Earth
Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies
August 16, 2019
11:33 PDT (14:33 EDT)

Everyone was in shock. Except for Bria and Tamara, that is, who immediately burst into laughter when Ben fell off of Nathid and fell on his ass. After realizing that he wasn’t hurt, the rest of us soon burst into laughter as well.

Tamara used her sleeve to wipe away her tears while walking over to help Ben to his feet.

“Sorry about that, Ben. Everyone always wants to ride the gryphons, and this is a little prank we pull on them. I’ll get him saddled up and then all of you can take a turn riding him, if you wish,” she explained, a saddle appearing in her hand.

“Seems like a pretty mean prank,” he grumbled with a sour look on his face. “What if I’d been hurt?”

“Well, it would be nothing a few hours in a med chamber couldn’t fix. Besides, you’re wearing that armor. From experience, I know you didn’t even feel the impact,” she replied as she placed the saddle on Nathid’s back.

“Fair enough, though I doubt people wearing this armor wouldn’t enjoy it very much.”

“Well actually, pretty much every single person that has been pranked has been much higher level than you and your friends, so it didn’t bother them at all. Things that hurt you now wouldn’t even register on your radar if you were a hundred levels higher.”

After another thirty seconds or so, Nathid was saddled and she gestured Ben to hop on. He was a little wary, but after checking that the saddle was firmly secured, he stepped into the stirrup and then swung his leg over. This time he had a handhold to grab onto which, along with the stirrups, meant that he wouldn’t fall off. There wasn’t a rein to direct Nathid where to go, and I was about to ask Bria about it when I realized that the rider could probably lean in the direction they wanted to go.

This time when Ben said the magic word, Nathid had a running start before leaping in the air and beating his large wings, soon propelling them through the air with ease. As we all watched, Nathid took Ben for a loop around the large enclosure, which included a brief amount of time when they were out of sight behind the mountain, before returning.

“That was awesome!” Ben exclaimed, making no move to get off of Nathid.

“Alright, who’s next?” Tamara asked, drawing everyone’s attention over to her. It seemed that she was saddling up Yoni while the rest of us were tracking Ben and Nathid as they soared through the sky.

“Me next!” Mason said, using Dash to close the distance. He was about to put his foot into one of the stirrups to throw himself over Yoni’s back when Tamara moved to put a hand on his chest.

“Uh uh. You can clearly see that Yoni is quite a bit smaller than her mate. She can’t support your weight and keep the two of you in the air. If you want to go up, you’ll need to ride on Nathid,” she explained before looking over to the twins. “Ladies, which of you would like to go first?”

I saw them look at each other for a moment, and without a word Sonja started walking forward. A week ago I would’ve thought there was some twin voodoo going on. If they couldn’t communicate telepathically then, they definitely could now. At the same time the twins were doing their thing, Ben was struggling to take his feet out of the stirrups so he could actually dismount Nathid. Mason grabbed Ben’s right leg and pulled the first stirrup off before walking around and doing the same for his left leg.

I could hear Ben thank Mason before swinging his leg over the side and hopping off. Mason wasted no time mounting Nathid, and quickly bid him to fly as well. Nathid leapt into the air and began to ascend without any difficulty, and was immediately followed by Sonja and Yoni. They easily passed Mason and Nathid and that seemed to trigger a race between the two. When they disappeared behind the mountain, the girls were in the lead, and that didn’t change when both pairs appeared on the other side. In fact, the lead by the girls increased by quite a bit.

“Yoni is way faster than Nathid,” Bria said as she walked over to stand beside me. “She isn’t as fast with someone on her back, but she isn’t slowed down nearly as much as Nathid is with your friend on his back. What is he? Two-sixty? Two-seventy?”

“Something like that, yeah. He’s a massive human being,” I said with a chuckle.

“Are you going up next?” she asked as we watched Mason, Sonja and their mounts on approach.

I shook my head. “Nah, being able to transform into a dragon and fly around kinda ruined the wonder of it for me. Besides, I already scanned Nathid a little while ago, so now I can shift into a gryphon whenever I want.”

“Oooh! I haven’t been able to scan a dragon yet, though I was able to scan a nice dragonkin woman I saw in the cafeteria the other day. The form is pretty formidable, though perhaps not as formidable as your seotross form.”

