One of the most vexing things about the Dungeons is that, for all the fantasy trappings, they are intended for a modern battlefield, capable of engaging in land, sea, air, and orbital. Happily, they only engage satellites that are armed, which can prove crucial if your civilisation has developed orbital spies. For those unaware of what this means, it is possible for a sufficiently advanced civilisation, or with the System, to put machines so high up in the sky they will not fall, able to look down on your world and send images to your people. Doing this with the Voidbound system can be done by spell or perk – it is trivial for some, which is why, we theorise, the Dungeons are all fitted with the ability to engage up to geostationary orbit. For those unaware, this is the height at which a satellite remains above the same point of your planet at all times.

- What you need to know to survive the Voidbound System, by &*%:”%^%

Jonathon led the way to the teleportation chamber after snagging two teleport anchors: Jeeves had reminded them that it would help them return post-haste, given the danger of the area. He was taking his team of nine and seven of the soldiers, all armed with AK knockoffs from the forge: The anchors were designed to handle one swarm, after all, and this left two slots for the pilots on the way back.

“How does this work, anyway?” Dave asked, and even as he did, a notification blurred into being in front of their eyes.

Notice: SanFran Recovery Point Teleportation Node active.

Group Teleport selected.

Location selected.

Initiate?

Trading glances, they accepted, and the world shimmered with the by now familiar toxic green light, the sound of gunfire echoing even as it cleared to reveal the scene: The scattered shrouds of a parachute, the pilot stuck in the tree, shooting a pistol at what at first looked like a gang of zombies – maybe ten or so – with metallic armour or something on some of their limbs, moving en masse towards the tree.

“Cyberzombies!” Dave exclaimed, as the soldiers moved into an arc and opened fire on them: The Undead turned with glowing blue eyes as they came under fire, the rounds hitting some, bouncing off the air in front of others – a forcefield of some sort? It seemed to project from one of them, it's chest shimmering with a variety of colours as others raised arms that... oh dear.

They had built in weapon systems: he perceived blasts of iridescent plasma shot towards him, destined to spear through his chest: He dropped down, casting Growth of Immolation upon the one generating a shield even as he cast Dragon form upon himself before it managed to fire, that extra warning of danger from one of his new perks letting him react before it happened. Rippling scales flowing over his body, gaining muscle and claws and wings, even as rampant growth entangled the Zombie and burst into lambent hungry flames.

Diving forward as it tore it's way free, accessing his knowledge of martial arts he swept a leg behind it's own, rotating as he rolled to pull it's legs up behind it's spine, pinning it in place before pouncing on it, tearing at it's rotting, cyborg head with his claws, which shimmered through space with his extended reach in a move that was far from any human martial art – it was clear that his implanted skills included moves designed to work with his perks.

His comrades weren't idle either as he knocked down the cyborg that was generating the shield: The soldiers – he was trying really hard not to think of them as the red shirts – opened fire with disciplined bursts, eliciting a rumbling roar from the undead, who moved to take cover, shooting back with iridescent bolts of plasma.

Dave had started learning magical blades the day before, and had bought his own: He was flashing around the battlefield with his stutter-step, seeming almost prescient as he slashed and vanished, swiped and ducked, disrupting their lines and breaking up their fire: The casters summons tore into them, and he could see a line of explosions as Sue and Michelle joined in the gunfire, Alicia peppering them with laser bolts, from a position she'd taken behind a boulder.

The other zombies seemed to ignore Jonathon, however, as he fought his chosen target – he had no idea why: Perhaps they were programmed not to shoot into melee? But as his companions tore into the mass, he had his own problems. This zombie – whom he presumed was the unit leader – just would not die.

Even as he held it in a hold, slashing at its form, shimmering plates formed into being to ward away his strikes, sliding in an interlocking weave along it's body until it was sheathed in energy. With a wrench, it tossed him off: he rolled smoothly to his feet, lashing out with an elongated kick to sweep it once more to the ground, pulling out his own blade and charging it with the essence of the void: Sliding into the forms he'd been training in, he slashed at the monster as it smoothly rolled back to it's feet, pleased to see the armour part to his first guess.

