Saol’s first attack was so fast I couldn’t completely dodge it. The searing blue-black bolt of energy left a scorched scar down my flank. After considering the pain, I took a quick glance at my health total; 156/180 HP. Far from ideal, but survivable. I responded by lunging at him, claws out, creating a vicious tear down his left arm. It felt like hitting clay and in place of blood this strange blackish blue liquid leaked from the wound. Saol showed no reaction to my attack. Did he even feel it? Saol lunged back at me with his wounded arm, and the impact sent me barreling backwards. 30 damage, damn that hurt. Something wasn’t adding up. Saol was an old, fat and lazy man. He shouldn’t be able to do that much damage to me barehanded, let alone when using an injured arm.

I sent a mental blast at him, but it was like hitting air, as if he wasn’t there. Archives? . Great, alright, a quick recap of what I knew about Saol was in order. I took flight to get some distance and dodged another bolt sent by Saol by a mere inch. Saol was radiating a massive amount of void energies. His mind was missing, somehow, nullifying psionic abilities and shielding him from mind reading. His body was freakishly strong, and he could deal more damage than should be possible for someone with his build.

There were only two possibilities. Either that wasn’t Saol, or Saol wasn’t human anymore. I took a deep breath and refocused on the task at hand, I could consider the implications afterwards. Question was, how to go about fighting Saol in his current state? I could pummel him, but he didn’t react to my last swipe at all, and his mind wasn’t there at all either, so Psionics didn’t help. Just what was up with Saol, anyway? Before I could contemplate further, I had to dodge out of the way of several rapid fire blasts. Hmm, he might not react to me ripping his arm to shreds, then what if I landed on him? I flew upwards to gain some altitude, then dove and slammed into Saol at full speed.

Saol went flying into the stone wall behind him with a sickening crunch. No normal human would survive that impact, and the same liquid that had seeped from his sores scattered all over the place. Whatever this thing was, it wasn’t Saol anymore, that was certain. It might have been at one point, but whatever had happened to him after his departure from the Guild had turned him into this monstrosity. It pushed itself off the wall, unfazed by the brutal hit it had just taken. “ThAT HUrt.” Soul’s voice was a twisted, inhuman mess, more akin to a half-chocked gurgle than anything else.

It lumbered towards me, heedless of the twisted and crushed state of its body. There was a sick smile plastered all over its face. “REvenGE WIll be MIne.” It laughed hysterically as it spoke. Then it stretched out its arms to fire another blast of energy at me, but never got that far as something barreled into him from the side. It took a moment before I registered the Strider that was busy mauling the remains of the Guildmaster. However, this Strider had not evolved like the others. There was also this strange sensation of… wait a moment. “Indella? You shouldn’t be here!” The Strider jumped back and hissed before it fired a spine into Saol’s neck and backed off. *I can’t just leave you alone* Saol gurgled angrily and clawed at the spine, more annoyed than hurt.

“I appreciate the sentiment, Indella, but this is not the time nor the place, we don’t know what Saol is capable of right now!” Indella pulled back. . She withdrew back into the Dungeon. While I appreciated Indella’s intentions, I did not know what this Saol might be capable of. And the last thing I needed was for someone else to get hurt in this mess. Saol finally extracted the stinger and renewed his attempt at attacking me, only this time I would not give him the chance. I charged him again, but this time I followed up with my charge, mauling him as he hit the wall for a second time. Saol let out several gurgling screams of pain as I let my claws go to work until he stopped moving some 5 minutes later. .

I nodded as I looked at the steaming mess that had once been Saol. There was still a lot of energy pulsing from the remains. Saol would not cause problems for anyone ever again, and good riddance. I turned around and started back towards the Dungeon. Ugh, I needed a bath as the blue ichor covered both my paws and better part of my front and it smelled worse than a skunk. As I reached the stairs, I looked down and saw Indella, Rael and Mordred at the bottom. “Didn’t I tell you all to not come up here?” Indella just gave me an angry look. *We can take care of ourselves, besides you are our friend and we want to help if we can, right, guys?* The other two didn’t even need to answer, I could see from their expression they agreed.

