Rhen stood at one of the six transference rods imbedded in the ground around the node. The other five candidates, Olliat, Barrek, Gil, Patti, and a very reluctant Joseph stood holding the other rods. Eli, his mother Valine, Bort, Barrek’s wife Leslie, and Caleb stood guard around them to make sure no terrocken’s decided to take advantage at a vulnerable moment. The Faust family had stayed topside at the inn, not wanting to get in the way.

They were all nervous, except Wyland. He looked like he’d done this a hundred times. Wyland said the rods would only need their anima to get started, but once the field was generated, the resurrection node would handle all the load. The essential part was getting out of the way as soon as the field instantiated.

“All right everyone, hold onto yer butts!” Wyland called from the resurrection node.

“I thought we were supposed to hold onto the rod!” Joseph yelled.

Wyland laughed. “That too. Three, two, one, starting up!”

The resurrection node flared with hot, white light, and made a noise like accelerating vibrations. The cascading plate on top of the node shot into the air with a burst of illumination, propelled by Wyland’s machine that was drawing off the dungeon’s energy. Round and round the plate spun, accumulating energy.

A bright zap of power jolted from the cascade plate and hit Rhen’s transference rod. Pain lanced up his arm to his chest and he pulled away from the rod.

“Not yet! It needs to connect!” Wyland yelled.

The zaps came more frequently, hitting everyone in the circle. Olliat yipped when the lightning hit her rod. A sustained stream of blue energy emerged, bouncing and dancing in the wind.

Wyland pointed to Olliat. “Let go!”

She jumped back and the color of the lightning shifted to white. Joseph’s rod connected next, and then everyone else in turn. They jumped into the circle and joined Wyland at the node. The lightning arcs to the cascade plate became stable, losing some of their lightning type energy. A connecting line moved from rod to rod, spiraling up to the top of the plate.

The vibration accelerated until it was almost deafening.

“If we die, I’m killing you, Wyland!” Joseph screamed.

Wyland guffawed. “And when we don’t die, you owe me a brew!”

Anima flashed faster and faster all around them, and Rhen’s eyes started to cross. There was a crack! and the vibrations disappeared along with the flashing lights.

Surrounding them now was a dome of opalescent energy, rippling like gentle waves against the shore. It was quiet, hardly a hum in the background.

“I’ll take your strongest,” Wyland said, grinning at Joseph.

“I’m sure this thing’ll break down any second, blow us all to bits.” Joseph crossed his arms.

“Okay, show me how it works again?” Rhen stepped up to the machine wrapped around the base of the node. There were six flat pieces of metal pinned to the crystal that aligned with the placement of the transference rods in the ground. Those flat pieces projected the anima up into the cascade plate above, but at the base of the node was a control panel.

Wyland crouched beside it. “Put your finger right there on that glassy bit.”

Rhen did as instructed, and all the buttons on the panel lit up. There was a directional pad on the left, two toggles on the right, and a big round button at the top.

“Up targets up gate, down targets down gate. Toggle 1 is open doorway. Toggle 2 is open window—if you want to shoot an arrow out it. Circle is execute command. Each command will have a small extra anima charge, but on the whole, this thing only takes ‘bout ten, maybe fifteen anima an hour.”

Rhen stammered. “That’s unbelievable. How is it so efficient?”

“Well, it’s not consuming the anima, like our spells do; it’s recycling it. Some is just lost by bein’ exposed. ‘Course when it gets attacked, that’ll be a different matter. Probably five to ten anima per average melee strike. Want to try it out?”

“Please.”

Rhen selected the “Up” gate, flipped the door toggle, and pressed the button. A split in the anima waves ran down the cascade plate and hit the “north” rod, the one pointing directly away from the chamber exit. The waves pushed back, opening a seven-foot by four-foot doorway.

Rhen stepped through the opening. The hairs on his arms stood on end as he passed through, and his skin prickled with a feeling of raw power.

The door snapped shut behind him and Rhen whirled around.

“Throw a rock!” Wyland yelled.

Rhen found the closest stone of decent size. He didn’t want to throw a pebble, the effect had to be visible. He wanted Joseph to be satisfied with its safety, too.

Finally, he found a good head-sized rock. He held it up and chucked it at the shield. The stone smacked into the opal barrier, sending ripples across it. The rock cracked, and when it hit the ground, it was split in six pieces.

“Wicked…” Rhen whispered.

“Okay, now come back in.”

“How?”

“Just walk on through!”

“I don’t want to split apart, thanks.”

“You won’t! If your anima profile is saved to the node, you can walk right through without making a door or a window, from either side.”

Rhen sucked in a deep breath and reached out for the shield. His hair stood on end and his fingers vibrated the closer they got. Well, if he died, at least he’d respawn in safety.

He lurched forward, just to get it over with. His hand passed straight through and into the powerful dome. Where the shield touched his forearm, the skin tickled, like after using an anima drill for too long.

Rhen stepped all the way through and Olliat clapped. “You’re a genius, Wyland!”

The old man beamed. “I know.”

“And this won’t interfere at all with respawning?” Rhen asked.

“Not a bit. I’ve installed this type of machine in Desedra dungeons, function great.”

“None of the ones I’ve been in…”

“Ha, bet not. These are rare, restricted dungeons with epic syntials and rewards, not the money pits.”

Rhen scowled, but it made sense. No need to set up such a machine on a resurrection node that was easily guarded and under control, which was the case for most of the so-called money pits.

“So, why’d you make the door at all if we can just walk through it?” Joseph asked, his hand halfway through the shield.

Wyland sighed. “How would’ya get new people in here to connect with the node?”

