"Jack, are you awake?"

With a gasp, Jack pulled himself out of the swirling dreams of wind and fire that had been his world for countless moments or hours with a desperate gasp, heart pounding as if he had just been fighting for his life, though all he felt was a sense of heady exhilaration coursing through his soul, even now.

He rubbed his still throbbing temples, feeling both utterly drained and beyond exhilarated at the massive wave of potency still resonating through a soul so saturated he felt a heartbeat away from bursting.

"Yeah. I think so, Veti." He blinked and frowned, catching a number of anxious gazes peering his way within the tunnel he had burrowed. "You guys are looking awfully intense. Is everything okay?"

"You tell us, Jack," said Aroust. "The rest of us leveled up multiple times. You, on the other hand, were thrashing as if your soul was on fire, and if you end up croaking because you're too stubborn to pick a class, we're all dead."

Jack winced at those words, realizing they were both utterly unfair, and absolutely true.

But he'd be damned if he'd let uncertainty, fear, or desperation, compel him to take a class he'd regret for the rest of what might be a too long existence.

Not when he was so close to achieving the class he was so close to forging! Assuming it could be forged at all, Jack daring to try to forge a double affinity class with all 4 elements, and blood thrown into the mix as well. An as much as the whole might seemed utterly dichotomous, doomed to failure, he was almost positive his paradigm could make it work.

Four elements representing 4 crucial pillars of existence: Solids, liquids and gasses, and fire to represent electromagnetism, all serving as proxies for the forces and fields of existence itself. And blood? Blood was life. Matter, energy, and the complexity of life itself. The bedrock from which all existence sprung.

If Jack could somehow fuse it all into one unified whole...

"Jack? Is it really so hard to make a choice?" said a concerned Veti, squeezing his hand. "Or is it that, well, you can't?"

Barlton furrowed his thick brows. "I'm sure that's not his problem, dearest."

Drake's gaze, however, was filled with concern. "We all know how bloody brilliant you are with the spells you've mastered, Jack. Is that your class, maybe? You're gifted at spell craft, but all you can level are your spells?"

"And damned effective those spells are," said Aroust with a nod. "No shame if that is your limitation, Jack. But if so... we really should be sticking with the White. Because even a blind man could see the flood of potency was burning you alive."

Jack forced himself to smile, despite the worried nods of agreement Aroust's comment received. "So, wait, you all earned multiple levels?"

"We did indeed, friend Jack!" declared Elof with a beaming smile. "And best of all, your treatment worked!"

Jack raised a polite eyebrow. "It did?"

"Yes!" He enthused. "And this time, I took everyone's advice." he flashed an abashed grin Barlton and Aroust's way.

"That he did!" declared Barlton, patting Elof on the shoulder, for all that he barely had room to sit up straight. "Told us the perks and class options he had right smart, and we didn't even have ta tell him the best path going forward, he figured it out quick enough himself."

"I actually got a series of perks that let me fuse the cracks in my soul!" A beaming Elof enthused. "And boy, you should have seen the look on Aroust's face. He was so surprised!"

"I was," Aroust said. "Because it's not something any other delver I know was ever privy to seeing or repairing, but somehow, you had the option."

Elof gave an enthusiastic nod. "And of course I took it! Though Barlton said I should knock out the biggest flaws first, then the smallest! So even though it cost almost all the perk points I've earned, my interface shows my soul as now being near flawless, and fully compatible with The Deep!"

Jack couldn't help but grin. "Elof, that's fantastic! Honestly, I can't help but think that was the best possible use you could have made with your level 2 character points!"

Elof's gaze hardened. "Jack, I'm level 4 now. Halfway to level 5."

Jack blinked, more than a bit awed to find out just how rich a potency boon they had earned. Then it suddenly sunk in, what exactly Elof was saying. "Oh."

Elof nodded. "I burned every single level-up point I earned, sealing up those cracks, and used my character points to rank up each of my basic physical stats."

Aroust nodded. "And there was no smarter move you could make, Elof. Because if you had taken the quick path to power and let those cracks remain..."

