Olivia stood at the mouth of the tunnel, looking out over the strange, frozen landscape. After seeing the change from the top, the three of them had made their way back out of the structure, encountering no other living soul during their trek. Now they stood, staring into the icy plains, cold wind blowing frigid, damp air that was already starting to form icicles around the various eves and ledges of the ziggurat. Olivia heard Bronwyn’s teeth chatter as she took a deep breath and felt grateful for her Elemental Resistance.

“The entire fucking thing teleported,” Morgan said, bewilderment making his voice rise at the end of his statement.

“Yeah, and this place is even worse than the hot one, at least in my opinion,” Bronwyn said, crossing her arms and rubbing her hands over her biceps to create friction. “It’s still a System world, though; we wouldn’t have gotten the Energy from those kills if the System didn’t gather it for us.”

“That’s interesting,” Olivia looked at Bronwyn. “What makes you say that?”

“The person who gave me information about Morgan explained that things like levels happened before the System, but you had to know how to make it happen. Like, you had to actually gather Energy and create classes and skills on your own.”

“Gave you information about me?” Morgan turned from gazing out at the white expanse and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, she’s sort of like a mentor, or maybe patron is the right word. She’s the one that gave me the portal stone that allowed us to come to help you.”

“Huh,” Morgan’s face indicated he had more questions but was thinking things over. “You know,” he said after a moment, “I have an item that lets me teleport to First Landing once a month. If you’re planning a way home for us, keep that in mind.”

“Oh,” Olivia said, frowning, “You want to go?”

“No! Hell no, I won’t leave you two stranded; I was just thinking, if there’s someone who can help us back on Fanwath, that’s an option.”

“You mean my patron? Maybe, but I don’t know if you’d be able to get in touch with her. I’m not sure I know how; she kind of gets in touch with me, if you know what I mean.” Bronwyn sighed.

“Guys, do you think you could explore this ziggurat? If it teleported us here, maybe there’s a way to use it to get home. I’m not trying to be lazy, but I hit level twenty, and I think it would be smart to look at my advancement options—they might present new opportunities.”

“And you don’t want to listen to our banter while you contemplate your future?” Morgan chuckled.

“Sort of,” Olivia smiled. “I’ll be right out there.” She pointed to the long row of steps leading down to the plains.

“Aren’t you cold?” Bronwyn shivered again, stepping back toward the tunnel leading into the ziggurat.

“No—part of my elemental heritage. I know, I know,” she said, seeing their faces, “I need to explain all I’ve been through. Let’s have a sit-down and share some food after we gather back here in an hour or so.”

“Sounds good,” Morgan replied, turning to Bronwyn. “C’mon, Bron.” She grinned and started back into the tunnel, ambling so Morgan could catch up. Oliva heard their animated chatter fade away, and then she walked down the steps about halfway and sat down on the cool stone.

Something stopped her from opening her status screen and accessing her class refinement right away. Instead, she just stared out at the sea of white. At this distance, she could see that there was brown-yellow grass under the snow, indicating that it wasn’t very deep, but the air was cold, and the clear, pale blue sky made her think of Montana or Wyoming. The looming, sharp purple peaks in the extreme distance added to that illusion. If it weren’t for the dual suns, she might have imagined they’d somehow found their way back to Earth.

She hoped Morgan and Bronwyn would find something in the alien ziggurat, but she wasn’t expecting much. It had been evident that the “gargoyles” had used the life-force or Energy of captives to power their strange technology, and there wasn’t any way that Morgan, Bronwyn, or herself would allow something like that. Maybe they could find a way to power the process without sacrifices, but it didn’t seem likely. She sighed heavily, realizing she was procrastinating; for some reason, she was worried about her class selection. “Maybe it’s because I don’t have Alyss here to guide me.”

Olivia wondered what her friends from the academy were doing. They were all still on vacation and had no idea what had transpired for her. “Alright, enough of that! Quit stalling!” she scolded herself, then she opened her status screen and selected the “Class Refinement” option that had appeared upon her leveling.

***Class refinement option 1: Energy Weaver - Advanced. Energy and its peculiarities are second nature to you. Weaving new spells, manipulating natural forces, and dominating the will of lesser Weavers are your hallmarks. Class attributes: Intelligence and Will.***

***Class refinement option 2: Surge Caster- Epic. Prerequisites: Tempered Pathways, Superior Energy Affinity. With raw, overwhelming power, you remove obstacles and reduce enemies to their constituent parts. Class attributes: Will, Intelligence, Vitality.***

***Class refinement option 3: Elemental Paragon - Legendary. Prerequisites: Four or more elemental affinities. You’ve entwined your spirit with a being born of the elements and furthered your connection through arduous mutual strife. Elemental Energies are your lifeblood, part of your being as much as your mortal flesh. Continue to nurture this side of yourself, building your elemental abilities to suit your design. Class attributes: Intelligence, Will, Unbound.***

***Class refinement option 4: No Refinement - You are pleased with the path on which you find yourself and choose to continue until your next refinement option.***

“Well, now I know what comes after epic.” Could there be any question about her choice? Olivia tried to argue with herself, taking the role of devil’s advocate. Maybe Energy Weaver would allow her to find a way to cast a teleportation spell more easily. Perhaps Surge Caster would lead to her having a new refinement that would overshadow her Elemental Paragon option. “Yeah, right.”