Just as the trio headed up the stairs, there was a strange noise from behind. I turned around and saw Saol’s broken corpse bulge and stretch like an overfilled balloon as it tried to contain the energies trapped within. My first instinct was to simply dissolve and get out of the way. I had two choices, I could dissolve and let them take the full brunt of whatever was happening or I tanked it in their place. The first option was not even a consideration. If I let them tank it, they would not survive it, period. There was no way that amount of bulging wouldn’t result in some kind of giant explosion. I turned back towards the stairs, screaming. “GET BACK DOWN, NOW!” Indella’s look of horror and the confused looks from Mordred and Rael told me everything I needed to know. Archives had informed Indella what was happening, and she pulled the other two after herself back down the stairs. There was not enough time, they wouldn’t get out of range in time.

Just as I thought that, Saol’s remains burst into a lance of blueish black energy ripped through the ground and shot towards the dungeon with clear intent. No way, you jackass. This is my home, and I’m not letting you destroy it that easily. I intercepted the beam while wrapping myself in a cocoon of my psionic energy to absorb the hit. I stopped the beam dead in its tracks, dissipating the energies into harmless wisps that faded away. The impact felt like hundreds of tiny shards of glass were cutting me all over and without the energy I probably would have been dead on the spot. However, I was not out of the woods yet. My HP was dropping fast and the energy just kept coming. My psionic energy dissipated under the relentless assault. There was a moment of pain as my barrier finally burst violently, then all my consciousness disappeared as the energy enveloped me completely.

————————————————————————————

But Pearl is dying! I have to do something, I-! Before I could finish the thought, the energy at the entrance flared for a moment. Then a violent burst of psionic energies sent the three of us tumbling down the stairs in a pile. Rael was the first to extract himself, and he helped Mordred and me up. “You two OK?” Mordred nodded as he dusted off his robes and picked up his staff. I, however, ignored the question. Something was wrong, something was horribly wrong, where was Pearl? There was an emptiness in my mind where our bond should have been. I turned towards the stairs and sprinted upwards, heedless of Mordred and Rael’s shouts. The sight that met me on top horrified me. The explosion had turned the entire entrance area into a crater, however there was also no sign of neither Saol nor Pearl. Just like my connection to her, I couldn’t sense her presence at all, but… she… no, she wasn’t dead, she couldn’t be dead.

I don’t know when my legs gave out under me. . What makes you so certain about that Archives? Wait! Archives? . True, still this meant that something else had happened to her, but what? Right, inducing a panic would help no one, especially if they drew the wrong conclusions, which would be likely, considering the state of the entrance. I rose to my feet, I would have to keep everything together now, Pearl was missing and the only one who could verify she was alive was me. I had to keep everyone cooperating and positive until she returned, or she might not have a Dungeon to return to.

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Darkness I was floating in the darkness, just me and nothing else. There was no one and nothing else around me as I floated through the nothingness. What had I been doing before this darkness took me? It was difficult to remember… In the distance there was a change, a glimpse of light it was pulling me in, brighter, brighter and brighter, until everything turned white.

BEEP, BEEP, BEEP. That sounded familiar. It was almost identical to the vital sign monitors you would hear in the hospital. Wait, that WAS identical, but that would mean! I slammed open my eyes and looked around. The first thing that greeted me was a searing pain as the sudden brightness stung my eyes. As I focused on the world around me, a silent dread settled in. This was a hospital room. I looked down at myself. Thin, decidedly human arms, normal legs, no fur and no wings or tail and a human build. Shit, I was back. No, no, no, no, no, no! This wasn’t happening, I had not lost everything AGAIN. No wait, deep breaths. There had to be a way to explain all of this. Well, for now, I would have to accept reality, I was back home, somehow. Wait, had I even ever left? Mother had claimed my body back home was dead, yet here I was. Had she lied to me back then? No, I don’t think she had, besides I was pretty sure I had a respirator down my throat. That meant they had kept me on life support. Which means my body had likely been completely unresponsive when the paramedics arrived.

That being said, life support was expensive, and I had no next of kin alive to foot the bill, so who had paid for it? As I was contemplating this, there was a humming sound, and the door opened. A nurse entered the room with an IV bag on a tray. She began her work without even looking at me, swapping out the nearly empty IV bags on the rack next to my bed with new ones. Honestly, she should have noticed that the monitor was bleeping faster. Oh, earbuds, she was listening to music. Was that even allowed? Well, her choice of using them caused some distress this time as she turned around to check on the needle inserted into my arm. Finally, she noticed I was not only awake, but calmly looking at her go about her job. She stumbled backwards in shock and only the wall behind her stopped her from falling over completely. Then, without a word to me, she just ran from the room yelling for the doctor. Why she didn’t just use the call button, I didn’t know, shock, probably.

