An instant before the two arrows skewered him, James’ shield activated. His once-daily magic protection appeared as a green dome around him. The fast moving projectiles hit and shattered, along with the shield. The impact was enough to send James stumbling back, but he was unharmed.

Gus threw bags of dirt directly into their faces. They exploded into a dense cloud on contact. The attack didn’t get through their magic helmets, but it was enough to blind them momentarily. One guard stumbled back but the other was unfazed. He raised one set of arms up to block the attack and counterattacked with the other. A great gout of flame shot out towards the ground like a flamethrower.

An instant before the fire hit him, Gus disappeared. The flame raged and burnt the ground where he had stood, quickly dissipating due to its magical nature. Gus reappeared in the same spot two seconds later due to the ring he had picked up in the dungeon. He sprinted towards the gate to avoid the next attack. James belatedly joined him.

Lily's mushroomantis appeared in between the two guards. It was far too low level to harm them, but it wasn’t trying to. The summons ducked its bulbous head and shoved. The blinded guards were already off balance and the shove was just enough to tip them off the battlements above the gate.

Yang snuck up to Max while this was going on and helped him to his feet. Max pulled out his two remaining hammers and handed one to her. They turned to throw the hammers at the guards, when the mushroomantis delivered them to the ground at their feet.

Max didn’t hesitate to slam his hammer down on the nearest guard’s back. The resulting super strike smashed into his plate armor with a resonant clang. The armor held up, but the Lunuk inside it did not. Blood spurt out of his sides and spread out to stain the road.

Yang attacked in the same moment he did, but used the spike to deliver her magic attack. It resulted in a slightly less bloody death.

“Go, go, go,” Max urged, trying not to be too loud.

They had just killed three guards in broad daylight, but Ebba’s fight with the other three was drawing everyone’s attention. A stuttering explosion indicated she had used the potassium hammer Max had given her. The humans filed out of the door within the gate without notice.

Max was last through and glanced back to the fight. Ebba had drawn the fight back down to ground level, dancing in between the three guards. They must have suspected they were fighting with an illusion, but Ebba was using her enchanted stick to throw a real hammer in the mix and keep them guessing. After what just happened with the potassium hammer, they weren’t letting this one touch them.

Off to the right, a female Paj crested the pyramid building to the right. Her centipede-like tail was strong enough to adhere to the tilted side of the building and leave her hands free to wield a long spear. The spear was long enough that it drew Max’s attention when she swung it around.

She stabbed her spear forward into empty air. He lost track of the spear for a moment, and then it reappeared. Ebba was skewered. The spear ran through her back into her heart and out her front. She managed to break the spear and fall to the ground. The Lunuk guards swarmed her a moment later.

Max turned away, but not quickly enough. He couldn’t help but glimpse a gout of blood spurt up from Ebba’s prone form. She was dead. He hurried through the door, shutting it behind himself.

He ran to the others, tears welling up. Yang caught his arm and slowed him down.

“We are just walking, remember? Nothing to see here,” she said.

Max nodded and slowed down. There were another dozen guards along the wall, far enough that they didn’t see the fight, but close enough to see people running away from the gate. The plan was to start running after they made it to the treeline.

“Ebba won’t be joining us,” Max said softly.

Yang turned towards him. “She’s dead?”

“Yeah. They caught her.”

Gus swore loudly. James looked back fearfully.

Lily’s voice caught as she said, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Max said as he wiped away tears.

He was discovering he hadn’t gotten used to death yet. He had seen so much of it recently, but this loss hit him hard. He blinked and focused on walking.

“That is going to make survival difficult,” Yang said.

Lily rounded on her and said, “Have you no heart? She was our friend.”

“No, she was our guide. She was a good guide and saved us from many dangers, but she was not our friend.”

“Maybe not your friend, but she was mine. Do you even have friends? Is that why you were a thug for my father? No one else could stand you, could they? Have you ever had a friend in your life?” Lily said.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Yang jerked back like she had been struck. Her normally stoic face betrayed her and she looked genuinely hurt.

“Whoa whoa. Lily, you went too far. You aren’t mad at Yang, you are mad at the people that killed Ebba,” Max said.

Lily wiped her tears and turned away. Yang hardened her face and stiffened her walk.

As they neared the tree line, Max allowed himself to think about the notices he had gotten earlier.

Medium amount of essence gathered

Medium amount of essence gathered

Level Up

Killing those two guards earlier had given him experience, enough to level up. Suddenly a lot of things made sense. The bloodthirsty actions of the Lunuk in the city were motivated by greed in addition to the standard xenophobia. They were happy to kill the lesser species since it helped them level up.

