Congratulations. You have reached level 26

We were back in my dream again. A smile crossed my lips as my brain recreated one of my happier memories. It grew a little wider when Kalli whispered in my ear. “I know this place.”

We were back at Disneyland. My mom marched a much younger me down Mainstreet and paid no attention at all to the redhead that accompanied me.

I whispered back. “I told you I’d bring you back”

“In your dreams?” The younger version of Kalli giggled, the question almost doubling as a statement.

I grabbed her hand and tugged on it to hurry because I wanted to show her all of my favorite rides before we woke up. As we made our way into Tomorrowland, I spotted a vendor selling churros and frozen bananas.

When I stopped to purchase the treats, I noticed a few pleasant changes. First, there were no lines. The other people at the park seemed to be ignoring us completely. The second thing was that the vendor didn’t charge me.

In for a rare treat, I said, “We’ll take two of each.”

Kalli’s eyes lit up when I handed her a frozen banana and a churro. I vaguely remembered the vendor also selling candied apples but I had never tried one of those.

I closed my eyes with delight as I took a big bite of the churro. My mouth waters when I bit into the hard crunchy outer shell to get to the soft squishy insides of the confection.

I was still licking my lips when Kalli whined, “I can’t taste anything.”

Frowning at my girlfriend, I tried a bite of hers. “That’s weird. I can taste it just fine.”

She sighed and handed me the frozen banana, a look of longing still on her face. “It’s probably because I’ve never tasted it before.”

Thinking hard, as only five-year-old me could, I said, “Don’t worry, I’ll fix it.”

I cupped her puzzled face in my hands and probed our connection. She tried to pull back and squealed, “Eww, don’t touch me. You’re just a gross boy.”

“Shhhh,” I whispered as I tried to probe our connection with my mind. “I don’t have cooties. I swear.”

“What are cooties?” She asked, redoubling her efforts to break free.

I laughed, “Just some disease that kids worry about.”

I knew I wasn’t touching the real Kalli but the apparition in my dream was connected to the girl sleeping next to me. All I needed to do was strengthen that connection. She needed access to things locked in my mind.

There was a part of me that selfishly remained closed off to our connection as if it didn’t want to be shared. I felt her shudder when I opened the flood gates.

At some point during the process, I had closed my eyes. I realized it when I opened them and saw her blushing face mere inches away. Kalli gave me one final shove and said, “That is so weird.”

Letting her go, I handed the churro back to her and said, “Try another bite.”

Kalli looked down at the churro, then back up at me. I held my breath as she slowly brought it up to her mouth, taking a little nibble. She chewed almost thoughtfully before swallowing.

“Did it work?” I blurted out.

Her smile answered my question before she said it. “Yes. That was delicious.”

I showed her my favorite ride, Star Tours, before moving on to Space Mountain. Everything went fine until we started going down. As I had so many times before in my sleep, I dreamed that our roller coaster fell off of the tracks and we were falling. Falling. Falling.

Then we woke up clutching each other, gasping for breath.

NEW TRAIT ACQUIRED: INTERTWINED[KALLIPHAE HELLQUIST]

What was that? Kalli asked, looking at the same notice that I was.

You can see that?

She nodded enthusiastically. What is it?

There are menus that I have been able to see ever since I awakened right before I met you.

She nodded, seeming to accept my answer. By the way, Mel, what happened on that last ride?

Oh, that was the falling dream…

It turned out that we slept in. Sometime during the morning, Joe had finished upgrading the village and erected a grain silo. The thing that I didn’t expect to see was the Mad Max version of a carriage that Joe had designed.

The thing looked like an open-topped bus with oversized wheels. Large smokestacks rose from the back emitting colorful plumes of steam. I cast Joe a curious glance.

What is this contraption?

Have you seen any horses around here? Joe motioned to the village that was more or less devoid of animals as though that explained everything.

What do you use for gas?

Joe grinned as he explained. That’s the best part. It runs on mana. So long as I’m here, it can run forever.

I stopped to admire Joe’s creation while he demonstrated the controls for me.

Item:

Mecharriage

Components

Metal, Mana, Nanites

Item Rank:

B

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Reid

From there, I decided to get the task of making food for the villagers out of the way before I ate. When my first couple of attempts to make grain made just a very small amount, I decided that it was time to learn a couple of new skills.

COPY

PASTE

COPY

PASTE

The amount of grain I created with my first edit was small. Rather than figuring out how to make more grain, I copied it and dumped it on top of the pile. Then I copied the new stack and pasted it again. After six times the silo was full.

For the rice, it was much easier. I repeatedly edited twenty-pound bags of rice. It didn’t take long to fill up the building designated as a storehouse.

When I sat down to breakfast, Wendy sat next to me and said, I had Joe make a greenhouse for the villagers. We managed to put everything together except for the most important part. Do you think you can create seeds?

I yawned as I chewed on a mouthful of eggs, idly wondering what bird they came from.

I only know earth plants. If you want something from Gaia, you’ll have to tell me what they’re called.

We left town after breakfast. For a vehicle with a motor, Joe’s Mecharriage was remarkably quiet. The two guards that we brought along with us, Honora and Palmer, sat nervously in the back, clutching their armrests as the Mecharraiage shot forward.

