All my freaking clothes are gone.

Again!

There has been a disturbing amount of instances opening up in my bedroom! How the hell am I supposed to sleep at night?

…

Jokes aside, my clothes really are all gone. What clothes had survived the first sphere by being in my dirty laundry downstairs are now gone due to the second one’s appearance in my hotel room.

God damn it!

I was drop dead tired after finishing up the healing and reporting that needed to be done and I know Jeffrey was too, even if he was being stubborn and not showing it. We were both sent away to get some rest. Even though it was still mid afternoon, for us it's been a full, dramatic day. My room is gone again, of course, and although they had all those extra rooms at the hotel available, nobody was allowed to go back in now that the temple is there and I got shafted off to a random hotel again.

With no extra clothes.

Jeffrey is still with me, which is nice. He took the room next door. Some discreet guards had been posted outside, which I wasn’t sure to be happy about or not. What were they protecting me from? Or were are they there to keep me from escaping? All the same, I did feel a little better knowing they were out there. Human emotions are weird.

Jeffrey will be coming tomorrow morning when we try to activate the core again, which serves him right for advocating for the idea. Knowing him, he’s probably not worried at all. I think he volunteered.

We had stopped by a superstore really quick on our way to the less fancy hotel so I coud grab some pajamas and maybe a change of clothes for tomorrow morning. The ones I am currently had had gone in the trash. Got some more clemetines too.

Also, I lost my phone again. It’s really annoying.

…

God, it's so annoying.

After talking and talking, the meeting ended with me agreeing to try out the stupid core thing. If the thing explodes in our faces, I can’t be blamed. I suppose it makes a lot more sense then just going into the sphere, Spook, blindly. I just don’t like it. In fact I hate it.

I tried my best to sleep, god knows I was tired. With the lights off and curtains shut, I curled the comforter around me despite the heat and laid my head down on the soft pillow. My heart beats fast and steady as I stare out into the dim room, not able to close my eyes. Scenarios run circles in my head. Bad ones.

I die. My family dies. The nation dies. I'm tapped in the undead instance forever. Crows eat my bones. Insects devour my flesh. Pesos is out there, her red eyes peering out from the slimy bushes. The infection breaks out of the instance and consumes the world.

I fail to protect the people coming with me tomorrow and they all die and turn into spirits like Pesos, coming after with dreadful hearts.

...

Eventually I did fall asleep. I slept for several hours before I woke in a panic, clutching my comforter and cleansing my body of the curse that hadn't come. My muscles siezed and I threw the suffocating blancket away from me in a panic. It dark and I couldn't see, so Iimmediatly coated my entire body in flare, lighting up the room like a flare in the night. My eyes darted around the room looking for danger, zombies, mages, spirits, or grinning skeletons with their bone knives.

Of course, non are there and I force myself to relax, turing off the flare and sitting on the edge of the bed, staring at the dim light filtering through the curtains from the sunset.

…

Yeah, I still get those. Nightmares. Except it's still day now, so, I guess, daymares.

…

I was sweaty so I took a long shower and returned to my bed. But I wasn't tired. Which is why I am here now, sitting up in bed staring at the flickering TV. The news is on and the nation has turned its eyes to our little city. The speculations are wild, but everybody knows something happened here and they aren’t idiots. People are connecting the dots.

They haven’t pinned me down yet, but I think it is just a matter of time. It's my house the military is occupying and also the same hotel I had been staying at where the show went down. People are bound to figure that out, right?

Maybe that is why the guards are outside.

Eventually I turn off the TV, there isn’t anything on there I don’t already know.

At some point I think the military should start releasing some real info, rather than leaving the world at large in the dark. It's not like there is an enemy we need to keep secrets from. I suppose they are waiting for a big success they can tote before that.

It's only nine pm, I think I’ll give my Mom a call.

I dial in her number I have memorized now, hearing the ringing in the silence of my room.

“Hello?” she answers, uncertainty.

“Hey Mom, it's me.” I reply leaning back in my bed.

“Oh, sweetie. I saw your hotel get flooded by the military and you were not answering your phone. We were worried about you!”

“I’m fine,” I say, smiling on my end. “My phone got destroyed again, you know. I’ll probably get issued another one tomorrow.”

“What happened?”

“I.. can’t talk about it.”

“Did they make you do something again? I told you you shouldn’t get involved anymore.”