Two hours later, I was still in the examination room. As far as anyone could tell, I was completely fine, better than fine. The scanners all came up with “Peak Physical Health” which was virtually impossible without several expensive augments or extensive gene therapy. The doctors couldn’t wrap their heads around it. I could, to some extent, courtesy of a few discoveries of my own during the examination process. I had thought it all might have been a dream. That lasted until I accidentally responded to an offshoot comment my designated doctor made in fluent Spanish, a language I couldn’t speak. It didn’t help that for me, it was just plain English. It took a lot of willpower to not let my surprise show on my face when she commented on that.

The one annoying part about all this was that no one would tell me who was paying for my stay, though. Every time I asked, all I was told was that “It was all taken care of.” or “I didn’t need to worry about that.” The entire thing was bothering me. I had tried to see if I could read minds still as well, but all it did was giving me a headache. I guess I still had to work out how some skills worked here, if they worked at all. “How many more tests do I have to take?” The doctor ignored my question as she was busy looking over the results. The nurse just smiled at me. “Only a few more.” She gave the by now, predictable answer. “You said the same thing nearly an hour ago, either you give me a proper answer, or I am leaving.” I rose from my seat and took a step toward the door.

The doctor looked up from her notes. “Please wait, Ms. Thompson. I just need another few minutes of your time.” I looked at the doctor, trying to get a read on her intentions. . The searing headache accompanying the words made it clear I had figured out how to read minds, but my brain couldn’t handle the resulting influx from it. Best to not do it unless it was absolutely necessary. I remained unfazed by the pain, though I suspected it was because Pain Resistance had gained a few levels after taking the blast at the stairs. Well, that was all a hypothesis for now, I was not about to attempt opening the menu in public. Considering I did not know if it would even work or how I would look to any onlooker’s while doing so, it was simply too risky.

The doc rose and took out another hand scanner. “It’s just that you have an unusually high neural activity, and I am trying to wrap my head around the reason behind it. Still, all other scans and tests came out fine. I can’t do anything but ask you to come back tomorrow for a few more tests and wish you a good day. And take it easy. While the tests say you are fine, you did just wake up from a three-week-long coma. No strenuous activities, got it?” She looked at me with a dead serious expression. “I got it, can I go now?” With an annoyed huff, she just waved me out of the room. Once I got to the reception I found that indeed, I didn’t have to pay a dime. I did not like the idea of someone I didn’t know paying for my stay. Still, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it.

The only stop I had on my way home was a quick stop to order a food delivery. Three weeks meant whatever I had stored would have gone rancid, and I had far too much on my plate to go shopping. The moment I got home, I collapsed onto the couch. What did I do now? The whole thing wasn’t a dream, I knew that. I could read minds, not to mention the sudden ability to understand and speak languages without realizing it wasn’t English. That being said, you would think that I would be excited about being back home. I wasn’t. In fact, I was on the verge of despair. For the second time in my life, someone had ruthlessly taken away the place I thought I belonged. The only difference was that this time I had willingly put myself in harm’s way.

I got back on my feet. Despairing wouldn’t change anything. I might as well do something productive with my time. With my mind made up, I got to my feet and headed straight for my NVR gear. A part of me was silently hoping that when I booted it up, it would just transport me back. No such luck as the normal HUD showed up, showing this was the game world. However, that’s when I got a surprise because when I logged in it was not where I had been when I logged out last. Prior to being transferred, I had been on the 178th floor, watching intruders getting torn to pieces by the floor’s insidious traps and monsters. Now, however, I was on the surface, at the entrance of the dungeon itself. That was a curious coincidence, seeing as that was my location before Saol’s explosive death banished me back to Mars. I headed below the surface. Might as well see how my dungeon was doing after three weeks of no activity… Ok… What was going on here? I might have been away for almost three weeks, but I know I didn’t build that portal there. Then again, this looked identical to the foyer of my Dungeon. A chill passed down my spine, and I quick-traveled to the 2nd floor.

