Menseio Station, orbiting Veria
Jonuth Kidravia’s Ship - Abi
10:13 Ship Time
September 12, 2019

Vixa and I made our way out of the factory which was a communication dead zone, and as soon as we were clear, I sent to my friends.

[Hey, guys. What's up?]

[This is one of your free days, right?] Mason asked. [We want to hit up a dungeon again if you're up for it.]

[It is, and I am, but I thought we wanted to wait until you each got a set of skill gems.]

[Well, we got talking with Tessa and your sisters over breakfast and it seems like both of them have pretty easy schedules today. They decided to finish up early so they could delve as a team for the first time, so we figured we might as well go too,] Sonja replied. [They got a fifth, you know. Can you guess who it is?]

[Oya,] I answered without a moment's hesitation.

[How'd you know? We just found out ourselves.]

[It just makes sense. She is older than all of us--biologically at least--my sisters and I are technically older, but she acts like people our age do. At least from what I’ve seen. It's a natural fit, and it completes an all-girl team. Have they chosen their name yet?]

[I don't think so,] Ben replied. [I'm interested in what they'll choose, actually.]

[I'm sure they've got something in mind. Alright, I'm heading back to the armory to get changed. I also need to find where Imuna and the other phenidae are so I can drop Vixa off before we go.]

[We’ll meet you there then then.]

---

We pretty much ran into each other outside of the teleporters on our deck, and it wasn’t hard for them to notice the harness that I still wore.

“... something Abi made up for me. Want to see what it does?”

“Hell yeah! If Abi made it then it’s gotta be pretty damn cool!” Mason replied.

I nodded. “Alright, check it out. Mode three.”

The girls jumped back a little bit in shock as the thousands of nanites rushed out, while Mason and Ben just gaped. I had a feeling that the initial reaction by the twins was out of their fear of spiders, as they soon stepped forward to take a closer look. In short order, everything below my neck was covered in shiny black metal.

“Nanites?” Ben asked as he ran his hand down one of my arms.

“Yup. Apparently it was made possible by Oya, so I’ll have to thank her, but they’re prototypes. Abi sounded pretty confident that she’ll be able to improve on them a little bit, but she gave me this for now.”

“For what purpose? And why isn’t there a helmet?” Mason asked.

“It’s just part of her unending quest at keeping me safe. The harness is meant to be worn under my clothes and currently has three modes. You saw the third one, but the other two modes cause the nanites to form what is essentially a ballistic vest. Mode one has less protection than mode two, but apparently it will be impossible to tell that it is there when activated. As for the helmet, there is one.”

I went through the same process I did only a short while ago, and put on my helmet as I showed some of what the nanites could do with the Beacon interfaced with it. I couldn’t show off some of the defensive features because of where we were, but the shield was enough.

“I have to admit I’m pretty jealous,” Ben said. “I can see the need for it though, especially because you'll be in situations where wearing an armored suit isn’t appropriate.”

“Abi said something along those lines as well. Anyways, time is wasting. How about we get this show on the road?”

Everyone agreed, and after putting the nanites on standby, I pulsed my mana at one of the stations so my armor would appear, with my friends doing the same thing. I figured I would let Zaszi know so she could get everyone and everything ready ahead of time and it wouldn’t be a surprise, but I found out that my sisters had beaten me to the punch. They had told Kiri who passed along the information to Zaszi, and the two team leaders immediately got to work.

The new suit didn’t take long at all to put on, though I went ahead and made sure everything else was ready. Nothing was missing, so I retrieved my rifle and broke it down so I could clean everything and top off any magazines that needed topping off. While it was my first time taking apart the stopgap rifle that we had purchased and I was a little slow because of that, practicing so much with other guns had made it easy. When I was done, I stored it and the magazines again and then turned to my friends.

“Alright, meet you guys at the Grasshoppers?”

“Sure. I’ll have your sisters, Tessa and Oya meet us there as well,” Anja replied.

“Okay, see you guys in a bit, then,” I said as I turned to leave the officer’s armory. I didn’t even get to the exit before I remembered something.

“Oh, Mace. Are we going to have enough ammo or should we pick up some more?”

“I think we’ll definitely need to make a stop. I already asked Abi if she can make the 12mm rounds we need, but she doesn’t have the capability for that. In her own words, ‘It’s so very rarely used that it isn’t worth retooling machines for’. It’ll be much easier when we reach level 100 and have access to more modern stuff.”

“Got it. I’ve got my credit chip with me so we’ll pick up some more before we head in. Gotta go drop Vixa off though, so see you in a few minutes.”

It usually didn’t take long at all to find the phenidae as they were typically where all the loud noises were coming from. While parents were busy throughout their day, their kids were often left with babysitters. Phenidae were often dropped off there as well, so the kids would have more friends to play with. Today, they weren’t in any of the normal spots, so I gave up and asked Abi, who laughed before giving the answer.

It seemed like the place to be this morning was up on the pool deck, so the two of us made our way up there. When the door opened, the sound of joy could immediately be heard. That, and the rather squeaky barks of the other phenidae onboard, as well as a few pops here and there as they teleported. I was surprised to see that Selalea was one of those on babysitting duty, as she walked over in a red bikini. She looked damn good for being several thousand years old.

“Hello Jonathan! Hello Vixa! I see you’re geared up. Vixa is staying with us today, then?”

“Good morning,” I replied with a nod. “I had some things planned for today but they got rescheduled, so my friends asked if I wanted to hit up another dungeon. I can’t take Vixa with me, at least not yet, so here we are. I’m surprised you’re here though. I figured you would be out exploring new things, rather than stay here and watch after the kids.”

She laughed. “I would much rather do this, to be quite honest. When your species has such few children around because of the restrictions we put in place to keep our numbers from getting too large, you often find that everyone pitches in. I’ve got more than a few eggs of my own stored on Yrranth, you know. I was lucky enough that Ilnod was allowed to hatch, but in a few years time, he’ll have a bunch of little brothers and sisters to play with. I consider this practice for when that day comes.”

