Anita came right up to me while her team members got a generator and some lights set up nearby, and then began putting together a large, rectangular white tent. Brad and Steve trailed closely behind her, although Steve looked like he was struggling to keep up with her fast pace. She got right down to business. “Mr. Whitler, we can get underway as soon as the tent has been erected. Are you ready to share with us what you know?”

I nodded nervously. “Yes, Ms. Anders.” Anita in my head, more respectful out loud. “And please, call me Dean.”

“Very well.” I didn’t miss the fact she didn’t tell me to call her by her first name. She opened the binder she was carrying and gave me a paper. It was the contract she had mentioned previously. She started to move over to my friends to give each of them one, but I stopped her.

“Can you have them move the tent a little more over this way?” I requested. “I’m going to make something later and would like to have it hidden inside.” I was planning on making a way down to my Prep Room so I wouldn’t need to teleport in. The tent would be able to hide the entrance.

To her credit, she didn’t waste time asking questions now and simply made it happen. That done, she went over to my friends and distributed a copy of the document.

Brad came up and gave me a small smile. “Glad to see you took my advice and got the top people involved.”

I gave him a nervous smile in return. “I hope I don’t come to regret it.”

Steve clapped me on the shoulder. “It’ll be alright, mate. And thanks for getting us an invite. Saves me having to buy you a beer.”

“Cheapskate, huh?” I said. “I’ll have to remember that.” I looked at his arm where the not-completely healed injury was now bandaged up. “Actually, I need you here to help me convince them I’m not nuts. I’ll get you fully fixed up once we’ve got an audience, but you still need to rest before you’ll feel completely better.”

“Looking forward to it,” he replied easily. “I wasn’t conscious the first time you did whatever it was to me. Keen to see what it’s like. And if you can get rid of this pain, the beers are back on the table. Although it’ll have to wait till I rest up like you said. I’m running on empty, to be honest.”

Steve’s good cheer seemed a little forced and there was a tightness around his eyes, but he definitely appeared much calmer than when we’d been in the forest. I could understand. Being out here in the open, with fresh air and vibrant grass underfoot, was worlds away from the oppressiveness of the infected woods. Considering what had happened to him in there, being unable to save the young man and almost dying himself, I thought he was doing a remarkable job holding himself together.

The two officers had both already signed the contract, so they gave me a hand understanding the complicated wording and then went and helped my friends after I signed it. With nothing to do, I watched as the government team quickly erected the large tent. It was impressive how fast they finished setting it up. It clearly wasn’t their first time. When all the papers were signed and collected, Anita took us over to the completed site of our meeting.

It was within my new Park Dungeon aura, so I’d been waiting to see if a notification would appear letting me integrate the tent, but there was nothing. Not surprising since this tent didn’t belong to me. It supported Cax’s theory about ownership being the main factor for integration. The fact it was just a temporary structure might mean it wasn’t eligible, anyway.

Entering the tent at Anita’s invitation, I walked towards the far end where she gestured. I ran my hand along the inside wall as I went. Whatever material it was made from appeared to be quite thick and robust. I wasn’t able to make out any details of what lay outside, making me confident that anything I did in here would remain unseen by outside observers.

There were no chairs set up, so everyone simply gathered together in the middle, standing and facing me as I stood alone. There were about twenty-five people in total. With a lot of their equipment lined up along the sides, along with several lights, it was a bit tight.

Anita began the proceedings, murmured conversations dropping off as she started speaking. She addressed me directly. “Introductions can wait until we see the value of what you have to tell us. Depending on how useful it is, you might not be around long enough for it to matter.”

I swallowed nervously. Nice way to make me feel relaxed, I thought wryly.

Not knowing how anxious she was making me feel, or more likely, not caring, she turned to face the others gathered. “Dean here has promised an explanation on recent events. Let’s see if he can deliver.”

I cleared my throat, looking at all the faces staring back at me. My friends were smiling, trying to be supportive. Even Brad and Steve gave me encouraging nods. The other people’s expressions ranged from bored and uninterested to politely attentive. I couldn’t believe I was standing here about to tell a room full of strangers about Cax and my abilities. I took a deep breath to try and settle myself before starting.

“Ok. Umm, hello,” I started awkwardly, raising my hand in a half-hearted wave. “There’s a lot to tell you, and you aren’t going to believe any of it. I’m just going to start at the beginning and then I’ll show you some things to back up what you’re about to hear. Once you believe I’m legit, we can get to the more serious stuff.”