"I know," Elof said. "I would have been able to shine for a few levels as a skilled shield specialist...before quickly falling so far behind you guys that I became a liability while you were all shooting for the stars." The haunted look in his eyes made it clear this was most definitely his worst fear, before he flashed a hopeful smile. "But this way, I'll be able to walk the Path of Peril with you all, even if I'm sort of a couple levels behind in perks."

"True, but at least now your stronger, faster, and much tougher than most men, with unlimited potential before you," said Drake, smiling at their youngest friend. "Best of all, you're fully repaired soul means you can wear your mithril without a problem! The world's your oyster, and the way this madcap adventure is going, I have no doubt you'll be leveling up again before we get out of here."

Elof's smile was an odd mixture of excitement and dread. "I felt so damned terrified by those spiders, all of us coming so close to death. But the rush of all that power flowing through my soul, shaping myself into being the hero of my own dreams?" He bowed his head low. "Thank you, guys. I know there's no way in hell I'd even be here if it weren't for all of you."

Jack grinned. "I'm just glad to hear your on the mend and stronger than ever!" He caught Drake's excited gaze, before locking gazes with a beaming Chu Hua. "So I take it everyone got some sweet perks this last level-up?"

Drake laughed. "Did we ever! You know how carefully Veti and I were channeling our spells and shouts?"

Jack gave a cautious nod.

"Well, let's just say that positioning won't be as much of a problem, now."

Jack blinked, both surprised and relieved. "Hey, that's fantastic to hear!"

"And I got access to a few new banes to put our future opponents in their place," Veti assured.

Jack took a closer look at his friend's secret little smile. "Veti Girig! Do you now have access to tier 3 banes?"

"Maybe?"

"That's fantastic!"

Her smile faded. "I hope so, Jack. Tier 2 spells will be a lot easier to cast without having to worry about hitting you all than Tier 3."

Drake nodded. "Spells and shouts are a bit of a balancing act. Power, versus control."

Jack grinned. "So we open with a volley of our deadliest shouts and banes, then we close ranks and you pepper those bastards safely behind our warriors. What could be better than that?"

Aroust nodded. "Basic sound strategy. It's always best to keep tactics simple and sound, so we're flexible enough to handle whatever this delve throws at us next."

"Any interesting perks for you and Barlton?"

Barlton beamed. "No ores escapin' me grasp now, laddie, I'll tell ya that fer free! And my Oar Strike is a fearsome blow that will cleave free mithril ore or monster skull with equal ease!"

Jack laughed at that that. "Now that's what I like to hear." He caught the gazes of three sisters kitted in exotic blue tinted lamellar and mail, struck anew by their strikingly beautiful heart-shaped features, sensing their growing worry even as the rest of them celebrated their survival and growth, even here in the most cramped of sanctuaries. "How are and your sisters faring, Chu Hua?"

The girl's solemn features immediately broke into a relieved smile.

"We are well, Jack. More than well. The vulnerabilities we had before..." she exchanged smiles with her sisters. "Should you agree to continue to cleanse the sanctuary with us, you need not fear being a burden, or the only one who must take on the responsibilities of healer."

Jack blinked at this. "Really? You have access to healing magics? Like a paladin?"

Chu Hua's smile widened while Aroust chuckled softly and cursed under his breath.

"Our gifts are limited, having just opened that path. But yes. Having seen and experienced firsthand just how vital a good healer truly is, we embraced that path the moment it opened itself before us." Her gaze grew concerned. "What about yourself, Jack?"

Jack smiled. "Still level zero, I'm afraid. But don't worry. I don't think my role as a DPSer is going to let you down, even if I'm now feeling a bit fragiler while the rest of you are letting out your armor to account for your now ridiculously powerful physiques!"

And it was true, Jack noting how the combination of lamellar, mail, and leather straps that comprised most of their armor was specifically designed to make it easy to loosen straps and ease carefully pressed folds of mail.

So that delvers blessed with spurts of growth and power didn't risk having to sacrifice their armaments in the middle of a delve, as Jack had deduced upon first seeing a delver's armaments many months ago, a truth he had done his best to incorporate, even lost in reverie, forging masterworks with their gambesons using needle and enchanted threat super saturated with mithril ore.