The Depths, my 2nd floor, were yet another Maze level, but now it was the Depths. Also, the layout was identical to that of my Dungeon, down to every detail. A quick check gave me similar results for the 3rd and 4th floors. With one exception. The 4th floor was missing a Biomeback Leviathan, an interesting omission, if nothing else. I still had a 5th floor and so on, and they were all unaltered. This got me thinking, if changes in my dungeon reflected in the game, could the same be possible as well? There was one way to find out. With that in mind, I hurried to where the Adventurer Camp would be.

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“Indella, I keep telling you to stop denying the obvious, there is no way Pearl could survive that, you saw the destruction yourself.” Mordred was looking at me with a pained expression as he rose from his makeshift stool in the Camp. I just shook my head. *She is alive Mordred, I know it looks bad, but I guarantee you she is alive, somewhere.* Mordred opened his mouth to respond when he froze, his eyes wide in shock. *What’s wrong, Mordred?* He didn’t respond. Instead, he kept staring at something behind me. I turned around. On the wall behind me was a plaque made of stone with a simple message on it. “Indella, this is Pearl, if you can read this, please add to this plaque, I am testing something.” Mordred looked at me. “What’s written on it, I have never seen this language before.” I looked at Mordred, confused by his words. What did he mean by that? Archives helpfully cleared up my confusion. . I nodded and walked over to the plaque. *It’s a message from Pearl, just give me a moment…* I closed my eyes and began the slow and difficult process of editing the plaque.

——————————————————————————————

Words could not express my elation as words slowly showed up on the plaque of their own accord. *Message received, what are you testing?* Good thing I had placed the plaque inside the adventurer camp. There was almost always someone there, and eventually Indella would have seen it. I had not expected to get a reply within seconds of making it, but I was not about to scoff at my good fortune. “The blast somehow returned me back to my world. However, because of what Mother did, the Dungeon in the game shares a connection to the Dungeon over there. Altering one reflects those changes to the other.” My mood was improving by leaps and bounds. If I could communicate with Indella in this fashion, then maybe I could get back home. Huh, funny thought. No, wait, not really. I hadn’t felt at home here for years, not since that night. No, better not think of that. That was far behind me and yet, I couldn’t help but have this foreboding feeling in my gut.

The response took me a bit off guard, but I can’t say it was completely unwarranted. *Do you have proof?* Considering what the Void Entities could ask for such a thing didn’t surprise me too much and there was a very simple response I could give. “Elephant’s exists.” There was a long-drawn-out silence. *I am convinced, but I need something to win the others over.* Fair enough. “Tell Rael that he should stop beating around the damn bush and just ask Yrsha on a date already. After all, I have already given him ample opportunity to do so.” More silence, followed by a hastily scribbled message made from ink, rather than etched into the stone. “This is Rael, I am glad to know you are alive Pearl. Now keep your damned nose out of my love life, thank you.” A quick message from Indella followed even as the ink faded away. *He is blushing, so strongly he is literally glowing, but I am pretty certain you convinced him. That leaves Mordred as the only skeptic*. Convincing Mordred I was myself. Hmm, oh right. “Tell Mordred that we both know how much I taught Lienru about cooking. If he demands more than that, tell him I only taught her the basics and that I agree on his sentiment about how ridiculously fast Kobolds can adapt.” Good times, good times.

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Mordred stared dumbfounded at me as I relayed the message. Then his expression slowly changed from confusion to wonder then, finally he nodded. “I remember that conversation, barely. It's unique enough that I will believe it’s her. Mostly because it was such a random conversation, someone fake would probably go for something easier to remember.” He looked over at the words on the wall. “I still can’t believe you can actually read this, never seen a written language like it before in my life.” I couldn’t really tell what was off about it because to me, it was the same runes it had always been. If Archives hadn’t insisted that it was indeed a different type of letters, I would have thought they were all playing a joke on me. “Hey Indella, there are more words showing up” Rael pointed to the plaque, and I turned my attention back to translating for the others.

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“Since there is a connection between the game and the Dungeon, there might be a way for me to help you out from over here. And since I do not know if I can even return given the circumstances, I might as well do what I can from my end.” There were a few minutes of no response. “I understand. Good luck, Pearl, be careful, OK? Talk to you later.” After I sent a brief reply in response, the plaque faded away to nothing. Indella probably removed it to show that the conversation was over. Well, there was nothing more to do for now. I checked the clock, dinner time, and I immediately remembered Lienru wasn’t here. I would have to make food on my own, great. Well, no time like the present.

