Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 14, 2019
20:50 PDT (23:50 EDT)

After Jonathan teleported away, Tessa was left with Jonathan’s parents. When Alexandra looked at her face, she was easily able to read the look she saw there.

[Head on to bed, I’ll be there in a few minutes,] she told her husband.

Gabriel yawned. [Alright. Don’t take too long, tomorrow is going to be a busy day and we’ll need our sleep.]

[A few minutes. Go,] she sent, leaning over for a kiss.

When their kiss ended, Gabriel started walking away, and Alexandra took a seat.

“I recognize that look on your face, Tessa.”

“What look?” she replied, somewhat defensively.

“The look of a jealous woman. There is no reason for you to be jealous of Vixa.”

“I’m not jeal...alright, maybe I’m a little jealous. Who is she?”

“To answer that, I’ll need to tell you a story. Jonathan loved playing on the palace grounds, and did so at every opportunity. One day, around six months before the death of his parents, he found a very young Phenidae with a snowy-white colored coat of fur. He brought it to his mother who took care of it until it was old enough to eat solid food. After that, it became Jonathan’s companion and followed him everywhere. He named her Vixa and until very recently, she was in stasis. She was taken out of stasis the same night he met you, and has to spend at least seventy-two hours in quarantine before being released. Every morning, and every night, he goes down to visit and spends some time with her. You’ll probably see her following him around quite a bit after your date on Friday, as she will be let out of quarantine earlier in the day.”

Tessa broke into soft laughter, “I can’t believe I was jealous of a Phenidae. People call them Scyftan foxes here, right?”

Alexandra nodded. “They look similar to Fennec foxes found in the Sahara Desert, big ears and all.”

“I have seen pictures of them, but have never seen one in person. Do they really make it easier for people to learn how to scan other animals?”

“Mhmm. With Vixa, Jonathan learned how to scan animals in only a few minutes of trying. Scyftan foxes tend to draw in the person’s mind, making it much easier.”

“I wish I had one when I was growing up,” Tessa sighed. “It took me days of trying to finally be able to do it.”

“I can sympathize. I didn’t have a Scyftan fox of my own until I was a few hundred years old, so I had to learn the hard way, just as you did. At least being able to do it once means you can do it whenever you like afterwards.”

“That is very true,” Tessa said with a big yawn, before standing up. “I should be getting to bed. Thank you for telling me about Vixa.”

Alexandra stood as well, “No problem, my dear. Make sure to find me in the morning and I’ll introduce you to Selalea and her son Ilnod.”

“I will. Goodnight, Alexandra.”

Alexandra watched her go, and then teleported outside of the room she shared with her husband.

---

A loud alarm is what woke me up this morning. I had spent a little bit of time after visiting Vixa to look through the small book beside my bed, which details all the functions my room had. I was only interested in the alarm, so after navigating to the appropriate page, I vocally activated the alarm, setting it to wake me up a 06:30.

“Alarm off!” I called out. I threw the covers off of me and swung my legs over the side of the bed while stretching. I was tempted to go back to sleep, but the alarm would continue to go off every minute until my weight was no longer detected on the bed.

I got up and entered the closet, grabbing my armor and anything else I would need while we were in the dungeon today. Making sure I had everything, I exited the closet and deposited everything on my bed before continuing on to the bathroom. I wanted to get going as soon as possible, so I quickly did my business and then took a shower. After drying off, I quickly put on my armor and attached two sword sheaths and two holsters for my spears. I also attached one of my shields to my left arm, but put the other way in storage until we got in the dungeon and I could switch forms.

After equipping myself, I realized that I still had the armguards from the dungeon boss we had killed. I had never actually put them on, and I wasn’t even sure if I should, since I didn’t know if they would work with me shapeshifting or not. If they didn’t, then I would just have to give them to Mason. I decided to ask someone as soon as I got a chance.

I left my room and teleported just outside of the cafeteria. Walking inside, I could already see Ben and the twins, though Mason was nowhere to be seen. If he didn’t show up by the time I finished eating, I’d just have to teleport to his house and drag him out of bed. I also saw Tessa sitting with my mom, dad, Selalea and Ilnod, but I elected to sit with my friends after grabbing some food and coffee.