He was glad to see that Chu Hua and her sister's armaments had similar room for growth, for all that their rulers seemed to be waging war on their own champions in all but name.

The girls nodded. "You've already saved our lives, Jack. We promise to do the same for you, sheltered safe with your friends."

To this Jack flashed a dark smile. "No need for that. Front line for me. Unlike my perk-rich friends, my spells work best with a clear line of sight on my targets. And believe me, you don't want to be my targets."

Veti's eyes widened. "Jack! Are you saying, all the potency that just bought us all two levels..."

Jack smirked. "I almost feel cheated. But let's just say a certain Tier 3 spell I have no business even knowing I can now cast without penalty. And if you thought my Dissolution Orbs were deadly before... now I can machine gun those suckers without having to say a word! Artillery fire, anyone?"

For some reason, those words made his friend pale. "Just what level are your spells, Jack?"

Jack quickly looked away in embarrassment, before pressing his hand upon the rune reinforced ceiling of their little shelter. "So, what's say we get out of here and finish clearing out your city's sanctuary, Chu Hua?"

With a soft whisper he first softened the stone just underneath him, and it was only the sudden surge of anxiety that had him halt his plans of a rapid ascent, even as his Familiar's flood of cool air kicked up to a bluster.

Swallowing as his heart began to race with growing apprehension, he did more than keep his hole tiny. Instead he simply poked a single finger through the now clay-soft stone just above his hand, before drawing it back with a hiss, immediately sealing the stone back up with a resilience rune flashing brightly with his own crimson terror.

Aroust's eyes widened in alarm, instantly sensing that something's wrong. Then he caught sight of Jack's fingertip. "What the hell?"

Jack winced at the red and blistered top joint, even as his healing artifact repaired the damage in seconds.

Veti's eyes widened. "Jack, your finger!"

Jack grimaced and nodded. "I don't think it's safe to go out there right now." He swallowed. "Maybe not ever."

Su Li's gaze hardened. "What the hell do you mean it's not safe to go out there? That's our sanctuary, we're honor bound to clear it!"

Chu Hua squeezed her sister's hand. "There's always the tunnels. That's the captain's backup plan if our mad gamble didn't work, after all."

"But that shelter could save hundreds!"

Haunted eyes gazed into her sister's own. "And countless thousands will still die, if the captain fails to evacuate the city by the tunnels in time," said Chu Hua. "We knew it might be our deaths when we took that mission, sister. It was shame of our father and emperor that drove us more than anything else. You know that as well as I."

Ah Lam nodded. "The captain was giving us a means of redeeming our family honor, allowing us the glory of clearing a token shelter. How many times did he insist we didn't have to do this, and even he had no idea just how bad it was. How could he?"

Su Li bitterly shook her head. "All our efforts. Worthless!" Imploring eyes gazed into Jack's own. "Are you saying the air is foul with smoke?"

Jack grimaced. "When I unleashed all those hundreds of gallons of perfect solvent, my original intent had been to flood the whole damn chamber. I coated everything in that giant cathedral of a room, as best I could. Even taking a sip of mana restorative to help me in that bit of madness."

He paled, so viscerally seeing that hideous monster of a spider in his mind's eye as it raced for him, impossibly sharp claws able to slice through his reinforced stone shelter like it was clay had come so close to killing him.

To killing them all.

"But once that level 20 nightmare burst into the scene... a creature that seemed all but immune to my go-to spell, we needed a quick change of plan."

Su Li gave him a begrudging nod. "And you somehow unleashed a firestorm that saved all our lives, taking out so many kills that all of us ranked up multiple times."

Chu Hua flashed Jack a sympathetic smile. "All of us save you, it seems. And we can do naught but thank you for our lives, and mourn the lost of whatever priceless scroll or treasure allowed you to cast such a powerful spell."

"Oh it wasn't any one-use scroll or wand," Veti quickly interjected. "That was just Jack being Jack. He's very good at killing things with his spells."

The trio of girls went deathly quiet, staring at Jack intently. "That wasn't a one-use artifact?" Chu Hua softly asked. "You could... you could do it again?"

Jack winced. "I could. And that's the problem."

The girls looked confused by that.