‘I haven’t scanned a dragonkin yet, but perhaps I should get on that,’ I mused. “Are you sure about that? We acquire the abilities of whatever we scan while in the corresponding form, right? As such, we should have access to the abilities of the seven different types since we transform into the Chromatic variant. That means that we should be able to breath fire and control things with telekinesis, to name a few. I haven’t tried doing any of those in my dragon form, though I should be able to, as should you in your dragonkin form.”

She was silent for a moment as we watched the twins switch, while Ben hopped on Nathid again. “I hadn’t really thought about that. Usually I just have someone hold my phone or put it down where I can see it before shifting into a new form so I can see my stat increases. I was surprised how much my stats were multiplied while in my dragonkin form. Intellect went up slightly, while everything else doubled, at minimum. Constitution and Strength were the highest at somewhere around eight times my human norm, while Agility and Endurance went up a lesser amount. It’s the most powerful humanoid form I’ve acquired so far.”

“Seems pretty well balanced. My seotross form is mostly Strength, with some hefty penalties to Agility and Intellect. The added Constitution and Endurance makeup for that, though. Not to mention having an extra set of arms.”

“A lot of people saw how powerful your form is, actually. The screens in the lobby were tuned into your fight with that bear… Berengar was the name? Anyways, I watched that fight and there was a stats page on the side. They were insane!” she enthused. “Well, not your Agility or Intellect, as combined they didn’t even hit twenty, but your Strength and Constitution were ridiculous for your level! I think your physical damage reduction was at somewhere like eighty-nine point six or eighty-nine point seven percent! You avoided a lot of the bear’s attacks, but you probably could’ve tanked them no problem.”

“Oh really? I knew people watched our fight against Jihm, but I didn’t realize they watched that one as well.”

She quickly nodded. “Your team is on every time you go to a dungeon. It’s usually on a smaller screen, but they do put your boss fights on the big screens. People like seeing their King kicking ass,” she finished with a laugh.

I was about to respond when Tamara entered our conversation.

“What are you two gossiping about?” she asked with a grin. “Not interested in riding Nathid around the enclosure?”

Again, I was beat to the punch.

“I asked the same question. His answer was essentially that gryphons aren’t very exciting when you can turn into a massive dragon and fly around that way. I would probably agree if I had already scanned a dragon.”

“You forgot the fact that I scanned Nathid as well, so I could turn into a gryphon if I wanted to. Nah, I’ll let my friends have their fun,” I replied as I looked past Tamara and saw that the twins were racing around the enclosure now.

“We were also talking about our various forms. He’s scanned a seotross, and a dragon, while I’ve scanned a dragonkin, so we were comparing notes,” she said before turning back to me. “We never talked about your dragon form… how much do your stats increase when you shift into it?”

“They go way up,” I answered, thinking back to when I had my someone read my stats off. “I think it was something like a sixteen times multiplier for Strength, twenty times multiplier for Agility, one point two times multiplier for Intellect, eight times multiplier for Constitution and then a twenty times multiplier for Endurance.”

Tamara whistled when I finished listing off the multipliers. “There aren’t many species out there that are that robust, but it makes sense when you consider the fact that they are unable to level. I do wonder if those values will increase as you get older as well, since dragons get stronger and stronger as they age. Perhaps I’ll try to find a dragon willing to let me scan them and we’ll see if there is any difference.”

“Wouldn’t that make someone incredibly overpowered if those multipliers increased as well? In my dragon form my stats are equivalent to someone over level one hundred, I think. I can’t imagine what it would be like if someone was at level one thousand while in their dragon form.”

“It could, and there are are overpowered individuals in the universe. This isn’t a game, and as such, there is nothing in place to keep balance. That is something that young people, specifically those on Earth, don’t understand. Not until they go into a dungeon unprepared and realization is beaten into them.”

“Why is that a problem on Earth, and not elsewhere?”

“Ah, that’s very simple. Many children on Earth play video games thinking that it will prepare them for what's in store when they’re finally allowed to delve into dungeons. There are many flaws in those games. They do a good job of replicating abilities from the real world, but there isn’t any pain transference when your character gets hurt, and you can just respawn your character if you die.”

“For Scyftans, and many other races in that quadrant of the galaxy, it’s entirely different. While children do play video games in their free time, they’re much more advanced. Virtual reality pods were developed as soon as people discovered the potential of them, and the video game industry exploded soon after. Companies were developing incredibly realistic games, which, in some cases, were identical to the real world. It gave people the chance to hone their techniques and prepare themselves before ever setting foot inside of a dungeon.”

