We were soon sitting down at one of the long collapsible tables in the tent being used as a dining room. I’d cast Aura of Recovery on the walk over. It was a much easier spell to work on improving since it didn’t alter my perception like Domain did. And the boost it gave all of us was much appreciated after everything we’d been through.

We each had a plate in front of us with a nice big steak and a few sausages on it, and there was a large bowl of mixed salad in the middle of the table. Instead of a meeting-style meal like we’d been expecting, Anita had cleared the place out for us. She’d told us we’d earned a break, then left to give the recording she’d made to the scientists. She said that they could go through it all while we ate, and then we could have a meeting after.

I absorbed the second plate set aside for me while Brad and Steve got stuck into theirs. Almost drooling at how good the food smelled, I reached for the tomato sauce bottle in the middle of the table. I glared at Steve as he slapped my hand away. “What was that for?”

“Everything you touch disappears,” he mumbled with a mouth full of food. “Nobody takes my sauce.”

“I was going to put it back!” I defended myself.

“We arrested a shoplifter not long ago who said the same thing,” Brad casually mentioned between bites.

“Are you calling me a criminal?”

Brad just shrugged, but Steve laughed, spraying a little bit of food on the table. “Ha! That’s exactly what you are! A little klepto.”

I quickly snatched the bottle and covered the sausages with tomato sauce. “Fine. I don’t want to copy one that’s had your dirty hands all over it anyway.”

As I got stuck into the steak, Brad pointed at the bowl of greens with his knife. “Don’t forget the salad, kids.”

“No thanks, Dad,” Steve joked. “The meat’s got it beat.”

I didn’t say anything, suddenly feeling a little choked up. My dad had always used to try and force the salads on me too every time we had a barbecue. I suddenly realized how much Brad reminded me of him. A bit gruff, but dependable and always there to help me. I wonder if that’s part of the reason I feel so comfortable around him?

The rest of the meal passed mainly in silence as we focused on the food, and just enjoyed the chance to sit and take it easy. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had the luxury of having a sit-down meal without my head full of what I needed to do next. Until the army commander got here, our plans were basically on hold.

I retrieved my phone from my Inventory and saw there were several messages waiting for me. I looked through them while I ate. Of course, a couple were from Mum. She’d seen the videos on the news and the tone of her message was a mix between anger at not telling her about the fight myself, and worry for me. I was surprised she hadn’t stormed her way back into the park to check up on me.

As I read the second message from her, I couldn’t help smiling a little. Of course she’d tried. She was complaining that Anita had basically ordered her to stay away. Apparently, she’d been told that people would work out I was the one in the video if Mum was seen around the place, and that would put me in danger. I sent her a quick message to let her know I was fine.

The messages from my friends brought a full smile to my face. At first, they were just checking if I was ok too, and wondering if the person in the viral video was me. I felt a great sense of relief. If even they couldn’t make out my features in the footage, nobody should be able to. But it was the other stuff that really made me want to laugh. According to Josh, they’d cleaned out a bottle shop and had it all waiting for me so I could learn how to copy everything. They’d even sent some pictures. Cartons of various beers piled up on top of each other, bottles of spirits and mixers. The sheer amount took me by surprise. Maybe they were actually serious about buying everything in the shop. I sent back a message telling them to keep it safe, and that I’d take care of it the first chance I got. I also told them to chill what they could. I didn’t want to be making warm beers.

Feeling a lot lighter, I put my phone back into my Inventory. After all that had happened in the dungeon, and then finding out how serious things were becoming up here, something as simple as my mates planning a piss-up was a refreshing bit of normality. We finished eating soon enough, and I recast Aura of Recovery when it ended. Then we just sat around chatting until Anita came in with three other people.

Seeing the questioning looks on our faces, she said, “I thought it might be better to keep the meeting small. Everyone finished listening to the recording I made, and they’ve passed on their questions to the representatives I chose.” She indicated the three people with her.