Jack sighed and did his best to explain. "My universal solvent... yeah. Not too much will beat an Enhancer's most destructive form of acid."

Veti nodded. "Enhancers have access to some of the deadliest bane spells, it's true."

"The point is that besides being highly corrosive, it takes a really high temperature to ignite it. But if you can trigger a flame hot enough to set it ablaze..."

Jack sighed. "The closest analogy I can give to the chamber upstairs is that the atmosphere's pretty close to the surface of Venus right now in terms of pressure, heat, and reactivity after countless gallons of dissolvent was incinerated, save for all the rest that's lingering in the air as caustic fumes that will instantly sear out our lungs." He smirked. "Not that I expect you even to know what venus is, but basically assume the air above is now a cloud of super-hot caustic fumes, and inhaling it will kill you pretty damned quick."

Most of them were gazing at Jack in speechless disbelief, Veti's gaze one of horror. "Jack, you can't do that again. I don't care if that took out a Level 20 nightmare, you can't ever do that again!"

"Not unless all our chips are down and that's the final card," amended Aroust, gazing intently at Jack.

Drake just whistled, shaking his head. "Boy am I glad you didn't actually ignite that shit at the manor, Jack."

Jack nodded. "You need a really, really high heat to set it ablaze, and even when we were fighting for our lives by your father's office, I made damn certain my flame never directly touched my solvent."

His friend grinned. "At least now we know how the hell we got so much experience so fast."

Elof was just gazing at Jack in awed disbelief. "You mean... you mean he smoked out the whole dungeon like my father and uncle smoking out a hornet's nest?

Aroust smirked. "Sure, if by smoke out you mean fill with fumes so toxic that the wax starts to crumble before your eyes. And that's what we'll be inhaling if we dare slip free of this tunnel."

Veti looked close to panic. "Then what do we do. We're trapped here! How are we even breathing? Jack, you were unconscious for hours! How has the air not run out yet?"

Jack smiled. "Well you can thank my familiar for that."

"Wait, when did you get a familiar spell?"

Jack shrugged. "My Wind Ward spell sort of evolved into a Greater Air Spirit. The good news is that she can clean the air and maintain a missile shield indefinitely. Among other things.

Veti blinked, gazing at Jack in disbelief.

"No."

"What?"

"No! I refuse to believe your tier 1 spell actually evolved into a sentient familiar! And a Greater Elemental? Do you have any idea how high level a spell that would be? Not just to temporarily summon but to turn into a permanently bonded familiar?"

Jack shrugged. "No idea. Honestly? It doesn't even list a tier rank now. I just know it cost me 40 points of my mana. Permanently."

Veti's mouth snapped close, and the way she was looking at Jack made it entirely unclear as to whether she thought him a mad genius or a complete fool. "How much Mana do you have left?" she finally asked.

"One Fifty."

She gazed at him for long moments. "And you don't even have a class." She sighed and shook her head. "You have no idea how truly absurd you are, do you, Jack Evergreen?"

"And more to the point, how the hell do we escape this place if Jack's managed to poison the entire dungeon, and we have no way back?" said a worried Drake. "Because we aren't even where we started, are we? Greyspeak is somehow an entire continent away!"

"And we dare not dig any deeper than just under the surface of dream," said Veti, intent brown eyes locking with Jack's own. "I've studied enough arcana to understand the why behind so much of what adventurer's take for granted. And we all know the tingly feeling, shivering through our souls, when Jack dared his bit of madness, claiming bits of the midnight mantel and priceless gems that were once somehow glittering stars. A feat that should have been beyond any man."

Aroust frowned. "And for the last three months we've been breaking all the rules, claiming a priceless fortune in ore, then losing it all in the greatest investment we could possibly make. Ourselves."

Veti nodded. "That still doesn't change the fact that this so called sanctuary above us is just as deep in Dream as the proving ground adjoining the Academy Delve stabilizing the Etherial barrier and the portal to the hidden realm back home. How many desperate sops would have actually survived, coming in here for shelter?"

The three sisters paled in horror at Veti's words as she spoke on. "But worse, far worse, we can all feel it like static against our skin. The Midnight Mantel is just below us. Whichever way we dig, we'll be tunneling through dream.