I logged off and exited the game before I hopped out of my pod and went to the kitchen. Where did I put the food after they delivered it? I never thought a cheeseburger would taste bland, but compared to Lienru’s cooking, how could it not? I finished the meal in a dour mood, all the more reason to leave behind this stupid hellhole and get back to my actual home. The question was how? Gah, dwelling on it right now was getting me nowhere. I grabbed the remote and zapped through some channels on the Holo, but there was nothing even remotely interesting there. Looks like nothing interesting had happened in the last couple of- wait, what’s this? I turned back to the channel I had just skipped past. “Ms. Daniels has declined to comment about the reason she is taking some time off. Though it could be in relation to the recent allegations surrounding her signing 8 years ago.” 8 years, Daniels? Surely, it couldn’t be her, right? Nah, last I had cared to check she was still everyone’s Ms. Perfect. Well, it wasn’t like it mattered anyhow. I had far more important things to worry about than that bitch finally getting her comeuppance.

Just as I finished that thought, the doorbell rang. Weird, I didn’t expect any visitors, mostly because I didn’t have any friends here, but that was beside the point. I walked over to the door and looked out through the peeping hole. Something was blocking it, great. I grabbed the half a dozen security chains mounted on the door frame, attached them to the door and opened it. I immediately tried to slam the door shut again once I recognized who was standing outside, only for a boot to stop it cold. “Pearl, wait, I just want to talk.” I stomped the boot and earned a grunt of pain. “And I want you to go die in a pit, but we can’t always get what we want, now can we, Erika?”

Erika tried to push the door open, a futile effort, but that didn’t stop her. “Let me in, dammit, you owe me that much at least.” I gave her boot another stomp. “I owe you nothing.” That earned me a laugh. “And who do you think shouldered the hospital bill?” I just peered out at her. “Seriously? Sorry, but that’s not gonna earn you any points from me, I could have paid that no problem.” My immediate response gave Erika pause. “How in the world could you afford to pay for something like that?” She gave me an incredulous stare. “You really paid no attention to when I talked about my past, did you?” I stepped away from the door. Time to get something a bit more effective than my foot to remove that boot. Besides, those chains would not come off until the door was closed, so it wasn’t like she could do that herself. “What does your stupid sob story of a past have to do with anything?” She finally gave up all pretense of friendly demeanor. I chuckled before I responded. “What’s my name again?” I asked. “Pearl? What does that have to do with anything?” I finally found the shock baton I had bought in case of a break in. “Full name.” I replied coldly. “Pearl Thompson… Thompson… wait… as in Thompson Solar Transport?” I chuckled, only took her a decade to realize.

“Thanks to a clause in dads Will, I am entitled to royalties from the company every month. If they don’t pay those royalties, for any reason, I immediately claim full ownership of the company and all its assets. A clever way to secure my future in case of an accident or hostile takeover. Sure, I am not rich enough to own a penthouse, but I got enough money to toss around to afford my own NVR rig, my house and anti-grav car.” I walked back to the door and turned the baton on, causing an angry buzzing sound. “Now you have 10 seconds to remove that boot or I WILL treat you like a trespasser, final warning.” Erika wisely removed her boot, and I slammed the door shut and locked it. I was not in a mood to deal with her now. I walked back to my pod and logged back into the game. Might as well do something productive to get my mind off things.

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As Pearl slammed the door in my face, I still couldn’t believe I hadn’t put two and two together before now. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so quick to enact my plan back then. I mean, how was I supposed to know she was actually the daughter of THE Jack and Laura Thompson? They were owners of the largest transport company in the entire solar system. There went my shot at getting back in her good graces by being generous and help her out. What a waste of money. Then again, Pearl had never been short on cash, I probably should have paid more attention to her yapping. Dammit, why did this have to happen now?

It was all Pearls fault too. Because of a strange power outage the same night Pearl went into her coma, my Profile had wound up corrupted. And the only backup was inaccessible because my pod used Pearl’s homebrew security program. I had long since forgotten the password for the thing, and it was so nasty that even professional ICE breakers wouldn’t go anywhere near it. And without my profile, I couldn’t play. More worrisome was that when Security for my team learned who made the program, they started looking into her past. This was now raising questions about that night 8 years ago as well. What had I done to deserve this bad luck? Well, if Pearl didn’t want to let me in, I would just find a way in myself. I knew someone who could get that door open easily enough, all I needed was time and more money.