“For starters, I think if we work together, we might be able to supply Tad with enough power to awaken more of you. Then we could help you gain rapid levels in the dungeon, at least up to level 200 or so. That might not make you a match for the Order, but you wouldn’t be a liability. We could help Tad gain more levels, too, but again, our power-leveling will start to slow in the 200s.

  “We can also help you create golems. My time in the dungeon with Samvek has given me new insights into how that part of my class works, so I think I can contribute.”

  “And what do you get out of this?” Fara asked. “You said helping Tad would help yourself. How so?”

  “Fair question. We’ll probably end up gaining a level from all the power-leveling, but that’d just be a bonus. Hopefully, acting as batteries will provide us with some more insights into how to manage our power, as well as helping me fulfill a quest. I need to borrow elements from four different systems. So far, I have significant elements from two, but the Fey and Dragon Systems remain.

  “As far as the crafting, there is something different about your enchantments here. The sprites Tad mentioned aren’t used in our system, but I can’t help but wonder if I wouldn’t be able to create more powerful items if I was able to imbue spiritual energy into them. On top of that, if Tad and I hit on a new way of creating golems, I’ll have that knowledge to take back with me. My world is always in need of more protectors.”

  Fara seemed satisfied with that, as did the others.

  “I won’t lie,” Tad said. “I was also hoping that you’d fight alongside us, even if we don’t create golems and awaken the others. It won’t be an easy fight. If what we’ve heard is true, then there are at least a hundred here as powerful as the three that you fought. Would you have been able to take on that many?”

  Samvek and I looked at one another. I wanted to say yes, but I knew that was foolish. “I don’t know how many we could have taken,” I said. “We were fighting with limitations there, but I don’t want to minimize how powerful they were. As for fighting next to you, that’s part of what I need to discuss with my team.”

  “There’s one problem with your suggestions that you haven’t considered,” Samvek said. “Two, actually. The first is that even if Tad’s presence distorts their ability to find us, that means we all have to stay near him. And that’s overlooking the bigger problem. Accessing the Endless Dungeon again is going to be impossible without a battle.”

  Tad grinned. “Don’t worry about the dungeon. I’ve got a solution for that.” Then he pulled out the dungeon core I’d seen earlier, the one he’d named Spot. I found the name to be odd, but what in my life wasn’t?

  “This is Spot. We talked some about my Dungeon Master title and what it means, and I’m sure that I mentioned Spot is a fragment of the Endless Dungeon, but there was a lot going on at the time. What Spot needs more than anything is power. He gains that power from the environment and from his connection to me, from spells cast in his vicinity, and from people who die inside his corridors.

  “I’m hardly a military genius, but I think we might be able to use Spot to our advantage. If we lure a manageable number of the Order into a dungeon Spot creates, then we would have the advantage. We would be on our terrain. Our rules. And if Spot didn’t have to help us too much, he would grow stronger by absorbing the enemies we kill there.”

  I grinned at the idea. There were details that still needed to be worked out, but it was promising. “One question, though. When Spot creates a dungeon, won’t everyone get a notification about it? That’s how it works whenever a new dungeon is formed back home.”

  He shook his head. “From what Oliver and I have been able to figure out, only fey get the notification. The Lawgiver might, but his sight is also being obscured. I suppose there is some risk, but when is there not?”

  I scratched my chin. “One of the adventurers mentioned the leader of the new Order arrivals was far more powerful than the ones we fought. They didn’t seem to have any firsthand information and admitted it could be just gossip. But in our universe, we are what is called legendary tier. Beyond that is ascendant tier, and those are beings who are no longer mortal. Is it possible that one of those came to Aerth? Do you have such concepts?”

  Some silent communication passed between Tad and his party. I knew the telltale signs too well. Finally, he turned to me. “We also have an ascendant tier, although all the information on this world pertaining to it has been destroyed or hidden. Apparently, the Lawgiver didn’t want people here learning about it. I’ve spoken to Oliver, Fara, as well as Arbormaris and Spot. What I’m able to piece together is that traditionally, only fey could become ascendants. Even then, it was mostly only the royals.

  “Dungeons or seedlings could become powerful enough to be equal to ascendants, but they are already immortal through their connection to the Ways. And according to legend, the Lawgiver was once a human, and somehow discovered a way to ascend. I don’t know how that was achieved. It’s possible that once he reached divine tier, he might have raised some of his followers to ascendant tier as well.”

  “That could complicate things,” Selena said.

  Tad nodded, but locked eyes with me. “Was there something else you wanted to ask?”

  “I assume you’ll be willing, but I’ve been thinking about what you told me about the Ways, and how they were once a path to travel the multiverse. Do you think that it will be able to allow us to return home, or to help my friend?”

  “No promises. But if you help us, I’ll do whatever I can to help you get home.”

  Chapter Thirty-One: In for a Penny

  With Tad’s promise given, Selena, Samvek, and I went up to the room Selena and I shared. The conversation started with a more detailed explanation regarding the training Samvek and I had done, filling in details I had left out of the group discussion. Selena asked insightful questions, and I answered them as best I could.