The Cyberzombie accepted the challenge, a blade sliding out of the back of it's wrist to parry, knocking his blade aside as it lunged with the other – an electrified blade sliding out, penetrating his scaled skin and making him scream in pain as it carved a chunk out his side. Cursing to himself, he activated his plasma aura, guarding winds, and Void aura, casting Greater Healing on himself as he lashed out with his own blade, taking advantage of his extra reach to push his opponent back, to buy the precious second or so it took for all his defences to activate.

With that, he charged in once more, knocking the cyberzombie's left blade side, smashing at it's right arm with a kick, then slashing down crossways, from carving a hunk of flesh out of the monster, his gaze of malignancy burning into it's flesh, accelerating rot and decay. Dodging to the side a moment before a port opened in its palm, firing a cascade of flechettes he scrambled to avoid, a few residuals bouncing off his scaled armour. He invoked the Growth of Immolation once more to enfold and incinerate it, twisting and rolling behind it to swipe off it's head with one final blow.

Looking around, he saw some undead that Larry had raised holding down one of the zombies as a battle of will took place between it and Larry: He presumed his companion was trying to bind it, which was confirmed as iridescent energy flowed over it, and it turned to join the attack on it's former companions. Others were down, he saw, to co-ordinated, sustained bursts of gunfire, and he hit two of the four remaining with growth of immolation, feeling his Mana see-saw as he turned his gaze on all of them: Moving forward, slashing at a burning undead, rolling backwards to avoid the blast zone as one projected an array of submunitions, a final cascade of gunfire dropping the last to it's knees, before Bea claimed the undead head with her own blade.

Glancing around, Jonathon took in the toll. Three of the soldiers were dead, and most of the group had burns or other injuries panting heavily. From the exertion. Despite outnumbering the zombies nearly two-to-one, the fight had taken several long unpleasant minutes, and unlike the soldiers, his team were not quite used to the tempo yet, though their greater practice in this new world had clearly kept them all alive. Wincing slightly, he tried something he hadn't before: dual-casting a spell, over and over again, dropping Greater Healing on anyone and emptying his mana reserve.

As their wounds rapidly healed, a sense of relief passing through them, the group traded glances, as if unsure what was next. There was a beat before the pilot called down. “When you're all done patting each other on the back, can someone help me down?” she yelled, somewhat irately. “Before any more of those monsters appear?”

With practised efficiency, the soldiers moved to help her down, asking after the other pilot even as the experience pinged: One of the nice things they had learned was how useful the Aura of Experience was, and Michelle had made datasets to teach Destiny 4 to those whom lacked it, so they could purchase the perk: Bob had said it was standard practice, and those who already had Destiny had promised to grab the perk at their next opportunity. After killing (Or in one case, capturing) nine cyberzombies, the effect was most delightful.

You have Slain a Level 23 Cyberzombie Shieldmaster!

You have Slain Four Level 19 Cyberzombie Brawler!

You have Slain Three Level 22 Cyberzombie Blasters!

You have Captured a Level 22 Cyberzombie Blaster!

Your rewards have been split with allied swarm.

You receive 1,466 SMU credit

18 XP

Have Fun!

The experience shot almost his entire group to level four, all of them now able to buy a class – excited looks were shared, in between scans for more trouble, as the soldiers and the pilot approached. “My wing man came down in the dungeon.” the pilot said – her nametag read 'Reid' - “I hope he has the brains to respawn like we were told about. Now can we get out of here?”

Jonathon nodded, but Larry held up his hand. “One sec.” He moved to the bodies, grabbing – plastic packs? - that seemed to be spread in the area, before rejoining the group for the teleport. “Bob told me these are cybernetics drops.” eyes lit up as the teleport anchors were produced, and after a brief check and confirmation – and the sound of something charging through the trees – they confirmed the transition: With another shimmer of poisonous light, they were back in the Fortification.

“What the fuck..” Reid said. “Where the hell are we?” given her experiences over the past half hour, Jonathon wasn't particularly surprised she was on edge, but the squad Lieutenant was quick to answer.

“We're in the SanFran Recovery point, Lieutenant.” Lieutenant Smithson said, nodding in Jonathon's direction. “It belongs to him. Orders are to co-operate with his group for now. If you will excuse us, we should take Lieutenant Reid to the Colonel to be briefed.” with what could generously b described as a salute, the military personnel moved off, leaving Jonathon and his gang behind. He wasn't worried: Jeeves would keep him informed.

He glanced to his colleagues. “Shall we head to the meeting room, and discuss class builds? Perhaps Bob can fill us in on those pouches you collected?”

