I could hear a banging noise, metal on stone, as I began to wake up. I couldn’t move, and for a moment I began to panic. I heard a male voice call out, “There’s another one in here.”

“Get him out,” responded a female voice.

My panic subsided as I realized they were talking about me. The banging sound continued and soon I felt the pressure on my body ease as whatever held me down was removed. Opening my eyes I found a man in a rough smock and trousers with a mining pick in his hand. When he saw me open my eye’s he nodded and moved off to begin banging on another area. As I looked around I found that I had been incased within a green crystal, chunks of which were on the floor nearby. I noticed I was still in the ship skinsuit I had been wearing on the way to Seras, but had nothing else on. A woman, with blonde hair down to her shoulders and wearing a steel breastplate along with a blue uniform, stepped into my field of vision. She said, “Easy now, your companions are a little confused as well, but so far everyone seems to be making a swift recovery. I’m not sure why you were in the crystal but we need to make sure there was no lasting damage or mutations from it.”

Placing a hand on the edge of the crystal opening I stepped out and asked, “How many have you found here, and what do you mean by mutations?”

She nodded, seeming impressed by the fact that I wasn’t beating around the bush on questions, “We have found twelve so far, including you. As for mutations, we have found that those exposed to the energy of the crystals for too long develop strange mutations, sometimes creating monsters where once there was only an animal.”

My eyes were still focusing in the dim light of what seemed to be a cave and I said, “That should be all of us. I’m not sure if the others are alive or dead, but there were twelve of us there. I feel normal, a little woozy but everything seems to be where I left it.”

I heard the lady call out that they were looking for at least five more people in the crystal, before she turned back to me and said, “I am Squire Rhiogail Siodh of the Kingdom of Vendras.”

Manners forced me to answer, “Michael Wolfe, colonist on the UEF Pioneer.”

“Some of your companions said they were on the same ship, I am assuming it was a ship, on their way here,” Rhiogail responded.

I nodded, “Yes, we were in stasis for the trip in the same compartment.”

She asked, “Do you remember anything about how you came to be incased in the crystal?”

I shook my head and answered, “Yes and no. I know our ship was struck by drifting crystal, but it was only a shard that was four meters into the ship. We had to deal with some small yellow beasts, but it didn’t cause us any issues in continuing so we reentered stasis for the rest of the journey. The next thing I knew was waking up to the miner banging on the rock that surrounded me.”

The squire grimaced and said, “The crystal grows, the scholars say that sources of energy increase the spread.”

I grunted and said, “That would explain why I woke up surrounded by crystal. The pods had a lot of energy sources to them to keep people alive. I wonder why I woke up if the crystal ate it.”

Rhiogail answered, “The scholars think that the crystal takes on the properties of what it absorbs.”

I nodded, “Makes sense. It kept us alive because that’s what the pods do.”

I was starting to regain my balance when I heard an alarmed cry come from what I could only assume was a passageway in the cave, “Lady Siodha, we have gremlins incoming!”

The lady in front of me cursed and called back, “How many?”

“At least three swarms, we couldn’t find the source!” shouted the voice, which I saw came from a man in a leather jacket carrying a crossbow running in from the passageway opening.

Rhiogail cursed again, “That’s too many for my men to handle.”

I’m guessing I wasn’t supposed to hear that, because she jumped a little when I said, “Do you have any spare weapons, we might be able to help.”

Sighing she said, “Weapons won’t be a problem. What is going to be a bit of an issue is the lack of Aethercrests. Civilian’s have a hard time against monsters without either advanced weaponry or abilities gained by an Aethercrest.”

I looked at her confused and asked, “Aethercrests?”

She said, “Its technology the ancient’s used to harness the crystal’s power. We don’t know exactly how it works, but it gives people an edge against the monsters, the mutated beasts.”

I frowned and brought the medallion I had claimed during the tutorial “You mean this?”

Rhiogail stared at me, “Y…Yes. That’s an Aethercrest. It’s unlike any I’ve seen before, but mine is a creation of the artificers.”