“The key difference between games that are popular with Scyftan youth, and games that are popular with those on Earth, is that it is incredibly real. While you can’t die by playing the game, you will feel pain when you get hit, and your character can permanently die. If it does, there is no respawn mechanic. You would need to start all over again.”

“I see. So if there are powerful people out there, how are they dealt with if they go on a rampage or something?”

“Ships are the best way. Even the strongest person can’t withstand a barrage from a bunch of ships for long; their mana regeneration just can’t keep up. That usually ends up causing a lot of collateral damage, however, so they are rarely used. Instead, teams are brought in to take the individual down. There are actually a few different organizations that provide the service of containing such threats. I daresay the Hellraisers could do the same, if they were so inclined.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised. “They’re strong enough to do that?”

She nodded. “There was a reason that the Spectres were held back and Abi was called in. Every member the Hellraisers is over level one thousand, if barely so, but that’s a few hundred levels higher than even the strongest Spectre. We really have stagnated while hiding out here. It will be good to finally be able to start delving once again.”

“For a team so powerful, they definitely backed off pretty quickly when Abi fired a warning shot.”

“Probably because she was shrouded and could have easily destroyed their ship, leaving them stranded here. Anyways, come. Your mom asked me not to keep you and your friends past 16:00. There are a few things we need to go over before then.”

I nodded and followed her as she walked over to where my friends were standing. Mason and Anja were about to order Nathid and Yoni to take off when she told them to stop. After explaining that there were some additional things to talk about, she unsaddled the two gryphons with the help of her daughter before putting them away in her storage. After depositing Thoosa on her mother’s back, Nathid and Yoni leapt into the air, heading back to their perch on the mountain. We watched them as they flew, before turning and heading the way we had come.

I wondered why Thoosa wasn’t flying beside her parents, but Bria answered that for me as we walked through the enclosure. Apparently while Thoosa is able to glide now, she isn’t able to actually fly on her own, requiring her to ride one of her parents around. She wouldn’t have to do so for long, however. In two to three weeks, she’d be able to fly on her own.

After leaving the enclosure and making sure the door was locked, Tamara opened up a portal to her office, saving us a few minutes of walking. Bria didn’t join us, having other things to do this afternoon. Upon arriving in her office, she bid us to sit while walking over to the fridge and grabbing a bottle of water for each of us. After setting one down in front of each of us, she sat down opposite of us.

“Alright, as my husband told you earlier, we’ll go back to see the wolves on Wednesday, assuming the weather permits us to do so. We’ll aim to see them twice a week, and as such I’ll need your schedules. I know you’ll be starting some training shortly. When will that be happening?”

“Monday to Thursday, with the entirety of the weekend free to do whatever we want,” I answered. “We plan to use the weekends to level up in dungeons, but we can work around that to visit the wolves.”

“Perfect. I’ll coordinate with whoever will be training you on Wednesday, and then we’ll see them again on Friday before you leave.”

“Leave?” Sonja asked, looking puzzled. As were the rest of us for that matter. “Where are we going?”

Tamara froze at that before relaxing once again.

“I guess the cat is out of the bag, one moment.”

My friends and I looked at each other wondering what she was talking about.

“Alright, apparently your mom was going to fill in your friends parents tonight when they met with them, but I wasn’t aware that your friends didn’t know. Or that you didn’t, either. You will be accompanying Abi when she transports the dragons and their eggs to their new home. Your friends will be allowed to go as well, if they get permission from their parents.”

“Really?!” Ben exclaimed, which was followed by a very unmanly squeal shortly afterwards.

Everyone else started laughing as he covered his mouth, blushing when he noticed us all starting at him. Eventually he joined in, laughing at himself.

“When would we be leaving?” Anja asked.

“I’m not sure of the exact time, but it will be sometime in the evening of August 23. They need to wait until after Abi’s latest growth to load the ship, which is entirely up to him,” she answered, pointing at me.

“Jonathan? Why?”

“Because the time between growths is dependant on my mana regen, Mace. I haven’t been putting any of my attribute points into Intellect as that would increase my mana regen and make the window open earlier than they would like. Being in the dungeon all day yesterday did push back the window several hours, so I may have to increase my intellect a bit to compensate. I’m sure Abi will let me know if I need to do so, so we’re on schedule.”