I started by telling them about Cax, and how I came across him and we joined together. Whispered comments and scattered laughter made me blush, but I kept on going. I told them how the process had altered me physically and improved my appearance. My friends chimed in to tell them it was true in an effort to help me out, although I could have done without Tony’s comment about how I used to be plainer than a grain of sand.

Too much to hope that hearing I’d merged with an alien would have toned him down, I thought wryly, although I was glad he was handling the revelation so well. Probably just doesn’t believe me, either.

I was more appreciative when Anita spoke up in support, confirming that my appearance had changed drastically. Still, even with her backing, the muttered conversations and laughter in the crowd increased in volume, letting me know they weren’t buying it.

Near the front of the group, a middle-aged man, thick around the waist and with receding grey hair, wasn’t content to mock me quietly. He turned to the person next to him and said in a voice that was clearly meant to be heard by all, “So he finally got through puberty. Good for him.” Most of the room had a good laugh at that. “Why are we wasting our time with this rubbish?” he went on in an irritated voice, addressing the room in general this time as the laughs died down.

Anita didn’t say anything and instead motioned for me to continue. I swallowed nervously. Based on their reaction to what I’d already said, I knew this next part wasn’t going to go down well. I went on to tell them how the process of joining with Cax had also given me magical powers. As expected, loud jeers rang out, and people were looking more irritated than amused now. The calls to get rid of me increased in number.

“For example,” I said in a loud voice to be heard over the noise, almost shouting, “I can analyze someone or something to get information on them.” Looking at the man who’d made the joke about puberty, I cast the spell. Pointing at him, I read out what appeared. “David Sudditch. 58 years old. Volcanologist.”

That shut him up, but unfortunately, only for a few seconds. Recovering from his surprise, he made an unimpressed noise and waved his hand dismissively. “Bah. So you researched me online earlier when you saw me in the carpark. That’s not very impressive considering the main skill of your generation is surfing the web.”

There was more laughter, but not as much as before. Many of the younger members of the team were busy giving David dirty looks. While I was grateful to him for taking some of the crowd’s heat off me with his stupid comment, I was really starting to hate this guy. I’d known this wasn’t going to be easy, but still. I’d been ready for a lot of skepticism and some mocking, but he was just being nasty. I tried not to let my frustration show. Especially to a bunch of scientists, my claims of magic must be pretty hard to swallow. I wondered if my Persuasion skill was having any effect on such skeptical people.

It was time to pull out the showstopper before they physically threw me out. I called Steve up and had him unwrap his injury. He showed everyone the almost-healed wound, and then I put my hands on him and cast Heal. The tent became completely silent as my magic took hold, a golden glow suffusing the cut and mending the torn flesh as everyone watched. All that was left behind was smooth and unblemished skin. I minimized the expected notification that appeared letting me know I could evolve the spell. I’d look over it later.

I scanned the crowd, taking satisfaction in seeing shocked faces and open mouths on the people who were previously quite vocal with their doubts and displeasure. I resisted the temptation to taunt David as he stood there speechless. Even Anita, who, in the short time I’d known her, had given me the impression of unflappability, looked at a loss for words. No matter what she may have believed after hearing the girl’s account, seeing it with her own eyes was a whole other story. I’m such an idiot! I berated myself. Why didn’t I start with this?! Lesson learnt.

The silence was broken as Steve laughed in relief, rotating his arm freely. “You champion! That feels amazing. I’m going to get you so drunk!” Seeing his happiness brought a small smile to my face and made me feel a little better. He clapped me on the arm enthusiastically and gave it a quick squeeze before returning to his spot. He was stopped along the way by people wanting to have a closer look at where his wound had been.

While that was going on, Brad spoke up to let everyone know that I had healed him too, showing the blood-stained rip in his pants that was all that remained to show he had been injured. Josh also chimed in, telling them about his dad’s miraculous recovery after I’d paid him a visit.

I glanced quickly at Anita and saw she’d recovered from the shock of my revelations, probably thanks to what Josh had said. I winced at the new expression on her face. Should have told him to keep that to himself, I thought regretfully. She was definitely not happy. Probably more work for her to contain the spread of the story.

Knowing that the healing still might not be enough proof with this crowd, I continued demonstrating my powers. I showed them how my inventory worked by switching my new magical shirt with the white one I’d been wearing before going into the forest. I realized there were blood stains on it. Must have been from when I healed the girl. At this rate, I’m going to go broke just replacing all the clothes I ruin, I thought regretfully as I put my new green shirt back on with a thought.