She pulled out a medallion made of steel. It looked different than mine, with only three indentations, one of which had a small blue gem in it and a second with a green gem. Gathering her composure she asked, “How do you have an Aethercrest?”

I shrugged and said, “I was wearing mine before I awoke here.”

Her eyes grew wide and she said, “You’re an Ancient.”

I looked at her and said, “I’m twenty-three, hardly an ancient anything.”

“I mean you’re one of the original settler’s of our world, one of the Lost Pioneer’s,” she countered.

I shrugged and said, “Since I have no idea what you’re talking about I’m going to remind you that we have swarms of gremlins coming our way.”

She shook herself and called out, “Andre, did you find crests where the others got dug out.”

The miner that I had first encountered responded, “No ma’am, but I wasn’t looking.”

“Davis, you have the best memory, check for me. If you find a crest return it to the person who came out of that hole,” she called out to a short white haired man in a blue coat.

I called out, “Anyone that got dug out, if you have your medallion on you please pull them out.”

Everyone already had them on and I said, “You are going to need to give us a quick explanation on how these work.”

The squire nodded and said, “Alright listen up, the first step is to bind the crest to your own personal Aether. This will grant you the benefits even if it is not on you. Be aware however that if it is too far away you will be limited in the benefits you gain from them.”

I focused on the medallion and a screen popped into existence in front of me.

Item: Alpha Aethercrest – Freelancer

A crest attuned balanced class that does not excel at any specific task. This class allows for a more flexible approach to situations. Note: Alpha crests are ancient creations unlike the manufactured Beta Aethercrests. Core Sockets: 5 Hybrid sockets.

Do you wish to bind this item?

I mentally said yes and received another notification.

Class unlocked: Freelancer; Strength +1, Agility +1, Vitality +1, Spirit +1, Aether Pool.

“Okay, apparently I unlocked a class in doing that,” I said under my breath.

Apparently it wasn’t enough under my breath as the squire responded, “Yes, once you bind the crest to your Aether you will be able to see a representation of yourself when you focus on it. It will tell you how your attributes are affected, as well as the contents of what we call the ‘class cores.’”

“Now before anyone asks, class cores are gems fashioned and infused to increase the capability of an Aethercrest. We call them class cores because they unlock different classes in your crest depending on what type you have socketed. Different crests will have different types of sockets. For example my crest has a green socket which tends to be defensive abilities, a blue socket which are for types of magic abilities that are support in nature, and a hybrid socket which can house any type of class core,” she continued explaining.

Sounds of fighting could be heard coming down the tunnels and she quickly called out, “We are running out of time. Anyone that has a mage type crest please see Davis, if you are not using a mage crest we will find some way to compensate you when we get out of here. Andre, break out the weapons.”

The miner grinned, and I had a suspicion that a miner wasn’t all he was as he pulled a large pack off his back and started pulling weapon after weapon out of it. They were all plain but serviceable examples of the arts of war from swords, to spears, to axes, and even a few ranged weapons. He also pulled a few iron shod staves out of the pack.

I asked, “Are backpacks like that normal?”

Rhiogail nodded, “They aren’t too uncommon. Most members of the trade guilds carry them as it makes it easier to bring back large loads of goods from a long trip. Andre tends to make things like that during any journey and sells the product when he returns to a major town. I thought he was foolish until I realized how much extra profit he brings to our company. Davis is a core researcher as well as a talented mage. Most of the cores he is giving out he created. That will hurt the profits at the end of the journey but it’s better than not making it back.”

Seeming to come to a decision she called out, “Listen up, by my oath as a Squire of Vendras each of you that helps us in this battle will get to keep the weapons and cores you are given. If you do not receive a core, as I know we lack the physical based cores, you will receive one of equal rating when we can provide you a selection.”

A small timer appeared at the side of my vision, showing a five minute count down. It wasn’t hard to guess that we had that long to arm ourselves. Half our number moved over to Davis and began to ask him about the cores he had available. I, along with the rest, moved over to where Andre had set out the weapons. I asked, “Anyone have any experience with any of these?”