“You don’t have to spend a single attribute point increasing your Intellect, actually,” Tamara stated. “All you would need to do is switch to your Scyftan form, or your dragon form, and that would provide you with all the mana regeneration you would need.”

“I can’t believe I forgot about that! I had intended on sleeping in my Scyftan form when I found out that I would get a slight intellect increase out of it. That probably would’ve made the window sooner though, so maybe this is the best.”

“If you want to increase Abi’s growth as much as possible, you’ll probably want to scan a dragonkin and remain in that form as much as possible. That extra twenty percent to Intellect would increase the rate at which you generate mana quite a bit. Anyways, we’re getting off-topic. So either my husband or I will take you to see the wolf pups every Wednesday when you get back. If you’re using the weekends to level up in dungeons, then I imagine you’ll be able to spare an hour or two on Saturdays or Sundays to visit them?”

“Either of those days is fine for me. I have no preference for either. I suppose whichever day is best for you will work for us,” I replied, getting nods from everyone but Ben.

“I don’t have a preference either, though it could depend on what percentage a dungeon is at. If we’re close to a boss fight and the dungeon is at 10% or less, we’ll probably want to get that done.”

“That’s fine, we’ll work around it,” Tamara said. “Now the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about is something that I already explained to Jonathan. You heard me say that Tame Beast isn’t something that you cast, it’s something that you work at. Tame Beast is also a skill that doesn’t level up like other skills do, nor can you buy different tiers of Tame Beast to advance quicker. It will always take everyone the exact same amount of time to level up Tame Beast from tier E to tier S, which is approximately six thousand three hundred days, total. If you do the math, that is a little over seventeen years and three months. For Scyftans that amount of time is nothing compared to our lifespan, but is roughly a fifth of an average human lifespan. You need to be certain that this is something you want to commit to.”

It was a depressing thought, one I hadn’t realized until now. By the time my friends died of old age, I’d probably be around a hundred years old, and still look the same as I do now. A few days ago I probably would’ve thought that we’d delve into dungeons together until we were too old to continue and hang it up. Instead, I’d have to watch them grow old and die before burying them one by one.

“...just be like having a pet, wouldn’t it? We got a dog when I was five or six, though she passed away a few years ago,” Ben said.

“It is very much like having a pet, yes, though there are some differences. The first is that for each tier you need to tame an animal and keep it alive for however long that tier requires. For tier E that is one hundred days. Once you reach Tier D, you need to find a Class D animal to tame and keep it alive for two hundred days to advance again. It means that you very well might end up losing some very good friends along the years as they die, be it from injury or old age.”

“There isn’t a requirement to level all the way up to Tier S, is there? So we could stop upon hitting Tier D or Tier C?” Mason asked

“You could, though that would greatly decrease the strength of any of your companions. They can get incredibly strong by the time you reach rank one hundred at Tier S.”

“Oh, that reminds me. Is there armor for companions like the armor we’re wearing now? It seems like they would be nothing but fodder inside of dungeons.”

“There is, indeed. My husband is actually a crafter more than he is a tamer, and he has developed armor for many different species of animals. They work similarly to the armor you’re wearing now, though are a bit different. I’ll show you an example,” she said.

She began walking behind the couch my friends and I were sitting on, while taking the same cube that she had shown me at breakfast out of her inventory. She set it close to the wall and then activated it, the portal appearing just above it, as it did before. When it was stable she put her fingers in her mouth and whistled, though this time it was a quick series of whistles, rather than one long one.

“It’ll be a minute,” she said, looking back at us. “Gurok is quite a bit slower than Ashe.”

Standing in front of the portal, she looked through it, a big smile soon appearing on her face. “Ah, there’s my boy. C’mon, Gurok,” she called.

There was an answering call a moment later, and then the large head of a bear appeared. He stopped and looked around, spotting my friends and I. Ignoring us, he made his way through and stood on his hind legs before putting his massive paws on Tamara’s shoulders. She walked forward and embraced the massive bear, giving him a big hug before stepping back.

“Guys, this is Gurok. He’s a Grizzly bear I tamed oh, fifteen years ago. He’s another of the animals that lives in the area surrounding my cabin.”

“What’s that?” Ben asked, pointing to the cube on the floor.