“How are Yrranth and Zogryth coming, by the way? That’s one of the things that was pushed back until tomorrow.”

“Good. Very good, actually,” she smiled. “Olmith and the other council members keep those of us here very well informed. The two main chambers on both planets are done, and they’re focusing on the underground city on Yrranth, for now. They’ve expanded it quite a bit since the two of us last saw it, and they also want to thank you for putting them in touch with Tamara. She passed along all the information they needed to enchant temporary holding areas for livestock. She also gave the engineers in orbit the design for ‘Paradise’ as Shaemu called it, and they delivered them down to the planet yesterday.”

“That’s great! Tamara named them, then?”

“I believe so,” Selelea nodded.

“Interesting. What about the planetary defenses? How are those going?”

“Ahead of schedule, but still a long ways away from being completed. The planetary shields, including the aperture should be done by the end of the month. The initial timetable was a bit longer than that, but we’re very good at what we do. What takes the engineers days to do takes us hours. What takes them weeks only takes us days. They’re leaving the excavation for the generators, emitters and cables to us, while they just focus on the installation. The satellites, on the other hand, are much slower going, but they’re coming along…”

I suddenly burst out laughing, causing Selalea to look on in confusion. After wiping my eyes, I apologized.

“Sorry about that, Mason is getting impatient. I’m glad everything is going well though. I suppose I’ll find out more tomorrow,” I said as I bent down and scratched Vixa behind her ears. “I’ll see you later, okay? It will probably be late when we get back, but we’ll get a quick snack before bedtime, alright?”

She barked in reply and suddenly there were six consecutive pops as the rest of the phenidae came over to greet the new arrival. Some of them nuzzled their friend, while one rambunctious young male jumped on top of her, sending both of them rolling around as they playfought.

“You’ve definitely got your hands full. Children and phenidae? I can’t imagine that for several hours.”

“Oh, it’s easier than you might think,” she replied. “They’ll tire themselves out pretty quickly and then spend several hours sleeping before they begin again. You should get going though, before Mason comes up here and drags you back with him.”

I laughed, knowing he might do exactly that. “See you later! Bye, Vixa!”

---

There was a teleporter nearby, so it didn’t take me very long to get to the landing bay. There was a group of people far smaller than I thought would be there when I arrived, but looking passed it, I could see that the six Grasshoppers were loaded up and ready to go. The only people not yet on the ship were my team, my sisters’ team, and then our respective five-man security details.

“Well, well, look who finally decided to show up!” Mason said. “What took you so long?”

“Sorry, Selalea is looking after the kids today, so we got to talking about Yrranth and Zokyrth. So have we decided where we’re going?”

“I think we’re going to the city of Zobos, which is where we were yesterday to watch the game, actually,” Ben replied. “There is a rank IX dungeon there that just reopened this morning, so while we’re underleveled right now, that won’t take long at all to rectify. The maximum level of monsters in there is currently 90, so if we reach level 94 today, then I’ve got another dungeon lined up for us.”

“And we’re going to Belrora, which isn’t too far away. While Tessa and Oya have some levels, the three of us are basically blank slates at this point,” Aleena said, referring to her and her sisters. “It probably won’t take long for us to outgrow the dungeon there, so we’ll probably bounce around a few times, too.”

“Sounds good. I suppose you’re waiting on the skill gems Abi is working on procuring as well?”

She nodded. “She’s already received some of the easier-to-get ones, but she’s still working on the rest. We’re holding off until she gets the entire set, so we’ll be going with whatever we get from our evaluations.”

“That should be fun,” I said before turning to Oya and Tessa who were standing a little off to the side. “Keep them safe, yeah?”

They both nodded, with Tessa responding for the both of them. “We will.”

“Alright, let’s get going, then.”

---

We filed onto our respective Grasshoppers for the flight down to the planet, and while my friends remained in the lounge area, I moved up to the cockpit with Zaszi following. The flight crew looked back briefly at the flare of light produced by the teleporter, but soon went back to what they were doing. After walking up and setting the Beacon in place and watching it interface with the Grasshopper, I headed back to the bench seats.

“Thank you, by the way,” Suna said as I passed her. “Abi filled us in on the reactors she is working on. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that it will make us feel a whole lot safer.”

“Oh, no problem,” I replied. “I saw the first one this morning, actually. Now, I’m not very knowledgeable about power generation or anything like that, but would a reactor generating five gigawatts every hour be enough?”

“For everyday operation, absolutely. If we’re in any sort of sustained combat, it would probably be close, but not close enough for comfort, especially if any sort of combat jumps need to be made. For that, two reactors would be more than sufficient. That won’t always be possible, so that’s where the power core comes in. It can power the hyperdrive and then the shields or propulsion, and the reactors can take care of everything else.”

I nodded. “She said that she might be able to increase the power output since the first one is just a prototype, but once she starts mass producing them, you’ll get two out of the first four. She also has something else in mind, but until she knows whether it will work or not, she doesn’t want to promise anything.”

“Even one will be a big help, believe me. The vast majority of craft this size don’t have nearly as much power as these will with one reactor installed, and they usually rely on storing much of the power produced for use later on.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Mhmm. It’s one of the areas of scientific research that has fallen behind. As a result, it requires a number of very powerful and very large reactors to do the same job that theoretical reactors could do while taking up much less space. I don’t suppose Abi can help with that?”

“Unfortunately not. While she has all sorts of information about all sorts of very advanced technology, she can’t use it or disclose it until someone else has discovered it first. Now, she can make improvements like she has done with the fusion reactors she’s been working on, but until someone comes up with something better, everything she knows will stay locked away.”

“Well that sucks.”

I chuckled. “You don’t have to tell me that.”

She started to reply, but Elidi Itenzes--the commander of Grasshopper I--interrupted her. “Alright, Suna, we’re here to get him where he needs to go, not spend all day chatting.”