“No lava loser,” I said happily under my breath, then winced as Anita shot me a sharp look. I guess it hadn’t been quiet enough. The two women with her looked confused, but the man had a good chuckle. I recognized him as one of the two scientists I’d given the empty vials and my bone ring to. If I remembered correctly, he was involved in trying to work out how to shield our technology. His eyes were twinkling now.

“Yes, I heard about the disparaging comments Dr. Sudditch is spreading around about you. I haven’t heard that particular name for him before, but I like it.” He winked at me and I flashed him a grateful smile. Anita turned her disapproving frown on him, but he pretended he didn’t notice and came over to shake our hands. “Dr. Richard Terrence. I’m representing those of us on the technical side of things.” He was still as enthusiastic and upbeat as I remembered from our first encounter. Since he seemed to share my opinion of David, he was my new best friend. It helped that he had a kind grandpa vibe going on.

The other two introduced themselves. Dr. Valerie Langstaff was another familiar face. The older lady had spoken up in our first meeting about all the ways the infection could spread and brought to our attention the precariousness of our situation. After hearing Anita’s news about how many people were coming forward worried that they’d been infected, it seemed her warnings had been spot-on. She was with the group tracking the spread and containment of the infection.

Then there was Dr. Amira Fadel. She was a bubbly woman, probably somewhere in her early forties. She’d been brought in only recently to go over the Void animal’s corpses and study the biological side of what we were dealing with. She was also going to take the lead on dealing with any infected people that came forward.

Once the introductions were taken care of, we all sat around the table. I was a little surprised there was nobody representing the rift research, but I thought it might be because they didn’t have anything to go on yet. Anita got right down to business. “Alright. Let’s start with the questions everyone has for Dean, then you can bring him up to speed on what you’ve been doing. We likely don’t have much time before the army arrives, so try to keep it brief.”

Dr. Fadel immediately leaned forward and eagerly asked, “Have you done something to the area around this tent? I feel really good for some reason.”

I explained about my Aura of Recovery spell, and she leaned even further over the table until she was halfway out of her seat. “I would love to run some tests while you have the spell active! It would be fascinating to see what effects your magic has on a cellular level.”

“Sure,” I told her, a little taken aback by her intensity. “Set something up and I’ll be there.”

Anita interrupted. “That will be up to our new boss. Who should be arriving shortly, so if we could get started…”

Before anyone else could ask a question, Dr. Fadel quickly asked another. “I find this whole magic thing fascinating. You said on the recording that one of your magics has improved. What does that mean?”

I explained it as best I understood. “The energy inside me, my mana, takes on the form of the type of energy according to the spell. So, when I cast a Light spell, my energy becomes Light energy. It works like that for all of the magical affinities I have. But now that my Light magic is at Tier II, I can apparently use Light energy directly instead of just converting my own energy. The problem is, I have to guide it all by myself.” I could see they didn’t understand why that was an issue. “When I cast a spell, it’s all automated. My mana is guided by the instructions within the spell to achieve the set result. Like a computer program, I guess. I’m not sure what I can actually manage by myself.” I shrugged. “I haven’t had a chance to try it out yet, so I don’t know how hard it will be.”

“Can you try it now?!” she asked, eyes wide at the chance of seeing magic firsthand.

I glanced at Anita, but she didn’t look like she was going to object. In fact, everyone seemed interested in seeing me attempt it. I had been wanting to try it out ever since hitting the higher Tier, so I wasn’t going to say no. I grinned at her and nodded. Her enthusiasm was a breath of fresh air, and I was actually grateful to her for the chance to recapture the feeling of wonder and discovery I’d initially had with my magic. It felt like lately everything had been about fighting or getting ready for fighting. It would be nice to just experiment with my magic.

“Any idea how to start?”

“It’s an active sense, so concentrate on seeing the Light energy around you. Then you need to focus on what you want the energy to do and impose your will on it,” Cax informed me.

