Earth

Gatineau Park Dungeon

August 12, 2019

17:42 EDT

We all looked to Sonja and she shrugged, causing us to all burst in uncontrollable laughter. It was probably the adrenaline wearing off. The rest of us stood up and walked over to the chest. I opened it up to see what loot was in store for us.

“You would figure such a large chest would have more stuff in it.”

Everyone came over and took a look. The bottom of the chest had a thin layer of Mana Crystal Shards and Mana Gems covering it. Sitting on top of those, were a pair of metal armguards, a ring, a Mana Crystal and three Skill Gems. Based on the color, one of them is tier D, and the other two are tier E.

I picked up the three skill gems and called out the first number. “What do we have, Ben? 379D.”

He had his phone ready to go. He typed in the number and then read it out, “379D. Backstab: Deals additional melee damage. Requires attacking from behind, and a dagger to be equipped. 12 second cooldown.”

There was only one logical person to give this one to, at the moment. I held out my hand to Anja, “All yours, Anja.”

“Thank you.” she replied. Not wasting any time, she channeled her mana into the gem and learned the skill.

“Next up is 667E”

Ben wasted no time. “667E. Water Walking. Allows the person affected to walk on water for 5 minutes. Can be cast on others. Costs 50 mana.”

“Meh, doesn’t matter who gets this one. Roll for it?”

“Go for it,” answered Mason. “I’m gonna pass on it though.”

The rest of us agreed to roll for it so we opened up our team page on our phones and tapped on Roll which started it. After the first person taps Roll, the others have 15 seconds to tap Roll themselves before it will commence. A roll will be between 1 and 100, with the highest being the winner. When the countdown ended, it spat out four numbers. 47 for myself, 6 for Ben, 27 for Anja, and 46 for Sonja.

“Huh, guess I win.”

I learned the skill and then called out the last number. “Last skill gem. 501E”

“501E. Crippling Strike: Deal damage to your target and cripple them. The duration of the crippling effect depends on the target’s level and health regeneration. Requires a melee weapon. 10 second cooldown.”

“Another roll?” I asked.

We agreed with Sonja and Ben passing this time. I rolled 36, Mason rolled 73, and Anja rolled 75, giving her the win.

“Congrats, Anja,” I said. “Okay, bracers are next. Any way to know what they do without equipping them, Ben?”

He shook his head. “Nope, they need to be brought to the Adventuring Guild to be identified, or one of us would need the Minor Identification perk. We should all buy that perk when we leave here today. It should be pretty inexpensive for all of us to get one.”

“Alright, we’ll put them aside until after,” I said, putting the bracers and the ring in my storage. “Mace, you wanna get those bags out of your storage so we can bag all these shards, gems and the crystal?”

We collected the rest of the stuff out of the chest and then looked around for the way down to the sixth floor. We didn’t see it, but the door we entered from had re-opened, so we headed that way. There, we found a passageway that wasn’t there the first time we passed by and followed it. It led to a room with a staircase going down. When we arrived on the sixth floor, a waygate activated, as always. I looked at my phone and noted that it was almost 18:00. We had a decision to make, so I turned to the rest of the team.

“Alright, it’s almost 18:00, so we’ve got about an hour and fifteen minutes before we need to leave. We don’t know how long this floor will take us, so we can just call it a day, head to the surface, or we can see how far we get. If we go up now, then we can sell the stuff we need to sell, and buy a couple of Identification perks before leaving. If we continue on, then it will probably need to wait until tomorrow.”

“Meh, I’m cool with whatever,” Mason replied. “We got pretty far today, and we’ll have more time tomorrow to get further.”

Ben gave his 2 credits, “I say let’s call it for tonight and come back tomorrow morning. We’ll be able to go as long as we want, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit the twelfth or thirteenth floor. At the rate we’re going, we’ll probably be able to clear the rest of the dungeon by Wednesday or Thursday.”

“Ladies?” I asked.

They looked at each other for a moment, nodded and then Anja replied, “We agree with Ben. Let’s come back tomorrow when we’re all fresh, and with two new pieces of gear. We’re not in any rush, and even with the food your mother prepared for us, I’m starving.”