I give Mom a sigh and reply, “I am involved Mom. I can’t get out so easily. Not anymore.”

Mom’s voice hardens. “Sweetie, you can, you must. You... you’re hurt Greg,” she says, in almost a whisper. “You need rest. They can’t make you do anything. I’m worried for you Greg. You need rest, why can’t they understand that?”

“They can’t let it go,” I say getting louder. “Don’t you see the news Mom? I'm wathcin git right now! People are starting to panic and we need answers. I have to help if I can. And I can help, so I must.”

I add in quickly before she can counter, “There are good people here, Mom. People I can trust to have my back. I won’t be doing this alone, I’ll have the best with me.”

There is silence on her end for a bit, before she adds harshly, “Well, I don’t trust them! Them? The military, the government? Whoever they are? What do they know about what’s best for my boy? After what you’ve been through, how can anybody in good consciousness push you on?”

“Mom, please,” I ask pleadingly. “Just, please stop. I didn’t call to get in an argument. I just wanted…. I just want to talk, you know?”

There is a pause on the other end. Then I hear her again, “Of course, honey. What did you want to talk about?”

“I… I don’t know. How’s Shelly doing?”

We talked for a few hours after that. Sometimes about mundane stuff, others times about my healing of Kalli and Tim. That was news, to be sure. My sister Shelly wass doing well at my brother’s house. Dad’s job at the museum is going well. The irony of knowing more about the spheres than everybody else, but not being able to talk about it. Mom’s arthritis is gone and how wonderful and freeing it feels. My father’s sinus cavities returned after having it removed in sinus surgery before I was born due to chronic infections. Other aches and pains of age removed.

Listening to Mom, I have a soft warm feeling that, even for this, it might all have been worth it.

Assuming we all don't die.

When midnight hit, I let mom go. I hadn’t spoken much in the one sided conversation, but I felt much better for it.

….

I suppose my call was being monitored, but whatever. Par for the course.

I went back to sleep and I slept till morning. Better sleep than before, but not great.

…

Well, morning at 5 am. Close enough. I feel like I had gotten plenty of sleep this time. I dress in the clothes I had gotten yesterday on the military’s dime. Jeans and a t-shirt. A decent pair of sneakers to go with it. I suppose I can get a new wardrobe with all my hazard pay money later.

…

If I survive all this, I’m going to be pretty wealthy, so I have that going for me.

…

Also, these are going to be replaced with some real wear provided by the military for me, so whatever.

I am just about finished up with my shower and change of clothes when I hear a knocking at my door. Opening up proves my suspicions correct as I see Jeffrey waiting for me, dressed in his civilian wear again. Looking down the corridor I see a nondescript man reading his phone. I’m pretty sure that’s a guard.

“Are we getting food on the way?” I ask, exiting my room. My amount of personal belongings have dropped to nill lately, so the room is basically how I left it.

“Yes, you like hash browns?”

…

Yes I do. In fact, any kind of salty potato will do me in.

We arrive at my house a little before six in the morning. Apparently they decided to fire up the core in the nature preserve. They have the whole place on lock down and it's pretty secluded as is. Not to mention it is close to the equipment they already have set up. I don’t think there is any military base nearby that we could easily do this in anyway. Barring secret ones.

I meet up with Keith and his crew, theyt look both tired and excited.

“Did you stay up the whole night?” I ask, looking over Keith’s disheveled appearance.

He laughs at me, “No. Only mostly.” He gives me a wide grin, “We wanted to learn as much as we could about the language and control board before we do this.”

“Learn anything good?”

Another laugh. I think the exhaustion is making this man maniac. “No! Just kidding, but really, not much. It will take more than a night to decode this thing without anything to compare it to. But we have a couple ideas moving forward. With a functional control panel, maybe we will have some more data to work with and figure it out.”

I look over at the clearing made in my backyard, attached to the preserve. Some of my trees are cut down to make room. I don't recall giving them permission to do that. A veritable mountain of supplies had been shifted into the middle of the clearing, mostly canned food it looks like. Military grade meals and what not.

…

Eh, it's a million times better than dry wynot.

Seeing where I was looking, Keith gives a nod. “That’s enough food to last three months, barring any complications. If we supplement it with those creatures, it will last longer.”

…

I’d rather die.

“You are coming too?” I ask, looking over at the sandy haired man.