“Oh, right. It’s a miniature enclosure similar to the one the gryphons are in, but portable. I haven’t come up with a name for it just yet, though all of my companions except for Fenra live inside it. It was developed so I would be able to bring all of them with me no matter where I go, rather than only bringing one or two and leaving the rest at home. You’ll each probably get one in a few months, when you’re actually able to use it. I don’t think any of you even come close to generating enough mana to keep one powered.”

“I’m sure there is a backup mana crystal that will continue to power it if you’re unable to, but where is it?” I asked. “It seems too small to contain a mana crystal powerful enough to contain enough mana.”

“The outer shell is, that’s why the mana crystal is actually in there,” she said, pointing through the portal. “Well, it’s a bunch of mana crystals, actually. Finding a single mana crystal big enough to power this thing for a few days is nearly impossible.”

“Ah. I’ll probably pass on one of those, actually. I think that Abi can do something similar with this,” I said taking the Beacon out of my inventory.

“Ooh, what is that?” Tamara asked, her eyes growing wide upon seeing the fist-sized ball in my palm.

“Something Abi gave me. It has a few uses, including the ability to access her dimensional storage. If she can replicate what you’ve done with that cube, then I’ll have one that is powered by the crew, rather than myself.”

“That would be nice,” she replied. “Alright, back to my demonstration. Armor, Gurok.”

The large grizzly bear was sitting upright while we were talking, though he was soon standing on all fours again. When he was standing still, she took a black cube out of her storage and placed it on his back. The cube itself was probably one cubic foot in size and was entirely seamless. When she was satisfied it was in the right spot, she placed her hand on top of it. It didn’t seem like she was doing anything, but soon the cube began to shrink in size while spreading out over the bear. After a minute or so, the entirety of the bear was covered in the black armor, including his paws, which he raised one by one to allow the armor to form around them. The only parts of his body not covered by the armor were his eyes, ears and claws.

“There you have it. Different animals require different armor, but this variant is a couple times more durable than the stuff you’re currently wearing. Gurok could stroll through a dungeon suitable for adventurers at level one hundred and be perfectly fine, though he would still have to be wary of casters. The armor does provide some decent protection against spells, but powerful casters will still be able to do some damage.”

After she showed off the armor, she placed her hand back on Gurok’s back and the armor began to retract again, quickly forming back into the cube. It disappeared and she proceeded to scratch his neck. After commanding him to go back through the portal she bent down to shut down the portal before picking it up and sitting back down opposite of us.

“So is there any limit to how many animals we can tame?” Anja asked.

“Nope!” Tamara quickly answered. “I’ve tamed hundreds of different animals over the years. Most have long since passed away, but I still have a bunch I tamed long ago.”

“What about limits inside of a dungeon? Could someone bring like a hundred companions with them?” I asked.

“There are no limits whatsoever. If someone could control that many animals, and have them be a cohesive fighting force, then they could certainly bring that many with them. There are actually a couple of beastmasters who bring a half dozen or so animal companions with them rather than operating with a team of other people. They can be quite effective. Conversely, there are other teams that bring a single companion each, like your team is planning on doing. They can be quite effective as well.”

“How does that work most of the time? Does each person bring a companion from the same species, or do they bring different ones?” Mason asked.

“There are examples of both. It tends to be better for them to be the same species, though other species can work quite well together. A pack of wolves can be very formidable inside of a dungeon, especially as they get stronger and stronger as you level up Tame Beast. Wolves are masters of distraction, making it very hard to know where the next attack is coming from. Often times a wolf will dart in for an attack which causes their prey to turn towards them, then they’ll quickly dart away before they can be hit in return. This causes another wolf to move in which repeats the cycle, either until their prey is too tired to move, or it dies to its wounds. This tactic will work even better as they get stronger and faster. Your team couldn’t have done much better in picking a starting companion than a wolf.”

“Out of curiosity, what would be better than wolves?” Sonja asked.

“There are only a few better options on Earth, though they are also much harder to tame. Hyenas would be one. There are trade-offs of course, but hyenas are also able pack hunters. While they are less intelligent and have less endurance, they make up for it in raw power. Of course once tamed they would get a percentage of your attributes, so those deficiencies don’t matter too much. Another example are lions and lionesses, with emphasis on the females. They’re better at hunting than lions, and regularly work together to take down their prey. They’re the best of both worlds between wolves and hyenas; intelligent, agile and very powerful.”

