I felt a spike of panic as monsters raced towards me. Then confusion. "Where- Why?!" Although I screamed, no sound came out. The thing in front of me- a Pseudo-Knight- drew back its long staff, preparing to thrust the end at me. I tried to scream again, but instead-

 

I let out a distorted yelp, the voice of my Avatar staticky and alien. There were no monsters. I was in my apartment, leaned back against a wall. For a moment, I was too disoriented and frightened to do anything. Then a sharp buzzing made me scramble to my feet in an attempt to flee.

 

I took a few steps in a random direction before I realized that the vibrating was coming from the Interface, in my pocket. Running... wouldn't help. I clumsily took it out of my pocket, but didn't bother looking at what it showed. Instead, I closed my eyes and tried to calm down.

 

I shivered a little, allowing myself to lean against the wall once more. Everything felt- blurry. Unreal. Like a nightmare. Yes... a nightmare would explain the monsters. And the awful, panicky dread that was flooding my Heart. My headache had returned with a vengeance, though it wasn't as debilitating as when I first woke up.

 

As always when I used the Avatar function, I could vaguely sense my real body, lying in a squishy bed. There was... a comforting warmth, there. But scattered between me and my body, I felt a burning- a chill... An Echo. Like an afterimage left behind after staring at a too-bright light. An illusion of the memories that Nyx had shown me.

 

A stronger shudder caused me to force my attention back towards the physical world. It- it can't hurt me. It can't hurt me. Have to ignore it. I need- something. I opened my eyes, taking in my surroundings to distract myself.

 

The cheap tile floors were dusty,  and the peeling wallpaper was coated in unoccupied spiders' webs. Most of the furniture was missing, just a few inbuilt features like cupboards and unwanted knickknacks remaining. It felt... Lonely. Abandoned and uncared for. But it was better than the haunted darkness. I dragged myself forward. There was no particular place I moved towards. I simply paced around, trying to find something to help ground me. 

 

Before I knew it, I was cleaning. A combination of physically scraping at mud and webs and Gentle Clean was able to remove the majority of the filth. With every cast of the spell, I channeled away tiny amounts of roiling emotion. Although I was anticipating the apathy of overcasting, I eventually reached a sort of... equilibrium. I was still disturbed, but now I had an unusual sense of satisfaction. As if cleaning up the place was something to be proud of.

 

Foolish. This place is useless to me, aside from storing my Avatar while I'm not using it. Still, I smiled a little as I looked around. Then I shook my head sharply. I've wasted more time. I need to find the shards. Everything else can wait until morning.

 

I Withdrew the Divining Tool, and then cast the Locate Object spell. I tried to utilize the lessons I'd learned about the Tool from last time, asking it to show me every Shard within a certain distance. As before, a small number of metal rods appeared within the crystal ball to point in seemingly random directions. As I looked at them, I realized that I'd accidentally done something interesting. A vague feeling told me that the spell would continue to update the locations of nearby shards over time, though it was draining a miniscule amount of mana to do so.

 

Well, maybe that's how it was supposed to be used in the first place... Either way, I just had to pick a direction and go. One that had more shards was better, and that way was... Southeast. I lifted the Interface out of habit, trying to see my Heart to help me cast the Mage Armor spell. Ah, the notification...

 

There were actually a few messages on the screen. The first said that I had 'Entered the Authority of Bryan Swanson.' Nobody I'd heard of.

 

My eye was drawn to a picture in the second message, and with a sinking feeling, I recognized a blurry image of myself leaving a supermarket. It was labeled, 'There is a five CP Bounty for any information about this person. For more information about local Bounties, please visit the Authority Menu.'

 

The third message was- well, the more I looked at it, the more I felt like I was being mocked. 'You have information relevant to this Bounty. Would you like to claim it?' I couldn't even come up with the words to express how annoyed that made me. It was smart enough to know I could, but not smart enough to realize I'd never want to...

 

I spent a brief moment trying to command the Interface to go to the 'Authority Menu', but nothing happened. Based on the forums, I somewhat knew you needed to be the Party Leader of a full Party to access it, but it felt weird to have it tell me to do something I literally couldn't do. There was no chance of figuring out exactly why they wanted information about me, then.

 

I shook my head again. It's time to go. This time, I found the visualization of my Heart and cast Air Armor without a problem. Then, I tried to picture my roof as I cast the Teleport spell. For just a moment, I thought it wasn't going to work, before I appeared exactly where I expected.

 

With so much wasted time, I forcibly cut off any errant thoughts or anxieties. I reoriented myself towards the southeast and began to move as fast as I could. Stealth was a secondary priority, this time.

 

When I reached the barricade, I glanced over it for anything troublesome. Finding nothing new, I lifted my gaze and found a place to Teleport to. The spell worked perfectly, but I quickly changed locations and watched the guards for a reaction...

 

-

 

Nothing. So, they didn't have any kind of defense against Space Magic. Though I couldn't discount the possibility that an alarm had been triggered that would warn someone elsewhere. Either way, I just needed to carry on with the mission.

