They woke up the next morning an true to her word the first of Kyra’s tailors turned up with three rails of clothes. She had given exact measurements for Teddy and some items for the others as well. Some got tried on and it all went away into inventories then they all had a long breakfast. Teddy and Lucy took a while in private, they were going to make a habit of absorbing a few skill books each morning and evening and it was a strenuous process that needed a quiet area to make the absorption of knowledge the most effective. Kyra then took them out to the shopping district and showed them round a few of the magical shops at things they may have found interesting. She then knew a good spot for lunch an they sat and ate and chat and drank for a long time, they were there for so long that it rolled into evening and the proprietor brought them out tapas style plates for dinner without being asked, they had been joined by a few locals and pulled together a few tables and had an impromptu party.

The next morning another tailor turned up with heavy chests, inside were warmer winter clothes, they took them out to have a look then they too disappeared into the inventories. This day they set out to just walk the city. They knew from experience from their own world that you only found the hidden gems of a city by walking the lesser trod roads. They found some quirky shops and bought some nick-nacks but mostly they were taking in the different buildings and sights of the city. That night they headed to a restaurant in the docks, it was all made of shifting sand, with pits for diners to sit in and small bonfires between the pits. There were no menus and dishes were place on the outside of the pits, the sand never got into the food but shifted the plates around like a sushi bar so that they made their way around the pit so that everyone had a chance to try them.

The third day three tailors arrived with different styles of clothing, there were styles from a few different cultures, so they had options when they were travelling to new places. Kyra had mainly shopped for herself, a few options for Teddy and then the odd few items for the others so they would need to do some clothes shopping in the future.

They made their way to the city mirage chamber to spend the day. More than just a training area it was an arena for teams to battle for prizes. It was set up for spectators and they spent most of the day there. They had multiple viewing options for either monster fights, team fights against monsters, PvP or team vs team. They saw some strategies they liked and made a note of them, the flexibility of their shared interface meant that there was a scratchpad they could have multiple ongoing notes they could add to and they made a note of anything they fancied trying.

There was a bustling messenger business in the city, the team from earth were definitely missing their phones and the ability to instantly communicate. James had sent a message to Master Randulph that he would be spending the day in a hired box at the arena, with no rush on his study that he bargained for on the third day. They had paid for a return messenger so that he could let them know when it was ready to be picked up. The team sat and talked about the vambrace, James had explained that the shop owner had insisted that there was only one engraving that he would do they weren’t sure whether or not he would be able to plan out the rest of the engravings or whether he would run into the same issue every time. They found it interesting that the elderly elf had started drawing it out even before James had explained what the item was, he had realised what was needed by just looking at the armour for a few minutes.

They all felt the mildly volatile gold rank aura just outside the door just before the knock. They looked at each other and Teddy fired a message up on the interface.

[Anyone pissed off a gold ranker?]

[No]

[Nope]

[Negative]

The conversation happened at the speed of thought. Having it all on the interface.

[Anyone know why there would be a gold ranker here?]

[N]

[Nah]

[Nien]

Teddy got up and went to the door, they all moved out of the direct line of the door and into a loose formation, it was more to settle their nerves as they were painfully aware a gold ranker could tear them to pieces before any team move. He opened the door and James recognised who it was.

“Mr Randulph! This is unexpected.”

“Yes, for me as well. It turns out that taking on your project was exactly what I needed to push me over the edge into gold. In gratitude I’d like you to join me in my box.”

They had no reason to refuse and were curious to see a patrons private box rather than the ones available to the public. As they were walking along increasingly higher corridors Mr Randulph explained.

“As I am finding today that overnight ascension to gold rank does not go unnoticed even in a large city such as Vitesse. My regular box has been issued to the next silver rank patron on the waiting list and they insisted I now have one of the gold rank suites. It will be the first time I am visiting of course and I apologise if I am not familiar with the layout.”

This turned out not to be a problem, as they were making their way up word must’ve gotten around the staff on the location and number of Mr Randulph’s party, there was a member of arena staff for each guest. The suite itself was massive. There was a games room, multiple viewing rooms, a common room, meeting rooms, even accommodation. They found themselves in a large meeting room where the elf placed the Vambrace in a velvet bag on the long wooden table in the centre. The four Mitchells were on one side while he stood on the other, unobtrusive staff stood in the corners.

“So, gold rank then?” James asked.

“Yes, unfortunately for you it was the culmination of your piece that pushed me over, thats not to undermine what I think may have been some of my best ever work. This will still be a silver rank piece of work but with elements of gold rank touches. And don’t worry, my rate stays the same.” He said with a smile.

“Ha, if it pushed you over the edge to gold maybe you should be paying me.”