One person, a young woman with waist length ink black hair stepped forward and picked up a bow while saying, “My family used to go hunting when there was time. My brother showed me how to use a bow, though I haven’t actually done anything beyond target practice with one.”

Andre pulled out an overstuffed quiver of arrows and handed it to her while saying, “These aren’t much more than simple broadheads, but they should suffice for gremlins or anything else that isn’t wearing a lot of armor.”

One man with a posture that screamed ‘military’ claimed a crossbow and quiver of bolts. It made sense to me as it was a small transition from rifle to crossbow. A man and woman who looked enough alike to be brother and sister, if not twins, stepped forward; both were around six feet tall with dark brown hair, green eyes, and looked like they exercised often. The woman asked, in a pretty soprano voice, “Do you know what a scutum is? If so can we each get one and a short sword?”

Andre tilted his head and asked, “Scutum?”

I interrupted quickly; my knowledge of ancient military history rising to be of use, “A large shield usually oval shaped and curved in a bit. When resting on the ground it should stand to about the shoulders on an average person.”

Andre smiled and reached into his pack, “Oh a tower shield, yes I have some of those. I didn’t make many because they aren’t used as often as a round or kite shield.”

He handed each a shield and they each lifted it easily, the lady gripping with her right instead of her left. From my reading I was under the impression that tower shields tended to weigh around twenty to thirty pounds. Mental note: do not get into a competition of strength with these two.

I saw the last of the physical based people claim a hand and a half, or bastard, long sword, which he handled like he had some familiarity with it. He was tall, a little over six feet, and had short cut blond hair and looked like he hadn’t shaved in a few days. I had no real training with any of these weapons, and doubted a life or death fight was the best place to learn, so I claimed a simple spear with the intent to stick not allow an enemy close enough to me to need it. If these were the same creatures we saw during the intro then I knew my hand to hand training would be useful, but I also knew that there would be injuries.

I moved over to Davis as the people there moved to look at Andre’s stock. I asked, “How many healers do we have?”

Davis grinned, and I realized his white hair was just a lack of color and not due to age, his blue eyes twinkled a little when he said, “Good, one of you is thinking long term. Two others chose cores with healing abilities on them. Both had crests with multiple support sockets on them.”

I saw him looking at my crest, which was still hanging from a chain outside my shirt, and he said, “Yours isn’t one I’ve seen in a while. Most people ignore the Freelancer crests, believing they will not provide enough of an advantage.”

I shrugged and responded, “I like having options. Speaking of options, if I were to claim a support gem now, could I give it back if there is an option I like better when we get access to the physical cores?”

Davis frowned and said, “I would prefer you didn’t. Magic based cores are common as it is easier to find infusers who are also mages. Physical cores tend to be more expensive. However Lady Siodha did promise you your choice in core so I can’t in good conscience tell you not to use a healing core for this task.”

A notification appeared and Davis’s eyes twinkled again and he said, “Or you can help me to answer a question.”

I was a little curious as to what the trait I had earned in the tutorial would give me, but I wasn’t going to argue much as I asked, “And what question would that be?”

Davis pulled a white gem out of his pocket and asked, “What exactly I managed to put into this.”

I kept an eye on the countdown, which was nearing one minute remaining, and asked, “What do you mean?”

Davis said, “Well, infusers imprint gems with abilities from the cores they have in the crest. As an experiment I socketed multiple different types of magic cores into my crest.”

He pulled out his own Aethercrest which had seven different gems socketed in it, each of them a shade of blue or red. I noticed that the individual shades differed a bit, but couldn’t tell why. He continued, “I also used the hybrid sockets to include a green defensive gem and a yellow physical gem. Now I have this hybrid gem that I haven’t been willing to test out yet for fear that I ruined it.”

The timer was running out so I asked, “What’s your offer?”

Davis said, “Simply a small gamble. If this gem has abilities on it you keep it, but have to tell me which abilities it gained. If there are no abilities on it you get a healing gem and I will personally purchase another D ranked gem for your use when we reach civilization.”

I winced, that meant that if the gem didn’t have any support abilities on it I would be stuck, I asked, “Would you accept the counter offer of if it lacks healing abilities you exchange the gem so it doesn’t cost you as much?”