He gives me a winning smile. “Of course! I wouldn’t miss this opportunity for anything. Just think about what we might learn here!”

I give him a frown, but I’m glad he’s coming.

Before I can ask anymore questions, we are called into my house. I gett handed an outfit and pointed to my bathroom. Annoyed at being ordered around in my own house, I get changed with a little grumbling.

I’ve got nice boots now though, tough durable pants and a shirt and vest. It's heavy, but feels comfortable on me. While unable to block a wraith, I smile at the thought of the arrows getting stopped by the material. As I stepped out of the bathroom I got handed a complementary helmet too.

…

Nice.

We gather in the living room and I see random people in the webcams again. Like last time, I try to ignore them.

My team seems to have been assembled too. Jeffrey and Keith were there of course, but I was surprised Jones and Duncan there as well. And surprised not to see O’hara.

“They gave us a chance to choose to go,” Corporal Duncan replied, giving me a handshake and a smile. “Jones and I felt like we could help. We already have classes and experience there, so we had that going in our favor. O’hara was conflicted about coming, but ultimately agreed it would be better for Jones to come instead. Hopefully, if this works out like we want, he’ll get another chance in the future.”

“I look forward to working with you again,” Jones states, shaking my hand with a grin matching my own.

I feel warm and fuzzy inside but I can’t help but say, “Coming with me now basically guarantees you’ll be coming with me to Spook, you know? Are you sure you want to do that?”

Jones gives me another smile, “I am. It feels like something I should do.”

…

Dang.

I don’t feel comfortable handling more people than six for the journey, if the worst case scenario happens and I’m stuck cleansing these folks of the infections and curses all the time. So the other two people are Keith’s assistants, Clarissa and Charles. All of them have volunteered for the mission and I can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed at the gratitude I was feeling.

…

I don’t know what to do with my hands.

Eventually we are seated and we go over the plans, counter plans, emergency plans, plans B through Z, and more contingency plans. Basically we go through every possible scenario the brass could imagine and a few we came up with on the spot. And the two primary objectives were hammered into us. Find out as much as we can about the instance, its controls, its origin, its language, its purpose, everything. The second was similar, level up. Level up and explore the possiblites of the system. Get strong enough to face Spook, if it's even possible.

This morning the building Spook was attached to finally collapsed, its structural integrity having reached a critical point. Pressure for answers were increasing. The world wasn’t watching us, but everybody in the know was.

After finalizing the mission parameters and Jones said a prayer, the seven of us headed out to the clearing. The Colonel followed us out with his entourage.

A random man carried over the instance core to us, laid in a metal tray. I pick it up, feeling the cold hard stone.

“Learn anything about this?” I ask, holding it up in the morning light.

“Yes,” Clarissa replied, pushing her hair back and adjusting her uniform. “It's a rock.”

I give her a suspicious look.

“What she means,” Charles clarifies, stepping up behind her, “Is that nothing we did indicates anything more than that it is a plain rock. No special properties, it appears to be granite. Accept that we cannot put a scratch or dent into it, I wouldn’t have been able to differentiate it from any other granite rock. I guess that in itself is special.”

"Right,” I say looking at the ugly thing.

Together we head down to the clearing. Racks had been set up so as to be as efficient as possible with the space we take with us. Projections indicate a five meter radius sphere gets enveloped immediately into the instance, and we have filled that space with as much stuff as possible. It kinda looks like a cave now.

A small generator was included with some fuel, mainly there to keep Keith’s instruments in operation. Not too much space had been reserved for that and some solar panels were included with it to help, but, considering the hazy sky, their effectiveness is dubious.

From outside the sphere, the army is going to push some additional supplies in periodically, but we don’t know how effective that would be, if at all.

The seven of us stood outside the cave, double checking our gear. I got my awesome spear back too, it was flown in this morning.

Considering how ill prepared I was the first two times I entered the instance, I can’t help but feel a bit more confident in our chances.

Holding my spear in one hand and the core in the other, I turn to look at the Colonel.

“Any last words?” I ask cheekily.

The Colonel snorts, but answers graciously. “Good luck Greg. We all have the utmost confidence in your success in there.”

I turn and eye my team. Lieutenant Jeffrey was given operational control of the group, which I agreed with. Ducan and Jones were familiar, proven, and trustworthy, looking hardcore fully decked out in the gear. I knew Keith and hoped his excitement wouldn’t overcome his common sense. I suppose Clarissa and Charles can keep him reigned in.