The only genuine concern that gave her pause was the very real worry that she’d lose more of herself with the Elemental Paragon route. “I could just stay with my Archon class.” She realized she was probably right to worry when she thought of those two options and considered those descriptive words. An Archon was a ruler—she ruled the elements. A Paragon was an exemplar, a perfect example—would she become more like an elemental, a creature of the elements? “But it’s legendary!” she hissed at herself, and that little flame in her heart leaped, and a wild grin spread on her face, and she touched the button to select her new class.

***Congratulations! You’ve refined your class: Elemental Paragon. Class skill gained: Elemental Form - Advanced.***

***Elemental Form - Advanced: You are able to take on many of the physical attributes of specific primal elemental beings. Energy cost: 1000 Cooldown: Medium.***

“Wow! Straight to advanced?” Olivia was thrilled with the new spell; the Elemental Form had been her number one ace during her time in the Proving Grounds. It would cost more, but the cooldown was shorter, and she could only imagine how much more powerful her forms would be. She was thinking about trying out the spell when a chilling thought occurred to her—she hadn’t gotten any sort of notification about being the “world-first” to acquire her new class.

Before letting her mind spiral about that revelation, Olivia decided to apply her eight extra attribute points to vitality. Being durable hadn’t done her wrong so far, and it seemed like this world might have a lot of dangerous mysteries in store.

On a whim, Olivia decided to run through her cultivation drill. When she’d gotten to the part where she started to draw on ambient Energy, she was startled by its richness. She figured that either the area they were in was rich in Energy or the world itself sat in a deeper part of the Energy stream. “Or ocean or whatever analogy you wanted to try to paint,” she said, finishing her thought aloud.

“Hey! Talking to yourself?” Bronwyn called from a short way up the stairs.

“Yes,” Olivia stood up and climbed toward her friend. She stood, shivering against the wind, rubbing her pale arms, with her red hair blowing in the breeze. She was beautiful. Olivia wanted to talk to Bronwyn, and Morgan, for that matter, about everything that had transpired for them all. Bronwyn was different; she seemed lighter, happier, more sure of her actions, and not dwelling on mistakes. Olivia knew she was jumping to a lot of conclusions after just a short time with her friend, but she felt like she knew her well enough to see the changes. “I just noticed how rich the Energy is here. It feels very different from back on Fanwath, at least from the areas I’ve visited.”

“Well, that’s one bit of good news,” Morgan said, stepping out of the shadows of the tunnel. “We couldn’t find anything working in this place, and nothing alive. Either we killed all the gargoyles, or the ones that lived got out while that alarm was going on.”

“Rakeyda,” Bronwyn said.

“What?”

“The gargoyles—when I track them, I can see what they are.”

“Huh, well, I’m afraid I’m pretty stuck thinking of them as gargoyles after all this time.” Morgan shrugged.

“Let’s sit down in there and make a plan,” Olivia said, gesturing into the tunnel. They all walked a short way into the dried mud tunnel, and Olivia could see clumps of the stuff that had fallen when the ziggurat shook. Pale green stone blocks were exposed in the mud’s absence. “This ziggurat isn’t made of mud,” she said, pointing.

“Hmm, those gargoyles stole it, maybe? Coated it with mud to make it more like their preferred environment?” Morgan postulated as he sat down with his back against the tunnel wall. They were far enough in that the wind didn’t reach them anymore, and the ambient temperature was tolerable for Morgan and Bronwyn. Olivia sat across from him, folding her legs underneath her, and Bronwyn sat next to Morgan, kicking her feet out.

“I’ll start,” Olivia said. “First of all, I know I look different, and I’m more capable with Energy than I was before, but I’m still me. I’ve just gained a lot of racial advancements, and my class connects me more viscerally with the elements.”

“Come on! Give us more detail than that! Tell us about the academy a little,” Bronwyn said, producing a leaf-wrapped package and slowly peeling it open. The most wondrous odor emanated from the little loaf of bread she revealed, and Olivia’s mouth started to water.

“Um, yeah, tell us more, Olivia,” Morgan said. “Hey, Bronwyn, can I have a piece of that?”

“Sure. Here, I’ll split it into thirds.” Bronwyn held out a hand, “Got a knife?” Morgan produced a small dagger and handed it to Bronwyn. As Olivia watched his long arm stretch forth with the blade, she could only marvel at his lanky form.

“You advanced your race more, didn’t you, Morgan?”

“Yeah, but you’re telling your story right now,” he said, eyes still on Bronwyn’s loaf of bread.