  “Samvek has my approval to continue helping with your training,” she said. “He clearly has a knack for it, but don’t forget about me. There’s still a lot I can teach you.”

  “We’re still learning what this relationship is, but I would never want you to think you aren’t a part of my life.”

  She put her hand on my arm. “I don’t want to come across as the jealous type. While I love being around you, I don’t want to manipulate your time. Frankly, I’m not a fan of all these new emotions, but setting that aside, the resources poured into my training were extensive. I could probably even teach Samvek a few things.”

  As she was speaking, a notification popped up.

  Draconic Dust: processing 2% >> 3%

  Your primordial aspect is interfering with processing the remains of the dragon goddess. The aspect is still sealed, but further analysis will be required to ascertain the impact.

  I immediately shared the notification, which naturally shifted the conversation. “There’s a bunch of stuff on your stat sheet we should talk about,” Selena said. “In fact, we should sit down together every morning before you leave, to go over what you need to work on.”

  Samvek nodded. “That was a big part of the training I had intended. This awakening of a Hell System class in me ended up taking up too much of our time, but there’s a lot on his sheet that’s been neglected.”

  “I’ve been telling him that since the day he first showed it to me,” she said. I gave her a smirk, and she corrected herself once she figured out why. “Since the first time he showed me his sheet.” She rolled her eyes. “Just going off of the last time that I looked at it, there is your potentiality, your primordial aspect, the Pioneers, your affinities, your Hell class, the cultivation core, Psi, and the fact that many of your abilities have not yet reached legendary tier, and that’s just off the top of my head. Let me see your sheet again, and I can probably point out twenty more.”

  “Wait. What’s wrong with my potentiality? It’s a number. It isn’t something I can work with.”

  Selena grimaced and shifted her head from side to side. “Yes, technically that’s true. But I believe you need to move forward with your eyes wide open. Right now, you have a five percent chance of shifting events in your favor. You were talking about how you need to stop taking all your success for granted, and I still agree with that, but the more I talked about you with Fara this morning, the more I realized that much of your success is due to your potentiality.”

  “Five percent doesn’t seem like enough to account for all the positives that have come into my life.”

  “And that’s just another thing that I can teach you about it. Much of this is just theory, because supposedly even the ascendants don’t understand the full scope of what potentiality can do, and if the gods do then they’re being silent.”

  Samvek leaned in, clearly interested in what she had to say. If nothing else, that told me I needed to pay attention.

  “Remember that potentiality is constantly at work. How many choices do you think you make per day?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe fifty?”

  “Thousands, if you break it down to the simplest decisions. Some you make without consciously thinking about. Then how many choices do the people around you make? Those decisions can interfere with yours, although the people who made them never intended them to. Add to that the natural world. It holds sway over many of the circumstances in our lives. Your potentiality comes into play with all of that. You’ll never see more than a fraction of how it has shaped your path, but rest assured, it does.”

  “Interesting, but how can I use that to my advantage?”

  “The theory is, the more important an event, the more likely potentiality is to affect it. My tutor called it ‘potentiality concentration’. I don’t know if that’s really an accurate description, but you have to admit, it seems to work like that for you.”

  I nodded. “I think I’m following you, but I still don’t know what I can do to make that work for me.”

  “Exactly, you don’t know. Yet you always test it in battle. More often than not, it works out for you, which supports the concentration theory. But what if your intent shapes it? What if you could cause it to focus only on the issues you wanted to affect? Your odds of a favorable outcome would go up dramatically. You’d do that in a heartbeat, even if it meant you’d get not-so-ideal outcomes on more mundane events.”

  Samvek seemed excited now. “So you’re saying that we need to test this. See if he can actively influence outcomes.”

  “We already know he can. We’ve seen it happen too many times to doubt that. How many times has he called on being an Architect to influence things in his favor? I’ve practically lost count. And each time he has, the outcome has been ridiculous. I know I’ve certainly never been able to tell the system I didn’t agree with the choices it gave me and instead wanted to combine them all. My point is, what if part of those successes can be attributed to his potentiality instead of his position as Architect?”

  I thought about what she said, staying quiet while Selena and Samvek discussed potential ways to test it out, and possible methods they might use to train it.

  As I listened, I got an unexpected notification.

  Potentiality: +5.03%/5.42% >> 5.04%/5.69%

  Selena nearly choked when I told her. “So just thinking about altering your potentiality altered your potentiality! You are so broken, but I love it. Don’t read too much into it. We still need to test our theory.”

  “He’s been neglecting other skills as well,” Samvek said. “When we were fighting the Order, he repeatedly used force constructs, despite gaining a new Psi ability that does the same thing. Possibly more, but he will never find out if he never uses it.”

  “Excuse me for trying to be sure we were both safe,” I growled. “I’m a master of force constructs. I barely know the first thing about psionics, but it’s not like I wasn’t using Psi. Precognition was active the entire battle. But while we’re on the topic, we should also talk about your Psi levels, and how we can recharge you.”