Larry glanced off to the air – where presumably Bob was – and nodded. “We probably want to tap Garcia in to that conversation as well.” he noted, hefting the bag he'd put the pouches in – Jonathon was mildly curious where it had come from, but no matter.

“Jeeves? Please ask Doctor Garcia to meet us in the Meeting room? No need to manifest.” Jonathon drawled, as he lead his team there. “And when the debrief is done – let us know what's going on with the pilot?”

“Certainly, Jonathon.” came the voice, soft and polite in his ear.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later found them seated round the conference table, Jeeves made manifest above them as was his wont. They had procured snacks, and were spread around the chairs as Garcia walked in, sliding into a chair. “You wanted to see me?” she asked, a little archly: Jonathon nodded towards Larry, who emptied the bag of pouches onto the table. There were nearly a dozen of them, roughly the size of the Juice pouches he remembered as a kid, filled with some clear liquid, and marked with bands of colour he recognised as the System script. Without anything else needing to be said, Bob instantiated, flowing into being in a spray of colour.

“I thought this might fall into your domain, Doctor.” the spectre said, politely. “The team took down a full swarm of combat cyborgs, and were able to harvest upgrade packs from most of them.” he glanced at the humans gathered around the table. “Pretty much all cybernetic upgrades come from monster drops – if you have the right skills, you can alter or upgrade packs, but the entire enhancement market is founded on taking down the cyborg monsters in dungeons. You're quite lucky you're set up next to a Dungeon that produces them: There's typically only one or two dungeons per planet that generate such monsters when a world is first captured by the System.”

Continuing before anyone could intervene, he started sorting through the pouches. “All of them are Beginner grade, other than this one – It's an apprentice level shield generator.” he tossed that one to the side, then began separating the rest. “Let's see. Submunitions Storm... pretty useless unless you upgrade it, but really popular on the market because of that.

Three Plasma projectors which are kinda meh, but can be useful in a pinch. Again, popular as the core of an upgrade. Some newbie dermal armour, this stuff is never as good as anything you can wear, so unless you are worried about assassins, render it down into upgrade data.” two more pouches tossed to the side. “You have two integrated comms, which are mostly useful to hive minds like my people were. Your gang link basically supersedes it, once you rank up a little.” again, he tossed them into a pile Jonathon was pretty sure was his 'sell' pile.

“Enhanced senses... These are pretty good, actually. You might want them, or you can sell them for a fair bit. They'll adapt to make your primary senses work regardless of the conditions. And these two..” he looked at the coding on the remainder, “A Skill pack – you register it with a skill service, and can 'rent 'skills on temporary loan. Pretty useful, although this one would cap them at Initiate 4. The other is a spatial node – it gives you an Inventory if you don't have one already. Pretty trash.” he tossed it in the discard pile. “You have the ability to install any of these you want in your medical bay. Or you can sell them. Since I don't think you have any cybernetics specialists who can do the upgrades that would make them worthwhile?” The spectre glanced around the group.

Garcia was the first to respond. “So these things are safe?” she sighed. “I have seen the option you mean in the settings, so I can do the implantation if someone wants it. But I must ask – would the skill pack not allow someone to acquire the skill needed to upgrade these?” she waited for Bob to nod, before continuing. “Could someone with instruction not then teach the skill? Or could we buy a more advanced level of the skill on the store?”

Bob winced a little at that suggestion. “You could, but they are... not cheap, and you have to be careful of the source. Some of you have seen the Instruction perks, right?” he glanced around, seeing the many nods. “So you know about all those perks to siphon skills from anyone who learns from you, or corrupt their learning. There are classes built around that idea – they aren't pretty.”

Glances were traded. ”Well, I mean.. How much would they sell for?” Alicia asked, a little nervously: Bob chuckled. “Depends on the needs of the market. Check the store?”

Frank was already ahead of him. “Looks like the Submunitions swarm goes for about twenty thousand or so.” he said, slowly. “The others seem to have prices in the five to fifteen thousand region.”

