As eager as I was to find out what was going on with the loot, security was the priority. Casting a longing look at the vibrant multi-colored light surrounding the body of the Void kangaroo and the two Void birds, I walked over to where Brad was still sitting on the floor. On the way, I answered Steve’s question from earlier about what we should do now.

“First, we get the defenses back in order.” I put my hand on Brad’s shoulder and cast Heal, ignoring his objections. “You’re worth more than any of my defenders,” I told him honestly. I remembered how he had shielded me and kept me safe throughout the battle. “And this is my way of saying sorry for throwing you across the floor,” I added softly, not meeting his eyes.

“Believe me, I get it.” He sighed in a mix of sympathetic understanding and relief from the pain. “Just don’t make a habit of it. You’re freakishly strong,” he complained, making a show of rolling his shoulder as though it still pained him. I knew he was just joking since the healing magic had taken care of his injuries. He had a point, though. I was now level 5, and that meant my physical attributes were almost twice as powerful as a human in peak condition. I’d have to be more careful about how I handled things. Losing my temper like that and lashing out could have serious consequences.

Steve wandered over to us and slapped me on the back. “I’m with the big guy here,” he said, gesturing down at Brad. “I almost shit myself when I thought you were going to charge at me! Thought I’d end up at the bottom of the pit.”

And yet you still stood there to keep me from doing something stupid, I thought, taking a moment to appreciate the guts that had taken.

Turning to meet his eyes, I told him, “Thanks for putting your body on the line to stop me from rushing out there.”

“I wasn’t in any real danger,” he said dismissively. “I actually came up with a plan. If you tried to get past me, I was going to grab you and spin us in the air so you would come down on the spikes and cushion the fall for me.”

I stared at him in mock outrage. “Your job is to protect me!”

“Yeah, but can’t spend the money if I’m dead,” he pointed out.

“There is no money if I’m dead,” I countered.

“Which is why I’m happy you came to your senses,” he finished calmly, and we both had a little chuckle.

Brad let us have a moment before interrupting, the experienced officer likely realizing our need to release some stress. “If you boys are done,” he said dryly, “Steve, I want you to go up and check on the situation there. Come back down immediately this time.” He looked around the bloodstained room full of dead wildlife, the loss of life quite staggering when you considered it all together. He shook his head. I wasn’t sure if it was in disbelief or regret. “We’re this room’s defenders until Dean can make more.”

With that reminder, I quickly began creating a skeleton. Based on what I’d seen during the fight, they were the most well-rounded of the defenders I’d used. A key point was also that without any flesh, they didn’t seem to be susceptible to the Void energy. I would look through my other options later for something better, but for now, I wanted to focus on just getting some defenders ready as soon as possible.

As Steve headed up, I saw him gingerly stepping over the many bodies of the slain animals. Recognizing the problem, I mentally ordered the injured skeleton that had survived the assault to begin gathering them in the corner furthest away from the tunnel. They wouldn’t get in our way there if we needed to fight. I told it to focus on clearing a path between the two entrances first. It was best if I let my defender take care of the work instead of us doing it ourselves. Not only because it was a disgusting job, but also because we might be risking infection by handling the tainted animals.

Brad, meanwhile, had retrieved his shield and was inspecting it while standing near the pit, keeping half an eye on the tunnel entrance. With him looking out for trouble, I was free to do other things. I kept my right hand extended while the energy to form the skeleton was being pulled together in front of me, and then turned my attention to the notifications that were waiting for me.

“I took care of the usual damage and experience ones,” Cax told me, picking up on my intentions. “Just so you know, you got 183 experience points from the battle.” He sounded happy. I know I was. I could get a lot done with that much xp! “These remaining notifications are all for you.” Curious at the excitement I was feeling from him, I pulled up the first one, making sure to keep enough of my focus on forming the skeleton so my Create ability didn’t cut off.

Congratulations!

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

Beautiful! I thought, smiling broadly. The last dart that had hit the woman’s back had been enough to push the spell up to the next rank. They may have gotten away, but I took comfort in this small consolation prize.