He understood why Ebba hadn’t told them about it. Anyone that hadn’t murdered a sapient wouldn’t see others as potential bags of experience. It was probably an open secret among those that had been here for years.

This is why a governor was needed. Without someone there to stop them, killers would get stronger and stronger until they were able to wipe out cities. It's possible that wouldn't happen, people could band together to stop murderers even without the government. Still, Max was glad to be leaving Twelve Meditations now that they didn't have protection.

A city must have been wiped out at least once for the Builders to create quests for the governors. They had to bribe people to keep everyone safe. It made him wonder what the Builder’s motivations were.

Max hadn’t thought about it much over the last few days, he was always focused on staying alive. Case in point, they reached the treeline then and started running north.

The builders had lured people to Spinworld with promises of strength and magic. But to what end?

This was a world created by unfathomable power. What need did they have of manaless people to come to their world? The more he thought about it, the less it made sense. Humans, Lunuk, Paj, and Igra. None of them could kill a single monster without the Builder’s magic.

There wasn’t an indigenous society in need of heroes, everyone was new here. As far as he knew, no one had even seen a Builder. They only knew about them from the system and the quests they gave out.

An idle thought crossed Max’s mind. What kind of entity would want a constant source of new people to kill its monsters? Was this whole world a dungeon? If it was, that would explain everything. In the stories, dungeons got passive power just from having people alive in their domain. It would explain why the dungeon didn’t want anyone to wipe out cities.

“Can we take a break?” James gasped out.

“Sure,” Max said as he was shaken out of his reverie. He slowed down and led them into a section of thick underbrush. Once they sat down, they were fairly well hidden.

“Maybe have someone else lead next?” Gus said as he panted. “You aren’t carrying a pack.”

“Yeah, sorry. Might as well walk from here on anyway. We need to be careful. We don’t have Ebba anymore to guide us around herds of monsters and make ambush predators ignore us,” Max said.

“When you put it like that, it sounds like we are doomed,” James said.

Max shook his head, “It’s gonna be difficult, but I think we can do it.”

“What makes you so confident?” Gus said. He had caught his breath, but he still seemed tired.

“I got my Citadel cards back for one. I leveled up before this all happened, and I know I can make some amazing shit with a little more time. James, c'mere. I got an idea we can try out right now.”

James left his pack where it was and trudged over to where Max was pulling his pack out of his belt. Max handed him a card as he dug to the bottom of the bag.

“I bet we can finally fix my crossbow with that Glue Gun card,” Max said as he pulled out the pieces. “And I’ve been thinking about ammo. I might be able to make a magic drill in the same shape as the crossbow bolts.”

James steepled his fingers and said, “Excellent,” just like Mr. Burns.

Max laughed and they got to work. The glue gun that the card created looked remarkably like a hot glue gun from earth, but made of metal. A socket on the bottom was just the right size to insert a white monster core. A test with a few branches showed that the glue set within minutes and was super strong.

They worked together to take the crossbow apart so they could put it back together again. They couldn’t repair the reloader, so they tossed it. The top rail feeder had to go since it was connected as well. The result was a much simpler crossbow, much like the ones from medieval times. Max was confident it would work. He was just waiting until it was fully set before experimenting.

While they waited, Max focused on his drill card and envisioned a thinner, longer, drill than the default one. If he could convince the magic to add stabilizing fins, even better. Before he could activate the card, he was interrupted.

“If we are taking a longer break, can I have one of the cards you swiped from the Lunuk bastards?” Gus said with a gimme motion.

Max wanted to get back to his project, but he knew strengthening the team was just as important. He nodded. “We passed out the other cards already, but I do have some Bell cards that aren't being used.”

“Since Ebba died with my Decoy card, I need a new Bell card,” Yang said.

Max pulled the Bell cards out and laid them out all in a row so everyone could see. He still hated Bell cards because of what they did to him, kidnapped, injured, and privacy invaded. But if they were going to survive, they would have to use every tool at their disposal. He had four Bell cards, they were going to use at least one of them. There was Startle, Foul Odor, Sonic Bolt, and Camouflage. Yang reached for the last one as soon as she read it.

Max a thought. He held up a finger for Yang to wait a second. Once James was back from peeing behind a bush, Max said, “I would love to do a little test before we divvy these up. I want to make sure none of you have that stolen Listen card. At our level, everyone can only have one Bell card at a time. Everyone take turns using the Camo card so we know you don’t have the Listen card slotted.”

“What’s wrong, don’t ya trust us, buddy?” Gus said in a confrontational tone.

Max grabbed the Camoflauge card and held it out. “Trust is earned. Here is your chance to earn yours.”