“Morning, Jonathan,” Ben greeted.

“Good morning, Ben, ladies,” I said as I sat down. “Have any of you seen Mason this morning?”

Ben had a mouthful of food, but nodded. He finished chewing and swallowed before elaborating, “I stopped by his house this morning to make sure he would be here this morning. His mom told me he was in the shower, so I teleported here. He should arrive any minute, if he isn’t here already.”

“Perfect. I want to leave as soon as we’re finished eating. Have you checked what the dungeon is at?”

“12%,” he replied when his mouth wasn’t full. “It seems like the amount of people entering the dungeon increased quite a bit since we were in there. We might only get a few hours before it boots us out.”

“That is a lot lower than we were expecting. Have you found another dungeon we can delve into?”

“Two options, actually, depending on what level we hit before we’re booted out. If we hit level eleven, we can go to the Algonquin Park dungeon. It has a rank of 25-II and is at 89%. If we don’t reach level eleven, then Glen Isle is our best bet. It’s a 22-I at 38%.

“Glen Isle?” Anja asked. “Where is that?”

“Right near Carleton Place,” I answered. “Shit...that is an hour long drive, if we don’t hit traffic, and the drive to Algonquin Park is even longer.”

“That’s the best I could come up with on short notice.” Ben said.

“It’s too bad you guys can’t camouflage like I can,” I said, briefly activating and deactivating my ability. “Then I could get a saddle made and fly us to either of those. I’ll come up with something, whether we need to drive or have someone make a portal.”

“What about Abi?” Sonja asked.

I shook my head. “You guys haven’t seen her lately, but she is a hell of a lot bigger now than she was when we went on our little jaunt in space. Later tonight, she’ll be almost nine hundred meters long. There would be nowhere for her to land. I...wait a minute, I might have a solution. Give me a few minutes.”

[Good morning, Abi,] I sent, while digging into my breakfast.

[Hello, Jonathan, can I help you with something.]

[Yes. My friends and I are going to do some dungeons today, but they are quite far away. It would waste too much time driving to them, and we can’t teleport to them since we haven’t been to them before. The cargo bay we’re storing the eggs in is only taking up a small part of the ship, right? Do you think you could make a small landing bay as well as some sort of five-person shuttlecraft we can use to get around quickly?]

[Certainly. It takes a bit of time to create another ship. Do you need it right away?]

[No, you have a few hours, I would think. We’re going to the Gatineau Park dungeon, but it is at 12% and will probably kick us out after a few hours there. Depending on how long that takes, we’ll probably come back to base and eat lunch before continuing.]

[I can absolutely do that, then. Do you have a design in mind?]

I thought about it for a minute and something popped into my brain. Ben would probably get a kick out of it.

[Can you do something like this?] I said as I sent an image of a small shuttlecraft from a Sci-Fi show I like.

[That won’t be a problem. The landing bay will only take a few seconds, but the ship itself will take around two hours or so. You’ll need to come up to me when it is done. At that time, I will download everything you will need to know about it to your mind, as well as modify the Beacon I gave you so you will be able to remotely call it to your location.]

[Awesome! I wouldn’t want to leave it alone, even when shrouded. I was hoping you could remotely pilot it between the moon and my location when I need it, but this is fine too.]

[Alright, I’m starting on it now. It should be done in just under two hours.]

[Thanks, Abi!]

[You’re welcome, Jonathan. Good luck in the dungeons.]

“Alright, I’ve got a solution,” I said.

“Solution to what?” I heard from behind me.

“About time you got here, Mace. The Gatineau Park dungeon is at 12%, so we’re guaranteed to get kicked out of there today. I was securing transportation to one of our other options.”

I looked over when he sat down beside me and saw he was in his full armor, which explained what took him so long.

“Ah, that’s what took you so long. Did you get a new weapon, too?”

“Yup,” he said before taking a drink of coffee. “I’ve actually got an assortment of weapons. There was a perfect copy of my halberd, but I also found a bunch of other two-handed weapons in there. A greatsword, poleaxe, spears, and even a giant hammer.”

“I might have something else for you, as well. We’ll see, I’ll let you know in a minute.”