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

1) Compress the light energy further, adding extra power to the spell at no extra cost. Damage will be increased by 50%.

2) You will be able to lock the dart onto a specific point. The dart will make minor adjustments in flight in order to hit the designated area.

3) You will be able to split the dart, forming two separate projectiles. Each dart will do half the maximum damage. They can be directed at the same or different targets.

Interesting choices, I thought appreciatively. That last one would have been useful with the birds. Considering how closely together they’d been flying, I would have been able to knock two out of the sky just by blindly casting the spell. In a normal situation, though, I didn’t like my chances of hitting a single target with the double darts, let alone two different enemies. Aiming one projectile was difficult enough, so I had to imagine trying to direct two would be much harder. I was leaning towards the second option, the one to help with aiming, for that very reason. The first one that would increase the damage was tempting, too. Light Dart was a cheap spell, but it had very low damage as well. It took too many hits to finish off a target. My contemplations were interrupted by Cax’s excited comment.

“You should look at the other notification before you make your choice.”

Doing as he said, I couldn’t help whistling in happy surprise.

Congratulations!

You have gained sufficient understanding of your Light-affinity spells to reach the next Tier.

Your Light affinity is now Tier II.

Your increased familiarity with this magical discipline means all associated spells will now either require less mana, have an increased effect, or a combination of the two. Other improvements may also occur.

In addition, you will now be able to actively sense Light energy and control it in minor ways without requiring a spell.

I almost ruined the progress on the nearly completed skeleton by throwing my hands up in celebration, but I managed to restrain myself and kept my hand in contact with the solidifying shape of my defender. It finished before I could get back to considering the notifications. I gave it its orders and it took up a position next to Brad in front of the pit, taking over the guard duties. Brad walked over to me as I got started on a second skeleton. He was careful to avoid the faint shimmer that was visible in front of me as the energy began gathering. I held my left hand up quickly to cut him off as he went to say something. “Just a minute. I need to take care of something real quick.”

I pulled up the information on my Light Dart spell to see how reaching Tier II in Light magic had affected it. I was happy to see the damage had increased from 10 to 20 points, and the range had gone up from 20 meters to 30 meters. The mana cost, though, remained the same at 10 points. Oh well. The notification had mentioned that not everything might change. It was still a reasonable cost, and doubling the damage was a huge benefit all by itself. This information made me reevaluate how to evolve Light Dart.

“The question now, then, is how to evolve the spell,” I thought at Cax. “It’s already got a boost to its damage thanks to the Tier increase. Do I go for the extra damage evolution to push it up even more to a total of 30 damage points, or should I take the targeting assistance?”

“Targeting,” he replied without hesitation. “A little extra damage won’t make a difference if you can’t hit your target. And that has been a problem for you,” he casually pointed out.

Glossing over the reminder of my misses, I selected the targeting evolution. I liked to think I was getting better, but if I was being honest, most of my targets had been big and stationary. Having magical help at hitting smaller or moving targets was almost a necessity. With the notifications taken care of, I focused in on Brad. “Sorry. I just got a bump in my magic and wanted to sort it out before anything comes in here.”

“What kind of bump?” he asked curiously.

I quickly explained about magical affinities and how spells belonged to different ones. “So, my Light magic just became stronger, which means all the spells connected to it got a boost. Those beams of light I can shoot will now do double the damage.”

He grunted approvingly. “Very nice. With those Void creatures obviously getting stronger and smarter, you’re going to have to push yourself. Keep working on the magic.” He shook his head slightly and muttered to himself, “Can’t believe I just said that. Is this my life now?”

I grinned at him slightly. I didn’t bother answering his question. He’d shown himself to be a pragmatic guy, and he’d been dealing with all this weirdness and new information extremely well. He didn’t need any coddling from me. “Will do. So, what’s up?”

He gathered himself and held his shield up off to the side of the forming skeleton. “Take a look at this.” Turning my body slightly, I looked over and quickly noticed what he wanted me to see. Around the area that had been hit by the ball of Void energy Tim had thrown at me, the plastic looked like it had been melted away. Traces of a black substance still remained around the edges, but it seemed inactive now.