Bob nodded. “Seems about right for when I was alive: I had to spend a fair bit outfitting all my bodies.” His words generated some curious looks, so he explained. “Well, I had to get Integrated comms – all my people did: It was the only way we could survive basic jamming. They're a form of telepathy, handled by the system, and much harder to disrupt that plain old radio waves. I had my main attack forms equipped with as many types of offensive weapons I could handle, and I used a high grade shield generator on most of my core intelligence forms. I had to keep them up to date, upgrading them continually: my friend ended up getting a class specialised in cybernetic enhancements to keep our swarm on the cutting edge. Submunition swarms with boosted range, rapid reload, and variable energy types, as well as friend-or-foe discrimination – as they currently stand, they hit everyone in the area except the user.” the spectre shrugged. “This is very much the newbie stuff.”

“Before we discuss who – if anyone – wants upgrades, shall we discuss class builds now? Because I suspect what class we grab – or build – will have a lot of effect on whether or not we want augmentations, let alone which ones.” Sue noted. “That, and how obvious are these things? If I'll have glowing red eyes like a terminator or something, I'll pass. A girl has to think about her look. If not, well, I kinda like the idea of being the six million dollar woman.”

Jonathon nodded, looking at the gang sheet. “We have ten custom class selections left.” he noted, thoughtfully. Can everyone update me on what their thoughts were?”

Frank was the first to speak up. “I already have my class: You're talking to a priest of Maskeline, now.” he did inject a little pride into his voice at that. “We have the oldest temple of Maskeline, though there are three other lesser ones worldwide.” His words did make Jon wonder what had happened to his Christian faith: Was it being replaced, or was Frank just taking the role as if this was the game it appeared to be?

Michelle spoke up. “I want to build a water-witch class, a specialised mage class, so I'll be taking one of the custom classes.” her tone was quite firm on this point. “Though I was meaning to ask, Jon – how are you casting spells so fast? In the fight earlier, you were dropping out spells and perks way faster than I can.”

Jonathon frowned for a moment, then realisation dawned. “Oh. It's a magic perk – You get the list when an attribute hits twelve. 'Additional Spell slot'. I thought it was going to be limited spells per day, but it's really more like being able to combine castings. Stackable, too.”

Her eyes lit up. “Perfect, thanks!” he got the impression she was building her class as she spoke.

Dave nodded. “I'll probably grab that too. I'm going to build a timelord class, focusing on time and space magic, leadership skills, and planning.” he explained. “I want to aim for a build based around being capable of rapid transport, and hopefully being able to calculate the odds of a plan.”

Bob coughed. “If I may?” the spectre began. “Conventional wisdom, if you build a custom class, is to focus on attribute bonuses, perk repurchases, titles and resistances. These are all the things hard to get with any predictability and control. You can focus on skill increases with each level, but it's worth noting that skills have a cap that's surprisingly quick to reach – So if you do do that, either spread it out to be incrementing lots of skills by a small amount, as I believe Jonathon built his class, or put very little focus on it. Setting up levelling purchases of attribute perks is almost never a bad idea – Jonathon, I want you to imagine you were buying an extra spell slot per level, as well as mana pool increases. Can you see how that would make you a very terrifying spellcaster?”

Jon nodded: That thought hadn't occurred to him, and he felt like kicking himself. He had so few spells for what he wanted to do, he'd focused on getting more ability, rather than more casting power. Other members of the team looked like it gave them pause, too, and from Michelle's disgruntled expression, she was altering her own build.

The discussion continued for the next hour, and they helped each other put together their new classes. Their final conclusions:

David's time-lord class – it provided a simple four perks per level. Consequences – Bob had explained that repurchases gave you more information on what the results of an action were be, and slowly expanded it to include your allies, enemies, and even natural events. Precognition, which would give increasing awareness of future events. Stutter-step would let them move further with each 'step' of the perk – which was effectively short range, reflexive teleportation, and Mask intent would make it harder for others with ability to predict his actions.

By the time the discussion was finished, Dave elected to take it as well, Abandoning his own ideas for a 'jumper' class. This would, of course, further confuse things.

Michelle's custom witch started off by grabbing the 'Additional spell slot' perk every level, as well as Magic Resistance and Magical Power per level – Bob quite thoroughly approved. While he noted those repurchasable perks did have an upper limit, she would reach it just as time came for her to evolve her class, and would be able to reassign them. It would, he noted, make her almost immune to hostile magic, her spells would be brutally powerful, and as she built up her repartee, she'd be able to cast them all at once. To help with that, she added a 12% increase in her mana pool per level. She specifically moved away from any specific elemental builds after long debate – it was noted that specialising in just water magic was suboptimal, and having a more generalised, powerful Witch class would be a nice counterpoint to Jon's Omnimage class. She wanted the implanted shield generator, since she planned to sit at the back and cast spells: It was undetectable unless active.