The elf threw back his head and laughed, if he hadn’t had the Vambrace, soul-bound as it was to James that he would know it conclusively, he would have hardly recognised the elf. The age reversing effects of ranking up had turned him from old to middle aged and he laughed much more freely and pleasantly now.

“Well that puts paid to the idea of coming back to see you next time, if the work is any good, there’s no way I’d be able to afford you now.”

The elf enjoyed the barb.

“Perhaps for some customers of note I may just work for cost, as for the work, see for yourself.”

With a flourish he whipped off the velvet bag, without the armour clanking on the table. The forearm was orientated towards them and they could see the new work. It took up an entire panel of the five that went around the forearm but it looked to be well worth it. The wing sketch that the elf had done looked basic in comparison. The wing started at the wrist working back to the elbow. He had worked in filigree of different materials, the most of the work was engraved and accentuated in gunmetal grey. He has worked in 4 other shades of metals that James could see, varying in shine and colour, one was even pearlescent giving a kaleidoscope of colour even sitting still. The edges of the wing and the feathers were lined in a rose gold filigree that was bronzed slightly to not shine and give away position but still add flavour and character to the piece. As James took a step toward the armour the same optical illusion happened as on the sketch; as you looked at the detail on one end the other looked as if the feathers had wind moving through them. James traced the leading edge of the wing with a fingertip.

Item: [Vambrace of Menagerie] (iron rank [growth], legendary)

Armour that when developed will increase the effect of transformation powers.

This item is bound to you and cannot be used by anyone else.

Effect: When engraved by a magical armourer (or mystical tattooists with the necessary skills) will grant the wearer benefits to transformation powers. Benefits will be limited to size and skill of engraving. Once an engraving is in place it cannot be removed. Engravers must be at least equal rank to the item, higher rank engravers will produce a stronger effect.

Effect (Bear Claw): When making physical attacks with this item it will create a slashing effect that will cause the [Bleeding] condition to occur. Against targets that do not bleed extra damage of the resonating force type will be added.

Effect (Eagle wing): When making attacks that involve a wing it will sheathe the wing in metalled blades. The attack will be much stronger than without this item. Attacks will have resonating force, disruptive force and trace transcendent damage. Any transformation to wings will include these effects. Ranged effects will be augmented by this accessory. [This effect cannot be improve until silver-gold ascension but will still need upgrade materials per ritual of ascension]

[Bleeding] (affliction, wounding, blood): Deals ongoing damage by causing or increasing blood loss. As a wounding effect, this condition absorbs or negates an amount of incoming healing, after which this affliction immediately ends.

Growth Conditions (bronze):

Bound user must be at least bronze rank.

4 kilograms of low grade (bronze rank) star-fall silver

100 bronze-rank iron quintessence gems

100 bronze-rank magic quintessence gems

100 bronze-rank animal based quintessence gems (per engraving)

[100 bear quintessence]

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

[100 wing quintessence]

1000 bronze rank spirit coins

Silver rank Artificer

Ritual of bronze ascension.

“If I’m reading that right, that sounds like you have a silver rank power at iron rank, and a workaround for using it at your rank.” Teddy said.

“Wow I can’t wait to try this out. It’s amazing, thankyou!”

“Why wait? Part of the privilege of having this suite as an gold ranker is that it comes with a small mirage setup, am I right? He said glancing at one of the members of staff.

“Yes sir, there is a six booth chamber that can run most common simulations.”

The four Mitchells were soon put in a simulation against some basic iron rank monsters. They’d chosen a scenario that had them in a large barren field, baked hard and stretching almost as far as the eye can see. They had decided to all stretch a little and had the monsters spawn all around them, starting with a few low rankers and then ever increasing numbers and strength. They worked alone in the beginning just warming up.

Kyra was throwing out earth walls and terraforming as much as she could every time her powers came off cooldown and she got the chance between monsters, they had all worked this kind of scenario before and knew that the prep in the early stages would dictate how many rounds they could go later on. Lucky was doing a lot of the heavy lifting at this early stage, the bronze rank familiar was a powerhouse against the early stage iron rank monsters, although he was a cute golden Labrador his ancestors-ancestors were the creatures that hunted mankind in the night and they were rightfully terrifying, Lucky was channeling this energy. He was awe-inspiring, ripping into enemies and bearing them down with his powerful jaws and breaking limbs with swats of his paws. Her lantern familiar was out as well, distracting monsters away from her so she could continue constructing her maze.

James and Koda were working things out. As a more direct combat centred pair they needed to work out Koda’s new power level to work with James’ level still at iron rank, they toyed with the early stage iron rank monsters batting them to each other to see if the old patterns still worked. James didn’t try his new wing power yet, saving it for when the fight got tougher. His new iron rank power; Snake Sorcerer was incredibly useful to team up with Kyra’s Line of Mirrors power, as the healer it meant she could see what each of her team were about to be up against and could use her judgment to be ready with healing, as members of the team that wanted the healer alive to heal them it meant that they could see what Kyra was walking into and if they needed to intervene. James used this to his advantage by seeing when Kyra was busy building defences and could use his new ranged attack to take on enemies she didn’t have time for, because they also had the interface power she could send a message with zero time to designate a target. The power came with an instinctive knowledge of the range he could fire and semi-winged snakes were launched over the battlefield regularly.