“Right, sorry!” she replied as she turned around and looked over her console. “All systems nominal. We’re good to go!”

Elidi quickly and easily lifted us off the deck and spun in place, turning us towards the gaping opening in the side of the ship. Once the other five ships were ready, she led them out. She began speaking almost immediately in Pygmaean to what I was assuming was flight control, as soon a male voice replied and we were passing through the dual airskin shields.

It was quite a sight as hundreds of ships of all sizes were coming and going. There were small ships that looked like pleasurecraft as well as absolutely massive blocky ships that were carrying loads of ore that needed to be smelted down into usable material. The station went through so much metal everyday as they worked on hundreds of ships, so it was just easier to do it all in-house.

All that passed by rather quickly, as we were on approach to the planet and about to reach the atmosphere. After we got clearance, the pilot for Grasshopper IV--the one my sisters were in--stated that they were breaking off for Belrora, while we kept on our heading to Zobos.

[All of you stay safe, yeah?] I sent to my sisters, Tessa and Oya.

[We will, believe me!] Lucille replied. [Kiri would beat our asses if we pulled a stunt like the one you did the other day.]

I laughed, recalling the torture she put me through, and would continue to put me through as we got back to learning.

[I bet she would. Wanna take a break at around dinnertime? You can come to us or we can come to you.]

[Sounds good! 18:00-ish?] Tessa asked. [I know just the place.]

[That’d be perfect. See you all then. Good luck!]

[You too!] they replied.

It was a relatively quiet ride the rest of the way, and before long we were landing on one of the many landing pads outside of the dungeon. After retrieving the Beacon, Zaszi and I headed back to the lounge and then down to the bottom deck so we could depart. It was still a little disconcerting to see the thirty Watchdogs disappear from sight all at once as the ramp began to lower, but I soon the ten of us were left alone as the area was cleared.

It took a surprisingly small amount of time, but having two birds-eye views and the ability to be invisible and spread out quickly made it a lot easier. When she got the all clear, Zazi led us down the ramp with the rest of her team taking up the rear. She led us directly to the front door and then turned towards us.

[So like the other day, let us know when you’re on your way out so we can make sure that the area is still clear. Also, remember that you are Khel Haneth while you are here.]

I nodded. [We’ll probably be in here until around 18:00. We’ll probably take a break then to meet up with my sisters, Tessa and Oya for dinner, before continuing on for a little bit longer. I believe Tessa had a restaurant in mind, so you might want to contact her so you can get started on clearing it. Just in case she hasn’t told Kiri already]

[Okay. If you see anything suspicious while you’re in the building, let us know and calmly make your way to the exit, alright? Don’t try to fight anyone by yourselves,] she sent, looking to each of us as she did so. [It’s a very small, dare I say, miniscule, chance that you could be attacked while here, but it's possible.]

[We will, and we’ve got more than one pair of eyes in here, remember?] I said, tapping the side of my helmet. [I’m sure that Abi and everyone’s AI can pipe what we’re seeing over to you as well, so you can keep an eye out. You’ll probably notice more than we will, anyways.]

[Good idea. Alright. We’ll see you at 18:00 then.]

I nodded and then my friends and I entered the building. The first order of business was to find out where ammunition could be purchased, and we found it was on the fourth floor, just like the previous dungeon.

“Is it just me, or is this building pretty much identical to the other two we’ve been in, here on Veria?” Mason asked as the elevator opened and we stepped off on the fourth floor.

“It’s not just you, I think they are identical,” Ben replied. “It makes sense. They always put a building up on top of a newly-discovered dungeon, and they probably want to do it as quickly and easily as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re pre-fabricated and they have a bunch of copies ready to be built at a moment's notice.”

“The faster they put it up, the faster that people can start delving into the dungeon as well,” I said. “Can you imagine what it would be like if buildings were put up as slowly as they are on Earth? I think it took two months to build the one over the dungeon in Gatineau Park, and that isn’t a very big building. At least in comparison to the ones here.”

“There are some pretty big ones back on Earth, but they take a long time to build, too. Fortunately, once the first two floors are built, they usually begin allowing adventurers in, even while construction is still ongoing. That’s usually reserved for the highest level of dungeons though, as they make a lot more money for the Adventurer’s Guild than all of the Gatineau Parks out there do.”

I nodded, knowing that was absolutely true when a tier S Skill Gem could go for millions of credits if one got lucky enough. When we arrived at the gun store, which was seemingly identical to the previous one, we were once again immediately approached by an employee. It was a woman this time, and we couldn’t understand a word she said. Fortunately we had AIs that could, which were also able to translate our speech in real time and relay it to the woman.

She wasn’t nearly as pushy as the previous employee, so she quickly led us to the counter and retrieved the ammo we were looking for. We decided to go with five thousand rounds of the same two types of ammunition we had purchased previously, but when Mason said that we wanted three thousand rounds of armor-piercing incendiary rounds, the woman told us we should reconsider.

“The Zobos dungeon is fire-themed, so you’ll find that armor-piercing incendiary rounds aren’t nearly as effective. Guns aren’t effective at all against some of the elementals you’ll see down there either, but you’d be better off sticking with the armor-penetrating rounds you requested for monsters that are still vulnerable to projectile weaponry. For everything else, you’ll need to use your skills instead.”

“Thanks for letting us know. In that case, we’ll take five thousand rounds of the armor-penetrating rounds instead.”

“No problem! Just give me one moment to gather that for you, and I’ll be right back.”

She grabbed something from below the counter and then went through the double doors behind her. She wasn’t gone for very long, but she soon walked back through the doors. She wasn’t carrying any ammunition with her, but when she got back she placed something that was similar to a serving tray on the counter.

“Will that be everything?”

“I believe so,” Mason replied.

“Okay. Credit chip or communicator, please,” she requested.