Joseph opened his mouth, then shut it with a grimace of defeat.

“Now, I gotta warn ya. You said during the dark chaos that the creatures who came out fed on anima, izzat right?”

“I think so. Aki activated his soothing aura ability, which is supposed to make him less desirable to enemies, but it projects a field of anima around him. Instantly, they were on him like a dog on vomit.”

Wyland nodded. “So, yer gonna want to be ready to deactivate this shield when that happens. I dunno if those monsters’ll eat up all the dungeon anima. It’s raw, and that might not be what they feed on… but just to be prepared, cause if they do consume it all, no more respawns for you.”

“Understood. We’ll need to learn more about these dark cycles, but I believe the color changing of the crystals is what kicks it off. If so, we’ll have a few hours of warning. I can change the respawn controls so that no one will respawn without my explicit permission, so that’ll at least prevent people from spawning in that time.”

“Good’nuff.” He crouched next to the control panel again. “To cycle it down, flip both toggles and press down on the execute button for five seconds. You’ll need seven people to start it back up again, and you just do it exactly the same way.”

“Got it.”

Rhen stood and watched the others messing with the shield. They jumped in and out of it, giggled like kids at their staticy hair, and stared in awe.

One more thing down.

A million to go.

Jakira and Aki would respawn in a little less than two hours, and since everyone else was in the dungeon already, Rhen thought it was high time they do a bit of grinding. He broke them into two groups; Joseph taking Eli, Barrek, Leslie and Caleb while Rhen took Olliat, Valine, Gil, and Pattie. Wyland stayed behind, relaxing in the shield for the time being—getting paid, of course.

It wasn’t hard to find the terrocken nests now that Rhen had recognized the tracks they made in the dirt, and how to see their passing in the leaves. Even stealthed, Rhen could find a pair of terrocken hidden fifty feet away.

The oversized chickens were becoming fewer and fewer in the region near the resurrection node, which was good, but also troubling. If their hunting of those monsters altered the ecosystem in the chamber, the whole thing could collapse. They’d have to be careful, and make sure they were appropriately balancing the terrocken’s absence by killing and eating their prey themselves.

But not too much…

Dungeon management was a whole-nother level of overwhelming. Not only did he have to manage the nodes, the village above, the trade, signing papers for join requests, on and on, but now he had to make sure the dungeon chambers with ecosystems were properly balanced. Rhen was starting to doubt whether he could’ve managed the Desedra dungeons better than they had.

After two encounters, it was time to head back to the resurrection node. He gathered two big buckets of water for Aki, and had a nice, thick blanket ready for Jakira—as well as all the gear she’d left behind when her body dissolved into the dungeon. The jerkin had been shredded to pieces, but everything else made it well enough.

The resurrection node vibrated with a deep base feel in Rhen’s chest. A slice of white energy appeared hanging in midair that popped open to an abyssal portal. The circle of energy around the black doorway whipped irrationally, spinning at high speed.

Jakira’s dark feet dangled out of the opening and Rhen positioned himself under it to catch her. She slopped out, covered in primordial respawn goo, naked as the day she was born. Rhen caught her and dropped to his knees, wrapping her up swiftly.

Jakira turned and coughed up more of the pink slime that coated her skin. She gasped and opened her eyes, gaze falling on Rhen’s face.

“Welcome back.” He smiled.

“Ouch,” she whimpered, closing her eyes again.

“Catch him!” Eli growled at Olliat, who was holding one of the buckets up to the other portal.

Aki plopped into the basin and Olliat brought it down to the ground. After a few seconds, Aki emerged, conjuring a watery body about himself from the other bucket. It wasn’t quite as much water as he was used to, and so his body was only about four feet tall.

Jakira rubbed her eyes and sat up. “What’s happened since… since, ugh, it’s hard to remember. The teeth. Lots of teeth.”

“Lots of teeth, indeed.” Aki remarked. “Is that how we met our end?”

Rhen nodded. “You saved us. But nothing like that has happened again down here. It’s been a little over three days. Wyland came out to help build this shield to protect the respawn area.”

“Neato burrito.” Jakira moaned with desire. “I want a burrito.”

“Before food, let’s go get some new abilities. Once someone is registered with the resurrection node, I can see their anima capacity; we’re all ready for upgrades.”

“Burriiitoooo,” she groaned with hunger.

Rhen laughed. “All right, food first.”

Everyone turned away to let Jakira dress, and then they made their way to the exit. By the time they reached the mega-hound room, Rhen knew something was wrong. Everyone was with him, but there was smoke—lots of smoke—wafting into the dungeon. Wait, no… the Faust family had stayed behind.

Rhen broke into a jog, Aki right beside him.

Hazy red light shone down on the dungeon opening and white smoke billowed into the tunnel. Rhen held his breath and climbed the ladder up to a raging inferno. The entire field was alight. Trees around the inn burned wildly, and Rhen couldn’t see an inch of his plot that wasn’t covered in flames.

“Aki!” Rhen cried out for his friend. We need to get to the river.

The Prelusk latched onto Rhen’s neck and surrounded them both in a thin layer of water. Rhen took another breath before the liquid protected his face. He ran through the flames, his feet burning with every step. Fire licked at his limbs and heated the water that protected them both. Rhen hoped they wouldn’t boil alive before he could get them to the river.

He climbed up the dirt embankment and cleared the wall of flames. They collapsed into the river and Rhen gasped for air. Aki was back up in an instant, using his full psionic powers to whip lances of water at the biggest flames. Aki dosed fire after fire until only a few patches of smoldering embers remained.

The inn, their tents, their homes… Everything was gone.