“Alright, let’s head back up, then.”

I walked onto the waygate and was teleported up to a room in the Adventurer’s Guild. I got off, allowing my friends to follow. When we were all together, we walked over to another part of the building. The building was in the shape of a ‘U’. The entrance to the Adventurer’s Guild, along with the registration counter and the entrance to the dungeon is at the bottom of the ‘U’. On your right-hand side upon entering is the evaluation part of the building. Finally, on the left you have the goods and services part of the building, which includes an auction house. Here, you can sell your gains from the dungeon as well as buy potions, Skill Gems and other items. You can also have items put on the global auction house. Anyone can access it with their phone and have items delivered to their closest Adventurer’s Guild HQ to be picked up.

There was only one employee manning this section of the building as well, so we walked up to him. He noticed us and looked up as we were walking across the room.

“Ah, good evening!” he said. “My name is Sam. How can I help you today?”

“Hello, Sam. We’re done with the dungeon for today, so we’d like to sell off some Mana Crystal Shards and see about purchasing some Minor Identification perks.”

“Certainly. I need your phone as well as the Mana Crystal Shards, please.”

I handed him my phone and turned to Mason to get the bag of Mana Crystal Shards, handing those to Sam as well. He plugged my phone into a slot and then dumped all the shards into a tray. He didn’t even bother counting them, he was just going by weight.

“899.2 grams of Mana Crystal Shards. The current exchange rate is 22 grams for 1 credit. Would you like the credits deposited into your team’s account, or split between every team member?”

“The team account is fine.”

He did some typing and then looked back up. “Alright, 40.5 credits were deposited into your account. Now, you said you needed Minor Identification perks? They’re currently 92 credits each. How many would you like?”

“We’ll take five, please. I’ll cover the purchase, they can pay me back later.”

“Sure thing. One moment,” he replied, going into the room behind him. He came out with five of the perks and then handed them to me. “Will that be all?”

“Yes.”

“Perfect. The five Minor Identification perks came up to 460 credits. I have withdrawn them from your account,” he said, unplugging my phone and handing it to me. “Here you are. Good luck with further exploration of the dungeon.”

“Thank you.”

We turned and walked back to the entrance of the building and sat on one of the benches nearby. I handed each of them their skill gem and we each learned it. All of them had already pulled out their phones and reimbursed me for the perks which was great. I withdrew the bracers from my storage and when they contacted my hand, I could immediately tell what they were called, and what they did. There wasn’t any visual sign anywhere displaying the stats or anything like that, but I just knew that they had a minor magical resistance enchantment, and would increase Strength and Constitution by 5 and 6 respectively.

Lesser Enchanted Plate Armguards

Uncommon

+5 Strength

+6 Constitution

5% Magical Damage Reduction

I looked up to Mason, “Alright, these are only really suitable for us, I think. They’re called Lesser Enchanted Plate Armguards, and they give +5 Strength, +6 Constitution, and 5% Magical Damage Reduction. You wanna roll for them?”

“Nah, you can have them. My stats are already pretty insane, and you can use the bonuses.”

“Awesome, thanks.”

I put them back in my storage and then pulled out the ring next. As soon as it appeared in my hand, I knew we were all going to be interested in it.

Jihm’s Band

Rare

+10 Strength

+10 Agility

+10 Intellect

+10 Constitution

+10 Endurance

Increases your health regeneration by 5 hp/s.

Increases your mana regeneration by 5 m/s

Increases your stamina regeneration by 5 m/s

“Alright, I’m going to hand this one around so you can all see what it does, and then we’ll roll on it.”

I handed it to Mason and watched his eyes go wide when he found out what it could do. Ben and the girls had a similar reaction. Sonja handed it back to me and then we all pulled out our phones. I hit the Roll button and then waited for the others to do the same, and for the countdown to end. I rolled 36, Mason rolled 20, Ben rolled 2, Anja rolled 51, and Sonja rolled an 80, winning the ring.