I removed my new phone from my suit’s dimensional storage and handed it over to her. She accepted it with a thank you and then put it screen down on some sort of sensor. The area around it lit up green after a moment, and then she handed it back to me. As she did, a pile of ammunition boxes appeared on top of the tray she brought back out with her. After examining the boxes to see that it was the 12mm rounds we were looking for, Mason handed them out to us, giving us each two of the large, five hundred round boxes full of ammo.

“Thank you!” Mason told the woman who had helped us.

“Not a problem! If you end up running out and need some more, just come on up and we’ll sort you out.]

I chuckled. “I bet there is a good chance of that happening. Thanks again!”

---

With ammunition sorted out, we headed back down to the ground floor to get the evaluation over with. We were used to it at this point, and though it was incredibly annoying, we soon made it through and could officially enter the dungeon.

It was a very different experience from other dungeons as usually we just opened a door and walked down some steps, but this one actually had an airlock in place, and an operator sitting on a chair outside of it.

“Welcome!” he said as he got up. “Heading into the dungeon, then?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “What’s up with the airlock, though?”

“Ah, you must be new to fire-themed dungeons. The airlock is here as a buffer against the heat that is generated by the creatures in the dungeon, and even the dungeon itself. Now this one isn’t as hot as other fire-themed dungeons that are out there, but the air inside is easily hot enough to kill you if you aren’t prepared for it.”

“You’ll also find airlocks like this one at water, ice and air-themed dungeons as well, as those ones often end up causing havoc on the surrounding area without them. I’m talking floods, sudden snow storms and even hurricanes and tornadoes and the like.”

“And it's perfectly safe?” Anja asked.

“Absolutely! Dungeons like this one would be sealed off completely if it wasn’t. Monsters and adventurers in themed dungeons just sometimes produce more mana than the dungeon can absorb on its own, so the dungeon ejects a small portion of it. Airlocks like this one direct that excess mana to a series of high-quality mana crystals, which is where the building gets the majority of its power from. Inside the dungeon, you won’t even notice the flare ups once you’re passed the first floor, and we don’t let anyone enter the dungeon if one of those flare ups is imminent. The last one happened forty-two minutes ago and they always happen around six hours apart, so you’re clear to enter.”

“Thanks for the explanation,” I said as I walked forward. [Is what he said true?]

[Indeed,] Abi replied. [Themed dungeons are rather rare on Earth, but airlocks are used there as well. When the Adventurer’s Guild was created, the first thing they did was seal off the few that were found until they were ready to be opened. While the ejections of mana took days or weeks to occur, they often decimated the surrounding landscape for miles around.]

[Constant fires, storms and floods?] I asked as the hatch closed behind us and the one on the other side opened, allowing us entrance into the dungeon. There were windows on each of the two hatches, so I turned and gave a thumbs up to the man that had operated it for us.

[Well, not so much fires as nothing was able to grow within a certain radius of fire-themed dungeons, but they definitely increased the overall temperature of the surrounding area and covered the ground in layer after layer of ash. Pompeii fell victim to an undiscovered fire-themed dungeon, you know. It was probably the largest and most devastating mana ejection from a dungeon to ever occur on Earth, and the dungeon beneath Mount Vesuvius is probably one of the most visited dungeons nowadays.]

[I remember reading about that. Since Mount Vesuvius is a volcano, they initially thought that it killed most of the people there and buried the city, right?]

[Yes, though there is always a chance that Mount Vesuvius does erupt at some point. Your parents and many of the other Spectres actually debated heavily on whether to open it up or not, as I’m sure you’ve noticed that the rock that dungeons are made from is incredibly tough. It is easily able to withstand the heat and pressure from the bubbling magma, so as the dungeon grows, it displaces some of that magma. Eventually, the growth of the dungeon will force that eruption, though it is hard to tell when exactly that will happen.]

[I’ve got to assume that there is a plan in place should it erupt, right?]

[Like this dungeon, there is an airlock that gathers all of the ejected mana and stores it in a large collection of mana crystals located inside of the building. When the volcano erupts, that mana will help power six modified shield generators that are strategically located around the volcano. Rather than keep stuff on the outside out, it will keep stuff on the inside in. Everything except molecules of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gasses, at least. If those weren’t able to pass through the shield, then it would be almost like plugging the volcano. The magma would still want out, and it would find a way that would more than likely end up outside of the shield.]

I felt tapping on the side of my helmet, and I looked over to see Mason standing next to me.

“What?” I asked.

“We were calling you for a good ten seconds but you weren’t responding,” Anja answered.

“Oh, sorry,” I said, as I relayed to them what Abi told me.

“Well enough of the history lesson. Are we here to learn or are we here to kill some monsters and level up?” Mason asked, causing me to laugh.

“Let’s go, then.”

“Hold up,” he said, holding out an arm to block me, which was actually at head height. “Are you going to stay in that form or are you switching to another one? I know fire won’t be effective in this dungeon, but you still have your frost breath and your dragonkin form will better protect you from the heat.”

“Right. Forgot about that. Alright, give me a minute,” I said as I began shifting forms.

It was still as slow as it usually was, but in a little over a minute and a half I was once again taller than Mason, and he had to look up at me, rather than it be the other way around. I also removed my rifle from my dimensional storage and was happy to see that it had grown in size to fit my hands. After making sure that the safety was on and it was loaded with a fresh magazine, I turned back to Mason.

[Now can we go?]

---

While it was a very warm 60 degrees Celsius in the dungeon, it certainly didn't feel like it. That was partly because our suits were so good at insulating, but also because of the air filtration and temperature system. It was a two-part system with a vent and a fan at the back of the helmet, and then a cooling and heating unit located on the back of the suit, between the shoulders.

Both the cooling and heating units weren’t your typical ones that ran off electricity, either. Instead, there were two chambers that each held a small rectangular piece of metal, approximately ten centimeters long, seven centimeters wide, and one centimeter thick. Engraved on each of the two plates was an enchantment that either heated up or cooled down when mana was allowed to enter the chamber. Fresh air was then channeled through one or both of those chambers, which then circulated the suit, keeping the inside at our desired temperature. Normally that would have been around 18 degrees Celsius, but now, in my dragonkin form, that was a little chilly, so I bumped it up to around 30 degrees Celsius.