Davis shook his head, “No, but if it lacks healing abilities I will loan you a second gem for this battle.”

That wasn’t a bad deal. If magic cores were relatively common I could always replace the healing gem later. I nodded and held out my hand, “Deal.”

Davis clasped hands with me, and then handed me the white gem.

Item Unknown hybrid class core

This class core was infused by aetherical researcher Davis Kincaid, but not even he can identify what he created.

I set it to my aethercrest and another notification appeared.

Do you wish to attune ‘Unknown hybrid class core’ to your Aethercrest. Warning: changes to the sockets in your Aethercrest can affect your class attribute bonuses.

I accepted and a pulse of light traveled from the socket along the lines of to stop at the empty sockets. Another notification appeared.

Unknown hybrid class core attuned.

Trait gained: Spirit Caller: creatures summoned by you default to a friendly status. Treat them well and they will aid you greatly.

Ability gained: Evolving Summon: Phoenix (50 AP)– Summons a being that embodies fire, air, and healing power. Evolving Summon: The creature summoned by this ability will grow stronger the more it is summoned.

Ability gained: Evolving Magic: Fire (5 AP) – Casts a burst of fire at a target. Evolving Magic: These spells are changed based to reflect other class cores they are attuned alongside.

Ability gained: Magic: Wind Shield (10 AP) – Creates a barrier of wind magic to increase the defenses of a target. Defense +3/+6 vs. projectiles.

Ability gained: Magic: Heal (10 AP) – Channels healing energy into a target replenishing health. Healing is based on the Spirit attribute and modified by other traits.

I grinned and quickly lifted my hand while I focused on the Phoenix Summon spell. Lines of energy formed glyphs around my upright hand. The glyphs looked familiar to me, and I recognized some as various elemental symbols used in Earth’s folklore. I made a mental note to research this later. A phrase appeared in my vision and without thought I spoke it aloud, “Dico vobis succurrere vitae igni.”

The glyphs collapsed in a burst of flame, from the fire a small bird made of a soft yellow flame emerged. It chirped out a greeting and sailed to my shoulder. I didn’t burn, but could feel gentle warmth emanate from the creature.

Davis’s eyes widened and he said, “A summon, it was a summoning gem.”

I nodded and said, “It also contained spells for Fire, Wind Shield, and Heal. The fire spell indicates it is an evolving spell?”

My last statement was more question than anything else and Davis quickly clarified, “Evolving magic isn’t uncommon. It means that the spell will change if you have a socket linked to another gem with a different effect. A common example would be a compatible physical ability which would change the spell to be a hybrid magical attack or enhancement, like adding a flaming effect to your weapon.”

I nodded and said, “Do you wish the class core back?”

Davis shook his head with a smile, “No, I recorded the gems used in the experiment and should be able to make another; though it does bring up more ideas to try when we get back to town.”

I smiled until I saw a squad of soldiers rush in from the tunnel and stop to speak to the squire. I said, “Looks like we are out of time.”

With that I turned and moved back to the others. I was stopped by the dark haired archer who said, “I figured out the party system. I heard you trying to get a healing ability out of Davis. Care to join up with the twins and me?”

I accepted the invitation and saw at the side of my vision three symbols with names next to them. Two of the sigils looked like more complicated versions of the Aethercrest Rhiogail had, beside these were the names Marcus and Helena Guerriero. I guessed that the sigil represented there Aethercrests. Lily’s was different than either of the twins or mine so that theory seemed accurate.

I asked, “How are the other groups sorted?”

As we moved to the twins, within earshot of the squire, Lily answered, “Well apparently four is the group cap without some kind of leadership trait. The guy with the crossbow has one called ‘Squad Leader’ that let him bring in another four. Rhiogail mentioned that there were different ones that militaries used that all did similar things to group size. Apparently she has one more person in the tunnel that should arrive just ahead of the swarm. The other group has four combat mages, the crossbowman, both healers, and the guy with the sword. I’m not impressed with the mages as they went with the stereotype of using a staff without considering any other option. One of the healers took a bow and seems to know what he is doing with it, and the other grabbed a dagger.”