All in all, I couldn’t have picked a team I would be more comfortable with. Perhaps that was done on purpose, but I was glad for it.

“Ready?” Jeffrey asks me, interrupting my thoughts.

“As I’ll ever be.” I reply with a small grin.

After confirming the same with the others, we moved into the cramped space of the supply cave. Bunched together like sardines, I got more than one elbow in my side.

“Ready to see that lovable murder dog again?” Jeffrey asks me as I lift up the stone.

I smile back at him. “I think so.” Then I turn to the group, “I’m going to try to activate it now, be prepared.”

I hold it up into the optimal spot and try my best to infuse mana into it.

…

Nothing.

…

I try to cleanse and flare it with no more effecs than lighting up the cave. I switch back to pure mana and push it in.

…

Again nothing.

“Talk to me, Greg.” Keith says next to me.

“I can put mana into it, but nothing is happening.”

“You said this would be simple.” Keith responds back, accusingly.

“It probably is, doesn’t mean I know what it is exactly,” I say through gritted my teeth.

I spend an agonizing several minutes doing everything I can think of to activate the damn thing before I breathe out in frustration. It was getting ridiculously hot in here.

“Let me try,” Keith says, irritably, “Give it here.”

“You try?” I ask exasperatedly, “What are you going to do to it? Meditate on it?”

“Just let me try!”

“No!”

“Give it here,”Jeffrey interrupts, “We are not giving up until we all try something. We can take a break in a few minutes.”

I give Jeffrey the damn rock and watch him struggle the same as I did, if not worse. He’s got a much smaller mana pool than I. Soon enough, the rock makes the rounds and Jeffrey radios out the situation.

…

So what is the answer?

I don’t know. For all I know, it's a class specific ability to mages. Maybe only mages can acitivate the stupid instance. But that’s not a helpful line of thought, so I shut it down. Along with all the other dead ends in my mind.

…

So if not that, then what else?

I think back to my interactions with the core. Mainly, when it was trying to eat me alive. During that time, the stupid thing seemed to be activly trying to fight me, like it had a mind of its own, even after I had killed the dungeon manager. Clearly, its existence was separate from its manager, or guardian.

The manager was making the temple for somebody else, not for himself. The core was the base of that operation, like a seed. Perhaps these were the seeds sent to earth to plant the sphere and grow them into what they wanted them to be, properly managed and pruned by a gardener. The dungeon manager.

But the instance exists even without the manager.

…

Was the instance alive? Was the core alive? Or, alive in a sense?

I think back to the fight, remembering the feeling of the core’s mana fighting my own. Black, insidious, and hungry. Alive? Maybe, but a mana unto itself. A unique mana signature. An undead mana signature.

Clarissa had the core now but she only gave it a perfunctory glance. Jeffrey let out a sigh and said, “Alright, let’s head back out and get some more ideas going.”

“Let me try one more time,” I say. “I think I’ve got an idea.”

“Yeah?” Jeffrey asks, not impressed.

I take the core from Clarissa. “We are putting our own mana into it, but this thing had its own mana. I need to give it mana it can take and keep, and make its own. Maybe give it a jumpstart.”

There was a silence as they digested my words and I pondered my next move.

“And how the hell are you going to do that?” Keith asks, breaking the silence.

I don’t answer, but start playing with the rock again, trying different mana configurations.

I sneak a tendril in, like bait on a fishing line, but no dice. I try to smother it again, willing the core to take it. Lastly, I send a bunch in and then immediately cut my connection to it.

…

That last one seems to work, immediately my hand gets stuck to it like before and inside it I feel a foreign presence. It starts sucking in my mana like a hungry newborn and I let out a short laugh.

“Success! Everybody hang on.”

The rock in my hands starts growing, turning black and smooth and I raise it closer to the ceiling where there is more room for it to expand. The stream of mana being taken from me increases to a river and I start worrying about my mana supply, hoping I have enough. Soon, I'm down to a third left.

After that, the river turns into a trickle and I feel mana start coming from the now fully grown core, like an engine now under its own power. It lets go of my hand, and I thankfully pull it back. The core defies gravity and stays where I left it, the air now shimmering around us.

Weightless hits us next and the last thought I had before we were transported is that I hope the engineers stabilized our supply pile properly. I will be very cross if I end up with the piles falling down on us.