We had walked through the somewhat steamy down-sloped tunnel for nearly ten minutes before we finally saw the first sign of a monster or a chamber, and what a chamber it was. It easily rivaled the mega-floor with goblins and a wyvern that we had encountered previously, but Benjamin was confident it wasn’t the same.

“In the vast majority of cases, mega-floors are the same as the one we encountered in the Hillside Lake Dungeon. They’re almost as if you took a small piece of a planet and closed it off, allowing an ecosystem to form on its own. If they have a dominant species, then you might see a sign of that, with settlements or paths or things of that nature. I can already see elementals, and what look like imps and kobolds. Notice that they’re pretty much ignoring each other? That’s the biggest sign that this is just a single, if large, floor. If it was a mega-floor, then they would probably be fighting each other. Also, there was no mention whatsoever of this dungeon having a mega-floor, so there is that.”

My eyes roamed around the large chamber just looking at the geography and the creatures that were present. There were a few areas where lava was spouting and flowing into a small river that cut through the chamber, but aside from that, there was a lot less fire and lava than I was expecting. There was very little fire, actually, but that could have just been because there was very little flammable material present.

When I switched to eagle eyes to see a little bit further, I also took the opportunity to do a rough estimation of how many monsters were actually present. Aside from the fire and lava elementals, there were also the imps and kobold-looking creatures, snakes, fire slimes and lizards of some kind, with frills made up entirely of fire. That wasn’t all though, as that only covered what was on the ground.

In the air, there were flying animals that looked like bats or birds, but there were also other, much smaller elementals as well as the odd dragon or wyvern-looking flyer. All told, there were easily two hundred or so creatures present, and those were just those I could see. I didn’t see any signs of a floor boss or an opening to the second floor, either, so there was no telling how much fighting we would need to do.

[You know, looking at this made me realize that we may be ill-equipped to deal with a fire-themed dungeon. At least right now,] I sent as I changed my eyes back to the dragonkin variety. [Earth isn’t very effective against fire, air would probably just make fire stronger, and unless fire magically cancels out fire, then we’re stuck with a small selection of other skills to use. I’ve got Arcane Bolt and Curse of Pain, Ben has Chaos Bolt and Aura of Frost, if that will even do anything. Sonja’s Arcane Shot will probably help too, but I think the only powerful skill we actually have is Anja’s water elemental, but that thing will barely last six minutes and it's on a one hour cooldown.]

“Not to mention the fact that we’re seventeen levels lower than everything on this floor,” Ben added. “Shit. I can’t believe I forgot about that. I mean, I figured that our guns would even the playing field and I wasn’t expecting a floor like this off the bat, but still.”

“We’ve got three options the way I see it,” Anja said. “Option one is Jonathan solos everything and we remain largely useless. It might be fun for a little while, at least for Jonathan, but I bet it would get old quick. Option two is that we go upstairs and get a larger variety of skill gems so we aren’t so useless. Effective, but pricey.”

“And then option three: We simply go to a different dungeon instead. There has to be other rank IX dungeons here at a nice high percentage, right?” Sonja asked, picking up from her twin.

Ben nodded. “There are, but this one was the highest. Give me a few minutes and I’ll find another one, assuming that’s what we want to do?”

“Yeah. It’s not really worth it if we can’t hit stuff ourselves,” Mason replied. “Maybe we wait to tackle something like this after we get our set of skill gems?”

[Going somewhere else is fine with me. You’re right about me being able to solo this but there are well over two hundred monsters on this floor alone. I’d constantly have to make sure that nothing slipped by me, because none of you would be able to deal with it. Not yet, at least,] I sent. [Find another dungeon for us. While you’re doing that, I want to check out a few things.]

I spun in place and switched back to my eagle eyes. Looking for the first chest I had seen, I activated Teleport and appeared right in front of me. When I kicked it, nothing happened, so I opened it up. The moment I did, six large djinn-like fire elementals appeared around me. I activated Mana Shield but otherwise paid them no mind. Looking inside the chest, I found a few mana gems, small, intact mana crystals, as well as two skill gems. Scooping them all up, I then teleported to the next chest, even while an inferno was going on around me.

I didn’t even touch the second chest before I was attacked. The stone chest suddenly burst into flames as a long, flaming tongue shot out towards me. Mana Shield absorbed it, of course, so I unloaded on it with my rifle. It kept up the attack and showed no signs of being damaged whatsoever, so I put away my rifle and took out my sword instead. With it in hand, I used Curse of Pain followed by Arcane Bolt, using the latter of the two abilities on cooldown. It took longer than I thought it would, but I was quite literally invulnerable so I was content to wait it out. That wasn’t that long, as the flames soon extinguished and the Fire Mimic slowly disappeared. In its place was a single mana gem, so I grabbed that and teleported again to the final chest that I had seen.

The third one was different from the first stone chest and the Fire Mimic posing as the second one, as it burst into flames the moment I arrived. No attack came this time and I cast an Arcane Bolt at it to determine whether it was just another, more patient, mimic. The bolt of arcane energy didn’t so much as scuff the chest and it didn’t try to attack me, so I wondered what the deal was.

Looking around me, I saw that dozens of creatures were all charging towards me, but none of them really stood out as being important. Not wanting to deal with them one at a time, I shrugged and then turned to the chest. Confident in the fact that Mana Shield, my armor and my current dragonkin-state would protect me, I bent down and threw the chest open. The moment I did the flaming chest extinguished and then collapsed into a pile of ash. I moved my hand around just to make sure that there wasn’t something buried within, but there was nothing there.

It was at that moment that I really appreciated Precognition. I casted Blink three times in quick succession, just in time for a massive fist of fire and stone to strike right where I had been standing just a second previously. Attached to that fist was another djinn-like elemental, though one that was many, many times bigger than the previous six. Being a djinn, it didn’t have any legs and just floated a short distance above the dungeon floor, which is what allowed it to get as close as it did.