[Morning, mom. When we killed the boss in the dungeon, I got a pair of bracers. How does that work with this armor and me shapeshifting?]

[Good morning, Jonathan. I had forgotten all about those bracers or I would have explained it. You know the dimensional storages built into the suit? If you put a piece of equipment into one of those dimensional storages, you will gain the effect that piece of equipment provides. Keep in mind that putting a piece of equipment into the dimensional storage of a suit will soulbind it to you. You can also only gain the benefit from one type of item at once, usually the higher level one. If you get another pair of bracers, you will have to choose which one you would like to gain the benefits from.]

[Can Sonja do the same thing with her ring, or is it different for her?]

[It works for any species. Rings work differently than other items, though, in that you can have as many rings as you have fingers. The catch is that the amount of rings you can have is based off of how many fingers you have in your natural form. That is a total of eight for Scyftans, so your friends will have a slight advantage in that regard.]

[I see, thanks mom. The Gatineau Park dungeon is at 12%, so we’re going to head to either Algonquin Park or Glen Isle when we get booted out. I’ve got Abi making me a small shuttle so we can quickly get around.]

[Alright, be careful, and make sure to keep your speed below twelve hundred kilometers per hour, please. We don’t need you creating sonic booms wherever you go. That would cause people to start asking questions.]

[I hadn’t even thought about sonic booms. I’ll make sure to stay below that speed.]

“Nevermind, Mace. I was going to give these bracers to you,” I said, taking them out of my dimensional storage and putting them in my suit’s dimensional storage. “We can’t wear other armor while wearing these suits, but thankfully there is a solution built in. Sonja, you’re going to want to take off your ring and put it into one of the dimensional storages in your armor when you get suited up. That way, you’ll keep the bonus of the ring.”

“I was wondering how that would work,” Ben said. “What happens if you have duplicates though? I can’t imagine you’ll be able to get the bonuses from two similar items.”

“You’re right about that, I just talked to my mom about it. You can only get the bonus from one type of item, and usually the higher level one. The only difference is rings, where the four of you actually have an advantage over me. Each of you can gain the effects of ten different rings, whereas I can only gain the effects of eight different rings.”

“Why is that?” Anja asked. “You’ve got the same amount of fingers we do, and that’s not even counting toes.”

“Not in his natural form, he doesn’t. Remember when we saw Alexandra and Gabriel in their natural forms, as well as that hologram? A Scyftan only has four fingers on each hand,” Ben explained. “That still doesn’t explain the toes thing.”

“I don’t know, but I can ask my mom about that if you like?”

“Ask her, I’m really interested about why toes can’t be utilized to equip more rings,” Sonja chimed in.

“Alright, one moment,” I said. [Mom, my friends have a question for you. You said that we can have as many rings as we have fingers which puts Scyftans at a disadvantage over species like Humans. Why can’t toes be used?]

I heard her laugh through Mindspeak. [I asked a similar question when I first saw this type of armor. There are toe rings, but you still can’t get past the limit based on how many fingers you have. It’s one of those weird rules of the universe. You can put more than eight rings in your suit’s dimensional storage, and your friends more than ten, but all of you will only be able to get stats from eight and ten rings, respectively.]

[That seems pretty unfair, especially since I’m betting there are species out there with three fingers on each hand, or even less than that.]

[You’d be right about that, but people can still get plenty strong, if they want to.]

[Anyways, thanks for the answer, we’re about to head over to the dungeon.

[No problem. Good luck today.]

[Thanks, mom,] I sent, looking back up to my friends. “So she said that toe rings can be used, but it won’t allow people to exceed the limit based on how many fingers they have. Some sort of weird rule of the universe.”

“That is pretty weird,” Anja said.

“Yup. Oh, one more thing. If you’re wearing a suit of armor and you put an item into the dimensional storage of that suit, it will cause the item to become soulbound to you. Keep that in mind so you don’t soulbind an item by mistake.”

“That would definitely suck. Thanks for the heads up.”

We finished eating breakfast and then Ben and the twins went to go put their suits on while Mason and I went to the lobby. We would be leaving as soon as they got back which meant that I wouldn’t be able to visit Vixa until later in the day. I couldn’t wait until she could leave the quarantine ward, which would actually be after midnight tonight. I would definitely be staying awake to bring her up to my room.