She let out a little squeal when she realized she won. Her hands clapped over her mouth and had a slightly embarrassed look. I handed the ring out to her. “Congrats, Sonja. It’s a pretty damn good ring.”

“Congrats!” everyone else cheered.

She put it on her right index finger and then replied, “Thanks guys!”

“Alright, if you need to go to the bathroom or anything, do that now. I’m going to call my mom and let her know we’ll be arriving earlier than expected. We’ll leave in 10 minutes.”

Everyone left to go to the bathroom, and I dialed my mom’s number.

*****

Earth

Spectre Base, Canadian Rockies

August 12, 2019

21:16 PDT (18:16 EDT)

Alexandra was talking with Thomas, Claire and Gabriel when her phone rang. She took it out, saw who it was and excused herself. “Hi Johnny! How’s the dungeon going?” she asked.

“Pretty good. We reached the sixth floor before calling it for today. We might have been able to reach the seventh floor, but didn’t want to find out and be late for dinner. We’ll be leaving in less than 10 minutes.”

“Awesome, good job! Speaking of dinner, we’re going to be eating at the Adventurer’s Guild HQ rather than at home. If your friends want to come, then bring them along. If not, drop them off and then head over here.”

“Alright. I think they’re all coming with me tonight. We should be there in about forty-five minutes.”

“Perfect. We’ll see you then.”

“Bye.”

“Bye!”

She put her phone again and then turned back to Thomas, Claire and Gabriel. “That was Jonathan. They’re leaving early and should be here in less than an hour.”

“Ah, they decided not to continue after slaying the boss?” Gabriel asked.

Pretty much everyone on this floor of the base had watched Jonathan and his team’s fight with Jihm. There was complete silence when he lost his footing and got hit by the boss, but they were all cheering after that. For a new team, it was a relatively clean fight. Everyone also agreed that Mason is incredibly strong for his level, and the fight would’ve been a lot tougher without him.

She shook her head. “They didn’t think they would have enough time to make it to the seventh floor in time to activate the waygate.”

“You know he may not follow through with what his father promised over fourteen-hundred years ago,” Gabriel said, looking at Thomas and Claire.

“We understand, and we won’t force it upon him either. His father and I agreed to that when we thought his family’s rule would last for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Should he and Tessa become mates, we will be very happy. If they do not, then ‘no big deal’ as humans say. The Gidres family will stand by Jonathan and his sisters when the time comes to take back the throne.”

They continued chatting while waiting for Jonathan to arrive.

*****

Nedovis

Dhir Palace

10:25 Scyftan Empire Time (18:25 Eastern Daylight Time)

August 13, 12610 (August 12, 2019)

A very large man sat in his ridiculously ornate clothing on his equally ornate throne. On either side of him there were four incredibly beautiful women. Each one was wearing transparent clothing that did nothing to hide what was underneath. Two of them were both using large fans to help keep the man cool. Kneeling on either side of the throne, were the other two women. The woman on the left was holding a platter of food for the man to snack on, and the other was holding a bottle of wine, ready to refill the man’s cup at any time.

The man? None other than Kaldrus Dhir, the tyrant ruler of the Scyftan people, of course. Not that anyone would say that where he, or anyone who was loyal to him, might hear it. He sat on his throne waiting for people to arrive. He would much rather be anywhere but here. Like having his way with one of, or all of the women surrounding him.

Earlier this day, he had received the best news he had in over a millennium. The only living rightful heir to the throne was on some backwater planet called Earth. ‘What a name.’ he thought. ‘Might as well just call it Dirt.’ Kaldrus hates anyone with the name Kidravia, and within ten month’s time, he would have to worry about the name no longer. Not that Jonuth Kidravia could attack Nedovis if he wished to, anyways. Earth doesn’t have any ships, and even if they did, it would take many millennia for him to arrive. If they arrived at all.

He looked up upon hearing the large doors open. The guests he was waiting for had arrived. While he had sent the closest ship, as well as his lapdog to Earth, he wasn’t taking any chances. He hired the best mercenary group he could find, and was sending them to Earth as well. As much as he would like to, he couldn’t pull any ships off the frontline of the war against The Confederation.