I was a little apprehensive about possibly frying my eyes, but I just had to hope that my perception of Light would be regulated by the enchantments running my interface. And worst case, I figured I could always heal any damage done. Doing as Cax said, I concentrated and then had to squint slightly as the illumination in the room intensified suddenly. When my eyes adjusted to the added brightness, I noticed immediately that the light I was now seeing was not ordinary. There was a shimmer to it, as though it were in constant motion. It distorted my view of the people and objects in the room a little, but it was more a distraction than a hindrance. I explained what I was seeing to the others as I got used to the new type of sight.

Now to try and use it. I decided to go for something that should be relatively simple. I held my hand above the table and concentrated. I imagined my entire hand, from the fingertips to the wrist, glowing softly. I willed the Light energy near my hand to gather and felt it heed my call, making the image in my mind a reality.

I was surprised to find that even such a relatively simple display forced me to concentrate deeply to maintain my control of the Light energy. It felt like it didn’t want to remain in the same position, like it wanted to break out of the hold I had on it. I tried to increase the brightness of the glow, to pull in more energy from further out, but I had to give up. The strain had started to become noticeable, and I didn’t want to push myself too far. I released the Light energy I was holding in place and felt it disperse.

With a thought, my vision returned to normal, the shimmering brightness disappearing from sight. It was hard to believe that all that energy was right there around us, invisible to normal sight. I shook my head slowly in amazed disbelief.

I noticed everyone was looking at my hand. “What did you see?” I asked curiously.

“Your whole hand was glowing!” Steve offered before anyone else could answer. “It was really cool!”

A few of the others nodded. “It wasn’t particularly bright, but it was really impressive,” Dr. Fadel agreed excitedly. Even though it was a very basic display of magic, she looked overjoyed to have witnessed it.

“Even that little thing took a fair amount of focus,” I admitted. “I clearly need a lot more practice before I can do anything good with it.” I wasn’t discouraged, though. Quite the opposite. I had just done magic without relying on a spell! I just needed to work out how to get a better result than the dull glow I’d achieved. Maybe I should pull in the energy from further away first? It might be easy to then add in the closer energy while holding the first lot steady. Or maybe I need to work with the energy’s inclination to move instead of forcing it to hold still at all?

I could see a lot of ways to improve on what I’d done, but there was one thing I didn’t understand. “Why do people bother?” I asked Cax. “That required constant focus. It doesn’t seem like it would be useful if you’re in a hurry or in a fight. It’s much easier to just use spells.”

“Indeed,” Cax replied. “And with the evolutions that spells can get to make them stronger or more versatile, they are definitely the best option. However, there are some situations where directly manipulating a particular energy is beneficial. For one, consider your mana pool. When you run out, instead of waiting to regenerate your personal energy, you can simply access the energy in the world around you to accomplish your goal. Harnessing the energy directly is also the only way to create your own spells. Not everyone is fortunate to have a repository of spells within them for easy access. They either need to purchase them or find them as loot. If they have neither the funds nor the opportunity, experimenting until they design a spell is their only option.”

As much as I wanted to dive in deeper, I didn’t have time to consider what he’d said. With my magical display over, Anita pulled our attention back to the meeting. Later, I promised myself. The questioning continued, mostly concerning clarifications of what they’d heard on the recording Anita had made. Anything outside of my ability to answer was fielded by Cax, and I just repeated what he told me. One of the questions was about what leveling up actually meant, and why it would allow Tim to suddenly be able to shoot Void energy. Brad startled and promptly excused himself, leaving the tent.

I watched him go, puzzled, as I explained. “Well, it means you get enough energy to improve your physical form and to improve the amount of energy you have access to. The more energy you have, the more powerful the abilities you can use. I have no idea how these Void creatures gain access to their abilities, though. Maybe it’s simply unlocked when they reach a certain level of power, or maybe the Void gives it to them somehow.” I shrugged. “Cax and I basically know as much as you all do about what the Void is capable of.”

“How is he…it…?” Dr. Langstaff seemed confused about what to call Tim now, and rightly so, “able to level up?”