I moved on and made a glowing orb, sending it around their heads with mental commands. I kept my hands raised so they didn’t think I was just using a remote. I enjoyed their exclamations of surprise as they flinched when it got close to them. I finished my little show by conjuring up several ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches and passing them around. The braver recipients bit into them tentatively, exclaiming how they tasted real, while a couple of people refused to try them at all. I saw one lady slip the sandwich I gave her into her shoulder bag. I really hope that’s so she can run some tests on it later, otherwise I’m actually not the weirdest one here.

Even though it would have definitely dispelled any remaining doubts, I kept my teleportation spell secret. That was my get-out-of-jail card. If they tried to lock me up somewhere, I could simply disappear on them. I left my other abilities secret for now, too. Partly so as not to overwhelm them, and also because I didn’t think it was a good idea to put all my cards on the table before seeing how this panned out.

It took longer than I would have liked to convince all of them that what I was doing was real and not some kind of trick. There were a few stubborn hold outs who were insistent that it was all mirrors and optical illusions, David chief among them unsurprisingly. I repeated the spells until I was almost out of mana. They stood right up close to me and moved their hands around to look for wires or who knows what. It took a fair bit of effort, but I managed not to sigh or snap at anyone. I really wanted to, but I kept telling myself that it would just make them dig their heels in even more. Eventually, even the most skeptical of the bunch were forced to concede the fact I was telling the truth after rigorous examination.

Now, they all wore a mix of eagerly excited expressions as they shouted questions at me, trying to talk over each other. A lot of the questions seemed to revolve around Cax, and I could feel how happy he was at the attention. There was also a request to let them do scans so they could see the core in my chest. I frowned at that, not sure if I wanted to allow it. For some reason, it almost felt like letting them see me naked.

Anita took charge and saved me from having to respond to anyone, shouting them all down. Given a moment to breathe, I realized I was feeling amazing! I’d told these people everything, and yeah, it had been rough at first. But now, instead of being shunned or finding myself in handcuffs, here they were simply wanting to know more. I felt lighter, like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. Well, actually, that’s still there. But at least now it’s shared! I thought positively. I was feeling more like myself than I had since this all began. Almost relaxed, even!

Anita was still trying to restore order, so I quickly checked out the notification that had appeared towards the end of my demonstrations. I wasn’t expecting anything, so I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a problem.

“Huh. I guess Persuasion was hard at work after all.” I was pleasantly surprised to see the skill had ranked up. My best guess was that after showing these people my magic, they became open to the possibility that what I was telling them could be true, and that gave the skill something to work with. Who knew how much longer it would have taken to convince everyone if the skill hadn’t been influencing them in the background!

I noticed I hadn’t been given any options to evolve the skill. Instead, ranking up had simply improved the existing effects. I now had a better chance to get people to believe what I told them and to tell when they were lying to me. I hadn’t experienced that second effect yet, but I was expecting it to get quite a workout now the government was involved.

I turned my attention back to what was going on just as Anita got everyone settled down. “Ok, Dean. You said you know what is happening here with the earthquakes and the black spot. Now that we finally believe you are for real, please tell us.” She shot an annoyed look at the couple of people who had insisted I was a fraud the longest.

I filled them in on what the World Spirit had shown me. I told them about the rifts and the void energy first. I filled them in on everything that came to mind, especially the fact that no technology worked within the foreign energy’s influence. Then I moved onto telling them about the shards, impressing upon them the dangers they posed.

After making them aware of the two threats we were facing, I stressed that both Cax and I agreed that the Void was the main threat. I told them that without knowing exactly when or where the next shard would appear, there wasn’t much we could do to prepare for it. The void energy was already at work corrupting the forest and the wildlife, though, and as such the problem needed to be addressed immediately. I finished by reassuring them that we had a plan and were currently working on it.

Once I was done, nobody spoke for a long time. Understandably, the excitement had disappeared, replaced by worry. I gave them the time to process what I’d told them. I knew it was a lot to take in. I took the opportunity to look over the members of the government team more carefully. I noticed that, for the most part, the younger people present didn’t mix with the older ones. They stuck together on the outside of the group, a couple of them talking amongst themselves but mostly just looking at the older members. I got the impression that they might be support staff. I needed to let my mana recover after using so much on demonstrating my powers, so I didn’t analyze them. I could find out easily enough later on.

I assumed, then, that the older members were the experts, such as David the drop kick volcanologist. For their part, most of them were discussing what I’d told them in small groups, with a few standing alone, lost in their own thoughts.