  I could tell that Selena was a little jealous discussing the Psi ability I’d been able to grant Samvek, but she kept it to herself. She was still connected to me as a Pioneer and had my vow of marriage. Samvek revealed that his Psi pool was only 500. It had grown to 505 during the battle, although it was empty now. I checked mine—up to 4400 now, and fully regenerated.

  “Let me see if I can fill your reserves up.”

  I focused my mind on Samvek’s Psi reserve, and envisioned creating a link to my own. Just like that, I was able to push 505 points of Psi into him. “That was easier than I’d expected,” I said. “I’m regenerating a couple hundred points a minute, by the looks of things, so keeping you filled shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

  “Do you think you could give me a Psi ability?” Selena asked.

  I shrugged. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Given peace and quiet, I think I can replicate what I did with Samvek, but I get the feeling that I won’t be able to grant another Hell class. The question I’ve been turning over in my mind is who else I can connect to the other systems. I’ve already passed my bloodline on to you, so we know that all three of us will be able to reach ascendant tier. But, if one person is going to get a boost from the Divided Realms, and the others from the Fey and Dragon Systems, then I need to shore up my own connections to them. At least with the Hell System, I had an actual class.”

  She seemed to accept my answer. “That’s okay. As long as we find time for training. Everything we’ve mentioned here is important. And don’t forget, you have that temporal mana crystal, and an affinity for it. That isn’t something you can pass up. You’ve seen how powerful it makes Lana.”

  I nodded. “I’m worried that Unmoored in Time will mess with it, but I agree. It’s worth exploring. And you’re right about my abilities and spells. For the longest time, they were ahead of my class core, even to the point that it strained my soul at times. But now I am legendary tier. The majority of my spells are epic or rare, with only three legendaries—Long Range Teleport, Stable Portal, and Terran Rail Gun. Those all started at that tier.”

  “And your abilities?” She asked.

  “They’re better off. I have twelve abilities if you don’t count the Forerunner-specific ones. Five are epic, six are legendary tier, with the final one being ascendant.”

  “The fact that you have an ascendant tier ability is…” Selena’s voice faded off as she shook her head. “But as impressive as that is, you need to get them all to legendary. And if we are following your regular pattern, at least a couple more need to reach ascendant.”

  “Okay, I agree that we need to spend some time training. But changing the subject, what are your opinions on helping Tad?”

  Samvek and Selena exchanged a look. “We’re following you,” Selena said. “That isn’t just for show. Yes, we’ll train you, but let’s not kid ourselves, you are the one in front. You’re the one who gets stuff done. That’s saying a lot, considering who we are, but neither of us is a Forerunner. I think you called it ‘main character energy’ before.”

  I chuckled. “It is a good name for it, isn’t it? But should we agree to fight their enemies with them? And should we focus on the power-level training approach, or tackle the crafting first?”

  Selena shrugged. “If you wish to fight them, then we’re with you. As for your other question, if they really can make a dungeon, we should work on seeing if Tad can awaken his other people, then work on getting levels with them. Golems sound useful, and I know that it’s something you’ve wanted to work on for a while, but even my uncle realized that people are our best resources. We need to put the focus there.”

  I glanced at Samvek, who nodded his agreement.

  “I suppose that’s settled, then. Last thing we should talk about is what you were up to this morning. You said you were talking with Fara?”

  “Just girl talk.” She giggled, and I found it incredibly endearing. “Sorry, I kinda wanted to say that after watching all those movies. We’re feeling each other out. She is as committed to Tad as I am to you, but it’s not romantic. She thinks of him as a younger brother and is panicked that she isn’t strong enough to help him. We got along as well as two inherently distrustful people from different universes ever could. She’s strong, but would like to be stronger to watch Tad’s back. I know the feeling all too well.”

  “Okay, so dungeon first, then we try to see if we can replicate the awakening.”

  “About that,” Samvek said, “they said it takes ascendant energy, but the amount of power that was channeled through Tad didn’t seem like it was a match for any of the ascendants I’ve dealt with. It was a lot, and would stretch any of us to our capacity and maybe beyond, but together we should be able to match that.”

  “Unless there’s something unique about the energy required,” Selena said. “If we—”

  The words came out before I could stop them. “Energy is energy. It’s all the same, just in different flavors.”

  “That’s not what I was taught. I’m curious to see if you can prove it.” The expression on her face had a strange emotional intensity that I wasn’t sure exactly how to read.

  “No time like the present, I guess.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two: Step One

  After we rejoined Tad and the others, Samvek teleported us to a spot right outside the warehouse with a soft displacement of air. The smell hit me first—old stone, damp wood, iron filings, and the copper tang drifting in from the slaughterhouse nearby, layered together into something unmistakably industrial.

  Mirren was already there, hands folded calmly in front of her as if she’d just been waiting for us to arrive. She explained the arrangement without preamble, saying the landlord had been more interested in being paid than knowing names or purposes. He’d made it clear he didn’t want guards, Lawkeepers, or city officials sniffing around his property, which suited us fine. We all understood the unspoken truth—the warehouse bought us time, not safety. But time was exactly what we needed.