"Then how the hell do we get out of here?" said an increasingly anxious Elof.

Barlton smiled. "Fear not, me boy. The nose knows." He turned to Jack, flashing his brilliant smile. "I'll lead with hammer and pick, and you keep the stone soft as loam and together we'll drill through this quicker than a walk in the park before we embrace our wildest adventure yet!"

"Actually, Barlton," said Drake with a quick look at his anxious friends, "I think we can do without any more adventures, for now, at least. How about a one way trip home?"

But Barlton was already off, caught in a reverie that would have thought madness if he didn't suddenly feel the same odd sense of exhilaration as he worked beside the dwarf, loosening rock and stone that was magically chipped away by Barlton's might swings, swung as if the man wasn't striking stone so much as causality itself, reality itself, and much to Jack's growing wonder he sensed countless possibilities forming from dream as the massive dwarf made his way across the pages of perilous possibility, all of them desperate to keep up, knowing without a word being spoken save for an occassional whimper that they dare not be left behind, as Jack and the Dwarf moved in directions twisted and strange.

Until at last the dwarf gave a final mighty swing of his pick, shattering a patch of crumbling stone, and Jack found himself bursting into a corridor thick with shadows and gloom.

In that instant, everything changed.

He could feel it, as he sensed, by the sudden gasps and absolute cessation of snarky comments and bemused curses, everyone else could as well.

The absolute weight of peril that corridor of damp grey stone promised.

It was everything from the tingling sense of a storm making the hairs on their skin crawl, tothe liquid weight of the darkness all around that left their glow light a dim flicker, a gloom Jack had to do everything he could to push his Mage Sight and Infravision through, barely able to see more than a dozen yards to either side of the corridor as they stumbled forth from the shallow depression in the wall that now had no exit point, that had somehow always been there.

And the too knowing look Jack exchanged with Barlton and Aroust made his heart jackhammer. Because it wasn't just the tactile sense of imminent peril and the weight of the gloom.

It was the awful, awful sense that the blazing glorious torch of their lives, their hopes, their dreams, the stories of their soul somehow shaping as gentle a tale as anyone who dared the Path of Eternity or Peril could hope for, one final card to allow for at least a few kind glances from an otherwise uncaring fate, had just been snuffed out.

As if their lives meant absolutely nothing in the dreadful darkness all around them.

Jack could feel it in his now terrified soul, and he could tell by the solemn look the Dwarf gave him and the soft curse Aroust spat that they felt it as well.

And it was obvious from the choked sobs that Veti and the petite Su Li did their best to hold back that they felt it as well.

"Aroust! This... this isn't the Green, is it?" sobbed an openly terrified Elof, his voice thankfully choked to the softest whisper.

Aroust said nothing, merely shaking his head and glaring daggers all around, white-knucked grip on his glaive mirrored by all three sisters upon the shafts of their naginatas.

The tall, stately Ah Lam who looked both ageless and like a beloved older sister, always there for the younger siblings she loved like a mother, took a tiny half step forward as if to put herself in harms way before the petite, vivacious Su Li, and the strikingly beautiful Chu Hua, whose snarky comments while they burrowed away from death and peril had made Jack smile more than once, the charming middle sister who was somehow the diplomat and spokesperson for all three... but the bemused quips, sisterly exasperation, and tender affection of just minutes before had been frozen in the sudden dire peril they could all now sense, All three of them gazing out with the fierce-pale faced expressions of girls who knew they were charging in the front lines and all but destined to die.

"I fear we're right fucked, Elof. No too ways about it," said none other than Veti, Barlton giving a regretful nod of his head.

"And no one regrets that more than I, friends. But 'twas the only way I could sense. The only draw back from the dream that came so damn close to claimin' our souls forever," said Barlton with an off-hand acceptance that sent fresh chills down his spine.

Then the dwarf glared at their glow-orb. "And if ye fools don't all take Dark Vision with yer next level up... I'll never forgive ya. Assumin' we even live that long."

A final comment that earned a bitter chuckle from none other than Aroust, before their world erupted in screams and nightmare.