Eventually, a few questions were asked in order to clarify some of the things I’d just gone over. I did my best to reply to all of them, often calling on Cax’s expertise to provide me with the answer. When it seemed like there were no more questions coming, Anita addressed the crowd. “We need to discuss what to do going forward.” She turned her focus on me. “Now, after everything I’ve seen tonight, I’m willing to believe what you’ve just told us is true until someone can prove otherwise.” I nodded in acknowledgement.

“You said that you were working on the…void energy issue.” She hesitated a little at the unfamiliar concept. “What exactly are you doing?”

I reiterated that the World Spirit was currently doing the job of containing the foreign energy. “There’s no way we can do a better job than an entity like that. Instead, our plan is to simply take some of the pressure off by doing the same thing. We hope that by doing so, it will free up some of the Spirit’s limited resources so it can attempt to fix the problem permanently, rather than just holding it at bay.”

I filled them in on my ability to make dungeon rooms. Then, I told them the plan was to use the aura they emitted to contain the void energy within the forest, essentially boxing it in to prevent it spreading any further. I produced a void blocker from my inventory and explained its purpose to help fill in the gaps in the barrier. I left it out after several people expressed an interest in studying it later. To be honest, I was curious what they could find out when they examined it with modern technology.

Once I was done outlining our plan, I made sure to repeat how the invasive energy interfered with our technology and rendered it inactive, but then asked them to do what tests they could to see if they could find a scientific way to handle the threat as well.

Many of the government contingent were nodding along, expressions slightly unfocused as they turned their minds to the problem. Anita was quick to speak up in order to head off a potential issue. “Nobody is to approach the forest until you hear otherwise from me, especially not tonight! The two officers here have confirmed that nothing works in there, not even a flashlight. The last thing I need is for more people to end up missing or attacked by crazy animals.”

She stared at everyone firmly until they acknowledged the order. A kindly-looking older lady spoke up. “I think your idea has merit, as far as I understand what you’ve told us. Do you know if what the…World…is doing takes into consideration the various ways this can spread?” she stumbled over the use of the word, but otherwise seemed to be doing fairly well with these mind-blowing revelations. “For that matter, will your dungeon’s barrier thing be able to account for all the vectors?”

I looked at her, confused. “What do you mean?”

“Well, for one thing, the most obvious danger is birds. Their movements are notoriously difficult to control or account for. You might be able to track their movements, but fecal matter could be dropped anywhere. And consider seeds,” she continued. “On a windy day, plant seeds can be dispersed over quite a wide area. Will seeds from an infected plant, carried on the wind, be able to get past this barrier you want to construct? If so, they could spread this… well, what essentially sounds like a disease, to an otherwise healthy area. Before you realize there’s a problem, you’d be looking at containing another area.”

She nodded in understanding at the look of horror that appeared on my face. “That’s not all. You said you were attacked by infected animals. Any fur or plant matter they transferred to your clothing could fall off and spread the disease wherever you go. Then you have the streams that run through the forest. Animals and people outside whatever barrier you can erect who come in contact with that water could easily be infected.”

She shook her head at the reaction her words got, worried muttering sparking up around her. “I don’t mean to be alarmist,” she said apologetically. “These are all just hypotheticals. Without knowing more about this energy and how exactly it infects living things, there’s no way to know for sure how it can spread. With any luck, it’s only from direct exposure to the energy under the rift itself, which thankfully is limited to a small area.”

“Umm, about that.” I hadn’t mentioned this detail before. I worriedly let her know that we’d become infected through bites and scratches when the animals attacked us, so it might be possible that it could also spread through traces of them on our clothes. She started muttering to herself, shaking her head repeatedly. The sight didn’t fill me with confidence. I was quick to point out that my healing spell could remove the infection, but it didn’t seem to make her feel better.

“Can you heal hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people before they succumb to the infection? Because that’s the least we’re looking at if this thing spreads.”

When I didn’t respond, all she said was, “Maybe being alarmist isn’t such a bad thing.”

Anita had her phone in hand and was already dialing. “I’ll get a decontamination team here immediately to process all of us and anyone else you three came into contact with.” She looked at me and the two officers.

“Do you really think standard methods will work?” someone in the crowd asked her. “We’re dealing with bloody magical forces here!”

“Until you can prove to me they don’t, I’m going to stick with the procedures we have available to us. It’s better than doing nothing, and with any luck, they can effectively deal with this problem,” she snapped back. Even Anita was unable to keep her calm in the face of the frightening possibilities just raised. It was also quite late at night by this point, so I’m sure everyone was feeling more than a little tired.