“Alright,” Olivia said, and then she went into a brief overview of the main events of her time at the Academy, culminating with her triumph in the Proving Grounds and her reward allowing her to visit home. While she spoke, they shared the bread Bronwyn passed out, and Olivia savored every nutty, flavor-filled morsel. She’d never felt so satisfied and full, even after a huge meal.

“Okay, Bronwyn, your turn! Start with where you got that magical bread!”

“Hold on, not yet,” Bronwyn said, “First, I want to see you cast something that makes your eyes light up with fire!”

“Oh, all right!” Olivia concentrated briefly and conjured an orb of hissing, roiling blue plasma.

“Holy shit,” Morgan said, leaning in close, staring at her face. Bronwyn, too, seemed enthralled with something behind her eyes. Olivia started to blush and canceled her spell.

“Enough of that, now. What’s the deal, Bron?”

“Okay, well, long story short, Fairies are real, and I met with the Summer Queen. I kind of work for her now.” She paused, seeing the concerned looks on her friends’ faces. “It’s not exactly how it sounds; she saw something in me, you guys. She brought something in me out is maybe a better way of saying it. She wants humanity to thrive on Fanwath, and she needs people to help her. There’s another fairy faction that doesn’t have our best interests in mind, and with her help, we should be able to fight against their agents.”

“You took all that on face value?” Olivia couldn’t stop herself from asking.

“Hold on, Olivia. You weren’t there! I felt her honesty, and I felt her love for me. She sees us as her children; did you know the Fae were on Earth for real? That the reason Earth lost Energy was because of the Winter Court?” Bronwyn started to scowl, seeing the question marks on her friends’ faces.

“She told you this?” Morgan asked.

“Yes, she did, but she can’t lie directly; none of the Fae can.”

“According to who? Her?” Olivia scoffed and then instantly regretted it.

“She fucking gave us the stone to get to Morgan, didn’t she? I fought one of the Winter Court’s agents, and I can tell you for sure that he was pure evil. As I said, you guys weren’t there!”

“Alright, alright. I’ll take your word for it, Bronwyn, but don’t get mad at us for being skeptical; like you said, we weren’t there. Imagine yourself in our shoes, too, okay?” Morgan said smoothly.

“Right, I’m sorry, Bronwyn.”

“Whatever. Anyway, I have a different class and different abilities now. I was feeling a lot better about myself too.” She looked down, a sulky look on her face.

“I’ll be honest, Bronwyn, I was just thinking about how much happier you seemed. I’m happy that you’re feeling good about things, okay?” Olivia reached out and squeezed Bronwyn’s hand, and it was warm and full of life, and Olivia couldn’t help the genuine smile that lit up her face. Bronwyn looked at her and her frown dissipated.

“Alright, well, anyway, that’s about it. What about you, Morgan?” Brownyn sat up straight and turned her gaze on the tall, darkly clad man.

“Well, I’ll give you a short version, okay? I mean, I’m feeling stressed about getting back, and I want to get to the next phase of this conversation—our plan. Anyway, I did some adventuring with Issa, and my arm got cut off. We traveled to Tarn’s Crossing, figured out a way to advance my race which healed my arm, then we learned of these gargoyle invaders. Issa and I led some Ardeni into a place called the Deep Down and found their portal. As I fought their leader, the portal started to close, and I got sucked through. You know the rest of the story.”

“Holy shit, there’s a lot I want to unpack in there,” Bronwyn said.

“Yeah, what do you mean advancing your race healed your arm?”

“Ugh, alright, listen: your body undergoes a metamorphosis when you advance to a new tier. Old injuries sort of get erased. Anyway, we can talk more as we travel. We’ve got to find a way out of this place because I’m desperately worried about Issa. Do you guys get me?”

“Travel where, though?” Olivia asked.

“The only place we can see from the top of this ziggurat: the mountains.”

“What makes you think we’ll find anything there?” Bronwyn looked out toward the mouth of the tunnel.

“I don’t know. A feeling, maybe. It’s better than sitting here doing nothing, though.”

“There’s one more thing you guys should think about,” Olivia said. “I gained a new class—a rare, Legendary class. On Fanwath, the lower tier of the same class gave me a ‘world-first’ title. Here, I didn’t get one.”

“What does that mean?” Bronwyn asked.

“It means that there are probably powerful Energy users here and lots more of them unless it’s just a crazy coincidence that someone had this class before me.”

“Are you saying it’s rare because of its ‘legendary’ status?” Morgan asked.

“Partially, but also because I was offered the lower-tier class because of my bonding with a shard of a primal elemental’s soul. I don’t think that’s something that happens commonly.”

“Gotcha,” Morgan scratched the stubble on his chin.

“Well, let’s get going,” Bronwyn said. “The suns are still high in the sky, and I have a tent and supplies for camping. Olivia can make fire easily enough.”

“True!” Olivia said, standing up. The three of them moved back to the tunnel mouth, facing into the cold wind toward the distant mountains, and then they began their long trek.