These ships also have something that none of the ships in his fleet has, as all his efforts to obtain the schematics have failed. Every ship in the mercenary fleet is equipped with a shroud generator that hides them from sight and most sensors. Advanced races can still detect a shrouded ship, but humans are nowhere near advanced enough to do so. Even his own fleet has trouble detecting the ships. They can do it, but it requires a skilled sensors operator to notice the fluctuations a shroud generates, and then pinpoint their location.

A man and a woman were escorted by four of his guards to a stop twenty feet in front of him.

“Your fleet is prepared?” Kaldrus asked.

The man nodded. “It is. As soon as you transfer the agreed upon funds, we will immediately depart.”

“You know who your target is?”

“Joruth Kidravia. The only living heir to the Scyftan throne. The thorn in your side for the past fourteen-hundred years. We do our research, and that is why our price is as high as it is. If he made it to Earth, then that means every living Spectre is there guarding him. No one has an accurate number as to how many were trained. Some sources say sixty, others say over two-hundred. A dozen Spectres could take down ten times their number if they worked together. That’s why I’m not giving them a chance. We’re going to overwhelm them with numbers they can’t possibly defend against.”

“Good,” Kaldrus said with a grin. He tapped a button on his throne and a holographic interface appeared. He tapped something on the interface and then looked back at the man. “Funds have been transferred.”

The mercenary man looked to the woman beside him who had her own holographic interface strapped to her left wrist. She tapped a couple of buttons projected by the interface and then looked to the man and nodded.

“Very well. We will leave immediately. Our engines aren’t as advanced as your newer ones, but we’ll make it there in just over ten months. With your leave?”

“Go!” Kaldrus waved. “When it is done, bring back proof and I’ll double the final payment.”

The man nodded and turned away, with the woman following. Kaldrus waited impatiently for them to leave the large room. When the door closed, he stood up and headed to his bedroom. “Come!” he called out. The women that were stationed around him reluctantly left what they were carrying and followed after him.

*****

Xigios and his XO were escorted to their shuttle that had been waiting on one of the landing pads on the palace grounds. Xigios despised Kaldrus Dhir, but had to admit the man paid extremely well when he wanted something done. Long ago, Xigios had been an admiral in the Scyftan fleet and was married to a beautiful woman named Nira. They were talking about starting a family when the coup happened. Nira was collateral damage when the space station orbiting the planet Edilan was struck by a beam weapon from one of the rebel Scyftan ships.

His own fleet was undergoing exercises when word came of the coup. He tried contacting his wife but she didn’t answer. He had one of his officers scan all the incoming reports to see if there was anything about the space station. The officer searched for about a minute before turning to Xigios. The officer didn’t even need to say anything, his face said it all. He found out that a stray beam weapon struck the engineering section of the space station. The beam cut power to the section, and the emergency power didn’t come up fast enough to close bulkheads and establish force fields to maintain atmosphere in the section.

Xigios almost went into a rage right then. He ordered his fleet to set course for Edilan. It would take them a week to get there, but he needed to be certain. As they traveled, more and more news about the coup came out. All Xigios cared about was his wife and the space station where she worked. They were about two days away when more news about the space station came out, including pictures of the damage, as well as a list of casualties. Xigios hoped and prayed his wife’s name wouldn’t be on the list.

All his hope was dashed when he found Nira Dryth a little more than halfway through the list. He flew into a rage and destroyed his ready room. He very much wanted to order his entire fleet to Nedovis and kill Kaldrus Dhir for orchestrating the coup, but that would do nothing but get his crew killed. There was a battle over Nedovis, but the faction that was following Kaldrus had won the battle, and the number of ships defending the planet far exceeded his own.

He recorded a message to the crews of all the ships in the fleet and set a timer that would lock them out of all systems temporarily. He stole one of the hyperspace capable shuttles in the hanger and then left Scyftan space. He wandered around for a time before joining a mercenary company called The Indomitables and began working his way to the top.