I nodded, “Well I managed to get a healing spell and a defensive spell from the core, along with my little friend here.”

Lily nodded, “How did you manage that?”

“A trait and a gamble, it is also a hybrid only class core,” I responded.

“Guess we will figure out what it can do shortly. Summons don’t seem to be uncommon at least. One of the healers has a fairy, and one of the mages has a fire elemental,” she said.

I nodded to the twins as we got to them and listened to what the squad was telling Rhiogail, “Cyrus used a barrier to buy us some time, but unless there is another way out we are stuck fighting here.”

The squire nodded and said, “The people we found have Aethercrests, we shared some of the weapons and cores so they aren’t helpless. How injured is your squad?”

The man shook his head, “Bruises mostly Squire, but we are still recovering the Aether we expended holding them back. I hope these people can hold their own in a fight or we are in for some trouble.”

I tuned them out as the countdown timer changed from white to red when it hit zero and listed thirty seconds. Looking at the passage I did a few quick measurements in my head and said to the twins, “I think you two could probably block most of that passage way. If I and the swordsman moved behind you to pick up any straggler we can probably hold them out of the chamber. I think it’s when this becomes a free for all that things will get difficult.”

Marcus nodded and said, “We should be fine, our grandfather had some odd hobbies and showed us how to use the shield.”

It was a strange way to get around the information filter, but it did tell me that they knew what they were doing. Lily called over to the other group, “Richard, can you help plug gaps while they hold the line?”

The man who had taken the bastard sword nodded, and I could feel Rhiogail’s eyes on us as we moved to take up position. I focused on casting the Wind Shield spell, assuming it would be like the summon spell and activate by my will. The glyphs appeared around me, much less complicated than the summon magic, too fast for me to catch them. I could feel a gust of wind swirl around me and a small icon appeared at the bottom of my vision. Focusing on it caused text to appear: Wind Shield – 5 min 57 sec. with a countdown timer. I quickly focused on casting the spell on the shield bearers with me. Icons appeared next to their names in the party list. At the bottom left of my vision I saw a blue bar around my personal crest that was now about halfway down. I hadn’t regenerated enough Aether to cast it on everyone if I wanted to be able to heal. I said, “I’m about halfway down on my Aether Pool. I’m going to save the rest for healing.”

Lily nodded and said, “Let’s get in position. If we wait until this Cyrus person gets back it might be too late.”

The twin’s took up their shields and stood in a slight crouch at the entrance to the cavern. I hefted my spear and stood between them and a step behind. The swordsman Richard rested a hand on my shoulder and said softly, “I’ll be moving behind you to either side as needed. If they are using Roman techniques they will open their shields when they block to the side, strike during that opening. I’ll cover the sides with the archers. The mages will handle long range support.”

I nodded and took a breath to calm myself. I knew it was a game for us, but I was getting caught up in the moment. I asked, “You know how to use that thing?”

He smiled, an almost feral light entering his pale blue eyes, and said, “I won’t be as effective in these tight confines, but well enough to back them up.”

I was curious as to what he meant, but the sounds of running footsteps interrupted my response. From the tunnel came a man sprinting for all he was worth, a longsword in one hand and an armored sleeve stretching from a fingerless gauntlet to his shoulder on the other. As he neared the twin’s the shifted slightly and a hole opened between them to allow him to pass. Screeching echoed down the tunnel and at least a dozen Gremlins appeared in the light.

The man with the crossbow called out, as the twins crouched to receive the rush, “Mages! Open Fire!”

Spoiler: Character Sheet at end of Chapter 1 Name: Michael Wolfe Class: Freelancer Cores: Unknown Hybrid, Strength 6 Offense 6 Agility 7 Defense 6 Vitality 6 Spirit 6 Willpower 6 Aether Pool 120 Luck 5 Unassigned Skills None Abilities Evolving Summon: Phoenix, Evolving Magic: Fire, Magic Wind Shield, Magic: Heal Traits Lucky Break; Spirit Caller