I shrugged. “The Void puppets might be able to feed directly off the Void energy to level up for all we know. Although, it’s probably mostly from killing animals in the forest. And people, I guess,” I added with a grimace. “But, like Brad mentioned in the recording, the animals that attacked the dungeon were all heavily infected and we think they were somehow connected to Tim and the other puppets. I want to know why the puppets didn’t just kill them to gain more levels. Plus, then the Void could have reanimated them and had stronger minions.” I shook my head. It was bothering me that I couldn’t work out why the Void would rely on regular animals instead of just turning them.

“Could it be that once the infection reaches a certain stage, the puppets can’t receive anything from killing them?” Dr. Terrence asked.

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Energy is energy.” I knew that if I were to kill a human, I’d get some experience. I was sure it was the same for Void creatures killing each other.

“It is probably for the best that you don’t mention that,” Cax told me quickly. “If they feel threatened by you, they may act irrationally.”

“I may not be as smart as you, but I’m not a complete idiot,” I told him.

“Maybe it has to do with the amount of Void energy in the area?” Dr. Fadel suggested. “It might be insufficient to support too many puppets, so they made use of infected creatures as well.”

“Wouldn’t that be nice,” Steve said softly, and we all nodded. But even if that were the case, with the rift actually getting bigger and Void energy continuing to pour down into the area the World Spirit was keeping contained, the amount of foreign energy was surely building.

Just then, Brad returned with the shield he’d left behind in the command tent and we all shifted our focus to him. “Sorry. I wanted to show you this. This is what the Void attack hit. You can still see residue from it around where the energy impacted it.” He passed the shield over and they all leaned in to get a good look.

I took the opportunity to ask a question of my own. “What have you found out about how the infection spreads? We noticed that the energy just sort of stopped on the shield instead of consuming the whole thing.”

Dr. Fadel answered. “I’ve been looking over the biological samples from the Void animals, and I believe a sample from you, too.” She must have noticed my puzzled look because she quickly clarified. “Your blood that was taken after the first attack.” I nodded as I remembered that my blood and some of Tully’s squad members’ blood had been taken after that first fight with Tim.

“By the way, I heard about how the samples were taken. Thank you for holding off on removing the infection,” Dr. Fadel told me earnestly. “I understand the risk you took in waiting to cure yourself.” I just nodded, and she continued. “The good news is, the infection shows up clearly under investigation. We are confident we’ll be able to screen people to find those who have been exposed to the Void.” Steve hadn’t been with us when Anita had mentioned that earlier, so he was suitably impressed. I just waited to hear the rest.

“The bad news,” Dr. Fadel said, “is that the infection seems to move very quickly. By the time I had a chance to inspect the samples, almost 24 hours had passed. By that time, more than half of the healthy cells had been overtaken by a strange dark substance that we can’t identify, but that must be from the Void. Our next focus is to work out the effect on behavior and health at varying stages of infection. I understand that extreme aggression is one effect, but it’s impossible to know how long after infection that would occur. I’m hoping our work at the clinic will provide us with some more information on this.”

“Clinic?” I asked quizzically, looking at Anita.

“Yes. For the people who may have been infected. We’ll discuss it more when the commander arrives, as it will be up to him to sign off on it.”

“Ok. How about the Void animals?” I asked Dr. Fadel. “Did you get anything useful out of them?”

“Not yet. Their blood, or whatever the substance inside them is, is completely black. There seems to be no cellular activity, so we are fairly certain they will remain in the state they are. Dead, that is,” she quickly clarified. “However, they are still contained in case they can somehow be reanimated again. This Void energy is well beyond any of us, so we are not sure what’s possible.”

Steve raised his hand hesitantly, as though not sure about his question. When he saw that everyone was looking at him expectantly, he asked, “How about a cure for infected people?”

Dr. Fadel gave a little laugh. “This isn’t a movie. We haven’t even begun trying,” she readily admitted. “We need to run a lot more tests and have a lot more information before we can even consider that. But again, with the way this infection is caused, we need to be prepared for the possibility that it may be beyond our medical technology’s ability to cure. Regardless, for at least the foreseeable future, Dean is going to be our only way of curing it.”