“It wasn’t like this just after the impact,” Brad told me. “I remember seeing a crack in the shield and some black stuff around it, but that was it.”

“The Void energy can eat through our things?!” I asked incredulously, immediately catching on.

“Looks like it, but it didn’t get too far. I’m no scientist, but I’d say it needs living material to feed on. This looks like it just stopped. Like it ran out of gas.”

“That’s a bit of good news, at least,” I said. “If those things are going to start throwing energy balls around like that, though, we’re definitely going to need some decent protection to keep it off our skin.” I looked over the riot gear he was wearing, noticing for the first time the poor condition it was in. “Pretty sure our regular items aren’t going to be enough for much longer. That looks like it’s on its last legs after just one fight.”

He looked himself over, examining his arm and the many scratches that ran along the thick padding. Some of them looked like they’d almost broken through. “It shouldn’t have been possible for those birds to do this much damage with their puny beaks and claws. This material is designed to stop blades.” He shook his head. “None of this crazy stuff should be possible, so I guess that’s just one more to add to the list.”

The second skeleton finished forming, and I gave it orders to join the other and watch over the tunnel. Turning my attention back to Brad, I told him, “Don’t worry. I’ll get working on making some better gear for everyone to use as soon as I can.” That had been the original plan, but I hadn’t had time to do it before the attack on the dungeon had begun.

I started on a third skeleton just as Steve came running back down the stairs at the other end of the room. He slowed down when he saw we were ok. “Good. You kept out of trouble this time,” he called out as he walked over, having an easier time avoiding the bodies on the way back thanks to the cleaning my skeleton had already gotten done.

“Didn’t want you to miss out on any of the fun again,” Brad replied loudly. “How’s it look up there?”

“Calm,” Steve said, frowning slightly. “Like, real calm. They’ve got the spotlights sweeping the forest. There’s nothing moving out there, and they haven’t heard any of those freaky screams since the Void beasts ran away. It looks like they’ve all left the area.”

“That would be nice,” I said, desperately hoping it was true. The more time we had to reset the defenses, the better. I really didn’t like the idea of Tim and the others roaming around the forest doing who knows what, but if it meant more time to prepare, I could live with it. My eyes lit up as I realized what else the reprieve gave me. Time to loot! If another attack wasn’t imminent, I could spare a few minutes from making defenders to see what I’d been rewarded with. I tapped my foot impatiently, waiting for the skeleton I was in the middle of creating to finish forming.

As soon as it did, I walked towards the glowing corpse of the kangaroo, ordering the third skeleton to the edge of the pit as I went. I called Brad and Steve over. “Do you guys want to see something cool?” They joined me next to the body, looking on curiously. I looked at the floor covered in black blood that had oozed out of the kangaroo’s savaged throat in distaste. My clothes were already ruined, so I wasn’t really worried about that. I’d be using Create to make some more later. No, I really didn’t want whatever I was about to get as loot appearing and being immediately covered with the tainted blood.

“You’re forgetting the dungeon’s ability to clean itself,” Cax said, sending a distinct pulse of disappointment that seemed deliberate rather than a natural part of our bond.

“Genius!” I blurted out loudly, focusing on the good idea and ignoring Cax’s directed use of our bond to try and emphasize his displeasure at my forgetfulness.

Brad and Steve were looking at me, faint concern and confusion on their faces at my random outburst. I’d been fairly careful to only speak to Cax within my mind when I was around others, so it made sense their first instinct was to worry about my mental health.

“Sorry,” I said in a normal voice. “Not crazy. Cax just reminded me of something. Let me show you something else cool before the first cool thing.” The concern was no longer present, but my poor explanation did nothing to ease their confusion. “Just watch,” I said shortly, not bothering to explain any further.

