The gray skinned troll picked up James and Lily and they yelped in surprise. Gus chuckled and started running. He was carrying two people and his full pack, but Max and Yang had to work to keep up with him.

Max looked behind him. The horde had gotten closer. It was the same herd of Boar-wolves he had seen earlier. There were a few dozen monsters rushing towards them.

The three lead monsters had their mouths open as they ran. A purple ball was forming inside, an energy attack forming.

“Attack incoming, get ready to dodge,” Max said. A few moments later he shouted, “Left, now!”

A thick beam of purple light hit the ground where they had just stood, followed by two more. The three beams turned and followed the humans into the blue forest. Several trees were vaporized as soon as the beam touched them. The magic cut out a moment later.

Max turned forward again, hoping that they couldn’t do that often. He focused his Insight, staring at the trees ahead of them. The forest would be counter attacking soon. He just had to- there!

“Right!”

They left the blue forest just as a row of trees crackled with electricity. Domes of lightning exploded out with rolling thunder. Max looked back and grinned. The trees had taken out half of the monsters.

The grin fell off his face a few seconds later. The affected monsters stood back up and joined the hunt. They must be immune to the forest’s attack.

Everything became clearer now. The blue forest was the herd’s hunting grounds. They could survive anything it threw at them, and the tree's lightning attacks alerted the monsters to prey. It was like the whole forest was working to feed the monsters.

Max firmed up his expression. The monsters were going to go hungry today.

The people ran on, putting their everything into the mad sprint. Max kept a careful eye on the monsters behind them, telling Gus and Yang when to dodge. Six of the monsters attacked at once, but they couldn’t turn their purple beams fast enough to catch his squad.

He dipped into and out of the forest, using the lightning domes to slow down the horde. Finally, the dungeon tower appeared, just past the edge of the blue forest. There were people camped out in front of the tower, sitting around a clean burning campfire. Humans mostly, with a pair of Igra and a Paj in the mix.

Gus yelled incoherently, but that was more than enough to get them moving. It seemed like they thought Gus was attacking at first, but then they saw the herd of boar-wolves behind them.

The crowd turned and ran into the tower. Groups of five and six filled an entrance and slammed the doors shut behind themselves. Half of the entrances were closed before Max’s squad got there. Most everyone found their teammates and locked themselves away. Only one Paj remained.

She stood near one of the open doors and waved them in. Gus followed her lead and brought Lily and James into the antechamber. The Paj wriggled inside, gesturing for Yang and Max to come in too.

The instant they entered the dungeon, she slammed her hand onto a symbol on the wall and the door fell down. They heard the sound of beams hitting the dungeon an instant later. One after another hit, but the dungeon's walls were impervious.

Max’s eyes adjusted to the interior lighting as he caught his breath. Gus sat with his back to the wall, catching his breath as well. Yang faded into the background. Lily and James stood together, rubbing their bodies where Gus had held them tight.

The Paj stood near the door, trying to keep all of them in sight. She was particularly wary of Gus’ enormous troll body. She wore light armor, metal mesh with segmented plates overtop. It reminded him of the Igra style of armor, only with less protection. In one hand she held a knife with a blade above and below the handle. The other hand tightly gripped a small red ball.

Max thought she looked particularly attractive for an alien. He was immediately suspicious of the thought. Was she using a Bell card or Presence to mess with him? He tried to think about her looks analytically.

Her face was symmetrical, her green skin smooth, her figure was curvy enough for Captain Kirk to be interested. Her tail was centipede-like and a little off putting. Huh. Maybe there was no mental manipulation. Her upper half was just his type. Still, he resolved to be cautious.

“Hello there. My name is Max, what’s your name?”

“Greetings Max. My name is Bisrat.” She did a little bow then looked around. “Are these ... beings in your party?”

Max laughed. “Yes, we are all together. We are all human, even Gus there. He’s just temporarily a troll because of his cups card. The young woman over there is Lily. The dashing young man next to her is my best friend James. Hiding in the corner over there is Yang.”

Yang deactivated her camo and folded her arms, “How could you tell?”

Max just winked at her. She would figure out soon that he could see a wisp of mana when her card was active. He had to pay attention to pick her out, but it was possible.

Bisrat relaxed. “Wonderful to meet you all. I’m assuming there is an interesting story of how you ended up south of the Blue Forest Dungeon with the whole Boar-wolf herd after you.”

“Not really. We came from Twelve Meditations and didn’t have a guide. When the monsters caught wind of us, they chased us up here. We are just making it up as we go.”

“No guide? You must be confident to enter the wilds without one.”

Max shook his head, “More like we didn’t have a choice. We have to get to the first layer. We are new, I think the Paj call us seedlings.”