It wasn’t totally unexpected to hear that, but it still came as a bit of a shock. I had been hoping our technology could help take some of the pressure off me, but now I felt it settle heavier on my shoulders.

“As for this shield,” she said, changing focus as she knocked on it with her knuckles, “we are fairly certain that the Void energy requires living matter in order to spread, and this seems to confirm it.”

“That’s right,” Dr. Langstaff spoke up. “In fact, based on our study of all known contact and incidents involving infected animals and those Void monsters, we believe we have a solid understanding of how the infection can spread.”

I leaned forward, listening intently as she went on. “It seems to require either direct exposure to the energy coming out of the rift, or transmission through contact with an infected specimen. However, we are fairly certain that simple contact is not sufficient. It needs to be delivered through a scratch or bite.” She hesitated before adding, “Or magical means.” She seemed embarrassed to say those words. “It doesn’t appear to spread through the air.”

I was nodding along as I thought about it. “I think you might be right. All three of us were around a whole bunch of infected animals in the dungeon for a fairly long time. My constitution is special, but even Brad and Steve here didn’t become infected.” I frowned a little. “Although, that could be because of the dungeon’s influence. It might have protected them.”

Dr. Langstaff nodded. “And that’s the problem. We still don’t know enough about how any of this works. All we can do is make educated guesses. But from what we’ve observed to date, we feel it is a fairly accurate hypothesis.”

“As such,” Anita added, “we’ll be relaxing the decontamination procedures. Only those who come into direct contact with the Void creatures and forest will need to be checked over. Everyone else can come and go as they please.”

With the biological side of things seeming to be mostly taken care of, Brad kept the meeting moving. “Any progress on getting our technology working around the dungeon and the infected area?”

The expressions on everyone’s faces was answer enough even before Dr. Terrence replied, his positive attitude waning slightly. “Unfortunately, no. We’ve been testing potential materials to use as shielding. We’ve tried putting a video camera inside various boxes to see if anything is capable of blocking the energy’s effects, but so far, the camera stops recording every single time. Steel, plastic, iron, lead, you name it. The energy somehow gets through it all and turns the camera off. Nothing seems capable of attenuating whatever magical particles are involved.”

That was bad news. I still thought technology was the best tool in our fight against the Void.

“Instead of trying to find a way to make your technology fit the situation, perhaps focus on making use of what you actually have at hand already,” Cax told me. “You have quite a significant advantage in that you can easily enchant objects without needing reagents. Level up, learn more professions, and use them to replace your technology with magical equivalents.”

A big part of me agreed with him, but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that our technology was an important tool in this fight. Maybe it was a product of growing up surrounded by such things and viewing them as intrinsic and infallible. Or maybe it was because the planets I’d seen fall to the Void hadn’t been technologically advanced like Earth was. I knew there were other factors involved in their demise, such as those planets’ World Spirits being caught by surprise and the rift quickly spreading. We had been lucky that our World Spirit was prepared to contain the rift and was able to limit its growth immediately. Still, the technology differences stuck out in my mind.

I knew that it was our machines and systems that had put the World Spirit in the situation it was, polluting the planet to the point where the Spirit had barely enough energy to hold the rift and the Void back. But maybe they could also be our salvation. Sensing my reluctance to give up on my idea to use our technology to fight back, Cax said, “If you truly feel that your technology is the answer, then make use of your Research ability to find a solution to the shielding problem.”

I focused back in on the people around me and found them waiting quietly, watching me. “What did Cax say?” Anita asked, correctly guessing the reason I’d zoned out.

“He suggested we either forget about making our technology work and instead focus on what I can make with magic, or that I use my Research ability to find some way to make our things useable.”

I looked at my interface to find out when the ability would be available. “The ability won’t be available again until tomorrow night, though. I can only use it every two days.” I briefly explained how the ability worked since most of the people present probably weren’t aware. I’d already mentioned it to Dr. Terrence when he visited me in the dungeon, but he still listened intently.