I focused on the ever-present connection to the dungeon, drawing it to the forefront of my mind. I concentrated and sent my instructions along the link between us. Clean away the blood and other substances, but leave the bodies. A thought occurred to me. Also get rid of the dead defenders. There was no reason to keep their remains around. Then, to avoid this problem in the future, I added one more direction. Continue doing this at all times. There. That should go a long way to helping us avoid infection from the blood, and who knows what other diseases that could occur if it was left to lie around.

As the dungeon’s magic began to work, I suddenly felt an irresistible need for some showmanship. I spread my arms wide and low to encompass the floor around us, and said, “Ta-da!”. As the blood, guts, and dirt tracked in by the animals began to melt into the floor throughout the room, Brad and Steve began to hop on the spot, turning their bodies rapidly to look all around. Resisting the urge to laugh, I told them, “Relax! It’s just cleaning away the waste. You’re fine.” They settled down once they realized they weren’t going to be sucked down into the ground with the filth.

The room was now spotless. Well, apart from the bodies that still lay around. I watched with a mixture of happiness and revulsion as the skeleton pushed one towards the dumping corner and the blood trail it left behind magically disappeared as it went. I frowned when I saw the stains around Brad and Steve were still there. What’s going on?

“Remember when I told you every living thing has an aura? Well, the dungeon is unable to affect the area directly around them as a result. Their aura pushes back against its magic. That is true even of basic auras such as the ones the two officers possess.”

I looked down at the clean ground around me, considering the difference.

“That’s because…” Cax began before I cut him off.

“I know this one!” I quickly spoke over him. “You told me before that my aura’s signature is the same as the dungeon’s because it’s a part of me. That means that there’s no pushback against the dungeon’s magic, right?”

I smiled slightly as I sensed Cax’s approval tinged slightly with disappointment that he hadn’t gotten to give me another lesson. Looking at Brad and Steve, I told them to walk away until the filth that had been on the ground around them disappeared, and then I called them back.

Brad gestured at the skeleton gathering all the bodies as they walked back over. “You might want to have him clear out the pit, too. It’s like a slaughterhouse down there.”

I took a deep breath to keep myself from yelling. I just want to loot! Why are there so many things to do?! Brad was right, though. The blood and other waste would have been taken care of now, but I couldn’t leave the bodies there for the same reason I had the skeleton collecting the ones up here. I once again went into the connection I had with my dungeon. I willed the floor at the bottom of the pit to flow up, and as it followed my command, it pushed the corpses off the stone spikes and carried them all up to the top. From where we were standing, we suddenly saw a bunch of bodies appear from out of the hole and lie at the feet of the skeletons standing guard.

I ordered those skeletons to just push them away from the entrance so I could reset the trap. The skeleton on cleanup duty would get around to them later. I was disappointed to see there was nothing for me to loot within the pile of bodies. Once the section in front of the tunnel had been cleared, I commanded the floor to recede to its previous depth. All that was left in the pit now were spotless stone spikes awaiting their next victims. A thin stone cover then formed over the top, once again concealing the trap’s existence.

The skeletons retook their positions at the edge of the hidden pit. Their attention was entirely focused on the tunnel leading to the forest as they stood completely motionless, patiently awaiting anything that attempted to enter my dungeon.

“Alright. No more distractions!” I announced firmly. “Now for the real cool thing I wanted to show you.” I crouched and put my hand lightly on the kangaroo’s side, and then activated my Loot ability. The abundant energy remaining around the body began to fade away as the familiar shimmer of an item being created began to take shape beside it. I watched in anticipation, wondering what amazing loot I was about to receive. With that much energy gathered on the body, it was bound to be something good. Various fanciful ideas ran through my head. A full suit of armor that can turn me invisible. A wand that can shoot fireballs. A necklace that lets me read people’s minds.

As the item finished coalescing, my hopes were dashed. It was just a thin, white disc as big as my palm. It was covered in runes that lent it a certain stylish look, but still, it wasn’t the impressive treasure I’d been imagining. Thanks to my Enchanting profession, I was able to understand some of the individual symbols. The translation popped into my head as I looked at them. Power, open, view, cast. Simple associations that did nothing to help me understand how they all fit together. I would need to improve my enchanting skill a fair bit before I could reach that stage. A glimmer of recognition from Cax made me think that maybe he had some idea what it was, though. Before I could ask him, I was interrupted by Steve.