Lucy had released Lechuza early and she was flying over the battlefield regularly swooping down and eviscerating unsuspecting weak iron rank monsters or wounding them bad enough to send into the path of James, Koda or Teddy. She was experimenting with operating more as a back-liner, hard to do in a 360 battle but she placed herself roughly in the middle of the other three and used a flickering vision between her eyes and Lechuza’s to keep an eye on the whole battle to see where her mana was best spent. She had tried this before in the academy annex mirage chamber and learn her lesson early on about divided attention. All around her she had set up warning runes burnt into the ground, they had cost her a lot on mana but they would make up the difference for having only half an eye on her immediate surroundings. Anything that came near her would have it’s vision severely dampened and she was cycling through her non-lethal powers to debilitate the enemy so that one of the others to take it on so she could save her attack spells on the critical areas of the battlefield.

Teddy was fully embracing his new powers from the Reaper. As outworlders they found out early the uncomfortable truth about being a big flesh sack to hold the magic in, a conversation normally held for silver rank and beyond, the family all had the privilege of a head-start on not being entirely human anymore and they had all learnt how they no longer needed to breathe. Teddy was completely silent as he zipped across the battlefield. Mostly just a dark shadowy blur, the only sounds were the sucking of vortex’s and the explosions that sometimes followed long after he had moved on. He was saving his mana for later on so he didn’t send out many. His lantern familiar was out being a useful distraction to lure enemies while he zipped around them. They had no way of knowing where he was with no sound and blanketing the area with his aura along with the others. His new power Hands of the Reaper was used again and again, it was like a fork in a roasting joint holding it steady while he made the cut, his dimension blade snicking straight through, the bronze rank ability could slice clean through any iron rank monster.

………

The team worked with a relentless thrum, churning through monsters. As the enemy became higher end iron rank monsters and more numerous they fought closer to one another, the interface, Lucy’s telepathy, Kyra’s Mirror vision and the relentless training they had done together in their spare time made it seem from the outside that they were four arms of one creature, all working together by the same thought. Mr Randulph stood watching the monitor, double checking that it was recording.

“Go and fetch Mr Roberts for me please.” He said to the room, his eyes not leaving the screen, knowing that one of the members of staff would hurry away.

………

The team had sunk into their long game now, no longer taking the time to try out new variations they were using tried and tested formations and tactics, sometimes with the new powers thrown in, the communication of the interface made this easy, as a monster was about to be struck by Lucy Teddy would warn her that the Hands were going to hold it a certain way and she shifted her momentum from a kick - to a neck wrenching scissor kick, cleanly breaking the neck rather than just ringing its bell. Likewise she would warn James, just as a monster was about to strike down she would stun it with her new Enter Sandman power, the monster stuttering for a second or two, all James needed from preparing to block to knocking its block off.

………

Out the scenario in the private box a hulking leonid made his way into the box, his silver rank aura held politely rigid. Big for his rank and unusually had a few large scars across his torso and giant back, obvious to see through the fur as it seemed he was just wearing a loincloth and strategic straps.

“Mr Randulph, congratulations on the rank up. What can I do for you?” He growled in a deep voice.

“Mr Roberts, thankyou for coming so quickly, I’m pleasantly surprised at what being gold rank gets you even in this city. I’d like you to take a look at this team. I have a recording of them from the start of the fight but they’ve really just got going.”

The lion man didn’t ask any more and joined the elf in staring intently at the screen.

The team were now facing peak iron rank monsters, in droves. Kyra had deployed her diamond golem to bolster the team, James was summoning and re-summoning his rat swarms every time they came off cooldown, coincidently it was normal rats carrying out the compost for the circle and placing it, summoning infectious twisted plague rats from nightmares. They scurried around the feet of the nearest monsters, infecting some of them but attacking the monsters furthest away to give the most amount of time for the afflictions to do their work. After a while the big leonid spoke up.

“With respect Mr Randulph, I see they are a very competent team; guild quality I would say. But they are nothing special that we don’t see regularly competing in the arena.” Mr Roberts growled, not taking his eyes off the fight.

“What if I told you that the most junior member got her badge last week. .”

One eyebrow of the lion mans furry face raised.

“And the most senior member of the team got his badge only six months ago.”

The other eyebrow joined the first. The leonid called over a member of staff and gave some swift direction.

……..