Knowing it probably had the loot I was after, I retrieved my sword yet again and repeated the same process I had with the Fire Mimic. Once Curse of Pain was applied it was only a waiting game, but I wanted to speed it up as much as possible. Even with my ridiculous intellect and spell damage, Arcane Bolt was only doing a little over two thousand damage every three seconds, and it seemed like the djinn had a health pool to go with its size. Over three minutes later, it finally fell, with its fires extinguished and its inner stone form scattering all over.

When the stone disappeared, I fended off elementals and other monsters as I went around, trying to find what was left behind. It took a while, but I was extremely disappointed that there was nothing but a single tier C skill gem and a few mana gems left behind. With them gathered, I simply teleported back to my friends.

“What was that?” Mason asked.

[I saw some chests and figured that I should check them out if we’re going to another dungeon. All three of them were traps, but it was worth it,] I sent with a shrug as I held my hand out. [Tada!]

Sonja chuckled as she held out the skill gem pouch, having taken over those duties since I was in my dragonkin form most of the time. When I was done with those, I turned to her sister and gave her the crystals.

“I would’ve shit my pants if I was down there when you opened up the third chest and that huge fire elemental appeared,” Mason said.

[Yeah, where did it come from anyways? I wouldn’t have known it was there at all without Precognition.]

“That big, smoking pile of rocks that was just behind you,” Ben replied. “The moment you touched the chest, it was like an instant inferno. I’m surprised you didn’t hear it.”

[Ah. Yeah, that was my fault, then. It was insanely loud when I opened up that first chest and the elementals were attacking me. It was as if I was in a tornado, so I turned the volume coming through my helmet way down and forgot to turn it back up. So did you find us another dungeon?]

“Yeah, it only took like thirty seconds or so. It’s another rank IX dungeon just on the outskirts of Zobos. I didn’t pick it initially because it was only at 56%. It’s at 52% now, so it’s dropping at a decent pace, but not a really fast one. There should be more than enough time to reach level ninety-four before we head somewhere else.”

[Alright, let’s get to it. Did you let Zaszi know we’re coming out earlier than expected?]

Ben shook his head. “I figured you would let her know while we’re on our way. You might want to activate your camouflage or shift back into something that won’t draw so much attention.”

[Oh, right.]

I stopped for a moment to think about what I wanted to do, but it was an easy decision. While I knew that a dragon or dragonkin’s camouflage made them very difficult to find, the teleporters aboard the Grasshoppers weren’t designed to fit someone who was around ten feet tall. As I was shapeshifting back to my Scyftan form, I let Zaszi know that we were going to a different dungeon instead.

[Oh?] she asked.

[We didn't take into account our serious lack of abilities that can be used in a fire-themed dungeon. On top of that, we're almost thirty levels lower than anything we'll see in there,] I replied. [I think we would be better off going somewhere else.]

I could hear her chuckling within Mindspeak. [I was wondering if you guys were going to figure that out and whether you would turn back or not. There were a few bets, actually.]

[And?]

[I lost,] she replied with a soft laugh. [I figured you would still give it a go considering your power level in relation to what you would be fighting.]

[I probably would have if we were in anything other than a fire-themed dungeon. It was hard to imagine what we would be fighting, and there were more than just a few formless monsters down there. Guns and melee weapons aren't the best things to be using against monsters made of fire.]

She laughed again. [No they are not. Alright, we’ll be waiting, let me know when you’re coming out.]

[Will do.]

---

Once I was done shifting back into something a little less attention-grabbing, the five of us entered the waygate, rather than go through the airlock again. It was a very short trip to the exit from there, and after linking up with Zaszi and her team, we quickly made our way to the Grasshopper.

We weren’t going more than a few hundred kilometers away, so I didn’t bother to head up to the bridge to interface the Beacon as I normally would. We simply went up to the lounge area and took a seat while we waited to arrive at the next dungeon.

When we arrived, we quickly made our way through the evaluation and then descended down to the first floor. There was no airlock this time, nor were the temperatures so high that someone would die from the heat without a suit. In fact, it was probably the coldest dungeon we had been in so far at a chilly 7 degrees Celsius. Not that we felt it inside our suits.

We had already wasted a decent bit of time at the previous dungeon, so we began as soon as I was done shifting into my dragonkin form. As that was happening, I realized that while I had scanned a large number of species on Yrranth, Zokyrth and now Veria, I hadn't done anything with any of those forms. That would need to change. Talking in my dragonkin form would be nice, too.

[So what's in store for us here?] I asked Ben.

"It's a pretty normal one, probably in line with the first dungeon we entered a few days ago. We'll definitely be running into ziattids since they tend to be everywhere, but we'll see a lot of new stuff as well. What's interesting is that everything in here is a beast of some kind, even on the deeper levels."

“How does that change things?” Sonja asked. “Easier? Harder? The same?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Ben replied. “It probably means less spells to deal with since the vast majority of beasts don’t stand around casting, so that might make it a bit easier. On the other hand, we’re in a dungeon that we can use firearms in, so we’ll probably see creatures that can fire back or throw objects at us. If there is anything like a bakxey in here, then we’ll need to be careful.”

[Well, let’s take a look shall we?] I asked as we rounded the corner and got the first glimpse of what we would be fighting.

That glimpse was… nothing. The room was pretty dark, but it only took a second for the faceplates of our helmets to switch to night vision. At the same time, the two infrared flashlights mounted on either side of our helmets turned on. With the two of them working in conjunction, night became day, albeit a day that was shades of black, white and gray.

Still, there was no sign of any creatures, even as we looked over the entirety of the chamber. While switching to night vision was something that was done automatically when little to no light was available, switching to thermal was something that had to be done manually via verbal command.