“Umm, that was nice and all,” he said gently, as though not wanting to offend me, “but, to be honest, the room cleaning was much more impressive.”

I glared at him. “Obviously, I was expecting something a bit more amazing than this.” I gestured down at the fairly simple looking piece of loot.

“Ignore him,” Cax said urgently. The glimmer had turned into a full-blown spark, and I got a strong sense of anticipation from him. “Analyze it, quickly!”

Appearances can be deceiving, I thought hopefully. Cax certainly seemed to think so. I cast Analyze and began to read about the item. “Oh, wow!” I mumbled in disbelief.

Awakening Disc

Unlock a person’s magical potential and provide them with an interface to assist them in its use.

Place this disc on the chest of a human, against the skin. Channel 200 points of mana into it. The disc will activate and be consumed in the process.

This item required a tremendous amount of energy to generate within the confines of the looting system. Your unique qualities are too difficult to replicate, but this will create standard magic users. Opportunities like this may be difficult to duplicate in the future. Use this disc wisely to empower those you trust to assist you in the planet’s defense.

I looked up at the two officers who stood quietly watching me. “This is a bloody game changer,” was all I could think to say.

Cax was a little more articulate. “This is likely to be the most valuable thing you will ever receive,” he told me solemnly. “On my world, the Enchanter’s Guild used something similar to this and kept its method of production a closely guarded secret. I never absorbed anyone who had intimate knowledge of the item, unfortunately. The design I saw in their memories of the one used on them was different from this, but the function is the same.” His tone suddenly changed, becoming awestruck. “And that note at the end…the World Spirit had a hand in this.”

I agreed. It was personally addressed to me, and there was only one entity I knew of that could do something like that. “How could it have gotten the information on how to make something that was used on your world?”

“It is a planetary-level being,” he said incredulously, as though he couldn’t believe I would ask such a dumb question. “It can surely work out something like this on its own. And even if it couldn’t, it would be a simple matter for it to obtain the enchantments facilitating your interface from you and reconstruct them.” His tone changed to one of curiosity. “What you should be focused on is that it seems like the Spirit is limited in what it can do. That mention of the looting system…it never occurred to me that such a powerful entity would also be bound by the rules of the universe.”

I didn’t really care about any limitations the World Spirit might be under. All I cared was that it was able to take such a direct action to assist us. Instead of asking for more, I’d be happy with all the help I could get. And I was also glad to have another mystery solved. It was clear now why all the other bodies weren’t able to be looted. The Spirit had redirected all the energy onto the bodies of the Void puppets. At a guess, I’d say it had chosen those vessels because they were the only ones capable of containing that much extra energy. My train of thought cut off as soon as the thought of the other two bodies entered my mind.

Eyes wide, I jumped over the kangaroo’s body and scrambled to the closest of the two birds, ignoring the guys’ startled questions. I looted the body, and as the energy formed into an identical white disc, I let out an excited, “Yes!”. Running to the last glowing body, I was soon rewarded with a third disc. Collapsing to the dungeon floor, I looked up at the ceiling with a big grin on my face. Brad’s head suddenly blocked my view.

“We’re going to need you to tell us what’s going on,” he said seriously.

I pushed myself up, feeling tired yet somehow lighter than I had in a long time. I walked around and retrieved the three discs, holding them carefully. They felt extremely hard and not at all fragile, but I wasn’t going to take any chances.

“These beautiful things here,” I began, looking down at them before lifting my gaze to meet Brad and Steve’s, “can give any person the ability to use magic.”

“You mean, like you can?” Brad asked, looking at the relatively unassuming items in my hands doubtfully.

“Yes. Well, not quite. Not all this dungeon stuff,” I clarified, rolling my head around to indicate the room we were standing in. I didn’t want to loosen my grip on the discs. “Those are unique abilities I got from joining with Cax. But healing people, shooting darts, things like that, yes.”