“Don’t forget the girl that was injured,” Brad reminded her.

“And the kid that was killed,” Steve added solemnly. “What did they do with the body?”

“This is a nightmare,” I heard Anita mutter. In a louder voice, she said, “I’m going to get the search for the missing boy called off. With any luck, they haven’t gone in yet. It’s not going to go over well, but we can’t have more people exposed. Everyone stay here for now.”

She walked out of the tent, speaking into her phone and leaving us to our own devices. I was immediately approached as everyone wanted to introduce themselves and ask me questions. I quickly lost track of names, but I was quite impressed by the qualifications everyone had. I didn’t even know what most of their fields of study were about. It definitely made my business degree feel worthless. Without my magical credentials, there was no way I would ever be around a group of intellectuals like this. My previous observation of the group’s composition seemed to be accurate, as only the older members came up to me.

I answered all the questions I could until finally I begged off, saying I needed a break. While it was definitely true, I mainly just wanted a chance to listen to the conversations around me to get a feeling for how everyone was dealing with what they’d learnt. I was happy to see that most people were focused on coming up with solutions while waiting for their chance to get at me.

“How about if we simply burn the area?” I overhead one man suggest.

“Without knowing if fire makes the energy inert, the smoke would simply serve to help it spread through the particles that would be caught up in it,” someone with him said.

Another group was discussing the bird issue. “Could we have shooters spaced around the zone to take out any birds?” someone asked.

“Good luck keeping people from panicking if we do that,” another person scoffed. “There’d be no way to keep all this secret then.”

“I’m not even sure that would work,” one of the others said. “Too many could slip by.”

Another pair were discussing the shard issue. “Maybe we could station the army here to deal with anything that appears.”

Her partner was doubtful. “Do you think bullets would have an impact on such a thing? To hear him tell it, they’re impervious to damage.”

Listening to all their comments, and after what the lady before had said about how easily diseases could spread, I no longer had any regrets about telling people what was going on. This short meeting had already proven I was clearly in over my head. I never would have considered all of the issues raised here and acknowledged the value these experts in their fields could provide. It had me worried, though, that our idea with the dungeon aura wasn’t good enough to fully handle the scope of this problem.

Cax clearly disagreed. “You can’t do everything. Consider your job to hold back the flood. Let them focus on worrying about the water that splashes out. Besides, if you can attract the animals to your dungeon, they won’t be trying to go anywhere else and that will take care of a lot of their concerns.”

That’s true! I perked up and let everyone know that, and they seemed relieved that it could be a solution to stopping the wildlife from spreading out. With that in mind, I had to get this big dungeon room done. I needed to get my mana regeneration upgraded and ready to go. Plus, it would get me out of answering more questions. I understood everyone’s curiosity and how important it was that they have all the information they needed, but come on. My patience was not endless, especially after the show I’d had to put on just to get them to listen to me in the first place.

“I’m about to alter my body magically to improve my ability to pull in mana,” I announced in a loud voice to the room, silencing the scattered conversations. “If you’re interested in watching, gather around. I’m not sure there’ll be anything you can actually see, but still.” I shrugged.

Everyone present moved closer, some of them jostling each other for a better look. More than a few ran off to the containers scattered along the sides of the tent and came back holding cameras. I didn’t mind. In fact, I was curious to see what the process looked like from the outside. I’d make sure to watch the footage later, too.

“Cax, can you show me the passive ability you were talking about?” I asked him.

A screen appeared. “Thanks, mate.” I read over it while those around me got themselves sorted.

Enhanced Mana Channels

You will become more efficient at drawing in mana from your surroundings.

This will result in a permanent 5-second improvement to your mana regeneration rate.

Do you wish to unlock and integrate this passive ability for 40 experience points?

I had 80xp at my disposal, so I was good to go. Remembering how much it had sucked when I got my Elemental Resistance ability, I sat down on the tent’s smooth white floor and warned everyone. “This is going to hurt a lot. Just to be safe, don’t touch me. I’ll be fine,” I assured them.

I activated Determination to help me deal with the pain, then confirmed the choice. I closed my eyes tightly as the process to permanently alter my body began. Between my skill and my new shirt’s pain-reduction qualities, it wasn’t as bad as the first time I’d done this, but it was still no picnic.

My body was on fire as the magic coursed through it, and I couldn’t keep a whimper from escaping my tightly clenched lips. I tried to focus on exactly what was changing inside me, wanting to know more about the mechanics of what was happening, but I couldn’t see past the blanket of pain that gripped me.

