrow stop by and I’ll see what I can do. Otherwise, I’ll see you next Saturday at nine in the morning.’

Benjamin looked irate.

‘Wait that’s it? Shouldn’t there be more testing? Or at some training? You barely tested anything.’

Mickey shrugged again as he considered the irony of ‘researching’ abilities he himself created. would dump a set amount of pure kinetic energy into whatever it hit while caused an oddly specific spasm in the twitch muscles of the arm. The psi energy used by was mostly dedicated to sensing when and controlling the spasms, explaining it’s relatively low psi cost and the extra strain on the body.

‘Yeah kid, but science is slow especially in the beginning. We need to find out how these skills work. First, we had to find out how to activate them, now we’re looking at how long it takes to recover from them. Dolphin needs to rest his arm before he damages himself and we don’t know how Alphonse’s crest recovers energy.

Does it draw energy from the host, does it pull it from the dungeon, or does it do both? We don’t know yet. Which is why I’m taking the wait and see approach. Regardless, you guys gotta go, so I can do other stuff. Doctors to hire, Mercenaries to ambush.’

‘Wait What?’

‘Yeah, I give it a coin flip on whether they sneak in after hours. I’ll call the cops then stay over and make sure they get the welcome they deserve.’

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Later, after Mickey had chased the teenagers out of the guild compound and been told by the cops to ‘Call them when there’s a crime in progress.’, he sat down at the worktable in his dungeon sanctum and got to work upgrading his dungeon.

The first thing he did was plant native seeds and sapling in most of the available hexagons. Due some small-scale experiments Mickey had learned that plants could store psi energy to be released upon the destruction of the plant. There was quite a bit of energy loss, but the third level would still allow for more stable energy flow and energy storage for bigger projects. After planting the trees and bushes he sped up their growth by dumping the majority of the psi into them. Within a week the forest would be fully grown and ready for delvers.

The next task was obstacles. Unlike most floors the third floor would only have a single room. But it would be filled with tree, dense undergrowth and difficult terrain. The challenge would be finding one of five unassuming exits. This was made harder still by additional hazards. While he had plans for over a dozen hazards, currently Mickey only had three real threats in the forest.

The first was the pit traps. Simply holes two metres deep with a width ranging from small enough to trap a foot to large enough for a person to fall into. The pit traps likely wouldn’t cause any serious injury, but they would delay and exhaust the delvers. More importantly they would be the first actual trap in the dungeon. So, delvers would need to become more cautious from here on out.

The next hazard was half trap and half enemy. In a dozen hex’s Mickey had transplanted beehives. In addition to the hazard they presented the hive would hopefully become an additional source of loot. Mickey had a theory that the honey and wax of the hive may become low grade metamaterials with enough psi exposure, even if the bees remain unaffected. He was hesitant to change the bees directly since small insects were rather delicate compared to mammals and if he damaged a queen he’d be down a hive until they next swarmed.

The final and most impressive of the hazard was the ‘Forest Guardian’. A four foot construct of stone and living vines, It was a torso, arms and head made out fist sized stones held together with vines. The bottom of the body formed a concave skirt which fitted onto a wooden sphere resembling a giant macadamia nut. While currently simply a hollow wooden sphere, Mickey was fully intending on replacing the fake nut with an actual giant macadamia once he figured out how to grow them. The constructs would be armed it a sturdy club covered in sharp thorns and a mass of brambles acting as a basic shield.

Mickey had spent a significant amount of time getting the construct to act as he wanted and had decided that if he was going to make a more advanced construct he would need to learn how to code, because his lack of programming knowledge was limiting his potential constructs. Right now he was simply using trial and error to get sub par results.

After placing the four guardians in each hexagon next to an exit, Mickey moved onto the final task for the dungeon update. Bosses for levels one and two. For the first level he placed a mutated rat in a circular chamber, accompanied by two standard rats to increase the challenge. In addition to any skill reward from the pillar there would also be a chest with three pieces of equipment made from rat leather.

For the second level boss he simply scaled up a slimeball and dyed it blue. He’d see how effective it would be. For loot he created a chest with a rod of identification. A simple prize but one which would be incredibly useful even in the later levels of the dungeon.

Soon after he was finished, he felt several intruders entering the dungeon.

The Black Wolf Brigade had arrived.