I sat down on one of the couches and took out my phone to look at the time. I was about to take a look at all the skills the twins got when there was a popping sound. Looking up, I saw Ben was finished suiting up. Turning my attention back to my phone, I navigated to our team profile and tapped on Anja’s name so I could look at her skills.

Like the rest of us, she got Legendary Insight and Teleport, and since she has Precognition, she also got the Legendary Mana Regeneration perk. That one perk is what would allow her to get the most use out of Precognition. Her first two new abilities were her movement skills; Shadowstep and Blur. The first would allow her to teleport up to thirty feet away, appearing behind her target, whether that be friend or foe, while Blur was quite a bit different. It would increase her speed for a short amount of time, and help her avoid attacks.

In terms of offensive abilities, she didn’t get any more melee ones, but she did get two frost spells. Ice Shard would give her an ability so she could do damage without being in melee range, while Conjure Frost would allow her to do additional frost damage with every attack.

Rounding everything out were two new legendary perks, Spellblade and Hemorrhage. The first is the same one I have, while Hemorrhage will make all her attacks cause enemies to bleed for some pretty hefty damage. It doesn’t have the health regen reduction that my ability does, but I can take care of that.

Having taken a look at Anja’s abilities, I was about to take a look at Sonja’s when I heard a series of pops, one right after the other. I stood up and looked over to the twins. They were dressed identically, and it would be impossible to tell them apart, if not for the handle-like object hanging from one of their wrists and the ability to differentiate between their minds.

“New bow, Sonja?” I asked.

“Yup,” she answered, quickly moving her hand causing the momentum to have the handle land in her palm. She channeled her mana into it and a recurve bow quickly formed.

“What, no compound bow?”

“I have one of every bow in storage right now, but want to give a recurve bow a shot. If it doesn’t perform well then I’ll switch to something else.”

“Oh, cool. Everyone ready?” I asked. I looked around and got a nod of affirmation from everyone. “Alright, let’s head out, we’ll meet at the parking lot before going in.”

We made our way to the portal room and hopped on the elevator to take us back to the surface. In the future we might be able to teleport right to the dungeon, but that would be a long ways off.

---

Earth
Gatineau Park Dungeon, Quebec
August 15, 2019
07:08 EDT

It only took me one teleport and I was standing in the parking lot outside of the building leading to the dungeon. Looking around, I saw Ben and the twins were already here, so we were just waiting on Mason. About thirty seconds later there was a pop and he arrived as well. We made our way inside the building and walked over to the waygate. One after another, we stepped on the waygate and were transported down to the sixth level of the dungeon.

“Alright, give me a minute. I’m going to shift into my hybrid form,” I said, when we were all together.

Shifting took a minute or so, and when it was finished, I took my other shield out of my storage and fastened it to my lower-right arm. I would just be going with my spear and shield for now, but it wouldn’t hurt to have an extra shield handy incase I needed it.

“I still think that’s so fucking cool,” Mason said with a laugh.

“It will be even cooler when I can wield four weapons effectively,” I replied. “When we begin our melee weapons training, I’m going to see about wielding four swords.”

“You mean like that robot guy in Star Wars? The one with four lightsabers?” Anja asked.

“General Grievous, you mean, and he’s a cyborg, not a robot,” Ben answered.

“Something like that, though I don’t know about the lightsabers,” I replied with a chuckle. “Well, that is enough waiting around. Is everyone ready?”

The answer I got was Mason and the twins channeling mana to activate their weapons, while Ben just took his Magewood staff out of his inventory.

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “Alright, let’s go,” I said, activating my own spear and shield.

Now that we were getting deeper into the dungeon, this level looked more man-made compared to levels one through four. It was very similar to the fifth floor, but the hall we were in was less cramped, and didn’t seem like a maze at all. After a minute of walking, we came across a wooden door on the left-hand side of the hallway. We could have continued past it, but we decided to open it and see what was on the other side.