When it was done a minute later, I panted as the agony released me from its grip and I let my head hang down, taking a moment to pull myself together. I dismissed the screen letting me know I had a new passive ability. Like there was any doubt after my body had just been ravaged. I was drenched in sweat, much more than when I’d gone through the same process in the clearing. Most of it was probably due to the location. The tent had become quite warm with so many people gathered in it.

“Mate!” I heard Josh say from nearby, the word drawn out. “It was like you were sweating rainbows. Awesome.” From his tone it was clear he’d enjoyed the show. Several people chuckled, and I found myself joining in weakly.

“Really?” I asked, looking up. “I wish it had felt like rainbows inside, too.” I started to stand up with a groan, and Brad stepped forward quickly to give me a hand. I gave him a grateful nod.

“It was truly remarkable,” one of the scientists said as I stood there stretching my neck from side to side and then rolling my shoulders to loosen the tension that had set in. “You had multi-colored light seemingly seeping into your skin, all over your body.”

“What exactly did you do?” another one of the team asked.

I explained how I had unlocked the ability from within my knowledge core by using up some of my xp, and how that energy had then been used to apply it to my body. I told them what the ability did, and then I explained that it would help me finish constructing dungeon rooms faster.

A bunch of them started talking about how what I could do resembled a game again, and I tuned them out. That had already come up earlier when they were asking me questions. I’d given them the theory Cax had told me when I’d first mentioned it to him and I wasn’t interested in rehashing the matter.

“Now, I’ve already made a small room just over there,” I announced, gesturing outside the tent in the direction of my Prep Room. “What I’m going to do now is make a way down there, so I need to concentrate for a bit.”

I pulled Brad and Steve aside. “There’s a small chance this might attract some of the infected animals. Are you up to standing guard outside?” I’d already talked this over with Cax, and he didn’t think it likely, but it was better to be prepared. He’d said that the small size of the room meant it would be like using a candle flame to draw the wildlife in, whereas the big room we were going to make would be akin to a roaring bonfire or a spotlight shining up into the sky.

I’d been worried about the dungeon at home, but he assured me that because of its greater depth and the fact there was no entrance, there wasn’t any risk of it being sensed.

Brad looked thoughtful. “I’m not sure if our weapons are in firing condition after whatever was done to them in the forest. We can’t exactly test them here, either.” Steve nodded in agreement. Brad continued. “Let me go and talk with Ms. Anders and see what she can arrange. Hold off until I get back.” He left the tent, ignoring the protests of the younger government team members telling him he had to stay there.

As soon as he left, David came up to me, and without any mention of his earlier behavior, started asking me a question. I don’t think so, mate, I thought, annoyed. My aversion to confrontation went out the window when it was someone like this who so dearly deserved it. Being tired and having had to be so patient all night definitely helped me let loose, too. I help up a hand, cutting him off.

“Not tonight. I understand you didn’t believe what I was saying, and that was to be expected. But the way you went about expressing it…” I shook my head. “You were just mean. I’m not interested in dealing with someone who makes themselves feel good by treating others so poorly. Maybe another day.” I couldn’t understand the stunned look on his face. Surely I’m not the first person to call him out on his behavior?

Pulling himself together, he mumbled a half-hearted apology while looking put-out the entire time. When he finished speaking, I felt a tingle in my mind and I just knew, with overwhelming certainty, that he was lying to me. I couldn’t help but laugh, which made him turn red with anger. I didn’t need magic to know he wasn’t being genuine, but at least now I knew what it felt like when Persuasion picked up on a lie.

“Sorry,” I said, actually meaning it. “I shouldn’t have laughed. But you really need to work on your apologies. Now, I have some work to do.” I turned my back on him and walked over to a corner to get some privacy, leaving a fuming David behind with Steve smiling broadly beside him.

I wanted to have the entrance design ready to go as soon as I got the go-ahead, so I got stuck into working out how to make it. I dove into my interface and found that I could either make a ramp or a staircase. I went with the staircase option and the now familiar wire outline appeared in my vision. I wanted to keep it simple, so I left it as a standard, straight design. I sent it into the ground until the base lay up against the floor of the dungeon room, watching it through the special view window that allowed me to see within the ground it traveled through.

