There was no ambush waiting for them outside the dungeon, despite Michael’s preparations.

“You were right Dave,” Michael said as soon as the call connected. “I had doubts as soon as I saw the spike in difficulty, but then I thought the difficulty must have increased because Travis was with me. So I went in again just to be sure. It was not Travis. Someone’s been farming the first floor. A lot.”

“Shit,” came the reply, muffled by the weak signal, “no, no, that’s actually good. At least we know there isn’t another entrance close by. But we need to move quicker than planned.”

“Can we do something to prevent access?”

There was a sigh. “Legally? The land isn’t yours yet, it’s not like you can stop anyone from entering a random cave. And putting guards there will only draw attention to our acquisition, which is already skirting the edges of what’s legal.”

That’s when Travis decided to barge into the conversation. “Put him on speaker. David, hello? Why is that?”

“We are buying contaminated land from the EPA,” Dave said, slightly annoyed, “hello Mr Tyrell.”

“I see. Harsh cleanup conditions and messy zoning laws for the,” he coughed, “quote-unquote redevelopment plan?”

“Yeah,” Dave said, “hard to get approval for what we want to build. You know how it is.”

“Oh, I do. Do you already know what you want to build there?”

“Nothing more than just ideas,” Dave said, “and that’s one of the issues.”

“Don’t worry about it.” The CEO declared. “You’ll see most obstructions vanish soon enough. A fat stack of cash, a promotion and a favor and any bureaucrat will bend over backwards to get your shit sorted out. And if they ask how we are going to deal with the mercury and arsenic and the piles of shit left to rot there for decades which will suddenly become urgent to dispose of? I’ll just say… magic.”

Michael didn’t miss how the CEO said we. Not unlike Dave, back when we started planning together.

“We could chuck it inside the dungeon, actually,” he said, “better to first test what happens to any matter we leave there, though.”

“See? You got this. Let me take care of the rest, it’s the least I could do. As for the other guy, why not put some cameras around the area? Motion activated, both here and at the parking lot to see who comes and goes.”

“Good idea. Mike, I’ll get someone to buy them for you so that you can set them up next time you get here. Thanks Mr Tryell, you’re being more amenable than I thought you’d be.”

“I’ve decided. You have my full support.” Said Travis, “today was illuminating. Give me time to make a phone call and the land is yours. Do you need me to help you acquire security guards for later?”

“Yes,” said Dave, all business now, “not having Carmela available has reduced my options a lot. I will gladly accept your help, but I want to vet each guard personally. And we will pay them, not you.”

“Trust me, Carmela was bad news. Good riddance,” the CEO said darkly. “I understand why you’re wary around me, but I hope you can get over it quickly, it’s getting annoying.”

“Pah.” Dave spat, “I don’t know your true motives, and one greedy old bastard is more than enough here. So, Carmela. You got news on her?”

“Nothing you don’t already know or that you care about. Suffice to say, Michael wouldn’t approve of her.”

“You seem oddly neutral to it, Mr Tyrell.” Dave said. “What would Michael say to this?”

The CEO ignored the snark. “I have seen worse. But she’s no good to be around Mike.”

“Suspiciously reasonable. You really are suddenly on our side aren’t you, Mr Tyrell?” Dave quipped.

Travis shrugged. “As I said, what I saw today was illuminating. I can see the benefits of working together. Besides, let’s be real. Your demands have been so laughably small in the face of what I could theoretically do, that it’s basically costing me nothing. Don’t push it, but all I’m saying is that I can see the mutual benefit of working together.”

Still cold when speaking to Dave.

But Michael could see the CEO making amused faces and winking at him while he subtly threatened Old Dave. He was having fun at the old man’s expense, making him sweat for something the CEO had already decided to give them.

Dave didn’t let the threat stand, though. “You do understand—”

“Yes, the strings attached. Michael explained the coin system to me. Smart. You made me think I was playing you, and yet you played me. You control the coins, therefore you control my magic. If I want more coins, then it’s either money or favors. Other than the coins, the only way to recharge my magic would be to stand on your soon-to-be privately owned land. Land I’m going to help you acquire, crazy as it might seem. Guess how I get to stand on your land? By being your ally! Seriously though. I get it. You own me, or my magic at least. But I know we can build a good work relationship, be allies and, perhaps, even be friends.”

Stolen novel; please report.

That seemed to make Dave pause. There was a sudden seriousness with which Travis had spoken, and from his voice it was clear he was earnest in his proposal. He wasn’t trying to scam them anymore, to take advantage of them.

“Damn,” Dave said after a while, and after a few long breaths. “I can’t say I didn’t expect some sort of change once you saw what Michael was capable of. But this… welcome aboard, Mr Tyrell.”

The call ended soon after, with the rhythmic sound of an approaching helicopter capturing their attention. The ride back home was quick and quiet, both passengers immersed in their own thoughts.

Michael knew that eventually his control over magically abled people was going to wane, as the mana from the dungeon spread across the planet. Unless he had a way to control said spread, which was a colossal undertaking even assuming the actual controlling part came easy. Locating and securing all entrances would not be easy at all.