 

I turned and moved on with the same relentless pace as before. Although the doll wasn't as fast as my real body, it didn't get tired or feel pain. That meant that I never had to stop to take a break, which was a blessing. Even without stopping, I was having problems navigating over the roof tops of unfamiliar parts of the city. Once, I even misjudged a jump and had a terrifying fall. Aside from the fear and some superficial damage to the doll, there weren't any serious problems. I was able to brush myself off and get back to it.

 

Collecting the shards was easier with every attempt. As I became more confident in the Excavate spell, I was able to improve my control and even alter some of the effects. Within an hour of leaving my apartment, I already had three more shards. It was great progress, and I tried to work even faster as I grew emboldened.

 

Unfortunately, the next few shards were spread further apart. I'd only found three more in two hours when my Interface suddenly buzzed from my pocket. I nearly fell again from the fright, and even then I had to scramble for cover on a rooftop before I could answer it. Tucked into a little alcove between the railing and the stairs down, I glared at the useless message it showed me.

 

I swear this thing is going to kill me some day...

 

 

---

 

 

 

When my second had initially proposed this idea, I'd dismissed it as absurd. However, as the power of the Authority menu had become clearer, as we'd acquired tools and weapons that we'd normally never have access to... I'd started to feel a growing ambition. Or, more like festering. I'd find myself wandering back into the meeting room even during breaks, trying to figure out our next moves. 

 

And I was rarely the only one. All of us were pushing on with a feverish pace. Recruiting, crafting, researching, scouting. Anything that would give us an advantage in the coming war.

 

So far, the other side wasn't taking us seriously. I could only laugh at their response so far. Even though we'd already taken three of their major military bases. Even though we'd brought four cities and two counties under our protection. All they could do was publicly denounce us. An Embargo and a few Bounties. It was too slow, too careless. Even the Authorities who'd stayed loyal to them in the beginning were starting to show cracks in their 'monolith'. Every defector and opportunist, another step closer to what was starting to look like our inevitable victory...

 

I paused in my steps. After all these years of... posturing and idle talk, we were actually... doing something. All the vain complaints and resentment were finally being directed towards something productive. Looking back... I knew I wasn't the person I once was. That naïve, angry kid was gone. Maybe, he would have been a better choice for the job, too. I was old, and bitter. The fire that had been lit in my Spirit was not one that would burn cleanly or purify the world's evils. I...

 

"Commander! We got a report on that mage-girl. Who do you want to handle it?" A voice from behind broke me from my thoughts. 

 

I turned to see a young man briskly walking towards me. He was wearing cheap surplus military clothing and a copper Jaguar-shaped badge; an Interface in one hand, and a stack of folders under the other arm. I'd seen the modifications he'd made to his real body in the Dungeon, and it made his soldier-like Avatar look like a child's action figure in comparison. I found a certain amount of glee in knowing that his current intimidating appearance was hiding something far more monstrous.

 

Finally processing his words, I hesitated a moment. I had a few good men who could probably handle the issue, but a mage was a big deal. So far, we hadn't managed to recruit or train a single one. It would take time, is what our Creature mages said. But other factions had already started deploying mages, and we were falling behind. This particular mage was something special, as well. The first, if the rumors were true. And nobody outside my Authority even knew who she was. An advantage we had to exploit at any cost. "I'll handle it personally. Brief me in the meeting room."

 

 

---

 

 

The time seemed to crawl along at a snail's pace. Despite my initial rush and the frustration of several embarrassing mistakes and bad guesses, I was starting to relax. Though there had been a few close calls, I hadn't come into direct conflict with any people. At some point, I'd even left the city entirely, and was digging up shards along hiking trails and tame woodlands. Before I'd realized it, I had fourteen more shards. And sunrise was still awhile away.

 

At this point... I could probably stop and head back. More shards was better, but depending on how bad the diminishing returns were, I might just be wasting my time. Getting back earlier was less risky for me, and it meant I could get back to running my Dungeon. I'd enjoyed running around in the 'wilderness' at night, surprisingly, but eventually anything can become boring.

 

Before just directly running back though, I wanted to try something. The wording of the Teleport spell made it clear that a certain amount of mana would bring you a certain distance. However, that was after saying that it would allow you to travel to 'distant locations'. The implication, to me, was that you could go anywhere as long as you already knew where you were going. It wasn't something that would see much use inside the Dungeon, but on Earth?

 

I examined the representation of my Aura on the Interface, focusing on the feeling of the Teleport spell. Holding the image of my freshly cleaned apartment in my head, I finished the spell. There was an odd feeling like I was in several places at once, and then I was in my living room. But... something was off.

 

An old, dignified voice called out to me, with just a hint of cheer buried under the distortions of an Avatar's speech. "Ah, Miss Smith. Actually, do you mind if I call you Selene? Something about 'Miss Smith' feels so- stilted. Unnatural, even." Seated at a new table covered in papers was a puppet in the shape of a forty-something man. Noticing my attention, he gestured to an unoccupied seat across from his. "Why don't you take a seat, so we can talk?"