“Are there any teams that have Phenidae as their companions? I know untamed Phenidae aren’t very powerful, but that has to change when one is tamed right? Especially if the tamer has Tame Beast at rank 100 of Tier S,” I asked.

“They’re a frequent staple,” she answered with a nod. “While teams with multiple Phenidae are rare, a team will usually always bring one. They can get quite powerful, but they’re brought because of both their ability to teleport, as well as their ability to scan their surroundings using their tales. They can be invaluable in stopping creatures from ambushing a team, and can also provide a distraction when fighting. You’ll have to wait a long time before you’ll be able to bring Vixa with you, unfortunately.”

The impromptu Q&A session went on for another half hour or so before Tamara ended it, it now being slightly past 16:00. She was nice enough to open a portal that would take us directly to the elevator, all of us cramming inside for the couple minute trip.

“I wonder what your mom wants to talk to us about.”

“Probably something about the meeting with your parents tonight,” I answered. “Or about the trip. For me it's probably about my date tonight. She probably wants to know what I have planned so she can make sure any areas are secure.”

“Where are you taking her tonight? You’re not usually one to be so close-lipped about a date. I remember when you used to come to Sonja and I for advice.”

“I’ve got some things planned. I decided to change things up after the attack yesterday.”

“And? Don’t tell us that you’re taking another date to Lone Star. That’s where you took all your dates.”

“What? It’s good food and a good atmosphere. Besides, this date is different. She just arrived on Earth a few weeks ago and her father is super rich. Going somewhere other than a high-class restaurant will probably be a nice change of pace.”

“He does have a point, sis. Besides, there are many worse places that he could take her,” Sonja said while looking at her sister.

“Thank you, Sonja.”

The door to the elevator opened a few seconds later, and there was immediately a pop followed by a loud, high-pitched bark. Looking down, Vixa was standing there with her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth while her tails were going nuts. Such was usual for her, it seemed.

“Aww, hey, Vixa,” Anja said walking forward and picking her up, the rest of us following behind her, exiting the elevator

Vixa licked Anja’s face and immediately began purring while enjoying the neck scratches Anja was giving her.

[Jonathan, I’m assuming you’ve arrived at the main level since Vixa just disappeared?]

[Yup, she’s here. Basking in the attention being shown to her by the twins,] I sent with a chuckle.

[The med chamber finished its work and your sister is awake now. You and your friends can take some time seeing her. When you’re done, let me know and I’ll meet you at your room. I’ve got some things to deliver. Have your friends join you as well, as I need to have a chat with them as well.]

[Alright. Thank you,] I sent. “Hey guys, Aleena is out of the med chamber and is awake. We can go visit with her for a little bit, but my mom wants to meet with us afterwards.”

“Did she say why?” Ben asked as we began heading to medical.

“Nah, we’ll know soon enough though, I guess. Apparently she has a delivery for me, though I have no idea what.”

It only took us a few minutes to get there with Vixa basking in attention the entire time. Her purring was clearly audible, even with us chatting as we walked. As soon as we got to medical, there was a pop and she was no longer in Anja’s arms. Instead, we found her on the hospital bed that Aleena was lying in. Alexis and Lucille were sitting in chairs next to her, while Yuki was actually passed out in a corner of the room.

“Hey guys!” Aleena called out when she saw us. “Figured you’d be here soon after she arrived,” she said, gesturing to Vixa. “She scared us for a second but I’m surprised the noise didn’t wake Yuki.”

“How are you doing?” Anja asked.

She pulled down the corner of the gown she was wearing to expose her shoulder. Where there was previously a large gaping wound, now there was nothing but unblemished skin. “Good as new! They’re keeping me here for a few hours, but I’ll be released later tonight, barring any complications.”

“Good,” I said walking up to stand beside her, where I could see Alexis and Lucille as well. “Did Yuki fill you all in on what happened yesterday?”

Aleena nodded. “We’re going to miss her, but we understand why you had her pulled from our protection detail. We did meet her replacement, a woman named Kiri. She is very capable according to Yuki, if rather young. She was originally going to be one of the ones going to Veria in a few weeks, but she was replaced by someone else.”