Bisrat tapped her chest in an impressed manner. “You arrived on the second layer and you are still alive on your own? You must have gotten powerful heart cards.”

Max decided against telling her the whole story. “We got lucky. Many of those that arrived with us did not. How about you? What brings you to the Blue Forest Dungeon?”

“I am an artifact appraiser. I climb with teams and let them know which dungeon artifacts are cursed and which ones are not. I was contracted with The Red Band for the last week, but they left yesterday.” Bisrat said and dipped her head. “I was attempting to sell my services when you pushed everyone inside.”

Max scratched his cheek. “Sorry we interrupted you. Hopefully you can find a good party when this is all over.”

“I hope so too. I was beginning to think I should have returned with them to the first layer. Regardless, I think a fair recompense to your disruption would be a short jaunt through the tower and an even split of the loot.”

“Actually, I was hoping we could hide out in here for a little bit then head out. There is no mandatory quest making us run the dungeon, right?”

“No, it isn’t required, but you might as well do a short run. It will be several hours before the herd leaves. Why not kill a few monsters in here while we wait out the monsters outside? Even for seedlings like you, the first floor should be simple. It’s only the upper floors that are dangerous.”

“We’ll think about it. For now we are going to rest and recover. Yang, come here, let’s look at that wound.”

Max pulled out his first aid kit again. This time he got the fishing line and needle out too. He was going to stitch the wound up. It might be ugly, but he was sure that it would heal better that way.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Bisrat wriggled closer and said, “Is the wound clean? If so, I have some mana water that will speed up healing.”

Max turned back to Yang. The last time she had that choice she rejected it.

Yang’s expression turned blank. “I would appreciate that, yes.”

Bisrat dipped her head and pulled out a small vial. “We should pour a bit on the wound and then you drink the rest.”

Max slowly unwrapped her forearm. Yang sucked in a breath and let it out in a long hiss. She didn’t move though.

When it was exposed, Bisrat poured half the vial on the wound and then put the rest to Yang’s lips. She obediently swallowed it down. Max watched the wound for a bit, but it seemed like Bisrat’s mana water wasn’t as potent as Ebba’s had been. The wound was still bleeding, just slower now. He carefully sewed up her wound. Once that was done, he got out a new bit of gauze and bound up her forearm again. A bit looser this time.

They all settled in to rest. Bisrat did this interesting thing where she sunk down and wrapped her centipede tail around herself. Max pulled out another set of trail rations and handed them out. He offered Bisrat one, but she had her own provisions. Gus ate his food in seconds, but the rest of them took their time.

“Yang, how did your Camouflage quest go? You get an option to cover everyone yet?” Max asked.

She shook her head, “No, sorry. I finished the quest, but the card’s evolution options only apply to me. My camouflage12222 works better now, that's it.”

“Damn. I was really hoping we could get a replacement for Ebba,” Max sighed. “Well, let’s pass out loot evenly now that we aren’t trying to boost you up.”

Max had kept track of the large and small monster cores they had collected along the way. He asked James and Yang to hand them over and he passed out on large and two small orbs to everyone but Yang. They had already given her several small, so she didn’t get any more.

While he was at it, he swallowed another orb and brought his gloves card up to six. Just as he expected, that triggered the card evolution quest. He read over it, hoping that would result in gloves he could size down. He had promised Yang her own gauntlets and he meant to deliver.

Citadel Evolution Quest

In order to progress your Gloves card past level six, demonstrate competence in the following three areas: spell, function, style.

Use the hand spell in six five materially different ways. [ ]

Craft a pair of gloves with a different function. [✔]

Create gloves to match the style of six different people. [ ]

This is an optional quest and there is no time limit. You must pass this evolution quest before you can start another.

Max read over the quests. He had one complete and the other two would take some time. The first quest would require some imagination, but he figured he would have plenty of time to figure out a new application of the spell while it recharged. It was nice that the second task was already complete. Gauntlets were rather different than the default gloves. The final task wasn’t happening anytime soon. He had no sense of personal style, and he certainly didn’t know how to judge others’ styles.

One thing at a time though. How to use the floating blue hand spell better. So far he had only used it to grab something out of reach. Until this quest, he assumed that was all it could do. The task called it a hand spell. Maybe he could use it like a mage hand?

He turned his gauntlet towards James and focused on what he wanted the spell to do. He activated the spell and a blue hand flew out of the gauntlet and the pointer finger aimed directly at James’ ear.

At the last moment, James ducked out of the way. He hadn’t been looking the right way, but he must have sensed it somehow. As the blue hand dissipated into nothing, James turned and flipped Max off.

Max stuck his tongue out at his friend. He checked his quest and it now said he only had to find four more uses for the hand spell. It was an exciting thought. A whole new world of mage hand magic opened up in his mind. He checked his gloves card. Just over an hour before the gloves recharged themselves and he could try again. He couldn’t wait.