“Will it make me better looking like you?” Steve asked eagerly, typically focusing on the least important part of the groundbreaking news. Well, to be fair, maybe not the least, I thought. I do really enjoy it.

“There’s no way you’d end up looking as good as me. It’s magic, not a miracle,” I told him with a straight face, “but yeah, it will probably fix you up a little.”

“Nice!” he said, drawing the word out with a dreamy look on his face.

Seeing that I wasn’t joking about the function of the discs, Brad spoke up quickly. “Put those things into your magic box now,” he told me urgently. His tone and the serious look on his face stopped me from correcting his incorrect choice of words describing my inventory ability.

“Why?” I asked, still holding onto them. I didn’t understand why he wasn’t celebrating our good fortune.

“Because people will kill to get their hands on them.” He stepped in closer as though to block the sight of them, seeming afraid someone would suddenly enter the room and see them. “Put them away.”

I did as he said, making them disappear with a thought, even though I didn’t really believe what he’d said.

He must have noticed the doubt on my face. He sighed and said, “I’m not sure what kind of life you’ve led up to this point, but people aren’t all nice. And even the good ones do stupid things. For the chance at gaining magic, hell, just for the chance of drastically improving their appearance, people would do some crazy things.”

Steve was nodding along, no longer looking quite so happy. “Well, it won’t do them any good even if they do manage to get them somehow,” I told Brad. “They won’t work without me adding energy into them.” And actually, I don’t even have enough mana to use them yet. I didn’t bother to tell them that. I just needed to level up one more time, then I’d have a large enough mana pool to use them. I had plenty of xp at the moment, so that wasn’t a problem.

He rubbed his forehead, just above his eyes, tiredly. “Fantastic,” he mumbled. “That just means you’re definitely going to need protecting once people find out about these things, no matter how you feel about it. The type of people who wouldn’t hesitate to kill to get one of those discs won’t have any issues trying to force you to use it on them.”

“That wouldn’t end well for them,” I told him coldly, subconsciously straightening my back and standing tall on hearing his assumption that my life might be threatened. Whatever he saw in my eyes made him lean back slightly, a surprised look flashing across his face. “But don’t worry. I get your point. I’ll keep quiet about them until we talk to Ms. Anders.”

“Good,” he said, still eyeing me a little warily. “I don’t envy her having to choose who gets them. But I guess that decision will probably be taken away from her. I just hope they don’t waste time discussing it and choose quickly. We could definitely use the extra help.”

“Don’t you two want them?” I asked curiously. Before all of this, if someone had dangled a way to gain magical abilities in front of me, I would have been all over it. Definitely not enough to kill, but realizing the lengths I would have been willing to go to, I began to understand Brad’s warning a little more.

“Of course!” Steve exclaimed. Brad simply nodded. Then he said, “But we need to think about what gives us the best chance of fighting back against the Void. And those decisions will be made by people higher up than us.”

Steve didn’t look happy about that, but he didn’t disagree. I considered the matter seriously. I was still excited to have these awakening discs, but it seemed they were going to cause more problems than I’d realized. I briefly considered leveling up right now and just using two of the discs on the officers. Steve would probably go for it, but Brad seemed like he’d fight me on it. I didn’t want to force him or create tension between the two of them.

Damn politics. It was frustrating, but I consoled myself with the thought that nobody could get at the discs while they were safe in my storage, and they were useless without me to activate them. If Anita or the people she worked for tried to make me use them on someone I didn’t agree with, they were going to be disappointed. The World Spirit had told me to empower those I trust, and that’s exactly what I planned on doing. I could already guess the answer, but it was worth checking. “If I absorb one of the discs, I won’t be able to create any copies yet, right?”

“That is correct,” Cax let me know. “You will need to get your Enchanting profession up to a much higher Tier before you can make something this advanced. You would be better off using all three of the discs now and then using your Research ability later to gain a pattern for a similar item. All the information to do so lies in your core and your mind.”

Brad clapped me on the shoulder, bringing me out of my thoughts. “Come on. Finish making your defenders so we can get out of here. I’m hungry, and we need to make a report.”