I nodded. “It will likely be a temporary assignment. Once this business with Dhir and The Storm Bringers is dealt with, Yuki can probably resume her duties, along with everyone else who needed to be pulled. There will be a team following the three around whenever you leave the base from now on. Abi has created a pair of shuttles to facilitate that, and Yuki will spend some time between now and next weekend getting them up to speed on them. When the groups are ready, you'll need to inform one when you need to go somewhere so they can secure the area.”

“She already told us about all that,” Lucille said with a smile. “She didn’t mention The Storm Bringers though. What do they have to do with this?”

“They’re the parent group of the group that attacked my team. I threatened the leader of the group but Esriro doesn’t think it will dissuade her. I’ve got some plans to have it taken care of. Hopefully they won’t be a problem by the time we’re ready to head back to Nedovis, but we may have to make a detour along the way.”

“I’m glad you’re alright. My mom told us that you were awake so we figured we’d stop by. She needs to see us about something, and then I need to get ready for my date with Tessa. I’ll see the three of you later tonight, or in the morning, yeah?”

“Probably in the morning,” Aleena replied. “While I was sleeping in the med chamber it wasn’t really a restful sleep. I’ll probably be heading to bed shortly after they release me. I’ll be looking forward to hearing how the date went. We like Tessa, don’t mess it up!”

“I won’t, don’t worry,” I chuckled. “You’d probably be better off asking Tessa about it though. I hope she has fun. Are you coming, Vixa?” I asked, moving to leave the room.

She hunkered down next to Aleena causing me to laugh again. “Alright, I’ll see you all later.”

After my friends said goodbye, we all left and headed in the direction of my room. I let my mom know we were on the way and she was waiting when we arrived, holding a garment bag. The bag itself was opaque, so I couldn’t see what was inside of it. I raised my eyebrow at her, but she just smiled and gestured towards the door to my room. I opened the door and gestured her to enter. I followed right behind her, with my friends in tow.

“So what’s in the bag?” I asked.

“It’s your new suit. We called in a favor and got you a reservation--”

“Nope,” I interrupted.

“What?”

“I’m not taking her to an expensive high-class restaurant. I’ve got something in mind and that doesn’t include wearing a suit. I’m betting it's a tux, isn’t it?”

I was expecting to get into an argument with her, but she just burst into laughter. “I knew you wouldn’t go for it. It is a tux, but it isn’t for your date tonight. We’ll be having dinner with Ercan Warvyn and his family when we get to Veria. You’ll be expected to wear it then,” she explained, walking over to my closet and hanging it up there.

When she came back out, she had a box in her hands and walked right up to me. “You can wear whatever you were going to wear tonight, but you’ll need to wear this underneath.”

I lifted the top of the box and saw some sort of black fabric. Lifting it out of the box, I was able to see that it was a full one piece suit that would cover me from my neck all the way down to my feet.

“What’s this?”

“You can’t exactly go out into the open right now without being protected, and as you can’t wear the armor you’re in right now, that’s the next best thing. It will stop ballistics and will dissipate a limited amount of shots from energy-based weaponry. We’re not expecting an attack, but should one come, your skills along with that armor will protect you until Spectres can move in. Abi will also be with you every step of the way, so she’ll be able to step in if it becomes necessary.”

“Man, this bounty sucks. Now I’ve got to wear unitards?”

“Very high tech unitards, but yes,” my mom replied with a chuckle. “Mana Crystals were treated to make them flexible, and a thin weave of them is sandwiched between two layers of special fabric. The Mana Crystals in the suit doesn’t make it stronger, but it will give you a large well of mana to draw from if you do end up being attacked. There is no mana stored right now, so you’ll need to charge the suit when you put it on. I believe it can store somewhere around two hundred thousand mana, so it’ll take you a few minutes.”

“As for you four,” she said, walking up to Mason and Ben first. Her arms were held out beside her, two more garment bags appearing while she walked. She held one out to each of them, before turning to the twins and handing them them their own. “We haven’t talked to your parents yet, but those suits and dresses are yours for dinner when we arrive. I believe we got your sizes, but if they don’t fit let me know and we’ll have them refitted.”

“How did you even get our sizes?” Mason asked.

“We’ve got a few tailors on the base, all of whom have been doing their jobs for hundreds of years. They’ve gotten pretty good at sizing someone up just by looking at them.”

“Oh.”