Setting our thermal vision to white hot, we looked around once more. While it was possible that there was some sort of creature that could camouflage itself to blend in with its surroundings, similar to a chameleon, we didn’t get a single hit. The walls were a uniform dark gray bordering on black, while the sand that covered the entirety of the floor was a lighter shade of gray, signifying that it was hotter than the rest of the room.

[Are you all seeing what I am?]

[The sand is a bit warmer than the rest of the chamber,] Mason replied with his Telepathy. [Worms of some kind? Like those ones from the dungeon the other day?]

[Those are called krulen, apparently, but I don’t think we’re dealing with those. Not unless the acidic variety differ from the regular ones,] Ben said.

When we had fought the worms in the acidic-themed dungeon, the floor was like swiss cheese. It was solid, but there were a number of holes that went through it, allowing the krulen to pop up in one spot before retreating and popping up in another. Here, there was no way to really know where one would pop up, if that’s what we were facing.

[If it is worms that we’re dealing with, I think they’ll be less like krulen and more like Jihm from the Gatineau Park dungeon.]

“So huge and predictable?” Mason asked. “I think if we each had the movement skills we do now then it wouldn’t have broken your arm, let alone touched any of us.”

I chuckled, recalling that moment. If not for the shifting sand, I would have easily been able to get out of the way, but inexperience and the lack of a movement skill caused me to take a glancing blow. A glancing blow that still had enough power behind it to fracture my arm and take me out of the fight for a short time.

[Well, I doubt we’ll only be fighting one thing at a time, but let’s find out, shall we? Mace, mind summoning your earth elemental?]

He nodded and stepped forward just a little. When he was in place, he began the relatively lengthy cast time. He only had to channel his mana into it for ten seconds, but it still took an additional ten to fifteen seconds for the chunks of rock he had conjured to form into the large, five meter tall elemental. It was very crude compared to what Summon Earth Elemental could do at the higher levels, what with its uneven legs and mismatched arms. Despite that, it would do the job required of it.

As the rest of us readied ourselves, the elemental strode forward into the chamber. It would have undoubtedly shook the ground with each step if it wasn’t on sand, but its boulder feet merely moved the sand out of the way. They acted almost like snowshoes in a way, distributing the massive weight over a much larger area.

It couldn't have taken more than a dozen steps, if that, before a humming sound could soon be heard. It started off very quietly, but rapidly got louder and louder as it echoed around the chamber. Along with that sound came a vibration that had the upper layer of sand bouncing all over the place. It turned out that it wasn’t just the upper layer, either. When the elemental took another step, rather than stay on top of the sand, it slowly started sinking into it. When it tried to lift its foot out, that just caused its other foot to sink further as well.

Within ten seconds or so, the elemental was waist deep--if it had a waist--in the sand which was now acting more like quicksand. It was also at that point that the sound quieted down again and the sand stopped vibrating. It wasn’t sinking anymore, but the elemental was well and truly stuck. I wasn’t sure what we were dealing with yet, but only one of us could free it in a short amount of time.

I told Ben and the girls to stay back, and then Mason and I slowly crept forward. We still had no idea what was in the chamber with us, but whatever it was seemed to react to sound or vibrations, so we focused on minimizing both of those, at least until we needed to. That time came as we got in range of the elemental. After looking over to me and receiving a nod, he activated Seismic Shove and punched the sand floor.

Nothing seemed to happen as his punch sunk into the sand several centimeters, but it was simply a delayed reaction. Like a bomb going off, sand went flying past the elemental, but not without dealing a little bit of damage to it along the way. The sand was likely moving at several hundred meters per second, acting like a sand blaster and smoothing out its rougher edges.

With its legs no longer buried, Mason was able to command it to free itself from the chasm that was slowly filling back up. Or at least it was. Like before, the humming and vibrations began, but they were much more intense the second time around. With that, I also got my first sense of anything with Precognition.

Reaching out, I placed a hand on Mason's shoulder and then used Blink to appear a safe distance away. Letting go, I immediately shouldered my rifle with Anja doing the same. Both of us started shooting at the creatures just as they erupted from the sands directly where Mason and I had been standing only a moment previously.

They definitely weren't worms, or snakes or anything like that. In fact the closest comparison would probably be a shark. As they breached the sand, one of them went flying high into the air, while the other shot by the elemental. I thought it had missed, but that proved to be incorrect. As the sands practically opened up to allow the creature entry, Mason's earth elemental fell to the sand, this time neatly bisected as if someone--or something--cut it in half.

Anja and I, along with our now recovered friends turned our attention to the one still in the air and opened up on it. As the dozens of incendiary rounds went flying towards it, we expected it to be screaming in pain and riddled with holes. Unfortunately, expectations don't always match reality. It, too, dove beneath the sands, and there wasn't even a scratch on it.

“What the hell are those?!” Mason asked as he was briefly encapsulated by a blue bubble that soon disappeared.

“No idea,” Ben replied. “I haven’t had time to read up on everything that is in this dungeon since we swapped at the last minute.”

As much as we would have liked to sit around and talk about the creatures that we had just seen, they weren’t going to give us the time. It seemed that Mason’s Seismic Shove really pissed them off. Less than ten seconds after the first ping from Precognition, there was another. I put my rifle in dimensional storage and grabbed Ben and Mason and activated Blink again, this time appearing in the middle of the room. When I looked back, I saw a bolt of lightning moving away from where we were standing, but Anja remained where she was.

When the first creature burst from the sands, she started moving very quickly, a clear cut sign that she had activated Omnislash. While it was impossible to see her strike with how quickly she was moving, it was clear after a few seconds that her attacks had been entirely ineffective. When she was no longer in any danger of being struck by a round, I retrieved my rifle and once again opened fire on the creature while it was still in the air. Once again, not a single round actually impacted its hide.

Before it could retreat beneath the sands to line itself up for another attack, I quickly put away my rifle and retrieved one of my swords. Reaching out with my other hand, I cast Curse of Pain. I didn’t know if it would do anything since the creatures seemed immune thus far, but we would soon know for sure. Turning my attention back to the second one, I did something that I definitely wouldn’t do if the creature and I were on even footing. Using Blink once more, I appeared directly in its path while activating Mana Shield.