As soon as the door opened, torches around the room lit up showing a group of six Skeletons standing in the middle of the room. I didn’t see any bows or staves, so it seemed like they were all Skeletal Warriors. Fairly weak ones, at that. Some of them were equipped in full armor, while some only had a few pieces. None of it was in very good condition either. I could see a lot of holes and rust in the metal armor, and that continued on to their weapons as well. Most of them used rusty swords and shields, though two of them were using two handed weapons. One with a poleaxe, and the other with a maul.

They seemed to have noticed us and began to amble over. That prompted Mason to move in, activating Whirling Leap. As soon as he landed, he absolutely obliterated the entire group of skeletons, which sent bones flying all over the place. A torso actually landed by me, with the skeleton still moving, trying to claw its way over to me. I walked over to it and stomped on its head.

“What the hell was that, Mason?” I asked.

“What? This stuff is easy peasy. I figured we want to get through the dungeon as soon as possible so we can move onto something a bit more challenging.”

“Well, how about saving some for the rest of us,” I replied, taking my phone out of my storage.

I was close to leveling when we stopped after killing Jihm the other day, and that group of skeletons were more than enough to level. I put four points into Constitution and the remaining three points into Strength. I was instructed not to put any points into Intellect for a while, since that would really mess up the window we’re aiming for to transport the dragon eggs. I put my phone away when I was done, and looked around the room.

There wasn’t anything special about the room. It was a square with a torch in each corner, and door on the opposite side from where we came in.

“So, through the other door, or back down the hall?” I asked.

“Let’s try the door,” Ben answered. “There could be a chest or some other treasure behind it.”

“Or more skeletons to kill!” Mason said.

“Alright, let’s check it out.”

We grouped back up and walked over to the door. I was the first one there, so I tried turning the handle, only to find that it was locked.

“Huh, it’s locked,” I told everyone. “First locked door we’ve come across.”

“I’ll get it open,” Mason declared as we watched him put away his halberd and take out another large handle that was in a holster around his waist. He activated it and a huge hammer appeared. “Back up.”

I started backing off when I heard Ben shout.

“Wait!”

It was too late, however. Mason was already swinging the hammer, and with the head of the hammer weighing so much, he couldn’t stop his swing. His hammer collided with the door with a heavy thud, but nothing happened. Suddenly, some sort of blue energy flared up, and Mason was sent flying across the room, and through the door they had come in from. He smashed into the wall of the hallway and then fell down onto the floor.

We all ran over to see if he was alright, but we needn’t have worried. By the time we got to the door leading to the hallway, he was already in the process of standing up. He shook his head when he was standing, but didn’t seem worse for wear.

“What the hell was that?” he asked.

“I said to wait. Locked doors usually have some sort of safeguard to prevent people from forcing their way past them. Since we don’t have anyone with Lockpicking, we’ll need to find the key if we want to get past that door,” Ben explained.

“Lockpicking is a perk similar to Identification, right? Why don’t we go up and buy one so one of us has it?” I asked.

“It’s much more expensive than a minor Identification perk,” Ben replied. “A minor Lockpicking perk would cost around one thousand credits, I think.”

“Really? Why is it so expensive?” Anja asked.

“They’re much rarer than other minor perks, and they’re highly sought after. The demand is much higher than the supply.”

“Ah, let’s continue then. I think we can make do without Lockpicking.”

The next twenty minutes or so flew by quickly. We went through nine different rooms, each with between five and seven Skeletal Warriors in each, allowing us to rack up the experience pretty quickly. I leveled up once more, while my friends each leveled twice, up to level seven. Unfortunately, we didn’t find any more locked doors, nor any keys, either.

As we continued down the hall after clearing the tenth room, we came across a set of wooden double doors. They weren’t as ornate as the doors leading to Jihm on the fifth floor, but they were different from the rest. Everyone took the time to allocate their attribute points and then we opened the door.

The room lit up and we could see that it was bigger than any of the others. In the middle stood a Skeletal Warrior on a raised platform. It had glowing blue eyes and was wearing an immaculate set of shiny steel armor. Its hands were in front of it, gripping a large axe, that was resting head-first on the floor. In front of it, standing on the same floor we were, were three groups of nine skeletons.