“Alright, you can go and hang those in your rooms, I need to talk to Jonathan for a few minutes. Wait until after you’ve showered to try them on. I don’t want to have to send them to get washed before we go,” she said. Without even mentioning him directly I knew she was calling out Mason.

She waited for my friends to leave before turning back toward me. “So where are you going tonight? I know Abi will be shadowing you, but we would like to have a team on standby at each location you might be stopping at. There will also be a follow car, but we want to make sure the two of you are as safe as possible tonight.”

“Well I planned on Lone Star for dinner as I thought it would be a different experience for her. Am I right in assuming that she and her family went to expensive restaurants while they were guests of Ercan?”

“Most likely, yes,” my mom answered. “I know they visited a few here as well, as we got him some reservations at restaurants that are hard to get into.”

“Alright, Lone Star it is. Besides, I know nothing about high-class foods or etiquette, and I wouldn’t be able to explain stuff I know nothing about.”

“I agree, though we’ll have to work on that. Anything planned for after dinner?”

“I think she scanned a dragon so I was planning on teaching her how to fly before flying around for a few hours, but axed that after the attack. Instead, I am going to decide between two options. Tell me, are Scyftans, or any other species close to Scyftan space crazy enough to strap knives to their feet to glide across frozen water?

---

Approximately two hours later I was pacing back and forth while periodically stopping to check the time on my phone. I hadn’t been this nervous in my life. After what felt like hours, the time on my phone displayed 18:27. We had decided to meet in the lobby at 18:30, and it would take me a few minutes to make it there. Putting my phone away I left my room and made my way there.

After cleaning up and shaving I dressed in the unitard my mom gave me before putting on a pair of jeans, as well as a dark long sleeve shirt made out of whatever material it was that changed to match my size. I had also sent to Tessa asking her to dress casual rather than getting all dressed up. It would have been awkward if I was in casual wear and she was all glammed up.

When I got to the lobby she was nowhere in sight. I figured she was still getting ready so I made my way over to the couches were my friends happened to be sitting. I wondered why they weren’t with their parents while they met with my mom and dad, so I walked over and sat down beside Mason.

“Hey, guys. What are you doing down here?”

“Waiting,” Ben answered. “Your parents wanted to meet with ours without us present, so they asked us to stay down here. Depending on how things go, we’ll either meet our parents up there, or they’ll come down here. What about you? We thought you’d already be off on your date.”

“Nah, we said we’d meet here at 18:30 before leaving. I didn’t see her when I entered, but I did see the four of you.”

Suddenly there was an elbow to my ribs. I was about to ask Mason why he did that when I saw where he was looking. Following his line of sight, I saw that he was looking at one of the entrances to the lobby. Standing there was Tessa.

She seemed to have lengthened her hair since I had last seen her and had it in some sort of braid that draped over her left shoulder. She wore tight green top that exposed both shoulders, and, like me, was wearing a pair of jeans. I was happy to see that she was wearing a simple pair of shoes rather than heels, as it was possible we might walk around after dinner.

She scanned the room before spotting me, and began to walk over. I got up and walked towards her, meeting in the middle.

“You look amazing,” I said when we got close. “I like the hair in particular.”

“Thank you. The power of being a Scyftan,” she replied with a grin while playing with her hair. “I can change the length and color at will. Well, in any other form but my natural form. If I do anything in that form I need to wait for it to grow back. You look good as well.”

I nodded. “Are you ready to go?”

“Not just yet. My dad said he’d be here in a minute. He said he had something to give you, but I think he’s just being an overprotective father.”

“Am not!” I heard, causing us to look over to where the voice had come from. Thomas stood there for a moment before walking over. “I do actually have something to give him.”

He held out what looked like a key fob to me and after verifying that’s what it was, I realized why. While I had driven my truck here a few days ago, the second time we all rode in my parents’ SUV. It would’ve been embarrassing getting up there and realizing that I didn’t have a way to get us where we needed to go.

“Thank you. I totally forgot that I left my truck at home.”

He nodded. “Your mom meant to give it to you earlier, but she forgot as well. You’re looking for a black SUV. You’ll be able to find it easily when you hit the unlock button. Be safe you two.”

“We will. Thanks again,” I said holding my arm out.

“See you later, dad,” Tessa said, locking her arm with mine as we made our way to the portal room. I looked over to my friends and waved goodbye, Tessa doing the same.