I stretched the staircase back until the angle it was at seemed like it would be manageable to climb up and down. The text below the view window let me know it was at a 40-degree angle, extended six meters back, and consisted of 20 steps. It was wide enough for one person to comfortably walk down without brushing up against the sides. The top of the staircase would open up almost exactly in the middle of the tent, keeping anyone outside from seeing a thing. Perfect, I thought happily. I hope they don’t mind cutting a hole in the floor, though.

The best part was that it would barely take any mana to make at all. I’d be able to complete it in just a few minutes. I saved the design so I could quickly use it again in the future, and then waited for Brad to get back. I knew I should go and see how my friends were handling all this, but I really wanted to evolve my Heal spell. I’ll be a good friend later, I told myself, and then excitedly pulled up the notification I’d minimized before.

Congratulations!

You have gained a sufficient amount of insight into your [Heal] spell to reach Rank 2.

Apply your insights to evolve your spell in one of the following ways:

1) You will be able to apply the healing energy more efficiently. Permanent 10 mana point reduction to spell cost.

2) You will be able to control the healing energy better, allowing you to extend it outside of your body. Spell will become ranged, usable on targets within 10 meters of you.

3) You will be able to heal even the most serious of injuries. Regrow lost limbs and reverse other permanent damage. Multiple applications of the spell will be required, dependent on the severity of the damage you are attempting to undo.

Woah! I wanted them all! I thought carefully about all of the choices but couldn’t make up my mind. Finally, I reluctantly crossed the second one off. Up to now, I hadn’t needed to heal someone from a distance. While it would be a nice addition and I could imagine several cases where it would be useful, it wasn’t necessary.

That left a cheaper spell cost or being able to reverse permanent damage such as a lost leg. I knew the last option was the clear winner, but I’d been in the situation several times where I couldn’t use my healing spell because I didn’t have enough mana. Making it cheaper might actually save a life. But to be able to regrow a limb, or teeth, or maybe even hair!? I could make a fortune charging rich guys who want to get their hair back, I thought excitedly, eyes wide as I imagined myself as a millionaire.

“Cax, tiebreaker please,” I begged as I turned to him for help.

“Definitely the last one,” he said without hesitation. “There’s actually a spell for it that you could learn on its own, but it’s fairly expensive. And if you were to merge it into your Heal spell later, the mana cost would go up considerably. Besides, with your improved mana regeneration, the current cost of 30mp might not be as big a problem now.” Then, in a slightly exasperated tone, he reminded me, “Also, like I told you before, you simply need to learn a new Life spell and get it up to rank 2. Once your Life affinity goes up to the second Tier, you’ll see a reduction in cost for all the associated spells.”

“I know, I know,” I told him defensively. “I’ve been wanting to do some grinding to get my abilities and spells to higher ranks, but there’s always something that needs doing.”

“Find the time,” was all he said before falling silent.

I sighed inwardly, and then made my choice. My Heal spell could now undo permanent damage.

I must have taken longer than I realized because when I focused back on my surroundings, I found Anita and Brad standing nearby, waiting for me to finish whatever I’d clearly been doing. Once I acknowledged their presence, they came over.

“Officer Saunders informed me of your request. The police were still arranging measures to deal with the conditions in the forest, so they hadn’t gone in yet. I have tasked the police officers who were on hand for the search to stand nearby and maintain a watch on the forest instead. They were unhappy to be told they weren’t allowed to look for the missing person, so this will at least give them something to do. They weren’t told exactly what to look out for, only that it was possible wild animals might approach and that lethal force was to be used. They’ve also been instructed not to come too close to this tent, so you will have privacy to do whatever you need to.”

I couldn’t help but flash a smile at her. “This might be inappropriate, but I just have to say, you are amazing!” She didn’t respond, but the corner of her mouth twitched a bit.

“I was also informed of what you said regarding the room attracting the infected animals. I would like to stress how important it is that nothing gets out into the general populace.” I wasn’t sure if she was referencing the corrupting disease or information, and wasn’t brave enough to ask which she meant. Continuing, she said, “As such, I’d like you to make completing the room a priority. How long will you need to get it done?”

“I’m going to make a way into the room I made earlier. I guess you’d call it a workroom. That won’t take long. Once I’m in there, it’s going to take me a day to finish making the main room I told you about. I’m going to keep at it until it’s done.” She gave me an approving look.

“Actually, I don’t really have a choice in that,” I clarified, wanting her to know the reason so she wouldn’t try to drag me out of there to do something else. “I’ll only be able to take one-hour breaks once I get started or it will all fall apart. If you can arrange it, I’d appreciate it if you could get some food sent down to me so I can keep going.”