As the droves came in quicker Teddy warned the team then used his Unleash the Void power. As a high mana power he used it in a clutch moment, the team realising they were coming to the end of the iron rank monsters. The portal appeared seeming deeper than most, they were normally a flat disk, seeming two dimensional, tendrils swirling around the outside. This was more like the mouth of a tunnel or a firehose. Monsters streamed from the end, spraying all over one side of the battlefield. There was a wrongness to them that made them hard to look at, when you did it was hard to make out detail, dark claws, fangs, contorted chests covered in shiny black skin, hard to make out the whole of the creature. They fed on the incoming monsters like locusts in a field, devouring them.

The summon finished as quickly as it appeared but had devastated the side of the battle, the other monsters making a wide berth around the beasts of the void, fizzling and cracking as they popped out of existence after a short while. This caused the other side to surge. James saw his moment as they clustered in front of him. He focussed on the centre of the pack and unleashed his Wing Sweep attack. A shockwave appeared first, surprising James, it stunned every enemy in front of it. It was followed by three lines of blades, sweeping through the air like scythes, then came the wing itself, bigger than any he had summoned before. It mowed down the enemies in front of him, the feathers of the bladed wing were also razor sharp and as the monsters and parts of monsters were tumbled under the wing they were cut to ribbons. As the trailing edge of the wing cleared the ground a great wind rushed down afterwards, pummelling the enemies or what was let of them into the ground. James had stood in shock at what he had done, he hadn’t known it would be that powerful, he only stayed on his feet for a few moments before he collapsed to the floor.

………

By now the gold rank suite of Mr Randulph had a dozen or so occupants all watching the fight, the atmosphere grew tense as they saw a member of the team go down.

………

Koda’s jaw clamped James’ shoulder and threw him at Lucy’s feet and he then stood in his place taking the last few iron rankers. Lucky leapt and landed next to James, nosing him over and laying over his chest snarling at the few monsters. Kyra threw out a life charge, her strongest healing at James without looking as she sliced into the knee of a charging troll-like monster with her diamond blade, she was already spinning away as it tumbled into the earth spike that exploded from the ground into its head.

[How long before he’s back in?] Teddy asked the group.

[Heavy damage due to pushing his body too far with a silver rank power, I’m surprised the mirage chamber didn’t just call it and chuck him out, I‘ll need a few minutes to get him back up] Kyra replied.

They mopped up the last of the iron rank monsters and had a beat to rest. They had got this far before in the same simulation and knew what came next.

[Bronze rank waves about to start, we’re still going to go first formation, two up on the first monster.] Teddy said to the girls.

The others didn’t question, they knew the two up was Teddy and James, even with James out they followed their part in the plan. A huge bull appeared in front of them, its huge head was more like a dragons than a bull’s, it was seven foot at the shoulder and had horns three foot long straight out from its head, it had three tails that whipped about and snorted angrily. As Teddy was the only one out front it charged for him with bronze rank speed. Teddy had the swift essence and his aura power slowed incoming enemies and sped him up. It was the only way that he could deal with the bronze rank speed on his own.

He timed his next attack and used his Dimensional Warrior power, suddenly a huge barbarian jumped out of a portal next to the monster chest first, his body bowed backwards, his arms were over his head with a colossal double headed axe that was mid swing over his head double handed. He crashed through the rear of the bull side on, the axe was a dimensional blade like Teddy’s and it sliced through the spine and meat completely, just before the back legs. As the swing was completed the warrior locked eyes with Teddy before he fizzed and popped out of existence. Teddy was sprinting towards the downed bull, he used his wraiths dash to take advantage of the moment of surprise and bury his own dimensional blade into the bull’s eye and into it’s brain. Teddy got back to formation ready to take on the next monsters and James was coming to. In his groggy state the first thing he did was take a powerful mana potion and enact his Shaman ability, ants were laying leaves around him and the coloured vortex started, turning mana to health.

………

The group in the suite were amazed to see the recovery, the team now back up to full strength, and other than being slightly low on mana they were ready to face the bronze rank waves, the more junior observers were making quiet bets at the back.

The team pulled out all the stops, more waves of plague rats helped take down the tougher monsters. Flashes of transcendent damage came from monsters pulled into their own shadows by the Hands of the Reaper. Kyra’s diamond golem exploded and she lost a few of the smaller golems that came out, causing smaller explosions. The amount of damage Koda took turned him into a frenzied beast, all the retributive buffs from James’ Ursa Family power had made him incredibly powerful, Lucky was almost exclusively sticking by his side, fighting as a animalistic pair. Lucy was using highly focussed blasts of her magic missiles to target the strongest monsters coming their way and wear them down before they got there. Eventually the team was overwhelmed, quickly one by one they woke up in the chamber. What they saw waiting for them were two dozen people all clustered into groups talking about what they had just seen.