About four-hundred years after he joined The Indomitables, the leader died of natural causes. He was a very old Saurian by the name of Brax Krarlik. Saurians live for a long time, but not nearly as long as a Scyftan does. He knew he was dying, so he held a series of competitions to determine who would lead the mercenary group going forward. He didn’t want the company tearing itself apart by people claiming they should lead.

There were three challenges that took over a month to compete. The first was the most important one. Each person who wanted to lead was given control of a specific set of ships. They had to use the ships they were given to attack a formation of ships controlled by Brax Krarlik. It was by no means a fair fight, and they were only using training weapons, but the eight most capable commanders as selected by Brax would be allowed to advance to the next round.

Round two was similar to round one, but it was on the ground. Rather than lead a force against Brax, they had to face one of their competitors. It was a three round tournament. If your force lost, you were out of contention. If you were one of the last two standing, you would advance to the third challenge. In the third challenge, you would face your rival competitor in a duel. Killing was not permitted, but force fields were put in place and healers were on hand just in case.

No one was able to beat Brax in the first round, but Xigios performed the best. He was given a force of two battleships, four cruisers and ten destroyers, and had to go up against a force of one dreadnought, two battleships, four battlecruisers, four destroyers and six frigates. He managed to ‘cripple’ one of the battleships, one battlecruiser, all four destroyers and five frigates before his own forces were taken out. He also did a slight amount of damage to the dreadnought, but it just had too much firepower, and it was far too durable.

The next best was actually the person who would end up facing Xigios in the finals, though they were only able to ‘cripple’ one battlecruiser, two of the destroyers, and all six frigates before being defeated.

For round two, each opponent was given five-hundred troops equipped with training weapons and armor. If you took what would be considered a mortal wound, your armor would lock up and you would be stuck on the battlefield until the battle was over. Spells weren’t allowed for this exercise, since they could easily kill your opponent’s forces.

Xigios won all three of his rounds handily. For the first two, he didn’t even lose one-hundred of his troops while annihilating his opponents. The final one proved more of a challenge, but he still had over two-hundred troops left at the end.

Finally, for round three, he had to fight another Scyftan. While in their normal form, a Scyftan is usually between three and four feet tall and weigh between 70 and 130 pounds, depending on height and gender. Neither of them were this small when they stepped in the ring, however. Xigios had shifted into an amalgamation that a human would say looked like some sort of a cross between a gorilla, a rhino and a dragon.

His head was that of a rhino with a large, very sharp horn, his body was heavily muscled like a gorilla, though covered in scales rather than fur. To finish it off, he had large wings and a long, very powerful tail. In either gorilla-like hand, he had two heavy swords, though he could discard them and just beat his opponent with his bare hands.

His opponent, on the other hand, was a lot smaller and more nimble. Rather than take on the appearance of an animal, or various species, she appeared as one of the old allies of the Scyftan people; an Elf. She had two swords that were much smaller than his.

It was a tough fight for both of them. While Xigios was large and powerful, she was small and hard to hit. She got a few hits in on his wings and his back before he did something about that. He shifted to remove his wings, and replaced them with a large shell that would cover the entirety of his back. The shell was incredibly durable, and meant that she would need to fight him head on rather than trying to get around him.

All it took was the woman making one mistake and Xigios ended the duel. He managed to strike her with his tail which sent her flying against a tree, breaking some bones and knocking her out. The force field shut off and the medics came in and began to heal all their injuries. When they were both healthy, they were summoned in front of Brax.

He expressed how proud he was of both of them, and said he would have been happy no matter which of them had won the right to lead. Over the next month, Brax had slowly passed leadership over to Xigios. A month later he passed away, but before he died, he recommended to Xigios that he promotes someone he trusts to be his second. It turned out that Xigios and the woman he defeated had built up a rapport with one another in the month since the duel. He promoted the woman to be his XO, and both of them have led The Indomitables for the past thousand years.

When Xigios and his XO were back in their shuttle and the door was closed, she turned to him. “I really wish we could have killed him right then. I hate that man.” she said.