“I’ll make it happen,” she assured me.

Giving her another smile, I found the staircase template I’d prepared earlier and then warned everyone to avoid the area where it would open up. I activated the process and after only a couple of minutes the ground trembled and the noise of the earth shifting drifted up faintly as the mana did its thing. The worried cries around me reminded me I’d forgotten to warn them about that part. I’ll have to remember that for next time. The tent floor sagged down slightly in the area I’d indicated as the ground opened up there.

15xp for that. Nice, I thought to myself as it completed. I let everyone know it was done and asked someone to cut open the tent floor so I could access the staircase. Most of them were just looking at me, unmoving. I couldn’t tell if the expressions on their faces were fear or awe. Considering I’d just made the earth itself move, I guess it was probably a mix of the two. I had to admit, compared to the magic I’d shown them before, it was a much bigger display of power.

“Umm, please?” I said, trying to keep my voice soft so as not to startle them more. One hearty soul snapped out of her shock and grabbed a cutter from one of the boxes along the side. She began slicing into the floor around the hole and had it exposed in no time. Everyone gathered around to see what was there.

A passage down into the earth was clearly illuminated by the same white glow as in my dungeon at home. The light permeated the steps and walls of the magically created staircase, allowing me to see it was all colored a uniform light gray without any streaking. The opening extended out a couple of meters in front of the first step, so as you walked down, your head wouldn’t hit the ground in front of you.

I grinned at my friends standing behind all the government team members. Here was my chance to make up for ignoring them before. “Want a tour, boys?”

Without hesitation, they eagerly pushed their way to the front, excited smiles on their faces. There were some muttered protests coming from people who probably thought they were more worthy of going first. “Don’t worry,” I told everyone. “You’ll all get a chance to see it. I’m going to be stuck down there for about 24 hours, so I’d appreciate the company. It won’t require much focus for me to make the bigger room, so I’ll be able to talk. I basically just have to keep pouring energy into the structure and maintain its integrity until it’s done.”

That quieted most of them, and I simply ignored the rest. Anyone who thought I wouldn’t put my friends first was dreaming. I started walking down the stairs with Josh, Tony and Jared following closely behind. Just like with the dungeon room, the steps were smooth but not slippery at all. There was no railing to hold onto, but the wall was well within reach. By trailing my hand along the side as I descended the stairs, there was no danger of falling.

When I got to the bottom, I realized I’d forgotten something as I stared at a blank wall in front of me.

“Hang on, guys,” I called over my shoulder. “Just need to put in a door.”

I found the section for it in my interface, and then stretched the wireframe to cover a section as wide as the staircase and almost all the way to the top. I left the bottom completely smooth and open so it would connect cleanly to the base of the staircase.

It barely took a minute for the process to complete, and I enjoyed the exclamations of amazement from my friends as they watched it happen. I realized that instead of disappearing, the wall seemed to be retracting into the ceiling and the adjacent sides of the room. That probably meant I’d be able to close the entrance pretty easily if I wanted to, simply by moving the material back into place.

Just after the opening finished forming, I felt my skin tingle as the concentrated mana contained within the dungeon reached out and enveloped me. I immediately felt invigorated as the vibrant energy flowed around and within me. I closed my eyes and sighed in contentment as most of my fatigue and stress melted away. I really need to spend more time in my dungeon, I thought appreciatively. I didn’t have long to enjoy the refreshing sensation, unfortunately, before my attention was drawn upwards as exclamations of surprise and alarm came from the tent above.

All four of us gazed up at the staircase’s opening, but I couldn’t see anything from here. I ran back up the stairs, pushing past my friends and pressing them against the wall of the narrow staircase. “Go down into the room and stay there,” I told them as I went by. I wanted them safely out of the way in case whatever was causing the commotion was dangerous.

As my feet left the last step, I summoned my staff and looked around the tent. It took my mind a couple of seconds to work out what was going on. Apart from the illumination coming from the staircase’s magical radiance, the space was dark. All the lights were out. Thanks to the glow emanating from the dungeon, I could make out people around the portable lights and the generators, fiddling with the cables and switches to try and get them turned back on. Others were attempting to switch on their phones, but the screens remained black.

I knew immediately what was going on. This had happened as soon as I’d made the door and opened up the dungeon, releasing the concentrated mana contained inside. It must have made it all the way up here. It seemed like the energy from the Void wasn’t the only thing that could interfere with our technology.

Well that’s just great, I thought dejectedly, watching the people around me become more and more agitated as all of the devices they relied on failed to respond.