As I stood there looking up at it, I noticed something odd. There was a shimmering all around it that looked a little like a mirage. It took only a small fraction of a second to switch back to thermal vision and I could soon see that the temperature of its body and the air in the immediate vicinity was significantly hotter than the rest of the room. I wasn't worried about it, but it did give me a clue about why our attacks up to this point had been ineffective.

It would have to wait, as it crashed into me a moment later. Actually, bouncing off of me was more accurate, as there wasn't nearly enough force behind it's attack to drop my shield. There was enough force, however, to draw out the first cry of pain as it impacted me and then the wall. It was by no means out of the fight, however, and it wasn't even bleeding, but it scrambled to get beneath the sands.

I couldn’t let that happen, not with the other one still a threat. Retrieving one of my swords once again, I activated Omnislash and brought it down in a two-handed overhead chop. There was a modicum of resistance before my sword finally made contact. It sank several centimeters into the beasts hide, eliciting another cry of pain as it continued to thrash around. Ripping my sword free, I brought it down twice more in the time it would take to blink an eye. There was no resistance at all after the first strike, and after a fourth and final strike, it ceased all movement.

"Watch out!" I heard Anja cry out just as I caught a brief glimpse of the immediate future.

Activating Blink again, I appeared nearly ten meters above the area where Anja and the rest of my friends were scrambling to get out of the way. Despite having Precognition, Anja was the only one of us that didn't have a movement skill of her own. At least not one that she could use at any time. Giving her a hand, I gestured at the area directly in front of her, and then at an area a good distance away. A portal winked into existence and she ran through, just in time for the second creature to breach the surface once more.

The shimmering barrier around it was much more prominent than the one I had killed, and I noticed that its body temperature was a lot hotter. There appeared to be a correlation between the two, but I didn't have time to ponder it. As I continued to fall, I readied my sword once more, performing another overhead chop with even more power behind it. It felt like the barrier around the creature was going to hold, but it fell at the last moment. Unfortunately, enough power from my strike was absorbed that my sword did little more than scratch it's thick and durable hide.

I landed heavily even as it flew through the air, and before I could even turn around, I heard the sound of rifles spitting out death and destruction as fast as they could. Well trying to, anyways. The armor-piercing incendiary rounds didn’t seem to do as much damage as they ought to do, but that made sense if the creatures were resistant to fire. Reaching out with my hand, I sent off a quick Arcane Bolt before putting away my sword and retrieving my own rifle. I didn’t need to be terribly accurate, so I pulled back on the trigger as I tracked it through its arc. It didn’t take long before the magazine was spent, but rather than reload, I swapped back to my sword.

The sheer amount of firepower brought to bear on it saw its hide pockmarked with hundreds of holes and many rivulets of dark blood dripping down to be absorbed by the sand. If its barrier had been up then it would have been perfectly fine, but it seemed like a defense mechanism for whenever it missed a target and spent time in the air. Now that it was gone, I moved a short distance from where I had been standing and waited. A moment later, I struck with all of my dragonkin-enhanced strength, just as the beast fell down into the path of the strike. Unlike the first one, the second was sufficiently weakened that a single hit finished it off, without it even having a chance to cry out.

“Well that was fun,” Anja said as we waited for the two bodies to disappear. “What was up with those, anyways? Why couldn’t we damage them?”

[They had some sort of barrier around them, sort of like Mana Shield, but it was different. For one thing, the second creature had a shield that was a lot stronger, and I think that was because it had taken damage from Curse of Pain. Did any of you have your thermal vision on while we fought?]

“Well, it was more like you were fighting and we were largely useless, but I think we all switched back to night vision so we could actually see. Why?” Mason asked.

[When the second one breached the surface, its barrier--or whatever it was--was a lot more noticeable. When I switched back to thermals, I saw that its body temperature was extremely high. I’m talking a few hundred degrees,] I replied, noticing that Ben had his phone up and was tapping away. [Find anything, Ben?]

He looked up for a moment and nodded. “They’re called dreogar, and if we see chambers like this one while on Veria then there is a good bet that they’re present. The article about them says that they’re able to manipulate the air around them to both attack and defend, which is probably how they destroyed Mason’s elemental. They’re berserker-like as well, in that as they take damage, they get hotter and hotter. That heat allows them even greater control of the air and it allows them to make even stronger shields.”

“It’s extremely odd, though. You would figure that the hotter they get, the weaker they would become because they would be affecting the air around them. As air molecules heat up, they spread out, decreasing the density of the air. With decreased density, it would make it significantly harder to slow down projectiles or other physical projectiles.”

“There’s nothing in the article to explain it?” Sonja asked.

“There are theories, but nothing concrete since any research on them would need to happen inside of a dungeon, or one would need to be tamed to be taken out of the dungeon. They’re extremely hard to tame because of how aggressive they are, and they aren’t particularly smart, being classified as class E beasts. They can be deadly too, particularly if a team doesn’t know what they’re facing, since dreogar attacks are like your attacks when Windblade is active,” Ben replied, looking at Sonja. “The good news is that dreogars only come in pairs, so we should never have to deal with more than two at a time.”

[I guess I’ll have to take care of them while you guys deal with whatever else we’re fighting at the time. Is there anything else we need to worry about while we’re here, in terms of creatures shielding themselves?]

Ben immediately shook his head. “Each dungeon has its own page on the Adventurer’s Guild site, giving adventurers a breadth of information. It’s all separated into different sections, but without fail, each page will have a ‘Dangerous & Noteworthy Monsters’ section. For this dungeon, the only monster listed in the ‘Dangerous’ subsection is the dreogar. There are a few more in the ‘Noteworthy’ subsection, but that’s just because they have some interesting abilities or quirks.”

[Huh. Remind me to check that out when we’re done here. Shall we continue?]