“So, Bisrat. How long have you been on Spinworld?” Lily said as she snacked on nuts.

“Six years, give or take. There are no seasons here, so it’s hard to tell. The days all blur together,” she said and smoothed out the segments on her tail.

“I imagine you’re used to this place by now. You seem unflappable. I wish I had that. This place is so overwhelmingly violent, it’s relentless. There are monsters out that door that want to kill us and a dungeon out that door that want to kill us. I just want a break,” Lily said and sighed.

Bisrat rattled her quill hair in laughter. “Don’t we all. But you are right, you do get used to it. The world wants to kill you and you kill it before it can. Some people can’t handle that of course, but there are always jobs in the cities for people that want peace. Most people stay in cities, actually. They go out on hunts for weeks or months and spend twice that long relaxing in town.”

Max found himself relaxing for the same reason Lily was stressed. There were monsters everywhere around them, but none of them were getting in here. For the next few hours he could let his guard down.

“I’m guessing you don’t spend much time in town, right?” Max said. “You said they, not we.”

She inclined her head. “Yes, very perceptive. I spend most my days on the road, traveling with caravans or climbing dungeon towers. Not many people choose to invest in Insight, so I provide a valuable service.”

“What do people normally invest in?” Max asked.

“Depends on the person. If they are a frontline fighter, then they invest in Weight and Resistance. If they are a spell slinger they invest in Flow and Quicken. If they are a leader, Sight and Presence. It all depends. There is a use case for every stat. Even the seemingly useless Levitate stat is required if you want to live in the floating city.”

Max opened his mouth to ask about the floating city, but Lily beat him to the punch. “Is there a way to change your mind? I picked Specialize and I’ve been thinking I should have picked Generalize ever since.”

She knocked on the floor. “There is actually. If you focus intently the next time you level up, you can lower a stat instead of raising it. The only problem is that it still uses the level up points. It’s incredibly expensive, but possible as long as you catch the mistake early.”

“Do you think I should change, switch to Generalize?”

“It depends. It typically isn’t worth it for most people. Particularly if you have access to the cards of your suit. What suit do you have?”

Max’s attention wavered as they continued talking. He was happy to have chosen Specialize. Her comment about level ups reminded him that he had points still unassigned. He pulled up his stat screen to decide where the two new points should go.

Max Kraft (Level 10)

Insight: 6

Flow or Resistance

Presence or Paranoia

Broaden 1

Levitate 5

Specialize: 6

⬣(Free Points: 2)⬣

Broaden was out. He already had enough mana to make anything he wanted. He could put his free points into Levitate, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to be slightly lighter. Specialize and Insight were at level six, he couldn’t raise them for some reason. A soft cap or something.

Flow was calling his name. He had wanted to get better at magic, and there was a stat that would do just that, while making him more flexible and dexterous at the same time. He didn’t know why he hadn’t picked it before. Now was an excellent time to rectify that error.

About to take the plunge, a thought occurred to him. Bisrat was right there. She seemed willing to answer any questions they had. He should double check his assumptions and thought processes before he took the plunge.

“Hey Bisrat. I leveled up on the way here, can I ask your advice on how to spend the points?”

“Of course. And although I am very trustworthy, you should avoid talking specific numbers with anyone that isn’t in your long term party.”

Max inclined his head. “Thanks for the honesty. I have a stat that I want to raise, but the system won’t let me. Why’s that?”

“Ah, so you hit level 6 or 12, right? You can’t progress a stat past those points until after you pass level 12 or 24, respectively. I believe the builders want to ensure that we spread out our points and not put everything into one stat. I told you I specialized in Insight, but I have placed points in other areas as well.”

Max nodded. “Thanks. That explains it. How about the Flow or Resistance stats? Anything I should know before I make that choice?”

“That’s fairly simple. Are you a front line fighter or a backline fighter?”

Max tipped his head back and forth. “That’s a good question. I specialized in citadel cards and I have a few cards that come with ranged attack spells. I want to stay in the back line, but I keep ending up in the front line. Gus can’t hold it alone, even in his troll form.

Bisrat sat up and unwrapped her tail. “You have more than one citadel card with a magical effect?”

“Yeah, four of them actually,” Max said. “I’m sure I’ll show you all of them if we fight monsters later.”

Bisrat wriggled backwards and said, “Have you been lying to me?” She raised the red ball in her hand.

Mas held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa. I’ve been completely truthful. Why are you asking?”

It occurred to Max that she knew a lot about them now, but he didn’t know what level she was or what cards or artifacts she used. He carefully moved his hand towards his belt while her eyes darted around the room in panic.