Bea's custom Mage-blade was built around the idea of not needing a teacher – since she essentially was the teacher for that style of blade. It gave her a staggering four extra perks in Magical blades when she hit a perk threshold, a point per level in Strength and Magic, and two points per level in Dexterity. Bob confirmed that there were Dexterity perks to make her an absolute artist with the blade, so she chose that over buying the blade god perk. She was interested in the Submunitions launcher, if it could be upgraded.

Frank's Priest of Maskeline gave him an extra four points in Prayer and Miracles per level, gave him an additional perk in those two abilities per threshold reached, and gave him the trait 'Chosen of Maskeline' – this gave him a Magic score, and an associated mana pool, based on his divine link to Maskeline. He had an effective magic score of twenty-six, now, for the purposes of calculating his mana – it did not, he noted glumly, provide any attribute perks that way. Bob asked, and Frank confirmed, that Maskeline had designed and assigned the class.

Alicia was taking the standard Gunsmith class, and planned on specializing into the sniper role Bob said was a progression path from it. A big bonus to her Dexterity, Stamina, and Strength every level, and a perk and level of her highest non-maxed ranged weapon ability: Bob noted that even though the class didn't say it, if she maxed out her existing ranged weapon abilities – photonic and explosive projectile weapons were the noes she presently had – then the System would prompt her to select a new one, if she stayed with the class. She was quite happy with the idea of that, and wanted to take one of the enhanced senses augmentations – after being assured there was a covert setting that would make them unnoticeable – to help with her goal.

Sue chose to be a standard Arcane mage – she said she didn't have any good ideas for something tailored, and it looked like it would fit with her plans to specialise in dungeoneering. With a level in Arcane Insight, Arcane Aptitude and Arcane Resistance, it would let her rapidly learn new arcane spells – such as the ones Jonathon liked to throw around – just from observing them. Bob confirmed this would apply to any spells dungeon monsters used, as well – and since the dungeon seemed to favour arcane magic, he thought she would be in a good position to learn a lot more. The boost to her mana per level was just a cherry on the top.

Larry made himself a custom Necromancer build, with Bob's expert help: They'd been discussing it since Bob was Contracted, training towards it. Funding and Apparition every level, to help him build a big army of the dead, and two points to magic every level. To round things off, the class would grant the Trait 'Deathlord' – Increasing the effectiveness of all death-related magic and perks by 12%. This should, with Bob's training, make him highly effective against the undead the dungeon was using.

Garcia wanted the Skill pack, and they agreed they would break down the rest for upgrade material for her to practice on – she agreed to get training in Cybernetics. Jonathon got the feeling she was feeling kind of useless as healing magic spread amongst the fighters: it did make him wonder about the need for the medical bay, until he realised it was probably more focused on augmentations and emergency care.

That left the gang with six more custom class builds unless they purchased more – Jonathon made a mental note to ask the gang members who wanted such to contribute monies to the Gang coffers – as they all confirmed, grinning as their statuses updated.

The conversation was just moving on to how they would fight together when Jeeves intruded.

“The Debrief of Lieutenant Reid is complete, Jonathon.” the AI said, shimmering into being. “Would you care for the Summary?”

Jon nodded, and Jeeves elaborated as his team looked on with interest. “ Lieutenant Reid and her wingman were both members of the air force in non flying roles, whom learned how to fly through the System, ad were reassigned. They were tasked with reconnaissance of this Fortification, to confirm Colonel Mitchelson's story. There is apparently some concern that he is being influenced, which made the Colonel most irate. “

Dave sighed. “Of course they are.” His tone was filled with disgust. He shook his head and rose. “I, for one, have some time booked for training – I'm going to load up the testing environment, and practice with my new class. Might I suggest everyone else look at doing the same?” with that, he turned to the door, and in a flash of stutter-steps, was gone.

Garcia rose as well, collecting the implants. “I should load these into the equipment, and see how it works, before I train in Cybernetics myself.” the others made similar excuses, and dispersed, leaving Jonathon in thought.

How far could they boost the experience this month? Could they get everyone with a class?