But he hoped he'd have a plan for that, before the time came. Having someone like Travis as a friend was always a boon, and as long as he didn’t find out that he was an awful person or something, he was not opposed to the idea. Something had changed within the CEO in the dungeon, and he was going to ask Dave for his opinion about it, but for now he would reap the benefits of this change.

***

“He’s smart,” Dave said. “Smart and dangerous. Remember when I told you about having what others need in order to get them to do whatever you want? He knows we need him, and he needs us. He doesn’t mind being tied to us because he knows that by using him and his resources, we are tying ourselves to him just as tightly. He knows that by standing with us, he gets front row seats to a new world order. An order that will happen whether he wants or not.”

Michael hummed.

“Now,” Dave continued, “on top of that, from what you told me he seems genuinely interested in playing nice with you. You won his respect somehow, and as long as you don’t fuck it up…”

“We got ourselves an ally.”

“Indeed. I’ll keep an eye on him just in case.”

Michael went home soon after. The day had been very long, and he was feeling tired and restless. He tried to squeeze in some practice while he was in the car, with plenty of coins to draw from, but soon found himself lost in the landscape. It was earlier than usual, the sun still high and the day bright with vibrant colors thanks to the helicopter cutting travel time by several hours, and all he wanted to do was capitalize on it by collapsing on his bed as soon as possible.

First, though, a thing he was looking forward to doing.

He took out the glowing skill upgrade stone from his pocket, glowing a pleasant and soothing green, and absorbed it.

Skill Level up!

[Mana Manipulation] reaches level 3. You can now control Qi at half the base range.

Nice. Not a world-shaking skill, but this finally brings my manipulation skills up to speed with my perception skills.

Of course, there was no mana nor Qi in the air around him to test his skill on. He consumed a coin, of which he now had a lot, even after giving twenty Coppers to Travis, and instead of absorbing the energy inside of it, he let it disperse in the air.

Yep, he thought as he struggled to make crude shapes out of mana. There are traces of Qi in a Copper coin. I can see it well now that it’s floating in the air and not going straight into me or being compressed into the shape of a coin.

Controlling the Qi was, however, orders of magnitude harder than controlling mana.

It’s like… a hundred times harder.

He didn’t even realize that he had slipped into training mode even though he was supposedly tired. He looked at a Silver coin. It contained roughly a Copper worth of Qi inside of it.

Interesting, he hummed, a hundred Copper coins to make a Silver coin worth of mana. A Silver of mana to make a Copper of Qi.

It was not the whole picture. He could not convert mana into Qi, no matter how much he tried. And try he did, used as he was to putting a lot of hours of effort into a single task by now. His attempts didn’t consume much mana at all either, allowing him to make a single Copper last for hours.

Bummer. But it’s time to go to bed.

***

Michael opened the blinders to a bright new day, feeling nice and refreshed. The day was looking good, with a few wispy white clouds in a spotless blue sky that put him in a good mood, barely a few people already awake milling about on the road, and two tanned men standing outside his house, leaning against a pole while pretending to do other stuff.

They were clearly watching him, though. He could feel their gaze. Swallowing, he hastily shut the blinders. When he peeked outside again, they weren’t there anymore.

Were they even there at all?

He had been awake for barely a minute. Perhaps it was the last dregs of a dream? He had not even healed himself—a thing he always did to fully switch his brain to awake. Activating the soothing skill, [Healing Aura] expended some of the Qi resting in his dantian to restore brain homeostasis. His heartbeat returned to normal.

I must have imagined them. Just paranoia.

He was stressed. The situation with Carmela going radio silent was still a mystery. Travis had said his men were struggling to dig up any interesting information, although he had something to report. Apparently two of his men had deserted after being sent to investigate Carmela’s house and office. Which, according to the CEO, just didn’t happen. Not to him and not to his men. That they deserted and vanished was already news enough.

They would have to proceed with caution. Even more stress for Michael.

You know what? I need a damn vacation. The stress is getting to me. With the amount of power I have access to… he shivered as he thought about how easy it would have been to just kill Phillip, back at the dojo. Today was karate day, his mind already rebelling against the idea of having to go there again.

Not after what had happened. He really could have killed the man. In so many ways too, and his build wasn’t even all that strong compared to what he knew was possible with magic. Even brute force alone…

That’s it, violent thoughts again. Not good. I’m going to call my chauffeur, leisurely take a hike to the dungeon, go to the second floor, and I’m going to spend a whole week resting before I even consider challenging the stone area boss. Then after I defeat it, another week of utter nothing before I leave.

After all, no matter how much time he spent inside, to the outside world it was still ten minutes. He had been stupid not to take advantage of it, but now that he had thought about it—no matter how late—he sure as hell was going to abuse the mechanic.

When he got to the dungeon, trail cams and motion sensors deployed as planned, he stepped inside without hesitation, not even checking the mana levels outside.

He sighed when the first thing he saw when he reached the second floor in a burst of magic, was that three enormous orcs were barring his way.