How fast are we going?

Joe turned back to answer, his bald head gleaming under the afternoon sun. Probably about forty miles per hour give or take about five miles. I didn’t feel the need to include a speedometer considering there are probably not going to be any speed traps out there.

Stefanie sang “She’ll be comin round the mountain” as we plodded along on a well-worn dirt path. I rested in Kalli’s lap to recuperate from my morning’s exertions while she summoned and resummoned her slender mana blade.

After the tenth try, she held the blade above my face. Why do I know how to compress mana all of a sudden?

Feeling that I could do it, I reached up and gently took the blade from her hands. I couldn’t explain the feeling but I just knew I wouldn’t have been able to do that prior to our dream.

Your blade is a lot better than the first one you made. Let me try something.

The blade attached itself to my mana the instant Kalli let go of it. Treating it like my own greatsword, I fed my mana to the blade, adding to Kalli’s compression. The red flame of her blade turned blue.

Kalli gasped when I handed it back to her. Wow, it’s like the ambrosia, we combined to make something better. Quick, give me your greatsword. I’ll add my mana to it.

She dissipated and resummoned her sword a few times to make sure that it wouldn’t change back to the old form. That feels weird, using your mana when I summon my blade.

Kalli had just begun to push her mana into my greatsword when we heard a familiar roar. Joe looked around and asked the group. Should we stop or keep going?

Before anyone in group chat could answer, Palmer shouter, “Monster attack, to the left.”

Because I didn’t want our guards to be left out, I invited them both.

HONORA HAS JOINED THE GROUP

PALMER HAS JOINED THE GROUP

What should we do? Stop or try to outrun them?

Honora craned her neck to get a look at the monster. You can try to outrun it but that never usually works. It’s probably better to stop and fight it off before we encounter any more monsters.

Joe pulled the Mecharriage over and we all climbed out, organizing ourselves to make a stand. When the monster landed, I realized where we had seen it before. It was my very first monster encounter. The first time that I had almost lost Kalli.

Name

Griffon

Class

Monster

Level

10

Affection Level

Feral

That is a group monster!

Wendy hovered behind me, hoisted off of the ground on a cushion of air. Then it’s a good thing you’ve got a group.

The griffon roared a challenge at us as Honora and Palmer inched their way in, holding spears that I had made for them back in the village.

Kiki clacked some knuckledusters together and whooped. It’s time to kick some monster butt.

Together with Rundell, Raverly, and the guards, she charged toward the griffon. It screeched at them and took to the sky, blowing them back with powerful strokes from its mighty wings.

I felt Kalli prepare the fireball next to me even more I saw the glow form in her hands.

“Bvoomzt”

Even though I had never cast the fancier version of her fire spell before, I knew deep down that I could duplicate it.

“Bvoomzt”

The pair of fireballs sailed after the griffon as it soared up into the sky. It easily twisted in midair and dodged our lumbering attack. The eagle’s head roared a challenge down at us.

There has to be a better way of controlling that.

I was familiar with the feeling of forming the fireball in my hands. It felt similar to the way I manipulated mana for my greatsword, just with a fiery twist. Kalli had cast the spell dozens of times after all. I worked at it until it was twice the size of the standard spell.

In the meantime, Wendy chased the griffon back down to land by forming a tornado that battered the beast around in the sky. Kiki was quite skilled with her forceful negotiations, ducking and weaving as she sparred with the griffon like a pro boxer.

Rundell’s flying kick scored a critical hit to the head of the beast, causing it to stagger back momentarily. When it once again tried to take to the skies, Joe launched a series of grappling hooks that latched onto the monster’s wings.

I chose that moment to unleash my improved fireball. Tethered to the ground by Joe, the griffon couldn’t get away. It could, however, dodge from left to right. When it swung out of the way of my latest attack, I tugged on the fireball, making it change course in midair.

Another fireball curved at the Griffon from the other direction. Kalli had duplicated my spell after feeling me do it. The two attacks collided with the griffon from opposite sides, exploding in a torrent of fire and once again dropping the griffon to the ground.

This time, the melee fighters converged on the prone beast and finished it off. Retracting his hooks back into his sleeves, Joe scanned the countryside. Is that all?

Honora shook her head and pointed to the west. More are coming.

The second wave turned out to be less dangerous. There were just a lot more of them.

Name

Bugbear

Class

Monster

Level

8

Affection Level

Aggressive

I wasn’t expecting a monster with the name bear in it after seeing the furry humanoid creatures. They didn’t speak, just growling and grunting as they threw themselves at the Mecharriage.

Kalli decided to summon her mana blade and fight them up close, so I brought my own blade out. I stopped in shock when Kalli began to fight. Rundell laughed when he saw what the girl was doing and asked, Kalli, how are you doing that? It took me years to learn that form.

Crouched low to the ground, Kalli lunged suddenly at an unsuspecting bugbear that had been trying to get at Wendy. The aeromancer was doing her best with a wall of wind to keep the monsters away from herself.

Joe was back in the Mecharriage with Stefanie who was singing a pop song I didn’t recognize. The technomancer had mounted a cannon of some sort to the side of his creation and was picking off any of the bugbears that got too close to his girlfriend.

Realizing that I could do the same thing that Kalli was, I crouched and lunged.