“No more than I hate him, but it has to be this way, Esriro. Our people are slowly being encroached upon from all directions, and there is nothing Kaldrus can to do stop it. The only person who might be able to is Jonuth Kidravia, which is why we’re taking this contract so someone else doesn’t. This way we can keep him safe, and when he finally makes his way to Nedovis, all three of us can find vengeance for what Kaldrus Dhir has done.”

“I know, Xigios. We’ve gone over it about a hundred times. Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” she replied.

He leaned over to kiss her on the head. “No you don’t, but it’s only a little longer now. Ten months there, ten months back and it should be finished.”

*****

Earth

Canadian Adventurer’s Guild HQ

August 12, 2019

18:58 EDT

I filled my team in on the change of plans and then we left the dungeon, heading to the Adventurer’s Guild HQ. Traffic wasn’t heavy, so we made it in good time. I had been here before, and my parents had set me up with access to the employee parking, so I drove up to the security checkpoint and pulsed it with my mana. The bollards sank into the ground and I drove forward. I found a parking spot and then my friends and I got out. None of them had been here before, so I led them to the door where my mother was standing, holding it open.

“Hey, mom,” I said, giving her a kiss on the cheek and walking through the door.

Mason mimicked me, the kiss and all, causing everyone to burst into laughter and then followed me in the building as well. When everyone was through and greetings were finished, she led us to a briefing room where my father was sitting and waiting.

“Please, everyone come and sit,” he said, gesturing to the many seats around the table.

Everyone sat down, with my mother sitting beside my father and everyone else spreading out along both sides of the table.

Upon seeing we were all seated, he continued, while looking from one of my friends to the next. “Now, Alexandra and I have been waiting to tell Jonathan what we’re about to tell him for a long time. You four are his closest friends, so we’re going to allow you to hear this if you wish.”

I was both puzzled and intrigued, but let him continue.

“This is fairly sensitive information, so I need to ask all four of you to sign this binding contract that I will be passing around. If you don’t wish to sign it, you will be asked to leave until we’re done. If you do sign it, the contract will prevent you from speaking about what we tell you to anyone who does not already know. I’ll pass it around now. Read it over if you wish, and then either sign it or leave the room when you’re done.”

Mason didn’t even hesitate to sign it, though Ben and the twins were a little slower. They read it over and signed as well. Sonja handed it back to my father and beamed when he saw all four signatures on the contract.

“I’m glad Jonathan has such good friends,'' he said, looking at each of them. He then looked at me. “Jonathan, you got some strange news while going through your evaluation, correct?”

I nodded. “The voice in the evaluation said that I am a Scyftan and that I have the ability to shapeshift into various forms.”

“What the hell is a Scyftan?”

“This is a Scyftan,” my father said, pressing a button on something in his hand causing an image to appear above the table.

“Woah, is that a hologram?” Ben asked

“It is.”

The image displayed on the screen was that of a small humanoid with light pinkish skin. It had the characteristics of a male and looked to be about four feet tall. He had short white hair on his head and eyes at least twice as big as a human’s. His nose didn’t protrude as much as a human nose does, and his mouth has a row of sharp, needle-like teeth. He had fairly large pointed ears for someone so small, probably four or five inches long. He had four fingers on each hand, including the thumb. I couldn’t tell how many toes he has, since he was wearing shoes or boots, but he definitely looked like an alien.

The girls thought he was cute, but Mason and Ben were skeptical.

“How do we know that is what a Scyftan looks like? Can we see one?” Ben asked.

Gabriel looked at Alexandra and she nodded. He looked back at us. “Certainly,” he answered.

Both Alexandra and Gabriel stood up and after a second began to change and grow shorter. After about ten seconds, they stopped and in their place were two humanoids. They looked similar to the one being projected from the hologram. The form Alexandra shifted into was a little over three feet tall, had long blonde hair and was clearly feminine in appearance. Gabriel was closer to three and a half feet tall and had short purple hair.

We all sat there with our mouths gaping like fish, myself included. It was silent for a moment and then Mason spoke up.

“Holy shit!”