When I finished with my explanation, Dr. Terrence addressed his colleagues. “We need to make a list of everything we can think of that we need, and then work out the priority. We can’t afford to make a bad choice since there is such a long time in between uses.”

They were in agreement with him, but I was confused. “Don’t you think the first thing should be something to get our technology working inside the forest and in the dungeon?” I couldn’t understand why he wasn’t pushing for just that, especially considering that it was his area of expertise.

“Possibly, but it would depend on what form it would take,” he told me. “We looked at the vials and bone ring you gave us. We also examined the void blockers before they were placed around the forest.” He raised his arms and shrugged. “They just looked like regular items on every test we ran. The vials appear to be ordinary glass, but they’re obviously not. We were eventually able to break one only after subjecting it to an extreme amount of force.” I wasn’t sure what his tangent had to do with my idea of how to use Research, and it must have shown on my face.

“The point is,” he clarified, “we won’t be able to replicate anything you make. Whatever secret ingredient magic is adding to the mix, we can’t even see it, let alone reproduce it. So, unless you can make a huge amount of whatever shielding solution your research comes up with, it might not be as useful as something else.”

Just then, Anita’s phone vibrated, and she looked at the message. “The soldiers will be arriving in a few minutes.” She looked at the scientists. “Get together and make that list. It will require the final approval of the commander, of course, but I’m sure he’ll listen to your recommendations.”

We all stood up and I shook the hands of the departing scientists. Anita looked at us before leaving. “Stay here. They’ll probably need to move the screens to get in here, and I don’t want anyone from outside getting a look at you. I’ll go meet the commander and bring him here.”

I paced nervously the entire time we waited. We could hear the sounds of vehicles being driven onto the grass and parked close to the unaffected side of the forest, then organized chaos as multiple voices began shouting orders to get their camp set up. I started to walk outside to just take a peek at what was happening, certain I could stay hidden behind the tent, but Brad advised against it. He pointed out that if I was caught by the commander, it wouldn’t be a very good first impression. Reluctantly, I stayed inside and just kept pacing around the table to try and work off some of my nervousness.

Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait much longer before Anita came back in, followed by a well-built man in uniform. He walked with purpose and radiated a sense of confidence. I stopped my pacing and joined Brad and Steve who were both standing straight under the gaze of the man now in charge of the operation to stop the Void. As he took off his hat, I looked at the multiple badges on his uniform. I had no idea what they meant, but the sheer amount were impressive enough.

As the commander stopped in front of us, Anita made the introductions. “Lieutenant Colonel Rossi, this is Officer Young, Officer Saunders, and Dean Whitler.” The Lieutenant Colonel shook each of our hands, holding onto mine as he looked me over. The strength of his grip belied the age clearly shown by his grey hair and lined face. I squeezed right back as I kept my eyes fixed on his, careful not to crush his hand but wanting to send a message of strength for this first meeting. I must have misjudged how much power I was exerting, though, as discomfort showed on his face. I quickly released his hand, and he shook it out, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a small smile. “That’s quite a grip you have there.” His deep voice perfectly matched his commanding appearance.

I smiled back in embarrassment. “Sorry, umm…” I realized I had no idea how to address him. Am I supposed to say the whole thing? “…Lieutenant Colonel Rossi,” I finished uncertainly.

“I thought the goal was to show strength?’ Cax commented quietly, clearly amused. I sent him an image of a slap across the back of the head. “I did almost break his hand. Got to balance it out.”

“Just ‘Colonel’ or ‘Sir’ will be fine, Mr. Whitler,” the Colonel told me.

“Ok, Sir.”

He gestured at the table. “Let’s have a seat and get down to business. I want the three of you out of here as soon as possible, and there is a lot we need to cover before you leave.”

Brad, Steve, and I looked at each other, none of us moving. The surprise I was feeling was mirrored on their faces. Leave?! That was not what I’d been expecting to hear at all.