The groups to the left and right were just Skeletal Warriors, while the one in the middle was a mixture. There was a frontline of six Skeletal Warriors, and then a backline of two Skeletal Archers, and one Skeleton holding a staff. Without seeing it cast something, we couldn’t be sure what kind it was, though.

Having noticed us, the Armored Skeletal Warrior raised his axe slightly off the ground, and then rammed it down, producing a thud. That signaled the group on the right to start running towards us, which was new. The skeletons we had come across had been slow moving, which made it very easy to deal with them. I didn’t think these ones would be any harder, but it was still interesting.

We all braced, readying ourselves for when they reached us, but they never got the chance. When they were about ten feet away, Mason stepped in front of me and punched the ground. The stone dungeon floor broke apart, and a wave of stone crashed into the Skeletal Warriors. It didn’t seem to do much damage, but it did send them flying backward various degrees. Where before they were moving as a group, now they were coming one or two at a time.

My spear wasn’t that great against Skeletons, so I put it away earlier and taken out one of my swords instead. Mason was using his mace instead of his halberd as well. We hacked and smashed the Skeletal Warriors as they reached us, with Ben using his auras to increase our damage, and the twins shooting projectiles past us. For Anja that was her Ice Shards, while Sonja was taking them out left right and center with her recurve bow.

It didn’t take long to deal with the first group, and soon there was another thud. We looked over to the group of skeletons on the right, and just as they started moving, a series of fireballs started smashing into them. After a few seconds, they were all dead, and all that remained were a series of craters and splintered bones. We looked back, and saw Ben leaning on his staff with a big smile on his face. Before we could say anything, there was a final thud and the central group of skeletons began moving.

We immediately had to pay attention, particularly to the archers and the caster.

“I’ve got the backline, you guys deal with the rest!” Mason shouted, activating Whirling Leap to get past the warriors.

Anja and I rushed the group of six Skeletal Warriors, with her firing off Ice Shards while we ran. As we were closing, I heard two arrows fly past my head, each of them finding their mark and taking down two of them just like that. Anja took down two of them with her Ice Shards. When we closed the distance, two Skeletal Warriors remained. I took one, while she drew her katana and quickly took out the other, using Shadowstep to get behind it, neatly decapitating it. It took me a little more effort, but mine was soon dealt with as well.

We looked over to Mason to see that he had taken care of the two Archers, but was actually having trouble with the Mage. It was teleporting short distances and throwing fireballs at him, which collided with his Mana Shield. I didn’t think he had much mana left, and knew he would probably run out shortly. I began running towards him, but before I could even get close, there was a streak of lightning that went right through the Skeletal Mage before finally forming into a person; Sonja. Instead of her bow, she instead had her katana in her hands. With a quick slash, a blade of wind was sent forward, easily slicing through its skull. It collapsed to the ground, and almost immediately there was another thud.

We looked over to the Armored Skeletal Warrior to see that he was making his way down the steps off his raised platform, and as he did, he was dragging his axe behind him. The grating noise sounded horrible, but we got ready. Something about it made me think I would need Precognition, so I activated it. After a few seconds, I was able to see it sort of reverberate as he walked forward, and then it reached down and grabbed the end of the axe it carried. It suddenly disappeared.

“Ben, move!” I shouted, turning and running towards where I knew it would appear.

Mason seemed to have the same idea I did, and as soon as he heard me shout, I could see him activating Whirling Leap. Ben wasted no time, Blinking away. About a second after he Blinked away, the Armored Skeletal Warrior appeared behind where Ben was standing, and cleaved where he would have been standing. Right after that, Mason landed beside the Skeletal Warrior and sent it flying when his hammer collided with it.

The twins weren’t sitting idle all this time, either. Anja was firing off Ice Shards as quickly as she could, and Sonja was doing the same thing with arrows. With me having Precognition as well, it left Anja free to do some damage.

The Armored Skeletal Warrior didn’t even get a single hit on any of us, with all of us being able to move around so well, or block his attacks using our shield spells. After about two minutes of hacking, smashing and shooting it, we finally took it down.

Along with the usual Mana Gem that floor bosses drop, this one also dropped a few surprised for us. The first was a key that looked like it would match the door we had passed earlier on this floor, but the others were more interesting. In addition to a Skill Gem, it actually dropped a piece of loot.